Void Emissary

IC: "You're a wicked, wicked man, Rungui," Dal said, taking in the sight of the requisition order. "I'm glad we're on the same side." -Void

IC: Sulov hunches. Moreso than usual? Possibly. Maybe it's just from the cold. His footsteps are heavy on the icy ground, each one feeling for any earth that might have found its way into the snow and stone of Ko-Koro, anything that he might be able to tap into for the coming fight. Without Korero to extract them, without Oreius to break the line -- without Reordin -- they would be at a disadvantage already against the Piraka. Focus. Strategies. A voice in Sulov's head. Felt in his bones. Like his own voice, but deeper. Rich like loam. Don't spiral. Reach out. Solidify. To which Sulov would say, Easier said than done, but to which he actually says: "So, what's the plan?" -Void

IC: Rungui "...Close," Rungui admitted mildly. "His name's Dalrodie." OOC: What a rollercoaster of papers this semester has been. OOC: Same, mate. Same. IC: "And did he use to be a dull roadie?" Honest to God, he hadn't planned to make that joke. It had just slipped out. -Void

OOC: Really sorry about the (very) late reply. College got the better of me. IC: "And you, for today, anyway," Gwen said, strolling over to Hassan and bopping him, lightly, on the shoulder. "Come on, let's get this show on the road. Can you get in the cockpit for me?" -Void

IC: "Not just that," she said. "It's Kimberly, bro. You can see where the letters were right here, y'see?" Her fingers tapped against the chipped paint. "Who's Kimberly? Was it the pilot's name? Was it their mother's? Sister's? Girlfriend's? Daughter's? Was it a name they read in a book somewhere that they couldn't forget? The name of a great-great-grandmother on their uncle's side that they heard stories about growing up?" She laid a hand against the cold metal plating. "I don't know. But whatever they named this mech after meant something to them. Because this mech means something to them. It'll be their best friend out in the field, out in the fray. They'll be closer to this Scout than they might be to their actual best friend. Know it more intimately than a lover. It'll be their lifeline, their rock, and their only hope when push comes to shove and they're staring down the barrel of an Ark Union gun." "What you see here, Hassan," Gwen said, "is someone's life. And it's in our hands right now." -Void

IC: "One of Echelon's elite," Nika said, setting the scope back into the gun's case. Still crouched, he shuffled over and away from the window before he stood up again, pushing his chest out and rolling his shoulders back until he could feel the cracks. "Saw him in action. Back when we were getting Korzaa out of the Sanctum. Toa of Iron, from the looks of it, and a good one at that. Fought circles around another Toa of Iron without even breaking a sweat." He sniffed. "Never seen his mask anywhere else before, so I'm making a guess that he got it from the same place Echelon's getting his ... what was it called again? Antidermis?" One hand held his case. The other slipped into his coat's pocket. "Fight's too chaotic for me to get a clean shot at the Maru's opponent. Could end with us giving ourselves away too soon," he said. Even in the dark, Pae could see the crook of a bitter grin. "There's another one of Echelon's mooks, though. Saw her with our mystery fighter in the Sanctum, before. Toa or Lesterin or something like that. Has a thing for flowers. Bugs seem to have a thing for her, too. Think she controls them, somehow. She hasn't done anything yet. Just watched the two of them." -Void

IC: Gwen grinned. ~ ~ ~ The Scout stood with its arms outspread, held up by winches and supported under catwalks, looking to embrace the world like Jesus on that crucifix. Its armour was burnished copper, and along the right flank was a vertical spattering of red paint chips: an outline of an echo of a name. Kimberly. Gwen traced a finger along the letters. Tapped against the K twice. Whistled low. "What do you see here, Hassan?" -Void

IC: "Cultists. City held hostage. Undercover work," Nika said, looking back at the building Pae had suggested. "Never been in a situation like this. A second opinion wouldn't be too bad." The corner of his mouth twitched upwards and his chin jerked downwards for a moment before he started walking over to the two-storey. His figure was a shadow in the frozen night, black against the meagre starlight. The sky was dark save for those lights, the perfect night for a sniper and a sniper down among the enemy to boot. The door to the two-storey was wooden, splintered, half-hung from its bottom hinges like a man lurching from inside. One hand on his knife, Nika pulled it open, wincing as the twisted steel of the hinges whined in the silence of the night. But nothing came out at them. No killers, no survivors, no Rahi scrabbling amongst the ruins. The Vortixx grunted softly. Echelon had done a good job here. Nothing left but darkness. The two of them were on the second storey. Nika crouched by one of the windows, scope in one hand up to his eye. "Looks like a fight," he said. "People circling around something. Something burning, something ... oh." The Vortixx let his hand drop to his side. "Oreius Maru is fighting down there." -Void

IC: "Well, just so long as we keep this between us," Gwen said, her grin a sideways slant as she pushed open the steel double doors. The hangar ceiling was a sky full of sparks spilling out from mechs, those vast shapes leered over by the dark spots of engineers and mechanics and pilots fussing about when they would be Walker-bound again. Scissor lifts and cranes rose and poked at the battle machines like parents helping a child, until the machines and the machinery seemed to blend into one whole. The din of power drills, saws, welders, lifts, hydraulics, shouts and hollers and orders from up-top to the overseers, from the overseers to the engineers, from the engineers to the pilots. Gwen walked through it all. "--servo Three-Six-Nine-Eight by thirty degrees!" "--repulsers at five-and-a-half percent!" "--I said absorbers, not distributors you godda--" "Talal! Hey, Talal!" The heavy thump of boots on concrete and Rook was on her left, already pushing a clipboard into her hands. "Three Scouts looking for a re-jig," he said, voice flat and sharp. "Clear out the servos, streamline the hydraulics, make 'em sing. You can do that? Good? Good." And he was gone again, disappearing into the din. Gwen, for her part, just started flipping through the pages. "A'right then, Hassan," she said. "Ready to see the magic happen?" -Void

IC: A flicker of thought is all it takes for this mercenary's location to be loaded into the Kimi. Even if Leah and Stannis fail to find the truth here themselves (unlikely), they can still trace him back to Echelon. Back to the hostages. Sulov is not taking any chances. Not now. -Void

IC: "I guess that's why they pay me the big bucks, then," Gwen said, pushing her hair out of her face with one hand. "But it's a cinch once you get some practice into it. I can show you a few tricks of the trade if you'd like. De-mystify the mystique, if you will." -Void

IC: The suitcase clunked out of Nika's knapsack louder than he had hoped it would. He cast a glance about him, an automatic response that didn't care whether Pae was supposed to be keeping an eye out, but couldn't see anything in the darkness. He turned his head and looked back at the Sanctum. No, no, there was enough light there for something to be seen. Good. Any closer, and the two of them would have to come up with a cover story, preferably (given their dispositions) one containing a maximum of six words. He popped open the suitcase. Dull orange and gunmetal. He took out a small cylinder -- a sniper's nothing without his scope -- and put it to his eye. "Some kind of ring," Nika said. "They've gathered around in a circle. People moving around in it. Looks like a fight. Having trouble making out who, though." He took the scope away from his eye, stuffed it into his pocket. Stood up. Shut the suitcase, picked it and the bag up with one hand each and held the bag out to Pae. "Take this," he said. "We need to get higher. A secure vantage point. Suggestions on a location?" -Void

IC: The two of them spent the next few steps in silence. And if there was one thing that Gwen didn't work well in, it was silence. "Ever fix a mech before?" she asked. -Void

IC: "I've already been away from them for way too long," Gwen said, eyes down. "With everything going on, we need all hands on deck, don't we?" -Void

IC: "I may have embellished some details," I said. "But even if I've got misgivings about the snow, I gotta admit that Skri's right. Docks might be dangerous, but if we try another route, we risk taking too long. Losing any element of surprise we might still have. I think we have to go for it." -Void

IC: "Then let's go," Nika said, slipping an arm through the other strap of his knapsack. The two of them stepped out into cold night. Even by Ko-Koro's standards, their trip through the streets was a silent one. Every few steps, Nika felt the compulsion to turn his head and make sure that Pae hadn't dropped dead next to him and he just hadn't noticed anything yet. In fact, by the time the two of them got to the source of the disturbance, the sheer absolute quality of their mutual silence had pushed Nika to the notion that they could probably pass themselves off as one of the Necromancer's zombies and no one would be able to tell the slightest bit of difference. Did that mean that he still wasn't going to duck behind the closest wall left standing in front of the bridge to the Sanctum before he was seen? Not ###### likely. "Keep watch for me," he said, slipping off his backpack. "Need to find my scope, get a closer look." IC: "You've obviously never seen enemy sentinels disguised as snowmen before." -Void

IC: "I'm a sniper," Nika said, slinging the backpack over one shoulder. "My job is observation from afar. Best suited to this mission." -Void

IC: "I've seen weirder things on this island." IC: "Yeah," Nika said, already on his feet, reaching for his bag. "I can check it out." -Void

IC: "It's ... it's Dal, isn't it?" he said. "Or ... no, God, wait. It's Rungui, isn't it? It's one of our names, and you're never gonna let me live down the fact that I didn't know someone who has one of our names." -Void

IC: "Haven't been following it much," Gwen admitted. "I've really been way too busy with the mechs." -Void

IC: "Glad to hear, Pae," Nika said, fitting the canteen back onto his belt. "Want the chair, then, Jin?" IC: "It was right after the terrorist attack, back with the ILF. Or, was it the ILS back then? No idea. Anyway," I said, "these Shadow Whatever folks had grabbed some hostages and we ended up in the longest and coldest stand-off I've ever experienced with them. Only ended because we managed to forge an entire suitcase of widgets for them. Good times." -Void

IC: "To be fair, we weren't at w-- ... well, whatever this is, back then." -Void

IC: "..." -Void

IC: Deep inhale. Deep exhale. The clink of metal on metal, the grind of a screw top lid. Sloshing water. The grind of a screw top. A deep sigh. "Love these talks of ours, Pae." -Void

IC: "I mean, the Walker is the engineering revolution of the century," Gwen said. "And considering the military's the only place that you'll find them.... Well, 'If you build it, they will come,' you know?" -Void