Twilight Thoughts

[Jeremy Hunter]

Izzy barely slept. She was on Lodeve, and she had just gotten back from Orleanais and from Vendome. She had upset Ashley, with her hostility towards Armond.

Rubbing her temples, she grabbed her PDA.

Entry Six: Halcyon

Operation Halcyon. I mission for the Terminal I didn't want to remember...



It was no milk run. It was no easy job. No, it was a hard one.

Adelaide Roux. She was on the fast-track to be the Directeur of Naval Intelligence. From there...Grande Marechal of the Navy. Our mission was to assassinate her younger brother, Armond, and hopefully turn her anger towards the Maquis, terrorists who knew nothing of mercy, and destroy her career with hatred. It was a tricky job, but I knew how to do it...and minimalise casualties while causing a big enough mess. I didn't like killing him, I hated to do it, but I was the only one who could. The Terminal was unable to send anyone else skilled enough; Had to fall to me.

I barely managed to sneak away from Manhattan onboard the Midnight Roar, where I rendezvoused with Alicante. The Terminal's home, and Dark Halo's...I'd say only, but I never know of anyone outside The Terminal...warship.

Rika Kairi Hunter, I will get the brussel sprouts.

We jumped into Ile-De-France and hide behind one of the fifteen (count it - FIFTEEN) planets there, where I climbed into a Moonbeam fighter. It would work.
I undocked and made a beeline towards the place and came there without incident...even managed to get on as a tourist, "Michelle de La Fontain." Sheesh, the Police turned a blind eye when I showed some cleavage and dropped a decent amount of francs into their pockets. The LPI back at home at least had some decency - they'd at least say "we'd prefer donuts to you ma'am" before taking the money. So...not that hard to get onto Planet Orleans...
It wasn't hard finding the Roux's estate. The security was the hard part...of course, it was my lucky one of the guards was a bit sex-deprived and happily followed me behind a shed with a promise of a good time.
I doubt he liked the goose egg on his head after I knocked him out.

I found his room, pretty easily once I broke in. It was a challenge, but one I was up to.
And it was a cakewalk, finding Armond's room.. It was the only locked door I found. I hacked into the lock and pushed it open. What I saw stopped me.
He was asleep with another woman resting against his chest. I caught my breath and froze. They reminded me of myself and Jeremy...
I couldn't do it. Not murder. Not like this. So I turned to leave, and I ended up hitting something. Armond was up, yanking on boxers. I took off running, and I hear him coming after me. I ran faster, but he overtook me at a turn and tackled me down. We grappled for a minute, until I kicked him away and retrieved my fallen gun, I turned to face him. He was on his back, looking up at me. I didn't want to do it, but he was there. He had seen me. I kinda teared up, but before I could fire, a door opened. I swung around, ready to kill, when I stopped.

It was a young girl, barely ten, who looked sick and scared. She was in a flowing blue nightgown, and looked up. I froze, and Armond took the initiative to tackle me. I was taken by surprise and subdued. He shouted "Get back Amelie!" and pressed his knee into my back. I was hauled away and stripped of my weapons...mostly. Only five of my twenty seven assorted knives were found. I'm just good like that.

I was questioned about it all for a few hours, then Armond himself came. He, instead of a harsh tone and language, was calm and kind. He did not raise his voice, so I told him my first name, Isabella. We kinda...got along well. He took me trying to kill him, very well.
Then he asked me why I didn't. I told him.
"You, with your girl...reminded me of someone I did it with. And dying right next to them like that...I couldn't do it."
"And, the girl?"
"Same guy. Has a little sister. Kinda...would feel like I was killing him."
Armond and me talked more, and he released me. I guess he thought I wasn't a threat anymore. I wasn't. He was walking me back to my ship when the Police got a different idea.

Backstabbers. They wouldn't even listen to a Baron's son, which what Armond was. His uncle was the Comte of Orleans. But no, the Police didn't listen. One of them even started to hurt Amelie! As they started to take me away, I showed Armond exactly how dangerous I remained. With the police down, I cleaned my knives and ran off towards my ship, which sadly had been taken over...And, well. Turns out a RPGB was waiting outside the docking ring. That wouldn't do.

Distraction. That was easy. I hot wired a Caracal and sent it flying through the main runway on autopilot.
And accidently destroyed the gift shop when it crashed. My bad.
So, after that, I went, found a line of cheap, used Moonbeams being sold by some slick guy in a suit (damn used ship salesmen). Of course, I knocked him out, stole the flight codes, set them all to hit the RPGB, which Armond told me was the Caiman, and then took the initiative and stole a Police Serval. I then put my stupid plan into effect.

I can't believe it worked. There were probably fifteen moonbeams in the starport, all being sold.
Well, I cleaned up that spot, as all of them smashed into the Caiman. First five smashed into it, downing the shield. The rest kamikazied into the hull...and I made my escape back to Alicante.

Armond owed me, for saving Amelie from the Police. I don't get why he thought she would get seriously hurt, but...oh well. He owed me, and I finally collected when I needed to use Vendome's infirmary to, eheh...break Ashley's legs and reset them.

Sheesh, that girl gets into too much trouble...

And damn, why does he go from planetside estate to a giant station in four years?!


Entry Six, closed.

---

May you ever walk in the Light, Shizune.