"It's going to be a beautiful wedding." "Sorry I had to cuff you, Ambassador." "I want everything Headquarters has on Amanda Rosewater." "This is Connor Lang." "Where she was born, who her friends and family are, every man she's ever slept with, and what she's having for dinner tomorrow night." " Quentin!" " Shut up!" "If you really want to know what happened to your mother, come and see me." "I really need a doctor." "Get your gloves on!" "We've got ourselves a plague." " Stop!" " Good morning, Defiance." "This is Alak Tarr on Raider Radio, broadcasting from the top of the Arch." "Now, I've been asked to pass on some important information about the contagion." " Surgical masks!" " It is viral haemorrhagic fever." " Good for most diseases." " Commonly known as the Irath ﬂu." "Surgical masks, get them now." "There you are." "Humans and Irathients both carry the bug, but Irathients don't get sick." "So if you're human or Irathient, best thing you can do is stay indoors, stay calm, and avoid contact with others." "Now, this flu spreads through skin-to-skin contact, so while gloves are helpful, breathing masks are a waste of your money." "Surgical masks!" "So don't bother to spend your money on a..." "How about you?" "Surgical masks!" "Just try to remain calm and avoid all physical contact." "Now remember; if you're feeling like shtako, report to the triage tents on Bexar." "Oh, my God." "This is horrible." " How many?" " Six dead, 21 sick." "Somebody help him!" "He needs help!" "What can we do?" "Contain the bug, keep the sick comfortable, and hope a cure arrives." "Arrives from where?" "There was an outbreak in the Bay Area." "A former colleague, Eren Niden, spent months working on an antiviral." "If we are lucky, one of the independent outposts will relay the message to San Francisco." "Doctor." "Doctor, I'm losing her!" "Are you sweating?" "It's hot." "Rumour's been going around that a cure is on its way, special delivery thanks to the good people of San Francisco." "But in the meantime, let's groove to some Eine Kleine Plaguemusik." "Alak." "Are those E-Rep trucks?" "This is Gateway Arch." "I need to talk to the Mayor." "Hi." "Drinking buddies." "I really want to know." "Why is there an Earth Republic garrison camped outside my town?" "Well, this bug has migrated across the country in a matter of days." "I think they're trying to prevent it from heading east." "A bit late for that." "Our patient zero was travelling with an Irath caravan headed east." "He was intercepted and destroyed." "They're imposing a quarantine." "They're serious." "To prevent the spread of this contagion, they are more than happy to let every human in this town die, myself included." "And when we're all dead, they're gonna roll in here and they're gonna take this town over." "And the gulanite mines." "We could put together some weapons, some mining vehicles, probably bust through that barricade." "And what, risk spreading infection throughout the rest of North America?" "Look, Earth Republic may be a bunch of cold-hearted opportunists, but that doesn't mean they're wrong." "So what, you're saying there's no hope?" "Mayor, the town council's asking for you." "There's always hope, and it's our job to remind people." "Let's go." "Well, weren't you stupid letting that one get away?" " Yeah, I was." " Hmm." "She's wrong about the hope thing." "We're all gonna be dead very soon." "So, wanna get drunk?" "Nah, I'm on the clock." "Suit yourself." "Dirty I-raths!" "Leave and take your disease with you!" "Dirty I-raths!" "Back away, Haints!" "No!" "Go to your homes before you're infected." "We're immune to your disease." "Not if I bite you." "Rathus." "Little Wolf." "Nizar." "That hurt my hand." "You'll live." "How is Sukar?" "Still sleeping the deep sleep." "We came here for more of his medicine and supplies." "Now Earth Republic soldiers tell us we can't leave town." "The great sickness has come." "If it spreads," "I fear the humans will once again hunt and kill us." "Little Wolf, will you pray with us?" "It is my honour to pray with the family." "Sixteen people dead and what?" "Another 30 laid up in the tents?" "At the rate we're going, we're never going to survive the E-Rep quarantine." "The lawkeepers are keeping everyone inside to contain the spread." "Yeah, what about the Irathients?" "They are the carriers." " So are humans." " It's not the same thing." "It's time you humans understood the truth about the Irathient race." "They carry diseases like anyone else but rarely get sick themselves." " It's true." " That's not true." "Now, this has given them a reputation amongst other Votan races as unclean, as plague carriers." "This reputation may be rooted in bigotry, but it's also based in truth." "There is a reason the Irathients keep to themselves." "There is a reason that my people shun them." "Yeah, a good reason." "This town is better than that." "Irathient carriers walk around for weeks, infecting others, showing no symptoms." "That's how this bug gets spread, and it's gotta stop." "What are you suggesting?" "Confine the Iraths, confine the disease." "We put them down in the mines temporarily." "We've asked them to stay inside voluntarily." "You can't trust Iraths." "And when did a Spirit Rider ever take an order?" " Now Rafe has the right idea." " I agree." "Ozin, get your head out of Datak's ass and listen." "All of you." "Now, it took a long time to get the Spirit Riders to trust us." "We have peace." "Now, if we start imprisoning healthy Irathients because they might be carriers, we're gonna have an armed uprising to deal with on top of everything else." "Amanda, I have children." "Sending the Irathients to the mines, temporarily, would protect them against bigots." " It'd be a kindness, really." " Oh!" "We'd be keeping them safe." "Safe?" "Well, let's put it to a vote, shall we?" "There is a storm among our brothers" "Calm the wind and dry the rain" "Stand us up once again" "Stand us up once again" "Irisa." "Can I come up?" "So you're here to arrest us." "Well, it's more like sequestering." "All right, it's a quarantine." "We're not sick." "But you could be carrying the virus." "Irisa, don't look at me like that." "You know it's possible." "It's a hard time, and you have a duty to keep the peace." "I bet you didn't tell Nolan you were planning this." "No." "Did you really think I'd agree to let you lock me up?" "Lock them up like animals?" "I'd appreciate your cooperation." "I don't require it." "I'll slow them down." "Go around town, gather up our people and get them to safety." "My place is at your side!" "Rathus, get him out of here!" "Come on, brother." "She knows what she's doing." "Come on!" "Don't make this any harder on yourself." "I won't." "Hey!" "Hands off her!" "You get your hands off her." "Are you hurt?" " I'm fine." " Why don't you ask me, Nolan?" "Little dingbat pushed me off the damn roof." "You were supposed to let me tell Nolan before you did anything." "Yeah, well, I lost track of time." "You let her go, Rafe, or I start shooting people." "Yeah, well, you won't get far." "Nobody wants to hurt the kid, but I will if you don't put that damn cannon away." "Think about it, Nolan." "Every human in town is afraid of dying." "People are desperate." "If you're Irathient, the best place to be is out of sight." "Tell your father it's okay." "She's not a parrot." "Tell him." "He needs to hear it from you." "I don't like these odds." "Put up the gun." "I'm not gonna let you down." "Not again." "Put up the gun." "All right, let's move." "Nolan." "Are you crazy?" "My daughter is down a hole with a bunch of slaghead miners who think she's Typhoid Mary." "Look, I know it's hard." "I opposed the council on this, and I was overruled." "I have to accept it, which means you have to accept it." "Yeah?" "Well, Irisa and I have a rule, too." "Rule?" "What rule?" "We live or die together." "She'll be expecting me to come for her." "She's not." "Are you delusional?" " You're sweating." "Nolan..." " So what, all right?" "It's hot, and I'm under pressure." "You're sweating, too." " This is about Sukar." " What?" "Yeah, you feel guilty, she hasn't forgiven you, so you're gonna prove what a great dad you are by getting a lot of people killed." "Get out of my way, Amanda." "What, are you gonna shoot me, Nolan?" "Hate to interrupt a moment, but..." "It's a message recorded in San Francisco." "They received my distress beacon and dead-dropped antiviral meds using an old ICBM." "We have a cure?" "We have a cure." "Drink this tea." "It'll wake you up." "Why would I want to be awake?" "Because we're going on a little road trip, sweetheart." "The payload drop with the plague cure is sitting out in the Badlands, waiting for us to pick it up." "And you're gonna talk your bosses into letting us through that barricade." "Sho-hooch." " Mandy..." " No skin contact!" "Look, I'm fine." "I'm just dizzy, okay?" "Go." "Come on." "The lawkeepers are doing everything they can to control the situation." "If there's a problem, report it to the nearest deputy." "The town's medical staff has just informed me that the plague seems to progress in stages." "Stage one is coughing and sweating, which we've all heard about." "Stage two gets a lot more serious, and no one can predict how quickly it'll come on." "Ah, Quentin, love." "Hello." "Are you supposed to be smoking those?" "Oh, cancer is so slow." "Something far more interesting is bound to kill me first." "I hear plague is a popular way to go." "What is it?" "You wouldn't be here unless there was something on your mind." "At my house, you said you knew what really happened to my mom." "Oh, so I did." "So tell me." "You came empty-handed." "Ah, you wanted to test me." "You were feeling me out to, uh, be certain that my information was reliable." "So like your father." "If you know something, tell me." "Don't waste my time." "So much of it has been wasted already." "Breaks my heart." "Quentin, you've lost so many nights with your mother." "Don't you dare squander another one." "My mom is dead." "No." "That's the lie your father told you." "Bring me the object I am looking for..." "The object you killed Mr Birch to protect, and I will tell you exactly where to find Pilar." " Hey, hey." "Move." "Let's go." " In a straight line!" "This way, this way!" "I said, move it!" "Hey, move along." "Make room in the cage." "We've got more coming." "Keep moving." "Did they catch the others?" "We split up to confuse our pursuers." "I don't think they caught Nizar." "Good." "They're going to gas us." "What?" "No." "It's how the Castis killed us in the Great Diaspora." "Caves filled with chlorine gas." "Irzu's path is circular." "Nolan won't let that happen." "Nolan is one man." "You're making a mistake." "Mom's alive, Luke." "I'm gonna find out where she is." "Without that, you'll never see me again." "I figured." "Don't give it to her, Quentin." "Hello?" "My chest is on fire." "Dad, it really hurts." "Yeah, the medicine's coming." "You'll be fine, sweetie." "Rafe, Quentin, this is no place for healthy humans." "She needs us, FA-vi Tarr." "Where's Doc Yewll?" "My daughter's in pain here!" "We ran out of pain medicine hours ago." "Take this instead." "It's an old world opiate from my own cellar." "It should ease her pain for a while." "Is this on the level?" "Give it to her." "I wonder if I'll recognise her." "Who?" "Mom." "Don't talk like that." "You're gonna be okay." "The Mayor collapsed in her office!" "Her fever is spiking." "Clear the way." "She's gone stage two." "Get me some fluids." " You're sweating." " I'm fine." "Seriously, you look like shtako." "You wanna shut up?" "All right." "Amanda said you served." "101st." "Intel." "Yep, rear echelon." "But you guessed that already." "Can't say I blame you." "We can't all be heroes." "Well, Amanda must have seen something." " For a time." " How long?" "Three years." "Had a good run." "How'd it end?" "What's up with all these questions?" "I don't know." "Passes the time." "Makes for a pleasant drive." "You cheated on her." " Is that what you think?" " Am I wrong?" "You know, I don't really want to have this conversation." "Yeah, you cheated on her." "If you want to hook up with my ex, maybe you should ask her all this stuff." "I got her pregnant." "I was scared about bringing up a kid in the new world, but I was up for the challenge." "I'm from a big Irish family." "Sunday dinners every week." "It was exciting." "And I loved Amanda." "More than anything." "But she..." "I don't know." "She got scared or something." "She aborted the baby without telling me first." "You're right." "This is a really pleasant drive." "I'll talk to them." "We'll do it together." "Turn around, sir." "Return to Defiance, or I will shoot you." "Keep your hands where we can see them." "I need to speak to your commanding officer." "That's far enough, Ambassador." "Colonel Marsh." "Good to see you again." "Hello, Connor." "That's far enough, son." "Ambassador Tennety." "Connor Lang." "I've heard a lot about you." "Wish we could be meeting under less stressful circumstances." "Me, too." "Now turn around and go back to Defiance." "You're under quarantine." "We got a load of antivirals two klicks over that ridge, payload direct from San Francisco." "Well, how about we'll pick it up and we'll bring it to you?" "I don't trust you." "I can't let you past this barricade." "Your snipers have a three-klick range, right?" "We drive straight to the medicine." "We load the car." "We turn around." "We make any wrong turns, any wrong directions, you take us both out." "I'm sorry, but the stakes are too high, Connor." "We can't let this thing spread to the East Coast." "You people are still looking to build a strategic alliance with Defiance, right?" "You know we are." "No thanks to your Mayor." "You keep these people from their medicine, the survivors are gonna know about it." "They're gonna hold the Earth Republic responsible." "I'll make sure of that." "Now, I got a town of 6,000 souls in Defiance Valley, human souls." "If you do not let me provide them with their medicine, their deaths will be on your head." "All right, I have had it with this guy." "Sergeant." "Stand down!" "All right, go." "But you will be in our sights the entire time." "Thank you, sir." "I hate that bitch." "Okay, now you really look like shtako." "I'm fine." "Let's just get the meds." "Wait, just..." " Another bed." " Over here." "Here." "That's good." "Outside." "Gently." " Straight out." " Coming through." "Your husband's been on the council for six weeks." "He is Castithan and immune to the sickness." "Don't you think it's safer, in this time of crisis, for the town to have stability?" "Save your breath." "You may have talked Datak on to the council, but it ends here." "Rafe is the senior council member." "He'll serve as interim Mayor while I'm recovering." "I understand." "There is a storm among our brothers" "Hear us, Idanyu of the flame" "Hey!" "Keep it down, huh?" "The man said shut up!" "There is a storm among our brothers" "They're praying for you and the rest of the humans." "Well, we never asked for your Votan prayer." "Break it up!" "Now!" "Come on, Gail." "Leave them alone." "That's it." "I said that's it!" "Come on, Gail." "Back off!" "Back off!" "Move out of the way!" " Get back!" " Stay back!" "Back!" "Get outta here." "Relax, relax." "Come on, move!" "Move!" "Very well." "When your father came to Defiance, you and your brother were small boys." "Christie was just a baby." "Your mother, Pilar, was sick." "In the old world, the name for it was bipolar, but that's meaningless here." "When the world fell apart, they stopped making her medicine." "Your father was desperate." "Now, I was a quartermaster in the war and knew how to procure, well, challenging items." "With the help of Datak Tarr, we were able to keep poor, fragile Pilar on the straight and narrow with old world lithium." "All was well." "The McCawley family was happy." "Well, gradually, over time, and inevitably, the medicine stopped working." "Well, not surprising." "It was more than a decade old." "I don't need to tell you that in this world we live in, there's no place for the fragile." "Pilar got worse and worse, until the day when your father came down the stairs and found her buttering your breakfast toast with rat poison." "Your father would've shot her on the spot, but I intervened." "Oh, we were having an affair at the time." "I knew that the guilt of murdering the mother of his children would eat him alive and destroy any chance of happiness he and I might have had." "So our relationship did not survive, but against all odds," "Pilar did." "Where is she?" "Mendocino." "I'll draw you a map." "Oh, but first," "I'll need your key card." "You won't need it." "Not if you're heading west." "Doc's gonna have her staff waiting for us in the back of the fight tent." "Nolan, you need to pull over." "Why would I do that?" "Because you're about to keel over." "You need an injection right now." "No, people are dying." "I'm not stopping." "Unload the medicine." "We'll take them with us." "I never trusted you." "Yeah?" "Well, the feeling's mutual, pal." "You claim to be the father of an Irathient, yet you cage us like animals?" "I don't like it any better than you do, but people are dying." "We gotta get the cure to the tent." "It will be delivered when you hail the Mayor and free my people." "When my brother Rathus stands before me." "I got a better idea, okay?" "You release the cure, the Irathients go free, and then you and me, we go get a drink." "I don't drink with humans." "Go get a drink?" "Now that's a good idea." "I'm buying." "Hail the Mayor." "Take it all the way back." "Yep." "She's worse off than I am." "She can barely breathe." "Christie?" "Look, I know this isn't what we had in mind when we planned out our wedding." "But here." "Mr McCawley, I'm so sorry to bother you, but the lawkeeper's on the Mayor's hailer." "Rafe, please, let us take care of this." "You need to be with your daughter." "Mr McCawley, the Mayor was very specific that you are her appointed successor." "You little idiot." "Can't you see my daughter-in-law is sick?" "Leave our family in peace." "Hello, Nolan." "Where are you?" "Uh, Stahma, put Amanda on the line." "Mayor Rosewater has taken ill." "My husband is in charge now." "What's the status, Lawkeeper?" "Where is the medicine?" "In my possession." "I will destroy it if my demands are not met." "They want Rathus?" "Shtako." "That's not really gonna work." "Rathus is dead." "How in the three hells did that happen?" "The miner feared for her life." "Release the Irathients." "All of them." "Trust me." "Release the Irathients." "At once." "This... this man needs that medicine." "That's not my doing." "He's gonna die." "This is not just about me, Nizar." "They need to do what I ask!" "No, no, think about what you're doing." "So many people are gonna die." "Unwrap one packet and inject him!" "Why aren't they bringing Rathus?" "Who are you?" "Datak Tarr." "For simplicity's sake, you may call me Mayor." "I've come unarmed." "We've met your demands." "The Irathients have been released." "Where's my brother?" "There was an altercation at the mines." "Shots were fired." "Your brother is dead." "I blame the humans." "I've done a great deal of soul-searching on this matter, and I've come to realise that this planet is better off without them." "The disease, this pestilence, is a cleansing fire." "A gift from Ra-yet-so, Irzu, all the Votan Gods." "The first step in this great path, of course, is that we destroy this cure." "You're willing to wipe out every human in this town?" "I believe it was a human who coined the phrase..." "Survival of the fittest." "Please." "Murdering Haint!" "I want you to know your death." "I want you to beg for your life!" "Beg me!" "Please..." "Please..." "Know how you shame your liro... by begging for your life!" "You dare lay hands on me?" "Shtako!" "Shtako!" "You diseased animal!" "It's over." "Cut me loose." "I'm sorry you had to see that." "It doesn't fit my narrative." "Come on, Nolan." "Stop faking." "Just as well." "Explaining away two dead humans could prove awkward." "It's over." "I've got the cure." "Kiddo." "You're supposed to be resting." "Oh, I'll sleep when I'm dead." "You're an idiot." "I know." "The Irathient internment was a terrible tragedy." "We came through it together." "There were so many acts of bravery and kindness." "But I'd like to single out for you two people in particular." "Lawkeeper Nolan and Connor Lang, who braved the Badlands to bring the cure to us all." "Ambassador Lang will be missed." "I'd also like to thank Datak Tarr for stepping in while I was sick and rescuing our precious medicine." "This was a frightening time for us all." "The stakes were high, and we learnt a bit about ourselves." "I certainly did." "If you were to ask people in this town, they might say I'm a scoundrel, selfish." "I did not ask to lead you through this recent crisis." "I had no interest taking on that burden." "And quite frankly, I wished to be left alone." "But my lovely wife wouldn't hear of it." "She taught me that I could not ignore the pain" "I saw in the eyes of my fellow townspeople." "My wife helped me understand community, that there is no greater honour than service." "No, there's not." "Thank you, Datak." "There is no greater honour than giving back..." " Why is my mic off?" " ...to the people of this town." "And it is for this reason that I am renouncing my former ways and throwing my hat into the ring as candidate for Mayor of Defiance." "Amanda, I do hope this town is big enough to withstand a little healthy competition." "Of course, Datak." "I look forward to the challenge." "It'll be fun." "I feel this town deserves leadership that's sympathetic to the needs of our Votan population." "Never again will we tolerate the incarceration of our Irathient brothers and sisters." "These things will kill you." "And far more efficiently than a poorly planned Volge attack." "That was Birch's idea." "Mmm-hmm." "And was triggering a radiation leak in Old St Louis also Birch?" "Mistakes were made." "You two are reckless and stupid." "You always have been." "That's why I stopped working with you." "He's dead, you know." "Birch." "Hmm." "I guess that makes you and me the last two left in the old gang." "Oh, come back and work with me." "I can't do this alone." "I'm pretty certain I'm being watched." "Sorry." "I'm not interested." "You sure about that?" "I finally got my hands on one of the Kolavan." "Which one?" "The golden knot." "Where is it?" "Nicolette, destroy it immediately." "You know I can't do that." "You're crazy." "You know that?" "Come be crazy with me." "Together, we can reshape this planet." "Reshape or destroy?" "You can't create without destroying." "I thought you would have figured that out by now, Doctor."