EVENT #05: FIREWORKS FOR NEW YEAR PREPARATION

[vivalamods]

EVENT #05: FIREWORKS FOR NEW YEAR PREPARATION

With winter’s chill already setting in, Corsair laboratories are hard at work pumping out explosives for the operation to come. After extensive training, the crews of the Corsair airship brigade bring the infiltrators quietly to the Isles Above, all cabin lights doused to move stealthily to the drop point. There, Corsair specialists will disembark and plant explosives, as well as, perhaps, make contact with local workers and evacuate them if time permits. With all crews operating with quiet efficiency, the time is almost nigh to strike at the heart of the Empire itself.

Any mission marked Critical must have at least one log in progress by the end of the month to be counted as complete. Missing Critical missions will have major negative impacts on the Execution mission in the following month. Supplemental missions can be completed or not, completing them will go toward achieving optimal results during the Execution mission next month. As with Critical missions, Supplemental missions must have at least one log in progress by the end of the month to be counted as complete.

SUPPLIER MISSIONS

Create Explosives: Characters will need to create explosives and munitions for deployment.
Priority: Critical
Challenges: In order to get explosives that will make enough of a dent in the Imperial forces, Corsairs will need to develop them from the live rounds dropped above the vault. Logs can involve recovering salvage as well as construction of explosives.

Develop Precision Explosives: Characters will need to develop precision explosives to avoid undue damage to the civilians of Bluvink during the attack.
Priority: Supplemental
Challenges: This will require some research and development from suppliers to find explosives that will detonate at very specific levels in order to not cause the volatile materials within the Bluvink factory to ignite and cause wide-scale damage to the town.

Develop Communications Hijack: Characters will need to develop a tool that can hijack communications within the Empire.
Priority: Supplemental
Challenges: This will require recovering some Imperial communication technology from salvage or from the Vault and finding a way to dominate Imperial airwaves so they can’t shut down the Corsair propaganda.

INFILTRATOR MISSIONS

Set Explosives in Bluvink: Characters will need to sneak into the Bluvink factory and set explosives, preparing for them to explode during the New Year attack.
Priority: Critical
Challenges: The factory has regular guard rotations that can be figured out with proper observation, they will need to be avoided. The facility will also need to be properly cased so that the explosives can be set in places they will not be detected.

Set Explosives in the Vindess Mines: Characters will need to sneak into the Vindess Mines and set explosives, preparing for them to explode during the New Year attack.
Priority: Critical
Challenges: The mines have regular guard rotations and are constantly manned by serfs and servants. All will need to be avoided in order to set the explosives, and those manning the mines must be avoided at all costs.

NEGOTIATOR MISSIONS

Miner Negotiation: Characters will need to convince the miners to evacuate and to join with the Corsairs, as well as not tip off the Imperials.
Priority: Supplemental
Challenges: Many miners are distrustful of the Corsairs due to Imperial Propoganda, and several are Imperial loyalists even under the current circumstances. Several miners may need to be subdued in order to safely evacuate the area without their captors being alerted.

VILLAINS

Villain plots will be planned this month and will happen in the following month. Potential villains may post here to start workshopping potential plots that they may take part in next month.

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Comments

B. Precision

[theriflespiral]

"To review. For Bluvink, we are planning to collapse the factory's weight atop its machinery and ordnance." Natalia herself has a half-dozen books open to various tables. Her hand hums the scales of stress-strain curves, and scrawls calculations in unreasonably neat lines. "Secondary targets include breaking as much machinery as we can find, and destroying over-ground or under-ground powering conduits. However, counter to this is timing. These explosives need to stay in place for an extended period. This is good, because we need small charges, anyway, if we want to collapse the building without touching off the ordnance."

"For Vindess, we are planning a complete collapse and cave in over several stages. I... Am not a--" She purses her lips as she tries to remember the word for geologist on Esthere, and then gives up and says "rock learner?-- but if no one in this room is, we should get one."

[upupatomway]

He can't help noticing, while they go about their studies, that she has a steady hand while writing her notes like a talented calligrapher. The straight lines would be common among robots, but not so much for humans. The way she juggles her thoughts from multiple books at once and her calculations flow onto her paper is the kind of ability he has only seen in the most brilliant of human minds, like those most respected at the Ministry of Science. Conclusion: she is some kind of genius.

Atom nods and smiles at her. "You've got it. I'd just consider the behavior of the mine workers into the plans there. We still don't know how cooperative they'll be. We might have to rescue some of them after the event if they refuse to leave."

His gaze drops aside for a moment of fret over how that will go. He hadn't been assigned to negotiations, but he still worries over what the results will be. His friend, Mr. Senshi, had seemed particularly concerned over the results there, although Atom didn't know why.

What was he thinking of saying? Right. The rocks. "I actually helped with the collapsing of another imperial mine with explosives before. I could try to write some notes based on my experiences and the calculations I did. We'd have to get confirmation from an expert or geological maps, but I'd expect a lot of the same types of rock and the same standard tunnel structures in both mines."

[theriflespiral]

She, in the meantime, has been looking over Atom's work, and come to similar conclusions-- the child is... More like her than she cares to admit; a mathematics and physics genius at the very least. "I agree that as a practical concern we should be avoiding harming those who will hide us later. But I cannot be here, calculating the weight of explosive and breaking strain, and there, convincing them to leave."

... Couldn't she? Couldn't she take all of this on? From start to finish? At least then, the failure would be my own. "Besides, when it comes to talking to people..."

She shakes her head. "I make a good lamp-post. And it would be talking to people. Understanding them. Stoking their emotions. Not things for me to do."

[upupatomway]

The way she talks about the challenge ahead it sounds like she's used to being tasked with carrying things out from beginning to end on her own. He tries to reassure her, "I tend to do a lot by myself back home too. But the Corsairs have people of all kinds of talents. We all kind of make up for each other's shortcomings when it comes to specialties."

He lifts his pen and starts to tap his face with one end thoughtfully. "As for things I'm not so good at, so far I've found several people willing to give me advice when I ask. Unless you've already been part of a group very similar, my experience is that there's a lot to learn here for everyone involved."

Asking for advice was fairly easy for Atom, with no one faulting what appears to be a child for his constant curiosity.

[theriflespiral]

"It is... Not a matter of advice or learning, I think." She has accepted that when it comes to empathy and sharing camaraderie, she makes a good ice cube, that she does not feel anything. "Though I thank you, for your thought."

The number itself is hardly important, though the explosive energy required to down one of these columns is. "Does this agree with your minimum yield?"

[upupatomway]

Atom finds himself reminded of other robots who expressed their doubts about their abilities to comprehend abstract concepts. They just about always underestimated themselves. But he's not sure how a human from another world would take a comparison to a robot, even if he meant well by it, so he keeps the thought to himself.

He glances over her papers at the numbers she had come up with and he nods at her. "I found the same answer. I was thinking next we note down the distance between the different columns and take the elevation options of the charges and the neighboring explosions into consideration. I have the blueprints saved to my memory, so I can mark the distances on a copy of the blueprints to make it faster if you like."

[theriflespiral]

"Sounds good. I can only remember so much of the layout. And with the volatiles for welding..." She hums, tapping her figures. "If they are using the chemicals I might use, causing an over-pressure back-fire at the main line would be enough to send up their entire supply..."

Though who knew if acetylene was in use by the Empire, or if they had learned about its tendency to combust at pressures over a certain amount?

Certainly she didn't see it in the tables here. "Ignore me. I am playing chess without considering my opponent."

[upupatomway]

"It's not a waste- you could be on to something! I know there was a list of the volatile chemicals at the factory around here somewhere..." He calls back the memory and locates the paper he's referring to, holding it out to her. "We can check the books for information on their reaction to pressure. Even if it's not the answer for this mission, it could be useful in the future."

[theriflespiral]

Acetylene... Under normal conditions it would happily stay where it was until sparked. In situations of high pressure, however, it could spontaneously combust. Back home, it was too useful for making other chemicals and as a fuel. If they didn't have arc-welding yet-- something she doubted they had at all-- then it was one of the only things hot enough, on demand, to weld steel that she could think of. Magic could get this hot, she was sure-- and it would probably be safer-- but that might require Ether Stones, and those were expensive. A theft risk! Ha, no.

"... There's a lot of volatiles here. But..."

The main storage was... she tapped it, on one of her sketches of the layout. "We'd have to set it off directly, I think. They keep the storage away from the shop floor. More for the shop floor than the people, I imagine."

[upupatomway]

"I think you're right. Considering the potential size of the explosion caused by blowing the storage area, we should think of that as the most important location- the heart of the operation. It's better to ensure that it explodes successfully and calculate to ensure we don't harm structures off the factory property, than risking it exploding on a delay after the surroundings have been changed and our calculations are inaccurate."

Atom hums thoughtfully. "Plus, I don't think the factory owners or Imperials will be sending anyone to clean up afterwards that the Corsairs want to injure. If we can burn up the volatile chemicals in our strike, the ruins will at least a little safer for those left cleaning up."

[theriflespiral]

"As you say," she agrees. She notes the tendency to use 'the Corsairs' instead of 'we'-- does he harbor doubts, as well?

"Well, good news there-- once it starts going, it will be hard to stop unless choked of oxygen. And if they keep oxygen tanks in the same place, there's no hope of that." ... There had to be a chemical plant that supplied this place-- several, in fact-- but that was... A target for another time.

"So. storage first, then..."

[upupatomway]

He has his doubts; ones that are accompanied by uneasy laughs and embarrassed blush. In due time, Natalia might hear about them and find out that they're all aimed inward.

"Second priority... The machinery used for making armors itself. When everyone was voting, those who made comments were prioritizing the halt in production even more than sending a message to the Empire. We should try to make it so they can't use anything when they pull it out of the rubble."

[theriflespiral]

"Agreed. While I worry that they have the capability to swiftly replace all these machines regardless-- an industrialized nation is not an easy thing to cut a limb of-- it will at least slow things down for a little longer."

She pauses. "I think if we can steal the empty Armors, or deny them to the Empire, that would also be a good objective, but it's... tertiary, at best."

[upupatomway]

"Leaving with the armors without being spotted would be challenging, even in the dark. But it might work as an escape plan if we're discovered and have to make a stand on the way out. Might be worth bringing up to those who will be at the factory the day of the attack too, just in case."

He writes a couple measurements on a copy of the blueprints as he said he would, pausing to share a follow up thought. "I haven't read anything specifying whether the armors built in the factory can fly, but I think it's safe to assume the finished ones have weapons systems. They don't exactly make them for the joy of flying after all. Donnie might know the best way to recognize different armor types at a glance. Have you met him yet?"

[theriflespiral]

She nods along with Atom's assessment. Ah, the best sort of extraction method: stealing someone else's kit.

"Not... Yet, I believe," she said, with a faint hum. "Soon, if I'm to be helping make these explosives and on the infiltration, as I suspect I shall be-- I didn't have a chance to test my rifle under controlled conditions, and here, I think, is the only place I can get it."

[upupatomway]

"I'm sure he'll be helping with that. Otherwise, he's easy to spot here at The Vault. Donnie is the one turtlekin in the Corsairs. I go to him with my questions about the local technology. He's been a big help!" To Atom, that might still be an understatement. Especially with the possibilities that opened up once they had installed an ether stone in his chest.

"A rifle- are you best with firearms in battle?" he asks. If Atom had to guess her specialty he'd think it was her mind above all.

[theriflespiral]

"Turtlekin... I see. I'll keep that in mind." It would, in fact, end up slipping her mind a few days later, but she'll be quite busy from here on in.

"I was trained as a sniper, and that and lookout work was what I did during my time on the Mad Archer, when I wasn't sailing." Natalia said. "That said, I was trained in many weapons, and excel at almost all of them, according to my teachers and handlers."

[upupatomway]

No wonder the Corsairs had accepted her into their ranks. Sailing experience and battle training were in demand, and that was all extra on top of her potential research contributions.

"Are you a soldier back home? Or a spy?" Atom asks.

[theriflespiral]

"... I'm... Not entirely sure which organization of the Tsars decided I was worth cultivating, in the end." As she says it, her demeanor seems to grow colder and colder. "And the difference between a soldier and a spy is... not all that much, in the end.

"It seems no matter what I was then, I'm a spy for the Corsairs now." Ah. Elysium, then?

[upupatomway]

He gets the distinct impression that she doesn't remember the details because she was too young to remember when she was first recruited.

"I suggested they send me to Elysium when I arrived to blend in as staff or a street performer. I have experience entertaining. But I think they were worried about all the scandalous activities that take place there, and I suspect some of the scientists here at The Vault wanted to keep a close eye on me."

"Some of the friendliest people in the Corsairs are working in Elysium. I bet they'll want to make you feel welcome." He's sure Deedee will see to it.

[theriflespiral]

"Hoh! Then I wonder why they picked me of all people. I have the humor of a guillotine and the demeanor of a glacier." She's already starting to calculate weight based on minimum yield. "When it comes to my wiles, I read a good newspaper."

Though, that does leave a question, one that's been in her mind since first watching Atom get to work. "... So. Chemistry, particle physics, electrical engineering... What army found you, then?"

She's projecting, and she knows it, but she can't resist the question.

[upupatomway]

"I don't know, humor of a guillotine and demeanor of a glacier sound rather poetic. Maybe you're better with words than you realize. I know I've made people laugh when I didn't expect to simply talking about something abstract." He chuckles softly.

Atom looks slightly confused by her question. "What army? You mean which faction of the Corsairs freed me from the Empire after they abducted me from home, or which I've been assigned to?" He has to ask for clarification, although he's not sure either guess is right.

[theriflespiral]

"I mean that... Surely, someone noticed your talent, and taught you these things. Given the nature of them, I had assumed someone 'back home' had taught you for the purpose of... Weapons development or other such research." She shook her head. He seemed so young, especially. It was a damned shame. "Though I would be glad to be mistaken."

[upupatomway]

"Oh!" Atom catches on, not only to her question but that she's speaking from her own experience. His expression softens. "I've been lucky not to be forced into an army. The closest I've come to that at home was becoming a peace ambassador and trying to do what I could for civilians in the war zone. Dr. Ochanomizu, who is legally my maintainer, wouldn't let me be a soldier. But I don't think anyone ever requested I join the war to begin with because I look like a kid on the outside. Child soldiers have been almost nonexistent in my world in the last several decades. In the most recent wars, when countries wanted to supplement their troops, they have built or recruited robots to fight."

She must not have been told what he is, so he asks, "Do you know what a robot is?"

[theriflespiral]

She blinked. When she thought of robots and drones, what came to her mind were oversized, treaded vehicles of war, or quadcopters, or little speedboats with a big punch, not something like Atom. But 'maintainer'? 'nonexistent' child soldiers? She could add up fairly well. "... We do, but I think none nearly so advanced as you, or even the ones on your world. Most robots back home need to be piloted by humans, or else carefully programmed so as not to break themselves."