Chapter Three, C :: The Fallen

[Storyteller]

Team:
Deo
Jun
Lawric
Stardust
Jax

This is assuming you get off the airship and into the city without any of you killing each other... that sort of fun stuff will come later er first big time ST post here, let me know if I've made anything unclear

---

It stretches out beyond your limit of vision. Building after building, pastel colors, whirring cogs, the city Timber. You may have been here before but for some reason today it feels as if it is a different place. The town seems quiet almost too quiet. Normally the streets are bustling with people going about their daily business. Now you only spot a few with their heads down moving about quickly as if they have some where else to be. For a moment you get the paranoid feeling that perhaps they know you are coming. Could there be a leak within the remaining SeeD?

You head for Broadcast Tower its dark form towering over the city like some kind of metal god. At times the large dish moves slightly the antenna in the middle covered with blinking red lights. Houses and shops sprawl out around the main broadcast building their roofs glistening in the sun.

As you turn the corner on a street adjacent to the Tower you realize where the majority of the townspeople have gone to. Today is some kind of celebration and the majority of them are gathered upon this street. There is booth after booth of merchants selling their wears. Lovers walking amongst them arm in arm. Children splashing in the puddle left over from the recent rain. A small band plays at the end of the stage its plonky mellow music almost haunting to your ears.

A few townspeople pass you by looking you up and down distrustfully. You realize that with so many people so close to the tower your job of destroying it is going to be very hard indeed.

[waterlily43]

Jun frowned at the throng of people mingling in the street. What great timing. They had to celebrate some kind of event on the same day that they decided to bomb the Dollet Tower. She didn't expect their mission to go all that smoothly but it was discouraging to have an obstacle erected in front of them before they had even begun. A humming, moving wall of human obstacle. She had formed a skeleton of a plan for the evacuation but she did not count on the entire town congregating on this street. It looked like she had to make extensive adjustments to that plan.

She turned around to face her other teammates.

"Do you guys have any ideas how to go about this evacuation thing? I have one but some of you might be able to come up with a better one. An advantage of having all the sharpest minds on one team perhaps." She smiled pleasantly. "So if anything comes to mind at all, just shoot."

[stardust]

Stardust watched the people clumping with each of the stands and having a good time. They were all merrily going about their own way without a hint of a knowledge that the junk of a tower above them would fall on their beloved street today.

She brought her attention back to her teammates only to hear Jun's input about ideas. Like Jun, she had an idea too. But since she was rather infamous, she'd bet all of them would go with Jun's idea.

"How about causing a controlled ruckus in the middle of the street? Example. We can blow up one of the streetlights and everyone would sure be screaming their pants to get away from this place. If not, we do more ruckus until everyone runs for their lives." She paused. "It would just be a matter of time before the authorities come, so by then, we could blow up the tower."

She crossed her arms and faced Jun. "That's it. Let's hear yours."

[Jax Ridean]

They had landed in a small forest clearing about 600 km away from the city and hopefully, if the Aegean's cloaking mechanism remained intact, she would be safe from discovery. The GPS-like device Jax was now tinkering was supposed to be able to keep track of the ship's current state of concealment. The small blinker attached glowed green --- if all conditions normal, yellow -- if "flickering" occurred in three or more sections of the airship, and finally, red -- if the airship was revealed. It was a tremendously useful feature and only further reminded Jax of how sophisticated the Aegean was and that he should show a bit more gratitude towards Squall the next time he saw the commander. The hitch was....this fine specimen of technology did not seem to have a power button...


"Do you guys have any ideas how to go about this evacuation thing? I have one but some of you might be able to come up with a better one."

Finally taking a break from his tinkering, Jax shoved the device into his back pocket glanced up at Jun as she spoke. And as he listened and looked around him, the weight of her words suddenly sunk in. Here he thought that the hardest part of their mission would be infiltrating the tower, whereas the 'evacuation plan' had hardly crossed his mind. But how the hell...in the name of Alexander's butthole were they going to clear the area of 300+ civilians! And at a festival or gala of all Hyne damned things!

That's the last thing we need...hundreds of screaming people running around with cotton candy and clown paint on their face...

"So if anything comes to mind at all, just shoot."

Well that's quite a doozy. Anything coming to mind yet Jax?

Hmmm Jax....notaone.

Really? Well none here either.

I see. You know what that means right?

Oh yes. We're ultimately fucked.

"How about causing a controlled ruckus in the middle of the street?" Stardust roughly proposed. "Example. We can blow up one of the streetlights and everyone would sure be screaming their pants to get away from this place. If not, we do more ruckus until everyone runs for their lives." She paused. "It would just be a matter of time before the authorities come, so by then, we could blow up the tower."

"Controlled Ruckus?" Jax interjected with a grin. "Now that's an oxymoron for you." He shoved his hands in his pocket ruefully and shook his head. "No such thing love. The minute you get that many people to running around, screaming, losing their minds--it'll be chaos. And with only five of us, there's no way we can control that kind of pandemonium. Plus, what if the authorities come earlier than we expect? More trouble I say. Now I'm not saying that I can propose....."

His focus had locked on to a local vendor who was setting up some kind of booth beside the fountain where about twenty people were sitting. Immediately, those people had vacated their seats and were now heading towards the booth, clearing the fountain area.

"Divergence!" He snapped his finger and pointed it triumphantly. "I mean...today is a celebration right? What if...this section of town is to be cleared of all civilians....for the preparation of....of...." he shook his finger vigourously. "C'mon guys! You know what I mean. People always respond to authority if there's some kind of carnival event or show. With a some civilian clothes and bright smiles, we could remove people from the "staging area" until further notice. Maybe we can---"

He was interrupted by the faint buzzing he felt in his pocket. He smiled sheepishly "Got the cloaking device to work."

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_{Sorry for the long post. I haven't gotten the chance to do a "good" RP post in awhile.}

[Lawric]

As they walked the deserted streets and Lawric peered up at the hulking and obtrusive form of the broadcast tower, he couldn't help the uncomfortable ball of anxiety forming in the pit of his stomach. He had seen Deo invent and ignite some impressively explosive things, but incidentally none of those memories were comforting to him now. He was having a hard time believing that the ridiculously massive structure before them could be taken down by destroying four simple struts.

This is insane.

He was distracted from these negative thoughts when they emerged into a heavily populated area after shortcutting through an alley. Lawric hadn't been in Timber too often, but he'd been around enough that he recognized the area as one of the city's more recreational and busy spots. Various mercantile booths and a strange plunking melody coming from a far-off stage told him this was some type of parade or celebration. He observed passersby with mild interest.

"Controlled ruckus,"

He looked at Stardust and raised an eyebrow. What exactly is a 'controlled ruckus?' It sounded like an Able idea. In other words, something haphazard and dangerous.

He turned back to the streets ahead, and this time studied the mob of people watching the players on stage. What would give this many people adequate reason to end their little festival and evacuate... ? In halfway listening to Jax, he overhead something about the 'staging area.' His attention tuned into the stage again. Hmm.

He crossed his arms and cleared his throat, turning to the rest of his team.

"I think I get what you mean -- use the stage to dupe them into leaving the area. What about law enforcement, though?" He glanced at Jax. "It's a better idea than just stirring up chaos, heh, but I still think it's a long shot. The people running this celebration thing, the people who actually know what's going on, in other words -- would know we have no business on that stage. We'd definitely be drawing a lot of attention to ourselves. In fact, we'd probably be the ones evacuated."

He shrugged. "Anyway, I say we just make it easy: find the nearest law enforcement unit and report a fake bomb threat. Tell them we overheard some people talking about detonating one in a nearby building, or something. There are tons of kids here. It seems to be a community-type event. I don't seem local law enforcement just ignoring us. Even if they don't evacuate they will probably investigate, which will at least distract them from us for a little bit." He shrugged again. "I guess it sounds really simple, but it might work."

[waterlily43]

Jun listened to Stardust and Jax's plans. They could both work but there was a certain amount of unstableness in both of them. So when Lawric suggested using law enforcement, Jun couldn't help but be impressed.

/That young man has a good head upon his shoulders./ Sapphy suddenly said, and for once their opinions concurred.

"That's a really good one." Jun nodded at Lawric. She wasn't biased. She didn't need to be. It was feasible and it required little effort. " And we can place some kind of contraption that looks like a bomb but isn't one? The law enforcers would have to evacuate everyone before they can find out it was a hoax." She cast a look at Deo, who looked rather grumpy. "Oh you made those stink bombs for nothing. I'm really sorry."

[Jax Ridean]

Seeing that Jun was now sticking with Lawric's plan, Jax had to conceded feat. Throwing up his hands, he sighed, "Well looks like the lady has spoken. By the way, anyone know what kind of time table we're facing on this?"

[waterlily43]

"Wait...hold on." Jun turned to Jax. "I'm not the leader of this team. Let's take a majority vote before we decide on any one plan."

[stardust]

Just as Stardust expected, they wouldn't go with her idea since she was infamous.

/Oh, come on./ Diwata sighed. /Negative Nancy./

Lawric's idea might have been more peaceful, but she wasn't really head-over-heels with it like Jun--maybe even Jax.

"I'm not the leader of this team. Let's take a majority vote before we decide on any one plan." Jun explained. She was about to say that.

"If you're going to report an unknown bomb threat from one of the shops, are you sure the Police wouldn't inspect the broadcast building as well?" Stardust asked. "Look around you. No matter what angle you look, the broadcast building stands out from all these shops and houses surrounding it. I'd check such a notable building if I were one of the authorities."

[Diego Stanton]

"Oh you made those stink bombs for nothing. I'm really sorry." Jun gave Deo an apologetic look.

"Eh it's alright... I actually didn't make any," Deo scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He was too lazy to make them. Besides, didn't Leonhart say that the job of getting people away was supposed to be Stardust and Lawric's specialty? All he was concerned about was taking down the tower, which looked easy enough, except for the whole 'being heavily guarded by dotNA' thing. Suddenly, Deo had an idea. He cleared his throat to gain attention from his teammates and once they were all silent and staring at him, he felt a slight flush rising up his neck. He hated being the center of attention.

"Almasy said the tower is broadcasting messages to other dotNA all over the world right? Well... there must be a control room near the tower where dotNA dudes make the actual announcements that then get broadcasted. What if we found it and made our own little announcement before blowing up the tower? We could totally screw up some dotNA missions or make them meet at some discreet area and then ambush them there or tell them they've been fired or something haha.

We can even take a dotNA member hostage and force him to say the messages at gunpoint or something, so it wouldn't be our voices and we could remain inconspicuous." Deo eyeballed the top of the tower discreetly, "I just hope the control room isn't at the top of the tower."

Deo paused for a moment. "Oh yeah, and I'm gonna leave the civilian stuff to you guys... and Stardust makes a good point."

[Jax Ridean]

Perhaps he had spoken too quickly about Lawric's plan. But that was simply part of his nature..always ready to kick back when faced with opposition..always wanting to smooth things over between people. But Stardust had brought up a valid point. To be fair, he should have opposed the plan as well, seeing that she brought up almost the same argument he had used against her earlier.

The authorities...damn were they a nuisance...and he still strongly believed that their presence would jeopardize the whole operation.

What to do..what to do...

At that moment, he wished Gemma was on their team. She would have whipped up some brilliant strategy within minutes -- then of course before bossing the hell out of him. He wondered how the other teams were doing.

Can't be worse than this..

"Ok, ok!" he muttered in heated frustration. "I feel like we're thinking in circles. There has to be a way to get this done peaceably without involving the authorities too much to raise their suspicions...If we're not short on time, I'd suggest doing a little field work. There's gotta be a schedule of events flyer or something around here. Otherwise, I feel like we're just moving in the dark."

[waterlily43]

"How about if we just... leave clues about the hoax that will lead the enforcement away from the tower?" Jun suggested suddenly. "We can first alert them to a bomb scare by sending an annonymous message to the law enforcement. Then lead them on a "treasure hunt" of sorts that would first lead them to the tower, then away from it so that it would be ruled out as a possible source of the Bomb." She chewed on her lip the engines of her brain creaking. "But Jax raises a valid point about a timetable. So we need to alert them at some point that the bomb is going to blow at one of the important events, so they have to evacuate the citizens before then." She looked at them. "Am I making any sense?"

[Lawric]

Lawric couldn't help but sigh. He didn't want to shoot her down, but...

"I don't think we really have time for an elaborate game of cat and mouse. We've already wasted time standing here debating this whole thing. There's going to be a measure of risk no matter how we do this, we can't help that. So I'm at the point where I don't really care what we do, let's just... do something."

A jerk was the last thing he meant to become, but after voicing that he kind of felt like one.

He sighed again.

"Look, I'm not a particularly important component of this team. I'm not even SeeD." He shrugged. "Why don't I just strap a decoy bomb to myself and act like some deranged suicide bomber. Civilians will be terrified and run away, and law enforcement will be totally distracted by me. You guys can slip inside and destroy the struts. How about that?" He glanced around at the rest of them.

The fake bomb threat idea was a hell of a lot better; simple and efficient, and by far the least risky. But these people... He never imagined SeeD would be so hesitant and paranoid. Signe would have had this operation under total control.

[stardust]

LMAO!!! Lawric XD Some parts of the previous posts crack me up too, especially Jax's and Deo's XD
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"Why don't I just strap a decoy bomb to myself and act like some deranged suicide bomber..." Lawric sounded frustated. However his suggestion caught Stardust's attention. The police would certainly leave the Broadcast building alone if they found the "source of danger" someplace else.

Deranged bomber? Him as a decoy?

"That's a good idea. I'm all for it." Stardust simply replied. "We can report a fake bomb threat from around this area until the police evacuates everyone in the vicinity. Then he--" She motioned to Lawric. "--can appear in one of the nearby shops to draw police's attention away from the broadcast tower."

/You think the police will shoot him down?/ Diwata anxiously asked. Stardust thought her GF was at it with her senselessness again.

"He gets my vote." She looked at the rest of her teammates. If controlled ruckus was too risky, maybe a 'maniac' would make a better diversion. If he was willing to go that far for this mission, despite the annoying attitude he displayed in the briefing, she was more than happy to support him.

[waterlily43]

"No." Jun looked at Stardust as if she were insane. "When Commander Almasy said no casualties if we can manage it I'm pretty sure it included us as well. What makes you think they won't take off his head once they get a clear shot? Don't underestimate them especially if they get truly desperate. I still say we go with the bomb hoax, without other elaborate ding dongs since they waste so much time." She trained her gaze away from Lawric. All the deep impression he had left earlier was certainly dampened by her inability to take criticism. She didn't want to admit it but his earlier speech about wasting time sounded like a personal attack. It probably wasn't but whatever. It didn't stop her from feeling slighted. A small pout began finding its way on her lips.

"In the event that they do investigate the building one of us will just have to create a distraction for them to follow." She lifted her her bag of gas masks before setting it down on the ground. "Using one of these. And they would not try to shoot the suspect cos they still haven't found the bomb yet. Now, let's stop wasting time." She removed Tien Nu and its sling from her back and thrust it in Stardust's hands. "Hold on to this for me. Don't drop it!"

She pivoted on her heel and headed for the Timber police station.

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Haha the embarrassment got to her head. Anyone wants to stop her please do ~_~