[b]November:[/b]

[b]Strawberry:[/b]

I’m going to consider White as having a temporary Cover 1, independent of the Crimson Tower identity - Not going to stand up to scrutiny, but enough to prevent it. It’s enough that the security team sweeps into the next room to frogmarch a different set of people out.

And Pink? Already something’s starting to turn. You’re not the only side of this making the same judgement call. 

The six Chase Black operatives that were combing for Waffle are now being reassigned to do damage control with Knightly’s team. Spring is co-ordinating with them, and the rocket-sled team is having to move back and re-adjust to play escort-quest. 

They don’t look happy about it, as much as they can express any emotion through the kill-suits, but there’s a serious cover issue for their side too here. Nobody tracked Waffle as[i] surviving[/i] their extradition, so now the counter-terrorism team is on - quite literal - mop up duty to justify how hard they just went on collateral strikes if they want to be allowed to stay. Even these guys have managers to complain to. 

It’s a hard sell, but it’s necessary for Spring to be able to get into the site Goat was extracted from. If there’s any chance of forensics, here, any physical evidence that can lead to tracing who did this, then Chase Black is going to have to actually [i]act[/i] like rent-a-cops rather than a Seal Team 6 wet dream for a few minutes. 

Big “If” there. Good fucking luck, lads and ladies. Even if you left anything behind, Knightly’s still planning on baking the entire section - that’s going to destroy any analogue film security footage in the area. It might not be possible for them to get to it in time, at this rate. Knightly’s moving like there’s a fire lit under his ass, and he’s here to spread that love. 

What are you doing about any digital camera feeds you showed up on? Or, what have you [i]already[/i] done about that, in advance? 

[b]Flood:[/b]

Simo Hayha was a Finnish sniper who still holds the most confirmed kills of any single human being, with serious estimates putting it at 800. For a year he plunked at Russian counter-snipers. They were using scoped rifles against him, and he shot back with iron sights. That was his trick.

History echoes like a bolt-action gunshot in a Finnish forest. 

A hundred and fifty years later, at the bleeding edge of future-tech, snipers are counting on people to be looking for them with everything [i]except[/i] their eyes. And that’s what saves Brown.

A sniper on a water tower, given away by a glint of scope at just the wrong time. It’s impossible to cover for every kind of surveillance tech - Some stuff needs you to absorb, some to reflect, some to scatter. They could have tinted their glassware to make it glare less, but the visible light spectrum is the one they’re least optimized for masking.

Of course, the scope itself is an ultra-zoom lens with algorithmic resolution upscaling and a real-time distance calculation and adjustment, something that can track the wings on a fly from five hundred meters. It’s looking at [i]you [/i]in about every spectrum except the visible light spectrum. And that’s what it’s designed for - being shot [i]back at[/i] the same way. 

Even with all the tech, they were really counting on you getting closer. Bullet drop on Earth was bad enough, on Aevum you’re working with the coriolis effect of a space station that bends the opposite way. But even getting all that right, back of the envelope, he’s firing a magnetized slug at 2,000m/s, and he’s about 1200 meters away. Even if his aim is dead on, he’s still got to predict where you’re [i]going [/i]to be a second into the future, not just where you are. 

Alright. That’s a third one accounted for, and now you know the angles you need to take cover in, and how you need to move between cover when you take it. It might even be four accounted for, if he’s working with a spotter, but that’s a risky assumption. 

Still, that throws you off, too. A watchtower position ruins any plan to just hide in an area they’ve already searched. That’s not going to fly - they’ve definitely got eyes on you. They just don’t have anyone in position to act on it, yet. 

Run, or hide? 

[b]Orange:[/b]

Somewhere, there must be a panicked room where different people with mutually conflicting goals are screaming at each other about who has to give. Secrecy versus damage control.

To dodge or to block. Someone is demanding they be flexible, to give as much away as possible, to bend with the force of what you have done. To admit to many smaller evils to hide the great one, to get ahead of this story, to take control. 

Another is demanding to deny everything. To blame it on terrorism, to lie about its target, to present an absolute wall against the journalism that is about to trample all over their black site. 

The problem with blocking is that you might not present a wall strong enough to take the hit, and you risk taking the full force of it. The problem with dodging is, well - that doesn’t work if you’re standing in front of something you need to protect. 

But that’s the problem when both strategies have such critical concessions. It means that the fight over which path to walk is being fought red in tooth and claw. And until there is a victor, then there is nobody to take control of the story at all. 

When OESN reports that they are confirming there are no known casualties, zero, Crystal half-collapses against the table. It’s the first time she’s breathed for nearly thirty seconds. And when the followup starts broadcasting the Knightly public channel, and it’s clearly Pink’s voice, and she’s leading the repair efforts? Fiona looks at you with something approaching wonder. 

They say words without sentences. Aborted thoughts, almost-questions that never resolve, both talking over each other and stopping to give the other space to speak first, before realizing neither of them knew what they actually wanted to say. It’s a good sign. It means they’re [i]trying[/i] to say something, again. 

[b]150 seconds, or two and a half minutes, remain[/b]