Gilded Sands 07 — Bastille Day

BASTILLE DAY was the seventh session of Gilded Sands, played on 8 October 2020. It was Dodeka's fourth mission. The squad took on their toughest mission yet; iniltrating the Iris prison complex in Kleidos with the help of Kaleidos Green, to retrieve Stem Tromara.

Cast

 * Iskra Garomedon, a desperate hero. (she/her)
 * Kladi Demos, a repentant bureaucrat. (they/them)
 * Skoryy Feldspar, a sacrificial ace. (she/her)
 * Zoya Gabbro, a guilt-ridden infiltrator. (she/her)
 * Kaleidos Green, a heroic ace. (he/they)
 * Stem Tromara, a tortured prisoner. (she/her)
 * Kaleidos Scarlet, a loyal clone. (they/them)

Previously...
Almost three months ago, in GS01 – TORN PAGES, Dodeka took on a mission from the Argent Canopy (then Narkissos Root) wherein they were to retrieve a "captured" scientist by the name of Stem Tromara. However, in reality, Tromara was attempting to escape and defect from Dodona. Still, Dodeka fought off Kaleidos Green, who was attempting to rescue her, and Skoryy (on behalf of Dodeka) handed her in to the Iris. Since then, she has made amends with Green, promising to set things right by retrieving Tromara from captivity. After finally gaining a bit of a foothold as an independent squad, the day has come for Dodeka to make good on that promise.

In GS06 – ПОЕХАЛИ!, Dodeka prepared for this mission with the knowledge that it would be a particularly difficult one. Zoya called in a favour with Egon Shale to get fake papers that would help them enter Kleidos on the premise of being a legitimate graft. In addition, Iskra asked Two Moon Cry to provide a distraction during the infiltration, and Skoryy led the charge on providing the squad with emergency cloaking devices.

While preparations went well, Nandi spends her time still recovering from severe injuries sustained during GS05 – LUNAR CONJUNCTION. In her place, Kladi Demos joins Dodeka for this mission as support, transport, and a Dodonan 'face'.

Approach
The mission begins with Dodeka approaching the prison in Kleidos through an eastern checkpoint, in a Dodonan military van driven by Kladi. While Kladi is in the driver's seat, the rest of the squad hide in the back of the van, while Zoya sits in the camouflaged Mimic, also in the back. When they arrive at the checkpoint, Kladi gets them through with the use of the forged papers, as well as their own experience as a Dodonan officer allowing them to play the role effortlessly.

Infiltration
When the squad approaches the huge, domed structure of the prison, Kladi parks the van in an inconspicuous spot by the fence surrounding the complex. The Mimic emerges from the van, and Zoya resolves to use it to climb the fence while carrying everybody inside its pouch. However, finding the wall lined with proximity sensors, she is forced to get everyone back out of the Mimic and instead remote-control its arms to lift everybody over the fence, with the help of Kladi providing software support. While this works, it means leaving the Mimic behind.

On foot, with the help of a blueprints supplied by Kladi, the crew finds an electrical maintenence port that they manage to climb through, though not without Zoya contesting Kladi's attempts at leading the infiltration. The crawl through the junction provides stressful, as making sure everybody makes it through safe is not an easy task. However, once inside, Dodeka find themselves in the medical facilities of the main Iris facility dome. Faced with the obstacle of a lone medical staffer, Skoryy quickly knocks them out, and the squad is able to find a map of the facility on a nearby terminal.

The map reveals that the site is organised so that six smaller facilities branch off from a central hub like spokes, and Tromara is in the prisoner stack directly across the hub from where they find themselves now. The squad proceeds to the hub.

Kladi, Skoryy, and Iskra decide to attempt to gain access to the prisoner stack by passing off Kladi as a Dodonan officer taking two "prisoners" to containment. Meanwhile, Zoya—invisible thanks to her optical camo—splits off from them to attempt to find a terminal in the hub with which she hopes to open the prisoner containment and let Tromara out. However, while Kladi attempts to fast-talk the prison guards, Zoya's plan immediately fails, as the terminal rejects her security cracker, and an alarm is raised.

Open Fire
Acting with quick reflexes, Skoryy sets off a flashbang that gives Dodeka just enough time to get into cover, before the room explodes into violence. Thanks to this set-up, the prison guards (likely fitted with emotional suppressors) are unable to land any hits with their experimental and extremely dangerous railgun prototypes (courtesy of the newly-in-power Argent Canopy). Skoryy opens fire with a shotgun, Zoya attacks from hiding with a silenced assault rifle, and Iskra calls in Kaleidos Green—who enters through the glass dome above the hub, and joins the fight with a flechette pistol and combat knife.

Most of the guards are dealt with, but not before one is able to activate "Protocol 37". Iskra deals with a cluster of them using a hand grenade, while Zoya takes out the final guard by sneaking up behind them while cloaked and choking them out. However, one of the prison staff—familiar enough with cloaking devices to spot her—grazes her with a shot from a railgun, before being taken out by a colleague for fear of reprisal.

Release
Kladi, able to figure out the Dodonan terminal systems, begins the process that releases Tromara from her cell. However, at this time, "Protocol 37" begins to approach from elsewhere in Kleidos: a Kyklops Root Seleukias, a similar (though more heavily armoured) model to Kaleidos Green's own Kappadokkios, piloted by a clone of Kaleidos.

Realising they're outmatched by the Seleukias, Dodeka begin to formulate an escape plan on the fly. Skoryy and Kladi make a fake call to report the Seleukias as a rogue agent, causing Kleidos' military forces to begin firing on it, slowing its approach somewhat, though not stopping it.

The elevator with Tromara's cell finally surfaces, and she is greeted by Kaleidos Green. However, having been implanted with emotional dampeners as "rehabilitation", she's unable to express much in the way of relief or stress, but is nonetheless pleased to see Kaleidos and Dodeka. She picks up a rail pistol, getting ready to escape.

The path is clear: to get out, Dodeka only need to outrun the Seleukias (somehow), and blow their way through the wall with an explosive. Skoryy, realising everybody except Tromara and Kaleidos have a cloaking device, gives her hers, and resolves to make the run with the explosives herself; as a visible target, she would make a good distraction. However, Kaleidos convinces her to give him the explosives instead.

Sacrifice
To give everybody a head-start, Iskra fires on the mech with a rocket launcher. Leveraging what she learned from Nandi's analysis of the Kappadokkios in GS01 – TORN PAGES, she aims for its weak spot—its kidney. She scores a clean hit, but is riddled with devastating gunfire that cause her to pass out with severe injuries.

Kaleidos makes a run for the fence, but is pursued by Skoryy, determined to protect him... who in turn is pursued by Zoya, who cannot allow herself to let Skoryy risk death. Kaleidos throws the explosives into place and detonates them successfully, but not without attracting the attention of the Seleukias. It fires on him with its rifle, but Skoryy—right behind him—takes the hit for him, which destroys one of her prosthetic legs. Zoya, while not being fast enough to prevent this damage, scoops up Skoryy almost as soon as she's hit, intending to carry her the rest of the way while securing a route for Kladi, hauling Iskra's limp body away.

However, before Zoya can make it out entirely, another attack from their pursuer sprays her with shrapnel—which Skoryy makes sure to catch with her own body. While staying mostly uninjured, the stress overwhelms Zoya, and together with an injured Skoryy, they limp the last stretch towards the Mimic, where Skoryy stuffs the both of them into its cockpit.

Meanwhile, Kladi ushers Tromara, Kaleidos, and a broken Iskra into the van. They floor it, and Dodeka make it out of Kleidos as an enraged Seleukias wreaks havoc on the city in their wake.

Regrets
While Zoya is too far gone to pilot the Mimic herself, Skoryy does her best. She shares the mech's rebreather with Zoya, just barely enabling her to pilot it to safety without too many adverse effects. However, Zoya is not so lucky—during her mental breakdwon, the tehoma in her system amplifies her own feelings of inadequacy at her failed attempt to rescue Skoryy. She gets utterly lost to time in memories of the harsh, stormy waves of Madrigal, which are shared with Skoryy, and manifests as the physical feeling of splashing ocean water on both of their skin. Though she doesn't know it yet, Zoya contracts tehoma poisoning, and she begins to hear the song of The Singing Deep.

In the van, meanwhile, a panicked Kladi races out of Kleidos wracked with survivor's guilt at being the only member of Dodeka to make it out relatively fine (if stressed). In the back, Tromara and Kaleidos stabilise Iskra, who breaks into sobbing at the thought of the violence she's had to inflict yet again, wishing not to have to do this anymore.

Return
With the help of Two Moon Cry, Dodeka extract from Kleidos safely. However, it takes days to actually reach Vedro again, and it's only thanks to Dodona's preoccupation with fighting the Terrenon Dynasty that they make it out without pursuit. With the chaos they left Kleidos in, Dodeka have sown seeds of little uprisings.

To help lift Kladi's spirits on the ride back, Tromara shows them a "magic trick"; she asks them to touch a pressure point on her wrist, which makes her instantly fall asleep.

Mechanical Notes

 * Iskra gains the scar soft.
 * Iskra switches playbooks from Soldier to Hero.
 * Zoya gains the scar haunted.
 * Nandi continues to heal up back at base...
 * Dodeka fills their XP track (upgrades TBD).
 * Dodeka gain 5 supply points, 2 materiel, and 4 rep.
 * Kaleidos Green's status with Dodeka is increased to +3 ("heroes").
 * The Iris' status with Dodeka is decreased to –2 ("shoot on sight").
 * Dodeka lose 6 trust with the Dodonan Tribunal.

Trivia

 * The name of this session is in reference to the real-world holiday of the same name. Bastille Day is the English name of the French national day Fête nationale. It commemorates the anniversary of the Storming of the Bastille (a French state prison) on the 14th of July 1789, a notable turning point of the French Revolution.