UNSC forces had been going in and out from the Battlegroup since contact had been made with both the United Kingdom and the Alliance of Wald. The UK had opened up negotiations almost the moment the UNSC craft had landed and greeted them via Radio call. Admiral Nakano soon found out that that was because they'd actually had people on the top of those mountains looking at the stars with telescopes and they'd spotted their force. That was kind of funny to consider, but it was true:If one just looked with a telescope at night, they could easily see the UNSC Fleet.
Communication was being worked on, of course. The first test of the com system between the Federal Republic and the United Kingdom of Roa Gracia was about to begin. However, the Admiral had another matter to attend to. She marched down the corridors toward the bridge of the ONI Sahara-class Prowler Set In Stone, one of the few scout craft that were stationed with their fleet and weren't counted as part of the fleet.
She entered the deck and was saluted promptly by the Captain of the ONI vessel. The air in the place was oppressive as she looked between the crew at their stations and the world below, over which the vessel currently orbited. Its sensor dishes were pointed down, tracking the IFFs of DAGGER Team as they moved through the capital city. She approached the holographic table that tracked the progress of the squad, then said to the captain of the ONI vessel, "I take it we've begun cleanup?"
"Yes," He nodded, "We won't be able to get to all the possible insurgent elements within the city, but if we target the selected groups, we should be able to drastically reduce any chance of hostility from the local Alba population. Especially if we can provide evidence... And ONI does specialize in making things look like accidents, Admiral. I wouldn't worry about reprisal anyway."
"Happy you finally get to go via your old Modus Operandi, captain?" The woman remarked tersely, to which the man chuckled darkly. The Admiral shook her head. She felt odd that president Monet would approve a hit mission like this within her own country, but then again, she wanted to change things. The biggest changes in the past several hundred years always occurred through sanctioned hits like this.
Admittedly, the Admiral had been very specific about not murdering the targets if given the opportunity to just slander them, but the man they were going after right now was nothing short of an animal. No, that was an insult to creatures in the wild. He was a monster. The amount of human trafficking he'd undertaken, with both young Colorata and Alba girls, was nothing short of sickening. And this man was the minister of education.
"HITMAN," She spoke over the Para-RAID as she pulled up a holographic two-dimensional screen with the man's file,"This is MAMA BIRD... You've got the green light to engage the moment you see Target ALPHA. Other SIERRA Teams will be engaging in snatch-and-grab operations of HVT ALPHA's supporters and clients, so we can get confessions... Lethal force authorized."
The man was a fat, scruple-less creep, unsurprisingly enough. Unkempt, ugly as sin and with three extra chins, the man looked like something out of political caricatures drawn by opponents in democratic elections to discourage voting for the opposing side. He was balding, with greyed hair and fifty-six years of age. What he was doing with kids of both Alba and Colorata descent, nobody wanted to know.
"MAMA BIRD, HITMAN copies," DAGGER's leader replied. The clicks of silenced carbines and SMGs being cocked rippled over the com, "Approaching target site. Multiple security personnel spotted. SPI suits online. Will contact to provide SITREP at later date... HITMAN going dark. Over and out for now," and the Para-RAID went dead. Despite that, the woman could still see them mobile on the three-dimensional map of the city. They'd entered one of the back roads behind the main house of the target.
The complex was a four-story tall mansion with several rooms, that was sat on a tall hill overlooking the Main Boulevard. Its courtyard was several hundred square feet and contained a garden, a pool and several other amenities one would expect out of the noble houses of the place. It was also surrounded by a ten-foot-tall perimeter wall of concrete, though it lacked the barbed wire. Down on the ground, planet-side, night had also fallen.
One of the local guards, a Military Policeman that had been dragged off his post to provide security for the HVT, looked past the shrubs that flanked the paved main road which led up to the house. The hilly area around the place was somewhat wide open, only occupied by a few other houses on the crests of the hills, though none as opulent as the Minister's, save for Premier Yvonne's.
She was another issue, thought DAGGER Actual, or, today, HITMAN-1, as his blade dug into the throat of the first guard near by the massive gate. He tossed the corpse out of sight, then cleaned the blade and sheathed it. Drawing his rifle, he peeked past the gate's bars. At least a dozen more guards patrolling the compound. 7,62x51 NATO rifles, FN types. FALs with paratrooper stocks and iron sights. Flashlights taped to the sides or in the hands of the guards.
DAGGER Actual looked up, then said, "No barbed wire."
"We boosting one-another, boss?" Inquired DAGGER-3, or HITMAN-3. Two was behind her.
"Yeah. Two, you got the 'accident' maker?" He then asked. The boy saw his team-mate appear and disappear in a flash. On her back was a pack of flame grenades. Standard-issue Napalm explosives that'd paint the entire building in the damn thing if they so much as breathed wrong when touching them. James gave a nod to his teammate, then tapped the side of his helmet twice and flashed an amber acknowledgement light toward another hilltop.
His HUD flashed with a green light. Kyle had them in his rifle's scopes, as well as the guards on the grounds, presumably. James flashed his light green twice, then looked to Keely and Sam and nodded. He took position by the wall and boosted both of them up, with Sam hanging onto the wall to provide the boy the helping hand he needed. Climbing over the wall and into the grounds themselves, the Spartans drew their firearms. Standard issue MA5K Carbines with silencers and holosights.
Scattering, the three SPARTANs inside the compound proceeded under the cover of their sniper team-mate. As they advanced, two more guards out of the dozen inside met their ends in the form of blades to the throat, their corpses hidden in the thick shrubs that permeated the beautiful garden of the rich trafficker. The Spartans rallied near a shed, then eyed the main path that led to the house.
Ten more guards outside. And going from the thermals that Kyle was transmitting, there were two dozen more inside. The lights were on, but they could easily find the main breaker to disable it. With a single hand signal, HITMAN One ordered Three and Two to start looking for the breaker while he figured how to best deal with the targets. It'd be good not to expend ammo on them, because it'd be less believable that a fire killed them all if there was a bullet hole in their skulls. Slit throats were not much better, but at least were more easily covered up... Eh, it didn't matter much anyway. A death's a death. Could be by fire or anything else.
Plus, they had the President and her military cabinet to help them cover this up.
He sighed, then looked down the holo-sight of his rifle at one of the guards as he looked around. The man stopped just in front of One's hiding place, leaned his rifle on his shoulder, barrel pointing at a window, then took a cigarette out of his pocket and slid it between his lips. As he lit it, he took a long drag from it, removed it from his lips and breathed out as he flicked the ash away. The smoke was thick enough to cloud his vision as he put it back in his mouth. He breathed in again, feeling the warm smoke coat his lungs, before gasping as he saw the tip of the cigarette put out, squeezed shut.
Beside him, HITMAN Actual appeared. The man quipped, "Smoking kills, buddy..." in a whisper before pushing the cigarette down his throat, pushing him down into the shrubs and immediately snapping his neck before he could so much as let out a choked-out cough. As the lights in the building flashed, buzzed and went off, James smiled as he saw Sam and Keely appear.
Keely looked down at the corpse and noticed the cigarette lodged in his throat, then asked "Did you really have to do him like that, boss?"
"We heard the joke over the radio," Sam sighed. As the guards went into the house to see what was going on, she stated, "Well, that puts all our targets in one place."
"Agreed. Move in for breach and clear. Keely, ready the fire... Let's roast some pig," James noted, then racked the bolt of his rifle. The trio of Spartans gathered up at the side of the building's door, hearing the demands of the massive man to power the lights back on. The Spartans listened in as the guards called out for someone to go outside and check the power... And the moment someone opened the door, he ran into the knife of DAGGER Team's leader, dropping like a fly.
"Go!" James called out, hefting his rifle and shoulder-checking the other half of the double doors. He raised the weapon, scoped in the first guard in sight and squeezed off the first burst. Three rounds to the chest, dead in the heart. The man collapsed, blood splattering across the marble floor. Sat on the massive staircase of the place was their target himself. He was even uglier and fatter in real life.
Sam and Keely breached a second after James had kicked the door in. Bursts of assault carbine fire tore into the ranks of the guards that still stumbled to put two and two together. Whenever one managed to figure things out and raise a gun, he was shot on the spot by three 7,62 carbines. Meanwhile, nobody could see them. James took advantage and said, "Dispersal pattern Charlie, spread out wide and pick your targets. Keely, basement. Secure whatever's down there. Evidence, data, everything else. Sam, take the bastard's office, then help Keely set up the napalm bombs so we can burn this joint down. Kyle... Snipe whatever tries to run out. I got the HVT."
Green acknowledgement lights winked on. Meanwhile, suppressed gunfire shocked the men as they finally regained their composure. Taking cover, they opened up with their rifles into the hall. Half a dozen men remained in the main hall and adjacent rooms when James ran up the stairs to chase down their target. A Sniper shot rang out, suppressed, but loud enough for the Spartan TL to hear it. He saw the brains of a man splatter across the window in front of him. Ignoring that, he followed the trail of the target...
He kicked down a gigantic door, raising his rifle. He was met by a flurry of 9mm bullets that bounced off the armor's plating. He saw the man struggling to aim for any possibly vital part of his body. As the gunfire outside died down, the man's pistol clicked the loudest click there ever was for this man. The Spartan sighed, watching as the man scrambled to his feet, trying to beg for his life with what he must've thought was a vengeful spirit.
He put one straight in the man's skull. He collapsed and James could swear the building shook beneath his feet when the fatbody hit the floor. He sighed, slid his gun onto his back and descended down the stairs, watching as Keely walked up them and tossed one of the flame grenades inside, then turned and left. The girl then said, "We discovered a bunch of girls, Alba and Colorata survivors, lots of the Alba are missing poster girls, too," as she pointed at the civilian girls with the thousand-yard stares, each of them wearing torn clothes and staring at the ghostly soldiers around them, confused and frightened.
"Damn..." James sighed. He thumbed his mic as the flames started to burn. He made several motions of the hand to order Keely and a returning Sam to drag the corpses inside, let them burn with the place. Sam, meanwhile, brought several files and documents to him. He nodded, slid them into a specialized container he'd brought on his back, then spoke over com, "MAMA BEAR, this is HITMAN... Requesting Prowler CASEVAC planetside. Times..." He counted the girls, "Twenty survivors. Female. Teens and young adults... I'm gonna presume HITMAN Three found them in the basement and not wonder what was going on down there."
"Shit... Roger, HITMAN. We're sending the CASEVAC bird with Pararescue medics and a Shrink. Nearby empty 'crop' fields. Take the girls and yourselves there. We'll provide supplies and ammunition and let you be on your way for the next ops in town. Be advised, all other elements have snatched or blasted their HVIs and should be on the way back to the Safehouse... Take care."
"We will, ma'am. HITMAN One out..." He sighed, then ordered, "Four, get your ass back down here. Bring the car... Two, Three, let's get outside and decloak. I'd rather not risk any sort of sighting with the flames causing silhouettes," and he got green lights from all his members. The trio inside the mansion directed the girls gently toward the exit, dragged the corpses of the dead inside as the fires began to burn brightest and envelop the whole house, then kicked the gate just as a bus came in.
James looked, dumbfound, then asked, "Uh... Four...?"
"... Boss, we had to get something to accommodate all of them," The boy remarked. His Sniper lay against the dashboard. The windows were tinted, thankfully, so nobody would see who was driving. James sighed, then nodded. He deactivated his cloak, scaring some of the girls, then showed them to calm down. He motioned to the bus, then looked around to ensure there was no response force coming in yet.
Boarding the bus, the others decloaked as well, just as Kyle started driving. The girls had been settled into the seats of the bus, some of the Colorata and Alba looking to one-another disbelievingly. James sighed, then looked to Sam and said, "I don't think they're gonna calm down unless we show'em we mean no harm..." before going to remove his helmet.
As the helmet was unsealed and removed, the girls gasped. He spoke, "Ladies, please, stay calm... I'm HITMAN One and these are my team-mates. We're not here to cause harm. Quite the opposite, in fact, we're here to help you."
"... Who are you...?" Weakly spoke one of the oldest of the bunch. She must've been no older than nineteen, going by her features, but she looked haggard, tired. Her silver eyes were sunken in. She hugged herself and the blanket she wore as her only cover, stating "You don't look like San Magnolian soldiers... Those sons of bitches..." and gazing upon the Spartan with suspicion.
"We're part of a multinational force seeking to change your country for the better," The man replied, "You will be taken care of aboard the vessels of our Navy, then returned to your families after treatment has been administered."
"Give us a reason to trust you, HITMAN..." The girl demanded, "A lot of Soldiers were clients of that son of a bitch... He and his men nabbed us off the street or out of the damn camps outside... What are you doing for us? For the people in those camps? For the entire rotten country's few caring citizens..." and she paused as she saw him removing something from his belt.
A few minutes of explanations later, the group had reached the parked Calypso exfiltration craft and the group of medical personnel and psychiatrist who were there to help the young women and nurse them back to health. The Calypso itself was cloaked and its engines had been shut off, but the belly of the ship was still visibly open. After a thorough physical checkup, the girls were starting to board the vehicle while the UNSC troopers were unloading equipment and supplies for the boys to cart over to their hidden bunks.
The Alba girl stopped on the ramp, turned toward James, then called out, "Hitman!" as she saw him helping his team load supplies.
He looked to her, though his helmet was on his head. She offered the smallest smile, all she could muster, then said, "... Thanks..." before boarding the transport vessel with a ticket booked for the UNSC Naval battlegroup up above. Sam and Keely chuckled while Kyle was tending to the bus... Namely trying to dispose of it... When their TL returned. With one hand signal, the group boarded the bus again and departed as the Calypso lifted off the ground and boosted out of the place.
At the Von Penrose house...
It'd been some time since Annette had had any guests over. Admittedly, this was not a courtesy visit. Rather, Annette had realized much was wrong with her. She had supported the idea of a coup in thought, mostly because she knew her country would be pretty much doomed otherwise. Doubly so with the UNSC in orbit, ready to wipe'em all out if they so much as sneezed the wrong way. And honestly? She understood why. The entire place was rotten to the core. Or, well, almost. Lena, the President and a few other officials proved to be people who wanted change.
And now that they had their chance, Annette wondered if it was going to go well, or if it was going to further harm the Republic. Or maybe outright do the Legion's job for it. She hadn't had time to think about this while helping Lena and the others, but the moment she was handed a fifty-caliber semi-automatic handgun, it clicked. What they were doing was a change that would not come without reprisal from fellow Alba.
The UNSC had trusted them enough, though.
A doorbell took Annette, currently the lone occupant of the house as her mother had gone to get some groceries, out of her thoughts. Her heart sank as she breathed a sigh. Clad in her usual at-home clothing, which included a pink nightshirt, a short, loose dress and slippers, the girl approached the door and popped it open, to see Lena... Clad in her uniform. Of course.
She stepped back, opening the door, then said, "C'mon..."
She must've looked absolutely horrifying to the usually chipper Major, considering her eyes were red. She hadn't been able to rest since yesterday, after calling Lena to her home. She'd seen herself in the mirror. Bags under her eyes, messed-up hair from rolling around and trying to find a comfortable sleeping position in her bed, not to mention the continuous stream of terrified thoughts.
Lena turned to her friend, then said, "You don't look so good..."
"Haven't slept," Annette confessed, "Because I'm probably about to tell you one of the worst things you've ever heard. And knowing your link to the UNSC? They're gonna find out, too... Or they already know, because of the Prez... Let's go. The Attic's where everything's gonna be unveiled," She then stated. A worried Lena climbed the stairs by the side of her tired friend.
After two flights of stairs and a clamber up a ladder that emerged from the ceiling, the girls ended up inside the attic of the Von Penrose family house. Several boxes caked with dust and cobwebs resided around the place, as well as a pair of computer terminals, one of which had parts cannibalized from it to keep the other one working. It also seemed to be a server of some kind, considering the most important stripped parts off of it were just the graphics card and the SSD Drive.
Lena only paused when she saw a half-finished device on the desk with the working terminal. She felt the back of her neck, her fingers caressing the ball-shaped Para-RAID system on the back of her neck. She recognized the general shape and the components of the device as she'd seen Annette working countless hours on similar, but smaller versions of the device.
"Annette..." Lena murmured.
The girl gave the saddest smile that Lena had ever seen, then pulled aside the curtain, revealing to Lena a wall of prototype devices. Various stages of the Para-RAID Device's life lay in front of her, burned out husks that ranged from skeletal cages lined with wires and electrodes that attached to the head, to outright semi-invasive variations of the Para-RAID systems. Below the wall, there was a line of opened folders, each marked with the Para-RAID Project's emblem, of a human mind linked with a machine.
Each was opened, revealing images from one of the many camps of the Eighty-Sixth sector, with the experiments being performed with each device and their aftermaths, of horrible damage and outright death of some of the subjects described and even shown in horrific detail. Lena blinked, mouth agape as she picked up one of the files. She narrowed her lips. She wanted to speak, to say that she hadn't been aware of what was going on, but...
"This is it..." Annette sighed, "This is what my father had to do, Lena. What I had to do after he committed suicide..."
"Annette..." Lena spoke, her voice a whisper.
The girl shook her head, "I didn't enjoy it, but I and dad have always been told we were 'doing it for the good of the country' and 'we would be hailed as heroes after the war'... It didn't help my dad when he had to go through the first six prototypes. At the seventh... Hah..." She smiled and looked at the seventh device, one that slowly began to resemble the Para-RAID they both knew, as well as the secondary earlobe attachment that permitted links between the Processors and their Handlers. Annette picked the device up and spun it about, revealing the marks of burned skin on it.
Lena gasped, then saw the report of the seventh prototype. She picked it up, then narrowed her lips. The last line read, 'A tragedy has occurred during testing of Prototype Number Seven. Due to unknown factors(Possible stress due to work environment, sight of injured subjects or deaths of underage subjects) head researcher, technical colonel A. Von Penrose, tested the device on himself at maximum power level. Following surge of electricity from failures caused a short-circuit of the synapses, the researcher was killed in sight of staff by own device. Continuation of research to be handed to second-highest ranking official in the team...'
"Dad popped the damn thing on his head... I was right there," Annette sat herself down at the desk, kicking up a cloud of dust as she moved, "And he zapped himself... Couldn't take take it... And guess who they had to continue the work when she came of age?"
"... I'm so..." Lena paused. She'd read about her father's passing. Christ... She didn't imagine that was the real story.
"Ain't your fault, Lena," The girl sighed, setting the thing back into place on the wall, "You weren't the one who fucked up our country to the point I and my family did what we needed to do..."
Lena narrowed her lips, frowning as she saw her friend sigh. She looked back at the files and noticed one single name was common amongst them aside from her father. 'Nouzen'. She gasped, then asked, "Annette... Who're the Nouzens...?"
Annette paused, then chuckled darkly and said, "Figured you'd see the names... The Nouzen family was... Well, they were family friends to the Von Penrose household. One of their kids was my best friend. Shin, we called him..." and Lena's heart sank, then welled all-over again. Annette knew Shin. She listened to her friend speak on, "The head of the Nouzen family also worked with dad on creating the Para-RAID a while ago, before this became what you see it is now... He and his family have..." She sighed, "Had some special extra-sensory ability that was important to the Republic's government. Sort of like telepathy..."
"Ah," Lena paused, then gasped and realized, "... The Para-RAID was developed off of..."
"Yes, before it became a sanctioned war crime by the state, before the whole mess of the war," Annette nodded, smiling, "While the dads were doing work, I and Shin would play together. He was a nice boy... Warm, open, friendly. His brother was a pretty calm guy, too, though he was years older than us by a few years... I and Shin used to just hang out in the garden..." And the two peeked outside. In front of them was a decrepit house with overgrown trees and shrubs, abandoned long ago. It was large, similar in size to a mansion, but smaller than most Noblemen's mansions in the Republic. Beside it was a common garden with a path leading between the two houses.
Lena smiled, "So, best friends, or... Did you two like each-other?"
"Frankly, I don't know..." Annette sighed, "We were kids, Lena. And it's not like it would've mattered, anyway."
"What do you mean?" Lena raised a brow.
Annette snorted, "You stupid? You don't remember... The Presidential Decree, the order given, the deportations of the Eighty-Six by the military after they got their shit kicked in by the Legion!" and she turned to face Lena, a grim look in her eyes despite the mad smile she wore. Shock was strewn across Lena's face as she stared at her friend, while Annette, the usually calm and composed girl, continued with a hint of madness in her voice, "The Nouzen family was one of the first they came for... Dad and Shin's father were still working together when the MPs came..." She then averted her gaze from Lena's, laughing aloud and stating, "I swear... My dad walked into my room, looking at me..."
"... I think he wanted me to say that... That we'd shelter them," Annette took her glasses off as her hands began to tremble, "That we'd look after them despite the Republic's threat of all of us going to the camps... But... Hah... I was a kid. To a kid, her family's everything, do you understand? You should get it, seeing how much your dad means to you, still..."
Lena's eyes grew even wider, her heart sinking a depth she didn't know was possible...
Annette, meanwhile, continued, "... When Shin came to my window, to ask for help or to play, I don't know... I... I snapped..."
Annette's words still rang in her ears. That day had to have been one of the darkest days she'd ever gone through, when she had to send her childhood friend to his doom with those few words... "Get away from us, you freak!" She'd cried out to him. A simple child, a fool thinking she was saving her family from the suffering of being separated, taken apart... The shock on Shin's face and the images of the MPs loading them in trucks replayed in the girl's mind.
She'd just repeated the words to Lena. She looked to her friend again, then opened her arms as tears welled in her eyes, then cried out "That's why I'm afraid, Lena... That's why I'm scared to death of this coup of yours, whether it succeeds or not! Because, no matter what, whether it's gonna be my past or my future, I've made so many mistakes that I don't know how to even live anymore! Human experimentation! Sending a family to its doom because I refused to risk my own selfish reasons! I sent my friend out there to die with his folks! And I don't think I could look him in the eye if he survived the mess out there..."
Annette sank in her chair as a deluge of tears flowed from her eyes, "I... I agreed to help your silly dreams of a free Republic, of the Eighty-Six returning home, because I thought I could atone somehow... But it hit me when I got this..." and she removed the holstered pistol from one of the desk drawers. She looked to her friend again, "They'll want revenge... They'll want us all dead... And they'll have the moral high ground for it... I may as well save them the trouble now..."
Lena gasped as she saw her drawing the pistol. Before she even got to point it anywhere, Lena cried out, tackling her friend to the floor and disarming her. She yelled, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"LET ME GO!" Annette cried, then started laughing, "I did what I was ordered to do! I got us the Para-RAID! THE NEW REPUBLIC YOU WANNA BUILD WON'T NEED ME ANYMORE, LENA! You'll fix what we did wrong... You and your idealistic views, you..." She looked her friend square in the eyes as she began to weep. She confessed, her voice cracking, "I hated you... I hated you so much... For reminding me of my own failures. That I could've saved at least him from that fate. And I hated you for getting the damn get-out-of-jail card with the UNSC... You... Nobody is gonna need me anymore, Lena. And I don't want to face my fucking mistakes alone! If he's alive and he comes home..."
"He is!" Lena called out, glaring at her. As her friend's expression changed from despair to shock, Lena called out, "Shinei Nouzen is alive... He's Undertaker, the leader of Spearhead! I met him! I spoke to him, Annette! He's alive and he's fighting... But he doesn't hold as much of a grudge as you or I thought he would, for what's happened to him... He's said it countless times. He doesn't hate us. He has a bone to pick with the government, certainly, but..."
"How... How can he not...?" Annette looked up, weakening in her struggle, "... Has... He said anything of me?"
"No..." Lena sighed, "He didn't. I don't... I don't know if he remembers you."
Annette blinked as her heart stopped for a moment. She looked at the hand that she had pinned under Lena's, her issued M6 pistol gripped firmly in it. Lena was way stronger than her spindly appearance would let on. She'd been struggling for a bit and her muscles were tired. She looked up at Lena, then asked, "... How is he like? Last I saw him, he was the friendliest guy..."
Lena smiled, "He sounds tired most of the time, but it's to be expected. Battlefields change people, Annette..."
Leaning her head back against the cold floor, Annette's grip on her weapon waned. She unclasped her fingers from around it, letting it slide onto the floor. She spoke, "What if he remembers me...? I'm sure he's gonna hate me for what I... For what we did to him and his family."
"He's pragmatic enough to understand... Sure, he isn't going to like it, but..." Lena leaned back, letting her friend's arms go. The girl pulled them toward her, feeling her forearms, where Lena's knife-like fingernails dug into her skin through the fabric of her clothes.
"Christ, Lena..." The girl murmured, "... Can we get him home?"
"We can," Lena smiled, "Annette... Don't you ever dare say nobody needs you."
Annette looked up and caught sight of Lena just as he bopped her over the noggin. She whined, then rubbed the top of her head as Lena continued, standing to her feet and helping her up, too, "You've been one of the greatest helpers with this whole thing, whether you know it or not. The updates to the Para-RAID devices you've been making, the reports you and Mathieu have been concocting, the ideas... All of it's not only helping us, but the UNSC and the Eighty-Six as well. We've been able to keep his squadron alive. Over a dozen processors. All thanks to active coms between us and the UNSC. He and they are gonna come home after this..."
"... I..." She narrowed her lips. Looking to the gun laying on the floor, she saw two things. What her future moments ago would've looked like and the fact that the weapon was on safe.
Lena then placed a hand on her friend's shoulder, squeezing it to reassure her, then smiled and said, "And I'm not letting you face them alone. Hell, I said I was going to meet them for a coffee and some of your pastries when they showed up," to which Annette gazed upon her, eyes wide. While she was sure Lena hadn't mentioned her by name(or if she had, that Shin didn't remember) she felt a hint of joy at the thought.
Her lower lip quivered as tears once more ran down her cheeks. She wrapped her arms tightly around Lena as flashes of her past played back in her mind. She knew she couldn't do anything for Shin anymore. She was the one who had agreed to send him away, to sacrifice him to the war machine of the Legion... She had no right to even try. She had liked him, as much as she'd try to deny it...
So, Lena, maybe...? Heh...
She chuckled. A melodious sound to Lena's ears, which slowly turned to weeping. She wailed in her friend's shoulder, wetting the uniform's blue silk with her tears while Lena patted her on the back. She would continue to help, for Shin and for his friends to come back home. And for the UNSC to take over. When she stopped, Lena handed her her glasses, then said, "Hope to see you at work tomorrow. We still got a coup to plan out."
She looked to the holster and to the gun, then to Lena. She smiled, wiping away her tears and putting her glasses back on her face. She'd do her best. Backing away from Lena, the girl smiled weakly, then brought her hand up to her forehead in a salute. She replied, "Aye, Major... We'll see each-other. And then we'll get that coffee and those sweets with Shin and his team."
Lena smiled brightly enough to light the dark room, then saluted back.