Mission #12 - How The Eighth Was Won

[lucetimods]

Who: Peggy Carter and Amelia McFly (experts); Jane Maxwell, Adell, Richard Sharpe, Phil Coulson, Lupin III, Ororo Munroe, Clove, Remy LeBeau, Bucky Barnes, Ivan Vorpatril, Rudy Roughknight, Clint Barton, Sokka, Michael Blanc, Nathan Spencer, and Astrid (combatants); Mia and Trafalgar Law (healers); Pinky Pie, Aang, Panda, and Fenimore (quartermasters)
What: Mission #12: How the Eighth Was Won
When: November 18th - 20th
Where: Depot 8 and surrounding environs.
Summary: Luceti volunteers are defending Depot 8 from an FTSA-led attack. Or possibly participating in the attack themselves.
Rating: W for Wild Wild West (except gun-violence and strong language)


For the past few months, an FTSA militant known as Hoi Hidekan has been causing scenes around Depot 8 and the small town that shares its name. Although he began by merely handing out pamphlets and sermonizing outside the saloon, things soon escalated into outright threats against the depot, its personnel, and the town as a whole. The local administrator for the area, Sheriff Lyca Williams, contacted the Malnosso Organization in search of reinforcements. Fearing a full-scale attack against the depot which is integral in keeping two whole enclosures -- O’Connell and Pagoda -- supplied, she insisted that they send someone to support the town’s already committed inhabitants. With the MSF already stretched thin due to increasing FTSA action in all regions, the Organization looked to Luceti to balance out the numbers.

November 18th: Volunteers will arrive in the small town in the early evening and will be advised to set up a temporary camp on its western limits. Ideally, the remainder of the day should be spent by settling in and arming up. Sheriff Williams will open up the town’s outdated but not necessarily meagre armoury to the volunteers, at which point she will also be available for conversation and questions. Additionally, Foreman Hidekan will be visiting the Lucetian camp in the late evening to try and recruit for his cause. Curious volunteers may want to take this opportunity to have a strictly verbal interaction with the FTSA representative. Both NPCs will have threads at the top of the mission log.

November 19th: This is the day to use in preparation for the battle. Depending on which side your character chooses to support, they will divide up and spent the day in the company of the Depot 8 personnel or the FTSA activists. Once a side is chosen, it’s inadvisable (but certainly not impossible) that characters should run back and forth between the FTSA encampment and the town. Learn your way around your gun, do some target practice, or else search your soul in the desert heat to decide which side will earn your confidence. This will also be an excellent time for volunteers to talk among themselves and debate over which side has the most merit. However, once everyone is settled, it’s up to you folks plotting below to how either side will approach the oncoming battle. Will you set up traps? Will you assign positions?

November 20th: On the twentieth, at high noon with the sun beating down on them, tumbleweeds rolling in the distance, the battle begins. Foreman Hidekan and his posse of FTSA activists ride into the town to begin the battle. Their goal will be to plant dynamite at the heart of Depot 8’s power generator, which will cause a chain reaction that will take down the entire facility. The job of the Sheriff and her crew iis to defend the town at any cost or to die trying. Gunshots will fire and a shootout will begin. FTSA gunners will take cover and try to take the town by force. The battle itself may seem brief, likely taking place over the course of thirty minutes, but it will be a fierce battle.

NOTES:

This mission is being POSTED EARLY, although it still does not ICly begin until the 18th, in order to allow characters ample time to thread with the mission NPCs as well as amongst themselves on the first and second days. This should help them make their choice between Depot 8 and the FTSA.

HOWEVER, the thread for the third day (the 20th) will not go up until after at least one mod has set up shop in the aim chat (lucetiplot) to roll a die in order to determine the battle’s outcome based on how many volunteers are on each side. This chat will take place at midnight (EST) on the 19th. Once the outcome has been determined, mods will put up a thread for the third day that will essentially set the stage for this outcome.

For more information, please refer to the original plotting post and don’t forget to sign your characters up for a side!

Comments

[thedicearecast]

"Good." Amelia was having an easier time with it, but she'd been working at her drink a little longer--and truth be told, knocking back booze was almost a planetary pastime where she was from. If this guy had survived a few months, though, Amelia shouldn't have to go over the basics with him.

"He's convinced. He just understands the risk he's taking." Or so it had seemed to Amelia. Hoi didn't look like he doubted to her, but then again, maybe that was Amelia putting her own past onto someone else.

"Something like that. But some people might think it was easier anyway. Not everything feels right around here."

[asthehawkflies]

"I take it you're used to this kind of environment?" he asks idly. She had a certain assurance about her, comfortable in her surroundings. Same way he did on a SHIELD base.

"He's going out of his way to try to convince us at least," Clint says, mulling it over in his head. He didn't think they had a hope of changing his mind at least, which was probably the important thing. The guy was committed, no matter what else Clint through about him.

He gives a soft laugh, shaking his head. "Nothing in this place feels right. But I'll be out fighting tomorrow. If nothing else, it might buy Luceti a bit more favour with the other prisoners. Question is whether I shoot to kill or not."

[thedicearecast]

"My whole world's like this. I'd never seen rain or an ocean 'til I got to Luceti." Comfort had been pushed into nostalgia in some ways as Amelia had made her way through the town. The saloon was one of the worst places for it, in fact, because every town on Gunsmoke had one.

"He thinks this is his best shot at making a change for the better." That he was honestly doing good, despite what was at stake. But Amelia couldn't say Hoi had lost sight of just what he was risking, because she'd pointed it out to him herself. He'd rolled his die, and so had she. The next day would determine which of them had a better cast.

She wasn't expecting Clint to ask her about killing, however. Amelia looked down at her glass for a second, turning the options over in her head. It'd seemed simpler during the draft, in a way. Then it had literally become a case of kill or be killed.

"Incapacitate them if you can. I'd rather not have a massacre if we can avoid it--on either side." Which could include people from their own village. Hoi had a strong case. He could've swayed some.

[asthehawkflies]

That earned her a slightly surprised look. Sure, he knew that people came from other worlds but you kind of assumed that most places were much like Earth in terms of climate. Hearing about her world, well, put a new perspective on things. "Sounds like a tough place to live." Deserts were hardly the most hospitable places to live at the best of times.

"The road to hell and all that," Clint replied sourly. Seemed like it was more of a power play to him. Didn't benefit anyone they claimed it was supposed to benefit.

He gave her the time to think about that. He was quite capable of deciding on his own, of course, but she was their Expert and he valued input. "I can do that. Massacres not gonna be good for either side."

[thedicearecast]

"Yeah, it is." Although the reasons why Gunsmoke was a terrible place went far beyond the fact that it was a desert. She'd seen children with guns when she had been walking around town. People who looked all too young, but all too ready for whatever was coming. "If I didn't know better, I'd say we were there now."

She'd heard the expression, but didn't comment on it. Actions had consequences, sure, but still, Amelia could understand the reasons more than she'd like to admit.

At least he seemed willing to go along with the no killing request. "Good."

[asthehawkflies]

"To me this is... like being in a movie. There were places like this in the country I'm from, but that was a long time ago, mostly." Other places though... well, there were places with a Wild West element, emphasis on the wild and the killing. "Guessing the reminder is a bit unwelcome."

He smiled slightly. "Contrary to popular belief, I don't kill for fun and I do have some restraint."

[thedicearecast]

Was it unwelcome?  Maybe in some ways.  But Gunsmoke was still home, for better or worse, and Amelia’s got a lot of talk stuck in her head.  Talk about being tamed, and how the Sheriff used to have bitter feelings, until she suddenly didn’t.
 
“Not sure how I feel about this.  Doesn’t really matter either way, right?  Tomorrow we’ll finish the job, and head back to Luceti.”
 
That last comment gets him a curious look though.  “Wouldn’t know about popular belief.  This is the second time we’ve run into each other.”  And Amelia wasn’t thinking about the guy who had been left tied up by the fountain awhile back, or any other trouble Clint might have gotten into.  She knew he could be vicious, but so long as he could control that, it was good enough for her.

[asthehawkflies]

"It matters," Clint says bluntly. "Because in the end, you have to live with yourself tomorrow and the day after. It helps if you think you've made the least bad choice." Because in this situation, he wasn't convinced that there was a good choice. "What we do here... it's gonna change things. Too many outside people involved for it not to." Other compounds who could succeed or fail by their actions, the Depot people, the FTSA.

He shrugs one shoulder when she gives him that curious look, offering a wry smile. "You've seen me fight. I can understand why people might get the wrong idea."

[thedicearecast]

“Thought you were talking about this place being like where I’m from.”  Which brought a lot of unwanted emotion to the surface, sure.  But the choice—that was simpler.  She’d already made it before she ever got here, or even to Luceti, because she’d chosen wrong before.
 
“I know which side I’m on.  There’s too many innocent people that can get hurt.  The FTSA might be trying to do something right, but the risk is too high.”
 
In the end, it was as simple as that for her, because Amelia had lost sight of something very similar before.
 
When he talked about people getting the wrong idea, it was Amelia’s turn to shrug a shoulder.  “The best gunman I’ve ever seen in my life abhors killing.  But on our world, he’s also got a 60 billion double dollar bounty on his head.  People shake in terror at just hearing his name, much less meeting the guy, but truth is he acts like a fool, and he doesn’t want to hurt anyone.
 
“Skill doesn’t mean you’re out of control or sadistic, or anything like that.  Just means you’re good at what you do.”

[asthehawkflies]

"Bit of both. Wasn't sure you'd want to talk about home. Past is hard to deal with sometimes." He'd hate it if they ended up in goddam Waverley, Iowa and he had to have that dragged out of him.

Her answer put them pretty much in agreement. They had the right idea, but their methods were wrong and badly planned.

He tilted his head slightly, gaze sharpening when she spoke about this gunman. A pacifist gunslinger? "He sounds like quite a character," Clint said mildly. "People believe what they want to. I can't really complain. Makes my life easier most of the time."

[thedicearecast]

Did she? Her world and her past weren’t pretty ones. Amelia had grown up seeing the absolute worst of everyone around her, save for one person—and she died over a decade ago. Being in the Depot didn’t make Amelia miss Gunsmoke, certainly not those aspects of it. But being horrible didn’t change the fact that yeah, it was home.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’ll pass.” At least with Clint. There was someone else she might open up to, but Amelia would just have to wait and see if he found her.

Amelia let out a short laugh at Clint’s assumption. “You’ve got no idea.” Vash was unbelievable in every sense, frustrating and amazing to her in turns. And Clint was right: people believed anything and everything about him, until they saw the truth with their own eyes.

“So is it going to make your life easier if I believe you can handle yourself tomorrow?”

[asthehawkflies]

Clint nodded when she spoke, taking another drinks to finish it off. Well, he couldn't say that it wasn't warming at least. The same way that paint stripper was, probably. "No problem," he said easily. They barely knew each other and well, everyone had things that they weren't comfortable with sharing.

He smiled when she laughed, leaning back against the bar more comfortably. "Never met a guy with that high a bounty on his head. He has to be quite something." He raised an eyebrow at her and nodded.

"Much easier. I do better with a long leash. The vote of confidence is appreciated however."

[thedicearecast]

“He’s definitely something.”  She agreed, finishing off her own drink before setting down the glass.  “He’s called the Humanoid Typhoon because of the destruction he’s supposed to have caused.”  An entire city reduced to nothing in the blink of an eye, or so the rumors went.  Amelia knew Vash held himself responsible for it, but she’d never asked for details.  She wasn’t cruel.
 
“Like you said, I’ve seen you fight.  If you’re half as good with a gun, there's nothing to worry about.”

[asthehawkflies]

"Quite the nickname." Okay, he was pretty impressed. Nicknames like that didn't stick unless there was some basis for them. "Lemme guess, a lot of the reputation is undeserved?" The way she spoke about him... yeah, there was more to him than just a force of destruction.

He smiled slowly when she said that and nodded. "Hand to hand isn't my specialty. Shooting is."

[thedicearecast]

“A lot of it, yeah.” Mostly the parts where people were terrified of him. Not that Vash didn’t have skill enough for it; Amelia hadn’t been kidding when she described him earlier. But whatever he could do—whatever he’d actually done, Vash wasn’t out to cause chaos and destruction like people seemed to think.

She was stunned silent for a moment when Clint claimed he was better at shooting than he was at hand to hand. It was hard to believe, especially since that might put him on par with Wolfwood or Vash. “Seriously?” Although with the way he grinned, Amelia was sure Clint believed it.

[asthehawkflies]

"Rumours are hard to get rid of." Even the smallest rumour could grow and spread until it was taken as bare fact by everyone who heard it. It could be useful at times, if you needed to build up a reputation, but more often it was a pain in the ass.

His smile widened a little at her surpise and yeah, he supposed he hadn't brought that up in the most modest of ways but shooting was one area where he didn't really need to be modest. "Seriously. I prefer a bow to a gun but shooting's how I've been making my living since I was a kid."