COUNTER/Weight 22: The Broken Branch

Episode description[edit | edit source]

As our heroes review the past, the Golden Branch Star sector moves forward without them. And it moves towards instability. New corporate initiatives seek to re-establish the status quo. Old heroes come out of retirement, hoping to change things dramatically for the better. Masterminds move chess pieces and pawns contemplate their sacrifices. And above the planet Sage, Grace tightens her fist.
This week COUNTER/Weight: The Broken Branch
On a long enough timeline, every orbit decays.

They found each other in the wreckage of optimism, and it took them a decade to decide that hope was not enough to save the Golden Branch from itself. It was in a library, not an armoury, where the Apostolosian became the sword and shield of Integrity, a Divine who’d lost its Candidate.

Some climb into their Divines, others deploy them across the battlefield, or fight under the blanket of their shadows. But Integrity demands intimacy. It digs into the flesh of the willing, all metal and promises and penetralia, desperate to create an unbreakable unity. It is afraid, and wounded, and it cannot know the power it gives without seeing it first in the reflection of a Candidate's eyes: the loft, the velocity, the violence. And for the first time in centuries, Integrity doesn’t fear its Candidate. It moves with confidence, in muscle and ambition. It believes in Sokrates Nikon Artemisios.”

Plot[edit | edit source]

Recap[edit | edit source]

Due to the developments of previous faction games and the Kingdom game, Austin has decided to consolidate the factions from 16 to 7, leaving them with:

the Hands of Grace (from the Hands of Grace and the DDMR: Slate Division)
the Minerva Strategic Alliance (from the OEG and Minerva)
the Righteous Vanguard (from the Automaticorps, Lux Vox and the September Institute)
Petrichor Automedia (from Snowtrak and EarthHome)
the Rapid Evening (from the Rapid Evening and Fairchild)
the Golden Branch Demarchy (from the Apostolosian Empire and Ethnologistical Committee)
the Odamas Fleet (from Odamas and Horizon).^{[note 1]}

The Consolidated Counterweight Technocracy has lost enough power that it has been removed from the board, though it still technically exists in the world.

Golden Demarchy[edit | edit source]

After the Kingdom game, Sokrates fled toward Slighter, entering and slowly taking control of the Ethnologistical Committee over the following decade. They are now the candidate of Integrity, and have thrown a coup of the Apostolosian Empire to create the Golden Branch Demarchy, a representative government run by six Eidolons selected through sortition. They and Integrity helped Apostolos defeat the forces of the Rapid Evening on Torru.

A scene is played out: a confrontation between Sokrates, Argus (the new Eidolon of Security), and Sokrates' parent, the old Apokine in a dusty throne room on Apostolos. When the Apokine rushes Sokrates, Argus defends them by shooting and killing the Apokine.

Sokrates now uses a dark space strike force centered around the rebuilt Callisto II, allowing them to hit their enemies without warning.

Other Faction Outcomes[edit | edit source]

Grace has become increasingly totalitarian, clenching a police state down on Sage and striking back hard at the Rapid Evening.

Austin has recast Fairchild as a front of the Rapid Evening, to give the Rapid Evening some more moral greyness.

Natalya, on Ionias, knows about Rigour. But because of the Kingdom game, Rigour also knows that she's a Rapid Evening agent, and has decided to make her its next candidate. She manages to send off one last message to Ibex and the others from the Kingdom game, but Rigour, insinuating itself into her consciousness, redacts it so it's just the word Rigour over and over.

Earthhome releases a surprisingly bleak "Oscar-bait" anime film about the war and the Kingdom game, while Rigour works the animators to death. Rigour's hum now extends throughout all Earthhome and Snowtrak products, represented by the newest Aria Joie song.

Crystal and Colleen Steiger are introduced as the heads of Minerva Mining and Mechanics, and a scene is played out where they meet with Trenton Blackford, the CSO of the OEG. Representatives from Earthhome, Snowtrak and Horizon are mysteriously absent, so Crystal and Colleen are offered an advisory role, allowing them to effectively become the heads of Minerva Strategic.

Odamas sends Diego Rose to negotiate a ceasefire with Horizon. He offers them access to the regeneration tech used by Jacqui and Jill, in exchange for being on call for Odamas, which they accept.

Austin notes that the September Institute is a ploy of Ibex, allowing him to have potential weapons against Grace while making sure they won't affect Righteousness. There's a short scene where Twelfth boots up Voice, which is revealed to be based on Righteousness's software, in order to talk to Loyalty and Kobus again. Twelfth reports back to Ibex, who then messages Kobus himself; after the Kingdom game he spent years on Vox practically raising Kobus.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Characters[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

↑ Some of the new faction names are only decided in the following episode, "An Astonishingly Illegal Ship".

[1] Some of the new faction names are only decided in the following episode, "An Astonishingly Illegal Ship".

[note 1]