Chapter 23 of 89 · Book 7, This Inevitable Ruin

Chapter 23 — Killing in the Name

Book: This Inevitable Ruin · Part: The Ramp-Up · Previous: Chapter 22 — Colonel Boomer · Next: Chapter 24 — No Man's Land · Floor: Floor 9 — Faction Wars · Series: the series

Opening

<Note added by Crawler Ossie, 18th Edition>

Summary

Ossie, eighteenth edition: 'confusion is always the key.' Stacked shields ('You have been Titivated'), Rend caged, Mongo tense, Dong and Holger flanking; Imani drops in with ethereal wings and a buff nobody has felt before, having also buffed the man aiming the Posse's one trebuchet — looted from Dream elves on the sixth floor, loaded with fifty Dazzlers, alarm-and-spotlight traps that strobe into the nearest enemy's eyes and all play one song, one of the few modules Victory allows. Victory appears with Drick, who has come to watch from the best seat and could just as easily warn the other side. The plan, in chat: Louis lowers for a bombing run along the ground in front of the enemy trench — craters, dirt on the defenders, traps cleared; Elle fires Carl's missile launcher at the anti-air guns; Britney sends in the NPC team; Imani casts Total Ear Protection on Donut and Mongo while the rest take the potion Mordecai made by the gallon or earplugs enchanted with a buff called This Thingy Works Slightly Better Than It's Supposed To. Donut to the army: 'THE SOLDIER WHO BRINGS ME THE MOST DEAD CHEESE STICKS GETS A PRIZE. I BELIEVE IN ALL OF YOU.' Positive reinforcement worked on Mongo. The assault is Tipid and Rosetta's contingency from outside; only the second part is Carl's, and Katia, in the north, is missed. The enemy expects a week of turtling. The first bomb slaps Carl in the chest; the Dazzlers land — 'Peaking at Number 3 on June 20, 2020, despite first coming out in 1992, It’s “Killing in the Name.”' — and Rage Against the Machine shakes the ground harder than the bombs. Elle knocks the first anti-air over; Britney's spies breach the second trench; Louis circles out under fire. Two thousand go over the top with invisibility potions and illusion doubles and illusory tanks. Donut, asked if she is scared: 'It's more numb than anything. I think nowadays it hits me more when it's done than when it's happening.' Carl's hand shakes too much to pat her. Over.

Characters

• Princess Donut — Prizes for the most dead cheese sticks; numb until afterwards.
• Imani — Wings in a trench; Total Ear Protection.
• Drick — Comes to watch, and reminds them what else he could do.
• Carl — The second part of the plan is his; his hand trembles.
• Louis and Firas — A bombing run in front of the trench, then into the fog.
• Elle McGibbons — Missiles at anti-air, on the run.

Locations

• The southern front — No-man's land under a black ceiling of cloud, at dusk.

Motifs

• The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook — Ossie on confusion; the plan is Tipid and Rosetta's.
• Donut's songs — One song, fifty speakers, played at an army.
• Faction Wars — Two thousand over the top on an invisibility potion.
• The Princess Posse — 'For the Posse!'