♪ I believe, I believe there's a reason ♪
♪ There's a breach in the hull ♪
♪ Started going under, loot and plunder ♪
♪ Cut em' down, cut em' down at the knees, yeah ♪
♪ Cut em' down to the bone ♪
♪ Just a lesser evil, born unequal ♪
♪ You show them where they belong ♪
♪ Tear through them, tear right through them all ♪
♪ We pretend in the darkness ♪
♪ We pretend the night won't steal our youth ♪
♪ Singing me the sweet songs of seduction ♪
♪ Let me be the fool, fool, fool ♪
♪ Who will live and die for you ♪
♪ We pretend in the darkness ♪
♪ We pretend the night won't steal our youth ♪
♪ Singing me the sweet songs of seduction ♪
♪ Let me be the fool, fool, fool ♪
♪ Who will live and die for you ♪
- All right, y'all.
It's a school day.
Let's go.
♪ I heard that girls like you were hard to find ♪
♪ I'm sure it's something that just takes some time from ♪
♪ Tearing out your heart that's beating like a drum, whoa ♪
♪ Your motivation's not that hard to see ♪
♪ I'm sure you find yourself real interesting ♪
♪From tearing out your heart ♪
♪ That's beating like a drum ♪
♪ From dancing to the tune of ♪
♪ I don't even know who you are ♪
♪ And you know you will get what you want by now ♪
♪ And you want it now, you want it ♪
♪ And you know you will get what you want somehow ♪
♪ And you will somehow, you will somehow ♪
- Whoa!
- Gather 'round.
Class is in session.
In the field, you must protect your brain at all costs.
We can repair any other damage,
but it's not as though I'm making back-up copies.
One mind's all you have, so be careful.
Uptime.
There's a limit to how long your mind can run
on a cyber brain before you must return to your body.
If your neural image changes too much,
it will be incompatible with how
you left your human nervous system.
You won't be able to download again.
Overclocking.
One of the many possible modifications
while running your digitized mind, but beware.
It simply consumes uptime faster.
Body suits.
Your bodies are immensely strategically valuable.
In addition to their gen:LOCK function,
the body suits serve as intelligent armor,
reading your nervous system's intent,
and granting enhanced strength and speed.
If you have to wear them all the time,
they may as well be useful.
There's an always-on private network
between all uploaded minds.
Think of it as telepathy.
It will even allow you to achieve gen:LOCK phase two,
where you can begin to share, well,
everything about your minds.
Aging out.
When the human brain reaches adulthood,
it stops regenerating neurotransmitters.
Gen:LOCK relies upon that ability in a younger mind,
hence you can age out of the program.
Take Leon here.
He was compatible, but is just a bit too old.
Hence there's too much risk for him to join the program.
♪ And you know you will get what you want by now ♪
♪ And you want it now ♪
♪ You want it ♪ - Whoo hoo!
♪ You know you will get what you want somehow ♪
♪ And you will somehow ♪
- So all this time I've been giving you space,
I was also working on like 50 different opening lines.
But then I realized all I really wanted to do was say, "Hey."
So, hey.
- Hey.
- Damn.
I didn't think about what I wanted to say after "hey".
So how do you think class is going, sensei-chan?
- Sensei-what?
- I don't know.
That's what Kazu calls you.
- Well, if your newbies don't get killed
on their first mission, we'll call it a pass.
- Oh come on.
They're not that bad.
- Cammie's got nerves around weapons.
Kazu charges in alone.
Valentina always hangs back.
They have raw talent as individuals,
but refuse to trust or communicate,
so they fail as a fire team.
They're going to get their asses handed back to them
in four-story-tall pieces.
- Ooh, that's cold. - It's how I see it.
It's how Leon and Jodie see it.
- Yeah, okay.
Are we ever gonna talk about Jodie?
- Not if I can help it.
- Miranda. - What?
Do you really want the details?
It was years, Chase.
Years getting over you.
Then years trying to finally get on with my life,
but betraying everything by even trying.
And now what am I supposed to do?
- Whoa. Hey, I don't know.
Miranda, yes.
This is my fault. - It isn't your...
- You did what you needed to do.
I don't blame you or anyone.
For what it's worth, it wasn't easy for me either.
Ma and Dri, gone.
Years of knowing you were out there,
but being told I couldn't reach out.
- When has that ever stopped you?
- It was because I'd be damned
if I reached out and then died on you twice.
Nobody knew if I was going to make it.
And I'm sorry, but I wasn't
going to put you through that again.
You've seen the state I'm in.
It's been a long road to make peace with that,
but I've made it.
I'm good.
I'm here now.
All I can do is keep moving forward,
and I'm not gonna watch another chance go by.
Do what you gotta do.
But if you ever wanted to try something again...
Well, you know where my tank is.
- I don't know.
I don't know what to think anymore,
but maybe.
Maybe you could try one of those opening lines next time.
- Wonder if they'll ever sort it.
- Where did you come from?
- Just mixing from my Holon.
Chase does it all the time.
Thought I'd give it a try.
What are you working on?
- Strider upkeep.
They've been pushing them hard to keep up with you guys.
- They're pushing us just as hard.
It doesn't help that I just cannae seem to get comfy in me Holon.
Something's off.
- Off how? - Hard to say.
There's just something about the way I'm wired.
I just wanna be lower.
It's like I'm having to run while wearing
the world's highest high heels.
And with the way this boxy armor throws me off,
it's like I'm always about to fall on me arse.
- Well, to fix that you'd have
to overhaul the endoskeleton itself.
I mean, you'd literally have to rip
those legs off and redo 'em.
Armor's easier.
Just lay out your new patterns, send it to the printers.
Boom, done.
- Wait, you can just do that? - Yeah, check it.
Vanguard designed your armor for the ESU.
'Course, now the Colonel's got my team
covering maintenance for you guys, too.
We use those printers right over there.
- I could mod my kit?
- Not without authorization and, uh,
not without this software that I'm sending you right now.
- Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!
- Don't mention it.
No but really, don't. Like,
you cannot tell anyone, okay?
But check this out.
See, Chase being all mopey lately gave me some ideas.
I've been working on something.
- Go on.
- He's just not right without these.
- I don't know if my legs have
been this tight my entire life.
- I'm just saying it's harder.
- The commissary sells it. - Nice!
- But not to you.
- I'm legal in Scotland.
If I order it with food.
- You're not in Scotland.
- I'm with you, preferably where there's dancing.
- You're out of luck.
We're not allowed off-base.
- What do they do for fun around here then?
The Ether, same as anywhere.
- You wanna game together?
Siege 2? - No!
- You'd rather be bored than hang out online?
- We spend all day, every day together.
This is our first time off.
You're the last people I want to see right now.
- But we're supposed to be working on team building, right?
So let's go game together or something,
improve the communication or some shite.
Come on!
♪ Years of compression ♪
♪ The years they come and go ♪
♪ It's all subjective ♪
♪ Worn boots and told you so's ♪
- Do I have to do everything?
♪ Sews despair in to diamond rings ♪
♪ Burning everything as far as the eyes can see ♪
- Kazu, do you really need to look tougher?
You have a hijab? In here, but not out there?
- Is it so unusual?
- No, not at all.
It's just weird seeing you with long hair.
- I think she looks lovely.
Did you used to wear it this way?
- Oh, you look smashing.
- I have to admit, it may be time to use Val again.
- No.
Well, yes.
I will now, but it's not role-playing.
- Kazu, do you not know, pal?
Oh, sorry, Val.
You should say it.
It's not my place.
- Nyet, it's perfectly fine.
My body is physically female at present,
but I'm starting to think, maybe soon, a change.
- Think genderfluid.
- You've shifted before? - A few times now.
- Sometimes, not now.
Perhaps again soon.
I sense the pressure coming on again
in a way I haven't in a long time.
- You'll never know.
- What is taking Chase so long?
Really?
You can make yourself look like anything you imagine,
and you go with a hoodie.
- What can I say?
I gotta be me.
Are we gaming or what?
- Aye.
We got several options you may fancy.
We could go sci-fi.
- Are you joking?
We do this all day long.
- Pirates?
Anyone wanna sail the high seas looking for booty?
Fantasy warriors.
Could go monster hunting.
Come on!
Somebody pick something.
- Uh, I have a sudden desire to hit the club.
- You dafties.
Yaz?
- I may retire.
Perhaps another time.
- You got me.
- I guess.
- Hey, what am I not g--
- What was that?
Has the Vanguard not paid its Ether bill?
- Interceptors, ready one and ready two.
Scramble.
Alert Teams Baker, Charlie, and gen:LOCK One.
Report to North Mech Hangar--
--for immediate load up.
- Oh hell.
- Come on!
It's showtime.
- We'll be dropping you in ten clicks north
of the Dallas Data Center.
- They're trying to bring down the Ether?
You can do that?
- It appears the Union is attacking one
of the main distribution nodes for the entire network.
- The area was evacuated when the attack began,
and since then, there's been too much interference
to get a good read on the Union forces.
We're not exactly sure what you're heading into.
- If it taps into the data center, aren't we fucked already?
- Cammie, we have got to work on your cursing.
- Why?
I curse pretty well already.
Fine.
Effed.
Aren't already effed?
- We're not sure. - Eh?
- This isn't our...
The Union's normal attack pattern.
- Exactly.
The Union are like an infection.
They creep.
They expand.
This data center is hundreds of miles from Union territory.
We've never seen them extend their reach
this far in one go since-- - New York.
- Their usual MO is to edge into the next area
and shove the Polity and its sympathizers out
with a minimum of collateral damage.
They want the infrastructure intact.
Maybe they've finally decided to cripple the Ether.
- Do you even listen?
- Insufficient uptime to cover
both travel and the mission itself.
- This is how you'll usually deploy.
We fly you in.
You upload, go take care of business, then you download
back into your human bodies, quickly as possible.
You fly home.
- At the risk of bringing our bodies closer to the action.
Can you tell how thrilled I am about that?
- Uhh, now.
- Get your arse out of my face.
- Prepare to drop.
We're coming in hot. - How hot?
- Let's jam!
Phew.
- All right, Yaz.
First area's clear.
- Turn on your camo.
We are moving up to Chase.
Ready to advance.
I'll cover.
Okay, go.
- Hey.
See that?
I'm shooting less friends.
- All right, grunts hang back.
Striders, move up and we'll keep up the...
- Kazu, we have got
to talk about collateral damage.
- All clear over here. - Okay.
Everyone head for the main building.
- This is really weird.
There should be more resistance.
- No life signs in the building.
Send in the clowns.
- Negative contact.
No life, no ordinance.
- Command? - Take it.
- You heard her.
Two by two, grunts. - Moving in.
- All right.
Striders secure inner perimeter.
Holons patrol the outfield.
- Do what now?
- Hang back, split up, and keep your eyes open.
- Hm?
Hey, look at me!
Still not shooting anybody I know.
Kazu, you get big?
- Who's in front of me?
Your camo's gone weird.
- Cammie, open fire.
- Oh, you want me to shoot each other now, is it?
Make up your-- - Cammie!
Shoot the damn gun!
- Chase, get her out of there.
- Do I just walk through?
Guys?
- Doc? - Do it.
- Cammie!
- Oh crap.
We got smoke.
Everybody seal up.
- What happened?
Are you all right?
- Cammie, listen to me.
I've opened a port to my optical sensors.
I'm sharing my eyes with you.
Cammie?
- I can see!
Me?
I've got no head!
- It worked!
Mindshare worked.
- Wait, you've never done this before?
Not with Chase?
- Anvil Command. Data Center secure.
Last bogie seems to have moved off.
- Re-establish the perimeter.
Breakers, get the data center operational again.
- Cammie's mind is still racing.
She's burning through her uptime.
- Secure Holons on the transports.
Gen:LOCK One, prepare for download.
- You got this? - Yeah, we're good.
Go take care of her.
- What the hell was that anyhow?