Don't Write Me A Postscript
Kai stared down at the missive sent directly to her from a name she had not, in fact, ever expected to see again. For a long moment Kai just stared, and stared—and a part of her contemplated pretending she'd not received the message at all and go back to her plans for tonights rave to piss off the old shotgun man who shot at her Dex for fun across the Gulch. For a moment Kai contemplated outright murder—except she and Dex talked, after her arrival and after everything, and she knew Dex liked Sarge for whatever reason and Kai was determined not to ruin this too for her brother. She ruined enough between the both of them while growing up already. If it weren't for her Dex wouldn't even be—
With a frustrated grunt Kai grit her teeth and slammed her hand down onto the table, next to her tablet and bowed her head over her knees. She let the pain rush up her arm and bit back a scream—let it ground her down into the moment until the thoughts she didn't want to focus on left her. With a huff Kai leaned back and stared up at the cement ceiling, strung up with lights of all colors that were, for the moment, off. She ran her fingers along the back of her neck and massaged them into her shoulders, welcomed the twinge of pain that followed the movement, and sighed.
"Fuck you Andersmith," she grumbled, dropped her feet off of the table, and swiped the tablet up. "Fuck you and the horse you damn well rode in on." With a growl Kai stormed out of the base. She didn't bother to grab her armor or the protective undersuit. It wasn't like Sarge would actually shoot her anyway—she knew Donut talked to him, once, and if she remembered the white-blond farm-boy at all she didn't doubt he was convincing in his weird way. Plus everyone over on Dex's team seemed rather fond of the farm-boy, anyway, so Kai had that going in her favor. Still, for safety's sake, Kai took a moment to pause a good distance away from Red Base.
Kai looked down at her tablet, sucked in a breath, and looked back at the pockmarked ground. "OI! YOU OLD WHITE FUCK!" Kai practically swayed with the force of her yell and squinted over at the red base. She waited and watched for Sarge to pop up on top of the base, shotgun at the ready as he peered off in the distance at her.
"What do yer want, yer damned dirty blue?!" Sarge yelled across the canyon.
"IT'S ABOUT DEX!" Kai screamed. "AND THAT PASTY KISS-ASS OF HIS!" She watched as Sarge dithered for a second, and then disappeared from the roof without a word. Kai huffed and started to pace around the hill, her hands wrapped tight around the tablet with Andersmith's message. Mentioning Dex and his not-boyfriend should get the old bastard right up to her. She noticed his soft spot for the nerd, so she hoped by mentioning him she'd at least get his attention.
Kai didn't doubt if she just screamed about Dex he wouldn't have even really listened beyond to give her his shitty condolences. Honestly what was Butch even thinking, picking a twisted up old creep like this to be the leader of red team? Not to mention her precious Dex! If she ever got her hands on his corpse she'd happily burn it—but she still hadn't found where it'd gotten to. Butch didn't seem to be in the caverns like that poor kid or the body Tex once housed. Kai wondered if he was even alive somewhere, holed up and waiting for the right moment to swoop back into the swing of things.
Her thoughts didn't distract her for long, and soon Kai dug her teeth into her lips as she paced. Her gaze slipped down to the message from Andersmith and she looked back to the base while she moved with deadly precision and grace. Damn Andersmith for contacting her now, of all things, when she'd been certain everything would be fine. It wasn't like Dex's life would be at risk because of the stupid AI they had to keep an eye on anymore—or at least, it shouldn't have. Now this? Kai pulled the tablet up and slammed her back against the trunk of the lone, twisted tree with a grunt. She swiped along the glass surface and shifted her shoulders so that the bark actually dug into the faint scars in a way to tug some of her attention and keep her senses sharp.
The video stuttered with slipspace radiation interference, one of the little tricks Omega Team used when sending secured messages if they weren't on location with one another. The unique radiographic signature let Kai know that Andersmith wasn't compromised, in need of rescue, or immediate assistance for whatever reason. It also let her know that the message was priority and that was what got Kai out here, now, speaking with Sarge of all people.
"Hey—Hey Kai," Andersmith said, lips pulled into a wry grin. He wore the lip piercing Kai had gotten him during shore leave one day, and she saw several new additions all across his face alongside a tattoo of some alien script under his eye. "I k-k-k-kkknow you didn't expect to h—from me again." The static rushed through the video and cut through words like butter, but the context was still readable as he spoke. "We didn't pa-a-a-arrrt on the best of terms, did we?"
Kai hunched her shoulders.
"Yeah," Andersmith nodded and scrubbed his hand through his hair. The screen fizzed and jumped around some more before she found him staring, serious now as he looked at her. "Look the Director sent me a m-ii—ve. I'm en-rrrrrroute to Rhodam."
Kai closed her eyes.
"I-I know," Andersmith sighed. "You don't want me near-r-rrrr Outposssssst Alpha, but I trust you wo-won't shoot me down?"
"Don't count on it," Kai grumbled.
"Th-thought n-n-n-nnnnnot, so," Andersmith continued. "S-S-So I've been given permisssssssion to break that one—" the words completely washed away into static, but when Andersmith popped back into the screen it was with a picture of Dex and his not-boyfriend to be held up. "—my collateral. I trust you understand?" His smile became almost bitter as he leaned back. "Yeah. Yeah I know you do." He leaned back. "I'll see you soon, Kai." The screen broke up again into interference, and then just the brush of fingertips against the camera, a silent goodbye, before it completely cut out.
Kai smashed her back into the tree with barely contained fury. Dammit, Andersmith! Why couldn't he have included something more than just—that? Oh when she saw him she was going to enjoy wrapping her thighs around his neck and listening to him gasp for it, Kai swore. She would've just been happy with shooting down his pelican but not now—not now. Not with the potential threat of Dex being on board that thing, as well.
"Well, little missy," Sarge huffed as he came to a rest several yards away from her. Kai straightened up and noted that Sarge held his good loosely, but finger off the trigger like he had in all their few other interactions since everyone left the Gulch. "What's all this hullabaloo about, then?"
Kai scowled at Sarge and crossed her arms—every inch of her a petulant child and just the way she wanted it to appear as she regarded the old man in power armor. She needed to play her cards just right, for this to pan out, and for her to get her shot in on Andersmith for this mess, but this was where Kai excelled. Playing people to her tune and pulling at the threads they left beyond—this was her talent, for all that Dex wanted to pretend she didn't have it. With a huff, Kai began to spin her tale.
Cornelius 'Corey' Andersmith leaned back with his feet kicked up onto the console as he watched the expanse of space pass him by. He tried his hardest to ignore the muffled shouting that came from the cargo-space and the increasingly creative food-related insults that were tossed in his direction. There wasn't anything Private Dexter Grif could say to him that would make him any more terrified than facing down Kai after the not-so-subtle threat issued toward her brother.
"Are you really sure about this course of action?"
Corey cracked open an eye to stare at the small, holographic figure that he'd come to know well over the years.
"No, Kappa, I'm not sure," Corey sighed and closed his eyes. He ignored the way Kappa moved from in front of him to hover over his shoulder, washing his cheeks with faint red light.
"I don't think this is a wise path to take," Kappa said a little blandly. "You know what the yellow-demon is like."
"And I told you to quit calling her a yellow-demon," Corey shook his head with a sigh. "Just keep an eye on our systems and our heading."
"The orange-round-one does not sound too pleased, either," Kappa pointed out.
"Who would be happy in circumstances like these?" Corey mused. If it were him, back home on Chorus before Project Freelancer, before escaping the inescapable gravity well of the planet, Corey would be spitting fire and vitriol at his captors.
"One would think the orange-round-one would be pleased to not be in front of a firing squad," Kappa replied. "Perhaps it is upset about the purple-red not-AI?"
"I don't know, Kappa," Corey shrugged. "It's been almost a month now. I doubt anyone would be so forgiving, circumstances such as these or not." Corey sighed and snuggled down into the chair.
"I would be forgiving," Kappa moved toward the door to the cargo bay and stared at it contemplatively. "Should we not contact Xi? We are near to our objective."
Corey shrugged. "Rather not bother Xi if it's all the same to you," he said and waved a hand in Kappa's direction. "Not until we've got the target in sights, at least."
Kappa twisted in the air for a second and then settled on top of Corey's head. A little bit of shifting around had the small AI practically laying across the fringe of Corey's hair. "I do not like this path."
Corey shrugged his shoulder and ran his fingers through his hair, inadvertently directly through Kappa's hologram as well. "Tough luck, you're stuck with me."
"I do not mind you," Kappa said.
"Yeah, yeah. Just keep an eye on that heading, Kappa. I'm going to take a nap. Wake me when we're close to planetfall." Kappa flickered from atop Corey's head, and then vanished the holographic form the second Corey's vitals registered that he'd finally slipped into slumber.
Church pulled his motorbike up next to Washginton's on the side of the road. It had taken him up until the second waystation to get Washington to admit to commandeering them a couple of vehicles that didn't register as 'cars' on his ping-list, and as such would be exempt from his strange not-quite-cursed-fixation with the vehicles. It would take them far too long to travel to Valhalla elsewise, and Church rather wanted to spend as little time as possible between stops now.
"Something on your mind?" Church questioned. He'd finally relented now that Wash got them bikes and gave the Freelancer back his helmet. Caboose fussed for a while, but to make things 'even' Church allowed the big blue soldier to hand out the rest of the helmets too.
"What part of the pelican do you think landed here?" Wash asked, and tapped the map where Church had marked out a possible secondary site. They were rather close to the path off the main road they'd need to follow if they did choose to take the detour.
Church shrugged. "Could be any part of it," he said. "Why?"
Wash folded up the map and looked up at the sky tiredly. "I need the ship's black box specifically," Wash admitted. "If I am to get the data from the flight, including record of its crash, then I need that black box." Wash tilted his head down to look at Church. "Anything else, Freelancer tech included, is secondary. My primary mission is to find out where the Omega AI is now."
"And the possible Omega incident at Valhalla makes that location more pressing," Church agreed with a frown behind his mask.
Wash shook his head tiredly. He couldn't be sure which was the better option for them at the moment—take the time out of getting to Valhalla and possibly lose what was most likely the primary crash site, or search this secondary site on the off chance of unearthing that black box. After a second Wash looked back at Church again. "Why did you provide me the alternate sites?"
Church bit his lip. He hadn't been sure why he'd pulled up everything he could remember that he'd calculated out while at High Ground, let alone why he gave it all to Wash. Ever since their crash and the life-or-death scare David had given him—the realization—Church tried hard to avoid thinking in too much detail about what he was doing. He didn't want to think. If he let himself drift off into questioning—into looking too closely at everything—Church felt afraid.
"You've grown on me," Church said, eventually, almost like giving away a secret. He refused to look at David as he continued, voice growing fainter. "And you…remind me of someone, actually. Someone I thought I'd never see again." Church shook his head. This wasn't the right time, nor the right place. He glanced over toward the forest and the direction he knew the secondary site would be.
"Church…" David murmured, and yeah that was definitely David and not Agent Washington.
"You know I didn't have to listen to you," Church said. "I could've just let you kill yourself trying to get into High Ground. Would've saved me so much fucking trouble…" Church sighed and slumped over the bike. "Just holler when you've made your decision. I've got my own reasons for seeing that crash site, anyway." Church kicked the bike back into gear and rode over to where Caboose had pulled off to the side of the road and the big blue soldier worked on preparing snacks for the group.
Wash watched him go with a frown beneath his mask.
