agogelogs | AND THE ANZAC LEGENDS DIDN'T MENTION...

AND THE ANZAC LEGENDS DIDN'T MENTION...

AND THEN SOMEONE YELLED OUT "CONTACT!";

and the bloke behind me swore

THE SILENT WAR

The news of the day of the retreat spreads like wildfire through the Trenches. Leading up to the final date, all soldiers on the ground are instructed to limit their gunfire, to make it look like the usual traditions for warfare, which have determined much of human history up until this point: no one really goes to war in winter. Everyone is to maintain a verbal and physical presence, but the time to confuse the Turks has really become paramount. At times, whole sections are ordered to be perfectly quiet until the last possible second and then spring out before the Turks can get too close.

Which is just how it is supposed to be. In fact, for COST recruits, there's a real sense that this might just go according to plan.

Around this time, the Rear Guard signup starts. COST recruits are met with some surprise by Captain Lewis; he will blink in surprise at a group so new wanting to volunteer so readily, but he's glad and gives everyone who joins a big warm handshake.

Each day gets closer and the mood of the soldiers becomes more jubilant and tenser; the erratic sense of relief that they might be leaving what has become the graveyard of so many friends and, often times, family, combines with the frustration of not being able to do anything but wait. This leads to more than a few fights breaking out, often over nothing important. Just the edge of temporary relief.

Then, before dawn on Jan 7th, the evacuation begins in earnest. It's possible to see it from the top of some sections: a bustling populace until it trickles down to the ghost of the Trenches, where there is nothing left but the rear guard. It's a smooth, efficient evacuation.

The Rear Guard

This is a skeleton army, just enough to make it seem no one has left. Everyone is encouraged to come up with ways to make it seem like there are more men than there actually are.

The local soldiers have come up with a particularly sneaky one - a rope is wrapped around the trigger of a rifle, just loose enough not to pull it, and from the end of it hangs a bucket. Another container slowly drips water into the bucket until it fills and drops, pulling the rope around the trigger and firing the gun. Soldiers are tasked with emptying the water, refilling the cannister, or checking the gun if it looks like it has jammed.

Outside of that, if someone has a sneaky idea to keep up the ruse - even if it's lighting small fires or singing loudly in a chorus to give the notion of people still around - it's all encouraged.

THE THUNDER OF GUNS

Everything is going well. It's not even that worrying when a thick mist comes up, heavy and difficult to see through. But, for those with powers, it prickles oddly on bare skin, followed by a pressure that builds in the back of the mind. It seems to dull any extra powers or senses; magic and its ilk are still usable, but require more concentration to reach now.

In the stillness of the night, however, there is no breeze to move the fog on and it settles like oil through the trench.

It's 1am when the first shell drops. It falls to the east of the recruits' position at Lone Pine. It's a shell that comes down and splits apart the night air in an explosion of shrapnel, dirt and heat. Then a second, then a third, now starting from both sides.

All the soldiers' clamour out of the way and Captain Lewis can be heard shouting over the din: "Into the Tunnels!"

But not everyone can make it. The shells are coming steadily now and one step in the wrong direction is the difference between life and death in such a small space. It's chaos - some soldiers are killed outright. Others get buried under the debris and dirt. Others catch shrapnel that, if not fatal, is enough to throw them and make it hard to get up. But COST's mission is the same as it always is: save as many of these men's lives as possible.

There are four direct entries into the tunnels, all about four or five meters apart, and they're all interconnected within the tunnels themselves.

One by one, however, shells fall and destroy the entrances to the tunnels.

WARTIME ARCHEOLOGY

It takes another three hours for the bombardment to stop and, once the tunnel entrances collapse, it becomes very dark in there. Might be time to fish out a match and strike up a torch.

While Officers previously told soldiers to keep out of the tunnels and otherwise left them ignored, these tunnels are huge. Not like the ones in other sections of the coast; here, they seem to go far into No Man's Land. They're crudely constructed and only some sections are reenforced with heavy beams of wood. But once journeying into them, there are all sorts of things to be found. There are old gas lamps that can be used to light your way or hung on a secure nook or cranny. The stone has been worn smooth in some sections, and other parts have been carved with graffiti of the soldiers who cut them out.

Some locations go down a few steps, while others go up and small holes seem to have been dug through the roof of the tunnels.

It's definitely best to get away from the front of the tunnels, where the bombing is still going on. There are wounded to be seen to and secured from bleeding out, people to find to make sure everyone is still alive. Maybe you want to go farther into the interweaving tunnels to see what else can be recovered. Or maybe you're being stubbornly sensible and looking for a way to dig your way out again, once the bombs stop firing.

Either way, it's a long, exhausting wait in the dark as the ground shakes, showering dust and rocks over everyone.

INTO THE DAWN

The sun has risen when the firing stops - and it's time to search for a way out of here.

Stepping into the light reveals utter destruction. The concentrated bombing has done its work; everything is strewn or buried in dirt and rubble. Machine guns are overturned and parts of the Trench have collapsed; going over the top would be disastrous, given that the Turks have no idea what is happening and will pick off anyone who sticks their head up.

There also isn't...anyone else around. All that's left is this one segment of the rear guard, just 500 men and the COST soldiers. It isn't possible to discern if the other groups have been evacuated or killed at this point.

It's time to consolidate, count their losses, see who is alive and who isn't, and salvage what supplies are left after some digging clean up is done. Work out who needs to stand watch. For now, Captain Lewis' orders are to use the tunnels as a new base of operations.

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES

They appear first as a shimmer of off-light, no more than a haze against the resettling mist. A faint shape against the grey - the long lines of a dog's face, almost Jackal-like, in a clean black uniform that gives more to the appearance of shadows - moves closer, but not too close. They could almost be a trick of the light, out of the corner of your eye. Almost intangible.

They're not moving closer, however, choosing to hang back in the rubble of the Trenches. The ANZAC soldiers don't seem to notice them at all.

Ten minutes after they're first spotted, Commander Grothia issues a priority message:

Contact. Regency soldiers. Do not engage.

If a shot does get fired that way, whether it's from Turkish or ANZAC soldiers unknowingly or from COST operatives: it's quick but, as the bullet seems to come into contact with them, the air around them shimmers blue, like it's hitting a field of light. This effect seems to be stronger when they're standing close together and, as of now, they remain unhurt.

Moving closer to them increases that feeling of mind fog on powered characters; for the unmagical, a sense of unease prickles up. It's a feeling not unlike the beginnings of the time-step, the hum of sensation that marks a transfer through time. Veteran recruits will easily recognize the buzz that dances through their bones before it stills as they move away; rookies might recall it from their initial arrival from BASE.

READ THE OOC INFOPAGE.

NAV. NETWORK LOGS OOC MEMES PLURK

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[In other circumstances, Chiron would be helping get those injured from the battlefield and to the tunnels. However, the presence of the magic-numbing mist has set every part of him off and made him much more cautious about spending energy that he might require later.

He is staying close to one of the tunnel entrances (there's a tarp over it, Chiron can keep his contact with the stuff to a minimum) when he hears someone yelling for help.

Chiron can see what's going on. Mist be damned, he starts to head over, moving swiftly in order to get himself back to cover as quickly as possible. Once he's within an acceptable visibility range, he waves a hand over his head in Rey's direction, rather than call out.]

[Relief floods her when someone listens, when someone takes the risk and steps out into the carnage with her. She's starting to believe in the good that can exist in people thanks to the men and women in the Resistance who have been fighting so hard against the First Order, risking everything for peace, but there's still parts of her that doubt.

For so long she only saw the worst in people because that's exactly what they showed her. Selfishness, hate, anger. There was no room to help anyone on Jakku, so no one asked for it there. No one would have ever gotten it, no matter how much they shouted and pleaded. She'd never learned to ask for help.

But as Chiron comes over she remembers him from the trenches, the water, and she isn't surprised.]

Take him. [The soldier in her arms already, the one who will be easy to transfer over.] I'll get the other one.

[The soldier is already reaching an arm out for Chiron, more than happy to be helped by someone he isn't a good foot taller than.]

Understood.

[Chiron has very little problem in helping the other man over, but then decides that there's a far faster way to move through everything. He says something, and then turns around.

It is not a dignified piggyback ride. Chiron's aware that he can't speed himself along as quickly as he'd like, and the battlefield itself makes slow going even slower. But he moves with purpose, eyes always ahead, intent on making the trip, or else being able to pass the gentleman along to someone else who can complete the journey.]

[With her soldier passed off it lets Rey lean down to dig the other one out of the rubble and despite the temptation to just use the Force and lift the rocks off him, she saves the energy for the emergency she knows has to be just around the corner. Nothing here has been going right and if it means digging a man out of the earth with her hands, she'll do it.

It's not all that different from digging a ship out of the sand, and if she thinks of it in terms like that it becomes a little easier to ignore his cries of pain when the rocks shift, his begging. It takes a long time to get him freed enough to pull him to his feet, but once she has she takes a page from Chiron's book and gets the man to lay across her back.

They look funny, his long legs out in front of her while Rey runs him back to the mouth of the cave, but he's at least smart enough to not complain about it. Once she reaches Chiron she looks right at him, ready for the argument.]

I'm going back out. If you help it'll be faster, but I'm not going to beg you. You can help the rest of these men get inside more if you can't come back out.

[Chiron gets the gentleman Rey thrust into his care back to the mouth of the tunnels in quick time, but when he turns, he has to stop and admire the dedication. It speaks volumes of someone if they will use bare hands to dig through hell on earth, in in that moment, Rey has his respect.

When she returns, he doesn't intend to argue. But he does have to explain himself.]

I can do the latter. There are...[He pauses to find the right words.] That mist earlier created complications on my end. Please understand that has placed limits on me.

[She can't blame him for that, not when she feels the way the mist is getting to her as well, and she wonders just how powerful he is if he can't stand to be out in it for long. It's not pity, but she gets it, so she just nods and helps the man on her back down, transfers him carefully over to Chiron.]

I'm not going to ask anyone to do things they can't do. It's just going to get everyone into more trouble if people are pushing themselves to do things they shouldn't be doing.

[That's a pot, kettle, black situation, but she isn't thinking of herself right now.]

Just do what you can do. That's all anyone can ask.

[If Rey had asked, then his response would have been simple. Chiron is entirely made of magic. That stuff ate at the core of him, like acid threatening dissolve from the skin inward.]

Keep bringing them here then. I will take over their safety once you have.

[It works, and it is a way of ensuring survival of all involved without bringing additional risk upon his head. It's infuriating to even have to think like that for Chiron, but...these are painfully unique circumstances.]

[It's a good plan, though. Having someone else from COST at the mouth of the tunnels to pass men to rather than other, ordinary soldiers, it feels a little-

Safer. She doesn't know why, but it just does and it makes her task go easier.

She brings him two more before she has to stop for a breath, a little grey around the edges from the effort of using the Force to keep herself and the soldiers in the field safe, and she gives him an exhausted smile as she leans up against the wall of the cave.]

You don't still have that water, do you?

[Chiron's quick to move whoever comes his way into the tunnels, and he lingers there for as long as plausible until Rey brings back some other unfortunate soul who's been wounded in all of this nonsense.

It's exhausting work on top of an already exhausting day. So when Rey takes a break, Chiron's glad for it. Wordlessly, he passes over a canteen of water, the question of where he might have recovered it from being something he's not going to discuss at the moment.]

[Just like before she drinks exactly as much as she needs and no more, hands it back to him right after.]

How are you doing? The mist, is it still bothering you?

It's...improved, down here. Not entirely better, but improved somewhat.

[Chiron pauses, then looks around both up and down the tunnel corridor. He does it while taking the water back, and fastening it back to the belt he had it swinging from.]

Is anyone coming?

[She closes her eyes and thinks of Luke, the way he'd told her to reach out through the Force, and this time her hands stay at her side while she stretches her mind out towards the battlefield.

It's clear, for now. There's the heavy feeling of death and no life there, the cycle too new for life to spring up from the loss of that very same thing. It makes her want to cry, but she swallows thickly and shakes her head.]

We're safe, for now.

Good. Excuse me for a moment.

[Chiron stands still for a moment, then begins to fade. There is him, and then there is a flickering of gold dust, and then there is nothing at all where the space he filled used to be.

He's still there, still next to Rey, but this form is so much easier than human form right now. It takes less energy to sustain.]

[Well.

That's certainly different. When she closes her eyes and feels for him again she finds him, though, and her eyes open back up while she frowns at the empty space he was in.]

No wonder the mist was making you tired.

[Answering in this form is well, not actually possible. But the way the gold dust flickers back into the low light, how it bounces slowly as if nodding does confirm Rey's statement.

Chiron knows that the form is hardly conducive to conversation, but he just need another minute or two. For him, it's a matter of resource management.]

[She actually smiles a little in wonder when the dust seems to glimmer to answer her, and only just manages not to reach out to touch.

That might be weird, like she's putting her hand inside him, and no one needs that.]

That isn't a bad idea, actually. I can tell you if anyone's coming.

[But she takes a seat, back against the stone wall of the save and closes her eyes again. She's learned that meditation helps her restore lost energy, that she can pull the Force back into herself to recharge, and if that's what he's doing anyway there's no reason for her not to take advantage of this chance.

So it's just her and a little gold dust cloud meditating in a cave in a war.

That's... probably fine, right?]

[It...isn't, actually. Chiron's just a consciousness at the moment, aware but lacking the ability to communicate. Manifesting costs energy, energy that he simply can't spare at the moment.

There is a little bit of a response to her assurance of sharing the news of approach from anyone, but Chiron's not worried about that either. He won't be seen unless the Regency is in the tunnels.

What he appreciates the most is that the silence is companionable. There's a shared understanding of strain, and that quiet is the best way to resolve it. So Chiron doesn't breach it, even after he feels he can risk manifesting again.

He does that only after some time has passed. How long is impossible to say. Time in the tunnels doesn't seem to work properly. The space is liminal. Between.

And terrifyingly so.

Once he has form again, he is simply seated next to Rey's left, back against the wall, legs sticking straight out.]

[It's odd, but she feels the shift when he becomes solid again, when she realizes he's sitting next to her, and when she opens her eyes and turns her head to find him she isn't surprised to see him sitting just there.

She doesn't look startled, or afraid. Just gently curious and far more at ease than she's felt in days.]

What are you?

[But it's asked with that same sense of wonder, not accusing. She really wants to know.]

A spirit.

[It is a simple response. Reductive, a little, but the most straight forward explanation.]

I rely on magic to manifest, which is why that mist presents such a problem.

[She appreciates the simplicity of the answer, though. Spirits are not a new concept to her, but-]

There were people on the planet I grew up on who believed that one of the spirits they worshiped took the form of a sandstorm that blew over the desert. They called it her rage, but if it weren't for the storms new ships would never be uncovered for them to salvage from.

[It's a cycle, just like the one Luke had shown her how to feel through the Force, she's realizing. Everything really is connected.]

Are you that kind of spirit?

[Are you a god, bro?]

What you have described to me is what we'd call a god back home. A spirit, most commonly, is understood to be the soul of someone who's passed. In my case, it's more complicated, but I can promise you, I'm no god.

[He's related though to one, and has interacted with them enough.]

Well that's good, then. I don't think you'd be as easy to talk to if you were.

[Of course, he's still died and that isn't exactly a fun thing to consider. He's too young for it to have been a death of old age, so it was either sickness or fighting or a terrible accident, and that alone is enough to make her frown faintly.]

How long have you been dead?

Between my time and when I was initially summoned? A few thousand years, give or take.

[He says it easily enough, even though death via poison had not been the best way to go. Those were private details, and it's easier to talk about more recent ones.]

Prior to appearing here, I had been summoned into a different time period, and so my calculation of the matter reflects that. COST's use of time and space sort of makes the question of when irrelevant.

[She sort of hums her acceptance of that, a soft hmm while she leans her head back against the stone wall again.

It makes as much sense as any of the other impossible things that seem to have been thrown together when it comes to COST members, so why not a thousand year old ghost?]

Are you going to be alright now that you've had time to rest?

It should see me through for the next several hours, at the very least.

[There's something extraordinary here, and it's that Rey isn't asking a deluge of questions. Chiron's come to accept that in saying what he is, he must explain all backstory or else leave his conversation companion slightly lost.

He is enjoying the novelty of not explaining.]

And I apologize that I could not be a more active force in your rescues. You did admirably.

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