The Cardinal Directive: Mission Log #34

Or Something.

[Start of Season 2]
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>> Now Playing Mission Log #34

The footage flicks through several body cameras, giving brief flashes of the Olympica Outpost several hours into the night. A patrol walks the outside perimeter, eyes pointed out into the desert. A few members of the Hand chat idly as they let their dragons out into a larger corral for the night.

The majority of them, though, have sifted down into the Pit. It’s a winding system of tunnels connecting larger rooms stacked wall to wall with cots and just as many people to fill them. The halls are lit by the bobbing flashlights of passerbys.

Finally, the feed settles, resuming in earnest from a camera in the upper corner of a room not quite like the others. Its low ceiling and hardpacked dirt underfoot are nothing new, but this one has bunkbeds, not cots — five in total — and a small area to line up bags and any equipment next to the doorway. Where the other rooms have only a dirt archway that lets out into the tunnels, sometimes reinforced by a metal beam, their doorway has a proper tent sheet hanging in it, providing a semblance of privacy from the rest of the Pit. Permanent light fixtures mark the walls, though the light they give off at the moment is dim.

Several people mill about inside this room, orbiting their beds as they begin to settle in for the night.

Most of the team is here.

Sebastian sits at the end of his bed, leaned forward with his elbows braced against his knees. One leg shakes as he watches the door for any sign of movement, but no one new enters. His hands have been wrapped with cloth, but the fresh bruising on his face shows no sign of having been treated. “It’s been too long. It’s never this long.”