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--- polemos:campaigns:many_in_freedom:events:operation_silent_prophet [2018/03/22 15:42] – [Front-Line Action] Blake Anderton
+++ polemos:campaigns:many_in_freedom:events:operation_silent_prophet [2020/08/15 16:04] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
@@ Line 4: / Line 4: @@
 ^Start Date  |241/12/10  |
 ^Main Objective  |Protect civilian evacuation efforts by delaying or halting USC advance.  |
-^Mission Status  |Ongoing  |
+^Mission Status  |Aborted  |
 ===== Pteros Efforts =====
@@ Line 17: / Line 17: @@
 ===== Defense of RANGECOM =====
+On route to Lynpolis, Seraph Squad received communication from their combat controller, Serenity, who was helping to hold the watchtower from the USC attack. Reports had spotted an USC drone swarm to the south of the site, protecting a landing site for a large battalion-sized incursion of USC [[polemos:8th_age:factions:shadows|Shadows]]. One force had attacked the main gate, while the other had used a secret back-entrance to the base that was highly classified.
+Upon arriving the squad found that the USC owned the lower levels and the watchtower, while a counterattack by the Federation had cleared the upper levels and main gate. A major push was being made to retake the watchtower and trap the remaining USC forces inside the bunker.
+Seraph Squad entered from the damage main gate, and began their descent. At the armory they discovered that it has already been plundered, and the ranger Arsenal had been killed. In one of the lower levels the squad attempted to ambush a pair of USC shadows, only to find the pair was bait for a counter-ambush. The ranger Ethos was mortally wounded, but was saved by the healing sorcery of Inquisitor. After defeating the USC shadows they continued to the watchtower, where several ranger squads and FPA troops were planning to assault the main briefing room.
+Seraph Squad entered through a blown-out wall and helped pin down the remaining USC forces near the entrance to the exit tunnel. [[polemos:8th_age:characters:scipio_polian|Scipio Polian]], however, held up a captive Serenity, and used her as a hostage for the USC to make their escape.
+===== Nocturne's Master Plan =====
+After the watchtower was secure, Seraph Squad was called to the brig by ranger-commander Paladin. Nocturne was shackled to the interrogation chair, Lion pointing a gun at Nocturne, and Paladin pointing a gun at Lion.
+Lion demanded Nocturne explain "what she did" again to Seraphim Squad, which she obliged:
+//After the Chaos Miracle, while the cease-fire was still a thing, I thought the war was over. Or, at least, I thought my war was over. I'd seen how the war changed Phylus - I'd been his information security expert since the beginning, when the coup was just a scandalous fantasy. He was always an idealist, and a gods-damned Eleytherian asshole, but he had a knack for convincing you that a free world was worth fighting for, that the Republic could actually win if it had the will. He gave me a calling that finally satisfied my sense of justice. I was a true believer; Liberty with Law and all that.//
+//But the Chaos Bomb destroying Yu'ian, it...broke Phylus...broke his spirit. When he tried to retaliate in kind against Sector Zero with the people still in it, I knew he was lost to madness, and the FDC would be fucked without him. And so, when the cease-fire looked like it might hold, I retired. I knew that if I didn't that I would have to keep fighting to the end. That I would have to keep listening to the voices of the dead that haunted me, and that I could have become the next Phylus, the next villain. So I settled down in a suburb, had a son, started a small-time networking business, and hoped. Hoped that I could cut my losses; fold my cards and leave the table with the remainder of my chips. I hoped to live the rest of my life in peace. But, of course, the cease-fire didn't last.//
+//My husband and I saw the first skirmishes on the news. We planned to evacuate to Lynpolis, but before we could finish packing essentials, we were caught in the Night of Fire. A bomb fell on our front lawn, our house collapsed on top of us. I've always wondered if I was a priority target or whether it was just dumb luck.//
+//Either way, my legs were crushed by a support column - I couldn't move, but the weight kept blood-loss to a minimum. By morning I knew my husband and son were dead. I could see their remains strewn across the rubble. The network was down, so for three days I waited without rescue. I wiled away the time looking at family vids on our home server. I stewed in my loss. More than once I had to bring myself back from the edge.//
+//Then, dying of thirst, it happened. I...lost my other child. When I first saw her blood, I gave in to the ghost of Phylus. But before I could plan my genocide, it clicked. For a brief moment I saw everything clearly, and I knew exactly how to bring down the USC without mass murder. The solution was so simple, so deliciously just. I wiped the home server and copied my short-term memory.//
+//See, the divine machines may be functionally hack-proof, but a person's mind still gets transferred when one is created. They'd obvious isolate that process from networks, but if you were in the room when it happened, you could hack the immortal's implants and feed in whatever you wanted.//
+//Like an AI, one built to remember the pain I had just felt. My stillborn immortal would fester like an infection and destroy the whole Goddamn system. It would break the consensus model, overwhelm the other immortals with mental torture, and force a valid order to disband the USC and end the war.//
+//I was prepared to wait decades the next divine machine, but then the USC sped things up. I met Serenity, an old flame of one of the candidates for immortality. I made sure Lucius won. I overlaid my AI over Serenity's neural net, unknown to her and asleep until the right moment. Finally, I let him find and take her. So when that arrogant, sentimental fucker has her witness his ascension, Lucius isn't going into that box, but my dragon to bring sin into their paradise. By sacrificing a hundred people in this betrayal, I will have freed billions and locked those sad little gods in an unending nightmare.//
+//All I need you to do is not save her until that happens. Then you can give me a medal or the firing squad, but I will have finally paid them back, paid them back for everything they've done to all of us. And I will have done it without becoming the next Phylus.//
+===== Serenity =====
+Seraph Squad decided to reject Nocturne's plea to "wait it out," believing her plan to topple the USC would not work how she intended. They offered to join Paladin in his mission to rescue Serenity.
+Lion stated that trying to track down her location in-theater would take too long. He announced that since they were confederates with Nocturne, FEDINT would likely have her location to ensure she attended the immortality ceremony, and that he would take the Pteros to assault FEDINT headquarters and take the location by force.
+Seraphim Squad stood in Lion's path, and agreed to challenge him for leadership of the Pteros, and prevent the attack on FEDINT.