The Zaichaer Air Raids
Posted: Wed Aug 31, 2022 10:18 pm
The Zaichaer Air Raids
It had taken him a little while before he could find someplace comfortable, someplace inconspicuous, to gaze out over where he would be planning his next move. It was dark out but within the city of brass, one could only tell by the clouded night sky, whereas artificial lighting kept the city itself illuminated throughout the majority of it all. There was a breeze that felt warm but gentle atop one of the water towers, stationed just within the outer perimeter of the airfields themselves where all airship traffic liked to ship out and dock within the city.
Rickter had been sitting atop this tower quietly, observing the flow of air traffic itself from where he sat. Inside his mind though wasn't just observations, it was an underlying intent to acquaint himself with the area. What he wanted... rather, what he needed was to learn as much as he possibly could about Onneifer Airfield. Where the Zaichaer troops patrolled, where there were bases and defense operations, and where their most precious cargo often went once airships brought in every shipment. All of it.
It was fairly obvious to the wolf that the airfield was in tandem the lifeblood of the city, as Zaichaer relied so easily on their technological prowess to achieve their goals. Had they done the same when they'd sacked the wedding in Kalzasi? Was its role in that affair so trivial compared to what the Empire really sought to achieve? He'd started again. Asking too many questions that drove him mad with fury, when he needed to be as cold and calculating as possible to achieve this goal. The Dornkirks would pay for their transgressions, of that he would make sure of in the days to come. Until then though, Rickter continued to focus as an entourage soldiers moved cargo from the bay of an airship.
How hard would it be to just... freeze everything in place? For him, it sounded like a monumental challenge in itself, but Rickter was nothing short of driven when it came to the task. He wanted the Dornkirks specifically, to show them what hell they had wrought for him. For all of Kalzasi. Thus, the wolf's mind ticked with the thoughts of vengeance, all the while he watched to see where those soldiers moved the crates they pulled from the cargo of an airship. "I'd almost given up on looking for you. Until I realized what you were doing that is." He didn't even hear her arrive and somehow, that did not even phase Rickter as he continued to watch the subjects of his ire.
"How'd you even find me?" He pondered as the rogue's heels clicked a few times next to him, before Hannah herself took a seat on the metalwork of the container they both sat upon. He'd kept diligence when he started this whole scouting routine, and worked the wards of his negation so finely into his aura, that even the lights of the city would keep him hidden away with such a refraction spell. And yet here she was next to him as if she'd found a loophole that enabled her to locate him.
"Spatial Mapping," She bluntly answered with her brown eyes on him, "looks like you need to work on those wards some more." Spatial Mapping she had said. Just the thought of that almost made him chuckle, when he thought of how easy one could likely spot him with other magics. Semblance users would have a trickier time as is, since he could account for that magic on his own, but it seemed he needed to consider other sights that magic allowed as well. This included such like Traversion and Kinetics, but that was neither here nor there for the time being.
What mattered now was his primary focus, which the rogue seemed to notice when she followed his gaze out to the airfield. "Do you wanna talk?"
"Depends." His answer was simple and flat, with hardly any emotion to it compared to before. "Do you plan on kicking me again?"
"That was deserved and you know it." Hannah rebutted with her knees brought close to her torso, her elbows resting on them as she looked back over to the wolf. "Besides, you've been nothing but quiet since I've gotten here."
"I've been quiet since I went on my own... which didn't work out as well as I'd hoped." His remark earned an amused chuckle.
"Yeah, well, I promised her I'd look out for you." It was immediately obvious who Hannah referred to, and though he didn't want to, Rickter couldn't help but grimace at the reality of the fact.
"You mean bring me back..." Somehow it was just like the Echo of that glimpse he'd shut out before, when he'd seen Hannah coming after him both in real-time and in what he could only surmise was a secondary memory. He had little time to grasp and understand it though, seeing as how the Echo was only something he sought to use when necessary. Even so, that did not change the irony of the situation even now. "I can't bring any of you into this..." He finally reasoned which brought Hannah to eye him seriously.
"What I'm going to do. What I have to do to save Talon and Aoren... I don't want you or the others having any part of that." Knowing that it would only put them in further danger, he wanted to avoid doing that to them at all costs. However...
"Well, nobody asked you." The rogue retorted with a brief flourish of her hand, her eyes on her nails for a moment before she shifted to focus more on Rickter. "I get that you're set on this vengeful warpath, and that you intend to do whatever is necessary to get it done." Now, finally, the wolf started to divert his gaze from the airfields, and directly to Hannah's stern gaze as she continued to lecture him. "The thing you have to realize is, Rickter, that even by yourself you cannot do this alone. Which is why I followed you, here, in this shithole of a civilization that shuns people like us."
It was her turn to look out into the open air, where the cloud cover blotted out the stars in the night sky. "And you forget that I'm not like them. Telion. Patrick. They're soft-hearted people, ones that I agree with you on, and shouldn't be even remotely involved in this whole affair." The stern look in her eyes settled to one of determination when she gazed back at him. "So, you tell me, what the hell your plan is first. And then, I'll decide just how crazy you are for trying this alone."
His expression didn't change one bit. Though he felt a world of conflict with everything she just said, the wolf couldn't deny that alone he would be in over his head here. With her though things could work out a bit easier, if not at the very least, lead with a better exit strategy than the one he might come up with. "These airships are like the lifeblood of this city. They serve as an example of the government's pride and those who serve it, which, if I'm to believe correctly is also connected to one family in particular."
"So you're getting back at the Dornkirks first." She realized with her gaze sweeping across the airfields next. "I assume you have a plan for that?"
"One in the works..." He admitted dully without looking from another patrol unit. "I need to learn what their defenses are, see if we can simultaneously shut all their systems down."
"And then?"
"Give the Dornkirks a taste of hell, and freeze everything within the airfields." Hannah's eyebrows rose from that response, a thoughtful nod made in consideration of the idea he presented.
"So you cut off their supply of airships, which leads to a greater stall in their commerce, which also gives Kalzasi an edge over them in the war..." Her gaze shifted back at Rickter with a near playful smirk. "Impressive idea, Wolfman. You gonna have all the fun without me? Or am I wonderful enough to join this party of yours?"
"What choice do I have?" He regarded with another simple look directed to her. "You're already involving yourself one way or another. Best to have you working by my side rather than against me." The rogue could only laugh in response to that, her expression still playful even as she shifted to sit more comfortably atop the water tower.
"I mean are you even a little surprised?" She reasoned briskly with enthusiasm in her tone. "This shit is the kind of danger I live for. Besides, how often do I get to help a war criminal commit terrorism on a nation?" There came a subtle chuff out of the wolf then, and she knew the comment had stirred some small sense of mirth within him. "It's going to take a lot of effort though."
"I intend to reach out and coordinate things with the mages here in Zaichaer." He shared with a quieter tone. "But they will only know one thing about the plan."
"Which is?" The inquiry led the wolf shift his gaze once more, and look into the clouded sky with heavy thoughts on his mind.
"That I'm going to tear open the sky, come the day I finally corner those Dornkirks." He shared coldly as he felt the surface of his hands frost over, the malicious intent just ready to burst out of him every time he shared the thought aloud.
Searing 15th, 122nd Year, A.o.S.
Rickter had been sitting atop this tower quietly, observing the flow of air traffic itself from where he sat. Inside his mind though wasn't just observations, it was an underlying intent to acquaint himself with the area. What he wanted... rather, what he needed was to learn as much as he possibly could about Onneifer Airfield. Where the Zaichaer troops patrolled, where there were bases and defense operations, and where their most precious cargo often went once airships brought in every shipment. All of it.
It was fairly obvious to the wolf that the airfield was in tandem the lifeblood of the city, as Zaichaer relied so easily on their technological prowess to achieve their goals. Had they done the same when they'd sacked the wedding in Kalzasi? Was its role in that affair so trivial compared to what the Empire really sought to achieve? He'd started again. Asking too many questions that drove him mad with fury, when he needed to be as cold and calculating as possible to achieve this goal. The Dornkirks would pay for their transgressions, of that he would make sure of in the days to come. Until then though, Rickter continued to focus as an entourage soldiers moved cargo from the bay of an airship.
How hard would it be to just... freeze everything in place? For him, it sounded like a monumental challenge in itself, but Rickter was nothing short of driven when it came to the task. He wanted the Dornkirks specifically, to show them what hell they had wrought for him. For all of Kalzasi. Thus, the wolf's mind ticked with the thoughts of vengeance, all the while he watched to see where those soldiers moved the crates they pulled from the cargo of an airship. "I'd almost given up on looking for you. Until I realized what you were doing that is." He didn't even hear her arrive and somehow, that did not even phase Rickter as he continued to watch the subjects of his ire.
"How'd you even find me?" He pondered as the rogue's heels clicked a few times next to him, before Hannah herself took a seat on the metalwork of the container they both sat upon. He'd kept diligence when he started this whole scouting routine, and worked the wards of his negation so finely into his aura, that even the lights of the city would keep him hidden away with such a refraction spell. And yet here she was next to him as if she'd found a loophole that enabled her to locate him.
"Spatial Mapping," She bluntly answered with her brown eyes on him, "looks like you need to work on those wards some more." Spatial Mapping she had said. Just the thought of that almost made him chuckle, when he thought of how easy one could likely spot him with other magics. Semblance users would have a trickier time as is, since he could account for that magic on his own, but it seemed he needed to consider other sights that magic allowed as well. This included such like Traversion and Kinetics, but that was neither here nor there for the time being.
What mattered now was his primary focus, which the rogue seemed to notice when she followed his gaze out to the airfield. "Do you wanna talk?"
"Depends." His answer was simple and flat, with hardly any emotion to it compared to before. "Do you plan on kicking me again?"
"That was deserved and you know it." Hannah rebutted with her knees brought close to her torso, her elbows resting on them as she looked back over to the wolf. "Besides, you've been nothing but quiet since I've gotten here."
"I've been quiet since I went on my own... which didn't work out as well as I'd hoped." His remark earned an amused chuckle.
"Yeah, well, I promised her I'd look out for you." It was immediately obvious who Hannah referred to, and though he didn't want to, Rickter couldn't help but grimace at the reality of the fact.
"You mean bring me back..." Somehow it was just like the Echo of that glimpse he'd shut out before, when he'd seen Hannah coming after him both in real-time and in what he could only surmise was a secondary memory. He had little time to grasp and understand it though, seeing as how the Echo was only something he sought to use when necessary. Even so, that did not change the irony of the situation even now. "I can't bring any of you into this..." He finally reasoned which brought Hannah to eye him seriously.
"What I'm going to do. What I have to do to save Talon and Aoren... I don't want you or the others having any part of that." Knowing that it would only put them in further danger, he wanted to avoid doing that to them at all costs. However...
"Well, nobody asked you." The rogue retorted with a brief flourish of her hand, her eyes on her nails for a moment before she shifted to focus more on Rickter. "I get that you're set on this vengeful warpath, and that you intend to do whatever is necessary to get it done." Now, finally, the wolf started to divert his gaze from the airfields, and directly to Hannah's stern gaze as she continued to lecture him. "The thing you have to realize is, Rickter, that even by yourself you cannot do this alone. Which is why I followed you, here, in this shithole of a civilization that shuns people like us."
It was her turn to look out into the open air, where the cloud cover blotted out the stars in the night sky. "And you forget that I'm not like them. Telion. Patrick. They're soft-hearted people, ones that I agree with you on, and shouldn't be even remotely involved in this whole affair." The stern look in her eyes settled to one of determination when she gazed back at him. "So, you tell me, what the hell your plan is first. And then, I'll decide just how crazy you are for trying this alone."
His expression didn't change one bit. Though he felt a world of conflict with everything she just said, the wolf couldn't deny that alone he would be in over his head here. With her though things could work out a bit easier, if not at the very least, lead with a better exit strategy than the one he might come up with. "These airships are like the lifeblood of this city. They serve as an example of the government's pride and those who serve it, which, if I'm to believe correctly is also connected to one family in particular."
"So you're getting back at the Dornkirks first." She realized with her gaze sweeping across the airfields next. "I assume you have a plan for that?"
"One in the works..." He admitted dully without looking from another patrol unit. "I need to learn what their defenses are, see if we can simultaneously shut all their systems down."
"And then?"
"Give the Dornkirks a taste of hell, and freeze everything within the airfields." Hannah's eyebrows rose from that response, a thoughtful nod made in consideration of the idea he presented.
"So you cut off their supply of airships, which leads to a greater stall in their commerce, which also gives Kalzasi an edge over them in the war..." Her gaze shifted back at Rickter with a near playful smirk. "Impressive idea, Wolfman. You gonna have all the fun without me? Or am I wonderful enough to join this party of yours?"
"What choice do I have?" He regarded with another simple look directed to her. "You're already involving yourself one way or another. Best to have you working by my side rather than against me." The rogue could only laugh in response to that, her expression still playful even as she shifted to sit more comfortably atop the water tower.
"I mean are you even a little surprised?" She reasoned briskly with enthusiasm in her tone. "This shit is the kind of danger I live for. Besides, how often do I get to help a war criminal commit terrorism on a nation?" There came a subtle chuff out of the wolf then, and she knew the comment had stirred some small sense of mirth within him. "It's going to take a lot of effort though."
"I intend to reach out and coordinate things with the mages here in Zaichaer." He shared with a quieter tone. "But they will only know one thing about the plan."
"Which is?" The inquiry led the wolf shift his gaze once more, and look into the clouded sky with heavy thoughts on his mind.
"That I'm going to tear open the sky, come the day I finally corner those Dornkirks." He shared coldly as he felt the surface of his hands frost over, the malicious intent just ready to burst out of him every time he shared the thought aloud.
"Every side attacks you when you don't pick sides."
"Common" "Synskrit" "Norvaegan"
"Dialogue" Monologue "Hannah"
"Dialogue" Monologue "Hannah"