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

[substitutable]

A governess?

... Er, what year did you say you were from?

[affectate]

1882! I lived in a place not unlike Exsilium in terms of geography.

[substitutable]

That explains it. That's a pretty long time ago, huh?

Was it... well, did it have magic and things? You said you were a monster.

[affectate]

Yes, it is. My world does possess magic, although the level of technological advancement still appears to correspond to this place's at that time.

Regarding that, however... I suppose that, with regard to my place in society, it is best to refer to me as "cursed?" Such is not the case in this place, it seems, but most humans that approached me would suffer from the most dreadful hallucinations, and worse still if they were to make physical contact. I am a monster, because of my status as someone cursed by our gods.

[substitutable]

You were cursed?

... Why? That sounds kind of harsh.

[affectate]

I don't know. It's simply easiest to refer to my condition as a curse. Certainly, to be forced to live in such a way, my father or grandmother must have committed some crime.

[She just sort of. Shrugs vaguely.]

[substitutable]

Wow..

Wait. So you, like, cause people to freak out if you're nearby but it doesn't work here?

[affectate]

Yes, that's correct. In the lecture rooms at the university that I attend, for instance, I am confined to the topmost row, while the remainder of the class seats themselves at the very bottom.

[It's fine, mostly, except for the part where she can't actually read the boards from that far away. In math classes.]

[substitutable]

... That's rough.

You were okay with that?

[affectate]

I am in no position to mind so long as I am able to attend the lectures, but I'm unable to read the text written on the board from such a distance...

[substitutable]

That's a waste, then. If you want to learn, you should just sit wherever you want. Half those people you're attending the lecture with probably aren't paying attention anyway.

[affectate]

That is certainly true, but I would prefer to remain inconspicuous, at least in that setting. I'm satisfied simply being able to attend.

[substitutable]

Hmm...

If you say so. It must suck then that you're stuck here, huh?

[affectate]

There is so little to be done in this place. I would much rather be home.

[substitutable]

... Sorry to hear that.

Um. If you ever want to study anything, I'll help.

I mean, I can only get you materials saved from the library, but you know...

[affectate]

I am currently in the process of reading every book collected within the library, but... that is very kind of you, Shintaro. Thank you.

What do you enjoy studying?

[substitutable]

Nothing.

[So nonchalantly.]

I never needed to study. I'm just used to sticking around a couple of classmates whenever they had to study, so if you want to, I'll join you.

[affectate]

No, rather than that sort, what I mean to ask you is... what subjects do you enjoy?

[substitutable]

... I don't.

I hated school. I hated pretty much every single class I was in.

[affectate]

... Do you dislike everything, then?

[substitutable]

Well, no. But it was pretty pointless to me because I knew and understood everything anyway. But I just thought that if it's something you're studying it's probably something I have no idea about so I got... curious?

[affectate]

Ah, I suppose that is true... I could scarcely continue my studies from the point at which my lectures stopped, but we may find a common interest all the same! My field of study is physics, but I enjoy the other sciences, literature, and theology as well.

[A beat.]

Although I do understand all of these things easily as well... I am afraid that comprehending your boredom is beyond me.

[substitutable]

... It's okay.

[He shakes his head, gives her a grimace.]

It just means you're asking the right questions.

[affectate]

But I do not believe that your questions were entirely incorrect! Hatred as symptomatic of boredom indicates, as you've said, an excess of knowledge. It isn't possible for your questions to be incorrect. It's simply that nothing has caught your interest -- the difference between us, Shintaro, is that my interest is rather simple to hold. Rather than saying that you've hated the things that you've studied, perhaps you should say that you are searching for something that you may like studying?

[substitutable]

[He frowns. His response is short.]

It doesn't matter, Elaine.