EVENT LOG 007 | AFTERMATH

[larkers]

WHO: The Displaced! Plus a surprise.
WHERE: New Beijing, a train, and then New Amsterdam.
WHEN: The tail end of the operation and the two days after: January 26th-28th.
WHAT: Finishing up the operation, hiding out, and going home.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: Violence and unstoppable soldiers. More to be updated as necessary.

> EVENT #007 AFTERMATH LOG

At the turn of midnight in New Beijing, the true risk to this plan comes to light. There was always a chance, always a point of awareness that Cassius wouldn't be able to buy his foot soldiers enough time. He knew that this could go poorly, so he was prepared for just that. He knew that the Displaced would, potentially, treat the UNA soldiers as personal enemies. They showed this face with their foolhardy desperation during the EMP's effects, and given an opportunity to assault a weaker, unexpecting bunch, they wouldn't hold back.

After all, not killing the soldiers hadn't been a suggestion made by Cassius showing some sign that he had a conscience or was worried about the death of citizens. No, killing the soldiers would make his job harder: and it did.

After scrambling the distress call for forty-five minutes, Cassius' efforts finally fail when the base finally gets the word out for reinforcements. Switching gears, Cassius sends along a word to the Displaced still in the base, letting them know that their time is running short. They need to get moving, and the UNA has wisened up to Cassius' tactics with the fabricated terrorist attacks on the other side of the city. If it were just one thing, the UNA may not have turned back, but their installed software quickly began to recognize many of the tactical patterns that Cassius employed: they weren't that different from the ones executed by radicalized Morningstar agents in other cities.

The lack of traffic in the city means the deployed soldiers return swiftly. Unlike the ones at the base, these soldiers are heavily armed and prepared for the worst. Even though Judas is definitely offline by the time they arrive, their systems remain operational for now. After all, Judas wasn't online as it was, as he was isolated from the world on a localized quantum server. The weight of Judas' impact on the UNA and its systems are still up in the air for anyone to guess. It's hard to tell what they might have been using him for, and just what weight his own additions had made on their current operations. What's clear is that these soldiers can still move, act, and attack, and there are hundreds of them rushing back in a steady stream of military might.

For anyone in the base, it's time to move. Being caught here probably will mean the end of the road for everyone involved.

◉ The soldiers who show up are not beatable. They will be working in formation and predicting most of what's coming their way, and given the numbers sent out, they will be unstoppable. Unsurprisingly, the larger the unit, the stronger their ingrained instincts happen to be. Think of these soldiers as the boss battle you can't even beat for an achievement. It's the one where you're meant to lose, if you engage at all.

◉ We're fine with any degree of Judas Hot Potato that goes on in the final stages of the base, and recommend that you all work that out on our event aftermath post.

◉ As for who finally hands Judas off to Cassius, we have sign ups at the aftermath post, too! The person who wins that doesn't need to be the person with the potato in the end; some creative juggling can go down for that stage, too!

◉ Anyone who dies on the base will need to be dragged out and taken to a medi-unit or they will be permadead. We are not asking for anyone to have their characters killed here! Everyone can get out safely and unharmed if they haul ass. Or even if they don't! Maybe they got lucky.

◉ Cassius will be wiping any records of the interlopers, making it so that their existence can't be traced. He'll be covering the surrounding areas of the base for a three mile radius. After that, everyone is on their own: they'd better have a plan of escape.

> LAYING LOW

While Cassius will be covering the immediate area of the base, everyone will want to make sure that they don't appear suspicious as they hit the streets of New Beijing. The best place to hide? The lower levels of the city. Despite the frequent police raids, someone can move through the lower levels until they're close to their hotel. All they need to do is move up once they're just beneath their temporary residence. Discarding any unwanted goods along the way down there probably wouldn't hurt.

For anyone who's been injured by the soldiers or by their fellow Displaced, they'll want to stop and do some quick first aid on themselves. Hitting a hospital or clinic like this is risky. For the dead, it's not as if anyone has any choice, so their pal better cook up a good story for what happened along the way. The good news in all of this is that injuries and all, none of the hotels are likely to ask too many questions. The drones that do the room service aren't sentient, and the people who work the front desks simply aren't paid enough to care.

By 9 AM, all the news beats around the city refer to a series of attacks that rocked UN landmarks. While the attacks on the UN government buildings had the mark of Morningstar radicals from New Prague and New Johannesburg, they are not citing them as the individuals most likely to be culpable for these attacks. There is no information about what happened at the UNA HQ, though it seems unlikely that none of that information would have gotten out during the flurry of hasty exits.

Even so, it's likely a good idea that everyone lays low for the final couple of days in New Beijing. That doesn't mean that everyone needs to say cooped up in their hotels. Still, they'll likely want to be cautious while the city is on high alert for suspicious activity.

As for whoever has Judas, they'll get a message late in the evening of the 26th telling them to meet with one of Cassius' resources in the morning. Cassius won't be up for much conversation when the message comes in. Despite all previous communication, any messages sent to him now will be a dead end.

> YET ANOTHER TRAIN LOG!

Eventually, it's January 28th and everyone will be headed back to New Amsterdam on a train. It feels as if there's almost a lack of closure, as Judas is most likely gone, the devices that were meant to hold him unable to go through customs. Unlike the previous train, this ride will be an non-stop express from New Beijing to New Amsterdam, and will be largely uneventful. The lack of stops along the way makes it impossible for any temporary havoc to break out. Even the Displaced who didn't pick up express tickets will find that their itinerary has been changed. While the more luxurious seats will remain the same and will offer a bed for anyone looking to rest over the long journey, everyone else's upgrade will treat them to neck pillows and thin blankets to help them stay comfortable.

An event-free ride probably won't mean much for the feelings stewing among the Displaced. Everyone is bound to be feeling something after everything that just happened, so there's still a lot of room for tension now that everyone's been crammed in close quarters on a non-stop train ride. Let's just hope it doesn't get too nasty in there!

◉ El will purchase all of the newcomer Displaced tickets for the way back. All of them will be traveling to New Amsterdam for new job opportunities in the wake of the city's losses, and will be directed to make a statement of intent to move to New Amsterdam permanently.

◉ El won't be purchasing that upgrade, though. If anyone thinks it's Cassius' doing, just blame it on Cassius.

◉ Everyone will be arriving in New Amsterdam around 4 PM with varying amounts of jetlag (or trainlag).

◉ Upon arriving, everyone will begin to see garrish advertisements for both Valentine's Day and Carnival.

> FINAL OOC NOTES

Thanks for the great event, Larkers! We have a lot planned to spin out of this one, so we hope that you enjoyed what we cooked up here. Our OOC Aftermath Post is live, which is where we'd like you to direct all of your aftermath questions. We also encourage you to discuss any loose ends for the plot and plan anything else out that's needed!

Otherwise, we intended for this to be more of a low key log while everyone continues to thread out the event. Our next log will be up on December 13th featuring our new arrivals, giving everyone some time between now and then!

> NAVIGATION

Comments

Faith Lehane (open)

[watcherless]

01. 3rd and goal

[ These UNA soldiers aren't like the others. Faith notices it when a team of them drives her back into a supply closet, and she's forced to army crawl through a ventilation shaft. It brings back heartwarming memories of times as the Slayer, of times with Buffy, but now isn't the time for that.

The fact that one had bodychecked her and put her on her ass has her old injuries from Zerzura smarting. They're mostly healed, healed enough, but not fully. She ignores them while she hauls herself through the vents.

It's when she drops out of them that it occurs to her, again, that the fresh wave of UNA soldiers isn't the only problem. There are Displaced here still opposing them. ]

Are you on my team? [ No sense in mincing words, given that she has a drive in her hand. ]

02. A message arrives (closed to previous cr)

[ plans to board a train come with their own set of issues. Faith has a room full of a few stolen UNA weapons from the base that she doesn't much know what to do with. Guns that she thought were fancy. An explosive or two. Flashy things. Things likely to get her what she wants. She looks over them, frowns.

Then she gets in touch with whoever she's met who she knows is into some sketchy shit: ]

How would you move weapons back to NA?

[ Later, after the train has brought them all safely back to New Amsterdam, when Faith gets the burner email -- presumably, Cassius making good -- it occurs to her that she doesn't really have people. This isn't news. She's never had people, except for those few months with Buffy, except for the Mayor, but even then those weren't her people.

So she grapples for a few days, shifts moodily around the safehouse, before settling on who to message to make sense of the news. ]

I don't think the people who made us like this ever planned to let us go.

03. Sleep tight (closed to damian)

[ it's on her way in that she figures out that more than the folks who cut a deal with Cassius are indeed on sight. Faith's used to keeping an eye out on 'friends' who might turn their back. So she notes that some of these familiar faces, some of these Displaced, aren't here to play on the right team after all.

They'd all known it was a possibility.

She dips into a side room and cracks the door so she can watch the hallway, quiet as a mouse, for the first unfamiliar face that comes by. Best to get the jump and deal with this quickly. ]

04. Wildcard?

[ ooc; if you want a closed starter, hit me up on plurk. ]

@clarke.griffin

[strove]

Why do you say that?

[In truth, Clarke has a lot of thoughts about that statement, but she's going to make it so that Faith has to go on. Getting Faith to talk period is a challenge, so she's going to start putting the impetus of that challenge onto Faith.]

[watcherless]

Cassius pays, as it turns out.
There's some warehouse where the truck was making a drop off on June 21. Sound familiar?
I'm thinking of heading over.

[strove]

[Clarke thinks about some of the things that could be asked for. This is—good. It's something.]

There wasn't a warehouse.

Or I guess not aside from the Morningstar one.

You don't mean that one?

[watcherless]

I mean the one where the truck was heading to.
From what I can tell anyway.

[ she forwards the email. ]

I mean, you tell me.

[strove]

I think checking out the warehouse is a very good idea.

[watcherless]

I told Cassius I wanted this blue thing fixed. When he couldn't do that, this is what he gave me.
If we find the people who played doctor, it's not gonna be pretty what I do to 'em. You good with that?

[strove]

re: the blue thing, check this out.

As for the rest, I used to want to kill them, too.

I don't think that's in our best interests now. Not if people want control over this situation.

[watcherless]

Control doesn't mean anything to me. I just want my powers back. I'll go through as many of their doctors as I have to, to find one who'll fix me.

[strove]

It's not the control that I linked that for. It's the part where if I'm right, a doctor won't be able to fix it.

[watcherless]

Fine. Mad scientists, religious cultists, whatever. Somebody put it in, and they had folks working at that warehouse. We're gonna have an unpretty conversation.

[strove]

How about we see how a standard conversation goes?

Trust me, I won't make you hold back if whoever it is deserves it. Like I said, I used to want to kill them, too.

[Once, she debated it even if it would keep all the Displaced in this world. Not for long, not at length. But she did. Clarke has instincts fostered by some rough situations. There are times when she wants to give into them.]

[watcherless]

Fine.
Your way, first.

[ she doesn't actually want to be a weapon. It's an easy concession. The only hard part of it is her pride, her image of herself as a monster. ]

[strove]

Not that I think the warehouse you learned about will get us there.

Whoever it is is very good at hiding.

[watcherless]

You think Cassius was holding out on me?

[strove]

I don't know. He told us a lot the first time we spoke to him. Maybe it was a lot of lies, but the information that mattered checked out. To some degree. There were places where his statements and intention didn't add up, and it didn't seem like he recognized that himself.

If he's not lying, then whoever's got us before we're free is more powerful than that AI.

That might be a difficult thing to consider.

[watcherless]

I mean, the AI wasn't powerful enough to get his own buddy out of holding by the UNA, so is that really such a surprise?
I know these things spook the locals, but maybe they're not all they're cracked up to be.

[strove]

In my experience, they're never all powerful.

For one thing, they always need hands.

[watcherless]

Funny.

[strove]

Actually, it kind of is.

It's just also true.

01.

[variate]

[ not in the slightest, but he's not stupid.

Ren doesn't speak up, he doesn't make a peep, instead he makes a sudden grab for that drive. there's a Morningstar mask over his face, dressed in dark colors with weapons tucked away in places that he can reach. he's been a Phantom Thief long enough to know the basics: keep the weapons close, keep an exit at your back, and be ready for anything.

they're past the point of debate. Ren is determined. ]

[watcherless]

[ The lunge is telling. Faith knows that lunge because she's done it. When you give up trying to keep up the act and you just go for it. She's exhausted. Beaten half to hell by UNA soldiers who've been on her tail.

When his hand closes around the drive, she doesn't let go of it. Instead, she uses her other arm and tries to catch him across the face with an elbow. Faith isn't afraid to get scrappy, to fight dirty. Even if she is ready to collapse. ]

[variate]

[ an act, or desperation at this point. there's a treasure there that's meant to be taken, and as a thief, he's down to his last resort. he could look better for the wear, but he's running on adrenaline.

Faith moves to push him and he tries to twist with the momentum. at least she doesn't hit as hard as a Shadow does. instead of fending her off he goes for the feet, turning his leg into hers and trying to sweep her. ]

[watcherless]

[ He gets her legs out from under her, but it becomes immediately apparent that Faith is scrappier than she is strong right now — and has experience doing it. She immediately kicks up into his chest to keep him at a distance while she's on the ground. It's not the trained maneuver of a professional to bring him down to her level. It's just the barroom brawler habit of using whatever she's got to keep her head above water.

Accordingly, she throws the drive away, lets it clatter down the hall so she can get his back to her while he goes after it. ]

[batricide]

[ He hasn't made any great secret of how angry he is about how this is going down, how eager his fellow displaced are to aid Cassius without stopping to consider what kind of weapon they could be handing him. Damian is pissed but has yet to make a move, he's playing things safe.

And maybe, just maybe, he's not as focused as he should be. The appearance of a different Kara Zor-El has thrown him off more than he realized, he's reeling, and that, unfortunately, makes him all the more vulnerable. ]