GROUP 3: SO I OPEN MY DOOR TO MY ENEMIES—

[dipolar]

WHO? group three, see below links.
WHAT? hrhr: retreat missions.
WHEN? february 9th, you're here forever.
ANYTHING ELSE? planning and submissions.

CHARACTERS WILL ENCOUNTER THESE OBSTACLES:

—Locating the base and arriving without interference by the Turks or the Regency.
—Getting at least one person past the soldiers and into the base.
—Scouting the base and locating Atatürk without causing an incident.
—Handling soldiers who might interfere with attempts to reach Atatürk.
—Combating any Regency soldiers assigned undercover to the Turkish side.
—If anyone is captured by Turkish or Regency soldiers, you'll have to stage a rescue.
—Successfully gaining an audience with Atatürk and acquiring amnesty.
—Returning to Lone Pine in one piece.

RAISING THE DEAD AND SCOUTING, 18/30
yoshitsugu otani, dorian pavus, jon snow, jeyne westerling, sebastian michaelis, ashitaka, hei, noctis lucis caelum, chiron

"Raising the dead and scouting goes well, if not smoothly. You have to dodge enemy combatants the whole way, and it's a little hard to get the intel and supplies you need when you're also trying not to get shot. Somehow, you manage it! Probably through the power of positive thinking. And murder."

—chiron and hei do an initial scout to map out the turkish base and find entry points
—hei stresses that everyone stays with at least one other person so as to not get separated/held hostage
—yoshitsugu uses his spell to raise the dead for an hour to gather information about the turkish base/plans
—yoshitsugu experiences convulsions as a result of using the spell and dorian will use his revival spell on him to help him recover
—entire group stops to plan out specific teams and what they’ll been doing, team a and b are born
—sebastian recounts the letters he found in the tunnels verbatim to the group, mostly sharing the atatürk part
—entire group decides that non-lethal action is to be taken, so they can easily discuss terms with atatürk without killing his men
—noctis and jeyne act as contacts between their separate teams to keep information fresh and to relay important updates
—jon provides the bottom halves of turkish uniforms so their disguises can be put together; they steal the top halves from the dead soldiers yoshitsugu has raised because we're here to demean literally everybody

COMBAT WITH THE REGENCY, 13/30
hei, noctis lucis caelum, chiron, sebastian michaelis, ashitaka

"Combat is where things get difficult. While nobody dies, a few characters are seriously injured. You can decide who and how. Likewise, if you have anybody due for a kidnapping, now would be a good time. But, essentially, this is a close call. You lose ground to the enemy, some ANZAC soldiers might get caught in the crossfire, some precious resources may be lost! Your choice, but something goes to shit."

—chiron using magical detection to weed out the regency agents and the entirety of team b engages the three regency soldiers in combat
—hei uses his ability to shock memory out of the people who may have spotted them using their powers, with the exception of regency soldiers
—noctis will be using warp-strike takedowns to reduce their chances of detection, as they're near-silent and an instantaneous skill
—ashitaka gets kidnapped by the first of the undercover regency agents somewhere in the middle of this because he's literally and figuratively cursed, leaving them down a group member
—sebastian leaves team b and joins team a to fill ashitaka’s empty diplomat position, because he can do anything and likes to show off
—yoshitsugu avoids his kidnapping somewhere in the middle of this, with chiron on rescue duty to facedown the second undercover regency agent
—dorian will use blood magic in a desperate attempt to save himself from capture from the third undercover regency agent

ACTUAL DIPLOMACY, 16/30
yoshitsugu otani, dorian pavus, jon snow, jeyne westerling, sebastian michaelis

"Actual diplomacy is terse, if only because it feels difficult to get a foothold. Atatürk gives little away, and is very quiet and cautious in his delegations. He doesn't fill you with confidence. But in the end, he does come around, admitting to seeing your point. He'll do what he can to call a cease fire."

—team b attempts to come to an agreement and work things out with atatürk
—yoshitsugu attempts to talk atatürk down from a strategical point of view, "there's no sense in attacking when your enemy is already retreating"
—jeyne uses the locket to take the stance of women missing their husbands and lovers, as well as their children having no fathers; she's especially good at calming people when tempers run hot, as well as appealing on more personal levels
—jon speaks with atatürk on a personal level: "no more men have to die - i know you've watched your countrymen fall, i know everyone values bravery, we do too, but these deaths mean less and less when no one is fighting anymore”
—dorian has a gift for politics and has sat in on war counsels and engaged in political debates, making him approach this from a political angle
—if things start going badly, yoshitsugu will use his guilt spell to sway atatürk to their side of the discussion

Comments

RAISING THE DEAD AND SCOUTING, 18/30

[dipolar]

yoshitsugu otani, dorian pavus, jon snow, jeyne westerling, sebastian michaelis, ashitaka, hei, noctis lucis caelum, chiron

COMBAT WITH THE REGENCY, 13/30

[dipolar]

hei, noctis lucis caelum, chiron, sebastian michaelis, ashitaka

ACTUAL DIPLOMACY, 16/30

[dipolar]

yoshitsugu otani, dorian pavus, jon snow, jeyne westerling, sebastian michaelis

Initial scouting with Hei; lmk if anything needs to be changed

[horsepowered]

It made sense to offer to scout the base and find potential points of entry. Save for an enmasse number of Regency soldiers, doing so would be a perfectly simple thing. All that was needed was for Chiron to slip into his spirit form and to move around, happily undetected and covering ground as quickly as possible.

It was an even better way to focus on the restoration of his mana levels. The contract he had made earlier nearly put Chiron back to what he was used to and expected, but there was no doubt in his mind that he would need energy for later. Best to do the light work in spirit mode now.

As far as who he was to work with, Chiron raised no protest and only focused on moving parallel to the other operative in question.

Raising the dead; initially open to all relevant folk!

[hakanai]

The time spent chasing an ill-meaning necromancer in that deep, sprawling labyrinth had been an... interesting break from this mission. Dangerous, educational and far away from any kind of disease, it had nonetheless been almost nice to leave the alien stonework behind just so he could take a breath of fresh surface air. When back at base Yoshitsugu is going to have to write a rather long report about his time facing the ghosts that had wrapped their hands around his throat, pulled at his hair and made very 'spirited' efforts to kill him and his bewildered partner, Takatora; now he's back to very human threats, depression and a more visceral danger that make those initial precious lungfuls of cool air in his lungs an almost distant memory.

Covered in mud and hidden away very temporarily from the enemy, Yoshitsugu sits with his back to an uncomfortable wall and hums thoughtfully. The memories have their use here. They've reminded him of something that might make this difficult mission a little easier.

"I can raise a spirit to obtain information from."

It's brought up to his comrades out of nowhere, injected into the conversation with an almost strange kind of calmness. Yoshitsugu doesn't show discontent very easily and there's none visible in his demeanour as he looks between them right now, but he is solemn and serious.

"It will be the nearest dead person to myself, so let's make sure we choose the right body..." He closes his eyes slowly. "As I can only do this once and it will likely make me horribly ill."

[cutlery]

[ Making their plans were easy enough, but now comes the part that's far more difficult: actually doing it. Technically speaking, it's not unreasonable as far as plans go, but the terrain and the other limitations they're facing make the trek much more troublesome than it might otherwise be. And really, it's only one of those limitations that bothers Sebastian. He can't complain about it, since it's perfectly logical to take a non-lethal approach when you're trying to sway someone to your side, but... It does make this part much more difficult. ]

a. en route
[ But at least so far, so good. With the uniforms they have, they're able to make a stealthier approach. Sometimes they only get passing glances, and that's enough for them to be accepted as belonging there. It's what they need, considering even with the uniforms, they largely stand out among the Turkish soldiers. They're traveling in smaller groups to not draw as much attention, but it's inevitable that it'll come. As they walk by a soldier, he pauses, then looks back at the pair as they pass. ]

Wait, you there—

[ From the suspicion in his tone, it's clear that he recognizes that they don't really belong here. At this point, Sebastian looks to his companion and nods lightly. It goes unspoken, but the intention of the gesture is clear enough:

Shall we? ]

b. ruh roh
[ But once there's one difficulty, the others become much more frequent. It seems like a small group of the soldiers are aware that there might be people here that don't belong, though how they've figured that out isn't clear just yet. There's a murmur of concerned voices around a bend in the trench, and Sebastian stops with a look of concern. ]

Ah... It seems they may know.

[ He speaks quietly, almost enough so that it could be missed. It's clear from how he had recounted the letter that he can understand Turkish, though now that might seem like a more valuable asset. The voices draw closer, and Sebastian looks to his current partner with a more serious expression. His tone stays hushed, but still serious. ]

This may be more difficult.

[ ooc ; just in case you're trying to decide which one to pick, prompt a is more stealth-oriented and one-on-one confrontations, and prompt b is a group and much more likely for sebastian to demonstrate his superhuman abilities if that's your jam. also if you prefer prose, I'm happy to match! ]

closed to hei + noctis

[cutlery]

[ Once Chiron has pointed out those Regency soldiers, the pace of the fight drastically changes. It's one thing to be careful because there's an advantage to doing so, but it's another entirely when faced with the real enemy that they're supposed to be fighting. It's clear that these are people not to be trifled with, and that's what makes the prospect of chasing one of them down immediately exciting to Sebastian. This, as far as he's concerned, is what he's well-suited to do. Since they've all come together, he nods to Hei and Noctis, since (presumably) he's seen both of them holding their own by now. ]

Well, we should take care of them first, yes? We can clear the way for those of us proceeding on to Atatürk.

[ He nods in the direction of one of the soldiers that had been indicated. They have at least a little ground in between, but not for long. That closest soldier seems to be heading their way, but Sebastian doesn't seem too alarmed about that fact. He's confident, since what could really hurt a demon? Even if they're using a miasma to dull those powers, it's not nearly as marked as in their own trenches.

And that's exactly why he's going to get wrecked for being arrogant tbh ]

[fessus]

[ Back in the tunnels Noctis had felt like he was running on fumes and what a difference it is now, fueled by the same disgusting food and plagued with the same lack of sleep but now there's the powerful addition of combat adrenaline. The muscle memory associated with fighting with an end goal in mind offers him renewed energy.

Even still, hearing that? Well, Noctis is overly confident in his own skills possibly to a fault but he's also critically aware of not only their most recent briefing, but also of his limitations and the magic dampening they'd encountered before. ]

No other way out of this but to fight? Fine with me if we have to, just wanna' exhaust the other options first...

THIS IS PERFECT, BLESS

[dipolar]

Hei can adapt to anything, anyone, and Chiron isn't much of a surprise. He hasn't spoken to him personally since the rooftops of Paris and it seems a bit nostalgic now despite only being a couple of months ago.

Adjusts his rifle, fingers remaining hooked beneath the strap, "Going straight through would make us target practice. Rey and I scouted down the hills in a flank left." Gestures the maneuver with a flat hand, sweeping down the side of a small rocky summit and low across the small section of no man's land.

"Well-populated with soldiers, then, but they've likely thinned out since last month."

[dipolar]

(hei shakes the cold out of his hands and offers a tactiturn nod. violence is, of course, a very large part of their mission. gentle takedowns or not, people are bound to die — but that's what they're here for as soldiers in a war. they're here to incapacitate or kill. he can manage both and the group's decided on a no-kill run. so that's how he'll operate.)

Non-lethal only. (and the bayonet he stripped from a dead soldier's gun joins the one he's held onto for this long month, preserving his bullets for later.) If any of us makes Regency contact, we let the team know and coordinate. Understood?

(it's crucial they stick together. for reasons beyond his team's knowledge, which makes the paranoia claw at the back of his neck.)

[dipolar]

Just jogging back from his and Chiron's scouting, Hei huffs a momentary exhaustion and lags in step when he nears them, catching enough of the conversation to get the gist of what's going on. It's enough, really. Something about raising a dead guy with ludicrous magic and Yoshitsugu becoming a potential liability.

"Hey," leaning over a bit to catch his breath before motioning to the corpses littering the section of land. "It'd be wise — to choose one whose throat is intact. No damage to face or neck."

They need someone who can actually hold a conversation, not gurgle insults at them for an ANZAC grenade leaving him with half a jaw.

"What do you mean by 'horribly ill'? Do you mean for us to leave you behind?"

then let's get dangerous

[horsepowered]

It is a disadvantage to have to take form to speak, but there is no one around to see the sudden form change. As a result of that factor and only that factor, Chiron is suddenly beside Hei, his only focus being strategy.

"I'd feel more comfortable if we double checked that assumption before making use of it."

Chiron's eyes remained dead ahead, considering.

"It is possible for me to move on ahead to confirm or deny that that summit has thinned out, as well as to see where else it may lead. If it is entrances we seek, it'd be an advantage to locate as many as possible."

[dipolar]

There's a knee-jerk reaction when Chiron appears, tensing bodily if only for a moment. Instincts rule his body and logic rules his mind, so it's quickly remedied with a thought to how useful the ability will be — especially for the purposes the man outlines succinctly.

Hei, appreciating his forward sense, nods once. "Understood. I'll follow to the summit of this hill to get a bit of an overhead view. Signal and I'll play catch up."

He has some reservations about the entrances. The path of least resistance will be hard to find amongst an army of men, but they're struggling with the last legs of this war and they're just getting started. Years versus months— they have a staggering upper-hand, even outnumbered as they are.

"We can compile our initial findings and move forward if there's an opening. Otherwise, we'll have to make one."

[horsepowered]

Chiron, for his part, ignores the sudden tension. It's natural enough, no one is used to Heroic Spirits appearing suddenly unless they're in the middle of a Grail War. Even then, the matter can still be a surprise.

"My assumption is that there will be at least one way in that we can make use of. Being forced to make one will only draw eyes to us, and complicate matters."

That seemed a light way of putting it, complicate matters. It would flip everything on it's head is what it would do.

"In theory, this will take ten minutes at maximum. Acceptable?"

[cutlery]

Of course. By what we have heard, I would imagine the Regency would very much like for our progress to be hindered, if not stopped all together.

[ So it's little surprise to him that they're present and wishing to block the way forward. Technically, he's surprised that there aren't more, but that's at least something to their benefit. Relatively speaking, at least. Though it would be much easier to be more deadly, in his opinion. It's more difficult to hold back, especially when it's sometimes hard to judge just how fragile humans can be. At least in that respect, it serves as a reminder to temper his own enthusiasm. ]

Recommendations for how to approach? It would be wise to use whatever surprise we have left, and personally, I can move in rather quickly. [ A pause, and after a moment's thought on how practical it would be to be more honest, he decides to add: ] It cannot guarantee it, as I have not faced them myself, but they may find it more difficult to seriously injure me. Conventionally, human weapons cannot harm me.

CLOSED— DORIAN AND HEI'S TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, NO GOOD, VERY BAD DAY

[dipolar]

Hei's been hovering by their Team A's entrance into the Turk base for a while now with the other combatants who've spread further out into the trenches to nip the approaching forces in the bud. Loathe as he is to uproot, he hears a struggle from the far exit, a familiar voice that spoke tranquility into him when he was experiencing a crisis of self— Dorian, engaging the enemy? His first thought is that the man's more than capable of taking care of the target himself.

Curiosity, however, killed the cat. His area is clear and he leaves it unoccupied in a low sprint down the line of a trench with a very grim setting of his jaw. The closer he gets to checking on the situation, the more dire it sounds. Not good, considering the known amount of Regency soldiers left to the Turkish team is a number they don't know and one peek over the edge of the mud-and-rock wall of the veritable gutter of bodies Hei stands in is enough to confirm it: Dorian needs assistance.

The Regency's struck.

He's up and over the wall in less than a second, whipping the barrel of his rifle up with three shots aimed at the soldier's chest — missing, of course, but he wasn't intending to hit so much as distract with a dark look down the sight, slapping the lever to reload it, firing another three shots with a steady walk forward.

"Hey—" a jam in his gun, no bullets left in the damn thing, hastily unscrewing the bayonet from the end with deft fingers, "you alright?"

[northerndragon]

Jon can't fairly argue what he would have when he was a younger man, which is that an attempt to raise the dead with magic is ridiculous and a waste of time that they can't afford. He knows now that such things exist, both inside and outside of COST: he's living proof of it, though what's being proposed now doesn't sound like something that the resurrected man is likely to walk away from. And so far, Yoshitsugu doesn't strike him as being prone to empty boasts.

"How long will we have to question him? And how long do you think your illness will last?" The question is serious, and not without concern for Yoshitsugu himself.

It may be that at least some of them will have to find a way to hide for a while until their comrade in arms recovers.

CLOSED— https://i.imgur.com/XbCz5VG.gif

[dipolar]

(he didn't abandon his team, an odd realization for hei as he lies back in the mud and wishes the BCE would just let him die like he's damn well supposed to. he's familiar with how close of a call this is, he can feel the device sustaining him at a bare minimum. it patches him up with the help of some backed up version of his body, awake, and alive. and god, it's painful.

watery eyes sting as he tries to access the network to contact someone for extraction, but his vision's too blurry to see the letters and whatever he manages to send to the last person he was in contact with is absolute gibberish. tries to speak to himself, call out to someone, only managing a pathetic rasp of something unintelligible and dizzied, a thick swallow of blood at the back of a dry throat.

when did he get out here? a turn of his head, cheek presses into soft ground, almost warm to a cold face. he's never felt so sick in his life, fingers still clawing at the cauterized hole in his uniform along plasma-blasted ribs that make his breaths in rattle wetly. experiencing acute blood loss is a day to day, but nothing beyond a level that would kill him without the BCE's suspension. in return for his eventual survival, however, thoughts are diced up as finely as the regency soldier dropped next to him. time's immaterial and impossible to gauge when he can't tell which direction his eyes are dragging in in an attempt to gather his bearings.

fuck, it's a lot. it's too much. he doesn't know if his friends are alright and no one warned them of the consequences of venturing out by themselves. that's on him, that's his fault, the fault of his superiors for refusing to warn anyone or help anyone somehow — surely they could've.

where's noctis? where's m? are they strong enough to face agents him and dorian barely managed to topple? are they safe right now? he can't even check their vitals, eyes squeezing shut in his frustration as a desperate protest is choked out of him.)

[northerndragon]

To get to Ataturk, to have even a chance of a conversation that could stop the killing and get the remaining ANZAC soldiers out, the team bleeds.

There have been wounds so severe that it seemed like no one could survive them, yet they had. Ashitaka has vanished outright, and an attempt to establish his whereabouts via a BCE message failed in the same way that similar attempts to find others who have vanished have failed. That gives hope for the vanished in a general sense, but not a specific one, in that there's no hint of where they might now be. It's a subject that has to be set aside for later.

There have been less serious injuries, too, and definite hints of Regency interference, making a mission that had seemed hairy to begin with now seem like it stands on the edge of a knife. Even if they all managed to get past the Regency agents, there were still the ordinary -- and quite brave -- Turkish soldiers to deal with. Now, past that hurdle, there's the objective itself. The parts that nearly killed the lot of them were not the end, but the means, and the obstacles COST must overcome before even having a chance of reaching their eventual goal.

It's hard to say whether having five people trying to convince the Turkish general will be too many, or not enough, but they have to try.

Jon's mood, as he waits, is tense... not as miserable as it had been a little while earlier, though. His concern for Daenerys is a tight knot in his belly, but in an odd way, it's been slightly eased by the fact that Ashitaka has also vanished. The manner of it convinces him that it may be that they still live, and can still be found.

That, or they'll be a chain of bait for everyone who remains. He pushes that thought away as much as he can to focus on the task at hand.

"Is everyone ready? Think of anything you can that might help, but try not to insult them." Maybe that last bit isn't advice that any of them need, but it's still something he's seen go wrong in this sort of negotiation in the past.

[hakanai]

"A split throat won't matter... if the spell works as it says," Yoshitsugu says, closing his eyes for a moment. "It will be their spirit alone that is summoned, but the spirit of the nearest and most recently killed living being, specifically. For an hour at most."

Hopefully it should take nowhere near that amount of time; considering the circumstances it would be risky to spend more than ten minutes or so doing this. There's no way to be certain that what they'll learn will be hugely useful, after all.

But quietly, Yoshitsugu feels that it probably will be. The flow has pulled him towards this.

"No specified time on how long it will leave me unable to fight. All it notes is 'liable to send caster into convulsive fits' and nothing else. Nothing I haven't gone through before."

[dipolar]

"It's exactly that. An assumption." Hei offers benignly, "We'll have to do something, if there's no way in. Complicating matters or not, as we'll have to engage them in the future regardless."

Nods again, though, getting focused for the mission. This should be quick, silent, in and out.

"By your leave."

[fessus]

[ They haven't been separated for long but it feels like an eternity.

When they'd started traversing the No Man's Land to keep the way clear for the rest of their team Noctis had kept Hei within his sights. It'd been easy; they work well together and soldiers had fallen both quickly and quietly in response to their joint efforts. Communication had been smooth even if it hadn't necessarily been easy and contacts both on the combat side and with their other factor had stayed solid.

The first Regency soldier contact is what fractures their system. They were separated then with Noctis taking point to defend the diplomacy team's advance inside the base while Hei had been left to face the greater threat alone. And it had weighed on him while he was fighting, unable to afford distracted glances back to where he knows Hei is standing on his own even if the worry that blossoms in his chest is overwhelming.

It feels like far too long before he's able to seek Hei out, picking out his slumped figure in a barren landscape and feeling that dread jump into his throat with a vicious spike. His knees sink into mud as he drops down at his side, hands filthy with dirt and blood grasping for him with the fingers of one curling around the back of his neck, attempting to support him with a half-tug into his lap. ]

Fuck... Hei? Hei, I'm here, look at me--

[horsepowered]

"Very well."

Like that, Chiron has no form again. He moves forward by will and will alone, drifting through the physical world as only he can in this form. It is the greatest advantage he can offer right now, and this ability and the speed it provides offers an unparalleled way to make note of each entrance.

In the end, he finds four potential pathways in. One is clear, is obvious, is the most heavily guarded. The second is to the side, but frequented enough to earn watchful eyes and a clever trap along the path to it that can only inflict damage to those ignorant of the entrance's approach. Impossible to ask an entire group to move through. The third comes with hope, as only one man stands beside it and it is far out of the way, but the path that leads to it is longer and carries risks. Entrance four mirrors the problems of the third, combined with a path that has more men walking it.

None of it is ideal. But it is enough information to use, and so once Chiron is satisfied with his information, he returns to where Hei has been left. He manifests directly in front of the man, as not to startle him by appearing to one side, the other, or behind.

"There...is one viable option, from the looks of it."

[dipolar]

(more time passes and with his eyes closed, it feels like he's sinking into the mud. no one's coming for him, if he does. he's going to be forgotten here, location off on his BCE. why did he insist on keeping it private? it was so illogical and he'd kick himself but he can't move his legs more than a few inches, knees bending weakly, quaking hard with effort, before his heels slide and he's horizontal again.

so when noctis' voice reaches him with a lance of pain from being jostled — one that immediately winds him and flecks the backs of his eyelids with a blotted gold —, hei believes he's hallucinating. just for a moment, it's like hearing and feeling something fake, just one of the myriad delusions keeping him well past the threshold of insanity. the confusion from his blood loss helps the idea along, but hei obeys him and tries to open dark eyes with a woozy lag of a stare.

noctis. he's real, he's real, noctis is holding a soaked body steady and bloody lips part with a wavering sigh, relief making his throat tight.)

Noctis, Noctis— (thank god he's alright, thank god, but that means the danger's still there. fuck, dorian almost got stolen away out from under their noses and there's no more strength left in this group to fend off a worse attack,) can't be here, you need to go...

[fessus]

[ His eyes are immediately raking over Hei's form for signs of the damages done to him, seeing the tears in his clothing and resisting the urge to inspect further -- there's blood smeared over cloth and skin alike and the lighting is so, so poor. Fuck, how could he let this happen? Shit... shit... ]

I'm not going anywhere; don't give me that... [ Definitely not now, not after losing someone else. He sure as fuck isn't going to abandon Hei too. ]

That's not even an option, okay? I... I need to know if you can move. I can help you, I can carry you... What do you need?