Imperial Warrior's Story

The Imperial Warrior seemed to shoot Randin a stare from behind his visor, eyes narrowed as his hands squeezed the stock of his Kinetic Carbine.

"Chigau!" The Warrior barked.

"This does not concern you, Terran!" He barked, and slowly aimed the barrel of his rifle towards Randin, but he still kept it at the hip. It was then Aeka swallowed hard. Though she didn't seem to show any outward fear, perhaps because she was hiding it from the Warrior, or perhaps it was something else. It was no longer her place to argue, she had said her peace and chose to remain quiet.

"She is Princess of the Empire, not your jurisdiction, step aside or I will kill you." The Warrior said rather flatly, before grasping the woman by the arm, and yanking on her, still keeping the rifle pointed at Randin, hanging from it's shoulder strap and at the hip. Tears slowly began to well up in her eyes.

"Now, please excuse us." The Warrior said tersely.

Ari knew that the situation would draw Randin away from their conversation. It was just who he was. If there was a damsel in distress, like Hell if he wouldn't heed the call. She found herself crooking her mouth into a wan smile as she watched him approach the princess and her captors. Her eyes flicked toward the clock, and she sighed softly as slipped quietly to a stand. As her bare feet touched the floor, she expanded her awareness of the matter around her. Initially, this particular spatial awareness sensation had been slightly alarming; but after a year of living with it constantly, it had become comfortingly familiar.

There was trouble soon to come. She knew that. She was almost excited--not that anyone would be able to tell, with the way she fixed her expression into complete neutrality. Although she was watching Randin and those he meant to confront, her eyes seemed to lack focus. Intangible, invisible, beyond sensing, the slithering tendrils of her intention wound their way passed Randin and instead around the Warrior with the gun pointed at Randin, as well as Aeka. She meant only to do one little thing to the Warrior for the moment--to restrain his trigger finger--but she was more than prepared to recreate something that would require the ponchos that they used to hand out at Gallagher's shows.

As for Aeka? She meant the girl no harm. Instead, she was carefully slipping between the fingers of the Warrior and Aeka's arm--just getting a good grip, really. There was no pressure involved--she was simply feeling forward and taking a good grasp of things in preparation. Save for the pressure against the trigger to keep the gun from firing, she was not actively using her power.

"Let her go," Ari said softly. "Nerio."

Randin remained reserved, even as the warrior steadily leveled his rifle on his chest. His eyes flitted between the soldier and the princess, brows knitting as he beheld glimpses of terror break through her otherwise immaculate facade of calm. For the first time, he noticed the well-disguised bruises and welts lining her face, her jaw. Rage thrummed through him. He would not leave this bar without Aeka.

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear," Randin continued, "when I said I was an officer, I meant of your government." The detective fished into his belt and retrieved a new set of credentials... ones marked with the Imperial seal.

"I'm a deputized agent with Section Nine," he said, "commissioned by director Aramaki himself. I answer directly to Major Kusanagi." Randin took a bold step forward, his broad shadow encompassing the entirety of the Warrior's body. "So I suggest you relinquish the princess immediately, unless you'd like to explain to the Major why it is you persist to pose a threat to her majesty's safety and the directives of the department of public security at large."

He heard Ari backing him up, unsure what to think of it. Did she still have her powers? If so, he hoped she wouldn't do anything drastic. The last thing he wanted was an all-out fight. The cleaner he could get Aeka away from all this, the better.

The Warrior made a frown and then he seemed to keep the weapon leveled on the detective, before he produced a directive bearing the Imperial Seal and the seal of Crown Prince Shimizu himself.

"I have order from the Crown Prince to bring Aeka-Hima back safely to Niihama." The Warrior said flatly. "Your Deputization is overriden by this order."

"I have to bring her back to Niihama, by orders of the Crown Prince and the Emperor." He protested, squeezing the stock of his weapon as Ari moved to slip her fingers around Aeka's arm. Or rather that he could feel the purchase of his own grip fading.

"Please being not making this harder than it needs to be." The Warrior said, trying to pull away from the pair, and take the Princess with her.

This was ludicrous. If it weren't for Randin's hero complex, she wouldn't give two shits about what would happen to the woman. Why should she? Getting involved in a stranger's problems never really benefited her--in fact, it only ever got her trouble.

Yet here she was, backing Randin up. She felt her lips twitch as though she were about to bare her teeth in aggravation. All she wanted to do was crush everything and everyone in the immediate area and go back to living like a rat in the underground. Why had she bothered coming up, anyway? Nostalgia?

She snorted in soft derision at herself and the situation, and exerted her telekinetic strength. Unseen force would try to push open both of the Warrior's hands--so suddenly and powerfully that she meant to not only open the hands to release both gun and girl, but hopefully to flower the fingers so far back that they might all break where the proximal phalanges and metacarpal bones meet.

Randin remained unphased. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist." He stepped calmly forward, his hand swiftly reaching out and attempting to re-directing the muzzle of the warrior's gun off his body. "This girl has made claims I can't ignore. She's coming with me."

Assuming the warrior had no defenses against Ari's overwhelming psionic assault, Randin would watch wide-eyed as the imperial's fingers literally curled back into his knuckles.

"Shit..." Randin growled, springing forward and grabbing Aeka, "let's go. We have to get out of here." He glanced sternly at Ari, his look disapproving and frustrated. "I suggest you come with me as well." He moved swiftly towards the door, cursing himself for allowing the situation to get so out of hand. Resisting the warrior was one thing, but outright assaulting him was another matter altogether. Why had she done that? Had she considered the repercussions of the assault? Shimizu could use this little stunt as further leverage to justify aggression against the Terran nation. Perhaps the Taiyou had been the first to start pointing guns, but there was an etiquette that had to be observed. Randin had every intention of disarming the Warrior without resorting to violence. Words over wrath.

Even more alarming to the detective was the fact that Ari had just caused a complete stranger an incredible degree of pain. Armed and threatening or no, the Taiyou hadn't directly instigated anything. He was a pawn. A soldier following orders. A hapless cog in Shimizu's war machine. While Randin wouldn't have hesitated to incapacitate him should he begin displaying overtly aggressive behavior, he wouldn't have dreamed of breaking every bone in his hand just because he wouldn't let go of his gun. What had gotten into her? Randin had known Ari to be reckless, irresponsible, coy and mischievous... but violently malevolent? This wasn't the girl he knew.

"Let's go!" he ushered Aeka out the door, looking back swiftly at Ari.

"I apologize, but I must bring her back to--"

Almost immediately following, the Warrior could feel the grip on his weapon and the Princess practically non existent, before he felt his fingers being painfully bent back with a sickening crack.

Immediately following, the Warrior let out a sickening scream as he brought both hands close to his chest and then he crumpled to the floor.

"Nani wa!" He screamed, as his HUD and helmet cam picked up the aura of telekinetic energies emanating from Ari and concentrating around both his hands. The Warrior quickly regained his throughts as his mind assessed what happened and then he screamed once more.

"Hyō! hyō! hyō! Himitsu hōhō hyō!" He screamed, broadcasting the Taiyou code on several frequencies before staring at Randin and Ari from behind his visor.

Aeka too jumped in suprise as the Warrior let go and was incapacitated, she looked at Ari first, and then Randin. Aeka knew all too well what just happened.

"We have to leave! Now! We have to get out of this city! As far from it as we can! Now We must fleet or we will all die!" She pleaded. She then looked Accusingly at Ari. "You shouldn't have done that! We will all die now if we do not leave!"

The focus came back to Ari's eyes and she looked upon her handiwork. The Warrior started shrieking and--she did not doubt--bleating for help like an injured lamb. That irked her more than a little bit, and she weighed the pros and cons of just killing the man. She really should. In her experience, it never bode well to let her victims live. It truly had been a while since she had killed anyone.

For good reason, Marlene's face flashed before her mind's eye. She sighed lightly, only briefly acknowledging Randin and Aeka with a glance askance at them. They were right. Perhaps she shouldn't have done this--but she had never, ever been accused of having the best judgment, even and especially in the most sober frame of mind. Besides--she had no idea who these people were or what it meant to make a personal attack on them. No doubt there would be no chance to make them understand that it was absolutely personal, but clearly only in a small-scale frame with no political motives attached. Business as usual.

Ari started to follow Randin and Aeka, pausing only to look back at the Warrior. She made eye contact with the suffering creature for a split second. There was nothing to say, but her expression said it clearly: She was unapologetic for what she was about to do; that this may not have happened if he had kept his mouth shut.

With a tweak of her will, the telekinetic force whipped itself around the Warrior's neck. In the back of her mind, she amused herself with a short montage of flashing images--memories--of wringing the necks of fowl and rabbits, combined with more recent memories of cracking open the caps off various bottles of liquor.

Part of her wrote this attempt at snapping the Warrior's neck off as a merciful act.

Most of her knew that she just really wanted to kill a man--as well as however many it would take when they started truly running.

The shrieking of the Warrior brought a familiar face into view. A white lump, like a slow-moving cloud, emerged from a crack in the door to the freezer, getting bigger and bigger, forming itself into the shape of a giant snowman half again as tall as any humanoid, with broad shoulders and arms made of the purest driven snow. Its torso, instead of splitting off into legs, tapered by way of smaller and smaller snowballs into a tail, allowing--nay, necessitating--a sibilant mode of perambulation.

"Is everything all right in here? I heard something," it finally grumbled in a low voice, like the sound of ice cubes grinding against one another. Then he heard the groan of someone meeting a mercifully quick end as the Warrior crumpled to the ground. Immediately his face, which admittedly lacked several features, twisted itself into something resembling rage. "All right, who's the coward that just ganked this poor flesh-form?" it roared, almost as if calling out the guilty party to a duel of honor.

Randin did not see Ari as she snapped the warrior's neck like a child breaking a toy, already out of the bar and ushering Aeka down the street.

"Ari, come on!" he roared, his boots rapping against the street. He heard screaming and shouting from within the bar. What was taking her so long? They needed to get off the streets. If the situation with the Taiyou was half as bad as the media made it out to be, then the city would be crawling with imperials in a matter of hours. A straight-shot to the WCPD or Government Center was suicide. So was using his Caddy to call for help... undoubtedly the Empire had access to his comm line. They'd need to make it to a safe zone quickly and discretely.

...and Randin knew just the place to start...

The beating of helicopters could be heard off in the distance, but Aeka moved quickly with Randin, putting distance between herself and the Bar.

"We must hurry!"

Cryoface groaned as Aeka and Randin made their getaway before he could secure the crime scene. Sure, he could just extend his palm and create a wall of ice between them and freedom, but no reason to escalate the situation just yet--which proved to be a potentially dangerous mistake, but hey, no going back in time.

His bulky body quickly went to turn off the neon OPEN sign and turned around, blocking off the door. "All right. Barring those two that got away, the only people that could have killed this flesh-form are sitting in this room. Nobody leaves until I find out who did it, got it? Now let's go around the room and see what each of you have to say for yourselves."

Niihama City Sector 5
Taiyou-Varden Diplomatic Envoy
48 Hours after the attack on the Great Seto Bridge

Outside the building and on several connecting overpasses, the sound of sirens echoed through the city. With Police having surrounded the building, and Imperial Warriors moving through it's halls.

The door to the Envoy's office was thrown open, and roughly four Imperial Warriors moved in with Princess Yukiko in tow.

As the Princess moved into the room, should the Envoy be present, she would glare at him. "I demand an explanation to the actions of your government!" She called out, before tossing images of the attack and the frigate onto the desk before him.

Should he not be there, the Princess would scowl.

"Search the Office, I want no stone unturned!"

The princess did not have to search far. The envoy was not a man. She would find her in the office assigned to her, listening to some violin music. As the princess entered and tossed the pictures the woman who had been with Einar Falls during their first true diplomatic meeting stood and switched off the music before perusing the pictures. "The Varden did not do this. Someone wants you to think they did.", she said and raised her right palm as if to interrupt the next thing that would be said. "There is no proof that can be found here on Niihama."

"Well, a lot of people are convinced the Varden were behind the attack. Burden of proof is on your state." The Princess said as the Imperial Warriors spread out, their weapons readied and passively pointed to the woman, but not outright aggressively aimed.

"I seem to recall that my Father was clear in the negotiations with Warden Falls, that any acts of aggression would be met with overwhelming retaliation." She said, flipping on a nearby television in the office. The News reporter was droning on in Taiyou, but the content of the report was strikingly clear. The AXIS Cooperation forces along with the Imperial Military were beginning to mobilize for a counterattack.

"Though, if my knowledge on military strategies is correct, and generally it is. It'd be strategically foolish to attack a bridge in the ass end of space, that is more a food source than any military importance..." It was all starting to come together now, strategically the attack didn't make sense.

"I can be assured that I will have the Varden's Full cooperation in investigating this matter?"

The woman nodded and observed the intelligence in the princess's eyes. "Yes. I am sure that the Varden are already investigating the matter to the best of their ability. Warden Falls would have been here to meet you but he has fallen ill and returned to his birth place to pass away." She said and then reached to the top of her desk to pick up a folder filled with data cards. "I was directed to hand this to those who came if there was an intergalactic incident. On them you will find the FTL channels needed to reach various entities and a translation of many of the languages those entities speak in the case that there is a language barrier."

She picked up the leather jacket that had been resting on the back of the seat and put it on as if she was preparing to leave.

The Decanus largely ignored the explanation that the Asura offered him. While the three Vigiles searched and confiscated the weapons and other equipment that they could find. Everything they found was subsequently thrown into a burlap sack and carried by one of the Vigiles, while the other two gestured with their spears for Elijah to follow the Decanus, whom had now turned to walk down the path.

"Not Tyria, Argos." The Decanus explained. "I take you to Legate, and then to the Taiyou, they will know what to do with you." He added, and once they came over the ridge, a large settlement, the Argosian coastal city of Arminium could be seen before them, and standing in the middle of the path besides a pair of Taiyou Imperial Warriors.

"Ave." Livia hailed, and the Decanus replied. "Ave, true to the Emperor." He said before he whispered into the Legate's ear.

Livia then looked to Elijah, and she grimaced before she gestured for the Vigiles to drop the burlap sack besides the Legate.

"You've caused quite a stir, You're certainly not Matokey, but you're about as ugly as one. Elijah Baird you said your name was? I am Livia, Legate of the Imperial Argosian Legion, Eastern Hold, and Argosian representative to the AXIS Cooperation Force. I'm going to take you to the AXIS headquarters, so we can identify your species and get you home, that is assuming your people are Members of the AXIS." Livia explained.

"You're lucky I was in the area, lot of people here don't take kindly to Offworlders, they'd have gutted you where you stood had I not stopped them."

Livia then turned to the Imperial Warriors, speaking another strange language.

"Anata no shirei-kan ni tsūchi, watashitachiha ushinawareta uchūbito o motte iru shite kudasai."

Both warriors nodded, and replied. "Hai, Wakarimashita." Before they turned to leave.

The noises on the hull grew ever louder, the wall to one of the corridors was being cut open using a powerful laser torch.

Hot metal and sparks brilliantly illuminated the inside of the Scorpio, which was followed by the audible clunking of the metal cutout hitting the floor. And a bright flashlight beam piercing the darkness, followed by shouting in a strange language.

It was then a well armed man clad in a strange uniform stepped out before Jack, pointing his rifle at the man, the beam of light shining directly at him.

"Is there anyone else on this ship? We need to leave now!" The Imperial warrior shouted with a thick accent, gesturing to the cutout in the wall. "We're the Imperial Taiyou Navy, and We're here to rescue you."

It didn't take long for the Imperial Warrior to catch an earful of the second group, and with a few gestures the rest of his men took up defensive positions, racking their weapons and taking cover behind an assortment of crates. They didn't know if the others were friendly or not.

"Get everyone in your crew and bring them here, we've got a shuttle to take you all off this ship." The Warrior ordered Jack.


---

As the Kaze no Tani loosed it's first volley fire at the unidentified station, Ayako quickly grabbed the receiver for the backup communications array.

"Kaneda, have batteries five and seven target that second ship, we can't let them interfere with our rescue without knowing their intentions, get some fighters out there to keep them away from that Civilian vessel."

Pressing the button down, Katamura sent a hail to the Transport ship.

"Unidentified Vessel this is an Imperial Taiyou Operation, I have soldiers on board that vessel. Cease your efforts to board that ship immediately, and bring them back to your vessel, or we will fire upon you." The Admiral warned.

Jack was visibly relieved, though he didn't have time to count his blessings. Not even bothering to put his flamethrower down, he pointed toward the injured pilot. "He needs medical attention. If we don't hurry, he could bleed out, since it's a head wound. He's the only other one here." He kicked his bag of luggage across the floor. "Do me a favor and have someone carry that. I've kind of got my hands full here," he said, gesturing to his Wyvern. "Man, I'm gonna be so late for work..."

The squad on the Scorpio was beginning to pick up a response on their scanners. They took notice to the one that was pulsing slower, indicating damage. It wouldn’t take but a matter of minutes to navigate to this point.

Behind this movement, back on the Transport Ship a message was coming through. Julius and the Brute commanders would quickly discuss the message before responding. Julius would signal for the communications to open for response.

“You shoot us, you shoot your own team, just to be clear. We’re not here to harm. We took notice to the out of control ship and decided to assist. In attempts to communicate our systems took notice of whatever was controlling the ship. My crew members are making sure everyone is okay. I’ll send them a message, but you should take your situation into hand. You’re engaging a ship in battle. Let us escort this ship to you and we’ll be on our way. I strongly urge you to let us bring you this ship and crew safely within our shields.” Julius spoke to the Taiyou ship.

Behind Julius, a Brute was sending orders to the boarding squad on the Scorpio, “Hold your position. The ship with the guns says they’ll shoot.”

The squad was right around the corner from the entrance to the room containing the injured being and everyone else, “Sir, one of them is injured. We'll hold until further commands, but we're less than ten feet from the room they're in.”

The Brute turned to Julius, informing him of the injured, where Julius would turn back to the communications with the Taiyou, “Well, just in, one of them is injured. Don’t know how bad, but on our Medic’s scanner, it does not look good. Let us know if you want our help or if you want us to release the ship back into space and possibly into the belly of that other ship.”