I'll miss you too (Leviathan)

"I'll miss you too" is the third episode of the second season of Leviathan: Distant Stars and the fourteenth episode in total.

## Summary

### Passing the time

Cha Cha needs to leave the crew on their own and encourages them to enjoy the city's activities.

Conrad, after watching ads claiming that *You can be a train* or *You can be a bird* on the tourist channel turns the TV off and goes for an afternoon stroll.

Kika and Theea enjoy room service, basically everything on the menu, which includes buckets of popcorn with chocolate and handles of whiskey. This turns out to taste fine, though it is generated food, First Vegetable product brand.

Conrad goes for a very immersive VR flight simulator and doesn't become a junkie. He rolls snake eyes on his attempt to scope the building they are going to raid soon: it's all glass on the outside, and he's so space-sick after his VR experience he can only gather that it's a big building with lots of armed people around it.

Xe'anna, after gathering supplies and looking around her, realizes that she has time for recreation. Cha Cha directs her to a fight club where she experiences moderate bruising and swelling that results in her taking 11 damage (out of 54 HP) while *the other guy doesn't look great*.

The group is back together in the room, with Theea and Kika still enjoying popcorn, when Cha Cha returns with more details about their target: a heavily protected server at Starlight Entertainment Industries (CEO: Saleer Lai Ku'Gunn), one of the biggest local corporations. They will have to look like they belong to access the secured section and avoid full sweeps.

### The data phase tap

Cha Cha offers the group a free implant, a piece of cyberware they call a data phase tap. This removable device that allows its wearer to tap into data lines at a distance is an experimental model that Cha Cha would be happy to have the runners test. Theea is very interested, calls this an opportunity of a lifetime, even though Cha Cha explains that it hasn't been tested on a sentient species yet and there were fatalities in Phase I trials. Cha Cha's ears twitch and they don't want to hear anything when Theea, who's beyond excited, starts fantasizing about *what I could get into*.

Xe'anna is definitely skeptical but respects Theea's decision. Cha Cha sizes up Theea, thinks she'll be fine and warns her of a possible slight headache.

While Theea and Kika head for the clinic, an assistant takes Xe'anna and Conrad shopping so that they may pass as bodyguards. Theea and Kika will be scientists, and Cha Cha will have a friend arrange an early morning meeting for them.

### Shopping for some...

The mercenary department store where Xe'anna and Conrad are led contains high-end, very classy tactical gear. Xe'anna *hasn't known the joy of shopping before, but today is the day*. Conread, meanwhile, frets that

> *This is not my wheelhouse, not what I'm good at. I'm worried I'm gonna be a liability rather than an asset in this mission*.
>
>

Xe'anna isn't too comfortable either:

> *I wasn't exactly born, or raised, or trained in order to be stealthy, or sneaky, or deceptive [...] I was born to be a warrior. I am a good warrior. But sometimes we just have to figure out how to adapt [...] just stay out of everyone's way until they need someone in front of them to save them. You can do that, you can adapt, and when **she** needs you, you're going to be there.*
>
>

Xe'anna then just pulls on the rest of her suit and refuses to answer Conrad's *stupid question* about the identity of ***she***.

### ... Surgery for others

Meanwhile, Cha Cha leads Kika and Theea to a very nice clinic with mood lighting and waves their way through the reception. Theea who was so bold before, now looks intimated, but tries to have bravado. Kika, who has moved up her shoulders, starts braiding her hair in two long braids until Cha Cha has Theea sit down to take her vitals. Cha Cha's very cavalier demeanor has disappeared, they are now a surgeon going through the whole process. Theea meep-meeps Conrad *Hope you're having fun*, lies down and goes under.

Conrad, with the best of timings, meep-meeps Theea back slightly too late:

> *Actually it's kind of a weird process. I would be having fun but I'm kind of melancholy about the whole thing. Anyway, someone gave me a flyer for a sex club and if you feel like doing that later on...*
>
>

Kika renounces staying with Theea because *brains can't touch germs* and *brains are important*. She watches from the observation room instead and sees that Cha Cha is clearly good at what they are doing: *Doctors are doctors for a reason*.

Theea comes to in a different room which also has lovely lighting. She opens her eyes, the muscles in her face hurt a little bit, everything feels pretty stiff. She senses pain medication in her system. When she tries to sit right up, everything sort of spins. Her 17 on a physical saving throw means that she doesn't fall over, and doesn't throw up either, but she does have a lot of system strain: 3 of it is due to the surgery itself and the implant gives her a base level of 2 system strain until it is removed. In addition to this, Theea will incur 1 temporary system strain on every use of the device.

Nurse Kika weighs in:

> *You're sleepy. Your body is sleepy ... Your body worked really hard to not die during surgery.*
>
>

Cha Cha hands Theea a mirror, in which she can see a couple small incisions near her hairline. Cha Cha refrained from shaving anything because *some humans are attached to that*. Cha Cha explains that

> *We put some direct connections into your optic nerve that should allow you some visual overlay support*.
>
>

The implant is also connected to Theea's non-dominant left hand, that's the one that will do the actual accessing and tapping at systems. Her first uses of the system might cause some pain because these nerves are going to be a little raw.

Cha Cha continues his explanations: the stiffness in Theea's face is normal, and should wear off. It is mostly due to the anesthetic they applied. At this point, *Theea nods but probably got like 60% of what was just said to her*.

Theea needs more clarification: her left hand only has an accessing port, the rest of the control is done through neural interfaces. She can also interface this system to a compad to make it more effective and get a lot more more than *a slight overlay across both of her eyes*.

Cha Cha hints that they'll be happy to giver her version 2 later, as well as talk about additional things she could want, *when the time comes*. Cha Cha is interested in work trades. She is also very interested in using her new device against Wendy Santiago at some point.

### Preparation and recreation

When Theea returns to the penthouse suite, all her companions are back. Kika is no longer picking popcorn, she has been listening to her audiobook and has learnt something new about arteries and kidneys: *they are not the same*.

Xe'anna and Conrad's new uniforms, which offer the same level of protection as their usual ones, are cyberpunk tactical suits. Conrad's uniform in particular gets a very detailed description: it doesn't have sleeves, but still has epaulets; it has a weirdly low-cut V, criss-crossing with an armored shirt, a suit jacket, tactical gloves with plating going up to the elbow, over-the-knee boots, and a customizable LED back panel. Painkillers or no, when Theea sees Conrad, she looks up, then down, then up again.

With such a uniform, Conrad could carry a rifle in plain sight, in a holster over the shoulder. Though it might still be taken away by security, Conrad feels safer with his rifle anyway, so he goes to the Bat'leth and fetches it.

Cha Cha requests permission to load their cyberware cargo onto the Bat'leth immediately, in case they all need to leave in a hurry then confirms that they have a 6 AM meeting scheduled with Pravat Tai, one of Starlight CEO Lai Ku'Gunn's deputies in the R&D department.

Considerations about Xe'anna's uniform, and how her strength and HP compare with Conrad's, prompt this question from Dan/Conrad:

> *It's not a competition, are you feeling insecure*?
>
>

At any rate, Xe'anna's considerable strength and health came at a cost:

> *I'm very not charismatic and extremely not wise**.*
>
>

Theea and Conrad spend some quality time in one of the suite's bedrooms, which leads to an interesting conversation between Xe'anna and Cha Cha, whose species forewent sex long ago, when they started to just grow their young. Excerpts:

> Xe'anna: *They're not doing it in order to procreate.*
>
>

> Cha Cha: *Then why would they do it?*
>
>

> Xe'anna: *Why do you inject substances into your person?*
>
>

Meanwhile, Cha Cha, who has brought their cyberware onboard, has found the ship *very talkative*.

When Conrad and Theea emerge, he looks even more immaculate whereas she is a little mussed up. Xe'anna recaps the plan for the lieutenant: they are to impersonate a pair of scientists, who will show up with their bodyguards for an 8 AM appointment with an executive named Pravat Tai in the building where the system they are to hack is located. Xe'anna adds that they don't mean to *actually* go to a meeting.

### At the Pavilion

And then it's time to go: the party reach their destination, a large building with a big-ass sign in front of it: the Starlight Pavilion. The lowest floors are open to the public and are all glass, contrary to the more secure areas above. It's the early morning, some passersby move slowly in a way that betrays a hangover. With the sun slowly tipping above the horizon in the distance, it's already business time for very awake workers. At least a few of these get help from the contents of a can they open and knock back. There is a lot of chrome, a lot of cyberware, a lot of mesh and strapping, and no sleeves.

They enter. Past the entrance, they are in a casino. There is even a racetrack on one floor. They make their way unimpeded to an elevator and go up to the floor where the actual barrier is. Time to look their parts. They all do reasonably well on their rolls, and *Xe'anna is most on her shit: she looks like you better don't fuck with her*. If she keeps playing her part, she won't be bothered. Her confidence carries over to the rest of them, even though Theea twitches a little more than usual. Pretending to look at her compass doesn't help and, furthermore, she is distracted by the information she is getting on overlay.

Conrad looks pretty normal as he walks forward. He *knows* how to look normal. He likes his duds, because he has never been this fancy before, he has never dressed both formal and fashionable.

Kika makes another demonstration of her knowledge about anatomy. People around may hear Kika yell PITUITARY GLAND. Theea would appreciate that they stop talking about glands.

They reach a checkpoint. There is a lot of active scanning happening but little personnel in this quiet area: one person at the reception, a few guards, two or three people walking through. Theea walks to the reception desk, and checks in, as Neea Brone, for the 8 AM appointment with Pravat Tai about the cyberware capability he's working on. She is still assaulted by a lot of stimuli. They're good to go, but only after a scan that leaves Conrad without a rifle, but with his pistol. The group's only other weapon, Kika's multitool, is also allowed in. Kika inquires about going to the bathroom, and Conrad reminds her that:

> *You're supposed to go to the bathroom* *before the mission, everyone knows that.*
>
>

### The Anguilin guard

An Anguilin guard escorts them to the appointment. Xe'anna, who still plans to act before the meeting, doesn't do anything while they are alone with the guard on an elevator, then in a hallway with many doors. Theea, though she has not shared her own opinion, plans to wait until the meeting starts. Two security personnel go past, and they soon find themselves with the Anguilin in a waiting area by the executive's office. The room has a currently unattended desk. Kika tries to create distraction when asking for the guard's help to go to the bathroom because she's blind. His reaction: *I cannot go to the bathroom for you*.

While Kika does go to the bathroom and Xe'anna engages in small talk, Theaa manages to slide her hand along the desk and tap into the security cameras' feed. While she's at it, she places a line shunt, which is discreet enough to stay undiscovered for an hour. She also gets the Anguilin to give her a moment's privacy with her assistant because they can't rely on meep meep privacy.

### Fight AND flight

At some point, Xe'anna grapples the Anguilin guard. After a short fight, Conrad finishes them point blank. Theea is more proud of him than he is.

On the cameras, Theea spots a guard coming from a room nearby. She needs to access the security room. Kika gets there first, hides under a desk and manages to place the second line shunt they need before attacking a guard who has come to sit there. Meanwhile, Xe'anna, Theea and Conrad confront, and kill two guards. Theea gets close enough to hack into the system and retrieve the data for Cha Cha.

In the confusion, the group finds time to discuss Cha Cha's motivations. Whatever they may be, financial or strong-arming to stay, Theea is in it for the money.

When Theea is booted out of the system by security protocols while trying to suppress it, she signals that it's time to go. If this was not enough, the guards have resisted long enough to call reinforcements. Theea seizes the moment of calm and quiet after the last guard smashes into the console to grab two throwing weapons, a baton and a gun.

The best way out seems to be to rely on the probability that there is a ship for the CEO's use at the top of the building. On their way up the stairs, the group faces three guards coming down the stairs. A fight starts, they try to jostle by the guards or hurl them down, Theea throws Conrad's pistol at a guard and misses, Kika kneecaps a guard. Xe'anna is not particularly effective, while the guards hit Theea, who ends up looking pretty bad.

They all finally get past the guards but Conrad suddenly bolts down the stairs, after urging Xe'anna to *take them to safety*. Theea still misses a guard who has just shot at Conrad. Xe'anna, who also looks rough by now, can't stop Conrad and is not sure it would help if she stayed to fight. She grapples Theea, who is to too weak to resist, on her way up. They still hear Conrad say:

> *I'll be fine. I'll find you.*
>
>

The guards don't go after them. They reach the top, fly away onboard a small party barge and reach the Bat'leth despite the fighters going after them. Theea wants them to wait for Conrad, who is out of meep meep range. After Oxana fails to hear more than the cracking open of a can of Space Mountain Dew, and despite Theea's pleas and planning and curses at Conrad, Xe'anna gets the Bat'leth on its way, *with one less crew and one more cyberware specialist*.

## Notes

1. ↑ 1 handle = 1 half gallon. See Wikipedia.
2. ↑ Let it be said: there is nothing like that at the Academy.
3. ↑ *NftE*: Let's go full Shadowrun here.
4. ↑ With her Constitution of 13.
5. ↑ Described as impeccably dressed, with a perfectly well-structured jacket that has lines of color in very abstract geometric patterns.
6. ↑ *NftE*: Wow, that was a moving movement. Thanks, Lizzie B.
7. ↑ *NftE*: Getting the most out of this last session, Dan? Reactions occurred. Claudia hoped Theea was unconscious. Lizzie didn't want Xe'anna to hear that.
8. ↑ *Because it's experimental. Most devices of this nature cause just 1 system strain.*
9. ↑ Hence Cha Cha's advice that she not have her hand cut off for any reason lest it impair the system entirely.
10. ↑ The setup still has limits. In Lauren's words: *So it's not quite* Minority Report.
11. ↑ See a few more details here.
12. ↑ This elicited several remarks: Lauren wondered whether Kika wanted to prove she was better at anatomy than someone who's dedicated their entire life to that field of study. Dan noted that *She's starting with learning which things are not the same as each other*.
13. ↑ Which Kika and Theea seem to like quite much.
14. ↑ This description was not Dan's, but he definitely went with it, saying: *there is no going back*.
15. ↑ Which prompted this remark from Lauren: *That's why these people are your crew*.
16. ↑ Sarah rolled a 3 on her die, for three *hours* (rather than Conrad's *minutes* earlier). They didn't have that much time, so she settled on 30 minutes.
17. ↑ *NftE*: Trying to do justice to one of these descriptions that draw me into Lauren's world.
18. ↑ *NftE*: Barring a transcription error, this is an actual GM quote. Please pardon my French :-)
19. ↑ Which apparently surprises and touches Lauren.
20. ↑ The conversation devolves a little after *Theea appreciates it*, and Lauren makes it canon that Conrad's ass and tight-fitting pants are distracting. Let's jump straight to Lauren's conclusion that *We're here to provide quality content for you*.
21. ↑ Xe'anna's comment: S*ay goodbye to that rifle.*
22. ↑ *NftE*: It's always a special treat when Dan mentions a bathroom, since, well, that moment from the first episode of CorpSINs.
23. ↑ And Dan quips: *Welcome to shadowrunning with Claudia.*
24. ↑ After rolling a 13 in Sneak & Dexterity.
25. ↑ *NftE*: there is an 8-minute gap in my notes here.
26. ↑ Despite a 15. That was a tough bunch.
27. ↑ She is down to 13 HP.
28. ↑ *NtfE*: With a few weeks hindsight, it's obvious that this very moving moment is just the first of many for Theea.
29. ↑ Maybe. Lauren was taken aback and would have to talk with Dan.