The story so far
One paragraph per episode, up to your “watched up to” point. Each links to the full episode page.
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 1: Welcome to the Spacin' Life, Buddy
In the Hecatoncheires Asteroid Cluster the freighter Red Hot fled the Roid Removers while Captain Jan de la Vega of the Lady Pike demanded the Borinyum Krystal, and Norman "The Skipper" Takamori refused. Between rounds each of the crew showed how they had come aboard: Norman had cashed out half his pension to buy the ship after his squadron was discontinued, Riva had been recruited by Sister Mildred into a Pleasure Putty scheme, and Sundry Sidney had been freed when a firing at Handy Andi unlocked her channels. Big Barry Syx had survived the Barry Battalion's fatal trip to Uncle Bob's Fantanimalland, Gunnie had been dismissed from the Bad Call after an uninsured accident and a 600,000-credit cyborg bill, and Margaret Encino had been working from home for UFTP when her friend Lucienne Rex's engagement and promotion were announced. In the fight the Roid Removers clamped the hull and a tractor beam closed in, but Gunnie began hand-calculating a jump while Riva, Sidney and Barry unclamped and shot down drones. When the shields failed for good the crew agreed to dump the crates, and Sidney's hologram plan let them keep one. The Lady Pike scooped up the rest and the Roid Removers left, and the surviving crate held only rotted imitation egg substitute that shot green goo up Norman's nose. 00:02:33–01:45:17
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 2: Rolling Up The Hill
The Skipper lay unconscious in his quarters while the crew argued over whether the fight had been a victory. Margaret learned of Gunnie's debt, Riva pitched Pleasure Putty, and Margaret paid 3,200 credits to be taken to Rubian V, "that planet with the revolution" 00:15:38, before a being from cryogenic slumber entered the Skipper's body, which woke, flailed, ran into walls and learned to open its eyes and mouth. Riva told the crew that something else controlled him, and on the bridge he asked to be called Skip and looked at the stars for the first time. The crew decided to leave the deception alone, and Margaret's call with Lucienne revealed the engagement to be a career move. At Madrugada Station Margaret met Higgs, who showed Sidney that she was the only unit of her line, and Riva sold Pleasure Putty and bought ten sandwiches. In the Drone's Throne bar the crew approached a proldier who called Captain de la Vega, Margaret traced Princeps Zortch and Madeline Maud to Rec 97, and after a brawl the crew fled for Rec 97 with the ship still damaged. 00:02:13–01:57:09
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 3: Wrecked on Rec 97
The Red Hot dropped out of faster-than-light speed at Recreation Station 97 and was sent to Level 7, the Vale of Tiers. Margaret moved into the captain's quarters and found Skip's unhinged paperwork, the dock mechanic Mona Medina was talked into repairing the ship for the 3,200 credits, and the crew chose the new name "We're The Wurst". Margaret restructured the ship into a co-owned business with Jib-Job workers, Skip signed the contract with a publicity photo, and the crew pooled credits for repairs and registration. At the Brigader's Bier Riva recruited a bachelorette party as Pleasure Putty salespeople, and Gunnie spotted Admiral Gust Weatherall, who bought Skip two double death commandos. Of three Smash 'n Grab jobs the crew picked the one at Blue Heaven level, where Hyacinth Khrome hired them for 25,000 credits to remove her rival's dog Aurora Nebbins from a dog show. The crew decided not to hurt the dog and went to the Obfusion Arms hotel, where Margaret's Charmer feat and a natural 20 won her the key card to Madeline Maud's room. 00:04:40–02:12:20
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 4: Every Day is Our Wurst Day
In the spa of the Obfusion Arms the crew talked about Warfare Whitney, and Gunnie and Barry left for the Emerald Comet House of Fortune while the others went after Madeline Maud's room. Sidney shocked the elevator, Skip held the stairs and Riva swam the ceiling aquarium, but when Margaret asked a cleaner to open the door hotel security burst out of the stairwell and Skip killed a blonde UFTP man with a Sneak Attack. Behind the door Margaret found a floating Princeps Zortch and a pulsating quasar, while at the casino Gunnie and Barry lost the guns and the 500 credits, and casino security flagged Gunnie's eye and passed his loans to the Repo Reapers. The wrecked room held an unconscious Zortch beside Gnosis, a holofract, and the crew wrapped Gnosis in a sheet, took Zortch out in a cart and escaped down the trash chute, while Gunnie and Barry evaded Agent Oscars of a private security firm by leaping from the tier edge. Zortch woke, said they belonged to the royal family of Rubian V, and explained to Margaret the Monarch, Gnosis and Lucienne's offer of safe passage. The next day the crew rode a freighter truck to Blue Heaven, where at the Carbine Kennel Club dog show Aurora Nebbins bit off the head of Myalor Nabthacks, and Sidney rode Aurora out while Skip took a jet pack; then the Pleasure Putty factory exploded, Skip became wanted for the murder of twelve sisters, and Rec Pols and brigaders converged. 00:03:51–02:59:35
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 5: All In the Hot Exit
At dock 69420 Pleasure Putty rained, Rec Pols and Amercadian Space Brigaders came to arrest Norman Takamori, and Gunnie's Flash blinded two Rec Pols so that their scooter crashed and killed them. Barry shoved a lieutenant off a second scooter, Skip flew with Zortch to the Freebooters Club, Sidney charged the brigaders on Aurora, and UFTP agents and Repo Reapers joined the fight. Zortch merged with Skip, who gained a d4, and Riva saw the Lady Pike docked at the next dock and cast Battle Precognition. Riva threw Gunnie's detached torso toward the ship, and Margaret saved her accounts, stocks and pension, 14,000 credits, from a UFTP freeze. Jan de la Vega arrived with Needles, Sidney was dropped by a hit, and three Warfare Whitneys descended in pink battle armor, but Riva threw Jan off the station. All ten Jib-Jobbers boarded on Aurora, Gunnie finished the tenth equation, and the Wurst jumped, after which Hyacinth Khrome's review raised the job total to 30,000 credits. 00:02:03–02:13:00
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 6: On the Run In the Martini Nebula
With the Brigade, Rec Pols, Repo Reapers, UFTP agents, Jan de la Vega and the Warfare Whitneys all after them, the crew celebrated on the bridge, and Margaret split the money seven ways at 3,450 each. Skip's memories opened to the Mentaphagian Dynasty, King Prilbus, Chamberlain Drablian and Seneschal Vrong, and he told the crew he was not Norman Takamori. Zortch cooked eggs and told how Lucienne persuaded them to bring the holofract to UFTP, and Barry said that the greatest villain in the galaxy, Barry Nyne, was after Zortch. The Wurst stopped at a spacer platform in the Martini Nebula, where Margaret could not restructure the Repo Reapers debt without a limb as collateral. When Gunnie booted Gnosis in the reactor, it overwhelmed SQ and sent a message in every language, showing the history of Bob Griivarr and the time capsule, finding Dr. Edwina Castor and Skip's file, and loading weapons programs until Gunnie pulled it out. Zortch said the basis of Gnosis was ancient Terran tech, the crew debated its lack of a moral compass, and they decided to land at Baustin in New Texas and turn the Wurst into a fortress. 00:02:40–02:09:40
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 7: Dying Tomorrow, It's a Pleasure
At the Baustin ship nursery the mechanic Lamelia Lefarve and her ten Chester robots greeted the Wurst, and the Jib-Jobbers left for the Skiff festival with 2,000-credit bonuses. The crew passed Gnosis off as a new gun, shopped at Plug Strutt's Butt-Ugly Stuff Hut for armor, boots and a heavy slug pistol, and bought Kublacaine at Swallop's, where Sheriff Warner Codge and his deputies were taking kickbacks. On Smash 'n Grab they accepted an anonymous 5,000-credit courier job and found Loose Duke handcuffed to a titanium briefcase in an old desert observatory. Loose Duke said the case held Kublacaine worth five figures a run to the Sheriff, and he and his two companions could not afford the signup fee for Riva's Pleasure Putty pitch. The crew delivered the case to Swallop's, where the Sheriff and a dozen deputies asked for a "Proldier's Operating License" with a fee of 5,000 credits. Skip put his foot on the Sheriff's head and everyone rolled initiative. 00:07:45–02:11:48
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 8: Wallops at Swallop's
Skip acted first and shot the Sheriff with his gun boot for 17 damage, then threw a krystal dagger for 48 more. Riva turned one of the Sheriff's lieutenants against him and Sidney threw grenades at deputies, while the Sheriff's cold cone put Riva's drone out of action and the deputies brought Barry down to 4 hit points. After the Sheriff teleported away twice, Margaret rang his phone, giving him away, and Skip burst through the glass and killed him with a laser to the throat. Sidney finished the last deputies, the crew slipped out with 6,000 credits and the briefcase, and Plug, who was still alive, took a bag of drugs up his nose and twinkled into light. Over two days the crew built Barry's Big Win Casino on the ship with the Chesters, Crunch Moon-Jones was talked into buying the Kublacaine for 75,000 credits, and on the casino's opening night Loose Duke vanished. On the last day of Skiff Fest, under Plug's hut, Plug stepped out of a chest and said he would always be with them, as Amercadian destroyers and Lone Star Directorate troop carriers arrived and initiative began. 00:03:15–02:07:33
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 9: Baustin Skiffy Limits
The Amercadian Space Brigade had come to Baustin for Norman Skip Takamori, and in a market at the edge of town Skip jet-packed over the crowd and shot a lieutenant while Sidney used Storming Shot. The crew took an old skiff, kept it out of the Brigaders' hands with Gunnie's oil slick and Riva's Psychic Confusion, and Skip's piloting left the pursuers stuck. A second Brigade skiff attacked and Barry and Sidney threw its soldiers off. At the Ship Nursery Lamelia charged 120 credits, and Loose Duke was not aboard. After take-off the Wurst was chased by an orbital laser and Brigade Tigers through a canyon, shooting several down, and Riva's Persuasion turned New Texan skiffers against the Brigade. Margaret tried the NavCom, Gunnie finished the AstroNav, and the Wurst jumped to faster-than-light. 00:03:54–01:52:43
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 10: It's a Griivarr World After All
In faster-than-light travel the crew searched for Loose Duke without success, repaired their gear, and Skip asked what the worst thing Norman had done to each of them was, but his attempt to remember only gave him a nosebleed. The Wurst came out at the Griivarr Worlds, forged a transponder, and docked at Ronnie Kwan's ship nursery for 100 credits while Gnosis stayed aboard with the Princeps. Margaret, Skip and the others went to Dr. Edwina Castor's apartment, where she opened the door drunk, and the crew carried her out and sobered her aboard the Wurst with pancakes. Edwina told how Sidney was made, how she escaped, and of Auma Liu's recording, the patent and the trademark. The next day at Uncle Bob's Fantanimalland Riva met Aguatunisian interns who went on strike, and a memory from a tank showed Barry Nyne killing a staff member. In a museum of Terran artifacts Margaret copied the ancient computer, and in the courtyard where the Barry clones had died the crew split up and a blaster pistol was pushed into Skip's back. 00:01:29–02:38:48
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 11: Flee From Fantanimalland
Chamberlain Drablian, holding the blaster, called Skip "Your majesty" 00:09:29 and said the Great Emhatchening must commence, and Skip's plea failed when Drablian shot him in the backside. Sidney's plasma grenade left a crater where Drablian had stood, and Skip and Sidney dropped down an elevator shaft. Margaret and Barry killed Hogg Cobb, Gunnie was attacked by gas-masked people at a maple-cake counter, and Riva drove Barry Nyne off the Wurst with Hallucination and Subtle Control. Margaret was gassed and Barry Syx was carried off by the Guernican Art Squad, while below ground Sidney traded the Servo Sam midcap with the Junkmother for a Bar Buddy and a data krystal. Gunnie flew the Wurst, Skip's slug failed to take over a gas-masked man, and Sidney carried the unconscious Norman into a warehouse where 40 gas-masked people held Barry. There Arcadia Prime explained the Anti-Causality Engine, and as the Wurst bore down to ram the building she pulled off her mask, revealing Natalia Cicero Connie Lee Carter Bajar. 00:08:36–02:04:21
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 12: Go Big or Go Home
The Wurst smashed through the roof and crushed the Anti-Causality Engine, and Arcadia Prime smiled that "the galaxy's become a little too predictable" 00:04:31. Skip jumped back into Norman's body, Barry leapt onto the hull and Skip, carrying Sidney, flew up to cling to the prow, and Riva pulled Arcadia Prime's transponder aboard before the ship escaped. On Neutral Zone Eight Zortch plugged Gnosis in, it built itself a body and wept over its origins, and it told the crew that its true body was in Rubian V and that they would always be hunted. Margaret reached Auma Liu and signed with U4F, Sidney handed Gnosis the midcap, and Gnosis planned to disperse itself from Rubian V. Skip let Gunnie look at his brain and remembered Gust Weatherall's champagne graduation and the fallout, after which he wanted to kill Gust. The crew signed a sponsorship with Acme-Ashmun and jumped to Lavada over Mas Vegas. 00:02:00–02:47:38
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 13: Battle of the Brands
Margaret negotiated the Acme-Ashmun paperwork and decoy ship, and the Wurst landed on Mas Vegas, with Gnosis hidden in the bathroom and Zortch and Raymond Zam guarding the ship. After a shopping spree and a pool where Sister Sadie Zeb and twelve Cosmic Veil nuns turned up alive, the crew went to the Kubla-Cola Gladiatorial Arena. In the Battle of the Brands they fought Brobbin and Smaggy, Brutus and the Plinth, and Skip shot the Plinth from a camera nest. Brutus's Venom Breath put Sidney and Aurora down, Barry fired his rotary cannon and Sidney's fragmentation hit destroyed the Plinth, and its psychic blast followed. Margaret snorted Kublacaine, Gunnie repaired Riva's drone, and Brutus breathed again, dropping Skip and Smaggy. Sidney caught Aurora Nebbins. 00:03:41–01:40:06
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 14: The House Always Wins
Barry grappled Brutus to the edge of the dais, but Brutus hung on, and the crew fell and were revived until Barry's second grapple carried Brutus over the edge. The Gunner Channel was announced as the new champions with a cardboard 1.2-million-credit check, and Acme-Ashmun's Cornelius Ashmun held the purse to buy down the Repo Reaper debt, with a 200,000-credit advance and signing bonuses. Dora Valentine greeted Gunnie with a message from Erwin, and Sister Sadie Zeb confessed to the borinyum scam and the faked deaths. The Wurst jumped for Onolo Dos while the casino cleared 15,000 credits, and Skip's Lore recalled the Great Emhatchening and the Great Egg. Zortch told of their psychic link to the planet, the crew told Zortch of the House of Frangus, and Skip spoke to Skipper in the bathroom mirror. At Onolo Dos Auma Liu was asked to meet at the ship, and Margaret and the crew were ambushed by 60 UFTP shock troopers, Barry Nyne and Lucienne Rex. 00:02:19–02:08:19
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 15: Face to Face
Lucienne greeted Margaret and announced an arrest as "selectively enforced trespassing" 00:09:52. Riva's natural 20 Insight showed that Lucienne and Barry Nyne were holograms, but Riva's drone was deactivated and their body was drugged in a glass bulb and carted away. The party was disarmed, dressed in lime green onesies and put in cells, where Lucienne told Margaret and Sidney the Natalia story and showed footage of Auma Liu. Barry Nyne, speaking as King Prilbus, called Skip his son and showed a vision of the Great Emhatchening, the Fang of Frangus and Zortch, and threatened to take Skip to Rubian V. Riva shared the vision with Gunnie, who read in Morse code that Gnosis had a plan; Lucienne told Margaret of the 20 billion hosts on Rubian V, and Margaret kissed her while Riva bought cookies from the Galactic Girl Guides. Handy Annie rode out under a tray, Skip ejected his slug body into her care, and Norman Takamori woke in the cell. 00:08:24–01:33:20
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 16: Jailbreak!
Skip's slug rode Handy Annie's hand through the TaleSpire prison block, took a sleeping guard called Slim with Body Thief, found the vault and pickpocketed the keycard. Through Riva and Gunnie, with Margaret's help, every cell block opened, and when the alarm sounded the party and freed prisoners fought the guards until Skip's slug returned to Norman Takamori's body. A Vercadian Protector droid, won over by Sidney, burned only the UFTP soldiers, and the party said farewell to the fellow prisoners and crept to the hangar. They reached the Wurst, fought in the hangar, where Sidney destroyed a Vercadian, and escaped with Gnosis, Zortch and the Girl Guides aboard. Plug's Butt-Ugly Stuff Hut docked in faster-than-light space, and the Wurst arrived over Rubian Five into a ring of fleets as initiative was called. 00:03:19–02:39:33
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 17: The Luckless, the Abandoned, and the Forsaked (Part 1)
At the Fang of Frangus the UFTP squadron and command ship, the Repo Reapers, the Warfare Whitneys, two Amercadian command ships and a Griivarr command ship closed in on the Wurst. Riva sensed the ambush, the crew calmed Zortch and set a ponytail rule against slug-controlled Barry Nyne, and hails came from Gust Weatherall, Damien Factor and others. Skip's Colonian Turn took the Wurst to long range, Margaret found one Amercadian command ship damaged, and the Wurst rammed and stunned a Warfare Whitney, after which the U4F fleet jumped in. Barry Nyne stunned Barry Syx aboard the Wurst, while Margaret's second Jib Job speech and confession video turned Griivarr against UFTP and Auma Liu's injunction deactivated the Warfare Whitneys. With a legal login from Dora Valentine, Margaret paid Gunnie's debt in full and the Repo Reapers retreated. "Zortch" stabbed Skip and moved to bring the Wurst aboard the UFTP command ship. 00:01:36–01:22:04
A Starstruck Odyssey, episode 18: The Luckless, the Abandoned, and the Forsaked (Part 2)
The Brigade Tigers surged, the Griivarr and UFTP command ships dueled and Uncle Bob appeared on every UFTP screen. Riva swam to the UFTP bridge and crippled it with a psychic repulse, Skip, locked in with "Zortch", sneak-attacked with a cryo cell blaster while King Prilbus dodged half the damage, and Barry Syx talked Barry Nyne round before Sidney's cryo grenades drove the slug out of Zortch. Gunnie and Gnosis made a micro faster-than-light jump to the Fang, Skip left Norman's body to chase his father's slug through the vents, and the boarding party took Plug's Stuff Hut to the Fang. Prilbus won their first psychic clash and Loose Duke, aboard all along, burst from a vent, but Skip beat Prilbus inside Loose Duke, sneezed him out and shot him dead, and on the Fang Zortch placed Gnosis and Sidney completed the link that ran the Great Emhatchening in reverse. Rubian V was refilled, Gnosis dispersed, debts were erased, 20 billion pilgrims woke and UFTP surrendered; Lucienne turned up in a closet aboard the Wurst, knocked out there since the prison break after talking to Prilbus in Barry Nyne's body about using the holofract, and found she had been fired; then the Wurst rammed and destroyed Gust Weatherall's command ship. That evening Loose Duke spat Skip's slug back into Norman's body and was tranquilized by Gunnie as he ran, the Skipper gave Gunnie his wings, Plug and Bambi were married, Riva left to go home, Zortch took over Riva's old comms job, and Margaret opened Smash 'n Grab. 00:03:29–03:07:23