Enma remembered time spent with Eliza, it was a good time. Easiness of life before political career and all this stuff. This girl sitting against her is speaking the truth, it was more or less obvious, but it's hard to accept. On the other hand, yes they both were in some Coalition Omega system, back then and now Eliza left her service and now being here with her. Yes, it was them way before Council and Fedelta, this thought made her smile and sigh in relaxation a moment later.
"Well, we did a lot of dumb shit if I'm honest, now the question is, what to do next." Enma is scratching her eyebrow and looking at some strange person entering the bar. Person looked generally poor and awful, a bit autistic. She could've take a public bet that it's some another useless Zoner 'scientist'. "You are speaking about the vacation in our last communication, what do you have in mind?" Loyola asked, obviously wanting to spend more time with Valdez. Of course she still have some high level meetings first, but 'Vanal' seem to be more important, it looks like it was Eliza's new callsign by now.
Her hands pushed the cushioned pilot chair and the squeaking sound promised problems in the near future. Lying down in the cockpit, she pulled the base plate and pushed the wiring apart to look at the main springs. It was not a good sight and she sighed at it. She did not had the parts to fix this, but only could try to release some of the pressure of the springs and hope it would hold until she had the time to buy new ones.
The sound of the bay elevator was heard, and she slowly rose her head and peered through the cockpit glass. More zoners. With guns this time. Rolling her eyes, she swivelled and hot-wired the main ship console. Tomoe then started to access the main ship power controls that were automatically shut down upon landing.
"Filthy baka-zoners. You got guns. Shiv does too."
She whispered as her fingers entered the commands to power and gain control of the Sabre's weapon systems. Minutes were needed, but then again, corpses in Kyushu rice crates tend to create some.
Eliza leaned her head back and pumped her cheeks with air before exhaling dramatically in a very exaggerated manner. A vacation really sounded like a good idea right now. Somewhere better than this place, not like that was going to be too much of an achievement. Cambridge is nice and sunny around this time of the year. she spoke as she shifted her body back into a normal posture. The rum bottle standing on the table caught her attention as she examined it with curiosity. Loyola already had a drink for herself, something fancy by the looks of it. And there were no other glasses on the table, did she intend Eliza to drink it all by herself? Enma was obviously up to something and Eliza was not going to let it work. Not this time.
With hands on the table ready to jettison her from her seat she uttered a quick excuse I'll be right back! and just as quickly propelled herself into a standing position. Her goal was simple - two empty glasses. If that bottle of rum was going to be droughted by the evening's end then both of them were going to regret it in the morning. On her way to the bartender she suddenly had one of those funny thoughts that creep into one's head once they're in a hurry to somewhere - did she leave her Sabre unlocked? Her body paused on the spot for a second as her muscles froze still from the sudden distress, but Eliza quickly shook it off with a mischievous smile, the young girl doubted anybody would try to steal it or anything, especially considering the hangar was full of armed guards given the place's recent history.
Once the Maltese girl got close enough for the bartender to notice her she signaled him with two fingers that she needed glasses. While waiting for him she took the chance to look around. A single patron caught her attention, there was something strange about him, why was he drinking a hot beverage at this time of the evening? Probably one of those Zoner eggheads planning to stare at readings of planet Nauru all night, she thought to herself. Conveniently the bartender had already retrieved two deep glasses for her and left them on the table in front of her. She marched back to her table with the much needed equipment and slammed the glasses on the table triumphantly. I can't drink all that rum by myself, Enma. You'll have to help me out! she murmured innocently with a sly smirk as she took her usual seat, awaiting her friend's reaction.
Hookity was leading his team straight into action. These men knew what to do and when. No messing around.
Those lunatics took them by surprise though, right after the elevator stopped and the team spread in deck four. They focused on the bodies on the ground. Bad move.
Two men were mowed down by the weapons of the Sabre moored in the middle of the docks. The rest of the team immediately looked for cover, Madington even going as far as performing an heroic jump to reach crates on their left.
"What the he...?!" was the only thing Hookity could emit as his team was pinned down by the powerful fire of the Sabre.
A few of his men retaliated, but this Sabre's shields ate all the shot without blinking. Hookity took on himself to call for reinforcements. "Central! Central! We have a major situation on Deck fo..!"
Hookity couldn't continue, forced to huddle up as the Sabre was punishing the team with another volley. "Deck four! We're under fire! We need the... We need the Zoners Marines!"
Why would Eliza want to drunk her up? This was a little bit suspicious, but Enma thought that nothing bad Eliza is planning on her. Level of trust to Valdez is higher than ever and barely that there's a person in Sirius she could trust more. "Ah, sure, why not." Loyola is filling up her and Eliza's glass and took a short sip. Her thoughts were concentrated on Cambridge since Eliza have mentioned it as their possible vacation location. Unlike some other Outcasts who had to leave Malta, Enma is not the fan of idea of staying in Bretonia. On one hand she is not the fan of Bretonians are the people, on the other House space in general felt overpopulated.
"If you want Cambridge, then we could. I don't care a lot if I'm honest, as long as it's with you." Some strange noise and possible explosion vibration coming from the hangar sector of the Freeport made her worry. She doesn't feel like she wants to fight right now, but something tells her that the fight is coming.
Loyola watched at Valdez closely, thinking of something. "Are you sure that you have felt your position in peace? I have a bad feeling about something coming." She sighed, for some reason she could not relax still and even warm thoughts about vacation are not helping whatsoever. "I suggest we finish this rum and move out of here. We can continue in other place."
Eliza raised her glass in a toast, To your good fortune! before taking a sip. A sweet taste assaulted her tongue but soon turned into the typical stinging sensation of alcohol and the girl winced while swallowing the liquid. Realizing her previous grimace she smiled awkwardly with a mixture of shame and innocence. Eliza never really liked strong alcohol that much and she only favored rum because of it's sweet taste that made it more bearable than other alternatives such as the vodka from Omega-52. Now that was a bad memory that suddenly decided to resurface in her mind and gave her another shiver.
The noise coming from outside of the bar startled her out of the painful memory of what bad vodka can to do a person's head in the morning and Eliza nearly spilled the glass's contents on herself. She hastily put her drink on the table before jerking her now free arm across her seat and arcing her body to the side, with her eyes centered on the bar's entrance, waiting to see what'll happen next. Deep down inside the young Maltese hoped this is just some false alarm, there were no signs of Core ships just a hour ago when she was still in space, there was no chance this cursed Freeport was under attack yet again! I'm sure the station's security will handle it, whatever it was! The idea of leaving the worries and negative emotions to the Zoners comforted her deeply. It's their job after all, right? She wasn't paid for this, she was here to have a good time with her close friend.
The targetting console was offline, but the power to the shields and weapons were fully on. Engines would not start with the magnetic clamps fixing the Sabre into position. But Tomoe Gozen was happy. The gun cameras were showing some of the guards being cleaved in half and thrown around like they were a rag doll.
"More, come more!!!"
Her voice shouted in delight, as the guns flailed in the zoners general direction, unleashing an unforgiving payload of Wyrms. There was no tomorrow, no past. Just that moment. And Shiv was living it to the fullest. Suddenly, the gun-cam showed the elevator and a side wall being blown up. More zoners, hundreds of them, now heavily armed poured in.
"Zoner Marines!" Being surrounded was the death knell for her. The bell would toll for her? She wondered. As they prepared their heavy ordinance, Shiv breathed in, preparing for the worse. There was no ordi-. Her eyes opened, albeit slightly. The idea was already formed in her head and she went to work, as heavy laser blasters started to punish the Sabre shield. Less than thirty seconds later, the shield was about to collapse, and the zoners saw a small woman rise in the cockpit.
Hookity, rising from behind the Kyushu Rice crate, surprisingly intact, forced his sight to get a better picture, amidst the smoke and debris. She was holding something. What was it? His eyes opened in surprise and has his mouth opened to issue the orders to fall back, the woman crossed the two copper wires in her hand.
Nuclear mines began to drop from the back of the Sabre. One hit the ground. The small thrusters trying to guide it, oblivious to the heavy pull of the artificial gravity. Hookity, the man, the myth began running towards the elevator, as all the zoners scrambled for their lives. As the second mine dropped, the timer was done as the elevator doors closed with Hookity and five more zoner Marines with the rest still trying to flee the proximity of the Sabre.
Tomoe 'Shiv' Gozen last moment was of her smiling as the fiery explosion engulfed zoners and Sabre alike.
In a small bar deep inside Freeport Eleven rough areas, a man was enjoying a margarita while discussing in a low voice with the man in charge behind the counter... A man, we said? Scratch that, he was closer to the living embodiment of perfection; a demigod, walking among mere mortals. Except he was not walking right now, but sat in front of the counter of this nice little bar, full of civilized, trustworthy individuals, and enjoying a Margarita.
Our adonis reached for his P.D.A in the middle of his conversation with the tender of this fine establishment. It was a message from Dock Four quartermaster, it seems. He was apologizing for a logistic error which apparently occurred. Something about guns. Nothing too concerning and requiring the immediate attention of our hero regardless, and he bravely returned to his conversation, and, of course, his margarita.
The glass was almost empty when some concerning vibrations could be felt, coming from the ground of the station. Some alarms suddenly rang, indicating a major incident happened somewhere.
Judging this was relevant to his interest, our noble Hercules rose, revealing unwillingly his admirable stature, without a doubt worth erecting countless statues.
Our hero walked out slowly, as a noble tiger proudly leaving his retreat. Such a manly presence would have certainly inspired many poems if a muse walked among the citizens of Freeport eleven... But right now, there were only people running around aimlessly, obviously panicked.
Our superb specimen of manly, yet unmatched beauty raised an eyebrow, perplexed. The source of all this agitation appeared to come from the docks.
No doubt was possible. It came from the docks. The noble Adonis walked towards the entry of Dock four, now sealed. Some Zoners were aimlessly running around, crying like little babies, which our hero found displeasing.
He waited for one of them to come close enough and grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, an action performed with an unmatched perfection. The Zoner chocked as the demigod accentuated his firm grip on his neck. He asked quietly to the panicked Zoner : "Nono will be asking only once. What happened to Nono's ship?"
Enma is just looking on how Valdez was drinking. Now the question is if Eliza is playing to be like this or it was frank. In any way, explosive sounds and vibrations are not getting a lot of attention after this toast. Liza wanted to stay and frankly Enma is not having anything against that. At least there was no a single reason that she could word properly and that would look convincing.
"Hmm, so dear, what would you like to do on Cambridge? I don't know about this planet a lot. I was transpassing this system and this planet never looked interesting to me. I don't care a lot as we spend this time together anyway, but it's a matter of discuss, don't you agree?"
The redhead leaned forward on her elbows and put her head in her palms. Her eyes fixated on Enma as she began formulating a response in her head. What she really wanted to do there was a good question indeed. Eliza tilted her head and with a cute pout began wondering what could really be done on planet Cambridge. She didn't really want to bother doing anything, more like she wanted a break from everything, especially those backwater space stations that were one bad explosion away from becoming a depressurized wreck and just relaxing somewhere quiet on Cambridge sounded like the perfect plan to her. Well, we could probably rent some country-side villa similar to those back on Malta and relax from the rest of the world and it's problems. Nature there seemed pretty. The girl smiled, hoping this would be a good enough reason as any for her friend to agree to this.
"Mhm..." Enma is taking a short pause. "Well, you know, fuck it!" She suddenly said, yes indeed, why not just return have a good rest together and then probably return back to Malta, even. If something bad should happen, it will happen anyway.
"We will do that, but you will have to wait for a few more days here. I hope you have enough of cloth and other stuff, I don't feel like shopping in Bretonia." Her face expression changed to a slight disgust. "Bretonian fashion is making me sick, even those Kusarian traditionalists in kimono look better."