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ximilialog2022-07-15 04:03 pm
CONCLUSION: the fox and the hare
It’s the newly amassed loyal followers of Saint’s HOLONET channel that see it first: live footage streamed onto all screens from the camps in the Seventh Circle displaying chaos everywhere — prisoners in their dirtied white gowns and collars around their necks, dashing across the grounds. Their screams of fear and protest are sharp, almost chilling. Guards can be found trying to restrain them by any means necessary and at their own disposal; it isn’t pretty and it isn’t for those with weak stomachs. Figures wearing animal masks intervene, using their own anonymous bodies to shield prisoners or incapacitate the guards. It’s a blur of sound and colour and tension.
But there are also things there that can’t be easily explained: sometimes a blinding sphere of light surrounds the source of the stream, seeming to absorb blaster fire. A man can be seen gunned down at one point of the livestream, only to get back up to his feet some moments later, bullets spilling towards the ground like rain from healed wounds. A woman dressed all in black lifts her hand and a guard is suddenly flung across the grounds, crumpled in a heap, his limbs bent unnaturally. A short, young man claps his hands together and pale blue sparks shoot out from the force of it, creating a barrier from whatever materials are left strewn on the ground.
It isn’t long until the word spreads and people in their homes, at their workplace, and in the streets are all following the fight. The viewership numbers go up, reaching exponential hits.
No one expects it when the collars start to explode, exposing the gore and violence, closer to the citizens of the Arch than they’ve ever seen it. The energy within the camps flips swiftly from panic to complete chaotic unrest — the guards are taken down left and right, and prisoners scream for their lives. The livestream ends with a voice coming from the heap of fallen hoverbots: it’s the Fables speaking to the prisoners, and through them, the entire city.
As all of this occurs, people from outside of the Seventh Circle gather at the edge of the Sixth, curious and fascinated eyes peering towards the guard towers as though they might find answers there — or perhaps at the very least, a show. Word spreads fast, and those from the inner Circles, as well as the press and daily news sites, begin to join an ever-growing crowd of onlookers.
A young girl tugs on her mother’s hand to look up at the screens, and people have to rub their eyes in disbelief — because in front of one of the towers, there indeed seems to be a ‘giant woman’, her size matching that of the tower itself.
Facing another tower, there’s a small figure, seemingly unimportant upon first glance — until someone points in his direction just as a strange pulsing glow explodes away from him, hitting the tower with a thunderous crash that reverberates the ground beneath their feet. People in and around the tower begin to scream; and their screams are echoed by the spectating crowd. The pulses of explosive light continue until the tower collapses entirely on its own foundations.
A young man points towards a cluster of flycycles in the sky and the form of a winged person swooping through the air. A cheer goes through the crowd, through which another shout rings out:
General Eshaq’s voice, sharp and commanding, rings through the communications of everyone in the towers. The guards suddenly look at each other, hesitant. At the same time, Cassie yells at the Fables and Orbers present:
As she finishes, she looks towards the heap of debris where one of the towers used to be, people severely injured or worse on both sides — it couldn’t be any more contrary to the orders they’d been given.
As the Fables obey Cassandra’s order, Emry moves to stand at her side and glower at anyone who might even entertain the thought of continuing the fight. A man pushes through the rows of guards — it is Lieutenant Colonel Mkwambe, walking up to where General Eshaq is standing.
He stops and then he salutes.
Eshaq nods, satisfied at that.
Cassie turns to look towards their own numbers, her expression almost grieved. There are so many more injured than she’d expected, likely more than any of them expected.
Within the camps, one thing becomes very clear: without the use of the Geiszler Extemporizer, their mission to liberate the prisoners here would have been a devastating failure.
Newton, Kovacs, Jim, and River don’t stop for even a moment in their haste to remove as many collars as possible, while others come up with creative ways to remove the wristbands from guards — Daisy using her visor to hack into them, while Joe cuts through corners by literally cutting a guard’s arm off.
The guards falter from such a strong opposing force, not least the terrifying powers they have never witnessed before. This simply wasn’t a part of their training. As the Old Guard fall again and again, getting back up each time without fail, whispers spread among the militia about their unnatural, unkillable enemies. Those in the engineering camp run from where black tendrils curl around Wei Wuxian, the eerie sound of his flute carrying across the camp grounds. Alina and Andy destroy the collars they come across — Andy’s axe makes quick work through many of them, while Alina appeals to the other Orbers through the network to get rid of them.
In the second engineering camp, Lieutenant General Blair makes for a tough opponent. He and Yvonne are evenly matched, with Yvonne’s batons cutting through the air as she twists to strike in his direction; Blair quickly abandons his blasters in favour of a long electro-staff to fight back. The clash of their weapons ring through the camp, metal on metal, the electric pulse of Blair’s staff cutting static into the air. A split-second decision nearly costs Yvonne the fight, though — she misjudges the strength of a hit by just a hair, moving a little too forward when Blair moves out of the way in time, kicking her square in the back so she stumbles forward, the wind momentarily knocked clear from her lungs.
He smiles.
Of course it doesn’t last long when one second moves to the next and suddenly there are webs all over him, pulling him up until he hits the ceiling of the dome. Spider-Woman swings past with a cheerful, “You’re welcome!” before she thwips away leaving Yvonne to stare blankly at the very sudden intervention.
With the extra seconds of time, Yvonne pushes herself back up to her feet, grabs one of Blair’s fallen blasters, and aims for his wrist — she shoots, immediately destroying his detonator.
Set equidistant from all four camps, Dr McCoy readies his emergency care field clinic for any injured that might be brought in — these are not just prisoners but the Fables too, and Orbers as well needing treatment. Directing people to the makeshift hospital is Mal, his collection of weapons growing all the while.
And not far from the hospital is a group of guards focused on getting Dr Fouad and her team extracted from the camps safely but not before they come face to face with several Orbers: Sabriel, Megatron, and Drift. Unfortunately for the guards and the frightened doctor, this is far from a fair fight with Sabriel’s charter magic paired with the two Cybertronians who instantly give up on their holoforms to transform into giant robots. It’s a feat that instantly causes half of the guards to drop their weapons, unmatched.
Elsewhere, Minimus and Clarke are engaged in making sure the prisoners wanting to leave can do so safely; they escort them to the exits and usher them into vehicles that will take them away to safer grounds, all under Chiayi’s watchful eyes.
In the end, despite it all, the liberation of the camps is successful and the camps are now under the Fables’ protection.
In the middle of the hallway of the mayor’s Chacier House apartment, still some ways away from the front door, a group of orbers fall unconscious due to the effects of a triggered neurotoxin. Beside them is the empty android body, its limbs left in a crumpled heap.
‘Sleep Paralysis’, a new technology developed within the Seventh Circle labour camps, causes anyone who inhales the colourless and odourless gas to lose all consciousness, the agent inhibiting any neuromuscular movement, locking its victim in place and dragging their brain activity down to an empty, dreamless state. As the seconds pass by, the loud echo of footsteps reverberate from a hidden back hallway and a unit of Chacier House soldiers enter to collect the intruders. Bucky, Zhao, Natasha, Yelena, and the Darkling are quickly scooped up from the floor and put into cuffs and collars, not that any of the group are likely to cause even a twitch for the next few hours, at least.
Reman looks in Rosinante’s direction this time, whose protests against his supposed affiliation with the Fables, and the intruders themselves, seem to convince him enough that his arrest comes with a little less man-handling. Two of the larger guards approach to detain him, and Rosinante doesn’t fight them. They escort him to the main building and ask him to provide a statement and to answer a number of questions … all while being assured that he’d know if this was an interrogation (even while it feels exactly like one). And while Rosinante is only kept in a room for questioning and allowed release, the rest of the group remain in holding cells, the effects of the neurotoxin keeping them unconscious until later that evening.
Alone now in his ransacked apartment, the lifeless body of an android made in Viveca’s likeness still blocking the way to her room, Jacques Reman crouches before the heap of metal and synthetic skin as though to inspect his investment. A complicated expression crosses his face, made slightly odd between the split of his organic and cybernetic features — one side could never fully replicate the other, the same way this android will never be his daughter. He reaches out with his cybernetic hand as though to touch the android’s arm, like he might as well be shaking her awake. And then he stops, steels himself, and straightens. He slides the body over to one side of the hall with his feet and moves back towards the elevators.
This isn’t over and he has work to do.
The mayor offers Callan a dismissive wave and begins to quicken his pace; there’s an urgency as he departs, but Callan continues to speak. He seems to decide on an alternate approach, one that will undoubtedly get the mayor’s attention.
Jacques immediately stops in his tracks, the silence within the hallway of the Main Building almost deafening. Pivoting on one heel, he turns to meet Callan’s eyes with his own.
The mayor laughs without any amusement.
The mayor’s countenance is visibly fractured by Callan’s accusations, whether because he can’t find a way out of them or because they really are so disturbing to hear.
His face slightly reddens and he stops short, as though he’s said too much.
Callan shrugs, his mouth twisted into a matter-of-fact smile.
He switches his recording off, immediately forwarding the footage to the Post.
The mayor bristles.
He pulls back a balled up fist and strikes the mayor in the side of his face that still feels pain, knuckles hitting flesh and bone.
The mayor buckles to the ground, unconscious, just as a few men in uniform round the corner — guards sent by General Eshaq to take the mayor away. Callan steps aside, rubbing at his hand. It’ll be time soon enough for the mayor to speak for his crimes.
Back near the Chacier House, a portal appears, blurring the edges of one location into the next, until three figures calmly emerge: Alexandra Reman and Tai Chanming pass through, Yennefer bringing up the rear to close the portal behind her.
Chanming, closes his eyes briefly, shifting through all the latest news. It is thanks to Ya-ting that he can do this at all, his HOLONET connection restored and bringing him back online. The feeling is familiar.
Alexandra smiles.
They begin to leave but then Chanming pauses.
They speak with lowered voices as they leave, walking into Chacier House like they both belong there — and in a very real way they do. They find the conference hall without trouble, politicians and government officials alike falling silent in the hallways as they pass, falling in line to trail behind them without so much as a word and too full of curiosity not to.
Inside the conference room, it's at the very same podium that Jacques Reman addressed the gathered parliament just hours earlier that his wife now stands behind, Tai Chanming by her side. She waits until word rapidly spreads within Chacier House and until every politician, official, and secretary has congregated into the hall to hear what she has to say.
“The militia is now under General Eshaq’s control. The camps have been liberated, and the Fables now watch over them — the only people to speak out against injustice throughout these long years.
“I know you saw my husband’s confession. All these years, while professing to help the people, he has sent innocent people to the camps to die, all to further research and innovations designed to help only the wealthy. But no more. You know I was imprisoned for speaking the truth, nine years ago. These nine years I have waited, so I could use my knowledge of the camps to truly help our society. There is much research there that can make a difference, in the right hands.”
Chanming, face entirely impassive, shakes his head.
On the evening of the coup, Bucky, Natasha, Yelena, Zhao and the Darkling wake up within holding cells, discovering they’re restrained … and that directly on the other side of the bars is Alexandra Reman.
She looks now at each of them in turn.
She sighs, the heat of her lecture gone now, leaving her looking like a mother disappointed in her children.
She pauses, the tight expression on her countenance holding for a second longer before she sighs, suddenly weary.
With that, she turns and walks out… and true to her word, the next evening, they will be released, uncuffed and un-collared — though not before their retinal scans and fingerprints are all recorded into the system.
The next day, the Orbers refocus their efforts on the reason they were brought to E-23b in the first place: to retrieve the orb. But like so many other things that have driven a wedge between the team during this mission, they are faced with another dilemma involving what to do with the orb once they successfully recover it. Three different sides begin to form — one advocates for giving the orb to Alexandra Reman to use as she wants, with the most vocal among them Dr McCoy and Sabriel. A larger group, among them Kovacs, Newt, and Finn, are firmly against giving the orb to anyone. And while some, like Natasha and Yelena, wish to leave the planet immediately after they retrieve the orb, the Orbers as a whole compromise in the end to recover the orb without touching it in order to prolong the time they have on E-23b. They reason that a few extra weeks will allow them to help the people here, purifying the water and leaving the locals with as much of their intergalactic knowledge as they can provide.
Itachi and Kakashi take the lead to begin investigating the three other camps for the orb as others turn to gather around the water reservoir. With the notes Minimus has found, they learn that the water reservoir sits right over the epicentre of the historical earthquake all those years ago.
This is reluctantly confirmed by Dr. Fouad, clearly afraid for her life. She speaks quietly but haltingly to Sabriel and Dr. McCoy as they press her for answers.
She puts emphasis on our equipment, while eyeing Sabriel warily; she remembers what she saw her guards go up against. It is clear there is something else entirely at play here, something her scientific mind cannot understand.
Nevertheless, armed with this confirmed knowledge, the team devise a plan: using flycycles Ziggy manages to procure for them, Megatron and Rita will descend into the reservoir, aided with Wei Wuxian’s water purification arrays and Sabriel’s magic that creates air bubbles to minimize their physical contact with the water.
Diving into the reservoir is met with some strange effects. Like a magnetic force, the water seems to find its way around the swimmers, curling against the bubbles around them, an invisible current seeming to beat against the barrier as though trying to shatter the protection into pieces and find its way through. It’s a thankfully futile effort, but it doesn’t dismiss the discomfort Megatron and Rita might feel, like the water itself is alive somehow. When they find their footing at the bottom of the reservoir, the two will confirm Dr. Fouad’s statement — there is no fissure, no gap along the floor of the reservoir, but there is an unmistakable pulse of something else under the sand and rock.
Almost immediately it becomes clear that they’ll need a few more hands to dig underwater, and this is when both Rodimus and Minimus volunteer their strength, and their physical forms, trusting that their robotic bodies will be in less danger against the effects of the poisonous water, and their strength will be enough to break through the ground. Above the reservoir, hovering over the water’s surface, Eleven sits on a flycycle with her eyes closed in concentration.
Nothing happens at first, only several layers of sediment and soil beginning to cloud the clear waters and making it harder to see what the others are doing — making it difficult for the diggers themselves to see how far they’ve gone. And then suddenly the water feels warmer, the sand feeling hot. In the middle of the reservoir, past the clouded water, a round smooth stone sits in waiting. It glows a faint pink the colour of cotton-candy. Eleven can feel it from above, even if she can’t see the physical object itself yet. She breathes out and refocuses her efforts, extracting the orb from its bed of sand while the orb seems to protest, content enough to be where it is. Another pull of the Eleven’s power and the orb swims upwards now on its own, the pink glow sending out sharp currents of light against the deep blue of the reservoir’s waters. It swirls a deep violet until it erupts upwards directly into the sky and towards the flycycles themselves, a geysir of hot water spurting beneath it.
By Eleven’s side, Shang-chi moves his flycycle to a stop, Clarice holding tightly onto him. They narrowly miss the spray of hot water. With a determined flash of her bright green eyes, Clarice takes in a breath and straightens in position, distorting time and space to create a portal in the middle of the air. She nods in Eleven’s direction who then swiftly and decisively flicks her hand, sending the orb sailing through the portal and into a vault that Ziggy had spotted in the Fables headquarters, long unused and without recall from any of the Fables members of its combination. It’ll be secure enough to store the orb until the group is ready to leave.
And with this, their mission can be considered complete — at least a part of it. For the first time since the crew made their contracts and embarked on their first mission, the retrieval of the orb is not followed by a pull to the station … instead, the Orbers look at weeks stretching ahead of them, with time allotted to helping the locals.
It isn’t an easy task. Over the next few weeks, the camps become — if possible — even busier than before. While Yvonne is visibly miffed that so few collars had been retrieved for Ya-ting to repurpose into devices to stop the technology being taken to the First Circle (precautions against another regime like Jacques Reman’s), the Fables are rejuvenated by their purpose, collecting all of the camps’ available research with enthusiasm, aided by a number of former prisoners who see this as a way to repurpose the camps into something better than what they experienced.
A number of students from the Archway leave their studies and come to the camps instead, putting their expertise in technology to good use. A group has gathered around Jim and Spock as they instruct eco-engineering students in terraforming, while another, larger group spends time near the reservoirs, concentrating on purifying the water with Cassie and Alessia. Newt, Sabriel and the two Doctors spend their time around the water reservoirs too, using both magical and scientific means of cleaning out toxins. Other former prisoners and those in the outer circles begin to join the efforts until it seems as though there are enough hands to lessen the time it might otherwise have taken, though it’s always with curious and watchful eyes. Those with otherworldly abilities such as magic or powers are carefully avoided; during breaks, and out of perceived earshot, there will be whispers and murmurings, the words ‘strange’ and ‘unnatural’ often used among questions such as ‘Who are they?’ and ‘Where did they come from anyway?’
Nevertheless, cleaning the water is a slow and methodical process, one that comes with the discovery of how the water came to be poisoned. Regardless of the citizens’ impression of the Orbers, Rita volunteers to be a test subject. The effects of the water are enough to demonstrate how it might work on the citizens of E-23b, but not harm her, and together the group learn that there are traces of magical corruption similar to that in Gyeongje — the orb managed to infiltrate all of the available water on the planet, quickly turning it toxic for consumption and then fatal even to the touch. But with the orb gone, there is a noticeable change, and the hard work of the crew, the Fables, and the former prisoners leave them feeling cautiously optimistic that their efforts might be fruitful.
In one of the engineering camps, Wei Wuxian and Itachi have undertaken the challenge of creating an entirely new lake, the ground coated with Wei Wuxian’s water purifying talismans while Itachi creates the water itself through the use of a jutsu. This task is left to the two of them, no citizen of E-23b daring to come near the strange magic they’re increasingly fearful of.
Meanwhile, Sam and Alina focus their efforts on helping the Fables rebuild, ensuring that any resources that can be taken out from the camps are distributed to those most in need: mostly former prisoners and those who make their homes in the outer circles.
Isolated within the former camps and disconnected from the inner circles, it’s almost easy to forget that the rest of the city had been witness to much of the now-famous coup in the Seventh Circle, with HOLONET headlines scrolling across every screen and every personal device until it’s almost all anyone can see:
Choose the last of these, and a program pops on, already running.
After that, signs begin to appear outside of businesses, declaring “NO POWEREDS ALLOWED”. Any Orber who has been spotted either in Alina’s stream or out near the towers will also notice that people are giving them a wide berth, mothers dragging their children into nearby buildings, and groups of people murmuring in hushed voices, spitting insults and averting their gazes from them.
The parliament is kept occupied, debating on the Fables and the camps on a daily basis, each session made public and recorded so that anyone with access to the HOLONET will be fully informed. It’s the most transparent the government has ever been in remembered history, but the question posed over and over again is the same: How can we, the people, sleep soundly in our beds when the terrorist organization known as the Fables is protecting these unnatural powereds? Every day Alexandra and Chanming try to answer to the accusations or motions to move the militia to the camps, and to make sure they are not building weaponry there.
When the debris and bodies have been cleared from the boundary between the Sixth and Seventh Circles, a memorial service is held, unveiling a tall and heavy stone monument built where the tower had been. On that stone are names carved into it to honour the people who lost their lives in the tower explosion. People from all walks of life attend, leaving candles and flowers and small items at the stone’s feet. Found among them is Callan Dela Cruz, dressed all in black, paying his own respects.
Later, it will spark a discussion all over the HOLONET social media, analyzing any eyewitness records and images for the culprits as citizens try to understand the things they’d seen in hopes of bringing justice to their dead, and peace to their mourners.
Three weeks after the orb has been found, the first protests occur just outside the camps. Numbers of holo-banners wave through the city, some camped right outside of the Seventh Circle.
That night, some of the Orbers might overhear a group of Fables — Yvonne, Alessia, Cassie and Emry — speaking in hushed tones, but if they mean to keep their conversation fully private they aren’t exactly doing a great job of it … maybe almost as though they don’t quite care whether their voices carry to any Orbers with slightly above-average hearing.
Yvonne’s expression is concealed by the shade that obscures her features, but she nods.
Emry finally speaks up, his voice like gravel.
Yvonne’s answer is quiet, somber, and the group disperses.
The day after that, at the crack of dawn, Callan and Alexandra come to the camps, addressing the Orbers that have gathered there to meet them.
Callan glances towards Alexandra, whose grave expression mirrors his.
No one was to kill anyone unless absolutely necessary. He doesn’t see how this was necessary.
Alexandra nods.
In the crowd, she finds Itachi, waving him to her with a small, solemn smile on her face.
She leads him towards the outside of the camp. There, in the speeder she’d taken to get here, is the android body of her daughter lying at the backseat, eyes closed.
She lifts up the body easily, and holds her for Itachi to carry back to the camps — along with a HOLOdisk.
With that, Alexandra walks back to the speeder and leaves the camps.
Inside the camps, Callan, unknowingly mirroring Alexandra, approaches Sam to give him a HOLOdisk as well.
Others say their goodbyes, too: Yvonne seeks out Dean in the crowd and gives him a hug, while Emry gifts Ziggy the device that turns into his tortoise mask — so you can avoid any neuro-toxins if the bad decisions are catching, it’s got an air filter, he tells her with a grin. Ya-ting finds all four of her hacker team, and punches all of them in the arm.
The farewells aren’t all heartfelt, however, some of the Fables watching them with weary expressions on their faces, some rolling their eyes. Students and former labourers look nervous, some downright relieved to see that the mysterious Powereds are getting ready to leave — hopefully for the foreseeable future.
Eventually, the clock ticks towards midday, and it’s time to go. The air ripples as Clarice creates another portal into the vault, and Eleven stands before it, closing her eyes to focus … until a pink glowing shape shoots out from the other side, the orb landing in her outstretched hand.
With a now-familiar tug, the Orbers only have a moment to look around the camps they’ve spent so much time in, the faces of the people they might tentatively call friends (or at least allies), as well as the confused and scared and relieved faces of the people at the camps, before they disappear into a burst of light.
When the crew open their eyes, many of the Orbers might be more than eager to meet eyes with Viveca having learned now of where she’d come from and the life she must have led before she came here. They’ll be disappointed to find that the only one standing in the room with them is Degar, his arms crossed over his chest, dressed in his familiar cloak and cargo pants.
He looks more serious than any of them are used to, shifting to hold a (gloved) hand out.
I’ll admit, we were a little worried when the mission went on for a little longer than we expected but you sure seemed determined to do what you did, huh?
He doesn’t exactly sound impressed.
He turns towards the North Wing, which is usually Viveca’s cue to let the crew know that they’ve got food and showers and rest to look forward to, but there’s none of that now. Instead, Degar turns to glance at the crew from over his shoulder and adds:
It might not be the welcome you expected, or even one you feel you deserved, but it’s the one you get. Best to get to your food and rest while you can, Orbers. And congratulations for retrieving the orb.
N O T E S
This is the end of the seventh mission! If your character goes back to review the mission file, they will notice that next to its name, a little check-mark in green has appeared.This is not an official log — however, you may create your own logs for the three weeks the team stays in the Arch, or the downtime on the station after that.
Please note that as of this conclusion, Viveca is currently unavailable for the characters to talk to, and all attempts to contact her will be answered by Degar. Characters may talk to him (or try to talk to her) here.
If you have any questions regarding your characters' extended stay in the Arch, please direct them here.
And finally, your soundtrack for the conclusion: ♪ ♪