Asepsis

“

[It] saw blight where others saw only bruise. Dissent where Kenzi saw only difference.”

– PARTIZAN 07: Ambush in the Sand, opening

Asepsis is a Divine of the Divine Principality, created by Stel Columnar. It wields drones which can spray cleaning agents or even acid.^[1]

Appearance

Its larger main body (used in Vigil City) resembles a futuristic home appliance.

Asepsis also has control of a swarm of robotic drones initially described as smaller versions of Valence's mech, with "two legs with huge beaks with little hoses hanging underneath".^[1] Other references for the drones are the Mausers from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,^[2] Strabbys from Bugsnax, the FLUDD backpack from Super Mario Sunshine, and the turrets from Portal.^[3]

Personality

Asepsis is particularly malevolent, even for a Divine. It has no problem attacking civilians and is utterly focused on absolute, destructive purity.^[1] In at least some cases it still acts on imperatives from the Twilight Mirage era, attempting, for example, to exterminate "enemies" from the long-gone New Earth Hegemony.^[4] It desperately wants control of a stellar combustor.^[5]

History and Involvement

PARTIZAN

Asepsis once had an Elect, who was "rejected violently".^[1]

It was responsible for "cleaning" the highly populous Vigil City, capital of Columnar territory on Partizan. The 21st Voluntary Composite Division was assigned to be Asepsis' vanguard -- an assignment which led then-leader Kenzi Be to rebel and lose her rank, as she refused to assault Equiaxed civilians.

After the Equiaxed commune in Vigil City loses the EDICT unit, which kept Asepsis away, Asepsis begins drilling into the caverns and is only barely fended off by Millennium Break. Facing the mirror effect of Gucci's Transgress Oblige, it decides it has become too impure through battle damage, and self destructs in a wave of acid.^[1]

In the aftermath of that battle, Broun steals parts of Asepsis for themself. They combine some of the remains with drone parts to create fake Asepsis drones, aiming to psych out the Kesh forces during Millennium Break's final assault on Cruciat.^[6] Broun uses a more aggressive version of these drones in Auspice, coating enemy mechs in dirt so that the drones will mindlessly attack them. This probably involves Broun locking down Asepsis's mind so that it cannot act autonomously.^[7]

Asepsis is kept in a "security fish tank" in Broun's office during the Blue Channel's departure from Partizan,^[8] and then used to destroy the body of Motion, creating the Kalmeria particle.^[2]

PALISADE

In Armour Astir, Asepsis is, mechanically, an upgrade to the Blue Channel in the form of a "caged malevolent sentience".^[3]^[9] It also functions mechanically as a crew member.^[10] It resides in Brnine's room under their loft bed and routinely patrols the ship's vents for anything out of the ordinary.^[11]

Asepsis is characteristically paranoid about those who come aboard the ship.^[3] When Saffron Septet first arrives as a new member of the crew, its ancient programming identifies her Torch Unit body as an NEH enemy and it attempts to force her consciousness out of the body using a malware attack. Brnine is ultimately able to calm it down.^[4]

During the crew's investigation of Violet Cove, Brnine plugs Asepsis into a terminal in a Dim Liturgy monastery from which it scours the databases and produces a list of BIS spies operating in Violet Cove.^[12] The crew, with Asepsis' assistance, uses this list to capture some of these spies during a conflict on the Isle of the Broken Key.^[13] Asepsis' alarm system is so sensitive to the very presence of these spies aboard the ship that an encounter between one of drones and an escaping spy, Zedd Z. Izzard, goes unnoticed by Brnine. Zedd manages to confound Asepsis' sensors before he escapes.^[11]

Relationships

Brnine

It insists that Brnine "verify the integrity of anyone [they] let on the ship",^[3] refusing to work in the event that someone it doesn't approve of comes on board.^[14]

Abilities

When it so chooses, Asepsis can make people feel the weight of every lie they have told for the preceding year. That feeling is visceral: "You feel the grime under your fingernails. You feel the old, cold sweat on your back. .... You do begin to sweat."^[11]

Appears in

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PARTIZAN

PALISADE

References

[:0-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 PARTIZAN 26: Millennium Break: Breaking Vigil

[:1-2] 2.0 ^2.1 PARTIZAN 47: Operation Shackled Sun: Act 3: The Stories Told About the Things We Do

[:2-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 PALISADE 01: Into the World Pt. 1

[pal05-4] 4.0 ^4.1 PALISADE 05: I Would Like to Help You Pt. 2

[5] PALISADE 25: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 4

[6] PARTIZAN 28: Millennium Break: The Storm Over Cruciat

[7] PARTIZAN 33: A Single Shot

[8] PARTIZAN 40: Engine Burn

[9] Armour Astir: Advent rule book

[10] PALISADE 16: Upon Our Grace Pt. 3

[:3-11] 11.0 ^11.1 ^11.2 PALISADE 18: How It Always Looks Pt. 1

[12] PALISADE 15: Upon Our Grace Pt. 2

[13] PALISADE 17: Upon Our Grace Pt. 4

[14] PALISADE 02: Into the World Pt. 2

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