Chapter 94 - No Rest for the Wicked
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BakaSmurf
Only Human, After All
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Chapter 94 - No Rest for the Wicked
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On his way back to the Outpost elevator, Joe remembered something very particular, and diverted to the Central Government Headquarters. Quickly finding his way up to a familiar floor he'd not visited in a while, it didn't take long for him to emerge into Andersen's office. His old friend was in the middle of hammering away at his computer, and seemed rather surprised to see the junior Commander appear.
"Commander Pholus, I wasn't expecting you," he remarked as he mucked around on his computer a bit more—double-checking the office's anti-surveillance systems no doubt.
After allowing a moment for Andersen to relax, thus indicating that they were doubtlessly safe to speak freely, Joe moved to take one of the seats across from the man's desk, settling down with a light hum. "You're rather late for that meeting in Shangri-La's Command Centre, you know," the junior Commander noted somewhat blithely. Best to exercise a degree of caution regardless of the fact that Enikk was likely actively monitoring them and redoubling their security.
The elder man clearly understood the point being made, however, and so he lightly grimaced at the statement. "...Yes, I am. I have, however, been needing to work myself like a dog to account for your meteoric rise to fame, in my defence," he said, presenting an expression equal parts bemused and annoyed Joe's way as he interlinked his fingers atop his desk. "Considering even the likes of Talentium are talking about you now, it's making my job increasingly difficult."
Joe blinked, and somewhat sheepishly reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Uh, well… That hasn't exactly been intentional on my part."
"Which makes it all the more annoying, having to watch Mr. Big over here casually knock everything around him over because he isn't paying attention to where his Johnson is going as he whips around like a lunatic," Andersen very dryly noted, presenting his younger fellow a flat look.
"I'm suddenly getting flashbacks to Red Hood with having my junk be so casually brought up in conversation like this…" Joe remarked with an embarrassed groan, bringing a hand to his face as he grimaced in a measure of distaste. "I've just been dealing with shit as it comes up. It's not like I've been deliberately causing a stir!"
"You didn't 'deliberately' seduce Red Hood and Ellie either," Andersen noted with all the moisture contained within the Sahara. "To say nothing of that one time with Rapunzel."
"I-" Joe started, his heart threatening to leap from his throat upon Andersen mentioning Cinderella, which caused the knife to flash in his mind's eye again, only to immediately crash and stop. "-That what with Rapunzel?" He asked, brow furrowing in genuine confusion.
There was a pause. A very pregnant pause as Andersen gave Joe a long, expressionless stare. When Joe brought his hands up in confusion, as if to compel the elder man to speak, Andersen sharply replied with: "Nothing, don't worry about it."
"-Huh?" Joe cried, blinking in abject confusion.
"It's nothing, I was just fucking with you, don't worry about it," Andersen asserted very forcefully before aggressively moving on. "You're remarkably skilled at making waves, regardless. It's almost as though there's a reason you've found yourself in the position you have."
Though the younger man was confused by that, it was all Joe could do to just shrug and move on, given that Andersen would just make stuff up all the time back in the day, after all. "Look, shit keeps happening around me, and everyone keeps making a huge deal of it. It's always been that way, and it seems like it always will."
"Yeah, that is how it kept working out with us," Andersen noted with a sigh. "The fact that you were just supposed to be the squad's figurehead to keep the brass off of our necks lives rent free in my head, considering the insanity that keeps cropping up around you, and how you seem predestined to be wed to fame, at any and all costs."
Joe leaned back in his seat, going limp as he allowed that fact to wash over him. Yeah. It never seemed to end. Talk about some bullshit. But, that aside… "So, that being said: when do you think you'll be able to come visit?"
Andersen looked at his computer, considered it for a few moments after clicking on a few things, and replied: "Everyone's just milling around the Outpost?"
Joe started to reply, only to halt as he remembered an important detail. "Snow just left for the Northern Base before I came down to the Ark, actually."
"Ah. Well then," Andersen adjusted his cuffs contemplatively. "I think it would be best if we waited until she returns. Best if everyone's back together for… That meeting."
Nodding shallowly, Joe had to agree. "Yeah, actually. I'll send you a message once everyone's ready for that."
"Sounds like a plan," Andersen said, letting out a small sigh before he contemplated the aether for a time. "That being said… 'Shangri-La?' Seriously? That's what you went with?"
Brow furrowing, Joe took some small measure of offence as he replied: "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"'Outer Heaven' was right there!" Andersen asserted, leaning forward in his seat, genuine dismay painted across his features. "What were you thinking, just throwing away the perfect name, wasting a perfect opportunity like that? When we were this close to greatness!?"
Joe stared at Andersen blankly for several long moments, his brow knitting as he processed that accusatory inquiry. "...Are you out of your fucking mind?" Was Joe's legitimately quietly angry reply.
Andersen was visibly taken aback by the audible heat in the junior Commander's voice, and wasn't given the chance to immediately speak back.
"Outer Heaven was a glorified terror state run by a bloodthirsty madman that went out of his way to tell Snake that killing people felt better than sex to him, that a life without war was a life not worth living, and that Snake, being a 'warrior,' was just the same as him," Joe continued actually glowering at Andersen outright. "The entire point of Outer Heaven as an idea was to give Big Boss the means to keep killing, slaughtering men en masse, causing war, explicitly and by his own admission deliberately creating child soldiers so there would always be a war to fight, men to kill. A world where peace would never exist, could never exist."
"Outer Heaven's name is ironic and blunt: it's a place outside of Heaven—literally Hell. A Hell where soldiers would never even receive the opportunity to be anything but a soldier, because there can be no place in Heaven for killers. A Hell where soldiers are born, live, and die on a pointless, purposeless battlefield, creating the next generation of soldiers who too, will never know the peace of Heaven by design."
"A place where the lives of soldiers are entirely without worth. Where they exist for the express purpose of being thrown into a pointless meat grinder from which no worth can be extracted, at the behest of officers that think of them as nothing more than tools to perpetuate their pointless forever war that exists for its own sake, of which there can be no winners or losers. And you expected me to name the Outpost after that nightmare? To inflict that fel augur on a place meant to be a refuge for Nikkes in a world that already is exactly what Outer Heaven was meant to be?"
Leaning forward in his seat, Joe all but snarled the end of his rant at Andersen outright. "'Outer Heaven' already exists here: a place where Nikkes exist for no other reason than to fight and die pointlessly for the pleasure of the mad men that've taken control of society and made themselves enemies of humanity in doing so. It's called 'the Ark,' you fucking donkey!"
Andersen was taken aback, needless to say. Staring wide-eyed, recoiling in his seat. He didn't know how to respond, pupils momentarily darting about, visibly overwhelmed.
Joe's eyes narrowed significantly, and he asked rhetorically: "You've never actually played the MSX Metal Gear games, or critically examined Big Boss in Peace Walker or The Phantom Pain, have you?"
"A-anyways…" Andersen inelegantly attempted to shift the topic, caught off-guard by how harshly he'd been rebuked, and just how betrayed he retroactively felt by Genius Kojumbo for portraying Big Boss as such an unequivocally cool and good guy without flaws in later games, if he was actually so bad at first. "I've still got some work to do here, so, you should head out and let me know as soon as we're good for that meeting-" Pausing, his eyes widened as something came to mind. "-Ah right, expect a call from Ingrid. She's going to be needing Counters for another mission soon."
Rolling his eyes at Andersen's once more revealing how shallow and uncritical his consumption of media was, Joe instead let out a long sigh. "No rest for the wicked, huh? Will there actually be time for that meeting, at this rate?" The older man was a dumb ass, and Joe had been legitimately pissed off at the 'Outer Heaven' suggestion, but Andersen clearly hadn't actually known better, so the younger man would let it go unless the Deputy Chief Commander tried to push it again later.
"It depends on how long Snow White is occupied," Andersen said with a shrug. "I suppose we'll see."
"I suppose we will," Joe rose to his feet, already tired by the knowledge that another mission was fast approaching. "Anything else before I go?"
"No, just," Andersen halted, contemplating the cuffs of his jacket. "Be prepared. This may wind up being a deeply demanding mission."
"Like every other one I've been on since I woke up in that fucking hospital bed," Joe sighed in bone-deep defeat. "Same shit, different day. Let's hope that meeting happens sooner rather than later." He shot the Deputy Chief Commander a half-assed salute as he started to move for the exit. "Smell you later, loser."
"Goodbye forever, see you never," Andersen shot back even as he proceeded to refocus on his computer, already tapping away at it on rapid-fire.
Such was their lot as military officers.
"'Heretic fragments?'" Joe repeated the term as he gazed out the window overlooking Shangri-La.
"Yes," Ingrid affirmed the question as she elucidated over the phone. "The remnants of the Heretic that was defeated by Absolute and Matis a few months ago. We haven't been able to retrieve them up to now on account of the dangerously powerful flames left in the wake of the Heretic's destruction."
"Too dangerous for even Nikkes to approach?" Joe asked.
"Vesti had to have her hand replaced because she got too close to the flames, and her fingers started to melt and fuse together from the radiant heat alone," Ingrid replied matter-of-factually. "Simply put: yes."
"Holy shit," Joe rubbed at his brow, shocked by the implications of just how intensely hot those flames must have been burning to be able to melt Goddessium at all, let alone so quickly.
"Indeed," was Ingrid's dry reply.
"How did killing the Heretic even produce fire anyway? They're Corrupted Nikkes, and Nikkes don't tend to explode when they die in my experience."
"Indivilia's exposed core was struck by lightning at the end of the fight," Ingrid elaborated. "The current theory is that the energy transfer from that interaction explosively overloaded her core. Hence the explosion."
"...So a powerful electrical strike can kill a Heretic if it hits their core directly," Joe mused, filing that point away for later reference. "Duly noted. I suppose these 'Heretic Fragments' have an entirely self-descriptive name, and we're literally being sent to collect the leftover fragments of this 'Indivilia?'"
"That's right," Ingrid declared simply. "The Central Government has been riding our asses about retrieving them ever since. Understandably, all things considered. We don't get very many opportunities to capture Heretic materials for study, as you might imagine. Area H has been off-limits since then."
"Area H?" Joe inquired.
"The crater left in the wake of the explosion," Ingrid noted matter-of-factually. "No Nikke squads have been permitted to so much as attempt approaching it since. Luckily, Andersen is high enough up on the ladder that he was able to get us special permission to do so. Doubly so considering the flames have died down."
Joe hummed in contemplation as he observed Cinderella—wearing that perilously short sundress of hers—attempt to climb a scaffolding with an I-beam loaded on her shoulder at a construction site. 'Attempt' being the keyword, as Liter had latched onto her leg and was making a very valiant attempt to wrestle the white-haired beauty to the ground to stop her exhibitionism. An attempt which was very much going in Liter's favour, to note, given that Liter had Nikke strength, while Cinderella's featherweight frame meant that she was only somewhat heavier than an unaugmented human woman of her size ought to have been.
The sight was actually pretty funny, considering the size difference between them and how Cinderella couldn't really leverage her flight abilities to win the tug-of-war with the pint-sized foreman, given that Ark Nikkes weren't supposed to be capable of flight.
That aside… "So this is an officially sanctioned operation, then?" Joe inquired as he idly rubbed at his bearded chin.
"With a dedicated operator and everything," Ingrid answered easily. "You've worked with Shifty before according to the records I checked. She's reliable and professional. She also tends to exercise discretion when it comes to bearing witness to things the Central Government would generally expect to be reported to them. We can consider her trustworthy unless you do something exceptionally untoward or illegal on the surface."
"That's good to know," Joe replied as he leaned on the wall framing the window, continuing to observe Liter's dogged attempts to prevent Cinderella from flaunting her admittedly perfect cheeks to anyone she could, causing Joe to idly ponder the fact that every woman that seemed interested in him on this branch of creation turned out to be a pervert to some degree. "So, it'll just be myself and Counters going in for this?"
"Absolute will also be accompanying you," Ingrid noted pointedly. "Indivilia is, by all reports, very dead, but we aren't taking chances with this. If she somehow stitches herself back together the moment she senses Nikkes nearby or something like that, we want those that have already demonstrated a capacity to fight her effectively on hand to maximize your chances of survival. Hence the reason I'm also cashing in that favour to have Matis be put under your Command for the operation as well."
"Matis… Missilis' big name squad, yeah?" Joe remarked with a hum. "If you're so quick to vouch for them, then I'm not going to complain about the extra firepower."
"While they may be…" Ingrid started, trailing off as she seemed to consider her next words carefully. "Most comparable to a gaggle of uncorralled headless chickens," holy shit did that comparison cause a pit to form in Joe's stomach real quick, considering that was apparently Ingrid putting it diplomatically. "They are also second only to Absolute. They're among the most powerful Nikkes to have ever been produced by the Ark. Teamed up with Absolute and Counters? I'd be surprised if you three wouldn't make short work of Indivilia if she did wind up reasserting herself out there."
"That's good to know," Joe nodded as though Ingrid could see him doing so over the phone. He didn't like the notion of encountering another Heretic after having been slam-jammed by Mordernia- Marian, so easily even with Snow White and Scarlet on their side, but if this 'Indivilia' had been 'dead' for months now, she was actually probably just dead. "But, speaking of firepower… Neon? Will she be fit to join us?"
"Right, Neon." Ingrid started, sounding intensely fatigued by needing to address her in the first place. "Long story short? Raptilion is a known quantity in the Ark, Commander. Neon hasn't undergone a Mind Switch, and everything she reported to you was the plain truth."
Joe blinked, stared blankly out the window, and eventually replied, "Huh?"
"Yeah," Ingrid sighed before she continued. "I checked her Audio/Visual recordings myself. She sought out and engaged with Raptilion for an extended period of time. Raptilion, as noted, is a known quantity. He's actually rather infamous, in fact. To the point of being on the Central Government's watch list, given his… Unorthodox opinions and research on Raptures."
Joe was about to ask, but then he recalled Neon's ramblings about Raptures being 'friends.'
At once, he recalled the campaign of extinction that had been waged against humanity. The millions killed. The uncountable deaths, the knowledge that so many had to be abandoned on the surface and left to the 'mercy' of the Raptures when the Ark was sealed.
All the lost knowledge, the destroyed cultures, and functionally extinct ethnicities as genocide had been blindly, but no less successfully performed on so many distinct peoples, leaving so precious few to descend into the Ark. Had the Ark not been built so near the Canadian-American border, not been able to pull on the melting pot nature of both North American populations alongside those who had escaped in such small numbers from the rest of the world as it had fallen… The Ark would have turned out even more starkly homogeneous than it already was.
And this 'Raptilion' wanted mankind to make nice with those same Raptures, to become friends with humanity's enemy?
The very notion, now that he knew it wasn't just the deranged rantings of a Mind Switched Nikke, actively infuriated him. With nostrils flaring, he shook his head, making an active effort to calm himself down. This 'Raptilion' was clearly a God damned fool, not someone worth wasting thoughts on. So Joe wouldn't, and would instead just focus on his duty: reclaiming the surface and utterly destroying the Raptures to make Earth mankind's again.
"Neon's tougher than she seems, huh?" The Commander changed the subject away from this Rapture apologist with no small amount of audible heat to his voice, for the sake of his own blood pressure, if nothing else. "I was certain that something in her must have snapped, but she really came out of that whole misadventure no worse for the wear?"
"The only thing she really needed was a shower and a change of clothes," Ingrid replied, allowing the topic to shift with no resistance. "We did do a proper maintenance cycle on her regardless, since we already had her here at Elysion HQ, but yes, there's a reason I assigned her to you. She's basically a solid rock wall as far as stability goes on top of being genuinely competent. Eccentricities aside."
"I'll be sure to rely on her more going forward, then," Joe said as he pushed off the wall next to the window and started to move to sit at his desk. "Estimated time on when we should expect to be deployed?"
"Within the next few days. Make sure your squad is prepared. Even if you're unlikely to encounter a living Heretic out there, the surface is always dangerous. Though if anyone would be aware of that, it would be you."
Powering on his computer with his free hand, Joe started going through the process of sorting out documentation and logistics ahead of time. Though… "Can't risk bringing Pioneer along on account of it being an official operation, yeah?"
"The less attention we bring to them in an official capacity, the better," Ingrid replied dutifully. "There's a reason I'm cashing in on that favour with Syuen to have Matis shore up your projected combat effectiveness in their absence, just in case."
"Fair enough," Joe said as he opened the planning programs Commanders were expected to use (but likely very rarely ever actually did use) to prepare for deployments. "Anything else before I focus on preparations?"
"No," Ingrid stated simply enough. "I'll let you know if anything important comes up, but this should be a fairly straightforward operation, all things considered."
"Understood. I'll get to it, then," the Commander acknowledged her assertion.
"As you were, Commander," Ingrid declared in her typical authoritative way before she cut the call.
Pausing, Joe mused on the 'straightforward operation' bit.
Meaning it was 50/50 odds of being jumped by Chatterbox again.
Joe really hoped they wouldn't wind up getting jumped by Chatterbox again.
They were totally gonna be jumped by Chatterbox again.
Shit.
Chapter 94 - No Rest for the Wicked
===
On his way back to the Outpost elevator, Joe remembered something very particular, and diverted to the Central Government Headquarters. Quickly finding his way up to a familiar floor he'd not visited in a while, it didn't take long for him to emerge into Andersen's office. His old friend was in the middle of hammering away at his computer, and seemed rather surprised to see the junior Commander appear.
"Commander Pholus, I wasn't expecting you," he remarked as he mucked around on his computer a bit more—double-checking the office's anti-surveillance systems no doubt.
After allowing a moment for Andersen to relax, thus indicating that they were doubtlessly safe to speak freely, Joe moved to take one of the seats across from the man's desk, settling down with a light hum. "You're rather late for that meeting in Shangri-La's Command Centre, you know," the junior Commander noted somewhat blithely. Best to exercise a degree of caution regardless of the fact that Enikk was likely actively monitoring them and redoubling their security.
The elder man clearly understood the point being made, however, and so he lightly grimaced at the statement. "...Yes, I am. I have, however, been needing to work myself like a dog to account for your meteoric rise to fame, in my defence," he said, presenting an expression equal parts bemused and annoyed Joe's way as he interlinked his fingers atop his desk. "Considering even the likes of Talentium are talking about you now, it's making my job increasingly difficult."
Joe blinked, and somewhat sheepishly reached up to rub the back of his neck. "Uh, well… That hasn't exactly been intentional on my part."
"Which makes it all the more annoying, having to watch Mr. Big over here casually knock everything around him over because he isn't paying attention to where his Johnson is going as he whips around like a lunatic," Andersen very dryly noted, presenting his younger fellow a flat look.
"I'm suddenly getting flashbacks to Red Hood with having my junk be so casually brought up in conversation like this…" Joe remarked with an embarrassed groan, bringing a hand to his face as he grimaced in a measure of distaste. "I've just been dealing with shit as it comes up. It's not like I've been deliberately causing a stir!"
"You didn't 'deliberately' seduce Red Hood and Ellie either," Andersen noted with all the moisture contained within the Sahara. "To say nothing of that one time with Rapunzel."
"I-" Joe started, his heart threatening to leap from his throat upon Andersen mentioning Cinderella, which caused the knife to flash in his mind's eye again, only to immediately crash and stop. "-That what with Rapunzel?" He asked, brow furrowing in genuine confusion.
There was a pause. A very pregnant pause as Andersen gave Joe a long, expressionless stare. When Joe brought his hands up in confusion, as if to compel the elder man to speak, Andersen sharply replied with: "Nothing, don't worry about it."
"-Huh?" Joe cried, blinking in abject confusion.
"It's nothing, I was just fucking with you, don't worry about it," Andersen asserted very forcefully before aggressively moving on. "You're remarkably skilled at making waves, regardless. It's almost as though there's a reason you've found yourself in the position you have."
Though the younger man was confused by that, it was all Joe could do to just shrug and move on, given that Andersen would just make stuff up all the time back in the day, after all. "Look, shit keeps happening around me, and everyone keeps making a huge deal of it. It's always been that way, and it seems like it always will."
"Yeah, that is how it kept working out with us," Andersen noted with a sigh. "The fact that you were just supposed to be the squad's figurehead to keep the brass off of our necks lives rent free in my head, considering the insanity that keeps cropping up around you, and how you seem predestined to be wed to fame, at any and all costs."
Joe leaned back in his seat, going limp as he allowed that fact to wash over him. Yeah. It never seemed to end. Talk about some bullshit. But, that aside… "So, that being said: when do you think you'll be able to come visit?"
Andersen looked at his computer, considered it for a few moments after clicking on a few things, and replied: "Everyone's just milling around the Outpost?"
Joe started to reply, only to halt as he remembered an important detail. "Snow just left for the Northern Base before I came down to the Ark, actually."
"Ah. Well then," Andersen adjusted his cuffs contemplatively. "I think it would be best if we waited until she returns. Best if everyone's back together for… That meeting."
Nodding shallowly, Joe had to agree. "Yeah, actually. I'll send you a message once everyone's ready for that."
"Sounds like a plan," Andersen said, letting out a small sigh before he contemplated the aether for a time. "That being said… 'Shangri-La?' Seriously? That's what you went with?"
Brow furrowing, Joe took some small measure of offence as he replied: "The fuck is that supposed to mean?"
"'Outer Heaven' was right there!" Andersen asserted, leaning forward in his seat, genuine dismay painted across his features. "What were you thinking, just throwing away the perfect name, wasting a perfect opportunity like that? When we were this close to greatness!?"
Joe stared at Andersen blankly for several long moments, his brow knitting as he processed that accusatory inquiry. "...Are you out of your fucking mind?" Was Joe's legitimately quietly angry reply.
Andersen was visibly taken aback by the audible heat in the junior Commander's voice, and wasn't given the chance to immediately speak back.
"Outer Heaven was a glorified terror state run by a bloodthirsty madman that went out of his way to tell Snake that killing people felt better than sex to him, that a life without war was a life not worth living, and that Snake, being a 'warrior,' was just the same as him," Joe continued actually glowering at Andersen outright. "The entire point of Outer Heaven as an idea was to give Big Boss the means to keep killing, slaughtering men en masse, causing war, explicitly and by his own admission deliberately creating child soldiers so there would always be a war to fight, men to kill. A world where peace would never exist, could never exist."
"Outer Heaven's name is ironic and blunt: it's a place outside of Heaven—literally Hell. A Hell where soldiers would never even receive the opportunity to be anything but a soldier, because there can be no place in Heaven for killers. A Hell where soldiers are born, live, and die on a pointless, purposeless battlefield, creating the next generation of soldiers who too, will never know the peace of Heaven by design."
"A place where the lives of soldiers are entirely without worth. Where they exist for the express purpose of being thrown into a pointless meat grinder from which no worth can be extracted, at the behest of officers that think of them as nothing more than tools to perpetuate their pointless forever war that exists for its own sake, of which there can be no winners or losers. And you expected me to name the Outpost after that nightmare? To inflict that fel augur on a place meant to be a refuge for Nikkes in a world that already is exactly what Outer Heaven was meant to be?"
Leaning forward in his seat, Joe all but snarled the end of his rant at Andersen outright. "'Outer Heaven' already exists here: a place where Nikkes exist for no other reason than to fight and die pointlessly for the pleasure of the mad men that've taken control of society and made themselves enemies of humanity in doing so. It's called 'the Ark,' you fucking donkey!"
Andersen was taken aback, needless to say. Staring wide-eyed, recoiling in his seat. He didn't know how to respond, pupils momentarily darting about, visibly overwhelmed.
Joe's eyes narrowed significantly, and he asked rhetorically: "You've never actually played the MSX Metal Gear games, or critically examined Big Boss in Peace Walker or The Phantom Pain, have you?"
"A-anyways…" Andersen inelegantly attempted to shift the topic, caught off-guard by how harshly he'd been rebuked, and just how betrayed he retroactively felt by Genius Kojumbo for portraying Big Boss as such an unequivocally cool and good guy without flaws in later games, if he was actually so bad at first. "I've still got some work to do here, so, you should head out and let me know as soon as we're good for that meeting-" Pausing, his eyes widened as something came to mind. "-Ah right, expect a call from Ingrid. She's going to be needing Counters for another mission soon."
Rolling his eyes at Andersen's once more revealing how shallow and uncritical his consumption of media was, Joe instead let out a long sigh. "No rest for the wicked, huh? Will there actually be time for that meeting, at this rate?" The older man was a dumb ass, and Joe had been legitimately pissed off at the 'Outer Heaven' suggestion, but Andersen clearly hadn't actually known better, so the younger man would let it go unless the Deputy Chief Commander tried to push it again later.
"It depends on how long Snow White is occupied," Andersen said with a shrug. "I suppose we'll see."
"I suppose we will," Joe rose to his feet, already tired by the knowledge that another mission was fast approaching. "Anything else before I go?"
"No, just," Andersen halted, contemplating the cuffs of his jacket. "Be prepared. This may wind up being a deeply demanding mission."
"Like every other one I've been on since I woke up in that fucking hospital bed," Joe sighed in bone-deep defeat. "Same shit, different day. Let's hope that meeting happens sooner rather than later." He shot the Deputy Chief Commander a half-assed salute as he started to move for the exit. "Smell you later, loser."
"Goodbye forever, see you never," Andersen shot back even as he proceeded to refocus on his computer, already tapping away at it on rapid-fire.
Such was their lot as military officers.
"'Heretic fragments?'" Joe repeated the term as he gazed out the window overlooking Shangri-La.
"Yes," Ingrid affirmed the question as she elucidated over the phone. "The remnants of the Heretic that was defeated by Absolute and Matis a few months ago. We haven't been able to retrieve them up to now on account of the dangerously powerful flames left in the wake of the Heretic's destruction."
"Too dangerous for even Nikkes to approach?" Joe asked.
"Vesti had to have her hand replaced because she got too close to the flames, and her fingers started to melt and fuse together from the radiant heat alone," Ingrid replied matter-of-factually. "Simply put: yes."
"Holy shit," Joe rubbed at his brow, shocked by the implications of just how intensely hot those flames must have been burning to be able to melt Goddessium at all, let alone so quickly.
"Indeed," was Ingrid's dry reply.
"How did killing the Heretic even produce fire anyway? They're Corrupted Nikkes, and Nikkes don't tend to explode when they die in my experience."
"Indivilia's exposed core was struck by lightning at the end of the fight," Ingrid elaborated. "The current theory is that the energy transfer from that interaction explosively overloaded her core. Hence the explosion."
"...So a powerful electrical strike can kill a Heretic if it hits their core directly," Joe mused, filing that point away for later reference. "Duly noted. I suppose these 'Heretic Fragments' have an entirely self-descriptive name, and we're literally being sent to collect the leftover fragments of this 'Indivilia?'"
"That's right," Ingrid declared simply. "The Central Government has been riding our asses about retrieving them ever since. Understandably, all things considered. We don't get very many opportunities to capture Heretic materials for study, as you might imagine. Area H has been off-limits since then."
"Area H?" Joe inquired.
"The crater left in the wake of the explosion," Ingrid noted matter-of-factually. "No Nikke squads have been permitted to so much as attempt approaching it since. Luckily, Andersen is high enough up on the ladder that he was able to get us special permission to do so. Doubly so considering the flames have died down."
Joe hummed in contemplation as he observed Cinderella—wearing that perilously short sundress of hers—attempt to climb a scaffolding with an I-beam loaded on her shoulder at a construction site. 'Attempt' being the keyword, as Liter had latched onto her leg and was making a very valiant attempt to wrestle the white-haired beauty to the ground to stop her exhibitionism. An attempt which was very much going in Liter's favour, to note, given that Liter had Nikke strength, while Cinderella's featherweight frame meant that she was only somewhat heavier than an unaugmented human woman of her size ought to have been.
The sight was actually pretty funny, considering the size difference between them and how Cinderella couldn't really leverage her flight abilities to win the tug-of-war with the pint-sized foreman, given that Ark Nikkes weren't supposed to be capable of flight.
That aside… "So this is an officially sanctioned operation, then?" Joe inquired as he idly rubbed at his bearded chin.
"With a dedicated operator and everything," Ingrid answered easily. "You've worked with Shifty before according to the records I checked. She's reliable and professional. She also tends to exercise discretion when it comes to bearing witness to things the Central Government would generally expect to be reported to them. We can consider her trustworthy unless you do something exceptionally untoward or illegal on the surface."
"That's good to know," Joe replied as he leaned on the wall framing the window, continuing to observe Liter's dogged attempts to prevent Cinderella from flaunting her admittedly perfect cheeks to anyone she could, causing Joe to idly ponder the fact that every woman that seemed interested in him on this branch of creation turned out to be a pervert to some degree. "So, it'll just be myself and Counters going in for this?"
"Absolute will also be accompanying you," Ingrid noted pointedly. "Indivilia is, by all reports, very dead, but we aren't taking chances with this. If she somehow stitches herself back together the moment she senses Nikkes nearby or something like that, we want those that have already demonstrated a capacity to fight her effectively on hand to maximize your chances of survival. Hence the reason I'm also cashing in that favour to have Matis be put under your Command for the operation as well."
"Matis… Missilis' big name squad, yeah?" Joe remarked with a hum. "If you're so quick to vouch for them, then I'm not going to complain about the extra firepower."
"While they may be…" Ingrid started, trailing off as she seemed to consider her next words carefully. "Most comparable to a gaggle of uncorralled headless chickens," holy shit did that comparison cause a pit to form in Joe's stomach real quick, considering that was apparently Ingrid putting it diplomatically. "They are also second only to Absolute. They're among the most powerful Nikkes to have ever been produced by the Ark. Teamed up with Absolute and Counters? I'd be surprised if you three wouldn't make short work of Indivilia if she did wind up reasserting herself out there."
"That's good to know," Joe nodded as though Ingrid could see him doing so over the phone. He didn't like the notion of encountering another Heretic after having been slam-jammed by Mordernia- Marian, so easily even with Snow White and Scarlet on their side, but if this 'Indivilia' had been 'dead' for months now, she was actually probably just dead. "But, speaking of firepower… Neon? Will she be fit to join us?"
"Right, Neon." Ingrid started, sounding intensely fatigued by needing to address her in the first place. "Long story short? Raptilion is a known quantity in the Ark, Commander. Neon hasn't undergone a Mind Switch, and everything she reported to you was the plain truth."
Joe blinked, stared blankly out the window, and eventually replied, "Huh?"
"Yeah," Ingrid sighed before she continued. "I checked her Audio/Visual recordings myself. She sought out and engaged with Raptilion for an extended period of time. Raptilion, as noted, is a known quantity. He's actually rather infamous, in fact. To the point of being on the Central Government's watch list, given his… Unorthodox opinions and research on Raptures."
Joe was about to ask, but then he recalled Neon's ramblings about Raptures being 'friends.'
At once, he recalled the campaign of extinction that had been waged against humanity. The millions killed. The uncountable deaths, the knowledge that so many had to be abandoned on the surface and left to the 'mercy' of the Raptures when the Ark was sealed.
All the lost knowledge, the destroyed cultures, and functionally extinct ethnicities as genocide had been blindly, but no less successfully performed on so many distinct peoples, leaving so precious few to descend into the Ark. Had the Ark not been built so near the Canadian-American border, not been able to pull on the melting pot nature of both North American populations alongside those who had escaped in such small numbers from the rest of the world as it had fallen… The Ark would have turned out even more starkly homogeneous than it already was.
And this 'Raptilion' wanted mankind to make nice with those same Raptures, to become friends with humanity's enemy?
The very notion, now that he knew it wasn't just the deranged rantings of a Mind Switched Nikke, actively infuriated him. With nostrils flaring, he shook his head, making an active effort to calm himself down. This 'Raptilion' was clearly a God damned fool, not someone worth wasting thoughts on. So Joe wouldn't, and would instead just focus on his duty: reclaiming the surface and utterly destroying the Raptures to make Earth mankind's again.
"Neon's tougher than she seems, huh?" The Commander changed the subject away from this Rapture apologist with no small amount of audible heat to his voice, for the sake of his own blood pressure, if nothing else. "I was certain that something in her must have snapped, but she really came out of that whole misadventure no worse for the wear?"
"The only thing she really needed was a shower and a change of clothes," Ingrid replied, allowing the topic to shift with no resistance. "We did do a proper maintenance cycle on her regardless, since we already had her here at Elysion HQ, but yes, there's a reason I assigned her to you. She's basically a solid rock wall as far as stability goes on top of being genuinely competent. Eccentricities aside."
"I'll be sure to rely on her more going forward, then," Joe said as he pushed off the wall next to the window and started to move to sit at his desk. "Estimated time on when we should expect to be deployed?"
"Within the next few days. Make sure your squad is prepared. Even if you're unlikely to encounter a living Heretic out there, the surface is always dangerous. Though if anyone would be aware of that, it would be you."
Powering on his computer with his free hand, Joe started going through the process of sorting out documentation and logistics ahead of time. Though… "Can't risk bringing Pioneer along on account of it being an official operation, yeah?"
"The less attention we bring to them in an official capacity, the better," Ingrid replied dutifully. "There's a reason I'm cashing in on that favour with Syuen to have Matis shore up your projected combat effectiveness in their absence, just in case."
"Fair enough," Joe said as he opened the planning programs Commanders were expected to use (but likely very rarely ever actually did use) to prepare for deployments. "Anything else before I focus on preparations?"
"No," Ingrid stated simply enough. "I'll let you know if anything important comes up, but this should be a fairly straightforward operation, all things considered."
"Understood. I'll get to it, then," the Commander acknowledged her assertion.
"As you were, Commander," Ingrid declared in her typical authoritative way before she cut the call.
Pausing, Joe mused on the 'straightforward operation' bit.
Meaning it was 50/50 odds of being jumped by Chatterbox again.
Joe really hoped they wouldn't wind up getting jumped by Chatterbox again.
They were totally gonna be jumped by Chatterbox again.
Shit.
