World War LOVE-LOVE BURST: S3

[17:20] * Oxford changes topic to 'SILMaT VAIN - Suunnittelun Tekniset Ylihinnasta-Pohjainen Rajahdelaitteen'
[17:24] <@Oxford> Vladko whistles quietly as he walks openly up the main footpath through the deserted research facility, a rifle cradled casually in his arms. Marupol follows twenty steps behind him in a crouch, hurriedly clearing each doorway and obstacle with a sweep of her machine pistol in case Cille missed anyone.
[17:27] <@Oxford> "Very impressive, my sweet!" the fighter pilot turned revolutionary calls out to Cille, smiling up at her as she floats down from the guard tower. She has finished clearing the facility, and the remaining civilians are locked in their rooms using her barrier magic.
[17:31] <Cille_Lund> She was pretty through, and she IS magicial, but for all intents and purposes, she's not exactly fully trained in sweeping compounds of soldiers that might know how to ambush. Still, she can easily protect Vladko were he to come under fire, even from a distance if need by, so it's still all good! "I might have made a few mistakes here and there, but this was definitely a success!" It's all good...you know, not including the fact that she was likely responsible for the deaths of a lot of people that might have been more innocent than the civilians, if put to a measuring stick...of innocence. Yeah, sure.
[17:31] <Cille_Lund> Thankfully, the fact that at least ONE of them was looking to die has put her in a better mood than she could have been in, and Vladko's complement has taken her mostly out of the negative zone she had made, at least until she has to sleep on it.
[17:36] <@Oxford> "Tyhjentaa," Marupol reports impassively, slipping her pistol back into the holster hanging under her left arm. Vladko nods. "We shouldn't stay long; we don't know what kind of reinforcements they called. Did you destroy all the heavy equipment? Recover any documents?"
[17:37] * TemporalMech ([email protected]) has joined #WorldWarBurst
[17:40] <Cille_Lund> "The equipment is totaled, I made sure of that. I wouldn't mind continuing to crush the remains, but we don't have the time. The documents..." She points to the truck, which had TONS. "There's a lot of those in there, by the looks of it. Can't tell how much is important, of course..."
[17:40] * TemporalMechanic ([email protected]) Quit (Ping timeout: 240 seconds)
[17:44] <@Oxford> He walks toward the truck, gesturing for her to follow. "Did you destroy the rest of the...devices, too?" he asks, hesitating over what to call the bomb-shaped shells. "If they are what you think they are, we need to stop them from ever being used."
[17:48] <Cille_Lund> "Apparently there might have been prototypes somewhere? For all I know they might have been caught in my crossfire, but all the ones they had prepared for actual use were on that plane...at least, as far as I can tell with how I combed the area, and the word of one of the people in the base, which may or may not be worth something." Aaaaaand she's reminded that she probably killed a bunch of innocents.
[17:50] <Cille_Lund> ...Hopefully most of them weren't, though. There's plenty of maniacs that would just skip directly to the dying for their country, r-right?
[17:51] <@Oxford> Vladko's long strides keep him a few steps ahead of Cille, but she can see the adrenaline in the spring of his step. "So we got them, then? That's fantastic news." The corner of his mouth turns up at the information, but then he slows and glances back at her. "Are you alright? You look troubled."
[17:58] <Cille_Lund> "...The shells were on the plane. The plane had taken off, likely to use them. The shells were destroyed along with the plane. There was no one in the base that would look to have gotten in of those things still around." She doesn't want to say it, but she hints at it mercilessly. "...There was a pendant user defending the ship. She didn't seem completely sane, and thinking about it now, she was similar to the one I had seen earlier...but, I was too busy dealing with her to actually think, for even among pendant users, she was very powerful. I'm assuming, however, that she crashed with the plane." And then goes the extra mile! Even hinting this stuff leads her to her troubled expression, though, perhaps due to the open area and the presence of others, it's a good deal more subdued than earlier.
[18:04] <@Oxford> Vladko stops walking and waits for her to catch up. When she does, her takes her hand and matches her pace. "If what you believe is true, and those shells were going to be dropped on enemy positions, then each one of them could have killed scores of people. By destroying them you saved hundreds or even thousands of lives."
[18:09] <@Oxford> The sky stretches high overhead, towering white clouds reaching up like skyscrapers. Vladko is quiet for a moment before continuing. "When I was in the air force, we escorted heavy bombers to airbases in Gaulia, so they could bomb Albaean cities. Those bombers flatten factories, but also houses and apartments full of people just trying to live their lives."
[18:15] <Cille_Lund> "...And those bombers would actually do these things, perhaps some are fully aware of the horrors and have accepted them, while others ride a nonsensical wave of emotions from who knows where, thinking the citizens monsters simply for being Albaeans, and maybe others fight since they really need their job and can't exactly fight against the government..." His hand taking hers is a very great relief to her, and you can just FEEL her relax! "...I, suffering from none of these things, could at least tell the difference between them, and since I stopped those that would have likely bombed indiscriminately..."
[18:17] <Cille_Lund> "...For the first time since I've really gotten into this mess, I think I'm actually making a difference, a difference only I could have made~" "Whoa, she feels important!" "She never feels important!" "Usually." "Certainly not like this!"
[18:18] <Cille_Lund> She imagines she would have simply had a replacement, Cimbria born, had she never answered the call at all. But yet...would have replacement have gotten caught up in the same thing? Doubtful!
[18:34] <@Oxford> He looks back at her and smiles. "Of course. You never seem to realize how special you are. How extrordinary." Abruptly, Vladko puts his hands around her and pulls Cille into a kiss, short but intense. "You're the most important person in the world to me," he says, and the tips of his ears flush with red.
[18:35] <@Oxford> "We should check that truck, though," he adds sheepishly.
[18:42] <Cille_Lund> Whoa! W~hoa~! That kiss is so returned! For the first time in a long time, Cille's heart is aflame, and not in the sense that someone's trying to burn it down and loot any fireproof objects! "And you're...the only one that could really, really understand that, no matter what kind of front I put up while feeling like trash, even though you had every reason to not understand at all! I promise not to put myself down, from here on out! It would be a disservice to you~!" "Whoa, did some lights turn on in here?" "Voice number three, now is NOT the time for betting on that subject in particular. Do that at night. We gamble at night, when they're sleeping."
[18:46] <@Oxford> Vladko smiles. "Alright. I'll hold you to that," he teases. A light breeze stirs a few loose pieces of paper by the truck's rear wheels. "Now, so I avoid looking like a fool, did you put a barrier up around this thing?" he asks, waving his hand cautiously as he approaches.
[18:47] <Cille_Lund> "Good catch, I nearly forgot about that one!" She removes the barrier, before or after he touches it! "Couldn't have someone driving off with it, after all~"
[18:51] <@Oxford> "Actually, if there's as much in here as you say, maybe this should be our getaway vehicle." Vladko drops the tailgate and pulls himself inside, holding back the canvas curtain-doors for Cille to follow. When he sees the crates full of binders, he again lets out a low whistle.
[18:52] <Cille_Lund> "That was my first idea! Might be difficult for us if they can track the truck, though." ...Yep, still a LOT of paper. Binders. With paper in them!
[18:55] <@Oxford> He pages through them at random, scanning down the lists and tables for something worthwhile. "There's a lot here," he says, taking a seat on the truck's bed. "If you can tell me what information to look for, I might be able to answer some questions about those shells."
[18:59] <Cille_Lund> "...Does it even matter what mindstate the person inside the shell is in? That's one of the bigger questions I have. If it's mostly people that just want to...go, it'd be a load off. ...And knowing how destructive they are should easily lay to rest any guessing about just what kind of crisis we've averted here."
[19:05] <@Oxford> "Hm..." he says, flipping through the binders until he finds a thin black one labelled in Novgoraadi. "The 'psychological profile' data here is hard to sort through, but there are a lot of recommendations about sedatives. It looks like the...'crew' isn't conscious."
[19:08] * TemporalMech ([email protected]) Quit (Ping timeout: 240 seconds)
[19:10] <Cille_Lund> "...They were likely not conscious, then. Certainly a bad way to go about it, but I suppose I can take relief that they didn't feel the end." The end was PRETTY MESSY, after all! "Thankfully, there's not much we need to learn about the shells, considering I've hopefully taken them out of commission entirely, and they've gotten the message that they shouldn't repeat such things ever again. ...But if, for some reason, these things show up again...perhaps a method to wake them up from their sedation would be in order. Likely via magic!" Knowledge, it's power! But only if you have the power to use the knowledge. ...And she does!
[19:13] <@Oxford> "Yes," he says after a few more moments of study, "according to this, a big priority was that the emotions of the person inside be 'stabilized' during a mission. Though judging from this picture, it looks like there's some kind of intravenous delivery system that injects a stimulant when they're...uh, armed," he finishes quietly.
[19:18] <Cille_Lund> "...Ah. Then...waking them up is sort of what it already does. ...And I think that's the bad part. The stimulant, does it just...say, destabilze them so they're at normal levels, or is there a bit more to it?" Did they ACTUALLY? ...If they did, perhaps simply defeating her would have triggered quite a commotion if the plane wasn't already crashing. Just send out more! Scary thought...but one she can think with no ill effects! The danger passed, after all. And it shouldn't ever come up again!
[19:22] <@Oxford> "The solution in the IV is...ah, I don't really know the Albaean word. It's a mix of chemicals that the brain makes naturally. One that wakes you up, and the other one... I think it's like a fear-response, or something. The doses are pretty massive."
[19:28] <Cille_Lund> "...That would explain that, then. I think what I fought was one of them. ...And the only reason I took her out was because there was a plane. They're not even explosives, just...living, rampaging weapons. I imagine they would focus on living targets, especially anything with the guts to fight back. Taking the human element out of them, and quite possibly their life expectancy..."
[19:30] <Cille_Lund> "...Had it come to pass, not only would lives have been lost, but the way pendant users are seen would likely never be the same again. It would be...rather hard for them to broker for peace, and I'm pretty sure that they're one of the only groups capable of forcing both the warring nations to stop fighting, were they to somehow unite."
[19:31] <Cille_Lund> "...Is there anything that happens when that drug wears off, or are they just expecting them to be defeated and going from there?"
[19:31] <@Oxford> Vladko frowns. "You think they're supposed to fight? I mean, you're the expert, but look at these schematics." He passes over a red binder, opened to a complex wire-frame diagram of the door mechanism of the shell. "Here, and here. The locking handle..." Cille can see it as well. There's no handle on the inside of the compartment.
[19:35] <Cille_Lund> "Well, the one I fought was certainly terrifying enough, and strong to boot. A metal compartment isn't exactly hard to break free from if the drugs incite a sort of rage, and the one I fought didn't seem mentally sound..." She can still believe!
[19:36] <Cille_Lund> "...But if they weren't meant to fight, then...what exactly did I fight, and why?" But she can also unbelieve if she needs to.
[19:38] <@Oxford> "I don't know. Maybe she was just there as an escort? It's strange that she'd be the only one left awake otherwise." Vladko frowns while continuing to page through the binders. "You might be right, though."
[19:40] <@Oxford> "There's another thing bothering me, though. This whole time here, we only saw maybe two or three other girls like that one. And when we checked the other night, there was nobody inside those things. Are you sure they were even...er, loaded?"
[19:47] <Cille_Lund> "If she was truly the same one as the one I saw last time, I...don't think she would have willingly helped them...but, with how I've been assuming, who knows at this point. ...It's true that they didn't explode when I took the plane out, and that would explain why they didn't..." ...She DIDN'T kill potential innocents? ...Was the one that wrote that message the person she DID take out? ...Probably took out?
[19:51] <@Oxford> He sets down the red binder and goes to the next crate, clearly looking for something in particular. "If we find the construction orders, we might be able to figure that out. It might be that they intended to load them from a different location." He uses the bayonet from his rifle to pry open a second crate and leafs through the contents quickly.
[19:51] <@Oxford> "Come to think of it, we're quiet far inland for them to fly non-stop to their targets."
[19:56] <Cille_Lund> "True, they're isolated enough that they don't have to worry about these things. ...And if one were to not like their position and could somehow do something about it, they would have a hard time bringing the whole operation to a halt." Maybe she DIDN'T kill people? She likes this.
[19:56] <Cille_Lund> Not killing people is great.
[20:02] <@Oxford> Vladko nods. "I don't see anything here about a roster or living quarters for girls, that sort of thing," he says, passing her a binder. "It looks like they were flying the shells to Snelensk Airfield - I've been there. It's a large staging airfield for heavy bombers."
[20:08] <Cille_Lund> "...And that would explain why I couldn't really find one when I looked. ...Which means they're probably there. ...And it'd be best if they weren't...though, that's a more public place, and they're likely to be on alert after the destruction of this one..." Binder, get! Flip, flip!
[20:15] <@Oxford> After flipping for a few pages, Cille realizes that she still can't read Novgoraadi. Vladko, however, glances over in time to see something interesting flip past. "Wait, go back. That table with the dates."
[20:16] <Cille_Lund> There's pictures every so often! Pictures are fine, right? ...She flips back, though. She knows she saw a table!
[20:21] <@Oxford> "There! Those dates look like a departure schedule." As Vladko leans in, Cille can see the table consists of three columns. The first is the dates, which caught Vladko's eye. The last date listed is for today. The second column has a few different one-word phrases, but the most often repeated is 'Snelensk', in Novgoraadi letters. The last column is just a single number, and the last one reads 18.
[20:26] <Cille_Lund> Cille tries to make sense of it. ...It's kind of hard!
[20:28] <@Oxford> Vladko helps out by reading the labels. "The first one lists departure dates, by the looks of it, and the second one is the location they flew to. This last column-"
[20:30] <Cille_Lund> ...Sort of worries her! She's the least sure about that one, which is to say, the most worried about that one.
[20:30] <@Oxford> He gulps and puts his finger under the '18' in the bottom-right corner. "The column is labelled 'Devices'. The last flight out of here had 18 on board." He moves his finger slowly up the table, reading off the values on the previous shipments. "21. 23. 19. 26..."
[20:33] <Cille_Lund> "...That means...there's..." 21, 23, 19, 26...add them all together, any others, oh.
[20:34] <@Oxford> "Cille...there are more of these things. Lots more."
[20:36] <@Oxford> Their silence is broken by the sight of Marupol's red mane bursting in through the canvas at the back of the truck. "Time to go!" she says, her accent as thick as ever. "Lahdetaan pois taalta!"
[20:37] <Cille_Lund> They've flown to several--oh! Oh, that's not good. Getaway vehicle? Well, there's definitely getting AWAY to be done!
[20:41] <@Oxford> Vladko nods, and Marupol disappears. Cille can hear the sound of the cab door open and close, and a few seconds later the engine starts. "Going where?" Marupol shouts back through the cab as the truck begins to move.
[20:45] <Cille_Lund> ...She doesn't have much of an idea of how far away she's from where they want to go! "The...general direction of Snelensk Airfield? Anywhere away from here would do, though!"
[20:49] <@Oxford> Vladko nods. "Snelensk," he confirms, and Marupol guns the engine. With a squeal, the tires find their grip on the road and the truck lurches forward. More quietly, almost to himself, Vladko repeats the name of the airfield where half of Novgoraad's high-altitude bombers are based. "We go to Snelensk."
[20:49] <@Oxford> /session