Lightning Strikes Twice

[etcircenses]

Who| District 13 Mission-goers
What| Time to rescue what District kids have survived
Where| Near some edge of the arena
When| During Week 4
Warnings/Notes| Please put any necessary warnings in your thread headers.


There were no sign ups involved this time, this was an off-worlder idea which means the off-worlders clearly have every desire to see this through; you signed up with your consent. The mission is to be held in the evening, so the morning is spent preparing, stocking up the hovercraft with medical supplies, arming everyone, donning the now familiar all black attire. When the alert is sent out, it's simply to gather in the hanger and begin loading.

As promised, there's no sign of a 13-issued leader involved, it's on the mission team and it's assigned tactical head to lead themselves; all Webb gives the group is a chipper smile and 'Good Luck.'

The sun is just beginning it's descent when the hovercraft leaves the hanger. The flight isn't nearly as long as the one to District 3, but it's long enough that the sun has dipped below the horizon when the hovercraft stops. Stopping doesn't mean landing, however. The team's resident off-worlder pilot comes on over the speaker with given instructions: time to strap up and get ready to do a little sky-diving.

The plan is simple really. Should the hackers do their job, the storms will do as they're told and strike the dome below the hovercraft all at the same time, breaking the barrier and making a hole big enough for the strike team to carry out the rescue. Hackers strapped in and strike team ready to zipline down, the hovercraft's door opens to the windy outside, allowing a wonderful view of the bright flash and deafening crash a minute later as the weather codes carry out their destruction.

Time to move.

Comments

[impaledqueen]

"You should trust me because I know exactly how you feel. You're scared and angry that you were put in this situation. You want to go home, but you know that the chances are that you're never going to. You know that maybe only a handful of people will care if you die, because to everyone else, you're just another Districter and they feel your life doesn't matter." Peggy puts up her hands slowly to show she's unarmed. It's a risk to take her hands away from her concealed weapons, but she could probably kill this girl with her bare hands if she really must. "When I was in the Hunger Games, I thought that if I just could win, then everything could go back to normal. That's a lie. Even if you win, there's no escape. They treat you like their puppet until you die. I decided that I wouldn't live like that."

She points towards the direction she came from. If she's going to be honest, she might as well go for broke. "District 13 is alive and well, Hemlock. I ran there after the Capitol discovered I was spying for the rebellion. We're here to take you and the other Districter Tributes to a safehouse."

[lockedinthechrysalis]

There's a long, long moment of silence. Then, all of a sudden, Hemlock makes up her mind. She isn't quite sure what it is that makes her choose - maybe that her parents talked about District 13 once upon a time, before they sent her away; maybe that Peggy is totally right about how she feels; maybe just that she knows the alternative is certain death - but she does choose, and a moment later, she drops nimbly out of the tree a couple of feet away from Peggy, landing in a crouch with her hands on the ground. She looks up from under her braids, her eyes narrowed and suspicious, and folds her arms as she straightens up.

"What kind of safehouse?"

[impaledqueen]

Out of respect for the girl's age and suspicion, Peggy keeps her hands to herself, even though some buried part of her wants to touch her and tell her she's safe. That would be a lie. She's not safe. She won't be safe unless the rebellion wins this war.

"Small and far away from any targets. It's on District 13's land, but away from it's base of operations. I'm not promising it'll be comfortable, but you'll have food and shelter away from the Capitol's eyes."

Peggy nods towards the direction she came from. "Will you come with me?"

[lockedinthechrysalis]

"...What about my family?" It has to be asked. Hemlock doesn't really like admitting she cares for her family (even her uncle, even after everything), but it has to be asked, she figures. "What about my District? I've seen what they do to people who pull stunts like this. To their Districts."

[impaledqueen]

"As far as Panem will know, you'll be dead. The Gamemakers will know differently, but lashing out at your families will only tip your Districts off to the fact that you're alive and the Capitol has been shown up. They need to avoid that at all cost."

Peggy gestures at the arena, at everything around them. "The Capitol likes to give us a lot of big talk, but it is fundamentally fragile. It depends on the Districts for everything. Food, power, any kind of raw material. It can live without a dedicated electronics District, but it can't live without lumber. It can't live without the majority of the Districts. If it can pretend that you're dead and everything's going as it should, it will, because it can't afford to do anything else."

[lockedinthechrysalis]

"You sound like my parents." Maybe that's why Hemlock starts in the direction Peggy indicated earlier, her jaw set tight. "Come on, then. Let's go." As if making it seem like her idea takes away from the terror of it all.