Gilded Sands 11 — Repeat Offender

REPEAT OFFENDER was the eleventh session of Gilded Sands, played on the 19th of November 2020. It was Spearbreak's sixth mission. The squad pulled out all the stops in Operation LAWBREAKER, one of three simultaneous operations designed to distract the Toporik Syndicate while Dunyasha Sand and Springfield Autumns launch the rocket set to be the first step in the syndicate's undoing.

Cast

 * Iskra Garomedon, a feared warrior. (she/her)
 * Nandi Tin, a haunted hierophant. (she/her)
 * Skoryy Feldspar, an overburdened ace. (she/her)
 * Zoya Gabbro, a softened criminal. (she/her)
 * Dora Tourmaline, a stubborn sharpshooter. (she/her)
 * Kaleidos Green, a reliable soldier. (he/they)
 * Asterope Yehedarhed, a wanted prisoner. (she/her)
 * Apate Midnight, an outmatched target. (she/her)
 * Dorus Midnight, a belated sniper. (he/him)
 * Kaleidos Scarlet, a mysterious ace. (they/them)

Briefing
To succeed in this mission, Spearbreak must kill the Iris station chief in Bydos, Apate Midnight, and implicate the Toporik Syndicate in the act. They also have a secondary objective to liberate the refugees held in Iris custody in the city.

Legwork
Before Spearbreak head to Bydos, Nandi spends some time attempting to gather information about the city from the loyal bar, the Ready Room. She's only able to come away with some rudimentary clues, and Zbinya Cinnabar—now Spearbreak's direct superior—is unable to provide detailed maps or patrol routes, in part due to the difficulty with obtaining aerial photos on Aureate, and in part due to Dunyasha's rush to get the rocket launched. As such, Spearbreak is going into this mission with limited foresight, though Ankara Agothocles is able to provide them with some only-slightly-outdated patrol routes.

Nandi also reaches out to Leila, an old drinking buddy in Aristoboule Branch, now occupying the old FOB in the Boneyard. Leila, stuck with a military job she didn't ask for, proves reasonably willing to commit treason and let some escaped prisoners and deserters hide in the FOB.

Bydos
Bydos has been recently razed in a Terrenon attack, leaving much of the city itself in ruins, with a gaping hole in the wall surrounding it where a meagre checkpoint is upheld by the resident Dodonan forces. Outside the wall's perimeters is an Iris checkpoint—more than likely where their target, Apate Midnight, can be found—as well as a series of refugee hab-domes and the wreckage of a Samara Templar charge. The prison itself is a series of iso-cubes within the walls, near the perimeter.

Setup
Despite their limited information going in, Dodeka is able to set themselves up with the scales tipped in their favour. Nandi parks her temporary VHS-unit north of the city to aid with exfiltration, Skoryy waits in the Ripshaw just east of the city, and Zoya hides the Mimic near the walls of Bydos. Iskra was unable to bring a vehicle on this mission, and is going in on foot.

Infiltration
To begin, Zoya leads a quiet infiltration over the south-eastern walls, followed by Iskra, Nandi, Dora, and Kaleidos. They use the ruins of Bydos to obscure their approach to the iso-cube prison, with Zoya taking her time to ensure everybody is able to sneak through undetected. They approach the cubes, and find two guards outside—easy targets for Zoya and Dora, as they take them down with tranquilliser rounds... although one of them takes a little longer to go down than expected, and a small blip of distress is registered on their heart-rate monitor.

Nandi and Iskra begin releasing prisoners from their cubes, with Nandi using a crane stationed nearby to move the cubes to ground level so their inhabitants can exit safely. Although many of the prisoners are scared and initially unwilling to come with Spearbreak, Iskra convinces them that they have their best interests in mind, and Nandi rallies the Taimu prisoners by invoking Duchess Ball-Lightning. Zoya radios back to Skoryy, who gets ready to provide the distraction for the prisoners' escape and the subsequent assassination.

Distraction
Before Spearbreak is able to begin pulling off their plan, a shot rings out, nearly hitting one of the prisoners—who happens to be Asterope Yehedarhed. Nandi, despite her bafflement at her rival's presence in the crowd of people she's meant to be rescuing, is able to track down where the shots are coming from: somewhere in the ruins of the city.

As the situation grows hot, and the alarm in Bydos is raised, Skoryy pulls the trigger on her distraction maneuvers. However, despite the lack of mechanised forces outside Bydos, she finds herself somewhat outmatched. Zoya begins to make her way over to Skoryy, summoning the Mimic on the way with its wireless controls. While in its cloaked mode, it picks her up and scoops her into its cockpit, before ambushing the checkpoint at the entrance of Bydos from behind. The Mimic, with its limbs newly outfitted with anti-infantry blades, makes short work of the soldiers.

Firefight
As Iskra, Nandi, Dora, and Kaleidos stay and defend the prisoners, Nandi is able to get a good look at the sniper—it's the cloaked form of Dorus Midnight, who she last encountered as he attempted to out-snipe her in GS05 – LUNAR CONJUNCTION. Although she hung up her sniper rifle, she attempts to fire back with a tranquilliser rifle.

In the firefight, Dora is hit by a shot from Dorus, and responds by activating the cloaking feature on the Zoya's Mimic pilot suit, which she lent her so that she could protect herself on this mission. However, having taken quite a severe hit, Dora is forced to stay back in the fight.

Seleukias
Meanwhile, Skoryy is hit with a shot from above. In the sky, far above Bydos, is the Seleukias—the automata of Kaleidos Scarlet, last encountered as Spearbreak fled Kleidos in GSO07 – BASTILLE DAY. However, rather than flying using jets or anything of the sort, the Seleukias is hanging. It's tethered to roots growing out of the Singing Deep, climbing on them to maneuver through the sky.

The squad agrees that it's time to finish this mission as soon as they can. Nandi will stay behind with Dora and Kaleidos to extract the prisoners, and Skoryy will keep holding off the Seleukias as Zoya and Iskra take on Apate Midnight.

The Mimic shields Iskra as she approaches the Iris station together with Zoya. It takes a grazing hit in the appraoach, but the two make it there unscathed. Zoya uses her security cracker to open the door, and they enter, only to find the station empty. However, they know that Apate can be found on the bottom floor, and they begin to rappel down an elevator shaft.

Back outside, Nandi bargains with Asterope for help, trying to see if the Asterope she knew is still left; Asterope socks her in the jaw, saying it's not all about her, and Nandi agrees, saying it's about the prisoners. Asterope agrees to put her commander voice back on, and the two briefly begin to work together ... but Nandi is critically hit with a shot from Dorus, and is dragged away—barely conscious—by Dora and Kaleidos. Despite her and Dora's wounds, they're able to extract everybody safely.

Skoryy shoots the Seleukias down from the sky by destroying the roots that are holding it up, and it tumbles to the ground. In the ensuing fight, the Seleukias rips off the Ripshaw's nose cannon, its only weapon.

Assassination
With a successful infiltration led by Zoya, she and Iskra are able to make it to the room where Apate and her agents are hiding without being caught off guard. They break in the room, and Iskra unleashes a barrage of gunfire that clears the room in seconds, and protects a stunned Zoya to boot. Among the bodies lays Apate Midnight, their target—the mission is successful.

To mark it as an attack by the Toporik Syndicate, Zoya (who is also dressed up in relatively convincing trashy mobster attire) places a calling card on Apate's body: the Ten of Hatchets, the card given to her in GS03 – COUNT DOWN to signify a connection to the syndicate.

Outside, Skoryy continues the fight with the Seleukias, answering Kaleidos Scarlet's disarming in turn by tearing the automata's gun out of its hands with a grapnel launcher.

By the time Iskra and Zoya make it back up the elevator shaft, they face one more threat on the ground floor of the station: Dorus Midnight, aiming his rifle at them with tears in his eyes (breaking through his emotion-dampener). He asks if Apate is dead, and Zoya confirms. She attempts to apologise, but Dorus does not lower his gun. Iskra, however, charges him, taking a shot in the process, but ultimately detains him.

Escape
With no more time to waste, Iskra and Zoya pile into the Ripshaw with Dorus in tow, and they set off to outrun the Seleukias, which is once again consumed by rage. The stress of fighting such a powerful opponent on her own, however, gets to Skoryy's head, and she's unable to pilot the Ripshaw away on her own. Instead, she takes a backseat while barking commands to Zoya, who clumsily attempts to pilot it on her own. Iskra, in similar fashion, succumbs to her stress in the back.

Despite heavy injuries and stress endured, the squad escapes after a fully successful mission. As they head to lay low in Pesok Station, stopping by their old FOB on the way for shelter, Spearbreak can see a rocket streaking through the sky above them.

Mechanical Notes

 * Everybody gains a drive clock tick.
 * Skoryy takes the scar Obsessed.
 * Iskra takes the scar Reckless.
 * Spearbreak's relationship with the Iris is reduced to –3, reducing their pool of downtime activities to –2.
 * The Toporik Syndicate's tier is reduced to III.
 * Spearbreak's gain strong hold in their tier (I).