[ may ii log: we're a broken people living under loaded gun ]

[barrayarmods]

Who: Everyone
What: Victory quickly curdles when the Cetagandans go nuclear -- literally.
When: May 18th - 31st
Where: the Barrayaran camp, the Cetagandan base, Riverfall Village
Warnings: TBD

Quick links:
Barrayar / Cetaganda

barrayar
The jubilant atmosphere in the Barrayaran camp doesn't die out, but it does shift back into the sense of intense focus on their next task, their exhilarating victory driving them forward. The attitudes toward the outsiders are gradually lightening -- the fact that two of them rescued Princess Sonia has gone a long way toward fostering good will. While Prince Yuri and Colonel Vorvolk are still staunch their position of mistrust, Dorca is now openly showing support for Piotr's decision, tipping the balance of politics among the top brass -- which always has a trickle-down effect. But it's a slow spread, and while some of the other soldiers have turned entirely grateful to the outsiders for their part in the attack, for most of them they're only just starting to tone down the hostility. But the shift in atmosphere, however gradual, is clear: the outsiders are starting to fall back into favor with the soldiers.

Vorvolk himself still remains unconvinced, and in the downtime between briefings, can be seen frequently in conference with Piotr, and they don't often look to be in agreement. The fact that the body of Falco Vorkalloner, one of the more vocal anti-outsider dissidents, was found dead shortly before the attack only throws things into hotter contest: although as far Lakshmi and Sisko, the ones to discover the body, reported to him, it appeared to be an accidental death. Colonel Vorvolk remains suspicious considering the timing, but a funeral for Vorkalloner complete with death offerings is held on the 19th. If one is positioned correctly in certain circles, too, one may overhear more talk about the increasingly tense succession politics – talk, say, about finding Yuri a new wife so he can produce another heir. Yuri, perhaps surprisingly, seems reluctant, and harshly bites off the subject every time it comes up.

Lapis has requested a note be delivered to Sonia through the villagers, and Sonia rushes to show it to Piotr. While the gene therapy trials weren't news – and subsequently dire conclusions could be drawn from it – any deals with Jackson's Whole are news, and dangerous at that. If the Cetagandans release the outsiders' gene complexes to the Jacksonians, they might as well be releasing them into the wild: there'll be no hope of permanently recovering them. Piotr is going to want the his handlers to pass on this information to their informants so that they can keep an eye out for any new developments or ways to sabotage the deal.

Scouts are sent to Vorkosigan Vashnoi to further coordinate their efforts with the civilian underground resistance in the city and move on to the next step in their plans to retaking the city. The attack on the base had been meant to force Zahal to withdraw some of his troops from the city, and it works – except that according to Barrayaran intelligence, by May 21st he has recalled the entire occupying force from Vorkosigan Vashnoi.

At approximately three o'clock in the morning on May 22nd, the night sky goes ablaze with a sudden flash of light. The sound of the explosion doesn't follow for another minute, but even at night, the mushroom cloud is clearly visible from the mountains. And even at night, given the vantage point, it's clear that this means only one thing: the Cetagandans have just bombed Vorkosigan Vashnoi.

There's nothing left of the city -- the Cetagandans went nuclear on it, obliterating the city and all its inhabitants and leaving nothing but an irradiated crater behind. Morale in the camp takes a sharp U-turn after the total destruction of the district's capital. Not only were they on the verge of successfully retaking the city, it's the capital of the district, and a symbol of hope for many of the soldiers, especially those from the district -- or it was, anyway. Now there's nothing left of it. Everything they've been working toward for the last few months, everything they've struggled toward -- simply gone.

The soldiers all react in different ways. Most of them are furious, angry like a wounded beast, despairing but only more determined to eliminate the Cetagandan threat to them. Many of them weep openly in grief or despair -- lost family and friends, a lost home -- and some are simply stunned into numbness at so dramatic an escalation. The Barrayarans are badly thrown, and they need to regroup before Cetagandan strikes again.

The unabridged mission results can be found here.

cetaganda
Thanks to the Barrayarans' extremely effective sabotage, there's no hope of getting the main or backup power generator back in operating oder until their next supply drop arrives with reinforcements -- still weeks away. Most of the base is without power, which also means no running water, no refrigeration, and no way of recharging their weapons' power packs. As much is being done by daylight as possible, including pre-preparing meals -- still a mix of MREs and fresh food, but especially the latter, as they have no way of keeping it from spoiling, but when they run out of fresh food from the Grow Labs, the base's denizens are stuck with MREs and rather unpalatable ration bars. Thankfully, the water treatment plant has a considerable buffer, so while they may not have running water, they do at least have some manually retrievable potable water for the time being. Hey folks, if you ever wondered what it's like for the Barrayarans roughin' it up out there in the mountains, here is a tiny fraction of what that's like.

On the night of the 20th, Diya is discovered dead. According to Sei, she was attacked and killed by Natasha -- for what exact reason, Sei cannot claim to know, but this clearly marks Natasha as a dangerous entity. Natasha flees the base that night in a hijacked groundcar, leaving no one to fast-penta and no witness but Sei and Ba Talim, and -- even though it would be an affront to suggest it -- haut and ba are immune to fast-penta. An elaborate but solemn funeral is held for Diya on the 21st. It's about what you've probably come to expect of Cetagandan functions, but the mood is distinctly different. There is still a lot of poetry reading. When not in uniform, Zahal now dresses in mourning colors.

The one building that does still have power is the building containing the medbay and gene labs, powered by the secondary backup generator that clearly exists for that express purpose: if all else fails, protect the interests of the Star Crèche. However, even with the base's population reduced, there are still thousands of people who need power, and Zahal is in a heated argument with the haut over redirecting power from the secondary backup generator to other vital base functions. The secondary backup generator does not possess the capacity to power the entire base, but some of its power could definitely be rerouted to select other areas. By May 21st, the barracks and mess have limited power -- just barely enough to get running water and the most basic of kitchen functions running. A little bit of power is rerouted to one of the undamaged research buildings for continued research on the Star Gate Project, since it's of nearly as much interest as the genetics research.

By May 21st, Zahal has recalled the entire occupying force from Vorkosigan Vashnoi. This means a couple thousand soldiers have now returned to the base, but they're still badly undermanned. Reinforcements are slated to arrive along with a supply drop at the start of next month, but until then, it's time to make do. Some of the repairs can at least be started manually, so any off-duty soldiers and willing and able bodies will be asked to lend a hand to start fixing up some of the base now that it's more cleaned up.

At approximately three o'clock in the morning on May 22nd, the night sky goes ablaze with a sudden flash of light. The sound of the explosion doesn't follow for another minute, but even at night, the mushroom cloud is clearly visible from the upper perimeter of the base. And even if you don't have the vantage point to see it for yourself, it doesn't take long for word to get around: the Cetagandans have just bombed Vorkosigan Vashnoi.

Apparently Zahal was able to pull together enough resources to drop a nuclear bomb on the city, utterly destroying it and everyone in it. Judging by the surprise of the rank and file, this was not a long-planned maneuver, but a direct response to the Barrayarans' attack. It isn't the sort of measure they're supposed to resort to so quickly -- the city itself is a valuable resource, and it gave them leverage -- but Zahal is furious.

Between Diya's sudden death and the bombing, the atmosphere around the base is suddenly tense and uneasy. While the Cetagandans have hardly felt threatened by the exotics, after Natasha's supposed recent actions, there's a growing mistrust. The victory might go to the Cetagandans, but it doesn't really feel like it.

The unabridged mission results can be found here.

Comments

NPCS: BARRAYAR

[barrayarmods]

Sonia Vorbarra

[vorbratta]

a. before the bombing 5/18 - 5/22
Sonia is still high with giddy joy and relief to be back in camp, and she's being more social than ever, now that she's had a chance to finally rest. Having access to running water and clean clothes had been nice, something she hadn't had the luxury of for years, but she'd rather be here. Be home. So she's been all over camp, excitedly chatting with everyone she can to catch up, befriend, discuss the weather, whatever, as long as they'll talk. She'd been deprived of truly comfortable socialization at the Cetagandan base, but some of it is compensating for the fact that she knows she'll no longer be allowed to visit the village for her own safety. Her bodyguard Gavalas, dressed in the black and silver livery of Emperor Dorca's armsmen, is sticking much closer to her than his usual, less obtrusive at-a-distance monitoring, but he seems just a little bit anxious now, almost hovering wherever she goes -- and Sonia is making somewhat less of an attempt to ditch him these days.

She hasn't forgotten about the battle in the village for her capture, though, and the soldiers and villagers who had died trying to protect her. Tarn had taunted her about it over and over, and she still feels guilty -- so, early one evening, she can be found a little ways off from the main area of camp, quietly preparing a death offering.

b. after the bombing 5/22 - 5/31
Sonia's asleep when the bomb goes off, and she jerks awake in utter confusion; the camp seems to be in a panic, everyone shouting and panicking, and for a few moments she thinks with trepidation that the Cetagandans have discovered their camp again. But then she sees the mushroom cloud, and someone finally explains to her what's going on, and then she goes utterly pale, shocked and numb.

That only lasts so long, though. When it finally permeates, really settles in, despair quickly follows, and Sonia is reduced to tears. She's near hysterical at first, but as the shock wears off it turns to heartache and sorrow, and she can't seem to stop crying. There were over a million people in that city, all gone in a single thundering flash. The war has always been brutal, but it's never escalated this badly before. It's terrifying.

But after a few days she starts to try to pull herself together, because she knows the camp's morale is at an all-time low, and while she'd resented it for so long, she's now embraced the idea that she could make her greatest contribution to the war by keeping spirits up. So she tries to put on a brave face and tend to others -- the soldiers are heavy with despair, and many of them had had family in the capital.

Her attempts at helping don't go over terribly well with everyone, though. Despite Sonia's heartfelt efforts at lifting spirits in spite of her own melancholy, it seems only to annoy others, especially her uncle – Crown Prince Yuri can be seen snapping at her, a brief but heated verbal argument, and then Sonia storming off red-faced and close to tears.

Piotr Vorkosigan

[oldvor]

a. before the bombing 5/18 - 5/22
The Barrayaran top brass is busy as hell after their successful attack, but there's no denying how it's improved Piotr's mood. He's still -- well, Piotr Vorkosigan, but he's had a jubilant air about him since their victory. You might even catch him smiling -- or, God forbid, laughing, at least in company with his wife or the Emperor.

Otherwise, he's business as usual. Anyone with tactical or military concerns can always find him in the war tent, often in conference with Colonel Vorvolk or the Emperor and Crown Prince. In the limited free time he spares himself, he can be found at the stables, giving some of the horses some much-needed exercise.

b. after the bombing 5/22 - 5/31
Piotr is awake when the bomb drops, another late night in the war tent, and he tears outside in time to see the mushroom cloud bloom in the sky, fiery bright. The sound was deafening, and he stares in noncomprehension, trepidation building in his chest. He doesn't wait for one of his men to confirm it -- he just runs for higher ground.

Piotr knows his district by heart, and he's been looking at it for so long from these mountains that he knows, without a doubt, where that mushroom cloud is. He stares at it until his eyes water and burn, until the shaking in his hands reaches his chest and he lets out a raw howl of fury and anguish, so overwhelmed with anger and grief that he barely hears himself.

To say his mood has changed is gross understatement. Piotr is far less visible in the camp the immediate aftermath, though not absent; Yuri and Dorca are making more frequent visits to Piotr's camp now, spending longer in conference with him, where his staff meetings grow increasingly short. The Barrayarans aren't ignorant to nuclear weapons; Piotr knows that there is nothing left, and that to send scouts to check would only be sending more men to their deaths. He isn't just angry; he's grieving.

It's far worse than when Sonia had been captured. Back then he'd just been angry, but there had been no loss yet. The loss now eats at him from the inside out, and he's perpetually in a dark mood. If you're looking for conversation, you're probably not going to get what you wanted.

5/18

[vorrutyer]

[ Byerly has been avoiding giving his report for...well. A few days. Not so very long. But there's only so long that he can really justify that Miles' report has been enough, particularly once he finally lets himself dry out. So here he is, sober and miserable to be sober, staring into the middle distance, anticipating being raked over the coals. ]

General.

Emperor Dorca & Crown Prince Yuri Vorbarra

[justvor]

a. before the bombing 5/18 - 5/22
Emperor Dorca the Just is an imposing man. It's hard not to be an imposing man when you're the political monolith of the last half-century -- united the Counts into a cohesive Imperium and ended the Bloody Centuries -- his hair is streaked with gray, his face marked with scars, tall and barrel-chested and built like a brick wall. His son Yuri slightly less stocky, but just as tall, with a grim face quick to anger and slow to smile.

The both of them are always busy when they're in Piotr's camp, rarely at rest, because there's too much to do, too much to prepare for – they're almost never at rest in their own camp. And Yuri would rather think about the war than his son, and Dorca rarely thinks about anything else at all. But they are far from immune to the joyous mood in the aftermath of their victory – Dorca wears a smile that befits his rugged features as he talks to his men, and while Yuri never quite smiles, there is about him a vicious look of pleasure in triumph. And, being Vor, neither men are immune to the draw of celebratory drinks.

b. after the bombing 5/22 - 5/31
In the aftermath of the nuclear attack on Vorkosigan Vashnoi, Dorca has grown increasingly stone-faced and hard in demeanor, and Yuri – well, the only person visually angrier than Piotr is Yuri, although for him it isn't nearly as personal. While Dorca's more favorable attitude toward the outsiders hasn't changed, he's a much busier man now, and it's much harder to get in to see the Emperor. And Yuri...well, on top of Imperial advisors pressing the inheritance issue, Yuri might as well be packed with gunpowder, ready to explode at the slightest spark.

NPCS: CETAGANDA

[barrayarmods]

Lady Diya d'Zefyst

[eugengineer]

5/18 - 5/20
Diya has seemed despairing lately, but in her final days before her assassination, an entirely new mood overtakes her. She seems extra alert, less impassive than intent, and filled with some new sense of purpose. With every new treachery of Sei's discovered, Diya has become increasingly wary, and now that she has physical evidence in hand of the deal with the Jacksonians, she intends to send word to the Dowager Empress and confront Sei herself.

She has already drafted her correspondence to the Dowager Empress, though she is waiting to send it until she speaks with Sei, should there be any important details to add. Correspondence takes long enough to reach Eta Ceta; she'd rather send a complete report, and if Sei has any words in her own defense... Oh, but Diya hopes she does. She hopes that some part of it, any part of it, is salvageable. She wants to believe that. And so she doesn't confront Sei right away, thinking over how to approach her, what to say.

And so in the meantime, in the days leading up to her death Lady Diya d'Zefyst can be found in her habitual routine of places: most of her work is in the science/medical complex, and she does still visit the gardens, although with the power outage much of it is starting to wither and wilt, and that drives away many of its usual visitors. She can also be found in her personal tea room in the women's quarters, if one knocks politely enough.

postmortem
Sei reports Diya's death the night of the 20th, after an alleged attack by the exotic Natasha Romanoff – and the details do indeed match up, and Natasha's immediate flight from the scene only speaks to guilt. An elaborate but somehow still subdued state funeral is held for Diya the following day, all attendees dressed in the subtle protocol of mourning clothes.

[asklepian]

After Julian's conversation with Deanna, what she told him about the genetic experiments and their decision to do what they can to impede it, Julian had been deciding who, exactly, he should approach and where he should begin.

Lady Diya had seemed like the logical choice, from what Deanna had told him and what he'd learned from everyone else he'd spoken to.

He was prepared to weave some kind of story, if he needed to, and he'd be lying if he said he wasn't treating this at least a little like a holonovel. The Cetagandans had social roles that are nearly as complicated and thorny as Cardassian ones, and it's easier to create a bit of a personality to inhabit with that in mind.

(Garak here would be a nightmare. A glorious one, but still a nightmare.)

He doesn't want to approach her when she's in the gardens--that seems like an improper time. Instead, he makes sure she's in the medical complex--not in the least because he feels better about being in territory that's at least vaguely familiar. Despite the natural inclination, he deliberately avoids looking straight at her as he approaches--it feels to him like he's broadcasting nervousness, but he has to remind himself--this is normal. Ranging possibly on painfully polite. Hopefully it's not a line he's crossing too far.

"Lady Diya, may I have a word?"

Haut Sei Navarr & Ba Talim

[genaesthetics]

haut sei navarr
The Handmaiden of the Star Crèche is difficult to miss, considering she is always cloaked in her iridescent opaque force bubble, hovering a few inches off the ground. The small entourage of ba servitors that usually accompany her make her all the more conspicuous. When Haut Sei Navarr enters a room, everyone notices.

She is a prominent presence at Diya's funeral, leading the procession in whatever arcane reitual the haut mourn by. She reads some deeply moving poetry by way of eulogy, but without cultural context – or perhaps even with – it is difficult to tell just how personal it is, especially with Sei's voice coming flat through the force screen. And without being able to see her face, it's just as impossible to tell how much Diya's death has affected her. They were clearly old acquaintances – and, if you happened to eavesdrop on certain conversations, much more than that – but after the funeral and the mourning period is over, Sei immediately overtakes all of Diya's duties and business seems to go as usual. She seems oddly distant from the recent military activity -- as far as she's concerned, the details of the war have little to do with her work, and the use of nuclear weapons on the Barrayarans does not seem to faze her much.

It is generally understood etiquette that one does not address a haut lady directly, but through one of her servitors, or, if present, a haut lord, unless invited to do so. She is, however, not so aloof as to refuse conversation with the exotics, which to the ghem appears pretty damned talkative for a haut lady. She seems to have stopped visiting the garden entirely since Diya's death, but she can easily be found around the science/medical complex.

ba talim
Ba Talim is usually seen in the company of its haut lady, but the ba have a degree of their own autonomy. This particular ba can be found just about anywhere, seemingly on errands of one kind or another for Haut Sei, but it seems to have leisure time to itself on occasion.

Diya's death seems to have impacted Ba Talim more than the other ba, though whatever sorrow it holds, it keeps to itself. It only shows in the way it moves, a look of deep pain lingering behind the eyes. The ba are literally engineered to be loyal to the haut, but that doesn't mean they can't yield interesting information if asked the right questions, and right now, Ba Talim is uniquely vulnerable.

Amai ghem-Soren

[ghemsweetscent]

The young geneticist has been on edge all month, but she is visibly shaken by Diya's death. Not just because she had been a protégé to Diya for years, and that for a long time she had looked up to the former haut lady – but with all the shady dealings between the haut on base, Amai is gripped with fear and paranoia. She has no idea if Diya found out about Sei's deal with the Jacksonians, or if Sei found out about the ba experiments on her own – in the case of the latter, no heat has come down on Amai recently, so it's impossible to tell.

While Amai is generally as inclined to write off most of the exotics as inferior offworlders as the rest of the Cetagandans, knowing what she knows, the story about Natasha just killing Diya and then taking off just doesn't sound quite right. But she's not stupid enough to say anything about it. She supposes that with Diya dead, that's one less problem she has to worry about, but – God – she's a little nauseated to think about it that way.

Amai weeps openly at Diya's funeral, and she's subdued and jumpy for the days following. And after the nuclear attack, she's a little bit horrified. She won't advertise that fact, because she isn't a soldier and she's far outnumbered here, but even to her it seemed a little too much like overkill.

MIcah Niadem

[withanh]

The second power is rerouted to the labs, Micah immediately jumps back to work in overdrive. Ever since their chat with Symmetra about installing a failsafe, they're determined to get ahead of any of the Cetagandan researchers by putting as any of their notes on the subject in indecipherable shorthand – or by merely committing it to their eidetic memory. May is a pretty good month for research, thanks partly to the Star Crèche's increasing pressure on the project, but Micah is running under the gun, too. It isn't just the time window with the fading Niadem field they're concerned with – it's staying ahead of the Cetagandans and making sure that once the project is complete, once the extrauniversals are sent home, that the Cetagandans can never use it again. That every scrap of research for this project will be destroyed.

After the bomb is dropped, they're beyond horrified. They're not from this planet, but they've come to empathize with its cause, and all war sympathies aside, the sheer atrocity of nuking hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of people without so much as a warning is staggering. When they first hear confirmation of what had happened, they find themselves so overwhelmed that they're almost immediately sick. Micah had known some of those people. Some of those people had taken Micah in, kept them hidden from the Cetagandan patrols, protected them. Micah finds they can no longer look their ghem colleagues in the eye when they're working in the labs together, and when none of them are, they take a few private moments to themself to cry.

[durango]

Going to the labs again the morning after the bomb is dropped somehow seems... sacrilegious almost, to be focusing on the Star Gate when so many thousands of people are gone, in a horrible instant (All she can think about is Byerly and the cheerful man who ran that wonderful patisserie and... oh god, was he right, could she have done more?). Yet it's habit, it's familiarity, and probably one of the few things keeping her from doing something very stupid - like flying at Zahal in a rage.

As soon as she arrives and discovers Micah crying alone, all other worries and concerns are pushed away as she rushes to Micah's side. "Micah?" Kneeling beside them, she lays a tentative hand on their arm, unsure if they want company.

[standsentinel]

After the confirmation that Vorkosigan Vashnoi was now radioactive rubble, the quiet affability that's a familiar sign of Kaidan among colleagues has been swiftly replaced by an equally quiet rage. He looks the ghem in the eye and silently dares them to look back. His interactions are more crisply military than he's ever openly been, aware that he can hardly march into Zahal's office and slug the man responsible for the call, and that launching into an open argument in the tech labs would be nothing more than displacement.

Still, the ghem are giving him a wide berth, more often than not, and it's not surprising that one of Micah's private moments comes on the heels of a bunch of them decamping at once, scattering before Kaidan can return from a break spent finding something inanimate in the gym that he can hit.

The simmering anger banks itself when he finds the herm in tears, awkward concern as effective as cold water. "I, uh... well fuck, right?" he offers understanding profanity in lieu of inadequate sympathy.

the assassination

[eugengineer]

It so happens that Sei is the only one in the gene labs when Natasha comes looking to talk, and Sei is perfectly pleased to discuss anything regarding her gene therapy. It's only natural for her to have concerns, after all. But the quiet conversation is shortly interrupted when Diya storms in -- and storm is really the best word for it when the woman is otherwise so composed, but now looks like she may as well have brought the crack of thunder with her.

Diya is unusually agitated, her face drawn and almost angry, yet there's still a faint desperation for hope lurking in her eyes. Nothing about her appearance is any less composed than usual, but the energy about her feels frantic, off-kilter, thrown badly off balance. She doesn't even seem to notice Natasha as she enters, a data disk clutched tightly in one hand. Ba Talim, ever present at Sei's side, looks just slightly wide-eyed.

"Sei," Diya says, her voice taut and pained, "we must talk."

Miles Vorkosigan | OTA

[dendarii]

HORSES

[ ... is not getting a starter, but if you want to wrangle horses or generally interact with Miles before bad shit happens, he is here. Enjoying horses. ]

TOO LITTLE...

[ Late on the 21st - too late on the 21st, though he doesn't know it yet - Miles finds out that Cetaganda has withdrawn from Vorkosigan Vashnoi. He has to excuse himself from wherever he is for a moment, because his face has gone completely bloodless as the weight of that news settles on him. Cetaganda, completely withdrawn. Fuck. He'd thought he'd had more time - he doesn't remember for sure, but he'd thought the bombing had come later in the war - maybe they are later in the war -

It doesn't matter. He'd already rattled off the signs to Wash, and he sees them all too clearly now. Cetaganda's next steps will be to eradicate the city. How long from now, he doesn't know. For all he knows he's just going to walk straight into death. But - if he wants a shot at this, even the slightest chance of evacuating anyone from the city - he needs to go now.

And so Miles goes around camp, gathering supplies (but not weapons) and every outsider he can find. Grave-faced, clearly desperate on a scale that he's never been before. There's a strange sort of manic energy about him too, a crazy focus that keeps him moving even when he's standing still. Thoughts whirling as he tries to plan the next step. They'll need to borrow a few horses, some basic supplies, but otherwise move as quickly as they can... ]

Just - help me, please. There isn't much time.

[ He will tell most people why he's panicking so badly, but if you'd rather your character be surprised, let me know. ]

...TOO LATE

[ And then, just as whatever rescue party he gets together takes its first step outside camp, a blaze of light fills the sky. Miles jerks his head towards it, his mouth falling open in horror as she watches the mushroom cloud billow up from the ground.
No. No no no no. He slumps forward against whatever horse he's managed to commandeer, tightening his fingers in the reins. The one thing he really had a shot had preventing, or so he'd thought. The one thing in the war he'd really been able to predict.

And now that city is gone. Nervelessly, eyes staring forward at nothing, Miles slowly dismounts. There's no point any more. No survivors in that wreckage, only ruins that will glow for the next two hundred years. Only death. ]

Turn back. There's - there's nothing we can do now.

[ He needs a drink. He need to be drunk. He - he can't deal with this. ]

too late

[protocol]

[ There was never going to be a good end to this. With no way to actually predict when it might happen, the nuclear strike has just been a shadow looming overhead, and there was never going to be much they could do about it. He just hadn't expected it so soon. He'd been right there when Miles had started gathering supplies, anyway, keeping up with that manic energy and focus as much as he could, but at the back of his mind he'd been ready -- if they got out too far, he might have to head him off before they actually get too close to the city.

Turns out there's no need for that. There's the light, so bright it's like dawn is breaking too fast and too suddenly, and all Wash can do is stare until the rush of sound his them, too. There's silence, dead air, the horses they'd gathered shifting nervously -- his limbs feel heavy, but he forces himself to move, right to Miles' side as he dismounts.

He hesitates slightly, before he slings an arm over his shoulder, squeezing, and he doesn't say anything, but it's in his eyes clearly enough, what do you need? That includes telling him to fuck off, he'll leave Miles alone if he wants it, but. ]

[dendarii]

[ Miles just goes stiff in Wash's arms, still staring at the horizon ablaze with Vorkosigan Vashnoi's death. The destruction of the capital. His district's capital, his people ... And he couldn't do a damn thing.

No, that's not right. He had a chance but he squandered it. Now what? Now where the hell does he go? ]

Get the horses back. It's too late now.

[shri]

[ She takes in Miles, she takes in his urgency and - that is all she needs to know. A lot of people she will question, double check and later, she might. She might ask a lot of question but when Miles asks? She doesn't hesitate. Even when he speaks to a few of them at once, that's enough, she goes to collect her gear, pulling on her belts, her scarf, the blackwater tucked back underneath them. The sword that sits heavy on her side and comfortably so.

When she turns back and finds him there - she's busily tying her forearm braces, looking up to him briefly. ]

Tell me what you need.

[ She yanks the laces hard, holding it up to her mouth to catch the string with her teeth, focusing on him in the movements even so. ]

[dendarii]

[ Bless Lakshmi for instantly getting on his wavelength. Not that he expected anything less from her, but - when he's already out of his mind with desperation, he's glad to have one less thing to think about. ]

Horses. That'll be the fastest way. We won't make it to town in time without them. Light on everything else. We have to spread the news first, that's the most important part.

nash l. / barrayar / ota

[latkje]

1. )

[ Nash is by no means an expert horseman. He'd grown up in the city, and if he'd wandered pretty far since then, he'd managed to do most of his wandering on foot. Still, he had received all the proper training. He wasn't uncomfortable on a horse, by any means. Animals always liked him too much, really—

As evidenced by the horse that comes charging, directly at him. Nash jumps out of the way, but botches the landing and rolls his ankle. Wincing, he grabs his foot experimentally, trying to assess the damage. ] Ow.

[ Meanwhile, the horse turns around and trots back, and starts licking his hair as if it were made of salt. At least no one is here to see this happen but the horse. Right? ]

2. )

[ For the past several weeks Nash has been working on making gunpowder, creating saltpeter from the leftover mess in the stables. He's gone to a clearing a little outside of camp to test his mixture— his ankle is still sore from the Undignified Equestrian Incident. It's not as discreet as he would like, but it'll have to do.

In the middle of this open space there's a small mountain stump surrounded by pebbles packed earth.

The gunpowder is unrefined, and it smells bad. But it works: the stump dislodges from the ground with a satisfying bang, and Nash can't help but smile. And then curse under his breath as he tweaks his ankle again. ]

3. )

[ He doesn't understand what has happened. Not in the vaguely philosophical, "who can comprehend man's humanity to man?" sense. Nash has seen village raids and organized sieges. But he doesn't understand what happened: he has no frame of reference for bombs or nuclear power. It is stronger magic than anything he's ever witnessed, and magic is what he thinks of— the rune cannons of a century past, maybe, on some gigantic scale, the apocalyptic prophecies whispered by some in the Temple— but instinctively, he knows that isn't right. ]

It's not… magic doesn't…

[ He's muttering to himself, hands halfway covering his eyes. The death would occur to him later, in quiet rooms and long nights, when he was supposed to be asleep. It always did. But he has to figure out what happened, first. ]

2

[shri]

[ When it sparks, and it finally sparks, Lakshmi is eagerly standing beside him, overcome enough for all that she isn't a woman that broaches other easily, she clasps him on the shoulder firmly, gripping hard to him. It's nothing, it's some charcoal, an awful smell. It's nothing, nothing at all that no one would be able to understand if they didn't know what it meant.

He's just changed this war. In no small way. ] Well done.

3.

[vorrutyer]

Well-spotted.

[ Byerly, the erstwhile traitor, has been around camp a while. Enough that his appearance, lounging on a rock, shouldn't be a surprise. Perhaps a bit more surprising is his own lack of shock. Not lack of dismay, no: his face is haggard and exhausted, his hands trembling just a bit. But he doesn't look shocked. ]

Magic doesn't. But science does. Science and cruelty unmatched.

[ He passes a hand over his face. Low and quiet, he says: ]

I'm going for a drink.

Julian Bashir | Cetaganda | OTA

[asklepian]

Before the bombing...

[The sudden influx of soldiers withdrawn from the city is making Julian incredibly uneasy. There's a tension in the air, stemming from the murder, the Cetagandans in the base are brusque with him, unwilling to engage in conversation, mistrustful.

The halls are a little more crowded than they were before as Julian weaves through them. He wishes, suddenly, that he could find Deanna and that she could read the emotions of the people around them, maybe then they could extrapolate what's about to happen.

He nearly bumps into someone in his distracted wandering. Oops.]

Ah, I'm terribly sorry, please excuse me...

[There's a bright smile for whoever he nearly bowled over, a steadying hand if they're accepting of it.]

After the bombing...

[Whatever conflict or event Julian's overactive mind envisioned, he was not ready for what happened. It was late, he was sleeping, but the sound of the explosion wakes him instantly.

There's alarmed shouts, but no actual panic in the air, so he figures the base is safe enough. But he wants to know what that was. The only place he can think to figure it out would be the upper walls, and he quickly pulls on actual clothing to go up there to see and hear what happened.]

[durango]

May 18th, Woods Outside of Riverfall; closed to Sisko and Bashir

Cal, now fat and well again, is strapped firmly to Deanna’s back as she guides Bashir to the rendezvous point with Sisko. His big blue eyes look everywhere with interest and sometimes he’ll shriek happily at Bashir. Deanna, on the other hand, is rather subdued. They’re doing what’s best, she knows, but it’s still hard, thinking about giving him up. If she knew it would be safe going through the wormhole… but no, she can’t think about that.

“Just a little bit further, up by the stream,” she says to Bashir, pointing up ahead.

May 21st, Diya’s Funeral; OTA

While there was certainly no love lost between Diya and Deanna, the Lady’s death still hits her hard. Death almost always does, though this time, at least, she cannot Feel its arrival. It’s enough struggling with her own feelings about the situation: there was a small part of her that felt for Diya, viewing her as a tragic figure, even while reviling her arrogance and manipulations. And never would she wish death upon anyone, yet she cannot blame Natasha… if Natasha really did it, that is. Deanna has her own suspicions on that account.

So, with this tumult of feelings roiling around inside her, Deanna prepares carefully for the funeral, making sure to observe proper protocol for dress and hair and make-up. When she enters the funeral, she sits at the back, quiet and respectful as she listens to the service, grateful for what she has learned from her ghem teachers about Cetagandan poetry. This time, however, she does not approach any of the speakers, or any of the Cetagandans for that matter, afterwards. If someone comes to her, she’ll speak with them, but she doesn’t want to risk bringing any more attention to the exotics than there is already - too much is at stake.

May 22, Bombing; OTA

The light doesn’t wake her, but the rumble of the explosion does. Her first thought is that they’ve been attacked again, but as she runs outside of the exotics’ barracks, it becomes clear that that is not the case, from the reactions of the Cetagandans. There’s surprise and alarm, but no one is rushing to defend the perimeter or to hide in the barracks. Instead, people are moving to higher ground, to get a better view. She follows along, making her way to the top of the perimeter wall.

When she gets there and is able to see the mushroom cloud in the distance, she drops to her knees with a shout, covering her mouth in horror, yet unable to look away.

May 18th

[asklepian]

So far, nothing else has been...particularly terrible. The concern about the Cetagandans stealing and selling their genetic information is at the back of Julian's mind, pretty much constantly at this point, but for now he's put that aside and is concerned only with making silly faces and playing peek-a-boo with Cal from where he's walking just behind Deanna, grinning at his delighted giggles.

"I'm still rather surprised we're allowed to move around so freely." He doesn't know exactly what he expected, but it wasn't this.