Fandom Coral, Abide with Rubicon!

[Lucyfer]

Raven – such an unoriginal callsign. It had been going around the galaxy for aeons, like White Glint. Aurelia was pretty sure that Jules wanted to be Raven, before he gave up his dream of being an AC pilot.

Before he couldn’t have any dreams, anymore. “Understood,” she was prepared to get the hell out of that city, before Walter called a warning. Aurelia didn’t bother looking for the source, she just dove for one of the walls that likely covered a staircase up to the roof of this building, and heard the sound of missiles colliding with the ground. The helicopter, it seemed, had found her.

She cursed under her breath. No way was Walter’s transport copter getting to her now, not unless he wanted it to be shredded into pieces, and her odds of losing this damn thing were slim. “I can do that.”

And this model was wonderfully flighty.

Aurelia zipped straight up into the air rather than around the wall, and saw the PCA copter was approaching her position. She could almost see inside the cabin where all the little officers were scurrying around with their command orders to take her down. She sent missiles into the nose of it, but saw the damage was fairly minimal.

‘Same armor as those shielded bastards.’ The weapons she had wouldn’t do great work, except the sword.

That made things difficult.

Especially as two machine guns on the side of the copter lit her up, unloading on her light frame and sending her straight into overheat, stunning her in the air. ‘Damnit, damnit!’ Aurelia looked around the core as she tried to jam the boost button over and over to get it to work while her AC recalibrated under fire.

The heat of the core itself was making her hands sweaty, making them slip along the controls. She couldn’t control the temperature nearly as well without the neuro-set, an advantage she’d always just scoffed at, until she realized she wasn’t wearing gloves with this flight suit, and the metal burned, the sweat slipped, and she was going to die if she didn’t overcome this.

The AC struck the ground, blaring warnings that kept trying to throw her back to the past, but she found the repair kit just as explosive missiles struck the ground around her, making the whole area light up in flaming debris hell as the roof was torn to pieces, craters and holes appearing around her, chunks of concrete digging into her frame.

‘One repair kit left, let’s make it count.’ As the explosives threw her into another overheat, she forced herself to be patient until the buttons illuminated with use again while the helicopter was chunking away at her frame with its guns.

As soon as she had use again, she launched right into its fire, ‘Hold up, you stupid, weak, frame, just hold up to let me—’ The frame held up, and Aurelia made use of the pulse blade, driving it right into the nose of the copter, where all those running the ship were.

She swiped it through before kicking back, seeing the opening she made and the chaos already created as the copter struggled to keep its nose up.

A blast from the bazooka obliterated the cabin, and spread through the internal guts of the heavy copter, destroying it, sending it into the roof.

Aurelia landed, and used that final repair kit with a breath of relief. “This coral better be worth it, Handler,” she said through the comms, “I’ll go meet the transport.” Better not to wait for it in the city. There were likely still MTs, or other forces waiting. She’d get outside of the city.

~***~

‘And you barely have a reference for mine.’ Rusty hadn’t even fought in that base, Huntress had taken it all herself. There wasn’t much to do, which was always good. Repair bills could end up taken out of paychecks if they were too much. Arquebus was only so generous, after all. A pilot had to be good enough on their own, to earn their keep.

Rusty wasn’t surprised that Huntress kept to the bars and shakes. They were enough to keep a person healthy, living, but that was about it. He rarely found he craved the flavors. He considered buying her a lunch, but he kept that thought to himself. They’d have to see how things went with the debriefing, before he’d know if they even could get lunch together.

“Yeah, we’ll talk again later,” Rusty agreed, keeping that friendly smile on his lips, and maintaining the warmth on his expression, all the way until he got into STEEL HAZE. He let it fall then. ‘All for her family.’ Rusty understood now why she was with Arquebus, but that didn’t mean he liked it.

The resentment didn’t fade away much from the details. He knew what it was to struggle on Rubicon-3. Somehow, if his parents, if his family, had a choice between suffering, or living easier – but at the cost of Rubicon’s soul – he’d rather they all suffer, together, and fight to make Rubicon better.

Not sell her away to any corporation.

As the helicopter landed, and the ramp came down, he walked the cooled off STEEL HAZE into its LOADER, and then took out his tablet, to send a quick message to Snail.

We’re back. We’ll come to debrief. Let us know if we should meet anywhere besides your office. ​

With the message sent, he was quick to get out of STEEL HAZE, and get to the floor of the hangar. He waved over to Elliot, “Sent Snail a message, so he’ll be expecting us for the debrief,” even if Rusty was going to do all the talking, Elliot had to be there. It was the proper thing to do, after all. “Then we can go get that lunch.” Hopefully.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Waiting on baited breath, Walters eyes were glued to the radar screen. "Come on, 621. Show those PCA fools what you can do." A message that he didn't send. No, he couldn't distract her. The PCA ship was well-armored and she would have to punch a decent hole into it to be able to make use of those explosives she loved so much.

Large fists curled around the arm rests of his chair once more as Walter watched his hound take on significant damage and freeze up. "Don't panic. Breathe." He would certainly need a new chair after this, but he hoped that his words of encouragement would help her keep a level head.

Between his adrenaline-fueled panic earlier and this hiccup in the mission, he could only hope that the rest of this encounter went smoothly. He was lucky that he had the money to repair it, but that didn't mean he wasn't dreading the bill for the repairs.

Whether through her own mental fortitude or his encouragement through the fight, she was able to drive her pulse blade into the copter before lighting them up with her bazooka. It wasn't until the thing crashed that he was able to take a deep steadying breath.

She had did it. She had taken down a PCA aircraft with that lightweight starter AC. If that wasn't a testament to her skills, he didn't know what was.

"It seems I made the right bet on you, 621. Nice work. Get out of the city and I'll send the copter." Walter chose to ignore the comment on the Coral. Of course it was important. Why would he waste money and his investments for something not worth while? He was able to more fully relax once the copter landed, allowing her to board and start carting her to safety.

The hangar was ready for her to put her AC into its LOADER, and the docking bay was ready to receive the transport copter. All he had to do now was get an estimate of the damages and send for her AC to be repaired. Thanks to the screens in front of him, he was able to get that estimate and he grimaced.

It was a pretty penny, but he knew that if he controlled how she fought, he might not have a hound right now. Despite the hole in his wallet, it was all worth it. There were things they needed to talk about, like her panic attack mid-mission, but that could wait.

There was an alert on the screens, stating that the copter had landed and that she was unloading from it. Good, she had made it safely back. No more surprises from the PCA, or MTs. All he had to do now was renew her stolen license and she could start doing missions here on Rubicon-3.

~***~

Elliot was deep in her thoughts, thinking about her family, wondering how they were doing when she felt the familiar rock of the transport helicopter landing. She would definitely send a message to her mom and siblings tonight with the money transfer to tell them about her day.

The red-head wondered how the twins and Lilith were doing. Lilith was a RaD engineer, that she knew, but she didn't know what Xan and Xavie were up to. Hopefully nothing dangerous.

As soon as the ramp was lowered, the redhead moved her striped beast out of the transport vehicle and into its LOADER. Once it was locked in, she removed the neuro set and scrambled out of it. Elliot patted the cockpit in a silent goodbye before meeting Rusty down on the ground floor, nodding at his words. "Understood. Let's go."

The two walked side by side through the hangar, and the communal spaces in a relative silence. There were more Vespers active in the space now, though she didn't really know all their names yet. Like always, she gave them friendly smiles if they made eye contact, but didn't really engage. Not that she had the chance to though. They had to report to Snail first, let Rusty tell the lie, and hopefully nothing too bad happened to them. Maybe she would engage with the others during lunch?

It didn't take long to get into Snail's office and like always, she straightened herself up, standing at attention in front of his desk and staring straight ahead to try and keep the attention off of her while Rusty gave the debrief.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia sat in the core once it had settled into the transport. Sweat rolled down her body as she took the goggles off, into her eyes, and she wiped at it, pushed her black hair off of her face, and stared into the darkness of the powered down AC as the heat threatened to make her pass out.

It was no more than she deserved.

“Come back to me.”​

His words echoed in the silence of the Core, in her head, as the sweat and silence drew her deeper into her thoughts, as she felt the well within trying to fill itself with a piercing agony, a sweet pain, but the well was deep, and the emotion kept sinking beyond reach.

It was a terrible, numb agony, as she continued to wonder how she didn't slip into the fighter that Aidon made when the alarms were blaring. How did she pull herself out?

Why wasn't Orpheus enough?

‘It's only because it was already broken before. That's all. It didn't have the same hold on you as before.’

The reassurance rung hollow in her head, and she remained in the dark silence until the transport let her know it had landed, and she put the goggles back on to walk the AC into it's LOADER, before climbing down as she had climbed up, letting go partway up to land roughly on the ground, hoping to jar humanity back into her system before facing Walter.

He was already in the hangar, waiting.

“Sorry about messing that thing up,” it probably needed a name, but she didn't offer that. “I'm not used to such a light frame, so hopefully we can start earning some coam so I can upgrade it a bit.” Would a name come then?

She didn't really want to talk about her freak out, but she couldn't risk it again. He couldn't, either. “I think what I really need for the future is a music player. I…slipped back into…whoever the fuck I was with the Syndicate.” She put a hand to her head, the headache slowly returning now that the heat wasn't relaxing it. Anger, venom, self loathing, it was all on display, though she didn't want it to be.

She had no choice but honesty to keep herself alive.

“I fought…a lot of resistance fighters then. It…the cries brought it all back.”

~***~

Snail was waiting, as always, with an unimpressed look on his face. Rusty still greeted him with a friendly smile. “Mission successful, I've forwarded the data I gathered from STEEL HAZE to our main frame already.”

“Destroying the base was not a part of the mission, V. IV.” Snail stated, icy.

“Yeah, I'm sorry about that,” he sighed, “when I was digging through it, I tripped over their security and that started a self destructive sequence. We did grab everything before that happened, but I couldn't turn it off.”

Snail sighed, disappointment dripping off the sound, but no surprise. “We'll have to involve you both in additional classes for hacking.” Not reeducation, thankfully. This was a skill failure, not a character one.

“Thanks, I appreciate that, I'd hate to see what would have happened with a shorter window,” Rusty was truly relieved, so the lie carried with the touch of honesty.

“Anything else to report?” Snail inquired, and though he expected Rusty to talk, he still gave Huntress a cursory look, anticipating a nod or a head shake from her. Something that didn't involve her ever-grating voice.

He should send her in missions with others more often. It spared him the sound of her voice.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Brown eyes tracked the AC as it was walked into the LOADER and the pilot disembarked almost the same way she had gotten into it. The difference was that this time, she jumped from a height that had to have hurt her ankles. The man raised an eyebrow at this, but said nothing, choosing instead to let her make the first move.

The damage of the AC was mentioned and he took another glance at it. It wasn't completely destroyed, but the estimate wasn't lying when it told of the damages that her mech had withstood. She truly was lucky to get out of there in one piece, and it proved her skill in a fight to be able to keep her wits about her enough to prevent the total destruction of her AC. "I can arrange that. I'll get your license renewed and get you set up in AllMind."

The words that left her lips next made his stomach drop. So she wasn't fully broken from her re-education done by those she killed. That was a threat to his mission, but it explained why she had her freak out earlier. If music would keep that from happening again, he would happily pay for it. Losing contact during a mission like that brought him back to that day and he had only just stopped shaking before she arrived.

"Understood, 621. You'll get your music player if you're sure that will help." He didn't dare talk about his own feelings on what had happened. She was his hound and he was just making sure her needs were taken care of so that she would perform at her best. Or at least that was the lie that he told himself.

Truthfully, he was worried that the next time that happened she wouldn't be so lucky to snap back to reality like she had. He was worried next time that she would be killed and all of this would be for naught.

"You may have to kill many more resistence fighters. The corps and the PCA have it out for them here. It's just a job. Nothing more." He held a certain level of sympathy for them, but his mission was more important and he couldn't let that cloud his judgement. "Get some rest, 621. I'll get your license dealt with and start assigning you missions."

~***~

Just additional classes for hacking? If she weren't in the presence of Snail, she would have let out a sigh of relief, or even grinned. The short pilot did let the relief show on her face slightly. She would have to upgrade her hacking equipment on her AC. Rusty was able to get that information so quickly. If she was going to do well here, she would need to be fast like that too.

The feeling of being watched washed over her and she realized that Snail wanted her input as well. Opting for nonverbal communication due to his detestment of her voice, Elliot shook her head no. That was all they really needed to talk about, right? It seemed so as they were dismissed. The disappointment from their superior was palpable, but she did her best to let it roll off her as the two of them left his office.

Once the door was shut, she let herself relax and took a deep breath. Looking up at Rusty with a relieved grin, she fell back into step with him. "Lunch time!"

In the food prep area, there were two other Vespers hanging out at one of the two large tables; two that Huntress had seen around but hadn't interacted with yet. One had more of a 'dad' vibe to him, while the other seemed soft spoken. The latter of the two spoke up.

"Afternoon, Rusty." The man greeted before turning to her. "And you must be V. IX Huntress. I've seen you milling about, but we haven't talked. I'm V. VIII Pater." The black haired man gave them a small smile and a wave which she returned. They both seemed friendly enough. The true test would be their reactions to her voice.

"Yes. V. IX Huntress. Nice to meet you, V VIII, V. V." The expression on Pater's face changed from friendly to confused then disgusted as he looked to Rusty and Hawkins to make sure that he wasn't the only one who had heard her speak like that. Was she a doser? No, they didn't let dosers on their team. The voices in his head could at least agree on one thing; don't trust her. His demeanor changed as someone else took the front, a protector.

"How unfortunate. I hope your skills make up for that voice of yours. Truly a disgrace to the Vesper's image." Pater was quick to get up and walk off with his meal, leaving the three of them where they were. Well, at least she had a friend in Rusty.

"Fucking asshole," Elliot grumbled tonelessly, glowering as she headed to the corporate fridge to get a ration for her lunch.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia had no idea what ALLMIND was. Something, apparently, that went with her license. Walter didn’t explain it, and he easily agreed to get her the music player with no questions. She appreciated the lack of questions – but she felt a searing anger as he mentioned how easily the lives of the Resistance fighters could be disregarded for Coral.

That it was ‘just a job’.

To him, it was, but to her? She had lived as a Resistance fighter, before that was taken from her by Aidon. Her bleeding heart went out to them. “Really, just a job?” she couldn’t stop herself from the comment as Walter spoke so dismissively of it.

Just a job.

Just a hound.

“So we’ll take jobs if the Resistance has the money for me, right?” she couldn’t hide the derision in her voice, because somehow? She doubted it. The Resistance was trying to protect the Coral. She gathered that much from what she could piece together of the fight. “Never mind,” what did it matter?

If it was a job, it was a job. She could fight it, but to no good end. “It doesn’t matter where or why you sold your soul for coam,” and she didn’t expect her barbed words to impact him. “I’ll await my next mission – but seriously. The music. I’m not joking about this.” Although pretenses of vulnerability faded in her irritation, as she turned to leave.

She needed a shower.

~***~

Lunch time indeed. Rusty was glad to get out of there fairly easily, and he wouldn’t turn the classes down. He might actually learn something. Unlikely, but he wouldn’t go in with a closed mind on it. He didn’t know all there was to know, after all.

They made their way to the lunch hall, where it seemed a few other Vespers were going about their day, enjoying a meal. It was Pater who spoke up. “Hey, Pater,” it was always on the tip of his tongue to call him ‘Pates’, but Hawkins had a vibe about him that kept Rusty mostly in line with any teasing of Pater.

And, well, others.

Hawkins loomed, and Rusty watched both his, and Pater’s expression when Huntress spoke.

Pater looked disgusted, but Hawkins wore a perfect poker face. His thoughts were inscrutable. Even when Pater gave him a look, he just met it, without giving in to the disgust, nor other emotions. Rusty just frowned at Pater, and kept the scowl on his face when Pater spoke his mind.

“Just wait till you see her in action!” Rusty called after Pater as he abandoned his seat, as Huntress abandoned hers, before he deflated into a sigh, then eyed Hawkins.

Hawkins met that look just as blandly as he’d met Pater’s. “You don’t think—”

“I think that Huntress is a Vesper,” he stated. It was a fact. Inarguable, but it said very little.

It also said enough, as Rusty relaxed his posture, nodded, and got up to go get food as well, swinging by Huntress as she looked at rations, “I have some extra scratch – go find something you want to eat,” he told her.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Walter did his best to keep any emotion other than stoicism off his face at her comments, choosing to not respond to her spiteful words. The Coral was too dangerous to keep around. Destroying it was the only way, even if it meant having to destroy a whole planet.

Doing jobs here was just a means to an end; to get her name out there and gather coam to upgrade her AC for the over-arching mission. Her life would be her own once they completed his mission, if they even survived it.

Getting the license renewed was easier than he remembered, though technology was always advancing, so it didn't come as a surprise. AC pilots and their handlers needed up to date software to stay on top of the competition and to properly get jobs done after all.

With her license renewed and AC repaired, she could now take jobs, and thankfully, they were already pouring in. Walter scrolled through the list, before deciding on one that looked easier. It was the perfect mission to test out the music player and see how well it worked for her.

The gruff man called 621 down to his office, before pulling up the brief. The pre-recorded voice of a man representing Arquebus and the Schneider group went on to describe the mission. They wanted her to take down a tester AC meant for Balam enterprises.

"An easy enough job. Get in, destroy an AC, and get out. Perfect to test out that music player of yours."

~***~

The short pilot blinked up at Rusty owlishly before a grin spread across her peachy face one more. "Thanks, Rusty. Repay you in the future. Promise!" She could only hope that her face showed just how grateful she was for his generosity. When he was done grabbing his food, she looked through the ingredients in the real fridge.

It was almost overwhelming, the options she had, but she didn't want to get something that was expensive. It wasn't her money to spend, and she didn't want to be greedy or rude. There were a few prepackaged sandwiches and salads near the upper portions of the refrigerator that were relatively inexpensive, so that's what she decided on.

The problem is that they were rather high up. Her scarred face scrunched up in concentration as she balanced on the very tips of her toes, her tongue poking out past her lips as she extended her arm up to grab one of the sub sandwiches that were cut in half. After a moment of fishing around, she was able to grab one. "Too short for this," She mumbled to herself, bringing it to the table and sitting across from Rusty.

Huntress had totally missed the interaction with Hawkins and Rusty, but either he had a good poker face, or he didn't mind. Either way, he stayed with them. "Thanks again, buddy,"

The red head sat in silence for a moment, thinking of her family and hoping that they were eating just as good as she was today. With that, she dug into her sandwich, eating it slowly to savor the taste.

 

[Lucyfer]

621 attempted to rest, but after the shower, she felt too cold. Blankets didn’t suffice, and though the core of the nameless AC called to her, she remained in her bunk, staring up at the ceiling once more, and finding rest elusive. Perhaps she slipped away, for a few minutes, maybe an hour, but inevitably, she returned to the staring.

To the thoughts, that haunted her.

‘You’re being used to kill resistance fighters. Again.’

She could shut her eyes, but she couldn’t forget the way Aidon used her to do the same. ‘All so he can retire.’ Perhaps she’d have a life afterwards, but sort of life awaited her, when her hands were overflowing with blood from both Rubicon and Pluto.

How would she ever find peace? There wasn’t enough coam in the galaxy….

The thoughts only stopped when she was called for a new mission. She slipped into a new flight suit and made note to figure out where laundry was later. She grabbed a nutrition shake from the kitchen, before hunting down Walter’s office, and sitting down in the chair as he pulled up the job briefing.

Seemed he hadn’t forgotten the little spat from before, as he didn’t mince words, and she silently listened to the briefing from Arquebus. Well, Schneider, but…Arquebus.

Too easy.

Far too easy.

Well, she shouldn’t complain about that. She had to find herself again as an AC pilot.

“Mmm,” she hummed agreement that it was easy. A good starter job. “Then let’s take it and get this over with,” she wasn’t going to mince words, either. Just do the jobs. That’s all this was. That’s all they had to be to each other. “I assume there’s a time crunch to keep this AC from being delivered, so the sooner, the better.” And they didn’t want it one piece, so that was simple. Blow it to pieces. Move on.

~***~

“It’s a gift! No repayment needed,” Rusty laughed it off, and let her go off to hunt down what she wanted, while he got a hamburger for himself and piled on as much ingredients as he could. He didn’t really concern himself. He wasn’t funneling too much money anywhere else – that’d be suspicious, after all. He was able to spend Arquebus’s money how he wanted, more or less.

And he liked food.

He had his hamburger, and came around to go pay for what Huntress was getting when he saw her predicament with the fridge. He was about to offer his help, but she got it just then, and he chuckled to himself, before going to pay for the sub sandwich, and then join her and Hawkins at the table.

Hawkins eyed the food, but again, the poker face remained.

Of course, he just had a nutrition bar. “You want some real food, Hawkins? I’m feeling generous,” Rusty asked.

Hawkins gave a ‘tch’, “No, thank you,” he shook his head, “I am all right with just this.”

“Okay, but don’t expect it another day,” Rusty said as he settled in, and wrapped his fingers around his burger to take a delicious bite out of it.

Hawkins shook his head, “I don’t,” and he peacefully enjoyed his own bar without getting up, though he opted to direct a question to Huntress in between her bites of food, “Huntress, I apologize that we have not met sooner. I have been dealing with some of the newer mercenaries coming to Rubicon so I have been remiss in meeting the new members. I understand you hail from Rubicon-3. Is that correct?”

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Well, at least she didn't seem hostile. Walter was expecting a more snarky reply based on her reaction earlier, but was gifted with blunt communication. Good. It would do neither of them any good to fight when there was work to be done and coam to be made. He knew that she also wanted to upgrade her nameless AC and missions were the best way to do that.

"Correct. We need to stop it before it gets delivered to Balam. Time to load up, 621." As long as the music player worked, and she didn't slip back into that headspace, he could trust her with more difficult jobs. He had his doubts, but sometimes a little trust got you places in life. Hopefully those places weren't ones that ended with his throat slit while he slept.

Walter turned back to his computer and clicked 'Accept' before he got up from his seat to head to the control hub. He had already arranged for a transport helicopter to pick her up and take her to the location, he just needed to get everything set up and recalibrated. Since they had done a mission together earlier, he doubted anything needed changed, and that the command center just needed powered on. It was just a precaution. One couldn't be careful enough when working with ACs that weighed several thousand pounds in an unforgiving wasteland with very sensitive tech inside them.

The pepper-haired man made sure to swing by the kitchen and grab another cup of coffee before heading to his destination. The walk to the command center was winding and complicated, but he could walk the path blindfolded. Sliding into his swivel chair, he woke the sleeping tech and get everything ready to go just in time for the transport helicopter to be ready for her. "When you're ready, 621."

All systems were go, and soon she was loaded up and on her way to the job site's drop off zone. Taking a draught of his coffee, the man's brown eyes were glued to the screens in front of him for any signs that she wasn't doing well physically or mentally. They couldn't risk another episode like last time while on a job. She could get herself killed that way, and that wouldn't benefit either of them.

~***~

Huntress was fully zoned in on her food, unintentionally tuning out her surroundings as she ate. It wasn't often that her family was able to get real food before she became a pilot, and now, in order to make sure they were fed, she had forgone it completely. This was truly a treat.

Upon hearing her name, she looked up, wiping her mouth with a napkin as she listened to Hawkins speak. Did... Did she maybe have two friends now? He was engaging with her! She decided to not get her hopes up just yet. Maybe he was only being nice to her face but would be snarky behind her back.

"It's okay. Was avoiding speaking around others. Reactions are like Pater's. Coral damage from first surgery couldn't be fixed. Am good pilot, just can't speak right." The red head shrugged, lowering her sandwich to answer his question. "Yes, Western Bellius, BAWS settlement R3-291." She lifted her sandwich and took another small bite, reveling in the flavorful food. She swallowed her bite before speaking again.

"Where you both from?" She canted her head to the side as she looked to the other two. The curious red-head had a suspicion that Rusty was from Rubicon as well, but this would confirm it for her. How else would he know what Cinders meant? She doubted the Vespers cared enough to research that particular topic.

 

[Lucyfer]

There was no more playing at warmth. Walter was direct, and curt, in response, and left Aurelia with the mission directive. She left the office right after him, to return to the hangar where the AC – supposedly hers, but likely not – waited. ‘Don’t think like that. He’s honest about the task. Honest about what we’re doing. The AC may yet be yours.’

Not that it mattered. What could she do with it, after wrecking another group of liberation fighters?

She never should have gotten into a damn AC.

Even so, she loaded up, climbing back up the gray husk and entering the core to find the music player resting on the seat, earbuds as well. She put one in, before finding a playlist that looked like it would work for now, until she could curate it, and then slid the neuro-set on after hitting play, to provide that counter, in the hopes she could use the neuro-set without issue.

Walter’s voice came through the comms, and she was able to hear it thanks to leaving one earbud out. She hardly needed him to indicate much, and she moved the beast towards the transport helicopter, and there waited within its walls, and the ghosts that came with each change in song, each memory – or dream of a memory that could have been.

“…and no one told you where to go
We dived through crystal waters
Perfect oceans
But no one told me not to breathe…” ​

It was its own special hell to wait in the transport, with naught to do. She remembered days spent talking to Orpheus in the belly of DI MANES, but she felt no pull to reach out to Walter right then, even to push away the memories that threatened to overwhelm.

There was no racing heart.

No panic.

The memories weren’t of that nature.

When the transport reached its drop point, she left it without comment, noted the marker, and boosted her own AC unit towards the place where it seemed the Da Feng AC had stopped to refuel their own helicopter. A few people stood outside the copter as it refueled, and the AC seemed to be practicing the use of its boost.

She pushed out the hailing signal. Arquebus only cared about the destruction of the AC, not the people.

And those people outside the helicopter were fucked as soon as a fight began.

The hailing signal was accepted. “You’re not a Redgun,” the voice on the other side commented, “You’re a merc.”

“I am. Hired to take out your AC. You can eject if you like, your life isn’t a part of the bargain.” Walter might be annoyed, but she was sticking to the task.

~***~

Hawkins did not appear surprised by her answer, Rusty noticed. He wondered how much Hawkins may have already heard about Huntress. Enough, it seemed, to know she hailed from Rubicon-3, but that wasn’t a surprise. It was part of Hawkin’s job to know people, even if it wasn’t other Vespers. He still, usually, knew them from their files.

Hawkins hummed at her answer, and seemed to understand when he was being asked a question.

“I hail from one of the Earth Cradles,” he answered, though as he said it, there was a sigh, something ill-remembered reflected in his gaze. Not a surprise, either. The Earth Cradles were now all but gone, Earth itself a faint memory for any human as their home planet. It was being restored, gradually, but that was after the cradles went crashing to the planet.

“Really? How old are you?” Rusty had to ask.

He chuckled, “Depends, do you count cryostasis years?” There was a touch of a smile on his lips, “If so, well over a hundred. I was frozen for a while thanks to a disease. Gen-7 augmentations cured me,” he said, quite calm about it, although Rusty wondered at the weight of all he’d lost, and how long he’d been awake since then.

A while, he felt. “You’re from Mars, aren’t you, Rusty?”

“Yeah,” he lied too easily, “No cryostasis stint for me, other than getting out to Rubicon-3. Too long a journey to take awake,” given Pluto was a few years, and Rubicon-3 was beyond even that, it made sense that anyone who did it would take the sleep of cryostasis. He hadn’t ever actually been frozen in his life, and didn’t want to be, but…well, he had to lie.

“Were you able to live on planet?”

Rusty shrugged, “If you call a domed colony on the planet that, yeah. Mars is about as bad as Earth nowadays.”

Hawkins sighed, “Disappointing," he returned his attention to Huntress, "Have you ever been anywhere else?"

 

[EllieMcEllie]

'She wasn't joking. A music player is exactly what she needed.' The stoic man thought to himself as he watched her heart monitor on the screen in front of him. Even as she was dropped from the transport helicopter near the target's location, everything stayed well within parameters, giving the grizzled man hope that things were starting to look up. Well, if one could call 'Helping his hound bring about the destruction of a planet' hopeful.

Still. It needed to be done. At least she knew what she needed to be able to pilot the metal beast without panicking. It was more than most pilots could say.

"I've set the marker for you, 621. It looks like they stopped to refuel. Good. That makes things easier for you." If she could get through combat without panicking, he knew the next jobs he sent her on could be harder. She'd more than proven herself by fighting against that PCA helicopter and winning. With all odds stacked against her, she survived. Walter had no doubt that she would beat this AC as well.

Confusion filled the grizzled handler as she sent out the hailing signal to the AC she was sent to destroy. Wait, what was she-? He listened into the conversation between the two pilots and raised a brow. Walter had to admire her craftiness and respect for human life. She was willing to spare him where most pilots would have blindly followed the mission directive and killed him without a second thought. After all, she was right. The Arquebus mission only called for the AC to be destroyed.

Unfortunately the pilot didn't seem to take the hailing well, the AC diverting power to its weapons in preparation for a fight. The AC's head turned towards the helicopter for a moment, the pilot thinking of the people there that were refueling before settling on his answer.

"What? No way! I worked hard to pilot this AC! I'm not just going to let you destroy it!" With his cries of frustration, the pilot boosted backwards and shot off a few of its rounds at the intruding merc, trying to catch her by surprise before she can engage those rockets or the Bazooka.

"Well, you tried at least. You know what to do, 621." Walter didn't feel bad for the pilot. He let his own ego get in the way of his decisions when given a way to survive.

~***~

Huntress's curiosity was piqued. The Earth Cradles? Where was that located in relativity to Rubicon? Was it far away? Close by? She wasn't one to study planets outside of Rubicon-3, not like she really had the chance to when she lived at home, and nor did she have the brain capacity to truly look into things like that. She knew that a good portion of the pilots on Rubicon-3 were from other planets,and she knew some of the names, Jupiter, Earth, and Pluto for example. It was nothing above surface level however. What she learned on the spot from those pilots was what she knew.

Not only was Hawkins from Earth, but counting Cryo years, he was over a hundred! She had heard of Cryostasis, but never experienced it. The thought of being frozen for so long made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. She did her best to shake the feeling away. It was easier when Rusty was asked about his lineage.

Mars? Then why did he know about the Cinders? If anything else suspect came up, she would look more into it, but for now, there was no reason to. Maybe he was just knowledgeable on the subject because of their line of work, or running into other Cinders.

Not a talkative person, Elliot was glad to listen in to their conversation, eating her sandwich as slowly as she could manage. After all, conversations were hard with her challenges and she was content to just sit and be present. She would try and absorb as much of the planetary knowledge that they talked about, but she was way out of her realm of expertise and her face reflected that. Her attention was drawn away from her sandwich and thoughts by Hawkins.

"Rubicon is home. No need to leave. Don't want to. Like it here. Pretty." She could feel herself getting caught on her words the more she talked and her face scrunched up in frustration. Taking a deep breath in, she tried to speak again, but her brain refused to cooperate. The red-head rubbed her temples in irritation, trying to not get too distressed over it. The more worked up she got, the harder it was to speak right.

"S-so-ohrrry." was all she was able to get out, and it was pretty jarbled, her brain fighting her attempts to communicate. Maybe it was better if she gave her brain a moment to recuperate? She had spoken more today than she had in the last few months. The short pilot took a frustrated, sulking bite of her sandwich, her normal friendly smile now a despondent frown.

 

[Lucyfer]

In truth, Aurelia wasn’t really surprised by the reaction. She’d been a cocky upstart once. The difference, of course, was that she had talent enough to survive, and AC capable of taking hits as she learned. The AC in front of her didn’t seem like that sort, and she was quick to boost up as shots were fired, before taking aim at the helicopter.

Oh true, she preferred to let people live – but she knew how to play dirty.

The helicopter erupted in flames, and with it, the lives of those around it. It was enough for the Da Feng pilot to cry out, enough for them to be momentarily distracted, which was all Aurelia needed to drop in front of him and slice through his core with the blade. One cut wasn’t quite enough to break it open, but she could imagine the panic as he boosted back and tried to unload again, only for her to strafe left, and send out her missiles.

He tried with his own. “I can’t die to a merc who only kills for coam!”

Slow.

Homing, but slow – too easy to avoid around the refueling station as she wrapped tightly around it and heard it the missiles collide. The people who worked in there were likely scrambling, hoping not to die in the skirmish. Aurelia didn’t plan to target them, the pilot had no connections to them, unlike the helicopter pilots.

She didn’t wrap around to appear on the other side, but waited for the pilot to chase her, as he seemed to think his missiles hit her, speaking into the comm, their connection still live, “I’m going to earn my own callsign. Just you wait. I’ll be Danube….”

If he was an apprentice of hers, she would have reminded him it wasn’t good to talk and pilot. That was one way to bite off your tongue.

“…really could care for
And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms could ever hold….”​

As soon as the AC pilot did, he was met with an explosion right to the core. After the missiles and the slice, that was more than enough to shut him down. His AC fell back, core with a burning hole in its center.

Aurelia didn’t leave it like that, though. Without it able to fight back, she was able to hack it into pieces at vulnerable places, before blowing it apart even further, to make sure the prototype AC would be extremely hard to put together again. “Mission accomplished,” she said to Walter. “I’ll head back to the transport.”

At least this wasn’t a resistance fighter. She wondered how many jobs she might get against the corpos. She’d rather do those.

~***~

Huntress, like many Rubiconians, didn’t want to leave. Rusty had to wonder at that, despite being a Rubiconian himself. The PCA had closed Rubicon-3 off for over a generation, that so many people didn’t even dream of leaving now. Most just dreamt of having the planet to themselves, and they wanted to shut out the outside worlds.

That couldn’t be the way forward. He knew that. He did want to see other places. He wanted to know how they could improve. He didn’t think any other planet really did it all on their own, and he knew Rubicon couldn’t.

Not with their inability to really grow food, or do much at all, thanks to the Fires of Ibis.

The way things were now wasn’t the way forward, though.

He couldn’t say that, of course. He couldn’t speak as freely as Huntress, and he found himself reaching out to put a hand on her back as she seemed to struggle to apologize, “Nothing to apologize for, buddy,” Rusty said coolly, a bit of a laugh in his tone, “You answered us! Take a breath! You’ve probably done more talking than you usually do, huh?”

If people didn’t like her talking, and she was self-conscious about it, he could imagine this was a rarity.

Hawkins hummed at the answer, “You should see some other worlds, some day.” He said, “I’m sure you will with us, once we finish up with Rubicon-3, we’ll move on. Rubicon lacks…greenery,” he said, “You’ll…know what I mean when you see it. There’s not much that compares to a true forest.”

He made no comment on the talking part, or her apology. He just continued on, his own way of disregarding the apology for being unnecessary. Rusty did have a point. She answered the question.

Though, Hawkins was already starting to commit her mannerisms to memory. To add to his repertoire.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Like he knew her to, his hound dove right into an explosive battle, dodging and weaving with the expertise of someone well-versed in combat. This other AC pilot was not that. His ego was big, but he lacked the skills and combat experience to back it up. A horrible combination for a pilot, though maybe Balam would have been able to knock some sense into him. Well, if he weren't scattered across the snow like human confetti thanks to 621's explosives.

One thing Walter admired about his new hound was her dedication to see things through. She didn't just disable the AC, but cut it into pieces with her pulse blade and blow it to smithereens. That would certainly draw the attention of the corps for her attention to detail and land her more jobs. Good. It would get them further to the end goal that way.

"Well done 621. I'll let Arquebus know that their little problem has been dealt with. I'll see you back on the ship." With that, Walter paged the transport helicopter to let them know to expect her and headed to the job's page. He downloaded and then uploaded the footage of the AC being destroyed to Arquebus as proof of the job getting done. Now all he had to do was wait for her back in the hangar and debrief.

Walter took a moment to assess the AC for damages and ammo loss to calculate how much was coming out of her pay. To his surprise, the expenses were minimal, leaving her with 85,000 Coam out of a possible 95,000 Coam takeaway. If she kept that up with the more dangerous jobs, she was bound to get someone's attention.

The pepper-haired man got the notification on his communication device that she had been successfully picked up and that the pay had been deposited in his account not long after that. As she was on her way back, he sent the 85k to her own account and parked himself in the hangar.

"I sent the money to your account. You should be able to access it now and upgrade your AC if that is what you want to do. I've already downloaded the video footage and sent it in. Get some rest, 621. I'll have jobs for you later." He was thankful for the communication device and its ability to talk to pilots outside of the comms room utilizing an encrypted connection. That way he could still relay messages to his pilots in the event of an emergency or if he wasn't near the communication hub.

~***~

Unable to speak, Huntress found comfort in the friendly hand on her back. The warmth of his friendliness was a balm in this cold, almost hostile place and she felt herself able to breathe easier. The red head looked up at Rusty and blinked away the tears of utter frustration that had begun to form in the corners of her eyes as she nodded. Her voice still didn't want to work, but she didn't feel pressured to force her words out or judged because she couldn't speak.

Even Hawkins seemed to take it in stride, making no comment and just continuing with the conversation like nothing had happened. Yes, Hawkins was a friend too, Huntress decided. The others would have surely criticized her already for this and he didn't do anything like that.

The thought of thick, luscious forests was beyond her imagination having spent her whole life on this planet, but the thought of actually seeing them was bittersweet. She hadn't thought about the possibility of living long enough to see Arquebus done with Rubicon-3, and leaving her home would be devastating. But on the other hand, she would get to go places that normally, she wouldn't have had the privilege to. To experience places she had only heard about from other pilots would be while also supporting her family.

After a few long minutes, the buzzing in her head ceased, allowing her to speak once more. She started hesitantly, hoping words came out.

"Haven't talked this much since before first surgery." Huntress's expression brightened some at the realization that she could speak again in that unique way she did. "Usually keep to myself. Usually keep quiet. Haven't had friends to talk to since then," The short pilot rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly, grinning up at the other two at the table.

 

[Lucyfer]

621 did indeed return, and rest.

There were more jobs – Walter made sure of that, and the days passed by in a blur of explosions, repair work, and sleep. Balam sent her after the RLF that occupied the area she landed in, Arquebus sent her to weaken Balam after she set them up in that area, and Balam sent her after more RLF transport copters. Balam, it seemed, had its eyes on the Liberation Front, whereas Arquebus preferred to target Balam.

‘Arquebus is going to win.’

It was a stray thought Aurelia had, as she returned from one of Balam’s missions to deal with some dosers – Coyotes? – though she didn’t speak that thought aloud. It didn’t matter who won, in the end, though she’d admit to preferring Balam.

Hawkins – the one she’d spoken with at Arquebus – just had such a…false air about him. Everything about Arquebus smelled fake. Balam rung with that honest grit of a soldier who couldn’t afford bullshit politics.

That’s why they’d lose.

Aurelia had finally ordered new parts for the nameless beast that was tearing through Rubicon-3, and so found herself up at the wee hours of the night putting it all together. It was a terrible wedding of Arquebus parts and Balam – Melander head, VP-40S core, TIAN-LAO arms, and then the RaD legs – WRECKER.

She wanted more RaD, but it seemed they were specialty. She used the new tablet to try and send a message about custom parts, but she hadn’t gotten a response yet. Still – at least she was able to buy the WRECKER without issue.

It took some fancy work to get all the parts to sync up. Corporations rarely wanted their parts to work with other brands, but Aurelia knew how to get around that, and the RaD parts weren’t so finicking. It was the arms and the head attaching to the core that gave her trouble, but that was fine.

“…father, could you bless his soul?
He talking crazy, I may lose control
It's always trouble when they go too far….”​

It was work, and work kept her mind off of everything else, as she blasted music in the hangar, as she painted that nameless thing in hues of smokey gray and rosy pink, still something that was too faint to stand out. A shade of what it could be.

A shade of what she had been.

‘Yes, I know your name.’

With the unspoken beast reforged, Aurelia took a seat by its leg and leaned into it, opening the tablet to design something other than a stupid raven.

She wasn’t Raven.

She wasn’t 621.

She may have to pretend to be, but she’d slap a new image on it, as she began to design a cracked, abstract, Pluto.

As she began to sing along, barely aware of it, “My, my, those eyes like fire, I'm a winged insect, you're a funeral pyre….”

There was a new mission waiting for her in the morning, and she would have this done by then. After all -- she was going to be working with other people, and she'd be damned if they saw a raven for her emblem, instead of a planet shattering in the empty socket of a skull.

~***~

Despite what Rusty knew, that Huntress was a Rubiconian damning her own planet to work for Arquebus, he still felt a pang at the tears in her eyes, and all the pain she suffered because of her augmentation, and the inability to fix it. All of her isolation. All of that desperation, to improve her family’s standing. He understood it. He didn’t loathe her reasons.

He just loathed they weren’t for the greater good. He loathed she didn’t feel she could fight for the greater good.

So the smile was warm, friendly, without needing to be forced as she looked up at him.

He curled his fingers, pressure put into his fingertips as he drew them in, and lifted them from her back, to return to the table as she gathered herself while Hawkins spoke, and they all went back to finishing their meals, before Huntress found her voice again, and explained what happened.

It was what Rusty expected.

Hawkins nodded, hummed, “Perhaps you shall get used to speaking again if you continue to interact with myself and Rusty. O’Keeffe may have suggestions, as well. He was from a lower generation, like yourself, before we aided in his augmentation journey,” he said, “I do not know if he ever had trouble speaking, but he can certainly empathize with your situation. He is not around as often, but you should make a point to meet him when he is on base.”

“Yeah,” Rusty nodded, “He kinda looks like me, actually,” Rusty laughed as he realized that. Some thought they were related. “He’s got brown hair, about my height,” Rusty gestured up, even if he was sitting down, “brown eyes—”

“—and scars across his face,” Hawkins stated the obvious in a deadpan, “Diagonal. Surgery scars.” Why they were on his face, and like that, was the eternal mystery. Hawkins suspected that O’Keeffe was lying about it, but then again, the early generation augmentations were…barbaric, to say the least. That they were still practiced even now was…atrocious.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Over the next several days, Walter handed out jobs, and 621 did them with relative ease. Despite the damage that she returned her AC back in, she still had coam left over and the Corps were starting to take notice of her skill as a pilot. Arquebus and Balam had both already called upon 'Raven' by name to do specific jobs for them. If things kept going the way that they were going, they would surely reach their goal. Or rather, his and Overseer's goal, to burn the Coral up once and for all.

He had to give it to her. His hound was a hell of a fighter, and pilot. Every job she was thrown at was completed to the letter, even if half of the jobs were just petty Corporations going after each other, or the Liberation Front. She had done her job so well that G1 Michigan, or as Walter knew him, The Hero of Jupiter, had agreed to take her on a sortie with two of his red guns. G4 Volta, and G5 Iguazu. The grizzled man didn't know much about those two, but the way that Michigan talked about them made it seem like they were under his wing, so to speak. Almost like they were apprentices but with extra steps and permissions.

The man couldn't help but wonder how they got in that position, with the Hero of Jupiter apprenticing them if that were the case. Michigan was an open enough man that if Walter pushed the right buttons, he could get the information out of him. But there was also the option of asking Carla, who would love to do Michigan dirty just for the hell of it. The two had a complicated relationship.

They fought like siblings and pulled (very expensive) pranks on each other, but they also had each other's backs. Someone had once made a comment that Walter needed to get them one of those 'Get along' T-shirts and shove them in it together so they would stop bickering so much. Maybe they were right, but he was in no shape to even try to attempt that now. It probably wouldn't even work.

Michigan was a nice enough guy, despite his abrassive, drill sergeant like personality, and Walter had no worries about how 621 would get along with him. Maybe she'd even get along with his hounds? The word 'playdate' rolled around in his head for a moment as he frowned. No, not like actual dogs. This was a job for them to do, not for them to socialize. He had already been briefed on it by the boisterous man. The Gallia Dam had generators that needed blowing up, and if they did it right, they would walk away with almost 200k coam.

Walter had no doubts about his hound completing the job correctly. It was the other two that were the outliers in this. Sure they were Michigan's subordinates, but even the most trusting handler could end up getting bit by their hounds if they didn't keep a tight enough leash.

The faint sound of music, a song that Walter himself didn't recognize, is what brought the pepper-haired man out of his thoughts. What time was it? How long had he been sitting here at his desk preparing for the sortie tomorrow? More importantly, what was 621 still doing up? Had she not finished putting her beast together? If that was the case, he woudl have to offer his help so that she could at least get some sleep.

The more he thought about it, the more he wondered just how much sleep she had been getting with all these missions that had been popping up for her to do. Her performance hadn't dropped, which lead him to believe she was at least getting enough sleep to function at a base level. Still. Tomorrow was a big day. He should at the very least check on her and check the progress with the AC. The man got up from his chair and headed out of his office towards the Hangar.

As the hangar drew closer, the music got louder. He didn't mind the music since it was far enough from his sleeping quarters that it wouldn't keep him up, and it seemed to help 621 focus better even outside the cockpit. The pepper-haired man pushed the Hangar door open with his foot and walked in. There was the nameless AC, now fitted with new and better parts and painted in pale pinks and greys. It wasn't what he was expecting, but it wasn't his AC. As long as it got the job done, he would have nothing bad to say about it. He spotted 621 sitting near the foot of it, tablet in hand. He realized that she was drawing and thought better of disturbing her too much.

"Don't forget to sleep, 621. You have a job to do tomorrow." Chided the handler as he walked right back out the doors that he walked in from. Who was he to judge? He also was up late, though mostly because he was busy analyzing the mission and all that needed done for tomorrow. With a heavy, tired sigh, the grizzled man headed to his chambers to retire for the night.

The next morning, Walter was woken up by his alarm clock, shutting it off and getting out of bed. No time for him to delay when they had an important sortie to do today. One that would bring in quite a bit of Coam. After getting dressed and following his morning routine, Walter started them both a pot of coffee before heading to the bunks. He knocked on the door but did not enter.

"621, time to wake up. We have a brief with G1 Michigan in an hour. I made coffee," Reminded Walter before he left for the cafeteria once more. The short 5 minute walk there was long enough for the coffee to brew, and he got himself a cup as well as some toast and a small omelette. The man set his food down on the table and sat down to eat it while he waited for his hound to join him. Taking a sip of his coffee, the pepper-haired man looked out the windows of the cafeteria and watched the sun rise. For such a hostile planet that harbored one of the most volatile substances in the universe, it sure had a beautiful sunrise.

~***~

"Hope so. Can't talk banter like this." Elliot snickered to herself in the airy, almost silent way that she did, her tears all but forgotten as she felt truly welcome and accepted for the first time since her first augmentation surgery. Despite everything that she had been through, in the end, she had two new friends who didn't care if she had speech difficulties.

The red head tilted her head to the side curiously as they talked about someone named O'Keefe. He was like her, in a way, being a former early gen aug and she made a mental note to speak to him. Even if it was someone to talk about the horrors of their early gen augmentations, someone who understood what she went through, even if not exactly.

At the mention of his surgery scars, the short pilot's fingers brushed against the scaring on her face. "Augmentation scars. Scars like mine, right?" She questioned, tracing the outlines of the fading, zigzagged surgical scar that stretched from the middle of her cheek inline with her nose up into her hairline then the ones trailing down her jaw and neck until her fingers met the collar of her flight suit. They weren't diagonal, but the healing process for those was still not fun. "Will look for him. Promise."

Some of her facial scars were wider than most due to her complications, but that scar gel she put on every morning and night was a godsend, helping to keep the skin soft and pliable. She may not be the most attractive pilot, but she did her job well to feed her family, and had fun doing it. That's all that mattered. Well, that and now she had friends to bullshit with in the common room and eat meals with. Things were starting to look up.

With their lunches finished, Elliot excused herself, thanking Rusty again for the food, and both of them for their company before heading towards her room. She needed to send her mom the Coam and look at faster hacking equipment for her AC anyway. Maybe after she was done, she would hit the gym and get a run in?

While she was getting used to speaking again, she might need something to help her when her brain refused to work right. Elliot had looked into speech aids when she first had her difficulties, but without the Coam to pay for it or a reason to justify getting one other than to talk, she didn't get them. Things were different now. The short pilot excitedly pulled out her tablet and scrolled back through her ALLMIND Parts Shop app wishlist. It wasn't a long list, mostly decals she found funny or replacement parts for ARTEMIS that she would need if she ever lost a limb or something, so she found what she was looking for easily.

There it was! The 42-743 SpeechJammer, an ALLMIND product. Contrary to its name, it was a state-of-the-art technology for augemented humans that connected to their brainwaves much like the neuro sets for their ACs did to help voiceless or voice-altered pilots speak again. Powered by the concentrated thoughts of the user, the SpeechJammer turned those thoughts into speech via the app it connected to on the pilot's communication device, or the bluetooth necklace around the pilot's neck. Because it connected to the thoughts of the user, it mimicked their voice and could use tone, volume, and emotion for proper communication.

Elliot checked the price and winced slightly. She would have to hold off on the faster hacking gear for now to afford this, but it would be worth it if this worked the way it promised. At least it was same day shipping! She added it to her cart, and hit purchase. A silent notification from ALLMIND popped up on her tablet, thanking her for her purchase and telling her that it would be there by sunset that night. All she had to do was wait, and what better to do than go for a jog?

When she got the notification that it had arrived earlier than expected, the pilot left the gym at the same brisk jog she had held while on the treadmill. She waved to Rusty as she passed him in the halls, though didn't stop to talk. She was clearly a woman on a mission, if her pace or wide grin were anything to go by. Moments later, she repeated her actions, though she had a package under her arm this time as she jogged back to her room. Once there, she shut her door and gave herself a moment to cool down, catching her breath after that excitement.

Following the instructions on the package, the red head synced the necklace charm to her augmentation implants with bluetooth and slid the necklace over her head. All she had to do was think about what she wanted to say.

"Did it work? Am I able to talk?" Hearing her own voice speak with tone, emotion, with full sentences, brought her to her knees and tears to her eyes. Elliot sobbed shamelessly into her hands, though they were joyful tears. "I am V. IX Huntress, the leader of the 9th Vesper squad at Arquebus." More tears as she 'said' her first complex sentence in almost a year. She practically bolted to her tablet, pulling her mom's number up and dialing it. The line rang twice before the soft, alto voice of Maura Fletcher answered.

"Hello?"

"Hi mom, it's me," Elliot sniffled into the phone and laughed softly as she tried to get ahold of her emotions.

"Elliot? Is that really you, sweetheart? You sound... different than last time. Are you ok?" Her mom's voice was astonished and full of hope as she searched for the right words. The last time she received a call from her daughter was right after she got chosen by Arquebus to become a Vesper trainee and her voice had been much more choppy and toneless. What had changed?

"Yeah mom. It's really me. I used some of the Coam I made today to purchase a speech aid. I was going to buy better equipment for ARTEMIS, that's my AC, but I made some friends today that made me realize that I'm worth the coam to buy this. I made friends that talked to me even though I couldn't speak right, or get my words out. There are some real mean pilots here, but I think I'll be ok if I have at least one friend. Lucky for me, I have two! The one, Rusty, even bought me real food for lunch today! The other one, that's Hawkins, talked to me about how after we're done on Rubicon, we'll visit other planets and I'll get to see a real forest! Isn't that so cool? Sorry, I don't mean to ramble. I'm just so excited to talk to you again. How are Xan, Xavie, and Lil?" Elliot didn't realize that she had started crying again, or just how much she missed her mom until she felt the tears dripping down her already wet face.

There was a choked silence that stretched on for a moment too long before the sound of sobbing could be heard on the other side of the phone.

"Mom? Is everything ok?" Another moment of silence before Maura was composed enough to answer.

"I'm ok, just emotional. I never thought I would hear your sweet voice again. You know, how it used to be." The older woman paused for a moment to wipe her tears and chuckled. "It sounds like you've found yourself some good friends in Rusty and Hawkins. You keep those two close, you hear me? Friends like that are hard to find," Another pause. "Thanks to your money, the boys were able to join the AC training course like you did and are excelling! They didn't get augmentation, but they are naturals just like you and your father. If they are lucky, they'll get scooped up by a corporation. Lilith is still working for RaD as a product engineer and seems to absolutely adore what she does. Apparently her boss is really eccentric and fun. That's more than most can say."

The two talked on the phone for at least another hour before the events of the day caught up with Elliot. They said their goodbyes and I love yous before the small pilot hung up and went through her nightly routine.

The next morning, Elliot woke up energized. She didn't have an early morning mission like yesterday, but she still woke up at the crack of dawn to watch the sunrise before performing her morning rituals. She got dressed for the day in more casusal clothes compared to her flight suit, a black Arquebus logo'd polo and khakis, and headed to the lunch room to get her morning ration shake. The red head couldn't wait to reveal her surprise to Rusty and Hawkins, and to keep herself from seeking them out at ungodly hours, she sat down with her usual strawberry flavored ration shake.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia ignored Walter, even if it was in her interest to sleep. Some things were more important, and getting the decal on the AC was just that while she had the inspiration, while she knew exactly how it looked. Of course, that meant hours, and by the time the skull with the bloody, starred mist and shattering planet was up on the core of her AC, there was really no time to sleep. ‘Second wind. It’ll be fine.’ That’s what she told herself as she splashed her face with water, and went about her morning routine, almost ready by the time Walter knocked.

Again, he was left in silence as Aurelia finished up, dressed again in the flight suit, and left for the kitchen.

She could eat food now, and she’d started to, but she still gravitated towards coffee and a protein bar in the morning. Even when she slept properly, she wasn’t a morning person. Doing anything that wasn’t on ‘auto-pilot’ was simply too much. Thankfully, pouring the coffee and mixing in the sugar and cream was part of the auto-pilot routine, and so she sunk into the chair across from Walter with the warm cup.

A typical morning.

“So, are we expecting Michigan here,” Aurelia asked, wondering if that was indeed going to happen – Michigan showing up with his two pilots – or if this was all going to be over video. She still had no idea Michigan was the famed Hero of Jupiter she used to idolize, “or is this just going to be another video briefing?” The way she slunk in the seat wasn’t abnormal, but there was a heaviness in her voice that spoke of the lack of sleep.

She couldn’t hide it, but the caffeine would help.

She didn’t know how extra hands changed things, since she had to sync up with them, “I don’t really do team missions, you know,” that was certainly true of her missions, even if on occasion she’d stood alongside Orpheus in their respective ACs, those were rare. Her allies were ever in danger from explosions, which was the main reason she didn’t do it.

Of course, she didn’t really care about these Redguns. If they got in the way, that was their own stupidity.

~***~

For Rusty, the day passed without much note. He caught some chatter about the Wall – that wasn’t unusual, except the chatter was about Balam, and what they seemed to be planning. Rusty made sure to butt into that conversation and gather information, laughing along at the obvious failure of the Redguns.

He’d make a trip out into a BAWS town for the evening, on his way there when he saw Huntress in the hall, and waved.

He bought some socks – a basic necessity – and sent a message back to Uncle about what may or may not be true regarding the Redguns attack. He always let it be known when things were just hearsay, but even that was important.

The message didn’t leave from his Arquebus communications device, but his personal one, through a VPN, and encoded. Of course, he sent plenty of other messages back and forth to some of his squad members from that device. Jokes, memes, chatter – Arquebus knew he had a personal device, and it wasn’t strange he’d use it outside.

But he still had to make sure it wasn’t just a single message he sent from it. He buried it in others, even some other encoded ones.

He and Tomas had a running joke about the higher ups unnecessarily encoding information, so they abused it with each other, and others.

By the time Rusty returned to Arquebus, it was indeed night, and he simply went to sleep.

The next morning, he didn’t have any missions on his agenda, so he knew he’d have to work with his squadron and go through drills, but first, as always: breakfast. He sent a group message to his squadron to let them know the time and location after clearing the location with Snail first to make sure no one else was using it.

Rusty was thus in his flight suit when he stepped into the mess hall and saw Huntress. He lifted his hand in a wave, yawning into his other hand, as he went to pick out a sausage and egg breakfast sandwich for himself, and a shake – banana flavored – before taking a seat near Huntress, “’Morning,” he greeted, “got anything on your agenda today?” he doubted it, Snail wasn’t usually that cruel. He did note the necklace, though, which seemed odd. She didn’t seem frivolous, given she didn’t even buy food for herself.

So he pointed it out, to figure more, “Pretty necklace.”

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Walter watched as 621 walked around the kitchen on auto-pilot, something he had gotten used to. Unlike him, she definitely wasn't a morning person. It was the reason he made a pot of coffee for the both of them;Him for the taste, and her to help wake her up. The way she spoke though made him wonder just how much sleep she had gotten last night. If he had to bet, he'd likely say little to none.

"He's showing up here. Something about it being more personal than a video call. G1 Michigan is a bit... eccentric." It was truth and a warning wrapped into one. Michigan could be... well, a lot to take in at once.

"This is just to get your name out there. Don't worry about being too buddy-buddy with them." Walter took another sip of his coffee when he got the notification on his communication device. A frown crossed the man's lips and he sighed. "He's early. I'll be back,621. Have to let him in before he causes a scene about being stranded outside the ship." The pepper-haired man, with coffee cup in tow, got up from his seat and headed to the hangar bay.

While Walter was gone, a notification popped up on Aurelia's tablet. A reply back from RaD reading; "Hey there, Raven! Thanks for reaching out to us! Boss put me on message answering duty, so here I am! Name's Lilith Fletcher, one of the Production Engineers at RaD. What are you looking for specifically? If you got the coam, we got the brains to make your wildest dreams of destruction and mass carnage a reality! And I do mean wildest! Do you want legs that leave vulgar messages in the snow? Explosives that play an audio clip of G1 Michigan yelling when they explode? Rifles that shoot out pile bunker bolts? You name it, we'll make it! You can reply to this message and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Can't wait to work with you!"

They had brought their ACs along in the transport copter to leave straight for the mission afterwards and were docked right outside on a helipad parallel to his own transport helicopter. Michigan's boisterous voice could be heard even outside the thick doors, and Walter prepared himself for the migraine that would likely come from having to listen to Michigan yell for the next few hours in comms.

"Hurry up, maggots! We have a timeline to keep to and we can't do that if you two are stuck tying each others shoes like a pair of kindergarteners! Come on, G5, get out of that damn cockpit! You too, G4!" Walter unlocked the human sized door next to the AC exit and opened it for them. He watched as two pilots walked along behind him. One was tall, with blonde hair, a wire-y physique, and the scars reminiscent of early gen augmentation. His face seemed to hold a permanent scowl. The other was more bulky with a crop of black hair, a shorter stature and slightly darker skin. He seemed to be the more reasonable between the two from looks alone.

"Michigan." Give him an inch, he'll take a mile, at least in terms of conversation.

"Walter! How's the kiddo holding up? Are you packing lunches for the field trip?" The four of them entered the ship and Walter had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Always one for theatrics, wasn't he?

"621 is in the mess hall. We can meet there for the brief." Not one to mince words, the pepper-haired man led the taller man and his two hounds to where he had left his pilot. To no one's surprise, she was still there. Walter took a sip of his coffee as he took his seat again.

"621, this is-"

"You're the Hound, right? Good! Sit yer ass down and listen! These here are my trusty little maggots, but to you, they're G4 Volta and G5 Iguazu! Look alive, maggots!" Michigan gave pause for a second only to cut them off again. "Good enough. The three of you good-for-nothin's are gonna get along real nice now, aren't ya?" Michigan eyed the two Redguns, as if waiting for one of them to mouth off. It would seem that their manners would have gotten the better of them, and G1 continued, "That's what I thought. Now, lets get this brief started!"

~***~

Elliot had to keep herself calm as Rusty entered the mess hall in his flight suit. Did he have a mission today? They just had one yesterday, so maybe not. Oh. Their squads! She'd have to do drills with hers later. She'd send a message to them later once she figured out where was open for training. She waved back at him with a grin, taking a sip of her shake.

The red haired pilot kept herself from tracking his every movement with her eyes, instead focusing on her shake and what she would do later. Drills were boring, but necessary to keep her team's skills sharp and up to Arquebus standards. Plus, it meant that she would be in her AC, which she was always happy to do. Huntress turned to Rusty as he sat down near her and her grin grew wider, the red head nearly vibrating with excitement.

"Good morning, Rusty! Thank you! It helps me speak! I got it yesterday!" The pilot's lips didn't move, but her bubbly, energetic voice projected from the charm hanging off of the necklace; a clear difference to the droning, toneless voice she held yesterday. "I don't really have anything to do today other than drills with my squad, but I haven't figured out where I want to have them yet. I'm sure I'll figure it out." Elliot took an excited sip of her shake, pressing on the weird metallic packaging to push the liquid further into her mouth.

"You know, I didn't take you to be a banana kind of guy. Maybe vanilla or chocolate, but not banana. It's an underappreciated flavor." At this point, Elliot was smiling too hard to properly drink her shake. With her voice proper, she was more akin to an over-energetic puppy in both voice and body language. She could finally communicate with her peers, even if she looked a little weird while doing it.

"What about you? Did Snail set you up on another mission? Or are you headed for drills too?" The red head couldn't help but wonder where Hawkins was, wanting to show this off to him as well, but he seemed to be a busy man. She'd have to show him another time.

 

[Lucyfer]

The timing was immaculate.

Lilith got back to Aurelia as Walter left, almost like a conspiracy. The words spelled out as much, and with such giddy excitement. Memory flared, a reminder of a friend from Pluto, but she pushed it down as she read through it, smile growing a little wider at each sentence.

Oh, she would have to challenge RaD.

Hello Lilith, thank you for your response. I am quite encouraged by what I see here. I'm a bit more practical in my destruction, but that doesn't mean without fun. I'm looking for two back-kits, with as many missiles as you can stick into it for a heavy frame. I'd prefer that they be explosive on impact, but also explode into pink smoke. Coverage, and if the coloring particles are worth the extra coam, hopefully small enough and annoying enough to stick to my opponents and clog sensors.

What do you think, Lilith, can RaD pull it off? ​

Aurelia really hoped so as she heard the steps returning towards the kitchen. She let the smile fade from her face and rose to greet them, only for her expression to shift to bewilderment.

‘Antares?’

Older, but the man who introduced himself as Michigan looked like the man she used to see on screens. He sounded like him, too, though her memory could be faulty. Except, the mannerisms seemed the same. Not that she knew him personally, but she had idealized him enough.

Enough, that she sat when directed.

And listened.

“I hope you'll learn after this mission to put respect on my name, Antares,” she spoke smoothly, with no doubt on his identity, “those two may be good-for-nothings, but I'm good for everything.”

Iguazu snorted, “Michigan wouldn't know how to show respect if God himself showed up and taught him.”

“He probably hasn't seen anything worth respecting in a while,” Aurelia stated. “After all, why else would you need a merc’s help?”

“Listen here, freelancer,” the glare from G5 was priceless. The sweet promise for vengeance laid over his gaze like ice over a deep river, “We don't need your help with this mission, and we sure as fuck won't need it with the Wall,” he stepped forward and Aurelia rose to her feet, posture shifting just that bit to show she acknowledged his threat wasn't only verbal. And she wasn't backing down if Michigan couldn't keep his own in line. “You're just coming along to wipe up after me and Volta, because that's grunt work.”

“You guys can't wipe your own asses? Wow.”

Iguazu moved to lunge at her.

~***~

Rusty was startled to hear a voice come from Huntress, even though she didn't move her lips. His eyes went back down to the necklace which apparently connected with her brain to send the words out, proving how much intelligence she still retained.

When they returned to her face, his eyes were wide with wonder. He couldn't help but question why she hadn't done this before, or even why Snail hadn't done it and taken it out of her pay, but Rusty supposed Huntress was still thinking about her family.

And people weren't giving her a reason to talk.

“Yeah, I'm on drill duty today, too,” he agreed, a bit slower as he was still digesting her words and the manner in which they were delivered. “But this is great, buddy! Even Pater won't be able to deny your abilities now, this shows without question your mind wasn't ruined at all! Not that I doubted it, but people like Pater and Snail put a lot of stock into how someone speaks.”

“The manner in which one presents themselves is of utmost importance, and I will not have my authority on the matter questioned, V. IV Rusty.”

The snappish tone caused Rusty to jolt before he realized Hawkins had approached from the side and was merely imitating Snail. He let out a relieved laugh. “You almost gave me a heart attack, Hawkins.”

Hawkins gave a bit of a demuring smile. “I couldn't resist. You know it's dangerous to drop his name.” he took a seat, “Disappointed.” He said then in a monotone. “Learning Huntress’s manners.” Not perfect.

Now he'd have to learn this style of speaking from her.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Lilith happened to be by her work tablet when she got the message back, fumbling the device and saving it at the last possible second. Raven really got back quick! A crazy grin spread across her face as she read it, getting slightly wider with every word. She composed a message back immediately.

Raven, you really know the way to a woman's heart! Explosives and the color pink? That is by far the wildest, and most amazing request I've personally gotten and I can't wait to get working on the prototype! We'll use RaD's WS-5001 SOUP Scatter missile launcher as a base. That'll give you at least 10 missiles per side, but I think I can modify it to give you 15 per side and it still work without overloading your AC. Boss is real partial to the SOUPs, so you know you're getting the good stuff! As for the pink smoke, how pink are we talking? Bubblegum pink? Barbie pink? Rubicon sunset pink? Hot pink? We have many pinks, as I'm realizing. I'll attach the color sheet for the number of pinks we have. Of course, if it isn't on here, we can mix up a custom pink for you too. What are your thoughts on missiles that explode and release a stickier ECM fog that'll stick to whatever it explodes on? That way you get that cover, they can't lock onto you and their AC is covered in pink?

I'll have a prototype ready in about 12 hours give or take. I think Boss'll love to see this one!
​

Walter wasn't expecting the look of confusion and surprise on 621's face. Did she know Michigan? Maybe she knew him from when she was on Pluto? When she mentioned the name Antares, the grizzled man's eyes widened subtly. So she did know him, or at least of him. The real him, the Hero of Jupiter. G4 Volta, as he was introduced, also seemed surprised, but that didn't stop the other man, G5, from talking back almost immediately. Someone needed to teach this man manners.

Michigan's already gung-ho attitude nearly tripled at the mention of the name 'Antares'. "Is that so? We'll just have to see about that, won't we? Maybe you can even teach these maggots a thing or two about respect!" No sooner did he get his sentence finished did Iguazu start bad mouthing 621. Walter watched from his seat and simply sipped his coffee. He trusted in his hound's ability to defend herself and earn the respect of other pilots, especially after watching her efficacy during these last few missions and the past videos.

Normally, he would have stepped in to stop the fight that was about to erupt because of Iguazu's loud mouth, but seeing that Volta hadn't said anything to stop Iguazu, and that Walter hadn't stepped up as well, he was going to let this play out. After all, it would be nice for someone else to be doing the disciplining of the hot-headed Redgun. He would step in before he got too hurt to pilot, but not before he got his ass handed to him.

"G5, you kiss yer momma with that mouth? Or are you more of a daddy's girl?" Michigan taunted with his signature grin. Volta had gotten up and away from the fighting so that he wouldn't be caught in the crossfire. Maybe this time Iguazu would learn to stop mouthing off? He doubted it. That man was fueled on spite and hatred. It would take more than an ass whoopin to teach him a lesson.

~***~

"I'm excited to be able to talk to my family again. I called my mom for the first time since coming here last night."

Elliot was about to retort something about Pater when the voice of Snail had her sitting ramrod straight in her seat, all thoughts gone except for 'Holy shit, Snail.' She was thankful that it didn't come out of the voice assistant. Only when Hawkins came into view did Huntress let herself relax again, letting out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding as a grin spread across her face.

"You scared the fuck outta me, asshole," The necklace broadcasted as she snickered, her verbal jab all in jest. His imitation of her had her laughing harder, her freckled face going red from the force of them.

"Can-" She spoke with her toneless voice between her giggles. "Can still talk like that."

"I just prefer this. I can properly tell people to fuck off now and sound like I mean it. Does-" Elliot paused to speak with her other voice.

"Fuck off." She switched back to her bluetooth voice.

"-really sound like I mean it,? No! I sound like someone's AI was told to say it."

It took Elliot a hot minute to get her laughter under control enough to be able to drink her shake again. Tears from laughing so hard streamed down her still-red face as she was wracked with aftershock giggles. She kept her gaze down as any glance at Hawkins or Rusty would set her right back off again. It took her twice to figure that out. The first time she nearly shot ration shake out of her nose. "I haven't laughed that hard in... gods, I don't know how long." The red haired woman took a deep, shaking, giggling breath in and let it out, failing to stop the next aftershock of laughter that hit her. "Thank you,"

"What are your plans today, Hawkins? You off to sortie or are you also on drill duty?" As a force of habit, the woman's head canted to the side in question, even though her tone came through just fine thanks to the SpeechJammer.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia knew violence was about to follow, but she didn’t know if anyone would step in. None did. It seemed this must have been normal behavior from G5, and apparently Walter didn’t have much faith in the Redgun.

Perhaps he should have had a bit more, though.

Iguazu recognized how to close distance, fast, and try to keep it closed. His lunge was a tackle, and Aurelia went down with Iguazu, just managing not to crack her head on the floor. Iguazu scrambled to straighten up, but Aurelia locked her legs quickly around his midsection, making that quite the task for him.

“Fuck—Off—Michigan—” every word was a struggle as he worked to get out of the lock.

Aurelia knew better than to let him get up. He’d have the advantage to rain down punches, and she couldn’t hold him indefinitely in a lock. She twisted their bodies to put Iguazu on his side, and herself as well before letting go, kicking his midsection as she unwrapped her legs from around him and made her own scramble to get up to her feet.

He got to his knees before grabbing her leg, and pulling her right back down to the ground again.

“You fucking—” Aurelia caught herself with a hand and kicked out with her other leg, but he took the blow easily on his arm. She planned to flutter a flurry of kicks as he was in the process of getting up, and the second collided with his leg, before he slammed his foot down on her leg.

Pain radiated, and as he lifted that leg, he aimed again to kick at her head while she was still sitting. She lifted her arms to catch the blow against them instead, “Know your place, Freelancer,” Iguazu spat as he shifted stance, giving her just enough time to get up.

Except, she didn’t. That was what he expected, so instead, she just shifted forwarded on the ground, and threw a punch at his crotch.

He keeled over immediately, and Aurelia stood up, grabbing his hair in the process to straighten him up as she got to her feet. “Dirty, fucking—” He wasn’t helpless; he threw a punch into her stomach, and it certainly hurt, but Aurelia just yanked his head back with the hold on his hair.

“Honor doesn’t win fights,” which he knew. Oh, she knew he fought dirty. She recognized it in him; they’d both enjoyed their fair share of back alley brawls, in other lives. She felt an atrocious kinship with this maggot, and she had a feeling he did, too. His history was hers – parents that wanted nothing to do with them, dreams too big for their pockets, and somehow, somehow, he still ended up gainfully employed with an AC, even if he likely had debtors as terrible as hers were.

She hated him, a sudden hatred as furious as sudden lust.

She gave one last yank of his hair to off-balance him. He stepped back, straightening up – and took a punch right to the face. His nose bloodied her knuckles, but Aurelia hardly planned to stop there as Iguazu managed to get his arms up to block the next blow.

~***~

Hawkins let a grin unfold on his face as Huntress broke into a fit of laughter at his impression. He knew the only way it wouldn’t seem mean, was if he did it after another. Snail was the perfect excuse in the moment, and one he had nearly perfected, given how often he had to hear from Snail.

The only one he was around a lot, that he wasn’t good at mimicking, was Freud.

Likely, because there was just something…well, too strange about Freud, since he never augmented himself. It was hard to pick up on his nuances. “Fuck off sounds very serious in your physical voice,” Hawkins said, in a way that was certainly impossible to tell if he was joking or not.

Rusty would have to hand it to him. While it lacked all the tone, there was something about knowing Huntress, just a little, and imagining how serious she’d have to be, to use her physical voice to say ‘fuck off’ that did add a bit of a punch to it. However, objectively – it did sound ridiculous. Even so, he couldn’t quite laugh at her mocking her own voice, a bit uncomfortable with it when he didn’t want to make her feel bad about it, either.

Or suggest he’d ever been bothered by it.

He still grinned at her enjoyment of the situation, though.

“I have work to do today, though. Snail is beginning to organize several plans. I wouldn’t be surprised if you found yourselves in one again soon,” Hawkins noted.

“We just had a mission,” Rusty mock-complained, “Don’t we usually get more rest?”

“Usually,” Hawkins agreed, “but some things are time sensitive. I can’t say much more. Problem of leaks,” oh, how well Hawkins knew about that, he was a part of them, but he couldn’t admit that. “Snail’s wanting to keep each part, to itself, so no gossiping amongst us about missions.”

“Huh. Must finally be the Wall.” Rusty could guess easily enough, but Hawkins only shrugged.

Even if Rusty was right.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

"Hound got yer tongue, Gun 5? Or did she just knock the sense out of you?" Another quip from Michigan, who was having a blast watching his maggot and Walter's hound throw down. It seemed that Walter knew how to pick them, as she was just as dirty a fighter as Iguazu.

All three men shifted subtly in some way as they watched Iguazu take a hit to his groin, as if they felt the hit themselves. It was a shared trait among those with similar anatomy, it seemed.

Walter knew that she would be able to hold her own, but to see just how dirty she fought, no holds barred? He knew that he chose the right one for his project. This was someone willing to complete a task to the fullest, no matter what she had to do. At least, that was what he gathered from their interactions and the outcomes of the sorties that he sent her on.

When 621 drew blood on Iguazu, Michigan knew it was time to step in. "Alright maggots, ass whoopin' time is over. I need you two in tip top shape for the field trip! Shape up or ship out!" When Iguazu didn't back down, the large man took two long steps towards the two and wrapped his arm around the front of the other man's neck. He must have expected it, because he immediately tucked his chin, but not fast enough as the other arm came around and put Iguazu in a choking headlock. The man struggled against his grip, his face going from red to purple as Michigan cut off the blood to his brain.

"Gun 5! Are you done running yer mouth or am I going to have to staple it shut for you?" The act of being choked out by the much stronger manwas enough to subdue the aggressive blond, for now at least, and Michigan let him out of the headlock. The older man looked between the three pilots in warning before pressing the button on tablet, bringing up the hologram of the Gallia Dam. Volta was attentive, more focused on the brief than the bloodied nose of his twice beaten pilot associate. He did however, hand over a tissue for him to stop the bleeding.

"Today's field trip is to the Gallia Dam Complex! Word is that they got some generators and I think they'd look better destroyed. Raven! So you fit in with the team, you'll be Gun 13, a lucky little number that just became available. Gun 13, Sound off!" He paused to let her, not cutting her off like he had the others. "Good enough! You're just along to clean up after these two little maggots, since they can't wipe their own asses,"

~***~

Huntress nodded along to Hawkins' words. She had only been here for a few weeks, so she wasn't too in the know about things. That didn't mean she couldn't sit back and listen in to their conversation and make the occasional quip.

"Us? Rest? Noooo. We're Vespers, remember? We don't need rest," The red head put a lot of brain power into making sure the sarcastic remark was quiet enough for the other two to hear, but not anyone else. She didn't need the real Snail to hear that.

What intrigued her though, was the talk of leaks, and a Wall. "The Wall? I don't follow. There are a lot of walls on Rubicon-3 because of all the buildings. What part of Bellius is it in? Is it a PCA base?"

It was then that Pater entered the mess hall. He had a smile on his face and went to greet Hawkins when he saw Huntress sitting there with him and Rusty. His face fell into a condescending look as his protector alter took the front from him. "Oh. She's still here? I'm surprised Snail lets her stay with that voice of hers. It's like nails on a chalkboard, honestly." Huntress whipped around in her seat, anger beginning to fill her. Normally, she was a much more level-headed person, but after yesterday's debacle, she wasn't feeling too forgiving today.

"What the fuck is your problem, asshole? Just because my voice is a little fucked up doesn't mean that I'm not a good pilot, or that my brain doesn't work." It was enough to surprise the tall man, looking at her strangely as her lips didn't move but her voice, now competent sounding, still projected.

"I don't know what's stranger. Your grating monotone voice, or the fact that you speak without moving your lips now. I didn't know Arquebus let freaks in." Huntress's anger reached a boiling point, and despite her best efforts to take deep breaths, she thought back on her conversation just minutes before. Maybe Hawkins was right? Would she want to waste brain power for two simple words? Probably not. Especially when she didn't know if this thing had drawbacks. Would it be like when she used her AC for too long and it strained her brain? Only time would tell.

The short pilot leveled her furious blue-eyed gaze with Pater's before she spoke with her physical voice. "Fuck off, Pater." Getting up from her seat, Huntress tossed her mostly empty ration shake in the trash and headed in the direction of the training center. "If you need me, I'll be in the gym. I'm going to go cool off." Pater scoffed at her reaction and headed to the fridge to get himself some real food.

"Can you believe her? Can you believe Snail for letting her in? Ridiculous," Pater rolled his eyes as he grabbed himself a sandwich and paid for it, moving to sit with the other two.

In the training ceneter, after changing into work out clothes and warming up, Elliot set herself up on the treadmill. There was something about a good workout that helped to clear her mind and settle her emotions. She wasn't much of a scrapper, being lithe and short, but what she could do was run.

The red head turned the speed up on the treadmill to a pace that was somewhere between a brisk jog and a dead sprint, locking in for a hard core leg workout. She had to train her squad today, so she couldn't go too crazy, but it would settle the anger inside her enough to think straight again.

 

[Lucyfer]

Iguazu wasn’t sated.

Nor was Aurelia, but she heeded the voice all the same, and stepped into a more defensive posture. Iguazu wasn’t having it, but wasn’t able to land another blow as Michigan stepped in, and put him in a chokehold. ‘Sucks to be you.’ She supposed she ought to be grateful; she could probably take Walter in a fight.

She didn’t need to find out, though.

As Iguazu stepped to Volta’s side, Aurelia took to Volta’s other side so he’d be between them during the brief. She watched the briefing as Iguazu dabbed his nose, and tried to readjust it right on a face that would never be synchronized. Aurelia couldn’t help but snort at her new name. ‘621, Raven, Gun-13.’ None of them her name. “Aye, Gun-One.” She sounded off rather lazily, which earned only a ‘good enough’ before he went back into it.

“Sounds easy enough to me,” Aurelia resisted the urge to note she could have done this on her own without the tagalongs. She’d just show Michigan. And Volta and Iguazu while she was at it, if Michigan thought even two of them were necessary for this kind of destruction.

Destroy the generators, destroy the defenders, get out.

“You’re wasting your coam adding the tagalong,” was all Iguazu would say, but he didn’t look to the ‘hound’ or to the hound’s keeper when he said it. He kept his eyes on the hologram instead, as if eye contact would initiate another fight.

~***~

Things were going so well, and Rusty was about to tell her about the Infamous Wall, when Pater showed up, and decided to be an asshole again. This time, Huntress exploded, rather than rush away – she did that, too, but first came the explosion, both with the necklace and with her own words. Rusty started to rise, but when Hawkins settled a hand over his, he hesitated to follow.

“Let her have time to cool off,” Hawkins suggested. “You’ve barely eaten, and that food isn’t cheap,” it was a reminder to Rusty that he would need his own strength, and so Rusty sat back with a huff, and then dug into his meal in silence, intending to be done before Pater returned with his meal.

He wasn’t done by the time Pater returned.

“You should be worried, Pater,” Rusty said, close enough to done as he rose when the other man sat, “If Snail is willing to overlook her flaws, imagine how good of a pilot she is,” he couldn’t help but glare down at him, “I’ve seen you both. I think she’s already better than Swinburne, so when she reaches my level? You’ll be demoted. Just wait.” Snail wouldn’t do her justice and give her a rank befitting her skills, but he’d be willing to bump Pater and Swinburne.

Swinburne frequently needed re-education, after all, and Pater? Hawkins couldn’t protect him forever.

Even Hawkins gave an agreeable hum, “We all do have our flaws, Pater. You shouldn’t judge her by those that don’t interfere with her work.” He said it as Rusty was gathering his trash to leave, though Rusty had no intention of hanging back for the conversation.

He had drills to run, after all.

~***~

The gym wouldn’t be empty long. Ten minutes, perhaps, before a man with diagonal facial scars and brown hair walked in wearing gray sweats and a tank top. He paused a moment after seeing his beloved racked weights, to take note of the other in the room.

IX Huntress.

They hadn’t met, but he’d been given orders by V. II Snail to set her on a mission to gather information on the Wall power supplies, as well as gather information on the movement of their AC units. Although some had fallen into the hands of the Redguns, not all of them – certainly, not their best.

He had no reason to give her any warning on the mission yet, but he supposed an introduction was in order. He laid his towel on one of the benches near the racks before moving towards the treadmill she was running on. She didn’t seem to be wearing any earbuds, but he still silently lifted his hand in greeting in case she had some in he couldn’t see, and waited for her to acknowledge that she’d be able to hear him if he spoke.

No point wasting his breath otherwise.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

With the briefing done, the pilots were loaded up into a transport helicopter and sent on their way to the drop off point for the mission. Walter and Michigan made sure they were all on the same comms channel, though Walter had a second open to talk only to 621. "Gun-13... I think I'll stick to 621. Don't let these Redguns teach you bad manners." Walter was silent for a moment as if thinking something over, something unsaid. "About that fight. Good work, 621."

And he meant it. She gave her all in her fights, both hand to hand and in her mech, and he respected that in her. It also gave him slight pause. They were the same height, but she was in better shape that he was. He might not win a fight if she decided to pick one. It just meant he had to make sure to not give her a reason to pick a fight with him.

Volta sat in CANNON HEAD, strategically placed between HEADBRINGER and Gun 13's AC. After Michigan's intervention, it seemed that Iguazu was content to lick his wounds and regroup his thoughts. Well, his version of content, which was likely him scheming on how to get back at Gun 13 and Michigan, fuming at how Gun 13 'got lucky' and making other snide comments. Volta knew it wouldn't be long before he was back on his bullshit, but he was taking advantage of the calm before the hate storm that was Iguazu.

The descent of the transport helicopter alerted the black-haired pilot to their imminent release and he powered his AC on. With luck, they would get in, destroy the generators, and get out without much fuss. Walter was hoping for the same. He could already feel the migraine coming on from all of Michigan and his 'maggot's' yelling and just wanted this mission to be over. The grizzled man took a sip of his coffee at his communications desk and rubbed his temple with his free hand.

"Mission Commence! Attack! Get in there, you maggots!" Came the grating voice of Michigan as the three pilots unloaded off the transport copter, causing Walter to turn down the volume of the man's voice in comms. It was momentary relief, though he needed to keep him audible to keep track on the mission and 621. He kept an eye on the heart monitor, though he had lost that almost obsessive checking behavior after she had proved herself stable several times over with the music player.

Volta boosted forwards as soon as his AC hit the snow and raced along with Iguazu, starting to take out the MTs. "Don't do anything stupid." He warned Iguazu over comms. "We're here to destroy shit, not start fights with independent mercs. Let just get this shit done." The tank bodied AC assault boosted and slammed into a group of MTs, retiring them as he made his way to the generator.

~***~

Rusty's words rattled the protector. Demoted? Like hell they would be! They had worked so hard to get to this position! The worry and fear were kept from his facial expressions, though not from his eyes as he sat down, uneasily. He let out a half hearted scoff, though it was becoming a little clearer that Rusty's words affected him. "As good as you? Ha! I'll believe it when I see it. There's no way..." Was there? No, he was just bluffing, right? All that bravado gone as the protector fought to hold the front as the host- the real Pater- tried to take the front back. He succeeded with Hawkins speaking to him, grounding him to the present.

"I... I guess. I just don't understand how someone with a voice like that could be a Vesper when Snail boasts about perfection all the time. It may not interfere with her skills as a pilot, but it has to drive Snail crazy, right?" Pater looked to Hawkins for an answer as Rusty left them there. The pilot took a bite of his sandwich and looked out the window, the wave of turmoil inside him stirring like a storm. It just meant he had to work harder

~***~

The only thing that could have made this workout better was music, something she had foolishly forgotten in her anger. No matter. With every solid connection of her feet against the vinyl belt of the running deck, she could feel her anger melting away and her head clearing. Pater could think what he wanted. She was a skilled pilot, just like her dad was. She was taking care of her family like he did. As long as she stuck to her goal, and supported her family in the one way she could, she didn't have to worry about what the others thought about her.

She was nearing the end of her work out when movement to her side alerted her to another person in the gym. Huntress looked up and at first, she thought it was Rusty coming to check on her but then she saw the scars across his face. O'Keefe. Slowing down, the redhead used her necklace to project her voice. "You must be O'Keefe. Rusty was right. You two do look similar." The resemblence was uncanny, though she was sure Rusty's eyes were a slightly warmer brown, and he was younger.

Getting off the treadmill, the short red head wiped at the sweat dripping down her face, neck, and arms with her towel. It wouldn't help the sweat on the rest of her that had her crop top sticking to her stomach and chest, her shorts sticking to her legs, or her hair sticking to her face but it was good enough for now. She certainly felt better; less foggy-headed from the anger and ready to take on the day. A shower was needed first before she went to go do her drills though. A good, hard run was fantastic for the soul, but it often left her drenched in sweat.

"I'm Huntress. It's so nice to meet you. Hawkins and Rusty said to look out for you, said that you may be able to help with some of the complications I have. I was an early gen too, though I think my scars give that away, huh?" Ever the bubbly, energetic, friendly pilot, Huntress introduced herself, craning her neck up to look at him. It seemed that with her ability to talk in full sentences restored thanks to the necklace, she had a little more confindence than before, allowing her full personality to bubble to the front. After wiping her hands free of sweat, Huntress held her hand out to him with a bright, friendly smile. It was an overly expressive look, the kind that was all teeth and closed eyes, from months of having to compensate for the lack of tone in her voice, but it was genuine none-the-less.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia made sure to put in her earbud once she was in the AC unit, and she tuned out Volta and Iguazu as they were transported to the drop point. Tuned out even Michigan, until the helicopter shuddered and they were released, with Michigan shouting out the orders, as if they’d forgotten.

Aurelia couldn’t help but roll her eyes, even if it disrupted her vision thanks to the neuro-set. She got that back in order, and bolted off after Iguazu and Volta, continuing to ignore their little conversation.

She would dare Iguazu to do something stupid like fight her, but instead, she let him fight the MTs as she went right for the generator, snow burning up underneath her boosters. The MTs let their focus be drawn to the two Redguns, so it was easy to blow the first generator, even if a part of her felt absolute revulsion at it.

‘How many people are going to go without power?’

"Come on somebody, why don't you run?
Ol' Red's itching to have a little fun
Get my lantern
Get my gun...."​

Music couldn't blast the thoughts out of her head.

‘How many lives are going to be lost to the cold?’

The lump in her throat kept a taunt from passing her lips as she boosted away from the area to head to the next generator.

“What are you doing, freelancer?” Iguazu demanded over the comms. “You’re supposed to be—” she heard the harsh snap of his teeth clicking together; his AC must have been hit by something.

“You’re doing good at the wipe-up duty. I can handle the generators. I’ll come back for you when I’m done.”

The next generator required scaling some of the dam, and getting around the artillery. Thankfully, the artillery went down with a couple of missiles, and she divvied out her arsenal of eight between them, imagining the future with her glorious pink missiles. ‘Ah shit, I didn’t get back to her!’ Something to do after the mission. She could specify the pink then.

Iguazu was suddenly ahead of her and on the wall. He decided to leave Volta behind to try and catch up with her, it seemed, but a shielded MT caught and pushed him back, allowing her to get the shot in at the generator, which exploded next to him and the MT.

The MT was shredded.

“YOU HIT ME!”

“It’s called debris. Don’t stand near the generators.” Iguazu didn’t stay back to fight the remaining MTs in that area, but immediately rushed ahead to the next. Aurelia couldn’t help but chuckle to herself at his need to prove himself.

~***~

Hawkins kept his gaze even, his expression calm, as Pater seemed to consider what was being said to him. “He does find it irritating,” Hawkins confirmed, “which should make you think about what sort of talent would be allowed into the Vespers, if it irritates Snail.” That was the point that Pater seemed to be missing.

Many good, even great, pilots were overlooked for the Vespers for superficial reasons.

Huntress had to be something worth investing in, for Snail to allow her to join them, given that arbitrary defect. Not just good. Not even just great. Snail saw her potential to excel. Hawkins had yet to review her talents, but he doubted Snail would pick someone bad.

Huntress would be on par with the top five. Possibly even the top three.

The only reason Rusty wasn’t yet there was time. Hawkins knew Rusty was better than O’Keeffe. Probably better than Snail – but Snail’s position wasn’t one of mere talent, nor was Freud’s. They actually ran things.

He couldn’t help but speak Pater’s thoughts into reality, “Odds are, you will want to train more to retain your own rank. I do not think Rusty is bluffing, solely because Snail does hate those defects, but cannot forever deny talent, as we see in her being a Vesper at all.”

~***~

O’Keeffe arched an eyebrow at the statement that came his way as he went to meet Huntress, but he nodded. There was a similarity between the two, but there was no relation between them. Not that dark hair and dark eyes were rare amongst humans. He didn’t think much of it, even if he knew others considered some of their facial features to be similar.

O’Keeffe had no children. He never got to that point before he was divorced, and now it just seemed to pass him by.

Oh well.

“Yes, I’m O’Keeffe,” he said, and let her get off the treadmill to towel off, following at a bit of a distance. When she offered a hand to shake, he glanced down at it, then back up at her face as she continued talking through the necklace. The explanation became clear – augmentation. He took her hand and shook, once, before releasing her hand.

“People are scarred for many reasons. I don’t assume. I’m not sure I can provide many tips about it. I upgraded before the coral burn set in. I see it set in with you,” he could tell that easily enough by the use of the vocal necklace. “But if you have questions, I’ll try to help. I researched it enough. That’s not why I came to speak to you, however.”

He shifted back to business rather effortlessly. “I wanted to give you fair warning that Snail has given me oversight of Wall preparations, and I will need you for a night mission. Details will come later.”

 

[EllieMcEllie]

So far so good. 621 was showing up the Redguns and doing the important work while the other two did the grunt work. Just like Walter thought she would. Unlike the other two pilots with her, she had drive and needed little direction once given a mission. The other two, especially Gun 5, still needed a heavy hand of guidance to keep them on track and to keep them from being stupid.

"Gun 5! Can't tear yourself away from talkin to the tagalong? Why don't you two start a sewing club and sew that damn mouth of yours shut!" Came the voice of Michigan as he called Iguazu out on his bullshit. Volta himself was content to clean up the MTs and let Gun 13 take the brunt of Iguazu's hate parade. A shitty move, but he wasn't in the mood to have to put up with Iguazu's shit now that he was hyperfocused on Gun 13 and if wiping ass was the way to avoid that, so be it.

"How about that. Guess you're not a total amateur." Volta muttered as he watched her take down the second generator, forgetting it would get picked up by comms, only to be clapped back on almost immediately by Michigan.

"Gun 4, I didn't know you were a professional yourself! Maybe you can even learn a thing or two from Gun 13 here!" Volta immediately regretted letting his thoughts be spoken, shutting up aside from call outs as Iguazu rushed towards the third generator.

As they continued on, an secured message request from the Rubicon Liberation Front came across his communications hub. He let his eyebrows rise as he looked at it for a long moment, debating whether or not to let it go through. After all, it could be a predatory comms message. But it could also be an opportunity for coam, seeing as they were currently being attacked.

"An encrypted message for you 621. Patching it through now." Walter hit the button to send it to her private comms for the two of them to listen to. It was a message from one of the commanders of the Liberation Front. They would pay double what Balam was offering if she took out Iguazu and Volta. They woudl let the MTs to stop attacking her, and focus on the other two. He had a feeling that she might take it, seeing how she had gotten angry before about killing the Liberation Front members, and this time, he was fine with turning on Balam. He would cover the cost of the repairs for the Balam ACs seeing how lucrative this opportunity was for him as the handler.

"Well, 621, what do you think? Do you want to take their offer?" Walter braced himself for the loud voice of Michigan when he would realize that 621 had been bought out. He had already taken a pain killer before this, but it could only help so much when Michigan or Iguazu were constantly yelling in comms.
~***~
Hawkins words seemed to click that last piece of the puzzle into place, the taller man's face losing color at the implications of that. Rusty wasn't bluffing. Rusty wasn't bluffing. Pater gripped his sandwich tightly, taking a bite despite his lost appetite. Hawkins had just chastised Rusty for not finishing his food, he wasn't about to get dad voiced either.

"If what you say is true, then I will have to train harder. I can't risk getting demoted. I'm V. VIII Pater. Not V. IX Pater." Determination flitted across the pilot's face as he tried to steel himself against the barrage of thoughts from the other alters who also had opinions on the matter. That settled it. He'd access the ALLMIND Arena and see if he could get past Sulla this time.

Pater pulled up the ALLMIND app on his communication device to get it ready and check the rankings again to see if anyone had passed him. His face paled further when he saw that Sulla was no longer 15/C, but 16/C, and Pater himself was bumped to 17/D. Standing in place of where Sulla had been was V. IX Hiuntress with her AC, ARTEMIS. If he was struggling to get past Sulla, how was he supposed to beat her? No, he couldn't think like that. He had to beat her! He had to keep his spot as the 8th Vesper squad leader!

Finished with his breakfast, Pater said his goodbyes to Hawkins and rushed to go do some ALLMIND training. Like hell was Huntress going to take his number!

~***~

He was friendly enough in the way that he didn't immediately berate her, though she hadn't used her physical voice. Still, the way he said that he didn't assume made her think that if he had thoughts about it he would at least keep it to himself. Good. Not a friend like Rusty and Hawkins, as he shifted to a more professional tone, but friendly enough. She did her best to match his air of professionalism, reigning in her bubbly energy. He was her superior after all.

"Yes, sir," Huntress kept the friendly smile on her face, but adjusted her posture to be more at attention, her arms folded behind her back as she waited for him to continue.
There it was again. The word 'Wall'. It had to be a complex of some sort, but not one that she recognized. For all she knew, the wall was just part of some PCA-type thing that Arquebus wanted access to. Maybe it tied to why the PCA pulled out like they did?

"Understood, sir. ARTEMIS and I will be ready for whatever you need us to do." Wow, this was easier than talking to Snail, though she was sure most things were easier than talking to that man.

"Just one question, sir. What is the Wall?" Force of habit had her canting her head to the side. That would take a hot minute to break the habit of.

As O'Keefe explained the Wall to her, she did her best to keep the look of horror off her face. If what he was saying was true, it was almost a suicide mission for whoever was assigned to take the Wall. She couldn't help but feel bad for whoever was assigned to the task. The thought of her two new friends getting assigned to such a sortie made her physically ill, her stomach churning uneasily. The words of her mother echoed in her head, telling her to keep them close, and that was exactly what she was going to try to do. If either got picked for the mission, she would volunteer to help with the mission, to help watch their backs.

"Thank you, sir. Is there anything else you needed to discuss?"

Her thoughts wandered the fact that she would probably need to paint the AC to blend in better with the snowy environment for the night mission. Maybe even swap out her boosters for something faster. She wanted to wait to upgrade her hacking gear until the next payday, but it was looking like she was just going to have to dip into her small pool of savings or hop on the ALLMIND system and do some Arena fights. She was down to rank 15/C, having gotten stuck on the pilot called "Chatty" Stick, but she could always do one of the fights she'd done in the past for a little extra coam to cover her important purchases. She couldn't risk actually tripping a self-defense sequence at this 'Wall'. Maybe it was time to send Lilith a text and see what kind of supplies she had to offer as a RaD engineer?

 

[Lucyfer]

Michigan really was rather harsh to his pilots. Of course, Aurelia thought of it as typical military banter – but G5 and G4 weren’t responding in a similar way with their own friendly, cutting remarks. There was no enjoyment in either of them for it, although she found the comments amusing. How would Michigan respond if one was thrown back at him, though?

Why didn’t they like Michigan?

The question nagged at her as she and Iguazu were swarmed by MTs at the generator station, which made cutting away to get the generator quite the task, even with her explosive bazooka that did quite a lot of the heavy work for her. She saw Iguazu taking aim as she was right by the generator and shifted to her blade instead, cutting the MT before her at the same time as the generator.

Oh, the explosion from that was hell to deal with up close. She knew why Iguazu yelled at her as she went right into overheat, but she used a repair kit as she enjoyed her rather pyrrhic victory.

And as a message came up, giving her an excuse to linger in assumed overheat.

“Raven, I represent the Rubicon Liberation Front. Our request is simple. We want you to take out the two Redguns. Our compensation will be double Balam’s offer. Awaiting your response.”

Aurelia could feel the tension in the air at the request, and Walter’s own response. She hummed in thought, before pausing her music, and going to the line with the Redguns and Michigan, “Gun-One,” she spoke into the comm, “I just got a rather interesting request from the RLF,” her tone had that same smoothness to it that she’d used in greeting him as Antares, an easy confidence when she’d requested his respect.

“They’ve promised to double the coam you’re offering, if I take out Gun-5 and Gun-4.” Which she could do.

“What the fuck?” Iguazu interrupted. He’d started towards the next generator, but she could see him turning back, “you’re a fucking traitor, Freelancer?”

“I’m a freelancer,” she reminded, “Your call though, Michigan. Are you willing to double that offer, or am I taking out your boys?” That’d be quadruple his original offer, and she wasn’t sure he would do it. He likely had some confidence in G5 and G4, otherwise why send them at all? And against one AC?

Aurelia wouldn’t deny – she was hoping for his refusal, even if it might sour their relationship in the future. She hoped not. It was business. And he had to respect someone who could take down two Redguns, right?

~***~

Huntress didn’t question the direction at all, even if it wasn’t coming directly from Snail. He appreciated that, and a part of him did wonder what else he might be able to add if that was her general behavior. He’d have to see how much she might run by Snail afterwards, to determine if the risks were worth it.

However, it seemed she didn’t know what the Wall was.

“The Wall is one of the Rubicon Liberation Front’s bases. It’s also what’s been keeping us on this side of Belius. It’s heavily guarded, and remains one of the few ways to cross Belius. Crossing it is of utmost importance in our search for Coral on the planet, as there does not seem to be much on this side of the continent,” which meant they had to get through, “many of the RLF station their ACs on the Wall, and many experienced pilots work with them, making a direct attack difficult.” The very reason they hadn’t done it yet.

They’d first make sure the AC pilots wouldn’t be anywhere near.

“They also have a defense mechanism known as the JUGGERNAUT. We are still acquiring the details of this machine, but its destruction is critical to any mission that involves going over the Wall, along with its artillery arsenal which would otherwise bring down any ships we attempt to fly over.”

And they had tried. It had not gone well.

“There’s nothing else to discuss at this time,” he noted, “I will see you this evening,” with that, O’Keeffe would leave her to head off, as he went to his own workout.