[font=Palatino Linotype]Remus' instincts tell him to move in and apprehend the Order ship, but "TIM" knew better than to trust human instincts. Not that human instincts were incorrect, sleep deprivation had robbed Remus of tactical intelligence.
[color=#FFFFFF]"Sir, should we move in?" "We'll move in in five minutes.... tell the men to get ready."
The electronic voice boomed once more into the ship's bridge. <<<Commander, I am not detecting counter-signals towards our ship. There is a 80% chance that we have achieved the advantage of surprise.>>>
"Sir, 'TIM' 's right. Our comms array isn't detecting counter-signatures from the vessel. An LABC is also present in the field. Currently our best option is to remain hidden, wait for the time to strike, and intercept communications between the present parties."
Remus scratches his chin and then pulls out a silver pocket watch from its hiding place. "Hmm...."*Half-past seven.... I can still wait...* "Right... set 50% power to the communications array. Activate our 'Chameleon' shield and blend with some scrap metal scattered around us. I'm giving this a couple of minutes."
This would enable the MacArthur to remain hidden for a while. It was not effective as a cloak for the shield only mimicked the surrounding areas. In open space, the countermeasure was next to useless.
Hartman was still recovering from the last piece of information and didn't resist as the Marines begun to lead the way from the fragmented wreck. There was another survivor, and a battlecruiser out there. She glanced around the bridge; taking in the flickering displays and twisted walls a final time. There was still something she needed to do...
As they weaved their way through the bridge she grasped a console, detaching a small drive from the ship's computer. The angle, with her hovering above the console, made the movement difficult, but her patience was eventually rewarded, and she slid the records of the Clearwater's final flight into a spare pocket in her uniform. Even if Clearwater was little more then scrap metal now, she had been a good ship, and it wouldn't do to abandon her without Hartman paying her final respects. With the drive safely pocketed, she followed the Marines.
Solomon waited for the woman as the Marines went on ahead.
"Blue Team, Red Team, head back to the ship."
Turning to make sure Hartman was still there, Solomon lee her to the airlock and gestured the woman through first. He followed. He kept an eye on her for any more signs of pain.
As soon as Hartman was onboard, Solomon sealed the airlock, his helmet was passed to a Marine and taken away. A medic was waiting, and checked her over (medically). Pronouncing her in the clear after a few brief scans, Solomon dragged Hartman awsy and down a hallways, heading deeper into the ship. Two or three people in total were encountered; all of them saluted to him as he passed. The emblem of the Order was emblazened on their shoulders, and each had a strange insignia below; it was a burning flower.
Solomon keyed open a door, revealing a very small, but decent, conference room. A single, rectsngular metal table sat there, four chairs to either side, with another at the hrad. The one at the head of the table was turnrd away.
Solomon coughed. "Ma'am."
The chair swivelled, revealing a girl of about fifteen with snow-white hair and s black dress, sitting cross-legged, eating a cookie. She stared a bit blankly at Hartman before offering a cookie from a plate on her lap.
"Cookie?"
Natsumi Hideyoshi (The Order) | Alexis Hunter (Liberty Navy) |
Jane Hartman was a veteran of a dozen firefights, at least twice that many fighter battles, and Marine basic training. She had studied how to fire and maintain every weapon handled by the Liberty Navy and their Marines. She had learnt how to survive the harshest environments in which man could operate with nothing more then a parachute and pocket-sized kit. None of this had prepared her in the slightest for the sight before her.
Intel was right for once. The Order really are insane. Flowers. They had flowers on their shoulder pads. The notion so strange that she temporarily forget her thirst. Libertonian patches were small and simple. Anything more then a square and two different colours was too hard to identify quickly, so basic configurations for everyone. Except for Special Forces, but when had they listened to directives anyway? These soldiers were wearing flowers on their shoulders. Not that it did anything to subtract from the assault rifles at their sides. The shoulder she was watching shifted as its owner snapped a salute at the approaching party that would have done a Navy sailor proud. Hartman almost returned the gesture before she remembered where she was. This wasn't a Navy ship. No matter what sort of front they put on, the crew of the gunboat were still Order. Still the enemy. By the salutes, the man accompanying her was some senior officer, possibly even the X.O. She couldn't make out any rank insignia though, and even if she could, it was doubtful that she would have recognized it. Hartman kept her head up as they moved through the ship, keeping track of the mess of corridors and doors. Knowledge of the ship layout could be right useful if the Order kept to their word and transferred her off.
Minutes later, her captors led her into a small conference room. Her brow creased in confusion at the figure waiting inside. The girl couldn't have been more then ten or eleven. What in the fresh hell was a calve of that age doing on board a warship? Hartman had seen older children holding their mother's hands to cross the street. She briefly contemplated the idea that she really had died on Clearwater and this was her eternal punishment.
Then the girl retrieved a plate of cookies from her lap, and Hartman was certain. She ignored the offer, focusing on the girl. Christ knew she was terrible with children.
"I go by Kira when conversing with people I don't trust." She finished her cookie, movingbthe plate onto the table. She sat normally, hands claspedin her lap. Despite her teenage appearance, her eyes showed aging and hints of deep sorrow. "Funny thing, I happen to command this ship. Because I essentially designed it. And the reactor, core, etc. The flower insignia is the emblem of this ship. Destiny's Embrace." She paused to grab a glass of chocolate milk off the table. Solomon. Get something for her to drink. Maybe a sandwhich. She looks terrible." Kira took a sip of the milk, then set it down. "Go ahead and sit. Rest. You're alive. Safe. Even though I'm with The Order."
Kira smiled, again resting her hands in her lap. "Looks like your ship took a beating. Was worried it was lost with all hands."
Solomon then returned, sliding a glass of water and a turkey sandwhich in front of Jane. Plain. Only mayo.
"So. Any more questions?"
Natsumi Hideyoshi (The Order) | Alexis Hunter (Liberty Navy) |
Questions? Hartman made an effort not to laugh in disbelief. Damn right, she had questions. Not least of all what a young girl was doing designing and commanding a gunboat class warship. Tact may not have been a great grace of Hartman's, but she had the self-control to at least try and organise the questions racing through her head.
"Clearwater came under attack by pirates. Couldn't tell you how long ago now, our computers went offline after the torpedoes hit." After everything this girl's crew had done getting her off the ship, they were entitled to some explanation. Hartman was intentionally scarce on the details, acutely aware that under any other circumstances these people would be doing their best to kill her. Which raised the question of why they weren't now. If their situation had been reversed, she would have greeted the Order ship with Magma Hammers instead of sandwiches.
"Why are you helping us? We didn't have beacons out, and this ain't exactly your home turf. If I were in your position, I would have been gunning it for the nearest jump point."Unless I had very good reason to hang around..."What's the Order doing this close to Manhattan anyway?"
Despite the direction, Hartman couldn't bring herself to relax. There were still too many uncertainties, too many questions. She made an effort to ignore the water. Time was uncertain in space, but her body told her that it had been a long time without water. Training told her to ignore it. Just because the Order hadn't shown any hostile intentions towards her didn't mean they weren't planning something. In the end, training won. Only then did something click in the back of her mind. The Marine that had pulled her off Clearwater, the X.O, had mentioned another survivor. "Your men said they got someone else out of that wreck. I'd like to see them." This time, there was no uncertainty in her voice.
Sensors lapped over the Order ship's hull, flagging heat signatures and shapes. Against the void of space, and at such short range, the Destiny's Embrace practically glowed, even with the hull's natural stealth features. Two figures were tagged by the MacArthur's systems, white labels hovering over the outlines. Navy personnel. The biometrics weren't sophisticated enough to nail down identities, not without pumping enough power into the sensors to trigger a response from the Order ship.
As it was, Sius would be lucky if the signals he'd already sent out didn't tip off the Embrace.
Kira cocked her head to the side. "Harry Taylor. Soon. Now..." she rolled her eyes. "Sorry I don't follow the insanely idiotic stereotypical Order agent that kills all I see. Sorry I actually do my job of protecting humanity from the Nomads, and sorry I decided to save your life because my vow to protect humanity gave me the right to." She now favored Hartman with a cold glare. Glancing between Hartman and the water, she let our an exasperated noise.
"Solomon. The water "
The man slid the glass over. Kira drank a mouthful, swallowed, and slid the glass back. She continued speaking.
"I was born in Liberty. I have as much of a right to defend her as you do. You know nothing about the Order. All you know are stories. If you met any real Order agent, you would know." She did not let up her glare, which seemed a strange intensity, thanks to the mixmatched eyes and hair. "I stayed to help because I saw someone who needed help. If I failed to save lives, in favor of safety, then am I truly a guardian of humanity? Am I truly one who wishes to bring humanity it's salvation from Harbinger?" She softens her glare. "Life is precious. We should remember that. Saving one life can lead to ten lives saved, then ten more, then one hundred. On and on." Kira did not look ill or anything, proving the water was safe. "Nor do you know the sacrifice of The Order. You look down at me from your self-righteous position, thinking we are completely your enemy, and you are the good. Good and evil are black and white, but evil can make good seem evil. Our only problem...is figuring out which is which. As for me being this close? My buisness."
Kira settled back, letting Hartman mull things over.
Natsumi Hideyoshi (The Order) | Alexis Hunter (Liberty Navy) |
Taylor. Hartman paused, searching her memories for the man. He was one of Clearwater's engineering staff, the ship's chief engineer had mentioned him once or twice during briefings. She'd never had much to do with him, but it seemed that he had opted to stay behind. Perhaps he'd have some answers as to why.
Watching Kira drink bought Hartman's mind back to her own thirst, her eyes tracking the glass despite the protests of her trained mind. The Order wouldn't have bothered hauling her off the wreck just to kill her now. Still, uncertainty gnawed at her. There were countless compounds that could induce inattention, truthfulness, trust... No. She had waited for what felt like days on Clearwater. She could wait a little longer. Survival didn't come easy, and Hartman hadn't survived as long as she had by trusting whoever turned up with a gift and a few kind words.
Somewhere beneath the physical demands of her body, some part of Hartman noted that Kira was speaking again. There was something incredibly frustrating about being lectured on morality by a girl more then ten years her junior. Hartman's lips twisted into a thin line reminiscent of the faint crest of scar tissue stretching across the bridge of her nose as the adolescent commander continued. Good and evil. Black and white. Hartman had long since abandoned that particular strain of morality. In her mind, there was no distinction between the two. People were incomplete, the sum of all their actions. She bound herself to more solid principles. Loyalty. Discipline. Courage. That was where Kira was wrong.
"Self-righteous?" Hartman almost smiled at the absurdity, the fatigue of the last few days was finally taking its toll. She took a moment to compose herself and when she spoke again it was with the calm respect of a subordinate correcting a superior. Despite her odd situation, Kira was still the C.O of the Embrace, and that ship had just saved her life. "I never said we were better than you, Kira. I never claimed to be good, or even right. What I am, is sworn to defend the people of this Republic, right or wrong." Hartman staggered to her feet, swaying slightly.
"Don't think I'm ungrateful, Commander. You and your crew saved my life. I won't forget that. But, beyond that, I've still got a job to do." Her hands curled around the back of the chair, steadying her. "And, if that'll be all, I'd like to get back to doing it."
Kira smiled. "Well, it seems we have found someone who actually knows how to do their job and is not another groveling peon of some madman in a white castle." She relaxed a bit. "I tire of those who do not take the time to find out if I am an ally or an enemy. They usually pick enemy, even when all I do is ask for directions to Pizza Hut." She grinned. "Anyways. I've been wanting to lay into a navy officer like that for awhile. Wish it was Polstari. My apologies." She brushed some hair from her eyes. "You do have a job to do. A job that is to protect Liberty. Like mine. Why else am I here, but to watch and make sure Liberty is safe? This is my home. This is where I was born. You and I fight for the same cause, yet we are different sides of a coin. But even as we wished for peace, we still are greeted with hatred and fire. That's also why I chose to risk...well, why I chose to save you. To show you we are neither your enemies nor this terrorist entity we are claimed to be."
Kira stood and stretched, walking around a bit to loosen up. "You'll be returned as soon as Taylor is checked on. There's a Navy vessel currently trying to find us."
Natsumi Hideyoshi (The Order) | Alexis Hunter (Liberty Navy) |