World War BURST: S3

[13:11:48] <@Oxford> Dusk settles in over the tundra, turning the southern skyline into a brilliant arc of orange fire. A line of three figures make their way across the marshy ground in silence. At this time of year, the region only experiences four hours of true darkness, and Marupol is determined to use as much of it as possible.
[13:16:52] <Cille_Lund> The cover of darkness...on one hand, she'd think Naida would be good for that. Then again, it would probably cease to be a stealth mission...so, let's just work with what she's got. The voices were chatty up until the mission's start, where they, too, fell into silence.
[13:17:27] <@Oxford> The Novgoraadi woman leads the way, her red hair tucked under a brown knit cap. Vladko is behind her. They both carry packs of supplies for the infiltration: ropes, wirecutters, and even a small package of dynamite in case the opportunity for sabotage presents itself. Cille is behind them, not carrying anything aside from her pendant, at Vladko's request.
[13:22:54] <Cille_Lund> Cille totally has two of these things...both of which she insisted to bring along. Never know what could happen!
[13:24:39] <@Oxford> They make it to the small ridge where she and Vladko surveiled the base the day before. Marupol goes prone and crawls up to the top, peering over the lip with only her binoculars and the top of her head exposed.
[13:30:26] <Cille_Lund> Back to where they were with no problems...that's good, that's good! The issue is getting closer, now.
[13:30:49] <@Oxford> After a few silent minutes, she slides back down a little ways and turns over. She confers quickly with Vladko, and he nods. "No movement, but the hangar is open. Do you have any advice on what we should be looking for?"
[13:39:44] <Cille_Lund> She speaks in a very, very hushed voice. Can NEVER be too careful. "...If the place is what I think it is..." She pulls out the Nov pendant. "I don't have too much of an idea, but anything that looks like this would be something to keep an eye out for. And perhaps things that don't seem natural, but that's kind of a given."
[13:47:00] <Cille_Lund> "...Anyone out of place should also be treated as dangerous as an actual soldier, perhaps more. Just to be on the safe side."
[13:49:39] <@Oxford> Vladko translates, and Marupol frowns and nods. The two Novgoraadis hold a brief conversation, and then Vladko turns back to Cille. "Okay. Here's a torch and a...whistle?" he says, waving his hand at the imperfect translation. "It sounds like a bird-call. We can signal with them." The 'whistle' is hand-carved from wood, with a notch about a third of the way down. "We'll move out when it's dark."
[13:54:21] * Shukuphone (~androirc@9F12DEC8:2D64A50B:D330DB7B:IP) has joined #WorldWarBurst
[13:55:19] <Cille_Lund> A frowning is to be expected. Shit's magic, the results are unpredictable by nature, so why would the origin of it be so easy to pin down? It's exactly why this little mission is so important! She nods, prepared to wait a while.
[13:59:36] <@Oxford> They continue to wait. The light of the sun fades down to a deep purple glow. From up on the ridge, Marupol suddenly waves her hand, and a moment later they hear the thrum of an aircraft's engines. "Pommikone. Kaksi moottorit, split hanta. Yksi heidan keskisarjan."
[14:05:10] <Cille_Lund> Aaaa, plane again! ...Stay calm, hopefully it was just passing, no pressure, no pressure...though, if it DID land here...?
[14:06:59] <@Oxford> Vladko translates before crawling up the ridge to see for himself. "It's a medium bomber, coming in. Looks heavy." A little later, he calls out, "Wheels down. They're pulling it into the hanger."
[14:12:09] <Cille_Lund> A...bomber. What would a bomber stop there for? It might not have anyone magical related in it...of course, it could mean something bigger...but she's not going to consume her thoughts with the idea. At least not yet!
[14:15:05] <@Oxford> "It's in. They're closing the doors," Vladko reports, and after a few more seconds of watching slides back down the ridge. "Let's wait a few more minutes for it to get completely dark and for the crew to clear out, and then head in. Does that sound okay?" He quickly adds a translation for Marupol, who huffs at being the one getting translated for.
[14:17:46] <Cille_Lund> "Yeah, sounds fine." Gotta keep it short! NEVER KNOW WHAT COULD HAPPEN.
[14:22:13] <@Oxford> He nods, and the three of them settle in to wait. They take a moment to drink from their canteens, synchronize their watches, and discuss the plan. It comes together one line at a time via Vladko's translation, but the gist is to have the group move through the hangar and then the square factory-style building from the side away from the guard tower, avoiding the dormitories entirely.
[14:23:18] <@Oxford> Two people will investigate the interior of the buildings, and one will stay just inside the entry point to keep watch.
[14:28:27] * Shukuphone (~androirc@9F12DEC8:2D64A50B:D330DB7B:IP) Quit (Remote host closed the connection)
[14:31:19] <@Oxford> Fifteen minutes later, the sun is entirely down. The moon is only a thin sliver of silver, low on the horizon, but the stars are out in force. Marupol leads the way toward the hangar first, moving like a wraith from one shadow to the next.
[14:31:21] <Cille_Lund> The question is...who's the one keeping watch?
[14:47:35] <Cille_Lund> Well, certainly not her! She nods, understanding what she has to do! She...might not be as good at sneaking as Marupol, but...dammit, she still has to try! Onward!
[14:48:03] <@Oxford> Vladko follows her, about twenty seconds behind. Marupol reaches the hangar first and presses herself up against the wall, keeping out of sight of the guard tower on the opposite side. From the ridge, Cille can see the man at his post is facing the wrong direction, alternately drinking something from a large thermos and rubbing his hands against the cold.
[14:50:31] <@Oxford> Marupol moves along the wall until she reaches a steel door set in the side of the building. Slowly, carefully, she rotates the knob, and her smile flashes in the starlight as it turns easily. She eases the door open a crack and scans the inside a moment before nodding to Cille. The coast is clear.
[14:56:56] * Firespitter ([email protected]) has joined #WorldWarBurst
[14:57:32] <Cille_Lund> The coast, it's clear! She looks inside as well, before advancing as natural!
[15:01:02] <@Oxford> The inside is completely dark. A row of thin windows at the edge of the roof are visible as a bank of deep blue rectangles, but they do not let in enough light to see by. The lack of light implies there are no guards, and as long as they keep their torchs pointed low the light shouldn't be visible from outside.
[15:14:53] <Cille_Lund> Slowly, but surely. ...Makes this kinda hard to see other things, but...
[15:17:21] <@Oxford> Vladko enters the hangar a few steps behind her, and Marupol follows them in. She takes up a position next to the door, keeping it just slightly cracked so that she can watch outside it. Vladko flips on his torch but keeps it pointed at his feet, cautious of letting any light reflect up into the windows for the guard outside to see.
[15:28:05] <Cille_Lund> ...No pressure. No pressure. ...OK, she's nervous, but who wouldn't be?
[15:32:05] <@Oxford> Vladko gestures for her to search the rear of the hangar, while he investigates the front. He walks toward the two-engine bomber, inspecting it for anything out of the ordinary. Cille can see a row of oblong shapes through the shadows on her end.
[15:36:08] <Cille_Lund> ...Somewhat familiar shapes. Those shapes...she might have to get closer to make out what that stuff is, and gets closer to those shapes if possible. If only she could see...but being able to see would just be kind of awful! ...Quite the analogy she just made, there. The blind in war are better off for it. Mentally, anyway. And that's only if they stay that way. Still strangely close, though.
[15:39:13] <@Oxford> As she gets closer, she can make out the outline more clearly. The objects are roughly egg-shaped, as tall as she is and about only a little smaller in diameter. They sit fat-end up, with the small end sitting on some sort of box or rectangle.
[15:45:54] <Cille_Lund> ...That...well, they're clearly not good news, they're HERE after all, but...the amount of vaguities shrouding this whole place is too much to bear. She can't keep giving halfassed reports! She has to get closer. ...Closer first. Then scan for anyone that might see her lights if she goes there.
[15:47:43] <@Oxford> There doesn't seem to be anyone inside the hangar. The windows around the top of the hangar might allow the guard outside to see the light from her torch, but only if she shines it up around the rafters. If she keeps the beam low, the way Vladko is doing, it shouldn't be detectable.
[15:49:56] <Cille_Lund> Then, it's clear! Just...shine low. Shine so low, that you might be mistaken for being underground. Even being able to see the bottom of these things clearly would be a lot better than a shadow. If she's lucky, there might even be words she can't read there!
[15:52:53] <@Oxford> With the light on the bottoms of the objects, she can clearly see that the 'box' shapes they appear to be resting on are actually aerodynamic stabilizing fins, arranged in a rectangular shape.
[15:58:00] <Cille_Lund> ...So this place...definitely has something to do with planes, of course. With a design like this...whatever these things are have business...outside of a plane! ...Still, figuring out what the object itself is wouldn't be without risk...but perhaps the one that knows more about planes might have an answer!
[15:58:24] <Cille_Lund> Definitely looks like it might be bombs, but...well, you never know.
[16:00:58] <Cille_Lund> Let's see, anything else, or is it about time to move on/reconvene/what have you?
[16:01:24] <@Oxford> As she moves the light around the base of the objects, Cille notices a thin gap like the edge of a panel on one side. The panel is a little less than a metre tall and half that in width, and curved to match the exterior of the egg. It has a handle of some kind recessed into one edge.
[16:07:57] <Cille_Lund> Let's s--ha?  I...is it...possible to access the handle? Safely, of course.
[16:11:45] <@Oxford> She pulls on it, and with a faint click the simple latch mechanism withdraws. The handle has a longer pull than Cille expected, needing to be rotated almost ninety degrees in order to open, and having a correspondingly long deadbolt. The panel swings open on its own under the force of gravity.
[16:12:40] <Cille_Lund> G-gah. Hold it back a little, at least! Could do with being less noisy. She must be QUIET, after all.
[16:12:55] <Cille_Lund> Still, a little doesn't mean all the way. Whatever could be inside~?
[16:15:18] <@Oxford> Cille is in front of the panel enough that she manages to catch it before it clangs against the hard cement floor of the hangar. The inside is completely dark, but as she brings the beam of the torch up to inspect the inside, what she sees looks nothing like the inside of any conventional bomb.
[16:17:05] <Cille_Lund> ...Huh. So she DOES know what a bomb looks like. And this...doesn't look like that at all. Huuuuh. Is it too confusing to make sense of either way, or is it too complicated...or perhaps, too nonsensical?
[16:20:12] <@Oxford> Rather, it is too empty. Instead of a fuse mechanism and high explosive, the inside of the metal egg is almost hollow. On the side opposite the hatch sits a crude metal chair, with a five-point style harness around the back and what looks like an attached helmet. The chair is upside-down from this position, so that the head points toward the fins of the oblong bomb.
[16:28:41] <Cille_Lund> Nonsensical, then. Does it...still need to be filled, perhaps? ...Wait, a chair is...inside that? But, that would require someone to sit in it. Why...why would anyone sit IN there? It certainly seems like a bomb. A bomber came here earlier, so it might be here to load up on this. But then...why would anyone sit IN there? ...This...could this...is THIS her fate? ...Just...just what the hell is this? To make people like them into soldiers is crazy enough, but to go right out and turn them into bombs? That's what this looks like, but...truly? Have people gone this far? ...Are the Novs ahead of this arms race? ...Will Albaea do the same thing to keep up? Cille tries to keep her emotions in check.
[16:33:18] <@Oxford> Vladko comes up behind her, moving slowly so his footsteps don't echo around the hangar. "I was able to look inside the bomber. It's a standard model, but the bomb bay has been modified with a set of racks I haven't seen before. Did you find any-" He stops as his light reveals the expression on her face. "Cille? What's wrong?"
[16:34:57] <Cille_Lund> Clearly, it's not working well enough. "This...this bomb. All I've done is open it. There's a chair and a helmet in here. No explosives whatsoever. Just room for one."
[16:36:34] <Cille_Lund> "...Obviously, a person is going to go into this bomb. Ignoring everything else, that's just monstrous."
[16:38:11] <@Oxford> He crouches down and sticks his head up through the hatch, shiny the torch around inside. "No, it's a little too tight for an adu-" Again, he cuts himself off, and though she can't see his face, Cille can hear him gulp hard. "Oh, darling. That's...I'm so sorry."
[16:38:11] <Cille_Lund> "...But, then there's the issue of the payload. What would explode? ...I've good reason to believe it's magical in origin. They're going to be putting...people like me into these things. As if lives are just that...disposable..." She starts shaking a bit. This is just absolutely WRONG.
[16:40:07] <Cille_Lund> "...The one we saw earlier. She's going to be used as ammunition."
[16:43:50] <Cille_Lund> "I...can't just let that happen. There's no way I can just let that happen. This place is an abomination."
[16:44:23] <Cille_Lund> Her voice cracks. She's almost entirely forgotten that she's on a stealth mission!
[16:45:32] <@Oxford> Vladko reaches out, hesitates a moment, and puts his hand on her upper arm. "That's horrible. But I don't understand. Why waste a weapon as powerful as a pendant user on something like this?"
[16:47:43] <Cille_Lund> "...Perhaps this thing is complicated. Perhaps pendants are in short supply while pendant users are in great supply, and this is another way to make use of them. Or, perhaps, this is the best way to use the unwilling."
[16:49:11] <Cille_Lund> "I've heard that...some very dangerous things can result from excessive magic use, and I've seen some in action myself. Perhaps this might be made just from that purpose? Or, is it just the death itself that triggers what they want?"
[16:49:56] <Cille_Lund> "There's a lot of things this could mean, but I care not for the specifics right now. Just that it ends."
[16:51:10] <@Oxford> She sees his the shadow of his head nod in the darkness. "What would you have us do? Marupol brought some dynamite..."
[16:54:02] <Cille_Lund> If we're to even pretend to stop anything, we can't just blow up those empty shells. And with planes coming here regularly, we can't just blow up a plane and call it a day, it wouldn't accomplish too much. We would need to do something to take the entire place out of commission, or at least keep planes from coming and going.
[16:54:08] <Cille_Lund> +" marks
[16:56:14] <Cille_Lund> "So...either we jailbreak the potential ammo, which might be more than the one we saw, we take out the fuel, which might put a hamper on everything since the place is so remote, or...maybe wreck the runway?"
[16:56:55] <Cille_Lund> "I feel like you might know more about the vital places of places like this, though, so..."
[17:00:46] <@Oxford> Vladko considers the options she's listed. "The dynamite we have isn't designed to crater a runway properly, and ground crews are fairly good at repairing them quickly. Blowing up the fuel would work better, though it would still be only a temporary setback for them."
[17:00:57] <@Oxford> Though she can't see him, it's easy to imagine his frown as he ticks off the last option. "As for rescuing the 'ammo', that would depend on them wanting to be rescued."
[17:03:37] <Cille_Lund> "...There are those that probably would martyr themselves willingly too, of course..." Her frown is decidedly larger. She was totally there once. In fact, at the time, she would have jumped at the chance for this even HARDER than being a soldier herself. Point A to point B! The realization stuns her!
[17:10:03] <@Oxford> Vladko's grip on her shoulder tightens reflexively, and he exhales slowly. "Okay. So maybe we should just take this information to the underground, and see what they say. We can't dawdle here," he reminds her.
[17:14:55] <Cille_Lund> "...Right, of course. We...can't do anything. Especially not if the amount of pendant users they have on hand would...even allow this to be a feasible option. I wouldn't stand a chance."
[17:16:48] <Cille_Lund> "If no one knows what they're doing, they easily continue to do it." She SEEMS to have made some peace with leaving...at least, that's what her words read out. But, her voice and posture both tremble, ever so slightly.
[17:21:47] <@Oxford> Vladko can feel the way she shakes, and almost reflexively he pulls her into a tight hug. "It will be okay. We'll stop them, and we'll make it so this can never happen again." With the difference in their heights, he can lean down and kiss the top of her head without her bending over.
[17:28:39] <Cille_Lund> That hug is SO returned. "...T-thank you..." This is...a really, really awful place. "...Let's get out of here."
[17:30:51] <@Oxford> He nods. "We have enough. Follow me."
[17:31:58] <Cille_Lund> She nods, and wipes a tear that just got there. She might be strong, but...this is...going straight back to a scary place she did not want to go back to!
[17:35:18] <@Oxford> Vladko leads the way out of the hangar. Marupol hisses a question at him under her breath, but his reply is too curt to be a real answer. Getting back outside, under the starry night sky, feels like having a weight on her chest lifted, and Cille can breath just a little easier with each step.
[17:36:14] <@Oxford> Looking over her shoulder, she sees the entrance to the hangar yawning like a bottomless pit behind her, a viper's nest filled with terrible eggs, until Marupol pulls the door closed and races after them toward the safety of the ridgeline.
[17:36:50] <@Oxford> /session