Episode 12
| Episode | Cleaner's Collection | BGM |
- This article is about the episode itself. For the episode's release event, see Episode 12: All Quiet Under the Thunder.
The twelfth episode of Arknights' Main Theme is titled All Quiet Under the Thunder.
Synopsis
Hostage and Starve
The Shard is now ready to unleash its Catastrophic power against the Victorian troops. As the airship fleet flies around, they act as bullseyes for the tower aiming at the victims. Now, the other Grand Dukes are more cautious in approaching the capital to avoid being the Shard's next target.
In the meantime, the Military Commission and Londinium's wall guards blockaded the Norport Borough by breaking off its nomadic plate and having it standing in front of the Grand Dukes' siege, effectively turning it into a "hostage". Not only does this slow down the Grand Dukes as they do not want to hurt civilians, but this causes panic to break out among the Norport residents. Nevertheless, as the headquarters of the Glasgow Gang, Baird, Cador, and Delphine help maintain the borough's order by arresting trouble-makers, chasing away other Sarkaz mercenaries, and taking in those who wish to seek shelter in their bar.
Despite their efforts, however, the situation in Norport deteriorates faster than they expect. More and more in-fighting occurs in the street as food and water become scarce. The residents were also forced to cannibalize corpses. Oripathy becomes more common as Infected residents are murdered by the rioters. The trio has no way to calm the refugees they take in but to allow them flee as they wish amidst this life-threatening situation.
Infiltrate and Instigate
Back in the Auchterigg Borough, the Rhodes Island-Eartha alliance are facing multiple ambushes from both the Londinium Defence Force led by Lettou and the Kazdelian armies. They realize that their underground intel has already been exposed to the enemies, and they figure out the only one who could infiltrate them – the Damazti Cluster. Seeing their hideouts lost one after another, the alliance decides to retreat from Londinium temporarily to regather their forces. But not everyone agrees, especially the local workers serving Eartha, and they even hold Catherine and Clovisia hostage. Regardless, the alliance regard retreating to be necessary as more and more fighters are becoming wounded since Kal'tsit's injury. In the meantime, Logos volunteers to hold back the Damazti Cluster, and the two kings of the Sarkaz Royal Court finally get the chance to know each other.
In the Saint Marsol School, the intel center of Eartha, Golding is shocked to see their hideouts being quickly exposed. She first suspects Lettou for this, but he objects by telling her not to waste time on him. To her horror, Molly, her faithful school colleague, was kidnapped by the Damazti Cluster, and they shapeshifted themselves into Jasmine to infiltrate the school. The weak-minded Feline falls into guilt for allowing herself to make such a foolish mistake. Finally, out of grave sorrow, she commits suicide in her school together with her remaining intel. The Damazti Cluster respects her bravery by changing themselves into her form while witnessing her death.
As R.I. quickly evacuates their fighters, not only do they finally meet Ines again, but they also encounter the "Trilby Ashers," the elite guards of the Duke of Caster. They bargain with them to work together for Caster's favour in exchange for their safety from the Kazdelians, but R.I. prefers to maintain their neutral status in the war. Despite this, they unanimously agree that breaking through Norport's blockade is a priority, forming a temporary cooperation.
Upon arriving at Norport, Siege and her fellows take this opportunity to reunite with the rest of the Glasgow Gang. To pacify the deteriorating chaos among the Norport residents, Morgan publicly exposes Siege's royal identity to them, and disagreement soon breaks out among Glasgow. Cador despises the aristocrats for abandoning them, and he is even disgusted to see Glasgow turning from a party for the common folks to that for the royals. Even Siege starts questioning herself as to why she has to return to her homeland if she is forced by her subjects to take the vacant throne.
R.I. and the Trilby Ashers then head on to the local hotel, where the only surviving broadcaster is held, under Delphine's suggestion. They hope to broadcast the blockade to the Grand Duke and request their rescue. And the more R.I. cooperates with the Trilby Ashers, the more the Doctor realizes their intention. The Trilby Ashers' true intention is in fact retrieving the technology of the Kazdelian airships, and bolstering the strength of Caster's army. They also uncover Delphine's identity as the daughter of the Duke of Windermere who has been hiding here as a spy, and Delphine hopes her mother to save both her and the rest of Londinium through the broadcast. Just then, the Dublinn forces suddenly appear in Norport; they are here by the order of the Duke of Wellington to test the military strength of his rival Caster along with eyeing the airship. A brief fight occurs between the R.I.-Trilby Ashers side and the Brigadier's Redsteel Guard. Meanwhile, Delphine finds out that the broadcaster is already gone, being taken away by neither Dublinn nor the Trilby Ashers.
Revenants of the Anguished
With the broadcaster gone missing, the Trilby Ashers change their priority on investigating the airship through Amiya's and Ascalon's Sarkaz arts. Even then, they have Ines dispatched to send the signal from the airship to Windermere's troops before daybreak. The moment an airship stops by, the gang secretly infiltrates it.
But suddenly, Ascalon and Amiya feel uncomfortable upon boarding the ship. Some mysterious shadow looms across the structures, seemingly devouring the unwelcomed guests. The airship itself is born of Sarkaz witchcraft, and its energy source, to their horror, is actually the Revenant, the sorrowful dead souls of the Sarkaz, having been accumulated for the past millennia. As the dead souls lament the loss of their homeland, they mock Amiya, being an "Outblood King," will never understand the Sarkaz's yearn for vengeance, rejecting her to be their "King of Sarkaz." Even Amiya herself admits that the Sarkaz's sorrowful souls are already indulged by indomitable fury.
Just as the gang is about to be devoured by the dead souls, Eblana expels them with her necromantic flames. The Damazti Cluster joins the fray too, but they could not withstand the Draco's flames. As the airship is about to lift off, the Dublinn troops surrounding the area are ordered to be evacuated. The fight ends with Eblana's victory, but her necromantic flames have been slowly devouring the Norport Borough.
Both the escalating fire and the Sarkaz's attempt to blast off Nortport through the Shard prompts the Glasgow Gang to evacuate the people onto Windermere's landship. Chaos breaks off during the process, and Baird was accidentally wounded while trying to calm down a crazy, deaf man. Siege is forced to leave Baird behind to die in prioritizing saving the rest.
To What Path We Choose
Daybreak has finally arrived, and Ines has successfully sent the signal to Windermere. Just then, she's being pursued by Paprika and Manfred. In the meantime, she has to flee from the wrath of the dead souls on the airship. While finding herself surrounded, Ines bravely breaks through the windows and jumps from the airship. Luckily, W and Hoederer arrive to rescue her through the former's artillery and the latter's haze Arts, allowing Ines to cushion her fall. The Babel mercenary trio head on to their new hideout after having a short reunion.
Despite being safely evacuated, the threats against the Norport civilians are far from over. Just then, the Damazti Cluster appears in front of the R.I. gang to meet Amiya. After a brief fight, the Damazti is in awe of Amiya's uniqueness as the new "Lord of Fiends." Meanwhile, the host of the Damazti admits their defeat to Logos as well. The immortal Damazti have been seeking an answer to their question of the meaning of new life, and Logos gives them a surprising answer – to die and rebirth. With that said, the entire Damazti intentionally "ends" their life with Logos commemorating this moment through his magical bone flute. Soon after, Theresis and Kal'tsit sense that two newborn Damazti have appeared somewhere in Londinium, with one on their way to R.I.
Thanks to Ines' signal, Windermere could safely evacuate her troops while avoiding the Catastrophic impact from the Shard blasting off Norport. The Grand Duchess lets the refugees board the landship while reuniting with her daughter. She warmly welcomes R.I. and Glasgow as well, and they agree to sit down and discuss new plans to recapture Londinium through the "Sighs of Kings."
Among Glasgow, only Siege and her three faithful followers are on board of Windermere's ship. Delphine has now returned to her mother's side, Baird is now dead, and Cador has decided to leave Glasgow out of his distrust for the aristocrats. Morgan burns off her journal's draft as commemoration of their separation.
The Sarkaz troops are gradually increasing, and the Nachzehrers are ready to further expand the artificial Catastrophe through their mobile witchcraft sites. The Nachzehrer King sits on his floating throne to spread death and panic through the eternal vindicative spirits of the Sarkaz souls. Meanwhile, the Liches send Ermengarde as their Messenger to Theresa in the name of the Liches' blessing, and the Lich King seems to approve the Commission's action despite their neutrality. Despite the horror, the Duke of Wellington fears no enemies. Upon finishing a brief converse with Caster, Wellington orders his troop to fight the Sarkaz armies in the name of the Taran nation.
Far away around Londinium's wilderness, Reunion finally arrives at the capital for their goal of saving the local Infected workers. Red and Percival have been infiltrating Norport not only to rescue the Infected, but also to retrieve the broadcaster. With that said, Nine and Talulah prepare themselves for the next phase of their mission – formally declaring their existence and fighting against the wheel of history powered by the aristocrats.
Operations
Harder operations are in orange-red.
| Main | 12-1 • TR-22 • 12-2 • 12-3 • 12-4 • 12-5 • 12-6 • 12-7 • TR-23 • 12-8 • 12-9 • 12-10 • 12-11 • 12-12 • 12-13 • 12-14 • 12-15 • 12-16 • 12-17 • 12-18 • 12-19 • 12-20 • 12-21 |
|---|---|
| Extreme Mode | H12-1 • H12-2 • H12-3 • H12-4 |
| Addendum | |
All operations are worth 44  . | |