forbarrayar | [ june ii log: the underestimated power of the forces of the unseen ]

Entry tags:

[ june ii log: the underestimated power of the forces of the unseen ]

Who: Everyone
What: Let's go steal us a spaceship.
When: June 18th-30th
Where: the Barrayaran camp, the Cetagandan base
Warnings: TBD

Quick links:
Barrayar / Cetaganda / The Hijacking

TIMELINE
6/28 Hijacking of the Star Gate, Haut Sei's death

barrayar
Things are as tense as ever in the Barrayaran camp, but at least morale is on the rise -- in a way. While Piotr's decision to help the outsiders as part of his plan to strike back at the Cetagandans hasn't been the most popular, ever since Vorvolk's summary demotion and dismissal from Piotr's general staff, few are bold enough to put forth criticisms of the General Count, especially considering his plan now has Emperor Dorca's endorsement. House Vorkosigan has always been deeply loyal to the Emperor, and that loyalty is repaid in kind with confidence, though it isn't necessarily shared by the Emperor's son. Yuri still has his own objections, and he certainly has no love for the outsiders, but he recognizes Piotr's brilliance as a military strategist, and rather than continue to stir malcontent in Vorvolk's wake, he has decided to fall into line with his father in backing the plan.

It isn't just the Emperor's endorsement, either. In the wake of Vorkosigan Vashnoi and the despair its destruction had wrought, the soldiers crave some direction, something to rally behind -- anything to get back at the Cetagandans. And those soldiers who have known the outsiders since the start…well, many of them are just as sympathetic as Piotr, some of them even more so. Piotr makes a public speech in his camp on the matter to drive up morale, and points out to both his and Dorca's troops that they have an utterly unique opportunity: hit the Cetagandans in a way no one has done before, and nip in the bud what could be the biggest threat of the war to date. "We won't let there be another Vorkosigan Vashnoi," Piotr declares to his troops, impassioned. "Not as long as I walk this planet. The Cetagandans may have already left its scars on Barrayar, and the war may rage on still, but we can ensure their ambitions go no further than this world -- and if this does not bring us honor, what else will?"

The speech is to great effect, but to anyone paying close enough attention, it's clear that what's really keeping Piotr upright these days is Olivia. The destruction of his own district's capital dealt an especially hard blow, but he's not a man who can afford to buckle now.

Vorkosigan's District is wracked with a heat streak, the sun beating down on them from the cloudless sky. Rain is rare, and while it's cooler up in the mountains, it's still hot as hell. Make sure you're drinking enough water, maybe take a cold bath or a dip in the creek, and…don't stand too close downwind of the stables.

The Barrayaran camps have spent the last few weeks communicating with Micah and the outsiders on the other side, preparing for the hijacking of the Star Gate. They pull together a modest cache of weapons and do their best to ready themselves, but when the night of the 28th comes, all they can do is make do with what they have. Sonia, unbeknownst to Olivia, Piotr, or anyone else, disguises herself as a soldier and slips into the rank and file at the last minute. There's a small panic among the top brass when they discover the Princess missing, but after the fight, when the dust starts to settle, soldiers who were in the shipyard report having seen the Princess there -- and that not a single one of them was able to stop her from getting aboard the Star Gate ship.

cetaganda
The atmosphere around the Cetagandan base is increasingly conflicted. Sei carries out her gene therapy experiments as always, and in Diya's stead she runs the genetics research project with ruthless efficiency and, apparently, increasing pressure. Amai is perpetually uneasy ever since she was drafted (blackmailed) into working against Sei, and there are murmurs that Sei is frustrated over some of her coms not going through properly.

Zahal is catching some serious flak from central command for resorting so quickly to nuclear measures on Vorkosigan Vashnoi; it was clearly not an order he received or even requested, and his superiors aren't happy with that. Coupled with Diya's recent passing, he's not so much his usual composed self these days. And with no clear direction after Vorkosigan Vashnoi, the soldiers are getting restless and antsy.

By the 25th, construction on the Star Gate is complete, and Micah is working with the exotics to execute their plan, loosely codenamed the midnight shift, in conjunction with the Barrayarans. They've been providing directions about how to proceed with regards to sabotage and preparing for the hijacking on the 28th. In their off hours in the lab, they've been constructing dozens of small, short-radius EMP charges to be planted in the other ship sin the shipyard.

Sei is murdered by Jasper on the evening of the 28th, before the hijacking begins. Lapis did tell Amai that they'd take care of things with Sei, after all. But because things go to hell so quickly that by the time they have a chance to process the site of Sei's death, the responsible parties are already long gone. Amai also seems to have gone missing, except she isn't really missing -- having been blackmailed into helping with the hijacking, she had no choice but to go with them. Her career might has well have a DNR order on it at this point.

In the aftermath of the hijacking, the base is in a logistical shambles, despite them having taking comparatively much fewer casualties than the Barrayarans. However, beyond the initial emergency response, Zahal's response has been disorganized, enough that they don't manage to immediately get any ships off the ground to pursue the hijackers.

the hijacking
The unabridged mission results are located here.

The Barrayarans don’t descend from the mountains until after dark, their faces smeared with mud to keep the light from reflecting off their skin. Ezar and Piotr lead the infiltration force, while Yuri and Dorca lead the assault on the shipyard perimeter. Casualties in a mission like this are inevitable -- it's just a matter of how many.

While Byerly and Lakshmi are infiltrating along with the rest of the security task force, another force is taking out the shipyard perimeter security. An initial wave of soldiers takes out the perimeter guard, while a second wave fans out through the shipyard to dismantle internal security, including any inner guards. Sonia sneaks herself in on the mission, disguising herself as a soldier in uniform and sticking with the second wave. They're able to secure the shipyard more or less successfully, but it's at the cost of quite a few bodies, and their hold is shaky at best, especially with alarms being triggered after the security task force fails to disable internal security.

Meanwhile, Micah and Kaidan are working on the anti-aircraft protocols, Julian and Pearl are destroying the gene samples, Nash and Symmetra are destroying the research, and Tarn and Lapis are trying to create a diversion. Unfortunately, it doesn't entirely succeed, and with the alarms going off, it makes everyone's job harder. Sisko and Deanna move in with the second wave into the perimeter so they can get started on re-engaging the flight mechanics.

It doesn't take long for things to get bad, and the ghem soldiers begin to close in on the shipyard. There are Barrayaran assault teams both inside the base and in the shipyard, among which are Wash, Miles, Vex and Tucker. The Barrayarans are fighting fiercely, but they're still vastly outnumbered, and they push the perimeter into the shipyard, forcing the rear guard further back. Timing for the Star Gate's departure is starting to run out. Thankfully, though, despite the delays, everyone manages to get to the Star Ship just in time for takeoff -- except for Vex and Tarn.

Micah detonates the EMP charges in the Cetagandan ships as they take off, but they've only planted 23 devices. Luckily, the Barrayarans took initiative and brought along some bombs to plant in the shipyard, like they do. The Barrayarans provide cover fire until the the Star Gate ship clears, and once it does they begin to fall back, taking even more casualties as they pull out. The bombs that go off shortly after their retreat take out another 22 ships, leaving the Cetagandans with only 5 immediately available -- but plenty enough to go after the Star Gate ship.

The Barrayarans retreat back to the mountains, many of them wounded, and at least a hundred of their small army died in the attack on the base, including both Lakshmi and Tucker. The Cetagandans' attention is sufficiently occupied right now, which is good, because now more than ever the Barrayarans need a chance to recoup.

The Star Gate ship breaks orbit, but it's only a matter of time before they'll be pursued. In addition to Micah, both Sonia and Amai are aboard the ship when it lifts off, and later Negri is discovered to have somehow stowed aboard while no one was looking.

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She takes her seat across from him. Pulling the chair out and sitting herself down in it as she regards him once more. She has done it many days, in many different lights. She thinks sometimes, she can see the man Miles says he will become, hard and unforgiving and so beaten into a shape he doesn't know how to be otherwise.

But he isn't that man completely yet. In no small way - she is fond of him. Because she sees also, too, what she finds herself so wanting of in Miles. Was there some story too, that she did not know, about those who bear the name Vorkosigan being so bright?

Lakshmi wets her lips, sets her fingers in front of her. "I believe you are aware, that I keep many secrets from you."

Piotr raises one eyebrow slightly at her from over his report.

"I've never pretended to know you in your entirety," he says evenly, more or less in agreement, "and I would never begrudge a woman her secrets. You've always been forthright with me where it counts."

She nods, the once, she makes sure of keeping all her dealings as plain and fair as she can. Especially here, where so much mattered, and yet didn't. Her hands lay flat and smooth with the grain of the table. Bracing herself. "That works well, I find."

Her breath comes in deep, and there is trust here, trust of him where she wouldn't ever give to another. "I need to tell you a story, Piotr," His name, not his title, and it's meaning is exact. She is talking to him, the man, not his position, even if it's to that position that must decide. "My last and my most important. I need you to listen to it exactly, and then decide what you want to do with it. Because it could change much - and if I am to die tomorrow, here and now, it's the only story about me you will need to worry about."

Last tales of lost Queens, is what she will title it, bitterly laughing to herself. If it comes to matter, if not - well, she will be too dead to care anymore, won't she?

Piotr sets his pen down and gives her a rare look of perplexity, his expression still grave. His lips compress and he braces his elbows on the table to lean forward slightly and study her expression. "What I want to do with it? What is this about, Rani?"

She holds her hand up, pausing him in his words and his questions. Not, not this time Piotr, after this is all said and done, he'll have his answer. "The difference in not only this war, but how fate turns. I want you think, very carefully, on what I say."

How do stories like this start? She had seen once the books of German fairy tales that had become so popular. The productions of theatre her husband so loved. The poems of the knights, so brilliant. Like their stories, or like hers? Or something in the middle. Her mouth opening to hover in a truth that is far more damning than any lies she could tell. Staring down the length of her life, her life as not part of her own, as one, longer, more wretched a tale that is centuries upon centuries, and she feels them all as she looks down at her hands.

She thinks now, in her quiet, in her stillness that might be misery, might be exhaustion, might be that settling of great calm before a storm. That some how, there was only way it should start. To it, she reaches under the scarf she wears at her neck, now under his uniform rather than her own, and settles it over her chest, outside of her clothes.

"Once, a man named Sir Bors de Ganis, rode into a great fortress city where a Queen, recently widowed, held a adopted son as her heir, and would be stripped of all dignity before her husband's body had been a year parted from her. Sir Bors, was no more than a day past his forties to look at, and around his neck, he wore a vial."

- and there, she begins, this wretched story. She doesn't think she's talked so much for years, nor expressed something like it. Has to explain to him something that is already known, to let him feel that weight - and to that, she lets it show, that pain and bitterness and frustration and a river's worth of blood as she tells him: of lycans, vampires and half breeds. Of atrocities that a man cannot commit, not even Cetagandan's at their most beautiful or Barrayaran's at their most guttural. Of what it was to be so powerless in the face of that - and what it meant had to be chosen.

Time, healing, strength beyond a person's measure. Stronger than Agent Maine, faster than Byerly's words and age - an age so great and so immeasurable, that if Emperor Dorca himself looked into the eyes of Sir Bors, he would know himself to be young. Of that which would allow someone - a person, any person, whether they be good or wicked - the ability to take mortal wounds and heal them, over and over and over again. Of battles, so many battles, of so much pain that can simply be borne through, how close they could come to death, and laugh in its face.

And she tells him, of the corruption, of what that does those men and women, the suffering that it could cause for all it promises to end it. How much that purpose can be twisted.

Tells him, in flesh and suffering and hope, of the weight of one simple, silver vial.

Piotr looks down at the silver vial once as she draws it out, his eyes narrowing in curiosity and analysis, as much as he can as she starts her story. And as she speaks, his eyes return to her face and stay there, and he is quiet, his expression unshakably serious. He doesn't say a word until she's done, and even then it seems to take him some time to find his words, rubbing his jaw as he looks back down at the vial hanging from the chain around Lakshmi's neck. When he looks back up at her, his expression is grave, inquiring.

"It's changed here, isn't it?"

"It has."

Simply put, he saw her when she returned from the Cetagandan base, how ill she had been, half a step from death for a week.

"The injuries no longer heal, my age returns to me, my old wounds... plague me." Familiar complaints of any old soldier - that one day, living a life so punishing catches up with her. "And I find myself... diminished. Weak, I suppose would be how it feels. Before it was easy too - oh, punch a man unconscious, if not dead, should I feel the inclination and did it correctly - but now?" She shrugs, plain with it. Miles had teased her for having to come back down to the same level as everyone else, as she deserved for grumbling about it - but it was true, and she sounds rather frustrated more than anything. "Slow, too - it feels different, having that rush of your blood."

Piotr nods slowly, brows still drawn down, eyes still narrowed in thought. He tents his fingers, elbows braced on the table.

"And when you return to your world...what do you think will happen then?"

"I will return to my war, my place, and my duties fighting the monsters I know best, and as it stopped, so it will begin working again."

It doesn't matter, in the end, it doesn't matter what happens there. That is her concern, not his.

"But Piotr. That is not my concern. Miles knew this of me, Nash in a way too. I can no longer pretend that the Cetagandan's will not. What I want to know is what you will do with my body once it is done. I want you to think about what will come of this."

The age old rules. Who will benefit. "I want you to think who will come to rule this land, and what they might do with it."

"Your body?" Piotr's eyes narrow, confusion creasing his brow. He leans forward, looking at Lakshmi, intent. "You just said you intended to return to your world. As I understand it, that doesn't leave anything behind, let alone a body."

Oh, Piotr. She drums her nails, smiles a little and takes the breath she had been holding.

"My dead body Piotr. We both know what follows tomorrow is under anyone's control. A body that as I understand it, the Cetagandans have already run tests on when they captured me."

Piotr purses his lips, but he's never been a man to turn a blind eye to gruesome reality, and he nods shortly, sucking on his teeth a moment before he speaks. "If you die on the battlefield," he says with a sharp rap of his knuckles on the wooden table, because Barrayarans are ever superstitious, even Piotr, "what would you have me do with your body? And...that vial?"

She knows he will do his damnedest to honor any postmortem wishes. He'll stake his word on it.

"Tell no one, and burn it. Burn me and it and all."

It comes out without hesitation. She will not have that kind of legacy. She would burn herself alive if it meant sparing a single person this kind of fate - but she thinks he knows that already. They are in too many ways, a like she thinks.

But then - quiet. Softer, a personal wish. "If you have a care for me. When you put me into the fire, don't give me your people's gifts. Give the fire flowers and oats and mead. Not for me - for the God, Agni. So he can make sure that I will be brought back to my husband and son."

"If that is your custom," Piotr says with a slight nod, his eyes never leaving Lakshmi's face. Does she intend to die on the battlefield, to make herself a sacrifice for Barrayar? Piotr would rather see her return to her people, where she is most needed. But he knows there are no demands he can make of Lakshmi's survival.

"You have my word as Vorkosigan."

She nods, rising up with it - there is nothing else to say, not about what will pass tomorrow. Looking at him and him alone, what she knows he will become, what he is now. She can't hate him for it. No more than she could hate Galahad, or herself. Time, of all enemies, was the harshest. The only prisoners it took were in regrets.

"When you have daughters, Piotr, remember that I was born more common as your proles."

She leans forward, brief and light, her fingers against the side of his face, before she kisses his brow, then his mouth. Of formality rather than affection. More than either of them. "Tell your wife I am glad to give my life for such a fight." Good-bye as much as she can manage, from all that she is and is not, just a woman. Then she straightens, rolls her shoulders back and flat on the edge of a battle and a war, and with that, leaves.

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[ june ii log: the underestimated power of the forces of the unseen ]

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