The provided text offers extensive excerpts from "The Terminal State" by Jeff Somers, a work of cyberpunk/dystopian science fiction, as well as an unrelated short story titled "Jerry" by Terry DeHart appended at the end. The main source, "The Terminal State," details a future world gripped by civil war between the System Police (SSf/System Pigs), many of whom are now robotic "avatars," and the SFNA army, featuring a sardonic protagonist named Avery Cates, who is forced into service with military augments and is caught in a deadly mission involving old rivals and advanced technology. Cates, accompanied by a crew including the secretive Mara and the Gunner Adrian (the Poet), is navigating a crumbling world and an urban conflict in Hong Kong to locate a dangerous "God Augment" technology. In contrast, the story "Jerry" is a brief, post-apocalyptic narrative focusing on a man leading his family through the Sierra Nevada mountains following a catastrophic event that caused widespread electrical failure, where they witness a brutal ambush and must prioritize survival against opportunistic killers.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.