[ may i log: the good fight ]

[barrayarmods]

Who: Everyone
What: The culmination of months of planning and suffering finally comes to bear as the Barrayarans launch their debilitating attack on the Cetagandan base. Politics, as always, go sight unseen but felt everywhere.
When: May 1st - 18th
Where: the Barrayaran camp, the Cetagandan base, Riverfall Village
Warnings: TBD

Quick links:
Riverfall
Barrayar: Camp / Missions
Cetaganda: Base / Missions

TIMELINE
5/5 Eavesdropping
5/7 Hacking
5/11 Mystery Plot
5/15 Attack on the Cetagandan base

riverfall
The village is finally starting to get back on its feet after a few blessedly uneventful weeks. Other than the routine Cetagandan patrols, there hasn't been much activity in the village, and no new strife. The villagers merely continue their rebuilding efforts and tend to their fields, and they'll still gladly accept any help offered by outsiders.

With the village down nearly half its population, there's room to grow, even after last month's fight destroyed some of the homes, so Speaker Gura has been taking in refugees from other nearby hill villages – about ten refugees have moved to settle anew in Riverfall in the last few weeks.

barrayar
The time to strike is now.

All three camps are preoccupied with preparations for the attack on the 15th: as far as Barrayaran intelligence knows, no reinforcements are on their way to the Cetagandan base, and the guerrillas need to strike while the Cetagandans are still down nearly half their forces. It's the only shot they have at forcing the occupying troops to leave Vorkosigan Vashnoi and give them a chance at retaking the city – and they're not throwing away this shot, because they might not get another one.

The political unease surrounding Dorca and Yuri is a quieter tension, plaguing only those politically savvy (or well-positioned) enough to understand the situation, but if you're paying close enough attention to the moody Crown Prince, you'll note that Yuri's primary concern isn't the outsiders, but something much closer to home. He's never been a particularly warm man by anyone's account, but lately he's especially given to foul moods, and only part of it is grief for his most recently deceased son.

All further attempts at hostage negotiation from Zahal have been as curtly denied as the first, and just about as politely. Incorporating a rescue plan into their attack strategy wasn't exactly easy, but they won't get another shot than this at rescuing Princess Sonia – or Byerly, whose cover as a spy was recently blown during a failed attempt at smuggling Sonia out of the base. On the 15th, the Barrayarans prepare for war, some donning Cetagandan uniforms and face paint, others swiping mud over their faces to better camouflage themselves in the dark.

And the attack is a success. There's no real such thing as acceptable loss, but the top brass consider the 70 lives spent on the attack a fair cost for what they got: almost destroying the immediate Cetagandan power supply and the return of their Princess. Plus Byerly. The mood lightens considerably, but there is no rest in war, and just as soon as they take their next victory, Piotr, Dorca and Yuri are already planning the next move: finally retaking Vorkosigan Vashnoi.

camp
All three camps are heavily preparing, officers running drills nearly around the clock, quartermasters taking inventory and making sure every piece of equipment is clean and in working order, medical officers and techs preparing the sickbay tent as best they can for the inevitable injured who will return.

But despite the impending mission, tensions are still rising within the army – while top brass is vocally discouraging the fights that have broken out, it hasn't put a complete stop to them, and no one has openly endorsed the outsiders except for Piotr Vorkosigan. Vorvolk and Yuri are both still staunchly in the skeptic camp at best, but Dorca does not seem to have passed a final judgment on the outsiders before the attack. Perhaps he's merely biding his time, because for all the dissent about the outsiders, the Emperor hasn't barred Piotr from letting them participate in critical missions.

The soldiers make enough noise about it on their own. They're especially tetchy about the outsiders who crossed over from the Cetagandan side – they're as good as spies, as far as some of the soldiers are concerned. But even worse is letting Duv Galeni, a Komarran, not only remain in camp and feed on their resources, but actively participate in missions. For the most part, the soldiers in camp who have known the outsiders from the start and have befriended them are sticking with them, but the half of Piotr's army that was with Vorvolk after the split when the location of their last camp was discovered by the Cetagandans are nearly as suspicious as the Vorbarra battalion. Hostility towards Duv and those who escaped from the Cetagandan camp is especially severe, and it's no secret that some of them would prefer the outsiders dead rather than taking up space and resources in their army, though no one has been so bold as to actually make any attempts. Falco Vorkalloner, one of the Rangers who had been in Vorvolk's half of the army, hasn't been afraid to make his voice heard, though. He's even been heard saying that he thinks someone ought to make an example out of the Komarran and demonstrate just what they think of those who would side with the Cetagandans.

After the attack, the atmosphere of the camp is noticeably changed – the return of the Princess as well as what can only be considered a resounding victory for the Barrayarans has led to a jubilant and triumphant environment. And with Barrayarans, all celebration comes with a whole lot of drinking. Wine, vodka and maple mead are passed around aplenty in the nights and days following the attack, as soldiers burn offerings for their dead comrades and trade stories of action.

The tension with the outsiders begins to lessen after this victory, too. The fact that two outsiders, Wash and Lucy, are responsible for the Princess's rescue goes a long way toward relations between the outsiders and the rest of the army, and after the attack, Dorca gives the outsiders his endorsement as comrades to be trusted and honorary warriors fighting alongside them. Of course, this doesn't mean all hostility and tension merely dissipates – there are still plenty of soldiers like the now-deceased Falco who still think the outsiders are a threat and a parasitic presence. But things do start to lighten up a little after this victory...finally.

missions
General Piotr Vorkosigan himself leads the attack on the Cetagandan base, and Yuri leads his own contingent. Although there are some hitches getting in undetected, their plans to disable base security are overall successful, as is their sabotage of the power supply generators and Sonia and Byerly's rescue.

Meanwhile, Lakshmi and Sisko have found Falco Vorkalloner's dead body, and while it looks like an accident, it also looks like someone might have taken care to make sure it looked like one.

The unabridged mission results can be found here.

cetaganda
The social relief brought by the flower-viewing party quickly fades, and tension settles back over the Cetagandan base, underlined by Zahal's frustration with Piotr's flat-out refusal to meet his demands, or even so much as discuss them. He's sent more than one political ransom demand since Dorca's arrival, too, but to no effect. Given the recent guerrilla activity in Vorkosigan Vashnoi, he knows Piotr must be planning something, but with no informants left in the Barrayaran army, his intelligence is dry, and the investigations into weapons smuggling were ultimately fruitless. All known civilian resistance cells seem to have scattered and disappeared, their bases of operation boarded up or burned down. All he can do is concentrate as many troops as he can afford on the city's occupation, though he doesn't leave the base totally unmanned. But he does add another thousand troops to the occupying force in Vorkosigan Vashnoi in the week before the attack on the base.

Not everyone is being sent over, though, and the transfer doesn't make for as smooth a cover as one might hope. Gail is caught on an unauthorized trip to the city while off duty, and you might hear -- or overhear -- the dressing-down he gets from his commanding officer for it. He doesn't appear to have a ready excuse for it -- at least, not one that doesn't sound flimsy as hell.

Military matters affect those of the Star Crèche, however, and Zahal's frustration does not touch that sphere. Not that it isn't without its own tensions -- anyone who spends enough time with Diya and Sei (and Ba Talim, for that matter) will feel the rising tensions between them, though their origins are as obscure as the haut always are. The Star Gate Project, now officially under the jurisdiction of the Star Crèche, continues on with Micah at the lead, although they haven't for a moment forgotten that they are a prisoner here, or where their true loyalties lie.

After the attack, Zahal's fury reaches a boiling point, and since the Barrayarans did so much infrastructural damage, the consequences of military matters finally reach Diya and Sei, rankling them, too. The power shortage and damage to the science/medical complex has put a serious damper on Star Gate research, although as far as anyone is aware, the gene therapy trials and other related Star Crèche research goes on unimpeded, thanks to the successful protection of the secondary backup generator, which seems to exist only to power the medbay and gene labs. But since power is a hot commodity right now, Zahal is going to start pushing to reroute some of that power to what the haut would probably deem as lower priority needs.

base
The mood around the base is restless, Zahal's frustration trickling down into tensions among his officers and seeping into the very atmosphere. They're hardly prepared for the attack that comes because they don't even know what to expect. The soldiers all seem on edge, nervous, a little tetchy, particularly after Tarn's altercation with Diya and Natasha, and then the failed attempt to smuggle out the Princess -- but that did, at least, lead to the outing of Byerly Vorrutyer as a spy among the Cetagandans, confirming some suspicions held by the higher brass in Cetagandan intelligence. About the only comfort, if one can call it that, in all this tension is Byerly's summary fast-penta interrogation.

The gene therapy trials, despite some...trials, continue, and with much greater success than last month. Sei and Diya are as impassive as ever, but even so, there's a tangible undercurrent of mixed relief and triumph. Micahworks as feverishly as ever on the Star Gate Project with the aid and oversight of the military's scientific division and the exotics working as lab assistants. The satellite launch has proven to be a highly productive venture -- it's yielding data they couldn't have gathered otherwise, which is proving to be critical, and Micah spends time having Kaidan, Symmetra and Pearl put through another series of brain scans and consulting the neurology team as they study the results.

Although Sei is never seen outside of her force bubble, and doesn't actually travel around the base all that much, her presence seems to dominate the more civilian areas of the base, overshadowing even Diya -- although Diya is considerably less visible around the base after her altercation with Tarn. Amai is, of course, somehow seen just about everywhere, a constant social and professional presence that refuses to let anyone forget she's there. But after the 5th, she seems to be troubled -- she's far less impassive than the haut, and her anxiety and discomfort are much easier to see.

After the attack, Diya seems somewhat shaken -- it's almost impossible to tell how Sei is affected, but with facilities down, audits are being done on all existing projects to determine what's important enough to remain active while they have limited power. The base isn't quite in a shambles, but there's a lot of damage -- while the Barrayarans personally only carry swords and bows, they clearly have no issue with taking the Cetagandans' plasma arcs to wreak havoc at home -- and the atmosphere is overall demoralized. Sending more troops to Vorkosigan Vashnoi was clearly the wrong move, and it's a bitter pill to swallow, but Zahal begins to recall troops from the city in small waves to help better man the base, knowing full well that this must have been what Piotr intended.

missions
A few interesting tidbits are overheard in the dark of night, and Amai finds herself in the uniquely uncomfortable position of holding Diya's dark secret in one hand, and Sei's in the other -- and Ba Talim seems to know something, though it isn't clear what. And some creative hacking turns up some unexpected dirt on Sei that makes Diya's illicit ba experiments look like mere misdemeanors.

Despite the best efforts of the soldiers and the exotics and the fact that, even undermanned, they still outnumber the guerrillas by a landslide, the base is still overrun by Barrayarans and their attack is successful. The main and backup power generators are totally disabled for the time being, and it's unclear how long it will be before full power is restored to the base.

The unabridged mission results can be found here.

Note: Gavalas, Olivia, Zahal, Diya, and Sei & Ba Talim are available for threads on request. Hit up Madi (Gavalas, Diya, Sei & Ba Talim) or Ammay (Olivia & Zahal) if you'd like threads with these characters!

Comments

I love you

[vorrutyer]

[ The breath goes out of him at the blow. He collapses to his knees, gasping and struggling, hunched over the point of injury. Shit - His lips are still buzzing and stinging from the kiss, brutal and swift as it was, while the ache of suffocation washes over him.

He doesn't want to see her. Doesn't want to look her in the eye. Maybe in a few days, perhaps that would be a laugh, but for now, he can't stand the thought. But there she is, grabbing him, forcing him to his knees in front of her - perhaps it is a correct sort of justice, that he doesn't get to decide the time and place of their meeting. That she does. That he must kneel before her in a sort of penitence.

He gasps, the noise rattling, for once devoid of any pretty words or quips as he fights to recover himself. ]

no u

[shri]

[ She stands, shoulders back, feet apart, sword at her hip and gold in her hair. Her eyes down and her face imperious as she looks at him. Doesn't offer to help him, nor console or comfort those pained breaths as they fall his lips, thready and straining on the crisp air. She should kneel down to him, she should take him by the throat again and instead of giving him promises, see what he would give her. Hold her fingers tight to see if his pretty eyes would go colour of the trees of his homeland, where they're so red they're dark. Because, no, she doesn't want to look at him, either, but she does want to watch this.

Rather, she takes them as her price. Drawn in like shared air, her own measured to be deep and even to his uneven desperation. Eyes lowered to him and watching like stones watch, worn away at all her edges and standing yet. When she's determined he's been there long enough, her head tilts that little, the flat pendants swinging with the movement. Back and forth and back again.

This suits him, she thinks this suits him better than his flattery or his mocking. His desperation was at least honest. ]

There now, two things from your mouth I can trust.

[ She is not his Queen, she will never be his Queen, but like this, he will fall when she commands it and rise as she bids him. ]

Get up.

[vorrutyer]

Will you - [ His voice is thin and reedy, the air only just coming back into his lungs. ] Hit me again if I do?

[ But there is a Vor lord under it all, and so where a wiser man would stay down and stay safe, Byerly rises. Not all Vor are valiant, after all, but to a man they are masochistic. He struggles up, his feet a little unsteady, wiping at his bitten lip. Then he looks at her with her arms crossed.

At least she didn't go for a deadlier weapon than her knee. Pleasant surprise, that. When she'd looked at him like that, and kissed him, he'd truly expected that a knife through the heart would follow. But look - he's still alive. It's a miracle, isn't it? ]

Lovely to see you again, dear Lakshmi.

[shri]

Just so.

[ A miracle still, if not one caused by her this time around. Her arms drop but she doesn't relax much. When does she ever? Watching him rise back up, little at a time. Yes, idiots all of them apparently, don't know when to stay down. Really should teach him that, but why would she waste time with a lesson that she never would want to stick? ]

I am told you're a liar and a scoundrel, Byerly Vorrutyer.

[vorrutyer]

Yes. Well.

[ He pushes back a lock of hair that's fallen over his forehead. He lifts his eyebrows ironically. He wonders if she knows what he was doing. What's the root of this anger? He wonders. ]

I was clear about that from the very beginning, I believe.

[shri]

But not a monster yet.

[ She steps away from him, back towards the main thoroughfare of camp life as it were. A gesture of her hand for him to follow after her. ]

Come, we need to talk.

[vorrutyer]

[ He follows a bit warily. ]

Where are we going?

[shri]

[ She doesn't do much to give him confidence in that regard. Nor would he get it from her, anytime soon. Let him squirm for a little while longer, as far as she's concerned. ]

Did Miles inform you what's happened?

[vorrutyer]

With regards to what? Understand, I've only just wandered back into camp. I'm terribly confused.

[shri]

[ that gets a tsk, a flick of her hand as if she expected better from him. ]

Losing your touch, or too busy enjoying yourself and your escape?

[vorrutyer]

[ He spreads his hands and waits inscrutably. Stonewalling her. Typical. Unchanged by his experience. ]

[shri]

[ things that reasonably, she shouldn't find endearing, and yet it pulls a flickered smile from her. As quickly there as gone. ]

Strangely enough, you are the only one in camp completely innocent. [ her own private joke, before she sobers. ] I found a body a few days ago. One of Vorvolk's men. Vorkalloner. He was no friend of ours by any means. He spent most of his time calling for Galeni's death.

[vorrutyer]

Ah.

[ He lifts his eyebrows in comprehension. ]

And who is suspected? The Komarran or the mutie? Or both?

[shri]

As yet, we're all fair game, but just the same neither of them. More troubling than that, we're looking for a child.

[ She's already gone down that path, gone straight to Miles to double check that evidence. ]

This is the last thing the camp needs, by any means. You've missed it, but the fighting was bad enough, though it was just fighting, but a body? Bodies are not forgiven.

[vorrutyer]

[ A child? His eyes narrow. He knows at once who's behind it. ]

Who did Miles point you towards?

[shri]

The person I suspected to start with, Negri. We found footprints, small ones. I thought Miles to start with until I could compare them, but once we had done that.

[ Lifts her fingers, pressure at her brow briefly. Faintly tapping at the gold medallion sitting on her brow. ]

Unless you can think of a single other child that ghosts this camp.

[vorrutyer]

[ He gives a small, airy wave of his hand. ]

And did he tell you whose creature Negri is?

[shri]

[ Whether he has or he hasn't, for the moment, she nods stiffly. What she wants is information and she hasn't quite finished being irritated with him yet. ]

Do you know anything else about it?

[vorrutyer]

[ With a very slight smile: ]

I might.

[shri]

[ Her eyes roll and her weight shifts in a cant of her hips. ]

If you please, Vorrutyer, save me from getting worse than another bloodied nose and black eye.

[vorrutyer]

Hm.

[ He tilts his head. ]

Ezar would have ordered it. Negri all but belongs to him, body and soul. I suspect it stops there - Piotr is far too honorable to order that sort of thing. The order would have originated with Ezar.

[shri]

Shit.

[ It's muttered to herself and she looks down, her hand coming up to rub at the back of her neck as she shifts again. That antsy press. She loathes this kind of work. Give herself something to hit. ]

Can you think of why Ezar would have ordered such a thing? We cannot be so beloved to him to want to protect us, nor Duv specifically.

[vorrutyer]

Ah, I do like it when you get a little filthy-mouthed.

[ He winks at her. What a joy he is. ]

But with regards to that...Who's to say? Ezar is - hm - capricious. My best guess for his primary motivation would be silencing a critic of Piotr Vorkosigan's power. Or perhaps he does like us outsiders - he might very well be curious about us. Or, honestly, he might simply be testing out Negri's abilities. He does things because they're interesting to him and he wants to see what happens.

[shri]

[ That gets another roll of her eyes, a perpetual state when it comes to dealing with Byerly, apparently. ]

He's not exactly someone we can call to justice for the act to spare the continuing rift, is he? [ It's - childish to her mind. But then, she never went in for political assassinations, did she? She fought openly.

Maybe that's why she lost. ]

[vorrutyer]

[ Easily, and casually: ] Dear heavens no. Not unless you want a powerful enemy who'll be getting all the more powerful as time goes on.