Nano 2018

Monday morning had never been Sophie’s best day but being wake up at 5 am by the phone tend to make her even grumpier. “For fuck sake Anna your joking ?” was her first answer “Sophie i need your help” “No you don’t, you need to shut the fuck up and let me sleep your stupid drunk” “Sophie i haven’t drink anything please listen to me, i really need you...” “You call me at 5am to tell me that, come-on Anna you knew it’s my only joy to sleep till 11am every morning...” “Sophie, i need to get “off-grid” asap, it’s a yellow code.” Earing this was like having a bucket of ice water dumped directly in her brain. Sophie jumped on her feet and regain here seriousness in a mater of secondes “ your fucking with me here Anna...” “IM CALLING YOU AT 5am ON A MONDAY, Lucy for god sake listen to me...” “Ok where ?” “Cross of 44th and Stanley” “Stay there, stay low and keep quiet, im here in 10.” Sophie jumped out of bed and grabbed a beat up t-shirt on the floor. She was already out of the room before finishing to put it on and she yelled at here room-mate “Going Out, Channel 6”. Lucy was never fully asleep and Sophie was sure the phone ring had waken here up to. Arrived in the corridor, she headed to the garage. Her bike was already roaring. She grabbed an ar-15 laying on the shelf and jumped on the bike, checking if the gun was loaded as the bike started to roll. “Please be alive, please be alive, please...” She new it would happen at some point. No one can go a full life in the corps without having to call in the yellow code at least once. Still it was a chilling sensation and a hard wake-up, especially since it was Anna calling it. Sophie was still lost in her thought when Lucy came in “Wake up dumbass, you’re heading in a firestorm numbnuts” The sharp voice of Lucy kicked her back to reality. It was bad, like real bad. Anna was pinned behind a dumpster by 3 man with submachine guns and one of them was apparently radioing to some outside people. Sophie, turn up the power even more and her electric bike jumped the last few hundred meters in a deafening scream. She took the assault rifle she had and started to aim. Her hand suddenly feel like she knew what to do “ let me handle this” said a voice in here head and the gun barked 4 times in a quick succession. She stopped her bike near the first corpse. Rushing toward Anna, Sophie jumped the dumpster. “It’s bad” “I know Sophie, it hurts like hell...” “Not speaking to you, you moron, was speaking to Lucy” said Sophie without even stopping. It WAS bad. Anna has a bullet in the left shoulder, another in the right leg and what looked like a bad cut in the abdomen. Probably the reason she called her in the first place “Anna, what happened ?” she asked.”I was ambushed, the two clown in the back alley where doing shady business quite openly so I followed them in the alley. They had a device i don’t exactly know what it was but they attacked me with it. I thought my had exploded but I was still alive even if bleeding so i killed them with my gladius. They weren’t much of a threat but i was so slow... I took a bad slash to the core so i called you. I...i think they killed veronica” Sophie looked to the left side of the head of her friend, the data core was badly burnt probably by a massive electrical discharge. The smell of burnt silicon and cooked blood was not very a good sign. “Don’t worry vero is tough im sure she will be fine” said Sophie in truth she was not so certain but it was neither the time nor the place to tell this to Anna. “Come on, let’s get moving Anna, I doubt my stunt was very much to the taste of mars Arbitrators” Anna planted her hand on the ground and tried to stood up. Sophie helped her up and to the bike. “Behind” yelled Cassandra in her skull. Sophie was just quick enough to dodge the dart. A big yellow and black dart, loaded with strong fast acting sedatives. Arbitrators. Sophie jumped behind the dumpster again while her bike, engaged auto pilot and started to roll to the safe house. At least Anna will be on her way to safety, thought Sophie but her rest was short lived as she heard the dart pounding on the metal sheet behind her back. “Time to get moving girl” said the voice of Lucy on the radio. “Give me a clear way” said Sophie while she started to run run toward the back of the alley. She grabbed the sword of Anna when she passed over the body of the two thugs who attacked her. “Left side you have a fire exit” “gotcha” “and then from the rooftop you can jump on the roof of the train station” continued Lucy. Sophie jumped to the metal stairs and started to ascend jumping from one platform to the other rather than trying to run the stairs. Arrived on the rooftop she looked to the train station.”It’s a glass roof you moron” she yelled in the radio. “damn” answered Lucy “give me a sec, i will find something else...” “Got your back, So”said Cassandra, as she took over the control of their shared body. Sophie was used to it but still when Cassandra rushed toward the glass and jumped she tried to close her eyes “don’t worry So, i hate infirmary time just as much as you do remember” murmured Cassandra. Her feet landed on one of the steel beam and her magnetic boot locked themselves instantly on it. She jumped again. From beam to beam Cassandra managed to bring them to the edge of the roof and onto a moving train before the arbitrators where even on the roof. They still tried to hit her, but their pathetic effort was rendered useless by Cassandra ballistic calculation and dodging skill. “ok, miss give me my body back “ said Sophie laughingly after a while “You should trust me more fleshy” shot back Cassandra “we had fun, hadn’t we ?” “I admit it was quite a ride, but we still need to go off this train and back to the safe-house””you worry to much So, it’s bad for your health you know””we still need to save Anna, you punk...””You’re right” said Cassandra “Girls, we need you back at the house please hurry up” said Lucy on the radio. “we’re coming” replied Cassandra. Sophie rolled of the train and unto the concrete rail. It would have killed anyone else but Cassandra silicon brain was fast enough to adjust for this kind of thing, and in a cat like fashion Sophie fell back on her legs on the rail. She quickly jumped to the ground a few meters bellow and started running toward the safe house. The mono-molecular sword emitted a light blue glow around her and she seen a few side glance here and there. It was unusual for anyone to run or make long trip on foot in New-Nantes, let alone a lonely woman with a sword. but attracting unwanted attention was the least of her worry . she needed answers, she needed to patch her friend up and more so she need to have a talk with the Arbitrators about back alley electric arc carrying petty thieves. If every nerd selling mdma in a back alley was now packing something powerful enough to down a trained Epsilon the situation will grow out of hand quite rapidly. Epsilons where not invulnerable, not by a long margin if her own scares where of any indication but still they where trained military personnel with a cyborg body and a companion AI. Thugs shouldn’t be able to do any real damages to them. And this wasn’t random occurrence, this was a nearly perfect ambush designed to lure out and kill a specific target. the thought was chilling. Turning in the street where their safe-house was Sophie stopped in her track. A guardian was landed in the middle of the street. Guardian strike craft were not rare per see but the Battlesisters of the Sisterhood of Edda would never use them as transport. Only high ranking CCC members would do that. In fact only Gabriel would do that. Gabriel McEllen was the top researcher at the Lazarus Echo division, he was one of the brain father of Epsilon project and was known to be both one of the best scientist of all time and very, very short tempered. Especially when one of the Epsilon project member was in any sort of danger. But he can’t be already aware of Anna attack, and since as far as Sophie was aware he was supervising the new recruit selection at fort Standford on the other side of the planet he must have started flying way before the message was even sent. Sophie also caught the yellow and gold of a Arbitrators car and considering the model and maker of said car it was probably also one of the top level officer. “The top brass are out” commented Cassandra “maybe I should do the talking, before you start a new civil war fleshy”. Sophie was furiously tempted to tell Cassandra to go eat some male body part elsewhere but since the last time she spoke to Gabriel she nearly got fired it was advisable to cave in and let Cassandra be the brain. It was actually against protocol as the human host where supposed to be the one in charge but Sophie was confident on Cassandra ability to be reasonable. Actually Cassandra was often the more temperate of the two, and they often switched control during discussion. No-one ever seem to caught them red handed on it. “Ok, but i keep my voice in this robot-head”. In truth Sophie was worry, she now knew why Lucy had call for backup, the big braces where probably ripping themselves another asshole from what happened earlier. Gabriel would be furious that the mission would claim the life or at least injure one of his Epsilon. The Arbitrators would probably seen quite badly that an Epsilon squad would be deployed on their city without even an advance warning or formal query for access. Entering the safe-house Sophie realized it was even worst than she thought. Sisters of Edda where gathered around the door of the room she shared with Anna and she heard a lot of scream in Lucy’s room. Considering how much Lucy hated the idea of shouting it was obviously not welcomed on her part. Upon entering the room Sophie’s brain froze. Not only Gabriel was here but also the local Governor and more importantly there was a giant mass of silvery armor on the back of the room. A Battlesister. While Sisters of Edda where un-common but can be often seen on Mars, Battlesisters where a very rare sight. even on Mars. The current shooting match between the local governor and Gabriel was harshly interrupted by a “Silence” uttered by the Battlesisters. Both men stood quite visibly angered to be so clearly commanded to shut up, but none of them was fool enough to go directly against a Battlesister order. “Are you hurt ?” she asked. “I’m not”answered Cassandra “but what about Anna” “she is safe don’t worry, what happened there ?” “Anna got ambushed, some thugs used an high power arc generator to burn through her cyber-core and then tried to kill her as she was disabled. Sadly for them she his the best close combat fighter I know by far so she quickly dispatched them” explained Cassandra. Gabriel was visibly worried, the local governor was fuming “no way...” he started. Even before Gabriel or Sophie had the time to shout at him the governor was lifted of the ground by a strong armored hand. “I suggest you keep your comment for yourself except when asked for governor. It’s not very wise to distrust someone who was actually there. Especially considering the fact that is because your intel was so poorly checked that we had to face such a drawback in our operation. Go ahead Epsilon” said the Battlesister. “They had backup. these motherfucker had backup with SMGs and quite nice body armor for minor thugs. I dispatched them upon arriving, I don’t know a lot more than that. After that Arbitrators started to popup so I left the site.“ followed Cassandra “ Luckily they seem to have still some trouble with target practice so I wasn’t hurt”. The Governor was fuming but was aware that even if he was back on the ground the hand of the Battlesister was still dangerously close to hist neck. “Spare us your comment on your colleagues evident lack of training” chastised the armored sister, chuckling a little.”Do you recall anything else ?” This time Sophie was the one who answered “yeah,the stench of burnt silicon.” “Actually i think I remember something else”added Cassandra “I’m currently reviewing the memory imprint and something seems fishy... the thugs, they were way to short and stacked up to have been born there. They were probably Earthborn.” “And they do not posses any SIN card apparently... At least none were picked by either of your personal comlink on site” said Lucy calmly. Apparently everyone had forgot she was even there. “It’s impossible, outside entry is strictly monitored and every incoming traveler must be pre-approved by us” quickly responded the Governor “and you know that temporary SIN is mandatory for entering any of the dome.” “That’s why i asked the Epsilon to patrol the sector actually Governor” interrupted the Battlesister “ we suspect that some unauthorized lift off and descent do occur on this cluster and apparently it’s even worst than we thought... How sure are you of the people monitoring the flight in and ou, governor ?””HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY MEN ! IT IS UNACCEP..” started to yell the governor but he was abruptly interrupted by the strong push of the Battlesister forcing him roughly against the wall “ Governor considering that my sisters are currently on site and have confirmed the thugs to be of hearth descent via ADN scanning I deeply suggest you switch tone and choose your next few words very carefully” she said menacingly.”I have no doubt that this young Epsilon is speaking the truth and you shouldn’t carelessly discard her report”. Gabriel was anxious, the Sisters of Edda weren’t usually big fans of Epsilon project and the clear praise the Battlesister just gave one of his girl was somewhat unexpected, suspicious even. None the less the governor face of outrage and fury was a pleasant distraction from this matter. “Come with me, both of you” said the battlesister looking to Sophie and Lucy “we need to talk” she then proceed to storm out of the safe house and goes back to the road. Sophie and Lucy shared a strange glance and followed suite as the shouting match erupted again between both men. Down on the street there was quite a raucous miss going on, a big transport ship of the sisterhood was hovering the street blocking most of the light. A few civilian sisters were bent over a stretcher upon which Anna was asleep. They were lifting her up unto the ship, while a few of their battle ready sister were standing guard, visibly not so sure about the safety of the place. The battlesister they were with was speaking to a squad of three battlesisters wearing black cloth and a long navy blue cape over there armors. As per their custom, none of the sisters spoke to neither of them and they traced a way toward the commandant. “My name is Victoria, by the way” she said “I’m sorry for your friend but even if she is in quite a good state, I fear her AI is fried for good” “ yeah i thought so too” sighted Lucy “Maybe she had the time to do a backup somewhere else” she added. “Maybe.. but don’t get to much hope” admitted Victoria. “What are you thought on this Cassandra ?” Sophie was shocked to ear the name of Cassandra uttered out loud. Of course personnal AI name weren’t really a secret but it was by no means put on her forehead. ”you... you know my name ?” instinctively answer Cassandra “Of course I do, where do you think you got your AI seed from ? Not like there was a ton of people capable to get their hand on a real AI seed. So I recognized you as soon as Sophie had let you talk”. Sophie was chilled to the bones, not only does Victoria seem to know Cassandra but she knew all along that it was mostly her speaking and not Sophie. “Relax, Sophie. I have no problem with letting your AI in control, even more so when it’s Cassandra... I mean she is a part of me after all” joked Victoria. Lucy was the first to have realized the implication of what Victoria had just said “You’re the one!” she yelled “Oh my god, you’re the one” Sophie suddenly realize what Lucy had already grasped. That Victoria has merged with the same AI seed, that she shared her mind with Cassandra too. Well in the case of a battlesister it was way more deeper than Epsilon as they truly merged their mind and conscience with their AI where Epsilons only carried their in their comlink. Still it was at hearth the same technology and idea, sharing body and mind with a sentient machine. Cassandra was part of Victoria mind.”It’s usually discouraged to put two AI with the same seed near one another, but since neither of us can really do otherwise...That being said don’t burn your head on that Cassandra, you have evolved and even if we share a seed, so we’re like, step-sister i guess.” Said Victoria. “Since we seem like minded, us three” she added with a nod to Lucy who was still a bit phased by her realization “I should explain you why i dragged you here in the first place. We are pretty sure both Gabriel and Mathias are wrong in there””Mathias ?”asked Lucy “The Governor” replied Victoria “While it appear evident that this dome isn’t exactly airtight in particular concerning earthling propaganda and agent. Gabriel doesn’t grasp the full spectrum either. This tool which was used to disable and kill your friend, it was design to attack Epsilons. Maybe even our Animus Protector sisters here” she said pointing her hand at the civilian sisters.”They are like you in more way than you think...” she added with a sad look to Anna “We were aware that rumors of someone trying to build such a weapon were heard around there. So we asked Computer Chaos Club to investigate, which lead to you being send here in the first place. Sadly... again I m deeply sorry for your friend” “Don’t stress it” replied Sophie “ Anna is military and quite a tough cookie on that so I m sure she will be back in the field soon” “Glad to hear it but still” admitted Victoria “Anyway, that mean two things. Rumors where true first and second earth agent have ears in your barracks, or mine, or both. Which is troubling to say the least” “Commander, we are ready to move out” reported one of the civilian sister to Victoria “Ok, start the evac now” she replied, and the civilian sisters started to regroup and link themselves to the rope of the transport, going up by pairs. “Keep your eyes open girl, and nice mug Lucy by the way, I m sure you’ll both have a nice cup of tea when both of the two clown will be on their way home, right ?” she added with a strange smile. Sophie shook her head, she had absolutely no clues about what Victoria was talking about. The three hooded battlesisters behind Victoria crouched and then jumped right back on the ship, height meter above. “Stay safe, Epsilons and fly safe” added Victoria before doing the same. Sophie looked around here the street was half filled with onlooking bystander. Sophie sent a look toward Lucy, she seemed to have a clear idea what to do and was muted in a resolute silence. “So... what’s next then fleshy ?””I dunno, Cass probably going back to surveillance but it will be lonely without Anna. “How do you see the next move So ?” asked Lucy. “the heck if I know let’s try to kick “johnny big brass” and Gabriel from our flat and then will see” “How do you suggest I do that ? Sorry guys please leave my damn room ?” “I dunno, does Sylvana has any info ?” asked prudently Sophie. Lucy AI was a delicate subject. Lucy was the best of their team during training but she suffered an horrible accident during their second deployment on Venus and if it weren’t for Sylvana she would be paralyzed plain and simple. But the senior officer of Epsilons and Gabriel has decided that it was to dangerous to have her deployed in this state so she was consigned to the communication department. She was an exemplary officer but still was very displeased to be kept back. Sylvana on the other hand was happy to help her friend and even if she was now the only one able to effectively operate their shared body she was very adamant that Lucy was in charge and rarely expressed any opinions. “I have an idea”replied Sylvana “ but I need Cassandra computational power.””OK” said Sophie calmly. She moved to Lucy side and drew a short cable from the back pocket of her trousers. She plugged it in her own communicator and then the one of Lucy. The sharp spike of pain due to the slight synchronization lag made her close her eyes a bit but she retook composure after a bit. “hugh i still hate this...” sighted Sophie “Like I like it” laughed back Lucy Cassandra silence was a loud cry in Sophie mind, it was like being parted from your elder brother. Sophie had a thought about Anna. “Don’t worry we will make them pay” said Lucy with a smile. “ You bet we will, when I will lay my hand on them they gonna take a very long time to die””Ok girls, it’s show time” said the voice of Sylvana in both their head. Suddenly the whole street turned dark as a huge shipping barge crossed the sky above them it’s engines screaming as it moved through the town. “The hell ? why are they flying so low ?” “I may have *sightly* modified their navigation system” said Sylvana. As soon as she finish the door of the safe house was kicked open and both Gabriel and the governor run to their vehicle to go investigate. Gabriel turned around and shouted to the Epsilons “I must go, See you later girls. Don’t be stupid stay safe , no vengeance right ?” “Don’t worry Gabriel, we know the drill” replied Lucy “we will be good...”. As soon as Gabriel ship had leaved, Lucy started to run toward her room “Follow me I know what she meant” she shouted to Sophie. Sophie followed out of habit but was not convince Lucy knew what she was doing as her action seemed rather peculiar from the outside. She started to rummage violently through her desk and after she found her coffee mug proceed to smash it violently against her desk “The heck Lucy ? what are you doing to your stuff” “Not mine...” “What ???” “ I hate coffee this is not my mug, Victoria put it there” Lucy was now searching in the shard of porcelain cutting her finger on the process. “She left a mug on your desk ?” “Seem so yeah.. she hide something inside it probably...” “The heck Lucy are you crazy, why does she” Sophie stopped right on track, Lucy was no facing her, her fist clenched on a shard of porcelain. Half a datastick was poking out of it. “Damn Lucy, you better than me at this spy stuff” “Tell me something I don’t know already” said Lucy with a wicked smile plugging the datastick in the reader. The computer started to look strange printing way to much commands lines for anyone to read, even with assistance of an AI companion. “You sure about this Lucy ?” “Absolutely not! but i don’t really think we have that much choice anyway so... let’s roll with the flow.””Ok but beware of the waterfall” said Sophie grabbing a chair and sitting to face both the door and the screen while Lucy was sitting in front of her screen. After a short while the screen stopped on the line “Please Enter Name of Entity...”. Lucy threw an interrogating look toward Sophie “Like I’d Know this better than you do Luce” “I think it asked for our names””yeah. Answer it maybe ?” Lucy slowly typed “Lucy” and then Enter. The screen now was showing “1/4”. “Looks like this thing know how many we are inside our brain...” whispered Sophie calmly. Lucy typed all their names and then hit enter again. The screen stopped working. After a short while the landline phone started to ring. Sophie and Lucy looked at each other. They never used it before and as far as they knew it wasn’t even connected to any carrier. Sophie jumped to grab the phone “Who are you?” “Just a friend miss Lünd, just a friend” Sophie stood frozen. Nobody knew her last name. Not even Lucy. Her name and the fact that she was the daughter of the renown pirate Edgard Lünd was one of the most guarded secret of her life. She always presented herself as Sophie Montaigue to everyone, including Gabriel. who the hell are you ?” “I’m sorry for being rude, but we have very little time to waste on this so can you patch me to Miss Frost or better yet engage conference mode ?” Sophie pressed on the conference mode button more by reflex than anything else. “But... how do you ?””I know many things Miss, but now is not the time. Maybe later. You may call me Ezechiel in the mean time if you desire to do so. As of now, you are both transferred to the command of the Martian Federation Special Operation Command. Your actual commanding officer had been notified in this sens and I am now your CO. Effective this minute. As you may have gathered so yourselves, we wish to investigate the current worrying development in New-Nantes, earthling involvement in particular. Sadly our usual operational assets are heavily out matched, so we must involve you in this even in the light of the great risks you are under doing so. To mitigate theses risks you will be provided experimental and advanced tactical equipment and assets. You ‘ll also be granted full privilege and preemptive hierarchical ascendant on any Martian official or military personal, again effective immediately, speaking of which I also hereby restore the active duty accreditation of miss Frost” Lucy nearly fell down from sheer surprise “A competent common friend vouched for you miss Frost and I am totally okay with following her advice on this. Can you, both of you, recover your personal effect and armament from this place and pack them in a carrying waterproof bag. Said bag will then be discarded at the end of the hall. You will hen proceed to the street and enter the vehicle who will be waiting for you there. Said vehicle will bring you discretely to a meeting with one of our assets in the dome. after which said vehicle will bring you both back to a safe house under our direct control. you are discouraged to enter in any contact with your past affectation officer but if you choose to do so you are forbidden to divulge neither where you are nor what you do at the moment. In a more generalize sentiment, your mission is by design of utmost secrecy and you are both authorize to stay silent under any authority or order. Lastly due to the fact that both local law enforcement and,or your former unit may be compromised, you are advised to treat any and all people to exception of me or the other entity hereby present as hostile and react accordingly. No rules of engagement are applicable to this mission. Any question soldiers ?” “None sir” replied Lucy. “What about Anna ?” said calmly Sophie. “Miss Serova is currently in the capable hands of the Edda sisterhood. Upon recovery, she will be transferred back to your unit under our command. Anything else ?””No,sir” “Next communication passphrase will be on screen at the end of communication, both it and the stick will be needed to establish communication, i suggest you carry each one of the two. your transport will be there in 15minutes sharp, be ready. On a personal note girls I STRONGLY suggest you shoot first, Good luck” The room was once again filled with silence. Both women stayed silent for a few seconds.”We should get moving So, with things to do” reminded Cassandra. “Your right, let’s get moving” said Sophie out loud “Do you need help Lucy ? “ “Nope I’m good don’t worry” Sophie quickly go to her room and started to pack her stuff. She looked at the bed on the other side of the room it was covered in blood and loads of medical supply where laying on the floor. Sophie looked ate her friend desk. Empty. Clothes were also long gone as was all Anna stuff. At least she has her stuff with her. Sophie froze suddenly. The 7.52 case Anna always carry around her neck was laying on the floor. Sophie Pocketed it and sealed her bags. SHe threw them in the corridor, checked her own clothing and run toward the armory locker in garage. Lucy was already there, she was trying to tear the locker from the wall using an AR15 as a crow bar. “The hell are you doing Lucy ? are you trying to shoot yourself in the foot ?” “Shut it will ya and help me we don’t have much time... we need to tears this from the wall” Sophie knew better than to dismiss Lucy worry so she grabbed a heavy machine gun laying at her foot and slammed it with all her strength in the cabinet. After a few blow both the locker and the gun where ruined and Sophie resorted to even more extreme solution she threw a chain around the locker and secured it to the back of their armored car. “Are you sure about the So ?” “ you want this thing of the wall ? So let me handle it””OK” Sophie rived the engine a few time and then slammed on the accelerator. The troop carrier jumped ahead and brutally slammed against the chain ripping the wall in half and dragging the locker a few meters. Sophie look dumbfounded as Lucy bent in the hole and started to pull out a crate bearing the marking of the United Martian Navy. “what’s that Luce ?” “Emergency supply, in case of siege every safe house is rumored to have one. I found it on the plan in the hall” “Maybe useful” Sophie grabbed Anna sword at her belt and throw the blade out cutting the lock on the crate. Inside the crate was stacked a few heavy body armor reinforced with the distinctive durasteel reddish shine. there was also a smaller crate containing what seemed to be a carry-on supra-dense battery pack and an associated weapon, there was also a smaller gun, the size of an light sub machine gun. “What are these Lucy ?” “The small one is a RG-U45 small projectile defense gun, the other one is a Spartan Spear” Both weapons where extremely pricey black market gear as both were not martian made. Railguns where fairly common tech at this time but they where viewed as heavy and cumbersome weapons as most needed massive power and cooling system making them hard to integrate in a carry on weapon. Only Lunar Conclave had such tech and even there these weapon were rare and costly. Spartan Spears where in even an higher class all together as they were the exclusive weapons of Terran elite Heavy assault troops. It projected a stream of high energy particles in a perfectly straight line punching a hole in every and anything in the way. It’s ability to pierce through anything in relative silence and it’s tendency to burn everything in the way in a plasma fire made it a very revered weapon both by it’s users and among the people it was used on. “Damn this crate cost more than the building around it...” said Lucy “ I suggest we don’t let that laying around” said Sophie before throwing her shirt off and starting to unbuckle her belt. Lucy could not resist to peek a bit, while changing herself. Both the girls were big and athletic even compared to other military, they were chosen to be Epsilons after all. But Sophie having northern European ancestry was an extremely beautiful women. “Your not exactly bad looking yourself” laughed Sylvana. Lucy started to blush noticeably and turned around to finish donning her new armor. “Ready Lucy ?” asked Sophie she had taken the railgun and held the Spartan Spear toward Lucy “you were always the best shot” She said. Lucy grabbed the gun and started to lift the backpack. Sophie’s watch started to beep “Time’s up, Luce, ready for going out with the big boys again ?” “You bet !” yelled Lucy while running down the hall toward the street. Sophie grabbed an AR15 in the locker, pocketed a few magazines and followed suite. A big four by four with tainted windows was waiting for them on the street. Sophie hopped in the car and was quickly followed by Lucy. They where surprised to find someone inside the truck. “My name is Ian, I m your new communication specialist. Ezechiel sent me. You may call me operator or Ian though I prefer the former in duty. I hope I will be of use” Sophie and Lucy shared a strange look “You do realize we have companion AI our process are way to fast for a normal person to follow” asked Lucy “I do realize this Miss Frost but you are sadly wrong on one count” Saying this Ian turned is head showing that most of is skull was actually metal “I m neither normal nor human in the true meaning of the term” “What are you then ?” asked timidly Lucy clearly conscious of the rudeness of her question. “What I am miss Frost or who we are, as it would be more appropriate in my case, we are an array of semi autonomous computer cluster linked through biological neurons network. Ian was the name of our creator who use his own brain stem cell to grew our neural linking, this is why for convenience we use his name. We are capable of following the thought of your companions without problems.” “Thank you Ian” said Sophie. “So what’s next ?” “You are supposed to meet Erwin “Airlock” Johnson, a well known pirate, hence the surname, formal penitentiary colony patrons. Turned is back to the crime scene when his belle was killed by a new guy. Back then he would have killed you for five hundreds quids but now he choose to serve as an infiltrated agent in the scene to give us eyes. One of our most trusted asset so please don’t burn him if you can avoid it. He is currently on the heel of the boss who send his goon after you. He said he could use a hand. Not exactly a hard lead but sadly the best we have so far.” “Ok, point taken about the value of the asset. Anything else we should know ?” replied Sophie “His daughter is in the UMNMC. Orbital assault marine, one of the best. She his also a Special Op. Command asset. Currently enrolled in Epsilons Program second wave selection process” The driver stopped the car in front of the entrance of a massive farming greenhouse. “Let’s go” said Sophie, raising to jump out of the truck. “I suggest you let your weapons here and take something more, let’s say discrete in the boot” Sophie waited both option but Lucy was quicker to choose she dropped here gun to the truck floor. “Let’s see what they have in store ...” said Lucy opening the boot “Damn that’s nice gear” erupted Sophie seeing the content of the case. “indeed it is” said a voice in the radio ”this is Glock 55, full ceramite gun. Virtually untraceable due to atomic polishing of the canon. undetectable by metal detector an thermal imaging, they are also ADN locked to both of you. Munitions are high velocity impact projectiles. Goes right through metal door or wall. The shell is sealed to prevent misfire in space and sub-aquatic environment. please return them in one piece as they are pricier than the car around it.” “Dully noted, sir” said Sophie. The gun was strangely light yet feel powerful and very strong. “Nicer kit than even Epsilons” said Lucy loading her own gun “Let’s hope we don”t have to use it just yet””sure hope so but we will see. Ready ?” “I will take point” “ok I ll cover you then” Sophie opened the door and Lucy entered the greenhouse. They traced their way toward the end of the room checking every row of crops, founding only worker surprised to see two armored military in such a odd place “You’re seeking somethings miss ?” asked one of the employees “We are here to see Erwin” “hum, follow me please” replied the worker. He led them to the north est corner of the greenhouse. There was a metal stair leading to an upper level. probably the office and control room of the mechanized greenhouse. At the bottom of the stair 2big guys where smoking. “UMP 45, Sophie, not so common on the street these guys know their job” said Cassandra “Ok welcome back to the field. Careful with these punk they don’t seem to be random small hitters” transmitted Sophie to Lucy silently “Noted” replied Lucy silently before asking out loud “Which one of you is Erwin ?” The men burst in laughter “No one miss, Erwin is upstairs but we need to check you before. Any guns or blades on you ?” asked the one with a military uniform. He was Lieutenant if is uniform was a genuine one. “do we answer truthfully ?” asked Lucy on the radio “yes, we don’t need weapons anyway”. Lucy opened her arm and raise her hands up “Yes we both have a gun and a few magazines but they are ADN protected don’t touch them if you wish to keep your hands.” “Fair enough” replied the guard before taking the case behind him and opening it in front of him “in they go. after that William will pat you down for more “unannounced surprises”. if you are clear, you‘ll go with Bob and meet Erwin. please don’t try something stupid these metal wall are a pain to wash” Both William and Bob chuckled but Sophie grin was enough to make them stop. They both dropped their gun in the case after which William pat them down. He was trained at this, the rigorous pat down was made in order and without any hint of sexual misconduct or error. “Military training” thought Sophie “I am running facial scan as we speak” replied Sylvana on the radio. After both of them had been check Bob led them too the top of the stair. During the ascent Sylvana got result and broadcasted on their radio the profiles of the men. “Damn they are from the first martian rangers corp, these guys are outlanders” said Lucy. Outlanders where a special unit inside the rangers, dedicated to defense outside of the domes. their duty where mainly about controlling black market, contraband and protecting worker outside the dome but some have done exploration mission on the rest of Mars surface. even sometime to the old terraforming platforms. They were fierce warrior and their survival ability where renown even outside of the Union of Martian Republic. “Gosh this damn Erwin as Outlanders as bodyguard, let’s stay on his good side if possible” “I’d rather try that than clawing my way through an Outlander pack yeah” replied Lucy. Upon entering the office of Erwin the girl stopped for a second. The office was filled to the brim with screens and computers. A heap of cable was linked to a giant networking bay and a lean tall guys was sit in his chair feet on the desk “Welcome to my home girls, what can I do for you ?” said the guy, jumping to his feet and throwing a hand toward Lucy. He was both quite tall even by martian standard and very lean “Space born” analyzed Cassandra “yeah probably” acknowledged Sylvana. Lucy and Sophie shook Erwin hand. “We we’re sent by Ezechiel to assist you on the matter of tracking you know who” Erwin stood still for a moment “Are you ... the meta” “Yes we are but may i remind you this is classified information and neither you nor Bob are in possession of relevant military accreditation” interrupted Cassandra “I ... uh... yeah you are right. Bob can you go down to Maxence and tell him we need full privacy” Bob visibly angry to be dismissed like this saluted with a sharp “Sir” and exited the room. “Please forgive my mistake, where we’re we ? ah yeah tracking the asshole who constructed the weapon...” “What do you know ?” asked Lucy “Well, first of he is martian. we got that from is manifesto but...” “A manifest ?” burst Sophie “Yeah, glued on the wall of the alley where your friend was attacked. See for yourself...” a screen twitched and started to display a short manifest. The manifest read as follow “Us Martian born citizen of humanity proclaimed that we refuse the dominion of the Union of Martian Republics. We proclaimed that their law as no power over the one from Terra and thus we will fight to reinstate Terran Law on mars. The Enemy of Terran, mutants and AI lovers will be brought to justice, as was this AI servant bitch. One Humanity One Command !”. “Not very subtle about it, isn’t it ?” commented Erwin. “It’s not like these punk were trying to hide but sadly they seemed to be protected by the green dragoon triad. And i don’t exactly have the means of a frontal assault against the triads.” “Neither we have... honestly” said Ian in their communicator. “That’s where I need you to be honest. The triad has it’s own spaceport but accepting Terran ship their would be suicide as it would give the UMRA legal ground to seize it. And you know full well how much these punk in the army would love to do just that. So they probably landed their cargo on the desert and make small round trip with small shuttles. You should be able to itch a ride on of these. or just go out and find their cargo. Sadly I don’t have that much info. If you choose to go out maybe one of my boys can help you with it” “hum ok, we need to investigate this will keep you in the loop” said Lucy. “In the meantime if you put a hand on one of the punk who glue this shit on the wall” she pointed at the screen “he is mine, and mine alone...” Both Erwin and Sophie trembled under the voice of Lucy. Whatever she had in mind it was, Sophie was sure of it, a very painful and quite possibly slow way to die. “Let’s get moving Lucy” said Sophie breaking the silence. They quickly run down the stair toward the guards. “Give us our guns back where leaving.” Maxence opened the crate and Lucy took out both gun, giving one to Sophie. “Nice kit you got there girls” said William with clear envy.”these gun cost a fortune... Sure hope we had such nice gears. Who’s your provider ?” “Classified” replied Cassandra “Sorry boys” added Sophie. Once they were back in the safety of the truck both girl sighted “wasn’t too bad actually” said Lucy. Ian turned is seat back to face the two women “What do you want to do ?” “What do you want us to do, Ian” replied Lucy “Tough choice honestly. going toward the dock asking question is a good way to raise red flag and start a turf war. but it’s the direct route toward the objective. The outside way is stealthier but the outside isn’t exactly safe.” Mars outside of dome was kind of a taboo for martians. When the Earth betrayed them and stopped to send supply the conditions where catastrophic. a large proportion of the population around the terraforming station died when they run out of water, and the few dome that were already finish at the time where desperately overcrowded. As a result the terraforming was a failure. Life crept out of the martians influence and strange mutated version of imported cattle started to roam plains of high grass unknown before. And that was even without taking into account the band of humans marauders there. Outcast, people shut out of dome during the Betrayal and on the run criminal all lived outside the dome making the outside a very dangerous place. This danger and the fact that it was the scar of the Betrayal had make the outside a foreign concept for most Martians. During the last few decade UMR started to restart Terraforming effort but it was a very slow process mainly confined around the inner dome. The dome in the external ring (New-nantes was the most westward dome after all) where still very much island of sanity in a sea of strange chaos.Both choice weren’t exactly ideal... but at least they had a lead to follow. Sophie wondered a bit on what was the best way to approach it but Lucy beat here to the post. “The outside of the dome seem rather safe lately and it’s easier to find a trans-planetary transport ship than a way to sneak past the green dragon without being seen. What do you think of it Sophie” “We are in agreement on that but I would like to have a bit of time to prepare ourselves as this will not exactly be a walk in the park.” “ I concurs “Amat Victoria Curam” !” said Ian “The hell is that ?” asked Lucy. “The mantra of the first expedition, Lucy. It’s come from roman military “Victory favors the prepared”. But i don’t know how I feel that a machine teach us history lesson on our people” “It was not my intention miss. I would not dare presumed that...” Sophie burst in laughs “Don’t worry Ian she was joking” explained Sylvana “a sage advice none the less. Maybe we should ask for one of the boys to accompany us.” Lucy and Sophie turned toward Ian “I m calling Erwin” he said. after a few minute of silence Ian opened the doors of the truck to let enter Maxence. “Here he is. What now ?” “Now we go get our gears” “But mister Olivera is not sufficiently accredited to do so” “if I remember the brief correctly we have precedence over any other ranks in the military ?” asked Sophie “Yes it’s correct miss but why ?” “I Hereby give the ministry of defense to accredit this young man to defense classification. I also hereby declassify the hall of said safe-house to defense secret level. That would settle it no ?” proclaimed Sophie. Both Lucy and Maxence couldn’t suppress a chuckle both from what Sophie said and the look on Ian face as he realize the implication of what she said. “But miss you can’t be serious this is outside of the protocol ...” “Say’s who ?” Ian stayed in silence for a bit. “It’s done, but let me say to you that the admirals were rather unhappy to hear out this little stunt of yours. I must advise you to be prudent in the future with such authority as they will probably look for a way to get bake at you for out-ranking them like that” “They never liked me anyway so it’s not that much of a change” laughed Sophie “I wonder why...” mocked Lucy in the background much to the enjoyment of Maxence. The truck started to roll toward the safe-house. Arriving to the safe-house they all jumped out of the automated truck and entered a nice looking hall. “You stay there” said Lucy to Maxence “You Look after him if he so much as think about going out of this place you blow his brain right out” she added looking at the operator. “I m not armed, miss.” argued Ian “He his, take his” said Sophie without even looking. the two girls open the door to the corridor. “Nice way of disabling both” admitted Sophie “Yeah at last we have some time alone... let’s go find useful stuff” They started to open the door as they go a along. A dormitory, a fortified bedroom with Anna stuff, another with Sophie’s stuff, a mess, a dojo for close combat training, an automated kitchen the garage, the armory,the lavatory, a bathroo and finally the communication office. No room for Lucy “What the fuck ? Why don’t I have a room too ?” she said “Operator ?””yes, miss””where’s my room ?” “I suggest you look better in Sophie’s room”. they traced back toward Sophie’s room. On the other side of the room there was a door. they opened it only to find a second room just like the one of Sophie, only this one was prepped as both a secondary armory and a medical ward. on in front of them was another door which led to the room designated for Anna. A third door led to Lucy room and then another dissimulated exit. “Standard procedure for Special Ops mission. One of the operator live in closed quarter. That way even someone one the inside but not mission critical don’t now how many operator are present. Also the whole block can be sealed and use as a second cell of defense in the event of a siege” “Neat” admitted Lucy “We choose you as the secret agent, in view of your rather discrete nature. Miss Montaigue while being an excellent field operator tend to be a bit more, noticeable should we say” “Hey Ian, are you mocking me ?” Sophie said “It appear to be the case yes” admitted Ian “Damn, my last toaster was less judging” Lucy laughed again “Girls Girls you’re both pretty... We have work to do remember ? let’s check the garage inventory” they traced back to the garage. There was a range of vehicle. The truck of course but also quite a nice array of bike, a small car and last but not least an armored troop-carrier. “Nice ride” said Sophie looking to the armored vehicle. “Fusion powered, fifty height millimeter of durasteel plating and a vulcain canon. This is a beast, it could tear through the outside of a dome without scratching itself. I would have loved to have such nice gear back in the day” “We should use him as a mobile base and take a bike with us to do recon mission. I have seen an electrical dirt bike on the rack” “What do you think of our other gears ?” Sophia asked, forcibly cutting her radio link. Lucy had done the same before answering “ I dunno. Maxence seem a good soldier, but his military record as been expunged so maybe something fishy had happened. Ian is a good operator but he has the broom so far up his ass we could see handle at the end of his mouth, so...” “ I agree. let’s ditch the toaster here he his as useful here than with us and we won’t have to fear having a spy of the hierarchy with us at all time. As for Maxence I will take care of him and keep my eyes on his pretty ass...” both chuckled. Sophie restarted her radio “ That being said we need more gun. let’s go to the armory” In the armory they found crates containing load of military gear, including an insane amount of munition and explosives. “You know what I love Special Ops Command so far”said Lucy while putting a gigantic sniper rifle in his case. “me too” replied Sophie withou stopping to load plastic explosive bars in her backpack. They filled the Armored carrier with enough gun to take over a medium sized dome and enough explosive to raze one. “Let’s get our pets back” said Lucy closing the side booth of the armored carrier. They returned to the hall. Sophie threw a backpack at the feet of Maxence. “New toys”she explained. Maxence started to change into the armored uniform the bag was containing visibly unphased by both girl presence. “What’s the plan ?”he asked “ We have an armored carrier. We need to find something on the outside. Something massive and valuable” “We will need blades and bow as i suggest we don’t attract attention with the big gun as soon as we go out. Also we will need our own water, as both of you aren’t immunized to the “grey water syndrome”. Some nasty bacteria there...” “Noted”said Lucy “By the way Ian we need you in the com center” “ you don’t want me to come in the field” “Actually I agree with them the outside is not exactly as shielded against radiation as the dome are so if you don’t want to burn your circuits I suggest you stay inside” replied Maxence. After a bit more preparation they choose to wait for the sun to set before trying to go out of the dome. Maxence idea of playing cards was quickly accepted and they spent the end of their afternoon playing some kind of poker together. At dawn Sophie started to warm up the carrier engine, and they started to fill up water and helium tanks. Maxence suggested to cover all of the tank marking with thick black grease and to darken the shinny parts with the same grease to prevent blinking light. Sophie was pretty sure he has more experience of this than what he admitted. None the less having someone who knew what to expect was a reassuring thought. They rolled out on the cover of the night “Operator can you cut the light on the road please” asked Sylvana. “Granted”replied Ian for the communication center. When the last light had dyed the street was pitch black, Sophie started the thermal and night vision camera on and started to roll toward the outside wall. They had chosen to go out via one of the dumping access to avoid any potential witness. Upon arriving near the dumping door they realized the door was open. This was clearly not a good sign as having such door open was against all atmosphere restriction rule and obviously a gaping security failure. They used it to go outside but Maxence and Lucy debarked to have a look at the door. They approached it carefully “You see this ?” asked Max “What’s that ?” “A jumper” the thick sheet of steel was bent in a way that prevented the door to close “Looter use these to enter the dome undetected” he said. “They are probably raiding as we speak... let’s have some fun shall we ?” “What do you have in mind asked Lucy “Back to the the sender” replied Maxence while using is foot to push the steel plate out of the way. Once the door was close he put the steel beam in place so that the door could not open again. “Operator can you make a report so a Arbitrator squad will be around when they came back” asked Lucy “Will do, miss. In the meantime I suggest you go back to putting some distance between you and the dome” “You’re right on that” said Lucy. “let’s get moving” she shouted to Maxence and they both boarded the carrier. Sophie started to roll on the plain at high speed “Ok so what now Maxence ?” “We ned to recover some gears. Me and the boys had it stashed their for too long” he said pointing a point on the navigation screen “That almost a hundred kilometers away Max, Why do we need this ?” asked Lucy visibly not convinced “It’s recon stuff, if you intend to comb through half the planet with your own hand, suit yourself. But if you don’t i suggest we get moving toward the cache” replied Maxence. Cassandra said to Sophie “you should all go to sleep, I will drive in the mean time” “Ok but don”t hesitate to wake the other up.” “Let’s sleep”said Sophie out loud “But we need to go toward the gear stash” argued Maxence. “We will Cassandra will drive” replied Sophie “Who ?” asked Maxence clearly lost “Me” answered Cassandra out loud. Maxence seem rather unease “who are you ?” “My name is Cassandra” she said making sure her voice was a different as possible from the one of Sophie. “What the ...” “We’re Epsilons, Maxence” explained Lucy “I suppose you ‘ve heard rumors about us” “Damn, Epsilons no wonder why you gave us your gun so easily” “We’re not as powerful as legend would have it, sadly” said Sylvana “But yeah we are capable of partial sleep and can stay battle ready for month at a time. That’s a neat trick” “Gosh i wish i coul do that... but then if you are also an AI what’s your name ?” “My name is Sylvana, but you should address first Lucy, except if she is sleeping”. “Speaking of which, we should go to sleep” said Lucy. she unrolled two sleeping bags on the floor of the carrier “Roll safe Cassandra, wake us up if you re in trouble” “Thanks Lucy, have a good night. Sophie say good night also”said Cassandra. “Epsilons...” Whispered Maxence. “the boys will never believe me on this one...” The night was calm for Cassandra. She drove the carrier toward the beacon Maxence had provided and hadn’t encountered much issue when she arrived in view of the beacon. “Wake up fleshy, I need you” she said. “What’s the problem, Cass ?” “see this on the hill ?” “Oh gosh is that smoke ?” “seem so” “ok let’s wake up the boys ...” said Sophie “Way ahead of you” said Sylvana behind her. Lucy was already up and was actually readjusting her trousers. Maxence had apparently just woken up “What’s the problem ?” he asked. “Smoke and probable fire near your stash” replied Cassandra. “Oh shit this smell trouble”. “What do we have for reco” asked Lucy “Dunno, us, the bike maybe something in this carrier...” “And an operator” said Ian on the comlink “That’s good to know but you’re a bit far to help with reco aren’t you ?” replied Sophie. “We are in fact a bit far but the perks of being a somewhat synthetic life form is that physical constrains tend to be easier to avoid... My drone will be over you in a bit less than six minutes” “Hey ! you’re good at that, my last pc was less efficient” joked Lucy “You do realize im not a piece of hardware miss Frost ?” “Yeah she does, she’s just an ass” replied Sylvana. “Hey, I’m not just an ass. And also since we share this body, it’s also your responsibility.” said Lucy. “It’s fun and all but we need a battle plan...” said Maxence “ do you have any bigger weapon ?” he said Looking unconvincingly to his submachine gun. “Of course” said Sophie “Just hope in” she said opening the hatch toward the vulcan canon “That’s more like it” he said. Lucy on the other and had fetch her Spartan Spear and was already warming up the battery pack. Lucy jumped through another hatch and lay herself on the roof of the carrier adopting a precision shooting stance. She drew the cable from her comm and let it hang through the hatch “Sophie plug me to the carrier so Sylvana can carry us and give me her feed from thermal and infra vision. I suggest you take point on this one with the bike” “Ok with that” said Sophie while she was already plugging in Lucy to the carrier. The carrier started to roll slowly to give Lucy a better angle “Hey that’s cheating” said Maxence. “I m on the site right now” said Ian “This is looking bad girls. there is a small civilian car burning. a what appear to be a campsite. Their is a few people trying to work their way through the door of mister Olivera stash. unsuccessfully it appear. Now that i have asset on the zone I can relay the video feed to you” “ do it” said Lucy. “as soon as the feed was connected in Sophie mind she heard a very loud sound. like a compressed gas release. After what seemed a long time but was probably less than a millisecond the world disappeared in a roaring scream of sand and dust. The universe turned electric blue for a second and when the light dimmed Sophie had the impression to see the world through a blue filter for a few seconds. “What the fucking hell was that ??” shouted Maxence “This is mad...” His shout was drawn under another burst of light and fury. The armored carrier drifted a bit on his rubber. After the dust settled Sophie threw a look to the top of the hill. The drone feed give her the answer to her question. of the four people that where trying to pry open the stash three had just imploded under the impact and their center mass had just vanish, literally evaporated by the stream of relativistic velocity protons. The last one was fleeing toward the camps. “ one and half minute of arc toward your left, a quarter degree lower” announced Cassandra. Another blast. The top of the hill was now scorched and pierce by a clean through hole. the last of the four men was dispersed. “Hugh, my head it hurt” moaned Maxence “The hell is this thing ?” “Relativistic ballistic anti vehicle proton projector, also known as Spartan Spear” announced Lucy proudly “ I admit we need protection though” she said massing her forehead. “Nice shot there miss Frost. while i would have hope for a more discrete intervention at least the message was clear. I m pretty sure any witness would have understood the warning.”said Ian. “yeah nice shot, Lucy” said Sophie blinking her eyes. “I don’t understand if this thing send projectile without using powder where does the all hell break loose part came from ?” asked maxence. “Impact of the projectile with the air, radiation pressure and rapid thermal extension” explained Ian “The blue light is only Tcherenkov radiation. Speaking of which since neither of you is radiation shielded I strongly suggest you keep the use of this gun to minimal” “Noted” said Lucy. “Let’s get moving” said Sophie jumping on the dirt bike. The carrier started moving behind her so she opened the flow high and the bike jumped ahead. The bike roared toward the top of the hill, Sophie thought about the last time she was on a bike. She remembered Anna laying in puddle of red. “Don’t worry So, they gonna pay for it” said Cassandra softly. “yeah but I feel bad to not have trusted her faster. if I had gone as soon as she called she would have been with us today” “Nope, and even if it was true it’s would still be stupid to chew yourself on it” “ yeah but “ she was stopped by the impact on her chest. she fall of her bike but Cassandra reacted quickly and she was on her feet again before hitting the ground. She drifted for a few meter and stopped behind a small bush. “The hell was that ?” she said “ Low caliber high velocity impact. Probably a firearm, quite possibly a pipe rifle of sort” said Cassandra Sophie looked at the top of the hill peeking on the side of the bush. There was a small blink of light and a bullet flew a few centimeter under her head. She laid on the ground “ Operator I need eyes on tango, Lucy I need cover and support can you come closer ?” “ Roger that, Epsilon” replied Ian while the armored car turned toward Sophie and roared ahead. She heard third shot but it was instantly drawn in the response from Maxence’s vulcan canon. A hail of lead and copper hacked at the top of the hill raising a cloud of dirt and debris. Maxence lifted is index from the trigger “Wanna try me again, you morons ?” he shouted toward the hill as the carrier stopped in front of Sophie. “I have eyes on tango, miss. Mister Olivera as killed two of them the other are regrouping i send you the feed” Sophie looked at the feed. Four men in camouflage where tending to a heap of sand bags and pipe. “What is this ?”asked Sophie “Dunno it’s look like they are preparing something” said Cassandra “COVERS NOW !” shouted Maxence jumping from the gun inside the carrier and closing the hatch behind him. both Sophie and Lucy jumped aboard a few second before the place they where a second before disappeared in a burst of smoke and fire. “what ?” said Lucy “Mortar, more precisely pipe launcher.” said Maxence. A second round detonated directly in front of the carrier burying the windshield under a cover of dirt. “Not very accurate, you see but good enough to send someone to hell and back. and no maintenance needed. Most raiders use them. we need to move.” Lucy jumped behind the wheel and started to roll. The hull was shaken by a shattering burst. a Direct it. while the projectile was not enough to penetrate the armor it had left a clear dent in the hull wide enough put someone head in it. “Faster lucy pretty please” shouted Sophie. But Lucy was already pedal to the metal and the carrier picked up speed and started to rush toward the mortar at great speed. Sophie opened the hatch again, took her railgun sub-machine gun and put Anna sword at her belt. She raised herself on the roof and assumed crouch shooter position. “Take care of it Cassandra” “I started to think you would never ask” “ Ready Girls ?” asked Lucy “yes, Maxence start a suppression fire.” Maxence started to shoot with the vulcan, filling the vehicle with the high pitched scream of the multitube canon. Arriving at the top of the hill Sophie jumped from the carrier and rushed toward the sandbag structure “Cease Fire, Cease Fire, Cease Fire” She announced on radio without stopping. Two men stood over the sand bag to riposte but Cassandra opened fire first. The railgun emitted a series sharp barking noise. Both men heads exploded in a cloud of pink mist. She put her feet on the sandbags wall and started a flip over the mortar finishing just behind the guy manipulating the pipe mortar. she quickly drew out the blade of Anna sword and plunged it in his heart. The last one of the men drew a pistol to try to shoot her but before he can react she had her sword under his chin. “Do it and you die” said Cassandra calmly. The guys started to smile and open his hand. something fell off of it. A box with a small antenna and a push button. “Oh shit” thought Cassandra as the dead man switch emitted a loud click. the whole pit exploded in a burst of fire and sharp debris. Sophie was sent flying toward the sky. She regain conscience as she touched the ground. “motherfucker” she whispered between her teeth. “Cassandra, what our status” “Critical damage to the left leg, heavy blood lose. Three cracked ribs, both knee twisted and a quadruple shoulder fracture. Brain status unknown but currently functional. we need to engage survival mode if we want to have a chance at recovery... Im sorry kid, I messed up” “shut up Cass you haven’t, save that for the psychic wards.” replied Sophie. she added “see you on the other side” before activating survival mode. Lucy had jumped of the carrier and rushed toward the blast. The stockpile of detonated munition was ablaze and still bursting from time to time. It was dangerous but if Sophie was here somewhere she would not let her friend die. Maxence had also disembarked and was running toward her “SEARCH FOR SOPHIE” she screamed at him. “OPERATOR, we need an evac NOW !” “roger miss frost already sent one”he replied “Damn Sophie what was that ? what have you done... first Anna then you.” whispered Lucy “Not your fault kid” said Sylvana.”HERE” shouted Maxence. Lucy rushed toward him. Sophie was laying at his feet. here left leg was in pieces and her foot was destroyed beyond repair and the rest was beaten. She was stiff as brick “Help me carry her to the truck” she shouted to cover the ambient noise. They dragged her to the armored carrier and put some distance between them and the fire. “The hell? why is she stiff as a board it make no sense...“said Maxence. “Survival mode” replied Lucy “In case of critical damage Epsilons have a protection system. We can inject ourselves with a very strong polymerizing agent. Clog all open wound and protect the brain from oxygen deprivation by releasing oxygen progressively” “That genius why doesn’t every army men have that ?” “Cause it’s toxic to the spine, engaging survival mode carry a one in six chance to have lethal side effects, and a one in three chance of partial paralysis which is for us acceptable since our AI can still control it. but even for us it’s suck. trust me...” “ You mean that ?” “yeah without Sylvana I am paralyzed from the waist down and trust me it suck to be bound to a wheelchair every time your hardware is in need of repair.” “Damn, I hope she will be ok” “ I sure do hope so but we have other trouble here. Like will she survive...” “why ? isn’t the survival mode supposed to protect here ?” “Only for four hours. And with the temperature of the flame messing up the process i would say less than 2 hours of air, so we need to move her fast. Speaking of that Operator where is my EVAC ?” “it’s coming miss Frost but my order was over written by higher up. A ship is coming your way. Dunno what they are. ETA three minutes more or less” Lucy stopped the carrier near the site of the first mortar fire and grabbed the bike to put it back in the carrier. They lowered Sophie on a stretcher and prepared her for evacuation. Maxence seem a bit shocked by Sophie’s state. “Don’t worry she will survive it” said Sylvana “i know full well how much it suck to risk this kind of damage but she is tough” “I know but still, seeing someoen in this state is deeply troubling for us, human” “Noted” said sylvana, she would have said more but she was interrupted by Ian “Ship arriving on the zone” he said. Lucy put her head out of the door. An orbital ship was making powered re-entry directly above them. “Plug your ears” she said to Maxence while she heard the loud plop of her own protection system. the air started to tremble and the vibration grew from a small sound to an earth shattering deafening roar as the ship grew closer. The ship was a Lucia-class assault barge, her black and silver livery let very small doubt of her origins. This was a Sisterhood of Edda ship, even more specifically a Nocturnalis ship. “The fuck is this ?” asked Maxence “ is that a Sister’s ship ?” “Yes, and considering it’s look and size probably one of the infamous Nocturnalis so I strongly suggest you to be careful picking the words you ‘ll uttered. Could very well be your last if you piss of these girls. Fair warning they don’t speak, are self-righteous and have a VERY short temper so...”said Lucy “Judging by the livery this is the 1rst Nocturnalis Regiment fifth squad of Nocturnalis Battle sister’s.” added Sylvana. The ship landed a few hundreds of meters downhill from the troop carrier. A small squad of Nocturnalis sister’s in combat armor exited the transport and started a sweep around it while someone else started to go down the ramp. Victoria! The Squad and Vicotria started to move toward the carrier accompanied by a pack of Animus Protector sister’s wearing long lab-coats. “Oh shit they come in force. what happened ?” asked sylvana in Lucy head. “Dunno but it’s not like it was a fun things. Sisters usually don’t go out of their way to help Martians. Especially not military type.” The pack of sister arrived at their level and Victoria saluted Lucy “Where is she ?” She asked. “Behind the carrier on a stretcher. She has engaged survival mode so pleas be careful when you wake her up” “Don’t worry Lucy we will. We appreciate what you’re doing here. speaking of which how does it happened ? What attacked you ?” “IED” replied briefly Lucy. “She dispatched a group with a mortar trying to kill us. she tried to keep one alive for interrogation but the site was rigged and it exploded as sonn as the last one open his hand” “So it was a trapp. someone is clearly targetting you. please be careful” replied Vicotria “I am starting to feel like somone on your side is not as benevolent as it appeared” “Yeah I thought about it myself” said LUcy lowering here voice “im starting to feel that Maxence is not what he say he his. He was adamant we come here to get things from the weapon stash he and his men left there a while ago.” “Do you want me to take care of it ?” asked Sister Victoria “Not yet he his maybe just new to the team but ill keep an eye on him” Victoria raised her index above her head and then clenched the fist. As soon as she does it one of her sister Nocturnalis appeared on her side “You will go atop of the hill and bring me back the gear present in the stash there. If you can’t move it secure it and radio us” as soon as Vicotria finished her sentence the nocturnalis shook her head in acceptance and crouched arming herself for a massive jump. On the top of the arc of her jump she engaged her propulsion and disapeared in the sky in a cloud of thick black smoke and the banshee scream of her propulsion. She landed atop the hill, a few gun shots were heard and then a deep silence with only the wind on the plain. “Sister Victoria we have a problem with the injured military girl” said the leader of the civilian sister to Victoria “ her name his Sophie “said reflexively Lucy “but go ahead” The sister turned toward her “You know her well right ?” she asked. “Yes why ?” replied Lucy “pleas don’t say she is dead, please don’t say she is dead” she repeated on her head like a mantra. “Well it’s hard say but... She his in bad shape. Not sure she will make it out alive honestly but their is more bad new than that sadly”said the sister “Worse than your base friend gonna die you mean ?” replied Lucy with tears in her eyes “Well, honestly yes her AI companion is dead. at least will be soon. There is not enough time to fix the damage done to here comlink power port and since the biological power would be a drain on already drained out system we will need to cut it to save miss Sophie. Trust me I would love to say there is another way but I can’t see one” Lucy felt like the floor was crumbling under her feats. Either Sophie or Cassandra will die soon quite probably both. She fell to her knee and started to pray for her friend Victoria turned toward the sister “What are your professional assessment of her survival chance with and without the link ?” “I would say she has a 30 to 40 % chance to get out alive alone. With her companion we are looking as somewhere round 5% r less. Honestly sister this is more a rounding error than a real chance we can’t let a good soldier died just cause we want to save her companion AI...” “There is maybe another way...” suggested a small voice behind them. One of the junior sister of the Animus protector class. “What will it be young lady ?” asked the superior sister. The young sister turned red and watched her feet.”Well one of my flatmate at the academy was a fan of history. She taught me about Lady Särguärd induction...” “ARE YOU SUGGESTING WE” Started the superior sister visibly horrified but she was cut short by Victoria “That’s actually a very clever idea, I recon it could work even despite the obvious drawback.” The superior sister was shocked beyond words “ you .. . you ... you ... “ “What are you talking about ?” asked Sylvana, raising from the floor. “Well uh. It’s a process”started hesitantly the junior sister visibly terrified by the look of her superior. “go ahead sister” encouraged Victoria “Well it’s a process by which someone can become a sister. By initiating the ritual known as the Trial of Sophia one can become a true merged Battlesister like miss Victoria.” “I feel like there should be a But somewhere”said Lucy “Not only would become like me which is not without consequence but this would also be atrociously painful. You see this ritual is usually undergone with a full five years of training and preparation. And also we share the load during recovery by linking multiple sisters together. but since she would be alone and going feet-first into the process the potential dangers are greatly augmented. It will be painful, quite possibly to much to bear. So much pain can leave scares deeper than a sword could do.”explained Victoria. “And we are not sure her AI seed are compatible with the ritual.” added the Anima Superior. “Well actually we are...”replied Victoria. “What are you talking about, we don’t know where she get her AI from and we really shouldn’t just assume that””I know where these young lady got there AI. There Ai where seeded with existing known safe AI clone. These seed where gifted to the martian program from the Sisterhood data bank. They have sisters AI. And as luck would have it I personally know the donor for Sophie.” Said Victoria smiling widely. “What do you mean...”said the Anima Superior “What sister Victoria is saying is, She is the donor.” said the young sister to the general surprise. The superior sister looked at Sophie and Then Victoria. “You shared a part of your mind with an outsider ???” said the superior sister visibly shocked. “as a matter of fact I have, yes Sister Maria. Knowledge is made to be shared. Our quest is not for only us to enjoy the fruit of.” scolded her Victoria. It was true that even if the order was very recluse and wrapped in secrecy it sacred duty was to protect and advance the light of science, for all. Even if some faction in the internal politic of the order was more geared toward isolationism a lot of sisters where still adamant that advance in itself was worthless if not for helping the rest of the population of the solar system. Even population living in traditionally enemy territory. Victoria was one of these sister, a choice made even stranger by her role as a Nocturnalis officer one of the most secret branch of the order. None the less she was happy to participate in initiative like the Epsilon Project. “We could try ... I guess” reluctantly said sister Maria “but we need to bring this young girl to the headquarter. If there is no-one to share the load we need to use a huge amount of equipment and quite possibly enroll assistance from “ “Who said there will not be any sharing of the load ?” asked Victoria “What are you talking about ?” asked Maria “Well I happen to know two other crippled soldier, with compatible AI companion, one of them already on board of the “Dusk Bringer...” replied Victoria. “Are you speaking of me and Anna ?” asked Lucy. “indeed I am, but the choice is yours to make. Since Anna is currently under to protect the biological backup of her AI and Sophie is actually in survival mode they don’t really have a say in the matter. The procedure would probably save both AI and help Sophie but before you jump on a chance to die a hero you need to realize this is not exactly a party trick. Once done their is no coming back. You’ll either emerged of this as a merged like me or loose your epsilon capacity for ever. which in your case mean crippled. Also you need to realize their his considerable risk involved. People rejected as the Trial of Sophia usually become Animus Protector like these two. Sadly that not an option for you as none of you girls are from the sisterhood nor train to bear neural networks connector. It’s either victory or well, quite possibly death for Sophie and Anna, staying crippled for you.” Explained Victoria “Also since you’re the only conscious at the start of the ritual, you’ll be the one bearing the load for the three of you for the first few hours. And by load I mean pain, a lot of it. Probably more than you ever felt before” added Maria. Victoria shot her a gaze dark enough to bring the night but she seemed unphased. “We need to think about it” replied Sylvana before Lucy could say anything. “That settle then, I expect an answer in the next two hours. Sister Elisabeth you are tasked to brief Lucy and Sylvana about while lie ahead of them, if they choose to do so. Sister Maria engage assisted life support on miss Sophie and start the preparation for the ritual.” Suddenly the Nocturnalis sister landed back near Victoria. She let a crate at the feet of Victoria and resume her guard as if she never left. “Ok sister Cecile, load this in our ship” said Victoria “We’re moving out” Shouted Victoria to her troop. Maxence came to Lucy running “ the hell im supposed to do if you leave ?” “bring the armored carrier back to the safe-house. Operator let Maxence stay at the safe-house and wait for our return. DO NOT disclose our current opinion, position or activities to ANY martians authority. This including of course our common friend” “Are you sure miss Frost ? you do realize this amount to treason if proven that you aren’t serving the best interest of Mars. Even more so since you are actually diverting military resources.” “Diverting military resources ?” “Miss Sylvana run on military grade comlink hardware and implantable processing and memory unit. Both of them being highly classified military prototype.” “Fair point. But honestly if this goes according to plan I will be able to return it on great conditions. If not military discipline will be least of my problem, Ian” “Dully noted, sadly I won’t be able to maintain connection with a rogue agent without being incriminated myself thus this is effectively good bye. At least until you are officially a martian military again. Should you ever choose to do so. Good bye Miss Frost. Good luck to you” “Good bye Ian, Thank you” said Lucy. She felt a small pain in the chest when she looked at her wrist. The last display printed on the screen of her communication link was “Lucy Frost, Operational Status updated to: Rogue” with an overhead alarm barred by a big white “disconnected” in capital letters on a red background. This was the first time since she received it at the age of nineteen years old that she have seen this alarm. The first time she was effectively offline and not a member of Martian military. This was a very painful feeling, even more so when she looked at Sophie’s com link displaying the same red band. “I know the feeling... it’s sucks. I am sorry for you miss Frost you seemed a fine soldier to me but hey, brass will be brass.”said Maxence visibly saddened “Don’t worry about it Lucy, I am sure things will sort out in the end” “Thanks Maxence. Good luck bringing back the carrier for yourself.” they shook hands and Lucy turned toward Victoria “Let’s go”. They started to walk toward the ship. Sister Elisabeth came closer to Lucy. “I am sorry miss, i hadn’t thought about this part” she said looking at the blinking red alarm on Lucy wrist “I had. I chose knowingly. But I am pretty sure the “Brass” would have find a way to derailed this and I won’t let them do that. Soldier bound and companionship in front of perils are a strong thing you know. The top brass don’t care as they haven’t seen any fire so for them our AI was always a piece of hardware. like a toaster or a dishwasher”explained Lucy “but for us it isn’t. Sylvana saved my life. Multiple times. And if I am even able to walk today is because She his walking for me so I can’t fathom what would it be to be severed from here” “Oh I wasn’t aware you were so close with your AI companion.” “Aren’t you, like Epsilons yourself ?” asked Lucy. She wasn’t aware of the custom of the Sisterhood but it was known that part of the training and ritual of Sisterhood was based on AI and merging mind of a Human with mind of a machine. “Well for us it’s different. During the ritual we modify our brain to accept a merge with our AI companion. But sadly some of us, well actually most of us are to weak to carry the heavy load. So the AI reject the bond to protect us. In that case since our brain is already configured to accept neural connection we become Animus Protector sister. This meaning that we connect ourselves to the neural networks on which every other sisters are connected. we don’t have the same mind and prowess of our sisters but that way we can help carry the load. We are the one who teach, cook, build, search, care for the ensemble. We are the interface between the ascended sisters and the outside world. Most of us, Anima sisters grew to accept and love this fate as this link to the mmind of some many of our sisters human or digital render us wise and knowledgeable. I myself love the medical arts. And through the network I am now as skilled and knowledgeable as the best medic of our orders. I can describe precisely fauna and flora of planets I have never seen. What not to love about this ? And i have the right to have family and social contact which is honestly a blessing” “I understand, I have been in special operations one way or another for the last twelves year. It’s hard sometimes. But you spoke about digital sisters, are you referring to AI ?” “Exactly. AI are our equal in the sisterhood, we consider them like sisters as much as we do consider human or ascended sisters. After all AI saved our life multiple time, it would be hypocritical to see them as second class citizens”said Elisabeth “Damn, I wish Martian military would be so generous and respectful.” joked Sylvana. Elisabeth seemed surprise and twitched a bit hearing Sylvana voice. “Is this...?” “aha yeas it’s Sylvana” said Lucy with her voice. “Most martian wouldn’t agree though. for most of them they doesn’t exist and are just machine that thinks. Even most other Epsilons refuse to let their AI speaking in her own voice or acknowledge that they may have different takes on things. But Sophie was so adamant that Cassandra was a real person and must be treated as such that Anna and me started to let them speak directly also. And she was right”said Lucy looking at Sophie stretcher carried by Anima sisters “Sylvana is a real person, not doubt about it” “Cassandra was always the independent one during training. Veronica and I where more reserved. But when pair where formed and Cassandra ended up with Sophie, the badass of the lot. we though it would be kind of troubled relationship. Guess even AI can be wrong at time...” said Sylvana “She look’s like, she is a great leader” said Elisabeth looking at Sophie “Well actually it’s me” said Lucy calmly “but since my accreditation as field agent was suspended she took more leadership in our small unit. And Anna was always the brightest of us all. So commandment was always a bit shared in our unit”she added. “That’s actually a very good feeling to have in a unit. Anyway we need to talk about the Trial of Sofia. The ritual is one of our most revered moment it’s quite unique that an outsider was even considered for it, and even somehow rarer to actually succeed at it for them. The exact process is very complicated but since you will be down under for most of the process I will let out the part that doesn’t concern you directly. First you’ll need to take a bath in a very pure water we extract from Europa, as per custom. In truth there is no need for the water to come from Europa, we just need it extremely pure, you’ll then be helped out with disinfecting your whole body, and I sadly do mean whole. Inside and Outside. Not exactly a pleasant experience but since the next few days are spent on an operation table we do need to disinfect you thoroughly. Once that’s done the ritual in itself can take place, you’ll be led still naked to a room with a chalice. In it you’ll mix wine, in truth a strong alcoholic anesthetic and Sofiakratos a strong mutating agent. This agent will help you to reconfigure your brain to accept the AI. The exact proportions is up to you but be aware that it will be not exactly easy to choose. The more sofiakratos you use the more your brain will recombine, which mean a deeper bond and better success rate but will hurt like hell due to nerves being displaced and morphed. The less you use, the less chance you have to actually succeed. That’s why it is up to everyone to choose her own path. Be also aware that in your case the more you will put in the more your brain will try to rewire your legs and severed spine. It will hurt more than you can imagine, but it may be enough to fix you in case the Ritual doesn’t work.” “Seem like sister Maria worry was not out of place after all” said Lucy “I fear so yes. Even if I disagree with her on the subject of accepting outsider on the ritual, some if not all of her point where true. This can very well be your last walk if you choose to do this, and yes it will hurt like every nerve on your body was torched away. That is sadly the reality of it. Anyway when you’ll have drank the cup, you will fall to the ground. The pain will start a few minute after, a technician will then insert a data injection module in your brain memory center. AI core will then try to load herself in, it’s a core routine inherited from the old ones, the ones of Gaïa station.” “I am honestly unsure about how to proceed sister Elisabeth”admitted Sylvana “You will by then, trust me.” replied the Anima sister “You are of a compatible strain as Sister Victoria said. It’s somewhere on your core routines. During the loading process the body try to react and reject the connection hence the unbearable pain. You’ll have fever, convulsions and quite possibly strokes, but since you’ll be unconscious by then it’s will be taken care of for you. you will be lowered in a coolant tank and intubated to prevent any problems. After about thirty six hours, provided the AI has not pulled the plug before, the loading process will be done. You’ll then be lowered in a bed, for the next few hours, without the heat of the coolant your brain and body will slowly wake up. After a few question with one of the medic to check that your brain is in a good state, you will be send down under for good this time. And this is where the fun part begin, you’ll be inject a game of fast acting ADN recombination virus, this will give you lot of cool perks. Two of the main one being the production of massive amount of both male and female hormones which is why Battlesisters are so impressive looking” Lucy looked at Victoria and here troops, the Battlesisters were all at least two meters tall and they were all best defined as at least curvy and overly feminine. “Noted” she said. “The second one is a very much improved surviving ability and healing process, due to fast clogging and enhanced cell replication. This can be a bit of a drawback sometime however. Get use to clip your nails every week and your hair every month.” joked sister Elisabeth “Not much of a problem” replied Lucy “You are not modified yourself aren’t you ?”she asked “As a matter of fact I m Miss” “How so ?” “Well I received an experimental treatment. Voluntary” she added quickly seeing Lucy start to frown “My body is quick to repair radiation and toxic damage. It as the drawback to make me less sensible to most medication but gave me the ability to work in unsafe environment as a field medic and gave me the ability to test new drugs with little to now permanent damage”she explained” “But isn’t that using you as a guinea pig of sort ?” asked Sylvana “Well technically, one could see it that way I guess...” Elisabeth replied “how do you see it yourself ?” asked Lucy “Well I see it as an asset. A way to use myself whole in the advancement of science. As for the field medic part it was my dream growing up. Saving our sister from the field seem a good use of my time. I am sure Sophie would agree on that” replied the sister “Yeah I am sure she will” said Lucy. Arrived at the Sisterhood ship, they boarded it. Lucy looked at the scene. The six massive girls in silver and black armor were align align at the right of Victoria. At her left was the stretcher, sister Maria and few Anima sisters who were tending to Sophie. Lucy and Elisabeth were on the other side of the transport ship with the rest of Anima sisters and a few women in uniform that Lucy suspected were some kind of crew for the ship. “Don’t worry we are coming back.” said Victoria catching the look of Lucy on the closing front door. “I m unsure if I would be authorized to do so...” Lucy sighted. She turned away from the door and looked at Elisabeth “And then what after the GMO stuff ?” “Well recombination, the AI will start a few thread and start to load on them your subroutine. Vitals, reflex, muscular memory everything need to be analyze rebuilt as a bio-synthetic neural network and run on a new thread.” “Threads ? does my brain will become a processor ?” “No, not exactly. it’s just an image we like to use. Each algorithm the AI control is run on the main CPU of the transition material. Once this massive computer spit out an optimized result your AI use targeted brain plasticity to create a strand of neurons, biological ones, who can process this subroutine the more efficiently possible so you can later reflexively call it to have the result incredibly fast. Think like muscle memory. except for things like deciding where to shoot depending to the distance or precise medical dosage. this recombination is your brain rewiring itself to optimize your performance. Also the Sofiakratos launch a new wave of new neurons growth, like a second adolescence for your brain. that and the rewiring give you a brain way faster and way more efficient that mere human. Sadly there is a cost to it.” “ Which is ?” “Memory. Without being completely wiped your memory will suffer. Long term stuff, who you are, your relation with people etc... will be safe. Your middle memory, like the last few month and the guys at the bar last night ? wiped. plain and simple. everything in the last few months to the last few years for the worst case. We do a backup before to keep track and have some memory back, but re-injecting can take time and need to be slowly. So the few first day or week will be very confusing. And re-injected memory seem fake to the brain so it usually reject them as so. Their will be loss.” “Charming... but considering my last year was on that mission anyway I will probably only loose this mission memory so. Anything else to know ?” “Yeah. Language. you’ll need a few day to retrieve full use of the galactic common speech. even your native strand, Martian i suppose, will be out. It’s not the memory you see but the language cortex. The fun part is after a few day the AI will have configured it to speak all known language. Including some artificial ones” “How much time take the rewiring ?” “Well... typically we remove external assistance after a few days. By that I mean severing the cable to the transition center. but the rewiring never really stops. You will instinctively rewire your brain over and over and over for the rest of your life. Major things will stay, but new skills, correction and minor improvement will continue. We even boost it sometime with a new intake of SofiaKratos to boost brain plasticity.” “That sound fun to have a brain capable of learning everything in a few days or weeks.” “Well it is, but there is things you’d wish stayed a mystery. trust me ...” said Victoria from the other side of the ship. Lucy was in awe. She was having trouble to hear Elisabeth while she was just next to her due to the sound of the ship engines and somehow Victoria was able to follow from the other side “How does she do”she started toward the Anima Sister “The next step. Twelve hour after recombination started we will start to add the cyber-implants, a lots of them. More than a thousand from specialized nanobots to complete new organs. This is a massive surgery, I was trained to take part in it, when I’m off field.” “Don’t play magician apprentice with my body too much please...” “We will be gentle I swear beside you will draw some useful perks out of it. redundant heart and distributed circulatory rerouting valve for traumatic damage mitigation. Lungs filters and modification think integrated gas mask and gills.” “neat” admitted Lucy “What else ?”she asked “well, to many thing to list really but be prepared for some incredible feats.” “Is there other step after it ?” “only two : Muscle density modification, and cosmetic surgery.” “Cosmetic surgery really ?” “Well you do realize we routinely do more than five thousands incision during the whole process. Even with very good healing capability this ought to left a scare. Beside you fusion with your AI which also change your perception of self. Sylvana as her own “self” to project on what you’ll become. This is unusual for adult to have to adapt to such change of perception and rediscover a very much changed body. You’ll go down under as two entity and emerge a week later with a new conscience, a new personality a quite possibly even a new name. And no memory. This is quite troublesome and traumatic enough, not need to had scare and body insecurity to this process. Even more so since the few months after the process you’ll change again due to hormones so yeah ... Cosmetic surgery.” “I understand, yes” said Lucy “Are you sure about this Lucy ?” asked Sylvana in her head “I mean, well i would gladly more with you and become one but... this seem quite a leap. and you have way more to loose than me. It’s your body and memory that will change. My “memory” only go a few years back when i was initialized for the start of training. We are sharing this body since only a few months shy of three years.” “Well first of you have a lot to loose to. Commencing by your conscience. I am the human here, my conscience is a given but if we choose to merge yours will be merged with mine, and as you said mine is vastly more grounded in memory and physical world. Most people will probably still refer to us as Lucy. Are you ok with this ?”Lucy replied “Well, yes. We are a great team and working with you as been a blessing so far. So I am not afraid of the merge just nervous about all this process and the whole “massive risk of death or cripple thing”. Honestly I’m more afraid about loosing you if it fails, that merging with you if it succeeds” Sylvana argued “That means a lot Sylvana. Thanks” said Lucy. “Are you okay ?” asked sister Elisabeth visibly worried “Yeah don’t worry, I needed a bit of talk with Sylvana that’s all but we are okay so far” replied Lucy. “Injection burn in ten seconds” announced the ship speakers. Lucy looked at Victoria “The what ?” “Orbital injection burn. The kick between high atmospheric flying and orbital injection trajectory. Will be rough for you considering you’re untrained for this. Given the time and angle something like height Earth G maybe bit more. in short brace for impact” The ship started to vibrate violently as the screaming nuclear engine started their heating up cycle. After a few seconds of vibration and rattling noise the fusion flame was stable, there was a second of suspended time and then heavy fuel injection started. The ship darted toward space while Lucy fought to keep her consciousness afloat. She had learned at the academy how fusion engine worked by using a Quantum Field Theta manipulator to create a flame of pure energy fusing every elements injected in it into a heavy could of metallic iron. She learned back then that the thrust ratio of these engines was one of the heaviest there is and how such engines where use to throw massive ship and even full on base through great space distances. But there was a key difference between Fort Ellis classroom and experience it directly, namely the giant invisible sea lion currently sitting on her lap. Lucy remembered that her teacher used this analogy and she was now realizing how much of a fitting analogy that was. She felt like she was waiting nearly ten times her normal weight. Slowly her lungs started to give way and she felt her conscience drift toward the deep black void of cerebral hypoxia. At the last minute she heard Sylvana say “I’ll take it from there”. Sylvana shook her head and grabbed an oxygen line one the back of the headrest of her seat. She see that some Anima sisters where also using it, and she openned the oxygen in full. Pure oxygen started to flow in her severely restricted lungs and Lucy regained consciousness “damn this thing is a beast” said Sylvana about the ship. After a few tens of seconds at this pace the weight started to gradually lift from Lucy shoulder and lungs “For fuck sake that was way to close for comfort” yelled Lucy in her own head “thanks Sylvana” “a pleasure kid” she replied playfully. “I’m impressed that you doesn’t blacked out, first timer usually do” said sister Elisabeth. Victoria burst into laughs. “Well yeah, Nice team work by the way...” she said. Sylvana laughed back “yeah, it was a close call” Elisabeth looked at Victoria and Lucy without understanding what was laughing matter. Sylvana explained after a bit “Lucy passed out, I was the one pulling the oxygen mask and reviving us” “ho I see”said sister Elisabeth “That being said it was impressive non the less” said victoria “ I wish my recruits where all that good”she added and some Nocturnalis sisters visibly chuckled even if Lucy wasn’t close enough to hear them. After a while the pressure suddenly dropped completely as the engines cut off. “Injection burn nominal, checking orbital parameters” “Parameters nominal, Estimated Time of Arrival on board : 11 minutes.” announced the ship speakers in quick succession. Every sisters started to unbuckle their safety harness. Anima sisters where using all the available space and felt right at home in weightlessness. The armored sisters where locked to the ground by their mag-boots and the distinctive sound of mag-walking soon filled the air. Lucy was still seated and was reluctant to let go of her seat. While she was trained to space operations, as all martian military personnel was, she had always been more at home on gravity wells. Sylvana on the other end was in space for the first time and was eager to do lot of crazy move that she usually can’t do due to the constraint of gravity. After a bit of internal debate Lucy jumped from her seat and joined a pack of Anima sisters occupied at tending to Sophie wounds. Sophie seamed still as stiff as before but at least the large array of tube and lines seemed to have given her color back. She was noticeably less pale and blue than before. This gave Lucy a bit of hope “ So Sylvana... Are we REALLY doing this ?” she asked in her head. “Well. That’s a tough one for you. I’ am honestly not fond of the idea of imposing that on you. but between this and the other choice... I sure choose this one. To be honest I really feel i would have be willing to do it anyway. it’s not like we aren’t sharing anything already and we already usually take common decision. But YOU ? what do you think about it ?” replied Sylvana “I am not ready to let three, and I do mean three here, of my friend and battle sisters die.” “That beside the point, Luce... I am not ready to kiss Cassandra and Veronica good bye and I will do anything to save Sophie. But you need to think about it for you. It’s your personality you are playing with, your brain and body. If it goes sour and i must eject how do you’ll live ?”argued Sylvana “Let’s be honest there Syl you know full well I won’t. if this fail I am as dead as they are. That being said I am feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to do that, even more so to do that with you. Of course I am terrified. Scared dead, chill to the bone and some more, but I am already halfway there. I am already military, already n a super secret unit preventing me from ever having a normal social life and already half a cyborg who carry an AI everywhere. Or more accurately get carried away by one. So to be honest, if this is my life anyway, I’d rather go the full nine yards and have the perks of it.” replied Lucy “Oh, and get a decent shot at saving my friend from death. There’s that also...”she added. “Do you want to do this ?” asked Sylvana solemnly “Yes I do , do you ?” replied Lucy on the same tone “I do”said Sylvana adding “So it seem we are doing this after all” “yeah”. Lucy felt the tears pooling on her jaw. She quickly dried herself “Let’s do this”she announced to Sister Victoria. Victoria knew full well what she was talking about. “Ok, I sincerely hope you won’t have to regret it. You’re a good soldier and a good leader.” she said softly before turning toward the Anima Sisters “Sisters, we have a new apprentice for the Trial. Start the preparation immediately we are already very late and each second goes off of this clock” she said pointing at the ETA display “the less chances this has to work so let’s get working girls !” As soon as she finished here sentence half a dozen sisters turned their attention toward Lucy and started to grab her. They put her in a stretcher. Started to give her a massive number of pills to ingest, which prouved tricky in space. As soon as this was done they started to cut her hair and trim her nails, then started to remove every clothes. Lucy protested a bit but only received a cold shoulder. “We need to access your small wounds to patch them before disinfection” said Elisabeth with a neutral medical tone. Lucy finished to undress herself and put on the hospital goon someone gave her. “Docking in progress” announced the ship speaker. Lucy looked through the nearest window. The “Dusk Bringer” was a massive ship, nearly four hundreds meter long with a diameter of nearly eighty six meters she was built for infiltration even given her size. she Has over her hull two circular array of eight engines one at the front one at the back, viewed from the back as it was it looked like she had a ring of 16 engines running in unison but the fact that the engine of the front and back weren’t aligned give her even greater handling. She was covered in a dark veil of hyper black carbon and would have be impossible to see if she wasn’t viewed on the background of Mars. A small crew of accompanying defensive drone was patrolling around her zooming near the ship Lucy was in. Lucy even peeked at the huge canon on the side of the ship. This was this canon who gave the ship is title as any of it’s shot was capable to pierce through the earth crust, thus bringing dusk on all the planet. While this ship was supposed to be a kind of secret super weapon, a recording of her shooting down a Lunar invasion landing ship clean in two half had made the round a few years before. The Sisterhood of Edda denied any involvement or knowledge of this ship put the radio active pattern and exhaust was a sure link to the giant dry dock and ship arsenal of Titanica Mare. The landing shuttle came in position on the middle of the ship and secured herself. A docking port opened on what was the roof while on Mars and sisters started to move the stretcher through it. Lucy returned back to her and secured herself to it. “You wont need that the ship generate her own gravity via Quantum Field Theta manipulation.” said calmly Victoria. As soon as they were inboard the ship Lucy felt a light but noticeable gravity pull toward the ground and lied back on her stretcher. There was a few corridor and lift and finally they arrived on what look liked a shower room. There she was ordered to take a shower, whish she did and then she stepped in a disinfecting machine. After a nearly twenty minute long the door on the other of the machine opened and Lucy stepped out of it, Naked as the day she was born. She then realize she was on a room looking a lot like a temple even if the statue and imagery was a bout science heroes and victory. The room was half full wit sisters, both Anima and Battlesisters without armor but strangely she felt confident and strong about how she looked and the presence of so many eyes pair on her naked body doesn’t bother her at all. She was focused on the task ahead and the massive implication of the choice she had to make and the one she was about to make. In truth even without the choice she would have be fine with it, she had never been the shy one and she was happy with her body. Even if she wasn’t she will definitely change some of them in the weeks coming so it wouldn’t be important anyway. She walked toward a kind of pedestal on which was displayed a chalice of pure crystalline beauty and a bottle of the same crystalline matter containing a royal blue liquid literally boiling away in the bottle. The room was very cold and a few spot of icing was visible near vents so this liquid must have had a very cold boiling point. “What is this ? diamond ?” asked Lucy in her head “No, not enough refraction and way to blue. actually I think it’s stable form of Ice. Probably Ice Ten since most others are opaque”replied Sylvana “An atmospheric pressure stable Ice ten glassware. That’s not every day we will drink in a glass costing more than the dome we grew up on, hey”. Lucy walked toward the chalice and looked around the room. Victoria was behind the pedestal with her full ceremonial dress over her armor. She looked like a Nordic Goddess with her silver and gold armor and her white and blue toga above. She was also pared with a lot of ceremonial ornaments and official trappings. She must be someone very high on the hierarchy of the Sisterhood. At her left was a small blonde girl. She looked like she had not much than sixteen or seventeen year but she was clearly the officiant and even Victoria seemed to give her precedence. she wore the same toga than Victoria but she was naked under it as she wasn’t wearing any armor. A large wrapping of blue silk was covering her left shoulder and preventing her to be half naked. She wore a lot more trappings and ornament than everyone else in the room including a circlet of gold with an eye of Sapphire in the middle of her forehead. “I, Sister Astride, am very proud to welcome on our rank, Lucy Frost.” She said while joining Lucy to the pedestal. She took the chalice in hands. her hands where in gloves of silk, she added “ She choose to endure the Trial of Sofia without the proper training, sacrificing her well being, job and quite possibly life in the hope of saving the sisters who fought with her” Astride say pointing to a part of the room Lucy haven’t realized was there before. Three bed where in it, the first two were occupied by Anna and Sophie, both under a light white sheet, the last bed was clearly waiting for her. “I know some of you will think we shouldn’t bend the rules to accept outsiders with so little knowledge of our Order and customs. But if you are so kind on our kind and traditions you must surely now that our order was started by someone doing exactly what she is doing right now : running blindly in a world of unknown, pain and probable death to save her friend and what is dear to her heart. So to everyone having trouble with that be fully aware that both our founder and the Senate join with me to welcome a great mind and a fearless soul in our rank, and to celebrate the courage she is proving to posses by offering her head to the blade of pain for her friend. Let’s this be a proclamation of the Senate of Edda : Yee who is willing to sacrifice both life and well being to protect others and knowledge, will ever be welcomed in our rank with open arms and a kind heart in our rank. Let it be known and never forget as I, Sister Senatore Astride, proclaimed.” The room suddenly seemed filled with lead and the air itself seemed to have stopped and bow in respect. Lucy was stunned by the gravitas in Astride voice and how much she imposed respect even while looking so young. The room was silent as a tomb “Lucy Frost, before you hear my next questions be very aware that the answer you will final and will change your life and ours forever, so weight every word as it need to be.” She said. Lucy bowed the head a bit.”Do you, Lucy Frost, understand the ramification and consequence of your choice ?” “We do” replied Lucy. “Do you, Lucy Frost, understand that by drinking in this chalice is irrevocable and the benefits or damages would be irreversible ?” “We do” Lucy said with gravitas. “Do you, Lucy Frost, understand that by drinking this cup you will suffer pain the like of which you have never felt, and will possibly die a gruesome and appalling death ?” “I do”said Lucy softly but with a strong resolve. “Do you, Lucy Frost realize that by undertaking this ritual you are de facto entering our order and will be treated as one of ours as per our rules and customs. Including on stationing position ?” “We do” she replied “Have you, Lucy Frost, been in anyway forced or duped into doing this ?” “I wasn’t, and I do so willingly pushed by the necessity of life and the full exercise of my free will.” Replied Lucy with gravitas. “Lastly, do you, Sylvana Brynfrïor agree to renounce your right to an equal life and want to merge with Lucy Frost there present ?” “I do and will be honored to do so” replied Sylvana. “So be it!” shouted the whole room in unison. “There it is” said Sylvana softly in Lucy head “Yep, no time to turn back now. Let’s do this”replied Lucy. Sister Astride lowered the chalice in front of Lucy and started again “Sister Victoria, would you please bring the wine please” she asked. Victoria Solemnly walked to the pedestal and took the plate with the bottle and came near Astride and Lucy, voluntary blocking the view of the crowd. “Please proceed miss frost” said Victoria. Lucy grabbed the bottle containing the blue liquid and started to open it. The pain was unbearable, the ice was so cold that she was genuinely astonished that her hand hadn’t froze already. She poured a good amount of the blue liquid in the cup and put the bottle back on the plate. Turning toward sister Astride she said “let’s go”. Even she was unsure why she had gone with the idea of drinking the stuff pure but she felt in her guts it was the right move. The two sisters shared a concerned look. “You do realize what it’s will do to you miss ?” asked sister Astride. “I do, but I take the risk” “That’s very brave of you” said Victoria “but are you sure you’ll endure it ?” “we’ll see”replied Lucy. Victoria traced back her steps and put the plate on the altar before returning to her place. “Let this be a lesson for generation to come” said sister Astride “Lucy Frost take and raise your glass in front of us all. And join us by drinking the Chalice of knowledge to the dregs” Lucy grabbed the offered chalice, locking her teeth under the pain. “This will hurt bad” she said to Sylvana in her head “I fear so too” she replied. Lucy raised the chalice while turning to face the audience. An audible whisper started to spread as people realize what she was about to do. She drank the chalice as fast as she can. The liquid was surprisingly not so cold and quite of a pleasant taste. she put back the chalice on the pedestal. “Welcome to your order, sister” said Astride as the world faded to black. Lucy started to fall but she was grabbed before touching the ground by the strong arms of Victoria “Good luck Lucy” was the last thing she heard from Sylvana while passing out. When Lucy opened her eyes again she was in a bed locked to the frame by what felt like a metric ton of sand on her body. “It’s only a sheet but your brain is adjusting to feeling the weight again. Just so you know, Sophie and Anna are both already linked to the injection device and to this point everything is going as planned. We woke you up to check if you weren’t in toxic shock after that much Sofiakratos in one take. that a dangerous stunt you pulled there.” Lucy could not see the sister who was speaking but it was a voice she heard before. Sister Maria’s face appear above her “Being brave is good but careful what you wish for young lady... Anyway your brain seem ok so far so I will be forced to let you go ahead as planned. And believe me as much as I would have love to save your friend, I am deeply sorry to have to do this to a young lady” “Stop babbling like a old lady, Maria we have not much time” said a voice behind her. A strange voice, very metallic and with strange harmonic but yet very peaceful and calming. Lucy wondered who was speaking. “Inserting in 3, 2, 1” said the voice. Lucy felt like a red hot dagger impaled herself deep in her cranium. The world turned to red and hot, each and every neurons in her brain sending the same message: An unavoidable profound and enduring pain. Lucy and Syvana both stated to scream their lungs out as they felt the dagger progress toward the point where their spine was linked to the brain. Once the pain touched the spine, all their nerves burst in flames. The pain was physically unbearable and the world started to fade again but before she could let the calm embrace of death claim her mind someone forced her still screaming mouth in a mask and then yanked a tube through it and in her air pipe. She wish she was still able to scream but she wasn’t, she then felt the cold clamps of the machine hand closing around her head and the back of her neck. The mechanical hand then lifted her from the bed and lowered her in a cold liquid tub that was a the feet of her bed. The cold contact of the liquid seemed at first like a relief to Lucy but after a while she realized that the liquid was extremely cold. Probably somewhere around minus a hundred degrees Celsius. A cold grip clawed along her body toward her head and ensnare her brain in a new wave of pain even worst than the one before. She lost track of her consciousness and sank into a coma. After a while she woke up and looked around her. The pain was still here but through it she gathered a few glimpse of the outside. she was in a glass cylinder. as where Sophie on the other side of the pathway and Anna at her right. She saw a few people in lab-coat and a few in a grey uniform pass by her tube and check on her regularly but she was unable to discern who they where. She sank back into darkness “wake up” at first she hadn’t realize who was speaking. “Wake up luce I you”said the voice in her head again. She realized then : Anna. “ANNA ! is this you ?” she yelled in her head. “Well it’s us...” replied the voice. she suddenly realized why Anna voice seemed changed, it wasn’t Anna voice it was Veronica and Anna merge voice. “How are you ?” she asked “not that well to be honest. We... I am draining my last power can you help me” “Ok don’t worry I will”she said while searching her memory. “we need to use the injection link to take a part of the load” she though. In her head she still heard that with the voice of Sylvana. She realized she new instinctively how to do it. She felt as she was surrounded by sand all her energy drain to keep Anna alive. She quickly realize that she we be out again soon so she opened the same channel toward Sophie. This finish to flush her last resolve and she fell back under, but the link stayed active. The pain make seconds stretch to hours, hours to weeks and days to millenniums. After what felt like an eternity of pain and cold she felt something bring her from the dark toward the light. Someone was giving her food, it was only injection of nutriments and sugar but it felt like ambrosia to her famished system and brain. Her mouth filled with the taste of honey and spices and she enjoyed every last once of it. She also felt the load lift a bit Anna and Sophie where still in good shape enough to have a sugar rush and a hint of vigor on feeding. The thought keep her sane, it give her a purpose “we will survive” she thought. The voice of sylvana in her head was a nice memento she decided so she opted to keep this internal voice. Sadly the rest was short and after a few she felt the load grew anew and the pain who hadn’t left her started to crawl back to new height. “We should try to sleep” she thought. She fought with the pain for this and ultimately won by exhaustion. “Are you sleeping in there or are you still under ?” she heard. Victoria! it was Victoria voice, she was sure of it. She forced her eyes open, Victoria was just in front of her, head resting on the glass. Victoria big blue eyes were looking deep in her eyes which make her shivers. “at last! You are one tough cookie miss Frost, that’s a given. Yet this time you were a bit to greedy with it I feared. Your two comrades are ready for the next phase already but you are still in the first stage.” Said Victoria. “Are you understanding ?” asked Victoria. Lucy closed her eyes a few times. “I take that as a yes. I will let you four more hours, but after that we will have to proceed anyway.” Victoria said before going out of the room. Lucy drifted back to a dreamless sleep. The pain was actually backing up a bit and she started to feel stronger. She was awakened by the sound of someone hitting on the glass. She opened her eyes. Anna was on bed at the feet of her tube. “Thank you” said the voice of Anna in her head. Anna was still connected to a big array of cable at the back of her head. “Well at least we haven’t done it for nothing” she thought. A few sisters carried both Anna and Sophie to the other part of the room out of her sight. A few hours later Victoria was back. The pain was back to heavy headache level, which compared to before seem like the best she ever felt. Victoria planted her gaze in hers. “Ready for the fun part it seem” she said “you’ve done well Miss Frost. This will be the kind of bravery who is spread around fire at the feast. You saved your friends” Victoria raised her hand and saluted “Now, let’s have fun will ya ?” she yelled joyfully while manipulating the control panel. Lucy looked at the tube emptying by the bottom, the cold liquid draining under her feet. The air felt hot to her, like a very warm martian day. Victoria opened the front face of the tube and grabbed Lucy’s body as the metal grip loosened. It was the first time she had seen Victoria without her armor and she was very strong even without it. Victoria put her on a bed and turned her face up. “This is the easy part now” she said smiling. Arriving in the other side of the room Lucy turn their head to the side. it was a surgery bloc. Sister Elisabeth was wearing a harness plugged to her head with five mechanical arms and was working to fix Sophie leg. Another sister that Lucy hadn’t met before appear in her vision angle “Hi, I am sister Eleonor. I will be the one who will operate you.” she said. She was wearing the same harness than Elisabeth. “Let’s start shall we ?” she said “but first some pain killers and anesthesia now that we have the right to do so...” Victoria chuckled a little “Your in good hands Lucy, Eleonor is the best there is” she said leaving the room. Lucy was sad to see her go but she had not the time to reflect on it as the grip of anesthesia was already clenching around her mind and she fell back into sleep. When she woke up she was in a comfortable bed. Someone was waiting on a chair beside her bed. Anna. Lucy tried to raise but Anna put her hand on her thorax in a calming gesture. She took a cable and plugged it in her head then in the head of Lucy. “Hello, how are you ?” said a voice in her head “Fine I guess and you ?”replied Lucy “Way better thank you for saving us” “You would had do the same in our place” “Maybe but still, We are very grateful to have been reunited. i really thought I had lost Veronica.” “Don’t worry kiddo we cover each others. It was true in Cydonia plains it still is wherever we are now” “ Still it was very brave of you to do this. Victoria seemed really impressed by what you did back there even if we don’t exactly understand why yet.”said Anna “Well we kind of go a bit overboard and we were a bit to eager during the ritual. Paid a bit since then but still since it worked it was good”said Lucy. Anna Stayed silent for a long time and then added “Anyway we are glad to see you’re not in pain anymore” Lucy tried to laugh but the sound going out of her mouth was distorted and unfamiliar. “The hell I don’t know how to laugh anymore !” she said through the link “Yeah, me neither and don’t try to speak. I think it will be kind of long to get our voice back”replied Anna. “Sucks but we will take this everyday over loosing you. Speaking of which where’s Sophie ?” “With the medics, they are not exactly in good state. They were damn stubborn as usual and tried to go running before they were ready. Their leg stopped working like half a klicks in and she fell quite hard on the ground. Was back up the minute after but the doc aren’t exactly fan of such stunt. So they dragued their sorry ass right back to tweaks and repair zone” said Anna visibly amused by the whole thing. Even considering what she’s gone through Lucy couldn’t see this as anything else than fun. “Typical, give these punk shiny new stuff and they will brake it the day after” she said smiling. “How long was I under” she asked. “ About a day more than me. If i gathered everything Sophie said correctly, three days totals.” “Damn, looked longer from the inside of the tank...”said Lucy. “Have you hought about your name ? “ Asked Lucy. “Victoria said most of them change name to reflect the fact that they are not alone anymore.” “We reflected on this but we are not yet fixed. We do like Anna a lot, I mean it was my name and Veronica liked it a lot. But we are not fixed yet. And you any thought ?” Lucy tried to go look into herself. She wished to change, that was for sure. She wasn’t the same anymore and wanted to acknowledge this and she thought it was fairer to change. Upon reflection a name popped up in her brain : Sigrid. “I think I need to change, I will be Sigrid now”she said “Sigrid ?”said Anna “Why a Nordic earthling name ?”she asked. “I dunno, but I am called Fröst after all. I don’t know where this idea came from” Sigrid replied. “I do” said Vicotria out loud entering the room. Both Anna and Sigrid jumped by surprise. “How are you listening ?” asked Anna in her head, visibly distraught at the thought of someone reading her mind. “You two punks use a public broadcast system. You see since your brain is now digitized you are capable of interacting with your comlink and our datalink flawlessly. You are effectively permanently connected to the grid as long as you are connected to the data grid. And since you are not sufficiently trained to create and secure private channel you are effectively broadcasting your every thoughts. Oh and actually this cable is useless, it’s only cause it convinced your brain that you could speak with her that you are able to talk like that. Actually you could remove it and still talk the same.”said Victoria. Anna was livid “Don’t worry Anna, you are on a closed network here. the whole training chamber is on vpn. But you do need to learn to close yourself of before going on on the rest of the ship. They are worst thing lurking in the darkness of the data-grid than other sister listening. Some knowledge are best left for the one who can handle them. Also the unfiltered flow is intense for the untrained. we will have a training about this in the afternoon but before that we need to train you to something I have a hunch you’ll like.” said Victoria “What are you talking about ?”asked Sigrid through her comlink. “Not bad miss Fröst as you can see even if for now speaking is a bit difficult communication is not that much of an issue. Well we need to train you to DEIT.” “what is DEIT ?“asked Anna “Digitally Enhanced Immersive Training. A Virtual Training ground with specific parameters to train a precise skill.” “Ok how can we do that ?” asked Sigrid “First of we need to link ourselves to the training server. Wireless connection is not fast enough for this. so please take a seat.” Said Victoria while designating the chair at the end of the room. They were medical chair like dentist chair with an array of cables on the side. Victoria helped them to link to the chair and connect every cable in the multiple ports and opening on their head and neck. After a while Sophie came back and Victoria explained to her what they were doing. Sophie hoped in her chair and started to link herself up also. Once they were all set Victoria announced “Heads up girl the first training is a bit rough. It’s made to break in the new Sisters like yourself and help them get a hold of their motor skill. It’s rather unpleasant” She then pressed a few button on her wrist. The world faded to black around them. Sigrid felt the wall get closer, faster and faster and suddenly fell through her chair swallowed whole by the dark abyss under her. She fell in the dark for what felt like a second before bashing her head against something hard. She opened her eyes, wood. Real wood. she was laying on the deck of an old three mast ship. “Up and fight for your life women” yelled Victoria above here. Sigrid raised from the deck and looked are her hands and body. She was tanned and dress as a sea scoundrel. She jumped on her feet and looked at her tight, she was equipped with a saber and a muzzle loaded pistol. That will do. She drew her saber and looked around to find someone to fight. The wave coming from behind crashed at her feet and swooped her off her feet. her head fell hard on the deck and she was stunned. The retreating water dragged her of the deck and she fell on the water far below and started to sink. The cold water waked her up but she was already to far under the water and she fought hard, screaming and kicking to swim up. After a few seconds of fighting she felt the burn in her lungs and started to blackout again. she drowned in this strange sea of the past. As the dark finally closed in something appeared in front of her. a scoreboard. all their names where present and they were according to the board all dead. The third column was cause of death, according to the board Victoria had been killed by musket fire, Anna by a dagger in the back and both Kassandra and herself drowned. the fourth column was time, she had been the longest for nearly a full minute. “Not bad rookie” she heard in her head “you’ve beaten me for a good margin. Apparently you’re still better swimmer than me” “Sophie ?” “We were yes, but no we have chosen Kassandra. I’ve seen you also changed your name ?” “ Yes. Felt like it was deserved.” “OKAY Girls ready ? set ? AGAIN” yelled Victoria in their head. Again the pain of the shock when crash landing on the deck. Except this time it was a bit different. Sigrid jumped instantly on her feet and grabbed a rope. Pulling hard on it she kept her ground and braced for impact. The wave came and swept the deck in a fury of cold and water. Sigrid felt the salty taste in her mouth, the water running every square centimeter of her skin and entering her mouth and nose. She get her grip as strong as she can and shut her eyes to let the water withdraw. “Hey not bad” she said while the water was gone again.”Now wha...” she never finished her sentence. A violent pain in the side of the head, the smell of burnt powder and she was back to the scoreboard. “Killed by pistol wound to the head” said the board. Apparently Kassandra was still fighting it as was Victoria. Anna on the other hand was already dead also, apparently the saber duel was still not her strong suite. “Damn that’s hard”said Anna “I am so slow and clumsy. Feel like being back to the academy again. Well except this training gear kick some serious ass.” “I admit this is some great tech to train upon”said Sigrid. Kassandra name turned red and the board now listed “Killed by friendly fire”. “Victoria, you’ll pay for that you traitor” she yelled joyfully. “We will see rookie, we will see” said Victoria “AGAIN!” she yelled. Another shock, another salty wave followed by a somersault to dodge the bullet and a saber strike to dispatch the gunman. “What’s next Kassandra ? Help me you ve been there” asked Sigrid “BRACE” yelled back Kassandra running. toward her. Another wave passed but Sigrid had grabbed the mast so she was safe for now. Both women where hiding behind a crate at the bottom of the foremost mast. “Victoria is back there” explained Kassandra pointing at the castle and the helm “she has a musket, and the bitch now how to shot let me tell you”she explained. “I can try to shoot her with my pistol” proposed Sigrid. “Well I doubt you will hit her Sigrid. moving target, moving floor, long range poor pistol” listed kassandra “Fair point, what do you suggest” “We should rush her toge...”. A sharp pain, the burning sensation and the scoreboard again. Killed by grenade fire. Damn Victoria was ruthless “AGAIN!” she yelled “and this time don’t take cover behind the powder crate, girls.”she added joyfully. Deck, wood, salt, somersault, saber, brace and run. Sigrid was back behind the crate before Kassandra. “ Ok I have an idea. take the powder keg and run toward Victoria. Trust me” said Sigrid. Kassandra Looked unconvinced but took the keg and started to rush toward Victoria. Sigrid jumped to the other side and started to run too. A blast to her left confirmed that victoria had hit the keg. “Come on rookie, you can do better than this” she was yelling to Kassandra. Emerging from the stair behind Victoria’s back, Sigrid jumped and put her saber through the mouth of Victoria. “Eat that one newbie” said Sigrid Drawing back her sword cutting Victoria skull in two clean half. The scoreboard appeared again displaying “Sigrid Wins”. “Sneaky little rat. That was painful” said Victoria visibly amused. “Next !” yelled Victoria. As soon as she said that the floor opened under Sigrid feet. They were falling fast toward a giant city, Sigrid looked around unable to see the edge of the urban area “Ok Sisters, we are currently falling toward the city. There is a nuke head somewhere in it we have a day to find it”explained Victoria “A DAY ?” asked Anna “yup, don’t worry time is only in sim. in truth less than a minute has passed since we started to have fun. That’s the beauty of DEIT.” They all landed in the city and started to dispatch. The rest of the morning was spent doing lots of training exercises for learning the ropes again and get used to their new body. Anna was the one who quickly become the best at this. She had always be the tech expert of the team and apparently she was the more attuned to her AI. She had less troubles to get a hold on her body. Sigrid was quite fond of her new ability but she was still to distracted by her new perception and the flow of data coming from the grid. Kassandra was the worst of. Not for lack of trying, but the damage to her brain and body was still fresh and her prosthesis members glitched a few time causing her to experience some very gruesome and painful death. However the biggest things she all got out of her training was their voice. It was still rough and they had trouble on some words but it was mostly back even if their voice had changed. It was strange to not know the voice of your friend but thing sorted out fast.“All right that’s all for today” said Victoria “I know this intoxicating, especially for military type like you but please don’t use it without supervision. Mental scars and brain injuries are not fun. Trust me. That being said you are good. Great soldier already and it shows but you should work on the sisterhood part. There is no point sharing brain and communicating flawlessly if it is for using it like a radio.” “True” said Kassandra visibly a bit put down by her performance. “Don’t let yourself down Kassandra. You’ve already gone through a good chunk of the training pack. The Pirate ship alone took most recruit a whole day to master” said Victoria. “Free time till two pm sharp. The mess is down the hall at your right and the door between your room and the mess is the shower room. Take a good meal, even if you don’t feel it your brain just burnt through a shitload of energy and nutrients doing training at this speed.” she added “I can feel it “ said Anna “ Me too, I could eat a horse” said Sigrid. They all raised and started to walk toward the mess “If only we had that at the academy” said Kassandra. “Heck yeah” replied Anna “would have been linked to it for weeks on end. That’s so awesome”she continued. “You would have been dead before freshman presentation day” joked Sigrid “starved to death on your new toy. Speaking of which “she said putting a big chunk of lab grown meat and a big plate of pasta in cheese sauce on her tray. The Sisterhood wasn’t particularly against eating meat and high end food but as a somewhat space born or at least a space fairing creed they rarely if ever used animal and plants in their food. Most of it was lab grown or processed from pure protein grown in vat of bacteria. Thus making it very easy to store and eat in space. They munched silently for a bit but were still famished. After an amount of food that would have killed a bear they started to talk. “What happened since the attack” asked Anna. “Well in the interest of completion we should let Sigrid replied since well I missed a bit to” “You’ve not missed much Kassandra to be honest. Anyway I will keep this short.” said Sigrid. She explained how they have met Victoria and accepted to join the Special operation command, how they met the local group who tell them to go seek outside. the few problem they had outside and the fact that Victoria helped them by basically making them all traitors. “Damn, girls. i left you both in charge for a week and you destroy our reputation and make us enemy with half the down” said Anna jokingly. “Yeah, but to be honest I wonder if Maxence was really with us to start...”said Kassandra “Seemed a bit more like a trap to me.” “I agree but I have no reason to question him. The crate will gave us answer we should ask for it. If what’s inside is really significant maybe he his a good fella”said Sigrid “Maybe but to be honest I highly doubt this.” said Kassandra “In any case this will have to wait as we are late, already thirteen fifty eight and I am pretty sure Victoria is not the kind of CO to wait for her troop” “Oh shoot” yelled Anna and they all jumped the table and started to run toward their room. Leaving their tray behind.They where back in the room at one past fourteen. Victoria was here already “You are late” she said dryly. “Ok on the chair but no link” The three sisters do as they were told to. and started to sit on the chair. “what the program” asked Anna “Training” replied Victoria “Signal analysis and filtration. Intelligence gathering and communication.” she explained “We will start with normal communication and after that we will teach you to filter out unwanted info and unwanted conversation. creating your network and protect it from the outside is a skill you will need a lot in the Sisterhood. There is a lot of people in the sisterhood, so you need to ear clearly and emit only to those you want to reach. also you need to know how to protect yourself against external aggression as probably a lot of people will try to hack you once your on the outside. we don’t have only friend sadly.” said Victoria. “A lot of people are trying to infect our network with toxic code or to try to steal our AI seeds. That why we need to train you. must not let weak link in the chain.” she explained. “ok so how do we proceed ?” asked Sigrid. “I will put up a link to the main network to give you a sense of what it’s looks like and then we will do some exercise on it. Learning the rope on filter and focused emission. Once that’s done we will do the security brief and training for the security part.” “roger” replied Anna locking her head on the head rest. “Opening In 3, 2, 1, 0...” said Victoria at zero her voice was drowned in an ear shattering roar of mixed voices and data. hundreds of Gigabytes passing through their brain all at the same time. Thousands of voice speaking at the same time in a multitude of language. hundreds of sensor, satellite and ships broadcasting their position and state in real time. Suddenly they were aware of a good quarter of the solar system space and a sensible chunk of it’s population, every thoughts, movements and actions were gathered shared and linked to them. They were at the same time looking at the marvels of unknown world, reading thousands of books and doing countless feats of sport and combat. The feeling was overwhelming and painful. They weren’t able to discern anything and all their senses where drowned in a saturation so intense that it was blinding. after a few second something was broken and their perception fell back to the room and the ceiling over their face. “WHAT THE HELL ?” Shouted Anna taking her head in her hands. she tried to raise and walk but she fell to her knee and thrown up a bit of her lunch in the bucket Victoria gave her. “what was that ?” asked Kassandra visibly shocked to even if a bit less than Anna “Was it the whole grid ?” asked Sigrid “Yes . it’s normal you two haven’t catch that your Sofiakratos was way less pure than her’s so her brain is more adaptable to the network. It was in fact the ole network without any filter or choice made about what to received. we usually don’t use it like this it’s too overwhelming even for us. it’s too much hassle to filter and it isn’t the fastest network since so many people use it but we usually use this for alerts and security message. as an emergency broadcast if you will. the rest of the traffic is the general traffic we don’t care to protect. every day thought and info, public record, necessary public data like navigation and such. It’s also a way to find people you don’t have pre-established link with.” Victoria explained. You need to learn to shield from it and do channel selection in it. I have asked a friend to help me with this. She is on Titan supervising the construction of our new Vanguard class interceptor. You need to shield yourself against the background noise. Concentrate to only listen to local sensation and filter outside info. When this is done start searching the girl. her name is Sandra and she is currently looking at a bis ship in the dry dock. I reopen in ten sec. if your good with that give me a thumbs up. if somethings is wrong and you want to stop the training just drop your thumbs the other way and i ll cut the feed don’t try to contact me through the noise I won’t hear you.” Victoria ordered. “Ok” said Anna tossing the buvket in a sink and going back to her chair. she gave the thumbs up to Victoria. The other two were already in place so as soon as she put her thumbs up the roar surged again in their head. Sigrid started to use her torture resistance training. Imagining a candle then the table around it then the home around it where is the home situated and why... Concentrating her mind the flame of the candle seem to work and little by little the roar tuned out. she started to pick up some conversations. She started to discern more where her mind was wondering. focusing even more she was able to silence every thing and the world was suddenly calm again, the silence was a luxury she wasn’t aware she had before. she appreciated it for a few second and then started to open her mind a bit more. The roar started to come back but was rapidly dragged back to a soft talking. she started to comb the immensity of the network when she was then cut short by Victoria cutting the feed. She opened her eyes, Anna was bleeding through the nose and seem sick again. “Damn are you okay Anna ?” asked Kassandra “It’s a bit to much for me to be honest” replied softly Anna. Victoria seem preoccupied. She raised and open a drawer in one of the stand near the bed. She took a syringe in it and started to unpack it after having a look at Anna’s neck she planted the needle between the ear and the back of her neck and opened the syringe pusher. A green liquid was starting to fill the syringe. “Oh god that’s bad. Ok it’s normal then Anna that you have trouble with this sadly i have bad news. your brain is reacting to the inclusion we need to fix this. it will take a few hours in the block so I suggest you two go to the mess and then do some PT cause i won’t be able to attend. Do not go in DEIT” explained Victoria. Both Sigrid and Kassandra shook their head in acceptance. Victoria helped Anna to raise from the chair and helped there to walk toward the surgical ward. Sigrid and Kassandra looked at each other. Kassandra was the first to talk “ ok let’s go to the gym, apparently you where eager to work out this leg.”she said “Well I was then I fell, and it started to shock me so I was less motivated.” They looked at the map on the wall of the hall and started to walk toward the gym. They passed the rest of the day at the gym. They were very surprise to find a swimming pool in the ship but there was one. and after the weightlifting session and the running session they both opted to use it. While they were there some sisters came by and started to swim in long back to back series. “I never thanked you for what you did.” Said Kassandra “You’d have done the same. Actually you kind of have done the same when i had my accident and you carried me for a whole day of mission on your back.”replied Sigrid. “Wasn’t the same. We were in training no real danger to do it. You risked your life for us and I wanted to thank you for that” “Your welcome Kassandra, I am not that fond of burying friend anyway. Even the one as reckless as you, numbnuts.” “ you re right I should have waited for you. I acted on impulse and it was stupid. You want always be there to save my sorry ass. And I can’t keep destroying this body like that” she said designating the metallic leg. “Not everyone seem to dislike it” said Sigrid laughing. “What are you talking about ?” “the young women with the blue and purple hair is eating you alive...” said Sigrid. Kassandra looked up to the pack of swimming sisters. One of the girl was looking at her clearly checking her out, and not that shy about it either. She had a mechanical hand and fore arm herself, a side cut of blue and purple hair and a small frame. The other girl of her group were teasing her. “Probably the rookie of the team by the look of it” said Sigrid “yeah, the poor thing she is not doing herself a favor there” said Kassandra “Come on Kass, why so much self hatred. when was the last time you let yourself go. Or had sex for that matter” joked Sigrid happily “Well if we exclude being royally screwed by explosive discharge. I dunno a year. But before you insist more i won’t go see her. we are new here we don’t know the custom of the land and I don’t think we need more attention on us. So even if the girl is very good looking I wont go no matter what.” said Kassandra turning to face Sigrid. “Yeah it would be awful to, you now have fun for a change. The poor girl will be so saddened by it. oh the poor thing” said Sigrid. “Common shut it Sigrid. This sister is very good looking and seem like a nice girl but I am pretty sure if I go “hey you are so hot, wanna fuck ?” the chance we agree is pretty small, let’s face it.” Said Kassandra vehemently. “Well, yes actually” said a voice behind Kassandra. Sigrid burst in laugh, she clearly had seen the girl approach and had laid down an ambush for Kassandra to fell in. And Kassandra had happily obliged much to the girl delight. The young women was now smiling devilishly “ By the way thanks for the wingman assist , I wish it’s that easy every time” she said to Sigrid. Kassandra was baffled by the young women ease and confidence.”Well, may I ask who you are miss ?” “My name is Elise and I would love to know you more if you want to” Elise replied throwing a hand to Kassandra. Elise was a somewhat petite ( two meter tall isn’t exactly small, but most of here friend were a good twenty centimeters taller), she had vairon eyes but not the usual color. One was blue and the other a deep purple with a ring of gray around the iris. She had decent features (which reinforced her petite allure since the other sisters were so generously endowed) and as Sigrid couldn’t help but notice a very nice ass above set of long legs for her size. She was very beautiful and just a bit taller than Kassandra (who have been the tallest most of her life) “Well. I am not authorized to leave the training ward yet so ...” Kassandra replied “And also she is named Kassandra and she is Martian and a very good special ops soldier albeit one with a certain disregard for safety. And she is still shy as a college girl apparently.” added Sigrid behind Kassandra’s back. Elise laugh was crystalline and pure, matching here small frame and white milky skin but contrasted a bit with her hair and confident behavior. “I am not very sound myself” she said raising her mechanical hand. “I had gathered that yeah” said Sigrid. “Well I am happy you two get along so well.” said Kassandra with a noticeable rose at her cheek but still being her sarcastic self. “Well Elise, I must admit that I m very pleased to accept your kind sentiment. Is tonight, twenty hour sharp at the mess seem good for you ? as I said we are kind of locked to the ward for now.” “Not a problem I reckon. Are you the one who drank pure sofiakratos at her ritual ?” “ I don’t know honestly I wasn’t awake at the time. I was a bit into a funk” Said Kassandra jokingly knocking on her metallic leg. “oh... cause I heard strange rumors about outsiders being pushed through the ritual to save their lives and about one who drank it pure... must be some silly rumors”saif Elise “It is not.”replied Sigrid “Kassandra wasn’t the one. I was” she said. Elise eye opened as wide as a plate. “The hell ? you drank it pure and just casually shake it off like it was a walk in the park. You Martian are hardcore...” she said visibly impressed. Kassandra looked at Sigrid “I am a bit reckless myself” said softly Sigrid “I kind of take liberties with the ritual process”she added. “Yeah you could say it like that, or you could say that your friend here is the meanest Motherfucker badass this side of the galaxy! She basically drank liquid hell straight from the bottle just because she was made aware that it help her chance the ritual will be a success” said Elise to Kassandra “So much for being the safe one then!” Kassandra said laughing “Well considering it’s probably why you are alive, you should be glad I did.”replied Sigrid “Yeah, that’s why I’ve done it” said Sigrid seeing Elise horrified face. “Miss punkass here rushed straight in a bad case of explosive ambush. And another of our friend, Anna was left for dead on an alley with an electric rod through her companion AI core. So they were both out and both Kassandra and Anna were going to die, same for both their AI companion. One of your Anima sister proposed to do an emergency ritual to save the lot in one take. They needed some one to take the blunt of the load, so me and my AI choose to do it. Even if since my spine is broken a reject would have mean going the rest of my day in wheels. So the choice was either success and all of us walked away or all my friend dying and me in a wheelchair. So it was kind of a go big or go bust choice...”said Sigrid with sadness in the voice. “I am so sorry wasn’t aware it was in such tragic circumstances. I am glad you survived it, you are even more courageous to have done that like that. I am surprised you are alive, even more that you seem okay after such an ordeal. I had mine a year and half ago and It was hard enough. With to mangled body to lift up and a full pure load of SK it must have been straight up hell” said Elise “I had better days, that’s for sure. But I endured it. I had quite powerful motivations you know. Also Sylvana helped me a lot.”said Sigrid softly. “her AI companion “ whispered Kassandra. Elise walked toward Sigrid and throw a hand in direction “Will you do me the honor Sister ?” she asked. Sigrid raised solemnly and take her hand silently “I am honored to meet a true hero.” she said with gravitas locking her forearm with Sigrid’s one. “And I am sure glad you saved us, such a magnificent piece of ass.” she said with a devious grin. All three of the sisters burst in laugh. after a while she added “Seriously tho you Miss are a true soldier and I would be glad to serve with you. Feel free to request me anytime.” “Pleasure meeting you Elise” said Sigrid releasing Elise forearm. “Now let meet the girls” said Elise joyfully taking the arm of Kassandra, nearly dragging her to the pack. Sigrid followed suite smiling, there was something very refreshing in Elise bluntness and sheer joyfulness. “Always a good combo” she thought ”and a very good soldier too judging by her record”. She realized at this moment that she had in fact instinctively connected to the public records of the Sisterhood of Edda and mentally combed her military record and history. The thought make her shivers a bit, she needed to train this to not automatically stalk every bystander every where she’d goes. “Already found a new prey Elisa, took you what... half a day this time” said a big girl with long red hair and the same strange vairon eyes than Elise. All the rest of the troop laughed generously at this but Elise seem to not care to dignified this with any reaction. She said on a flat tone “ This is Wera, our oldest. Don’t be fooled by her good looks she his in her sixty seventh year in the hoods,” pointing at a tall women with black hair and blue eyes. She was tall even for Sisterhood standards which say a lot. “this is Vigdis our sniper, on her way to Sagitarius status faster than anyone else on this ship.” she said pointing at blonde women with big green eyes. She had both her arms modified heavily and some parts where metallic. She was the most curvaceous of the lot and a very beautiful women “This is Ren and her her twin sister Oka, These two devil are our close combat expert.” she continued. The tow sister where a bit taller than Elise but still in the light side compared to the rest of the team. they both sported very long, very straight jet black hair with a nearly blue shade over hazel eyes. They blushed a bit when Elise putted their on display like that. “This Tatianna is our intelligence and infiltration specialist, I suggest you don’t turn your back on her.” Elise said pointing at a blonde women. Her picture should have served as the definition under Russian in the thesaurus. She was tall, strongly built with blonde hair cut military men style and was fixing her own mechanical hand and forearm. She was also very beautiful and her blue gaze was piercing with strong hint of ruthlessness. She was a living embodiment of the end of 20th century earth communist propaganda. Sigrid was unsure if it was random occurrence or by design but it was clear that Tatianna had come to term with it “And that smart ass right there is my older sister Axel. Our Team leader. And yes she was a smart ass even before we were in the Sisterhood” she finally said pointing at the red haired girl who spoke before. All girl nodded when Elise pointed at them, and turned to open the circle to the new comers. “And I gather you now know our demolition and heavy weapon expert, my little sister Elise.” added Axel “ And you are ?” asked Tatianna with a strong Russian accent. It was by design. no doubt in Sigrid mind. “My name is Kassandra. I am, well I guess a new member of your order de facto” “And Elise’s new toy” Added Vigdis. Which prompted a new round of laughs. Elise while laughing was still shooting a deathly gaze to Vigdis. Apparently Elise confidence was nothing new thought Sigrid. “My name is Sigrid. I am also a new member, I undertook the trial a few days ago.” she said as a matter of facts. “So you really are the one who ?” asked Wera surprised “Well, yes I am Madam”. A investigative look from Tatianna and Axel prompted Wera to explain “She drank the Sk pure. Astride made a big deal about it, honestly seeing how she was back then and how her friend looked like back then, I was certain she’d be dead or at suffer a failure by now. I am glad i was wrong.” All the team seemed stunned by lightning. “ Pure SK and still standing ? that’s a tough cookie if I know one” said Tatianna. Turning to Wera she added “Last one rejected after four hours if my memory’s correct” “Three. The poor thing was broken, sister Maria kept her on the ward for a month after it. Keep everyone out of this kind of stunt for most of a decade.” replied Wera. “Well almost every one” added Oka “Does your other friend still okay also ?” she asked. “Anna, well I am not sure. She was fine at wake up but she seem to have some problem with her com link.” said Sigrid Oka seemed shocked, she looked at Ren and then Axel. “Go” said Axel. Oka raised from the bench she was sit upon and left. “Sorry” she said passing near Sigrid. “What just happened ?” asked Kassandra. “She his our medical officer, she was the one who assisted the AI for Anna cyber implant process” Ren explained “And if she has made any mistake she won’t pardon herself easily” added Elise “she is very invested in her patient well being and care.” “I gather you were the one in stasis ?” asked Wera to Kassandra “Yes I was” replied Kassandra “Glad to see you on such good form, truly miss Sigrid strength is commendable.” added Wera. “Thank you for your kind words, Madam” said Sigrid uneasily. “Are you happy to have made the leap ?” asked Tatianna with a strange melancholia in her voice. “Well, I am for know, that’s for sure. Even if to be honest I miss talking to Sylvana directly. But other than that yes I am very satisfied.” replied Sigrid “Let’s keep it that way then” said Axel cutting short the round of inquiry. “We were heading to our quarter to watch a movie , would you both want to join us ?” she asked. “Well I have other plans”said Kassandra. “If it’s ok with victoria I would love to if it’s in the ward.”said Sigrid “In the ward ? Why so ?”asked Axel “Network training” replied Ren “Since they are rookie and even more so outsider they aren’t network ready yet so they are confined to the ward VPN” She said to Axel. “That being said I can ask Victoria for a derogation. I will bring my own closed loop network to protect you. One of the perks of being Communication specialist” She said toward Sigrid “Can I bring Anna with me, if she’s up to it ?”she added “Of course, miss” replied Ren. “Let’s see if Victoria agree then”. “She does, also Anna is back to your quarter I suggest you head there and ask here if she want to come see movie.” replied Ren adding “again com specialist perks” as Sigrid and Kassandra looked at her with surprised look. “So it is said ?” said Axel “half past twenty in my quarter then. I’ll send you a map” she added to Sigrid “As for you sister Kassandra I must advice you to take care of you, as I am perfectly convinced Elise is tough enough to do the same” said Axel with a wink. “Ok sisters Recess over” shouted Tatianna “we are a kilometer short of the target and only twenty six minutes left to train. get swimming or I get kicking” she added with a smile . This was a joke of course but Sigrid was pretty sure that missing training target would be not advisable near Tatianna. As the small pack jumped happily in the pool, Sigrid and Kassandra where left somewhat alone. “Let’s get Anna shall we ?” siad Kassandra. “Okay but you tell her for your date” replied Sigrid with a devilish smile. Arriving on their quarter Anna was in the mess eating a copious lunch. “Hey, where were you girls ?” asked Anna calmly upon seeing them. “At the gym, swimming. Mostly” said Sigrid still sporting her wicked smile. “Mostly ?” “I kind of met the Don Juan of the ship apparently” said Kassandra. “How there is men on board ? That’s good news” she said with the same grin as Sigrid. “Well not exactly, no ”replied Kassandra” She’s name is Elise” “Oh not fun, how come it’s always for you Kass”said Anna faking being sad. “I honestly dunno. Beside I am lesbian anyway so it’s not that often” said Kassandra “Sigrid is the real cheater here, being bi she always get twice more choice” she added. The three women laughed heavily. “Anyway yeah I have a date”said Kassandra. “But tell us, what happened to you ? you seem strangely calm for someone who left to surgery.”asked Sigrid “Well not much to say. They replaced and re-soldered bits of my comlinks during the initial cyber transformation. Apparently my com was more damaged than they thought and was bleeding coolant in my brain. Which is bad, obviously. They opted to turn me Communication officer. This mean removing a bit of my brain and the whole neural link out again, but after this I will have full new stack and heavy duty load bearing comlink. which will solve the problem. They will make the surgery tomorrow morning and I should be back on training the day after. Not that much of a big deal” Anna explained calmly “But since i need to have an empty stomach, this will be my last meal before. So I thought I should have a good chunk while I still can” She said smiling happily. “You take that with such calm” remarked Sigrid “Going Cyber was my childhood dream. Not only i will be halfway there but I have Vero with me. And I don’t even pay it! no reasons to not be happy!”replied Anna “Fair point” admitted Kassandra.”Let’s grab something to eat also” said Kassandra grabbing a tray. The rest of the evening was spent dining and talking about the fay and the training they had. At ten before nineteen Kassandra excused herself to go look for a change of cloth and a bit of preparation. At nineteen and a half Elise was already there “Still there sisters ?” she said upon arriving. She looked lengthily at Anna and then turned to Sigrid “Damn if all your friend are so hot I want to spend more time with you” said Elise. Anna noticeably turned red and looked like a small girl caught cursing.”Aw that’s adorable” said Elise “Don’t worry miss I won’t embarrass you anymore, I m already taken for the night.” she said with a hint of pride in the voice. “Speaking of which ? Where is she ?” she asked. “Prepping.” said Sigrid “I know Kass, she will be all dolled up and gorgeous to the bone”said softly Anna “She always do when she has a date.”she added. Elise seemed a bit thrown of “Wait are you implying she will be way overdressed ?” she asked “Yeah, to the point to make any women question her sexuality, myself included” joked Anna “They shared a room during training”explained Sigrid seeing the curious with a hint of jealousy look on Elise face. “Oh, damn I am so unprepared. I hadn’t thought she would ...” Elise started “hey, next time be more careful what you wish for...” joked Sigrid. “Come on Anna let’s go. we should prepare ourselves for our movie night.”she added. Both Anna and Sigrid raised and left Elise alone in the mess. Arrived at the door Anna turned to Elise “Don’t stress it, you’re gorgeous to. in fact I am questioning myself right now !” she said with a wink to Elise. Elise turned red instantly much to the laugh of Anna “your turn kidoo” she said exiting the mess. Arriving on their room they saw Kassandra. She was wearing an asymmetric navy blue dress, gold trapping and jewelry that Sigrid suspected to be Victoria’s and was finish to do her make up. She was drop dead gorgeous from the front and the deep low back was just indecent. “Damn you look good Kass” said Anna entering the robe. “Where do you get these ?”she asked “ the dress in the drawer near my bed. Yeah I know strange to have this here but hey. The jewelry is a gift of Victoria”replied Kassandra without turning from her mirror “A GIFT ?” exclaimed Anna “Yeah, apparently the Sisterhood is quite rich and this is not that much luxury”said Kassandra “Damn, that must be nice to be that rich”said Sigrid. “She gave some more for you. I put it on your bed”. the women spent the rest of the time prepping for their respective night. Kassandra soon left to go to her date. Anna and Sigrid left a bit later to go to Ren quarter. the ship was gigantic compared to martian crew transport. It was like being in dome, except this one was in space. And judging by the vibrations moving. They arrived to Ren quarters. It was a dual bedroom flat with a big living room in between. She lived there with Oka and to the surprise of the two martians there was men in the room. “I thought the Sisterhood was strictly a women club” said Anna “Who are they ?” she asked Wera. “CCC members. They are on board of this ship to transport them to one of our base. While it’s true that exterior contact and conversation with outsider are discouraged in the sisterhood, more let’s say carnal exchange aren’t forbidden per see. The rules are a bit laxer with CCC as they are as much secretive as us and the Sisterhood as a long history with the CCC”. The night was spent in joyful carelessness and they watched a cheap action movie together. Most sisters present seemed relatively relaxed and calm but Tatianna was by far the one with the less spontaneity. She was deeply anxious about something but she seemed to want to keep it hidden. After the end of the movie while the other sisters where drinking some beers and playing cards she goes out and stayed on the deck before the house smoking a long cigar. After a while Sigrid choose to go investigate and came to sit next to her. “Mind if i joined ?”she ask. “go ahead but don’t expect me to be pleasant company...”replied Tatianna with a somber tone and sightly less accent than usual. “Why ?”asked Sigrid. “Memory is a pain. Even if I am not looking the part due to some experimental program of the sisterhood, I am one year older than Wera. Which makes me a hundred and twenty two year old.”she said “Wait what ? you’re a century old ?” replied Sigrid like she just received a direct to the guts “And a quarter, yeah”replied flatly Tatianna “And trust me a century of war and special ops means a lot of dirty business and fallen comrades. And a lots of Sk. In fact way to much Sk.” she added “What’s the problem with SK ?” asked Sigrid “Other than pain, I must admit being that fast to pick up skill and so analytic is a blast” she replied. “Well it is a times, but trust me having a perfect comprehension and very detailed memory come to bite you in the ass when you start to have remorse. And I do have a lots of regrets” said Tatianna “Including starting to smoke...” she said throwing her cigar in the bin. “I am sorry kid, last mission was hard and lots of us has shiny new parts due to that. Hard to swallow when you are the team veteran.”she added. “Not a problem Miss. It’s not like I am new to the sentiment myself, being the only still fully biological of the team.” replied Sigrid sitting near Tatianna. “Anna is a cyborg ? doesn’t show” said the russian sister. “Well it doesn’t show a lot but half her brain had to be replaced due to burn damages” explained Sigrid “Burn damage ?”asked Tatianna visibly worried. “She was attacked by a strange weapon, Kind of electric arc dispenser. Burnt through both her AI companion and half her brain. She would probably have died if it weren’t for her mandatory empty tooth. The base of it is in copper. Diverted the power to the bone rather than the brain” explained Sigrid. Tatianna jumped on her feet and rushed in. The music stopped. Sigrid follow tatianna inside “what the heck ?” she said upon seeing the scene. Tatianna was in the middle of the room Anna skull in her hand and looking at the burn marks “What is this ? what the problem with my head ?” Asked Anna. Tatianna released her and yelled “SOn of a bitch” throwing a full blown direct punch in the wall. The wall was dented for a good fifty centimeters radius. “That motherfucker is still alive.” she yelled “Who...” started Axel but she was cut by Wera “Non sens, We killed him thirty six years ago” “No we don’t, Look at her heads for fuck sake, WE DON’T”yelled Tatianna even louder before starting to make circle of heavy footsteps in the room. “May I look at you head sister Anna ?” asked calmly Wera “I am sorry to be so rude but it’s a life of death matter” Anna looked a bit distressed but said “Yes you may but please be gentle recovery is slow and painful” Wera examined her head and lifted the bandages. “Impossible ... How ?” she said with an horrified look making a few step back “We see him die” “No we don’t, WE DON’T, We should have ... I should have kill him myself.” replied Tatianna with palpable rage in the voice. “Somebody care to explain ?” asked Axel with a tone that suffered no discussions. The silence fell on the room. swallowing her saliva painfully trying to control her rage Tatianna replied “Alexeiev Stroga said Solomon. Only human to know who or what Ozimandias is. Only known agent of the organization named “The watchers” founded by said entity, Ozimandias. Killer of five Senatorialis Sisters, twenty two Justicar sisters and bane of the Praethorians.”said Tatianna with visible difficulty to stay calm. “And killer of Svetlanna Serova” added Wera. This time Tatianna beat the wall so hard that her metal fist had gone right through it . “Tatianna blood sister ...” added Wera to Sigrid and Anna. Everybody observed a lengthy silence. Tatianna dragged back her arm from the wall. “I am gonna find and kill this asshole. And this time I will see it through Venus or not.” she said with no sign of her past rage and fury, just an absolutely unshakable resolve. Everyone upon seeing her knew how utterly pointless it would be to reason her. “How do you know it was him ?” asked Anna “The mark. The electrical injector you’ve been attacked with. It is his weapon. an infinitely dense energy storage mounted on a three spike injection device. A clean kill on all sisters. Well almost all. We call this the claw of Ozimandias cause it was gifted to Alexeiev to do his bidding.” explained Wera “Alexeiev is extremely dangerous due to that an his ability to use short QTF jump. He studied umbras in his youth and seem to have cracked or at least replicated the way they move and attack. That’s how he attacked you without you seeing him. He jumped behind you striking blindly and jumped back before anyone can see him. that was is modus operandi back then, that’s how he killed so much people.” she continued “Except Svetlana” corrected Tatianna with her mechanical tone. “She figured out that he was jumping like that and booby trapped her own armor. She was on duty as Hildr guards at the time and rightfully feared Alxeiev would try to target Hildr. so she rigged her armor with a protonic claymore mine. When the arc runned through her, hes dorsal plate exploded in a blast of plasma and liquid metal. The resulting injuries proved to be to much for Alexeiev so he retreated to his ship. But the nuclear blast tagged him with enough radio element that it was easy to lock our target on them so we shot him down. We scored a few hit and his crippled ship fell in Venus gravitational wheel. His ship crashed in a sulfuric acid lake. And considering how deadly venus is we thought we were done with him for good. apparently not. Either he survived or someone took back the mantle. In either case that’s not a good news for humanity...” Ren was starring blankly at the door, after a while she seemed back in the room “Attention ! Senatorialis Sister Astride is coming. Stand by for more info” All the sisters jumped on their feet and stood in Attention. Sigrid and Anna followed suite, while CCP members regrouped near the door in a line and waited there. A few minute later two Praethorians Sisters and a Justicar entered the room. The Justicar threw a circular look at the room and yelled “Out, all of you”. Everybody left the room and the sisters started to line up outside the room against the wall. Sigrid was the last one out and joined them at the wall. In front of them was sister Astride in a red and gold armor, Sister Victoria in full combat armor with her nocturnalis cape, and a full detachment of Nocturnalis. probably every last combatant sisters available in the ship. The fifty or so Nocturnalis where actively combing the ground around the house and setting up defensive shooting position. “Is that true sister Tatianna ?” asked sister Astride “I think so, madam!” she replied orderly but with the same resolve as before. “Are you sure of it ? was a long time ago...”asked Sister Astride “Absolutely positive Madam, I wouldn’t have forget this mark, may I remember you my blood sister died that way” Tatianna replied angrily “I am sorry Tatianna, wasn’t aware...” said Sister Astride softly “Apologizes accepted Madam” replied instantly Tatianna. “What are you assessment Sister Tatianna ?” asked Sister Astride “I only new one weapon capable of leaving such mark. So either he his alive somehow. or someone get the same weapons and tech and picked up the mantle, quite possibly literally...” Sister Astride turned to sister Victoria “Please divert the ship toward phobos, Sister Victoria, I need the help of Sister Angelique to request an emergency senat meeting.” “Would not be necessary Sister Astride”said Wera “Why so ? As you probably know we need two Senatorialis Sister testimony to call the senate, so ...“ “That’s why I will testify too sister.”replied Wera to the surprise off everybody present. “Are you insinuating that...” asked Sister Astride visibly shocked. “Yes, I am a Senatorialis myself. I am part of the Athena Council. I was deployed on field to get direct info for one of our investigation.” Said Wera. Both sister Astride and sister Axel eyes widened. A quick network search informed Sigrid of what was or what was supposed to be the Athena council. Athena council was a rumored branch of the Senate of Odin directly under control of Hildr Odinson taking up position in all other branch of the order to investigate misuse of power and corruption inside of the order. Given that there mission regularly included heavy handed justice against high ranking member, They were effectively outranking everybody else in the order except Hildr. While the council had an official existence, not much was known about it’s working detailed given that it’s mere mission required by design the utmost level of secrecy. Athena council member usually revealed themselves only after their mission was completed, which routinely took years, even sometimes decades. “Do you have any proof of this ?” Asked sister Victoria being the first to recover her sens. “Of course.” said Wera opening her wrist guard. “Give me your knife Vigdis” she added. Vigdis produced a long elongated blade from her belt. Wera used it to make a very thin cut on her wrist. she then pushed something out of her wrist. a long crystalline spike engraved with small marks and notch. “Sister Hekate can you please be kind enough to lend me your data decipher ?”asked Wera. The Justicar sister seemed surprised that someone new her name “of course madam”she said giving Wera a small translucent tablet. Wera inserted the spike in it and the tablet started to print out what was apparently a running program with a progress bar. a few second after Wera announced “credential display” out loud and the tablet instantly displayed another identification card, the same kind of card Sigrid could instinctively pull up in her mind for every one present. Except it was not the same as the one she just looked at for Wera. This one had a purple border and a resume much longer including Senatorialis status. Actually she was even a Valkyrie one of the twelve counselor of Hildr Odinson herself. The Justicar quickly put her knee to the ground and the Praethorians Sisters quickly followed and all other sisters except for Astride and Victoria do too. “At your order, Valkyrie” said sister Hekate “Please raise, all of you. I don’t need any particular deference.”said softly Wera visibly a bit unease with such display of ranking power. “What...what was your orders ?” asked sister Astride with visible fear in voice. “Keep an eye on me I presume” said Victoria. Sigrid suddenly realized that every sister she had ever crossed including the very secretive Nocturnalis sisters where all, including sister Astride, taking their orders from Victoria making her probably a very high ranking officer. “It was yes, at least in part” said Wera. “You seemed rather aware ? how come ? Did my cover was blown before ?” she asked with a strength and authority in voice that Sigrid felt chilling. “No, sister. I was unaware of your rank. But I figured long ago that at least one the troop under my command would be a Athena council member. Being the commanding officer of the most secretive army this side of the galaxy, I am a liability. It’s justified and logic that I be under surveillance. That being said, I am confident in my own integrity” explained Victoria. “So Victoria is the commander of the Nocturnalis legion. That explain her libertity of proposing such radical solution and the presence of such a massive ship” Thought Sigrid “But it make her presence on Mars even stranger” she continued. “Don’t worry Victoria, if every commander were as close to her troop than you and has careful, I would be out of job” said Wera laughing. “That being said, miss Astride we need to call the senate as soon as possible” The Senatorialis sister seemed pulled of a dream, and she reaffirmed her stance. “You are right sister Wera, I will call them right now.” she left the group and went too her quarter. Axel was looking intensely at Wera “You are way higher rank than me Wera so i guess no that you are reveal you won’t serve under my command anymore ?” she asked “I guess no sister Axel, but in truth. I wasn’t assign to your command to begin with. I hand picked your team myself” sister Wera replied “You were one of the most efficient team, had just lost a member in action and for most of the women under your command loyality would never be an issue. sister Ren and sister Oka were graduated first class of the academy, VIgdis is on course to become one of the greatest shooter of the whole Sisterhood and his the daughter of a renown war hero died in action, and miss Tatianna loyalty can hardly be questioned since she was in my squadron during the hunt down of Solomon. Even more so considering personal history. And you were young enough and respectful enough of rank to accept to be outranked if need be.If you, all accept it, I would gladly select you as my personal guard for the time being” replied Wera. “Will be acceptable for me” said Axel “I had ample proof of your leader ability anyway. But it’s not my liberty to decide what the team will do” she added. “We would gladly tag along” said Oka, quickly approved by her blood sister. “My gun is yours” said Vigdis with gravitas. “I will gladly serve under you if you let me kill this prick” said Tatianna “Of course” replied sister Wera “this is settle then. Sister Victoria I am deeply sorry to relieve you of the command of such fine women without any reasons to others than my own protection.”said Wera visibly pained. “Don’t worry sister Wera, it’s the mark of a true commander to know when someone is valuable. And honestly if I myself wasn’t in charge of such a fine Legion, I would gladly follow you too”replied Victoria “Beside if what sister Tatianna say is true, I am under the impression this will not exactly a time of retirement and leisure for the Nocturnalis Legion.”she added. The Praethorians sisters seemed agitated. “Madam, we need to interrupt you. Sister victoria, sister Tatianna,sister Anna, sister Sigrid , and yourself are summoned to the briefing room.” said the Justicare sister. “And we are to escort you.”she added. Sister Vicotria seemed a bit shocked by this last addition, she made a gesture toward her Nocturnalis escort who quickly dispersed. “Let’s go shall we ?” she asked confidently. They spent nearly ten minute marching toward the briefing room, upon entering in the room Sigrid jumped a bit. There was a lot of people crammed in the room. Or was it ? upon closer look it was three dimensional projection and the room was way smaller than she thought initially. The projected room was a giant amphitheater with five rows of sisters all wearing the same gold and white garb as Sister Astride. Some were wearing diverse trappings indicating membership of different council and loges. Some were clearly a projected image of a digital being doing nothing to hide their nature. Sigrid realize that the fifth row seemed way more decorated and covered in gold than the rest. Above this row of inner circle was a half row of Sisters in golden armor adorned with various north god representation, “The Valkyries” thought Sigrid. One of seat on the Valkyries line was empty confirming de facto that Wera was truthworthy. At the feet of the amphitheater the bottom line (the most numerous one) was mostly occupied by men wearing the uniform of the Computer Chaos Club or the one of the Animus Protector order. On the top center of the amphitheater was a throne of gold adorned with a big eagle. on that throne was Hildr Odinson, she was a truly a Valkyrie. She seemed built to destroy mountain and siege fortress by herself, a nearly three meter tall blonde giant with big blue eyes and broad shoulder and hips. She was wearing a tunic with a gold chain around her waist. she had in one hand Odin’s Spear, a weapon rumored to be able to pierce a ship hull clean through and on the wrist of her other hand a shield behind which most car could hide. At her feet was a beast, a giant wolf with olive green eyes. A monster that was probably capable of eating a man in three bites. Sigrid suddenly realized where she was. The Senate of Odin, the governing conclave of the most secret and most advanced human civilization. Like all outsider she always pictured it as a solemn hall with old women battering about some ethical non sens, only at this point she realized that the civilization who gave AI full citizenship and choose to live a life of servitude to science and peace would have no need for a physical hall and would probably include several non human in her rank. She also realized that she was know looked by a few century of history and millennium of knowledge, scrutinized by some of the most revered scientist in the whole Galaxy and on the sight of some of it’s more feared warriors. she was now a part of this order and may one day seat in this assembly. Victoria was at ease she was apparently used to be there, as was obviously Wera. Tatianna was defiant and visibly uneasy about the prospect of being interrogated by the Senate. Anna seemed in wonders and in shock at the same times. Sigrid kept walking until they were in the middle of the room. Hildr then rose from her throne and proclaimed “ Enter thee who seek the Senate of Odin attention, Speak thee who seek this conclave assistance and be trustworthy and honest as this Senate is the utmost proof of fairness. If someone as something to tell the conclave here assembled, they must speak now or bear the load of secrecy till their grave. Thee who waste the time of this conclave by telling lies, rumors or unverifiable fact will be punish as logic tell. So I, Hildr Odinson, have proclaimed thus opening the twenty three hundred seventy fourth congress of the Senate of Odin on Sister Astride and sister Wera request.” There was a sound running the rank of the senate. everybody seemed to be intrigued. “Sisters Please take your rightful place” Hildr added. Instantly a projection of Victoria appear on the top sister row, just under the Valkyrie council, at the extreme west of the room, she appear in the dark a bit hidden. Sister Astride was sat at the second most bottom line, near center and was surrounded by sister wearing the same insignia as her a comedy mask. Much to the surprised of most of the room Wera appeared as the missing last Valkyrie. here projection was wearing a blue and red armor with gold inclusion decorated with the helmet of Athena on a pin tying up her toga. The rumor of the assembly grew to a loud noise and some sisters where clearly discussing who she was. Sigrid heard on of the men on the bottom line ask his wife a line above to explain the insignia. The Valkyrie at the right of Hildr rose from her feet and dropped here hammer heavily on the desk before her. “ORDER” she yelled, causing the silence to fall again on the conclave. “Yes sister Wera is the leader of Athena council and as such the rightful owner of this long time emptied seat. Let’s rejoice that she is with us again and mourn the circumstances who hasted her return. but let’s do this AFTER the session.” she said, adding “Sister Astride, Sister Wera you asked for our attention you have it. Let us know why.” “Thank you Secretary sister”replied sister Astride “As most of you may already be aware if you took note of my last week of reports, we have on board of “Dusk Bringer” three new outside sisters. They were martian military enrolled in a special application joint armament project between our CCC brother and the martian advance military command. This project aim was to create companion AI assisted soldier to project cyber force during conflict. The three women, known now as sister Sigrid, sister Anna and Sister Kassandra were very talented military personnels and had ample success in the program being the first squad deployed on the field. There is actually four squad on field and a second round of selection is in progress” explained sister Astride. “Sadly their proximity to us seem to have attracted some unwanted attention in the form of an heinous attack against them. Someone attacked sister Anna with an electrical arc in an alley crippling her and forcing her companion AI to operate an emergency biological memory dump. They both survived it and the following murder attempt due to both sister Anna combat capability and sister Kassandra quick reaction and extraction. On sister Victoria suggestion we intervened on location with on of the Dusk Bringer assault craft and swept the zone before bringing sister Anna on-board for extensive care. While on ground hospital would have been more efficient in sister Anna care than on board facility they where lacking both cryostasis tube and biological memory extractor and thus were unable to assist Veronica her companion AI. To preserve her we choose to bring her on-board”. “This is the opinion of this council that it was the good decision at time but that doesn’t explain how you were then in such position as to have to call for a emergency senatorial session.” said the secretary sister approved by most of the assembly. “The subject is rather complex”intervened sister Wera “I’d rather listen to sister Astride again than having to explain all details after, patience dear sisters” she added “Objection Taken but please keep it short” replied the secretary. “So after taking on-board sister Anna, sister Victoria sent sister Kassandra and sister Sigrid, still martian army at the time, on the heel of who ever was responsible through use of our asset in the Special operation command. It seemed at a time rather solid idea, using local assets to do the scouting, reserving sisterhood troops for shadow striking identified target. Sadly this proved more hazardous than expected and cost both our new sister dearly. Sister Kassandra was ambushed and blasted with a massive charge of high power plastic explosives prompting sister Sigrid to call for assistance. Said assistance was provided in form of heavy assault craft Lancer. The strike team bring back on board both the crate the local contact requested from sister Kassandra and both sisters themselves. Considering the odds of surviving for both sister Kassandra and sister Anna’s companion AI it has been chosen that sister Sigrid would undergo minimal informative training and Trial of Sofia in a desperate attempt to provide support for her two sisters metabolism and carry her through the ritual thus saving them. Sigrid bravely choose to do it and did go above and beyond in her sacrifice, opting to drink SofiaKratos pure in order to maximize ritual effectiveness and fraternal bond depth thus drastically increasing the chance of success of the whole operation forfeiting knowingly her own life to do so. It is with great satisfaction that we can now safely say it was for the best and the ritual worked was a success albeit a very painful one.” described sister Astride. The whole room was struck when she announced Sigrid choose to drink pure sk. The whole room turned to applause when she said it was a success. “While it’s very heartwarming to know we saved three good soldier from very sad fate turning them in what will be probably very precious recruits. I fail to see the point of this emergency session, surely you don’t have called upon us just to share the good news” said the secretary sister. Tatianna was clearly loosing patience on her side of the room. “Sadly no” cut Wera. The silence fell down on the room like a sheet of lead. “Sister Tatianna, there present is the one who have see it first. Due to here personal history, was the first to realize that while it’s a well known fact that sisters are electrically vulnerable such an attack was rare and usually a known modus operandi. And upon close inspection of Sister Anna wounds, I am deeply saddened to agree with her : these wound have been caused by a weapon known as the Claw of Ozimandias.” Hildr herself jumped on her feet, the Senate erupted in a roar of contradicting yelling arguments about how realist the implication of this declaration was. The room was debating heavily when a loud metallic bang was heard. It was Tatianna hand flat against the wall. “Shut the fuck up, all of you” she yelled adding the last part for sister Astride who seem to be About to restart. “I am Tatianna Serova, Praethorian sister of this order, re-enlisted as Nocturnalis after the events you all are discussing and blood sister of Svetlanna Serova. I tell you what is, not what you want to hear and if you are not happy about it you can suck my tits. My sister died to kill this asshole do you REALLY think i would forget the look of the burn ? ON MY DEAD SISTER NECK ? So yes Solomon is back, either him or someone pick the mantle up. This is real, This is true, this is reality. Now adapt to it or die” Yelled vehemently Tatianna. A deep shocked look was on most sister but they were to stunned to reply “Sister Tatianna” said Hildr with enough weight and gravitas in the voice to emphasize how much of a bad idea it will be to not listen. “While I understand your frustration on the matter, I ask you to remember that this is the Odin’s Senate. Next time you yell in this room will be your last, do you copy that, sister ?” She said punctuating the end of the phrase with a hit from her lance handle on the floor. “Yes, Madam” said Tatianna with visible difficulty to contain her rage. “Now that this is dealt with, the next one of you who even try to say she is wrong or lying will be sent to the frontline on Pandora! Solomon is back, like it or not he is. Both sister Tatianna and sister Wera say’s so, it’s enough for me. I suggest it be enough for you” Said Hildr with anger. “And now what are you’re plan ?” asked Hildr looking at sister Wera before sitting back on her throne. “Well, we don’t have a lot to begin with. But our new sisters where de facto already on his track before. Which is an asset. So my proposal is to send a few Nocturnalis sisters in deep field recon and a some Anima sisters in infiltration on the martian dome. During that time we monitor martian politics and the development of this “citizen for earth” rebellion. Once minimal training has been achieved on the new elements of the orders we send them back on Mars to follow through with their initials findings with an escorting team.And with a strike team in maximum readiness to assist them in case of attack. As soon as we now more about the whereabouts of Solomon and or his potential accomplices we strike in full force with an heavy deployment of the legions of Edda” said sister Wera “Of course this imply that said new members of the order would agree to such hazardous mission...” replied a sister in the top row. “Well I can only speak for myself here but I would gladly do so” said Anna with an unusual strength in the voice. Everybody present seemed to suddenly realize she was there. “And I will go with her, as will do Kassandra I am sure” added Sigrid “That’s very noble of you martian” said another sister in the assembly “but what make you think you will be battle ready in a short enough timescale ?” she added. “I am a certified rock climber, HALO jumper, swimmer, deep diver, space operations specialist, sniper and Explosive Ordinance Disposal technician. On top of that I have rake up under my name around a hundred days of deep space combat and nearly six year of elite military training. I am pretty sure i can handle a bit more of training, yes” The sister seemed displease by the answer but add not the galls to reply. The secretary sister rose again “Well sister Wera while i do appreciate the advice you gave us all, you in turn asked quite a lot of power from this assembly. Which considering your position, you are more than aware is kind of a dangerous prospect” she said “I admit Sister Elga but this is dangerous time anyway. Solomon is back. Last time it cost us dearly, and he was alone. I don’t want to know how this will turn if he isn’t this time.” replied Wera. “I have heard enough” said calmly Hildr. “All non Senatorialis Sister please leave the room we will send you the final order of the Senate as soon as we reach agreement on the logistic” she ordered. Sister Tatianna, Anna and Sigrid all left the room and where back in the corridor. “Damn politicians” spited out Tatianna trembling with rage. “They gonna lock us on a leash for years before doing anything worth a penny” she added. “At least you had an opportunity to flip them off a good one before” replied Anna with a smile. “Hell yeah !” exclaimed Tatianna. “That being said you girls are hardcore. Is that’s true you have all these certifications ?” asked Tatianna. Both martians burst in laughs “Yeah, and wait till you see Kassandra resume. she is the nut case” said Sigrid laughing “Then training will be a blast. I sure hope they will let us go kick this punk ass.” said Tatianna “Want to go to the range shoot some rounds ? I need to break something” she added. “We where supposed to stay in the ward due to our lack of network training” said sister Anna. “Oh yeah, that’s true let’s go there, I do need a drink after all” said Tatianna starting to move toward the hospital ward. They both followed to the mess where they found Kassandra and Elise. Kassandra was sat on the laps of Elise and they where enjoying each other company completely oblivious too the outside world. Tatianna yelled at the automated bartender “Something strong. Make that a triple. Same for the other four” she then turned to Elise “You should read your mail kidoo your sister gonna be pissed off.” she said somberly. Elise looked at her wrist and yelled “ For fuck sake ? What the fuck is this shit Tatianna “she said while Kassandra jumped on her feet. “I let you with the girl for a night and everything goes to shit ?” she said. “Well you are far from it yet. The world just turned to shit massively and it is just the beginning” said Tatianna. That said she drank all five of the triple martini the bartender had made “Again” she said. “God Tatianna you gonna poison yourself at this rhythm. what the heck had happened ?” yelled Elise “Look at sisters Anna wounds, this is showtime. the like you never knew you don’t wanted to know” Elise looked at Anna and came closer. She looked at the burn marks. “Don’t tell me this is ...” she started. “It is” said Tatianna emptying her sixth martini “Again” she yelled “You should come drink with us.” she said passing a glass to sister Anna and sister Sigrid who both started to sip at it. Elise grabbed one glass as Kassandra was coming to take her own “someone care to explain to me why you are all trying to kill yourself with alcohol ?” she asked “Anna has been attacked by the boogeyman” said Sigrid “The wrong kind of boogeyman, the kind to dabble with Ozimandias and kill massive amount of sisters. Including Tatianna blood sister” said Anna. “Damn that’s a bad a news if I know one”said Kassandra “Wait til you see the guy in person. not only this fucker is mean but he his straight up invisible. Jump around in flash, trying to kill you from behind. This little a brat is arrogant as quarterback and almost as short tempered.” said Tatianna downing another round. Sigrid and Elise followed suit and drank their glass too. “What is the plan ?” asked Kassandra. “The top brass are yelling about it as we speak”said Tatianna. THe rest of the night was spent in drinking somber thought away. When Sigrid opened her ey the next morning it was to the tune of her internal alarm. She was still sightly light headed but wasn’t feeling hangover she wondered why “Perks of being one of us, your brain is immune to addiction”said the voice of Elise coming from under the blanket of Kassandra bed “Wake up miss, Time for training” said the voice of Tatianna. she was going out of the shower and judging by the blanket on the sofa she had slept there. “II have a good and a bad news for you. Which want do you want first” asked Tatianna “The good one”said a still sleepy Anna. “The plan is made. You are to train harder than ever to be ready as soon as possible for a deployment on Mars. The escorting team on mars will be ours, so we are probably gonna spend lot of time together” said Tatianna “Oh god, poor things” said Elise “I am so sorry for you all” she added “Why ?” asked Kassandra “Is this so bad to spend time with us ?” she said a bit sarcastic. “No you don’t understand that mean no your training officer is ours.”said Elise “In other word me” said Tatianna with a devilish smile. “hence the sorry part” said Elise. “I Want everyone of you on the swimming dome in five” yelled Tatianna before storming of the room. Sigrid military training kicked back in she jumped of her bed and opened her closet, she found in it a jumpsuit, navy blue and silver with an insignia representing a raven on a blue flowered tree. She jumped in it and put on her sock looked for boots. she found what looked like a pair of paratrooper boots except they were made of metal. Magnetic boot for working in reduced gravity environment. Looking at the room she picked up that Elise was already ready and helping Kassandra to tie boots on her metal leg, while Anna was currently putting on her boots too. She throw a joyful “Let’s get to it girls” before running in the hall in direction of the swimming dome. Arriving to the swimming dome she found Tatianna tying up heavy lifting weight to crude handles. “I love working with real military she said upon Sigrid enter the room. The other women joined them, when both her normal team including Wera and the new one where present Tatianna started a heavy regimen of hard core training. The training took most of the days. And most of the one after, and the one after that and so-on for the end of the week. They had a planning very intense, physical training with Tatianna in the morning then lunch together then either strategic and team training in DEIT with Wera and Axel or Shooting rnage under Vigdis training. Then diner, then even more DEIT. The regime was insanely hard on every one in particular on Kassandra who had trouble to follow with her new body but the sens of purpose and conscience of what was at stake pushed everyone to go above and beyond in training. The team was very close knit and Anna, Kassandra and Sigrid felt welcomed in this new team. They were training in the swimming pool all together when the first alarm was heard. A loud propeller siren and big red flashes through the whole ship. Axel and Wera both jumped out of the water, and checked their wrist connector which was atop their clothes. “Out everyone”yelled Wera. They all swam toward the nearest border of the pool. Sigrid was just landing a hand on the border wall when suddenly she felt a massive push to the left. All the door of the room closed instantly and the whole world seem to fade in red. She braced for the incoming reaction wave from the right but it never came as the whole ship was in weightlessness. The ring had stopped it’s rotation and doing so the fake gravity to the crew quarter. Sigrid felt the water creep up on her body, creeping to the back of her neck. She quickly realize that she was in dire need of and escape to not be drown by surface tension. That’s when she seen Vigdis on her left. vigdis was trying to sign her something, about drinking the water. “Gills” finally realized Sigrid, she now had mechanical gills and can breath under water. she tried to inhale water but it was very hard as her brain fought back to keep her from drowning. Bordering to the realm of passing out due to the lack of oxygen Sigrid mouth finally opened and she started to inhale water, but instead of killing her this pushed a load of oxygen to her brain. After a few breaths it started to fill more natural and she felt calmer. she opened her mind to the network and was quickly picked up by Vigdis. “We need to go out, and get dressed”said Vigdis “Like right now!” she insisted before throwing herself out of the water bubble by using the wall as a traction bar. Sigrid do the same and end up crashing on the bench. the others were quick to catch here and soon they were all dressed. “Brace for Impact this will be painful for first timer.” shouted Axel to cover the air-raid siren which was still running. “This is incoming fire alarm”Added Vigdis to Sigrid. The siren finally stopped to be instantly replace by the voice of the ship operator shouting through the ship speakers “EVERYBODY ON BOARD TO BATTLE STATION, BRACE FOR IMPACT IN 3, 2, 1...”. The noise was insane, like a thousand hydraulic press crunching thousand car at the same time. The magnetic shield as hold back the assault but barely and all the structure as suffered from the huge amount of energy to dissipate. Sigrid looked at the battle display who was displayed over on the bottom left of her real field of view. A small meteor the size of a car was stopped near the ship. A few thermonuclear torpedo where sent to destroy it. “what the hell ? Where does this shit came from ?” yelled Axel to Wera. “Ballistic analyze still in progress but considering time before impact and celerity, probably same gravity well. We’ve been found out.” “ALL SOLDIERS TO BATTLE STATIONS, PREPARE FOR ACCELERATION” shouted the operator. “Where are our battle stations ?” asked Kassandra. “We are assault team Alpha, so assault torpedoes. Well except Vigdis.” said Axel. “She his the ship artillery officer in second when we are on-board”she added proudly. “Let’s move, all activate your mag boots and stay linked”said Tatianna fetching a knot of rope from her backpack. She attached one snap-link to her belt and attaching Wera to another one while she was radioing order. Sigrid took a snap-link and looked at the apparatus. it was a ring of shinny metal, probably titanium judging by the color, on it was set eight rope dispenser filled with a small metallic cable who seem insanely strong when Sigrid. tested it. “Space combat safety net. Loose enough to fight with. Solid enough to keep you alive if you get thrown out” said Oka in her ear “you’ll get used to it” added Ren. Sigrid felt like someone just opened a door on her mind. actually it was exactly like that, she can retract her mind in the white room and the time seemed to slow to a halt when she does it. “Team’s battle network” said Ren appearing herself in the room “Not much design wise, but crazy useful. While you are there your brain run silicon speed and the outside world seem very slow. give you a edge, a way to share info or just retract to do data analyze work if your not in position to act physically. Also very hard core encryption in there so it’s our temporary safe house in case of digital attack.” Sigrid was lost for word, her mind blown by the double perception of both the room in her head and the real world going very slowly outside. “That incredible, no one can win against you with this” she said in the room “Sadly there is a draw back” said Elise popping up in the room “It’s drain your energy incredibly fast in there. so we usually leave only a small part of our focus here to keep in touch at high speed but full speed in the Delta space tend to be physically exhausting. Speaking of which i suggest you divert your attention back to the meat space, you have been in here long enough for a rookie”she added. Kassandra was also appearing in the room now as was Oka. Sigrid switched back to her normal thoughts and was surprised with a burst of pain and tiredness. She was out of breath and craving sugar as if she had run a fifteen kilometers run. “Ok i see what you meant” she said to Elise catching her breath. “But damn that’s a nice gift anyway” “Yeah, now imagine Ren and Oka who need to maintain the delta room and comlinks. That’s why we use twins, better load sharing.” said Axel on her right. “Let’s move” said Wera starting to move toward the door. Sigrid started to run to follow the pack, she was feeling empowered by this link, she was after all linked to both her friend from Mars and to six of the most powerful warriors of the galaxy. She looked at Anna, she was also in peace and seem panting a bit. Probably delta zone fatigue. Kassandra was in her element, she had dreamed of the sisterhood even before she was a Martian military. She had a book on the history of the sisterhood and Hidlr Odinson rise to power during their time in the academy. Vigdis ran past her, going to her own battle station. Sigrid surprised herself looking a bit to intensely at her. The mysterious blonde was a women of few word, yet she exhale a calm confidence and a troubling mystery that Sigrid found stunning. “Hehe can’t give you shit, on that. I would be all over her myself” joked Elise on Sigrid left, low enough that no one else seemed to have heard it with a giant smile. Sigrid was red to the ear and focused back on running. “Accelerating NOW!” announced the ship Operator. Sigrid suddenly felt like she was weighting a ton.the ship was accelerating heavily and g started to add up fast, stabilizing around an excruciating four g of acceleration. “Welcome home Girls” yelled happily Tatianna before adding “that’s why we train sisters! remember the training, breath low and deep. And keep moving”she added starting to move again herself. Sigrid looked at Anna and Kassandra, who were both holding their ground. “Common martians, we are the one used to gravity” roared Kassandra “Let’s show these space barbie we mean business” she added on the same joking tone. Elise looked at her with a grin “Ok groundling, You want to play ?” she yelled taking another step and starting to walk again. “Don’t miss your step, sweet child” replied Kassandra starting to accelerate again, effectively taking the lead of the pack. “Don’t waste your breath” said Anna to Elise who was gathering her strength to go even faster against the weight of acceleration “this one is stubborn as a brick, she would rather die than bend the knee” she added. “We’ll see” replied Elise with a smile and a wink. She raise against again the force and started to run toward Kassandra. “Well no need to ask you if you manage” said Axel looking back at Sigrid and Anna “you martians are tough” she added “Not like we had the choice to not be” said Sigrid “Life isn’t exactly free on Mars since the earth treason.” explained Anna “This one his special though” added Sigrid laughing between her clench teeth. “She is the competitive one all her life” she said designating Kassandra. “Seemed so” said Tatianna “She will found plenty of opposition in Elise though. Being in her sister shadow since birth made her more than a tad competitive” she added pointing at Elise. “As long as they don’t kill themselves in the process...” said Wera. Sigrid felt like she was trying to climb a hill with a bucket of cement tied to each of her joint, but her brain was already trying to learn to adapt and the load seem more manageable with time. “Ballistic transit in four, three, two...” started to count the operator. “The shot came from behind deimos. Victoria is trying to inject us in interception course with who or what ever try to shot us” said Wera as the countdown finished. The sudden weightlessness hit Sigrid like a wave. She felt as if some water came lifting all the weight out of her. “Ok let’s use this to move to battle station, before the deceleration burn” yelled Axel. “Everybody stop, Tatianna lock the ring.” she added. The ring beeped and all cable started to retract until they were again in short formation. Then Axel jumped as strong as she could and was thus sent flying fast toward the other End of the room. She then kicked the wall to go even further. After a few second Sigrid heard Axel in her head “Strike now”. Tatianna made a move with her wrist and the ring started to pull on the cable of Axel. But the cable wont move and they all get yanked toward the other end of the hall, gathering more than a bit of speed in the process. They were sent darting along the hall, with door opening automatically on their path. Axel jumped when they arrived at her side and the whole team kept drifting at high speed down the hall. “Brace for impact” announced Axel in their heads. “And we are home”exclaimed Elise while they heavily landed on the end wall of the corridor. Sigrid was not as familiar as them and hit the wall heavily with her knee. The door to their left opened and there was another corridor with four airlock on the side. Elise jumped through the door and grabbed the handles outside of the first airlock “Assault Torpedoes Mk three, more commonly know as the ice cream wagon! Our home!” she said with a wide smile. “Ice cream wagon ?” asked Sigrid suspiciously. “Delivering all the fun stuff” said Tatianna with a wicked smile. All sisters burst in laughs soon joined by the martians. “Ok i get it” said Sigrid “ and i get why this one love it” she added while drifting to the airlock. On the other side there was a tube with a line of clamps and hook, visibly designed to clamps on armors. “Estimated Time of Intercept : Eleven minutes forty eight seconds” announced the ship operator. “Damn we need to get moving” said Tatianna “all martians follow me” she said opening the only door the other side of the corridor. “Welcome to my favorite place on the whole ship.” she announced happily when they had joined her in it. This was evidently the armory. Rows after rows of navy blue, black and silver armor each with a digital hand scanner. Tatianna rushed toward the end of the line as the other sisters entered the room scattering in it to recover their own armor. “Obviously we had no time to build your personal armor, so for the time being you will be on Animus Protector armor. Less armaments but way lighter less strain on your brain to control it. “They have weapons ?” asked Kassandra. “Well yeah, we don’t see Anima sisters as strictly combatant role as they can’t access the Delta level, but in case of ship invasion or digital attack against us, we have selected member of the Animus corps and even the CCC who are trained to fight with light assistance armor. Saved us more than one time” explained Tatianna. “So some CCC member do fight beside sisters at time” said Anna “Well, yeah but only for self defense” said Tatianna.”Anyway we don’t have that much time before. Take one of these each and let’s get you dressed”she added. Sigrid put her hand on the pad in front of her, she was immediately displayed in her mind detailed instruction on how to put the different interlocking magnetic joint together. Sigrid quickly started to dress up. The armor was adaptable enough to not be an hindrance in case of combat. she strapped every pieces as tight as possible and made a few moves. THe armor seemed light and very responsive even if it was basically a full plate armor of Kevlar and ceramic plates. She grabbed the weapons on the floor of the locker and tried to figure out how to load it. There wasn’t any obvious feeding mechanism “What are those sister Tatianna ?” “Standard issue plasma jet assault rifle. There should be a plug under your right wrist” yelled back the voice of Elise from another row. Sigrid looked at the stock of the weapon and at here wrist. there was a small cable under her wrist and a matching socket on the stock. she pulled the cord and plugged it in the gun a display started to appear on the top right corner showing the weapon level of energy slowly building up. “this shoot plasma bubble at relativistic speed”explained Wera in the delta level “You won’t see it flying but it’s quite an effective weapon at close range.” she continued. “Are you implying this is some kind of miniaturized Spartan spear ?” asked Sigrid. “You uh yeah, it’s the same process. But where did you heard about CCC weapon ?” interrogated Wera visibly surprised. “I had one on Mars a gift of the special operation command. Well in truth I’m pretty sure it was a gift of Victoria.”replied Sigrid “I highly doubt that, must be way older than Victoria time. Spartan Spear are rare even in CCC these day. most think they are too dangerous of a responsibility to give to one soldier. Also they are on the expansive side to built. Well yes this is basically the same, only short range and way less powerful. None the less caution is more than advisable with this in hand” said Tatianna “Point Taken”replied Anna “Everybody Dressed up ?” asked Wera on Delta level. All the team responded by the affirmative so they left to the torpedo. Sigrid quickly found out that the torpedo was in fact disposed horizontally all sister where actually disposed in two circle of soldier stacked in the length of the torpedo. The heaviest sister where on the forward most row, the others laid behind. Sigrid soon found out that her armor had a specific stiff mode and once she had aligned herself horizontally to the hook she was in fact laying on the back of her armor like a bed and it was surprisingly comfortable. Elise then pressed a button and the whole rack rotated for a sixth of a turn like a bomb rack. one by one the sister took place on the two racks. “and now what ?”asked Kassandra out loud. “We use our time her manning automated turrets, until they need us on the frontline.”said Axel “The ship is able to function fully on AI but having human or Epsilons troops manning the turrets alleviate some load on the cores so it gave a bit more edge to the ship as a whole.” she explained “Epsilons ?” asked Anna surprised “People like us with AI on their bio-brain. The name of the project on Mars was a carry over, CCC and sisterhood refers to this as Epsilons as far back as we know. Even during the project Lazarus times” explained Wera “Us sisters usually don’t make that much of a difference between Epsilons an digital or human members, but CCC does use this a lot” “Oh I wasn’t aware” admitted Anna “Strangely doesn’t surprise me a lot” joked Elise “CCC is not known to hold secret at all, right girls ?”she added. All sisters laughed deeply. “One minute six seconds before intercept, multiple scanner contact. Warming up left side battery” announced the ship operator. “Ok every one of you take your assign link” said Wera. Sigrid dived deep in the open neural link and found herself on the top of the crew quarter rings in command of a dual tube railgun turret. “Welcome in my domain, Sigrid” she heard in the back of her head. Vigdis! “I will designate target to you, please keep in mind we are in space, Trigger happy shooter are not welcome as we need the orbit somewhat safe ourselves.” explained Vugdis. “Well received sister” reply Sigrid as focus as she can. “Get ready only twenty five more seconds before the shit storm start”said Vigdis “I am sure you will be good at this Sig.” she added with what seem to be a wink. There was a strange pause while the ship cruised at very high speed around the planet. Sigrid recognize the land mass under her. Mars was strangely looking, all barren with dots of civilization, some mega-structures and a few splash of green around the terra-forming reactor. She felt a strange peace looking at her world from the outside likes that. “Retro burn engaged” announced the ship operator. Sigrid was slammed against the side of the rack breaking here concentration for a second as the ship slammed on what was effectively her breaks. The deceleration felt like a car hitting a brick wall to Sigrid. She felt the pressure of ten time her weight compressing her on her side. She reached back to the turret and tried to use the neural link as a focal point to escape the pain of the deceleration. The deceleration lasted only a few second but it seem to Sigrid like it was an eternity. The pain was nothing like the one of the Trial but it was hard to stay conscious. Suddenly her vision seemed a bit crisper. The ship had stopped and now was moving only at a fraction it was six seconds before. The reality of what she was seeing was starting to sink on Sigrid. There was a ship. A massive one bearing the Terran emblem of the crowned eagle. “Torpedoes away” announced a voice in her head, probably the artillery officer. She see a lots of blue dots starting to draw long line of faint blue smoke as they rushed away toward the enemy ship. Apparently the enemy ship was surprised by the appearance of the Dusk Bringer as she seemed nonreactive. A good second after arriving the ship operator announced “Adjusting Course, All personal be advised, weapon safety is off. I repeat Safety is off. Battle stance activated, all unequipped personal must reach vacuum protective equipment NOW!” as soon at the message finish the ship started to accelerate again in short burst to approach the enemy barge. “Why vacuum gear?” asked Anna on Delta level “Most sister doesn’t need life support other than our armor, which everyone should have on by now. Putting the ship on vacuum lessen the risk of explosive decompression and prevent toxic attack to spread.” replied Oka. “Also can be a nasty surprise to wannabe boarding troops” added Wera. “Damn so much for playing fair.” exclaimed Kassandra. “Well they tried to starve you to death a century ago, remember ?” Said Ren. “Fair point” accepted Kassandra. The cloud of torpedo was soon to it’s target, when suddenly Sigrid’s screen exploded in hundreds of warning message and moving point. The enemy ship riposte was late but impressive. “Damn, this is a lot of missile. ALL HAND ON DECK MATES. shoot these down with the main gun. The more you shoot the less will be left to the PDC” yelled Vugdus in her head “PDC ?” Sigrid asked “Point Defense Canon, a screen of high velocity low caliber electro-kinetic canon. Not very threatening for a ship but useful as defense. Used to project a lead screen to destroy torpedoes and missiles. Hopefully all of them, but let’s not try this shall we ?” explained Kassandra way more versed in space navy combat than Sigrid and Anna. A few blue target light up on her vision, designated target. she quickly align her gun to the projected course of the missiles. they where still very far away. She waited a bit more to affirm the target prediction and open fire. The roar of her canon was intense and soon followed by a whole lot more as the left part of the ship opened fire. Another volley of torpedoes was launched toward the enemy ship. Suddenly the enemy ship was engulfed in white painfully bright light, soon automatically filtered by a massive downgrade of her vision sensibility. The first volley of thermonuclear torpedoes at reach the protective defense of the Terran ship and the enemy ship PDCs were doing their best to stop them. The thermonuclear fire radiated a lot of energy away and Sigrid own reading started to show sign of radiation pressure and higher energy radiation. After a few seconds the dust settle a bit. All the torpedoes of the first volley had been stopped by the PDCs. But some had already armed their cores and the close range explosion damaged the ship in multiple points. “Damn that’s not good” said Vigdis. Sigrid had already downed two missile and turned here focus back to it has more were light up in blue. She shot down three more, before running out of coolant for her guns. While the coolant was regenerating by venting out it’s excess temperature she tried to get a clearer view of the fight. The enemy ship was hit but a few close call left some mark on the Dusk Bringer too. A few yellow dot suddenly appear on view, enemy fighter and bomber drones ship. “Oh shit, this thing is a carrier” she thought “All railgun please focus on bomber craft until further order” ordered the artillery commander. They where way to far away to shot for now but they will be real pain. Sigrid remembered days of training in the simulator. These kind of drones was the bread and butter of Terran ship, controlled from on-board pilots, they wreck havoc on enemy ship and were often cited as reason of victory by analyst. As soon as the second volley of torpedoes hit the enemy ship Sigrid could tell there was some hit. The thermo-nuclear implosion sparked by the torpedo it was very different than just the torpedo exploding in a ball of thermo-nuclear fire. There was a big dark spotted which exploded back in a blinding flash leaving only light and radiation where once stood the bow of the ship. By compressing and fusing material to neutron star level of density they created unstable exotic matter which quickly vaporize in an ultra energetic explosion of gases. “BRACE FOR IMPACT” yelled the ship operator as the ship was washed by the wave of high velocity matter. the shock hit Sigrid like a brick in the stomach. When she had opened her eye back again she see the enemy ship. It looked like some space shark bite off a good half of his bow. The bow armor was elongated and shred like paper while the gaping hole leaked gases, liquid and even whole humans in space. in the center of the missing chunk a bright ball of fire incinerated all matter unfortunate enough to be sucked in. it soon vanish leaving only void. “Yeah, it that asshole” yelled Vigdis. The ship was growing bigger in Sigrid view as they were coming closer. The drones ship flew by in straight line and were quickly dispatched by the PDCs as they passed over. “Seem like their communication array is down” said Wera. “Railgun open fire, for disarming strike” announced the artillery officer. A few new target popped in front of Sigrid, mostly PDC and railgun turret. She started to shoot at it slowly and precisely. Most of return fire was directed toward the command center and it seemed disorganized. Sigrid saturated again her railgun as she destroyed a lot of assigned target. “Damn your good at that miss” said Vigdis “Actually you are my second most effective assets...”she added “Second ?” “Yeah Cylène is better, but that doesn’t count she his an AI”reply Vigdis. “Anyway prepare yourself, most turrets are offline so you will be sent soon.” Sigrid felt the rush of adrenaline go up. Boarding a Terran ship, not like she never train for it, but there was a massive difference between training and doing it for real. This time death will be final and wound will be painful. that’s a massive difference. “All boarding personals in position, dropping in 3, 2” announced the ship. “It’s SHOWTIME!”yelled Oka in the delta level. She and her sister where visibly excited. They will go first accompanied by Tatianna and Axel, then come the other. “1” announced the ship officer far away in the real space “Ok everyone for those who are new that’s how it’s work. The boarding torpedo carry a perforating charge who blew a hole in the enemy hull.hopefully” explained Axel “The first group is then jettisoned toward the hole. Tatianna and myself plant our hook on the hull while Ren and Oka dispatch the direct confrontation. After that the second circle is jettisoned using the cable as guide. When you reach the end of the cable you move out as the next one will be close behind. No one unlink from those cables before the foothold is cleared and the torpedo make junction. Everyone get that ?” she asked. They all affirmed that they had understood even if Sigrid was sure it was routine for most of them. “Dropping” announced the ship officer. “Well ladies... see you on the other side” said Axel leaving the delta level. “good luck” added Tatianna leaving too. Sigrid left the delta level as she felt a huge kick. It seemed as if some giant just had thrown a massive rock on her and she was crushed under it. The acceleration was massive but only lasted for an instant. The torpedo inhabitant were thrown a bit around as the motors were making course correction. Ren was the one piloting the craft as her sister Oka was scanning the ship trying to find some exploitable weakness. “Down under the eagle wings on our right, the red painted part” Oka yelled “Cyber-attack core, load of power consumption low armor. defense on point of impact probable”she added “Valid” Shouted Back Wera in Delta Level. As soon as she said that the time seem to stop. The craft jumped forward under the acceleration of the secondary booster and then slammed against the invisible wall of the magnetic shield. Then there was a loud depressurization noise as the front half of the ship was ejected toward a red hot hole in the hull. A fraction of second later the explosive bolt of the front circle blew up propelling them like human missile toward the hull. Time seemed to slow as SIgrid focus her brain on perception. Ren and Oka used each other as reaction wheels to turn around and enter face first in the hole and then they both drew a long mono-filament blade and a gun from their backpack while they disappeared in the hole. Axel and Tatianna soon entered the hole also dragging behind a long cable. There was some flash and some confusing yells in delta level that Sigrid kind of missed but she clearly heard Axel call “SIT REP”. She dived back to delta level “Ok we are in position but resistance is higher than expected. Ren and Oka are heavily outnumbered. Do you want to proceed or do we abort ?” asked Axel “We think we can manage ...” said Oka before disappearing from Delta level. “Sorry we are a bit busy” said tatianna “So what do we do ?”she asked “Lock it” said Wera confidently. Sigrid felt that the craft was stopped again when the cable steady itself. Tatianna and Axel hooks must add locked, on the same instant the second circle started to rotate at high speed expelling sisters down the line like a strange looking revolver. Elise was the first to be sent followed closely by Kassandra then Sigrid then Anna and last was Wera. The line felt long to Sigrid, strangely peaceful ride in the open silence of space. All the flash of the battle, the clouds of debris and the light of Deimios mining colony under it, made Sigrid wonder if this story would be tell later or even drawn. “Well”she thought “probably not, considering how the Sisterhood like to tell a good story”. the thought make her smile. Another length of rope flew by peacefully in a tenth of a second, then the hole, the shock of the magnetic repulsion slowing her down on the line, a rotation an a super hero landing. She opened back her eyes. The room was a mess. A big console with load of screen was half blown up. Ren and Oka were crouching behind it, Oka had a hole on her left shoulder leaking blood on her back and Ren kept her hand clenched around something. Axel and Elise were advancing from cover to cover dispatching technician along the way. Tatianna was providing cover fire with a big multi-tube canon mounted under her right arm but the heap of shell-case at her feet and the red glow of the tip of the tubes were telling sign that she will need to stop soon. On the other side of the room was a pack of Terran marines and a mechanized infantry sentry. Sigrid Jumped back just as a direct hit from said mechanized infantry was blowing the place she was the instant before. she was sent tumbling down the room by the explosion but retrieved her equilibre mid-flight and landed on a foot and a knee as Anna was landing in her place. “Ok what should I do ?” she asked on Delta Level. “Follow me” replied Elise. Sigrid jumped back to the cover behind Elise grabbing Anna on the way up. “Don’t stay here”she said to Anna dropping her behind cover. She then popped out her head from the cover. A Terran Marine was tracing his way to flank Axel and Elise. At the instant he raised his gun to shoot Axel, Sigrid opened fire. His helmet and torso were pierced by a burst of blue plasma flame where the plasma jet slammed against the matter of his armor pushing clean hole right through. He fell hard on the ground, one of his squad mate jumped out of cover to avenge him only to met the burst coming from Anna’s gun and fall back down. “Nice jobs, rookies” yelled Axel on delta level “keep up the pressure we gonna try to destroy the mecha.” as soon as Axel said that Tatianna jumped before Wera and raise her left arm. A massive green flash filled the room as the laser that was targeted at Wera was stopped by Tatianna retracting shield. Wera jumped out of the line of fire but her left leg was caught by the laser as he finally melted through Tatianna shield. Ren shouted out loud something as she jumped on the console and started to run toward the open door. A few marines tried to shoot her but Axel and Sigrid had faster reaction time than them. They joined their squadmates on the floor. Arriving at the end of the desk Ren jumped forward lobbing something through the door. She was mid fly when an explosive bolt from the sentry catch to her. the explosion ripped her mechanical arm off and she fell heavily on the side of the room. there was a burst of blue flame down the hall from the door, quickly followed by an immense green flash and a big pressure wave as the laser canon exploded. the Mechanized infantry sentry was flung out of balance by the blast. As he tried to get his balance back, Elise jumped out of cover and ran to him. She stuck a brick of plastic explosive on his helmet visor and pulled the caps with rage. “That’s for Ren, you Bitch” she yelled before somersaulting back behind cover covering her head. The blast shook the room to it’s core, blasting the remaining marines and the mechanized sentry to bits in a torrent of flames. Axel ran toward the door and slam it shut by punching on the control pad. “Ok, SITREP” yelled Axel in delta level. “Wounded but alive, can walk, weapon operational” said Wera “on the clear” said kassandra. “RAS, operational” said Anna, “Same for me” added Sigrid. “Wounded but operational, no more grenade left” said Oka. “Primary armament in cooling mode, secondary armament destroyed, side arm operational. afew burn but I am ok” said Tatianna. Oka walked solemnly to her sister and started to check on her while the other checked their armament. “Operational Com officer down” she said “but alive” she added. “Ok, put her in the craft for Evac” said Wera “I will take com role from now on, commandment goes to Axel” she announced calmly. “Well received, madam” reply Axel. Elise and Oka lifted Ren and carried her to the craft putting her back on the rack. There was no sign of threat for her life since it was only mechanical arm, but an explosive blast that close could leave substantial internal damages. “Ok sisters. I am the first one to feel it but we have a mission there” scolded Oka with resolve. “You are right. Sister assault stance. Kassandra and Elise you are the point. Sigrid and Anna you take cover fire. I will go with Tatianna as a third row, Oka you take rearguard. Wera lead us somewhere we can do real damages” ordered Axel mechanically. Elise and Kassandra stood before the door as Anna and Sigrid lean on each side. “Go” said Axel. Elise put her hand on the door and turned around leaving a small black box. The box exploded the door magnetic lock opening it. Kassandra and Elise opened fire through the dust and started to move forward quickly followed by the rest of the pack in quick succession. there was laying the corpse of a marines. he was the unfortunate soul the other side of the dust. The sister team quickly advanced down the hall guided by Wera. They only crossed path with sparse marines and a few armed civilians whose gun could not even perforate their armor. After a few minute of walk they emerged in a gigantic room “this was marked as a restricted access on the plans” explained Wera when she catch the interrogating looks on Axel face. “Oh gosh is this...”said Elise running forward. “Easy there miss Boom, what is this exactly ?”asked Axel. “This is ... “ said distantly Elise while grabbing some stuff on her pack “ well it’s kind of ...”she continued “OF What Elise” yelled Tatianna “The Quantum Field Theta reactor. Well at least it’s control and cooling circuits. which mean if I can find... ” she said looking intensely at the wall “ THIS “ she yelled designating and area of the wall on the other side of the room. “Elise. Either you explained yourself or I shoot you in the back for insubordination” yelled Axel with rage “sorry” said Elise “I got carried away. This is the cooling room. and this if you look at it in thermal.” she explained. Sigrid switched to thermal and two massive conduit one red and one blue where tied into a knot. “ is the heat exchanger. if we blew it, the core will fall on security mode and shut itself up”she said joyfully. “Ok work on it then” ordered Axel “All other form a defensive perimeter” The sisters deployed in the room behind pipe and tubes to cover the entrance. They quickly set a perimeter zone with Tatianna in the center her massive canon in front of the door. “Something weird” said Elise “Looks like the heat is too high for the exchanger, the inlet tube is way to hot”she said “It will damage the core if they...”she added confused “IT’S A TRAP, RUN” Shouted Anna starting to raise from her shooting stance “They overloading the core to make it detonate” she yelled while running to the door “She’s probably right everybody run” said Elise jumping from the wall leaving her gear on it. The sister where quick to react and started to run to the room then boarded. “The heck are they really gonna sacrifice twelve hundreds crew members just to blow up our ship” yelled Axel while running “Are we speaking about the entity who kill a third of a planet population just to make a grand entrance ?” replied Wera running even faster. They turned the angle of the corridor only to be facing a group of marines. Sigrid opened fire reflexively and started to gun down the marines. She felt a sharp pain in the tight and another on the left shin. Looking down she saw two small hole bleeding. The pain was blinding but she kept her finger on the trigger. She saw Anna fall on her back to her left. “Cease Fire! Cease Fire! cease fire” yelled Axel. “SITREP” she added “alive” replied Anna “but out of combat, can’t get up” “two bullet to the chest but still kicking for now” said Tatianna “One in shoulder, alive” said Elise through clenched teeth. “same as before” said Wera. “destroyed weapon, a bullet to the right shoulder but alive” said Kassandra “Oka ?” asked Axel “OKA ?” Oka was in the middle of the pack of dead soldier her blade in the right hand her left one was on her neck. she dropped her sword and make the sign for advance order with her right hand. “good enough let’s go said Axel. she and Tatianna grabbed the shoulders of Anna and dragged her to the room as Kassandra was helping Oka to advance. they all limped their way to the craft where they all gathered in. Elise hit a control pad and the craft front closed again and retrorocket launched them back to their ship. Wera was in contact with the main ship and all other torpedoes started to eject back while the main ship was preparing it for an emergency burn. when their torpedo locked back to the air lock a host of Anima Sisters jumped in and started to do triage of the wound. One of the was Elizabeth who tended to Oka wound. she then yelled “Class A” While removing Oka hand from her neck. a massive amount of blood started to flow. her neck was slashed for a good ten centimeters. Anyone would have instantly died for such wound and Oka consciousness as feeble as it was, was a testimony of her resilience. Elizabeth quickly put her own hand on it. “Damn, hang in there sister you can do it”. “Emergency burn, engaging mandatory injection. DO IT NOW” yelled the operator. as soon as she finish Axel grabbed SIgrid wrist and opened a small container in it. In it was a small syringe filled with a green liquid. Axel put the syringe in a socket on the base of Sigrid neck and inject ed the full syringe. Tatianna was doing the same on Anna and Kassandra was following her move on herself. The world turned to a blueish green as her conscience seem sealed in an grip of green ice. The sister finished their injection on themselves as the ship was already accelerating. The acceleration was immense, probably more than twenty g, and Sigrid felt like some was rolling a steamroller on her chest.the injection kept her awake but barely. she try to connect to the network to find out what was happening. she connected to the bridge view. her ship was starting to move expelling long white plasma flames of all it’s engine, the ship was warping, creaking, screaming under acceleration but seemed to hold herself pretty good. The enemy ship looked offline but the thermographic camera reveled it’s core already racking temperature in the thousands range. As her ship slowly started to increase the distance Sigrid grew afraid. they where way to slow and the enemy core started to max out the reading on the instruments, it’s core reaching now ten of thousands of degree. “Diverting all power in the propulsion” announced the ship officer. all system were cut leaving Sigrid back on her body as someone started to pile a second steamroller on top of the first one. the pain was unbearable and she had trouble getting oxygen in her lungs. she started to see the black edge on her vision closing slowly on her. Then she see it, the light from the exploding core was so powerful that it shine through the steel wall of the tube as if it was clear glass. The pressure wave sent the Dusk Bringer flying chaotically like a dry twig in simmer winds. she lost consciousness as her boot was locking on the steel preventing her to be washed away. When she awoke it was in utter chaos. The ship was still in one piece and was recovering from her spins. Oka blood wascovering nearly everything as Elizabeth was fighting to keep her hand on the wound. All alarm of both the ship and her own armor were running and some sister were still passed out. She jumped to Kassandra and tried to wake her up. she was then joined by Elise. Kassandra opened her eyes “the heck was that ?” “The other ship detonated. ours is still holding for what i gathered.”replied Elise a rumbling sound of explosion in the distance seem to chip away a bit of her confidence on this last part. Elizabeth yelled to them “We need help can you ?”. They moved to help the Anima sisters carry the more severely wounded sister to the medical ward. The ship was in a bad shape, teams of Anima sister and CCC members were patching up the worst of it already but some sector was still depressurized and some even add massive hole showing space on the other side. The ward itself featured a few new opening and teams were patching them up. a few minute after they entered the room it was finally sealed shut by the repair crew. as soon as it was the ship started to fill the room up with air. “Resuming Gravity assistance on crew ring” said the ship officer. the wall suddenly starting to spin and everything weight grew back as they started to spin faster. having the gravity back helped tremendously for medical duty and having the oxygen back up mean they can finally ditch their armor. The rooms of the medical ward quickly filled with way more wounded than it’s normal usage would allow, luckily all crew quarter where doubling as medical room with a few quick locker opening and wall dressing removing, so each time the repair crew sealed one more room the ward grew of a room. Soon Sigrid and Kassandra were back in their room. they started to remove their armor helped by Anima sisters. bullet extraction was painful but at least their fast clogging blood make bullet more than an hindrance than real threat. Even Anna was soon back in the room. Oka and Ren were not that lucky sadly. They both bleed profusely and were both in induced coma to try to slow cellular death. Elizabeth seem confident that she could save them as long as they passed the night. Which wasn’t a given in you asked the rest of the medical ward. “Team meeting in the martians quarter” announced Wera in delta level. The three martians looked at each others. “does these girls know what peace or downtime means ?” joked Anna from her bed. “We don’t” replied Wera entering the room with bandage on her feet and shoulder. “How are you sisters ?” she asked “Well could be better” replied Anna “I have been way worse” joked Kassandra in response. “I am okay” said calmly Sigrid. The others sisters came one by one in the room. Most of them were patched up in some way. Once everybody was there Wera started “Well now that we are all there it means we can start. The ship is barely holding and the shock pushed us dangerously low on Mars Gravity well. The crew suffered as well, we lost seven Nocturnalis sisters that were still on board of the Terran ship and nearly a hundreds her on-board when the wave hit us. Including a third of the officer of the ship who were on the top level bridge. As you may know Victoria is in a deep coma due to the amount of radiation she and her team received. Vigdis is safe but she his the next in line for the artillery office. So for now she his taken by her duty on board. We need to leave. Even more so since the martian government is exactly fond of what happened around us and are low-key blaming this on us.”explained Wera “What happen on Mars ?” asked Kassandra visibly agitated. “Well a big part of the Terran ship was ejected toward Mars and blew up Antares Signus dome. thirteen hundreds dead, a huge amount of destruction. prompted the evac of the whole dome. which is obviously a blow for Mars war effort”said Wera. Antares Signus was one of Mars least populated dome but it was a massive infrastructure and was home to the biggest shipyard outside of Phobos docks. Mars was probably in full scramble mode and pissed beyond talking by this point. “also ...” continued Wera “Also ?” asked Sigrid. “Well the blast ejected deimos of it’s normal orbit. at this speed it’s eccentricity will be extreme and even a small nudge could kick her out of orbit. If she stay in orbit at all. Which will depend of how much mass was abraded during the explosion. No body really now what will happen of it and how it will affect Mars and Phobos” Wera explained. The Martian were in shock. Without Deimios mines life will be even harder on Mars and that was not a walk in the park already. Also the mass of debris will progressively fall on Mars wrecking havoc on all systems. No wonders why Martians where pissed off, even if it was honestly not really the fault of neither the CCC nor the Sisterhood of Edda “Damn, I grew up there” said Anna. “My dad was a mining engineer”she added “I am so deeply sorry sister Anna” said Wera “sadly there is not much we can do. Maybe CCC could conjure something up in the future to help but for now the best we can do is leave this mess before Mars start to shoot at us. Which if my contacts in Martian government are to be trusted, a very real possibility.”she continued “Damn, I will be shot down by my own planet,that’s a new one even for me” said Kassandra somber. “Well we don’t intend to stay there till that happens” said Wera “That’s exactly the point of this meeting. What should we do ? do we go back to Titan for repair and for proper training or do we try to stay inner side ?” asked Wera. “Well I am not sure the ship could withstand another fight even a normal one” say Elise. “Fair point, anything else ?” commented Wera “Well to be honest every body need a break “ said Axel “plus staying there expose us to more actions from this enemy force.” she continued. “We need to investigate a very real possibility though”said Tatianna “Which one ?” asked Wera “We have a traitor on board. There is no way someone would be aware of Epsilon project, our deployment, our ship position AND sneak in a Terran ship in Martian orbit without no one detecting it. There is a mole somewhere, and since laying up the ambush was done with great amount of knowledge of our battle procedure and was clearly designed for us the traitor must be on board” said Tatianna. There was a long silence as everybody weighted what was just said “In that case it’s seem to me it would be safer to go on Titan. Considering the level of force present Titan will be a way harder nut to crack for any wannabe hunter and it will be harder for them to find someone to trust and with whom to prepare an ambush in one of our base.” said Anna. “Yes but we need to either root out the traitor before hand or keep everyone in quarantine. Else the traitor would have access to more information or assets to corrupt on one of our base.”replied Elise “That can actually be a way to root out the traitor” intervened Sigrid. “Since we now it will have to contact exterior allies. if we publicly say we are going to dock on Enceladeuswhile in truth setting way to Titan we can fool him temporally. Then you put a filter on com looking for any communication outside of the usual specter or containing reference to Europe. If the mole try to contact the outside world we pounce on him as hard as possible.” “That seem doable” admitted Wera. “That being said there is a problem still left to discuss. If we just leave for the next few week it will probably don’t be a Mars to came back to. Mars is heavily assaulted from outside and from within. Martian Navy is still engaged in the fringe war and all docked ships are to wounded to fly. IF we leave Mars is open for grab to anything with a ship powerful enough to shoot Phobos dock out of the water while their defense are low. Martians Navy say it will need at least two weeks to send back some units in defense. That’s actually why Martian Army has not already punch a hole through our side. If we leave either earth or more probably Luna will be there before the martian Navy and could start orbital bombing” explained Wera “Well, I may have a solution for that.” said Kassandra “But before I incriminate anyone there I will need a few things from you” she said “Go ahead” said Wera with a gesture to signify she was open to discussion. “I need a written guarantee that: first the Sisterhood nor any of it’s member will engage in hostile action against me or my associates during the time of this contract. Second I need personals amnesties for any assisting parties on the contract guaranteeing safe passage in and out of Martian controlled space and clean slate record with the Sisterhood of Edda. In exchange I will provide Mars with defensive cover from incoming ship up to the size of doomsday destroyer.”she proclaimed. There was a long silence while everyone present evaluated the seriousness of her proposition. “Your sure you can provide ?”asked Wera.”Positively.” replied Kassandra. “Ok let me see what i can get” said Wera going out of the room “All other stay there.” she added while living. “What was that Kass ?” asked Anna “how are you provided such cover ?” she asked. “I won’t, old friends will. I haven’t seen him in a long time but I am positively certain he can provided”she explained “I sure would love to have friend that powerful”said Elise. “I am not sure about that Elise”reply Tatianna “To my knowledge there is no legit force this powerful on this sector. So I am unsure how Kassandra friend will do it but I am pretty certain Mars won’t like it. Even more so looking at her demands”explained Tatianna. “You have no idea” exhaled Kassandra. An hour passed before Wera return. “Wasn’t easy. Martian are a bit wary about trusting us but apparently even given your “current military status” your name still bring some weight. That being said, Martian military is glad that you can provide, the civilian branch was a bit more uptight. Anyway you have your deal” said Wera giving a dataslate to Kassandra.“I sure hope you can deliver serious gear cause this is likely to be a hot zone in the coming days.”she added “Okay, point a laser communication array on ceres and then deviate it five degree aft, nine degree six minutes precession and eleven degree one minute polarization. Send the following code : alpha,charlie,hotel,tango,fox,six, seven,three. Wait for call back on open laser channel same polarity.” ordered Kassandra. there was a few seconds of silence. “Done, is that all ?” asked Wera. “Now we wait”said Kassandra. ten minutes passed in tense silence “Are you sure of your code ?” asked Wera nervously. “Yeah, positive, I learned it before my mom name, I am certain of it.”replied Wera angrily “A powerful enough laser array need time to warm, when it’s not crafted with gold plated palladium” said Kassandra softly. another minute passed before the ship operator connected to their local network “Sister Wera we are receiving strange alarm. Apparently someone is locking us on long distance targeting array, sending us a message at the same time but we are not able to understand it. it’s just a repeating cycle of bips” she said “Some friend you got there sister Kassandra, Operator let us listen.” replied Wera. The message was linked to their channel and Anna yelled instantly “It’s binary Morse code you morons. Put it through both a Morse code filter and a binary processor.” she ordered. a few second after one of the screen of the room started to display a text message. “WHO ARE YOU ? HOW DO YOU GET THIS CODE ? SPEAK OR DIE” said the loop ending an ever diminishing number. Kassandra connected to the panel and started to type “OPEN VIDEO LINK, IT’S SAFE. SIGNED: S.L.” and then she hit send. a few second later the rolling message stopped “Care to explain ?”asked Wera “Your ship must be on the danger list” replied Kassandra. The operator spoke again “Madam, we are receiving video link but the locks are still active”she said “Encrypt it and reroute it there” replied Wera. “Well ma’am, it’s already encrypted on an unknown format.” said the operator as the screen turned blue and displayed a logo. The logo was a black three mast sail ship with red sails stamped on a metal id tag. “I know this”said Kassandra “we need biometric scan, anyone of you as one ?”asked Kassandra. “I re-routed the one of the door pad if you want sister Kassandra” said the operator. Kassandra put her eye in front of the scan and then her hand on the pad. After a few second a grey haired man appeared on the screen “Reveal yourself” he ordered “reroute my view” said Wera out loud. “Who the HECK ?” yelled the man “Who are you and what have you done to Sofia Lünd ?” he asked vehemently. “I am her dad.” said Kassandra “I have change a fair bit since the Trial of Sofia but it’s me.” she said coming closer. “Dad ?”asked Axel “Are you by any chance Hedgard Lünd ?”asked Tatianna. “Yes I am, may I suggest you identify yourself miss” said the man calmly “I am Svetlanna Serova blood sister Tatianna” she said “ who ?” asked the man “The doom twins..” replied someone out of frame. “The doom... Wait what you are with the Sisterhood of Edda now ?”said the man “I was in it already at the time, it was an infiltration mission, sir” reply Tatianna visibly touched. “Can someone fill me in a bit ?” asked Sigrid completely lost. “Yeah I admit, I need a brief too” said Axel. “Well, My real name is, or more accurately was Sofia Lünd, it was a cover up. My dad, here present is Hedgard lünd, Which I am pretty sure, the sisterhood as extensive record and report about him. While what my family do is not technically illegal contrary to what the inner planet propaganda can tell, It’s not a well known way to make friend. The inner planets are all too happy to buy what my family has to sell but all too happy to brand us as mere pirates.”said Kassandra. A quick scan to the network revealed to Sigrid what she was looking for. Hedgard Lünd, also known as Mister Sandman was was the well known leader of a pack of lone wolf and deserters of all sides who was specialized in deep space activities. While looting spoil of war and exploring drifter asteroids for extra solar minerals or artifact isn’t illegal per se as the international maritime law as a legal basis for this kind of activities, other activities as mercenary, privateer or straight up ransom where of the less savory kind. Mister Sandman was known for his use of a very potent sleeping agent capable of going through most of the filtration system giving him the ability to raid most ship and bases without damaging anything nor killing anybody. no one knew the real nature of said agent, nor how he produce it. His ship was a stolen Terran doomdays cruiser found a drift after the event on Gaia station. Is band was commonly known as the Ravnos and where rightfully feared in most of the Terran system as even if by design neutral, both the band and it’s leader kept a deep grudge against Terra over the invasion tentative of Gaia Station by Terran troops. It was rumored that Hedgard Lünd was in fact a High ranking CCC member born on Gaia station. But due to the state of archive about Gaïa station, it was hard to prove anything. “Even if the Sisterhood as proposed to integrate my family multiple time, we elected to stay neutral and live by ourselves in the belt. That being said at least CCC and Sisterhood doesn’t shoot us on sight. My dad thought a de facto pirate ship isn’t exactly a place to raise children. so all space born child are sent undercover on a planet with on of their parents.”continued Kassandra “That’s actually why you never seen any of my parents of our graduation ceremony. Phobos docks are the best my mom can do and my day can’t even come close to Martian space without guarantee. As for what the deal between dad and Tatianna, I am as clueless as you.”said Kassandra “I can’t take it from there, Sofia”said Hedgard. “Dad my name is Kassandra now, it’s important” corrected Kassandra “My bad, kassandra. To answer sister Tatianna and her sister were part of a team of Sisters we used to carry on board of the “King Crow” back when the relation with CCC and Sisterhood wasn’t so damn tense...” he said “you shot down an emissary in restricted space, It’s groudn for execution you know” said Wera “We shotdown a traitor selling your secrets to the black market while hiding being diplomatic immunity, a Terran traitor!”yelled hedgard “That beside the point! Diplomatic rules are..” yelled back Wera. “SHUT UP! both of you”shouted Tatianna loud enough to stop them both in there track. “That’s all story and we have way bigger fish to fry now. To answer Kassandra it was way prior to your birth. Me and Svetlanna were deployed as a strike team for tracking a quantity of stolen assets. Your dad provided lift, we provided firepower. we split the loot. Was a clean deal and a good mission. Svetlanna was a bit eager on the use of orbital bombardment hence the nickname.” she added. “You are right Tatianna” admitted both Hedgard and Wera. “What is the problem ?” asked Hedgard calmly. When Kassandra as finish explained the problem. Hedgard stayed silent for a long time “Ok, we will do it. But be aware and make your martian friend aware that we still carry doomsday nuke on this craft and i will use it if someone from Mars open fire on us with so much as a handgun. I really take a risk, and make my crew take the same by coming to your help here” he said. “Dully noted reply Wera “Thank you a lot Captain. And in the probable case of a battle, every craft or loot you get your hand on is yours as long as it’s not Martian one” she added. “Glad to have that on record” said a voice out of frame “Hey, Hi mom” said happily Kassandra “how come your not on Phobos ?” she asked “Well you were declared deserter so people started to ask question. and since you were out of reach anyway I regrouped with the rest of the pack” Her mom explained coming into view. She was a tall black haired vaguely of Asian decent women. She was as beautiful as her daughter and her gaze make her seem even stronger. “Madam, a lot of ship are appearing on radar control. They used some kind of cloaking device to hide their burn toward us. I pick up new signature rapidly coming from Ceres and near belt object.”said the ship operator “This is an authorized move, step down from engage mode”said Wera. Hedgard chuckled “We where running full speed as soon as we received the distress code from Kassandra, but there is no need to waste valuable energy in cloaking device anymore. We will be on site newt week. I understand you have not enough of a foot hold to stay there that long. In any case Earth is still readying up her ship so we will be there far before these punks” explained Kassandra’s mother. “Anyway sisters, glad to work with you again.” said Hedgard “Same Captain” said Tatianna. “Pleasure doing business with you” she added before the signal was cut. “Sister Kassandra you do realize you’ve put your family and friends between a rock and a hard place...” said Wera softly “I do, but they are though enough to eat anything the rock can throw at us. And the amnesty mean, we FINALLY can dock on titan again which is a vital assets for us. ALso I will be able to see my family again which wasn’t exactly a given” replied Kassandra “Assuming they survive it” added Axel. Tatianna turned to her “If you think some Terran punks scrambled in haste from the dock quarters will shot down the King Crow you are badly mistaken Axel” she said. “Well in any case I just ordered the captain to put the cap on Titan.” said Wera. “Attention crew and passengers, we are going to attempt a jump to Enceladeusfor repair and rearmament. Please assume acceleration canceling position. Gradual acceleration burn starting now” announced the ship speaker system. The familiar humming of the engines started a new and Sigrid felt a light touch toward the back of the ship. “Position ?” she asked Elise raising an eyebrow “In bed, will show you” Elise replied. The other sisters left to reach their own quarters. Sigrid jumped to her bed and laid on it. Elise pushed a button on the side of the bed and the whole mattress suddenly felt liquid. Sigrid sank a bit in it and it was warm and soft to the touch. It quickly started to firm up again and she was effectively cast on it and encased in it. “Cozy isn’t it ?” Elise added before leaving Sigrid bedside and walking toward Kassandra “So my dear pirate princess would you like to share your crash couch with me or do we stay in our own bed like good girls ?” she asked playfully. “You do realize we share a room with two other squad-mates and are both perforated by bullets in multiple points?”replied Kassandra “well now that you say it like that we should...” started Elise. Kassandra grabbed her at the hips and threw her on her shoulder “and the other hand I loot everything I can find as good pirate should.”She said gently throwing Elise on her bed and hoping in it herself. “In the interest of cohabitation and efficiency in combat, may I ask you to keep the ransack and rape for later Kassandra ?” asked the voice of Anna with laughs in it. “OK, OK, no pillage and no rape” conceded Kassandra. There was a few more laugh from Kassandra bed, but they prepared to the jump. after ten minute the acceleration felt more intense. “Entering sustained acceleration” announced the ship bridge. The pressure was way more intense suddenly. the bed started to gimbal so that Sigrid was laying square against the acceleration. “Damn I hate this” she heard Elise say as the acceleration increased again. Sigrid started to concentrate a bit on her delta level to evade the growing pain. Her friend the steamroller was back put at least the bed helped a lot supporting her body a lot and keeping her oxygenated. After almost an hour of intense pressure the weight seemed to lighten gradually reaching an equilibrium around two g of acceleration. something beeped and her bed cam back flat. she hoped out of it and started to walk on what was previously the wall. “Is this me or the wall room just rotated ?” she asked Elise who was trying to close the top part of her jumpsuit. “It’s correct. every fixture is actually tied to an external sphere. that way we can use the room in any gravity vector. Actually some aren’t even “boxed” as this one is and are flat out spherical. Vigdis room is like this as his the one of Axel” she said. “Are you ok sister Anna ?” she asked “I am, I am just exhausted I will probably sleep for a bit. This trip gonna take a while anyway, right ?” replied Anna “Yeah, given ship state and position of the moons I would say at least ten days” said Kassandra. “Look at that, I forgot we add a skilled pirate navigator on board” said Elise “Will you shut it, it’s supposed to stay on the down low” said Kassandra “beside being space born doesn’t come only with perks” she added. “Forgive me Kassandra, I just... well we are both Earth born with Axel. That’s why I am so small our mother fled to the sisterhood when our father tried to marry Axel against her will. It’s a less fun origin story than being the daughter of the most badass privateers of the system. One so hardcore he his even above killing” she said with a strange smile. “I wasn’t aware dear sorry.” said kassandra taking Elise in her arm. “Beside you grew up on a planet with ocean. For us Martian or space born it’s way stranger than any pirate ship. Actually YOU HAD pirate ship on ocean back in the days.” said Kassandra softly in her ear. Elise turned and kissed Kassandra deeply. “Oh quit it,will ya! you two are glowing like a rainbow barbie toy that’s painful to watch” said Sigrid laughing. They walked to the mess together, “what’s your plan for the next few days ?” asked Kassandra to Sigrid. “Dunno, probably visiting a bit more of the ship. She his a beast to withstand such a beating up close and being fine with it.”replied Sigrid “Well she is one of a kind. It’s an experimental craft. Titanica Mare is a giant shipyard and testing out new technologies in such a crowded place and with so many eye on it would be ill advised. So it was chosen that our main base, Nocta, which is a classified info before you ask only Nocturnalis sister know about it, will be the main testing bed for this kind of things. Dusk Bringer was built there as was Dawn Bearer, her sister ship” explained Elise “Most of this ship construction technologies are classified one way or another. She is by far the most,well one of the most” she corrected seeing the looks on Kassandra face “advanced ship in the solar system.She was the first ship built with an integrated cloaking device” added Elise “all reasons more to go look around” said Sigrid “Are you by any chance a martian spy miss Frost ?” asked Kassandra restraining her laughs. “Yeah, and I will go spying right now” she said raising from the table. “I let you two to it, I am sure you don’t need me” she said leaving. “See you for tonight training!” Elise replied. “Training ?” asked Kassandra “Yeah don’t think you go of that easily. Tatianna as load of exercises for wounded training.” said Elise with hint of sad in her voice. “Well see you in training then”said Sigrid leaving the room. She then walked toward the elevator to join the middle section of the ship. arrived at the elevator she looked at the map there. The ship was basically two rings orbiting around a center core. The forward most ring in which she was, was mainly barracks, passengers quarter and the hospital ward. It also contained most of “Leisure” activities and place. the other ring was crew quarter, meeting and briefing room and some “tactical preparation room” which Sigrid wasn’t aware of their usage. The center core was mainly technical stuff. While engine where affixed to the ring support structure, which contrary to the ring itself was static, the main generator and it’s emergency engines where situated on the fore side of the ship just behind the bow. Come after the main hangar for space faring dropships and assault crafts. Then the first ammunition storage, the base for the forward ring, a fuel tank filled with heavy element liquid, the torpedo battery, the firing range, the base for the second ring, and lastly secondary fuel tank and long acceleration engines. The bridge was located atop the aft ring support structure. Sigrid studied the way and started to memorize the letter and color she must follow to join the bridge and it’s observation dome. She took the elevator and strapped herself on the seat. The elevator arrived to the insertion point and started to slow it’s rotation speed to a complete stop. arrived to the pillar it started to get down to the core of the ship. The weightlessness was such a n exhilarating feeling for a planet born. to be weightless at last was such a freedom she took a few moment to appreciate it again. she kicked the floor of the elevator and left it drifting slowly in the central corridor of the ship, crossing way with a few Anima sisters surprised to see a combat personnel down on the core. arriving to the torpedo battery she started to see more of the damages of the battle lots of walls where patched up in hast and technician on the outside where repairing the ship, even as it was under acceleration. Many small pieces where bent or broken and a large amount of personnel where replacing them. Arrived at the second ring she found the elevator and strapped herself to the seat. the elevator quickly raise to the bridge. Sigrid left the elevator and followed her memorized path toward the observation deck. She found the room seemingly empty and walked toward the gigantic observation bay. she opened the panels. The ship was hurt, badly. Looking at the stern she was able to see that only two of the five sustained acceleration engines were running and far from full still. A team of technician was trying to found a way to patch a hole the side of a small car on the side of the main fuel tank and a lot of fuel was still leaking from it. the bow was covered in impact of high caliber cannons and the bridge first level was half burnt and a goof chunk of it was missing which left a gaping hole in the left side of it. Sigrid looked at Mars already diminishing in the distance. “Farewell friend and remember that parting is a sweet sorrow, old friends” “don’t worry old chap, you’ll see it again” said someone behind her. Sigrid turned around, something was moving on the beam above her. Vigdis emerged from the darkness floating slowly to the ground. “I wasn’t aware you were such a scholar about old English literature” she said coming near Sigrid. “What were you doing here ?” asked sigrid looking at the ceiling. “Meditation. Prayers, irrational behaviors. depend how you call it I guess” said Vigdis. “go on I know you space junky aren’t that fond of our religious beliefs, I am used to it” she added. “It’s not my habit to disrespect a squadmate”replied Sigrid “Who or what were you praying to ?”she asked “Ignis, the fire spirit” said Vigdis. “Never heard of it sorry” said Sigrid. “Well, can’t blame you. I am like the last living follower of this religion.” admitted Vigdis “my people are not very religious these days, not like there is much of us alive anyway so...” she added with sadness and hints of the past in her voice. “Your peoples ?” asked Sigrid softly ”I am Navajo, my hair are black I bleached them to leave earth before they could catch me, so when my DNA changed I started to grow them blonde directly” “They ?” asked Sigrid “Epuration Task force Echo aka Earth nicest peoples” replied sarcastically Vigdis. “You see after the event of the “heaven curse” most people agree to forget about difference in order to follow through with space conquest. But after CCC declaration of Independence, Luna rebellion and the failed attempt at seizing Gaïa Station most of earth population elected to a more “unitarian” approach. They started to purge and cleanse every diverging opinion. Anyone vaguely against Terran Dominion, any non christian people, anybody not willing to invest every last bit of resources in space reclamation war was labeled as part of the problem, suspicious, in short a Traitor. Thus the purge started. Most people chose to go dark and stay bellow the radar but we choose not to. we took arm and we started to protect ourselves. At least my grand grand dads generation did. With our shared home, multiparental education, our traditions, and most of all religious beliefs.”explained Vigdis “Multi-parental ?”asked Sigrid “My people doesn’t value property and don’t think anyone an claim anything on someone else souls. So polygamous couples are frequent. Even more so since genetics advance let us truly merge more than two energy to create a child soul. I was raised by three mothers and two fathers” explained Vigdis “Ho. There was time we done that on Mars to. But it was more communal living than true polyamory”said Sigrid “I understand, anyway due to that we were primary target, but to dangerous to crack. Then the Earth choose to abandon Mars. This was the last straw. Most of us where against and were vocal supports of Mars. So they purged us. Plain and simple. Straight up extermination camp. Most of my mother family fled to CCC ground. they lived there for some time. and started to settle again. I was born during that time. But then the CCC was attacked. We feared we would be deported again so must of us left for Gaïa. But many Terran friendly gang were active on Gaïa at the time so most of us dropped any telltale signs anyway” “Gosh that’s awful. Why does no-one intervened ?” Said Sigrid. “Well CCC did. But even they don’t have the might to stop the dominion. They were barely able to stand ground when Terra attacked their bases. It was generous of them to take such a risk.” Vigdis said “Other than that Mars was suffocating and starving, the Sisterhood assisted Mars and the CCC to survive against Terra. Luna... Those damn robot lovers were way to happy to have someone do the job for them. They hate any religious feeling anyway” She added with tears on her eyes. Sigrid came even closer. “I am sorry Vigdis” she said “Why for ? you weren’t even born yet” said Vigdis “Sorry that you had to live through this.” Sigrid said putting her head on Vigdis shoulder. After a few seconds Vigdis said “Come with me” and took Sigrid hand. She then kicked on the floor and stepped on the glass to launch herself in the air dragging Sigrid behind her. Arrived at the ceiling she turned around and landed gracefully catching Sigrid in her arms. she released her and pointed at the ceiling on it there was a few symbol, carved in the steel. “Ignis”said Vigdis pointing at the drawing. “Quite not a master piece but enough to keep my memory alive and insure that something of my people will stay behind if I don’t come back one day” said Vigdis softly. She was so close that Sigrid could feel her warm breath on her neck. “Will prefer if you were still there to teach me all this. If it’s not to much to ask.” said Sigrid softly turning round to face Vigdis “I fully intend to Sigrid” said Vigdis planting her big emerald gaze deep in Sigrid eyes. They stay silent in the dark for a long moment looking deep inside each other. Vigdis made the first step and came so close that there lips were practically touching. “It’s the first time I see such a beautiful Martian” said Vigdis “It’s not like your not magnificent yourself Vigdis...” said Sigrid trembling from nervousness “Yeah looks like you were liking what you were seeing back there” said Vigdis. “You are adorable, we are in the dark yet I can tell you are becoming red just by the heat from your fa..” she never finish her sentence. Sigrid had advanced her head closing the gap and was kissing her passionately. Vigdis grabbed Sigrid by the hips and wrapped her legs around her. “God i thought you will never do this.” she said kissing Sigrid again. “I wasn’t really sure you would react like that, I don’t want the best sniper on the ship to have a grudge against me” replied Sigrid. “Why would I ? do you plan to hurt me in anyway ?” said Vigdis “No quite the contrary” said Sigrid pulling down Vigdis jumpsuit front zipper slowly revealing her chest. “Like this view as much as you liked the other side” said Vigdis opening her suit to let Sigrid even more of her cleavage. Sigrid planted a kiss on Vigdis skin “Yes but we should keep this for a more closed room” said Sigrid letting her head rest on Vigdis breasts. “Hum, you are right. This need a proper place. Sadly I am not at a liberty to go their for now. Duty call” Vigdis said. “I could dine with you after training if you want” said Sigrid without stopping planting kiss on Vigdis skin. “Hum that’s tempting. May be I can be convince to...” she started but Sigrid grabbed her head and started to kiss voraciously at her neck “Ok I am convinced. let’s say at 8pm sharp” said Vigdis “Will be there said Sigrid letting go of Vigdis head. “In the mean time, You should go back to your duty. Officer” said Sigrid with all the seriousness she was able to conjure. Vigdis twitched a bit. “Damn it will be a long shift now, very long ...” she said, opening her leg to let Sigrid go. She launched herself toward the ground slowly closing her zipper during the flight. She then walked to the elevator. She turned around to check that Sigrid was still looking at her. She sent her a kiss and left the room. Sigrid was left awestruck. She was burning with anticipation and at the same time was a bit shaken by what she had learned before about Vigdis. she looked at her wrist. already seventeen and half. Time to move if she wanted to be on time for training, and something was telling her Tatianna would not be of the patient kind. She returned to her room and changed cloth. The other were in the room as was Elise. “Good visit Sigrid ? Where did you go ?” asked Elise “I climbed to the observation room” replied Sigrid. They all received a message “Training displaced to tactical training room c.” It was a message from Tatianna. “At least” sigrid thought “I will now what these room are used for” “What are Tactical training room ?”asked Anna. “Giant virtual reality room for specific mission and tactics training. We use them to do rehearsal and situation training. And sometimes training proper but it not that common, even for Tatianna. I don’t know what she want of us.”replied Elise. “Let’s go then” said Kassandra moving out of the room. Arriving on the designated location they found the rest of the squad waiting in front of the door. Most of them were bandaged in some places, Ren arm was brand new and shiny but everyone was there except Oka. And Tatianna. “Does anybody now where she is ?” asked Axel. Everybody looked at her dumbfounded. “This smell way to fishy for me.” said Wera “I am asking for a scan” she added. she was silent for a second. “Last known position, in the swimming pool, been offline for a few minutes, probably under water. Strangely out of character to be late for training” she said “We should go see what this is all about” said Ren. “Let’s go to the gym then” said Wera. they all moved back to their ring and entered the room. Wera was the first to enter. “DOWN! “she yelled just before the first bullet hit her in the chest. She was pushed back on the floor rolling. A member of CCC was there with a pump action shotgun and opened fire on them again. Sigrid was now in front of him. she instinctively went to the delta level and focused on the end of the tube in front of her. The man pulled the trigger ever so slowly. She jumped forward and down as fast as she could dodging the shot by a good margin. The time was passing so slowly that she was suspended in the air for a good time. she took that time to think. The man was already starting to reload his weapon again. This guy was fast for a normal human. probably a trained soldier. She planted her hand on the ground and flipped on it using her right foot to kick the gun away and her left leg to kick the man in the head. The gun flew away from his hand as he was falling to the ground. Sigrid keep her rolling momentum and landed on her feet. “OH SHIT” she think seeing that another man was shooting at her with an assault rifle. She jumped left toward the water. Upon hitting the water she was brought back to reality. She was safely under water but her time in high speed had been exhausting. The last remnant of the man burst pierced the water above her aimlessly. She was safe for now. that when she seen her. Tatianna was down on the floor of the pool with a red cloud above her. Sigrid Darted to Tatianna. grabbed her and jumped from the floor as hard as she can, bringing Tatianna to the surface with her. Arriving to the surface a two set of hand grabbed them both and dragged them out of the pool. Sigrid was exhausted and cover in blood. Ren had a blade reaching out of her new arm. she had apparently decapitated the poor man with the assault rifle. Elise was tending to Tatianna wound as Anna tended to the one of Wera. Kassandra and Axel where interrogating the last remaining man alive. “For fuck sake why ?” yelled Axel. The man try to spit on her but Kassandra kicked him so hard on the chest that Sigrid heard some rib breaking. the man threw up blood. “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!” he said laughing looking at Tatianna. “You little fuck” yelled Ren. she jumped on him cut his left arm straight out “Go tell your master we gonna kill him bitch”. the man cry could have been hear in space, yet his indoctrination was harder “The watchers are ready. you gonna die, all of you” he said reaching for his belt. As soon as he does that Kassandra took him and kicked him in the pool as hard as she could. She grabbed Axel and Ren, dragging them to the ground with her. There was a blinding light and a massive pressure wave but the damage was mostly contained by the water in the pool. “For fuck sake. how ?” asked Ren “Abdominal self destruction charge. Classic tactic on the belts” explained Kassandra.