Gilded Sands 13 — Final Bell

FINAL BELL was the thirteenth session of Gilded Sands, played on the 17th of December 2020. It was Spearbreak's seventh and final mission. Spearbreak took to Vow one final time to finish the fight with Toporik Jet.

Cast
Our heroes...
 * Iskra Garomedon (she/her), a steadfast fighter, played by River.
 * Nandi Tin (she/her), a discontented supporter, played by Nausicaä.
 * Skoryy Feldspar (she/her), a vengeful director, played by Hazel.
 * Zoya Gabbro (she/her), a worn-out ally, played by Ida.

Their allies, played by Remi...
 * Kaleidos Green (he/they), a loyal friend.
 * Dora Tourmaline (she/her), a terrified partner.
 * Zbinya Cinnabar (he/they), an effectual officer.
 * Stem Tromara (she/her), a sympathetic Chorist.

And their adversaries, played by Remi...
 * Malinovyy "Hack" Rust (he/him), a vengeful goon.
 * Igor Slate (he/him), a sturdy henchman.
 * Toporik Jet (he/him), a dead man.

Preparations
Spearbreak gather at a rendezvous point some distance outside the boundaries of Vow, where Zbinya Cinnabar and Stem Tromara have brought a Mule unit to ferry the refugees rescued in GS11 – REPEAT OFFENDER, and the final bit of supplies needed to get the squad ready for their assault on Toporik Jet in the Glass Needle. The Glass Needle is an enormously tall tower of glass (much of it shattered), formerly a hotel, where the Toporik Syndicate has holed up as the war proceeds beneath them.

Some small repairs and fixes are made to the vehicles, while everybody prepares for their attack. While tending to the Mimic, Zoya experiences a strange vision for the first time—as later explained by Tromara, it's another outcome of her tehoma poisoning. She sees a watery, pearlescent vision of the streets of Vow surrounding the Glass Needle—up by the top of the spire sits Toporik Jet, and on the ground are his only two remaining allies in the world: a slow and armoured mech, and a fast and nimble one, both seeming capable of short-range combat.

After talking to Tromara—and having some cloudberry tea to soothe the song in her head—Zoya comes clean to Spearbreak about the not-so-latent psychic abilities she's developing. With the information she's gathered, plus additional scouting of the streets by Nandi, the squad lays a plan: go in through the large and labyrinthine undercity and breach the surface below the henchmen's feet.

Before heading off, Zoya talks to Dora, who is nervously assembling her gun, shaking so much she's almost unable to hold it. She talks Dora out of coming, with the help of Skoryy, who matter-of-factly asserts that Zoya is coming back.

Emergence
The ground beneath Hack's armoured, heavy Boris unit explodes as the One-Winged Hussar, the Ripshaw, the Mimic, and the Kappadokkios emerge in an ambush. The shock and debris shears off the Boris's external armour plating—made of scavenged bits of a space shuttle—and off in the distance, a screech drive sounds off—one much like Skoryy's, yet (she notes) a little off. The tehoma-infused resonce rings in Zoya's head, causing all but a migraine.

Zoya clambers the Mimic onto the Boris's back and begins tearing at any exposed important components she can find, as its pilot—Malinovyy "Hack" Rust formerly of Stervat Services—yells out over open comms: "You're the bastards who killed my siblings!"

The distraction opens Hack up to a salvo from the Ripshaw's nose cannon, as Skoryy skates it around the Boris, comfortably outside the range of its sawblade arms.

Screech
Nandi, who has set up Mama for sniping a distance down the road, is attempting to draw a bead on the Boris, but before she can act, a grappling hook spears Mama's leg. With Nandi's neural link, the pain resonates in her body as well.

The screech heralds a Mech Manufacturers unit—a bulky anvil-headed humanoid mech with a massive hammer—speeding towards Mama. At the last minute, Nandi is able to avoid major damage by leaping away, tearing a slack in the grappling line, but she's still on the hook and up against a foe she can't defend herself against with her long-range weaponry. She attempts to open comms with the pilot, but her reply is only silence.

As Iskra is about to engage the Boris, Nandi warns of the Platina Udar over the comms, and she decides she's better off assisting her friend. With the Hussar's leg jets engaged, she charges down the street towards the Platina Udar, and crashes into it with the lance.

In the sky up above, Iskra notices a series of bright-coloured signal flares—unmistakably Tyranon signals. In the heat of battle, she can't quite make out their meaning, but clearly the Tyranons are up to something.

Hack
Back by the Glass Needle, Zoya, Skorry, and Kaleidos keep engaging the Boris. While Kaleidos keeps Hack distracted, Zoya begins to work the Mimic's many tentacle hands into the Boris' tiny cockpit window, poking and jabbing at weak point until eventually the armoured glass shatters, and the lining is torn off, exposing the pilot to Skoryy's fire.

Zoya experiences another vision—this one brief—of Hack firing off a rocket that impairs Skoryy's too much to cause any real damage, and in a desperate attempt to keep Hack even more distracted, she pokes a Mimic tentacle into the Boris's cockpit. Skoryy fires into the cockpit and causes critical damage, but Hack is still alive, and shears off the tips of some of the Mimic's arms, causing it to spray tehoma everywhere as it loses its grip and is bucked off the back of the mech.

Taking this opportunity, Skoryy quickly approaches the Boris and fires the Ripshaw's cannon directly into and through the back of the cockpit, killing Hack. In a final desperate move, he triggers the Boris's hidden self destruction, blasting both the Ripshaw and the Kappadokkios back. Everybody is still standing, but the Kappadokkios has a logging saw embedded in its chest.

Slate
Meanwhile, Iskra and Nandi continue fighting the Platina Udar. In order to draw the pilot's attention, Nandi projects a large hologram of Duchess Ball Lightning—animating into a menacing snarl—from Mama. Iskra takes another stab at the Platina Udar, this time aiming for its screech drive. A direct hit causes it to explode in a shower of impossible colours, coating both the Hussar and the Udar in the liquid pearlescent sheen of the Singing Deep.

Up above, another set of Tyranon flares appear, and something jogs Iskra's memory: the signal means "all units retreat". Something is coming.

Seeing that their comrades are still in trouble, Skoryy, Zoya, and Kaleidos speed over to them, the Mimic riding the Ripshaw. As they keep fighting, Mama fires off a lightning gun round at the Udar, but is hit with a dead-centre hammer swing that cracks its shell. The Hussar's arm—fortunately, not its weapon-wielding arm—is torn off.

When the Ripshaw arrives, its pilot opens comms with Skoryy. It's Igor Slate, Toporik's bodyguard, whom Skoryy stabbed in GS10 – MOTHERLODE.

Zoya attempts to grapple the Mimic onto the Udar to restrict its movement so that Iskra can get in a good hit, but is caught out by a hammer swing that smashes the body of the Mimic into the ground. The distraction still allows Iskra another swing, but time is running out.

Bombardment
Outside the walls of Vow, an enormous force of Dodonan Crusader units has lined up, with their cannons trained on the city.

Over comms, Zbinya Cinnabar relays an urgent message to Spearbreak: Dodona is going to level Vow to the ground, and they need to get out now. Over comms, Nandi echoes the sentiment, but Skoryy insists they have to do what they came for. To Nandi's frustration, the Ripshaw—with the Mimic wrapped onto its back—speeds off towards the Glass Needle.

Attaching the Ripshaw's grapnel hook to leverage points on the outside of the Glass Needle, Skoryy pilots the machine up the side of the building, engaging her screech drive and occasionally re-attaching the hook as she scales it high above the city, as the Crusaders outside begin firing.

Homecoming
Toporik Jet recognises the shrill shriek of the Screech Drive—Mk.I, clearly, not the Mk.II he'd ordered made for the Platina Udar. Moments later, his office explodes in glass and debris. The Toporik Transportation Beryl Begune is standing in his office, with a mangled mechanical creature on its back.

As the dust settles and the Glass Needle shakes with the explosions of the Dodonan bombardment, the Ripshaw's cockpit pops open. Skoryy Feldspar stares him down, waiting to see what he has to say.

He gives her nothing but a grin. The silence only hangs for a beat before Toporik Jet is filled with a hail of bullets.

Rendesvouz
Spearbreak escape Vow intact, leaving Igor Slate to contend with the bombardment on his own. They arrive with their mechs limping and broken, at the rendesvouz point by the beach. A barge is set up to transport them and their allies back to Vedro post-haste, but not before an argument breaks out.

Nandi chews out Skoryy—she is angry at having been roped into her revenge quest to nobody's benefit. As she complains that their mission saved nobody, she is proven somewhat wrong by a number of Toporik Syndicate defectors, to whom Skoryy had sent the coordinates of the rendesvouz point on the way out. However, Skoryy admits to the vengeful nature of the mission, although she refuses to apologise for it.

Nandi and Skoryy have both come far from a life of violence and self-interest and have begun on a path to doing good by the people, yet they leave the argument unable to see eye to eye.

Meanwhile, Zoya is greeted by Dora, who is besides herself with relief at seeing her alive. She pulls her out of the Mimic (whose cockpit has retained a lot of tehoma due to the severed limbs, causing it to pour all over the ground) and hugs her tight, and begins rambling about her relief and hopes as Zoya lays down in the sand.

Iskra, as opposed to the rest of the squad, finds herself somewhat alone here, with her allies all back at Vedro. Nandi approaches her and makes sure she's all right.

On the barge, Skoryy and Zoya find each other. Skoryy lays her head in Zoya's lap—weary, successful in her mission, but not done.

As the squad is ferried out into the Mirror Sea, they know their time as a unit is over. When they next set their feet on Aureate's mainland, they will no longer be Spearbreak—at least not all of them. What kind of future awaits them back on Vedro?

Mechanical Notes

 * Skoryy's drive ("Kill Toporik Jet") is resolved.
 * Iskra and Zoya gain a belief with Skoryy for having spent their drive clocks to help her, and she gains one with each of them.
 * The Toporik Syndicate ceases to exist as a squad.
 * Malinovyy "Hack" Rust and Toporik Jet are dead. The fate of Igor Slate is unknown.