Chapter 7
Vendetta
"Actually," Sapphire started, pulling her hand back and walking back over to her desk, "I have to go assess the damage left behind by the X Insurgents. That's what we call them." She pulled her helmet on.
"Sapphire to Gold, Sapphire to Main, clean up is a go," she told them through the transmitter. She looked at Niko, "Like I said, it's not that easy to just go attack. We have priorities." She picked up her gun, just in case any more X Insurgents decided to show up. "You can either explore the Insurgency, or you can help me."
"I'll help you out." Niko replied and followed Sapphire. The fact there were priorities was one thing, but he didn't want to get into something that would have a negative impact later. So opting not to explore on his own was a good idea to him.
Sapphire left Platinum's, now hers, office, holding down the button on her helmet. "Sapphire to Gold, take Sections A, B, and C. Sapphire to Silver, take Sections J, D, and E. Sapphire to Garnet, take Sections F and G. Main, monitor every other section. I'll handle Sections H and P." Sapphire's office was where H and P met, so she thought it was realistic. They were mostly bear, from what she could see. Everyone had probably fled to the conference room. The damage seemed minimal, and nothing Alex and Fluorite, a new recruit who was formerly a Hesitance member, couldn't handle.
She flicked her head up and picked up her pace, turning to face an ally way on Section P. "Come on," she told Niko as she started down it. It was a short cut to get to the conference room.
"There's one big thing you need to know, Niko," Sapphire started as she walked down the alley. "I found out the real way Allison died... She died because of her own failure, her own mistake." She shook her head and barked a dry, humorless laugh. "That explains a lot, doesn't it?"
Niko nodded.
"Yeah that does explain quite a bit." Niko replied. "Turns out my mom was trying to find out what went wrong, but she was killed. I have to find out what they knew, but I'll do it your way and discover it all as we go. I don't wanna get anyone hurt…"
"You can't hit us as much as we already have," Sapphire muttered, mostly to herself. As she and Niko came out the other end of the ally, she turned right and opened the double door that were there, noise spilling out instantly. Yells, shouts, and plain nonsense. Things were being broken, and people were screaming nonsense. Some were crying, and others were fighting. Sapphire sighed and shook her head as she walked in, doing so slowly.
The inside of the building was set up almost like a church or courthouse. There were many rows of pews, and the room was large. There was a stage and podium up front, and two flags on both corners of the stage on their stills. One was the New Insurgents flag, black with a cyan circle of decent size in the middle. Within the circle was a large firearm, possibly a gun, crossed with a cyan armored fist. Underneath the two objects was the number 479 for their pilot, Four Seven Niner. It was written in tan. The hemline of the flag was silver, with gold on the corners. In the top right corner of the flag, there was a military, camo green I, as there was on the bottom left corner. There was also a white N on the two other corners. The firearm represented that field of fighting, while the fist easily represented hand-to-hand combat, and more specifically, Sapphire. As mentioned earlier, the 479 was dedicated to Four Seven Niner. The color it was written in represented Garnet and his armor. The hemline colors represented Gold and Silver. The 'N's and 'I's represented the new Insurgents. The white 'N's represented Gravel, their only British member, and the sort of military camo green represented Allison, since that was her favorite color. The solid black color of the flag represented the Director, since black was his favorite color. The cyan circle also represented Sapphire.
The other flag was the New Hesitance flag. The color was sheer platinum, very metallic and shiny. The hemline was gray with sapphire blue on the corners, and there was a large, dark blue H in the center of the flag. There was a dark red N behind the H, but both letters were clearly visible. On each of the corners, there was an asterisk like star. One was yellow, one was green, one was purple, and one was orange. There was also one on the bar of the H, which was brown. The base color of the flag was a dedication to Platinum, and the hemline represented both the Hesitance soldiers and Sapphire. The dark blue 'H' and dark red 'N' were the basic Hesitance colors. The yellow star was dedicated to Alexandrite, or Alex, the green and purple star was dedicated to Gold and Silver, the orange star was dedicated to Nickel, and the brown star was also dedicated to Platinum, since that was the color of her armor.
"What is this place?" Niko asked. "Some sort of memorial?"
Niko walked around and found his mother. A rosemary flower bouquet put on a ruby coin. He grabbed the flower he found in the alley, put it on the grave, and bowed to pay respects to each person there.
"I won't stop until the Director pays for torturing you souls like he has." Niko said with resolve. "I owe it to you, mom…."
He got up, followed Sapphire, and noticed there was a sword on him mother's grave. He picked it up, swung it, and tested its weight, which matched his own. Niko strapped it on his back and ran after Sapphire.