RP XSDF Roleplay Thread: Vanguard of Forseti

[MarineAvenger]

Part Three

Viviana smiled. Way to take the initiative. She thought to herself before adding, “Have them move to the second ship, we will be on our way shortly.” The Lt. Commander turned to Brown. “Go lead them there, we just need to sweep the rest of the ship to make sure there is nothing left lurking.”

With everyone reloaded and making sure that everything was patched together, they were split into teams to quickly sweep the ship so that the team could move on, any time they gave to the enemy being longer they could formulate a plan and get into better positions to flank around like the group they had just faced tried to do.

As they moved about, it was found that there indeed were two enemies left, both of them Venom Scouts who had been left behind to try and dismantle anything extra they had possessed so it wouldn't fall into enemy hands, both Moon and Sousa adding more numbers to their kill count.

Exiting the ship and joining the rest of their troops over at the second ship, this was was different from the last in which the doors were still intact, but the turrets were down. “This… might have an easy solution.” The Lt. Commander thought out loud, marking the door as a target and ordering the tank to fire on it.

Pulling everyone back, the tank took aim at the door and loosed a shell, blasting the doors inwards. Just like Viviana had thought, the enemy had dug in the main hallway, though three of eight infantry that had been waiting were killed by either the blast or the doors themselves. A Cyberdisk moved forward, opening up and arming a grenade, throwing it down the corridor killing two more in the back in the process.

The rest were handled by “Thumper”, the M.E.S.H.A letting loose a barrage that took the already startled and off guard aliens even more so, and taking them out easily. Without wasting anymore time, Viviana ordered the squad to pour into the ship, this time opting to take the two SHIVs with them while leaving the third and Brown behind.

Before reaching the door this time, everyone seemed to scan around in case this team tried any of the same tricks. For a little while there was complete silence until the scraping of a boot on the metal floor confirmed someone was approaching. Connor, who was this time in the back, stepped to the side as the cloaking broke and a shotgun blast missed her barely, the infantry slapping the gun downwards as he sent a kick into the Reptilan’s stomach, stunning him as he dropped the gun.

Taking out a knife, the alien charged the man but the Shadow Operative was surprised as Connor dropped down and kicked his leg out from under him, Connor wrapping his arm around the alien’s neck, trying to choke him out. However, the Venom Trooper was smart and jabbed the knife into Connor’s leg, the Latvian man yelling out in pain briefly as he snapped the alien’s neck, not risking another attack that may have had more adverse consequences. He yanked the knife out of his leg and waited for the medic to quickly patch it up.

With the enemy down, the squad was ordered into the common room. This time, they were met with the opposition of four Venom infantry, two Support, one of which was arming a flashbang, a Scout, and two uncloaked Seekers.

James immediately took aim at the seekers with Nyo Kwang’s help, both taking shots at and destroying each one with seconds between blasts, keeping the Seekers from stealthing and circling around for surprise attacks.

Connor stepped forward, blasting at the Venom trooper with a burst of laser fire, downing him to the ground. This is crazy… Connor thought as he turned his sights on the next target, firing again and injuring the alien as Moon shot it dead.

“Keep on the pressure, we need to take these guys down quickly!” Viviana ordered, ducking just in time as a door to her left opened and a scout ran in, raising his shotgun and shooting Viviana at range in her chest, causing the Lt. Commander to fall over.

Cassia turned around and sees the commander is on the ground with an alien scout closing in on her “ Get off my commander you jackass!” Cassia fires at the scout filing it’s chest with laser, Cassia stands next to Viviana giving her cover so she can stand back up “ Hay this is no time for sleeping, get back up you’ll be fine.” Cassia screams while giving Viviana cover.

The Lt. Commander’s eyes flashed a moment, reaching for her sidearm shotgun and blasting at the Scout, the Gauss rounds not seeming to do much but it offered a distraction, the woman rolling to her feet and lunging forward as lightning crackled on her finger tips, shocking the alien with high voltage from her Electrokinesis.

The alien jerked and recoiled from the pain, slamming into the back of the wall as his armor smoked a little where her hand had been. Taking aim, Viviana brought up her rifle and blasted the alien, who was somehow still alive, though his armor was severely damaged.

“Hey Commander!” Connor yelled, tossing the knife he had acquired from the Venom trooper before, Sousa catching it by the blade with her metal hand, turning knife in hand as she plunged it into the scout repeatedly, causing him to slowly fall to the floor as his eyes rolled into his head.

The two SHIVs seemed to be handling the supports for the most parts, though the sturdiness of these newer troops was definitely seen by their performance, that left two infantry, one having fired on Ursu.

Ursu couldn’t react fast enough to dodge the shot as it connected with his upper arm, making him groan loudly in pain and forcing him to cease his suppression as he held his arm. As he examined the wound he noticed the blood oozing from the burnt section of his armor, “Fecior de curva! Hurts like… Fuck!”

The other took aim at one of the SHIVs, landing a well placed shot into the side of it, damaging it pretty badly. Turning around, it fired and made the infantry regret it, though his buddy didn’t take too kindly and one of the supports managed to render the SHIV unoperational.

Van Dam, get a grenade over on those supports, I can get the infantry guy. Viviana psied as she looked down at her nearly ruined psi armor. Head of Psionics is going to hate me for this… and I have barely gotten any use out of it.

“Right whelp this should be interesting.” Cassia pulls out a plasma grenade and throws it at the alien support troopers the explosion takes out the support trooper but Cassia fires at the body just to make sure that the support truper was dead.

Viviana’s eyes once again flashed her golden yellow, parts of the armor doing so as well as she urged for more energy to be outputted, looking at the last alien trooper of the group, the soldier immediately falling down, Sousa stumbling as she used a lot of energy in a short time. “Geez… I hate that power’s side effects…” She mumbled to herself.

Cassia goes by Vivians side and looks at her “Was that really the best idea, I mean we still have one more ship to go and that one will probably be tougher than the rest of these scrubs.”

“I’m fine… just using Blackout has some… less then stellar immediate effects on me… it will pass.” She said as she pushed herself up, shaking her head. “We need to keep moving and clear this ship.”

James rolled his eyes and shook his head at the psion. Show off… Making me look bad just ‘cause my drone is D-sixed...

“Hold on a minute, the aliens aren’t going anywhere and even if the do there stuck on the planet and we will shoot them out of the sky if they escape.” Cassia puts Vivian arm over Cassia neck “You need rest after that blast and we reload our weapons and heal the wounded, wouldn't hurt to search the corpses for more ammo and meds as well.”

The Lt. Commander pushed Cassia off her. “I’m fine, the effects are only temporary and I will be fine momentarily, I am not going to croak just from using one power. Just blocking out a person’s senses is not the easiest thing to do.” She told Cassia, but her posture seemed to straighten as she said loudly. “However, I agree in saying we need to heal up and reload, so do so and get ready… next we head to the bridge.”

Cassia starts to lightly growl “You people make it real difficult for me to be kind you know that, Cass be nice to the soldiers don’t threaten them or taze them or antagonize them. Be nice to the worms ugh fucking.” Cassia goes to the dead support solders body and finds a few supplies she can use, such peeing ammo and one plasma grenade.

James walks up to one of the dead supports next to her, picking up his gun and looking it over, “The thing is, you’re not a kind person, I’m not sure it could get very much harder for you honestly…”

 

[Frostlich1228]

Part 4

“Really, I live on a criminal runed colony where I fought constantly. Hell before that I had a ship became a intergalactic bounty hunter made a small name for myself and was feared by some, now i’m helping the army with a with a mission with a crazed luney. Sounds fun, only the people here are rookies and some never fired a gun in there life, and never seen a friends die before them. I’m surrounded by amateurs the only thing keeping me sane is my friend, So yea being near you people makes me want to vomit so i’m in my own personal hell.” Cassia grabs the grenade and leaves the body there to rot.

“You people?” James raised an eyebrow, grabbing some ammo for his weapons. “You probably don’t know this because you lived on a backwater crime infested rat’s nest, apparently, but I’m the best damn engineer in the Sol system, it’s why I’m here. In fact, most of the people needed an impressive backround to even get here, so you’re just sorta average.”

“And i’m one of the best damn mercenaries in the universe, the universe beats a system.”

“Will both of you shut up. You sound like a bunch of little school brats.” Connor said to the two of them, helping Gi where she needed it. “We are in the middle of the mission, save it for when we finish and are back home.”

“Kiss my ass boker, that reminds me that bounty on you is gone now forgot to tell you that.”

“Yeah, I figured, not the time. Just leave each other alone, we have a duty to do and I would rather like to get back before my little girl finds out I left her alone.” The pissed off Infantry said, stepping up as Moon healed Ursu completely.

“Ou you got your kid back congrats, on that well that’s more motivation for me make sure you live. Can’t have you dying by a knife now can we.” Cassia says sarcastically.

“Fuck you, not the time.” Connor turned his back to Cassia. “We are ready to move.” He told the Lt. Commander.

“Right… now, if there are no more distractions, double time it.” She ordered, her gaze resting on James and Cassia, giving the distinct, ‘I want no bullshit’ look. James smirked, reloading his weapon and walking towards Ursu and Moon.

Cassia gave the look of fuck you and moves ahead of the group looking for what enemy will show up next.

The next door they went through led into a large storage room, lots of crates and other items and equipment scattered about. Waiting for the team was two Venom Medics, Four Seekers whose guns glowed green, signaling them as plasma, and another Venom Infantry, though this one looked a lot different from the others. “Kill them!” He ordered, the Seekers going invisible while the medics stayed close and opened fire.

“Ou get the fuck out my way!” Cassia throws a plasma grenade at the two medics the explosion destroying their cover and doing good damage to the medics Cassia begins to fire at the medics keeping them pinned down. “Get out of cover and fight damnit.”

“I’m getting real sick of these motherfucking seekers on this motherfucking ship!” James voiced, taking shots in their direction and managing to tag one’s tentacle, giving it an erratic fight pattern but doing it no harm.

Ursu unlatched the missile launcher from his back, looking towards Viviana, exclaiming in his thick accent, “Permission for the heavy artillery?”

“Go ahead!” Viviana commanded, firing her rifle at the leader but missing most of her shots, the others hitting cover.

Ursu took a knee, and steadied the massive weapon on his shoulder, pointing into the room and letting it loose. The rocket exploded, causing severe damage and even triggering more explosions from other object in the storage area, creating a ripple of destruction throughout the room. After the dust had settled from the large chain reaction most of the seekers were dead, not durable enough to survive the blast, however, most of the Reptilans were hurt, but alive, and the leader seemed like he was unscathed, nothing seemingly wrong but a limp in his step.

“You will need a lot more than a single rocket, XSDF!” The officer mocked, firing down at the team as he took an elevated position, Gi being saved just at the last moment as she dove behind the SHIV.

This guy is going to be tough… we will need a lot of firepower to break into that Titan armor. Viviana thought to herself. I wonder if… “Retreat!” Viviana shouted, looking at the door they entered. “Back the way we came!”

“What?” James protested, but grudgingly obeyed “Goddammit… Running from some overgrown lizard...”

“What were running but this is getting fun.” Cassia stopped and thinks for a second Under any other circumstance I would love to fight this thing, but with titan armor and me with no stronger weapons. Wait is she thinking…! Cassia smiled looking at the commander. Very clever, Commander. Cassia fired a few shots at the reptile leader “Hey you over grown snak come and get us, but then again you're nothing more then some pathetic worm. Cassia says while running to her comrades.

“You insolent worm!” He yelled as the squad ran off back into the common room and down the hallways, the Officer and his medics following in pursuit to try and kill the XSDF troops who had insulted him. going down the final hallways and outside only to find fourteen guns trained on them, a tank barrel staring the Venom officer in the face.

“How is it you became a leader?” Viviana asked, giving the order and all fourteen guns, much like a firing squad, with a combined effort that killed the officer and his two cronies, all the troops looking at one another in victory. With a sigh of relief, Viviana took off her helmet and lit a cigar, needing the quick break as her energy was finally returning.

“Uh… sir… you better take a look at this.” Brown said, standing on the tank with a pair of binoculars and handing them down to the Lt. Commander, Sousa climbing up and her cigar nearly falling out of her mouth.

“Oh… yeah, that is bad.” Across the field, it appeared as if a small army was emerging from the third ship, the larger ship being quite a ways away from the two other Venom ones, the mix of Balmadaar, Ardenian, and Human forces seeming all the more menacing with some of the weapons they carried. Taking a deep breath, she looked at her vastly outnumbered force and gave the binoculars back to Brown. “Tell them to load up and pool resources… we are in for one hell of a fight.”

Her second nodded as he descended, Viviana taking out a long, drawn out puff of her cigar and called in to update the Einherjar, and their possible need for reinforcements, or the fact they might prepare for them not to make it back. Without waiting for a response, Viviana cut comms with the ship, not needing a distraction while she tried to get her men back alive.

“Alright men…” Viviana began. “We got about ten minutes before the enemy comes to try and get us. But we aren’t going to let them take us down, and we are going to kick their asses back.” She stated confidently. “Karo, Tulen, Van Dam, Ursu… go to the storage room and bring as many crates as you can that we can use for cover. Moon, Metharam… get to gather resources, anything you can scavenge. Delanor, I need you to help the Repair Drones make sure that all the units are in order with Bager’s help. Me and Brown will get everything into place. We ready squad?” There was a unison confirmation and Viviana smiled, hoping her charisma was enough to help these guys get home alive.

Things all seemed to be moving in a rapid pace, with the soldiers running to and fro trying to bring as much solid cover out into the front of the ship possible, hoping not to have a repeat of what had happened in the storage room with all of it going off because of a rocket, these crates not holding anything explosive… hopefully.

Viviana got to work organizing the battle plan as the enemy was preparing to roll out. Viviana didn’t know what scared her more, the fact she had little idea how many enemies there actually were, or the fact it took them this long to get ready. One thing was certain, she wouldn’t let the time they were given go to waste.

One by one, they lined up the mechanical units into a semi circle, the tank being in the middle, with the two SHIVs flanking both sides of it, both fully repaired and running 100%. Cyberdiscs were floating behind the SHIVs, waiting in order for the enemy to get into range. Now, the soldiers grabbed their new cover and laid in wait, the enemy’s movements indicating they were heading their way. It was now or never, they would either crush the enemy, or the enemy would crush them. “No pressure at all…” Viviana muttered as she looked through her binoculars, marking the enemies as she saw them.

At the front of the line, a group of four Balmadaar walking beside two Ardenian scouts and two human medics. Behind them, another three of the large aliens were carrying large machine guns, close to the look of the Gauss LMGs the XSDF used, but the one behind him, a big Balmadaar with cybernetic arms and legs, carrying a big purple toned weapon in his hands, similar to the design of the SAWs in front of him.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Part Five

More Balmadaar, Ardenians, and Humans followed, each looking more suited up than the last. It seemed if the fight was going to be tough before, things have stepped up a notch. Viviana let out a sigh, and read the readouts of her binoculars to call out the targets. “Patton 1, we need fire on position Grid 734536, Direction 4800, fire for effect on the troops up front, high explosive shells. We gotta take some of these guys out, or at least soften them up a bit before they retaliate.”

"Grid 734536, Direction 4800 confirmed. Shell loaded, targets in range and ready for permission to fire." The tank operator called out over his radio, the barrel of the cannon adjusting its angle and elevation.

“Fire.” Sousa confirmed, the tank cannon recoiling as it let out a big boom, the ground shaking around the squad as the HE shell was sent downrange, landing in the middle of the front line, killing three Balmadaar and one human in the back. “Fire.” The Lt. Commander confirmed again, the tank firing again and sending another shell across the mostly open field, killing off two Ardenians, another human and another Balmadaar.

With the front line down, Sousa got a better look at the mechanical enemies behind everything, the hulking armored MECs, one being a MEC-2 carrying just a Railgun, but the one behind carrying a large Alloy Bastard Sword, the armor on the MEC looking the heaviest of all the troops there. “Seems they brought their own tank…” The Lt. Commander mumbled as she kept giving the order to fire, the enemy after having lost some troops of their own running forward to meet the troops head on. The knew they had the tech advantage and wasn’t going to waste it.

With the tank raining down fire, the enemies now moved into firing range and the firing line set up outside the Venom ship lit up, SHIVs, MEC and M.E.S.H.A, troops, and Cyberdisks all opening up, even the machine gunner on the tank adding to the fray. The enemy returned and the effects were devastating when they did. The ground around the XSDF troops exploded in blast of purples as the two side fired on one another, the enemies blowing apart a Cyberdisk with one shot, and a SHIV, multiple crates the soldiers were hiding behind getting blown to smithereens and causing the troops to shift around constantly so they weren’t in the open.

As the enemy got near, all the XSDF got out of their efforts were three dead Balmadaar and slightly damaged armor on their side, while the pinned down troops were low on cover, low on ammo, and left with little options. “No matter what, we won’t pull back.” Viviana said as confidently as possible as a Heavy Balmadaar carrying his Particle Nullifier and two Ardenian scouts with their purple Antimatter Blaster shotguns closed in. “We won’t fail the XSDF now…” But their time was up, and the enemy was on them.

Cassia looked at the enemy and get’s a big smile on her face, for the first time in years Cassia sees an enemy that is worth fighting and is extremely excited. Cassia looked to her allies and looks to her Balmadaar comrade. “Hay Tülenkhiin, I have a question for you.”

“What is it?” The annoyed alien woman asked as she started letting loose with her big gun.

“You see that big elite down there, if I recall your race despise them and see them as worthless magotes of your race.”

“To me, you are all maggots.” The Balmadaar woman noted, taking out an alien grenade. “But in degrees… yes, they infuriate me.” She tossed the grenade and it blew up, knocking the Balmadaar off balance and damaging his armor in the back, the alien lifting his gun and his shots landing on the ship behind the troops.

Cassia looks back at the ship and sees the damage that gun did “Allright no bull shiting here kill now.” Cassia says while firing her plasma rifle at the elite causing little damage to it “Damn armor it’s a little tough but nothing a grenade can’t fix.” Cassia throws a grenade at the Elite causing damage to the Balmadaars armor, Cassia continues to fire at the Balmadaar with almost the same anger as Tulenkhiin “Come on you damn worm how dare you betray your own race, you're not worthy of being called Bamadaar. Humble dog is more your title.”

Tulen let out a roar as her ammo depleted, letting out a blood call as her eyes bore on the male Balmadaar. Throwing her weapon and knocking the alien off balance, she ran at him, grabbing him by his burning armor and slamming her head into his, punching the alien and throwing him to the ground as she picked up his weapon and began to fire wildly.

As the last Cyberdisk threw grenade after grenade, an Ardenian scout blasted the second one away with his shotgun and damaged a SHIV with his tail, though he was given a rude awakening by Bager as he fired on his position, the scout moving around and getting close, using its tail to break through the lower half of his armor, causing the MEC trooper to clench his teeth in pain and grab the tail of the alien, priming his K.S.M and blasting the alien scout backwards and into the close metallic bulkhead, spewing blood outwards from his crushed armor like a bug hitting a moving vehicle. The XSDF MEC Trooper took a knee and put a hand on his lower half as the medic approached, keeping her head down. “I-I got this… just hold on…”

James looked over at the bloodied Ardenian, smirking slightly as he blindfired over his cover, “Captain Falcon would be proud.”

Cassia looks back at the battle field “Heh well the welcoming party is dead, but if this os the welcoming committee I can’t imagine what the others will be.”Cassia still keeping her smile.

“Don’t get too cocky Van Dam, we still have-” His sentence was cut off as the cover he was behind was melted from a high powered particle sniper rifle, the shot almost taking the sniper’s head off as he fell backwards. “Sniper, get down!” Brown yelled, holding his own sniper rifle close to his chest.

Connor immediately fell back, another shot scraping the side of his helmet, blasting the metal off and causing the infantry to fall to the ground, his heart almost stopping. An inch more to the left and… The Latvian didn’t finish the thought as he crawled behind the tank.

A third shot came and hit the last SHIV directly, melting the entire front half of it. “Jesus… someone, anyone, get eyes on that enemy!” Viviana demanded in anger.

“I would, but my drone was blown to hell!” James yelled back, frustrated that he couldn’t contribute much more to the fight due to his pet machine’s untimely destruction.

Sigh this is going to hurt, a lot. Cassia get’s out of cover and start shooting rapidly ahead of her. The sniper taking the opportunity to take out an XSDF soldier the sniper shot Cassia in the her arm bringing her to the ground and yearling in agony. “Found them” Cassia point’s were the sniper is.

Brown shook his head, trying to ignore the fact he saw someone lose their arm as his grip tightened on his weapon, the sniper taking several deep breaths as he took off his helmet and slowly held it off to the side, the sniper taking the bait and blowing the helmet off of his hand. Quickly, Brown got out of his cover and quickly brought up his sights.

Time seemed to slow for the sniper, his weapon pointed at the enemy as the enemy pointed his at him. Finger on the trigger, his sights leading properly, the enemy and the XSDF trooper both having their sights on one another as both pulled the trigger.

Both bullet and particle blast flew at the same time, the particle beam flying faster and landing a hit on Brown’s leg, completely blowing it off as the sniper was down on a knee, now falling over and grabbing his stump, not taking long before he passed out from the shock, the sniper close on the edge of death.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Part Six

Gi -who was busy trying to use her psionics and last medkit on Cassia’s arm- looked at the soldier with heavy eyes, knowing it wouldn’t be long until she too succumbed to the heavy feeling of tiredness over her body, but a comforting hand from her squad leader gave her the chance to muster up whatever strength she had left, putting her hands over Brown’s leg, determined not to let her die. All Viviana could do was watch as her second was teetering on the edge of a very slim string, trying to give what power of hers she could to the medic.

The flash of movement to her left caused her to turn and raise her rifle to the side, the Ardenian having snuck up on her as his tail slashed through the scout rifle, going in again but this time being met by Viviana’s cybernetic hand, cutting into the metal just deep enough for the alien to be confused for a split moment, giving her a moment to reach into his mind and use her Blackout ability, the soldier’s body going rigid as the Lt. Commander kicked the sense-depraved enemy down and bound him with some effort.

Fancypants looked around, quickly surveying his team’s dire situation. Dammit, if I don’t stick my neck out and start taking some aimed shots myself, we aren’t going to have a chance at winning this one…

As everyone reloaded, another enemy appeared, this one being the first MEC Viviana had spotted before (the one with less armor and Railgun) came into view, firing off at the XSDF men, though was having trouble getting shots past the tanks.

Seeing no other options, the MEC rushed forward to try and get past the vehicle, the machine gun having stopped firing long ago after running out of ammo and the cannon too close to fire so there being no danger from it.

What the MEC pilot failed to notice was the M.E.S.H.A that was located on the other side of the tank, firing into his back, damaging the enemy. He turned and returned fire, the mechanical unit taking some critical hits but crashing into the MEC and toppling it, the M.E.S.H.A’s core going critical and blowing the two dead.

Out of seemingly nowhere, the tank gunner called out six more enemies approaching, not much reprieve coming for the pinned XSDF troops, the tank firing into the group of four Balmadaar Blade Wardens, with two additional Elite ones leading them.

The high explosive shell blew up in the back, instantly killing one of the Elites and injuring two more, though no more support would come from the vehicle of war as the shell they fired was the last they had in storage.

James grumbled, waiting for an opening in the enemy's fire to pop his head out, taking aim at the closest Balmadaar he could see, aiming for it’s head and firing off two shots. The hulking alien, focused on reloading, looked up and saw that the blast was only inches from his head, and a seconds later, he was dead.

Cassia looked at the Balmadaar looking in shame. “Pth I thought the Balmadaar stood for honor and had a sense for battle.” Cassia stood up and yelled, “You Ballmadaar are pathetic what honor is there in being a pirate?!” Cassia shouted to the enemy.

The aliens seemed to take offense to the and aimed their pistols at Cassia, all of them firing as they ran at the XSDF with swords. If it wasn’t for Tulen knocking Cassia down and taking the torrent of bullets, the merc would have surely died. “You are an idiot Van Dam, you never make yourself easy target for brutes.” The alien woman was bleeding profusely, but if she felt pain, she gave no indication of it as she raised her new Particle weapon and began blasting away at the enemy.

Unfortunately, the Balmadaar only had enough ammo to take down one enemy, the Elite Blade Warden and threw the particle weapon to the side as she then took the Antimatter Sword and rushing her own kind in a blind rage, hacking them to pieces with ease. The woman was a force of nature with a bladed weapon in hand.

Cassia got off the tank and looks at the fallen Ballmadaar with disappointment in her eyes” I thought Ballmadaar stood for honor lived by a code of warriors,I understand the need to fight to look for the strongest opponent and die in battle then in a bed. But to become pirates to become scavengers how dare you call yourselves Ballmadaar, your nothing but pathetic elites the disgrace of your kind. Cassia grabs her shoulder where her arm was missing. “Pth I may not like this group of soldiers hell I think there nothing but pathetic people that have no idea what they're in for,but I lost one team already and even though I don’t like them I will get them home.” Cassia goes back to the tank and looks at the LT commander “Sorry for being a pain earlier, you won’t have any more trouble from me. I’ll be in the tank until the mission is over.” Cassia gives her remaining grenades to the commander.”Something tells me you're going to need that, that’s four plasma grenades make them count and give them hell for me will you.” Cassia got into the tank staying out of the team's way.

Lt. Commander Sousa shook her head, the weariness of battle starting to get to her as she looked at her rifle which was cut in half by the Ardenian she seized, sighing as she bent down and picked up his Heavy Particle Rifle, turning it in her hands. “For all this pain… we are really coming home with a lot.”

Her thoughts were suddenly cut off as a thumping on the ground signaled the approach of the final enemy, the rather large MEC she had scouted out from before the battle had started, Viviana knowing everything before this was child’s play.

The MEC-5 model carried with him a massive sword. covering ground quickly as he was on the troops within the blink of an eye, swinging his sword across the top of the tank, cleaving the cannon barrel and likely the gunner inside in half, while he looked around, zeroing in on the Lt. Commander as the leader of the team that has decimated his forces. He charged without a second thought.

James’ eyes widened at the huge, orc-like, piloted machine heading his way, ideas quickly swam through his head. He remembered the emergency release latch for the helmet that sits on the front of the neck, standard for most, if not all versions. If he could just reach it, he could pop the helmet off and finish it with a point blank headshot, but how to get past that sword? That thing could cleave him in half.

It’s pointed towards the ground, I could use that opening to reach the latch, but that would mean wrapping my arms around it’s neck… Sword that big it wouldn’t be able to cut me off without the risk of stabbing himself… James shook his head, lowering his head back behind the cover, This is retarded… Complete suicide… But we’re almost completely dry on grenades… And this peashooter is barely going to dent it… If I don’t take the chance, we’re all dead, and I don’t see another way around this... After a second, he growled at himself, You know what? Fuck it!

James stayed behind the cover and waited for the Mec to be in reach, once he was certain, James held his breath and climbed over the cover, launching himself off it and towards the front of the Mec. Clearing catching it off guard, James linked his arms behind its head, quickly looking over the front as it tried to shake him off.

“Fuck, Fuck, Fuck, Fuck!” Fancypants found the button on the front of its neck, giving a panicked smile smile as he slammed his fist into it, causing the Mec’s helmet to launch off into the air. However, the Mec finally managed to grab ahold of James’ leg, pulling him off of it’s chassis, tossing him up, and back handing him to the side, connecting with his stomach and ribcage. He hit the ground with a thud, rolling a few extra feet before completely stopping.

Viviana didn’t waste any time being stunned by James’s act of heroism, and admitted stupidity, to activate the grenades Cassia had given her and tossing them all, the explosives detonating and doing severe damage to the mechanical chassis, the woman wasting no time as she ran forward, narrowly missing the flat edge of the sword as she placed her hands on the enemy and proceeded to send as much electrical volts as she could into the titanic MEC, frying the guy inside and causing him to fall over limp, the MEC suit just loosening up and standing there derelict.

Looking a bit in disbelief they had one, the mass of sleepiness that came over Viviana hit her like a truck and her last orders to anyone who could do so was to call in their success as the Lt. Commander fell face first into the grass and began to snore loudly.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Going at it Alone

In Orbit around Forseti (April 10th)
The Einherjar (1900 Hours)
Near Records

"Alice left us," Hestia mumbled to herself. "Big brother says she's not coming back. But Alice wouldn't leave us. She's just mad. But big brother won't help Alice. And Glitch will tell on me. Fine. Hestia will do it herself. Hestia is little. But Hestia is smart."

Hestia slipped into the records room, rushing behind a file cabinet before she was spotted by the bored attendant. With the man completely focused on his book, it was easy for him to miss the short android girl maneuvering behind him. Reaching a computer, Hestia quickly pulled a cord from behind her neck, and plugged it into the computer.

Hestia might not have had Alice's experience, but basic computer knowledge, and even some hacking, was programmed into her. The system was easy to get into. Why wouldn't it be, as these were just personnel files. Bring up security. Go to Y. There, Yamaki! Fairly straight forward. Japanese. Some criminal charges for gang related crimes in his youth. No college. Disciplinary problems. Nothing to say how he might be involved. Only that he wasn't a very nice man.

"He doesn't seem like the kind of person Mr. Pat would be friends with," Hestia whispered to herself, disconnecting from the computer.

She underestimated the attendant's hearing, as the man quickly spun around in his chair. "Who are... you?" Ready to spring forward, he was taken aback by the child standing before him. "Um... what are you doing here, kid?"

"I'm looking for my mommy!" Hestia quickly answered. "She works here. She said she was going to let me watch her work. Where... is my mommy?"

"Um... Megan?" The attendant guessed at the female attendant working today. Hestia nodded with a smile, and the man said, "She doesn't start for another... eight hours."

"Oh." Hestia shrugged. "Okay! I'll come back later!"

She quickly ran out, leaving the bewildered man behind. "Megan never mentioned having a kid," he mumbled. "Not that I even talk to the ice queen." He returned to his book, and his bored look.

Hestia made her way through the halls and arrived at the security guard barracks, figuring she'd have to go to the source. Seeing the hall littered with people, and knowing she wasn't supposed to be here, Hestia took a moment to come up with a plan.

Closing her eyes, her clothing shifted from her simple tee and overalls to a miniature version of a security guard's uniform. Her eyes became hazel, and her hair brown, shortening so it was just sticking out of the XSDF cap that materialized on her head. Looking down at herself in satisfaction, she stepped around the corner and approached one of the guards, his name tag reading 'Richards'.

She pulled at his leg, and he turned around, looking at nothing for a moment before she cleared her throat, making him lower his head. "Uh... can I... help you?"

"Marion Louise Dahl," Hestia responded, her voice much deeper and mature then normal, similar to Alice's but different enough to be distinctive. "I am looking for a fellow guard. Perhaps you can point me to his room."

"Um..." The guard tilted his head. "I thought I knew everyone on the Einherjar security detail, Ms... Dahl, was it?"

"It was." Hestia offered her hand. "I'm a new recruit from the planet. I've heard great things about the Einherjar, and I looked forward to working with you."

Richards slowly shook her small hand, laughing nervously. "You, uh... you seem awfully young to..."

Hestia rolled her eyes, speaking in a bored tone that made it sound like she had said this a hundred times before. "I suffer from systemic hypoplasia, a rare condition which kept me from ever growing, hence my youthful appearance. If you think it's strange for you, imagine me in a bar." She reached back. "Need to see an ID?"

Richards shook his head. "That's okay. Who were you looking for?"

"Yamaki. Didn't catch his first name. He's supposed to work with me, and I think we're roommates now."

Richards raised an eyebrow. "Roommates with Toji Yamaki? Good luck with that. Down the hall, first left, third door on the left."

"Thanks." Hestia walked past him, adding, "And don't worry about me. I'm sure we'll be the best of friends."

The small gynoid quickly followed the directions, keeping her head down so she wouldn't have to talk to anyone. She knocked on Yamaki's door once. Twice. Three times. Satisfied there was no one there, she hit the open button on the keypad, and was surprised to find the door open, expecting the lock to be in place. She stepped in, shifting back to her usual appearance and immediately setting her sights on the laptop on the desk. Opening it and waiting for the password screen to load, she once again reached behind her neck.

The sound of talking behind the door made her jump. "Darn it." She quickly closed the laptop and practically dived under the bed, nestling between two large boxes beneath.

The Japanese guard stepped into the room, pausing at the door and staring at a sheet of paper on the ground. "What are you waiting for, Yamaki?" asked a synthetic voice. Pushing past him, a Sectoid stepped inside. "You are the one who insists we are not seen together. It is bad enough this moron mentioned your name."

"What was I supposed to do?" Diggle stepped inside, shutting the door behind him. "I was running out of excuses, and that stupid little robot gave me an opening. Should I have mentioned someone fake they wouldn't be able to find?"

"It's fine. They won't find anything from my files here." Yamaki quickly walked over to his computer, once again pausing and staring at it.

"Should have seen how I manipulated them, though," Diggle said proudly. "It's ironic. I talked to him expecting very little, and I walked away with the android in my pocket. If only that brat knew it was him expelling her from his workspace that drove her to sleep with me, not the other way around."

"And did you enjoy fornicating with your... machine, Diggle?" the Sectoid asked smugly.

Diggle gave him a sour look. "Shut up, Xanatos. She was made to appear human, act human, and... feel human."

"And what of the child?" Yamaki asked, slowly opening his computer.

Diggle rubbed the back of his head. "Nick? Out of the picture. Doesn't want anything to do with Alice."

"Still... him and that round device of his could be trouble. They were on to you." Xanatos rubbed his hands together for a moment before declaring, "He should be eliminated at once. No loose ends."

Diggle's eyes widened. "No. We can't do that."

"Why not?" Xanatos narrowed his eyes. "Accidents happen all the time in engineering."

Diggle clenched his teeth. "That isn't the point. You promised no one gets hurt!"

Yamaki chuckled as he stared at something on his computer. "I thought you disliked the boy. Didn't he and that robot of his threaten you?"

"Just because I don't like the little bastard doesn't mean I want him dead!" Diggle pointed his finger at Yamaki. "Keep your word. No one has to die! Break it, and I'll..."

"You'll what?!" Xanatos' eyes flared violet. "Turn us in? I'll kill you before that happens!"

"Relax!" Yamaki closed the computer and walked over to a cabinet, opening it and pulling off a false back. "As long as the boy stays out of our way, no harm will come to him. I did not call you here for an argument. I brought you here to show you this."

Yamaki held up a small, round device that glowed blue. "What is this?" Xanatos chuckled. "You planning to blow things up?"

"No," Diggle said, taking the grenade. "This is a HF EMP grenade, isn't it?"

"Not easy to get." Yamaki took it back and held it up like it was a precious jewel. "Mason runs a tight ship around here. He isn't as soft as I had hoped. I was only able to smuggle four of these on board." He suddenly pressed the activator, and tossed it under his bed. The grenade exploded in a flash of light and static that made Diggle, the closest to it, tingle all over, but was otherwise harmless.

"What are you doing!?" Xanatos fumed. "You said you only had four! Why waste one?"

"To show they are strong enough to work on the androids, even with their built in shielding." Yamaki kicked under his bed, flipping it over and revealing a paralyzed Hestia. He motioned for Diggle to grab her. "You see, it is calibrated to the faint electromagnetic signature they give off, and paralyzes them, even if it doesn't make it all the way to their core."

Hestia weakly tried to push Diggle away, but could barely move. "H... how?" she weakly asked.

Yamaki crouched down next to her, flipping her over and opening a nearly hidden panel on the back of her neck. "Paper in the door and tape on the computer. Old-school tricks, but they still work. That, and the small camera in the corner connected to my computer told me exactly where you were. You were sloppy."

Hestia continued to struggle, desperately trying to get her limbs to function. "I... won't... let you... hurt... Alice... or... big..."

"Then you shouldn't have come here." Yamaki plugged a device into her neck. "Because you just made it so we have to accelerate our plans. Luckily, the latest mission provides for a good distraction... and you've saved us from the trouble of finding you." He hit a few buttons, and Hestia's world went dark.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Making Your Move: Part One

In Orbit around Forseti (April 12th, 2018)
The Einherjar (2100 Hours)
Engineering, Nick's Workspace

Alice slowly opened the door, whispering Nick's name as she peaked inside. Seeing no one was home, she quickly stepped inside and rushed over to the small computer in the corner.

For several minutes, she typed vigorously on the keyboard. Her eyes danced across it as she searched through recent files, half a dozen windows open at once.

"What are you doing in here?" asked a familiar voice that made Alice jump, though not the one she was expecting.

"Patrick, I'm..." Alice continued to type on the computer, her eyes only briefly darting towards Diggle as she considered how to answer. After a few silent seconds, she answered, "I'm trying to find Hestia. I broke our link when..." She shook her head. "I tried to reestablish it today, and found I couldn't. I asked around, and no one has seen her for a couple days. I... I'm sure Nick doesn't want to talk to me, so I'm trying to figure out where she is on my own using her computer."

Diggle closed the door behind him, slowly locking it. His eyes darted about to make sure he couldn't see any cameras, and subconsciously reached into his coat pocket, gripping the round objects within. "You don't think... Nick would have done anything to her, do you?"

Alice hit a few wrong keys, something she almost never did. She slowly hit backspace, muttering, "N... no. Nick would... never..."

Diggle folded his arms. "What if he tried to reprogram her in your absence? Make her more obedient. What if he... he used her for parts for Glitch? He obviously cares more..."

"No!" Alice closed her eyes and slowly shook her head. "We... we're having a hard time. But I know Nick. He'd... he'd never..."

Nick placed his hands on Alice's shoulders. "I'm sorry. I just let what Nick said get to me. I'm sure Hestia is alright." He smiled. "Why don't we take a break? I'm sure Hestia is fine, and you've been working non-stop. Even an android needs a break." He leaned down. "I arranged for a couple days on the surface. Just you and me. Come on. Let's go down. I have... a few friends I want you to meet."

Alice's froze for a moment. "I... I-I'm not sure if..."

"Come on... don't make me beg." Patrick kissed the back of Alice's neck. "You'll love it. I swear."

--------------------

Staff Quarters, Nick's Room

Nick paced back and forth, lines of worry clearly marking his face. "It's been a couple of days now Glitch... It's the only explanation I know why I can't find her... She must have just changed her mind." The engineer thought sadly, the thought of Hestia choosing a life with Alice over him being like a punch in the chest.

"Nick, I think you are being too hasty. Hestia would never turn her back on-" Glitch stopped momentarily and stated, "Mr. Cauthon, there are two people in your workshop. It appears to be Ms. Fischer and Mr. Diggle."

Nick's eyes widened and he quickly got angry. "Why?"

"You..." Glitch tried to refrain from overreacting. "It appears they are... Going to 'have fun'." The A.I. said with emphasis.

Nick growled in frustration. "I can't believe... They have some nerve." The engineer grabbed his winter coat and slipped his special project inside before zipping it up and furiously going out the door.

"Nick, where are you going!" Glitch yelled as he went out attempting to keep up.

"To get some answers and speak my mind!"

--------------------


"Patrick, no," Alice practically whispered as Diggle kissed her neck, his hands exploring a bit more.

"Come on," Diggle responded. "We're alone. Why not stick it to Nick? He kicked you out for no reason, said those awful things..."

"Patrick, no," Alice said a bit louder. Diggle's hands slipped under her shirt, and she suddenly stood up, stepping away. "I said no! I'm not some... pleasure machine!"

"Okay. Easy." Diggle let out a string of curses in his head. "I'm sorry. Hands off for as long as you want, here and on the surface."

"If this is how you're going to act... I need to stay here and find Hestia anyway."

Diggle snared a bit, and slowly reached into his pocket. "Please, Alice. Don't be like that..."

Nick quickened his pace, for some reason he urged himself to get there faster, Glitch calling for him in the background but the teen's mind racing too quickly. He turned the corner and ran past the security guard stationed on the night shift, Nick just throwing his badge at the man instead of bothering to stop. Glitch can take care of him. He thought to himself, Nick's eyes narrowing. Why am I running so fast? Why do I care so much about what those two do... why do I care? He asked as he burst through the door of his workshop.

"Nick!" Alice jumped a bit, stepping back. "I... I can explain why I'm here." Diggle silently scoffed, taking his hand out of his pocket.

"What is going on here?" The teen asked a little out of breath, glaring at Alice as he breathed heavily to try and get his stamina back up.

Before she could say anything, Diggle wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close. "It's none of your business, kid. She had some business left here, and I came just in case you showed up. I don't trust her with you." His voice was angry, but her kept his head back so Alice couldn't see his big grin.

"Patrick, please." Alice lowered her eyes a bit.

"It is my business when you are standing in the middle of my workshop without my permission, Diggle." The teen shot back, his gaze returning to Alice. "And what about you? I know you got all your stuff out of here so what could you have possibly left here?"

"Hestia," Alice said softly. "I... I wanted to see her again." Alice looked away. "I... I know she chose you, but I wanted to... but I can't... find her."

Nick's expression instantly changed. "Hestia? I thought she had run off to join you, I haven't seen her in days!"

Alice quickly shook her head. "N-no. I haven't seen her since... we..."

Diggle folded his arms. "How do you lose Hestia?"

Alice ignored him, crouching down in front of Nick. "Please Nick. I don't know where she is. Where is the last place you saw her?"

"I don't know, she just sort of up and disappeared. She left me a note saying she was going to help you, and I assumed she changed her mind to go live with you." He told her, crossing his arm.

"No, I haven't seen her since the other night. And I... I can't reestablish my link with her. Please, Nick..." Alice placed her hands on Nick's shoulders. "I know you hate me now. I... I can see it on your face. Hear it in your voice. But I need your help. Not for me, but for her. Where might she have gone if not to me?"

Nick shook his head for a bit. "I-I don't know... but she seemed pretty upset when I refused to help with that letter you sent me."

"Yamaki," Alice whispered, too soft for Diggle to hear but loud enough for Nick. "She... she could be in trouble now. She might even..."

Diggle stepped forward. "Is everything okay?"

"Not your business, Diggle, so either butt out or get out." Nick snapped at the man, turning his attention back to Alice. "You don't think they found her did you?" He whispered, his worry for his sister overtaking his anger for Alice.

"They might have. We need to go find out." Behind Alice, Diggle slowly made his way to the door, as if he was leaving. Alice squeezed Nick's shoulders lightly. "I... I need to go question him. I want you to come with me. Please, Nick."

"Alice... I wanted to say I was sorry for what I said to you, that I never meant you were just a stupid robot. I said it in anger, and I regret it heavily." Nick pushed Alice's hand off him, "But what you did hurt me horribly... and I am still hurting from it.... I miss Hestia, but I will look for her on my own, not with you. I just came here because you set off Glitch's alert."

"What... I'm sorry if I hurt you, Nick. But..." Alice frowned. Still speaking in a low voice, she said, "But I only did it because you abandoned me. You kicked me out of here, all because I yelled at you. You hurt me too, all because we had a disagreement. Does that really sound fair to you?"

 

[MarineAvenger]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Making Your Move: Part Two

"What are you talking about? I didn't kick you out because I was abandoning you, I kicked you out cause you were going to stay with Patrick, and that you... agreed to sleep with him after he offered." He told her confused, a tear dropping down his cheek.

"What... are you talking about?" Alice wiped the tear from his cheek. "I... I only agreed because I was so upset after you kicked me out. When Patrick told me you told him you were kicking me out, I had no where else to go, and no one else to turn to at that moment."

"No, I had run to go get you after our fight but he stopped me and told me he had talked to you. That was when he told me you had already agreed." Nick's fist curled up into a fist. "Which means... which means..." He began to turn slowly.

Diggle turned the lock, sighing. "This could have all been so much simpler if you had just stayed out of the way, kid. And to think, I actually pushed to keep you Alice. This is the thanks I get?" He turned back, giving Nick the dirtiest of looks as he walked over. "You really are a pest, you know that?"

"So it was you... you were the one Sunny was warning me about!" He yelled, glancing up in the corner in surprise to see Glitch had caught up and was hiding high above in the corner of the room.

"Sunny?" Diggle thought for a moment. "Sonya Randolf? No, I'm not him." He suddenly kicked Nick, pushing him back several feet, and grabbed Alice's wrist. "I just work for the guy you're looking for!"

Nick fell to the ground, rolling around as he grabbed his stomach, the air being knocked out of his lungs. "Nick!" Glitch called out, floating to his master's side. "I will inform security, don't worry."

"Not if you want your precious Nick to survive!" Diggle reached for his pocket, when Alice suddenly pulled her arm away, grabbing his wrist and twisting his arm around. "Ow! Let me go!"

"Nobody... threatens... my... friend!" Alice pulled a little harder, so angry she didn't notice Diggle reach into his pocket until he pulled out one of the EMP grenades. "Don't!"

Diggle detonated it, the short range pulse harmlessly passing over him. Alice screamed out in pain, releasing Diggle and flopping to the floor, twitching.

Nick looked up in horror at what happened to Alice, the teen trying to get to his knees. "You... you bastard..."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm a bastard, I'll never get away with this. Blah, blah, blah." Diggle push Alice on to her stomach and sat on her back. "I'm afraid you'd be wrong about that. I'm already set to leave. Money is ready to be transferred, Alice's buyers are ready and waiting. Just need Alice." He reached into his pocket again, pulling out a small device and searching the back of Alice's neck.

"I won't let you!" He ran at the man at full speed to tackle him.

"Get... off me, you little brat!" Diggle pushed at Nick, finding him stronger than he expected. "Why do you even care? She's just a machine, right? She didn't even work right. Just... knock it off and I'll give you a share of my profit."

"I don't need money, I don't want to lose my friend!" He yelled punching Diggle in his jaw. "I promised I would protect her, and I won't break that promise!"

"Enough already!" Diggle shoved him off, Nick's anger making weigh no more. The spy jumped to his feet and pulled out two items, aiming a small conventional pistol at Nick with one hand and holding a second EMP grenade towards Alice with the other. "Relax, or else! You're a smart kid. You should know even her insulation couldn't stand another one of these."

"And you're not dumb! You kill her and you don't get paid!" Nick said, taking a step back, now next to Clunker.

"Pft." Diggle let out a grim laugh. "Come on, Nick. Just because I'm doing this for money doesn't mean I'm blinded by greed. No payday is worth going to New Alcatraz." His hands shook as he glared at Nick. "This job was supposed to be easy! A cake walk! But EVERYTHING has gone wrong! Especially with you! You are not going to fuck this up for me!"

"Y-You don't have the guts to shoot a kid!" Nick yelled, noticing how nervous Diggle was.

"You... you really want to test me?" Diggle clenched his teeth. "Do you know how much it took me to convince the other not to kill you? I defended you! But maybe that was a mistake. After all, you're not a kid, right?"

"You're not a murderer though, aren't you?" He said, continuing to back up. He won't shoot me... he won't... I just need to get to the computer and turn it on so Glitch can connect wirelessly to call for help.

Diggle gave several labored breaths until his shoulders slowly sagged. "Y... yeah... you're right. I'm not a murderer." He slowly turned the weapon towards Glitch. "But how much do you wanna bet I won't feel a bit of remorse from breaking a machine?" Glitch looked at the man cautiously before floating to the side, trying to avoid getting shot.

"Don't move!" Diggle yelled, finger nervously floating over the trigger.

"Please, Nick!" Alice weakly tried to move. "This is my fight! My fault! I can't let you or Glitch get hurt for my sake! Just... just let him take me."

Glitch stopped, looking at Diggle not sure what to do, while Nick gritted his teeth, "I'm not leaving you Alice, so stop trying to get me to run away and let me help you!" He yelled, almost at the computer.

"Don't think I..." Diggle watched Nick inch back, his eyes darting towards the computer. "No, you don't!" He moved the gun towards the computer, though in his haste, he fired early, while the weapon was pointed at Nick.

Glitch saw the movement of the gun and got in front of Diggle's gun, the bullet entering Glitch's eye and getting knocked off course, the shell clattering down to the floor. "Glitch!!!" Nick yelled at the top of his lungs, the engineer's eyes widening.

"No!" Alice finally finished rerouting her power flow, and pumped all the energy she had in reserve into her muscles. It was enough to get her moving, but not moving fast. Before she could reach Diggle, another two rounds went off, punching through both of her legs. Diggle kicked her hard, and she fell and slid back, landing mere inches from Glitch's fallen form. She looked at it with horror in her eyes. "Oh, Glitch! I'm... so sorry."

The look of horror on Alice's face was nothing compared to the one on Nick's the teen falling to his knees. He slowly raised his arm towards Clunker's back leg. "You... killed... my friend..."

"I... I didn't kill anyone!" Diggle held the EMP grenade up. "I broke an annoying piece of equipment. Now... now come over here, or I'll put a hole in Alice's head! We'll see if she goes down as quick as that stupid ball."

"You had sex with Alice... and you tore apart our friendship. You took Hestia..." His hand touched Clunker's leg.

Diggle's narrowed his eyes. "Get away from that!"

Nick let out a grim laugh, the gesture having nothing but ice to it. "Fuck you." Nick's eyes flashed blue and Clunker started to whirl to life, the mechanics inside turning on as if waking up from a deep sleep. The machine rose slowly, turning its head around with the cannon barrel pointed directly at Diggle, the weapon being a new addition, still in the prototype phase but Nick not caring.

Diggle took a step back. "Whoa... okay. You... you're not a killer either, kid. What do you think you're doing?"

"Nick, no," Alice said weakly. "The strain on you. It's too much."

"I'm not using my implants." He stated simply, taking a step forward and Clunker following. "This is something new... something different. And it feels... wonderful. Like me and him are one."

We'll see about that. Diggle opened his hand, letting the pistol dangle from his finger. "Okay, Nick. You win. Just don't fire at me, and I'll give up."

Nick laughed again, still just as grim. "You are not getting off easy... now... you are going to tell me what you did with Hestia," Nick reached into his coat, pulling out his special project, the old play gun he had put together originally, though this one looked fire-able. "Or I will blow out your knee cap. You refuse, and I will blow the other off... you refuse again... and I will make sure you never fornicate again you piece of shit."

"You... you've lost it kid!" Diggle slowly lowered the gun to the ground, but tightly gripped the EMP grenade in his other hand. "It'll be bad enough if I didn't get Alice. But if I turn on my allies, they'll have me killed! The Yak..." He clammed up, looking to Alice of all people for support.

"Please, Nick," she muttered slowly, trying to stop the flow of her white synthetic blood out of her wounds. "Let the security staff question him. You've been pushed too far. You don't want to do something you'll regret."

"Shut up." He told Alice, firing a bullet into Patrick's knee.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Making Your Move: Part Three

Diggle fell to the ground, crying out in pain. "You crazy little shit! Stop! I... I'm just the delivery man! The pawn! The mook! Yamaki runs the show! He and that Sectoid took Hestia! Please, I swear I don't know where!"

"Where can I find them!" Nick yelled in a rage.

"Yamaki's in security! He... he patrols the engineering staff quarters. You've probably passed him a hundred times without realizing it." Diggle pressed down on his knee, blood dripping on to the grenade as he slowly pressed down on the detonator. "I don't know what the Sectoid does. I only met him for the first time the other day. Yamaki calls him Xanatos. He... he has a large scar on the top of his head! Please, that's all I know about him!"

"So where did they go!" He kept yelling, using a lot of willpower not to shoot the man again.

"I... don't... know! All I know is..." Diggle suddenly flung the EMP grenade directly at Nick.

Nick was confused at first, but when the EMP went off Nick immediately felt like he was struck by lightning, letting out a loud yell of pain, grabbing his head as his implant overloaded, the chips inside burning to a crisp as Nick fell to his knees, the teen shaking as Clunker's cannon accidentally went off, pointed directly at Diggle's chest, the rubber cork inside having been launched out and hitting the man in his side, likely breaking his ribs.

Diggle howled in pain, crying out so loudly you'd think he'd been hit with a real cannon ball. The sound of commotion outside of the room signaled that the cannon fire was not unheard, and Diggle looked around in a mix of pain, anger, and panic. Locking his eyes on Alice, Diggle dragged himself to his pistol, every movement feeling like an eternity of pain. Plan... C. If I... can't... deliver... the android... destroy... her...

Despite his incredible fatigue, Nick was always aware of his own work space. Reaching under the workbench next to him, he pulled a large hard drive out of a box and hurled it at Diggle's head. The man crumpled in pain, nearly passing out from the combination of the blow compounding everything else. "What... the hell? You... can't..."

"You're not... going to win..." Nick said weakly, getting up, but nearly hurling from exhaustion from the EMP combined with using his new power. "Alice..."

Alice slowly looked up at him, barely able to move. "Nick... I... I-I..."

"Find Hestia and wipe her memory... I don't want her to remember any of this." Nick took his gun and placed it to the side of his head, his situation too overwhelming, the teen's mind racing with negative thoughts. He just wanted it to end.

"No!" Alice weakly crawled towards him. "What are you doing! You... you can't! Please! I... I can't lose you, Nick! I love you to much!"

"I've lost Melinda... I've lost Glitch... when security learns about what I did I will be thrown in jail and lose my job... I have nothing..." He put his finger on the trigger.

"Nick, please. You have Hestia. And... and you have me." Tears streamed down Alice's cheeks. "Please. I've screwed up so much! Don't let my mistakes cost me such a dear friend!"

Diggle slowly reach forward, picking up the object before him. He took several moments to aim at Nick, the mind fray messing up his vision, but he only needed to be close. With what little strength he had left, he hurled the hacking device he was going to use on Alice, striking Nick in the hand and forcing him to drop the gun. "No... you... don't..."

Nick glared at Diggle, knowing he didn't have the energy to make him suffer again. "It wasn't your mistake Alice, it was mine. I should have never come to the Einherjar, I should have never even considered joining the XSDF... I should have stayed home. I am nothing but a disillusioned kid in the middle of an adult's world... well, I am done with that world which has taken almost everything." He reached down for the gun again, this time Nick moved back from Diggle and Alice, placing the weapon against his head again. "You don't have to look... this won't take long, and you will forget me eventually." He put his finger on the trigger again.

"I... don't forget things, Nick." Alice looked at him with pleading eyes. "And I won't look away. If you... are going to do something this terrible... then you'll have to burn it into my memory forever. And... and Hestia will miss you. She's her own person, and I have no right to take away her memories. I can't do that to her when she cares about you so much!"

"Nick... please..." Diggle laid prone on the ground, in too much pain all over to move. "I... I'm not a murderer. Please don't make me one. I... know you have no reason to listen to me, and the last thing I need is for you to shoot yourself to spite me. But you beat me, an adult. And if you go on, you'll beat Xanatos and Yamaki too. I wasn't lying when I said you messed everything up, because I ended up underestimating you. I thought you were just a kid, and I was stupid. Alice needs you. Hestia needs you. And I'm sure they're not the only ones."

Nick closed his eyes, letting out a deep breath as he said, "It doesn't matter anymore... you took my best friend... the one I worked so hard to build, and raise... you took him from me. Glitch was like my brother... he was my brother... and now he is gone forever." The engineer waited for only a few brief moments before the tightness in his chest passed... and he pulled the trigger.

 

[MarineAvenger]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Making Your Move: Part Four

He thought it would be painless, that his death would be quick but Nick opened his eyes and saw Alice and Patrick on the ground, the busted shell of Glitch off to the side. When he pulled the gun away from his head he looked down and saw that the slide was cocked halfway back with a bullet slightly popping out.

Nick was silent a long while before he began to feel the familiar sting and blur of tears. "Why... Why did it have to jam... Why didn't I die..." The teen sank to his knees, putting the gun against his head and clicking it over and over again, wishing it would fire.

Alice pulled herself towards him, slapping the gun from his hands and grabbing him. She pulled him close, and held him tightly. "You're so stupid, Nick. What would Glitch think. We all love you so much. If you died like that, a part of all of us would have died."

The door flung open, the other engineers stepping inside with several guards. Several moved towards the bleeding and broken Diggle, who started to confess what had happened while someone sent for a medical crew. Others stepped towards Nick and Alice, eyes fixated on the jammed gun near them, the broken shell of Glitch, and the stream of synthetic blood showing Alice for what she was.

As they chatted and gawked, Alice stroked Nick's hair. "I'll never leave you like that again. I'm so sorry Nick. You gave everything for me. I'm so, so sorry."

Nick hugged Alice back, squeezing her tightly and not letting go. "I was so stupid... I pushed you away... I should have never given up on you... And now my best friend is gone... And Hestia is missing." He said between sobs, not being able to hold it together.

"We'll find Hestia. And... Glitch..." She looked at the fallen assistant. "We'll... try and salvage something." The medical crew wheeled in, taking Diggle away with an armored guard. They approached the pair and helped Nick on to a stretcher. Two of them looked Alice up and down, unsure what to do with her. She waved them off. "Just... worry about him. I'll be fine. Besides, he's the most qualified here to help me."

Nick didn't exactly like being prodded by the medical crew, the only thing really wrong with him being the swimming head he had. Nick looked over to the big drone sitting in the middle of the room. "How did I power him? I hadn't used my implants at all... I don't feel like I can right now. I just... thought of hurting Patrick, and..."

"Psionics. I've seen that ability before." Alice held Nick's hand tightly. "I'm going to find the woman who has it. I promise, I'll make it right for you."

"Alice..." Nick shook his head, looking off to the side. "Nothing will be the same after tonight. I will be lucky if I'm not thrown off the ship. It's over..." Nick rubbed his eyes, not able to keep them from being wet.

"I won't let that happen." Alice ran her hand through Nick's hair. "Whatever I need to do, that won't happen." She leaned forward, lightly kissing him on the edge of his lip before nodding to the medics to take him.

As they wheeled him out, Nick seemed to play along for a bit, not laying down like the doctor's instructed him to, but instead chose to sit on the edge of the stretcher. He was waiting for the right moment to do something highly stupid.

As they reached an intersection, Nick reached into his pocket and took out a nut, throwing it to the side when the doctors weren't looking.

"What was that?" One asked, glancing to the side for a brief moment. This is when Nick made his move. He quickly pushed himself off the stretcher and ran down the hallway he had been facing, the doctors yelling after him as they tried to pursue in vain. Even though his head ached wildly, the engineer was still faster.

When he was clear, Nick let out a sigh, grabbing the back of his neck as that was where a majority of his pain originated. The teen looked around for a brief moment, looking around at the multiple doors, knowing the area well, coming upon the room of Patrick Diggle. Nick took a deep breath and he stepped to the side of the door, out of sight as he knocked on it three times.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Making Your Move: Part Five

There was no response. Chattering down the hall said there was someone coming, likely the doctors looking for him.

Not wanting to lose his only oppurtunity, Nick tried the handle to the door, hoping it opened. Diggle said everything was ready... if Hestia isn't here I will need to try the hangar. If she isn't there.... Nick shook his head, not wanting to face the reality he might lose his sister forever.

The door opened to reveal Diggle's small but comfy room. Tucked away in the corner was a large crate, one marked to be moved to the surface, a number of things we're disturbed in the room, indicating someone had been here recently. Most obvious was the computer, smashed to bits with the hard drive ripped out.

Nick glanced at the computer briefly, not caring very much about what Diggle and his associates had done with the room. Nick shut the door and locked it, knowing if he was caught, he would rather have a door between him rather than that person walking in. He ran to the box and wasted no time trying to open it.

After of few minutes of attempting to open the crate with his bare hands, and finding it impossible, Nick felt a chill run down his spine. A moment later, he heard the clatter of something falling off the bed. Looking over, he saw a crowbar laying on the floor.

Nick couldn't quite shake feeling something was off, picking up the crowbar and going to open the box,

It took a considerable amount of effort, what with Nick's poor state, but he eventually pried it open. As he had hoped, Hestia was inside, completely still. She was completely offline, even her artificial breathing off. Still as a corpse, she was held in place by a plethora of packing peanuts, like a sleeping angel on a cloud.

Nick sighed in relief, reaching down into the box, trying reactivate her quickly.

"Her system is locked," said a synthetic voice from the shadows. "A precaution. We had to make sure she couldn't reactivate herself." A Sectoid stepped into view, one nearly large enough to be of the 'Commander' variety, with a large scar on his head. He held up a device, shaking it a bit. "This is the key to waking her up again."

"Xanatos..." Nick muttered, turning around and holding his crowbar tight in his hand.

Xanatos chuckled lightly. "In the state you're in, I could melt your mind on a whim. It was foolish for you to come here. You have made some dangerous enemies today. The Yakuza don't like to be denied their pray." He stepped forward, and held the device out, offering to Nick.

He eyed the device and carefully moved forward. "What is your game?" Nick asked, not sure what was going to happen.

The Sectoid seemed to ponder the question for a moment. "I... suppose you can say it is the same as Mr. Diggle's game. He is not the only one playing one side while pretending to play the other. The question is... which side do you think I am playing for." He waved the device a bit, urging Nick to take it.

The teen took it, but he wasn't any less tense. "You and your goons have caused a lot of trouble... I won't forget your name, nor will I forgive. If and when you come back... I will be waiting and ready this time. Even if I may not act like it at the time, a friend is a friend, and I won't let people hurt who I care for." He warned, trying to project self confidence he wished was there.

Xanatos narrowed his eyes. "Do not make any assumptions, young man. Their presence will yet be on this ship. Watch your back, especially if you travel to the planet."

Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun the frumious Bandersnatch!

Nick raised a confused eyebrow, taking a cautious step back. "The poem of the Jabberwocky?" The teen asked, the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland and Lewis Carrol being the biggest he got into ELA while homeschooling.

"Fitting, is it not?" The Sectoid paced a bit, and sounded as though he was talking to himself. "A young man, pitted against unspeakable monsters. He has slain the Jubjub bird, and sent the Bandersnatch running. But when it comes time to face the Jabberwock, will he be ready? Only time can tell."

"I think it's time we parted ways... I am sure the medical team has informed security I've gone AWOL and as much as I would love seeing you dragged away, I doubt you would let it be that easy." Nick stated, keeping his crowbar firm in hand in case the alien tried something.

"This much is true. Good luck, young man. You will need it. Be sure to stick close to your friends." Xanatos paused before walking out the door, and glanced back. "We shall meet again. Likely soon."

"I'll look forward to it." Nick responded with new determination, waiting till after the alien left to let out the breath he was holding in and going over to Hestia and activating the device to release her.

Her eyes snapped open, and darted about in an attempt to gather visual data before starring up at Nick. "Unable to auto-load personality programs," she said in a voice very similar to Alice's. "Must select program manually. Please state desired program. Do you require a directory?"

"Hestia, it's me, Nick... Your big brother." He told her, giving her a warm smile.

"Loading personality program Hestia Cauthon, formally Hestia Fischer. Connecting to local computer to update date and time... updated. This program has either been offline for eighty-three hours, or has had date obtained during said period of time deleted." Hestia blinked several times, her features slowly softening. A small smile spread across her face, and in her usual voice, she said, "Big... brother. What happened? Where are we?"

Nick didn't respond, throwing his arms around the girl and sobbing loudly, unable to control himself. "Oh Hestia... I thought I lost you... I'm sorry I let you go all alone, I should have been there for you!"

"Go... where alone?" Hestia sat up, lightly brushing the tears off Nick's cheeks. "Please don't cry, big brother. Alice will come back. We... we just need to find out who Yamaki is like she asked. Will you help me?"

Nick shook his head, "Hestia... A lot happened while you were out. Let me... Explain..." Nick began to recite the events of the days since Hestia's disappearance, going all the way up to what happened merely a few hours ago, not leaving out any detail about Patrick, and Alice. Glitch and Clunker, even telling her what he had attempted to do. He told her the entire story, and when he was finished, he waited in silence.

Tears rolling down her cheeks since he had mentioned Glitch, she starred at Nick, her sad look slowly turned to anger, and she slapped him across the cheek, not very hard, but hard enough to show her anger. "You... you're so stupid, big brother! Why would you... do that to..." Large tears fell faster then before, and she sobbed loudly, covering her eyes. "Nick... wants to leave Hestia... alone..."

"Of course I don't want to leave you alone," Nick whispered, holding his cheek. "But I just thought I couldn't go on... I feel like a part of me was ripped out a crushed... Glitch was the truest friend I had... I don't know how I will go on without having him bug me about getting enough sleep or correcting me on a stupid mistake... I didn't want to hurt my friends or anyone who loves me... But the pain is so unbearable..."

"Hestia is in pain too!" Hestia shouted. "Hestia wants big brother Glitch! Hestia wants to hold him again! But Hestia does not want to be alone in her sadness. Hestia... knows Alice will help her with the sadness. I... I want you to help me, too..."

Nick slowly pulled Hestia into another hug with him, the teen putting his head on her shoulder. "Sometimes you make me forget who is the human and who is the android."

"You're the human, silly." Hestia smiled as she squeezed him tightly. "And you need to see the doctor. Do you... want me to carry you?"

"No, and the doctors can wait, I need to get you to Alice. I'm assuming it'll be a while before you see me again, even with Alice's help." He told the android, picking up the crowbar he had used to set Hestia free. Might as well keep it... Might need it in the future. "Let's go, we need to go find her. I have a feeling she still has more to say to me and I need to hear it all..."

Hestia looked unsure, but nodded, taking Nick's hand. "Alright. But we go see the doctor right after, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I promise... We just have to avoid security and the medical staff. I have an idea as to where she might be, but we better go now." Nick led the little girl out the room and began to ran down the hallway in search of their friend.

"Where are we going?" Hestia asked as they moved, whispering despite the fact that there was no one was in the immediate area.

"My guess... She was taken to our room. There is nothing a doctor could do for her anyways and not a lot of people on the ship are good with android mechanics." Choosing not to say anymore, he made haste back to his room, happy to see that if anyone was waiting for him, the moved on and he quickly entered the room, locking the door.

 

[MarineAvenger]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Making Your Move: Part Six

"Nick!" Alice sat up on her bed. She wore a pair of short-shorts so not to obstruct the bandages tightly wrapped around her legs. "What are you... Hestia!" Hestia rushed forward, jumping into Alice's arms.

"I knew if Hestia had been missing all this time because of Diggle, I couldn't wait any longer to look for her. I gave the medical team the slip first chance I got and sure enough, she was stuffed in a box ready to go to the surface of Foresti." Nick rubbed his arm, looking away as if he had more to add but held his tongue.

"Thank you for finding her," Alice responded, squeezing Hestia tight. She gave Nick a stern look. "But you were knocked around, drained, and fried by an EMP. Please go to the infirmary."

"I'm fine for the moment, my headache has mostly passed." Of course, it was a lie, it felt like his head was going to split in half. "But I promised Hestia I would... after we talked... about us and what went on."

Alice released Hestia, and pulled her legs close. "There isn't much to talk about," she muttered. "I think we all know how you feel, especially after I..."

"Slept with a man who turned out to be working for people trying to steal you like a piece of hardware... yes, I still do hate you for that." Nick crossed his arms, and forced himself to look at Alice. "Did you enjoy it?" He asked a bit embarrassed, but he had to know.

"No, Nick!" Alice jumped to her feet, her legs immediately buckling under her. As she leaned against the bed, she shook her head, "Damn it, Nick! I didn't want to do it! I... I didn't it to think I wasn't on to him! Like I said to Glitch, Patrick excepted me being an android a little too fast. I wouldn't have thought about it, and I would have probably stayed ignorant, if not for the doubt in him you instilled. But I couldn't just reject him without a good reason!"

"So you are blaming me for making you do it?" He asked in disbelief. "I should have just kept my mouth shut and played along with him while both me and Glitch thought something was fishy?"

"No!" A few tears rolled down Alice's cheeks. "I'm glad you found out the truth. If you hadn't, I'd still be with that scumbag. I never blamed you for anything, and it tore me up inside to do anything to make you think I had abandoned you." She dropped her head, her eyes darting towards Hestia. "But... it's obvious you blame me for every thing. That's fine... I don't blame you. You have Hestia back, so..." She slowly pushed herself to her feet, the pained expression on her face showing she hadn't turned off the nerves in her legs.

The teen looked at the android for a few moments before telling her, "Sit down Alice, you aren't going anywhere right now." His tone was stern but afterwards he continued with, "I should thank you for hurting me so bad though..."

Alice let out a grim chuckle, trying to walk forward but falling back on the bed. "Please don't patronize me, Nick. I destroyed our friendship, lost your respect, nearly lost Hestia, and got Glitch killed. I've had more then enough for you to continue lecturing me about how much I screwed everything up."

"I admitted my feelings to Irina." Nick informed her, closing his eyes. "It was after I learned what you did... I went to her and admitted that I liked her."

Alice nodded. "I'm... I'm happy for you. I truly am. Irina is a loyal woman. Sasha can contest to that. Win her over, and... and I know you'll make each other happy."

"Well... she didn't exactly return the sentiment completely. It was a little bit awkward seeing as we both had no idea what we were really doing." Rubbing his eyes, the engineer shook his head, trying to clear his aching mind. "So I am not really sure where we stand... but I guess in a weird, sort of messed up way you made it happen so... thank you." He mumbled.

"You're welcome," Alice muttered, not looking up, only starring at her legs. Hestia tilted her head to look into Alice's eyes, but the 'older' android simply continued to stare down.

After a while of awkward silence, Nick's gaze slowly seemed to move over to Alice, the teen looking at her and thinking to himself, If Glitch was here, he would know what to say to help diffuse the situation. Allowing himself a bit of grief, the teen went over to the android and he knelt down, wrapping his arms around her and placing his head on her chest.

"I'm sorry, Nick," Alice whispered, holding him tightly. "If I'd never come here... if I'd just accepted my fate. I should have never tried to use the XSDF to hide from my past. It just put all of my friends in danger. I can never make this up to you..."

 

[MarineAvenger]

"Shut up..." He told her lightly, a silent tear falling from his eye. "You saved my life didn't you? You stopped me from trying again, after I failed the first time. You tried your hardest to stop me..." After a bit more moments longer of silence, Nick asked another question. "Do you really love me?"

Alice slowly nodded. "Yes, Nick. You're special to me. The hardest thing about this was what I put you through."

"What... exactly do you feel? Is it like what Hestia feels or... different?" He asked cautiously, pulling away from Alice and standing straight up.

Alice ran her hand through Nick's hair. "I... I'm not sure. It's more then what Hestia feels. But I... just don't know how to put it. That's probably for the best, considering how much you care about Irina. I... I'm sorry if telling you that confused you, but I... I had to stop you."

"I... I care for you too, on top of Irina. Alice... there was... another reason why I disliked what you did... one that... that is the reason it hurt me the most. I was... deep down I was jealous, even though I know I shouldn't have been, but I kept it deep down because I knew it wouldn't help things between us. I guess you could say..." Nick's face burned. ""I-I can't say it..."

"Whatever it is, you should say it," Hestia said, laying her head against Nick's back. "It isn't good to hold things in."

Nick groaned a bit. "Alice... you... when we were living together, you made me feel weird all the time, and it made me so embarrassed all the time. I... I think you know... what I mean by that..." He felt like backing out, but already knew it was too late. "I hated that you did that with Patrick and..." He shut up at that point.

"I think I know what you want to say." Alice smiled. "You don't have to say it."

"It's stupid... I know... but I couldn't help it. How could I not... I mean you are meant to be perfect... but it was also a lot more than that which made me feel that way. You were the first one to teach me about that sort of stuff after all..." He let go of Alice and stepped back. "But I knew it would never happen... you would have never agreed to do that with me, which is why I felt stupid for feeling that way... which led me to get angry. All Patrick saw in you was your looks and what you are... to me you were more than that... you probably still are even now... I just could never show that without feeling like a fool or possibly creeping you out."

"Come on, Nick. If you were going to creep me out, it would have happened a while ago. Patrick was sweet to me, and I was too blind to see it was too good to be true. If... if you never stood a chance with me, it was because I didn't want to step on Irine's toes, not because of anything else." Alice laid back, starring up at the ceiling. "Besides, I'm far from perfect. And I'd never want to be. I want to be like any other flawed human. Maybe... I tried a little too hard at that."

Nick rubbed his palm for a moment, walking over to the bed and getting on it, laying down next to Alice and taking her hand in his. "If things don't work out between me and Irina, if she really doesn't share my feelings... I want you to know... I would always choose you. I don't care what you are... I think I've said that enough to make my point clear." He turned on his side and looked at her.

"So... you don't think I'm just a... stupid robot?" Alice asked apprehensively, continuing to stare up.

"I never thought that you domme vrouw. I spoke from anger, not from my heart or mind. I... I wish I had never said that to you." Nick said genuinely, inching closer to Alice and putting his arms around her, hugging her while pressed up against her form.

Alice slowly turned to him, smiling. "Thank you, Nick. Just... promise me you won't let me stop you and Irina. You two make a cute couple, and I'd hate to break you up."

"We will see how things work out... things could very well not happen because of her lack of experience. Right now... we are far from dating." Nick closed his eyes. "Alice... can we... could you let me..." He scratched his head in frustration.

"What is it?" Alice smiled a bit wider.

"U-Uh... Well... You know, you were in pain before and I wanted to know what I could do to uh... Um... Make you feel... Better..." He stated nervously.

Alice scooted a bit closer, and placed her forehead against his, whispering, "What would make me feel better... is if you let the doctors take care of you."

He chuckled, "I promise I will... Eventually. For right now... I just want to be with you. We've been away from each other long enough. It will take a while to try and get back to normal... I don't think I will ever get over Glitch... But I want to continue having these moments with you... And more..."

Alice frowned, and wrapped her arms around Nick. "Then lay with me for a while. Then... it's straight to the infirmary."

A soft whimper came from the foot of the bed, Hestia shyly poking her head up over the end. The teen engineer smiled at the smaller android, waving for her to come join them. Hestia let out an excited squeal, quickly crawling up the bad and laying between the pair like a child laying between his mother and father, giggling softly.

Nick smiled at the girl's display, rubbing her head. "Hey Alice..."

Alice patted Hestia on the back. "Mmm?"

Nick took a deep breath, leaning forward as he lightly pressed his lips against hers for a few seconds before he pulled away. "I am glad I became your friend and partner... We won't let this tear that apart..."

Alice nodded. "No, we won't."

He nodded in agreement, his cheeks flushed a bit. "W-Well... How was it?" He asked, looking away.

"As good as I expected," Alice answered, giggling.

"W-W-What is that supposed to mean!?" He asked, completely embarrassed now.

Alice only laughed, leaving it to his imagination.

"H-Hey, t-thats not fair Alice!" Nick complained, closing his eyes in embarrassment. "You could at least return the sentiment..." He mumbled.

 

[Mangrale]

Hiding and Seeking, Part 1

XSDF Battleship Einherjar
Holo-Room 3
April 5, 2044, 11:20 AM [Before Operation Flying Hydra]

His right leg connected to the standing, simulated construct’s chin, forcing it to peak upward at the heel that then hammered the simulant into the ground face first, motionless and dematerializing.

The massive red star baked the arid, rocky, high plateau that hosted the session Narcisse had initiated. After twenty minutes, he had fought his way passed more than half of the original, medium level, human based enemies. There were a dozen left, all vying for their chance to take him down. There was little variation among them and they were all meant for hand to hand combat, having no weapons and only robe heavy outerwear, given the desert ecosystem.

Granted, the constructs wore more than the Brittany native did. He had forwent his training shirt, exposing his nippleless chest, having nothing but his spacious dark grey trousers and thin training shoes. Instead of his glasses, he had his contact lenses on. Heat radiated from his body, even more so than a regular body; his skin’s black, rubbery texture retaining the synthetic rays, hot to the touch. To make up for its inability to react normally to external temperatures, his SF frame was equipped with internal regulators (including a network coolant system) meant to keep him at his default, a few degrees short of a normal human.

This day was the first in a while since he last set foot in a holo-room. The rather sudden change of heart came since his last visit to the gym a number of days ago when he happened by one of the punching bags that had two pieces of lined paper taped to opposite sides of it. On the papers were recognizable yet unflattering drawings of Trismegistus’ face. Giving in to the temptation, he thrust his fist into a drawing with terrible force, not realizing that the thing he sometimes dreamed about would happen. The paper tore away to reveal a clean tunnel clear to the other side, that his arm then ran through. The gap was layered with the same leathery material as the rest of the bag, suggesting it was a gag item. Of course, the frenchman was very embarrassed and therefore, took a break from that part of the facility for while, deciding to try a more reactive session for today.

Narcisse deflected a left hook with his right forearm, seizing the opportunity to deliver a swift punch to the simulant’s face, dazing him. He followed it up with an aggressive right hook to the head as well, before turning counter clockwise and moving forward to sweep the back of his left fist across the foe’s face, knocking off his headdress and grounding him. A moment later, a construct leapt on the cyborg’s back, wrapping his arms around his neck, allowing another one to land two blows on his abdomen, knocking the already exhausted wind out of him.

To try and escape, he shook his head at the aggressor in front of him, wanting to make his head out as an enticing target. As the foe reeled his arm back for a powerful blow, Narcisse hunched the enemy on his back forward, and dropped to his knees, ducking his head down. He did this just in time so that the punch hit the other attacker, who lossed his grip on the pilot’s neck and stumbled a few steps back. When it tried to lunge at him, arms forward, Narcisse wasted no time in grabbing an arm and, with conserved momentum, flinging the enemy overhead onto the other construct, both downed and dissipating.

Even with his enhancements, the program was clearly taking its toll. He panted profusely, a heated hand to his forehead whenever he had the chance. Avoiding attacks became harder as time went on, and he eventually had to contend with the growing amount of bruises and sores around his body. His fighting, as a result, grew increasingly brutal, fueled by desperation and, judging by how hard he stomped on one of their heads, a fair amount of anger.

Narcisse couldn’t shake the ongoing, sickly feeling he felt, the fact that his enemies were not real doing little in the way of easing his subtle trepidations. Yet he still pushed on, mangling his way through the simulations. Can’t hesitate… I’m in a war… he urged as pulled the left leg of the last fighter, forcing it to fall on its back. Have to get used to… He lifted the foe’s leg upward, gripping it with both hands. The augmentee faltered, his mind elsewhere. But he reaffirmed his hold, and with a frustrated grunt, twisted it to a very audible and savage crunch.

It was, however, the replicated, agonized scream that made him pause and drearily watch the construct despawn before his downcast eyes. Alone and running out of time for his period in the holo-room, the pilot sat on the fiery ground, fatigued in more ways than one.

While trying to catch his breath, he spread his hands on the rough floor, dust and minerals clinging to his palms and fingers. He brought his minutely shaking hands to himself, adrenaline running through them. This thing is just too realistic sometimes… He smirked as he thought this, but frowned just before getting back on his feet abruptly, patting his legwear to get as much dirt off as possible.

Bellrose walked to his satchel that was set aside and pulled out a small towel to rub his sweat drenched face with. That done, he put on his white shirt, which was also in the bag, and stepped to the console to close the room’s program, towel around his neck. The cyborg took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dramatic decrease in light levels compared to the plateau, though it was partially an excuse to stay in the relatively cool, dark room.

After a short time standing still, deep in thought, he placed the bag’s strap over his shoulders and raised his arms at his sides. With closed eyes, he concentrated hard, furrows on his distressed expression. However, despite whatever he wanted to happen, the frenchman put a hand to his head, suddenly delirious and having difficulty standing. He shuffled his feet to keep himself upright, but failed in doing anything other than stumbling forward on the floor in front of the room’s exit.

Narcisse’s body felt as though it had gone through several marathons, and his mind as though it had been in the span of a few weeks, nonstop. The greatly distressing punishment along with the acute sense of disappointment, led to a searing anger on his part that made the high surface temperature of his skin pale in comparison.

Once his piercing headache began to fade, his quivering right hand left the side of his head and joined his other arm in slowly pushing him from the floor. The cyborg’s breathing was laborious while he looked down at the ground under his right hand, knowing exactly what he wanted to do to it. However, the respective appendage was too preoccupied with supporting him, so he left it alone.

The pilot soon erected himself, and with what limited mobility he had, solemnly exited the room, intending to reach his own quarters without anyone seeing how incredibly fatigued he was.

 

[Mangrale]

Hiding and Seeking, Part 2

Forseti Colony
Capital City of Ailey
April 12, 2044, 3:39 PM [After Operation Flying Hydra]

It was the late afternoon with fairly cloudy skies, leading to a comfortable mid-level temperature. The streets were considerably busy; the bulk of people who had worked in the morning were now off for the day, either returning home or adding to the traffic and crowds that coursed through the various routes throughout the city.

Narcisse was among them, at first displaying the sort of demeanor not unlike a tourist, though with a notable lack of a camera. But by the time he had arrived at the higher trafficked areas, the normally conspicuous cyborg did a better job at blending in, if only by a little. He had already eaten on the ship, electing to casually sightsee before returning.

Last year, he wouldn’t even consider being around large groups of people in a somewhat noisy environment, as he was now. But, in a way, he found the absence of their direct attention and the veil of sound around him to be quite disarming.

Abruptly, the airman’s eyes widened, and he dashed to the closest alley, ducking behind a dull colored dumpster, noticed by a small portion of the numerous pedestrians on the sidewalk. He sighed in relief when the objects of his initial fears, Felicity and Fidel, passed by his line of sight, oblivious to him.

They made for quite the cute couple, a fact that could be gathered to an extent by how they were around each other. The spaniard tried multiple times to talk to Narcisse about seeing her, but the cyborg kept making up excuses as to why he couldn’t make it. Then, when he picked up on Villalobos’ own interest in the waitress, he was quick to encourage him to be with her instead.

Felicity was saddened, at first, by Narcisse not showing up like he agreed to. But Fidel was delightfully persistent, and his affectionate manner and boyish charm won her over in the end. The frenchman was happy for them, but the thought of facing her, after basically ditching her like he did, was just something he couldn’t bring himself to do. It might not have been the only reason for hiding from them, but it was the primary one.

When the chance of him being noticed had subsided, Narcisse carefully emerged from his hiding spot and resumed his course. Among a few choice locations, he happened by a shop specializing in eyewear for the discriminating sentient. The pilot didn’t need a brand new pair of lenses, but instead wanted to browse through their selection of stylish frames. Walking up to a welcoming, interactive visual display screen on a stand, he initiated the correct setting and took off his glasses, allowing the attached camera to take a reading of his face.

At the end of a quick bit of loading, the personal, mounted screen showed a selection of eyewear in rows for his perusal. Upon tapping on one of them, a the page would change to show more information about that particular selection, including price and how many were currently in stock. Not at all serious about actually purchasing anything currently, Narcisse was content to just “try on” different pairs by activating a functionality in which the display would exhibit the user in the selected eyewear.

Now with his own glasses on, the pilot watched with controlled amusement at the diverse models appearing on the recorded image of his face, which in itself was fairly humorous to him. There were some that caught his eye, but most he clearly chose just to see how absurd he’d appear with them on. He then playfully sample one pair after another, pretending to actually consider them. No… no… um, no… not really… no… can’t pull it off… no… He came across a pair of red tinted aviator glasses to which he thought Noooo, mouthing the word exaggeratingly in silence and chuckling aloud.

Adequately satisfied that he had wasted enough time, Narcisse nonchalantly looked outside the store window next to the door, immediately seeing and fixing his attention on a thin, tall, black cloaked figure passing the shop, certainly standing out from the mostly normal attire every other passerby had. It was uncanny. Without a second warning, he bolted for the door, almost tripping over en route.

Once there, he forcefully pushed the framed glass door open and attempted to peer past the crowds moving in either direction, but not able to see any trace of the person’s dark hood. Narcisse ran in the direction the individual was headed, contending with the people in his way, not so many that he was actively shoving them aside, but enough that he couldn’t just simply run unhindered.

Every time the pilot passed an alleyway, he’d swivel his head to take a quick glimpse through it, not seeing his intended target every time. His hasty search took him all the way to a waiting group of pedestrians by a cross intersection, cars cruising passed where they wanted to walk across, still no sign of the black hooded figure.

But I… It was unmistakable… Where could… the partially synthetic man thought perplexingly to himself, turning his field of vision repeatedly to catch sight of something, in vain. Panting vigorously, he ran his right hand through his hair, where it stopped and scratched the back of his head, keeping silent as the nearby onlookers made their respective and private verdicts about him and warily went about their day.

For a couple of minutes, Narcisse stared into the massive, complex city around him, having given up searching, unsure what to think.

[April 12, 2044 - A bounty appears for Narcisse Bellrose (Wanted Dead)]

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Familiar Paths, Pt 1

Weapons R&D, Einherjar
Above Forseti
April 12th, 11:23 AM



“I don’t know who they’ve got, but they’re going to regret starting a war with me!” Penny declared, placing her hands over the table. “I don’t care if it breaks patent laws, I’m going to replicate their designs. I’m going to better them. And I’m going to rub their face in it when I’m done.”

Charles merely nodded. “I suppose this is better than moping around like you’re useless,” he muttered to himself. Louder, he asked “How do you think we should go about that? It’s not like the soldier teams gave us much to work with.”

His wife remained silent. “We’ve still got a few things,” she said. “We’ve got the weapon fragments, to start with-“

“Subjugation War all over again.”

“- and we’ve got the profiles of the weapons, at least. I mean, look at this,” she said, grabbing a screenshot of some of the battle footage she’d gotten earlier. “What is that protruding thing on the rifle there?”

“Damned if I know.”

“And we’ve already got the basics of particle weaponry – we’ve got a cannon for our MEC’s, after all.” Penny frowned, and scratched her head. “It’s just a case of making it efficient and compact enough to be infantry-sized. Maybe if we could look into making the cooling systems a little more compact…”

The two were quiet for a moment. “We still need more weapon fragments,” Charles said at last, placing a hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah.”

“Those captured weapons are going to be a huge help.”

“… yeah.” Without saying anything else, Penny turned and embraced her husband, surprising him. “We… finally have a path forward, don’t we?”

He raised an eyebrow, though he returned the hug. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve been sitting around here doing nothing for ages. Trying to find their every secret while we fumble in the dark. But now, thanks to the guys and girls on the ground, we’ve got something to actually work with.” She smiled, eyes wandering to the three captured weapons sitting on the table. She frowned as her gaze lingered on the sword. “Not sure where the hell that thing fits in, though.”

“It doesn’t. I’m pretty sure that’s the point of a sword.”

“No, no no, the point is at the top.”

Her husband groaned. “That was horrid.”

Penny merely grinned, releasing him at last. “I know.”


*

Communications Room, Private Terminal
11:32 AM


“I know,” Isaac muttered, rubbing his brow. “How many, exactly?”

“Twenty more,” the modified voice replied. “Switching most of our agents around worked in some places – whoever came for them didn’t expect a different agent, certainly not one expecting trouble, so it could have been a lot worse.”

“How much worse?”

“We could have lost all our influence in the further corners of known space, half our agents on Progressus, and nearly a fifth of the ones on Earth.”

Isaac froze. “A whole fifth?!”

“Which demonstrates how effective the strategy was,” the Overseer continued, “and also the reach of our new enemy.”

The cripple leaned back. “Son of a bitch…”

“Given her heavy-handed approach, I think we can assume Tresmegistus is aware I am still assisting the XSDF. And is not happy about it.”

Isaac shook his head. “How could she launch an offensive like that so quickly? And with such a reach, with the precision of knowing exactly which agent they were targeting? The sheer manpower involved…”

“I will not deny that the Pirate Queen’s ability to weed out our agents is… unsettling…” the Overseer admitted, “but she has made the crucial mistake of showing her hand. I find it difficult to believe she has much more up her sleeve. Without a network at a level equivalent to ours, it would just not be possible for our agents to be compromised and killed en masse.”

“What about you?” Isaac pressed. “Have you shown your hand?”

The Overseer actually laughed, a rare sound. “Judge, Judge, Judge,” they said. “You should know me better than that. I never show my whole hand.”


*

Gym
6:22 PM


“You must always keep a trick up your sleeve,” Kearichi snapped. “Have a plan. If you don’t have one, make one. If the situation is not favorable to you making one, make it favorable. There is no other option save surrender or death, neither of which are acceptable for a princess.”

Slora nodded, her eyes dancing towards Kearichi’s left. Seeing this, Kearichi brought his wooden staff up to block the blow he knew was coming. Having successfully deceived her mentor, Slora feinted and swung at his right. His staff flicked sideways, to her surprise, neatly blocking the blow and allowing him to strike her side.

The guard captain shook his head. “If you are going to make a false move, don’t make it so obvious. Having seen you fight, I know you would never give away your intentions that easily.” He shrugged as the winded princess began to force herself back up. “If your opponent is worth anything, they will work that out rather quickly.”

“Why are we doing this again?” she asked, using the wooden pole as support. “We don’t use Chitkra anymore. We haven’t for centuries.”

Kearichi scowled. “Irrelevant. The knowledge of melee combat is one that can be of great use if the weapons you seem to place such reliance in fail you. What is more, it trains reaction.” He tapped the ground with the staff, and held it ready. “Again.”

Slora shook her head, but complied, standing tall again and bringing her own staff into a defensive position. As he had taught her, she began scanning her opponent for weaknesses, though by now his failings were well known to her. His back was a source of pain for him, and forcing him to move rapidly would trigger that. He lacked the dangerous spines on one arm, and his depth perception was mildly off. However, his experience usually made up for all this. Kearichi knew his own weaknesses, after all. The trick was giving him no choice but to rely on them.

Her analysis was brought to a halt when a crass voice called out to them. “Oi!” it said, belonging to a strong-looking human male. “I thought this training area was for crew, not shipboard pests.”

Kearichi’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t respond. Slora, in her inexperience, rose to the bait. “What did you just call us?” she asked, incredulous.

“You heard me,” the man said, as his presence invaded her personal space. Several other humans, watching the exchange, began to rise to back up their compatriot. “Insect.”

Slora stepped backwards, her timid personality once again rearing its head. The male laughed, clearly enjoying the idea that an alien more physically imposing than he was backing down from an altercation.

“What’s the matter? Afraid I’ve got some pesticide in my pocket?”

 

[Taxor_the_First]

Familiar Paths, Pt 2


“Mammals,” Kearichi muttered, shaking his head. “What is it with the soldiers of your species and picking fights?” he wondered aloud, positioning himself between the human and his charge. He looked up into the man’s face, his stature making him the far less intimidating one. “And I thought the old Commander was the only xenophobe. A pity. And after we’d agreed – against my judgement, might I add– to continue helping you in your little war. The nerve.”

“Are you saying you don’t like being called what you are, bug?” The human smirked, amused that the smaller alien was showing more guts than the larger.

“Not at all,” Kearichi replied, his mandibles twisting into a grin. “But your female parent may object to such a philosophy, loose woman that she is.”

The other Volomi had, by now, made their way over and were standing uneasily behind their princess, each one prepared to give their lives for her. “Did he… just insult their mother?” Faros whispered.

“It’s a common human insult,” Yessander explained. “Apparently an excellent way to get one riled up.”

“What the fuck did you just say about my mother?” the human demanded, grabbing Kearichi by the shoulders and pulling him in close. “You wanna repeat that, motherfucker?”

“… that was the joke.”

“You piece of shit, you know what I’m gonna do to you?” The Volomi merely opened his mandibles, allowing a few globules of saliva to drip from them theatrically. The human’s retort was cut off when a firm hand clasped onto his shoulder. Suddenly he noticed all his backup had fled, leaving him alone with an angry looking blonde woman with ‘sergeant’ ranks attached to her shirt.

“You two going to kiss or what?” Samantha asked, an eyebrow raised. With one last glance at Kearichi, who was still grinning, the soldier spat and wrested himself from her grip, striding away with the few shreds of dignity remaining to him. The Huntress shook her head. “Sorry about that. Some people have way too many hormones in their system. You two alright?”

Slora and Kearichi both nodded, though there was a look of disappointment on the latter’s face. “I don’t understand,” the princess said. “We were doing nothing wrong, then he just started being aggressive.”

Samantha nodded. “That’s usually how it goes. You’re just minding your own business ‘til some asshole decides it’s his job to ruin your day today. If it’s any consolation, I wouldn’t have minded if you’d socked him one.” She frowned at the blank looks the Volomi gave her. “If you’d punched him,” she clarified.

“Even so, I would prefer to not become involved in an altercation like that,” Slora said. Even if I do wish I had the nerve to stand up to him like Kearichi did… she added mentally.

“Probably would have been poor for relations,” Kearichi agreed. “Even if you would have let it slide, I doubt your superiors would.”
Samantha shrugged. “Well, he initiated it. You’re probably right, though. Best for everyone to just leave it.” She turned with one last nod to the aliens. “You all need anything, you know where to find me.” With that she left, leaving them to their training.

She sighed as she exited the training room, rubbing her brow. Her hand came away wet, sweat matting her forehead from an afternoon of heavy physical exercise. Maybe old age really was catching up.

After some meandering, Samantha finally found her partner’s office. She knocked a few times, a pattern that he by now knew well. “Come in,” Isaac said, his voice muffled by the door. Obediently, she entered, surprised to see him cradling something in his lap.

“What’s that?”

The old man shook his head. “Memories,” he answered cryptically, replacing it behind his desk and sitting up again. “What can I do for you?”

“Dinner,” Samantha said, leaning on his desk.

Isaac raised an eyebrow. “I hope you aren’t expecting candles and violins.”

“Your voice is like a violin to me.”

“Screechy and high-pitched?”

“Man up and take the compliment.”

The cripple grumbled, but didn’t object further. “Give me a few minutes to pack up,” he said, waving Samantha out the door. He began filing reports away, placing the bits of paper strewn around his desk into folders based on their usefulness or lack thereof. When he was done, he leaned back, his gaze drawn back to the object he’d been examining. The now-ancient shotgun gleamed dully, the scratched exterior clean of dust. The flashlight attached to its underside was completely broken, finally. The handgrip was worn and a little slippery.

His expression fell. Even now, it suited the man who had owned it.

With only a quick glance at the mask sitting on his desk, he backed his wheelchair out and made his way to the exit, where Samantha would be waiting.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Mommy Kisses

In Orbit around Forseti (April 13th, 2044)
The Einherjar (1330 Hours)
Engineer Barracks, Room of Nick & Alice

Alice sighed as she slowly worked on her leg wounds, the realistic muscle fibers starting to deteriorate with the bullets lodged inside. It was ironic how the old, conventional pistol was causing her more trouble then a more advanced one would have.

She had considered asking another engineer for help, but she felt weird asking even the ones who had known before for anything. Same went for medical crew. By now, the whole ship was aware, or at least anyone who cared, and she just thanked her lucky star Frederick was in charge now. His predecessor would likely have her locked up immediately.

She slowly raised her head to the knocking on the door. After a bit of hesitation, she called out, "Come in."

After more hesitation on the other side of the door, a familiar Bajir stepped inside. "I... I hope I am not disturbing you, Ms. Fischer..."

"Please, Baka, call me Alice." The android smiled softly. "And please, come in. What can I do for you?"

"Well... I brought someone who can help."

Baka stepped inside, and behind him came the only person besides Nick who could do something for her, the woman's silver-gray hair glistening in the light. "Hello, stranger."

"Sunny! So good..." Alice started to stand, but an irritated look spread across her face. "What do you want?"

Expecting such a reaction, Sunny's sunny disposition instantly crumbled, and she rushed over to Alice, collapsing to her knees and burying her face on Alice lap. "I'm so sorry!" she cried out, sobbing.

Caught of guard, Alice slowly placed a hand on Sunny's back. "Sunny, please, I..."

"Baka told me everything. I thought telling you would put you in further danger. I'm so sorry I got Nick involved!" Sunny continued to sob loudly. "It is all my fault Glitch was destroyed. I'm so sorry."

Alice shushed her, slowly running her hand through the crying woman's hair. "It's okay. I'm more to blame then you. We all carry some blame. But don't let it make you forget who has the most blame."

Sunny nodded, and took a minute to compose herself. "So... are they gone?" she eventually asked.

Alice looked at the Bajir, and Baka answered, "Yamaki went planet side a hour before the incident, and has not been seen since. Commander Mason has listed his disappearance as him being AWOL to avoid unrest amongst the staff. We might not know where, but he is still on Forseti. Even with his connections, it will not be easy for him to leave without the XSDF knowing."

"And what about the Sectoid?" Alice asked, frowning when Baka started to nervously rub his antennae. "Not good, huh?"

Baka shook his head. "My family searched the ship. No one has worked with someone named Xanatos, and aside from seeing him in passing, no one has worked with a Sectoid with his scar, meaning it was either fake, or covered up when he worked. Without such a distinguishing feature, they... all look too alike to know when, or even if, he left the ship."

"Great. Which means I'll have to watch both mine and Nick's back around any unfamiliar Sectoid," Alice grumbled.

"Well, if he's going to do something, it better be now, because I intend to get you up and running by the end of the day." Sunny opened her lab coat, revealing a simple shirt and overall combination that looked like an adult version of the clothes she wore as a teenager, though unlike Brigid, Sunny filled them out rather nicely in adulthood. She pulled a kit out of her inner pocket, opening it to reveal an odd combination of engineering and medical tools. "Let's get to work. Nice panties, by the way."

Alice blushed. "Getting back at the world that embarrassed you as a kid?"

"Nah. That's Jessica's job. I'm just making an observation." Sunny sprayed a substance on the wounds. "This is a version of the medisprays with nanites specifically made the repair your unique muscles. But they can't get the job done with those bullets in there." She grabbed a scalpel and a pair of medical tweezers. "I'm... no medical doctor. I'm afraid you'll have to turn your nerves on and guide me."

Alice nodded, and did as she was told. Sunny cut into her leg and dug in, Alice flinching with pain that would make a normal human pass out. "There!" she cried out after a minute, and Sunny clamped down, pulling out a bullet. She moved on to the next leg, this one somehow even more painful. Once the second bullet was out, Alice laid back in the bed, her legs feeling like they were on fire.

Sunny sprayed the wounds again, wiped away the milky white blood, and started dressing the wounds. "You know, I make a circulation fluid that looks like real blood now. When... was the last time you changed yours?" Alice didn't answer, and Sunny huffed. "The longest you should go is five years, though I'd prefer you go three. If you've gone ten years since the last time..." She shook her head. "I'll leave two full supplies in engineering before I go. Make sure you do the transfusion ASAP."

"I will, mom!" Alice cried out in a mock bratty teenager voice.

"Don't you 'mom' me, young lady." Sunny gave her a serious scowl as Baka handed her a towel to clean up with. "Just because I'm sorry for my mistake doesn't mean I'm not mad at you. How dare you not tell me how much trouble you were in?"

Alice sighed. "I didn't... it isn't as bad as you..."

"Oh, really?" Sunny turned to Baka. "Would you like to hear a story I recently heard, and maybe provide us with an outside opinion?"

The Bajir nodded, sitting on the floor next to Sunny. "As the humans say, I am all ears."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Sunny took a deep breath. "Twelve Earth years ago, during a trip to Japan, Melissa Emmerich found out the boy she liked had a powerful Yakuza Boss for a father. Instead of doing the sensible thing and leaving him, she felt sorry for him because he wasn't a life of organized crime, and was constantly fighting with his father about this and that, so she decided to try and help him."

"Considering how little they seemed to care for each other," Alice chimed in, "I never expected Akira's father to care who he dated, let alone look into her background. But he did, and he found out Melissa the human was actually Alice the android."

"The Yakuza have been hurting for decades thanks to the XSDF," Sunny continued. "They weren't going to pass up the opportunity to get their hands on a machine as rare as Alice. And unfortunately, her boyfriend decided he didn't want to pass up the opportunity to impress his father."

"I wasn't going down without a fight." Alice sighed, and sat up. "In the end, three people died during my escape. Akira's father... and his two body guards, one of whom had been friends with Akira since childhood."

Baka rubbed his head in thought. "That is quite the tale. And what became of this Akira?"

"Who do you think has been hunting me?" Alice flopped back again. "After two years of running, I asked Sunny to use her influence to get me into the XSDF, but... but I didn't entirely tell her why. I purposely used my real name so they'd know I was here, and not hurt anyone looking for me. I thought they could never reach me here..."

"But you were wrong." Baka stood back up, bowing his head a bit. "Apologies, Alice. But I am afraid I have to agree with the doctor. You should have confided more in your friends and family."

Alice slowly nodded. A few tears rolled down her cheeks, and she started sobbing lightly. Sunny crawled into the bed next to her, and wrapped her arms around her. "And now I've made you cry. I'm sorry. No more of that. Mommy is here, and she will keep you safe."

Alice wiped her tears away, but shook her head. "No. I know Atka needs your help. I won't keep you in the dark, but I need to handle this myself while you help her."

Sunny held her a little tighter. "Not by yourself. Nick is here for you... assuming her doesn't get in too much trouble."

Baka stepped forward. "I have yet to hear of any disciplinary decisions, but practically everyone in engineering has petitioned for leniency. We hope, under the circumstances, the Commander will be forgiving." He bowed his head again. "And I am here for you as well, Alice."

"Thank you," Alice responded, sitting up. She closed her eyes for a moment, and smiled widely. "Someone is back from their visit to the infirmary. I'd like you to meet Hestia, Sunny."

The juvenile gynoid opened the door a few moments later, and was surprised to see Sunny. Quickly stepping in front of the bed, she took hold of the sides of her dress, did a curtsy, and said, "It is very nice to meet you, Dr. Randolf. Though... I guess we've already met in a way."

"I met you when you were Alice, but she tells me you have started to develop you own individuality." Sunny shook Hestia's small hand. "Alice also tells me you've taken quite a liking to Nick. Always calling him big brother."

Hestia nodded, being respectful. "I-I do. Big b... Nick says I should call... he didn't like when I... I-I like big brother Nick..."

Sunny grinned. "No need to be shy or formal. I think of Alice as my daughter. I feel the same about you. Though... I only made your body. Nick made your mind, so he's closer to being your father."

Alice chuckled. "If you're my mother, then does that make Jean my father?"

"If you want to call Noire 'sis', be my guest," Sunny answered. "But let's face it, he only made certain... parts of you."

Alice shrugged. "So what you're saying is, I have my mother's eyes and my father's breasts?"

Sunny rolled her eyes, and turned her attention back to Hestia. "Nick's not the only one responsible for your development, is he? You could almost say Alice and Nick are your..."

Alice quickly reached over, grabbing and tickling Sunny all over. Sunny let out a laughing fit as Alice pinned her on the bed, and in a semi-serious whisper, said, "Hestia's mentality matches her appearance, so she's very impressionable. Nick and I might have shared a brief moment, but we are far from what we were before, and he has a thing for one of the doctors. Please don't put things in her head."

"Okie dokie," Sunny whispered back, making the appropriate hand gesture. She sat up, and grinned maliciously at Hestia. "So how about we talk Nick and Alice into making a little brother or sister the old fashioned..." She quickly stood up, barely avoiding Alice as the android lunged at her. She grabbed Hestia's hand and pulled her towards the door. "Hessy and I are gonna go test to see if she needs any calibrations to the sweet centers of her tongue with some ice cream while I get some more juicy details about you guys from the eyes of a child."

They quickly walked out before Alice could protest, leaving her behind to scream into her pillow. An amused Baka bowed his head. "I believe I shall depart as well. Let me know if..."

"I need something." Alice gave him a serious look, all humor gone from her face.

"O-of course, Alice." The Bajir stepped a bit closer. "What is it?"

"My fault, Sunny's fault, or Patrick's fault, Glitch is gone." Alice tried to hide the sadness in her voice. "I'm trying to recover what I can from his hard drive, but the fact of the matter is, he was a work assistant, not a combat drone. He wasn't built to survive being shot. So I don't hold out much hope of recovering enough of him to reconstitute his program, not unless I somehow had something to build it on. Without him, not only is Nick vulnerable if anyone gets any funny ideas, but he's vulnerable to his own poor constitution and recklessness."

"That is a problem," Baka agreed. "But... but I am afraid I am busy with my own work, and with watching my family."

"Oh." Alice looked a bit disappointed, but only sighed. "Well... that's okay. I'll just figure something out between Hestia and I." She smiled. "Thanks anyway. I know you would if you could."

Baka nodded, and turned. Halfway to the door, he slowed to a stop, standing in silence. "Kec... Kec ne kegna."

Alice raised an eyebrow. "I'm sorry? I didn't quite catch that."

"It is hard to translate, but it... it essentially means making non-kin... kin." Baka turned back. "If... it you swear to uphold Bajir honor, and never turn you back on the family, and always come to the aid of my pack no matter the danger, we... we would accept you as an honorary member."

Alice scratched her head. "Really now? I... must have missed that in my studies of your people."

Baka rubbed his feelers nervously. "If... if we did it... to my knowledge, you would be the first non-Bajir. It is normally only done between packs, or to accept an outsider into our pact. But... if I can convince my Anati, at least until you figure something more permanent out... you will be considered family. And since you consider Nick your family, we would be obligated to watch over him."

Alice nodded. "Thanks, Baka. Don't force it, though. I'll owe you and her big if you do. And if Tini says yes, tell the other Bajir not to let Nick know. I'm afraid he'd think I was spying on him."

"As you wish." Baka bowed one last time, and departed. Alice laid back, closing her eyes and resting while the nanites in her legs did their job.

 

[BMPixy]

“City Escape”
In Orbit of Forseti, Aboard the Einherjar
1413 Local Time; April 13th, 2044
Floor 13, Wing C, Room of Ezra Exalt

"You know what, Ezzy?" Elicia asked as she slowly stretched herself out on the couch in the android's room - briefly suppressing a small yawn as she did so. "We should pro'lly go out, and, I'unno, do something. Feel the dirt under our feet, smell some non-recycled air, see what we're fighting for, something like that, y'know?"

The android wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's waist, pulling the woman close to him with a smile. "Sounds like a decent enough plan. Give me three days, and I can get it all set up. I can picture it now... An old car, champange... Animal crackers.".

"Y'know, you could at least reference something more recent," Elicia replied with a light laugh, playfully nudging her elbow in Ezra's waist. "Besides, there'd be nobody to sacrifice himself in your place if you decided to go all the way with that line of thinking."

Ezra rolled his eyes. "I'm not dying anytime soon. Did I fail to mention my awesomeness just causes harmful object to just swerve around me?"

"Oh? And when did you ever become that awesome?" Elicia shot back with a quirked eyebrow, letting the banter flow.

"I was born this way!" Ezra sang horribly out of tune on purpose, laughing up a storm.

"Ach, again with the old pop culture references," Elicia replied with a hearty grin, leaning back and holding her hand over her chest as if she had been struck. "At least you're getting a bit more recent. Soon enough I'll have you referencing Shifting Body Betrayal and Games of Divinity Form."

"Pfft... Please, my content is my own." He stuck his tongue out and stuck up three fingers. "Three days, and then we will go down to the surface, got it?"

"It's a date," Elicia affirmed with a nod, gently rolling her shoulder to loosen the muscle slightly. "In more ways than one," she added belatedly, briefly locking eyes with her boyfriend and giving a flirtatious smirk.

"Well... We do have three days to kill..." With a chuckle, he leaned in and kissed the woman next to him. I got three days... Hope it is enough, last time it took a week. He thought to himself, sighing in his mind as his hands occupied themselves.

-------------------------
Three Days Later...
-------------------------

Elicia gently tapped her boot on the ground, glancing up and down the halls as she waited for Ezra's arrival. "Wonder what's taking him so long," she muttered, gently tugging at the collar of her T-shirt, which bore the logo of the 2038 cult classic TV show Glorious Shotgun Princess - though it was partially obscured by the sides of her plain grey hoodie. "Said he'd be here what, five, ten minutes ago?" she added, doing another scan of the halls.

A few moments later, a man walked into the room, being fair skinned although with a bit of a tan to him, like a guy who worked out in the sun all day. He had deep, dark blue eyes that scanned the room, running a hand through his long dark messy brown hair. When his gaze set upon Elicia he smiled, a pure white smile as he slowly approached. He wore a light blue plaid shirt on with a pair of equally light jeans and flat tops. "Hello miss... You... Waiting here alone?" He asked shyly.

"Well, technically yes, I am waiting alone, though my, uh, boyfriend should be here any minute now," Elicia replied slightly awkwardly, still getting used to referring to Ezra that way in public. She gently rubbed the back of her neck slightly as she took another glance down the hallways.

"Boyfriend?" He asked, looking down the hallway. "Not much of a boyfriend if he is keeping someone as amazingly stunning as you waiting."

Elicia bit her lip nervously, furrowing her brow in slight consternation at the man's words. Shaking her head to dismiss the thought, she said, "Nah, it's fine. Only been a few minutes. I'd be a hypocrite if I got on him about that when I was half an hour late to our, well, first date, you could call it."

"A half an hour?" The man said a bit in disbelief. "I hope you repaid him pretty good after that."

"Well, you could say that..." Elicia took a sudden interest in the floor, trying to hide the slight flush in her cheeks that only grew hotter as memories of that night flashed in her mind.

The man smiled, putting his hand on her chin and pulling her head up, planting a deep kiss on her lips. "You're adorable when you are embarrassed."

"Gwuh-wuh!?" Elicia exclaimed, pulling back in shock and raising an arm defensively over her chest. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"

The man smiled, putting his hands down his pockets, pulling one hand out and showing his silver pocket watch, the Exalt emblem on the front. "Unrecognizable without the milky white skin, red eyes, black and red highlights with my usual dark attire, huh?"

"E-Ezra?" Elicia stuttered, her eyes widening in shock. "Y-you... Warn a girl before you do that kind of stuff!" she shouted, slapping the android on the shoulder. "Nearly gave me heart palpitations!"

"Oh, come on... How do you not know by now that when opportunity presents itself on a silver platter for Ezra Exalt, he will no doubt take it with open arms much to the dismay of the butt end of the joke's heart? Didn't break it too much my love, did I?" He asked teasingly, putting a hand on her arm. "Because as much as I know you loved being massaged in that general area, I don't think I am qualified to be a heart surgeon."

"Ugh," Elicia groaned, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "I knew you were going to exploit the fact that I can't stay mad at you, though I was hoping later rather than sooner. I mean, how'd you like it if I biokinesis-ed myself a brunette, six centimeters taller, and two cup sizes up, and then French'd you outta nowhere?"

"More your loss then mine, I just simply wouldn't touch you at all." Ezra said, turning as he headed for the shuttle they would be taking.

"Anyways," Elicia said, quickly falling into place alongside the android, "what exactly prompted this, well, y'know? Got a secret identity you gotta hide?"

"No, but it does get tiring having to deal with people who gawk at me in my original style and I don't want our date ruined by onlookers." Ezra glanced over with a raised eyebrow. "What? Don't like the new look?"

"No, it's just, well, different," Elicia answered, shoving her hands into her pockets. "I mean, I suppose it makes sense that you can go through bodies just like clothes, now that I think about it. Just having to adjust my mental picture of you so I don't get distracted and end up following some guy who coincidentally looks like your old self."

"It's my same body." Ezra stated with a rather plain look. "It's just minor changes really. My body is built in such a way, I could change eye color and hair color on a whim, I just needed the proper software to try and recolor my synthetic skin. Unfortunately, didn't work quite as good as I thought it would, so I had to use makeup for the spots that needed it. And the clothes... Well, I borrowed them from my cousin."

"Alright, well at least we don't have to explain why your lifeless body is chilling in your room then," the medic joked, a slight smirk crossing her face. "Any other nifty tricks you got hiding in that frame that you haven't already shown me?"

"Yeah, I'm an ice cream machine as well as a voting booth, come right in and enjoy my sweetness." He said as sarcastically as android-ly possible.

Elicia scoffed and nudged her boyfriend in the ribs with her elbow, unable to hide her amused smile. "Regardless, was this the only surprise you had prepped, or do I not have to fall back onto my usual plan of bar hopping?"

"Please... I am the prodigal son of two androids apart of the most influential company known to Earth. Just because I don't think of my name as that special, I do enjoy the perks of having it, and one of those is the rather large amount of wealth I get from my mother not to pull a 'my father' by doing shit that gets me into trouble because of boredom and make myself happy. You make me happy, and so... I am going to make this one hell of a date. We can literally do anything, but tonight... I got something special planned." He stated vaguely.

"Well then, I certainly do look forward to whatever you have in store for tonight," she said, positively beaming at the thought as the two boarded the shuttle. And if it somehow goes tits up, she mentally added, we can still get wasted. Win-win!

Apparently, they were the last ones set to arrive as not soon after the shuttle took off and rushed down to the surface of Foresti, the destination being the capital. As they made their way down, Ezra glanced at Elicia. "Talk to any family?"

"Eh, ma's off the grid for some business stuff, godparents are out on vacation," Elicia said with a dismissive shrug. "Did talk to my, well, cousin I suppose you could call him, but... ah, nothing really special there." The Anglo-German glanced away, trying to hide the anxious expression on her face.

"You're lying." Ezra pointed out, scooting closer. "Come on... you can tell Ezzy."

"I-It's nothing, alright?" Elicia said. Small truth hides big truth, she mentally reminded herself. "Just, he kinda inherited my, ah, godfather's distrust of Exalts, without some of the, uh, discretion. And, well, he kinda insists on pulling any threads he finds, y'know? Had to cut it off 'fore he could get too far."

"I don't care." Ezra told her simply, putting an arm around her. "Tons of people dislike the Exalts... one more person on that list won't kill me." The android glanced at Elicia. "Unless this is a bigger problem than that?"

 

[BMPixy]

"No, no it isn't," Elicia replied with a shake of the head, mustering up every gram of falsehood in her body. "I was kinda worried how you'd take that, should have known better. Forgive me."

Ezra had no sign of amusement on his face, looking serious as he rubbed her arm. "Hey... are you sure? I am not going to go off on you or anything that bad. If something worries you though, I would like you to be forward with me."

"Trust me, it's fine, nothing for you to worry about," she said, giving a small, comforting smile. "Seriously, we have a long, fun night ahead, no need to get so serious 'bout things that don't matter in the long run. Got it, Ezzy?"

He looked at her a few moments longer, but then nodded his head with a smile. "Alright, but I expect you to be honest with me, and if you have a problem then I want to hear it. What kind of guy would I be if I didn't?"

"Not one I'd be dating," Elicia replied, her smile shifting to a satisfied one as she leaned against the android. "And I'll be certain to keep those expectations in mind, and extend the same to you. After all, it'd be unfair if I was the only one who could vent in this relationship."

"Yes, and I think the temperature of my room is a degree to hot." He complained mockingly.

"I didn't mean that kind venting issues," Elicia snarked, giving a self-satisfied chuckle at her pun. Ezra merely shrugged as they reached the surface of the planet, closing his eyes and letting out a small sigh before standing up in front of Elicia and getting down on one knee.

"Ezra, w-what are you doing?" Elicia asked, clasping her hounds over her mouth as her mind reflexively jumped to obvious conclusions. "A-are you...?"

"What?" He asked, raising a confused eyebrow. "I'm tying my shoe..."

"N-never mind," Elicia stammered, shaking her head rapidly. Dammit brain, why do you do this shit to me!? she internally raged, grinding her teeth slightly at her own misplaced assumptions.

"You... you thought I was proposing didn't you?" Ezra asked, a bit confused.

"Well it's just positions and body language and implications and you said there'd be a surprise," Elicia blabbered, quickly knocking a loose strand of hair out of her face, "and all that spiraled together into assumptions, which do as they always do and now we're here! Capiche?"

"Were you..." Ezra gave a sly grin. "Were you excited?"

"More so frantically worrying about things like 'how do I let him down gently' and 'how to explain to him that we shouldn't be moving that fast' with a side-helping of 'dear God is he actually going to do it here'," Elicia explained, still slightly flustered as her mouth began to get ahead of her brain. "I mean, I guess that can be interpreted as excited, as my mind was excited into action, but I'm just blabbering now, aren't I?"

"Yes... yes you are, and I must say, you are once again adorable." Ezra stood up after tying his laces and gave Elicia another kiss, putting his forehead against hers. "Nice to see how much you care... I love you."

"Love ya too, Ezzy," Elicia replied, gently breaking the affectionate nuzzle. "Anyways, we should pro'lly get off the shuttle now. After all, can't spend our entire date here, y'know?" she said, chuckling slightly.

"Oh, but it’s so lovely in here." Ezra noted as he got off the ship.

"Ah, but it's much more lovely out here," Elicia replied as she disembarked, a glimmer in her eyes as she appreciated the Ailey skyline and cityscape. She took a deep, hearty breath, appreciating the fresh, unpolluted air. "Good to be dirtside, I'll say."

"Makes no difference to me, I don't feel motion sickness or stuff like that." He approached from behind and wrapped his arms around Elicia. "What should we do today?"

"Hmm," Elicia muttered, trying to prod along her thought process by scratching her chin. However, a sudden realization dawned upon her, and she said, "Hey, wait, I thought you said you had something planned? Why're you asking me?"

"That is for tonight... for now, it is your time. We can go shopping, sightseeing... whatever."

"Hmm... in that case..." Elicia scanned the cityscape, looking for something - anything - that caught her eye. Suddenly, a bright neon sign seized her attention, and with a glimmer in her eye and a smile on her face Elicia burst from Ezra's grasp, grabbing the android by the hand as she jogged towards the building. "Got just the thing! How do you like arcades?"

"Never been to one to be honest..." He informed Elicia as they ran.

"Then consider this a learning experience!" the Anglo-German exclaimed, brazenly pushing through the front doors to enter a realm of flashing lights, cacophonous mixes of voices and music, and the smell of cheap food. Upon examining the spacious hall, Elicia's giddiness only grew. "Holy shit, they've got everything," she said, awe in her voice as she led the android along. "Ultra Street Fighter Seven Tournament Edition, DDR Double-X Three, Time Crisis Ten, scheiße they even have DoDonPachi Remastered."

"Never heard of any of them. Closest I got to an arcade was a pachinko place, and I vowed never to go there again." Ezra said warily, looking around.

"Well then, let's fix that, eh?" Elicia said, maneuvering over to a coin machine. As she slid her credit chit through the scanner and the coins began to drop, she explained, "There was this real big arcade back home, apparently some local politician was using it as some effort to keep kids off the streets by putting 'em in arcades. Used to gather up the crew and head down there on the weekends. Good times, good times." Grabbing a handful of the rather impressive stack of coins, she handed them to Ezra. "Take a look around, see what catches your eye. From what it looks like they've got the whole gamut from rail shooters to bullet hells to rhythm games, even some of the classic ticket fountain games."

"You really expect me to choose?" He asked her with a sly look. "You are the one at home. Find something and see if I like it, admittedly something we could both do."

"Right, hmm..." Elicia scanned the arcade, looking for any names that stood out. "Ah, got one!" she exclaimed, pointing at a large black booth that seemed to dominate the area it was in, the only decoration upon it being a gritty, industrial giant robot and the name Rijion Year 2121. "How steady is your aim?"

"Since I have been training with the old man I have gotten a lot better." He stated, rolling his shoulder as they approached the game.

"Alright, cool, then you grab the bottom seat," Elicia said, pulling open the side of the booth to reveal a pair of seats, set up one behind the other and slightly raised to see over the front seat. Around each seat was an array of joysticks, levers, and pedals, and before each seat was a screen that wrapped around the entire most of the front. "I'll handle the maneuvering and target spotting, you get the fun part: guns."

Ezra was silent for a few moments, slowly entering the seat. "This seems a little silly. We do this for a living after all."

"I'm fairly certain that there's no giant robot pilots in the XSDF, well, unless you count the MECs," Elicia replied, striding up to her own seat and sliding into it. As she slid a handful of tokens into the macine, she recited, "Joysticks aim the arm mounted weapons, primary triggers fire the assault cannons, secondary triggers fire the HMGs, left thumb button fires heat-seeker missiles, right thumb button fires pulse rifles. Left and right foot pedals change lock-on targets, buttons and levers on the center console deploy the labeled countermeasures, except for the red one with hazard stripes around it, that's the eject button. Any questions?"

"U-Uh... how do I shoot again?" Ezra asked as the game began and tried his best to get into it. He was going okay at first, but it wasn't long until they blew up into a fiery, smoking wreck. "Remind me never to take a step in my mother's direction and become a M.E.S.H.A." He stated as he slipped back into his seat.

"Alright, I'll go ahead and bump down the difficulty a notch or two," Elicia said, sliding in another handful of tokens. "Maybe Darwin Award wasn't the best first start for a rookie." With a sigh, she resettled back into the seat as the screen flashed WAVE 1: ONLY IN DEATH, DEFEAT. Grabbing the throttle, she gunned the mech forward, boosting it through the ruined city at a breakneck pace.

Ezra still had a hard time grasping the mechanics of the game, doing his best to try and get them through but down to the last enemy they were eliminated. "No luck..."

"Eh, this is the kinda game you need a lot of practice for," Elicia said, taking this opportunity to wipe some of the sweat off of her brow and relax her posture slightly. "Riri and I pro'lly spent a good couple hundred pounds mastering this way back in the day, though admittedly a lot of it was trying to figure out how to exploit various bugs and glitches and shit like that that you don't see in the instruction manual."

"Riri?" Ezra asked, turning around. "Girl friend?"

"Nah, the 'cousin' I was talking about before," Elicia explained with a shake of the head. "Frederick Ricardo Foulke, my next-door neighbor and closest childhood friend. Hell, we were practically siblings."