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"All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near."
~Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Chapter Seventy-seven: Fool Me Once...
"Move it, assholes." Lilah pulled her helmet down over her bunned brown hair, which didn't do a lot to hide her scowl as the team filtered past her into the drop bay. "And don't scuff the damn seats. You don't even want to know how long it took me and Cameron to put them together."
"It wasn't that long." Cameron himself paused at the tail end of the squad to give the pilot a mock glare. "Maybe a day to get the benches sorted."
"Cameron and Firebrand, sittin' in a tree..." Liang snickered, and then yelped when Lilah snapped her hand out to yank the Grenadier's hair. "Fuck you too!"
"Promises, promises." Lilah turned up her nose. "No one puke on my new Skyranger, dipshits! Maiden voyage and all that."
"Yes, mom." Anne Lawrence rolled her eyes. Barta nodded very seriously. Further toward the front of the drop bay, Nui barely looked up from stashing her kit under her seat. Yue's guard Elias was there too, checking his shard cannon with a hungry expression.
"Hey." Cameron lowered his voice. "Are you okay to fly?"
"What do you mean?" Lilah cocked her head. "I've been grounded for a damn month and a half. You bet your cute ass I'm bursting at the seams to get mine in the air!"
"No, I meant..." Cameron glanced at her stomach. Was it just the flight suit hiding her figure, or had she not even started to show yet? Well, it had only been a month.
"I'm fine." Lilah scoffed. "I'm not made of glass, Moose. I'm the only pilot on this ship who isn't old and crusty, even if Central and I are both wasted half the time. Can you see him coming down from the bridge to take up my joystick?" She scoffed again, louder and more scornful. "He can't even pilot a barge like Avenger without spilling everyone's tea every five minutes, and that's with all that alien tech helping to stabilize her. A Skyranger? Please, he'd wreck my baby in a heartbeat. I'd rather fly her in labor than see that happen!"
"Okay, okay!" Cameron flung his hands up. "I was just asking. Can't be too careful."
"And that attitude's always been your biggest problem." Lilah kicked him on the shin, just painfully enough that she was clearly in a playful mood.
"Are we ever taking off?" Anne leaned back in her seat, grinning ear to ear. "Or are you two going to quip at each other until Judgment Day?"
"She's right." Liang produced her face wrappings, and she began ninja-fying herself. She'd sobered a lot in less than a minute, which probably had something to do with coming to terms with the fact she was the senior soldier on the mission.
That makes me second in command. For a moment, Cameron fought a surge of dizziness. Me, Liang, and Lilah are the only ones who were here when we rescued Gallant and kicked the war off in earnest. What were Anne and Barta up to before then, I wonder?
"There'll be time for flirting and joking and the rest of the whatnot later." Liang clapped Lilah on the shoulder. "Get us airborne, Firebrand. We've got an op to run."
"Right away, captain!" The shift from Lilah to Firebrand didn't amount to much, even if she tried her damndest to sell the most over-exaggerated salute Cameron had seen in his lifetime. "Hold on to your butts, morons. I'll try to be gentle."
"Oh, yeah. I already knew."
"Really?" Shen gaped.
"Yeah. Tygan told me." Gallant frowned. "He heard it from Sylvie, who'd apparently been told by Aileen that according to Charlotte, Meysam had said Nui thought Lilah looked pregnant."
"And you're not mad?" Shen frowned.
"Hell yes I'm mad. If I had my way, I'd..." Gallant snapped his jaw shut before he could finish the proclamation. Somehow, the threat of kicking someone off the ship loomed a lot larger and harsher in the air now that Jane had actually left.
I never would have thought it would be her. Maybe in hindsight it was more likely than he'd imagined, but until the moment she'd confronted him, he'd taken it utterly for granted that Jane was going nowhere. Fallen in battle doing something stupidly heroic, maybe, but resigning and storming off after trying to smash my face in?
Unthinkable. Impossible. Unreal.
And undoubtedly a body blow to...to the entire war effort. It was her skills that would prove irreplaceable, and her experience that left such a gaping hole in Gallant's plans. It wasn't personal. It couldn't be, not when an entire planet's future hinged on what came next.
Sure, go on thinking that. Gallant sighed quietly. You might convince little Matthias if you're lucky.
It wasn't just her skill, her experience, and her raw talent that made losing her sting so hard. And it wasn't just XCOM and the war that suffered for it. From rocky beginnings, Jane had become a friend to a man who didn't have many and couldn't keep most of those he lucked his way into.
Including her. Another entry for the list of Sobering Thoughts That Kept Edward Gallant From Getting Back To Sleep When He Woke Up At Two In The Morning.
"Sir?"
"...oh." There was no explaining away the long, awkward pause. Jane was an even larger, even more present entity on the ship now that she was gone. Shen knew damn well what Gallant had almost said and where his mind had gone. He couldn't BS her.
"Woolgathering." Gallant cleared his throat. "I'd have them both swabbing the engineering bays for the duration of her pregnancy and beyond. I'd stick someone else in her cockpit." He grumbled under his breath. "If we had anyone."
"But?" Shen clearly wasn't fooled, but she wasn't going to argue. In fact, she might have looked a touch sympathetic. Did she miss the hotshot Ranger she'd started off on the wrong foot with too?
"But we don't have any other pilots, damn it. And Rogers does the war effort no good scrubbing off workbenches." Those were good reasons that didn't involve being unwilling to backbench the non-shit personnel he had right after his best (wo)man left the fold. He had to lean on his veterans now more than ever. Mox and Dragunova, Aileen and Fatima, and yes, even Liang and Cameron. Without all of them to help bring the newcomers like Giovanni, Elias, and Barta up to speed, XCOM would be crippled.
"Fair enough." Shen heard the unspoken logic loud and clear, too, and she was the best person in the world for leaving it there hanging in the air.
"Right." Gallant cleared his throat, which certainly didn't reinforce any of her suspicions about what he was feeling. "Where the hell are we, anyway?"
"At the moment, hovering over the North Sea." Shen tapped a few buttons on her datapad, and the hologlobe dominating the bridge reformed into a local holo-map of northern Scotland. "The psi-relay Julian detected is built into the tunnel network below what used to be Scapa Flow. Seems like an odd place to put it. There's no major Advent facilities anywhere nearby, and the city is barely more than a slum now. Betos' people say those tunnels are a known Lost nest."
"That makes it a perfect location. No other targets draw attention to it, and it has a natural defense system." Gallant pursed his lips. "You said they're starting to disconnect it from the network?"
"Yes, sir." Shen scrolled through some data, which appeared over the map and Gallant didn't even bother trying to read. "We detected the power fluctuations via the relay the Resistance established in Sweden after we saved the Denmother."
"Feels like five years ago." Had it only been months? Christ.
"Damn right." Shen highlighted some sciencey-looking shit. "Julian isolated these signals from the rest of the alien psi-network. It's clear that this relay is tied directly into their full European network. One strike here and we open up half a dozen targets for lightning raids. Volk's moved Reapers into France and Betos has Skirmishers standing by across Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. I think Geist has a few tricks ready in Iberia and Italy too, but he wouldn't confirm anything when I shot him the data."
"Of course not. It's Geist. He doesn't tell his waiter what he wants for dinner. It just appears in due course." Gallant paused as an icon popped onto the holodisplay. "Well, there they go." He watched the miniature blue Skyranger as it pulled away from Avenger's bulk. Gallant keyed his com. "Firebrand? Status."
"Skyranger deployed." Those two words sent a thrill down to Gallant's toes. The bridge crew paused to beam, slapping each other's backs. "All systems green."
"Excellent work, Firebrand. Congratulations on the wings." Gallant bared his teeth. "Advent won't have a clue how we dug up another bird this quickly."
"Can't take all the credit, Commander. Just most of it." Firebrand chuckled. "Wouldn't be here without my wrench monkeys."
"Yes, well. Congratulations to them too." Gallant rolled his eyes. He shoved those lingering worries about Jane out of his head–for now, there was work to do. "Proceed to the deployment zone. We're back in the game."
"Shit."
"So to speak." Liang clicked her light on. "Oh, God. It really does stink down here."
"That's what I said." Cameron flicked the light strapped to his shiny new plasma pistol, turning to study the cross-tunnel to the left. "Clear."
"Clear." Barta took the right, waving for the rest of the team to slide down the lines strung from the Skyranger above. The cables wavered, then went taut before Elias, Anne, and Nui joined the fray, weapons at the ready.
"Is that what you call it?" Cameron drunk in green-tinted, dark-stoned, shit-stinking sewers stretching like the Minotaur's Labyrinth on every goddamn side. "I'm gonna catch so many diseases…"
"Oh, diseases? You're worried about contagion in the middle of a covert op?" Elias thumped him hard on the shoulder. "You've got to be kidding me, friend. You'll be dead long before you get sick."
"Shut up." Anne kicked a full-on garbage bag out of her way. Cameron had never been so jealous of her full fishbowl Templar helmet before today. "Captain Liang, how do we proceed?"
"One moment." Liang keyed her comm. "Avenger, this is Menace. We have successfully forced entry into the sewer network. What's our bearing on that transmitter?"
"Copy, Menace." Bradford's voice was at least some comfort. "First off, it's a maze down there. Opportunities for extraction will be limited until we complete the mission."
"Understood. Hope we won't need it." Liang hefted her cannon. "Guide us in."
"That signal is reading directly ahead of you." Bradford let out a quiet sigh. "North tunnel."
"Wonderful." Cameron gently took point, pistol still upraised. His light shone on cracked walls, stained floors, liquid running from above…
On a purple, egg-shaped lump of metal.
"What the hell is that?" Cameron froze, clutching his pistol. It glowed with energy in successive waves, like a pulse. "Is that the relay we're after?"
"Negative, Menace." Bradford hesitated. "Doctor?"
"That device appears to be a relay, feeding energy directly into the ADVENT network." Tygan didn't usually chime in on missions. Was it good or bad to have him here now? "If you can destroy it, it may slow down their efforts to isolate the transmitter."
"I see." Cameron eyed the device dubiously. "Doesn't look too tough."
"Leave it." Liang captured the point position, advancing at a slow walk through the shadows. "We blow that and the enemy knows we're here. I'm sure we'll find more of them along the way."
"Good call, Menace." For a man who'd gotten into a fistfight not too long ago, Gallant sounded awful chipper. Maybe that was why he was the Commander. "Press on. Lawrence, run point and try to take down anything you can quietly. Boktoa, back her up as necessary."
"It will be done." Anne shouldered past Cameron and Liang, Barta hot on her heels. The pair vanished into the dark, shutting off their lights until they became ghosts.
"The rest of you, form up." Gallant gave them a moment to dress their ranks: Liang and Elias in the front with mag-cannon and shard gun ready, Nui behind with her plasma rifle, and finally Cameron, switching from pistol to his long rifle and undoing the safety. "Lights out and follow them up. Stay in contact through me."
"Alright." Cameron swallowed on a dry throat, trying not to gag on the wretched stench invading his nostrils. "On your six, Cap."
"Come on, Moose." Liang started into the shadows, dousing her light with a soft click. "Let's pay those bastards a visit."
Anne Lawrence was not a Reaper. She didn't live in the dark, nor did she possess a silenced firearm. Even her blades were loud, bright, and colorful when used. What was she supposed to do if she ran into a patrol?
I will figure something out. I am a scion of the Gift. Through it, I can overcome all obstacles.
"Anything?" Barta padded along at Anne's flank, ripjack up and bullpup holstered almost like an old-school gunslinger's six-shooter, one hand on the grip. At least her presence brought Anne some comfort.
"Not so far." Anne squinted through her helmet optics, picking garbage and sewage apart from each other and taking note as the rats fled in hurried rushes. "Avenger, this is Lawrence. We have passed the first marker with no sign of hostiles."
"Copy, Lawrence." Bradford's voice brooked no emotion. Anne quite liked that about him. Stoicism was a way of life to a Templar, constantly beset by the surges of the Gift. Losing your head and jumping around was a surefire way to blow the brains out of everyone close to you.
On she trod in darkness, the path lit only by Avenger's occasional directions.
Another relay. She eyed it for a moment, more for the Commander's benefit than hers, before continuing on her way. Her hand drifted to the grip of her magnetic autopistol as she approached the second marker: the next chokepoint in the tunnels where a sentry doubtless waited. It was just a matter of who spotted whom first.
"Door." Barta jerked her head towards the wall at the end of the tunnel, and its single defining feature. Above that door was a metal balcony with its own egress, and Anne eyed it for a moment.
"There's definitely someone in there. They'd be stupid to leave it." She pointed to the balcony. "Can you get up there? I'll push in from the bottom on your lead." It would have been unthinkable to cede command to an alien as little as a few weeks ago, but Geist had made it very clear that he expected nothing but absolute cooperation from his liasons aboard Avenger.
And Anne dealt well with absolutes.
"Of course I can." Barta's grapple went off with a quiet thump, then a soft clang as the hook set. The motor whined, hauling her up toward the railing. Anne pressed herself up beside the door below, drawing her autopistol and ensuring her gauntlets were active. She breathed in on shallow lungs, resting her free hand on the doorknob.
"Breach in three." Barta kept her voice low, hissing more from Anne's comm than from the air around. "Two."
"One." Anne tightened her grip on the autopistol.
"Now!" A thud sounded from overhead as Barta shoved her way inside. Anne threw her shoulder into the door, slamming it wide open and snapping her autopistol up in one smooth motion. She had an instant to take in a weathered, almost ancient computer room, set with two desks laden with old-school terminals and monitors. Then she had to…
…she didn't have to do anything. Anne spun, gun leveled at every corner of the room in turn.
"I don't understand." Overhead, Barta lowered her gun. The balcony continued into a metal walkway around the top of the room, and the Skirmisher slowly paced its length, studying every corner Anne turned her back on. "I don't see any of them."
"Where the hell are they?" Anne licked her lips. Somehow, no contact was far more bothersome than a whole regiment of sectopods in her sights. "I don't like this, Barta."
"I cannot disagree." She slowly descended from the railing. "That is two likely checkpoints, completely abandoned."
"Avenger?" Anne twisted, levelling her gun at a flash of motion, but all it turned out to be was a rat. "I think this is some kind of pump control station, or at least it used to be. No sign of hostiles."
"Understood, Lawrence." Bradford stayed silent for a longer moment than usual. "Keep pressing. Make sure Captain Liang knows what to expect on her approach."
"Copy." For once, Anne was grateful for her helmet. At least Barta couldn't see how pale her reflection looked.
"I do not envy those who go without helmets." Barta took up position beside the next door. "It pains me, but by the spirit of camaraderie, I must admit I am concerned."
Anne's nervous laughter echoed in the shadowy darkness.
"This is fucking weird." Gallant kept a cleaner poker face than Anne, but his throat was just as dry. "Did we really catch them with their pants down?"
"I hope so." Bradford took in a surreptitious breath. "Should we call Firebrand? Send the team back?"
"Over what? Literally nothing?" Gallant blew air through his teeth. "Maybe we're old men with shot nerves, John."
"Maybe." Bradford eyed the holodisplay as Barta and Anne forced entry to the third checkpoint, a confluence of tunnels connected only by a tiny bridge. Again, no soldiers or shieldbearers awaited them, no vipers or mutons with plasma grenades at the ready. "I guess Julian's intel really was good."
"The information was first collected by the Skirmishers." Julian's face appeared on the display, but even his voice was more subdued than usual. "But their reports indicated a moderate guard force in the region."
"Were they redeployed?" Gallant tried to fight the temptation to chew his lip. He lost. "They could have been positioned on the north side based on a faulty assumption. We're coming in from the south."
"Yeah, the landward side. The most obvious direction. North lacks good access points to the tunnels, else we would have gone that way." Bradford frowned. "Maybe there is one we don't know about?"
"Menace." Gallant sighed, hunting for words. "Regroup. I don't like having you split apart when we have no good intel. Lawrence and Boktoa, hold your positions. Captain Liang, get your team organized and push forward. You're almost there."
"Sir." Liang's voice came in quiet. Was that just from trying to stay undetected, or did the men in the field feel this tension too?
Stupid question, Edward. The field operatives always feel it. You're the only one with the luxury of ignoring the reality on the ground sometimes.
That was the kind of thing Penny would have said, or Vahlen. Or, more recently…
"I wish Jane was down there." Gallant kept his voice too low for anyone but Bradford to possibly hear him. "I'd be a lot more confident."
"She was a good soldier. Is." Bradford nodded quietly. "I understand how you feel, but Liang's good. Rogers is good. Lawrence and Boktoa are hardly fresh, and Nui's seen her share of action with and without us. Elias isn't a rookie either. They'll do okay."
"I hope so." Still, Gallant shifted his weight. "We should have put Sylvie on the op."
"There's no point to this second-guessing now, Commander. We're here, and we're going to be fine." Bradford returned his attention to the map. "Looks like they're coming up on the transmitter."
"I see." Gallant clutched his cane in shaking fingers. "This feels…wrong."
"Breach!" Liang went first, Barta and Nui on her heels. Cameron held back, covering in the doorway with his mag-rifle ready to snap up as soon as Elias and Anne had followed through the access door to the final cavern. His heart beat hard in his chest, thundering like…like…
"Clear." Nui held up one fist, rifle still upraised while her GREMLIN fluttered over her shoulders. "Jesus, that must be it."
"Damn right." Cameron's eyebrows went up as he entered, beholding the enormous purple construction squatting across what had once been another pump control room like an enormous tumor. It glowed with psionic energy, its metal glimmering darkly in the light like shadows made solid. "Where does the tech end and the psionic begin?"
"Hell if I know." Elias rapped his knuckles on the transmitter. "Yep, that metal's made of metal."
"Grow up." Liang glared. "We have a job to do."
"Sorry, Captain." Elias quickly straightened. "Was trying to lighten the mood."
"Well, don't." Cameron returned to the door, taking cover this time on the inside. "I see two more doors out of here."
"Left." Nui settled behind an old computer desk, rifle trained on the door in question.
"Right." Barta mirrored her, taking cover behind a set of stairs with a good view of the right-side door.
"Anne, find out what's upstairs." Liang knelt by the transmitter. "Elias, get your X4. Let's wire this thing for sound."
"Yes, ma'am." The Swede pulled out his explosives, letting his shard cannon fall on its strap. Together, he and Liang began to fix charges in place across the transmitter.
"How much time do we have?" Nui spared a worried glance over her shoulder. "This doesn't feel right to me, Lieutenant."
"No, it doesn't." Cameron keyed his comm. "Avenger?"
"We copy, Rogers. You're in the green on timing so far."
"Copy, Central." Cameron spared a look outside the door. "Weren't there supposed to be Lost down here?"
"I thought as much." Nui craned her neck to check through the window of her door. "I haven't seen a thing though."
"Me neither." Cameron cut the Specialist a worried look. "Can you do anything with that drone?"
"Ah…" Nui tapped on her arm console. "Scanning Protocol active, sir."
"Great." Cameron surreptitiously took a deep breath as the GREMLIN's sensors opened up, linking directly to Avenger's scopes to read the surrounding area. "We're going to be fine, Nui."
"I hope so." She chewed her lip for a moment. "God, I hope so."
"Easy. Kang won't be rid of you so easily." Cameron suppressed a shiver. Hopefully he was just being paranoid. "But I admit I'm going to feel a lot better when we're back on the Skyranger."
"Stop being a little bitch, Moose." Lilah chuckled through the comm. "You're going to be okay, because if you aren't, I'll kill you. How's that?"
"Hard to argue." Cameron glanced at Liang, who returned his quiet amusement.
"Stay off the net if you don't have anything useful to report." Of course Gallant was immune to Lilah's charms. This was the man who'd thought Vahlen was wife material, after all—his women sense had to be screwed up out of human comprehension.
Not that Cameron would admit any such thing.
"Barta, come over here." Liang waved a hand full of X4. "Watch the detonator for me. And put this one around the back, would you?"
"I don't like this." Meysam Saleh pursed his lips hard, watching the feed broadcast to the bar monitor. He swirled his drink, mouth too dry to wet it. "Something's wrong."
"It's quiet." Aileen leaned on the edge of his booth, eyes narrow. Maybe focusing on the mission at hand took her thoughts away from Jane's departure, and the role she'd almost-certainly played in it? No one else could have gotten Jane a cracker powerful enough to beat Shen's encryption.
"Maybe that's a good thing." A table over, Julie tentatively raised her glass. "To silence?"
"I don't know." Across from Meysam, Kang licked his lips, his own drink untouched. His eyes tracked Nui's feed, keeping guard on the left flank while Liang, Elias, and Barta worked. "She'd better come back to me."
"She will." Meysam patted his friend's hand as comfortingly as he could. "They all will, Kang. I'm sure of it."
"Me too." Julie cracked a smile. "Look, even if this is about to get loud, they're halfway through. As soon as they wire and blow the transmitter, they just have to get out. Their path is marked, so they won't get lost. And there's clearly nothing deployed along that path or the team would have encountered resistance."
"Julie's right." Meysam mustered a smile. "Worst-case scenario, they fall back down the tunnel easy as can be. They're going to be fine."
"Hm." Kang didn't look convinced.
After all, Meysam had never been a good liar.
In the darkness, she waited. This wasn't her usual sort of thing, and in fact it went against all of her instincts and her nature. She chafed under the iron hand of her handler, desperate for a chance to do what she was made to.
And yet her only handler was herself: the iron will she'd never thought she possessed. It drove her to heights of self-control she'd never before envisioned, to lying perfectly still in shadow for hours and hours, her only link to the outside world being the little comm in her ear.
Finally, that comm chirped.
"Pressure sensor report." She raised her arm, activating her standby orders. "South vector, it seems. Ten minute delay." She rose, every movement wraithlike and silent. "Deploy units Four and Seven. Unit One, prepare to engage."
"You sound so professional." His voice whispered in her ear, amused and impressed at the same time. "Your attitude is lost on your thralls, General."
"Perhaps." Din Dourde hefted her magnetic rifle. "I blame you, sir."
"Most wise." The Hunter chuckled quietly. "I'm on my way, Din. Warm them up for me."
"With pleasure." Dourde tapped another button on her gauntlet. "Open the cages."
"You done over there?" Cameron spared a glance over his shoulder. "Please?'
"Got somewhere to be, Moose?" Liang rose with a soft chuckle.
"Oh, yeah." Cameron nodded as seriously as possible. "I left a god damn pot roast in the oven. I don't trust Charlotte to deal with it politely."
"Charlotte? Bitch burns salads." Liang shook her head, as if forced to remember who was in command of the operation. "We're just waiting on Barta here."
"Not anymore." The Skirmisher dropped from her position atop the transmitter, dusting herself off. "The X4 has been deployed, Captain."
"Perfect." Liang waved to the team. "Let's clear the room, then. Lively, now."
"Yes, ma'am." Cameron could almost taste the Skyranger's drop bay air. If this was all him being paranoid, then that was all it was, but he'd feel better afterward just the same. He hefted his rifle, easing out the door with Nui while Elias and Liang followed.
Then he heard it.
"Wait!" He held up his hand, freezing in his tracks. The rest of the team stilled in the same breath, and for a moment, it was silence.
"Menace?" Gallant's tone darkened. "I don't like where this is going."
"Sir, I hear…" Cameron frowned. "I think that sounds like hissing."
A massive crash filled the air. Cameron dove for cover on honed reflex, scrambling behind a pipe laid on the ground while Nui, Elias, Anne, and Liang flung themselves behind walls and pillars all around him.
Only Barta lagged behind, forced to scramble beside the door as the ceiling over the transmitter caved in. Shapes fell amidst crashing rubble, and Cameron had to shield his eyes when dust came rushing out.
"Hostile contact!" Barta took full advantage of her helmet, spinning out to fire on full auto into the mess. "Cover me as I—"
A tongue of green liquid shot from within the cloud, boiling away at air and stone as it cut a path through the tunnels. Cameron ducked in the nick of time, and the green ooze ate into the pipes before him, burning them away from grime to steel.
Barta shrieked as the blast caught her full-on, dousing her in acid. It ate away her armor in the blink of an eye, the deluge continuing and boiling into her flesh. The Skirmisher's screams redoubled, stopping only when the ooze burned away her mouth and tongue too.
Her charred, melting corpse collapsed in the doorway.
A single boxlike form loomed in the darkness, a massive flamethrower-like weapon held in robotic hands. The dark shape of a pilot hung behind hateful orange glass like a giant eye, yellow and green liquid and smoking puffs venting from all over the hateful contraption.
"Dear Jesus Christ." Cameron's voice broke. "What the hell is that?"
Author's Note 77: Silence Like A Cancer Grows
I've done a lot of chapters where the tension comes from what I've set up. The reason this one stalled me for so long was because so little actually happens for a full chapter, and the realization that helped sell me on it was to just lean into that. I may be selling myself too well on this, but I think a lot of the tension in this chapter comes from the fact that nothing is happening, which at least makes it unique in this fic.
Anyway, that's enough of a ramble. Cheers to the first chapter written almost entirely in 2022! I've already written two more chapters after this as of posting, and I'm tentatively planning on resuming my Wednesday/Saturday uploads, but no ironclad promises. For reference, the exact break between 2020 material and 2022 is the break after Gallant says "We're back in the game".
Until Wednesday, Vigilo Confido.