World War Cille Prepares To Die: S3

[17:06] * Oxford changes topic to 'Valtuutetut henkilot vain!'
[17:15] <@Oxford> Dawn arrives early in Novgoraad's summer months. Gray shafts of light have just begun to appear over the mountains west of the airbase. Marupol and Cille are pressed safely below the edge of a trench, squeezed up between the rolls of barbed wire and the lip of the ditch, and out of sight. On the runway beyond, a wing of cumbersome four-engine bombers is spinning up on the tarmac.
[17:21] <@Oxford> Marupol's eyes don't leave her binoculars as she relays what she's seeing to Cille: "That is plane five-four, coming out of hangar now. All twenty bombers, present."
[17:26] <Cille_Lund> Soon, it'll happen. ...20 is a lot, but...she's feeling a bit intense anyway. She might even bristle with some anticipation! "Got it."
[17:30] <@Oxford> "Remember, ten have devices, ten are decoys." Marupol's voice is flat and businesslike, but even she shows a nervous edge as she suddenly looks hard into the binoculars. "You should see this," she says, scooting back from the lip and passing the optics to Cille.
[17:33] <Cille_Lund> ...If she has to see it, it must be...well, it must be news. She takes a look!
[17:37] <@Oxford> Approaching the string of bombers on the runway is a plain gray service truck, of the sort used by mechanics and other support personnel to get around the massive airfield. It slows down as it approaches one of the bombers, and a young girl in a light blue uniform and a blue beret hops off the back.
[17:37] <@Oxford> While one of the gunners helps her aboard the plane, the truck is already heading for another bomber.
[17:38] * Raitaki ([email protected]) has joined #WorldWarBurst
[17:42] <Cille_Lund> ...Yep. No surprise here. "...Odds seem stacked against us." She says it like it's a given, since she really isn't surprised!
[17:45] <@Oxford> Three...four...five more times, the truck stops, letting off one of the beret-wearing girls each time. After the truck pulls off the tarmac, the lead bomber begins taxiing onto the main runway, with his flight behind him.
[17:50] <@Oxford> "They're going," Marupol says quietly, able to see the propellors on the big lead bomber turning even without the binocs. "You are sure you can do this?"
[17:53] <Cille_Lund> At least there isn't one for every plane, not even every non-decoy. This is honestly better than that could have gone! "One way or another, those planes will not make it to their destination." And if that turns out to be a lie, well, that'd be a terrible way to go out. ...But it means she gets to go out, which would still be a bright part of the day. Welcoming death is a way to not fear it!
[18:00] <@Oxford> "Six against one...okay. If it's our only option, and you are sure." Marupol's voice is tinged with regret, but if there's something more the Novgoraadi wants to add, she doesn't say it.
[18:05] <Cille_Lund> Six against one, AND with multiple targets that need to be destroyed. Hardly sane odds. "If you would let them do as they please, then just don't give me the signal to intercept them." Might as well nail that 'only option' part, too.
[18:11] <@Oxford> Marupol bites her lower lip. Down on the airfield, the lead bomber accelerates down the runway, its engines roaring even at this distance. "Maybe...get aboard somehow? Disable the devices one at a time, rescue those girls inside them?" After staying behind a steely exterior for so long, Marupol's sudden uncertainty is as much a shock for her as it is for Cille.
[18:19] <Cille_Lund> "With six pendant users bearing down on me? Unlikely." Definitely a surprise! That's definitely the most surprising thing that's happened. Still, though... "The only hope for those girls is either my success happening quickly, which may leave time to carve out one or two, or the cooperation of the other pendant users, which just seems unlikely."
[18:21] <@Oxford> Marupol slumps down in the ditch. She pulls her hat down over her head until it covers her eyes, and in a soft voice says, "Then we have no choice. Go and do what you must."
[18:37] <Cille_Lund> ...It's far too late for regrets. There's only the future, which is as dark is the rest of the world (and not because she just put her truth shades on). She transforms, and it becomes clear that she was right about feeling changed. Her traditional suit is...entirely absent! Instead, it's completely replaced by a suit of armor composed of a vaguely familiar black crystal, which somehow ends in a long skirt that, while bending as one would expect of a skirt, is comprised of the exact same material, its very bending being an affront to physics. While it's dark and possibly even terrifying, it's elegant! It's the other two details that catch the though: a tiara with a clear-black visor that covers the eyes, topped with wings that are made of an actual clear crystal, not unlike that which make up her own barriers! Completing the look would be a pair of clear, crystal wings (much like the ones on her head, but somehow properly flexible like the skirt), which might not help in battle, but it certainly gives off an image of being a valkyrie...or, perhaps the warped image of an angel of death. It's hard to tell. ...And at once, she takes flight!
[18:39] <Cille_Lund> Her eyes and hair are unchanged from her previous look, but there's something subtly different about her eyes regardless. Originally, they were full of rage. Now, the look in her eyes is best described as 'don't look in them too long'.
[19:00] * Squiddles ([email protected]) has joined #WorldWarBurst
[19:01] <@Oxford> /pause