Scene #8003: Peace, Pantries, and Production Project

Owner	Pose
Cantio	"Thanks for coming, everyone! It's always kind of weird explaining stuff like this, but... Um. Here's the situation: The president-" A pause. "-Prime minister of a country was assassinated recently, and it's causing a lot of conflict within the area. Things were already pretty tense with... Uh. Whatever the political situation was before that, but now there's a power vacuum, and it's pretty bad! I tried contacting the leaders of the remaining government and the military to get them to calm things down, but they wouldn't listen, so..." "... Yeah. If they're not willing to listen to reason, then I'm going to fix things my own way. I'd like your help to show them a united front so they can see that just going crazy isn't acceptable. We might have to resort to force, but I'm hoping it won't go that far." It's not a pretty sight. Even before Cantio's (rented) hovercraft touches down, it's easy to hear, see, and smell all the bloodshed that's already gone on before everyone arrives. Bombed out buildings are the norm rather than the exception with smoke hanging overhead, and flaming wrecks dot the streets with the noise of fire largely drowned out by semi-regular gunshots in the distance and nearby. Freshly bloodied bodies lay in the streets, and not all of them are still as people drag themselves or their wounded comrades to cover while firing at others doing the same. The stench of grease is mixed in with the blood as well, coming from some of those very people crawling away to find safety. Nothing is firing at the hovercraft just yet, at least, but it won't be long before the sight of the big purple and white hovercraft landing on a rooftop a few blocks away from the river at the edge of the city brings some of that fighting and more inquisitive eyes even closer. Cantio, perhaps realizing this, already has her sword floating behind her as she steps off the hovercraft with a loudspeaker held up to her face. "I am declaring this city a safe zone under the protection of Cadenza! If you have no interest in fighting your own people, if you're hungry, if you're injured, then you will be sheltered here! And if you're here to make some kind of power grab..." She pauses for a moment, both to catch her breath, and also to steady herself for the last part. "... Then pack up and leave, because there's no place for that here!" She lets loose with one more almost-fierce shout, then lowers the loudspeaker and turns back to the group with her usual softer/vaguely anxious tone. "... Think that'll do it?" Judging from the continued gunfire in the background barely slowing down, it is not doing it. There's some non-combatants poking their heads out of cover and from around the ruined buildings, though, and some of them are even starting to approach the landing zone while casting wary glances around, still worried that they might be gunned down at any moment.
The Kid	Kid is characteristically quiet and stoic for the whole ride. As Cantio begins briefing everyone on the situation, he pipes up with, "How do you want the fighters treated if they try to eject us? You prefer we take prisoners, or make examples of 'em?" He nods at any answer given, and the moment the hovership sets down on the building, he gets to work. First, from his subsspace storage, he produces piles of wood planks and brassy sheets of metal. With grim efficiency and single strikes to drive nails deep, he begins constructing them into cover around the rooftop's edge, turning it into a sniper's nest. "'course it won't do it. They'll strike to feel us out. Important to show 'em we can't be pushed around." Once the roof is secure, he descends into the building and begins boarding the windows and gathering whatever debris and furniture he can find to start making chokepoints in the interior.
Ishirou	Ishirou could use his own flight armor, but coming in with that might make their mission look like an invasion that it would hurt any efforts they'd make going into this. This whole situation was a cluster fuck, and he already hated it. They were already destroying their own city, killing their own people. "I wouldn't make examples of anyone. If you're trying to stop a war, then coming in as a foreign aggressor will only cause them to focus on you...and take all of the food and supplies for themselves, or attempt to. That'd be counter to providing any aid. Good chance that nobody would accept aid if they see us as an invading force." The first thing Ishirou does is try and build a working map of the area, as well as trying to get a feel for where each side of the war's forces are. The idea of trying to keep tabs on any troop movement or attempts to steal from them would go a long way. Once he can set this up and keep intelligence floating around for themselves, then he can then focus on actually trying to get a feel for how the people who are trapped between each side feel. "Acting as the aggressors here would be a bad idea."
Persephone Kore	Persephone is quiet, but not stoic, for most of the ride over. Apart from a "Hey! We've talked on the radio a bit, haven't we? I'm Persephone! It's great to meet you for real" to the Kid, she remains mostly in a focused, eyes-shut state of gentle meditative preparation. Even (especially?) at rest, there is the sense that she is realer than everything else around her. She's like a religious artifact, or a three-dimensional collectible in a paper mario game. There is also the sense that it's hard to be stressed around her: one's heart naturally, subtly gravitates towards warmer and cozier states. "Good chance that nobody would accept aid if they see us as an invading force." "Aren't we, sort of?" she says thoughtfully, as the craft approaches the city. "We're the only people who don't live here. I couldn't be mad at them if they told us to leave, even if I hope they don't." The city comes into view below. Persephone gets the wide-angle shot of the fighting first; the scale of the devastation, the collective psychic pain. One can tell exactly when it hits her. It nearly takes her breath away, even as she leans over the side to get a better glimpse. "Oh, no. These poor people," she murmurs. "I didn't expect..." Every gun she can see, from way up high, simultaneously goes crunch. This constitutes 'a lot of them', if not 'most of them'. Once they've landed, she gets the close-up view. Heedless of the potential remaining dangers, she breathlessly hurries (actually hurries, for once) over to the nearest injured person, then kneels down to talk to them. "Are you okay?" It's a dumb question. "What's your name?" Irrelevant. "What happened to you?" Obvious. The realization that she can do something to help has not clicked, at least yet. 'Seeing someone severely injured in front of her' is a novel and distressing experience, never mind several of them.
Staren	A few hover-trucks full of robots and supplies follow Cantio's hovercraft, disgorging camera drones to scout the city. The trucks are autonomous, though; Staren herself is with the other elites, eyes on the... mess, outside the hovercraft. Geeze, it reminds her of what happened when someone unleashed hundreds of clones of super-serial killers on an unsuspecting city long ago. Her eyes flicker between the bodies, already doing triage in her head. > Think that'll do it? Staren shakes her head. "Of course not. If civil war's broken out in the first place, it's because force of arms is the only thing at least one side will listen to." She nods at The Kid's assessment. > Acting as the aggressors here would be a bad idea. "They're already going to see us that way. Declaring unilaterally that this city is a safe zone? Some people will believe in our good intentions, but to those who don't, we're just making a power grab and dressing it up a little, and they'll act accordingly." She doesn't even wait for the hovercraft to actually land. The magically-sensitive may feel a couple of TW enchantments activating on her coat before she just steps out of the hovercar and flies to the potential patient with the most optimal mix of 'critically needs treatment' and 'needs quick treatment so I can move on to the next person', kneeling over them, retrieving first aid supplies (conventional, high-tech, and magical) from her bag as her vambraces extend spidery armatures with surgical tools on the end. Once the trucks land, a couple of the robots hurry over to her with more medical equipment.
Lilian Rook	<Q-Conversation> Lilian Rook says, "I shudder to think of Cantio's definition of a "humanitarian mission"." "I see. So your definition of a humanitarian mission is simply bumbling idiocy, rather than cold-blooded psychopathy this time." Lilian sighs to Cantio's 'bold' 'announcement'. "I suppose it's a sight better than immediately resorting to human expectation, so perhaps I should have been less worried, and yet . . . " Given that she'd been told to expect a literal war zone with bullets flying, Lilian is dressed in her Immunes officer commander combat skin. Her two juniors, directly involved in the same experimental testing unit as her, stand close behind her in their third year suits. A contingent of amber-green-streaked jet black power-clad Paladins special forces assignees --as many as will comfortably fit in the hovercraft's remaining space-- loiter behind as an implicit but genuine show of force. Lilian somehow looks very at-home at the head of a crowd of armoured goons and two heatherettes. "Huh? Are you really declaring yourself the ruler of this city? Just like that?" Satsuki pipes up incredulously. "Doesn't that just amount to calling yourself another contender in the running?" Arina looks to her, then looks down, swallowing nervously. "Yes, I . . . I think that means you're . . . participating in the war . . . aren't you?" she murmurs, not quite having the hang of criticizing Multiversal strangers. Her fingers fiddle with the mask currently mounted sideways. She blatantly stares to Persephone for approval. "Yes. It does. So we might as well properly represent the Paladins to stop this disaster of an attempt from spiralling." Lilian steps to the prow, facing her own men (and women). "We're disembarking. Split up into four squads, two fireteams and two medical attachés to each. Fan out and set up a perimeter here; cardinal directios around the craft, but be prepared to abandon it. Recover survivors for immediate medical attention and intelligent-gathering. You have permission to engage after verbal warning and display of insignia. Leave any interrogation or Elite forces to me." The tall, ominously black-suited figures snap crisp salutes and begin flowing over the sides of the hovercraft, simply leaping from the rails, slowing their falls with tiny jet bursts from the backs of their powersuits, and neatly forming into large chevrons that push away from the hovercraft, using the Kid's constructed tower as a center point, and finding natural funnels to set up visible positions, plonking down telescoping light poles with Paladins-green beacons, a few embankments of deployable cover, and simply picking out bits of floor to roll out treatment areas and hastily throw a tent over them. Half the forces. A force captain begins putting out a radio signal --the standard for offering non-discriminatory Paladins critical aid-- and half the team squeezes out onto the streets to start collecting the gravely wounded and haul them in, while any takers are stopped briefly at the doors and their weapons are checked. Once actually inside, treatment is swift and efficient, utilizing tried and true multi-paradigm emergency healing gear applied by trained professionals. In the meantime, Lilian addresses her two direct subordinates. "Obviously, you two are with me. We're going to be pushing into the combat zone and assessing the situation in this chaos; ideally, making contact with anyone who looks like command, apprehending them for questioning if they won't cooperate. Satsuki, on recon and fire intervention above. Arina, see to healing and remote scouting. Stay within two hundred meters of my position."
Staren	> Persephone is here. Also Lilian. Staren is always happy to see Persephone and greet her with a hug, but she also feels bad for burdening her friends as much as she does. At this moment, she's resolved to try harder to not let enemies get to her, and to refuse a mentality that demands she anticipate and police everyone else's actions; especially her own allies'. It's not that all the advice about how, in some ways, how people see her matters more than her intent, is thrown out, but placing that as priority one, all the time, will drive her mad. It can be applied when she's attempting diplomacy. Hopefully. If she remembers in the heat of the moment. She's not sure how to reconcile dealing with frienemies like Lilian, though; friends of friends (of friends, etc) who are good people and shouldn't be dismissed but who will always disagree with her...
Cantio	EARLIER, IN THE HELICOPTER: "I'd prefer... Not killing them necessarily when they're already neutralized, but don't go out of your way to use less-lethal methods. Every second counts as long as there's still fighting going on somewhere. Even if they tell us to leave, I can't just let them turn their home into a battleground like this." Cantio replies to the Kid and Ishirou. "They had it a lot better before... All of this." Cantio replies to Persephone next with a light grimace as upon realizing what she might be feeling, trying not to let her own misgivings show too much on the way there. It's certainly easy to feel, though, along with some more distant misgivings trying to worm their way into her head. "I'll be cold if I have to, but it won't be my first resort." She answers Lilian next, looking torn between furrowing her brow in vague disapproval and a half-smile of vague approval. "Maybe the last resort, but... I'll be counting on you and everyone to make sure I don't go too far if I do." NOW: The extra cover provided by the Kid gives Cantio some ideas as she sees more non-combatants slowly shuffling into the area just outside the landing zone. She checks Ishirou's map as well to get a better feel for the area herself, nodding after a few moments. "Right. They need to understand that we're not giving them a choice in this ceasefire, but we're not here to conquer this place for our own gain. Holding a stronger defensive position should make things much easier for people that don't want to fight, too, once we can get them set up in here with proper security." The additional chokepoints are sure to help with that in the long run. Even in this building (which may have once been some kind of office or apartment complex), there would be plenty of attack vectors from the inside if not for the Kid's intervention forcing a hypothetical attack force to go the long way around just to get to the central stairways. Ishirou's maps, meanwhile, reveal that the city is actually fairly well planned out, likely the result of meticulous planning and well-researched zoning policies. There's plenty of wide, walkable streets, mixed-use storefronts with housing just above each store, and even smaller parks and trees scattered around to add some much needed greenery. Unfortunately, the late prime minister's work now also happens to make it far easier for the combatants scattered throughout the city to find cover and maneuver as well, with the heaviest of the fighting going on in the marketplace to the north of the group's current position. Digging into the feelings of the people caught up in all this, meanwhile, reveals a rather grim picture: They had just lost a leader considered a miracle worker a scant few days ago, perhaps a week at most with time feeling like a blur since his assassination. Feelings are mixed over the hodgepodge of different factions vying for control over the country. The only consistent thing is that the non-combatants stuck in the middle of all have far more sympathy for the locals involved in the fighting than they feel for the mercenaries that had been brought in by those competing interests.
Cantio	Arina's, Satsuki's, and Staren's comments, meanwhile, have Cantio losing some steam visibly even as she tries to keep her face from showing it too much. "Does it? Well... What's done is done. We'll just have to show everyone here that it's safer staying under our umbrellauntil we can get things back under control." She concedes with a light sigh, then furrows her brow as she props a foot up against the edge of the room, ready to launch herself off of it. "Half-heartedly saying only this area is a safe zone wouldn't be enough, though. We're Elites, and we need to be more decisive than taking half-measures. If that means making enemies of everyone that's already determined to kill each other, then... That's fine. I'll be taking full responsibility for whatever happens, if that'll make you feel better about it." Persephone gets to see firsthand just how many of those mercenaries have been brought in. For every local person firing a surplus firearm that likely fell off a truck and might as well be older than they are, there's two or three more mercenaries around decked out in ballistic vests, face-obscuring masks, and bearing far more modern/near-futuristic firearms that would be more than enough to wipe out a whole building of the distinctly less armored locals. Curiously enough, it's the mercenaries' guns that go crunch in a far more satisfying way, likely thanks to whatever future-tech is in them. There's still a lot of gunfire going on elsewhere, likely from people within the buildings, but there's visible confusion on the streets that stays their hands at least for a while even after she's disembarked. The injured person gives Persephone their name, clearly a local African name. It takes them a little longer to wheeze through the pain, coughing out a wad of something black and greasy. Persephone's presence is enough to get Cantio's attention and have her land nearby to offer a brief burst of healing magic. "They're... In the marketplace. The general and the treasurer... They brought in more outsiders to fight for them. If they keep this up, they'll destroy everything Prime Min-" "We'll stop them. That's why we're here." Cantio offers the person a confident smile and gesturing at the landing pad. "There's medical supplies up there. Hold on." She splits into clones of herself, then lets them join Lilian's medical squads to handle bringing the injured towards safety. Between those squads' and Staren's medical expertise with the extra medical supplies, it should be straightforward enough to start getting people treated once they're in position. That leaves Cantio to join Lilian and company to approach the marketplace where the bulk of the fighting is taking place. Thanks to Persephone's gun-crunching efforts from earlier, most of the locals have actually fled from the area, leaving mostly those armored mercenaries engaging each other in close combat. Stun batons and high-tech swords clash against each other while the fighters jockey for position, trying to find some kind of advantages against their identical-looking counterparts. Only armbands and patches on their vests indicate who's even allied with what forces, suggesting that there's probably some other way of distinguishing friend from foe considering so many of them look extremely similar to each other otherwise. They don't notice the approaching Elites just yet, but it's clear that they're going to be fighting for a while. It'll only get worse once more of those mercenaries with non-crunched guns arrive, especially with the ominous tremors that can be felt through the ground from both the east and west.
Staren	Staren's ears perk up at the exchange between someone injured, and Cantio. "I bet the other side is saying the same thing. Don't go off-mission too quickly, if you really do want to remain neutral. Although, once you have the facts..." Which should be easy when you can read them from people's minds... "don't hesitate to support the right side. ...Or do. Maybe that'd make people distrust your neutrality later? I dunno, just don't have me handle your PR strategy." That's right, I'm not good at that stuff, but I don't have to be! We're working together, no one has to be able to do everything. Stabilizing that first patient practically on automatic, Staren gets them onto a stretcher-bot that comes over to her, and then hover-skates alongside it towards the structure they're setting up in. She glances at Persephone and Cantio in passing. "Good luck." Well. It seems she's now CMO on site by dint of is anyone else here even medically knowledgeable at all besides Lilian's people? She can do more good in here than being one more person out there with guns, right? So she just starts giving instruction -- and listening to instruction in turn -- to share the immediately practical knowledge of how to use the medical tech, autodocs, surgical micromachines and such she's brought as well as whatever Lilian's people have access to. She also washes the blood off her hands and vambraces and gets a fresh pair of gloves before doing more surgery. When not urgently and desperately treating people in the street, she doesn't want to give people the wrong impression by walking around covered in blood, after all. She also also encourages Lilian's people and Ishirou to tap into her drone feeds and the robot control systems to help find and retrieve wounded.
Ishirou	Ishirou takes a moment to get a quick and dirty map of where they are setting up, and sets up some basic 'set up things here' sort of map to help increase the efficiency of the medical staff. There isn't much they can do without the cease-fire starting, so he leaves it at that for now. Cantio can likely handle that while he goes more on intel. There is a flash around him, as he connects to his power armor, and pieces of the flight suit mode of it come into existence from his dimensional pocket. Ishirou flips into the air as the flight suit switches into fighter mode and he takes to the air. With Persephone taking care of firearms, he can fly a little lower to get more accurate data. Ishirou starts scanning, starting from the central square first. Aiming to get a feel for the numbers, which sides were attacking where, and any IFFs. Specifically, if the mercenary forces were broadcasting one to each other. From there he goes with her earlier suggestions. Comms chatter, surveillance footage, updating the maps with routes, points of interest, and the like. He also expands this into heat, chemical, and explosive signatures.
The Kid	While the interpersonal drama happens, Kid keeps busy. Once the building is adequately set up and defended, he begins setting up rooms for anyone who comes for refuge. One becomes a medical bay, with crates of Caelondian Healing Water and Black Tonics for anyone to take, alongside a sign detailing proper application (it basically boils down to 'just drink them'). Once that's done, he returns to the roof and begins laying out a proper nest. He lays a gleaming brass carbine against one of the walls he erected, facing north. Next, he plants a man-powered mortar on the south side and lines up shells for fast-loading, ready to repel any forces that begin marching on their territory from the ground. With that set up, he takes the carbine in hand, affixes a scope, and lays on his belly, pointing it towards the marketplace. He takes some shots if anyone who seems of rank and import shows their head, but he's support gunning as a priority. As the Elites wade into the thick of it, he covers their back, the distant retort of his carbine marking that he's shot someone who was looking to ambush them.
Persephone Kore	Arina gets a helpless smile and a little shrug. I don't know much about things like that, but I won't be mad at you just for speaking up! "Ah... don't worry," Persephone murmurs, touching the wounded person delicately as if they might break. "We'll do our best to make sure they don't destroy any more. Okay?" Cantio gets a feeble smile when she swoops in to heal them. "Thank you. Although, actually..." I reach out to the wounded person. Are you listening? I know this isn't how you really are. The world says you're hurt, but the world is wrong. You have a picture in your heart of how you really look, don't you? The realest, perfect you? I can help you fix the world's mistake. They- and whoever else she crosses paths with on her way to the square, with a touch or a thought- are not only fully healed should they accept, but also restored to their 'ideal bodies', just as Ishirou once was. Should they come to further harm, it is rapidly 'corrected' as well. She goes out of her way to scoop up the wounded- even ahead of the search-and-rescue teams, since her method is less scalable but quicker- and thus arrives to the courtyard a little late, only just barely catching up with Lilian and Cantio. "So," she says, being slightly late, "Should I just..." Persephone makes sort of a wobbly hand gesture. "Make all of them move aside? Or did you have another idea?"
Lilian Rook	'We're Elites, and we need to be more decisive than taking half-measures. If that means making enemies of everyone that's already determined to kill each other, then... That's fine. I'll be taking full responsibility for whatever happens' Lilian sniffs faux-derisively. "That's the most spine I've seen you show in the field thusfar, so I suppose I'll follow my own dogma and acknowledge the improvement rather than berate you for it not being enough." Satsuki glances sideways to Arina while Lilian isn't looking. Lilian motions to the other two to follow her, and swiftly sorties out to the market to the north, taking advantage of the useful streets rather than taking to the rooftops, she and Satsuki pounding pavement at superhuman speed with Arina struggling a little to glide behind them, carried by the wind. And so the state of the marketplace --the near inability to tell one side from the other, bothers Lilian the moment she lays eyes on it. She brings up her somewhat uncommonly used crimson eyepiece. <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Ishirou." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Scan IFFs and upload to my HUD, if you would." <J-IC-Scene> Ishirou says, "Gotcha." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "If the locals are this badly outgunned, it's almost certainly private interests with money and patience all scrambling for the biggest slice they can get on the day they were waiting for." <J-IC-Scene> Lilian Rook says, "Disgusting." While Lilian scans the area to see what cyber-bullshit the mercenaries are using to distinguish each other, faithfully waiting for Ishirou to compile the comms network and footage she'll want to trace back to the two officials aforementioned, Satsuki uncomfortably pipes up in the perceived awkward silence, out of strangely polite habit. "Did you get that scar removed, Commander? I thought it looked really distinguishing. As if it said when we met, all by itself, that I would be in the care of a real hero." Lilian blinks. "Oh. No, this is . . . just a coverup job. I had an important alumni interview, and didn't want to look too intimidating." she says, lying as naturally as she breathes. Arina pulls down her mask and puts her hand on Lilian's shoulder, pointing her staff towards the market square without immediately entering, under the cover of Kid, and following silent, mental communications from Lilian, as the pair of them aim to suss out the general and treasurer's actual locations. In tandem with Ishirou's scraped data, Lilian enters bursts of focused micro-trancing on each probabilistic future route she thinks might be profitable, following the line ahead and mass scouting patches of hypothetical approaches. Arina dutifully follows in her lead, calling upon the eyes of the sky and the whispers of the air to tell her what they see and hear. "Oh, that'd be really nice!" Arina replies to Persephone. "Um, i-if you don't mind. I don't know that the Commander will give the orders for me to heal anyone here, and I'd really like it if we didn't have to fight them before we find the people responsible."
Cantio	To Persephone: "N.. No, thank you. For... Sorry. I'll... I'll be more prepared next time." Cantio wavers between smiling and trying to not frown apologetically, trying not to let her spirit waver even with what she's realized over the past few minutes. To Lilian: "That'll do. Although from the sounds of it, I'll need more than even this the next time. I don't know what it'll be right now, or if it'll be something you'll approve of by then, but... It'll be something." To Staren: "I don't know any of them are the right side, looking at all this. If they're willing to fight a war in their own homes this quickly, then, maybe..." Cantio doesn't finish that thought, but it sounds like she was about to go a little too far there. It's the little things that matter when it comes to getting people to believe someone's not trying to do horrible things to them under the guise of providing medical care. Clean gloves, not brandishing all manner of syringes and sharpened medical tools, the works. There's plenty of people to work on, too, as those who can walk have started aiding those who can't in addition to those being brought in by Cantio's clones. Luckily, there's plenty of higher ground to work with, and the Kid's fortifications means that those healthy enough to delay treatment are even volunteering to stand guard within the building's chokepoints. The Kid's crates of drinks help quite a bit, too, especially for those fine enough to forego extensive treatment in favor of treating themselves. Ishirou's scans reveal quite a bit more now that he's closer to where all the fighting is going on. Suspicions about who's working with who are put to rest, for better or for worse, as it quickly becomes clear that these mercenaries aren't colluding. They're communicating with their own allies, at least, using IFF codes from their dog tags to help them tell friend from foe even when they all look so similar to each other. It would otherwise be too confusing to tell them from sight alone since there's at least a dozen mercenary companies here in total, so the IFF codes are the most practical way for them to tell each other apart. The numbers on each (main) side are actually fairly even for the time being, and he can catch plenty of radio chatter that makes it clear what each side is actually planning: Lots of vague strategizing with a whole mess of movement orders, as if the people behind this are moving formations around rather than masses of people to try and find a more advantageous angle of attack. If nothing else, it does clarify that the mercenary groups aren't in any rush to just throw themselves into a blender without a plan.
Cantio	Perhaps tellingly, there's not a single military uniform in sight. Despite this, it's still easy enough to trace all that chatter far enough to identify the two biggest players on this board: The general of the country's military, holed up in an armored bunker further north, and the treasurer, issuing orders from the basement of a mansion to the east. They're both defended by their own squad of mercenaries, but the bulk of them are all gathered within and outside of the marketplace, as if trying to beat the other's hirelings into submission to establish dominance without resorting to laying siege directly. Lilian's micro-trancing reveals that it really won't be too hard (relatively) to get to either of them, either, since most of their focus is going to be on the goings on in the marketplace rather than expecting anyone to try and run right through all of their more regular security forces. Persephone's probe into the wounded people's hearts and restoration of their bodies works wonders that they can't possibly begin to understand. Legs are restored, vision comes back, arms return where prosthetics were once placed, and the miracle of her reality-warping powers starts to restore that spark to the locals' eyes that she reaches. They ask for her name, and others are already murmuring it (Phony rather than Persephone, anyway) just from hearing it mentioned by others earlier. Some of these poeple even begin to follow her, at first from a distance, but slowly growing into a crowd of their own despite the more obvious fighting going on in the marketplace further ahead. They almost seem unwilling to leave her, especially after regaining the use of long-lost limbs and even recovering from the horrible injuries sustained mere moments before the Elites' arrival. They're not brave enough to actually move in front of her once she reaches the marketplace, though, but they're certainly watching to see what she'll do next. "Separating them would be great if it's not..." Cantio starts, pauses, then shakes her head quickly and goes right into a reassuring, if solemn and vaguely apologetic smile. "I know you can do it Phony. It'll give them time to cool their heads, and we might be able to talk some sense into them." She really does believe in Phony's ability to do so, at least, even if the notion of using Phony as a crutch is obviously weighing heavily on Cantio right around now as well. Getting the mercenaries separated is still going to be a task even with Persephone forcing them apart. There's more of them on the nearby rooftops and within those buildings, and those with guns are all too ready to start firing on Lilian, Satsuki, Arina, and Cantio when they approach. Persephone's crew, too, isn't left alone, but that rapid healing and the anger of being shot at is sending them into a fevered state that subsides only somewhat when they see Cantio launching herself into one of those buildings to start slicing up the mercenaries inside. Kid's gunfire, meanwhile, keeps the mercenaries at bay as they try to get the jump on those advancing into the marketplace, shearing off masks and armor when shooting weapons out of their hands or shooting their hands off isn't enough. It becomes clearer that these mercenaries aren't human when he does (literally) disarm them, too, revealing a whole mess of eletronics and both synthetic and organic parts holding them together. On closer inspection... Their future-tech suits aren't actually suits at all. It's just what their 'skin' and bodies look like with all that cyborg augmentation going on. The rumbling on the ground grows steadily louder. Ishirou's scans reveal that there's two larger machines approaching from the north and the east, each one bearing the shared IFF signals of each side respectively. They're massive bipedal machines with machine guns mounted on turret-like heads, and they let loose with what sounds like cow noises to announce their presence as they charge into the marketplace battlefield.
Staren	Staren supplements the Paladin medical technology with her own, but quickly falls into an elite specialist role of taking the worst cases that are beyond even the Paladin medical personnel. With a facility to work in, machines brought from her lab and the Concord medbay, and the freedom to work without being shot at, Staren's obsession with transhuman technology can finally fluorish and work miracles on those seemingly beyond hope. Plenty of people to work on. If they're bad enough to come to Staren, they're probably coming out of this with internal and/or external cybernetic prosthetics if not an entire new body from Staren's stock of mass-produced clones/robots/vat-assembled-bodies, or experimental psi-tech brain implants bestowing a much, much, much slower version of something akin to Persephone's self-healing. (Staren refers to this as 'Anti-Crazy' augmentation -- which isn't the most offputting name she could give it...) She really does do her honest best to give everyone as much of a choice as possible about how they'll end up. Plenty of people to work on. Staren has one job and she does it. She feels kind of like a child prodigy the adults are bringing very specialized work to while isolating her from other responsibilities. She should be doing more, functioning better, right? But... It's progress, better than being derided or being a burden, at least.
Ishirou	Ishirou keeps the tacnet updated, but now that it's established maintaining isn't as hard. Everyone can contribute to it, so from here on it's just keeping the system going. He dives up a little to get some distance, before the flight unit flips again, switching to humanoid mode. The giant robot that is heading from the Treasurer's forces gets his attention first. He holds a hand at it, sending a surge of data at it to try and activate hacking. Attempting to take over the giant robot and gain control over its systems. A second blast aiming for the /OTHER/ giant robot to do the same. Assuming he can get both, he will then use them to cause chaos in the mercenary ranks, and slowly start marching them towards their respective bases. Ishirou might have a giant grin because he loves using giant robots.
Persephone Kore	Persephone seems a little flustered by the fact that she's acquired a procession of people following her, but doesn't make a huge effort to stop it. A simple "It's okay if you want to just go home, you know!" tossed back over her shoulder is the most she tries to dissuade them. She does, at least, bother to introduce myself as "Persephone Kore!" Her followers may get shot at, but that doesn't last for long; when she notices it, I wish that wouldn't hurt anyone or I wish that gun didn't exist, and either the bullets freeze in midair or the guns are lathed into dust by an invisible grinding force. She ensures they don't shoot back, too, which means that hostilities towards them are likely to taper off. At the entrance to the marketplace, she spares a smile and a comforting hand on the shoulder for Cantio. "You're not 'crutching' on me. You didn't have to come out here, but you decided to even without knowing if I'd come. Right? That's enough for me to know you have a brave, independent heart." Her smile is turned on Arina next. "I don't think I can solve everything, but I'll do my best. As a protector of humanity, of course you don't want anyone to get hurt, right? Haha, and I don't either." Standing at the entrance to the marketplace, Persephone doesn't gesture or visibly concentrate; only the fact that she's at the epicenter of what follows gives any indication that she is its origin. Namely, after peeking at everyone's minds to tell what side they're on, she gently yet firmly moves everyone on the general's side to the left, and everyone on the treasurer's side to the right, like parting the Red Sea. A gulf of twenty feet is left between them, totally devoid of people. Bullets fired across it simply stop. Mercenaries trying to trespass it are gently pulled back to 'their side'. "There," she says, warmly satisfied with herself. She only notices the giant robots a moment later. "Oh. You guys can deal with those, right? I'll cheer for you?"
The Kid	The fact that his shots are producing sparks, wires and shrapnel instead of blood takes Kid aback for a moment, but he simply starts loading a different kind of round into his carbine. Ones with heavier, shaped heads designed for punching through armour instead of flesh. And then the weird cow machines show up and start charging into the fray. He pauses again, and considers. "Their legs look almost like flesh, but they're a walkin' weapons platform. That means immobilizin' then might not be enough, the guns'll keep firin'. That means I need to double-tap 'em. Right." He breaks down the carbine and produces alternative parts from his hyperspace. A longer barrel, a scope with higher magnification, a reinforced chamber. And with it reassembled for more accuracy on long-ranged shots, he gets to work. The regular cyborgs get it the same. Clean headshots where he can, failure drill for when he can't. The cows also get multi-tapped, but in a very specific way. He fires exploding rounds into their flesh-like knees to make them collapse, and then shredding rounds into their guns to destroy the internals and disable them.
Lilian Rook	If Persephone had to guess, by the way Arina straightens out and gains an inch in height, she is probably blushing about 'protector of humanity' under her antlered and feathered mask. Just a little bit. Witnessing the Great Parting elicits a less formally polite (by far) whistle from Satsuki that she'd seen and copied from somewhere else, and from Arina, "Haha . . . Now it almost feels like cheating." Lilian interjects. "It's just as I suspected. According to our data, the general and the treasurer formerly under the late prime minister are doing the proper little backwater junta thing and pouncing on the possibility for a total collapse of democracy and installing themslves, likely as some dictator by another name. I'm not sure they're on strictly bad relations; Ishirou, please upload these coordinates to the north and east; you'll see what I mean. But they certainly have the resources to pay any mercenaries they wish. I 'suggest' that our next course of action be a 'visit' to each." "--A cow?!" "M-moo?!" ". . . Secure the databanks of at least one." Lilian makes a swift couple of motions with one hand while she continues churning through the info and performing more targeted scryings. Her underlings jump right to it. Satsuki unsheaths her sword and takes one step that is a hundred, contracting one point into another and blurring back and forth past the incoming mecha(?)'s legs, repeatedly hacking and slicing away, iridescent red-violent sparks flying from each cut that seems to sever the continuity of circuits, fibres, hydraulics, within, rather than have to hack apart the surface with force. Arina speed-chants about thirty odd words in some unintelligible slavic dialect, and a rumble of thunder sounds from a clear sky, lashing forks of lightning repeatedly striking the robots from above, and a wall of building-flattening wind hitting them from the front, derived from animistic magic. As she gets them to fall, Satsuki leaps up a building wall and acrobatically vaults over both, a spinning buzzsaw strike aimed for ammo belts. Both are aiming away from critical points that'd result in anything as convenient as a cookoff. As per Lilian's orders, they're trying to leave the guts intact for capture and study.
Cantio	To Persephone: You always know the right thing to say... Heh. One day, I'll have a stronger mind to match that heart you say I have, then. I just have to make sure I don't break myself or... Or go too far again in the process. Indeed, the medical support provided back at the landing zone is quickly establishing the Cadenza/Concord/Paladins branded site as the safe zone Cantio had declared it to be earlier. Staren is able to focus on fixing the populace up rather than shooting things, the Kid gets both privacy and security as he continues sniping the cyborg mercenaries from afar, and Lilian's medical team has plenty of Elites and Elite-adjacent clones to cover them as their work to mitigate the damage from so much fighting goes at a brisk pace. Those given a choice by Staren for how to get fixed, though, almost invariably opt for the simplest and least invasive procedures even if standard human parts aren't quite as useful as all the wondertech she's offering. There's a clear stigma against turning themselves into cyborgs or taking in any of that super science stuff, and it's easy enough to tell that they're intensely mistrustful of going that far. People are still wary of coming by to get food and other supplies, but that'll probably come later once the situation in the marketplace and over at the respective leaders' hiding places gets settled. That won't stop Cantio's clones from trying to getpeople to accept the extra stuff, though. With Ishirou's tacnet in place, it becomes child's play to know where all their opposition is just by following the IFF signals. While Cantio carves up the cyborgs inside the building with extensive wallhacks to guide her blade, Ishirou hijacks one of the cow-machines and finds that despite its mooing tendencies... It shares almost no similarities with a cow beyond the noises. It's bipedal, after all, although it does have actual blood running through it's fleshy/mechanical legs. They even leak lactic acid after too much running! It's not particularly normal looking, but all Ishirou really needs is one to sow chaos throughout the mercenaries' ranks. He's got his pick from the machine guns on its head, a grappling arm underneath it, and simply swinging around those massive beefy legs to batter their ranks apart. The Kid brings down a second cow machine before Ishirou can hack into it, his sharp intuition and observational skills giving him plenty of figurative ammo to work with in addition to the very literal ammo being pumped into it. Taking out the legs with explosives means means it can't utilize even wriggling about to get around, and even attempting to move just results in the machine tipping itself onto its back and letting out some rather unpleasant noises. The shredding rounds, meanwhile, do their job flawlessly in ensuring that the machine isn't going to be able to detonate itself or blast anyone that happens to walk right in front of it. A third gets its legs cut out from underneath it not unlike the one Kid had just shot out, but in a more literal sense. Satsuki's nigh-unviewable sword technique turns the machine's legs into equal parts shredded and ground meat with synthetic and mechanical bits to taste, and Arina's lightning and wind magic hammers a fourth into a swiftly crafted pothole right in the middle of the marketplace. Satsuki finishes off that pair with the complete removal of their ability to fire anything afterwards, leaving the group with a grand total of all four machines still (relatively) intact for inspection later.
Cantio	The mercenaries aren't having a particularly good day at this point. Having to resort to close-range weaponry when their own machines are being turned against them is already becoming a bit too much for them to handle. Between that, being picked off by the Kid's sniping, and forced into reconsidering their options by Persephone's bullet-squishing and gun-deleting powers, it probably isn't surprising that the radio chatter is quickly devolving into chaos. Being forced apart by Persephone into their respective sides without even being able to get near each other certainly isn't making them look any better, either, despite their attempts to close the gap only to get pulled back out of melee range by some unseen force. There's talk of double-crossing going on, deserting, breach of contract, all sorts of things that would get in the way of a nice payday. Being seemingly cowed by unarmed locals certainly doesn't look good, either, even if those locals gathered around Persephone appear to be invincible against all their guns for some inexplicable reason. The few that are still able to fight at all, meanwhile, have to contend with Cantio willing and ready to slash them apart with her own oversized blade conveniently away from the main camera focus in the middle of the marketplace. It's making the mercenaries quickly realize that this might not be the straightforward payday they were expecting, and getting kicked in the face by a rampaging cow-machine at this point might not even be worth it. It may not be too surprising, then, that the radio chatter eventually starts to settle down only when the mercenaries begin pulling back, some falling back to head towards their respective paycheck's bases to the north and east, and others just outright leaving in all other directions. There's still some shouting going on to do what they're being paid to do, but even that is soon halted by calmer-sounding lawyer speak about past performance not being a guarantee of future results and things of that nature. The marketplace finally reaches a state of calm, and the locals are starting to poke their heads out of what's left of their homes. Cantio emerges from one of those buildings, covered in moderate amounts of cyborg blood, and she projects her voice once again with that trusty loudspeaker. "... You're safe now, everyone! The safe zone is just a little bit south of here if you need medical attention, food, clothing, whichever. Please, rest assured that the Concord and Cadenza are here for you and your safety!" She shouts with most of her earlier confidence returning, eventually adding "... And the Paladins, too." as an aside. It's probably not as reassuring-sounding as she'd hope, considering the blood and all.
Ishirou	Ishirou is satisfied when the ranks of the mercenary forces start to break, which gives them a bit of breathing room and actually makes it easier to investigate what exactly happened. The COW is now under his control, and after using it to make sure the mercenaries make their good and/or bad faith extractions, he starts marching it towards the camp. It's less of a weapon at this point and more of a deterrent. If they're going to come to mess with the joint operation medical area...then they're going to have to do it with enough force to be easily noticed. Plausible deniability at that point would be impossible. Though Ishirou DOES hit Mercenaries on the way out with either hacking or biohacking as needed. The idea here is to see if he can see who hired these people. Looking for any leads into why this was all set up so fast.
Cantio	With the cow machine (called a Gekko for some reason) under Ishirou's command, there's certainly a strong deterrent available for protecting the area around the declared safe zone and then some. He'll find that it can even function in that same task without having to manually control it, although it might not be quite as effective with only its AI to direct it. Hacking the mercenaries, meanwhile, reveals that they've been hired by... The general! Or the treasurer! That much, at least, is straightforward based on who's signing the paychecks, but it's clear that they weren't doing this out of any love for the country or the people they're fighting for. What may lead him in more interesting directions, then, is digging into how they were so easily prepared for all of this. Someone tipped them off that there would be something big happening this week. They didn't know what would be happening, and none of their sources are consistent, indicating that they probably heard it from different people. The only consistent point between any of them, then, is the actual date to watch out for: The same day the Prime Minister was assassinated, down to the hour of his abduction and subsequent discovery after being thrown off a train with a gaping chest wound. Whoever tipped them off knew that there'd be fighting out here sooner rather than later.
The Kid	With the cow-machines downed and the mercenaries retreating, Kid puts the carbine away and heads down to start clearing some of the barricades to accommodate the influx of people who will becoming to the safe zone now that the immediate fighting has stopped. After that's done and the place is secured, he then heads over to the marketplace to begin scavenging. Phony's actions have probably ensured that most of them are scrap, but he intends to get as many of the better guns the mercenaries were rocking. When the time comes, they'll be better in the hands of the people.
Persephone Kore	Ahahaha. You really do push yourself hard, Cantio! You know? More than almost anyone else. But you can't raise anything to be strong without being kind to it first. So there is no way to become strong that isn't also being kind to yourself! Persephone, of course, notices Arina's blush, and takes the opportunity to warmly pat the smaller girl's head once the fighting is done. "Great job, Arina!" A little louder: "You too, Satsuki!" Then, quieter again: "Ahaha, it really is completely cheating. But I've learned not to feel bad about it." Persephone walks to the center of the marketplace, where the devastation is most intense. Lush greenery spreads out from her, followed by flowers and trees heavy with fruit, and even a little burbling spring with drinkable water, overwriting the rubble and the blood. She has to keep the effect compact so as not to crowd out the old structures, but it's quite a transformation nonetheless. That's where she leads her followers, handing one of them a fruit after taking a bite herself to demonstrate that it's safe. Then she sits down on a rock by the spring and takes a deep, deep breath. With the medical teams working steadily, there's presumably nobody in her range who needs care and hasn't gotten it yet, so she can allow herself to relax for just a moment. Just another moment. And just a moment longer than that...
Cantio	The guns that are left are simple enough for the Kid to gather up, thanks largely to the fact that nobody's actually holding the ones that are lying around. The older weapons, being... Well, old, means that they're easy enough for anyone to pick up and use. With sufficient training, it'll let the locals defend themselves in theory against future attacks. The more modern guns, however, have some kind of weird tech in them that'll make it nigh-impossible to use. They're tied to some kind of ID signal from their owners, but a competent enough hacker should be able to bypass that security feature easily enough. Alternatively, someone that's good at disassembling guns to strip out the weird computer bits! Cantio's going to need to learn how to be kinder to herself, but she's having some rather unkind thoughts about herself despite Persephone's wishes. It's not for a lack of trying, but... Well. Persephone knows the kind of person Cantio is. Of course she's going to latch onto the unkind things as a sign of her own weakness. It's a good motivator, to be certain, but whether that motivates her into going the right way is another matter entirely.