COUNTER/Weight 28: A Special Kind of Warmth

From fattwiki
Revision as of 19:14, 7 November 2022 by 1smalldragon (talk | contribs)

Episode description

While Kingdom Come creeps through the dark, the Golden Branch explodes into violence and betrayal. In the peripheries of the sector, the Golden Branch Demarchy, the Hands of Grace, and the Rapid Evening seek to secure the power necessary to survive what's to come. On Counterweight, the Golden Branch's beating heart, Minerva Strategic attempts to undermine its rival, while Ibex's Righteous Vanguard makes its presence known. And in the shadow of September, an unseen threat sails on a sinister vector.

This week on COUNTER/Weight: "A Special Kind of Warmth"

Are you going to just stand still?

Opening

“

30 days ago, on Counterweight.

The room already smelled musty. The automated cleaner units Orth Godlove left behind did an admirable job of keeping the room free of biological contagions, but they did nothing to make it comfortable, let alone pleasing, to be in. But Ibex brings his own aroma wherever he goes, and within the first few steps of his arrival, the memory den took on a refreshing fragrance. The cleaner bots moved aside, lifting up their air scrubbers like trumpets announcing his arrival.

He puts a hand on the old hero’s head. It’s warm, that special kind of warm that means things could move in any direction if pushed just so. Ibex was familiar with that heat. He practiced controlling it, bringing it from balmy to boiling to bring down a state, cooling it from scorching to sapid to ruin an economy. If you wanted to move history, you had to first learn to be comfortable in that mercurial warmth. He glided from one station to another. The press of a button, the flip of a switch, and then a cord pulled from its socket. And there on the bed, Jace Rethal struggles, desperate to feel cool air.”

Plot

Recap

Austin starts going over the state of the factions after the last full faction turn and their reorganization. Faction goals are reviewed and updated:

Faction Turn Four

Grace and Vicuna move from Garden to Sigilia. They gain access to the book of secrets asset there, which allows them to reroll or force an enemy faction to reroll, like a time machine. A brief scene takes place where Grace and Vicuna agree to mobilize the resources on Sigilia, before Grace activates something within herself. The Hands of Grace also buy psychic assassin assets, who use a version of the Sigilia powers to adapt to negative outcomes with grace.

Minerva Strategic attempt a hostile takeover of Petrichor's resources on Counterweight, poaching their marketing team. The Steigers buy out and dump a lot of Petrichor stock; they also popularize an anti-algorithmic face covering that Minerva, of course, has a back door into.

The Rapid Evening launch a drop pod from Kesh to drill into Minerva XIIa, the manufacturing moon of Minerva XII, with a handful of super soldiers led by Kiva Helsing.

The cast decides that the Golden Demarchy's Demagogue on Gemm is Ariadne, the soldier who Sokrates refused to sell out in the Kingdom game. They roll incredibly high against the Hands of Grace thanks to their Machiavellian tag. Though the planet sends Fortitude's phalanx against Ariadne's demonstration as riot cops, Gerenuk and other members of the formation refuse to properly mobilize against them.

Dre realizes they can put Rigour on September. Rigour learned that strati are developed there from Natalya, and has decided to "shut that shit down". The Righteous Vanguard tries to use their planetary transport lockdown and psychic academy asset to stop Rigour, but both strategies fail. They're meant to fight modern Divines, not Rigour.

Augustus leads a diversionary force onto Kalliope so that the Yersinia can slip past Petrichor next turn. Diego is frustrated because Captain Hudson has taken on a mentorship role with Augustus.

Righteousness rallies the popular movement on Counterweight, completely obliterating the Hands of Grace's base on the planet. With this, the Hands of Grace are the weakest major faction in the Golden Branch. Austin decides this episode has been happening concurrently with the last episode; the speech that Ibex gave at the end of that episode was not before a coup but after it had already happened. The statue of Grace in Monument Square has been pulled down, leaving it as rubble at the feet of Peace.

Outro

Cast

Characters

Retrieved from "http://fatt.wiki/wiki/index.php?title=COUNTER/Weight_28:_A_Special_Kind_of_Warmth&oldid=31421"