Now that we were on the road to the Breach, the sureallness of the situation I had gotten myself into threatened to set in. It had only been a few minutes since the call had come in, but our aides were already flooding the tactical communication channels with satellite images, similarly acquired heatmaps, on-location videos from traffic cameras, and professional analysis.
During the plane ride over I got everything set up with the help of our handler, using my computer and the direct connection I had to it to allow things to go smoother. Well, it was running on a virtual machine on my computer, but no one needed to know that. In fact, due to the directness of my connection to the computer, I ran everything on an array of VMs as a general policy. I wasn’t eager to figure out if- and then how- a computer virus would work on a brain.
So far the situation looked… complicated. I had been given an explanation of all the tools at hand, however, seeing it in action was a little overwhelming. This was normal, of course, so Kay was helping me sort through what was relevant to me and coordinate with the rest of the team.
The ride was going to be around an hour, even with a little bit of speeding and traffic control, so there was plenty of time for me to get a handle on what I needed to know. This primarily entailed the location of the emergency shelters and where the forward bases I would be extracting them to would hopefully be when the time came.
That last part was a bit complicated due to a few factors. The smaller demons can appear almost anywhere in the affected area, with bigger ones needing to come into our reality closer to ostensibly arbitrary hotspots. As time passed, more of the mid-range demons would be appearing to replace the smaller ones, and therefore you could actually establish a safe zone. However, eventually, demons resistant or immune to infantry weapons will become the majority- rendering weapons not in the ballpark of an MG or artillery practically useless.
The actual plan for how I would get civilians from the shelters to the bases was to create a path that stuck to low-activity, indoor areas as much as possible. Within those, I could use the ULE-averaging-gas trick to obscure our position in conjunction with a few lures made from sticking a ULE battery onto one of Carlos’ drones.
If the shelters were fully up to code, there should be some amount of gas masks in each. It likely wouldn’t be enough, so there were ongoing communications with the shelters to figure out how many more I would need to carry on my trip over.
Since I was a normal person with normal reactions to this sort of thing, it was no exaggeration to say I was on the edge of a breakdown from doubting if I was ready for this. Impending disaster was just about being held off by me obsessively checking my equipment and perks many times, trying to tease out every possible use case and how it could help me not die. During one of these checks, I was prompted to mentally ask Cleo, “does an MGs perks include a function to exclude themself from the effects? Specifically mental ones.”
{Generally, there is no need to include one as the act of using the perk makes you aware of its specific workings- and thus subconsciously resist or avoid it.}
“But like those times I had to overcharge [Unremarkable] and got a free trial of ego death, it is possible to affect myself?”
Cautiously, they replied, {yes, however, I would caution against ‘overcharging’ your perks without necessity to prevent damage. Should it be necessary, trying to focus on and rationalize the effects of a perk can help you circumvent your own resistance- however doing so too much might end up with you training yourself to be affected, even when you don’t want to be.}
Giving a slight nod, I swallowed and activated [Act], focusing on making myself believe I belonged here. I felt so out of place, jumping between distractions to distract myself from the implications of being an MG. Hiding behind a mask and an act to create a separation between Silvia and Devil in the public eye.
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So why not lean into the act more? Not in a self-induced dissociative personality way, but a maybe slightly healthier way. I belonged here because that’s where the ‘script’ called for Devil to be. The overwhelming amounts of data and the constantly shifting moral decisions being made from it weren’t for Devil to puzzle through. It was background ambiance to foreshadow tactical decisions made later; a preamble to orders and improvisation so they could be justified when the story got there. If I broke down, that would necessitate breaking character- and there were going to be a lot of unknowing audience members who couldn’t be clued into the fact it was all an act.
The weakest link in this whole idea was myself. While I couldn’t change who I was, I could reframe it to fit what was needed. Where I tended to be petty to an almost vindictive degree, Devil was- while maybe not a shining example of it- an MG and thus a ‘good guy,’ which meant they acted playful with a hint of inconsiderateness. Similarly, instead of being antisocial, Devil should be elusive or cryptic.
Instead of nearly throwing up at the responsibilities they now had, their actor was nervous for the proper debut performance- while Devil was nervous about something frivolous. Maybe if the newly added poncho really conflicted with the rest of the outfit as much as their Semiseelie said it did, for instance.
After a few more minutes of reframing everything to fit a view that this was all a live-action performance with minimal safety gear, I was feeling better. Not calm or collected, but also not like I wanted to jump out of a vehicle going around one-hundred miles per hour. I couldn’t tell if the perk did anything extra in that regard, however, the way no one was throwing any more questioning glances my way was probably it’s doing.
Still with twenty-odd minutes left, the situation was much more firmly set than the initial scramble suggested it would be. Local forces were holding a few blocks shy of the initial goal in most cases, with one group having evacuated a shelter that was close to the edge of the affected area already.
One of the off-site aides had sent me a map with routes to each remaining shelters marked out. There were three large shelters strung up on a rough line, and two smaller ones to independently evacuate afterwards. Their route was pretty good, being detailed enough to include which entrances and exits would likely be the best for each building- although given the limited time frame they had to work, floor plans were missing for any building without a shelter.
The package came along with a question clarifying if I was able to get through the many likely locked doors along the route. I quickly wrote up a reply saying, “that won’t be an issue. While I could pick each lock, it’s probably easier to go with a more destructive entry method. ClF3 should be able to melt a few latches- and if I use a small enough amount of it, it shouldn’t burn the building down!”
I got a less than enthused sounding response back confirming, yes, ClF3 should be able to let me through the obstacles I’d encounter- along with a request to make sure the civilians stayed safe. I just sent a thumbs up before getting back to orienting the map layout with where we’d be arriving.
We only slowed down as we came near a checkpoint that marked the edge of the ceded area of the breach. As we stopped for our handler to talk with whoever was in charge, Carlos stepped out of the car and summoned a stack of large boxes. Each one was a nice little complete defensive package: a dozen small drones, networking capabilities, and an automated turret to fill gaps like alleys and sewers where the large, but still limited, number of personnel could easily be replaced.
Despite taking some time to explain how everything worked to some of the more technical personnel, we were leaving after only three minutes- directly into the Breach. Doing so made perfect sense; why waste time getting places by circumventing the dangerous area when you have five… professionals on hand to deal with any demons you might encounter. We also only needed to cross a small chord of the zone where it was very unlikely to encounter demons, so the risk was low.
Our destination was the on-site command station set up in a shelter nearby the Breach, but not to meet with anyone in particular. From there, Carlos would continue making a circuit of the defensive positions to help bolster them while Chris and Rebecca would heal up anyone injured from the initial panic before joining Kay in going to their assigned sectors to wait for me to finish.
I would be taken directly to the starting point of my extraction route. In fact, I wouldn’t even get to leave the car- everyone not in my support team was being kicked out a few blocks away from command so we could get going as fast as possible. How lucky.