Edge of Space [FT Space Opera / Closed / IC]

by **Forest State** » Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:33 pm

Current Map (4/5/2020)

Mankind can't remain on Earth forever, and when humanity spreads to the stars, new ventures are met with new challenges...

The year is 2740, and the invention of faster than light travel in the 2000s changed the world permanently - mankind has spread out through space, during an era of technological advancement which has brought about terraforming, AI, space habitats, and other inventions to go along with the advent of the FTL jump drive. Medical technology has advanced, cybernetics have taken transhumanism to a new level, and life expectancies are longer than ever... But with the good, comes bad also. Mankind is not united, but split. The Imperium Terra, an elective monarchy where the nobles of its numerous planets select an absolute ruler, controls the old human homeworld and some of humanity's most prosperous systems. But in the distance, the breakaway nation of the Free Systems Confederation offers a more democratic alternative - one that comes with the downside of being unstable and chaotic, with Generals and political figures warring against each other at times due to the lack of strong centralization. Outside of both of these states, the Hasenkamp Dynasty potentially rivals both after gaining independence from the Imperium with a strong national identity and strong trade position.

Minor states such as the Sha Yei Triad and the Interplanetary Communes also have some say in the galactic game, and towards the edge of human territory, it's becoming apparent that humans aren't as alone as we believed... Even if what else is out there remains in the shadows.

SEASON ONE
The Traverse Five
This group can say that they were brought together by serving on the Earth Resource Company frigate ERC Traverse - though they may be destined for greater things...

CPT. Candace Marin
The Captain of the Traverse, and hailing from Earth itself, Candace came to the Earth Resource Company to find a career in space and avoid the overbearing demands of back home... But she would find that she isn't the luckiest in this career path either, and that even reaching a high position doesn't remove struggles within. As Captain, she's developed the reputation of someone generally competent if not unconfident.

CDR. Gabriella Sara Bianchi-Costa
Joining the crew recently as the executive officer, Gabriella Bianchi-Costa is in a somewhat similar situation - after remaining unmarried and childless to the disappointment of her prominent family, drifting around in the corporate spacer life is a preferable alternative to heading home. To make things even more interesting, Gabriella and Candace can trace their roots to the same high school - where the former was the latter's crush.

LT CDR. Cassia Marin
The slightly younger sister of the Captain, Cassia Marin serves as the head of the 57th Marine Company - the independent company embarked with the Traverse for boarding and planetside actions. The general reputation around Cassia is that of someone that generally acts quickly and shoots quicker, carrying a slightly cold but quick to heat up demeanor with her.

PO2. Victoria Fawn
Coming from a wealthy background within the Imperium but branching off for herself rather than staying around the family corporation, Victoria Fawn is one of the primary combat engineers for the marine company and a member of its top platoon.

PO3. Jazmine Essex
Another person who happened to know someone else on the ship, Jazmine Essex is a sniper within the marine company... And a longtime friend of Victoria Fawn, who is now reunited on the same ship after the two were separated by Victoria's training.

This is a closed thread for invited participants, further information about the story and such may be added to the OP in the future also.

by **Lunas Legion** » Mon Apr 06, 2020 4:38 pm

CH 1
“NEW START”

The Earth Resource Company is one of the largest conglomerates within the Imperium Terra, the largest of the human states in space - and soon, the corporate vessel ERC Traverse will embark on a new assignment that will take it to the outer edge of human territory, where reports have come in during recent months that something may be amiss and that the typical disruptions that go along with space colonization may not be just that. First, however, new crew arrive on this vessel for a new start… Even as some of them bring with them past connections, some good, some bad.

February 1st, 2740
ERC Traverse
Port of Hadleigh-2
Collaborative post between Forest State, Durmatagno, and Lunas Legion

Hadleigh-2 was a peculiar planet - it was a planet that was part of the economy of the Imperium Terra, but not part of the nation itself. It, and the rest of the Hadleigh system, belonged to the Earth Resource Company, one of the most powerful commercial forces within the Imperium and the largest harvester of raw resources as the name indicated… As well as the company that was responsible for turning many of those resources into completed products, through a number of shell companies which had been acquired over the years. Hadleigh-2 was a tribute to all of that, with hyper-urbanization marking the landscape and the surfaces of the cities being covered with signs and billboards and the like.

Orbit, however, was somewhat peaceful… And as the center of the ERC’s military forces, there were plenty of ships at the docks surrounding the planet, resting peacefully in orbit until they would head back out into the depths of space, on various assignments ranging from patrol against pirates to convoy duty for merchant vessels. Ships of all sizes, from the heavy battleships that were more common for national militaries to light corvettes that were better for anti fighter duties.

One of those ships happened to be the ERC Traverse, a Dynamo class frigate that was soon to head out to its latest assignment - contract work for the Imperium government, with the task being an investigation into the deep space rumors surrounding the Querias system and the colonial planet Apollo, of which strange reports had come from in recent months… Sometimes, it was necessary to check out just how much truth there was to the rumors, which was their job in this case. The ERC did have a big presence in the outskirts, after all, as one of the main employers all the way out there, and one of the companies responsible for delivering key logistics.

For now, though, the Traverse was in port, taking on fuel and for the first time in a little while, taking on new members - they’d arrived yesterday, but today, there were even more activities to get these names integrated with the crew. They would soon be working together in a pressure environment, after all. Alone in deep space, on the edge of human territory, there wasn’t a lot of room for mistakes and poor judgements.

Outside, the view of the surface, alternating between a clean bluish color and the greys of land that was covered by megacity, remained constant and peaceful… Inside, the atmosphere was a little more unsure. Things were more chaotic, as usual, when new people were still showing up and getting used to things.

Victoria was one of the people that had boarded the previous day, and already had most of her possessions, limited as they were at the moment, set up in her quarters. Yesterday she’d gotten to see Jazmine again, and enjoy a brief respite from working. Today was a different day though. While she’d already gotten several things done, she still needed to meet the overall Marine commander that was on this shp. Ships had maze-like hallways, and it took some time to get used to how to navigate such spaces, which every ship class was a little different. While she was slightly early, she was later than she’d like to be, but she had finally found her way to where she was to report in properly.

That was to say, she had found the area where the weapons and armor was stored and where the marines would stop shortly before heading out on assignment, of which there was none right now - still, the equipment had to be maintained and organized, which was something to do right now while they were in port, meaning there were a decent few amount of figures already in the room when Victoria opened the sliding door and stepped inside. At least one of them was the officer she was looking for.

She would get some indication of who that officer was based on the markings on the uniform, which in this case differed from the dress uniform of the ERC’s military forces - instead of the black of the ship crew, the marines were wearing simpler olive drab fatigues as a uniform for around the ship, the shoulder displaying a rank patch on each uniform… Making it possible to tell who was what rank in this room, though checking everyone would take some time.

Victoria’s eyes played over the uniforms for a moment looking for the officer she was reporting to, basically a formality but one she had to adhere to. She was thankful she was a marine and not the ship crew, she didn’t think she could stand the ship crew uniforms if she was wearing it for herself. After a moment she passed over a particularly short marine, before her eyes snapped back to the woman, noticing the patch on the arm. Lieutenant Commander, that was definitely the officer she was looking for. Suppressing her surprise, she moved forward, and saluted. She wasn’t sure how formal this ship was, but her last ship had been fairly formal, so she decided it was better to err on that side of things.

“Reporting for duty.”

“Victoria Fawn, I presume,” the officer said, turning to face her, looking her up and down - though Victoria had a noticeable size advantage, meaning she was effectively looking up at her. “I’ve heard already of your arrival.”

“Yes, I arrived yesterday but was told not to report until today.”

Victoria had known the incident with Jazmine in the hangar would spread around the ship, but things
usually took awhile to trickle up to the commissioned officers. Course, a PO2 and a PO3 had been involved, so she supposed it wasn’t outlandish for it to have reached the Lt. Commander’s ears by now.

“I was told to familiarize myself with the ship layout, and get settled in my quarters yesterday.”

“I suppose I just have one question,” said the other woman, leaning against the wall somewhat as she looked to Victoria, a rifle in her hand as she had been preparing to clean it. They were supposed to go through their equipment before getting under way, after all.

“And what is that ma’am?”

Victoria cocked her head to the side slightly, as the woman before her seemed to be a lot less formal than her last assignment, though she didn’t relax entirely. Many officers were unpredictable, and she’d rather not offend on because of assumptions made during their first meeting, in the armory of all places.

“Why would someone like you become a combat engineer when you could take the automatic weapon,” she questioned, cocking her head to the side in curiosity. “It’s even a higher position in the formation, you know.”

“Couple of reasons really, for one I’m better at it than I am with a SAW, secondarily I enjoy engineering and mechanical pursuits even as hobbies, and third, it was the path recommended to me in training, I was also encouraged to try and reach Combat Engineer Officer as early as possible. Play to my strengths so to speak, that and my mother went that route when she was a marine and I’d rather not follow in her footsteps if I can help it.”

Victoria answered honestly, and while she had rambled somewhat, she had stopped herself before she had gone into a lengthy tirade about a variety of things. That and despite her size, it was her mind that was her greatest asset, lending itself to her current position.

The officer just chuckled a little bit, looking off to the side as she reached to set the rifle down against the wall, her eyes drifting back to Victoria as she reached for her pocket to find a cigarette and lighter - a synthetic cigarette apparently, lacking the drawbacks of a real one. “Ah, so you’re here with mommy problems then?”

“Wanted to get away from home, and this was the path I chose. Didn’t find out till I was in it that my mother had done the same thing, thankfully for different reasons and on a different path.”

Victoria didn’t like her frustrations with her family summed up as ‘mommy issues’, as it was more accurate to call it ‘I hate most of my family’. Still, her mother and aunt were driving factors, getting away from them or proving them wrong was a big reason she was out here.

“Besides, it’s my Aunt I wanted away from most.”

“No need to be defensive or anything… I just wanted to know if I could relate to you or not, is all,” the woman said, chuckling again slightly as she lit the cigarette. “Cassia Marin, by the way. The commander of this company… Maybe regrettably. I seem popular enough with the others, though. I’m sure you’ll be a good enough combat engineer - even if it’s a little bit of a waste.”

“If you really think I’m better served in another position you can put in to have me transferred out of my MOS, but you’re unlikely to get a replacement as capable in the role as I am.”

Victoria was unsure why Cassia believed she’d be better in another position, her training and experience was clear that she was effective and skilled in her role, but she was unlikely to argue with an officer above her about it. Specialties changed, and not everyone got to stick to the same MOS at all times, in fact many served in multiple roles through their career.

“I’m just saying, there’s things closer to the front of the action for those who are able to handle it… You just look like the type that could pick up a big gun and not sweat it,” shrugged Cassia, taking a drag from the cigarette. “Call it an observation, if you will. In the end… The path is up to you.”

“I’m not as strong as my size might say, I’ve got better endurance than strength. Still, I could handle those bigger guns if I wanted to, but in a boarding action you need a good demolition girl like me as much as you need that big gun.”

Victoria didn’t much like being told what her path would or should be, but an experienced officer might be right in that it was better for her. She shrugged, resisting the temptation to ask for a smoke, she hadn’t had one since she’d boarded.

“I could at least put in to get training with them, see where it goes.”

“Your choice,” Cassia said, lingering. “And if you want to build strength… Well, I already know quite a bit about that. Not that I’m the biggest or anything, but it helps that they don’t expect the small one to be able to fight…”

She paused, drumming her free hand against the wall absentmindedly. “I suppose you also already know Jazmine.”

“Jazmine’s an old friend of mine, knew her before I even started training.”

Victoria nodded, commenting on the second sentence while still processing the first. Strength training wasn’t really her thing, but it never hurt to be stronger. She was also surprisingly flexible for her size, a fact that had come in handy more than once during and after training.

“Haven’t seen her since I joined up until yesterday. She wasn’t happy that I left her behind because I’m older and didn’t want to stick around home. As for strength stuff….well, it never hurts to be a bit stronger.”

“She’s a good sniper. Doesn’t seem like the most serious but she’s able to take the head off an insurgent from standoff range if the situation calls for it… Her skill’s helped the unit a bunch on planetside ops,” Cassia said. “So I have to say… If she trusts you as competent, I do also.”

“Well she’s basically my best friend...and then some, so that evaluations is a tad biased, but I appreciate it. Still, nice to hear she’s doing good out here, worried her...habits would get in the way of doing a good job.”

“Aren’t we all just hedonists deep down?” chuckled Cassia, shrugging. “Not idealistic enough to serve a country instead of a company, not regular enough to get a normal job instead of spending our time out here, headed for deep space soon with nothing except for our mission and the unknowns ahead… It’s a job to support our kind of life.”

“Maybe, people treat indulging oneself as a problem far too often. I myself have a few bad habits, but I usually have a handle on it. Besides, my last ship was...pretty formal, wasn’t a lot of relaxation or ‘fun’ to be found unless explicitly on leave.”

“You’re on a very different ship,” said Cassia. “Suppose heading around deep space decently often will do that to a crew. Easier to be loose when it’s lightyears away from the nearest friendly units… Both lonely and liberating at the same time, to be honest. Then again, it also helps… That the Captain is more my kind of person than the kind of person that would be a hardass about things. I can’t say we’re entirely the most ‘corporate’ or professional unit, but hey, they put up with us because we get the job done…”

“Maybe I won’t be bored out of my mind here then, though Jazmine is already a step up from my last ship. Hope I fit in well around here, I know I have some habits that can annoy people, though I do my best to not overindulge in them.”

She eyeballed the cigarette again, and decided that tonight she needed to buy some packs for herself. She could also use a good drink, but that was a different topic entirely.

“Still, sees a nice ship, if Jazmine can be happy here I’m sure there’s plenty to do.”

“You want?” asked Cassia, raising an eyebrow and pulling another cigarette from her fatigues, offering it to Victoria. She paused for a moment. “And I’m sure it won’t be boring, between the usual affairs of the crew to the mission all the way out near Apollo… Might even get a chance to see something that no one’s seen before if the rumors around that place are right.”

“Kinda, haven’t had a smoke in a week…”

Victoria hesitated for a moment before taking it, she had a lighter of her own, pulling it out, she lit the cigarette and took a deep puff, savoring the feeling before going on.

“Seeing something new is always fun, if historical accounts are anything to go by. Hey, you’ve shown me that my CO at least isn’t a boring hardass like my last one. I swear he hated me because I was better at his old job than he ever was.”

“Eh? Guess I’m a bit too much of a doomer to be much of a hardass,” Cassia shrugged, taking another drag from her own cigarette. “Sure, the rank patch would make you think I’m some kinda well off person, but I find myself thinking all the time about if I’m actually living up to anything I’ve wanted to live up to… Either for myself or anyone else. Too much time to think about it when we’re in transit or whatever.”

“Way I see it, if you’ve gotten this far without becoming a hardass, and hated CO, you’re doing something right. Only just met you though, but I can at least say you seem like a good friend and better ally.”

Victoria wasn’t often blunt, she preferred to phrase things carefully to test how the other would react, but so far she liked Cassia, even if they disagreed on the best placement in a squad for Victoria herself. That was an opinion though, and far from a judge of character.

“And you’re welcome to come drink with me anytime you want, assuming I haven’t disappeared into one of my bad habits.”

“You feel like drinking with a lonely officer like me that’s a bit too rough around the edges? Guess I should be honored,” Cassia replied in slight surprise. “Don’t know why you would, really, but I do have a story or two, I guess…”

“‘Cause you seem fun enough, interesting, and are already leagues ahead of anyone I worked with on my last deployment and I’ve known you for ten minutes.”

Victoria smiled, her red eyes looking down at her much shorter CO. Cassia was much more entertaining than anyone Victoria had dealt with since training. Victoria wasn’t sure of why she was inviting the officer for drinks, maybe it was because she was far less boring than Victoria could have hoped to. She couldn’t put a finger on it, she’d talk about it with Weiss later, Jazmine had a tendency to interpret things in a...certain way.

“Can’t say I’m used to people coming to me for drinks and stuff but since you’ve offered… I won’t say no when you do want to go out,” Cassia nodded. “I’ll have to make sure to thank Jazmine for bringing you here - far as I know, her pulling strings with HR is the reason they didn’t just pull some random name out of the list of options.”

“Well, she is manipulative when she’s trying to get what she wants. I wouldn't be surprised if this isn’t the first time she’s pulled strings to get what she wants. As for drinks, I usually save them for weekends, but given this ship is more relaxed, it depends on my schedule. Not like I have much to do in transit anyway.”

“I don’t think we’re expected to do too much too soon unless we do end up finding something… Interesting on Apollo. We’re headed out to Highfort, doing a patrol route, maybe boarding a triad ship or too if they come too close to Imperium territory… And then making the rest of the trip. Boring week, maybe, unless something spices it up,” Cassia said with a shrug. “New people should make it interesting enough I suppose.”

“I tend to find ways to keep myself busy, Jazmine has had to lock me in my room more than once to keep me from hurting myself, nearly dropped an engine on my foot, though it was just a motorcycle engine. Had to sell that bike when I signed up, gave the money to my little sister for school.”

“Eh… We all get ourselves in trouble in different ways. I might not have done something like that but I’ve almost managed it sometimes. Been in a scrap or two… Street fights on Vistela-1 are enough to make you turn religious, you know. But all that’s just what gives this unit character,” Cassia said with a laugh.

“Been in a few street fights, but not many. Group of pricks tried to steal my bike so I beat the shit out of them. Turned out one of them had a gangbanger for an older brother, tried to return the favor. Still got the scar from the stitches, but that’s about the most extreme story I have from before I signed up.”

“I’ve done some things in the streets… But then again, I’ve been to a lot of places. Not always the best places, but hey, it’s better than sitting around home and feeling bad because of expectations or whatever. I’m sure you’ll have some more stories of your own when you’ve done this longer… Like I said, it’s not a job for everyone, but it’s a job for our kind of people,” Cassia concluded. “I think you know that as well as me…”

“Well, can’t say I enjoyed my last deployment, but I don’t regret joining either. Anyway, I should probably run if I’m dismissed. Got to meet up with the doctor to make sure my records and history are straight, head to HR for some reason, and so forth.”

“Yeah… I’ll see you when we get underway, I guess,” Cassia said, stepping off the wall and picking up the rifle that she had been planning to clean before Victoria walked in. “And I’ll make sure to show you around further then.”

“Sounds nice, I’ll see you around Lieu-...Cassia.”

“You too,” Cassia said, watching as Victoria left, and stopping for a moment to stare ahead and… Think. It was an awkward conversation on her part. Not because it was unpleasant, but because it was slightly confusing… She couldn’t help but feel it had brought something up in her she hadn’t felt in a while. A long time, actually.

Gabriella wasn’t entirely sure what to make of the view as she looked out from the bridge. Space, even after she’d spent so long in it, was always a sight that inspired awe in her, the different layout of stars allowing her to draw her own constellations in the periods of downtime.

She didn’t have much to do on the bridge really as she leaned back in her chair, fingers drumming on her console. It was mostly a matter of just keeping an eye on things and making sure no one screwed up too catastrophically here, and being there to tell if it happened elsewhere so she could send someone else to do something about it.

Even so, it meant everything was an… Awkward silence, given the presence of the ship’s captain who she could see if she tilted her head just so and looked up and to the right. Candace Marin, quite literally a ghost from the past for her.

“So…” Gabriella eventually said, breaking the silence. “Are we just going to keep doing this whole awkward silence thing where we do our level best not to acknowledge each other, or are we going to, well, you know, actually talk?” It might’ve been a bit blunt and lacked her previous sense of decorum and desire to be subtle, but years in the military had rubbed off on her. Sometimes blunt and to the point was the way to go.

“Isn’t that kind of… What we did in high school?” Candace questioned, cocking her head to the side as she looked at Gabriella and examined her face, before staring back forwards towards the front window and the sight of the stars in front of them. “At least, since it seemed like you weren’t interested in too much more…”

“I wasn’t then.” Gabriella said. “It’s that simple. Can’t say I exactly expected to ever see anyone again from there, but I guess it’s a smaller galaxy than everyone seems to think it is so here we are. A decade and a half later and somehow you’re a captain and I’m, well, not.”

“It’s not like it’s brought much good with it,” shrugged Candace. “Didn’t think you would be interested in talking, considering everything. I’m the same person now as I was back then. That… Wasn’t good enough.”

“Still better off than yours truly, you might not have changed but the last decade and a bit have been… Saying not what I’d hoped for when I left high school would be the understatement of the decade.” Gabriella said. “You’re still the same person as you were before and you made it to captain, so you must have been doing something right compared to me.”

Candace just let out a slight sigh, resting back in her seat, scratching her head. “Why do you even care to talk to someone like me? To humiliate me? Make me think something better’s in store and lead me on? For your entertainment, at the expense of someone lower than you? I don’t know what I did to deserve any of that.”

“Maybe you remind me of when I actually had hope for anything.” Gabriella said. “You know how I was, sure, I was a bit stuck-up, a bit… Well, more than a bit of a bitch in general towards everyone, yourself included, but… That I physically have to look up to you now says enough about how terrible the past decade has been in terms of where I thought I’d be, where I want to be and where I actually am.”

“I just have a rank, doesn’t say much… It’s not like things have been any easier because of it, you know,” Candace replied with a shrug. “As you can see from talking to me… I’m not entirely the most well off person myself…”

“True.” Gabriella conceded. “I guess both of us have screwed up somewhere. I’d offer to catch up over drinks once we’re actually, well, moving again and we’re not strictly needed to do anything here, but I’m not sure if either of us really wants to reminisce about the past.” Gabriella paused. “Maybe just drink instead. More fun.”

“Er, I don’t know… I mean, there’s not a ton to do while we’re underway, but I don’t know if that sounds like the most… Comfortable thing right now,” Candace answered. “You weren’t exactly my best friend when you knew me before.”

“I know, but I was also a complete bitch back then and proud of it, so…” Gabriella said, shifting herself around so she could look back at Candace more easily. “If nothing else, I owe you a drink as the start of an apology for putting up with my extremely bitchy and arrogant younger self being horrible towards you.”

“I guess that wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world right now,” said Candace with a slight shrug, turning back to face Gabriella. “Even if, well… You were my old crush back then and it hurts a little to think about it all.”

“I can’t really say on that.” Gabriella said. “But you can always vent to me or whatever, I know I’ve vented enough times over the years to enough people that it’s worth getting it all out of your system. Not saying I’m ideal material to vent to, just that I can empathise with it a bit.”

“You never struck me as the relatable type,” Candace said, spinning her seat slightly. “Maybe… Later, some other time. I dunno. I have a lot to think about. You being here… Not entirely helping. And we do have to get underway on our trip out towards Apollo, pretty soon.”

“I’d offer to go if me being around isn’t helping, but, well, I’m your X.O, so you’re stuck with me for better or worse.” Gabriella said, smiling just a bit. “And you never really got to see me underneath the bitchy exterior. But yeah, we do. Not sure what to make of being sent all the way out there of all places.”

“I guess I didn’t know you had another side underneath the one that I’m more used to dealing with,” Candace said as she finally stood up, facing the front of the bridge now as she looked everything over, preparing to start the process of getting away from this system and towards the place that they were heading. “So you… Can’t exactly blame me for being cautious.”

“I’ve had over a decade between the time you last saw me and now, Candace.” Gabriella let out a laugh. “People do change, even yours truly. Sometimes it’s even for the better.”

“Things weren’t exactly going great even before you turned up, like I said, I’ve got good reasons for not wanting to jump right into hanging out with someone that I had these… Problems with, before,” Candace shook her head. “I mean, I guess we have to work together still, but… Give it more time?”

“Yeah, I… Guess I can probably just let you get used to having me around again.” Gabriella nodded. “I’m just more used to getting shuffled around postings and captains so it’s far easier on me than it is on you. Plus gives you time to see, well, I’m not a completely stuck-up prick anymore and not just faking it for whatever reason.”

“Not the most trusting person in general,” Candace said simply. “But I’ll give it a chance if only because I don’t have much of another option. The assignment is what it is… So we’ll see how it goes.”

“Yeah, I guess we’ll have to.” Gabriella nodded. “Just… See how it all goes, don’t expect anything too much from each other.”

“Yeah,” Candace concluded calmly. “I have to get ready for the jump to start us towards Highfort, but I suppose I’ll find some time to talk… Later. Since I can’t avoid it forever.”

by **Durmatagno** » Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:19 pm

CH 2
“SIMULATION”

The ERC Traverse is en route to the Highfort system, but while the ship travels, some of the marines make preparations for one of the encounters that they may come across while on patrol in the system soon enough…

February 3rd, 2740
ERC Traverse
En route to Highfort System
Collaborative post between Forest State & Durmatagno

The Traverse had gotten underway - but now, they had to reach their destination, and that would take some time… Highfort was removed from the main part of the Imperium Terra, after all, leaving them with some journey before they would reach the system they were headed for. For some of the members of the crew, that meant there would be time for relaxation and not doing anything. For other members, this time would be spent… Training. While the ship wasn’t large enough to have room for expansive training facilities on board, one of the advantages of the advancement of technology was the advent of virtual reality, and in the case of the marines on board the vessel, VR was ideal for training the types of situations they would run through in real life at some point.

Though, the training that was happening right now wasn’t exactly involving the entire company, or even a large part of it… Just the commanding officer and the one company member that she wished to instruct personally.

“I’m sure you already know how this works,” said Cassia, stepping inside the VR room, gesturing to the chairs and the VR helmets that were located inside. “It’s not too different from what you’re used to, probably… But I felt like since we’re going to deal with this kind of thing for real pretty soon, if my guesses are right… We should have a little run through things.”

“Makes sense to me, never worked with your squad before, and they’ve never worked with me. Not even Jazmine has, at least not with something like this.”

Victoria nodded as she stepped into the room, looking around at the various chairs and helmets as she did so. She turned back to Cassia.

“Besides, not much else to do in transit right now.”

Cassia sat down in one of the chairs, pulling the helmet over her head as she entered the VR system, setting up the specific scenario that they were set to enter. “Since we’re headed past where the triads are and towards the area of the Free Systems… We might run into trouble from either one. I’m going to put us in the scenario of boarding a triad corvette with the goal of reaching the bridge.”

“Void, pod, or airlock boarding?”

Victoria asked as she sat down and started loading into the system. There were a lot of different boarding scenarios, depending on entry, and ship class. Corvettes were pretty small, so she didn’t imagine it’d be too complex, but one could never be sure. Some people were rather tricky and came up with good ways of defending ships. She had ideas of her own, but she wasn’t in a position to test or even implement them.

“Entering through an open breach. You’ll have to use a thruster pack to move around and laser cutters to make a path. Realistically, the other side will already be prepared and wearing equipment for the vacuum,” Cassia informed Victoria. “Easy enough… But the execution’s what matters.”

“Got it.”

Victoria said with a nod as she waited for everything to load in. She was capable with demolitions, even if she preferred other aspects of her job description to it. She took a deep breath, perhaps a little nervous at being tested by her new CO, but it was par for the course. Not unexpected, just made her a little anxious was all.

The scenery loaded around the - the blackness of space contrasted with the one solid object in front of them, the damaged corvette that was drifting at this point, a breach in the side from where a good missile hit had penetrated the armor. That part of the vessel would be sealed off, but it still served as an entry point for the two marines. The vessel was still drifting, however, the energy preserved even if the engines had stopped outputting power. It was, though, moving at a rate that they could catch up with.

“First order of business… Matching the speed of the ship,” Cassia announced through the communications line inside her helmet, orienting herself towards the drifting corvette.

Victoria followed suit, orienting herself and following after Cassia. Any marine at this point could do this from training, though doing so in a live situation was substantially different from practice. Still, if Victoria couldn’t even manage this much at this point, there was no point in calling her a marine. As they reached the breach, Cassia took the lead, examining it before seeing that it was the right size to move through - and pushing herself inside head first, using the thrusters to stop her speed as she entered what seemed to be one of the hallways leading to the engine room.

“Once you’re inside, there’s a door right in front of us… I believe the one behind me heads to the engines. The one in front of me should put us on the central hallway headed through this place,” Cassia continued. “You can use the laser cutters. I’ll keep watch in case there’s anything on the other side.”

“Roger.”

Victoria propelled herself, and after getting herself stable, began cutting. Just before it was about to breach, she signaled they’d be inside in three...two...one. She moved to make room for Cassia, as holding the laser cutter she’d just be in the way till she got her gun to bear again.

Cassia raised her rifle as they breached into the hallway, not seeing anything immediately… But keeping the sight aligned with her eyes in case they did run into anything. “Nothing… Yet,” she said. The HUD, of course, displayed targeting information from the sight - the ranging, the current target, which in this case was nothing since they hadn’t run into anything yet, and some other things. “Let’s move. Based on the scenario… There’s a good chance we run into something further down this way. Be on alert. And ready to fire on anything not confirmed friendly… Your HUD’s targeting info should tell you if that’s the case.”

“Got it.”

Victoria had her rifle ready as she moved into the hallway behind Cassia. She would only lower it if she was having to breach something else or Cassia ordered her to. She kept her eyes peeled, ready to shoot any hostiles as they arrived to threaten them. She kept her fingers steady, there would be no misfire from her, especially not when she had a chance of hurting Cassia with it, simulation or not.

Cassia crept forward at a decent pace but she didn’t rush, making sure she could react quickly if something emerged. And she froze when she had reason to believe something had appeared - further down, where there was a turn in the hallway and a path that had branched off, there was a hiss… The sound of a door opening. It was then followed by footsteps, though in this environment, footsteps weren’t always a luxury in predicting that someone was coming. “Likely contact…”

Stopping completely, Cassia focused on the sights of her rifle once again, and fired off a five round burst with her IMPTEC 230 assault rifle, catching the spacesuit clad triad member in the chest as they emerged around the corner, and sending the body floating backwards while another pair of hostiles emerged from the same spot, armed with assault rifles of their own - though cheaper in nature than the Imperium military grade ones used by the corporate marines. “Two more contacts!” Cassia announced to Victoria, her eyes shooting to the side as she watched to see what her subordinate was going to do with this situation.

Victoria whipped her left hand to her side, grabbing one of the grenades the simulation had given her as part of her load out. Pulling the pin, she threw it and called out.

“Grenade!”

Unfortunately the grenade sailed past them a little, not hitting either one like she’d intended, but it did mean they would have to move or get blown up. That of course made it harder for them to hit Victoria and Cassia with their shots, and if they were clumsy enough they wouldn’t get out of the blast radius anyway. Victoria stepped backward, creating a little more distance, a small smile at the coming explosion touching her lips.

Cassia backed up, listening to the sound of the explosion and witnessing the fragmentation of the grenade and the impact it made against the opponent, shredding the space suits… She was pretty sure the grenades had done enough that she didn’t have to follow up with more shots, though she had to trigger her thrusters to stop herself drifting backwards. “Careful about grenades in a tight corridor,” she warned, before she started forward again, drifting towards the wall and then pushing off of it. “We’ll clear the room those guys came from and then keep going on the same path.”

“I know, I put it behind them for a reason. Walls absorbed most of the force and shrapnel for us.”

Victoria said as she followed behind, her rifle once more ready for action. She bit the inside of her cheek till she tasted blood. After a moment she stopped, letting the dull ache and coppery taste help keep her centered. She knew she’d pay for that outside of the simulation, but the pain was calming for her. Kept her centered on the now instead of letting her mind wander.

Cassia turned around the corner, not sighting anything other than the closed door and lowering her rifle once she was certain there was no one else waiting for them. It wasn’t long before they’d reach the door at the end of the hallway - it wasn’t a long hallway in fact. Cassia moved to press the keypad to open it… And looked back to Victoria. “You’re the one that’s going to shoot first if there’s anything on the other side.”

The door started to slide open as she spoke.

Victoria nodded, and once the door opened enough, moved with her rifle raised, ready to shoot anyone that stood in their way. Victoria was ready to put a burst into the first target that made itself clear to her. She was many things, but complacent during a mission was not one of them. She preferred ground combat over these tight hallways, but her job was what it was.

The room beyond wasn’t exactly bright - but movement could still be spotted or heard rather, and the brief cry after the gunshots indicated that the burst had hit something. “Power’s not running through the whole ship right now… Activate night vision,” said Cassia, doing that herself to get a better look at the room. Seemed to be storage. Perhaps for weapons, perhaps for more innocent supplies. Either way, there was a decent chance there was something else hiding within the maze of stacked and closed boxes that in some places went up to the ceiling. “In a real ship, we’d end up searching a place like this for contraband… A shame that a lot of the time, it goes to waste.”

“Well, at least there’s one less person in here to worry about. In a real mission, I’d say we should see what’s worth uh...let's say seizing for our own ship. Not like they can report us for it.”

Victoria spoke as she activated her own night vision, eyeing the person she’d clipped despite the darkness. They weren’t moving, instead she swung her rifle around as they moved through, watching for any other targets. Victoria couldn’t deny this was one of her favorite parts of this job.

“On the other side of that stack of crates going up to the ceiling,” Cassia said, pointing out a specific location where she had detected someone who had peeked out momentarily - it only took that moment for her to make a mental note of the location and to start moving into position to deal with it. “You can move around from the left side… And if they get flushed out, I’m covering the other side.”

“Roger.”

Victoria nodded before splitting off to get around the left side like she’d been ordered to. As she circled, she kept her rifle trained on the spot till she had the best shot she could manage, letting another three round burst loose. Even if it didn’t hit, it should force them towards Cassia, who could finish them herself. Her rounds impacted close to the target, sending splinters of their cover flying at them, and once nearly hit them in the head, but buried into the crates instead. Victoria silently cursed, she’d wanted to hit them herself.

The triad member spun, and Cassia would be able to get a good look at the face, a male one - impressively enough, a randomly generated one that still looked as realistic as if they weren’t in a VR simulation - before she squeezed the trigger rapidly on her own rifle and fired another burst of five rounds, the flash of the muzzle lighting up the dark environment and appearing as white against the green surroundings, the color impacted by the night vision. All of her shots would miss, however, as she judged the speed of her crafty opponent wrongly and fired just over the shoulder.

“Target’s still up,” Cassia informed Victoria, as the triad member went to move behind another tall box, one that was sufficient cover although the density of the box and whether or not it could withstand bullets remained to be seen. First, however, a burst of three rounds was fired off at Cassia, missing narrowly but giving her something to think about. “You’re in the best spot to flank, I think…”

“Moving.”

Victoria acknowledged as she moved to flank the stubborn Triad. Once she had a shot, she let loose another three round burst at the triad. This time at least one round found its mark, even as the others hit the crates. They may have pierced through, they may not have. Either way the Triad dropped.

“Got him, scanning for further targets.”

“I don’t see anything,” said Cassia. “We’ll move on down the central hallway towards the control center. That’s the main objective, it’ll look good compared to the other runs and their times if we get there soon…” she continued, pushing off of a box and letting herself drift back out of the doorway she had entered through, switching out of the night vision mode after entering the lit corridor.

Victoria followed after Cassia with practiced ease. She liked the sound of having a good time on her first run through this sim, even if it was with someone that had likely done it several times before. As she drifted, she looked around, enjoying the detail of the sim until she caught up with Cassia, then her eyes snapped back to the task at hand.

“We’re doing that good? I thought the snafu with the last guy slowed us down way too much.”

“We did get the first couple groups out of the way quickly enough. Just have to get to the bridge quickly, which isn’t far on a little ship like this,” said Cassia, pushing off the wall to gain speed without using her thrusters, and stopping when they were at the end of that long corridor. “Alright, you can use the laser cutters one more time. This should be it.”

“Going to count down again, when I say one you can push.”

Victoria said as she got to work.

“Three...two...one!

She backed away quickly, changing out the cutter for the rifle. She would push behind Cassia, ready to fire once her friendly was out of the way.

Cassia pushed her way through the door and took a look around… But it seemed they were somewhat lucky with their odds in this case as she didn’t see anything and was able to move to the front of the bridge without incident, stopping when she had reached the main control panel. She took control of the ship to reach the end goal for the simulation, exhaling a deep breath as the environment around them turned to pixels… And then faded away, revealing the darkness of inside the VR helmet, just as when they had started.

“Well, I know I don’t have to tell you anything about the basics, which is good. As like I said, we might have to do this for real after we reach our destination,” she said, pulling the helmet off and standing up from the seat, her focus returning as she grounded herself in reality once again.

Victoria extracted herself from the VR set up before standing and stretching. She looked over at her CO and nodded. She knew many officers didn’t trust reports and documents fully, and preferred to see things with their own eyes.

“I will admit to being better with placing explosives and disarming them than I am at throwing a grenade though. Still, that went fairly smoothly, only one set of shots at us, and no injuries. If only real missions actually went that smoothly.”

“Sometimes they do… A lot of the times they do, actually,” said Cassia, shrugging. “But, when they don’t… That’s when you run into trouble. Guess you’ll find out more about what that’s like when you get more experience with us, can’t teach everything in a sim where the pain is temporary.”

She took a step away, looking to the door. “So… I suppose it’s a good time to go for those drinks. Still have a lot of time to kill before we have to do anything like this for real. If we even end up having to do that, that is. I feel like they won’t make too much of a fuss right now about the officer drinking with her new subordinate, it is in the middle of a jump after all…”

Victoria stretched again, showing a little bit of how flexible she was. She paused and looked up, straightening and a smile returning to her face.

“Y’know, drinks sound nice. Should help keep me out of trouble for a night too.”

Victoria moved to follow Cassia, she knew where the rank and file drank, but she was curious where an officer like Cassia drank. Maybe this ship wasn’t big enough to have something set aside for that, but if it was, even Victoria needed an invite from someone like Cassia.

“I should warn you though, I’m no lightweight.”

“I don’t think I am, either, but we’ll see how that turns out,” Cassia said with a chuckle, turning to head in the direction of the little bar area that they had on board the ship - even on a frigate like this, a place to unwind a bit was needed… Especially when they often found themselves sent on longer assignments like this rather than ones that were just around the more populated sectors of the Imperium. Though as she walked, some thoughts did remain in her head… How long’s it been since I’ve done this? Ah, forget it… I’ll do my best.

by **Forest State** » Sat Apr 11, 2020 8:35 pm

CH 3
“TRIPOLIS”

The colonial planet Apollo is located within the Querias system, at the edge of Imperial territory, and represents both the current frontier and furthering efforts to colonize deeper into the stars - however, the planet is also the home of several strange happenings, which have been masked by local authorities due to concerns of a public panic across the Imperium… That is to say, there have been censored reports of attacks from a threat that may extend beyond simple alien wildlife and into the realm of intelligent life. As life goes on as usual in the city of Tripolis, away from the largest settlements on Apollo, a new turn of events will make these reports even harder to conceal… And will drag a new group of people into the chaos.

February 6th, 2740
Tripolis, Apollo, Querias System
Querias Automotive Tripolis Plant
Collaborative post between Forest State & Durmatagno

Koharu grumbled to herself as Unity #42 was flashing a light indicating a malfunction. Again. That was the third time today and every time it was something different. Koharu was far from the only person to work on it, so it couldn’t be blamed solely on her. Didn’t mean it was frustrating, and word was there was already a replacement on the way and this one would be scrapped for parts. Koharu swore it was a programming problem but, ‘it says it’s a mechanical error’ got her shot down every time. She disconnected the power from it, and got to work running basic diagnostics. She’d have to reset it, again, and adjust it’s various parts, again. Thankfully it wouldn’t be her problem for much longer, whether they finally decided to check it’s programming or the replacement arrived, it’d be fixed or gone. She pulled out the first of the many tools she’d need, and got to work.

It was, of course, another usual day at work within the borders of the city of Tripolis, which was known within the colonial world of Apollo for being a place where the best jobs these days weren’t the hands on type. Rather than offering direct work, most of the largest firms in Tripolis were staffing workers to supervise their automated operations, placing humans in charge of machines that could do the job better and more efficiently… It was like the automated economies that had sprung up in many places, except in this city it was the main offering rather than just a slice of the economy. The thing that the city had sprung up around. If someone wanted to live in a more balanced place with more offerings, they would live in one of the other cities of the colony. But for this kind of work…

The city of Tripolis, Apollo.

Tripolis was definitely the place to be. Even if it was further flung from the other most populated areas, located in its specific location because it allowed these large firms to set up mining projects in the areas nearby. And even if the city was the source of some intrigue on the planet, as the city found itself on the forefront of colonial troubles… That was to say, the city had at some points suffered damages from unknown attacks, and the local office of the Directorate of Imperial Security had replied by instituting a media blackout on the matter. Because according to the rumors that crept through the blackout slowly but surely, the thing threatening the city was a bit more than just the hostile wildlife that could be found on some alien worlds, Apollo being no exception to the trend.

However, the damages done two weeks ago to a factory further down the block from this one didn’t seem like they were done by wildlife… Nor was this area supposed to have anything dangerous enough to majorly impact a city, even if it was a city on the frontier so to speak - the entire planet wasn’t supposed to be that dangerous, really. And the scorches in the rubble painted a different picture of what had happened, or so they said… Even if the Imperium was the only faction present on this planet, leaving the perpetrator unknown even if the damage had been caused by something intelligent.

At least, it was the only faction anyone around here knew about for sure. For the people that lived and worked here, the only choice was to keep going on… They had chosen to live on this frontier, after all. That included both the good parts and the bad parts of being out here, removed both from Earth and from others in the same colony.

Koharu hummed quietly to herself as she started putting everything back together. She knew this particular machine to closely. She knew this bolt here didn’t like to sit in place. She knew this wire was miscolored, and that it actually went here. It’d take her some time to put the thing in. Once she was done she reset the programming, again, plugged it back in, packed up her tools, and headed for her station. She’d have to send it the command packets, again, but in another ten minutes, it’d be putting those hovercars together again. If only she could afford one for herself. Before she did that she had a mountain of student and travel loans to pay off. Some day, some day.

The regular night would soon be interrupted, however, by something that was more pressing than the job of working on the machines… In fact, the night would be interrupted by something that was set to get the attention of the entire city - for the time before the news would be taken out of the headlines, made to quietly disappear… Maybe for a few minutes, the moment would have the spotlight.

BANG!

The sound made the ground quake - it was enough to knock someone off their feet if they weren’t ready for it, and no one in the factory was exactly ready for it. No one, after all, saw the source of it… And yet, the sound was clear as day, sounding like it was coming from above, followed by a slight hum. The hum was, of course, the part that was more subtle, that would almost certainly be missed by most, but it tied into all of this somehow. How that was, exactly… Was still in question. Either way, the sequence… Was enough to stop most work in the factory. For now.

Koharu wasn't quite sure what was happening, everything had gone black for a moment when she’d hit her head on the table. She was awake now. Pushing to her feet, she could hear the humming. She didn’t like the humming, to her it sounded not to dislimar to a camera drone, just much bigger. Maybe her hearing was messed up, she wasn’t quite sure. Either way it was not good, something had exploded and she had to move. Scrambling to her feet, she knew where the emergency exits where, and she started moving to one, as fast as her legs could take her. She wasn’t the fastest person in the world, but she’d been on the track team in college and could move at a decent clip once she got going.

As she was on the move, an object crashed through the roof of the building, descending towards the spot where she was headed at a rapid pace, as splinters of wood and chunks of other materials from the roof fell after it, albeit at a slower rate… It was hard to get a good look at just what the dark falling object was based on the speed, though it was large, and from the looks of things… Sharp.

Koharu’s eyes widened in terror at the thing descending above her. She was unarmed, had no fighting skills, and it looked mean. So she skidded, turning, and started running to a different exit, one away from the odd flying thing. No one could keep up sprint speeds for long, and it didn’t take her long to need to slow to a normal run, chest heaving from the exertion. She just prayed whatever it was chose someone to chase that wasn’t her.

The falling object, however, wasn’t a living object in and of itself… It smashed into the ground in front of where she had been heading, penetrating until it was about halfway protruding and halfway buried under the ground, and it seemed to stop there… Like a bomb that had hit the mark but hadn’t exploded for whatever reason. It wasn’t on a delay, either - seconds passed, and it still didn’t explode. There was no explosion, but something more… Mysterious, the reasons behind it hard to judge. The thing started to open up, break lines forming in the concrete ground around it as a strong mechanical force pushed at the sides of the object, a hissing sound coming from it as it opened up and split along lines originating at the top, the different segments suddenly forced apart by… Whatever was inside, perhaps. Though, it seemed the opening up was entirely a mechanical process.

Koharu had to stop and breathe, using the chance, she ducked behind a bank of buttons and screens used to track a different part of the line then she had been assigned to today. She couldn’t help but to be curious as to what the thing was. Once it started opening though, she shook her head. Once her breathing had steadied a bit more, she pushed herself back to her feet and kept moving. Her time in track had kept her in better shape than she was now, but she was still in better shape than most. She didn’t want to know what was chasing her, but she kept looking behind her to see what it was as the curiosity burned inside her.

The thing finally finished opening - except it wasn’t one object that came out of it… It was, rather, a swarm of what seemed to be mechanical bugs of some kind, or perhaps natural, they weren’t large enough for it to be easy to make the distinction about what it was without getting close to it… And it didn’t seem like the kind of thing that it was safe to remain close to. They spread out quickly through the factory, starting to land on the surfaces, each place that was touched by them starting to be covered by what looked like some kind of black liquid, the purpose of which was unknown to anyone on the factory floor… Though even some people were quickly caught up in this fate, serving as a warning to anyone that was potentially at risk of ending up in the middle of the swarm, which was moving rapidly.

Koharu picked the pace up again, slamming into the door to the hallway, bruising her shoulder in the process. Slamming the door behind her, she kept moving, before another door, this to shut behind her, and finally, the end goal was in front of her. A fire exit. Opening the door, she stepped outside and didn’t stop moving. She was no longer curious and just wanted away from the bug things and anything else that may come out of that thing. She slowed as she moved into the parking lot, her keys lost somewhere inside in her locker. No, she was just hoping that the vehicles gave her some cover, and time to catch her breath before she had to sprint again.

A desperate fight happening in the skies of Tripolis…

Outside, however, it was apparent that the situation wasn’t any better… In some ways, it was worse.

Some of the buildings in the nearby industrial complexes were simply on fire - and in the sky, there seemed to be a fight going on, between stealthy dark objects that were shooting through the sky, and the more recognizable grey fighter aircraft of the Imperium’s military, or at least, the latter seemed to be doing its best to chase away the former… It was a battle that had mixed results, the larger and darker objects seeming to move better than the more traditionally engineered aircraft that were meeting them. That battle, however, was apparently second to the one that was happening in the streets, with APCs and soldiers of the planetary guard, a local branch of the Imperium military, traveling towards some unknown threat in the distance beyond the factory… Presumably related to the incident that was going on now. While it happened, at least a couple of those blocky APCs stopped in their tracks, squads of soldiers climbing out from the back as they approached the factory.

“Another building hit!” one of them called out… So it seemed they were keeping track of it for whatever reason. Probably because of the mysterious threat on the inside.

Koharu didn’t trust military types very much, but she knew one thing, they were a damn sight better than the things inside. Still, she didn’t want to approach them either, their trigger finger might be itchy. She moved to get away from the fires, and from wherever the soldiers were headed. They could handle fighting whatever this was, she just wanted somewhere safer than here to sit down and catch her breath. Maybe the alleys would be safe, maybe a bar, she honestly couldn’t know, but here was definitely out of the question.

Turning in the other direction, however, would only bring her face to face with something that was enough to strike fear into the heart of most, a sight that few had seen but one that would register as a danger nonetheless, just from the looks of it…

In front of her, at the edge of the lot, there was a figure standing in the shadows… But the glow of yellow eyes was enough to cut through both the night and the shadows that were around that area, and around the tall figure, there were… Further shapes. Tendrils of some sort from the looks of it, and weaponry - at least some of it looked like weaponry, like large guns that were directed in Koharu’s general direction… Perhaps most eerily, the figure had a smile if the reflection of sharp white teeth in the moonlight was anything to go off of… But the being said nothing, just standing there, the only movement of the female looking form being slight breaths in and out.

Koharu promptly yelled some kind of gibberish that sound like a cross of ‘FUCK’ ‘SHIT’ and ‘NOPE’, before turning and trying to put the biggest vehicle she could see between her and the eerie figure. What’s more, she would be keeping as many between them as she could as she ran in the opposite direction.

Except, one of the vehicles in between her and the figure soon exploded, the darkness of the night turning to an orange glow in the affected area as some form of energy round fired by her opponent impacted a van and ignited the fuel tank, the vehicle burning as the figure moved closer, the other constructs moving with it… Constructs that could only be described as both shadows and solid forms, despite the contradiction in them being both - whatever was being dealt with here wasn’t a regular threat. Or necessarily one playing by the same rules.

“Oh? One that’s going to run…?” a female voice questioned - presumably belonging to the being that was moving closer. And, despite the nature of the situation and the fact that this was some kind of killer being, it was, ironically enough, a sweet voice in a sense.

Koharu pushed herself to keep going, keeping as much between herself and the thing as possible. She’d say this was some twisted anime if she didn’t know for a fact it was reality. If she had thought to grab her keys she might have tried driving out of here earlier. Now she was glad she hadn’t, she probably would have been blown up the second she started driving.

There was another explosion… Also within the general area of Koharu’s presence, this one perhaps coming closer as another vehicle was hit by an energetic blast, the being closing in slightly more as it happened. Another fire burned now, and it remained unclear whether the miss had been due to bad aim or because the one firing the shots felt like extending the engagement a bit more, like a hunter looking for more of a rush than simply getting an easy kill… Or perhaps missing intentionally to flush out a target behind cover, which was what Koharu was right now.

Koharu moved again, putting more between them, and silently praying some of the soldiers had reprioritized for over here. She couldn’t fight, she had no weapons, she had no car. All she could do was move, and hope either something else caught the girl’s interest, something saved her, or her death was quick. She could feel her heart pounding from the adrenaline, and she knew that right now, it was chance that was keeping her alive. That she picked the right car, that the girl chose to toy with her or kept missing, she didn’t know, but to her it was pure chance at this point.

The hunter remained still as the soldiers kept focusing on the factory and what was further down the road apparently, but another energy attack looked to be charging up… This time, from multiple cannons, based on the bright glow that could be seen in multiple spots through the darkness. However, rather than an immediate attack, there were more words.

“Why don’t you just come out?” the voice from before questioned, with almost a sing-song quality to it, as the tendrils spread, one of them wrapping around a car and breaking it down, not just crushing it but seemingly absorbing the mass, turning the metal object into one that was smaller and smaller as parts of it were absorbed into the black mass.

Koharu didn’t respond. There was no point in it. No witty comeback would save her, so instead she tried to do something...she had no ideas. It was still just running for now...or was it. She had a civil degree, and even now much of what people used ran under the ground. No, that would never work, she was shooting the cars, not the ground, and even then she’d have to get close enough for the ruptured power line to even arc to her. Instead Koharu moved to the next vehicle, changing up her pattern so if the figure was guessing where she was it would be harder for this next shot. If she was lucky, she might be able to pull something off, if not it’d need to be the soldiers that saved her.

The hunter didn’t give up the pursuit, and continued tracking Koharu with her eyes as the guns remained trained on the target as they floated around her. “I’m getting tired of this…” the voice continued. The next shot was fired, blasting the vehicle in front of Koharu with four separate energy attacks, enough to ignite it multiple times over as each of them penetrated.

A substance like the shadows…

Koharu panted before she made a mad sprint for the road, having hopefully finally put enough cars and distance between her and her huntress that she wouldn’t instantly die. Her feet ached, her heart pounded, and she could barely breathe, but if she stopped, if she slowed, it would be the end of her.

Another series of shots hit the ground near her, but they didn’t hit close enough to take her out, as her assailant seemingly missed her once again, shards of the ground flying up in the process as the immediate area around her was shaken by the close impact… As she approached the road, another APC was coming by and stopped, more soldiers of the planetary guard quickly coming out of the back and taking up positions, firing on the being that was moving through the parking lot, both with the main gun of the APC and with assault rifle fire… Which seemed to be enough of a deterrent. Though, that wasn’t to say the area was actually safe right now…

Koharu kept breathing, she could take a break when the fighting stopped or she found somewhere safe. She did not want to stick close to something that could throw around vehicles with energy blasts, not even with an APC between them. Still at least she wasn’t the one getting shot anymore, she just hoped the city itself was safer, considering she was pretty sure she was now out of the job. If her apartment got destroyed she'd be completely screwed.

It wasn’t long, though, before Koharu would feel something unexpected - not an attack from the front but from behind, as a handheld stun weapon was pressed against her back for whatever reason… The effects of which could be felt immediately, electricity coursing through her body at that moment. Not entirely impossible to resist, but on the other hand, in this condition, she wouldn’t be in a state to move very far… Especially in the middle of a battle like the one going on right now.

Koharu screamed in pain as the electricity coursed through her. She curled up into a ball not entirely of her own free will as her muscles clenched and unclenched in random patterns entirely out of her control. She was already breathing hard, and was no grasping for breath even as the spasms faded, no longer in any condition to run or move while she was in her current state. Maybe a little rest would help, not that she had any choice at the moment.

Koharu would wake up in… Another location entirely. Not the APC, not anywhere around the factory, and not anywhere she had been before - hazy memories from the past hours would have time to filter back as she woke up, but her current situation demanded attention in its own right… She was sat in a chair behind a table, the rest of the room empty, and the surroundings in the room fairly plain and not giving away anything about where she was. Just a plain floor, fluorescent lighting, beige walls, the chair and table, an unoccupied chair on the other side of that table, and a fair sized window at the end of the room which allowed the occupants of the room, currently just her, to see into the hallway beyond… Which was just as nondescript.

Koharu took in the plain room around her, glad to be in here rather than...the alternative. Well, at least the alternatives her imagination came up with...and her memories. She shifted uncomfortably in the chair, her entire body still ached, for multiple reasons. After a moment she settled, and watched the window. Whatever would happen, she had to wait here. She had no other choice, so she decided to keep her mind off things by going over some of what it would take to build the robots. It kept her mind occupied, from conjuring worse things to torment herself with.

The door to the room opened up after some minutes of silence, the main sound in the room belonging to the clock which was steadily ticking in the background, its presence being one of the few distinct features in a place that for the most part lacked any. As it did, another figure walked inside… Military, from the looks of it. No, not military. The fatigues were different. While the planetary guard wore olive drab, the fatigues this man was wearing where grey, with a camouflage pattern. One that wasn’t used anywhere in the Imperium military. This was… Someone different entirely.

Before saying anything, the man sat down across from Koharu and gave her a look up and down. “My name is Antu Katsaros,” the man introduced himself simply. “From the Department of Imperial Security. I presume that I’m speaking to Koharu Eboshi.”

Koharu shrank a little at the sight of the man, but took a calming breath and forced herself to relax a little more. She waited for the man, Antu, to finish speaking before she nodded, a quiet but steady voice following.

“Correct…”

She wasn’t sure why she was here, but she had to bet it related to what had happened and what she’d witnessed. She couldn’t be a hundred percent sure, but all odds seemed to be there.

“You were on the scene at the Querias Automotive plant in Tripolis during the recent… Engagement that happened there,” Antu continued in a steady voice, looking down for a minute at some notes and looking back up at the subject. “Can you go over the events that happened at that plant before you were picked up by the Planetary Guard?”

“There was an explosion, I hit my head, bug-things swarmed into the factory and I ran. Then some...psycho girl thing toyed with me in the parking lot before I was knocked out and dragged here. That sums things up.”

“Are there… Further details to this account?” the agent across from her questioned, starting to write some of the things down on a notepad but otherwise leaving the question open.

“The bugs did...something to the people, the girl could do the same thing to the cars, and she was using some kind of energy weapons. They kinda...floated around her I think, it was dark and I didn’t want to stick around to see more.”

“That’s not very useful information. You need to take things from the beginning… And go over them more carefully. The basic details, after all, have already been confirmed by multiple sources,” Antu stated, before pausing. “So I’m just saying to take your time. And to think on if there’s anything… More specific that you saw. The most detailed account of events that you can give.”

“Well, the first thing was an explosion. The shockwave knocked me over, I hit my head and blacked out. After that, there was this...humming sound. I likened it to a drone or a hovercar, but it was different. I started running for the nearest exit when this...thing fell from the sky and embedded itself in the ground in front of me. It was black, so black I couldn’t make out anything besides black. I turned and ran to the next exit instead, but watched it as I moved. It...opened, and the bugs came from inside. Whatever process opened it was strong enough to push and crack the concrete it was embedded in. They turned things they touched into this black liquid, darker than oil. People, machines...it didn’t matter.”

“And after you entered the parking lot where you were picked up from?” Antu questioned while writing down the latest update given by Koharu.

“There I found this...girl. She had tendrils and weapons, with glowing yellow eyes that pierced the darkness. She toyed with me as I ran, shooting cars and exploding them with her weapons that floated around her. The tendrils turned more cars around me into that black goo. Eventually I saw an opening and made a break for it, before I was knocked out and brought here. The girl had...an innocent sounding voice, but the glee of a sociopath that has caught her prey.”

“And you believe that this was… A person, or something different entirely?” Antu said after a bit of a pause, writing down the further details quickly.

“I don’t really know for sure, it seemed alive, but the glowing eyes, the weapons, the tendrils...the fangs in it’s mouth. If it is alive, it’s something I’ve never seen before. All I can say is it was...alien, maybe not literally but...I can’t account for that with any human abilities I know of.”

There was a pause and no more questions, the only notable sound being that of Antu writing down the details that Koharu was giving, before even that stopped and once again, the agent spoke, pulling out a couple sheets of paper in the process and handing over a pen. “Have a look at these papers. Effectively, it’s a non disclosure agreement about everything that you’ve seen. The paper should tell you exactly what you can and can’t talk about - and what you are allowed to reveal. The story, of course…” Antu started, before looking her in the eye. “Is that the events experienced around the factory were part of an attack by insurrectionist forces backed by the Free Systems Confederation.”

Koharu studied the paper for a moment before picking up the pen in her left hand. She readed it, but stopped, a tone of...disbelief in her voice.

“If...if I do this, if I sign these...I can just go...go home?”

“That is the plan, yes,” Antu confirmed, nodding and looking back to Koharu. “Due to the sensitive nature of these events, some… Security precautions must be taken. This, of course, is just one part of that, with the same papers being signed by many of the other individuals that were around the scene of these events.”

Koharu nodded, and signed her name anywhere she was indicated. Putting the pen down on the table she looked up at the man. She just wanted to go home, and forgot about as much of the last twenty-four hours as she could. This man could make that happen, and she’d sign those papers happily to get it.

Watching her sign, Antu took the papers back when she was done, standing up and gathering all of the papers together - both the ones she had signed and the ones that had notes on them. “Alright, please wait here for a moment. With this, your release process is ready to begin.”

There was silence once again as Antu left the room. Except for the ticking of the clock, the one constant that remained in the background, along with maybe the slight humming from the lighting above - a detail that would only be noticed by someone paying attention to it. But at this time, in this boring environment, it wasn’t hard to space out and focus on mundane details. Some minutes passed like this… More than a few, but eventually, another pair of agents wearing the same fatigues arrived at the room and pulled the door open.

“Koharu Eboshi, if you’ll come this way please,” the first of the men said, gesturing down the hallway while waiting for her to get up and follow.

Koharu nodded and stood up on shaky, weary legs. Still, she forced herself to walk with them, the promise of freedom and home more alluring than staying off her feet. All she knew was she wanted out of here, one way or another, and this was her best chance of getting out of here alive.

She was led through hallways and corridors, the surroundings not giving her much hint of where she was because most of them were as nondescript as she room she had been in before, the same beige walls and fluorescent lights and few landmarks differentiating the different locations within this complex - however, they did reach another room eventually, where there were shelves on all of the walls and each of them had a number of baskets… Presumably with possessions. One of the two agents directed her towards a specific one. “Your possessions.”

Koharu grabbed her meager things, she hadn’t had much on her that wasn’t probably destroyed in her locker. She was probably out of the job, her car probably destroyed. She’d already been struggling to make ends meet, but now..well at least she was alive. Where she had life, there was some hope, even if it wasn’t much.

After getting her things, there was one set of hallways left for Koharu before they emerged into a receptions area with a front desk and such, though the place didn’t have the official markings of the DIS or anything else that would identify it as belonging to this organization. The two agents led her forward and out the front door… Where they turned back towards the building, not stopping to give any advice. Even as, when she stepped out onto the street, it was readily apparent that they weren’t even in Tripolis anymore and that this was a different city entirely… One of the buildings across the street gave a hint at where they were - ‘PHARAEUS RADIO’ the sign said. Seemingly, showing that she had been brought all the way to one of the larger cities in the region, Pharaeus, which itself was a far cry from the further removed Tripolis.

Koharu stared at the sign for what felt like an eternity, but was actually about...five minutes give or take. She kept herself from screaming. She didn’t have the money to get back to Tripolis, she didn’t have a car, she didn’t have...basically anything. She took a few deep breaths, and considered beating something nearby before she straightened. Taking one more deep breath, she looked around and got movig. She could afford a cheap motel for a few nights, see about picking up some kind of oddjob to maintain that and figure out how to get home. Hopefully she could get home before she was evicted and her stuff seized. Her stomach growled, she couldn’t remember when she’d last eaten, or how long it’d taken to get here. Sighing she looked around for somewhere cheap to eat. Finally settling on some little rundown joint, she wasn’t even sure what it served.

The streets of Pharaeus.

To make things perhaps worse for her, it was evening right now and the sun was descending rapidly, meaning that soon enough it would be dark out. Though, the place that she was stepping inside was open still, even if it wasn’t the largest diner around and the quality of the building itself was suspect, regardless of how good or bad the food was.

Koharu slumped into a booth, ordered the cheapest thing on the menu that sounded decent, a pizza of some kind, and slumped in her seat, her stuff next to her, between her and the wall. She felt like crying, like breaking down and giving in. Instead, she was going to eat, and find somewhere to stay for the night. Maybe morning would help, find something new, maybe just give her some clarity. She could afford a few days without income, even with the motel, but she couldn’t last forever without a job.

Wasn’t long before a waitress delivered the food - but even with something to eat, the other problems still remained. Outside the window, it was clear that everything was getting darker… And it was also clear that Pharaeus wasn’t really the friendliest city, not because it was especially dangerous or anything but because it fit the mold of a typical big dirty city that one might find back on Earth or on one of the more populated colonial planets. The kind of city that kept moving around someone no matter what… The city never stopped, even if one person did.

Koharu devoured the food quickly, drinking the simple water greedily. She was starving, but didn’t want to spend long on these streets after dark. The moment her food was done, she gathered her things, paid with a wince, and ducked back outside. She looked several directions, and got moving. She’d spent the time waiting for the food to get an idea of where the nearest place with a room for rent was. It was a ten minute walk, but hopefully she could get there in time.

There were, of course, a lot of motels and cheap hotels in a city like this, catering to all sorts of people, whether they were seedier types from the streets or they were simply passing through for a short time and looking to not pay a premium… Either way, she would have no problem finding one such place, even if the condition of the structure and the bright neon lighting outside gave the motel a pretty cheap look to it.

Cheap was what Koharu could afford, and the building was convenient. Finding the front desk she went inside to get a room for herself. She had to wait in line behind some girl in front of her, but she was here. All she needed was a key and she’d have somewhere to sleep for the night. Maybe not somewhere desirable, but she needed to wait the night out if she had any hope of getting anything done the next day. When it was her turn, she stepped forward, and after paying and getting her key, room 3E, she tightened her fist around the key, and made her way upstairs where she could work on getting the door unlocked. Inside was a bed, and maybe a TV if she was lucky. She didn’t care, she just wanted to start forgetting. If she could afford it, she’d be drinking right now. There was a bar down the street...

by **Lunas Legion** » Sun Apr 12, 2020 5:04 pm

CH 4
“QUESTIONS”

On the day after the strange incident in Tripolis, life continues as usual on the planet of Apollo - but at the University of Apollo-Tripolis, three students will soon enough find themselves mixed in with the chaotic events, through a friend that happens to be looking into it…

February 7th, 2740
Tripolis, Apollo, Querias System
University of Apollo-Tripolis
Collaborative post between Forest State & Lunas Legion

Despite everything that had happened the previous night, life went on - with most of the city in fact not even knowing the details of what had just happened. The battle in the city, according to the official sources, was the result of Free Systems Confederation backed insurrectionists… Even if anyone that had been present for the action knew that it was a strange description of the event, and that those events had been… Advanced for something that was supposedly the work of terrorists or rebels. And yet, at the same time, even as rumors filtered through the media blackout on the true nature of the event, there were few other alternatives that made sense.

After all, humanity was alone here on Apollo. At least, that was what the narrative said…

Either way, the campus of the University of Apollo-Tripolis was unaffected by what had happened, as the battle had taken place around an industrial zone, and the students of that school were back to their usual activities the very next day, even though the talk of the school had nothing to do with the lessons and was more on the strange events, conspiracy theories, and other such related things. It was a couple of months into the year, but that year was already off to an interesting start from the looks of things… Especially if some of the more outlandish theories about what was going on were true.

Not that it was the easiest thing to investigate. The scene of the battle was mostly roped off, large sections of the industrial district now locked down by the DIS as they took away evidence and taped off burnt buildings that had been affected in the battle. Again, evidence that the enemy was… Rather advanced. It was rare for rebels to attack with aircraft and powerful weapons. Sites like StarNet had threads about the subject often removed, certain pictures scrubbed from the internet entirely and discussions forced onto deeper and more obscure parts of the net, where they were less of a threat to public peace.

It was hard to completely remove an idea, and a conversation.

Maura Longo was a testament to that - as she walked the corridors of one of the main buildings of the university as the classes for the day finally ended, she had her phone in hand and was looking at one such internet group right now, which was discussing the events under the radar… Getting too public with this kind of talk would attract the attention of the feds, as they called them. And the last thing Maura wanted was for this conversation to get shut down. No, it was far too interesting for that…

An attack by insurrectionists, huh… Insurrectionists from where… Apollo isn’t a planet with a rebel presence…

Those questions were on her mind as she stepped out into the sunlight, the beauty of the environment around her making it seem almost funny that a battle had just happened in the same city only one night ago. Hadn’t even been a full twenty four hours, but her part of town was untouched by it and still looked as pristine as ever, evergreen trees dotting the landscape of the campus and the area around it… It was a bit removed from the more urban city center, although Tripolis was still no big city, even downtown. It was basically the prototypical mid tier city, not bustling enough to be a ‘big’ one but definitely larger than just a town or a small place that was mostly passed through.

Fuck… I’ll have to think about this later.

She had somewhere to be. Someone to pick up, considering she was the one who’d driven here today. Her car wasn’t the best, it was a stereotypical red sports car that she was in the process of fixing up after buying it for a lower price than it was worth, but it got from point A to point B in a decent amount of fashion despite the exterior dents and such that she hadn’t gotten around to getting rid of. And she had someone waiting for her… One of her few friends, Floria Cita. Tucking her phone away in her pocket, she started towards the spot near the parking lot where they’d agreed to meet.

Florida was standing by the edge of the lot, leaning against a lamppost as she flicked through her phone, jerking upright as she spotted Maura in her peripheral vision and waving enthusiastically as she started to walk over towards her.

Looking towards her friend, Maura offered a slight wave of her own and continued towards the parking lot where her car was parked - it stood out a decent amount from the others in the same area, mainly because of the bright red paint job and the aggressive aesthetic of the vehicle compared to the more mass produced looking and drab colored vehicles of many of the other students… Those in college often didn’t have the money to spend on anything nicer, after all. And in colonies like this, it wasn’t rare to see plenty of these mass produced and cheap vehicles brought in from other places.

“Did computer science treat you well today?” Maura asked with a raised eyebrow… Her friend had always been smarter than her. Though, that wasn’t to say Maura herself was stupid. She just had smarts in different areas, or in other words, she was street smart while Florida was book smart.

“Well enough, in that I’m still just debating whether it’s worth it to go to lectures and not actually, y’know, not going at all.” Florida said, waving a hand in front of her face. “Pretty sure the lecture hall qualifies as a biohazard given how much it fuckin’ stinks. You?”

“I don’t know why I chose this fucking communications degree,” shrugged Maura, showing her obvious displeasure with the subject that she was working on at this school. “Guess I’m still just in it because of sunken cost fallacy, so no, it’s not much better on my end…”

She kept walking and opened the door to her car, getting ready to climb into the front and turning the radio on as she did so, looking back up at Florida. “I find the news from last night to be infinitely more interesting than anything we looked at in class.”

“Haven’t gotten much of a look at it, least not in detail.” Florida said, climbing into the passenger seat. “All I’ve heard is insurrectionists, well… ‘Insurrectionists’ blow up part of some industrial plant. I didn’t even know we had an insurrection, so, well, not exactly buying that part.”

“It wasn’t just the usual kind of attack that would go along with something like that,” said Maura, scoffing slightly as she reversed the sports car and started out of the lot. “There was fucking tracer fire in the skies like they were dealing with aircraft or something, and they scrambled jets out of the Planetary Guard base. Not the kind of thing you do when you’re dealing with some terrorists or whatever the official line is. And, there’s not… Well, there’s not an organized resistance group on Apollo either way. And whatever happened was organized, not the work of some lone wolves.”

“You sure it’s not, like, some corporate black-ops stuff?” Florida asked. “That’s… All I can see it being, really, they don’t know what they’re dealing with so they just call whatever it is ‘insurrectionists’, they’re the only group that’d have something to shoot at with the anti-air stuff… Who else would it be?”

“I saw a picture of one of the jets that the PG ones were chasing down - or at least, it was an alleged picture - and they didn’t even have any control surfaces… I dunno, Florida. I can’t say what it is exactly, but I know this didn’t have the markings of a usual corporate war. Or any usual war I’ve seen. Corporate action happens sometimes… But they don’t just light up a chunk of a decent sized city like what happened before,” Maura shook her head. “I don’t know what’s going on, but the DIS is putting a firm clamp on info coming out of the battle zone.”

“Prototypes or whatever then, buuut if I’m making up justifications then something’s dodgy somewhere.” Florida said. “And I don’t think they’d bother with much of an info blackout if it was just another corporate war in the middle of nowhere unless they had skin in the game or were being paid to keep it all under wraps.”

“They’re coming down pretty hard to remove a lot of stuff about it… More than you would see normally. I’ve seen threads on StarNet get removed, images get taken down, supposedly an arrest or two has happened already… What’s happening now isn’t normal,” said Maura, staring ahead as they navigated the streets around the university area. “I just don’t know what’s behind it, and I think really, no one but the DIS knows for sure…”

“If they know then they’re doing a very good job keeping the rest of us in the dark for whatever reason.” Florida said. “Not like we can do a damn thing about it either, really, if they’re shutting down attempts to figure it out on the Internet which can get a lot more information than we can by ourselves…”

Maura fell silent for a moment, her eyes on the road as she thought about the entire situation. She knew she didn’t like it… She wanted to know what was at the bottom of this, after all. “I guess we’re going to find somewhere to meet up with Dia? Or well… Pick her up, maybe… I think there’s somewhere we should go. Someone I know that’s also looking into all this.”

“Not sure how much use Dia will be, given she’s, well, not the smartest, but she’s good company so yeah, we’ll pick her up and then go meet your other person.” Florida nodded. “I can probably direct you to her flat from here on my phone if you need, she won’t be working this early in the day.”

Maura nodded and continued driving, following the directions although she had a general enough idea of where their other friend was already - it wasn’t her first time driving this way, even if she may not have come here as much as Florida did. “Suppose this is the right place…” she said once she was pulling up. “You can get out and grab her, I’m sure.”

“Gimme like a few minutes, Dia might be sleeping or something.” Florida said, climbing out of the car and jogging up the steps and into the apartment block. A few minutes passed before she returned, not quite dragging the taller figure of Dia behind her who let out a loud yawn as she climbed into the back of the sports car.

“She was sleeping.” Florida said, grinning as she climbed into the passenger seat and shut the door behind her.

“Will be sleeping.” Dia said, yawning again as she rested back in her seat. “Got not much sleep.”

“I’m jealous… You were able to sleep instead of sitting through communications class…” said Maura, looking to the back before she stepped on the gas again and accelerated, heading off in a direction she hadn’t told the others about yet. “But I presume you’re aware of the situation around last night already.”

“Was awake through most of it, yeah.” Dia nodded. “Pretty sure I might’ve heard some of it in the distance or something, but that might’ve just been the caffeine talking at 5 AM. Fuck knows with industrial sites and the thousands of strange noises.”

“You should pay more attention to things like this. Sometimes, the effects of them trickle down to people like us,” Maura pointed out, rolling her eyes slightly as she changed directions from the one they had been heading before, and started towards a location off of the campus. “When something becomes too big to ignore, you’re going to regret being behind the curve.”

“I mean, it could’ve been my building that got whatever’d, but what are we going to be able to do about it?” Dia said, still sounding tired. “Something’s up and it’s probably pretty big but I’m an underpaid and overworked security guard and the pair of you are university students… Not exactly top level imperial secret agent material are we?”

“The point is, when you’re in the know, you have a better chance of not ending up with shit happening to you in the first place…” mused Maura. “I’m sure the workers at those factories would have liked to know more before they ended up in the spots they did.”

“True.” Dia conceded. “Not sure how much it would’ve helped them given I’m… Pretty sure there’s been at least a few deaths, but anything’s better than nothing at all if it’s my building that’s next on the invisible unknowable list of buildings that’re going to get whatever’d.”

“I know someone else that’s looking into it all and has some theories about it - we’ve already talked about it, actually, but there’s been updates since then… Or should I say, more leaks since then, in hidden places, if you know where to look,” Maura said before giving a brief pause. “I don’t know how familiar both of you are with the history of this world, but one of the more notable things about it is that the Imperium brought loads and loads of military gear here in anticipation of combat with the FSC. It’s created a large secondary market… And I intend to meet with someone involved in that field.”

“Just because we can get military-grade stuff doesn’t mean we’ll know how to use it.” Florida said. “So I hope whatever you’re going to get includes instruction manuals and stuff because, uh, I’ve never held a gun in my life.”

“And we’re going to meet this other person who’s been looking into this mess?” Dia asked. “At some point, at least, if we’re supposed to know as much about this as we can.”

“I’m uhhh… Bringing us to someone that’s like a big sister to me. Spent a bit of time working for her, made a lot of money, too. Still help out there sometimes. I know she’ll have a useful angle on this thing, and probably more knowledge about it than we do if my past experience with her holds up. She’s always ahead of the game so to speak,” Maura said with a shrug.

“I can understand if either of you are reluctant. But we’re dealing with someone that’s former mercenary, pretty experienced and knowledgeable about the latest action and the things that happened even before that,” Maura concluded, turning onto the highway to head further away from the city center.

“I mean, my life is kinda on the line here…” Dia said. “I’d give a hell of a lot for more firepower and preparation since this shit is going to pick where I work sooner or later…”

“I’m reluctant.” Florida admitted. “But I also trust you, so if you think this is a good idea, I’m willing to go with it anyways.”

“We don’t have to do anything,” said Maura, with a shrug. “And I don’t even know if we’ll find anything of use.”

She paused, looking ahead as they sped down the highway, pine trees and other similar forestry on either side of them on the road, different from some of the more urban surroundings in other nearby areas that they were headed around. “But I know from talking over the phone and from past experience that this person knows more than anyone else I’m familiar with about the shit that went down last night and all the other events like it… I know she’s been looking at it as long as I have.”

“So,” concluded Maura, turning towards an exit ramp as they approached the city outskirts. “I’ll give it a shot… See what we find.”

After some driving, Maura arrived at a location near the outskirts of the city, where the environment was a little more wild and where there was plenty of space between their destination and any of the nearest buildings over… That was one of the advantages of coming to a city like this. There was room, so to speak, to spread your wings. The same couldn’t be said about some of the larger cities in the Imperium, where one of the most valuable resources was the land itself. Out here, however, there were rolling forests and fields, and a lot of empty space, and one of the things placed in the middle of it all was a warehouse-like building that stood out from the fields around it. Apparently, the place they were looking for.

“This is it,” said Maura, parking on the grass next to the building and climbing out of the sports car, gesturing towards the warehouse - wasn’t the worst condition in the world but it wasn’t brand new either, and yet it did look like someone was actively taking care of the place rather than leaving it to the wild… Even if the grass around it was somewhat tall, something that someone from around here might consider a hazard because there was no telling what snakes or other things were within those fields. Additionally, there was a dirt field on the left side of the building where instead of the usual grass, some military vehicles in varying conditions were resting, either ready to be sold or awaiting repairs.

“Bit in the middle of nowhere, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect.” Florida commented as she climbed out, Dia following after her and warily eyeing the tall grass around the area.

“I should probably know what those are.” Dia said, stepping to head around to the left side to take a closer look at the vehicles, Florida walking to stand next to Maura, not quite willing to venture off given the circumstances.

“Some of those are APCs, some of them are just trucks or MRAPs I think, and there’s a couple that look like surface to air missile launchers being converted into rocket artillery,” shrugged Maura, taking a look over it all herself as she strayed from the path and stopped somewhere behind Dia. “I worked on some of those conversion jobs myself a while back… Still do some work down here when I need some extra cash thrown my way, wouldn’t have been able to afford the car otherwise.”

“I’m mostly familiar from seeing a few around other warehouses, those that need a bit… Heavier security than mine.” Dia shrugged, stepping back. “I think we might have one somewhere but I’ve never seen it used, or it’s on another site in a more remote location, I just know my boss can drive one of the things.”

“There’s a lot of surplus on this planet,” Maura said, looking over the APCs before she started back towards the front door once again. “Sometimes they end up sticking it in caves for if shit hits the fan in the future, sometimes it ends up sold to private parties when they move different stuff in… Which is how it ends up at your job, or here.”

She pushed through the double doors at the front and they would soon see that the building was perhaps larger than it looked from the outside, mainly because there was a second floor and a large stairway near the middle of the first floor which led up towards it. There was a sign running across one of the walls, that seemed to display the name of the place… ‘GUNMETAL.’ Simple enough, but it said what the place was about. As they walked in, bells rang and would likely alert the owner of where they were.

“I’m sure my friend will be down in a minute,” Maura said, stopping as they walked past a front desk - the entire first floor was in front of them, as this floor had an open layout, and while the ground was a plain and cold concrete, the things in the place were anything but plain. Guns, ammunition, missiles, it was all there… Near the middle of the showroom floor, there was even a military aircraft that looked like it could still fly, one that had probably been bought off the Planetary Guard and was fully capable of being armed and loaded with missiles.

“Least if there was an actual insurrection we’d have enough firepower to give them hell.” Florida said as Dia walked past her, looking with admiration at the weaponry on display as she walked at a slow walk between the gear on show.

From the upper level, someone did indeed come down - and it was hard to miss her. She had a green jacket, but it was over top of a tight top that left her midriff exposed, her dark hair notable because of well, the amount of it that she had, keeping it relatively untrimmed and wild… An eccentric appearance, for sure, added to by the golden shades that covered her eyes. “Alya Viktorova,” Maura said in introduction, gesturing over to the woman as the woman recognized her and picked up her pace. “Otherwise known as one of my first bosses.”

“You’ve brought new friends over here, eh?” Alya asked with a raised eyebrow, approaching and looking over the three of them, a slight smile on her face. “New employees perhaps? Or customers?”

“Some people that are curious about the same things that you’re curious about… As far as the, uh, recent events in the city,” Maura explained, gesturing to both of her friends. “This is Florida, and this is Dia.”

Florida said nothing, waving in silence, while Dia said “Sup,”, looking over Alya herself. She didn’t look like someone who’d be running a company from her experience, but, well, she supposed being an arms dealer and conspiracy theorist meant one wouldn’t look like a corporate suit.

“The name’s Alya, best arms dealer on the frontier even if there’s a lot of others competing for that title. But I mean… Look around you. I’ve got everything you can possibly need,” Alya said, spreading her arms to gesture to the things around them, before lowering them and raising an eyebrow. “But lil’ Maura says you aren’t here for all that. You’re here because of… My theories?”

“Yeah.” Florida said, speaking up. “Maura said you’re the go-to person for… Actual information about the ‘insurrectionist’ attacks, so here we are.”

“Though it’s a damn nice selection.” Dia commented, running her hand along a shelf.

“I don’t think its an insurrectionist attack at all,” Alya commented. “Fact of the matter is, I’ve been reading into all this since before the latest attack even got everyone’s attention, back when it was more isolated things happening outside the city or on the very edge of it, and I think… Well, you may or may not believe it, but I think there’s something out there that isn’t just rebels. That isn’t tied to the Imperium at all. Whether it’s something a part of this planet or it’s something completely different… These attacks have a source that isn’t just a more usual terrorist threat. You’d see a building or two get taken out if that was the case. Not jets in the sky and everything else that was reported - that there’s pictures of - from back during that recent attack.”

“If it was insurrectionists they’d hit government targets.” Dia nodded. “Not… Random industrial warehouses or whatever. You got any pattern down to where whatever oddities happen or is it really just at random?”

“It won’t be at random, we just won’t be able to spot the pattern yet.” Florida said. “But yeah, what Dia said.”

“The intensity of what’s been happening has picked up, I would almost say that whoever or whatever is behind this… Is testing the waters and getting ready for something, I don’t know… More ambitious. Start off with more isolated incidents, move up to something like the attack on the industrial complex, and then… Something bigger. I don’t think we’ve reached the last stage. Whatever that was, it can do a lot more than what’s already been done. The DIS is hardly able to contain the info as is.”

“Which raises why they’re hushing it all up in the first place.” Florida said. “If this is building up to something, you’d think they’d be on full alert, fortifying, calling in reinforcements… That kind of hard to hide type thing but they’re not.”

“I’m not sure anyone knows what this really is yet… And if they don’t know what it is… Well, it’s hard to prepare for. I think the focus right now is on keeping everyone from freaking out,” Alya mused. “But, I don’t know if that’s for the better or for the worst long term. Something else being out there would freak everyone out, but if it does end up being a bigger threat than it’s shown so far…”

“If there’s something out there people will freak when it comes to light, they’re just putting off the inevitable.” Florida said. “Least if they say what’s out there we can all prepare, but we’re stuck panicking in the dark instead.”

“I know how to look into it, at least… And well, maybe see if there’s anything to all of this, once and for all. If you look into the known attack vectors of the fighters that were supposedly present during the last attack, and the vectors of the Planetary Guard fighters that took off to counter them - and the latter isn’t hard to find - you can tell some things about which direction the attack came from. That’s to say, up north not far from the mountain range running some way away from Tripolis,” Alya concluded. “The best way to look into it? I believe that would be to, well, head up to the settlement around there and see just what secrets are there… And if the DIS has anything under wraps.”

“Bit of a journey.” Dia noted. “But I guess it’s a start and a damn sight better than running around blind.”

“But if you all are interested…” Alya turned to face deeper into the building, gesturing towards the stairway leading up to the second floor. “I do have some things on hand that would make the trip more… Uh, survivable. Assuming both of you are bold enough to even want to follow lil’ Maura into this investigation of ours.”

“Someone’s got to keep these two out of too much trouble, and that’s normally my job.” Florida said. “But, uh, depending on what you have, we… Might not exactly know how to use it. I’ve maybe held a pistol a few times at a range but that’s all I’ve got.”

“Not askin’ you to move out right away. There’s still some things for me to look into… Some things to show the both of you if you’re getting involved on this. But if you really want to know the truth… I don’t know anyone else looking into it as much as myself, and getting as far,” Alya said with a shrug as she started up the stairs, followed by the others. “So I think it would be a good pairing. After all… Maura’s friends are my friends.”

“Only thing I wanna ask is why you don’t go out and poke this yourself.” Dia said. “Not saying I don’t trust you, just general instinct ‘bout why you’re getting us to do it.”

“Who said I wouldn’t look at it myself? But then again, I’m just one person. Only human, if you want to put it like that. Does this seem like the kind of thing you look into with only one person? I think not,” Alya said, shaking her head. “After all… If this is… Aliens or some kinda advanced native life on this planet, or any other strange theory, I don’t want to be the only person standing there staring it down.”

“Probably a good idea, yeah.” Dia nodded. “No point in poking if you kick up a storm and die before you can tell anyone what the fuck is up.”

“Then I suppose we’re settled…” said Alya, continuing up the large stairway which led all the way to the second floor. “Time to take a look at everything we know so far, then… And see if we can get to the bottom of this any more than we already have.”

by **Forest State** » Mon Apr 13, 2020 6:40 am

CH 5
“MAN THE GUNS”

Before continuing to the Querias system, the ERC Traverse has a patrol mission around the Highfort system, one of the furthest flung ones in the control of the Imperium - and a colony that the Earth Resource Corporation is directly involved with supplying in many areas. This patrol, however, turns out to be much more dangerous than originally suspected…

February 5th, 2740
ERC Traverse
Nearby Highfort System
Collaborative post between Forest State & Lunas Legion

Deep space… Far removed from the core worlds of the Imperium. Far removed from the most traveled routes through space, either… Most of the vessels found out here were special purpose ones, so to speak, that had a reason to be traveling out here. Freighters bringing supplies out towards the outer colonies of the galaxy, triad ships moving smuggled goods from destination to destination, and of course… Military vessels on patrol, looking for hostile vessels, contraband, and other threats further from home. In this case, one of those vessels on patrol was the ERC Traverse, which was spending some time on a patrol route around the Highfort system before it would continue on its way to the Querias system and specifically the planet Apollo.

Highfort was, after all… A hot zone of sorts. A place which was an intersection of the Sha Yei Triad, the Free Systems Confederation, and the Imperium - three sides of varying power levels that weren’t exactly the most friendly with each other, but all coexisted within this one zone and oftentimes found themselves interacting with one another. In this case of Highfort, it was the Imperium’s sliver of space, well defended as the name of the system indicated. They had built it up from the beginning to be a fortress for the Imperium’s interests… And those interests were often checked up on by deep space hunter units like the corporate mercenary ship ERC Traverse, which itself was part of the versatile Dynamo class but was often employed in roles like this. It wasn’t the first time Captain Candace Marin had been put on a similar assignment.

And it wouldn’t be the first or the last time for Candace to be involved in some action in this region as they continued their patrol route, heading towards the known FTL waypoints where they might find vessels that required further attention - the points one would exit hyperspace and plan the next jump were in fact predictable. While it was possible to travel faster than light, it was also possible to detect and catch an opponent before they started their next jump, by loitering around these areas. Sometimes, large defensive arrays would even be constructed at these locations. However, there were too many potential spots to defend all of them… Which was largely the purpose of these patrols. The vastness of space was also a reason why a mercenary ship like this would be used instead of a military one - with a vast Imperium, it only made sense to use the private sector to fill the gaps.

As they exited hyperspace, Candace turned her attention away from the front window, looking over her crew once again, a feeling in her gut telling her that they might run into trouble right here. Not something that was backed up by facts. But she was decently experienced working on these ships. She knew, to an extent, what to expect. “Perform a scan at maximum sensor range,” she ordered, her eyes traveling across the bridge. “And tell me if any anomalies come up, especially corvette to frigate sized ones.”

“Roger.” Lisa, the Traverse’s sensor operator, nodded as she turned her attention back to her console, increasing the range of the ship’s sensors out to their maximum before starting the scan. Although the technology might’ve advanced, the method of output hadn’t changed noticeably in that it was still a screen with dots.

The scan indeed returned some results that were… Interesting. That was to say, it looked like there were a pair of corvette shaped vessels coming in from a vector that indicated they were moving from Free Systems Confederation territory. Seemingly, from the looks of things, freight vessels… Although that didn’t necessarily mean that there wasn’t a threat. Converted freighters were used by a number of groups, the Sha Yei Triad included. “Engines at full, start on a vector towards those freighters… I don’t think those are freighters, I think they would be larger if they were legitimate, and they wouldn’t be traveling in formation,” Candace pointed out. “But, weapons tight for now… No idea what it means that they’re coming from FSC territory, and I don’t want an incident without a good reason.”

“Engines at full, moving to intercept.” Sara, the Traverse’s helmsman said. There wasn’t any overt sign that the ship had changed its course or speed, space not providing any points of reference for the human eye to discern changes from.

“No freight company would use two smaller ships instead of one larger one, it’s inefficient.” Gabriella said, looking down at her own sensor readout. “But until we have actual proof, and not simply suspicions…”

“I’d say the corvettes look like the Maque class that the Sha Yei managed to start building but I’m not sure how that would explain the ships coming from an FSC vector and not from Sha Yei territory… As far as I know, the FSC still treats them as an enemy,” Candace said with folded arms, making an observation on the likely class based on the signature that had come back from the scan, which itself didn’t tell them anything certain but did provide some information through some haze and noise that would likely clear up as they got closer.

“I can get a more detailed scan once we’re in closer.” Lisa suggested. “As for the course… My only thought would be that either the FSC didn’t treat these ships as enemy vessels or they were able to outrun the FSC before they could be intercepted, but that doesn’t answer why they didn’t just come straight from cartel space.”

“And the FSC not treating a Sha Yei vessel as the enemy would represent a change in the way things are around this part of space, but then again, we don’t know just yet who owns these two corvettes… Though if they’re the Maque class, there’s only really one faction that can own them. The SYT builds them themselves at their own dockyard, after all,” remarked Candace, placing a hand on her chin.

“There’s far too much we don’t know about this situation and we could debate it for hours.” Gabriella said. “Let’s handle the interception first, it might shed more light on the situation.”

Candace was silent as they continued full speed towards the two targets, and by now, their larger ship would of course be in the detection range of those mysterious vessels, whoever actually operated them. Moving her hand away from the panel in front of her, Candace let out a brief sigh. “It looks like they aren’t going to answer any attempts to talk to them…” said Candace, her eyes turning back to the crew. “Continue approaching… Weapons at the ready. And start the second scan, see if there’s any more details about the vessel class we’re looking at.”

“Scanning again.” Lisa said, briefly adjusting the scanner’s range and intensity with quick flicks of her hands. “Results should be on screens shortly.” Lisa added, watching in silence as the ship’s sensors started to scan again.

“Nothing new coming up,” Candace said as she took a look at the screen herself. “Though I would still bet we’re dealing with the Maque class here… Shit, looks like there’s new contacts. They’re firing on us already, guns. We’ve just crossed into range, I think…”

As she spoke, the first of the rapidly launched projectiles, of which two had been fired so far, one from each vessel, hit the side of their own ship… “Light dent it seems, but they’re serious,” Candace growled, looking at the sensor screen as the second projectile neared them, before making impact and causing the ship to shake in a way they could actually feel, despite the enemy gun not being the largest - both guns on the Maque class corvettes were about the same size as the ones the Traverse frigates had. “Taking damage… Weapons free.”

“Roger, returning fire.” Gabriella said, turning to her console and tapping over missile cells. “Four missiles away, two per ship.” Gabriella continued. “Guns locking onto targets, opening fire.” There wasn’t any sign as the Traverse returned fire, missiles streaking off into the dark void while the cannons turned in their turrets, lining up their shots before opening fire.

The first of the corvettes, whatever class they actually were, sustained quite a bit of damage from the one missile that did hit, even as one of them only exploded in the general area and didn’t hit the mark… But it was hard for the crew of the Traverse to know that yet, as they, of course, hadn’t closed into a close enough range to get that kind of information and they also hadn’t knocked the enemy ship out entirely to remove it as a contact on the sensors… The gunfire directed at that vessel didn’t hit the mark, which meant it survived another turn at least in this battle, though there was still another ship to worry about also.

In this case, with the vessels lacking the more advanced countermeasures that the Traverse had, both of the missiles hit their mark and the second vessel was destroyed entirely… A spectacular explosion in the distance was out of the range of what anyone could see or any of the optical sensors on board the Traverse could pick up, but it happened nonetheless, and the contact dropped from the sensor display showing the distortions in space that represented other vessels. “One destroyed…” Candace informed, though it was more of a formality. It wasn’t hard to see what had happened.

As the battle continued and the sole remaining enemy pushed forwards to pursue the one versus one, not having enough room to turn around and run now that the engagement had already started, both of the opponent’s guns were fired at the Traverse, the two new projectiles appearing as contacts. “Incoming…”

It was hard to predict beforehand that this one, so to speak, would be a critical hit… One that seemed to cause a major fuel line rupture, achieving a kill in the sense that the vessel wouldn’t be able to go on like this. Not when one of the main lines carrying the fuel to the engines, and therefore powering those engines and keeping them moving, had erupted into flames, the ship shaking and the power systems affected at the same time. “We’re experiencing a power shutdown,” Candace pointed out, looking around the bridge as it darkened, the fast pace of the ship turning into a drift that was carried by momentum. There was no air resistance to stop them in space, after all.

She paused, considering the best option in this case, gritting her teeth. Fighting the fire was necessary, of course, but… On the other hand, they did still have an enemy vessel to deal with. “Have both of the guns manually fire on the known position of the remaining vessel… Rest of the free manpower goes into firefighting.”

“Roger that.” Gabriella said, switching from the previously sensor-assisted targeting to manual as the guns resighted themselves before opening fire with four shots, two from each gun towards the last sensory position of the final enemy ship.

“I don’t know if that barrage hit…” Candace remarked - they didn’t have a way of knowing, because their sensors were down right now because of the lack of power running through the vessel. And of course, without power, the environment control systems also weren’t running, the antigravity shutting off with no power to maintain it and the crew having to use their training for zero G environments. Not that it was the kind of spot anyone actually expected to end up in, especially as their vessel complicated things by listing to the side, moving off course somewhat with no way to correct it at this point.

Still, Candace focused herself, closing her eyes for a moment. “The nearest vessel in our group is the Hainan… Which… Isn’t around here right now. Someone’s going to have to get the backup generator in the communications and IT room turned on, and put out that message that we need the Hainan over here ASAP… Which will take a short FTL jump from them, but they should be able to be here in hours.”

“We’ll find out soon enough if we did take the final ship out since we’re dead in the water and it can finish us off with ease.” Gabriella said, holding herself in her chair rather than letting herself drift in the zero-gravity. “I can head down to find a damage control team to get the backup generator turned on, given we don’t exactly have enough power for anything beyond basic life support.”

“Do whatever you can to get it back on…” said Candace, turning to face Gabriella, her movements altered by the fact they were in a zero gravity environment now, one they hadn’t planned for. “Because the sooner we get that done… The sooner we can get out of here. Consider it the number one priority at the moment.”

“Wish me luck.” Gabriella said, stepping out of her chair and around it, using it to hold onto before kicking off the back of it, sending her floating gracefully out of the bridge. The lack of gravity and the ship’s size meant it’d probably take a while to find a damage control team, and longer to get them from wherever they were to the backup generators. If they were lucky, or their head of damage control was competent, they’d already have a team on it hopefully.

As she left to handle the task, Candace pulled herself back towards the middle of the bridge and her own station, looking at the panels - gone dark in this case, due to the lack of power. She cursed silently, balling up a fist and shaking it at the circumstances… And the fact that they couldn’t do anything in this situation, couldn’t even know if they had finished off the enemy vessel or not. The circumstances around all of this were strange. It wasn’t even clear who these vessels were that had attacked them, or just what they were doing coming from the space of the Free Systems Confederation…

It was bound to be a larger story than it was now. This was just the beginning of it - unfortunately, they had found themselves on the wrong end of that, and instead of investigating wreckage, they were aiming to not become that kind of wreckage themselves.

It was going to take a bit longer than intended to reach Querias.

by **Lunas Legion** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:00 am

CH 6
“HIGH STAKES”

Palmera-6 is one of the top resort planets within the Imperium - and in addition to that status, it’s also one of the most criminal planets. Drug, arms, and all other kinds of trafficking flourish here, and things are frequently brought in from the feuding Sha Yei and Yan Sheng Triads, as well as Free Systems Confederation space. This has, additionally, made Palmera-6 the debatable gambling capital of the Imperium - in this city of high stakes, three members of the local branch of the Yan Sheng will find out just how risky the game can be…

February 7th, 2740
Gatos, Palmera-6, Palmera System, Imperium Terra
Grand Palmera Resort & Casino
Collaborative post between Forest State & Lunas Legion

The sun had long since descended below the horizon, and it was another typical night in Palmera-6… More specifically, it was a night where not much sleeping would be done. The schedule on this planet, at least in the major cities with their sprawling mega-casinos and towering hotels, was seemingly reversed. During the day, there wasn’t much activity, and at night, things woke up and the streets would be flooded by people looking for a good time - looking for one by any means, at that. Gambling and just about every other vice was available, and under the watchful eye of a local government that was happy to encourage it, it was perhaps the least restrictive planet in the Imperium for these kinds of activities. All of it made nights in the planet’s cities something to see.

Especially the capital of Palmera-6, Gatos, a city marked by pyramids which were lit up in the night and where spotlights could often be seen shooting into the sky, as if to show off the glamor of the place to anyone that happened to be flying above at the time… And amid the great monuments to the financial success of the city and the planet, there were plenty of smaller resorts and hotels and casinos dotting the landscape, creating something that was very well a casino city for both the VIPs that could afford the best and the lower classes that needed something more affordable.

But one of the jewels of the city was one hotel in specific, the Grand Palmera, which also happened to be attached to one of the largest casinos, which itself was located in the pyramid style building that was attached to the hotel - it also housed a shopping complex, and behind the place, there was a landing spot for starships as large as corvettes. In other words, this was the kind of place where one could find the very best treatment if they had the right amount of money to pay for it, and it didn’t come cheap… Some people, however, were able to frequent places like this not because of being the richest, but because of special status.

Crime was one thing that hadn’t been eradicated by the advancement of technology, and the Sha Yei Triad and the Yen Shang Triad were said to be some of the major players in the landscape of this place - and in the politics of the outer colonies in general, as it was the area where the two rivals held the most sway. This place was no exception, and when the Triads wanted to put someone in a room at a hotel like this, they managed it without problems.

Which was how as the sun went down and the night embraced the city once again, three members of the Yen Shang were getting ready to get up and head out for another day of work, with the ‘work’ involving the management of a number of assets below them… They’d been given hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ‘products.’ Their job? Moving it during the assigned time frame, something they were generally good at… Good enough to earn the Triad’s trust and for them to place the trio in a premier building like this to operate out of.

Delphina let out a loud yawn as she woke, cocooned up in a mass of luxurious silk sheets in her room. She remained still for a few minutes, eyes resisting the urge to sleep as she looked down at her watch, debating whether it was early enough to bother getting up. It wasn’t like she had anything to do today, really, given-

Oh. No, she did actually have something to do today. Not something particularly difficult, but her boss would be livid if she didn’t do it, given she’d been supposed to do it yesterday before she’d gotten distracted by a pretty face and one thing had led to another.

Reluctantly, she unraveled herself from her warm covers, yawning again as she sat up and looked for her phone on the bedside table-

Okay, it wasn’t there. Delphina let out a breath. Don’t panic, don’t panic… She repeated in her head, her breathing faster as she climbed out of bed. It’s charging pad was there, so she’d definitely left it there… Maybe she’d just knocked it onto the floor? She crouched down, looking under the bed.

Nothing.

Delphina Galatas.

She started to pant, on the verge of panic. She’d lost her phone.

Not just any phone.

The phone with the hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency stored away that she’d been supposed to move to a static server in the Grand Palmera’s vault yesterday.

The phone with the hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency stored away that she’d been supposed to move to a static server in the Grand Palmera’s vault yesterday that they owed to one of the largest criminal cartels and that trusted them with.

The phone with the hundreds of thousands of dollars of cryptocurrency stored away that she’d been supposed to move to a static server in the Grand Palmera’s vault yesterday that they owed to one of the largest criminal cartels and that trusted them with and would be… Extremely unhappy to learned that they’d lost it.

Delphina pushed herself up, sprinting into the bathroom. Nothing. Fuck. She ran out, starting to rummage through pockets in her jackets, frantically searching for her phone. Still nothing. Double fuck. Alright, okay. She stopped, breathing out, attempting to calm herself. Her phone was missing. She wasn’t clumsy enough to have dropped it out in the casino, which meant…

“Oh shit…” She said to herself, realising what had happened. She’d been robbed.

“Olympia is going to kill me…” She mumbled out as she started to dress herself, mentally working out what, exactly, she was going to say to her boss to justify her not shooting her right there on the spot. She dressed quickly, heading out of her room at a full sprint, belting down the corridors of the casino and not bothering with the elevators, instead heading up the four flights of stairs to where Olympia’s room was.

“Olympiaaaa!” She yelled, hammering on the door loudly with her fist for a few moments until the sleepy-looking face of Olympia appeared in the gap between the door and the wall.

“What…” Olympia mumbled out, rubbing her head.

“My phone was stolen.” Delphina said.

“Oh.” Olympia said, not realising the implication, still half asleep. “Your phone?”

“My phone.” Delphina nodded.

“Your phone…” Olympia repeated. “That you moved all of our money off of.”

“My phone that I… Didn’t move our money off of.” Delphina corrected, cringing and shrinking back.

“Ah.” Olympia said, vanishing back inside the room.

“Are you mad?” Delphina asked, already knowing the answer as the barrel of a pistol appeared through the gap in the door.

“I-” Olympia said, barely-restrained fury in her voice, her finger shaking by the pistol’s trigger. “Am livid, but fuck that. Go find Amalia, tell her what happened. I’ll deal with your fuckup once my head isn’t in the crosshairs for it.”

Delphina flinched back as the door slammed in her face before heading off at a run down the corridor; Amalia’s room wasn’t that far from Olympia’s, so she arrived maybe a minute afterwards, once again knocking furiously on the door. There wasn’t any time to waste.

The third member of their team, of course, was the one that knew this kind of thing - and knew it well. Amalia Huerta was the one that had warned them in the first place of keeping all their eggs in one basket… And something like a phone that could be lost or more likely in this case, stolen. Though, Amalia wasn’t all the way awake yet, even as the night had already started, as she came to the door in a tee shirt, curious about just what was happening. “It’s pretty early in the work day for you to look this panicked, don’t you think?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

“My phone got stolen.” Delphina said. “Yes, Olympia knows, yes, she’s pissed, but we need to get it back.”

“And your phone was stolen… When?” asked Amalia, keeping her voice calm although the news was enough to wake her up a lot more than she had been before, knowing what could happen due to that lost phone… Which, in this case, had at least five hundred thousand dollars of profit on it, that was supposed to head to the triad soon… “I… Need more details if we’re going to trace where it is and get it back.”

“Like, maybe a few hours ago tops?” Delphina said. “I had it with me when I went to bed, but I, ah, had company, so… I guess they’re probably the only one who could’ve taken it. Might want to check the hallway security cameras, if the staff will let us at them.”

“Look, if you don’t start telling me more I’m going to start assuming that you took it yourself and you’re trying to run away with the profit while the other two of us get whacked,” Amalia said impatiently, tapping her foot against the ground as she considered the situation. “Start from the top… And recount everything.”

“So, I was at the bar, you know, down near the casino floor since I was going to move the money from my phone to the vault server, some cute girl approached me, we got to talking, I took her back to my room, stuff happened, I wake up and my phone is gone.” Delphina said quickly. “I can describe her, but having pictures would be better so security camera footage. Also lets us make sure its not one of the cleaners just to make sure it is her, they’ve got keys to get into rooms.”

“You don’t have anything to go on other than that?” Amalia asked incredulously, raising an eyebrow and facepalming somewhat as she leaned back in her doorway, letting out an instinctive deep breath as she tried to come up with a solution for the current mess they were in. “No previous communications, nothing like a StarNet page or something like that? Finding someone just based on looks is… Not easy, even if we do know exactly what she looks like.”

“No.” Delphina shook her head. “But if we know what she looks like, there’s probably some program that can find a StarNet page for her. Could also check exterior cameras, if the staff let us look at those, see how she left.”

“It’s… Not that simple. I think we’re fucked right now… This is fucked,” said Amalia, gritting her teeth as she listened to the account. She didn’t exactly have a solution yet. “Even if you can spot her on the cameras and see which way she’s went, she’s already had at least hours since leaving the place assuming she went right out after taking your phone… And Gatos is a city of millions of people. Tens of millions maybe. How are you suggesting we find one person with nothing linking them to anything when they have a head start of hours in a place this big? For all we know she might be getting on a freighter headed off this planet entirely as we speak.”

“We check everything that we can check.” Delphina said. “If she left in a car, we can get the plates, if we get the plates we can get who owns it, if we get who owns it we have a lead. Hell, she might not even know what’s on the phone, but if we assume she does…” Delphina shrugged. “That narrows down options, at least.”

“Too much of a coincidence for this not to be connected. I think you’ve really fucked us all over with this one,” Amalia fired back in a sharp tone, moving to grab Delphina by the collar as she kept her jaw clenched in frustration between speaking. “And if someone is doing this as a pro job, they aren’t going to show up or leave in a vehicle that can be traced. Start… Coming up with… Better ideas.”

“I know!” Delphina said in panic. “Look, right, it’s my phone, which means they’ll have to get into it to get the money so that gives us time, but it also means it’s a phone. You know, automated updates and all that stuff, it pulls in and sends out a lot of data. We can’t track the girl, but, like, we could track the phone, couldn’t we? Maybe?”

“I’ll give it my best FUCKING attempt!” Amalia practically shouted in Delphina’s face before giving her a slight shove and returning to the room, quickly walking over to the desk where her laptop was sitting and opening it up, taking a deep breath and pausing for a moment before she started to type, working on carrying out the needed commands… She knew, however, that there was a risk involved with this. That if they were dealing with people that knew what they were doing, there was a chance the attempt could be deflected or reversed on them, and wouldn’t help them at all.

“Come on, come on…” Amalia muttered under her breath, typing away about as fast as her fingers would actually allow her to, and not taking a break until she had finished typing a number of lines, and was now looking at a map on her laptop screen. “I’m looking at the geolocation data right now, it looks like the phone is around the west end… The part of the city where there’s a lot of abandoned or closed down casinos and hotels and such,” she explained, starting to type once again once she knew what she was looking for. “I’m looking to see if I can get a more specific location… Without them noticing the hack and effectively kicking me off.”

Delphina wiped her forehead, letting out a sigh of relief. “Thank fuck. Get a more specific location if you can, but me and Olympia should probably make our way over there so we can move on in once you’ve got us a more specific location and tell us if it starts moving. We want that phone back yesterday.”

“I’m working on it…” said Amalia, continuing to type rapidly on the relatively small keyboard of her laptop, her breathing sharp as if she was going through an adrenaline rush right now, even with no immediate threat. The threat right now was of the looming kind rather than the kind that had to be worried about in the exact moment, and even though they had found something of a lead, she still couldn’t help but… Have a sinking feeling in her gut. For some reason, it just didn’t feel like things were going to go flawlessly with this. Perhaps because they were exceptionally unlucky to end up in this spot in the first place…

“Alright, it looks like I have something more,” Amalia said, looking at the screen as she found a more specific location, triangulated from the other data she had picked up. “The King’s Armory casino on the west end… Or what was formerly that casino. Hasn’t been open for a while, it was raided by the DIS some time ago and it’s been closed since then… But I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a triad using the complex where it operated out of. There’s a lot of rooms, there, it was a hotel and resort and casino in one after all. But fuck, we have a limited window and hitting at anyone holed up in there is going to, uh…”

She paused and let her voice trail off, pulling up street level pictures of the casino and hotel as she sat back in her chair, her hand drumming against the desk - the hand she wasn’t using for typing, anyway. “It’s going to put the defender at an advantage,” Amalia concluded, gesturing to the many vantage points the tall abandoned building offered, as well as the fact that the site had several peripheral buildings and required walking across a large open courtyard just to get to the main building itself… It looked like a sniper’s paradise, at least the part where they’d have to walk towards the building.

“Then either we’ll need backup, get more firepower, or be sneaky about it, or as sneaky as we can be.” Delphina said. “We don’t know how many people they’ve got in there either, so I’ll take suggestions for either backup or firepower if you’ve got any.”

“I’m not the one that’s good at coming up at that part of the plan… I’m the one that handles the stuff behind the computers, and sometimes, when you need it, the one that shoots choppers… Don’t know about planning an assault on a defended position with a limited amount of time to figure everything out, and I don’t know how good of an idea it is to tell anyone about our current situation. Then again, I think I’ve done enough so far without anyone else fixing the problem…” Amalia replied, her eyes drifting back to Delphina.

“I’ll go ask Olympia then.” Delphina said, turning to leave. “Thanks, Amalia. You’re a lifesaver, literally.”

“Go do that… Because you’re not out of the woods yet until we finish with what needs to be done and get all of the money back. None of us are, myself included,” Amalia said, gritting her teeth once again as she looked back at the screen, the sound of her fingers tapping against the desk becoming more audible due to her current tension. “And they can move again at any time and I might not be able to track it… The clock is ticking.”

“I know that.” Delphina said, waving as she left the room at a fast walk, no longer in the mad panic that she’d been in earlier. She had a way to solve the problem now, after all, she just needed to pull it off… Or die trying, but they were all dead anyways if they didn’t.

by **Forest State** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 5:32 pm

CH 7
“UNREVERSIBLE”

Maura Longo and her two friends once again find themselves at the abode of the arms dealer Alya Viktorova - but little do they know, Alya’s plans may have unintended consequences for them in the near future…

February 8th, 2740
Tripolis, Apollo, Querias System
Gunmetal Arms
Collaborative post between Forest State & Lunas Legion

The day after Maura Longo had introduced her two best friends to her former employer, the… Arms dealer, the three of them found themselves back in the same spot the next day, both because there was a bit more information to go over for the case that they had agreed to look into together, and because Maura still hadn’t gotten the best chance to show everything off. She had spent a lot of time in this place after all, and there was a lot here - ranging all the way from aircraft to small arms and custom parts, and of course, there was everything between. There were, of course, some more experimental things too… Things Maura herself had worked on, even.

There was a certain advantage to living out here on the frontier. Despite being further removed from everything, one of the upsides was being further removed from authorities that might get in the way of things like this. There were no complex regulations out here, or at least, none that were consistently enforced, and the atmosphere around the planet was that if one wanted things such as safety and protection, they had to chase after them on their own rather than relying on governmental restrictions and enforcement to bring it about…

It was the reason an arms dealer like this could operate out here without trouble, showing off weapons in the open without fear of the government coming down on it, and making a living supplying arms - enough to live quite comfortably at that, with bigger and bigger things seemingly coming into this place every year. It remained to be seen what the next step was, but even large vehicles didn’t seem to be out of the question to stock here… There were a decent few of those.

“This is pretty much where I spent a lot of my time before getting into college… Wasn’t exactly poor but wasn’t super well off either, you know. So a lot of times, the most interesting thing in front of me to do was this job, and it helped that it paid good, helped me get into college and get my car and all that… Didn’t even step away from it immediately after getting in,” Maura said, as they stopped on the second floor, looking back to her friend, Florida, and letting her voice trail off. “Does seeing all this… Help to answer your questions about where I’m from and what I was doing before meeting you, and all that?”

“I mean, I never really questioned it, but… It does answer a lot about what you were doing before you met me and Dia.” Florida said, tapping her fingers against one of the shelves. “I kinda feel like I should say something about me, but... “ She let out a laugh. “It’s nowhere near as interesting as getting to work for an arms dealer.”

“Well, I mean, some of the time it’s just like a regular job, with having to bring things out from storage and check inventory and make orders online and stuff like that… But sometimes there’s really interesting parts,” said Maura, walking through the second floor and gesturing to another room, opening the door to reveal that there were several armored battlesuits within - bulkier than regular body armor, and much thicker, it offered more protection and a number of other features… They were usually used by the military, but in this case, the tech was becoming common enough finally to find it elsewhere.

“Like this, for example,” Maura said with a chuckle, gesturing towards the setup in front of her, with several battlesuits seemingly complete or in advanced stages of completion, just needing a couple more parts. “Alya said these came in a few months back, always been interested in using one… And it was decently often we found ourselves with advanced stuff on our hands.”

“I don’t think I’ve even seen one of these.” Florida admitted, starting to walk around the suits, looking them up and down even if her knowledge on military equipment wasn’t exactly the best. “Even with the security forces, but I doubt they use them on day to day things if they have any.”

“Main security forces around here are just the local Planetary Guard, there’s not really a large presence for the actual military,” shrugged Maura, though her mind traveled back to the large military stores on the planet. “Even if they do keep a lot of gear here for if things kick off with the FSC. But the Guard guys, they just have basic stuff. This is heavier than what they run with, and it should fetch a good price, too…”

She walked further into the room, placing her hand on one of the battlesuits, looking up slightly at the armored helmet. “Though it’d be fun as hell to mess around with before finding a buyer. That’s… Not always the easiest.”

Maura turned back to Florida, chuckling, a slight grin on her face. “I mean, how many people need powered armor to protect their farm or something? You have to find a bigger customer for these types of things. I’m no businessperson and even I know that much.”

“Yeah, I can’t imagine there’d been anyone willing to shell out for these things.” Florida nodded. “Like, only people I can imagine with these things is mercenaries or criminals. How much are these things anyways, a few thousand? Tens of thousands a set?”

“Tens of thousands at least… Not cheap to outfit a unit with and not cheap to maintain, but if they’re going up against regular infantry, the infantry are going to have a bad time. It’s why you see them in special units… But, Alya was able to bring ‘em in anyway despite the price without much trouble after making a lot of cash flipping a tanker ship that was sitting out west in the desert, had it brought here and changed the engines out for ones that worked and put on a new coat of paint and the thing was able to get into orbit again. I used to work on jobs like that, it does pay well… Never on anything as big as a tanker, though,” said Maura, before stopping herself, taking a few steps closer to Florida.

“You can stop me if I’m getting carried away or anything… I know you probably aren’t that interested in that kinda stuff, being a well… Programmer or whatever the title you have is. But it’s always caught my attention. Maybe because I wouldn’t have went anywhere if it wasn’t for Alya,” Maura continued, looking down. “I’d just still be a delinquent, and probably jobless with no college…”

“Hey, don’t dwell on what ifs like that.” Florida said, placing a hand under Maura’s chin to lift her head back up. “Sure, military stuff like this isn’t my thing anywhere near as much as it is Dia’s type of thing, but you’re obviously enthusiastic about it so the bare minimum I can do as a friend is listen and offer what limited commentary I can.”

“Just feels like I’m dragging you into my stuff, is all. First investigating the weird shit happening around town and now coming here again when you could be doing better things, I’m sure,” Maura shrugged. “But if you say you’re fine with it…”

“What else would I be doing, I’d stuck in a lecture theater of a computer lab with a bunch of sweaty people?” Florida laughed. “I can get back to all that once all this weird shit is over, I can put stuff on hold for a little bit of an adventure with friends.”

“True enough,” said Maura, stepping past to head out of this room - she still had a couple places left to go, after all. She continued walking the second floor, of which there were a number of other rooms where one could go apart from the main floor of the showroom on this level, which was an open design where displays were set up wherever. “And hey, you still have to tell me about yourself sometime, it’s not like I’ve known you forever.”

“Not like I really compare to working for an arms dealer.” Florida pointed out. “I can probably regale you with my extremely short and not particularly exciting life story before we even get to the next room of fancy-schmancy military stuff.”

“I’m sure you’re more interesting than that. It’s just uhhh… You probably have to look a little harder to remember something interesting,” Maura said, doing her best to sound reassuring as she patted Florida on the back. “You’re way smarter than me, after all.”

“Smart enough not to get into stupid but interesting situations.” Florida smiled. “Like, I was born out here, raised out here, family works on programming upgrades for robots so I grew up around computers and it seemed interesting so that got me into it, so here I am. Probably the most exciting thing I ever did was robot gladiators, get a bunch of robots that’re going to be sent to the scrap heap, cannibalise them with some actually dead robots to make a bunch of chimera-bots, alter the programming so they fight each other until they can’t. Pretty fun.”

“That sounds like the kind of thing I would do with you-” Maura started before she was interrupted by a hand being placed on her shoulder… And Florida would experience a similar interruption as they were approached from behind.

“Ah, so you’re the one that’s been taking care of little Maura?” Alya asked, directing her voice towards Florida from behind as she massaged her shoulder, standing over the girl because of her own height. “She’s told me about you, a couple times. Didn’t know what you looked like until yesterday, though.”

“She didn’t tell us about you until yesterday either, and I hope she’s only said good things about me.” Florida said, looking back over her shoulder and up at Alya. “And Maura can look after herself, I’ve just been keeping her company, sometimes dragging Dia along for the ride. Literally, most of the time.”

“Oh, she’s said good things alright…” said Alya, and she gave a gentle push in one direction before she stepped away to head in that direction herself, ahead of them. “Actually, since the two of you are here again, I wanted to show you two something… If you’ll come this way, please.”

“I’m assuming it’s something interesting or new or whatever?” Florida asked, starting to follow after Alya. “I mean, I’m pretty sure Dia’s more into this kind of thing, but she’s also probably napping under a tank somewhere, so…”

“Well…” said Alya, leading them up to another doorway and stopping there, looking into the room before pushing the door open all the way and gesturing the two of them inside. “Knowing Maura, I’m sure she’ll be happy with it at least.”

Except, there wasn’t really anything in the room… Not anything like the other rooms, anyway. There was a bed, there was some music playing on a radio in the background, there was a nightstand with a bottle of wine sitting on it… Presumably, this was one of the bedrooms that were used around the warehouse when someone needed to stay while working on something rather than spending extra time heading home and coming back. Except, it had been done up for some kind of occasion, apparently. At least, that was what it looked like from the music and the wine and the freshly changed sheets.

“I guess I should step out of the way and leave you two to it,” said Alya, shutting the door behind her and stepping out… Leaving the two friends standing alone in this room with little context about what it was actually for.

“Uh…” Florida said, looking around with a rather confused expression. “I don’t really know what’s to show in here.” She added, starting to walk around the room, not entirely sure what to make of all this.

“Er…” said Maura, pausing as she took a look around the room herself and thought about what the meaning could potentially be, a slight blush settling over her cheeks as she realized more precisely. “Alya’s always doing me favors and stuff, I think in this case she thought that uhhh… I was bringing you here because I want to…” she started, pausing again while she tried to think of how to put it. “Do it with you.”

“Ah.” Florida said, pausing by the bottle of wine and picking it up, looking at the label to avoid looking at Maura as she blushed. “Do you?” She asked bluntly, maybe a bit too bluntly given the situation.

“W-Why do you have to ask it like that?” Maura questioned, her face turning redder while she remained where she was, not ready to confront any… Extra complications with their friendship. Things that she might have mentioned to Alya but that she definitely hadn’t talked to Florida herself about. “Alya is just guessing what I want based on what I’ve said to her… I think…”

“How else am I supposed to ask it?” Florida asked, still blushing. “Look, um, we… Well. Um. Hm.” Florida fell silent, thinking. “Well, we have a bottle of wine, so… I guess it’d be a shame not to drink it and we can… Ignore all other things that Alya may or may not have potentially accidentally insinuated or not?”

“I don’t think this is an accident…” Maura muttered, not moving from the spot she was standing still, contemplating what to do. “Fact of the matter is… I don’t know what I want to do… I can’t, um… Deny that you’re attractive, or anything…”

“Thanks, I think.” Florida said, still reading down the bottle’s label to avoid looking at Maura. “I… Well, I don’t exactly know what I can say either which was, um, why I suggested the alcohol.”

“Do you… Want to do it either? Or… I mean, if you don’t want to, you don’t have to do anything, we can just walk out and finish looking around or something… I kind of got the feeling Dia would be furious, anyway…” Maura said, pacing as she finally stepped away from the spot she was standing, her hands shaking slightly.

“I… I don’t know, it’s not a question I expected to be thrown into a room and expected to answer any time soon…” Florida said, breathing heavily, on the edge of panic. “Dia… Dia doesn’t have to know, she’s asleep under a tank or Alya will be distracting her with some fancy military stuff but it’d feel like I’m betraying her to, you know, lie...”

“It already feels like that,” Maura said under her breath, taking a few steps closer and placing her hand on Florida’s shoulder. “Do you… Like Dia? I guess I was wondering for a long time, but there’s no better time to ask than right now…”

“She’s… I’ve known her since forever, she’s basically my best friend, no offense meant but… I don’t think I like her in that way.” Florida said. “She’s great as a friend, but… I don’t think we’d work together in that way at all, even… If I did like her which I think I don’t but she’s still my oldest friend and…” Florida ran her hands through her hair, obviously stressed. “Urgh.”

“I guess I like you because not a lot of people would fall for a delinquent and bother spending much time with me without… Without acting like I’m some alien because of my history…” said Maura, draping her arms over Florida’s shoulders and resting her head on her from behind. “But if you think that complicates things too much, I can… Um… Keep pretending that you’re just my best friend.”

“I don’t know, Maura, I… Really don’t know.” Florida sighed. “I just had all this dumped on me all at once and I’m… Really, really bad with this stuff at the best of times. I don’t think we can both keep just pretending about all this after this because it almost certainly will come up again but I also have no damn idea what to do about it either.”

“Should I just… Go home and forget this conversation ever happened…” Maura said, her grip tightening slightly even as she spoke of leaving, her heart beating a bit quicker at this point. “Because… If I don’t forget about it now… I’m not going to be able to make myself pretend in the same way in the future.”

“You aren’t going anywhere, Maura.” Florida sighed, leaning back into her. “I guess this was going to come up sooner or later, Alya just… Threw us into it headfirst with neither of us expecting it, so… Fuck, I don’t know what to do, and I hate not knowing what to do.”

“Look, I’m just asking you to either… Embrace what I want, or let me go back to pretending that I don’t want it in the first place. ‘Cause I don’t know how I’d do if we just let this hang in the air. Whatever you say in the end… I just want a clean answer,” Maura pressed, closing her eyes as she continued thinking on it. “Anything else… And shit’s going to get awkward soon.”

“Implying shit isn’t awkward already, Maura.” Florida said, shuffling around to look back at her. “Part of me wants to say yes, the other part then screams at it wondering how the fuck Dia will take it all if Alya hasn’t misread the subtext enough to tell her we’re, well, you know…”

“I’m just gonna leave…” said Maura, unwrapping her arms and turning around, the corners of her eyes slightly wet as she looked down, her mood having taken something of a dive as of recent - ever since they had walked into the room, that was to say. “And I’ll tell Alya not to complicate things like this in the future… That it didn’t help anything…”

“I said you’re not going anywhere, didn’t I?” Florida said, wrapping her arms around Maura’s hips, resting the side of her head up against her back. “Maybe… Maybe just this once I’ll not think about Dia. It’s just hard not to, given we’ve known each other so long, it’s like second nature to. She… She’ll deal with it. She’s good at things like that. She’ll understand.”

“Nothing is ever ‘just this once…’ Not with this kind of thing. Even if we say that, it’s going to be awkward in the future, she might move past it one time but what happens when it’s a while later…” said Maura, stopping but not entirely relaxing into Florida. “Are you… Prepared for that.”

“You don’t know Dia as well as I do.” Florida said, nodding. “If she’s going to be angry, it’ll be the first time that’s the worst, I think. Any time after that… She’ll be angry, but it won’t be fury. Jealous, maybe. I don’t know if she likes me, is the thing, she’s never brought it up, after all.”

“And are you… Fine with taking this step with me…” said Maura, turning around and placing her hands on Florida once again, her breath steadily picking up as she found herself anticipating what was ahead more and more, her eyes settling on Florida’s. “Because… I won’t just be able to reverse it if you change your mind…”

“You wouldn’t still be here if I wasn’t, idiot.” Florida said, smiling and looking back up at Maura. “And believe me I know, and that part of me is still screaming this is a mistake, but I’m ignoring it.”

“Then if you’re going to take the plunge… I’m going to take it with you,” Maura settled, picking up Florida using her superior strength and moving the few steps over that they needed to go to reach the bed, allowing both of them to collapse onto it, her heart rate increasing all the while as she realized just what she was doing. Because while she had been talking about it before, it hadn’t entirely hit her so to speak.

And now, she was realizing just how irreversible it would be, and how it would change things between them…

But didn’t things already change the moment we walked into the room and questioned them?

Her eyes traveled back to Florida. She knew there was no turning back at this point… Not when both of them were in on it. At this point, turning around would make things just as awkward.

So if Alya is making us confront this… Might as well take the risk. We’re practically taking it anyway, as soon as we stepped in here and made things awkward… Damn you, Alya… Looking out for me in every way…

by **Durmatagno** » Tue Apr 14, 2020 11:50 pm

CH 8
“STRANGER”

As life returns to normal somewhat in the city of Tripolis, Alya Viktorova welcomes a new employee to Gunmetal Arms, and a mysterious regular customer with a lot of knowledge on recent events shows up…

February 10th, 2740
Tripolis, Apollo, Querias System
Gunmetal Arms
Collaborative post between Forest State & Durmatagno

Koharu looked up at the building in front of her. Her new job was here, though Koharu still couldn’t believe she’d found one so fast. Still, beggars can’t be choosers, the job seemed simple enough, and she needed to keep a roof over her head. She was already a payment behind, if this job didn’t pay soon enough, she’d have to add ‘apartment hunting’ to her list of things she needed to get done. She took one final breath, and stepped inside. She needed to find Alya and find out exactly what she’d be doing today. She’d never exactly worked this kind of job before. After moving around for a bit, she stood in front of her boss.

“Alright, what’s in store for me today?”

“I don’t think you’ve had much of a look around the place, have you?” questioned Alya, taking a look at Koharu and placing a hand on her own chin as she considered the question she had just been asked. “There’s three floors, a lot of things within them. You… Should have more of a look at what we have here, I think.”

“Only really got to see your office when you interviewed me.”

Koharu said. She knew it didn’t directly answer the question, but it was an answer nonetheless. She tilted her head to the said slightly.

“That mean you want me to look around before you give me any work?”

“Shouldn’t take too long,” said Alya with a shrug, looking further into the building and gesturing in that direction. “Just showing you where everything is, basically. Would make it easier to find the things you’re going to be dealing with while you work, don’t you think? And of course, the different spots where you might need to get something for people that come in. There’s uhh… Some other rooms on top of that, too. Workshops and an office or two. Helps to know the layout of everything.”

“Alright, can’t hurt to look around.”

Koharu looked in the direction Alya gestured, wondering exactly what she’d gotten herself into. It didn’t matter, she had to make ends meet, student loans didn’t pay themselves off after all.

“Where to first?”

“The first floor that we’re already on right now is the main showroom, you can see, of course, that there’s a lot of small arms, ammunition, things like that up here…” said Alya, pointing towards the walls which had weapons racks mounted to them, and the ground where there were various boxes and crates with ammunition and other supplies. “Which is mainly kept towards the front, since that’s… The most common sale. Easy for anyone to come in and find.”

It was an unusual place to work, of course - not a regular gun store. Not a gun store at all, actually, but something that was more expansive than just that. It wasn’t at a regular gun store that one could find whatever they needed, ranging from small arms to vehicles… But that was the kind of place Alya had created, under the loose regulations of the planet they lived on. And yet, despite the strange nature of the store, it was run like any other warehouse shopping center… At least it looked like that from the first floor.

“Further back is some of the more exotic stuff that’s on display. I’m sure you’ve noticed already but we currently have an attack aircraft as one of the main things on display there. Not far from it, there’s higher grades of combat armor, weapons that are harder to find on the open market, hard to find parts for modifications, and some other things that fall somewhere around all those categories. Anyway, if you can name it, you can pretty much find it at least somewhere on the first floor,” Alya explained, looking back towards Koharu to see if she was following, while she moved towards the stairway leading up to the two floors above.

Koharu was following along just fine. A little nervous perhaps about this job, she’d never even touched a gun before, let alone fixed or sold one. Still, she had a knack for machines, a knack few others did. If anyone could pick up that end of the job, it was Koharu. Now she just needed to get used to the rest of the stuff.

“Honestly...never shot a gun before, this many is...a little humbling.”

“As long as you know enough about what everyone is that you can find what you need to find, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with the job… Though, I would say that guns and the like aren’t too far off from the machines you’re more familiar with,” Alya remarked. “Are you interested in learning?”

“Yes.”

Koharu said quickly with a nod. Something new to learn about always piqued her interest, it took everything she had not to ask about...the things during the attack when she’d been getting debriefed. Learning something new here might sate that need, for now.

“Not hard to learn the basics and there’s a few people around here that are alright teachers. It’s something to think about after work,” said Alya as she kept walking up the stairs until they emerged on the second floor. “Of course, this kind of thing has always been second nature for me… I was a mercenary. Fought both Triads and nations. But, not everyone has the same… Background.”

“Only major fight I’ve been in I spent the entire time running…”

Koharu said, keeping pace behind Alya without complaint. Place was interesting at least, Alya seemed like she’d be a good boss. Then again, so had the manager of the plant Koharu had worked at previously, till he cut her pay and hours. Still, she hoped for the best here.

“Running because of cowardice? Or running to stay alive?” Alya questioned bluntly, stopping now that they were on the second floor and taking a look around, deciding on the order in which she would introduce the things here. There was a lot, after all, like the first floor. Except, this one had more rooms that were a part of it rather than the strictly open design of the other floor.

“Stay alive.”

Koharu said simply. All she’d cared about had been getting out alive, if she’d acted differently she could be dead. Or...or she could have saved someone else. Saved one of her ex-coworkers, got out sooner and not got captured. She pushed the thoughts away. Could haves could dominate a person if they let them, Koharu wanted to move on from what had happened.

Alya started walking again, heading further past the stairway, though she looked back and spoke once again. “Never fired a gun but you ended up running for your life… Funny, you do seem like someone that has a hidden story or two to tell, just based on that.”

“Nothing special, just had to get out. I wasn’t armed, couldn’t get armed, and don’t know how to fight…”

“Fair enough,” Alya settled although she still sounded curious, but she didn’t ask about anything further as she shifted her attention back to the tour of the facility. “On this floor you can find some more displays and stuff, and also things that are less sold, if something isn’t down there, there’s a good chance it’s up here. However, the more notable thing here is the workshops and offices. The IT room is over there… There’s a lounge one room over with TVs and game consoles and such. Across from it, on the other side of this floor, there’s my office and the rooms next to it are workshops. One of those workshops, the one I’m pointing at right now, is a general one - it’s useful for things like fabricating parts that we don’t have on hand right now and bringing other components in to repair or modify. The one next to it belongs to my son, Vadim, who does a lot of work with vehicle parts and battlesuit armoring and things like that. I’m sure you two might run into each other from time to time.”

“Possibly, I have a knack for machines. Building em, fixing em, taking them apart, tinkering. I’ve never touched guns or aircraft or battlesuits before, but give me a few minutes and I can probably figure out the basics of how everything interlocks. It’s why I’ve worked the places I have, not many machines can hide their secrets from me once I go digging.”

“The mechanics underneath even the more advanced technologies generally work along the same lines… Just applying the technologies we already know in a bit of a different way,” shrugged Alya. “There’s some more office space ahead of me but I don’t think that’s too important, we don’t use those rooms for that much. If you’ll follow me… We can take a look at the last floor.”

She pointed back to the stairway and started walking in that direction, towards the third and final floor of the warehouse.

Koharu followed behind, eyes glancing back at the workshops for a moment before turning back to watch where she was going. Koharu may be good with machines, but she didn’t obsess over them. No, she just wanted to get the job done, and get it done right. Better she did the first time, the less often she’d have to keep messing with the same thing.

“This floor has some rooms for if anyone needs to stay overnight - because sometimes when you’re working on something, you don’t want to travel back and forth… You want to get up and keep working on the project. There’s also a kitchen, and bathrooms and the like… But the most important thing is the storerooms. I’ll show you later how to read the organization system, but essentially anything we have that isn’t on the lawn or on one of the showroom floors is in a box here. Both things that we aren’t selling down there right now and things that we’ve just gotten in and haven’t put on the showroom floor yet,” Alya said.

She stopped, turning to Koharu. “Well, I don’t think you need to learn how to sort through these things right away, which means we’re about done as far as explaining everything goes. I assume you feel confident enough to start working?”

“Yeah, I know where to look if I need something, and who to ask if I can’t find it. Shouldn’t be too hard. Not compared to some of the finicky things the lines put up.”

Koharu said with a nod. She waited to make sure Alya didn’t need anything else from her before she’d head down to the first floor and get to work. Was always best to keep an eye on the boss. Once she was sure she was free, she headed down and got ready for whatever was to come. Best she could anyway.

In this case, the work was on the first floor considering at the moment there weren’t any technology related projects that needed help. Which… Mostly involved making sales when someone came in wanting something specific, a cross between a salesperson and a cashier, though the sales weren’t hard per say - there was no need to try and push a product on someone when most customers already knew just what they needed.

Though, right now, there apparently was one customer looking for help, specifically with some of the weapons parts that were fairly common on the first floor.

“Alright, is that everything? It’ll take me just a minute to find them all.”

Koharu said as she looked down at a hand written list she’d made to be sure. She looked around, she’d spotted a few of these helping other people, but a few items she had to locate the good old fashioned way. By guessing and hoping she was correct. It didn’t take her too terribly long, everything was about where you’d expect it to be, but she was still learning where that was.

“Alright, I think that’s everything, need anything else?”

The list of items was an unusual one, actually - parts for both a shotgun and assault rifle, as if the intent was to merge them into a heavier shotgun with an underbarrel grenade launcher. Then again, the girl buying the parts - she couldn’t have been more than college aged, actually - looked like she was eccentric enough to undergo such a project… Even though, despite her tomboyish looks, she hardly looked like the type that would spend a lot of time on a project like that.

“No, that should be good,” the girl said, fishing for her phone to pay. Digital currency was one of the most widespread forms these days after all, with many of the options being entirely decentralized at that. “Took you a bit to find the things, though, and I haven’t seen you around here before. You new or something?”

“Today’s my first day, got the grand tour this morning.”

Koharu made sure the payment went through and handed over the parts. She arched an eyebrow at the parts themselves though. Curiosity burned inside her, it’d always been tough for her to fight such things. After a moment, she had to ask.

“Whatcha need with this stuff anyway? Seems like a mod that isn’t exactly...commonplace.”

“Assault shotgun with an IMPTECH 230 stock and grenade launcher… Yeah I’m going to have to rework the parts a little to make it work but I’m pretty confident in my skills,” the girl said with a chuckle. “Should fire 12 guage rounds from a banana clip too, if everything goes according to plan. Since I wanted something that puts more rounds down range than my HA-660.”

“Right...I’m going to be honest, I have no clue what half that means yet, but I know that it’s going to take some tinkering to fit it all together. You got all the right tools?”

“Yeah I have, uh… A decent setup in the space I got. Not a huge apartment or anything but I’ve done some of this stuff before so I have a spot for it,” the girl said before raising an eyebrow. “And you don’t know what I’m saying but you decided to work at an arms warehouse?”

“My last job...isn’t viable anymore. Got hired here instead. I can fix a gun, doesn’t mean I can shoot it or anything like that.”

Koharu said with a shrug. She needed the money, this was the fastest job she could get. Was it ideal? No. But she could adapt and learn quicker than most.

“Besides, everyone has to start somewhere.”

“Yeah, true. You worked around the industrial district or something? I mean, have you been around there recently and taken a look at what it’s like? I’d think most of the jobs around this city are pretty stable and then you just have THAT, with the DIS roping off a bunch of areas and saying they’re removing evidence or running forensics or whatever. And uh… There’s those factories that got flattened by the ‘insurgent’ attack,” the girl continued with a shrug, curiously. “Of course, I’m going out on a limb, but that probably was the time when the most people around here lost jobs so to speak…”

“Worked in a hover car factory. Repaired the robots on the line there. Needed a job quickly, student loans are a bitch, so I ended up here.”

Koharu said, not giving any details. She did not want to have to deal with DIS again, and she knew they were probably keeping an eye on her. Her and...every other survivor.

“Didn’t get out of there unscathed, but I lived, that’s what matters.”

“I was on the outskirts when all that happened, but you see anything interesting while you were down there? I wasn’t able to get that close to the source of the action, the Planetary Guard was blocking everything off… And by the time I managed to get around all of it, shit was already cooling off. I did get a glimpse of the black ‘fuck off’ planes that you might’ve seen a picture or two of, though… You know, the ones that were uh, pretty much just flying diamonds,” the girl said… Not sounding like she was talking about anything out of the ordinary.

“Not really, Planetary Guard knocked me out pretty early, woke up in Pharaeus. Took me two days to get back here. Then I got this job. Don’t remember most of it, hit my head during the initial attack.”

Koharu moved her hair to show where the lump and scab were still healing, near her left temple. While she was lying a bit, most of it was the truth. She hadn’t stuck around very long before she’d gotten taken out of there. She shivered as she remembered the APC ride to Pharaeus and shook her head.

“Haven’t been able to relax since then. Was running around trying to find a job, buying as much discount ramen and so on as I could.”

“You’re telling me you just woke up in Pharaeus where the DIS has a regional office?” the girl questioned, raising an eyebrow at the statement. “If you were just dealing with the Planetary Guard they wouldn’t have taken you all the way down there - they have a base right in Tripolis even if they did decide to detain you for whatever reason, it’s the same place the fighters scrambled out of during the air battle or whatever that was we saw up there.”

“They just wanted to know what I saw. Told them not much, after confirming things they put me out on the street with the tree things I had in my pocket. Whatever’s going on, they want to know exactly what it is. I wouldn’t be surprised if other survivors got dragged down there too, but I didn’t stick around to find out.”

“Right… Sounds interesting. You want to talk about it over drinks or something? I’m kind of the type of person that looks into these things. In fact, I have my camera with me a lot of the time, and I did during that fight even though I was hardly able to get anything decent looking in the darkness. You sound like you had a way better view of things than I did,” the girl replied, shifting on her heel and taking a step closer to Koharu. “And it’d be a shame to not say anything about it to anyone, eh?”

“Mmm...I dunno, I didn’t see all that much. But...drinks do sound nice, I’ll have to find out when I get off though.”

Koharu was still running on her old schedule and hadn’t quite ingrained what time she got off work at this new place yet. She didn’t want to bother Alya just to find that out either. She scratched her head, wincing slightly as her fingers brushed the bump.

Though, it turned out Alya herself wasn’t far from the scene of the conversation, and she walked over as Koharu spoke about not being sure, placing a hand on her employee’s shoulder as she moved from elsewhere on the showroom floor. “Ah, I see you’ve run into Naoko, one of our more regular customers around here. If you do want to go out right now, you can feel free to head out, it’s not like today is a particularly busy day or anything… In fact, I would say you should head out.”
Koharu flinched slightly at the hand on her shoulder, but managed to calm herself down as she realized it was Alya. She turned and looked at her boss, then back at Naoko.

“I-I-I-I….”

She struggled for words for a minute. It was rare for a boss to encourage an employee to leave in the middle of the day, she didn’t want to miss out on billable hours either but...she was backed into a corner. She didn’t have a lot of choice, and it could be fun after all.

“Oh alright.”

She made sure she had her stuff with her, turning away from her boss to Naoko.

“My...car got repoed, hope you don’t mind giving me a ride…”

Naoko turned happily, starting towards the door. “Yeah, that’s not much of a problem. The muscle car parked on the lawn outside is mine. Did a bunch of the work on it myself, in fact,” she said. “I think I know a decent place to go, if you don’t mind, of course, trying some more exotic vices.”

“Depends on what you mean. I went to my fair share of parties in college, but I’ve never tried all that much more extreme stuff. Only real vices I’ve ever indulged in are whiskey and gambling.”

Koharu responded as she followed Naoko. She was a little curious about the work Naoko had done to her car, but it quickly passed in the flow of conversation. She could find out some other time.

“You know that there’s hardly any controlled substances around here, being the frontier of the Imperium and all… Sometimes, trying out some of it will open your eyes,” Naoko said with a laugh as she climbed into the driver’s seat, her adventurous nature showing in her words. “Of course, gambling is a rush, too… But some of the other stuff hits different.”

“Like I said, never tried it. Couldn’t afford it most of the time, and even when I could...that money went to poker.”

Koharu said as she climbed into the passenger seat and got settled in. Was a much nicer car than her last one. Hopefully it wouldn’t take her too long to get a new one. The walk here was killer, and she might have to take Alya up on the rooms on the third floor after particularly busy days.

“So where we headed?”

“Well, I think I know a little place not far from the University, but outside of the city itself…” said Naoko, pulling back and out of the lot and accelerating, heading away from the warehouse and back in the direction where buildings of the city could be seen in the distance. “So strap in and relax, it’s a little bit away from here but it’s a fun time…”

“I hope so, after the week I’ve had I need a chance to relax. It’s been one stress after another lately. Things were supposed to get easier after I graduated, but they most certainly did not.”

by **Forest State** » Mon Apr 20, 2020 12:16 am

CH 9
“FRONTIER FLEET”

In the north-central section of the galaxy, the Free Systems Confederation faces off with the Hasenkamp Dynasty for valuable frontier regions, of which both nations can’t share equally. The 10th Fleet has been established for the purpose of seizing this area from the Hasenkamp Dynasty for good after their latest attempts to move in using settlers, but the fleet will face the challenges of both the task at hand and an inherent inexperience due to a lack of combat experience and new officers… Before getting underway, the fleet has been called to the capital city of the FSC for a powerful display of force.

February 20th, 2740
Greenall, Augustus, Augustus System
Downtown Capital District
Collaborative post between Forest State & Durmatagno

There were a number of strange things about the planet Augustus - it was the capital of the Free Systems Confederation, and in fact, it proclaimed itself to be the capital of the free galaxy… That its rivals were the Imperium and their heavy handed albeit partially democratic government and rule by nobles, the Hasenkamp Dynasty which had broken away and established a similar system of ruling, yet around their own dynasty rather than the further away Imperial system, and then there were the Sha Yei Triad and their many crimes and the Interplanetary Communes and their communism. According to the Free Systems Confederation, they were the only free place in the galaxy…

And yet, that didn’t stop Augustus from being a den of proverbial vipers, with cities of beautiful white towers and expansive highways, but intrigue that often resulted in deaths under strange circumstances and in elected officials being forced to resign under just as strange circumstances. The planet and the capital city, Greenall, were safe for the civilian population for the most part… Some of the safest places in the galaxy, even, owing to the luxury of the city and most other locations on the planet. However, for someone in power… There were many risks involved with spending time on Augustus, and especially in Greenall.

Because the place that proclaimed itself the most free in the galaxy was home to the same power plays that were condemned elsewhere… Except, instead of powerful upper classes and military figures ruling from the forefront, they played a more elaborate game of politics here. Keeping power, but making sure it looked to be in the hands of elected officials. Consolidating power further, while acting as the vanguard of democracy. Establishing noble dynasties, but branding them as corporate or political in nature to fit with the culture of democracy on Augustus.

The planet had broken away from the Imperium under those pretenses and the rest of the FSC had joined it due to believing in the cause - but whether or not the top leaders in the country, and even low and mid level ones looking to move up to their level, actually cared about those ideas was debatable. If one was being cynical, they could make the argument they never did, that it was just a front to rally the people and repel the Imperial forces that had once patrolled these parts of the galaxy, and the nobles that had formerly held direct control here and elsewhere.

Today, some of the power of the country was on display in the capital, days before they were set to go to war with the Hasenkamp Dynasty on the northeastern frontier, where the rivals contested the same planets and the resources around them - as well as the valuable travel lanes. For this purpose, the 10th Fleet had been established, with Admiral Perrine Hood taking the command of the entire formation and three young Rear Admirals who were fresh out of receiving further officer training taking command of the three squadrons that comprised the unit underneath her… The carrier, battlecruiser, and battleship squadrons, as well as their associated destroyer escorts.

In the FSC, after all, prominent blood or just enough wealth was enough to get someone to quite the high ranking… Though, it took talent, also. Even if someone could make their way through the first few levels of the officer corps off the backs of money and name, there were enough candidates for limited spots such as Rear Admiral that there was still fierce competition. In this competition, three names had prevailed, and the somewhat young but significantly more experienced Hood found herself with a new challenge on her hands… Managing them.

For now, the largest worry however was making sure that the show of force in Greenall was carried out perfectly, with all of the instructions being followed as closely as possible. It had all been laid out for them, and considering the towering nature of many of the buildings in the city, there was little room for mistakes up here. Especially when they were set to head past the capital area where some of the top politicians in the country, including President Mathieu Savatier, were set to watch as the fleet moved past, flexing their muscle on Augustus before they were to depart for the frontier, where the aggravations from Hasenkamp settlers had become too much to ignore.

In the future, they had an important combat mission.

For now, the hard part was choreography.

Watching the buildings below from the bridge of the battlecruiser FSC Vanguard as they moved over the city of Greenall, Perrine took in the view for a moment before reaching for the panel in front of her and speaking into a microphone, to alert her crew of some task that she needed done. “Please call the Rear Admirals to this vessel… They can take the Sprinter shuttles. I believe this is the first time they’ve been together at one time,” the Admiral spoke. “Meaning… We have some orienting to do.”

Justine read the message with a passive look on her face, before it settled into a pleasant smile. It wasn’t a mask, no, she avoided that, people could see through masks. Standing up, she made her way down, and into one of the Sprinter shuttles. She made sure basic standards of decorum and respect were maintained, but was nowhere near as strict as some of the people she had left behind. Some because of their lack of talent, others had to be removed before they threatened her or the fleet they would be in as a whole. She’d be docked on the FSC Vanguard soon enough. She was curious to meet her peers, and superior, curious to see how they would alter the path she was on. She’d head to the meeting room as soon as she was docked, she would waste no time. Not yet, she could find something like that later.

The Vanguad was of course a hulking ship of the same class that she herself commanded, not necessarily as armed or armored as a full battleship but longer and faster, its defining traits as a battlecruiser. It was more mobile than the lumbering Barnett class, making it a more threatening weapon in many offensive situations, while the battleships tended to stay further back and offer support from further out with their 460mm gun batteries. As Justine entered the hangar, she would find it just as busy as the one she had departed from… No, more busy. It was the flagship of the fleet after all, and there were shuttles coming in and taking off, and soldiers moving drones to and from storage and around the hangar itself - through all of it, at the other end, there was both a doorway and an elevator to head out of the area.

The hallways, once the hangar had been exited, were also fairly busy… It made sense, of course. They had to follow some instructions to the letter, meaning there were a fair amount of tasks and little room to slip up with them. By the time the meeting room itself was reached, staff from all departments of the large vessel would have been passed in the halls. However, the destination was eventually reached, the specific location being a doorway that wasn’t far from the bridge near the front of the ship… Which, admittedly, did take a lot of walking to reach. It wasn’t a small starship by any means.

Justine knocked, requesting permission to enter. If this was the correct location, and it should be, she knew this class of ship well, then the person behind this door outranked her. Once she was granted permission, however minor the acknowledgment, she entered, and took her seat. Her eyes swept through the room, before settling on her commanding officer.

She had indeed found Perrine Hood waiting for her - the admiral was not only in charge of the 10th Fleet but had some experience behind her even outside of that context. That was to say, she had both combat experience and in the world of politics… Or the world of business. Business and politics often intersected and the FSC was no exception despite its aggressive democratic branding. And Perrine had married into one of the more prominent families. Her husband, Marshall Hood, was the CEO of Confederated Dynamics, one of the largest conglomerates within the country and one of the companies that had lended a major hand in building much of the components of this fleet. The Fencer class battlecruiser was built by Augustus Armorworks - but parts from the sensor array and weapons were constructed by Confederated Dynamics, among other companies.

Admiral Perrine Hood, FSC Navy.

The Admiral in charge of this fleet had experience with both worlds - the military one and the corporate one, and was fairly respected in both.

“Battlecruiser commander?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she shifted in her seat at the table within the meeting room, not standing up but turning her eyes towards the new arrival, an examining look on her face. The one who had just walked in was the first one here, other than Hood herself, it seemed.

“Battlecruiser Squadron Commander Rear Admiral Justine du Belmonte reporting as requested.”

Justine responded with a salute. Her own family had a decent amount of wealth and power, and had been with the FSC for quite awhile. Still, they weren’t near as high up as the Hood family. Much of their money came from mining and refineries, not very prestigious, but nonetheless vital in any war machine. Justine herself had originally been brought up for such business, but her talents had lain elsewhere. Now she was the commander of her own Squadron, and still had more room, and most importantly, time to rise higher. She took her seat, knowing full well the other Rear Admirals would be here anytime now, so for the time being, she’d need to stay patient.

“You must be pretty ambitious getting that spot. There’s a lotta people that would like to have it,” Perrine remarked - though she kept her tone open ended as if it wasn’t quite a statement, but something she was looking for a response to, to see how her subordinate reacted.

“To climb this high...you have to have ambition. You get weeded out long before now if you don’t.”

Justine said simply. She wouldn’t betray exactly how much ambition she had, but she couldn’t deny the obvious. Those without ambition stalled, died, or failed before they reached this point. The higher you climb, the more ruthless the opposition.

“And how do you feel knowing that you’ve made it this far? That you’re over the capital right now?” Perrine questioned, leaning against the table and cocking her head to the side. “This is simply the start of things…”

“It’s another leg of a long journey. At my core I suppose I feel pride, to have made it this far. Everything else is a bit jumbled, mixed up among each other in a whirlwind of conflicting emotions. I have to be careful not to let that pride blind me.”

“I suppose this is also the start of a back and forth - you intend to use working under my command to further your goals and I intend to use your efforts to further my standing here on Augustus,” Perrine stated honestly. “I assume I am correct.”

“It’d be foolish for either of us not to, someone below us would take it as weakness and try to supplant us. Furthering our goals however...does not mean we are rivals, now or forever.”

“Perhaps. Maybe, maybe not,” Perrine said, watching the door. Thought, the others hadn't shown up yet. “I’ll have to be honest. That may have to depend on how you approach these plans of yours, and… How competent you are with it. You can get away with more when you’re competent.”

“True, we’ll just have to see. We have other matters to attend before things get interesting though. Time can only tell how we’ll collide, or if we ever will. For all we know the plans we have now don’t interfere with each other.”

The door finally slid open, and the other two Rear Admirals of the 10th Fleet showed up - Amour Paget of the carrier division and Marie Brimley of the battleship squadron, the former looking more like a usual inhabitant of Augustus, or that was to say, more of a socialite… While the latter, on the other hand, had more of an opposing look to herself that was fitting of someone commanding the largest vessels in the fleet. Even if neither of them were exactly giants themselves when it came to physical size. They both saluted before moving to take their seats, glances exchanged between the three Rear Admirals in those moments as they got their first in person sights of one another.

“Now that everyone is here… I think you two can introduce yourselves. As you can see, Rear Admiral Belmont has already arrived,” Perinne said, leaving the other two to introduce themselves.

“Amour Paget,” said the one with the longer hair, more of a French accent in her voice. She was the one that had paid more attention to her uniform and getting the ornate details perfect, while her colleague seemed slightly more casual, despite still meeting the standards for an officer of her rank. “Rear Admiral, and in charge of the carrier division.”

“Marie Brimley,” the other woman said, her tone a bit more flat and matter of fact. “Also… Rear Admiral. Commander of the battleship squadron,” she added. “Specifically the three Barnett class battleships in this fleet.”

Justine studied them each in turn, knowing they’d climbed through their fair share of rivals to get here. No one in this room was foolish enough to believe the games would stop. Still, she couldn’t help but smile a little, perhaps this group had a chance of not tearing each other apart. She’d need to spend some time looking into them more closely, but too often fleets got crippled by the competition among their commanders. She liked the look of this group, all for different reasons.

“Now… We’re all here, so I should get to the point that I wanted to say originally. In person. The fact of the matter is, all of you are rather new to this position. I believe that none of you have even been a part of a full sized campaign in the past. I don’t say this to put you down, but because it’s a simple matter of fact,” said Perrine, folding her arms and resting back in her seat at the head of the table. “The task at hand is a large one. An actual war, so to speak. The Hasenkamp Dynasty has long competed to settle the same lands in the border region between our two nations, and the situation has reached a point where conflict is necessary. The 10th Fleet, the one that you are apart of now, has been created to support our goals in this area.”

She paused, looking over all three of them. “Long story short… I’d like all of you to be aware that in the grand scheme of things right now, you may as well know nothing. Yes, you had enough connections to get through training to become an officer right away, and a high ranking one. Yes, you braved the competition required to become Rear Admirals. But still… Experience in a real conflict is something that can’t be measured in the same way. Any ideas of glory that you might have, you should get out of your head now… And build up through your future actions rather than the past. Because there’s no room to play the hero out here, once we get underway towards the frontier. No room to act the same as in the academy. The stakes are different. The situation is different… Just about everything’s different.”

“Understood.”

Justine said simply. She could only prepare herself so much for this, but she had been ready for this reality from the moment she’d set her eyes on a military path. Setting aside pride, and glory to ensure that she and the others survived would take getting used to, but she already knew she’d have to do it. Of course, theory and practice are very, very different beasts.

“The operation at hand is going to take us to the frontier, as I said. The Hasenkamp Dynasty has, of course, been setting up constructions in our territory to aid in their trading and resource harvesting in the region as well as their colonial projects. Our goal is to disrupt that and push them out our section of space,” Perrine continued, before pausing. “However, we also know that the Hasenkamp fleet will be in the region in an attempt to prevent this. Success in this is crucial for the security of their government and nation going forward, and we may encounter battleships, battlecruisers, and plentiful smaller vessels. Learn to work together now… You’ll need the skill when you run into the enemy, which, unlike smaller time opponents, is professionally trained and equipped as well as our own forces.”

After a brief moment, she concluded. “I believe that is all. The fleet is set to pass the capital in the coming half hour… Be sure that your vessels carry out the planned route without mistake.”

by **Durmatagno** » Wed Apr 22, 2020 1:04 am

CH 10
“INTRIGUE”

Days after the last strange incident in Tripolis, it becomes clear that Alya Viktorova has a vested interest in finding out what’s at the bottom of it all…

February 11th, 2740
Tripolis, Apollo, Querias System
Gunmetal Arms
Collaborative post between Forest State & Durmatagno

Koharu stretched and yawned as she approached the building she worked in. Today would be her second day working here, and yesterday had ended up being a relaxing one, despite starting a new job. Some of the tension that had been weighing her down, stress that had been gnawing at her, was gone. Only some of it, with what she’d been through getting rid of it couldn’t be that quick. Still, it made today all the easier as she opened the doors and headed inside. She’d get ready for work before heading home again, maybe tonight she could afford to add some meat to the ramen she was subsisting on till her financial situation stabilized.

The first one within the building each day, however, was of course the one that owned the place, Alya Viktorova. She was already there by the time Koharu showed up, going over the different items on the shelves and in the back rooms and making sure that everything was just as it should be… When Koharu showed up, she also happened to be the first face that the employee would see at this building. “You weren’t too wasted to make it back to work, I see,” said Alya, stopping what she was doing when Koharu entered. “The little date of yours, it went alright yesterday?”

“It was enjoyable, and unpredictable in various ways. I don’t tend to drink too much when I’m not at home, and whatever else happened...well I’m okay right now.”

Koharu said with a dismissive but friendly wave. Even if she’d been intensely hungover, she would have found a way to come into work. She avoided skipping work as much as possible, except when contagious, at least in part because of how unstable her finances were.

“Got anything specific for me today, or just man the shop kinda thing?”

“Nothing too dramatic, I think. But there is some stuff coming in that you might want to take a look at since you’re going to move it to the shelves soon. There’s uhhh, a few rocket launchers mixed in with some other small arms stuff coming from some far away surplus stocks, you’re welcome to join me in firing them at some targets after work if you want,” Alya said, placing a hand on her chin while she recounted what they had in stock. “Other than that, a couple new IFVs are here but it’s without treads.”

“I’ve never even fired a pistol and you want me to fire a rocket launcher...eh why not, should be an interesting experience at least. Right, anything else of importance before I get started?”

Koharu decided to wait till after work to talk to Alya about using the rooms on the third floor if she needed one. She wasn’t sure she could hold onto her apartment before she got paid, but there was still a chance. She would rather maintain some independence and not have her entire life revolve around her job. In time maybe she’d even be stable financially, though she wasn’t sure what she’d do then. So far she liked this job better than any other she’d had.

“I don’t think there is,” Alya shook her head. “Just make sure to look through the new stuff and start moving it with the rest of the other things that it should be with. And I guess you can spend the rest of the time on the showroom floor unless you want to take some of the spare treads out of storage and fit them to the new IFVs.”

“I might, never really worked on something like that though, so you’ll need to double check them after I’m done. I’m going to get stocking now then, if things are slow I’ll work on the IFVs.”

Koharu gave her boss a wave and moved to go start making sure everything was in its proper place. She hummed quietly to herself. She hadn’t hummed while working in over a year. Maybe this job would be good for her, and not just in the sense of making money.

As she moved into the building further to get to work, she would find that there was also another employee working at the same time, or at least someone that looked like one… Though, peculiarly enough, she looked like one of the ones that had been over when Koharu was first interviewing for the job. Someone that was both a regular and an employee perhaps?

“Oh, you’re the new one around here, aren’t you?” the girl asked, turning away from a display and raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah, started yesterday.”

Koharu said, turning to face the girl fully. She stopped and put her hands in her pockets. She didn’t know any of her coworkers besides the boss, so this might be a good time to meet one of them, before things got busy. She wasn’t sure how or even if they’d get along, but for now she thought it was best to at least say hello.

“Maura Longo,” the girl said in self introduction, extending her hand as she looked Koharu over. “Used to spend a lot more time here, but if I need something part time, it’s kind of my go to. I’m uhhh… At the U of A right now. Or U of A-Tripolis at least. You?”

“Koharu Eboshi, already graduated.”

She shook the girls hand and tilted her head. Curiosity had always burned bright in her, bright enough to get her in trouble or even hurt her from time to time. Still, this next question should be simple enough.

“What brings you to a place like this?”

“Was always interested in this kind of thing and it’s a place to go. You know, selling weapons is the kind of job that they won’t bother you about being a delinquent in. Officially, I’m getting a communications degree so I can work at some decent company or whatever when it’s all said and done, but most of the skills I have I’d say I learned around here or the streets. Alya’s a pretty good teacher,” shrugged Maura. “As for you… Well, you got a degree but ended up here?”

“Uhhh, the short version is that my last job got destroyed during one of the attacks. After getting back here Alya offered me a job and I accepted. Mechanical and Robotics engineering were my dual majors. Not much use here, but Alya thinks I can be useful, so here I am.”

“I kind of just learned everything I needed to learn while on the job itself but I guess it helps to know some of it already coming in. We do get a lot of vehicles and stuff around here, after all,” Maura said, shrugging slightly again. “You said you were around one of those attacks, did you know Alya’s been following that whole thing and plans to look into it? She has a rough idea of where it’s originated from.”

“No clue, she hasn’t said anything about it to me, and I try...keyword try, not to pry into other peoples business. Maybe that’s part of why she hired me. I dunno, I got things to stock up, and unless things get to busy, I’m going to be installing treads on the new IFVs coming in, unless you wanna do it.”

“I’m sure you can do that kind of thing better than me, although I’ve fixed up soe vehicles too in my time ‘round here. Alya seemed real interested in looking into this stuff, though. Said the attacks had mostly come from one location and me and some of my friends should head up and check it out in person, you know, see what’s really there that the DIS isn’t showing ‘cause it would make panic,” Maura stated. “Might want to talk to her about it. Dunno.”

“She invited me to shoot rocket launchers after work. If I remember I’ll bring it up then. Was nice meeting you Maura, but I better get to work. I already missed half a day yesterday, even if it was Alya that told me to take that time off. If you need me I’ll be working on the IFVs.”

“A’ight,” said Maura, moving back to what she was doing. “See you around, sometime.”

Koharu waved goodbye, before turning and heading to do exactly what she’d said she’d do. She’d never worked on any kind of vehicle, not in the direct sense anyway. Still, between her natural aptitude for such things, and her experience with robotics, she should be fine. She stifled a yawn as she walked, she hadn’t slept much last night, even with the stress reduction. Still, it’d been...calmer than the previous nights.

There wasn’t much out of the ordinary as Koharu arrived on the lawn where the vehicles were located, the task awaiting her more or less being fairly normal. However, the things that Maura had spoken about, the investigating into the strange activity on the outskirts of the town and what the DIS was potentially keeping from the public at this point in time… That wasn’t as ordinary. And it seemed, strangely, that Alya was more involved with it all than she had shown at first.

Edge of Space [FT Space Opera / Closed / IC]

Edge of Space [FT Space Opera / Closed / IC]

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