Hex Corp unit 001's Story

As the station shook something in the back of Seth's mind said it was just as good a time as any to throw that handy helmet on. As he did so Daisy proclaimed that an on board AI had locked her out of the system, then that the core needed to be shut down and she wasn't doing it alone. Rei declared that the Aschen had arrived, and started to take command of the situation to Seth's relief, she seemed like the level headed one so far. He made a note to inquire of the crew before he randomly accepted money to join scavenging mission next time.

He was only slightly amazed at the appearance of even more individuals, these dropping out of the ceiling. "Oh, good, Robin Hood is here." He quipped. One of them ordered his men to various parts of the room. Apparently a lot of people knew a lot more about what was going on than he, or anyone else he had come with, knew. And they all seemed to be showing up at the same time.

"Look, someone tell me what to do, and how to get off this giant space coffin." He sighed heavily, "Coulda been drinking cocktails in any number of places right now, but no, I had to go on an adventure in fucking space."

He looked around again, deciding that the devil you knew was just as good in this situation as the devil you didn't, "Rei, what do you need from me?"

When Russian slapped across the face by Daisy, he just rubbed his face and sighed in disgust. "You can certainly try it..." He muttered under his breath as he decided that the metal shards in his body had to go. Taking off his uniform revealing a simple white, short sleeved shirt. He pulled the shard of metal from his body and wrapped his uniform around the wounds to slow the bleeding. Thankfully the two metallic shard were around the same height so wrapping them with his uniform was not a problem.

Russian slowly stood back up, allowing his body to get used to the missing blood in his system. He then heard Daisy yell about getting locked out of the system and that an A.I was onboard the station. "So you need to to hack the console? I don't know, I think my brain is a bit startled after that slap and my arms aren't working properly after someone was shaking me to high hell. But jokes aside fine...I rather not die here." He spoke as he marched to the console Daisy was at and plugged his device into the console and began pressings hundreds of icons in a matter of seconds.

However the systems security seemed to be heavily beefed up, what seemed like an ordinary military grade system turned into what he could describe it as. "This is like trying to cross the grand canyon over a tightrope, with a motorcycle, while being shot at by rockets. I can crack this no problem, but its going to take some time. Especially since the A.I keeps on reinforcing the firewall every bloody second! You wanna challenge the best hacker! bring it machine! I will downgrade you to windows eight when I am done with you!"

The phrase from bad to worse come absolutely to mind. And that was really how she truly felt. She knew the others wanted to likely lynch her, but she still had one way to appease them. The ship schematics revealed what powered the core was a very rare expensive component which removed would completely put Jarrako Downs to sleep outside of minor systems, but she had to get to the core. Nonetheless these people had no allegiance to her so she lift her little hand console pressed a few buttons before her ship responded. Not even the greatest hacker could steal her ship it was encoded to her own DNA. It was an extreme modification she had done. With that done she continued walking down long passages with her guide, "So are you a vampire or do you just look like one?" she half joked to keep things in a state of levity, "My estimations we don't get to that core before all systems are on the explosion would make it impossible anyone to get out in time..." her guide was very silent making things more pressing, but being away from the other was a relief and armed with her shotgun she occasionally cocked it. A nervous thing.

In reality she was not even sure if she could make it in time, navigating this ship was going to take forever and considering core was right in the middle point. They needed to find transporters pronto. Thus she started performing scans of the area to pin point where transporters landed and figure out a course. None so far got close enough.

Shoved back from the console, Rei just threw her hands in the air. "Oh fuck it, I'm done with all of you twits." She said as she turned to leave. But then there was the matter of Seth offering help; and while Rei was about ready to just leave him there with Russian and Daisy, she supposed that he had been the least amount of trouble. "Help? You know how you can help? Get me the hell off this rust bucket excuse for a space station." She snapped, evidently frustrated beyond reason with the situation at hand. It appeared to her that Daisy's half baked scheme had bought them more trouble than she was willing to pay for.

"Because I'm done, those two can just stay here for all I care."

Sin lost in his train of thought worrying about his ship he decides to order his ship with his mindlink to SSJ (small space jump) to a safer location and cloke itself. He needed his exist plan, he would hate being stuck here. After that was done he can get back to the task at hand to help this girl to the core hopping she don't get trigger happy with the shotgun or hers, being immortal won't stop the pain and judging from that shotgun of hers it will really hurt. So to make sure that won't happen he decide to take the girl on her offer to keep things in a state of levity and talk about himself a little while they make their way to the core.

"yeah... I guess you can say I'm a vampire but that will be only half right, you see i have the blood of a first born which means i am a demon by all accounts. You see i left my kingdom behind because their way was destroy this and kill that and for some reason that is not me anymore so i took and position to where i am always far away from that place as i can. When i go back i will kill my father for killing my mother. I hope this don't fighting you because i am true to my word i will never hurt you."

When he was talking his red and purple eyes glows brightly from the emotion of speaking about his past and the rage made shadows leak from his body into air around him.

Sin grab a small blood orb from his pouch and hand it too the girl encase we get separated in this maze of a place.

"I have an idea to get to the core much faster than walking, you just have to trust me and hop on my back and hold on. if we get separated you can summon me by that orb i gave you from anywhere and any dimension you are at and i will be there in seconds.

Waiting on her answer he walks a few paces ahead of her thinking what his father would say to him working with humans and not feeding on them.

Seth's mind was starting to run through various ways of escape. The most obvious one being the horse they had rode in on, but he wasn't sure Daisy was sane enough to cut and run at this point. It seemed like most of the people with means of escape where more interested in staying on board than leaving, despite their warnings that that was in fact a poor choice. There was the plasma weapon Russian had fired, it had made short work of metal, perhaps it would be useful.

"What about outside? Seemed like there must have been a ship or two out there." Seth thought out loud, having moved on to crazier ideas. "Just float on out there and pick one up..." He continued to mumble. He found himself fidgeting with the lock box again. "Call a cab." He mumbled, then more directly, "Daisy could loan us the keys."

His mind was starting to filter through random scenarios, but he didn't have enough information, he didn't know what he had to work with. He looked at a monitor that showed the outside of the docking bay, Daisy's ship attached to the umbilical, the debris, and another smaller craft that seemed to be moored to some sort of external holding space buoy. It looked old, but it didn't look damaged. "That looks promising, in that it's not this station." He directed Rei's attention toward the monitor. "We just have to get to it."

Sarah Tamers


The evening's light passed through un-seen windows of a seemingly endless library.
Rows and rows of neatly arranged books formed intricate rings, all easily seen over for the average person. The scent of freshly printed books mingled with the musk of the old books forever keeping guard over this sanctuary.

On the edge of hearing a gentle chorus seemed to whisper about the serenity of this place, the safety of the warm sun washed over anyone who entered here.

Sarah Tammers was laying amongst a wall of books, gazing at the painted ceiling.

A low chim hummed.

"Figured you'd be hiding here." A baritone voice buzzed away the chorus for the moment. Looking up to see Mavrick loomed there in calf high combat boots pant legs tucked into them like he was expecting to wade through the marshes of Vietnam. His hulking figure clashed so harshly with the backdrop.


" I'm always here you know that"

" We found him."

Shaking her head She sighed, and the world around her dissolved.

Sarah's eyes snapped open. Which was worse... knowing that it was a lie, or the fact the lie felt so much more real than this. She sat up from the docking pod aboard their ship.
The text danced on the edge of her vision, bright blue that faded when ever you looked too hard at it, unless you wanted to see it. A planet lay outside her window.

" New Midgard"

”Our target is This man” A woman's voice stated, her voice was as unyielding as iron, maybe more so. A photograph of their target Seth Libanori

“ This man is currently in possession of two items that have been deemed contaminated and must be retrieved at all cast, and of a military class E weapon.” Various gliphs and stats about the equipment the young man had stolen.

“ We are going to try a new approach. Sarah, will go in an make contact. You can take one of my doubles, we don’t need him connecting faces to our group. The details are in the folder.
An icon popped up, and Sarah began skimming.

“ Do you really think This gent is gonna fall for the ol’ “here is a brief of cash keep your nose clean,” chimed a gentlemen of the name Jason, "aka lead us to the honey pot trick? I mean the guy survived JD and every other hell hole he’s drug us through, I vote we bag him and charge Rev for the clean up.”. Jason was a security 2 for the group which wasn't that bad looking when he bothered to use his double. Even here he currently was in his Combat rig.

“ No we don’t need to kill him, they had no knowledge of what they stole, it’s obvious by the fact he keeps it on him, and sealed in the container”

“ Unless he’ does understand and is looking for a buyer.”

The debate raged.

There Sarah stood, a head taller than she normally did, and at least “20” pounds heavier than she had been, but in a way that caught men’s attention rather than turned their eyes…
She stretched her hand out. Why on earth did Kara have this model? Did she even really wanna know…?

“ Ready” That baritone voice echoed in the back of her mind again.

“ Mobile one check” She replied
“Mobile two check” Jason’s voice rang
“Eyes one check” The bariton' Mavrick answered.
“Alright, I want this clean.” Kara's Iron voice declared.


And with that, Sarah walked into the most pitiful excuse for a bar she had seen in a very...very long time.

She strolled into the bar as if it had been her favorite drinking spot, even waved to one gentlemen who was collecting his jaw from the dirty floor. Thank gods that she couldn’t blush... Kara might have had the...personality for this body but Sarah was a always a nerd…

Her waist length black hair bounced in step with this bodies other attributes,cervois and air muscles, synthetic flesh and even blood that’s all this was….however this was as close to ‘human’ Sarah had been in a moment, yet it still paled to the reality of that world…

Sarah glided over to Seth.

“ Mr Libanori.” She said taking a seat, sitting right proper despite her outward appearance.
“ You’re quite a hard man to catch when you don’t want to be found.” She said drumming her fingers on the table looking Daisy over. “ I think your…. Aquanence... should leave so we might have a proper conversation… Or should I invite my friends in?”
Sarah clearly didn't have a weapon on her person, but the threat was as real as Daisy's shotgun.

Seth cursed as soon as the woman walked in. She acted as though she'd been there a thousand times, and it was a good impression on her part, but an act like that required audiance participation. The reactions from the patrons let her down, too many surprised faces.

She was here for him, and not in the good way. He would slide the case away from her as she sat, perhaps in a way that looked like he was giving her room at the bar, any one else in the bar might have thought.

"You might take the hint." Seth relied to her comment about his being hard to find. They didn't want to cause a scene, at least not if they could help it, otherwise her friends would have already come in. Seth dismissed the idea that she may not actually have backup waiting before it had a chance to fully form in his mind. The question wasn't did she have backup, it was how much backup did she have?

"You and I both know we're not going to have a proper conversation." He replied casually, playing his part carefully. Then it occured to him; she had suggested having Daisy leave. They saw her as possible colateral damage. That meant they didn't know who Daisy was.

"But maybe you should go bella, wouldn't want to mix business and pleasure. We'll have to play another time." Seth suggested, hoping Daisy would take the cue to distance herself from the situation, doubly hoping the girl wouldn't over react to Seths thinly veiled suggestion that she was just some whore in a bar...

If Daisy had been in a reasonable state of mind, she may have realised he was trying to keep her alive. Unfortunately, she had been drinking pretty much constantly and when not drinking or sleeping she was throwing up. So her state of mind was rather temperamental due to this. First, she was irritated by the veiled threat, then Seth comment and well Daisy does as Daisy does. She lost her temper unshouldered her shotgun kicked the table over violently before diving behind it. Pulling out a handgun from her holster she rammed it into his hand, "THIS FUCKING WHORE, IS SAVING YOUR LIFE, NOW." grabbing him by the lapel she growled, "Here's plan, we shoot a little, then when we nearly out, I'll chuck a few smoke canisters and we head for back entrance. Then you can fucking explain to me Seth, why these guys are after you. Because there must be more to this."

The table was hardwood allowing for enough protection and Daisy though shown to be clumsy was surprisingly adept in this situation as she fired a volley from her shotgun, reloading before letting loose another one.

Meanwhile, the bar those who could fight had broken out into chaos, and those who could not, were ducking down, cowering making the whole scene pandamonium. While blasts were fired, laser singed the wood and grunts of effort. Despite the fact the woman seemed the bar was known for looking for any excuse for violence, so bad was this that the owner had to have a sign outside saying 'Owners Will Not Be Blamed For Any Deaths Here, PERIOD' thus it was just viewed as a common occurrence and with Daisy rather sudden action, they had opted to fire at themselves as well as whoever fired back at them.

Sarah watched in horror as the drunken lady reached for her shot gun. The look on Seth’s face was about the same, utter shock. Sarah dove as muzzle flash erupted from the weapon.

‘Shots fired, shots fired, Moble two move in and contain, Eyes one prevent exfil of any targets, lethal force authorized!I Do not want anyone leaving that bar until Sarah is out!’ Kara’s voice roared over their internal comms network.

Had she known what she was about to unleash on that bar, would daisy have drawn her weapon with such haste…? Every action had an equal and opposite reaction, that’s what sir Newton had said years ago, Shove, and get shoved back.

A few of the patrons attempted to leave the bar through the front door in a panic. No sooner than two steps the first one fell in a screech of agony clutching his now crimson thigh, another fell dead with half of his face sprayed across the concrete, corpse twitching defiantly as it refused to die.

‘ containment established, two... ‘

Another fell on his face and desperately clawed his way back to the bar only for his head to explode before reaching the door.”

“Three.” Mavricks tone was about as mechanical as Sarah’s body at the moment.

“ Four..” Mavrick was posted a scant 150 meters away from the front of the Bar , two stories up with his suppressed UCSR-01 rifle, a semi automatic, integrally suppressed weapon sporting moderate stopping power against armored combatants and 31 rounds on tap. Nothing was getting out from that building… Should anyone be searching for him , they’d be hardpressed to find which shadow in which window he was. He was hidden back in a room shooting through one ,of any number of, open windows at an angle.
‘

Jason kicked in the back door, weapon drawn.
Jason was using the The CCB mod 7 combat body armor…. Standing seven feet tall and only vaguely human, the full mech armor spoke, red and blue lights flared from it’s shoulders.

“ STAND DOWN AND DROP YOUR WEAPONS, THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!”
Jason boomed over the sound of gunfire and weapons blaring.

“ Fuck you !---” A patron said firing a pistol at the mobile tank.
After a magazine of ammunition, Jason shot the patron in the leg, then two to the chest as he walked over the now dead man..
“ LAY DOWN YOUR ARMS!” He shouted again.



Sarah laid there, playing dead. This body wasn’t designed for combat, and she was unarmed. Her best plan of action was to play dead, however she kept eyes on her target, updating the HUD for Mavrick and Jason to track their target on.

And just like that bullets were flying and Daisy had stuffed a pistol in his hands while hiding behind one of the sturdy wood tables. "Damn it Daisy!" He shouted over the sudden chaos in the bar. Seth sighed heavily, unable to keep the lyrics from an old Ok Go song from running through his head as they dug deeper into the mess Daisy had started.

The table of undesirables had jumped at the shooting, which triggered an all out bar brawl, except everyone was armed to the teeth and had probably killed before. Seth watched as a number of more sane patrons met their demise trying to escape through the front entrance, clearly they had overwatch. Then from the back an oversized Robocop marched in and started ordering people to lower their weapons. "Ha, must be new to the area." Seth mussed. Clearly they hadn't been too adverse to a scene.

One unlucky patron came around the table and raised a knife, prompting Seth to fire the pistol Daisy had given him. For a moment Seth was shocked as a blast of plasma didn't blow the mans face off so much as melt strait through it. "Holy shit."

His mind was beginning to race, they had both entrances locked up and a room full of cut throats. Options were being dismissed as quickly as the came up. That's when he saw Sarah. The woman was laying there on the floor, not fighting, not pursuing, not engaging. A sound from behind him caught his ear.

Then a switch deep inside him flipped.

Seth sank into his own mind, the scene around him seemed to turn into a dream, though he knew it was very real. His body felt far away, like an out of body experience, except in reverse. He saw his hand raise with the pistol from Jarrako Downs, saw his finger hold the trigger down and the weapon begin to vibrate and glow. Up and around, his line of site came to a strange looking creature with a rifle pointed at him.

The blast was spectacular. The target and another victim behind it were nearly instantly vaporized. 

The pistol was turned on a third victim but offered a pathetic click and hiss when the trigger was pulled, still over heated from the previous blast. The target raised his own weapon at Seth, who saw his hands fly up, moving in swift arcs. His right palm made contact with the mans wrist just before his left made contact with the back of the hand. The sound of the bone snapping pierced clearly through to Seth’s hearing, in sharp contrast to the muffled din of the world around him. Continuing the left hands motion around guided the revolver around one hundred and eighty degrees. His right hand came strait back, finding its grip, finger slid easily to the trigger and continued back.

The back of the mans head exploded into the wall.

Seth's hand reached out and grabbed the now lifeless body, pulling it around and shoving it towards the front door where it might seem to be stumbling for an exit, attempting to draw the overwatches attention for the moment it took him to roll across the room toward Sarah's unmoving form, retrieving the plasma pistol as he did so. He would attempt to place the pistol against Sarah's head and use her to shift the status quo enough to make an escape. From within the prison of his own mind Seth still had those lyrics running through his head... seemed like a good idea at the time.

Even in her drunken state, Daisy wondered if she had bitten off more than she could chew. A bit late now, nonetheless she was not totally unprepared just had to hide behind cover while digging out different grenades and setting up the grenade launcher modification her shotgun. Despite being clumsy her hands moved rather quickly and firmly locked in place the attachment before taking few deep breaths.

Once she conjured up courage she dumped a chaff grenade into the grenade launcher attachment and pushing gun out tentatively she fired wide and blindly. This would buy time as she quickly pulled her arm back and started to prepare a new grenade. The chaff grenade would cause massive interference as bits of foil flew around the place causing electronic targeting systems to go ballistic.

It was merely a delay, but nonetheless, it allowed her to prepare a fresh grenade and stuff it in the barrel. This time a huge cloud again in combination would give breathing space.

Seth, on the other hand, seemed very capable, that was relief certainly, still, she could only delay so long. Whatever happened. She had one guaranteed way to get out, but Daisy was not heartless and vortex grenade would hurt too many innocent it was only a final measure. Hopefully, it would not come to this.

Meanwhile, the shady guy from earlier appeared to be watching amused until one of the bullets ricochet to his glass smashing it. That seemed to annoy him as he pulled out a strange looking grenade and immediately it exploded with an ear-piercing screech. It was so bad, that Daisy had to cover her ears, in all her days she had never heard of such a device, but now she was hearing it. And it was agony.

Sarah froze locking eyes with Seth. Weapon aimed at her head. She held her hands about chest high and splayed. She mouthed the words “You don’t wanna do this.” With pure horror in her eyes. Not at the blood around her, not at the feats of brutality of the whole room but at the sheer stupidity of this whole situation. She was here to offer him a deal, a way out! No blood , no death.
She eyed several of the dead , searching for anything only for a moment. She had a pretty good idea how this was gonna end… Kara would be irritated…

She flinched as her hearing shut off , a safety feature for most of the bodies the Hex Corp used. Loud noises like gunfire and explosives were dampened. She raised her left arm in an attempt to knock the pistol away , and stepping closer to Seth, right fist drawing back. This body might not be a combat body, but it was still comparable to human strength. That is if Seth refused to lower his weapon

Mavrick watched the front door closely, from his perch. Focusing on his breathing, watching the cross hair sway and bob. Purely a meditation technique at this point. He frowned when Seth used a body to cover his movement across the doorway. He switched his optics to FLIR and Dialed it in to see partially through the walls. It wasn’t perfect but gave him a rough idea of what folk where doing. This coupled with Jason and Sarah’s Huds gave each one of them a pretty decent situational awareness.

Jason targeted particularly large weapon wielding patrons, no longer bothering with a warning, after all he only had to offer one. One round per customer, his sights landed on a shadowy figure in the corner, that’s when the grenades started going off. Chaff feathers and smoke covered the room, followed by the loud bang of a flash bag going out. Jason was thankful he was no longer human, he remembered all too well how awful those things were in close range.

His vision switched from standard to FLIR, and while slightly blurred by the chaff floating about, he could easily make out targets. He set his sight on a lady hiding behind a table with what looked like a shotgun. He aimed where she had been blind fired and prepared to open fire on her weapon.

“ Sarah… Whats the plan?” Jason asked on their closed network (not audible)

Seth saw Sarah's reaction as the gun was aimed at her head. She was right, he didn't want to do this, he didn't want to be in this situation at all, but right now all he could do was hope he could regain control of his body before his other personality did something he couldn't undo. A ringing shot through his hearing, causing his mental self to flinch though he wasn't sure if his physical body had reacted at all. What his body did react to, as quickly as a human body could, was Sarah's left arm moving to knock the pistol away. As she made contact his arm followed the motion, softening the impact, his body shifting from one knee, bounding slightly and crossing over toward her left side away from the recoiling right arm. Sarah's punch would catch his right shoulder, enough to shift his momentum. He landed hard on his back, the pistol now in his right hand which lay on the ground still aimed vaguely in the direction of Sarah's head, a shard of glass stabbed into his shoulder and his head came down hard on the wooden floor.

The jolt thrust Seth back into the front of his mind, sound and feeling came rushing back in an avalanche. He didn't immediately move the pistol from it's position, he had to maintain a level of self protection at this point considering his position, but he raised his left hand, mimicking what Sarah had done just a moment prior. "Woah woah woah!" words were still having a hard time making it from his brain to his mouth and he had to hope she would recognize he was looking to get out of this situation as much as she was at the moment. The place was a death trap, if he wanted to escape them alive the setting needed to change, and he would need a little bit of luck.

"She's crazy." were the first actual words that he managed to get out, referring to Daisy, "and drunk." Then he made the gamble, he pulled the pistol away from Sarah altogether. He could blow her head clean off with the thing, he had seen it's damage potential, but that wouldn't help him get out of this place alive. Besides, she was the only person in here not actively trying to kill things, it seemed counter intuitive to lose that.

He began hoping the local authorities would be arrive soon. The place might not have the best reputation but this wasn't the kind of thing that got overlooked. His original plan was still the best one, force the people with guns to shoot at other people with guns, not himself, and try to escape. Daisy's plan had gotten the "Force the people with guns to shoot" part down perfectly, she had just failed the 'Not at him' and 'Have a way to get out' parts miserably.

Despite a small voice inside him that said 'let her get herself killed if she wants to' Seth shouted "Damn it Daisy STOP SHOOTING AT THE GIANT TIN CAN!"

What was she even doing? This was insane, but then again she always did this. Took on actions too big for her to handle, it had always been that way. Downright reckless and utterly unconscionable when it came to de-escalation. As the sound of gunfire and other weapons discharged above her. Furiously she fiddled with the modification for the launcher, taking deep breaths with sweat cascading from her brow in vigorous rivulets. Tasting the air she tried to think what she could do. Trying to figure out something, anything she could do but outside of weapons she did not have or equipment she did not have. There was little, yet if this was The Renev paying them, they would likely not want prisoners.

Her thoughts were broken when Seth yelled, somehow that broke her out of her stupor to yell, "Hey, I have!" she had actually stopped shooting for a while now weighing her options, "Right, I am no longer shooting and neither is he. Let us go and your masters don't need to worry. Besides, Jarrako Downs is operational again. Meaning we are no longer your biggest issue." she was half bluffing but what else could she do.

Meanwhile, the person who had escalated things appeared to listen before rolling his eyes and declaring, "Oi, Microchip Brains, I have a present for you!" he tugged a massive device outside his jacket. It appeared to be rather complex with chrome edges and many buttons. A cursory understanding would reveal this was Military Grade EMP beacon. The guy meanwhile had placed it upon the table and appeared to be performing some quick modifications. Whatever he was doing he finished rather and then laughed, "SIMON SAYS, SIT THE FUCK DOWN!" with that a huge pulse flew from the device driving all electronics to inert or barely functional. The lights smashing while pulse continued to radiate.

So extreme was this pulse the pulse that even the minor devices like Daisy's wrist scanner immediately began to shock her.

Yelling in horror and trying to tear device away from her forearm, but because she was in a state of being potentially fried her coordination and strength was non-existent. Instead, she screamed wildly genuflecting and flailing wildly as many volts pulsed through her body.

Sarah stared at seth, glaring more the like, at a loss for words.

“Sarah?” Jason asked, his weapon still trained on Daisy

“You,” She pointed to Seth “ Are coming with me , returning the crap you took and we’re sending you on your way” She said picking herself up, she didn’t want to guess how she looked at the moment. “ Jason lower your weapon---”


The stranger interrupted, The emp hit and knocked basic systems off line for the two in the bar.
Jason turned and fired without skipping a beat. Three well placed shots.

“ God damn it Jason! I said stand down!” She barked, now more annoyed at her fuzzed vision and failing HUD system.

Jason simply remained quiet, however he no longer aimed his weapon at Daisy.

Mavrick chimed in as their CCN booted back up. ' Sarah you’ve got about 3 mins before all hell falls in on that place. You need to move.'

Sarah voiced what she had been told over the CCN to Daisy and Seth.
“ You are required, she can leave now that you have that pistol, which is also going to be confiscated.”

'That's what you think.' Seth thought, but he knew he had to play along for now. He moved to sit up when the EMP went off, Jason dealt with the overconfident assailant with extreme prejudice, but Daisy was left with her arm scanner locked on and short-circuiting.

The girl was convulsing as the current shot up her arm. Seth rolled up without second thought. He hurled himself at her, knowing he would have to remove the device the first time or risk the current locking up his own muscles. All he could hope to do was use his momentum to smash the device open.

He collided with Daisy as his hands guided the scanner at the corner of the door. He felt the current shoot up his arm, the numb feeling that caused his muscles to tense up. The device hit the corner dead on and Seth could here the clasp break loose.

They tumbled into the street. Seth felt his muscled unlock as the scanner fell away and he fumbled to keep Daisy from smashing her head on the concrete. When the dust settled and Seth's senses settled he found himself just a couple of inches away from her face.

"You okay?" He asked after a moments pause.

One minute you are being zapped with enough volts to fry your innards, the next you are flung at the door, wrist slamming hard against the frame before barrelling out haphazardly. To say, Daisy needed to collect her thoughts was an understatement. It took her even longer to realise while blinking and readjusting her vision from the chaos to now. At first, it was all a blur, flashing lights, spinning world and dancing dirt before that finally grew more steady. Once that occurred she started to lift her head only to blanch in horror as she saw his head.

Forgetting this was dirt slammed back down staring wide-eyed, still rather dizzy, she barely could register what was happening. The sirens growing louder was hurting her ears a lot, making the shock even stronger.

Finally, she spoke or groaned before saying, "S... Seth..." his head was too close and she knew this, yet she was not overly bothered. Maybe the shock had destroyed some of her brain cells?

Finally, she spoke, this time more clearly, trying to hide her blush -- this was awkward for both of them, "S... Seth I know it has been awhile, but even I have standard..." laughing nervously, she finally pushed him off, lightly, perhaps too gentle. How could she get angry at him? He had saved her, and this confused her, coughing awkwardly she panted noting she felt slightly fatigued.

Finally standing up, her legs first felt like jelly, as she sighed in annoyance, "Fuck... now I need to shower..." before remembering where she was, staring at him rather bewildered and registering an appreciation that had not existed before. This was weird, but time to be courteous, "You did not need to save me... Don't get me wrong, I am grateful... just don't understand why... I fucked up everything and almost killed everyone... I was certain all of you hated me..." there was a slight pinkish hue to her cheeks, a barely concealed blush.

At this point, her head finally understood what was happening and noticed the crowd while the sirens were very near. Hurriedly, she grimaced her wrist hurting, before pointing up the street, "Even I am not dumb enough to stay here, let's just go!" waiting she would start running up the street, checking if he followed behind her.

Someone cared?

Someone actually forgave her?

What did it all mean?

-Somewhere-

Two pairs of eyes stared intently at a monitor. Information scrolled by in an endless stream, all of it filtered back through a labyrinth of contacts and shells so vast most of the participants didn't even know they were part of it.

Constant information.

One pair of eyes blinked and suddenly the scroll reversed four lines and an entry was highlighted.

[urgent] Contract 77176.212.9 - Jarrako Downs - Bio-engineering canister

The tag moved into a side window as the text scrolled a number of lines down and a second entry was highlighted, and a third

[urgent] Contract 77176.212.1 - Jarrako Downs - Hex Corps
[urgent] Contract 77176.213.0

These joined the first in a side window as the final entry opened over it. It was a mole on New Midgard, one that had been planted to tale one Daisy Weldon in the event that Seth Libanori ever attempted to make contact with her again.

\..
[Contract 77176.213.0 status]/..
[terminated]/..
..
...
[reason]/..
..
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[agent deceased]/..
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[conflict detected]/..
[contract 77176.212.1]/..
[contract 77176.212.9]/..
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[new priority contract]/..
[generating contract tag]/..
..
...
[contract 77176.223.7]/..
[Daisy Weldon]/..
[termination order]/..
..
...
[reason]/..
..
...
[Survivor]/..
..\

The eyes turned toward each other, wide with a deep primal horror.
Fingers worked feverishly over the console.

\..
[terminate contract 77176.212.1]/..
[y/n]/..
..
...
[contract terminated]/..
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[activate local resources?]/..
[y/n]/..
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...
[activating local resources]/..
[local authorities overridden]/..
[inserting lethal force order]/..
..
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[Geist terminal access]/..
[activation code]/..
[********]/..
..
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[Geist activation?]/..
..
...
[y/n]/..
..
...
[Geist activation acknowledged]/..
..\


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Seth stood and brushed himself off. "Yeah, you have almost gotten me killed, twice." he scratched the back of his head. "But hey, everyone deserves to be saved once in a while regardless." He heard the sirens and could see the flashes of light far down the road, the authorities would be here soon, and the cyborgs still had him cornered, but Daisy was apparently free to go. "Look, I'll figure out a way out of this, but there's no point both of us getting caught up in that." he motioned to the incoming swat, "And they aren't exactly the quitting type." this time he pointed a thumb back towards the bar, then he whispered "Pad one one nine. Don't scratch her." as he scratched his nose, hoping none of the cyborgs caught it. He was too hard headed to give up the chase just yet.

Daisy would find an access key in her pocket that Seth had slipped there during the too close moment.

With that Seth trusted his next move to fate and a girl who had thus far only served to nearly get him killed. The cliché would be 'I've been in worse situations' he thought, but at this point he really couldn't imagine that that was true. He turned back toward the bar, pulling his pistol slowly out of its holster so that it would hang on his thumb by the trigger guard, the plasma pistol lay at his feet. "Looks like we may have roused some attention." He quipped.



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The Special Response APC's sirens were wailing as three trucks rumbled down the street towards the incident, a firefight at a local bar with a bad reputation, but this had been on another level. The men inside the trucks wore military grade armor and carried an array of serious hardware. Combat rifles and anti tank rifles, grenade launchers with both smoke and frag rounds, they were as well equipped as a heavily armed military unit, and for all intents and purposes that's what they were.

A blue light flashed in the cab of the truck...

"Mission update men. Lethal force on contact, lock and load."

" Sarah, we've got Light armor moving in from the north, I suggest you guys move" Mavrick told Sarah over their private network, as he relocated to a secondary hide over watching the main road leading into the club. " I'll cover your retread while you secure the HVT, I suggest we find a transport and get him back tot he ship for debrief."


"Roger , thanks for the heads up" Sarah answered aloud while she kept her eye on Seth. Jason moved to stop Daisy but Sarah waved him off. "No time for that, you heard Mav. Mr Libanori, if you'd be so kind as to slip out the back with Jason, we will escort you to be debriefed. With any luck, and no further... interruptions.." She said looking around the room " ... We can get you on your way shortly... You may keep your sidearm but I'm required to get that one, and the package you had."


Jason motioned the direction for Seth to move, while Sarah set about gathering the Plasma pistol and case Seth had at left.

"fifteen seconds" Mavrick chimed to Jason and Sarah.

Sarah felt like she had missed something... something important, but didn't have the time to think about it.
" Move Jason!" Sarah barked siding the plasma pistol into her pocket.

Mavrick opened fire at the first squad member who rounded the armored car, the second man jumped back quickly as his comrade fell to the ground dead, and was promptly drug back behind cover, while other members deployed smoke. Mavrick was done shooting however and was quickly egressing out the rear building to meet up with Jason and Sarah.His body seemed to ripple before disappearing from sight as he activated the therm-optic camouflage, only the faint plodding of his boots against the ground would give him away.