PARTIZAN 39: Escape Velocity

Episode Description

In a hanger on a beach on the Isles of Logos, Kal’Mera Broun, Jesset City, Ver’Million Blue, Thisbe, Eiden Teak, Avar, Ryrira, and Si’Dra Balos stand around a spaceship. In just over a week, if all goes to plan, they will be inside of it and it will be outside of the Partizan system.

First, though, they’ll need to secure a launch platform, get past security checkpoints on and off world, and ensure the safety of not only themselves but the materials they’ll need to actually build something wherever they end up. If, that is, they decide they want to build anything together at all...

This week on PARTIZAN: Escape Velocity

///Operation Dossier\\\

//Organizations\\

Organization for the Foundation of the Orion Republic (OFOR):A group of growing import in Orion territory, who advocate for Orion’s secession from the Divine Principality and re-establishment as a league of democratic, merchant republics. Both OFOR and their opposition, the yet-unnamed Principality loyalist faction, have support across class demographics. Many corporations and independent guilds see OFOR as an opportunity for additional profit, while others believe that leaving the Principality is a risk too great to take.

After Law’s attack on Oxbridge, OFOR has largely relocated in “The Old Old,” a region towards the southern pole of Partizan untouched by Logos Kantel’s miracle.

//People\\


Avar (they/them) and Ryrira (she/her): Members of the Church of the Resin heart. Once Gur Sevraq’s chief of security and quartermaster, respectively. Have a child, M'reb. Onboard the Blue Channel.
Si’dra Balos (Si/Si’s, they/them): During their time in a communications division of the Apostolosian Navy, Si’dra saw the cost of war first hand. Now they dream of a world where people can connect instead of fight. Onboard the Blue Channel.
Jesset City (he/him): Previously worked for Adamant Arms and Manufacturing, Jesset became full time Oxblood Clan lieutenant and then a major figure in Millennium Break. Expert technician, veteran hollow pilot, and Cipher Certified by Stel Nideo. Onboard the Blue Channel.
Eiden Teak (he/him): Soldier and commander in the Sable Court. Wears the wounds of past fights on him with a distinct sort of pride, inherited from his time fighting as an Apostolosian soldier: He’s missing right leg under the knee, and a number of his antlers have been snapped and broken. Wears loose olive drab fatigues, marked by the occult insignia and wards of the Court. Onboard the Blue Channel.
Fi'nilo Nicol (they/them): Chief Investigator of the Barranca Loop. Expert at uncovering contraband shipments trying to slip through Apostolos’ launch platform.

//Places\\

Barranca: To the north of Obelle lies the Apostolosian province of Barranca, where mediterranian subtropical shores give way to a vast latticework of ravines and crags. There, military bases and civilian settlements sit in the crooks and alcoves, shaded by high canyon walls. Rising above it all is the famed Barranca Loop, a massive suspended cable system that runs up above the atmosphere like a giant bridge, and which allows Apostolos to launch ships and cargo into space. Heavily patrolled and under complete control of Stel Apostolos.

//Divines\\


The Divine Motion (she/her): Long after enemy fuel tanks run empty, Motion continues to power Apostolosian machines of war (like its infamous retinue, the Black Century) and service (including the massive Barranca Loop that allows Apostolos to regularly launch ships spaceward). Ver’MIllion Blue’s rival.

//Things\\


The Blue Channel: Kal’Mera’s Broun’s corvette. Though it’s rated for spaceflight and features a cargo space large enough to hold at least three hollows, it does not have the ability to break escape velocity on its own.
The Voice of the Exemplar: Howls and echoes through the canyons of the Barranca, where its power is captured by the Barranca Loop.
Modular Base Kit: A collection of materials for the modular construction of an off-world headquarters for Millennium Break. Includes housing, water and air filters, an energy generator, communications equipment, agricultural gear, and basic trade goods (whether to be used as bribes or for the legitimate purchase of land).

//Additional Notes\\

Primary Objective: Escape Partizan

Secondary Objective: Safely extract with the Modular Base Kit

Opening

“

Writing in a time of fracture, Aram Nideo yearned to return to an age when we moved between stars unburdened, flittering easily through the warm cosmic glow. To that end, he developed his Many Stars thesis: a plan for an empire so broad, so stable, so universal that total freedom of motion would return. The father of Asterism would not live to see his plan enacted, which means he would not live to see how wrong he was. While war and the Perennial Wave slowed travel between systems in the early days of the Principality, the creation of the Portcullis system utterly redefined its character. Nideo had written of utopian freedom, but his imperial design knew only the grammar of domination, which is why, though faster-than-light travel returned to the Principality after the creation of the Portcullis, it did so only as an extension of imperial power. These monolithic structures, floating hexagonal stations of stone and circuitry, hang at the edge of every Principality system, linked in an expansive networked chain. They track every ship that moves, all of the cargo that is, and refuse anything objectionable. To use it at all is to be a drop in the blood of the body of Empire. But oh, the power that it has. If you know the right words, have the proper clearance, if your oath is unquestionable, if you internalize and perform the stately somatics properly, it will whisk you away. The Principality will bring you to wealth, to family, to your gods, to beauty, to freedom — and all you have to do is bring it with you.”

Plot

A small group of Millennium Break members are planning to leave Partizan in the Blue Channel and start a new base off-planet—either to keep Millennium Break going or because they're tired of Partizan. (Or guilt, in Jesset's case.) At the hangar, Jesset goes over the four phases of this mission: getting enough liftoff to launch (through the Barranca Loop or other means); spending a week moving toward the Portcullis; getting through the Portcullis; finally dropping people off and finding a planet to establish bases using the modular base kits.

Broun has difficulty finding information about launch opportunities, but learns OFOR is launching in a week. Broun attempts to counterfeit the Blue Channel by painting over its serial number, and does not do a great job. They launch on the Loop at the same time as OFOR launches from Orion facilities, using it as a distraction. Millie and Broun pose as normal Apostolosian civilians with security. Millie is disturbed by the sound of Motion's voice in the wind of the Barranca canyons.

An inspector, one Fen'olo Nikol, gets sent to check their ship, per procedure—they recognize Thisbe's model but she successfully lies to them. The inspector ties up the limbs on Broun's mech.

As they finally launch, the crew can see Partizan laid out below them.

New Beliefs

Thisbe
- Operant Broun lies to me because they believe I am a person.
- Operant Blue will not ask for help when she most needs it.
Broun
- Millie is chill and dependable. I hope she thinks the same about me.
- Millie has helped me at my most vulnerable. I’ll help her with whatever she needs.
Millie
- Thisbe is hard to read and I don’t think I’m the type who’s going to learn how.
- [Unwritten second bond with Broun]

Cast

Other Characters