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meadowlarklogs2019-11-30 12:31 pm
EVENT LOG 007 | AFTERMATH
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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[ a beat, an easy smile touching her lips. ]
Well, a traumatic experience for normal people. I'm not traumatized, don't worry.
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[ she's old enough to make her own decisions and to know what she wants so he's just going to say that and make a note to keep an eye on things. ]
I prefer that you be un-traumatized. [ so, that was good. ] I also came away relatively trauma free.
[ it hadn't been a fun time but still. ] Could have been worse. [ no one died this time. ]
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[ could have been worse, but that least it wasn't That Bad. neither of them died. ]
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[ he laughs though, slouching down and relaxing a little further. ]
So, were at the base the whole time?
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[ she pops another caramel in her mouth, chewing thoughtfully. ]
I just loitered outside in case anyone got hurt, but never actually went in. I did go to Dream River. It was not the dream river of my childhood stories, but the otter is really cute.
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[ and he'd seen horrible, awful things. he'd gotten himself a little hurt but he wasn't going to talk about that with silena. he was going with something that was actually light in comparison. ]
Met the guy that's in love with my girlfriend.
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Who else is in love with Caroline? Aside from, like, people with eyes.
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[ he doesn't reveal the whole vampire bit because while silena might know about caroline, he still doesn't want to tell everyone's secrets. ]
Kind of struck me as a dick. Arrogant and prone to monologues.
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Sounds like loser.
[ decisive. that is a damn fact. klaus is a loser. ]
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[not that he disagrees but still. ]
I might be biased though. [ all things considered. he shrugs. ] As long as doesn't try anything, maybe we can...I don't know, be civil.
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[ a beat. ] That's you, by the way.
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[ not going into detail on how she did that but yes. ]
And thank you for the compliment. I'm hoping she continues to have that preference for awhile.
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[ if she weren't desperately and completely in love with her dead boyfriend, she would also have a crush on caroline. ]
Is there anyone here from your Earth?
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[ he gives his head a shake. ]
There was someone who...had the exact same name as my daughter's mother but it wasn't her. I don't think she was from my Earth but she had to be close. [ he doesn't know if he's ever mentioned dawn to silena but there it is. ]
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[ she had only seen the woman in the dream but that was a standout dream. ]
No one is here from my home either. I keep looking for Charlie but. [ she shrugs, rolling another caramel between her hands like its playdoh, turning the sweet into a ball. ] It's weird being alone.
[ especially when caroline has a whole gang of people from home. ]
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[ so, you never know. ]
Until then, you've got friends, right? It's not people from home but it's something.
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[ there's no enthusiasm in it. she cares about her friends very much but they're not charlie and she misses him desperately, more and more as time passes. soon it will be her birthday and then his and then summer again when he kissed her at the fireworks and then...
she forces a smile to her lips. ]
Yeah, you guys are great.
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[ for his friends but mostly for the daughter that he doesn't know. ]
And it's all right to be sad. You don't have to fake it.
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[ sure, she misses her siblings and cousins and her father, but she misses charlie and he was what she was supposed to see at the end. ]
He was good at automatons, he would have been good at all this AI crap. Charlie would be useful here.
[ whereas silena is... not. she doesn't feel like she is, at least, and she's made a lot of blunders in the last couple of weeks. she annoyed cassius and el, she'd gotten kovacs stabbed, she briefly lost daisy. charlie would be better at this, at all of it. ]
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( he wants to give her something to hold onto. )
But in the meantime, you can always tell me about him. I'd love to know more.
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[ she played herself. ]
He wasn't really social, but he was good with the little kids. He made people feel safe. [ her voice cracks, sounding waterlogged, and she sniffles. ] He was... he was really good.
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( he uses the word choice deliberately because while charlie might be gone, that doesn't mean he isn't still good. marcos smiles gently at her. )
I'm sorry he's gone but I'm glad you had him because it seems like he made a good mark on your life. And if you remember like you are with me, he's never going to be all the way gone.
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[ she's teetering on the edge of having to tell marcos what happened in the rest of the dream she cut him off from and the frisson of nervous energy makes her fingers twist together in her lap. ]
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( it had been jarring, to say the least, after so much time spent here. )
All my relationships were the same despite those evolving here. So, you might get to see him again.
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I'd like to skip that step and go right to Elysium.
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