There was an unusual amount of bustle aboard the Armistice Station, the rumor mill had spread from the traffic controllers, all the way to the diplomats themselves, that there was going to be a special kind of arrival. So people had deviated from duties, taking their breaks at irregular times, just to make their way to the central hangar of the Castle, to try and figure out what was going on, what transport that wasn't regularly scheduled to arrive, was arriving, and who it contained.
It was to Marito's surprise however, that he had been personally requested to be in the hangar when the transport arrived. So present he was, to bear witness to the arrival of whoever it was in this transport. Although he had a suspicion that whoever it was, would likely not be bringing the best of news, and would be bringing some form of trouble with them. Not to say that he didn't trust Yuki in some capacity to handle herself, but there was some degree of uncertainty as far as the woman that had somehow convinced Yuki to participate in this operation. There was something he didn't understand in whatever it was that had driven Yuki to actually follow her down to Earth again, to participate in that wild mission of hers, but it had driven her — and there was nothing he could do about it now. Especially not with them arriving back today so suddenly.
He was among the first in the hangar bay when the outer doors sealed themselves, and the engines of the transport finally spooled down to safe levels, letting the flood of engineers and machinists through the airlock and into the bay, where the transport was waiting to be serviced, refueled, and any of the other tasks that needed doing to it before it went about whatever mission was next. There were medics and even a few soldiers among the mix of those who were flooding the hangar bay, waiting for the transport's airlock to cycle open. Marito was only somewhat consciously aware of the fact that many of the soldiers had weapons either on slings, or holding them freely, pointed safely into the air, feeling somewhat exposed in this hangar being the only one without an explicit purpose in being here, asides from being told he was supposed to be here.
Eventually, the airlock door of the transport opens, and two soldiers step forth, their own firearms crossed across their chests, which strikes Marito as probably 'too relaxed' for the number of other staff in the hangar bay, but he doesn't say anything. He stands near the front of the group of people who are waiting near the airlock door, mostly those who he identifies as medical staff from the hospital wing of the Armistice Station, and waits until he can see inside the transport. Eventually, he sees a figure, helping another figure move back towards the airlock. Eventually, the light has spilled in far enough into the airlock, where he can make out who it is helping who move through the airlock. Jessamine's arm is slung around Yuki's shoulders, limping as the pair moves towards the medical staff and Marito as they stand, waiting for them.
Marito anxiously grins, "You two look like hell." He calls over the din of the hangar. Taking note of their hair, and the overall dishevelment of both after having spent the last few weeks with not having showered, or done much outside of the barest minimum of hygiene that they could afford packing in their long-term backpacks.
Jessamine resists commenting, allowing instead Yuki to respond to the man who she knows better than she does, but she does not make any comment, instead focusing more on getting Jessamine the medical attention that she needs. Marito does not make a further comment.
"So, back to safety, huh?" Jessamine grins as she's ushered onto a stretcher, and she lays down on it apprehensively, but realizes that its almost the most comfortable thing she's laid on in the last few weeks — and settles in quite comfortably.
"Guess so." Yuki comments.
"What the hell did you two find that you got shot at over?" Marito asks, still not sure about Jessamine's name.
"Something Martian back at Shinawara High." Jessamine responds.
"The hell?" Marito asks, looking at Yuki for clarification.
Yuki simply shrugs.
"Either way, it wasn't Terran, and it wasn't exactly like we could take our time looking it over." Jessamine shrugs as the medical staff pick up her stretcher. Yuki and Marito follow her stretcher back the way Marito had entered the hangar from, and leave the trusty transport that had taken them halfway across the planet, behind.
On the day that Yuki and Jessamine returned from Earth, there are ten days left before the armistice expires, and tensions run high, even in the normally calm and professional air that comes about from the meidcal professionals who were treating Jessamine in the hospital wing — a mix of both Terran and Martian doctors, both of whom treat her with the same level of respect as she would expect no matter where she was from. In that manner, she supposed that Doctors were Doctors, and didn't have anything such as borders, when it came to human suffering. It was something to be treated, and so treated she was. It was the second day when she recieved the summons from the Armistice Council, to come before them and present her findings. Of which she had no time to compile a report, so it would have to be all orally told. A story detailing that of the suffering fraught upon countless humans on the Terran side of this war. She barely had any time to compile her thoughts, much less on paper before she was expected to show up.
But all the while, Yuki Kaizuka was there with her. Both beside Jessamine's hospital bed, but also helping her to the council room, and even arguing with the security officer who didn't want to let her into the chamber, but relented when she flashed her ID-card, and almost got into a shouting match with him.
The chamber itself, was much the same as it had been when she had been summoned nearly three weeks prior. The main difference is that this time, sitting on the Terran side of the table, was Lieutenant Marito, who she had been appraised was a civilian observer for the council, but nonetheless still surprised her to see him there, because she had (accurately) assumed his distaste in politics.
"Intelligence Officer Ainzel." Her name was called as she made her (slow) way to the lectern at the front of the room, as Yuki had been more politely asked to sit in the observer seating, despite her protestation. Jessamine was able to make her way just fine with her pair of crutches, and leg still bandaged up. "Thank you for coming to see this council so soon, and especially given your current state. We're sorry to hear and see that you were injured in the line of duty."
Jessamine, straightening herself out at the front of the room, behind the lectern, simply shrugs at this before responding, "It's not as bad as it looks, at least."
"That's good." A different voice responds, "In that case, we have a few questions for you."
Yuki, sitting in the back of the room, knows that the 'few questions' are more than not going to have long answers. So she settles into her seat, crossing her legm and waiting for Jessamine to start her explanation of what it was they had seen while they were planet-side.
The first question comes simply; "Why were you shot?" Which catches both Jessamine and Yuki by surprise, the pair both expecting that question to remain as an elephant in the room.
Jessamine raises her eyebrow, before looking down and then back up at the side of the room that had asked the question; the Martian side of the room. "We were engaged by unknown-affiliated Martian troops in the ruins of Shinawara, Japan, during our initial scouting of the area of any inhabitation following the meteor bombardment during the opening acts of the initial conflict. They were using Terran-made firearms, and engaged us even after we identified ourselves as UFE."
"Are you sure that you that you were engaged by Vers troops, and not by scavengers using Vers equipment?" Someone from the Terran side of the room asks, which strikes Yuki as a strange question to come from the UFE officials, who would seem more likely to accept Jessamine's testimony as true. "It's a known fact that there are non-UFE affiliated Terrans who have engaged with and stolen Vers equipment." Yuki looks between the Martian side of the room and the Terran side of the room, confused at how the Terrans seem more predisposed to refer to the Martians as something other than Martians — most likely a diplomatic play, but still something that doesn't quite sit right with her.
Jessamine shifts how she stands, and almost winces in pain at the gunshot wound in her leg. "This is the… First I'm hearing of this, if I'm being honest. I know about non-UFE survivors engaging with Martian soldiers who were hunting them down, but not about them stealing equipment… Furthermore, it makes more sense for those Martian soldiers to be using stolen Terran equipment, because it seems like they were operating there without due cause, because of the lack of civilian presence."
"And you're sure that that Shinawara is completely abandoned? You were only there for a few days, Intelligence Officer." Someone from the Mars side of the room asks.
"The only place that we were able to find that wasn't damaged was the Shinawara high school, and it was pretty abandoned when we investigated it after my injury." Jessamine affirms, and is met with murmurs from both sides of the room. "Furthermore," She starts again, cutting off the murmurs, "Warrant Officer Kaizuka and I found a Martian… 'Construct' in the former training Kataphract hangars that were used by the school as part of their mandatory military training." More murmurs.
"What kind of construct? Did you take pictures?" The Terran side asks.
"Unknown purpose, intentionality, or functionality, but it was roughly a ten meter by ten meter square, with what looked like circulation tubes at the top, and the hangar itself had been slightly refitted with what looked like thermal insulation, likely to prevent the structure from being found using the remaining satellites that the UFE has in orbit." Jessamine explains.
More murmurs. Then, surprisingly, one-by-one, the Martian delegation stands up, and dismisses themselves. Leaving a very confused group of Terrans in the room, most of whom are talking amongst one another, bordering on shouting between themselves. Jessamine shoots Yuki a look, and Yuki doesn't do anything but shrug. Yuki gives Marito a look, who mouths something, but Yuki can't quite make it out.
It's several minutes before the Martian delegation returns, one-by-one, solemnly. They take their seats again, not talking among one another anymore, each looking across the aisle, towards their Terran counterparts.
There's silence in the room for the next few minutes, as the Martians seem to not be the ones to disclose what they were just talking about, until one of them stands up, still with the solemn look across her face.
"The Vers delegation would like to formally apologize, and also has a request for the Terran delegation, if they're willing to hear it."
Jessamine blinks between both sides of the room, both of whom seem just as starstruck as the other.
"S-sure. We'll hear it." Someone from the Terran side of the room says.
"The Vers empire, and His Eminence, the Emperor Rayregalia Vers Rayvers, would like to formally apologize for the actions of Count Slaine Troyard, and would like to formally renounce his knighthood, and would furthermore like to request that Mars takes military action in the city of Shinawara, not against the Terran people, but in the retrieval of Her Highness, the Princess Asseylum Vers Allusia."
Jessamine freely lets her jaw drop at this.
"On what grounds?" A different Terran asks, and the Vers delegate taps something into a data tablet, and all the tablets in the room ping with notification of a file having arrived.
"The grounds that we have suspected for a long time that the former Count Slaine Troyard has been hiding Her Highness, and that the evidence described by Intelligence Officer Ainzel corroborates what we have long since suspected, but not been able to confirm. Furthermore," The Vers delegate turns to Jessamine, "We would like to apologize that you were injured at all, Intelligence Officer. If it weren't for the traitors among our ranks, you would have been able to carry out your mission, and been able to walk away without injury, and for that, the Vers Empire would like to formally issue you an apology, and our humble thanks for finding out the location of Her Highness."
The delegate bows deeply towards Jessamine, who stammers something that she intends to be a 'don't mention it', but comes out differently.
"Wait wait wait, hold on. You're telling me that the Princess has been on Earth this whole time?" Marito asks, completely dumbfounded by all of this.
"Yes, sir, that is the case." The delegate responds. "The Empire of Vers would also like to state our intention to sign a unilateral armistice and ceasefire, the removal of the Orbital Knights from Terran soil and airspace, and our intentions of continuing this agreement, pending on our retrieval of Her Highness, as long as this council agrees to allow us to make military action in Shinawara. No civilians will be targeted, only traitors who do not surrender their arms."
To say Jessamine is shocked by this, is the understatement of the century. To think that just through getting shot, and taking a back way out of the High School, that she and Yuki had happened across where the Princess was presumably being hidden, was a complete shock. And to make things more interesting, it sounded like the soldiers who had shot her, had no way of knowing what it was they were incidentally guarding there.
The Terran delegates, were just as shocked by all this, until Marito managed to speak up for them, despite being a civilian observer. "And you can promise to me that any civilians, if at all, will not be targeted?"
"We don't expect much bloodshed regarding this on the ground, and as for the Count and his Landing Castle — those problems will be solved internally, outside of the Terran jurisdiction, and any prisoners of war that we find aboard his Castle will be returned as per the rules of the Armistice."
"Hard to say no to that." Marito comments, leaning back in his chair. "It's a shame that I can't make the decision myself."
Eventually, as almost a minute passes in near silence as the Terran delegation tries to whisper among themselves, one of them stands up, "We agree to your terms, and would like to send along a contingent of UFE soldiers, just to assure the terms that you've levied."
"Of course, whatever the UFE sees fit. How soon will your troops be ready?"
"Immediately. We'll dispatch them from the UFE Deucalion II."
"Very well, we will also dispatch our soldiers, and begin to mop up this awful situation."
It was certainly one way to wake up, to hear alarms sound all throughout the Castle, and the rush of boots outside her room. But it wasn't like she had any choice in the matter — quickly scrambling to pull on her shirt and pants and then lacing up her boots as the alarms all throughout the landing castle continued to sound. She wasn't sure what she expected, until she heard what sounded to her like rifle fire outside her room, and she ducked behind the bed, just in case a stray round punctured the wall and decided to lodge itself somewhere in the room. No bullets did. That didn't stop her apprehension towards the matter.
Minutes passed, and eventually the sounds of rifle-fire died away, and was replaced with silence. She peered out from around the bed, and saw something completely shocking to her — the door to her room had been thrown open at some point in the gunfight outside, and she was miraculously free to leave. Nothing stopping her from just walking out, head whatever direction she deemed the best. She was a prisoner aboard this stupid castle no longer. So she opted to leave — she crept towards the door, and peered around both corners, finding the hallway beyond, empty as if nothing had actually happened — the only indication that there was something going on, being the sounds of distant rifle-fire and the alarm that would not stop blaring no matter how much time had passed.
She picked a direction, and set out, doing her best to find a corridor or a junction that was familiar to her, eventually, after jogging away from any circumstance of gunfire, finding a hallway that was familiar to her. It had been where she had watched Slaine disappear down the hallway, to somewhere that she couldn't see, as there had been guards in the way — but now there were no guards, no situation that denied her the opportunity to find out whatever it was that was in the hallway. And she would be damned if she didn't take that opportunity now of all times.
She crept along the hall, finding door after door opened to storage closet, or leading into other hallways that were absent of anything that seemed to indicate where Slaine would retreat do, during those days where she had tailed him.
It wasn't long until she did come across something that was strange to her, a door that was closed, with no indication that anyone had tried to force it open, or anything like that. Just, a shut door.
She moved to that side of the hallway, constantly keeping an ear out for anyone coming or any approaching gunfire. And tried the door, it slid open with a hiss.
He'd been found out. All his planning, all his efforts to try and bring about the world that the Princess wanted, all had been for nothing at all.
There was nothing else to be said. His castle was being raided by the other Knights, who had been told by someone exactly what he was hiding in Shinawara, where he had figured would be the last place anyone would look for the Princess, but he had been wrong in that assumption, just as he had so many other assumptions in the last few years. Assuming that anyone could be trusted, assuming that anything would go his way, assuming that even the slightest glint of hope that everything would work out for him, had turned out to be folly.
He is now sure there will be turncoats among his ranks, as they find out more and more what he had done. He had done it in secret, keeping his secret as best he could, and making sure that those who knew the nature of it were few and far between, unable to conspire against him. But even then, those who knew would be likely to turn against him under trial.
He could see it now, the way that all these things unravel before his eyes, leaving him with nothing, as if he had just arrived on the soil of Vers as if it were the first time all over again, except this time, he would be returning as a traitor, one who would be scorned for what little of his life remained, and would never have the luxuries that he had come to know in the years since he had first arrived to the land known as Vers. There was nothing left for him now, he doubted that many of his soldiers would even remain loyal during the invasion, and he doubted even further that he could take the Tharsis, and somehow turn this fight on its head, to somehow turn this situation into one where he wouldn't be captured and imprisoned for his treachery.
He stands now, in an empty room, one where he used to often come to spend time around her Highness as she remained in stasis in the hospital pod down on Earth, cameras beaming real-time information from the chamber he had locked her in — but now there was nothing. No camera feed, no indication at all that her image had once been projected in this room. Just the simple silence that came with this inner room of the Landing Castle.
The door behind him slides open. He didn't bother to lock it on his way into this dark room. Why would he? If they were going to find him, they were going to find him. It wasn't like an impediment like a door mattered, when within moments, if not already, those who were raiding his castle could open any door they wanted from the bridge, and have access to wherever he was. So much for being the "ruler of the castle", he supposed.
He didn't look at whoever it was who entered the room, he didn't think it mattered, he simply interlaced his fingers behind his head, and turned around slowly.
Only to be met with the grinning visage of Rayet Areash.
He laughs through his nose at this, the smug look on her face, the way that he's sure he must look pathetic in this state, his hands behind his head, as if he were expecting his sure-to-come captors instead of her.
"You seem to have made a massive mistake, Slaine."
He closes his eyes and lets his arms drop to his sides.
"So it seems, Miss Areash." He never drops the formality with her.
"So what'd you do this time to get everyone up your ass?"
Slaine thinks about the question for a moment. Before deciding on his answer.
"You ended up being right."
After a moment's thought about what the statement means, Rayet claps her hands in front of her, a look of joy across her face. "I was right! You were hiding her! And you knew that Mars wouldn't like that when you were found out! So who did it? Who sold you out? One of your own? C'mon, tell me."
"I think I was found out by those 'scavs', and they knew who to talk to."
"So you got caught by your own carelessness, and in your soldiers incompetency."
"Something like that, I suppose."
Rayet snorts, "That'll serve you right, milord… Or can I even call you that, since you're a traitor, and your castle is being raided for it?"
"You can call me whatever you wish, Miss Areash. None of it matters anymore."
"So why'd you do it?" Rayet leans against the frame of the door, hands buried in her pockets as she talks with Slaine.
"Because I thought I could bring about the world that she wants. One where the birds are able to fly freely, the grass can grow wheresoever it sees fit, and her people can roam about the bounty of the land without second thought about making oxygen or water. Where it just exists in plenty." Rayet snorts again. And Slaine gives her a look. "What?"
"You, really have no idea what she wanted when it came to Earth, do you?" Slaine tilts his head slightly. "She wanted Earth and Mars to have peace, dumbass. Not for Mars to take over the planet. She didn't think it was the same place without the people on it. You wanna know why?"
"Why?"
"Because she understood the value of a human life, unlike you, using your precious princess' life as a pawn in some cosmic board-game. You only seem to care about her insofar as she's useful to your ends now, rather than caring about her wellbeing."
"But I do care about her—"
"Shut up, no you don't. You're no better than me." Rayet hisses at him. "If you did, you wouldn't have hid her. You would've gotten her all the help she needs, from real people, not from whatever-the-fuck contraption you put her in. You wouldn't have used her like a pawn. You're no different than the people who started this stupid shit. And now everyone on this castle is paying for that. And you're going to pay the most out of them all… What do you think they'll brand you, Slaine? A Traitor? A Kidnapper? Something worse than that? A defiler? What would she think of what you've done? Did you pay any mind to that, or did you just set about doing this because you're actually so stupid as to think that you could make this all work out? You're a fool. You had no plan for all of this, and look where it got you." Rayet doesn't move from her position leaning against the door frame. Speaking casually, as if the venom from her tongue isn't what she's saying.
Slaine stammers at this, and his breath catches in his chest.
"There we go, that's the reaction I knew you'd have. You're out of your element, Slaine. You're not some grand master player, you're just a pawn. Same as me, same as everyone else in this stupid, stupid war."
Slaine bites his tongue. Hard.
"Nothing to say? Here, figure I hear some soldiers pouring this way to have the honor of capturing you, so I'll give you one last thing." She pushes herself from the door frame, and crosses the space to where Slaine stands, speechless at what has happened, and what she's said to him.
She stands close to him, and whispers something into his ear, his eyes slide shut as she does, "I do hope to see you again, my Terran Liar." She moves her lips to his cheek, giving the softest of brushes against it, holding her head like that, before rolling back on her feet, and leaving the room.
Slaine hears the sound of boots, and the shouting of men as they approach the room, and he stands there, motionless — he can't find the words to say, nor does he want to find them. He opens his eyes, and finds the room empty of Rayet, but instead filling with soldiers, leveling their rifles at him.
This time he does raise his hands behind his head, and kneels to the ground — complying with the soldiers' orders.
