Episode description[edit | edit source]
Welcome back to the Road to PARTIZAN. Today, we’re moving into a new trio of episodes that explore an era of history that would come to be called the Divine Clash. For over a century, the ever-growing Divine Principality would throw its might against the allied forces of the Orion Combine and the Divine Collaborate, the distant successor states of two major nations featured in our COUNTER/Weight season.
Next week and the week following, we’ll see the climax of the Divine Clash via Austin Ramsay’s Beam Saber. But first, we offer a pair of vignette one-shots via two games that were made for the Emotional Mecha Game Jam (which was organized by John R. Harness and Takuma Okada).
First, in Role Over Play Dead’s Ech0, we travel through the wreckage the war left behind, as children born over a generation after the war’s end try to reunite the memory core of a long dead pilot with her machine. Then, in Riley Rethal’s Dusk to Midnight, we define the early days of the Clash, and follow the careers (and the wavering resolve) of four of the pilots who would help to decide its outcome.
A couple of extra notes: First of, because one of the player’s files was totally corrupted, much of this episode had to be rebuilt via a backup recording. That means that there are a few times where you can hear breathing sounds heavier than normal. There are also moments where background noise is a bit more prevalent, and it was pretty impossible to untangle some crosstalk (especially since we were playing as children especially prone to crosstalk in Ech0).
You’ll might also notice that I say a few times up top that we want to play three of these vignettes. Due to time concerns, we couldn’t make that happen, but for the record, the final vignette I’d planned was EPITAPH by Dante Douglas, which is metal as hell and rules. You should check it out.
Finally, because Ech0 is such a visual experience, I’ve included a screenshot of the map we drew below. You can find close ups of all of our sketches at the Mapmaker tier over on our Patreon (with a quick caveat that we’re currently catching up on much of our Patreon stuff, and we’ve been prioritizing new shows up rather than supporting material, but it’s coming soon, I promise!)
This week on the Road to PARTIZAN: Ech0 & Dusk to Midnight
////PARTIZAN PALACE DATE ENTRY | 1418 P.M. 05 22\\\\
. . .
///OPERATION: CHOOSE SECTION: CRIME AND DEVIANCE && OPERATION: DISPLAY TOP ARTICLE\\\
. . .
//VERGLAZ UNIVERSITY ARCHAEOLOGY ANNALS RAIDED, HOUSE LESON INVESTIGATORS POINT TO HERETICAL GROUP\\
. . .
/OPERATION: IDENTIFY KEY SUBJECTS: SUBJECT (ROLE | EVALUATION)\
ELET VALERA (VICTIM, SCHOLAR | TRUSTED)
CARBIDE LESON (CHIEF INVESTIGATOR | TRUSTED)
SLOE UPLIGHT (WITNESS, EXPERT IN FIELD | SUSPECT)
“THE FRIENDS OF GUR SEVRAQ[notes 1]” (████████ , ██████████ | ANATHEMA, SEEK ACCESS APPROVAL FOR FURTHER INFORMATION)
Contents[edit | edit source]
Opening[edit | edit source]
“
This is a message to you, who listens. You must trust me, because we are friends -- you just don't know it yet. The Divine Principality offers you progress, but imperial futures are only ever stolen presents. I offer you more: I offer you actualization.
My name is Gur Sevraq, and I have stolen the future.
With this Divine, I can finally answer an eternal question, asked eternally: Are we caught in a cycle? Is there more to us than there appears, or is there only this, our pathetic greed and violence, ever recurring.
We believe we have mastered history, learned to draw its shapes in beautiful arcs of our own design. We have spent eons changing our bodies, our minds, our culture. We made flesh into hard metal so long ago that the return to soft tissue became novel. We flattened the apparent heights of our hierarchies, we twisted time to our ends, we colored our skins into skies, turned skies into seas, made sea solid and thinking.
But from the wide perspective of the Future, each of these changes was superficial, a decoration on the line of history. Whether crystalline or chrome, towering or dispersed, whether drawn in gunpowder black or the blues of heaven: We only ever sketch one shape: The shape of Empire.
And God has whispered to me: Learn another, before I erase this one.
I am Gur Sevraq, and I have stolen the future. Walk the prophet’s path with me, or suffer God’s attention.”
Plot[edit | edit source]
Both games take place after the Orion Conglomerate has fractured into warring mega-corporations and the Automated Diaspora has become more distant from itself. They become the Orion Combine and the Divine Collaborate respectively.
Ech0[edit | edit source]
Tarpon Gitch, Calamity Tranquil, and Keaton Jerf are in the outskirts of their town. Tarpon is winning (or cheating) in a game of hide and seek when Keaton finds the Ech0 drive. They activate it, creating a projection of Mechanized Artillery Marianne Perfect. Marianne introduces herself to the kids and asks them to reunite her with her mech.
After a long series of shenanigans, the kids eventually search for it. They travel across town, showing her the shells of mechs from the war 300 years prior. Marianne recalls each one, piecing together how she would kill hundreds of their pilots before they crashed her ship onto the planet. The kids don't grasp the weight of the story, but try to be helpful in their own way. Before being led to the next mech, Tarpon asks Marianne to describe what hers looked like. It turns she wasn't allowed to know what the outside looked like, so that she could better attune herself to the unit sensors.
The last mech is buried next to a geyser, with only its head and shoulders above the ground. She feels a kinship with the area, and is reminded that she was sent to attack something deep within the earth, possibly disrupting the town's water supply. Brought back to her cockpit, she starts to fade. The children try to comfort her, telling her stories about her cats. Marianne tells them they were brave soldiers, and they all say goodnight.
Dusk to Midnight[edit | edit source]
The game starts mid-mission, with David Talk, Smack Talk, Memphis Longhand, and Lunar Leson protecting the Divine Courageous in a transport mission. They are pilots for OriCom, planning to open a gate to allow more Divines from the Diaspora to join them. However, they're intercepted by the Principality, who brings in the Divine Courage, confusing their team when the scanners pick up the similar name. They're able to open the portal to allow more Divines in, but Courageous is destroyed in the process. In the aftermath, Smack gives a speech on behalf of Yes! Power, but finds it difficult to defend their mistake on the battlefield.
After the speech, Memphis tries to cheer him up while David and Lunar work on improving the HXE-44. Lunar also takes the time to improve how she reads her scanners, but grows frustrated. Once the Divines from the gate are redeployed, the Principality uses the opening to set up a mobile gun platform. The team goes to take it out, with Smack and Memphis leading the charge. While they don't win much ground, Smack kills the pilot, releasing his anger. Afterwards, Memphis creates his own propaganda commercial, but it falls flat in its message. David ends the round finally learning how to work around his terrible mech.
At the end, Lunar is attacked by Courage, leaving a cliffhanger for the next episode.
Cast[edit | edit source]
- Austin Walker (Keaton Jerf, and Lunar Leson)
- Jack de Quidt (Marianne Perfect, and Smack Talk)
- Art Martinez-Tebble (Calamity Tranquil, and Memphis Longhand)
- Keith J Carberry (Tarpon Gitch, and David Talk)
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ The name Gur Sevraq is 'The Friend', passed through the ROT13 Cipher