Episode 02

## *Soldier Game*

> “*Cassander: Mark.*”
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> —Cassander Timaeus Berenice
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## Previously On...

*You're the only four people on the final train going out towards the dome. And you can see that there's like a huge chunk off of the side of it that has been blown open.*

"*Do you know if Cene Sixheart made it out?"*

*You can tell that was more than just 'they wanted to blow a hole in the sky in the side of this dome.'*

*She does another like, look over her shoulders.*

 *"Cene's been taken."*

*"I mean if we were leaving where would we be going to?"*

*"The city. Cene's lab."*

*It sets up like a little shitty basement, like apartment. And then there's a little ladder and you go down that and it's just like big drone laboratory. There are holo-screens, it just has a bunch of open windows.*

*Someone was running a search. They were searching for the word "Ionias", which you know is a planet in this star sector.*

*They're in the same hangar that J-M 27 works out of.*

*"Y'know Cene Sixheart?"*

*"I know Cene. Cene is my friend."*

*"Yeah, well, they-- someone kidnapped Cene. You help me, you're helping Cene and you're getting yourself away from frankly people that are pretty shitty. Shittier than usual for you."*

*J-M says, "Haha, ha. Yes, okay. Thank you, Mako."*

*"No problem buddy."*

*You pick up three contacts on the horizon. Their goal is to shoot you out of the sky.*

## Episode Description

> In their search for the missing roboticist Cene Sixheart, Cassander Timaeus Berenice (Art Tebbel) and Mako Trig (Keith Carberry) have tracked down the secret hangar of a mysterious mercenary group. But elsewhere on Counterweight, AuDy (Jack de Quidt) and Aria Joie (Ali Acampora) find themselves pursued by the specialized mechs from that very paramilitary outfit!
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> This episode of MechNoir: "Soldier Game."
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> Get ready to launch!
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## Plot Synopsis

As Aria distracts the enemy riggers, AuDy manages to escape the battle by maneuvering the Kingdom Come through some mag-lev trains.

Working on information they gathered from the kiosk, Cass and Mako go lower into the Rethal-Addax Spaceport in pursuit of Shell Lotz. They come upon a hanger where a large spaceship is docked along with two riggers. Spotting Shell working on one of the riggers, Cass shoots the hover scaffolding holding him up, causing him to tumble down.

As Cass goes to pick him up, the rigger with the queen insignia on its chest begins to move. Cass makes Shell reveal that his team took Cene to Snowtrak just as the queen rigger begins its attack. With Shell as hostage though, the rigger blows up the other one and uses it as a distraction to escape.

AuDy approaches the spaceport just in time to see the queen rigger shoot out of the hanger and head towards the battle. They send a warning to Aria then drop down to pick up Cass, Mako, and Shell, who remains a hostage. AuDy flies out and notices that the large ship inside the hanger has powered on and is in pursuit.

The knight rigger blinds Aria with the light of a plasma blade, which Aria immediately recognizes as the very same one used by Jace Rethal. She opens up communications to attempt to find out it who it is, but is rebuffed. She then fires off her rigger’s fireworks and baffles the enemy riggers’ sensors to buy herself time.

Cassander drops out of the Kingdom Come in the Megalophile and manages to grab the queen’s attention before it meets up with the rest of its team. Mako fogs both the queen and the pursuing ship from the Kingdom Come, disabling the forward momentum on both and leaving them open for attack. AuDy takes the opportunity to land a shot against the queen. Finding themselves outmatched, the opposing team gathers itself and retreats.

The episode closes on Cene in a pristine lab, focused on lines of code on multiple displays.

## Additional Info

* The song played (for the perfect amount of legal time) on the podcast when Aria sets off her fireworks, and the namesake for the title of the episode, is Soldier Game from Love Love School Idol Festival

## Featured Players

* Austin Walker
* Ali Acampora
* Keith J. Carberry
* Art Tebbel
* Jack de Quidt