Song, Jae-un
Apparently Hanamura's at Barrier Gate, dunno why she stopped there, Tsurara's not on any bounty records and its papers track back to Starcat - she could have gone direct to Cambridge..
Struikas, Andrew
You think something's off?
Song, Jae-un
No.. well, kinda, but.. what's important is sis has gotta be kept on power since the shell's more or less running on its' own and feeding nothing to the QPU right now - we didn't hook up the replacement inverter yet because we didn't want to run the risk of something blowing. I dunno if Hanamura did that before she left.
Struikas, Andrew
Yeah, that's bad right?
Song, Jae-un
Very. QPUs last about 24-48 hours without power before data degradation gets to unrecoverable levels. They use really unstable storage chips on socket that aren't too different from RAM. Our QPUs have logic, networking, and what not all on the same chip, sharing space with the main die and chipsets - priority goes to the storage above everything else. She'll forget anything not flushed to storage, but that's probably what, 30 seconds before she conked out?
Struikas, Andrew
Fuck.. Will any old power source do?
Song, Jae-un
No, it has to be modulated just right or you'll fry her. Any AC Power supply with dialable voltage will do - though you'll need to connect to the caloric inverter lines along her spine. I'll meet you at Complex A and bring one.
Hanamura sits by Mieko, life support equipment next to her, keeping her body going, unaware of Mieko slowly dying inside without power coming from the temporary leads extruding from her back. She had been waiting here, after hours of seeking out Psyche to help her, but to no avail. She sits there, makeup ruined and in tears.
"I.. remember how happy you were.. to enjoy things when you got that body.. So excited.. eager.. wanting to know what it was really like.." Hanamura says, trying to hold back tears, reminiscing with her about her days at Freeport 11. "Everyone was so excited to meet you in the flesh."
A stuffed teddy bear and flowers, rest beside Mieko, the girl still in a light blue medical gown, covered by a white blanket.
Meanwhile, Struikas, running through Barrier Gate's mooring bay towards the snubcraft docks, pushes the occasional ruffian and freelancer aside, pistol in his holster, not a care at all other than to rush to his wingman's side to save her from her partner's foolish act of desperation. All the while, Bride waits outside the elevator to the docks, looking around, sidearm sheathed behind her black skirt, the end of the barrel peeking out beyond the navy blue stripe along its' edge. The black-haired Kusari Hanguk-in (// Korean Kusari) scours the area with her eyes, sensors tracking persons of concern, before Struikas shows himself, running towards her. The brown haired vet stops to catch his breath in front of her. "Fuck.. big ass.. place." She heaves around a briefcase with her, turning around towards the elevator.
"I had to threaten a dock worker to get the docking logs from them. She's here in Alfa in Dock 19, onboard Tsurara. She's been here since yesterday." Jae-un says, walking briskly into the elevator. Struikas follows behind, hand on his pistol. The elevator door closes, as it decends down. A view of the Nebula around them can be seen through the wall opposite the door. The two seem unfazed by it, focused on the matter at hand. "How much time do we have?" Struikas asks Bride.
"About 6 hours. The storage runs in a Nested RAID Array, meaning she's got mirrored copies of her personality matrix and memories across all of the chips. We'll need to rebuild the RAID Array assuming we can get her to reinitialize to a recovery state. Once the array's back up, she'll be okay." She answers. She checks her pistol, both to make sure she won't be screwed if something happens, and to keep her mind off her sister's dire state.
"I know we're here and all but.. What happens after 6 hours? Total loss or?" Struikas answers, moving his arm over his head, looking out the window as the elevator continues to descend.
"It'll be slow decay, more or less. Anything could go. Her favorite color, what her bra size is, what your name is, Hanamura's last birthday.. anything." She answers, keeping it brief.
"So it's good we got here in time." He says, breathing the first sigh of relief he's had all week.
"...Yeah." Bride answers, as the window reveals the metal of the elevator's walls, the exterior view gone. Struikas turns to Jae-un as the Elevator starts to slow. "Though my question is where did Hanamura go."
"Sure as shit wasn't to see what's her name." he continues, as the elevator stops, and opens up for the two, they proceed to walk out, again, briskly, towards the Grizzly's docking bay.
"Birdie. And yeah." Jae-un answers, before continuing, only to stop, briefly slowing her cadence. "You wanna know what I--"
"I got into the Tsurara's blackbox... fucking hell Hanamura.." Jae-un resumes with, before running at speed towards the docking bay. Struikas, yet again behind her, screams out, evading the occasional hoverdolly. "What?!"
"She went into the fucking Avelmore! Was trying to get after one of those Nomads that went and drove me fucking nutters, c'mon!" She shouts back, before running into the docking bay proper.
The two rush towards the Grizzly-class Freighter. Bride hacks in, and remotely opens the underside boarding stairs, climbing up as they lower, leaving Struikas to follow behind, stepping up as anyone else would. She runs towards the habitation quarters, looking around. She can hear Hanamura faintly from one of the rooms. She moves to it, pistol in hand, ready for the worst as she tries to view the cameras. It's simply Hanamura inside with Mieko's body, noticing the sound. She moves for a rifle she placed nearby Mieko's left nightstand, and aims it to the door, noticing something inside. Bride switches to thermal, as Hanamura shows her back to grab the rifle. She zooms in... Hanamura is clean - no signs of an infection form on her body.
"Hanamura!?" Bride shouts, Struikas catching up, pistol grasped in hand as they stand beside the door, in position to breach. Struikas moves to his back, and pulls out a flashbang, ready to go if need be. Bride patches Struikas into the video feed, seeing it on his visual overlay from his neural lace.
"Bride!? How did you get here!? Why are you here!?" she answers back. At this point she's fearing Jae-un would kill her.
"Hanamura! We see you're armed. Drop the gun, step away from Mieko, and from the door."
"Why!? I'm going to get her help!"
Struikas and Bride look to each other, and then to the door, at Hanamura, Bride shouting at her furiously."No, you're gonna get you, and my sister fucking infected!"
"Listen to me! The Valravn spooks can't fix her, and you've tried everything! The Nomads at best are going to turn her against you and everything you, me, and Bride love!" Struikas retorts, backing up Bride.
"At least she'll live!" Hanamura says, lost in desperation.
"She won't fucking live, Hanamura! That won't be fucking Mieko! It'll be a fucking Nomad, using her like a goddamn puppet!"Bride rebukes, before bringing it on home. "Stop and fucking listen to yourself, you're over-fixated and obsessed!"
Struikas tries to bring reason to the situation. "Freud can help her! I'm certain there's other people who can unfuck her without killing her in the process!"
"How can they save her, they don't know anything--" Hanamura shouts back, before Bride drops the hammer.
"We don't know anything other than Cohen's fucking notes and documents! We still have fucking options! Going to the Vagrants, isn't a fucking option! Remember what Naomi said?! What you told me?! The Nomads used her! They'll use Mieko too!"
Hanamura looks to Mieko, and then to the door, gun still aimed down. Her will weakens. She drops the rifle, and falls to the floor on her knees. In that moment, Bride nods to Struikas, and remotely opens the door, before moving in with him, taking point ahead of him.
Bride lowers her pistol, and moves to the briefcase, taking out the large power supply, and hooking it up to a nearby outlet. Struikas looks over Hanamura, pistol in hand. He steps on her rifle to disarm her, and then kneels down. Frustrated, angry, but in the end, understanding her insanity, he reaches out to her, who can't bring herself to look at him.
"I have every right to knock your ass out, put you in cuffs and bring you to the Exarchy to be executed, Nodoka Hanamura." Struikas says, conviction in his eyes. He then sighs, looking away to Mieko, and then back to Hanamura. As he talks to her, She hooks Mieko up to the leads, and begins to dial in the needed voltage and amperage. She hooks up to the debug socket, and tests to verify power is going to the QPU. She breathes a sigh of relief.
"But I guess in your shoes, when running out of options, I'd consider making a deal with the devil too." he finishes, before Hanamura looks to him.
"What are you going to do to me, Struikas?" Hanamura says, dejected.
"I.. am not going to do anything. Bride however--" he answers, before being Interrupted by Jae-un picking Hanamura up, and forcefully bashing her head into a nearby wall. Whilst avoiding a concussion, her head is bleeding from the left side, down her cheek, as she falls to the floor.
"You do that again, and so help me god, I will fucking kill you, Hanamura. I will kill you, and your fucking sister. Do I make myself clear?!"
She nods in affirmation silently. Bride sighs, the anger out of her system. She helps Hanamura up, and pulls her into a hug. "For fuck's sake.. I know we don't have many friends.. but don't count all our snubs cooked just because the best source of help is up shit creek... and don't get your ass killed in the process either, damn it.."
Hanamura, returns the favor, crying again, sobbing an apology. "I... I lost so much already.. I.. just.. don't want to lose.. her.." she says, in between cries, the woman having reached her breaking point emotionally. Bride meanwhile, holds her close. "Please.. don't do that again... Just.... god..damn it, ask for help... ask, goddamn it.."
Struikas looks to the two, and then to Mieko.
"We're gonna get you help, Yoru'. You're not gonna die on us."
As the two talk it out, Struikas grasps Mieko's purple hair, and ruffles it gently, before leaning in close, to kiss her forehead.
Struikas turns to Bride, as the two finally start to settle, and speaks up. "Bride. You said you knew someone. Someone with ties to the Nomads? Maybe their tech or something can be used."
Jae-un answers back. "Yeah, Naomi Kaiser. Used to be an acolyte of the Vagrants."
"Get her on the line. Work out a RV for us to meet up. I'll contact Freud."
