PALISADE 31: Seize the Chance Pt. 2

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Episode description[edit | edit source]

In the city of Carmathen, the Fabreal Duchy has spread itself too thin. Look only at the entrance to the Diadem Grav Train’s control center: Once guarded by a full detachment of Stel Kesh’s most reliable soldiers. Now, guarded by little more than an honor guard. On a world like Palisade, in a war like this one, it may as well be an invitation. The question is only how many might decide to come calling.

This week on PALISADE: Seize the Chance Pt. 2

somewhere beneath the pale / moonlight, there is past /  under the same sky[Note 1]

Dossier[edit | edit source]

People[edit | edit source]

Partial Palisade (he/him): A man who was once a Divine, now living in the shell of a being quite unlike what he once was.
Connadine (he/him): Commander of the Bilateral Intelligence Service on Palisade. An expert in psychological operations and folklore. As a composer, his opus is the Adagio, a plan to get everyone on Palisade operating in ways not only predictable, but scripted. As a conductor, his orchestra now turns towards the second movement.
Midnite Matinee (she/her): Leporine scout and member of the Blue Channel. She and her trusty Pack-model light AutoHollow Popcorn used to run a repo company, but now are tentatively committed to the Cause and Millennium Break.
Gucci Garantine (she/her): A defector from Stel Kesh, who used the remaining wealth and power of House Brightline to help found Millennium Break. Currently a key member of the resistance efforts on Palisade, and a commander of Millenium Break forces there. Codename Watershed.

Factions[edit | edit source]

Bilateral Intercession: One of two factions vying for leadership of the Principality, comprised by Stels Kesh and Nideo, and lead by the so-called Peaceful Princept, Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh (he/him), who took control of the faction from the Curtain, a secretive intelligence organization with roots in Kesh’s ancient spy operations. The “Bilats” are a conservative and reactionary force, aiming to return the Principality to its roots both literally and figuratively. After a long campaign against the Pact of Free States, they managed to take control of Palisade.
The Bilateral Intelligence Service: Formerly called the Curtain, the BIS is a Kesh-operated organization which specializes in espionage, subterfuge, and surveillance. Recently removed from power on Palisade
Stel Kesh: The oldest established power in the galaxy, built around a stuffy (and secretive) aristocracy. They are tied to the Past. History, knowledge, stubbornness.
Stel Nideo: Created the largest faith in the empire, and used that influence to shape (and surveil) mass culture. They are tied to the Present. Faith, coercion, stability.
The Frontier Syndicate: A powerful conglomerate with a broad purview, including technology, heavy industry, entertainment, telecommunications, and transportation. Led by Exenceaster March (he/him), the Syndicate betrayed the Pact of Free States and joined the Bilats in order to be part of their colonization efforts on Palisade.
The Pact of Free States: One of the two factions vying for leadership of the Principality, a joint operation by Stels Columnar and Apostolos. Led in name by the Glorious Princept, Dahlia (they/them), but operated in day-to-day matters by members of the original Pact of Necessary Venture, including Rye (he/him) and Gallica (she/her). Though they are reformist in some ways, their primary goal is greater autonomy for each Stel, freedom from the legal restraints, taxes, and oversights demanded by the Principality, with additional deregulation to follow downstream.
Fabreal Duchy: When the Divine Principality left Palisade nearly 5,000 years ago, they left behind a Duke and his barons as caretakers. In the generations that followed, they ruled as petty tyrants, creating Delegates as their slaves, remaking their bodies into glass and oil, and extending their reach across Palisade’s continents. Though they officially report to their handlers in Stel Kesh, recently they have begun to wonder if things were better before the Principality's return to Palisade.

Places[edit | edit source]

Diadem Gravtrain: While the vast trench-city on Palisade's equator lays abandoned, Kesh has reactivated its railway via an operations center in the city of Carmathen.
The Paint Shop: Sitting atop the central peak of Steeple Catterick, this faux-commune was once the central HQ of the Bilateral HQ on Palisade. Now it has gone quiet.

Divines[edit | edit source]

The Divine Motion (she/her): One of the founding members of the Pact, the necromantic Apostolosian divine once led its infamous retinue, the Black Century, on Partizan. They were defeated and dispersed, turned into part of Kalmeria, during Operation Shackled Sun.
The Divine, Arbitrage (it/its): The amoral machine turned de facto treasurer keeps the Frontier Syndicate a step ahead in all matters of commerce. Sole minter of “glint,” a newly popular currency on Palisade.
The Divine Integrity (it/its): Sometimes appearing as an articulated staff or a metallic spine, Integrity integrates itself into its chosen user. Once the two are connected, Integrity becomes a powerful exoskeleton, and supports its user in matters of military and morale. Until being assassinated by Brnine, Dahlia, the Glorious Princept, was the elect of Integrity.
The Divine Resonance (it/its): The watchful guardian, doting caregiver, and ardent supporter of Nideo's colonial efforts on Palisade.
Asepsis (it/its): The final living remnants of a Divine who pursues its particular vision of purity at the cost of everything else. Kept, studied, and utilized by Captain Kalvin Brnine.

Objects[edit | edit source]

AdArm Bouquet: Designed by Stel Orion’s Adamant Arms and Artifice as an Altar-era update to the classic Troop design. It’s still boxy (if a little trimmer) and it retains it’s wide, rectangular “eye” on its head. Gone are the heavy grip claws, replaced with traditional, five-fingered hands, allowing it more complex manipulations, including the operations of its distinctive Roundless Rifle, which seems convert raw Perennial Wave into ammunition. Additionally, the shoulder mount has ditched the heavy cannon in exchange for a close range, pneumatic lance that can devastate even the strongest armor. Roundless rifles fire condensed Perennial Wave gathered from the atmosphere itself.
The Broken Spoke: The Figure’s bipedal and asymmetrical mech, The Broken Spoke is made of a matte crystaline material that has Russian Sage seemingly sprouting out between its joints. It has stout legs. Its right arm carries a glaive; its left "arm", or what would pass as such, is an oversized cannon with an attached shield. This oversized half of the mech is covered by a flowing cloak.

Mysteries[edit | edit source]

Perennial (she/her):  The Principality's so-called 'adversary,' who lives at the center of the galaxy and whose chaotic whims spread through her "Perennial Wave," an ever-present nanoparticle that has recently bonded with Kalmeria.
The Five Afflictions: A group of “monstrous” beings that haunt the dark corners of Palisade. They have been named as follows:
  • Dust a.k.a Pride’s Mirror a.k.a. The Looking Glass
  • Refrain a.k.a. Yesterday’s Reprise  a.k.a. The Ghastly Chorus
  • Ravel a.k.a. Labyrinth’s Thread a.k.a. The Hedge Maze
  • Cleave a.k.a. Whetstone’s Opposite a.k.a. The Sanguine Hatchet
  • Oversight a.k.a. Hell’s Facade a.k.a. The Empty Garden

Additional Notes[edit | edit source]

Delegates: In plain terms, Delegates are synthetic individuals created through a process of forcible extraction from a living Divine. Originated by the Fabreal Duchy, who were left behind to "attend to" Palisade by the Divine Principality around 5000 years ago, these Delgates were designed and used as slaves. Currently, a Delegate resistance group called Reunion operates out of the fortress Joyous Guard in the Caldera Stretch.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Plot[edit | edit source]

A-Plot: Carmathen[edit | edit source]

The air assault on the railway roundhouse continues. Matters are complicated by a series of mysterious plasma cannon blasts from below, which destroy a large portion of the building. A group of unclear affiliation is shooting the plasma cannon, but the Fabreal Duchy mech pilots think Millennium Break agents are responsible. One of the Fabreal Duchy pilots flees, and as the party lets him leave, Dre and Ali discuss their characters' new hooks:

  • Figure's new hook: "Using this new lease on life purely for violence would be a waste."
  • Brnine's new hook: "I'm living on borrowed time; keep up their fight."

The Blue Channel crew realizes that this other group is also trying to steal the train brain and is in the process of lowering it into a train with which they plan to escape. Figure jumps several hundred floors down into the inverted tower with their mech and lands on the rails behind the getaway train, which is now slowly beginning to move. They realize the group is an elite Stel Nideo squad that seems to be secretly stealing the train brain from their own people. Figure jumps onto the top of the train, hoping to run to the front and derail it, and manages to hold on as the train leaves the roundhouse, moving east down the Diadem.

As the rest of the crew sees the train leave and starts to chase it, a group of three BAC Hatchets breaks through the clowds from above, ready to attack.

B-Plot: Baseline-C[edit | edit source]

Connadine says an obvious code phrase. When Eclectic fails to respond, Connadine gets up to leave, but Eclectic busts out of his own stall and slams into Connadine, steals his attaché case, and sprints away with it. Connadine chases Eclectic through Baseline-C and tackles him, cracking his face plate and knocking the attaché case out of his grip. The case is jarred open enough to show that it contains key information about the Paint Shop.

Eclectic realizes from how Connadine is moving that Connadine could have caught and killed him already and chose not to; he actually wants Eclectic to take the attaché case. Eclectic deliberately lets Connadine get hold of the case again and follows him when he makes a break for it. He notices that Connadine is moving slowly, trying to make it easy for Eclectic to follow him.

Connadine stops when Eclectic tells him he wants to talk to him, and when Eclectic asks why he's giving over the attaché case, Connadine replies that he's done with the Paint Shop and leaving Palisade, which is about to (metaphorically) explode. Eclectic asks if he's talking about Motion, which intrigues Connadine. He denies that he's involved with the Motion factories, but says that if Eclectic is investigating Motion, then the contents of the attaché case will help him.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Other Characters[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Lyrics from the song All Under The Sky by Cathedral Bells. So far this is the only song whose lyrics appear in two different episode descriptions (see "Upon Our Grace Pt. 3").
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