Episode description[edit | edit source]
Fifteen years ago, soon after the Golden War ended, Grace issued her ex cathedra prognosis:
With Apostolos defeated (and ‘integration’ well in process) and peace firmly in place with the Orion Conglomerate, the Diaspora had finally brought into being the end of history as such. Certainly, there was still difference in how OriCon and the Diaspora operated, but the writing was on the wall: The Diaspora’s method of mechanized democracy was the final, universal form of governance that all true civilizations would eventually arrive at. OriCon would be the next to prove it: After all, each and every day those oligarchs put more and more faith in automation, deferred again and again to procedural logic. It was only a matter of time before they elected their own divines, even if they went by other names.
Certainly, Grace explained, there’d be more disputes over territory and resources, and yes, of course there would be new inventions and technological progress. But in the long run, the state of things had settled. The Golden Branch had, against all odds, ushered in the final era: post-history.
This week on COUNTER/Weight: A Splintered Branch, A Ringing Bell Pt. 2
What's worse, saying hello or saying goodbye?
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
Eighty thousand years before the September Incident.
Doctor Irene Klipsch-Dove had read once that, in the old days, long before Rigour, priests would sometimes sit with their parishioners, listen to them confess their wrongdoings and then issue a sort of reparatory sentence. Go say this many prayers, donate this much time to charity. Spend some time in deep thought about your human frailty. There weren’t many priests anymore, so Irene had taken the matter of repentance into her own hands.
First, she’d moved to the far frontier. The planet where her awful creation made its current home. She’d have to be close enough to strike when it was time. Next, she’d forged activation orders for a couple of labor drones and moved them to a distant plateau, where they would dig out the basic shape of a research lab and engineering hangar.
Then she did the closest thing she could to pray.
She’d modified the old—her old—Liberty and Discovery navigation systems from one of the drones. She took what she’d learned from her failings, from Rigour, and put it to work here. The two would be inseparable, she planned. Each a check to the other. Liberty’s desire for free blue skies and new horizons would keep Discovery from becoming myopic, and Discovery’s agenda to learn and uncover would ground Liberty, keep it from fleeing when things turned. Eventually, she planned, Liberty and Discovery would lead someone back to her, and whoever came would need a weapon.
So she began her final act of penance. There was a dark humor for her when she realized it. The names Liberty, Discovery, Rigour, they were marketing terms. There was nothing truly free about Liberty, for instance. It was just another machine, but with certain biases and protocols. But when she looked at her new weapon, at this new being she’d built, she could feel it resonating with her own righteousness, and she could not be sure, not even once it was all over, if that was a trick of the machine or something real.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
Orth spreads the word of the crisis during R&R at a favorite bar, but a corporate enemy ends up buying the bar and demolishing it just to stick it to Orth.
Grace launches a raid into Demarchy territory which ends up destroying an old Diasporan monument. Kobus chews out her and Vicuna for this and her other recent recklessness.
With relations with the Vanguard deteriorating, Jill runs extra training drills with the Free State military. They are interrupted by an Oricon squad which has broken through the blockade and a skirmish ensues, with Jill victorious.
Cass hosts Maxine Ming on his family estates. They talk about their experience with Rigour. Other elements in the Demarchy view this as a potentially important political marriage, but that isn’t Cass’ intention.
Mako has dinner with Orth. He can’t convince Orth to not use Rigour own tech against it, but he does hand over the orb of Zeal to Orth. Zeal’s influence on Orth’s mind helps convince him that they can work together despite their different strategies. Zeal becomes Ambition. They stay up late into the night planning. This causes Orth to miss an appointment with Aria, and while she’s waiting in the lobby Paisley Moon shows up. He immediately attacks Aria, and a sword duel ensues. Paisley is mostly mindless zombie at this point, and Aria decides that it would be a mercy to kill him and does so. Aria realizes Paisley was sent by the Steiger to assassinate her and Orth.
A distraught Ibex sends a message to the player characters to meet at a point in space. When they arrive they see Liberty piloting Detachment’s body, both of which should be still sealed with Rigour. Liberty neutralizes Ibex’s rigger, then suddenly Rigour appears with a new, smaller physical form. Rigour, piloted by a Maryland clone, reaches and kills Ibex. It seems Liberty was driven to escape Rigour’s prison but let Rigour out in the process.
Rigour engages the player characters in battle. Kobus manages to capture the fleeing Liberty but it causes Liberty to try to take over Kobus’ rigger. Orth and the Kingdom Come fall through the door to the prison. While there Orth is able to swing down to the surface of September and pick up AuDy/Discovery. He also sees that Rigour and Voice have allied and found complementary uses for their powers. The main body of Rigour seems to still be staying on September. The player characters manage to all escape.
Orth and Kobus meet on Counterweight to discuss Grace’s role in the defense against Rigour. Kobus believes they must figure out why Grace is behaving erratically before committing resources to an external threat. Orth argues there isn’t time. The sense afterwards is that the people of the Diaspora favor focusing on Rigour. Kobus decides he should upload the captive Liberty into Grace.
Cass wants to strategize with all the former members of the chime. He hosts a banquet dinner in which they will all receive medals of valor in order to gather them. They talk to AuDy about what happened on September while it was imprisoned. AuDy’s warnings of apocalypse are not taken seriously by most of the Demarchy diplomats. Laser Ted opens up emotionally. AuDy warns Aria about the potential danger of Righteousness and why Discovery doesn’t have candidates. The Chime get their medals, and Cass departs with Sokrates.