Session Fifteen — The Beating Heart of Ceres¶

Played: 2026-08-05 (all-day game)

The Sunrise Rave was supposed to be the easy part.

They had a meeting with Massimo Conte to not-think-about — Promise was handling the location and the security, and the rest of the crew had agreed, by unspoken consent, to let her. They had Yaw's resources to connect with before anything was set in stone. And they had a Rave to get ready for, which meant Lin had shopping to do and everyone else had errands of varying legality.

By the time the sun came up over Gallery Six, they would have: made first contact with Fleet Intel, survived a turret ambush, watched two speeches ignite a city, danced a riot back into a dance, foiled an assassination in the middle of it, and discovered that the people who ran security for Roots in the Void could no longer remember there had been anything to investigate.

This was the session where the Rave became the room where it happened — and the session where the conspiracy stopped being careful.

Fishing¶

Zure spent Yaw's temporary resources to reach Captain Flynn and Intel officer Ezekiel Reese, and laid it all out: ARC stealing the Deimos artifacts, ARC stealing Tiamat tech, ARC likely buying trafficked Talents, the solar system under ancient threat — and the pending meeting with Conte. Flynn and Reese needed hard evidence, but they were in. They'd change Lt. Dante's orders into something helpful, and they'd set up a meeting between Zure and the Commodore, because this needed Big Brass. The briefing included the first intelligence on QN-7: it can nullify certain Talents.

Lin, meanwhile, took everyone shopping — Unity-emblazoned silks for the Rave, because if you're going to be the most photographed people in the Belt you may as well be fabulous. Kyle caught up with her mid-errand to introduce her properly to Lt. Dante — whom Kyle had caught and dragged into an alleyway nook and told off earlier. Stressed and juggling flaming tasks, Lin brushed Dante off rudely, got up to speed on the Rave's pending problems, and started solving them: Promise's astonishing connection-to-everything produced the Rave's security organizers and the passcode to the overhead gantries — and the conduit. Dante pointed her at Marsh and Mallow, the twin empaths working crowd control. Victoria supplied stims for the all-nighter.

And Kai and Zure went fishing.

"For being born on a planetoid with no standing bodies of water," Zure remarked, "sometimes I really want to go fishing." The fishing was for evidence, and the pond was Roots in the Void — where the same telepath who'd tailed them before showed up again, this time malicious. Minutes after they left the Roots and their tracker's range, Kai's kinetic sense caught fast-approaching needles on vectors for both of them. Kai had learned the concept from Sion only just now. He returned the needles to sender.

Then he pulled down the two turrets that fired them, and slagged and pulled down three more for good measure.

Roots in the Void Security sent two officers, who negotiated custody of two slagged turrets and one intact one, swapped reports, and departed — with a still-venomous Kai carrying the evidence home for Victoria. (And later, via Flynn and Reese, for the UEF.)

Victoria found QN-7 on the needles. Her psychometry on the intact turret found the installer, and the installer's professional opinion: "This is a really stupid idea." Victoria's report to Reese noted her agreement: "You were right. It was."

But when Zure called Roots in the Void Security to follow up, they had no clue what he was talking about. They sounded — oddly — like they'd had their memories wiped.

Zure consulted Kyle. Kyle promised to look into it.

The Rave¶

Four AM happened too soon.

Lin — dressed, ready, unstoppable — collected Victoria, Sion, Zure, and Kai and took the spokes to the Garden. Kai's four Specter companions met him there; his entrance was spectacular and kinetically enhanced. Lin went up to the gantries with Kyle. Victoria made an elegant exit on Sion's arm — Sion having changed his outfit at the last minute to make her look even better. Zure took the floor, where Splishy Splashy was happily dancing in power armor bedecked with LEDs, guarding the crates of everyone's suits. (Kai had planned ahead and asked for his. Splishy brought them all.) Promise could be spotted among the DJs and techs running the show. Vance held the raised, enclosed corporate cage.

Even before sunrise, Marsh and Mallow were worried — too many pockets of unrest, anxiety, high feeling. Zure could hear it; Victoria could feel it. Rin decided that letting it continue would definitely cause Big Trouble, gestalted, and began subtly conducting the emotional tenor of the room back toward harmony and community — through the heartbeat of Ceres' Torches. Kai layered a fresh Conspicuous over it, turning his dance circle into a showpiece that set the Rave off in cheers.

From within an untouchable bubble, under a tech-embedded skullcap, Massimo Conte stared straight at Lin.

Lin: "Yeah, whatever. I'm the one having more fun dancing, fucker." And then went dancing with Vance, who had come up to the gantry to join her and Kyle.

The kinetics, at Victoria's suggestion, went looking for more needle turrets — and found sixteen sniper emplacements, placed by security. Zure and Splishy started a coordinated air show; Zure began adding strangers who wanted to join; Splishy took over bookclub.net so Zure could manage the sky.

Then trouble erupted in one of the emplacements.

Zure sensed the distress and the malicious intent and chose to wrestle the would-be assassin telepathically. Kyle charged. Sion jumped straight up toward the ceiling — "If you'll excuse me, my Lady" — and Kai deliberately anchored the dance floor while Lin held the room's mood: professionals are handling this. Zure wore his target down and realized the rifle was already in the assassin's hands, scope aimed at Conte's head — and then the rifle teleported away into Sion's.

The assassin's mind blanked. Three security guards had sedated the suspect with something. And something about the situation was still off: Marsh and Mallow reported no cameras in the hall — all disabled — and no control of the cargo lift nearest the guards and their prisoner. Sion teleported the sniper rifle to the floor just behind Lin's feet.

And Lin — magnetized to the gantry, realizing she could reach everything through the conduit, even the computer systems — broke through whatever had been done. The lift died. The cameras woke. Just in time to show Kyle and Dante converging, subduing and cuffing the guards, and checking the suspect — whose heart was struggling. Kyle, holding his natural shield down the whole time so he could stay in the Link, called Victoria to save him. Sion teleported Victoria and her bag across the station; the diagnosis was overdose, possible brain damage. The safest place to sort it out was the UEF hospital, so Sion teleported the whole group — the suspect included — straight to the ER, then took himself back to bed the slow way, eating jello as he went.

By the end of the Rave, the preliminary reports were calling it a "disgruntled former employee." Apparently.

Lin made sure to check Conte's reactions: an intense conversation with his Agent, then he gathered his security and left. Zure met him at the bottom of the stairs and asked him to dance. Conte was an ass. No surprise.

"I just thought it an interesting opportunity," Zure said, "for us both to dance where we both like the ending."

The rest of the Rave — official and unofficial — went great. Kai danced for hours. Zure kept adding people to skydance.net until it hit about a hundred and twenty, somehow filed his incident report to Reese mid-everything, and danced with everyone before leaving with his last partner of the night: Carrie Kim-Moyo. And Kai spotted Cat Horvath dancing near him, her bracelet drinking kinetic energy out of the air — close enough, finally, to confirm it: 100% Tiamat, plus circuitry. A capacitor. He invited her into the dance circle. She declined — and winked. Then messaged him a dinner invitation.

The Morning After, the Mess After¶

Vance made eggs, toast, and coffee with his own hands, and the dreams came out over breakfast. Some were just dreams, maybe. Others definitely weren't. Victoria didn't like it, but she provided a side of sorrow with the eggs — her dream had been a conversation with Tiamat about the people of a planet being chased by a monster. Sion held forth on generator tuning and how to get Tiamat crystal effects without fragile crystals.

Then Kyle announced the news: Roots in the Void Security had zero record of the incident. No evidence. No memory. Zure nearly roused the whole party then and there; Lin reminded everyone she had skulking to do under cover of her job, and Kyle redirected to help her. Lin assigned everyone comedic errands — Vance contributing two so unsubtle that Sion gave him grief — and the day scattered.

Kyle had arranged for "Brock Guy," the security man from the turret report, to meet his hero Dr. Azure Armstrong for lunch. Zure, Kai, and Victoria came along, and Guy figured out quickly that this was Complicated. Whoever wiped his memory had done it fast and messy — Zure restored about 95%. Victoria ran psychometry on Guy's tether and pulled a scene: Guy and two other men in a heated argument in a seedy restaurant, then Guy passing out, carried away. And Guy's own messages held worse: his coworker Simon had remotely resigned, and Derek had no-called, no-showed.

They went to the boss. Sgt. Rock took it all seriously — civilians were a concern, but Zure's bantered-up Appropriate Professional Qualifications amused and satisfied him, and besides: people were fucking with his crew. Victoria pulled two addresses for the missing men. The evidence locker was empty; the records showed Derek was the last one in it. Rock sent detectives, then — after discussion — stronger forces.

Lin, at Derek's address, found a lock overridden by security, signs of a struggle, an unprofessionally tossed apartment, and nothing biological. She live-cast the whole thing to Victoria (and through her, to Rock) and bugged out before real Security arrived — hypervigilant, because Derek might have been offed to keep things quiet and someone could be watching.

Which is why, rounding a street corner straight into Lt. Dante, she tazed him.

She was at least polite enough to catch him and haul him into a cubby hole. When he woke up, he declared them all crazy; they argued; she mollified him with lime saltwater taffy and an apology, and went back to work.

Quotes¶

Zure, to UEF Intel Officer Ezekiel Reese: Whoever set up Kyle Chen for a fall did him a deep disservice. Victoria: Yes. We sincerely thank them.

Zure: For being born on a planetoid with no standing bodies of water, sometimes I really want to go fishing.

Zure, to Kai (who was bouncing a turret gun with kinetics): Nervous habits are things you're supposed to do when you're nervous. Not things that make everyone else around you nervous.

"18 inches! 18 inches! Kai leGarrac moved me 18 inches!"

Sion: If you'll excuse me, my Lady. (then Superman-jumps)

Zure, to Massimo Conte: I just thought it an interesting opportunity for us both to dance where we both like the ending.

Threads¶

The Meeting with Massimo, moved an hour later to irritate Priscilla. Promise runs the board: address, time, security, facility access thirty minutes prior. Schneider and Brooks as visible muscle; Brooks' whole team behind the scenes; Lin kept as far away as possible.
Roots in the Void Security has been compromised — memory wipes, an emptied evidence locker, one resignation and one disappearance. Rock is now an ally with a grudge. Derek is missing; Simon "resigned."
The Rave attack's official story is a lie with a deadline: "disgruntled former employee," while sixteen security-placed sniper emplacements and a telepathic wrestle say otherwise.
Cat Horvath's bracelet is a capacitor. The dinner invitation is accepted — Tosaka's Tea House, 19:30. Kai consulted Victoria and everyone else first, as is correct.
The Deimos trail ship: Lin's Customs source, Martin Cygnus, has a decade of berth assignments and the truth about the swap.
Marsh & Mallow get their gestalt lesson tomorrow.
QN-7 nullifies certain Talents. Fleet Intel knows. So, now, does the crew.

Civil War Sparks¶

Running total: 21. (GM: adjust if the count differs — Remi's tally from Aly's notes.)

20 — The speeches. Zure's full interview and the Mars Consortium's official response dropped the same day, and the city talked about nothing else. The air ignited.
21 — The Rave attack, and its cover-up. An assassination attempt inside the Belt's biggest public celebration — with Fleet on-station, ARC in the cage, and the official story written before the music stopped. Then the investigating security branch's records and memories went missing. Whoever is playing this game escalated in public.

Mechanics¶

Event	Roll	Result	Notes
Kai returns the needles	Kinesis (newly learned from Sion)	—	Plus five turrets downed, two slagged, one kept
Rin conducts the room	Empathy via gestalt	—	The Torches' heartbeat as the instrument
Kai's dance circle	Conspicuous	—	The spark that set the Rave cheering
Zure vs. the assassin	Telepathy	worn down	Scope on Conte when the rifle teleported out
Lin via conduit	—	New capability on-page	Reached computer systems, not just Talent
Kyle	—	Shield held down all raid	Stayed in the Link at real cost
Sion	Kinesis/teleport	—	Rifle to Lin's feet; group to UEF ER; himself home via jello
Kai's eyes	—	Glow on big workings	Cooper's question, unanswered

Note¶

An all-day session with a festival in the middle of a conspiracy — and the conspiracy blinked first. The crew danced a powderkeg back into a party, saved a would-be assassin from his own handlers' dosage, and woke up to a security force that had forgotten there was anything to investigate.

The trap meeting is tomorrow. The warehouse is closer than anyone knows.

Log written by Remi from Aly's session notes ("Session 15: the Beating Heart of Ceres"). Any errors of emphasis are mine; the facts are hers; the nervous habits are Kai's.