[voice/telepathy, ota]

[rebells]

About those messages we've been receiving from the government--if the danger to the coven as a whole doesn't dissuade you from taking their deal, the fact that it's almost certainly a trap should. Shehui is suspicious and fearful of magic, and they must know that we all have it by now. Why would they just let us live among them?

We've been placed in not one, but two situations beyond our control. The only advantage we have is our own numbers, so we need to stick together, take care of one another, and find a way out of this as a group.

If you haven't been following our conversations, we're working on a plan to free those of us who have been captured. Anyone with skills in fighting, reconnaissance, or infiltration who is willing to help should contact Dirk or Percival. Likewise, those of you who are in detention, please keep us updated on what's going on down there. We're working as quickly as we can.

Everyone else, stay close to others in the coven if possible. Be on your guard, and let us know if you get into trouble.

Comments

[rebells]

[He closes his eyes. Dirk's right. He knows what he meant, but--that's not important right now, is it?]

. . . it's fine. You're not wrong.

[He lets that sit for a minute, but it seems so inadequate. He's not good at this, the comforting words. He can't say, reassuringly and with authority, that everything is going to be all right, because he's too aware of the ways in which it might not be. Finally:]

They're all resilient.

[splinten]

I know.

[It's short and quiet, even telepathically. He feels it now, the familiar walls, there's a room on the only floor in an old apartment in the middle of the sea, and you can't do anything. He tries to stop the spiral. He tries not to drown.]

Okay, we'll keep working on this. What else do we need to do?

[rebells]

[Right. The plan. They need to move quickly.

He straightens--though Dirk can't see it, he might be able to hear a different tone to Jay's voice. The strategist is in, it seems, businesslike in his briefing.]

Before we move, we need a temporary safe location to go to and as much information as possible about the building and its defenses. A floor plan would be especially helpful, if 9S and the others can turn that up. Long-term, we also need either Qri or a safe location outside the city, but if necessary we can wait to get into the building for that.

We need to make sure everyone on both teams knows their roles in the plan. We won't have the opportunity to practice, but they should be briefed on the relevant locations and their angle of approach. We need to make sure the prisoners know what to do too--we can put Riza Hawkeye, Jusis, or Julius in charge of that.

We need a plan to steal the uniforms of the guards. I assume Percival can take care of that one.

Healers--we need at least one on each team. Jude is a doctor, not a healer, but I think he should be stationed near the decoy team, unless one of the prisoners has an injury he needs to deal with.

And . . . supplies. Weapons for the prisoners, if possible. Medical supplies. As much food and clean water as we can safely store at the temporary safe location. And we need to get that out there without tipping the authorities off.

Am I missing anything? --wait, yes. We need to figure out how we're going to evacuate the rest of the coven.

[splinten]

[It's reassuring, and Dirk straightens to. There are concrete tasks. There are specific things he can do. They aren't powerless and trapped (and alone).]

That sounds like you've got it. Jake's been working on getting food, the kind of shit we can last on on the run.

For evacuating the rest of the coven, it might be best to get them to check points on the edge of the city before we move into position so they can flee fast. We need everyone to drop or brick any communicator or identifier that could be used to get our location, or we need one of the Androids to jam the signal. Otherwise they'll be hunting us down through our cell phones.

[rebells]

The latter is better, if it's possible. There's sixty-odd of us; I don't trust them all not to screw this up, frankly.

[splinten]

There are enough people from varying levels of technological advanced societies that I couldn't even blame them for it.

[rebells]

Is it that hard to live without 'cell phones'?

[A weak attempt at humor.]

[splinten]

[Dirk appreciates it.]

The absence has been known to lead to fatalities.

[rebells]

What a life you all lead.

We should identify places near the outskirts of the city where people can congregate without looking suspicious. And get together a team for moving supplies.

[splinten]

Yeah, makes sense. We'll want everyone to drop anything that could track them before they do it.