Gilded Sands 10 — Motherlode

MOTHERLODE was the tenth session of Gilded Sands, played on the 5th of November 2020. It was Dodeka's fifth downtime. While getting ready for the all-out attack soon to be coordinated against the Toporik Syndicate, Dodeka focus on building up the revolution... while more than one pilot overturns their lives.

Cast

 * Iskra Garomedon, a revolutionary icon. (she/her)
 * Nandi Tin, a hierophant of newfound purpose. (she/her)
 * Skoryy Feldspar, an vigilant rogue. (she/her)
 * Zoya Gabbro, a guilt-ridden killer. (she/her)
 * Dunyasha Sand, a steadfast leader. (she/her)
 * Springfield Autumns, a soft-spoken insurgent. (she/her)
 * Ankara Agothocles, a friendly fascist defector. (he/they)
 * Kladi Demos, a tired bartender. (they/them)
 * Beryl Mask, a loyal soldier. (they/them)
 * Dora Tourmaline, a desperate protector. (she/her)
 * Pasha Marble, a boastful mobster. (they/them)
 * Igor Slate, an outmatched bodyguard. (he/him)
 * Egon Shale, an undeserving sacrifice. (he/him)
 * Hack, a cold-blooded henchman. (he/him)
 * Senga Yang, a blunt teacher. (she/her)
 * TT, a loyal friend. (she/her)

Meeting
As downtime begins, Dodeka gathers in an improvised command center for a meeting with most of Vedro's big military names, wherein Dunyasha Sand explains her plan for the imminent strike against the Toporik Syndicate. The main objective is to launch the rocket stolen by Dodeka in GS03 – COUNT DOWN into orbit to get a message to the Zerinzov Family, Toporik's off-world masters, with the intent of having them cut off support to the Syndicate once they learn of Toporik's quiet secession.

Dive-Captain Springfield Autumns explains that although the rocket will without a doubt be shot down as soon as it enters orbit, a small unit affixed to its nose will complete the trip to its destination by using Autumns' mech's Deep engine to travel through the Singing Deep.

During this time, to distract the Syndicate for long enough that the rocket launch can succeed, three separate distraction operations have been organised:


 * OPERATION SWORDBREAKER: Destroy a number of rocket batteries at a Molot Barony base in the Boneyard, and sow discord between the Barony and the Syndicate. To be carried out by the Slag Knights with support from Two Moon Cry.
 * OPERATION OATHBREAKER: Harry a Samara Templar crusader caravan, implicating the Syndicate. To be carried out by Broken Crown with support from Pesok Line.
 * OPERATION LAWBREAKER: Assassinate the Iris station chief in the devastated oasis-city of Bydos, implicating the Syndicate. To be carried out by Dodeka.

During the meeting, Ankara Agothocles introduces himself as the leader of Khrusos Branch, a Dodonan diplomatic corps that defected after the Argent Canopy seized power. Ankara explains hat Khrusos Branch was once the August Canopy, in command of a somewhat-gentler Tribunal on Aureate, and is sickened by his country's descent into militant fascism. He claims to be part of Vedro's cause, though he endures some ribbing, to which he responds with a diplomatic invitation to discuss his former status. After the meeting, he offers to help Dodeka in any way he can. Nandi asks them for permission to punch them in the shoulder as hard as she can, though she pulls back before connecting and offers two light taps "for flinching", which Skoryy comments on as anti-climactic.

Iskra
Beryl Mask, looking somewhat less enthused than normal, visits Iskra in her quarters soon after the meeting. They lament that they're no longer wanted in the Terrenon courts, and they any potential aristocratic allies within the Dynasty are either unwilling to join them or are dead. However, they see that Iskra — who has focused on making lowborn friends — has had much more success, having made a solid connections with both the Broken Crown and the Slag Knights. Recognizing Iskra as a strong potential leader in the revolution, Beryl Mask bends a knee and offers their services to her cause — though Iskra is quick to remark she would like to have no nobles at all, leading the crown heir to chastise themself.

To blow off stress, Iskra meets with Nandi for drinks and air hockey at the Ready Room. They talk about their similar traumas, and about how Iskra's not sure what she needs and how Nandi wants Iskra to know she has a friend. It's an emotional talk, and a positive one - but their drunken revelry raises a few eyebrows on the eve of such an important series of sorties.

Iskra spends the rest of her downtime attempting to fix up the One-Winged Hussar, but there simply aren't enough materials to get it fixed up into a decent condition before the next mission; she'll be without a fighting machine on LAWBREAKER.

Nandi
Once again having come home from a mission with significant injuries, Nandi is patched up by Stem Tromara. As she's recovering in an infirmary bed, Kladi Demos comes to visit. They've thrown aside their military uniform, and are now dressed for their new job as a bartender in the Ready Room. The two talk for a while about survivor's guilt, self-care, making it out alive, and simply chatting as friends, before Nandi asks Kladi a favour. She hands them her sniper rifle, and tells them to hang it up in the bar — she's done shooting people. Some jokes ensue, before the two share a moment of affection.

When she's a little more recovered, Nandi visits Senga Yang again, the Taimu priest running the Vedro orphanage. Senga avails herself to talk with Nandi, asking Nandi to help with the cooking as they talk. Nandi thanks Senga for her advice given so far, and says it helped her defeat her ghost. She goes on to attempt to ask questions about faith, but ends up answering her own questions just by talking through them. She comes to the conclusion that the right thing for her to do — the only thing, from her perspective, which is why she thinks it's more than regular faith — is to become an avatar of one of the many Taimu gods, to enact their will on the planet, but she's struggling to find which deity she feels.

Nandi is faced with a similar problem to Iskra — Mama took such severe damage in the last mission that it isn't going to be possible to repair it to a working condition before it's time to set off. Instead of wasting her time with it, she enlists Zoya for help with picking through a scrapyard for a moderately functional temporary substitute vehicle, ending up with a Janissary Type-VCR.

Skoryy
The materials for Skoryy's new prosthetic legs have finally come in, and TT puts them together as best she can. Finally able to ditch her awkward temporary prosthetics, Skoryy breathes a sigh of relief, able to move much freer and much more comfortably.

Meeting with Pasha
After last mission, Zoya came back home to a message: Pasha had bumped her up the waiting list for a meeting with them in Vow. She tells Skoryy, Dora, and TT about this, and Dora is outraged at the notion of Zoya going to meet with them. Zoya tries to assuage her fears, and Dora insists on ferrying her out to Vow in her boat herself if she's going to do this. Skoryy offers to come along as well, and Dora threatens to put a bullet in her if Zoya doesn't come back from it.

The two of them (Skoryy in particular sticking to the shadows, as she's quite recognizable now, having put out her broadcasted threat to Toporik Jet) head to their designated meeting spot: Second Mother, Oksana Jade's brothel. They arrive to find it cleared out, and Zoya finds only Pasha Marble in one of the dining rooms, with their bodyguard Igor Slate by their side. Skoryy sneaks into Oksana's office, from which she can spy on the meeting through the floorboards.

Pasha sends Igor away to the next room, and greets Zoya with a smug grin, making no secret of their power imbalance and hostile relationship. They reveal the truth of Peschinka Logistics' fall; they cut a deal with the Dodonans to arrest Zoya in order to get the heat off them, and after the group fell apart, they found a ready home in the Toporik Syndicate, steadily climbing the ranks. They list off all the "secrets" they know about Vedro, and Zoya, and her friends, and cap it off by showing Zoya a series of pictures of their mutual friend Egon Slate, indicating they've been tracking him on a daily basis for a long time. It's a clear threat: if Zoya tries anything, Egon's in danger.

Zoya asks one question of her former friend: "Did I really mean that little to you?" Pasha's answer is little more than self-gratification, and Zoya responds by lighting a cigarette — a sign to Skoryy. She takes a long drag before shooting Pasha to death.

Skoryy arrives just too late to prevent Zoya from being hit from behind by gunfire from Igor, but just soon enough to stick him with a knife. In the tussle, she is thrown out the window onto the street, but she's bought enough time for Zoya to escape. Zoya jumps out the window and drags her off while she continues firing at Igor.

Back at the boat, Dora — furious at the risk and harm Zoya put herself in — gives her and Skoryy an earful as she ferries them back to Vedro to recover.

Skoryy, continued
After her trip to Vow with Zoya, Skoryy finds out through the grapevine that Egon was killed at the command of Toporik Jet in retribution for the death of Pasha. Unsure how to break it to Zoya, she reaches out to Nandi for advice. The two sit and share a six-pack of beer by the waterline surrounding the concrete base on which one of Vedro's platforms is supported, and Nandi encourages Skoryy to be honest — for Zoya's benefit, in part, but also for her own. They talk about their grief and hopes, before trailing off to talking about Taimu religion and which gods apply to sexuality; Nandi and Skoryy later head off to look up pictures of "Taimu titty gods", bonding as friends.

After their talk, Skoryy heads off to Dodeka's quarters to tell Zoya and Dora about the death of Egon. Zoya confesses she knew Egon would be at risk, and Dora storms off in disgust and anger, furious that Zoya continues to ignore her pleading to get out of danger. Skoryy sticks around to comfort Zoya, and reassures her that (as her own worldview informs) Pasha had it coming, and it was Toporik who pulled the trigger on Egon, not her. Zoya cries in her arms for a long time, and she comes away feeling like she's not cut out for all this the same way Skoryy is.

Setting out to work on her own goals some more, Skoryy enlists the help of Iskra in reaching out to Broken Crown and some of the new arrivals from the Nessen mine; the former serfs are used to gossip and moving in secret, and a number of them pledge to Skoryy's growing whisper network.

Zoya
After her return to Vedro, Zoya gets patched up by Tromara for her gunshot wound. While going back in for a round of "upkeep" on her injuries, a sleepless Dora comes to visit her in the hospital. She says that she's done burying friends, and that she's going to come along on the next mission no matter what anybody says, to keep Zoya safe — or to at least die alongside her, if nothing else. Zoya knows it's an argument she can't win, and begrudgingly lets her come along. An emotional Dora tells Zoya she loves her, to which Zoya has little to reply except for stunned silence, but they share a long hug.

Later, Zoya joins TT in the workshop to fix up the Mimic, which still requires upkeep after its last use in GS07 – BASTILLE DAY. She's not wanted to pilot it ever since it caused her tehoma poisoning, but knowing how useless she was without it, she sees no other option. As she helps TT fix up the machine, she breaks the news of Egon's death to TT, and the two of them share a quiet, intimate moment of grief together on the floor, eventually moving on to reminiscing wistfully about the less-spoken-of moments of struggle and uncertainty in Peschinka.

As they finish off repairs on the Mimic, Zoya begins to feel a compelling draw to it — the Song is calling to her, and she feels as if she'll be safe and well if she keeps piloting it. This magnetism manifests in the Mimic too; while it isn't a sentient creature, one of its limbs moves autonomously to brush against Zoya, drawn to the traces of tehoma in her body.

Feeling the need to give something to Vedro, Zoya brings the refreshed Mimic to work in one of Vedro's on-board agriculture fields until it's time to move on to the next mission. Her contribution is small, as she is just one person, but the presence of the Mimic working among the people in a civilian capacity earns Dodeka some small inkling of trust with the people. For the first time in forever, despite the intensive work, Zoya feels relief.

Post-Credits
Nandi is staff-sparring with Senga Yang's niece Chemesunde in a courtyard, socializing with the Taimu community on Vedro and talking about getting word to family and friends in Qaibo. Nandi takes a break, still pondering which god is trying to have her enact them as their avatar, and finds herself reaching for a familiar pack of instant noodles one day. On the packaging, Duchess Ball-Lightning — a hero-goddess of lightning, military action, and some forms of sexuality (here reduced by the Dodonans to an appropriative caricature as a brand mascot) - strikes her as a profound revelation, and Nandi realizes her presence has been in her life all long, shown in countless small signs.

Mechanical Notes

 * Dodeka loses Trust with Vedro as Iskra Overindulges and brags.
 * Iskra and Nandi test a belief with each other, and each gain a new one.
 * Nandi switches playbooks, from Scout to Hierophant.
 * Nandi and Skoryy test a belief with each other, and each gain a new one.
 * Skoryy overindulges, causing Dora to become a Cohort for Dodeka.
 * Zoya takes 3 stress for not taking a Cut Loose action, as per the "Letter from Home" Entanglement rolled at the end of last session (the meeting with Pasha). This causes her to take a new scar: Soft.
 * Zoya's drive changes from "Find and destroy whoever sold me out" to "Start a garden".
 * Dodeka assigns two squad upgrades from last session: a third Public Works, and Guerrilla Hideout (+1d to Assault plans).
 * Dodeka gains 3 Squad XP.