  Models of inflation are instructive playgrounds for supersymmetry breaking in
Supergravity and String Theory. In particular, combinations of branes and
orientifolds that are not mutually BPS can lead to \emph{brane supersymmetry
breaking}, a phenomenon where non--linear realizations are accompanied, in
tachyon--free vacua, by the emergence of steep exponential potentials. When
combined with milder terms, these exponentials can lead to slow--roll after a
fast ascent and a turning point. This leaves behind distinctive patterns of
scalar perturbations, where pre--inflationary peaks can lie well apart from an
almost scale invariant profile. I review recent attempts to connect these power
spectra to the low--$\ell$ CMB, and a corresponding one--parameter extension of
$\Lambda$CDM with a low--frequency cut $\Delta$. A detailed likelihood analysis
led to $\Delta = (0.351 \pm 0.114) \times 10^{-3} \, \mbox{Mpc}^{-1}$, at
$99.4\%$ confidence level, in an extended Galactic mask with $f_{sky}=39\%$, to
be compared with a nearby value at $88.5\%$ in the standard Planck 2015 mask
with $f_{sky}=94\%$. In these scenarios one would be confronted, in the CMB,
with relics of an epoch of deceleration that preceded the onset of slow--roll.
