OPERATION SEXY MARIO: CONCLUSION

[initiates]

Date & Time: Sept 19th
Location: The UE Holding Compound, and surrounding area.
Characters: Anyone being rescued, doing the rescuing, or doing the distracting.
Summary: There have been some slackers freeloading off the UE for the past couple weeks or so, so let's go drag them home.
Warnings: Likely violence! Let a mod know if we should update this.

Those meant for distraction and those meant for rescue alike are both loaded onto the same stolen highspeed train. It's a great distance to cover, but the train manages in just under two hours, and deposits both groups three miles from the Holding Compound — a desolate and cold area, with rocky, uneven ground, small but jagged hills well-scattered and covered in scraggly trees — and there they part ways.

The diversion is sent away north, to draw United Earth attention and aggression upward, further into the continent, while the rescue team takes a much slower and quieter route to approach the Compound from the south, closest to Exsilium. The rescue team's orders are to wait a full half hour, to be sure that all forces who can be drawn out of the Compound to meet the sudden onslaught from the north will have already left.

The diversion team won't have an easy job of it. The soldiers are heavily armed, and trained to fight to the death before they surrender. They're grouped in organized squadrons, about 20 in each, and seem to outnumber Transports by three to one. Scattered throughout these soldiers are the Masked, the UE's special forces. These soldiers strike with a deadly precision, enhanced speed and strength, and highly advanced weaponry. Also, oddly enough, they seem to have a few smaller members among them, standing about 4 feet tall, and wielding strange powers… Those familiar with the powers of their kidnapped friends may see distinct similarities.

The Compound itself, when the rescue team makes their way in, will be very quiet. All prisoners had been forced into locked rooms (together or separately — whatever was most convenient) before the soldiers had left to face the encroaching threat. There are still personnel left to man the base, of course, and a few of them are armed soldiers — but for the most part it's scientists and researchers. Careful, though. Even scientists and researchers are perfectly capable of sounding the alarm to bring back the armed threats.

Once everyone is out of the Compound, the train will begin running a return trip. It will be kept as long as possible, while the distraction teams sneak back from the battlefield in small groups, but it can't wait forever. Those on the battlefield for the longest, the hardest hitters or the most dedicated fighters, might just have to find another way home. So… any Transports with relocation abilities feel like lending a hand?

Comments

[controlledvariable]

I can't argue that. [and she doesn't want to] C'mon.

[She eases her hold on Ellie just enough to tug her towards the side of the carriage, finding them a spot to curl up in for the trip home.]

[reconnaissance]

Captain of the debate team.

( Just throwing that back out there. Of course Steph can't argue with her, she's the queen of arguments. Obediently enough she tags along, flopping down onto the ground and just relieved that it's not going to be any part of the compound when she opens her eyes. )

[controlledvariable]

You're never gonna let that go, are you?

[But she sounds fond, and there's no hesitation in the way she wraps her arms around Ellie, pressing a kiss to her cheek.]

[reconnaissance]

Would I be me if I did?

( Thankful, she leans against Steph, fingers gripping, curled into the material of her clothes, matching the kiss, and resting her head on Steph's shoulder. )

[controlledvariable]

[It's too soon for jokes like that, and she can't help cling a little tighter, pressing her face against Ellie's hair and saying nothing. She just needs the reassurance of her presence.]

[reconnaissance]

( Ellie murmurs a quiet apology, hugs Steph closer, happy enough to lapse into silence. Eventually, though, she does speak up: ) I knew you'd get us.

( As much as felt awful, wanted to find her own way out, she knew Steph was smart enough to put it together. ) I was working on a way out, but you beat me to it.

( Teasing, just gently, but trying to reassure. She was okay. It sucked, but it was okay. )

[controlledvariable]

[She's grateful for those words, though she lets her own silence linger for a moment longer before working out what she wants to say.]

Did you see the bats?

[The ones she left, carved into the walls and ceiling.]

[reconnaissance]

'Course.

( Nudging Steph gently with her chin, before tucking her face against Steph's neck. ) You're a bloody vandal, you know that?

( Thank you. )

[controlledvariable]

I tried to draw a kangaroo for you, but I couldn't get the tail right.

[You're welcome.]

[reconnaissance]

Maybe that's why there aren't any Australian vigilantes - all our animals are too complicated.

( A bit of a grin, Steph might feel it on her skin, though Ellie is still holding on pretty tight. )

[controlledvariable]

And they don't sound real threatening. [she nudges Ellie's cheek with her nose.] Except the spiders.

[reconnaissance]

Platypus Girl would be amazing. Her cowl could have a visor beak thing.

( Super threatening. ) I think they'd be villains, to be honest. Funnelweb, yeah?

( Slowly, she starts to relax a little. This is better. ) Redback, maybe.

[controlledvariable]

Would she be poisonous?

[It's such a relief to hear Ellie joking, after being so scared that she might be completely broken by this.]

We do have a Tarantula back home.

[reconnaissance]

Oh, yeah. But deceptively cute.

( A little bit of a grin. ) I'd be more worried about the wombats, honestly. They aren't poisonous, but they can do a lot of damage to you, if they charge.

( Guess who has had to run away from a charging wombat



yep.

And she's not about to stand up and do a comedy routine, but-- you gotta keep each other going. It was what she had to do back home, too. She can't just drag Steph down, not after everything, even if it feels like frost has sunk into her bones, like she keeps waiting for Robyn and Colonel Harvey.

It's better to be joking about it. ) What do they do? Eat birds?

[controlledvariable]

Kinda like you, then?

[Deceptively cute, she means.

And she laughs, quiet and warm, at the mental image of Ellie running away from a wombat, because you bet that's where her thoughts went.]

She kills people, mostly.

[sad trombone]

[reconnaissance]

What? I'm terrifying. ( Don't ruin her dream.

Ah. Ellie sighs, kind of sad, because bats don't kill, but war has turned Steph into the same thing as her. And she wonders if Steph is any good at cutting her the same slack that she cut Ellie, or if she's hung up on all the things she's told Ellie over the past few months. Batman, Oracle and the rest. )

Her name's pretty factually inaccurate, then. ( But it's not a joke, really, pulling back enough that she can rest her forehead against Steph's, tapping the side of her jaw. )

[controlledvariable]

You're incredibly terrifying.

[Very much a yes dear tone of voice.

She doesn't miss that sigh, and wishes she'd found something else to say but she can't take it back, now. Her eyes close, as she rests her head against Ellie's, exhaling slowly.]

Sometimes a little leeway is good. Wouldn't want me to be eating bugs.

[reconnaissance]

Don't forget it. ( NOT LIKE ELLIE IS GOING TO BE RANDOMLY DISAPPEARING AND THUS BECOMING FORGETTABLE ANY TIME SOON...

sob. )

Or turning into Dracula.

( What, Ellie. Yeah, okay. She's trying to get Steph's mind off it. )

laughing because once in another game she got called lady dracula

[controlledvariable]

I would never.

[Even with random disappearances.

Weh.]

I can't promise that.

[Which is, of course, accompanied by Steph twisting so she can gently bite the side of Ellie's neck.

She's a mature adult.]

excellent

[reconnaissance]

Hey.

( Excuse you, Miss Brown. She is relieved that Steph could make that joke, even if it feels wrong, on some level, to be joking. It's always been the coping method though, hasn't it? Like they're joking or their tearing each other apart. At least, that's the way it was in Hell. )

I have a strict no-vampire dating policy.

[controlledvariable]

That's racist.

[No it's not.

She nuzzles Ellie's jaw.]

[reconnaissance]

You're an idiot.

( She loves it. ) I got rescued by an idiot.

[controlledvariable]

But your idiot.

[Whatever Ellie.

Whatever.]

[reconnaissance]

Oh, great.

( It is pretty great, actually. )

Thanks for getting me. ( A bit more seriously, just because-- Steph took risks, and she didn't have to come get her. Not when Ellie is capable of getting out by herself, when there are so many people who needed to be grabbed, when there were other people coming in. ) I owe you one.

[controlledvariable]

No you don't. [She pauses in nuzzling Ellie's jaw, presses a kiss against her cheek isntead.] You'd have done the same for me.

[So Ellie doesn't owe her.]