2023-05-30: Desperate Movements
- Log: 2023-05-30: Desperate Movements
- Cast: Char Aznable, Sayla Mass
- Where: A Ship in the Pacific
- OOC - IC Date: 30 May 0097
- Summary: Char Aznable makes an offer of help to Sayla. Against her best instincts, Sayla agrees. For the first time in more than two decades, Sayla Mass puts entrusts her hopes to her brother.
<Pose Tracker> Char Aznable has posed.
It hurts. He still aches from the procedure used to remove the Zero Particles from his blood; but he cannot abide simply lying in bed, either.
The captain of the ship Char is housed on has received multiple calls from the medical wing.
The man in the room demands to speak to Sayla Mass.
======
When she finally arrives, she is greeted with a very different sight than the last time. Char is standing; forcing himself to move, to stretch his legs, though the grimace contorting his face makes it clear that this is no less painful than sitting up was the first time they spoke here. The lights are on, but dim; he is nevertheless wearing a pair of sunglasses.
When he hears Sayla enter the room, he stops trying to exercise, drawing in great, pained breaths before turning to face her. "... Artesia." He very clearly has something important to say.
"... Inaction will not bring Leina back."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
She was supposed to be going to see Orie. She was supposed to be telling her the bad news.
But a convenient excuse to hold off a little longer had come up.
She approached the medical chamber, and handed her pistol to the guard outside.
When she steps in to find him standing, however, her eyes widen. "What the hell are you doing, it's way too early for you to be out of-"
He hits her with a sentence that hits like a brick.
She's stunned silent for ten seconds before she finally can say something.
"What other option do I have?" The defeat in her voice is palpable. "You didn't hear her, see what she's prepared to do."
She looks down at her hands. What option does she have. What can she do? "She holds all the cards. If I... If I do anything..."
That makes it the fifth time Char has seen his sister about to break. About to shatter under the weight of everything that's happened.
This time could well be the last.
<Pose Tracker> Char Aznable has posed.
"I didn't," he agrees, "But I have had time to do nothing but think, here - and my conclusion is that action is demanded."
"According to Miss Shinjo, Murasame Labs is involved. I doubt Vist-Carbine would employ any middle-management staff of that operation - she has the money and the ambition to refuse to settle for anything less than the man in charge."
"Doctor Murasame specialises in memory manipulation and suppression; in convincing his victims that fighting for the person he designates their master is the only way forward. He is… ruthless, persistent, and deeply fascinated by Newtype susceptibility to his techniques… And he has four powerful Newtypes in his dubious care, plus two 3G Operators."
… Of course it would be that number, it occurs to him belatedly. "... You can ask Kamille about the girl named Four. He was closer to it than me, but I am sure he will confirm everything. A man like Murasame… In his position, I would be cutting my losses; planning to bail on my employers, and take as much of my research and as many of my victims with me as I could."
"Martha may well be fully willing to honour her end of the bargain… but Murasame will not give up his work so easily. Besides, she hardly agreed to turn any of the others over to you, did she? Even despite how close you are to Akane." Seeing how the other girl accidentally placed herself in the most pivotal memory of Sayla's in recent years, it follows, to Char, that they have connected beyond that. "If she's won, why does she need Operator Pommier? 3G's remit does not extend to the Laplace conspiracy. Murasame is already acting beyond his remit, and the longer we delay, the more his work will progress. … Now that I say it, I am sure that if he has an opportunity, he will take Mineva as well - she is no safer than any of the others."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Char lays out the information he has, and Sayla blinks.
Had she said that much? Had someone talked? Her head was already a mess. "...How?" How did he know so much.
But she couldn't disagree with him there. She couldn't argue any of his points.
"...I won't take any action that will risk Leina's safety any more than I already have." Sayla's voice sounds broken. Defeated. "And you're in no state to be standing. There's nothing left that..."
She trails off mid sentence.
"You have something, don't you? You're about to propose something utterly insane that you can do because you're not part of the alliance. Because if you do something unilateral and reckless, that's just 'the charisma and madness of Char Aznable' and you think she won't kill Leina if you're the one acting." The defeat in her voice only gets worse, as anger and fear join it as force multipliers.
"Alright Casval. Tell me the plan you want me to wager the last family I have left on. Tell me the plan that's worth all their lives." She tries to keep the emotion out of her voice, and fails. Not that even Char would need to try hard to feel it now.
After all, that hopelessness soaks the room.
<Pose Tracker> Char Aznable has posed.
"I had considered just leaving to do it myself," Char does admit. "However, I have also had time to consider my… mistakes."
Char Aznable, admit to any error in judgement? Stranger things have happened in the Universal Century… but not that much stranger.
"Before your team incapacitated my Zaku, I planted a tracking program on the Vist Foundation's Garuda. It's designed to be difficult to detect until it receives a particular burst frequency, and transmit its location in response. It only works once - once it's activated, any basic electronics warfare routine can find and isolate it trivially - but…"
There's a window of opportunity.
"More than that… Leina hates me. Not undeservedly. However - that hate will distract her."
He's not just planning to charge in alone - he's planning to use himself as bait.
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla could only stare at her brother in disbelief. "You understand that if you leave this room without explicit permission, those Mobile Suits out there have orders to open fire and leave nothing behind, right?" She steps forward, grabbing him by the shoulder.
"You're not invincible and you're sure as hell not some legendary soldier! You're just one person!"
And then he reveals his ace. Sayla's eyes go wide. "You... planted a tracker on the Garuda?"
She can't believe it but...
She'd felt the extent of Leina's hate on Palau just for a moment. "...She hates you because you abandoned me. With whatever conditioning she's gone through to make her that violent..."
She shakes her head. "...This all counts on if removing Leina is enough. They've had Akane and Rikka for two weeks, Alouette, Banagher and Mineva for nearly a day. But..."
But Judau only found out it was Leina after Rikka's unit tried to take his head off. Just maybe...
No. No it was too much of a coincidence to hope for, but...
"...If I were to say yes," the words stagger out, uneasy. "What would you need from here?"
The hopelessness is still heavy. One tiny spark is not enough to relight this fire.
But it lets her see the kindling, sodden and sparse as it is.
<Pose Tracker> Char Aznable has posed.
He winces when Sayla grabs his shoulder. "Then I'm lucky that I'm only now at the point where I'm managing to stay upright," he replies drily. "... But more importantly - I didn't want to leave without consulting you."
There's something else he wants to say, but he can't quite get the words out. With contact, though, there might be a wisp of a feeling. … Regret?
"I know how important Leina is to you. I don't deserve to be called Mineva's father after everything I've done, but… The thought of her in that viper's clutches - of all of them - if we have an opportunity to get any of them out, we have to take it."
'What would you need from here?'
Char closes his eyes, putting his ideas back in the right order.
"Our window of opportunity is limited. The Power I invested in the tracking device must be about to run dry without a source available to draw from. I think I can fly, but I'll need a machine that perhaps isn't as ridiculous as I'd otherwise prefer."
He puts one hand behind him, bracing himself on the bed. "I recall a prototype Nemo variant developed around '84 that got shelved, that used binders, AMBAC thruster mounts and a secondary reactor from the Hyaku-Shiki to improve its mobility and firepower. That would be an ideal vehicle, I think - and useful beyond this mission if it performs satisfactorily."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
Sayla can't help but shake her head. He's so damn certain about this. His plan is so thought out. He must have gotten a glimpse out of the chamber when someone came through. That's the only way he'd *know*.
...if we have an opportunity to get any of them out, we have to take it.
She knew that was true. She'd known it all along. She was just too scared of risking Leina to accept it.
She walks to the intercom. "...Mr Cuaran. I need your Nemo. Approval code Romeo-Charlie-Three-Three-Zero-Nine-Xylophone."
The code for 'yes I am suggesting something insane, but I am still in my right mind.'
It's a code the alliance has had for a while.
She takes off her watch, and hands it to Char. "Hold onto this, and bring it back- with all of them." She needed some insurance... and Mithril had solid, discreet tracking beacons.
She looks to the small pile of Char's personal effects, and sees it. A locket that has to be twenty or more years old, that survived so much. She picks it up with one hand. "...And I'll hold onto this until you return."
She presses the button. "...Char and I are about to step out together. I'm authorising him to take Cuaran's Nemo. Give frequency S to Diamond-2- and monitor it. And... be ready to move for retrieval."
<Pose Tracker> Char Aznable has posed.
It's not difficult to presume access to mobile weapons is possible - when one has spent time mostly lying in bed, the motions of a ship - even an anchored vessel - are obvious, and the ability to sequester him away from most of the crew suggested a large vessel capable of carrying at least one mobile suit.
He has barely enough energy to talk, though, let alone explain his thought process.
Sayla walks to the intercom and speaks, and Char closes his eyes - relief? Bewilderment that she's listening to him? Impossible to say - but then she returns to him, handing him her watch. "I'll do what I can."
She takes the locket, and he opens his mouth - to protest? - then closes it. Then opens it again. "Artesia…"
He falls silent again, then finds his voice. "... This is far kinder than I deserve. I hope it doesn't harm things with your… associates."
<Pose Tracker> Sayla Mass has posed.
"It is."
There's no way she can deny it. It *is* far better than Char deserves.
"So you damned well make it worth it. Do everything you can for them- and then come back here. Show me I'm right to trust you with their lives."
She turns to the door, and stands there until Char is ready to step out. They'd step out together, like she said.
And then she would be out of reasons to linger here.
<Pose Tracker> Char Aznable has posed.
<poem> He meets her gaze, and takes a deep breath.
"I understand."
He walks forwards to join her - gingerly at first, then steadily more and more confident.
Perhaps bearing this pain will be worth it, if he can help his sister somehow.