Fandom Coral, Abide with Rubicon!

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia took her seat, and her coffee, before glancing down at the map of the Watchpoint and examining it as Walter explained the parameters. It was not unlike missions she’d done before, considering she was asked to destroy generators for Balam, but it still felt…different. Of course, it was.

It was for a friend.

It was personal.

She was getting paid, and well – but that didn’t let her shake the feeling there was quite a bit more to this, especially considering who she suspected the ‘friend’ was. Carla might not deal in slavery, but Aurelia didn’t fully believe she was on the up and up, even with Lilith’s glowing reviews of her.

Carla wanted something, too, or she wouldn’t give away a free AC.

“Will you tell me which friend asked you to do this after the job is over?” That was Aurelia’s only real question. The mission itself was simple. Get in, fuck shit up, leave. Not to mention, everyone hated the PCA, so this wasn’t standing in the way of the RLF. “Or should I just keep assuming it’s Carla?”

She lifted her gaze, “The only other friend seems to be Antares, and that would have come from Balam.” Not a friend. Unless it had to be off the records.

~***~

Rusty glanced at the message.

Pollux and Castor stood out. He knew the callsigns, but not the pilots behind them. He didn’t really deal with too many of the newer recruits, and wasn’t even sure if they knew of him. There couldn’t be too many in the know, after all – but some exceptions were made for actual AC pilots, given the odds they had of actually destroying him, compared to MT squads.

He lifted his brows in surprise, but it was easy to cover given all the information there, and all the information that Huntress spilled. ‘Els?’ A nickname. Likely a shortening of her real name. “Glad to hear your brothers got their license. Shame they won’t come over and join us in Arquebus,” he chuckled.

No, that was a good thing.

A very good thing.

“Maybe we can have Hawkins give them some work and see if we can’t bring them around, eh?” He wouldn’t even mention it. And he let that drop to ask, “So, how often do you talk about me to your sister, anyways?” he couldn’t help but ask in at teasing tone. “Not a very good code name for girl talk, you know. Unless you have another buddy I should be jealous of?”

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Well damn.

Shots fired.

Was he really getting that predictable in his old age?

Actually, yeah, probably. It didn't help that he had introduced her to the only two people he was relatively close with on this damn planet. He didn't have to reveal that though. That he didn't really have friends aside from Carla and Michigan. No that showed in his social skills and how bad he could be at conversation. How antisocial he seemed.

Then again, even his 'friends' were just his mentors from when the planet was still alive and when he was spending time piloting as Sentinel on Jupiter.

Still, she didn't need to call him out like that. Ok, maybe she did... Maybe he did need other friends? Something to worry about when the mission was completed and the Coral was burned. He wrote it in his mental to-do list. 'Make some friends'

He hated how right she was.

The man sighed and shook his head. "I'll tell you after the mission," Assuming she made it back and didn't succumb to Sulla or the burn-in before then. He wasn't going to just say it now that it was Carla and risk Sulla getting into her mind about it.

"This is a night mission. We'll leave in an hour to get to Northern Bellius in time." Walter took a deep draught of his coffee before getting up from the table, effectively dismissing the briefing as he moved to fill his cup once more.

~***~

The red head shook her head, her little smile growing a fraction as she thought about her brothers. "Some jobs their way might help, but I know them. They want to be like our dad. They won't want to join a corporation. A good offer though. I would have been independent too if I hadn't been scooped up by Arquebus and given the Gen 9 augs to help stop the Coral Burn-in."

Her dad was her hero, and he was the twins' hero too, that she knew of anyway. So much had changed in the last 6 months, it could have changed to like Rokumonsen or Raven or something.

Not that it mattered.

They knew her Callsign, and since they weren't trying to sole-y provide for their mom like she had before Lilith took over the payments, they could avoid jobs against Arquebus.

Against her.

Her thoughts were shattered by his next question, her face near instantaneously matching her hair as she took a glance at her phone. She hadn't even noticed the little teasing quip at the end of Lilith's last message and Rusty had seen it.

Elliot cast her gaze away from him and attempted to hide her face in the fabric of her flight suit, peeking up at him with one eye as the red spread up her ears and down her neck. Her necklace spit static for perhaps too long, give or take 10 seconds, as she tried to focus enough to get her voice out and defend herself.

"A-A normal amount." Often. All the time. Any chance she got.

Oh how she was a bad liar. Even without her face being red, the meekness in her voice, the way could barely look up at him, and how she fiddled with the hem of her flight suit as she hid her face was just as incriminating.

"I-I only call you buddy, b-but I don't need code names to talk a-about my friends."

Oh Elliot... You tried so hard... You're cooked...

 

[Lucyfer]

Walter didn’t give her an answer, but Aurelia wasn’t expecting it. Even if she was right. At least he promised to answer her when all was said and done. She chuckled at the haste he made then in getting up to leave, but finished her own coffee, and took it up to the sink, “I’ll be ready.”

As ready as she could be.

An hour passed all too quickly, and Aurelia was in LEMURES and then dropped into the area near the Watchpoint after night settled on Rubicon-3. The spotlights moving about the Watchpoint made it obvious there was heavy resistance. ‘But why? What’s the purpose of this damn watchpoint?’ She wouldn’t even get to know.

She was just there to destroy it.

She boosted closer, not a stealth mech, but not trying to draw attention, either, as she avoided the lights and got close enough to scan and try to count how many pinged her radar. Besides the PCA guard, there were artillery units stationed around the base that the lights illuminated for her. ‘Two, at least.’ And that was well before she even got near the center. ‘I guess I should get started.’

She emptied her missiles into both artillery units, the pink no doubt giving away her identity even before she entered into sight of the PCA guards. The artillery units were out, but the PCA still had some firepower. Blue lasers fired from the guards, a bit stronger than Aurelia was anticipating; it was more than just chip damage to LEMURES, but not by too much.

The PCA themselves, sadly, weren’t as well-built.

A direct hit took one out, and if any were near, the proximity damage was significant, as well. Of course, the ruckus drew more guards from other areas, but Aurelia was able to handle that. “I thought you said the PCA was difficult?” Aurelia couldn’t help but comment in her comms to Walter, as she was finally able to maneuver to the next area, yet another artillery unit set up. This one was prepped for her, given the noise.

She was able to dodge that, only to have a sniper’s shot go through the left arm of LEMURES, and sever quite a few wires. Aurelia quickly rounded on that one, only to notice the PCA that stayed behind had all taken up sniper positions, and none seemed keen on getting close to each other, preventing some spread damage.

Well, LEMURES could tank damage.

Aurelia fired off missiles at the artillery unit, taking it out, before targeting the snipers with her other set of missiles. The snipers were relatively quick, and seemed prepared for this kind of engagement, but Aurelia took her time using missiles to drive them, and either eliminating them in the drive – or getting in close enough to take them out with a blast.

She had to grasp at a repair kit once from all the damage she was willingly tanking, but she thought she made it out rather well, all things considered.

Besides, the center was just ahead – and with this area cleared, Aurelia had no problems heading towards the control center.

Which was…strangely quiet. There were no artillery units set up. There should have been artillery units on either side of the bridge. There should have been guards. “Walter, didn’t your map have artillery units h—”

The attack came out of nowhere, a strike from behind that her sensors never picked up. LEMURES turned quickly, but there was no sign of the assailant.

But there was suddenly laughter in her comms, and not from Walter.

“Attacking a watchpoint?” The amused voice said, “you’re incorrigible, Handler Walter!”

~***~

Being independent was difficult; one had to have a good name, or be cheap enough, to draw the attention of anyone with money. With the corporations on the planet, it was easier to do, but before then it definitely hadn’t been easy. It wasn’t like the PCA was hiring. And he knew the boys weren’t really independent, but he wouldn’t mention that.

She didn’t know.

And he shouldn’t know.

Besides, her reaction to what he noticed was far more amusing, and he smirked as she tried to cover it. Poorly. ‘So it’s not just me, then.’ Well, he knew that, but he hadn’t known exactly how bad Elliot had it.

“No, of course not, girls never need code names to talk about friends,” he stood up, patting her on the back, “just crushes,” he called it out with a wink, “don’t worry, I’ll pretend I never saw it and know nothing – buddy,” he couldn’t help but lower his voice just a bit that time as he said the nickname. Her reactions were too adorable to not tease.

As he teased, relentlessly, with what was obviously the truth.

But he would leave that to her to confess, given he suspected the odds of that were slim, if he didn’t hint too heavily at an interest and only teased. If he kept treating her like a friend, she wouldn’t see a difference. She might not want to risk that.

“I’m going to start working on some reports for Snail, but I really am happy about your brothers,” he turned from teasing to sincerity easily, “sounds like all your family has been able to be successful thanks to you. You shouldn’t forget that – all you did, why you joined Arquebus – to help them. Now you get to see the fruits of your labor.”

And it was…good.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

The next hour passed slowly as Walter painstakingly went over every last detail in his head. Maybe they would get lucky and Sulla wouldn't even be there. Maybe they could do this mission in peace?

One could hope.

Walter was glued to the screens in his command center room as she shipped out to Northern Bellius, fingers gripping to the arm rests as she approached. This was it. Either he would be here, or he wouldn't.

Carla said he would be here, but that was a week ago, and seeing as the guards were there and there was no wreckage on her scans, they were possibly in the clear.

He watched as she cut through the PCA like a hot knife through butter, destroying everything in her path and taking minimal damage. That's what he liked to see! With every downed pilot and artillery station, the hope in his chest soared just that little bit higher.

They were getting close now.

All she had to do was take out the two remaining artillery units across the bridge before she could slip into the heart of the WatchPoint. But they weren't there. Instead, he watched as LEMURES took damage from an unseen threat and that laugh.... That damn laugh.

"Is that...Sulla?"

Walter's voice was heavy with disapproval and disdain as his former hou- pilot spoke in comms. How was he doing that? It wasn't an open comms by any means. Had he hacked it? It had Carla-levels of hacking protection on it. If something got into that, he knew she wasn't going to be happy.

And his AC... It had much better parts on it, the core looked stronger as well as those back kits...

Walters hands dug painfully into the arm rests, threatening to rip the cushions themselves off as bile rose up the back of his throat. Maybe she didn't have this... He had to keep hoping though, for her. There was also the matter of trying to steer her away from how he knew Sulla, at least for now during this fight.

"C1-249...'Sulla.' He's an independent mercenary who survived first-gen augmentation. Don't think twice, 621. Kill him before he kills you." All true information at least. Now was not the time to get into it. He would tell her more if he absolutely had to after she won.

~***~

She thought she had gotten off scott-free. That he had believed her. Oh how wrong she was. He just kicked up the teasing a few extra notches, patting her back, calling out her apparently obvious crush on him, and-

Wait, was that a wink?!?! Something she didn't properly have time to react to as he buffeted her already flustered brain with another wave of teasing, sending her fully hiding her impossibly redder face up to the eyes inside her flight suit with a high-pitched squeak.

GODS, that voice! The way his voice dropped when he called her 'buddy'. Yes, she was going to just stay right here in this seat and it had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that her legs were pure jelly because of it.

He was trying to kill her, surely. There was no way a human being could be so confident and attractive and sweet and- Oh she was definitely cooked. If it had been a scene in a cartoon, her ears would have had steam coming out of them, and her eyes would have been spirals.

Did he really know that she was, as her sister had called it, so 'down bad' for him? Or was he merely teasing her? Was this flirting? Did he even share the same feelings or was this his way of gently letting her down? But then again, why would he encourage it?

She hadn't had a crush this bad before and she didn't know what to do about it. Let alone a crush on a man who seemed hellbent on making her fall harder.

This was definitely not appropriate fraternization, but in this moment, she didn't care. That fucking deeper voice of his that he dropped to was going to be the death of her, surely.

Just as quick as his teasing started, it stopped and he got serious, praising her for her familial contributions and the reason for her siblings' successes sending her into a whole other realm of flustered, falling just that much harder for him.

Ok, there were three things that were going to absolutely anhialiate her in this moment, judging by the flutter in her stomach, and the way her knees jellified and prevented her from moving from her spot. That confident teasing of his, the way his voice dropped, and the very blatant praise that sent her right back to trying to color match her skin and hair.

She tried to speak, to get any words out at all, to tell him he was right and that she should enjoy the fruits of her labor, but all that came out was static and then the voice aid flashed red, signalling an overheat and force-shut down.

Oh.

Oh no.

Oh gods, oh fuck.

It had never done that before, but the manual had said it was a possibility if her emotions ran too high.

As it turned out, the limit to her speech aid was Rusty dropping his voice and praising her for a good job.

Perfect.

Absolutely cooked. Just so well-done, so Mortal-combat-style finished, just so absolutely, positively fucked.

 

[Lucyfer]

Sulla.

C1-249. A former hound of Walter, a survivor of both Walter and Gen-1 augmentation. By all accounts, a survivor, and by the build of ENTANGLE, one hell of an AC builder, and possibly a pilot. She saw ENTANGLE on the Watchpoint, which did not explain the hit she took. A scan pushed out and revealed two targets, though they cloaked as quickly as she saw them.

Sulla didn’t work alone.

Aurelia clenched her jaw.

Sulla clearly heard what Walter said, “Just another dog to the slaughter. How many have I killed and you still haven’t learned your lesson?” He sounded almost disappointed, but there was something off about it. Just as there was something off about his laugh. “Pitiful dog. I feel sorry for you, I really do.”

ENTANGLE jumped from the top of the Watchpoint, and as he did, Aurelia pushed her scan out again and caught four of the cloaked beings on the scan. She opted to ignore Sulla and turned on one of them – she could see Sulla. Her AC would chime with alerts if he targeted her, but it wouldn’t with these cloaked creatures.

The first one was obliterated by the first shot. They didn’t have good armor – but they could hide. ‘I just need to hit close to them.’ Chimes rang in her AC and she boosted away, catching sight of strange, bubbling shots. ‘Pulse – harmonics.’ She reminded herself, managing to strafe out of the way, and neatly dodge around a laser whip she just saw as it whipped at the head of LEMURES.

Another explosive shot eliminated the second one.

“Not bad,” Sulla commended, “I heard you Gen-4s were good hounds. Shame you’re going to have to die here.”

The dodge put Sulla in front of her, and far too close. He fired his own bazooka, willingly tanking the damage as well, and busting up the frame of LEMURES. She boosted back, and took note of the three plasma missiles he fired off, before another blast of that pulse gun. “What the hell do you have against Walter?” Aurelia finally demanded as she attempted to head under the bridge to avoid the missiles that were homing in on her.

Sulla snorted, “You really are new, aren’t you? You are aware you’re the 621st dog he’s sent to their death, and quite a few at my hand.”

“You’re the one murdering, not him,” she got to the bridge, only for one of those damned invisible things to pop up and actually kick her AC back. If she hadn’t been boosting, it probably wouldn’t have worked. As it was, the AC was forced back, and the three plasma missiles struck LEMURES, as she launched a shot to finish off the third of the four cloaking things. “If I’m going to die, you can tell me why!”

“Why should I?” Sulla taunted, “Walter hasn’t told you why you’re going to die. I shouldn’t be held to a higher standard.”

Alarms went off. Aurelia boosted to get up above the bridge, explosions from another shot rocking her AC, before a charged laser from one of the invisible ones struck her sensors.

A kick to the back from ENTANGLE overheated LEMURES and the AC crashed into the bridge.

“The blood is on your hands, Walter. All 620, even if I didn’t get them. Wasn’t it 619 the last I took? Or was it 620…you’ve been getting sloppy, recently.” Sulla taunted Walter as LEMURES fought to cool down and get up, only for Sulla to detonate another blast into it, wrecking the bridge, and wrecking LEMURES further as it fell with the debris into the thin layer of water underneath.

“Is it worth it, Walter? Fighting the inevitable?”

~***~

Rusty would certainly hold onto the memory of her reaction, but as expected – Huntress made no move. He was able to begin on some reports, relatively uninterrupted, and when they got back to base, he put STEEL HAZE up, and bid Huntress ‘sweet dreams’ – after they made their report to Snail.

He seemed pleased with the results, although Rusty noted some more of that anxiety as he mentioned the cloaking drones. Snail merely promised to look into it further. It wasn’t a lie, but it didn’t inspire any decent feelings, either.

Thankfully, no mission followed immediately for him.

O’Keeffe, it seemed, was another matter. He had volunteered for a night raid on a PCA base, apparently more of a scouting mission than not, which seemed unusual, but not unknown. O’Keeffe had a history in espionage, after all.

Sometimes, Rusty wondered if he was still doing it. If so, Rusty didn’t know who he was working for. But volunteering for the mission did make Rusty wonder again about that, and if O’Keeffe might be a PCA plant.

Well, it didn’t matter, in the end.

Rusty didn’t have to worry about going into a PCA hellhole, nor did Huntress, and he was relieved for that. He was able to spend the day tuning up his AC, checking in that the part from Lilith was picked up, and doing some drills, before night fell.

And that was when things shifted, substantially.

He was on his way back from the gym and walking outside when the sky suddenly illuminated bright red in the distance. Based on the direction, it was north of their location, and Rusty couldn’t help but stare at it for several long seconds, trying to understand what that dome of red light could possibly be before it exploded out, red lights painting the distant sky like so many stars.

It was beautiful.

And it was horrible, as the sound that followed painted the rest of the picture, an explosive blast loud enough to be heard, even at this distance, like thunder.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Cloaking MDD drones? Well that was new. He'd have to talk to Carla about them and send her all the information he could from this fight, regardless of the outcome. She'd want to look into them and see where they came from.

Walter's heart pounded in his chest as he watched the scene unfold on his screens. He had known Sulla was a threat, but seeing him in action after 619 and 620, seeing him target Aurelia so ruthlessly, sent a wave of cold fear through him. He gripped the armrests of his chair, his knuckles white, trying to maintain his composure.

Damn it, Sulla. Why now?

The sight of LEMURES taking hit after hit, the alarms blaring in his ears, and the taunting voice of Sulla in his comms made it hard to think clearly. He could feel the bile rising up the back of his throat, the panic threatening to overwhelm him. He couldn’t let Aurelia die here. Not like this.

620 pilots. The number echoed in his mind, each one a failure, each one a life lost under his watch. Sulla's words cut deep, bringing all those memories, all that guilt, flooding back. He had tried to forget, to move past it, even bury it, but it was impossible now with Sulla throwing it in his face.

'Focus. She needs you.'

Walter took a deep breath, forcing himself to speak, to push through the fear. “621… listen to me. You can do this. You’ve faced worse. Stay calm and focus.”

He could hear the tightness in his own voice, the tremor he couldn’t quite suppress. His mind raced, trying to think of a way out, a way to save her. He needed to find a weakness, a way to turn the tide.

“Don’t let him get in your head,” he said, his voice quieter, more urgent. “You’re stronger than him. You’re better.”

He wanted to say more, to give her the strength he felt slipping away from himself, but the words wouldn’t come. All he could do was watch, his eyes fixed on the screen, praying she would find a way to survive.

The weight of his failures bore down on him, but he couldn’t afford to crumble. Not now. Not when she needed him the most, not when they were so close to beating him and getting through this sortie.

She wasn't getting up... She wasn't getting back up!

"621!"

Fear gnawed at him.

Fear that he had just sent another pilot to their death.

Fear that Sulla was right.

Fear that his pilot would be getting her final wishes of dying in that giant metal coffin instead of going out to the Coral.

'Please, Aurelia. Don’t let this be the end!' He begged mentally, watching in abject horror, waiting for any sign that she was still conscious and had the will to continue the fight.

~***~

That deeper 'Buddy' plagued her brain the whole rest of the trip back and well into the night afterwards, finding it much easier to hide her emotions around snail with that tumbling around in her brain to help distract her from the anxiety she felt in V.II's presence.

The mission was a success, and Snail wasn't yelling. Both were a plus, and even better, she wasn't sent to the center again, instead sending her on her way to do whatever. She wasn't going to look that gift horse in the mouth, getting the hell out of dodge as calmly as possible.

And then Rusty wished her a 'sweet dreams', sending her right back to being a blushing, stuttering, jelly-legged mess as they parted ways, heading to their separate rooms for the night.

The next day Huntress spent in the gym as was her normal, checking in on ARTEMIS who had very minimal damage compared to Rusty who had to use a repair kit during their mission the day prior, and relaxing in her room, catching up with her family.

She had made plans to visit and stay with them over the next two days, and so she packed herself a little bag of essentials for a small trip. She'd fly out tonight, stay the night, and come home the following evening.

As she had settled upon her bed, fresh from her nightly shower and scar cream application and dressed in her tiger-stripped onesie pajamas, her phone went off. A number she didn't recognize, but she answered it regardless and was immediately put in tears.

"Xander!"

"And Xavier."

"Calling the best!"

"big sister ever."

"You've got Castor!"

"and Pollux."

"Stop hogging Elliot! I need to hear from her too, blockheads! Heyyy sis~"

"Don't forget about me, dears."

The twins! Lilith! Their mom! In the privacy of her room, she allowed the happy tears to fall as she chuckled softly, holding the phone as close to her as she could, trying to hug them through the phone as she sobbed quietly on the other end.

"Oh shit, we broke her."

"Not as broken as she gets when you mention her buddy~"

"A buddy huh? Who is this buddy? Lils, are we gonna have to give him the shovel talk?"

"Only Vesper IV Rusty himself! I'm already on it. Don't you worry." The twins went silent for a moment, but Elliot chalked it up to surprise.

"You should bring him and your other friend, Hawkins by for dinner sometime, cub. I'd love to meet your friends in person."

"H-Hey!" Huntress flushed bright red at their words but couldn't help but chuckle at the antics, getting up from the bed to look out the north-facing window in her room. Looking towards home and talking to her family was almost like she was already back there. "That won't work, mom. we're coworkers, not like high school friends. We don't even know each other's real names"

The twins and Lilith snickered at her comment. "And yet you are sooooo down bad for your 'buddy'!"

"Now, now, stop teasing your poor sister, you know she can't handle it." There was more than mild amusement in Maura's voice as she said so, but it got Elliot's siblings to get off her back.

"You'll give her a- Wait... What is that...? You three see that too, right?" Elliot watched the horizon curiously as a dome of beautiful red began to grow, and grow, in the distance. What even was it?

"Shit! That's Coral!" Came Xander's voice frantically.

"Get down!" Shouted Xavier followed by the sound of crashing as she assumed the 4 huddled in the safest part of the house as the dome grew disproportionately larger.

"I-It keeps growing! Elliot, honey, Listen to me! I-I don't know what's going on, but we lo-" There were pained and terrified screams on the other end very quickly followed by the loudest sound she had ever heard in her life and the phone line going dead.

At the same moment, she watched the dome in the background explode outward, the loud rumbling in the background hitting her ears a few moments later than the phone's loud boom.

The red headed pilot stood in place for what seemed like forever, in shock at what had happened. One moment, she had been joking with her family, the next...

Elliot's world shattered. Her chest constricted, her breathing became erratic, and she felt a cold sweat break out all over her body. She clutched the phone to her chest, trembling violently as tears streamed down her face.

"No...no...no...this can't be happening," she whispered, her voice barely audible. The room spun around her, and she stumbled into the edge of her bed holding the frame in a death grip. The woman redialed the number once. twice. three times, getting the same dead signal before callign her mother 3 times, and her sister 3 as well. Her heart pounded in her chest, each beat like a hammer blow, hoping, praying that one of them would pick up. But no one did.

Memories of her family flashed through her mind: their laughter, their warmth, their love. All gone in the fraction of a few unfortunate seconds. The thought of them being gone was unbearable. It was like something cracked, changed inside her at the very thought, filling her with anger, denial, and anguish.

The loss of her family, the horror of what she had just witnessed, was too much to bear. She screamed then, both physically and through her speech aid, a dueted, raw, primal sound that echoed through the room and into the surrounding hallway, tearing her throat up and damn near frying the speech aid in the process. Her voice broke off at the end, and she choked on her own sobs, the anguish overwhelming her as she tugged at her half-shaved hair.

What the fuck was she even doing here in this horrible place with mean ass people if she had no family to support?! Overcome with grief, Elliot grabbed her bed by the frame, toppling it with a snarl and knocking her decorations off the surfaces, effectively losing her gods damned mind inside her room and trashing it completely.

Her breath came in ragged gasps, each inhale feeling like knives in her chest. She felt a tightness in her throat, and she struggled to swallow, the sensation only adding to her panic. She clawed at her neck, desperate for relief, but nothing helped.

The room felt like it was closing in on her, the walls pressing closer and closer. She wanted to scream, to cry out for help, but no sound came. Her body was frozen in fear, her muscles locked in place. She felt trapped, helpless, and utterly alone.

Her thoughts raced, a torrent of panic and despair. 'This can't be real. It has to be a nightmare. Please, let this be a nightmare. Mom... Lils... Xav... Xan...' But deep down, she knew it wasn't. The pain was too real, too visceral.

She tried to take another step, but her legs were weak, trembling uncontrollably. She fell, curling into an upright ball on the floor. The sobs came then, wracking her body with violent shudders. Out of the corner of her eye, she vaguely noticed the previously hidden tiger plush, blinding grabbing for him and bringing him into her arms. She hugged herself and the plush tightly, trying to hold herself together, but it still felt like she was falling apart as she pulled her blanket around herself, rocking back and forth.

Minutes passed, or maybe hours—she couldn't tell. Time had lost all meaning. She sat there, broken and exhausted in her tiger pjs, the weight of her grief pressing down on her like a suffocating blanket.

Eventually, the initial wave of panic subsided, leaving her drained and numb. She stared at the wall, her mind blank, her body still trembling like a leaf in a windstorm. She felt hollow, like a part of her had been ripped away. In a way, it had. She had no purpose now. No real reason to be here anymore, or to be a pilot...

In the silence that followed, only the faint hum of the room and the distant sounds of her own cries remained. She knew she had to move, to do something, but the thought of facing the world without her family was unbearable. For now, she could only sit there, lost in her pain, and pray to Artemis herself for the strength to keep going.

 

[Lucyfer]

The core was too hot.

Aurelia felt drowsy even through her panic in that heat, even with the alarms blaring in her head. She shut her eyes against the sounds, against Walter’s voice, and Sulla’s taunting, “That’s not how you say goodbye, Walter. Don’t worry, I’ll show you,” ENTANGLE landed in the water. “Goodbye, leal hound.”

LEMURES moved as the words were spoken, only taking splash damage from the bazooka, and responding in kind, knocking ENTANGLE back before she grasped for the second repair kit, and went after the drone that sent a laser her way when she got up.

A plan had formed in her head, as Sulla laughed, unphased by the hit it seemed. He pursued, as she used her scan to reveal the drone and sent another shot at it. Splash damage kept it in the open, and cut through it with the pulse blade.

The entire plan relied on that blade she considered replacing more than once, and she rounded on Sulla with it still humming, and swung at him as he closed in.

The pulse gun obliterated the blade.

LEMURES’s hand clamped down on ENTANGLE’s shoulder, instead, and Aurelia locked it in a death grip, grinning like a mad woman inside. “You fell for it.” She knew his weapon would ruin the blade. She was counting on that, rather than Sulla trying to dodge. She put a shot from the bazooka at point-blank range into the core of ENTANGLE, as he did much the same. A fight of attrition – but ENTANGLE stood no chance. “I’d suggest blowing your arm off,” she offered, as ‘friendly’ advice, before launching another sixteen missiles.

Sulla didn’t blow his arm off in time.

They all collided, of course, Sulla had nowhere to go, LEMURES both heavier and stronger than ENTANGLE. ENTANGLE went right into overheat by the fifth, the other missiles biting into heated metal, and going through it like butter, chipping away major parts of ENTANGLE’s frame, even if LEMURES continued to take damage.

“Walter –” Sulla called through the comms, as Aurelia had another explosive shot loaded, “—stay away from the watch—”

Sulla’s comms went dead.

A hole was blasted straight through the core. Sulla never evacuated. ENTANGLE went limp, heavy, in LEMURES’s grasp, and Aurelia let it splash down into the water, staring down at the wreckage of one of Walter’s former hounds.

“620 dead hounds,” she confirmed. Sulla would be the 620th, after all. Not her.

She was silent for a few more moments. LEMURES wasn’t doing great, but if all that was left was the control center, she wouldn’t reach for the repair kit just yet. “You owe me an explanation, Handler.” Not then, she knew that – but when she got back.

~***~

Rusty watched for a few more moments, half-convinced he’d see a plume of fire, and then that would be it. The Fires would come again, and he’d be wiped out, with the majority, if not all, of Rubicon-3. The red never turned to flame, though. Instead, he watched it all seem to swirl together again, and move off, almost serpentine.

‘What the hell happened?’

Was this Balam’s doing? O’Keeffe was going that direction – was it his doing? No, Snail would never authorize such a thing. He was mad, but not that mad, he wanted coral gathered, not released in an explosion.

Balam didn’t even want that, but Balam was a bit, well, stupid.

No one, as far as Rusty knew, wanted to harm the coral. Everyone knew what that brought.

So who would risk it? ‘The RLF will have details, or Snail. Just wait.’ He forced himself to relax. No matter the damage elsewhere, he was alive. The coral didn’t burn. Rubicon-3 was safe – for now.

Someone, clearly, meant otherwise, if that wasn’t an accident.

He continued his walk to get back to his room, trying to shake off the nagging fear of the Fires happening again. He hadn’t even been alive for the first Fire, but he knew enough people who were. He knew enough to fear it, deep in his soul. Perhaps it was that thought which caused him to take a path that went by Huntress’s room.

After all, she was Rubiconian, too – even if she didn’t know he was. Would she be all right? He expected to hear silence, and that would reassure him that she was fine, but that’s not what he heard.

He heard sobbing.

His mind didn’t snap to anything personal, only to the fear they all had of the Fire, and the stress that could bring out in someone, so he approached the door and hesitantly knocked on it, “Hey, Buddy?” he called in, so she’d know it wasn’t Snail, or someone else she didn’t want to see. Well, she might not want to see him.

He was just some off-planet kid who couldn’t relate.

“I can hear you out here,” he noted, “do you want company?”

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Sulla's call about goodbyes had him even tenser. This was it. She was dead, and he was going to have to make a mad dash with Carla to finish Overseer's mission and he was grieving. Openly.

He wouldn't hear those quips of hers again, or see her fight in that horrifyingly wonderfully reckless way that always landed her on top. Those damn tanks of hers with the silly phrases that encompassed her personality or their morning coffee meetings where he'd make the coffee how she liked it and -

The screens lit up with action in front of him, snapping him out of his grief as Aurelia got back to her feet and began giving Sulla the thrashing of a lifetime. Walter did his best to shake off the emotions rushing through him to try and cheer her on, clearing his throat.

"That's it, 621! Show him what you and LEMURES can do!"

It was shaky but he watched as she fought hard, grappling ENTANGLE like a mad woman and pumping pink missile after pink missile deep into the frame and cockpit. Sulla it seemed couldn't escape in time and Walter watched as his AC slumped lifelessly in the arms of LEMURES.

His final words haunted him.

He couldn't stay away from the Watchpoint. He needed to find the Coral to burn it. He needed to right his father's wrongs and save the whole universe from Coral.

Walter's thoughts were snapped back to the present as Aurelia spoke about 620 hounds and in the next breath, asking- no, not asking, telling him to explain what that was to her.

A deep sigh left him and he held his face in his palms, the shaking anxiety slowly leaving his body. "And you'll get one." he managed past his hands, taking another deep breath to further steady himself before continuing.

"...Confirmed. Enemy AC destroyed. Forget about him, 621 ...You did good today ...Back to work. Penetrate the control center and destroy the target."

~***~

A voice permeated her post-panic stupor, bringing her back from the world of dissociation,even if just for a moment. She knew that voice too well; Rusty. Her buddy, the one person in this world that she trusted more than anything, aside from her family, but they were-. By some grace of the gods, perhaps Artemis heard her prayers, he was there, and he could hear her through the door.

How long had she been sitting there sobbing? The scars around her eyes were puffy, raw and sore, but the tears kept falling. She couldn't stop them.

The red head attempted to speak first through her speech aid, but it had refused to turn back on. For a horrifying moment, she wondered if it was a permanent thing and she was going to need a new one. Losing her family and her way to communicate with people normally in one go...

In almost a panic she tried to use her physical voice to call out. She did want him here. He was the only person on the whole planet that she had left. All that came out was a dull, crackling squeak as she tried to form words but it was cut off by coughing from just how torn up her throat was from her scream.

The phone in her hand, the picture on the front being a photo of her family back from when her dad was alive, was her lifeline here. In a daze, her fingers flew to his contact, 'Buddy', as tears peppered the screen and streamed down her face.

Shaky hands typed out and sent a single word around Shere Khan before locking her phone. She stared at the front lockscreen, her heavy sobbing renewed in all it's broken-hearted glory as she pulled the phone and tiger plush back to her Pajama-clad chest in a death grip.

Please?
​

She hadn't even thought about the fires after what she had gone through. Maybe the fires would have been kinder to her and take this overwhelming pain and sorrow that had its hooks deep in her chest. She knew the fires wouldn't be a good thing, and would hurt a whole lot of people. Her father was a "Cinder". Her mother was too, having both been children at the time of the fires, but neither did talk much about it.

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia wouldn't be forgetting Sulla anytime soon. She stared at the corpse of his AC for a while longer, wondering what he knew about Walter. Wondering what Walter sought besides retirement.

Eventually, she gathered herself with a deep breath and entered the control center. It was a drop, like a well, but at the center of it was a device that made her think of a drill.

It wasn't. It didn't even have any features of a drill. It was just the way the light shone down from it into an even deeper hole. She couldn't see anything at all beneath it. She didn't need to, not to destroy it.

One shot was all that took, and she did it while still hovering above it to avoid anymore debris breaking against LEMURES. Smoke drifted up from the broken device. “Done,” she called over the comms. “Unless there's something else, I'm–”

The ground shook. The walls shook. Red burned through the floor and Aurelia was quick to boost this up before the inevitable explosion from whatever she'd just done caught up with her.

She wasn't fast enough.

The coral shredded LEMURES, pushed it along as if the AC got caught in a strong ocean current. There was no fighting it, though Aurelia tried, until the coral bled into the core.

It burned like white fire, but at least, all that red she was seeing turned white.

Everything turned white, the agony reaching a peak she only had to endure a second, before it was gone.

Everything was gone, without so much as a scream.

Until it wasn't, and reality rushed back in with pain and an AC shattered on the ground, the frame devoid of most it's armor, little more than connected limbs.

~***~

Rusty waited.

He heard some sounds, before his tablet dinged and he pulled it out to see the message from Huntress.

A single word and the sobbing renewed with force. He found the door unlocked, thankfully, and stepped in to see her curled up on the floor clutching the tiger close, along with the phone. He glanced around the room a moment, looking for a cup, but didn't spot one immediately.

Problem for later, when she was a bit more composed. Water would be good, given the river she was crying.

This was more than the fear of the Fires, then.

He made sure the door shut and this time he locked it before approaching her and sitting on the floor behind her, moving a hand to rest atop her arm.

“Hey buddy,” he spoke softly, “I'm here,” he wouldn't tell her the stupid lie that everything would be okay. He wouldn't ask the stupider question about if she was alright. Of course, that left very little to say.

But he'd keep his presence obvious with the touch, and gently squeeze her arm. “I'll stay here,” until it was okay to go, until she wanted him gone.

He wouldn't press her to do anything, except cry.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

The command center core was destroyed, and so the mission was done. "Good work... Wait, something isn't right..."

Walter's eyes widened in horror as he watched the screens. The initial relief of seeing LEMURES back on its feet was shattered in an instant as the ground around the control center began to shake, and the ominous red glow of Coral pulsed through the floor. His heart pounded in his chest, each beat echoing the impending disaster he knew was coming.

“Aurelia, get out of there!” he shouted, his voice cracking with desperation.

She boosted up, but it wasn’t fast enough. The Coral explosion hit LEMURES with brutal force, sending the AC spinning uncontrollably. Walter’s breath caught in his throat as he watched, helpless, while the Coral consumed LEMURES, its fiery tendrils wrapping around the frame like a vice. The screen filled with white, and then… nothing. Silence.

“No… no, no, no!” Walter’s voice broke as he slammed his fist into the console. The screens showed nothing but static, the connection severed. “Aurelia, respond! 621, do you hear me?!”

The static was deafening. Walter’s mind raced, denial fighting with the reality that was crashing down around him. He leaned heavily on the desk, his vision blurring as tears welled up in his eyes. His hands trembled uncontrollably, fingers digging into the edges of the wood until his knuckles turned white.

“She can’t be… she can’t be gone…” he whispered, the words a mantra he clung to desperately. They still had stuff to do. Jobs to complete, coral to burn, and yet, she was gone.

Images of Aurelia flashed through his mind: her sharp wit, her fearless combat style, her unwavering recklessness against challenging foes. Their morning coffee meetings, the way she always made him feel like there was hope that his mission wasn't in vain, even in the darkest times. The future he’d dared to imagine, where the universe could have some semblance of peace, shattered like glass.

He sank to his knees out of the chair, the weight of the loss too much for him. The grief was a physical pain, a hollow ache in his chest that threatened to consume him. He pressed his forehead against the wood of the desk, gritting his teeth..

“I’m sorry… I’m so sorry…” His voice was barely a whisper, choked by the sobs that wracked his body. He had sent her into this mission, he had believed in her strength, but now… now she was gone, and it was his fault. The guilt was suffocating, a relentless tide that pulled him under. Why did he choose now of all times to start caring about his pilots? When they were down to the wire, on their last option?!

Memories of other pilots he’d lost came flooding back --Sulla, HellBringer, BeeSting, 621-- each one a knife to his heart as he remembered their stolen callsigns, and not their numbers. But this was different. This was Aurelia. She had become more than just another pilot, more than just another hound. She had gotten close to him, became the reason he was fixing his mistakes and learning to not be like his father, and now that was ripped away, leaving a gaping wound. Carla would be pissed at him for even allowing this to happen.

Walter stayed on the floor, the minutes stretching into an eternity. The world around him seemed distant, unimportant. All that mattered was the crushing grief, the unbearable loss. How did Carla do this? Getting close to people she knew she was going to lose? He knew that they needed to get started on a contingency plan, to find out what the next step was, but he couldn't get up. He couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t see a way forward through the cloud of pain, even if the answer was obvious. He would take this moment to grieve, and could message Carla later.

His thoughts were a jumbled mess, regret and sorrow intertwining within him. He had come to call her a friend, even if just barely, and he had failed her, he had failed everyone. The weight of that failure was a burden he didn’t know if he could carry, but he knew he must. Out of all his pilots, she would be the one to haunt him the most.

Finally, the static on the screen began to clear, and the faintest flicker of hope stirred within him. He pushed himself up, his body shaking with the effort, and stared at the screen, willing it to show something, anything.

“Aurelia…” he whispered, his voice raw and broken. “Please… come in…”

The screen flickered, and for a moment, he thought he saw movement, a glimmer of life. His heart leaped, a fragile hope spreading from the emotional wounds. He held his breath, praying for a miracle.

But the static returned, and with it, the crushing reality. The hope was extinguished, and the void within him grew deeper. Walter collapsed back into the chair, his spirit shattered.

“… I’m so sorry…” he whispered again, his voice lost in the emptiness. The tears flowed freely now, unchecked and unstoppable. He had never grieved this hard over any of his past pilots. Maybe it was because for the first time since he came back from Jupiter, he had made a friend, a genuine connection, and now she was gone.

In that moment, Handler Walter felt more alone than he ever had, even after his ex-wife left him, the silence of the command center deafening. The mission, the fight, the Coral – none of it mattered in this moment. His best pilot, his friend, lost in the white-hot fury of the explosion, and with it, a part of him.

~***~

The C-Wave mutation, Ayre, watched from the depths of Watchpoint Delta as the AC coasted down into the well. What was a non-PCA AC doing down here? She had 'heard' the fighting going on outside and then everything was quiet.

Was this someone here to... help?

.... or hinder....

"What are you doing here?"

No response.

"What is your plan?"

The coral wave pulsed almost as if she was sighing. Another pilot unable to hear her. She still followed the path the pilot was taking, watching from below.

Was this just an information gathering mission?

No.

It was something more sinister.

"What are you doing?! You're going to-"

The AC lifted its arm and unleashed an explosive, blowing up the control center's core.

Oh no...

Ayre didn't know whether to feel sorry or not for the fate that this pilot was about to endure, but she didn't have time to really think about that as her brothers and sisters exploded outward, reacting to the explosion.

It wasn't a small one either.

In a last ditch effort to find reason for what the pilot thought they were doing, she tried to connect and talk to her again. There was enough coral in the area that she could hack into the framework of the AC and make her way into the cockpit. What she wasn't expecting however was to get shlorped up into the brain implants of the pilot aboard.

A gen 4? and experiencing Coral Burn-in no less.

She needed answers to her questions, but she wouldn't get those if she didn't at least try and keep this pilot alive to answer them.

Ayre did her best to corral the coral away from her body as the coral expanded and contain the coral that had escaped containment into her brain.

Just as quick as the explosion started, it ended, and her pilot was still alive.

Somehow.

Barely.

Now safely within the implants, Arye attempted to speak to her again.

"Who are you? An older type of augmented human. Fourth generation... Have we...made Contact? I am Ayre—a Rubiconian." The area around them was destroyed and somehow, they were on large platform, but the pilot was still not moving.

"Please, you must wake up. Before your consciousness... is forever scattered in the Coral flow."

~***~

Elliot heard the door open, and the soft sound of shuffling footsteps as he made his way in. There was a pause in sound before the door closed and was locked, foot shuffling resuming until she felt the soft vibration of him sitting behind her.

The feeling of his hand on her arm, squeezing gently as he spoke soothing words to her, fueled her tears as she turned her head to look at him, hair still slightly damp from her shower and eyes bloodshot from crying so hard for so long.

She knew she could always count on Rusty, that she could trust him with her life. He was all she had left, and here he was, offering her comfort, as long as she needed it. The red head slowly turned herself , scooting closer between his sprawled legs and hugging onto him, burying her face into his chest all while still sobbing. He was warm, and sweaty, probably from a work out or drill, but she didn't care. Rusty was comfortable and a soothing presence right now.

"T-They're.... gone..." She croaked out in a whisper, barely able to get it past her raw throat. "T-They're.... all... gone..." She forced the words out between sobs and coughs as she held onto him, Shere Khan, and her phone for dear life.

Elliot hoped that he knew what she meant by 'they', given the large explosion in the background and how distraught she was. 'My whole family is dead, and I heard their dying screams while on call with them.' She didn't have the heart to speak the words aloud, or the ability to with her throat as torn up as it was, so she merely sought the comfort of her Buddy.

 

[Lucyfer]

Someone was speaking.

The communications were down in LEMURES though Aurelia was working on running a diagnostics to repair it, working to get LEMURES on it's feet. She stared at the consoles and screens within trying to make sense of the voice, when another thought struck her: color returned.

The screens weren't red.

“Ayre,” she repeated, hoarse, throat dry. She felt dehydrated. Dizzy. This meant she was alive – death would have been kinder. “I'm awake. I'm Raven.”

No real names, she had no idea who this was. A strange red thing hovered just at the side of her vision, no matter how she looked around, though. “How are you talking? Everything's shut…..”

Today wasn't her day.

Ahead of LEMURES, a strange machine came flying towards the platform she landed on. Aurelia hit the repair kit, but there was only so much it could do with most of the frame burnt off.

“If you're a friend…I don't think I'm going to survive this without help,” that thing coming in was clearly not as missiles lit up and exploded out from it in all directions. No tracking but complete coverage.

Thankfully, LEMURES was faster without all that weight. Aurelia was able to dive into an open hole and cut into the strange machine with her pulse blade; diagnostics were still running to make sure her weapons weren't jammed or otherwise a threat to her own life.

~***~

Huntress looked a wreck.

It didn't surprise him, but it worried him to think of how long she'd been crying alone and what could have caused it. He didn't let his reaction shift much, lest he give away too much concern, but he did purse his lips in that bit of anxiety and uncertainty.

He didn't fight her on the embrace, but slowly wrapped his arms around her to let her know it was okay. It was acceptable. He wasn't going to push her away, as she cried out that ‘they’ were gone.

There was only one ‘they’ for her.

Her family.

“The coral…?” He started, but then paused. He'd seen it. “It's possible they're alive,” Huntress couldn't know for sure. She was here, after all. “Coral can be devastating…but there are Cinders who survived. And people know it can mess up communication systems.” He moved his right hand up to cup the back of her head.

He couldn't be too sure.

They could be dead.

“Perhaps we can get leave to check tomorrow. Not even Snail is that heartless…and you should get bereavement if….” If the worst.

But it could be looked into. They could make sure. She could have a little hope.

He didn't even realize he'd included himself so easily with the ‘we’.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Finally!

Someone could hear her speaking!

Fate worked in weird ways, if you believed in such a thing. Ayre might have been a believer after all this.

"Raven." It was an acknowledgement, but also a verbal nod? At least it sounded like a nod. There wasn't much else she could say when the machine came rocketing across the platform, missiles blazing.

Raven noticed it too as she activated something to repair her AC, asked for help, and dodged just in the nick of time.

Good.

She could take over from here, power the internals and help her fight better.

"I'll synchronize with your brain waves... and maintain Contact to support you."

Ayre did just that, taking over the brunt of the mental load of piloting the AC and using the coral in the air to help move the near armor-less husk of a mech easier, faster even.

She also hacked into the hostile machine itself, gather information on it as best as she could.

BALTEUS.

An autonomous craft built by the PCA.

Ayre relayed as such.

"... I looked into the enemy craft. BALTEUS. PCA built. You'll have to weaken that pulse armor if you want any chance at bringing it down. I'll support you the whole way. Speeding up weapon's diagnostics... I need you to focus on the fight, so I've disabled the Comms link for now. That dose of Coral almost killed you..."

~***~

The arms that wrapped around her were secure, safe, and warm. All three things that she needed to feel right now, and at the very least, it helped to soothe her crying some. it was a good thing, considering how hoarse she was, and how badly her face and head hurt.

It was bordering on a migraine, not that the symptoms would look any different from the ones from crying, especially with her eyes squeezed shut.

His words aimed to give her hope, but she didn't let them. If she allowed herself to hope, and they were truly... gone... she would break down all over again. No, she couldn't keep her hopes up. It was better to expect the worst and find the best than to hope for the best, and find the worst.

Still, she nodded along with his words gently, letting out a shuddering, hiccuping breath as cupped her head in his hand and held her to him. She was safe and she had him. She wasn't totally alone. Not all was lost.

Elliot stayed there, wrapped in his arms, for a good 15 minutes, just crying out all her sorrow until it left her numb once more. This wasn't like the re-education where she was forced to keep her emotions in.

No, this was a numbness only achieved through feeling too much at once. A response to a highly traumatic event that left her feeling like the living dead, unsure what to do with herself.

The woman tried to activate her voice aid, but it didn't even turn on.

Fuck.

It really was dead...

The red head gently pulled back, still clutching onto Shere Khan with a death grip, but pulling her phone away from the soft, plush pajama fabric at her chest, staring down at the happy little family, her happy little family, on the front with dead eyes.

The picture itself had her father, a giant of a man with a smug, yet loving grin on his freckled face, long cherry-red hair cascading down his shoulders and two icy-blue eyes staring straight ahead, his face creased with faint laughlines, though he couldn't have looked more than 25. One of the only perks of being a Cinder.

Her mother held the same youthfulness, though she looked like a more curvaceous version of Elliot herself; just as short with brunette hair in a bob-hairstyle and green eyes. Both adults had an arm around each other and the other arm around the four children in the front.

In the next row, there were two boys on the ends of the row about 14 years old and damn near identical aside from one having his hair long like their father and the other having his hair shaved in a more military-esc style.

To the left of the middle was a girl who was much taller than them, whip thin and holding a contraption of sorts but looked about 10 years old. How she was taller than them, was a mystery.

Next to her and on the right of the middle, was a much younger Elliot, about 17 years old with long hair down to the middle of her chest and wavy, with the biggest grin on her face and her arms wrapped hap-hazardly around her siblings. Even though she was older than her siblings, she was still shorter than them.

Huntress stared at the lock screen for perhaps too long before she unlocked it with her fingerprint, the last tab open showing on screen; her text to Rusty, his contact name, 'Buddy', labeled at the top. She kept the phone where he could see her typing her message to him, but not hitting send, instead turning it to show him.

Thank you for being here for me, and offering to go with me to check on them, buddy. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Do you think we could apply for leave in an email or something? I fried my speech aid and I feel like I've swallowed razor blades.​

 

[Lucyfer]

Synchronize with her brain waves? ‘What.’

There was too much going on for Aurelia to truly dive in to what was happening, and she did notice the burden of managing all the controls lifting. Even though she did much of it manually, there was a shift. ‘Adrenaline. It has to be adrenaline.’ That was certainly a part of why she didn’t feel her skin still burning and sore.

But that didn’t explain the way the AC moved faster.

It didn’t explain where the information on the craft in front of her came from.

‘I’m hallucinating.’

Maybe.

No time to question that, either. hallucinating or not, BALTEUS was a very real threat. “Did you consider the comms might help me?” they wouldn’t. She didn’t want to get Walter’s hopes up when she could still die here. There was no time for him to intervene. She shot out her own missiles when the diagnostics rang clear, watching the pink taint the shield – until it broke apart.

A bazooka shot did a fair job of harming BALTEUS, and she followed it up with a direct strike from the pulse blade, watching chunks fall off BALTEUS as it overheated. She turned again and put another bazooka round into it, before it was able to regroup and reform the shield.

It shot out several hundred more missiles like a hedgehog shooting quills.

Aurelia couldn’t dodge them all this time, the space wasn’t large enough. Still, she focused. “Don’t turn the comms on,” she clarified, in case her hallucination didn’t know she didn’t mean it.

BALTEUS went up higher, though she noticed it couldn’t get too high, and turned to its side as it banked downwards. Fire spewed from it now, and LEMURES lit up with alarms about an anomaly in the flames. She avoided it, and another round turned towards her. She boosted up, and rained more missiles down again.

Sixteen was simply too much for the shield. She hit it with another shot on the way down, and repeated the melee strike, again staggering it, only this time she kept the blade out and hacked into it, again, and again, until it got its senses together and pulled away, shooting a far more directed barrage of missiles at her AC.

These followed, and BALTEUS came after her with fire as she got to the edge and jumped down to avoid the missiles.

Only, when she went over the edge, did she notice the world around the platform seemed…barren. The PCA base was gone. Everything was gone.

It was enough to startle her, to cause her to lose focus, as she came back up from the edge. The fire caught her by surprise. Without much armor, LEMURES crumpled, legs all but melted. “NOT HERE!” Aurelia screamed at her own machine.

BALTEUS came around again with more fire.

Her boosters still worked, even if the legs were a tangled mess of metal. She got above it, and went with the strategy again.

Sixteen missiles.

A bazooka shot with the shield was down.

And a blade.

To her own surprise, that was all it took. As LEMURES hit the ground, BALTEUS began to self destruct. Pieces of it rained down on her, and some of the flames still licked LEMURES in the destruction – but it was over.

It was gone.

Aurelia looked at it through the sensors for a few moments, before taking in the destruction of everything around her. ‘…What happened? How did I…survive?’ Barely, according to the Rubiconian.

“Ayre….” She spoke into the air. She had questions, so many questions, but she bowed her head. “Never mind.” Later. “Thank you.”

The adrenaline would run out. The pain would return. Ayre would vanish as the stress vanished. At least her hallucination was friendly.

~***~

Rusty never once tried to move Huntress off of him. He never tried to suggest her sorrow needed to come to an end. He had agreed to be there, as long as she wanted, and he would be, for what was needed. He continued to hold her through her tears, and he continued to make sure he was present, and not just drifting off or zoning out.

That was hard to do, anyways.

When she pulled back, he hesitated to loosen his grip only a moment, as if to make sure. When her pull was insistent he did let her go, and allowed her to straighten up, hiccupping and figuring things out. She looked down at her phone, and Rusty could see the picture of her family.

The dead father.

The twins – the RLF pilots.

Lilith who threatened him.

The mother.

And, of course, Huntress. ‘Els.’

He was about to speak again, when she unlocked her phone, and he caught his breath to stop the words. She typed, and he read along as best he could from his angle, but was truly able to get it all when she turned it towards him to read. He pursed his lips together, and shook his head.

“Honestly? No. But we can go in the morning, and I’ll do the speaking. Snail will want the area investigated anyways, and we’re the best at it, right? So we can volunteer to do that, and take a pitstop near your family home. I think he’ll go for it.”

But asking for it in an email?

Snail wasn’t into that. Even if he didn’t like to be disturbed, he still liked these things personal.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Ayre busted her figurative ass the whole fight to keep LEMURES together despite everything wrong with it and the damage it kept taking. There was only so much she could do about the damage without any repair kits, her and Raven both.

BALTEUS was a hell of a beast too, tanking hit after hit of bazooka and pink missiles that helped to break its pulse shield. Whoever this Raven was, she was a good pilot to be able to keep fighting against something like this with the limited resources on hand.

Then again, she likely couldn't pilot it at all without Ayre's help.

Help that she was happy to provide, if not a little cautious about it and what this pilot was doing destroying a PCA base full of Coral.

Ayre was as helpful as can be, giving callouts, warnings about potential moves, and kindly advising Raven during the whole fight, sticking by her side.

After what seemed like an eternity, the fight was over, and there stood LEMURES, legs melted into goop and barely held together. Ayre would continue to hold her AC together until help could arrive. Something she expected would come quickly once comms were turned back on.

"...Enemy systems down. It's silent."

The wave pulsed languidly for a moment, almost like a sigh of relief. They had made it, Raven was still alive. Even if she thought Ayre was a hallucination.

"You're welcome, Raven... I am re-establishing comms and bringing you back online. You need rest, but first, a warning. This was just a glimpse of what Coral does. A look into what the future could look like when it burns all of Rubicon..."

And with that, Ayre reconnected Raven with her handler.

~***~

Walter had been slumped against his desk, head in his arms letting himself grieve his fallen pilot and trying to ignore his responsibilities. Responsibilities like telling Carla what had happened. He really didn't want to face her after all this. After this final, heart-breaking loss that shook him to his very core.

And then the static cleared from the screens one by one.

Walter's head had never moved so quickly, seeing the absolute carnage that was wrecked upon the area and the damage done to LEMURES. The Cameras were back online, even if they were mostly cracked, and her vitals, while haywire, still suggested that she was alive. He wasted no time sending the transport helicopter out to get her.

"621?! How- " The hows and whys didnt matter in this very moment, actuallly. She was alive, and judging by the vitals, she wasn't actively trying to die.

His hands were still trembling, and he took a deep, shuddering breath, forcing himself to regain some semblance of composure. “What happened out there? I lost the feed right after the explosion. I… I couldn’t see anything. I thought…”

He swallowed hard, fighting back the tears that threatened to spill over. His friend was alive. His friend that he had nearly doomed to a painful, firey death.

Walter’s voice steadied slightly, a determination creeping back in. “But you made it. You survived. That’s all that matters now. I’ll get you out of there, I promise. Just… just hold on. I have transport on the way.”

There was a brief pause, a heavy silence filled with tamped down emotions. Walter finally spoke again, softer this time. “I’m so proud of you, Aurelia. I don't know how you did it, or how you continue to remain unkillable, but that doesn't matter. You’ve done more than anyone could’ve asked. Let’s get you home.”

~***~

His words made her emotionless, exhausted face pull into a frown for a moment before evening out as he finished his train of thought. It was a good plan. Especially if Snail got something out of it too.

If her family were still alive, and she found who did this...

To scare her so badly...

Huntress wasn't to quick to anger, but the thought of finding who did this sent a bolt of red hot fury through her for a moment. It reflected behind the deadness in her eyes but it was too much energy to hold onto and it dropped as quick as it had appeared..

The red head typed once more on her phone, slower this time and showing him.

Thank you for everything. I'll be ready in the morning.​

Elliot looked around her at her trashed room from her spot on the floor, and suddenly the thought of being alone in this room filled her with a visceral fear that had tears springing to her eyes once more as she gripped impossibly tighter to Shere Khan. The absolute horror of being left behind here, to keep hearing their screams, the sound of the explosion, reliving the horrifying moment that she realized they were gone in this barren room pushed through the barrier of non-emotion that her body had tried to set.

Back again were her fingers on her keyboard, typing as fast as her body would let her, shaking like a leaf at the all encompassing fear shooting through her as she swallowed thickly, showing him the message when it was done.

Buddy? Is it ok if I stay in your room tonight? Please? I'll sleep on the floor, I'll stay out of the way.

Huntress paused to try and stop herself from hyperventilating as she kept making typos as she typed and had to keep backspacing.

I'm so scared to be alone again. I keep hearing their screams...​

 

[Lucyfer]

“I know the damage coral does,” Aurelia said, as LEMURES came back online. She knew only too well what it did on the individual level, and she knew of the fires. It was why she didn’t understand what Walter had just sent her to do, although even he seemed surprised when it all went to hell.

He seemed surprised she was alive.

Aurelia couldn’t blame him for that as a soft smile settled on her face, listening to him. He was unsteady. Worried. Relieved. He fought to regroup as he promised the transport, before becoming almost too serious in praising her. She rolled her eyes, but offered, “I’m not sure how I survived either, Walter. Especially since this stunt woke up BALTEUS,” she didn’t hesitate with the name, although once it was out, she realized she should have.
Then again, if the name was right…well, it gave credence to her hallucination. “Bastard melted LEMURES.” But it was fine now. It was over. So long as nothing—

—there was movement and Aurelia turned the head of LEMURES to look at it, seeing another AC, in rather equally shredded state, clamber onto the platform. Crawling, really. Perhaps its boosters were out.

A hailing signal pushed through and she accepted it. “Who—” Aurelia didn’t get to finish the question.

“V. …III. O’Keeffe. The coral surge…please….”

He didn’t sound good. As Aurelia’s own adrenaline was coming down, she didn’t feel great. The burns on her skin were starting to get uncomfortable. The flight suit felt terrible atop it, if it didn’t feel wet and sticky. ‘Oh I’m…bleeding.’ She could see the cracks in the core, then. Things were worse than she realized.

She muted his side, “Walter…there’s a wrecked vesper asking for help. O’Keeffe.” She didn’t know what he wanted to do with that. Aurelia wasn’t in much state to attack it – even if it was possibly worse off than her.

They weren’t enemies. Not really.

~***~

Rusty managed a quick smile at the gratitude, though it was uneasy, uncertain. He knew they may not find anything when they headed north to investigate the crisis. He knew they may find her home destroyed completely, and with it, her family. Still, it had to be done. There had to be certainty.

“Of course. We’ll see Snail then.”

He anticipated being able to leave. Huntress would probably want to fix the wreck of her room and, maybe not rest, but…do something other than be watched. When she asked to stay in his room, however, he frowned.

It wasn’t a good idea.

It wasn’t a precedent he should be setting.

There were the barracks with her own Squadron, not everyone got their own rooms. Vespers were the elite, so they did, but the rank and file MT? Hardly. Not to mention, he was quite aware of the crush Huntress had.

And her trust in him….

He shook his head, “I can walk you to the V. IX Squadron barracks, if you like,” he offered instead, “you won’t be alone there, and you know your squad has your back,” better than he did. Guilt tightened his throat, but he tried to ignore it.

He never should have let Huntress feel they were this close.

Perhaps this rejection would help to lessen that, just a bit.

"Besides, there's usually extra beds in the barracks, so no floor to worry about."

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Walter listened to Aurelia speak, relief flooding him in waves. She was alive, he wouldn't have to tell Carla, and his little grief episode happened in private. If it weren't for the wrecked arm rests of his brand new chair, or the slick sheen of sweat and tears coating his face, maybe he could pretend it didn't happen.

By all accounts though, Aurelia should be dead, or almost there from the amount of Coral that was released and yet here she was, worse for wear but alive.

BALTEUS.

A name he hadn't heard before, but if there was someone on this planet who would know, it was Carla. And better yet, how did she know what it was called? Maybe she was able to run a scan on whatever this thing was...

Said thing had melted the legs of LEMURES and yet she still came out on top?

Walter knew this before, but it was confirmed now, she really was his best pilot to be able to survive all that. Things were quiet for a moment and he watched on the cameras as an AC approached slowly.

Was that...?

A numbered Vesper.

An Arquebus Elite.

But he was in the same shape, and according to Aurelia, was asking for help. Judging by his AC, he should be dead as well. He was in even rougher shape than his own pilot. Usually other pilots were the responsibility of their handlers, but in this case, it was more of an emergency.

Plus saving one of his pilots might get them a better in with Arquebus, even if he had to deal with old Hostage Killer himself.

"Let him on the transport. We'll take him home." Like the two had been out on a playdate or something. An almost wry smile snaked its way across his lips, even if it was faint. Maybe he was starting to lose it.

"ETA 15 minutes out."

~***~

'Aurelia'

Raven must be her callsign then, but this 'Walter' didn't call her Raven. He called her 621.

Ayre listened in quietly to the conversation between Aurelia and Walter. The more he talked, the more she realized that there was something about Walter that didn't quite add up.

Did he not realize that attacking the coral would cause a large explosion? He didn't seem that stupid, but she tried to give him the benefit of the doubt for now. She'd need to collect more information and context clues from him.

Something about this just seemed... off.

Who gave them this job if he didn't realize it would cause this... There were too many variables, too many 'what if's. She needed to stick around and see what his plans were, but didn't want to intrude on Raven's brain unless she was ok with it. She'd stick around a little longer, see what Walter had to say for the debrief and make her decision then.

~***~

Oh!

The Squad IX Barracks!

How could she forget?!

Maybe it was the fact that she just had a full on breakdown.

Realization sparked behind her eyes and she started to type again, a small quirk upward of her lips as she showed him the message.

I would like that, thank you. I forgot about the barracks. I know my squad will be happy to see me even if I probably look like I got smacked around by ARTEMIS.
​

The barracks, like he had said, would have a bed, and then in the morning, they would go to Snail's office. How she had forgotten about her squad and the barracks was a mystery to her but she remembered now.

She didn't take Rusty's redirection as rejection, instead as counsel. She trusted his judgement, and if he thought it would be better to be surrounded by more people than just him, especially with a mission on the horizon, then the barracks it was.

Getting to her feet slowly, she took a deep breath, her legs shaking under her, but she pushed through it. She wanted to push her bed upright again at the very least, not that she thought she'd be staying in here for the foreseeable future. The red head tucked Shere Khan and her phone into one of the large pockets in her clothes and moved to the bed.

Pale hands gripped the heavy frame and lifted, grunting quietly as she she put all those Vesper-fight clubs and gym sessions to use. The force sent the hood over her head giving her little tiger ears in the process.

The bed clattered back into place and she breathed hard, rubbing her sore throat. She stayed like that for a few moments before straightening up and scooting the mattress back up onto the frame. That was less of a hassle.

Once she recovered, she pulled her phone back out to type to him, pushing her hood off her head.

I'm ready to go to the barracks. I'm sorry for keeping you awake so late. Thank you again, buddy.​

 

[Lucyfer]

Aurelia opened the communications back up with the vesper. “You can get on the transport. Fifteen minutes. Can you wait that long?”

A grunt. “I'll have to.”

Aurelia didn't like that answer. However, she let it lie, and focused on staying awake. She sought music on her tablet but kept skipping songs. She wouldn't let herself listen to one for too long. She couldn't risk drifting off.

‘At least the hallucination is gone.’ for now. The red returned, unbeknownst to Aurelia because Ayre had drawn back.

She'd have to tell Walter the hallucinations were getting more creative and naming themselves. As she thought of how terrible the fall into coral madness might be, she heard the sound of the transport.

Somehow, both ACs got loaded up with a bit more crawling than was dignified, and once in, Aurelia searched for the first aid kit she knew was in there, usually behind her seat. It took a bit, and after could feel more of that blood on her leg, but ignored it. She pulled the kit and opened the door to the core, noting to Walter, “I'm going to check on O'Keeffe,” before exiting.

She stepped onto the catwalk rather than jump down as she usually would.

She assessed herself as best she could standing on shaking legs.

Her right thigh was gashed. A piece of the core had broken off and was sticking out. Pain lanced through her if she put weight on it. Smaller cuts were scattered about. The burn from the coral had reddened her skin all over, and the fabric felt terrible over the fresh burns, but they weren't as bad as they should be.

They were like sunburns.

They were going to hurt like hell, peel, maybe ooze, but…no, this was unusual. Not that she knew anything about direct coral exposure like this but it felt off.

She moved around to where the other AC was and didn't even bother to knock before opening the door.

O’Keeffe was in a bad way.

The burns were far more severe for him, some areas seeming too white, and others looking charred. His AC may have protected him some, but not enough. Debris littered the core, but he didn't have any gashes that Aurelia could see or notable bleeding.

She offered a hand. “I have some balm….” It wasn't much. He'd need to get into the medbay on the ship.

O’Keeffe lifted his head with a cracked smile on his lips. “So you're Raven,” his voice was similarly hoarse. He was likely more dehydrated than her. “You ruined everything.”

“I just destroyed one command center, it's not everything,” she grabbed him by his own flightsuit to pull him out, but he went with it rather than struggle and stumbled onto the catwalk.

“You don't know…it doesn't matter,” he slumped to the ground, a man defeated, “hand me the balm,” she did and watched him unscrew it, even though he was obviously in pain.

She found pain pills and fever medicine, as well, and silently offered it to him.

He swallowed them down without even asking what they were, and Aurelia stripped her suit off to get at the wound on her thigh. It would need stitches, but for the moment, she cleaned it to and put butterfly stitches on it to hold it close, before wrapping it, and slipping the suit back on, though she didn't zip it all the way.

It was still uncomfortable.

“What did I ruin?” She asked, only when they'd both finally stopped moving.

O'Keeffe was silent.

Sulla was dead. ALLMIND had lost the person she needed, a Coral augmented human, to change the universe. There weren't many of those left. O'Keeffe put it behind him.

Aurelia was that. He could see it. She had hit burn in, too.

But he'd already been questioning ALLMIND the more he learned about the plan and what it meant. How it could indeed strip him of humanity. Wasn't that why he changed? Joined Arquebus?

Now he'd nearly thrown it all away. “... Everything I was working for,” it wasn't the answer she wanted. It was all he'd offer as he worked through this new reality where he could change his mind, as the transport reached Walter’s ship, and Raven still offered him a hand up when it came to a stop.

Despite her own injuries.

And he took it, careful not to demand too much. They used each other to get down from the catwalk.

The ACs could wait to unload later.

~***~

Huntress didn't look put out at all by the suggestion. Rusty was a little surprised by that, but kept that masked with only a slightly bemused smile at the reaction. He rose after her, and let her manage the bed on her own.

She might need that physical exertion to work some of the emotions out.

However, when she indicated that she was ready, he shook his head, “Not quite. You need some water. If you don't have a cup here, we can swing by the cafe and grab a bottle for you. Otherwise you're going to wake up not feeling too good. Not that…well, you know.”

Not that she was going to feel great anyways, but a dehydration headache wasn't going to help her deal with what was to come in the morning. That, and it'd allow some additional walking, and fresh air, if they needed to hit the cafeteria. “I know it's not much,” he sighed. There wasn't much he could do from his position. “Oh. Er.”

He realized the ears.

The outfit. He flushed a bit, both at the second hand embarrassment of his proposal and how cute she looked in spite of everything.

“I guess I can go in the cafeteria if that's needed.” While it was technically a place they didn't need to be in uniform for, something told Rusty that Snail might blow a gasket if he heard Huntress walked in like that, “if there's no cup here.”

 

[EllieMcEllie]

The 15 minutes that followed felt much longer than it should have, but Walter couldn't do anything else until the transport got there. He had to make sure that his pilot was staying conscious.

While she was alive, she was still hurt, and likely covered in Coral burns. Those would definitely not feel great. Adrenaline was great in a fight, but when it wore off? All that pain was going to come rushing back in.

The transport couldn't get there quick enough for his liking, but eventually it did and the two got loaded up, allowing the pepper-haired man to let out a deep sigh of relief. They were on their way back now, and he knew he owed her an explanation, even if it were more lies to keep his secrets safe and satisfy her need for answers.

He hated having to lie, but there were things in this world more important than integrity, more than friendship, and more than his care for his pilot. The fate of the universe was at stake, but that didn't mean that he had to like what he was doing, or that it didn't hurt.

Her call out registered in his brain and he was back from his thoughts.

"I'll call Snail and let him know his Vesper is safe. He may have to stay in the bunks with you tonight. I'll be waiting in the medbay."

Alive might have been a better word here, but O'Keefe was safe for the most part. He didn't think the Vesper would try something to piss off Aurelia, but then again, Iguazu had and it was directly in front of his superior. That was Iguazu though. He didn't seem to be very bright, being all bite, all bark, and no brain.

Walter kept an eye on the interior of the transport copter, noting just how rough the two pilots looked and made a mental note to have the medbay ready for when they arrived. Large hands picked up his phone that was resting on the desk and dialed up his old 'friend', Hostage Killer.

Being as it was so late, he wasn't sure if he would pick up at all until morning, but one thing was sure; O'Keefe and Aurelia would be having a little sleepover. He took his phone with him as he clicked down the hall to the medbay, waiting for either Snail to pick up, or for the call to go to voicemail.

~***~

Surprise flitted behind her emotionless eyes for a moment before his words fully settled. He was right, water would probably help stop the migraine that was threatening to take over her consciousness. If only she could remember where her cup was...

The red head began her search around the trashed room for the very special cup, one from home, amongst the belongings strewn around the floor. Her brows furrowed when he suggested going to the cafeteria and from the lack of cup. She was in a tiger onesie. If Snail saw her or even heard about it outside of the designated sleeping areas...

Rusty seemed to realize his error around the same time that she had the brilliant idea to check the bathroom. That was where she kept her migraine medication, so that's probably where she left her cup. Easier to track down then having a migraine forming and having to find both items.

She disappeared into the bathroom without a word, not that she could speak anyway, and made note of the blush on his cheeks. He was even cute when he blushed...! How unfair! If she weren't absolutely wrecked emotionally, grieving the loss of her family and dealing with the start of a migraine from dehydration, she may have blushed as well, or froze at just how cute it was to her.

But her head hurt, so she opened the medicine cabinet above the sink, smiling softly as tears gathered again in her eyes. Her cup was here. The cup with her father's Emblem on it. 'Spartan'. She had fond memories of being allowed to sit in the cockpit while she helped him work on GLADIATOR. An absolute beast of a mech that resembled the more bulky 'gundam' style ACs with the bright colors.

Sighing, she wiped the tears from her face with a wash cloth, applied more of the scar cream that helped to soothe the pain, and filled her cup up with cold water, drinking down one glass and filling it again.

Grabbing two excedrin max strength migraine from her medicine cabinet, she turned right around, tossing the pills into her mouth as she walked out of the bathroom. Elliot began to slowly drink her water, not coming up for air until she finished the first glass.

As soon as the last drop was down, she gasped quietly, catching her breath. Even just two glasses of water helped immensely, but the pain in her head was still there, causing the tiny pilot to grimace and hold the side of her head, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment to bite it back.

The migraine medication would help, assuming she got it in her system in time, and so she placed the emblem-clad cup on her bed-side table. A problem for later, when she had the will to get all this cleaned up. Fishing her phone back out, she wrote out another message, though her sentences were shortened to limit how much she looked at her phone. Light was starting to make the pain worse.

Good call for water. Took migraine medication too. Ready now?​

 

[Lucyfer]

It was already a long night for Snail and it had just begun, following another long night of going over the logs Rusty and Huntress returned with. He had sent O’Keeffe out to verify a coral well of substantial depth and wealth of coral in Northern Belius, and to verify the PCA presence so Snail could prepare an attack force to take that. It wasn’t what they were looking for – but it was a start.

Instead, Snail had to get reports pouring in of a coral surge in Northern Belius not long after he deployed O’Keeffe.

He lost contact with the helicopter.

He lost contact with O’Keeffe, who he assumed was dead. O’Keeffe was a far better individual to rely on for important things than Freud, and Snail was already dreading the morning when he’d have to determine how to proceed with delegating tasks, and the talk with Freud about taking up more paperwork.

Freud remained his superior, but he did fuck all.

That was when the call came, with the name ‘Walter’ plastered on the screen. Snail narrowed his eyes at this, expecting more reasons to be annoyed. Walter’s business should be with Hawkins, not him. Even so, he answered, his tone quite snappy, “This had better be important, Handler Walter,” he didn’t even bother with a friendly greeting, “I have several tasks that need attending to.”

~***~

The walk to the medbay was done in silence. O’Keeffe didn’t fight it, and slipped onto the slab as soon as they arrived. They beat Walter there, and Aurelia wasn’t exactly familiar with the medbay yet, so she wasn’t sure if there was a way to help O’Keeffe.

She definitely wasn’t a doctor.

“You should be sitting. Your leg….” O’Keeffe reminded.

“Shhh,” Aurelia moved in spite of the pain, even if she had to be slow and careful. She’d helped walk him here, she could walk without his weight to see if there was some sort of miracle cure hidden in the medbay. Things had advanced since she was ice, and even then, she knew there were ways to deal with burns and other injuries pilots were at risk of.

‘Not good enough to put you back to normal.’

She hissed in a breath as she bumped her leg against one of the cabinets, and tried not to curse.

“You should worry about yourself.”

“Stop letting the re-education talk.”

O’Keeffe snorted at that. “Haven’t been.” He didn’t think he was at risk of that now. Sure, he failed, but Snail hadn’t accounted for Raven. Sulla had, though he hadn’t known when Raven might arrive. O’Keeffe wanted to ask.

He was desperate to know what was between them.

But he couldn’t reveal he knew Sulla, so he kept it to himself as he heard the clattering sounds of more cabinets being opened, and things being shuffled around.

~***~

Huntress did not want to go to the cafeteria, that much was obvious in her mad search. Rusty was hesitant to join, not wanting to move something he shouldn’t, so he stayed back, and looked, as she moved things about. He didn’t see the cup, and she dashed into her attached bathroom. He waited, and when she returned, she looked a bit better.

She put the cup she had down, an emblem upon it that wasn’t her own, and showed him another message.

He smiled. “I try to have good ideas, sometimes,” he said, nodding, “Yeah, let’s get you to the barracks. Maybe you’ll even get some more news about the coral situation in there; other people are bound to be impacted, or looking into it,” Rusty suggested, not sure she’d actually get any sleep.

Especially surrounded by her Squad.

But, she wouldn’t be alone, and that was a weight off his shoulders. She wouldn’t be terrified and alone all night. She’d accepted the idea. He was glad he could help with that much, even if it wasn’t by sharing his own space. The compromise worked.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Oh!

Snail answered, so he must be aware of what had happened at some kind of level, if his snappier than normal tone was anything to go by. Perhaps he thought O'Keefe was dead like he thought Aurelia was. Would he even believe him?

When was Walter known to joke about such things?

He wasn't but he had sass down to a science. Carla knew that too well.

"Didn't know you had tasks outside killing Hostages, Snail. We picked up one of your Vespers, V.III O'Keefe. He's safe on my ship and ready for pick up whenever you're done with 'housekeeping'."

Short, sweet, and to the point with a little sass thrown in. If Aurelia heard it, she might have even cracked a smile. At least from his knowledge of her humor.

Then again, maybe not, seeing as she was hurt pretty bad and may not have been feeling up for the sassy humor of a middle aged man. It just made him realize that he needed to learn more about her. He knew Carla would have laughed at it, but he felt she laughed at a lot, given her mantra of 'the serious ones go first' or whatever.

He reached the medbay by that time, seeing just how horrifically injured both pilots were, grimacing at the sight of the Coral burns and the large gash on Aurelia's leg.

"I've got to go. Housekeeping of my own to do." And with that he hung up. He got the majority of what needed to be said out. They didn't need to say anything more to each other especially since the Medbay 'doctor' wasn't activated.

"621. O'Keefe." He greeted, heading to the button on the backwall and pressing it to activate the medbay robot. "I've called Snail, but you're stuck here until morning. I hope you like sleepovers. We don't have hot chocolate, but we do have coffee." That was a lie, they absolutely had hot chocolate, but he wasn't going to share it with him.

The medbay robot only took a moment to come online before it began to wordlessly start treating the wounds of O'Keefe and Aurelia. It was a large, friendly, round marshmallow of a robot who scanned their injuries to assess them properly. Aurelia would need stitches, and both parties were in various stages of burnt and charred to all hell.

Time to get to work.

~***~

That was something she didn't think about. Others were likely affected and just as worried as she was. He was right about having great ideas, though she felt it was more than sometimes.

So with phone, phone charger, and Shere Khan in her possession, they left her room. She had thought to put on her sunglasses, but decided not to at the last moment. She had a pair in her cockpit that she could wear tomorrow and she was sure the barracks would have their lights down low enough.

The walk to the Squadron IX Barracks was mostly quiet on Huntress's end, not that she could really speak or look at her phone right now anyway. Every loud bang from someone shutting their door caused her to jolt, freeze, and whip her head towards the windows with wide, frightened eyes, rapid breathing, and grip onto her fried pendant tightly.

It would only take a few moments for her to realize that it was just a door shutting or something similar, and she could unlock her legs to continue on their journey to the Barracks.

The Squadron IX Barracks had most of its lights off, as predicted, but there was idle chatter amongst the crew, some worried, some neutral, and some joking. It all stopped however when Elliot walked through the door.

"Huntress!?" Arlo called out, immediately to his feet, hurrying to her, and looking her over fervently before pulling her into a hug that was returned, almost back-breakingly so. The onsie didn't even phase him as it was strange for her to be here at this time of night and figured that it had something to do with the explosion. She had told them before that she was from the North, and Arlo expected the worst.

It was then that he noticed Rusty behind her and tried to lighten the mood a little, if anything, to try and keep morale up. There were a handful of northerners in the Squad IX ranks, all worried about the worst for their families.

"V.IV, you broke our poor squad leader! What did you do to leave her so speechless?" It was a teasing statement with no ire behind it, playing on the fact the the two were close and insinuating something deeper between the two had occurred if he were escorting her places late at night. Something someone smart could pick up, but not poor little Elliot who did not do well trying to read between the lines even with her mind fully intact.

 

[Lucyfer]

‘Hostage Killer.’

Snail was rather proud of that. It didn’t fit Arquebus, of course, but before his days as V. II, he’d had a different reputation, one Walter knew about. Even before Arquebus, they had worked alongside each other on missions. Even against each other. Walter’s hounds were infamous across the galaxy, after all.

He wasn’t worried about Walter killing O’Keeffe.

Walter wasn’t nearly so ruthless. A pity for him. “I will be there in the morning.” A statement as much a threat. With the call dropped, Snail went to the room that held Freud. He did not bother to knock. Despite Freud’s rank, Snail had as much access as him.

Freud was, of course, in bed, but not asleep. A gun was leveled at Snail’s face; Freud never slept without a weapon near. He woke at the slightest threat. Even so, Snail did not flinch. Freud was, to his constant irritation, better. Only human, no augmentations, but his reactions were quicker, and so he did not fire. He recognized who it was, and set the gun aside, before sitting up, blond and gray hair an absolute mess upon his head, but his green eyes were awake.

Sharp.

“What could you possibly need me for at this hour?”

“I need to pick of V.III from Handler Walter in the morning. I need you to run things until I return.”

Freud canted his head. He arched a brow. “Do you really have so little faith in everything that you believe Arquebus will fall to ruin in the two hours you are gone?”

“Yes.”

Freud snorted. He could deny it. He could always deny it. He could insist on IV running things, though IV had no administrative training whatsoever, but he didn’t. He handwaved it, “Fine,” he laid back down, “But you owe me. You know I hate paperwork.”

“Everyone knows you hate paperwork, it’s a literal miracle you are V.I.”

Freud smirked as he shut his eyes, “What can I say? I’m just better.”

Snail wanted to break his skull against the bedframe. Even with his superior strength from the augmentations, he hesitated. He’d more readily take on Michigan, as bulky and strong as he was, before he even tried Freud, though he was certain he overpowered Freud.

Freud was…exceptional.

Inhumanly human.

And Snail hated him as he walked out of the room.

~***~

“No, not exactly a fan,” but O’Keeffe wouldn’t complain, as he turned his head when he finally heard the familiar sounds of a medbay robot activating. It wasn’t like the one at Arquebus, this one was…plush. Which seemed weird for something that needed to be dexterous. Either way, he didn’t complain, and let it treat his burns, and the small scrapes.

Much as Aurelia allowed it to stitch up her wounds, and treat her own burns. The pain medicine it offered was quite numbing.

Her exhaustion didn’t improve under that, either, as the coral fever returned in stages. It was low, but paired with the heat from the burns, the exhaustion bit in and all she wanted to do was sleep. She had to fight against half-dosing off in the room.

When the robot finished with them, it offered lollipops.

“No,” O’Keeffe denied, moving with obvious strain to sit up from the cot. He may not be in as much pain anymore, but everything was hot, and everything ached. He’d had quite a bit cut off to remove the dead skin, and the pads placed over those areas were cool – making the heat all the more noticeable.

“No,” Aurelia also denied, “thank you,” she stood up, and made note of where the button was for the future. “I’ll show you the bunks,” she offered to O’Keeffe. Considering she wanted to head down herself, that seemed a good idea.

And she and Walter could at least have a couple of words before that.

Explanations would wait until morning.

O’Keeffe nodded, and slid off the cot with a bit of a wince, “…thank you, Walter,” he said then, “it’s not everyone who would pick up another pilot.” He almost said stray, feeling a bit cast out with Sulla gone but…well, Walter did pick up strays.

He really wasn’t looking to be C9-622.

~***~

Rusty noticed the way that Huntress reacted to the loud sounds. He wasn’t sure why, admittedly. Perhaps it was fear of being seen as she was; it was all that came to mind, fear of being caught, and then fear of re-education. He could understand that, so he didn’t ask about it or question it, just tried to keep them on a path that shouldn’t pass too much activity, all the way to the IX Barracks.

Once there, it seemed rather active for this hour, though the explosion was no doubt to blame. Arlo immediately greeted Huntress with an embrace, and Rusty let out a sigh of relief to see the positive way that Huntress was greeted.

‘Yeah. Good decision.’ They also wouldn’t bring any harm to her.

The joke, however, was in poor tastes, and Rusty let his expression say as much, not so much as smiling at it. “V. IX can explain at her leisure what has happened, it is not my place to say,” Rusty said, speaking overly formally to indicate distance, and to further the point that he wasn’t amused.

This wasn’t the time for jokes when Huntress was obviously suffering.

“Huntress,” far less formal, “I will send a message in the morning, all right?” He did not need to stick around any longer. She was safe here, and she would not suffer alone. He could try to rest, and resist the urge to step off base to gather information.

Plenty would be found tomorrow.

Likely, more than the RLF would know.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Walter watched with an almost amused expression as the two got to witness Medbay Maximus, or Med Max for short, for the first time. That was one thing that he never got tired of, as ridiculous as the damn thing was.

Carla had made it for him after his first one's parts became obsolete and he had to get a new one. That was around the same time that HellBringer, 354, was around. A weird coincidence that he didn't want to think about. He had thought about 354 maybe too much in the last 2 weeks.

That pilot was all chaos and sex and he went up in flames just like, well... Like his love life.

354 and 356 had a thing going on, he was sure, and with one of Balam's pilots. Which one was that again...? G13 Siene? It didn't matter, both were dead. If he was honest, which he often wasn't, 354 was probably also with 353 and 355 as well.

The man had a way with words, and could usually talk himself out of most altercations, or sleep his way around them as infuriating as that was. It was his fault that Walter had to put a limit on extra curiculars outside the ship because he'd sleep with the enemy given the chance.

Med Max did its job wonderfully though, and patched up the pilots to the best of its ability. The rest of the healing would be up to them then and their bodies.

He could tell by the look on Aurelia's face that the burn-in was worse now than ever, and thought it may have been kinder if the blast had just outright killed her. Selfishly, he was glad it didn't.

Walter's lips upturned slightly into an amused smirk as he watched the medbay robot offer them lolipops, remembering the time that Med Max had offered him one after Carla suggested he talk to the thing as therapy from his rather messy divorce. It did not go well.

O'Keefe was speaking though, and so he listened in. Oh, he was just thanking him.

"You're welcome. You're not our enemy. Snail wouldn't do the same, but I'm not him."

And that was a good thing.

Hostage Killer was high strung and merciless. He would ahve left Aurelia to die if the roles were reversed.

"I'll leave you two to it. Try and get some sleep. I have no idea how early Snail is going to be here."

And with that, Walter pressed the dismissal button on Max's chest, and limped out of the medbay, cane in hand.

~***~

Arlo didn't so much as flinch at the harsh, professional tone, merely nodding to his words. He was used to loud voices from higher officers and jokes falling flat when trying to bring up morale. It probably would have been funnier if Huntress would have understood it too. Or maybe it would have still fell flat.

His squad leader didn't need to explain herself though. She talked about her family enough with them that he knew. He may not have known to what extent she had found out about her family when the others had just seen the explosion and couldn't get a hold of their families, but he wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight to make sure that everyone was taken care of.

Huntress turned to Rusty as he spoke and nodded slowly, acknowledging his words and mouthing the words 'thank you' as Arlo helped to lead her to one of the bunks. One thing was certain, she wasn't going to be sleeping tonight.

Arlo stayed up late with all of the Northerners that night, and by the time 5 am rolled around, all were asleep except for Huntress who had slipped into dissociation hours ago, staring straight ahead and clutching a small plush tiger in her hands.

Something told him that she hadn't just seen the explosion, but she hadn't talked the entire time either. It was weird for her, even post re-education, and he had to wonder if she had broken her speech aid or something. Maybe she was just that traumatized. Either way, he would hold down the fort until she either fell asleep, or went back to her room.

The beautiful Rubiconian sunrise crested the horizon and Huntress blinked, suddenly aware of her body and how it was feeling. The migraine medication had thankfully worked and kicked the migraine out of her system, but her muscles were tenser then a bowstring as she had been sitting in the same cross-legged position for hours.

She supposed that it was probably a good time to take a shower and get out of these pajamas into a flight suit or something. She didn't feel up to her normal morning routine.

Coffee would probably do her good right now to keep her awake, and a hot shower to clean the sweat and tears off her. If her family was somehow alive, she wanted to be presentable and Snail would probably flay her if she showed up completely unkempt.

So that's what she did, getting up off the bed and stretching before heading towards the door. "T-Thank.... You..." she croaked out. It hurt much less than the night before, but it was still quite raspy and sore, so that was all she said as she headed back to her room.

It was still trashed, but she was able to get her shower, and put on a maroon polo with the Arquebus logo on the breast pocket and some black slacks. As much as she didn't want to look somewhat put together, she had to be in Snail's presence today and didn't want to look like the absolute wreck she felt she was. She didn't bother fluffing her hair or slicking it back, leaving it just vaguely dry and brushed through.

Now clothed and halfway decent, the emotionless, exhausted Huntress made her way to the cafeteria for a cup of liquid energy, shooting Rusty a very jarbled, sleepy text.

Getin co[fe from thcaf. Did't slep. Redy whe yu ar.
​

She walked by Pater, not recognizing it was him as she mindlessly followed the path she had memorized by now.

He looked as if he were going to say something, his face contorting in that way it did before he said something snarky, but then he caught sight of her face with the dark circles and dead-to-the-world look and thought better of it. There would be no fun in bullying her when she clearly wasn't even aware of where she was. He almost felt bad. Almost.

In reality, she hated the way coffee tasted and smelled but it would get her awake enough to pilot ARTEMIS and sit in a transport copter for a few hours. So that's what she did, grabbing a cup of straight black coffee and sipping on it, letting it help bring her to life despite the grimacing scowl on her face at the taste.

 

[Lucyfer]

Walter didn’t linger. He didn’t walk with them. He exited the room ahead, his direction to rest all but said in the action. Aurelia sighed, but wouldn’t shout at him. She didn’t have much to say as it was, there was just something annoying in the callousness.

But then again, she’d rather that, over him being sappy.

Or hearing his voice crack again.

She showed O’Keeffe to the bunks, and gestured out, “Have your pick,” they were all empty, except for hers. Walter’s army of hounds had broken down to just her. O’Keeffe nodded, taking note where hers was as it was the only one not perfectly put together, and chose one further off, for the illusion of privacy for them both.

Aurelia stripped out of her flight suit to try something more comfortable, pulling on another of the tanks in the hopes it felt better on her skin.

It really didn’t, although the design remained no less amusing – a tank picture on it, as the tank itself just said ‘this is my tank top’. It felt like a tank Antares should have.

The bedding wasn’t comfortable, either.

Aurelia couldn’t find a comfortable position, and the heat that continued didn’t help. ‘Things were fine fighting BALTEUS.’ A name she shouldn’t know. A name Ayre gave her. It probably wasn’t a real name. Ayre was gone with her adrenaline, something she made up. ‘A Rubiconian.’ Why would she imagine a Rubiconian?

Why did Ayre’s voice have a cadence similar to the voices she heard when the STRIDER exploded?

‘What’s more Rubiconian than Coral?’

Aurelia stared into the darkness, and decided to do something stupid.

It was either adrenaline, or it was…well, it was a hallucination that kicked in and made life easier, and maybe that was worth being a little crazy for, since she wasn’t going to sleep, and she didn’t want to taste Red Coffee again if she didn’t have to. She rolled out of bed, landing on all fours, and walked out of the room.

She wasn’t going to out herself as crazy, at any rate, in front of O’Keeffe.

She went back to the hangar, where the transport copter was, and walked into it, and climbed up the catwalk, before climbing up from there to the top of LEMURES.

“Hey, Ayre?”

She was crazy, or….

“If you’re here, and it wasn’t just a hallucination fueled adrenaline rush, make yourself known, or I’m going to try and trigger you with adrenaline.” Unsafely going down LEMURES ought to do it. One slip and her heart rate would spike.

‘You’re absolutely fucking crazy.’

Yes, but right then, it was worth it for a few seconds without the red bleeding over her vision, and a break in the fever.

~***~

Rusty managed to sleep, despite the many questions he had about everything. The morning was unusually busy – though perhaps it was to be expected. People were moving rapidly about, and helicopters were off and going that morning. ‘Maybe Snail’s already assigned people that way….’

Perhaps they should have struck last night, but Rusty didn’t think that Huntress would have been able to hold it together. There was still a chance Snail would let them since he didn’t have other things for them to do. The cost should only be fuel for the ACs, they weren’t expecting hostiles.

Though, the RLF, and Balam, could also be looking over the area.

Perhaps hostilities were expected. ‘Maybe I can use that….’

That was to be seen.

He was heading to the cafeteria to grab a meal when his tablet alerted him to a message. He pulled it up, and frowned a bit as he had to make it out. Not too difficult, but it wasn’t the usual clean message he was used to receiving from other people.

Reads like you might need harder drugs than caffeine. I’m on my way there, I’ll meet you. ​

He put the tablet back in a pocket, and continued on his way to the cafeteria. He saw Huntress there, coffee in hand, and lifted a hand in a greeting wave, before moving to grab a protein shake for himself, opting for the peanut butter chocolate one that morning and joining her. He knew he shouldn’t linger on anything that would take a while to eat.

“Coffee kicked in yet?” he half-joked as he joined her, noticing how black the coffee looked. Definitely not how he’d drink it. He needed a bit more sugar and cream.

 

[EllieMcEllie]

Walter went straight from the medbay to his office to order yet another office chair and this time, a stressball. He couldn't keep destroying his office chairs when Aurelia did something to try and cause herself bodily harm, though this time was his fault.

He hadn't expected the coral to react like it had, but he should have.

Was that Carla's plan all along?

Sacrifice Aurelia there at the watchpoint?

No, Carla was smart, it could have just been something she didn't account for. Or maybe it was...

They got their answer though about the Coral. It liked company, it liked to stick together, and as such, the coral that exploded outward re-collected and snaked off into the distance towards... something. He knew what that something was, it was more coral, which meant there was a bigger collective of coral somewhere in the Northern Ice fields...

Well, that'd be expensive trying to explain and get a backer for, but he knew with a big name like Raven it would be possible. Whether he could get Michigan to get them over there, or Snail, or someone else, that was yet to be seen. He'd run it all by Carla, see if she had any suggestions for it, and to give her hell for almost killing his pilot.

With the new chair and stress ball ordered, he limped his way back to his room. He didn't know if he'd get much sleep without the use of medication, but he had a stash of sleep aids in his bed-side drawer.

At least he didn't have to worry about Aurelia doing something unwise while she was healing, right? Wishful thinking. If only he knew what she was doing right now.

Taking the medication, he got ready for sleep and crawled into bed, hoping that the day's stress wouldn't bring about nightmares. That was the last thing he needed right now.

~***~

Ayre had been resting peacefully in the back of Aurelia's augments to give her privacy, though she could still hear everything, and the occasional thought that traveled a little deeper.

'What's more Rubiconian than Coral?'

Oh, was Raven thinking about her?

She did her best not to pry, she really did but some thoughts were louder than others

She had been letting her rest, at least until she felt the body moving and heading somewhere.

What was she doing?

Hearing her name called out stirred her from the part of Raven's brain that she was almost hiding in, though she hauled ass to pull everything together and back into containment as she heard Raven's threat of unwise actions.

"... I'm here... Please don't do anything rash... You're still injured, Raven..."

Ayre danced at the front of the Jupiterite's brain implants, but she kept the symptoms of the Coral Burn-in at bay, making sure the coral was contained as it should be. She didn't want the pilot she was... inhabiting...? to suffer, and though she wished her family freed from her head, that wouldn't be possible without harming the pilot. She'd do her best to keep them happy while she was in here.

Another thought fed through her and Ayre could help but agree.

She was crazy for trying something like this, but it got Ayre's attention anyway without needing to jump off the half-melted AC in the hangar. So this 'Aurelia' was crazy, but smart too.

~***~

Coffee, no matter the flavoring or cream that she put in, always tasted like ass. Not that she knew what ass tasted like, but if she had to guess, it tasted like black coffee. She had been mid-sip, face twisted up at the flavor when Rusty walked up. The red head still hadn't noticed him, sorely focused on the ill-tasting beverage in hand.

Rusty's voice spooked her for a moment, forgetting that she could be perceived and almost spilling the coffee on herself as she jolted in surprise.

His comment didn't go over well either as she leveled a hard glare in his direction, at least it looked like a hard glare. It was hard to tell with how... inexpressive her face was.

To her, it was more woeful, disdainful even.

"Hate.... coffee.... so.... much..." she rasped to him, lowering her glare back to the dark roast in hand, taking another deep draught with her face scrunching up to force herself to swallow it. "So... gross..."

It was working though, perking her energy levels up. She still felt like one of Artemis's legendary stags had run her over, but she was awake at the very least and it helped with the dead look she was exuding.

She didn't smile, or practically skip around like normal, but there was a clarity in her eyes now as her head cleared some.

Yeah, she'd need to sleep somehow, if she could figure it out without having nightmares. That was yet another problem for later. She had a lot of those right now...

In no time, she drained the disposable coffee cup and tossed it out, more awake and alive as she turned to Rusty, giving him a thumbs up to signal her readiness when he was ready to head to Snail's office. Rip it off like a bandaid, get confirmation on the status of her family, and come back.

Come back and do what though?

She wasn't exactly a raving fan of the people here except Rusty, Arlo and maybe Hawkins, and she wasn't going to stay in a place that just had a few people she liked when others were rude and mean to her without her having some purpose like providing for her family or them even just being alive to get her by.

Maybe she could defect to some remote part of Belius or a BAWS town somewhere.... Fake her own death, get out of this hell...

She shook her head to clear it. Now was not the time to be thinking thoughts like that, especially not before meeting with Snail.

 

[Lucyfer]

Ayre came forward.

Color returned to her world. The fever faded. The aches of wounds didn't leave, but it felt…normal. She could tell that the tank was army green, matching that idea of a tank, and Aurelia relaxed, taking a seat on the head of LEMURES.

This complicated things.

Red danced just to the side of her vision. Sure decided that was Ayre. She had nothing else to go off of, after all.

“I won't. Now that I know I don't need to,” Aurelia reassured Ayre, “but if you're going to be hanging around, I need to know…I need to understand what our relationship is. What you are. Even if it is magical hallucination that will act as a second wind until I die,” she could accept that.

She didn't have a choice, really. Would a hallucination admit it was a hallucination, though? Probably not.

“My vision clears, and the fever fades that's from coral burn in, but I know hallucination is a symptom, and you…don't seem to exist in a way I understand to be normal, which leads me to suspect you are that, but I've never heard of coral burn in having halcyon days once it's started.”

She waited then, to see what Ayre might have to say. Or to see if there was just silence.

~***~

Despite how serious that glare was, Rusty chuckled at the context before straightening his expression a bit and nodding solemnly about the coffee. “That's why we have sweeteners and flavors you can add to it,” though he wouldn't insist she try it, “there's also energy drinks. Hawkins has a few favorites.”

But Huntress downed her coffee and gave him a thumbs up, so he nodded. He could drink his shake on the walk and he led the way to Snail’s office, prepared to see how this bartering would go, and expecting some difficulties.

Snail wasn't nice, after all.

Just opportunistic.

That part was dangerous.

The path was familiar by now, and Rusty pressed the comm. When it connected, he spoke, after a beat of unusual silence from Snail, “V.IV and V.IX, looking to see about volunteering for work in Northern Belius.”

“I think Snail assigned everyone he wants up there, to go,” the voice that spoke wasn't Snail and it took Rusty a moment to recognize it as Freud. He froze up in surprise, brown eyes widening.

Freud was the leader but everyone knew his disdain for paperwork, which was why Snail handled everything.

Selling Freud on anything that required him to work might be harder than Snail.

“Has he?” Rusty managed to keep some lightness in his tone, “well then we need to check if IX is entitled bereavement leave, or we can just have her fill out the request with you instead of Snail.”

An audible groan came through the comm.

“Head to my office. We'll talk.”