palacesound
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Feels like this is gonna end with Rapi and Joe being the last ones standing in a bombed out plant.
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Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)
- Thread starter BakaSmurf
- Start date
SongNai145
Not too sore, are you?
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Man as you delve deeper into the story of Nikke, you realize that just everyone sucks. It's a sink or swim situation and everyone gets the deep end without a paddle. I'm happy you changed things up from the game, let's see how they get away and the shit storm Joe is gonna start when he gets back.
Chapter 18 - A Calculated Risk
BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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===
Chapter 18 - A Calculated Risk
===
Nikkes can survive being reduced to a brain. Anis isn't dead. She isn't dead. There's still a chance. Don't fail her too, don't fail her too, don't fail her too.
Reaching out and scooping up the shockingly heavy disembodied head of the blonde grenadier, Joe's brows knit together as he immediately called out; "Neon! Set off the explosives you set up in the immediate hallway we took to get here!"
"BADA-BOOM-" Neon replied immediately, and she was just as immediately cut off by a deceptively muted thump-boom, as well as a shockwave which washed over Joe's form - his digital ear protection activating to shield his hearing. The Raptures were startled by the unexpected explosion, scurrying back in some degree of surprise, giving the three still-standing combatants just a moment of breathing room.
"Neon, take point back down the hall!" Joe ordered the white-clad Nikke, clutching Anis' head close to his chest as he directed the silver-haired shotgunner into the scorched hallway riddled with now-obliterated Raptures. "Destroy anything still moving! Rapi, take up the rear and cover our retreat!"
"Yes Commander!" Rapi was quick to obey, even as Neon had scooped up Anis' grenade launcher, hooked the shoulder strap across her chest, and ran in without missing a beat. With shocking mechanical precision, Neon fired, outright single-handed with the stock of her shotgun pulled back into her shoulder, one burst of buckshot which would have turned any actual deer into a fine red mist, followed by loading a fresh shell into the shotgun which - despite having a pump-action foregrip, functioned as a semi-auto just fine; not unlike an old-school SPAS-12. This she repeated like clockwork; her skill at keeping her weapon topped-off mid-firefight wasn't to be understated. It was to the point that Joe wondered if having a mag-fed shotgun would actually be a detriment to her.
What few Raptures had survived the daisy-chained explosives that lined that particular hallway didn't last much longer, needless to say. Abandoning what little remained of Anis' body without a second thought, the stunted squad rushed forth, cleaving a path back to the passage they'd used to enter the building in the first place.
"Neon, detonate any explosives the Raptures pass near! Time it for maximum effect!" Joe commanded the shotgunner, holding tight onto Anis' head as Rapi continued firing upon the Raptures attempting to rush them from behind.
"Boo-yeah!" Neon cheered, advancing without any degree of hesitation as explosives went off ahead of her - the flow of Raptures actually beginning to slow from both directions. While Neon was seemingly starting to give the advancing Raptures reason to pause and rethink their strategy, Rapi was striking down their pursuers with obscenely efficient precision. Such precision that their bodies, largely intact with no more than two or three assault rifle bullets embedded in their destroyed cores, were starting to block off the hall and make it difficult for more of the extraterrestrial horrors to force their way past their fallen fellows in pursuit.
Where Neon was mechanically keeping her shotgun topped off with skill and speed that the average human could only dream of achieving, Rapi was so attuned with her rifle that she always - with preternatural dexterity - reloaded when the magazine itself was empty, but with a single round left in the chamber. Meaning she never had to manually re-chamber the gun between dropped mags, shaving precious seconds off of every inhumanly rapid reload.
The Raptures might have had numbers, but Neon and Rapi were machines, monstrously skilled in their area of expertise, and said Raptures were being forced to attempt funnelling themselves towards them - into a position which, while perilous as all Hell - was currently working in their favour. The Rapture's greater numbers, when forced to file in at them one at a time, didn't amount to shit.
But they weren't holding this hallway. They were pushing through it. A number of passages ahead of them they'd clear of the worst of the Raptures with Neon's previously set-up bombs, then they'd continue forcing their way through as Neon and Rapi demonstrated that Elysion Nikkes were respected for a reason. Pressing on, they gradually got closer and closer to their target - though, Joe had to admit, that was when things were going to get dicey. They couldn't actually take the drainage pipe back out now that they had Raptures on their asses, meaning they had to press on to one of the power station's proper exits, past the maintenance room. Meaning they'd only be able to rely on Neon's bombs for so long…
Taking out as many of the local Raptures as they could on the way was the only real hope they had. So, that was what they'd do…
With a blink, a single idle thought landed in Joe's mind before pressing on without dwelling on it; Neon and Rapi were doing so well that the Raptures were barely even managing to get into position to take shots at them.
Continuing to move, Rapi was the first to call attention to something Joe couldn't have yet noticed with his so very limited human form. "The ground is tremoring, consistently, and it's only increasing in strength with each passing moment!"
"I feel it too!" Neon called back, blowing a hole in the core of a Rapture ravaged by an explosion. "Something big is coming right at us, Commander!"
"A Tyrant?" Joe pondered aloud, the Blacksmith coming to mind once again, idly recalling how the ground had shaken beneath that monster's crab-like appendages.
"Not much else that gets that big!" Neon declared. "I don't think it has feet, though!"
"It's a constant rumble, not a rhythmic thumping," Rapi asserted as she reloaded her rifle. "Whatever it is, we don't want to be here when it-"
Realization, then a beat followed as Rapi's eyes went wide. She cried out, pointlessly, as even Joe felt the ground shaking beneath them at that point. "It's here-!"
A crash that would have been deafening if not for his ear protection announced everything ahead of them seeming to explode.
At once, before he'd recovered, Joe was being bodily dragged back the way they'd come by his collar, and still clinging to Anis' head with a death grip, he was met with the sight of a truly nightmarish maw coming right at them. Taking up the entire height and width of the hallway, many hundreds of industrial crushing teeth spun atop drills, drawing materials into a mechanical throat which took the heavy-duty concrete that made up the building and chewed it up into dust in seconds. If any of them were caught in that thing's mouth-
"Commander!" Joe heard Rapi's voice - muffled by his digital ear protection struggling to keep up with the sheer noise the giant Rapture made and let in her voice at the same time. "That Tyrant - it's Gravedigger!"
Gravedigger- the fucking Tyrant that was supposed to spend every hour of every day trying to find the Ark digging tunnels in random directions? It had tunnelled up to chase down them in particular!? Jesus tap-dancing Christ, what in the actual fuck was their luck!?
Glancing back over his shoulder, Joe saw that it was Neon dragging him along, Rapi clearing the path back the way they'd come, as it actually seemed like she'd taken out all that had been chasing them. It was nonetheless looking intensely bad, and-
"Neon!" Joe called out as the thought occurred to him - the building-dropping explosive that the Gravedigger would have been basically rubbing up against now. "Detonate the rest of the explosives! All of them-!"
The following boom actually knocked everyone over - Joe's face slammed into Neon's backside as she pratfell onto her own face, while Rapi caught herself in a three-point landing, immediately spinning about and raising her rifle. With a mag dump, a mechanical scream emerged from behind the Commander.
Clambering to his feet and futility, given her extreme weight, attempting to help Neon up, all the while never losing his death grip on Anis' head, Joe looked back to see that the rest of the explosives had messed up Gravedigger something fierce - to say nothing of Rapi hammering at its core, stupidly located right there at the tip of its worm-like body. Thirty bullets, followed by a grenade propelled from Rapi's underslung launcher.
The Tyrant actually reared back in what seemed to be pain - screaming as the building partially collapsed around it.
"Neon! Anis' launcher!" Joe Commanded the smallest of the present Nikkes. "Fucking unload it at the bastard's core! Fire!" He dramatically pointed at the Rapture's sinister glowing red heart.
"Eat!" Neon proclaimed as she rolled over, readying the multi-launcher down the length of her torso, "This!"
The following cascade of booms knocked Joe right back on his ass, and the scream put all which came before to shame.
Then, the great mechanical worm's cry pitched down, weakened as fire and sparks burst from its head, entire chunks fell from it with a series of crashes, and…
It slumped down, sputtered one last time, and its shattered core rapidly dimmed and fell dark.
Then, silence.
Several moments passed, Joe's head whipping around as Neon and Rapi remained low and ready… and Rapi let out a heavy sigh. "Scanning… Commander…" She made eye contact with Joe, a minute smile finding purchase on her ruby-red lips. "Area clear…" She glanced up, at a miraculously still powered lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. "And the power station is still operational-"
"WE ZEROED A TYRANT!" Neon screamed as she gracelessly scrambled to her feet, and immediately started dancing. "Now that's what I call worm food! S-rank! Supreme Victory! We did it! We did it~! We di-i-id it~! Fi-re-po-wer, oowa-oowa~! Fi-re-po-wer, oowa-oowa~!" The white-haired shorty cried out as she inelegantly swayed her hips to-and-fro, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she leaned over at a damn near ninety-degree angle, Rapi staring at her like she'd declared herself to be a giant marmoset. Joe still protectively, and vacantly clinging to Anis' disembodied head, all the while. "Fi-re-po-wer, oowa-oowa~! Fi-re-po-wer-"
Ingrid stared blankly at Andersen, back in the man's office within the Ark, who was himself gazing into the ether - fingers digging into his own scalp as he was curled over Shifty's shorthand report of the newly-formed Counters squad's mission to the surface.
"So," the steely-eyed brunette began, arms firmly crossed beneath her chest. "Gravedigger. Upon being deployed on what was officially a glorified scouting mission. After being ambushed and left with just two Nikkes, and the power station itself remaining functional, if not wholly intact afterwards. And no deaths or serious injuries either on top of all of that." Her brows furrowed heavily as her nostrils flared, glowering daggers at the Deputy-Chief Commander. "What was that you'd said about the possibility of the Legendary Commander pulling a miracle out of his ass, again?"
Removing one of his hands from his scalp, Andersen weakly made a halting gesture at Ingrid and replied, "To quote said Legendary Commander: 'the risk I took was calculated; but man, am I bad at math.'"
Chapter 18 - A Calculated Risk
===
Nikkes can survive being reduced to a brain. Anis isn't dead. She isn't dead. There's still a chance. Don't fail her too, don't fail her too, don't fail her too.
Reaching out and scooping up the shockingly heavy disembodied head of the blonde grenadier, Joe's brows knit together as he immediately called out; "Neon! Set off the explosives you set up in the immediate hallway we took to get here!"
"BADA-BOOM-" Neon replied immediately, and she was just as immediately cut off by a deceptively muted thump-boom, as well as a shockwave which washed over Joe's form - his digital ear protection activating to shield his hearing. The Raptures were startled by the unexpected explosion, scurrying back in some degree of surprise, giving the three still-standing combatants just a moment of breathing room.
"Neon, take point back down the hall!" Joe ordered the white-clad Nikke, clutching Anis' head close to his chest as he directed the silver-haired shotgunner into the scorched hallway riddled with now-obliterated Raptures. "Destroy anything still moving! Rapi, take up the rear and cover our retreat!"
"Yes Commander!" Rapi was quick to obey, even as Neon had scooped up Anis' grenade launcher, hooked the shoulder strap across her chest, and ran in without missing a beat. With shocking mechanical precision, Neon fired, outright single-handed with the stock of her shotgun pulled back into her shoulder, one burst of buckshot which would have turned any actual deer into a fine red mist, followed by loading a fresh shell into the shotgun which - despite having a pump-action foregrip, functioned as a semi-auto just fine; not unlike an old-school SPAS-12. This she repeated like clockwork; her skill at keeping her weapon topped-off mid-firefight wasn't to be understated. It was to the point that Joe wondered if having a mag-fed shotgun would actually be a detriment to her.
What few Raptures had survived the daisy-chained explosives that lined that particular hallway didn't last much longer, needless to say. Abandoning what little remained of Anis' body without a second thought, the stunted squad rushed forth, cleaving a path back to the passage they'd used to enter the building in the first place.
"Neon, detonate any explosives the Raptures pass near! Time it for maximum effect!" Joe commanded the shotgunner, holding tight onto Anis' head as Rapi continued firing upon the Raptures attempting to rush them from behind.
"Boo-yeah!" Neon cheered, advancing without any degree of hesitation as explosives went off ahead of her - the flow of Raptures actually beginning to slow from both directions. While Neon was seemingly starting to give the advancing Raptures reason to pause and rethink their strategy, Rapi was striking down their pursuers with obscenely efficient precision. Such precision that their bodies, largely intact with no more than two or three assault rifle bullets embedded in their destroyed cores, were starting to block off the hall and make it difficult for more of the extraterrestrial horrors to force their way past their fallen fellows in pursuit.
Where Neon was mechanically keeping her shotgun topped off with skill and speed that the average human could only dream of achieving, Rapi was so attuned with her rifle that she always - with preternatural dexterity - reloaded when the magazine itself was empty, but with a single round left in the chamber. Meaning she never had to manually re-chamber the gun between dropped mags, shaving precious seconds off of every inhumanly rapid reload.
The Raptures might have had numbers, but Neon and Rapi were machines, monstrously skilled in their area of expertise, and said Raptures were being forced to attempt funnelling themselves towards them - into a position which, while perilous as all Hell - was currently working in their favour. The Rapture's greater numbers, when forced to file in at them one at a time, didn't amount to shit.
But they weren't holding this hallway. They were pushing through it. A number of passages ahead of them they'd clear of the worst of the Raptures with Neon's previously set-up bombs, then they'd continue forcing their way through as Neon and Rapi demonstrated that Elysion Nikkes were respected for a reason. Pressing on, they gradually got closer and closer to their target - though, Joe had to admit, that was when things were going to get dicey. They couldn't actually take the drainage pipe back out now that they had Raptures on their asses, meaning they had to press on to one of the power station's proper exits, past the maintenance room. Meaning they'd only be able to rely on Neon's bombs for so long…
Taking out as many of the local Raptures as they could on the way was the only real hope they had. So, that was what they'd do…
With a blink, a single idle thought landed in Joe's mind before pressing on without dwelling on it; Neon and Rapi were doing so well that the Raptures were barely even managing to get into position to take shots at them.
Continuing to move, Rapi was the first to call attention to something Joe couldn't have yet noticed with his so very limited human form. "The ground is tremoring, consistently, and it's only increasing in strength with each passing moment!"
"I feel it too!" Neon called back, blowing a hole in the core of a Rapture ravaged by an explosion. "Something big is coming right at us, Commander!"
"A Tyrant?" Joe pondered aloud, the Blacksmith coming to mind once again, idly recalling how the ground had shaken beneath that monster's crab-like appendages.
"Not much else that gets that big!" Neon declared. "I don't think it has feet, though!"
"It's a constant rumble, not a rhythmic thumping," Rapi asserted as she reloaded her rifle. "Whatever it is, we don't want to be here when it-"
Realization, then a beat followed as Rapi's eyes went wide. She cried out, pointlessly, as even Joe felt the ground shaking beneath them at that point. "It's here-!"
A crash that would have been deafening if not for his ear protection announced everything ahead of them seeming to explode.
At once, before he'd recovered, Joe was being bodily dragged back the way they'd come by his collar, and still clinging to Anis' head with a death grip, he was met with the sight of a truly nightmarish maw coming right at them. Taking up the entire height and width of the hallway, many hundreds of industrial crushing teeth spun atop drills, drawing materials into a mechanical throat which took the heavy-duty concrete that made up the building and chewed it up into dust in seconds. If any of them were caught in that thing's mouth-
"Commander!" Joe heard Rapi's voice - muffled by his digital ear protection struggling to keep up with the sheer noise the giant Rapture made and let in her voice at the same time. "That Tyrant - it's Gravedigger!"
Gravedigger- the fucking Tyrant that was supposed to spend every hour of every day trying to find the Ark digging tunnels in random directions? It had tunnelled up to chase down them in particular!? Jesus tap-dancing Christ, what in the actual fuck was their luck!?
Glancing back over his shoulder, Joe saw that it was Neon dragging him along, Rapi clearing the path back the way they'd come, as it actually seemed like she'd taken out all that had been chasing them. It was nonetheless looking intensely bad, and-
"Neon!" Joe called out as the thought occurred to him - the building-dropping explosive that the Gravedigger would have been basically rubbing up against now. "Detonate the rest of the explosives! All of them-!"
The following boom actually knocked everyone over - Joe's face slammed into Neon's backside as she pratfell onto her own face, while Rapi caught herself in a three-point landing, immediately spinning about and raising her rifle. With a mag dump, a mechanical scream emerged from behind the Commander.
Clambering to his feet and futility, given her extreme weight, attempting to help Neon up, all the while never losing his death grip on Anis' head, Joe looked back to see that the rest of the explosives had messed up Gravedigger something fierce - to say nothing of Rapi hammering at its core, stupidly located right there at the tip of its worm-like body. Thirty bullets, followed by a grenade propelled from Rapi's underslung launcher.
The Tyrant actually reared back in what seemed to be pain - screaming as the building partially collapsed around it.
"Neon! Anis' launcher!" Joe Commanded the smallest of the present Nikkes. "Fucking unload it at the bastard's core! Fire!" He dramatically pointed at the Rapture's sinister glowing red heart.
"Eat!" Neon proclaimed as she rolled over, readying the multi-launcher down the length of her torso, "This!"
The following cascade of booms knocked Joe right back on his ass, and the scream put all which came before to shame.
Then, the great mechanical worm's cry pitched down, weakened as fire and sparks burst from its head, entire chunks fell from it with a series of crashes, and…
It slumped down, sputtered one last time, and its shattered core rapidly dimmed and fell dark.
Then, silence.
Several moments passed, Joe's head whipping around as Neon and Rapi remained low and ready… and Rapi let out a heavy sigh. "Scanning… Commander…" She made eye contact with Joe, a minute smile finding purchase on her ruby-red lips. "Area clear…" She glanced up, at a miraculously still powered lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. "And the power station is still operational-"
"WE ZEROED A TYRANT!" Neon screamed as she gracelessly scrambled to her feet, and immediately started dancing. "Now that's what I call worm food! S-rank! Supreme Victory! We did it! We did it~! We di-i-id it~! Fi-re-po-wer, oowa-oowa~! Fi-re-po-wer, oowa-oowa~!" The white-haired shorty cried out as she inelegantly swayed her hips to-and-fro, bouncing on the balls of her feet as she leaned over at a damn near ninety-degree angle, Rapi staring at her like she'd declared herself to be a giant marmoset. Joe still protectively, and vacantly clinging to Anis' disembodied head, all the while. "Fi-re-po-wer, oowa-oowa~! Fi-re-po-wer-"
Ingrid stared blankly at Andersen, back in the man's office within the Ark, who was himself gazing into the ether - fingers digging into his own scalp as he was curled over Shifty's shorthand report of the newly-formed Counters squad's mission to the surface.
"So," the steely-eyed brunette began, arms firmly crossed beneath her chest. "Gravedigger. Upon being deployed on what was officially a glorified scouting mission. After being ambushed and left with just two Nikkes, and the power station itself remaining functional, if not wholly intact afterwards. And no deaths or serious injuries either on top of all of that." Her brows furrowed heavily as her nostrils flared, glowering daggers at the Deputy-Chief Commander. "What was that you'd said about the possibility of the Legendary Commander pulling a miracle out of his ass, again?"
Removing one of his hands from his scalp, Andersen weakly made a halting gesture at Ingrid and replied, "To quote said Legendary Commander: 'the risk I took was calculated; but man, am I bad at math.'"
palacesound
Hunt Type Poster
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I mean... if he didn't pull out a miracle from his bottom pocket, he'd be dead, so...
Fragment of Serenity
Yu-Shan's Paperwork Ninja
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Well, Neon providing proof that there truly is NO problem that cannot be solved with sufficient amounts of high explosives. Consider me impressed.
The lack of pelvic thrusts was a bit of a missed opportunity, though. Looks like she's only getting a 8/10 from the Japanese judges.
An interesting path taken. This is most excellent!
The lack of pelvic thrusts was a bit of a missed opportunity, though. Looks like she's only getting a 8/10 from the Japanese judges.
An interesting path taken. This is most excellent!
Queen
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Woo! that was awesome and neon got to blow raptures up with C? and anis Grenade launcher again that was EPIC!! also I can just imagine that victory dance she was doing LOL!
and HA! Anderson and Ingrids reactions am hyped to see what you've got planned next
and HA! Anderson and Ingrids reactions am hyped to see what you've got planned next
Akito_D_Exile
Doctor of Rhodes Island
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- Feb 8, 2021
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Hello there.
Didn't think I'd find this story here of all places.
But, this is a very welcome surprise.
Didn't think I'd find this story here of all places.
But, this is a very welcome surprise.
SongNai145
Not too sore, are you?
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Do you accept omakes because I had a pretty funny imagination about how this can go further and get out of hand
BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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Go ahead if you want to, as long as you keep in mind that this is posted in the SFW section.
Chapter 19 - Tipping the Hand
BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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===
Chapter 19 - Tipping the Hand
===
Sitting in the hallway just outside of Andersen's office, Joe waited patiently - which is to say he was completely zoned out and staring into the void. He wasn't sure how he was still alive. He wasn't sure how everything that had happened, happened. Anis was alive, receiving a new body as he sat, waiting to be called in to speak with Andersen. Rapi and Neon were undergoing repairs, Andersen was-
The door opened, causing Joe to jump in his seat as Andersen stepped out, immediately gesturing for him to enter.
Having no reason to be difficult, the rookie Commander did as instructed, and was quickly sitting in the seat across from Andersen's desk.
Door closed, Andersen pushed a slip of paper over to Joe, which Joe checked and-
Do not read this aloud, do not speak aloud, pass your work phone and personal phone to me at once, do not ask questions.
…Well. Fucking ominous, that.
Joe didn't have a personal phone to begin with, which he emphasized by patting his empty pockets upon sliding his work tablet to Andersen. The Deputy Chief Commander took the device, jimmied open the back panel with a flat-headed tool he was sure was specifically made for that purpose, and upon seeming to check something…
Nodded, dropped the entire device into what looked like a foil-lined baggy that somehow sealed itself as if it was plugged into a vacuum, and was dumped into something Joe couldn't see behind the desk.
"Well, now that we know Missilis won't be overhearing this little discussion…" Andersen started, noting how Joe blanched at that. "I'll be sure to have your work device replaced with an Elysion or Tetra Line-manufactured model as soon as we're done here, just to get that out of the way."
"Should I be concerned about the fact that I've been carrying that thing around since I was released from the hospital, sir?" Joe asked warily.
"No, actually," Andersen asserted plainly. "Missilis only tends to actually bother activating their spyware on individuals of interest - to save them the work of sifting through the chaff of the average Commander, as you might imagine. I'm sure that my people will report the moment when they do activate their malware on your old device, now that we'll be monitoring it. Luckily, you hadn't actually done anything to warrant having their attention before today."
"...So, Elysion and Tetra Line can be trusted, in contrast?" Joe asked curiously.
"Yes, they can," Andersen nodded his head. "As you'll learn at least the basics of shortly… Firstly, Pholus. I was hoping to avoid needing to expose you to the… underside of the Central Government's political world, but, unfortunately, my little scheme to have you removed from the Central Government's ever-watchful eye has backfired rather spectacularly."
Lips parting momentarily, Joe stared warily at Andersen, then his head shifted to the side slightly, staring at his superior officer with rapidly mounting suspicion.
"I'm going to be frank with you, Pholus. At least as frank as I can afford to be without risking endangering you too much at this juncture," the short-haired brunet started, seeming to chew on the inside of his cheek before continuing. "You were supposed to fail that operation. Retreat, report back that you couldn't take the power station and in so doing fail what you weren't aware had been flagged as a top-priority mission."
Joe felt himself age a fucking decade instantly, and knew that he was going to hate where this discussion was about to go.
"In failing so exponentially, I'd be required to punish you accordingly," Andersen continued. "This would have manifested in banishing you from the Ark, to the Outpost: a currently-abandoned forward operating base originally meant to serve as an intermediary point between the surface and the Ark proper. There, as a shamed rookie Commander who could not even be trusted to complete such a simple, if high-priority mission… you would have been written off and entirely ignored by the Central Government. Off their radar, left to your own devices as you man a veritable backwater in shame…"
Andersen paused, seeming to gauge Joe's reaction. Joe continued to stare at the Deputy-Chief Commander, just listening.
Letting out a short breath, the uniformed man stroked his stubbled jawline before continuing. "You aren't stupid, Commander. Prone to bouts of obliviousness, selective and otherwise, perhaps, but-"
"This has something to do with my stint in the hospital, doesn't it?" Joe asked, brain going a mile a minute as all of a sudden he was forced to actually think about his situation, the state he was in, and the fact that there was no way in fucking Hell that nobody in the Ark had noticed the weirdness surrounding him.
"-And there it is…" Andersen let out a sigh. "Yes. You aren't nobody. And the fact that you not only succeeded in this operation, but did so against absolutely obscene odds which nobody had anticipated, to the point of destroying Gravedigger, of all things…" The rough-and-tumble man reached up and pinched at the bridge of his nose heavily, sighing with the weight of a dozen lifetimes bearing down on him. "People will begin taking notice of you. This could prove extremely problematic in short order."
"...Who am I, Andersen?" Joe asked, bracing himself as he quickly realised that he was about to have to reveal the whole 'isekai' thing before things got even more out of hand than they already were.
At that, Andersen tensed up, taking a deep breath before letting out a heavy sigh. "Someone so important, that Enikk has seen fit to make efforts to mask your identity apart from my own attempts, create a… backstory, for you, such as it were…"
…Ah. Oh. "I'm not a Commander Corps graduate, am I?"
"You never even attended a single class," Andersen nodded. "Which, admittedly, would have eventually come up, given that other Commanders from 'your' graduating class would have eventually realised that you were most definitely not present during their time at the academy… it was only a stopgap, regardless."
A fine sheen threatened to form on Joe's brow. Just whose body had he woken up in on that day? "...Andersen, I- listen," he started, shifting in his seat uncomfortably, suddenly feeling intensely overwhelmed, moreso than he was before. "I- okay, this is going to sound absolutely insane, but, you have to understand, before this goes any further and you expect… whatever it is you're expecting out of me… I'm not, I mean, I'm a- I'm from-" breath hitching in his throat, Joe wasn't sure how to actually even begin trying to explain the 'isekai' bullshit to Andersen-
"Canada," Andersen interjected.
Joe's brain crashed. "...What?"
"Canada," Andersen continued. "You're from Canada, prior to the Rapture invasion. You were departing from your apartment with intent to go on a 'hike,' tripped on the last step exiting the building… and landed here. In the midst of the initial Rapture invasion of Earth," Andersen declared. "I recall, Pholus. I didn't believe you the first time you told me that story - and frankly, I still don't. But, I do remember the tale, and the dogged fervency with which you stuck to it."
Joe was suddenly sweating like a pig in a slaughterhouse. "...How, the fuck do you…"
"I had reasoned that you were suffering from memory loss, the moment you stepped into my office and clearly failed to recognize me the first time…" Andersen pressed on, leaning back in his seat as he gave Joe a critical once-over. "But, if I'm understanding things right… You at least remember your supposed previous life as a Canadian civilian, but, clearly, not the time you spent here, given your behaviour up to this point. How strange, though I suppose, given the state you were in…"
There was an exceptionally pregnant pause as Joe just stared wide-eyed at Andersen, and Andersen stared at Joe.
It was Andersen that broke that silence. "While I would love nothing more than to take a trip down memory lane with my old partner right now, we have terribly important business to tend to, Pholus. Starting with one simple fact: the Central Government is our enemy, and you having their attention is not a good thing."
Taking a deep breath of his own, Joe reached up and wiped his brow, gulping as he did so. "Well… I certainly don't like much of what I've seen of the Central Government, you'll have to elucidate on that matter for me…"
"For starters?" Andersen began. "Nikkes are people. Human beings. Not weapons, certainly not disposable. A fact I know you agree with us on, and the Central Government does not. Beyond that? They are fascists. Their greatest interest is not in recapturing the surface, but consolidating their power. The risk of mankind going extinct is secondary to their concerns of remaining on top, as it were. You can see this in the… decidedly sub-optimal manner in which they conduct military operations of all kinds. Up to and including the fact that we have not doctored your simulator scores in any way, shape, or form. You are genuinely a markedly better Commander than most specifically because you have not attended the Commander Corps academy."
Well. that was absolutely fucking mortifying. "Meaning…" Joe mused aloud, "Commanders are actually just for show. They only exist to serve as the circus to accompany the bread the CG hands out to keep the masses placated."
"Precisely," Andersen nodded his head shallowly. "Of course, if every operation was a cartoonish failure, the CG wouldn't be able to keep it hidden from the general masses. Ergo, when a somehow competent Commander emerges from the chaff, they tend to be assigned to certain objectives which the CG can then point to the successes of, emphasized as examples of the excellence of the Commander Corps, and the war against the Raptures."
"...And I just marked myself as a 'superior' Commander, such as it were," Joe blanched.
"Two Tyrants, with incomplete squads, while improperly equipped for either encounter, both instances without deaths that can be placed upon your shoulders," Andersen asserted. "Considering it typically takes the combined efforts of a number of full Nikke squads to defeat Tyrants in dedicated operations? Yes, you just marked yourself as something special. And that is why we are bending over backwards to salvage the Outpost idea. Particularly, we're currently altering records to turn it into something of an… overlooked, and deeply important weak point. A defensible and important location that should not have been left to rot as it has been."
"...So, instead of a punishment, the plan is to have me hold this suddenly important Forward Operating Base, with my recent victories against these Tyrants being the justification," Joe deduced.
"Which will keep you out of the Ark proper, minimizing your influence upon it, which will keep the more twitchy CG officials placated," Andersen further elucidated. "As you might imagine, they don't tend to like it when some new up and comer starts 'showing off' and 'building influence.' Tyrants and their frail sense of security, you know how it is."
Not from first hand experience, but yeah, Joe knew how those sorts tended to behave, going off of his historical knowledge. "And… the plan, beyond that?"
"I think that's something to go over with you, myself, Ingrid, and Mustang all present for the discussion," Andersen noted. "For now… just be natural. Accept the newfound stationing with grace, and we'll start figuring things out from there. You being a recognized figure this early was… not something we anticipated, as you might imagine."
Brow furrowing, Joe's gaze drifted down, considering… this, and his apparent role in it. "Andersen, seriously… who am I?"
Giving Joe an unreadable stare, Andersen eventually replied simply, "For now? Important. It would be best if we leave it at that, and cover the finer details at a later date. Which, I promise, we will. I take no joy in denying you information, Pholus. However… it would be best if you could remain focused, for now."
…This was a lot. This was a fucking lot. Joe, apparently… was himself. He'd apparently fallen into a portal and was teleported to this world at some point… in the past. The Rapture invasion… had happened decades ago. And Andersen was there when it happened. Andersen knew who he was. That he was… from another world. And, and, AND, he'd apparently had a whole-ass fucking military apocalypse adventure before this one had even begun, and people beginning to recognize him would be a bad thing. For… What, a revolution? That's certainly what it sounded like. Not to mention that Andersen, and… Ingrid, as well as Tetra Line's CEO Mustang, apparently, were in on it.
…Given that they were living in a cyberpunk dystopia, Joe was quietly mortified by the notion that he might have just been pulled into some sort of insane scheme between the local equivalents of Arasaka and Militech to overthrow the (admittedly fascist) Government and replace it with… what? A corporatocracy? Is that what Joe was being dragged into now!?
Fucking Hell. So many questions, the knowledge that there were several fucking Swords of Damocles dangling over his head… what else could he do besides just… go along with it, for now? Go along and try to hold Andersen to his word.
"I… I'll do my best to…" Joe started warily.
"You have understandable concerns given your lack of knowledge on everything happening, the plan in whole, such as it were. I assure you, given that I know who you actually are, fought alongside you in the initial Rapture invasion… The plan isn't currently anything that you would find overly objectionable. For now, I'd advise that we leave it at that, lest we get lost in the weeds while we need to be uprighting the boat, such as it is."
Joe… would just have to trust Andersen, for now. If nothing else, he could believe that the fucking Central Government wasn't to be trusted, given everything he'd sussed out himself in the short time he'd been in the Ark. "Okay… so, is there anything else we should cover, I guess?"
For a few moments, Andersen seemed uncertain, and started with an uncharacteristic degree of hesitation. "Yes. Rapi. She…" he paused, seeming to consider his words very carefully. "Pholus, I know that she has a reputation, and can be excessively… difficult, but I implore you to-"
"Bwah?" Joe all but barked in confusion, looking at Andersen as though he'd just sprouted a second head. "Rapi's been nothing but helpful and professional since we started working together. I… I'm nothing but grateful to have her in my squad. What're you talking about, her being 'difficult?'"
Now Andersen looked like he'd just been slapped with a fish, and actually took several moments to recover from that apparent bombshell. "...G-good," he actually stammered. "Damn good! That's- that's good."
The following pause was… decidedly awkward.
"Well," Andersen, again, was the one to recover first and break the silence. "For now, Pholus… I think we could call it here. Our next meeting, I'll try to arrange for Ingrid and Mustang to participate, and we'll try to cover as much ground as we can on the matter of the longer-term plan. For now? Let's just try to keep our heads above water and weather this storm."
At that, Joe just nodded.
"Very well… with that, I believe we're done here for now. Just… keep your head down, as best as you can. Otherwise?" Andersen nodded. "Dismissed, Commander."
Chapter 19 - Tipping the Hand
===
Sitting in the hallway just outside of Andersen's office, Joe waited patiently - which is to say he was completely zoned out and staring into the void. He wasn't sure how he was still alive. He wasn't sure how everything that had happened, happened. Anis was alive, receiving a new body as he sat, waiting to be called in to speak with Andersen. Rapi and Neon were undergoing repairs, Andersen was-
The door opened, causing Joe to jump in his seat as Andersen stepped out, immediately gesturing for him to enter.
Having no reason to be difficult, the rookie Commander did as instructed, and was quickly sitting in the seat across from Andersen's desk.
Door closed, Andersen pushed a slip of paper over to Joe, which Joe checked and-
Do not read this aloud, do not speak aloud, pass your work phone and personal phone to me at once, do not ask questions.
…Well. Fucking ominous, that.
Joe didn't have a personal phone to begin with, which he emphasized by patting his empty pockets upon sliding his work tablet to Andersen. The Deputy Chief Commander took the device, jimmied open the back panel with a flat-headed tool he was sure was specifically made for that purpose, and upon seeming to check something…
Nodded, dropped the entire device into what looked like a foil-lined baggy that somehow sealed itself as if it was plugged into a vacuum, and was dumped into something Joe couldn't see behind the desk.
"Well, now that we know Missilis won't be overhearing this little discussion…" Andersen started, noting how Joe blanched at that. "I'll be sure to have your work device replaced with an Elysion or Tetra Line-manufactured model as soon as we're done here, just to get that out of the way."
"Should I be concerned about the fact that I've been carrying that thing around since I was released from the hospital, sir?" Joe asked warily.
"No, actually," Andersen asserted plainly. "Missilis only tends to actually bother activating their spyware on individuals of interest - to save them the work of sifting through the chaff of the average Commander, as you might imagine. I'm sure that my people will report the moment when they do activate their malware on your old device, now that we'll be monitoring it. Luckily, you hadn't actually done anything to warrant having their attention before today."
"...So, Elysion and Tetra Line can be trusted, in contrast?" Joe asked curiously.
"Yes, they can," Andersen nodded his head. "As you'll learn at least the basics of shortly… Firstly, Pholus. I was hoping to avoid needing to expose you to the… underside of the Central Government's political world, but, unfortunately, my little scheme to have you removed from the Central Government's ever-watchful eye has backfired rather spectacularly."
Lips parting momentarily, Joe stared warily at Andersen, then his head shifted to the side slightly, staring at his superior officer with rapidly mounting suspicion.
"I'm going to be frank with you, Pholus. At least as frank as I can afford to be without risking endangering you too much at this juncture," the short-haired brunet started, seeming to chew on the inside of his cheek before continuing. "You were supposed to fail that operation. Retreat, report back that you couldn't take the power station and in so doing fail what you weren't aware had been flagged as a top-priority mission."
Joe felt himself age a fucking decade instantly, and knew that he was going to hate where this discussion was about to go.
"In failing so exponentially, I'd be required to punish you accordingly," Andersen continued. "This would have manifested in banishing you from the Ark, to the Outpost: a currently-abandoned forward operating base originally meant to serve as an intermediary point between the surface and the Ark proper. There, as a shamed rookie Commander who could not even be trusted to complete such a simple, if high-priority mission… you would have been written off and entirely ignored by the Central Government. Off their radar, left to your own devices as you man a veritable backwater in shame…"
Andersen paused, seeming to gauge Joe's reaction. Joe continued to stare at the Deputy-Chief Commander, just listening.
Letting out a short breath, the uniformed man stroked his stubbled jawline before continuing. "You aren't stupid, Commander. Prone to bouts of obliviousness, selective and otherwise, perhaps, but-"
"This has something to do with my stint in the hospital, doesn't it?" Joe asked, brain going a mile a minute as all of a sudden he was forced to actually think about his situation, the state he was in, and the fact that there was no way in fucking Hell that nobody in the Ark had noticed the weirdness surrounding him.
"-And there it is…" Andersen let out a sigh. "Yes. You aren't nobody. And the fact that you not only succeeded in this operation, but did so against absolutely obscene odds which nobody had anticipated, to the point of destroying Gravedigger, of all things…" The rough-and-tumble man reached up and pinched at the bridge of his nose heavily, sighing with the weight of a dozen lifetimes bearing down on him. "People will begin taking notice of you. This could prove extremely problematic in short order."
"...Who am I, Andersen?" Joe asked, bracing himself as he quickly realised that he was about to have to reveal the whole 'isekai' thing before things got even more out of hand than they already were.
At that, Andersen tensed up, taking a deep breath before letting out a heavy sigh. "Someone so important, that Enikk has seen fit to make efforts to mask your identity apart from my own attempts, create a… backstory, for you, such as it were…"
…Ah. Oh. "I'm not a Commander Corps graduate, am I?"
"You never even attended a single class," Andersen nodded. "Which, admittedly, would have eventually come up, given that other Commanders from 'your' graduating class would have eventually realised that you were most definitely not present during their time at the academy… it was only a stopgap, regardless."
A fine sheen threatened to form on Joe's brow. Just whose body had he woken up in on that day? "...Andersen, I- listen," he started, shifting in his seat uncomfortably, suddenly feeling intensely overwhelmed, moreso than he was before. "I- okay, this is going to sound absolutely insane, but, you have to understand, before this goes any further and you expect… whatever it is you're expecting out of me… I'm not, I mean, I'm a- I'm from-" breath hitching in his throat, Joe wasn't sure how to actually even begin trying to explain the 'isekai' bullshit to Andersen-
"Canada," Andersen interjected.
Joe's brain crashed. "...What?"
"Canada," Andersen continued. "You're from Canada, prior to the Rapture invasion. You were departing from your apartment with intent to go on a 'hike,' tripped on the last step exiting the building… and landed here. In the midst of the initial Rapture invasion of Earth," Andersen declared. "I recall, Pholus. I didn't believe you the first time you told me that story - and frankly, I still don't. But, I do remember the tale, and the dogged fervency with which you stuck to it."
Joe was suddenly sweating like a pig in a slaughterhouse. "...How, the fuck do you…"
"I had reasoned that you were suffering from memory loss, the moment you stepped into my office and clearly failed to recognize me the first time…" Andersen pressed on, leaning back in his seat as he gave Joe a critical once-over. "But, if I'm understanding things right… You at least remember your supposed previous life as a Canadian civilian, but, clearly, not the time you spent here, given your behaviour up to this point. How strange, though I suppose, given the state you were in…"
There was an exceptionally pregnant pause as Joe just stared wide-eyed at Andersen, and Andersen stared at Joe.
It was Andersen that broke that silence. "While I would love nothing more than to take a trip down memory lane with my old partner right now, we have terribly important business to tend to, Pholus. Starting with one simple fact: the Central Government is our enemy, and you having their attention is not a good thing."
Taking a deep breath of his own, Joe reached up and wiped his brow, gulping as he did so. "Well… I certainly don't like much of what I've seen of the Central Government, you'll have to elucidate on that matter for me…"
"For starters?" Andersen began. "Nikkes are people. Human beings. Not weapons, certainly not disposable. A fact I know you agree with us on, and the Central Government does not. Beyond that? They are fascists. Their greatest interest is not in recapturing the surface, but consolidating their power. The risk of mankind going extinct is secondary to their concerns of remaining on top, as it were. You can see this in the… decidedly sub-optimal manner in which they conduct military operations of all kinds. Up to and including the fact that we have not doctored your simulator scores in any way, shape, or form. You are genuinely a markedly better Commander than most specifically because you have not attended the Commander Corps academy."
Well. that was absolutely fucking mortifying. "Meaning…" Joe mused aloud, "Commanders are actually just for show. They only exist to serve as the circus to accompany the bread the CG hands out to keep the masses placated."
"Precisely," Andersen nodded his head shallowly. "Of course, if every operation was a cartoonish failure, the CG wouldn't be able to keep it hidden from the general masses. Ergo, when a somehow competent Commander emerges from the chaff, they tend to be assigned to certain objectives which the CG can then point to the successes of, emphasized as examples of the excellence of the Commander Corps, and the war against the Raptures."
"...And I just marked myself as a 'superior' Commander, such as it were," Joe blanched.
"Two Tyrants, with incomplete squads, while improperly equipped for either encounter, both instances without deaths that can be placed upon your shoulders," Andersen asserted. "Considering it typically takes the combined efforts of a number of full Nikke squads to defeat Tyrants in dedicated operations? Yes, you just marked yourself as something special. And that is why we are bending over backwards to salvage the Outpost idea. Particularly, we're currently altering records to turn it into something of an… overlooked, and deeply important weak point. A defensible and important location that should not have been left to rot as it has been."
"...So, instead of a punishment, the plan is to have me hold this suddenly important Forward Operating Base, with my recent victories against these Tyrants being the justification," Joe deduced.
"Which will keep you out of the Ark proper, minimizing your influence upon it, which will keep the more twitchy CG officials placated," Andersen further elucidated. "As you might imagine, they don't tend to like it when some new up and comer starts 'showing off' and 'building influence.' Tyrants and their frail sense of security, you know how it is."
Not from first hand experience, but yeah, Joe knew how those sorts tended to behave, going off of his historical knowledge. "And… the plan, beyond that?"
"I think that's something to go over with you, myself, Ingrid, and Mustang all present for the discussion," Andersen noted. "For now… just be natural. Accept the newfound stationing with grace, and we'll start figuring things out from there. You being a recognized figure this early was… not something we anticipated, as you might imagine."
Brow furrowing, Joe's gaze drifted down, considering… this, and his apparent role in it. "Andersen, seriously… who am I?"
Giving Joe an unreadable stare, Andersen eventually replied simply, "For now? Important. It would be best if we leave it at that, and cover the finer details at a later date. Which, I promise, we will. I take no joy in denying you information, Pholus. However… it would be best if you could remain focused, for now."
…This was a lot. This was a fucking lot. Joe, apparently… was himself. He'd apparently fallen into a portal and was teleported to this world at some point… in the past. The Rapture invasion… had happened decades ago. And Andersen was there when it happened. Andersen knew who he was. That he was… from another world. And, and, AND, he'd apparently had a whole-ass fucking military apocalypse adventure before this one had even begun, and people beginning to recognize him would be a bad thing. For… What, a revolution? That's certainly what it sounded like. Not to mention that Andersen, and… Ingrid, as well as Tetra Line's CEO Mustang, apparently, were in on it.
…Given that they were living in a cyberpunk dystopia, Joe was quietly mortified by the notion that he might have just been pulled into some sort of insane scheme between the local equivalents of Arasaka and Militech to overthrow the (admittedly fascist) Government and replace it with… what? A corporatocracy? Is that what Joe was being dragged into now!?
Fucking Hell. So many questions, the knowledge that there were several fucking Swords of Damocles dangling over his head… what else could he do besides just… go along with it, for now? Go along and try to hold Andersen to his word.
"I… I'll do my best to…" Joe started warily.
"You have understandable concerns given your lack of knowledge on everything happening, the plan in whole, such as it were. I assure you, given that I know who you actually are, fought alongside you in the initial Rapture invasion… The plan isn't currently anything that you would find overly objectionable. For now, I'd advise that we leave it at that, lest we get lost in the weeds while we need to be uprighting the boat, such as it is."
Joe… would just have to trust Andersen, for now. If nothing else, he could believe that the fucking Central Government wasn't to be trusted, given everything he'd sussed out himself in the short time he'd been in the Ark. "Okay… so, is there anything else we should cover, I guess?"
For a few moments, Andersen seemed uncertain, and started with an uncharacteristic degree of hesitation. "Yes. Rapi. She…" he paused, seeming to consider his words very carefully. "Pholus, I know that she has a reputation, and can be excessively… difficult, but I implore you to-"
"Bwah?" Joe all but barked in confusion, looking at Andersen as though he'd just sprouted a second head. "Rapi's been nothing but helpful and professional since we started working together. I… I'm nothing but grateful to have her in my squad. What're you talking about, her being 'difficult?'"
Now Andersen looked like he'd just been slapped with a fish, and actually took several moments to recover from that apparent bombshell. "...G-good," he actually stammered. "Damn good! That's- that's good."
The following pause was… decidedly awkward.
"Well," Andersen, again, was the one to recover first and break the silence. "For now, Pholus… I think we could call it here. Our next meeting, I'll try to arrange for Ingrid and Mustang to participate, and we'll try to cover as much ground as we can on the matter of the longer-term plan. For now? Let's just try to keep our heads above water and weather this storm."
At that, Joe just nodded.
"Very well… with that, I believe we're done here for now. Just… keep your head down, as best as you can. Otherwise?" Andersen nodded. "Dismissed, Commander."
palacesound
Hunt Type Poster
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Damn, Summer Neon strikes again. She can't keep getting away with this.
NooneImportant
Know what you're doing yet? Because I don't!
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VATSteen on SB said:
jmonster on SB said:
So, who is Joe going to bang first? Someone's already answered Rapi but consider: Snow White.
*No, I'm not VATSteen.
Fragment of Serenity
Yu-Shan's Paperwork Ninja
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...considering how things are shaping up... yeah, I could see it.
That said, he's going to be saving the real lewd shit, like hand holding, for a certain memory wiped someone.
Chapter 20 - A Taste of Paradise
BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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===
Chapter 20 - A Taste of Paradise
===
With Rapi standing alongside him, Joe stared out over the massive, wide-open cavern the elevator exited out into.
The Outpost, such as it was. There was no false sky as the Ark had, but the entire… 'structure,' for lack of a better term, had the groundwork all laid for what looked like a small town. Paved roads, sidewalks, lamp posts even… and a lot of incomplete buildings littering the landscape. Construction sites abound, with only a scarce two… or, maybe three complete buildings present in the underground region at all.
"The tower will be the Command Centre," Rapi noted, pointing out what might've looked like an apartment or office building in the Ark proper. It loomed tall, like an obelisk, given that it was seemingly the only damned building in what otherwise looked like a wildly underdeveloped city street. "The officer's quarters will be on the top floor, general barracks the ground floor, and everything else needed for planning operations and logistics in between."
Joe thought to inform the girls about the… A Song of Ice and Fire cloak and dagger bullshit they were getting wrapped up in, but he'd figured that it would be better to ultimately wait until after he'd talked to the rest of… well, his fellow conspirators, he supposed. He wouldn't keep them in the dark, but it'd probably be best to wait until he actually had anything to tell them.
Beyond that, it was best to focus on the here and now.
"Well, at least we'll have four walls and a roof tonight," Joe remarked, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Otherwise, uh…" he gazed around the… honestly, rather depressingly empty area with a small grimace. "We're not gonna have much to do up here between missions…"
"I believe we will have our hands full simply…" Rapi paused, brow furrowing slightly as she considered her next words carefully. "...Doing our best to get our new accommodations wholly operational."
"Well, at least we'll have help arriving tomorrow to start getting the ball rolling," Joe said grimly, starting off toward the Command Centre. "Might as well rip the bandage off and see what we're working with here… not that there's anything else to really do…" The utter emptiness of the entire area emphasized his point most appropriately.
"I'm sure that it will be…" Rapi began, trailed off, and… just let whatever point she was about to make fizzle out.
And you know what? Walking down the hauntingly empty street, bereft of even buildings, a cavernous ceiling hanging high above them, the entire area lit by little more than street lights…
Yeah. Fair.
"Commander!" Neon all but squealed as she rushed Joe and Rapi once they'd stepped into the barracks, which were, to put it simply: unremarkable. What utilities were present were spartan, just the same as the accommodations and furniture, all built to support Nikkes, with no concern given to the aesthetics of such. Everything was functional, which was about all it was. A living space, built to be livable for a relatively small number of full-body cybernetic conversion super-soldiers. "It's awful! The barrack's water doesn't work! And I had to turn on the building's power myself! And Anis didn't do anything to help! She just stood around yelling at me-"
"Because neither of us know what we're doing and the only thing I'd trust you to do is break everything you touch!" the bodacious blonde shouted, hands on her hips as she glowered at the shorter Nikke. "Which you did! You knocked the shower head clean off the faucet!"
"Because its waterpower wasn't working!" Neon cried, stamping her heeled foot petulantly. "I was trying to use percussive maintenance to get it going again!"
"That's not how things work in real life you dingus-!" Anis stopped short, blanching at the look she was receiving from Joe.
Indeed, the last time Joe had seen Anis, she'd… just had most of her body atomized by a fucking energy bolt, then he'd handed her disembodied head off to some kind of engineer or technician that just sort of… ambled off with all the gravitas of a man that had been handed a watermelon.
Now, here she was. Just bickering with Neon, wearing an exact copy of the clothes he'd seen destroyed, as though nothing had happened.
It… made him think of Marian. How… if it had been anything, anything else that had gotten her, Marian would still be here. Nikkes were practically immortal. Anis just… being fine demonstrated that clearly.
There was a beat.
Joe walked up to an increasingly anxious Anis, and, with a sort of pained reverence, wrapped his arms around the short girl. A shaky breath slipped past his lips, and he quietly declared: "I'm glad you're okay…"
His feelings on Marian were bubbling up, and… seeing Anis get beheaded had fucked him up, even if, somehow, he'd kept his shit together and got everyone out safely. How many other Nikkes was he going to have to witness being absolutely brutalized, only to just… show back up later, right as rain, seemingly unbothered by their injuries?
Anis had saved his life, yes, but-
The feeling of a small pair of hands settling on the small of his back shook him from the reprieve he hadn't realized he'd slipped into. Anis returned the hug, however warily. "...I'm okay, Commander," she assured him, her adorable voice taking on an uncharacteristically gentle tone. "It's okay, I'm fine…"
…He was letting what happened to Marian bleed over onto Anis. She… probably didn't need to be having to deal with him acting this way when she was fine. Nikkes just… shrugged off injuries that would be nightmarish, that would mean death for a baseline human. She… was just okay. He shouldn't dwell on what had happened.
Pulling back, clearing his throat, Joe muttered out a sheepish "Sorry…" Notably, Anis kept her hands on him as he pulled away, not seeming as… uncomfortable with the hug as the rookie Commander might've expected - or maybe he was reading too much into it. "So, um, anyways," he did his best to move on, rather than dwell on how awkward he just made things. "Neon, stop messing with things. The CG is sending people to help us build up the Outpost and get it up to spec tomorrow, and-" he glanced aside, making note of the supplies they'd been provided. "They gave us more than enough rations and water to survive the night… Hell, it looks like we could even have a little feast if we wanted to-"
"Hey! That's a great idea!" Anis proclaimed cheerily, setting her hands on her hips, lips spreading wide at the suggestion. "We're getting all sorts of accolades for a successful mission, why shouldn't we treat ourselves before getting back on the grind?"
"Yeah! We messed up Gravedigger something fierce!" Neon asserted with a pump of her tiny little fists, already bee-lining for the ration pile. "Let's dig through the lot and make ourselves a big ol' feast!"
At once, Neon and Anis descended upon the supplies they'd been provided, tearing into them with wild abandon.
A few moments into that, Rapi spoke up, "Commander, we shouldn't be wasteful with rations. These are meant for-"
"Oh wow! This is the good stuff!" Neon cried out joyfully, holding up a ration pack that looked… yeah, like high-end luxury civilian goods, rather than the basic rations they'd been provided for their previous surface excursions.
"Holy wow, there's actual Nutrium in these- is this a whole steak in this one!?" Anis wondered aloud in excitement, holding up what indeed, looked like a whole-ass steak in a vacuum-sealed black and gold military ration pack.
Evidently, there were some benefits to being unexpectedly competent relative to the norm.
"...As I was saying," Rapi continued, ignoring the cheerful cries of her fellow Nikkes, even as they started making big piles of everything they wanted for the feast to come. "These supplies would be best saved for necessity - Nikkes don't need to eat as much as the average human, a 'feast' would be a wasteful misapplication of supplies we should be carefully rationing out to get the most out of over time."
Turning to look at the uncomfortably doll-like strawberry blonde… Normally, Joe would understand and agree. However, they'd been provided with a lot of food. High-quality food. Like, a month's worth despite expecting a full support team and logistical supply lines to be set up by the end of tomorrow. "You're right, and normally, I'd agree with you by and large, but… I think they may have given us such an excessive amount of supplies specifically so we could splurge. I mean-"
"Holy heck! Commander, look! There's even wine!" Neon declared, holding up and presenting, indeed, a fucking wine bottle for everyone to see. Of all the things to be included in military supplies…
"Does that mean there's beer too!?" Anis cried out in excitement, practically diving into the month's worth of excessively luxurious supplies with even more gusto than before.
Rapi just looked at the bottle, to Anis all but desperately swimming through their 'rations' in search of beer, and gave Joe a… weary, defeated look. "I suppose you're all going to get drunk tonight then…"
"I don't drink," Joe corrected her flatly. Wondering with great confusion for a moment if Nikkes even could get drunk, before realizing that even if they didn't have the biology to support it, they probably had like... programming to simulate intoxication upon detecting alcohol consumption.
At that, Rapi's eyes momentarily widened ever-so-slightly. "...Oh. I see." No small amount of weight seemed to lift from her shoulders at once, though she was still not entirely placated.
"Rapi," the long-haired brunet started, reaching up and rubbing his bearded chin, "I'm not suggesting being consistently irresponsible with our supplies or anything like that. Morale is important, and it's a reward for us having defeated what would have wiped out most other Nikke squads, without any fatalities at that." Gesturing towards the two excited Nikkes, visibly eager and happy as they went about, behaving more like kids in a candy store, rather than cybernetically augmented super-soldiers grimly holding the wavering line against extinction. "Just… let them have this tonight. Being allowed to celebrate now will likely also make them more willing to help when we get back to work tomorrow."
Averting her gaze to consider Joe's words, Rapi eventually let out a small sigh. "Very well, Commander. If you think it will positively affect their morale and make them more cooperative tomorrow… And, I suppose we are supposed to receive more supplies and establish supply lines by tomorrow evening…"
"It's fine, Rapi. One night where the two are allowed to cut loose won't hurt anyone," Joe asserted as he rubbed the back of his neck, taking a deep breath. "We'll-"
"Commander! Look!" Anis rushed up, eagerly presenting a pair of bright, gold-coloured cans to Joe with a beaming smile. "Look, look! They even gave us beer! Here, share one with me!" she moved to hand him one of the cans with much gusto.
"I don't drink," Joe repeated himself matter-of-factually.
There was a moment where Anis' brain seemed to freeze, and her eyes popped open, projecting pure confusion and a lack of understanding as she owlishly blinked at Joe. "...Eh?" she vocalized her complete befuddlement at his casual rejection of the offer. "But… what? Why?"
"Tastes vile and I don't like the sensation of losing control of my faculties," Joe said simply. "Go ahead and enjoy yourself, regardless. I'll just stick to the food and non-alcoholic drinks they've surely also provided."
Anis looked more than a little put-off, making no effort to hide her disappointment as she actually pouted, retreating back to the food pile to-
Joe's eyes went wide as he called out, rushing forth, "Jesus fucking Christ Neon, no! Put the bottle down! Eat first! Eat and only drink a reasonable amount! Neon! Neon, stop!" he cried, moving to try taking the wine bottle that Neon had opened, put in her mouth, and proceeded to tip up at a ninety-degree angle, practically pouring wine down her gullet like her life depended on it.
The little silver-haired Nikke responded by practically leaping to her feet and moving to avoid him, continuing to drink in protest as he impotently pursued her.
Already, Rapi was sure this was a harbinger of a stark and continuing lapse in general discipline.
Sitting at one of the barracks tables, background music projecting off of Anis' phone set in the middle of the group, the party enjoyed what felt like a proper meal; despite everything having come from a supposed military shipment. Joe had stopped and looked at a lot of the packaging while preparing the feast, such as it was. This was, apparently, a Tetra Line shipment. Thinking back on it, Joe considered that Elysion had produced the rations they'd brought along with them previously, which were decidedly what he'd come to expect from North American military rations… meaning that this was the benefit of having Mustang in their corner.
Joe wasn't going to complain - good food was always welcome, doubly so if it was shelf-stable. Morale was important, and luxury rations like these would go a long way to keeping soldiers in good spirits in the field. Joe was sure that Elysion rations were probably more shelf stable, given how they were more simple, but did that matter so much? Joe didn't see them being deployed to the surface for literal years at a time, and they were just outside of the Ark proper - so much so that, if need be, it would only be a couple hour's trip there and back again to just buy food themselves.
Doubly so when Tetra Line packaged their steaks medium rare, rather than having them over-cooked into shoe leather. It… was a genuinely enjoyable meal, Joe had to say. He'd gone for a steak with some veggies and a tall glass of iced tea, and, for the first time since his first mission to the surface, the food actually tasted good.
Neon, in contrast, visibly tipsy, was eating from a big plate of spaghetti with meatballs in tomato sauce, along with a side dish of beef-stuffed ravioli with yet more tomato sauce, and, it took Joe a moment to register it at first, but what he swore was a small bowl of Spaghetti-O's. Meaning she was eating like a child that had been given carte blanche to put together her immature little dream feast. Small surprise it was all super sweet pasta dishes. The only chef Neon was interested in, it seemed, was one mister Boyardee.
Anis, meanwhile, was enjoying a little bit of everything. Seeming to go make a point to split everything she picked in half, and push the other half over to an increasingly exasperated Rapi. Rapi… had tried to get away with eating a single serving of ration bread, without anything on it. So, Joe understood Anis' decision to tactically force Rapi to actually participate in the feast, such as it was.
It was, despite everything, a decidedly domestic, even fun little affair. The little celebration came to its end, Rapi reminded Joe of how to reach his personal room, and after helping clean everything up, he took the mercifully functioning elevator to the top floor of the Command Centre. Quickly enough, he found the officer's quarters.
Stepping into the room was…
…Holy shit, this was a massive step up over his old place in the main CG building back in the Ark, and especially the pure function over form accomidations the girls were living with. There was a large, L-shaped desk with a small sitting area with a pair of sofas and a television off to the side - a kitchenette along with a doorway leading to a whole-ass dedicated bedroom, and his own personal washroom. Though everything had a functional bend to it, the edges had been sanded off, and a nice enough varnish applied, so to say. This was…
…Actually probably about the size of his old apartment back home, in Canada. Meaning it was big.
Holy shit. The location of the living space was kind of ass, but this was much nicer than what he'd been provided with before in the heart of the Ark.
And, as expected, his shit, what little of it he had, was piled up in the middle of the room. Packed up all neat and tidy.
Before anything else, Joe took his jacket, set it on the coat hook next to the door, and walked over to a particular box. Inside the box was a case, which itself contained…
First Affection, Marian's gun.
Gazing down at the firearm with a forlorn smile, he hefted it, noticed a rifle display set on the wall over the desk, and promptly placed it there. Stepping back… Yeah, that'd do.
It was at that point Joe noticed the two packages set on the desk as well. The first, set over the second, had an Elysion symbol emblazoned upon it. Popping it open revealed a heavy-duty work tablet. The kind that looked damn well bomb-proof, far sturdier than his old apparently Missilis-produced tablet. Along with the device was a note… advising that he either keep it in an internal breast pocket, or in a dedicated chest rig that secured it over his heart. Because Elysion field tablets were rated as capable of stopping pistol-calibre bullets.
Man. Joe really appreciated how Elysion simply did not fuck around.
Besides that was… a Tetra Line box. Popping it open revealed…
Joe stared. He blinked, and he ran a hand through his hair in exasperation and no small amount of disbelief. That… was probably faux gold, right? There was no way Mustang would just… give Joe a genuinely gold-plated personal phone, right? How fucking much would that cost normally? The fucking thing looked downright designer brand-name Gucci bullshit.
…Why was this giving Joe a similar feeling to those times in video games when it suddenly got really generous with ammo and resources right before kicking you into a boss room?
God willing, Joe would just be getting anxious over nothing.
Definitely.
Hopefully.
Chapter 20 - A Taste of Paradise
===
With Rapi standing alongside him, Joe stared out over the massive, wide-open cavern the elevator exited out into.
The Outpost, such as it was. There was no false sky as the Ark had, but the entire… 'structure,' for lack of a better term, had the groundwork all laid for what looked like a small town. Paved roads, sidewalks, lamp posts even… and a lot of incomplete buildings littering the landscape. Construction sites abound, with only a scarce two… or, maybe three complete buildings present in the underground region at all.
"The tower will be the Command Centre," Rapi noted, pointing out what might've looked like an apartment or office building in the Ark proper. It loomed tall, like an obelisk, given that it was seemingly the only damned building in what otherwise looked like a wildly underdeveloped city street. "The officer's quarters will be on the top floor, general barracks the ground floor, and everything else needed for planning operations and logistics in between."
Joe thought to inform the girls about the… A Song of Ice and Fire cloak and dagger bullshit they were getting wrapped up in, but he'd figured that it would be better to ultimately wait until after he'd talked to the rest of… well, his fellow conspirators, he supposed. He wouldn't keep them in the dark, but it'd probably be best to wait until he actually had anything to tell them.
Beyond that, it was best to focus on the here and now.
"Well, at least we'll have four walls and a roof tonight," Joe remarked, reaching up and rubbing the back of his neck. "Otherwise, uh…" he gazed around the… honestly, rather depressingly empty area with a small grimace. "We're not gonna have much to do up here between missions…"
"I believe we will have our hands full simply…" Rapi paused, brow furrowing slightly as she considered her next words carefully. "...Doing our best to get our new accommodations wholly operational."
"Well, at least we'll have help arriving tomorrow to start getting the ball rolling," Joe said grimly, starting off toward the Command Centre. "Might as well rip the bandage off and see what we're working with here… not that there's anything else to really do…" The utter emptiness of the entire area emphasized his point most appropriately.
"I'm sure that it will be…" Rapi began, trailed off, and… just let whatever point she was about to make fizzle out.
And you know what? Walking down the hauntingly empty street, bereft of even buildings, a cavernous ceiling hanging high above them, the entire area lit by little more than street lights…
Yeah. Fair.
"Commander!" Neon all but squealed as she rushed Joe and Rapi once they'd stepped into the barracks, which were, to put it simply: unremarkable. What utilities were present were spartan, just the same as the accommodations and furniture, all built to support Nikkes, with no concern given to the aesthetics of such. Everything was functional, which was about all it was. A living space, built to be livable for a relatively small number of full-body cybernetic conversion super-soldiers. "It's awful! The barrack's water doesn't work! And I had to turn on the building's power myself! And Anis didn't do anything to help! She just stood around yelling at me-"
"Because neither of us know what we're doing and the only thing I'd trust you to do is break everything you touch!" the bodacious blonde shouted, hands on her hips as she glowered at the shorter Nikke. "Which you did! You knocked the shower head clean off the faucet!"
"Because its waterpower wasn't working!" Neon cried, stamping her heeled foot petulantly. "I was trying to use percussive maintenance to get it going again!"
"That's not how things work in real life you dingus-!" Anis stopped short, blanching at the look she was receiving from Joe.
Indeed, the last time Joe had seen Anis, she'd… just had most of her body atomized by a fucking energy bolt, then he'd handed her disembodied head off to some kind of engineer or technician that just sort of… ambled off with all the gravitas of a man that had been handed a watermelon.
Now, here she was. Just bickering with Neon, wearing an exact copy of the clothes he'd seen destroyed, as though nothing had happened.
It… made him think of Marian. How… if it had been anything, anything else that had gotten her, Marian would still be here. Nikkes were practically immortal. Anis just… being fine demonstrated that clearly.
There was a beat.
Joe walked up to an increasingly anxious Anis, and, with a sort of pained reverence, wrapped his arms around the short girl. A shaky breath slipped past his lips, and he quietly declared: "I'm glad you're okay…"
His feelings on Marian were bubbling up, and… seeing Anis get beheaded had fucked him up, even if, somehow, he'd kept his shit together and got everyone out safely. How many other Nikkes was he going to have to witness being absolutely brutalized, only to just… show back up later, right as rain, seemingly unbothered by their injuries?
Anis had saved his life, yes, but-
The feeling of a small pair of hands settling on the small of his back shook him from the reprieve he hadn't realized he'd slipped into. Anis returned the hug, however warily. "...I'm okay, Commander," she assured him, her adorable voice taking on an uncharacteristically gentle tone. "It's okay, I'm fine…"
…He was letting what happened to Marian bleed over onto Anis. She… probably didn't need to be having to deal with him acting this way when she was fine. Nikkes just… shrugged off injuries that would be nightmarish, that would mean death for a baseline human. She… was just okay. He shouldn't dwell on what had happened.
Pulling back, clearing his throat, Joe muttered out a sheepish "Sorry…" Notably, Anis kept her hands on him as he pulled away, not seeming as… uncomfortable with the hug as the rookie Commander might've expected - or maybe he was reading too much into it. "So, um, anyways," he did his best to move on, rather than dwell on how awkward he just made things. "Neon, stop messing with things. The CG is sending people to help us build up the Outpost and get it up to spec tomorrow, and-" he glanced aside, making note of the supplies they'd been provided. "They gave us more than enough rations and water to survive the night… Hell, it looks like we could even have a little feast if we wanted to-"
"Hey! That's a great idea!" Anis proclaimed cheerily, setting her hands on her hips, lips spreading wide at the suggestion. "We're getting all sorts of accolades for a successful mission, why shouldn't we treat ourselves before getting back on the grind?"
"Yeah! We messed up Gravedigger something fierce!" Neon asserted with a pump of her tiny little fists, already bee-lining for the ration pile. "Let's dig through the lot and make ourselves a big ol' feast!"
At once, Neon and Anis descended upon the supplies they'd been provided, tearing into them with wild abandon.
A few moments into that, Rapi spoke up, "Commander, we shouldn't be wasteful with rations. These are meant for-"
"Oh wow! This is the good stuff!" Neon cried out joyfully, holding up a ration pack that looked… yeah, like high-end luxury civilian goods, rather than the basic rations they'd been provided for their previous surface excursions.
"Holy wow, there's actual Nutrium in these- is this a whole steak in this one!?" Anis wondered aloud in excitement, holding up what indeed, looked like a whole-ass steak in a vacuum-sealed black and gold military ration pack.
Evidently, there were some benefits to being unexpectedly competent relative to the norm.
"...As I was saying," Rapi continued, ignoring the cheerful cries of her fellow Nikkes, even as they started making big piles of everything they wanted for the feast to come. "These supplies would be best saved for necessity - Nikkes don't need to eat as much as the average human, a 'feast' would be a wasteful misapplication of supplies we should be carefully rationing out to get the most out of over time."
Turning to look at the uncomfortably doll-like strawberry blonde… Normally, Joe would understand and agree. However, they'd been provided with a lot of food. High-quality food. Like, a month's worth despite expecting a full support team and logistical supply lines to be set up by the end of tomorrow. "You're right, and normally, I'd agree with you by and large, but… I think they may have given us such an excessive amount of supplies specifically so we could splurge. I mean-"
"Holy heck! Commander, look! There's even wine!" Neon declared, holding up and presenting, indeed, a fucking wine bottle for everyone to see. Of all the things to be included in military supplies…
"Does that mean there's beer too!?" Anis cried out in excitement, practically diving into the month's worth of excessively luxurious supplies with even more gusto than before.
Rapi just looked at the bottle, to Anis all but desperately swimming through their 'rations' in search of beer, and gave Joe a… weary, defeated look. "I suppose you're all going to get drunk tonight then…"
"I don't drink," Joe corrected her flatly. Wondering with great confusion for a moment if Nikkes even could get drunk, before realizing that even if they didn't have the biology to support it, they probably had like... programming to simulate intoxication upon detecting alcohol consumption.
At that, Rapi's eyes momentarily widened ever-so-slightly. "...Oh. I see." No small amount of weight seemed to lift from her shoulders at once, though she was still not entirely placated.
"Rapi," the long-haired brunet started, reaching up and rubbing his bearded chin, "I'm not suggesting being consistently irresponsible with our supplies or anything like that. Morale is important, and it's a reward for us having defeated what would have wiped out most other Nikke squads, without any fatalities at that." Gesturing towards the two excited Nikkes, visibly eager and happy as they went about, behaving more like kids in a candy store, rather than cybernetically augmented super-soldiers grimly holding the wavering line against extinction. "Just… let them have this tonight. Being allowed to celebrate now will likely also make them more willing to help when we get back to work tomorrow."
Averting her gaze to consider Joe's words, Rapi eventually let out a small sigh. "Very well, Commander. If you think it will positively affect their morale and make them more cooperative tomorrow… And, I suppose we are supposed to receive more supplies and establish supply lines by tomorrow evening…"
"It's fine, Rapi. One night where the two are allowed to cut loose won't hurt anyone," Joe asserted as he rubbed the back of his neck, taking a deep breath. "We'll-"
"Commander! Look!" Anis rushed up, eagerly presenting a pair of bright, gold-coloured cans to Joe with a beaming smile. "Look, look! They even gave us beer! Here, share one with me!" she moved to hand him one of the cans with much gusto.
"I don't drink," Joe repeated himself matter-of-factually.
There was a moment where Anis' brain seemed to freeze, and her eyes popped open, projecting pure confusion and a lack of understanding as she owlishly blinked at Joe. "...Eh?" she vocalized her complete befuddlement at his casual rejection of the offer. "But… what? Why?"
"Tastes vile and I don't like the sensation of losing control of my faculties," Joe said simply. "Go ahead and enjoy yourself, regardless. I'll just stick to the food and non-alcoholic drinks they've surely also provided."
Anis looked more than a little put-off, making no effort to hide her disappointment as she actually pouted, retreating back to the food pile to-
Joe's eyes went wide as he called out, rushing forth, "Jesus fucking Christ Neon, no! Put the bottle down! Eat first! Eat and only drink a reasonable amount! Neon! Neon, stop!" he cried, moving to try taking the wine bottle that Neon had opened, put in her mouth, and proceeded to tip up at a ninety-degree angle, practically pouring wine down her gullet like her life depended on it.
The little silver-haired Nikke responded by practically leaping to her feet and moving to avoid him, continuing to drink in protest as he impotently pursued her.
Already, Rapi was sure this was a harbinger of a stark and continuing lapse in general discipline.
Sitting at one of the barracks tables, background music projecting off of Anis' phone set in the middle of the group, the party enjoyed what felt like a proper meal; despite everything having come from a supposed military shipment. Joe had stopped and looked at a lot of the packaging while preparing the feast, such as it was. This was, apparently, a Tetra Line shipment. Thinking back on it, Joe considered that Elysion had produced the rations they'd brought along with them previously, which were decidedly what he'd come to expect from North American military rations… meaning that this was the benefit of having Mustang in their corner.
Joe wasn't going to complain - good food was always welcome, doubly so if it was shelf-stable. Morale was important, and luxury rations like these would go a long way to keeping soldiers in good spirits in the field. Joe was sure that Elysion rations were probably more shelf stable, given how they were more simple, but did that matter so much? Joe didn't see them being deployed to the surface for literal years at a time, and they were just outside of the Ark proper - so much so that, if need be, it would only be a couple hour's trip there and back again to just buy food themselves.
Doubly so when Tetra Line packaged their steaks medium rare, rather than having them over-cooked into shoe leather. It… was a genuinely enjoyable meal, Joe had to say. He'd gone for a steak with some veggies and a tall glass of iced tea, and, for the first time since his first mission to the surface, the food actually tasted good.
Neon, in contrast, visibly tipsy, was eating from a big plate of spaghetti with meatballs in tomato sauce, along with a side dish of beef-stuffed ravioli with yet more tomato sauce, and, it took Joe a moment to register it at first, but what he swore was a small bowl of Spaghetti-O's. Meaning she was eating like a child that had been given carte blanche to put together her immature little dream feast. Small surprise it was all super sweet pasta dishes. The only chef Neon was interested in, it seemed, was one mister Boyardee.
Anis, meanwhile, was enjoying a little bit of everything. Seeming to go make a point to split everything she picked in half, and push the other half over to an increasingly exasperated Rapi. Rapi… had tried to get away with eating a single serving of ration bread, without anything on it. So, Joe understood Anis' decision to tactically force Rapi to actually participate in the feast, such as it was.
It was, despite everything, a decidedly domestic, even fun little affair. The little celebration came to its end, Rapi reminded Joe of how to reach his personal room, and after helping clean everything up, he took the mercifully functioning elevator to the top floor of the Command Centre. Quickly enough, he found the officer's quarters.
Stepping into the room was…
…Holy shit, this was a massive step up over his old place in the main CG building back in the Ark, and especially the pure function over form accomidations the girls were living with. There was a large, L-shaped desk with a small sitting area with a pair of sofas and a television off to the side - a kitchenette along with a doorway leading to a whole-ass dedicated bedroom, and his own personal washroom. Though everything had a functional bend to it, the edges had been sanded off, and a nice enough varnish applied, so to say. This was…
…Actually probably about the size of his old apartment back home, in Canada. Meaning it was big.
Holy shit. The location of the living space was kind of ass, but this was much nicer than what he'd been provided with before in the heart of the Ark.
And, as expected, his shit, what little of it he had, was piled up in the middle of the room. Packed up all neat and tidy.
Before anything else, Joe took his jacket, set it on the coat hook next to the door, and walked over to a particular box. Inside the box was a case, which itself contained…
First Affection, Marian's gun.
Gazing down at the firearm with a forlorn smile, he hefted it, noticed a rifle display set on the wall over the desk, and promptly placed it there. Stepping back… Yeah, that'd do.
It was at that point Joe noticed the two packages set on the desk as well. The first, set over the second, had an Elysion symbol emblazoned upon it. Popping it open revealed a heavy-duty work tablet. The kind that looked damn well bomb-proof, far sturdier than his old apparently Missilis-produced tablet. Along with the device was a note… advising that he either keep it in an internal breast pocket, or in a dedicated chest rig that secured it over his heart. Because Elysion field tablets were rated as capable of stopping pistol-calibre bullets.
Man. Joe really appreciated how Elysion simply did not fuck around.
Besides that was… a Tetra Line box. Popping it open revealed…
Joe stared. He blinked, and he ran a hand through his hair in exasperation and no small amount of disbelief. That… was probably faux gold, right? There was no way Mustang would just… give Joe a genuinely gold-plated personal phone, right? How fucking much would that cost normally? The fucking thing looked downright designer brand-name Gucci bullshit.
…Why was this giving Joe a similar feeling to those times in video games when it suddenly got really generous with ammo and resources right before kicking you into a boss room?
God willing, Joe would just be getting anxious over nothing.
Definitely.
Hopefully.
Last edited:
Zam138
Professional Loser
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I mean... well, no permanent ones, it was quite close.
mood tbh
Idiot444
The third worst thing to happen to myself...
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That's probably exactly what's gonna happen.
palacesound
Hunt Type Poster
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I don't see any Missilis shit. Syuen must be on the way, she might even be here now, just waiting to make an appropriately dramatic entrance.
ReignBloodark
Not too sore, are you?
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Hah. Considering what happens in Canon, this guy cant be more accurate with his gut feelings. Fcking Nikke, I jumped into it for horni monke brain but now I am plagued by misery through the plot itself and waiting resources to pile up just to advance the story since im a f2p bitch. Should have learnt my lesson to not follow my horni monke brain after got too deep into honkai but here I am with a new source of misery.
Daniel K. English
Dr. Shikikan-Squared
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I'm praying Joe gives the bitch a good backhand or two, because I can't in-game.
Oh please, having some good eye candy is the very minimum compensation for slogging through all of the Ark's bullshit.
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I really hope the MC doesn't take Syuen crap. He's in a good working relation with Anderson at the moment, hopefully he will contact him of what is happening, after beating the crap out of her, hoopefully
SongNai145
Not too sore, are you?
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I remember an old quote from a long forgotten fanfiction about Girl's Frontline about how there was some sick joke to be made about having an unit developed and deployed PERMANENTLY drunk. Like, what goes better with heavy firepower and military ops? Someone drunk off their ass operating everything!
Great chapter as always, love these little slice of life moments.
Fragment of Serenity
Yu-Shan's Paperwork Ninja
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Man, this is... eerie. Like, celebrations, victory, huzzah... in a town that's dead. Empty. Filled with nothing but ghosts and ashes.
I'm really digging Rapi's slowly changing opinion on Joe. It's neat to watch the two interact, considering that he's disarming her entirely unintentionally.
Also, good job Anis. Make sure she eats, lest we hit maximum levels of grim-derp in a setting that is already trying way too hard to achieve it.
I'm really digging Rapi's slowly changing opinion on Joe. It's neat to watch the two interact, considering that he's disarming her entirely unintentionally.
Also, good job Anis. Make sure she eats, lest we hit maximum levels of grim-derp in a setting that is already trying way too hard to achieve it.
palacesound
Hunt Type Poster
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Actual ghosts too since the Outpost is legitimately haunted.
Fragment of Serenity
Yu-Shan's Paperwork Ninja
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Actual ghosts too since the Outpost is legitimately haunted.
*Loads shotgun with malicious intent*
Haunt someplace else, ya endoplasmic asshats.
Queen
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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First off Woo party at the outpost!! second I love the interactions you have with all 3 of them rapi being weary but then being very surprised and grateful that you dont drink, anis being nervous but also accepting the hug which I found so wholesome cause she's one of the best girls as well as her being shocked and disappointed that she couldn't get to have glimpse of drunk you had me lol at her pouting/ and then there was neon with her madlad actions just chugging that wine hehe,
and the way you have them bounce off each is just legit amazing! third the way you had the feast scene was very nice neon enjoying bunch of pasta and anis doing some friendly sharing of her food to force rapi to eat and enjoy the variety of food
fourth it felt really heartwarming seeing Marian's gun get a place of honor in the commanders room
this was a banger of a chapter and am hyped to see what you got planned next!
and the way you have them bounce off each is just legit amazing! third the way you had the feast scene was very nice neon enjoying bunch of pasta and anis doing some friendly sharing of her food to force rapi to eat and enjoy the variety of food
fourth it felt really heartwarming seeing Marian's gun get a place of honor in the commanders room
this was a banger of a chapter and am hyped to see what you got planned next!
WiseSkulker
Know what you're doing yet?
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Might I suggest Requesting Power armor and a Fucking .50 cal.