Legalities
Peter eyed the human looking female in front of him. There was something off about her but he was not sure what it was. She looked like the usual security forces that he had seen on the Relays before. The full body covering left only the nose and mouth visible. But there was something else. The blue bodysuit with the Lotus on the forehead was standard, and... Oh. A pair of ornate hilts stuck out from behind her back. Daggers of some kind with ornate handles. The guards seemed to curl up back towards the points of the things from what little he could see of them. Were those Lotuses on the pommels? Some kind of Tenno daggers? He met the visor of her helmet and then nodded.
"Daggers." Peter said softly. "She said 'Daggers', but there was no context." The woman who called herself Karen inclined her head. "New Loka killed one of my crew and took another."
"Yes." Karen sounded calm, but he was sure it was a facade. There was far more to this human looking form than a simple human. "A number of people were notified as soon as it happened. We are not sure yet how they knew to find her. You are not in any directories that we know of. Using portals in such an assault is unwise without a great deal of reconnaissance. None of your people would have betrayed you."
"I did ask for information on human children. Not that she is one." Peter was getting tired of walking around the truth, but this was not his game. He did not know all of the rules and if this odd human was carrying Tenno daggers? He did not want to know. "What can you tell me? Us." He corrected when Flash coughed.
"New Loka HQ has been locked down tight." Karen said quietly, her gaze sweeping over Flash and Edmund before returning to Peter. "No one in or out. There are a lot of people upset by this. The Syndicates have stepped over the line a few times, but nothing like this. Kidnapping a non-consenting being for whatever is what the Corpus would do. No offense." She said offhand to Edmund who shrugged.
"None taken." Edmund's voice was flat. Peter looked at him and the soldier was tense. Very tense. "Are we secure?" he asked. Karen touched her belt and something gave a metallic screel nearby. He frowned as Karen nodded. "You know how much that is going to cost us?"
"Perrin will be annoyed, but they can kiss my butt." Karen said with a shrug. "You didn't do it and any fees they send to you can be put against the massive balance they owe us. Feel free to quote me on that. They know who I am."
"Okay." Peter took a deep breath. "New Loka attacked us and took Swan. My thought is that they believe that we would head for Earth even with this happening. That we would simply leave her to them in the need for vengeance against the Grineer."
"'If you fall behind, you get left behind'." Karen said quietly. Peter stared at her and her expression lightened. "Hey, we know the movies too. The Code may only be guidelines, but some keep to it anyway." Flash actually chuckled at that and Edmund relaxed a little. "That said, we have no intention of leaving her anywhere."
"Neither do we." Peter agreed. "So. Plan?"
"New Loka is trying to tip the balance of power." Karen said with a frown. "I am willing to bet they have no idea at all what they just liberated."
The last word was heavily sarcastic and Peter had to smile at that. This human or whatever she was had a sense of humor but she also had a sense of right and wrong. Once, Peter would have called that a weakness. Now? He knew better. Outrage could make people do things that normal beings could not. If this Karen had been sent by the one who had contacted him, then she was in the know about a lot of things. Peter decided to put what cards he could on the table.
"I am praying she doesn't feed." Peter said softly. Karen nodded, her visible face grave. "We offered her a chance at an end. A way to strike back at the ones who tried to turn her into a weapon." He shook his head but Karen beat him to the punch.
"And why do you think so many disparate elements are helping you?" Karen's voice was quiet, reflective. "Most of the others would have left you to your own devices. Most people on finding such a monster would have just killed her. You gave her a choice and a chance. That is far more than most would have." Peter shrugged at that. "No, captain. Credit where credit is due. You helped her. We can do no less."
"But the Relays are neutral." Peter pointed out.
"The Relays are, true." Karen agreed. "But when crimes are committed and the guilty flee to such havens, there is recourse. Just not violent recourse." She qualified when Edmund and Flash both tensed. "We will go to the administrator. She is not happy at the moment." Edmund tensed and Karen shook her head. 'She is not really here. She administers all of the Relays, she was so good at it, the rest of the crews begged her to take over. She is oversight and the ultimate authority."
"And the Commander knows about this?" Edmund asked carefully. Peter looked at him and the Corpus soldier actually looked pale. "Ah, you do not want to know."
"He was less than happy about her expanded role but she was the best choice for it." Karen replied calmly. Edmund frowned a bit more but then nodded. "And she cannot be on all of the Relays at once. We do protect her." Karen smirked at Edmund's expression.
"If it is all the same to you, I do not want to anger the Commander." Edmund said flatly. "Please tell me Mercedes is safe!" Peter stared at Edmund and the Corpus soldier actually winced. "You are scary. He is crazy scary."
"Mercedes is safe." Karen reassured the human soldier. "She is nowhere near the Relay." Edmund relaxed a little. "And neither is Vina."
"Okay." Edmund blew out a deep breath and nodded to Peter. "Sorry, Captain. But if the Commander gets involved here... A Tenno raiding party might do less damage." Peter's eyes widened and he turned to look at Karen who shrugged.
"For a human, the Commander is pretty bad ass." Karen agreed. "Let's not get him involved if we can help it. We have enough complications."
"Amen." Edmund's voice was firm.
"Is Swan alive?" Peter asked quietly. "If so, she will be getting hungry."
"We know she is alive. We do not know what state she is in." Karen replied. "We have some contingencies in place. But for right now... How well can you keep your temper?" Peter stared at her and then turned to Flash who raised empty hands in a placating gesture.
"I didn't say anything!" Flash protested as Peter glared at her.
"Good. Don't." Peter turned back to Karen who hadn't moved. "Is there a place these two can stay? I want this shuttle back to the ones we 'borrowed' it from."
"Yes." Karen nodded. "But you are not going to like it." Peter did not react and Karen grimaced slightly. "I know. They offered."
"Boss?" Flash asked as Peter seemed to swell.
"If they touch any of us, all bets are off." Peter's tone might have frozen a tide.
"They won't." Karen said simply. Peter just looked at her and the human shrugged. "They won't." She repeated.
"Captain?" Edmund asked when Flash too, shut down. Peter did not take his eyes from the human, but his tone turned disgusted.
"Steel Meridian."
Ten minutes later
No one was speaking. No one seemed to dare moving. The huge weapon that hung from the ceiling was deactivated. None of the armored clones that were scattered around the hall moved as Peter stalked in, followed by Flash and Edmund. Karen was not -quite- with them. She walked beside them. She wasn't a guide, Peter did not need one. Steel Meridian HQ was silent except for the beeps of computers and other assorted machinery. No one commented as Flash and Edmund followed the irate captain and his escort. But then, one did.
"Peter." The captain stopped dead in his track as a large form stepped from a doorway nearby. She wore her customary uniform fatigues in Steel Meridian colors. Her face was as always, her prosthetic eye dominant. Cressa Tal was unhappy. "You look like hell."
"Cressa Tal." Peter walked right up to her and stopped just out of reach. "I am not hungry." He spoke quietly and the area relaxed, just a little. "I am in control."
"Good." The proclaimed leader of the clones who had fled the Grineer Empire to found Steel Meridian shook her head. "This is not what I wanted."
"I know." Peter kept his tone level. "They killed Sora and took Swan." Cressa Tal cursed and looked away. "I know this place is neutral, but..." He broke off as Cressa raised a hand.
"It is." The most infamous Grineer deserter in the Origin system said with a frown. "But there are limits. You and yours are still on our rolls." Flash inhaled from behind Peter. Edmund looked blank, staring from Peter, to Flash to Karen and then back at Peter.
"I did not ask for that." Peter said sharply.
"None of yours did." Cressa Tal's flesh and blood eye was sad as she looked at Peter. "We may have parted in anger, but you are still of us. You came from the same places we did. You saw the same things we did. You took a different path from me and most of us, but you came from the vats and you changed. You were Grineer and now you fight the Queens." She took a deep breath and then held out her hand. "Captain."
"We are not who we were." Peter said softly. Cressa Tal shook her head. "You won't try to stop us?"
"I know when to pick my battles." Cressa Tal said simply. "I know when to retreat from one I cannot win. You found your people in Rathuum and they follow you. Others went to you because we could not help them. They are your people. But you..." She accented that word. "...are with us."
"Cressa..." Peter breathed, eyeing her hand.
"They attacked you, killed the Fury." Cressa Tal did not move, did not lower her hand. "They attacked us."
"Sora hated that name." Flash's voice seemed loud in the silence that permeated the hall. All eyes went to her and Flash dipped her head. "She hated the name 'Fury'. She did not want to be angry."
"No." Cressa Tal said softly. "How did she fall?" She asked Peter who slumped a bit. He took her hand, gave a single shake and let it go. She nodded and retracted it.
"Protecting Swan." He was not prepared for Cressa Tal to hiss and recoil. "Cressa?" The female clone's visible eye was flashing.
"You call me a paladin, a white knight, all that." Cressa Tal said with a grimace. "I am. I believe that no battle is hopeless if you truly believe in the cause. We can make a difference." She gave herself a shake. "We will make a difference. I also believe in justice. New Loka killed one of us. They will pay for that."
"Swan is what is important." Peter retorted. "She is still alive."
"Right." Cressa Tal was many things. Indecisive was not one of them. "Come on." She started for another door and Peter followed. Flash, Edmund and Karen trailed in his wake. "You haven't been to this level." She said as she made her way into a hidden elevator.
"Never wanted to go any deeper." Peter grunted as the group filed in. The doors closed and the elevator started up.
"Still as obstinate as ever." Cressa Tal complained. "Is the girl likely to be a danger?"
"Honestly? I do not know." Peter said with a frown. "We came prepared if she is hungry. I can only hope she hasn't taken any bites out of humans. If she has..."
"She hasn't." Karen interjected. Everyone looked at her but she remained impassive. Peter looked at her and then at the daggers she wore. Cressa Tal followed his gaze and stiffened a little.
"I do not like being a piece in someone else's game." Cressa Tal's voice was flat now.
"Neither do we." Karen's reply was just as flat. "Be glad it is me here and not Nikis."
At that, Cressa Tal's visible face paled. Peter stared at her and then at Karen who did not react. Edmund and Flash both looked confused. None of them knew that name, but if Cressa Tal of all people was scared of him, then he was not a lightweight.
"I am." Cressa Tal said after a moment's silence. "Why would he-? No." She corrected herself. "No. I do not want to know!"
"Wise." Karen's tone was a little warmer. "I am a bit more neutral in this, hence why I am here. The Tenno are madder than hell. It is taking a lot of people talking as fast as they can to keep the most impulsive of them in line."
"You don't think of Tenno as being impulsive." Edmund said slowly. No one commented and he made a noise that was half sigh, half groan. "Or, I didn't."
No one spoke as the elevator slowed and stopped. The door opened and Peter stepped forward, flanked by Cressa Tal. The other three followed into a large room. No. It wasn't large, but the holograms that covered every surface made it seem that way. There was one piece of furniture in the room , a desk. Behind it a human woman with dark hair sat, her face grave. No. Peter revised the evaluation. She wasn't really there. It was a very realistic hologram.
"Vina." Edmund's tone was half awed.
"Lieutenant Commander." The woman nodded to the Corpus soldier. "You look better than I expected, hanging around a bunch of scurvy pirates." Was that a joke? It was!
"What can I say?" Edmund held up both hands in a helpless gesture and shrugged. "Yo ho!"
"No wenching on my station." Vina said with a grin that faded as she looked at Peter. "Captain."
"Administrator."
"New Loka has stepped over the line several times in recent months." The holographic woman said with a frown. "Karen?"
"My duty to them is done." Karen said quietly. "I will not let them indoctrinate me further and they will not trust me unless I do. So, I am going back to my other duties." Peter glanced at her and then at the administrator.
"Karen was keeping an eye on them for a number of concerned parties." The administrator said with a nod. "This is not the first time they have stepped in it, but this may very well be the last. The only upside is that they have not hurt the girl in question."
"Yet." Peter's soft word brought attention back to him.
"Agreed." Vina nodded to him. "We need to keep that from happening. I am calling their representative to the office. She is being escorted. No matter what provocation she gives, do not react." This was a warning. Peter grunted and Cressa Tal shrugged when Vina looked at her.
"That is about the best we can expect from him." The Steel Meridian leader said with a somewhat strained grin. "Socially adept, he is not." Peter did not react as the administrator looked at him.
"Captain. You are in the right here." The woman behind the desk said quietly. "Offer no violence and it will come out right."
Peter looked from her to Cressa Tal who nodded. Peter made a face, but nodded back and folded his arms to wait. They did not wait long. The elevator dinged and Peter glanced- He froze. The human woman in the odd helmet with the odd visor looked worried. The Banshee warframe walking beside her was not easy to read but from the posture? The Tenno was not happy.
"Administrator? We are quite busy. What is the meaning of this?" The woman said in a tone that elsewhere might have been considered haughty. Not here. Not now. She did not give her name and Peter's eyes narrowed. Vina did not say her name either. An insult? Had to be. But to who?
"You and your people messed up." Vina said quietly. "The ship you attacked was not a Grineer vessel."
"I have no knowledge of field operations-" The woman started only to cut herself off as Vina raised a hand.
"The field operatives dropped a person in your lap and vanished." Vina said slowly. The other stiffened."She looks like a child, but she is not. She doesn't talk like one. How many of your guards has she hurt?"
"I do not know what you are speaking of." The woman said flatly. "I was told that you had information and this one..." She glared at the warframe that stood behind her. "...attached itself to my side as soon as I left the embassy."
"I do have information." Vina said flatly. "That being is not your property. She is to be handed over. Now. Without harm done to her."
"I do not know what you are talking about." The newcomer said with a snarl. "We have no children in our midst." At that, Vina went very still. Peter and the others did not know what was going on, but when Vina tensed, so did they.
"She is not a child." Vina said slowly. "She looks like one. She is a weapon designed by a mad Grineer to kill humans."
"By eating them." Peter said into the sudden silence. The blustering woman swallowed hard. "You have no idea what she is. I do."
"A Grineer?" She scoffed. "What do you know?"
"I know that if you let her, she will kill every last one of you." Peter said softly.
"Because you killed her sister."