Xenoblade X: Interim

by Classic Mecraphone

The problem with happy endings is that nothing is ever truly over. With the Ganglion under the thumb of a ruthless new leader, and the unpleasant reality of Cross's past being brought to light, NLA's brief moment of peace has ended. Rating: contains themes, language and violence prevalent in the game

2. Chapter 2: A House Divided

Chapter 2: A House Divided

"In 1953, Allen Dulles, then director of the USA Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), named Dr Sidney Gottlieb to direct the CIA's MKULTRA programme, which included experiments conducted by psychiatrists to create amnesia, new dissociated identities, new memories, and responses to hypnotic access codes. In 1972, then-CIA director Richard Helms and Gottlieb ordered the destruction of all MKULTRA records. A clerical error spared seven boxes, containing 1738 documents, over 17,000 pages. This archive was declassified through a Freedom of Information Act Request in 1977, though the names of most people, universities, and hospitals are redacted. The CIA assigned each document a number preceded by "MORI", for "Managament of Officially Released Information", the CIA's automated electronic system at the time of document release. These documents, to be referenced throughout this chapter, are accessible on the Internet (see: ?id=31). The United States Senate held a hearing exposing the abuses of MKULTRA, entitled "Project MKULTRA, the CIA's program of research into behavioral modification" (1977)."

― Orit Badouk Epstein, Ritual Abuse and Mind Control: The Manipulation of Attachment Needs

Maurice Chausson gave an inward sigh in response to Jack Vandhams newest topic of conversation. Yet again he was bringing up the issue of Cross.

That was to be expected though. NLA hadn't survived because it's commanders all shared the same goals and viewed matters eye-to-eye. Vandham was the harsh father figure among BLADE's who commanded both fear and respect. Subsequently he took on an active role in NLA's administration, often personally dealing with problems and handling matters face-to-face. Due to this he was also personally known by a great many BLADEs.

Nagi was similar to Vandham in his devotion to BLADEs on a personal level, but his style of leadership focused more on the big picture. He often handled the detail oriented facets of NLA's matters, and was an efficient organizer. Despite this his combat skills and occasional field missions helped keep him relevant to many BLADE's, who looked upon him with almost mythical reverence. The main difference between them, however, was that Nagi was more willing to accept the sacrifice that came with fighting a war than Vandham was.

Chausson was more a bureaucrat than he was a military officer, and his task of integrating both Human and Xeno cultures into the city gave him an appreciation that sometimes the less said, the happier people were. Ignorance could be bliss.

Eleanora was the last of the four, and she was a total mystery to Chausson. Little was known of her past, and she had suddenly been admitted onto the White Whale with little warning during the final days of Earth's evacuation. What quickly became apparent was that she was far more than just a highly efficient administrator. She had knowledge of several highly sensitive projects and state secrets, as well as a certain callousness when it came to said projects. The real curveball was that she took great pains and devoted insane amounts of effort into keeping track of nearly two-thousand active BLADEs with seemingly no ulterior motive. She genuinely cared about their wellbeing, despite the fact that she had more skeletons in the closet than the other three combined.

NLA could survive the loss of either Vandham or Nagi, and quite likely himself as well. They had successors that could take over their duties and keep the city alive. No one could replace Eleanora. If she were to suddenly drop dead this very instant, he strongly believed that the city would fall to pieces within two months.

Dragging my attention back to the now, Vandham was arguing, "…What I'm saying is that there's absolutely no reason we should keep this secret from him. The longer we sit on this, the more likely it is to explode in our faces when it does eventually get out."

Eleanora cooly cuts in with, "And just why do you think the truth will ever get out commander? We took great pains to ensure any kind of suspicion to his origins could be satisfactorily explained by amnesia. He was well versed in basic communication skills and didn't display any signs of instability, even after being immediately recovered. All of this paints a very believable picture of mass memory loss."

Vandham scowls and retorts with, "And was he ever given an identity, a backstory, ANY kind of past? He wasn't, and people are starting to wonder why that's the case. Every single person on the White Whale was documented and catalogued before takeoff. Every death and disappearance has been carefully been recorded, and that's all public information. I've had all sorts of people personally coming to me asking for any additional info we might have on the kid. Wolf and Corwin already think somethings up, and they're right to do so. No one of Cross's skill would have been overlooked during the selection process, and then just forgotten. Hell, that's just the military guys, that's not even counting other Humans and Xenos!"

Frowning at this I inquire, "It's not just humans that are interested in his past?"

"Of course not. Hope's gang of samaritans have always been on good terms with the Xeno population, most of whom were helped by Cross during Powell and Alex's little dramas. Thanks to her, they're tying to find any record of his past as a sort of goddamn surprise present. Humanity tried to make artificial heroes, and we got ourselves a genuine one. And we better start owing up to that."

Everyone falls silent at this news and I mentally rehearse the circumstances leading to Cross's current status as a hero of NLA, hoping some sort of hindsight will give him a clearer idea of what to do.

---

It started with Elma's arrival on Earth bearing several alien technologies, with news of an impending apocalypse. The initial panic and breakdown caused many influential leaders to re-open research projects and experiments that had either been dubbed expensive or unethical, all in the name of survival. The decades leading up to the exodus were ones of unimaginable scientific success and failure. Many human experimentation groups focused on the enhancement of the body, attempting to create stronger muscles, tougher lungs, smarter brains. They all unanimously failed. While perfectly achievable goals, these projects were time consuming, and the deadline was all too quickly approaching. The final nail in the coffin was the fact that Mimeosomes were easier to produce and had all the advantages of an artificial body ready to go.

But one clever group realized that while altering the human body was an inefficient and ultimately fruitless goal, considering the timeframe, the consciousness transfer and storage technology held MUCH more promise. The main thrust of the project was that consciousness could be stably stored in a machine for indefinite periods of time.

So what was to keep the consciousness from being copied, just like a piece of software? Or even altered?

A whole new method of ensuring humanities survival among the stars could be obtained if this could be achieved. Within two years, an amazingly short amount of time, the consciousness of a lab monkey was successfully copied. With this the group moved on to humans. Within a year a human mind had been copied. The question now was how to make the most of this technique.

While the consciousness could be copied, it had a low success rate, only one in forty minds would carry over successfully, the other thirty-nine times the consciousness would simply dissipate to wherever human minds go when they die. Even with all the resources and funds on Earth being devoted to projects such as this, there was still a finite pool to draw from.

The true, twisted genius of these researchers came at this juncture. If a near perfect human soldier could be found, why not copy this mind, and mass transfer said mind into the highly advanced body of a MIM and have it fight for Earth? With this in mind an unknown number of 'test volunteers' were procured by the project, to be used as the basis for creating these perfect soldiers.

Chausson had only heard rumors of the various creation methods, but that was more than enough. Copying the consciousness of veteran soldiers, then selectively erasing memories deemed unnecessary, the project created a very lean and efficient mind that had decades of ingrained combat skills with none of the emotional baggage that accompanied such people.

These streamlined 'personalities' would then be transferred to a grown, newborn body and the real creation process would begin.

Pain tolerance, hypnosis, brainwashing, an ingrained need to help humanity, knowledge of hundreds of different ways of fighting, all manner of esoteric mind exercises…the list of things those dopplegangers were forced to learn in addition to their ingrained skills seemed to go on and on. If Cross's example was any standard to judge by, those poor souls had also been given only the bare minimum of social knowledge, just enough to get by, and not have any individuality at all.

And once the day of departure came, who knew how many of these secret soldiers were transferred to the Ark ships?

The only tangible link left to the project was Eleanora, who had taken an interest in Cross once he was brought back to NLA. While she denied ever being a part of the original project, she never once pretended that she was against the project's ultimate goal.

Perhaps the most galling thing was that the project had been a resounding success. Chausson didn't consider it an exaggeration to say that Cross had been an integral part of NLA's survival. He really had proven to be a near perfect guardian of humanity.

---

But now comes the hard part. Taking charge for the first time this meeting, I ask, "Well we know where Vandham stands on this issue. Nagi? Your opinion?"

Nagi goes silent for a few seconds apparently deep in thought. He opens his eyes with a satisfied look on his face and says, "I agree with Jack. Keeping secrets from one of our best BLADEs doesn't sit right with me. We kept things hidden from Lao and look happened when he found out. We should come clean while we still can. I trust Cross to understand our reasoning and not hold anything against us."

Eleanora suddenly speaks up with a slight hint of frustration in her voice and says, "Not to detract from your admirable faith in your subordinates, but there is plenty reason NOT to inform Cross of his circumstances. Put bluntly, we have no actual way of knowing how he might take the news that he is nothing more than a carefully created personality that was made with the sole intention of fighting for Humanity. He's already acting very different from how he originally was intended to be. If you've talked to him in the past months you know how advanced he is with difficult communication skills such as sarcasm and irony. These soldiers were never intended to be anything but composed and straightforward."

Vandham looks at her angrily and says, "Oh really? Well I guess it was a little too much to ask a literal child soldier to spend more than a year desperately fighting to keep his species alive, and still stay the polite little boy you want him to be."

Eleanora narrows her eyes and says in a low voice, "You don't seem to appreciate the risk involved in telling him his past. Worst case scenario he could actually turn against us. As commander of BLADE, I would think that you take this sort of duty more seriously."

Seeing Jack's eye twitch I step in before he explodes.

"That's enough out of both of you. Eleanora, your input on this matter is appreciated, but don't go putting others loyalty into question. Besides, the both of you seem to be ignoring the far more disastrous matter we're currently keeping under wraps. Have either of you thought on how to explain the damage to the Lifehold yet?"

Silence greets me. Nodding, I say, "I thought as much. While there are still two months to go before repairs are complete, that time will likely go by much faster than we would like. Rather than the matter of Cross, we should be focusing on how to keep the city from falling into a panic once they know the consciousness banks are gone."

Vandham frowns and asks, "I don't see how that relates to not telling the poor kid about his past."

Nagi steps in and grimly says, "Because revealing too many unpleasant truths at once will only make things more difficult for all of us. Think about it Jack. First, the hero a majority of NLA looks up to is revealed to be an artificially produced soldier who the leadership exploited without telling him anything. Then shortly after the same leadership reveals that all of our MIM's should be devoid of life due to the wrecked Lifehold, but have no idea why we're all still functioning. Who wouldn't have a crisis of faith? It certainly wouldn't look good to our Xeno allies."

Vandham falls silent and scowls, and I breathe an inward sigh of relief. The truth is I'm glad I can postpone this decision. Cross reminds me of my late son, Adrien, more than I care to admit.

Adrien was also a joker, who often took on life's hardships with a witticism and crooked smile. But that was just the surface. Beneath the jokes and bad puns, Adrien possessed an almost zealous devotion to others, and always offered a helping hand whenever humanly possible. It was this attitude that had convinced me to allow him and a few others to go on a mission to recover stranded White Whale passengers hours before launch. They never made it back before takeoff.

Making the call whether to inform Cross of his past or not had me feeling as if I was deciding the fate of Adrien all over again. I give a sigh as I lean back in my chair. If he's anything remotely like Adrien, he's almost certainly off helping the denizens of NLA as we speak.

---

"WHY, exactly, am I doing this for you psychopaths again?"

"Relax Cross! We got your back! There's no way this is anymore dangerous than all those Skell flight tests you always go on."

I scowl at Lin's comment and retort, "Considering how often Doug and I either ended up unconscious or on fire, you'll forgive me for being anything other than relaxed."

"Aw c'mon Chief you're normally so easygoing and relaxed about all this life or death stuff! What's eating you today?"

"Hey congrats on figuring it out Mia! The problem is that there will likely BE something eating me."

"Your not scared of a couple little Indigens are you chief? You stared down that giant colubrim back at Oblivia without batting an eye, what's got you all freaked out?"

Elma jumps in with a sly, "Maybe you guys didn't know this, but Cross is afraid of bugs."

I snarl back with, "It's not BUGS I'm afraid of, it's giant, pincer covered insectoids that I hate. You know, the thing you guys are having me be BAIT for?"

"I have a bunch of recruits not even out of their diapers yet that don't whine anywhere near as much as you do Cross," Irina cuts in with, "Aren't you ashamed of yourself?"

"Why should I be ashamed of the fact that my team just threw me into the middle of a field to attract the attention of a bunch of murder insects and I want to cry about it a little bit?"

Irina chuckles and says, "NLA's hero, ladies and gentleman."

I scowl and say, "Why did I get picked anyway? If we're going by most expendable, wouldn't Mia or Gwin be a better candidate for Indigen bait?"

"That's cold Chief!"

"Seriously man! I was about to jump in and defend you, but now I know what you really think of me."

"I think your an incredibly talented and tough BLADE Gwin. So impressive, in fact, that I believe you could do a better job at this than me."

"No can do pal. I just got really comfortable over here."

I give a sigh of defeat and go back to staring at one of the hanging nests that decorate the noctilucent sphere. Lin chimes in with, "I'll make it up to you Cross, tonight I'm making Vivohast bisque, just for you."

I grumble under my breath, 'You're all heart. Surprised you didn't douse me in BBQ sauce before having me waltz out here."

I hear a few chuckles over the comm and go back to studiously ignoring everyone. They're all spread out in a rough semicircle around the Vivohast nest, laying hidden until I can get some of the freaks to chase me. The mission Elma picked up was for us to retrieve some Vivohast eggs, one of NLA's scientists was curious about the incubation process Miran insects go through. Personally I think he was just interested in how they taste. Which right now I couldn't give less of a crap about, since I'm basically playing Poke the Bear here.

Vivohast nests don't have large openings and any attempt to kill them before they exit the nest would almost certainly wreck the eggs as well. So Elma had the bright idea to get the attention of one when it exited the nest and make enough of a racket so the rest also join in on the fun. A nice, simple plan where the unlucky bastard who gets to be bait is in for a rough time. Best of all, I think I might have a phobia of Vivohasts.

The important thing to remember when playing Poke the Bear is that the bear doesn't give a shit if it's a game.

---

I take the momentary quiet to look around at Sylvalum and compare it to some of the images of Earth I've seen.

Well, I try to at any rate.

Sylvalum is probably the hardest of the continents to compare to Earth, given it's strange geography and varied flora and fauna. The closest thing I would compare it to is an Earth desert, with lots of sand and little to no rain fall aside from the various oases.

But even that's misleading. Sylvalum doesn't really have sand, it's more like an extremely fine dirt that is a pale white color. It's also way cooler during the day in Sylvalum, the hottest we've ever seen it has been around twenty-eight degrees, while at night it gets pretty chilly at nearly three and-a-half. If it wasn't for the dust that gets kicked up everywhere you walk I wouldn't mind putting a homestead or something out here.

Reason being is that the flora in Sylvalum is astoundingly beautiful. At night many of the crystalline structures as well as it's odd ballon-like plants have a bioluminescent tinge to them, creating a roadmap of shifting light that streaks throughout the place. This already impressive sight is enhanced to nearly unbelievable beauty when one of the crimson auroras lights up the sky. Mira's sun is more active than Earth's, and it's not uncommon to have auroras one or twice a week. Not to mention Mira has a far more chaotic magnetic field than Earth, so the light shows are even more awe-inspiring than the videos of those back on Earth.

If only it wasn't for all that dust. What a deal breaker.

---

Everyone is silent for a long while until Lin gives a bored sigh and says, "Cross, fire your gun in the air a few times and see if anything happens."

"Hey if you don't like the way I'm being bait, we can switch. Otherwise cram it kiddo."

"You're no fun. So Doug couldn't make it Elma?"

"No he was busy with a Harrier mission, he said he'll try to make it next time."

"Aw man, it's so fun to guilt him into buying me stuff. He's like that step-dad that tries super hard to be accepted by the new daughter so he totally spoils her."

I raise an eyebrow and say, "Oddly specific there Lin. And I thought I was your dad. Or is this like Mia's parents where Doug and I are a thing?"

I hear Mia and Gwin laugh and Lin indignantly say, "Hey I changed my mind about you a long time ago. Your more brother material than you are dad material."

"Well at least I'm not your grandpa. So I guess that makes Doug and Elma your loving parents right?"

Elma sternly cuts in and says, "I don't think Doug would be interested in me in that sense."

I get a sly grin and say, 'Ah leader, do you have such little confidence in your feminine charm? Perhaps you didn't notice, but after we got the Lifehold back up and running, he was carrying your MIM almost like a dashing knight carries a princess, and more recently he gets stuttery and nervous when your name comes up."

Gwin joins in with and says, "I can vouch for that, Doug's been getting a little sappy whenever he mentions you Elma."

I expect Elma just to brush this off, but instead she's silent for a second before hesitantly speaking up with, "He has? Why would he do that though? I haven't treated him any differently, and I'm a xeno, so why…"

Well hello, what's this? I was only joking around, does Elma actually feel that way about Doug? I grin from ear to ear and immediately start thinking of ways this is going to be awesome to watch unfold.

Irina seems to have picked up on Elma's little shift in mood since she says in a shocked voice, "Wait, Colonel, do you actually? Holy crap I never even knew…"

She's interrupted by Lin giving a squeal of glee and rapidly saying, "Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh! Elma! When we get back we're immediately going to Ginerva to buy you the perfect outfit to floor him with! Your eyes are definitely your strong point with your original body, so we should get you-"

Elma, sounding frazzled, says "Lin, you don't have to- no wait, that's not even the point here."

Coming to save the day Mia says, "Ok guys let her off the hook. Personally I think it's sweet that Elma finally has someone she's crushing on. Heck Chief, you and Celica have been back and forth for months now, you've got no business poking fun at Elma!"

I nearly swallow my own tongue and try to think of something to say in my defense, and come up with nothing.

Lin sounds like she's nearly about to pass out with awe, "Woah, Cross…you managed to convince one of the most beautiful women in NLA to date you?"

I find my voice and sputter out, "We're not dating Lin, I mean c'mon, she has some standards! Besides she acts more like a worried mom towards me than she does a girlfriend."

Irina laughs at this and says, "Cross, your great at making friends, but for God's sake don't ever try to play matchmaker, I don't think you'll be very good at it with that level of obliviousness."

"Hey I take offense to that. Not only did I set up NLA's first interspecies marriage, I also hitched a bunch of other couples as well. Oh, and was also best man at a Prone's wedding. Elma, Lin, back me up here. Remember Shingo and Dorothy? Nemard and Enneana? I'm good with relationship stuff."

I can practically hear Irina's eyes rolling in her head as she says, "When it comes to others yah, you definitely have a knack for it. But for personal stuff? You are way outta your depth Cross."

"Never mind that Irina! Cross, what made you go totally head over heels for her? C'mon spill it!"

Gwin adds, "Yah c'mon man! You never seemed to have any sort of interest in a girlfriend before, why the sudden change of heart?"

"I just said we're not dating," I stammer out, "besides, what makes you think she would go for me in the first place?"

"Again with the cluelessness." Irina mutters.

I can hear Gwin grinning as he says, "Oh I don't know, it couldn't be that you've saved her and Rock's life just as they were cornered by the Ganglion, are generally a nice person who has hardly a selfish bone in his body, and are a pretty handsome dude. Never mind that you're the hero of the city, so that never hurts a guy's chances."

"…So you think I'm handsome Gwin?"

Lin practically shouts, "So not the point! Cross, talk to me, what do you like about her? It's the ears isn't it?"

I frown and say, "I'm not so shallow that I would-"

I cut off mid sentence and throw myself sideways just in time to avoid whatever it is that came hurtling at me from above. I finish my roll and come up with my Delta at the ready, and nearly have a heart attack as a Vivohast comes charging at me.

Ok, I know that's the plan, but try facing down a frenzied, murderous insect that's bigger than you and see how well you keep your calm.

I decide to conveniently forget that i'm supposed to leave it alive and empty an entire clip into the gap in chitin that leads to it's thorax. It jerks a few times, collapses on the ground and dies with a wet rattle as my shots tear right through it.

I slowly exhale and reload the pistol and try to get my heartbeat under control. My comm crackles to life and Elma says, "Nice reflexes there. I thought we were supposed to keep it alive."

"Oh right. Whoops. Forgot that part."

She comes back sounding smug, "Well no biggie, I think the rest want a piece of you now."

"Say what?"

I crane my neck up and feel my eyes go wide at the sight of almost 8 Vivohasts climbing out of the nest and staring at me. They give off their eerie rattling hiss and start dropping down to the ground.

I'm already hauling ass away from there as fast as I can at nearly 51 kmh, firing wildly over my shoulder as I go. Unfortunately Vivohasts can clock in at 60 kmh.

Lucky me.

Mia happily shouts over the comm, "Holy cow you're booking it Chief! Great work, just keep that up for another 5 minutes or so and we'll come to save you!"

"BITE ME." I strangle out in between breaths.

---

I'm sitting on a supply crate back at the Hilal Meadows B.C., wondering why bad things happen to good people as I stare morosely at my dented arm guard. It got chomped on during the last leg of the chase before Elma and the rest started burning down the Vivohasts chasing me. One of them avoided the gunfire and got a pincer around my arm before I unloaded an entire clip into it's eye socket.

Note to self: when going on a mission with Yelv, always drive. When going on a mission with Elma, make sure it doesn't require a human sacrifice.

Speaking of said practitioners of human sacrifice, Mia, Gwin, Lin and Irina all come up to me wearing smug smiles.

"I gotta say you know how to put on a chase big bro," Lin says, "almost five minutes of heart pounding action and all you got was a busted arm piece."

"Heart pounding is a way to describe it. Personally I would go with, 'insanely terrifying' but hey. What would I know?"

Mia chuckles and says, 'Aw c'mon Chief your not actually mad about all that are you?"

I look blankly at her and say, 'Mad? Nah, why would I be mad?"

She gives a more nervous chuckle and haltingly asks, "No but seriously…you're not right?"

I just stare at them blankly long enough for them to start to look ashamed of themselves before losing my straight face and breaking out in a laugh.

I choke out, "The looks on your faces…that makes it worth it!"

Gwin scowls and says, "Not funny dude. We seriously thought you were pissed."

"Have I ever actually gotten angry before?"

"Yah, but not at people you like. New territory there."

"Ah you worry too much. That said I expect double the pay of you moochers, since I did all the heavy lifting and also need a new pair of underwear."

Lin rolls her eyes and says, "Ah you exaggerate way too much Cross. Tell you what, if you sit next to the corpses we're bringing back to NLA, we'll give you an extra cut."

I glare at her and say, "Yah I'll pass thanks," I add under my breath, "Little brat."

"I heard that."

"Oh good."

"Jerkface."

"I hate to interrupt your little back and forth," Elma interrupts as she walks over, "But our ride is setting down and we need to get our cargo on board. Let's hop to people."

We all start moving with a haphazard chorus of "Yes ma'm", "You got it" and "Whatever".

Truly an inspiring chorus of acknowledgements.

Regardless, we start packing our gear and the leftover Vivohast giblets and move onto the transport. Time to head home.

---

We walk off the transport about three hours later and I immediately notice something different about the atmosphere in the city. I glance over at Elma and she gives me a slight wince. I guess she can sense it too. It's hard to pin down what it is exactly, I guess it's mostly in the energy.

The Administrative District always has a bustling chaos too it, with BLADE teams coming and going, getting into arguments with other divisions and each other, Xeno's trying to properly explain what it is they require, Skells traveling up and down the boulevard…some of the fun and excitement seems to be absent, with only efficiency and purpose left behind.

Only Elma and I seem to notice it, and the others happily chat as they head towards the mission board. We arrive at Eleanora's desk and I happily announce, "We're back Mom!"

She gives me an odd look and says, "I take it the mission went without a hitch, given your relaxed demeanor."

"Pretty much, yah."

Lin cuts in with "Hey Eleanora, what color do you think would go best with Elma's eyes? Red or black?"

Eleanora shoots me and Elma a quick glance and Elma looks away somewhat embarrassed while I simply shrug.

Turning back to Lin she says, "It's not just the eyes that you should consider Lin, her skin and hair also make the person. I would suggest black since that would accentuate those features best. But why do you ask Lin?"

She gets a sly grin and says, "Oh no reason, thanks for the tip Eleanora! C'mon girls, we need to help out a young maiden in love!"

Elma frowns and says, "Lin I appreciate this but-"

Irina and Mia both say at the same time, "No excuses!"

Elma sighs and says, "Ok I give. But let me finish up here first. I'll call you later."

"Ooook! Don't try to weasel out of this now!"

"I wouldn't dream of it." She replies dryly.

Gwin heads off to the Interceptor division while the others head towards the barracks. Eleanor turns a confused look towards me and asks, "What was all that about?"

"According to Lin, Elma's getting married."

"Ignore him Eleanora. What's up with the atmosphere all of the sudden? Cross and I noticed it when we got back, and It wasn't this way when we left a few days back."

"Leave it to you two to notice right away," she says grimly, "The sooner you know the better I guess. Over the past two days there have been a rash of Xeno killings, mostly Nopon."

"And I'm assuming it wasn't because of their business acumen?"

Eleanora gives a humorless smile and replies, "It would be nice if it was that simple, but there seems to be very little motive in the killings, if any."

I raise an eyebrow and say, "Not to sound overly callous here, but this sort of thing has happened before. Twice I think. What's so special about this case?"

"Because instead of just a few sporadic deaths of several different Xenos, this time it was thirteen different Nopon, all from either the Dopang or Dorian caravans and over the course of only two days."

Both Elma and I share a glance. Yah, that's a new one. That specific of a murder spree when things have been pretty peaceful the last few months would cause a nasty stir.

Elma nods and says to Eleanora, "Alright I appreciate the heads up Eleanora. Is there any leads on who might be responsible?"

She shakes her head and replies, "Nothing. No fingerprints, body fluids or anything like that."

I groan and say, "Sounds like the Definians all over again. Maybe we really should just scrap Fortun."

"Well until we know for sure I'll ask you to hold off on that. Besides, Erio and Lyvia are already interrogating Fortun, so we'll have something concrete soon enough."

Elma and I nod and finish up the mission transaction and head off to the barracks. I turn to her and ask, "So am I the only one that has a bad feeling about this latest news, or am I just hungry?"

She grimly nods and says, "No, my guts also telling me somethings up with this incident. Better yet, I also think things are going to get worse before the get better."

"The perfect feeling to end a successful mission with, am I right?"

"I'm going to stop by BLADE tower and see if I can get anything out of Vandham or Nagi. Chausson probably won't tell us anything we don't know."

I smile and say, "That's only because you don't know the right way to ask. He always tells me all sorts of-"

I get cut off mid-sentence by my comm using the special tone reserved for priority calls from BLADE HQ. I look over at Elma and see she also has a call. I look at it and see a message from Vandham asking us to attend a meeting four hours from now. No excuses.

I give a side glance at Elma and say, "Guess there's no point in buttering up the brass for details."

She looks tired and says, "True. Guess I'll have all the details I wanted and more."

I try to cheer her up and say, "Well the means we have four hours downtime before the bad news hits. What do you say we go to the mess and be miserable together over the cold leftovers of whatever was last served?"

That gets a chuckle from her and she replies, "A tough deal to turn down, but I think I'll go shower first and catch some sleep before the meeting. I get the feeling I'll need it."

I shrug and say, "More lukewarm leftovers for me then. See you at the meeting."

I lose my grin as we part ways and give a small sigh. Every instinct I have is telling me that things are about to simultaneously go south and sideways, and my instincts are seldom wrong.

Unfortunately.

I totally would not mind being proven wrong in this case.

---

Three and a half hours later Elma and I walk into HQ and I see quite a few familiar faces. Hope turns towards us and gives a radiant smile and happily exclaims, "Cross! It's so good to see you again! Are you the security detail on this mission? I guess we don't have to worry about any sort of danger during the talks!"

She gives me one of her unreserved hugs that could crush a Cantor and I wince, saying in a slightly pained voice, "It's good to see you too Hope. Could you loosen your grip a bit though? I feel like I'm getting stepped on by a Suid here."

"Oh, sorry. I got a little carried away."

I grin and happily reply, "Nothing new about that. But slow down on the details a little bit, this is all new info for me."

"Yah Hope let the poor guy get his bearings, he's been here ten seconds and you've told him like half the plan."

I look around the side of Hope's head and see Alice and Eliza smiling as they walk up alongside her. Patting Hope's shoulder Alice continues with, "Vandham and Chausson can take care of all the boring briefing and stuff, why don't you talk about something more fun than that?"

Eliza gives a frown and says, "I'd hardly call this disaster boring Alice. I wish you would be a little more serious about this."

"That's your role Eliza. Mine's to be the goofball who no one takes seriously, which subsequently makes you look even greater by comparison. Perfect system."

I grin as I shake the hands of NLA's experts on Xeno communications and customs. The whole little drama with Alex doesn't seem to have slowed them down at all, if anything they seem more active than usual.

The reunions don't stop there as I hear a deep, vibrating voice say, "Ah Cross. It is a pleasure to be working with you again. My Ovah hinted that this mission would be a crucial one to our cause, it puts me at ease to know you'll be traveling with us."

Sun'Barac, president of the Xeno representative group, comes up to me and gives a slight bow of his head.

I return his greeting and ask, "Good to see you too pal. How's the presidency we got through totally legitimate methods treating you?"

Amusement in his voice he replies, "It has kept me busy, but my Ovah has agreed that we made the right choice. It is also gratifying on a personal level to play such an important role in the cities future."

"Sound like leadership is treating you well."

I take a look around and find everyone else looking at me oddly. Whoops. Probably shouldn't have openly hinted at Sun'Barac and I rigging the election. I'm still getting used to Orphean facial expressions, but I bet Sun'Barac came to the same conclusion I did that openly admitting our tampering wasn't a slick move.

Lucky for us Vandham, Chausson and two other figures walk in at that moment, sparing us any awkward explanations. To my surprise it's Ackwar and Tora who are tagging along. Upon seeing me and Elma Tora fluffs his back arms out and says in a shocked voice, "Huh?! Friends Cross and Elma are ones going to caravan? Hehehe, then negotiations will be simple! Friends are going to make Tora's job much easier!"

I give Ackwar a questioning look but he merely shrugs and says, "It's kind of a long story yah? I'll let your commanders do the talking bits."

Vandham grins his usual predatory grin and growls, "Seem's like your pretty popular kid. Why don't you just have all your buddies here give you the details and I'll go somewhere where I'm actually needed?"

Elma laughs and says, "Don't be like that commander, I'm sure your have your own special brand of information that we'll appreciate later."

"Your not even trying to hid your flattery now are yah? Well whatever, let's get to business here, we're on a tight schedule people!". This last part he says in his booming voice that could pain the ears of a deaf person.

We all take a seat, or stand depending on preference, and look to Vandham and Chausson. Chausson clears his throat and says, "All right I'll keep this to the point. The recent string of Xeno murders have caused us a problem that we need to address right away. Put simply the Nopon Dorian and Dopang merchants living in the city have expressed worry about operating in the city given their losses and are planning to return to their caravans."

Elma raises an eyebrow and asks, "They think that would be safer than staying in the city? Those caravans could be razed to the ground if the Ganglion put any significant effort into locating and destroying them."

Chausson nods and says, "Completely true, but thus far that hasn't happened, and they believe that their caravans will still remain safe havens. I hardly need remind you that any loss of Nopon business would severely hurt our ability to obtain precious ores and unique samples of Miran ecology, never mind the information they gather in their travels. This mission goal is simple. Go to the Dorian caravan and convince the Nopon merchants that maintaining business is NLA is both possible and safe. To that end Ackwar will accompany you, to show evidence of our ability to catch these murderers."

I turn to Ackwar and ask, "You already tracked down these guys? Pretty damn impressive pal."

He acts all shy and says, "Well it wasn't just me yah know? I thought it might be the work of some Definians, so Erio and Avi helped me out a lot. Like a lot a lot. In fact they were the ones who caught our first suspect."

Vandham cuts in and says, "Bottom line is all of you have some sort of connection to Nopon personally or are constantly working with them. Elma, Cross. I want you two to focus on keeping everyone else safe. If this latest mess is a coordinated effort, chances are the ambassadors will be targeted."

I raise my hand and say, "I appreciate the faith in our abilities commander, but isn't this kind of a skeleton crew for such an important mission?"

"A smaller group that knows how to work together is more effective than a large group that doesn't know what it's doing kid."

"Would you object if we added two more members? They also have good connections with the Nopon so they'll be great at pulling double duty if it comes to it."

Vandham shrugs and says, "Two is fine by me, but who do you have in mind?"

I glance at Elma, who smiles as we both think the same thing. Our gaze shifts to Tora who looks at us in confusion.

---

"OH MY GOD. Tora it's so good to see you again! Ah you're just as adorable as ever, you little fluff ball!"

Being picked up and hugged by Mia, Tora looks like he's about to have an aneurysm. "How many times must Tora tell friend Mia? Tora handsome, not adorable! And put Tora down!"

Letting go of him Mia is still brightly smiling and says, "You say it your way I'll say it mine. Never mind that, how are your parents? Are they still doing their thing?"

Tora instantly shifts gears and proudly smiles, saying, "Mamapon and Dadapon have stopped answering calls from Tora! They obviously consider Tora rival merchant and no longer wish to give free information on their whereabouts! Tora so proud of himself!"

Mia looks shocked and says, "Wait, they ignore you?! Isn't that kinda, well…harsh?"

Tora looks befuddled and says, "Harsh? Ignoring son who just became rival merchant is highest sign of respect! Tora does not expect to talk to parents for at least one more year!"

Mia still looks like she got punched in the face and I sympathetically pat her on the back, saying, "When in Rome…"

"That still seems pretty mean. I mean if my parents had ignored me for a year as a sign of respect…the Nopon have some pretty weird family values."

"Yah well they also live inside of their pack animal's stomachs. After that specific revelation I'm not even surprised at their weirdness anymore."

She makes a face and says, "Ugh don't remind me chief."

I turn back towards the landing pad and see the rest of the group walking towards us. Hope is leading our rag-tag delegation of a detective Ma-non, an Orphean president and two humanitarian workers. Yah, I think rag-tag works to describe this best.

Mia turns towards me and says, "So Elma and Lin were telling me that all these guys over there are your friends Chief. How do you get to so many people to like you?"

"It's my sparkling personality obviously. Speaking of which I need to introduce you, so put on your best manners. The dark haired one leading them looks nice, but she packs a mean bite."

Hope frowns as they walk up and indignantly says, 'I heard that Cross. That's so mean of you, since when am I aggressive towards others?"

"You might think you're being a good samaritan when you refuse rewards you don't need Hope, but the way you refuse them can get a bit insistent. It's like a reverse mafia where you'll break their kneecaps if they don't keep their money."

Alice and Eliza laugh at that while Hope looks shocked. I chuckle at her expression as I turn to everyone else and say, "Ok quick introductions. Mia, this is Hope, one of BLADE's best Mediators and a pathologically nice person. Alice and Eliza here are two of NLA's best Xeno relations workers. Sun'Barac is the president of the Xeno representation organization, while Ackwar is probably NLA's best investigator. Guys, this is Mia. She's probably the luckiest BLADE alive, and that means we're lucky to have her on this mission. Remember to rub her belly."

Hope frowns at me and says, "You've been spending a little too much time with Bozé haven't you Cross?"

"Guilty as charged."

Mia looks affronted and says, "Hey if there's any belly rubbing that's going to be going around, Tora should be our main recipient. I mean look at how round and soft he is!"

Tora gives a defeated sigh and mutters, "Tora not care anymore. There no dignity left in Tora's life."

Ackwar and Sun'Barac just look confused about the whole belly rubbing thing.

With introductions out of the way we load up into the transport helicopter and wait for our escorts to arrive. No cargo transports for us this time, we get to ride to Oblivia in style. I check my timepiece and right on time I see two humanoid figures fly through the sky to our position.

As they get closer the shapes resolve into the figure of two Skells: a Verus and an Urban. I give a wistful sigh as they alight upon the landing deck and take up positions on either side of the chopper. I miss my Lailah at times like these. Hopefully those repairs get a move on.

My earpiece crackles and Lin's smug voice comes through with, "Is that a look of disappointment on your face Cross? Oh right. Your Skells busted and you have to ride along with all the other poor unfortunates. Such a shame."

"As your older brother I reserve the right to smack the smartass out of you first opportunity I get."

"And just how is you poor Skell-less self going to catch me? I can fly you know."

"No matter what you may like to think, you can't live in there forever kiddo. I'll bide my time."

"You have me shaking in my boots."

I roll my eyes and pick a seat next to Ackwar. I want to ask him how they tracked down the perpetrators anyway.

Elma's voice comes over the speakers and announces, "Is everyone all set? Then our next stop is Oblivia, hope everyone brought their sunscreen."

There's a slight shake as the rotors start up and we leave NLA behind, as Elma and Lin flank us. Negotiating with the Nopon…this is going to be a trial in patience.

---

"Welcome to what our Nopon mutual friends refer to as, 'Sandy Bum' canyon ladies and gentlemen, hope you enjoy your stay at the hottest and itchiest place on Mira!"

I give a lopsided smile as I descend the ramp and say, "That's a killer sales pitch you have there Milly, you should run that as an advertisement back in NLA."

She smiles in return and replies, "I thought you'd like that one Cross, us sarcastic people have to stick together after all."

"You can snark your way aboard the copter and help me carry some of my stuff then." I joke as I shake her hand. I have a huge amount of respect for Milly. Being the liaison to a caravan of merchant Nopon must require a level of patience and self-control Ghandi would kill for. I know if I had her job I'd be putting a gun to my head a few days in.

She turns her attention to Elma and Lin's Skells as they land and says in an awed voice, "Holy moly…never thought I'd get the opportunity to actually meet the actual members of Team Elma…one more thing off of my bucket list."

I look at her out of the corner of my eye and say, "You know, I'm also a member of said team. Why don't I get any hero worship?"

""Too late for that. I already know what you're really like. Hero worship is absolutely out of the question."

"And there goes another chunk of my self-esteem."

"Oh please. You'll just cry all the way to a mirror."

I chuckle at that and say, "Victory goes to you this time. Until we meet again on the field of verbal battle."

"I anticipate yet another crushing win on my part."

"Don't get too cocky, or else I'll tell Lin you actually hate Nopon."

"You wouldn't!"

I laugh as I grab my bag and other equipment off the chopper and head towards our temporary tent. The meeting is beginning in an hour, might as well get settled in until it starts.

---

The Dorian caravan is a pretty busy place, with a lot of bizarre items for 'sale' at ridiculously high prices. The Nopon who reside here are mostly in the sale of ores and metals, which they shape into all sorts of abstract sculptures and totems, or just sell in bulk. Almost half of the fifty or so tents spread throughout the encampment have some sort of stall or bazaar with said items for sell. L would love this place. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him for a few weeks now. I'm not too worried though. He left a note at his shop apologizing for his sudden departure at the, 'drop of a shirt', but he and his new best friend Professor B wanted to go on a 'street trip' and couldn't wait any longer. Must be nice having that much personal freedom.

Actually the person who would love this kind of cultural exhibit as much as L would be Celica. Maybe next time I have some time off and my Lailah gets repaired I can show her around here. Milly and Tora can put in a good word for us and I might be able to actually buy something she would like…Oh god, ever since Mia and the rest put that bloody idea about dating Celica in my head I can't get rid of it.

I sigh and make a mental note to ask Boze or Frye about relationship advice. All I know is stuff I learned from media, and I don't trust that junk one bit since Yelv is always complaining about how pick-up lines he gets from movies never work. Hopefully they have some useful ideas. Although come to think of it Boze doesn't seem the family type, he's so devoted to his teachings it never seems like he does anything else. And Frye…well he might have a lot of experience with one-night stands or short lived flings, but I'll pass on that.

Godammit if Lao was here I could ask him. He was married and had akid. One more thing that asshole has to answer for when we drag him out of the Lifehold. I give a deep sigh and reflect on what Irina said. I really am clueless when it comes to my own personal affairs. And It doesn't help one damn bit that I can't recall any of my past memories of Earth to serve as guidelines. Heck, for all I know I might have been a gigolo and it wouldn't help my current self at all.

This is the actual difficulty with having memory loss. While it sucked at first, picking up on Earth customs and sayings was relatively easy. Within a few months I was able to hold steady conversations without consulting an urban dictionary every few minutes. What couldn't be replaced, however, was who knows how many years of social interaction and conversation. For me those weren't ingrained skills a lifetime had tempered, I basically had to start over from scratch. I can talk to people easily, and can alter my speech or attitude to match the person I'm interacting with. But I still have difficulty with more mercurial feelings like love or affection. I understand the idea, but have no idea how to put it into practice. At least I've gotten a lot of practice with the concept of friendship, thank the stars for that.

I shake my head and focus on the here and now. I hate getting all sappy and depressed about my amnesia. I can easily think of worse handicaps to have, what I should be doing is counting myself as lucky. I give another sigh and glance at my timepiece. Ten minutes to go until the meeting starts, I might as well get there early.

---

"Mujiji know perfectly well that friends mean Nopon no harm, and have even died protecting Nopon caravan many times. Friend Milly is loved by all Nopon, but even Mujiji can't allay fear of all Nopon merchants in caravan."

Sun'Barac nods and says, "We understand your position and responsibilities as a leader, but we have faced many trials such as this before and never considered abandoning the city entirely. What has brought about this turn of events?"

With a sigh Mujiji replies, "So many deaths in such a short time have frightened merchants of Dorian and Dopang caravans. They worry friends are no longer trying to provide safe work environment. Feh! Mujiji expect no less from Dopang Nopon, but for Dorian merchants to be so cowardly…Mujiji ashamed to be head of such organization."

I can sympathize with Mujiji. For a Nopon he's amazingly pragmatic and brave, as well as composed. He's harder to faze than most humans I know, seeing so many of his subordinates abandon lucrative contracts and ignore loyal customers must hurt his pride in a big way.

Eliza respectfully nods and consoles him with, "Don't be too hard on yourself or your fellow merchants Caravan Leader. To an extent it is true we let this happen. However we've taken steps to insure these crimes don't repeat themselves and to catch those responsible. To that end I'd like to introduce Ackwar. He's our lead investigator into these killings and the hunt for the criminals."

"Uhh, hi. I'm Ackwar and I'm not really any good with fancy words or stuff like that, so I'll just stick with facts, ok? There's these guys called Definians who can mimic the forms of other people ok? So we're pretty sure they were posing as people and then killing your Nopon colleagues without raising suspicions for awhile. Lucky for us, there's a couple of Definians who live in NLA who help us and we've already caught two of the ones who did the killing, yah?"

Eliza picks up the thread of conversation and says, "As you can see we've already taken measures that will keep this from happening again, hopefully this will help put your merchants minds at ease."

"Hhhmmmrrrgh…" Mujiji rumbles, "Friends done much for Nopon of Dorian caravan, even though ungrateful welps don't recognize it. While it shames Mujiji to say this, merchants will expect compensation for lost friends and profits."

I turn away at that. It sounds like negotiations are already over, most of the follow up will be about price haggling and a list of security measures BLADE will be taking. I'll happily sit out this part.

I exit the chiefs tent and stop dead for a second as what looks like almost sixty Nopon are amassed outside the entrance. I sneak a glance at Milly and Mia who are standing guard outside the tent. Well, less standing guard than answering a barrage of questions by the gathered Nopon. Milly looks relived that I showed up and asks, "Cross, what was decided, I need some answers man!"

I shrug and say, "Went pretty smoothly actually. They're talking about payments and a bunch of other stuff I'm happy to not be a part of, so we'll probably just have to wait for them to work it out before the final word comes through."

Not a second goes by before I hear about a dozen different voices going, "Friends city will be safe again?", "Friends have avenged merchant murders!", "Nopon should celebrate with feast!"

I give an inward sigh at the typical Nopon response to good news. When happy? Eat.

"Quite a touching scene humans."

My arm blurs as I clear my gun from it's holster and aim at the sound of the voice. I grimace as I sight on it's owner. Those mechanical yet lyrical rhythms belong to a Milsaadi who's standing no less than five meters away from the tent.

I immediately raise Elma and Lin who are patrolling in their Skells and report, "Keep an eye out you two. A Milsaadi just wandered into the middle of the caravan, not sure what he wants."

Elma immediately replies with, "Understood, stay sharp over there Cross, we didn't even notice him enter the caravan."

I re-focus on the Milsaadi who is still patiently waiting unarmed in the midst of potential enemies. I scowl at his relaxed attitude. Clearly he thinks he has something that'll grant him safe passage.

I speak and say, "Well? What's the deal pal? Are you a messenger or target practice?"

He gives the Milsaadi equivalent of a derisive snort and says, "I'm here to deliver an ultimatum to the leader of this caravan. Step aside human."

"Let's play the 'what if' game for a second here. What if I don't let you pass and instead put a bullet through your head?"

"Then an innocent hostage dies and you get to explain why it couldn't be saved."

I click my tongue in irritation and lower my gun. Milly and Mia look at me like I'm crazy but follow my lead. I stick my head through the tent and say, "Sorry to interrupt here, but I need you guys outside like right now."

Confusion is written on everyone's faces but they do as I ask. Hope leads the way and immediately stiffens when she see's the Milsaadi standing in the middle of the crowd. She keeps her cool however, and moves to a spot where she can potentially block any sort of attack against our side.

Mujiji walks out and says to the Milsaadi, "Friend have business with Dorian caravan? Ganglion have been less than consistent customers, Mujiji hopes friend brings good deal."

"I guarantee it's the best deal you've ever seen. It's a great price too. I'm offering you the life of one of your kind. In exchange all you need to do is cut all ties with the city the Human's call NLA. If you don't comply with our request…well I'm sure you can imagine."

I sneak a glance at Ackwar and give him an almost imperceptible narrowing of my eyes. He looks confused for a second before his own eyes widen and he moves to my side.

I turn my attention to Mujiji who doesn't look all that impressed.

"Hmph!" he derisively snorts, "Does Ganglion friend really have Nopon hostage? Where name of merchant, where proof?"

The milsaadi remains silent but slowly pulls a video display device from his belt. I have to fight down the temptation to use this as an excuse to shoot him. He wordlessly flicks on the display which shows an image of a scared Nopon female surrounded by two other Milsaadi.

Already bad news for us but it gets worse when Mujiji gasps and says, "That Mujiji's wifeypon! Wulawa!"

Oh crap, the one rational Nopon and it's his family that got taken hostage. Not what I'd call good news for us.

I can practically taste the smugness in the Milsaadi's voice as he says, "Your spouse then? An unlucky coincidence, we merely picked a hostage at random."

Mujiji lapses into silence and I get a bad taste in my mouth. As Vandham would put it, 'damned if you do, damned if you don't.

"Caravan leader, acquiesce to his demands."

I give a surprised look at Eliza who just spoke up but hold my tongue. Let's see where this goes.

She continues with, "We wouldn't want a relationship based on the sacrifice of an innocent. Do as he says, we won't interfere."

Mujiji looks ashamed of himself but faces the Milsaadi and steadily says, "Dorian caravan agrees to this. Nopon of Dorian will leave NLA and refuse all business with them. Now tell Mujiji how to get Wifeypon back!"

"Simple. Once we have confirmation that your caravan has left the Human's city we will return your fellow to you. You have six hours to do so."

Mujiji looks shocked and stammers, "Six hours?! Nopon scattered throughout human city, supposed to exit city in six hours how?"

The Milsaadi simply says, "That is your problem. The Nopon are known for being able to pack and leave in record time. You can manage."

Mujiji growls at this, and I can't really blame him. I'm pretty sure all the Nopon in the city could actually leave in five hours, so long as they weren't stopped by any suspicious guards but…well I wouldn't count on that.

The Milsaadi seems to consider the conversation over and turns around to leave saying, "Also, don't think you can just ignore this deal once your hostage has returned. If we see any sign of you disobeying our agreement, we'll return to this caravan, but it won't be for more hostages."

He says this menacingly to the surrounding Nopon, who are obviously cowed. He takes a step away from us and then stops, happily saying, "And don't get any funny ideas Humans. If I fail to return to my comrades, or at any point in my return feel like I am being followed, the hostage's life is forfeit."

I see Mia's face twist in anger and knew she had been thinking of doing just that. Suddenly I feel Ackwar's hand press something into mine. Not hesitating for a second I flick whatever it was with my thumb, and a small speck attaches itself to the edge of the Milsaadi's cloak.

He doesn't seem to notice.

Once he's out of sight I check my comm device and grin at what I see. I turn to Ackwar and give him a thumbs up.

"Nice work picking up on that Ackwar, I think we have ourselves a game plan now."

He gets all flustered and says, "Ah well you know, I mean you were pretty cool how you landed it like that, it's not like it was all me, so, uh thanks?"

I roll my eyes at Ackwar's awkwardness at handling praise and reply, "Let's meet with the others, we're on the clock here."

Ackwar and I head over to where everyone else is gathered, looking glum. Well not like I can blame them. Their mission got botched pretty badly, and there wasn't the slightest thing they could do to stop it. Mujij isn't present, being surrounded by the other Nopon, so I cut right to the chase.

"I have some good news, and I have some bad news. Which do you guys want first?"

Hope, the most depressed looking of all of us, ironically, replies "Bad news first."

"Ok the bad news is that if we want to pull off the good news, we need to run this by Mujiji. The sooner the better."

This get's everybody's attention and Alice says, "Slow down there Cross. Why would we need to talk to Mujiji about whatever it is your planning?"

I smile as a flip around my comm and show them the tracking beacon I flicked onto the Milsaadi's cloak.

Their eyes go wide and Sun'Barac approvingly says, "A brilliant move. And now I understand why you would want Mujiji's permission."

"Exactly. If this goes sideways, it's best that he gave us the go ahead to do it."

Eliza and Sun'Barac nod at each other. "We'll convince him Cross. Get whatever you need ready, we'll give you the go ahead as soon as we can."

I nod and motion for Hope as well as Mia to follow me. We're walking away when Milly suddenly grabs my shoulder and brings me to a halt. "Your not planning on leaving me behind are you Cross?"

I frown at her accusing tone. "You're welcome to come along, but this is gonna be a delicate mission we're attempting here. If you can't keep pace then don't take offense when you don't get to do much."

She rolls her eyes at me. "I wasn't posted here just because I can work well with the Nopon. I'm also pretty handy with a rifle."

"In that case, welcome aboard. Grab whatever weapons or gear you have then meet back here in ten minutes. We've got a VIP to extract."

---

Four hours later Elma, Mia, Milly, Hope and myself are positioned right outside the Milsaadi's hideout. Typical of the Milsaadi, it's damn near impossible to see it unless you know exactly where to look. From the air it's blocked by an overhang, and it's slanted slope into a small depression casts the whole thing in shadow. The two Milsaadi sentries are also ridiculously hard to find, since their cloaks are colored to match the surroundings and they're standing motionless among the rocks. The guy with the tracker on him isn't visible deeper down the depression, he must be keeping an eye on Wulawa. I slowly exhale as I ready myself to pull the trigger on this crazy plan.

Mujiji had been surprisingly easy to persuade. I think his exact word's were something along the lines of, "Friend's show Ganglion jerks what happens when push around Dorian caravan and take Wifeypon hostage!"

Which had given us the go ahead to try and pull off this stunt. Lin stayed behind since Skells aren't exactly stealthy, and her personal weapons of choice typically involve spray-and-pray with some explosions thrown in for good measure. Not exactly the best for a hostage rescue scenario. Instead she's waiting for us to give the go ahead and come flying over in her Skell to provide extraction and backup.

The rest of us are the meat of this op, and if one screws up, this whole plan is kaput. Not that I'm worried though. Hope has come a long way from her timid self and should be just fine. Milly is the wild card but she didn't seem worried at all once I told her what she had to do. And I don't think I've ever seen Elma mess up anything combat related. So all that leaves is me.

…Ok truthfully, I'm a little nervous. When it comes to rescuing captives, my record is shaky at best. Most of the time the people I'm supposed to save are already dead, partially dead, or executed once we move to actually rescue them. Heck, my second mission with Elma and Lin had been a rescue op, and it ended with all three of the captured people dead before we even got there.

I'm hoping this one goes a bit smoother. It had better. I spent nearly twenty minutes painstakingly crawling across burning desert sand into position with the chameleon on, which is about as fun as being locked in a cage with a starved Grex. But that's all taken care of now, and it's moment of truth time. I take one last breath and settle into my detached state of mind, where fighting is as easy and natural as breathing.

"Go."

I suit action to words and kick off into a full sprint towards the depression. I see the two hidden figures of the Milsaadi begin to move just before Milly and Elma open fire. Milly was certainly right about being a good shot, her three-round burst expertly catches the Milsaadi on the right and sends him spinning to the ground, a grey-blue splash of his blood on the rocks behind him. Elma…well I can count the number of times she's missed a target on one hand.

With fingers to spare.

Sure enough her target drops as well, which leaves things up to me and Hope. I clear the lip of the depression, barely four strides away from the Milsaadi, and see him pull his arm back to stab Wulawa. Time seems to slow as his arm shoots forward…and bounces off a shimmering barrier that sprang into place mere moments before impact. I grin at Hope's clutch timing.

Creating a barrier accurately over such a long distance must have required some insanely fast information input into her psycho launchers to make sure they put the barrier in the right place.

Regardless, it's game over for this guy now that I've closed the distance. He tries to take a step back to gain distance to pull a weapon, but I grab his arms and yank his head into mine so that his chin smashes into the front of my helmet. As he reels back I stay perfectly in step with him and slam my leg down on his knee, which breaks with a satisfying crunch.

Still stunned and now trying to balance on his one good leg, I haul my arm back and land a vicious right hook, amplified by the armor, right across where a humans jawline would be. With a sound like breaking wet glass he hits the ground hard and clumsily scrabbles for traction. I have no intention of letting him find it. I jam one of my blades through his back to pin him to the ground, and his head cranks around to look at me.

I smile humorlessly and say, "Remember when we played the what if game?"

I put two bullets into his skull to help jog his memory.

With that out of the way I turn to the cowering Nopon and say, "Relax, your safe no-"

"EEK! Alien come to kill Wulawa! Wulawa not taste good, alien find other dead alien much more tasty than Wulawa…"

I roll my eyes at the typical Nopon ability to put two and two together and come up with nineteen.

"It's alright Wulawa, we're friends of Mujiji here to help you. Besides, Nopon are too high in cholesterol."

Hope's voice crackles over the radio, sounding exasperated.

"Cross, could you be a little more sensitive to the traumatized hostage?"

"What? She's totally fine."

She gives a tired sigh and signs off. I laugh and turn to Wulawa, who's looking at me with a mix of hope and terror.

"Hubby..Hubbypon sent friends to rescue Wulawa?"

"Yup, now let's get out of here, you have a very worried spouse waiting for you back home."

"Oh Wulawa can't wait! Wulawa will make Hubbypon most satisfied Nopon by this time tomorrow."

"And we are now in too much information territory. C'mon lets move."

"Lead the way friend!"

---

Back outside the depression we're hidden among the rocks while we wait for Lin to arrive in her Skell. Milly is busy talking to Wulawa while the rest of us keep an eye out for any signs of approaching indigens or hostile Ganglion. I'm still waiting for my comm to cycle back into FrontierNav's communication network. We weren't sure what kind of sensors the Milsaadi kept handy and didn't want to risk any outbound signals giving the game away. While FrontierNav is way more comprehensive and powerful than it was months back, it still takes a few minutes for the comms to find and lock into a signal. Until then we're restricted to short range communications of about half a kilometer.

I'm feeling jumpy as I scan the horizon. It's like things went a little too well. Doug would probably mention something about Murphy's Law, and right now I'm fervently hoping that what can go wrong doesn't.

A beep brings me out of my reverie as my comm signals it's connection to the network, and I breath a little easier.

What causes my breath to again shorten is that immediately an urgent message from BLADE HQ is emblazoned on my display. I barely get a second to look at it before it displays an incoming call from Ackwar.

With a growing unease I answer and immediately wince as Ackwar shouts full force over the headset, "Cross! You have to watch out! The Sylvalum group! Their Nopon exploded! You have to check the Nopon for a bomb!"

My eyes go wide as I realize we never did a search of Wulawa for anything like that. I immediately rush over to Wulawa and pick her up to search for where a bomb might have been placed.

"Meh meh?! What is friend doing?! Is something on Wulawa?!"

I don't find anything on her and confirm with Ackwar, "You're sure there was a bomb of some sort involved Ackwar? I didn't find anything."

He sounds like he's about to have a heart attack.

"I'm super sure! 100% sure Cross! Check everywhere!"

I frown as Elma suddenly comes rushing over in just as much of a hurry as I am.

"You got the message too Cross?"

"Yah but I haven't found anything. Wulawa, was there anything the Milsaadi gave you while they were keeping you? Any sort of trinket or something?"

Wulawa looks thoughtful for a second then shrugs.

"Aliens gave Wulawa fruit to eat because stomach kept rumbling, nothing else."

I mentally curse at how easy it is to trick a Nopon with food, and wonder how the Hell we're supposed to look inside her for a bomb. It's not like we can just cut her open, since that would kind of defeat the purpose of rescuing her in the first place.

I look at Elma for inspiration but she looks as stumped as I am. Great, now what? I try to rack my brains for a sudden inspiration but get nothing. The idea of leaving Wulawa behind just to save our own skins makes me sick to my stomach, so that's a no-

Wait.

Sick in the stomach?

Making a snap decision I yank open Wulawa's mouth.
"Wash ish frensh doin-BLEEH!"

Her sentence is lost to time as I shove my hand down her throat. Everyone looks at me like I've gone mad, and Wulawa is madly convulsing and puking and waving her arms and if this situation wasn't so dire, I'd be dying of laughter.

After a second or two of barfing something pops out of her gut that doesn't look like digested food. It's roughly spherical in shape and pitch black, only slightly smaller than my closed fist…with a blinking light on it's side.

I don't waste any time in picking it up and chucking it as far away as I can. Elma immediately calls for everyone to, "Duck and Cover!"

We all hunker down among the rocks. Not a moment too soon either, as a massive shock wave blows a tidal wave of sand over our position and creates a deafening howling noise. I'm untouched inside of my armor, but everyone else is probably pretty dazed right now. I peek over the edge of my boulder and give a low whistle. That little box must have carried quite the kick to it, as there's a pretty decent crater almost six meters across and maybe a meter deep where it landed.

Everyone else drags themselves up, coughing as they try to get a clean breath of air. Wulawa stills looks to be in a state of shock following her forced upchucking, not to mention the blast trauma from the bomb.

I turn my attention skyward as the sound of a descending Skell draws closer, scattering the sand clouds and clearing our visibility.

My comm crackles to life and I can hear Lin almost on the verge of panic.

"Elma! Cross! You guys ok?! Respond if you can hear me!"

"Relax kiddo we're all fine down here. Although everyone else might be a little hard of hearing for a while, that bomb packed quite the oomph."

She gives a sigh of relief and starts scanning the area, keeping an eye out for any other nasties that might want to mess with us.

Elma shakes her head clear and looks at me with slowly focusing eyes.

"GOOD THINKING WITH THE STOMACH PUMPING!"

I guess she's still a little hard of hearing, no reason to shout at me when we're less than two meters apart.

"You should consider wearing a helmet! Being able to breathe normally at all times is a fair trade off for hiding my beautiful face, wouldn't you say?"

She snorts at this and immediately goes into a coughing fit. Guess making her laugh was a bad idea.

Milly, Mia and Hope also get it together, Milly immediately going to check on Wulawa, who's also coming around.

"Ugh…friends, is Wulawa still alive? Wulawa feel so very weak…"

Milly gives a wry smile and replies, "Well you're been through quite the wringer these last few minutes. But I think we're through the hard part now."

"Wulawa happy to hear that…friend Milly such a nice person…much nicer than scary friend in armor…"

The head of Lin's Skell turns towards me and I hear her exasperated voice go, "For crying out loud Cross, what did you do to the poor Nopon this ti-"

The back of her Skell suddenly blossoms a ball of fire and shrapnel as the engines explode, shoving the Skell forward to go crashing into the ground.

We all immediately turn about, trying to find the source of the explosion when Milly suddenly cries out, "Sniper!" and dives across Wulawa, pushing the Nopon out of the way…

…Pushing her out of the way of a high velocity kinetic round which punches right through Milly's chest, leaving an exit wound almost ten centimeters across and throwing her against the side of a nearby rock.

Hope manages to put a barrier up which deflects the next round, while Lin manages to get her Skell to stand and return fire with her B2 gatling cannon.

I roll over to Milly while there's covering fire to check on her condition…and see that the round went right through her heart and a decent portion of her lungs. She was probably dead half a second after the round hit.

I give an instinctive snarl and turn my attention back to where Lin is returning fire. There's an entrance to a nearby gulley that's been half slagged by Lin's barrage, but no sign of the attacker.

There she is. I see a glimpse of crimson cloak and the familiar figure of a Milsaadi female sliding away from Lin's shots and running away through the canyon.

I jump out from behind cover and immediately start sprinting after the Bastard at full force. I hear Elma yell over the comm, "Lin! Get the others to the camp and call for backup, and keep your eyes open! Cross and I will go after the shooter!"

There's about a three hundred meter open area between where the Milsaadi disappeared and our position. I cover it in about half a minute with Elma not too far behind. While the Milsaadi looked like she was making her way carefully through the gully's twists and turns, I ignore all that and aim right for the side of the cliff face to gain a better vantage point. The armor's boot grips allow me to bound up the side in no time flat, and I immediately throw my hopper cam in the air to track down our quarry.

No sooner does it reach it's max elevation than one those kinetic rounds blows it out of the sky, but that's fine by me.

Now I know where that sneaky little shit is. I kick off the ground and raise Elma on my comm as I go.

"Elma, once you enter the gulley, take your first right, keep following that until you can make a left. She's hiding out in that area."

"Copy that. Be there shortly."

I attach one of my two Zero cartridges to the barrel of my delta and hold it ready. I get a grim smile on my face as I close in on the Milsaadi's location. Being trapped in a tight corridor is about the worst possible place to be on the receiving end of a Zero cartridge.

I clear the lip of the ledge where she last was and throw myself to the side as a round goes screaming where my head was a split second ago. Tricky sod was waiting for me to show myself. Not so lucky for her, however, that I was prepared for a tactic like that and was already moving. I give a small smile as I center my gun on her chest and pull the trigger, triggering a burst of flame as the Zero round fires.

Zero rounds are the latest and greatest in terms of close range breach and clear scenarios. While urban warfare is about as common as a friendly Ictus here on Mira, the actual rounds themselves work perfectly fine for a variety of purposes. A Zero cartridge works much like a typical scattershot shotgun round works, in that there are several flechettes loaded into one larger shell and then scattered upon firing. Zero's have a few extra tricks to them that make them a real nasty piece of work though.

Firstly, the cartridge itself can be affixed to a wide variety of firearms, it's not reliant upon a specific firing device. Secondly, there's a small plasma charge affixed to the back of the shell that ignites shortly after the round is fired. This has the added bonus of greatly increasing the speed of the individual flechettes, as well as giving them a lot of excess heat to bleed off.

It's the best of both a shotgun and a railgun. And it's about to turn my Milsaadi friend down there into a charred mess.

Or at least it would have, had she not already twisted away from the oncoming meat grinder. The barrel of her gun gets torn away in a spray of sparks, while the rock face behind that explodes in a shower of red hot fragments. Well whatever, I'd get do this by hand.

I slide down the side of the cliff and disengage my Ralzes from their binders and move towards the Milsaadi, who is simply staring at me and waiting.

Boy she is in for a nasty surprise if she's underestimating me. Given the opportunity to actually pay a closer look to this gal I notice a few things different from most other Milsaadi.

First: she's slightly taller than most other Milsaadi, breaking the two meter height standard.

Second: There's some odd protrusions around her joints that might be armor of some sort, not to mention her limbs seem to be slightly thicker than normal.

Lastly: she has a bright crimson cloak instead of the usual camouflaged one other Milsaadi prefer. I guess she's an attention seeker.

These differences aren't gonna save her now though. She's penned in by me in the front, and Elma is hot on my tail. End of the line for you pal.

I get within ten steps of her and immediately push off the ground and launch into a series of low swings aimed at her legs. The Milsaadi like to use a lot of aerial stunts and jumps, and if you aim low their preferred method is to leap over your swing, land behind you and run a knife through your spine.

But that's what I'm counting on. As soon as she goes for the leap I can immediately turn around and run her through with my sword faster than her blade can cut through my armor.

I'm so focused and sure of this plan that it takes me a second to realize that not only is she blocking each of my strikes without moving so much as a step, she's actually pushing me back.

Ok, time to switch gears here.

She's using two retractable arm blades, so if I can parry one of those out of the way, I just earned myself a free shot at her body.

I deliberately let my left blade dip down, offering an easy way to get at my upper arm. I grin as she goes for it and suddenly switch to a reverse grip, knocking her approaching arm out of the way as my right blade goes in for a thrust at her center of mass.

It would have been a great plan if she hadn't moved equally as fast and grabbed my right sword with her bare hand and friggin stops it. I yank on the sword as hard as I can, creating a shower of sparks and a stream of blue blood as it slices backwards in her hand. I almost manage to disengage before she gives a sharp twist of her wrist that breaks my Ralzes in half.

Ok, maybe fighting this one mano y mujer was a bad idea.

I jump back but she grabs my left hand before I escape her reach and yanks me forward despite my armor. Her wounded hand then grabs onto the front of my chest plate and bloody lifts me off the ground.

Unfortunately I think I know where she's going with this. Sure enough she slams me into the ground hard enough that little stars burst in front of my eyes and my head goes all fuzzy for a second.

Great. Not only is she stronger than me even when I'm wearing my armor, she's also my equal in CQC, if not better. This would be a really good time for Elma to show up.

I shake my head in an attempt to clear it, just in time to see her winding up her right leg for a vicious kick at my ribs. I barely manage to absorb the blow with a muay thai hiss, and even that cracks the side of my armor. Probably would have caused a mess of internal damage if that had actually connected full force. Before she can pull her leg back I lock her ankle into my armpit and roll in her direction, hoping that I can at least knock her over.

I must have been just heavy enough, since after a second of resistance she topples over. I take the split second of disorientation that brings me to get her ankle in a ju jitsu lock that would break the bones of any other normal humanoid. But as I'm learning, painfully, this particular humanoid is far from normal. Even with my most of my upper body weight bearing down on the lock, she's putting out enough counter pressure so that I'm just shy of the breaking point.

I snarl in frustration as she bends forward at the waist and grabs my right leg, before yanking on it and breaking me out of the lock. I lash out with my left leg and she rolls to the side to avoid my foot, letting go of my right as she does. We both get to our feet and face each other, ignoring our injuries.

Probably easier for her, since Milsaadi can just go ahead and dull their sense of pain, which is just plain unfair.

My heads still a little fuzzy, and my right side still feels like it got hit with a hammer from her kick earlier. To my relief she's not unscathed either. Her right hand is still dripping blood, and she's favoring her left leg. While my lock didn't break the ankle, it clearly damaged it.

I refocus as she moves into a crouch…and nearly loses her head as Elma comes from behind with a vicious slash. I immediately rush forwards to catch her with a pincer movement. If Elma and I can come at her from two sides while she has an injured leg, we can win, regardless of her unexpected toughness. She tries to turn to face us in a semi-defensible position, but is a split second too late. We arrive at the same time, Elma aiming for her head and me aiming for her leg with a kick.

But for what feels like the dozenth time in the past few minutes, I get a nasty surprise. She bends her left leg so that the knee joint connects with my shin and deflects most of the force of my kick. Her right arm gets in the way of Elma's swords and they lodge themselves into her upper bicep, halting their momentum without cutting through. Then in a maneuver I wish I could replicate, she somehow spins her supposedly injured right leg in a blindingly fast kick towards my neck. I manage to get an open palm in front of the blow to absorb some of the force, but it still feels like I got hit by a truck.

There's a blast of white fire and I dully feel my head collide with something. I weakly claw at my neck, since it feels like someone poured molten lead into my veins, while simultaneously beating my head with a jagged rock.

In a word: OW.

Ignoring the pain for now I haul myself to my feet and try to focus on the fight. I'm treated to a blurry image of three Elma's fighting three Milsaadi, which doesn't make any sense to my brain at all.

I must have got hit harder than I thought.

I give my a head a hard shake, which sends a wave of pain through my skull that leaves me gasping for air and trying not to puke.

Hey, at least that helps me focus.

I hear a sudden gasp of pain and see Elma with blood streaming down the side of her face, being pressured by her assailant into a corner.

I force my eyes to focus and attach my last Zero cartridge to the front of my Delta, which is still in one piece despite the pretty brutal thrashing it's gone through. While I would normally never fire a Zero round when there's friendlies right in the line of fire, this is hardly a normal situation.

Besides, right now the Milsaadi is perfectly aligned between the two of us, her bulk will take most of the shots. I sight down the barrel and pull the trigger, and a firestorm of metal takes her directly in the back. The kinetic force knocks her forward, and she barely manages to get her arms beneath her before rolling to the side to face me again.

Which is actually really bad, because a close range Zero round can stop a charging Suid in it's tracks, they carry that much stopping power. Granted, her back is smoking and she's definitely moving slower than before, but damn dude. Sign me up for whatever diet she's on.

Both Elma and I drag ourselves to our feet and assume ready stances as she does the same. Neither of us get a chance to make a move though, as two of Oblivia's quick response Skells fly right above the canyon before looping around to make another pass. Our reinforcements got here in the nick of time I'd say. I look back at the Milsaadi only to find her staring back at me with an intensity that is straight up uncomfortable. The moment's broken as she gives me a strangely human nod before turning around and making a break for the next turn in the canyon.

I snarl and try to line up a clean shot on her but my body doesn't seem to be in any hurry to listen to me. Even though that Milsaadi rat is moving a lot slower than before, I can barely move at all.

She's going to get away.

I curse under my breath and limp over to Elma, who heavily sat on the ground once she left our field of view. The left side of her head is one big mass of bloody tissue, but thankfully most of it has congealed. I give an exhausted sigh and force some levity into my voice.

"Looks like your head is harder than her fist."

She wryly smiles at my joke and forces herself to stand.

"And you should look at yourself in a mirror. It's like you just got stepped on by a milesaur."

"Feels like it to. I hope we don't have to do anything else on this mission, because I'm beat. In more ways than one."

"You won't get an argument from me on that point."

---

Five hours and a decent amount of painkillers later, we're finally wrapping up our assignment and heading back to NLA. The vast majority of the beating I took was centered around my skull, which left me with a migraine that could kill a Simius.

As if the amnesiac needed to risk any more brain damage.

Mujiji is seeing us off as we load into the transport, gratitude written all over his face. I had my armor's recording function running the entire time we were on the mission, so our rescue and subsequent delivery of Wulawa back to the caravan had a bit of a dramatic ring to it. Milly's sacrifice was the clincher. She was friends with a lot of the caravan residents, and hearing how she saved Wulawa at the cost of her life convinced the Nopon that sticking with us is the right thing to do.

I'm pretty sure Milly would be happy to hear that.

Not that the Ganglion using the Nopon hostages as bomb delivery services did much to endear them to their cause. The news of how the Sylvalum caravan was attacked also made the Nopon consider that listening to the Ganglion's demands might not guarantee their safety.

Regardless, we can say mission accomplished. I glance over to the pod where Milly's body is being stored and give an exhausted sigh. I know that she's not really dead, and that her consciousness is still hanging around in the Lifehold, but seeing people I like get 'killed' still seems uncomfortably final to me.

I cut off that train of thought before I start to get all mopey. Milly would roll her eyes at me getting all depressed over someone who isn't dead in the first place, and frankly I agree.

I look up as four other people board the copter, and I can't help but smile as I look at Lin's face. Her Skell's flight pack got totaled by some sort of thermal grenade our Milsaadi Badass fired at the start of the ambush. She could either drive home over the course of quite a few days, or ride in the transport with the rest of us while it get's airlifted back for some repairs. It warms my heart to see her humbled a bit. Ackwar and Hope, who were following her, look slightly uncomfortable at her angry attitude while Mia seems totally indifferent.

I smile grandly at her and put on my most benevolent expression.

"Welcome aboard NLA's finest mode of transportation Miss Lin. We saved a window seat just for you, so if any unexpected turbulence happens, be sure to hold on tight so you don't fall out of the vehicle."

Good thing her eyes aren't lasers, or I would have been crisped by the glare she shoots my way. It takes everything I have not to burst out laughing.

Turning away from Lin, who's sulking in a corner of the transport, I look towards Hope, who's staring at Milly with a faraway look in her eyes.

I know exactly what's going on inside her head right now. Hope has a ruthless sense of self-responsibility. She's probably blaming herself for not getting a shield up in time to save Milly, or thinking something even dumber like she should have taken the bullet instead of Milly.

"Hey, Hope."

She breaks off her gaze and meets my eyes.

"While it's fine to feel responsible for mistakes you can fix, feeling guilt over every little twist that happens on the battlefield isn't going to help you or anyone else. Don't beat yourself up over it."

Mia chimes in with, "Yah Hope, we all kinda goofed on this one. Heck, we had both the Chief and Elma with us and things still fell apart a little. And at the end of the day it was still mission accomplished, so lighten up!"

Not the most delicate way to put it, but still the right thing to say. Hope seems to be a little more at ease though, and gives us a sincere smile.

"Thanks you two." Her gaze drift's over to the outside of the transport where Sun'Barac, Alice and Eliza are talking to a group of Nopon.

"Do you think those three will be ok? The caravan might be attacked again."

I shrug and simply reply, "They have a job to finish. Besides, what with Milly gone I bet BLADE HQ is gonna be devoting a few more military assets to the caravan. They'll be fine."

Seeming to accept that Hope leans back and closes her eyes as if to rest. I turn to Ackwar and ask, "You mentioned the Sylvalum caravan came under the same attack we did and didn't fare so well. How's the damage?"

"The Nopon took a pretty big hit, something like twenty-seven dead and a lot more wounded. Pretty bad stuff y'know? The BLADE's involved didn't make it, they were too close to the blast."

I wince.

"Yah that's pretty bad alright. And thanks again for telling me in time about the bomb Ackwar, I owe you big time for that."

"Aw heck Cross, we can call it even for when you helped me out with Powell ok? You know I get all nervous with praise and everything, right?"

I smile and lean back, closing my own eyes as I do so.

"Dunno what I did to deserve a friend like you Ackwar, but I'm glad I did it."

I hear Lin mutter under her breath, "It probably wasn't being nice to your little sister that's for sure."

This time I do break out laughing.

---

Nahum had been in a good mood. Considering that her recent attempt to sabotage the Human's and curry favor with other Ganglion forces was largely a failure, it was surprising that she had been content at all.

While the initial portion of the plan had worked smoothly, the Human's had reacted quickly, killing some of her best operatives and impressing the Nopon cowards. Even the Sylvalum caravan bombing had accomplished little, with only a couple dozen largely inconsequential deaths to show for their effort.

But an unexpected opportunity had presented itself to Nahum. While moving to observe the operatives working in Oblivia, she had arrived just in time to see the Human from the transport footage, along with the warrior known as Elma, eliminate her subordinates and rescue the hostage.

Seeing a chance to eliminate the two of them in one instant she had triggered the bomb to detonate, only to see it explode far away from the Human's as they managed to remove the device.

Far from being dismayed, Nahum was both impressed and gratified by this turn of events.

The reason for her relief being that Nahum was…different from other Milsaadi.

Milsaadi assassins are trained from infancy to perform their missions with swiftness and use whatever means necessary. Underhanded or 'dishonorable' methods are a large factor in their success. While Nahum could perform these actions just as well as any other Milsaadi, and put duty before her own desires, the truth was far different from what one would expect of the head of a Milsaadi assassination corps.

The truth was that Nahum liked to fight. Straight up, one on one fights to the death provided a sense of joy that Nahum couldn't find anywhere else. She had seen the armored human and immediately fantasized about a duel between the two of them. But there was an order to things that Nahum couldn't ignore. She had aimed at the Nopon hostage amid the aftermath of the explosion, but events seemed to conspire against her even then.

A human had noticed her and blocked the shot, while the Human Skell had recovered and begun suppressing fire. Then she had a stroke of genius. While eliminating the Nopon was no longer a realistic option, she could accomplish an arguably more important goal.

Even better, she could do so in the most cathartic and gratifying way possible.

Luring the Human's had been easy. The rest of the fight? That had been a far more heated contest.

While Nahum had known that the armored Human was an astounding warrior, she was forced to admit that her expectations fell far short of the actual thing. Even with Nahum's body enhancements that gave her strength and speed greater than the Human, not only had the alien held his own, he had even wounded Nahum in the midst of their contest.

While their duel was interrupted and Nahum had to retreat in the end, such a fierce contest had left her in a generous and forgiving mood.

Which was rapidly fading as she listened to the remaining Ganglion commanders squabble like carrion birds over a decayed carcass.

The remaining Ganglion leaders had agreed to meet at Sylvalum's Anvil Rock One stronghold in order to select a leader that would hopefully provide a central direction for the Ganglion to take on Mira. The Ganglion had always operated under a strict hierarchy: a power vacuum was an unnatural state for them to be in.

The three main candidates had initially been Nahum herself, Dadaan, the self-styled 'Strongest Prone' and the Marnuck Sadar. Nahum had secretly been hoping to support Sadar in his bid for leadership, as he was a brilliant tactician. While he had the unofficial title of 'Sadar the Unhinged', due to his erratic behavior and occasional mood swings, Nahum believed that having a feared yet capable leader was a necessity for the Ganglion.

All of which meant nothing now, since Sadar had been killed by a sudden Human ambush against Hilal Stronghold, which had subsequently fallen. And given Nahum's largely failed mission to split NLA apart, as well a the loss of several of her Definian and Milsaadi subordinates, Dadaan was almost guaranteed to win the spot.

Which Nahum absolutely could not allow to happen.

Dadaan was an idiot. He had initially escaped from Ganglion servitude when they first arrived on Mira, but once they had fractured after Luxaar's death he returned to gain followers through brute force and intimidation. While Nahum would grudgingly admit that he did have the necessary cruelty and strength to run the Ganglion, his appreciation for tactics and espionage was slightly less than zero. Which would absolutely guarantee that the Ganglion on Mira would lose against the Humans. While Dadaan would have been an excellent choice when the Human's first arrived on Mira, since they were militarily weak then, the Ganglion no longer had such an advantage.

Humanity had been given time to expand their forces and technology, as well as gain allies. Even if all the Ganglion's military power was gathered and aimed at the Human's this very second, it was no longer a certainty that they would win. True, they would hold an advantage, but given their luck as of late Nahum wasn't willing to bet on their odds.

Besides, even assuming Dadaan did exactly that, he would do so haphazardly and carelessly, while the Humans would slowly chip away at their forces with hit-and-run tactics until they could win a more conventional battle.

In short, Nahum had to do something if they wanted to survive.

Halting her rumination as the former aide to Luxaar stood up, she forced herself to focus on what was to come.

"I appreciate all the remaining Ganglion commanders and representatives arriving to meet with each other today in order to decide on our next leader. In order-"

"Enough talk! Time should not be wasted when our enemies roam free!"

Nahum gave a private mental sigh as Dadaan immediately stood up and threw the meeting into disarray. She had anticipated at least two minutes would pass before Dadaan got bored.

"I am to be selected as new leader of Ganglion! Is that not what all of us are gathered here today to decide?!"

Having a sudden stroke of inspiration, Nahum leaned forward and spoke, "Your bid for leadership isn't uncontested Dadaan. There are other's that are being considered as well."

Dadaan threw back his head and roared with laughter.

"Puny assassin think she can take leadership over Dadaan? Assassination did not go so well in Oblivia, did it coward? You still bear the wounds of your laughable failure!"

Nahum was surprised that Dadaan even knew about her failure, considering his aversion to anything resembling intelligence work, but in this case it worked even better for Nahum's plan.

Scoffing, she replied "These injuries are one's I personally earned attempting to earn us victory over the Humans. Where are your scar's of battle? Or did you perhaps run away from Scabaland Fortress without even attempting to fight? Much like you did when we first came to this planet?"

Dadaan puffed himself up to his full height, an impressive three and a half meters, and looked at Nahum with open murder in his eyes.

"I bear no injuries because I am unbeatable in combat! I have earned the title of Strongest Prone through countless trials, a skulking assassin like you would never be able to beat me in a fight!"

While Nahum did find the idea of fighting Dadaan to the death an attractive one, the stakes were too high for Nahum to indulge in her hobby.

While boasting about his abilities, Dadaan had stalked over to where Nahum sat and glared down at her, daring Nahum to make a move. Instead she merely sat and gazed calmly at Dadaan.

No one even breathed until Dadaan snorted and smugly said, "All talk and no action. Typical for your kind." all while deliberately showing Nahum his back and walking back to his seat.

Four more reasons why Dadaan was an idiot.

One: He assumed Nahum was no different than any other Milsaadi, thus had no idea about her body's modifications.

Two: Since Nahum was injured, he felt there was no reason to fear any sort of attack by her.

Three: So confident of his unopposed ascension to leadership, he had neglected to wear any sort of armor to the meeting, carrying only his glaive.

Four: He had turned this meeting into a battle of personalities. Whoever won between them would appear to be the Alpha of the pack, and the others would follow whoever won. If Dadaan hadn't risen to Nahum's challenge, he would have assuredly been selected to lead regardless.

Four mistakes that spelled out death for Dadaan.

No sooner had he turned around did Nahum silently rise from her chair and make the first move.

forming a handspear with her left arm, she jammed it through Dadaan's back to grab one of his two hearts, followed by a violent pull that yanked it through his back into Nahum's hand.

Giving a sudden croak, Dadaan immediately reached for his blade to fight back with.

Nahum gave a low grunt, impressed. Immediately reacting even though he must have been in borderline shock was quite the feat.

Still pointless though.

Activating her plasma blade attached to her right wrist, Nahum slashed upwards through Dada's sword arm, followed by a downward's cut that severed his leg below the knee.

Collapsing on his face, missing half his limbs, with his heart still in Nahum's hands, Dadaan could only wetly gasp as everyone stared silently.

Speaking calmly, Nahum stated "Since I just beat the Strongest Prone, what would that make me?"

Not expecting an answer she squeezed her fist, crushing Dadaan's heart in a shower of blood. There was around another thirty seconds of panicked wheezing as Dadaan writhed on the floor until he finally went silent.

No one moved.

"I suppose," Nahum said, speaking even more softly, "That would make me the leader of the Ganglion."

Sitting back in her chair, still covered in Dada's blood, Nahum looked around calmly at the others who were assembled.

No one met her eyes.

"I'll take the silence to mean you all agree with my conclusion."