RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 4-L] - My Head Explodes

"O-Oh you mean my LEAF?" Seiren said, not even looking back at Allison. "Between the overload and the explosion and the radiation, I don't think it's going to run ever again. K-kinda sad, huh? I've had it since my first real mission with Luca, you know?"

It was hard to gauge the inventor. Did he just not know about Rebeka? Was he purposefully avoiding the subject? Was he trying to act like she didn't just die, or was holding out for some sliver of hope? His face bore nothing more than a nervous smile.

"Yes please," he warily replied to Allison and tipped his hat before grasping her hand. He looked nervously at Seiren, the little guy looked pretty beat up but alive. "Damn," he replied to Seiren's mention of the LEAF, "we lost a good portion of our firepower today. The Havoc is pretty busted up, too. When you're back on your feet, perhaps you can convince Luca to use the parts for something."

The Cowboy took a look around the battlefield. The dust was finally settling and all he could see for acres was destruction. A now charred, desolate plain with burning trees rimming the land. They had really done a number on the place.

Kennewes, a scorched earth
"I-I'm sure we'll fix it." Allison tried to reassure Seiren, as best as she could in dire times. "We ... we can ... we can - have the tools ..." She was looking into the Crimson Kestrel's hangar, through the back wall and at the cargo bay and workshops. Maybe being there and working on something would bring her some peace - she just had to keep doing what she knew best, and maybe she could forget everything that happened here - things would be better again. Right?

She broke down and started whimpering into the inventor's shoulder, putting her weight on him as she wailed in the stillness of the battlefield.

In the hangar, the robotic form of Echelon materialised behind Vita, kneeling down and appearing to whisper something into her ear. Vita's eyes grew wide as she learned something she didn't want to hear. The Kestrel came too close to getting destroyed. The Freespacer had vengeance on their mind as she gazed at Luca with Zeta whilst the destroyed vehicles were being towed in.

The shattered form of Rebeka and her WINTER first in, laid down in the Cargo Bay, with Seiren's LEAF laying just across from it. The Norris was able to keep chugging along until it stopped inside the hangar, and the engine cut out for good. The Havoc was the last thing inside, lifted and towed in by Moonsong.

Luca couldn't call the shots on what to do next in his state, so it fell to Echelon, the next in command. "3V3RY0N3, P1L3 1N WH3N R34DY." She yelled over the battlefield and over everyone's communications, provided they were still in working order. "1 H4V3 T0 RUN TH3 D3BR13F. Z3T4," she pointed at the blonde, "G3T LUC4 1ND00RS 4ND 0N 4 L1TT3R, QU1CK." She turned around and headed back inside, into the cargo bay and over a particular section of the floor, which looked like any other section of the floor.

Underneath, however was the Kestrel's stash spot, a place no scanner could touch, and no signal could reach into - or out of, in this case. Before anyone got deeper into the ship, she pressed a hidden latch in a seam on the floor and felt leverage, lifting the concealed door open and gazing inside at the broken occupant within as Echelon smouldered.

"1'LL B3 B4CK." She growled, slamming the trapdoor and locking it. The compartment was dark again, the thud ringing in Aiesu's ears after silent isolation. Echelon made her way to the lounge, with all the loose ends tied up for the moment.

Seiren trudged out of the Norris in a near-zombified state, looking straight forward. Not looking at his precious machine. Not looking at her. Or anybody else. He just walked to the lounge, mumbling to himself.

"Why did I think a spice bomb would be helpful? Why would that ever work for anything? What kind of idiot am I? Honestly, cinnamon's only good for lungs but if there's nobody around to breathe it all it does is create a mess. They probably don't even have computer fans to be clogged in that place. . ."

Makari trudged in shortly after Seiren, with Luca's state in limbo and having lost quite a bit of firepower, he was weary of what the team was going to do next. "Where's a litter? If you'd grab one end, Zeta, I'll grab the other and we can get the bossman to medical ASAP." He figured having Zeta help carry Luca would quell her fears and keep her mind off of how hurt the boss really was.

Zeta carried Luca to Vita. She looked down on the ground, not really sure what to say to the young girl. Zeta did not protect her dad properly once again. Once again, she was pretty much okay and her was heavily injured. Zeta sighed.

"He'll be allright." Zeta said simply and walked past, heading for the medbay.

Crimson Kestrel, Cargo Bay/Hangar

As the rest of the crew filtered into the open bay of the grounded Crimson Kestrel, Tamamo set to work with Moonsong, coaxing, shoving, and dragging the bulk of the Havok toward, and up the ramp into the Kestrel's cargo bay. It wasn't an overly dignified job, however it was necessary. After a particularly unpleasant couple of minutes of sliding the protesting heavy frame of the Havok across the floor of the Kestrel's cargo bay, the Norris also necessarily shifted with a similarly unpleasant cacophony of screeching metal sliding on metal, both of the tanks were clear of the ramp, and save for a few pieces of the Havok's tracks that would be soon swallowed up by the Kennewesian forest all of their assets were aboard.

Sending a brief message to Echelon to indicate that everything was on board, Tamamo set about the trick task of returning Moonsong to her fighter configuration in the relatively tight space of the Crimson Kestrel's cargo bay. As Moonsong came to rest upon her landing gear, worse only a few scuffs to her paint job, Tamamo set about pulling free her medical kit and Fatboy as the opaque canopy cracked open. With her weapon and samples slung over her shoulders Tamamo hopped lightly to the ground before scurrying across the floor toward the medical bay, pointedly avoiding glancing at the spot where the smuggler's cache was hidden. In the medbay she'd be putting in some work to keep Luca, and her samples stable while she attended the debriefing, there was much to do, she doubted much would remain the same after this mission.

Crimson Kestrel, Medbay

Filtering into the medbay, Tamamo gave a cursory glance to Zeta near where Luca's injured form lay on the relatively more comfortable cot. Setting her medkit down, Tamamo took a moment to root through the supply cabinets retrieving an IV bag of hemosynth, and set aside a cannister of Endurance, assuming that it might be handy for when he woke up. Trotting over to Luca's prone form Tamamo slipped past Zeta in silence and efficiently set up the hemosynth drip to start to replenish what Luca had lost on the battlefield, it wasn't much, but given that the Captain was still breathing, his condition could only improve being sleeved in a relatively fresh minkan body. With a final glance to Zeta, Tamamo collected her medkit turned sample bag once more and set off in search of the 'debriefing' curious as to what Echelon had to say, and how it would compare to what she had already been told about the events that occurred on the Crimson Kestrel.

Zeta sat in the medbay, she could not do much anymore for Luca. Luckily Tamamo arrived and provided Luca with much needed care. Zeta just stood there leaning against the wall, with grim expression on the face. She watched Tamamo work and did not say anything until the neko was done. Zeta than proceeded to grab a chair and pull it by Luca's bed. The blonde woman sat there and grabbed Luca's hand.

"Thank you," Zeta said as Tamamo was leaving.

As Zeta walked by, he simply shrugged. He figured he would help if he could but oh well. Makari headed to his room for a quick shower. After that, the common area to await the debrief.

Crimson Kestrel, Medbay

As Zeta spoke, Tamamo paused in the doorway of the medbay. Tipping her head back and looking over her shoulder the small Nekovalkyrja watched the Nepleslian woman, studying her for a moment in silence before speaking up, "There is no need to thank me. Though I appreciate it." Unable to think of anything to add to the awkward response Tamamo held Zeta in her indirect gaze for a moment longer before setting off into the ship quiet footsteps fading away.

Fussing with the strap of her medkit, and adjusting her hold on the Fatboy she still carried Tamamo considered what she had done and the response that it had earned from the Nepleslian woman. She supposed she would have to figure out what it really meant later. For now she wanted answers, and answers meant finding Echelon.

Crimson Kestrel, Hangar
Echelon surveyed the landscape and made another head check. Everyone, and the remains of their vehicles were accounted for. Seeing that everyone was in, and their gear was accounted for. Mostly. She could see the vacant stares of the people moving in as they tried to make sense.

"R1GHT. T1M3 T0 C4LL 1T L1K3 1T 1S." Echelon mumbled to herself as she watched the hangar doors close through the Kestrel's cameras. She walked over the place where the interloper was being kept in storage, metal footsteps thumping above. Her fingers brushed against the metal coffin that was shaped by the intense heat and quenched in blood. The sourcian's blood. "N0B0DY FUCKS W1TH MY SH1P, 4ND W4NTS T0 L1V3."

She made had to make the debrief. It wasn't purely because the chains of command fell to her iron grips. She had to make a statement. It was personal.

♫ Sjellos - Chamber of Reflections ♫


Crimson Kestrel, Mess Hall
"T34M. T0D4Y, W3 W3R3 4MBUSH3D, BL00D13D, 4ND 0N3 0F US H4S B33N D3F34T3D." Echelon was not going to mince facts, putting her hands down on the table and looking through those assembled and their broken eyes. The team had taken a serious loss in personnel, and equipment. Worse still, it was all of the collateral damage and the mental toll it took on the others. The Phoenix team had not suffered such a devastating loss in open battle before. Fortunately, there was no reason the publicise this entire incident, to cast stain on the image of the ISC Phoenix. The only people who'd know would be them.

"LUC4 W0N'T B3 4BL3 T0 M4K3 TH1S D3BR13F." Echelon stated plainly, bringing up an image of his current medical condition. A 3D facsimile of his body showed just how much damage he'd taken. "H3'S T00 CUT UP 4ND 1'M N0T SUR3 1F H1S M1ND'S G01NG T0 M4K3 1T. M34NWH1L3 R3B3K4'S ST4T3 1S UNKN0WN." The remains of Rebeka's WINTER-II appeared on screen. They were still laying there on an empty section of floor in the cargo hold, and it was still.

"TH3 0NLY P3RS0N C4P4BL3 0F F1GUR1NG 1T 0UT, M4YB3 G3TT1NG H3R B4CK T0 L1F3 ... 1S 4LS0 0UR PR1M3 SUSP3CT F0R TH1S D3B4CL3." Echelon sounded like she was about to snap somebody's neck. Usually Luca's more even-keeled personality would keep her murderous urges in check but there was no such check or balance now. "FR0M TH1S P01NT F0RW4RD, 413SU K4LOPS14 1S UND3R MY P3RM4N3NT SURV31L4NC3, 4ND 1 W1LL S3V3R 0UR T13S W1TH TH3 L4Z4RUS C0NS0RT1UM 4ND TH31R P1SS1NG C0NT3ST. 1 H4V3 L3V3R4G3 0N H3R WH1CH C4N M0V3 4 M0UNT14N."

A hoarse sigh before she continued, though she didn't need to breathe. "4ND 1 W1LL W4LK B4CKW4RDS THR0UGH H3LL 4ND K1LL TH3 B1TCH S0FTLY MYS3LF." She balled a fist in front of the others. "N0T TH3 R0M-C0NSTRUCT H3R3 - 1'M JUST G01NG T0 BR34K H3R F0R SH1TS, BUT H3R. H3R." She slammed it into the table - a fissure appearing down the middle and making everything on the table jump. "S0M3 SP0TTY F4C3D L0N3R WH0 C4N'T T0L3R4T3 D3V14T0NS FR0M 4NY0N3 - 3V3N H3RS3LF."

She knew how the cold application of power tasted, when aetheric warheads tore her home apart, and her speech was becoming ... spirited, emotional, sanguine, absolutely batshit fucking pissed off. "L3ND1NG P0W3R 4ND R3S0URC3S SH3 C4NN0T H0P3 T0 C0NTR0L T0 TH0S3 WH0 W1LL B3 C0NSUM3D BY 1T - 1N H3R PL4C3. 0N3 D4Y 1T W1LL D3STR0Y H3R, 4ND 1 4M FUCK1NG N3M3S1S!"

"1 4M PUPP3TM1STR3SS 3CH3L0N S3V3N TW0, 31GHT Z3R0 Z3R0 THR33, S1X TW0 S3V3N 0N3! Y0U!" She pointed to the back of the room. Nobody was there. Was she wrapped in delirium, toeing the line between coherence and madness? "4R3 D1SM1SS3D! 4 P4RT1NG TH0UGHT! D0 W3 H4V3 TH3 P0W3R T0 N0T L3T P0W3R C0NTR0L US?" When she got up, the table broke in half, and she moved through the lounge and towards the elevator down. "1'M G01NG T0 T3LL 413SU H0W W3 F33L 4ND M4K3 H3R W0RK F0R US, F0R R3B3K4." She knew it'd be the first thing Luca would order from his bed - he wanted his outsider back, even from the hospital bed he wanted it - everybody did, Seiren especially.

For her years aboard the Phoenix, nobody had come to know Echelon's full name. Everyone had just called her 'Echelon', 'Ech', or 'Echie'. Now she had numbers and a title: Puppetmistress Seven-Two, 8003-6271. Maybe she regarded her new identity aboard the Phoenix as a playful charade all these years, the name stuck and nobody really bothered to look beyond the whimsical and at times menacing artificial intelligence.

After all, Freespacers were pacifists and mostly harmless, right? This was a whole new level of rage they'd witnessed, primeval in Freespacer history's The Art of Never Again. There was a reason it was never to be repeated. Allison was speechless, she'd never seen Echelon like this in her life, and it was terrifying. She was the first to leave on the verge of tears, retreating to engineering and locking herself in.

Crimson Kestrel, Mess Hall

She had run into Echelon on her search and had trailed the visibly angered Freespacer into the Kestrel's mess hall where it turned out the debriefing was to be held. Things began quickly and it seemed that Echelon wasn't going to waste time sugar coating their circumstances with both Luca, and Rebeka's present status being made very plain to the crew. There was no patience in Echelon's metal form, and the anger was beginning to show more and more, almost like someone was hurriedly opening a tap, increasing the flow until it was almost a torrent.

While she listened Tamamo was notably blank. Those who had spent any amount of time around her would have been quick to catch that her surprised looking expression was just how she looked, absent were the well intentioned, if awkward attempts at emoting that she usually displayed. Were she the one about to be interrogated pause might have been given to the inquisitor. Despite her lack of apparent reaction much was going on in the small girl's mind. As it stood Aiesu, and the Consortium by extension had betrayed the ISC Phoenix and their crew. Why? Combat data? Was it an attempt to remove a threat that had failed? Or had it succeeded? It didn't matter. They had nearly killed Koa.

The first introduction to Echelon's true name was also a noteworthy event, while Tamamo couldn't honestly say that she was integrated into Freespacer culture, she had always found it odd that Echelon was simply Echelon. It failed to follow the precedent set by all other examples that Tamamo had encountered. Now she was named, now there was further insight. Though the insight paled beside the rage, and... Deep hurt. That was the answer supplied. What was about to follow next was important, especially important to Tamamo, though she had a feeling hovering wouldn't do her much good.

With a glance to the broken table Tamamo was quick to evacuate the Mess Hall upon Echelon's departure, her mind reaching out digitally even as her body relocated itself grasping at information that she lacked, and until this point had never been useful to her. It was time to become a xenobiologist, thankfully there was already a pool of knowledge in place. The fruit of civilization, centuries of refined knowledge that she could access at but a thought. First to the Med Bay again.

Crimson Kestrel, Med Bay

Tamamo gave only a cursory glance to Luca's injured form, making sure he was still breathing, before starting to dig through the medical supplies, collecting the preliminary resources she'd need. The rest she would craft with her tools near home. Even so she was stripping out quite a few things from the Kestrel's medical area. At least she would know where the were, should she need them for someone else.

Twitching her ears, a second bag of supplies joining her original kit, Tamamo set off once more hurrying down the hall to the Cargo Bay, and her Crate.

Crimson Kestrel, Cargo Bay

Padding across the floor, Tamamo had a difficult time avoiding the sight of Echelon as she advanced toward the cache that Tamamo refused to look at. There would be a time for addressing that. That time was not now. Instead Tamamo had to begin to learn, learn what, and who Rebeka had been. Learn from what had been left behind. Sealing herself into her cargo crate, Tamamo gave a small wave to Koa's still stationary form and started to unpack. This mission had proved to be an end, but in other ways it would be a beginning... Like new growth after a forest fire, another supplied thought.

Time to grow.

Crimson Kestrel, Mess Hall

Zeta stood back, leaned against the wall as the so called de-briefing went on. She listened, but she was also deep in thought as well. It was good to hear that Zeta was not the only one to not trust Aiesu anymore. Though Zeta was the first one to say that Consortium people cannot be trusted and it looked like she was right. If anything was to happen now, Zeta wanted to be there. She linked the med-computer in medbay to ping her should Luca's state change.

As the de-briefing was over Zeta walked up to Echelon and looked at the freespacer. It looked like that Ech was one to run the show now and Zeta was not against it.

"Hey," she said simly and lit a cigarette. No time to change, she was still in her body armour, all messed up and bloody. "I want to be there when you question that Lazarus thing. I promise I won't break anything of hers, Luca would not approve. But I wanna be there to speak my mind as well."

Seiren disappeared somewhere midway into the debriefing. To the observant individual, it was about the time Rebeka's husk came onscreen. The inventor was. . . not doing so well. Like a jawbreaker stuck in a microwave, he looked perfectly fine on the surface, but on the inside all the different layers of the situation heated at different rates.

And that's when he saw it. Sitting against the wall in some forgotten corner; a metal bat, presumably for playing games of sport with. Seiren wasn't sure why it looked so nice, or why it settled into his grip so perfectly. Or when it even came into his grasp. But it seemed that he and it were made for eachother.

His hands went white-knuckled. And he disappeared into the recesses of the ship.

Crimson Kestrel, Hallways
"SUR3, C0M3 4L0NG 1F Y0U W4NT. B3 4 FLY 0N TH3 W4LL." Echelon replied to Zeta as she headed towards the elevator, but her body language seemed markedly reserved about it. "BUT 1'V3 G0T 4 V3ND3TT4, 4ND 1TS B3TW33N US."

Zeta would've understood from Freespacers that harming a Freespacer's home ship was tantamount to bringing war. Echelon was in absolutely no way fucking around when it came to the topic of what to do with Aiesu. "M3 F1RST, TH3N Y0U C4N S4Y Y0UR P13C3." She outlined. "1F Y0U 4R3NT F33L1NG G4M3 T0 W4TCH, CH3CK 0N S31R3N. H3 S33M3D UPS3T. DUNN0 WH3R3 H3 W3NT." With that, the elevator came by, and it took her down to the Cargo Bay.


Crimson Kestrel, A Dark Place
The absense of light was playing hell to Aiesu's senses. Poor night vision couldn't see a thing in the confines of the smuggler's hole on the Crimson Kestrel, bathing her in total blackness. Her hearing, however, was sharp as a tack, still. She could hear footsteps pitter pattering around now. It'd been ... about half an hour since she was put in that miserable hole, and about fifteen minutes ago, her jailor had paid a visit.

A digital clock in her mind's eye keeping the time for her, preventing her from getting carried away with guessing, since the biology wrapped about her synthetics - filled with dread, insisted it had been hours, maybe even days. She held her objectivity. To stand in two minds like this, out of synchronization was not pleasant - eerie at best.

♫ Vladimír Godár - Ecce Puer ♫

Cold comfort when she heard familiar, heavy metal footfalls approaching. It seemed like Echelon was making good on her promise.

"1'LL B3 B4CK."

Click to expand...

A steam of light poured in, from an edge she thought was actually the bottom corner of the hideaway, lying against the wall disoriented as her eyes adjusted to the now flood of white starship-grade lighting. A gangly, severe, and jagged humanoid shadow came into view, looking down with a blazing red eye - the fine details shimmering in as Aiesu's eyes begun to contract and take in less light. Why, it was Echelon.

"G3T UP." She said, a loosely veiled threat that she'd do it for her.

Her biology didn't want to move, a soft mumble of her synthetic bones moving, forcing her legs and spine to behave as asked, lifting her to her feet. It took her a moment to compose herself, to look Eclehlon in the eyes. Her own were ragged, red and raw but her stare was steely and heavy. Breath slow. Calm. But she wasn't out of the box yet; Aiesu had to drag herself out of it. Echelon's metal feet anchored to the floor, and her efforts thus far were met with silence, and nary a trace of movement.

Her hands met the edge. Shoulders winding up as she lifted herself to sit on its edge. Feet back. Lifting knees. It all hurt, but she had to make do, a slow whine of motors fighting seized muscle as her feels met the floor, standing before Echelon, wiping her eyes with her wrist, then her nose. Aiesu's hands searched her pockets, first her chest, then lower down before reaching to one side, taking her glasses from the edge of the hole, having set them aside to avoid crushing them on her way out in her fingertips: slowly setting the pair back onto the bridge of her nose. Cerise, watching through cracked lenses. And she waited.

No praise as crimson burned down at her, the light bent into a funny series of angles through the shattered lenses - a long metal arm crossing into view and clamping on her shoulder, pushing her through the cargo bay, between large containers of equipment and materials towards the hangar-side of the storage area.

A square of the area was cordoned off with tape, and a gentle sizzling noise could still be heard before Aiesu saw what it was, even half an hour since contact. An invasive scent of twisted metal, nano-materials baked stiff and had when normally gelatine, ionised air sharp like the moments before rainfall, and sickly sickening sweetness like burnt caramel made Aiesu's nose wrinkle and the glands in her jaw ache painfully - and she knew exactly who Echelon was taking her to - well, what was left of them anyway.

Echelon pulled the tape up and pushed Aiesu behind it to look at the blackened sarcophagus of silvery metal for herself, stains of white and ochre laced across it and oozing at fragile seams. Heat radiated, the air appearing to wobble and dance around it, making Aiesu's eyes water. There was someone in there who had given their life for the Phoenix's survival.

♫ Vladimír Godár - Záhrada VII. (Emeleia) ♫

She watched the thing, pinned down by tape, lifted on some emergency support truss usually used for fighters or small craft. Tight cables pinning it down. The ground painted white with some preserve, to content chemical contamination as the same honeyed liquid bubbled and oozed like breath, sopping and steaming in the cool air. While the liquid moved, whatever inside appeared to be in the last throes of life.

"TH1S 1S Y0UR H4ND1W0RK." Echelon minced no words.

"You're irrational. Angry. No amount of explaining is going to make you understand what happened," Aiesu pushed her glasses up her nose she sighed, as if this had happened before, grief wet in her throat. Even so, her indigence and self-righteousness; all as if she knew better and was above all this, was just the worst. It cost her - a metal hand shot forward and wrapped around Aiesu's skull, pinning her against the burning thing with a thump.

"Y0U 4R3 1N N0 P0S1T10N T0 B4RG41N. D0 N0T F0RG3T MY L3V3R4G3."

"...As if I wouldn't have written off this construct months ago, if I'd been able to," Aiesu's eyes slowly moved. A very clear detachment, from the person who'd been trying to compose themselves, wobbling with every step moments ago. Echelon knew that the body and the mind here weren't lining up.

"B1G W0RDS. Y0U C0ULD H4V3, Y0U H4V3N'T. 1F Y0U R34LLY W4NT3D T0, Y0U C0ULD H4V3 L1K3 TH4T, W1TH 4 Q-M0D3M." Echelon pointed out, in that simple, straightforward way. "Y0U H4V3 B33N W41T1NG F0R 4 M0M3NT WH3R3 W3 R3V34L 4LL, 4ND 1T H4S TURN3D 0N Y0U." She peeled Aiesu away from the hull of the WINTER-II, leaving a burnt layer of skin behind. "Y0UR 4RR0G4NC3 H4S M4D3 4 HUG3 D3BT, 4ND D03S Y0U N0 F4V0URS N0W."

"Its just as well, really. I'm already hunted. Already compromised." she sighed, eyes aside in thought. Her teeth were visible, where her skin had been scalded, bubbled, raised and pulled away by the hot metal. Each rowed, before sealing to form her lips, pulled and ripped in one corner as she began shaking once more.

Cold words through clenched teeth as if all this were some inconvenience, trite and small in the scale of the world she dealt with; "The only reason I haven't wiped this thing is your interference, Freespacer. I'm charmed you want me around."

In that moment, it was clear the construct was still thinking of itself as an instrument. Of somebody elses fingers. Addressing itself within its own mind in the third person.

"1 PR3F3R TH3 T3RM 'PULL1NG S3CUR1TY'." Echelon had heard the word from Luca occasionally, and on the InterNEP. "Y3S. Y0U 4R3 0F US3 T0 US Y3T, UNF0RTUN4T3LY."

"An oversight, but one that's entirely manageable. It'll be interesting, you know? When the two of us really meet."

An oversight that you're vaguely competent and functioning. Echelon considered bitterly. "L3T M3 SP3LL 0UT Y0UR N3XT T4SK, TH3N, D0C." She swept her hand across Rebeka's fallen form.

The construct smiled, decidedly smug as if amused by the prospect before Echelon even began speaking.

"Y0U KN0W WH4T Y0U MUST D0, 1F 1'V3 B0UGHT Y08 H3R3, 4ND TH3 R3W4RD W1LL B3 ... FR33D0M."

Odd choice of words.

"You must really like me. You don't have a fetish, do you? Not like... What was her name? The one that followed you incessantly, like a puppy. Gave you touch."

Echelon didn't dignify that with a response. "N0. D0 N0T M1ST4K3 M3 B31NG 4R0UND Y0U F0R 4DM1R14T10N. Y0U D1SGUST M3. Y0U H4V3 SK1LLS 1 D0 N0T, S0 US3 TH3M."

"In my own time. Hands off, if you will."

"0N MY CL0CK, H4NDS 0N." Echelon deflected Aiesu's call for leniency. "TH3 F1RST TH1NG LUC4 4SK3D WH3N W3 B0UGHT H1M 1N W4S R3B3K4'S ST4T3. H3 C4R3S 3N0UGH T0 TR34T H3R 4S 4 P3RS0N, 4ND SH3 W4S GR0W1NG F0R TH3 B3TT3R F0R 1T." Only so much anger could be processed through 22Mhz. "Y0U 0NLY S33 H3R 4S 4 SC13NC3 F41R PR0J3CT FR0M 0UT3R SP4C3 - S0 L3T M3 4SK Y0U. D1D Y0U G3T TH3 R3SULTS Y0U W4NT3D?"

"D1D Y0U?" She repeated. "F1X H3R."

♫ Khachaturian - Gayane's Adagio ♫

"You know," Aiesu licked her lips, smiling faintly with a 'ha' of nostalgia on her breath. "...When we started... Shall we say dealing with her, she only had the one wish," she said, shifting now to eye the contents of the gutted near decapitated torso of the winter frame: a tall neck and a stump reaching deep into where a brain would be if the frame were a living thing, lacking a skull atop it which at this point would be a glorified mask for the delimbed knight.

Aiesu clicked her tongue, reaching into a pocket for altex gloves, slipping them on and making a few adjustments before handling the bare metal carefully, then some sort of tool. She withdrew five bolts, a headless hexagon from one side, then the other, teasing off a heavy plate of metametal, loosening her jaw in anticipation as it struck the floor: ringing with some long unnatural echo: nearly a whole six seconds of slow high pitched whine before the metal ceased vibrating and the windows, rattling.

"...I really... Really will never get used to that sound," she grunted, relief as it came to an end. She reached further, lifting something resembling the golden visor of a spaceman's helmet slowly upward, and then another, silver beneath it. Finally a clear one sat at the very bottom and beneath that, half of a very familiar face of one Rebeka Retana.

Behind its missing half, a cracked marble where a brain would be: like gemstone, cracked again and again and again.

Shattered. Then her eyes on the body. Organics still bubbling, hissing away without order or method like a cooking-pot.

Aiesu clicked her tongue in distaste, the same way only a doctor did, for shame.

"Some brain dead bigot for glory, if you'll believe it. She wanted to end for a cause she cared about."

And she cared about the Phoenix. "Y0U H4V3 Y0UR J0B." Echelon barked. "1'LL G3T TH3 M3DB4Y S3T UP 4ND TH3 DR0N3S W1LL TR4NSP0RT H3R."

"You know..." Aiesu turned her head, glancing back at Echelon, slowly turning herself until her eyes dead were on.

"I think its in poor taste you want to deprive her of her happy ending."

"LUC4 G4V3 UP 0N H1S. H3 C0ULD'V3 D1S4PP34R3D, 4ND Y3T, 3V3RY0N3 W4NT3D H1M B4CK." She narrowed her eye, camera aperture narrowing. "Y0U H4V3N'T S33N H0W D1STR4UGHT S31R3N 1S 0V3R R3B3K4. H3'S BR0K3N."

"Ka ka" Aiesu mimed a sound she'd seen on one of Seiren's cartoons, quite fond of the character that made the mimed laugh, usually followed by some long-winded haughty diatribe, a monologued charade about how whoever she as talking to was an idiot. Instead, she kept it to that, knowing the sound would speak for her.

Or rather it didn't: Then finally she spoke, voice low knowing it had gone over Echelon's head. Did she not even know this much about Seiren's preferences? His interests? Yet she spoke for him? Maybe she did, but the parallel Aiesu drew was simply offensive - trying to draw comparison with something he enjoyed to the anguish he felt. It didn't mesh at all.

"You really don't care about what other people want, do you? You just want to line up all the pieces the way you think they should be. And you think I'm the grand scheming puppet-master here?"

A grey blur swiped Aiesu across the head.

Several teeth bounced across the deck, milk alongside them.

Aiesu stared back, sour disappointment across her damaged face as if she'd expected something greater.

"Y0U'LL RUN FR0M TH1S 4T TH3 F1RST 0PP0RTUN1TY WH3N 1TS 0V3R." Echelon observed. "1 H4V3 N0 CH01C3 BUT T0 ST4Y."

"I'm marked. If I leave, I'm retired and for my crimes, it'll be a sadistic end lasting months. I can't reset myself and I can't choose to die." she huffed, wiping the white blood from her mouth with a pale hand. Again, like a disappointed grandparent she spoke with that young voice - revealing something to her about Echelon in that moment and what Echelon thought of her in turn: feeling now the missing teeth through the open burn where her cheek was meant to be on her left-side. It was earnest disappointment, having expected more of he.

"You didn't think I knew, did you?"

"1T W4S F0R Y0UR 0WN G00D. Y0U C4NN0T RUN FR0M Y0URS3LF."

She turned around and left Aiesu to fix a comrade. "WH3N Y0U, 4LL 1NST4NC3S 0F Y0U WH0 4R3, WH0 W3R3, 4ND W1LL B3 C4TCH UP T0 Y0U, TH3Y W1LL R1P Y0U 4P4RT."

She sounded like she'd made that mistake herself in a past life.

Aiesu motioned her arm, elbow up and round, holding her bicep - something she'd seen Nepleslian mechanics doing before a long haul: a sound like glass slowly cracking in her back as she did so, wincing: the winglet on the same side flexing.

"Well then. Its going to be a long night for both of us, isn't it?"

MISSION 4L - COMPLETE...

(Posting may continue as normal here. Post-4L Consequences thread will appear too.)