Operation story: FC-1

Operation

Story

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Characters
Bagpipe Ch'en Harmonie Reed Fionn Selmon "The Leader" Dublinn Soldier Hughes Patrol Captain Taran Refugee
Backgrounds
1 2 3 4

Before operation

“

Intending to avoid drawing attention, Reed prepares to leave the Taran refugees being pursued by the patrol. Meanwhile, on the trail of Dublinn's course, Bagpipe and Ch'en encounter some unusual Dublinn soldiers.

”

<Background 1>
[The Taran refugee taps Fionn while he is writing a note.]
Taran Refugee	Leave your account book alone already. What, gonna wait a few days, and then go selling stuff out of your boot again?
Fionn	No, that's never happening. *sigh* But just, whenever I do something shameful, I feel the need to make a note.
Taran Refugee	The doctor's a smart sort–she knew how you'd gotten hurt on first blush, even. If she's not blaming you, that's because she forgives you.
Fionn	But she said, she wasn't a doctor. She just learned a little first-aid working someplace where they sell medicine. That's how she led us through treating our wounds...
Taran Refugee	How do you know she's telling the truth? If you ask me? She's not your normal doctor, no, but there's no chance she's just some pharmacy worker. She had a full suite of medicine with her, out here in the wastes. That, that's strange. Oh, yeah, and did you see what she had in that box of hers? You're a business type. Got a guess on how much it was worth?
Fionn	I didn't look properly. You can't be thinking of stealing luggage from the person who saved us.
Taran Refugee	No, no, I'm just asking.
Fionn	*sigh*... Got any more bread there?
Taran Refugee	Not much.
Fionn	Give me a little, for God's sakes.
<Background fades out and in>
[Fionn asks Reed,]
Fionn	Doctor. Er, no, sorry, I know you don't like being called that... um, you want some bread?
Reed	No, thank you.
Fionn	What are you reading there?
Reed	It's just... an old Taran poetry collection.
Fionn	Oh, oh, it's in Taran... I never knew much Taran, see. Even less so when it's written, I suppose, haha.
Reed	If you want to sit down here, I won't mind.
Fionn	Alright, er... Actually, I've been meaning to thank you for last night.
Reed	All I did was give you some medicine.
Reed	They're things I ought to do, cleaning wounds, bandaging. But I–still can't do them that well.
Fionn	That's fine, I didn't even dare touch the wound myself. Scared the living daylights. What I wanted to say was, if you hadn't set that fire off, we might never have escaped.
Reed	Fire...? No, the fire wasn't me. I was just passing by.
Fionn	Okay. If you say so, then it must've been a coincidence. Ah, Dublinn my arse. Those army lot'll call anyone who disobeys them Dublinn. We're a lost cause, but good people like you, you shouldn't have to bear such heavy guilt.
Reed	Do you hate Dublinn, very much?
Fionn	I... I couldn't say. I'll give you a word of warning, seeing as you're from the city. For the past while, Dublinn's people have been around these parts. I hear they ran into one lot of Victoria's army, and not a single of those Victorians survived. That upset the lords of the city fierce, so they transferred in a whole thing of soldiers to Trent, seizing people all over the Scáthanna Fields. Burnt several villages down too. You really shouldn't have saved us, truth be told. We're not worth it.
Reed	...... If I don't–care for other people's lives, then I won't have achieved–what I agreed with Rhodes Island...
Fionn	Eh? Sorry, you're talking a little too quiet, actually...
Reed	No, it's nothing... I'm already aware of–some of what you've told me. I'll be careful on the way.
Fionn	Er, you're going now?
Reed	Mm. It's day now. I won't need you to show me the way.
Fionn	Alright, alright. I understand. Tarans like your sort, speaking Victorian so finely, I know you don't like to talk with us much.
[Selmon joins in.]
Selmon	Hey, you seen Caireann? Woman about this tall, tail swings all around when she walks. No? Could you look for her around these parts, then, doctor? She hasn't come back since last night.
Fionn	Selmon, what's got you so–
Selmon	Ah, Fionn, come on here and help us out.
Reed	......
<Background 2>
[Bagpipe and Ch'en are traveling through the mire.]
Bagpipe	Oh, we've got signal here? Doesn't that mean we went the wrong direction again?
Ch'en	Looks like it. The comms facilities around here haven't been destroyed, which indicates they haven't advanced upon these parts.
Bagpipe	Hmm... any word from Rhodes Island, then?
Ch'en	Basically the same as what the news says. Arson committed by a small group of Dublinn soldiers in Redridge village last night, burning down a building in the barracks. But said soldiers don't seem to have fled into these barrens. The rest is all invalid info. It just so happens every nomadic city been far from these barrens for the past month. Our field operators haven't reported anything unusual. While we've only seen what mark the battles have left behind... and we can't even determine the scale of those battles from it. We can only tell one thing. There was a massive disparity between the two sides' power. It seems they made short work of that whole unit of Victorian soldiers. Bagpipe, are you listening?
Bagpipe	Eh?
Ch'en	Your parts are installed in the wrong orientations. I can tell you're getting distracted again.
Bagpipe	Wow, Chenchen, I didn't know you knew piledriver spear assembly too! It took me forever studyin' to actually remember how you maintain one.
Ch'en	I never fully got my head around the assembly.
Bagpipe	I was just thinkin', why does Hughes always sound like somebody else in his letters? I know it doesn't make much sense bringin' it up, but...
Ch'en	That's fine. I've always trusted your intuition to be on the mark. You feel like there's always something he wants to say, but doesn't dare to? Just like how last time we went to see him, it was like he was being watched.
Bagpipe	Aye, that's exactly it!
Ch'en	That proves we're not on the wrong track. The intel Hughes gave us was accurate–enough so to put the enemy on guard. The army can hide their march route, but there's some leaked hint of how raw materials are flowing for war purposes. Over the past few months, the few Dublinn units we've marked have all converged on this area.
Bagpipe	The outer parts of Trent? This... uninhabited zone?
Ch'en	......
Bagpipe	Chenchen, you look like you've seen a...
Ch'en	Three o'clock.
[A Dublinn soldier appears before the two.]
Dublinn Soldier	–
Bagpipe	Same dress as back in County Hillock... it's the spectre force! Come on, after them–
Ch'en	Wait, Bagpipe... there's something very strange about them.
[More of the soldiers show up.]
Bagpipe	Oh. They're just a few of them. It's like they're standin' guard... Are they bait?
Ch'en	No, not necessarily. They're reminding me of... some things that happened in Lungmen. Don't underestimate them. We'll approach carefully.

After operation

“

Within the deceasd[sic] Dublinn soldiers, Bagpipe recognizes the Arts she saw before at County Hillock. With a plea from Fionn, Reed agrees to escort the Taran refugees in their escape from capture.

”

<Background 2>
[Bagpipe and Ch'en easily takes down the Dublinn soldiers.]
Bagpipe	What's goin' on with these soldiers? They go down without puttin' up a proper fight, and they don't even react to us yellin'.
Ch'en	They're already dead. They've been dead for... over 48 hours.
Bagpipe	Chenchen, I know you're a copper, you're not mistaken when you see things, but these people were clearly standin' before we knocked them down, right?
Ch'en	I saw a kind of Arts, among Reunion's ranks, that could control other people. But this and that don't resemble each other. If Amiya... if Rhodes Island's Cautus was here, she might be able to feel out the difference better than me. That kind of Arts refuted emotion and thought. It took living Sarkaz warriors and wore them down into walking weapons. But these Dublinn soldiers are dead without a doubt... There's just some intense emotion that's still burning in them, even after they've died.
Bagpipe	Burning?
Ch'en	It's just a feeling. If this Arts had a definite form, if I used my Chi Xiao to cut through it, I'd imagine I'd be cutting through a fireball.
Bagpipe	Wait, I've seen...
<Flashback starts here>
Bagpipe	Purple flames. Strange purple flames, burnin' in the eyes of dead soldiers...
<Flashback ends here>
<Background 2>
Bagpipe	I saw the Arts you're describin', back in County Hillock. I haven't seen it since... not once, all this time! Chenchen, we're almost there, aren't we? That Caster leadin' the spectre force in County Hillock, she's got to be somewhere around here! I'll never forget how she looked... I'm dead sure I'll recognize her if I see her again, and when I do, I can find out the truth about Dublinn.
Ch'en	Right.
Bagpipe	Come on, then! We need to keep askin' around! Villagers, maybe caravans who've passed by... We'll find them, even if they're not the spectres for real!
<Background 3>
[While Fionn, Selmon, and the Taran refugee are in a forest after leaving the marshlands...]
Fionn	Phew. Patrol came brutally fast. It's lucky we've got good eyes on us.
Selmon	Hah, you think those Victorian eejits say hello before they come snatching?
Fionn	You lot move ahead, I'll take a proper count. Been worried we left somebody behind in all that panic just now... Oh, that's right! Where's the doctor? Did nobody fetch her?
Selmon	Didn't she say she was off by herself this morning? I'm not minding her business. Besides, it's not going to be an issue if a Viccy soldier nabs her, right? She's not wanted.
Fionn	Look, she is! We got her involved in all this last night! It was dark out and the soldiers probably didn't catch her face properly, but how many Vouivre have you ever seen around here?
Selmon	Well, if you can't help her, what's the point dossing about fretting the whole day?
Fionn	I... Wait. Hold on, Caireann's here... Selmon, you did that on purpose. You lied to her saying we'd lost track of a friend, and could she go looking... Why? She was kind enough to save us, and share us some medicine... And you just left her for the army lot to snap up?
Selmon	You don't get it? We leave her behind to attract attention, and that gives us a safe getaway for the time being. And she won't say much vital even if she's caught. She doesn't even know which way we're going, let alone the fact we're looking for Dublinn.
Fionn	But... But she could die!
Taran Refugee	Yeah. She went off alone. She'll run into the patrol sooner or later. We should've taken all her luggage while we had the chance. Wouldn't fall into those Victorian scumbags' hands, at least.
Selmon	It was her choice, Fionn. Did you not see her face when she saw me? She KNEW Dublinn, but never had no kindness for it. And she spoke standard Victorian. Her sort hate us more than real Victorians do.
Fionn	I can't swallow that, Selmon. I trust my intuition for people.
<Background fades out and in>
Patrol Captain	Relax, madam.
Reed	I'm not–familiar with what's gone on here.
Patrol Captain	I know. You're not a Dublinn ally. You just panicked for a bit, and got mixed up with those insurrectionists. (Taran) You've killed Dublinns.
Reed	......
Patrol Captain	You understood that. We're not mistaken, then. There's very few Vouivre around these parts who know Taran. Where did that Dublinn soldier take you lot, last night?
Reed	No... they're not Dublinn, and they don't have anything to do with Dublinn either. And I've never killed anyone from Dublinn before. You've gotten something wrong.
Patrol Captain	You can be honest here. You won't pay for it, so you don't need to fear it. The land around here has been under strict surveillance by the barracks. The Marquess of Trent has no plans to dither like some nobility has, letting Dublinn stir up flames all over the place. That's why we could even tell who you were. Residents of a different village, close to Trent's cityway, reported news of Dublinn to the barracks a few days ago. But those Dublinn soldiers, before they could attack the village, were all felled by a white-haired Vouivre. Would we be able to turn on the tap, so to speak? We'd like to query your identity, motive, as well as last night's arson which held similarities to Dublinn MO...
[Reed steps back.]
Patrol Captain	–Hold it! Are you trying to flee? Stop her! This Vouivre is scared of going on record! There's something afoot with her!
[One of the patrolmen tries to stop Reed from running away, but she easily cuts his saber.]
Patrol Soldier	–S-She broke my saber?! What kind of strength does she...?!
Reed	I've told you–everything I can tell you. Let me leave... It'll be best for us.
Patrol Captain	You must be of a kind with those wretches, if you're so protective of them. Bumptious Tara rabble, the lot of you. Fire! A few bolts aren't enough to kill a Vouivre! Suppress her first!
[The patrolmen fires at Reed, who dodged the shots.]
Reed	Why... do you hate them so much? You're a–Taran yourself...
Patrol Captain	Shut up! You are NOT–to address me with that word!
Reed	......
Patrol Captain	So anyone who spoke Taran since childhood IS a Taran? I certainly never heard of the "Taran" people when I was young! If you're the one who repelled those Dublinns, you should get it into your head that "Taran" is just an excuse of a moniker these bandits use to destroy the order. And once you do, you draw a clean line between yourself and them.
Reed	..."It was the erosion of the Tarans by Victoria's vain stylings, that led so many to fall to banditry." A mentor... told me this, many years ago. I'm sorry.
[Reed pulls out her spear and strikes, but stops at the last moment.]
Patrol Captain	Hah, hah... you're hesitating. You're scared of even stabbing people with your pike there. –Are you looking down on me, is that it?
Reed	I...
<Background fades out>
"The Leader"	Go, Loughshinny. If you don't want what you do to be discovered, then the best way is to dispose of all eyewitnesses.
<Background fades in>
Reed	No, I wouldn't do that.
[Reed struck the patrol captain with her spear, injuring him.]
Patrol Captain	Urgh–!
Patrol Soldier	Captain! Re... Retreat with the captain! Report this upstairs, request backup!
[The patrolmen flees.]
Reed	It's okay. They won't–catch up to me. I'll be leaving this place very soon. I know the speed–at which the Victorian Army mobilizes. This is–far from wrong to do.
[Rustles are heard from a nearby shrub.]
Reed	–Who's there?
She thrusts her spear forth in vigilance. –Its point hovers over some shrubbery.
Voice Behind a Shrub	It's me, it's me...
[Fionn reveals himself.]
Fionn	It's me, I'm not going to hurt you.
<Background 4>
[Harmonie is talking with a secretary.]
Harmonie	Yes, I'm very well aware the County Trent won't be changing its entire course just for a single order, which is why we're willing to push back the delivery date and wait for the nomadic city to come closer. Of course, only mines with royal approval could provide Originium fuel of such high purity, hence my being so very thankful for the Marquess of Trent's friendly attitude to us. I imagine we're all very happy with this business partnership.
[The secretary leaves the room as Harmonie closes the door.]
Harmonie	Your secretary has left with the signed contract, Mr. Hughes.
Hughes	He'll deliver it back to the office. Please, I ask you trust him to properly handle such a vital agreement.
Harmonie	No, no no no, I don't mean to doubt his management abilities. But rather, doesn't this imply you have more pressing matters to discuss with me personally than the contract, mmm? After all, you did choose this secluded little getaway, and dismiss your servants too.
Hughes	Quite right, it's no surprise you'd surmise, haha. I had all these arrangements laid out specifically to convey my good faith to you. My wish is that... our ensuing conversation will be founded on our mutual friendship from our time studying at the Royal Guard together, Lo–
Harmonie	Shh. How funny you should remember that name.
Hughes	Haha... well, you do know how famous she was at the ball.
Harmonie	Oh, my, does it not make sense that her type could topple over and not get up while dead drunk in some godforsaken place?
Hughes	Yes, I trust the vast majority have forgotten all about her. Whether it was a true accident or some other party's orchestration, everyone knew not to stick their noses into it. I much thank you for so lavishly feigning surprise.
Harmonie	My surprise happens to contain a kernel of sincerity. Bringing up a name vanished from the school, a name with no record anywhere in Victoria of existing... You're practically bidding "spectres" to come.
Hughes	Hm, you're not wrong. Then let me be bold. Why, may I ask, did you contact me of your own accord? I'm no more than a minor aristocrat making minor deals with all the mercantile breadth. I couldn't do anything about the info you've hinted at. Miss Informant, are you looking to circumvent your higher-ups to please your own swollen ambitions, or are you...
Harmonie	If you've made full sense of this conversation, it wouldn't do me any more favors playing the fool, would it. The gist of it is, I'm here specifically, given our previous time studying at the Royal Guard, to offer you... and the two who've been searching for the spectre force this whole time, a little warning.
Hughes	You knew...
Harmonie	Mm, yes, of course I knew they came to see you, plus that you helped them pursue a batch of Originium products shipped to County Hillock half a year ago. Some people would sayyyy... you've let slip a little too much.
Hughes	...... I understand how sensitive your position is, and how multifaceted your responsibilities. Rest assured, I would absolutely never leak any of this classified information to anyone. As for those two rash students of mine, I'll give them a tact warning to quit while they're ahead.
Harmonie	And I'll leave your staff a little head start on their investigation into your order's whereabouts.
Hughes	I appreciate your kindness, but being the paltry merchant I am, I fear I shouldn't be privy to too much.
Harmonie	No, please, drop the humbleness. After all, you're the vice-chair of your commerce coalition. I'd think the Earl that backs you would very much care about any info you gather doing business. Is the Iron Duke really so worth depending on, given his sheer silence up to now? You know, it's about time he decided where he stood.
Hughes	– Harmonie, you're not telling me you're Victoria's... no, just who are you serving–
Harmonie	–Mr. Hughes, I'd be very happy to receive the contents of our next contract from you... sooner, rather than later.
<Background 3>
Fionn	Sorry, sorry... Really, I'm not here to hurt you, please don't touch me. *sigh* I couldn't will myself to come out just now, sorry I didn't help you... What am I on about? You're good enough with your spear there to knock a soldier out in a swing or two. Hardly needing anyone else to help you, haha.
Reed	You should have withdrawn by now.
Fionn	We... *sigh* Okay, you guessed as much.
Reed	So, did they leave you behind too?
Reed	They shouldn't... they wouldn't. You can't fight. You'd get caught. But you're a trader here–you know so many people. If they treat you unjustly, you have too many methods you could retaliate with...
Fionn	No, no. I was actually... running back to bring you along, so you can flee with us. I know, I'm a little late for that. I was feeling guilty, and scared of running into the army, and I just kept arguing with myself, and now I'm late. It's a good thing you can fight, at least. The army can't get their hands on you. Er, ma'am, sa... say something. You're frightening me, you really are.
Reed	I am? ...Why?
Fionn	I really don't know how to apologize to you in any way that makes it better. Honestly, they're a kind bunch usually, it's just life these days has driven us mad...
Reed	You don't need to say anything... it's fine. I don't mind. Think of me like... like reeds, growing on the roadside.
I won't poison you, or crush you. At most, you'll feel a little stinging from me.
Reed	Who would mind–such a white lie?
Fionn	You say that with your hurt written all over your face.
Reed	Do... I look that hurt? You don't need... to worry about me, but–you do need to flee, quickly. After last night's fire, the army will be sure to transfer more people from the city, to search the wilds here.
Fionn	Er, right, of course... *sigh* There's one more thing, actually. It's a little hard for me to say. I know you're telling us to run. But for the past dozen or so days, we've been hounded by the army this way and that like beasts in a hunting ground, just going in circles over the wastes. We can't shake them. So if I could ask you one more favor. Please, help us. Escort us on our journey, so we can catch the carrier truck that saves our lives.