Beneath The Banner

***Beneath The Banner*** is the third episode of Volume 3 and the ninth episode of Season 1 of *The Sojourn*.

## Synopsis

Uncovering a force of Frontier Union vessels hiding in the nebula, the Avalon Expedition offers assistance, but the Unioners have an agenda of their own.

## Summary

At the Aegis of Invia, High Cleric Lantris gives an introductory tour to a group of new clerics of the Faith Eternal. After sending them away to their duties, she and Lord Cardinal Arvannis speak on the sheer pecularity of the facility - a minefield dividing their own empire, ancient and foreboding, with no clear reason as to why it was built, and what it was built to protect *from*.

Lantris questions her compatriot for not destroying the recovered Outsider artefact, questioning why anything that flies so directly in the face of the faith should be preserved, but Arvannis has greater plans. Having come to the realisation that the Outsiders came via a device much like the artefact looted by the Advari months before, Arvannis begins planning a much grander scheme to uphold the faith.

Meanwhile, the crew of the *Guinevere* are out on the edge of charted space within CDC-41-Gamma. While all seems quiet at first, with Croft and Meds passing the time playing the Merician card game Pentad, they are suddenly locked onto by a hostile mine. Before it can hit them, however, the mine is destroyed by what happens to be a Union outrider, the Frontier Militia vessel *Seraphina*. The Captain of the ship escorts the *Guin* to their fleet leader, much to Meds' chagrin.

[The Guin is escorted to a holdfast, contact Maalsuwda, and move to send word back to Avalon]
A short while later, the *Guin* arrives at a Holdfast, with the third missing gate component at its centre. They are put into contact with Fleet Leader Maalsuwda, who is happy to see a friendly face, but reluctant to explain his reasoning for being out there, nor does he agree to disassemble the Holdfast. Cass proposes a compromise - bringing Director Ancelet directly out to the Holdfast to parlay - which Maalsuwda accepts.

On their way back towards the Avalon fleet, Meds once again brings forth her severe mistrust of the Unioners, believing that they shouldn't just leave the Gate component out there with them. Cass grows sick of trying to explain why Meds' preconceived notions are unhelpful, and instead brushes her off, explaining that trust has to begin somewhere, whether Meds likes it or not.

Days later, the support fleet arrives at the holdfast. Maalsuwda is angered at the amount of activity brought to his doorstep, fearing that the Advari will quickly detect them after months of careful covert activity. Despite Elizabeth's expectations for him to disassemble the Holdfast immediately and return to the relative safety of the *Avalon*, Maalsuwda had been wanting to stay put, given that his flotilla had observed another Gate component... in Advari custody, beyond the minefield. The *Avalon* party offer to take Maalsuwda's gate component out of harms way, but the Fleet Leader refuses, explaining that his trust has been trampled over. They come to no solid conclusions at the time, but Elizabeth is able to offer medical and engineering support.

In the midst of repairs, Meds confronts Maalsuwda directly about the state of his makeshift medical ship, the *Winchell Chung*. Maalsuwda tries to be reasonable, despite Meds' demands for him to flee the situation, before instead offering Meds a break with Komusār and conversation. Meds continues to be confrontational, whilst Maalsuwda tries to explain his point of view on the situation.

He explains that Meds reminds him of a younger version of himself - someone who was once significantly more radical than the man before her. He continues by telling a story from his time during the war; during clean-up operations on Seravis Major, his extremist worldview prevented him from seeing the wider picture; when attacked by a group of Stringwolves, his commanding officer offered a truce to the group of CMC Marines they were hunting. This enraged Maalsuwda, to the point where he pulled a gun on his commander, but he was stopped by the other troops in his squad. Shortly after, Maalsuwda was forced into the fray, and fought alongside a CMC marine called Hawthorne, and actually began to bond with him. Then, after the battle was over and his squad left the planet, his commanding officer was demoted for "insubordination". This forced Maalsuwda to re-evaluate his worldview, and lead him to become a more balanced individual.

He gives thanks to his old commander - the at-the-time Sergeant Tamika Jinn. Meds is shaken by this, after her own fateful encounter with Jinn months before. Maalsuwda is delighted to hear she made it through, hoping she's okay, but Meds is forced to tell him the truth of the matter, the two finding solidarity in her passing.

Back aboard the *Guin*, they detect several unknown contacts coming from the Advari militarised zone, headed towards them. Confirming them as Advari, the Holdfast is given only three hours to pack down and scatter into the nearest Lauralyn Conduit. The Gatehauler and other civilian vessels in the fleet from the *Avalon* begin their retreat immediately, with Elizabeth reluctantly joining the fleeing ships at Cass' request.

Meds and Croft aid in disassembling the Holdfast. During this, Meds strikes a tense conversation with her friend, asking what he thinks of Unioners. Croft being himself, he has a very balanced opinion on them - some are great, some are terrible. To him, it's hard to have a single opinion about every person in a whole nation. Meds mulls on this as they work.

Just before the remaining flotilla is about to retreat, Maalsuwda informs the *Guin* crew that the *Winchell Chung* has sprung a dangerous turbopump leak that requires immediate repair - and, until its fixed, the ship is immobile. With the Advari Fliers almost on top of them, Maalsuwda's fleet and the *Guin* prepare to defend the limping hospital ship.

[Battle begins, several Union ships are destroyed and more are damaged. However, they escape with the Chung thanks to the sacrifice of Seraphina and Whiplash]

With the fliers entering combat range, the battle begins. Immediately, the Advari vessels prove remarkably swift, dodging the initial missile screen. The *Sutedo* is destroyed in a swift attack, and the Tantalusian fleet is forced to defend, finding the incoming vessels difficult to hit. *Seraphina* is surrounded by enemy combatants and cut off from the rest of the line, but is rescued by the *Guin* with several cluster missiles. Shortly after, however, the *Guin* is struck, losing power to one of its dorsal engines.

The Advari fleet make a move towards the *Winchell Chung*, with the *Jamake* sacrificing itself to protect it. Whiplash's railguns overheat; a sign of the exhaustion that is spreading across the fleet. Shortly after, the *Winchell Chung* is able to head underway, but its repair is swiftly followed by a second, larger wave of Advari fliers on approach. With all ships wounded, both Cass and Maalsuwda realise they cannot stay and win this fight. Not wanting to reveal the location of the *Avalon* to the Advari, some of Maalsuwda's fleet, specifically *Seraphina* and *Whiplash*, elect to distract the Advari along a false vector. Meds tries to protest, but the two vessels engage, seconds before the rest of the fleet escape through the conduit. Only the *Rodrigo*, *Tserekai*, and *Guin* are able to make it away along with the *Winchell Chung*.

Four hours later, well away inside the conduit, the crew of the *Guin* take a moment to reflect. Meds, after months of angst and emotional turmoil, finally opens up to Cass about her hatred towards Unioners - and, in a sense, her hatred towards her connection towards them. She explains that at this point, after meeting so many genuinely good people from the Union, who worked so hard and sacrificed so much to keep the *Avalon* and the rest of the expedition safe, she doesn't want to hate them anymore. But... she doesn't know how. Cass responds that hate can be something you, at first, need to survive, but before long it becomes an addictant or requirement for you to carry on. But Cass is sure that Meds can face this hatred head on and dismantle it - she sees Meds as a good person, who has saved her life, and others, many times, in their darkest moments. She offers to take Meds back to Maiala's Rest, when they finally get back to Tantalus, which Meds agrees to.

Back on the *Avalon*, the representatives of the expedition - Director Ancelet, Maalsuwda, and Admiral Redfield - begin discussing their options moving forwards. Their priority, if they ever wish to get back home, is recovering the final gate component; however, now that the Advari know they're after it, this task has become exponentially more difficult. Maalsuwda and Redfield spat back and forth, before Elizabeth shuts them down, telling them they need to work together on this. After more consideration, Elizabeth finally agrees that, despite her reservations, a peaceful outcome is no longer possible. They must fight in order to get home.

[Valendra realises the conspiracy is bigger than she thought, but before she can investigate further, she is roped in by Arvannis.]
Around the same time, Valendra suddenly makes several cascading realisations about the state of her empire - she finds a thread after Cindra mentions the Mirror of Contrition, a ship supposedly out of commission, and begins to pull, and pull, and pull, realising a grander conspiracy than even she suspected may have been underway right beneath her nose. Before she can do something about it, however, Lord Cardinal Arvannis appears. Shooing away Cindra, he explains that Valendra does not know her place - but if she truly wishes to know the truth, Arvannis will show her. He warns her, however, that learning this truth will forever change her, and it cannot be underdone. Valendra agrees, determined to know what all hte sacrifice and death that her empire perpetuates is even for, and follows Arvannis into the unknown.

## Cast

### Main

* Larissa Thompson as Captain Cassandra Farren
* Emily Serdahl as Director Elizabeth Ancelet
* Ben Prendergast as Mathias Croft
* Laura Faye Smith as Tamara 'Meds' Melari
* Stephen Trafford as Inquistor Castian Vadric

### Supporting

* Lelia Symington as Empress Valendra the Sixth
* Tim Parker as Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis
* Amy Kay as Cindra Tacira
* Marta Da Silva as High Cleric Darsellia Lantris
* Sara Burd as Captain Taida Jadina

### Guest

* Jimmy Lockett as Vice Admiral Winston Redfield
* Martin Roach as Captain Omar Maalsuwda

### Additional Voices

* Kevin Nguyen as Holdfast TC
* Izzy Shackleton as Union Technician
* Hussein Mohammed as *Jamake* Captain

## Trivia

The "banner" refered to in the title is almost certainly a reference to the flag of the Frontier Union.