Roncevaux Pass 778 Mission

== Background ==
See also: Battle of Roncevaux Pass
King Charlemagne, the King of the Franks and Emperor of Europe, attacked the capital city of the Basques in a bid to extend his power. In retaliation, at Roncevaux Pass, the Basques attacked Charlemagne's rearguard, resulting in a savage battle.
Charlemagne was said to wield his legendary sword, Joyeuse, in the battle, although at some point during the fighting he lost sight of it briefly. When it was found by a knight, Charlemagne was said to have granted the him an appanage named after the sword.
== Infraction ==
Supposedly the pinnacle of the efforts of the group called The Circle, the switching of the sword Joyeuse with a replica was to be carried off so perfectly that, technically, there would be no infraction caused, and therefore the QIA were not involved, with the exception of Ethan Taylor, who was present as an unofficial (later retrospectively authorised by Erik Draper) double agent within the Circle.
== Mission Outline ==
=== The Circle ===
Present in 778 were Nate Cotter, John Slater, Corley and Ethan Taylor, posing as Circle recruit Bill Collins; the fifth member of the group, Nick, did not show up in time to make the Jump. The plan was relatively simple: Ethan used a device given to him by Nate that somehow affected Charlemagne's horse momentarily, making him drop the sword Joyeuse, which was then switched with a replica. However, before the group could return to 2020, they were interrupted by a group of knights.
=== The Reclaimers ===
As a consequence of Brent Hall's own obsession with Joyeuse, Miranda Davenport had teamed up with the Reclaimers, including Hall's hostage Joseph Christophe and two operatives, Luna Tavistock and Kris Hagen. The four of them arrived at the scene of the battle just as Nate had picked up the real Joyeuse. During the battle between the two groups, John was killed by Miranda, Nate killed Hagen and Miranda identified Ethan by name. Ethan managed to get hold of the sword but refused to hand it over to either Miranda or Nate. However, the power of the sword took Ethan over and after being attacked by Tavistock, he killed her. Angry with his betrayal, Nate revealed Ethan's true loyalties to Corley, whose daughter had died indirectly as a result of the QIA's actions, and Corley attacked him. Despite not wanting to hurt the man who had become his friend over the past few months, Ethan was forced to fight and kill Corley as well. Miranda, who had been badly injured, Home Jumped, and Nate sent Christophe back as well soon after, believing that he could turn Ethan back to the Circle. However, after Nate threatened Sarah's life, Ethan killed him as well before returning to the present.
== Repercussions ==
After returning to 2020 with Joyeuse, Ethan was visited by Miranda, who had recovered from her wounds - since she had already been back for nearly three weeks - who revealed that Hall had sent a Chinese man to mutilate Sarah, an act that would eventually turn her into Fran Grenouille. Ethan later tracked down Hall in Denmark to stop this from happening, and made a deal with him - the time and place of the attack in return for taking the life of Denny Franklin, whom Hall had captured, to demonstrate the power of the sword. Realising that this was a pre-destination paradox, since Sarah had survived the attack already, it was clear what choice Ethan had to make.
Ethan still has Joyeuse, while Nate's entire Circle cell was wiped out. Christophe, meanwhile, was executed by Osman Hamid under order of his successor as commander of the Reclaimers' European operations, Radimir Krepela.Category:Missions