Session 91: Vainglorious Bastards
Dawn of the Final Day.
...passed some time ago, but the fact remains that the Heist, the infiltration of the Seventh Dawn, the theft of the Frost Fair Blade, slipping into the den of their greatest foe with a purposefully split party for reasons that never really got fully explained beyond "opportunity," is about to begin.
Isa and Yves wait with the Meteor elsewhere in Yinha, Isa serving as a getaway pilot, Yves serving as an elemental conflagration away from any places his particular brand of meandering attention could be a negative.
This leaves the heist to Bast, captain of the Starfall, survivor of the streets of the Triad, veteran of past breakings and enterings. A moogle with a suspect past and a loose grip on morality. A machinist with an eye for gadgetry and a nose for trouble.
It leaves the heist to Linnet Leveche, a librarian-on-break, a culinarian in enthusiasm if not by trade, a flurry of run-on sentences in any sort of interaction that threatens to put her off balance, which has been roughly eighty percent of them thus far.
It leaves the heist to Orrey Alyon, an artist by trade in that he's sold a few sketches to a dodgy newspaper for pretentious anarchists, an ambulatory sketchbook who notices how a sweater sleeve bunches to cast deeper shadows in the cable knits but doesn't notice giant adventure holes in the ground, a man who thinks social cues are how he lost at billiards (and he's not even that incorrect).
The only thing standing between our three brave adventurers and the Frost Fair Blade is everything.
We join our crime crew moments before the kupo kicks off...
**
From his perch on a coil of cable on an empty dock in view of the Dawn, Bast passes the bottle of lightly disguised water to a lightly disguised Orrey and quietly says "No one's left in half an hour now. Seems like a good time." Orrey stuffs his hair further into his dark blue beanie and pulls up his hood, checking on the look in a nearby window to make sure none of his hair is showing. Orrey nods to Bast and checks with Linnet. "Ready?"
Linnet hops off the barrel she's been trying not to kick and adjusts the lump of her braid beneath her jacket, again. "Ready as we're going to be, I think." The total number of the disembarking Seventh Dawn crew lacks context, as the number of crew aboard when it left is unknown. (91, because Bast still counted.) The list of notable people that did disembark, though, did give them something.
Doctor Dural, Suzaku, Seiryu, Genbu, Cassiat, and Perilune all left the ship earlier. Neither Perilune nor Cassiat carried themselves like prisoners would. "Alright. On my signal - Linnet, you go first, in case Orrey will need help with the landing. Orrey second with the gravity trick. I'll go last," Bast concludes. "Got all of your potions sorted out?"
Orrey nods and pats his pack.
Linnet grimaces. "Thanks to you remembering them at the last minute, yes." And with that... the heist is underway.
The region around the Seventh Dawn is lightly patrolled today, if 'patrolled' could even be the word for it. The presence around the ship is considerably lighter than it was on their initial recon. Only two people not related to the Dawn are on the dock, and it is simple to space movement out so they do not notice.
On the Dawn itself, there are two crew members on deck. A human and a viera, doing some harpoon cannon maintenance. The viera looks considerably more bored about this than the human. Bast glances over the edge, then leans back with a smile. "Looks like that's our clowns on their way here. Linnet, you're up. Try to angle your approach so you're not visible from the deck."
Linnet nods, secures her bag, and takes off.
Orrey stands near Bast, standing as casually as he can, watching to see if anyone is looking their way.
Navigating underneath the cannons doesn't give Linnet much trouble, and the Captain's window should be in the same place on this ship as it was on the last one. Most of the other visible windows, ports, and handholds are empty, as expected.
Bast is doing his best to look like picking his teeth is taking all of his attention for the foreseeable future. Linnet is a shadow moving into position in a corner of his eye.
Hovering and hugging the wall just out of frame, Linnet waves her success. Orrey gets a slight nod from Bast.
"Diabolos, I could use your help today," Orrey whispers as he focuses on his gravitic connections with the mighty guardian force, conjuring shadowy batlike wings. He takes off after Linnet, moving quickly to join her.
There is nothing but open ground beneath Orrey as he flies, with the elevated docks normally providing stronger security than this. Swooping up to the window, Orrey calls upon Diabolos once more to help secure their entry. A dark, steel ball appears in his hands and he places it onto the side of the ship nearest him, signaling to Linnet in advance that her perspective needs to shift quickly.
The world seems to be sideways as Orrey and Linnet "fall" onto the ship, which is now officially DOWN. Bast waits until Orrey is about midway to his destination before a pair of metal wings pushes the back of his hoodie up somewhat as they spread out. He twitches his mask up into position and jumps off the side of the dock, into open air.
(Linnet is caught off guard by the gravity shift - yes, they practiced it, but it's another thing entirely to be pulled ninety degrees toward a different flavor of 'ground.' Silently, she thanks her stars that she's not stuck to the actual ground anymore.)
For a moment, Bast wonders if this is what birds feel like - the curve is smooth and clean, following the exact path he pictured. Then the ship is in front of him, and he pulls up to bleed off speed and feels Orrey's spell take hold as his feet touch the Dawn.
Orrey is silently counting down what's left of the minute of altered gravity. The side of the Seventh Dawn looks a great deal like the sample ship Isa provided cover on the other day. There are windows, both at the Captain's chamber level, and then further down the ship on the lower levels. Orrey's Steel Orb effect is ticking down.
Bast takes a couple of steps up to the window and peers over the rim to check that the room is clear while he palms the tools he picked out for the occasion. The Captain's quarters are unoccupied. The layout inside here is significantly different than the sample ship -- no monstrously plush bed for Orrey, alas -- but plenty of bookshelves, that desk, and a familiar copper telescope.
Linnet regrets not sending that message before boarding, but...too late now.
Kneeling on a vertical surface that feels down while trying to pick a lock is certainly a new experience for Bast, but the lock itself doesn't pose too much of a challenge. Different from the one on the model ship, but he remembers the last job where he's seen this design as he eases the window open and climbs through.
Orrey follows Bast in, dismissing the Steel Orb after clambering in through the window. He adjusts his mask and then pauses to call on Kuganepo for a bit of assistance.
Once the other two are in safely, Linnet shimmies through the window and closes it after her. The Captain's quarters. The goal is the door out of here, then down to the vault. Anything else is secondary.
But these are the Captain's quarters for the Seventh Dawn. Orrey heads for the door, glancing back at his companions to see what the next move is going to be.
Linnet cannot resist a snoop through the papers on Dural's desk, trying to glean three people's worth of tactical information in one glance.
Bast quickly scans the contents of the table for anything that might have useful information on the Rising Stars' plans and associates - then does a quick circuit of the cabin looking for more of the same.
Bast's perusal of the cabin turns up minor details about Doctor Cid's life; she enjoys tea, she has multiple pairs of reading glasses, she enjoys the occasional trashy novel, she keeps her gil in plain sight (4800, which isn't particularly exciting), and there is a map of the routes they have taken over the last several weeks, detailing where they have been, plus coded markers for what they found in Alterna, and where it was sold. The margin notes for the Machanon cities are inscrutable but clearly important. Linnet goes nearly cross-eyed trying to peruse Doctor Cid's cramped handwriting, until a flash of divine inspiration - she glances over her shoulder at Orrey, startled - highlights a sheaf of particularly interesting notes.
Orrey whispers a prayer of thanks to Kuganepo for the help.
The desk holds a journal. It would be more correct to call it a debate document, as there are arguments and counter-arguments being made here. It is clear, though, that the handwriting is from the same person, but they are clearly arguing against themselves, using a different penmanship style for both sides; Dural's handwriting is jagged and coarse, as are all doctors' handwriting, but there is an elegant flow to the counterargument.
Bast raises an eyebrow at the novels as he eases the map our of the clutter around it, being careful not to touch anything else. It rolls up easily enough, and disappears from view under his hoodie.
Orrey, listening at the door, glances back and asks quietly, "All ready to go?"
Rather than speed-reading this Jekyll and Hyde nonsense, Linnet shoves the journal in her pack, musses the desk to cover it up a bit, and follows Orrey to the door. "...well I should hope so," comes a voice from down the hall. "And rest assured, if absolutely any of you stand in my way, this will be raised to the highest power and the top authority."
"B-but there weren't any scheduled inspections today--" comes a very weary and harried reply.
"All the more reason to have them! Now I understand that your Captain is not onboard, Miss... Shionne, was it? Miss Shionne. But I am not going to have the wool pulled over my eyes in her absence. Once again, I am Inspector Jenks, Ryan Jenks, and I am here on authority of Yinha Customs, and I will be checking every box in here so help me, and help me you shall, until I am assured that there are no breaches of protocol occuring." A clap. "Now. The hold. And a selection of rooms chosen at random between now and then."
Bast narrows his eyes as he listens, then suddenly breaks into a smile. He mouths "Clowns." at Orrey from the wall on the other side of the doorway.
Orrey mouths "Uh-oh" to Bast, eyes widening.
Linnet raises one eyebrow to Bast in a question.
Once the sound of the Inspector fades away, Orrey reaches for the door handle and slowly opens the door, checking the hallway before heading out.
Bast follows, taking unusual care to muffle his footsteps.
Linnet hovers about half an inch above the hallway floor and brings up the rear.
Orrey takes the most direct route towards the Vault, having memorized the maps he drew. The hallway is full of enticing possibilities, as the infiltrators move for the stairs down to the next level and the vault, following well in the wake of the Yinha Inspector. They pass a series of rooms, each helpfully and endearingly labeled. Genbu's room nameplate has a drawing of a flower on it. Byakko's has a handwritten note that says "50."
There is a room marked VIP, and there is a room marked Cassiat.
Orrey's memory guides them unerringly to the stairwell.
Orrey glances at Cassiat's room, hesitates, but keeps moving forwards. "First the blade, then we can poke around if the sky isn't falling down," he thinks to himself.
Bast, noticing the hesitation, raises two fingers, then lowers them to point straight down the hallway.
Orrey gives Bast a thumbs-up while moving.
Linnet tries to stop outside the VIP room and Cassiat's room, but Orrey's determination and Bast's, um, signage? prove stronger than her curiosity. Marginally. For now. Temporarily. The stairs lead down to the third level. "And another thing!" can be heard from somewhere up above as the path winds around to the entryway to the vault, the door before the vault door, which is locked.
Bast nods, this part being entirely to his expectations, and bends to the keyhole to persuade the door to open. Orrey and Linnet barely have time to catch their breath before he's ushering them inside.
Orrey grins under his mask as things continue to go well for the team.
The room with the Vault Door is very lightly decorated; five chairs, one seated in front of four. A portrait of Doctor Cid sits on the left wall. The Vault lies ahead, four keyholes arranged in a diamond, at least two feet separating them from each other.
This is the single largest task. Bast takes a moment to relock the entry door and lodge a prybar in the mechanism; some of the tension seems to go out of his shoulders as he turns towards the vault.
Orrey unslings the Armageddon, checking it over. "Ready to guard against whatever comes at us."
Linnet takes a seat in the chair closest to Bast, folds her legs into a lotus position, and places a hand on each of her ankle bracelets. "Ready before your silence runs out."
Bast nods to Orrey, then looks over at Linnet. "That'll be for drilling. Where to drill..." He trails off as he runs his hands over the corners and seams around the vault door, trying to find any signs of wiring for the alarm going in.
"When you choose where, I can ask for some help." Orrey says, hand on his holy symbol chain.
Bast thinks about this for a moment, hands not stopping the examination, then shrugs slightly. "Whatever works."
Orrey bows his head and Communes with Kuganepo. Orrey asks, "If Bast drills in the current location, will we succeed in opening the vault without setting off any alarms?" After a few unproductive guesses, Bast pulls a wire from behind a nondescript bit of siding and slowly breathes out. "Alright." Leaving it where it is, he sets out to pick a spot for the drilling, vaguely aware of Orrey's words in the background.
"Wait." Orrey says.
(Linnet, being no help with this part, is just listening very hard for the door.)
"If you drill there, we won't succeed in opening the vault without setting off an alarm." Orrey says. "And what, pray tell, is in here?" comes that Inspector Jenks voice from just outside the door Bast jammed.
"That is the vault," Shionne? replies. "No one can get into it, including you."
"I'll be the judge of that." The doorknob jiggles. "Open that door."
"I don't have a key," Shionne replies. "That's for the officers only."
"You said an officer was on this ship now, didn't you? Maybe it's time I ask them a few questions..."
Footsteps fade.
Linnet removes her hands from her anklets and lets out the breath she was holding. Bast, after continuing to examine the vault door with only a glance back towards the voices, finally steps back and softly taps the spot he's picked out for drilling.
The spot is just inside the leftmost lock, taking the center of the keyhole and then moving one degree toward the center of the Vault Door itself. Unfortunately, this will need to be repeated on every lock to trigger the release.
"Maybe because I asked if you drill THERE. Do you need to drill multiple spots or something?" Orrey asks.
Linnet snaps to get Orrey's attention, jerks her head toward the door, then signals, politely, for him to zip his lip. Bast steps over to Linnet and motions Orrey over, his voice just over a whisper. "Planning to cut the wire before I start drilling. I think that should cut power to the alarm, but I'll put up the silence first just in case. And yeah, I'll have to drill each lock to get it open."
Linnet nods and prepares to start counting down the time.
Orrey holds out his watch for Linnet to...watch.
Orrey calls out to Kuganepo one more time to aid his companions through this.
Bast steps back and readies clippers for the wire in one hand and the drill in the other. His "three, two, one" is barely audible from where Linnet is sitting - the "zero", as he touches a button on his belt, is not. The wire parts without a sound.
The sparks and shavings fly from the locks silently as Bast's drill slowly sinks in. He is through one lock and partway into another when Linnet taps him on the shoulder in warning; the drill withdraws easily enough, and he can hear his shoes scuffing slightly on the floor as he settles down to wait out the recharge time. Orrey paces a bit in between Silenced drilling sessions, checking and rechecking his equipment.
For her part, Linnet is very glad she brought a book, even if she's processing maybe one sentence in ten and couldn't even tell you the main character's name. Jenny something. Genevieve? Ginevra? Something swoopy and romantic and not at all fitting for black ops.
Bast is on his feet with the drill lined up and angled into the partially-drilled lock as Orrey marks the twenty minutes from his watch and the silence envelops them once more. Footsteps.
Orrey lifts the Armageddon, aiming it at the door. "You're worried you're forgetting something?" one of the officers says from the other side of the pre-vault door. He sounds playful, mocking but without any malice. "Leave the light on, make me come all the way back here?"
"You could have stayed," Cassiat retorts. "I can make my way back on my own."
"I was worried you forgot where we parked," the officer replies, then laughs. "You know the rules. Travel buddies. Today, I'm yours."
"Yeah, yeah," Cassiat pouts, still a teenager no matter what death-dealing airship crew she flies with. "Thanks for coming back with me, I guess."
"Hey. What are friends for, eh? You walk it off, and me, I'll just see what kind of fires need starting up around here."
Two sets of footsteps, separate directions.
An officer has returned.
Cassiat has returned.
Sparks inside the vault, with conflagrations waiting outside of it.
Orrey lowers his weapon as they walk away, all kinds of keyed up by the anxiety of waiting.
Bast has the second lock brutalized and is most of the way through the third when Linnet stops him once more. He glances at Orrey, who seems to be a bit twitchier than before, but if he's wondering what's going on he doesn't mention it.
Orrey watches Bast waiting and says quietly, "This is taking forever." More footsteps, but this time they only pass by briefly. No one shares personal stories or tries to barge in through the jammed door. The level of activity has increased, but it is not yet targeted. Linnet summarizes the conversation outside in a low whisper to Bast once the silence departs.
Bast nods, looking at the damage on the vault door. He leans over to whisper practically into Orrey's ear. "One more should do it."
After Linnet fills him in, he comes back to add "Breathe. And don't get identified on the way out." before lifting the drill once more.
Orrey nods, breathes in a slow, calming breath, and then continues pacing. Bast works faster when the silence comes up a third time, the spray of sparks reflecting in the sweat dripping onto his sleeves. The third lock yields in under a minute, and the drill pushes through the fourth as Linnet gets up to stop him.
Linnet shoves the paperback in her bag and jumps up, ready to bolt in whatever direction the alarms (or lack thereof) dictate.
"Are we in?" Orrey asks without taking his eyes off the door.
Bast, by way of response, puts the drill bit aside to let it cool and stows the drill away before trying the door. The door opens. The Vault has been breached. To be continued...
...passed some time ago, but the fact remains that the Heist, the infiltration of the Seventh Dawn, the theft of the Frost Fair Blade, slipping into the den of their greatest foe with a purposefully split party for reasons that never really got fully explained beyond "opportunity," is about to begin.
Isa and Yves wait with the Meteor elsewhere in Yinha, Isa serving as a getaway pilot, Yves serving as an elemental conflagration away from any places his particular brand of meandering attention could be a negative.
This leaves the heist to Bast, captain of the Starfall, survivor of the streets of the Triad, veteran of past breakings and enterings. A moogle with a suspect past and a loose grip on morality. A machinist with an eye for gadgetry and a nose for trouble.
It leaves the heist to Linnet Leveche, a librarian-on-break, a culinarian in enthusiasm if not by trade, a flurry of run-on sentences in any sort of interaction that threatens to put her off balance, which has been roughly eighty percent of them thus far.
It leaves the heist to Orrey Alyon, an artist by trade in that he's sold a few sketches to a dodgy newspaper for pretentious anarchists, an ambulatory sketchbook who notices how a sweater sleeve bunches to cast deeper shadows in the cable knits but doesn't notice giant adventure holes in the ground, a man who thinks social cues are how he lost at billiards (and he's not even that incorrect).
The only thing standing between our three brave adventurers and the Frost Fair Blade is everything.
We join our crime crew moments before the kupo kicks off...
**
From his perch on a coil of cable on an empty dock in view of the Dawn, Bast passes the bottle of lightly disguised water to a lightly disguised Orrey and quietly says "No one's left in half an hour now. Seems like a good time." Orrey stuffs his hair further into his dark blue beanie and pulls up his hood, checking on the look in a nearby window to make sure none of his hair is showing. Orrey nods to Bast and checks with Linnet. "Ready?"
Linnet hops off the barrel she's been trying not to kick and adjusts the lump of her braid beneath her jacket, again. "Ready as we're going to be, I think." The total number of the disembarking Seventh Dawn crew lacks context, as the number of crew aboard when it left is unknown. (91, because Bast still counted.) The list of notable people that did disembark, though, did give them something.
Doctor Dural, Suzaku, Seiryu, Genbu, Cassiat, and Perilune all left the ship earlier. Neither Perilune nor Cassiat carried themselves like prisoners would. "Alright. On my signal - Linnet, you go first, in case Orrey will need help with the landing. Orrey second with the gravity trick. I'll go last," Bast concludes. "Got all of your potions sorted out?"
Orrey nods and pats his pack.
Linnet grimaces. "Thanks to you remembering them at the last minute, yes." And with that... the heist is underway.
The region around the Seventh Dawn is lightly patrolled today, if 'patrolled' could even be the word for it. The presence around the ship is considerably lighter than it was on their initial recon. Only two people not related to the Dawn are on the dock, and it is simple to space movement out so they do not notice.
On the Dawn itself, there are two crew members on deck. A human and a viera, doing some harpoon cannon maintenance. The viera looks considerably more bored about this than the human. Bast glances over the edge, then leans back with a smile. "Looks like that's our clowns on their way here. Linnet, you're up. Try to angle your approach so you're not visible from the deck."
Linnet nods, secures her bag, and takes off.
Orrey stands near Bast, standing as casually as he can, watching to see if anyone is looking their way.
Navigating underneath the cannons doesn't give Linnet much trouble, and the Captain's window should be in the same place on this ship as it was on the last one. Most of the other visible windows, ports, and handholds are empty, as expected.
Bast is doing his best to look like picking his teeth is taking all of his attention for the foreseeable future. Linnet is a shadow moving into position in a corner of his eye.
Hovering and hugging the wall just out of frame, Linnet waves her success. Orrey gets a slight nod from Bast.
"Diabolos, I could use your help today," Orrey whispers as he focuses on his gravitic connections with the mighty guardian force, conjuring shadowy batlike wings. He takes off after Linnet, moving quickly to join her.
There is nothing but open ground beneath Orrey as he flies, with the elevated docks normally providing stronger security than this. Swooping up to the window, Orrey calls upon Diabolos once more to help secure their entry. A dark, steel ball appears in his hands and he places it onto the side of the ship nearest him, signaling to Linnet in advance that her perspective needs to shift quickly.
The world seems to be sideways as Orrey and Linnet "fall" onto the ship, which is now officially DOWN. Bast waits until Orrey is about midway to his destination before a pair of metal wings pushes the back of his hoodie up somewhat as they spread out. He twitches his mask up into position and jumps off the side of the dock, into open air.
(Linnet is caught off guard by the gravity shift - yes, they practiced it, but it's another thing entirely to be pulled ninety degrees toward a different flavor of 'ground.' Silently, she thanks her stars that she's not stuck to the actual ground anymore.)
For a moment, Bast wonders if this is what birds feel like - the curve is smooth and clean, following the exact path he pictured. Then the ship is in front of him, and he pulls up to bleed off speed and feels Orrey's spell take hold as his feet touch the Dawn.
Orrey is silently counting down what's left of the minute of altered gravity. The side of the Seventh Dawn looks a great deal like the sample ship Isa provided cover on the other day. There are windows, both at the Captain's chamber level, and then further down the ship on the lower levels. Orrey's Steel Orb effect is ticking down.
Bast takes a couple of steps up to the window and peers over the rim to check that the room is clear while he palms the tools he picked out for the occasion. The Captain's quarters are unoccupied. The layout inside here is significantly different than the sample ship -- no monstrously plush bed for Orrey, alas -- but plenty of bookshelves, that desk, and a familiar copper telescope.
Linnet regrets not sending that message before boarding, but...too late now.
Kneeling on a vertical surface that feels down while trying to pick a lock is certainly a new experience for Bast, but the lock itself doesn't pose too much of a challenge. Different from the one on the model ship, but he remembers the last job where he's seen this design as he eases the window open and climbs through.
Orrey follows Bast in, dismissing the Steel Orb after clambering in through the window. He adjusts his mask and then pauses to call on Kuganepo for a bit of assistance.
Once the other two are in safely, Linnet shimmies through the window and closes it after her. The Captain's quarters. The goal is the door out of here, then down to the vault. Anything else is secondary.
But these are the Captain's quarters for the Seventh Dawn. Orrey heads for the door, glancing back at his companions to see what the next move is going to be.
Linnet cannot resist a snoop through the papers on Dural's desk, trying to glean three people's worth of tactical information in one glance.
Bast quickly scans the contents of the table for anything that might have useful information on the Rising Stars' plans and associates - then does a quick circuit of the cabin looking for more of the same.
Bast's perusal of the cabin turns up minor details about Doctor Cid's life; she enjoys tea, she has multiple pairs of reading glasses, she enjoys the occasional trashy novel, she keeps her gil in plain sight (4800, which isn't particularly exciting), and there is a map of the routes they have taken over the last several weeks, detailing where they have been, plus coded markers for what they found in Alterna, and where it was sold. The margin notes for the Machanon cities are inscrutable but clearly important. Linnet goes nearly cross-eyed trying to peruse Doctor Cid's cramped handwriting, until a flash of divine inspiration - she glances over her shoulder at Orrey, startled - highlights a sheaf of particularly interesting notes.
Orrey whispers a prayer of thanks to Kuganepo for the help.
The desk holds a journal. It would be more correct to call it a debate document, as there are arguments and counter-arguments being made here. It is clear, though, that the handwriting is from the same person, but they are clearly arguing against themselves, using a different penmanship style for both sides; Dural's handwriting is jagged and coarse, as are all doctors' handwriting, but there is an elegant flow to the counterargument.
Bast raises an eyebrow at the novels as he eases the map our of the clutter around it, being careful not to touch anything else. It rolls up easily enough, and disappears from view under his hoodie.
Orrey, listening at the door, glances back and asks quietly, "All ready to go?"
Rather than speed-reading this Jekyll and Hyde nonsense, Linnet shoves the journal in her pack, musses the desk to cover it up a bit, and follows Orrey to the door. "...well I should hope so," comes a voice from down the hall. "And rest assured, if absolutely any of you stand in my way, this will be raised to the highest power and the top authority."
"B-but there weren't any scheduled inspections today--" comes a very weary and harried reply.
"All the more reason to have them! Now I understand that your Captain is not onboard, Miss... Shionne, was it? Miss Shionne. But I am not going to have the wool pulled over my eyes in her absence. Once again, I am Inspector Jenks, Ryan Jenks, and I am here on authority of Yinha Customs, and I will be checking every box in here so help me, and help me you shall, until I am assured that there are no breaches of protocol occuring." A clap. "Now. The hold. And a selection of rooms chosen at random between now and then."
Bast narrows his eyes as he listens, then suddenly breaks into a smile. He mouths "Clowns." at Orrey from the wall on the other side of the doorway.
Orrey mouths "Uh-oh" to Bast, eyes widening.
Linnet raises one eyebrow to Bast in a question.
Once the sound of the Inspector fades away, Orrey reaches for the door handle and slowly opens the door, checking the hallway before heading out.
Bast follows, taking unusual care to muffle his footsteps.
Linnet hovers about half an inch above the hallway floor and brings up the rear.
Orrey takes the most direct route towards the Vault, having memorized the maps he drew. The hallway is full of enticing possibilities, as the infiltrators move for the stairs down to the next level and the vault, following well in the wake of the Yinha Inspector. They pass a series of rooms, each helpfully and endearingly labeled. Genbu's room nameplate has a drawing of a flower on it. Byakko's has a handwritten note that says "50."
There is a room marked VIP, and there is a room marked Cassiat.
Orrey's memory guides them unerringly to the stairwell.
Orrey glances at Cassiat's room, hesitates, but keeps moving forwards. "First the blade, then we can poke around if the sky isn't falling down," he thinks to himself.
Bast, noticing the hesitation, raises two fingers, then lowers them to point straight down the hallway.
Orrey gives Bast a thumbs-up while moving.
Linnet tries to stop outside the VIP room and Cassiat's room, but Orrey's determination and Bast's, um, signage? prove stronger than her curiosity. Marginally. For now. Temporarily. The stairs lead down to the third level. "And another thing!" can be heard from somewhere up above as the path winds around to the entryway to the vault, the door before the vault door, which is locked.
Bast nods, this part being entirely to his expectations, and bends to the keyhole to persuade the door to open. Orrey and Linnet barely have time to catch their breath before he's ushering them inside.
Orrey grins under his mask as things continue to go well for the team.
The room with the Vault Door is very lightly decorated; five chairs, one seated in front of four. A portrait of Doctor Cid sits on the left wall. The Vault lies ahead, four keyholes arranged in a diamond, at least two feet separating them from each other.
This is the single largest task. Bast takes a moment to relock the entry door and lodge a prybar in the mechanism; some of the tension seems to go out of his shoulders as he turns towards the vault.
Orrey unslings the Armageddon, checking it over. "Ready to guard against whatever comes at us."
Linnet takes a seat in the chair closest to Bast, folds her legs into a lotus position, and places a hand on each of her ankle bracelets. "Ready before your silence runs out."
Bast nods to Orrey, then looks over at Linnet. "That'll be for drilling. Where to drill..." He trails off as he runs his hands over the corners and seams around the vault door, trying to find any signs of wiring for the alarm going in.
"When you choose where, I can ask for some help." Orrey says, hand on his holy symbol chain.
Bast thinks about this for a moment, hands not stopping the examination, then shrugs slightly. "Whatever works."
Orrey bows his head and Communes with Kuganepo. Orrey asks, "If Bast drills in the current location, will we succeed in opening the vault without setting off any alarms?" After a few unproductive guesses, Bast pulls a wire from behind a nondescript bit of siding and slowly breathes out. "Alright." Leaving it where it is, he sets out to pick a spot for the drilling, vaguely aware of Orrey's words in the background.
"Wait." Orrey says.
(Linnet, being no help with this part, is just listening very hard for the door.)
"If you drill there, we won't succeed in opening the vault without setting off an alarm." Orrey says. "And what, pray tell, is in here?" comes that Inspector Jenks voice from just outside the door Bast jammed.
"That is the vault," Shionne? replies. "No one can get into it, including you."
"I'll be the judge of that." The doorknob jiggles. "Open that door."
"I don't have a key," Shionne replies. "That's for the officers only."
"You said an officer was on this ship now, didn't you? Maybe it's time I ask them a few questions..."
Footsteps fade.
Linnet removes her hands from her anklets and lets out the breath she was holding. Bast, after continuing to examine the vault door with only a glance back towards the voices, finally steps back and softly taps the spot he's picked out for drilling.
The spot is just inside the leftmost lock, taking the center of the keyhole and then moving one degree toward the center of the Vault Door itself. Unfortunately, this will need to be repeated on every lock to trigger the release.
"Maybe because I asked if you drill THERE. Do you need to drill multiple spots or something?" Orrey asks.
Linnet snaps to get Orrey's attention, jerks her head toward the door, then signals, politely, for him to zip his lip. Bast steps over to Linnet and motions Orrey over, his voice just over a whisper. "Planning to cut the wire before I start drilling. I think that should cut power to the alarm, but I'll put up the silence first just in case. And yeah, I'll have to drill each lock to get it open."
Linnet nods and prepares to start counting down the time.
Orrey holds out his watch for Linnet to...watch.
Orrey calls out to Kuganepo one more time to aid his companions through this.
Bast steps back and readies clippers for the wire in one hand and the drill in the other. His "three, two, one" is barely audible from where Linnet is sitting - the "zero", as he touches a button on his belt, is not. The wire parts without a sound.
The sparks and shavings fly from the locks silently as Bast's drill slowly sinks in. He is through one lock and partway into another when Linnet taps him on the shoulder in warning; the drill withdraws easily enough, and he can hear his shoes scuffing slightly on the floor as he settles down to wait out the recharge time. Orrey paces a bit in between Silenced drilling sessions, checking and rechecking his equipment.
For her part, Linnet is very glad she brought a book, even if she's processing maybe one sentence in ten and couldn't even tell you the main character's name. Jenny something. Genevieve? Ginevra? Something swoopy and romantic and not at all fitting for black ops.
Bast is on his feet with the drill lined up and angled into the partially-drilled lock as Orrey marks the twenty minutes from his watch and the silence envelops them once more. Footsteps.
Orrey lifts the Armageddon, aiming it at the door. "You're worried you're forgetting something?" one of the officers says from the other side of the pre-vault door. He sounds playful, mocking but without any malice. "Leave the light on, make me come all the way back here?"
"You could have stayed," Cassiat retorts. "I can make my way back on my own."
"I was worried you forgot where we parked," the officer replies, then laughs. "You know the rules. Travel buddies. Today, I'm yours."
"Yeah, yeah," Cassiat pouts, still a teenager no matter what death-dealing airship crew she flies with. "Thanks for coming back with me, I guess."
"Hey. What are friends for, eh? You walk it off, and me, I'll just see what kind of fires need starting up around here."
Two sets of footsteps, separate directions.
An officer has returned.
Cassiat has returned.
Sparks inside the vault, with conflagrations waiting outside of it.
Orrey lowers his weapon as they walk away, all kinds of keyed up by the anxiety of waiting.
Bast has the second lock brutalized and is most of the way through the third when Linnet stops him once more. He glances at Orrey, who seems to be a bit twitchier than before, but if he's wondering what's going on he doesn't mention it.
Orrey watches Bast waiting and says quietly, "This is taking forever." More footsteps, but this time they only pass by briefly. No one shares personal stories or tries to barge in through the jammed door. The level of activity has increased, but it is not yet targeted. Linnet summarizes the conversation outside in a low whisper to Bast once the silence departs.
Bast nods, looking at the damage on the vault door. He leans over to whisper practically into Orrey's ear. "One more should do it."
After Linnet fills him in, he comes back to add "Breathe. And don't get identified on the way out." before lifting the drill once more.
Orrey nods, breathes in a slow, calming breath, and then continues pacing. Bast works faster when the silence comes up a third time, the spray of sparks reflecting in the sweat dripping onto his sleeves. The third lock yields in under a minute, and the drill pushes through the fourth as Linnet gets up to stop him.
Linnet shoves the paperback in her bag and jumps up, ready to bolt in whatever direction the alarms (or lack thereof) dictate.
"Are we in?" Orrey asks without taking his eyes off the door.
Bast, by way of response, puts the drill bit aside to let it cool and stows the drill away before trying the door. The door opens. The Vault has been breached. To be continued...
Comments