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

[velveteened]

( the only thing weakening his knees is horror, indulged long enough already, so he nods after a moment. she'll have to let him down of course, but he can shift his own weight to make that a little easier to do. )

[anklets]

[Her reluctance is fierce, double that of his pause. But it's Oz's unease, not hers, which feeds the nervous fire in her belly, so that when she rips her eyes from the darkening of his sleeve, she does not set him down, after all.]

Then once we reach the train, [ the crunch of cooler gravel underfoot ] we're finding you some first aid, and then you will walk yourself to the first empty seat and stay there.

[velveteened]

( rearranges his weight when she doesn't let him down, but otherwise remains still and quiet. he doesn't nod, she might notice, and it's not immediately that he speaks up — not at all, in fact. )

I won't go anywhere. Once we reach the train, you can go back — I know there are still people you need to find.

[anklets]

Just one, and he's always required as firmer touch.

[Terse, and Lavi's doubtlessly in for hell to pay when they finally step into the Hold once more. She won't shy away from a public berating. Right now, though, her eyes and her arms hurt, and she has no time to think of blunt words.]

It isn't that I want to go back. Or to leave you tethered behind like a dog.

[velveteened]

I know. It's fine, Lenalee.

( might've laughed at another time, considering what lavi's in for, but that's impossible to summon now. he can wait, this time; every step away from the compound is only a reminder of how little he'd want to go back after tasting fresh air anyway. )

[anklets]

[It isn't fine. There is nothing acceptable into doing to him what she hates to have done to herself, and yet--

And yet.

She has no more words to dirty on the air until the train is before her, but rather than slow, Lenalee's gait picks up further. Enough time has been wasted, and that wound shall not close itself.]

Here, get on, get on.

[At least she's letting him down onto his own two feet, now.]

[velveteened]

( he only holds on to steady the transition onto his feet, nodding at her insistence — he is, he really is, and he can understand the worry but for once he'll listen. it may become apparently in the little ways, how he turns towards the train not without a backwards glance but certainly without the deliberate slowness that comes of expecting the other to follow.

she can go now, his posture says. he's expecting her to. )

[anklets]

[Amicable smiles have been prepared for this moment and she delivers them with aplomb, burying second-thoughts deep down. There's some colour yet left underneath all that pale.]

I won't be long. [ she'll have prettier words for him next time, promise ] Don't wait up for me.

[And she and her broken high heels wisp away.]