|
|
Post by Belle Starr on Sept 1, 2015 9:19:50 GMT
"God darn it Chase, you are totally out of control," Yelled Belle Starr to Chase Lonehart's back, her voice echoing in her head due to the gunshot being so close to her ear.
In fact, Belle had no hearing in her right ear, and that would be the case for at least several hours according to Alfred's estimations. With her enhanced hearing, the effect of having a gun shot that close to her ear was tenfold as painful as if she had been a normal person. Belle hoped Chase didn't know about her enhanced hearing, but felt that more likely he just didn't care, given his present mood. Chase had gone from being a dependable part of a well oiled machine to a loose gun in a matter of hours. Belle understood the reason for it, but couldn't have it on so critical a mission. If Taffer was right, and Lady was a dupe, than she needed to be rescued. If she was in truth a dangerous villain as she proclaimed and Chase believed, than she needed to be captured and imprisoned. For a cult like the Inquisition, killing her would make her a martyr, and probably be impetus for them to be even more ruthless.
"Holy crap on a stick, we are going to have to lock Chase up, probably in my old jail cell, until the rescue mission is over," Said Belle to no one in particular as she retrieved her Wolfhound from the floor, "I need a moment!"
Belle left the war room to the conference room down the hall. It had yet to be cleaned up since Lady's fatal battle with the Mistress of Judgment, so all the furniture was still disheveled and a thick black soot covered the room ceiling to floor. Belle picked up a chair and sat on it, fighting back against the anxiety attack she had felt building since Chase had fired the gun near her ear. As she was doing the counting exercise that would calm her, she aimlessly scratched at the arm of the chair with the manicured nail of one pale forefinger. The panic attack resided completely as her curiosity was aroused when she discovered that under the black soot the chair was completely unharmed. She glanced at the rest of the room, seeing that none of the furniture was broken or destroyed, just overturned and covered in the dark soot. Even the huge conference table was merely overturned, not even scratched, and the walls too were undamaged, just covered by the grime.
"Smoke and mirrors," Belle mumbled to herself, than hurried back to the war room to tell the others what she had discovered in the conference room, her panic attack of seconds ago a distant memory.
|
|
|
|
Post by Sandy Bell on Sept 1, 2015 9:30:21 GMT
"I don't mind! It's interesting, and I notice you often come up with the best solutions to problems when you're seemingly engaged in unrelated musings," Remarked Sandy Bell as she cuddled even closer to Volodja, leaning her pretty blond head against his broad shoulder, "I love the way your mind works. Although there have always been strong women behind the scenes manipulating men in power. Look at the Oracle of Delphi and Lucretia Borgia to name two, however, I can't see Lady as either of those. Her mother maybe, but not her."
Sandy began to doze, not thinking again on what she said, but Volodja couldn't get the thought out of his head, even when the plane began to circle for a landing at Fortress Kshaa.
|
|
|
|
Post by Volodja Uljanov on Sept 1, 2015 9:40:21 GMT
"It is often said that the man may be the head of the household. But the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head whichever way she pleases," thought Volodja. "Sandy is an intelligent woman and she knows what she is speaking. And we think as one. Take Stahma Tarr for instance. I know for sure who really wears pants in that family and it's not Datak. Or Ara Shondu. Women can do miracles even in usually men dominated societies - Elizaveta Petrovna for, example, seized power from infant Emperor of Russia with the help of the Preobrazhensky Regiment in 1741. Another Elisabeth became the ruler of England. Catherine the Great got rid of her husband and became an Emperess of Rusia as well. And they were women who seized power openly. But there are lot of women who indeed acted behind the scenes. Who had usually more important role and most influence in France when it was still a kingdom? Not the queen of France but king's favourites. And when we speak about renaissance women in Italian states then we must not forget Medici women who managed to carry out political activity on behalf of the family through the networks they created not only within Florence, but beyond, in Rome, and even further afield, through their familial ties to Popes Leo X and Clement VII.
When to think about it we still don't know where Mistress of Judgement went after our last meeting. She is not the defeatist type as long as I know her. And even if I say this myself, I know her quite well. I must ask - who is the puppet master of the puppeteer as Micor Newlo seems to be with our Lady as his puppet? Besides - according to narrative rules evil masterminds tend to return. Since they had so much trouble with getting Lady to their side, she is the key figure of the combination. A corner stone who carries the weight of the whole plot. If we remove her the building starts to collapse and whoever is behind the plot has to make an appearance and try to fix the things, because if middle men fail, then masterminds tends to try to fix things by themselves. Especially if we get rid of the middle men too. Since Inquisition has a pyramid structure, as I pictured it, there can't be too much Lieutenants to promote to be the right hand man. Even if someone will be promoted, it takes time to provide the fresh baked right hand man with detailed information so he could be active participant on the field."
"Thank you my girl," whispered Volodja and kissed Sandy's pretty head while she was asleep on his shoulder. "You are my inspiration."
|
|
|
|
Post by Atticus Batman on Sept 1, 2015 12:01:34 GMT
After both Chase and Belle left the war room, I said calmly, "That boy is daking stupid if he thinks I will allow him to kill Lady. Even more stupid if he thinks killing Lady will save his girl. If he even tries to kill Lady, then he will witness what a true monster is when I kill Iri in front of him, then rip him limb from limb. Alright Taffer. As we are talking about all kinds of oddities, I need to tell you what Lady told me about her conversation with her 'mother' in the Officer's conference room. It isn't much but from what I can figure out everything bad that Lady did happened AFTER that encounter. So here goes...."
As I finished telling Taffer and everyone else still present what I knew about it, Belle came back in mumbling something about smoke and mirrors. I glared at her, as I tried harder than ever to resist my rage not sure how much longer I could keep my own savage nature locked away, as I angrily growled. "Get out with it quick, so I can go get my wife before that bastard leaves base and tries to kill her!"
Kaj who had come in at about the same time as Vo said, "Commander you need to calm down. Everyone needs to calm down. All this anger will not help. Now let us hear Director Belle out before you do anything."
I glared at Kaj and growled, "You are just as bad as Volodja! Always trying to be calm and rational. Well look at how that has worked so far! I trued to stay calm and be rational and now a mental patient is promising to kill my wife, just because he was too stupid to stay on base where his girlfriend would have been much safer!!! But fine! I will try to be as rational as I can for a little longer! Taffer this is obviously where your expertise is needed, and we all know I can snap at any moment. Especially if Lonehart goes after Lady! So I will need a second in Command, who can take over if I lose the control that I am so desperately trying to keep over my evil, dark and violent nature.
As you are capable of taking Command if needed, then you are the best choice. One thing though. If my EGO senses that I am about to lose complete control then she will be forced, by her emergency directives, to initiate the Solomon Grundy Contingency.
Once that is initiated the one in command, or in this case, my second in command, will be granted access to that file so they can follow through with it." I glanced at Belle and Kaj, then said, "I am sure they will have a problem with it, however I am NOT stupid. I know that if I let my dark nature dominate again, then it will be bad for everyone, including Lady and our babies! So if Dinara initiates the Solomon Grundy Contingency and sends it to your EGO, then you MUST make sure that it gets completed. No need to say anything now, just remember it will all fall on you, if that happens. Now Belle, spit out what the dak smoke and mirrors has to do with anything and quickly, damn it!!!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Belle Starr on Sept 1, 2015 14:03:59 GMT
Belle Starr explained what she had found in the Conference Room, the supposed battleground between Lady Christianna and her mother, the Mistress of Judgment, then concluded, "If you guys remember, Lady didn't remember much about the battle with her mother, and she went immediately into labor shortly after! I think the whole thing was staged by the Mistress of Judgment, striking when most of us were off base at Lady when she was most vulnerable! The battle scene was all smoke and mirrors, meant to deceive both Lady and us into thinking the Mistress of Judgment was dead and that Lady replaced her, while all along it was her mother that was pulling her strings and ours like a master puppeteer! I don't know why her mother is doing this charade, but it's just the kind of mind games the Mistress of Judgment would play!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Volodja Uljanov on Sept 1, 2015 14:38:37 GMT
Another hailer message with a fresh field report arrived. Volodja read it and replied: "Everything I heard, seems to confirm our suspicions that someone pulls the strings behind the stage. By analysing the situation and using some logic, we reached to the same conclusion as you, thanks to Sandy and her witty remark about women behind the powerful men. With all do respect I have to say that Lady is not the Mistress material. That means that somebody is behind her - Micor Newlo. And he is not exactly the leader material either. According to his profile, Micor is eternal number Two in the food chain, I mean in the chain of command. That allows to assume that someone is covering herself behind him as well. At moment we have reasons to believe that we are dealing with Mistress of Judgement herself because we don't have anything to prove that she is dead or defeated. She is the master of illusions and best way to stay hidden but yet in control is to fake own death. Nobody suspects the corpse. Hopefully someone remembers Agatha Christie's murder mystery "And Then There Were None."
Their plot is clever, but it has few weaknesses - it is based on Lady as the public figure and possible scapegoat, so we must bring her back. In addition we must eliminate Micor from the game. Without them the hidden party who is behind all of this, has to mover out from the hiding spot and make a move of her own to save the situation. I know that Mistress of Judgement prefers to hide behind other's backs and she has to do something when she there are no backs left for her. That's our chance to catch the Mistress. And do not freak out and rush into the action right away. That won't bring us any good. First we must try to foresee possible flaws and difficulties and only then we can act."
This time his method of taking time to observe the situation and make conclusions worked. Especially when he had Sandy by his side who gave him her hand and lead him to the right path. He snuggled close to her, kissing her tenderly and waited until their plane touched the ground. At least he thought that he waited. Before he noticed he was asleep too.
|
|
|
|
Post by Wolfram von Eschen on Sept 1, 2015 14:58:38 GMT
Wolfram von Eschen opened his eyes to see Candance Ash bowing over him. Her eyes were smiling. Actually all her face was one big smile.
"Howdy ya'll, Sleeping Beauty. Such a shame to wake you up but I brought this baby down to the ground."
While Candace was busy waking up Sandy and Volodja, who fell asleep after making that hailer call as well thanks to the warm and relaxing closeness of his girlfriend Sandy Bell, Wolfram adjusted his lab coat and took his luggage. He was ready to leave, but didn't wanted to so it without gibing his regards to Candace. He was ready to say something friendly and polite to her but...
But after her wake up call on two lovers Candace suddenly turned, grabbed Wolfram between her arms, pulled his face down and kissed him hard on his cheek, making him feel slightly shy, because as long as he remembered he didn't gave her any reason to kiss him. Sometimes that kind of things just happen.
After kissing him she said: "Before our ways apart, let me tell something, Doc. Distinguished gentleman like ya'll can ride my plane any time if ya'll know what I mean. And I do believe that man like ya'll knows exactly what I mean. I haven't seen much Europeans, ya'll know, but deciding on what I've seen, then I'll have to say that the damn - Lord forgive me my foul mouth - continent is the importer of hunks."
Wolfram smiled, blushed and left the plane but didn't forgot to look back and wave to Candace.
|
|
|
|
Post by Taffer on Sept 1, 2015 19:56:40 GMT
"Atticus, I think you know my stance on that Contingency of yours", Taffer answered to him in a serious tone. "It's your life and your decision on how to live it or how to end it. You can have my assistance in either."
He listened to what Belle told, and commented on that, "So, it's loose ends surfacing again. How nice of them to remind us of their existence. If Mistress of Judgment is still in charge, then we must remember that her main goal was the kids of Lady and Atticus. As a second in command, I suggest putting them under constant guard and surveillance, especially when Atticus is away. Given his resistance to mind control, Kaj is the best candidate for the job. But I think there should be two trusted guards at least, so the second one is Vo. I don't expect him to be fond of this new assignment, but I think I'll be able to convince him. Third one should be Di, equipped with a sensor sweep to detect anyone who could sneak in Cloak. Second part of the plan is that your fortress should have a backup escape route. I suggest a one-way Dark Matter portal to the space ship. I can load a basic start routine to Lexy so that the ship could break out of any siege and escape on its own with babies on board. Besides, she'll be capable to move and pick them up in case to portal won't work for some reason. To cover that case, I suggest having a vehicle ready at the entrance of the building in case there's a need to escape to some safe spot before they could meet Lexy there. I suggest my Titan for that. It's well-protected and its cabin was designed to suit a man who wears an exoskeleton. So I think Kaj will be able to drive it if needed. I can arrange all that if Atticus agrees.
Next, this drug for Indogenes. Haele, do you know something about it?"
"I'm afraid not", Haele shook her helmeted head. "It's not my specialty. I've heard rumors about it, but never had my hands on any distinctive data. What I can confirm for sure is that it completely destroys the free will of any Indogene. No exceptions."
"There IS at least one exception, and it's you Haele", Taffer nodded at her, and then turned to the communication computer. "There's another one, who I'm going to send a warning right now. Red Deer is a city full of Indogenes and it's marked as a zone of Inquisition's interest. They must get prepared."
He made a call to Red Deer and contacted Esthete. Once the AI answered he called Haele to tell the information about the drug, thinking that even if she didn't know more that he did, he could explain it in better terms to be understandable between Indogenes. To his surprise, he suddenly saw Haele exiting her environment suit and forming herself in a bubble of light which drew an image of "8" in the air before returning to her suit.
"Strange, they have a Gulanee as a guest there", she explained to people in the War Room. "And I guess they were surprised to see me in this energy form more than I was surprised to see them there. Anyway, I've told to that nice AI everything I could say on that topic. He said he will contact the Inner Circle immediately, whatever that is."
"Okay, Now to Lady and possible Mistress' plans on her. I think our best riddle solver has just arrived, so I guess we better hear his opinion on all this."
He sent a greeting Message to Volodja, asking him to come to the War Room and getting ready to fill him in whatever details they had found already.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vo Kshaa on Sept 1, 2015 20:35:59 GMT
After having a door closed in front of his face, Vo went to the medical wing as he thought he could have another talk with Dr. Orion.
"Hello Doc", he greeted the Liberata in a lab coat, "How's it going with setting my eye back into its place? Any news on how long it may take?"
"Well, the safest method will take two days to prepare the eye for the transplantation, then a two hour surgery, then another couple of days spent in a dim light environment to recover. But that's not the fastest one."
"So, there's a faster one right?" Vo's eye narrowed as he was about to hear something unpleasant.
"Yes. It requires interaction with your EGO device throughout the operation. The eye can be put in a solution which will reactivate the nanites which are still inside it. It will allow your EGO to command them remotely and prepare the eye and the socket for installation. The surgery itself will take about an hour with your EGO actively working on accepting the eye to its place, and the recovery time should take about two or three hours."
"And the downside?"
"Yes, there's a downside", Dr. Orion said with a sigh. "As I've said, I need your EGO constantly working in conjunction with my actions. It means I can't apply a general anesthesia for you. Only local anesthetic can be applied and not even the strongest one as I need your EGO nanites to be able to access all systems, including the peripheral nerves."
"So, It means I'll have to enjoy the view of you messing about in my scull and I'll have to go through the pain."
"Excruciating pain, I must say. Look, I really think we have enough time to take —"
"So how much time needed to prepare the eye so that its nanites can be controlled by my EGO?" Vo interrupted the doctor with a straight question.
"Twenty minutes. I mean, do you really —"
"Do it then. I'll be here in twenty minutes," Vo interrupted him again in a matter of fact tone and exited the Medical wing. He went straight to the War Room to inform the Command he'll be on a medical leave for several hours. And to kiss Belle for luck of course.
|
|
|
|
Post by Belle Starr on Sept 1, 2015 21:10:02 GMT
Bell Starr gave a collective nod of recognition to Volodja, Sandy, and Wolfram after they entered the war room and as Taffer shared the new information with them, then Belle said with a grim look on her pretty freckled face, "Every plan we have discussed has been defensive in nature! However, I'm still not sure an all out offensive attack is a good option, considering Lady's delicate state of sanity and the amount of innocent Indogene hostages she has at Presidio bunker! You heard Lady's speech - she is convinced of her plan to save the world! It's going to be a hard sell to convince her to the contrary, so she'll likely see it as defending herself if we attack frontally! Furthermore, after Chase's little demonstration, I'm not sure it would be a good idea to bring him along! I don't want see Lady fall to not so friendly fire! I hate to beat a dead horse to death, but maybe the best plan is the one I suggested earlier: I go there and talk to her, or Atticus does, or both of us do! Now that we know the nature of the control rods, I'm sure we could make some kind of defense to them given what Hale has told us!"
As the team listened to Volodja and Wolfram give their input, Belle sidled up to Vo once he entered the room. Belle had a sense that something was going on with him, although she couldn't have said why. Call it woman's intuition, sixth sense, or whatever, but for some reason she was motivated to ask, "What are you up to Vo Kshaa?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Volodja Uljanov on Sept 2, 2015 4:14:31 GMT
"I would like to remind you of something," said Volodja with his calm and deliberately unemotional voice. He avoided looking at anyone particular, because he still had an heartache, so it would have been better for him to avoid contacts with some members of their team and spend more in company of Sandy Bell who made Volodja feel a lot better when she was with him. But duties come first and solving his personal matters has to be postponed, so he continued:
"We are dealing with mastermind behind Lady and Micor. I am sure that we should convince Lady to return, but I am afraid that the puppet master is already considered that possibility. Frontal attack would be a failure, but I am afraid that straight talk isn't any help either until Lady is under influence of Micor Newlo and his master. Besides there is one small but nasty detail we must consider - Lady Christiann wants to be somebody and I am not sure how she reacts when she sees famous or infamous people trying to convince her to return. That gives another weapon to the puppet master. She could use simple feeling of envy against us, trying to convince Lady that whoever goes talk with her does it because he/she is afraid the rise of Lady. So I am afraid that we can't attempt any kind of heroic attack to mastermind's fort. We need a good workaround manoeuvre to separate them and direct approach is out of question.
We also could use some support inside the Inquisition and some Intel about them. As long as I understand, we have Erika, Brody and Iri there. Let's consider our players:
Erika is strongest and she fights against her mind control. That's why they keep their eyes on her, because she is unreliability. That leaves us Brody and Iri. I am afraid that Broderick is way too attached to Lady, so he would follow her even without mind control and he lacks field experience. Althouggh it's really tempting to use his help, I must say...And now Iri. What do we know about her and her features? I think that Chase can answer that because she is an enigma to me. Don't forget that I am the new money.
And Micor...We need him out of the picture at least for awhile. Mastermind has to act herself if she has nobody, she could lean on. That means one thing - we can't enter into Presidio bunker. They have all advantages there. But they aren't used to act in more open spaces. That gives us more space and freedom to build a wall between Lady and those forces who are using her. We will have bigger chances of success. And if they are out of the bunker we can try to liberate Indogenes. At least someone can liberate them. Someone who is directly not connected with us.
Their strategy is to attack several points simultaneously, but two can play that game. At moment we are following them and respond to their moves. It's time to take an initiative into our hands and them to follow our rules. Nothing new here actually - that's how Nazis were defeated in WW 2. They had to fight two fronts and do it in a huge territory, so they became vulnerable. Hit the communications and the army will suffer from the lack of supplies. That's how cossacks and partisans fought against Napoleon - they avoided open conflicts but remained at vicinity a a threat, so Napoleon had to keep his best troops in rear to guard the supply wagons."
After his report Volodja waited others to react. He hadn't much to offer at moment, but he wanted to believe that his not very enthusiastic and emotional but rational approach can be at least a bit useful. They needed Lady back. She needed them and Inquisition needed to be taught another lesson.
|
|
|
|
Post by Vo Kshaa on Sept 2, 2015 9:06:23 GMT
Vo looked into Belle's eyes knowing that he won't ever lie to her or hide anything from her.
"I'm going to have my eye set back to the place where it belongs", he said with its usual lopsided grin, but Belle could feel the nervousness behind it. "And I'm going to have it done under the local anesthetic to let my EGO speed up the rehabilitation process. Please don't try to talk me out of it. The eye is already being prepared for the implantation and stopping the process at this point may inflict irreparable damage to it. I've heard about my new assignment Taffer offered and I agree to it. But I'm a warrior as well as you are and I know I need to be at full strength in the upcoming fight and that includes my vision. Please don't feel guilty about it. I had a choice and made my own decision. I'll come through this for my friends, for my team and for the kids. And of course knowing that soon I will admire your beauty with my both eyes will keep me up.
I know you might want to be with me during the surgery, but I don't think it's a good idea. You have enough on your plate even without it, you've seen too many horrible things done to me already and this will be not a pleasant sight definitely. I know for sure you care for me and it will help me through my fight. But now I have 15 minutes before I must go back to the medical wing and I want to spend this time with you, my love."
Having said that, he hugged Belle tightly and lost himself in the kiss which he believed will bring him luck in the upcoming challenge.
|
|
|
|
Post by Volodja Uljanov on Sept 2, 2015 10:00:39 GMT
"That was awkward," stated Sophie.
"It's normal, Sophie dear," replied Volodja with somehow blank voice. "Lovers tend to forget their surroundings."
"How are you handling it? I feel involuntary pain impulses."
"Pain will go away....eventually. I can't run away in the middle of the meeting. So I'll just sit and pretend that nothing happened. I wish I was the type who forgets everything right away, but unfortunately I can't. I'll get used to it at the end when I can be with Sandy more time. We love each other and that is the best balsam to wounds."
Wolfram von Eschen sat quietly and kept reading the book, Arnim Mueller-Stahl gave him. "Unglaublich," he muttered. After awhile he rose his glance from the pages and whispered: "Volodja. Either Arnim has a great imaginative mind or life is more fantastic than a fiction. Which of my assumptions is correct one?"
"Both," said Volodja. "I never manage to do things in usual or normal way. That's why I decided to go to the next mission on my own. I always get into the trouble and no way I am going to get someone else into the shtako with myself. Not any more. Remember how the last time ended? I can't drag someone down with me. It's not fair to them."
"How noble of you," mocked Wolfram on most friendly manner. "What if someone wants to go to the mission with you?"
"For their own safety I would suggest that anyone should avoid me as a plague."
|
|
|
|
Post by Atticus Batman on Sept 2, 2015 10:42:43 GMT
After listening to everybody I said, "Taffer I have commandeered the former Black Operations and Experimentation Building on the edge of the Compound. I filled out all the paperwork for it to be leased to me to do with as I please, and Chris Robet, who was interim Commander at the time, approved and signed it as well. Zork and Jose have reported that all my specifications were met. So it has my family's quarters on the second floor. A Control room, armory, garage and infirmary are on the first floor. There is a working holo-room and every room in the building has been equipped with basic Holo-emitters, originally so MOM or Dinara could act as Baby sitter for when Lady returns. The morgue in the basement has been modified to also act as a safe room, if needed. All power, water, communications and the like, in there are on their own grids and have their own backup generators, and completely secure and isolated from our main Fortress. So while that place was set up to be my family home, it is also a completely secure battle bunker. It even has it's own garage. I already deleted Jose's and Zork's visitors access codes to it. So only I have access.
However if you, Vo, Kaj and the others feel that is where they should protect my children at, then I will put Kaj's and Vo's access codes into the system and, give the two of them complete access to my place and all it's systems, but only the two of them. The Garage is big enough to house your Titan and I do know Kaj can drive, so there is that. And as the Morgue is also the safe room with it's own hidden Armory, water and power, then it would probably be the best place to install your Portal. Also as I said it does have it's own small infirmary. So if Vo's team does want to guard the twins there, then if Vo and Doctor Orion agree, we can have Doctor Orion and his most trusted nurse move the necessary equipment, for Vo's surgery there. It would still be able to be performed as soon as Orion is ready as most if not all the necessary equipment is already there, and it would put Vo, Kaj, Orion, perhaps a nurse if necessary, and the twins all in a secure location right away. I would actually prefer it, as the twins' overprotective and paranoid father, however I am willing to agree with the majority on this.
I vote for me going to get Lady and if needed Belle coming with me in. Besides I do agree with your previous command decision that nobody ever go alone on something mission related. However I know that only Belle and I approve of that idea. I am the Commander so I could just order it, however I resent everybody who ever forced me to follow orders, without question, for THEIR supposed "greater good". So I suppose we go for the plan most agreed on, with this as well. That plan seems to be that we divide their forces. The question is how best to do that. So I want suggestions and fast! I also would prefer that somebody stay with Lonehart to make sure that he can NOT run off to kill Lady!!!"
|
|
|
|
Post by Sandy Bell on Sept 2, 2015 11:10:03 GMT
Volodja said, "For their own safety I would suggest that anyone should avoid me as a plague."
Sandy Bell's blue eyes narrowed as a frown crossed her pretty tanned face, for she had seen Voldja stiffen when Vo kissed Belle and now he was saying he was going on a possibly suicidal mission - without her! She grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket, pulling him to her embracing, then kissing him twice as hard and twice as long as Vo had kissed Belle, pouring every ounce of her passion into the kiss, then said with a smile, "No fucking way you are going anywhere without me Buster! I just got you back, and I'm sure as hell not going to risk losing you again! Besides, have gun will travel and you'll need someone watching your back, whether you are used to it of not! Now when do we go and what are we doing?"
Sarge, Sandy's EGO psyche, sent a wry message to Sophie, "Looks like we're going where Angels fear to tread."
*****
Belle Starr squeezed Vo's hand after the kiss, saying with a warm smile that belied the concern she felt for Vo's impending operations, saying with confidence she did not feel, "Look like it's a done deal to me, so nothing I could say will matter! I trust you Vo, and I trust Dr. Orion, but if you think I'm going to let you go through this operation without me, you have another think coming! Even if all I can do to help your pain is hold your hand and pray, then by God, that's what I'll do! So, don't get all heroic and noble, insisting you are going it alone, because I won't have it! I love you Vo Kshaa, and don't you forget it!"
Alfred, Belle's EGO psyche, merely rolled his virtual eyes, but said nothing.
*****
Lena Marr stared at Marcel with unblinking long lashed sky blue eyes, her usually wicked smile upside down, as she asked, "Okay, I'm confused, are we hired to do something or not? If not, should we just go on to Presidio bunker? Oh, you didn't know Lady is in Presidio? Hmm... I wonder how I know?"
Hope, Lena's EGO psyche sat in the control booth of Lena's EGO device as Lena's other voices argued outside it, a wide smile on her thin chalk white face as she sat cross-legged eating a huge chocolate sundae.
*****
In the Presidio bunker, Erica stood at her post outside the throne room in her golden armor holding the large two handed sword, hoping that no one comes, thinking, "Brody is as crazy as Lady I fear! This trap would almost be comical if I wasn't part of it! Amber, did your previous message in a bottle get through?"
Amber, Erika's EGO psyche, replied, "I don't know Mother, but I've sent another out there into the ether saying, Presidio Trapped!"
*****
Lady Christianna went down to the huge room where the Indogene captives were kept with several Inquisitors, including the one dressed in the red armor with the silver trim. It was a comfortable room, with plenty of plush beds and chairs, along with tables filled with fresh food, but a jail cell is still a jail cell no matter how comfortable. Lady smiled enigmatically as she pointed to six Indogenes one at a time, the last two being Eren and Iri, then one of the Inquisitors gave each of them a thick parka.
"Okay, picked you six because none of you has any family here - don't want to break up any family units," Began Lady loudly, her large pink eyes sparkling as she gestured at the big Indogene in the silver trimmed red armor, "You guys going on a big adventure with my man Doppler Ganger! Going virtually home! Doppler?"
The huge Castithan grimaced, then spoke in a gruff voice, "Listen up sheep! We're headed to Central Canada, home to one of the most pristine recreations of a Votan ecosystem outside of the Sulos colony. A region of Indogene crystal-rock formations stretches from Alberta to Saskatchewan – dubbed the Canadian Desert. No animal can survive in this brittle and desolate region, save for a few dangerous species of alien creatures indigenous to the planet Daribo in the Votanis System. Upon hearing about these wonders, Indogene scientists made a pilgrimage to see it for themselves. They discovered a crashed Ark near the ruins of Edmonton, and went in to explore. No one knows what they found inside that ship, but the Inquisition, They found an intact Terra spire there, among other things! The Indogenes immediately erected a barrier around it, threatening to kill anyone who came within miles of their find. These rogue Indogenes have been working around the clock on the ship ever since. We're going to help them," Doppler chucked grimly, a harsh sound like sand being stepped on by army boots, adding, "Okay sheep, lets go!"
Lady frowned as she whispered to Doppler, "Not sheep, brain trust!" then said cheerfully to the chosen Indogenes, "Be glad not with group going to Alaska! Giant mutated beasties there! Adios Amigos!"
MOM, Lady's EGO psyche, muttered to her, "I sure wish you wouldn't do this..."
|
|
