Mortal Steel: Episode 9

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Mortal Steel: Episode 9
Source: collected/007-mortal-steel-episode-9.mp3
SHA-256: b73906da14ae3e8d99b320cc64ed48e2a5b1c7165da2a555b988a256799e52e5
Model: scribe_v2 | Transcribed: 2026-10-10T18:11:15.304992+00:00
Machine transcript — uncorrected. Speaker labels are local to this recording and do not identify people.

[00:00:00.000] Speaker 1: [rock music]

[00:00:08.860] Speaker 1: Mortal

[00:00:55.720] Speaker 1: Steel: Episode nine. [footsteps] Dr. Marie Singer waited by the door. Paced by the door, anyway. Was she going to come? Or maybe she would turn them in. What would happen to her? Maybe she could convince them Francesca and Ursula were not involved. Ursula was kneeling at the foot of her bed, head bowed in silent prayer. Marie had kept a similar habit once.

[00:01:31.060] Speaker 1: There wasn't a better time to pray for help. No, the Lord helped those who helped themselves. Meanwhile, Francesca was examining a light fixture. Oh, wait. She had it dismantled.

[00:01:47.780] Speaker 2: Francesca, stop it. Put that back.

[00:01:51.800] Speaker 1: The woman ripped something electronic free from the lighting fixture.

[00:01:55.940] Speaker 3: It was bugged. Video and audio by the looks of it.

[00:01:59.440] Speaker 2: And now they know you know. Did you think about that?

[00:02:04.840] Speaker 1: Francesca looked down at the thing in her hand, dumbfounded.

[00:02:09.620] Speaker 3: Oh. I could put it back.

[00:02:14.700] Speaker 2: Just... [sighs]

[00:02:17.280] Speaker 1: She reached toward her face with claw-like hands gripping the air.

[00:02:24.260] Speaker 2: Don't touch anything else. Okay?

[00:02:28.860] Speaker 3: Yeah, okay. Chill out.

[00:02:31.280] Speaker 1: Blessedly, their dorm room door slid open and Kelly Jon Fore slipped cautiously into the room with eyes wide. She was dressed in all black.

[00:02:43.360] Speaker 2: Why are you wearing that?

[00:02:46.120] Speaker 3: I was sneaking.

[00:02:48.640] Speaker 1: Marie pressed her palms to her face and let out a silent scream. Francesca held out the severed camera toward Kelly.

[00:02:59.560] Speaker 2: Who's watching us?

[00:03:02.800] Speaker 4: I am.

[00:03:04.460] Speaker 1: Kelly Jon Fore visibly withered, gasping like a fish out of water. This was a little more direct than she'd hoped for, but trying to keep any of these people covert was clearly a lost cause. Still, she felt bad for dragging the young mother into this. Hopefully, they had not angered this creature.

[00:03:28.740] Speaker 2: Are you the intercom?

[00:03:32.200] Speaker 4: Yes, and before you ask, no, you're not prisoners here. You may leave at any time through the way you entered.

[00:03:39.860] Speaker 3: Yeah, right.

[00:03:41.100] Speaker 1: If they were going for antagonistic, Marie may as well try to get some information out of it.

[00:03:46.240] Speaker 2: Why are you stealing children?

[00:03:49.440] Speaker 4: I have never stolen a child. They were donated.

[00:03:53.120] Speaker 1: [gasps] Kelly Jon Fore snapped out of her stupor.

[00:03:58.040] Speaker 3: Liar. You took him.

[00:04:01.180] Speaker 4: You knew the price of admission. As did your parents, and their parents before them. Survival comes at a cost. If you do not wish to pay it, you may leave.

[00:04:11.380] Speaker 1: Kelly screamed at the intercom.

[00:04:13.360] Speaker 3: [screams]

[00:04:14.900] Speaker 1: Slamming her fist into the speaker until it bled. It was a blind, mindless rage. Marie tried to gently pull her away, but the woman spun on her, something feral in her eyes. She stood tense, ready to fight, ready to kill, but the speaker could not be killed. The rage bled out of Kelly and she sunk to the floor, sobbing.

[00:04:38.720] Speaker 3: [cries] What did you do to him? What did you do to my baby?

[00:04:51.440] Speaker 1: Marie couldn't take it anymore, the fire in her chest, the rage stoked by this woman's suffering. It demanded violence, and it demanded it now.

[00:05:02.900] Speaker 2: Get up.

[00:05:04.600] Speaker 1: Kelly looked up at her with tear-filled eyes.

[00:05:08.960] Speaker 2: Get your husband and your baby. We're leaving.

[00:05:14.060] Speaker 1: Marie glanced at the other sisters, but they were clearly coming with her. Not even Francesca offered a word of rebuke. They rose and left the room and paced down the hall at a speed just below blind panic. Marie could feel the eyes of cameras on her, could feel whatever time they had to escape ticking down like the grains of an hourglass. When it ran out, there would be no escape. The intercom, whatever it was, it would not tolerate traitors for long. It created a horrible pressure,

[00:05:49.500] Speaker 1: like standing in the jaws of a closing mouth. Kelly Jon Fore ran fingers through her hair, muttering to herself.

[00:06:00.160] Speaker 3: What am I doing?

[00:06:02.060] Speaker 2: You're making the right choice. We can protect you out there

[00:06:07.248] Speaker 1: blatant falsehood. Mostly. When they'd fled Last Respite, they'd been certain they could not return for fear of political fallout. Now Marie would gladly welcome a prison cell if one was on offer. Anything was better than this place. And the moment they were safe, she was going to make a call. Cyborg number four was gonna tear this place apart. That was when the lights went out.

[00:06:38.868] Speaker 1: [dramatic music]

[00:06:46.148] Speaker 3: [gasps]

[00:06:46.288] Speaker 4: Important to stay in your rooms due to the toxic gas.

[00:06:50.288] Speaker 1: Oh, hell. It wasn't the soft whisping of gas she heard in the darkness as the other people reached out for her, grasping for comfort and safety she could not provide. It was the sound of servos, metal feet clacking on concrete floor.

[00:07:14.308] Speaker 4: I can't afford to waste resources. Please accompany Jelly John 3. I don't think his motor control is sufficient to guarantee your safety if he must use force.

[00:07:24.728] Speaker 1: Dim red emergency lights lit up a path along the floor down the hallway. A humanoid figure covered in rags waited for them where the trail of lights stopped. It stepped toward them in slow, jerky movements.

[00:07:43.268] Speaker 3: Excuse me. [gasps]

[00:07:50.388] Speaker 1: Part 11. Sins of Knowledge. Ethan climbed up the incline to meet the bikers. He tried to ignore the pulsing veins running through the earth and the small squid-like creature swimming through them, following him. The lead scary boy, Miranda, wrinkled the half of her face Ethan could still see and pinched her nose.

[00:08:24.088] Speaker 3: Ugh, you smell like sewer.

[00:08:27.808] Speaker 1: Sewers haven't been cleaned in a long time. Ethan pointed a finger gun at Miranda and winked. You're just trying to get out of a hug. She recoiled from him. She was more alarmed than when he'd threatened to turn their bodies into gifts. What kind of world was this?

[00:08:48.908] Speaker 3: Ugh, you wouldn't.

[00:08:50.688] Speaker 1: Ethan sat back on the motorcycle. The name Eddie was carved below the handlebars. No, I wouldn't hug you. But if I did, it would be lethal. Whoa. There was that admiration again, after he'd threatened to hug them to death. His second mind was loving this heroic dialogue, but it served no purpose. There was a boy out there who needed saving, and if the Stalker told any truths,

[00:09:26.068] Speaker 1: the nuns might not be running into the arms of safety at New Hope. No more words. Time to use a little ammunition. Now how do we find New Hope? Miranda nodded towards something on the horizon.

[00:09:42.768] Speaker 3: You gotta get past those.

[00:09:45.548] Speaker 1: Ethan zoomed in on the skyline where she watched. Helicopter drones buzzed about over the rooftops by the dozen. His eyes stretched to zoom even further. They had machine guns on them.

[00:10:00.128] Speaker 3: Your eye is stretching out of your head. It's creepy.

[00:10:08.288] Speaker 1: Ethan swung his head and his telescoping eye toward Miranda. Heh, you're one to talk. The bone shield could only hide half of her smile. That flicker of a smile held some hope for peace. All right, let's go.

[00:10:28.948] Speaker 3: What's the plan?

[00:10:31.068] Speaker 1: Win. [motorcycle revs]

[00:10:35.368] Speaker 3: Works for me. [motorcycle revs] [crow caws]

[00:11:10.228] Speaker 3: [motorcycle revs]

[00:11:10.548] Speaker 1: Ethan took a hard left to stay with the riders. The drone swarm behind them was a humming, flying cloud of black death. There were more than just the gunner drones. There were also the smaller, faster drones with adhesive on their undersides and no gun. It hadn't been clear what they were for until three of them stuck to the back of a scary boy and detonated. The resulting pink mist painted a dangerous picture for anyone who fell behind. At least the gunner drones were not of sufficient caliber to do more than ruin his outfit. A squadron of drones

[00:11:45.488] Speaker 1: appeared at the end of the street. Bright yellow muzzle flashes and a pattering popping sound. One of the scary boys was torn to shreds and flipped over his careening motorcycle and smashed into a ruined car. [screams] Ethan lowered his shotgun arm and fired. [shotgun fires] But at this distance, the pellets did little more than knock the drones around. The things were so light and small that only a perfect shot would actually shatter them. This is no good. They could neither outrun nor outmaneuver the gunners. If those sticky explosive ones caught them,

[00:12:20.904] Speaker 1: well, even Ethan would feel those. He pulled up alongside Miranda as they drove under the gunner's squadron and took a hard right. The drone zipped around to follow them, peppering with more small arms fire. [drone firing] Where do we go?

[00:12:36.404] Speaker 3: We're circling back. Your new buddy should be set up.

[00:12:39.704] Speaker 1: He wanted to ask what she meant, but they were forced to separate to dodge obstacles in the road. [tires screeching] This was the second time Ethan had been harassed by flying opponents. It was growing tiresome. It made a straightforward slugfest with an opponent like the spine eater almost appealing in retrospect. Almost. [gun firing] Their small mounted machine guns pointed directly at Miranda. She tried to angle her body so that the bone side would block some of the fire. But this, this is the end for her. Unless, unless

[00:13:14.564] Speaker 1: Ethan did something stupid. He looked down at the handlebars. No time to reload the shotgun. Then he released the handlebars and stood up on the seat of the motorcycle. [gun firing] Balancing, he drew the messenger and shot one of the drones cleanly out of the air. [gun firing] The other one began shooting at Miranda. Overclock. [machine clicking] Time slowed, creating a shocking feeling of vertigo. Ethan ignored the human weakness and let his accelerometers do the balancing. He watched a bullet sink into Miranda's body in gruesome slow

[00:13:49.044] Speaker 1: motion. Ethan's second mind flagged a new threat on his HUD with a yellow warning symbol. Oh, what now? A cockroach the size of a dog sailed in slow motion through the air. The human head on its back watched Ethan serenely as it flew, its mouth open in a little O shape. Disturbing as it was, it wasn't on a collision path with him. Release overclock. [machine clicking] The corpse nest collided with the drone,

[00:14:23.984] Speaker 1: taking it out of the air and shattering its frame against the wall. Then the creature, still living, because apparently even demons realized that cockroaches were unkillable, leapt toward the cloud of explosive drones. The simple machines covered it, then detonated, [explosion] taking out a large number of their own in the process. [motorcycles revving] Miranda's motorcycle swerved, then slowed. She fell from the bike at a still lethal speed, rolling and scraping against the ground. [tires screeching] Without even thinking, Ethan dismounted and ran to her. A

[00:14:58.724] Speaker 1: wide smear of blood ran from her mouth down her neck. She looked up at him with one annoyed eye.

[00:15:06.524] Speaker 3: Leave me.

[00:15:08.224] Speaker 1: No. Ethan got an arm under her and dragged her through a blown-out door into a building, moving in the direction the corpse nest had come from. He waited just inside the doorway. A gunner drone zipped in to follow them. Ethan snatched it out of the air and smashed it against the wall. [drone crashing] He pulled the gun from the broken device and handed it to Miranda, pointing at the simple firing mechanism. Here. She crawled toward the wall and leaned against it. Blood pattered the ground beneath her.

[00:15:40.844] Speaker 3: I still hate you.

[00:15:43.464] Speaker 1: Get in line. Miranda snorted a humorless laugh.

[00:15:47.844] Speaker 3: The others?

[00:15:49.084] Speaker 1: A series of explosions outside answered her question in the worst possible way. [explosions] The sound of motorcycles died abruptly.

[00:15:59.604] Speaker 3: Go. Take those bastards down at the source. My mom was New Hope. She killed my dad to get me and my brother out. That place broke her, holy man.

[00:16:12.264] Speaker 1: She met his eyes with her own. An old rage simmered there.

[00:16:18.704] Speaker 3: It needs breaking.

[00:16:21.624] Speaker 1: Ethan nodded once. No heroics this time. You gonna be all right?

[00:16:29.044] Speaker 3: I'll live. There's enough juice in me to heal.

[00:16:32.583] Speaker 1: Ethan searched for a way to the rooftop, and his eyes found the stairwell door. But he paused before leaving. I'm, uh, sorry about Eddie. There was a sharp intake of breath behind him.

[00:16:48.244] Speaker 3: Yeah, well, he was an asshole.

[00:16:52.464] Speaker 1: Still. Then he pushed open the stairwell door and took the stairs four at a time. He might have tried for five or six if his endoskeleton wasn't fractured. [footsteps thudding] The rooftop was a mess of mechanical debris and bleeding broken bodies. If anything remained of the drones, Ethan's sensors couldn't pick them up. A creature made of two dozen legs and half as many torsos stood before him. Its skin was a mix of

[00:17:27.344] Speaker 1: different tones, like a patchwork quilt of people. It lowered two oversized legs with a fleshy scoop at the end. A corpse nest crawled into the scoop, and the creature catapulted it into the air. [body crashing] It sailed over the rooftops and landed two streets over. A mouth opened on the large abomination from somewhere Ethan couldn't and did not want to see. The way is clear. Thank you.

[00:18:03.144] Speaker 1: Ethan looked at all the human bodies. A swarm of smaller corpse nests were already pulling them into piles. He watched as tiny squid-like things forced their way out of the cockroach creatures and into the body parts. Making them wriggle and twitch with new life. Ethan asked his second mind if it was certain it would not repress his memories. The many-legged abomination lowered on one side and then rose again. [body thudding] A

[00:18:38.148] Speaker 1: bow? The back holds. Ethan nodded sharply. Any idea where the entrance is? The mine is found tunnels. Too many metal people. Then the abomination bowed again. You may ride me. Uh. All right. Ethan put his one intact foot on one of the knees and hoisted

[00:19:13.108] Speaker 1: himself onto the creature's back. [body scuttling] Two sets of arms unfolded from sagging flaps and grasped him around the waist. A brief stab of terror hit him. Would it eat him? [creature grunting] But no, the hands held him firmly but gently in place as the abomination walked to the edge of the rooftop [body whooshing] and leapt the gap to the next building. [body thudding] Ethan bobbed around on top of it as it moved from building top to building top. [body whooshing] He closed his eyes and tried very hard to forget

[00:19:48.028] Speaker 1: about what was actually happening. [body whooshing] It was almost kind of fun. [gentle music] Kelly, Dr. Singer, and Ursula held hands, sitting in the corner of the dark room. Fran herself was

[00:20:22.948] Speaker 1: feeling the crease of the only door for irregularities of any kind. There had to be some way out of here. [door banging] Why? The thought shocked her. She was so used to there always being a solution. The chance that there was no solution, was no way out, that, that truly terrified her. She kicked the door and screamed. [Francesca screaming]

[00:20:53.048] Speaker 3: Francesca?

[00:20:54.408] Speaker 1: She screamed again. [Francesca screaming] Wordless fury. [Francesca panting] There was a scratching sound from the other side of the room. [claw scraping] All of them spun to face it. Apparently, there was another door. [claw scraping] And whatever was on the other side had claws. There was a low growl muffled by the steel door. [creature growling] Francesca slumped to the ground and cradled herself. [body scuffling] She felt the overwhelm coming, felt the panic rising. Trapped. Doomed. Helpless. Then Ursula spoke,

[00:21:29.428] Speaker 1: soft, smooth, and perfectly calm.

[00:21:32.928] Speaker 5: Why are you named Kelly John 4? I'm, I'm the fourth child of Kelly and John.

[00:21:40.968] Speaker 1: That little shred of information was enough to steer Fran away from the panic attack, a mind tugged away from the brink by the reins of curiosity.

[00:21:51.148] Speaker 3: Then what is your name?

[00:21:53.708] Speaker 5: We choose names after our fourth child.

[00:21:57.488] Speaker 1: Francesca narrowed her eyes.

[00:22:00.568] Speaker 3: That indexing system is terrible. [scoffs] Francesca.

[00:22:05.628] Speaker 1: Okay, so what were her existing kids named then? To be determined? Placeholder? Wait. Dots connected in her mind.

[00:22:18.728] Speaker 3: That robot was Kelly John 3.

[00:22:21.908] Speaker 1: She saw Kelly John 4's head tilt in the darkness.

[00:22:28.528] Speaker 5: What robot?

[00:22:31.508] Speaker 1: And then Francesca's panic attack began in earnest. The room spun and she held her knees, trying to shut the world out, trying to shut her thoughts out, trying and failing.

[00:22:46.228] Speaker 3: Not me. Not me. Not me. Not me. Not me. [upbeat music]

[00:23:09.488] Speaker 1: Ethan stepped off the elevator platform and dropped the remaining 15 feet into darkness. [body thudding] Then he sprung from the squat and switched to infrared. [electronic whirring] Remains of corpse nests littered the floor. A robotic foe, barely visible by the light of its warm torso and head, lunged for him. Ethan blew the legs off it with his shotgun arm, then kicked its head as it fell forward. [metal clanking] The robot's upper body flipped backwards and clattered against the wall. [body thudding] [laughs] He stepped farther into the tunnel,

[00:23:44.548] Speaker 1: choked with robotic enemies. Ethan battered one to the floor with the barrel of his right arm, spun, then kicked the other in the chest so hard that its limbs fell off. [metal clanking] He moved between them, tearing them apart like toys. [metal crunching] It felt good to destroy, to destroy mindless weapons with ease. [weapon firing] In the blink of an eye, he'd torn apart five robots. The remaining 22 he could see fell down. Fell down to one knee, heads bowed.

[00:24:19.848] Speaker 1: What the hell? A chorus of whispers ran through the kneeling robots The one he'd blown the legs off crawled toward him and placed a crude, rusting hand on Ethan's foot, stroking it reverently. He kicked the hand away. Attack me. The robots didn't move. Ethan pushed one over with his fireplace poker foot. It flailed helplessly on the floor, eventually spinning its

[00:24:54.600] Speaker 1: torso around and pushing itself back up into a kneeling position, head bowed. The battle rage slowly drained from him. His second mind replaced twenty-two red warning symbols with blinking question marks instead. Don't ask me. The robots were dressed in clothes. Some of the clothes were so torn and filthy that they were little more than yellow strips of cloth hanging from their metal bodies. There was a story behind that that Ethan really wanted to avoid.

[00:25:29.780] Speaker 1: He knew he should be glad that his enemies had surrendered, but a part of him longed for the simplicity of bad guys that didn't talk back, except to curse him before eating lead. Creatures he could destroy without remorse. Ethan disengaged combat mode and pinched the bridge of his nose. All right. What's your deal?

[00:25:58.080] Speaker 1: [rock music]

[00:26:52.780] Speaker 1: Miranda waited impatiently for her wounds to close. If she got up now, she'd bleed all over the place. Her superhuman healing wouldn't matter if she didn't have any blood left. It would be dark soon. Best to lay low until morning, lest she become a midnight snack for something that was a little more demon than she was. It was hard to believe that Dave, Rex, and the others were dead now. Eddie was dead. That stung. He was a

[00:27:27.640] Speaker 1: horrible person, but he was her brother. Something moved in the twilight. Miranda sat up, pointing the makeshift gun at the shadows at the far end of the room. A creature like a human starfish stepped out of the darkness. It switched easily between its two pairs of legs as it approached. One of the corpse walkers. Better than an uncontrolled demon, certainly, but not exactly good company. Miranda frowned. This one had not

[00:28:02.560] Speaker 1: removed the genitals from its source bodies. The creature sat down a few feet away from her. It reached one eerily long arm toward her. What? There was something shiny in its open hand. A, a can. The abomination bumped the can gently against her, insistent. She took it. It's beer? Miranda looked over

[00:28:37.500] Speaker 1: at the creature, trying to ignore the genitals. It pulled another can from somewhere unseen, popped the top, then tipped it over a hole in its torso. She looked down at the can in her own hand and shrugged. Cheers. [creature growling]