[ 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

[vorrutyer]

"Ah." He grimaces. Right. He...Well. So. "I'm - from the future. Or some version of the future, perhaps."

[vorbratta]

Sonia squints at him in a very long, very careful look -- or at least the best attempt at one a drunk woman can make.

"Well, I suppose that technically counts as being from another version of Barrayar," Sonia says judiciously, giving him a scrutinizing look, though there's something hopeful in it, too. "Are you from the same version as Miles?"

[vorrutyer]

He relaxes very, very slightly. Good. All right. She's taking that well. Not a moment of anger or betrayal over his lies - barely even needed much time to process it. That's a good sign that this is going to be a correction to the record that won't cause much trouble.

"Yes," he answers. "Miles and I have known each other - distantly - since we were both children. Obviously we don't run in the same circles - he's far too respectable for that - but..." By shrugs. "We end up at the same parties sometimes."

[vorbratta]

Sonia looks like she's in deep consideration for a moment, opening her mouth as though to ask a question -- but then she closes it and straightens up, lifting a finger.

"First rule," she says abruptly. "No telling Sonia about the future. Unless I ask -- obviously. But I don't want to know. Especially no details."

[vorrutyer]

That takes him a bit by surprise; he blinks, but then nods.

"As you wish." Perhaps it's better that way, truly...He won't need to skirt around unpleasant aspects of the future. Not that he truly believes that those unpleasant aspects are inevitable now. Though if it looks like they're going to happen...He'll perfectly willingly break that rule.

"Then what's the second rule?"

[vorbratta]

"Haven't thought of it yet," Sonia says promptly, waving her finger. "But I don't want to know my future. If I know who I'm going to marry, or how I die, or whatever -- I'll just spend my whole life waiting for it. That's no way to live."

She puffs out a breath, twisting her lips. "But first, an exception. Just one question. Now, I don't want any details -- especially no names -- but Miles told me I have a grandson, too." She leans in, her eyes bright and intent. "Do you know him?"

[vorrutyer]

Ah. At that, Byerly does smile - somehow a smile that's simultaneously crooked and genuine. He presses a hand to his heart. "I can say with complete honesty," By says, "that your grandson is one of my favorite people on all of Barrayar. Honest to a fault, and yet also a deceiver par excellence. A romantic and a womanizer - a dependable fellow - genuinely a good man. And a complete idiot." He shakes his head fondly. "There's no one I'd rather turn to in a pinch. He helped me in a crisis once, actually - helped my cousin, an ex-lover of his, take the Vorrutyer Countship. It was good work."

[vorbratta]

"I said no details," Sonia says, cutting him off with a raised hand, but she's grinning helplessly. She looks deeply warmed, something she needed just now, a little kernel of hope for something she doesn't fully expect to see in any way beyond the abstract. She rests her chin in her hands and beams at Byerly.

"Miles said he was a good man," she says fondly, delighted at Byerly's smile. Of course, he hadn't been nearly as descriptive, and while she doesn't want any more details...by Byerly's description, someone Sonia's already sort of proud of. "And if you think so too, he really must be."

[vorrutyer]

Teasingly, he asks, "Oh - does that mean you trust my account more than you trust Miles'? Good; as well you should. We counter-intel fellows are far superior to the brainless guns-and-glory types over in covert ops." Then he relents with spread hands. "But - as you wish, Sonia. No more details. And if I let details slip, I promise they shall be only lies, I swear it."

[vorbratta]

"Thanks," Sonia says flatly, shoving gently at Byerly's shoulder, but she's still smiling. "I trust yours differently," she specifies, waving her finger and tapping Byerly square in the forehead. "I can always count on Miles to be honest in some regards, you in others. Not that you two are entirely mutually exclusive."

She's still glowing with warmth, but her face turns serious again. "So you'll really do this, then? Spy for me?"

She'll be put out if he's only entertaining her, indulging her in the moment. She may be drunk, but she's utterly serious about it.

[vorrutyer]

"If you really want it," he says. His mood droops just a little as he reminds her, "I'm not exactly going to be the most effective agent. But at the very least, if nothing else, I could find others." Then, squaring his shoulders, he nods. "But yes. I'm yours to command if you want me."

Then, after a moment, a little more lightly, "And you can trust me in anything. Miles, now - he's much more dishonesty-prone than I am. I never wanted to keep the time traveling secret. He insisted."

[vorbratta]

"Of course I want you." Sonia smiles again and reaches to cover Byerly's hand with both of her own, a simple gesture of fondness and sincerity. "I can't think of anyone I'd rather have in my service. I know this isn't your usual social arena, Byerly, but you're clever and you're adaptable. I trust you."

She blinks and raises her eyebrows at that, though, looking genuinely puzzled. "I'm sorry, you...wanted people to know you were from the future?"

[vorrutyer]

"You'd be surprised," he murmurs. "Vorbarr Sultana can sometimes seem quite a lot like a soldier's camp."

But - she asked a direct question. So he gives a short nod and responds, "Of course. What was the use of lying? It didn't gain us anything, in the end. And perhaps if we'd come out with it, then our perspectives on what was coming next would have been aa bit more valued." A shrug. "Ah, well. Lost opportunities."

[vorbratta]

Sonia furrows her brow at home, frowning. "Do you have your head screwed on straight? If everyone knew, it'd be a disaster. A soldier full of men who've been fighting for ten years, clamoring to know their future -- or worse yet, they'd consider you charlatans or collaborators if you made some wrong prediction. And God, Count Piotr would want to have Miles killed if he knew who his future heir was."

Granted, she's fairly confident Olivia could stay his hand, but still. It wouldn't bode well. She shakes her head. "I think it should stay as much of a secret as possible. I don't think Miles should have told me." She looks pained. "And now the Cetagandans know."

[vorrutyer]

By gives a very faint smile. "The camp has a morale problem, as you well know," By says. He stretches a bit. "I could have told them their future right and true. Victory, absolute victory, and more beyond. I don't see any problem with that.

"And don't worry about the Cetagandans," By shrugs. "They knew I was a time traveler myself - I made sure that came out clear as day. Didn't do anything with me beyond fast-penta interrogation."

[vorbratta]

"I'm well aware of the morale problem in camp," Sonia slurs tartly, and shakes her head again. "Mm, no. You're wrong on this count. It'd be a temporary balm, but the second you made one wrong move -- these men are desperate for a win, Byerly. You weren't here for the epidemic, but you were here for the cold. Sometimes...too much hope is a dangerous thing. Expectations rise, and when they are disappointed -- I know these men, Byerly. They'd turn on you and Miles like a lynch mob before you could blink twice. Especially Miles. And what I said about Count Piotr still stands. He'd be furious if he knew."

She purses her lips, looking overall unconvinced and a little glum. Maple mead serves as an excellent mood amplifier, and Sonia doesn't really need one to begin with. "But Miles is a Vorkosigan, and that's... Look, I didn't get to spend a lot of time with the ghem-General, but I can tell you that he's got something very personal with Count Piotr. I think they'd take the opportunity if they had it."

[vorrutyer]

"I suppose," By sighs. "If they're undereducated about our customs and our ways. If they've taken time to study Barrayar at all, they'll know that taking out someone's mutie heir isn't exactly a punishment." And then, with a wave of his fingers, acknowledging the pressure of Miles' disapproval every damn time - "Though his deformities are teratogenic, not mutagenic, et cetera, et cetera."

By drops his hand. "In any case, have a little faith in me, won't you? If I told the story of being a time traveler, I'd have sold the story of being a time traveler. With all the little embellishments and lies necessary. I'm very good at this, you know."

[vorbratta]

Sonia waves in agreement, because she's heard it from Miles, and she doesn't blame him for wanting to make the distinction clear, but to the others in camp, it makes no difference. She gives him a skeptical raise of her eyebrows.

"On fast-penta?"

[vorrutyer]

"Well." He hesitates. "You can work on fast-penta. I did." But - "But mostly I'd be lying to our forces. They're the only ones I'd be telling in the first place." And then, with a bit of drunken honestly - "And maybe if I'd been good for anything at all, I wouldn't have come up with the fool idea of going over there."

[vorbratta]

"For God's sake, Byerly," Sonia groans, tipping her head back and giving a great roll of her eyes, "don't you start on all that I'm not good for anything crap again, or else I am going to take this bottle and upend it over your head."

It isn't an idle threat, either; she's drunk enough to consider wasting that much liquor. She sighs. "I'm glad you kept it a secret. It was enough of a -- a clusterfuck when you all showed up, none of us knowing what to do. And if everyone was allowed to hear about the future, then I'd have to hear about it, and then I'd make it two bottles just for that."

[vorrutyer]

"Part of knowing yourself is knowing when you're a worthless piece of shit," Byerly says, but doesn't pause to give her a chance to make good on her threat. Instead, he moves along rapidly enough. "Why are you afraid of knowing your future, anyway?"

[vorbratta]

"I'm not afraid." That's a lie, but Sonia carries on in sincerity. "I just don't understand why anyone would want to know. I mean -- through Miles, and now you, I know the war ends, that we still get to be Barrayar. And I can't complain about knowing that. But details? Knowing my future?"

Sonia shakes her head, and takes to plucking out blades of grass between her feet again. "If I know how I'm going to die, I'll spend my whole life waiting for it. If you tell me the name of the man I'm going to marry, every man I meet with that name, I'll wonder if this is it, if this is the one. I'll be afraid to let go. But if I marry him, I'll never be able to stop wondering if I love him because I really love him, or if it's just because I'm supposed to. I'll spend my whole life wondering if this is the track I'm supposed to follow, or if I can change any of it, or if I'm supposed to." She shakes her head again, staring dimly down at the grass in the dark. "If I knew my future, I'd spend my whole life waiting for it to happen. That's no way to live."

[vorrutyer]

"If you have it in your head that that's how things will go, of course." By shrugs and sighs. "Which - I find it hard, personally, to believe that just because that's how things happened in one particular iteration of history, that's how things will happen in every single iteration of history. If someone told me my future, I'd be politely interested in this story about something that happens to a man very much like me in some other lifetime. But."

Another shrug. "It's your choice. The last thing I'd want to do is cause you distress. So the secrets shall be kept."

[vorbratta]

"And what if that someone was your family?" Sonia's lips compress in dismay, shaking her head again, because he doesn't understand, or -- maybe she doesn't. "Someone you might affect by changing the course of things, or... God. It's not that I don't believe in the possibility that you could change a future you already know about. But that knowledge, that...that possesses you. If there's something in your future you want to change, something you want to achieve or avoid that you didn't according to some time-traveler, then that...that just becomes the center of your life. Doesn't it? I can't think of a more miserable waste of a life than that. I'd miss out on this whole other life I could be living. On all the discovery of not knowing what's going to happen tomorrow."

[vorrutyer]

"Ah, the painful words of an optimist," By sighs, smiling with a little bit of irony. But he forces himself to be serious, empathetic, shaking his head and saying, "No, you're right. Someone like you generally - hm - has quite a few potential futures ahead of her. I could see the pain in missing out on them. Yes."