Chapter 17 Old Wounds
Copper IX – Worker Drone Settlement / 3053
/BEGIN PLAYBACK
At the time, it had made sense to simply reoccupy the human settlements. After all, they were all dead, it wasn't like they were using their homes.
It had seemed such a good idea, at least until the Murder Drones arrived.
Suddenly, the friendly and pleasant snow-covered streets turned into killing grounds for ravenous sky demons. With insatiable greed, they had their fill as they slaughtered the densely packed city, cutting down Worker Drones in droves.
"It-It will be okay Uzi!" A purple eyed Worker Drone assured her. "It will be okay!"
"…" Uzi wasn't able to appreciate the fear on her mother's face. She was a four-month-old egg-shaped ball of silicon. The very concepts of fear and death meant nothing to her. All she could do was watch as the Worker Drone that cherished her ran fearfully through cold oil-stained streets, and listen to the distant screams as other countless Workers were cut to pieces.
Still, it seemed as though her mother had some objective in mind, some hope that would ensure their survival.
So she had ran, with Uzi tucked close to her chest, as the Murder Drones hunted their people fervently.
Some of the Workers had the same idea as Uzi's mother, following in the direction that they knew they might find salvation. Not all of them made it.
High explosive missiles struck Worker bodies and blasted them apart. Machinegun fire cut into them, filling them with holes. Long blades and claws sunk into their fragile forms, rending them apart with sadistic cruelty.
Uzi even saw one family, a mother and father, throw their own egg-shaped child into the slaughter, so that they might escape the claws and teeth of the Murder Drones.
Even as Workers were picked off, and survival became more questionable, Uzi was held almost painfully tight in her mother's grasp.
"Nori!" Khan shouted from ahead. "Hurry Nori! They're almost here!"
Though Uzi couldn't see it, she heard her father calling out from just behind the open doors to the bunker, the only place they might find safety.
Nori, and many other Workers beside her, surged towards the voice, the last few steps before salvation.
Over her mother's shoulder, Uzi could see wide metal wings, and an impassive "X" glare, as something eyed her hungrily. It's long tail whipped around, and struck Nori in the back.
"Ahh!" Nori screamed, and tumbled to the ground just inside the doors to the bunker. Khan quickly closed the doors with death so close by, and locked out the beast that laughed at them in a sweet, feminine voice.
"…" Uzi tumbled out of her mother's grasp, and rolled several meters deeper into the bunker. She stopped rolling with her parents at the edge of her peripheral vision.
"Nori! No!" Khan shouted as he knelt by his wife.
"K-Khan…" Nori gasped out. "Ah! It-it burns!" She was being consumed by nanite acid, that would tear her apart and melt her down into slag.
"Oh! What do I do!?" Khan panicked.
"P-Please! I don't want to b-burn!" Nori begged. "K-Kill me…"
"W-What!? N-No!? I can't do that!"
"Please! Please end it!" Nori begged with wide eyes.
"…Al…Alright…" Khan tightly clutched a wrench.
"P-Protect…Uzi…" Nori demanded. "Protect…Uzi…"
"Y-Yes dear…I will." Khan assured her.
"Love…you…"
"I…love you too…"
"…" Uzi had a front row seat as her father bludgeoned her mother to death, so that she wouldn't burn…
/END PLAYBACK
Rubicon III - Grid 086 – Independent Mercenary Hangar / Thursday, Tiberius 29th, 3175 (R799)
Oh…that dream again. Uzi groaned as she turned over. She would rather forget that particularly traumatic memory. Especially since…that voice…that laugh…
She was alone in bed, missing the warmth of her two friends of circumstance. Sitting up, she could see 621 and N performing basic maintenance on the AC, going over it since they expected another mission from Carla soon.
But where was V?
Looking around for a second, Uzi caught sight of part of V's head, behind the bed. It appeared as though she was hugging herself, knees to her chest. One hand was tightly grasped around her wrist, while she looked at that other hand like it was something she'd never seen before.
"Hey…?" Uzi called out.
"-Hey." V flinched like she'd been caught. She slowly spun around, standing only to then rest the upper portion of her body on the bed relatively close to Uzi. She kept a flat, neutral expression on her face.
"You uh…good?"
"…Yeah." V said in that way that was probably a lie, but not one that should be pushed.
"Is it…knowing that us Workers are almost extinct?" Uzi suggested.
"Yeah…that's…horrifying." V admitted. "My old job aside…I thought I was just killing Workers on Copper IX because…you were rogue AI and going against the company. Course…if there's so few of your kind…my kind are even fewer…"
"…How many of you guys are left?" Uzi wondered. "I would have thought you guys came off an assembly line or something…?"
"…" V's eyes hollowed at that moment, which was an interesting time for her to express distress. "There…never needed to be very many of my kind. If what I heard was right…there are only eight of us left in the universe. Me, N, and maybe six others, assuming they're alive too…"
"That…sucks…" Uzi tried to wrap her head around that. Only eight Murder Drones left in existence, and she knew three of them by name…assuming J was still alive.
"Yeah…so…like…what the fuck are we going to do?" V laughed pitifully. "The PCA wants to kill us…and outside of Carla and her people, no one gives a shit about us. Even 621 will probably turn on us once her whole 'debt of honor' thing has worn off."
"Well…there's still the old plan…" Uzi suggested. "'Cept instead of finding somewhere actually nice…we'll have to find some black rock out at the ass end of the universe…if we can get past the PCA's blockade…"
"…Your plan sucks." V teased.
"At least it's better than dying in some shit filled ditch here on Rubicon!" Uzi argued.
"…" V and Uzi went quiet at that prospect. The fact that 'dying in a shit filled ditch' was more than likely had never seemed so real until that moment.
"H-Hey…" V changed the subject slightly. "Am I included in those big space plans of yours?"
"Oh…I mean…yeah, of course." Uzi assured her. "You're like cool I guess…so it will be you, me, and N."
"So just the three of us till the end of time, on your sad little black rock at the end of the universe?" V summarized with playful suspicion.
"I doubt we'll last that long…but…" Uzi shrugged. "It's better than being on this rock."
"Hmm…well…you keep that in mind while we're working for 621 and Walter. Then we might actually be able to afford that crazy dream of yours." V rubbed Uzi's head a little forcefully, before she stood and walked over to see what 621 and N were working on. She could hear Uzi get out of bed and approach them too. "Whatcha working on~?"
"Just a general inspection. Making sure nothing changed since the last time we maintained it." 621 answered with her head up in one of the AC's legs through an open access port. N was standing by a control panel, waiting for orders.
"You uh, do a lot of extra maintenance, don't you?" Uzi noted.
"It pays to be diligent." 621 responded simply. She pulled her head out of the access port, but had her right arm up in it while she moved some of the cables around. "Okay, Stray Two, get ready to close port twenty-three."
"Closing port twenty-three!" N answered eagerly, pressing the control.
"Huh? Wait! N! No!" Uzi tried to warn him too late.
N hit the control, and ended up closing the access port down over 621's right shoulder.
621 screamed, her arm caught in the access port that was trying to close through her. V was closest to her, and lunged forward, trying to fight the mechanism crushing part of her new master.
"Wha-! No! Oh!" N panicked, and momentarily forgot where the control to open the access port was.
"Shit! Move N!" Uzi shoved him away from the control panel, and quickly found the open control, freeing 621's arm.
"Raven, are you okay!?" V worriedly questioned as she helped steady her master.
"…!" 621 was not okay. She quickly reached up to press the two buttons on her control collar, only to get a warning alert on her hand terminal.
/WARNING: MEDICINAL TAP EMPTY
/PLEASE REFILL
"F-Fuck! Fuck!" 621 shoved her way past V, and ran for her room. Along the way she shed her coat, and threw it to the ground with fury and fear.
"Whoa-!" V stumbled for a bit, then looked to Uzi and N worriedly. They quickly ran after her to see what was wrong, what had their normally stoic master so upset and unsettled.
621 wasn't doing well. She tore through her shit, looking for her replacement medicinal charges. That had been an unfortunate, confounding, and unlikely situation she'd managed to stumble into. Right arm stuck in a door, with V standing just a little too close for comfort.
Well…almost all the criteria. A fire was needed for that.
Finally finding what she was looking for, she jammed the tube of medicine into the port in her left shoulder, refilling her internal supply. As soon as the charge was empty, she quickly pressed the two buttons on her control collar, and finally started to calm down.
"…" 621 sighed, and slumped down against the wall. She let the medicinal charge fall out of her hand, and roll away across her room, where Uzi stopped it with her foot.
"…?" Uzi inspected the tube of medicine, with V and N by her side. They didn't have the knowledge to connect the word "clozapine" to anything, only that they hoped it helped their master. "Raven…are you okay?"
"…Yeah." 621 lied.
"Uh! Raven! I'm really sorry! I misheard you and then I panicked!" N apologized desperately.
"…S'fine." 621 dismissed. "You just hit an old war injury." She traced her right shoulder with her left hand, right where it had been caught in the door. Again. "Don't do that again."
"Oh…okay…" N nodded reluctantly.
"Raven…" V started to ask. "Do you need any-"
"Please get out." 621 cut her off, and looked away.
"…Fine." V was a bit hurt by 621's comment, but stood straight and walked away confidently, with Uzi and N close behind.
Finally, 621 was alone with her thoughts, and tried to relax.
"Raven."
"…" Well…shit. At least that confirmed that Ayre was definitely real and not just a voice in her head, considering how large a dose she just took.
"Maybe you shouldn't bottle up your emotions like that…or use antipsychotics to drown them out." Ayre suggested. "Those three little souls are emotionally attached to you now. They would understand if you needed help."
"…" 621 scoffed.
"Why?" Ayre wondered sadly. "Is it because you are their protector? That you can't stand to be seen as just as vulnerable as them? Or is it because they are Laconian?"
"…" 621 sighed. Perhaps it was yes to all three.
"…What is it about V that you find so fascinating?" Ayre noted. "Every time you look at her, your mind is filled with so many conflicting emotions. Anguish and joy, rage and calm, recognition and disbelief. Who is she to you, Raven?"
"…" 621 hissed. A warning to discontinue that line of questioning.
"I see." Ayre responded curtly. "I suppose I'll leave you to mope in silence."
"…" 621 closed her eyes. She wanted to sleep, to forget, to just lay there and waste away…
Except that Carla had work for her.
Stop the Secret Data Breach – "Cinder" Carla / Reward 380,000 COAM
"Ah, my favorite little tourist." Carla called excitedly. "About my promise to take you up top…I need a little help cleaning up first. Ya'see, a certain someone smashed up all my defense hardware, and now I've got rival Dosers muscling in." She seemed to love reminding 621 that it was her fault they were in this mess. "It's the Junker Coyotes again…we never did get on. Always sniffing around, just waiting for a chance to bite. Making a mess is one thing, but they're going after our development data, too. We need to swat the hacking drones they sent before they make off with all my secrets." She highlighted the twenty-meter-tall cylindrical shaped mobile electronic warfare pods that the Coyotes had placed in the lower subsector of Grid 086. "Yeah, it's pretty low of them, but at least give 'em credit for knowing where the value is. Anyway, did I mention that this is all your fault? You and your little friends can make up for it by keeping my secrets safe."
"…" Fuck it. She'd taken her meds, she didn't care anymore. Giving a quick stretch, she stood and went to go collect her property. "Stray Squad!"
"Oh! Uh! Yes ma'am!" Uzi, N, and V hadn't gone far, and found their conversation interrupted by 621's call to action.
"Job's just come in. I'll forward you the details. Just a local gig, but a lot of scrip riding on it." 621 swiped her hand terminal in their direction, sending the briefing she'd seen, and started warming up the AC for combat.
"…Your Handler didn't authorize this sortie either." Ayre noted curiously. "But we shouldn't miss this chance to help Carla secure her territory for the Drones. I'll support you."
"…"
Stop the Secret Data Breach – "Cinder" Carla / Grid 086 – Western Belius / Thursday, Tiberius 29th
They didn't need to go very far at all. Jumping off from Carla's controlled area near the top of the Grid Sector, they fell to another industrial sector at an altitude of 3.2 kilometers.
Uzi was actually with Carla in her control center, helping the woman secure her data feeds and server clusters. Even though she was out of the battle this time around, she was still earning her keep.
That just left 621 in her AC, with N and V along as her scouts.
/MAIN SYSTEM: ACTIVATING COMBAT MODE
"Let's get rolling, tourist." Carla advised, acting as Operator once again. "Destroy all the hacking drones those degenerate Coyotes left here. Specter, Sheperd, scout ahead and find those units. It's a maze down there, so your master will need your help."
"Copy!" V and N answered. V was first to move, rushing forward to the front door to hack it open. She had been reluctant at first to take over Uzi's role, but was surprised to learn how simple hacking doors was. Once in range, all she had to do was select the door controls to complete a connection, and then let an autorun program hack at it until it opened.
If only their collars operated on such a simple system.
"Let's be quick about this Raven." Ayre advised.
"…" 621 wasn't sure if she was lucky or cursed with having what was essentially two Operators watching her back. Regardless, she had a job to do, and rushed forward after V, with N hanging by her side, as the door to this level of the megastructure opened and allowed them entry.
They'd actually already been to this area two days prior. It was the metal smelting industrial zone, the long room with a lower level pit, and an active molten metal furnace purifying metals to the side of the room.
"Security breach has reached 5%." Carla warned. "You're doing great, Sparky! Keep it up to give your master more time to clear out that sector!"
"T-Thanks!" Uzi was on comms with them, keeping track of the mission and to update anyone on her end if things went wrong.
"If not for you, my firewall would be going down fast." Carla noted. "Still, I'm betting there are about five hacking drones to look out for, alright tourist?"
"…" The door opened, and 621 was immediately beset upon by a pair of quadcopter drones armed with laser rifles. She had to dodge forward under their guns to evade the bolts of energy, and fired back on the first drone with her shotgun. She locked onto the second drone with her missiles, and fired a volley of six to take it down.
With the immediate threat cleared, V and N were able to enter the subsector and begin their scouting run. N immediately dropped down to start unlocking the door below them on a lower level, while V shot forward to check the other half of the large room.
"I found the first hacking drone, and two guard RaD MTs." V announced,
"…" 621 was quick to pounce on the MTs with her double-mortar, blasting them away, then cut the large server cluster in half with her laser blade.
"Confirmed. Target destroyed." Ayre noted. "Four to go."
"Straight out of the gates. Keep it up, tourist." Carla kept track as well.
"Raven! Another drone is here, guarded by two Toybox mechs in a docile position." N reported, just on the other side of the metal furnace.
"…" 621 followed his targeting pings, and focused on the two Toybox MTs first, tearing the first apart with her blade before it had the chance to deploy. She shot the second with her shotgun and missiles, and finished it off with her blade. She destroyed the hacking drone in this room as well.
"Second target destroyed." Ayre counted.
"I get why they want our tech, I just wish they had a little more flair." Carla complained. "If it were me, I'd raid us from orbit and just yank our servers off the ground. The Coyotes are using RaD MTs…they're hot stuff on the black market. Still…I'm not sure I like seeing my own babies used against me."
V had used this opportunity to get to the next set of doors, opening into a long transit line with one of their targets at the end.
"Next target spotted, two MTs guarding it." V noticed, marking the target.
"Security breach has reached twenty-five percent." Carla warned. "That's good work, Sparky!"
"Thanks!" Uzi shouted back. "I set up some virtual systems for them to waste time breaking into. That should give Raven a few more minutes to hunt down those targets!"
"…" 621 spotted the target V had marked, and moved to engage, firing on the two guard MTs with her double-mortar Songbird, and knocked them both out.
"Wait…shit! Ambush dead ahead!" V warned as a door beside the hacking drone slid open, and four more MTs and a BAWS tetrapod lumbered out.
"…" 621 grunted, and went to work. Even outnumbered as she was, she didn't hold back. She fired her missiles at the second closest MT, her double-barreled cannon at the furthest two MTs, and rushed the closest MT with her blade primed, cutting them all down in short order. She had to dodge back as the BAWS tetrapod lunged at her with a large laser blade, and forced her back further with it's auto shotgun. It put her in such a position that it could deploy it's hyper-velocity 155mm cannon.
"Raven, I've got you covered!" V assured her. She quickly flew forward, easily ignored as she stayed near the ceiling of the large room, then dropped down onto the roof of the BAWS tetrapod. She threw an anti-armor charge into the reloading mechanism for it's 155mm cannon, then jumped off the roof to land under it. Deploying her pulse-wave laser cannon, she fired it at point blank range, directly into one of the tetrapod's rear legs hydraulic support.
The BAWS tetrapod lurched back as it lost balance, it's 155mm cannon shot went wide. The cannon was then partly destroyed by the anti-armor charge, leaving it very exposed for 621 to finish it off. Waiting only for V to clear the area, 621 fired on the tetrapod with her Songbird cannon, further staggering the tetrapod, before she lunged in and tore it apart with rapid laser blade strikes, finishing it off with a kick. With the area cleared, 621 destroyed the nearby hacking drone.
"Confirmed. Target destroyed." Ayre noted, counting down. "Two remaining."
"Guess I better get to work on our countermeasures." Carla suggested.
"I'm way ahead of you!" Uzi assured her. "I've got a good connection to their home servers, just waiting for the right time."
While 621 and V had cleared out their sector, N scouted ahead to the other side of the industrial zone, and located the enemy.
"Raven! I'm counting five MTs guarding the rafters above! Two are powered down in an ambush position. It's too tight to get through, but they are probably guarding the next target!" N announced.
"…" 621 followed the route he had plotted, and flew up to the rafters. She caught three MTs unaware, and quickly destroyed two with her cannon. The third had been staggered by the large explosive weapon, so she rushed in and finished it off with her shotgun. Gliding forward, she came face-to-face with two MTs hanging upside down from the ceiling, powered down so as to fool her sensors. She fired on them with her double-mortar, destroying them both.
With the way clear, V and N dropped down the hole the two MTs had been hanging over, and split up. V went forward, while N turned around to check a hidden corner that led to a dead end.
"Found one! Hacking drone just out of sight!" N alerted.
"…" 621 followed him back towards the hidden corner, and destroyed the drone with a volley of missiles.
"Fourth target destroyed." Ayre counted again.
"One left. You'd have to try to mess it up now." Carla declared. Then she noticed something. "They've got our crypto keys. That's uh…not great."
"Don't worry!" Uzi corrected. "I swapped those keys out for decoys. Your classified data was off the net when that module was breached!"
"Well well well!" Carla's wide smile could be heard over the connection. "Aren't you just the smartest little cutie! Hey tourist!? How much you want for this one!? Good data techs like her are hard to come by!"
"…" 621 didn't bother answering Carla's inquiry.
"Faster Raven." Ayre demanded. "Uzi is smart, but she can't keep up that defense forever."
"Raven, I've spotted the last target." V announced. "Not far from your location, heavily defended. N, get over here and help me counter them. I'm counting four MTs and another tetrapod."
"Uh-copy!" N was quick to follow V while 621 boosted down the hall and around the corner, finding the last hacking drone just beyond a platoon of enemies.
While 621 went to work destroying the weaker RaD MTs, V and N crawled across the ceiling, directly over the heavy BAWS tetrapod in the back line. It was lining up a shot with it's heavy cannon, so V and N pounced on it. V repeated her attack of placing an anti-armor explosive on the gun, then dove below and fired into it's hydraulics. N copied her, but placed his explosive charge on it's auto-shotgun, before he too fired into it's legs with his pulse-wave laser cannon.
With two of it's legs damaged and it's ranged weapons destroyed, the BAWS tetrapod was no match for 621, and she destroyed it quickly with her blade. The enemy force cleared, she destroyed the last hacking drone.
"That's five." Ayre concluded. "All hacking drones destroyed."
"Good job tourist." Carla praised. "I sent the Coyotes and their pals a little counter virus; their servers are officially fried."
"And I pulled some data from their server before she cooked them!" Uzi declared.
"Ha! Maybe that'll teach 'em to behave." Carla approved. "The radar is picking up stragglers, somewhere hidden. Finish them off tourist."
"Oh! Maybe they're in that secret room! Where that one AC was hiding?" V suggested.
"Quite the clever girl you are Specter! Why don't you and Sheperd go and check it out?" Carla ordered. "Tourist, support them."
"…" 621 followed V and N as they flew back to the metal smelting foundry, and followed the long tunnel down one of the inactive metal drains, and down the deep hole towards an interior section deep in the industrial subsector.
"Raven, counting a platoon of heavily modified RaD MTs." V reported. "They look like they've been up-armored?"
V was correct in this statement. The Junker Coyotes had welded a bunch of scrap together to form improvised heavy shielding. It limited their mobility but greatly enhanced their durability.
"Well take care of it tourist. You're onsite and heavily armed. Perfect time to take care of it." Carla demanded.
"…" 621 obeyed. She rushed forward and fired on the first MT with her double-mortar. It's thick armor protected it from being destroyed, but not staggered, allowing her to finish it off with her blade. She turned to the second MT, and fired on it with her shotgun and missiles. Unfortunately, the MT's thick armor held, and barely noticed the damage. The rest of the platoon forced 621 on the defensive as she evaded their return fire.
"Shit! That armor's too thick for most of her weapons!" V noted worriedly.
"Oh no! What do we do!?" N panicked momentarily.
"Relax! We just have to disable the armor on some of those MTs is all. Let's split up and focus on the rear two. This shouldn't take long." V advised.
While V and N flew above the MTs towards their rear line, 621's heavy cannon reloaded, she disabled, then destroy the second MT, finishing it off with her blade.
As for V and N, they landed on the front of the two reaming MTs, and used their claws to cut the front armor plates off, leaving them exposed to 621's weapons.
"…" Waiting for V and N to clear her line of fire, 621 rushed the two remaining MTs, and used her blade to cut down the first. With their armor detached, they were no real threat, and 621 made quick work of it. She then turned and finished of the remaining MT with a point-blank shotgun blast to the face.
"That's the last of them. Good work today tourist." Carla praised. "And you too Stray Squad. Alright, that's enough for today. Head back and rest up. I'll have more work for you all tomorrow."
"All right!" Uzi cheered. "Way to go guys!"
"Whew, just glad it's over." N sighed tiredly.
"Just another day, doing dirty work. Right, Raven?" V questioned.
"…"
"They have done good work today. You should try rewarding them for their efforts, don't you think?" Ayre suggested.
"…" 621 sighed. She couldn't argue against that.
Independent Mercenary Hangar
They'd met up with Uzi back at the hangar, as Carla had tasked a couple of RaD soldiers to personally escort her back. Afterwards it was the usual post-mission wind down.
Because Uzi had done such a good job at countering the Coyotes while 621 had destroyed the targets, Carla didn't subtract anything for having her data compromised. So out of the 380,000 Coam reward, they kept 330,000 after expenses, of which 99,000 Coam was for Uzi, N, and V to split.
"Woah! Easy money!" Uzi cheered. Despite the danger involved, a mercenaries life was one wrought with just as much reward for their troubles.
"Yeah, it was a good day." V agreed. "Little bit of danger, whole lot of scrip."
"Ah…I'm just glad we were all able to come home today." N shrugged, smiling awkwardly.
"So, the usual?" Uzi turned to 621. "Post-mission maintenance?"
"…" 621 considered what Ayre had suggested earlier. "How bout a reward instead?"
"Oh, a reward? What did you have in mind?" V purred excitedly.
"Let me check something first." 621 requested, walking away to make a call.
"Hey tourist." Carla called back over the connection. "What do you need?"
"I'm looking for any clubs in your sector. Wanted to give my Strays the night off." 621 suggested.
"Ah! And you wanted to know if there is anywhere safe for your Strays to go semi-unsupervised. That about right?" Carla surmised.
"Something like."
"Cool. So yeah, I have an entertainment district with a 'hands off the drones' rule. You'll still have to deal with human prostitution, but they'll be safe there." Carla informed her.
"That'll do." 621 agreed. "Stray Squad, if you'd like, we could go hit up a club in Carla's districts."
"Uh…I'm good!" N dismissed anxiously.
"Hey! Come on N! It will be fun!" Uzi begged.
"Yeah! Don't be square! Come on!" V tugged on him.
"Oh…well…alright." N reluctantly agreed.
"I've only got one rule tonight. Stick together, no one goes off alone. Got it?" 621 demanded.
"Yes ma'am!" Stray Squad agreed.
Grid 086 – Entertainment District
621 leaned against the bar to a noisy night club blasting shitty techno music, slowly nursing a drink. She didn't much care for drowning her sorrow with alcohol, and it didn't taste very good. Didn't mean she had to be sober either. Just a few shots.
N was by her side, anxiously looking around. He was pretty confused and easily frightened, but 621 assured him that nothing was wrong. Still, he kept his eyes open, observing everything. As well as keeping an eye on V and Uzi.
Those two Drones had wandered off to the dance floor, and were having fun goofing off. That was enough to make him happy.
He turned to look at his master, noticing her staring at a man at a table across the bar with a neutral expression. The man was surrounded by two other men and a woman. The man noticed 621 staring, and wandered over to her, smiling with gentle excitement.
"I'm Daniel." The man greeted next to 621. N noticed he was wearing a no-sleeve shirt that fully exposed his arms, and some of his chest.
"I'm not interested Daniel." 621 dismissed casually.
Daniel sighed and turned around, but 621 gently grabbed him by the arm.
"Tell me. How do they treat you here?" 621 inquired, honestly curious.
"The others say it's better than most." Daniel shrugged.
"…" 621 looked back at the table Daniel had come from, staring at the other man wearing a vest and no shirt. "That bucker, ogling you? He's packing a knife on his left hip."
"Thanks…" Daniel nodded, a bit more cautious. He walked away to a different table.
621 turned around and took a seat. N stared at her curiously.
"What was that about?" N questioned.
"Just people looking out for people." 621 advised. "Sometimes it costs nothing to do the right thing. I don't get my hands dirty, and no one gets hurt."
"That's really nice Raven." N smiled sweetly.
"I grew up in places like this." 621 gestured around them.
"That umm…must have been rough?" N wondered apologetically.
"Nah, just visiting most of the time." 621 shook her head. "My father always said that if you want to know a place, know it's people, then you start from the bottom, and work your way up."
"Uh…you'll forgive me for asking, but my files have prostitution labeled as a kind of criminal activity…?" N inquired, honestly confused.
"…"
"I uh! I didn't mean to offend anyone!" N panicked as 621 stared at him imperceptibly.
"…" 621 sighed. She knew that he had no idea what he was talking about, he was just reading the dictionary definitions and having no context of what any of it meant. "It's an honest living. It's more honest than most. You can tell a lot about a place by how they treat their people."
"Oh…fair enough." N accepted. Humans were still very confusing for him, but he learned a bit more every day.
621 gestured out to the dance floor, where V and Uzi where making fools of themselves but otherwise having a good time. "Why don't you join your friends there?"
"Ah uh…I don't know." N bared his teeth painfully. "I just feel…kind of weird is all."
"Oh, why's that?" 621 demanded.
"Well...it's just…I wanted to talk to V for so long…but it always seemed like she was ignoring me. Then we got stuck on this planet and everything went to hell…and while we are closer now…it still seems like there are just some things we can't talk about. Plus…V and Uzi are really close now. They always try to deny it, but they're more alike than they know, and they have a lot of fun with each other. And I don't want to get between that."
"You're working a mercenary life now." 621 reminded him. "It's a life full of danger and uncertainty. If you never say anything, it might be too late."
"…" N allowed what 621 had said to sit with him, as he thought it over.
. . .
A few minutes before, V had quickly grabbed Uzi by the arm, and dragged her out to the dance floor.
"W-Wait! V! I don't know how to dance!" Uzi complained.
"So? Neither do I." V shrugged. "But it looks fun, so let's do it."
"Uh…so…what do I do?" Uzi curled up on herself, hunched over like she was trying to hide.
"Hmn." V smirked. "Well, first of all, stop trying to hide. You're already the shortest one here, no one's going to notice you. Stand up." She grabbed Uzi by the shoulders, forcing her to stand up straight. "Then, just get moving. This isn't some ball or dance or shit, it's a club. So…just move. Here, copy me."
V started moving, slowly at first, picking up speed to match the beat of the music. Uzi reluctantly copied her, but found it easier and more natural to keep pace as well.
"Hey…this isn't half bad." Uzi smiled, confident enough to try her own thing.
"There you go~!" V cheered her on. "Told you it would be fun!"
"It's…kind of ridiculous…" Uzi wondered.
"Who cares? No one here cares! So just go with it and have fun!" V advised.
Uzi decided she really didn't care, and so had her share of fun dancing with V.
"Ah, that was great!" Uzi smiled. She was currently sitting on V's shoulders, holding onto the other girl's head. "Thanks Raven."
"Really kinda bummed that you didn't join us N." V noted.
"Ah um…dances aren't really my thing. But I'm really glad you guys had fun!" N smiled.
"You totally should have joined us too, Raven." Uzi gestured towards her master. From her current position, she was roughly equal in height to the woman.
"Oh, there was a time." 621 shrugged. "But I'm an old lady now. Something would give and then no one would be having fun."
"…" V tried to remember exactly how old 621 was. Joined the Navy at eighteen, sixteen years in the service, an unknown number of years galivanting across Sol…fifteen years of the Three Rebellions War, and who knows how many years of the Sol-Laconia war…that couldn't be right. By her count, 621 would be at least fifty, but probably much older. That wasn't even counting the unspecified amount of time she'd been on ice, which might be a century or two. "Uh…Raven? How old are you?"
"…Don't you know it's very rude to ask a lady her age?" 621 smirked. "Well…it's not really a big secret, but it's not one I'm keen on sharing. Let's just say I got out of the Navy the first time, right around the time Earth became habitable again post-League, in 2698."
"…" Uzi, V, and N's eyes went wide as they quickly calculated exactly how old she was. "Wait…you're saying you're over five hundred years old?!" Uzi accused.
"When you say it like that it makes me sound really fucking old." 621 shrugged. "Alright, fine. If you subtract the time I've been on ice, I'm only three hundred and sixty-five years old."
"Wh-Wha-HOW?!" Uzi demanded, V and N were just as confused and hoping for an answer.
"…So, shortly after the fall of The League, The Old Ones decided to reward humanity for the peace they'd achieved, by gifting us with genetic immortality." 621 explained. "In hindsight…this was a terrible mistake, as not only did it encourage Duarte and Inaros to start their war against Sol, it also means that every death is some kind of tragedy. So…now we just live until we die of some unnatural causes."
"…Raven…" V wondered frightfully. "How…long...how long did the Sol-Laconia War last?"
"…" 621 frowned, and carefully considered her answer. "The war officially started in 2745, and lasted three hundred and eighty years."
Grid 085 - RaD Mercenary Hangar
Opened on the console, was all available data on N and V's new master. The woman. The mercenary. The thing called C4-621.
"So, as you can see, your little friends are in good hands." Carla assured her new property. "Tomorrow, I'm going to hire Walter's Hound to give you a crash course in Armored Core combat. That should give you an excuse to see your friends again. Just remember, you're my property now, and Walter is my friend, so be sure to play nice."
"…" Tessa's hands shook at her side, as she looked over the data on the Sol born Hound.
"Tessa?" J saw her master's apprehension, and became worried.
"Well, I'll let you figure it out. I've got shit to do too. Good night, exile." Carla cut the line.
"…"
"T-Tessa, what's wrong?" J tugged on her worriedly. "Aren't you glad that we have confirmation, that V and N are okay?"
"That's…that's not the problem, J." Tessa turned towards J, and grabbed her by the shoulders, partly to steady herself.
"Then what is it?" J wondered. "Is it that Hound? Who is she?"
"…J…" Tessa uttered quietly. "That woman…is the reason we lost the war." She warned her. "And her father…is the bastard who destroyed our homeworld."
Author's Note: So I finally finished moving out, and I am liking my new place a lot. Living with my best friend. Anyhow I know that's not why you're here. So I was able to finish chapter 22 this morning, so y'all are getting this now. I hope it's alright. Yeah I sorta ripped the mission apart a bit as Iguazu was supposed to show up in this mission, but I've decided to hold onto them for a future chapter. I'll explain more when I get to that. It's going to be exciting.
For my citation, part of the scene where 621 and N are at the bar was taken from The Expanse. Just a fun little scene.
I don't have much more to add. After I post this I'm going back to sleep. Chapter 23 is going to be a little hard, only because it's a half-custom mission that I throw something unexpected into the mix. Getting really excited though.
Anyhow, that's all for now. Stay tuned mi beratnas, and abide with Rubicon!
To WarmasterXI: It's going to be an interesting interaction, I promise that.
To Lord-of-fate: 621 does not have an alter-ego/split personality like James did. Doesn't mean Strayed hasn't popped up before. Remember, I've only written about one character with "eyes in their teeth". And you are definitely on the right track about why the Solver feared 621. I took no joy in putting J through that shit, but this is my story and we are going for maximum suffering. Life is definitely cheap on Rubicon, and our favorite Drones are learning about that in the worst ways possible.
To Fake White Glint: Maybe? But not for a while. They still have their place, and that's not likely to change for a while.
To undead3: Good idea, I'll have to do that when Handler Walter comes back. "Only SA" huh? Ah...I think other than death that was probably the worst thing that could have happened to J. She's not my favorite, but she's cute and endearing enough that I did not enjoy imagining and writing that fate for her. I'm glad she's out and with Tessa now. Yeah there's been a lot of that going around on Rubicon now...not fun.
To Axoliam: To deserve that fate? Nothing, this is just an exceptionally cruel world she has found herself. What she was doing...well...you can tell.
To Axoliam: Hmm? This you as well? Unfortunately, exactly what you think was happening to her...
Edit To Alphasdragon: Hey sorry I missed ya, but I'm glad you are enjoying this story.