Operation Anthem - The Great Train Heist

[shockingblue]

Who: Gunvolt, Jailbreak, Desidera, Vivi, Lia, Kohaku, guest starring Asimov
What: Invading a Sumeragi Armored Train and put a stop to Project Monarch
When: November 3
Where: Somewhere in Eastern Europe
Warnings: Fighting and violence, and imprisonment of an AI



Briefing

Gunvolt's team is gathered early in the morning into a specialized presentation room for a pre-mission briefing. Even GV himself had been kept in the dark about what was going to happen, just knowing the target was one both QUILL and Daybreak had very good reason to interfere with. Once everyone took their seats, the door opened, and for most, an unfamiliar man walked inside. Of course, Gunvolt immediately recognized him, and his eyes brightened considerably.

"Asimov! You came personally?" It was in that moment that the weight of the operation hit home for the young agent, because if Asimov had traveled here to deliver the briefing himself, it had to be huge.

In response, the man smiled a bit and laughed quietly. His voice was deep and commanding, and carried with it an American accent. "Sure did, GV." It was hard to tell, but the man's eyes looked over everyone gathered here, briefly sizing them up. "Looks like you did get quite a team together for this. Good. It will be dangerous, but nothing the lot of you shouldn't be able to handle. Anyway, as GV just said, my name is Asimov. I am the founder and leader of the Rune Guard organization known as QUILL. We have contacted and joined with Daybreak for this, an extremely important mission. Now, let's get down to it." He pulled a remote from his pocket, pressing a button with his thumb. The lights dimmed, and a projector turned on, revealing what looked like a parked armored train in a station somewhere. "This... this is where you will be deploying. On this train, while it is in transit from Russia into Germany."

Asimov turned and looked around the room once more.

"But I get ahead of myself. The owner of that train is a corporation known as the Sumeragi Group. They are based out of Japan, and claim to be a company who works in electronics, software, and most famously, energy production. Doubtlessly, if any of you come from Japan, you have probably heard of them. Of course, all of that is mostly a front for their other activities, involving magic and exploitation of the supernatural. This has mostly been in weapons development, research and development, and more. But over the past twenty or so years, they've taken interest in a very specific group of individuals." He pauses for a dramatic moment, and looks squarely at his protege, Gunvolt. "Candles."

"Sumeragi has, over the past several years, been systematically kidnapping and exploiting Candles for their own purposes: profit, personal gain, and even... weaponization. Their exploitation goes beyond simply unethical and callous cruelty. If any of you have seen movies about corrupt sci-fi corporations, that's about as spot on as it gets.

Anyway, over at QUILL, we have been working on piecing together how they find their targets... and we believe we have found it." Asimov grimaces, knowing this was going to be an unpleasant reveal. Still, he pressed the button again on the remote... revealing a figure who might be familiar to some people in the room. A young, attractive looking JPop idol, wearing clothing with strong butterfly motifs in bright oranges and blacks.

"...No. Monarch?!" Gunvolt nearly jumped out of his chair in surprise. "But how?!"

Asimov shook his head and sighed. "...Monarch isn't what she seems, GV. It turns out, she was never a real human at all. As you know, GV, and some of you might not, Monarch's concerts have been virtual; which has been a popular thing in Japan as of late. Singing computers, and all that. Turns out, Monarch, the JPop Idol, is actually part of Project Monarch, Sumeragi's top-secret program to locate candles. Her song... when broadcast at her concerts, acts as form of sonar that resonates with Radiance; it can pinpoint Candles with astounding accuracy. And with that, Sumeragi finds more victims. Fortunately, her range is limited to within a certain radius, and all those albums and songs sold do not have the same effect. ...Which brings us back to the train."

He flips the picture back to the armored train.

"Project Monarch will be on this train in a matter of hours; or rather, the AI Core that houses the Monarch AI that Sumeragi uses for this project. Our information suggests that the Core is incredibly sophisticated in its processing power, and is kept in a nigh-indestructible carrying case. As such, we cannot simply destroy the train directly; we need boots on the ground inside the train to locate the case with the AI... and to destroy it. Sumeragi cannot be allowed to have a method to locate potential victims any longer... and moving it deeper into Europe is unacceptable as well.

...Some of you may have heard Monarch was having a World Tour soon. This is part of it. And we need to stop it now. Before it starts."

"Asimov... haven't Monarch's concerts been cancelled a lot recently?"

"Yes, though we don't know why. Her 'managers' blame it on technical problems at the venues, but we do not know if that is the truth or not. Either way, GV. Remember, you can't let your personal feelings jeopardize this mission; there are too many innocents that could be wrapped up in this already."

"...Yeah. I hear you. I'll be fine."

"Good. We expect resistance on the train to consist primarily of Sumeragi security forces. Most of them are mundane humans, but they will be carrying weapons and gear that are quite advanced. Expect firearms, both of mundane and energy projection types. Lasers, blasters. Missiles. Magic cannot be ruled out either. And worse, there are rumors of semi-autonomous combat vehicles on board; Mantis class. They can be dangerous, but they may not activate them while the train is in motion. If they do, they can be destroyed with enough concentrated power. We expect the AI Core to be closer to the engine, but that car will require access cards from Sumeragi Agents on the train. Find the cards, then get into that car, and destroy the AI Core once you remove it from its casing.

I can answer further questions. I am sure you all have some."

Part Two: Deployment

One of the Academy's Rune Wing transports soared through the sky during the zero hour, flying in along the moving train to deploy the team on one of the rear, flat cargo traincars. The Rune Wing's magical stealth properties allowed our brave heroes to board before a response could be mounted, but resistance will come quickly! Fight your way through the cars, find the dudes with the keycards to open the main storage unit near the front of the train!

Comments

Part 1: Briefing Reactions

[shockingblue]

(Use this section to react to briefings, if you so choose. Asimov will have his own thread to ask questions of him too, so feel free to have your characters talk to him as well.)

Questions / Interactions with Asimov

[shockingblue]

[Unlike Gunvolt, Asimov stands quite tall; well over six feet, and he has a surprisingly commanding presence, despite being a man only in his mid-late twenties. And no, he's not once removed those sunglasses since he came in. He's just Like That.

Feel free to ask him whatever your characters feel like they want to.]

[unlogic]

[When Asimov had first glanced over the team that assembled for this mission, Desidera could almost swear that she and Vivi were being given a different look than the one he had given to Kohaku, Lia or Jailbreak, though the fact that he never removed those sunglasses made it hard to say for certain.

When the opportunity to ask questions came, she had a few, unrelated to that.]

Mmm, you said that the majority of them will be normal humans, but since you aren't ruling out magic, we should expect them to be using rune-inscribed equipment? Or should we expect for there to be some mages or even some of the Candles they've been using? In the case of the latter, that would make them some of the victims here, and it would be best to simply subdue them, wouldn't it?

[shockingblue]

[Asmiov looked over to Desidera, and politely nodded, giving her his full attention.]

It is almost certain that they will be using Runic equipment. Much of it will be designed with simplicity and ease of use in mind. Powerful, but in the way that the Russians sell equipment; expect it to be stripped down, cheaper, and easier to mass produce compared to what most Rune Guards use. I am certain GV will be better equipped than most of them, for example. Weapons are still weapons, of course.

[There's a bit of pride buried in the mostly stoic delivery, knowing very well Gunvolt was very good at what he did.]

Our intelligence does not indicate any suggestion of their exploited Candles being on the train. As far as we know, Candle exploitation is their most clandestine operation, and they are reticent to take chances with exposing it publicly.

...However, if on the chance that our intelligence was wrong, if you encounter captive non-combative Candles, rescuing them should be a top priority. Sumeragi would not otherwise be using Candles for combat purposes... with only one exception.

[infestedcouncilpresident]

Kohaku paid attention to the briefing. It was hard, because she kept on getting distracted wondering things about Asimov's personal life (and she knew damn well why but she wasn't going to dignify that train of thought with any further attention.), but she was nothing if not responsible when it mattered. She =doggedly followed along up until the end, but one thing was just really bugging her.

"Monarch. The pop star. The one with thousands of fanatical fans." A quick glance at GV. "She's an evil vocaloid?"

[shockingblue]

Gunvolt shifts in his chair rather uncomfortably, as he's suddenly confronted with this horrible truth. He very much doesn't look happy about this, though whether or not it's the part of him that's a fan not liking the idea that Monarch might be doing terrible things, or if that he bought into the scam is difficult to ascertain.

"..Sure looks that way, doesn't it."

Asimov glanced over to Kohaku when she asked the question, and nodded.

"Her true purpose is nefarious and complex, though we do not know much about the technology that Sumeragi really uses to make her tick. Project Monarch is shrouded in mystery beyond what we have uncovered thus far. We simply know that it is an AI program; one likely to be incredibly sophisticated and advanced. And presumably hostile, given Sumeragi's proclivities to weaponize whatever they can."

[buddinghopes]

[Lia tapped her finger against her cheek, thinking over what had been said about what to expect.]

So. Those semi-autonomous combat vehicles. Any ideas on what we can expect there if those things do in fact get activated?

[shockingblue]

Of course. Just a moment.

[Asimov looks at the remote for a moment, and hits a couple of buttons, skipping a few slides and bringing up a schematic and picture of the vehicle in question; simply put, a quadrupedal walking tank.]

This is a Mantis-class semi-autonomous assault tank, or a SAAT, for short. Primarily, these tanks are designed for anti-personnel work, usually for daemon pacification in the Outlands. Sumeragi sells these units to various organizations that do work out there. They're pretty good at what they do. But they're far from unstoppable.

The main weak point is if you can get the Mantis to overheat, it'll expose its power core to cool, so it doesn't overload and destroy the unit. Hitting the power core in the rear hard enough will destroy the tank outright. The best way to overheat the tank is to hit it repeatedly in the head, where its main processors are. It can be killed with conventional arms too, but it is heavily armored, so it can take a beating. For weapons, it is primarily equipped with small miniature homing missiles, machine guns, and occasionally a laser cannon in its abdomen.

Fortunately, while it's AI driven, it isn't particularly smart or clever, just aggressive. They're sufficient against daemons, but generally speaking a human can easily outsmart one of these.

[Gunvolt raises his hand to add something too.]

They're also not terribly quick on their feet. At point blank range, you have the advantage too, because its weapons have a harder time tracking up close. The machine guns become the most dangerous, but the Mantis mainly seems to prefer its missiles for target suppression.

Part 2: Deployment

[shockingblue]

(This area's for the main combat infiltration of the log. We're going to try things a little differently here, like stated on the Planning Post. This area will be for generalized brawling and fighting on the train. Don't worry about timelines, or things syncing up perfectly. There can be as many keycards to get into the main train as we want, and there's goons of all sorts using whatever kinds of cool magitech or spells you can think of.

Basically, do your threads the way you want to and don't worry too much about tag order unless you plot something out with others. You can state preferences in a top level too, if you want, just to keep things moving along. Take the opportunity to look as cool as possible and have fun.

If you want me to NPC Sumeragi goons in your threads for ease, leave a note in the top level for me, and I'll do that happily. Otherwise, feel free to style all over the losers.)

GV Threads: (Prefer two-person threads, but open to multi-person threads too.)

[shockingblue]

It sure didn't take long for Sumeragi to respond to the invasion of the train. Goons on the train were initially taken off guard, but they regrouped quickly, so fighting through the train, car by car, was a rough proposition, but it had to be done.

Kicking open the hatch to the next car, Gunvolt was immediately met with an energy blast; and while it first looked like it connected, the laser seemingly phased through Gunvolt as mirror images of him seemed to appear in a burst of feathers made of light.

"A.... a ghost?!" The Sumeragi heavy who had fired the rifle practically froze in place as he watched his weapon be utterly ineffectual against the invader.

"...Close, but no cigar." Gunvolt raised his Dart Leader, and shot a barrage of darts as he took cover inside the train car, and then letting out a burst of lightning to knock out any of the guards currently aiming in the room; but the slamming of footsteps ahead said more were coming. "Quick, get in here and get ready to put the drop on them!"

[unlogic]

Desi had been following behind rather closely, so by the time she was being told to get inside, she was already there, taking a position opposite of GV and stretching some of the shadows inside the car across the floor near the hatch, likely a clear sign to her teammate that she had something specific in mind already.

"I'll slow them down once they get in, GV, be ready to do your thing!"

Just like she said, then, the first few to enter the car were ensnared when black vines shot up from the space she had taken control of, wrapping tightly around their legs and binding them to the spot, effectively blocking the entrance of those who were still behind them, and the ones in front obscured the vision of the rest, lowering the chances of there being some sort of counterattack.

Gunvolt now had an opening to take more action.

[shockingblue]

GV only nodded in response, and reached for something on his belt.

The response from the goons was panicked screaming; clearly, they did not expect to be trapped by something like this, and the men in back shouted furiously at the team in front to get moving. Some of the soldiers in front turned their weapons on the shadows engulfing their legs; a likely fruitless endeavor, which gave Gunvolt quite an opening.

He lobbed a device into the center of the group, over the heads of the flailing men in front. When it impacted the wall, it popped open to spray about a dozen tiny darts into the area... all of which made spectacular marks for lightning.

Which immediately followed, thanks to his flashfield. The azure bolts tore through the formation, making the soldiers drop their weapons and fall over in practically an instant.

"Nice one! Let's press the advantage while we can."

GV rose from cover and kept his weapon trained forward and advanced toward the next car, stepping over the men who were now no longer blocking their way.

catchall toplevel thing

[alreadyhuman]

[ Vivi's not great at fast combat. He doesn't feel like he's good enough with a gun to try one out, either, and he hasn't really looked into staffs very much (though now, more than ever, he feels like he should. He promises to himself that he'll do it later.)

But he's got a baseball bat! He even remembered his science lessons and that metal does some special things around fire and ice and lightning (though forgetting anything about lightning was hard when Gunvolt was around). He uses the bat to direct his spells, trying not to hit anyone he doesn't intend to hit; it's a definite change from his more explosion-oriented spells of before. Bolts of fire and ice go exploding past as he works on his aim - this feels a lot better than a gun.

His height is an advantage - in the chaos and movement, anyone trying to shoot him or nail him down is more likely to catch out his hat instead or miss him entirely. He's looking more and more stressed as time goes by, but he's still holding up okay.

He's really not sure how he feels about attacking other people. In little moments when he's able to take a breather and isn't concentrating quite as hard, he just looks kind of discouraged.

For all his power and courage, he's still a small child, after all. He'd volunteered to go on this mission, but still. ]

[unlogic]

[For the most part, Desi's own actions have largely been with the intent to discourage or disable the security forces, with very little being done with any real intent to cause harm. As such, she's using her shadows in various ways mostly to bind, disarm, or otherwise just straight up intimidate, though the latter also happens to be easy enough without the shadows, thanks to her daemonic appearance.

During one particularly quiet moment before the team makes their way into the next car, she approaches Vivi, having noticed that the whole ordeal seems to be taking a little something of a toll on him.]

How are you holding up?

[alreadyhuman]

Oh! Um...I'm okay.

[ He doesn't say any of the other latent urges it seems to have stirred up in him, because he doesn't feel like he should worry anyone with stuff like that right now. He doesn't even know what it means, so it's fine.

Vivi has been trying to scare guards into not fighting, but it's hard when you're small. It's easier, though, when you're flinging magic around, so he thinks he's done okay with not hurting people so far. ]

Everything's just moving really quickly. [ He hugs the bat to his chest like it's a favourite toy. ] I guess I'm not really that used to it.

[ He's taking more of it in at once, becoming more aware. His head hurts because of it. ]

[nor_iron_bars]

[One stray goon is trying to get closer, hoping to sneak up in the chaos... and then he abruptly keels forward and drops to the floor. Jail casually steps over him and walks up to Vivi.]

Nice bat, kid. [She nods approvingly at Vivi's choice of "mage's staff", grinning a little as she pats the handle of her own hammer where it hangs from her belt.] Never hurts to have a decent blunt instrument around, just in case.

[alreadyhuman]

[ He squeaks in surprise when the man just falls over, and then relaxes when he sees it's Jailbreak. At this point, she seems like she doesn't worry about anything, so he sees her as a point of stability. This may or may not be a good idea. ]

It's better than a stick. I dunno if I should use this or get a staff, though...Mages are supposed to have a staff, right?

[ He swings the bat around idly, tapping it against the floor. It does feel good in his hand, but as always, Vivi looks for outside guidance when making important decisions. ]

[infestedcouncilpresident]

Kohaku had been in fights before. Hell, she had attacked giant flaming daemons with a sword before. This was nothing new. But it FELT different. Normally, Kohaku approached combat with a healthy dose of tightly controlled fear and caution. This time...

This time she was excited! The chance to prove herself the better fighter than all these stupid corporate goons and bend them to her will, either through the strength of arms or just through sheer intimidation! Kohaku burst into the next train car and shouted "WHO WANTS SOME!?"

Ten guys with guns immediately turned to start shooting but somehow none of them could hit her. She watched as they all aimed in what felt like slow motion and slipped between bullets with careless dexterity and grace until she closed to melee range.

Even with this new battle lust she still wasn't going to just kill a bunch of guys, but the idea of just...maiming them a little bit felt quite appropriate. They were shooting at her, after all. The solid white blade of her sword, made of daemonic ivory and harder than steel, flashed around her as she cut guns in half, lopped off fingers, slashed at achilles tendons, and generally disabled everyone around her with surgical precision.

[shockingblue]

GV held back in cover, and watched, shocked, that Kohaku had just torn through ten armed men in pretty much one fell swoop. While he very much remembered the training from hell she had been put through, actually seeing the otherwise normal girl draw a sword and crash into a group like a tidal wave was something else.

Still, he couldn't sit around gawking either. He had to get in there and mix it up. Grasping his Dart Leader, he followed her inside, careful not to get into the line of fire or put Kohaku into his, and then kept an eye on the next door.

One burst through the door, holding an electrified riot shield, about ready to toss a grenade of some kind into the melee. As the grenade left his hand, GV fired a dart at it that intercepted it and knocked it back over his shield.

The guard barely had a moment to curse before it went off, which turned out to be full of some immobilizing gel... which promptly covered him as he fell forward from its impact. His riot shield clattered to the ground in front of him and deactivated, and he struggled in vain to move as the gel hardened.

Dammit! Agh!

[infestedcouncilpresident]

She didn't move any faster than a normal person was the weird thing. She just...always felt like she had an extra few seconds to think her actions through.

She flipped the shield up with a toe and grabbed it by the rim, now that it was safely deactivated, and slammed it into the side of the head of the last guy still standing and not groaning in pain.

Kohaku snapped "That's what you get for playing at being a pack of evil bastards. Now go home to your mama and maybe she'll kiss it and make it better" in archaic sounding French, and then the spell of bloodlust passing over her seemed to pass.

"...Oh god it happened again."

[buddinghopes]

[As per Desi's request, Lia's been making sure to only use enough force to incapacitate or disable rather than cause permanent damage. If nothing else, she makes for an annoying opponent for the Sumeragi goons to fight, given how she keeps teleporting and weaving through attacks with ease, seamlessly swapping between magically-generated rapier and handguns.

She grins as she swipes a keycard from a downed goon.]

Alright, who's next?!

[Given the handful of goons that just turned towards her, that might not have been the best thing to ask... She doesn't seem too concerned, though, twirling one gun before making a "bring it" gesture with her free hand.]

[nor_iron_bars]

[Unlike her student, Jail cannot in fact teleport.]

[You would be forgiven for not being able to tell, though- she always seems to be somewhere no one expected her to be, just out of reach. Trying to get hold of her is like trying to catch smoke in your bare hands, she just slips right through your fingers.]

[Her casual disregard for the laws of gravity might have something to do with that, of course.]

[If Lia looks up at all, she might see an interesting sight. Standing on the ceiling as though it's solid ground, right behind the guards, is Jailbreak.]

[Catching her eye, she winks dramatically and presses a single finger to the front of her mask, over her mouth.]

[Shhhh. Don't spoil the surprise.]

Part 3: Finding Project Monarch

[shockingblue]

With the doors to the main cargo cabin dealt with and fully opened, the team find themselves in a room; surprisingly spacious. And at the far side of the room, closer to the engine, there is a secured container strapped down to the floor. The outer layer is very obviously runed for protection from all kinds of damage and attack. The kinds of runic inscriptions on it suggest even an artillery shell, bomb, or explosive would have a nigh-impossible time cracking it. That said, the box doesn't appear trapped either; enough so that Sumeragi clearly wasn't expecting the kind of trouble Daybreak brought. Inside the next box is a smaller one, made of heavily refined Orichalcum; which would effectively negate most magical strikes against the AI core. Fortunately, that can be opened as well.

Of course, the moment someone does, a voice resounds from inside it. Female sounding, but modulated. Yet, while sounding modulated, it sounded very... real. Emotional, even.

"...You... you're not with Sumeragi? Please! You have to help me!"

A mythril orb inside the box flickered to life, and floated up into the air gently and cautiously. On the front was a lens... a sort of projector, which lit up to display a small hologram of the girl Asimov showed in the briefing.

"My name is Monarch... and I need you to get me out of here."

Gunvolt turned and looked in awe at the hologram... as well as the AI Core orb. "You want to... escape?"

"Yes! I don't want to be Sumeragi's puppet... they've made me do terrible things. I... I can't, won't. Not again."

To say that GV looked troubled by this revelation conflicting with his mission objective would be a bit of an understatement. He looked to his teammates quickly. "This is... unexpected. Guys... what do you think?"


(This is your more typical round-robin thread, which I'll advance once a day or so if not everyone has tagged in on a cycle.)

[unlogic]

For a good few moments Desidera is silent, with several different thoughts running through her head. When she does respond...

"Let's do it." It's in a tone that suggests she absolutely won't consider any other courses of action. Once the others' attention—GV's at least—is on her, she goes on to explain her answer. "Maybe it's not quite the same thing, but not having been given any real choice for how to live or what to do? I know what that's like, it basically defined my entire life before I came to the academy."

She pauses, but only briefly.

"I know what we were told to do, but it wouldn't feel right if all of this has been against her will."

[alreadyhuman]

"I don't think we should destroy her...We're just supposed to make sure they can't use her, right?" Vivi looks and sounds troubled; his response is more immediate and empathetic. "If she wants to leave and we take her, then it'll be okay...I think? She won't get used by bad people again if she's with us."