Event #03: WAR ORDER - EXTERMINATION PLANNING PHASE

[vivalamods]

EVENT #03: WAR ORDER - EXTERMINATION PLANNING PHASE

The interrogation of Lord Gundhir is a tense affair, the room and surrounding area silent, save for the ever-present explosions of bombs falling above the Vault. When the interrogators emerge, there is a flurry of panicked activity as messages are sent and contacts are made. Soon, the grim news has spread - the Empire is attacking. The Corsairs act quickly. The mine shall be abandoned. They make a stand at Flotsam. A rising din engulfs the entirety of the Corsairs as they prepare to meet a Legion in pitched battle for the first time.

CORE MISSIONS

This week, there are no Core Missions to complete - instead, players may make whatever preparations they believe are appropriate to ensure the safety of the people and that defenses are ready. Here are a few recommendations, but players are free to use this time to do whatever they wish.

Evacuate Civilians: Evacuate civilians from Flotsam and the mine to keep them out of the fighting.
Hide Vital Infrastructure: Sail the infrastructure ships Flotsam relies on into hidden areas to protect them.
Prime Mine for Destruction: Prepare explosives and other items to ensure the mine is destroyed.
Prepare Defenses: Prepare defenses for Flotsam including more cannons, mustering troops, and the like
Automate Mine Defenses/Expand escape routes: Guns were set up in the mine, Corsairs may attempt to either automate them or create escape tunnels that feed into the primary underwater escape tunnel within the mines so they can be manned and offer resistance to the legion but abandoned safely when the time comes.

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Evacuation

[singlemilletgrain]

Given her insistence across the ethernet earlier, Shu has taken it upon herself to take an active role in the evacuation of the civilians of Flotsam. As 80,000 people needed to be sheltered in the Vault, this is not a process that could happen in a single day or even a week. Most importantly, the Empire's eyes could not be allowed to catch a glimpse of this process, else the Vault's defenses would be compromised.

It is decided that each ship in the flotilla of Flotsam will be assigned a departure date spreading across two weeks. Civilians would evacuate and be replaced by a skeleton crew of combatants able to man the ships and maintain the integrity of the fleet. In the meantime, the people of Vault were called upon to volunteer to host evacuees in their homes for the remainder of the month. Throughout this, Shu and a large number of other Corsairs attend to various tasks ranging from creating evacuation routes and physically guiding people off the ships to something as menial as sweeping empty homes in the Vault in preparation for incoming guests.

prompt 1; In the evening, Shu is high up in the crow's nest of an empty boat, looking up at the stars with lists of family names and parchment marked with evacuation routes scattered around her.

"4,536 people transferred today. We are behind schedule... I very much fear this will not be sufficient."

prompt 2; Shu is holding an elderly woman's arm as she gently maneuvers her down a (seemingly unbearably long) path towards the warp platform. The woman is loudly going on and on about how in her day, she would have held off the Empire alone with a gun in each hand and how her no-good son wasn't even going to participate in the fighting and if she didn't have her sciatica, there would be no possible --

"Yes, Grandmother. Of course, Grandmother. Please watch your step here, Grandmother..."

prompt 3; Shu is in the Vault, inside a depressing looking tiny room that resembles a cell or a large closet, holding a broom in her hands and dubiously reading off a list.

"...A family of seven is supposed to stay here. Four children from 2 to 12 years old."

3

[redprayer]

Rezo isn't best pleased himself. "We can certainly pack them in," he says with a sigh, "But not only is the battle itself going to be a hard one, but with these conditions I expect we'll have an epidemic on our hands shortly afterwards." Not necessarily a deadly one, but cramming two different populations together in such a tight space is definitely going to result in colds and flus running rampant among the more vulnerable citizens.

[singlemilletgrain]

"An epidemic -- ?"

Her eyes widen in surprise momentarily, taking the term with its worst possible meaning, before she sensibly realizes what Rezo is trying to say.

"I understand. You mean the cramped living spaces and the inevitable breakdown of hygienic standards. Then we must stock more medication from Elysium." She shakes her head. "These people must have some furniture. Or at least some mats. They cannot sleep on the bare rock. The logistics of this operation are overwhelming."

They were doing their best, and yet it was simply impossible for things to go smoothly under such a tight time constraint.

[redprayer]

"I believe most of the evacuees have been able to take some of their belongings with them," Rezo says soothingly, "Since we've been fortunate to have advance warning of the attack." So the evacuees will hopefully mostly have their own blankets.

"Of course, there's no harm in stockpiling bedding as well as soap and medicine."

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu nods, though it is clear from the expression on her face that she is not wholly convinced. Sweeping away the last of the dust towards the doorway, she pauses as an idea suddenly strikes her.

"This is the last dwelling for inspections this morning. We have a little bit of time."

Granted, this time was supposed to be for a lunch break, but.

"Let's find them something to sleep on."

[redprayer]

Any thoughts of a lunch break are easily dismissed and forgotten in light of the work they have ahead of them. At least, they are for Rezo, as he considers where they might find some spare bedding. The Vault- and the Crimson Corsairs as a whole- take in refugees fairly regularly, so...

"Shall we head to the storehouse?" he suggests. There may be extra blankets and sleeping mats in there.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Yes. ...And the toddler needs a cot of some sort. It isn't safe for them to roll around on the ground."

Shu has strong feelings about child safety. At minimum, they at least needed to find enough padding. She sets the broom to the side and sweeps out of the room.

"And if we stop by the market on the way, I can think of a few stalls that can sell some useful items for us."

It was one single family in a refugee group of 80,000. And yet, it somehow seems worth the time.

[redprayer]

Rezo follows after her, obliging as anything.

"I don't think I've visited the market for anything but meals since I first arrived," Rezo muses. He'd gotten a few personal essentials, things of better quality than what he'd had (or hadn't had at all) in his time as a servant, but otherwise he's been busy with classes, training, and the library.

[singlemilletgrain]

There is cause for concern with that statement. Shu opens her mouth, pauses, then opens it again.

"Do you buy all your meals?"

There is no judgment in her tone of voice. Though somehow it can't help but seem judgmental nonetheless.

"The market is a fascinating place, though. They sell some wares that are not familiar in my homeland, in addition to food and basic necessities. The technology here is not... more developed, per se, simply differently developed."

They don't have ether, they don't have war armors, they don't have a fair number of things common in Terra. Similarly, however, she could find no evidence of anything similar to Tianshi apparatuses here.

[redprayer]

"Eh?" The question takes Rezo off guard and it takes him a moment to properly speak. He quickly settles on "...Not all of them," as a reply.

But yes, he normally does buy preprepared meals and live off of those. Excuses come to mind, about his dorm not being well equipped for cooking and the food at the market being perfectly fine and far healthier than what he'd been eating for the past few years- and then they die, unspoken, drowned in a surge of irritated pride that insists it's hardly Miss Shu's business what he eats.

Technology feels like a far less thorny subject. "Can you give me an example of the differences?" he asks.

[singlemilletgrain]

Now is not the right time, but Shu makes a mental note of this. Rezo will one day be the recipient of a Surprise Cooking Lesson with or without his consent. Everyone Should Learn to Cook: the name of Shu's manifesto.

And really, there were so many people here in need of her salvation.

"I don't know what ether is, though I gather it is a sort of energy here intrinsic to living beings. It is a completely alien concept. They seem to base much of their work on this idea of ether. Terra doesn't go in much for the personal mechanized armors, either, though we have some robotics development."

[redprayer]

Blissfully unaware of Shu's plans for his future, Rezo ponders the issue of technology.

"We have a similar energy in my own world, called {mana,} though it doesn't crystallize the way ether does," Rezo says. "Perhaps that's why their magical machines are more advanced than our own. The Servant's Gate, for instance, is far beyond anything outside of legend."

[singlemilletgrain]

She pauses only briefly before responding.

"Oddly, that is an area in which we are more similar. We have a sort of energy crystal called Originium, though it is not native to our world and carries terrible dangers. But we have learned to harness its extraordinary powers -- to the point that we, too, have a gate that is said to cross dimensions."

The Door, of course, was feared as an object of potential calamity. Not a casual means of teleporting in slave labor.

"However, we do not ever make use of it. It is from an era before our time."

[redprayer]

Rezo ponders this. The concept of other worlds having similar resources is surprising, but not an outright shock. But when Shu mentions that they don't use the one in hers, it makes him think... "It's such a pity. All the different worlds have such potential to learn from one another. But the Empire only uses their ability to contact other worlds as a source of disposable labor, and the gate in your world is ignored."

He smiles and shakes his head. "Truthfully, if I were but a few decades younger it would inspire some impetuous dreams."

apologies, lost this response in my inbox!

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu coughs lightly.

"There is, ah, a slight problem. Our best estimates suggest that the Door is currently linked to a dimension filled with -- I suppose you would call them 'demons.'"

This is not something the Terrans really enjoy thinking about or know very much about in general. Given Shu's activities for the past thousand years, though, she is not especially keen on experimenting with the Door.

"It would be a grand thing indeed if we could use it for good. That is a dream for the far-off future for now."

It happens!

[redprayer]

"Demons are a type of evil spirit, correct?" Rezo says. If they're anything like mazoku then he can see how that would be an issue. Of course, the phrasing 'currently linked' implies that it would be possible to change that...

But as Shu says, that's something for the future. "It's far away in both time and in space," Rezo admits. Considering it's in an entirely different world and all.

[singlemilletgrain]

"Mm... A bit. Their true name is 'Collapsal.'" She pauses. "I am sure they have no influence here as they have no entry to this world, but... part of their danger is that they infiltrate the mind. Simply learning more about their existence can cause you to become susceptible to their corruption. It may be safer if I do not explain further."

There had even been reports that seeing a picture of a Collapsal had invited corruption into the viewer.

"Here - there is a store for furnishings around this area. Let's find something suitable for this family."