Acastus's Story

Acastus pushed the bar door open and surveyed the interior of the bar. The man was new to the area and though he was Aschen, his uniform was starkly distinct from the uniforms that the Aschen traditionally wore. resting at his side was a pre-GWOM plasma pistol, and two Molexay soldiers in similar uniforms that the Commander wore.

The rugged man signaled his men to flank both sides as he looked around. "What is this place." He said, resting his hand as he moved, noting only two patrons in the bar.

The door to where Tim was being kept slowly creaked open, though he was right in the fact he wasn't where he remembered he was before he was shot, he also wasn't inside anything that resembled a cell.

The bed had just been changed, fresh linens. The interior of the room had a warm almost inviting feel, family portraits on the walls, the smell of freshly cooked food wafting through the interior. Soft candlelight bathed the interior of the room in a soft yellow glow. The power was still out, and it was nightfall.

The blistering white-blue light of a nearby searchlight briefly shone through the window, but as quickly as it came; it was gone.

The door opened completely to reveal an older man in a tattered dark, almost olive green uniform trimmed in a dark brown, a wheel cap adorned atop his head. The man was in uniform, but it was not the uniform of the Imperial Aschen Navy.

Clasped in his right hand was a plate, a grilled roast sandwich and a bottle of water sat upon it, the smell wafting through the inside of the room as the man stepped inside, gently closing the door behind him.

"Relax." The man said calmly. "You're safe here." He said calmly, peering out the window. "They've swept and cleared this house, they will not return but you need to stay put." The strange man said, setting the food on the nightstand.

"You gave them a hell of a show, though." He said, standing back up. "Rest up, take your time, regain your strength. The Empire won't find you here."

Red's visor spared the strange Aschen man his gaze, which was probably best. From the second the door had creaked the Earth soldier had gone into fight or flight, breaking off the leg of a small wooden chair, and keeping it gripped tight just in case. Perhaps a smarter soldier would've lunged the moment he came into view, but Red was patient, maybe even too patient for his own good.

It was quite the surprise when the man simply offered him food, and rest. Even remarking about the fight he put it.

He was a rebel, or one hell of a spy, although even Aschen spies wouldn't dare say something against the Empire. They'd probably combust if they tried. Once the man left Red made his way over to the tray, gingerly picking up the water bottle. You couldn't be too safe, especially after whatever happened to him. The fact he couldn't remember put his paranoia in overdrive. Using a sensory built into the wrist-CPU of his suit, he gave the water a quick scan.

No viruses, germs, or toxins. His throat ached for liquid, this was a true blessing.

He had the cap off, and was about to take his helmet off when memory hit him. He couldn't see the Aschen troops, either. He eyed the water for a moment with longing, then set it down. Chances are they had a million poisons, and bio-weapons his sensor just wasn't attuned for. He set it back down with a wince, thirst clawing at him. This let his attention shift to the second biggest problem he faced.

Could he trust the stranger?

No, of course not. Could he use him? Maybe, maybe not. Fifty-Fifty chance he was a shifty rebel scumbag, or a moronic IIA agent. Either way, there was about a 90% chance Red ended up dead. If only he had a weapon. He looked over at the room's window, debating what to do. He could escape, make for the streets, find one of the million utterly inept soldiers of this planet, and end them quick. He could secure a weapon, armor, and disguise that way. Or he could trust this smuggler had a plan that stretched behind dinner.

Neither option was appealing, but might as well start with the easier one.

He quickly set to work on the wooden leg he'd secured as a makeshift weapon, breaking it down further, and sharping it the rough wall as best he could. Within minutes he'd molded it into a tiny, semi-lethal shiv, easily concealed in a wrist-compartment of his suit. Anything less than a strike at a vital organ, or weak spot would be worthless, but it could still take down a fully armored Aschen IDF man, with enough patience and guile.

Feeling almost naked with just a sharp sliver of wood, Red walked out of the room, pushing the door open gingerly as he did so.

His chest still burned, his throat ached, and he was beginning to get a migraine, but he did his best to be "pleasant" as he searched for his "savior". He made it to the living room before he decided to just sit down on the couch, too tired to continue for the moment.

"Hey..Aschen...Guy..", he croaked out, unsure of where the man was, but hoping he'd hear. "Where are you..Who are you? And how can you be so sure this is a safe place?", his helmets audio tech was able to keep the scarring of his vocal chords at bay, but not the dryness of his voice. He sounded dreadful.

Acastus was sitting in a chair adjacent to the couch Red chose to sit in, as Red came into the living room, things became more apparent, there were scattered laptops on the kitchen table, a young rebel in civilian clothes making food for everyone, and a fairly attractive redhead in a similar uniform going over medical supplies, weapons, and a few other odds and ends sitting on a large fold out table at the living room's periphery.

"I'm not Aschen, none of us are." Acastus said, setting the maps down. "We're the last vestiges of a civilization conquered by the Aschen." He said, nodding to the redhead. "Sorata, tend to his wound." He said, and the woman nodded, grabbing some gauze and a can of BioFoam before approaching Red.

"We tried to patch you up as best we could, but a lot of your armor fused to your skin when you took the hit." She said, slowly approaching. "Let me see your wound, you don't want infection to set in." She said, while Acastus stood up. "I'm Commander Acastus, of the Molecay Federal Army, the Aschen call us rebels, but the truth is the Aschen never truly conquered us, the government in place is illegitimate." He said, while the young redhead kept her distance until given permission to approach.

"You were almost captured, but Sorata and her team managed to drive back the CPF forces, that's when they found you. You were unconscious and on the verge of death, she was able to save you, though." He said.

He was in one of the many rebel safe-houses that dotted the city, each safe-house had a specially designed command area, as well as people who ran the household under false names, Aschen citizens that could carefully evade the all seeing eye of the Imperial Regime.

Acastus was one of a dying breed of Molecay rebels, with a grandfather who fought in the Great War of Magellan, he despised the Aschen government and everything they stood for, Sora on the other hand, seemed to be an enigma, her story being that her family was executed for bring Arch-Traitors, she had been with Acastus for nearly five years.

Red listened in silence, his training taking over. Every word was internalized, committed to memory, and not believed. Everything in the immediate area that could constitute a weapon was cataloged by his visor, sonar sensors probed for escape routes. By the time they were trying to explain away his "rescue", Red had a fully functional 3D map of the house, and nearby street. It was a necessity, just in case.

Unfortunately for him, Escape would have to wait, and he would have to trust the ginger lady a bit.

She was right, infection would set in soon, his HUD already indicating his internal temperature was elevated. He stood up carefully, visor locked on Sorata as he disengaged the pressure locks on his torso-plate. He jerked the front piece off with a groan of pain, it was no easy task. It ripped parts of his skin around the wound wide open.

He raised a hand in case anyone was thinking about stepping in. "I got this," he wheezed, clearly in bad shape. "You wouldn't happen to have something non-narcotic to block the pain, would you?"

His voice never faltered as he ripped the back plate off, skin and all. It clattered to the floor, and grabbed the meshweave shirt's brim, yanking it over his head in one swift, but brutal motion. The skin ripped apart with enough intensity it made an audible noise. Both wounds were now wide open, and weeping from where the bits of material still fused to the surface where. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't elegant, but it would help.

There was no way to cut the stuff off, it was designed to soak up combat, his raw skin on the other hand.

He motioned for the red head to come over, producing his shiv as he did so. "In case you don't have a scalpel." He chuckled while hoping out she was bright, and trained enough to realize she'd have to cut out the fused metal, and weave on both sides of him. Otherwise it would become internally infected at any point.

This was a huge gamble, but he figured if they just wanted to put a round in his skull, they could've done it a lot easier when he was asleep.

Sora winced at the sound of tearing flesh, while Acastus remained as cold and stone faced as ever while Red removed the plates from his body.

While he undressed, Sora moved quickly to the kitchen table, reaching out and grasping a white briefcase with a red triangle emblazoned on the front. Standard issue medical kit that had been looted from the many Civil Defense armories that dotted the city.

Sora winced some more as she inspected his wound, and then she snapped on a pair of latex gloves, the faint smell filling the living room as she approached Red.

"Ladon, get me some ambrosia and a rag." She said, shaking her head slowly. "We have some painkillers, but there's a shortage of medicine because of the lockdown." She said, while the young rebel poured a tall glass of ambrosia, the sweet green licorice flavored liquid filling the glass. Ladon then handed it to Red, while Sora handed him a wadded up rag.

"Bite down after drinking the ambrosia." She said, making a face. "This isn't going to exactly be painless."

Moving around to Red's back, Sora eased him to sit down on the edge of the coffee table, so she could get better access to his back. "By the gods you took a beating." She said, grabbing a scalpel out of the medical kit, from there she began to set to work, slowly cutting away at the charred, necrotic flesh, as well as the pieces of embedded metal.

She worked slowly, her hands precise as she excised away the dead flesh, washing away the blood and dead skin with an antiseptic solution, that made the entire living room smell like a hospital.

Little by little, Sora excised the flesh, trying to take as little as possible, even so the sting of the scapel was evident, but she cut anyway. Once the back was finished, she moved to grab a small aerosol can.

"Alright this should help with the pain." Sora said, spraying the gel like content over the exposed wound, which produced first a cooling sensation, which quickly turned to a numbing sensation that dulled the pain. "This Biogel will accelerate the healing process." Sora said, moving around to the front, and slowly and agonizingly repeating the process.

With the Biogel applied, the wound cleaned up as best she could, Sora set to wrapping Red's torso in a large bandage, covering the entire torso with layers of gauze.

After everything was said and done, Sora grabbed a syringe filled with a vivid greenish-blue liquid, attatching a needle, she moved to grab Red's arm. "Nanomachines designed to seek out and destroy bacteria that, we've done away with antibiotics."

Pain was nothing new to Red, to any soldier. He waved away the Ambrosia, it was too fruity for his liking, and the rag as well. He didn't need it. He'd been through worse before he ended up on Hera Prime, and the things he got wrapped up in after that planet made this all a walk in the park.

If walks in the park involved agony, anyway.

He sat up, perfect posture, and back rigid as Sora set to work. He only made a sound once, the initial cut of the scalpel causing him to hiss in pain, but after that he went silent. He knew plenty of tricks to block out pain, to mentally flee the body, to shelter nerves, but he didn't bother. Not even a little this time. This was pain he wanted to feel, needed to feel. He was no masochist, but this was punishment for his failure, not to mention he couldn't dare to be impaired by even a single glass of wine.

Not on Molecay, and not around these strangers at least.

The second she was done with his back, every muscle in his body rippled, and he exhaled harshly. He hadn't even realized it, but he'd been holding his breath nearly the whole time. Explained why he felt a little dizzy, but it also worked. The second Sora moved in front of him he took another deep breath, his eyes locking onto the Medic's. His visor was a thick gray on the outside, you couldn't see into it, but it was probably fairly obvious just how intently he was watching the woman.

He didn't expect any trouble, but if she made one false move her hands would fly to her throat.

Lucky for them both, she didn't, and once the biogel hit his skin he exhaled once more. He offered up his arm hesitantly, knowing that once he made it back into friendly territory he'd have his blood scrubbed clean anyway. "Here's the part I don't get.." He spoke slowly, a little labored, but kept his gaze on the woman. "I was here for about a year. I networked with several resistance groups..", he shifted his hand ever so slightly, thumb grazing the re-hidden shank. "And not a single one ever mentioned your group. Your people never reached out, either."

The second the injection was done he sprung, moving inhumanly quickly he'd drawn the shiv and pressed it against Sora's jugular. Just enough to nick the skin, but if she even breathed wrong it could become fatal.

"And I know for a fact a couple of rebels with disruptor rifles didn't beat off the IDF, and if they somehow did, reinforcements swarm in minutes." He pressed the sharpened wood a little further, a bead of blood being drawn. "So. Anyone care to tell me the truth?"

Sora was just finishing dressing Red's wounds, and the moment the antibiotic was administered and the needle withdrawn Red made his move.

Sora stifled years of IIA Training as Red moved the shiv to her neck, all part of the role she was to play. She played meekness, fear, while her mind calculated several different ways she could move out from this position, the tinge of pain moved across her face as the wood pressed against her neck.

As Red sprang to action, the rebels in the room moved in, withdrawing their weapons and pointing them, particle magnums, plasma rifles, and the occasional disruptor were moved and aligned, while Acastus slowly stood up, lighting a fumerello and flipping the ligher shut.

"You didn't know about us because you didn't need to know about us." He said, walking over towards Red. "You want the truth? The truth is you're going to listen very carefully." Acastus said coldly, grabbing an ancient looking particle magnum from it's holster, crudely rigged to accommodate Aschen fusion cells.

"The fact you're here at all is a liability to this organization, and the cause that millions have fought and died for." Acastus said coldly. "And the fact you're trying to kill the very woman that vouched for you because you haven't heard of us is absurd." Acastus said, moving around in a wide circle, smoke wafting through the room.

"We're the rabbit hole." Acastus said. "The resistance groups are fronts, shell groups that forward our ultimate agenda. Us? We operate in secrecy, because if knowledge of our existence became common, the Aschen Empire would glass this entire planet."

Acastus was now adjacent to Red's left, the particle magnum out. "You have two options, really. You can trust us, and we can work together to achieve our mutual goals. Or you can drive that piece of wood into Sora's neck." Acastus said, his voice low, gravely almost. "And we all know where that will lead. We can help eachother, but you have to trust us, just as we trusted you by revealing ourselves to someone for all we know is an Aschen spy." Acastus spat, moving closer.

What was it with this planet? Even the rebels seemed to think they were tougher than anyone else to ever breath. It was really starting to strain Red's patience, and the idea of going on a homicidal rampage just to prove a point stuck out in his mind. He was circled, all with various plasma weapons, unarmed, and injured. Would he die if he attacked?

Yes.

But even the most brutally unfavorable statistics provided by his HUD calculated him at at least a 96% chance of being able to take four rebels down before succumbing. Acastus talked a big game about secrecy, and sure acted like he knew what he was doing, but the man wasn't too smart. Not if he even hinted that Red could take the medic out, she should be worth her weight in gold.

Just what was their game?

Unfortunately for Red's pride, dying wasn't in the mission, so he retracted the little shiv, dropping it. He didn't feel bad for what he'd done, didn't feel guilty, or conflicted. It was his job after all. Still, he may have offered an apology if there weren't so many half-cocked rebels waiting to shoot him.

A raspy sigh echoed out of his helmet.

"You forgot option C." He rose, reaching for his meshweave shirt, and plates. "I walk out of here, and we never see each other again. Happy endings for everyone." He chuckled the last bit of the sentence, the narrow-sightedness of these people amusing him. "Truth is, I don't care about you, or your cause, and I don't feel I owe you." He turned to face Acastus now, his body language non-threatening. "You should've left me to die, but hey. I blew up a building for you, so I guess we're even. And I plan to kill a hell of a lot more Aschen on my way out. So."

Red just shrugged, then started to pull his shirt back on. "I guess we're all done here."

It was too easy so naturally Blue thought it was a trap. Upon discovering the Rebels had possession of Red, she had dedicated her efforts to locate where exactly he was being kept. It was supposedly the best of kept secrets and maybe lesser beings would have had difficulty in succeeding. However, Blue wasn't the average person. There was evidence to suggest they had tried to keep her from gaining the information she sought but her paranoia wasn't unjustified. Sure it was a lockdown...sure the Aschen were on their toes about any rebel activity. Yet, someone was coming after the rebels and they were just letting her pick at their assets and strings, loosen up lips with money, with death, and with "favors". Were it the Nightingale Crime Family and not Rebels, a sniper would be trained on her right now just seconds from ending her or a car would pull up and drag her in and that would be the last time she was ever seen or worse, her father would have taken a more personally approach and made an appearance so he could "discuss" with the trespasser in question. Nothing happened, no one was after her. Either these Aschen Rebels were a bunch of amatuers or this was a trap she was walking towards.

Normally, Blue wasn't stupid enough to risk something so stupid, despite how much fun it would be to fight her way out. However these weren't normal circumstances for her. She wasn't on mission, this was her free time and this wasn't an order from her Master, it was something she had to do. It was Red afterall. That idiotic, flawed, and yet on the edge of perfection, Red. She had determined that was a weakness to her, a flaw in her own stride towards perfection. It was better for her to let whatever was going to happen to him happen but to prove her wrong she couldn't. The feelings she had for him were something she couldn't explain, she had never felt them before for anyone. Blue had never felt this for her father, her crime family, or her so called "friends". He was just another man she would try to tell herself, another toy for her to break on her path to ascension but...he wasn't. She didn't want to break him and she would lie and say it was because she wasn't done playing with him. In the end she concluded he could reach ascension as well if he would drop off those things that made him weak and that was why she cared for him, because he was like her. That was the source of these weak and illogical emotions. That was why she was walking towards what was certainly an ambush, for her fellow Ascended to be.

Her R6 begun to pick up electronic signatures, the beautiful thing about Aschen weapons was that many of them contained electronics in them. "Here we go" The grip on her Krinkrov tightened, as she approached the supposed location of the safehouse. "You have better not be grateful that I came for you, you little shit."

Sora pulled away quickly, and Acastus gestured to the door. "There's your option C, try your luck, it makes no difference to us, but once you walk through that door, there's no turning back." He said flatly, his voice gravely.

Sora stood there in silence, before she backed away a few more paces, grabbing what was left of the medical kit, and moving into the kitchen to clean up.

Acastus watched the man closely, the nerve of him, biting the hand that feeds him. Either way the Rebel Commander decided that he was too much a liability, that decision was reinforced when Ladon tapped his wrist, a subtle signal that was relayed to the rest of the Rebels. Motion detectors outside of the house picked up on Blue's approach.

There were blinding white flashes, and the rebels disappeared one by one, blink packs scavenged from wherever they could find them pre-programmed to a special rendezvous location in the event a rebel safe-house was compromised.

Sora, being in the kitchen wasn't exactly privy to this subtle hand signal, with a grimace she saw the flashes, and immediately moved behind cover.

Red was now all alone, with Blue poised to kick down the door, and Sora in the kitchen, reaching for a kitchen knife and sliding it up her uniform sleeve. She waited in silence for what happened next.

Despite how foolish the situation was, there was something Blue was getting out of it that didn't have anything to do with Red. She got to kill Rebels. No, Jacqueline Nightingale wasn't an Aschen native loyalist or a sympathizer but instead she just liked to pull at strings and watch her victims dance before she discarded them. And now it was all going to reach it's climax. She stacked up on the door, her electronic sensor not detecting anything more than a sudden spike and drop into nothing. "Shit." She murmured and hastily kicked the door in. The only person present was Red. It was a sudden lapse in focus, seeing him. Rather than clear the rest of the building, she allowed herself to be distracted by him.

"Hey you idiot!", she yelled as she charged on over to him. "Were you trying to get captured back there or you not as good as your name lets on?" Composing herself, Jacqueline attempted to hide the concern in her previous statements from Red. "If someone is going to break you Red, its going to be me." Her voice was the only thing anyone could use to interpret her words but Red could probably feel that creepy wide grin of hers that adorned her face from ear to ear through her blueish hue of her helmet's visor. "Now gather whatever shit you have. The people on this planet are too easy...Newborns put up more fight than they do and the attempts to keep this place hidden were lackluster...Your really pathetic to have been captured by them Red."

With that Blue paced towards the door, turning her back to Red. "Maybe Lochlynn will rank me above you after this whole thing, wouldn't that be great?"

"You absolute fucking moron."

Those were Red's first, and only words for a moment. He sat rigidly still on the couch, his voice wracked with a seething rage. It took every inch of his training, his self control, not to simply pick up the plasma-magnum on the table in front of him, and end his "colleague". Her entrance was annoying, the Rebels fleeing hadn't phased him, he'd stayed stoic through it all, but her last sentence was simply too much.

He wasn't an idiot, he had his motion sensors, along with EMF trackers, trained on Sora. He knew she was still there, because he actually had situational awareness, he actually had a brain.

"Never mention that name," he growled the statement, pulling himself off the couch slowly. "Never mention it anywhere, any time. How many times was that drilled into your hollow little skull?" He shouted now, the magnum in his hand. "ESPECIALLY on a hostile planet! On a job! And with a goddamn witness in the next room!" The magnum went off, the plasma bolt screeching through the kitchen counter directly next to Sora.

It was just to get the woman's attention, to rattle her, and just to make it clear to Blue how easily she could be next.

"Get our here, doctor. I need this woman checked for brain damage, or obvious signs of insanity."

As the connection was made, and the handshakes authenticated across the vast subspace network the Aschen called the 'Datalink' the blue, feminine visage of the AI hologram EVE flickered into view. Along with her face, a three-dimensional holographic projection of the Molecay system flickered into view across a large round table that was situated in the center of the Indefatigable's CIC.

"Ad Victoriam, Commander Ruben, and welcome back." EVE reported, her soft voice resonating through the speakers integrated into the console.

"Receiving new orders!" The AI Added. "Your ship has been assigned to Classis II, Molecay Fleet, under the command of Admiral Clegg, Flagship designation: Imperious Class Command Carrier, Keeper of Abassid. Location: Epsilon Eridani, Provincia Yellowstone."

Pausing a moment, the three-dimensional holographic projection zoomed out, panning to a view of the galaxy, Aschen space highlighted in green, and the region of Aschen space they were to report, highlighted in blue, with FTL Coordinates displayed.

"Commander, During your shore leave, several key systems have been refitted, and upgraded, as well as a new version of the Command Interface, would you like to test the calibrations prior to departure?" The AI added.

"Test the calibrations EVE." Marcus replied.

The AI Nodded in affirmation, and the field began to light up with both green icons, yellow icons, and red icons in the three-dimensional battlespace.

"Friendly vessels are highlighted in green, unidentified vessels are highlighted in yellow, confirmed enemy vessels are highlighted in red." The AI explained. "You can maneuver this ship, and give directions to allied commanders through the interface by double tapping the respective icons, you can also issue attack commands by tapping allied icons, and dragging them to the enemy warships, move commands can also be issued in this manner."

The center icon expanded, and represented a full three-dimensional view of the Indefatigable, along with shield strength, operational weapons turrets, and relative deck integrity. All highlighted in various shades of green, or blue.

"When all ships are linked through this interface, commands can be issued in a streamlined fashion from the command ships. All systems have been calibrated, Spin-sync drivers report green, coordinates have been computed, locked in, and the FTL is spooling now." The AI reported.

"Status reports arriving. Reactors, online. Sensors, Online. Shields, online. Weapons, online. All systems report nominal."

EVE offered a soft smile.

"We may depart on your command, and remember, you may trust me implicitly. Always."

Something about the way EVE always said she could be trusted implicitly had always rubbed Marcus the wrong way. Nevertheless she was a major asset to the Aschen Imperial Navy and Marcus planned to make use of the streamlined interface when the time came for split second decisions. However, now was not one of those times.

"Engage the FTL, Captain. Take us to Epsilon Eridani, Yellowstone. Manually."

"Aye, Commander." Captain Amorra replied. "Proceeding to Yellowstone."

The navigation officer worked their console with a few short strokes and then the Indefatigable lurched to life and was gone.