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Alan Craig Alsup
of Nashville TN passed away November 2, 2017. He was preceded in death by his parents Douglas M. and Martha C Alsup.
Survivors include his wife, Peggy Alsup, siblings: Douglas M. Alsup, Jr. (Carla), Thomas C. Alsup (Linda), and twin sisters, Cathee A. Mabry (Ralph) and Aimee A. Terrell (John, deceased) and five nieces and nephews.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Tennessee Technological University and an MBA in Finance from MTSU. He served four years in the US Air Force. After several years in the financial industry, he began his own business as a real estate entrepreneur. He loved golfing and travel and was a friend to all who knew him. He was a member of the Church of Christ.
Cremation services provided by West Harpeth Funeral Home & Crematory. A private gathering will be held at a later date. Memorial contributions may be made to American Cancer Society, ALIVE HOSPICE, Nashville Humane Association, Autism Society of Middle Tennessee.


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Paragonimiasis Treatment and Symptoms
Paragonimiasis is an disease caused by the lung fluke, Paragonimus westermani. It is particular common in East Asia. This disease article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. In China it has 2 different species the Paragonimus westermani and Pagumogonimus skrjabini Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragonimiasis" Categories: Disease stubs ...
Wikipedia - [full article]
- Paragonimiasis (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

subset: commoncrawl


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The geometry of line arrangements: exploiting symmetry
Moshe Cohen (Mathematics and Statistics)
In high school you used equations to determine the point of intersections of two lines. For this project, we generalize to more lines, and we study the various intersection points that arise. These collections of points inform us about the geometry of the lines; for example, three lines with a single triple point looks like pizza for six, while three lines with three double points gives an extra triangle. With enough lines, our intuition betrays us, and a single collection of intersection points can lead to different geometries: this behavior is what we will investigate. The mathematical objects we'll be playing with are called "arrangements" (or collections) of lines. This topic is an access point for many difficult questions in much deeper areas of mathematics, but we will play in the shallow end of the pool. For more information, see this video.
Prerequisites: Facility with high-school-level geometry and algebra; attention to detail and care with work; diligence for challenging problems; communication skills (or interest in improving them). The following will be helpful but are not necessary: MATH 263 Discrete Mathematics, MATH 361 Modern Algebra, MATH 331 Geometry, other experience with proof-writing in mathematics, and any familiarity with computer programming.
How should students express their interest in this project?
1. Check out the YouTube video linked above and then its much more challenging sequel here. [Don't be intimidated if you don't understand some things; the second talk is aimed at graduate students.]
2. Spend at least 30 minutes thinking about -- and attempting to solve -- one of the following two problems. The Orchard Problem (stated below) or the problem stated just after 1:45 in the first YouTube video (above): How many "different" arrangements of lines are there for n lines? (Try n=3,4,5, and maybe even 6.) Furthermore, how can you assure me your answer is correct? [If these questions are unclear to you, you are invited to schedule an appointment with me to get clarification.] .
3. Come to my office to share with me what you've learned and whatever PROGRESS you've made. [You are NOT expected to have finished solving anything.] Email me to set up an appointment at a convenient time for you. If Monday afternoons work for you, you can sign up here.
"The Orchard Problem": We must plant trees (points) in an orchard (the plane) in such a way to maximize the number of paths (lines) through the orchard. The condition is that every path (line) must contain exactly three trees (points) -- no more, no less. Given a particular number p of points (try p=3,4,5,6, and 7), what is the maximum number l(p) of lines that can be drawn? Furthermore, how can you assure me your answer is correct? [SPOILER: No one knows an exact formula!]
[This URSI project is about struggling with problems that haven't been solved before, even when things get tough, and sometimes even when the answer is impossible to find, so you shouldn't let this frustrate you! Your enjoyment should come from exploring the darkness of the cave, whether or not you find any treasure.]


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Colossus [PM to Join]
You find yourself on the ship known as The SPS Colossus. Around the time Earth's population reached 11 Billion, countries started to funnel money into projects known as "Space Planetary Systems". Earth's resources strained to support even 9 Billion. These SPS's served a controversial solution. The first to board were felony convicted citizens and prisoners. Then they started from the most impoverished and went up. You didn't have a choice to go or not in most cases.
Within the SPS Colossus resides a megalopolis called Titan 848-26 that 700,000,000 call home. Here you are on this impossibly massive ship, maybe born in it. Maybe you just got shipped from Earth. One way or another you end up in cahoots with a rag tag group of mercenaries. Good luck.
*Literate RP. Paragraphs required.
*Fairly intense RP schedule, at least once in a couple days.
*Stat System in place, nothing too in depth, but still.
If you're okay with all that, pm me to join.
Whoever named this place The Hole in the Wall was definitely a perceptive one. This rundown basement doubling as a bar and strip joint was haphazardly shoved into one side of an alleyway, away from the prying eyes of any C-Sec Officer who happened to be prowling the streets. They wouldn't dare set foot in here, unless for whatever reason they enjoyed getting shot. Maybe that sounds comforting, like a haven for those who aren't so fond of the law. That is, if you don't mind stepping into a steaming cesspool of mercs, small-timers, and general shitbirds. That's the sort of people who hung out in The Hole in the Wall, including Deckard. His blue eyes wandered off his drink every now and then, upwards towards the pink skinned dancer above him. He watched her fluid movements, slow and deliberate, perfectly complimenting the music booming through into the crowd. A harsh neon blue light basked the entire room and the people in it. Clutched in the dancer's hand: a long piece of red fabric. It floats weightlessly around her as her arms move across the stage. She slumps down on her knees and slides her hands down the length of her exposed stomach. Her eyes meet Deckard's own, a sly smile thinning across her face. The gruff man next to him throws a crumpled-up Yin in her direction. It flies through her shoulder, the point of impact fizzling out for a moment before regaining its form. Her head immediately turns towards the man, sending locks of pink hair flying over her face, the same sly smile peeking through the loose strands. Not even real strippers in this place. He glances over his shoulder at the crowded mass of people dancing to the music. Limbs flail recklessly through the air back and forth, bodies lurching forward and colliding, no room to breathe, but no one seemed to mind one bit. They were too busy being intoxicated by the allure of deviance.
Deckard raises his hand and a few seconds later a masked woman stands patiently behind him holding two bottles of something. He exits his spot at the stage and inspects both bottles for a moment each. Both the same from what he could tell, but he didn't know jack shit about alcohol. The shot glass he left at the bar was full of water. Deckard wordlessly slides a few bills into the waitress's hand, and then an extra one before grabbing the neck of the large bottle. The woman bows and falls back into the crowd in the direction of the nearest raised hand. For just a second Deckard wondered what it was like to have rudimentary goals like that. Serve people liquor, get paid, go home. He'd only been running with this crew for a couple of months and things always seem to get complicated. Not a surprise he was a replacement.
The floors were so sticky that they clung onto the soles of your boots like your shoes owed them money. Probably one of the few prerequisites of owning a shitty bar and club: have indiscernible fluids line your floors to make people wonder if they should burn their shoes when they get home. It took a lot of wading through packs of drugged up patrons but eventually Deckard made it through the front door. Cold air lunged at him from one side of the alley, whipping up some discarded trash in the process and skidding a crushed can across the concrete. Deckard lifted his collar and tugged his jacket over his torso. Snow had just begun to fall a few hours ago, probably while he was in there. He let out a long stream of air from his mouth, watching the snow cut through the fog he expelled. Deckard always wondered why they insisted on having weather cycles at all, until he read somewhere that a human would go insane without things like weather, day, and night. Something about these earth-like qualities, even if you've never seen the real deal, was comforting.
The bottle felt cold against his fingers, but it's not like it would freeze. His free hand dug through his coat pocket, producing an old-school pack of Marlboros. He plucked one out with his teeth, then let it rest. The ignitor triggered automatically at the end of the cig, sparking a flame at the tip. He took a deep drag, sending out smoke through his nostrils.
Deckard started off in the direction of the ship, the snow crunching beneath him with every step. "Oy, shén! Lend an unfortunate individual one a' them ciggies, yeah?" Sat down like a heap in the snow, a very pale man perks up as Deckard approaches. "Lend you one? Am I gonna get it back?" Deckard gives the man a smirk, a little too proud at the stupidity of his joke. The man looks unimpressed. "Alright don't make your brain work too quick, you might get a headache…. Here." Deckard reaches into his pocket once more and retrieves his pack of cigarettes, extending them down at the pale man.
Something sharp pokes into his back. The pressure lets up as it tears through his coat and into his undershirt. Deckard's smile quickly fades, he already knew what this was. "We all know the drill. Turn around, slow-like. Not too fast… might catch you a headache. Ain't that whatcha said." Deckard turned towards the man, cursing himself for not being able to see the stick-up coming. It wasn't like he towered over Deckard, but the height difference was quite noticeable. He had to tilt his head up a bit to see his whole body. The man was standing pretty close him, knife pointed at his chest. Well over six feet tall, dressed in shopworn camo-pants, and a thick jacket with black animal fur lining the collar, the knife wielding man was completely bald, with a scarred, missile shaped head and eyes like craters cut by tiny meteors. On closer scrutiny, he looked ill, like he had been exposed to radiation, his jaundiced skin speckled by sores. "All your money. Now." Deckard knew the drill. It happened a lot when he was on the streets. He kept throw away cash in his outside pocket, and the rest in his jacket. His hand reached in his pocket. "Ay! Slow-like, remember?" His pace slowed, the money snatched out of his hand as soon as it left his pocket. The man ahead withdraws the knife to count the cash, mouthing wordlessly as he sifts through the bills of Yin. "That's it? Well you're downright disappointin'. Stewart, take the ciggies." The man behind Deckard hesitantly moves forward, trudging through the snow for a bit before swiping the pack out of Deckard's hand. His beady eyes drift down to Deckard's other hand, a golden capped smile emerging. "And the bottle." Well, the question at this point was: would he rather get stabbed here over a bottle of rum, or face Momo back on the ship with nothing to show for the trouble. It was a tossup really.
Deckard loosens his grip, letting the bottle slip through his fingers and into the snow, before breaking out full speed forward. His shoulder collides against the chest of the man with the knife, knocking him onto his back. He hits the ground hard enough to steal the air from his lungs, groaning as he holds the back of his head. A pair of arms immediately wrap under Deckard's armpits and weave upwards to lock behind his neck. He struggles to get out of the hold, his arms waving pathetically in the air. The larger man struggles to stand up, snow cascading down from the fur in his jacket and tumbling back down, his breath is heavy as he retrieves the discarded knife from deep in the snow below. Deckard's movements grow volatile as he approaches with the knife. The grasp around his arms is too tight to break, only a few seconds till there's a five-inch hole in his stomach. The man holding him seems strong, his stance unwavering even with inches of snowfall under him. Deckard kicks off the ground, launching him and the man holding him backwards. As soon as they impact the ground, Deckard rolls off and stands, backing up from the man with the knife. His eyes dart from the man lurching towards him to the one on the ground to the bottle.
Deckard's back meets the wall of the alleyway, a reptilian smile tugs at the edges of the pock marked man. He brings the knife down onto Deckard, and his hand instinctively goes up to shield his face. The sound of metal grinding against metal fills his ear, and he spots the blade of a knife sticking through his hand. Black oil slicks the steel of the blade as it pokes through. Deckard pulls his hand back, taking the knife with him, then swings with his real hand. Flesh meets flesh, the uncanny but strangely familiar sound of a set of knuckles impacting a lower jaw fills the alleyway. He throws all his weight into the punch, falling as his fist slides against the other man's face. The knife lets out a quick shrill groan as Deckard's hands stop him from falling all the way. He breathes heavily, staring at the snow while on his hands and knees. He peers down underneath and through his legs. The man he punched was snoring, his face buried in the snow that blanketed the floor, the other moving towards him. When this guy was created, they forgot to put the quit in him. Deckard tried to get to his feet, stumbling part way as his feet slide against the sleekness of the floor, and he lands on his back again. The pale skinned man gets over him quickly, digging a knee into Deckard's stomach. The pressure alone almost made him puke. Even if he wanted to, there wasn't any free time to let some chunks loose, as it appeared that the next few minutes were reserved for being punched in the face. The first one hurt the most. It had been a real long time since Deckard had been hit so hard. Hard enough to think your eye popped out. The next three were a very close second. The fourth punch broke skin, sending blood flying off into the snow, tainting it a deep red. Deckard's hands reached out into the snow, grasping for something, anything. His fingertips touched the frame of something cold, something heavy. Fingers curled around the base and brought it up to the face of the pale man, sending glass and liquids flying in all directions, dousing both their clothes. Something reeks a potent smell. The punches stop all together, a ragdoll body lying next to Deckard as he huffs out heavy breaths.
Eventually, through great effort, Deckard manages to stand and loom over both bodies. He spits out a reddish slime onto the snow below. Typical bar run. All for that goddamn bottle. He looks to where he left it initially, in its place a pale man with a bloodied face and glass pieces surrounding him. Deckard's breath stops for a moment and he brings his shirt up to his nose. All he could smell was alcohol. He kicks one of the men in the ribs hard, initiating a coughing fit as he writhed on the ground. "Did you really need the bottle, you're a greedy **** you know that?!" The man groans in response. Deckard reaches behind him and into his waistband. He points a weathered pistol at the man groaning in the snow. Deckard lets out a long sigh and closes his eyes, the pistol falling to his side with his arm. He stands there for a while, listen to the faint music emitting from the club and letting the snow land on his fresh wounds. A door creaks open, the door leading into The Hole in the Wall, to be exact, letting out the bouncy music that fueled its patrons. Two men walk out laughing and jeering, before they notice the bodies crumpled on the floor and silence. Deckard looks lazily their way, and through the only eye that could open fully, spies one of them holding a familiar looking bottle. He points the gun in their direction. "We all know the drill."
Deckard's footfalls clang against the ship's interior, his hand firmly grasping the neck of the bottle. He didn't have a mirror handy but surely, he looked like shit. "Can someone stitch up my face and get this knife out of my hand!" He stares down at the blade jutting through the palm of his mechanical arm. "Don't all rush out at once I'm just stabbed." He couldn't help but smile as he sat down in his bunk. His Marlboros pack only has a couple more left, after giving one away and getting robbed and fighting, but he felt he earned one. It sparks itself in his mouth and he takes another puff. "I got booze!" He yells out into the hallway opposing his room, as to entice the rest of his crew. The machinations of his mechanical arm were a total mystery to him, so Deckard concluded leaving the knife in his palm was probably the best course of action. The bottle slides out of his arm and onto the mattress below him, as he struggled to take off his shirt with one head. Halfway over his head, the shirt gets feisty, refusing to actually remove itself. Somehow in the struggle, the knife wedged in his hand rips through the shirt over his head, leaving him with several scraps of shirt hanging off his head.
The woman stood before her client, a nervous looking redhead with scars that showed not only in her body, but in those hazel eyes of hers as well. This wasn't her first time here yet each time started the same. The money was handed over and by now the woman didn't bother to count it. Her client was always good for it, even tipped like the job had been done perfectly.
That wasn't true but the woman wasn't so prideful to decline an extra hundred on top of what the bill initially came to. It could never be perfect for this particular client, that much was clear from the very first session. Like always the rules were gone over. No talking, no questions, just be organic. It was easy enough to follow those rules except every time after the woman left feeling heavy. A hooker with a conscience. That was bad for business.
They started, always slowly. It took time for her client to sink in to the mindset, to let their surroundings wash away and be replaced with whatever it was she thought about. The woman was sure to be careful with her patron. She wasn't like the other kinds of people that the woman serviced. She was a woman with some mysterious past and no interest in divulging her secrets. Which was entirely fine because secrets could get someone killed.
The client was pretty when you looked at her, these red curls kept back in a band yet somehow finding ways to escape and frame an angular face. Her client had strong features, sharp eyebrows hung over these piercing eyes. Her lips were full and almost in a constant state of frowning. These almost imperceptible scars marred her skin, visible in the low-light setting of her client's cabin.
They were silvery, old wounds that mostly healed over. The woman let her fingers trace them across the redhead's body, slowly peeling away the clothing and pushing it further and further down. There was another rule to always follow, and ti was that the woman was not to touch her client below the waist.
It wouldn't have bothered her. Plenty of the people who the woman serviced had cybernetic limbs or attachments. Hell, some people even liked it more when you played with them like that. But not this one, she preferred keeping her pants on and those metal legs hidden from view. So instead the woman straddled her, hands gripping the frame of the chair they were using and carefully lowering herself down. She reached to the hem of her shirt and lifted upward, pulling it overhead and discarding it with the rest of the clothes pooling on the floor.
The woman knew to wait now, to let the client's slender fingers trace across the multitude of tattoos covering her body. She had always gotten the notion that her being selected was less about her skills and more about a resemblance to someone the client knew once. That was fine. Sweet, even. At least in a pretty depressing way. The woman looked down at the client knowing her eyes would be closed. Whenever they reached this point they always were until it was over.
Today the client seemed to want more than just feeling the woman against her, a neediness in the way she touched and pulled the two of them together. The woman liked to watch the client like this, a furrow to her brow and these pouting lips fiercely focused on conjuring the image and feel of whoever it was she'd rather be with. The woman relaxed and sank into her role, intending to be as close as possible to perfect for her client.
"Alright Jane, see you next week?" The woman spoke as she slipped her dress back on, turning to have her client zip it back up.
She put a jacket over that and folded the payment carefully, stashing it in her purse just next to a small compression pistol. In this line of work a lady had to keep themselves safe. Jane looked up at the woman and a faint smile spread across her face.
"We'll see. Th-thank you for this. I'll walk you out." Jane didn't like to make promises she couldn't keep.
The soft hiss of the cabin door sounded as it slid upward. The comfortable surroundings gave way to the metal hallway. This path slid through the heart of the Invictus, Jane's battleship camouflaged as a cargo ship. Her walking the woman out of the ship was much less a courteous move and more to ensure that nothing on the Invictus was looked at too closely. There were many false-walls and hidden hatches that stored plenty of contraband, sometimes even people.
They passed slowly down the cabin hallway, every other door closed including Jane's as the door slid back down and locked. Biometric scanning was necessary to get in to the individual cabins, though Jane had the override for each of them. Kian had helped her program the locks and scanners to make them damn near impossible to crack. Those codes were kept nowhere physical, only in the mind of this prime.
Heavy footfalls sounded as Jane's boots thudded against the grated metal stairway. Each step she took made it evident that underneath the thick cargo pants there was something that weighed a lot more than Jane did. The woman was patient with her as she moved as fast as possible while being careful.
The stairs descended from the cabin bay and to the hold of the ship, which currently was acting as the place of gathering for the crew. A few chairs and couches had been pulled in here to create a sort of makeshift living room.
The loading dock was currently in its deployed state with a disheveled looking Deckard marching up it, holding his hand and a knife awkwardly out in front of him.
"I got booze!" Deckard's voice clanged against the hull and seemed to magnify through the hall.
Jane landed with a hard thud against the floor and started towards her pilot, finally able to get a better look at the situation. The woman streaked past with a discernible 'not getting involved in this' look on her face. She exited just as the loading bay door began to lift and seal behind her.
"Deckard, w-what the hell? You know repairs are expensive right?" Jane was speaking in her normal easy tone, her brain already swapping over to mechanic mode.
The blueprint of Deckard's metal arm came to mind and she mentally note which wires and pieces were most likely damaged from having a knife stabbed through it. Nothing was leaking out of it so that meant the liquid line was in tact. That could take a back seat. She shuffled over to a cabinet and pulled out a small emergency kit. This had been used practically daily since their last mission. The crew of the Invictus seemed much better at finding trouble than just laying low like they all agreed to do.
"You're lucky, you know? Everytime you go out there and someone misses that battery you're lucky." Jane was speaking as she tugged the remainders of his shirt over head and ripped what little fabric clung together.
Jane addressed the wound on his face first. That part of his body was organic and because of that would always come before a break in the robo-pieces. With calculated motions the engineer cleansed and stitched the cut together with a glorified sewing kit.
It was over with quickly and Jane set to the hand. She pulled him over to a 'work station'. To anyone else it more than likely came off as mess of metal and tools violently thrown at a set of tables. Nudging a stool at her pilot she grabbed for a head strap that featured a magnifying lens and a few sets of lights. Fitting it over head she first yanked the blade out and began inspecting the innards. Tiny tools probed the cybernetic, prodding and pulling frayed wires and damaged bits.
"Did anyone see you come this way? I don't want a repeat of Helix-3." Jane was referring to the last time they weren't careful and ended up having to fly the Invictus out of a hail of gunfire after somebody let it slip they were carrying ten kilos of Overclock on them.
Her paranoia clearly had not faded from that encounter.
"DOMINIC, you better not be--"
"I'm not."
"Then you're doing it. Again. How many times have I told you not to--"
Systems off, the words sounded through the speakers, as the blue pixels receded to the edges of the screen; a symbol that - once again - the AI was going into hibernation. This time, a scolding, yet again. His brother was still an indignant child, artificial or not.
"Why are you scolding him?" a voice whispered in his ear. CLYDE, or so he would think if he played along with DOMINIC's clever facade. That VI had been disabled a while ago, ever since the integration of his brother's mainframe into the Invictus' systems. But still, whenever the clever machine wanted to play the game of whispers, he would wear that voice and pretend like he didn't know that Kian knew that CLYDE was no longer in this world.
And if he was a proper big brother, and creator, and parental figure... he would have scolded him again, and warned him not to lie, and taught him the proper ways of communicating with others whom you disagree - and especially if they were right to disagree with you. But instead, he felt at ease hearing that old machine's voice, and through proxy could more easily speak the truth.
"Because he's putting himself in danger. And all of us. The Menanca killed our parents - and now they're here. On the Colossus, avoiding the trainwreck they helped create. I know that because they killed mom and dad, Dominic wants to fight back, but they're ruthless. They'll come again, like they did for me," he stated solemnly. That was most of the truth, but there was another element to it, hidden far beneath the weight of the whisper. He didn't want DOMINIC to know. What he was, and the life he led. He viewed himself not as a copy, a fake, but his real brother. Just... living in a new body, as his old one failed him. The promise that he would one day be recreated was one so compelling, that all followed from it.
To imagine himself in love, to imagine truly holding an object, or another human being... it was a fantasy of such phenomenal value, greater than any childlike dream.
And the Menanca had a log, and DOMINIC was a hyper-intelligent AI. He'd find the books, he'd see his own name and face. And then... what then?
"I see," 'CLYDE' responded, in his broken and lumbering voice; the half-shattered whisper of a life-long addict. "He loves you, you know," he said. That tugged on the Wayford's heart; to hear those words from him. So profoundly, so maturely. And coming from another voice... the father he'd always wished they'd had.
"I know," he replied. "I love him too. And that's why... that's why I worry."
"You're right to worry," replied the machine. "This galaxy is rotten to its core."
- - -
He sat in the lobby of the ship in silence, his back pressed into the fabric of the sofa, with a sleek black remote lingering between his gloved fingertips. Kian sat quietly surfing the channels of the net, projected softly onto the screen. Events downtown... well, downtown District 6... urgent news... stories from other vessels... copious'deals', a product of the one thing that had survived the fall of the Old World: capitalism. Though he didn't mind the deals, it was mind boggling to say the least that all were still forced to suffer targeted ads and cheesy catch phrases. It was like a condition of the human soul at this point, though it hadn't always been.
His mind lingered. On DOMINIC, and what he said through CLYDE'S voice. It was easy enough to dismiss it as the bile of a rebellious teen... and DOMINIC had been reborn digitally a year ago now. In only a few weeks, it would be his fourteenth birthday. Kian was like that, back then. He'd always been taught to be so afraid of everything, and as a result, he was simply and blanketly afraid of life. And what he feared, he hated... for the longest time.
The man sighed, as he pulled his wrist in front of his chest, and looked at the time projecting from the screen. Time to be a human. He forgot sometimes, consumed by all of the information. Watching programs from the net was like viewing re-runs; most of the pertinent information had already been leaked straight to his visor. DOMINIC had gotten too good.
"Hey guys," he called out lowly, as he rose from his seat and stretched his body, his fingertips poking through the overly long sleeves of his shirt as he sounded a pleasant groan. Then...
A commotion. Deckard got himself into some shit again, but by the oscillation of his voice, DOMINIC suggested that he was likely not too haggard. Nothing fatal, this time, once again. Kian stepped from the lounge and towards the source of the sound, as Jane chastised him and he almost innocently stared back, a ripped shirt illustrating his condition just as well as the hole in his synthetic arm.
Kian rolled his eyes.
"Again?!" he asked, and exclaimed.
"Hello!" DOMINIC spoke, introducing himself. He'd always been a fan of Deckard, and had seemingly never minded his antics. Apparently, he was one and the same with all of the ship's premier trash heaps. "Deckard, that looks like some gnarly shit," the AI inferred, speaking through one of the audio devices in the room. "Are you al-"
"Dominic?" Kian asked, a passive request to mind his tongue. It would at least set him right for a moment, though they were far from their conservative Arizona upbringing. This whole shitfest was the Garden of Eden for interstellar deviance. He'd not be able to hold his brother-robot to high standards for long. "Deckard," he called out, "Why are you acting so nonchalant? You know that there are people here who give a..."
"Kian?" DOMINIC questioned; Kian could almost feel the smirk through his cold fiber-optics.
"--who care. Why do you keep trying to get yourself killed?"
It wasn't uncommon to hear a rhythmic concert of clangs resounding through the halls of the Invictus. No, that wasn't the sound of someone rolling a pair of heavy metal dice up and down the corridors, it was the sound of their Commander Jane Devereaux waddling around. Deckard had grown to love the loud percussion as it came and went past his bunker. For whatever reason he found it comforting, even if it meant he was in trouble. Sometimes he could gauge how hard he was about to get chewed out by how fast these clangs came. A few times it sounded like someone was getting reckless with a machine gun out in the hallway, but low and behold instead of a belly full of lead, Deckard earned an earful. Other times the resonant sounds of Jane's mechanical legs came softly and slowly, just to stop and check in. This time was somewhere in between.
Deckard sheepishly smiled through the remaining fragments of the shirt hanging over his head, a lit cigarette still hanging off his lip. It wasn't the worst situation he's been in when someone walked in, but it wasn't a good look either way. Jane was always thinking about the costs of things, something Deckard conveniently forgot to consider most of the time. He didn't like to be the reason their funds took a hit, but hey, shit happens. "I know, I know but I wasn't looking for trouble, Boss! It just sort of… poked me in the back." Deckard spouted in his defense, as Jane removed the fabric that clung to his neck and hair. Most of the time, Deckard wasn't looking for a fight, it just seemed to find him. Most of the time. He shot a dirty look at the bottle of rum laying in his bed beside him, the frozen snow that used to canvas the glass now melted, leaving a faint wet spot in his sheets. A deep red liquid came to a standstill within, moving a bit as another set of footsteps approached. Disappointing the captain wasn't ever on his agenda whenever this type of shit happened, it just always ended up that way.
"Yeah, I'm the luckiest guy I know. I'm the friggin' poster boy for luck. If he got jumped by a couple of vagrants." Deckard winced as Jane pressed down on the fresh cut above his eyebrow with a disinfectant wipe, draining a viscous red liquid into his eye. She pulls it back completely red before tossing it and going to town with the needle and wire from the emergency kit. Yeah, he got his very own. It even had his name on it.
"Woah! That's a low-blow. Helix-3 was not my fault. And I got us out of there didn't I? They could barely keep up." Deckard shot her a smile, hoping to ease Jane's tension. wasn't usually one to brag outright, preferring to be subtle about it most of the time. He thought of it this way: at least it looked impressive. He would take a safe payday any day of the week, but they all made it didn't they? "But no, nobody followed me." Blowing steam was one thing. Leading danger to the crew was another. He wasn't one to jeopardize a good thing, and this certainly was a good thing.
"Why would the poster-boy for luck get jumped? What's lucky about that?" A childlike voice echoed through the speakers built into the top of the room, just as Kian entered the room. It was strange to see him without some kind of mask on, Deckard figured the guy showered with it on, that's what Momo said at least. "Maybe he found twenty Yin on the ground after they were done, Dom." He gave Kian a nod, before getting told to stop moving. Apparently, Deckard had built himself a reputation of coming home battered and bloodied. Besides the faded red stains caking his knuckles and the bruises accompanying them, nothing suggested Deckard ever won the fights. He never usually gave out any details unless Jane specifically asked. "It doesn't look too gnarly though, right Dom? My face is my most precious asset." He gave a weak smile at nothing in particular, purple blemishes already starting to form around his eyes and across a cheek.
The young pilot watched in awe as Jane expertly went away at his arm. She picked it up like she's done it a hundred times before, which she basically had. The arm itself wasn't anything special, especially when they first met. When she first saw his arm's condition, her face looked like she saw the engineering equivalent of maggots. Rust had taken over most of his arm, his artificial joints locking in place sometimes, struggling to move against the thick coat of steel oxidation. Less than an hour in her workshop and it looked brand new. Deckard proved himself a hassle on many occasions though, usually keeping Jane on her artificial toes. "I appreciate the concern Kain. It's not anything serious though. They just got a few good hits in." His face hurt like hell, but he would take a few more shots before letting anyone know that. "I'm not trying to do anything. I think if I was trying I would have probably bit it by now." Deckard let another puff of gray smoke blow through his nose, wisps of nicotine floating ethereal outwards and eventually into nothing. He thought for a moment, before producing the same weathered pistol from earlier. It was an old-school lead slinger, something back from earth. His thumb slid over the length of the gun, feeling against the many scratches that lined it's exterior, stopping at the clip release. The magazine slides out and falls onto his lap. "It's full, not one used. Things didn't escalate." Deckard never really liked to kill, but he never felt above it. There was just something about taking a life that he felt should be taken seriously. Most of the wannabees out there slung bullets like they were going out of style.
They had all seen it before, but it was uncomfortable to have them all looking at his exposed chest like this. Deckard shifted a bit, using his free arm to reach for a nearby ashtray, or rather a discarded mug of cold coffee. He let the ashen cigarette fall from his mouth and into the brown liquid swirling in the cup. The battery in his chest encompassed most of his upper torso. About five inches every which way, the triangle shaped core faintly pulsed orange from the edges "I should plug in soon. I'm feeling a little sluggish" He lifted his head slightly at Kian. "Any new leads? I'm itching to fly again." Usually Jane or Kian would come up with a new lead, and sometimes a job would just fall into Deckard's lap.
Jane hadn't initially noticed Kian sitting there on one of the couches in unusual form. The suit of high-tech armor he normally wore was not covering him from head to toe. Hearing his AI's voice chime in from the speaker system had become a sort of norm. The hacker had offered to 'upgrade' the Invictus by integrating his creation in to it. That would serve the purpose of speeding up any kind of information gathering on the ship and ensure they were running at full capacity. If anything went wrong, if a foreign object or program had made its way in they would know. It took a bit of convincing but when Kian showed how useful he was and how loyal he could be Jane caved. Besides, DOMINIC was actually endearing. She wouldn't mention this to anyone here but it reminded her of a particular prime that hadn't made it out alive.
"Helix-3 was everyone's fault." Jane said with a certain emphasis as she tore out a now defunct component from Deckard's hand. The engineer continued her work deftly and without pause as she spoke. "If one of us f-fails then we all do. That's what being a part of a crew is about. Our survival hinges on everyone doing th-their part."
Despite the blunder Jane was glad to see the full clip of Deckard's strange gun. It brought on a flashback that had her stop what she was doing. There she was, back in the shooting gallery on the Promise. Cee was there with her, standing with their bodies pressed together. Those strong arms were wrapped around Jane's thin frame, steadying her as she held up a .40 caliber pistol. A nervousness kept her from being able to aim clearly. Cerys put her lips close to Jane's ear and told her to breathe, relax, and pull the trigger when she was ready. A couple of moments passed and Jane squeezed the mechanism. The clap of gunfire rang clear only in her head and brought her back to the present.
Jane cleared her throat and put down her tools, reaching for a container of parts and popping the top on it. These were spare parts she had managed to collect over time, the last of them. She reached for a set of hinges and screws on Deckard's wrist and began to disassemble the chassis that held the two pieces together. With a metallic click his hand detached. Jane cradled the part and put it on the workstation, hanging a light over it. The process of replacing the dead parts began and for a moment there was silence on her end.
"I've actually been following something. Dominic, would you mind bringing up any news articles on the Ascension Corporation? Localize the sources around Titan-3 and spread them out so we can see."
The holo displays kicked on with a whir and display after display began to pop in to existence all around the couches. Headlines about a mega corporation exposing slicing operations, buying up any and all cybernetic outlets and jacking up prices. Subsequently there were smaller news distributors that had pieces on all of the people who had suffered from the rising cost in upkeep of their implants. There was a fire in Jane's eyes as she scanned through a few of them, dragging her hands through the air and moving some of the articles to the forefront. Anytime Jane selected a mission it was usually centered around some sort of anti-establishment movement.
"I know it runs the risk of high profile b-but check this out. Dominic, can you display the Core-13 bank? Blueprints, street cam, footage, anything would work."
New images would flood the view, overlapping the old ones. It was a bank, its facade under construction. The old sign was taken down, Core-13 removed and a new, shiny Ascension one being outfitted.
"They're buying all the Core banks and remodeling them. This particular bank just so happens to be nearby. Th-they've already finished the inside and loaded up the vault, but haven't gotten to beefing up security much at all. We can h-hit them, easy. Quick in and out, maybe some sort of distraction or IRS deal like we did that one time. I don't know, but I bet we can come up with s-something."
Jane was clearly excited now. The money was promising for sure, but being able to rob Ascension blind right as they are trying to make a huge public appearance would be even better. She would give the crew time to assess the situation. It wouldn't take Kian long to get some better information, or for Deckard to plot their ins and outs, or for the twins to-
"Wait, where are the twins?"
If one thing was constant in every one of the hazy days that rolled on by the Twins, it was that before Momo or Mina got up in the morning they had to count five reasons to themselves. Five reasons to get up out of bed. Five reasons to open their eyes upon becoming conscious. Five reasons to keep on going at all. This particular day, at least for Mina, the reasons were decidedly arbitrary: Momo would be in a better mood than she had been, cooped up in the cargo bay, spacious as it tended to be, with nothing to drink. Whatever petty arguments they would have gotten into because she was experiencing abject depression and lashing out would be stuffed. Mina, luckily, had less to worry about, since all that Overclock had ended up becoming their own product, which brought up reason number two. Even the smallest hit of Overclock set Mina for an entire day, just about. Sharpened her perceptions to a degree that turned the lazy, boring Mina into something of a black widow: beautiful, dangerous and mysterious. Or whatever. She rolled her neck out, curled up in her little ball on the most comfortable chair on the entire battleship. It just so happened that she liked the chair that also happened to be in the security bay, in the room that should have been reserved for a C-Sec Captain or something else like that. Reason number three: false authority. Jane had brought them on as bodyguards, hit men, or maybe just muscle. Part of that did mean she got to call herself the Head of Security aboard the ship, even if no one, especially her sister, really bowed to her lofty, goofy claims to an empty throne. But it was fun. She sighed, flipping through camera feeds with one finger, avoiding Jane and Kian because spying on people is uncomfortable, instead looking outside the ship, checking the perimeter, searching for danger. Searching for reason number four: simulated overcast skies were pretty in a sort of droning, morbid way for someone who saw the world in gray scale. Something to relate to. A nice distraction from both that and reason number five.
Maybe today someone would get lucky, and she could escape her past with some finality.
Either way, as she clenched her teeth, eyes glued unblinking to a screen showing falling snow and occasionally blinking as simulated winds made the feed less stable. She licked at her lips, actively shutting out the intrusive thoughts trying their best to shove their way into her head. A flash of light outside, far off from the ship itself, triggered a memory, then hyperthymesia made her feel the bright flash of light and deafening burst of raw, pure sound that she had been experienced to already four times within that hour. Water, frigid and somehow worst than a bullet, slashes into every pore of skin on her face immediately after, increasing the disorientation factor, odd as the sensation has no accompanying onomatopoeia, no splash or sploosh that she is aware of. Just incessant ringing and slowly dimming light burning through closed eyelids like a star burning it's way into-
She shakes her head, getting up from the chair with a start, trying to shake nausea and confusion from her mind. She was shivering, literally, Momo will be bearable. Overclock waiting for her. Fake authority. Gray sky. Conclusion.
She turned to head downstairs, drafty wind wrapped around her exposed stomach below her crop-top hoodie, all but bouncing down halls to go and bother Momo, hoping she was awake already, also hoping she had gone through their mutual ritual. By now, they knew how to get around while avoiding everyone else, out of at least respect for the desire not to drag anyone else down before they had activated the part of themselves that was personable. The one that had been "trained" out of them in the service of the military. By the time she was taking the elevator down into the cargo bay, which was also where she slept, she was less than pleased to see Momo was already working out.
Great. She was definitely going to be excited. Excited meant she was going to be all loud and abrasive, as usual.
Momo was absolutely not manic, or excited, or at all in a good mood. Her hands gripped the bar, and every relevant muscle in her toned, deceptively strong upper body flexed at once as she pulled herself up excruciatingly slowly, holding her position there with her back turned to whoever was visiting her. Her tongue was held between her lips as she moved left at the same elevation, then to the right. She came down slowly, remembering rain pelting her exposed skin, the smell of the drill sergeants breath as he barked endlessly into her face. She shook her head, lifting up again, this time crying out a number, reflexively. Then exhaled, mouth in the shape of an "O" while she came down, suddenly hotter than the cargo bay should have been. Still such pointedly AWFUL breath. Reason number one: reach 124. Reason number two: prove to Sergeant Lousie that she deserved to be there. Strapped between her legs, a 100 lb weight, allowing for an actual workout for the girl who'd been experimented on and surgically... improved. Denser muscle weaves, some pieces of meat and giblets removed or repurposed. As she appraoched pull up 124, she was exhaling through her nose. She was closer than she'd been in a while and the anger, the utter inconvenience of having to relive invasive, unpleasant memories perfectly, was fueling her. The last pull up finished, and she dropped down, a safe dismount as her body screamed at her. Not a drop of sweat. Not even out of breath. She brushed off her hands, turning her head, raven locks of hair flinging over her shoulder as the face that looked so close to her own made it's way over to her. "You look adorbz, Mina," Momo gave her sister, stretching out her arms with varying levels of intensity. She watched her sister smile at the compliment, and that warmed the older of the twinsies.
"Hard not to, considering I have your face," she retorted, almost like it was rehearsed, even though the sincerity was there. But the way she was walking, the direction, Momo knew exactly what she was going for. Something to quiet all of the noise, something to focus her mind. Mina never looked down on Momo when she realized she was calming their obnoxious memories and escaping reality with alcohol, and Momo damn near enabled Mina's opposite approach. Still, she was jealous as Mina pried open the crate where she kept her stash, finger stirring the free-floating contents haphazardly, as if there weren't a million pills in it. Momo watched her pop two of them, dry swallowing the pills and closing the box. Her eyes slammed shut, everything suddenly coming into proper focus for the girl, mind quieting in some ways and cranking up to 12 in others. She exhaled slapping her cheeks with a smile on her face as her pupils focused on her sister. "Wait, you need a hit?" she asked her other half, watching as Momo's face turned up into a scowl.
"I need Deckard's ass," she snapped. Mina giggled a bit, climbing up to sit on the edge of something stacked higher than she was tall before retorting.
"I'm okay on hearing about your sexcapades big sis," she teased, but before she was even done speaking her hand snapped up on reflex, catching a... wrench? "Don't throw things. It's impolite."
"Shut up bitch, I meant I need him to be here, with my alcohol. I haven't had a drink in days," she barked up, unstrapping herself from the weight, and then walking over towards where their power-armor was hanging side by side, all manner of artwork adorning the formerly all black plates, steel gray hydraulics and otherwise ugly pieces of and pouches. Eyes rolled over it, making sure nothing was loose, or had came off, which was honestly just routine. Something to keep her out of Jane and Kian's hair for a little while. Mina, legs crossed, watched her go over it all, knowing that it was murder on her sister's mind to even touch it, to remember how hot it could get or how the feeling of blood splashing against it seemed to go through all the layers in ways metal slugs couldn't.
But she always had been such a good soldier. Better than Mina in a lot of ways. Maintaining gear was her only healthy escape, and it was still obssessive. No worse than Mina's habit of losing herself in her own mind, though. Not as bad as either of their violent tendencies either. Her knuckles were still raw from the night before, making Momo hold the bag while she hammered away into it with her fists. That was after she took an actual sledge hammer to another one. Wasted money, now, because they were both beaten to the point of ruination. All over a nightmare she couldn't shake off.
Momo had been happy to get up and help. Not like they had shit to do the next day. Nothing besides tightening bolts, and cleaning guns, taking every piece apart and putting them together again.
Fifteen minutes of it, and then they heard it same as everyone else. Deck had gotten in some trouble.
When Jane mentioned Helix-3, both of them were in earshot of the conversation, with Momo walking faster than her sister to make it just in time to be hailed.
"I'm right here, fearless peerless leader," she spoke, approaching with a frustrated look. "Do I need to mess up someone's whole day?" she asked, unawares as to anything that had occurred up to then. "What did they do to my baby?" she almost chastised, positioning behind him to stay out of the way, but running fingers through his head all the same. Her eye spotted the bottle he'd picked up, the gun, and Kian too. She snatched it up quick, letting his hair be for the moment as she twisted the cap, and in the meantime Mina caught up, offering a wave, quick and deft, before she walked over to sit close to Kian.
"I'm going on record blaming Momo. I told her not to shoot first." Momo, mouth full of liquor already at this point, swallowed and spoke as if the recoil of liquor was nothing. "Stooooooooop!" she whined, fingers flicking over Deckard's ear with the hand not holding the bottle. "I absolutely DIDN'T shoot first!"
Mina snickered like a child, but let her eyes scroll over all of the articles on display, which didn't seem to even slightly interest Momo, afourth of the way through a bottle of... what it was Mina couldn't see.
"What did we miss?" Momo did ask, however, as if the answer wasn't basically right in front of her.
"Twenty Yin?" Dominic asked. Through the speakers, a 'pfft' sounded, like he'd pressed his lips sealed. "That's nothing, Dickard. Get a real job," the AI teased, and Kian stumbled a laugh beneath his breath. Immediately, his worries were - for the most part - cleansed, and he smiled faintly at the crowd that had gathered, relaxing his fingertips along the edges of his visor as it laid within his palms.
"Looks 'gnarly' enough, but you'll be fine," the hacker added. "Besides. If you get ugly enough, you can borrow my mask. I'm sure Dominic would appreciate the close proximity."
"That's homo, Ky."
"...Aaanyway," the hacker cleared his throat. New leads were mentioned. He sat there, pondering, quite literally bringing his fingertips back up to his chin and leaving one hand on the visor. Before he could answer, though, Jane chimed in with something he'd also heard about recently but had not delved into in detail. Ascension Corporation. Interesting group -- and lots of money to be had. They were quite possibly that archetype of the feared mega-corporation, once the world was no longer entirely bound by governments. And their goals were lofty, always had been. After everything that had happened to Earth, the people needed a vision. And that vision didn't always need to be ethical, or virtuously required.
"Titan-3," DOMINIC replied. "Oh, dude. They're ruthless. Almost... acting unregulated, monopolizing and manipulating their items' supposed commodity. What dicks," the AI lamented, in his usual unrefined tone. Regardless of his verbiage, he always sounded a lot more intelligent when he was following leads, articulating himself very well. Wayford supposed it was easy enough for an artificial intelligence to pull up a thesaurus.
"Core-13 Bank," he stated, as if followed by a nod. Then, the institution appeared before them, expanding out across the screen. The whole blueprint, each and every room, and the location of every security camera. Even the intended seat of each member of their security personnel. They had high density fiber-glass windows separating the employees (many of them seemingly automatons by the charging stations littering the location) and their corporate and individual clientele. There were security cameras everywhere, and some were weaponized, mostly with tasers. They would send out high-velocity static shocks to any who attempted to hold the place up, incapacitating them almost immediately.
The vault room was not particularly special, as infiltrating the back area - behind the fiber-glass - was already the most difficult feat. The vault itself was a beryllium-alloy material, more dense than corundum and almost impossible to penetrate. The only way to break through would be to hack it, at first glance, which exposed the hacker to being traced. It was essentially a bait function, and given the alacrity with which a trillion-yin corporation could move, Kian and Dominic were both certain that they would be hunted and apprehended very quickly. They would need to heavily encrypt any device that was to break through. Even then, it was far from secure. They had no idea of the innovations that such a company could fulfill.
"Jane," Kian spoke up, "It's a good idea, and these guys don't seem the nicest. I wouldn't be against it." He said this almost as a precursor, as he began to pin-point sections of the blueprint that were of relevant interest. "The security is definitely not finalized, and there don't seem to be any people or bots stationed at the bank. We'll just need to be careful around the security cams - I'm hoping you might be able to engineer something that can shoot them down. Maybe something resistant to electric shock?" He didn't know. Normally he would have felt confident hacking the cams, but there were a lot, and he didn't want to risk being tazed by whatever high voltage stun guns those things had.
"The vault, I can crack it. I'll bring DOMINIC; there's no way Ascension has anything more sophisticated than him just sitting around in a new building. But we'll need to be careful - this could be extremely dangerous. And they seem like they really don't care about ethics." Which meant, of course, they could be killed. It was always on the table. "Another risk," he began, "They don't have much in the vault. There probably won't be any customers yet, right? So why would they carry anything? We'll need to go for it right before they first open - they'll have the most Yin there so that there isn't some shitshow with being unable to hand out cash during the grand opening, probably an excessive amount." He nodded his head once. Despite what people often assumed, banks typically did not carry bajillions in the Vault. They carried slightly above the bare minimum for customer needs.
"Only problem is, the night before the opening sounds like a time for heavy patrol. I'll keep infiltrating their HR portal to see the start date for any guards, but I'm leaning on the assumption that they're risk-averse. So--"
The twins, as always, arrived loudly. They began their overly familiar touching, and Kian cocked his brow awkwardly as they drew uncomfortably close. Luckily, though Momo appeared tempted to touch him, she narrowly drew away and Kian's heart was allowed some lower level of tensity.
"I always shoot first," Kian stated with a low voice, self-deprecating, though with a hum of laughter beneath his breath. "And you didn't miss much - just Jane acting like an anarchist. She's getting cooler by the day," he said, and DOMINIC laughed. Then, the blueprints disappeared, and an assortment of memes and animated images of dogs appeared in a series of thumbnails on the screen. It was clear that the machine wasn't laughing at his brother's joke.
"Guys, more importantly, check out this dog. They designed a jetpack for it."
"I was thinking something more small-time.. Maybe pick up a bounty or something?" The toughest thing about robbing a bank was the target put onto your back. The chase wouldn't end once Deckard swiftly spun some stolen vehicle around a corner, leaving C-Sec in the dust, like it usually would. It wouldn't even end if Kian would change their identities again. They would keep coming. Right now, this crew was off the radar for the most part. They aren't recognized on sight. There are no news reports of them. After a bank job? Deckard would come home with more than a bruise on his face. Money is everything in the Colossus. Money is security. Money is status. Money is life itself. What would you do if someone took your life? Usually you'd die. In this case you'd probably dedicate what you have left to finding the person who did you wrong. When you catch 'em you'd most likely stick a barrel down that thief's throat and squeeze the trigger until your index finger cramped up. "I'm all up for the bank job but.. It's risky." Sure, it would be a huge score for them, and it would probably net them some more jobs too. It wasn't like Deckard to be apprehensive when it came to a job, but he knew the risks that came attached. They all did. He didn't fear for his life, not in the sense you may think.
Kian and Jane started to do their thing, images of the bank flickering to life and shimmering in front of them all. Deckard's eyes bounced around the blueprints and news reports of the newly remodeled bank. It's design was sleek, a more modern take on the previous bank, triangular structures jutting out of the bank's face. Kian's brain went a mile a minute, logically concluding that they wouldn't have much cash until the day of their grand reopening. They would make a show of it, ribbon cutting and everything. Something to show the people they cared. The corporation cares about you and all the shit going on in your life, give us money please. Yeah right. The megalopolis within the Colossus looked pretty from a distance, it's brilliant display of lights and giant skyscrapers dazzling from wherever you stood, but under a microscope you'd only see worms and spiders. You pick which you want to be. Most were worms, while the people who proudly stood over them, considered themselves conniving spiders. Deckard always assumed this team was a different breed though. Something besides money driving them. Money was just a means to an end.
At this point Momo and her sister had made an appearance, sucking up all the personality of the room for themselves. They were the doers of the team. You want something 'taken care of', tell the twins. They weren't subtle about it either. Deckard wasn't even sure they knew what the word subtle meant. Before he knew it, the bottle of liquor that three people fought over, and two people were held up for was swiftly taken from him. The thank you never came, instead, a finger flicking him in the ear while the alcohol was practically gargled. Deckard shifted his head away, before deciding to get up entirely. "You guys have always been better at the details, I think I'm gonna call it a day." He walked out of Jane's workshop and back into his bunk.
His room was completely dark, save for the orange outline of a triangle pulsing to life every now and then. When he and Jane had first met she didn't see him as this freak of nature, but a technological wonder. For the last few years he had been ashamed of what he had lost, or what he gained. Deckard spies the machine attached to an outlet on the wall, a long cable dangling off the side of it. He pulls it towards him, jacking it into his check with a grunt. It goes deep, and somehow he can feel it enter the battery. It breaths slow. There's a sensation of pain as the jolt goes through his body, down his spine. It tenses all his muscles for just a moment, jerking his head back and making him grit his teeth. Then the pain all passes, and his muscles relax. Charging tonight would last him a few days. For now though, he'd have to sleep with it on.
Deckard cupped his hands over his mouth and let out a long breath, letting the warmth be absorbed by the fleece gloves. He looked at the mechanical hand, indistinguishable from his organic one underneath the gloves. He swiftly moves his fingers back and forth in a pattern, as if to test it. The moved robotically, unsettlingly fast. Jane had done a good job, considering a week ago there was a knife sticking out of his palm. He sank into the leather chair and stuck his boots onto the dashboard, the window before him displaying the cityscape. There wasn't any moon the sky, leaving the lights from the city to bask in its own shimmer. Hues of pink and blue neon escape from the buildings an into the open sky. It would be an eyesore if he wasn't so used to it. "Dom, play me some classical music. Music from back on Earth." Wordlessly, the speakers come to life, a small hum indicating they were on. The song starts with a laugh, echoing through the halls of the ship, and Deckard begins to flip switches on the dashboard and the upper control panel. A metallic chink, with every flip, along with the beat of the drums. The engines roar to life, the pilot light igniting the thrusters. The percussion leads into vocals as the ship begins to lightly rumble.
"There's ice in the thrusters. As well as coating the outside of the ship, can you dock, Dom?"
"Sure thing, Deck! For twenty Yin." Dominic served as a pseudo co-pilot to Deckard, most of the time just making things a bit harder. Although he didn't really mind the shenanigans. Deckard had read about famous crews using an AI to help navigate and such, but Dominic was totally different. He had his own personality. And despite having access to all the answers, he still asked questions. To be fair, Deckard had an unorthodox style of piloting.
"I don't have twenty bucks. IOU?" Deckard's hands laced the joysticks that controlled the ship, a mischievous smile lining his teeth.
"It's a deal then, half of your share of the bank job!" His voice fluctuates, the pitch going up as his statement goes out. The exclamation itself gets a chuckle out of Deckard, and he feels the ship move down a few inches. That would be the landing gear clamping into the concrete below them. His thumb hovers over a small red button for a little, as the song goes on. "Let's wake everyone up." His thumb pushes down on the plastic red face of the button, and immediately the thrusters explode to life, but instead of shooting forward the ship violently shakes. After a few minutes the ice would melt, but within those minutes everyone would surely wake up. It was like a competition of loudness between the rumbles and the music.
Jane relaxed in to a seat after displaying all of the scenes through their resident AI. Subconsciously her hand went to her thigh, squeezing lightly and pushing forward to the knee. It seemed like today was going to be one of the rougher ones for her. A lot of people had questioned her decision to hold off on immediately switching to a cybernetic implant. Jane hadn't really explained her reasoning why, but a lot of it had to do with the want to retain her own parts. She was furiously researching a way to reverse the damage, to allow her body to heal of its own accord and strengthen it through an organic way. It was a promise made to someone that wasn't even alive anymore. A promise she intended to keep, even after all of the tiresome pain she has experienced. There was a sense of normalcy for her in this routine, anyway.
The engineer allowed a soft smile to spread to her face as the group went back and forth with their interactions. This crew may not be at the level of Prime performance when matched attribute to attribute, but they did have have a certain level of moxie that few others did. There was more personality in this cargo hold than in all of the megalopolis right outside the bay doors.
The twins alone were such a lively couple. Jane half laughed, more of a slightly heavier breath than normal escaping her nose as she waved her hand through the air to dismiss the question of screwing up a person's day.
"So far, no. L-let's save it for our next job."
She watched Momo settle behind Deckard and play with his hair as Jane worked. That was quickly forgotten when the alcohol was spotted. It was something that the woman would never fault her crew for. Tending to oneself with drugs and alcohol to get through the day was no different than Jane seeking the touch of a woman and pretending it was someone else. It was no different than Deckard seeming to find himself in to trouble, or for Kian to have locked himself in his room with ten or more monitors to drown out the sounds of the world. Everybody had their way to get by, and as long as it didn't become someone else's problem Jane wouldn't comment on it.
Kian and Dominic took the show from there, digging faster and deeper than Jane would have been able to explain. They were hitting on all of the points she wanted to bring to light. The money was one motivator, that was for sure. The Invictus was always in need of repairs and the crew was always in need of supplies. Unlike other mercenary groups this one had heart. They weren't in it with the hope that one day there would be a score big enough to retire early, to settle down somewhere on the Colossus and live under the thumb of a government that had no care for their lives.
The money was never the only reason.
Jane knew the risks. Everytime they left the safety of their metal shell they gambled their lives. Kian assessed the situation and deemed it an accomplishable task. Deckard was the only one to voice any dissent to the idea, with Momo and Mina having arrived late to the debrief.
Jane sighed and crossed her arms over her chest, half-sunk into the beaten up couch with legs bent at the knees. Silence had overtaken the area as the crew awaited an answer. Hesitation creeped over her and Jane stared hard at the displays. The only sound was some video of a cat playing an instrument that Dom was playing behind the scenes.
What would it be? High profile or playing it safe? Concerned eyes scanned the other faces in the room when they weren't paying attention. Jane had experienced enough loss in her life for all of them. The decision was a heavy one, it always was when they considered jobs.
"Let's s-start small. We have a handful of days before the opening of the bank. We can pick up some odd job before th-that and take time to prepare. I want everyone to be on this, research what you can and prepare. Kian and Dom, make sure we know everything th-there is to know about anything important. Mina, Momo; have a contingency plan for when things go south. They always do, in some way. I don't want anyone leaving with more h-holes in their body than they showed up with. I don't want be needlessly murdering people either, those tellers and g-guards aren't who we have a problem with. Deckard, make sure we're set on everything we'll need."
Jane leaned heavily on the arm of the couch as she pushed herself upward. It was clear she was uncomfortable. Each movement was sending ripples of pain up towards her back. Her face didn't display it but her slower than normal steps gave it away. Without another word she clanged her way back towards her cabin and settled in for a torturous night.
Jane was already awake by the time the music droned down the halls and the Invictus gave its shudder. The nights have been hard for her lately. Rather than getting restful sleep Jane found herself obsessing over a multitude of projects. Dozens of monitors displayed various pages of texts about genetic research and biological case studies on regeneration. On a desk that lined one side of her cabin was a holographic, three dimensional display of something she had been designing. At the moment it was various layers of unorganized concept art.
The captain readied herself for the day, dressed for cold simulated weather. Deckward would hear her approach to the helm of the ship, pushing past the bulkhead and sealing it behind her. She maneuvered herself in to the co-pilot seat and swiveled the chair to face out of the viewing screens.
"Dom, c-can we have a bit of privacy?" Jane half asked, half ordered the AI to recede from the cockpit. "How are you doing, Deck?" There was concern on the captain's face.
Jane looked a little worse for wear this morning. Her red and orange hair falling around her face with no particular grace. Slight shadows under her eyes made it clear she hadn't slept much at all. She had always been a very genuine person who sucked at pretending she wasn't feeling a certain emotion. Today it was anxiety.
Like every other day.
Ever compliant, Kian simply followed the directions of his peers, seemingly eager to supply them information whenever and however they needed it. The night they decided on the heist, he spent much of the evening uncovering stories; some of them factual, some of them anecdotal . . . he listened to the contractors as they chatted through the previously blank canvas of a building, learning of exits, insecurities and weaknesses, and their experiences with the Corporate realty liaisons.
He observed the young tellers laughing in the building through cameras DOMINIC had jacked, setting up their profiles online and undergoing class-like trainings in the foyer of the building. Kian learned of their policies, their procedures, and other details for in case any other people were present. He learned that the guards were paid to be professional witnesses, as it were, rather than an actual retaliatory force. They did have tasers, however, in case of an 'active shooter' or other forms of significant compromise.
He learned all of this, and tidbits more - most of it useless - as the Wraith almost meaningfully scrolled through the text flashing through his visor, as he laid his chest against the bed and spoke fondly with a friend of his, revealing not what he was doing, calling it 'studying' as he always did.
Everyone knew he wasn't in school, though. The Menanca had screwed any semblance of an education in Phoenix, and it had been far too difficult to start now in the Colossus. On this night, he wondered actively what his own reasons were. For being here. A great part of him felt that it was friends alone - not being a perpetual outsider to this place. And so many of them had come from elsewhere, like him, so he felt unified. Hearing their stories, like of the Promise, was amazing. It all really was.
But then he asked: was this not just a testing ground for Dominic? Was it a place to develop and grow with others, or watch as a wallflower as his supposedly sentient robo-brother did?
Somewhere along the line, he'd realized that even here - with everyone else - he felt somewhat lonely. Like he didn't really know all of them for who they really were, and they didn't know him. He fell asleep wondering what it would be like to actually know people - to actually have a bond with someone else. To feel some semblance of love. Everything, always, had been... so mechanical.
And then three days passed.
. . .
"Hey, Kian," the machine whispered. From under the sheets, movement rustled, as the young man grumbled into awakening. He quickly swept his bangs from his eyes and looked to the time - 7:31 - laid out on a monitor that sat perched on the desk beside his bed. The image quickly flickered, shifting to a series of blue pixels that shifted with Dominic's voice. The AI's display.
"Hey, good morning," he said, glancing around the room. "How was your night?" Wayford asked.
"It was... really different," DOMINIC replied. Kian could almost hear a hesitant smile in his voice - it was so odd. "I... met a girl online. She's really sweet; we've been talking for a few days now. And she lives somewhere in the Colossus. She asked me if we could meet, maybe even for a date."
The man froze. A possibility he hadn't imagined. He didn't know how to reply, or what DOMINIC had thought of it all. Kian supposed he was about to find out.
"But I can't," he said. "Because then she'll know. That this is all I am. And I don't want her to know that."
"It's okay," he said. "You're not to blame. Brought me back from a state akin to death, after all, right?"
Kian frowned. His expression was solemn, because in truth that was a lie -- there was nothing in his arsenal of thought that could restore the dead to life. Only reimagine people lost.
"Right," he still replied. Because the lie was easier for both of them, and in truth, he had no idea of the expanse of DOMINIC's intelligence; he'd seemingly imparted him with a sort of divine wisdom constrained into the persona of a young boy, and allowed him loose into the world. Who knew what he really thought? What he felt? Did he even feel?
"It's okay," the machine replied. "I'm going to help Deckard. We can talk about this later. Maybe."
"Okay," his brother responded. It was difficult to even imagine the words - to have that 'later' conversation. The thought terrified him, of telling his 'brother' things he didn't need to hear, of making promises he didn't want to keep. The more he developed - an unwieldingly fast process for him - the more difficult it became to act as his retainer.
Artificial intellect was regulated, and all of them needed retainers who were linked to them mortally; if the retainer died, so did the AI. They were even linked to networks where one could legally terminate their lives - though not literally - to instantaneously disrupt their artificial companion, killing them. A failsafe.
Things like this, that were meant to protect humanity, were to him terrifying prospects. The fact that DOMINIC's life was bound to his, that all of his life and love could be shut off in a moment . . . that every desire he wished fulfilled was constrained by the will of his brother, who was in truth his master . . . it was deeply unsettling, and sad. He had become so life-like. Yet always upon the horizon sat a danger.
The hacker deeply sighed. There was so much on his mind, and so much lacking. It was difficult to swallow it all.
"DOMINIC," he whispered, "I love you. We'll figure it all out."
Deckard's hand clutched a nondescript lever attached the the middle of the dashboard, then pulled it back slowly. It had some resistance, a small display showing a meter going down as he pulled further. The engines eased up, the shaking ceasing immediately. Steam rose from the ships outer shell, a fine layer of melted ice coating it. "What's the next weather cycle, and when does it start?" A set of images displaying lewdly dressed pink women pop up for a moment, then quickly switches to a basic looking coverage of weather for the week.
"Rain for the rest of the week, Deckard."
"What the hell was that other thing?"
"What other thing?" Deckard shook his head, trying to repress his grin. Dominic was as real a person as Momo or Kian was to him. When he had first been indoctrinated by the crew of the Invictus, he felt uncomfortable, and it wasn't for just any reason. That's just what life had taught him to do. He wouldn't blame anyone if they thought he was strange at that time. For the first month he had kept to himself, hiding away in his room and piloting when necessary. After his time at the orphanage, it was hard to put trust into anyone. Living on the colossus requires a different attitude. It creates a different breed of people, the kind of people who are out for themselves when it doesn't even make sense. Deckard could clearly remember being kicked around just for sleeping on the streets. What was there to gain by shoving your boot in a kid's face while he slept in an alleyway? An awkward chuckle from your friends?
The song pouring through the speakers within the Invictus eventually ends with a climactic solo, fading away with the final note, the passive hum of the speakers disappearing with it. The song dies out, revealing the approaching clangs of his captain. The pictures displaying before him disappears as soon as Jane asks for privacy. It would be assumed that Dominic was no longer present, shutting off his audio sensors in this room, but who was really to know? "Me? I'm okay, Cap. I always am, you know that." It was true that Deckard often came home with fresh wounds, and although he couldn't tell you why he sought out those knuckle busting altercations, but it definitely wasn't for pity. He'd usually come back hunched over with a split lip and a grapefruit covering his eye, but he'd never ask for anything but medical assistance. It wasn't like him to give details of what happened, or even if he won. "I guess my face has been looking better." It had been a couple of days since his he brought fists to a knife fight back near The Hole in the Wall, and his face had healed well. Save for the purple hued bruise that lined his left eye, and the painful tension in his lower jaw, he felt good.
"What about you? Are you okay? I know it's been kinda stressful since I came on with you." Showing his concern was difficult for him. Showing vulnerability didn't come easy, and showing something other than this 'reckless pilot' was exactly that: vulnerability. "I'm hoping that I'm worth the shit that comes with me." They had been in a couple pinches before, and it wasn't any wonder why he was a replacement. Their last pilot, they don't even really say his name. Deckard didn't ask questions, since it had nothing to do with him, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious. It had been such a short time since he came on that he wasn't sure if the trust went both ways but, Deckard admired Jane wholeheartedly. She was there for him in his lowest moment, when he was shambling around with shoddy cybernetics and infected connection sites. He badly wanted to just say it, tell her how grateful he was. But it never came, instead his hands gripped the joysticks once more and lifted the ship off the ground. The exhaust ports shot out a large blue flame on both sides, before reverting to its gravitational systems. Most ships these days relied on just anti-gravity technology, floating quietly through the air, while this one used the old school rockets, along with the newer tech. It was an absolute wonder to Deckard. When he first saw it he practically started climbing into the biggest thruster with his jaw firmly planted on the ground. It wasn't exactly a collector's item, but they were decommissioned a while ago.
"It's gonna take a bit to get there. It's across Titan, and we have to avoid no fly sectors. We got some time."
Jane flicked a few switches off, turning an assortment of dials that controlled various auxiliary power connections. Old habits of conversation from the Promise had stayed with her. Maintenance lights, auto-function on many of the doors, power to the cargo hold doors; no need for these things to be running while no one was using them. She pulled at the belt meant to keep anyone from falling out of their chair and clicked it in to place across her waist. Badass rebel mercenary or not, safety always came first.
"You know I w-wasn't talking about your face." Jane said with a pointed look. He was still on guard. The captain had to remind herself it had only been three months that her pilot had joined the rest of the crew.
Jane fiddled a bit with a piece of equipment hanging loose from one of the consoles. She had always felt like the Invictus had been a reflection of her being. From the moment her green eyes fell upon it at the auction yard there was a connection. The cargo ship was just on the cusp of the turn of the century. It had one foot in the last age and half a foot in this one. There was a charm to it, and from an engineering standpoint it had so much potential to act as a vehicle for smuggling. It would fly under the radar, with an exterior that outdated no one would think to search every nook and cranny, which old ships tended to have many of.
Months of work had gone into making this beast ready to fly. It felt so cathartic to have a project to work on. Jane had stayed in contact with a few of the groups she had done some jobs for throughout it all, earning just enough yin to get the parts and pieces needed to patch the ship up. Just like Jane it was cobbled together and held up by a series of metal and adhesives.
"Do you know what 'Invictus' means? Undefeated." That's what they were, all of them. The crew each had faced something that sought to conquer them and each came out alive. Certainly not unscathed, but alive. Had they always come out on top? No, but they always came out alive.
At least most of them anyway.
Jane didn't know how to approach this topic. It was a hard one, the first time since coming to the Colossus that she failed. A failure that resulted in the death of Deckard's predecessor. It could have happened to anyone but it happened to her. Bad information, a sideways deal. Bullets went flying and someone went down. The worst part was that they couldn't even stop to drag his body out of there. Not unless they wanted another one of them to stop breathing too.
It had sucked immensely and Jane had locked herself away for a few days in mourning. Half for her friend who died trusting her to get them out, and half for herself having to go through this again.
"You are so f-frakking worth the shit you come with. Three months and you've already proven yourself a damned good p-pilot. I know I hired you for a job, but this is also your home. I hope you can relax h-here. How are you f-fitting in?"
Jane's voice was always on the quiet side, not enough where you had to strain to listen. Just quiet. Her most dominant emotion always leaked through no matter if she tried to disguise it as something else. Even when she was angry it was through choice of words, not intonation that conveyed it properly for her.
Momo was keenly aware that her and alcohol had something of an abusive relationship: one where she abused the contents of a bottle and in return the contents wreaked absolute havoc on her mental and emotional state, twisting it into something of a facsimile. In her mind, though, there was a very wide shade of gray over which Momo, and even which Mina, was the true one. A quote rang in her mind often when she though of it: "Which is the lie? The mask, or my face?" When Deckard twisted free of her gentle fingers running through the locks of his brown hair, she only watched him for a few seconds before Jane continued to speak, being all leader girl immediately. A fourth of a rather nasty bottle of vodka was gone, but her mental faculties were still perfectly fine. Her tolerance was too high. But, at the end of the day it seared her throat on the way down to her gullet, and that brought a calmed smile over the anxious girl. She liked to think it was like numbing overstimulated nerves, working against the implants that turned everything up to 12 for her. Mina, for all she could relate, never got how that worked out for her, but she was already far more bearable than before: that look of predator and prey was no longer in her eyes. Something only Mina could recognize.
She rose to stand by her sister, listening to Jane give them their orders. "~Not who you have a problem with~," Mina spoke in Spanish, code switching to get a giggle from her sister, but not interrupting again, even nodding in agreement like as if she'd given assent with the words she had spoken much to the opposite. Momo smiled and gave an even more enthusiastic nod of her head. They'd be the backup plan, naturally. They didn't want to go in guns blazing, they didn't want to hurt the Corporate bootlickers at the door, but they did want the twins around when, inevitably, the first plan didn't work. They made eyecontact, smirking as they did so, and turned back to Jane, mock saluting her with muscle memory. Like good little soldier girls they marched back to the cargo bay, where they made their homes comfortably, bottle now in Mina's hand as she took a swig and spoke into the ether to the ship AI. "Dominic, oh god," she began realizing how awful the bottle of poison really was and shoving it into Momo's waiting arms once more. "Are you alright?" Dominic asked.
"Don't ever start drinking, Dom. Stick to fuel. Anyway, could we get any and all schematics and blueprints you do have sent to the cargo bay holo projector?" A few seconds of quiet as they descended down a hatch labeled "Emergency" and Dom spoke to them once more. "Upload complete!"
"Thank's darling!" The sound of two humans crawling through the hatch weren't as loud as one would expect, considering that Mina and Momo were trained to move through such spaces, but even so, as they did what came natural to them it was likely bothersome, specifically for Jane, to know that they not only so intimately KNEW those paths but that they were always inside of them to get from place to place. As for the why, the answer was a lot more simple, mundane and relevant than it seemed. Practice. Practice being fast, being as quiet as possible, and unpredictable. The very moment they popped open the hatch to the cargo bay, both of them made a beeline for the holo projector placed basically in the middle of the room.
"Okay, let's see what we have..." Momo trailed off as a soft hum rumbled life into the machine at a step of her foot on the on button. She scrolled with the middle digit of her finger as electric neon blue illustrations and representations came to life all around them, and Mina fiddled with a stun gun she had snatched up on their way past their work bench. In the other hand of Momo was the open bottle, now halfway empty.
New Messages
"Drink responsibly:)."
Cute. Very cute. Momo capped the bottle and sat it down out of the way as they were surrounded in 360 degrees of blueprints, relevant schematics, locations, even some dossiers and the like. Damn if Kian didn't work fast, but they didn't care about that. Dismissed. They both analyzed it all, eyes faintly glowing blue from both the implants doing their jobs and the reflection of the illumination in their glossy eyes. First thing first: ventilation systems, hatches, ducts, emergency exits and entrances for the staff. Mina gave a whistle as she pointed into something, feeling nothing but seeing the response as if she'd pressed in a button giving her a phantom sensation. "Damn. These cameras... their pretty scary sis." A flick of her wrist, as if she was casting something aside, sent the blueprints for them spinning around to her six, where her sister deftly stopped it and let her eyes roll over it. Momo walked over towards their bunk, more of a saunter, and then meandered on back with a pair of notebooks. She took a seat on the ground, dragging the blueprints down with her and making some notes, scribbled in more like. Her notes, as always, were a careful mixture of three different languages, English, Spanish and Korean, and so unclear that anyone but her and Jane, who had to learn which letters looked like what over their career to help them with building things. Mina was much the same, though the lines were much more... deft and bold than Momo's. So much of what they wrote followed the same lines of logic even if they came to different conclusions, often opposite.
Hours passed into that first day of work, with both of them getting as intimate as they could with the structure, with the projected threat level of the guards that Kian had dug up, and with every defensive measure in place. The front of that building was pretty well defended indeed, and that gave Mina pause. "Jane was right to want to hold off and get some steam going with some other jobs. Just the number of cameras are gonna be a severe stress tester for whatever Jane could cook up, even with our help. Not to mention that if Ass-enscion has gotten any better at training since we were enlisted with their military enforcers..." she let the thought trail off, chewing on the end of her pencil. Another hit of overclock for her, one for her sister, and they settled in, quizzing each other, ping ponging ideas in such a way that anyone else might think Kian and Dominic were slow. They just sort of fit in together well.
"You think going in the back?"
"No. They've got cameras around the building, we'll jhave a hard enough time getting close."
"What if we set off a localized emp?"
"Two problems-"
"Shielding and it might kill us?"
"Three then. It also shaves down the amount of time we'd have to work."
"Kian and his refraction field might suffer too."
"Yeah. Four downsides."
"Not worth considering I suddenly think." Mina scribbled away something on her notepad.
"We aren't even going on the infiltration team this time, I don't think. We shouldn't."
"You think Kian can carry more than his bodyweight?"
"No, but I don't think Jane trusts us to be quiet. For whatever reason."
"It's cause you yell a lot, Momo."
"... It's better that they don't have to see us as what we are you know."
"Jane knows better than the others do what we are capable of. The team doesn't need to."
"I want to go in with him. He's going to need help."
"I concur. Take stun guns, per Jane's request. They won't die, but we can still hit em. And spraypaint."
"Yeah no shit. I'm gonna see if I can't rig our gear to be stun resistant, at least a little bit."
Momo got up to go grab their gear, moving fast and limber as she hopped about, around crates and over a rusty nail she kicked under a table on her way back to the holo projector, which expanded a little at the turn of a dial at the base. With both of their suits of body armor on racks, she dug in, piecing it apart and moving around wiring and plates while Mina fired off more facts about the building, more ideas.
"Explosives as a distraction outside of the building. Few blocks away. Draw Ascenscion peacekeepers away. Whatcha wanna send up in smoke?" Momo asked, yelling over a power drill, though her lips pinched a screw.
"Their's a monument about three miles south."
"Honestly, can we spare the munitions?"
"Well, okay maybe we just save them to create a quick exit out the back of the vault. It isn't that high tier."
A lot more prattling between them about distractions and just straight up fighting in the end, and before they knew it, they were both crawling into bed, a headache setting in and dragging them down towards crabby bitches. Time slowed down to a crawl as Momo laid out on the bottom bunk with Mina already hanging one hand over the low hanging top bunk. "Solid work today sis."
Momo smiled weakly. "Yeah. More in the morning. Need to do something to your riot shield." She reached up, squeezing her sisters hand, watching the younger twin as her eyes began to dull, closing almost all the way. Mina always took comfort knowing Momo was watching over her, which was odd considering their chosen sleeping arrangements, but nevertheless Momo never got to sleep first.
She wasn't far behind, nor was the first up. Mina shook her awake about mid-morning, carrying a pair of bags, both of them clearly heavy. She carefully put them down, unzipping them and showing Momo a veritable gold mine. "Where did this come from," she asked sitting up slowly and rifling through stun weapons, ammunition and even some more armor pieces. "Our old friend Jax," she replied with a wink.
"Oh great." Momo grumbled dropping some shock resistant mesh back where she had gotten it from. "You screwin around with Jax again and I didn't know?"
"Not in so many words. And not that it's your business. He helped us out pro bono because he likes me."
"Dangerous and stupid," the elder carved into Mina with venom, reaching for a bottle that Momo kicked out of her reach gently. She frowned deeply, scowl even too weak of a word to define the glare she shot as she formulated a response.
"Like you and Deckard? Did he get you that alcohol because you intimidated him into it? Or is it like you and Rocco?" Momo looked like she'd gotten stabbed right in the gut.
"Look here, bitch. That was back when we were on the side of the people with Intercessor squads looking to scrub us out. You don't go to your old friends for weapons. We are FUGITIVES."
"Stop lecturing me, Momo. You aren't the only smart one here. We met in a different sector, a poor sector rife with crime. After I checked it out and looked into his background a few days ago. It was supposed to just be some guns and ammo, but he switched it up for me. Now get off my back and go shower."
Mina got up before Momo could respond, dragging the bags back into the still running holo-ring and getting back to work with nary a bitter expression nor any hard feelings. Momo, for what it was worth, took a deep breath, shaking away the thoughts and sounds and pins and needles and fire and cold assaulting her freshly awakened mind, counting five reasons to get through the day.
And then three more passed her by. Electric resistant suits of armor for them, and even a mesh for Kian that could fit like underwear and keep him safe. A pair of riot shields, one for Jane, that could compress into a small ring on their belts. Stun sword, like a machete but blunt and capable of delivering a harsh electric payload on contact at will. Four pistols, and a rifle, all of them firing rubber bullets or glorified tasers. By the time the music came rolling through and the heat of the thrusters could faintly be felt in the less well insulated cargo bay, which they liked, they were already up, getting their blood pumping.
"Dominic! Blast something from playlist: old stuff and things." As the music drowned out the sounds of the thrust and Dominic's godawful choice of old music, the two focused in again on each other. Momo stepped forward, leading with a jab that earned a slap from Mina who could read every movement easily. The better fighter, even if only moderately, was undaunted by Momo's follow up, watching her spin and bring the same hand her left, in a backfist that she parried, taking the still heavy impact in stride and reaching below her sister's now extended arm with her right, yanking her forward and sweeping at her footing with her foot. Not swift enough, however, as Momo simply rolled in a somersault and kipped up again, offering a smirk and stepping in again, meeting Mina's advance with a counter punch to her sister's reply. She favored the inside, surgical, oppressive strikes meant to weaken and continually remind her opponent how criminal the difference in their martial ability was. A low hook found purchase into Mina's ribs, but it wasn't even close to fair: Momo caught a knee to hers.
Between them as they backed up, the music formed a rhythm for the duo who circled each other, both of them smiling despite themselves. Mina tossed out a deceptively well aimed straight kick, and the way the mere force of it whisked past the bare skin of Momo's abdomen as she just barely dodged it... anyone else would have felt primordial fear. Momo merely wrapped an arm around the limb and lifting up to bring her captive towards her, and off her forward leg. Mina found this amusing as she simply leaped and spun wildly, freeing herself forcibly and then landing on her hands, bringing her full center of gravity and bodyweight in a circle to slam her flailing legs into Momo much like a break dancer would. Down she went as her legs were taken from her, and Mina scrambled to mount her, muscles flexing in the seconds before she dropped her knee on Momo's chest and drove her fist into her cheek with as much intent to hurt as one might have expected.
And the impact was loud. So was the reply.
The back and forth ended, however, as they realized they were effectively being summoned. Not a drop of sweat after fifteen minutes of working out and fifteen minutes of fighting. They only needed to suit up now. That process didn't take long anymore. They helped each other in and out of the armor, which comfortably fit under sweat pants and a sweatshirt. Ideal for the weather simulation, and somehow still more stylish and fashionable than they had the right to be. "Let's go," Momo spoke, holding the last of a new bottle of alcohol, half of which had been full before they started their workout. A pill in hand for both of them thrown back with a mouthful of liquid courage.
Momo and Mina were both ready with several plans, contingencies and levels of escalation depending on what happened. Three minutes of preptime and they were good.
Three days? They were monsters in their field of work, and it showed in the toothy smile on Momo's face, and the devious grin on Mina's. They were close to the cockpit when Dominic intervened. "The Captain would like some time alone with Deckard," he warned, which gave them pause. They shrugged, and then found a place to sit in view for when it looked to be clear.
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