PALISADE 22: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 1

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Episode description[edit | edit source]

This episode carries content warnings for body horror, description of teeth, discussion of mass destruction/death, small/tight spaces, indentured servants and slavery, and extreme heat.

Behind a twirling ornament of metal, the sun grows—the sun grows. Inside a concrete body, the feeling of a hand, pulling downward. Across a planet under red light, fear.  

They would not wait. They could not.

This week on PALISADE: An Impossible Ideal Pt. 1

The "war" will appear on the surface to be a peace[Note 1]

Dossier[edit | edit source]

People[edit | edit source]

Stargrave Elcessor (she/her): Leader of the Bilateral Interecession’s occupation of Palisade, assigned personally by Cynosure Whitestar-Kesh. As a Stargrave, she has been granted the means and “right” to detonate the star at the center of Palisade’s star system if she determines that those here are an existential threat to the Principality.
Connadine (he/him): Commander of the BIS on Palisade. An expert in psychological operations and folklore. As a composer, his opus is the Adagio, a plan to get everyone on Palisade operating in ways not only predictable, but scripted. As a conductor, his orchestra now turns towards the second movement.
Routine Rennari (he/him): Half-Apostolsian, scion of a minor Kesh noble house, and the Blue Channel's heavy.
Mustard Red (she/her): A cyborg who once served as a member of Brink Proxy, with a speciality in surveillance. Joined the Cause during the Devotees expansion onto Palisade.
Midnite Matinee (she/her): Leporine scout and member of the Blue Channel. She and her trusty Pack-model light AutoHollow Popcorn used to run a repo company, but now are tentatively committed to the Cause and Millennium Break.

Places[edit | edit source]

Chimera’s Lantern: The second moon of Palisade, shaped oddly like a wasp’s nest or paper lantern. New arrivals to the world find its occasional glow unnatural and frightening. Thisbe and the Figure found evidence that it could be tied to driving the bulk of ancient Divine Principality forces off of Palisade.

Objects[edit | edit source]

Gambeson: The Gambeson is only about 10 meters tall (less than half an Altar), but it is nevertheless a terrifying scourge of the battlefield. Modeled after an iron maiden, except with it's tortorous doors attached to its back serving as wings. Its head features a metalworked face, twisted into extreme and offputting smile.  Its skeletal frame serves not only as body, but cage: pilots are criminal conscripts forced to pay off their “debt” to Kesh by the Divine Plight, earning their freedom through combat achievements.
Paramerion: Cori’s new Altar, as designed by her brother Formido. Constantly twitching and rippling underneath the regal embellishments of its filigreed armor. Massive metallic wings stay folded on its back, a smaller pair cover its eyes like a visor and the sickles jut out from its forearms when stowed. A halo shaped like a crown rotates above its skull-like head.
The Stellar Combustor: A weapon of immense destruction, capable of destroying countless star systems if deployed without a firebreak. Has been used in some form or another since the time of the earliest Divines. In current form they take the form of a twirling, 3-ringed space station that rotates around a system’s sun.

Divines[edit | edit source]

The Divine, Arbitrage (it/its): The amoral machine turned de facto treasurer keeps the Frontier Syndicate a step ahead in all matters of commerce. Sole minter of “glint,” a newly popular currency on Palisade.
The Divine Plight (she/her): Plight is a 40 meter tall, humanoid Divine cast in black metal armor, and wearing the of a judge or inquisitor. She conscripts the guilty into her army as Gambeson pilots, compelling their loyalty with terrible, Divine feelings of guilt. Hemlock, whose interest is fundamentally in punishment and not justice, was born heir to a mid-tier Kesh House, but jumped at the chance to become an Elect.

Mysteries[edit | edit source]

Perennial (she/her):  The Principality's so-called 'adversary,' who lives at the center of the galaxy and whose chaotic whims spread through her "Perennial Wave," an ever-present nanoparticle that has recently bonded with Kalmeria.

Additional Notes[edit | edit source]

The 23 Star Systems Nearest Palisade (with developmental focus):
  1. Tartarus 5: Gas Mining
  2. Lonn: Resorts
  3. Helaine Delta: Duplicate of Helaine Gamma
  4. Thulsa: Standard Spread
  5. Xenacip: Lost Contact. Lost Portcullis Repair Team
  6. Bhopal Kha: Pact Occupied
  7. Maine: Lumber, Spice
  8. Bishamonten: Arms Manufacturing
  9. Carjel: Standard Spread
  10. Isfahan: Standard Spread
  11. Yoca: Standard Spread
  12. KX 93-39: Black Hole Research Lab
  13. Dul-Kaw: Established via Nidean Art grant
  14. Darre: Tomb Sector
  15. Ecou: Refugee Camps
  16. Edino: Quarantined Sector
  17. Skarnoc: Debris Fields
  18. Hilde: Gas Mining
  19. Por: Standard Spread
  20. Nova Melides: Abandoned Divine Clash Worlds
  21. Palamedes 8: Regional Refueling Depot
  22. Castax 8: Stratus Research Facility
  23. Ashlen: Standard Spread

Contents[edit | edit source]

Opening[edit | edit source]

“

Tartarus 5: Gas Mining. Lonn: Resorts. Helaine Delta: Duplicate of Helaine Gamma. Thulsa: Standard Spread. Xenacip: Lost Contact. Lost Portcullis Repair Team. Bhopal Kha: Pact Occupied. Maine: Lumber, Spice. Bishamonten: Arms Manufacturing. Carjel: Standard Spread. Isfahan: Standard Spread. Yoca: Standard Spread. KX 93-39: Black Hole Research Lab. Dul-Kaw: Established via Nidean Art grant. Darre: Tomb Sector. Ecou: Refugee Camps. Edino: Quarantined Sector. Skarnoc: Debris Fields. Hilde: Gas Mining. Por: Standard Spread. Nova Melides: Abandoned Divine Clash Worlds. Palamedes 8: Regional Refueling Depot. Castax 8: Stratus Research Facility. Ashlen: Standard Spread.

Altar. Brighton. Crown. Gift-3. Moonlock. Seneschal. Skein. Thyrsus. Volition. The Brink. The Twilight Mirage and its neighboring system where the three rings of the stellar combustor whip in tight rotations around a bulging sun.

Palisade, itself a destination. Oh, how could you? Sweaty and solemn and workaday too, because on Palisade, most people don't have time to practice dying, to imagine their own funerals or the memorial services broadcast on Orion airwaves—the little statuettes, the plaques, the pins that turn misery into messaging—but that doesn't mean they aren't scared on Palisade, in Sinder Karst, in Joyous Guard, in Carhaix, on the Isle of the Broken Key, in City City, on New Oath, in the Crown of Glass.

And they’re scared on the Blue Channel too, but they’re moving, launching now, headed up, putting the world behind them but drawing it closer at the same time, fingers on their own triggers, fingers wrapped together, reaching, touching, grasping in the dark.”

Plot[edit | edit source]

Blue Channel[edit | edit source]

The crew gathers in the hangar of the Blue Channel to prepare for launch. Routine will join Brnine and Phrygian on the stealth mission to the Stellar Combustor, and Midnite will accompany Thisbe, Figure, and Cori to Chimera's Lantern. Hunt and Saffron will stay on the Blue Channel, Hunt to pilot it and Saffron to be ready in the infirmary in case things go bad.

Brnine delivers something that was probably meant to be a pep talk, which Cori applauds.

A-Plot: Chimera's Lantern[edit | edit source]

Hunt drops Thisbe, Figure, Cori, and Midnite off on the moon. Figure, invisible in the Devil's Two Front Teeth, scouts ahead and spots two people exiting a Nidean moon car and climbing down into a deep chasm. The chasm has an ancient-looking spiral staircase leading down into the moon, and its walls are decorated with mosaic tiles. With Thisbe in the lead, the party descends into the chasm. As they proceed, something about the gravity starts to feel strange and unpredictable and the layout of the chasm feels wrong. They hear gunfire and an animalistic screech from deeper inside.

At the bottom, they proceed through a long, glowing tunnel and emerge in the Mosaic Gyratory, a massive, cylindrical chamber that is constantly rotating. The mosaic tiles in this room are immense in scale and depict resting or dead Divines, and the gravity in the room feels impossible. From a hallway to the south, Figure sees a swarm of horrifying, screeching creatures rushing towards the group.

B-Plot: Stellar Combustor[edit | edit source]

Brnine, Phrygian, and Routine approach the Stellar Combustor in their hyper stealth vehicle. Hoping to dock at the inner ring and bypass the outer and middle rings entirely, Phrygian hacks into the inner ring's sensor array so they can assess what's happening both inside and outside the ring. They detect some patrolling Gambesons that have been empowered by a Divine and, floating in space nearby, the Divine Plight. Plight is surveilling the area and using her laser vision to destroy everything around her.

A video call comes in from Mustard Red. Mustard says that she can send over some helpful blueprints, but "the person with the blueprints" will only transfer them on the condition that they are allowed to use the Stellar Combustor as a bargaining chip after the mission's end. Brnine and Phrygian refuse, and Phrygian hangs up on Mustard.

The hyper stealth vehicle is able to sneak past the Gambesons towards the inner ring, but it's dinged by Plight's laser, damaging the heat condensors. The vehicle can no longer protect the crew from the sun's heat.

Cast[edit | edit source]

Other Characters[edit | edit source]

Notes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Speech from the song Broken Chords Can Sing A Little by Silver Mt. Zion
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