forbarrayar | [ may i log: the good fight ]

Entry tags:

[ may i log: the good fight ]

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!

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Let me slap you and I'll tell you.

[ You little shit. Wash actually does properly respond to that, but it's amusement, the corner of his mouth quirking upward. A certain light in his eyes. ]

What happened to our deal? I'd tell you about mine, you know.

That protectiveness of yours, Vorrutyer. You have such a noble soul.

[ There's just a little flash in his eyes - something like anger, though not exactly - something intense - before he shutters that moment of honesty once more. It's not as deft as it would have been if he'd been sober. He is, it seems, an honest drunk. ]

Ah, but you seem so hungry for this. I feel as though I can get better terms. Tell me about yours, and I get to slap you. Or choke you. Or cut you. Your choice.

[ That is different. Something that immediately has Wash curious, that has the part of him that sees everything around him as a puzzle to be analyzed and taken apart alert and interested. He does quite like Byerly now despite everything, saving him from the Cetagandans was a choice, after all, but that doesn't mean he dislikes him any less. And he certainly doesn't like him enough to back off on something curious, not when Byerly's clearly trying to dig his fingers into him in turn.

Byerly's found nothing of his yet, though. The sadism, the lack of self-trust, all things he guards but not quite that fiercely. He doesn't like his friends knowing exactly how awful and broken he actually is, but they're at least a little aware, and Wash himself is very, very self-aware and strangely comfortable with it. What he guards is why he's the way he is. But he's found something that Byerly is guarding, for one reason or another. ]

We just have something in common here. My sisters were good people, somehow, despite the hell around them, despite what they were living through. It sounds like Nadine was the same. [ Using her name, now. Quite deliberately. More personal, a reminder that he knows about her, now. ] Something precious, right? Allies against your cousins . . . You protected her from them.

Do you just hate that I know about Nadine, now? Or is it just that you don't like anyone knowing about the even slightly good man that you just might be, buried deep as he is?

You flatter me, my dear thing.

[ There's just a little too much tooth in that smile. There's just a little too much hardness in his eyes when he flutters his lashes. ]

A good man? I'm just a useless drunk. Ask anyone. You're writing quite a story, here. Say, how do you protect yours? I suppose they grew up during a civil war, too. Did they ever see violence themselves? Or did you shelter them from it?

The useless drunk thing didn't work the first time you spoke to me. It won't work here, either. [ A shrug. ] Though maybe you think of yourself that way. A useless drunk that just happened to find a way to make himself a little useful.

Evelyn and Erin were born not long after the onset of the Great War -- the galactic one, with the aliens. [ And he sure as hell didn't manage to shelter them from that. ] Not a civil war. Kind of worse.

How did you protect her from your cousins? Somehow I doubt it was just by fighting them off.

[ Bingo; his expression darkens a bit further still. ]

And how much have you managed to keep track of them? All that violence in your world. What would have happened if they'd fallen victim to it while you were off playing soldier?

[ Wash has found something here, then. Though the way he doesn't answer Byerly's question is probably telling that he's found at least a bit of something, too -- not anything Wash holds onto too fiercely, but certainly something he doesn't like talking about. ]

Did you just throw yourself between them? I don't think that'd be all that effective, if they had their sights set on Nadine. Unless they didn't, in the first place.

Enough of a distraction, were you? More than ten years ago. Were you much of a useless drunk, back then?

Ten years ago?

[ That misapprehension is significant enough that he breaks his stubborn non-responsiveness to correct him: ]

This all happened when we were children. If Richars and the rest were still after her ten years ago, do you think I'd ever have left her behind? [ And then, viciously: ] I wouldn't leave someone when they were still in the line of danger.

[ That does land. A flicker of something, bitter and angry in his eyes, he knows it wasn't his fault, and they're fine, they made it out. He wouldn't have been able to do anything if he'd been there, he might've died if anything, and yet. He should've been there. ]

I didn't think you had a choice in leaving her behind, Byerly. [ There's more anger behind the words than Wash actually wants there to be. Wash himself had a choice. He chose to leave them behind. ]

Were you really disowned at all? You've no love for your family, that much's obvious, but you still chose to leave her. Even if Richars wasn't a threat anymore, you must've had a reason to leave her -- or did you do something? Something that meant you had to keep away from Nadine, for her own good.

[ And there's a surge of something in his face, something hot and angry and unfiltered. ]

No. I didn't.

[ That anger. That's probably the most genuine Wash thinks he might've ever seen him, hot and vicious like someone accused, and ah. Wash's own expression shifts, but it's not to anything hard or sharp. Something softer. Whether it's calculated to piss him off further or genuine, though, that's anyone's guess.

( It's mostly genuine. Mostly. ) ]

Someone thought you did.

[ He doesn't respond. Instead, he surges to his feet - and, drunkenly, overbalanced, slipping and half-falling against a tree. He stays upright only by grabbing at the rough bark, but he's too hammered even to wince when it abrades his palms. ]

[ Wash really wasn't kidding about actually being concerned with not wanting Byerly to get himself hurt while he's staggering around drunk, so watching him stand so unsteadily immediately has him on alert -- for Byerly, rather than alert against him in case he wanted to try a drunken punch or two, when did that happen. He'll wonder about that later. ]

Too close for comfort, Byerly? You started this game.

[ He doesn't stand, though he does shift his weight back, ready to move if he has to. He's sober, more than fast enough. ]

You should sit back down.

[ In a clipped and clinical tone, By responds: ]

Get fucked.

[ But he doesn't move further away. Even this drunk, he's aware of the prospect of falling off a cliff and dying of a broken neck. That's not as romantic a prospect as it was in his younger days. ]

I don't have anything to be ashamed of. Unlike you, I think.

[ And again, somehow, that makes him smile a little, the corner of his lips quirking upward ever so slightly in a genuine, soft kind of amusement -- though that stills as Byerly keeps talking. Things to be ashamed of? He has a lot to be ashamed of. Blood on his hands, marks on his soul. But if all Byerly's got here is his sisters, that's so far from the worst of it.

( But god, there's South. South who killed her brother and as much as she deserved it, as much as he had no choice. She was his sister. North's sister, he loved her so much, and when he killed her, he felt nothing. ) ]

Try me, Byerly. [ Perhaps ill-advised. But he's curious. Likes the challenge. Wants to see what he might have. He won't let up, either. ] What was it they think you did to her?

[ Bitterly, he finally answers: ]

Not they. There was never enough to the rumor to make anyone intelligent believe it. But then my father was never all that intelligent. [ And: ] I'm a Vorrutyer. We're all famous perverts. What do you think it was?

[ It was the only good he'd ever done, protecting Nadine. It was his reason for living when he was a boy, what carried him through his depression and self-loathing as he struggled with who he was and what he was, as he fought with his own instability and his fear of his genetic heritage and his fear of his desires. He still knew that he protected her and kept her safe. And then with a single rumor, that was ripped from him. ]

Have you ever actually cared about anyone, Washington?

[ Ill-reputed Vorrutyers may be, Wash lacks the context for that, doesn't know who they are beyond the very specific Vorrutyers he's heard about and memorized and filed away. Byerly, of course, Ges, now Richars. But the way Byerly says that, the bitterness to his voice, we're all famous perverts, and it still takes him a few moments, but. He reaches the obvious guess.

A rumor. A rumor only his father believed. Ungrounded, unfounded, when he cared about his sister so deeply, was that really all it was that forced him to leave her? He doesn't say anything, doesn't voice the guess, but there's a moment of realization in his expression, recognition when it clicks into place, something subtler but there's an anger there that quickly fades as he pushes it down, how could anyone possibly believe that of someone who just wanted to protect her. He's quiet, otherwise, just still trying to fit that puzzle into place as he watches him -- and then there's that question. ]

Of course I have. [ He cares so, so deeply. So much, too much. Most everything he's ever done has been driven by some selfless desire to put someone else over himself. ] Love for my friends and comrades, remember?

Ah. So you're just the sort of man who wrecks those he loves. Truly.

[ His lips curl up miserably. ]

A smasher.

No.

[ Though Byerly sounds terribly like that voice he has in the back of his head, sometimes, of course you are, David, that's all you ever fucking do, but no. No. ]

[ He knows he shouldn't be like this. He should be grateful for that flash of anger on his behalf. He should be gentler. But, well...Vorrutyers are sadists. All of them except Nadine... ]

No? Ah. So the ones you broke, you secretly hated all along?

[ There is an ugly side to him. Sadistic and awful and twisted. But his friends, he keeps it so very hidden from his friends as much as he can. Some saw through him better than others, but as much as part of him likes to break things and people and dig his fingers into the cracks and pry them apart -- he does keep himself leashed. He does manage to control it. He's never broken anyone he cares about, except, ah.

Church. Church hurts the most. But he didn't break him, either, not exactly, he just needed him to get something done, awful and self-serving but at the time everything he wanted. And he'd just dug straight into the part of him he knew would hurt, the right words, a slight push, that was all it took. ]

Despite all your attempts otherwise, Vorrutyer. [ Back to the last name, now. With Byerly he's always used it a little more deliberately, the moment he realized how poorly he thought of his family. ] You don't actually know much about me or about anything I've done, to my friends or otherwise.

I know you've killed.

[ His eyes narrow just a little, watching. ]

I know you've killed a friend. Does that not count as a cruelty?

I wouldn't be a very good soldier if I managed to serve twenty years without killing anyone.

[ And he has, in fact, killed a lot of people. ]

You know why I killed her, too. She killed her own brother [ and god North loved her, looked out for her always, he was always so good and Wash is pretty damn sure the only reason he was in this damned Project with the rest of them at all was just to look out for her, he loved her and he killed her in cold blood ] and nearly killed me. Maybe it's her you're looking for, and not me.

[ It was justified, he had no choice. But it haunts him, still. It always will, and that shows some in his voice, the slightest waver, even as his eyes are fixed and hard. ]

[ Good. ]

You're right. If one of your sisters had killed you, I'm sure you'd have rested a lot easier knowing someone blew her brains out in return. Hm? No question you did the right thing there.

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