Nacrine Tide 03 — Dro(w)ning Bell

Dro(w)ning Bell was the third session of Nacrine Tide, played on the 10th of October 2021. It was the Muted Requiem's second Sortie.

Content warnings: Use of guns at mech and person scale, edged weapons at mech scale, threatening with a gun and dagger, allusions to drowning.

Cast

 * C, a fugitive under pressure. (they/she)
 * Danica Arkose, a spy with a sordid past. (she/her)
 * Meory Virgo, a tactician who trusts her gut. (she/her)
 * Symbol, a Psalm washed ashore. (she/her)
 * Laconia, a Psalm left for dead. (he/him)
 * Cloud St. Louis, a sympathetic spy. (he/they)
 * May Cape May, a sniper with a grudge. (she/they)
 * A bell that tolls deep in your mind.

Rushing Ahead
Across the blue expanse of the Nacrine Sea, Stella dashes onward towards the island of Murex, waves kicking up as she darts low across the water's surface. Meory, in her cockpit, thinks back to what she saw during the divination game she played with Symbol and Pace — signs of a broken triad, and a reunion heralding silence, perhaps even an end to the Song. And in her own cards, the message was clear: Words are wasted actions. Embody the Sun.

The mission is clear, and simple: Flush out the Amber Hand from Fort Murex, the old military compound where the Coralinth Vathysological Research Foundation (CVRF) conducts studies into the Singing Deep, and its interactions with the Nacrine Sea. Ensure the safety of all CVRF workers. It's simple — but Meory knows there's going to be trouble if she doesn't act fast. As Symbol told her, someone named Laconia is going to be here — a Psalm, of sorts, and without a doubt the one she saw ominous signs of in her divination. Over the radio, Captain Ouedraogo coldly tells Meory she'd better know what she's doing — and to not make any rash moves until reinforcements arrive.

However, one thing the intel hadn't prepared Meory for, was that the Amber Hand have reactivated the old radio tower and radar system on Fort Murex. As it's not been a military base for a decade and counting, these had fallen out of use, leaving them little reason to believe they'd be active — but before Meory comes ashore, klaxons and lights are already blaring throughout the base. And as soon as Stella sets foot on shore, Meory notices something on her heartbeat radar; while Fort Murex itself is unsurprisingly lit up with signs of life, there is also a single solitary dot off to the west, up on a steep hill overlooking most of the island. When she glances towards the point, she sees the scope of a sniper rifle glint briefly, before a shot rings out. She's only barely able to duck out of the way before one of its high-power rounds breaches her cockpit, and she wedges Stella behind a big rocky formation, barely out of sight.

Reinforcements
It doesn't take long for the rest of the strike team to jump into their respective vehicles as well. C quickly puts on the finishing bolts and screws on the AQA-939, while Symbol gets into Deeds. With the help of her agents, Danica has been able to borrow a little speedboat for just this mission, and rather than hitching a ride with either of the others, she takes off towards the eastern side of Murex Island. Trying to make herself obvious, she drives in distracting patterns, successfully sending a pair of patrol boats on a wild goose chase. She's able to bring the speedboat ashore in a little cove off the shore, and approaches the south-eastern end of Fort Murex under cover of the strange, thick, blob-like trees that dot the dry and rocky island. She approaches a side door by the warehouse jutting out of the Fort's southern side, and hacks its electronic lock with her prosthetic claws that send sonic signals through its mechanism, disrupting it. Inside, she finds herself in an empty employee room, with windows revealing the warehouse interior. As far as she can tell, most of the materials here are simply ordinary supplies for a research lab — with notably more barrels of raw tehoma than ordinary. She pinches a lab coat and does her best to improvise a disguise — not enough to fool anyone, but maybe enough not to stand out.

Taking advantage of Danica's distraction, C and Symbol take the long route round to the southern end of the island, opposite of where Meory came ashore. Their approach is slow, however, and Meory remains stuck behind her rock as the sniper fires off a few more rounds in her direction, explosively kicking up sandy mud around Stella. Meory decides to turn on Stella's speakers, and shout out to the sniper, taunting them for their misses. As she readjusts Stella's position, a round streaks across Stella's viewscreen, nearly shattering it — but only leaving a prominent streak on the glass, obscuring Meory's view.

C and Symbol are coming up to shore now. On the west side of the island, they see a Naruchi Framworks Fang unit slowly lumbering eastward, towards the Fort. Another is stationed on the docks by the base. Fangs are small, lithe, vaguely avian-looking mechs; outfitted to be relatively disposable, but capable in their own rights. C peels off east to the docks, submerging the AQA far enough to walk along the seabed approaching the solitary Fang unit, who seems not to notice them. They bring the AQA out of the water like a biomechanical shark, pulling the Fang underwater and tearing its limbs off until it's unable to do anything but slowly crawl ashore — in its own time.

Symbol, meanwhile, comes up on a short beach west of the docks, which quickly transitions into sodden, rocky land. Before she's able to rendezvous with anyone else, she sees two strange mechanical hands grip the top of the heavy sandstone wall lining Fort Murex. As the mech pulls itself up and over, she immediately realises this is a Bell — and not just any Bell, but a real Psalm's Bell. Only... there is something strange about it too.

Empty Carapace
As the Bell — called 'Carapace' — vaults over the wall and lands on the ground in front of Deeds, a hollow clang rings out from its pale, crustacean shell. With stubby legs and strangely long arms, it walks on all fours — not like a bear, or an ape, but like a person possessed. Only where its head would be, some kind of cannon emerges, pointing at Deeds. In Symbol's cockpit, its pilot attempts to contact her over comms. She accepts, and sees a tired-looking, slender wolf/caribou nadezhdan with fur in mottled tones of grey. "So, you heard the bell" he says. "Did they finally send an apt replacement?" Symbol closes the connection, and as Union, she rushes towards the Bell. Shield up, she expertly blocks the swipe of one of its lanky, bladed arms — but its other arms seems to snake around her side, piercing through Deeds' armour plating.

As Deeds and Carapace engage each other, Meory notices the sniper is taking off. Acting fast, she engages Stella's jets and gives chase, setting fire to the trees that dot the hills with her mining laser. Smoke quickly begins to billow, all eyes in Fort Murex turning to the fire as the sniper makes a run for it to the north-western part of the island, hoping to get out of sight. However, Meory's too quick, and so are her Magma Sinks; the little drones fly out from Stella, circling the sniper as they deposit hot magma on the ground in a circle around them. They're not going to leave for a while.

Cloud
As Danica makes her way through the complex, she finds a map of the area, and notes that an elevator on the northern side is the only way down into the basement as well as the observation tower, where Amber Hand higher-ups are bound to be. That means she has to cross the open grounds of the Fort. It appears somewhat like a campus grounds, with two angled buildings full of offices and employee quarters facing each other across a large, open plaza. However, there's a more quiet route behind the north-eastern building, which sits a short distance from the Fort's outer wall, making it like a somewhat wide alleyway full of nooks and dumpsters.

As Danica makes her way down the alley, trying to look casual whilst making use of the available cover, she locks eyes with someone she hadn't expected to find here: with a slightly large and wide frame, brown skin, long black hair in a professional ponytail, and of course his eyepatch, is Cloud St. Louis, Danica's old associate from the Banner Post's Teter division. They stare at her for a few seconds, before quietly stammering "Fairweather?", approaching slowly with a greatly concerned look on his face. Danica realises there's no use in pretense, and greets Cloud, as amicably as she can. However, he doesn't let go of his worried face, insisting as he asks whether Danica is part of "what happened to May."

Danica, having genuinely no idea what Cloud means, insists she doesn't — but invites him to talk in a more secluded area. They slip into a nearby dorm building, and take cover from a security camera under a staircase.