1.43
Cameron stomped into the mech bay with an air of frustration and a look that practically begged the other crew members to keep their distance. The tangy scent of transmission fluid hung heavy in the air, mixing with the metallic, acrid stench of welding fumes, pulling his focus toward the direction of Logan’s Crusader. Looking over, he watched as Aurora, hung suspended from a series of harnesses, as she welded and repaired the various damages Logan had sustained during the last battle.
He made his way over, causing her to look up momentarily, staring at him through the darkened visor of her welding mask. She turned back to continue her task for a few more moments, before turning off the torch and sliding down a line of rope and taking off her visor, looking at him curiously.
“What’s up?” She asked, shaking loose her messy tufts of blue hair.
Cameron shrugged, “Eh, just kind of walking around. Waiting for whatever briefing Logan wants to do so we can get this shit kicked off.”
“Ah,” She said with a nod, “Where’s little miss EarthGov at?”
He sighed and rolled his eyes, throwing a thumb behind him towards the door leading back towards the maze of hallways that formed the bowels of the ship, “I don’t know. Somewhere back there, hopefully regretting her choice to come on here.”
“Oh?” She said leaning against the leg of the Crusader, removing her gloves and eyeing him curiously, “Trouble in paradise?”
Cameron laughed with a nod, “Yeah, something like that…”
He recounted the earlier exchange he’d had with Sybil, as well as the inciting incident that brought him into the company of the Fenris in the first place. Aurora, to her credit, didn’t react too harshly as Cameron told his tale, merely nodding along as he spoke, or asking the occasional question. When he was finished, she merely looked at him, smirking and slowly shaking her head.
“Oh I’m sorry,” He said, feeling a fresh wave of anger beginning to bubble up inside of him, “Did I say something fucking amusing?”
“No no,” She said with a chuckle as she continued to shake her head, “Just a couple of follow-up questions is all… you have headache? Feeling a little nauseous? Maybe a little dizzy?”
These seemingly innocuous probing threw Cameron off guard. So much so, his anger calmed enough for him to consider her strange questions. Sure enough, he did indeed feel off. His head felt foggy and heavy, his eyes felt like they were slowly dragging their way back and forth, and his stomach felt sick and sour. He looked down as he patted his person, before looking back up at Aurora who met his gaze with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“Well?” She asked, crossing her arms as she watched him.
“Actually… Y-Yeah,” He said, looking slightly concerned, “How did you know?”
“Turn around,” She said.
“Why?” He asked.
“I’m gonna fix you,”
“I told you, I’m that kind of girl.”
“Just do it, dipshit,” She said.
Reluctantly obeying, he turned away from her, focusing on the silhouette of his Headsman in the back corner of the bay. Without preamble, he felt her arm snake its way around his throat, before, with a sudden sharp pain that took his breath away, he felt something of a spike-like object plunged into his neural uplink jack.
“Hnng…Gah!” He groaned, eyes bulging wide before they rolled back inside of his skull. His legs turned to jelly before swiftly disappearing underneath him. He sank to his knees and threw his head back as a torrent of neon blue ones and zeroes passed in front of his blackened vision at the speed of light. He began to twitch and shake, mumbling incoherently for a moment, before, as quicky as it had begun it stopped. Slowly, his vision returned to normal, his feeling returned to his lower extremities, as he felt control over his body coming back to him.
He shot to his feet, whipping around to see Aurora, a shiny metallic spike clutched in her hand, as she struggled to fend off a wave of amused laughter.
“Wha…” He gasped, “What the f-fuck was that?”
“How do you feel?” She asked in a sing-song tone.
“Violated!” He bellowed.
“And?”
He paused his dramatics for a moment, taking the time to assess himself. To his surprise he felt… good. Great even. His head was clear, his nausea a non factor, his lethargy completely eradicated. He looked at her, surprise clear across his face as she explained.
“It’s called a binaric jack,” She said, “Now that you're neurologically interfacing with an A.R.M.S. unit, your brain is under tremendous strain from all the information being passed from the V.I., that's partially why it hurts so much to thread yourself into a mech. But once your syanpses get used to the information overload, it slowly starts to become your bodies preferred state of being.”
“Okay…” Cameron say slowly, attempting to follow her logic.
She sighed with a groan as her shoulders slumped. “Ugh! Alright… In layman’s terms think of it like this. Piloting an A.R.M.S. unit is like taking an addictive drug. The more you use it, the more addicting it becomes. When you’re out of the mech, your body goes through withdrawals. This little device is kinda like a patch. It provides a temporary binaric burst to hold you over and keep you from being so pissy.
“Ya know,” He said, “I don’t really think I was being pissy. I feel like I was at least somewhat justified in voiceing my opinions.”
“True,” She said with a nod, “But would you have normally acted like an edgy teenager and threw a bitch fit at the one woman around who actually enjoys your company?”
“Okay… hurtful… but… probably not.”
“Exactly,” She said, giving her arm a flourish as she continued. “She just caught you at the wrong time, and you probably made her cry. Although-”
“I did not make her cry.”
“Yeah you did,” Logan’s voice rang out from behind him. He and Aurora turned to see Logan standing there arms crossed and dressed in his operator attire. Looking at the two of them skeptically with a raised eyebrow. His brow went up even further when his eyes caught the gleam of the Binaric Jack in Aurora’s hand.
“Already?” Logan asked.
Aurora shrugged, looking just as confused as Cameron did, silently mouthing out ‘I don’t know’.
“Hmm,” He said, looking between Cameron and the Headsman, “I mean you did skip a level… maybe that increase in data transfer caused you to start earlier than most. I guess It’ll just be something you’ll have to deal with.”
“Why does everything bad just so happen to be ‘something I have to deal with?’” Cameron complained.
“Why do you have to make EarthGov officials cry?” Logan asked.
“Yeah, ya monster,” Aurora chimed sarcastically, “I get murdering random strangers for money, but to toy with the emotions of a woman who could have us sanctioned and shot? How do you sleep at night?”
“Okay, what are you doing her?” Cameron said, turning on Logan and ignoring the teasing coming from the pair.
“Is it not my ship?” Logan asked.
“Ya know … I missed when you were being a pissy little asshole.”
“Yeah well,” Logan said, “Seems like you got that distinction now. In any case, we’re getting ready to leave slip-space in a couple hours. Got a holo conference set up with the raid team leaders so we can run through the plan and get ready. I’m expecting heavy resistance so we’re gonna be dropping hot and it’s best to be prepared.”
“Fair enough,” Cameron said, “Lead the way boss.”
“Think I should grab a muzzle first?” Logan asked, “You know, just in case someone asked your opinions on the weather?”
“Just shut up and walk,” Cameron said, feeling his eye beginning to twitch.
The holographic images of two men stood atop the conference table, arms crossed, waiting silently as the group of the Fenris poured into the briefing room. They were off similar build and dress, built stocky, short, and garbed in slightly baggy gray jump suits. Black plate carries stood prominent on their chests, projecting a thin shimmering shield, meant to protect their bodies from rail rifle fire, as industrial looking breathing apparatuses dug into their cheeks, cutting off half of their faces from the chin up.
“I’m digging the masks. Really selling the whole ‘terrifying spec-ops’ outfit,” Cameron said, drawing the men’s attention, motioning to the devices as he sat down, flanked on either side by Logan and Aurora.
“‘Preciate ya,” One of the men said, his accent heavy and metropolitan, “I wanted to go with pink tube tops and assless chaps, but I ran out of lace at the last minute. This was the all we could find last minute.”
“Oooooh, I like these guys,” Cameron said through a chuckling smirk, “They’re funny.”
His amused grin quickly dropped into a more serious and neutral tone as the clicking of Sybil’s heels echoed from the hallway. She entered the room, eyes cast down and pointedly avoiding Cameron’s gaze. Approaching the head of the table, she sat down and unstacked a few files, shuffling them around, making it very clear she had no interest in looking up as she motioned with her hand towards the holograms.
“Gentlemen, if you please,” She said flatly.
“Very well, Ms. Moore,” one man said before taking a step forward and looking around the conference room from his perch at the center of the table.
“Good day, crew of the Fenris, I am Arthur Kremmel, Sergeant and leader of Team Osiris of the EarthGov Ground Forces Command, special weapons and tactics division. I’m joined here today by Sergeant Sam Mendoza, the leader of Team Anubis, and together we will be briefing you as to the ROE and frag order for the upcoming raid on The Manna Groups research laboratory.”
Sergeant Kremmel started making a series of flailing gestures before a holographic wireframe model comprising a topographic map overlay on a three-dimensional blueprint model of a series of buildings.
“There’s a total of five structures at this outpost, situated in a large crater deep inside of an asteroid field. This includes two research laboratories, one parts warehouse, one housing unit, and one manufacturing plant.”
Each building was highlighted as Kremmel spoke about them. Once finished with listing the different structures, he circled his finger around on of the two research labs, situated towards the back of the compound, and as he did a circle of light wrapped its way around it, highlight the building as an area of interest as he continued to speak.
“We have actionable intelligence that tells us the A.E.I.A. module is located in this lab, behind a reinforced vault. The crux of this operation hinges on the objective that we breach this vault and secure the module, or destroy it.”
“Alright,” Logan said, “That explains, the overview, now what about things that actually matter to us? What’s the kill order?”
Sergeant Mendoza stepped forward at that moment, using another series of gestures to cause a number of blue arrows to appear on the sides of the compound, with a large purple arrow pointing towards the front of the facility and series of red X’s inside the compound itself.
“In approximately four hours,” Menendez began, “Osiris and Anubis will position ourselves on the outer perimeter to the left and right lateral limit of the facility exterior. Fenris forces, I.E. you two,” He said, pointing towards Logan and Cameron, “Will begin the assault by punching through the front entry point, causing a ruckus, and drawing the attention of the Squire and A.R.M.S. units stationed there. Once that’s done, we’ll breach through the wall and get started on some… wetwork.”
“Wetwork?” Cameron asked.
“I think a better word is War-Crime,” Logan said leaning over to whisper into Cameron’s ear, “No one working there is going to be leaving after today.”
“Oh…” Cameron said softly, eyes wide with understanding as he looked between the Sergeants and Sybil, who was pointedly avoiding his gaze, “Well… that’s kinda fucked.”but
Mendoza shrugged nonchalantly, “Orders are orders. They shouldn’t have been fucking around with this stuff in EarthGov space.”
Cameron wanted to argue, wanted to try and haggle for the lives of these non-combatants, but it seemed like he was the only one concerned about them, as even Logan was ambivalent to their execution, choosing instead to simply push forward with the briefing instead of dwelling on the grim revelation.
“Alright,” Logan said, motioning with his fingers to hurry up, “We’ve taken out the enemy armor, and the employees have gone from present to past tense, what’s next?”
Mendoza pointed towards the same facility as Kremmel, the one containing the vault and A.E.I.A. module, “Once that’s finished, we’ll sync up and surround the research lab. One of you will need to disembark and rendezvous with us in order to raid the vault. Your A.R.M.S. units are outfitted with a secondary intelligence slot that can be used to transport the AI back to the Fenris, where Ms. Moore will then take ownership of it, you guys can get paid out, and we can go our separate ways. Quick, easy, to the point. Any questions?
There was a few more minutes spent in the conference room wrapping up mundane administrative tasks such, but eventually, everyone filed out of the room generally satisfied and prepared for the mission. All except one however, as Cameron had a task to tend to before the start of the raid. He lagged behind the others, sticking around to wait for Sybil as she packed and cleaned up the room, her head down, and quiet.
“Hey,” He said, sounding sheepish and nervous, “Um… Can we talk?”
His question was met with a wall of silence, left hanging uncomfortably in the air as she continued to pack up her belongings.
“Sybil? I was wondering -”
“I heard you, Mr. Ket.”
“Oh I… Wait… Mr. Ket?”
“That’s your name isn’t it?” She said, meeting his gaze finally, her tone cold and dismissive, “After all, It’s sure as hell isn’t Cameron. Right?”
“Okay… I deserve that,” He said slowly as he nodded, “That’s actually what I came to talk to you about Sybil.”
“We don’t need to talk about anything,” She replied in a tone laced with false honey.
“I mean… I feel like we do. Like… I didn’t mean to treat you like-”
“Oh I feel like you did Mr. Ket,” She said, turning her eyes downcast once again, “I just think now that you’ve calmed down, you regret what you said and are looking for acceptance or understanding now that you have a seemingly decent excuse for your actions.”
The words stabbed into him like an invisible blade crafted from vitriol and frustration. He cringed, but still gave another attempt.
“Look Sybil, can we just -”
Her hands slammed into the table with an audible echo, causing him to flinch in surprise. She slowly looked up her eyes squinted in an attempt to hide how bloodshot they’d been from crying.
“Cam,” She said slowly, enunciating each word, “You made your point very clear. And you’re right. You’re not the man I met back on Ketris. You’re not a prince, you’re a mercenary. I get that, and I know that I’m responsible for helping to make you that way. Excuse me for trying to make you forget that plight for even the shortest time.”
Cameron’s eyes started to widen, as his chin tried to work itself to form a response, yet all he managed was a series of shocked mumbling. Sybil, on the other hand, had no such qualms or hurdles in getting her point across.
“So do me a favor Cam, play the role you want to play. You want to be nothing more than a pilot? Fine by me. If that’s the case, I suggest you stop talking to me, and head to the bay to do your drop checklist.”
“Sybil… Please just let me-”
“Cameron… Mr. Ket. Let me put this in a way you can understand,” She said, walking up to him, her nose inches from his own as she whispered, “Leave me alone, and do the job I’m fucking paying you to do.”
With that, she turned and stormed out, her heels slowly clicking off into the distance, as she left Cameron alone with nothing but his thoughts.
“Oh…” He exclaimed with a heavy sigh after a minute, “Oh, I fucked up.”
“Yeah, you did!” Her voice rang out from down the hall.
He sucked his teeth, feeling his eyes roll as he walked out and making his way to the mech bay as he mumbled softly to himself, “They need to go ahead and start this mission. It’s probably safer there.”