L&V (+T)

[Backo]

There it was, Freeport 11. It looked a lot like last time Eliza saw it, perhaps minus the debris that the Zoners had finally cleaned up. It seemed to her that the heated aggression between the Core and the local populace of equally brave and suicidal Zoners had finally died down. Perhaps the Core had given up, or maybe they were building a bomb more devastating than the NEMP they dropped on the station last time, she thought to herself. Either way she did not plan to stay around for too long to find out for sure. There were better places to retreat to for some rest from duties and responsibilities, like that sunny planet Cambridge in Bretonia. Now that was a good place to disappear for a few weeks or maybe even months, the girl though.

Closing in on the station she switched the Sabre's engines down to impulse speed. The fighter craft quickly killed all the extra inertia in less than a second, something that always amazed Eliza how it didn't leave her splattered on the front window of her ship, though she always shrugged it off as something only a true physicist egghead could truly understand. The girl relaxed back in her pilot seat with a sight of relief and with a few clicks on the console she transmitted a message to her friend on the Freeport. Hey, Enma, it's me. I'll be on Freeport 11 in a few minutes. I'll meet you in the bar in 10, alright? With that out of the way Eliza began aligning her craft with one of the hangars and began the docking procedure. The hangar doors slowly opened and Eliza removed her hands from the control sticks, leaving everything to the autopilot to handle.

---

Republic of the Sword and Sun

[Loyola]

Enma is sitting in her rent apartment while watching some documentary movie about neutron star in Omega-41 as she receiving a message from Eliza. "You gotta be crazy if you have managed to get to Delta so fast." Loyola smiles and dressing up more or less decently to visit the bar. It's not like she had a lot of cloth, but this time she tried to avoid anything military related such as uniform. It was a hard dilemma since she just didn't use to dress not casually or military. Back when she was ruling Malta she had a special brigade of stylists guarding her fashionability, but not now.

Anyway, 10 minutes later Enma is closing to the bar. Meeting Eliza is promising to be nice after all. Now, since Enma is not having all those duties they will finally talk without any haste and formalities. Of course she is not even hoping to avoid the politics in their conversation, would be really good, but practically not possible. Hispanic woman is entering this typical Freeport bar and looking around, hoping to see her friend soon enough.

---

[t0l]

Tal sat in an isolated, dimly lit corner booth of the bar, the top of his head and hair covered just about entirely by his trademark black beanie. Quietly, he tapped away at his neural net tablet, pausing every so often to take a sip of his coffee before going back to his perpetual job hunt. The establishment itself was fairly deserted for a Freeport bar, even during this hour, allowing his honed ears to pick up the pitter-patter of approaching footsteps coming from the hallway through the slow jazz music and chronic tinnitus-induced ringing. Strange. He only knew one person who walked that fast, and he swore she was dead.

Naturally, he turned towards the source of the noise once it reached the doorway, going wide-eyed as he saw the awfully-familiar, proud silhouette of ELIZA VALDEZ enter the bar. Immediately, his body went to material condition ZEBRA, tensing up as he reached up with his out-of-view left hand to flick his hood up and over his head and beanie. The tablet fell, completely abandoned in this time of need, to the table with a muffled clack as he moved his right hand over to take up the cup of coffee, holding it towards his center of being closely as he leaned forwards ever so slightly, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible. Judging by the click-clacks of her feet against the tile, she was walking away from him, and the squeaking of the booth's faux leather-covered cushion signaled to him that she'd taken up a position relatively far away from him.

Whew. His body loosened up and he let out a sigh of relief, although he was still maintaining the lean with the stillness and grace of a meditating Buddhist monk.

Not long after, another set of footsteps echoed down the hall, and a quick glance caught what had to be Enma Loyola in his peripheral vision, standing in the doorway and probably scoping the place out to find her buddy. Not too much of a problem for him, though. She probably didn't have any interest in him, at least, hopefully not.

He was prepared for trouble, but not double.

---

[Backo]

Eliza had recalled certain "accidents" between the local Zoner population and the Legionaries in the past so she tried to draw as little attention as possible. Whatever combat prowess she had was strictly confined to space fighter combat since being featherweight and little over 160cm didn't really make her any good of a close quarter fighter. As such to Tal's luck she tried to make as little eye contact with the bar's inhabitants while looking around to see if Loyola had beaten her to the bar. Realizing that Loyola was probably still on her way she picked an empty table and took her seat, waiting for her companion to show up.

While waiting she looked around the bar from the corner of her seat. The place sure looked bad after all that Core bombardment and the not too recent NEMP bombing. Planet Cambridge was sounding as a way better alternative by the second, even that nearly dead piece of metal called Manoel Outpost that Eliza was supposed to administrate was better, at least it had no Corsairs. Thought there was at least one good thing about this place, she was about to meet an old friend who she had fairly lost touch with over the recent months of service. Seeing Loyola enter the bar Eliza waved excitedly to draw the blonde's attention towards the table and herself.

---

Republic of the Sword and Sun

[Loyola]

Loyola saw Eliza and just waved back daily. This person is so disarming, it's hard to pretend to be something when Eliza is nearby. One thing is very concerning, she's feeling that someone is watching her. She looked on top of heads of the bar visitors, but did not notice anyone watching her intently. This feeling only increased her paranoid state of mind so Outcast was ready to take the pistol out of its holster any moment. Shooting in the bar is not her style, definitely. She will look like a secondary character of some low-tier movie. And, fairly, she would prefer to die more dramatically.

Enma looked at Eliza's empty table and thought that girl is probably that poor that can't order anything. Well, seems like her own situation is not that critical. She walked directly to the bar counter to buy some drink. Eliza barely did drink anything else aside of the rum, so why even bother to ask. As for herself, she as always fell in doubts. After thinking actively for about 34 seconds she decided to take mojito, this is quite popular on Malta still. She actually did not expect to see it in menu, but when she did her doubts have ended. With a bottle of rum and glass of mojito Enma is finally moving to Eliza's table. Once again Outcast is feeling someone's look, but this time she's not even looking around.

---

[Backo]

Seeing Loyola return with drinks for both of them eased Eliza's worries about her friend's situation. Enma might have been dispelled from Malta's political scene, but at least as it seemed she still had some credits left with her. Enough to be generous with buying friends drinks without asking them beforehand at least. Eliza jerked her body backwards into her seat, removing her elbows from the table to free space for the drinks that her dear friend had brought. Aww, Enma, you shouldn't have! she smiled cheerfully. Freeloading was something she wouldn't turn down, but the girl felt it would look bad if she didn't at least attempt to look like she didn't enjoy it this much.

She shuffled a bit more in her seat, trying to find a more comfortable position on the dull and cold seat that she had picked for herself. Realizing the futility of her attempts Eliza simply gave up and leaned forward resting her elbows on the table again. She looked at her blonde friend and smiled again. It was good to finally see her again, even if it was at a place as awful as Freeport 11's bar. So how's your trip been to Delta? she wasn't quite sure with what to start the conversation and such a mundane question seems as good as any.

---

Republic of the Sword and Sun

[Silver]

---

Tomoe Gozen already had been in this gods-forsaken Freeport, and she didn't liked it one bit. Now, due to Valdez-sama, her path once again went through this base in the middle of a fracked up eerie system. Still, she could see the appeal. After all, no one comes looking for people in the middle of nowhere with battleships, tentacles and what else flying around a disintegrating space station, controlled by the lowest scum in the sector.

Zoners.

Shiv hated zoners. Not because of their supposed philosophy, but because of their 'I'm better than thou' behaviour when violence came in their way. After setting down her Vindicator in the docking bay, she noticed a Sabre to the side. She knew that Sabre. She worked on that Sabre. She cleaned that Sabre every night in Ibiza. The Wyrm guns disposition. The triple stripes near the shield array. Valdez-sama name under the cockpit window. And now filthy zoners were servicing it.

Blood boiled in her body. Filthy handed zoners. The rags dirty, the tools, bent and not properly looked at. And they dared to shove the oily H-Fuel pump head into the intake of the Sabre without reverence or care. Her teeth gritted and she ran towards the servicing crew. Filthy zoners, she muttered. Hiding swiftly behind what it seemed a Kyushu Rice crate, she counted their numbers. One, two, three. Filthy zoners.

She took a bag of rice from the crate and hid it in her backpack. Removing her brand new shiv, that she toiled for the past month to make, looking very much like a katana, but not truly one, her footsteps took her forward, silent and determined, to the first zoner who was busy whistling a tune. The edge of her shiv entered his back without issue and only a slight gasp was heard.

"Filthy baka-zoner." She whispered as his dying last breath leaved his body. As his body slumped forward, she removed the bag of Kyushu Rice from her backpack and walked around the Sabre where the other two were cleaning the hull of the sabre with their oily, disgusting rags. Moving silently, she managed to be at their backs while they were none the wiser. With a heavy throw, still girly like, the bag hit one of the zoners head, square middle that then headbutted the armored plates of the Sabre hull. As the other zoner was surprised at the happening, his head was impaled by Shiv's shiv. Walking towards the now unconscious Kyushu Rice'd zoner, she stabbed him. Over and over again, muttering. "Filthy zoners. Filthy zoners don't touch Valdez-sama Sabre!!!!"

Two minutes later, with her anger sated, she hid the bodies of the zoners in the Kyushu Rice crate, and kicked their tools to the side. She hurriedly ran towards her Vindicator and removed her tools and cleaning utensils. An hour should suffice to bring back the Sabre back to tip top shape, she thought. And as she removed and started cleaning the H-Fuel pump and started cleaning the intake valve, she kept on muttering.

"No one touches Valdez-sama Sabre. Filthy zoners."

---

[Loyola]

First few moments Enma's trying to get used to this place overly. Such places happened to be an alien environment for her. Yes she is clearly realizing that this bar theoretically is a good place to relax and all, but she couldn't even start..., anything. Enma is delaying with an answer on Eliza's question by making a heavy sigh and drinking a bit of mojito. "Hm, I was to order some zoner carrier to transport and ships and stuff." Enma looked at the glass with a large leaves of mint in it. Mint is a good thing, but she needs to continue the conversation..., somehow. At least mojito was as good as she expected.

Sitting rather uncomfortably, Enma is not bothering to fix it. Woman looks stressed and her body is in tense for no reason. Enough is enough - she thought, this pause that she made another time is way too awkward and long. "Thanks for coming, I appreciate it." Her voice sounded quiet and low, but nervous at the same time. She would like to express her gratitude with something, but she can't offer anything else aside of a drink at the moment.

But why is she feeling herself so unprotected anyway? Even now, when person who will not backstab for sure is near? This is not making any sense, it will be gone soon, since she's on the way to get drunk today, but it was not the first day those feelings pestered her. And getting drunk daily is not an option, Enma is still having some potential and becoming an alcoholic on this god forsaken Freeport is the stupidest idea of all time.

That's some deep crisis of her personality and such, but it's not like anyone would care. It's especially silly to share this with Eliza. Last time she was certain with gallic person on Corsica and it had a strange effect. Now she's having thoughts of coming back on Corsica? It's better to take another sip of mojito and smile to Eliza. "How are you?" She only said, her face did not manage to express anything describable at this moment. Sick look and basic paranoia, Enma used to be more attractive.

---

[Yaoquizque]

Jeremiah Hookity was enjoying a well deserved tea, his feet up on his desk, while reviewing the last security report wrote by his trusted assistant Moriarty - a nice guy but a bit too dumb for his own good, Hookity had to admit. Like for example, why did Moriarty need to put in his reports that no Core minions could be found on the station.

Every. Frakking. Time.
Like what the hell? It was not like the security didn't do its best since literally months to prevent that very thing from happening, right? Hookity couldn't help shrugging at that thought, considering it would probably be the right time to knock some sense into the boy, especially after that pole dancing incident madness... Thing... Occurring two days ago. Ah well.

The fine chief Hookity was considering to put his respectable bottom to motion, noticing how low on tea level his cup eventually turned to be, when a short of breath Madington burst in the office.
"W...What the hell, Moira?!" emitted our hero, startled by this unexpected appearance.
"Ch...Chief... We have a..."
"Calm down, my girl, calm down. Have a good breath" said Hookity while getting back to a regular sitting position.
"Yes chief..." replied Madington, taking a few seconds to gain back her composure. She then added :
"We have a situation on Deck four, chief! Some lunatic assaulted three persons!"
"What the he...?" uttered the noble chief Hookity before getting back on his feet.

He then quickly reached for his giant truncheon and his handgun, sighing.
"Very well, Moira. Get a squad ready."

As the fine agent Madington left the office to gather the men, the respectable chief Hookity walked towards the mirror hung on the opposite wall of his office, to check on himself quickly. Hairstyle? Check. Uniform? Correct. No stain on the chest either. Excellent.

Satisfied by this extensive examination, our hero then reached for his cap before leaving the office. It was time to kick some ass and show people once again it wasn't wise to mess with Zoners paramilitary!

---

[Backo]

Eliza could easily notice that Enma was far from her cheerful self that she once was when they first met roughly an year ago. Political life coupled with the recent betrayal she was handed seemed to have taken it's tow on Loyola. The redhead smiled calmly at her friend, obviously what her companion needed right now was a friend. Eliza took a slow and deep inhale to relax herself before answering her company's question. So and so, I've... she suddenly stopped. Enma had mentioned she didn't think high of Fedelta and reminding her of it didn't sound like a good idea. I've actually considered stepping down from official responsibilities. The Legion was an interesting experience to say the least, but I'm not sure if it was for me. Eliza closed her eyes and gave out a sight. Life was so much easier without all these responsibilities, you know? Perhaps this could cheer her friend across the table a bit? After all - losing almost everything meant Enma now had the chance to start a life without all those responsibilities from her past.

Such a strange thing life was, Eliza thought to herself while looking back at her companion - a few months back she considered Loyola a danger to Maltese society and a subtle threat that had to be kept at check. But now that the blonde Maltese had lost her power and rule, now that she had become a ghost so to speak things changed. All that was left were all those adventures they shared, the immature stuff Eliza did and Enma's stoic attitude towards it all. Eliza giggled to herself, now this was a memory worth remembering. Hey, remember that time we were scouting the Omegas and someone - obviously the less experienced one of the two, had the bright idea that we should check on that ice asteroid system? And then we spend like half an hour trying to escape the coalition hounds because it turns out we wandered into their restricted space? We've probably beaten a speed record trying to bust our asses out of there haha!

---

Republic of the Sword and Sun