0:01

Following a production of my R rating

0:04

of this episode contains depictions

0:06

of drug use and strong violence. A

0:13

second oil age.

0:35

They were Veil's eyes. If

0:38

they'd been gaping sockets or coal

0:40

red depths, perhaps I'd have reacted

0:43

faster. But it was

0:45

her. It felt like

0:47

her, despite the brutality

0:50

of her acts, despite the mist

0:52

of blood still wafting through

0:54

the air. It stood

0:56

by the shattered tank, and

0:58

for a moment I was frozen to the spot,

1:01

paralyzed by the impossibility

1:03

playing out before me. Don't

1:07

you want to hear it it?

1:11

She moved and

1:13

I pierced her right shoulder with my ready

1:15

throwing knife. As the weapon exited

1:18

through her back, I lunged and spun

1:20

round with the other blade. With

1:22

so much basilisk in my system, there

1:25

was no holding back. I'd

1:27

seen what she was capable of. The

1:30

veil Thing leapt over my sweeping

1:32

slice, and I felt a sharp kick to the

1:34

small of my bath. I ducked and

1:36

rolled with the impact across the

1:38

bloodied tiles. I popped

1:41

up and plucked my knife from the wall. The

1:44

hilts was slick with amber liquid.

1:49

What are you? The

1:51

veil Thing sprinted onto the room

1:54

small stage and ripped the curtain aside.

1:57

I let fly with another knife and watched

1:59

it cut clear through her lower back.

2:02

Unfazed, she launched herself

2:04

up at a sealed maintenance conduit near

2:06

the ceiling and tore it open with one

2:08

hand, then poured herself through.

2:11

I dashed after her. I heard

2:14

shouting behind me in the mess hall, but I didn't

2:16

look back. I leapt up and grabbed

2:18

the edges of the conduit, heaving myself

2:20

into the narrow shaft. I

2:22

scrambled after her, following the

2:25

twisting coils of wires and cables

2:27

slithering through the trail of viscous

2:29

amber that she bled in her wake. I

2:32

rounded a corner and glimpsed her up ahead.

2:35

I had one knife in hand, but the space

2:37

was too confined for a throw, so

2:39

I crawled as fast as I could,

2:41

like some burrowing animal in pursuit

2:44

of its prey, until the bottom

2:47

suddenly gave out beneath me. I

2:50

fell through an access hatch and into a

2:52

dive chamber. The basilisk

2:54

gave me the edge. I landed

2:57

in a crouch, knife ready, and looked

2:59

up to see three you deck security

3:01

guards with squid guns leveled a

3:04

fourth manipulated a communit. Jack's

3:08

stood front and center, the cranium

3:10

recognition scanner on her weapon taped

3:13

as always freeze, drop

3:15

the knife. You have to listen. What have you

3:17

done. There's a journalist, a thing that looks

3:20

like a stowaway from the Gladius.

3:23

One of the airlock hatches open behind

3:25

them with a frothy wash of deep pressurized

3:28

seawater. The guard with the communit

3:31

was the only one to notice the form rising

3:33

behind them.

3:35

Its skin was matt but slick

3:38

with the sea scaled and tight

3:40

with ropy musculature. It

3:43

rose to nearly seven feet, and

3:45

the formations on its skull gave its

3:47

silhouette the appearance of a thorny crown.

3:51

It closed one great webbed

3:53

hand over the top of the nearest guard's

3:56

head and twisted his skull around

3:58

like a bottle cap. Jack's

4:01

fired on me. Without

4:04

the drug, that would have been it. I'd

4:06

have choked to death there on the floor while

4:09

the guards attended to their attacker. But

4:11

my reflexes were just sharp

4:14

enough. I shot

4:16

my left forearm up and shielded

4:18

my face from the bulk of the squid.

4:21

The impact still sent me flailing

4:23

backwards. The metagel instantly

4:26

bolowed around me at its four corners,

4:28

pinning me to the wall and my forearm

4:31

against my face. But at

4:33

least I could breathe. All

4:35

I could see was their feet. I

4:38

heard their cries. My

4:41

first thought was the knife still gripped

4:43

in my pinned hand, and whether I'd

4:45

be able to saw through the squid in time.

4:48

Then I heard Jack's cry out in pain,

4:51

and her squid guns slid across the floor

4:53

to my feet, just within

4:56

reach. I strained

4:58

out, first one foot, then both,

5:01

attempting to scissor it up from the floor.

5:04

My neck strained from the weight of my suspended

5:06

body, but of course the gel held

5:09

tight. I nudged

5:11

off one of my shoes, and I've

5:13

never felt so vindicated in my hatred

5:16

of socks. I slipped

5:18

my toes around the trigger guard and reeled

5:20

it in. I

5:23

felt the presence of the triton.

5:26

I smelled a thick odor of salt water

5:28

and sulfur rolling off it biology

5:31

of the lightless depths. I

5:35

gripped the squid gun between my ankles

5:37

and pulled it up to my chest. I grabbed

5:40

it with my free arm and touched the side of

5:42

the barrel to the meadow gell. It

5:44

liquefied, and I fell to the floor,

5:47

right at the creature's webbed feet and

5:49

the twin curling tentacles that

5:51

clung obediently to its lower

5:53

legs. I had

5:55

never seen one before, only

5:58

sketches by a logical

6:00

profiles, never in the flesh,

6:03

never this close. It

6:05

loomed over me. Now it

6:08

lifted a talented hand, so

6:11

I obeyed my training. I

6:14

looked up at its shadowed face. I

6:17

burned into it with the twin elder

6:19

marks on my scalp and brow. When

6:22

it recoiled, I stood up and ripped

6:25

away the scarp as well to reveal the

6:27

one on my throat. The

6:30

triton stumbled backwards,

6:32

raising its claws to block the side

6:34

of my marks. You Dex

6:37

guards lay heaped behind it,

6:39

surrounding the two open airlock

6:41

hatches, like slaughtered lambs before

6:43

an altar. I dropped

6:46

the squid guns pointed the

6:48

black tip of my knife at the retreating

6:50

creature. My name

6:52

is Snopon and I'm a licensed Udex

6:54

agent. I invoke ambassador status in the

6:56

terms of the Oceanic's accord. That's

7:00

the second trite and grabbed me from

7:02

behind. The world went dark

7:04

beneath the webbing of its great hand. Another

7:07

grabbed the wrist of my knife hand before

7:09

I could counter. Then the creatures

7:11

twin tentacles guong suspected

7:14

to aid and propulsion alone, wrapped

7:17

themselves around my legs. I

7:19

thrashed in its grip but could find

7:21

no purchase. I screamed

7:24

into the muffling palm until voice

7:27

and consciousness failed

7:29

me. Does

7:35

the ocean cool to you? If

7:38

so, consider a career on the

7:40

you Dex Deep Grid. Your

7:42

hard work will help maintain the crucial

7:45

sea floor infrastructure necessary

7:48

to fuel our non

7:50

combined and recombined people.

7:52

Alike Phil Key roles

7:54

both inside pressurized habitats

7:57

and at large in the breath taking

8:00

world of Earth's ocean depths.

8:02

I wanted to see the world and do

8:05

my part to keep it running, so I joined up

8:07

as a systems manager. Thanks

8:09

you Rex. It's hard

8:11

to fit in on the surface, but down here

8:14

my GMO status qualifies me for

8:16

specialized, high paying work in some

8:18

of the world's most unique environments. Thanks

8:21

for you you Dex. Through

8:23

the use of the d grid system

8:25

and patented proty as well and sulb

8:28

see Templar Technology GTT.

8:30

We were able to safely harvest the Earth's

8:32

deepest petroleum riches without

8:35

endangering ocean or inland

8:37

environments. You're the flame,

8:40

we provide the fuel. You

8:42

dex petroleum. Welcome

8:45

to the second oil Age.

8:56

Thanks again for such a lovely evening,

8:58

Greg, You're the one who made it

9:00

lovely. Wendy, I just haven't

9:02

felt so at ease with anyone in a long

9:04

time. Do you want to

9:06

come up for a nightcap? WHOA

9:09

stop right there? Don't you think you should know

9:11

what you're getting into? What do you

9:13

mean? Sex is God's holy method

9:16

of reproduction, and reproduction is

9:18

all about genetic combination, So

9:20

don't you think you should know what sort of genes

9:22

you're combined in with. We're just getting

9:25

to know each other. Plus neither

9:27

of us has an our CEO tattoo. There's

9:29

only one way to be certain, and that's

9:31

with jen No Whit. The leading

9:33

on site real time genetic tester

9:36

is fully compatible with off calm units,

9:38

and it provides discrete answers

9:40

in the streets all between the

9:42

sheets. I'm sorry, Wendy,

9:45

I had a great time, but I'm

9:47

not really feeling it. Maybe

9:49

I'll see you at church with jen

9:51

no wit You'll know when? Did you know it

9:54

is not intended to supersedi with question standard federal and international

9:56

our SEPUL registration laws. Do you know what there's a subsidient

9:58

of spiritual technologies? How else? Yeah, I

10:09

don't know what happened next. The

10:12

screaming, the chaos,

10:14

It all felt distant to me. Scaled

10:18

arms carried me through the halls of Atlas.

10:22

A webbed hand masked my markings

10:24

from my abductors and blinded me

10:26

to the world. I

10:28

breathed, and the world around

10:31

me grew faint. At

10:33

some point I stopped struggling.

10:40

I dreamt my old life, strung

10:44

out, thrown out of the service

10:46

on a bad conduct discharge, my

10:49

only home some promised cell

10:51

in a Midwest religious compound where

10:54

my mother claimed God was still

10:56

speaking. I

10:58

stood in front of the featureless black

11:01

cube that was the Apathis building,

11:04

all my belongings stuffed into a

11:06

patch covered duffle, and

11:09

I begged it to swallow me.

11:13

The doors of Apathos opened

11:15

wide, and inside the

11:18

shadowed saint beckoned me enter.

11:21

Black smoke pouring from her

11:23

mouth like deep bent it self

11:25

bide no pleasure will be denied

11:28

it. During the treatment paper

11:30

exposia, they divined

11:32

with tilted destruction key

11:35

eviable nets. I

11:38

felt myself lowered into the womblike

11:41

embrace of a warm, viscous

11:43

medium. Atlas Station

11:45

gave way to the warble of ocean

11:48

waters just beyond the skin of

11:50

my containment. I

11:53

dreamt myself swallowed by Leviathan,

11:57

contained, preserved.

12:00

I wanted it to last forever,

12:04

but outer clothing

12:07

cut from my body like an accident

12:09

victim. My skin bared to

12:11

the cold airscations

12:16

of the compandity to customize

12:19

matrix. It is no other

12:22

way. I

12:26

don't know how much time passed,

12:29

but I woke to feel byzantine spirals

12:32

of embossed stone beneath me. I

12:35

moved my fingers over the stone's

12:37

surface and traced the endless

12:40

coils. I

12:42

opened my eyes and

12:45

beheld the pomegranate glow of bioluminescent

12:48

orbs. They seemed

12:50

to float in the air above me, beneath

12:52

a high domed ceiling scarred

12:55

with the same coral like spirals,

12:58

an illegible alien tongue

13:01

inscribed in the bones of the earth.

13:05

I was no longer on Atlas I

13:09

was somewhere below breaking

13:26

Great Great, Green, Break, Green Yeah.

13:53

The second oil age was produced by Robert

13:56

Lamb, Alex William Slouren Vogelbaum,

13:58

and Josh Thain. This episode

14:01

featured Angel Masters as Senov

14:03

Pon, Lauren Vogelbaum as

14:05

Tabitha Vale, and Annie Reese as

14:07

Jack's supporting voice. Work

14:09

by Tracy V. Wilson, Ramsay,

14:12

Junt, Gina Rakiki, Nicholas

14:14

Dakowski, Matt Frederick and

14:17

Ben Bolan intro altro

14:19

and supporting music created by the

14:22

Weirding Module. Learn more

14:24

at Module five dot

14:26

band camp dot com.

14:28

Music for the Genoit media segment,

14:31

So Long solaris by Jacob Tutu,

14:33

provided by King de Luxe Records. Learn

14:36

more at King de Luz dot c. A from

14:54

our podcasts from IRN Radio, visit

14:56

the ir Radio app, Apple Podcasts

14:58

or whinner We listen your favorite shows