Event #15: TO EXPAND UPON VICTORY

[vivalamods]

Event #15: TO EXPAND UPON VICTORY

The Corsairs adjust to their newfound land control by preparing potential agricultural land, and making changes to their intel network. Focus turns towards the island of Larendt.

MISSIONS

Kind to Nature: The Bavrect Restoration Project goes forward.
Description: Bavrect soil and surviving plant samples need collecting and testing. Others may explore the now safe to hike island surface for signs of surviving wildlife to log, and potential future farming sites. Fresh water sources need testing for contamination.

Moving Up: Staff from Elysium pack and move to the Isles above.
Description: Under the guise of fearing the Corsairs, many Elysium spies are busy packing up their supplies and belongings to move to locations in the Isles Above where they will establish new lines of intel collection. Give a hand in the moving process or help cover for those who are arriving to their new place of business.

Root out the Soldiers: The Corsairs must defeat the troops guarding the sweatshops on Larendt before they can claim it.
Description: Larendt is home to multiple labor camps where workers occupy sweatshops and agricultural fields from dawn to dusk. To claim Larendt, Corsairs must locate and defeat or chase out all soldiers scattered around the island. Most soldiers work as guards, while others have taken positions with companies overseeing the labor.

The Slave Driver: A man with a whip refuses to allow the Corsairs to free the last of the sweatshop workers.
Status: Open
Description: Log Leader required. The Corsairs must defeat Damian, a fearsome labor camp manager, who will fight back with body puppetry magic that takes control of other's bodies, and a cruel, burning whip.
3-4 participants may take part in this battle.
back to navigation
code credit

Comments

[singlemilletgrain]

"Ah -- !"

Shu strides over with a beaming expression. "May I...?" And perhaps before Natalia has given permission, she is examining the tool in her hands, turning it around a few times.

"Natalia, I fear I have a most arduous task to request of you. This is not meant to be used on so grand a scale as acres or hectares, so I will not press you too hard. Do what you can. But if you can measure the conductivity of the soil every hundred paces, it would be a great help.

The electrical conductivity, you see, is a combination of the measurement of soil salinity, soil composition, and moisture levels. The modern farmer uses an elaborate system of sensors to create a grid of the whole field; thus she may precisely delineate the correct amounts of fertilizer, aeration, water, and so on and so forth."

[theriflespiral]

"Record every hundred paces the conductivity down to bottom of the probe. Any stops, or just fully inserted probe? And I assume you want a grid, as you mentioned?" She's pulling out a pencil and paper already. "We haven't seeded this already have we? I am, as they say, safe to use if I come across ordinance?"

[singlemilletgrain]

"Whatever you find most convenient." Shu nods. "Any data you may take will be useful. I will interpret it and determine the needs of the soil."

Despite her somewhat strict instructions, she still does not want to ask too much of the Corsairs.

"No. At the moment, we are simply evaluating the status of the land. You can... well, I believe the correct way to deal with stray ordnance is to detonate it safely." She might be wrong.

[theriflespiral]

"Understood." She nods, walking some distance away, feeling the area around her, though her lip twitches slightly as she opens her awareness.

It's... A little later, but not too long, when she turns an unexploded shell into an ice cube containing an unexploded shell and brings it out of the meteor-pocked ground.

A few of the other workers briefly panic, then sigh as it turns out to be a false alarm.

Word's gotten out about why she's not on combat operations anymore, it seems, but regardless, she's continuing to take readings as ordered.

[singlemilletgrain]

In the meantime, after giving various orders to other Corsairs now fanning across the acres of land, Shu has decided to see how Natalia is getting along. One, because she had the most important task. Two, because of... well.

Not that she needed to keep an eye on her, but they had never resolved that last issue, really. Shu comes ambling by on her flying cow in about twenty minutes and alights gently by Natalia.

"How goes the collection? I think I will ride with you, if you do not mind. I will create a table as we go so the raw numbers are less intimidating."

[theriflespiral]

She looks up. Blinks. "oh. I've been..." She shows her notepad. It's a bunch of numbers in three columns, marked unhelpfully in Ursan as N-S, E-W, and READING.

"... This might be a bit harder to read than if I put it on a grid, yes."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Leave it to me," she suggests with a faint hint of a smile. "I've been doing this for many, many years. Actually, truth be told..." She makes a 'hm' sound of enjoyment. "I am very excited. It has been some time since I have had the opportunity to do what I loved."

The underground Vault fields were fine, but quite limited in scope.

[theriflespiral]

"The numbers are in hundreds of paces. Anything marked with an asterisk notes an unexploded bomb near the site. a circled asterisk indicates the bomb has been isolated and contained." There's only one of those so far.

She kneels down and, just as she said, marks out the paces with the next number in the set, dips down the probe, marks the number down.

[singlemilletgrain]

"...Goodness."

Shu looks at the chart and notes the unfortunate quantity of numbers with asterisks. They would have some job to do locating and detonating those stray explosives. Pulling out a chart of graph paper, she begins to convert the numbers into a grid pattern.

This work is familiar enough to her that she doesn't need to keep her full focus on it. She segues shortly after into a more important discussion.

"How have you been these two weeks, Natalia?"

[theriflespiral]

She pauses, and waves, vaguely, at some of the other workers taking samples. "It's been much the same, no matter the branch. Word got out quickly. I did not realize I was so notorious already."

"As for myself... I've... Something's changed."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Hm..."

It certainly wasn't as if she had mentioned the incident, but she supposed perhaps some of the captured soldiers had started blabbering about something or other.

"Changed?"

She elects not to pry into the former matter, judging it less pertinent how exactly anyone knows.

[theriflespiral]

It's quite a few paces before she says, "... The ice is not working as well. In either respect. I am... Out of balance. Out of sorts. My connection to life increases, but is painful to use."

[singlemilletgrain]

"A malady of the mind," Shu suggests in an even tone. "Something affected you quite deeply, evidently. Why was that, if I may ask, Natalia?"

[theriflespiral]

"... You were there. I nearly did those people damage. I..." She pauses. Her eyes go wide in shock. "I've lost count."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Well, yes." She gives a nod of affirmation. "What I meant was... why this particular enemy inspired such a strong emotion within you. Some insight might be beneficial for you as well, if you don't mind discussing it."

[theriflespiral]

Some cussing in Ursan again. "No, the paces, I've lost count."

She grumbles and turns around, looks back to the hole they'd left. "As for what happened, I'm. Not sure. I know that... I know that I called him after one of the infamous of those who did such Devil's work back home, trying to find... Concoctions, treatments, that would produce someone beyond the pale of a soldier, but most of what he did amounted to little more than torture.

"... Was I a scientist? I am." ... She reviews her behavior, and can't say it with a straight face. "I, like many, attempt to be. Calm. Practical. Empirical. But... Then... Was I subject to such things?"

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu does not interject as Natalia distracts herself briefly with the counting, presuming it helped her broach the topic. As for her chart, it is filling in nicely, though likely few people would be able to make sense of it besides her.

"Mm..."

Natalia's explanation is a bit confused - and confusing. But the exact details aren't important right now. She senses a path through the emotions that are being raised.

"You do not need to be calm under all circumstances. It would be inhuman to expect..." Shu says this without a trace of irony. She is calm under (almost) all circumstances and she is exceptionally inhuman. "But your reaction was so... deeply personal. You suspect you have some connection to these things...?"

[theriflespiral]

She pauses, nods. "Yes. I'm uncertain as to how. But I know that calling him a hack was full-throated. I felt it with my entire being. So was the screaming. I..."

She pauses. "No, I think I know this effect. Under continual stress, memory can become... Indistinct."

[singlemilletgrain]

“You have suppressed the memory,” Shu supplies, after a moment’s pause. “Perhaps there is no need to try to recall it now, though at some point in the future… Do you believe your powers to be connected to something that was done to you? “

[theriflespiral]

"It's possible. I know they were doing research into our equivalents of life magic, psychic abilities, things like this. A way to augment someone biologically or mentally to supplement or remove the need for cybernetic replacement of limbs."

She takes a reading. "... I thought I was proud to be a part of it. Ha, but this is Russia, yes?"

[singlemilletgrain]

Of course. Russia. Wherever that was. Although it hadn’t escaped Shu that Natalia had expelled some words in the Ursus language in the laboratory. Regrettably, she did not know much.

“Ah. In the end, it seems all may be justified under the banner of war…. So you suffered in such a manner for your nation’s ambitions.” From what Shu recalled, Natalia had described a childhood rife with such abuses. This does not entirely surprise her. “What is it you feel now, Natalia?”

[theriflespiral]

"Much as I did when I first arrived. Nothing." She hums, writing down the reading and continuing on. "Or. No. I know that I am angry about it, but... Distantly. Like you've lost track of someone in the snow and distance, chasing their shadow."

[singlemilletgrain]

"...I am not sure that distance is completely wise."

Shu's counsel is gentle. "Or... is that not a conscious choice? Something like this, I believe, can only become a greater sorrow if left to fester."

[theriflespiral]

"What else am I to do, Shu? You saw what came of me trying to find an out, of trying to express my heart through the ice. I... I don't want to hurt..." She doesn't want to hurt Shu. Or anyone else she thinks of as a friend.

[singlemilletgrain]

Her smile is utterly sympathetic, even if it is a bit tinged with something that bears a faint hint of amusement.

"Perhaps... I might suggest not exploring these difficult feelings while in the presence of someone you wish to kill."

It feels like this might help.

"We are quite safe out here, far away in these barren plains." ... "...Well. After we detonate the ordnances. But if you wish to seek the source of these feelings, this may not be a bad place. And I am a skilled healer. You need not worry about me."