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

Negotiating before this time. Good to know we learn lessons.

[ Another shrug. Another spin of the knife. Now that he has it out he's just going to keep doing that for a while, it's. Comforting. ]

What do you want?

[ Byerly casually, eloquently, flips him off. ]

I don't know. I feel as though I do know you know. Information is starting to feel a little inadequate.

There's plenty you don't know.

Mm. So trade me something I wouldn't even know to ask for.

There's a lot there.

[ A sigh, though. Considering. How much does he trust Byerly? He isn't sure how to quantify that kind of thing, anymore, but he's definitively sure that the answer is, at this point, too much. Another spin of the knife before he drives it into the dirt somewhere beside him, shifting where he's shifted next to him, folding a knee against his chest and propping up an elbow over it. That quiet lasts for quite a bit longer, this time, as Wash just stares somewhere off into the woods. ]

I could tell you why I'm such a fuck up. [ Not all of it, still, never all of it. But. ] About relationships and all that. Sanity included.

[ It's. Easier to tell that to people he didn't know from home. Maybe that's questionable, but it honestly is. It's a stupid fucking thing to offer, but. He doesn't know. Something about that look he had on his face, when he'd leaned against the blade. ]

Sounds juicy.

[ That, weirdly, doesn't come out particularly mocking or cruel. Just a little wry. So: yes, that's a yes. And it's juicy enough, indeed, that he offers: ]

As a show of good faith, I'll go first. I have been so chatty because I think, somehow, irritatingly, you have wormed your way into my mind and established yourself as someone utterly trustworthy. Blame a bit of insanity, or the gratitude over saving my life, or something like that.

[ Good. He would've made you go first.

That -- doesn't surprise him. It does, in a way, because it's something new, something that he has to take a moment to process and put into place, but it doesn't shock him, just makes sense. ]

You don't like that you trust me, though. Or at least, you're not used to it. [ That look in his eyes. His fingers twitch slightly against his leg, he ends up reaching for the knife again, arm still balanced over his kneecap. ] When do you think that happened?

[ His tone's more about conversation, than digging. There might be little difference between that though for them though, judging by all they've spoken about so far. ]

[ A shrug. ]

Who's to say? When does a storm start? It's certainly not when you hear the first clap of thunder, or when you feel the first drop of rain. That's only when you notice it. [ A beat. ] And no. I don't like it. I don't tend to trust both by nature and by training.

You know I don't trust easy, either.

[ But earlier Byerly had essentially asked if he'd trusted him, Wash had answered yes, and -- he did mean it. He can question it, wonder if it's a good idea, and honestly he doesn't think it is, but he can't exactly help that instinctively he does trust him now. In some ways. But that's more than can be said of most people. It's interesting, given he doesn't think it was that long ago ( or maybe it was, god, how long have they been out here ) when he'd laughed and told him that it was good that Byerly didn't trust him.

Maybe that's part of it, though. He understands that trust doesn't come easy for either of them. ]

Always liked me, huh?

No. Absolutely not. I found you an asshole at first. I still find you an asshole.

Not what you said earlier.

[ Could be faked. Could definitely be faked. But hey. ]

[ A noise of pure annoyance. He doesn't like being called out on that kind of shit. ]

Anyway. Your turn.

[ He told you about his memory already, man. Your own fault.

A nod, even if he isn't looking at Byerly, his gaze still mostly just drawn off somewhere in the distance, further out into the woods. Quiet for a while, not to delay it, but just to think of where to start. Shit's hard to explain, and he really hasn't had much practice talking about it, given how little he likes to. ]

For the record, I also thought you were an asshole -- and still do, because you are. That never precluded liking you, though. [ Not exactly spinning the knife, just idly twirling it slightly between his fingers. ] You were interesting. A challenge. Possibly dangerous, but I like interesting.

You're still interesting. Still a challenge. Good at what you do, and driven by good reasons.

[ And for your sake, Byerly, he'll skip right along and give you something else to respond to. Ain't he nice. ]

How much do you know about AI?

[ Thank God. By lets out an actual huff of reliefs at not being obligated to respond to all of...that. ]

Artificial intelligence? Just what shows up in science-fiction. Evil robots, that sort of thing.

[ It's okay, buddy, he knows you well enough by now to understand that you probably would have had a hard time with that. Though he might still force you to sometime. He's just feeling generous, at the moment, against his better judgment. He's still just staring off somewhere, when he talks, and there's a slightly different quality to his voice that most probably wouldn't notice, but Byerly might. A little distant, slightly clipped. Like he needs that distance to talk about this properly. ]

Not science fiction in my world. Relatively commonplace, honestly, at least the dumb ones are. Smart AI are quite a bit rarer.

The program I was in was called Project Freelancer. It was a lot of things, but it was essentially created to experiment with combat-assisting AI. [ He'll. Spare you the technicalities, but you still do need to know some things. ] It could think for you, or at least help you think faster, help run equipment off your armor. Things like that.

[ Ah. ]

Hence the port. Seems a bit dangerous, though. Was it a full consciousness sharing your head?

Yes -- but don't think poorly of that. The AI are partners, just to a greater extreme. You work well with your partner, and there's not really a problem, plus you can always take them offline for a while.

There were a lot of us in the program, but only a few were ever in the main team, and were ever eligible for an AI. I made it up there by the skin of my teeth, more or less. [ A pause. Would it be easier to go backwards? Maybe. ] I told you I'm not special ops anymore, and that's because the Project doesn't exist anymore. Mostly because of me.

[ A little quirk of his eyebrow, but no quips. Just a nod inviting him to go on. ]

[ He might've gone on like a 3 year revenge quest to destroy the Project and it might have backfired spectacularly but also kind of sort of worked out. Not part of this story, but maybe he'll tell you about it sometime. His voice is still detached, clipped. ]

I took it down. Had to, after all the shit it pulled. They never intended for anyone to find out, didn't know I knew about it until it was too late.

There were ten AI that were given out, all in all. How successful they were with their partners varied heavily -- mine was the last one implanted, because after what happened to me they decided to hold off, for a while. [ A pause. A breath, something flickering in his eyes. Control, control. He can't let himself go back there. ] That was the insanity. That was the madness. After they put it in . . . I barely had it for any time at all.

It basically killed itself, while implanted in me.

[ It'd hurt. A lot, among other things. Hence the scars. ]

What they didn't know was that I learned everything it knew.

[ A small flicker of something when he says it killed itself - too faint to be a flinch, but approaching it. Good God. ]

And...what did it know?

[ He's glossing over it because he has to, but don't mistake that for it being something that doesn't affect him. Deeply. Especially when he can remember it so clearly, so easily. ]

Smart AI are rare, incredibly so, because of how difficult they are to make. They're basically completely sentient, and the only thing that stops them from being human is technicality. You can't create a mind like that from scratch -- the process is called Cognitive Impression Mapping, and it means that you base it of an existing actual human mind. Copying and retracing all the neural pathways of one.

There were ten, right? But the project . . . It was only ever given one AI to use. And you can't just copy a smart AI, not when the process to create one is so complicated already.

So they split it. [ A quiet, then, and he turns to look at Byerly, his expression surprisingly neutral, but his eyes hard, sharp. ] How would you split a human mind?

[ A very sharp knife? his brain supplies, but he suspects flippancy wouldn't be...appreciated. So, instead, he shakes his head. Perhaps to his credit, Byerly honestly has no idea, beyond the suggestion of: ]

Data copying procedures? Like you would to any other file?

[ Definitely to his credit. He closes his eyes briefly, and the sound he makes is quiet, amused. But quiet, before opening his eyes to look at him again. ]

Torture.

[ What. ]

Torture?

[ But - no. No, that...makes some sense, doesn't it? Miles' horrifying spherical little clone talks sometimes about his experiences - half because of all that Betan therapy, half because (By suspects) he just enjoys making people uncomfortable. (Respectable urge.) And there's that discussion of his other selves. It's not something gossiped about in society, and By doesn't spend much time talking to Vorkosigans, so he doesn't know so much about it. But... ]

You really are nothing like your family, huh.

[ He means that as a compliment, and there isn't much teasing in his voice, though there is a kind of vague, distant amusement as he studies his expression, watches his response. Maybe torture isn't as obvious of an answer as he thinks it is, really -- it's hard for him to judge what a normal person might think, anymore. ]

Torture. [ Just repeating, by way of confirmation. He isn't looking away, but there's a different look in his eyes. Even more distant, now, and carefully practiced. He looks more like he's looking through Byerly, than at him. ] The original AI -- the Alpha AI -- fragmented itself in response, to try and maintain it's own sanity, to try and survive, and each fragment was harvested and used. Full little personalities of their own, aspects of the original personality.

There was Delta, for example. Logic, for when the Alpha needed to stop understanding and analyzing what was happening to it. Theta, which was trust. That one's a little more self explanatory. Fear, Anger, Ambition . . .

[ He trails off slightly. His eyes flick down. ]

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