Threats from within.

[Exile]

[font=Agency FB]I just couldn't get any form of sleep. I laid in the backroom of the Behemoth (the...'Living' room), just staring at the cealing. The photograph I grabbed off the coffee table in the Baracks of Pottsdam was flowing in between my fingers, and occasionaly I'd give it a glimpse. Julie...We...Had taken three lives in total. Who knows what those men left behind? Wives, kids, husbands maybe, mother, father, brother, sister, family and friends. And for what? I didn't even know what was on those files. I doubt Julie did too. My mind wandered for abit longer untill I heard the VI's voice coming out of the cockpit.

'Incoming Message. Would you like to display it?' 'Display message'.



I walked into the cockpit just as the channel closed. 'Go get that sleep you. You're going to need it. VI, set a course for the Hudson system.' Julie commanded. I went down to the lower level. Maybe I could sleep better there.

---

[Exile]

[font=Agency FB]Southern Asteroid Field, Hudson system.

Waypoint reached

I awoke to the sound of Julie yelling at me to wake up, something about our destination. 'Get your ass in gear and get dressed, we're here'. Before I could ask about this 'here', she shushed me, pointed at my clothes and walked back into the cockpit.

I rapidly got dresses, still half asleep and half wondering how I had fallen asleep in the first place. Pants, top, vest, socks, Maltian army boots (Don't ask..), all set. 'Fix that hair of yours too. This ain't johny downtown we're meeting'. Right. Quick fix, done. 'Meet me by the bay doors when you're ready, and get a damned move on'. I had no idea what had gotten into Julie, but she was either pissed or in a rush. I ran towards the lower deck and caught a glimpse of a big ship with escorts through the HUD-Screen. A prison liner...A prison liner of all things, along with a few Wrath's as escort. A prison liner...I know I had seen it before, somewhere in the Omicrons.

'Here atlast then?', Julie said as the doors slid open. Four armed men, Rheinland Militairy perhaps, were standing by the sides. 'You two, follow me' one commanded. He led us off the landing pad into a dark hallway. The doors slid close behind us and two guards left behind to stand guard by it. A shiver went down my spine. Nothing that lives in a place this dark can be much good, right? I turned and looked up at Julie. She was confident, perhaps abit tense but didn't seem to be bothered by the things that bugged me.

We walked for a few minutes past halls which could have previously been prison cells, row upon row going up several levels. We climbed one final staircase until we reached a room with four armoured guards infront of it. Two against the wall, two against the door itself. This must have been it I thought. The doors opened. 'Proceed inside' one of the guards said.

The doors slid close behind us. It was a relitively small room. 3 chairs and a desk, a few plants in the corners and a painting up on the back wall. Sitting across from us was what seemed to be a man, shrouded in smoke and darkness. He spoke to us. 'Sit, ladies.' And so we did. I was abit freigthened myself, my hands shook and I started to sweat. I looked once more at Julie who looked cold to the core. Hard, stern, confident. She grabbed a datapad out of her pocket and slid it across the desk to the man. He put out his cigar, grabbed his own datapad from ontop a pile of paper and slid it towards Julie. 'One for you, one for me. That's how we do that. I hope to hear from you soon, Miss Marshall.' He nodded at Julie, and looked towards me. 'Miss Geocer, I thank you for coming. I'm...Positive...That we shall meet again'. Still holding my breath, I nodded and smiled. The best I could come up with. Julie stood up, lowered her head and walked out of the room. I followed her half, still looking at the shrouded man as if he were a threat to be constantly watched, like a predator in the grass.

We walked back towards the Behemoth in rapid pace and in full silence. The guards were still in position and seemed to ignore us as we walked back into our ship and took off. 'Here, hold onto this. I need to do a few things down below.' Julie said and she threw the just recieved datapad at me. Almost dropping it, I sat down on the already familliar couch and slid the pad open. It confused me to no end.

---

[Exile]

9 hours later

After ripping the datapad out of my hand and yelling at me not to open things like that again, Julie told me to hit the sack once more. She sure likes her peace and quiet...I wonder if she ever sleeps herself...Anyway, we're supposed to do something in the Freeport in Magellan. Something about our Behemoth and some sort of cell? I don't know for sure.

'Lily, with me.' Julie practicly stormed out of the Cargo bay and onto the landing pad of the Freeport. 'We're meeting our contact again. You know, the one who supplied us with this heap of scrap'. She looked at the Behemoth and banged it on its hull. 'Don't tell me we have to...' 'Give this up?' Julie interupted me before I could finish. 'Most probaply for now yes. Or just leave it here, I don't know. We'll find out. Follow me'.

We walked into a small bar located in the upper tower somewhere. It was dark and damp, filled with smoke and drunk men and women. 'You guessed it, drunkmanland', Julie said to me. 'There he is, c'mon.' She signaled to a four chair table with just one man occupying it. He wore a hat, the kind you see in poor detective films and had a cigarette bungling out of his right mouth corner. He seemed to be reading the Sirius Neural Net News. Godda do something, no? We sat down ourselves down and he slid his datapad close. 'Is it here?', He asked. Julie responded with a simple 'Yes, it is'. He grabbed two keysticks out of his pocket and gave them to Julie. 'Then these are yours. I'll be taking the Behemoth back with me. Once you're done you fly straight to Riviera. I'll meet you again there.' He put out his cigarette and gave his hat a tap. 'Good day, Ladies.' In a quick fling I said something. 'Be carefull...I sort of like that ship...'. I don't know why I said it, but I started to blush heavily. I could feel Julie looking at me. Thank god the man smiled and awnsered me. 'Naturaly. Not a scratch.' He left the bar, knocking two drunks off him as he left the room of smoke and stink. We waited a few minutes then followed together. 'Launch pad...2.'

We entered the pad and the lights flickered on one by one. As expected, there were two ships. A zoner Gunboat and an Eagle. We could have easily fit aboard the gunboat together, so why the Eagle I had no clue. 'Take the 'boat Lily, it should have some provisions and a room or two should things go wrong. Easier to live in and get to Riviera in.' 'Incase things go wrong?'. I replied. 'Get in, launch, and I'll explain it while we're on our way.'

Five minutes into space. Julie started to speak over the communications channel. 'Right. We're meeting a bloke called Robert Crompton. Apperantly, he has a Nomad powercell on offer and we've just won the bidding. We're supposed to meet him in Kansas in the middle of the Asteroid field behind that blue planet. I've got one of my...Old friends waiting closeby. A-912. Alexander Brandon. Shouldn't be a problem'. 'What, wait, you're going to kill him?' 'Kill him? Not if he just gives the thing up. If he tries to run, however...Well, you know. You just keep flying that thing and play along.'

Half an hour later

'Right. Wait here Lily. He should arrive any moment now.' I looked through my rather large windows into the beauty of the Kansas system. It was weird...Something made this system look so...Beautyful. Like an itch in the back of your head telling you how to think. The sun's rays were reflected off the blue planet infront of us and Illuminated the entire asteroid field. Quite a catching sight. And then, infront of me, far, far away was another sight to behold...A redish blue nebula (How that works, I have no idea.) Mirrored by a black matter cloud to the top right of me. Gorgeous, truly.

'Wakey wakey beautiful, here's our man.' Julie woke me up out of my dream and dragged me back into reality. 'Brandon, you know where we are, get your ass in gear.' A man's voice spoke through the communications channel. Probaply her contact. 'On my way.'

Two ships approached, first a Liberty Defender and then a civillian eagle. 'Right, get ready people' Julie said firmly over the communications channel. The Eagle stopped and quickly our three ships formed a small circle around him. Julie started to talk. 'Right Mr.Crompton, I think you have something that belongs to us...'.

The conversation lasted for quite some time, and occasionaly Brandon and I would jump in. Julie seemed determined to get information out of him. How he obtained the cell, where he got it and from who, who he works for and any other potential bidders that tried to obtain the cell. Crompton seemed reluctant to give her any awnsers, and wanted to complete the...Transaction as soon as possible. After a while, Julie decided that she had heard enough and came to action. 'Right Mr.Crompton, I'm going to give you...Two options. Either drop the cell and walk away alive, or we take it from you.' He tried to talk his way out of it, but failed at doing so. Julie got somewhat more...Agressive. 'Last chance. Drop the cell, or die for the cell. Your call...'
'Alright, alright alright! Crazy bitch...Might just actually do it huh...' He replied. Julie laughed as the man ejected a container out of the bottom of his ship. I was told to tractor it. 'Right then. Thank you for your cooporation in this matter. The Liberty Navy assures you that the parcel will be handled appropriatly. Now keep it quiet, or we know where to find you.' Brandon said. And with that, we were off. 'Back to the freeport people. Lily, check on the cell. I'll keep an eye open.'

I walked into the cargo hold of the gunboat and saw a square box sitting in the tractorbeam compartment. I pulled it out of the compartment and placed it on the floor. What I saw when I opened is is something I'll never forget...



It was a round object, a Sphere with circling around it some form of light or lightning. The entire inside of the box was covered in black. How this works, I have no clue. But it also seemed to have a strange effect on me. I felt...Relaxed but strong. Powerfull and mighty. As if some one has just rebooted all your organs and added synthetic muscles. For a second I thought about picking it up. My hands were almost around them when I heard Julie's voice over the comm. It shook me awake. Again. 'Well? How does it look? Did we get it right?' 'I...I think we have'. I described the sphere to her, closed the box and took it back with me to the small bridge.

'Right, now look to your top left. We've seemed to pickup a guest from the nearby system.' Julie said and I did as she said. To the top left was...Something that startled me for a brief moment, but then made me go quiet in awe. It was...One of the masters. A 'Nomad', If you will. 'Looks like that package you got there's pretty important. Lets take it to where it needs to be.' 'And where is that?' I asked. 'Follow it. It knows where we need to take it.' Brandon said. I simply nodded, placed the box on the chair besides me and sat down.
'Lead the way...'

Omicron Alpha. 12 hours later.

We had traveled through Tau. Sigma and Omicron. Liberty and Kusari and had atlast arrived at a place I once called home. Omicron Alpha. More specificly, we had arrived at the burial site of the Outcasts. Where the Spirits we serve watch over our dead. 'Right then...Wait a few moments...' Brandon said. And so we did. What might be simple moments seem like ages in this place. Always has, and always will. 'Luckily', the silence was broken when a ship, a large ship decloacked right infront of us. It was the same prison liner as I had seen before in the Hudson system. 'Right,' Brandon began. 'Here's what you do. Latch the gunboat on to the ship then open the cargo bay doors. There should be some one waiting for you there to take the cell off you. Once they have the cell, get back to us out here.' 'That's 'it' ?' I replied. 'That's it.'

I latched the ship on and with a shaking hand grabbed the box which contained the 'cell'. The 'bay doors opened, and there was indeed some one waiting. Five guards, and a woman. She wore a black robe with red decorations. Her hood made her face nearly invisible. For some reason, it sent a shiver down my spine. Half stumbling and trembling, I approached the woman and placed the box besides her. She picked it up and walked away. Just like that and without a word. Something in the back of my head told me that that...Woman...Wasn't entirely normal, or even Human. The steel doors of the cargo bay slid close and as I sat down in the main chair. The ships let go of eachother, and the prison liner cloacked almost immediatly afterwards. I started to breathe normaly again and relaxed myself. Brandon had seemingly disappeared back to where he came from. Flying a Defender in a place like this...Yeah, bad idea. Julie hailed me over the comm channel. 'Lets head for Freeport nine. A drink couldn't hurt'.

Indeed it couldn't.

---

[Exile]

Planet Larees orbit, one week later.

'Riviera approach, this is C-031 requesting permission to land, over'
'Standby C-031...Roger that C-031, you're cleared to land, over.'
'Roger that Riviera approach, C-031 out. ' Julie flipped the communications off and opened the system's map.



'Riviera Riviera Riviera...There we go. Lily, open up the door. Don't want to hit this Behemoth's pretty face against a solid platinum wall now do we.' I turned my chair and faced one of the smaller consoles to the right side of the HUD. All these buttons; I'm glad I only had to press one or two. 'Door's opened,' I somewhat proudly told Julie. 'Right then, lets get in there.'

The Behemoth flew past glaciers and mountains of ice. A blizzard raged harder than any I had seen on New Berlin. We flew into something what seemed like an ice crack and dove the Behemoth deep into the layer of ice covering the entire planet untill we came to a sudden standstill. A few moments later I heard the might Bam of the doors that closed shut behind me. The blizzard faded away, and the entry port of Riviera revealed itself.

'Welcome back, C-031, C-032. The tram's on standby.' Some one said on the local. 'Thanks James, its good to be back. ' Julie awnsered. 'James?' I asked. 'I'll tell you when we're nice and cozy here. Land this scrapheap, would you.'

---

[Exile]

Couple of hours later

*Oof*. Julie ploffed down on her couch. 'Aah..This feels good. So..So..Good. Lil, sit. Make yourself comfortable.' I walked inside and sat (somewhat uncomfortably) down on one of the chairs. Julie walked out of the room and I started to look around me. Living room, small kitchen, Intranet connection, Wide-vision set and a simple dubble bed. Top of the line stuff, all in a style which quite appealed to me. Libertonian Marine blue with black coushins and sheets. 'Lil, want something to drink? I know I'm getting some.' 'Uhm, yeah, sure.' Julie took about half a minute and then returned with two small glasses and a bottle of...Something. 'Here you go. My own recipe. Head backwards, and all in once.' Julie lifted up her head and poored the drink down in one go. Her face cramped together and she hit her chest once or twice. 'Aargh, now you!' I figured, 'Heh, what the hell. She did it'. And threw the liqour down my throat.

In a second, I jumped up and started beating my chest like a madman. God it hurt. I stood there waving my hands infront of my mouth and beating my chest for a few more seconds. Julie had already bursted out in laugther and was just about to die when I coughed 'Not funny'. 'Hah, definatly funny. Tell you what, you go to your own place. I'll hop by later and we'll talk. For now though, I think Imma hit the sack.

Fifteen minutes later

-Swoosh-. The doors slid open. I stepped inside and the lights flickered on. The place looked (as to be expected) about the same as Julies. A small living room with a couch, a table, and on either sides of the table a chair. A small kitchen with a counter, an oven and a simple microwave. An intranet connection in the corner linking to the Wide-screen set. The bed looked awefuly attractive, and my body took the liberty of making the choice for me.

Clothes out, sheets up, lights dimmed.

---

[Exile]

'Lily! Get your ass in gear damnit. Riviera has a visitor.' 'Ungh..You, what...Who?' I slowly muttered whilst waking up in reply to Julie's commands. ' I tried to open my eyes, but just couldn't pull it off. I wanted to return to sleep but instead was violently awakened by Julie kicking me out of the bed. 'I told you to get your ass in gear! Get dressed, clean up and meet me outside in five.' In my mind I sighed, somehow this ment alot to Julie. I opened my new wardrobe and randomly picked something. (Which didn't realy matter. That's what you get when all uniforms are the same.) Afterwards, i quickly sprankled some water in my face, looked at the mirror and decided 'Ah what the hell, ain't worth it'. I walked outside with my half awake head and heard Julie sigh in disapproval. 'It'll have to do. Lets go.'

Hallway, turn, hallway, long hallway, turn, ship arrival and departure. The corridor was filled with people, mostly young men. Trainees, probaply. 'What's all the fuss about?' I asked Julie. 'That's what all the fuss' about.' She pointed towards the opening hangar doors. A Rhino flew in, touched down and opened its bay doors. Everyone grew excited by the sound of stilleto heels touching the alloyed floor. Tk. Tk. Tk. Tk.

People started to gasp at the sight of a woman stepping out of the Rhino. She looked young, in her mid twenties. She wore pitchblack sunglasses (Why you'd need that in an underground installation on an ice planet, I wouldn't know.) and had seemingly more time in her hair invested than I had. 'Oracle Karena', Julie said.

---

[Exile]

Two days later, 22:34 PM GAT

Swoosh. The doors to Julie's quarters slid open. The place was slightly limunated. Most of the light seemed to come from a large screen with Julie infront of it. Her head was lowered and her hands were sliding through her hair non stop. The kind of action you'd expect from some one greatly, greatly confused.

'Julie?' A silence filled the air, no responce. 'Julie!' I quietly shouted across the room. She jumped up, obviously didn't know I was there. 'W-w-what, door, wha-'. 'You left it unlocked...'. She seemed confused, alot. She didn't look like the strong ex-military woman I have flown and worked with the past weeks. More like a confused paranoi schizofrenia patient. She looked at me for a few seconds, then ploffed down on her perfectly made bed. I walked into the room and sat down next to her. 'Julie..What..Wh-..Are you alright?'

---

[Exile]

16 months since the last check. Planet New London, Bretonia. Current time and date unkown

I haven't heard from Julie ever since I departed from Liberty. She said she'd hook up with some kind of group or another. Don't know for sure. Haven't heard from that Libertonian guy I met a while ago in ages, either. Undercover? Dead? Ignoring the rest of us? Wouldn't know. As for home? Well, they've been quiet too. Just sent me out here and told me to 'wait'. Well, wait I did.

I waited for nearly a year and a half in this war-focused realm. You'd think New London doesn't have any poor quarters or the likes when you look at it from orbit, right? Guess again. It's where they put me : Province 21, District 69, Block 12. Basic thing really. Water, check. (Pure water was another thing on it's own) Plumbing, check. Wide-screen connection, semi check. (It liked to kill it's own connection on occasion, fun fun. ) Intra/Extra-net, check. Though limited. Mostly propaganda. A job? Not so much. Every man woman and child was on the market around this place. Working for the lowest wages with the crappiest hours. Sure, they sent me off with -some- from of international credit, but barely enough for this place and one's normal quantity of food. What'd I do?

I stole, ran, hid, and stole again. Soon I found myself running errands for even worse low-lives. Drug dealers, major thieves, and the occasional preparations in case somebody had to make some one else disappear. Shady stuff. Unclean stuff. Things I wasn't proud off. Things that didn't work out.

It paid fine for a while. Enough to come by and the occasional 'treat'. Never really saved much, so all that did come in went out before you could blink. But where did it bring me? How did it end? Well, as a lackey of the underworld, you're bound to get busted. Even quicker when you're sold out.



So... Now I'm here. District 69's prison. Cold, damp, barbaric. A poor prison in a poor quarter in a world concerned with war. For how long now? Well, let's just say that I lost track of time quite a while ago, with still ages to go... My charges? Petty theft, major theft. Accomplice at murder. Planning to murder some one, and armed robbery. 24 hours of sitting in a cell, looking at the floor, the ceiling, or my chains. (Told you, barbaric.) Occasionally I get up and practice some martial arts. Note, practice. But that's only on the 'good' days. What are the bad days then, you ask? Staring at the floor, thinking of the outside. All those worlds, all those peoples. The things happening and the things I could be doing. Then again, 'Wait', they said.

Wait.

---

[Exile]

Two weeks after the last check. Planet New London, Bretonia. Current time and date unkown
Another two weeks had passed. I kept track of time by the most basic way of them all ; scratching the wall with my nails, trying to create a row of stripes. One for each day. Did it help? For my sanity it did, yes. Besides that it had no real purpose. Around here, if you get thrown in jail you should make sure to enjoy that last ray of sunlight, because that'll be the last bit you'll see in your entire life. A country involved in a war like Bretonia's doesn't seem to care about what goes on when it comes to the really poor districts. Bad plumbing, worse drinking water and the worst food.

Then, after a while they put some one into the cell next to you. You think : "Hey, finally some one to keep me sane." But no. A woman who's lost her own sanity can't really help yours stay in one place. Immediately after they literary threw her into her cell she started rambling, shouting, pacing. Grabbing at her head as if something was stuck inside. I hung out of the bars and asked the guard who she was. After a pleasant spit in the face, I got my answer. "Christiana Homewood". Some one who apparently used to be a top-notch researcher over in Newcastle. She started behaving strange over the course of the last 4 weeks, until she just burst out and killed her colleges two days ago. Seven deaths, all from sever lacerations and stabbing wounds. Not like she was going to be any harm to me. 5 inch thick bars between her and me, plus the only thing that she had were the clothes on her back and, strangely enough, a stylus. Hidden in her boot. The guard seemed to know but I don't think he cared enough about it to remove it. She was jailed, that's enough to earn his paycheck.

After that same guard had left without inflicting any physical "damage" to anyone for once, I watched the woman called Christiana for a while. She sort of just paced around rambling for a few hours before I decided it wasn't worth staying awake for, and closed my eyes.

After a night of dreaming about what once used to be my home, a time I was free and not screwed over (sigh), I woke up to a rather peculiar next-door cell. Christiana had fallen asleep, crawled up into a corner and closed her eyes. But the walls, the walls was an entirely new story. The walls were covered from top to bottom in writings, schematics I could barely read any of it due to her astounding handwriting. Just as I was about to give up, declaring it all gibberish, I found something in the top left of the wall right in front of me that caught my eye. They even made my stomach do a little three hundred and sixty degrees spin upon seeing them. I had seen these before ; on the artifacts used to train us on Riviera, in the transmission windows of the other operatives... I knew these symbols. It was the writing of my "associates".

---

[Exile]

12 hours later.

A series of hard boots running down the stairs and into our cell block awoke me from my dreams. I tried to ignore it, tried to fall asleep again, but the sound kept getting louder and louder, nearer and nearer. I started hearing a man shout after several more seconds, "Move, move move! Clean and quick, three minutes in and out!" I stood up and moved towards the back of my cell, away from the lighting and into the dark. If they were coming for some one in this cell block, I did not want to be noticed, even though I probably became nothing more than a memory to the outside, you always remain a target when you live a life like mine.

A few more seconds of loud footsteps passed before the barred door to our block opened up. Four men, armed with assault rifles and pistols entered the block. The same voice as before spoke again, coming from a man somewhere in his late 40's. "Daniels, Cambridge you deal with the one on the left. Anderson and I will secure the subject and dispose of the evidence". "The one on the left" I thought to myself. Seeing as there were only two people in this whole block, that had to be me.

As I thought, the two men under the command of the other approached my cell door and opened it with the key, of all things. The strangest thing of all was not that they opened it whilst being armed to the teeth, but that they opened it with the key. Meaning that the guard either knew about what was about to go down in this cell block, or they acquired it through less than healthy means..
They opened my cell door and signaled me to approach them, not a word out of their mouths, just hand gestures. After a second of fear I stood up and approached them. As I moved towards them I could see what went down in the other cell next to me. The older man spoke to the inmate for a few seconds who started to scream and pace around just as she did when they brought her here. The older man looked at his companion and pointed at the walls and soon after punched the woman in the stomach with the butt of his assault rifle.

What happened next I did not see. The men who I approached had a similar love for me, it would seem. As I was close enough for them to reach one of them immediately hit me on the side of my head with his pistol after which they other kicked me in the back of my knees, forcing me to the ground. The last thing I heard the older man say was : "Take her out of here. Daniels, one minute. Make it quick". The man who had hit me on the side of the head nodded, signaling at the other in my cell who took out his pistol.



I could barely see what was going on ; the pain in my head was excruciating, dulling my eyes and ears, but I saw enough. I tried to get up, to make a run for the open cell door. The one holding the pistol laughed and gave me another punch, this time in the gut. I fell to the ground gasping for air whilst he aimed his pistol. The last thing I could do was to look him in the eyes and straight into the barrel aimed at my forehead. There was no compassion in those eyes, no remorse. Nothing.

His finger slowly started to squeeze the trigger, a final sadistic smile on his face met by a tear on mine, and then blackness.

---