District 13 Mission 7

[etcircenses]

Who| Jet, Cecil, Sam, Haruto, Albert, Porrim, Ermac, Alain, Tabris, Joan and Altair
What| Item Retrieval Mission
Where| An unknown facility in the Capitol
When| Night
Warnings/Notes| Violence on peacekeepers, warn for anything else in the headers!

Mission goers are assembled in the hanger at mid-day, dressed in the usual dark attire, a hovercraft prepped and ready for them. The ride takes several hours and by the time they set down well outside of the Capitol's surveillance, the sun is setting and the bright lights of the Capitol are turning on. But it isn't the streets the teams are headed for, but the underground.

The tunnels under the city take them most of the way and provide them an un-monitored progression at least part of the way. When they surface, those more familiar with the Capitol may notice they’re pretty far south. They emerge in an alleyway behind a large stone building, there’s one door facing the alley; their way in. As they approach the door, it opens to reveal someone standing there. They’re unarmed and something applied to their face makes it seem blurry to an observer and makes identification impossible. However, since they open the door and hold it open for the rebels, it’s clear they’re there to help.

The rebel’s guide leads them through back hallways until they reach a dark staircase, from here, they’re on their own and, wordlessly, their guide leaves as they descend. The staircase is dark and seems to go on forever until it finally ends in a plain looking door. Through this door is another hallway, but it seems to only have one purpose: the large double-door at the end of it. There, in front of the door, are peacekeepers. It’s left to Team 2 to get rid of them, they have the option to distract them with a small device that emits a high-pitched noise and then incapacitate them, or perhaps they want to attempt to use the darkness of the hallway to sneak up on the guards, either way, something needs to be done before an alert is raised.

Once Team 2 has incapacitated the guards, the teams are free to go through the double doors. The next room is divided by a large glass wall stretching across the width and height of the space. On one side of the glass sits a pile of clothes, some of it may be recognizable, some of it may not be, but it seems to have been discarded randomly. Across from the pile of clothing is a pile of armor and other less-common clothing articles. This pile seems to be less haphazard, but similarly uncared for.

On the other side of thick glass is the real gold, row after row of tables all full of weapons and items, recognizable and completely foreign. The door in the middle of the glass is the only way to safely get through, but a quick application of the code-hacking device to break the lock and the other side is open. It’s a free-for-all.

Rebels need to be quick, it’s only a matter of time before those peacekeepers go missing and with no packs granted to them, they’re limited by whatever they can realistically carry, although a few packs seem to be strewn among the pile of clothing and might be usable to carry a little more. Once time is up, one team is sent ahead of the other to make the trip back to the underground tunnels. Hopefully, if one team is caught the other can make it back.

Items that can be found (not including clothes and armor) are:
Cullen's sword and shield
Albert's communicator and fox totem
Initiate's club made of bones/horns
Jet's super gun, communicator, eagle totem, bag of mushrooms
Roland's revolver, silver knife, bullets and old bullet shells
Sam's collapsible machine gun gauntlets and wing pack
Luna's music box and passcards
Rick's Colt python, Gerber knife, secondary handgun and machete
Harley's oversized mallet and a couple of bombs
Ruffnut's knife
Wesker's twin desert eagles
Alain's large pistol, hunting knife and two bandoliers of bullets (mostly empty)
Sansa's amythyst hairnet
Karkat's sylladex and strife deck (both closed)
Sigma's lethal injection watch
Shepard's shotgun, lancer and omni-tools
Tabris' axe
Haruto's wizar driver, wizard rings and wizarswordgun
Black Tom's shillelagh
Coach's katana and shotgun
Vivi's ticket, tetra master cards, magic armlet and oak staff
Altair's hidden blade, longsword, knife/short blade and 5 throwing knives
Daryl's hunting knife, crossbow and bolts, lighter and pack of cigarettes
Jack's compass
Jeremy's badge
Ellis' gun
Terezi's dragon cane
Phi's bracelet
Nitou's Beast driver, mirage magnum and rings

Comments

Retrieved Items

[etcircenses]

Please respond to this comment with what your character retrieved. Remember, they have one small pack and whatever pocket and arm space they've got, so please be reasonable about what they carry. (If you're unsure, then try to limit to 5 small items, 3 large items or any combination of the two)

[fusshionable]

Porrim will be grabbing Shepard's lancer, Karkat's sylladex and strife deck, and Jack's compass.

Re: Retrieved Items

[void_whereprohibited]

Is it cool if Cecil goes for Initiate's club? :o (I feel like this is maybe all he is going to be able to carry at once.)

Re: Retrieved Items

[formersurgeon]

Joan is grabbing the twin desert eagles :)

Re: Retrieved Items

[formersurgeon]

And, since no one else has grabbed it, totally going for Black Tom's shillelagh. :)

[metalicarus]

Jet is grabbing his eagle totem, bag of mushrooms, super gun, Sigma's lethal injection watch Terezi's dragon cane and Daryl's crossbow. He's also going to wear his bomber jacket out because fuck yeah air force jacket

Re: Retrieved Items

[glowygreendeath]

Ermac will be retrieving Ellis' gun, Coach's katana, Harley's mallet, Jeremy's badge, and Daryl's hunting knife.

[allyorfoe]

Tabris is going to grab her axe, Shepard's omnitool and shotgun, and Phi's bracelet.

[wizardplease]

Haruto is going to grab his wizar driver, rings, and swordgun, along with Nitou's driver, mirage magnum, and rings. The latter three should fit comfortably enough in a bag, and he'll be wearing his own stuff.

Re: Retrieved Items

[atouchofka]

Alain will be grabbing his and Roland's weapons, and his bandoliers.

[silberfuchs]

Albert will be getting the cigarettes and lighter, his shades and fox totem, Coach's Shotgun, all of Rick's arsenal, and Luna's music box.

[sizeofyourbaggage]

Sam'll be wearing out his wing pack, gauntlets, and flight uniform as well as grabbing Shepard's armor and Initiate's old uniform/bone armor. ...and quite possibly wearing bits of those out as well because who doesn't want a Mass Effect/MCU/Homestuck mash up.

Re: Retrieved Items

[theflyingone]

Altair will be wearing all his stuff (hidden blade, longsword, knife/short blade and 5 throwing knives), so he still has some room to carry or sling something on his back. If anyone would like him to grab their things, let me know!

In the tunnels

[etcircenses]

The tunnels are dimly lit and dank, clearly minimally maintained, glorified sewers more than anything and they smell like it too. Be careful of where you step, some spots are slippery and there's a good foot and a half of water in the trenches. It would also be wise to keep discussion quiet, it echos down here and being caught would make for a poor mission-end.

Open

[fusshionable]

It's unnerving, being back in the Capitol already, but Porrim had been eager to go out on a mission and this one seems ideal. She knows this city backwards and forward, and she wants to do something--anything to help. So a retrieval mission with limited combat potential is perfect. Decked out in her armor, a gun in her hand that she now knows how to use, she treads through the tunnels with adrenaline buzzing in her limbs, sharp-eyed as she can be when she's so damn nervous. Talking isn't a great idea, but she speaks in a low voice when she must, partly to mask the slight quaver in her voice.

She has to keep from chastising herself for her fear. Fear is good. Fear keeps you safe, she reminds herself. Only idiots aren't afraid.

"Trying not to think about what's in this water," she murmurs to whomever happens to be next to her.

[void_whereprohibited]

Cecil hadn't entirely been expecting them to take him on as a volunteer, when he answered the call to action. ...He hadn't entirely been expecting himself to volunteer, for that matter. He's seen himself on missions! He's been cleaning toilets after hours for weeks, because the leadership of District Thirteen has also seen him on missions. They handed him a gun! Even after last time!

--Yet here he is, knee-deep in water that feels sludgy against his legs, that gets under his armor and that he can feel between his toes with every step he takes. His face has been twisted into a mix of wide-eyed trepidation and wrinkled-nose disgust for the duration. His heart is pounding. He is trying not to breathe too deeply.

"Tell me about it," he whispers back, and somehow even when he's keeping his voice low it projects, echoing off the ceilings. "And by 'trying not to think about it,' I mean 'thinking about nothing else;' I mean 'thinking, with every passing moment, of a new terrible and sentient thing that might be observing us as we pass, and deciding only on some unknowable whim not to approach;' I mean 'thinking, when not of terrible sentient things, of whatever non-sentient thing might be producing that-- that smell.'"

[silberfuchs]

It's hard not to think of this as sneaking around infiltrating Black Ghost's stronghold in... Antarctica? Australia? He can't remember anymore, it was so long ago, but the idea is the same. Move through spaces where no one thinks twice to check. Back then it was in the walls and access corridors. Here, its the sewers.

The main difference here is that they can talk without fear of being heard. Not that it was that much of an issue before considering the entire group of cyborgs were equipped with brainwave transmitters, allowing them to speak directly instead of out loud, but they don't have that advantage here. Still, they're so far underground, as long as they don't shout they can speak normally.

For his part, Albert's not talking much at first. Mostly, he's trying to listen for threats around them and trying not to sneeze. Perhaps taking advantage of fresh air outside of Thirteen when the weather was this cold hadn't been a good idea. He hadn't thought much of it at the time, stewing in grief over loss and not having gotten a cold since he'd been 30 and never heard of Black Ghost. Damned immune system...

But a little cold wasn't going to stop him from making sure the band of rebels stays safe overall and completes their mission objective. Moreover, Haruto and Cecil had both volunteered and considering he's the one training the both of them, Albert feels more than responsible for their performance. He's here to watch over them, even if that's not what he'd say if asked.

He'd probably just sneeze if asked, actually. Damnit.

Miserable but determined, Albert makes his way through the party to not just Cecil and Haruto - though he checks on them first - but anyone else who he doesn't recognize or wants to check with or... anyone really. Anything to get his mind off of the fact that for the first time in something like seventy years he may very well be sick. And at the worst time, too.

"How are you holding up?" He might say. It's sincere, and he hopes it sounds that way.

[wizardplease]

Haruto had been adamant, in all the time leading up to this mission, that he didn't care what it involved. That he'd be able to handle anything. He was an expert at heroics and an old hand at suffering and discomfort. He'd say that he was now eating those words, except that he'd rather not ponder things like eating while wading through a sewer. It's cold, it's wet, and... and okay, it stopped smelling particularly bad a while ago but still. He doesn't like it.

So when Albert comes to check on him, he'll find that the young man has a grimace on his face. One that he immediately tries to turn into a carefree grin. Doesn't quite get there. There's still a lot of gritted teeth. "Fine. Just fine. It'll all pay off in the end, right?" If Albert's got some words of encouragement, he'll take them.

Peacekeeper Removal

[etcircenses]

It's Team 2's time to shine. There are four guards to attend to and a little teamwork wouldn't be a bad idea. Ermac, Alain, Joan and Altair have all of about a minute to do the mission's dirty work.

[formersurgeon]

In addition to her training with firearms, Joan has been keeping up her close combat (and less than lethal) skills. She prefers the baton, which is portable, simple and effective, and that's what she reaches for now, withdrawing it from her pocket and gripping it in such a way that a single flick of the wrist will extent it fully. The guard are unaware of their approach, and she silently nods toward the one on the right, letting her teammates know that that is the guard she will deal with. If it's done right, he won't know what hit him, and he'll be out for long enough for the rest of them to get in and get out.

[atouchofka]

Alain nods, readying his knife. He's best with a gun, but guns are loud and draw attention; Cort made sure all his students were well-trained in close combat for that reason.

For his part, he gestures with his free hand to the guard at the far left. He can see a path to that one, moving through the deep shadows. If he's sharp and lucky, he can get behind him and drive the knife up under the guard's helmet before anyone even sees him.

In the Vault

[etcircenses]

Clothing and armor at one end, item upon weapon upon item lined up in rows on the other. Some things seem useless, others less so, but there's a time limit so grab whatever you can carry!

Closed to Albert

[metalicarus]

Jet had his stash of stuff from the other room already, most of it fit in the bag he'd brought except the cane and the crossbow which sat nearby. He'd pick them up again as soon as he was done sifting through the seemingly endless pile of clothing. It really hit home just how many tributes had been brought to Panem, even long before Jet himself had been brought. Too many.

But he was deteremined to find that familiar flash of green that meant so much to him.

It took a long time, long enough to make him begin to wonder if he'd find it before they had to move out, but finally he found it, the clothing pile left strewn across the floor as a result, and extracted it from it's jail. The jacket was still in good condition despite being abandoned for more than a year and Jet couldn't help the broad grin on his face as he slipped his old bomber jacket back on.

Feeling a little more himself than he had before he'd stepped into the vault, he gathered up the other stuff he'd grabbed and began to move from the demolished clothing pile. A glint off a familiar set of shades made him pause. A moment of inspection later made certain they belonged to who he thought they did.

Whatever Albert was doing would soon be interrupted by a tap on his shoulder and Jet poised to slip the aviators onto his husband's face once he'd turned in response.

Open

[atouchofka]

There are so many things that could be of use in this place, but all of them fall away from Alain's mind as soon as he sees the only thing that matters. At the far end of the room hangs a gunbelt, and in its holster is a weapon he would know even in the dark. The nickel plate shines in the light, and he can see its dark wood grip from here, the one worn by his father's hand, and his grandfather's before him...

His breath is caught in his throat. He stops dead in the doorway, staring, feeling as if his heart has twisted in his chest. It hadn't even occurred to him to believe that it could be here; he'd put aside any hope of it in case that hope was dashed. But now he finds himself frozen, with a great thunder of emotion brewing in the pit of his chest. He shouldn't hesitate, but for the moment the voice of reason is hidden by the roar of raw emotion, too muddled to pick out happiness or grief.

Open

[wizardplease]

No one needed to tell Haruto not to waste time. The moment that he saw the sorts of things that were laid out, he knew exactly what to go looking for, and there they were. His driver and rings, Nitou's driver and rings, his sword... he needed to grab them, and now. Selfish as an impulse that it was, he was quick to rationalize it away with the thought that with their power, he'd be able to do so much against the Capitol.

The driver's belt is fastened around his waist, the rings on their holder are snatched up and clipped into place... but then he's faced with needing to transport Nitou's stuff, too. He spies the pile of discarded clothes and goes digging in it to find something suitable to help with the carrying, working his way around the edge of the pile trying to find a bag or a backpack or something... and at the far end of it, that's when he spots it. A familiar pink paper bag, with a Japanese logo, crumpled at the top and still apparently full of something. With an incoherent yelp of surprise he dives for it, grabs it, opens it up... and then recoils at the stale, fuzzy donuts contained within.

"What the hell?! They just left them all this time!?" ...later, he will realize that he's being kind of stupid, but right now, it's mind-boggling.