Outer Olympus

Outer Olympus: Chapter 33

Chapter 33

By the next morning, news of the impact at Outpost Raven was already everywhere on the station. Coined the "Raven Castastrophe," it was impossible to go anywhere without hearing the public access news addressing the situation. You couldn't look at a screen in a public place without seeing footage of the railcar's mangled wreck or interviews with Kase Coppercoat about how he had kept the incident from taking any lives, or the announcement of the planned ceremony to award him with the Rockwater Commendation. Occasionally, a piece of coverage would mention the security breach at the Magistrate's mansion, but it all got swept under the much louder incident; when it was mentioned, it was framed as a failed assassination attempt. Occasionally sketches of the kids would show up, some talk shows held debates on what had happened to radicalize these children (strangely none considered the option of "growing up in poverty under an oppressive government"), but the main message was; bigger devastation narrowly avoided, our Enforcers are our greatest heroes.

In the Midnight Whim, where the militant radicals of the city spent their nights, it was a time of celebration and cheer. Tomorrow they'd debate tactics, question if action like this was a good sign for the reignition of a righteous revolution, but tonight, everyone was simply happy to see an Enforcer Station destroyed.

But in the safehouse, nursing bruises, lacerations, and in Rune's case, a severe facial burn, it was hard for any of the event's perpetrators to feel any sort of success. Their heist was, by any reasonable measure, a failure. The Archetemy Chalice was presumably back in its fancy hover case, they wouldn't have another easy chance to grab it again. Even if somehow the backdoors Taroh had put into the railcar network weren't discovered and closed up, there wasn't even a railcar to take to the Magistrate's mansion anymore. There was more attention on them than ever, more danger, especially now that Rune was provably not invincible. In truth, they had all known intellectually they were under threat since they had rescued Rune ten days ago, but it took the sting of defeat and the more literal sting of painful bruises to get them to understand it emotionally.

"They're making such a big deal that we snuck in and wrecked the train," Taroh complained, holding a package of ice to a bruise on the side of his head where it had struck the train's wall. "We didn't need to sneak in to do that! I could have wrecked that station any time in the past week!" Viola sighed, hand on her face.

"That's really not the thing to get angry about, Taroh," she replied. "We really messed this one up. We're not supposed to be on the news! Do you know how much harder it is to con people when they've heard about me?" Taroh thought for a moment.

"Probably like, forty percent harder? You fool us all the time," he replied. Viola laughed. She hadn't a number in mind, but she felt Taroh was undercutting it a little.

"Difficulty of doing heists isn't the problem either, Viola," Geode cut in. Geode had made it out of the crash with the least problems, having had the knowledge of how to properly brace for a large impact. "We're not doing any more until this all dies down. Which might be like, three years from now." Viola balked.

"Obviously we need time to recover, and for a bit of heat to blow over, but," she began, but Geode quickly cut her off.

"There are dozens if not hundreds of Enforcers on the streets looking for us specifically right now. A group of bounty hunters tried to kidnap Sasille to get to us. Every time we step outside, things get worse for us. And the people who are helping us." Geode took an unusually harsh tone. "We just saw what happens when we don't take this seriously. And we still got off easily." Viola looked at the burn on Rune's face. It wasn't nearly as awful looking as it had been immediately after it was inflicted, but was still a grisly sight.