She fanned a hand at him as if she's heard it all before, shaking her head. "The MND has received three budget cuts in the last two years and has required at least a 200% increase in its activity demands to ensure the safety of the federal republic. I loved living in my liner before we signed up for a nightmare to fight against, but then it all seemed pointless, we had it all... Then what?" She placed her hand down and gave a look to him as she picked up her glass of water, gently placing it to her lips and sipping it. "Mmm~" even the movement of her throat seemed natural. "Cold... Now I know we do all the bad things and it's nice of you to remind us that we're seen as these big bad spooky boogie-monster. But unfortunately we don't let the news catch wind of what we really do... We're soldiers to be forgotten as we're handed jobs no one else can do, and the only time publicity gets out is when people speculate the bad from our actions... People are scared of us, and even if we don't like it, we don't expect it to change and we never have done." She didn't like when she felt as if nothing was getting through, humans were hard to understand but even for herself she had to see how and why it was a crucial element. "I think I get it... Faith. I want to be disappointed in you but I keep trying my best to find and understanding. Imagine if you had to go back to whomever you're hiding with and saying that we're trustworthy, I'd imagine it would just feel like a detrimental stab to everything you stood for while you held the flag of the Winterstandarmee. But at this point a lot of us are even ready to throw away things we thought were true because the conditions have changed, we improvise, we adapt."
She had some more documents in her hand and didn't know if this conversation was worth revealing its contents to him. Trust is a lot to ask for when you're two ends of a string that are almost tied as a loop for the situation it was made for. "You act like we don't try to keep the balance of the state in play. We try, but there is a skillful balance to being the Agency of the state who keeps their senators in check for the massive amounts of bribes they get from third-parties, to then actually become the string-pulling authoritarian regime master that you make us out to be. The former would get our budget cut by the Bundestag into non-existence to a possible dissolving of our agencies and the latter would be too much of a vulnerability for a corruptible figure to take position and knock Rheinland down like a wrecking ball to a house of cards." She dug her hand into her pocket and took out a pack of cigarettes and flipped open the lid, also taking out a metal flip lighter. "Smoke...?" She held out the pack for him to choose from the half-filled pack of menthol tabs, she stared at the pack rather than Klugmann as he probably felt as if her halo-pupils were not the most comfortable thing to be looked at.
Hargreaves continued to clamber through wires, pipes, and structural supports that made up his labyrinthine demesne. He assumed he'd gotten the correct wires for this deck's alarm system, but an unforseen complication had taken place in the process; he needed to find the security office of the deck proper, and to slice into its database to ensure his work was correct.
Fortunately, he found that the panel he'd unscrewed and slide aside led into a messy janitor's closet. Smooth. Even looked the part. All that was needed was to perform "routine maintenance" on their computers, and things would be good to go.
As he quietly opened the closet and saw the first, uniformless body stripped to undergarments, his mouth fell slightly agape. Three of them, stab wounds. He tapped out an emergency sequence to his commbead's frequency.
Erich awaited the end of the android's speaking, pointedly ignoring the offer for a cigarette. His reply came several moments after, scarcely able to conceal his contempt for the being's words.
"The sheer irony of attempting to lecture about the 'life fraught with difficulty' the MND experiences is, bluntly put, being given to the worst possible audience." He stood up, placing his palms flat on the table and glaring down at her seated position. "I'm not certain of what threat my parents and I posed to the Bundesrepublik, but I certainly haven't seen or heard from them ever since the day I was shipped in a penal transport to Omega-Eleven." His tone changed to one of "faux-understanding". -"But I'm certain that I shouldn't be so quick to criticize, should I? After all, I'm assuming the good agency knew what was best for us, and what was best for the glorious Republic, correct?"
"How dare you make a pathetic appeal like that to us, of all people! Twenty-six years ago, the Bundschuh gave their lives to save not only Rheinland, but Kusari as well - Attacking your facility in the Westerwald! What, exactly, has changed since then? What methods and means were taken to prevent this chain of infestation from repeating itself ad-nauseam? Was reform passed through the Republic to sweep away the flaws of the old, the "mistakes of the past? Were the powers of corporations curtailed, and the risks of the Nomad threat made public to the people? The people your organization claimed to work in the best interests of?"
"Until you change what you do, you'll always have people afraid, and particularly so long as the government that runs on fear makes troublesome folk "disappear." Erich's tone was measured, but fierce - And dangerously audible to nearby tables. "You're not ready to 'throw away' things you thought were true, because you and your superiors have altered nothing. But me? I threw away the Bundschuh. I recognized that they had a part in the entire cycle, and I refused to be a part of that cycle any longer."
He remained quiet for a moment, letting those words hang. Finally, in a fatigued tone, he muttered. "Unless you have anything else of vital importance to share, I believe we're done. We don't fight for the same thing."
Before any reply could be offered, an emergency code rang off in Klugmann's commbead. The attentions of himself, the ex-Unioner, and the almost-Chrysanthemum drifted to the voice in their ears.
"People, something's awry. The guards in this security checkpoint are dead and their weapons and uniforms are gone."
"Then what do you fight for? What is it that you can truly make a difference within your own means of usable power? I don't mean fighting for an idealistic way you see the human function in terms of a society it develops. I'm sorry that I don't know what happened to your parents or why the MND supposedly took them away; thats a question you're asking the wrong person for as we were never part of the Buro when such things happened." She could see he was ready to up and leave the booth without doing anything to her. "I'm disappointed, in myself and not you, that I couldn't at least appeal some form of respectable conversation. But in all honesty you're still carrying around the Ideals of what you were fighting for within the Bundschuh... I don't expect you to see the changes we've made internally because... Well, we wouldn't let see them from where you stand. And we're not just fighting, or for some time have at least put effort into, the Bundschuh. As of right now they're nicely bringing a balance to Rheinland against the rise of this military controlled and potentially nomad influenced clique." She drank the rest of her water, the ice of which has melted by now. Their conversation had been going on for quite some time, but a lot of it was silence as they tried to at least come with rational thought and arguments, for a machine to make a speech of an emotional outbursts... Now that would indeed be something. "You speak about what happened all those years ago like the Buro was in control... I'm sorry that you still see us as the equivalent to the nomad infected scum that had control at the time but I can assure you that with who we have now; The same mistakes that struck our agency will not be happening again." She said as she also seemed ready to leave, she took whatever documents were on the table and closed them up.
"It doesn't matter which society is in control, theres always another group of boogeymen waiting to take advantage of it, be it from home ground or from another nation. If you think that eliminating the MND is goal, then you're just doing the others a favor. I'd expect that whatever government you would form, would think the same thing... Another clone organization to take the MND's place. People to do the work that you would never do yourself, all without its glorification and publicity." She opened up her flight suit, her clothing was civilian, but what was most noticeable was her neckline her sliver skin like appearance and what she had was ultimately as close to a form of female that can be. Her chest expanded and contracted like as if her breathing was natural, she was mostly built for imitation... Mostly. She slid in the documents on a rather over sized pocket under her flight suit. "All i want to say, is if you plan on bringing a small party to rise up and revolt during a fragile state of Rheinland to fight us? Then you're shooting likely doing the opposite efforts of what was achieved in the Westerwald in Eight-Oh-One... Anyway, I'm heading back to such a place. I'll be sure to do you proud and crucify any of those blue fucks on a cross as a warning." And there it was again, sarcasm and exaggeration at its finest within her vocal processors, possibly because she felt she might have not gotten far enough with him. "Take the case or leave it, scan it for bugs if you want or take it to one of your techies for sample testing." She nodded her chin to what remained in that briefcase, vials filed with his life supporting substance. "And leave me be, I still have someones birthday to celebrate with."
Enfield had had enough of looking and feeling over what scars he had, he put dressed down his shirt and donned on his cheap hoodie again before taking paces towards the bathroom door and leaving. As he walked his way back down the corridor he noticed the Maintenance engineer had also taken flight from his posting... Not that he seemed bothered about it but he just expected he was on break. Tools were down and cones were still up... But this was a freeport he was talking about, someone would have taken his place to keep the job flowing. An oddity that rested a little on the back of his head-- No matter.
He would walk to the bar again, taking the attention of the bar-keeper and paying the tab along with a bit extra. He still had around three quarters of a slightly chilled beer left to drink so he decided it be best to not sit down and wait for his partner to finish her conversation. "Hmm~"
The perfect storm, that's what it was. Hargreaves scanned through various menus, submenus, and pages of unrelated work-and-security-team orders, finding one submitted only a few hours prior.
"Oh bloody hell." He mumbled.
"Erich, we've been set up. The whole deck's on a 'repair quarantine' manually inputted today, and it's just taken effect. We're stuck here 'until further notice', it says." Hargreaves - Rarely a panicking sort of person, struggled to contain the worry in his impromptu briefing. At the bar, the trio receiving his message was all-but-outed by the dawning shock on their expressions. The Kusari woman hissed into her wrist - "Call security on the other decks!"
"Can't be done, the communications on this terminal are sitting in a sparking pile by my feet." Hargreaves quickly replied, apparently canny regarding this technology. "Standard practice is to randomize manual frequencies per day, per deck, so unless you want to randomly guess an eight-digit code with letters, we're cut off." As he continued to list off a number of other obvious bits of evidence he'd collected that they were in imminent danger, Klugmann's eyes finally landed on Enfield, who had walked in perhaps a minute or two prior.
"Would suggest weapons free. I'll warn Mhairi to lock up the Titania in case there's folk at the deck hangar."
At the vaguest recommendation by the 'maintenance man' to go hot, Erich immediately drew his elephant gun of a weapon and levelled it at the Buro Director. His compatriots Schultz and Rei followed his example, pulling free their own sidearms as other patrons of the bar alternately screamed and got down, or drew their own weapons to level at the trio.
A standoff had ensued in less than the span of ten seconds. Erich venomously exhaled through his teeth, addressing Enfield. "You've set us up."
Enfield raised his hands, only slightly in a lazy manner... slowly but very casually with quite a smile on his face, he seemed to chuckle in quite a nervous tone but he didn't seem worried at the situation at least. "Whooaa--- Hey... Come on. Where's my hello?" His tone was very taunting for the situation that had almost all the odds pitted against him. He said as he kept his head pointing slightly low, his eyes darting around at the many barrels that were pointed towards him. "... Set you up? And put myself right in the middle of it? No, come on; I'm here because shes here." He only nodded his head towards the android who was only starting to get up from her booth-seat. Also with her hands slightly showing some surrender. "Come on Erich, we've been here for almost a two hours now..." She said, attempting to diffuse the situation to her best attempts.
"Look, we weren't followed then it must have been him!" Enfield was quick to point out, only slightly pointing his risen hand towards the tenchcoat donned Klugmann with a barrel with quite the intimidation factor. "Shut up--!" "But it would have been him! I think i know how to be clandestine on transit." "Oh you mean flick a button to make us invisible?" His eyes lit up and his eyebrows raised as he visibly recoiled from such slander. "Hey, you didn't want to fly so thats not my problem and besides, you dragged me out for this, on my birthday!""If I didn't give you a reason, you would have spent your only day off sulking in the apartment like a drunk fart again this year!""IT'S MY LIVER!" At this point the argument had escalated in a common way... Young, relationship and certainly proceeding to create awkward looks on the faces of some of the civilians on the floor. They'd seem to slightly have forgotten they were the ones quite unarmed and at gunpoint.
Erich's breath hitched as his barrel remained levelled on the Director, and several of the bystanders pointing at him yelled to put the gun down. All the while, Hargreaves rattled on about various bits of information he'd shored up.
" - and if you can hold tight there for a minute, I don't think they've removed the chips in their uniforms. I'm counting five keyed in to this checkpoint, but there's only three dead here." - He noted. Erich wet his lips, his trigger finger twitching, then going limp as he slowly lowered his pistol; his compatriots did similar. Unless the 'bickering couple' act was some covert-ops reverse psychology trick meant to save their unarmed hides, it was possible they were just as set-up as he was.
As they (somewhat) lowered their weapons, Erich stated to those still startled and wary - "Someone's trapped us on this floor, and they've already killed several. Stay here." He had no idea if his attempt at placating the group of people slowly emerging out of cover in the room would believe him, much less do as asked. "...They've staggered their formation, and are now stationary. You said you're in a bar, right?"
The ex-Oberst paused to glance at the open doorway into the establishment. His mind - Still under the ultralucid cardamine symptoms - frantically churned. He was almost certain that Enfield was the last person to have walked inside, much less even passed down the hall. No sound of footsteps outside. It was 'night hours' there and traffic was in turn likely to be limited, but Erich felt a sort of 'grave silence' emnating from the hall that reminded him of the derelict, half-repaired, misshapen gantryways of Augsburg.
Inspiration revealed itself, abruptly, from within the foggy orange haze in his head.
Erich turned, again, to stare down Enfield. Approaching a little closer - Albeit without gun levelled upon him - He reached out and snatched his quarter-empty beerstein. Permission in this circumstance was apparently optional.
He turned back to the door, mumbling something into his wrist. The pair of armed compatriots slowly filed in behind him and paused at the entry alcove, waiting.
With stein in hand, Erich approached the doorway. He broke into an audible faux-run, his boots loudly hitting the metal, Daumann-steel floor. Just before reaching the doorway, he stopped, pitching the stein underhanded like in some Old Sol ninepins game. The moment it impacted the floor of the hallway - Even before it had the chance to spill most of its contents - It was vaporized by two or three shots fired from somewhere on the right-hand side. Pockmarked craters and the smell of ozone were all that remained of it.
"Freeport security on this particular station uses Zoner-made photonic blasters; cauterizing weapons. It's possible they don't want you bleeding out like the blokes at my feet here."
Schultz scowled, he too murmuring into his wrist.
"Assuming they're after Herr Klugmann, it means that they want to bring him in maimed, but alive."
"Those aren't sharp shooter weapons, but they sure as hell are in the hands of them... And i was... Drinking.. That-- Nevermind." Enfield could only peak down that corridor as he saw what remained of the smoking stein, while he didn't have a influx of cardamine to help with cognitive functions but he already had a wave of plans, tactics and scenarios. But the android in the meantime disregarded the hostage situation at this point and had already dashed to the other side of the room towards the Direktor. While they were one of the center of attentions within the room, she tried to keep their more personal relationship under wraps. "Help me get this off."He quickly said to as which she nodded and instantly had her hands over his hoodie, assisting with his haste in removing the thick layer of clothing. "Dead drop on this station is two levels below, personal locker Number One-Oh-One." While they whispered among themselves, she managed to get the hoodie off with ease, she quickly had her hands inspecting his arm... She was stretching the skin around the inside of his elbow, the skin of which stretched a little abnormally. "You okay at least...?" "Yeah, just-- That conversation could have gone better." They continued to do whatever they did, mainly focusing the movements that Enfield arm and hand were doing... Before anyone could say anything, Until suddenly, his brown hazel eyes flickered digitally... And did so for a few seconds, but they soon switched to the familiar empty blue halo retinas that his android compatriot were donning. They seemed to continue with eachother as usual.
"Wait... What do you mean, Other security?! What are you now, authority of this station?" Enfield hissed at the group that had assembled themselves behind Klugmann.