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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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[ 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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( he shrugs. )
What's so bad about what was going on when you left? Just not a good time?
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Elysium is, um. It's in the Underworld, where dead heroes go.
[ the step she wants to skip is dying, again. ]
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( he repeats the words slowly. )
Did you die?
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There's a drakon that only a child of Ares can kill. It was my fault, I told Kronos that the Ares cabin wasn't there so he sent the Lydian drakon.
[ she reaches out automatically, fingers curling around marcos' wrist like she can impress upon him... what? that she didn't mean to? that she deserved it? who knows. the moment the empathy bond flares between them it isn't emotions that it shares but a memory through silena's own eyes.
a two hundred foot long serpent slithered down fifth avenue, thick enough to crush sidewalk trees and cars beneath its enormous body, one of it's yellow eyes is bloody, but it's gaze is still paralyzing -- not like medusa, but pee your pants terrified paralysis, teeth bared, razor sharp and big enough to chomp through a school bus. even still a dozen war chariots race down the street, pulled by skeletal horses, and silena is in the lead in gleaming red armor, boar's head helmet obscuring her face and a bit of her vision as she urges her chariot onward, holding an electric spear aloft. the electricity makes her fingers sting.
"Ares! To me!" silena yells, voice shrill as she heads straight for the drakon. half the chariots veer off to handle the rest of the small monsters but the remaining five stay with silena's chariot until the drakon's stare paralyzes two chariot drivers and they crash into parked cars. the drakon bares its fangs and a dozen javelins fly into its mouth, hissing in pain. the chariots circle the drakon, fainting glowing celestial bronze swords and javelins and lances breaking across the drakon's back and hacking chinks into the thick armored scales. silena fights in the front, stabbing the electric spear at the drakon's remaining eye, shaking with fear and adrenaline.
all at once, things start to go wrong. the drakon eats an ares camper in one gulp, another is swatted away by the tail, hitting a tree with a sick crunch of broken bones, another is sprayed with poison and he retreats quickly as his bronze armor melts. a voice from across the street yells "You can do it! A child of Ares is destined to kill it!" and silena looks over to see percy and annabeth racing to help her. she needs to end this. leveling her spear, silena charges at the drakon and takes the full blast of poison, falling with a scream.
the battle rages around her as she lays on the ground, trembling as the poison eats through her armor, through her skin, burns its way through her. someone stops next to her, and then another, annabeth and the ares campers struggling to pull her helmet off. the drakon attacks nearby and she flinches, tears streaking down her acid ruined face, salt burning the already destroyed skin. a familiar roar of anger drifts into her consciousness and silena tries to call clarisse's name but nothing comes out except a wheeze of pain. she doesn't know what is happening until annabeth finally gets the helmet off and she finds herself cradled in clarisse's lap.
her best friend.
"You stupid Aphrodite girl," clarisse accuses through sobs. "You charged a drakon, why?"
"All my fault. The drakon, Charlie's death... camp endangered." clarisse tries to stop her, but silena opens her hand and percy draws free the silver bracelet clutched between her fingers, touching the mark of kronos. silena was the spy. "Before... before I liked Charlie. Luke was nice, he was so charming." the memory falters and silena weakens further, stuttering like an old movie before it comes back. "Forgive me."
clarisse shakes her head, insistent, demanding. "You're not dying."
"Charlie... see Charlie."
there is nothing more, silena draws her hand back like she had burned marcos and there are tears rolling down her face again, a face unmarred by the poison acid, blue eyes just as fearful that marcos is going to decide silena shouldn't be forgiven. ]
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but, this isn't a dream. he can't affect this event so he has to watch her fall, watch her body hit the ground and her friend come over to her, trying to stop her from dying. she looks terrible and pained and he hates it. he hates it and he turns away because his stomach roils and he wants to throw up but before he can, he's sitting back with silena, breathing hard. )
Jesus.
( he's barely able to get that word out. )
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this is certainly a cruel punishment, but one she supposes she definitely deserves. ]
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to... [ to show him that, to force him to witness those last moments. ]
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( his heart's pounding but he tries to gather himself, tries to get himself back to together after seeing that. )
It's not the first time someone's shown me how they died. ( caroline had done it not so long ago and it was still something that was heavy on his heart. ) It's okay.
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[ she licks her lips, trying to get her equilibrium back. she doesn't think she would mind telling people about her death, but she didn't want anyone to witness it. she'd done enough harm the first go. ]
A shitty dream would have been better.
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( he smiles sadly at her, shaking his head. )
If you want to talk about it, we can. Or not. But you don't have to act like you're not affected.
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[ maybe they can talk about it later, just not on the train and in public in case she has a meltdown. ]
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( he nods. they can talk later or never if she wants. )
I'm here.
( for whatever she needs. )