Gilded Sands 06 — Поехали!

ПОЕХАЛИ! was the sixth session of Gilded Sands, played on the 1st October 2020. It was Dodeka's third downtime. After a pretty successful mission (aside from Nandi's troubles), the squad enjoys their first few days in Vedro, their new home base. However, knowing that it's almost time to attempt to rescue Stem Tromara from the Iris, they do their best to prepare for this sure-to-be problematic mission.

Cast

 * Iskra Garomedon, a faithful leader. (she/her)
 * Skoryy Feldspar, a resourceful schemer. (she/her)
 * Nandi Tin, an ailing patient. (she/her)
 * Zoya Gabbro, a conflicted hustler. (she/her)
 * Ashaya Azul, a grateful spiritual leader. (she/her)
 * Kaleidos Green, a vengeful ace. (he/they)
 * Kladi Demos, a weary companion. (they/them)
 * Oksana Jade, a supportive madame. (she/her)
 * Dora Tourmaline, a concerned ex. (she/her)
 * Egon Shale, a frayed forger. (he/him)
 * Springfield Autumns, a gregarious insurgent. (she/her)
 * Nikola Seasalt, an amiable radio host. (he/him)

Iskra
After helping save Ashaya Azul—the Satellist priestess of Two Moon Cry—in the last mission, Iskra is invited to a Satellist sermon. In a spirited speech, Azul thanks Dodeka and the moons for their success and safety, before giving the floor to Iskra, who moves the crowd with her heartfelt and genuine words about teamwork.

Taking some time to repair the One-Winged Hussar after it took a nasty blow in the last mission, it becomes clear how much more well-staffed and well-run Vedro's workshop is, though she does not permit anyone else to touch her vehicle.

Thinking about the difficulty of the next upcoming mission, Iskra reaches out to Misha Steel, the tactical leader of Two Moon Cry. She asks for his help in providing a distraction for the upcoming mission in Kleidos, while Dodeka infiltrate the prison. Misha, happy for a chance to strike back at the Dodonans, agrees.

Nandi
After several days unconscious, Nandi finds herself waking up in a hospital bed to the sounds of Nikola Seasalt on Radio Free Vedro's morning show, The Rustbucket, with Kladi Demos by her side. They say that they have been taking turns watching over her with Kaleidos Green, and gives her a toy Crusader—the same model as Mama—saying it saved her life.

After spending a lot of time and strength recovering in bed, Nandi begins to recover her strength, but is still left with rather heavy wounds from her gunshot wound and subsequent fall.

Despite this, Nandi makes her best efforts to continue her work building a testing facility for Dodeka's mechs. She asks Skoryy for help, who leverages her experience as an amateur engineer and streetracer to plan out experimental testing methods, and entertains Nandi with stories from her racing career.

Skoryy
Accompanying Zoya for another trip to Vow, Skoryy travels through the undercity of Vow—now overrun with military and people seeking refuge—to return to Second Mother, the brothel where she grew up under the eye of her mother-figure, madame Oksana Jade. After an emotional reunion in which the two share a toast to Ushel Indium, Skoryy's best friend, she asks Oksana for help in setting up an intelligence network aimed at taking down Toporik Jet. Though she urges Skoryy to stay safe, Oksana agrees to help, and in thanks, Skoryy brings gifts for the workers at Second Mother (many of whom know Skoryy, and who have been entertaining Zoya during this meeting).

Back at base, Skoryy takes the initiative to work on reverse-engineering the optical camo found in Zoya's pilot suit. It being a product of Legato Biotech, it's difficult to reproduce its effects reliably, but with TT's help, they are able to provide the whole squad with a one-time-use optical camo suit for their next mission.

In a bid to get more progress done on her intelligence network project, Skoryy asks around base for someone with connections, and ends up running into Dive-Captain Springfield Autumns on the base, a lone Banner Post operator who is working on her own project to coordinate resistance groups on Aureate. The two get along well, and Autumns promises to help Skoryy build her network.

Zoya
Soon after Zoya arrives at Vedro, she gets together with TT and Dora to reminisce about memories from their days in Peschinka Logistics. The conversation takes a serious turn when Zoya finally asks Dora about the whereabouts of their former Commanding Officer, Pasha Marble. Dora explains that not only are they with the Toporik Syndicate, they are also a high-ranking lieutenant. Despite Dora urging Zoya to let it go, Zoya remains steadfast in her conviction to get to see this through, though she concedes to promising she won't get herself killed over it.

While Nandi is still recovering in bed, Zoya asks Dora for help baking her a get-well treat in the form of cookies infused with some local Vedro-grown cannabis, to express her gratitude to Nandi for watching out for the rest of the team—though she comes away feeling somewhat troubled by Nandi's lack of concern for herself. Regardless, the three manage to relax and blow off some stress with the help of Dora's cookies.

Finally, while out in Vow with Skoryy, Zoya takes her for another meeting with Egon Shale in a cramped undercity apartment stairwell, this time to ask him for another favour: help Dodeka forge paperwork so they can pass off as a graft, hopefully allowing them easier access into Kleidos for their next mission. Zoya brings Egon medical supplies and a cache of other things for barter, and offers him a place in Vedro, but he declines, confessing that he feels he can do so much more good here in Vow.

Mechanical Notes

 * Dodeka gains the FOB upgrade Training (Playbook), representing the greater autonomy and comfort in Vedro as opposed to working under the Dodonan Tribunal.
 * Dodeka gains the FOB upgrade Loyal Bar (The Ready Room, below The Jenny Wren).
 * Iskra takes the Hero playbook move For the People.
 * Skoryy starts a new 8-step Long Term Project: "Develop an intelligence network".
 * Zoya completes her 4-step Long Term Project, "Track down Pasha Marble", and gains 1 drive clock tick (up to 2).

Trivia

 * "Поехали!" (roughly "Polekhali!") is a Russian phrase meaning "Here we go!". It refers to the use of the phrase as a good-bye to cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin on the first manned mission to space.
 * This session is the first appearance of Springfield Autumns, who up until now has provided a neutral viewpoint on the Aureate conflict in Gilded Dispatch.