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I missed it, but I have very poor puzzle and mystery solving skills. Also, I had been under the impression that a vale was a depression and a dale a minor raised area, when they are actually both derived from the same root word - something that's rather obvious to me NOW but which I hadn't reexamined from the childhood impression formed when I heard "As the Caissons Go Rolling Along" (as my best guess for the reasoning) and assigned it that apparent meaning from context. As for why my younger self would think "over hils and over smaller hills" made more sense than "over hills and valleys" I can only plead that I was living in the White Mountains at the time, and "hills or smaller hills" were the options available for terrain. Valleys were not so much a feature as "the place where stuff goes between the hills."
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Then I'll leave it as it is. It can be a bonus reference for those who pick it up, and just a name for everybody else. If it helps, that one was made with the assistance of both Google Translate and Webster, so it wouldn't have naturally come to me. ^^
Then again, I've had to look up words in English, Spanish (though I'll be changing 'huelgaccino' to 'golpeccino'- 'huelga' does mean 'strike', but in the sense of refusing to work, not hitting something (which is what 'frappe' means)), German, and Welsh (I still think naming the Burger King-analogue 'Rex Brechdan' is one of the biggest signs I could've given that history here is kinda screwy). It's easier to be a clever writer than a clever reader- writers have references.
**********
This time, my arrival in the Valle del Sol was blessedly free of baking and glare. The coordinates I'd transferred to were on the edge of the environmental shield, inside the mining crater; when I appeared, it was in the shade between two ore processors. Much better. Now to business.
During one of our (seemingly innumerable) planning sessions, I'd managed to skim through a list of known Syndicate agents and allies. I was quite surprised to find a pair of familiar faces- Sickle Lada and ZIL the Hammer- on that list; back when Daimler had sent me after them, his dossier had suggested that they weren't connected. I didn't question it- I just volunteered to take
care of them... well, Lada... and requested all the info that Uno'd dug up on them.
Info, I should mention, that included an address.
When I arrived, my first act was to fire off an area search spell at the lowest power level I could manage. I kept seven of the spheres hovering around me, and sent the other two off towards Lada's usual haunt- a warehouse, right where the mining and service districts of the city intersected. This should be safe enough. This is old magitech- not fully maintained, at that. It can't hide me, but I should just look like another anomalous spike unless Lada's looking for me directly.
...aaaaaaaaaand there she is! In her warehouse, with four other people. Judging by my scans, they're all looking in the same direction- I should be able to just ease a sphere up, and look in the window.
Crapcrapcrap! One of them was a dextrocardiac- what are the odds?! Have I... no. No scans, no movement. Unless one of them's an illusionist, I haven't been made. Wow.
Positive ID on the dextro- a minor Syndicate thug, nobody important. The rest match 'known associate' descriptions... and the four of them and Lada are the only living beings in the building. Perfect.[Arcane Blast. Confirm non-lethal, set target telemetry via WAS, set target size from WAS data. Double detonation.]
[UNDERSTOOD. NON-LETHAL DETONATION CONFIRMED. PARAMETERS SET.]
[Fire.]
[FIRING.]
Malleus spoke... then again, shortly after. The two beams flew high into the air, seeming to hang in the sky for an instant, and then slammed down through the air at ridiculous speed. A mental command backed my WAS spheres up and away, and fed me visual data just as the first shot bulldozed its way through the roof of the warehouse.
The explosion that resulted, shortly after, was quite gratifying... for the half a second before it and all the rubble were sucked back into the ex-building. I couldn't help but smile as I looked over the result. One destroyed building. Good. One grav-compressed ball of debris? Better! No collateral damage? Check, and I'll have to use the dual explosion/implosion technique more often. Four unconscious bodies, battered by flying debris? Yep.
...wait, four?
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GAH! Don't just stand there! Duck, take cover, magic shield, something! What ever you do, don't turn around first! :p
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Am I not (at least somewhat) genre-savvy? Have faith in me, BA, not to *just* stand there.
You know those times when you start writing a scene, and it just jumps off the rails writes the rest of itself, and leaves you there, going "That wasn't what I'd meant to write... but I like it!"? This isn't one of them... but a later part of the scene is, and so's the part I just got done writing. 'Twas fun to write. ^~^
**********
[Dismiss WAS. Initiate Eye of Mimir.]
The search spheres floating around me lost cohesion, diffusing into quickly-evaporating clouds of mana. Shortly after that, the burning blue light over my right eye faded to nothingness; as it faded, so too did my view from that eye, until all I could see was darkness.
One new sphere, this one brighter and smaller than the now-gone WAS spheres, appeared over my right shoulder. Knowing what was coming next, I closed my right eye.
[PROCESSING SENSOR FEED. ISOLATING VISUAL DATA...]
[VISUAL DATA ISOLATED. SELECTING INITIAL FIELD OF VIEW. DONE. LINKING SENSOR DATA TO DISPLAY...]
When I opened my eye again, I found myself in the disconcerting position of being able to see in two different directions at once. The first part of Mimir's Eye- replacing one eye's entire field of vision with a controllable sensor feed- was always a pain like that. At least it's better than it was. Didn't it take me ten seconds to adjust, that first time?
[ISOLATING POSITIONAL DATA...]
[KINESTHETIC PROCESSOR CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. SENSORY AUGMENTATION UNDERWAY...]
It's an odd, odd feeling, being bigger than yourself. The second part of the Eye linked my sense of proprioception- the 'sixth sense' that tells you where your body is, how it's arranged, and how it's currently moving- to a positional scan of the world around me. Not instantly- that way lies madness- but slowly, inch by inch.
At first I could feel the air moving over my skin. Then the ground around me. Then came the walls to either side of me... and then it stopped. I lifted an arm, my eyes closed, and stuck it out to the side... then lifted it, slowly, stopping just before Malleus would touch the surface.
Full awareness out to... 2.1 meters, I'd say. Good. Sustainable mental strain, too- I'll get a headache tonight, but DEFINITELY not during the fight.
Ah, Lada's here... and she didn't even try to catch me by surprise this time. Interesting.
"Who are you?"
My, she doesn't sound happy. I zoomed in on her, using the view from Mimir's Eye, and revised my opinion. Doesn't look happy, either. Angry, scratched-up, and a couple of small cuts. Ignoring her question should help!
I lifted my head, eyes still shut, to 'look' at her, and waved a finger chidingly. "You've been a naughty girl, Ilyushina Lada." I opened my eyes, smirking invisibly at the thought of what she was seeing- a hooded shadow, lit only by a single eye of azure flame, a ball of the same blue flame hovering over the opposite shoulder. "Very naughty, indeed."
She scoffed. "I am criminal, yes? What else is new?" Lada lifted her left arm, displaying a surprisingly ornate bracelet; right as I got a good look at it, the bracelet disappeared in a flash, and her fingers twitched a bit. Something appeared in her hand? That's... whoa. The item in her hand had grown, becoming a rather familiar-looking handle. The handle sprouted a slightly curved chunk of blade, about an inch long... which then sprouted another inch of blade... which then sprouted another inch of blade...
Clever design. It actually looks like each blade section is coming up and out of the previous one, before growing to match it. Whoever designed that is an artist.The last piece of the sickle snapped into place, and it began to screech in the most irritating way. Half of it- the inner half, where the edge was- began to glow red. Idly, I dropped a scan on it, while damping down my ability to hear the pitch it was emitting. Ultrasonic tone. Sonic weapon? No- humans wouldn't hear. She saw my damaged arm, though, so possible. Also matches vibro-weapon tech- sickle might be... what have we here? Temp readings are ridiculous. Heated vibro-sickle? Not touching that thing.
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Bluemage Wrote:Am I not (at least somewhat) genre-savvy? Have faith in me, BA, not to *just* stand there. No, you're going to stand there ... and watch! That's two different things at the same time!
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Now I get why she's a speedster - Ladas tend to have a problem with overheating at low speeds in warmer climates. And, of course, "she's really fast!" is a relative measurement, and Imma is the slowest of the Numbers due to his high-G muscular adaptation.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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You seem to have miscounted. I ended up standing there, watching in front of me, watching behind me, and feeling around me. That's four different things. I'd've been chewing gum at the same time... but I'm all out of gum.
Incidentally, I sort of thought the Eye of Mimir was a good concept for a sensory spell. I'm trying to make Argus Eyes a more late-game development in the SB (or will it be SV?) version, and I figured that this was a good second step towards it. Area search, then Mimir, then an AS-variant designed solely for targeting, then the full Argus.
...actually, she's a speedster, Doylistically, because I made these two a pair of opposites. You've got the big, dumb, strong guy, and the thin, smart, fast woman. I made her a Lada because it fit the Soviet theme and the Nanoha car convention, and also because she's pretty much a tutorial opponent so she gets the name of a pretty cruddy car.
The Watsonian explanation is that she doesn't have the build to really make strength or charm work, nor the aptitude for blasting. Speed is her greatest natural talent, so she's been min-maxing around it.
And yes, Fate (or Tre) could practically waltz around her. Lada's fast... but she's not fast, if you catch my drift.
**********
Lada began to stalk around me, her sickle held in a guard position. "You are also criminal, I think. Enemy of Syndicate. What does that make you, hmmm? Prosperity Guild, perhaps? Part of a Family?"
I made no move to answer her. I'm surprised she didn't guess it. No sense giving it away.Lada snorted. "I care not. You are enemy... and now you die." She raised her sickle, a blood-red circle of runes appearing below her, and began to move.
Almost instinctively, I fell back on the lessons I'd learned in awareness training. Listen/follow bladewhine... THERE!
CLANG
Mal's flat edge smacked against the handle of Lada's sickle, almost stopping her strike in its tracks. Must've wanted to take arm. Suspect main use of awkward edge. I charged up a Fencer's
Blade in my off hand, twisting to shock her in the belly... only for her to twist her sickle, sliding it along the barrier I'd thrown up over Mal, and dropping into a crouch below my attack.
Protect/attack/SPELL!
The full Fencer's Arms- not just a blade over one arm and a shield over the other, but a shield-blade combo on each arm- snapped into place, just in time for me to turn my attack into a frantic block. Instead of trying to force her back, I hopped back, disengaging entirely.
Well, disengaging entirely for the half a second it took Lada to stand up, anyway. As soon as she did, she vanished- airmovingblockNOW!- only to reappear behind where I was standing, the now-sharp outer edge of her sickle grinding against one of my shields.
Lada's face, thin and hard at the best of times, grew even less pleasant as she scowled. "Those weapons... you are one who took ZIL from me, yes?" A second sickle appeared in her other hand, both heat and HF powering up even as she brought it down on my shield. "Do not try to lie! I see it now! I was going to kill you quickly- now you die slow!" My shield began to crack, so I jumped back again; that bought me enough time to refresh my shield- make refresh per-arm next time- and begin casting a new spell before she was on me again.
"NULL VORLAGERN", Malleus intoned, a note of triumph in his synthetic voice. Thin lines of wrongness- twisting, distorted space-time, the blue light of my power dancing along their rippling edges- carved themselves into the air in front of me, forming a grid about eight feet to a side. That grid then glided towards me, bending as if it was wrapping itself around an invisible barrier... and then stopped, just before it would've formed a complete sphere.
[ZERO SHIFT STABLE. TWO CHARGES STORED.] Mal's telepathic voice had that same note of pride to it. Going to have to look into that. How do Devices develop?All of this took just a bit over a second... long enough for Lada- who was already closing the distance again- to see my spell circle appear on the ground, notice the Zero Shift lattice begin to appear, and stop in her tracks before she hit it.
[DRAWING ADDITIONAL MANA. 2.2 CHARGES AND RISING.]
She prowled warily around its edges for a while, looking it over intently, before darting back in, one sickle swinging towards my arm.
Not a solid blow/only a small dodge required/miss me by inches!I just tilted sideways a bit, and let her sickle pass me by. It was close- close enough for me to feel the heat of the blade moving through the air- but not close enough to hit me.
[2.6 CHARGES STORED. CHARGING.]
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Dang, I found this a couple of updates too late for best effect. Ah well, SB/SV will provide a second chance, if I remember when the story catches up to this point.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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You're right. That'll be relevant two updates ago.
**********
Even before she recovered from her attack, Lada was smiling. "Just an illusion. How... creative." She chuckled mirthlessly... then exploded into motion, hurling one sickle at me so fast I barely caught the motion. Even as I moved to counter that, Lada started to move forward- only to disappear, a classic hallmark of high-speed movement.
For that fraction of a second she was gone, I could sense her through Mimir's Eye- a blur of presence, darting from one place to the next, feeling to my proprioception like somebody wadded up a big, heavy blanket and started trying to give me rugburn with it.
[2.7 CHARGES STORED. SPELL MATRIX AT CAPACITY.]
In a burst of clarity, I could feel where Lada was headed. Behind me/right side/[SHIFT BACK!]-
WZZZZZZZ-PWWWW!
-and then I was thirty feet behind her, watching her reappear right behind where I'd been. I raised my arm, focusing power to the Fencer's Blade-
[Shift ]
[SHIFTING. CHARGE AT .7.]
WZZZZZZZ-PWWWW!
-and then I was right behind Lada, an instant after she'd appeared. Time seemed to slow down; I saw her head recoil a bit in surprise, her shoulders tensing as she saw her sickle about to hit her in the groin, her right arm beginning to drop into a block...
KZAPPPPPP!
...and that's when the Fencer's Blade hit her, right in the small of her back. Lada jerked, spasming as the overcharged taser fired off; her other sickle fell out of her hand, and clattered to the ground as her legs gave way, dropping her into a crouch.
[INCOMING ATTACK. RESPONSE?]
Oh, right. The sickle. That's at her head level now, right? What if I...
I pulled back my left leg, and gave Lada a precisely-measured kick in the back. The kick itself didn't do much, but the followthrough, backed by my considerable lifting power, pushed her up and to the right...
WSSSSSSSSS-SHING!
THUMP.
...putting her left shoulder right in the path of her own oncoming sickle. The sickle kept going; Lada's left arm, however, just fell to the ground, followed shortly by the rest of her.
Looks like the heat of it cauterized her shoulder- what's left of it, anyway- on both sides. Good. Gives me time to collect her... no, it looks like it's returned to bracelet form... and there goes her barrier jacket. No mahou shoujo transformation, either... thank Venus. Strip her- well, her arm- of the Device, search her pockets...
...credits, knife, knife... are these physical credit bills?!... shiv, holdout pistol (I think), pencil... razor, communicator... *another* communicator... more credits... a bag of some sort of powder... a case of cigarillos, a flask... smells like booze... and two more knives. Huh.
Wonder how much I missed?
Eh, I'm sure I'll find out. Time to get her to Daimler.I gathered up her belongings (pocketing the credits, and putting the rest into a belt pouch), switched back to my 'civilian' barrier jacket, and prepared for a transit straight to the bounty office.
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How fortunate that time moves a bit sideways sometimes, or perhaps that sometimes one moves sideways in time. Such a shame Lada wasn't quite one of those someones, but Imma moved her some ways to the side this time anyway. What a nice chap, that Imma! And now it's off to deliver her, double time!
--
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Heh. She took off his arm, and now he's returned the favor. What a nice bit of circularity. Now I wonder if we'll see her or her partner again.
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Heh. Hehheh. HehehHAHAHA!
Plans, I have, yes. Good plans! Read!
(Incidentally, I'd be curious to hear what voice y'all read Daimler in, just to know if I've got him right.)
**********
When I walked back into the bounty office, Daimler was sitting behind the desk, his chair leaned back and his legs propped up on the desk. He heard the door bell, gave me a brief glance, and went back to his video... only to snap back in a classic double-take a second later. Then he noticed Lada, unconscious and disarmed, floating in behind me, and bolted out of his chair.
"How did you- are you okay?! Did she hurt you?"
I smirked. "Nope. Not a scratch this time."
Daimler looked me over, visibly skeptical. "You expect me to believe that? Three months ago, she cut your freakin' arm off... and now you go off and take her down, BY YOURSELF, without getting hurt? Riiiiiiiiight."
Oh, ye of little faith. "Hardly." Daimler smiled triumphantly; before he could say anything, I cut him off. "She had four thugs with her at the time."
Ahh, mood whiplash. How entertaining... but I really should just cut this whole discussion off."Look, you might not believe me, but do you believe your own eyes?" I derezzed my jacket and most of my pants, leaving me in a white undershirt and yellow cutoffs; that done, I proceeded
to do a slow turn in front of him, before refreshing my jacket back to standard, and quirking an eyebrow. "There. Now do you believe me?"
Daimler thought about it for a second... and then gave me a lopsided grin. "Kid, I've gotta hand it to you. You've sold me!" He waved me forward. "Now let's get Sleeping Beauty there processed, and you can tell me all about it over paperwork. Did you-"
I smiled, and upended my pouch onto Daimler's desk. Lada's assorted knickknacks tumbled out, forming a loose pile of sharp edges and addictive substances.
Daimler closed his mouth in mid-sentence. "...looks like you did. Still, I'll need to give her another check- just to be sure, you understand."
I chuckled. "Totally understandable. This was my first time doing a search, anyway- I'm sure I missed something."
That got me a short laugh. "Smart of ya, kid. Right- bring her over here, and I'll walk you through it."
I blinked, looking in shock at the small pile of stuff we'd made on the desk. How was she hiding THAT MANY things on her?! I mean, I KNOW how- I just saw it- but still!"You did good, kid." Daimler came up behind me, putting one hand on my shoulder. I'd heard him coming, so I barely flinched. "You caught all the real dangerous stuff... s'not bad for a first try." I managed to stifle a snort- if they can still kill you, you didn't do it well enough!- at that. "Go on- take her to a cell. I'll get the paperwork ready."
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Bluemage Wrote:(Incidentally, I'd be curious to hear what voice y'all read Daimler in, just to know if I've got him right.) I see him as somewhat more street-savvy than Barney Miller, but close to that in personality.
(That only helps if you've ever seen any episodes of Barney Miller, of course.)
--
Rob Kelk
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- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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I'm not positive, but I think the voice I hear him in is something like a less "blue-collar thug" version of Bruce Willis from Fifth Element. I have no idea why.
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I don't usually "do" voices as I read - it slows me down too much - but since you asked, I'd say slightly higher than median adult male pitch, with just a touch of gravel added for "veteran bounty hunter" cred.
--
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Huh. Maybe I wasn't as clear as I'd hoped.
When I write Daimler, I'm trying for/hearing something like either Victor Sullivan, or an older Harrison Ford. I was curious if that carried through.
**********
For lack of anything better to do, I obliged him, floating Lada ( sans arm) into one of the cells in the back room. In a moment of whimsy, I checked the cell I'd put ZIL in, only to find it unoccupied, and in perfect condition. How disappointing. I figured he'd've at least tried to escape!
"Where am I? Who's there?" Ah. Good. She's awake."...and WHAT! HAPPENED! TO! MY! ARM!?"
Sounds like my cue. I stepped out from around the corner, teasingly waving Lada's arm at her. "Looking for this?"
Lada's eyes narrowed. " You," she spat, barely-restrained fury evident in her voice.
Vitriol much?"Yes. Me." I flicked my wrist a bit, throwing Lada's arm over my shoulder. "I told you, Ilyushina Lada, last time we met... you owed me an arm. Are you really so surprised that I managed to collect?"
I probably shouldn't wind her up too much. Don't want her getting... talkative. I put on a serious face, and moderated my tone a bit. "You know how this business works. How could you not? You do what you have to, line your pockets, and build your reputation." I looked down, shaking my head in mock disappointment. "Unfortunately, you managed to hurt me, last time we met.
You drove me off- and I couldn't have that. I needed to save my reputation. So I had to come back."
Lada snorted. "You come to our city, you fight our people... and you say is just business?" She shook her head in negation. "No. Was our business. You trespassed. You needed to pay."A moment later, she smiled thinly. "In fact, I am thinking taking of arms is my business, and you should not be holding the grudge. No?"
Much calmer. Better. I spread my arms, grinning. "What grudge? I told you- I had to protect my reputation. Now, if anybody asks about how you cut my arm off and drove me off-planet, I can tell them about how your warehouse exploded one day, and how you showed up in TSAB custody a few hours later, minus one arm." I brought my hands together in a clap. "It was never anything personal," I said, figuratively lying through my teeth.
Lada... well, she was still sitting up, ramrod straight, on her solid block of a bunk, but I got the feeling that she relaxed a bit. Must've been some subtle body language thing- I've always sucked at consciously catching those. "If I get out of prison, I come after you. You understand, yes?"
Sounds like she's not going to be blabbing about my little barrier jacket mistake. "Hey, I put you in prison. That's got to be bad for your reputation... and I certainly understand wanting to protect your reputation..."
She nodded. "You understand. Good." She then scooted closer to the edge of the bed-block, turned, and laid down, awkwardly straightening the covers with her one remaining arm. "Leave me."
I nodded, and walked out of the room.
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Yeesh. Wonder if this is considered 'professional' rivalry. It certainly seems to be on the exact opposite end of the spectrum from 'professional courtesy'. :p
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I believe the term for this is 'an understanding'.
On the upside, she's not likely to get the TSAB on my case. On the downside, the odds of her seeking me out for revenge if (when) she escapes prison are roughly one in... one. I'd go on, but there are only two sides to every Schwartz.
**********
"...and here's the credstick with your name on it. Eight hundred even."
I took it, glad to be done with the filling out of forms, before something occurred to me. "Eight hundred? Didn't you say that there was a bounty for the pair of them?"
That got me a snort. "Yeah. Sixteen hundred. Now, considering that I paid you eight hundred for the last guy-"
I put my hands up in surrender. "-that would make it eight hundred for this one. I get it." Awfully sensible, that. I'd expected some sort of bonus for bringing in both at once. That'd be properly silly.
Listen to me. I'm thinking like I'm still on Earth.
I stashed the credstick away, and turned back to Daimler. "So is that it?"
He snorted. "Whaddaya expecting? An inquisition? Unless you've got something else you need... yeah, you're done. I do have other contracts, if you're interested..."
Probably not a good idea- I'm busy enough already, what with the... wait a second. "Not as such." Daimler gave me a questioning look, to which I responded "Not at the moment, anyway. I'm going to be helping my family settle some accounts for a while- probably the next few months- so I can't exactly take any contracts."
Daimler shook his head. "That's too bad. I was hoping you could clear a few of these up-"
I smiled. This might work. "I just might." Noticing Daimler's confusion, I continued my thought. "I don't have time to devote to any one contract, so I can't take one... but my work is going to take me all over dimensional space, and the people I'm going to be squaring up with... could be more pleasant, if you take my meaning. There's a good chance I might bump into somebody who's worth something, so if I just happened to know who needs collecting..."
That got me a lopsided grin. "Kid, I like the way you think. I'll send you the info." He stood up, and reached over the desk; we shook hands (Malleus alerting me to a file transfer at the same time), and then he got back into his impressively comfy chair. "Some of those targets make the Bloody Pair look like pikers. Good hunting, and be careful."
I smiled, waving the hand I'd lost the last time he saw me. "I've spent the last few months working on that. Believe me, Mr. Daimler- I intend to!"
With that, I left the building, and began the now-irritating process of getting back to base.
Sigh. At least I'm getting better at teleporting.
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Hm, an interesting reaction from Lada, there - though I'll be highly surprised if the TSA is operating a revolving door prison like the superhero comics, so Imma might not be facing her again so soon as he might be half-expecting.
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Indeed. They are not.
That said, they tend to employ a whole lot of mooks. If somebody wanted to break her out, it wouldn't be impossible... that, and I have Round 3 plotted out to some degree already.
**********
15.2 seconds after reappearing in the lab complex, I noticed that something about the place felt... off. ...I can't believe I'm thinking this, but...
'It's quiet... too quiet.'
If that doesn't tempt fate enough, I'll have to get a bad feeling about this. Seriously, though- who's chasing me? I don't feel anybody nearby...
...which leaves Sein. Good. I kept walking; knowing her, she'd want to strike from where I least expected it. Turning around would just force her to get behind me again... but she would,
eventually. Might as well let her be about-
"GOTCHA!"
"OOF!"
-it.I should mention that travel via Deep Diver is, in technical parlance, freaking weird. It feels a lot like swimming through water, if a bit more tingly... well, assuming you stay close to Sein when you do it. I tried sticking an arm out, one time- the further it got from her, the more solid the metal around me actually was. Right before Sein put my arm back around her, it'd gotten solid enough to feel like taking a plastic spork to frozen ice cream.
I should also note that the matter around you still looks just as opaque as it was on the outside... and that I've never had the wherewithal to attempt breathing any of it.
Given all of that, I found myself massively relieved when the two of us splashed out of a ceiling, and landed inside of... a perfectly empty room. What is Sein thinking?Apparently, though, this wasn't what she expected to see. As soon as we landed, Sein's eyes went wide, and she began looking back and forth, scanning the room. "...no, no, NO! This isn't right!" She scowled, stomping her foot in frustration. "We were supposed to-" she started to say, before looking over at me again and clamming up. "-...nothing. Nevermind!" Huh. So she had some sort of plan, and it didn't go quite right. Wonder what it was?Sein must've guessed what I was thinking, because she backed away from me right sharpish. "Nope! Not gonna tell you... and you can't make me! Nyeh!" Before I could do anything else, she sank into the floor, leaving me alone in an empty room.
Well, that was odd, even for Sein. Knowing her, she'll try again eventually- I guess I'll just wait for it. With that decided, I set off for my quarters for the night.
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Oh man... I can't even imagine what she might have been up to... (Actually, I can, but it probably wanders far from reality. :p )
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blackaeronaut Wrote:Oh man... I can't even imagine what she might have been up to... (Actually, I can, but it probably wanders far from reality. :p ) I can imagine a few possibilities: - Somebody got at his old records, did the math, and realized Imma was due for a birthday party.
- Quattro was supposed to be there, and Sein was going to leave the two of them alone to talk.
- ignore-this-one Bluemage-isn't-going-there it's-Rule-34-related
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Rob actually got it. She had Quattro waiting in the room below- only problem was that Quattro didn't stick around.
The point was to lay foreshadowing for later, and to illustrate that I'm not the only one making things happen.
**********
Entry 50 (Day 873)
Three weeks?! HOW could it only have been THREE WEEKS since I last wrote an entry? Between all the research, the drama with Sein and Quattro, the mission, the bounty work... actually, now that I think about it, all of that fits rather easily into three weeks' time. It just feels longer, you know?
I suppose I should disentangle all of that- for posterity, if nothing else. Right.
Last entry, I proved I was ready to take missions again. Two weeks of spell research later, that got put to the test. I've written about the Krepani Syndicate before, yes? Big criminal organization? Makes automated magitech weapons? We're now at war with them. The doctor decided that they needed to be utterly wiped out for a number of reasons... most of which have to do with them acting like- gasp!- criminals! Who would've thought!
Anyway, the girls got to work defining what needs to be done right after his big, dramatic proclamation... and let me tell you, there's quite a bit that needs doing. The Syndicate is... well, start with the most comprehensive organized-crime group you can imagine. I'm talking everything from blue-collar thuggery, up to white-collar financial and computer crimes... up to whatever-the-heck-color-the-upper-class-wear-collar corporate crimes. Now, assume that this group exists across dozens and dozens of planets, both inside and outside government control, running different operations on every world.
On most administrated worlds- well, the ones inside the Syndicate's 'turf', anyway- they don't do anything really overt. Non-violent crimes, mostly; supplying native crooks, financial shenanigans, some front businesses, and the occasional bribe. Outside the administrated worlds, though, anything goes. Uno's intel suggests that they've created dozens of bases like the one I wrecked, using them to threaten shipping and put pressure on nearby worlds.
The M-Drones are just an extension of that strategy- a way to give the Syndicate enough troops to occupy a world entire without interrupting their other operations. Judging from the communications we've intercepted, that one base was part factory, part proving ground, and part R&D facility... and somebody involved in inventing the cursed things was there, the day we dropped by to rescue Sein.
I'm generally not a fan of killing, but I've really got a bad feeling about that. Maybe I should've been more indiscriminate with my fire that day?
So the point I was trying to make is that the Syndicate is big, it's powerful, it's manufacturing its own army, and the doctor declared war on it. I got sent out to hit one of their 'legitimate businesses' inside administrated space. Went perfectly, save for a few bugs in the spells I used; I've already corrected a few of them, but the rest will take some time.
Also found out that my old friend Lada joined up with the Syndicate. To make a long story short, I won, she lost, and my bank account's richer for it. Even got her to give me a hand in the course of it.
I gave it back once I had it. We'll see if the TSAB decides to have it reattached.
Since then, I've hit three more front companies inside TSAB space, all in much the same way, and all while (literally) looking over my shoulder the whole time. First two went smoothly, but I had to leg it on the third. TSAB mages showed up, right after I'd finished gift-wrapping the staff for them; the instant I felt them enter the area, I just cut power to my flight spell, dropped into the ruined building below me, and transferred out before I hit the ground. Tripled my normal route obfuscation, and I've been laying low ever since.
The good news is that Uno looked into that, right after I reported back in, and found that the TSAB was actually moving in to arrest the very people I incapacitated for them. They've established a task force, specifically charged with the destruction of the Syndicate, and set up a standing reward for information leading to the capture and trial of their members.
Two hours after finding that little tidbit, Uno and I had informed on every single Syndicate operation in administrated space, making a lot of money and crossing a whole lot of targets off the list, all at once. It's a wonderful feeling, being rich... but not good enough.
The bad news is that that's not their only objective. Task Force 87 is also to 'investigate the mysterious vigilante responsible for revealing the existence of the Krepani Syndicate to the Bureau.' In other words, they're after me- and by 'they', I mean "Verossa Acous, two squads of elite Enforcers, three companies of line mages, and Zest- SamuelLJacksoning-Grangaitz." This is not good. Very not good. It might even be doubleplusungood, but only if they catch me. I've got a plan on how to avoid that- a plan that's only possible because they don't know who or what they're looking for yet.
No, of course I'm not writing down what my plan is. I want it to succeed.
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Bluemage Wrote:...
The bad news is that that's not their only objective. Task Force 87 is also to 'investigate the mysterious vigilante responsible for revealing the existence of the Krepani Syndicate to the Bureau.' In other words, they're after me- and by 'they', I mean "Verossa Acous, two squads of elite Enforcers, three companies of line mages, and Zest-SamuelLJacksoning-Grangaitz." This is not good. Very not good. It might even be doubleplusungood, but only if they catch me. I've got a plan on how to avoid that- a plan that's only possible because they don't know who or what they're looking for yet.
... No, that's a necessary thing. Zest and Jail have to meet somehow, after all... 8)
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Hooo boy. Personally, I'd bring some nasty toys to the party - if only to leave the very succinct message: "Kindly do not fuck with me or I will end you." But that's just me. As some of you may have noticed in my writings on another thread, I tend to get extremely unpleasant when threatened.
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