barrayarmods: (Default)
For Barrayar mods ([personal profile] barrayarmods) wrote in [community profile] forbarrayar2017-05-03 07:28 pm

[ 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!
dendarii: (solpadeine115)

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-05-04 12:35 am (UTC)(link)
Infiltrate as a Cetagandan? Laughable. Rescue Sonia and Byerly? Something Miles desperately wants to do, but he's a big (ha) enough man to admit that he's not actually the best person for the job. Better to send someone strong, like Wash, to safeguard the lives of two of the people he values most here. Better to have Miles here, doing something he can actually contribute his best efforts. He's already seen the generator, after all, and he's actually familiar with the tech. This is the best use of his talents that doesn't require him to stay behind and hate his life.

Still, it's hard not to think about Byerly and Sonia trapped somewhere in here as he pads his way through the corridors. Carefully checking corridors as he goes, maneuvering back to where he remembers the generators from last time ... He has to be close right?

When he's with Carolina, he sticks close to her for safety's sake. But at some point, he gets separated from her, presumably to go take down another part of their objective. It's then that he stumbles upon someone else.
vorrutyer: (Backpfeifengesicht 3)

Byerly Vorrutyer, OTA, both Barrayar and Cetaganda prompts

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-05-04 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
A. Last days in the Cetagandan camp
[ By is still determined to antagonize his captors. He keeps singing and whistling and trying to drum up conversation with the guards, apparently altogether without tiring. He never flags in his apparent good cheer, calling out to passers-by - ]

Come talk with me! I'm bored, and these lumps are useless.

[ After his fast-penta interrogation, a little bit of his manic energy is lost. He sits rather than paces, and he doesn't smile except when people come near him. Then he's all winks and smirks. ]

B. In the Barrayaran camp
[ Now, here's a curious sight: the purported traitor, walking free in the Barrayaran camp, hands in his pockets, a curious little ironic smile on his face. He doesn't seem to be nervous, he doesn't skulk - he just walks as though it's the most natural thing in the world. Indeed, sometimes he even helps out at camp, putting on an apron and chopping vegetables in the mess tent. He doesn't draw attention to himself, just exists quietly. He looks maybe a bit tired. ]

C. Courier-ing
[ It does, unfortunately, get out just who he is as he's ferrying messages between camps. His face isn't familiar, but his name was cursed viciously enough in Vorkosigan's camp that the other Barrayarans know that Byerly Vorrutyer means no good. And so, in Dorca's camp, things get heated. Even though Byerly stands back with a mild, distant, arrogant little smile and responds not at all to the provocations, they get angrier and angrier, questioning why he's here, what he's doing, who entrusted him with a message, why he isn't hanging. If there's no intervention, it might turn violent. ]

D. Wildcard
[ Something else...? ]
Edited 2017-05-04 03:51 (UTC)
mirrortide: (100)

A

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-05-04 04:26 am (UTC)(link)
[Lapis only feels slightly bad for Byerly, stuck in such a small space. Mostly because she has more of her powers back than ever before in this miserable place, so it's put her in a bit of a good mood.]

Sure, why not. I've got nowhere better to be.

[She leans against the wall nearby.]

What does a traitor like you feel like talking about?

[She absolutely doesn't know that Sonia may have told Byerly that Lapis gave her the patrols, guard shifts and ways out.]
shri: (» if they don't fly we will run)

b/c; do what i want??

[personal profile] shri 2017-05-04 04:44 am (UTC)(link)
[ She hadn't said a damn thing to him since he arrived back in camp. Looked at him once and kept walking like he was so much dirt under her heel that she would leave at the door. In part because can't think of a decent thing to say to him - where to even start? Thank-you, is one, you fool, is another, how dare you make me feel like one, is another.

Still doesn't have much of a plan, when she ends up face to face with him behind a tent, on a run between messages. Even as it puts her in the way of one set of people that loathe her presence to another, she's good at doing straight forward work. Doesn't have to think too much, when she's most definitely got other things on her mind - namely a corpse.

Stands there, feet shifting to a fighting stance by almost instinct as she looks him over. He looks tired, had they drugged him like they had her. Lifts her chin as she drags her eyes back up to his face and in - strategy is how you hope the battle goes, tactics is what you do when it's all gone to hell - she steps forward, same front assault she'd perfected years ago. She slips her free hand without saying a word up, to his chest, shoulder, latching her fingers to the back of his neck and yank him down to her ( him down to her, never her up to him, not how this worked, always the trick, make them lose their high ground ).

Her lips to his, her nails pressing half-moons to the skin at the back of his neck. Scratching deeply as her teeth sink into his lip. One, breathless, demanding kiss, that comes loud and fast, the Enfield's firing, metal to metal, and she pulls back -
]

Liar.

[ Mutters it into shared space. Liar, to act like she was the only idiot that wasted herself on dreaming of a better world, that erasing the self to that wasn't something they both did. Liar, liar, liar, except when she caught him off guard, had him the way she liked.

And where she's pulled him to her, twisted down to her height, she snaps her knee up hard into his stomach.
]
dendarii: (support)

B-ish

[personal profile] dendarii 2017-05-04 10:25 am (UTC)(link)
[ Byerly's back. They're both back and safe, dammit, and while Byerly would serve them better in the Cetagandan camp - would have been better off not caught at all - since he was caught, Miles is desperately glad to see him back here, alive. He really hadn't been sure the man would actually make it back. Not because the Cetagandans would kill him, no ...

As the rest of the camp surely crowds around Sonia - after Mlies has checked in on her as well - Miles beelines for Byerly. Relief bright and obvious on his face. ]


Byerly!
vorrutyer: (oh hello)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-05-04 01:51 pm (UTC)(link)
[ That ironic smile doesn't shift or change in the least. Instead, he just lifts his eyebrows slightly, and turns away from the crowd gathered around Sonia, and announces: ]

I need a drink. Say, you can probably get me one.
vorrutyer: (Backpfeifengesicht 4)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-05-04 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)
A traitor. Oooh. Big words from a little lady.

[ He laughs cheerily, leaning his head into his hand. ]

Do you care that I'm a traitor?
vorrutyer: (sweaty)

I love you

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-05-04 01:57 pm (UTC)(link)
[ The breath goes out of him at the blow. He collapses to his knees, gasping and struggling, hunched over the point of injury. Shit - His lips are still buzzing and stinging from the kiss, brutal and swift as it was, while the ache of suffocation washes over him.

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

He gasps, the noise rattling, for once devoid of any pretty words or quips as he fights to recover himself. ]
mirrortide: (073)

[personal profile] mirrortide 2017-05-04 01:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Not really, no. It doesn't matter much to me what happens to this planet. Win or lose, as long as I get home.
vorbratta: (i asked a question)

Sonia Vorbarra 5/1 - 5/15

[personal profile] vorbratta 2017-05-04 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
Being captured in the first place had been bad enough. It was a hell of a lot worse being caught trying to escape. Not that she was the one suffering the consequences -- Byerly had been shot, if not badly, and thrown in a cell and probably fast-pentaed by now. To her surprise, they haven't entirely revoked her parole. Somebody playing politics, she guesses with a little bit of disgust. But she can't complain much, even if she is under much heavier guard than before. And they hadn't taken her camera away, either, at least not permanently -- clearly someone's taken it at some point to download the pictures she'd already taken.

She doesn't know how publicized the escape attempt was among the outsiders here, but she's a little more morose all the same despite her clear attempts at keeping her chin up. For a brief few minutes she'd glimpsed freedom, but it hadn't lasted long. The only good thing to come out of it had been the news that Byerly wasn't really a traitor after all, and that had been a double-edged sword, too. So in the days before the attack Sonia can still be found around the base with her camera, trying to lose herself in the one hobby she has access to, but she's still trying to make friends with some of the outsiders, too.

closed to byerly
Going to see Byerly might not be the best of ideas, but after the hysteria that was that failed escape attempt and its swift end, there's too much left untangled. There hadn't been time to talk then, barely even time to breathe, and Sonia had been so sick with relief that Byerly's loyalties had never wavered at all that she'd cried herself dizzy. The vicious tilt that Byerly's defection had given to her personal world had been abruptly undone, and leaving her nearly just as disoriented. Just the knowledge that he was always on her side, on their side, isn't enough. So very little is enough for Sonia, these days.

The guards don't want to take her to Byerly's cell. She's sure the idea of their two Barrayaran prisoners talking after that near-breakout makes them nervous, but she's got little left to lose herself – certainly she doesn't care much about saving face anymore, because she threatens to throw the mother of all adult tantrums until they decide that having to explain a screaming princess would be more troublesome than letting her talk to the outed spy under supervision. It's nice to know, at least, that she can still get her way by throwing decorum and dignity entirely out the window.

She's a little tentative and quiet when they let her into Byerly's cell, hovering near the door in case he's not in the mood for company, but it's not as though getting rid of Sonia is ever easy. She's back to wearing nothing but her plain Cetagandan fatigues, hands wringing absently as she looks at him with painfully naked hope and relief.

"Byerly?"
oldvor: (Default)

Piotr Vorkosigan

[personal profile] oldvor 2017-05-04 02:56 pm (UTC)(link)
pre-attack, 5/1 - 5/15
The anger that's been surrounding Piotr seems to have honed into a razor-sharp focus instead, reined in and tightly controlled by necessity of circumstance. There's a certain relief to it, a tangible reason to keep himself in check instead of indulging in his anger the way Lakshmi had so openly goaded him into. With Dorca and Yuri both here, there's too much that demands his attention for him to waste his energy on sheer fury.

Which means he's got even less patience for stupid bullshit than usual, his demeanor sharp and focused, terrifyingly intent. He doesn't spend as much time in the stables as he might like outside of what's strictly necessary, it's time he can ill-afford – he spends it instead drilling his men himself, personally checking in with the CMO and the Quartermaster, in staff meetings honing their plan of attack. If one was ever uncertain as to why Dorca might have named Piotr a General at the young age of twenty-two, it's evident now that it's because Piotr gets shit done. He doesn't have time for games or idle entertainment right now, but if there's something pertinent to the upcoming mission, he'll almost certainly take the time to talk – and when the night arrives, he joins his own men in the lead.

post-attack, 5/15 - 5/18
There are some losses, but they've succeeded, and it's the biggest victory they've had in months, maybe longer. And they can't stop now – their coup on Vorkosigan Vashnoi has to follow right on the heels of this attack, before Cetagandan reinforcements arrive, or it'll all have been for nothing. He's back to the war tent with Dorca and Yuri just as soon, planning their next move with the capital.

But even stone-faced Piotr is far from untouched by the triumph – there's a personal relief in having Sonia back, if only for his wife's peace of mind, but though he's hardly an openly affectionate man, he cares for his sister-in-law, too. Piotr allows himself, for once, to indulge in the celebrations; in the day following their victory, he's one among his men, celebrating and saluting his fellow soldiers and subordinates. You might even see him drinking and laughing – a rare mood indeed.
protocol: (► costs!)

lucy & wash pre-mission!

[personal profile] protocol 2017-05-04 03:16 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Wash is happy to work with Lucy again, though it instinctively makes him nervous -- he's still not used to working with someone who's more of a civilian, and he's already failed to protect her once. She's a smart one, though, and willing enough to listen. This time they'll have backup getting in and out, at least, and there should be enough of a distraction. He lived in the base for more than enough time for his mind to commit most of the layout to memory, and a day or two before the attack he'd made sure to find some time to sit with Lucy and talk for a while, draw it out in the dirt, showing her a very, very precise route that Wash knows would take them straight to where they'd be keeping the prisoners. Finding Sonia specifically would be a case of hoping either Byerly's intel still is accurate, or well, identifying the most guarded cell. And Wash will take care of that, when they get there.

The two of them are in their own little team, entirely focused on their one objective. Smaller team the better, easier to slip through in the chaos everyone else would hopefully be causing. There's a quiet, nervous energy in the air, everyone's waiting for a signal, a time to move. Wash nudges Lucy beside him lightly with his elbow. ]


Nervous? [ A little lightly, despite the situation. He won't get too bossy until they're actually in there -- a concession that he's making for her, since she's non-military. ] Don't worry, I won't tell anyone.
vorrutyer: (sweaty)

[personal profile] vorrutyer 2017-05-04 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
The sardonic smiles melt away the moment he hears that voice. He'd been lying on his cot, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling before she spoke; he sits up immediately, then scrambles to his feet. The thought does cross his mind that perhaps he ought to act distant, indifferent, but at this point there's no pretending that Sonia isn't a lever on him...and he doesn't want to hide the fact that Sonia can get good behavior out of him. He wants the Cetagandans to see that the moment she's there, he's quiet and considerably less obnoxious. Greatly increases the prospect of a return visit.

Even in this circumstances, he's still calculating. He can't ever stop being calculating, honestly. That was something that was true even before he went into ImpSec - he has always thought about what he needs to do to get people to act. Has always tried to peer into their minds. Even when he was just a kid.

"Sonia," he says, his voice a little quiet. He can't look her fully in the face, though. His gaze drops nearly at once. Before she can speak, he says, "I'm - sorry."