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Source: collected/022-mortal-steel-pilot-episode-2-raw.mp3
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00:00:00.000 Speaker 1 Mortal Steel,
00:00:54.200 Speaker 1 Part Two: Outskirts.
00:00:58.420 Speaker 1 The earth itself rattled as the huge inner door of Last Respite parted before Pastor
00:01:04.519 Speaker 1 Ethan Cutter. He stood, feet firmly planted in the dirt as it rolled with
00:01:10.500 Speaker 1 ominous speed. There were no other people out here in the open except the guards
00:01:15.720 Speaker 1 looking down at him through the narrow vertical slits in the battlements. Those were
00:01:20.860 Speaker 1 not highly coveted positions. Despite constant surveillance and frequent blessing of
00:01:26.520 Speaker 1 the walls by priests, every other month something managed to pull a relatively large
00:01:32.580 Speaker 1 person through one of those small holes to be devoured below.
00:01:38.700 Speaker 1 Ethan stepped into the killing field between the inner wall and the outer wall. He
00:01:44.280 Speaker 1 waited another eternity for the inner door to close behind him. Only then did the
00:01:49.840 Speaker 1 outer door part. It rattled and creaked, grinding noisily on the ground as it
00:01:55.440 Speaker 1 opened. How long had it been since anyone left? It stopped opening
00:02:01.240 Speaker 1 almost immediately, then for some reason started closing again, leaving only a foot
00:02:07.060 Speaker 1 or two of rapidly shrinking space between the wall. Ethan shot a withering glance up
00:02:12.300 Speaker 1 at the guard working the gate in the nearest tower. The man did not move to open the
00:02:16.840 Speaker 1 gate wider. Ethan had to sprint then turn sideways to get through the narrow gap
00:02:21.680 Speaker 1 between the reinforced door and the concrete wall. As he did, he felt the rattling
00:02:26.640 Speaker 1 door, nearly two feet thick, pressing against his face. He turned his head sideways
00:02:32.300 Speaker 1 as he shimmied to prevent it exploding like a crushed melon. For a moment, he feared
00:02:37.480 Speaker 1 it would crush him anyway, ending his mission as soon as it had begun, and in the
00:02:42.720 Speaker 1 most wasteful and mundane way, reduced to a very expensive stain on the
00:02:48.760 Speaker 1 concrete wall. But he narrowly pulled himself through the gap just as the door
00:02:54.120 Speaker 1 boomed shut. Only then did his second mind helpfully confirm that, yes,
00:03:00.560 Speaker 1 that door did have enough force to destroy him. Not long ago, he would have stumbled
00:03:06.100 Speaker 1 and fallen to the dirt, but that was a different person. Instead, he simply
00:03:11.320 Speaker 1 transitioned to a light, casual walk, brushing the dust from his black clerical suit
00:03:17.700 Speaker 1 and adjusting the white preacher's collar around his neck. Ethan surveyed his new
00:03:23.280 Speaker 1 surroundings. Red and yellow warning signs lit up everything in sight. Every
00:03:29.300 Speaker 1 broken window and every open doorway to each dilapidated building was a potential
00:03:34.840 Speaker 1 threat. And each of those terrified faces looking out at him were enemy combatants.
00:03:41.660 Speaker 1 This was going to need some calibration. For now, he shut off all the warnings in
00:03:47.160 Speaker 1 his HUD, asking his second mind to only notify him of immediate danger of demonic
00:03:52.940 Speaker 1 nature. The world was cleaned up instantly and he saw with fresh eyes. He
00:03:58.980 Speaker 1 had not left Last Respite in more than a year. Even then, he'd done so in an armored
00:04:04.780 Speaker 1 Humvee. That time had not done the outskirts any favors. Husks of
00:04:10.620 Speaker 1 three- and four-story buildings lined empty streets with the corpses of larger,
00:04:16.040 Speaker 1 towering skyscrapers in the distance. The rusted-out vehicles had been cleared away
00:04:21.079 Speaker 1 from the immediate area, but the eternal traffic was piled up only a few hundred
00:04:25.620 Speaker 1 yards away. Very few windows and doors remained intact. The streets themselves were
00:04:31.600 Speaker 1 broken with scraggly-looking plants growing up through the cracks. Bizarrely, the
00:04:37.260 Speaker 1 iconic palm trees were doing just fine, a narrow portrait of paradise set against
00:04:42.360 Speaker 1 the greater backdrop of ruin. But Ethan wasn't here to fix the city, if such a thing
00:04:48.180 Speaker 1 were even possible. He was here to cut out the rot that continued to ruin it. The
00:04:53.720 Speaker 1 repairs would be done by normal people, people unlike him. He walked down the broken
00:04:59.820 Speaker 1 sidewalk, chin high, nodding serenely at the faces with sunken cheeks that looked
00:05:05.820 Speaker 1 at him from the buildings. The stalker's abilities and whereabouts were unknown.
00:05:11.920 Speaker 1 What little information he had indicated that it was secretive and cunning,
00:05:17.160 Speaker 1 preferring to hide among the human populace and only strike when an easy target
00:05:22.020 Speaker 1 presented itself. The rest of the time, it used its ever-growing force of human
00:05:27.100 Speaker 1 worshipers to do its dirty work. Chances were, he would need to cut through a lot of
00:05:32.480 Speaker 1 these normal people before he got to the possessed. That didn't sit well with him.
00:05:38.100 Speaker 1 Surely there was some way he could get the demon host out into the open for a
00:05:42.460 Speaker 1 confrontation. It wouldn't be fair, of course. There was no honor among
00:05:48.140 Speaker 1 demons. Only winners. Winners and bodies.
00:05:54.560 Speaker 1 Unsure of what else to do, Pastor Cutter walked up to an apartment that still had a
00:05:59.860 Speaker 1 set of metal double doors. He knocked on a door. His titanium skeleton made an
00:06:05.480 Speaker 1 unnaturally loud sound as he rapped his knuckles against the metal.
00:06:11.010 Speaker 1 When no one answered, he opened the door, realizing only after it was open that the
00:06:16.510 Speaker 1 door had been locked. Four young boys stood on the other side of the door. They
00:06:21.650 Speaker 1 scrambled away from him and looked down at the destroyed deadbolt. "Sorry about your
00:06:26.490 Speaker 1 door." "Demon! Demon!" Three of the boys scattered, but one of
00:06:32.470 Speaker 1 them tripped and fell. "Guys, wait!" The boy rolled on his back and gave
00:06:38.310 Speaker 1 Ethan a terrified look, then shielded his face. He was dressed in ragged
00:06:43.950 Speaker 1 jeans and a dingy T-shirt. He couldn't have been more than nine years old. Ethan
00:06:49.130 Speaker 1 waited quietly in the doorway. "You're not gonna kill me?"
00:06:54.030 Speaker 1 "No. I need your help." "Anything?" "Do you
00:07:00.110 Speaker 1 know of a church nearby?" The kid scrunched up his face, thinking
00:07:05.910 Speaker 1 furiously. He looked like he might try to run again. Ethan's second mind showed him
00:07:11.570 Speaker 1 four nearby churches based on maps of the city. "Never mind. There's a church
00:07:17.110 Speaker 1 nearby. It was called Immaculate Conception. Do you know the place?"
00:07:23.190 Speaker 1 The kid nodded. He probably would have nodded regardless. Hopefully he would carry
00:07:28.310 Speaker 1 the message, though. "Tell everyone you know that I'll be giving a sermon there.
00:07:34.330 Speaker 1 At sundown." And that was all the kid could take. He nodded
00:07:39.810 Speaker 1 furiously, then got up and started running after his companions. Ethan watched him
00:07:45.210 Speaker 1 go. If he told everyone he found the same thing, word would eventually reach the
00:07:51.150 Speaker 1 stalker. He would give a sermon. A sermon these people would never
00:07:56.910 Speaker 1 forget.
00:08:00.890 Speaker 1 Part Three Sundown
00:08:05.390 Speaker 1 Fleabag ran barefoot down the alley, shouting. He wasn't even making sense anymore.
00:08:11.550 Speaker 1 He couldn't remember being this excited. "Inaccurate Conception! Sermon at the
00:08:16.750 Speaker 1 Inaccurate Conception!" A man tried to grab Fleabag as he ran, but he spun away from
00:08:22.810 Speaker 1 the hands. He screamed at the man, who he only now realized was his uncle. He was
00:08:28.210 Speaker 1 probably just shaking him down for food to trade for alcohol. "Sundown!" Who
00:08:34.250 Speaker 1 was this stranger with the clean clothes? Didn't the others see the way he ripped
00:08:39.570 Speaker 1 off that door? He was so strong. Stronger than the king.
00:08:45.110 Speaker 1 Maybe. Would he fight the king? "Conception! Conception at sundown!"
00:08:51.730 Speaker 1 People yelled at him to shut up. People threw things at him as he ran past. But they
00:08:57.470 Speaker 1 heard him. He made sure everyone heard him.
00:09:04.470 Speaker 1 Pastor Cutter scoped out the church well before sundown. Within a few minutes, he
00:09:09.730 Speaker 1 had more than a feel for the place. He had a high-resolution 3D map. He knew
00:09:15.690 Speaker 1 which walls could be reliably pierced with bullets, and which walls could be
00:09:20.150 Speaker 1 breached by people with or without explosives. The possessed was the big unknown.
00:09:26.430 Speaker 1 It rendered his defensive simulations largely useless except for planning against
00:09:30.990 Speaker 1 the more mundane human threat. By the time the sun was low in the sky, he had
00:09:36.850 Speaker 1 long since overthought the impending conflict. He had completed nearly 800,000
00:09:42.310 Speaker 1 combat simulations. In about 600,000 of those simulations, he emerged
00:09:47.670 Speaker 1 victorious against a small army of humans, only duking it out with the stalker once
00:09:52.990 Speaker 1 his mortal cannon fodder was expended. In the remaining 200,000 simulations,
00:09:59.310 Speaker 1 he met one grisly demise after another, usually at the hands of the stalker himself.
00:10:05.990 Speaker 1 Without knowing what to simulate, his second mind simply conjured monsters from
00:10:10.970 Speaker 1 movies and television, supplemented with data from other known possessed.
00:10:16.730 Speaker 1 Ethan was tearing the arms off an insect-like creature with acid for blood in his
00:10:21.990 Speaker 1 mind when his second mind started blaring mental warnings. Someone was in the
00:10:27.850 Speaker 1 church. The real church. He flicked off the simulation. Ethan stood behind a
00:10:33.910 Speaker 1 ruined pulpit, defaced with graffiti. He faced the heavy wooden entry doors.
00:10:40.950 Speaker 1 A tanned man with thinning gray hair walked in silence down the aisle between the
00:10:45.730 Speaker 1 rows of toppled pews. He wore a long gray trench coat. Was this him?
00:10:52.250 Speaker 1 Had the stalker come in person? A messenger, perhaps. The
00:10:57.970 Speaker 1 man in the trench coat locked eyes with Ethan. Ethan rested one hand on the huge
00:11:04.030 Speaker 1 black and silver gun at his hip. A messenger of his own. The man in the coat
00:11:10.010 Speaker 1 nodded once at Ethan, then Then he sat down on one of the upright
00:11:16.070 Speaker 1 pews. Scanners showed no obvious sign of threat. A
00:11:21.910 Speaker 1 woman with three children orbiting around her like hyperactive moons came into the
00:11:26.950 Speaker 1 church. They flitted about, marveling at the huge room and touching everything
00:11:32.150 Speaker 1 within reach, but never straying more than a few feet from their mother. The young
00:11:37.250 Speaker 1 family sat down in the back. Ethan pulled his hand from the messenger. What was
00:11:43.310 Speaker 1 happening here? In the blink of an eye, he ran a few simulations where the children
00:11:48.830 Speaker 1 rushed him, while the man with the thinning hair tried to sneak around behind him.
00:11:53.370 Speaker 1 He flicked them off before it got bloody. They didn't make any sense. More people
00:11:59.350 Speaker 1 filed in. Most came in groups, but many came alone. People of all ages.
00:12:05.610 Speaker 1 All of them were emaciated. Filthy. All of them looked terrified. By the
00:12:11.610 Speaker 1 time the sun set, there were 37 people in the church. As far as he could tell, none
00:12:17.410 Speaker 1 of them were armed. What were they doing here? His second
00:12:23.422 Speaker 1 mind was of no help. It was his first mind, the one he shared with these poor souls,
00:12:29.382 Speaker 1 that made the connection first. The boy he'd seen earlier that day walked through
00:12:34.402 Speaker 1 the double doors, a bright smile on his face. He'd promised them a sermon,
00:12:40.742 Speaker 1 and they'd come. Pastor Ethan Cutter cleared his throat.
00:12:45.622 Speaker 1 "Good evening." The ad hoc congregation gave him a loose
00:12:51.442 Speaker 1 reply, nothing like the tight, well-rehearsed routines in the last respite.
00:12:57.002 Speaker 1 Amusingly, this was the very last thing he'd expected, and he found himself
00:13:02.442 Speaker 1 completely unprepared. Anxious, even. How could he preach to these people
00:13:08.282 Speaker 1 when he didn't believe? How could he tell them a Lord was watching over them when
00:13:14.002 Speaker 1 they'd had their lives, their very homes ripped apart by demons?
00:13:19.942 Speaker 1 His words came slowly, awkwardly. He had never expected to give another
00:13:25.702 Speaker 1 sermon. He told them that good things came to those who do good,
00:13:31.662 Speaker 1 that kindness was a virtue, that hope was never wasted. It was the
00:13:37.502 Speaker 1 most basic of lessons, little more than common sense wrapped in poetic language.
00:13:43.382 Speaker 1 It couldn't have lasted more than fifteen minutes, and he had to resist his second
00:13:48.022 Speaker 1 mind's urge to give him the exact duration to the nanosecond. When it was done, a
00:13:54.002 Speaker 1 young woman came to the front of the church and held out a baby that looked nothing
00:13:57.842 Speaker 1 like her. She asked him to baptize her son. He tried to refuse, but
00:14:03.822 Speaker 1 she insisted, and even though he didn't believe, he baptized the boy in a birdbath
00:14:09.862 Speaker 1 filled with canteen water. She cried afterward. A number of people were crying.
00:14:16.342 Speaker 1 It was dark by then, but no one left. What did they want from him?
00:14:22.702 Speaker 1 The boy from before sauntered up to the pulpit and put his hand out for a handshake.
00:14:27.542 Speaker 1 Pastor Cutter shook the hand. A perfectly calibrated handshake. "Nice
00:14:33.162 Speaker 1 speech. I'm Fleabag." "Why?" "Huh?" "Why are
00:14:39.162 Speaker 1 you called Fleabag?" The boy shrugged, giving Ethan a frustrated look.
00:14:44.582 Speaker 1 "I don't know. That's my name." "Fleabag, why are all
00:14:50.462 Speaker 1 these people still here?" Fleabag turned to look at the crowd of people who shuffled
00:14:56.042 Speaker 1 about in their seats, muttering to each other. "They want protection. Probably
00:15:01.082 Speaker 1 hoping you got food, too. Not me, though. I'm here for the fight." "I don't think
00:15:06.802 Speaker 1 there's going to be a fight." "You're wrong about that. Scary boys are on their way.
00:15:12.802 Speaker 1 Mixers, too." "Who are they?" Fleabag gave Ethan a very
00:15:18.542 Speaker 1 worried look. "Scary boys work for the king. Mixers are new. They work for
00:15:24.402 Speaker 1 someone else. You're gonna fight them, right?" Ethan narrowed his eyes.
00:15:30.442 Speaker 1 A cocktail of synthetic hormones kept his heart rate stable. "Fleabag,
00:15:36.982 Speaker 1 this is important. Are you saying there's two possessed in the
00:15:42.382 Speaker 1 outskirts?" "Yeah. They don't like each other." There was a roar of a
00:15:47.922 Speaker 1 motorcycle outside the front of the church. Then the roar of a dozen more
00:15:53.302 Speaker 1 motorcycles. "Pretty sure they hate you more, though." Movement flashed across the
00:15:59.302 Speaker 1 darkened windows. Ethan rewound the peripheral footage in his second mind and
00:16:03.662 Speaker 1 stepped through the frames until he saw what had been watching him. He stared at the
00:16:08.402 Speaker 1 still image, a bat-like creature with foot-long talons and a snout
00:16:14.762 Speaker 1 so long it looked like an elephant's trunk, if an elephant's trunk could split in
00:16:19.902 Speaker 1 half to reveal thousands of tiny needle-like teeth. More movement on the
00:16:25.762 Speaker 1 other side of the building. He heard creatures moving around the outside of the
00:16:29.602 Speaker 1 walls, on the roof. His makeshift congregation grew alarmed,
00:16:35.162 Speaker 1 perhaps just now realizing how foolish they'd been to come here, but it was too late
00:16:40.562 Speaker 1 to leave now. A man in biker leather walked up the steps to the front door. He
00:16:46.502 Speaker 1 was flanked by a growing number of similarly dressed people, all of them holding
00:16:51.082 Speaker 1 machetes, axes, and swords. Only the man in front held a shotgun over his shoulder.
00:16:57.482 Speaker 1 There was a swagger to his step. Two possessed. Ethan
00:17:03.302 Speaker 1 didn't need to run the simulations to know what his odds were. Not good.
00:17:08.422 Speaker 1 "Repent, holy man." The lead biker spread his
00:17:14.462 Speaker 1 arms wide, grinning wider still. He held the shotgun out like a party gift.
00:17:21.202 Speaker 1 There was something wrong with his face, a bone-like protrusion that grew over half
00:17:26.402 Speaker 1 his face like a mask. "Say you're sorry and we'll make it quick."
00:17:32.282 Speaker 1 Bone Mask took another step forward with an accusing finger pointed at Ethan. The
00:17:37.722 Speaker 1 moment he stepped through the front doors, his hand started smoking. The man leapt
00:17:43.582 Speaker 1 backward and looked at his burning hand in shock, slapping out the fire on his
00:17:47.902 Speaker 1 jeans. Ethan couldn't keep the smile from his face. The church had
00:17:53.642 Speaker 1 failed these people. He knew that now. They'd hid behind their walls while the
00:17:58.702 Speaker 1 people of the outskirts suffered at the hands of demons and betrayers like the
00:18:02.802 Speaker 1 creatures before him. And still they had faith. Faith enough to
00:18:08.442 Speaker 1 consecrate this building. It was just a building, after all. Despite all odds,
00:18:14.782 Speaker 1 some of their hope had survived. It was that dogged, persistent hope that made it a
00:18:20.702 Speaker 1 church again. The smile returned to Bone Mask's face. He looked at the
00:18:26.386 Speaker 1 exterior walls and roof of the church, pleased by something that Ethan couldn't see.
00:18:33.246 Speaker 1 Full house tonight. New deal, holy man. You come out, and we let these people
00:18:39.106 Speaker 1 live. Ethan was already walking down the aisle toward the entrance. You the
00:18:45.166 Speaker 1 stalker. Ha! Let's say I am. Ethan drew the messenger in a
00:18:51.146 Speaker 1 flash, pointed it at Bone Mask, and pulled the trigger. The man's head exploded. The
00:18:56.646 Speaker 1 corpse fell in a heap to the stone steps.
00:19:01.226 Speaker 1 Guess not, then. The crew of tainted human bikers scattered. Ethan looked over his
00:19:07.066 Speaker 1 shoulder at the people now huddling behind the church's overturned pews. Stay in the
00:19:11.986 Speaker 1 church. He couldn't protect them from regular humans, but as long as they stayed
00:19:16.966 Speaker 1 inside, nothing demonic was coming in. Then he stepped over the threshold and
00:19:22.486 Speaker 1 outside the church. The people wanted another sermon, and by God,
00:19:28.466 Speaker 1 he was going to give it to them.