RP XSDF Roleplay Thread: Vanguard of Forseti

[Frostlich1228]

Part 2

Brigid patted her on the back. "Happens to all of us. Just hope it wasn't my fault."

"Say nothing... About this, alright... I have a reputation to keep and I don't want people to think I'm some sort of freak, they're not really going to trust me anymore if that happens..." Winter said hesitantly.

Brigid frowned, wondering what she was missing, but afraid to ask. "I... I don't think you're a freak. You just had an... issue?" She thought for a moment, and guided Camellia out, heading towards Camellia's room. "You wanna talk about it? This... have anything to do with that one quarter part of your DNA?"

"What? No..." She replied as she walked with her, "Alright, promise me you won't speak a word about this."

Brigid wrapped her arm around Camellia. "Come on. You know I would never tell anyone anything. Shrinks aren't the only ones who can keep a secret."

She looked around, before deciding that an internal talk would be better. You know how I said that psionics are my hobby and I enjoy it? Well... You could say I... really.. enjoy it...

I... I don't... I... Brigid's eyes widened a bit. So... so when I made you... I... ended up making you...

I'm uh... Glad that first attempt of yours didn't work... This would've been much... much more awkward.. than it already is... She replied, lowering her head.

Brigid guided her friend into her room, and closed the door behind them. She started laughing, holding her side. "I-I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I don't... mean to laugh, I don't. It... i-it's just... you gotta laugh. It takes away from the awkwardness."

Camellia smiled, catching the laughter, " I hope you don't, you know, look at me any differently after this."

"Of course not." Brigid sat on Camellia's bed. "It is kinda interesting. This probably is no surprise, but I've never... made a woman..." She shook her head. "Don't let it bother you, though. Everyone has their thing. At least yours is fun." She laid back. "Unfortunately, the thing the guys I attract are into... yeah, not that fun."

"I hope it won't make this even more uncomfortable, but, what're they into exactly?" Winter sat down in her chair.

Brigid laughed. "With my stature?" She quietly sang to herself.

♫Thank heaven... for little girls. They grow up in the most delightful way. Those little eyes so helpless and appealing. One day will flash and send you crashin' thru the ceilin'.♫

Her eyes widened so much they looked like they might pop out, then she just started laughing, "Eeeewww...."

Brigid waved a dismissive hand. "It's okay. There are a few that don't care. And occasionally ones that are... simply attracted to petite women. A lot big guys. Guess it's the whole... opposites attract thing?" She sat up. "Mind if I ask... how you discovered your little... preference?"

"Well, you know my parents, in charge of a decent portion of the american government. I really enjoyed watching them use their power, my mother's political power and money almost instantly made me the most popular kid in school and I loved it, ordering people around, getting what I want. I loved it so much I wanted to start taking... you know... direct control of people... with their permission of course. So when I got my first boyfriend in college we decided to try it.. in the bedroom... Letting me take control of him... And... It was... Amazing... Ever since then I tend to get a little... Hot under the collar..." Winter explained, crossing her legs, "After I left him I sort of just... asked around for it... Getting people's permission and... taking them back to my room..."

She sighed, blushing again, "I tell my parents a lot of things, but this is the one secret I keep from them, I have no idea what they'd think... My mom is still a little uncomfortable around Violet psions, if she found I get a... Sexual kick out of it... I don't even know what she'd do... The only family member of mine that knows is Aunt Mary, because she's the one I went to about... stuff with my body..."

"Makes sense, from what I've heard about her." Brigid leaned forward. "I know it is a touchy subject. And I'm not about to go blab to the whole ship about you. If anything, I simply find it an interesting facet about one of my friends." She laid back again, closing her eyes. "Besides, you have the ability to control people with your mind... but you get permission first. Trust me, I know so many people that would love to have that power, and I somehow doubt they'd bother asking for permission everytime."

Camellia smiled, but thought about Nick. I didn't ask his permission... But I did help him... That's good... Maybe that wasn't my call to make... Even though I made him feel better... She internally sighed, looking back up at Brigid, "Thanks for understanding. I know many people would've just written me off as a weirdo, but I'm glad you have such an open mind about these things."

Brigid nodded, and jumped to her feet. "My mother is the former Commander of a human resistance group. My step-father is a clone of one of her greatest enemies. One of my best friends is the son another clone, and one of my mentors. My other greatest mentor is an Inuit woman who can summon frozen minds whips. And my alien roommate has a crush on my brother. Trust me... I have to have an open mind, or I'll snap."

"You know what's a funny thought?" Cammy smiled, "If Grandpa had actually got together with your mother, you would be my... Step Aunt, I think? It fits, because you act very much like one, you're very wise, kind, funny, and understanding." Winter chuckled a little, "I hope I didn't make you feel old by saying that."

"Maybe a little," Brigid responded with a smile. "I'm just happy to help people. After traveling the world for ten years, if I hadn't picked up anything but fighting techniques, then I don't think it would have been a successful journey."

"Well, am I allowed to ask if you've picked up anyone on your journeys? You said you attract plenty, but have any, stuck?" Winter asked curiously.

Brigid sighed. "I'm... afraid not. Had a few men I got close to, but it never stuck." She chuckled. "Really, the closest I got is to my current roommate. Pretty silly, huh? Guess I'm taking my time."

"It's not silly, I haven't had much luck either." Camellia responded, "You know that boyfriend I was talking about? I split it up with him after I found out he only really cared about me for my family's status, hoping to net an easy place in the company by getting me to bring him home. I met another one after another few years, but I broke it up with him too when I overheard him bragging to his friends, once again, about my powers and my status, even threatening people by saying I would take control of them if they tried to mess with him, that he had me wrapped around his finger, he even laughed about the fact that I considered myself to be the dominant one in the relationship."

Brigid shook her head. "Some people. Maybe you'll have some luck here. People don't care about that kind of thing out here in space."

"I know a dangerous environment helped my parents get together, hopefully, It'll do the same for me." She smiled.

"Maybe." Brigid stretched her arms. "At any rate, I better head out. Promised Korra I'd give her some one on one time."

"Have fun, alright?" Camellia stood up, opening the door, "And uh... Thanks for the underwear..."

Brigid chuckled. "No problem. We'll train again soon."

"Mmhm!" Winter replied, "Have a good time with Korra, she's really nice, even if according to her, I caught her on one of her better days."

"I'll be sure to let you see her other side soon," Brigid called out as she ran down the hall.

 

[MarineAvenger]

Calling the Bluff Part 1 (MarineAvenger and BMPixy)

Somewhere in Subspace
1431 Hours Local; March 1st, 2044
Einherjar Brig

"Listen, I shouldn't be doing thi-"

"Don't worry Gerome, everything'll be fine. Nobody'll find out."

"Are you certain?"

"Absolutely," Elicia replied, somewhat impatiently. "Now c'mon, let me in."

"Alright, fine, whatever," Gerome said, grabbing his ID card and swiping it through the reader. "But you owe me big time for this."

"Yeah yeah, once we land on Forseti I'll see about getting the ingredients," the Anglo-German answered, stepping through the opened door. "I'll be in and out before you know it."

"Holding you to that," Gerome said somberly, the door shutting between him and Elicia. Grabbing a stool from beside a bench, Elicia slowly made her way through the brig, finally bringing herself to a stop in front of the sole occupied cell.

Ezra was laying on his back on his bed, his eyes closed and seemed like he was relaxing, the android not bothering to open his eyes. "Look, whatever it is, I don't want to hear it, so save you and me the breath." He stated rather bluntly, stretching out and sighing.

"I think you may have me confused with someone else," Elicia said, setting down the stool and propping herself upon it. "I'm not here to interrogate you, just a bit curious."

Ezra opened his eye to stare at the woman for a second before he closed it again and sat up, scratching the back of his head and turning around to stand up, walking to the door and crossing his arms. "Not really the wisest thing to be doing right now."

"Nor would it be the least wise thing I've done, either," Elicia replied with a shrug. "Didn't stop me then, won't stop me now."

Ezra raised his eyebrow and he smirked, almost nodding his head in approval. "Ooo, I like your style. What, you the shoot first, ask questions later kind of girl, or just don't give no shits kind of one?"

"Bit of column A, bit of column B," Elicia answered, shaking her head back and forth uncertainly. "Though we're not here to discuss how I live my life, but rather why a semi-notorious prankster was tossed in the brig by the Commander herself, if you catch my drift. Not exactly something worth her time, y'know?"

Ezra shrugged. "Might be for the pranks, might be for all the hacking I did, might be for making out with a hot alien girl..." He was silent for a few moments before adding, "Might be because I am not human."

Elicia recoiled slightly, taken aback. "Not human?" she asked. "You certainly look human enough. Granted, you could just be a radical Tamearin, but as far as I can tell that isn't exactly illegal. I mean, I've heard the Commander is a bit of a xenophobe, but I didn't think she'd take it this far..."

"Not even alien, I am just an android. You know, A.I. in a robotic body, that sort of jazz."

"Wait, you're an AI? Like a genuine self-improving, thinking machine?" Elicia blurted incredulously. "Himmel, arsch und Zwirn! The XSDF certainly attracts all types... Anyways, what does you being made of steel rather than flesh have to do with you being tossed in the brig?"

"Commander says I am property to the XSDF due to there being no laws that grant androids any rights differently than a chair would have. So, along with my imprisonment for all the broken rules, I am not allowed to roam freely either. Just to rub salt on the wound, I have to bombs attached to my head that won't let me transfer out of my body or do any hacking to get me out of here." He said, now leaning against the wall. "All in all, bitch gotta grudge against robots."

"Wow, yeesh, that's kinda harsh," Elicia said, rubbing the back of her neck unconsciously. "And here I was thinking that the Commander had some harsh, if understandable, reasoning, but nah, she's just a bitch I guess. I mean, if you look at it one way, us meatbags are just machines that use organic compounds instead of metallic ones, so I don't see what's with the whole bomb collar thing."

"She is jealous she has one life when I can body hop. That, and I could just live in the ship's systems if I wanted to and there would be nothing they could do about it unless they had some super A.I. like me instead of the dinky little ones they use normally on these ships." Ezra still looked her up and down, almost sizing her up before he asked, "Well... now you know. You can leave now, not some animal in the zoo you can just gawk at or throw peanuts at."

"Nah, I ain't leaving quite yet." Elicia folded her arms behind her head, and pushed back, leaning the stool onto its rear legs. "After all, I came here to satisfy my curiosity, and well, you've given me a lot more question than answers. Like who the genius is that can make truly sentient AIs, what it's like being a machine among meatbags, those kinds of things, y'know?"

"You know, you're lucky I am in here, else I would push you over sitting like that, nothing is better than sneaking up on someone and making them fall backwards." He said with a smirk. "And I was created the same way you were, when a mommy and daddy love each other very, very much..." He stated in a mocking voice.

"Yeah, but I doubt your mother spent nine months with your sarcastic arse inside her," the Anglo-German pointed out, resettling her seat. "But your answer does point out that you likely weren't a corp project. Was it some sterile genius trying to make a kid to inherit their legacy, or am I way off?"

"Oh... way off. And I was serious. My mother is an A.I. and my father was an A.I. They wanted a child, so they combined their two programming codes and I was formed." He told her with dead seriousness, his face showing no sign of deception.

"Wait, there's more AIs out there!? And you know how to self-replicate? Jeez, good thing you're on our side," Elicia said, before glancing around the brig. "Even if, uh... some of us aren't exactly on yours," she added awkwardly.

"Yeah, well... there are only about 4 to 5 A.I. in the world, and I was just an experiment that just happened to go right."

"Don't take any offense when I'm glad that number isn't too large," Elicia said, putting a hand up defensively. "After all, not too keen on being forced to work the mines so you can have a statue of yourself built that makes Big Ben look like a thumb-tack. No, I'd very much like us meatbags to keep our rights, even with how you're being treated."

 

[MarineAvenger]

Calling the Bluff Part 2

Ezra simply shook his head and stared at the woman across from him with an angered and annoyed look. "Fuck you. It is assholes like you that make us look like more than we are. We are the same as you, not some fucking fairy tail in a science fiction book!" He yelled, slamming his fist against the metal door with a loud clang as his own hit it.

"Sorry, sorry!" Elicia exclaimed, quickly raising her hands defensively. "I didn't mean to offend, just was trying to make a joke, even if it was in poor taste; just got a little ahead of myself- but that's besides the point! I sincerely apologize for offending you!"

Ezra's look didn't go away as he pulled his hand back and rubbed it unconsciously. "You're really bad at this, aren't you?"

Elicia rubbed her hands together nervously, and leaned forward slightly on her seat. "Yeah, I just tend to say the first thing that pops into my head. Usually people like the honesty, at least until I blurt something accidentally offensive. But hey, that's why I learned to apologize!"

His look stayed the same as he stared at her but he closed his eyes as he chuckled with a smirk. "You're cute."

Elicia choked on air for a moment, caught off guard by the comment. "Flattery, eh?" she said after she managed to regain her composure. "I'll have you know I'm not the type to fall for idle flattery. Especially from someone who can't even act on it," Elicia added, gesturing to the cell door.

"You give yourself too much credit... I don't remember implying it was a flattering comment. Just assuming so might make your intentions here seem different than what you truly meant them to mean." He told her cryptically.

Elicia spluttered for a moment, at a brief loss for words. "W-wha- no! If anyone's giving themselves too much credit, it's you!" she exclaimed, standing from her seat. "I mean, you don't just tell a girl she's cute unless you're interested or if she asks you how she looks! That's how it worked where I come from, and I assume that's how it is elsewhere!"

Ezra laughed, throwing his head back and rubbing his eye just for comedic effect. "Man... I have never seen a girl get as flustered as you when confronted with the littlest of things," Taking a moment to calm himself, he added, "And you're on a ship with some of the most diverse crew in the XSDF and you expect everyone to be like where you're from? Wow, you really out to get out more. Might help you cure your case of blush face there, Miss Tomato."

Finally noticing the streak of red across her cheeks, Elicia hastily covered her face to hide her prominent blush, shooting a nasty glare at Ezra. After a brief pause to let the heat fade from her face, she replied, "I just expect some things to be common courtesy. Make sure your plate is clean before you return it, repay any favors within three months, and don't compliment people you aren't interested in. Apparently your parents forgot to code for proper manners, however."

"Ah..." Ezra raised his finger and pointed out, "Now I did not specifically say I was not interested, you came to the conclusion I was but then I pointed out that you were assuming, yet I never denied it. You did that yourself. It is really up to you 'cause I'm not telling, that would be too easy. So, Miss... am I playing you or am I serious, that is the question I pose you to answer by the time you leave. Oh, and don’t bring up the whole thing robots can't love, ‘cause that is BS considering one of the reasons I was in here was because I kissed a girl. Granted, she wanted it but I ultimately turned her down seeing as it would have never worked and just staying a close friend to her was the better option."

"Please, you're obviously playing me," Elicia said with a dismissive wave of the hand, sitting back down on her stool. "For one, you're locked in a cell, likely bored, and I know from reputation that you would likely seek a bit of fun at another's expense. Second, it's kinda hard to be serious about something when you don't even know the other person's name. Elicia, by the way."

"Smart and beautiful, a deadly combination right there." Ezra told Elicia outright, going back over to his bed and lying down in it. "You know... you got a couple of things right... I am indeed bored, and it is indeed hard to be serious without a name, however my reputation, if you were to take a second glance at, is clean when it comes to women. I actually have a lot of respect for the opposite gender, just not people in general. I annoy people solely for the fact I find it amusing as well as those who are not the ones affected. I may be an ass, but I am not a bad person." He explained casually, putting one leg over the other and putting his hands behind his head.

Elicia folded her arms over her chest, and tilted her head back to look down on Ezra slightly. "I sense a 'but' approaching..." she said somewhat suspiciously.

"No 'buts', just simply the way it is. If it is not fairly obvious, I like a fair bit of sarcasm and other things that push people's buttons but I do have the capacity of being serious, Saying anything less would be mistaking me for some sort of scoundrel."

"And considering where you are..." she joked, cracking half of a smile. Shaking her head briefly, Elicia added, "Regardless, I think I've sated my curiosity sufficiently, at least for now. So, in return for you being a bit of a prick, I'll leave you with a question of my own, to nag at you until we meet again. Can you guess what it is?" A hint of a devious grin displayed itself on Elicia's face as she stood from her seat.

"If it's will you call me in the morning, I am afraid if I tried, the aforementioned bombs on my head would blow up." He retorted with a smirk of his own.

"Are you certain you're thinking with the right head there?" Elicia shot back, a mirthful smile on her face. Grabbing the stool and tucking it under her arm, she added, "Nah, the question is yours: am I serious, or no? I'll let that haunt you for a bit." With that, Elicia turned, and made her way out of the brig.

"Oh yeah, turn my own question against me, will really keep me up at night,.." Ezra rolled his eyes and closed them, getting comfortable. Will be interesting if she comes back though, then she both answers my question, and her own. Just have to be sure I am not the one who goes to her first, then that shows she is the one that wins. She comes to me, I win. This will be one game I think I will enjoy playing, and I won’t have to lift a finger, Sighing in content, Ezra allowed himself to go to sleep. his lack of eating making him a little lower on power than usual.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

XSDF Stellar Mission
Dual Rescue Mission
Operation Double-edged Sword

System: Quin/Shinso Space
Planet: N/A
Location: In orbit above Markipler (On the border of Quin and Shinso Territory)
Date: March 3rd, 2044
Time: 1730 Hours, Earth Standard Time

Mission Details:

Recent reports of fighting between the Quin and the Shinso previously prompted us to avoid their space all together, despite how much of a detour it would result in. However, while on approach to the area, we received a pair of distress calls. A Shinso Barge reported they were under attack by the Quin and a pair of pirate factions, while the Quin reported an attack by Shinso and pirates. Intercepted transmission from the pirates revealed the truth, ironically; the Shinso and the Quin fought each other into exhaustion, and the pirates are taking advantage.

We are left with an interesting, and potentially volatile situation. Naturally, a success in this mission would put the XSDF in good standing with both sides, and would likely result in easy passage through their space in the future. On the other hand, a failure of both missions is, oddly enough, not the worse case scenario. Rather, successfully assisting one side while failing to do so for the other might be viewed as favoritism. Knowing the nature of both the Quin and the Shinso, the side we fail to protect would see such a failure as an insult at best, and an act of war at worse.

As such, we will be sending a force to both ships. Having lost their fighters and exhausted their weapons, the pirates were able to board both ships before we arrived. The Quin and the Shinso are only lucky the pirates were interested in plundering their ships, as they could have easily blown that apart. The pirates appear to be a tag team of the Outcasts of Tamear and Venom, so expect Tamearins, Balmadaars, and Replitans. We must emphasize that success in BOTH missions is paramount. Board those ships, and take out those enemy forces.

Number of Soldiers for this Mission: Eight (8) Squad Members, One (1) SHIV, and One (1) Drone for Alpha, and Seven (7) Squad Members, One (1) Combat Droid, One (1) SHIV, and One (1) Drone for Beta.

Soldier’s Names:

Alpha Team (Vanguard Dropship)

**Colonel Mason, Frederick (Secondary Heart, Neural Dampening, and Adaptive Bone Marrow T)
PFC Shefrina, Tornada (Nat. Muscle Fiber Density)
PFC Restauro, Nick (T1 Cybernetic Legs)
PFC Ensslin, Elicia
PFC Mbanefe, Jomaphie
PFC Konstantimov, Nikolai
PFC Lamperouge, Rurūshu (T0 Cybernetic Left Leg)
PFC Bjorn, Bager [MEC-1]
SHIV Three
Repair Drone

Beta Team (Vanguard Dropship)

**SPC Iuitl, Coszcatl [Medic] (Adaptive Bone Marrow T)
PFC Page, Télesphora (T1 Cybernetic Left Leg)
PFC Song, Guozhi
PFC Van Dam, Cassia (Animal Empathy, Mindfray)
PFC Armbrüster, Ludwiga
PFC Balodis, Peter
PFC Rodriguez, Josefa [MEC-1]
Exalt, Ezra (T2 Cybernetic Limbs and T1 Cybernetic Eyes)
SHIV Four
Repair Drone

**Squad Leader
*Team Leader
Italics are player characters.

Gear: (link)

Terrain:

Both ships are supply barges for their respective people. The dropships will be landing within the already breach hangers, empty except for the pirate ships that boarded before we arrived.

Alpha Team will take the Shinso ship. Fairly close in size and shape to humans, the Shinso have similarly sized equipment, meaning a lot of low cover with scattered high cover. Beyond the hanger is the sizable cargo hold, where the larger supply containers will be your best cover. Beware of a spilled container of plasma cores in the center of the room. the last thing we need is to blow a giant hole in the center of the ship. Beyond the cargo hold is the sleeping quarters, split into two, a larger area for Shinso crewmen, and a significantly smaller space for their Cartus servants. Following this is the bridge, where most of the surviving crewmen are likely holed up.

Beta Team will find a similar layout for the Quin ship, with one significant difference. The Quin are much larger than humans. Slightly larger than even Balmadaar, they need more space to move around in. This means you will find a lot more high cover, as their equipment is a lot larger. The enemy will be able to use this as well, however, and because of how large the Quin are, the space between cover will be great, facilitating a need for more cover fire. The unfamiliar territory for the enemy at least means that they will have a harder time fighting through the ship, so expect most of the pirates to be in the cargo hold, with few making it to the barracks of bridge.

Enemies:

Alpha Team:

One Squad of Three Balmadaars [Beam Weapons, Aegis Armor]
One Squad of Three Tamearins [Beam Weapons, Carapace Armor] (One Red Psion, Psi lance & Telekinesis)
One Squad of Three Replitans [Beam Weapons, Carapace Armor] (One Minor Green, Defensive Biokinesis) (One w/ Secondary Heart, One w/Smart Macrophages)
One Squad of Two Seekers [Pulse Blasters]
Two Squads of Two Replitans [Gauss Weapons, Banshee Armor] & Two Seekers [Pulse Blasters]


Beta Team:

One Squad of Three Balmadaars [Beam Weapons, Aegis Armor] (One Minor Red Psion, Very Weak Pyro Conjuring) (One w/ Neural Dampening)
One Squad of Three Tamearins [Beam Weapons, Carapace Armor] (One Orange Psion, Rift & Telekinesis)
Two Squads of Two Tamearins [Pulse Weapons, Aegis Armor] & Two Balmadaar [Pulse Weapons, Titan Armor] (One Tamearin Green Psion, Biokinesis & Imbuing) (One Balmadaar w/ Dextrous Muscle Fibers)
One Squad of Three Replitans [Beam Weapons, Carapace Armor]
One Squad of Two Seekers [Laser Pistols]

Conditions for Completing the Mission:

1. Elimination or arrest of pirates on BOTH ships.
2. Failure to stop BOTH pirate forces.

Civilians:

Both ships have about half of their respective crews left, a few located in the cargo hold and the barracks, but most defending themselves on the bridge.

Special care should be taken when talking to both sides. Always refer to the pair of aliens as ‘the Shinso and the Quin’ to the Shinso, and ‘the Quin and the Shinso’ to the Quin. As ridiculous as it might seem, both sides can be very vain in this respect.

Finally, if crewmen need saving on the Shinso barge, priority should be given to the Shinso over the Cartus. Despite our own customs and laws, Cartus are considered second class citizens on their planet, and saving one over a Shinso is not recommended.

 

[Mangrale]

DarkGemini24601 and Mangrale:
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 1
Penguin Squadron

The Einherjar dropped out of FTL with a brief distortion wave as it adjusted to the proper space-time continuum, or at least the one it was native to. The Commander had opted to come out of warp a moderate distance from the two extraterrestrial barges, figuring that they should not risk dropping straight into the fight and be shot at by all three sides. Astasha stood at the forefront of the ship, her constant glare doing much to test her Fleet Coordinator’s resolve. Turning that gaze upon the communications officer, she ordered, “Tell the Shinso and Quin we’re coming to rescue them both.” Sighing in exasperation, she added, “And make sure you invert that order when you’re talking to the Quin.”

The man at comms nodded, tapping the shoulder of his assistant and getting to work contacting the two supply barges. Continuing, Astasha said, “Get us going at a fairly fast speed, and make sure shields and weapons are operational. Once we get into deployment range send your team out, Khumalo. And don’t disappoint me this time.”

“Understood, Commander,” Addington replied, unable to resist the urge to tug at his jacket nervously. Bringing his overview screen online, he considered his options. They have two fighter carriers and a troop transport… so a mixture of fighters and large ships. “Is there any data to suggest there is a strong Destroyer presence in the stars right now?” he wondered aloud.

“Not that scans can pick up, no,” another bridge staff member answered. “Four isn’t that much… right?”

Addington sighed. Not great… but we can use the Einherjar against one or two, at least. ” He selected the remaining flight of Manta Squadron, and opened speakers to their rooms. “Manta, get ready to deploy. I’ll be counting on you to escort the main squadron in this engagement.”

In her quarters, Yuuna frowned deeply. This better not be like last time, or I’ll… she left the thought unfinished, going out the door and heading for the hangar.

Addington chose his main squadron next, bringing up Penguin. “Attention all Penguin Squadron personnel, you are being deployed as soon as possible. Get to the hanger and prepare for combat alongside Copper Flight.”

Anja put down her glass of beer in frustration. “Didn’t even get one sip before this… goddammit.”

Phoebe shook her head. “Come on, you can have it afterwards.” The two headed down to the hanger, where Shepsut and Narcisse were already getting ready.

“You ready for our first battle, Pinball?” Anja asked Narcisse with a nickname she hadn’t even used before.

The cyborg was adjusting his gear nervously until he heard his new alias, jutting his head to face Anja, confused. “What?... What did you call me?... Pinball? What’s that for?”

Anja held out a hand, putting up one finger. “Well, you were pretty much a pincushion during your ‘vacation’ in New Manaus, and I hear your fighting style is pretty fast and such so I thought ‘Pinball’ made the best sense,” she concluded, only holding up two fingers.

“Trust me, it only makes sense to her,” Phoebe asserted, lowering her flight glasses.

Narcisse’s expression turned rather conflicted as he looked to his side for a second. However, he perked up a little and looked towards the two of them with a somewhat convincing smile. “Well I’ll say this much: it isn’t the worst nickname I ever had.”

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. “I’d be curious to know what exactly that is when we get back,” she requested as she climbed into the cockpit of her Seraph.

Bellrose put his pilot’s helmet on, his right hand more precise than it was a few days ago but still not how he would like it to be. “Um yeah… sure... if I live,” he jested uneasily. He then boarded his own Seraph and started his preflight check.

“Alright, from what we’ve been able to gather, there are four destroyers in addition to about twelve fighters. I’d recommend taking them out first. If we destroyed the carriers they would be forced to surrender potentially, but I’m not going to count on them being smart enough to realize they can’t make the Einherjar their new transport ship,” Addington’s voice crackled over the radio. “Begin takeoff in fifteen seconds.”

Narcisse carefully activated his navigational systems, the readout greeting him with a similar layout to his former Firestorm from the Arkbird. So this is the the final design of the Seraph… He looked about his space, admiring the details he would eventually become used to, before activating his ship’s engines, which loudly hummed to life. He took a deep breath. Concentrate…

The engines of the eight seraphs hummed to life, while those of the Shifters were almost silent in their startup. “Launch,” Addington commanded, and the hanger bays opened, allowing Penguin Squadron to make their debut. The Seraphs came in front with their high speeds, while the Shifters trailed behind with the four escorting Stingrays.

Coming within range of the enemy fighters, there were met by two groups of six. One set of fighters was heavily armored and all bore two laser cannons and a ballistic cannon, but lacked in apparent missile capabilities, while the others were more sleek and had plenty of missiles in addition to centralized laser weapons. The Destroyers were like larger fighters, and came with two laser cannons and two gauss cannons each, and a single missile batch of five.

“Looks to me like the Balmadaar fighters are Tekkrons. I know they look clunky, but watch out for the ballistic cannons if they get your shields down. They’re not gauss, but they’ve got bigger projectiles than most fighter guns, and could tear through a Seraph’s armor,” Addington warned.

“This is Red Eye One. I recognize the Replitan ones,” Phoebe noted over comms. “Serrated Harriers. Fast and can unleash pretty much all of their missiles at once, but once we get through their shields we can shoot them down easy enough. Not sure about the Destroyers though.”

“Probably custom Tamearin-make. We’ll have to figure out their capabilities as we go,” Addington explained. “Which should be soon, you’re closing to combat range in seven seconds.”

“Understood.” Bellrose stated over the coms, gripping his controls. “Commencing operation.” Once in range, he started by releasing a strand of four missiles into the oncoming forces with a bias towards the destroyers, causing a measure of the crafts to break formation to avoid fire.

Jayden lead Platinum Flight to make a dive downwards, sending up a spray of four missiles from each of his group, causing a terrifying total of 16 to bombard the enemy, damaging shields but altogether more of a distraction than anything as the shifters attacked from behind, focusing fire to blast two Harriers to bits as they exited the cloud of debris and smoke.

Copper Flight kept a safe distance, but opened fire on the Destroyers, trying to drawn them away from the rest of the enemy forces in the confusion. Two of them took the bait, chasing after the Stingrays in their sudden retreat once they were targeted, only to be blasted apart by the guns of the Einherjar once they had a clear shot.

“Well done,” Addington stated. “That’s four down. Keep at it.”

The Shifters disappeared from view, moving to lie in wait within the shadows, while the other two flights of Penguin Squadron regrouped somewhat before pursuing enemy fighters. A dogfight ensued, with the Tamearin Destroyers offering the occasional shot but neither side willing to use missiles without being sure they wouldn’t catch an ally in the blast.

“Platinum One, how about we split ourselves up so we can make full use of the ordinance?” Phoebe suggested over comms.

“Copy, Citrus. Platinum! Bank right, Red Eye will go left.”

A chorus of seven affirmatives was followed by the two Flights splitting to either side. Platinum had 4 fighters tailing them, all Tekkrons. The bulky fighter craft seemed unable to keep up with the speed of the Seraphs, which accelerated briefly before using maneuvering thrusters to turn around and send a laser barrage into enemy shields, disabling the shields of one of the Tekkrons before the Shula and Hiwassee blew it to smithereens with their gauss cannons.

The Balmadaar flight, for their part, seemed to realize their strength was going to be in brute force as it always seemed to be, and concentrated fire on Y’engtat, breaking down the Volomi’s shields before firing off three large projectiles at him along with five missiles from one of the Tekkrons. The insectoid made evasive manuvers, while Jayden deployed countermeasures in addition to Gobos’s own to throw off the missiles.

“Sorry, but slow shots like that aren’t going to catch me,” Gobos boasted.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and Mangrale:
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 2
Penguin Squadron

“Shula, hit them with the other eight missiles in your right slot, and your cannons. Won’t do much, but let’s see if we can confuse them,” Addington suggested. “Jayden, Gobos, focus fire on a different target, and Hiwassee, you’re free to blast the target apart once it’s unshielded.”

“Got it,” Platinum One acknowledged, and put the plan into action. Shula fired off her flurry of attacks on the Tekkron on the left, causing the Balmadaar to think their foes were panicking. To add to this, Shula broke off, and soon after so did Hiwassee. Advancing, the Mutons were moderately surprised when the center fighter was bombarded with lasers, and even more so when Clark had come up behind the unshielded ship and blasted it apart with twelve missiles and two shots from her dual cannons.

As this happened, Red Eye found themselves dealing with the four remaining Serrated Harriers that nearly matched their speed, not really giving an opening for the XSDF flight to turn around and take the fight to the enemy, instead keeping them running. “Need to come up with a solution to this endless chase,” Phoebe muttered into comms. “We can dodge for awhile, but our shields can’t take any direct pounding if they lock on for long enough.”

Narcisse grimaced at the prospect of this being his first and last engagement. Still, he distanced his craft from his flight in an attempt to make himself out as a more tempting target than the rest of his comrades. It worked, prompting two of the Replitan fighters to unleash a cluster of ten missiles to his direction. He veered upward to dodge, but caught a few in the maneuver, weakening his shields considerably.

With the sound of his flight advising him against his stunt blaring in his ear, the frenchman then performed a loop that took him over the pursuing Serrated Harriers, all the while facing them and launching two groups of four rail-accelerated ordinances to his attackers, decimating one’s shields and significantly damaging another’s. Once he was behind them, he fired gauss rounds into the former’s engines, shredding it and causing the vessel to blow apart. It’s debris and releasing gasses formed a cloud through which the cyborg’s Seraph flew through, clouds streaming from his wings.

“Damn,” Anja whispered, before guiding her Seraph to fire a spray of eight missiles and two gun blasts, tearing through the other with its shields down, while Phoebe and Shepsut combined pulse fire and a storm of 12 missiles to destroy another.

The last remaining Harrier fled, not heading towards any of its allies but just retreating all the way to behind the enemy troop transport. Or, at least, it tried to, before being blown out of the sky by the Shifters. Two brief fireballs to the right denoted Platinum’s victory over the other two Tekkrons pursuing them.

“This is SkyEye,” Addington spoke again, “We’ve got two destroyers and two Tekkrons attacking us, but they’re not going to get through our shields easily. We’re not going to even bother trying to hit them, I’ve got something else in mind… destroy the hangars of the carriers so they have to surrender. Make sure to avoid any flak cannons, but other than that we shouldn’t need much to get the job done.”

“Roger that,” Jayden responded. “Come on, Penguin. Let’s finish this up.” He took point along with Phoebe, leading the speedy Seraphs to strafe along the hangars and unleash their payloads of gauss rounds and the occasional missile burst, while the Shifters stayed behind to keep enemy fire on them and disable some of the cannons on the carriers.

“Ahaha!” Anja cackled as four of her missiles blew apart one of the hanger sections.

“I think you’re enjoying this a little too much,” Phoebe cautioned.

“What? This is a chance for wanton destruction, and you’re not having fun with it?”

Narcisse sighed in tentative relief, now that the worst seemed to be over. “What little fun there is to be had…” he spoke unaffectedly. The frenchman then drove his craft, roaring through one the damaged carrier’s hangar openings, unloading his ship’s deadly cargo into the hangars various inner workings and fixtures in an orgy of cataclysmic explosions that filled the space. His task complete, the pilot speedily exited the hangar’s interior from another opening at the other side of the ship. It wasn’t long after this that the rest of the enemy fighters surrendered.

 

[BMPixy]

DarkGemini24601 and BMPixy:
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 3
Alpha Squad

Colonel Frederick Mason waved two of the soldiers assigned to Alpha into the Vanguard dropship, followed by a SHIV escorted by a repair drone. “Let’s get moving, we need to get to those ships fast before the pirates have a chance to regroup and try and shoot our transports down. No time to waste.” The English officer rubbed his neck unconsciously. Let’s hope this goes well.

Elicia shuffled nervously in her seat as the last of Alpha boarded the Vanguard, her hands checking periodically that yes, her weapons and equipment were still there. “Didn’t realize just how small this SMG was,” she muttered, more to herself than anyone around. “Probably should have grabbed a carbine, but I need the mobility...”

“Woulda been better if you picked something with armor penetration,” the Replitan, Tornada, remarked whilst glancing at her gauss carbine. “I prefer my targets dead rather than burnt and angry.”

“Yeah, but we’re gonna be on a ship, one shot that penetrates the hull in just the wrong way screws us all over,” Elicia replied. “Don’t have that same risk with a laser.”

“Ensslin does have a point,” Frederick said as he stepped in with the last of the squad. “Make sure you watch your fire, Bjorn,” the Colonel warned the MEC Trooper wielding a pulse lance. “Other than that we shouldn’t have too much to worry about without any sniper rifles or machine guns on our side.” He did a last minute check over the rest of the gear the team had, noting Nick’s pulse shotgun, Jomaphie’s gauss rifle, Nikolai’s heavy gauss rifle that was a cause for slight concern, and Rurushu’s pulse carbine that wasn’t as worrying. The SHIV had been fittingly outfitted with a superheavy pulser.

To conclude, Fred added, “And remember, those of you with Corsair or Banshee armor, your oxygen supplies are smaller than heavy armor types or flight armors. If there is a hull breach, the first ones to get into a safe area should be those that can’t last as long.” Elicia glanced down at her own Corsair armor - the choice adding to her pool of equipment-related regrets - and gave a brief nod of understanding.

With that, Frederick activated his comms. “We still clear to go, SkyEye?”

“Penguin’s holding the line. Hurry up and go, though,” Addington’s voice crackled over the speakers. “Don’t want them taking any unnecessary risks to cover you.”

“Understood.” Frederick tapped the pilot on the soldier, and she activated the engines, kicking the dropship out of the hangar. It was released into the void of space, and quickly picked up speed, elerium afterburners kicking in to allow it to move beyond low fighter speeds and zip by the battle around the deployment zone. A stray laser shot glanced against the transport, but the shield deflected it, lowered to 50%. Nothing else came within range however, and Vanguard One made it to the hangar of the Shinso barge.

Turning the dropship around to the side so that the troopers could exit into a small zone of concealment behind a large crate, the pilot intoned cooly, “Better get out now. I don’t want to find out how many shots it takes for small arms to penetrate my bird’s shields, and I’ve got nothing to fire back at ‘em.” The hatch snapped open, deploying the ramp soon after.

“Right, first time into the breach,” Elicia deadpanned as she made her way down the ramp, her pulse SMG braced as she scanned the hangar floor, keeping an eye out for any contacts and useful cover.

Bjorn remained with Rurushu at the large crate, while Frederick moved into position with Jomaphie behind a suitable line of storage units making up cover in a pattern of low-high-low-high-low, providing a nice rampart. Nikolai and Nick, for their parts managed to get over behind two large crates with the SHIV between them, while Tornada made the bold move of leaping on top of a stack of boxes, taking the second-to highest to use the highest as cover. The sounds of footsteps were approaching, and they sounded heavy.

Elicia slid into cover behind a large crate, gently poking her head out to get a view of the approaching foes. Three Balmadaar, clad in heavy armor, drew closer; the center pirate’s heavy laser rifle trained carefully ahead while the ones on the flank kept their autolasers scanning the hangar for the source of contact. Despite her instincts telling her to shoot, Elicia held her fire, the range too great and her weapon too weak to be effective against the pirate’s armor.

Frederick matched the rifle-wielding Balmadaar’s steady aim, though he aimed at one of the ones wielding an autolaser. “Fire after I give them my opening shot,” the officer said quietly into comms, and then pulled the trigger a few seconds afterward. His barrage punched into the armor of the first Muton, nearly destroying it entirely. That job was finished by Tornado, who fired off a burst from her carbine at the chestplate of the target, though the bullets didn’t go deep enough to finish it off.

“Damn, these things are hardy,” the Replitan mumbled, flipping behind cover to avoid a storm of laser fire in her direction from the injured Balmadaar as the three sought cover.

“Bah, you just need to be a better shot,” Nikolai remarked, snapping off a burst of fire from his heavy gauss rifle that impacted harmlessly against the wounded Balmadaar’s cover. “Giving suppressive fire!” he added belatedly.

“That’s good enough for me,” the Swedish cyborg near the back responded, stepping out of cover to take aim with his grenade launcher, a targeting lens going over his right eye. Satisfied with the predicting trajectory, he fired off a plasma round, the projectile impacting with the wounded Balmadaar’s cover and blowing it and him away, as well as forcing the other two back.

“I think they’re calling for reinforcements,” Rurushu warned, reaching out with a psionic tendril to attempt to wrest control of the lead Muton with the rifle. He didn’t quite succeed however, only able to delay him while the other wisely went for a tactical retreat, vanishing behind a few boxes before reappearing a few more meters away.

“Pursue, but carefully!” Frederick instructed, breaking cover to run forward while the two enemies weren’t shooting back, though the Balmadaar rifleman was fast-recovering.

Seizing the opportunity provided by the Balmadaar’s pause in fire, Elicia slid around the side of her cover, legging it to another crate along the pirate’s flank. Snapping her SMG up, she let loose a burst of pulse fire at the unharmed Muton gunner. The laser rounds scored deep rents across their armor, but did little more than display to the Balmadaar that they were being flanked, provoking them to break cover once again. The SHIV was able to capitalize on this, and the much more powerful superheavy pulser was able to first stagger, and then kill, the pirate.

Frederick was able to batter the armor of the remaining pirate from the side, though he left the finishing blow to Nick, whose shotgun tore through the shredded alloys and rended into the flesh of the Balmadaar, not quite killing them but immediately dropping them to the ground. Fred considered Elicia for a moment, but then knelt down with the medkit he had brought, stabilizing the Balmadaar, explaining, “We should save yours for our own.”

A medkit is a medkit, but… Elicia mused, before shaking her head to dismiss the thought. “Understood, sir,” she answered, loading a new charge pack into her SMG in the process.

Cautiously, Frederick had the squad advance, reaching the cargo bay. “Well, there’s the rest of them,” he denoted, seeing three Tamearins and three Replitans taking defensive positions facing the hanger, all of them in carapace armor and bearing laser weapons. “I thought we dealt with the Balmadaar fast enough… did they hear the explosion from before, then?” he quietly wondered, looking for the best way to go about engaging the enemy. “Bager, get ready to give them an opening shot with your other gren-wait…” Fred shook his head, noticing spilled plasma cores between the two pirate groups. “Dammit, they’ve set themselves up so that we can’t easily fire at them… we’re going to have to get in close. Anyone have a smoke grenade on them?”

“Gotcha covered,” Elicia said, grabbing the canister from her belt with her off-hand. “Where you do you want it?”

Frederick pointed to the right. “Highest cover is over there. Me, Nick, Tornada, you, and S-3 should head that way as soon as the smoke goes up, while Bjorn, Jomaphie, Nikolai, and Rurushu create a diversion from the back left.” Elicia nodded in understanding, and prepped the smoke grenade, waiting for Frederick’s signal to toss it.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

DarkGemini24601 and BMPixy:
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 4
Alpha Squad

The Colonel gave the signal, and the smoke grenade flew while the four on the left opened fire. No shots connected, merely hitting cover or missing, but it drew some of the pressure off the soldiers going through the smoke to the next batch of boxes. While the Tamearins’ attention was successfully diverted, the Replitans shot at the advancing forces on the right.

Elicia ducked her way through the hail of laser fire, a few of the shots coming close to striking her and one glanced off of her shoulder pad, dealing slight damage to the armor. However before any further shots could strike home, Elicia slid into cover behind a tall crate, Nick just behind her. Popping out of cover, Elicia sprayed a short burst of pulse fire at one of the Replitans, forcing them back into cover with a hiss.

Nick’s shotgun rang out, hitting a second through the armor, but before their eyes his skin regenerated with a slight green glow around the wound. “Dammit, they’ve got biokinesis. Question is, was he the biokinetic or was it another one…”

“I don’t think we have time to find out!” Frederick warned as one of them pulled a grenade. “Move!” He ran further to the right, trying to get himself and the others behind a support beam.

While the flanking team scrambled to further cover, Bjorn levelled his pulse lance and let loose a barrage of beams, pulverizing the Tamearin’s cover and exposing them to further fire. Rurushu and Nikolai teamed up to bag one of the exposed pirates, and Jomaphie’s fire hounded at another’s armor, only being stopped by a quick dodge into new cover.

As the Replitan’s grenade exploded on the now vacant crates, Elicia ducked behind the support beam, blindly spraying a short burst of fire around the corner to cover her comrades’ own movement. She was rewarded with a hiss of pain from one of the pirates, though a cursory glance showed that the Replitan in question was still standing.

“We’ve got to take them out faster than this,” Frederick muttered. “Focus fire on the Replitans, then we’ll go after the Tame-” He hear the whizz of something in the air, and ducked just as a shard of a crate destroyed by weapons fire punched into the side of the one he was using as cover. “Telekinesis.” Dammit, they keep using powers that don’t give away their identity. While the others began to focus on the snakemen, however, Fred took careful aim at the Tamearin troops, exposing himself ever so slightly from the side of cover to attempt to goad them into revealing which one was the psion.

Elicia sprayed one of the Replitans with pulse fire, though the few hits that made it through their damaged armor quickly began to heal, the signature green glow of biokinesis surrounding the wounds as the pirate hunkered further into cover. The Anglo-German ducked back into cover to reload her SMG, and just in time too, as a burst of beam laser passed through the space where her torso was an instant later. The SHIV let loose a hail of fire at another Replitan, staggering it under the barrage and damaging their armor and body sufficiently enough that a follow-up shot from the accompanying drone was able to seal the kill.

Meanwhile, Frederick’s strategy paid off as one of the Tamearins responded to his gunfire with a psi lance, whizzing just past Fred as he ducked back into cover. Got you. Firing off another spray of fire, he seared the Tamearin through his armor, and dropped him to the ground. As his wounds began to heal slowly, Frederick’s eyes darted around to see which Replitan was responsible. The one still visible was still shooting, leaving the one Elicia had shot at as the perpetrator. “Bjorn, blow the cover of the hidden Replitan!”

“Initiating collateral damage protocols,” the MEC answered, levelling their weapon at the responsible pirate. Streams of red light poured across the cargo bay from Bjorn’s weapon, shredding the Replitan’s cover and ruining their armor. A follow-up burst from Jomaphie laid the pirate to rest, the signature cloud of poison gas escaping from the numerous holes in the Replitan’s chest.

Now no longer being affected by the biokinesis, the psionic Tamearin hunkered further into cover, while the other one stood up and tried their best to lay down some suppressive fire. However, there were simply too many XSDF troopers compared to the remaining pirates, and a burst from Nikolai cut a hole in the suppressing Tamearin’s armor, followed shortly after by a barrage of lasers from Elicia. The alien dropped to the floor, incapacitated from the damage.

The psionic Tamearin tossed his weapon out in defeat, but the surviving Replitan had other plans, clicking a button on his wrist. Two Seekers decloaked behind Frederick, firing off pulse blasts at his helmet. They weren’t entirely in tune, though, the first one shattering the helmet, and the second only burning Frederick’s left shoulder and neck as he ducked to avoid the worst of the shot.

“Shit!” Nick fired off a shot to blast one of the machines onto the ground, but the other dove out of the way, attempting to destroy Elicia’s medkits with its blaster. Elicia hastily rolled out of the way of the beam, the spear of light only slashing at her leg armor, leaving a deep rent while Elicia replied with a burst of fire, burning deep holes in the machine’s armor, but failing to knock it out of the sky. Tornada, however, was able to finish the Seeker off before it could cause anymore harm, a well-placed gauss round downing the machine. Whilst this was happening, Rurushu downed the surviving Replitan with a well-placed series of shots, leaving only the surrendering Tamearin standing.

Frederick grimaced, the pain on his neck keeping him from saying anything, while Tornada ran up to the Tamearin and grabbed him by the front of his armor. “Any more of you assholes here? We only have so much room in the brig.”

“J-Just two more of the Venom ones and their dual seekers,” the pirate explained fearfully. “I t-think they went ahead into the sleeping quarters!”

“Need a spray?” Elicia offered Frederick, grabbing the medkit off of her belt. “Or should I go stabilize the downed pirate?”

Frederick grimaced, reaching a hand up to feel the burns on his neck. Not… severe enough to kill me… He pointed to the pirate, saying somewhat raspily, “Stabilize him. I can last until we get… back to base.”

“Alright, then just at least let me ease the pain a little,” Elicia said, taking a hand and laying it on Frederick’s wound. Quickly summoning up her powers, she fed the biokinetic energy into the burns, dead tissue quickly falling away to be replaced by healthier tissue. After a brief moment, she cut the connection to her powers, gave a brief nod, then made a light jog over to the down pirate, beginning to process of stabilizing them.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

As that was being taken care of, Frederick made a mental note to thank Elicia later, the rest of the squad detained the Tamearin from Tornada, and then they all regrouped at the end of the cargo bay. Opening the door to the hallway between the Shinso and Cartus quarters, it was clear that the doors to both had been blown open, but the quiet likely meant that the remaining pirates had pushed to the bridge. “Keep moving,” Fred ordered, leading the squad to the door on the other end of the hallway and opening it.

On the other side were the surviving Shinso crew members, most of them backed up into the front of the ship. One of them was trying to negotiate with the two Replitans, having the Cartus with him. “Just take them, I’ll even give you a cheap price…”

The first Replitan pointed his gauss rifle into the Shinso’s face. “Why would we even pay you anything? You’re in no position to barg-” His eyes moved over to the door as it opened.

“Don’t move,” Frederick cautioned, the XSDF soldiers having their rifles lifted.

The other Replitan had a pistol on one of the Cartus. “I could say the same thing to you,” he hissed. “I suggest you let us leave.”

“Hey, don’t we have spacial supremacy out there?” Nikolai whispered over comms. “Could just let them go and have Penguin peg them on the way out.”

“The issue is that they’d take hostages. It’s not going to look good if we let more of their crew die…” Frederick explained.

“Could just make them take the Cartus with them. Shinso government wouldn’t care if some of their slaves got killed,” Tornada contested.

“They may not care about their lives, but I do,” Frederick responded coldly. “I’m not going to condone that course. There has to be another way.”

“Do you guys really want to die that bad?” Elicia asked. “I mean, you shoot one of the hostages, you die. You try to escape, you die. Just put the guns down, and you can keep on living. Sure you go to prison, but then you get free meals and a roof over your head for however long your sentence is. So please, drop the weapons.”

“Maybe we can strike a deal… you make our sentences short, we’ll give ourselves up,” one of the Replitans offered.

“I’m not so sure we can…” Frederick began.

“I’m sure it would be a worthy sacrifice for ensuring the safety of these civilians and good relations with the Shinso,” the other interrupted.

Frederick frowned. The Seekers have to be around here somewhere. Rurushu, if you mind controlled one of the Replitans you’d be able to take control of one, and incapacitate the other. Without being able to control the other, we could defuse the situation. “Very well then…”

The Replitans grinned, and while they let go of the hostages, they didn’t immediately drop their weapons. “Why don’t we both lower our guns slowly, at the same time…”

Now. With a nod, Rurushu sent a tendril of purple into one of the Replitans, wrenching control of his mind and having him decloak his seeker, wrapping its tentacles around the other Replitan and preventing him from activating his own stealth robot. Just like that, the civilians were safe.

As four of the soldiers went forward to detain the two pirates, Frederick finally allowed himself to relax, save for the faint pain in his neck that would probably come back at some point in the future. “Well, that went… well enough…”

“Yeah, good thinking Colonel,” Elicia replied, quickly moving to check to see if any of the Cartus had any wounds. “Turn their own stealth units against them? Genius.”

“Make that two hostage situations solved by Seekers,” Fred noted. “Need to have engineering build more of them, apparently.”

“Never know how useful a flying invisible… grabby tentacle thing can be, I suppose,” Elicia mused, confirming that the Cartus were indeed unharmed, before moving on to the Shinso. “Are you alright?” she asked.

The Shinso snarled slightly. “Just fine. Thank you for attending to me after those hudra,” he snapped.

“Well, you’re certainly grateful,” Elicia deadpanned, stepping away from the Shinso and falling back into formation.

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601, Dahlexpert, and MarineAvenger
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 5
Beta Team

With an elerium-powered boost, the second dropship was launched for its destination: the Quin barge. This one was a little further than the Shinso ship, so extra care was being taken to avoid the battle being waged between the starfighters of the XSDF and the pirate factions Venom with the Outcasts of Tamaer. Acting officer Coszcatl Iuitl stood at the forefront of the dropship, the man of Aztec descent going over the important details of the operation.

“Keep in mind that the Quin are larger than the Balmadaar, so we’re likely going to have more than enough concealment and high cover, but firing lines may be somewhat difficult,” Iuitl asserted, “and that if we explain our purpose here that we are to rescue the Quin and the Shinso. Say it the other way around and we risk offending them, something that wouldn’t be good in a tense situation like this. And, of course, if we take down any of the pirates non-lethally or they surrender, we are not to finish them off. I have six medkit charges so we shouldn’t have to worry about choosing between healing our own or stabilizing disabled enemy combatants.”

Ezra, who was leaning on the SHIV at the moment looking over his gun, turned his head to look at the Aztec man. “And if we happen to run out of medkits? What’s the plan there, just pop ‘em?”

“We shouldn’t run out of charges, and if they surrender altogether we won’t have to use the medkits in the first place. It’s a moot point, android,” Cosz responded.

Cassia looked at the two men arguing. “Don’t worry if we run out of medkits, my gauntlet has a built in arc thrower so we can always stun them. Besides, there’s most likely a bounty on these pirates, and I don’t plan on letting them go.” Cassia said while smiling wickedly

The medic shook his head. “If you’re part of the XSDF you’re not a bounty hunter anymore. Any pirates we capture are likely going to be shipped off to New Alcatraz. Did the same with the Slipstream Hijackers we fought in the Sol System, and the other opponents we’ve faced.”

“Let’s make one thing clear: I’m never not a bounty hunter, I will always be a bounty hunter and besides if I capture them all I have to do is turn them into the nearest police or what ever counts as the law out here. So if there’s bounty on these pirates I’m cashing in on them.”

Coszcatl sighed. “I’ll let you take that up with the Commander, although I warn you that she’ll say the same thing, just a lot… uh, meaner. I think the android can attest to that, right?”

“What did she do to the android?”

“Classified him as a combat droid even though he’s a higher value model than that,” Iuitl stated. “Though that’s an example of why you don’t get on her bad side.”

“She can think what she wants, she isn’t worth the frustration anymore. Though I would be careful Van Dam, I could always backhand you out the bulkhead.” The android stated with a smirk. “I am sure that would earn me some points.”

“I will deal with the queen bitch herself later, right now don’t we have a mission to do. Well a mission for you guys and a bounty for me, so why don’t we quit talking and get to killing.” Cassia said while loading her gauss rifle and putting on her scouter.

Cosz just nodded slightly, having the other soldiers get ready to disembark as the dropship came into the hangar, aiming the ramp into the ship and allowing the soldiers to rush out. Crates nearly as high as the tallest squad member were strewn around the hanger, and there were currently no pirates in sight. “Make sure to advance slowly,” the squad leader cautioned. “We’ll have an advantage if we can shoot first.”

Josefa looked around the hangar with her Railgun at the ready, being a little more cautious due to the size of her body, keeping more towards the back of the squad as they advanced.

Page and Peter were more towards the front, Peter having a determined but relaxed look unlike the women next to him who looked a lot more nervous, but still kept on her toes in case things went down fast.

“Contact!” Iuitl suddenly shouted as three Replitans leapt up ontop of one of the crates, two of them having laser rifles and one having a laser strike rifle. The first two took shots at the enemy, one managing to hit Josefa’s frame but only to minor damage, while the other missed. Then all three leapt into concealment behind the container before spreading out backwards, one covering the other two from behind.

“Finally some fun!” Cassia started to shoot at the Replitan with the laser strike rifle keeping him pinned down, one of the other Replitan fired at Cassia forcing her back behind cover. Song opened fire at the Replitan that was shooting at Cassia and managed to hit its shoulder.

“Fuck what is with these things, there so fast!”

“They used to be called Thin Men, there very annoying and they can also spit poison, so watch out for that everyone.” Cassia yelled.

Coszcatl looked to Telesphora. “If we both advance on either side we can finish these two off with shotguns.”

“Y-Yeah, you got it, sir!” Page attempted to sound confident but held her gun close to her and took a deep breath. “Ready when you are…”

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601, Dahlexpert, and MarineAvenger
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 6

The medic nodded, and then advanced to the right, spinning around to blast the strike rifle wielder before taking a laser shot to the armor from the unseen Replitan. As Telesphora moved to do the same, two seekers appeared from the shadows, the first wrapping around Ludwiga and the second around Ezra.

Ezra grunted in surprise from the Seeker, but was more annoyed with the sneak attack than actually afflicted. “Off you overgrown…” Ezra reached up and tried to pry the machine off of him, his strength exceeding that of the squids and the android managing to get the thing off him, reaching for his HSPB and going for a shot while trying to move positions. The machine was blasted out of the sky, while Ludwiga didn’t fare as well, unable to break the machine’s grasp on her own and requiring assistance.

“Gods dammit.” Cassia fired at the the seeker getting it off of Ludwiga. Cassia continued to open fire on the Replitan Page hadn’t finished off, finishing the job. “Fuck I hate these things, Hay android since your immune to their poison I need you to move forward on the other Replitan; we will give you cover!”

Ezra put on a forced smile and he mumbled to himself. “Oh… I am going to enjoy the time I get to kick her ass in a sparring match…” Ezra moved forward, keeping his rifle raised and finger not far from the trigger, being sure to keep his route always by the nearest available cover until he was close to the alien, the Replitan catching on and firing at Ezra. “A little suppression would be nice!” He told Cassia.

The Replitan seemed to have enough, however, leaping backwards and fleeing into the cargo bay.

“Gah… damn it.” Ezra exclaimed, lowering his rifle a bit. “He is getting away.”

Cassia fired at the Replitan trying to get away and put several rounds into it’s back. “I told you people to help with surprising.”
“Maybe you should have put him down in the first place if you could do it better, Van Dam.” The android said irritated.

“What do you want me to do everything, I’m not a whole team you know.”

“Enough bickering, we’ve got work to do,” the squad leader ordered. Moving up, they got a view into the large cargo bay, where there were a total of five Balmadaar Elites and five Tamearin Outcasts. Three of the Balmadaar were carrying heavy laser rifles and wore aegis armor, while three of the Tamearins were wielding a laser SMG, carbine, and rifle, respectively, and had on carapace armor. The tougher two Mutons of the bunch had a pulse autoblaster and a gatling pulser while wearing Titan Armor, and the better equipped Pon Taers had a pulse strike rifle and pulse sniper rifle to bolster their aegis armor.

“Damn… I think they actually outnumber us by one,” Cosz muttered. The repair drone seemed to be a bit deflated at hearing this, but obviously couldn’t say anything.

“These guys are also packing as well…” Ezra pointed out, looking over the group with an analytical look. “We should find a way to try and spread these guys out and concentrate fire. That way, we can deal with the heavier dudes without having to worry as much from the retaliatory fire from their buddies.” He suggested to Cosz.

“What subsystems do you have, Josefa?” Iuitl asked the MEC Trooper hopefully.

“A proximity mine launcher.” The Trooper told him, looking over that the item on her.

“That’s perfect… we just need to launch it into their midst and then detonate it with a shot, then they’ll scatter. Probably best to leave the shot to Ezra, since he’s got advanced visual perception most likely.”

“You got it.” Ezra stated confidently, looking at his rifle. “Better have the range…” He mumbled, getting into position for the shot.

Josefa got her launcher ready and made sure the mine was loaded in properly as she eyed a perfect spot to launch it. “Just tell me when boss.”

Cosz waited for the elite forces to get closer together, and then nodded. “Now.”

Josefa unconsciously held her breath as she launched the mine and let out a relieved sigh as it landed where she wanted to put it, albeit about a foot off. “Not bad…”

Ezra closed his left eye and looked down the sight of his rifle, lining up the shot. “Come on… get just a little closer.”

One of the Balmadaar looked around at the sound of the mine landing, looking around the hangar and beginning to take a few steps closer to the mine to try and find what he had heard. His other few buddies looked around as well, though were less interested than their comrade as he inched closer to the explosive.

“Just a little…” Ezra mumbled as his finger rested on the trigger.

As the Balmadaar was a couple of feet from the mine, one of the Tamearins glanced at the big alien and saw the deadly device on the ground and he yelled for the alien to stop.

“Too late.” Ezra squeezed the trigger easily and sent his shot away. The shot landed just next to the mine and didn’t detonate the explosive, the group raising their weapons with the big guy still a bit confused looking down at the scorch mark on the floor.

“Shit, shit, shit…” Ezra panicked a little as he fired again and this time just knicking the device on the side. “Okay, fuck you!” Ezra fired a third time and finally landed a direct hit on the mine, blowing it and the explosion engulfing the closest Balmadaar as well as singeing a couple of closer enemies and leaving quite a mess from the blast of debris along with the smoke cloud. “Did they have to make those things so sturdy?” The android asked himself as he reloaded.

“You know, a grenade would have been a lot better it would have make a better explosion and not three shots to fire. And i’m sure we've gain the attention of every alien on the ship to our position. So we might want to ready up and find some more denser cover or some higher ground.” Cassia suggested.

“That was a pretty far mine.” Josefa stated to Ezra, “Just good job actually hitting it. I know I couldn’t have.”

Ezra growled as he looked at Cassia and looked at their leader. “What’s the call?”

“Pull back, we’ll ambush them with this maze of a hanger,” Cosz suggested.

“Sir if I make a suggestion on top of yours, on pulling back? I suggest since the hanger has a lot of cover we use that to our advantage. I suggest that since we have mines we hide a mine near the side of the entrance of the hanger so the enemy can't see it, and it should destroy the door to that way there in a small area where we can take them out,” Cassia suggested.

“That could work. Josefa, lay down mines on the easiest pathways as we head in. Let’s go!” the medic commanded.

 

[MarineAvenger]

DarkGemini24601, Dahlexpert, and MarineAvenger
Operation Double-Edge Sword, Part 7

Josefa nodded as she loaded in another mine and quickly went about, setting the first mine down in the main path leading to the hanger, making sure not to arm it just yet as she found a maintenance tunnel that would lead around their flank and placed it on the back of the door, the explosive ready to blow if it was opened again, the MEC going back to the main hallway and confirming everyone was back in the hangar before arming it and running to join the others. “All set and ready to blow.” She announced.

“There’s a sex joke in there but i’m not going to make it. Now I hope this works, if not well there still in a tunnel with no cover so what comes through there should be easy pickings,” Cassia stated while loading her gun. “Great now we wait…” Cassia goes to the side of the room getting ready to flank the enemy if they somehow survive the boom.

Two of the Balmadaar and one of the Tamearins took a direct hit from the main hallway mine, being put out of the fight in death or being incapacitated. It didn’t seem like anyone was coming from the maintenance tunnel, though. The rest of the forces, consisting of one ‘elite’ Muton Elite, two elite Pon Taers, one regular Balmadaar and two regular Tamearins advanced, some opening fire and some calling upon psionic abilities.

The ‘regular’ Muton summoned up a medium-sized burst of flame in front of Guozhi, making his armor burn him from the heat, while one of the Elite Tamearins set a rift like a tornado spinning at the enemies, telekinetic extensions sucking in debris to make it more dangerous.

Page, having calmed down at least a little from the start of the mission, and in order to escape the tornado, she activated her boosters for a slight jump out of the psionic power.

“Damn that did not go according to plan and since when can Balmadarr use psionic powers? Well let’s see if this works. Cassia throws a grenade into the tunnel to try and flush them into the open.

The grenade went off and the enemies moved up slightly, easily able to escape the blast as one of the regular Balmadaar raised his gun and went to suppressing Cassia and the two Tamearins moving on some cover that would flank the squad.

Josefa aimed her Railgun at one of the running Tamearins and shot him dead, the second managing to get down behind a big piece of debris.

Song who slightly started to panic, started to fire rapidly at the aliens, but she managed to hit the Balmadaar that was suppressing Cassia, distracting the alien enough to allow Cassia to fire at the Balmadaar and kill it.

Cosz, who was busy making sure Guozhi was okay from his burns, missed the Tamearin who had flanked around the squad and the pirate got a shot off on the medic, striking him on one of his back plates on the armor.

Ezra turned and fired, dropping the pirate and dropping back into cover as he took a hit on his shoulder from one of the Elite Balmadaar, the wound damaging his armor and a bit underneath, but nothing that would put him out of commision.

Peter in junction with Cassia were ordered to focus on the big alien, taking it down with ease, leaving only the last Pon Taer pirate, who was out of ammo and huddled in the behind his cover.

Ezra reloaded his gun and walked over to the surrendering enemy, grabbing him by the collar and throwing him up against his own cover, leveling his rifle at his head.

“That’s enough ezra, the fight is done.” Cosz ordered, still tending to the burned, incapacitated soldier. “We were told to leave them alive.”

“Oh, well that should be easy.” Cassia pointed her gauntlet at the pirate. “I would recommend getting off him Erza, don’t want to accidentally shock you.”

“Fuck off Van Dam.” The android snapped at her. Ezra slung his gun over his shoulder, turning the soldier and kicking his leg out to bring him to his knees. “I can handle him just fine.”

“That’s not the point you idiot, best he be unconscious and not resisting and kicking and screaming.” Cassia charged the arc thrower. “Get out of the way.”

“I said I got him, does he look like he is resisting right now?” Ezra grabbed a piece of long, metal debris and grabbed the alien’s wrists, easily conforming the metal to act as makeshift cuffs. “Besides, don’t you have a schoolbus full of alien babies to scare, or some puppies to kick somewhere?”

“Don't you have a prison cell to go back to for just being a robot?”

Ezra’s face contorted to match his anger and his kicked the prisoner to the ground, turning around and going for a straight on punch for the front of Cassia’s helmet with his metallic hand, easily cracking the front of it and likely knocking the human back.

Cassia shook her head and looked at her gauntlet and saw that it was fully charged. “Sorry bud, but I got to put you down before this goes any further.” Cassia fires her arc thrower at Ezra bringing him to the ground. “Sigh, why can’t people handle insults anymore and I came here not to fight my comrades and yet here I am fighting an android who punched me because he can’t handle an insult or a comeback insult. Not the smartest thing you ever done.”

Ezra’s body twitched violently and sparks flew from the spot on his shoulder where he had been shot and a couple of spots on his synthetic skin were burned away, the arc thrower clearly a bit more powerful than standard issue.

The prisoner behind Ezra smiled and he grabbed the metal strip behind him, having uncurled the restraint he had on with his telekinesis and he lunged forward, stabbing it upwards into Ezra’s right rib, meeting another clang as it hit one of his components and a milky liquid came out, the Pon Taer clearly surprised it wasn’t red.

The android turned, smacking the man with the black of his hand, still unfeeling from the shock he had received, Ezra still having a hard time dealing from the shock. Unfortunately, Ezra hit him too hard and caused the man’s neck to snap, being dead before he landed.

Peter came up from behind Cassia and pulled her back, Cosz standing up from the injured soldier and yelling, “What the hell is going on here?”

“Well, where to begin, android thought he had the prisoner subdued I offered to to us the arc thrower on him, android refused. He insulted me I insulted him back he got angry, he punched me I shocked him to not get into a fight. Prisoner sees opportunity to attack android and the androids kills him, and all could have been prevented if I would have used the arc thrower on the prisoner knocking him out, but no android had to prove something and now we have a dead pirate.” Cassia looked at Ezra. “That about cover it bug?”

Ezra’s head twitched violently to the right and he looked up at cassia with one of his eyes being stuck closed, and his jaw clenched, not from the shock but from rage. “F-F-fuck you… Y-You…. Y-Y-You… B-Bitch…”

Cosz shook his head a little dumbfounded and he just shook his head, pulling his rifle off his back. “That is enough. Mission is accomplished and we are done here. Van Dam, get on the ship, the Commander will hear about this.” He warned, turning and looking up at Josefa. “You get the android on the Skyranger as well, I can’t do anything to patch him up but get the repair drone on him.”

The MEC nodded and went to do as instructed, Page coming up with a relieved look. All the enemies are either dead or injured, and unfortunately our SHIV got knocked out early from one of the big guys and is stuck. All in all… uh… I think we won, so we are going to go free the prisoners.”

Cosz nodded and he grabbed his medkit. “Take Ludwiga and Song to help, I will take care of the injured.” As Page saluted and went to do her assigned task, Cosz rubbed the back of his neck. “This has been one hell of a mission alright.” The squad leader mumbled to himself as he needed to set himself to his own task quickly.

 

[DarkGemini24601]

Dahlexpert and DarkGemini24601: “Insubordination”

Somewhere in Subspace (March 4th, 2044)
The Einherjar (11:22 A.M., Earth Standard)
Office of Commander Astasha Streczyk

Astasha tapped a pen against the desk for a moment, sighing to herself. Why must I be cursed with such incompetent staff, the Commander silently lamented. Bringing the motion of the pen to a halt, she pulled open her drawer and dropped it inside, closing the cabinet and saying, “Let her in,” to the two guards.

Cassia entered the commander's office “You know, under any other circumstance I would have probably killed those guards or at least knocked them out. So you’re the head bitch herself, you know I expected a two headed person with snakes coming out of their hair, but you seem smaller than I expected.”

Astasha raised an eyebrow. “Excccuse me? You have a strange sense of humor, considering I doubt you seriously mean the majority of what you just said. If you did it would be… problematic, to say the least,” the Commander intoned, a thin, cold smile spreading across her face. “Right, Ms. Van Dam?”

“Ou from what I hear you're a complete and total bitch, the bitch of bitch. Hell if there were an annual Bitch Awards you would win constantly.”

The Commander folded her hands together, her smile fading. “I’m going to be lenient with you, Van Dam. I am aware that you were formerly a mercenary, and thus you’re unused to the chain of command. A buyer asks you to capture or kill someone, and you do it in your own way. They get what they spend their money on.” Astasha narrowed her eyes. “However, understand that you are now a soldier under my command, and should be grateful that I even promoted you in the first place. Insubordination, disrespect, and outright threats against myself or the rest of the staff will not be tolerated. If you can remember that and calm yourself down now, we won’t have a problem.”

“Lady, I don’t care that you promoted me, hell I can do everything in my class without being promoted. Because I’ve done it all I don’t need special training for grenades or medkits. Hell, I can probably do every class on this ship, because one time or another I’ve done them all. And as your insubordination crap,” Cassia said while putting insubordination in air quotations. “Yea I don’t care about that, see Respect is earned not given, and from what I hear you’re a piece of shit, who seems to rule by threatening people. Now why will I follow scum like that?”

“Because I am the Commander of the Extrastellar Defense Force that is responsible for protecting all of human space. I can tolerate mercenaries, but I cannot abide outlaws, something you are rapidly sounding like,” Astasha warned with a dangerous tone. “If you have no respect for the way this organization is run, then I will respond accordingly. However, I’ll give you this last chance to think about what you’re saying reasonably.”

“Aww did I touch a nerve, is the baby worried because someone can actually challenge her pathetic reign?” Cassia said in a baby voice. “Would you like a bottle or your bib, huh little baby.” Cassia taunted with a smile.

Astasha exhaled deeply, pulling her hands back off the table and closing her eyes for a moment. “I’m beginning to be convinced the Council is intentionally trying to sabotage what would otherwise be a simple mission by giving me a crew that wouldn’t last two seconds in any military.” Opening her eyes, the Commander concluded, “You leave me no other choice then. Cassia Van Dam, you are being detained for insubordination.” She snapped her fingers, the two guards opening the door.

Cassia turned towards the guards and pointed at her pistol and her gauntlet at the guards. “Now i’m going to say this once, I understand you’re doing your jobs and you have to listen to this,” Cassia looked at the Commander “pathetic and power hungry person who most likely doesn't care for your lives, so I’m going to give you one chance to turn around and not give up your lives, because I don’t want to kill you hell I don’t want to fight you and let’s be honest is she really worth listening to?”

One of the guard’s hand froze as he had been starting to reach for his arc thrower, the devices having been scaled down to roughly taser size over the years. “D-Don’t make this worse on yourself, Van Dam… threatening us isn’t going to do you any good.”

As the guard talked, Astasha reached under her desk, swiftly drawing an arc thrower of her own and sending tongues of electricity into Cassia’s back, the voltage enough to drop her to the group but not quite knock her unconcious. “Why did I just know you’d try something stupid?” Standing up, she added, “I do care about the lives of my soldiers, more than politics. Commander O’Brien was foolish enough to risk her own death and the deaths of her subordinates by playing nice with one of your fellow family members. I’m not as... carefree.”

“Ha ha Fool..” This fool doesn't understand my family were warriors we give respect to those that earned it. Morrigan earned our respect because she cared about everyone in her command and never threatened them, Well I guess it’s time for me to stop messing around. Cassia started to move her fingers. “Good I can still move my fingers, and she’s on my left side and guards on my right. “Sigh I could use my arc thrower right now and tazz her, and she would have it coming, I mean she’s not my client and I could kill her. However I don’t think my clients would like that and killing a commander even if she does deserve a punch and a bullet wound. I don’t want to anger the entire XSDF after me even though I could just leave human space, hum…”

Astasha’s pistol had slipped into her hand while Cassia was muttered to herself. “I believe that would be a wise course unless you want to add treason to your list of grievances. Now, I suggest you come quietly, or we can just carry you after shocking you unconscious.”

Cassia started to laugh. “HA HA you done fucked up now you stupid bitch you are so done.”

“Am I now?” Astasha nodded to the guards, and they prepared another arc thrower charge for Cassia.

“Ha Ha, you are retarded, under the military law a commanding officer under no circumstance can use a weapon on a solder. And since you fire me i’m now a civilian which means you opened fire on a civilian not once but twice! You are so fucking stupid Ha HA HA. And your guards are going to jail to, I warned you two not to get involved now you’re going to jail for following orders you mindless drones.”

“I don’t believe a taser is a weapon, and when I weapon is drawn on myself and my subordinates I reserve the right to self defense. I don’t need an outlaw talking to me about the law,” Astasha snapped. “Put her out. Looks like we’ll be carrying her to the brig.”

“I wouldn't if I were you, i’ll let you think of this really quick, do you really think that a prison will hold me, and I doubt you will truly fire me since the XSDF did hire me to go to Forseti anyway. You will be dealing with me one way or another. You have a person with a crap load of combat experience and knows more about colonizing then any on this ship, Or I become a mercenary again do what I want and have your superior get angry you let an asset who can tame the planet and understand the wildlife better than anyone and have the wild life work for you. But hey if you want a person that knows colonizing better than anyone on this ship go that’s fine-”

Cassia was interrupted as the arc throwers of the guards flared to life, knocking her unconcious. Astasha shook her head, laughing. “Typical Van Dam arrogance… she actually thinks a single soldier matters to the Council, or that she is as good as she says.” Leaning down even though Cassia currently couldn’t hear her, the Commander added, “Scarlet was a skilled soldier too, but she was just as insane as you are. Nearly damaged valuable property as well. Take her to the brig, make sure to put a psionic inhibitor on her so she doesn’t have any means of escape. I suppose we may have one more to send to New Alcatraz when we reach Forseti.”

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Hidden Feelings: Part One

The Einherjar, Somewhere in Subspace
Room of Walker, Devolina, & O'Brien
March 5th, 1100 Hours

The hallways to the soldier's quarters were pretty bare of people, being the middle of the day, most were already busy with their day. Cayden however, was not. The psionic soldier walked with two ear buds in playing the old rock music of Johnny Cash he liked so much, mostly due to how it calmed him down aside from his more heavy playlists of rock or metal. As he reached the door to his shared room, he opened it up, looking forward to relaxing on his 'day off'.

Korra was laying on the couched, a towel wrapped around her hair, though she was clothed for a change. She was looking through a small notepad she seemed to always be carrying, mouthing words every now and then as she read.

He glanced at the Tamearin, starting to get a little peeved he had kept walking on her half commando, but happy she was actually dressed this time. Cayden went into his room and shut the door, taking out his ear buds and putting putting his music player on the dresser as he grabbed his jacket and went back out into the living room. "You think they would keep this ship a little more warm."

"It's probably some... sterilization thing. Like a hospital. Don't want germs spreading in a ship." Korra grinned without looking up. "Need my help warning up?"

He sighed and shook his head, putting on his jacket and zipping it up. "And wouldn't you like that, Korra. I thought you were going to be better around me. Besides... I have fire."

Korra giggled. "I was just kidding." She climbed to her feet and placed a hand on her hip. "Don't be such a staff."

Cayden smiled and he looked down, nodding his head. "Your right, sorry. Just been a little on edge."

"Why's that? Anything I can do to help?" Korra asked, adding, "I mean... actually help, not... you know."

"No, I know what you meant." He said, waving his hand. "Just miss my family. Talked to them recently and it just hits me a little." He set his cheek against his hand and leaned to the side. "Things are also a little tense between me and my Dad..."

"Tense how?" Korra folded her arms. "Trust me, I know a bit about disapproving parents."

Cayden shrugged his shoulders and he looked up at Korra. "It isn't like he really disapproves of what I do, it's the opposite actually, I just... gate having to live up to his reputation and standards, like everyone expects me to be him. He always has a cold demeanor when he talks to me, and I feel like he thinks of me as a disappointment compared to my other siblings."

"Well... maybe he's Like that because he expects the most from you." Korra shook her head. "But... I don't know how much it helps, but I don't know your father, so I won't judge you that way."

"Well you are one of the few. People like Brigid just don't understand how much it pisses me off." With a little growl, Cayden smiled once again and he asked, "So, have any ideas to pass time? I was coming back from my lunch, so I wanted to see if any of the gang wanted to hang out but it seems you were the only one in."

Korra shrugged. "You've held back a lot when we're training. Mind if I watch you go all out against some holograms?"

"I'm only human Korra, and with the moves I know, it is fairly limited what I can do hand to hand. I mean, I will show you, just don't know if it will be entertaining to watch me beat on a hologram with my fists."

Korra laughed. "You overestimate how hard it is to entertain me."

"Fine, it would be boring for me then. Besides, I don't want to do anything physical right now, I already did my gym time."

Korra nodded. She opened the door for Cayden, and said, "At least you're humble. You sure think of yourself as being limited, but I've seen nothing of the sort."

"There are reasons for what I do, whether it be how I fight or live my life. I rarely do anything for no reason at all unless I am extremely bored or am extremely smashed." He told her, reluctantly getting up and walking to the door.

Korra followed him out. "Yeah. I guess I'm even more random when bored or... um, crushed by something." She looked through her notebook in confusion.

"Smashed means getting really drunk, Korra." Cayden told he casually. "Unless you are literally getting crushed by something."

"I see." Korra wrote down a quick note. "Maybe you and I can... get smashed together sometime."

"I wouldn't mind getting drunk with a friend. Could be fun actually." He told her with a slight grin as he looked forward again. "I swear, sometimes you remind me of a lost puppy."

Korra smiled. "I hope that's a good thing. People... like puppies, right? 'Cause they're cute?"

"It basically means it is amusing seeing someone so lost they don't know what to do, so you have to constantly help them. So as such, you are a lost puppy."

"Oh!" Korra frowned. "Oh... I see..." She looked down. "I guess I am. But I... I'm trying. I hope I'm not annoying people."

Cayden laughed and put a hand on Korra's shoulder. "Trust me, I doubt it. It might annoy some people but I know many who would be happy to help or just want to help out because they don't want you getting in trouble with others. You don't annoy me... much."

"Thanks," Korra said sarcastically, smiling. She stepped into the holo-bay, and asked, "So what do you think you should fight?"

"I don't know... what sort of fighting style you want to see?" He asked, having to reluctantly take off his upper layer of clothing until he was in his t-shirt for more mobility.

Korra tapped her lip. "Maybe... something that works well in combat with heavy enemies. Combination of rifle at long range and self defense at close range."

Cayden rolled his eyes. "I am more used to mid to short range. I can use marksman rifles but I am not good with that much precision. Besides... I hate making training a chore, do you have anything specialized I could try?"

Korra sulked a bit, wondering how much Cayden had said of her not being a bother was true. "How about shotguns? Maybe show me your skills with that, since short range is what shotguns are made for."

"I can try. I have only ever used a shotgun duck hunting though, never in combat."

Korra shook her head, and typed onto the computer. A shotgun materialized before Cayden, along with some simple forest terrain. A bit away from them, a pair of Balmadaar and a pair of Outsiders materialized, and ran for cover. Korra stayed to the side, and kept an eye on Cayden, wanting to both enjoy herself and learn something.

Cayden took the shotgun out of the air and he took his own cover, looking over the new weapon for a brief moment to get a feel for it, waiting for the enemies to make the first move.

The Balmadaar went for a sudden charge, both firing as they made their way over. The outsiders rushed to the sides, going for a pincer maneuver.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Hidden Feelings: Part Two

Cayden peered over the cover at the enemies and thought for a moment, weighing his options. Shit... Reaching down into his shirt, Cayden took his pendant in hand and slipped it off, goosebumps rolling over himself as a shiver was sent down his spine from the sudden rush of power into his body.

Holding out his hand, his eyes glowed as he took a psi lance in hand, standing up and chucking it at one of the trees, the lance slamming home and exploding, creating a hole in the tree that made it collapse in the Balmadaar's path. Twisting to the side, Cayden ran forward in the direction of the Outsiders, tossing a ball of fire in their direction to slow them.

One of the Outsiders was consumed, but the other kept its charge, a machine with no fear. The Balmadaar bellowed in anger, and got to work clearing the large tree out of the way.

Cayden took cover behind a tree and made sure he was ready to go before he went out and ran at the Outsider.

As it stopped and took a few shots at Cayden, he didn't stop his stride and slid onto the ground legs first, the plasma blasts going over his head and Cayden resting at a stop right in front of his enemy, shooting upwards into the Outsider and disintegrating it immediately.

The pair of angry Balmadaar stepped forward. One fired away at Cayden's last location while the other pulled out a grenade, chucking it.

Cayden smiled as the holograms fired at the wrong position, the soldier stealthily making his way behind the aliens until he accidentally stepped in the wrong place and made a loud snap sound as a branch broke in half. As the aliens turned around, Cayden threw another ball of fire and quickly ran across the open way to try and get into more cover. The fire incinerated the first alien but left the second unaffected, the alien having a clear shot at Cayden as it shot the soldier and he fell, the simulation ending in failure. Cayden laid on the ground for a moment, taking in his defeat with a sigh.

Korra rushed to his side, clumsily dropping to her knees and grabbing Cayden's shoulder. "Are you alright? Did I set the difficulty too high?"

He held up his index finger, cutting off any speech before he sat up. "No, just a stupid move on my part. Little disappointed... thought I had that one."

"I thought you did too." Korra smiled. "I never seen you use psionics like that before. How come?"

Cayden's face fell for a moment before his mind took over and he reached into his pocket, taking out his necklace and putting it around his neck as he held his head as his power receded. "I don't want to talk about it."

Korra huffed. "You know... considering you asked me if we could do something, you haven't been very accommodating." She stood up and turned away. "But if you don't want to talk... I won't force you."

Cayden looked at her back and rubbed his hands together, standing up and rubbing the pendant on his neck. "Sorry, it's just that my psionics are a touchy subject for me..."

"Well... so are mine." Korra looked down at her hand, electricity sparking from her finger tips. "They remind me of the family that..." She shook her head, and used her special device to create a fireball. "But you know my secret. I don't expect you to share yours. But you don't have to be so... snappish."

Cayden took a few deep breaths and he reached out and grabbed Korra's shoulder, turning her around as he used his other to take the necklace out of his shirt. "This isn't just a showpiece Korra." He told her softly, looking down at the XCOM symbol. "It is something called an inhibitor, and it suppresses my psionic abilities at all times... except when I need them in combat."

Korra examined it carefully. "Well... why? Can you not control them or something. Or is suppressing them something personal?"

"I... I couldn't really tell you if I even knew fully. All I know is... I was on a mission and something happened that caused me to go on some sort of... rampage. I'm not really sure what happened, one minute I was pinned down fighting and the next I was in a military hospital with my father and Ms. Brea there. They told me they didn't know what went on either. I mean, I always had this thing since I was born practically and I took it off a few times before that point but now it terrifies me every time I do, since I have no idea what will happen if I do it for too long." He explained to her, a pained look on his face.

Korra looked away. "I... I guess someone like me takes the control they have for granted. Does... O'Brien know? I know she has control problems too. Maybe she could help you."

"She knows I wear this to keep my powers suppressed, and that is all she needs to know. Like I said, even I fully don't know what happened, and I am not keen on doing so. Besides, her control issues are emotional, and I don't think that can be helped."

"I understand. I promise I won't tell her." The Tamearin woman looked back. "What... do you think happened. They must have done tests or something."

"What tests could they do? And my only surviving teammates didn't see anything from the mission. As for what I think... I just... don't know. All I know is, when I woke up in the hospital, I had a deep urge never to take my inhibitor off again, it always... overwhelms me when I don't have any protection, like an addict with a drug. The more you want to use it, the deeper you fall into it."

"Well then... I'll keep an eye on you," Korra offered with a smile. "Someone needs to. If I'm ever fighting with you, and you lose control, I'll be sure to get you inhibitor to you... or knock you out. Whichever's faster."

Cayden chuckled. "I think you give yourself too much credits, I would never let you." He said, obviously teasing her playfully.

Korra nodded. "Won't stop me from trying." Her smile faltered a bit. "I'm serious. I know what it is like to... to have no control, and to wish someone was there I could trust. So... I'm here for you. And so are the others."

"I know you are. But if it comes down to me or you, I want you to save yourself, no matter what. If I ever... lose myself and I kill someone who isn't an enemy, I want you to put me down, got it? No hesitation." He told her seriously. "Brigid would never do it, she just isn't that kind of person."

Korra hesitated, but finally nodded. "I... I understand. I'll do what I have to do. Even... if I'd... rather not."

'If you were anyone else, I wouldn't have told you otherwise. Brigid would probably throw a fit if she learned what I told you."

Korra held a finger up to her lips. "I know what you mean. She cares so much, it clouds her judgement at times. Mom is the word... right?"

"No... she is nothing like my mother. Really they only thing they would share would be their small stature." He casually told Korra.

"Ahem." The short woman in question stepped into the room, folding her arms and angrily tapping her foot. "I'm sorry, but what was that last part?"

"You and mother share some qualities, squirt." He told Brigid, crossing his own arms.

Brigid growl softly, and approached Cayden with clenched fists. "Mr. Walker! You...of all people... should know what happens to people who call me squirt!"

Korra leaned close to Cayden, whispering, "Need back up with this?"

The Irish woman's eyes darted to the Tamearin. "And exactly what are you guys doing in the middle of the 'woods'? Alone?"

"What do you care?" Cayden asked with a raised eyebrow. "And we were passing time. Korra gave me a challenge to do, and I failed it."

"Oh?" Brigid turned up her nose. "Serves you right. Sneaking off to do who-knows-what who-knows-where. I do wish you would look up your other roommates."

Korra leaned close to Cayden again, but only half whispered. "It sounds to me like someone is jealous."

Cayden whispered back, "I don't know why... to be honest I don't understand half of what she does."

Brigid's eye twitched. "J-jealous? I'm not your mother, Korra. I really don't care who you spend your time with. I just wish you'd..."

Korra giggled. "I didn't mean you were jealous of me."

Brigid's cheeks reddened a bit. "I... what are you... talking about?"

"You do seem to get a little heated whenever you find me and Korra alone for no reason. You have no reason to be aggressive." He informed her.

"I guess she just wants you all to herself," Korra said with a shrug, turning away so Brigid wouldn't see her grin.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Hidden Feelings: Part Three

"W... What are you talking about!" Brigid stomped her foot, turning even more red. "I... I-I don't care about... Cayden can hang out with... you're both stupid, you know that!" She stomped her foot again.

"Someone's getting a little heated," Korra mumbled.

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!" Brigid glared at the Tamearin. "You... you're stupid!"

Cayden sighed, walking up to Brigid and putting a hand on her back. "Why are you getting so heated?"

Brigid jumped like he had placed an ice cube against her bare skin. "I... I-I-I... I don't know." Her face reddened a bit more. "I'm just... I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me."

Korra chuckled. "Thought it was a good show personally," she mumbled.

Cayden looked at Brigid up and down and finally he shook his head, "Whatever... look, now that you are here Brig, I need to show you something back at the room. It is kind of important. You're welcome too, Korra."

Brigid slowly nodded. "I'll leave you to it," Korra said with a wink, heading for the door. "Have fun, you two."

Sh... shut up, Brigid sent privately. It isn't... shut up...

You better be sure of that, O'Brien, or someone might snatch him up on you...

He looked between the two with an eyebrow and stated, "You know, if you are going to talk telepathically, at least make it a little bit less obvious. Sort of ruins the purpose if I know you are doing it. Makes me just more curious. Anyways, we going?"

Brigid nodded, and silently followed Cayden back to their room. When they reached it, Brigid swallowed hard, and asked, "S-so... what did you want to show me?"


"Something pretty important... I mean you are the one I am closest with so I knew I had to do this with you, though I would have maybe liked to have Korra's help since I am not good with this sort of thing..." He told her, Cayden opening the door and looking around to see no one was there and went to his door. "In here."

Brigid rubbed her hands nervously. "Cayden, what is it? You're not in some kinda trouble, are you?"

"What? No trouble at all. I just have been putting this off and I needed... well... I guess you could say I need a woman for this. Now come on, you coming in?" He asked from in the doorway.

Brigid let out a sigh of relief. "Alright. I'll give you that woman's opinion." She walked over to the door. "So what is it?"

He waved his hand to the bed. "Sit down, this is a little embarrassing." He told her, letting her into the room and shutting the door.

Brigid's eyes shifted back and forth, and she sat down on the bed. "You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Well of course, I know that. I never forgot what you told me years back you know." Cayden walked over to one of his drawers and opened it, taking something out and sitting on the bed next to Brigid, holding out a black, velvety ring box.

Brigid raised an eyebrow. "What is this?" she asked, looking at the box. "You getting married?"

Cayden looked a little taken aback, blushing hard and he shook his head. "Don't sound so excited will you, it is for my sister. I picked it up when we were still docked but I didn't know if she would like it. I am sure by the time I get back to Earth, I would have missed her birthday and since she would be 18, I wanted to get her something nice, so I scrounged what I could and got that." Cayden opened the box and it was a small gold ring with the ring tinted slightly pink with a pink stone in the middle and two smaller blue ones flanking them on both sides. "I don't know crap about jewelry and Leo was always the one who picked out the presents."

Brigid smiled brightly, taking the ring box and examining it closely. "This is so adorable. You made sure it was her size, right?"

Cayden nodded, "She is a big fashion nut deep down so she made sure to really plow her sizes into our family's mind."

"Well, I think it's lovely, and I'm sure she will as well." Brigid took the ring out of the box, looking it over carefully. "A girl's eighteenth birthday is very important to her. She's a woman now, ready to make a name for herself in the world, if not the galaxy now. It is important that those close to her show their support and love, and a heartfelt present, expensive or cheap as long as it is meaningful, is a good way of doing so. And I know, if I was in her place, I would love this, and love you even more then I... I mean she already does." She slipped it on her own ring finger, the jewelery being a bit too big but fitting well enough. She held her hand out, and seemed to get lost in the ring as she stared at it.

Cayden put his hands on his hips and roll his eyes, looking at Brigid for a bit. "If you say 'Yes, I will marry you' I am going to kick your little ass out the door, you know that right?"

"I know," Brigid practically whispered, deadpanned, as though she had been in a trance. She slowly pulled the ring off, placing it back in the box and handing it back to Cayden. She smiled lovingly. "I'd say you have successfully purchased a gift yourself. Careful, though. Leo might expect you to start picking the presents now."

As Cayden put it back in the drawer and he closed it, scratching his head. "Nah, if anything, Leo will do everything in his power to one up me next year. Works in my favor, I won't have to work as hard. How has your brother been? You know... aside from the whole Korra trying to flirt with him thing. She does realize he is 16 right?"

Brigid shook her head. "I don't think she does. She probably wouldn't flirt as much if she did. And Galen's doing fine. School seems to be good, social life is good. I... it's weird, considering how much time we've spent apart, but... this journey has really made me miss him."

"It's not weird at all." Cayden told Brigid, "If I disappeared, you would still miss me right? Or at least I hope you would all things considering."

"Well, of course. You're one of my best friends, after all." Brigid jumped to her feet, and grinned. "BFFs, right?"

Cayden sighed, "I swear, the urge to kick you is growing by the second." He put a hand on Brigid's shoulder with a small smile. "Though thanks for your help, aside from that gleam in your eye that screamed you wanted to steal the gift I got."

Brigid giggled. She looked up, and stared into Cayden's eyes. After a few seconds, her smile faded. "Cayden... do you think... do you... could we... ever..."

Cayden raised an eyebrow and he sat down on his bed. "Ever what?"

Brigid seemed to be at a lose for words for a moment. Finally, she shook her head. "I was... just thinking we should have dinner later... w-with the others, I mean."

Cayden shook his head. "You are a horrible liar. If you really want to get dinner, that's fine. I'll track down Mikhail and Sasha later and I am sure Korra will be back pretty soon, but if you have anything to say to me in private, now is the time."

Brigid bit her lip, obviously nervous for no apparent reason. "It... it's, um... do you think the two of us would... make a good... couple... of siblings, I mean?" she chocked out.

"Well that's... sort of a weird question. Uh... yeah, I guess if we were related, we would be good siblings, I mean you really are just a more ramped up version of my mother and sister so it could be a good fit. I love them to death, and you are already pretty close to us so... yes." He told her honestly. "What made you want to ask that?"

Brigid slowly shrugged, her cheeks a bit red. "You... you know us women and our... random questions." She smiled. "I, uh... I should get going. Have to prepare for our training session... scheduled... l-later..."

"Sure, go ahead." Cayden yawned and sat on his bed. "I'm going to take a nap. See you in a while?"

"Y-yeah. Enjoy your..." Brigid clumsily backed into the door frame, laughing and continuing, "E-enjoy your... nap." She stepped out, closing the door behind her.

He continued to look at the door, Cayden shaking his head at Brigid's display of dopiness and he laid his head down on the pillow of his bed. "She expects me to be honest with her, yet won't do the same for me. I really don't understand women."

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

MarineAvenger & ZombieSplitter53
Hidden Feelings: Part Four

Holo-Training Room
Dojo Simulation
Three Hours Later

Brigid took a defensive stance a few feet before her much taller opponent, breathing slowly. She had left her weighted training clothes off, not wanting to insult this particular enemy by trying to beat him with them on. Of course, if he was anything like his father, that would be an impossible feat, even for Brigid. "You ready, Cayden?"

Cayden took a much more offensive stance and he looked a little unsure. "Do you really want to do this?" He asked, not wanting to actually hurt Brigid by accident. He remembered the wrestling matches in boot camp fondly.

Brigid chuckled. "Come on, Cayden. You if all people should know I'm a lot stronger then I look." She slowly cracked her neck, and motioned for Cayden to 'bring it on'.

"Don't say I didn't warn you..." He muttered, going after Brigid to try and take out her legs from under her.

Brigid swayed away, her movements awkward and unpredictable as she moved out of the way. Stumbling a bit as she rushed forward, she spun in place and sent a backhanded fist towards Cayden's side, her strength enhanced by her gene mods.

Cayden tried to side stepped her but was glanced by her fist, earning a little sting. He tried to go in again, to get in close to her so she had nowhere to run to. He tried to send a few light punches into her ribs.

Brigid lightly batted them away. Her motions seemed random, yet stopped each punch from making contact. As she attacked, however, Cayden started to pick up on her intentional randomness, seeing a bit of predictability in her unpredictability.

Cayden stepped back and he observed Brigid a bit. "Are you drunk?" He asked with an amused smile.

Brigid shook her head. "Nope. At least not yet. You're pretty tough, though. I never got to train with your father with this fighting style. Probably couldn't beat him like this." She grabbed her flask off her belt. "Mind if I step it up a bit?"

Cayden shook his head and said, "Try it. You still won't beat me." He said with a smirk. Again with my father. Come on, can't you talk about anyone else you trained with.

Brigid popped open the flask, and took a big chug. As she placed the flask back on her belt, it's contents had an immediate effect. Her face flushed, sweat pooled on her brow, and a dopey smile spread across her face. "C... c-come and (hick) get it." She charged forward, the predictability in her actions completely lost as she swayed, suddenly leaping into a swinging kick.

Cayden kept backing away from Brigid, going on the defensive now and hoping his opponent would just fall on her face, her strikes not doing much in the physical harm department.

"Better... fight back... C-Cayden!" Brigid started putting more power into her punches, her enhanced muscles making the attacks from the small woman surprisingly strong. She stumbled, and seemed to fall on her back, only to spring forward, legs first and aimed for Cayden's chest. Cayden sidestepped and grabbed her legs, just letting her fall to the ground. Brigid laughed, and leaped to a standing position. "Gots dose... Walker relixes, huh?" She swayed to the left, but darted to the right, sending a calculated right jab towards Cayden's side.

Cayden missed his chance to strike her and took the jab, grunting and grabbed Brigid's shoulder, trying to send a right hook into her gut. Brigid grunted a bit herself as the attack connected, and she seemed to fall to her side. She suddenly wrapped her legs around Cayden's. "M-Mr... Desmond would have... a-a-anticipated... dis."

"Yeah, well I am not my father!" He reached down and tried to pry Brigid off of him.

Brigid was taken aback by the sudden outburst, and didn't resist. She rolled out of the way and stood up. "Cayden, I... I didn't mean... t-to imply..."

"Whatever, just forget about it." He put up his hands again, waiting for her to attack again, this time, really ready and not wanting to hold back.

Looking concerned, Brigid popped a small pill in her mouth. As her flushed cheeks started to to return to normal, she rushed Cayden in a more traditional manner, going for a few forward jabs, then for a flying right kick.

Cayden purposefully toyed with her, swiping the jabs away and grabbing hold of her leg again, and going to knee her.

Brigid let out a loud 'Oof' as the knee connected. She pulled herself free and took a few steps back. Panting a bit, she smiled. "Almost forgot what it was like to fight someone with skill. Besides Alice, you're the only one who has given me a challenge. I feel like I'm fighting..." She clamed up, not finishing the sentence.

Yeah, like you were fighting Dad... Cayden shook his head and let out a sigh, "I think that is enough for today."

Brigid looked disappointed. "W... what? But... we barely just got started." She ran up to Cayden. "What's wrong with you today?"

"Nothing." Cayden grabbed his towel and stepped out of the ring, grabbing his water bottle and taking a big swig of it.

"No, it isn't 'nothing'." Brigid rushed after him, tightly grabbing his arm. "Come on, tell me. Don't be like your father and refuse to talk..."

"Will you stop that damn it!" Cayden jerked his arm away from Brigid and gave her a bitter look. "Jesus Christ, you sound like you worship the old man. Not to mention a broken record going on and on. Really gets annoying."

Brigid was at a loss for words. She stammered for a few moments before finally saying, "I... I don't worship your father. But I respect him. I... I thought being compared to him would be a good thing. You... you don't have to be so angry about it."

"Oh yeah, being compared to my father is really a good thing." Cayden put his towel around his neck after wiping his forehead and told her, "I don't want to be my father. I am sure he doesn't want me to be him either."

Brigid scoffed, and folded her arms. "What is wrong with you? You talk like all I ever do is..." Her eyes widened a bit. "I... I mean... sometimes I might... it isn't... all I do..."

"Oh, Mr. Desmond this, oh, Mr. Desmond that." Cayden mocked in a girly tone. "It never ends with you around me. Not even to count the times you probably say it to other people."

Brigid glared at him, not appreciating the condescending tone. "Well... maybe I like your father! Because he never mocked me! Because he always took me serious, even as a child! Grow up!"

"Well maybe he never had to put up with your bullshit!" Cayden said in a raised voice. "You know how much it sucks to be compared to 'Desmond Walker, one of the heroes of XCOM!'. I tell you, the routine gets old, and I am sick of not being judged by my own merits compared to that of my father."

"Well, you need to... to do more to... to..." Brigid stomped her foot, folding her arms and looking away. "Maybe... if you actually... lived up to..." She shook her head. What am I doing? He's right! Why can't I just say I'm sorry and... tell him the truth?

"To what? The fucking Walker name!? I swear, you sound just like an Exalt." Cayden turned around and he stormed off, fuming.

"Sound... like..." Brigid turned towards Cayden and ran after him. "Hey! I'm not finished! What do you mean by that?"

"I mean everything by it! Why can't you fight better, why can't you use your psionics better? Why can't you live up to your fucking father!" Despite the inhibitor around his neck, there was a slight wispy red glow around the soldier. "I am sick and tired of it."

Brigid grabbed his arm. "Cayden, I... I didn't mean to..." She lowered her head. "I'm sorry."

Cayden looked at Brigid for a few moments and his glow went away. "Why do you like my Dad so much? Why do I have to be compared to him, when I am nowhere near him."

Brigid shook her head. "I... I don't mean to... I just..." She looked up at him, her eyes starting to water. "Cayden, please, I... I respect your father. But he's not the one I think of... h-he... he isn't the one that... that I-I..." She released Cayden, turning away.

"Will you just tell me already? You always gave me the runaround when I was younger, but come on, I am an adult now." Cayden took a step closer to her.

Brigid rubbed her arm nervously. "I... I can't, Cayden. You... y-you're my friend. Like a... brother. I... I can't... risk..." She squeezed her eyes shut like she was in pain. What are you doing?! You're making it worse, you moron!

"Well then..." Cayden held out his arms questioning and let them drop to his sides, turning around and continuing to walk away from Brigid.

Brigid turned her head. "I-I'm sorry, Cayden." In a much softer voice, she mumbled, "I... I... love..."

Cayden just kept walking and he rubbed his eyes, annoyed at both Brigid and himself. I can never figure out that gir-... woman out.

 

[Alzdude28]

Two of a Feather

XSDF Battleship Einherjar
Bar
1348 hours

Wolfe sat at the bar, weary from his training. Ahhh... At least there isn't anyone that can bother me. I can finally relax... Somewhat. Wolfe thought, opening one of his eyes to survey the busy bar. It was fairly busy, most of the booths were occupied, with people being either very belligerent or very quiet. Wolfe his attention back to the bar. Perhaps a few drinks could cheer me up. Wolfe called to the bartender, who was busy with another person’s order. Wolfe closed his eyes and waited for the drink.

As he waited, a figure dragged themselves through the doorway, and trudged to the bar. Al had just been allowed out of the infirmary for the first time since Operation Old Enemy, and he was not having a good day, but then again, that was no different to every other day since then. He reached the bar, and leaned his left arm on the counter, while his right sleeve hung loose and empty. “Rum. Quickly. Leave the bottle.”

Wolfe looked up at the big figure. Eh, maybe he’ll leave me alone… Wolfe thought, But I should say something at the very least. Wolfe glanced at the empty sleeve, realizing that the drake had been in immense pain. Wolfe immediately asked, while pointing at the missing limb,“So, Bullets, lasers, plasma, or grenades?”

Al’s head snapped around to look down at Wolfe. “Plasma. Now fuck off and let me drink.” He turned his face away again and shouted at the barman to hurry up.

Wolfe’s eyes narrowed. “Stop being an asshole. You got hurt. Shit happens. Deal with it and stop taking your frustration out on other people.” Wolfe said, receiving his drink from the bartender. “Right now, I’m probably the only one who knows how you feel.” Wolfe said, raising his T1 arm. “Three plasma bursts to the arm. Melted most of it off. Had to have surgery on the remains of the arm, two days later.”

Al regarded the cybernetic arm. “Shit… Maybe I was a little harsh.” He paused briefly as he received his drink. “Have we met? I don’t remember you… Name’s Al. Soldier, or at least I was before I had this blown off.” He indicated his arm, then took a drink.

Wolfe’s expression softened. “No, we haven’t met. Name’s Thomas. Medic for Greyhound squad. So, was it recent or did it happen awhile ago?” The big man asked, taking a sip from his glass.

“Couple of weeks ago. When we were at Progressus.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Talk about a coming home gift...”

“It isn’t much, but from one amputee to another, I’m sorry. The Docs will probably give you a new arm, but it won’t be quite the same.” Thomas said apologetically. Lifting his glass, Thomas said “Toasts, for surviving in the face of danger.

In spite of himself, Al smiled a little. “Cheers.” He raised his glass as well, then drank. “So when did you lose yours?”

Wolfe took a sip from his own drink, then lifted his ‘robo-arm’, “25 years ago, during the War. Hurt like hell.” The medic said. He then thought of something to ask. “Do you belong to a squad?” Wolfe asked.

“Tell me about it…” Al said, wincing slightly. “They took me off the morphine a few days ago…” He refilled his glass and drank again. “I’m with the White Wolves, although I haven’t been out on ops with them yet. The sooner I can get a prosthetic the better…”

“Yeah...although when you first get it, it’ll feel weird to you. Trust me, it took a couple of weeks ‘till I got used to my robo-arm.” Thomas said, finishing his drink. “Although, when they either put it back on or take it off, you’ll feel the pain you felt when you first lost your limb. That’s the only downside to the cybernetic arms. Personally, you’ll get used to it before long, so don’t worry.” The big man said.

“Anything must be better than the sense of helplessness. I’ve always relied on my two hands. Always. Makes me realise how much better off the alpha’s are with four… Bastards…” He trailed off slightly, taking yet another drink.

Wolfe chuckled “That’s true. I went on to be an emergency surgeon for anyone who needed it, before I had this arm. It sucks when you lose your dominant hand, more so when it’s your entire arm.” Wolfe paused to take a drink, realizing that he had run dry. Thomas looked around the bar but the barkeep was nowhere to be seen.

Thomas then said, “Well, the only thing that currently sucks more than not having a real arm, is when the barkeep disappears. Wait… I think I know how to get him back.” Wolfe turned and shouted “Perhaps I should get Jelani to find the barkeep!” The barkeep emerged a moment later with a look of worry on his face. “Hey, bartender, can you bring me a bottle of white wine? The brand doesn’t matter.” The barkeep turned and went to find a bottle.

Al looked confused at this. “Who’s Jelani, and what does the barkeep have against them? He certainly didn’t look too happy when you mentioned that name…”

Wolfe smiled, “Jelani is a member of the Greyhounds and the reason why the barkeep doesn’t like Jelani, is because he constantly came here and drank a crapton of booze. During the founding of the Greyhound, Jelani was probably the first to be drunk,” The big man paused and chuckled. “After that Jelani kept coming to the bar and would regularly drink enough alcohol to kill a...well, anything. However, about a week ago, Jelani punched someone during his stupor and was kicked out of the bar. His name should still make most of the bartenders cringe. Although, for the most part, he’s sobered up now and now goes to see the psychiatrist for alcoholism. Dr...uhh...Summer? April? Winter? Anyways, that’s why.” Wolfe finished, receiving the bottle and a glare from the bartender.

“Sounds like he had something to prove.” said Al, laughing. “I’ll have to remember the name, it looks like a pretty effective way to get service here!” As he spoke, he poured another serving into his glass, his hand shaking a little.

“Smart...Drake. Well, I got to go. Got to get some rest. See you, Al.” Wolfe said, standing up and then turned towards the bar’s exit. He proceeded to leave the bar, leaving Al his unopened bottle.

 

[ZombieSplitter53]

Feline Curiosity

0900

This One wakes up early, but mistress is already gone. She does that a lot, and this One does not like it. How can Dinah watch the mistress this way? This One does not know.

0930

This One finds her in the work area of the human Nick. She says she did not wake Dinah because Dinah looked 'cute'. She gives this One extra treats to say sorry.

This One watches her work on the smaller Alice. She has a smile while she works. This One does not understand why she must hide. She says she is like machines, but Dinah only sees Alice. But others are different. Human said she was object before, and tried to take the mistress. He did not taste good. This One wonders if they could put the human's hand back on.

Mistress Alice doesn't like it when Dinah hurts humans, but Dinah must. Mistress Sunny said mistress Alice is mine to protect. No one can hurt her.

1100

Mistress Alice tells Dinah not to follow human Streczyk, so this One only watches in place called 'Bridge'. Is not bridge, though. Only room with machines and chairs and a big window.

Human Streczyk is strong. She talks, and all listen. Seems unhappy, though. Never smiles. Maybe she can not, like Dinah. But this One likes watching her. Is powerful. Is leader. This One does not want to hurt her... but will protect mistress Alice.

Human Frederick is with her on this bridge. Is not as strong. Talks calmly. But smiles. Mistress Alice trusts him. But I can not. Human Frederick can hurt her.

1200

Lunch is good. Mistress Alice finds Dinah fish called 'Salmon'. This One likes salmon. Want to do nice thing for mistress, so go to watch human Nick. He talks to metal ball. Metal ball is weird, but pushes Nick. This One is pleased. Nick hurts Alice by hurting self. Metal ball tells him not to hurt self. This is good.

1300

This One enjoys nice nap. Dinah sees Mistress Sunny in sleep. She is smiling.

1500 Hours

Can not watch Baʒir. Big female and big male know when this One is close. Can see Dinah, even when they should not see Dinah. Baʒir know mistress's secret. Dangerous.

1600 Hours

This One is given new toy by the mistress. Makes funny noises when it is touched. Dinah enjoys the new toy a lot. Will play with many times.

1800 Hours

Dinner is yummy chicken meal. Extra gravy. Dinah goes to find little human Brigid. Brigid does not like this One's kind. Was hurt. This One talks with her. Brigid says Dinah is different. This One does not know how. Will ask later. For now, this One does the 'work out' with Brigid. It is fun.

2100 Hours

Is time for sleep. This One had a good day today. Learned many things. Mistress Alice is safe. Will play with new toy again tomorrow.

 

[BMPixy]

“Unforgivable Sin”
Einherjar Hangar D
0703 Hours Local; March 4th, 2044 / 49.3136
Aboard the Sifari Malasa

Tak-sharu flicked his whiskers as he paced before Osahar, the obvious sign of annoyance and disapproval from the consul a stark contrast to the other Seikron’s perfect posture. Only the ferocity in Osahar’s eyes gave any hint that she bore any emotion, and Tak-sharu gave the mental equivalent of a sigh. Now or never… he thought, coming to a slow stop by one of the bulkheads, resting an arm against it and slightly leaning upon it for support.

“You... “ Tak-sharu began, but he slowly trailed off as he tried to determine the right way to say this, his hind leg scraping at the floor idly. “Do you have any idea how hard you make my job?” Upon hearing no reply, Tak-sharu decided to continue. “I mean seriously, do you have any idea how difficult you make it? Always spouting off slurs about any xenos who might be in earshot, publicly wishing that we had gone to war with the Humiliatia, striking a member of the XSDF and calling their psionically induced betrayal ‘inevitable’, dearly offending a person with high connections in the Humiliatia government whom I was trying to gain links with… Does your foolishness know no bounds, Osahar cin Ankhor ya Badka?”

“I only say what I feel is right,” Osahar replied, masking her wrothful tone with neutrality as best as she could. “If they are offended, that is their own issue.”

“Hell to you, Osahar!” Tak-sharu spat, turning to face the soldier. “I care not of whether or not you feel it ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, all I ask is that you use that fore-brain your file claims is so well-developed for three accursed ticks and show a little bit of tact when speaking, especially when I am not around to resolve any misunderstandings!”

“Oh? You would have me make niceties to the xenos I’ve spent my entire life training to fight!? The ones that slaughtered untold billions of our kind, and exiled us amongst the stars?” Osahar shot back, her posture slackening as she stood to her full height. “Because I cannot sense as to how you would say such a thing with that tier of ease.”

Tak-sharu stepped to face Osahar, slamming his forehead against hers. Using his superior height to push down on Osahar, Tak-sharu retorted, “Osahar, the Ahumishino Melile began over three thousand Sonada ago! Your ancestors sixty generations back were not even alive to remember it! There will be no war of vengeance, there will be no justice for the dead, it is over!”

These words, combined with the dominating pressure of Tak-sharu’s size, caused Osahar to withdraw back slightly. “H-how.. how dare you…” she gasped breathlessly, shooting a glare of such intensity at Tak-sharu that - were it weaponized - it could annihilate a small moon.

“That is a fact of the world we live in, Osahar-ba,” Tak-sharu replied, the MEC trooper’s withdrawal encouraging him to press further. “No longer is it one where we can achieve our goals through warfare. Perhaps it never was that way. But, regardless, you need to learn to function in this new world, lest you cause me any further harm in my goals.”

“Oh? And how exactly do you plan to do this?” Osahar asked, a bit of confidence returning to her voice, prompting her to push Tak-sharu back slightly.

“Even if I am not of your caste, Osahar-ba, I am still your superior,” Tak-sharu said. “As such, I have the authority to punish you for your… behavior. In fact, I would be remiss to not enforce some kind of punishment upon you for your actions.” Releasing his pressure upon Osahar, Tak-sharu stepped back slightly, folding his arms in front of him. “As such, your punishment shall be as follows: you are not permitted aboard the Sifari Malasa for any purpose besides retrieving food, resting, and performing maintenance upon your cybersuit. For the entire remaining portion of the day, you shall spend it among the crew of this ship. At the end of the Sonada, I shall examine your progress, and from there determine whether or not it is fit to lift these restrictions.”

“Y-you seriously wish to inflict those… xenos upon me?” Osahar sputtered, her voice displaying a mixture of shock and confusion. “What prevents me from simply hiding away in a corner and not causing any incidents for this time?”

“If you want to transfer away from the consulate,” Tak-sharu explained, standing tall and flicking his whiskers agitatedly, “your paperwork must first go through me for approval. Should you not have made any progress towards becoming a more tolerant individual, you can expect to remain on Forseti for the duration of your deployment career, along with a permanent black mark upon your record.”

Osahar’s cheeks flushed a deep shade of amber, as she struggled to find words. “Very… very well…” she growled as the color faded. “I assume these restrictions are in place immediately?”

“Yes,” Tak-sharu replied, relaxing slightly. “You are dismissed.” With a wave of the consul’s hand, Osahar turned slightly, and made her way down towards the docking ramp, her posture rigid once more. After a long moment passed, Tak-sharu let out a long and steady groan, running his forearm along the side of his neck in exasperation. Well, here’s to hoping she takes this chance I’m offering her… he thought, closing his eyes to try and relieve some of the stress. If not, I might be the one filing transfer paperwork...