admit that the waters around you have grown

[maskormods]

WHO: All war-allied imPorts that have signed up HERE.
WHERE: Vladivostok, Russia, Lithuania, and various coastlines.
WHEN: January 26th.
WHAT: The US military, with the help of imPorts, makes their move! The hunt and action begins for the missing imPorts, and for sensitive Soviet information that will help the US strike back effectively. Players may also use this log to play out planning and any other associated activities.
WARNINGS: None anticipated; let us know if we should change this!


Before being split-off into missions, military-assisting imPorts will be addressed and briefed as a whole by General Jamal Park on behalf of the Army, although imPorts will also be working alongside all military branches as necessary during these expeditions.

He will thank those who have volunteered to help, telling them that their aid will be a tremendous asset to locating the kidnapped imPorts and striking back against the Soviets, and that it is the willingness imPorts have shown to involve themselves even when they don't have to, even when they have no inherent ties or required loyalty to this world or this country, that makes him honored to put his life on the line working alongside them.

ImPorts will be allowed to choose which mission to participate in, since they will know their own strengths and capabilities best; again, we remind players to communicate and use their own best judgement to disperse amongst missions as evenly as possible!

After a short period allowing the groups to organize themselves and go over their strategies -- the military's plans and any ideas imPorts themselves may have to add -- it is time to head out. Godspeed!


▸ V L A D I V O S T O K, RUSSIA; 1800 HOURS

Welcome, heroes, to the bustling coastal city of Vladivostok. At 6 degrees Fahrenheit, it's blisteringly cold, but that doesn't seem to stop any of the city's civilians from going about their daily duties. ImPorts are free to roam the streets throughout the day, but are discouraged from drawing attention to themselves. Your government shipped you off to Russia from China, and has briefed you on the following: you are to scout out the docks where the Russian's undercover military base stands, and once night falls, you are to infiltrate as quietly and as subtly as you are able. Priority are the information systems contained within, both with physical, handwritten notes and electronic files. FOOT SOLDIERS are to deal with the cameras, surrounding guards and attack dogs while HACKERS are advised to break into their security systems and discover all the information that they are able to.

Their security measures are both electronic and physical. Russian guards are equipped with state of the art equipment and body armour, including both guns with armor-piercing rounds capable of shooting through the toughest of materials and seizure-inducing tasers that will incapacitate a normal human being for up to fifteen minutes. Their dogs are trained to bite to kill, but most importantly, will be tracking down any unfamiliar scents. The electronic security system is composed of multiple hidden security cameras, a preliminary silent alarm to mobilize their forces, and after that, an extremely loud siren alarm to attract the attention of everybody nearby. One set of documents is locked in a physical safe, and all computers are password locked.

Civilian deaths are highly discouraged, but not punished. ImPorts aren't overtly instructed that this is the case, but if they see that their only option to maintain secrecy is to kill a witness, they will face no adverse consequences for doing so.

Participants may decide among themselves what their prime methodology will consist of, what they discover, how many soldiers or civilians are disabled or killed or, if necessary, how many imPorts of their team are killed in action.

In order to disperse the information received ICly, remember to link the pertinent threads HERE.

▸ L I T H U A N I A; 1800 HOURS

Welcome, heroes, to the Adomas Base. It is brutally cold and new snow has begun to fall. Your government has briefed you on the following: you are to scout and destroy the technology and infrastructure on this ground force space center. Priority is the control room. HACKERS are advised to hijack the mainframe servers, where they will find out that the physical location of LACKEY is in a subterranean bunker of the Adomas Base. Confrontation with LACKEY is crucial. You will find that there are four levels to this base, and three of them are underground. LACKEY is located in the lowest, most hidden level. At every level of the Adomas Base you will find 15 armed guards along the metal hallways and steel stairways. They will have assault rifles and Infrared Radiation Laser Guns. If you are hit by an Infrared Radiation Laser Gun, you will feel your flesh around the entry wound slowly decay. Make sure to find a healer as soon as possible, this will only take a few hours to become unavoidably incapacitating!

Players may handle the combat however they like! Approval from us is not required to get injured, shot, or incapacitate -- or even kill -- the guards, although obviously, killing them is not in imPorts's best interest.

If you choose to interrogate a Soviet guard, they will only surrender information AFTER sustaining physical pain from you. Do you have it in you? If you do, you may discover the following:

1) Moscow knew that nothing scares the American Government like a threat from space. The very fact that your leaders sent you here speaks to their national insecurity.
2) The captive imPorts are stowed away on a submarine on the opposite end of the earth.
3) The Admiral in charge of B2008 has a bone to pick with another higher up, and he will stop at nothing to use imPorts to further his career.
4) LACKEY was inspired by Lachesis.
5) Moscow does not really know where Lachesis is, but thought that drawing imPort attention would spur a legitimate reason to invoke a crisis.

Participants may decide amongst themselves which characters discover which information; if there are fewer characters participating in violent interrogation than there are numbered points, it may still be assumed all information is recovered if the interrogation requirements have been met and linked under the COMBAT CONCLUSIONS thread HERE.

▸ C O A S T L I N E S, VARIOUS ; 1800 HOURS

Welcome, heroes, to the wild chase for the imPorts. This has the capacity to be both the most dangerous mission, and the most fruitful one as they directly attack 3 Russian-occupied areas: the coasts of Vietnam, Antarctica, and New Zealand.

Because of the danger involved, the government has ensured that imPorts have access to whatever mobile weapons they require, and have access to an elite team of their own forces, including technological experts and experienced pilots to commandeer whatever vessels they see fit. Your government has briefed you on the following: while the American government does have submarines at their disposal, they have decided that it will be most productive to commandeer a submarine already at one of these three given locations. To do so, imPorts will have to directly face down Russian troops at these locations, but the government has full faith in their abilities, and will do its best to accommodate any of the imPorts' wishes, within reason. ImPorts have also been tasked with protecting their pilots; if they wish to steer a vessel satisfactorily, their help will be of the utmost importance!

On each coastline, imPorts will be confronted by a number of Russian forces. If imPorts fail to approach them with caution and subtlety, all of these forces will be on the ready, and waiting to attack. If they succeed, then they may take them off-guard before they are able to get to their stations in time to issue the first blow. The equipment that the Russians have at their disposal - and will be attacking the imPorts with - include FOUR TANKS, TWO HELICOPTERS, TWO WARSHIPS, and TWO SUBMARINES. In addition to the soldiers equipped to commandeer these vessels, there will be Spetsnaz of 40 people.

Once they have seized a submarine - which may take place either before or after the soldiers are disabled or killed - they will begin the search for the missing imPorts. Participants may decide amongst themselves in what order this will take place in, and where they will decide to go. Players are also free to NPC their American allies as taking part in whatever strategic measures they deem necessary! After characters have ICly begun the search for the missing imPorts, please comment to the Plotting Post with a link to the thread and we will be sure to let you know whether these attempts will result in success or failure!

Comments

OTA - Interrogation

[mousquetaire]

[ With the base taken, some anxious part of d'Artagnan seems to settle. This is the first stage, and so far it's gone well. Providing they can hold position here, they should have a chance of success even if they have to regroup.

With that in mind, he is carefully, deliberately resting his creation powers. He's been giving the team a fairly steady supply of bullets, which thankfully he doesn't need to maintain after they've found their mark. The result of this will be that after being hit by one of his bullets, only the wound will remain. There will be nothing left to identify where it came from.

And now, of course, they have the captured soldiers' weapons to choose from, too. He ensures all of them are both disarmed and restrained. He approaches his team, with one eye always on their captives. ]

We need to find out what they know.

[ He's not wasting any time about this. Their captive friends have been imprisoned for long enough. ]

Much as I'd like to, I'd prefer they didn't bleed more than they have to.

[ But one of his powers has been helpful, so far. Maybe the other can be, too. ]

If you're all willing, there's something I'd like to try.

[darwinatrix]

[Olivier has asked him to create a machine-gun, knowing how devastating it'll be with the limited line of approach anyone has if they come at them from the back. Now that their position is somewhat fortified, for the time being, she... doesn't quite relax. Relax is not a setting she has. But she's calm and cool-headed if nothing else.]

I'm listening. What is it?

[mousquetaire]

It's my other power.

[ One he doesn't publicise as much as the first. But in this instance, he doesn't see the harm. ]

It affects how people feel. If I'm angry, so will they be.

I thought I could try to make them sympathetic to our questions. It's not permanent, but perhaps it would not need to be.

[darwinatrix]

Hm.

[She draws her service sidearm, and glances at the soldier in question.] I'll give it a try.

But in the event he's resistant, I'll do things the old-fashioned way. Pain talks.

[mousquetaire]

Believe me, I won’t object.

[ Unless it gets heavy, that is. For now, he’s not worried – though, he glances at Olivier. ]

This won’t just hit the prisoner. I have no way of stopping that.

[ Because what leaves him is an aura, reaching for all within range. He’ll focus on the prisoner, but unless his teammates can resist it, his empathy will hit them, too.

Of course, they’re already on his side. With any luck, their sympathies are with him already.

D’Artagnan goes to the prisoner and crouches, his eyes on him. Before he says a word, he concentrates on what they’ve lost – on his worry for the people missing, his fear for what might be happening to them, his sheer righteous fury that they’ve been taken at all, and his building animosity towards the government that made it happen. He concentrates on that feeling, and doesn’t try to hold it back, or focus it, or control it. He sends it outwards instead, and it leaves him like a wave in all directions. The prisoner, under the intensity of his stare, actually recoils. D’Artagnan’s anger is a weapon in itself. ]

Ask your questions, Major-General. I’m sure he understands why we need his information.

[darwinatrix]

[She can feel it. It tugs on her, that aura, and it makes her lips curl back in an angry, nearly unnatural grimace. She will resist it.

Anger is one thing, but empathy for others is a weakness she does not let herself fall prey to.

There is tension in her voice as she speaks.] Why launch a first strike like this? Why risk starting nuclear war?

Because we knew your government fears an attack from space. [Replies the prisoner, with a laugh.] More than anything. They will not resist, if they believe we can hit them from the sky.

[mousquetaire]

[ D'Artagnan glances at Olivier. The Russians think the Americans will not resist? He doesn't know if that's true, but the military's call for aid makes him think it's not likely. The Americans hadn't been willing to take this threat lying down.

Nor, however, had they wanted to act alone.

He focuses again on their lost friends, on the missing ones, and on his sense of allegiance t them. ]

But why involve imports? You had to know that this would provoke all of us, as well. Why give yourselves two enemies at once?

[ He watches the soldier, and lets his mind wander to the captives. He thinks of everything he knows about their conditions; the room they're crowded into, the nullification to their powers, the lack of food. Every ounce of his loyalty to them is thrown at the soldier (and, of course, to the room in general). He can visibly see the man flinch, as though he can pull back from the strangeness of what he's now feeling. D'Artagnan picks at that thread. ]

They're alone. Miserable. You can help us stop that.

[darwinatrix]

[The soldier's expression turns into a pained grimace, as he's obviously trying to resist the pull of D'Artagnan's powers.] Why... help you? The Admiral thinks of you as the capitalists' weapons, that's all. You're just a stepping stone in his career.

[Olivier's brow furrows.] Admiral. Then they're being held by the Soviet Navy?

I'll tell you nothing, swine.

[Before D'Artagnan can react, Olivier strikes, whipping out with the butt of her pistol and catching the man across the face.] You'll tell me everything embarrassing you ever did as a child, by the time I'm through with you.

[mousquetaire]

[ D’Artagnan steps back, giving Olivier space. Honestly, he has no problem with this. He’d rather get what they need without actively torturing the man, but a little encouragement can’t hurt. He takes a moment to focus inward. He needs to keep projecting sympathy. Making the guard angry is not going to help here. ]

She’s not lying. [ He comes closer again, crouching beside the guard, but notably leaving plenty of space for Olivier to strike again. ] Do you really want to risk making her angry? I don’t recommend it.

Our people are lost and frightened. You must know, there’s nothing we won’t do to reclaim them.

[ It generates a wave of resolve. When his mind is set on a goal, d’Artagnan is fiercely stubborn. The guard feels it and rocks back, his resolve petering away in direct correlation with the bruise building on his cheek. ]

You will never find them! Do you think we would not protect ourselves from you? Even if you find them, the machine will take them again!

[ D’Artagnan looks thoughtful, and smiles. ]

We’d best take it off your hands, then.