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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

At his command. Which I'm sure you were very delighted about.

You're an informant. A civilian informant. Your job was to rat out people where you were, in a sphere that you were already well-situated in. Going behind enemy lines is a different story, and you're not enough of an idiot to not have realized how dangerous that was.

[ He stares fixedly at a point well above Wash's head. ]

Yes. Well. Someone with proper training most likely could have done better, I should think. Don't think badly of ImpSec because of my shortcomings.

[ It's probably telling that Wash was talking less about Byerly's capability and more about the danger. He shakes his head. ]

Maybe. But you're what the camp had, and honestly you did more than well enough, given what you were trained for and the danger at hand.

[ He's being genuine, here. ]

[ Byerly's lips thin. His voice goes a little flat. ]

Flattery, Agent Washington?

I'm not very good at flattery.

[ Really he's very very bad at it. ]

But I assumed you were trained for what you were doing. You weren't. [ Hence his confusion at how you've never even killed anyone, a spy behind enemy lines -- at least in Wash's experience -- can't always count on the boys in Ops to swoop in and do whatever's needed, especially if it's as simple as killing one person. ] Given the circumstances, I think you did well. It didn't help that your cover was under strain.

[ A lot because of Wash himself, no less. It's not even remotely direct, but there is -- if not apology, then an acknowledgment of how much harder he made things. Somewhere in there. ]

Edited 2017-05-09 17:06 (UTC)

[ He catches that not-quite-apology. His eyes flick downwards to Wash's face, and they stay on it a moment, hard and sharp even in spite of his staggering degree of intoxication. Whatever he finds in there, he's evidently satisfied with; he looks away again. ]

No. That didn't help.

[ He's quiet a moment, then says: ]

My greatest mistake was spending so much time in this camp. It would have been much easier if there were no emotional attachments. But here we are.

[ The sharpness of his gaze does surprise him a little given how fucking drunk Byerly has to be, but -- not that much, either. If nothing else, Wash is learning that Byerly is a very, very lucid kind of drunk. He meets his gaze easily, though, calm and steady, still watching him even when he looks away. ]

Both of you did have me worried half to death when I realized how compromised you were. [ Byerly being compromised was one thing, meeting with Natasha and realizing she was just as affected, if not even more affected, was another. He lost sleep over it, not that that's hard for Wash to do, but he'd spent many nights wondering if he should be pushing for both of them to be pulled out as soon as possible. ] All things considered, it could've gone a lot worse.

I don't think getting emotionally attached was exactly something we could help, besides.

[ Not direct, again, but he's implying something there, the we there isn't everyone at camp, or even the four of them involved in this spy business, or even three. He means him and Byerly, only. And Sonia. He's aware of Nadine, now, and Byerly is aware of his sisters, and it isn't too difficult to draw a line to her. ]

Edited 2017-05-09 17:28 (UTC)

[ Byerly glances back at Wash. He looks away quicker, then, unable to really hold his gaze. There's too much truth in that comment. Instead, noncommittally, he murmurs: ]

Mm.

[ A pause, then: ]

Worried half to death. We're not your subordinates. Or, well - I suppose you supervised Natasha. Are you really so compulsive about caring, Washington?

[ He holds his gaze when Byerly glances back, still watches him when he looks away again. He knows what that means, knows there's truth there. He'll come back to it.

Wash acquires responsibility for people remarkably quickly. Caring about them on a personal level is quite a bit more difficult, but Natasha was already there at that point, and Byerly. He's not entirely sure when that happened, exactly, but he's there now. Still dislikes him at the same time, though. He's a worrier, and even if Byerly wasn't his charge, he was Miles', and that was more than enough for him to care on that level -- and maybe some of it was the guilt, knowing that he'd not exactly made the man's job any easier. ]

Maybe I just have a terrible bleeding heart, Byerly. Or maybe it was more that I was worried about our actual chances for getting Sonia out with the two of you poised for recklessness and unwilling to listen to reason or orders. Not to mention, just the robustness of this little intelligence operation in general.

[ It's all of the above, really. Wash cares a lot. He actually doesn't hide it too much. ]

Well, the latter two reasons are moot, now. And I'd sooner cut my own throat than have someone's heart bleeding all over me.

[ He doesn't look back at Wash, keeps staring into the trees, but there's a stubborn, hostile sort of look that creeps into his face. He's a funny sort of prideful, Byerly is: he's perfectly happy to humiliate himself, act the drunken fool, for the sake of his country (and his bank account) and doesn't care the least about the scorn of the people around him. But pity? That puts his back up. He's perfectly aware that there's quite a lot about him that can seem pathetic - especially now, especially with all the details known. Under normal circumstances, By makes a great show of laughing at all that pathetic woundedness. But when he can't laugh, when lies are stripped away, there's just a hard and Vorish sort of pride left behind. ]

So perhaps for the sake of your wrinkled brow and for the sake of my annoyance, you can learn to curtail that impulse.

[ Wash doesn't like people worrying after him, either. Some of it is pride, too, not most of it, but enough that he can recognize the hardness in Byerly's expression, creeping into his voice. He isn't the type that's much given to pity, either -- most of this comes from sympathy, from recognizing they do apparently have a thing or two in common, from seeing and empathizing with a struggle. Caring isn't exactly something easily turned off, but well. He can take a hint, making some quiet, amused sound. ]

Fair enough.

[ Besides, given what Wash already knows about Miles' tendencies to worry, Wash figures Byerly must be dealing with some of that from him, already -- and of course, there's Sonia. Wash would have always gone back for Byerly, even before Miles asked it of him and even before Sonia did, too, but they both had been incredibly insistent. ]

Did you still have any of that left? [ Gesturing with a tip of his head towards the bottle Byerly had discarded earlier. You've got something on you, don't you, even if there might not be much of it left. ]

[ By doesn't like the amusement, but he does relax, a little of the tension going out of his face. In response to the question, he fishes his flask out of his pocket - there's some truly high-octane moonshine in it, enough to keep his spins going for a long time. He shakes it a moment, demonstrating its fullness, and then takes a heavy gulp off it. ]

Want some?

[ No fool he, though; his grip on it is firm. He wouldn't be surprised if fucking Buzzkill Party Mom there took it from him and poured it out. ]

[ Smart boy, Wash would at least partially consider it. But Byerly isn't wholly his responsibility the way someone like Tucker is, and while he will still absolutely make sure Byerly doesn't wander off a cliff, his relative lucidity means he isn't actually about to confiscate anything. Probably, anyway. Don't give him a reason to. ]

Some. [ He still doesn't drink, and definitely not enough to get any real kind of drunk -- Byerly is right, he doesn't trust himself with that, and that really is better for everyone involved, anyway. But he's learned to ease up a little bit in recent years, and maybe blame Miles' ridiculous constant access to alcohol for Wash learning to drink enough for a bit of a buzz, here and there. With amusement; ] Gonna trust me with it?

Are you trustworthy?

[ Byerly lifts his eyebrows, but, well...It's not in a Barrayaran's DNA to refuse a fellow a drink when he asks for one. Even if they're going to waste your alcohol, you don't hoard it. It's just not done. So he takes one last glug, ritualistically wipes the mouth of the flask with his sleeve, and then passes it over. ]

[ He is half-expecting Byerly to either refuse or hand him an empty flask, which wouldn't have been too terrible a loss. He's grateful enough when that isn't the case, though, helping himself to a reasonable but not too full swig, wiping the the mouth of it himself before he hands it back.

A little belatedly, but still in reply; ]

Is anyone?

[ He lifts his eyebrows, taking it back. He salutes Wash - ]

Look at you. You didn't even choke or anything. I'm impressed.

[ And then he takes another swig of his own. ]

And yes. Everyone is, on certain things. And everyone has their certain other things on which they aren't trustworthy at all. The key is figuring out which things correspond to which people.

[ Don't be quite so quick to congratulate him, Byerly. Wash does have a pretty high tolerance, all things considered, but being unused to drinking often means he does tend to pull a face or two with something strong, which he does as the burn settles in. He makes some quiet sound, affirming. That's true enough, close enough to how he thinks, except he's also more than paranoid enough to question everything, anyway. Just in case. ]

Those things change sometimes, though. You can never be too sure.

What can you trust me on, then?

[ His lips curl up in a smile. ]

If I tell you, I'll lose the element of surprise.

[ He matches that smile. ]

Fair enough.

Tell me about someone, then. I'm curious -- Or I could just ask about Nadine, again.

[ Look, when everyone present knows the game, sometimes Wash just prefers to cut to the chase. He is genuinely curious. But he does also still want to hear about her. ]

[ The smile drops away. Still, Byerly glances away, and answers: ]

How about Miles? You know exactly what you can trust him on.

[ He ain't giving up on that point, Byerly. ]

Do I?

Don't you? Go on; name something you can trust about him.

[ Sigh. Miles is enough of a friend that he'd rather not. ]

I trust him. We can leave it at that.

Mm. Completely? In all things? That's a mistake.

[ Of course he doesn't trust him in all things, Wash doesn't trust even his friends in Freelancer with all things, let alone someone relatively new. But he does trust him enough, thinks of him as enough of a friend that he doesn't really want to sit around and dissect that with someone. ]

Then it'll be my mistake to make, unless you had some specific point to press, Byerly.

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