Gilded Sands 12 — Parole

PAROLE was the twelfth session of Gilded Sands, played on the 26th of November 2020. It was Spearbreak's sixth downtime. Back in Pesok Station after what has come to be known as The Week From Hell, the squad laid low and met up with an old friend, while preparing for what is becoming increasingly clear will be their final mission together as as squad.

Cast
Our heroes...
 * Iskra Garomedon (she/her), the heroic face of Spearbreak, played by River.
 * Nandi Tin (she/her), a principled believer, played by Nausicaä.
 * Skoryy Feldspar (she/her), an unrelenting orchestrator, played by Hazel.
 * Zoya Gabbro (she/her), an aspiring gardener, played by Ida.
 * Blue Phoenix (she/her), a returning star, played by Elagabalus.

And their allies, played by Remi...
 * Dora Tourmaline (she/her), a wishful partner.
 * Kaleidos Green (he/they), a naïve tag-along.
 * Stem Tromara (she/her), an absent surgeon.
 * Dorus Midnight (he/him), a contested hostage.

Vendetta
As a result of the death of Apate Midnight in the last mission, the Iris has a vendetta against Spearbreak. To reflect their subtle outside pressure, Spearbreak only have two free downtime activities this session, as opposed to the usual three.

Threat
As soon as Skoryy arrives in Pesok Station, she's given a package by a courier. Inside is a figurine of the Zoloto Liga, Ushel Indium's racing mech: a clear threat from Toporik Jet.

Remote Checkup
As a broken and battered Spearbreak arrives in Pesok Station, the first thing they do is set to heal up. However, due to the absence of their usual doctor (Stem Tromara, who is back at Vedro), the squad calls her up and asks her to remote-pilot Nandi's mechanical arm in order to provide some rudimentary medical aid.

Tromara is able to patch up Iskra's railgun injury to some degree, while Nandi prays for her recovery to Brother Mars of the Five Orbs. Skoryy, however—who suffered something more akin to whiplash—can only receive rudimentary healing, and she only makes basic progress towards healing.

Hostage
In GS11 – REPEAT OFFENDER, Iskra tackled and detained Dorus Midnight, the brother of Apate Midnight. In an underground hangar, a discussion among the squad breaks out as to what to do with him now that they have him in their custody.

Nandi and Iskra are on the side of letting him live, as a prisoner. Nandi cites her Taimu beliefs (with a side of good optics, not wishing to have the Taimu painted as people who execute prisoners). Iskra, at her limit when it comes to killing, agrees. While Kaleidos Green has less of a strong opinion, he finds this to line up reasonably with the fact that Kelp Idrotas has been stuck in a cell in Vedro since his capture in GS05 – LUNAR CONJUNCTION.

Skoryy wants to offer no quarter to Midnight, and would rather see him dead on the grounds of him being a fascist hired killer. Zoya, her memories of killing Pasha Marble still raw, also feels it's necessary—that to do anything else would be going back from the lengths they've gone so far—but she makes it clear she cannot pull the trigger.

Unable to come to an agreement, Spearbreak agree to sleep on it.

Repairs
While neither the One-Winged Hussar or Mama are with Spearbreak, Iskra and Nandi are able to call TT to request some repairs—though Iskra is still wary of having anybody else touch the Hussar (especially unsupervised), she sees no alternative. Nandi also asks her fellow Taimu to paint Mama in depictions of Taimu gods.

Blue Phoenix
In addition to coming to Pesok Station to rest up and lay low, Spearbreak were given another small mission by their direct superior, Zbinya Cinnabar. He trusted Iskra with a suitcase to hand to a member of 999 Knyazhne—a squad of flamboyant assassins with wrestler-like personas—to pay for a job.

At a familiar bar, Spearbreak are booked in for a meeting with their 999 Knyazhne contact, who turns out to be an old friend: Olenka Electrum, who left the squad after GS01 — TORN PAGES, is now Blue Phoenix, an assassin kitted out in a custom leather jacket and extravagant blue makeup. She joins Spearbreak for drinks and stories and revelry.

Kebabs
Later that night, Zoya, Skoryy, and Dora walk the streets of Pesok Station, sampling the local street food and (more) drinks. Kebabs in hand, the three head to the surface for some fresh air, where the conversation turns to the future. Dora asks Zoya and Skoryy what they want to do once they've taken care of Toporik.

While Zoya is reticent to answer, Skoryy is clear that she's simply going to move on to the next thing. Once Toporik is dealt with, there's going to be more war and conflict, and she sees herself needing to fight whatever comes next, because she doesn't want anyone else with her story.

Dora has no stomach for fighting, which was only made more clear in this last mission. She expresses her desire to live a quiet farming life on Vedro, and nothing more—though she doesn't seem to know how tending to plants really works. When she asks what Skoryy would do if she could wave a magic wand and make all the conflict go away, Skoryy struggles to be comfortable with the idea of settling down.

Zoya lays her own intentions clear: the next mission is going to be her last one. Beaten down by the conflicts Spearbreak have been forced to take part in, she shares Dora's sentiment of wanting to settle down and start a garden.

They return to other topics: reminiscing about Peschinka, about Skoryy and Zoya's time together, and about Skoryy's time as a racing star. Skoryy takes out the Zoloto Liga figurine, and—rather than seeing it as the threat it was meant to be—shows it off and tells good stories about Ushel.

Air Hockey
That same night, Iskra and Nandi find themselves drinking together again—this time with Kaleidos Green, who finds most of what he's handed (including some Nadezhdan kombucha) unpalatable and strange.

The three play air hockey at the bar while talking about home. To Nandi, home means a quiet life with Kladi in Vedro—and she realises how much she misses them.

Iskra doesn't know what comes next, and talks about how she's never had a place to call home, despite her noble upbringing. Nandi reminds her that her home is open to her whenever.

Gardening
The next morning, Zoya takes Dora to a Pesok market to look for gardening supplies. They buy soil, fertiliser, trowels and pots and other tools, some akakafe bean starters and a small handful of Aureate succulents.

Recruiting
While she's still in Pesok, Skoryy begins to make calls to members of the Toporik Syndicate—ones she knows can be manipulated into betraying their leader. She makes the argument that they won't have to change much about how they operate if they come over to her side, and she wins the loyalty of a number of goons.

To Vow
Spearbreak take off towards Vow, where the Toporik Jet waits in his towering Glass Needle. As a result of Skoryy's machinations, Dunyasha's plan to reveal Toporik's sedition to his masters, and Iskra's hand in many an orchestrated uprising, the Syndicate is now all but a thing of the past.

On the way, the absence of their hostage does not go unnoticed. Skoryy had taken it on herself to drive Dorus Midnight out into the Boneyard, where she executed him. Nandi is disappointed and upset with Skoryy, and the two head into the next mission with a strained relationship.

Spearbreak gather at a rendezvous point where the Hussar and Mama are shipped to them. Now, it only remains to see: will Toporik Jet go down swinging?

Mechanical Notes

 * Skoryy completed her long-term project to develop an intelligence network.
 * Zoya started a long-term project to set up a small personal garden in Vedro.
 * Iskra and Nandi each have a new belief for each other.
 * Skoryy and Zoya each have a new belief for each other.