Twilight Mirage 04: Birds of Prey

Episode description[edit | edit source]

The crew from the ship Myriad continue to explore the planet Quire. Grand Magnificent (Arthur Martinez-Tebbel) explains the strange experience that he had in the canyon, but Echo Reverie (Sylvia Clare) is less interested in chasing shadows than in leading them towards their destination: A church* on the north side of the plateau. Gig Kep-hart (Keith J. Carberry) meets a new friend, and in the face of danger, Even Gardner (Andrew Lee Swan) offers his expert guidance.
This week on Friends at the Table: Birds of Prey
The Remaining Records of Curiosity // Reference Code: R-Qu75-35-RC1228  
Remnant Church #1228 

A pneumatic hum. A tower, hollow. A bell, cracked, laying on the ground. Thick wooden slats bolted together to act as doors. Above, a sunk relief of a globe, not inscribed by any known means.

Contents[edit | edit source]

Opening[edit | edit source]

“

[Satellite] Report 87

You ever think about time, Primary? About how fast things can change?

The Divine Fleet started nearly 30,000 years ago, can you imagine? 30,000 years, real years, not like where we're from. All those lives, back to back to back, connected by a taut string of continuity. From the first who studied under Kamala Cadence, to those who walk the seraphic shores of Séance today, all of them, countless beings who never breathed the same air but who each equally belongs to the same thing, to that fleet.

And then, less than a millennia ago, a handful of those people left, and today their descendants—Quire hangs right in the middle of the Twilight Mirage, but most of the people on the planet, they don't even know what a Divine is. Not really. But does that mean that they aren't part of that continuity? A few hundred years, and then that line is just… snapped?

I don't know, Primary. It's just—you think you know where you're from. You know who raised you. You remember your teachers. I can't forget my first deployment. But there's a larger story. We're all connected to things we don't know, that we could never know. But in my mind, those things count too. Whether we want them to or not.”

Plot[edit | edit source]

Grand Magnificent flees from the shadows and returns to the maglev in fear. He reports the scary shadows he saw, and everyone else describes what they saw to decide what direction to head next. They follow Gig's ledge for a day, during which Grand Mag pitches a TV show to Echo.

They hear the sounds of birds of prey, and then hear it again several hours later. Echo takes to a higher vantage and spots three to four flying machines scouting to the east of the plateau. There's also a large group with military equipment and a truck on the plateau itself, heading north on a path that may intersect with the team's. They safely avoid that group and make it to the edge of the plateau by the end of the next day.

Off the edge, they see several roads and two small buildings just off the path: probably the church Gig heard about. They decide to head for the church. The glintwings sent up by the military group are sent up in cycles, so the team time their movement during the night to get past them.

They arrive at the church hearing music playing from a garage attached to the church, and find a big otter man doing repairs to a car. Gig introduces them as people from off planet, and the man is suspicious, but Gig charms him by singing harmony along to the music. When they bring the node in and explain it’s going to bring the Mesh on-planet, the man, Surge, decides they need to talk to his girl Janey.

After encountering Janey’s rude mom, they head over to the adjoining house, where Janey is tattooing someone. Surge takes them past to the kitchen, and serves them tea. They do their best to explain what the Fleet is doing here and ask about what they saw on their travels so far. When they mention the glintwings, Surge goes to warn Janey. He thinks the people they saw were Mandati, looking to raid and scavenge. Surge tells them about the Crown of Glass, the Mandati, the Rogue Wave and the Skein.

Janey joins them, asks Grand about his tattoo, and recognizes the name of the Divine Fleet as “old words.” She warns them that their arrival is going to be an opportunity for unscrupulous people on the planet to take advantage of, and tells them not to use the term the Savage Mandate for the Mandati. She then realizes that the raiders they saw must be planning to attack the Doyenne, leader of the Crown of Glass, coming back from a trip to the Garden. Outside, they hear an explosion.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Other Characters[edit | edit source]