PALISADE 32: Seize the Chance Pt. 3

Seize the Chance Pt. 3
Episode information
Episode	32
Release Date	Nov 10, 2023
Length	1:42:27
Content Warnings	State surveillance
Meta
Cast	Austin Walker Ali Acampora Andrew Lee Swan Janine Hawkins Sylvia Bullet Keith J. Carberry
Game	Armour Astir
Score	Nothing is Stationary
Episode guide
Previous	Seize the Chance Pt. 2
Previous	Seize the Chance Pt. 2
Next	Seize the Chance Pt. 4
Next	Seize the Chance Pt. 4
Previous Arc	Honesty and Integrity
Previous Arc	Honesty and Integrity
Next Arc	Weapons Ready
Next Arc	Weapons Ready
Links
Episode Page	friendsatthetable.net
Transcript	Google Docs

Episode description

The crew of the Blue Channel battles their way towards a train heading east. Inside one of its cars is the Diadem Grav Train control system, a device that could turn the tide of the war on Palisade and grant the Cause a major logistical advantage. But the members of Millennium Break aren’t the only ones in search of the so-called “train brain.” On the world of Palisade, chaos now rules. The question remains: Who will end up in control?

This week on PALISADE: Seize the Chance Pt. 3

And all through the dust / You feel that you must hear the strings of a dove

Dossier

People

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.
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.
Elle Evensong (she/they): Elle arrived to Palisade along with the first wave of Devotees, making a name for herself as a cunning combatant and clever commander. She became a poster child for Twilight Mirage's support of Palisade (and, for members of the Dim Liturgy, a prophesied bridge between the past and the future). But as the war began to heat up, she seemed to vanish into the background. In fact, they were working for the Divine, Arbitrage as a double agent. Cori blames them for the death of her father. Pilot of the Cataphract.

Factions

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

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

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

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.
BAC Hatchets: Appearing like fantastical knights made of tooth enamel, the Divine Consecration's latest machine of war, derived from parts recovered from the Divines Felicity and Souciance, buried inside of Chimera's Lantern. The Hatchets wield axes that sport long, weaponized chains running from the bottom of their hafts, and the materials used in their construciton make them sturdier than most front line units. The trio of Hatchets deployed by Stel Nideo to capture the "train brain" are piloted by three brothers: Calamedes, Caspin, and Caydor.
Saint: A series of mechs piloted by knights that served the original Crown of Glass, a major power on the pre-Divine Principality-era Twilight Mirage world of Quire.

Mysteries

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
Flash Nautilus: An alien creature who uses plasma-energy for propulsion. Compelled into service by Stel Nideo.

Additional Notes

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

Plot

A-Plot: Carmathen

Figure attempts to talk to the three Hatchet pilots: "Can we worry about the big laser beam instead of each other?" The Hatchets are unimpressed, and when they start spinning their chains, it briefly interferes with camouflage disguising the source of the plasma beams: the Flash Nautilus, a huge creature forced into service by Stel Nideo, which is flying above and keeping pace with the train.

Cori flies after the runaway train while Brnine, Thisbe, and Midnite load back onto the Blue Channel and follow. Cori pulls up near where Figure is holding onto the train's rear car and Figure warns her about the invisible plasma creature above them. Directing Figure inside to search for the train brain, Cori engages the Hatchets in combat.

A glider from Carmathen approaches the Blue Channel, holding four ancient Saint mechs from the Twilight Mirage. Hunting shoots the glider out of the sky. As the Blue Channel approaches the train, Thisbe and Midnite join the combat against the Hatchets. Elle arrives on the scene in the Cataphract, distracting Cori.

Figure cuts a hole in the roof of the train and jumps down inside it. He identifies the location of the train brain and radios that information up to Brnine. Outside, the Flash Nautilus de-cloaks and charges its plasma beam; Brnine successfully dodges its attack with the Blue Channel. Within the Diadem, shadows coalesce into the form of the the Kestral, a living Iconoclastic being that was once the wreckage of the Kestral White. It flies the flag of the Crown of Glass and wants the train brain. The Flash Nautilus slowly re-cloaks.

Cori and Elle bicker briefly over their comms and then Elle flies toward the front of the train, leaving Cori to deal with the two remaining Hatchets. Thisbe manages to knock the Flash Nautilus out of the sky, but as it falls, an overeager Cori attempts to attack it and is whacked out of the air by its tentacles. Elle taunts Cori as she falls, and Brnine flies the Blue Channel over and throws down a rope for Cori to catch. Figure climbs back out of the train, the Hatchets turn to attack him and Thisbe, and suddenly, all sound drops from the scene...except thunderous stomps followed by a cavernous roar. A whirlwind of dust covers everything and everyone and then coalesces into the Affliction Dust, stomping through the Diadem.

B-Plot: Baseline-C

Eclectic looks for a place from which to safely watch a disc that was in Connadine's attaché case, but he's interrupted by a drone of the Divine Resonance. Eclectic tries to convince it that he is where he's supposed to be, but he uses outdated security lingo from his time working in City City and Resonance tells him to stay where he is and floats away, clearly having begun tracking him.

Soon, Eclectic hears faint sounds of people sent by Resonance to collect him. He looks at the nearby Motion factory with his magic binocular eye and spots a side-door opening and an emerging carrier containing prototype Delegates of Motion.

Cast

• Austin Walker (GM)
• Ali Acampora (Kalvin Brnine)
• Andrew Lee Swan (Figure)
• Janine Hawkins (Thisbe)
• Sylvi Bullet (Coriolis Sunset)
• Keith J. Carberry (Eclectic Opposition)

Other Characters

• Calamedes, Caspin, and Caydor
• Flash Nautilus
• Midnite Matinee
• Four unnamed Saints
• Hunting Tomorrow
• Elle Evensong
• The Kestral
• Resonance
• Motion (offscreen, Delegates seen)
• Dust