Only Human (Goddess of Victory NIKKE SI)

[BakaSmurf]

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Chapter 01 - It's Just Begun
===

Gazing out a window overlooking the fantastically futuristic city below, Joseph Pholus took in the sight as he stood quietly, periodically adjusting the… uniform he'd been provided. As distracting as the physical discomfort of the stiff military wear might have been, it was nothing much at all in stark contrast to the quiet awareness of the nature of the sky he stared up at.

An artificial sky complete with two-dimensional clouds, a gargantuan projection hanging high over the underground arcology that was the Ark; mankind's last, deceptively frail hope for survival.

A week he had been present here, having awoken in a local hospital with no memory of how he'd been displaced from his comfortable apartment bed back in Canada… a week that had passed by, somehow in some infernal combination of an imperceptibly fast whirlwind, and an agonizingly slow crawl at the same time.

Earth had been invaded by honest-to-god extraterrestrials, known to the remaining people of the world as 'Raptures,' and there was no human life on Earth which was not entirely contained within the Ark's own walls now. All of this… had happened decades prior. Which, if nothing else, cleanly disabused Joe of any notions that he had simply experienced 'amnesia' as the hospital staff had assumed: this wasn't, couldn't have possibly been his Earth.

For starters, it was the year 2130. It was 2023 last he'd checked. Unless he aged rather remarkably like ambrosia compared to the average person, there was simply no way he was merely experiencing lost time… He simply had to have awoken in the body of an alternate self of his - the Joseph Pholus of this world. A man who had, when faced with the cruel reality of mankind's encroaching extinction… signed up to serve on the front lines of the war, to join the phalanx holding the line for the sake of those precious few remaining here in the Ark.

That, on the face of it, wasn't so startling. It tracked with what he knew of himself, if nothing else. Do not go gentle into that good night, stand and fight to the bitter end, make life struggle for each solitary inch it takes from you… all maxims he held true to in his previous life, all of which had carried him through the hardships of his early life and into an adulthood he doubted he'd ever get the chance to see several times.

Apply that to a timeline wherein he was among those that remained in the midst of a hostile alien invasion of Earth? Yeah, signing up for the military in that context was exactly the sort of headpants decision he'd make.

Yet now, it wasn't his alternate self, but him that would be forced to live with that decision. For a good number of reasons, he rapidly found out. Including the fact that he didn't… really have anywhere else to go. No employment records, no place of residence, no known contacts even a week after they started looking… hell, there had been a minor emergency while he was out in the hospital on account of them having no records on him either, and by extension, having no idea what his blood type was. Some military bigwig had apparently had to intervene on that matter, though nobody seemed keen on elucidating what exactly that had meant to him after the fact.

Otherwise, by all accounts, he'd simply popped into existence on the day he had signed up for military training.

Startlingly, when it seemed obvious to Joe that he would no longer qualify for the position his previous self had earned, he was made to run a battery of tests which included directing mock battles in full-on holographic simulation rooms; culminating in the confirmation that, somehow, his command compatibility scores had increased after the accident which had landed this body in the hospital. Almost like losing what training he'd apparently previously gone through resulted in a marked improvement in his tactical and strategic decision-making.

He didn't like the implications of what that said about not only his alternate self… but the average Ark Commander in general, given that he was noted to be outperforming his immediate peers now too…

The Ark's Central Government was also, it turned out, more than a little remiss to accept resignations from 'perfectly capable' Commanders without severe justification. To the tune of 'loss of bodily autonomy' or 'treason.'

So… basically conscripted, he was given the standard-issue uniform of a Commander which consisted of a no-frills olive drab suit with things like the typical high-waisted belt and tall leather boots common to such uniforms. Luckily, he wasn't forced to cut his hair, and was only made to trim and gussy up his beard to 'professional standards' rather than shave it outright. Though Joe would be lying if he said that seeing his long dark brown hair tied up in a tight man bun didn't make him want to punch himself in the face.

'Twas better than the alternative of braiding his hair when in-uniform, at any rate, he supposed.

Damn military regulations. He hoped they wouldn't make him apply hair gel to keep his shorter forelocks off of his face on top of that.

Thank God they didn't make him wear the optional hat.

Afterwards, he was basically exposited at to get the ball rolling on his understanding of the world around him, and informed of what exactly being a 'Commander' entailed.

He would be travelling to the planet's surface in accordance to contracts issued by the Central Government and accepted at his own discretion, outside of situations wherein he'd be directly commanded in a more traditionally military manner to fulfill objectives issued by his superiors.

And who, exactly, would he be commanding in the field?

Why, cyborg super-soldiers, of course. Humans augmented to be capable of unthinkably preternatural feats such as shoulder-firing guns that would tear a regular human's arm clean from their shoulder socket while leaping multiple stories into the air, running faster than a red-lined race car, tanking damage that would turn a regular person into a fine red mist...

Nikkes, the Goddesses of Victory.

Because for some inscrutable reason, only women were augmented into cyborgs and deployed into active combat as actual combatants. His role on the battlefield? Observe from a distance using whatever methods were available to him, and direct the Nikkes under his command to victory. Using one of the weapons used by Nikkes was… ill-advised, for the aforementioned reason of 'shoulders torn clean from sockets.'

Needless to say, he wasn't expected to directly engage Raptures, and, in fact, was very firmly informed that he would only be provided a personal firearm for the purposes of defending himself from wild predatory animals on the surface, should the need arise. Shooting a Rapture with anything less than a Nikke-grade gun just pissed them off, as it turned out. And shooting a Nikke-grade gun as anything less than a Nikke was a really good way to find oneself in a hospital, if not a morgue.

So… Big fucking yikes all around. The only reason Joe wasn't actively quaking in his boots was because he'd achieved some horrible form of zen, a distant acceptance of… something, though he wasn't quite sure what at this point. But it kept him calm where he otherwise probably should have been a panic-ridden mess.

Of course, looking far more put-together than he really was underneath the veneer of unshaking self-assurance had earned him no small amount of approval. He was cleared to have a Nikke squad assigned to him, and he was to begin training with the girls he'd be commanding for the foreseeable future in preparation for deployment within… the next month or so.

Talk about sink or fucking swim.

But, that brought him back to the present. Standing in one of the many underground towers that filled the Ark, the last city on Earth paradoxically abuzz with life below looking for all the world like a future-tech utopia at a glance proceeded along with seemingly nary a care in the world; all the while, he waited to meet his squad.

Behind him, he heard the automatic door leading deeper into the facility open up, and the voice of the man, a fellow officer who had been leading him about the building filled the waiting area once more. Immediately, he could hear that he was informing his apparent squad of the situation and all of that. Quickly enough, a pair of footsteps turned the corner, and…

"Commander Pholus," the fastidious young man declared. "The Nikke who will be serving under you from here on out."

Letting out a sigh of quiet resignation, Joe turned to be greeted by…

A single, sharp gasp from a lone young woman standing astride the young man who had been guiding Joe about. Where the guy had been as unremarkable as a man could be…

She was, simply put, breathtaking. At once, Joe was reminded of the fact that the 'Goddess' part of the descriptor was shockingly apt. Nikkes, more often than not, were stone-cold stunners. Whether this was because they had been lucky enough to be born beautiful and had that natural beauty preserved into their augmentation, or they were altered to be gorgeous post-alteration, he didn't know. But, this eye-catching brunette was no exception to the established norm.

She was dressed in what could be best summed up as a sexy flight attendant get-up, complete with the little cap sitting atop her crown. Blue, white, black and accented in gold: taut to her curvaceous figure in all the right places… anyone with an attraction to women would be blown off their feet at the sight of her. Previously, seeing a girl dolled up as she was would cause him to immediately assume that she was a cosplayer, but, from what he'd seen of Nikkes, it was pretty damned common for them to just… flaunt what they had, sometimes to the point of excess.

Apparently, being capable of casually outpacing a prize racehorse at a full gallop in three-inch heels opened the door wide open for what could be considered 'functional combat apparel.'

Hence the sheer tights worn under a form-hugging miniskirt which left precious little to the imagination. Despite himself, Joe couldn't help but stare at least a bit. Which is what caused him to catch sight of her breathtaking heterochromic eyes - sapphire blue with strikingly photogenic chocolate brown splotches, wide and locked firmly onto him. Accompanying a… reddening of her cheeks?

Was she sick, or something?

After a bit of an extended quiet, the uniformed young man standing astride her gave the Nikke an unimpressed sidelong glance, as she simply continued to stare at Joe. Then, he broke the silence before it could begin to really get awkward. "Her name is Marian. As you can see, she is no mere mass-production model. She will inform you more of her specific capabilities and such in the coming days as you two sort your business out. Be sure to make the most out of her during your tenure as a Commander."

With a jump, Marian gasped, sheepishly averting her gaze as her blush intensified before she took a deep breath. "...Hello, Commander Pholus. It's nice to meet you. I'm looking forward to working with you from here on out."

She came across as downright shy. Shocking, considering she could most assuredly tear apart a main battle tank from back home with just her bare hands. Though, he supposed that some people were just like that.

Moreover, Joe was somewhat caught flat-footed when no other girls followed. Was Marian the only Nikke being assigned to him?

Adjusting the tie of his suffocating military uniform, Joe figured that, either way, it'd be best to just focus on making a good first impression on the one girl that was present, for now.

Putting on a wide smile, Joe stepped forth, presenting a hand to the deceptively demure girl. "Happy to meet you, Marian. Thanks for taking up a position under a complete greenhorn. I hope you'll be able to help whip me up into shape before our first real battle together!" He was putting it on a little thick, yes, but better to overcompensate than not and risk letting his nerves actually poke through right now. "And 'Joe' is fine. No need for that 'Commander' stuff either, I'd rather we be-"

"Ahem!" The utterly unremarkable man cut him off even as Marian's gaze resettled back on Joe, eyes widening with each word spoken and expression growing more visibly joyful. "It's hardly appropriate to undercut the boundaries between a Commander and Nikke, lest they forget their place-"

"Didn't ask," Joe harshly cut the man off, having learned perfectly well just what the average Ark dweller thought of Nikkes, and he didn't care to take to that particular aspect of the local culture at all.

While Marian remained quiet, the officer that had been showing him around let out a displeased huff, then rolled his eyes. "Enjoy the inevitable write-up, then. Your funeral, new guy." With that, he turned and started off down the hallway, calling back as he left, "Answer any questions the Commander may have and show him to his room and all of that. More importantly: remember your place relative to his, and the consequences of disregarding that fact just because of your unorthodox assignment, Nikke."

Not having slowed to wait for a reply, quickly enough, it was just Joe and the sexy flight attendant super soldier that was Marian standing in the waiting room overlooking the Ark's Government sector. While her expression had fallen at the other officer's parting words, Joe wasn't about to let him being an ass ruin their first meeting.

"Anyways, now that we're free of that asshole," he started, presenting an outstretched palm to the young woman with a genial smile. "As I said before: pleased to meet you. No need for the stuffy 'Commander' stuff unless we're around folks that've got steel rods up their backsides. If we're gonna be working together from now on, I'd rather we be able to be personable to each other."

At once, Marian's eyes began to sparkle, and an earnest, beautiful smile found purchase on her features. Reaching out eagerly, she took Joe's offered hand and grinned widely at him. "Okay. I'll do my best, Com- J-Joe," she corrected herself with a sheepish chuckle. "You, um, I was told that you actually have amnesia and can't remember most things about the way the Ark works?" she asked somewhat tenderly, understandably unsure of just how to handle talking to him yet.

"That's what they told me when I woke up at the hospital 'bout a week ago, yup!" He replied without missing a beat. Both because he was making a concerted effort to be friendly and welcoming, and because holy shit was he still in the coping phase hard. Thus not reacting quite as he probably should have to that question and the situation in general, given how he was making a concerted effort to not let himself think too hard about any one thing just yet. "Honestly, I'm a little concerned about what might happen if I step outside without someone to lead me around by the nose at this point… Worried I might wind up bumbling into the most dangerous part of the city without realizing it!"

With a small, amused titter, Marian gently shook her head at the concern. "I doubt you'd find yourself wandering into the Outer Rim while looking for a coffee shop, C- Joe. But, if you really don't remember your way around the Ark… I could show you around after we're done touring HQ. Assuming, of course, you aren't averse to the idea…" she finished hesitantly.

"Considering I have some vague recollection of getting lost and wandering into the most dangerous part of the city at some point when I was a teenager? You might be giving me a bit too much credit there," Joe countered with a chuckle, recalling that time he found himself on Hastings Street that time he was in Vancouver. Country boys didn't take well to bus routes and schedules and all that their first time in the big city, as it turned out. "That being said, I'd love it if you'd be willing to show me around. I'm not kidding when I say that I don't remember where anything is. God forbid you have to be called to pick me up because they found me trying to buy clothes at the soup store or something!"

"You mean a restaurant?" Marian asked, clearly not taking his statement about getting lost too seriously as the projected image of the sky scrolled on by, framing them through the window overlooking the Government sector. "I heard that your command scores actually improved after you left the hospital, though… Are you saying that bumping your head actually made you smarter, Commander?"

Not catching her slip-up that time, Joe chose not to grill her over it. She'd get the hang of it sooner or later. "I mean, when you have nothing but room for improvement…" he replied, knocking his knuckles against his head in a comical display, sticking the tip of his tongue past his lips in an askance manner for emphasis. "When you're at rock bottom, nowhere to go but up, right?"

Though she attempted to give the rookie Commander a reproachful look of disapproval, an amused grin couldn't help but poke its way through her expression. "Don't be so hard on yourself. You're already the best Commander I've ever had… plus, it's unusual for a Nikke to be permanently assigned to a Commander in the first place, you know. Normally, rotating through brand new squads every mission is strictly enforced by the Central Government. You can't be a complete goon with credentials like that already."

…Hold up. Commanders and Nikkes… never worked together for more than a single mission? They were never given a chance to fall into a proper cadence, learn how to work together as a team, and become a functioning unit in the first place? What the fuck kind of logic did that make!? Furthermore…

Why was he permanently assigned Marian specifically, then?

Questions for later, he supposed. Best not to get lost in the weeds right away when he should be getting to know Marian better.

"Well, anyways," Joe inelegantly moved to shift the topic. "Let's not get right into work stuff just yet: it'd be better if we could at least take the rest of the day to get to feel each other out and stuff, yeah?"

Marian cocked her head at Joe in an appraising manner, a small smile worn on her face as she gazed at him - some measure of satisfaction apparent in the way her cheeks shifted up and presented a wonderful little expression his way. "In that case… have you eaten yet today? I happen to know a good 'soup store' nearby. We could stop by to get the ball rolling so we don't wind up wandering around the entire Ark on empty stomachs."

"Hell yeah, sounds like a plan to me," Joe declared with a bit of an exaggerated thumbs-up, motioning down the hallway with a smile. "Lead the way then, ma'am. I'll be right behind you."

At that, Marian turned towards the hall in question, but paused part-way, motioning for Joe to sidle up alongside her. "Partners should walk together, right?" She asked, seeming to test the waters.

"I suppose they should, huh?" came the burly brunet's reply with a hearty chuckle, marching up to walk astride an increasingly satisfied Marian. "So, any places beyond the 'soup store' you think would be good to visit?" he asked as he checked the tablet he'd been provided as a part of the job. "I've got no orders or anything for the rest of the day, such as it is."

Letting out a melodic hum, Marian led her new Commander to the building's entrance down its myriad hallways, the rhythmic click-clack of her heels falling alongside the heavy thumps of his boots. "I can think of a few places we could visit before the day is done," she asserted, doing her best to not let how overwhelmed and taken aback she was show.

This was the first, genuinely the first time she'd been treated like a person since she'd been turned into a Nikke. Already, he was an odd one, but if she was really to be permanently assigned to a Commander for the rest of their shared career, one that was easy on the eyes and pleasant to talk to, no less…

Well, in a startlingly new experience, Marian felt like just about the luckiest Nikke in the world right about then.

 

[BakaSmurf]

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Chapter 02 - The Strength to Make it Through
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Of all the things Joe could complain about in regards to the Ark, he had to be forthright about one simple fact that kept blowing him away each time he was confronted with it: the food was simply amazing.

No matter what he was served, the green Commander kept sitting down, expecting to have to grimace and bear flavourless military food, gruel barely fit to feed a dog. But, without exception, everything he was provided blew his socks off.

He wasn't sure how that was the case, but it was. Thus, he got lost in how damned good the bowl of soup he's ordered was, sitting at a small but decently-trafficked restaurant with an increasingly contented Marian.

"You sure do seem to enjoy eating," the brunette cheerily remarked as she reached up with her free hand and adjusted the blue ribbon keeping the left side of her hair tied up, primary hand occupied with her own bowl of soup. "Most people are pretty sedate about how they eat in public, from what I've seen."

Pausing to process what she said, Joe lowered the bowl from his lips and set it back down on the table between them, sheepishly coughing into his fist and feeling a little self-conscious. He sure hoped nobody had noticed him apparently eating like a pig while being in his full uniform. "Sorry, the food around here is just a lot better than I'm used to…" Just in case, he took a napkin and wiped at his goatee - mercifully, he hadn't gotten any soup in his dutifully trimmed beard in front of the pretty girl.

Blinking, Marian brushed a few loose strands of chocolate brown hair from her shoulder as she cocked her head at Joe. "Really? All food in the Ark is made from the same stuff though, isn't it? How… hold on, you haven't been eating expired Splendamin, have you, Commander!?" She asked with some degree of fervency, leaning forward as her brow furrowed. "You're supposed to recycle anything that falls out of date, you know!"

What the fuck was 'Splendamin,' and what the fuck was this about recycling it?

Of course, Joe didn't go asking that aloud - something told him it'd make him look like a complete idiot if he did so. Instead, he just brought up a hand to rub the back of his neck with a hangdog smile and a nervous chuckle.

"Commander! Are you serious right now!?" Marian now looked more than a little put-off, leaning forward even further and almost pouting at him outright. "No wonder you seem so out of it, you must be constantly sick for being so inattentive! Your personal health is no joke, you know!"

Day one, and he'd already somehow managed to get Marian scolding and lecturing him. Great start, that.

Presenting his hands in a placating manner, he let out a weak chuckle and replied, "Sorry, I'm sorry, sometimes, you just have to make due, you know?" he attempted to deflect. He really should have looked over that codex he'd been provided with a keener eye instead of glossing over everything as he had. Marian was gonna think he was a man-child incapable of taking care of himself at this rate.

Leaning back in her seat, which audibly groaned more than Joe would have expected given how sturdily built it was and Marian's own build, she let out a small exasperated huff. "Well, if I have to help you take care of yourself, I suppose that's hardly the end of the world. It's pretty common for Commanders to need help with that sort of thing, anyways."

…Yikes. Joe might have been something of a fish out of water, but he wasn't a complete boob, as was apparently common among Commanders what the fuck. "Hey, I may have hit my head harder than normal, but I'm not a total nincompoop now. I'm just… a little flat-footed right now is all. I know how to do things like buy a toothbrush and junk. Not gonna make you do any more work than you need to do as it is."

Considering Marian would be doing all the actual fighting whenever they deployed, he wasn't gonna be a complete headass and put even more work on her plate when they weren't in the field. What kind of loser Commander would pile all the administrative work on the girls working under them on top of being the actual combatants?

For her part, Marian blinked, and a fair bit of tension seemed to leave her body, the corners of her mouth upturning again slightly. "I don't mean to sound put-off by the idea of helping you get your footing again or anything, Commander. I'm just trying to tease you a bit."

"Is insisting on calling me 'Commander' a part of that teasing?" Joe asked with a bit of a reproachful grin.

With a bit of a recoil, Marian's eyes widened and it was her turn to sheepishly clear her throat. "I- I apologize, it's just… I've never had a Commander that actually asked me to use his name, before…"

Joe really hoped that was just a result of most Commanders having a stick up their arse on account of the military thing, and not because they were discriminatory shit heels. "Well, I meant what I said earlier. If I get to use your name, you get to use mine. Simple as," he asserted pointedly.

Marian stared at Joe for a few moments, blinking a few times before the contentment on her face rose yet higher, and she gave him a closed-eyes smile, her cheeks rising beatifically as she did so. "Okay. I'll do my best to keep that in mind. Thank you, Joe."

In response, he gave the beautiful brunette a patented dumb guy thumbs-up. Though, he couldn't help but cringe at how his jacket protested against the motion. Who the hell thought it was a good idea to design military wear to be so restrictive?

Blinking at the display, Marian asked, "Are you okay, Commander? You keep shifting around uncomfortably."

"I just hate this uniform is all," he admitted in turn, doing his best to adjust his sleeve so he could move his arm around freely. It didn't seem to be taking. "Is this thing undersized or something? Wish I didn't have to wear this."

"...You don't, though?" Marian noted, quizzically tilting her head to the side. "You… you know that there's no rule that actually says you need to wear your uniform outside of official dignitary duties, right?"

"Wait, seriously?" Joe's face lit up at her assertion. "Every other Commander I saw was doing it, so I just sort of assumed."

"Most Commanders enjoy the attention wearing their uniforms gets them, so they almost never take them off," Marian stated matter-of-factually. "I thought it was a bit odd how uncomfortable you looked whenever someone thanked you for your service as we were walking here…"

"...Well, now I'm instead mad that these are the only clothes I have in the first place," Joe grumbled at the revelation, reaching up and immediately loosening his necktie and undoing the top button of his button-down. "Suppose I could at least take the jacket off, then…"

"Oh, you need new clothes? I suppose that's where that little 'buying clothes at the soup store' joke came from earlier?" Marian inquired, an ever-pleasant smile remaining fixed on her porcelain features.

Joe's eyes lit up, realizing that he might be able to get out of this stuffy-ass uniform lit a fire under his ass. "Do you happen to know a place?" he asked eagerly.

The expression on the girl's features became a little strained from apparent amusement, tapping the fingers of her free hand on the table top, she reached up and adjusted her own tie in a manner that called attention to her… form-fitting attire. "Well, while I could take you to the place I usually shop at, I'm not entirely sure if a miniskirt or backless button-down would work too well on you…"

…And here he was making a concerted effort to not think about Marian's clothes or how pretty she was and damn it he could already feel sweat threatening to bud from his forehead move on you idiot before you put your foot in your mouth! With a warm chuckle, he replied, "Certainly nowhere near as well as on you, yeah."

…Stupid-ass mouth, you were supposed to not do that!

Marian's eyes went wide, visibly taken aback by the declaration, then a blush played across her features as she cleared her throat, holding her fist over her lips in an attempt to hide how she couldn't stop her smile from widening upon processing his statement.

"Ah- I'm sorry-" Joe's brain registered that he'd started talking again, but could do nothing as he started to lightly panic but watch in horror as the word vomit came, winding up to attempt to catch him and mitigate the worst of the damage. "I'm just trying really hard to keep focused and not make you uncomfortable but I get nervous around pretty girls and you're a really pretty girl and your outfit is really nice and compliments you perfectly and now I'm thinking about stuff like that and I just realized that I've started stream-of-consciousness panic rambling and I'm gonna stop before you get mad I'm sorry I-"

He reached up and physically forced his mouth shut with his hand and a click of his teeth, staring off to the street outside in pure horror and embarrassment.

Unfortunately, Joe was a complete goon that was a bit of a gormless idiot around pretty women at the best of times. Here, he was having to juggle a good deal more stress than he usually did in his previous life and not look or act like the anxious wreck he was on top of that.

Fortunately, offence was just about the last thing Marian took from being gushed over by the only seemingly decent man she'd met in a long, long time. With some degree of budding coquettishness, she replied with intent to keep the conversation moving along in an attempt to preserve her own dignity, lest she embarrass herself in front of Joe as half as badly as he'd just embarrassed himself in front of her, however endearing it was.

"I'm sure we can find a good place to get you some comfortable casual wear," the stunning woman said as her face strained against her attempts to stifle the goofy, satisfied grin that wanted to present itself to Joe. "The Royal Road is right nearby - ah, that's the Ark's big famous shopping district. We'll definitely find something good for you to wear there, alright? There's all sorts of trendy clothing shops to browse."

Eyes still averted out of sheer embarrassment, Joe, once more, presented a thumbs-up to the woman who would be his partner going forth. Praise be that, for once in his life, instead of pouncing at the smell of blood in the water, she wasn't a mean lady.

---

"So, much, better," Joe almost cried as they stepped out of a work wear store. A good, simple Henley with the sleeves drawn up past the elbows, dark denim pants, and hiking boots. Not to mention his hair let loose…

"Now I get to decide on your new jacket," Marian proclaimed as she sauntered out of the store and pressed her index finger into his chest. "It won't do for you to not even try to look halfway trendy, you know!"

But of course, Marian was actually disappointed when Joe attempted to go for a plain t-shirt and jeans - to say nothing of the actual factual horror on her face when he reached for a pair of plain black boots. When she tried to push to pick out an outfit (and accessories) out for him herself, he compromised and settled on a 'less boring' Henley shirt, along with an agreement to let her pick out an accessory or two and a jacket for him so long as it met the requirements of being some shade of olive drab, and being in the style of a military coat.

Turning and looking about the noisy, highly-active shopping district, Marian scanned for something which might catch her eye. "Hmm… I shop pretty exclusively at a dedicated boutique that markets specifically to servicewomen… where would we go to find nice coats for men then… Ah!" the blue-clad lady perked up and pointed down the street a ways. "That place looks promising, let's go check it out." She urged the taller brunet, reaching back and tugging on his arm as she did so.

Seeing little reason to protest, Joe allowed himself to be pulled along, his Commander's uniform tucked away safely in what was basically a dry-cleaning bag slung over his shoulder; the clerk at the store he bought his new clothes from had been happy to provide it free of charge. Commanders really did receive a lot of respect, it seemed.

Rapidly making their way through the crowd, the pair boldly passed through the sliding doors of the establishment, confirmed that it seemed to be more fashion-conscious than that Joe had chosen, and immediately spotted the men's outerwear section.

With a bubbly glint in her striking two-toned eyes, Marian cycled through a fair few coats in rapid succession. Any one, Joe would have been fine with on its own, if a mite put off by how they all had unnecessary greebles, staps, buckles, zippers and stuff to make them look 'cooler' than the plain utilitarian look he preferred, but… hey, if it made Marian happy-

"Pardon me," a woman's voice cut the pair off, and upon turning to face her, it was clear to see that she was an employee going off of the branded top she wore. "But ma'am, I noticed that you're wearing heels. Your feet must be killing you, yes? Why don't you take a seat while I help the sir?" the unassuming young woman motioned towards a chair set near the footwear section - presumably there for people trying stuff on.

Of course, regardless, the concern was unwarranted. Marian could fall into a dead sprint for hours if she chose to push herself in those heels. Just ambling around as she had been with Joe? Like walking on clouds he'd wager. Not that he was about to go speaking for her, so he looked to Marian, still holding a jacket up to his chest…

Her expression having gone stiff, a visible degree of discomfort etching itself across her features as equal parts muted anger and resignation of all things seemed to have hit her.

"...I think she's fine, miss," Joe decided to interject after all, motioning to wave the employee off. "We're fine, thank you-"

"Sir," the woman pointedly cut him off. "I insist-"

At once Marian harshly returned the jacket she'd been holding to its place, a displeased scowl plain on her heretofore seemingly unshakably cheerful features. "Let's just go, we're clearly not-"

"Oh, well if you're going to be upfront about it, then yes, leave. We don't serve your kind here," the employee declared, now openly scowling at Marian herself.

"What the fuck did you just-" Joe immediately went into attack mode for entirely understandable reasons, nostrils flaring and eyes going wide as he took an aggressive step towards the store employee. Only to have Marian thrust out her arm and stop him - it was like walking into a padded steel bar.

"Commander, don't, it's not-" she let out a frustrated huff, "I mean J-"

"Oh. Ah, I see," the employee's disposition immediately changed to become far more neutral, smoothing out her features and the waist of her shirt as she did so. "I apologize sir, I didn't recognize that you're a Commander out of your uniform," she declared with a sudden, newfound respectful tone as she spoke, glancing at the long bag slung over his shoulder, obviously containing the aforementioned uniform now. "You may shop at our establishment to your heart's content, but I must ask that you leave your Nikke outside the business's premises as you do so. You understand, obviously."

There was a long, overbearing beat as the three just stood in dead silence for a few moments. Then, turning to the door leading back outside into the street, Joe moved to depart with a purpose, before he lashed out and broke the openly discriminatory woman's nose. An act which would get him in obvious legal trouble for unprovoked assault.

Nikkes didn't have human rights, and so there was no law protecting them from discrimination in the Ark, after all.

Marian needless to say, was right alongside him, her expression set in a grim countenance.

Vaguely, Joe could make out the store's employee trying to call him back, "I meant no disrespect towards you or your service, sir, please, allow me to-"

Neither he nor Marian paused to hear the woman out, and quickly enough, were back out in the street putting distance between them and the establishment lest they be followed. Once they were about a block away, Joe peeled off to the side and came to a stop next to a lamp post, setting the underside of his forearm against it as he reminded himself to breathe. Heart going a mile a minute, eyes twitching in abject fury… "...How could that wretched bitch even tell?" he wondered quietly, just enough so Marian could hear from where she approached him.

The heterochromic brunette had set a hand on his chest in what was clearly meant to be a calming gesture. "I'm sorry, Joe. I got careless and forgot to look for the signs before rushing in. I promise, it won't happen again-"

"Don't you act like you did anything wrong-!" he snapped before catching himself with a sharp hiss, brows crinkled together. Not her, idiot. Don't you dare snap at her, he thought to himself as he took a bracing breath. "Marian," he did his level best to refocus and not lose his temper again. "How the hell did that awful person even know to target you?"

Expression having fallen, Marian looked genuinely upset, taking a quiet, but deep breath as she answered. "It might've just been a hunch based on my looks," she answered, making note of how some of the pedestrians filling the street were giving them a wide berth, given the minor interpersonal commotion they were causing. "Or they might have a weight-sensitive pressure pad installed at the front door. Either one would make sense."

"A what?" Joe asked, looking for all the world like he'd just been slapped in the face with a fish.

"...Right, amnesia," Marian shook her head as she removed her hand from her companion's chest to instead gently set it in the crook of his elbow, arm still set against the lamp post. "Nikkes are extremely heavy compared to humans. You probably noticed, when I was sitting in that chair at the restaurant - even though it was the kind designed to support Nikkes, it was straining under my weight, right? That's why that woman tried to offer me a regular chair meant for humans… If a woman refuses to sit in an unreinforced chair, she must be a Nikke that knows it'll break the moment she puts any of her weight on it. Clever trick for sussing one trying to poke around where they aren't welcome, huh?"

Disgusted by the low cunning displayed in such a tactic, Joe just shook his head and did his best to not go off the deep end. "...That's what you meant by being 'careless,' then?" he inquired.

"I didn't think to look for signs of hostility to Nikkes, yes," Marian admitted reproachfully, giving Joe an apologetic look. "The most obvious one is a lack of furniture Nikkes can actually use, to get around having to do something as gauche as hanging up an eyesore of a sign."

Jesus fucking Christ. Customers didn't like the look of signs banning Nikkes, so establishments were instead just nakedly passive-aggressive about broadcasting their discriminatory values that 'regular' people could just choose to not notice, huh? Sounded about right. "I…" Joe paused for a moment to consider his words before relaying his thoughts to his partner. "I'm sorry, Marian. You shouldn't have to put up with disgusting bullshit like that when you're just trying to go shopping."

There was a beat wherein Marian's expression softened in a small, melancholy smile. "If I'm not allowed to apologize to you for things I apparently didn't actually do, then you aren't allowed to apologize to me when you haven't done anything to me either."

"That's not fair," Joe protested.

"How is it not fair?" Marian inquired.

"Because it's not."

"...Is it because I'm a woman, and you're a man?" Marian cocked her head at him slightly with an increasingly amused grin.

Joe just grumbled at her for saying the quiet part out loud.

"Isn't that kind of sexist?" Marian asked in a teasing tone, clearly not having actually taken offence.

"Chivalry really is dead and buried in this day and age, huh?" Joe pouted in response to her line of inquiry.

Marian's response came quickly and with yet more rising amusement. "The future is now, old man," she lightly declared. "...But, in all seriousness," she leaned in, expression falling into one of pure, deadly serious concern. "Truly, genuinely, thank you for being so openly considerate and sympathetic to me. I really can't express how much it means to me that you're so open about how much you care. It… it makes it easier, more than you realize, makes me feel strong enough to weather it all. But, that being said… Joe, never show me sympathy in public again. Okay?"

The man in question was absolutely, positively dumbstruck by that demand, staring at her like she'd grown a second head in stupefied silence.

Sighing deeply, Marian elucidated. "It's treason to openly sympathize with Nikkes. I understand that you hate it too… but it is what it is. It's not worth risking your safety. Okay? So please, don't make me have to worry that you'll do something that'll get you… taken away. Please?"

She was letting all of her worry and concern shine through, and mother of all that was good and holy, it broke his heart to hear someone so genuinely ask him to not stand up for them. Especially since… "But, all the sacrifices you make for them. For the Ark…" he weakly countered.

"I know," she replied, closing the distance between them and setting both hands on his chest for emphasis. "But it's not worth your life. The only thing you'll accomplish… again, is getting taken away. Disappeared. Don't make me go through that, Joe. Please."

Ah, crap, she was already figuring out how to get him to capitulate. Damn, he was that predictable, wasn't he?

His expression shifted into one of resignation…

"Thank you," Marian said with audible relief, clearly able to read him like an open book already. "Now…" She took her eyes off of him, and started to look around once more, eyes settling on another shop in the distance, giving it a critical stare, then nodding with a satisfied smile. "There, we should be able to get you that jacket from there without having to worry about being harassed," she declared as she took a hold of Joe's wrist and immediately started dragging him along. "Come on, slowpoke! I'm sure I'll be able to get something that'll make you look dashing in no time!"

He could see what she was doing. Don't let him dwell on it, drag him along back into fun immediately, remind him of what they'd come out here for in the first place.

Man, it had only been a few hours, but already, Marian was an absolute joy to be around. He didn't know if it was so common for Nikkes and their Commander to just… click like this, but he was happy that this seemed to be a match made in Heaven.

…Even if, now that he knew how some shops treated Nikkes, he couldn't suddenly help but notice how many particularly pretty and ostentatiously dressed girls there were just… milling about in front of certain stores, occasionally catching a glimpse of a man wearing a uniform identical to his through the windows of those same shops.

…Though there was precious little he could do for those girls, if nothing else, he supposed, he could at the very least do everything in his power to spoil Marian going forth.

Picking that perfect moment to glance back at and smile at Joe widely while still drawing him along, at once, he knew that was a fantastic plan he'd come up with.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 03 - You Won't Be Alone
===

Settling down into his room for the night - a small but functional little utilitarian thing not so different from a common city apartment back home - Joe slipped off the jacket Marian had picked out for him, gave it another amused once-over, and set it on the coat hook next to the door.

His specifications had been pretty clear - an olive drab military-style coat. Of course, that was before he had decided that it was now his solemn duty to spoil her as much as was possible after that incident with that discriminatory clothes store. Thus, he loosened the requirements he'd placed on her options.

Quick to take advantage, it took a fair while to pin down exactly what she wanted, but boy, she sure did find it.

Ergo, Joe wound up with a military-style jacket, yes. Albeit one which was blue, black, and accented with a degree of gold. Kind of gaudy for his tastes, but it seemed to please her considering the palpable pride on her face as she adjusted it to fit him just so. Just as noticeable was the incredible amusement on her features when it took him a solid twenty minutes to realize that she'd gone and tricked him into colour-coding his outfit with hers.

It actually looked like they had a squad uniform now, at a glance. Which, Joe had to admit, he wasn't too torn up about. In fact, he'd have agreed to it in the first place had she just asked, but, tricksey little lady Marian turned out to be, she wanted to see how attentive her new Commander and partner was. The answer turned out to be not very, but he was under a lot of stress! It was hardly his fault she'd managed to make a fool of him!

Regardless, claiming a seat at the desk and computer he'd been provided as a part of his duties, Joe settled in and went about the process of getting everything set-up. This is where he'd be doing all of his 'paperwork,' such as it was, so it'd do for him to get it broken-in sooner rather than later.

In the midst of getting logged in to everything, his tablet buzzed a few times in his pocket. Withdrawing it, he blinked at the notification pointing him to a messenger app - titled blabla, appropriately enough - and he opened it to find a few messages from Marian.

[Today was fun, Joe! I hope you enjoyed our little outing as much as I did! I'm really looking forward to working with you from now on.]

[I think that we have a lot of good chemistry and click really well, so I'm excited to see how well we synchronize in the simulator room tomorrow. So be sure to get a lot of sleep, you don't want to disappoint your partner right after such a good first impression, right?]

[Sleep well! And be sure to let me know if you'd like to go out for breakfast before we go to the simulators tomorrow! : )]

The rookie Commander cracked a smile at the messages capped off with a smiley face emoji. She even came across as a sweetheart in her texts.

Firing back a quick reply, Joe then set the phone down and settled into getting everything all set up for tomorrow. Better to have all your ducks in order ahead of time. Then, he'd crawl into bed and try to get some rest.

…Despite that underlying anxiety still being there, somehow, after spending an afternoon with Marian, he got the feeling that it was going to be his first decent night's rest in the Ark.

---

Taking a very deep breath, Joe set down the plus-sized tablet he'd been provided as he remained outside of the simulator room proper. Its purpose had been to function as the simulated drone he'd be expected to use to oversee battlefields on the surface, where he'd direct his squad using comms with an elevated vantage point as he remained somewhere relatively safe.

Notably, this was not common practice for Commanders. In fact, most Commanders just went and basically stood next to the Nikkes under their command as they gave them orders no matter the circumstances, like fucking American Civil War officers directing musket lines. Joe had to put in a special request for a drone, which had been delivered as a scouting kit usually provided to - well, scouts. Because why in the fuck would he be stupid enough to voluntarily stand in the line of fire as a squishy, unaugmented human?

This, apparently, was some kind of revolutionary idea and line of thinking when combined with his basic application of tactical awareness, given that a military bigwig - he wasn't sure if it was the same one that had intervened on the operation to save his life when he was in the hospital or not - had directly approved of the request and had the kit fast-tracked to him.

Marian had no complaints about making use of tactics which kept him out of direct harm's way, and was eager to put it to the test.

The only real issue came when he wound up, repeatedly, well… getting distracted by watching Marian at work, such as it was. Saying she put regular human soldiers to shame would be an understatement. She was, simply put, awesome to watch. Like a much prettier Doom Slayer, he'd wager.

"I'm not used to receiving such clear and concise direction," Marian declared as the simulator room doors opened to let her pass through into the observation chamber, locking her personal submachine gun - a heavily customized number she had dubbed 'First Affection' in her elbow and lifting her visor to get a clearer look at Joe. "And the ideas you have… funnelling Raptures down a narrow alleyway so they can't flank me, and First Affection can excel… I can see why Central wanted to hold onto you as a Commander - normally, it would have taken at least a squad of three to pull off that sort of objective, even with simulated hostiles!"

Somehow, Joe hadn't quite been expecting Marian to turn up to training wearing actual, functional sci-fi armour, yet here she was. It was even customized to retain her colour scheme and everything. Regardless, it seemed that her sexy flight attendant outfit was just her casual wear. Mercifully, Nikkes weren't forced into combat wearing lingerie as he'd been low-key worrying, as it turned out.

And the Raptures themselves… he wasn't sure if it was just the simulation or what, but they weren't quite living up to what he'd expected. Just… typical 'alien' robots vaguely shaped like insects with energy guns strapped to them so far.

Otherwise, they'd been training together for the better part of the day, and, simply put…

"Wow! Your compatibility is amazing!" A green-haired lass with her hair tied up in high twintails declared as she hovered over to the pair on her floating hoop-chair-thing. A pair of pointed elf-like ears poking out from her verdant tresses, themselves adored with a halo floating above her crown, large blue eyes shifting between the Commander and Nikke appraisingly. "I haven't seen scores like this in a long time, for just a lone Commander and Nikke, at least! Impressive!" Notably, her outfit was rather understated compared to what he was used to, given that she was just wearing a fairly functional sleeveless button-down with a skirt. The cape was a bit much, but compared to Marian's miniskirt…

Einkk, the girl that ran the Ark's simulator room. A bit of a chatterbox, Joe found. And apparently evidence that Nikkes could be bestowed with overtly non-human characteristics, given that she looked like an elf-angel. He'd interacted with her a fair bit in the week since he'd awoken in that hospital, and she just would not stop heaping on the praise for his 'unorthodox' methods.

It was difficult to convey the sheer, overwhelming feelings of dismay and mounting dread over the fact that his applying a singular degree of tactical thought to his methods made him stand out so much. But, it was what it was. All eyes, it seemed, were on him. And he had had no more than a month to prepare for a true deployment with Marian on top of that.

No pressure or anything.

"So, are you comfortable with the difficulty as it is? Or have I been going a bit too easy on you?" Einkk asked in a condescending manner. Though cute, Joe had rapidly found that the simulation room operator was also very much a gremlin. One that made a habit of poking at a Commander's pride. Must have been their way of encouraging Commanders to push themselves, he supposed.

"Let's do it, Commander!" Marian pressed, pumping her free fist as she did so. "I want to see just how far the two of us can go together! Make sure everyone knows who the Ark's two most up and coming stars are!"

Joe couldn't help but chuckle in amusement at Marian's eagerness to push the envelope and prove themselves. Normally, he was the sort to be content if his efforts got the job done, but, hell, if she was so excited to press on and see just how far they could go together… "Alright then, bump up the difficulty and let's see how far we can take it, Einkk."

"Yipee, I'm gonna enjoy stepping on you two, then!" the verdette simulation operator cheered as she floated back to her typical place at the main controls of the whole machine. "Chalk one up for me!" she proclaimed with a girlish giggle.

Sharing a confident look with Marian, the brunette closed her visor again as she about-faced and marched right back into the simulation chamber.

Well, he wasn't about to go letting his partner down. Readying up, Joe furrowed his brow as he prepared to get serious.

---

"...So what're the chances of us running into one of these big bastards on our first outing, then?" Joe anxiously asked, pointing to the image of the massive Rapture displayed on the tablet set in the middle of the table overlooking the Government sector they'd claimed on a patio.

"Tyrants aren't that common," Marian assured him. "It's good to be wary, but we'll probably only have to deal with small fry. Like those in the simulator room." Presenting a confident smile to the burly figure, she added, "Plus, even if we did happen upon one of those monsters… I'm sure you'd figure something out, big brain genius that you are." Reaching over, she poked him on the forehead for emphasis.

Joe did his best to not openly panic over the continued affirmation that his grasp of the most basic of basic tactics made him a genius by typical Commander standards, instead trying to just move the conversation along. "So, uh, anything else we need to worry about? Like, in terms of threats?"

"Well, Raptures generally leave animals alone, so, depending on where we land there's a small chance that a tiger or bear or something might take an untoward interest in you…" Marian remarked, setting a dainty finger on her chin as she did so. "Of course, you won't have to actually worry about that with me around, but it could come up."

Joe had seen Marian in action. He wasn't worried about apex predators deluding themselves into thinking he was an easy meal. Instead… "Is there anything that's actually a serious threat to you?" He asked with no small amount of cheer. Nikkes were genuinely amazing, weren't they?

However, Marian didn't immediately react to the question as confidently as he'd expected, and in fact, her expression fell. "Corruption," she said with no small amount of melancholic dread.

There was a beat as Joe was caught off-guard by her reply. That… didn't sound good. Not in the least.

However, she shook her head, reaching over and swiping on the tablet's screen to move along to the next thing on the list. "So, you might see some of these little guys out there too," it looked to be about the size of a baseball, at most. "They aren't a threat. So, they're no immediate danger, though, I'd still recommend not letting them hang around. Who knows if they might be harmless just so they can be the perfect scouts, right?"

So, clearly an uncomfortable topic. Something Joe figured he'd have to ask for details sooner rather than later, but he didn't enjoy the notion of making Marian talk about something she clearly didn't want to.

For now, he'd just let her continue to brief him on what to expect in terms of hostiles and dangers on the surface. She'd know better than him what was most important to familiarize himself with at this point anyways.

---

In the blink of an eye, two weeks had passed. Joe and Marian had rapidly settled into a comfortable routine, and the pair found themselves growing ever more comfortable with each other as each day passed them by. Despite himself and the situation he found himself in, Marian's being so… open, and eager to connect, it seemed, was precisely the salve he needed to power through his immediate anxieties.

"...This is nice, isn't it?" Marian asked, sitting next to Joe as the pair just enjoyed the small park they'd decided to visit.

"I'm beginning to think anything is nice with you," he replied easily and truthfully, causing a light blush to play across her features.

To say nothing of how she helped him acclimatize to living in the Ark in general. A veritable font of knowledge that girl was. How to get around, where to go, what to expect… when they weren't training, it felt like he was living a fairly regular life. Fun, relaxing times with a beautiful woman, good food, a shockingly minimal amount of overhead from his superiors… hell, one could be forgiven for forgetting that they were members of the last military on Earth, supposedly holding the line against an all-destroying invading force.

"Hey, there's a nice little Italian place nearby that I think would make a fine stop for dinner tonight," Marian suggested, inching closer to Joe as the artificial sun hung low in the false sky.

"At this point, you could bring me to a shady hot dog stand and I bet the company would make it a worthwhile trip," Joe replied, rooted in place on the bench as he just enjoyed the atmosphere.

For being the last holdout of mankind on the planet, the Ark was surprisingly comfy. At least, well, when you weren't confronted with all the rampant anti-Nikke discrimination. Joe really wished that he could say that the incident at that store was an unfortunate one-off event, but, well… a lot of people were really vocal about their dislike of what was their last line of defence against extinction. Even if it wasn't necessarily always directed right at him and Marian in particular, it wasn't so uncommon to just walk past people in the streets, and overhear anti-Nikke sentiments discussed in casual conversation.

It made Marian's quick attachment to him make a good deal of sense, though. At the best of times, she'd be allowed to just blend into the crowd and go about her business without being bothered. Entirely too often, though, it seemed she was just made to have to bear being spoken down to, for having the temerity to… not just be an unthinking weapon. He was in all likelihood, genuinely the first Commander she had that treated her like a fellow human being.

"So… is that an affirmative to Italian today?" Marian asked, scooting close enough that their shoulders were touching. The smile on her face only became more deeply set with each exchange of words the pair made.

"I could go for some spaghetti and meatballs, sure," Joe declared, entirely unperturbed by the contact with his partner. In truth, part of him wanted to ask if she was sure the restaurant was Nikke-friendly, but at this point, it was reasonable to assume that Marian was doing her due diligence.

It made Joe's blood boil, but, given how many times Marian had pulled him aside and absolutely made a point to hammer home the point that she'd rather he not get disappeared for stepping out of line in public…

It was all he could do to just make her happy despite all of that. Go out, do things with her. Watch movies, visit the park, hell, she was even talking about going to visit a dog shelter soon too. Marian, by some freak stroke of luck, just enjoyed being with him, it seemed. Given that he enjoyed being with her too, it was a hell of an arrangement to his sensibilities.

Sitting on this park bench, just enjoying each other's company as Marian scooted up right next to him as they gazed out into a picturesque little pond, reflecting the artificial sky above in a way that was so convincing that even Joe almost found himself failing to remember that it was all just that - artificial. A facsimile of the world that was. A beautiful one, but a facsimile nonetheless.

All in all, it made it really easy to forget that it was supposed to be the end of the world.

"...Hey, Joe," Marian started, leaning over and resting her head on his shoulder, her arm wrapping around his as they enjoyed the peace and quiet. "You… don't care that I'm a Nikke, right?"

"Not at all," the rookie Commander replied easily. "Outside of, you know… thinking that you're a complete badass for it."

That caused the brunette to let out an amused titter, shaking her head lightly as she continued to lean into him. "Well, then… if it really doesn't matter to you…" she continued as her free hand inched towards Joe's own, her heart's beat picking up somewhat as she steeled herself. "Would you mind if I asked you something?"

"'Course not," he declared with a disarming grin, not having noticed how her fingers drifted close to his own. "Fire away."

"Well, then…" taking a breath, Marian felt her pulse quicken and resolve waver. As much as she wanted it, knew she'd be a fool to not leap on this opportunity, given how she knew how dangerous this line of work was, how few chances Nikkes received to get a shot at real happiness, the jitters were so bad… "I mean, it's not like much would really change, we're basically already…"

Turning to face the woman using him as an impromptu pillow, Joe cocked his head at her and asked, "What wouldn't change?" Genuine confusion lacing his tone.

Pulling back, Marian finally let her fingers drift over his, gently wrapping her digits around his as she locked eyes with him. "Joe, would you-"

The pair jumped at the harsh, new chime that interjected between the pair from his midsection. "...That's a new sound," the long-haired man remarked at the noise coming from his government-issued tablet.

Glancing down, Marian let out a small, bemused sigh. "That's the alert that means it's from command. You should check it," she said, sounding more than a little put-off and disappointed.

Odd, but, given that they were soldiers and were getting contacted by their bosses…

Joe withdrew the device from his pocket as Marian too withdrew her arms. Upon unlocking it, his heart dropped into his stomach. "...Shit," he started, immediately rising to his feet. We… We just received orders. We need to report to the command centre for deployment."

At once, reality came crashing back down around him. This was… too early, wasn't it? He was told to expect deployment in a month, not two weeks!

Shit, he and Marian still hadn't been given more members for their squad! Were they going to be sent out as just the two of them? This was-

Marian took a hold of Joe's hand again as she too stood, squeezing to catch his attention. "Breathe, Joe," she directed him.

Indeed, he'd stopped breathing. They were about to be deployed to the surface, this was like, the most reasonable response he could possibly have to being sent out into active combat.

"Hey," Marian stepped in front of him, taking both of his hands as she stared up into his eyes. "It'll be fine. You don't have to worry Joe. I'll be right here, by your side the entire time. I promise I'll protect you no matter what happens, or what we encounter. Okay?"

There was a beat as Joe took a steadying breath. That was right, he'd seen Marian in action. She would keep him safe. It would be fine, he would be fine, she'd protect him.

"Okay," he nodded. "Yeah, okay…" Pausing again, he looked down at the girl, he nodded. "...Before we leave, what were you going to ask?" Best to get that out of the way, right?

Marian kept holding his hands, considering something for a moment before, with a small smile, replying, "I was about to ask if you'd like to enter a relationship with me," she answered honestly.

For an instant, Joe was shocked still by the statement. Blinking more than a few times as he suddenly found himself enraptured by her gorgeous two-toned eyes…

Parting his lips to say… Joe wasn't quite sure, but Marian cut him off by releasing one of his hands, and setting a finger over his mouth as she smiled up at him. "Wait," she instructed him. "Wait until we get back to give me your answer. To give me something to look forward to… Okay?"

She was serious.

Holy hell.

But… "...Okay," he said, nodding lightly. As sudden and fast as this seemed… their line of work meant that any particular day could be their last, didn't it? If they found something good, they'd be fools to not lunge for, hold onto, and make the best of what made them happy.

And Marian did make him happy, despite everything that was happening. He actually started regularly getting decent amounts of sleep after meeting her. Went out and did stuff instead of locking himself in a closet to brood and dread. Smiled and laughed with genuine earnesty…

Would they maybe be moving a bit quickly? Maybe if they were civilians. But, they weren't. They were front line combatants, stepping up to hold back the tide of extinction. To sit on their hands and let anxiety get the best of them would be the real fool move in this situation.

Yeah. Hell yeah, he was going to say yes. What better way to cap off a successful first mission? At once, Joe couldn't help but smile widely in anticipation at the brunette.

Beaming up at him in response, Marian motioned towards the Government sector. "Now, come on, Commander. We have a job to do."

"Let's blow their socks off," he suggested.

"Let's," Marian enthusiastically nodded as the partners set off with a purpose.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 04 - No Need to Fear...
===

Joe and Marian's mission was to board a transport craft to the surface relatively nearby to support a squad requesting emergency back-up - pointedly emphasizing the need for a replacement Commander in particular. Given that they had just been sort of… milling about when not training, combined with Joe's top percentile performance, it only made sense to press them into service given the situation.

Not that said logic made Joe feel any better about being deployed into active combat for the first time. Especially when he was handed his drone operator's backpack and gear… which did not include a combat uniform. Pointedly. Apparently, his stuffy, restrictive dress uniform was his uniform - period. He was expected to wear it if he wanted to wear a uniform at all.

Meaning he was being officially deployed into an active war zone in his casual work clothes, supplemented only by the backpack he needed to carry his drone gear.

Oh, and a single handgun strapped to his hip. No context given or information provided. He didn't recognize the make or model, he wasn't familiar with how it functioned, or how to handle it. Why, in God's name they hadn't given him a chance to at the very least take one of these things to a firing range beforehand, he didn't know. But hey, it was a magazine-fed autoloader?

Maybe it was based on a Glock's ergonomics? Or… was a Sig-Sauer? A futuristic Sig-Sauer? Fuck, not that it would help him much at all if that were the case - he only knew how to operate M1911's and Single Action Armies…

He did come to the conclusion that he was overthinking it, though. Marian would be by his side the whole way, and he was pretty fucking sure she'd react to a tank shell to the face with little more than an annoyed pout.

So, at any rate, there they were: sitting in the transport that'd be taking to the air shortly. Just them, the pilots in the front, and the equipment they were bringing to resupply their comrades. The jitters were getting to him, though Marian was doing a good job quelling it by gently taking hold of his hand and giving him a reassuring smile. Her comforting grasp could only do so much, though.

"Don't forget to put in your ears," Marian reminded him, patting the breast pocket of his jacket lightly with her gloved hand. "You would be surprised how many first-time Commanders have to make their way back to base with permanent hearing damage because they forget."

Right. His 'ears.' Reaching into the pocket, Joe withdrew what might've been mistaken for wireless earbuds back home - ones with absurdly overblown nibs in particular. Electronic ear plugs - a technology that actually existed in his time, though these were advanced enough that he shouldn't need dedicated ear muffs on top of them. He still requested over-ear protection as a back-up option though, he was no fool. Keep them around his neck just in case, if nothing else.

Otherwise, they'd let safe sounds in, and block out or at least heavily dampen anything which might otherwise damage his eardrums. Put 'em in, do your damnedest to forget about the thick material physically jammed into and unpleasantly blocking your ear canals, and come back without crippling hearing damage.

They wouldn't be comfortable, but having blood erupt from his ears would probably be even more unpleasant.

So, he put them in with a grimace, switched 'em on, and nodded to the battle-ready brunette. "Say something?" he asked.

Marian's mouth moved, and hearing nothing, Joe let out a low groan of annoyance as he reached up and fiddled with them. "Okay, great, how do you even begin to troubleshoot these things-"

A low, barely-suppressed snort came from Marian, and after a moment, Joe turned back to and glowered at her in bemusement.

"You set it up perfectly, though," she protested with a perfectly innocent face. "How could I not play a little prank on you?"

"Everywhere I go, I'm surrounded by mean ladies…" Joe groaned in exaggerated dismay.

"Well, it's your fault for being so bulliable!" Marian replied, reaching out and lightly shoving him on the shoulder - barely enough to move him. The soft touch came to her quite naturally. "It's okay, I'll make it up to you when we get back from the field," she asserted with a… playful, mildly suggestive tone.

Did the transport's temperature suddenly spike? Wiping at his rapidly clamming brow, Joe cleared his throat. "Y-yeah, I'm sure you will," he said, not quite able to suppress his rising nervousness. Grown-ass man or no, some guys just had their weaknesses, and Marian was a very pretty woman.

"You'll see…" Marian let out a low, throaty chuckle from her seat next to his. That was the point when a series of mechanical clangs and whirrs came from all around them, and for the first time since he'd awoken here - Joe saw natural sunlight begin to fill the hangar in which the transport sat. "They're opening the hangar aperture - guess it's that time, then," the Nikke remarked, gazing out the same window he did, shortly before the sensation of movement became palpable, the transport gradually achieving direct vertical lift-off and drifting upwards.

It didn't take long for the sights of greenery to fill the view outside, followed by a clear blue sky visible past tree tops. Earth, despite mankind's desperate situation, it seemed, thrived regardless of the Rapture invasion.

In an apocalyptic war, to Joe, at least, the mind was filled with images of vast stretches of wasteland, ruin and heart-rending loss. The area above the Ark, though… it just looked like a patch of wilderness from back home. Nothing outwardly wrong. It created something of a disconnect in his mind, and left him reeling a bit.

It was silly, yes. Humanity and the planet's survival weren't necessarily inextricably tied together, and the Raptures, by and large, didn't seem to have any interest in targeting anything but people. But it didn't make the dissonance between Earth's seemingly untouched condition and mankind's decimated state any easier to reconcile.

It was what it was, though. In a scant few minutes, the transport's vernier reoriented themselves, and the craft was soaring forth far faster than Joe might've expected it to.

"...How long until we get there?" he asked aloud, a stone rapidly forming in his stomach.

"ETA is about twenty minutes," Marian replied coolly, now circling her fingers on Joe's palm in a massaging motion. "Just remember our training, Joe. You're genuinely the best Commander I've ever had… I can see that you don't believe in yourself, but, honestly, I feel safer than I ever have before under your command. We'll be fine, we'll complete our mission to provide support to the search and rescue team, and we'll be back home in time to go out for that Italian dinner," she smiled brightly at him, chocolate tresses flowing off of her armoured shoulder as she did so. "I'm not afraid... and you don't need to be either. I swear, I'll protect you, no matter what happens. You aren't alone."

Having turned back to face his partner again, Joe couldn't help but grin at her affirmation. Marian was wonderful, and even if Joe didn't believe in himself… Marian believed in him, so it was his duty to live up to her trust. "Okay," he nodded, now smiling himself. "Alright. I'll do my best."

"I know you will," Marian declared purposefully, reassuringly squeezing Joe's hand. "Now… relax, things could wind up getting pretty intense when we land. Best to take any opportunity we have until we're back at the Ark."

"And if I'd rather spend that time chatting with you?" Joe asked, giving Marian a small smirk.

"Then I'd remind you that we'll have the rest of the day to spend time together as soon as we get back," Marian said in a mildly chastising tone. "Let yourself relax. You won't have many chances after this."

Rather than rebel against her instruction, with a nod, Joe leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. Though he sure as shit wasn't going to be falling asleep, he could at least recenter himself. Lord knew he'd need every ounce of focus he could garner as Marian and who knew however many more girls would be relying on him to lead them to victory.

---

"-oe!" Marian's voice faded in, distant, muffled, as though trying to get through multiple layers of insulating material. "Joe! Joe! Please, open your eyes! Joe! Please! Please-!"

Then, the pain hit him. Eyes shooting open wide, the sight of Marian framed by the blue sky filled his vision, followed shortly by the putrid stench of acrid, choking black smoke streaking upwards and making his head swim - or maybe that was just the aforementioned pain.

His senses, needless to say, rapidly returned to him in full.

"Oh thank goodness…" Marian let out a heavy breath when Joe locked eyes with her, leaning in and cupping his cheeks. "Can you hear me? Joe, are you alright!?" Her concern was clear to see, eyes glimmering… the brown splotches in her eyes almost looked red?

It must have been the way they were catching the light of the nearby flames.

He didn't remember the past… few minutes? So, he must have hit his head. Not so hard as to experience serious memory loss, he figured, but even a few minutes of lost time wasn't a good thing.

What a great start to his career.

"...What happened?" he managed to reply, pushing down the panic that threatened to launch itself out of his chest and into the stratosphere. Focus. You're a soldier now: you're a Commander now. Marian is depending on you to keep your shit together, focus.

"The transport… there was an explosion," Marian explained, gently patting Joe down, seemingly to check him for injuries. "We crashed… it's a miracle you aren't hurt. Does anything feel wrong?"

"...I feel like I fell out of a tree," Joe replied, moving to attempt rising to a seated position, to which Marian set a hand on his back and effortlessly helped him up. "But, I don't think anything is broken… I'm thinking too clearly to be in shock. I think I'm fine."

The relief on Marian's face was palpable, and after a moment, despite herself… she leaned in and hugged him. "I thought I lost you, Joe…"

…So, it was basically unspoken, but official, wasn't it? He was fine with that.

During the moment of quiet between them, Joe could hear, in the distance, the harsh crack of automatic weapons fire and explosions - muffled by the sheer range from which they were coming. The squad they were supposed to help, he surmised.

Hugging her back, Joe let out a low sigh of his own. "I'm okay, I'm okay…" Focus. They weren't safe, they had a mission to complete. There was no time to lose themselves. "Did anyone else make it?" he asked.

In response, Marian pulled back, and twisted around to look at… the nose and cockpit of the aircraft, completely detached from the back half and all but flattened against a ruined skyscraper.

"Ah, well, shit," he grimaced. It was quite evident that the pilots hadn't made it. Focus, do or die. No time to get caught up on it. "...Where are we?" he asked, "how close are we to our objective?"

"We were only a few minutes out… check your GPS, we should be able to orient ourselves and get a bearing on our location. Or, if nothing else, your drone should be able to fly high enough to let us get an idea of where to go."

"Have you tried contacting the Ark?" Joe asked as he rose to his feet, confirming that his drone bag was within reach, he immediately started fishing through it.

"I have. I couldn't get through. We must be in a dead zone… You can walk, Commander?" She asked warily.

"Yes, I should be fine," Joe assured her. He hurt all over, he really wasn't prepared for this, but, he needed to to keep focused, press on. Luckily, it was his mind that was needed for this. As long as he kept his shit together, that was all he needed to do his job.

Worst case scenario, he'd piggyback ride Marian and give her commands on the move. Otherwise, for now…

Finding the GPS, he tested it, and confirmed that they were getting no signal. That being a wash, he sighed and resorted to the drone. Marian didn't say anything as she readied First Affection, chambering a round and standing at the ready. She was more than a little scuffed up, having lost a fair few pieces of armour, including her helmet, but nevertheless, she seemed unshaken; Joe's own safety aside.

The drone was small, fitting in the palm of his hand until deployed. It reacted to being flung upwards by activating and hovering in place while he whipped out the control tablet. It wasn't so different in form from a Switch, and quickly enough, he directed the robotic camera skywards.

Well, they were certainly in a city. Not one he recognized at a glance, but a city nonetheless.

…He had never actually asked where the Ark was located, had he? He supposed he'd find out sooner or later. It wasn't anything resembling a priority right now, though.

"What are we looking for-?" Joe asked, only to have a flare appear a few blocks away, arcing… towards them. "Emergency flare. That the squad we were sent to support?"

"It must be," Marian declared. "Which direction? We should get moving, Raptures will have doubtlessly noticed our crash and will be descending on our location soon."

"They shot us down, so yeah, I'd imagine they know where we are," Joe gruffly declared. "Okay, this way," he started walking away from the crash site - only to have Marian brusquely step ahead of him. "Stay behind me, Joe."

…Yeah, right, she was the one with the gun - the gun that could actually kill Raptures, at least.

"Right… I'll warn you if I see anything coming then-" Breath catching in his throat, Joe stared in horror before speaking up. "Speak of the devil…! Raptures, incoming, four o'clock!" he declared, pointing in the specified direction down a street blocked off and filled with rubble from a collapsed tower.

Marian was quick to about-face, lunging forward and placing herself between her and the approaching hostiles, regardless of her inability to see them yet. "Commander, orders?"

Quickly enough, he could hear the bastards approaching. Skittering along on their insect-like legs. This wasn't a simulation - he and Marian had just been in a fucking plane crash, he was aching but doing his best to ignore it, it was up to just Marian and her submachine gun to protect the both of them…

…And she was relying on him to not fall to pieces. He didn't have to be afraid, not when she was here to protect him.

Glancing at the screen, the direction the Raptures were coming from, the cover and available sight lines…

Well, there was the obvious solution…

"Down this alleyway!" With the amount approaching, how much ammo Marian carried on her, and the fact that she loaded her gun with massive drum magazines, she should be able to easily handle them as long as they just funnelled them down tight corridors. Make them charge her single-file. Simple, but clean. Just like in the simulations.

"Understood!"

Quickly enough, the two had sprinted down to their minor tactically advantageous location. "They're coming…" Joe grimly noted as he ducked the corner, just as the Raptures could be heard right around the corner and seen clearly from the unnoticed drone above.

Marian just scoffed, casually dug her fingers into a whole-ass industrial steel refrigerator sitting abandoned in the alley, and with a terrible crash, threw it onto its face with a single hand before taking cover behind it. With defiance, she declared with nary a hint of fear as she shouldered First Affection, readying herself for her and Joe's first encounter together: "Let them try!"

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 05 - The Road Ahead
===

"This is nothing like the simulations!" Joe cried as he and Marian charged down the twisting alleyways, weaving in, around, and through cover with wild abandon to escape the oncoming tide of Raptures.

Where in the simulator room, Raptures were dumb, predictable, marching straight onwards - almost like Space Invaders - these ones had immediately overcome his tactic by crawling along the high walls of the alleyways in waves Marian just couldn't handle on her own. Bobbing and diving between bits of cover as Marian did her best to pepper them with fire, and breaking formation and skittering into other back-alleys to perform what Joe had immediately realised was the lead-up to a flanking maneuver...

Many of the Raptures pursuing them had four insect-like legs, a crab-like mechanical body, one massive cyclopean red eye, and two simple arms with gun pods. Others had only two limbs, with legs not unlike those of a dog's hind quarters, giving the impression of the back half of a hellish, tailless canine. All chittered along with mechanical growls and roars, all were armoured in plain white carapaces. None were moved in the least by the destruction of their fellows, none displayed a hint of fear towards the Nikke that cut them down in swathes.

Firing over her shoulder, Marian made a point to keep herself between the pursuing alien beasts and Joe. Each shot which whizzed past them punched holes clean through the walls on either side of the Ark's soldiers. If even one managed to hit Joe, he could tell from the damage done to their surroundings that it would be game over. Marian, apparently, could handle damage which would kill him outright.

It still didn't make it feel any better whenever he heard her grunt behind him, and a glance revealed that what remained of her armour had absorbed another attack. Marian was strong, and brave. But she wasn't invulnerable.

Joe even less so. It felt like his lungs were on fire, his legs already grew weak. Where Marian seemed unshaken, the weakness of Joe's flesh was immediately apparent. Glancing back over his shoulder, his eyes went wide at the sight of a Rapture leaping forth, aiming to pounce upon the Nikke just behind him. "Marian-!" he cried out.

Marian spun on the ball of her foot - heel outstretched, she caught the mechanical menace in a spinning roundhouse kick which crumpled the machine's shell, smashing it into the wall to her side. With a pitiful whine, the Rapture's legs dangled in the air, falling limp from where it had been embedded.

Without missing a beat, Marian was righted and blew forth again - now moving faster than Joe could, she scooped him up on her shoulder and bolted forward with far and away greater speed than he ever could. Comparing the sensation to being on the back of a galloping horse would do it no justice - Marian moved with a rapidity that would render a motorcycle obsolete in her wake. "I'm right here," he heard her utter as she held onto him, just tight enough to secure him on her shoulder, not so tight as to cause him discomfort. "They won't hurt you…"

It must have felt like lifting a feather to her. Despite Joe being so much physically larger than her, she'd hoisted him as though he weighed nothing at all. Then she only sped up. He'd been holding her back by attempting to flee under his own power.

Nikkes were unbelievable.

Of course, Joe was now stuck staring back at the extraterrestrial horrors attempting to chase them down, seeing each bolt of energy through their way. This did nothing for his rising dread. Twisting around to see what was coming up…

Blinking, in a flash of keen awareness, he noticed that the highway overpass they were about to charge under was rather precariously propped up - it looked like the slightest breeze might cause its obliterated foundations to give out. "Marian!" Joe called out from the Nikke's shoulder. "Shoot out that support pillar as we pass under the highway!"

She did as instructed, lashing out and pelting the ruined pillar as they soared by - the supercharged bullets of her so-called 'submachine gun' utterly ravaged the concrete and steel, Nikke weapons being nightmarishly overpowered relative to what he'd known from the early 2000's. An electric jolt lanced down his spine as he watched the overpass collapse just as they slipped under it - a cacophony of screaming construction material which might've been deafening if not for his ear protection.

The terror of them only damn near avoiding being crushed was rapidly overtaken by the sight of their Rapture pursuers failing to avoid that fate. The lead chaser had been partially crushed, half of its body sticking out from the many tonnes of rubble which had fallen atop it. The single limb sticking out of the rubble twitched and kicked for a few moments before falling still.

Marian kept going briefly afterwards, until Joe called out to her. "That got them, you got them, we're safe, Marian!" he declared, patting her back to catch her attention.

Coming to a gentle stop so as not to overwhelm Joe's weak physiology with excessive g-forces, Marian slowed, and after glancing back to confirm it herself, set the Commander down with a sigh. "...That was clever, Joe," she approvingly declared, presenting a pleased smile to the taller man. "I don't think I'd have had enough ammo to take out all of those Raptures with just my gun…"

"Hey, if you're not fighting dirty, you're not fighting," Joe declared with a shrug. Otherwise, he had to vocalize his own thoughts on what had just happened. "Jesus fucking Christ, you're amazing," Joe declared in naked awe, staring at the little brunette with wide, earnest eyes.

Though she scoffed, Marian could not suppress the pleased smile and small blush that found purchase on her features at her Commander's praise. "I'm just a regular Nikke, there's nothing special about me-!" the young woman attempted to deflect his praise, only to suddenly limp on an attempt at taking a step, hissing as she set her hand over a very visible leg wound. She'd taken what must have been a glancing blow where she'd completely lost her armour, blood running down her unguarded leg freely.

Joe was quick to tear into his bag, and relieved, he actually found a basic medical kit. He… didn't actually have any medical training, and the thought of that on top of everything else he hadn't been prepared for before he was deployed pissed him off even more, but Marian's injury took priority over fuming. At the very least, he could clean and bandage the wound to staunch the bleeding. "Hold still," he ordered her as he quickly went about dressing the wound, causing Marian to blink and stare in confusion, taken aback for a moment before she spoke up.

"W-wait, Joe, what are you…" her voice trailed off, and she went quiet as Joe went about cleaning the open injury with an included saline solution, applying a styptic to stop the bleeding, at least slow it somewhat, followed by an antibiotic ointment, and bandaging the wound carefully. He could only hope he'd done that properly, or at least not horribly. His hands were rapidly stained red, but that was nothing he would even acknowledge when his partner was hurt. Applying a… pin? The metal sheet with inwards-facing teeth that secured a bandage wrap in place, he nodded when it seemed like it wouldn't come loose.

"...I'm sorry I obviously don't know what I'm doing, but-"

"Don't apologize-!" Marian cut him off, sounding more than a little reproachful as she looked about ready to cry, pausing and taking a breath before continuing. "...Joe, I- thank you," she said as she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around the rookie Commander. "Thank you, but those medical supplies are for you. Wounds like this look bad, but Nikkes are tougher than humans. It hurts, but I can't get infections or suffer blood loss. It's just… cosmetic. Don't waste supplies meant for me to use on you. Okay?"

"...Is that why you winced in pain? Because it's just 'cosmetic?'" The Commander asked.

"Joe…" Marian pulled back, giving him an apologetic look. "I just- look," a moment passed, and she stepped back, expression becoming completely neutral again, all traces of pain fading in an instant. "I shut off my pain receptors. It… It's on normally to help us feel human, but it won't debilitate us. It won't be an issue for the rest of the mission, okay?" she asserted, and as if on cue, in the moment of quiet that followed, the gunfire and explosions they'd heard a few minutes ago were noticed once more - a lot closer this time, now. "...They've been holding out for a while now. We shouldn't keep them waiting any longer than we have to," Marian suggested, motioning for Joe to follow her. "Come on, before we run into any other distractions."

With a sigh, Joe followed. Checking on the status of the drone, he confirmed that it was still automatically following them, and that no more Raptures were immediately converging on their position.

Following the Nikke, Joe did his best to not weigh her down too much - as much as he could in the already worn-down state he was in. The limitations of flesh never felt so constricting.

---

Emerging from a ruined building, Joe and Marian finally found themselves on a street absolutely overloaded with dead Raptures - including a few he was pretty sure he'd never seen before, not that he could make out what they probably looked like when not in pieces. There, was the squad they'd been sent to support.

If one could call a duo a 'squad.'

Hoisting an assault rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher was a woman dressed in blacks and striking, almost luminescent reds. A dark beret sat atop her long strawberry blonde tresses, a heavily cropped leather jacket adorned in military insignias. Her dark-grey button-down was accented with a bright red necktie, her bottoms-

…Ah, she wasn't wearing bottoms. Or rather, her shirt was just long enough that it served double-duty as a short skirt. One which was wide open on the sides, and thus functioned as a loincloth of sorts? If not for the two bullet belts she wore like loose suspenders hanging from her combat belt, a light breeze would be all it took to reveal her undies to all the world - though on a closer inspection, he wasn't even sure that would be enough to shield her modesty. There was no way she wasn't deliberately dressed that way specifically to call attention to her (admittedly impressive) midsection.

Otherwise, she wore thin thigh-highs adored with a single red star each, and black high heels…

Wait. Why wasn't she wearing armour?

Beside her was a grenade launcher-wielding blonde, similarly wearing a beret, but her locks were cut into a messy bob. Rather than the black and red, this one was bedecked in blacks, yellows, and some dabblings of light greys. Her outfit was… both more and less revealing than the other's. A… sports jacket, Joe supposed, worn over a grey undershirt cut so low that it was genuinely shocking that she hadn't popped out of her top, given how it strained as though its life depended on it against her curvaceous figure.

A grenade harness hung from her waist over her booty shorts-adorned midsection. Thigh-highs that protested against her meaty legs which ended in… again, high heels.

Why in the fuck were neither of these girls wearing armour!?

"-Well, it took you long enough!" the girl dressed in the colours of a yellowjacket cried out from where she stood, checking the cylinder of her launcher. Joe was, more than anything, caught off-guard by how adorable her voice was. High-pitched in a way that somehow hadn't been what he'd expected. "Just after we finished taking care of that last wave too... Hey, was that huge crash earlier you two?"

The black-and-red one had been scanning the perimeter, turning to face Marian and Joe with a… completely blank expression. Notably, now that she was directing her attention towards them, he could make out that she had striking ruby eyes, and… overdone makeup. Like, noticeably, she was wearing way too much red eye shadow, her lipstick was a little thick, the blush on her cheeks practically caked on…

…Combined with her lack of expression, it made her a bit uncannily doll-like.

Her partner, on the other hand, didn't seem to doll herself up to any degree, and was rather remarkably expressive. She'd gone through what had to be ten completely distinct expressions in the few moments they'd set eyes on them. Amber orbs regarded Joe and Marian warily and with more than a little suspicion.

It went without saying that they were both gorgeous, even if one of them was teetering a bit far towards the uncanny valley right that moment.

"Yes," Marian, regardless, answered the question asked of them as she approached with her blue-clad companion alongside her. "Joe- I mean, the Commander had me collapse a highway overpass on top of the Raptures chasing us."

"That-" the yellow-clad one started, blinked, and gave Joe an appraising look. "That's actually pretty clever. It's not common for Commanders to be that-"

"Squad 04-F, Anis and Rapi," the red one interjected, tonelessly cutting her fellow off mid-sentence by way of introduction. "You are the back-up and replacement Commander we requested?"

"Rapi, I was right in the middle of-!" Anis, apparently, began to protest being cut off before letting out a heavy sigh and seemingly giving up with a roll of her eyes.

"-Yes," Joe replied, seeing as how he was the resident Commander. "Commander Joseph Pholus, we'd have been here sooner, but-"

"Yeah, we saw your transport go down," Anis interrupted. "Surprised you managed to crawl out of the fireball that had to have turned into… how did that even happen anyways? We should contact the Ark about-" she paused, eyes going wide before she jumped in place, declaring, "Holy- wait a minute, you're that guy!? That new Commander that's scoring those crazy numbers in training!? Why'd they send- hey, wait a- doesn't that mean this is your first mission!? What the hell is the Ark doing sending a complete rookie out to provide back-up!? Are they trying to get us all killed-?" She demanded to know, jabbing an accusatory finger out towards him.

To which Marian stepped forward, and outright slapped Anis' outstretched hand aside. "Don't you dare take that tone with him!" She protectively commanded her fellow Nikke, outright glowering at the dumbstruck blonde. "Joe's an amazing Commander, and you're lucky to have him-"

"Marian, fucking chill!" the man in question called out with widened eyes and an alarmed tone, grabbing Marian by the shoulder and pulling her back - a motion he knew only worked at all because Marian allowed herself to be pulled back by his weak human arms. "It isn't like she doesn't have a point! They deployed us like, two weeks earlier than they said they would! And under equipped at that, I should note!"

As Anis stared at Marian like she'd grown a second head, holding her offended hand with wide, uncomprehending eyes, Marian gave Joe her own utterly reproachful look of confusion. "But, she-"

"Marian, do not pick a fight with the girls we were sent out here to help! In the middle of an active battlefield!" Joe outright commanded Marian when she didn't back down immediately. He didn't want to have to pull rank and actually have to talk to her like a commanding officer, but swinging at an ally on an active warzone was so far out of line that it made his head spin.

That, mercifully, seemed to cause Marian to realize what she'd done, and she backed off, a regretful expression finding purchase on her features as she replied, "...I'm sorry, it won't happen again."

"...Look, I get it, okay?" Joe stepped closer to Marian, softening his voice as he tried to take on a comforting tone. "I was the same way the first time I met the first person that treated me decently. That's why I'm not going to let you act as over-zealously as I did - I'm not made of glass, and you don't need to treat anyone not approaching me like a priceless artifact like the enemy, okay?"

Marian was quiet for a few moments after that, expression growing visibly strained as she just stared at Joe, eventually speaking up with, "...Who, who treated you badly…?"

Ah shit.

"This is neither the time nor place, Marian!" Joe reminded her, caught off-guard by just how… volatile she was all of a sudden. Marian had been nothing but a chill sweetheart back at the Ark - did being in combat fray her nerves that badly? "Just- we have a job to do!" Turning back to Anis and Rapi, Joe gave them each an apologetic grimace. Anis looked like she'd walked in on her friends' parents fighting, while Rapi, again, was completely expressionless in an increasingly uncanny way. "Sorry, this was a search and rescue op, right? What can you tell us about the situation?"

"As we reported to the Ark: we lost our Commander shortly before sending out the distress call you responded to," Rapi replied without missing a beat - all business all at once. "He disregarded our warnings and attempts to protect him, charging out into the open and trying to engage the Raptures with a handgun not rated for Rapture combat. There was nothing we could do."

"It's like he was trying to die…" Anis grumbled, visibly upset by the recounting of events.

"That's the only conclusion we can come to, and Command confirmed his death as intentional suicide," Rapi asserted. "Therefore: we required a new Commander to take charge of the operation."

Marian was the next to speak up again. "You wouldn't mind if we confirmed that with Command?" she asked. "We have a stable connection here, it seems."

"Not at all," Rapi replied, utterly nonplussed by the request.

Jumping at the buzz in his ear, Joe learned at that moment and not at any more reasonable point beforehand, that his electronic ear protection was also his communications equipment. "This is Shifty at Ark HQ, I read you loud and clear: Commander, what's the situation? I'm not seeing any indication of the transport you took being nearby," yet another girl replied on the other end.

"Bwa-!?" Joe couldn't help but cry out in confusion. "I- how did, I didn't even see Marian do anything-"

"...Commander, Nikkes have integrated communications suites," Marian remarked by way of explanation.

…Right, gynoids. "Ah- right, Shifty? The transport we were in was shot down. The pilots… didn't make it. Marian and I had to walk the rest of the way to Anis and Rapi's position."

"Hey, that's right!" Anis suddenly interjected, stomping a foot and crying out into the air, "How the hell did that happen!? Why would you send search and rescue support through dangerous airspace!? Were you trying to get them killed!?"

"Commander, you claim that you were 'shot down?'" Shifty inquired, audibly confused and paying Anis little apparent mind. "That doesn't make any sense - the lane you took should have been clear for miles around. Did you get sight of what had done it? Anti-air that would have been close enough to take down the transport should be showing up on our scans."

Turning to Marian, given that he hadn't been conscious or otherwise just didn't remember what had happened at the time…

"No," Marian answered plainly. "There was an explosion, and the transport was blown in half. The Commander would have likely died had I not held onto him and used my body as a cushion to soften the fall for him."

…Joe hadn't realized that must have been what happened, but it made sense. He wouldn't have been able to just stand up and go about like nothing had happened if he'd fallen from an aircraft and slammed into hard fucking tarmac. Another thing he owed to Marian - something else he'd pay her back a dozen times over once they weren't on the clock anymore.

There was silence for a few moments, Shifty eventually spoke up again. "I've managed to secure a connection to the transport's onboard computer - thankfully, the black box seems to have survived the crash. I'll get it unlocked and look it over to see if I can find out what caused the crash in the first place. For now: your orders stand: proceed with the search and rescue operation. You will be extracted as soon as your operational objectives have been fulfilled. Any questions?"

"Rapi and Anis are claiming that their Commander's death has been ruled as a suicide, is this true?" Marian asked.

"Affirmative," Shifty replied without missing a beat. "The manner in which he conducted himself can't be read in any other way. Therefore: they can not be held responsible for his death and will not be decommissioned. Please cooperate with them in completing their original objective and following exfiltration. Raptures will doubtlessly be coming the area in search of you, so I would advise that you proceed with haste. Our connection seems to be growing weaker, so I'm going to let you go for now."

"Understood," Joe replied, pointedly not acknowledging or dwelling on the 'decommission' bit. "Over and out."

"Good luck, Commander," Shifty replied before the connection was cut.

There was a small moment of extended silence as everyone just sort of… stared at each other. Then Joe remembered that he was the commanding officer here, let out a small choking noise, and motioned down the street. "T-this way, I guess-" he paused. "Wait, were are we even-"

"Shit, that's right!" Anis slapped her own forehead. "The Commander - our former Commander was the only one that knew where we were actually going! We should have asked Shifty where to go-!"

"Here, the objective is this way," Marian interjected, moving towards and motioning to an alleyway leading deeper into the city. "It's not that far off, we should be able to get there in about twenty minutes if we don't run into any problems on the way."

There was a pause as everyone looked at Marian in surprise, and more than a little suspicion in Anis' case. "Wait," Anis started, "How do you know that?"

"I checked the dossier before we set off from the Ark," Marian replied easily, the light of the sun seeming to catch her eyes in a way that almost caused the brown splotches in them to sheen red again. "Now, Commander, we should get moving."

Joe felt like a complete boob. There was a dossier they could have read before leaving? Fucking hell, that would have been nice to know. Went to show how much more experienced at this Marian was, if nothing else. "Right, uh, c'mon guys… let's mosey," he awkwardly directed everyone onward, still not quite being used to this whole commanding thing.

"...Seriously? 'Let's mosey?' That's the best you could come up with?" Anis seemed unimpressed, eliciting a glower from Marian as Rapi just silently followed, not seeming keen on speaking up at all unless she had reason to.

Well, Anis and Rapi sure seemed like they'd turn out to be interesting temporary squadmates, if nothing else.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 06 - …I'm Right Here
===

"Marian, what's wrong?" Rapi stopped, pointedly calling out to the brunette as they moved along the overgrown ruins of the city, passing through what was once a small café in particular.

Brows rising in confusion, Joe was caught off-guard as he looked at Marian with no small degree of concern. "Wait, what? Something's wrong? Are you okay, Marian?"

Reaching up to rub at the back of her neck, Marian let out a weak sigh. "I-I'm fine, it must be a minor malfunction from the damage I took earlier. That's all-"

"Take off your top," Rapi immediately cut her off, utterly expressionlessly and without her tone shifting in the least.

That, needless to say, caught Joe off-guard, to say nothing of how Marian's entire head seemed to turn red at hearing the demand.

"W-what!? No!" Marian cried, retreating as her eyes snapped between Rapi and Joe, even as Rapi advanced on her. "Wait, it's-"

"All malfunctions must be addressed and corrected as soon as possible," Rapi elucidated, demonstrating all the social awareness of a bull moose. "I need to perform maintenance on you, and your gear will get in the way."

"But Joe's right there-!" Marian started, horror and building embarrassment writ large on her features as the man in question began looking about for somewhere to retreat to. He wasn't about to be party to Marian being exposed right in front of him.

"-Hey, Commander, what the hell do you think you're doing!?" Anis, however, seemed to have other ideas as she reached out and snatched his arm as he went to flee past her, into what looked like a storage room. "Stay in eyesight at all times! We didn't request a new Commander just so he could run off and get killed right away too!"

"B-but-" Joe started, not wanting to make this any more difficult for Marian than it needed to be.

"Let him go! He-" Marian called out even as Rapi reached out and started grabbing at the straps locking what remained of her armour in place.

"What the heck is up with you two?" Anis asked, brow heavily furrowed as she kept Joe locked in place effortlessly despite the apparent difference in mass between them. "Why are you acting embarrassed? You're a Nikke, he looks at you about as sexually as he would a toaster! Right, Commander-?"

Anis' words stopped dead when she looked aside at Joe, who himself was wearing a mixture of offence and embarrassment.

He didn't get the chance to interject on his own behalf, however, "Don't you dare liken Joe to them!" Marian cried out, looking about ready to blow past Rapi and charge at Anis. "He's not like those other Commanders! He sees Nikke as women, as people! I've had to stop him from assaulting a dozen anti-Nikke store owners for disrespecting me in just the two weeks we've been together!"

Of course that was the example she went to…

Rapi had stopped and turned to give Joe a critical eye - or he at least thought it was critical, her expression remained completely blank, after all. Anis, on the other hand, gave the impression of utter disbelief. "...Uh huh," the blonde seemed unconvinced, but, upon catching sight of the glower Marian shot her way, she relented her grip on Joe's arm and instructed him, "Just keep your back to her then. Not gonna have you run off and get shot where we couldn't see you."

"Lift your arms," Rapi robotically instructed the beleaguered brunette, seemingly unperturbed by the conversation going on around her.

"I- I can undress myself-!" Marian protested, almost whining.

Joe, not wanting to cause difficulties for anyone, just remained with his feet planted where they were, and did his best to not think about the fact that a topless Marian was just behind him.

---

"Commander, I could not find anything out of place - Marian is in perfect working order," Rapi informed Joe after the sounds of shifting fabric eventually stopped.

"...Do you have to use that sort of language?" Joe asked, not being willing to turn around until he was explicitly informed that Marian was dressed again.

"Yes," Rapi replied matter-of-factually. "It is protocol to speak in as clear a manner as possible so as to mitigate potential misunderstandings and other miscommunications."

Well, shit, if she was just doing things by the book, he couldn't exactly harp on her for it, could he? They were military personnel on a mission, after all. "...Alright, thank you, Rapi," he remarked, given that she was, ultimately, checking to make sure nothing was wrong with Marian.

There was no indication that Rapi cared about the basic courtesy Joe showed her. Girl was all business, it seemed.

Anis, standing right where she was at the start of this, was staring at Joe out of the corner of her eye with naked skepticism. He couldn't blame her, most Commanders were pieces of shit, by the sounds of it.

"Are you decent, Marian?" Joe asked, gaze fixed forward.

She was quick to reply. "I- yes, Joe, you can turn back around."

With a sigh, he did so, and found… "...Why didn't you put your armour back on?"

"Her armour is too damaged to make its continued use worthwhile," Rapi answered for Marian, emotionlessly and to the point as ever.

Ah. Well… "Fair enough," Joe replied as he nodded Marian's way. She was now wearing what looked like a stripped-down version of her casual outfit - a white, sleeveless button down, with… was she always wearing a pencil skirt under her armour? Fashion was apparently just something that Nikkes refused to disregard.

Either way, she'd stripped the tactical gear she'd had from the armour and now wore it over her basic clothes. She looked good, of course, but that kind of seemed to go without saying as far as Nikkes went.

"...Why do you have a bandage around your leg?" Anis asked Marian, looking at the wound Joe had patched up as best he could.

"I admittedly wondered the same thing," Rapi added onto the question. "It's entirely superfluous, you realize? These sorts of resources are meant to be used on Commanders; Nikkes don't benefit from their application in the least."

"Joe put it on me when he saw that I was injured," Marian answered easily. "And I must contest that last point."

Rapi's expression actually shifted, however minutely. A single eyebrow popped up ever-so-slightly to indicate her confusion at Marian's assertion.

It was, however, Anis that replied to that declaration. "...How? It doesn't benefit us, we're just machines. Flesh wounds like that don't actually mean anything."

"No, you're wrong," Marian asserted, making a fist and resting it over her chest. "And you… you would understand if he put a bandage on you," was the brunette's response. A look of quiet conviction in her eyes.

"...Ooookay then," Anis stopped just short of rolling her eyes, slightly shaking her head as she motioned for the group to move on. "Alright, well, let's keep going. The longer we're out here, the lower our chances of making it back get, and I'd rather not become more of a statistic than I already am."

As Anis started off in the direction they were already headed, Joe stared after her, brows furrowing at her choice of words. He didn't like that statement in the least, to say nothing of how disbelieving she was of any notion of him just... giving a shit about Marian.

All that he'd heard of the average Commander gave him the impression that they were just pricks not worth thinking about. Which, in retrospect was probably the reason he just didn't have much of a reaction to being told Anis and Rapi's previous Commander had essentially committed suicide by Rapture. He was getting to the point where he was just starting to file them away as not worth consideration.

She must have had her reasons for not trusting the notion of a decent Commander. He wouldn't hold it against her.

Rapi, meanwhile… Joe would probably wind up falling into the trap of acting like an emotionless robot that just did things by the book all the time, every time too, working as she had to as a Nikke.

They were products of their environment. They hadn't had time with someone that actually gave a shit about them to get out of the sorts of mindsets they'd been baked into.

…Maybe if they turned out to be decent girls, he'd look into having them transferred into his squad. Lord help him, he couldn't stand the idea of someone being in the kind of situation that left them acting like this.

But maybe he was getting ahead of himself. He was just one Commander, after all. It was hardly like he was going to be able to lunge for, and catch every Nikke that slipped through the cracks. Doubly so when they were in the middle of a war of extinction…

In the few moments it had taken for Joe to get lost in his own head, Marian walked up to him, reaching out and briefly taking a hold of his hand with a beaming smile. She could see the concern plain on his face. It was, honestly, more than a little sad how just being decent had such a strong effect on the girls fighting on the front line of mankind's last stand.

But, it was what it was. What remained of the world as far as humanity was concerned was more than a little fucked, but such was the lot of those who had the misfortune of being born in this era.

They'd just have to hope that those who followed in their footsteps would have the benefit of peace, the security to condemn the steps taken to ensure they had the chance to live at all.

"Joe," Marian nodded after Rapi and Anis. "Over here," she instructed the rookie Commander, already pulling him along.

At least, if nothing else, they had the means to enjoy the time they had together with good people.

---

Pushing on, the group marched their way into yet another overgrown street. Joe was seeing a lot of English signage all over the place, which tracked with the Ark proper. So… he presumed they were either somewhere in North America. Or South Africa. Didn't a few Asian places have English as an officially recognized language too, like Hong Kong though?

But, given how common western names were from what he saw, they were probably in a western region. Probably. He'd expect a lot more Asians if they were like, around Hong Kong.

Regardless of that, it occurred to Joe that they hadn't encountered any Raptures since landing, given how his mind had been allowed to wander. "Is it usually this quiet on the surface?"

"Yeah, actually," Anis answered easily, glancing back over her shoulder. "When you're not being mobbed by Raptures, at least. Tends to be a whole lotta nothing. Which is boring-"

"It is preferable to open combat," Rapi interjected with all the enthusiasm of a beached whale.

"...Yeah," Anis let out a shallow sigh. "I mean, can't argue with that, but still… it'd be nice if they let us listen to music or something-"

"Distractions while in unsecured locations is inadvisable," Rapi cut the short-haired blonde off. "Do not listen to music when we need to be prepared for combat."

"I didn't say-" Sighing in exasperation, Anis shook her head and just dropped the subject, a bit of a sour expression finding purchase on her features.

…Rapi sure was… fastidious, he supposed was one way to put it. Not that it wasn't warranted, Anis' more lackadaisical attitude was probably a bit problematic, all things considered. He wasn't going to get on anyone's backs at the moment, however. Especially since the budding problem seemed to have worked itself out.

Marian had drifted to the front of the pack, leading everyone on, being the only one that actually knew where they were going. How long had it been, now? She said about twenty minutes until they reached their destination, right? "We almost there, Marian?"

"Over here," she simply called back, not breaking stride as they continued to march on.

There was a moment of silence in which Anis glanced back, giving Joe a perturbed look, though she didn't say anything as they continued to move. Marian was taking this pretty seriously, though it was warranted given that it was a search and rescue mission. So, it'd probably do to just keep focused.

Checking his tablet, his work one, not the one he used to control his drone, Joe confirmed that it had been about twenty minutes, and nothing had really slowed them down. So, they should have been coming up on the place the squad they'd be looking for had gone missing.

Indeed, shortly after that, Marian came to a stop at a large intersection, little other than a gentle breeze accompanying the group as they ceased movement.

"...This it?" Anis asked, looking about with her grenade launcher hoisted on her shoulder. "I… don't see anything. Like, no traces of Nikkes or whatever. Hey, you sure this is the place?" she called out to the brunette.

"...Over here," Marian replied as she started ambling down the street again, eyes fixed forward, not bothering to turn around to address Anis.

"...Marian?" Joe started off after her, growing mildly concerned over how she seemed to just be repeating herself. "Hey, you okay-?"

Meanwhile, Rapi halted, lifting a hand up to her ear. "The Ark is trying to contact us," she declared, visibly trying to focus on her comms. "Shifty? There's interference, I can barely read you - repeat, interference, I can barely-" she froze on the spot.

At once, Anis stretched her arm outwards, catching Joe as her brow furrowed and she shifted her feet to a bracing stance.

Caught off-guard, Joe's gaze snapped to Anis, then Rapi, and he called out to Marian again. "Marian! Are you-"

"Marian, freeze!" Rapi called out in a commanding tone, suddenly shouldering her rifle and levelling it at the brunette's back.

Heart leaping into his throat, Joe reached up as if to push his way past Anis, but, it was like trying to shove over a power line pole. She was utterly unmoved by his attempt to get past her. "H-hey, what the hell is-!?"

"Shifty decoded the transport's black box," Rapi explained, braced to open fire at a moment's notice. "There was no anti-air or attack from Raptures - the craft was brought down from an internal detonation- one caused by explosives flagged as being intended for this operation in the craft's manifest."

"Wha-" Joe balked at the assertion, struck dumb by what he was hearing. "What the hell would explosives be needed for on a search and rescue operation..." That didn't make any sense, what the hell was-

"Those types of explosives do not go off without an outside trigger - a deliberate signal that can only be tripped with intent…" Rapi continued to explain, keeping her sights trained on Marian all the while. "That signal came from you, Marian, in the seconds before the transport was brought down."

Marian kept her back turned to the rest of the group, not responding to the allegations being thrown at her at all.

"...Marian?" Joe called out again, not trying to force his way past Anis, who herself had shouldered her weapon, holding it in place with a single hand as she glared warily Marian's way.

"There's no mistaking it, you caused that explosion," Rapi continued, taking a few steps to the side, clearing a lane of fire for Anis, Joe recognized. "Two pilots dead, the Commander was unlikely to survive the initial explosion either, let alone the crash… what was your goal? What was the plan there? What reason could you have for this sabotage?"

"-No!" Joe tried to intervene, "Marian didn't- she wouldn't- she's a sweetheart! She's been nothing but- She protected me! Saved my life from those Raptures, damn it! If she was trying to get me killed, why would she have let herself get hurt shielding me!? She took multiple shots that would have killed me outright, damn it!"

The grim readiness on Anis' face wavered as she glanced back at Joe, uncertainty tracing across her features as he could practically hear the gears in her head turning.

Still, Marian remained quiet, not turning back to face them, just seemingly staring out into the street beyond.

"Answer me!" Rapi actually started to sound irritated, adjusting the grip on her weapon as she did so. "...You're with Heavenly Ascension, aren't you? You smuggled those explosives onto the transport, deliberately set it up to sabotage this operation." Actually scoffing in rising anger, Rapi looked about ready to open fire on the spot. "I wish I could say this was a new low for your group, but no, sabotaging search and rescue operations is right in you terrorist's wheelhouse, isn't it?"

"Fucking what!?" Joe cried out, mortified by the accusations being thrown at his partner. "What the fuck are you talking about!? Marian's not a… a fucking terrorist! Who would even- why- that's insane! Where would you even-!?"

"I hate to say it, Commander," Anis cut him off. "But it's all adding up, and nothing else makes sense. The way she's been talking about being 'treated well,' obviously leading you on to treating her sympathetically… Heavenly Ascension sells itself as a Nikke rights group, but then they do things like this on a regular basis." She looked like she was biting her tongue before moving on. "I suppose we should be happy it wasn't a civilian public transport this time, huh?" she darkly mused.

Joe felt like he'd been punched in the gut a dozen times… Marian couldn't be a terrorist. Why the fuck were there even terrorists to be worrying about!? When mankind was on the verge of extinction!? What kind of sick, soulless abomination would slaughter innocents en masse to send a political message when their entire fucking species was teetering on the brink on account of an alien invasion!?

Yet… Marian wasn't saying anything. She wasn't countering, wasn't arguing, she was just standing there, back turned to them. "Marian," Joe called out, unable to mask the rising horror in his voice. "Marian, say something," he pleaded with her, throat rapidly trying and constricting as he tried to fight the lump rising in his throat. "Marian, please, say something!"

Silence fell, and reigned for a long, suffocating time.

Eventually, however, Marian did respond. Turning around, simply shifting about so that she was facing Joe, she met his horrified gaze.

There, in that moment… he just saw Marian. Just… the girl that had opened herself up to him, those kind, gentle eyes, that reassuring little smile, those soothing dual-toned eyes. She just looked at him, as kindly, considerately as ever. That's all he saw. Not some nefarious monster, not a mad bomber, not a murderer. Just… Marian.

So, why? Why was she not saying anything? Why didn't she defend herself? Why was she just…

Her lips parted, staring at Joe all the while. He felt his heart stop, somehow, he dreaded the words that were about to come out of her mouth-

"Over here," Marian said.

Joe blinked. Anis blinked. Rapi blinked. All stared at her in rapidly mounting confusion.

"...What?" Rapi asked, utterly dumbfounded.

"Over here," Marian repeated.

Another stretch of confused silence.

"What the hell is-" Anis started, before her eyes widened, actual horror replacing the confusion she'd been wearing just moments previously. "-It can't be, that's impossible, how, where would she have…!?"

Eyes snapping over her shoulder, Rapi looked to an increasingly terrified Anis in hopes of an explanation.

"Rapi," Anis continued, rapidly backing up, arm outstretched so as to drag an increasingly stupefied Joe along with her. "Rapi! Retreat! Retreat!"

Marian raised her hand, and, as though with great difficulty, pointed at Joe… or rather, she pointed past him, eyes locked with his, he saw in her gaze something… "Over here," she repeated. "Over here," she said in what he only now recognized was the exact same intonation every time, like a broken record, "Over here," she cried, as Joe saw in her eyes, rapidly taking on a sinister ruby glow… Joe recognized a terrible struggle. Marian silently pleaded with him to turn around, and flee. "Over here over here overhereoverhereoverhereoverhere-"

"She's corrupted!" Anis cried, levelling her launcher at the brunette. "Rapi, move-!"

Joe ducked under Anis' arm and lunged for her weapon, wrapping his hand around the end of the barrel, he cried in a panic and desperation, "Don't!" having recognized that she was about to launch a grenade at Marian, at the girl that had been there for him, at the girl that had opened up to him and offered her heart to him and showed him that there was something worth fighting for and getting out of bed for and-

"Overhereoverhereoverhereoverhere-"

"Commander, you idiot! Stop!" Anis reached out to try and stop him, but halted upon setting a hand on his chest, eyes snapping between him and the 'corrupted' Nikke just a few metres away. "Rapi! Do something!"

Rapi, whose eyes had settled into a grim determination once it became clear what was happening, grit her teeth and- "Commander, permission to open fire!"

"Overhereoverhereoverhere-" Marian's voice rapidly grew more distorted as her eyes lost their natural, soothing tone and became glowering red beacons.

"-Are you serious right now!?" Anis actually screamed. "Rapi, he's snapped! Just shoot her! She's sending out a boosted distress signal on every wavelength, every Rapture in the city is going to know exactly where we are!" Anis screamed as she visibly couldn't bring herself to manhandle Joe to get his hand off of the end of her weapon's barrel. "We're going to die! Stop screwing around, damn it!"

"Commander!" Rapi repeated, backing up as she kept her sights trained on the corrupted Nikke. "Permission to engage!"

Anis shouted at the top of her lungs, "RAPI, HE'S NOT GOING TO- YOU IDIOT-!"

All were silenced when a great and terrible crash came towards them, something large, something massive barrelling down the street, towards the intersection Marian was standing in the middle of. Seconds was all it took for Joe to turn and witness a pair of tentacles, black, covered in almost rotted-looking, pitted flesh stretched too thin, lashed out and grabbed her - lifting Marian from the ground like she was a featherweight rag doll…

A monster large enough to take up the entire width of the city street crashed into view. It was like a crab made of wretched, rippling artificial flesh adorned in spikes both chitinous and mechanical which had been split open to reveal a mechanical endoskeleton - spewing out jets of what looked like blood from its underside which coated the ground beneath it in splashes of crimson ichor. The creature stood atop six armoured, mechanical, insectoid legs. It had a head in the vague shape of a bird of prey, but lacking eyes or nostrils, it was almost a featureless silver-grey skull - below that was a massive inorganic eye glowing the same frenzied red as Marian's had been.

Worse yet, hanging beneath the abomination's crab-like main body, were what were obviously fucking gun pods.

"Tyrant!" Anis cried out as she bodily dragged Joe back from the hellish creature. "Shifty, Tyrant-class! Type: Blacksmith!"

"-Understood!" Shifty called back, comms clearing enough for the radio operator to actually engage with everyone. "You're in range of artillery support, ETA two minutes, but I advise a full retreat! You are not equipped to engage a Tyrant! Repeat: advise full retreat, disengage and retreat! Commander, do you read me?"

Joe heard her loud and clear. He saw everything around him, the Nikkes, these seemingly all-powerful Goddesses of Victory backing away in open terror from one of the great creatures that had brought their species to the brink. But, moreover…

He saw Marian, drawn in and lashed to the creature's fleshy carapace, helpless, after all she'd done to protect him…

"Commander! We can't win this, we have to retreat!" Rapi advised him, pulling back and taking cover behind a concrete barrier along with Joe and Anis, itself behind a car which had crashed into it decades before. Cannon fire immediately tore into their defences, each round fired even at a distance shaking Joe's core.

…He couldn't. He wouldn't. Marian was- "That thing still has Marian," he said firmly.

"...Ah, shit," Anis immediately grimaced, falling into the barrier and taking on an expression of utter resignation. "It was nice knowing you, Rapi…"

Rapi, meanwhile, looked at Joe seriously, meeting his gaze wordlessly.

What could he say? "I can't abandon her," he said, and he couldn't. She wasn't a weapon to be thrown aside, left behind when it suited him. She was his companion, his friend, his… his…

Rapi just nodded once. "Orders, Commander?" Fearlessly, she didn't hesitate to stand alongside him.

Anis, meanwhile, quietly whined behind them as she leaned around cover and launched a grenade at the Blacksmith, itself roaring in response to the assault. "Of all the places and ways to die…"

"-Commander," Shifty declared over their comms. "If you intend to fight it… Artillery can fire in salvos with thirty-second pauses to reload, and I can redirect a nearby patrol to provide sniper support. But you need to make the call now."

…He wasn't abandoning Marian.

"Anis, I'm going to use my drone to search for environmental hazards - nearby buildings and signs and shit to drop on that thing's fucking head! I'll direct your fire, and use your grenades to destroy supports!" He looked to Rapi as he withdrew his drone tablet. "Rapi, get me somewhere out of the direct line of fire where I can direct you both over comms without getting in the way. Focus on being quick over being gentle - and tell me if you know of any weaknesses that thing has-"

"Blacksmiths have a noted tendency to hyper-focus on a single target, and struggle to effectively track moving targets," Rapi answered with an interjection, wasting no time. "If both Anis and I remain on the move and separate, it should decrease its chances of landing an attack on either one of us. Doubly so once we have sniper support to further distract it. They normally have support from smaller Raptures to make up for their deficiencies, but this one seems to have charged in alone. It may be the only reason we have any chance of defeating it at all."

Nodding, Joe turned over his shoulder, "Anis! Distract that bastard for us!"

"Guess I don't have a choice…" Anis replied, glowering angrily at Joe as she did so.

Turning back to the black-and-red clad strawberry blonde, Joe continued, "Rapi, get me the hell to a good observation point and let's save Marian!"

With a single, determined nod, Rapi reached out, setting a hand on Joe's arm to take hold of him and plant him over her shoulder. She capped off the plan with a declaration of, "Encounter!"

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 07 - Goodbye...
===

With Joe hoisted atop her shoulder, with three mighty leaps using a burnt-out bus, then a lamp post, Rapi came to a firm stop atop a roof, all but dropping the Commander flat on his ass. "Orders, Commander?" the strawberry blonde inquired.

"-Return to ground level," Joe declared, taking direct control of his drone with a grimace of discomfort from the rough handling. "You and Anis take turns distracting that thing from each other - it fixates on one target at a time, and- the artillery will be able to take it out, right?"

A boom and roar came from below - Anis doing her job as best she could.

"It will help," Rapi matter-of-factually declared. "With luck, the combination of myself, Anis, and our oncoming sniper support should keep it distracted. Long enough for the artillery to at least do enough damage to open it up to an execution manoeuvre."

A series of booms followed - Anis could only fire so many rounds before she needed a chance to reload.

Nodding harshly, Joe replied, "Good, then get to ground, Anis will be needing support."

"Understood." With that, Rapi about-faced, charging for the ledge and leaping with abandon - falling and slamming into the aged asphalt with enough force to crack it. Anis was scrambling for cover down the street, the Blacksmith hadn't seemed to take notice of Rapi - and it had left itself wide open in doing so, revealing a known weak spot.

With quickness, Rapi shouldered her rifle, shifting her grip to her rifle's underbarrel grenade launcher, and she took an expertly aimed shot. With velocity more in line with a bullet than the gentle lob of the conventional launchers of old, it punched through the sound barrier and impacted with a thunderous burst.

With a frenzied scream, the Blacksmith skittered about in place, its damaged arm-mounted weapon, having been reduced to dangling from a few strands of carbonized flesh, snapped free entirely with a crash. One cannon down - the thing's danger immediately reduced by thirty percent.

Rapi was already on the move when it started bounding for her, letting loose a stream of cannon fire, each round projected her way accompanied by an eardrum-shattering percussive boom.

With practised grace, Rapi darted forth, taking opportunistic bursts of rifle fire as she deftly avoided the monstrous gunfire directed her way, her superhuman perception allowing her to see each individual impact on its unarmoured flesh even at these speeds - a miniature explosion of artificial meat and ichor which painted its white carapace with splotches of red.

Dozens of dangling, vestigial spider-like limbs undulated furiously from beneath the creature's crab-like upper body. Serving no apparent purpose but to reinforce the abomination's nightmarish appearance. It was mad, that much was clear. Which meant the Commander's plan was working, at least right now.

Furiously slamming a grenade into the final chamber of her launcher, Anis took up position atop a ruined ambulance, ignoring the protesting groans of ancient metal as she aimed her weapon - Rapi was, as expected, weaving around the Blacksmith's attacks like a persistent fly might a human's hand.

Waiting for an opportunity to land a meaningful hit as Rapi had, Anis watched as her partner came to a skidding halt to avoid a burst of explosive orbs launched from the Blacksmith's back - followed by the creature lashing out with its free tentacle, striking with such speed that a sonic boom accented each strike.

Rapi ducked, the swing soaring high. Then, with a furious reversal, she back-flipped to avoid the following low strike.

"Anis!" Joe called out over their comms, "Launch grenades at the following pings, in order!" a pair of digital indicators lit up in her vision, planted one after the other, the first at the base of a ruined concrete pillar of some kind - the other at the wall behind it.

"What?" Anis began to protest with naked confusion. "Why-!?"

Again, the Rapture swung its tentacle at Rapi, snarling in a blind fury necessitating a side-ways spinning dodge - wherein Rapi fired another burst at it - actually landing a few blows directly at its core mid-air and mid-spin.

"Fire!" Joe commanded the grenadier despite her perplexion.

Again, the Blacksmith tried to swing at Rapi. Anis, with a cry of "-Damn it!" obeyed, not having the time to question the Commander's bizarre orders.

The first grenade at the base of the pillar struck, destroying its foundation and destabilizing it, teetering forth agonizing slowly. The second created a shock wave which blew the entire thing forward and into the street like a rocket - landing directly on the Rapture's sole operational tentacle with a ruinous thud, trapping its limb and eliciting a screeching roar of what must have been anger and pain.

Anis blinked, caught entirely off-guard… that was actually really clever, holy shit.

This time, Rapi front-flipped. Not to create distance, but straight at the Rapture.

Cocking her leg, bringing it back as she flew towards it, just before impacting she shot her heel forward - an accompanying metallic report screaming in accordance with her rapid descent as a stiletto spike shot out from the heel of her shoe. Driven deep by the combination of her own extreme weight and the force of her kick, at once, she was anchored to the Blacksmith's back. Just so as to place her far too close for it to use any of its dedicated ranged weapons.

Its sole free tentacle trapped beneath a fallen pillar, Rapi jammed the barrel of her rifle into the creature's flesh even as it jerked back-and-forth, attempting to throw her off, and unloaded her entire magazine at point-blank range. The Nikke was immediately coated in putrid gore, but undeterred by the macabre shower, she reloaded her firearm with shocking mechanical speed and precision, and another magazine was dumped directly into the Rapture's fleshy back.

Two more pings came, the same tactic as before, however, this time, at a utility pole which would have once stretched across the entire street, but had now been reduced to an inverted metal L, the horizontal pole ending in a jagged spike. "Anis, hold fire until Rapi has disentangled from the Blacksmith! Rapi, lead the Rapture into range of the target as soon as you're forced to dismount it-"

With a berserk roar, the Blacksmith tore its own trapped tentacle in half to free itself - spewing blood everywhere as it brought the shortened but still long enough limb around in an attempt to swat Rapi from its back.

She reacted too slowly - taking the full brunt of the strike as she was blown clear from the creature's back and down the street like a pitched softball. Crashing through a wooden power line pole, she actually caught herself in a three-point landing once she started rolling along the ground. Her expression was one of grim determination, no indication of even discomfort or distress as a streak of the Blacksmith's blood was left in her wake.

Firing its singular remaining gun along with a throng of reddish-black explosive orbs launched from its back, the Rapture charged full-tilt at Rapi, intent on brutalizing her for her assault. It was moving entirely too quickly for Anis to be able to enact the Commander's plan…

"Commander, sniper support is ready-"

"Fire at will! Open fire, open fire!" Joe immediately interjected and directed the snipers, who wasted no time in unloading a salvo of high-calibre, extreme velocity bullets which had more in common with anti-material rounds than anything a modern sniper would have used. Fire came from the street opposite the direction Rapi had been thrown.

Huge bursts of ichor exploded from the Blacksmith's body - staggering it and eliciting a murderous scream as it skittered about one-hundred-eighty degrees to face its distant attackers - to which Anis took the opportunity provided by it stopping in just the right place and launched the two grenades she'd been previously instructed to.

The utility pole came down like a pick axe upon stone, propelled with such speed and momentum that it actually punched clean through the Rapture's hide and flesh, pinning it to the pavement with a terrible crash and brutal cry of pained fury.

More explosive orbs launched from the Blacksmith, propelled seemingly randomly in all directions at once - it was clearly overwhelmed, striking out with little rhyme or reason now. Immediately, it started fighting against the improvised spike keeping it pinned down, tearing it back out of the ground foot-by-foot - though not fast enough, as Anis could clearly make out the drone's targeting laser fixed on it.

A salvo of artillery fire struck true, utterly ravaging the Tyrant-class, blowing massive chunks from its topside, gore exploding outwards and painting everything around it. With great, smoking craters left in its flesh, the Rapture still attempted to stand, however weakly. It defiantly moved to rise and continue the fight, even as its beak-like 'head' fell clean from its body, leaving its core plainly exposed.

A series of percussive bursts followed as the snipers took aim and unloaded at the beast's weak spot - doing terrible damage which brought the monster back down, like a steel pipe taken to a rising combatant's face. Then, arcing overhead, Rapi slammed into the street before it, levelling her rifle at the core, and unloading yet another magazine into it.

That, finally, had been enough. With its core burst, the Tyrant's roars rapidly withered, faltering and quieting as it slumped down. One final, shuddering breath followed as the beast fell silent, then still.

Silence followed, Rapi, having reloaded her weapon without hesitation, remained in a readied stance for several long moments. Anis just stared in shock at the sight of a dead Tyrant, killed by just two Nikkes with long-range sniper support and a single artillery strike. That… wasn't supposed to happen. This sort of thing didn't happen. Had they even taken any damage? Did they just kill a Tyrant without suffering any losses of any kind-!?

As if on cue to punish her for her hubris, the Blacksmith's second tentacle unravelled, and Marian slid from the creature's underside, landing on her rear with her back against it's mass with a dull thud. Even from this distance… Anis felt her heart drop into her stomach at the state the brunette had been left in, clearly having taken no small amount of damage from the onslaught just the same as the Rapture had.

"-Marian!" Joe shouted from the roof, rapidly finding a ladder and scrambling to descend it as quickly as possible. Actually sliding down, he hit the ground harder than he should have, cursing as he struggled to upright himself, he cast aside the tablet he'd been using to control his drone, having fallen into a dead sprint.

Horror coursed through his veins alongside adrenaline. Blowing clean past Rapi, Joe rushed to Marian's side, dropping to a knee and drawing an arm across her back, the other set on her cheek.

Marian… had lost her entire right arm, half of her left leg above the knee, and - worst of all… had a hole blown in her skull. Covered in blood, not all of it the Rapture's, she was visibly in dire condition, her singular remaining eye locked forward, dull, still glimmering red. Lips parted, her mouth was hanging open blankly… Already, she looked like a corpse.

"Marian…!" Joe started, unable to take his eyes off of her, unable to blink. "No, no, God, please no-"

"She's still alive," Rapi declared, no inflection present in her voice as she wiped what Blacksmith blood clear from her face she could manage.

As if in response, Marian's lips moved. Ever-so-slightly, but, it was an indication that she wasn't dead.

Letting out a pained, gasping breath, Joe immediately drew his partner into a clinging hug, mortified by the state she'd been left in, but, thankful all the same. She was alive, that meant she could be healed. That meant she could be helped. "It's okay," he did his best to assure her, assuming she was even conscious with the amount of horrific damage she'd taken. It's okay, Marian. We'll get you back to the Ark, we'll get you help, you'll be as good as new, and… and we'll go to that Italian place, just like we planned, right?" he weakly chuckled painfully. "Just, just hold on a bit, okay?" he pleaded with her, holding her close, ignoring the sounds of another set of feet approaching - Anis sidling up next to Rapi.

A sound passed Marian's lips - a response, she was trying to speak to him. Quieting himself, he focused entirely on her.

"I'm listening, Marian," he assured her. "I'm here, listening."

Seconds crawled by in what felt like hours, until… "...Here," she finally uttered.

There was a wretched, soul-crushing beat.

"Over… here…" Marian continued to repeat herself, just as she had been doing before the Blacksmith had captured her.

Joe just stared forward blankly, still holding Marian tight as he did so.

"Commander," Rapi stepped forward, slinging her rifle over her shoulder as she spoke in as professional a tone as she ever seemed to. "She's still sending out a wide-band distress signal - though a severely weakened one. She's received brain damage - and is at risk of becoming an irregular."

"Rapi!" Anis reached out, planting a hand on Rapi's shoulder as if to lock her in place, her voice having taken on a pleading tone as well.

"Marian is an ongoing danger to everyone present, including you, Commander," Rapi pressed, seeming to ignore Anis entirely. "Protocol dictates that she must be decommissioned to end the threat to yourself and the Nikkes under your command. The handgun on your belt is specially designed and loaded with ammo capable of penetrating a Nikke's skull for this exact purpose. You have to put her down."

The world had become tilted, colour seemed to drain from everything around him, his body instantly ached terribly with tension.

Silence. Joe met the instruction with utter silence, continuing to cradle Marian in his arms. This wasn't right. This wasn't what was supposed to happen. They'd saved her, they'd rescued her. They'd done the impossible. It… it couldn't end like this. They were supposed to be… they were supposed to be happy together. They were supposed to give each other something to live, to fight for. Something to look forward to, something to come home to. Not… not…

"Commander!" Rapi's tone took on a far harsher, more urgent edge. "The corruption has set in, it's too late to help her. She's already dead, and is an active threat to us all - you must-"

"I'll do it!" Anis immediately moved to shove her way past Rapi, slinging her grenade launcher across her back. "Commander, give you your-"

Rapi lunged for Anis, grabbing her by the wrist and tossing her back, nearly causing the short-haired blonde to lose her footing. "Stay away from her or you'll become corrupted too!"

Those words echoed in Joe's ears, yet more horror mounting as the severity of the situation bore down upon him harder and yet harder by the second.

"Rapi, for god's sake-!" Anis cried out, her face twisting in sympathetic pain at the sight of Joe visibly breaking down at the realization that Marian couldn't be saved.

"-Commander," Rapi continued. "Even being near her is placing myself and Anis at risk of becoming corrupted as well, to say nothing of the fact that she's still broadcasting our location to nearby Raptures. You are human, you're the only one that can safely do what has to be done. This is your duty, as our Commander, and as hers as well. Leaving her like this would be cruel, unnecessary, and a violation of protocol I would be forced to report you for."

"...Over… here…" Marian uttered weakly.

…There really was nothing he could do. All of that effort, that battle, that terrible risk…

"...Over… here…" the Nikke continued piteously.

After all she'd done, all she'd offered, this was how it ended. This was the result of her being placed under his command. This was the result of her placing her trust in him.

"...Commander!" Rapi pressed him from where she stood. He didn't bother acknowledging her.

…Every moment he hesitated, was a moment Marian suffered longer. It was his duty to release her from her's. It… he owed her that much, at least.

Unlatching the strap holding the pistol in place, Joe drew the handgun that had been thrown to him before they set off. His left hand still resting behind Marian's back, he took several deep breaths, before chambering a round.

Even through the ear protection, even after witnessing a battle between Nikkes and a Tyrant-class Rapture first hand, somehow, it was the most deafening thing he'd heard yet.

Using his free hand to cup Marian's cheek, he stared into her remaining eye. Unfocused, tainted red, uncomprehending…

Was she even still in there, anymore?

Taking a deep breath, Joe focused on the next step. Raise the pistol.

Bring it up.

Press it under her chin.

Finger set on the trigger…

…

On the trigger…

…

On the trigger-

Teeth clenched together, eyes and lungs feeling as though they were on fire, Joe realized he'd stopped breathing. He'd tried to focus on the mechanical motions of the act he was about to perform.

But he couldn't.

He couldn't not see her.

He couldn't pretend that this wasn't Marian, that in the short time he'd known her, she'd been one of the most wonderful girls he'd ever had the pleasure of knowing. All the fun times they'd spent together, the movies, the shopping, the dining, the long walks spent getting to know each other… the injuries she'd suffered, the damage and pain she'd experienced protecting him.

He couldn't do it.

Gasping, the pistol's barrel fell. He didn't drop it entirely, but he couldn't even hold it up. He felt his soul ebbing away just from holding a loaded gun to her head, even in this catatonic, lost state. This wasn't the ending she deserved. She wasn't just some statistic, another name to be forgotten in the sea of lost souls.

She was Marian. She was there for him. She'd chosen to trust him despite how cruel life had been to her.

Tears began to flow, he closed his eyes. He couldn't choke back the sob building at the back of his throat. He couldn't. He just couldn't-

The sensation of a hand gripping the barrel of the pistol jolted him back into reality.

Marian had grabbed onto the end of the firearm. Marian was looking at him.

She was looking at him. Recognition had returned, he could see it - she was aware again. It was her. Against all odds, despite Rapi's cold words to the contrary… it was her, it was Marian, hope wasn't lost, she could still be-

With a small, weak smile, she slowly lifted the pistol.

What…

Gradually, inch-by-inch, it found its way back to its target.

No. No.

The barrel of the pistol was once more set just below her jaw. Her eyes again, one last time, glimmering weakly with the awareness of a conscious being - the vile crimson of corruption glowing past it, threatening to overtake what little remained of her permanently.

"...Joe…" Marian spoke with what little strength remained, loosening her grip on the end of the barrel when it was clear it was frozen in place from sheer shock alone. He felt the tips of her fingers brush against his own, before reaching the back of his hand, repeating that same gentle massaging motion she'd done to calm him on the transport ride from the Ark.

"Thank… you…" she weakly uttered, her hand drawing back… her delicate thumb slipping into the guard of the trigger, settling itself over his index finger. "My… friend…" she rasped out as a single tear fell from her remaining, bloodied eye. "My… love…"

Silence hung for what felt like years. Eyes locked wide open, staring in uncomprehending horror, Joe couldn't react. The pain was overwhelming, paralyzing. There was nothing he could do as…

"...Good…"

With her last words, Marian pressed down on Joe's trigger finger.

"...Bye…"

A single report cried out. A brass casing hit the ground an instant before Marian's hand.

The pistol followed shortly.

Joe didn't know how long he knelt there. His hand still curled around Marian's back. Staring. Tears streamed down his face despite the complete lack of sound coming from his throat.

Love.

How terribly cruel.

Eventually, Joe disentangled himself from Marian… removed his backpack, and withdrew the same medical supplies he'd used to bandage her leg not even an hour ago. Undoing the blue ribbon keeping the left side of her hair tied up, he then proceeded to wrap up the hole where her right eye used to be.

Pulling back, he took in the sight of her. Sitting there. Back to the Rapture responsible for her death. Eye closed, expressionless. She didn't look at peace. There was nothing peaceful about this. She looked tormented. Tortured. Not at rest. Just…

…Gone.

"We can't take her with us back to the Ark, Commander," Rapi spoke up, her tone dry, lacking in emotion of any kind. "She's still hazardous to other Nikkes. She has to stay behind."

…This was no proper final resting place.

But what did the world care if Marian deserved better than this?

Joe stared at Marian, where she'd be unceremoniously left next to a rotting Rapture. A place he couldn't come back to. A place to which he couldn't return to visit her.

This was it. This was the last time.

He reached out, and pulled her into one last hug.

"I'm sorry," he whispered to her. "I'm sorry… that I wasn't good enough."

He held her for several seconds longer.

"Goodbye, Marian."

With that, he pulled back from the corpse of the woman that had given him so much in so short a time. Realized he was still holding her ribbon… and pocketed it. That… and the ID card hanging from her waist. A picture of her - the only one he might ever have the luxury of keeping.

Cupping her cheek one last time, Joe rose to his feet. Looking down at Marian, he let out a shuddering sigh, and turned around, marching back towards-

His foot hit something. Glancing down… he found First Affection. Marian's personalized submachine gun.

He picked it up, and slung it over his shoulder.

Then, he marched past Rapi and Anis, either not noticing, or not caring about the tortured expression the yellow-clad Nikke wore as she watched him go.

Anis looked at Rapi, brow furrowing in anger. Rapi acknowledged the stare, as emotionlessly, bereft of expression as ever. Reaching up to her ear, the strawberry blonde engaged her comms to the Ark. "Command. Nikke: designation Marian confirmed deceased. Search and rescue operation deemed a failure, lost Nikkes likely to have been captured and disassembled for parts by the Tyrant-class: Blacksmith. Continued searching is no longer worthwhile. Requesting transport back to base. Out."

She then moved to pick up the drone tablet Joe had dropped.

"...Damn it," Anis growled before she whipped around and followed after Joe in naked frustration.

Meanwhile, the Commander, despite knowing it would do him no good, couldn't help himself.

One last time, he looked back at Marian.

For several long moments, not acknowledging Anis or Rapi, he stared at his partner.

Then, wordlessly, he turned back as the falling tears redoubled.

In the wake of the destruction of a Tyrant-class Rapture, there was no victory to be found on this day.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 08 - Tip of the Iceberg
===

The view of the Ark on approach from one of the personnel elevators was, simply put, absolutely breathtaking. From so very far up - far enough that skyscrapers looked like toothpicks, the sheer technological wonder of the place was put on full display. The elevator to the surface was transparent material, Joe couldn't say if it was glass or something akin to transparent aluminum, and so gave a full view of everything not directly blocked by the elevator's roof or floor.

It was difficult to convey just how large the cavern the Ark was located in was. It honestly boggled the mind that it was apparently structurally sound. There were no visible support structures he could see, just… an opening kilometres wide in all directions beneath the surface of the Earth. To say nothing of the fact that the artificial sky, from the opposite side it was usually visible from, was a technological wonder - a series of massive holographic circles that likely constituted the constituent parts of a single, gargantuan semi-sphere encapsulating the entire city proper.

From this high up, looking directly at it from up top kind of felt like having a flashlight jammed right in one's face.

The light show would have made Micheal Bay proud.

Otherwise… from Joe's perspective, it almost looked like the Ark was built on top of some kind of impact crater, or something that had hit the ground at monstrous speeds. Like, to his eyes, the base of the Ark almost looked like a bullet flattened against a sheet of steel. It was strange, but at the same time, what the fuck did he know? Joe was no engineer, so pondering the design choices of this great underground arcology was kind of above his pay grade.

The atmosphere as Joe, Rapi, and Anis descended towards the Ark could be most charitably described as 'awkward.' While Anis glanced between Joe and Rapi, visibly uncertain and uncomfortable, Rapi just blankly stared ahead. And Joe…

Joe made every effort to distract himself from what had just happened on the surface. He didn't want to think about it. Not yet. He'd have plenty of time later, when he was alone. It was bad enough that these two had seen him freak out as much as he had. He didn't know them, they didn't know him, he and Marian had just been sent out to reinforce them on a mission they'd… ultimately failed.

Best to just move along and let this be the end of their time together-

"Shifty," Rapi suddenly spoke up, raising a hand to her ear as she did so. "Do you read?"

"Ah, yes, I read you, what is it, Rapi?" the radio operator replied without missing a beat.

"According to the Black Box, Marian sent out the signal to detonate the explosives in mid-air, correct?"

There was a beat before Shifty answered. "Yes, according to what was recorded, that seems to be the case."

"Where did the transport land before proceeding on to the mission objective?" Rapi pressed.

"It didn't," Joe interjected, answering himself, given that he was there. "We took off from the Ark, and didn't touch the ground until crashing."

"...As the Commander says," Shifty continued after waiting for a moment. "The Black Box records that the transport achieved lift-off from the launch pad, and proceeded onward to convene with your squad without pause."

"Then how was Marian corrupted?" Rapi asked, brow furrowing. "All known information on corruption suggests that a Nikke must come into direct physical contact with a Rapture, specifically a higher-ranked model to be infected - and even then usually through penetration via tentacle directly injecting malicious code into her body. If Silver Gun didn't have the chance to come into contact with Raptures at all before Marian showed signs of infection-"

"Silver Gun?" Joe asked, wondering where that term came from.

"-Marian was recorded as being a member of Silver Gun, which I'd assumed is the name of your squad," Rapi asserted plainly before pausing and continuing to ask Joe a question. "Was Silver Gun deployed at any point prior to this operation?"

"...No, Marian and I had just been… milling about for the past two weeks," Joe answered, gaze drifting off as he made an effort to be as professional as he could, despite his intense desire to avoid talking about or thinking about Marian right then and there. "Doing… normal things, aside from practising in the simulator rooms with Einkk."

"She hadn't left the Ark for at least two weeks prior to being deployed to reinforce us… Nikkes show obvious signs of corruption within hours of infection, at the absolute most…" Rapi mused, the gears in her head almost audibly churning.

"...Hey, Shifty," Anis spoke up, brow thoroughly knitted as she did so. "When comms were down, Marian mentioned having read a dossier on the mission, which she claimed is how she knew how to lead us to the search location. The Commander seemed surprised that there even was a dossier-"

"Because there was no dossier, he would have been informed and expected to read it as a matter of course otherwise," Shifty cut her off. "You two requested reinforcements in short order, for an emergency operation that itself happened on too short a notice to allow for documentation in the first place. You're saying that Marian was the one that led your squad to the Blacksmith's ambush location? It was assumed that your previous Commander would have shared information on your destination with yourself and Rapi."

"He didn't," Anis very dryly declared.

"...So he was taking point and having you two follow him in an active war zone, then," Shifty sounded bemused.

"Yup," Anis, again, replied with all the moisture of the Sahara. "'Weapons don't need to know what they're pointed at, so just shut up and follow me,' were his exact words."

"I presume this will be reflected in your personal recordings of the operation?" Shifty asked.

"Yes, neither Anis nor myself experienced any sort of issues with our internal recording equipment," Rapi answered.

"...Wow," Shifty did not sound impressed in the least. "Well, if you two weren't already off the hook for his suicide, you sure will be if your recordings line up with your testimony."

"It will," Rapi replied matter-of-factually.

"...Guy sounds like a stupid asshole," Joe mused aloud, obviously in regards to Anis and Rapi's previous Commander.

Both girls pointedly gave him a look. Rapi's as flat and unreadable as ever, while Anis was making one hell of a perplexed, uncertain face that, honestly, Joe've probably adored for being so exaggerated if not for his current head space. What an expressive girl Anis was.

"...Anyways," Anis turned to address her squad mate. "Rapi… I suppose you're thinking that Marian… must have been corrupted before even leaving the Ark, and that, somehow, is how she knew the location of our objective ahead of time?"

"That's the only explanation that makes sense, yes," Rapi asserted.

"Wait, but that would mean-" Shifty immediately sounded panicked. "Are the Aegis Barriers down!?"

"No, they are clearly operational," Rapi cut her off.

"...But, then, how would…" Shifty's voice trailed off, audibly uncertain.

"I don't know…" Rapi trailed off as well, evidently not having an answer.

It seemed obvious to Joe, however. "I don't know why you both are acting like there aren't malicious actors in the Ark. Heavenly Ascension is a known terrorist organization, isn't it?"

"Okay, I understand why you'd make that connection," Anis held up a halting hand to him, "But, no, Heavenly Ascension can't have access to the means to corrupt Nikkes. If they were working with the Raptures to bring down the Ark from the inside-out… we'd already be dead. Everyone. That would also imply the kind of intelligence Raptures don't have. They're dumb, like really big, really aggressive, nearly bulletproof animals. They can't plan in the way you're suggesting. It just doesn't happen."

"It also still wouldn't make any sense for them to specifically corrupt a Nikke heading to the surface, where the amount of damage she could do to the Ark would be minimal at best…" Rapi added on to Anis' point. "This… doesn't make any sense no matter how I look at it. Someone must have corrupted Marian from inside the Ark itself, but it couldn't have been the likes of Heavenly Ascension, they'd have timed it better than that. It couldn't have been the Raptures, because if they had infiltrators inside the Ark, Gravedigger would have zeroed in on the Ark's location and we'd have been overwhelmed in hours. It's just…"

The strawberry blonde trailed off, seeming to just not know how to finish her thoughts.

'Gravedigger' must have been another Tyrant-class Rapture. Something to file away for later reference.

Otherwise, from what it sounded like, it was pretty fucking obvious that Marian had been targeted by some kind of traitor. Someone that had access to corruption code, that had somehow infected Marian with it - when she was gearing up away from him? That was one of the few times they weren't together in the lead up to deploying, and Rapi made it pretty clear that physical contact was needed to cause infection… "...Shifty, can you check security footage of the changing rooms where Marian would have put on her armour? That's the only time she and I were separated before we were sent out. If she was infected, it would have had to be then."

"I'll initiate an investigation," Shifty replied. "Given the severity of the incident, it should be cleared shortly."

Well, that was that, evidently.

Though no small part of Joe wanted to just go full no thoughts head empty for the rest of the day, having spoken about Marian as little they had got him thinking about her, and he didn't want to do that right there and then.

So, latching onto the first otherwise errant thought that drifted into his head, he spoke up again, asking the two Nikkes: "Why aren't you two wearing armour?"

Rapi didn't miss a beat as she responded, "It is better to simply never be hit in the first place than it is to rely on movement-impeding armour."

…If he hadn't seen her moving like an anime character in real life, he might've struggled to not scoff at that statement. But, if anyone could back up that sentiment through action, it would probably be her.

Anis took a bit longer to answer, doing so with a long "Ehhhhhh," the short-haired blonde shrugged. "I can't be bothered to get dressed twice in one day."

…Well. That was certainly a statement.

With that, there was nothing else to really discuss, and Joe would really rather not have to think about anything for the time being. The trio was now maybe half the way down to the Ark - the cavern it was located in was many, many kilometres high. Maybe there was a reason there was a bench in the elevator.

This was going to be a long fucking ride.

---

"Commander," Shifty spoke up just as the elevator finally came to a stop inside the Ark proper. "Deputy Chief Andersen has called for an audience with yourself, Anis, and Rapi. He has requested that you all come armed."

Blinking, Joe turned to Anis and Rapi. The black-and-red clad strawberry blonde didn't have much of a reaction to the statement at all. Anis, meanwhile, starting looked like just about the most put-upon woman in the world, then like she'd been slapped with a fish upon hearing the second half of the statement.

"...That's weird," Anis noted dryly. "We've been called to get a pat on the back for being part of operations that took out Tyrants before… never been asked to bring our guns to those meetings before."

"Orders are orders," Rapi interjected, giving Joe a bland look. "Commander, we shouldn't keep the Deputy Chief waiting."

This day was never going to fucking end, was it?

---

Stepping into the finely-furnished and decorated office, Joe took in the room just the same as the entire area leading up to it. It was no surprise to find that military bigwigs of the Ark enjoyed luxury in their work areas. All very modern-chic, he thought. Joe wasn't one for interior design or the terminology attached to it.

Regardless, he, Anis, and Rapi's entrance didn't go unnoticed, and a well-built, incredibly ruggedly handsome man decked out in a prim-and-proper high-ranking military uniform rose from his seat to reveal that he and Joe were at about the same height.

The officer's chestnut brown hair was worn… longer than one might've expected for a high-ranking military officer. His fringe just barely met his eyebrows, hanging loosely and parted from the right. Though he had stubble, it was clearly carefully trimmed and tended to. Stern blue eyes fixed on the rookie Commander, and moved to adjust his cuffs as he stood. "Commander Pholus. Nice to meet you all," he began as the three fell into salutes - Rapi far more smoothly and promptly than Joe or Anis had. "-No need for the formalities," he continued, cutting off whatever adherence to protocol was to follow. "Address me as and how you will."

Though his voice was a marginally gravelly baritone, he spoke with a clear assuredness to his voice one would expect of someone of his station.

"...Andersen," Joe replied. He didn't know the guy's given name, and he wasn't going to lunge for the low-hanging fruit either. "May I ask what we were summoned for?"

"Cutting to the chase, hm?" Andersen appraisingly mused. "Very well then, I can appreciate the efficiency, if nothing else. I simply wish to conduct a small test. Proceed straight onward to the simulation room, wherein you will be filled in on the details by the instructor there-" the high-ranking officer halted, making note of the open look of distaste stretching across his features. "You seem displeased by this. Why?"

Rapi remained completely still and at-attention, like a perfect little military doll. Anis, meanwhile, gave Joe a deeply intrigued look out of the corner of her eye.

"Permission to speak freely?" Joe asked.

"I already said to dispense with the formalities, didn't I?" Andersen rhetorically inquired in turn.

Well then… "Are we being sent in to simply test Anis and Rapi's aim and efficiency at handling their weapons?"

Popping an eyebrow at the question, Andersen again adjusted his cuffs - a habitual tick, perhaps. "Hardly, it is intended to test your abilities as a Commander in simulated combat as well."

"Then, bluntly, sir, I'd rather we not waste our time on that horrendous excuse for a combat simulation system," Joe decided to be very blunt about his experiences. "It is a glorified shooting gallery; the two weeks I spent in there with Marian before deploying very nearly got both of us killed in our first encounter on account of how grossly unrepresentative it was of actual Rapture behaviour. We'd have been rapidly overwhelmed in the field had I not been able to recognize that they were attempting to use flanking maneuvers on the two of us, on top of the other varied tactical decisions they made when not forced to simply charge after us in a dead sprint. We would never have managed to convene with Rapi and Anis in the first place, if I'd not chosen to entirely disregard everything I'd 'learned' from those simulations. In all frankness, the fact that this is the standard to which new Commanders are trained goes a horrifyingly long way towards explaining the high mortality rate of fresh recruits."

Andersen just stared at Joe in absolute silence, his expression utterly unreadable. Rapi was side-eyeing him, her gaze just as impenetrable. Anis was actually grinning at him, in contrast.

"...Brave one, aren't you?" Andersen mused. "Well, Pholus. I would still like you to go to the simulation room, however, I'd also like you to repeat what you just said to me to the woman waiting for you there. Preferably verbatim. Understood?"

Joe wasn't sure if Andersen was pissed off or not, and so wasn't sure if he should be dreading his instruction. Was the woman Einkk? Probably not, she was always there, so calling attention to her expected presence there would be redundant at best. "Understood, sir."

Andersen sighed. "Again, I said to dispense with the formalities…" shaking his head, he just shrugged. "Anyways, Marian. The Nikke that had been assigned to you prior to your deployment…"

Andersen very clearly noticed the look on Joe's face, halted, closed his eyes and simply finished with a simple statement.

"She was an exemplary soldier. I'm sorry for your loss."

He was that transparent, huh? Trying to avoid thinking about it didn't stop the pain from showing on his face, it seemed. Or maybe Andersen was just that good at reading people.

"...It is protocol to turn over the retrieved weapons of fallen Nikkes to the Central Government to be redistributed to active military units," the Deputy Commander added.

Though that seemed like a complete non-sequitur, suddenly, Joe realized that he still had First Affection, Marian's submachine gun slung over his shoulder. …Yeah, it tracked that he had to hand it over. Her… ribbon and ID card would have to do as far as mementos went-

"It's a shame you were unable to locate and retrieve Marian's before returning to the Ark," Andersen continued. "That is all. Dismissed."

Rapi looked mildly confused. Anis' gaze snapped between the gun on Joe's back and Andersen at a rapid, perplexed pace. Joe… just had to take a moment to process that, and consider that Andersen had actually shown sympathy over the death of a Nikke too.

…Maybe he was one of the good ones.

"Thank you, Andersen," Joe replied as he nodded, making an effort to remain stern-faced despite the wave of emotions he struggled more and more to repress, and threatened to breach the walls.

With nothing else seemingly needed to be said, he did as instructed, leading Rapi and Anis off.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 09 - A Higher Standard
===

"So you're the new Commander?" A brunette woman, tall, blue-violet-eyed and of a fair complexion gave Joe an appraising look. A hand set on her cocked hip, she was wearing a white uniform accented in red, a stark greatcoat with an equally crimson lining hung from her shoulders, with a popped collar and a broad stance. She projected no small amount of authority and confidence as she stared Joe down critically. "My name is Ingrid, and I'll be your instructor for today. I'm given to understand that you're already quite familiar with the Simulation Room?" Notably, with a somewhat harsh voice, she spoke louder than seemed necessary.

In response, Joe nodded stiffly once in reply. "Yes, and the Deputy-Chief asked that I repeat to you what I said to him about them."

"Oh?" Ingrid seemed mightily intrigued by his statement, "Do tell, then."

Joe paused, making an effort to remember exactly how he phrased it-

"Commander," Rapi interjected, "If necessary, I can repeat the statement made verbatim, as per the Deputy Chief's request."

Ah, that was helpful. "That would be swell, yes, thank you Rapi," Joe replied.

Rapi did as instructed.

Having taken in Joe's reiterated critical assessment of the Simulator, Ingrid was very quiet for a time, staring at the rookie even more critically than she had been previously. After what felt like an eternity, she turned to the strawberry blonde standing beside him, "Rapi, after having been directed by him in live combat: what is your personal assessment of the Commander's tactical acumen?"

"Ma'am," the black-clad Nikke was quick to reply. "Though lacking in polish of any kind, a seeming complete lack of awareness of operational language, and a minimal degree of discipline… he also demonstrates a keen level of cunning I've not seen in a Commander before. His awareness of the environment and ability to take advantage of it to entrap and indirectly maim a Tyrant-class was inspired. We would not have won that encounter if not for his direction."

She continued unabated.

"To say nothing of the fact that his instruction was not obstructive. We were allowed to operate without an overbearing amount of input - when he directed us, it was minimal, but impactful in a positive way. Additionally… he demonstrated an uncommon consideration for the well-being of Nikkes. All-in-all, I would place him in the top percentile of performance, despite his distinct lack of refinement. With proper training, I imagine his performance as a budding Commander would only increase as his untapped potential is realized."

Ingrid's eyebrows popped further and further with every overly generous word out of Rapi's mouth, and once the blonde was finished, the taller brunette looked to Joe with no small amount of intrigue as she considered something - only briefly though, before she spoke up again. "That was very high praise from Rapi. Enough to make me reconsider my plans. Today's assessment is cancelled. Instead, I'm going to have you undergo a training regimen personally vetted by myself, typically intended for top Elysion operatives. This is a significant privilege not typically afforded to the average Commander. You'd better take this opportunity seriously, and give it everything you have."

That caught Joe off-guard, though… The Simulator Room really sucked, so he wasn't gonna complain about getting what may well be proper tactical training. "I will be nothing but the epitome of gratitude if I'm given the training necessary to ensure that I never lose a Nikke in the field."

"I would rather you be effective than grateful," Ingrid dryly noted. "The sentiment is understood, though. I will summon you within the next two days - preferably tomorrow at the earliest if I can fast-track things. Understood?"

Joe nodded, "Loud and clear."

"Good," Ingrid declared. "Then consider yourself dismissed."

With that, the uniformed woman projecting an aura of authority marched past Joe, Rapi, and Anis to get to the hallway door…

And there, following Ingrid's departure, he caught sight of Einkk, who had been sitting in her hover chair, milling about in the background. The green-haired Nikke was glowering daggers at Joe - with all the intimidation of a pouty puppy, but still.

Well, unfortunate as it was that Einkk was offended, her Simulator courses had nearly got him and Marian killed. Sometimes, the truth hurts. Joe had nothing to apologize for. Einkk could step up her game and actually properly train new Commanders properly if she didn't want to receive a scathing critique of her job.

So, with that, Joe moved for the door, Rapi and Anis followed shortly afterwards.

Once they were in the stark, generically future tech hallways of the Ark's Government Sector, Anis spoke up. "...So, that was the CEO of Elysion."

That gave Joe pause, causing him to halt dead in his tracks. Elysion - that was the company that had augmented Marian, the most militaristic of the big three megacorps that produced Nikkes and other military equipment.

"...Why the hell would the CEO of Elysion have been waiting here to coach us in particular, right after we got back from a mission?" Joe asked, openly befuddled.

"That's what I've been wondering!" Anis proclaimed, clamping her hands on her hips as she leaned forward. "It was weird enough when a Deputy-Chief called us in to tell us to go straight to the Simulator Rooms right when we got back from a mission, but then it's one of the Big Three's CEOs that meet us when we get there? What the heck is up with that!?"

It was Rapi that immediately spoke up in response to that question. "Ingrid is known to take matters of tactical training and the applications thereof extremely seriously. She might have heard about the Commander's established acumen in the Simulators and wanted to test him herself."

"And she went through Andersen to do that why?" Anis asked, seeming unconvinced and bamboozled.

"...I don't know," Rapi admitted with a small shrug. "As one of the Big Three's CEOs, she has the authority to directly issue orders to common Commanders herself. I can't determine why she would have used a middleman like that if she intended to directly test the Commander herself anyways."

"That's weird," Anis declared, puffing up a single cheek as she furrowed her brow, side-eyeing the air as she pondered the mystery.

From Joe's perspective, part of him immediately wondered if those two, Andersen and Ingrid, had anything to do with the 'military bigwig' he received aid from in the hospital, and how quickly he'd been cleared to receive a drone. He had been told that was an 'unusual' request and not something he'd probably get very quickly unless for some reason someone relatively high up pushed it through for him.

Not to mention that it was noted as being 'unheard of' for a Commander to have even one Nikke permanently assigned to him. Was it that big of a deal for him to have done so well in the Simulators? Especially when they sucked so bad anyways?

"...A 'military bigwig' was apparently responsible for help I received when I was in the hospital a few weeks back," Joe started, gently rubbing at his trimmed goatee as he did so. "And someone 'high-up' is apparently responsible for how I actually got that drone I requested so quickly…"

"Strange," Rapi observed, her pose changing little as she stood almost perfectly still - if not for the gentle motions of breathing, there'd be little to indicate that she wasn't a particularly life-like mannequin or wax statue at a glance. "Your performance scores were impressive, yes, but I fail to see why that would warrant such attention compared to actual field performance."

"Yeah, it's not like they'd have seen how you did in that fight until after Rapi and I uploaded our mission data to the Ark," Anis added to that point, crossing her arms under her chest as she pondered the bits added to the conversation. "I don't get it… are you related to someone important, or something? I guess it'd explain a lot if you've got a silver spoon in your mouth-"

"Anis," Rapi pointedly cut her off for the perceived impropriety.

"What!? I was just saying-!"

Before they could start squabbling, Joe interjected. "By all accounts, there's no real evidence that I even existed in the Ark prior to signing up for Commander training," he noted, which earned both girl's attention quickly. "No family history, no contacts, no recorded place of residence… I even almost died in the hospital because they had no information on me and couldn't safely perform a blood transfusion - until a 'military bigwig' intervened, at least," he noted, glancing back down the hallway towards Andersen's office. He wasn't even sure if it was him that had done it, but, everything about this was weird, and Andersen's downright casual, if not familiar way of interacting with him had been incredibly strange in retrospect. Especially considering he was a high-ranking military officer, while Joe was a glorified cadet.

Anis blinked owlishly, then scratched her head before asking, "Well, why didn't you just tell them all that stuff then?"

"...Amnesia," Joe admitted somewhat sheepishly.

"What," Anis voiced her dubiousness shamelessly.

Of course, he didn't actually have amnesia, it was just that he wasn't about to go telling a shitload of hospital workers that he like, swapped consciousnesses with this world's Joe or whatever the fuck had happened. Somehow, he figured that telling everyone he'd been isekai'd would get him locked in a psych ward. So it was easier to just run with the notion that he'd 'forgotten' about the Ark and living in it, by and large.

"You can check my medical records yourself if you don't believe me, it was officially diagnosed," Joe asserted. "I only have vague memories of things, and the Government hasn't found any connections I might have to anyone or anywhere since they started looking. It's like I just sort of… manifested at the training academy one day, by all accounts."

Anis side-eyed Joe suspiciously, while Rapi shrugged as she spoke up. "I suppose that would be enough to get you some attention on its own. Combined with the incredible Simulator scores… yes, that makes sense."

"What, you actually believe him?" Anis shot Rapi a dumbstruck look. "Seriously? Amnesia? Having no records in the Ark before he signed up at the Commander's academy? Everyone has records of living in the Ark! He'd have to have had a birth certificate and proof of citizenship at the very least to get accepted and not arrested at the front door of the building!"

"Then check his records yourself. Records for Commanders are available to servicemen and women. It doesn't really matter either way, though. Especially since we're not going to be spending much more time around him after this."

"...I guess so," Anis sighed, lightly rolling her eyes.

Indeed, Marian being permanently assigned to him was out of the ordinary. Rapi and Anis having been called to Andersen's office with him in the immediate aftermath of that mission together made sense, but… yeah, he wasn't going to be seeing much of these two after today. Which, on that note…

"Might as well call it here, then," Joe noted with a sigh. "You two were impressive in the field, and I don't think I could have asked for more effective compatriots for the short time we served together," he declared. "Whatever Commander you're next assigned to will be lucky to have you both." He lightly saluted the pair, holding if only to receive an acknowledgement before they went their separate ways.

What he instead received was a pair of blank stares. Or, rather, one blank stare, and a dumbstruck stare. "Did you just…" Anis started, "Compliment us?"

Joe blinked. "Yes?" he replied. "We defeated that Tyrant because both of you are skilled at what you do. The sniper support clearly helped, but I'm sure we'd have managed it even without them, though someone might have been hurt."

On that note, Joe realized that the snipers had just… never revealed themselves. Had they just broken off and immediately went to continue whatever they were doing before being rerouted to support him and the girls?

Something he could consider asking about, he supposed.

Regardless of his internal musings, there was a beat as Rapi and Anis just stood there, seemingly unsure of how to handle Joe's assessment of them.

Anis wound up being the first to reply. "I just lobbed a few grenades at the thing and did what I was told; Rapi was a lot more impressive than I was out there…" she grimly asserted.

So Anis was that type of girl, then?

Rapi meanwhile, just responded by returning Joe's salute, though hers was far crisper. "Thank you, Commander. I wish you luck on your next operation." With that, she adjusted the rifle slung over her shoulder, and started off down the hallway.

"W-wait, Rapi!" Anis took a few steps after her, paused before the rookie Commander, and after an awkward moment, sheepishly replied with an uncertain, "L-later," before she went after her squadmate in earnest.

Thus, it was quickly just Joe, alone with the low background drone of people in other sections of the building going about their business, cars and pedestrians in the streets outside, and his thoughts.

He quickly decided that it would be wise to proceed straight to his quarters. He'd gotten enough odd looks for having a gun slung over his shoulder as it was.

---

Drone bag dropped next to the door, First Affection set down on his desk, followed by Marian's ribbon and ID card. All were set close to the wall, and Joe then sat down, thankful for the chance to sit down and just… relax.

How many hours had it even been? Since he and Marian-

He halted, taking a deep breath, and refocusing his thoughts.

Rapi and Anis had performed admirably, Rapi in particular was an amazing soldier, honestly. The way she moved was mind-blowing. And Joe had thought he'd been impressed with the way Marian had moved-

Again, he paused, harshly taking in a deep breath as he recentered himself.

Marian was-

With a crash, Joe rapidly rose to his feet, desk chair flipping onto its back as he was already moving for the door again. He needed a walk. To go to a restaurant, to window shop. There was something to do, he'd find something to do. There was much to do in the Ark, many ways he could pass the time. Why should he spend all of his time just sitting around on his hands?

Idle hands were the devil's playthings, after all.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 10 - One Foot in Front of the Other
===

Having spent some time wandering around the Ark's commercial district, Joe found himself filled with a… hollow ringing, but that was better than doing nothing, wasting his time just sitting around his quarters, right?

Eventually, he'd found himself at that first restaurant, the one he'd visited with…

He'd claimed a seat, been served, and, after a moment of staring at the menu, somehow not able to… focus on anything listed, for some reason. He just wound up ordering the same bowl of soup he'd had last time.

Ever since that day, it had been stuck in the back of his mind: how delicious that soup had been. How that first sip had blown his socks off, how he'd been longing for another serving since that day.

Lifting the steaming bowl to his lips, Joe braced himself for an explosion of flavour, and…

Blinked. Paused, and sat there in silence for a few moments. Somehow, the food was… almost flavourless, and at once, he realized how very hungry he wasn't. Despite having been on the surface, having been in the midst of a firefight, having hoofed it to and fro, having expended no small amount of energy… he just wasn't hungry.

Lowering the bowl, setting it on the tabletop of the outdoor eating space, as people went about their daily lives, in a metropolis that looked the part of the platonic ideal city, at least on the surface… Joe just stared blankly at his food, and quietly pondered the curiosity of how one of the most delicious things he'd ever tasted in his life, suddenly, had a flavour profile comparable to water.

Somehow, the "Commander's Discount" and well-wishes for his 'absent lady friend' he'd been offered after forcing the soup down so as to not waste food felt like a slap across the face, and the young man was quick to take his leave.

---

Joe had wandered about for some time after that, eventually finding himself making his way back to his room after artificial night had fallen. He'd thought little during his time outside, and was quick to settle down for the night, entering the room, bee-lining for the bed, and throwing himself onto it to sleep with little consideration for much else.

Having awoken the following morning, he'd rapidly realized that he'd made a mistake in not showering as soon as he'd gotten back from the field, and, better late than never, corrected that mistake.

Then… he sat down on his bed, and waited. About a half-hour into that, it occurred to him that he should see if he could put on any music using his computer or tablet, and quickly enough, he was streaming music over the Ark's internet. He'd just gone with the first thing on the list, and continued to sit, waiting for orders.

Two hours after that, he realized during a news break that he wasn't even absorbing any of the music he heard - he might as well have been listening to a desk fan.

Now laying flat on his back, staring up at the ceiling, Joe took a deep breath. What was he supposed to do? Ingrid had stated she would contact him… if she got things worked out quickly enough, at least.

So, he might well just wind up sitting around all day in his room, doing absolutely nothing.

…A report, he should file a report of what had happened and submit it. That was among his duties when he looked over them, and when he'd asked Ma- when he'd asked about them.

Rising to his feet, Joe fixated on the computer at his desk, focusing on it over anything else, and began the process of doing one of the duties expected of him.

He worked on that with a singular fixation above all else.

Having lost track of time, Joe wrote and submitted the report with clinical precision, as best as he could within the stated requirements.

Then, he stared at the computer screen.

…In silence, not thinking, considering much at all.

He just started clicking on shit, deciding to start digging into the computer's start menu and folders and such, if only to explore and better familiarize himself with it. What was he supposed to…

…Games launcher? Was there a video game service built into Ark work computers by default? Though, he supposed this was supposed to be his personal terminal in his own assigned quarters as well…

Better than just sitting around, waiting for orders that might not come, he supposed.

---

The following day, Joe rolled out of bed, wondered why he felt so shitty, then realized that he'd forgotten to eat yesterday. He still wasn't hungry, though. So… he bought a few packets of snacks from a vending machine not far from his quarters, and forced down a few baggies, then…

His device chirped to catch his attention. Ingrid had finally summoned him - not to the same Simulator Room he'd used previously… but to Elysion's corporate headquarters. He supposed that would make sense, all things considered.

So, having made his way to one of the three great corporate skyscrapers, Joe was quickly let in and led through the building into a section that was pretty heavily locked down. A good deal of well-armed and armoured Nikkes guarded the otherwise typically corporate halls with militaristic rigidity. Surprisingly, it felt a good deal more… well, more military than the Central Government's own headquarters. The guards there gave more of the impression of common mall cops, guys with handguns on their belts, but clearly not expecting much more than to potentially draw their batons, if even that.

Elysion's guard detail, on the other hand? Fully kitted-out soldiers, ready to throw down as if on an active battlefield at a moment's notice.

Suddenly, the state of the common Simulator Room made a good deal of sense. Maybe he'd actually learn something here, in contrast.

Ingrid gave Joe a severe once-over, immediately criticizing him once he was in her presence. "You've made no attempt to take proper care of yourself since we last spoke, clearly."

That gave the brunet pause. He… yeah, he hadn't been thinking about much at all, had he? He hadn't even washed his clothes, come to think of it. How… embarrassing? He wasn't entirely sure how he felt, and that was probably a problem in itself, considering what his job description entailed now.

Giving Joe a measuring look, she continued, "You're obviously stuck on thinking about Marian-"

She paused, taking in Joe's pointed non-reaction, the way his eyes almost glazed over for a moment after she mentioned the late Nikke's name.

"Correction: you are clearly not thinking about Marian. To the point of making it a problem."

When Joe's reaction was to just uncomfortably avert his gaze, Ingrid took that as a prompt to keep going.

"I'm not going to tell you that you shouldn't feel bad, that you shouldn't mourn her or that you need to just move on. What I will tell you, though, is that the world doesn't care, and will not hesitate to take advantage of your inability to adapt. You are a soldier now: learn to compartmentalize, at the very least, or you and the Nikkes under your command will rapidly pay the ultimate price for it."

"...You're right," Joe admitted. "I'll just get more girls killed, at this rate-"

"You are not responsible for Marian's death, Pholus," Ingrid interjected pointedly. "She was corrupted before she even left the Ark, and you went above and beyond in your attempt to rescue her. You did nothing wrong, and in fact, are an exemplar of what a good Commander should be; regardless of how little you may feel it right now."

That… didn't feel right. He should have done… something-

"Most Commanders would not have cared," Ingrid clearly saw through him, and pressed the point home as best she could. "In fact, Marian had just come from working with a previous Commander that got her entire squad killed, himself included. Recordings recovered from her and her squadmate's hardware showed that he was nothing more than the typical chaff pumped out of the Central Government's mills. He treated them like weapons, got annoyed when they fell around him, falling as a consequence of his all-too-common incompetence. Now, you?"

"You made her feel like a person. Treated her like a comrade, someone that mattered to you, as a companion, not a tool. Most Nikkes don't receive that luxury. So, again: mourn her, weep for her, but do not act as though you failed her. In just one mission, you've put most of your peers with entire careers to their names to shame in your consideration for the well-being of your comrades. Do not discount the importance of this fact."

…Yeah. No wonder, then, that she was so moved by how he'd treated her, if she'd just lost her entire squad to some asshole's malicious negligence and incompetence, treating her and her comrades like disposable tools. That, followed by… Well, his just treating her like a person, even having to be held back from swinging at anyone that tried to discriminate against her in front of him…

…Shit. Shit. He had no idea, he wasn't trying to make himself look like some kind of knight in shining armour that showed up immediately in the wake of something like that…

"Now," Ingrid continued. "The Raptures won't care that you haven't had enough time to pull yourself together, and if you can't operate under pressure, focus and keep your head in the game when everything seems to have gone wrong, then you're just going to be a burden on the Nikkes that will be depending on you to bring them home."

"...Yeah, you're right," Joe agreed. Softer folks might've accused Ingrid of being overly harsh and unreasonable - but if anything, she was applying an overly soft touch to him considering her apparent militaristic nature, even if she wasn't actually officially proper military. He was a soldier now, which meant he needed to get his shit together, and if nothing else, learn to operate effectively even when something horrible had just happened. So, as much as it fucking hurt to lose Marian as he had… "Ma'am, are we able to begin training now?"

Letting out an appraising hum, Ingrid nodded once. "Before that: we will address the matter of your squad. You had previously been assigned Silver Gun. However, with Marian's passing as the last surviving member, the group has been officially retired. Ergo: owing to their performance when operating under your command during the battle against the Blacksmith, Rapi and Anis of the team newly christened 'Counters' have been permanently assigned to you. However: note that Anis is not permitted to take part in these training exercises, owing to the fact that she is a Tetra Line Nikke. Company secrets, you know the drill."

Ah, yeah. Because not spreading tactical information among all members of Earth's last line of defence was clearly the way forward, yeah?

That was a sudden and unpleasant reminder that he was also technically stuck in the midst of a cyberpunk dystopia, considering the Ark was by all practical means, run by the big three megacorporations that developed and produced all of the hardware and software that kept the arcology running.

Grand. Corporate politics were barring one of the girls that he was supposed to be fighting alongside from partaking in practical training with him, and the other half of her two-woman unit.

"So… I'm going to be just training with Rapi, then?" Joe asked, grimacing openly as he lightly scratched at the back of his neck.

"Of course not. For the time being, Anis' role will be filled in by a mass-produced Soldier EG model Nikke armed with a grenade launcher of her own," Ingrid noted matter-of-factually. "Apply what you learn with her to Anis, and otherwise, adapt as best as you can. Besides that," she continued, giving him no chance to press the matter of Anis being excluded from these training sessions. "The Scouts will also be participating in these operations. Signal and Delta - the reconnaissance team that provided sniper support to you during your battle against the Blacksmith."

Ah, the sniper team themselves. Joe was wondering if he'd get the chance to meet and thank them after all. "I'm looking forward to meeting them."

Ingrid appraisingly hummed in response before moving on. "So, this is the team you'll be moving forward with for this training - unless the Scouts find themselves preoccupied with actual field work, that is. In which case, more mass-produced Nikkes will fill in for them. Familiarize yourself with them - we'll see about arranging to have the Scouts accompany Counters if there's enough synergy to justify it."

That… "...Ma'am," Joe started, now feeling as though he really needed to ask. "Why am I having multiple squads of Nikkes permanently assigned to my command, back-to-back, when standard operational procedure is to never have a Commander and squad work together for more than one mission?"

"Because you do not display the personality failings which necessitate such measures with typical Commanders in the first place," Ingrid very candidly replied. "Most Commanders drive the Nikkes under their command to insubordination in short order. As you might imagine, this plummets the already ruinously low survival rates of active squads practically into the negatives. If you are able to properly command a consistent team, competently, at that, then you will have turned out to be a truly massive boon to the Ark."

…

Jesus. Fucking. Christ. If that wasn't one of the largest indictments of the Ark's entire military structure and culture he'd heard yet…

"...I see," Joe nodded quietly, doing his damned best to keep his cool and focus. "Well then, shall we begin?"

Looking at the rookie Commander, Ingrid let out a single huff of approval before declaring, "Best to meet your team first, don't you think?"

"...Right," Joe sighed quietly. "One step at a time."

Time to meet the crew, such as it was.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 11 - An Inauspicious Start
===

"Commander," Rapi immediately and crisply saluted Joe, not missing a beat despite their previous meeting having supposedly been their last.

"Commander! I am a Soldier EG-model Nikke, at your command!" Rapi's salute was accompanied by one from a young woman wearing… full, proper, military combat BDU's - a Battle Dress Uniform. Like, she actually just looked like an actual soldier, in stark contrast to Rapi.

A helmet with mounted night vision goggles over a shark tooth half-mask, tactical glasses masking the colour of her eyes, a plate carrier vest, a sturdy white combat jacket, and combat pants with integrated knee pads. If not for the pink hair peeking out from her helmet, she'd be able to pass for a regular soldier from back home. She had a common-seeming assault rifle with an underbarrel grenade launcher.

"Commander," yet another young woman, this one brunette and brown-eyed, short hair with one side extending into a chic fringe, the other braided. Resting atop her forehead was a pair of sunglasses, and her stern face had no accentuation - beyond her eyelashes being outright majestic in their length.

Her bare arms displayed a wing-themed tattoo on her right shoulder. She wore little more than a black tank top under a coyote brown tactical vest, colour-matched to her… short shorts, which she paired with a combat belt. Simple gloves, a single kneepad, and simple boots combined with clean bandages wrapped on her otherwise bare left leg and right arm… She kind of… looked like a military cosplayer, honestly.

"I am Delta, I specialize in scouting and sniping duties utilizing semi-automatic rifles," she seemed to bluntly introduce herself, "orders?" This one had what looked like a designated marksman rifle slung over her shoulder - some sort of M110 derivative?

Lastly, was… "C-C-Commander!" The girl that sloppily saluted him was tiny. Adorable, really. She had platinum blonde bobbed hair, large magenta eyes framed in big circular glasses, and was dressed like… well, a schoolgirl. A schoolgirl with a camouflage skirt rather than plaid. The tactical vest and massive communications pack akin to a minifridge strapped to her back looked wildly out of place on her. Somehow more so than the compact MP5 hanging from her shoulder, even. "S-Signal! I- I'm looking forward to working with you! I mean I'm a comms specialist! Not that I'm not looking forward to meeting you but I just meant that I should also say what I do because Delta did and-"

"Signal," Ingrid pointedly cut the blonde off, causing a small 'eep' as Signal immediately clammed up.

To say that Joe's current team of Nikkes was… eclectic, would be an understatement. In appearance, if nothing else. Signal seemed to be a bit of an outlier in terms of professionalism, but Anis was just barred from participating in these Elysion-sponsored training sessions in particular…

"Well, do you have anything to say to your squad, Commander?" Ingrid leadingly asked.

Yeah, he probably should say something to the team he'd be commanding in fights, right?

There was a pause as he considered how… well, how he'd introduced himself to Marian.

…

With a snap of his heels, Joe shifted into a militaristic stance as he projected a professional air to the gathered group. "I will endeavour to serve as a competent Commander to you all - I urge you all to inform me if you ever feel as though I am making mistakes or otherwise stepping out of line. I will not improve if I am not offered a critique of my methods."

Ingrid and the Nikkes remained quiet, the CEO letting out an appraising hum, while eventually…

"Understood, Commander," Rapi replied matter-of-factually.

"Loud and clear, Commander," Delta added just as stiffly.

Somehow, he doubted that he was going to have a repeat of what happened with Marian with either of these two.

Signal and… the girl that hadn't actually given her name stayed quiet and at attention. Little else seemed set to happen, so…

"Ma'am," Joe shifted his attention to Ingrid. "Are we ready to begin?"

"I suppose so," Ingrid spun on her heel and moved for a control terminal, not unlike that in the common Simulator Room. "Everyone, let's get started."

---

Face in his hands, Joe took several bracing breaths to steady himself. The entire squad had reconvened after the training session. Joe had complained about Einkk's simulations being glorified shooting galleries… boy howdy, he had gotten a lot fucking more than that from Elysion.

This did wonders to demonstrate just how unprepared for all of this he actually was.

"So, Commander," Ingrid began, looming over the entire squad as she was. "Care to tell me what went wrong?"

"I failed to adequately direct the girls under my command," Joe said, "I was unclear in my orders, which led to miscommunications and improper application of combat assets, leading directly to a grossly failed operation."

"Yes," Ingrid replied. "And?"

That gave Joe no small amount of pause. And what? He'd screwed up exactly as he'd said, and-

"While I understand that you view Nikkes differently compared to the average Commander," Ingrid continued, giving Joe a firmly disapproving look as she did so. "Coddling those under your command is going to, nevertheless, result in dire consequences for yourself and those relying on your judgement to keep them alive. I would strongly advise that you reconsider your methods going forth, and not attempt to shoulder the blame for operational failures entirely on yourself when there is obvious evidence that mistakes occurred beyond your control."

That really caught Joe off-guard. Left him downright bamboozled, even. What the hell was this about him 'coddling' his squad? He'd messed up and failed to properly direct anyone. What-

With a heavy sigh, Ingrid sharply turned to the Nikkes standing at attention and called out, "Soldier EG! What mistakes did you make?" she demanded of the common soldier.

"Ma'am!" the pinkette almost jumped at being addressed. "I rushed ahead without orders, necessitating that Rapi break cover herself to provide me support, resulting in both of us getting overwhelmed, and…" she hesitated.

"And?" Ingrid made no attempt to mask her annoyance at the Nikke's lack of decisiveness.

"I-I froze up and didn't respond upon receiving orders to retreat, resulting in Rapi and I getting pinned down out in the open," The Nikke dubbed Soldier EG continued. "Severely injured and incapable of pulling back, I immediately endangered, and ultimately doomed the entire operation as my actions resulted in the only two front line combatants in the squad being killed in action."

"Correct," Ingrid forcefully declared before shifting her attention to Rapi. "And where did you screw-up, Rapi?"

"Ma'am," the black-on-red-bedecked strawberry blonde sharply replied. "Upon noticing Soldier EG breaking formation, I weighed the objectives we were expected to complete with the numbers we had, and immediately decided that any possible loss of manpower was unacceptable, and would only further damage our already excessively strained logistics. Thus, I miscalculated, and the deaths of both of the squad's front line combatants ensured the immediate and complete failure of the mission."

"Correct," Ingrid nodded, turning then to the team's sniper. "Delta, detail the extent of your failings."

"Ma'am," Delta started, "When Rapi and Soldier EG were severely damaged and pinned down, the Commander's apparent distress caused me to misjudge the situation as one of only two able-bodied Nikkes in the field, break formation, and leave my perch with intent to extract my squadmates to salvage the plan. All despite not being equipped for anything beyond designated marksmanship. Furthermore, I had failed to consider that the Commander's orders to fall back were directed at all members of the unit, including myself and Signal. Thus, I only senselessly managed to contribute to a near-total squad wipe."

"Correct," Ingrid nodded again, looking aside at a trembling Signal. "Only Cmdr. Pholus and Signal survived the encounter. The squad's Commanding Officer, who remained a relatively safe distance away from the combat zone and provided operational intelligence to all combat participants using a drone. And the Communications Specialist, who remained near Delta in her perch to provide close-range support in the case of a close-quarters encounter while ensuring comms remained secure and clear."

There was a pause in which the CEO looked about, taking in the faces of everyone present in the room before settling on the group's smallest member. "Signal, why didn't you follow Delta when she leapt to aid Rapi and Soldier EG, despite being her designated partner?"

Signal was trembling head-to-toe, looking about ready to cry, but she took a deep, bracing breath before responding as professionally as she could. "T-the Commander wouldn't have anyone to protect or help him if everyone went out there all at once, and everything went even more badly than it already had…"

"So you, at least, had your head on straight," Ingrid firmly declared approvingly. "A Nikke's duty is, first and foremost, to ensure the safety of her Commander. There is very little chance that Cmdr. Pholus would have survived an attempt to fall back to the extraction point on his own. Signal's decision to prioritize the Commander's safety is the only reason this mission wasn't a total squad kill. Even then, realistically, armed with little more than a submachine gun and having no means to procure additional arms, the odds of actually reaching the extraction point were very much against both of you."

…That… put a lot into perspective. From his point of view, Joe had just been a shitty Commander. Suddenly, it sounded like there was a cavalcade of bad decisions from pretty much everyone that caused the entire mission to become FUBAR'd in less than three bloody minutes.

The lesson was clear: Joe had to think beyond himself, and be capable of looking at things like squad performance and cohesion objectively. He may have been the Commander of this unit, but him having the best plan in the world wouldn't amount to jack fuck all if someone else went off half-cocked and caused the entire goddamned operation to go tits-up at the first sign of combat.

EG jumped the gun, then… for some reason, froze up upon being ordered to fall back. Rapi then misjudged the situation and did her best to save the other half of their front line forces to no avail, leaving them with no regular infantry at all. Then Delta had the same thought as Rapi, and tried to rush in much the same… despite being a sniper.

Signal had done nothing wrong, despite, at a glance, being the least professional-looking and presenting soldier in the squad. And even then, in a live combat scenario, she would likely not have been enough to get them both to safety…

…Which, for that matter, suddenly stuck out to him like a sore thumb…

"You suddenly seem a lot more thoughtful than you were a minute ago," Ingrid noted with an appraising tone, critically eyeing Joe with her arms crossed beneath her chest. "Do you have any thoughts to share with everyone, Commander?"

At that, Joe nodded, hand set on his well-groomed, if immediately somewhat dishevelled beard. "Yes, ma'am, I do."

"Then do tell," Ingrid encouraged him to continue.

"For starters, frankly speaking?" Joe began, deciding that it would be best to be blunt and establish what exactly he should actually expect out of the Ark's military forces going forth. "This entire operation was a disaster from the top-down."

"Oh? And just who are you pinning the blame for this failure on then, Commander?" Ingrid asked, her gaze sharpening as her entire form became taut in anticipation.

Joe answered honestly. "With all due respect, ma'am, as the one who organized it: you."

"Elaborate," Ingrid firmly commanded him without missing a beat, almost as though she'd been expecting that answer.

In turn, Joe proceeded to lay out his thoughts, such as they were. "Upon critically thinking about this entire arrangement - the criminally understaffed team composition, the lack of squad cohesion, the unacceptable absence of forward intelligence beyond the obvious presence of Raptures in the area, but no word on where to expect them relative to us or how many would be present, no word on the expectation of reinforcements or support, no time frame given for the urgency of the objective's completion… That was an abortion of an operation on every level, starting with us being deployed as we were, obviously under-equipped and under-prepared for… frankly, anything. Were that an actual live military operation, I'd hope that the bumbling fool that sent us out on that shitshow would wind up court-martialed at the very least."

The Nikkes were all staring at Joe wide-eyed as he went on, then pointedly didn't look anywhere in Ingrid's direction once he was finished.

Ingrid herself was dead silent as she just stared Joe down, expression utterly unreadable. When she did eventually speak up… "It's good to see that you are, in fact, capable of the critical thinking you failed to demonstrate in that simulation, if nothing else," she approvingly declared to the shock of everyone present. "You're correct: on every level, that was an absolute trainwreck of an operation, starting with you being deployed with no orders beyond clearing the area, with no intelligence to work off of, with a squad you have no actual experience with whatsoever, and minimal field experience on top of that. The military court would be having a field day with the aftermath of that entire shitshow, and someone would, indeed, be facing a court-martial by the end of the day for pointlessly sending four Nikkes and a Commander to their deaths, for no readily apparent reason at that, considering the area's apparent lack of tactical or strategic value."

"Frankly, Commander," the militaristic Corporate CEO continued. "I was fully expecting you to enter the simulation, use your drone to scout ahead while holding your Nikkes back, and determine what to expect from the Rapture forces. At which point, you would have ideally proceeded to order a full retreat on account of having been deployed into an unwinnable scenario that would result in nothing beyond the pointless loss of valuable military assets. Your chances of success, with the forces and equipment allotted to you, were zero percent under any and all possible scenarios. Anything less than an objective failure was a mathematical impossibility in any outcome wherein you engaged the Raptures present."

…Oh. Well… Shit. "...I really, really dropped the ball…" the displaced Canadian noted with a heavy grimace, gripping his forehead as a headache threatened to form in his grey matter.

"To say the absolute least," Ingrid frankly replied. "I expected better from you, Commander. Andersen made it very clear that he had every expectation that you wouldn't be like the common chaff, and wouldn't have just blindly followed orders any rational actor would have immediately and rightfully questioned. Though you failed that first test rather disastrously… I will grant you this one massive point in your favour: you never attempted to deflect the blame for the mission's failure into the Nikkes under your command. A rarity among your peers, to say the least."

That… was just upsetting for a whole host of reasons, though…

"Beyond that," Ingrid continued, "this has had the unintended effect of emphasizing the point I made to you earlier: the way you're handling your feelings on the outcome of your first mission to the surface is clearly a problem. You are intelligent: an idiot would never have managed to even come to the realisation about how criminally negligently planned-out that simulated operation actually was in the first place. But you are refusing to think. And just like I said would happen, the Nikkes under your command wound up paying the ultimate price for it. Dying pointless, unnecessary deaths, because you wanted to just blind yourself and act on pure, unthinking id as a demonstrably destructive coping mechanism, not only to yourself, but to those around you as well."

"I don't have to point out how this is a problem at this juncture, and it stops now, right here, where these Nikke's deaths were only simulated, as opposed to the real deal, where lethal mistakes can't be taken back. Do you understand, soldier?"

Ingrid had bulldozed whatever defences Joe had, unintentionally or not, set up, and laid bare the sheer depths of his failure to him in plain sight for all to see. Even as shame and self-loathing surged through his body… so too did an intense feeling of gratefulness. This was what he needed to hear. This point clearly needed to be made and hammered home mercilessly. He wasn't a civilian, he wasn't playing a game. He was a military Commander, regardless of how qualified for the position he felt he was, and his screw-ups could and would get people killed.

Marian… Marian's death wasn't his fault. In this scenario, had it been real? Rapi, Delta, and EG's would have been. And he'd have no fucking excuse whatsoever.

It hurt like hell to acknowledge, made his stomach churn and his eyes burn. But he had to face what had happened and see Marian's death for what it was: a horrific nightmare scenario neither he, nor anybody else could have ever possibly accounted for or avoided. Marian's death was not on him, but everything that followed absolutely was.

"...Understood, ma'am," Joe replied firmly, falling into attention and holding his back straight as he didn't allow his gaze to falter. He didn't have the option of being anything but brave now. The lives of Counters and the Scouts damn well depended on him keeping his shit together. He wouldn't fail them, full-stop. He would be better than he was in that simulation.

There was a beat as Ingrid considered the long-haired brunet, and she eventually let out an approving hum before she spoke up. "Good. Now that the most important lesson of the day has clearly been imparted upon you: we are breaking for the time being. In three days, we will reconvene here and continue the simulation under the assumption that your full retreat order had gone off with minimal damage to your frontline infantry, and you all escaped to formulate an actual plan of attack. During the interim, I expect you to review the data you gathered, consider your current forces and equipment, and relay to me, your acting Senior Commander, what you believe you will need in the way of assets and support to accomplish your operational objective, and how you intend to do it."

Firmly pointing at Joe initially, Ingrid then took the same finger and directed it to the Nikkes under his command. "Start with actually talking to the Nikkes you know you will be relying upon. If you aren't aware of what they are capable of, you will not know how to best organize and direct them, and every moment they spend in the field will be as grossly misallocated assets. I'm not expecting a miracle, but I am expecting you to at least have an idea of what your squad can do and how to direct them next session. Maybe then, you won't have soldiers acting impulsively and insubordinately when they are given no reason to trust in the judgement of their Commander."

…Yeah, he was so afraid of a repeat of what happened with his initial meeting with Marian, that he made a point to try avoiding talking to any of these girls… at all.

Ingrid seemed bullish at a glance, loud, brash, forceful… Yet clearly, she was incredibly emotionally and intellectually intelligent. Somehow, she was seemingly effortlessly yanking his head out of his ass and getting him to see how much of a fuckhead he was being, long before it was able to become a serious problem.

This was good. Ingrid had a good head on her shoulders, and was clearly not the soulless executive one might've expected from what was basically a Cyberpunk Corpo CEO.

Shit, it made Joe wonder how, exactly, things had gotten so bad as far as Commanders went when they had someone like her batting for humanity.

"Yes, ma'am," the Canadian simply replied. She'd given him no reason to not trust in her judgement so far, so he'd do so. Simple as.

"Then we'll call it here for now. You're all dismissed."

With that, not waiting for anything even resembling thanks, Ingrid spun on her heel and was off. Despite her apparent lack of an indoor voice, she really seemed to be the very picture of professionalism.

It was good that they had someone like her.

But, with that… Joe looked to the girls under his command, and taking a deep breath, he nodded once, clapped his hands, and asked, "What do you all think about going out to eat and getting that talk going over food, then?"

While Signal and EG seemed caught hopelessly off-guard by the suggestion, Rapi plainly replied with, "That is unnecessary, Commander. I already ate yesterday."

Wait, yesterday? What the fuck-

Delta, meanwhile, declared, "I always carry a supply of protein and carbohydrates on hand for the purposes of intaking nutrition without needing to impede upon my capacity to be productive," while suddenly holding several baggies of what looked to be beef jerky and no small amount of granola bars. "If we are in need of rations, then there is no need to expend resources on fast food: I have plenty to spare for the entire squad."

…Seriously, where was she keeping those? Her booty shorts were skin fucking tight, and he didn't see any spare pouches on her vest…

"...Pizza would be nice," Signal quietly interjected.

"I could go for cheesy breadsticks…" EG added on.

With a clap of his hands, Joe pointed with both index fingers to the hallway door, and set off with a declaration of "Pizza party it is! On me, ladies!"

A small unit of Goddesses of Victory inelegantly and hesitantly started off after their apparent headcase of a Commander, seemingly rewarding them for a complete clusterfuck of an initial training session together with a pizza party of all things. An inauspicious start to the newfound squad, to be sure.

Hopefully, things would only be uphill from there.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 12 - The Forest for the Trees
===

As everyone (sans Rapi and Delta) changed out of their combat load-outs for something more casual, Rapi had suggested contacting Anis and instructing her to meet up with the group at their initially agreed-upon restaurant. Joe had no reason to refuse, and so the bodacious blonde was waiting once they'd arrived at the pizza place.

"Well… seems like you all had a good time," Anis dryly declared, visibly bemused from where she stood on the street just across from the pizza place.

Put out as the obscenely curvaceous girl seemed, it probably would have been a lot worse had she not been invited even to the after-training meetup in the first place.

"Myself and Signal were the only survivors of an operation that lasted only a few minutes," Joe flatly countered.

"...Oh," Anis' gaze drifted aside, pursing her lips as she suddenly seemed a lot less put out. "Well, uh, I guess I don't feel so bad about being left out of training all of a sudden…"

There was a pregnant pause, the girls seeming to either feel quite awkward on account of the topic of how hard they'd wiped in training - or being Rapi and Delta, both of whom seemed to just be kind of like that - reserved. Possibly to a fault, Joe mused, going off of his initial experiences with Rapi…

For several seconds, there was little other than the low din of city life and simulated naturalistic ambience meeting anyone's ears.

"So!" Anis spoke up again, evidently cottoning on to the fact that nobody else was going to. "Uh, pizza party… for… wait, why are we getting a pizza party when the first training mission was an utter failure? And when I wasn't even there to begin with?"

"Because this gathering is to give the squad the opportunity to start getting to know each other better and increase squad cohesion, not as a reward," Joe answered matter-of-factually. Perhaps just a bit robotically, given how tiring the day had already been.

There were a few moments of extended silence, wherein Anis stared at Joe for a few moments before averting her gaze and muttering to herself with a put-upon shrug, "Oh jeez, almost starting to feel like having a guy version of Rapi around-" she harshly paused, eyes widening as her gaze snapped back to Joe with rigidity in her form, some sudden, heretofore unseen clarity, and even anticipation finding purchase in her irises.

Joe didn't know what to make of that, beyond recognizing that he was suddenly being sized up… "Anyways," best to not dwell on it, probably. "Have you checked the place out?"

"Huh?" Anis immediately blinked in confusion. "For what?"

Joe, again, gave Anis a flat look before looking over his shoulder and calling back, "I'll check and make sure this place isn't run by discriminatory pricks. Be right back."

Joe did catch the look of dumbstruck surprise on the faces of… everyone sans Rapi. He wasn't too sure why - Marian made it clear that it was really easy to figure out what to look for, so it was doubtlessly something that came naturally to most Nikkes.

A glance was all it took for Joe to visibly confirm that the girls would likely not be welcome at this place, and so he shrugged, whipping out his tablet, he was already looking for the next nearest pizzeria.

"Hold on, you didn't even go in," Anis spoke up, looking more than a little perplexed and dubious. "How would you know Nikkes wouldn't be welcome if you didn't ask?"

Joe blinked, looking at Anis with naked perplexion… then to the other girls, all of whom looked confused, even Rapi's brow had slightly furrowed. Was… was knowledge of how to suss out discrimination against Nikkes not well known among them? "There were no seats capable of supporting a Nikke's weight I could see through the windows."

The girls all blinked in confusion at him themselves, glancing in the direction of the restaurant before looking back at him. "Y-you can tell that just based on the seats…?" Signal wondered aloud.

"It makes sense," Delta added matter-of-factually. "If there is nowhere for a Nikke to safely sit at a sit-down restaurant, Nikkes must not be welcome there. It adds up. The Commander has a practised eye for catching simple but easily overlooked details," she appraisingly declared, standing stiffly as she was - as though braced for something at all moments.

"That isn't common knowledge?" Joe asked, growing increasingly confused.

"Um, Commander," Soldier EG interjected, "most Nikkes just… don't bother trying to go to places like restaurants. It's usually… not worth the trouble. I actually figured you were gonna get us to wait at like, a park table and just bring us our orders from the nearest place…"

"He isn't wearing his Commander uniform for the Commander discount either…" Signal observed.

"I'm not giving my money to discriminatory ass-wipes," Joe immediately declared, crossing his arms in defiance of the notion. "Nor am I going to advertise that I happen to have the misfortune of being one of those on-average jumped-up brainlets."

Man, and here Joe just wanted to do his job and start figuring out how to make this squad actually work together - not verbally doompost about how much he hated his peers and colleagues for being a bunch of headpants-wearing heels with egos the size of Jupiter and the competence of the average politician to match.

Best to try getting that back on track. "Anyways," he pressed on, checking the map on his tablet again. "Next closest place is a few blocks down-"

"Commander," Rapi cut him off. "With all due respect, this is an incredibly inefficient way to accomplish the goal of facilitating communication. I would advise that we simply find a nearby sitting place, like a public bench and begin discussing squad dynamics."

"...I was actually just called in to fill in for Anis," Soldier EG pointed out, glancing about the rest of the increasingly perplexed group somewhat nervously, her messy pink hair framing her cutely average face as if to emphasize her sheepish expression. "I'm supposed to report back to my actual unit soon. Privaty was really intense, demanding that I make a list for everything I learned upon getting back to her for some reason… Actually, am I expected to come back for the next session too? Man, and here I thought this was gonna go over easy and quick…"

"Ah, Ingrid did mention that you were just filling in…" Joe mused for a moment. "This 'Privaty' is your actual Commander, I take it?"

Everyone looked at Joe like he'd grown a second head. EG spoke up first. "You… don't know who Privaty is?" Blatant dubiousness as the soldier who… still hadn't actually properly introduced herself yet shifted her weight where she stood.

"She's super famous though…" Signal noted, disbelief clear in her voice. "How have you not heard of Triangle?"

"Amnesia," Joe easily and bluntly replied, deciding that he was going to milk that excuse for all it was worth. It explained why he was so wildly ignorant of what was probably supposed to be common knowledge, if nothing else. "Check my records if you don't believe me, Anis apparently did."

Everyone turned to Anis, who suddenly looked rather put on the spot. "I- uh, didn't actually bother since I didn't think we'd ever see you again anyways…" the blonde chuckled sheepishly. "But you probably wouldn't be so confidently telling people to go do that if you actually didn't have amnesia…"

"...A mysterious Commander with amnesia, given an assignment of semi-permanent, eclectic Nikkes from all walks of life… It's just like one of my soap operas…!" Signal seemed immediately taken in by the notion. "I wonder if a rival Commander - a haughty, self-assured girl no less, fresh out of the academy, confident, beautiful but with a guarded heart and a thorny exterior - will enter the picture at some point too…? Maybe she gets caught up in an operation and stranded on the surface alone with just the handsome amnesiac main character and is forced to contend with her repressed feelings towards him as they need to protect and rely on each other and-" the tiny bespectacled girl mused to herself much louder than she probably thought she was, wonder filling her voice and stars sparkling in her eyes.

Joe, and evidently everyone else, chose to not hear that diatribe as he turned back to Soldier EG. "So, yeah, no, I've never heard of 'Triangle' or 'Privaty' before. So, again, your regular Commander, I suppose?"

EG reached up and scratched at her bare cheek, chuckling somewhat nervously. "Oh man, I feel like Privaty's gonna be super tilted about that… but, uh, she acts like it, I suppose. She's a member of Triangle, the Ark's elite counter-terrorism unit, and my proper squad, Replace, is another counter-terrorism unit that usually winds up under their command for obvious reasons. Though we wind up interacting a lot even outside of that as you might imagine. She was, uh, really… keen on hearing about this new squad once she found out about…" her gaze snapped momentarily to Rapi in particular, though EG didn't say anything aloud, and Rapi actually looked like she had to resist the urge to roll her eyes.

That… carried some implications. There was evidently some history there. A rivalry, of sorts? Rapi didn't really strike him as the type to play into something like that, but what the fuck did he know? He'd just met this girl, he didn't know what made her tick.

Anyways… really getting off-track. "Ahem, anyways, we should get a move on, if… she," Joe pointed at EG, "has other things she has to do soon. Don't want to get her in trouble." He tapped his tablet for emphasis. "Next place is a few blocks down. Let's go see if that place'll work, then hash shit out - unless everyone wants to give Ingrid cause to lose her temper with us all…"

Nobody protested with that point made, and the group rapidly made their way down the city streets, not quite managing to blend in with the likes of Delta and Rapi still being kitted out as they were.

---

Luckily, the handful of padded block metal benches in the new pizzeria signposted that Nikkes were welcome - and thus, the crew received no ire for committing the cardinal sin of wanting to sit down and pay to eat cheap food as though they were people or something. Joe had been expecting cheap, greasy stuff… but, no, it was surprisingly high-quality. Then he remembered that everything in the Ark was made from a synthetic super food substitute, and suddenly he was a lot less surprised that even their fast food didn't feel like it was gonna give him the runs in an hour's time.

Joe knew a few people back home that would proclaim that if cheap food didn't make you violently ill as quickly as it went down, then it was shit, but he really didn't understand that mindset himself. So the Canuck had no complaints about not needing to go through a half a stack of paper towels to suck up enough grease from atop the pizza to kill a small elephant.

Not that it would have mattered much, he supposed, given that the flavour of everything he ate still felt… muted, for some reason, but whatever.

So… everyone just seemed content with that. No drama, no bullshit, a group of Nikkes that were just allowed to eat as a group in peace.

Those that did properly eat, at least. Rapi… had ordered like, a small handful of plain breadsticks and wolfed them down with mechanical precision, seemingly more so out of obligation than anything else. She seemed to be… lacking in enthusiasm. Delta had just ordered a single slice of pepperoni alongside a cola at Signal's suggestion. She was… straightforward, not as emotionless as Rapi, but definitely cut from the same cloth given how she mostly seemed present and partaking in the social aspect of the meeting out of obligation.

Signal and EG just ate their pizza like normal girls, at least.

Anis, meanwhile, immediately started trying to convince Joe to let her eat from his plate and sample his choice of drink in addition to her own pile of slices and soft drink cans of all varieties. Unfortunately, he was a bit of a sucker for pretty girls, and Anis was a very pretty girl. Not to mention that he couldn't even really appreciate what he ate at the moment anyways.

Thus, Anis got her way and gleefully ate far more than her size and build would suggest would be manageable for her. He kept his musing about how that must be where all that jiggle came from to himself, as while he was stupid, he wasn't suicidal.

"So, I'd say we're off to a good start as newfound squaddies!" Anis declared as she placed an elbow on the table set in the middle of the group, resting a cheek in the palm of her hand. "Can't remember the last time I got to eat out like this without waiting to be chased out of the place… you're doing a lot better than our last Commander did, at least-"

"Anis," Rapi cut her off with a scolding tone.

"What? Come on, I'm trying to 'establish positive squad dynamics!'" the somewhat taller, but still quite short blonde protested.

Rapi was unconvinced. "Speaking ill of a deceased Commander is unnecessary and disrespectful-"

"Oh come on!" Anis rolled her eyes and allowed her hand to hit the table with a deceptively heavy 'thunk.' "Have you already forgotten how that dick alternated between declaring that 'weapons don't talk' and leering at my chest? So what if he's dead, I'm gonna talk about him with about as much respect as he deserves! Especially considering he almost got us both killed!"

Well, things seemed to put Joe squarely in Anis' good books, if nothing else, so that was a positive. Rapi didn't seem particularly impressed by him thus far, and while Signal, Delta and EG were less unenthusiastic, they were still not actually members of Counters, such as it was. So Joe considered it a success if at least half of his actual dedicated squad seemed to like him.

Rapi glowering at Anis as the larger of the two grew increasingly irate and defensive didn't seem to be the best course forward, however, so… "Alright, alright, alright, enough of that, we didn't come here to argue! We're supposed to be unfucking our squad cohesion and get ourselves capable of performing a successful operation in just a few days!" Joe declared, clapping his hands and making a chopping motion between Rapi and Anis. "So could we just focus on that, now?"

"The Commander is correct," Delta added. "We only have three days to better ourselves and become an effective fighting force. It would be wise for us to take the opportunity provided to us to begin the process of improving, rather than waste it bickering."

With a low hum, Anis leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms beneath her chest. Lips visibly locked shut, it seemed that the best way she could think to contribute to that was by… being quiet. Which… well, she wasn't allowed to participate in Elysion training in the first place, so… he could see why she'd feel that way, though it would be wildly non conducive to making her just as competent in the actual field as everyone else in the team.

So, with that in mind… "I would appreciate it if you did your best to contribute to the discussion regardless of your ability to participate in the actual training, Anis," Joe declared as he interlocked his fingers atop the restaurant table. "We want you able to at least be tactically on the same page as everyone once we're either in the field, or able to actually properly train with you."

Anis looked taken aback and sheepish, replying with a put-out "Rapi is the brains between us. I'm just here to blow stuff up. You should ask for her opinion, not mine."

Joe suppressed the long-suffering sigh that wanted to slip past his lips. Great, so he was going to have to play therapist on top of everything else, because Lord Al-fucking-mighty knew the Ark wasn't gonna do it for any of these girls. This wasn't the time or place for it though, best to just try keeping things rolling and put a pin in this matter to address it later.

"I would appreciate your input regardless, please and thank you, Anis," the rookie Commander said as he turned towards the rest of the group. "So, that being said, to start out…" he took a deep breath and presented his initial thoughts. "Strategically, we cannot win that encounter without significant support, and it would frankly, be best for us to just hard pull out and full retreat if we can't be provided the means to actually accomplish our assigned objective."

A few moments passed before Rapi spoke up first. "I must agree, Commander. Any effort towards capturing that objective is ultimately pointless - strategically, at least. However, I feel that I must point out that Ingrid seems more interested in gauging your personality and thought processes than actually determining or improving your raw tactical and strategic performance. She is, after all, deliberately forcing you into a situation which is unwinnable by design. Such a simulation isn't actually conducive to bettering your functional commanding abilities, and she would know that."

"I must agree with Rapi," Delta interjected. "I cannot speak for how the CEO thinks, but this is clearly not intended to be 'pure' training, such as it is. Not yet, at least."

"Yeah, this entire situation is… odd, to say the least," EG contributed to the discussion. "I've never heard of a true Commander being given a permanent subordinate squad before. Privaty is usually made the acting Field Commander of Replace, but she isn't a Commander. She doesn't direct forces combating the Raptures on the surface - she isn't qualified for that. Commanders just… don't get permanent, even semi-permanent squads like this. You're pretty obviously being tested in an unorthodox way right now. So… I dunno, I just think you might be missing the point a bit by focusing on how to win the operation."

There was a pause. Joe turned to Anis sitting beside him, and she looked rather put on the spot before she looked to Rapi in a bit of a panic and said, "What Rapi said."

…Can't expect everyone to be a thoughtful orator, Joe supposed.

Regardless, he turned to Signal, who… was visibly lost in her own head, muttering wistfully to herself with her hands set on her cheeks, evidently still caught up in that weird fantasy she'd been going on about a few minutes previously.

"Delta," he started, turning to the tiny girl's partner. "It would be pointless to try pulling her into this talk, wouldn't it?"

"Based on my previous experiences: yes, Commander," Delta matter-of-factly answered him.

"Well, then…" Joe hummed, considering the food for thought they'd all provided him. "Seems I have a lot to think about… Should we reconvene tomorrow after I give all of this some thought?"

"That may be for the best," Rapi declared.

Yeah, he was being tested: and not in the straightforward way one would expect out of a regular military - though, that really out to be expected, given that the Ark's Commander Corps and Elysion, well, weren't regular military in the first place.

Man. Somehow, Joe knew this was only going to be the start of the headaches he'd be dealing with as a Commander going forth.

What a bountiful start to what was bound to be a wondrously auspicious and not at all short-lived career.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 13 - A Peek Behind the Curtain
===

"So," Ingrid started as she approached Andersen's desk, planting a hand on her hip as she critically stared the Deputy Commander down. "I've done as you asked, set up this absurd little game for Commander Pholus, and even bent over backwards to upright him when he's clearly suffering acutely from depression negatively affecting his judgement… using the very same method you suggested, the exact wording, the same argument… It worked flawlessly. As though you knew exactly how to address these sorts of issues in him ahead of time, despite his ongoing status as an… unknown."

After a moment of contemplative silence, Andersen rose from his seat, ambling over to the window overlooking the city below. Arms crossed behind his back, he took a deep breath as Ingrid continued to attempt to bore holes into his skull with her gaze alone.

"Andersen," she pressed. "Pholus just appeared that day, injured, severely injured, with a wound profile in-line with what happens to a human when shot with an obsolete Nikke-grade firearm, and nothing even approximating an explanation of how, or where he received such an injury. Somehow, he had untraceable records indicating that he had graduated from the Commander's Academy just prior to that - which wasn't difficult at all to disprove quite readily. Yet, still, his obviously falsified records are being used to justify pressing him into service, even as he has been proven to have genuine retrograde amnesia. To say nothing of the fact he himself has been only led to believe that he is a licensed, and qualified Commander."

Brow furrowing, Ingrid continued.

"Enikk is not having him summoned to face trial despite the fact that she must know everything that I myself was able to sniff out, and in fact, there is no ongoing investigation into him or his background beyond what I have been attempting to conduct myself - Perilous Siege hasn't even given him a passing glance... He's being given an absurd amount of leeway and favouritism unseen and unheard of in the Commander Corps, which is saying something considering another Deputy Chief Commander's son is attending the Academy as we speak…"

The wavy-haired brunette stepped around the desk and approached Andersen, eyes becoming set like steel and lips drawn in a firm line as she continued.

"Then, with no small amount of poking and prying the right people, I find out that you directly and immediately intervened when he was on his deathbed in some capacity that saved his life. Despite there being nothing to indicate that you should have even been aware of his existence prior to you rushing to his side at the hospital… Though I can't determine how, you clearly had the presence of mind to cover your tracks well enough that what exactly you did is indeterminable… This is well and truly beyond anything even vaguely approximating a series of coincidences. Just who the hell is he, and how do you know him?"

Crossing her arms firmly, Ingrid continued.

"And give me a straight answer, Andersen. I'm not in the mood for being jerked around after a half a damned month of this dog-and-pony show. Doubly so when you've gone so far as to get me to grant him access to top-secret Elysion training facilities. Facilities not meant to be seen by anyone not under my direct command. And this is without even getting into the fact that he has been assigned direct and permanent command of Rapi, which you know damn well as much as I do is a Code Red security breach just waiting to happen! You're giving me answers if you want me to cooperate any further. Doubly so if this relates in any way to our long-term goals."

Andersen didn't say anything. Letting out a low sigh, he just about-faced, marched back to his desk, and crouched behind it. After a moment, it was clear that he was fiddling with some kind of lock - a safe, no doubt. It was opened, and the broad-shouldered brunet rose to his full height, staring forlornly at… a Polaroid - an ancient physical picture, the kind that was ejected from a comically obsolete instant camera. Ingrid could see that it was an old picture even from the back - yellowed, worn, even encased in a layer of protective film as it was. An uncharacteristic smile, melancholic, and longing found purchase on the Deputy Chief Commander's face as he continued to gaze upon it.

Then, after a few moments, he set it face-down on the desk, and slid it halfway across the surface, leaving it sitting there as he simply leaned back straight up, and waited, staring wordlessly at the CEO.

Ingrid looked between him and the obscured photo warily. This… was decidedly unlike him. But, she had demanded answers, and he responded by dropping this antiquated photo before her. So, she returned to her spot before his desk, and reached out to grab it-

"Ingrid," Andersen forcefully and pointedly said her name, causing her to halt mid-reach as she met his steely gaze. "This is a point of no return. Once you know, there is no going back."

There was a beat wherein Ingrid outright glared at Andersen, nostrils flaring before she forcefully drew the photo back into her hand, practically tearing it from the spot where he'd set it down. "Never question my commitment to our cause again, Andersen," she threateningly commanded him. "Whatever you think you can reveal that would shake my resolve or spook me, won't," she declared as she lifted the photo to her line-of-sight. "We will fix the Ark, no matter-"

Ingrid's teeth audibly snapped together as her eyes bulged out of their sockets in recognition. A concrete block dropped into her stomach, and at once, she was again taught the folly of underestimating Andersen.

"...What's the matter, Ingrid?" Andersen cheekily inquired. "You look as though you've seen a ghost. Or three."

Ingrid's teeth audibly ground against each other in response to that even as her gaze drifted upwards, and she glared at him over the edge of the photo.

Andersen at least had the decency to sheepishly grimace in reply. "I suppose that was rather uncouth of a joke to make given the context, wasn't it? My apologies. A degree of black humour has wound up being one of my many coping mechanisms over the years. Though, I usually keep it to myself…"

Ingrid returned her attention to the photo. A moment from the initial Rapture invasion many decades ago, taken in the midst of the innumerable battles to hold the line as the Ark was being constructed, prior to being sealed… a moment forever captured in time. Eight people were present in it. Three of whom… didn't belong. Shouldn't have belonged. "You…" Ingrid began as she took in the unmistakable presence of Andersen's own visage in the photo, processing the image as best she could.

"Yes," Andersen replied, as if fully reading and understanding her thought process at that moment.

"...And him," she added, also recognizing Pholus.

"Correct," Andersen affirmed.

"And… her..." Ingrid's eyes fell upon one of the six Nikkes present in the photo, blazing red hair catching the eye quite distinctively.

"That's right," Andersen adjusted his cuffs habitually, utterly unperturbed by these crashing revelations that had been dropped upon Ingrid's head.

Ingrid took a deep breath before continuing. "...Does she know…?"

"No, she has no idea," Andersen clarified. "Her memories of that time are gone. You know how it is with Nikkes. Loss of memories, by tragedy, or sentencing. Both are common enough in the Ark."

"...Yes, that explains her behaviour up to this point, doesn't it?" Ingrid growled as she dropped the photo back on the desk. "I hate you so much right now."

"Don't say I didn't warn you," Andersen shrugged, reaching over and scooping the photo back up, handling it far more delicately than Ingrid had.

"Oh go to Hell, you decrepit old bastard," Ingrid all but snarled as she set her hand back on her hip.

"I've already been there, young lady," Andersen cheekily shot back at the fully grown adult woman. "Or, rather… it may be more accurate to say that I never left," he remarked as he glanced aside, back out the window overlooking the corporate, fascist hellscape that was the Ark once more.

The CEO of Elysion took several long, steadying breaths. Once she felt sufficiently steadied, she pressed on. "So… I suppose that the official story the Central Government presents about the Goddess Squad and their last stand is…"

"Absolute hogwash, from top-to-bottom," the Deputy Chief Commander interjected as he returned to his seat, gaze drifting off into the aether. "For starters, 'the Legendary Commander' never went missing - not in the way they suggest, at least."

"You don't say," Ingrid's gaze was absolutely piercing Andersen with a terrible intensity he'd rarely seen from the woman. "How, exactly, did that go down, then?"

"You would be surprised by how easily someone can disappear when they want to… how easily someone else can be made to disappear, when someone high enough on the totem pole decides they're each better off forgotten. It would make it easier for them to… reemerge, from the falsified annals of history, unseen, unnoticed by those that would take issue with their return - at least, until it's too late for them to intercede and take control of the returning figures, as they are wont to do…"

"Oh, I'm sure the Central Government would have a field day if they were to discover just who popped back into existence a scant few weeks ago - and just who has been leading him along by the nose, no less," she critically declared, staring down Andersen. "But… he doesn't remember, does he?" she guessed.

"Though he was good at maintaining his cool when necessary, at least once he'd gotten his bearings, I would not describe him as a particularly gifted actor," Andersen mused almost nostalgically. "I saw no evidence in his eyes that he recognized me on any level. So, it seems that he does genuinely have amnesia, though the baseline of his personality seems to have remained intact, as according to reports of his behaviour towards Marian in particular…"

"Which is the reason you've been having me test him the way I have - to determine if we can actually rely on him as the figure you remember going forth," Ingrid surmised.

"That's right," Andersen nodded simply. "Blessing in disguise though his loss of memory may be… it can also be a terrible curse, if he can't be built back up into who he was. The man we need him to be."

"I fail to see how his not remembering who he is, or what he was capable of, is anything resembling a blessing," Ingrid pressed intensely.

"Considering how he wound up with the injury which landed him in the emergency room in the first place?" Andersen mused. "Saying he wouldn't be cooperative if he remembered too much would be an understatement, to say the least."

"...And how, exactly, did he wind up being shot with an outdated Nikke weapon, then?" Ingrid asked. "In fact, how is he still alive? How has he visibly not aged a day since the Ark was sealed? And how do you not look your age for that matter too!?"

"Questions and answers for another time," Andersen was quick to reply. "Given the labyrinthine rabbit hole it would rather rapidly lead us down."

Humming, the brunette understood that it was sometimes best to not try forcing certain issues when more pressing matters were at hand, and so moved onto the next immediately relevant point. "Matters of age aside... What about you?" Ingrid pointedly asked.

"Hm?" Andersen hummed in response, as though confused. "What about me?"

"Don't play dumb now, of all times!" Ingrid demanded as she slammed the palm of her hand onto the surface of his desk. "You're in that damned photo too! You're-!" She paused, leaning back and considering Andersen. "That actually begs an important question we should clear up right now… which one of you is the Legendary Commander, then? The mythical figure that emerged from the aether to take up command of the Goddess squad, and lead mankind to the safety and shelter of the Ark - establishing the Commander Corps in his wake?"

"Ah, that. Neither of us," Andersen matter-of-factually replied.

"...What?" Ingrid was immediately annoyed by how nonsensical that statement was in light of the photographic evidence he'd provided.

"Neither of us… and both of us. Technically speaking on both accounts, of course," Andersen unhelpfully 'elucidated.'

Ingrid just glowered furiously at the Deputy Chief Commander, eliciting a small, singular chuckle before he clarified: "While I understand your desire for answers on this matter… These details are a matter of the past not entirely relevant to our immediately present concerns - beyond the simple fact that Commander Pholus is here, now, and that we need to sort out our plans for him going forward. And more importantly… how we keep him from falling into the clutches of the Central Government."

"That is a very important point, yes," Ingrid agreed, lightly tapping her heel on the floor as she contemplated the matter. "They will take notice of him in time, especially if he proves to be as half as competent as the stories say. I may be powerful in my own right, Mustang is no pushover either, and you may have a good deal of influence as one of the Central Government's higher ranking officers, but we simply don't have the means to bulldoze the Central Government and Syuen as it is. If they decide they want him… they will take him, and whatever plan it is you have for him surely ends right then and there. Him obviously being 'sponsored' by me will at least keep Syuen from trying to dig her claws into him in the short term, not worth the risk of sparking a corporate cold war over some random greenhorn Commander I've taken a liking to for whatever reason, of course. But, in due time…"

"An acute observation, to say the least," Andersen nodded as he steepled his fingers together, hiding the lower half of his face as he continued to speak. "I do have an immediate plan, though. One which will, if it works, cause the Central Government to completely write him off as an incompetent buffoon unworthy of their attention, while removing him from their immediate sphere of influence as well. This will allow him to redevelop and grow freely even as he contributes meaningfully to the Ark's continued survival."

Ingrid just cocked her head at the Deputy Chief Commander, visibly intrigued and waiting for him to finish.

"There is an intact power plant on the surface, one which could be discreetly connected to the Ark and provide enough energy to keep it running for two months straight alone, even should the Ark's own internal reactors go down all at once. A great boon, considering how resource-strapped the Ark has been since… well, since it was sealed all those years ago."

"To say the least," Ingrid flatly agreed.

"So, we assign Pholus to capture that power plant in an official operation… something he cannot be reasonably expected to do with the forces available to him, and we disproportionally 'punish' him for his inevitable failure. He gets exiled to the Outpost nestled between the Ark and the surface, which the Central Government never bothered establishing surveillance in or around owing to its 'remoteness' - praise be for their relative incompetence in this instance - and never will given that it is just a large, open space with some old, dilapidated buildings inside of it."

"Far enough that the Central Government will consider him to be out of sight, and out of mind. Still close enough that a few minor relays would be all that would be necessary to give them internet access to the Ark proper, and thus reliable communication with us - hell, just running a physical line wouldn't even be particularly expensive. And being well within easy communications range means that he will also still be more than close enough to easily shuttle resources to him and assign him missions as necessary."

"A justified expense, given that he'll be a glorified guard dog at that point, so far as the Central Government will be concerned," Andersen nodded, pleased at Ingrid's wholly expected understanding of the plan. "The Outpost will once again become the first line of defence against Raptures simply wandering into the tunnels leading to the surface, on account of all the newfound activity there. Exile or no, he will need equipment to shore up defences. Food, water, construction material, weapons and ammo… As long as no Raptures slip past him, the Government will simply not care that he is provided what he needs to accomplish his duty where they don't have to see him. Once more: out of sight, out of mind."

"Why would they need to devote any thought to a shamed Commander if he isn't causing any more problems for them?" Ingrid resisted the urge to shake her head in disappointment. The Central Government never failed to surpass all expectations of them. "But will he be capable of being relied upon to be the Ark's first line of defence against the- Okay, yeah, I deserve that dubious look you're giving me right now," she cut herself off as Andersen's expression shifted to plainly convey how he felt about the question she was asking. "It hasn't quite sunk in yet: the idea that he's… well, the man that held the line against the apocalypse."

"One of many. Him, and the Goddesses of Victory," Andersen corrected her. "Never forget those women that he stood at the back of, and the numerous others that stood shoulder-to-shoulder with them as well. Back then, he'd have lunged for your throat if you'd done so in his presence."

"...Good man," was Ingrid's simple reply following an approving hum. Then, to Ingrid's great surprise, Andersen let out a low, strained, barely-repressed chuckle. She could see his cheeks rising past his knuckles, and at once, she was intrigued, given how wildly uncharacteristic this was of him. "What's that reaction? You have something you'd like to share with the rest of the class?"

"Just…" Andersen audibly had to pause to catch his breath. "I reminded myself of an exchange between myself and him, back then… A moment he proclaimed to be his greatest shame afterwards, but Dorothy, Scarlet, and Red Hood in particular would not let him forget. Red Hood held it over him as a failure, as she usually did. But the rest… Liliweiss and Rapunzel were kind enough to not tease him over it, at least. Snow White just snickered any time it came up, which somehow seemed to hurt him all the more than the rest." Andersen himself was struggling to not snicker, appropriately enough.

"...Are you going to share this 'greatest shame' with me, then?" Ingrid asked expectantly. She couldn't help but be curious, given who he was and the individuals involved. Least of all the mention of a Nikke named 'Red Hood,' for glaringly obvious reasons.

"Perhaps later," was Andersen's reply. Needless to say, the glower he received from Ingrid was difficult to miss. "Anticipation is oftentimes the key ingredient to bringing out the most of a wondrous punchline, Chief Executive Officer."

"Then this anticipatory delay had better produce pure gold after that kind of setup, Deputy Chief Commander," Ingrid lowly declared.

"Gold? No, hardly," Andersen shook his head. "Pure platinum, Ingrid. Pure platinum."

"...Well, at any rate," Ingrid was quick to move along to more present matters. "Your plan seems workable enough to me, save for one small issue: this relies upon the man who somehow both is and isn't the Legendary Commander screwing up instead of pulling a miracle out of his ass. How do you know he won't do the impossible and take the facility against all odds?"

"For starters? He's only human, and legend or no, it doesn't matter how skilled of a tactician one is when they only have a scant few soldiers to direct in their efforts. Doubly so if one of them happens to be a… particular… how do you so often describe her, again?"

"...Oh no," Ingrid immediately closed her eyes mournfully.

"Ah, yes," Andersen nodded, rubbing his thickly stubbled chin. "If one of them happens to be a particular 'useful idiot' you happen to have in your back pocket…"

"Forgive me, Commander Pholus, it's for your own good, I assure you…" Ingrid all but cried even as her tone barely shifted at all. "I'm sure you'll be able to wrangle-"

---

"Neon, firepower connoisseur and acolyte of BOOM! Reporting for duty, Commander! I see a lot of glorious and bedrock-shaking explosions in our shared future together!" a bespectacled, short, white-haired, green-eyed girl wearing a white and blue navel-exposing sailor fuku and beret over what looked to be a Japanese school-regulation one-piece swimsuit saluted Joe as he, Counters, the Scouts, and Soldier EG ambled across one of the grassy park fields between the pizzeria and the Central Government's main HQ. "Oh, and before I forget: don't tell anybody, but I'm secretly a spy working for Elysion! Be sure to keep it on the down-low, though! It would be bad if word got out that I was here as a secret agent of Ingrid's, right?"

Joe just stared at the diminutive girl, blinking once, and letting out a single, long-suffering sigh. He had no words, and couldn't even begin to formulate a response to what he hoped was a really bad joke.

"Okay, well, objective complete! Talk to you later, Commander!" The white-haired Nikke then proceeded to bound off in a seemingly random direction, giving nobody the chance to actually respond to her sudden, bizarre, and thoroughly disturbing introduction.

In the quiet that followed, it was, unsurprisingly, Anis that broke the silence, poet that she was, with a thoroughly expected declaration of: "Ayo, what the fuck!?"

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 14 - Treading into the Deep End
===

The day of the operation redux, Joe had decided that waiting for Soldier EG to… well, actually introduce herself was probably not going to produce results. Thus, he just approached her directly before deploying, as she was fiddling with her gear before everyone else caught up in the sterile white observation room of the Elysion simulators. "Alright, so what's your name?"

The pink-tressed Nikke's eyes went as wide as dinner plates, the girl staring blankly past her tinted ballistic glasses at the rookie Commander in response.

After a few moments of that, just being gawked at like he'd grown a second head, Joe let out a long, deep sigh and rubbed at his eyes before speaking again. "Lass… you never properly introduced yourself. You mentioned that you're a 'Soldier EG model,' and just left it at that. I don't know your name, so, if you don't mind…?" he motioned at her to proceed.

At that, she glanced around, almost nervously, visible discomfort and no small amount of anxiety tracing across her features - what he could see of her features, considering her shark-tooth mask, at least.

"...I'm just asking for your name," Joe noted dryly, struck dumb by the reaction he was getting to such a simple question. "Seriously, come on now."

"...I'm a mass-produced Nikke, Commander," she said anxiously. "Mass-produced Nikkes… don't get names."

Joe did not like that. "...You were completely organic at one point though, right?" he leadingly asked.

"...Yes?" the Nikke hesitantly answered.

"What was your name before you were augmented, then?" the Commander pressed.

Again, there was a pause before she eventually, and warily replied with a shrug. "I don't know, sir. It's common for Nikkes to lose their human memories when they're converted, and I'm a really common Nikke…"

Joe really did not like that. "Well, I'm not referring to you as 'Soldier EG' as though you're a nameless tool or something. You're a person, so, come up with a name, or I'll just give you one myself."

The pinkette stared wide-eyed at the bearded brunet, visibly taken aback and stupefied. Joe wasn't going to pretend that he didn't understand why. But, with that out of the way, it would be wise to address a few other points before they went back into the simulator room proper.

"That aside…," the rookie Commander pressed on, "back in the simulation, you charged ahead of Rapi without orders, then froze up when I ordered you to retreat. Why?"

"A-ah, um…" EG looked quite uncomfortable with the question, averting her gaze and rubbing at her elbow as she seemingly took a moment to gather herself. "I… was, kind of expecting you to just… behave like every other human Commander that's ever directed me in the simulators…"

In an instant, Joe understood. "'Charge ahead, don't dare retreat, you are expendable and will be expended?'" He rhetorically quoted what he imagined would be a common maxim chanted among Commanders to Nikkes.

"...Yeah, something like that," the pinkette replied grimly.

So, she was just genuinely caught like a deer in headlights when her Commander… told her to not suicide charge at the enemy lines.

"Well don't do that when you're under my command," Joe pointedly instructed her. "I don't care how other Commanders have instructed and directed you or anyone else up to this point: I ain't them, and in fact, they're all incompetent, mouth-breathing parasites that're worth less than the dried topsoil encrusted in the soles of my boots, considering their means and methods. You are a person, and I'll not tolerate any behaviour to the contrary."

After an extended dumbstruck silence, EG replied with a shaky, "U-understood, sir."

Hm. Actually, on that note too… "You don't need to treat me like a superior officer unless we're in public or around other military officers that'd raise a stink if you did otherwise. Just Joe is fine in private."

"...O-okay," EG was looking increasingly overwhelmed, evidently not quite having it in her to not talk to a superior officer casually - hardly something to grill her over, especially right at that moment.

"At any rate, we're coming up on the simulation - go ahead and finish prepping however you will, and I'll handle working out the strategic bullshit as best I can, alright? Looking forward to hearing what you come up with," he added in reference to her proper name, turning and leaving to talk to Ingrid about his conclusions in regards to the operation, such as it was.

The Nikke stared after him, and rapidly realized that Triangle was going to be stupidly interested in this weird-ass Commander. Then, her mind started going a mile a minute, and she immediately knew what she wanted to go by going forth…

---

"So, the Commander and I have finished speaking at great length about the plan going forward and this operation," Ingrid had ordered everyone to form up, and lo, Joe had done as instructed. Counters, the Scouts, and the lone member of Replace present seemed primed, if a little resigned given the severity of the oncoming objective.

Well, everyone but Neon, who seemed hopelessly confident in their upcoming success, despite how comedically stacked the odds were against them.

Ingrid continued matter-of-factually. "The operation, after extensive research and consideration of the resources and manpower available to be put into it, in addition to its actual strategic worth… has been called off entirely."

The girls all looked, understandably, blindsided. Neon actually started pouting as she cradled her shotgun, even. "The chance to show off my superior firepower…" the bespectacled Nikke grumbled, which somehow filled Joe with terrible degrees of dread.

Delta, meanwhile, was the first to properly speak up. "Permission to speak, ma'am?"

"Granted," Ingrid was quick to grant it.

"I do not understand. Was the point of this entire operation not to test our compatibility as a unit, and the Commander's ability to command? How does cancelling it serve either of those aspects?"

"No, those were not the point of the operation," Ingrid corrected the apparent misunderstanding plainly. "The point of this operation was to gauge the Commander's capacity for weighing the lives of the Nikkes under his command versus the apparent gains of operations he is placed at the head of. As noted, after extensive discussions with him, exchanging of intelligence and information on his actual objective and long-term goals… he has made it perfectly clear that the notion of throwing away the lives of even more Nikkes than he has been provided - to capture a plot of territory with little to no actual worth beyond sounding impressive on someone else's reports - is, to quote him directly: 'a callous disregard for the lives of the soldiers that would be wasted on absolute headpants bullshittery I will not be party to.'"

The gathered Nikkes all collectively blinked once, staring at Ingrid rather owlishly.

"To reiterate what I stated at the end of the previous training session," Ingrid noted matter-of-factually, crossing her arms under her chest as she regarded the women in formation. "This was something I manufactured in the typical vein of those idiotic, pointless, and ultimately wasteful objectives cooked up by the incompetents that come out of the Commander's Academy on a regular basis. 'This plot of land is the biggest on the map, it would look good if I was the Commander that recaptured it,' with no consideration for the fact that it's so large because it's an empty field of no actual strategic worth, or a massive pile of unusable ruins. A No Man's Land, basically."

"...Then," Soldier EG started, "the actual point of this entire thing was…"

Ingrid finished for the mass-produced Nikke. "To determine if the Commander valued the lives of individual Nikkes as much as his previous actions suggested, and to determine if he is actually as half as competent as he seemed to be, and if he had actual wisdom to back that raw competence up. He directed Rapi, her partner Anis, as well as Signal and Delta alone in the destruction of a Blacksmith during his debut operation on the surface. All to save the life of a singular Nikke, which would have succeeded, if not for extenuating circumstances well beyond his control."

The brunette CEO shifted her weight as she continued, even as Soldier EG and Neon's expressions each widened into open shock.

"So, that being said… Commander, this test, as it turns out, was actually pushed by a certain someone else that was deeply intrigued by your reported previous behaviour towards Marian. And I'm sure that he's going to be absolutely over the moon once word circulates to him about this development too, given how remarkably little manages to actually slip by him. Therefore: be prepared to be directly contacted in some capacity by Mustang, CEO of Tetra Line, in the near future."

Even Rapi looked a little taken aback by that declaration, on top of everything else. Needless to say, Joe was growing increasingly anxious with how many extremely high-ranking people were taking notice of him, for rather remarkably little reason to his eyes at that.

Ingrid was hardly privy to his internal thoughts, however, and so they did little to staunch her continued speech. "Now, to the rest of you: you are all well aware as my subordinates that our typical modus operandi still applies to this conversation as much as any other time, I presume," the question came across more as a command than anything, however. "What is said within the confines of Elysion's walls, stays within the confines of Elysion's walls. Watch your mouths; my Nikkes or not, I will not tolerate insubordination or treason. Got it?"

A chorus of "Yes ma'am!" rang out, to which Ingrid let out an appraising hum.

"Well then," Ingrid continued, turning to Joe. "Now that we're all done with that little game… I think it's time that we start running drills. Proper drills. Drills designed by me, for Elysion special forces."

Dread filled Joe's soul, somehow, the look in the CEO's eyes promising a great deal of pain to follow.

"You seem worried, even afraid, Commander," Ingrid observed as the Nikkes standing nearby all looked more than a little worried - save for Neon, who was still wearing a mildly vacant look of anticipation. And Rapi, who just looked very mildly resigned.

A smile, small, yet deep and telling found purchase on Ingrid's face as she continued.

"You should be."

---

That first test was very clearly not designed by Ingrid. Ingrid did not design unwinnable scenarios you were expected to talk your way out of walking into in the first place. No. Ingrid designed scenarios that were absolutely fucking savagely brutal and complex, but were winnable assuming one had the training and skill to think on their feet and overcome horrific adversity. She then grabbed you by the back of your pants and bodily flung you into them-

"I said brain on, you idiots!"

"Do you not know what a basic room-clearing drill is supposed to look like, you baboons!?"

"How many goddamned times do I need to explain to you the difference between a combat shotgun and a breaching shotgun, Neon!? And so help me God if I hear one more utterance of 'superior firepower-loaded shells' to 'justify' improper application of the weapon you use again-!"

She was also a very mean lady that was quick to talk shit (if surprisingly mild shit) when you fucked up.

Needless to say, Joe did not have the training to overcome Elysion's special forces training scenarios. He did, to everyone's great surprise, actually do better than anyone expected when she ran the crew through a counter-terrorism simulation, of all things, but… good Lord, he and his Nikkes did not manage to eke out a single victory. They… came close in one mission, but that was it. That did not feel good, to say the least.

"Well," Ingrid mused as she looked over at Joe and the Nikkes, all of whom were visibly run haggard. Save for Rapi. Rapi was just… serenely blank as ever. "You did remarkably better than expected."

The CEO could clearly tell that Joe was doing his damndest to not grimace, and with lidded eyes, continued.

"I ran you through the absolute toughest operations I have on hand. The type that we typically only put the likes of, well, Absolute, through," Ingrid asserted, gaze flicking to an utterly impassive and unwinded Rapi momentarily. "The fact that you actually handled yourself with any degree of grace at all for even one of them… I'm impressed. You have promise, and I foresee you going far with the proper training to get you up to the point of operational competence."

There was a moment of extended silence, punctuated by Joe weakly replying with: "Cool."

Ingrid merely huffed before motioning towards the exit. "I'd say we're done for the day. I'll message you the next time there's an opening to use our simulators - under less punishing conditions, in the interest of allowing you the possibility of actually learning, though. That is all. Dismissed."

With that, the Elysion CEO about-faced and left the group, all worn, utterly ragged and beaten down.

At that point, Joe was so tired himself, purely from the sheer mental overexertion of trying to command so many back-to-back, high-intensity missions, that it was all he could do to parrot Ingrid with a weak wheeze of "Dismissed."

Talking to the girls under his command, getting their take on things, that could wait until they weren't all dead from exhaustion.

For now, he was going to go lay down, and just try to recover from the virtual beating Ingrid had laid down upon him.

---

When his tablet buzzed, Joe blearily lifted his head from his mattress, reached over to the device on the nightstand, and looking at the alert…

[Très bien, mon ami! I have heard much about a certain rising star, I am so very eager to-]

Joe immediately set the device into critical alerts-only mode, placed it back down on the nightstand, and laid his weary head back to rest. He didn't know who the fuck was opening a text message to him in French, of all things, but he immediately knew that he wanted nothing to do with that on the same day Ingrid finished using him and his girls as a collective punching bag, and would respond tomorrow.

For now: rest. Fleeting and fretful as it would prove to be.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 15 - One Step at a Time
===

The following morning, Joe rolled out of bed, rubbing the crust out of his eyes, not having quite recovered from the beating Ingrid had laid down upon him and the girls the night previous. Blearily reaching over to check his tablet out of habit, his eyes went wide when he saw just how many fucking notifications he had received. Then he recalled the weird half-French message he'd been sent the previous night while trying to fall asleep, and upon actually unlocking the mobile device…

A stone fell into Joe's chest. Mustang. Mustang, that was the name of the Tetra Line CEO. The one that Ingrid just informed him would likely be attempting to reach out to him.

Triple digits. Mustang, the CEO had just… started directly messaging him on blabla. And went on. And on. And on and on and on and on-

Joe took a breath, stopped scrolling, and returned to the beginning of the message history to actually read through it.

…

Why did he keep switching between English and French? Joe didn't understand half the shit that was being written. Context clues weren't even enough to glean half the shit this guy was saying.

What the hell was an 'iDoll' and why did the word keep coming up like machine gun fire?

…The question marks at the end of each paragraph suggested he was asking questions.

Uh…

Joe replied to the massive string of messages with a wary [Yes?]

An immediate declaration of [Magnifique!] was followed by [They shall arrive to meet in short order, mon ami!]

Wait, what, what had Joe just agreed to- wait, was he just sitting there waiting for a response- hold on, hold the phone- what-

The next message… vaguely instructed him to… uh…

…

After a moment, Joe sent a message to Rapi and Anis each. [Do you understand French?]

Following a brief delay, Rapi replied first. [I do not. Why?]

Anis' reply was… [Is this some sort of set-up to a really corny pick-up line?]

…Yeah, that sounded about right-

[Wait, are you getting messages from Mustang or something now too!?] Anis followed up.

…Oh. Well, uh.

[Yes?]

[WHO RAT YOUT HTOW ARE YOUG AO]

There was a long pause as Anis stopped typing after keyboard smashing, then suddenly, a new window opened up, revealing that Rapi had created and invited both himself and Anis into a squad group chat.

[Anis says that you've been contacted by CEO Mustang of Tetra Line,] Rapi was the one to break the ice. [I presume you require aid parsing his tendency to randomly alternate between English and French. You can download and install a translator extension which will automatically detect and localize written languages apart from your detected default language. Search 'blabla translate' under the add-ons drop-down context menu and it should be the first option - download the Tetra Line extension, not the Missilis version. The Missilis extension is known to be faulty and likely functionally data-mining malware.]

Anis interjected with a demand of, [Why are you being messaged by the boss now too!? Are we gonna get Missilis poking around our quarters at this rate next?!]

At that suggestion, Joe felt a mild sweat build upon the back of his neck. Reaching back and wiping his nape dry, he replied. [Ingrid only mentioned Mustang also being interested in me yesterday, she hasn't said anything about Missilis.]

[Well, at least there's that,] Anis declared. [Okay, install that translator app or whatever and get back to us! It was nerve wracking enough having just Elysion's attention as it was!]

[I'm on it, and thank you, Rapi,] Joe replied before doing as the little strawberry blonde suggested, making a point to open both extensions and check to make sure he was getting the Tetra Line version. With it active, he went back, checked Mustang's long-ass string of messages and…

…Well. Mustang sure seemed to… appreciate Joe's attitude towards Nikkes, it seemed. Like, god damn, he just kept going on about how so many Commanders treated his girls like disposable tools… culminating in declaring that he'd fully expect that Joe would go far with even more Tetra Line Nikkes under his command, and asking if he'd accept a number of iDolls being issued to him.

So… oh. He'd just been issued more Nikkes. That… Well, he wasn't going to complain about that. Unless the new girls turned out to be troublemakers, having more soldiers couldn't hurt. Depending on how much work they were given, it'd mean being able to rotate girls in and out of field service, for starters. A well-rested soldier was an effective soldier - at least that was Joe's thinking, not like his civvie ass knew actual military tactics and logistics and shit. He was just going with what felt logical.

At any rate, best to inform Rapi and Anis of the development. [So I apparently agreed to accept some new soldiers into the unit. 'iDolls,' Mustang referred to them as.]

[Oh, well, that's good, I guess?] Anis posted her reply quickly enough. [iDolls are mass-produced Nikkes. Good soldiers I hear and junk. I don't know why he's directly messaging you about that though?]

['Apparently?'] Rapi's response was a bit more… focused, on the other hand.

Somehow, Joe felt Rapi already judging him for his slip-up. Sweat began to bead upon his brow as he realized that, yeah, he didn't really have much of a defence considering he blindly replied to Mustang as he did. [I was still waking up when I checked my messages, and he really, really confused me on top of that.]

There was a bit of a pause before Anis messaged him directly, privately rather than in the group chat. [Uh, Commander, I get that you're new to all of this, but Rapi's like, really obviously not happy to hear you did that. She hasn't complained about you or like, seriously criticized you yet, and that's really rare for her. So like, I don't mean to be rude or demanding or anything, but could you just, like, stop and think before you do things from now on? She's just huffing and furrowing her brow a bit at her phone right now, but she seems to be bracing like she usually does whenever we get a new Commander now. Which she wasn't doing before.]

…Yeah, that was just, really inexcusably stupid. The consequences this time hardly seemed to be problematic, but, it was just that: this time. Joe realized he should admit as such and apologize for the fuck-up, posting in the group chat. [I was still basically half-asleep… That's really no excuse, though. It was just idiotic. I need to do better and not blindly agree to things or bull rush ahead without thought. That sort of behaviour will get people killed on the battlefield, and I need to curtail it now. I'll do my best to ensure that this is the only time I mess up like this.]

There was a pause before Rapi replied with a simple, [I see.]

That was, uh. Not… exactly encouraging-

Anis PM'd him a thumbs-up emoji, however. [Rapi untensed a lot after reading that, so don't worry, she's just really bad at showing like, positive emotions and stuff. This is her when she's happy, for sure!]

…Yeah, that actually tracked with how Rapi had behaved up to now. Very dry, very fastidious. It seemed like if she wasn't complaining, that was her version of positive reinforcement. Joe got that, he was like that a lot of the time too - when he wasn't going the extra mile to be personable, at least. Such as he was throughout his entire time here in the Ark.

Christ, acting like a real person all the time was draining.

But, uh, yeah. [Thank you, Anis,] Joe shot a reply back to the short-haired blonde, letting out a deep breath of relief. Anis sure seemed to be a godsend. He appreciated her presence a good deal already.

…It was immediately making Joe consider how fucked it was that Anis wasn't allowed to participate in their training sessions at the Elysion tower. It was immediately apparent that she was actually a genuinely important part of the team, given how she just bridged a problem that would have likely festered into something serious. Rapi didn't appreciate what she saw as a sign that Joe was actually just as bad as every other Commander, and he… yeah, he wouldn't have said anything beyond his explanation for why he did a stupid, and Rapi just… didn't actually vocalize her annoyance at the moment.

Yeah, that could have gotten bad had Anis not been present to head off the potential issue. Anis needed to be a part of serious training going forth. Team synergy was important.

Well, otherwise… [Is there anything we need to do today-] Joe had begun to type out a message, only to receive a high-priority alert, directly from Central Command. And… Oh. Another mission to the surface.

…Ah shit, another mission to the surface. Alright, fuck, time to get back to throwing themselves against the unending tide of hostile alien invaders… No rest for the wicked.

---

"So our mission is to go to the surface to investigate and reclaim a power station in a nearby coastal city," Rapi summarized the situation as Counters proper was gathered in one of the CG's many briefing rooms, such as it was.

"And for some reason, we're being rushed out before our Tetra Line reinforcements join up, and while the Scouts and EG are busy with something else," Anis remarked, dry as the Sahara and with brows flattened out into hard lines of utter bemusement. "Boy oh boy, it sure doesn't sound like they're trying to get us all killed or anything."

"Anis," Rapi interjected in a chastising tone when it seemed like the taller and more curvaceous blonde was winding up to complain more.

"What!? I'm not wrong!" Anis, however, shot right back.

"I mean," Joe piped up himself, "I asked to have the operation pushed back just long enough to at least let our new teammates arrive and reinforce us. I was, uh, really firmly denied and commanded to have my squad prepared for deployment within the hour…"

"What the hell!?" Anis cried out, flinging her arms up into the air in open indignation. "You see! What is that!? What could that possibly be if not an attempt to get us killed!?"

Visibly resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Rapi replied, "It could be evidence that the Central Government has simply deemed the power station to be of high importance, while also expecting minimal danger in capturing it. You are being absurdly reactionary given the circumstances and simplicity of the mission in question."

Blinking, Joe took a deep breath, and nodded his head. "Rapi's right. We all-"

"Oh, we, huh?" Anis bemusedly remarked on the attempt to be diplomatic about her being the one that was overreacting.

"-Need to step back and take a breath," Joe continued regardless. "Everything's going to be fine, we've been assigned a low-risk mission that the Central Government just wants done quickly. We'll get the job done fast, and be back in time for dinner. Simple as, right?"

"Easy-peasy!" Neon replied cheerily. "I mean, it'd be real nice to get to show off my firepower to some Raptures, but basically going for an extended team-building hike to the surface would be fine too!"

"I'd rather we not have to fight anything on this mission at all," Joe flatly replied to the white-haired girl's declaration.

"B-but, firepower!" Neon cried, despair washing over her features as she stared in open horror at Joe's desire to not have their lives be actively endangered.

Neon was, needless to say, something of an odd duck. She'd technically only been a member of the squad for a relatively short time now, but he'd only seen her pop up every so often, and she'd never give him a straight answer as to what it was she was doing. "Spy stuff," being her typical response before bounding off shamelessly.

Joe didn't know what to make of her. The 'spy' thing was clearly some kind of role play, though her apparent commitment to the bit made it difficult to get much of a read on her. She was, at least, cooperative in training - though her ideas for tactics and such were… interesting, to say the least. She was a weirdo, but she wasn't bad, per se.

The displaced Canadian wasn't entirely sure how Neon would fit into the squad, but she was an official member of Counters, so, best to make an effort to help her fit in. Even if Rapi already seemed exasperated by her, to an extent.

"Anyways," Joe continued on regardless. "Everyone, gear up. It sounds like this shouldn't amount to much more than a scouting mission. Let's be efficient and get this done quickly. Be prepared for a fight. Hope for the best, plan for the worst."

"Then I'll bring extra firepower!" Neon declared with a bright glint in her eyes. "What if we wind up needing to blow something up!? It would be a disaster if we needed extra firepower but didn't have it in our time of greatest need! Need of firepower!"

"...Yes, that is true," Joe admitted. "Don't overload yourself in any capacity, but bringing some explosives would be wise. I assume the Ark provides plastic explosives to its operatives? Stuff some in your bags and if we're lucky, we won't need it."

Neon just nodded firmly, visibly pleased and motivated by the affirmation that she'd be allowed to carry and potentially use high explosives. That, uh, seemed concerning, but… Ingrid wouldn't have assigned her to the squad if she wasn't reliable past the unorthodox exterior, right?

Yeah, right. Best to not worry too much and move it along.

"Rapi, I presume you'd already know well what would be wise to bring along in addition to the basics?" Joe asked the strawberry blonde.

"I'll bring along extra ammo," Rapi declared simply. "There's no need to complicate matters."

Fair.

"...This all still stinks to me, but… I'll bring extra food! Er, rations." Anis added with a grin and a thumbs-up. Yeah, hope they'd be back by the end of the day, plan for being stuck out there.

"I'll pack like, a tent, then," Joe nodded to Anis. "We shouldn't need it, but, just in case, yeah?"

"Sure, sure," Anis nodded as she adjusted her top - which Joe very much absolutely didn't notice in the least. "Alright, so… We all gonna go finish preparing before our suicide-"

"Anis," Rapi pointedly interjected, brow furrowing with genuine budding anger.

"-Mission?" Anis finished, averting her gaze with a roll of her eyes.

Okay, so… great, interpersonal problems that extended beyond just Joe rubbing Rapi the wrong way. He'd have to nip that in the bud sooner rather than later. "Yeah, everyone gather your stuff and we'll set out within the hour."

Everyone nodded, though as Anis and Neon made themselves scarce, Joe made a point to ask Rapi to stay behind to talk.

"What is it, Commander?" she asked, ruby red eyes locked firmly on the much larger brunet.

"...Is Anis always like this?" he inquired, wary of the possible directions the conversation could go.

"Yes," came Rapi's plain response.

…

Well. "Is that all you have to say on the matter?" Joe asked somewhat dubiously.

"What else is there to say?" Rapi wondered aloud, looking aside at nothing in particular. "I'm used to it, and she's made it obvious over time that she's never going to stop. There isn't any point in dwelling on it."

"Even though it obviously bothers you?" Joe asked, brows furrowing at the little woman's attempt to dismiss the issue. "Since we've met, you've attempted to chastise her several times when she starts on like that. It must have a demoralizing effect on you, having your partner constantly vocalize a lack of faith in your chances of surviving any given encounter." He recalled how she'd reacted to the commitment to… well, the rescue mission. It wasn't exactly encouraging, to say the least.

Now pointedly not looking at Joe, Rapi let out a deep sigh - a surprising amount of emotion seeping through despite her attempt to project an unflappable aura most times. "It is… frustrating, yes. But as I've said, it's just… a quirk of her's I've learned to deal with."

Joe stared at Rapi, frowning heavily at her resigned acceptance of her partner's apparent tendency to openly declare her belief that they were being deliberately marched to their deaths. "I'll talk to her after we're back from our mission. Even if we shouldn't expect any miracles… best to begin chipping at that issue sooner rather than later." Joe liked Anis, she seemed like a genuinely fun girl when she wasn't… in a certain mood. But boy howdy, could he tell her shittier tendencies were going to get old fast.

Rapi, at that point, did turn and look at Joe. Her expression was as unreadable as ever. She let out another sigh, though this one was far shallower than the last. "If you think that's for the best, Commander."

"I do," Joe asserted pointedly. "I need to do better as a Commander, and that means giving the Nikkes under my command the support they need. I'll talk to Anis, and hopefully, we'll have this issue sorted out sooner rather than later."

"...I see," Rapi warily replied, looking aside once more.

"I'm trying to help you too, Rapi. I hope that you'll help me too - which means sharing your opinions with me, letting me know when I'm screwing something or another up." Joe decided to lean into and emphasize his point. "I'm sure your previous Commanders were absolute ass hats that demanded silence and obedience from you. I'm not one of them. As far as I'm concerned, you, Anis, and any other Nikkes under my command are my partners. Partners communicate with each other. So talk to me, okay?"

Though she hesitated, Rapi did eventually reply. "Understood, Commander."

…Yeah, shouldn't expect miracles with Anis, shouldn't expect miracles with Rapi. "Alright. Let's get our duties done, Rapi."

With a nod, the black-bedecked beauty strutted off, not sparing Joe a second glance as she seemed to brush his attempt at extending an olive branch off.

Baby steps, though. Baby steps. They'd get to being a fully-functioning and respectable squad in time. Just… One step at a time.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 16 - A Simple Job
===

With a gust of wind, the helicopter lifted off, and Counters was left standing amidst the ruined street of the coastal city. The path to the power station was simple. Straightforward, even. Little Rapture resistance was expected on their way to the objective. They weren't even expected to be out there for more than a few hours…

From Joe's perspective, it was strange, to say the least. Rapi was probably right, they were a small squad, and this mission was apparently expected to amount to a hike through the city and a flag planting operation. But… something didn't sit right with him, the urgency with which they were deployed made him wary - not that he could do much about it. He was ultimately a soldier, and had received legal orders from his superiors. It was simply up to him to fulfill his obligations.

"...A job's a job," Joe declared as Anis and Neon ambled up towards himself and Rapi. "Income is income. We're getting paid at the end of the day, so let's just hope this amounts to the Government paying us to look busy."

With an amused snort, Anis replied as she adjusted the straps of her backpack, stuffed with extra food. "Now that sounds like my sort of mission. I'm still mentally preparing for the worst, though."

"I made sure to pack extra firepower, in case we need to make a big BOOM at some point!" Neon declared with determination, pumping her fists as two of many plastic explosive packages dangling off of her shoulders bumped together.

"We should get moving, Commander," Rapi pointedly suggested, adjusting the strap of the rifle slung over her shoulder. "We aren't expected to encounter much in the way of Raptures out here, but we shouldn't waste time regardless. We don't want to drag our feet to the point that we find ourselves camping out overnight."

"Yeeeeaaaah, fun as the prospect of us all squeezing ourselves into that little tent the Commander brought along and using him and each other as pillows for the night seems…" Anis began, kind of trailing off with a mild goofy grin as her gaze seemed to lose focus towards the end of her sentence, "I'd rather we not have to risk fighting any Raptures at night."

Raptures were scary enough during the day as it was, so Joe was inclined to agree. "Yeah, let's get this over and done with, then," he declared as he withdrew his drone, deploying it into the air and setting it to automatically scan the area for hostiles. He pointedly didn't dwell upon the weird middle chunk of Anis' statement there.

"Um, Commander," Anis piped up, leaning over with a confused look on her face as Joe fiddled with his tablet. "Isn't scanning our surroundings what Shifty's for?"

"Yeah, that is what I'm here for," Shifty noted over comms with some bemusement. "Alva Particle concentration in the area isn't enough to disrupt the Ark's scanners, Commander. That drone of yours will also be a lot less efficient, not to mention that the Raptures might notice it and shoot it down if you're using it constantly unnecessarily. Hello, by the way," she added a little cattily.

Joe blinked. He'd… kind of forgotten about Shifty. She'd been their operator during the… rescue operation, right? "I wasn't informed we'd have an operator for this mission."

"Situations where you don't have an operator would be the exception, not the rule," Shifty noted matter-of-factly. "Barring Alva Particle disruption, I'll always be in contact with you and monitoring your situation. Not to say that you should take that as an excuse to slack off, the scanners are mostly reliable, but it's not uncommon for Raptures to slip through and show up in visual range before I'll notice them regardless."

"Meaning that we should operate under the assumption that Shifty's overwatch can and will drop out at any moment," Rapi elucidated, dry as she ever was. "We should remain on-guard and wholly aware of our surroundings at all times… such as being prepared to operate without her support by bringing along equipment that would allow us to substitute her methods with means and methods available on-hand."

That made sense to Joe, and he'd have brought the drone along even if he knew that Shifty would be supporting them regardless. "Better to have something and not need it, than need something and not have it," the rookie Commander nodded.

"Like extra firepower!" Neon interjected gleefully, which nobody really acknowledged.

At that, Rapi nodded at Joe in turn, her gaze remaining as impassive as ever. Which made Anis lightly nudging him in the side with an approving grin seem a bit odd.

"We should get moving, then," Rapi declared. "Orders, Commander?"

"Everyone be on guard, and let's get this over and done with," Joe gave his matter-of-fact command, gesturing down the street towards their target as he did so. "Triangle formation, Rapi at the tip of the spear, Anis and Neon flanking - I'll march in the centre of the triangle."

"Yes, Commander," Rapi agreed and spun on her heel, bringing her rifle up to a low-ready position as she started off, Joe following shortly behind her.

Anis and Neon shared a look, and started ambling along behind Joe themselves… far, far less professionally than Rapi did, but they maintained formation. Roughly, at least.

Said formation would place all the Nikkes around him, allowing them to more easily do their jobs of protecting him from all angles save those from the sky. Ideally, they'd have a more… comprehensive formation, but they'd been pushed out the door at a fraction of their whole squad's size. So, work with what you got.

---

Mercifully, they'd actually made it to the power station without issue. Shifty hadn't even really noticed anything, they just marched up and found themselves overlooking a big ol' power plant.

One which was… well… "It's running," Joe observed.

"Yes, that does seem to be the case…" Rapi affirmed his observation warily.

"How!?" Anis cried out, staring with furrowed brows at the not-so-distant power plant. "Who's operating it? Are there people surviving on the surface after all?"

"Maybe it's being run by Raptures!" Neon suggested, eyes full of wonder.

"Oh don't be stupid!" Anis snapped at the little white-haired nuggie. "Raptures are basically animals! Would you expect a dog to be able to figure out how to turn on a car?"

"Well, I saw a dog open a cupboard to get at a bag of treats at an animal shelter once…" Neon remarked, awed by the notion.

"That is so not the same thing!" Anis declared, looking at Neon as though she were stupid.

As the two continued with their bit, Rapi gave Joe a put-upon look, and the Rookie Commander shook his head, focusing on the job as it was, reaching up and setting a hand over his combination comms/ear protection. "Shifty, can you give us any information about this place, given the situation? By scanning the building, I mean."

"Unfortunately, no," the operator replied, her voice noticeably more static-filled than usual. "Alva Particle concentration is high enough there that I can't scan the power station or its immediate surroundings, and I sent a direct inquisition to command about it being operational. Only word is that it absolutely shouldn't be, and… orders for you to investigate it."

"Yeah, figures," Joe rolled his eyes. "What do we do if we find survivors running the place, then?"

"Well, if anything, they're most likely to be stranded Nikkes…" Shifty mused over the commlink.

"We're really not that far at all from the Ark though," Anis countered with no small amount of skepticism, "And we haven't encountered any Raptures out here either - why would any missing Nikkes just… camp in a power station, get it up and running and everything, instead of just, y'know, hoofin' it to a nearby elevator?"

"They could be injured!" Neon proclaimed. "What if their legs got all messed up, so that they can't really get around outside, but they could drag themselves around a building? What if that's why they turned it on? To try and signal to the Ark that they're here and need help?"

Anis' brow scrunched up and thought, the short-haired blonde visibly considering the possibility for a few moments. "Well, that… actually, makes some sense? I mean, if Shifty can't scan the place because of Alva Particles, that would also stop them from sending out an S.O.S. signal."

"You see? It's probably a squad of injured Nikkes trying to call for help!" Neon nodded firmly as she pointedly looked Joe's way. "We should hurry to help them, Commander!"

"Okay, first off, we don't know that," Joe countered as he looked over the exterior of the building with the binoculars he'd packed along with the rest of his gear, spotting basically nothing of note. "What we should do, if we're going to investigate the building as ordered, is approach covertly, gather as much intelligence as we can, and only go inside if we need to. Just assuming that the building we were sent to capture is being run by friendlies is a really good way to get someone killed."

"The Commander is right," Rapi agreed matter-of-factually. "This is still a reconnaissance and capture operation, and should be treated as such - doubly so considering the Ark's intelligence has no idea of who, or what could be operating the power station. We should assume that whatever is in there is, at minimum, non-friendly until we find evidence to the contrary."

"Fair enough…" Neon replied, looking more than a little put off by the assertion.

"...I've got a bad feeling about this," Anis proclaimed with a heavy grimace - the look Rapi gave Joe affirmed to him that Anis typically had a bad feeling about everything.

Wild, how he could kind of communicate with Rapi wordlessly already. Didn't a pair have to work together for a fair while before they picked up the ability to do something like that?

…Probably just a fluke, not worth worrying about.

"Alright, Shifty?" Joe inquired.

"Yes, Commander? I hear you loud and clear," she asserted through the layer of static slightly muffling her words.

"Can you find any information on this building, from before the invasion?" Joe asked simply enough. "Blueprints, tourism maps even. Something to give us an idea of what we'll be going into."

"Oh, absolutely, the Ark has all the architectural information on the surrounding cities archived for purposes just like this. Just give me a minute to pull up the relevant data, and I should be able to provide you with a map of the building proper…"

---

"...Come on, there has to be another sneaky way in…" Anis whined as Joe affixed a filtration mask to his face. It might've been a futile effort, but…

"This waste runoff pipe runs directly into the heart of the facility, is large enough to grant all four of us access while moving single-file, and has no records of having monitoring equipment installed in it," Rapi systematically noted, listing off all the reasons to enter the building via what was basically a sewage pipe. Granted, the building hadn't been inhabited by humans for something like a century, but still, what sane person would want to crawl through a sewer pipe, regardless of how old it was or wasn't?

All the while, Joe had stripped off the jacket Marian had gotten him, rolled it up, and secured it as tightly as he possibly could inside of the waterproof bag he'd packed along with the rest of his gear. He'd expected to maybe use it for documents of some kind, or like, USB sticks, not keeping his gifted coat free from centuries-old shit streaks…

"But…" Neon whined, staring at the grated pipe opening with dread in her eyes. "Poop…"

Rapi's brow furrowed heavily at that complaint. "What are you, six?"

"Brave words coming from the one wearing all-black!" Neon cried with a pout, stomping her foot on the ground rather childishly. "I'm wearing all white! It's gonna be super obvious if anything… streaks on me!"

"This is why y'all really should have dedicated field uniforms…" Joe remarked, thankful that he'd had the presence of mind to buy really shitty, low-quality shirts and pants for field work he'd feel no remorse over losing if they were damaged at any point. His work boots… would hopefully not soak up the stink and would just need a good hosing down and… disinfecting, once they got back.

"...You look like a plumber or something, Commander…" Anis remarked with a disapproving expression.

"I'd be looking like a spaceman in a HAZMAT suit if I knew we'd be crawling through ancient human sewage at the start of all this," Joe countered as he snapped disposable water-proof gloves over his hands. "If you're all lucky, you'll only have to toss your thigh-highs when we get back."

"I don't want to have to toss anything…" Neon whined, playing with the hem of her thigh socks, grimacing heavily.

"Alright," Joe interjected, now about as ready as he ever would be. "We'd best… get in there, get this over and done with."

"I'm gonna be so mad if it turns out we crawled through a sewer pipe only to find a bunch of stranded Nikkes on the other side…" Anis grumbled.

"You'd prefer we find Raptures, then?" Rapi asked, visibly unimpressed with Anis' complaints.

"Well that'd at least justify me needing to take off and throw away my clothes after!" Neon cried out with a huff, before her eyes went wide and snapped to Joe. "W-wait, but if I have to take off my clothes, and the Commander is right there…!" she noted with audible horror.

"You're wearing a one-piece swimsuit under your sailor fuku," Joe pointed out, himself particularly unimpressed at this point. "A swimsuit that covers more than the sailor get-up does on its own anyways, I'll note."

While Neon looked like she'd just had all the secrets of the universe revealed to her, Anis rubbed her head while shooting Joe a dubious look. "...This kind of sounds like an excuse to get Neon to strip in front of-"

At that, Rapi reached over, gripped the grating covering the drainage pipe, tore it off its hinges, and dropped it on the ground. "Get in the pipe, you idiots…" she instructed her fellow Nikkes, visibly done with the byplay Anis and Neon were generating.

"Yeesh, harsh…" Anis grumbled as she did as instructed under Rapi's withering gaze. Neon followed suit, whining under her breath all the while.

Rapi moved to climb in herself with a sigh. "It's best if you follow behind us, in case we encounter anything inside of the pipe, Commander."

"Yup, no problem," Joe didn't complain as he clambered in after Rapi, shimmying along and-

At once realising Rapi, along with Anis and Neon ahead of her, was crawling along on all fours in the low pipe. Which meant Joe was going to be staring at Rapi's rather notably exposed posterior the entire time,

…This actually made up for the stink his mask wasn't doing as much to block as he'd hoped it would.

Luckily, though he quickly figured that he wasn't going to be able to effectively crabwalk through the tunnel, it was actually dry - which made sense considering the entire surface had been abandoned for a century. So, at the very least, he wasn't getting ancient mystery sewer juice soaking through the knees of his pants.

A few minutes of crawling and no small amount of hemming and hawing from Anis and Neon later, and suddenly, Joe crawled face-first into Rapi's ass when the girls all came to an unexpected sharp stop.

"Wait a damned minute!" Anis cried back down the tunnel over her shoulder. "Why aren't we just sending the Commander's drone down here for us instead of crawling through the stink ourselves!?"

"Because the Commander's drone uses radio waves that would be blocked by all the layers of concrete and steel surrounding the pipe, you idiot!" Rapi called forth, scooching forward even as Joe pulled back and pointedly didn't make a comment about what just happened. No doubt she was annoyed because she wasn't expecting to get his face in her rear, and he didn't feel up to exacerbating whatever annoyance she was surely feeling.

"...Oh," Anis sheepishly replied before she began shuffling onwards again, while Neon… seemed to hesitate for a few moments.

"Neon, what's the holdup?" Joe asked through his muffling mask, already feeling his back beginning to protest from this entire exercise.

"Just taking the chance to set up a bomb down here, since according to my calculations based on the blueprints Shifty sent us, we should be just below a support pillar!" the white-haired girl declared.

"What!? Why!?" Joe, expectantly, called out, understandably alarmed.

"What do you mean 'why?'" It was Neon's turn to speak as though she was talking to an idiot. "The whole reason I brought all these explosives was in case we needed to blow stuff up in case of an emergency, and for all we know, the power station is being manned by a bunch of Raptures! What if we need to detonate the path behind us and collapse the building on top of a whole lot of them in the midst of a dramatic escape?"

"...She actually has a point, Commander," Rapi noted, seemingly loath to do so. "Worse comes to worst, having explosives rigged might save our lives - if it turns out to have been unnecessary, we can simply recover what Neon set up afterwards."

Joe could feel Neon preening from around Rapi, "Okay, fair enough. Just… don't overdo it," he advised the bespectacled girl.

In response, Neon loudly snorted. "As if! There's no such thing as 'overdoing' firepower!"

After a moment of silence, Rapi twisted about in place to give Joe a wary look. One he returned in full. It'd probably be fine.

Probably.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 17 - An Entirely Predictable Complication
===

Eventually, the group found themselves coming upon an opening in the side of the pipe which must have been a maintenance hatch - quickly, though quietly enough, everyone was out, stretching out whatever kinks they'd worked up and whispering to each other.

"We need to ensure that we don't alert whatever may be in the building with us, not before we actually know what we're dealing with," Rapi declared. "Commander, I'd advise against trying to scout ahead using your drone in the building proper - outside, when it can gain significant height, the whirr of its engine and propellers can't be realistically heard."

"While indoors, it's far more likely that someone, or something will hear it," Joe replied with a nod. "Best to not be… daft about this," he opted to just be blunt. "Everyone stay together, we'll take this one room at a time."

"But, wouldn't we like, cover more ground by splitting up?" Anis asked, brow furrowing.

"No, the Commander is right," Rapi asserted as she adjusted her grip on her rifle, scanning the dark little maintenance room they were huddled up in. "Alva Particle density is high enough in this area that we'll lose communications if we're just a few metres apart. And if we wind up in an encounter, splitting our already minimal numbers would be disastrous."

"Least of all considering I would be making up a whole-ass half of one of the teams," Joe noted dryly. "So no, we won't be splitting up. So, that being said… Rules of Engagement are Return Fire Only. If there are Raptures in here, we do not want to engage them unless we are damn well forced to. Keep low, keep quiet, and stay out of direct light if possible. We get any indication that there are more than we're actually equipped for, we fall back, retreat, and exfiltrate the mission area. We were sent here to occupy an empty building, not single-handedly clear a hostile fortress with three under-equipped Nikkes," the rookie Commander asserted, punctuating each point with a firm gesture of his hands.

"If we do have to return fire at some point," Neon started, leaning forward conspiratorially, "it would probably be smart to return maximum firepower, right?"

"You do not have permission to bring the entire building down around our ears!" Joe pointedly declared, gesticulating firmly towards a deeply put-out Neon. "In fact, no explosives indoors unless I give my express permission!"

There was a beat before Anis piped up with a heavy grimace. "Hey! Wait a minute! Then doesn't that make me basically useless here!? I've got nothing but explosives!" the short-haired blonde asserted, gesturing over herself and her grenade launcher.

"Then use anti-personnel rounds!" Joe suggested, "the kinds less likely to take down walls with every shot!"

"Anti-" Anis blinked and looked at Joe with genuine confusion. "What, do you mean the small grenades Rapi uses for her rifle's launcher? Those won't fit in my gun, I've tried before! The Big Three deliberately design their stuff to use different ammo sizes from each other and junk!"

Joe stared at Anis blankly, yet still wide-eyed. Had she just fucking suggested that the arms manufacturers of the Ark deliberately designed the arms they provided the military to not share ammunition? They were deliberately and entirely unnecessarily complicating logistics on top of everything else!?

"You… just… use your damned sidearm then! It'd be better than nothing!" Joe asserted, palming his own face as he did so.

"...My grenade launcher is the only gun I have," Anis warily replied.

Joe looked Anis up and down wordlessly, visibly confirming her… complete lack of any kind of sidearm, any back-up weapon that wasn't a set of hand-thrown grenades, before pinching the bridge of his brow. "...Why do you not even have a pistol on hand, Anis?"

"Because I'm a grenadier! Not a pistoleer!" Anis all but whined, looking like she wanted to stomp her high-heeled foot petulantly. "Besides, Neon and Rapi don't have pistols either!"

"Why would I lug around a useless little peashooter like that when I could carry extra firepower for my magnum-class shotgun!?" Neon demanded, sounding downright offended by the suggestion, as Joe only then noticed that, indeed, Neon didn't have any sort of back-up weapon on her - just her shotgun.

When Joe turned to Rapi, giving the strawberry blonde a downright pleading look, given that she'd consistently been the smart and competent one… Rapi, looking like just about the most put-upon woman in the world, reached across her chest, slipped her hand into the folds of her cropped leather jacket, and withdrew an ultra-compact handgun from a low-profile shoulder holster.

Joe was finding it increasingly difficult to not love this woman.

Meanwhile, Anis just went blank-faced, and averted her gaze.

"This entire time," Rapi mused, practically glowering at Anis as she returned her pistol to its hidden holster, "I'd assumed you'd had the presence of mind to carry a spare weapon under your jacket - especially given how large it is compared to mine…"

Indeed, Anis' jacket was so baggy that she could probably stuff a whole-ass assault rifle under there without anyone noticing.

"...I assumed you didn't have a pistol either…" Anis lamely said by way of her defence.

Neon just looked aghast. At Rapi. Probably for carrying a secondary weapon instead of more ammo for her rifle, given previously vocalized thoughts on the matter.

"You idiots…" Rapi just sighed, shaking her head in bitter resignation.

"-Well, hey! Just loan me your pistol!" Anis demanded, holding her hand out to Rapi. "You probably won't need it while we're here, and-"

"Do you even know what model it is? It's calibre? What the recoil impulse is like? How to control that impulse under pressure? What range I have it zeroed at? How to reload it with any degree of efficiency?" Rapi snapped back at Anis past heavily lidded brows.

Anis stared at Rapi like she'd grown a second head for a few moments before grumbling, "A pistol's a pistol, what difference does it make when you just point and shoot them all the same…?"

To Joe's rapidly mounting horror, it was becoming increasingly clear that he'd been deployed into the field with one professional soldier, and… like… two… third-world militiamen. Good Lord, he hoped and prayed that Anis and Neon didn't think that setting the rear sight to the highest number on an AK made the gun shoot harder…

"...Commander," Rapi began again, returning her pistol to its holster, rather than handing it off to her fellow that evidently didn't actually know how to operate it, "We should get moving. The sooner we know our ultimate objective, the better."

"Agreed," Joe pointedly nodded, "Rapi, take point. Neon, support Rapi and follow her instructions. Anis…" he turned, looked to the blonde, who gave him a flat look. "...You're on Commander guard duty."

"Should I bash a Rapture's head in with the butt of my gun if one rushes you?" Anis asked incredulously.

"That'd probably be more effective than me trying to punch one with my squishy human arms," Joe noted with all the enthusiasm of a beached whale.

"...Fair enough," Anis replied, hanging her launcher off of her shoulder and all but pouting as she waited for the group to get moving. Joe would be sure to get Anis the training to use something other than her launcher once they were done here.

At any rate, Rapi took the lead, and rapidly, the group moved out to determine what they were dealing with, such as it was.

---

"Well, shit," Anis quietly hissed, the squad huddling behind a pile of ancient wooden boxes - observing a number of Raptures going about the room ahead of them, working the machinery to operate the power plant, clearly knowing exactly what they were doing as they audibly skittered about on their many mechanical legs.

"I told you!" Neon asserted in turn, "I told you the place was being run by Raptures! I told you!"

"Be quiet, both of you!" Rapi hissed at the pair, glowering heavily over her shoulder at the pair for their lack of professionalism. She quickly refocused on Joe, however. "Commander, what's the plan?"

"Exactly what it was before," Joe replied quietly and warily, staring at the mechanized alien horrors ambling about, making note of the fact that he was already spotting evidence of more beyond what they could currently see. "We exfiltrate, report our findings, and if we come back, we do so with sufficient support."

"That's code for 'superior firepower!'" Neon whispered to Anis.

With a roll of her eyes, Anis replied with, "Yeah, kind of obvious, you know!"

Joe was rapidly coming to terms with the fact that Anis and Neon were… not the professionals that Rapi was. In fact, they were… kind of idiots. Neon more so than Anis, but Neon was also demonstrably better trained than Anis was, 'quirks' aside.

Shifting around to head back the way they'd come, Rapi began, "Let's-" before firmly stopping, reaching out, and grabbing Neon by the shoulder to stop her in her tracks. "Wait!" She hissed, the group continuing to maintain their hushed volume.

Looking back… there was now evidence of Rapture movement along the path they'd taken to find their way there. Meaning that making their way back to the tunnel was going to be a lot more fucking dangerous than just… making their way to the control room had been.

"Fuck," Joe was eloquent in his brevity.

"Commander…" Rapi glanced his way even as she scanned the room around them, her ruby gaze drifting about with mechanical precision. "The situation just got significantly more complicated."

"Well that sure is one way of saying that we just got totally screwed!" Anis whisper-shouted, clenching her teeth together as she grabbed at the shoulder strap holding her currently-useless launcher with a grimace. "What the hell are we supposed to do!? We've only got two guns since Rapi's being unreasonable about lending me her pistol, and there's… too damned many!"

"I say we apply superior firepower to the problem and blast our way out!" Neon eagerly suggested. "Starting with setting off all of those explosives I set up along the way!"

"Wait, you set up more than the one!?" Joe's eyes went wide - did they need to keep their eyes on Neon at all times like she was a child or something?

"Our objective is to capture the building, not level it," Rapi chastised the white-haired girl.

"Which is why I set up smaller explosives in the daisy-chain!" Neon shot back with a huff. "Y'know, the sorts that won't take the building down around them? I'm not an idiot, you know!"

Rapi was visibly wary at the suggestion, giving Joe the look the two had already started to develop together.

He got it, he really did. But… "...Surrounded on all sides, our only known escape suddenly blocked off, under-equipped and under-trained…" Joe mused on their situation. "I don't think we're in the kind of situation where we can disregard any opportunity to even the odds we have."

"...Yes, Commander," Rapi replied, maintaining her professionalism as she remained at-the-ready, scanning the way by which they'd come resolutely.

"-Okay then," Joe started with a nod, looking Neon's way as Anis continued to stand there, pouting at her apparent lack of utility given the situation. "The explosives are… daisy-chained? Meaning you could set them all off from here?"

"That and Alva Particle density has dropped a bit since we started going through the building," Neon noted, bringing the thumb and index finger of her left hand together to emphasize the following point. "Juuust enough to let me send the arming signal to the bombs if I wanted to!"

Meaning that long-distance comms were still out, so no just calling Shifty and asking for help… every little bit helped, though. "Okay, so-" he paused when he noticed how Neon's brow suddenly furrowed in thought. "-Neon?"

"Why'd the Raptures stop walking around?" Neon inquired from their spot of concealment, to which… the other three suddenly became keenly aware of the oppressive silence which had overtaken them at some point.

"...Commander-" Anis started, turning about to face Joe more directly, her breath caught in her throat as she spotted something he had failed to, something off to the side - and she lunged at him, firmly shoving him over with wide, panicked eyes.

The near-blinding streak of light that cut through the air between himself and Anis dazzled the displaced Canadian in the instants before he hit the ground, flat on his ass, he blinked and stared back up at the blonde… and the look of shock and agony on her face as she herself took in the sight of the stump where her arm used to be.

Followed by a second beam, this one cutting clean through the barrels still partially obscuring the young woman, cleaving through her upper torso like a hot knife through butter.

Joe watched as Anis' severed head fell. It let out a deep 'thud' as it hit the concrete floor they'd been standing upon, and rolled towards him, coming to a stop between his feet. Face-down, beret having landed a few feet away, her messy dirty blonde locks splayed out, doing nothing to hide the fact that a human head belonging to a girl that had been depending on him to keep her and her squadmates safe just came to a stop within arm's reach of him. What remained of her body fell backwards and hit the ground with a far meatier thumping thwack.

Visions of Marian's mutilated body came to mind at once, and Joe was, however briefly, entirely blind and deaf to the explosion of gunfire which erupted from the remaining Nikkes and the Raptures that had set up, and successfully pulled off an ambush on them.

Joe stared at Anis' disembodied head.

They weren't prepared for this.

He wasn't prepared for this.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
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.'"

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
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."

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
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.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 21 - A Harbinger of Good Times
===

The day had passed, and Joe hadn't been directly contacted by the construction company sent in to build up the Outpost. It made sense, he, ultimately, was a military officer, not a… building planner? Real estate agent? He didn't know what people that planned out settlements were called, but he wasn't one of them. He wasn't entirely sure who was handling all of that, but they sure seemed to be handling it, given how active the Outpost currently was.

Frameworks were being set up, already established frameworks were being built upon, property lines he supposed they were called, were being established. Trucks drove to-and-fro, shitloads of Mass-Produced Nikkes were going about helping build shit… Neon and Anis had also tried to convince Joe to let them crash on his couch while work was being done on the barracks, but he quickly shot that notion the fuck down.

Not because he didn't necessarily want them around, but because he had initially agreed to let them claim the couches, and they had both immediately proved themselves to be disrespectful pigs that started making a mess which Joe wasn't about to tolerate. Thus, he was quickly left alone again, finishing writing up the report on the power station operation so they could actually get paid for it.

Rapidly, that was done too. And thus… the rookie Commander had nothing to do, finding himself just sitting in his office chair, blankly staring ahead.

There he remained, for several, long minutes.

Eventually, Joe felt some sort of pressure building in the back of his head, almost like a low keening, suddenly becoming intensely aware of Marian's firearm out of the corner of his vision. With a start, he all but leapt from his seat, taking a deep, bracing breath and withdrawing his ridiculous gold-plated phone from his pocket, and looked it over. There was surely, something he could do to pass the time-

A knock at his door gave him something to focus on, and so he immediately called out, with perhaps a bit too much eagerness while depositing his phone back into his pocket, "Yes, come in!"

Though there was a momentary pause, the door opened to reveal Rapi, stepping in with a tablet in hand. "Commander," she started with business-like dryness. "I finished writing up the report on our mission to the power station," she moved to present the device to him. "You may review it if you wish. I was as concise and thorough as-" She paused, blinking at the perplexed look on his face. "...Is there something wrong?"

"I already did the report for the operation," Joe remarked, a little bushwhacked, given the unexpectedness of the gesture.

At that declaration, Rapi herself looked more than a little taken aback. Actually blinking more than a little owlishly at the assertion. "I… see," the little strawberry blonde said, withdrawing the tablet as she did so. "I… apologize for the impropriety-"

"Wha-" once again, Joe was left dumbstruck by the behaviour of these Nikkes. "There's nothing to apologize for, Rapi. I just wasn't expecting you to… go and do my job for me. Unprompted at that…" Reaching up, Joe rubbed at the back of his neck, regarding the little blonde and the tablet she held. "I mean, you girls do enough work as it is. I kind of expected that you'd be relaxing right now like Anis and Neon are… trying to," he left out the part about how he had to kick them out of his room - though it was really more of an apartment - for being disruptive shits. After a moment he shrugged, holding out his hand. "Here, let me see your report anyways. It might actually be better than mine, given your experience over me."

"...Yes, Commander," she handed the tablet to him, and continued speaking. "I am simply used to being made to write after-mission reports by my previous Commanders. I assumed it would be much the same now."

Taking a deep breath, Joe closed his eyes and made an effort to dispel the anger that tried to bubble up at that statement. "Real winners, your previous Commanders," he bemusedly declared.

Rapi averted her eyes, an unreadable expression playing across her doll-like features before she replied, "According to the Military Academy, at least…" her tone was all-business, but Joe could sense the resentment wafting off of her.

The rookie Commander couldn't help but let out a mild snort at that. Dry as a bone, this girl. Though sometimes that was in itself a treat. "Well, at any rate, I appreciate the gesture, but I'm not going to make any of you do work that I'm supposed to be doing as the squad's Commander…" he paused. "I might ask if you could give me some pointers, though. Your report is a lot better than mine." That tracked, given how fastidious Rapi seemed to be.

Giving the much taller man a ponderous look, she parted her lips to reply, but their conversation was cut off by the door to the quarters opening back up. "Commander?" Neon started. "Um, don't want to, uh, cause any concern or like, rock the boat or anything, but-"

"Neon," Joe cut her off before she kept rambling. "Out with it," already, he felt worn the fuck down by whatever news the bespectacled Nikke was about to relay to them.

"...Syuen is here," the little silver-haired Nikke declared as though she were announcing a death.

While Rapi looked like she'd just had all the weight of the world put upon her shoulders, Joe just dumbly blinked once. "Who?" He asked.

"She's the CEO of Missilis," Rapi elucidated.

At once, Joe felt all of the weight Rapi did as well. "...Okay. She's in the front, downstairs?"

"Yes," Neon answered plainly.

"Okay, I'll be right there," Joe asserted, withdrawing his phone once again. "Just going to make a quick call first…"

---

Stepping into the entrance hall of the building, a deeply uncomfortable and mortified Anis looked unspeakably relieved when Joe, Neon, and Rapi all emerged to find-

"Oh, look at who decided to show up, after making me stand here in this shit-stinking sty of a hole for so long too," a young woman, small, so damned small and slight that it would be easy to mistake her for a teenager at a glance, piped up the moment Joe stepped into the foyer of the Command Centre. "I'd say that you have a lot of nerve, but, in fairness, I suppose that most would let such wild, back-to-back successes go to their head, huh?"

Ravenette with a lilac streak streaming down her forehead, two long ribbons the same shade of violet tied in her bobbed hair. The young woman was dressed in whites and various shades of purple, a loose hoodie and a miniskirt wrapped around her waist. Most notably, she had purple tattoos on her right thigh, blocky in design, though Joe didn't recognize them regardless.

"You know who I am," the young woman declared, a hand haughtily set on her hip. Sharp amethyst eyes glowered up at the significantly taller man, gazing down her nose at him regardless of their extreme height disparity.

Flanking her were two other women. Another ravenette, tall, strikingly curvaceous, a stunning mature beauty with two-toned hair, the inner layer a faint shade of purple to match her deep violet eyes. She loosely wore a large white trench coat, draped off of her fair shoulders, which revealed… Well, bondage gear. The trench coat was the only 'normal' thing about her attire. All black leather, straps and chains decorated her downright obscene figure. What caught Joe's eye, aside from the obvious aspect of her form, was the chained collar she wore.

On Syuen's opposite wing, was a girl only slightly taller than the CEO - though Joe would swear that there was more meat in his girl's thighs than there was in Syuen's entire body. Long, pink hair worn mostly loose, with a pair of twintails tied with red ribbons accompanying the cute rosy locks. She wore a loose dress shirt with a red necktie and high-waisted black shorts which only further emphasized how very bottom-heavy she was. Out of the corner of one's eye, she'd have looked like a young woman with a penchant for calling attention to her natural cuteness in how she presented herself - then one noticed the many telling studded leather belts adorning her strikingly tight shorts. A harness was worn across her chest, and she was carrying a dark, braided whip one could tell was high-quality even at a glance.

Joe wasn't one to make snap judgments about people all that often - but frankly, the S&M energy practically radiating from the two, likely Nikkes, was about as subtle as getting punched in the face. The little pink-haired cutie most certainly held the tall, dark, and gorgeous one's leash. Which was, uh. Well, more power to them, he supposed. Though there was something much more important to focus on at the moment.

"Syuen, CEO of Missilis," Joe answered matter-of-factually.

"Well at least you have some degree of basic awareness of your betters, I suppose," the smug little CEO remarked condescendingly. "Well, let's get down to brass tacks, shall we? You're going to go up to the surface with these two Nikkes, and you're going to find something important for me. I-"

"I must have misheard something, would you care to repeat yourself for me, Syuen?"

The authoritative voice that interjected, seemingly from the aether, caused the little ravenette's teeth to audibly snap shut. Her eyes widening, her eyes whipped about the room, searching for the source of the demand-

"Again, Syuen," Ingrid spoke up once more, voice projecting from Joe's general direction. "It almost seemed as though you were giving a Command to an Elysion-sponsored Commander, without going through me first, as per the agreement between the Big Three on the matters of corporate-sponsored Commanders and Squads-"

"Where the Hell-!?" Syuen looked downright bamboozled, nostrils flaring in indignation. "What is this, some sort of practical joke!? Cut the crap, asshole!" She threateningly pointed at Joe, taking a few aggressive steps towards him, "keep trying to be cute and I'll have you strung up and-!"

"Commander Pholus," Ingrid's voice interrupted Syuen again, this time, Joe withdrew his phone from his breast pocket - having been left on the line on speaker mode, as per Ingrid's instructions after he called her about Syuen's intrusion back in his quarters. "Please pass the phone to CEO Syuen. It seems she and I need to have a little talk about the fact it very nearly seemed as though she was threatening one of my personally sponsored Commanders."

Without missing a beat, completely flat-faced, Joe motioned to hand the gold-plated phone to Syuen, who looked equal parts dumbstruck and furious at the development. If looks could kill, Joe would be a pink mist right then.

Several long moments passed in an awkward silence. Gradually, with no small amount of barely-restrained fury, Syuen reached out, took a hold of the phone, and held it up to her ear, but not before turning the speaker off first. "Ingrid-"

The following spectacle sure was something to behold. Though Ingrid's voice was indistinct, her natural lack of an indoor voice, combined with genuine anger and indignation, made it very easy to tell when she was cursing out Syuen for crossing some sort of line Joe wasn't privy to.

Syuen, needless to say, made it a lot easier to tell when she was cussing right back, snarling and gnashing her teeth like an animal might. The… well, to be absolutely frank, the bratty little twerp had quite the mouth on her. Anis looked positively aghast at the language Sueyn used in her shouting match with Ingrid, Neon looked utterly perplexed and lost, likely not understanding half of what Syuen was even saying in the first place. Rapi, meanwhile, was utterly impassive as she dutifully remained at Joe's side.

Notably, the term 'Matis' was uttered/shouted/growled out by Syuen more than once, not that Joe knew what that was in reference to...

All the while, the two probable Nikkes flanking Syuen - whose back remained firmly turned to them - gave Joe a thoroughly appraising look. The little pinkette let out a silent giggle, shooting the taller ravenette an amused look, and in reply, the BDSM lady just as silently shushed her in a downright matronly manner, a leather-wrapped finger gently pressing against her own plump lips, even as she continued to silently appraise Joe and company out of the corner of her eye.

The Commander wasn't sure what to make of that, and so chose to simply ignore it.

The intensity of the two CEO's arguments gradually died down, and after a good minute of Syuen audibly grinding her teeth together, she lowered the phone, disconnected the call, and proceeded to whip the damned thing back at Joe.

To which, Rapi effortlessly snapped her hand out and caught it, intercepting the flung smart device as though it were a lazily tossed softball. For his part, Joe had been so not expecting her to just pitch his damned phone back at him, that he simply didn't seem to react to it at all, so stunned was he.

"I'm going to hash out some details on this plan with your mommy," Syuen derisively remarked, sneering at Joe as though he were a particularly unpleasant roach. "And she'll contact you with information on the plan going forward once we're done discussing our arrangements and deals going forth. Until then," she all but growled at him, spinning on her heel and stomping off like a child that didn't get her way, the two girls flanking her taking but a moment to give the Commander and gathered Nikkes one final appraising look before immediately setting off after her - the taller, leather-bound woman fluttering her fingers Joe's way in an acknowledging farewell gesture, eliciting another silent giggle from the pinkette.

A few moments after they heard the front door to the building shut with a reverberating metallic clang, Anis tore the beret from her head and proceeded to scream into it like a pillow.

"Well, that's probably a bad sign…" Neon mused aloud.

"Golly gee, you fucking think!?" Anis shouted, stomping her heeled foot with a downright startling report - a gentle reminder of the significant weight and power behind a Nikke's limbs - giving Neon a thoroughly mortified look. "That was Syuen! The CEO of Missilis! The meanest, most cruel and corrupt company in the Ark! And we just pissed her off! What the Hell do you think is gonna come of this!?"

"Nothing that Ingrid can't handle," Rapi interjected plainly, motioning to return Joe's phone to him, to which he reclaimed it without any fanfare beyond a quiet 'thank you.' "It's like she said: there are rules to how the Big Three interact with each other, and each other's assets. Syuen will try to throw her weight around, but Mustang is more likely to take Ingrid's side on this matter. She overstepped her boundaries, and whatever it is she was planning won't happen without consulting and coming to an agreement with Ingrid first."

Anis, in reply, snorted with a heavy roll of her eyes. "Oh yeah, it's gonna be all sunshine and daisies from here on out! Nothing to worry about, no siree Bob! Totally looking forward to how we're not all suddenly going to be recalled to the Ark to be decommissioned-"

"Anis," Joe decided to cut off her doomer ranting before she started. "Enough."

The blonde, at that, threw her hands up in the air as though everyone else was being difficult and stomped off.

Neon, for her part, looked more than a little spooked, and without saying much, just sort of ambled off, leaving just Joe and Rapi standing in the entrance hall of the Command Centre. The taller brunet's face buried in his hands as he took in this newfound complication.

Clearly noticing Joe's rapidly mounting stress… "...Orders, Commander?" Rapi asked with little to no inflection.

It took the blue-clad man a few moments to collect himself, eventually replying with a voice that gave the impression he hadn't slept properly in a week. "Just… brace for whatever comes next, I guess," he weakly suggested as he began practically dragging himself back to the elevator to his personal quarters.

Watching him go, Rapi, with as much enthusiasm and empathy as ever, simply replied, "Yes, Commander." Before setting off on her own to prepare for whatever problem Syuen was about to drop on their heads.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 22 - Preparations
===

"So, what's the deal?" Joe inquired a fair while later, leaning back in the desk chair of his office and personal quarters dimly lit by the desk lamp next to his personal computer, one of his three benefactors engaging in encrypted communications with him.

"To cut a long story short?" Ingrid replied, sounding more than a little exhausted. "I couldn't shut down Syuen. Not entirely, at least. From what I could gather, she intended to press-gang you into serving her. Last time she checked the registry was immediately before we had the relevant records altered to point to you having been sponsored by Elysion from the word go… She was more than a little suspicious that you were suddenly 'always' sponsored by Elysion, to say the least. I had to capitulate: which is to say, I got her to agree to an exchange of services, of sorts."

"And what exactly does that entail?" Joe asked, idly rubbing at one of his cheeks as he braced for whatever fuckery he was about to be party to.

"One-time access to one of the other company's Nikke squads," Ingrid declared. "Once, Syuen can call on Counters, a card she's cashing in right here and now, and I can call on Matis in turn; I'm sitting on that one, though."

"Matis?" Joe asked, moving to tap his fingers on the surface of his desk.

"Missilis' elite Nikke squad. You can look them up yourself if you're curious, they're one of the better known units in the Ark, so you'll be practically swimming in information from the smallest cursory glance. Point being," Ingrid clearly wasn't feeling up to informing Joe of this squad herself, so he'd just bookmark that name for later. "We couldn't afford to have Syuen pressing the matter, and this is the best I could do without risking seriously pissing her off and potentially causing a chain reaction of investigations into you by the Central Government we really can't be dealing with right now."

"So… ultimately, I'm still required suck it up and listen to the jumped-up little twerp?" Joe was getting displeased himself.

"Yes and no," Ingrid noted. "This will be treated as a joint operation, of sorts. And because you answer directly to me first and foremost, Syuen will at minimum have little option but to rein in her typical standards of behaviour while you're fulfilling her request. I made it perfectly clear that I'll brook no disrespect towards you, so while she will technically be your Commanding Officer for the duration of this little operation of hers, she won't be giving you a hard time if she wants you to actually be cooperative… Don't expect her to extend what little begrudging respect she'll pay to you to the Nikkes under your command, however. I can mitigate damage, not perform miracles."

Yeah, Syuen didn't exactly strike Joe as the most inclusive or sensitive individual… he'd just have to assure the girls that this was unpleasantness they'd have to grit their teeth and bear until they had the CEO of Missilis out of their hair. "And I don't suppose you know what that operation actually is?" Joe wondered aloud as he rose to his feet, ambling over to the window overlooking the Outpost - taking in the sights of significant construction work proceeding along under street lights at a pace which would be freakish for ordinary humans.

He knew better than to complain or whine about the treatment of Nikkes to Ingrid. They'd have to put up with it for now and perform their mission; simple as that.

"No, actually, I don't," Ingrid informed him plainly. "Much as I hate to admit it, Syuen has us by the metaphorical balls, though I wasn't so foolish as to show it, nor does she realise it. I was in no position to be pressing her for information. All I was able to get out of her is that the ultimate objective relates to some manner of Missilis research and the gathering of some kind of rare resource on the surface… which I seriously doubt necessitates press-ganging a particularly gifted Commander and his personal Nikke squad into service to accomplish."

"Meaning she's being disingenuous," Joe surmised.

"To say the least," Ingrid affirmed his observation. "She will have to provide you more information once you're in the field, just by virtue of the fact that you're the one that's going to be leading the operation and that you can't accomplish your goal without knowing what it is you're even trying to do. By that point, I'd wager that she'll attempt to bribe you into lying to me about her objectives."

"And obviously, I'm to refuse-"

"Don't be daft," Ingrid sharply cut him off. "Accept the bribe, and do exactly as she demands in turn. Don't tell me. Tell Andersen. Or Mustang, if she thinks to order you to keep the Deputy Chief Commander in the dark as well."

"...Ah, malicious compliance, exact wording," Joe let out a single chuckle. "Alright, I can work with that. Anything else?"

"In the event of things going FUBAR, you're to contact me, not the Central Government, you hear? Or, to be more specific, you'll trigger the pulsar I'll provide you. I'll spare you the technical details on how exactly it functions, but even in the likely scenario Syuen jams all outgoing communications to ensure nobody contacts Central, it will still alert us to your location, like a flare. We see it go off? We assume you need back-up." Ingrid directed and informed him. "Syuen doesn't want Central to learn about this. And neither do I. We are going over the Government's head here, which, while not technically illegal as CEO's of the Big Three, would rightly piss them off and necessitate some manner of retaliation, as you might imagine."

"Right, that'd put everyone but… Mustang, I suppose, in hot water, yeah?" Joe reached out and set his free palm on the glass pane, leaning on the window as he gazed out over the little settlement that was rapidly taking on something approximating a degree of budding life.

"Andersen would have to burn a lot of goodwill to avoid needing to throw you under the bus, given that he is your proper Commanding Officer, and he's supposed to be aware of and responsible for all of your doings. Syuen and I would get our feet held to the coals for overstepping the agreed-upon, if unspoken agreement that the Big Three will not go behind Central's back on matters of proper military operations, which all surface excursions legally count as. We'd survive, but having the leash tightened would make things all the more complicated for us, as you might imagine. Tetra Line wouldn't face any direct consequences, beyond doubtlessly being affected by whatever new regulations the Government would impose on us."

Joe nodded, despite Ingrid not being able to see him over their comms line. "And while you all could just blatantly ignore those regulations, that'd mean escalating tensions between the Big Three and the Central Government, which we want to avoid at this point in time."

"Precisely," Ingrid affirmed his conclusion. "Things get dicey enough with Syuen pulling off stunts like this constantly. We don't need the Government to think that Tetra Line is the only company not getting overly brazen about disrespecting the Government's authority."

"Alright, well," Joe clicked his tongue, nodding as he damn well did his best to remain calm and not experience an anxiety attack over being caught in the midst of this cyberpunk dystopia black ops cloak-and-dagger bullshit. "Sounds like we shouldn't have to worry about the Central Government finding out about this, if you've got a corporate death squad on call to fly in if shit hits the fan," Joe remarked as images of Trauma Team entered his mind. His glib description earned a bemused huff from the CEO, doubtlessly on account of how he chose to refer to her back-up unit. "You'll send an Elysion rescue team if things get hairy, then?"

"Absolute, to be specific," Ingrid informed him. "The company's most powerful squad, the elite of the Ark's elite. Nothing else compares, not even Matis, no matter how much Syuen caterwauls to the contrary. They'll remain on standby, ready to scramble at a moment's notice. God willing, you won't wind up needing them."

"Absolute… anything I should know about them?" Joe asked, watching a number of mass-produced Nikkes effortlessly raise and set the framing of what looked like a small residential unit with a speed that'd put any construction company back home to shame.

"They're Rapi's former squad," Ingrid declared. "Eunhwa, Emma, and Vesti. As I said, they're the best in the Ark, bar none. They'll do their job, and not let their personal feelings get in the way of the mission."

…Probably something he should ask Rapi about then, if Ingrid was jumping right to effectively assuring him that Rapi's former squadmates probably wouldn't swing at her on sight. "Understood. Anything else?"

"Your Tetra Line Nikkes should be arriving at the Outpost in a few days," Ingrid declared. "To my understanding, you'll be receiving the aforementioned mass-produced models Mustang previously promised you, officially considered a part of Counters proper from here on out… and some time later, the Carronades will also be permanently assigned to your command."

"The Carronades?" A name that hadn't come up before.

"I don't know much about them myself, only that they're a two-unit artillery squad," Elysion's CEO noted simply. "Ask Mustang for details if you want. Tetra Line Nikkes don't tend to fall under my purview."

"Got it," Joe would try to remember to fling Mustang a message asking after that. "Otherwise…?"

"You are under no obligation to march yourself or any of the Nikkes under your command to your deaths while doing this contract for Syuen," Ingrid pointedly declared. "If she ever issues you an unreasonable command, you have the right to refuse and call off the mission at any point, regardless of what she says to the contrary - doubly so considering she damn well knows that I have evidence of her having attempted to press you into an illegal operation. If she tries to get hostile over the matter, if it comes up, again, activate the pulsar. Syuen's stupid, but not so stupid that she'll try anything when she damn well knows that I'm peering over your shoulder the whole time. A corporate war isn't something she wants to have to deal with, especially not over a single Commander, rising star or no."

'Rising star.' That made Joe a little uncomfortable, being referred to as such. But, he'd seen the statistics himself, Commanders had a 70% chance to die on their first mission. That number only went up with each subsequent deployment. Most operations were cartoonish failures… and here, Joe had the destruction of two Tyrants, one of which was a very big deal associated with both of his initial deployments, with understaffed and under-equipped Nikke squads at that. There was a reason Syuen took notice of him, despite how much he'd like to believe otherwise.

If anything… that suggested that whatever it was she wanted to demand of Joe required the apparent skills of an unusually talented Commander. "Considering my reputation, I'm sure she tried to nab me because this mission of hers is a high-risk one."

"Not an unreasonable expectation," Ingrid agreed. "I doubt this mission will involve coming to blows with yet another Tyrant, but," she growled. "If she does put you in extreme danger and failed to relay that information to us ahead of time, there'll be hell to pay. And if it does come to that, to reiterate: you are under no obligation to die for Syuen's cause. The instant this operation crosses into the point of being unreasonable, abandon the mission and retreat. Got it?"

"Understood," Joe answered, "So, we have an ETA on when this'll all go down?"

"Within the next few days," the CEO declared. "Andersen wants to arrange for a meeting between him, you, Mustang, and myself at some point in the near future. Given our schedules, I wouldn't expect that to happen before the mission, though. So… just ready yourself. We'll get to discussing your history and the plan in time. For now, we just focus on dealing with our immediate problems."

"Okay," Joe let out a long breath. "I'll inform everyone and make sure we're prepared."

"There isn't much else to say, such as it is. So I'll let you go and return to my own duties. Keep Syuen placated within reason, Pholus. That's all. Good luck."

With that, the comms line cut, and Joe immediately slumped against the window overlooking the Outpost.

Fuck this life, man.

---

"You have got to be kidding me," Anis whined. The squad was currently occupying the impromptu armoury situated in the Command Centre. "We're going on a mission for Syuen, and Ingrid's approved of it!? What the hell!?"

While Anis complained, Rapi dutifully went about making sure her magazines were all squared away, while Neon pouted over being forced to pick and take a sidearm along with her - to say nothing of how mad Anis was that she was being made to 'get dressed twice in one day' - which was to say that Joe dictated that armour would be worn in the field. Minimal armour would be acceptable - so long as it was worn at all. Even being instructed to put on a soft vest was enough to make Anis act as though she was being tortured. To say nothing of how annoyed she was at being made to also carry a sidearm…

"It's a mutual exchange," Joe asserted. "Syuen gets help from us, and in turn, Ingrid can call on Matis. Considering this is supposed to be a simple 'resource gathering mission-'"

"Oh give me a break, like you believe that!" Anis whinged, leaning over and setting her hands on her hips as she did so. "If Syuen was just calling for a grocery delivery service, she would have issued a mission through the Central Government! Is this even legal, directly going to a Commander and making demands like this?"

"Yes," Rapi answered for Joe as she started going over her armour - minimal, hard greaves and bracers alongside a soft vest. She'd declared before that she preferred to not get hit in the first place, and had shown that she was skilled enough to actually genuinely dodge most dangers, so he trusted her to outfit herself properly for her own skill set. "There is no law that dictates that the Big Three cannot directly issue orders to Commanders without going through the Central Government… though doing so is frowned upon, to say the least."

Anis cast her arms out wide at that, beginning to cry out: "Then we should just tell the Central-!"

"So your plan is to directly piss off two of the Big Three's CEO's to avoid what's supposed to be a simple resource gathering mission, Anis?" Joe cut her off. "Ingrid has agreed to the operation, and has given me explicit permission to tell Syuen to go fuck herself if she ever tries to make an unreasonable demand. She's also giving me a big red button I can hit to summon Absolute to back us up and extract us at any point if need be." Notably, Rapi's otherwise mechanical motions hitched at the mention of her old squad's name, but she quickly continued as she was, scarcely missing a beat. "We're going to be fine, calm down and finish readying your kit for when we have to deploy."

"...Oh," Anis wound down really fast. "Ah, well, okay… Didn't expect we'd have Elysion's best squad on speed dial the entire time… I still think this is all super fishy, though," she asserted. "Seriously, Syuen's bad news!"

"Hence Ingrid taking precautions and making arrangements to give us boons, including the right to refuse unreasonable commands from Syuen," Rapi added bluntly, her tone as robotically flat as ever. "The mission is happening, Anis. You would be wise to prepare for it, as the Commander has instructed us to do. Like Neon is."

"Huh?" Neon looked up from her place at a repurposed lunch table, having been fiddling with… a pair of short-barreled shotgun pistols. Quad-barreled break-action. Aside from that, set aside was a cartoonishly large revolver that looked to Joe like it was gauged for full-sized shotshells. Points for considering carrying back-ups that would share ammo with her primary, at least… "Did somebody say my name?"

"You're doing good, Neon," Joe shot her a thumbs-up. "Keep up the good work."

At that, a big, satisfied smile found purchase on her features, and the firepower-obsessed Nikke immediately returned to her preparations, now with a bit more pep compared to her previous mood.

Anis just gave the three a bemused look, eventually throwing her hands up and moving to comply with her instructions. "This is all going to go awful and terrible and we're all going to regret it, mark my words…!" But not without getting one last doomerism in.

Settling into her own little angry corner, Anis started fussing about with her own kit while Joe was left pondering his own set-up. Little about it had changed aside from a select few additions and changes. He carried all of his own important Commander shit alongside a new, ultralight, highly compact and suppressed AR-style carbine - strictly for self-defense against predatory animals - because fuck hoping a pistol would be able to stop a bear or tiger or some shit. He didn't put anything on it - because if he did use it, he'd be using it to stop a charging animal, not clearing rooms in the Middle East. An integrated holographic sight with back-up irons. No bells or whistles, no needless excess weight.

He'd also decided to bring along some spare magazines for the girls themselves, because why the fuck not? He couldn't use a Nikke's gun, but he could lug around some lead for them in a vest, at least.

At any rate, with his junk all squared away, Joe looked between the three gathered, Nikkes, and quickly gathered that attempting to talk to Anis would be pointless given how pissy she was being, deliberately set away from everyone else. Meanwhile, Neon was off in her own little world. So… he approached the little strawberry blonde. "Hey, Rapi?" He started.

"Yes, Commander?" she replied matter-of-factually, looking up from her arrangements blankly.

"Ingrid mentioned that you used to belong to Absolute," he began, having the sense to not speak up loud enough to catch the other two's attention. "She also mentioned that they'd… keep to their professionalism."

"As will I," Rapi flatly declared. "There's no need to concern yourself with my personal matters. I will act in accordance with the standards expected of a professional soldier."

A beat followed, and rapidly, Joe came to the realization that Rapi likely didn't want to talk about her previous affiliation with Elysion's elite squad. He didn't feel as though pressing the matter would accomplish anything, besides maybe overstepping boundaries with one of his subordinates.

The professional soldier promised to behave like a professional soldier. He'd have to just accept that, and assume that, in the situation where they had to call upon Absolute, whatever interpersonal issues they had wouldn't cause problems with the operation.

So, choosing to not push boundaries with Rapi, who was clearly not interested in discussing personal stuff, Joe simply returned to his own table.

That being said, continuing to prepare for the upcoming third mission to the surface, it was going to take a while to get used to how distant Counters could be compared to Marian.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 23 - The Past Forgotten
===

"Capturing a Rapture…" Joe reviewed information on their target as the transport craft made its way to the city where they'd be doing their hunting, seated next to a window as the environment below zipped on by. "Would I be wrong in assuming that this isn't the typical third operation for the average Commander?"

"It is not," Rapi flatly replied from her own seat alongside Joe. Explosively expressive as ever.

"Most Commanders don't typically have two Tyrants to their name by the time of their third deployment to the surface either," the tall, dark-haired Nikke who had accompanied Syuen to the Outpost asserted as she lounged in her seat. She was, to Joe's horror, still wearing her BDSM gear, and little else. She had an assault rifle in addition to the… leash she wore, but no proper tactical gear. Not even a carry vest for her spare mags! Just a pair of… tiny little pouches that looked like they'd be buried under her chest most of the time anyways.

Instead, she had her magazines stored in dedicated pouches on her messenger bag. Which was… better than nothing, but not by much.

"So," the walking BDSM advertisement continued, reclining in her seat across from Joe and Rapi as she was. "Don't worry, handsome. I'm sure this will be a walk in the park for you."

A part of Joe wanted to balk at being casually referred to as 'handsome,' but, remembering that this Nikke worked for Syuen closely enough to be seemingly treated as her right hand, of sorts, he just brushed the doubtless barb off and got right down to business. "You two still haven't introduced yourselves," he declared.

"Oh, I suppose we haven't, have we?" the BDSM Nikke started as she smiled genially the rookie Commander's way. "I'm Mihara, and this cute little thing is Yuni," Mihara said as she reached over and gently stroked the flamingo pink hair of her much shorter partner, who looked notably bored as stared out the window with a childish pout. "We actually specialize in capturing Raptures, so with such an accomplished and esteemed Commander directing us for once, this should be a simple and easy mission. Syuen probably just wanted the extra insurance when she asked-" Anis loudly snorted derisively from the neighbouring aisle at the utterance of the excessively diplomatic word, arms crossed as she and Neon watched something on one of their phones. Mihara didn't seem to notice or care, "-for your support. 'Chatterbox' may be a new model, but that hasn't meant much when we'd go out to capture new Raptures before."

First 'Blacksmith,' then 'Gravedigger,' now 'Chatterbox.' The Ark sure did like attaching interesting names to Raptures.

Not party to Joe's internal musings, Rapi's brows furrowed, her rising suspicion at the woman's words worn plain on her features. "You 'specialize' in capturing Raptures? Suggesting that Missilis regularly brings Raptures into the Ark?"

"Well, I wouldn't know about that…" Mihara breezily replied, shrugging as Yuni pouted harder, beginning to fidget almost anxiously. "What Syuen does with the Raptures we capture is beyond our pay grade. I imagine that they're used for research, and disassembled for parts afterwards. Rapture Cores are worth a lot, after all, and Missilis has to maintain its edge over Tetra Line and Elysion somehow, right?"

"Commander," Rapi started, turning to face Joe as she did so. "This is highly irregular, and doesn't sound at all legal. I doubt that the Central Government would have approved of this operation."

"Ingrid said the same thing, yeah," Joe nodded in acknowledgement of Rapi's visibly mounting concern. "She did, however, also agree to the operation, and I'm sponsored by her, so, unless we aim to piss off two of the Big Three…" he shrugged apologetically.

Rapi didn't care for that, brow furrowing even more as she shifted in her seat uncomfortably. "...I don't like this, Commander," she said, a tinge of emotion actually seeping through into her voice. "It feels as though we're walking into the beast's maw here…"

Joe could see Anis begin to stare at Rapi out of the corner of her eye, which tracked. It was usually Anis that was the doomsayer between them, of course. "Which is why we came into this prepared. Don't worry, Rapi. I'm not going to let anything happen to any of you. Nobody is being marched to their deaths, not when I have the final say on how this mission plays out."

Rapi didn't seem entirely placated by that assertion, now staring ahead into the aether, visibly braced for something.

"The Commander is weird," Yuni, on the other hand, spoke up for the first time since they'd left the Ark. She was staring at Joe like he'd sprouted a second head.

"Yuni," Mihara interjected in a scolding tone. "Don't be rude."

"But he is, Mihara!" the little pinkette asserted almost petulantly. "Commanders don't care about Nikkes, so why is he pretending to?"

While Anis looked visibly put off by the assertion and Rapi gave Yuni an unreadable look, Mihara has the one to counter her. "And how do you know he isn't different, Yuni? He's already proven that he's not like other Commanders. He's beaten two Tyrants with just these three Nikkes, or rather, with the bigger two, the littlest one is new, or so I hear," she motioned over Counters for emphasis, "And look at how annoyed the two aware ones got when you said he doesn't care about them. Wouldn't you get mad if someone said that I didn't care about you and you knew it wasn't true?"

While Neon remained blissfully unaware of being overtly referred to as 'the unaware one,' Yuni gave the entire squad an uncertain look. The little pinkette looked warily to Rapi, asking, "...Does the Commander really care about you?"

Rapi was visibly caught off-guard, evidently not having expected to be the one to be addressed. Visibly bamboozled, after a few moments, she eventually replied with a wary, "...I think so." That struck Joe as pretty faint praise.

Yuni's eyes had become unto dinner plates, though. When last they'd met, she'd seemed interested given how he'd handled Syuen, though that was apparently the only reason she was curious about him. Now, she was looking at him with open wonder.

That… said a goddamn lot about the average Commander. That kept happening, hearing shit that pointed to how awful the Commander Corps was. No damned wonder Andersen was so blunt about the Central Government being their enemy, with the standards for their 'best' producing these kinds of expectations from Nikkes.

However, Joe's thoughts were cut off, and the pilots of the aircraft declared over comms that they were about to reach the deployment zone.

Thus, any pre-operation banter was cut short, and Joe simply directed everyone to prepare to land.

---

The next couple of hours passed by with little of note occurring. The squad, such as it was, encountered Rapture resistance that was of little ultimate consequence. Mihara was a rifleman, Yuni a rocketeer. Both contributed to the squad's forward progress effectively, and, more importantly, as they passed through what was once a park, lived up to their assertions of being specialized Rapture hunters.

"Hm…" Mihara observed the ground intensely, gently running her fingers atop the loamy earth upon which was inset a great footprint. Three forward toes, one at the rear. No sole contact with the ground. Additionally, the extraterrestrial creature, going off of the formation of the front-most prints…

"Does this thing have hands?" Joe wondered aloud as he peered over Mihara's shoulder. "It looks like it walks on its toes and knuckles. Almost like a primate."

"My, you're observant," the ravenette remarked approvingly, glancing back at the Commander before refocusing on the decidedly unique tracks. "Yes, I noticed that too. Tentacles, claws, even paws and pincers, I've seen Raptures have all of them, but hands? If Chatterbox is a humanoid, that would be quite the development…"

"...He's a big boy too, going off the distance between the limbs, and how deep the prints are inset into the dirt…" Joe also added. You could generally get a rough estimate of a creature's size by measuring the size of its feet, and measuring that against the length of its combined stride. The rear feet had a consistently short stride, with the hands being quite far apart in contrast. If this thing had hands… With the suggested top-heavy figure it'd probably have, it'd surely be capable of easily picking up a human, or even a Nikke and manhandling them like a goddamn ragdoll.

At that, Mihara turned about to face Joe fully, giving him a thoroughly interested look.

Though, it was Anis that spoke up first. "You seem really weirdly familiar with this sort of thing, Commander," the blonde observed with a dubiously wary look. "This is literally their job, and Mihara looks downright impressed by your observe… observications? Observitions? Observitions, your observitions," Anis confidently settled on an absolutely mangled rendition of 'observations.'

"Isn't it 'observitations?'" Neon asked, turning back to look at the group from where she'd been dual-wielding her fuckmassive shotgun revolvers on overwatch.

"It's 'observations,' you morons…" Rapi, meanwhile, noted in an utterly exhausted tone. The gremlin-esque duo of Anis and Neon seemed to actually get to her. Joe understood, given that she was apparently more used to working with professionals, rather than… well, Anis and Neon.

However, a point was made and Joe realized that, well, the average Ark citizen probably didn't have a whole lot of experience tracking animals in the northern Canadian wilderness. Hell, hunting was probably something that Ark inhabitants probably just… didn't experience at all, had never experienced.

He probably really shouldn't have been indicating that he knew how to track anything. Doubly so when that was apparently a skill unique to specialists.

"...Beginner's luck," was the best excuse he could come up with, leaning back away from the Rapture's tracks and hoping that nobody would press the matter of his inexplicable and likely impossible tracking abilities.

Rapi, luckily, didn't. Everyone else, on the other hand, wouldn't stop staring - well, Neon wasn't paying attention to him, but she alternated between being surprisingly attentive and being a gremlin, so…

"I imagine we'd make a great long-term team, Commander," Mihara noted with no small amount of intrigued approval.

"Mihara! I'm bored!" Only for Yuni to stomp over, interrupting and providing something of a save. Ergo, Joe was quick to retreat and suddenly hyper fixate on his drone cam footage, letting Yuni distract everyone as she rather childishly demanded attention.

Joe would have to be more careful about what sorts of capabilities he showed off. He probably didn't want people looking into his past, only to discover that he rather conspicuously didn't have one that held up to scrutiny…

Man, he wasn't qualified for this shit.

---

The team had spent the night on the surface, which was… an interesting experience, to say the least. It was the first time Joe had been able to see the real stars in… well, considering he apparently actually had amnesia and just didn't remember all the time he'd spent in this world, it was probably the first time in decades he'd slept under the actual night sky.

He hadn't slept all that well, needless to say. And while Rapi had noticed, she didn't bother him as she took first watch. Many thoughts had plagued him as he stared up at those hauntingly familiar points of light littering the inky blackness above.

When he had first awoken in that hospital, when he thought he'd undergone some sort of transposition, accidentally taken over the body of his alternate self… that carried with it a kind of comfort. He was gone, but everything else, everyone else was still back home, things would be just as they always were. Not a conscious assumption, but a comforting one, nevertheless. If he'd ever managed to find his way home, he'd might've lost a few years if it took that long, but, it'd still be home.

But he'd been here for… one-hundred fucking years. Everyone he knew had to be dead. Not even from horrors, not accidents or tragedy, just… old age, the cycle of life.

If he ever found his way back to his own Earth, somehow… functionally, he'd just be finding himself in another wholly foreign world again. A place where nobody knew him, where he'd have nothing.

2123. For Joe, he thought just a scant two weeks ago that it was still 2023. But for him, it was actually 2123.

The artificial sky of the Ark, and the cold, blank stone of the Outpost had been serving as a sort of shield, keeping his mind off of the world he'd left behind. But all that time spent staring at the stars, the stars that were identical to those he'd spent so much time gazing at back home…

For a few hours, when everything went quiet, when Rapi maintained her vigil with such intense focus that she practically faded into the background, everyone sleeping in the midst of an overgrown park with so much foliage that they could reasonably consider themselves hidden… It was too familiar. For a few hours, it was like he was back home again.

Everything he knew was gone, had to have been gone for decades. But… it was what it was, wasn't it? Life wasn't fair. The people of this Earth knew that damn well themselves. So… he just took several deep breaths, and gradually let sleep overtake him. It was an uncomfortable, fretful sleep, fraught with memories of a life long lost. But, he did sleep.

However fretfully.

---

"Commander, look!" the familiar, small, silver-haired Nikke called out to him, excitedly bouncing in place. "Look at what I did!"

Brow quirking upwards, Joe diverted his course and moved to approach the girl clad in white. Excitable as ever. A metallic report sounded out with every step taken. She was presenting a tablet to him, and proudly on display was… "You… wait, is this a game?" Joe asked, eyes going wide as he recognized the start screen for what it was.

"It's not a game!" the squad's youngest cried with a heavy pout, glowering adorably up at him. "It's a battle simulation, so that whenever we have nothing to do, we can simulate battles to better prepare for what comes next!"

"What genre is it?" Joe asked as he moved to poke at the start button, already curious given the pixel art style and chiptune music. The title 'Memory of Goddess' proudly displayed for all the world to see.

"It's like one of those old top-down shooters-" the little golden-eyed young lady started, before catching herself and redoubling her pout. "I mean- it's a simulator! Simulators don't have genres!"

"Right right, my bad, my bad," Joe chuckled, stooped over as the game responded to a poke and opened up a character selection screen, revealing a single unlocked character… "Starting out with the strongest character seems a little cheap, don't you think?" Joe teasingly asked.

The monochromatic Nikke balked and blushed at that, sharply withdrawing the tablet with a whine. "Commander, don't tease me, you know I'm not the strongest member of the squad…"

Cackling under his breath, Joe, regardless, took in the sight of the character selection screen. Everyone was accounted for - even himself and Andersen, for some reason. The whole squad, though with only this particular little lady playable at first. "Proper wiz kid you are, managing to whip up something like this out of the blue…"

"It's not that impressive," she was suddenly trying to hide the tablet, even though she'd rushed to show it off to begin with. Typical of the little nerd.

"Have you shown anyone else?" Joe asked, returning to his full height as he deposited his hands into the pockets of his familiar old olive drab fatigue jacket.

"Well, I was gonna go show Red Hood, since she's the only other one really interested in this sorta stuff," the excitable little golden-eyed teen said, before warily asking, "Would you… like to come with me?"

At that, Joe paused, doing his level best to not cringe at the request. "I don't think that's a very good idea, Snow…"

That statement visibly dumped the little Nikke's budding cheer. "...I don't get it," she all but whined. "You two are so alike, so why is she so…"

As the pair spoke, a fighter jet flew by the window, the distant Earth below gradually scrolling on by as predictably as ever. Joe didn't want the squad's youngest member to get caught up in these negative emotions when she should have been proudly showing off her accomplishments. Plus, he was sort of on his way to talk to Andersen… "You should go on. I was just on my way to talk to the Big Boss anyways, alright?"

A little amused smile managed to find purchase on the girl's face, and she chuckled, "He really shouldn't be so proud of such a dorky-sounding title. Still can't believe he tried to put it down on his actual officer's I.D.…" She was ambling off back down the hallway, regardless. "Okay, I'll talk to you later Commander, later!" With that, she about-faced and started bounding back down the hall.

With a small grin on his face, Joe turned to begin moving to meet up with Andersen again, only to hear another familiar voice calling out from behind. "Thought I heard a familiar little voice shouting all excitedly! What've you got there, Snow?"

"I'm not little!" the little Nikke petulantly cried out again. Joe glanced back over his shoulder to catch sight of the back of a blazing red set of hair, vertical black horns emerging from the young woman's crown. There, the striking figure stood before the girl he'd just been speaking to, having caught her emerging from yet another of the hallways littering the carrier. "And- Oh! Right, check it out, I made a-"

"Hey, is that a game? Hey! Is that you in it- holy moly, it's got all of us, doesn't it? Heckin' awesome! You're making games now too? You need suggestions for background music? You show anyone else yet?" Red Hood cheerfully asked, always eager to hype up the team's youngest Nikke that seemed to idolize her as an older sister.

"Well, um," the silvery young girl started warily. "Just…" she glanced Joe's way nervously.

"Commander?" The redhead began to turn around, her wild hair streaming about her like a crimson cataract. "Commander?" her face began to slip into view, and-

"Commander!" with a jolt, Joe jerked awake, and for a bizarre, disorienting moment, he swore that Rapi had practically neon red hair as she shook him awake, looming over him with her stern face. The optical illusion passed as quickly as it came, however. An artifact of his mind having still been halfway inside of a dream for a moment. "Are you awake?"

Taking a bracing breath, Joe moved to sit up, rubbing at his eyes. "Y-yeah, I'm up, I'm up… something happen?"

"You were tossing and turning and breathing irregularly," Rapi asserted as she withdrew her hand, kneeling beside Joe as she was. "It was concerning, you seemed intensely distressed."

"...Just dreaming," Joe asserted quietly. "You know how it is," he said, slowly taking in the events of said 'dream.' "I'm fine…" The sun was rising, and Mihara, at least, was awake too and preparing breakfast. Everyone else was still curled up in their sleeping bags - with Neon in particular looking like she'd been fighting her bag from within as she'd slept. "We all good?"

"Yes, Commander," Rapi nodded in acknowledgement. "There is nothing to indicate that we were spotted overnight. We should be fine to continue the operation as soon as everyone is up and ready."

"Okay, good… we'll eat and get a move on then."

"Understood, Commander." With that, the blonde returned to her full, if still diminutive height and marched off, seemingly to return to standing guard. Fastidious to a fault, that one.

Now, having a few moments to himself, the events of that dream came back to him. A young white-haired Nikke he called 'Snow,' a striking redhead he'd identified as 'Red Hood…' Andersen mentioned that he and Joe had served together in the Initial Rapture Invasion, a war that started an entire century ago… that wasn't a dream, was it? That was a memory. A memory from the time he was serving alongside Andersen, back when he still had his old trusty jacket even… so he was a Commander back then too, huh?

Joe couldn't be sure that it was actually a memory, not just yet, but… he'd ask Andersen, once they got back. If this 'Snow' and 'Red Hood' had actually served under his command at one point, alongside Andersen, he'd be able to confirm that quite easily.

But, for now, matters of the past were a secondary concern. For now, the present demanded his attention. Hopefully, capturing Chatterbox wouldn't prove to be too much of a challenge compared to taking on two full-on Tyrants.

Hopefully.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 24 - Slaughterer
===

"Mihara…" Joe started warily, taking in the sight before them.

"We may have made a miscalculation," Mihara replied, watching how Chatterbox's tracks approached a wall, leading to the Rapture clearly driving its limbs into the damned sheer plane to climb it, ascending up to the roof of the building in question, many stories above. "Raptures are supposed to be simple-minded, unintelligent, entirely reliant upon dumb muscle and overwhelming numbers to defeat Nikkes…"

"We're boxed in," Anis pointed out darkly, taking in the sights around them. They were in a clearing, some sort of city square - albeit one which had only a single way in and out. At a glance, the buildings surrounding the opening collapsed from sheer disuse and a lack of maintenance. But stopping and examining everything clearly, especially from the drone's bird's eye view… this was a fucking killbox. One they'd walked right into. "We've clearly been tricked into following Chatterbox into a damned trap!"

"Anis is right, Commander," Mihara asserted, readying her own rifle even as Rapi, Neon, and Yuni were on high alert, scanning their surroundings intensely with their weapons raised. "Normally, one would balk at the idea, but, clearly, this Rapture is a cut above the rest. I'd recommend we retreat and regroup in a more defensible area."

"Yeah, no shit!" Joe was quick to motion for everyone to form up and begin moving. "I'm calling this operation the fuck off! A Rapture smart enough to lure hunters into a trap is not what we signed up for! Back the way we came, people! Move it or lose it, we-!" His gaze snapped back to the tablet the instant its connection was lost. Whipping his head skywards, Joe failed to notice anything - save for the telltale, distant thud of something solid impacting with another building off in the distance. "-Chatterbox just took out the fucking drone with a rock," he matter-of-factually deduced as the severity of the situation just started escalating very quickly.

"Oh you've gotta be shitting me!" Anis cried, now whipping the barrel of her grenade launcher to-and-fro, scanning the rooftops ferociously. "I fucking knew it! I fucking knew that bitch Syuen was walking us into a deathtrap! But nobody ever listens to Anis, nobody, never at all-!"

"This is bad, thiiiis is definitely bad…" Neon anxiously mused aloud, constantly resetting her shotgun against her shoulder as she did so.

"Mihara…" Yuni whined, backing up to stand closer to her partner, rocket launcher weakly resting atop her tiny shoulder.

Raptures were supposed to basically be fucking animals as far as intelligence went - at most, displaying the same type of cunning one might expect out of a wolf pack. This was a step above that, to say the fucking least.

"Commander, we need to move!" Rapi asserted, rushing up to stand alongside Joe. "Lets-"

She was cut off by an object impacting her legs with such force as to flip her clean off her feet, face slamming into the ground not four metres from Joe's position just as the offending chunk of debris cratered the ancient, cracked asphalt they'd been standing upon.

Before Joe could even register that, the entire world around him seemed to quake at once, and the rookie Commander was thrown from his feet. In a blind panic, Joe rushed to scramble back up, instinctively raising his own rifle that wouldn't be able to so much as dent a Rapture's armour plating.

For an instant, it was like he'd set his face right in front of the mouth of a furnace. But the heavy, moisture-laden warmth that slammed into him like a blast from a bellows betrayed the origin of the fetid air.

"Well well well," the voice that emerged from behind teeth each easily the length of an entire human finger and twice as wide was impossibly bassy, rumbling, sending palpable vibrations through Joe's body with each syllable uttered. A hellish rictus, a sadistic grin of hatred foretelling suffering and the extreme exaltation the abomination would take in inflicting it. "My luck seems to know no bounds, to find among my pursuers such a high-value- nay, esteemed specimen among these hollow imposters…"

The great, gaping maw was ringed with metal, bone-white, angular, seemingly built to emphasize the predatory nature of the creature looming over him. Musculature which could only be described as a grotesque parody of the male ideal rippled with indescribable power, arms like those of a gorilla's flared out to the point that both limbs had to have as much mass as the rest of the body combined. Crimson veins popped from its arms, which themselves were a furious shade of red starkly set apart from the lifeless, artificial ebony of the rest of its body.

"Ah, but where are my manners? How boorish of me to barge in unannounced, even upon a guest who sought out my presence to begin with… though, my name is already known to you, etiquette demands a certain modicum of protocol be entertained, So…"

In some exaggerated, yet understated mockery, the great, humanoid Rapture lowered itself ever-so-slightly, as if to imitate a gentleman's bow.

"I am known to the Ark as Chatterbox. Though, in much the same way that you were already aware of such, so too, am I already aware of you. Yes, I know all about you and the reputation you have fostered, Commander Joseph Pholus. Yes, a figure as legendary as yourself, one would have to be beyond foolish to lose track of, no?"

Oh. Shit. Oh shit. Oh shit.

"My my, have I managed to leave the great Commander Pholus at a loss for words?" Chatterbox wondered aloud as it lifted one of its gargantuan hands from the asphalt, moving as if to grab the visibly shocked Joe. "I scarcely-"

The abomination was cut off and staggered back by a strike to the armoured face - a blur of black and red that rocketed in from the side before rebounding, landing and dragging Joe back even as the Rapture recovered from the unexpected attack.

"Wha- what the-!?" Chatterbox cried out, audibly caught off-guard before it spotted Rapi holding onto a thoroughly shocked Joe with one arm, the other holding her rifle steady in the crook of her shoulder, pointed right at it.

"Rapi…!?" Joe sputtered out, eyes snapping down in an attempt to catch a glimpse of her legs - indeed, one of them had been absolutely mangled by the debris Chatterbox had thrown at her, yet still, she'd been capable of launching herself at him with such force as to knock his fifteen-foot ass back with a kick. Holy shit, what a hell of a little woman.

"I have you, Commander," the little blonde assured him, firmly maintaining her grip on the much larger man, the threat of Chatterbox and its apparent intent to abduct Joe not going unheeded.

Now no longer right up in Chatterbox's face, Joe could make out more of the hellish beast - it was indeed digitigrade, just as he'd previously surmised. Moreover, it had a tail - incredibly long, winding, and seeming to be lined with dozens upon dozens of cutting blades that would make approaching the creature from behind a terribly perilous idea. Jutting out from its back were… four… spikes? With what almost looked like exhaust tubes - or barrels set beneath them. Worse yet, the beast's comically oversized fists were further augmented with what seemed to be integrated cestus - metal plates that would reinforce the hand and redouble the sheer striking damage it would be capable of with a punch.

Actually looking at it… Chatterbox almost looked the part of a combination of a werewolf and a gorilla, further augmented with terrifying cybernetics to create an abomination that would not have been out of place in fucking DOOM.

Moreover, it was clear that the beast had placed itself between the squad and the area's only real exit.

With genuine curiosity, Chatterbox lowly mused aloud in response to Rapi's virtual Red Comet Kick, "...For a mere imposter, you recovered awfully quickly from that attack, and to follow up with such a powerful riposte of your own, with such rapidity as to catch even myself off guard... The Ark has not been capable of producing such powerful Nikkes for quite some time. How did-" the Rapture paused, seeming to stare at Rapi for several long seconds before a hellish timber slowly rose from its throat, rapidly building into a full-on belly laugh. "Fortune smiles upon me this day! You, you are no mere imposter! No, I recognize you… a Grimms model. Red Riding Hood."

Rapi, at the beast's assertion, went pale. Though she maintained her vigil, the accusation had clearly struck her true in some manner. Considering the dream he'd just had, featuring none other than a Nikke titled Red Hood… Joe didn't know what it could mean, but if that dream/memory had been true to life, Rapi couldn't have been Red Hood: she gave no indications that she recognized him at any point, to say nothing of the fact that Red Hood had fluorescent red hair, while Rapi was a strawberry blonde…

Chatterbox had to be off-base. The declaration didn't make any sense…

"Shut up," Rapi demanded of the Rapture, her voice audibly and uncharacteristically shaken.

…So why would she be so taken off-guard by the beast's conclusion?

Leaning forward, the hellish monster tilted its head with a mocking sort of inquisitiveness. "You never, it seemed, strayed far from your Commander's side after all, did you-?"

With a blink, full awareness and control finally returning to him, Joe reached across his chest and ripped at the pull tab attached to the pulsar Ingrid had provided him. Nothing outwardly seemed to happen, though Chatterbox had clearly noticed the action.

The low chuckle that emerged from his lipless visage, if anything, indicated no small amount of amusement, rather than the expected annoyance or anger. "Ah, and here I was hoping to continue this little parlay for a while yet. But, if you aim to summon uninvited guests, to say nothing of how rare it is, to be faced with the opportunity to clash with among the greatest mankind has ever had to offer…" the monstrous beast turned to the rest of the present Nikkes, all frozen in varying degrees of shock and horror - presented as they were with a clearly intelligent Rapture - or rather, a new, intelligent, and startlingly well-informed Tyrant, clearly being so far outside of their expectations that it left them gaping in open horror and awe. "Then come, let us see how a lone Goddess and four lowly imposters fares against the Slaughterer!"

With a blood-curdling, hellish roar that shook Joe's very bones, seemingly even the Earth upon which they stood, Chatterbox charged.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 25 - Hunter and Prey
===

The group Chatterbox charged scattered, an extremely colourful array of curses coming from Anis in particular as the gargantuan beast practically punched the ground with each bounding leap forward, comically large fist-craters left in its wake.

The Tyrant rocketed forth, catching a too-slow-to-react Yuni - lifting and flinging the girl like a ragdoll across the courtyard. With a terrible crash, she disappeared into one of the encircling buildings through the solid brick wall.

"Yuni-!" Mihara cried out, raising her rifle to Chatterbox and unloading a magazine into the great beast - which earned her a cartoonishly large backhand. The ravenette crashed through an ancient metal lamp post, practically skipping along the grass and asphalt. Now skidding like a stone, the leather-clad Nikke just kept going.

"Such is the fate of all mewling imposters," Chatterbox chortled, turning to Anis and Neon, who had opened fire on the Rapture the moment Yuni and Mihara were clear of imminent danger close. The grenades exploded against its ebon flesh, leaving ragged meat craters - while the high-velocity scattershot thrown by Neon tore fist-sized chunks from the Rapture's hide, scarcely even eliciting acknowledgement from it. "As ever, the Ark's imposters fail to justify the expense of their creation. I shall-"

Chatterbox's head was knocked aside by an errant grenade - Rapi having remained braced and waiting for an opening to attack. "I said shut up," the black-clad Nikke repeated herself with audible annoyance, already having loaded a fresh shell into her underslung launcher.

The Tyrant exploded skywards, practically soaring for a few seconds before slamming back into the ground a fair ways away, the throaty chuckle escaping from its maw somehow still audible from that great distance. Reaching up, it adjusted its jaw, the natural hinge that had been facing Rapi seeming to have been damaged. "The Goddess, it seems, is not one for conversation-"

"Shut! Up!" Rapi cursed as she readied another grenade shot, visibly agitated by Chatterbox's insistence on… well, chatting. Joe, from his cover behind a busted car, was honestly almost impressed by the stubborn display from the Rapture. Most would take the hint upon nearly getting their jaw blown off. Yet-

"Such domineering disdain!" Chatterbox chortled aloud as the tubes on his back began to gradually glow- "I suppose it would come easily to one so high and mighty as yourself," -pulsing, as if charging- "to look down upon-"

"Shoot the spiked back tubes!" Joe commanded the Nikkes over comms, seeing where this was going.

"It speaks-!" Chatterbox declared in a faux-shocked voice, turning Joe's way in response to his callout- only to eat a pair of grenades from Anis and Rapi to the back, causing a chain-explosion as the ordinance it was evidently preparing to launch at the Nikkes went off still inside of the creature's back.

A burst of ichor and flesh accompanied a wave of burning putrid meat - Chatterbox roared in agony, limbs wavering as it struggled to not fall limp. A stream of black blood dribbled from its toothy maw, a weak cough sputtering out.

"N-no, how is this possible? Such damage, such pain… such tactical genius…! How can this be happening?" the beast whined aloud.

"Ah- W-we're doing it! We're actually killing it!" Anis cried out, no small amount of elated hope finding purchase on her face as she rushed to reload her launcher. "Holy shit! Keep it up! Put it down!"

"One more Tyrant to Counters' name!" Neon declared confidently, topping off the tube of her shotgun. "Face the wrath of superior firepower! Boo-yah!"

"Oh, no, whatever shall I do…?" Chatterbox all but whimpered-

"Commander! Stay in cover!" Rapi, meanwhile, remained firmly at the ready, reloading her rifle as she did so. "There's no way that's all it took-!"

A wretched sound came from the Rapture - like partially liquefied flesh being compressed into a mold with a sickening squelch - and the injuries Chatterbox had sustained nigh-on instantly regenerated on the spot, meat, metal and all. In scarcely a second, there was no evidence that it had taken any sort of damage to begin with. "-Oh, right, that is what I will do," the abomination matter-of-factually declared as it returned to its proper neutral standing position, chuckling lowly at the absolutely mortified expressions that rapidly overtook the previous confidence and hope Neon and Anis were wearing.

"I-it regenerated…" Neon started, quickly starting to panic. "I-it regenerated! It regenerated! Raptures don't regenerate! Raptures don't-"

Chatterbox's laughter instantly became downright explosive. "Oh, did you actually fall for that melodramatic display? You actually, sincerely believed that is all it would take? Because you bested but two so-called 'Tyrants,' off of the back of sheer luck no less, you were so utterly convinced that your victory was assured?" It cackled uproariously, directing its face skywards and projecting its voice aloud for all to hear, shaking the very bones of all in its presence. "The arrogance, such a rapturous display of childish overconfidence! It is downright intoxicating!"

"Commander! We need to retreat! This is beyond what we were prepared for!" Rapi declared, eyes scanning the beast that seemed to be lacking in meaningful weaknesses - could it even be said to have weaknesses when it could regenerate damage so effortlessly and rapidly?

"You don't say!" Joe replied as he scanned for Mihara, spotting her struggling to rise to her feet as she wavered and couldn't seem to focus on Chatterbox. To have taken so much noticeable damage as a Nikke from a single strike… To say nothing of how neutered Joe was without the drone on top of the fight happening out in the open like this. Where in previous battles, he'd been able to make use of the terrain and structure of the power station to their advantage, this courtyard was a flat fucking plane lacking in even hard cover! The fuck was he supposed to do as the Commander of this wombo-combo fucky-wucky shitshow of an operation!? They didn't have any advantages to work with! Chatterbox was just fucking with them!

"Now, let us discard with these theatrics and get down to business," Chatterbox began advancing on Anis in particular, slowly, ambling towards her with a deliberately casual gait. The yellow-clad blonde's eyes widened into panic-ridden saucers, and she looked about ready to cylinder dump at the Tyrant, for all the good it would do her when it would just shrug the damage off and undo it outright again… "I wonder how high of a pitch you will manage to achieve as I gradually pick you apart digit-by-digit, limb-by-limb-"

Then, Chatterbox outright stumbled, mouth parting in apparent shock.

"W-what? What in-"

Joe had to fight the urge to grind his teeth together. The bastard was really so intent on mocking them, wasn't he-?

"...I see- or, just the opposite, rather," Chatterbox growled mirthlessly, face snapping around blindly, in naked confusion. "Even an imposter can have a fancy trick or two hidden up their sleeve. To have my own hubris cast back in my face so quickly… or, no, is this your doing, Goddess?"

At that, Joe actually peeked out of cover in confusion, finding that Rapi looked just as taken aback, and- he spotted Yuni, having dragged herself back out of the building she'd been flung into, keeping herself propped up on her rocket launcher. The diminutive Nikke was pointing dramatically at Chatterbox with a furious rictus chiselled on her otherwise cutesy features, eyes framed in blood streaming from an open gash on her forehead.

The Rapture continued unabated. "I do not know who it is that has taken my vision from me - but know that you will suffer the most for your impertinence. Every limb, I shall take my time popping from your torso like an ant…"

"...Yuni's blinding Chatterbox," Joe noted over comms with eyebrows climbing his forehead, hissing quietly so as not to be overheard by the Tyrant. "She- Nikkes can do that!? How is she doing that!?"

"No, they can't, and I don't know," Rapi just as quietly and pointedly replied, side-stepping with deliberate and careful intent, nowhere near as impeded by her visibly damaged leg as one might expect.

With the Tyrant's declaration of its sudden inflicted blindness to its enemies - which Joe questioned the tactical value of - everyone took the opportunity to unload on the beast while it would apparently be defenceless. Explosions and gunfire rocked the courtyard for a few moments, a dust cloud rapidly built up around Chatterbox, obscuring the Rapture even as every Nikke sans Yuni emptied their weapons into it - or at least in its general direction in Mihara's case.

A pair of bright red lights cut through the dust like a lighthouse's beam through fog - and a pair of actual fucking energy beams screamed out from the Tyrant's position, spinning about it and absolutely cleaving through everything surrounding it. Everyone dropped, Neon not quick enough as one of her arms was shorn clean off, leaving a glowing red hot stump in place of her limb.

The dust cleared, revealing that Chatterbox had a pair of energy projectors embedded in its palms - then, it scooped up another chunk of loose debris, pitching it at Anis as she scrambled to rise to her feet and shouldered her grenade launcher.

Where Rapi's leg only took what looked like surface-level damage from an identical strike, the impact against Anis' knee caused her leg to violently hyper-extend in the wrong direction as it just exploded outright, shattering in a horrifyingly violent display. Joe's heart rocketed up into his throat, seeing the blonde's eyes go wide for just a fraction of an instant before her scream hit his ears and she hit the ground with an excessively loud crash.

The unspoken downside to Nikkes being so seamlessly humanlike was clearly on display here - when one got hurt, it meant that you were looking at an ordinary girl being fucking mutilated, blood and all, and reacting appropriately up until the moment you noticed the steel beneath the flesh - assuming you were in a position to notice at all.

Rolling over from where she'd hit the ground, Yuni pointed at Chatterbox again - the need to dodge the rolling twin beam assault having caused her to break her concentration - and its face, at once, snapped to and focused on her despite having been blinded again. "So it's the pink one, I see!"

Eyes widening sharply, Yuni went to scramble away as Chatterbox launched himself right at her - flailing a great hammer-like fist to flatten her outright. Another black-and-red streak soared to intercept the killing blow, Rapi once again planting a heeled foot in the Rapture's face.

It was enough to knock Chatterbox off-course and surely save Yuni's life - but this time, Rapi was caught by the waist - and Joe felt his stomach drop even harder. As the Rapture hit the ground and smoothly rolled back onto its feet, its grip on the Nikke was unbreaking. Chatterbox then started repeatedly slamming Rapi into the tarmac and concrete with a frenzied snarl. Each impact shook Joe to his core, the sharp g-forces alone would have been enough to kill any unaugmented human outright, to say nothing of the impacts. The sight was nightmarish in the extreme, watching the girl be brutalized so viciously.

The others weren't just sitting by and watching this happen. Mihara struggled to stabilize her rifle - visibly unable to line up a clear shot, still reeling from the backhand she'd taken as she was obviously fucked up. Neon had shouldered her shotgun with her remaining arm, actually taking shots despite the risk of friendly fire, to no apparent effect. On the ground, missing a leg as she was, Anis drew a pistol from under her jacket, the same model as Rapi's, and fired wildly into the Rapture's backside even as tears of pain streamed down her face.

While Yuni gave up on blinding Chatterbox as she focused entirely on hobbling towards Mihara, she was struggling to walk properly - practically dragging her rocket launcher behind her as she limped along. Every one of the Nikkes was taking very visible and rapidly mounting damage, while the Tyrant was at worst very mildly inconvenienced by Yuni's out-of-pocket abstract super ability.

And Joe was just crouching there, partially obscured by the same rusted out car Rapi had previously left him behind. There wasn't a fucking thing he could do, besides come within a hair's breadth of experiencing a panic attack at the sight of these girls being absolutely brutalized in front of him.

After what couldn't have been more than a few seconds, but what felt like hours, Chatterbox tossed Rapi aside - she skipped, skidded, and rolled back towards Joe before coming to a lurching, rolling halt. Despite himself, common sense failed the Commander and he bolted from his position to her side. "Rapi!" he cried out, dropping to his knees as he reached out- "You're-"

"Get back!" the ruby-eyed Nikke screamed, looking at Joe like he was the world's largest idiot. She was… not anywhere near as damaged as she should have been. She hardly even seemed shaken. Despite still being laid out on her side, reaching out and grabbing Joe by the shoulder and moving as if to shove him away. "Take Mihara and run! The rest of us will keep Chatterbox distracted at all costs-!"

"Like fucking Hell am I leaving any of you behind!" Joe snarled right back, reaching across his chest and taking a firm hold of Rapi's outstretched hand, as he did so. "-Don't act like you're disposable-!"

"Goddess!" Chatterbox cried out to Rapi, gesturing towards her and Joe with naked frustration. "You-" Anis dumped a half dozen bullets into the Rapture's face - to which Chatterbox responded by sharply reaching out, wrapping its massive fingers around her gun and her hands, and firmly crushed them like one would an empty soda can in a disgustingly bloody display, not even turning to look at her.

The blonde's agonized screams as she curled up into a ball on the ground, rapidly becoming coated in blood that looked no different from a flesh-and-blood human's would doubtlessly haunt Joe's dreams for weeks to come. Though Chatterbox didn't acknowledge the crying Nikke's wailing - nor Mihara's shots which didn't come anywhere near actually hitting it - simply pointing towards Rapi in particular as it kept talking.

"You mock me, Goddess! You and I both know what your kind are capable of, the heights you can, and have achieved, and you dare hold back as though this were some kind of game!? Do I need to slaughter these imposters before you will cease this chicanery which so ill befits you? You are not-" Chatterbox halted, head tilting as Rapi's heel slipped in the midst of her attempt to stand, nearly pulling Joe down with her as he refused to let go of her despite her ongoing protests. "...No. It is not that you will not. It is that you cannot." A low growl emanated from the Rapture's throat, displeasure sloughing off of it in palpable waves. "I see. The Ark's technological failings extend even to one of your calibre. How bitterly disappointing. If you cannot offer me the challenge I had hoped for, a duel with a true Goddess rather than yet another pitiful extermination of yet more of these mewling imposters-" Its point was emphasized by sweeping its cartoonishly muscular arm back, batting a still pitifully crying Anis aside like a piece of annoying trash. Neon caught the blonde, glowering up at the Rapture as she was surrounded by the loose shells she'd failed to manage to load into her shotgun with her single remaining arm. "Then there is little reason for me to not simply crush you all and be done with this bemusing charade-!"

The scream of unfiltered, bone-chilling agony that erupted from Chatterbox's maw was every bit as startling and unexpected as the blue-white beam that punched clean through the beast's torso. Knocked over, actually kicking and spasming in pain, everyone was caught off-guard when in an instant, the Tyrant was fucked up by a single, unannounced attack from an unknown assailant.

"Absolute?" Joe wondered aloud as he moved to track the beam back to its source - only to have his theory cut short by a solid impact on the asphalt a scant few metres ahead of himself and Rapi.

"Blasphemous creature," the new woman's voice was steely, low and hateful. Clad in a white poncho held together with crudely-stitched together scraps and a dark metallic visor mounted on her forehead, she emerged from the aether like an avenging angel from on high. Standing starkly against their environment, seeming in all ways to be the diametric opposite of the abomination against which she stood in their defense. On her back was a common-looking, time-worn assault rifle; in her hands, a massive rifle that looked like it was purpose-built to mangle the largest of Tyrants with single shots. But, more than that, catching a glimpse of her features, even from behind, that distinctive head of snow white hair, that tone of voice, lower, yet familiar… "I will send you back to the darkest pits of Hell where you belong! You, and all your kind-!" Recognition hit Joe like a ton of bricks.

"...Snow?" The Commander voiced his dumbstruck confusion aloud, staring at the apparent newcomer who cut a startlingly familiar figure.

In turn, she pivoted back to face him, brows knitting in confused surprise for an instant, before she locked eyes with Joe, noticing Rapi alongside him.

Those golden eyes, that face, the hair… she was older, visibly matured, but there was not a single, solitary doubt in Joe's mind. It was the Nikke from his dream. It was the 'Snow' that had spoken to him of 'Red Hood.' And- Wait, were those, on her waist… the paracord braidwork on the scabbards he'd done himself… were those his kopis and xiphos!? His fucking swords!? Where in the Hell did-!?

The look on the Nikke's face violently demanded Joe's attention over even the recognition of those blades he had cherished back home over a hundred years ago. The way her eyes became unto saucers, and utter disbelief writ large on her features, and- "Commander…?" her voice actually hitched, coming out as little more than a strained whimper that doubtlessly only he and Rapi could hear… she recognized him too. "...Joe…!?"

She absolutely fucking recognized him.

The white-clad Nikke continued, stammering, "R-R-!?" She recognized Rapi too.

"-I will enjoy turning your legs into a fine paste so that you may understand how powerless you will be to ever escape before I drag you to places the Ark will never be able to tear you from, Commander Pholus!" Chatterbox screamed in a borderline inarticulate rage, clambering back up onto all fours with a hacking cough, clearly not having quite become aware of the new Nikke's presence in its agonized fury. "But even more will I enjoy forcing you watch as I take her head, reduce your stunted Goddess to a quivering brain piece-by-piece as she begs and pleads for a mercy that will never come, up until that intoxicating moment I crush the last, pitiful remnants of her humanity like a wretched pimple upon-"

Chatterbox's rage had been nearly inarticulate.

The snow white Nikke's rage was outright and ruinously inarticulate. The Rapture reacted like a startled dog might when she dove onto it, plunging the barrel of her massive rifle into the monster's rapidly recovering torso as though it were a spear, and firing off round after round inside of it, screaming like a berserking banshee all the while.

Joe had thought Rapi was a terror to behold. This 'Snow,' however, actually forced Chatterbox into a hard retreat even after casting her off its body. Ineffectually scrambling and skittering away as she pressed the attack, striking so hard that it made Rapi's previous kicks look like gentle love taps, the Nikke pressed and pressed and pressed like a woman possessed, granting not a solitary moment of quarter as she dodged, ducked, and leapt over every counterattack Chatterbox attempted to riposte with - even using its massive bladed tail did not avail the beast.

In the midst of this, Joe became suddenly keenly aware of a high-pitched keening squeal - not that of a Nikke crying out in pain, but-

"Commander Pholus," A breathy woman's voice firmly made itself known as comms flared to life, a jet engine Vertical Take Off and Landing aircraft emerging from over the buildings surrounding them, the ramp leading into the rear hanging wide open as the telltale glint of the sunlight hitting a sniper's scope foretold Chatterbox being further assaulted with a marksman's fire from above. "Absolute is here. Status."

"Two-" Rapi all but leaped to her feet despite the beating she'd just received, dead sprinting for Neon and Anis as the VTOL gradually lowered itself to the ground not so far from the Commander. "-One down, four injured! An unknown friendly is engaging the Tyrant Chatterbox! We need immediate evac!"

"Understood, I'll continue to lay down supporting fire," the apparent sniper declared as, true to her word, Chatterbox was pressed yet harder back by the combined assault, giving it no chance to even attempt to respond to the appearance of the aircraft. "Gather your Nikkes and get on board immediately!"

Mihara and Yuni were already limping as quickly as they could to the VTOL, while Rapi had Anis in a fireman's carry and Neon charging alongside her. Joe didn't waste any time himself, rushing to board their escape craft as it got close enough to the ground to jump onto the boarding ramp.

He didn't stop to closely examine the trio of Nikkes that were all at the ready, hefting a high-powered rifle, an honest-to-god minigun, and a rocket launcher. The most he registered was that the three were, indeed, wearing themed outfits that matched with Rapi's - indicating that Rapi was still wearing her old Absolute uniform despite having left the squad a while ago. Otherwise…

Joe latched onto a handhold and stared out the still-open boarding ramp, and watched in dumbstruck awe as Chatterbox… fled from the white-clad Nikke who had responded to the name 'Snow.' She gave the Tyrant no quarter, pursuing with a single-minded rage that had clearly entirely consumed her, just barely, barely falling behind as the Tyrant demonstrated just how terribly fast it could move when it needed to, actually leaping cleanly over multi-story apartment and office buildings with a truly mind-boggling and nightmarish ease.

That thing had utterly bulldozed them. Batted them around like a cat playing with its food, not taking them seriously at all. Even Rapi, who Chatterbox had expected to be a genuine challenge, had been thrown around like a ragdoll. Then, that white-haired Nikke, the one from his dream - from a memory, emerged, seemingly from thin air, and immediately made Chatterbox look like a goddamned punk.

Joe could barely process it, even as the aircraft's boarding ramp closed and it began speeding away, back to the Ark. So much, so damned much all at once…

Letting out a shuddering breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, Joe knew one thing for absolute goddamned certain, even as Anis' pitiful whimpering brought him back to the present and demanded his attention: he and Andersen were goddamn well going to have a long and informative talk as soon as they were back.

…To say nothing of the fact that Absolute, the Ark's singularly most elite Nikke squad, might well be pretty pissed off that they'd ultimately been on call for so long as a glorified taxi service, given the appearance of 'Snow.'

He'd just hope that their squad leader would turn out to be understanding and reasonable about it.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 26 - Settling Dust
===

The aircraft continued along the way to the Ark, smoothly soaring among the clouds.

"Anis!" Joe cried out, rushing to the side of the mutilated Nikke who at least was mercifully not bleeding anymore, dropping to a knee and looking terribly worriedly over her. Missing a leg, both of her hands, squirming around in visible agony as tears streamed from her-

"Turn off your pain receptors, you idiot!" A new Nikke, black-haired and with a disdainful, if still distantly enticing countenance approached. She was hoisting an impressive sniper rifle as she all but stomped over, visibly agitated by Anis' crying. Given her familiar breathy voice, this was the sniper that had been firing on Chatterbox. Boy, aside from her sneer, Joe wasn't sure that parting her hair like that was the move to make. Talk about a forehead- "To spare us of your pathetic whining, if nothing else!"

Oh wow, fucking bitch.

There was a pause in which Anis went wide-eyed, then sheepishly just sort of… stopped rolling about in decidedly unquiet suffering. "...I forgot we can do that," she admitted, immediately relaxing and just splaying out on the floor of the transport craft.

"'Forgot-'" the ravenette clad in colours identical to Rapi's started with a scoff. Aside from the colours and berets, Absolute otherwise seemed to each wear personalized uniforms. The ravenette's get up was a heavy hooded coat worn over a sailor fuku and swimsuit not unlike Neon's - though with short shorts and loose chaps rather than a skirt and thigh-highs. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the wanton display of simple-minded idiocy, given the sort of company this squad keeps," she declared with overt disdain, glancing Rapi's way out of the corner of her eye.

While Rapi immediately grew visibly discomforted by the declaration and Anis looked the part of the kid caught in the midst of a friend's parent's spat, Mihara and Yuni kept their distance and focused entirely on each other. While Joe... "Do we have a fucking problem we need to discuss, soldier?" the Commander demanded in about as aggressive a tone as one might expect. He was already amped up after that entire shitshow with Chatterbox - and now his squad was being disrespected right in front of him after taking the sort of beating they did from a fucking shit-talking Tyrant.

Joe was combative at the best of times. And it was hardly as though he or his girls had taken the first swing here.

"Mind your own business, weakling!" the ravenette bit back at him, looking for all the world like a roach had just scuttled across her high-heeled shoe. "This doesn't concern the likes of you!"

"You made this my business the moment you had the fucking temerity to disrespect my squad in front of me; to say nothing of you making a goddamned liar of Ingrid after she made the apparent mistake of assuring me that you could be expected to behave like a goddamned professional!" Joe snapped back, raising his voice in accordance with rising to his feet and squaring up against the sneering Nikke. "Absolute make a habit out of trying to start shit with every squad they're sent to support?"

"Why you-" the aggressor Nikke started, taking an aggressive step towards him-

"Eunhwa! Stop!" She was interrupted by a blonde that… at a glance, looked like - to over-generalize a bit - Rapi's surprisingly youthful and far, far more curvaceous mother or older sister. "Don't pick a fight with another Commander again!"

"Ingrid's gonna get so mad…" a little Nikke with bobbed silvery hair wearing an honest-to-god cloak - albeit a short one that only went down to her mid-thigh - added in her opinion with no small amount of anxious worry. Her large blue eyes looked about ready to burst into tears at a moment's notice.

"Stepping in to defend this weakling and the defective?" Eunhwa, apparently, growled as much as one could with a voice as soft and breathy as hers was. "Just whose side are you on?"

"Ingrid already promised that we would behave ourselves," the distractingly well-endowed blonde said, keeping her tone even as she presented herself as the voice of reason. "You're presenting Absolute in a negative light to Ingrid's sponsored Commander."

"E-Emma's right!" the little cloaked Nikke that, to be frank, presented the image of something of a crybaby asserted, backing up her far larger companion.

"Nobody asked for your opinion, fool," Eunhwa spoke down to her squad mate, immediately putting the smaller girl down, who looked the part of a kicked puppy at the admonishment. "So keep your simple-minded thoughts to yourself!"

"Oh, I can see why Absolute is the pride of Elysion with this sort of behaviour being so proudly displayed to all the world to see," Joe growled, taking on a derisive tone of his own as Eunhwa reminded Joe of the average Ark Commander in all the worst ways, despite being a Nikke herself. Somehow, Joe had never expected to find the worst of both worlds mixed into one perfectly arrogant and disdainful bitch like this.

Eunhwa's pupils constricted into pinpricks as her chest puffed out in anger. "Shut your trap you weakling-"

"A laconic wit is clearly a highly sought-after trait among Elysion's special forces, given your groundbreaking ability to repeat your sixth-grade level insults ad nauseam, huh?" Joe pointedly interjected with a sneer of his own.

Eunhwa's eyes went wide in naked fury as Emma stepped between them, already pushing the sniper away from Joe in a blatant and honestly wise move to separate the two. As she did so, Joe felt a small hand wrap around his wrist, and he was firmly, but gently drawn back as well - Rapi clearly having had the same idea as her former squad mate.

"Commander, stop," she pointedly directed Joe. "This is incredibly unprofessional-"

"Yes! It is! Isn't it!" Joe spun in place to face the ruby-eyed blonde, nostrils flaring. "Sorry to say, Rapi, but it seems you wildly overestimated the professional capacity of at least one of your previous teammates!"

Rapi was disquieted by that, averting her gaze with a frown that was more apparent than normal. In the moments of quiet that followed, the black-clad Nikke not immediately responding… a few things became noticeable. First, Rapi, along with Anis and Neon, had lost her beret. That wasn't surprising in the least - their little hats that sort of just loosely rested atop their crowns would be the first thing to go flying once they started getting knocked around. Her clothes were shredded in some places - not enough to betray her modesty, but enough for it to be apparent that she was going to need a brand new outfit top-to-bottom once they were back to the Outpost.

And, more notably-

"Rapi!" The littlest member of Absolute rushed up to her once-companion - moving as if to hug her, but stopping short with a rush of anxiety on her features. "Ah- I, um…"

"...Hey, Vesti," Rapi started, releasing Joe's wrist as she turned to face the girl evidently dubbed Vesti more directly.

At that, a small surge of willpower seemed to fill Vesti, and despite still appearing to be on the verge of tears, she wrapped her arms around Rapi's midsection, resting her face on Rapi's shoulder. "I-it's good to see you, Rapi…" she mewled, damn near letting out a little sniffle as she did so. "I was so worried when we detected the pulsar going off…"

In a heretofore uncharacteristic display, Rapi lightly hugged Vesti back. A minute, but very present smile actually finding purchase on the doll-like Nikke's features. "You know that I'm tougher than most," she remarked in a very lightly chiding, yet endeared tone. "You don't need to worry about me."

"B-but…" Vesti practically whined, drawing back and meeting Rapi's gaze, staring for a few moments before she blinked and looked more than a little off-put. "U-um… Rapi?" She started inquisitively. "Why… why are you wearing such scary makeup?"

At that, Rapi blinked rather owlishly, not immediately responding to the somewhat insensitive question.

"I-I mean, not scary! Creepy! I mean s-spooky- no, I mean u-unsettling! I-I mean-"

But… Now that he was rapidly calming down rather than running hot, stupid, and consequently imperceptive, Joe noticed that a good deal of Rapi's usually caked-on makeup had been sort of… scraped off her face by the encounter with Chatterbox, revealing that she… had a really nice natural complexion, and feeling like an idiot for his brain noticing this of all things given the situation, that her makeup was likely really, seriously detracting from her natural beauty - or as natural as a Nikke's beauty could be, at least. It wasn't the sort of thing he'd have normally get hung up on, but, Rapi looked downright inhuman, genuinely like a life-sized porcelain doll in a sharply uncanny way with how much powder and paint was daubed onto her face normally.

There wasn't quite enough of her deeply uncanny makeup missing to get a real measure of how she'd look without it, but… given how pleasant the complexion of her 'natural,' exposed skin was, he could only imagine that it couldn't be a downgrade if she eschewed it altogether.

The fact that her makeup had been scraped off by Chatterbox's attacks, without visibly marring the actual skin itself beneath as well, spoke to how shockingly, downright terrifyingly tough Rapi was. Glancing down, Joe could see that Rapi had taken Chatterbox's initial thrown sneak attack on an armoured portion of her leg, and his earlier observation was based upon the plate strapped to her leg, which had absorbed most of the damage that had obliterated the metal made of the same material a Nikke's skin, and… very, very slightly marred her actual shin.

Considering that Rapi was apparently a Nikke from the initial Rapture invasion, and had been singled out as a 'Grimms Model, Red Riding Hood,' which Rapi did not seem keen on anyone else learning about - it gave him cause to wonder if maybe she was some sort of early super prototype, like the equivalent of a Gundam emerging among Zakus.

Stuff to ask Andersen about - or rather, demand answers to. Chatterbox knew who Joe and Rapi were, evidently recognized them from their time serving alongside Andersen on a bona-fide Helicarrier like an actual whole-ass century earlier. He wasn't going forward blindly while his goddamned enemies knew exactly who he was, and probably what to expect out of him.

At any rate, while the Absolute girls seemed entirely wrapped up with each other, Joe moved to Anis and Neon, who had grouped up (meaning that Neon had plopped down next to a now casually lounging Anis), and popped a squat as he addressed them. "...Y'all alright?" He asked.

Neon answered first. "Yeah. Annoying that I lost an arm and a bunch of ammo, but Nikkes can just get replacements. It'll take like, ten minutes to get a new one installed once we're at the repair centre."

"Yeah, it looks bad, but, well…" Anis shrugged from the spot where she'd made herself comfortable on the metallic flooring of the transport craft, despite having visibly and unpleasantly mangled stumps where her hands and a foot should have been. "I mean, I was reduced to just a head not that long ago, apparently…"

"Apparently?" Joe started inquisitively. Quite keenly recalling heaving the blonde's head around like a cinder block.

"Oh, I don't remember any of it happening," Anis replied. "Last I can recall, we were walking through the power station, then I woke up in the repair centre with everyone telling me I got my block knocked off or whatever. The NIMPH suppresses traumatic memories and stuff so that Nikkes can stay functional and junk."

"PSID is super rare among Nikkes, and the NIMPH is why!" Neon declared, seemingly entirely nonplussed about her missing arm. "We can go through some real bad stuff, and be ready to fight the next day like nothing ever happened!"

"You mean PTTD, dummy," Anis 'corrected' Neon.

"It's PTSD…" Joe quietly and actually corrected the two mangled Nikkes, noting how this seemed to be a budding bit of sorts between the two.

But, that aside: the NIMPH. The nanomachines that helped keep Nikkes operational and alive even throughout the most extreme of circumstances - to Joe's understanding, it was also the reason Nikkes weren't killed by things like extreme g-forces being imparted upon their bodies. They were full-body cyborgs, but their brains were still organic, and flesh could always liquefy. The nanomachines that made up the NIMPH hardened their grey matter against things that no purely organic being could ever survive - hence Rapi just… walking off Chatterbox hammering her around like she was a wet towel.

It really emphasized how monstrously powerful the Raptures were, for these girls that in most worlds would be functionally immortal to be so incapable of beating them on a meaningful level. Seriously, a Nikke could do to a Spartan-II what Chatterbox did to Rapi. Stupid anime bullshit making him shit his pants because it was real and scary as fuck in real life.

But, at any rate… "Well, I'm glad you two're all right," Joe remarked as he let out a long sigh.

"Yeah, we're fine, Commander!" Neon declared with a genuine, unperturbed smile. "Nikkes are a lot tougher than we look!"

"Yeah, I'm just relieved that we're all okay after dealing with Chatterbox," Anis assured Joe. "Relieved and kind of bored and frustrated. I can't even check to see if my phone is still intact to put on music or something…" she presented her stumps bemusedly.

"Oh, which pocket is it supposed to be in?" Neon immediately moved to start rifling through Anis' pockets. "I bet you're the type to listen to Kill Your Darlings…"

"What? Hey! I didn't say you could go through my pockets!" Anis immediately started attempting to squirm away from Neon's little invasive grabbers. "And please! I listen to K-pop and some old classic rock like a normal person!"

"Normie!" Neon accused the bodacious blonde as she continued to boldly invade Anis' privacy. "Normie listening to her normie tunes on her normie phone-"

"Stop calling me a normie you weirdo! I just have good taste-!"

Actually managing to crack a smile at Anis and Neon's goonery despite the physical state they were in, Joe returned to his full standing height and ambled off back towards Vesti and Rapi. It'd probably do to introduce himself to at least the decent members of Absolute-

And he found Vesti staring up at him, her big, blue, almost perpetually tearful eyes sparkling in wonder as Rapi quietly observed the Commander's interactions with her current squadmates. Vesti, at that moment, seemed outright awed by Joe, for some reason.

Now that everything had calmed down and he had the chance to more properly take in the little Nikke's appearance, Vesti was… well, wearing the aforementioned cloak, which seemed like an interesting choice, if nothing else. Otherwise, she was wearing a one-piece button down with a red neck tie that incorporated body-hugging shorts into its design, and thigh-high boots. Nothing strange, as far as some of the outfits he saw many Nikkes wearing went.

Is what Joe would say if she wasn't wearing a skimpy, high-legged latex bikini over the bodysuit.

Vesti was, overall, aside from the… strange choice of attire, on the cuter end of the spectrum. Curvaceous enough that she couldn't be mistaken for being younger than a young adult, but well within the realms of a regular girl, rather than, say… well… Joe pointedly didn't let his eyes wander over to Emma, who was visibly giving up as she attempted to speak to a still-fuming Eunhwa on the other side of the transport's cargo bay.

"Y-you stood up to Eunhwa, and even made her run away…" Vesti remarked to Joe, looking at him like he was a superhuman for some reason. "A-and Rapi says you're really nice and care for the Nikkes under your command too…!"

"The Commander is…" Rapi started, trailing off as she seemed to carefully consider her next words. "Superior as far as Commanding Officers go, yes."

Now that was glowing praise from Rapi, holy shit. He was glad that he'd evidently made such a good impression on her, if nothing else.

"You're so brave, Commander!" Vesti asserted, pumping her little arms as she looked at Joe as though he were a celebrity or something. "And nice too… Rapi's so lucky to get such an amazing Commander…!"

Joe sure didn't feel 'amazing' or 'brave' when he was cowering behind that rusted out vehicle as Chatterbox slapped around the girls. In fact, the man wouldn't have been surprised if he'd pissed himself a little at the time, considering the goddamned nightmare that Chatterbox was… but Vesti was being nice, quite unlike Eunhwa, so he wasn't about to be a dick to her for no reason. "I don't think I'm anything special," he asserted, rubbing the back of his neck somewhat sheepishly. "The other Commanders just… suck so bad that I only look so much better by comparison, is all."

Somehow, that only seemed to redouble Vesti's sense of wonder. After a few moments of that…

"Well, it's good to see that you aren't holding Eunhwa's behaviour against us," Emma remarked as she ambled over, sliding into view with a pleasant smile.

Emma was… well, good lord. Straight blonde hair adorned with a striped black and white ribbon, olive eyes, an overall very mature, womanly countenance. She was built, to be frank, like something of a fertility goddess, and was overall easily the most normally-dressed member of Absolute. She was wearing a button-down shirt (which was struggling against her chest for its dear goddamned life) with a red ribbon under a proper, well-fitted long coat. A simple pleated skirt worn high on her waist and proper tights worn with proper heels with little ribbons on them.

And a latex bikini top worn over her shirt. Because of course she was wearing a latex bikini over her otherwise normal outfit. Was that her actual bra? Was she wearing it in addition to a regular bra under her shirt? The heck was going on with these girls wearing swimwear over their otherwise regular-ish outfits? At least Rapi wasn't doing anything overly weird like Absolute with her aesthetic as fuck outfit.

"It's nice to meet you, Commander," Emma projected an air of easy-going, welcoming confidence. She was a… Well, she had quite the presence, to say the least. "It's good to hear that you've been taking good care of Rapi for us."

This woman, having done remarkably little, was already quite powerful. Dang, man…

"Now, as eager as I am to properly meet you, Commander," Emma continued. "Vesti and I like the chance to catch up with Rapi while we can, if that would be okay with you?"

…Ah, would that actually be wise? Vesti clearly didn't have any hard feelings towards Rapi, but Eunhwa had gone full aggro on the entire team for being associated with her, going off of context - while Emma… at least, seemed to be the voice of reason-

"It's okay, Commander," Rapi assured him, evidently taking note of his hesitation. "You should probably address the… situation with Wardress anyways."

Wardress-? Ah, right, that's what Mihara and Yuni's squad was called, wasn't it? She was right. The two had… likely heard a few things that could cause issues, hadn't they? "Yeah, good point. Okay, I'll leave y'all to it then," Joe nodded, backing off and already moving for the two Missilis Nikkes.

"Thank you, Commander," Rapi said, sounding genuinely grateful.

Glancing back after a few steps, Joe saw- well, Emma immediately wrapping her arms around Rapi's head, and pulling her face into her chest. Hard.

…Best to just focus on the immediate issue at hand.

Yuni and Mihara had sequestered themselves away from everyone else, seated atop a solid steel bench. Despite Yuni being gently comforted by Mihara, who in turn watched Joe as he approached with a fairly neutral expression on her face. "Commander," she acknowledged him as he neared. "Would you mind if I cut to brass tacks?"

Halting and giving the woman a wary look, Joe motioned for her to continue.

"We heard things from Chatterbox you probably don't want being repeated to just anyone," the bondage-clad Nikke began bluntly. "And you saw Yuni doing something Nikkes shouldn't be able to do. Now, I don't understand the extent of just how important what we heard was, but I do know that little Yuni is more important than anything else in the world to me, and I don't want her getting undue attention from the powers that be, when it's bad enough dealing with Syuen as it is. So… simply put? You don't tell Ingrid about what you saw, and we won't tell Syuen about what we heard. Deal?"

That… caught Joe off-guard, to say the least. "...I'd have expected you to be a bit more loyal to Syuen-"

At that, Mihara barked out a single, mirthless laugh. "Loyal? To Syuen?" She mused, looking at Joe like he was crazy. "Commander… she sometimes uses Yuni as a literal punching bag to vent her frustrations. To be frank, I would take it as something of a favour, giving us the opportunity to deny Syuen something to our own benefit. We do not care for her. We do what we are told, because we must. Nothing more."

…Holy shit. Syuen was a walking piece of human garbage, wasn't she? "...You girls have it rough, serving such a wretch, don't you?"

"Most Nikkes do," Mihara noted matter-of-factually. "So… do we have a deal?"

"Yes," Joe declared, finding it to be an easy decision to make.

A weight was visibly lifted from Mihara's shoulders, and she drew her little pink-haired companion closer to her, her relief palpable. "You're kind, Commander. A vanishingly rare trait in the Ark's military…"

"Thank you, Commander," Yuni spoke up, noticeably relaxed by Mihara's relief, giving Joe a small smile of her own.

"...Alright, I'll leave you both to it, then," Joe noted as he quietly backed off, gaze lingering on the Missilis Nikkes… thinking to himself that he'd have to talk to Ingrid and Andersen about the possibility of getting Wardress assigned to him as well, to get these girls out of the awful place they were stuck in.

Damn his bleeding heart, but as odd as Yuni and Mihara were, he couldn't stomach the idea of them both being casually abused by that little punkass CEO. If he could get them out of that toxic environment… well, the more Nikkes he'd have to call on going forth, the better, right? Doubly so when one of them could just casually blind even Raptures.

But, he'd cross that bridge once they came to it. All that aside, seeing Rapi talking a fair amount with Emma and Vesti, while Neon and Anis did their usual goonery despite being in the states they were in, and… really not wanting to interact with that bitch Eunhwa, Joe opted to take a seat away from everyone else, and settle in for the long trip back to the Ark.

Maybe if he was really lucky, he'd experience an adrenaline crash and even pass out, get some rest before arriving.

Having the chance to recuperate and recharge a bit would surely make his plan to grill the fuck out of Andersen go more smoothly, to be sure.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 27 - Even Though I'm Gone...
===

Upon arriving at the Ark, Joe had issued his report to Ingrid, informed her that she could tell Syuen to shove it if the little twerp thought she had any right to complain about the outcome of the operation - considering they hadn't been informed they were hunting a fucking Tyrant - then immediately demanded a meeting with Andersen, considering Chatterbox had known personal details about him it really shouldn't have been aware of.

The little detail about Chatterbox alone had caused Ingrid to audibly break something like a pencil over the comms line when he'd mentioned it to her - the added bit about Chatterbox having known the shit it did got her to say she'd have Andersen immediately go to meet him at the Outpost, declaring that she'd handle Syuen while he handled the Deputy Chief.

So, quickly enough, Andersen had emerged into Joe's apartment/office/suite. He dumped his hat on the desk, claimed the seat across from Joe, and immediately buried face in his hands.

After a time, Joe was the first to speak up. "I had a dream out there, on the surface. About a pair of Nikkes named 'Snow' and 'Red Hood.' Then, as Chatterbox pushed our collective shit in, pausing only to identify Rapi as a 'Grimms model, Red Riding Hood,' which really seemed to piss her off… Would you care to guess who emerged from the ether to save our asses, and quite visibly recognized both myself and Rapi, even saying my name aloud in response to seeing my face?"

There was a long beat.

"I don't know where to even begin," Andersen was very clearly not having a good time, shaking his head as he spoke. "I… Alright, alright," he made a halting gesture. "First off… it's good to hear that Snow White is still alive after all this time-" meaning that was a memory. Shit. "-Secondly… damn it, okay… just, give me a minute here. I wasn't expecting to find out about this having happened when I stopped paying attention to what was happening with you for a few damned days." Rubbing at his own face with a hand, Andersen let out a long, weary sigh. "I can't believe Ingrid didn't think to contact me about this entire thing before now…"

"I swear to God, if this is how I'm finding out that communication is going to be a problem in this little conspiracy-" Joe started, visibly agitated.

At that, Andersen again made a halting gesture, shaking his head as he replied, "Let's just- focus on the whole matter of your- or rather, our past. Given what happened out there, and who you encountered… I really don't know where to begin, though."

There was another beat before Joe spoke up again, reaching up and rubbing his face with both hands. "Chatterbox. That thing knew me - made a point to try abducting me because it recognized me. I thought that must have been because of the Blacksmith and Gravedigger. Then it identified Rapi as 'Red Riding Hood,' and suggested that she 'never strayed far from my side.'"

"Right… yes, that would be the most immediately pertinent thing," Andersen sighed, then let out a single, small chuckle. "Have you heard of the Legendary Commander, yet?"

"No," Joe replied plainly.

"I'm… actually genuinely kind of surprised by that, but, that being said," Andersen sounded genuinely taken aback. "The Ark sells him as the man that held the line against the apocalypse. He commanded the Goddess Squad, won mankind our first victories against the Raptures. Then went on to found the Commander Corps and the accompanying academy before disappearing into the annals of history without a trace…" The Deputy Chief Commander explained. Then stopped, and stared at Joe. Silently, and expectantly.

"No," was Joe's eventual, firm, and downright feral reply. "Bullshit."

"Joe-"

"Fuck you," the displaced Canuck pointed harshly at his commanding officer. "Fuck off, not me, there's no way in-!"

"Snow White was one of the Nikkes under your command during your tenure as the Legendary Commander of the Goddess Squad," Andersen cut him off. "Her, and Red Hood. Both are Grimms models, among the most powerful Nikkes ever created. Both answered to you, both fought under your command."

Joe just stared blankly at Andersen. "...I don't believe you," he declared. "My military experience consists of a few months in cadets when I was a teenager. I wouldn't have had the experience, the know-how to command a team of… of fucking supersoldiers holding the line against human extinction! I-"

"Your personal belief does not trump reality, Joe," Andersen pointedly cut him off, reaching into his coat to withdraw an envelope he proceeded to drop on the desk between them. "Red Hood adored old technology. Snow White was able to acquire an old Polaroid camera for her as a gift. She used that thing as often as she did the cassette player she cherished so much. These are the pictures she took and had taken of the squad, of us during the years we served together. These are the real deal, instantly developed nearly a century ago. Not digital captures that could have been tampered with using image editing software. Go on. Look, and tell me that these are fake."

Joe was hesitant for a few moments, then opened the envelope in question. The pictures inside were genuine old-school instant film cards - and they were old. Protected by an added layer of lamination, but even so, he could tell they'd been around a while before they'd been encased in a layer of protective plastic.

Moreover… They were pictures of himself, complete with his old olive drab fatigue jacket, swords, and even his aviators folded and hanging from the collar of his old favourite red shirt. Typically alongside him was a younger Andersen, who dressed like a massive fucking asshole, full Commander-style uniform combined with an oversized greatcoat hanging off of his shoulders like a cape, a peaked officer's hat, aviators, and a designer necktie, and a handful of jaw-dropping gorgeous young women - along with a single silver-haired teenager he immediately recognized. Snow White. And a striking redhead who was clearly the Red Hood from his dream.

Joe squinted, leaned in, and focused on the somewhat blurry image of Red Hood. She… kind of looked similar...? "Why does Red Hood look so different from Rapi?" he asked.

"Oh, it's going to floor you when you see her without that awful makeup she started caking on recently," Andersen noted with a bemused scoff. "I have no idea why she started doing that… but, I assure you, without all that crap on her face, she looks exactly as she does in those photos… well… save for-"

"The neon red hair, golden eyes, and horns?" Joe looked up from the picture past his eyebrows.

"-Yes, that," Andersen nodded. "There's a simple explanation for that. But, keep looking," he encouraged Joe.

And so, Joe did.

Many of the photos were… sloppy. Unless Red Hood wasn't obviously the one taking them; then they were suddenly a lot cleaner. But they painted a clear picture. Joe was the Commander of a previous squad of Nikkes, many, many decades ago. A legendary squad of Nikkes. And…

The first one aside from Snow White and Red Hood to catch his eye was a stunning, downright angelic beauty in a frilly white dress. Bright pink hair adorned with a colour-matched flower, framing a gentle, downright sweet face with large eyes the colour of precious amethysts. "...The pink one," Joe began inquisitively, considering how she never seemed to stray far from his side in most of the photos where they were present together. "What's her name?"

"Dorothy," Andersen answered plainly. "She was the second member to join the squad. The daughter of… a politician whose name I can't recall at this point. The squad's ace, in many ways. If she put her mind to something, she accomplished it, almost without fail. Generally, if she didn't seem to be able to do something, it was because she refused to make the attempt in the first place because she considered it beneath her. I'm sure you've noticed how she seemed to like being right next to you?" he asked.

"Ah, so, I suppose that was because she wound up as like… a second-in-command, of sorts, on account of seniority?" Joe figured.

"Well, she was eventually settled on as the first in line to take command of the team if both yourself and Liliweiss were ever indisposed or otherwise unavailable," Andersen replied as he closed his eyes, visibly lost in thought as he reflected on days long since past. "You two just wound up becoming fairly close in the midst of her dogged attempts to 'refine' you."

"Bwah?" Joe cried out in confusion and shock.

"You see, I'd wholly understand your confusion," Andersen started, "had you not panicked the first time you met her, and did that high-class sophisticated nobleman bit you'd do when talking to someone you perceived as being sophisticated in an attempt to save face. You gushed your thoughts about her being 'angelic' out loud, you see, and your attempt to course-correct and clean up that spaghetti you'd spilled all over her had given her the impression that you could be 'refined' into 'the perfect cultured Commander' because of it."

Andersen actually laughed out loud at the expression Joe made in response to that.

"It was great," the Deputy Chief Commander continued. "Having someone around that agreed with me about your… drab fashion sense, and conspired with me to actually get you to wear your uniform, cape and all."

"You tried to get me to wear a fucking cape!?" Joe cried, aghast at the notion.

"You would have looked dashing," Andersen asserted. "Which, according to Dorothy, you did, going off of the one time she convinced you to actually dress up for tea with her."

Joe was utterly mortified, staring at Andersen in open-mouthed horror. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting to learn about his shared past with Andersen - that both Andersen and the Nikkes he'd been working with had been conspiring to gentrify him was not among what he'd imagined hearing about.

But, that aside… Joe started going through the photos again, doing his best to not get lost in the sauce and-

Sweet mother Mary of Joseph in Heaven-!

It took Joe a few moments to calm down after he got a clear, full-body shot of what looked to be a nun - albeit one that was… like, uh, holy shit hello ma'am-

Andersen started chortling aloud, leaning back in his seat, and his amusement was only further emphasized when it took Joe a good half minute to notice. It was like experiencing the squad's first meeting with their designated medic all over again… "Rapunzel always did have that effect on you, didn't she?"

While Joe did his best to not turn beet red, Andersen continued to laugh and laugh and laugh.

It wasn't Joe's fault. Rapunzel was… holy shit.

She was tall, as tall as himself and Andersen going off of these pictures. Her gorgeous, silken golden blonde hair tied back in a massive braid, sky blue eyes fixed on the camera with a gentle little smile on her warm, invitingly lovely face.

But, Joe would have to beg the forgiveness of whomever might be listening to his thoughts right then, but he couldn't think of another way to put it… she was built like an exaggerated hentai girl, with an hourglass figure that made Anis and Emma look homely in their builds comparatively. Those hips. Those hips, mother of God, she was absurdly beautiful, and-

Not wanting to be a total pig, Joe mentally grabbed and wrestled his brain to the ground, beat it into submission, and forced it to move on from her figure. She was stunning, yes, acknowledged and moving on.

Otherwise, notably, in terms of clothing, she could be best described as something of a neo-priestess. There was nothing modest about her attire, a dress which hugged her form from every angle. She notably had a blue cross tattooed on her exposed forehead. Or… was it a decal or just paint? Whatever, not important.

"...What about her, Rapunzel, then?" Joe inquired.

"Rapunzel was a sweetheart," Andersen replied. "Kind, considerate, intelligent… She worked for the Vatican's medical research institute before she was converted into a Nikke - and continued working with them even as a member of Goddess. Notably, she was actually on track to ascending to the Papacy of the Catholic Church beforehand… but she decided that it was more important for her to take up arms in defence of mankind on the front lines. She was so nervous around you and I, didn't interact with men all that much before joining Goddess. You being as knowledgeable as you were about the Bible went a long way to helping her feel comfortable around you… which… in a way, became somewhat problematic after Red Hood went and…" Andersen sucked in no small amount of air through his teeth, looking as though he was bracing against some terrible unseen force.

"...Went and what?" Joe asked, deeply concerned about the vibe he was suddenly giving off to the point of the point that Rapunzel might've been the Pope sort've slipped between the cracks.

"Don't worry about it," the Deputy Chief Commander blew off the topic, motioning for his subordinate to continue on.

As worrying as that was, indeed, he shouldn't get caught up and dwell on any one thing here, when there was the rest of the squad to cover. So, with that in mind, moving on-

Holy Rules of Nature, Batman!

The Metal Gear Rising soundtrack started playing in Joe's mind unheeded, but forcefully summoned forth by the sight of the Nikke in the picture he'd flipped to. Long grey hair framed a bemused countenance from which gazed baleful golden orbs. Like most Nikkes, she was beautiful, but in a cold, distant manner. Bedecked in blacks and reds, a skin-tight bodysuit which exposed her every curve, she wielded, extremely unusually for a Nikke, a sword. Aglow with power, single-edged, curved, and as long as she was tall. A series of plates armoured a single shoulder, and her ragged half-skirt was strapped to her hip by a tight belt. Notably, she seemed to have some sort of… crimson energy halo thing hovering over her head too.

"Scarlet was certainly an attention-grabber, wasn't she?" Andersen mused aloud. "I recall that you'd always assert that 'Rules of Nature' started playing in your head on its own whenever you looked at her… I maintain that I'd instead hear 'I Am All of Me,' but that's neither here nor there. The only member of the squad that wasn't a Grimms model, she was actually at one point a common mass-produced Nikke, but had been so extensively customized and upgraded by the time we'd met her, that she was reclassified as a true 'specialist' model just the same as the Grimms. She had a field day with you the moment she noticed you had swords on you back at the base."

"...Swords that I didn't actually know how to use?" Joe pointed out.

"Which she never believed, no matter how many times you repeated it," Andersen chortled from his belly. "'Pray tell, what manner of ill-begotten fool would make the ruinous mistake of presenting themselves a warrior with blades they know not how to wield? Cease this idle chicanery and draw your weapons that I might test thine steel and your mettle, Commander of the Blade!' She'd then chase you around the base, demanding 'satisfaction' all the while, which would send Rapunzel into a tizzy and enable Red Hood… So many times that caused her and Dorothy to get into scraps, when she'd rush to protect you, not that the two needed the excuse in the first place…" rubbing his eyes from some distant, long-standing exhaustion, Andersen nonetheless looked intensely amused. "You'd think I'd have forgotten those sorts of declarations after so long, but the way she spoke was so… antiquated that it stuck with you and simply refused to fade away."

…This was sounding more and more like a bona-fide goon squad, rather than what was apparently the most powerful squad of warriors to have ever existed in human history. Moving on regardless, the next photo revealed a…

Joe paused, blinked, leaned in to the picture, and felt a… shallow pit forming in his stomach. The same deep-seated dread one experienced when gazing upon something that plunged entirely too deep into the uncanny valley-

"Liliweiss was admittedly somewhat unsettling to gaze upon, before you got used to it," Andersen said, looking a bit put-off, but not saying anything against the expression gradually taking hold on Joe's face. "She was the first, as in, the literal first Nikke ever created. As you might imagine, they didn't quite nail the attempt to make her look like a naturalistic human being…"

The white-haired woman with an asymmetric bob was smiling pleasantly at the camera, and while she was beautiful at a glance in her well-fitted caped uniform, the eye rapidly started picking up on… obviously inhuman traits. Her skin was too perfect, literally without flaw in any way, shape, or form. There was a mild, artificial sheen to it, her features were… noticeably perfectly symmetrical, and her pupils were bright pink crosses - or were they flowers? They were obviously not human looking, regardless. She was adjusting a fine pair of white gloves as she acknowledged the camera, smiling genially as she did so.

"She was the true second-in-command of Goddess, and the most powerful Nikke ever created to this day." Andersen continued, his gaze falling low, attention fading into the ether as a visible melancholy found purchase on his features. "She was so powerful that nobody could create a weapon for her that she wouldn't rapidly accidentally destroy. She just settled on pummelling Raptures to death with her bare hands after a point. Yet she was easily the most intelligent member of the crew, despite having been a jet fighter pilot before her conversion rather than any sort of scientific mind like Rapunzel was. Smart, strong, one of the few people around able to corral the herd of cats that made up Goddess and get them to behave themselves, if only a bit…" For the first time since Joe had met the man, Andersen didn't just look sad: he looked downright heartbroken as his gaze drifted further and further off into the past. "...I miss that woman more and more each and every day."

Quickly, Joe started to figure that there might've been something between Andersen and Liliweiss - then the next photo all but confirmed it, given that it showed Andersen desperately, with terrible agony having caught and attempting to hold up a doubtlessly monstrously heavy swooning Liliweiss. The Nikke looked utterly smitten even as Andersen was visibly screaming in pain from the doubtless horrible strain on his limited human muscles and back, his aviators looking ready to slip from the tip of his nose as his knees comically buckled.

…No wonder he'd been so… decent about what had happened with Marian.

Not wanting to drag up painful old memories about a lost love, Joe continued to go through the pictures, finding one of an openly cheering Red Hood holding a squirming and doubtlessly whining Snow White in a headlock. "...Snow White looks like she visibly matured and grew since back then. How is that possible?" he asked the Deputy Chief Commander.

"Because she did," Andersen answered matter-of-factually. "The Grimms Nikkes had all sorts of quirks about them which makes them seem downright mystical compared to modern Nikkes. Such as the fact that Snow White was designed with a unique musculature and skeletal system meant to simulate naturalistic physical maturation using nanomachines. Her body was being very gradually broken down and rebuilt by her onboard nanites whenever she slept using processed materials she took in via eating, drinking, and if necessary, injecting. So that she wouldn't risk experiencing an eventual Mind Switch after being trapped in a teenager's body even after she emotionally matured into an adult over the course of her lifetime." Leaning back in his seat upon being brought back to the present, Andersen nodded as he thought back on the formerly little Nikke. "That was simply not necessary with the rest of the Grimms models, as you might imagine. They were all grown women by the time they were converted. Plus, the brass wasn't so keen on repeating the process of making Nikkes capable of growing again after they saw the cost of creating even the singular prototype that was Snow White…"

Yeah, that checked out… and really highlighted just how frighteningly far the Central Government's technology had fallen since then. Snow White was terrifying for the few seconds where she'd routed Chatterbox almost instantly. If they had more Nikkes on par with her today, they might've been making real headway in retaking the surface already. "What was her role in the squad? Sniper?"

"Engineer," Andersen corrected the assumption. "She maintained everyone's weapons, built new weapons for anyone and everyone at the base at the slightest inkling of an excuse to do so appearing, and deployed turrets, drones, and all sorts of other gadgets in combat. The things she built for everyone in the crew, like it was second nature to her…" shaking his head with a downright prideful smile, Andersen continued. "Red Hood was the resident sniper. That, and, well, the resident busybody menace."

Popping an eyebrow at that, Joe inquired, "In what way?"

"The trouble she'd cause and get into!" Andersen immediately threw his hands up in exasperation. "Egging on Dorothy and Scarlet's fights, corrupting Rapunzel with those old porn magazines, poking and prodding everyone, finding, intentionally or not, all of their triggers and pulling them repeatedly, if not intentionally then because she was such an id-driven dumbass," he sighed deeply, exhausted by the mere thought of the woman's antics. "To say nothing of how inscrutable she was."

Joe was about to ask what Andersen meant by that, but the next photo in the line-up consisted of… Joe, sitting in a chair eating something, with Red Hood having surprised him by draping herself over his shoulders to reach out and grab at his food with her bare hands, a massive shit-eating grin on her face even as she pulled him into an awkward over-the-shoulder back hug with her spare arm. "...The impression I got from my dream was that Red Hood and I didn't get along…"

"At first, you two did," Andersen replied. "In fact, you two got along entirely too well initially. Not only because of how incredibly jealous it made Dorothy, who wouldn't stop complaining about how she wasn't just 'undoing' all of her hard work in refining you, but was making you even more of a goon than you were at the start of everything. To say nothing of how she'd actively goad Rapunzel into trying to-" again, Andersen visibly caught himself before skipping over the point he was about to make. "Honestly, for a time, you two were so on the same wavelength that everyone was certain that…" drifting off, he shook his head, seeming to reconsider something. "But then, one day, out of the blue, she just turned on a dime, and suddenly treated you like a leper. That angered Dorothy even more than the perceived poaching of you ever did, and worse yet, she never actually explained to anyone, except for maybe Snow White why she suddenly couldn't stand you."

…Well. That sounded… awful. Joe wasn't sure what to make of that, beyond… "Is that why you seemed so worried about me getting along with Rapi?" he asked.

"Frankly speaking? Yes," Andersen confirmed the theory, adjusting his position in the seat, causing the faux-leather to crunch and protest at the motion. "I'm glad that you two are apparently getting on well now, but… I just worry about the possibility of things repeating themselves, despite the fact that Rapi's essentially a completely different person from Red Hood in every way that matters."

Gazing at the picture, Joe took in Red Hood's appearance, and decided to follow up on the inquiry that'd opened up this conversation. "Why does Rapi look so different now? Her hair, her eyes, the horns…" Her taste in clothing had changed wildly too. Red Hood wore a lot of oily obsidian-black latex that was clearly tailored to her every curve, to say nothing of how there were large 'panels' of material strategically missing on the thighs, revealing way more than one might've expected when at a glance, it looked like she was wearing full pants topped with the straps of a thong arcing out over the waist of the leggings.

Additionally, a red jacket was worn over a heavily-cropped latex top which consisted of what was basically a (unzipped) zip-up bra and full sleeves with integrated fingerless gloves, all capped off with a large, voluminous red scarf. Red Hood knew that she was a very pretty girl, had a style she was clearly proud of, and wanted everyone to know it.

"Well, the horns are just dressed-up antennas, to extend the effective range of communications. Not that she cared about that. She had them installed so she could make jokes about being a 'horny red devil' to everyone constantly, which, somehow, Rapunzel never picked up on even as Red Hood actively exposed her to degeneracy…" rubbing his heavily stubbled chin, Andersen answered easily enough.

…Joe really struggled to imagine Rapi cracking jokes like that, but he supposed it was what it was…

"As for the hair and eyes? Red Hood was a natural blonde, for starters," Andersen continued. "The ruby red eyes are what they'd look like normally too… her hair was literally aglow most of the time because she refused to close the throttle on her 'super mode,' I think it was called 'Exceed' or something like that. Hair burned red, eyes glowed gold. It was a shockingly successful attempt to allow a Nikke to perform nearly on-par with Liliweiss without the constant associated wear the first of the Nikkes experienced just… living. Liliweiss didn't have the safeties and limiters the Grimms had been built with in response to how taxing the upkeep on her body was, effectively overclocked and red-lined 24/7 as she was."

"...Why did Red Hood refuse to shut off her super mode?" Joe asked, almost fearing the answer.

"Every time someone asked, she'd just respond by…" bringing his hands up to his face in exasperation, Andersen continued, audibly pained, "declaring: 'Because I'm s-s-s-smokin' hot!' Followed by licking her finger and pressing it to her scalp and pantomiming a hiss with her mouth, then giving everyone in the room that damned ear-to-ear shit-eating grin of hers…"

…What a fucking goon, and Joe pointedly kept his comment about how much he liked that to himself because he didn't need to affirm the allegations about him being made more of a dumbass than usual by Red Hood right to Andersen's face this soon after hearing about her. "If she just kept it on all the time… wouldn't that be hard on her body?"

"She only just opened the throttle enough to trigger the red hair and glowing eyes, and had a degree of fine control over her power that Liliweiss never did," Andersen elucidated. "She was basically doing the equivalent of revving the engine in neutral, while Liliweiss was actually peeling out at a full-tilt in a barely controlled burnout even when she should have been idling, as it were. Being the first had its drawbacks, as you might imagine."

To say the fucking least… "So… can Rapi still do that?" Joe asked, because that seemed really important to address.

"Yes, but she absolutely should not unless it's a life-or-death situation," Andersen very, very forcefully declared, leaning forward in his chair as he did so. "The Ark's technical prowess has, to be blunt, regressed to the point of having absolutely no idea of how to properly maintain Rapi's body. Even her absurdly durable integral armour which you've seen for yourself is beyond the brainless nincompoops in the Central Government. Elysion has tried to reverse-engineer her systems and body, to disastrous results, given what happened when that thankfully anonymised data was shared with Missilis and produced Guilt-," Andersen forcefully shook his head, grit his teeth, and looked as though he was fighting back the urge to spit on the floor in disdain. "But, to no avail. Rapi's functioning at a small fraction of the power her core can actually output, because her body hasn't been properly maintained in many, many decades. She could open the throttle easily, that function is still open and available to her. The issue is that she'd basically be doing the equivalent of firing a Nikke-grade bullet through a human-grade rifle at this point. Her body couldn't handle it, not for more than maybe a few minutes with expected long-term and likely irreversible damage, at least."

…Well, good lord. "...Is this something I should bring up with her…?"

"Don't," Andersen pointedly shook his head. "Rapi… she knows that she's Red Hood, but she doesn't know who Red Hood is. Her past, what she's done and did, all lost to her. And it's best that she not have that information put on her at this point either. Doing so could… induce a Mind Switch. I hope I don't need to explain why that would be a bad thing."

Joe had gone over Mind Switches during his time with Marian. Nikkes could basically undergo Cyberpsychosis from Cyberpunk under the right circumstances, and it had the potential to be every bit as horrific as that suggested. And even when it didn't cause a Nikke to go violently insane… it would more often than not effectively cause personality death along with a high likelihood of a complete loss of memory. Reset to a blank slate, functionally as a completely different person. Just another kind of death, and a mortifying kind of birth from the ashes of the girl's former self that might as well no longer exist anymore.

If there was a fraction of a chance that confronting Rapi with this information could cause her to go through that, then it was off the fucking table, full-stop. Just… let sleeping dogs lay when they may. "I understand. I won't mention any of this to Rapi." But… now that the topic had been brought to mind, considering how Red Hood sounded like a totally different person apart from Rapi… "By the sounds of it… she's already survived a Mind Switch before, hasn't she?"

"Yes," Andersen replied, visibly crestfallen by the fact. "She has."

The two fell silent for a time, Joe musing on this horrible information bomb, Andersen thinking on the past with melancholy, and how close, yet so terribly far away a trusted comrade had been this entire time, looking at him like a total stranger whenever they'd interact…

Noticing one last photo, Joe drew it as he set the rest down to focus upon it - and felt everything he had upon setting eyes on Rapunzel, but redoubled. "...Uh," he started, looking at the image of yet another likely, strikingly curvaceous Nikke, a single ice-blue eye gazing downright sweetly up at him from a seated position past long bangs which hid her right eye, a hauntingly beautiful, anxiously eager smile forever captured in a perfect moment in time. "W-who's the silver-haired girl with the twintails?" Holy shit, she was the prettiest one out of the lot, and that was saying something.

Andersen didn't reply immediately to that. In fact, he looked like he'd just been told that a family member had died, slumping in his seat, eyes becoming incredibly downcast, and took a long minute to reply. "...Cinderella can wait for another day," he said, voice audibly straining for the first time since Joe had met him.

Joe could be a massive horse's ass, and was, in fact, generally kind of an ass at a baseline, when not pressed to be on his best behaviour and hold himself to a higher standard on account of circumstances. But he wasn't stupid. A damned fool at times, yes, but not stupid. Thus, he dropped the clear and obvious extremely sore spot without another word on the matter, regardless of how terribly his curiosity was stoked on the matter of this 'Cinderella.'

Instead, he shifted back to another obvious topic that had to be addressed. "...Snow White. My encounter with her. What do we do about this? What should we expect?"

At the very least, that seemed to bring Andersen back up to full power, the man immediately latching onto the question and addressing it with as much firm militaristic professionalism as he typically did. "This means that Snow White is in fact one of the Pilgrims we've received scattered reports of existing on the surface, operating independently of the Ark. If she's out there, still as strong as she ever was… it means that the other surviving members of Goddess might well be counted among the Pilgrims." He paused, noticing the quirked eyebrow Joe was wearing. "...Ah, Pilgrims are Nikkes with no apparent connection to the Ark, living on the surface. I always had my suspicions, but… it's good to know that at least the White Reaper is still raising Hell up there. Otherwise… if nothing else, it means that she is going to come looking for you. You… you and Red Hood would have been thought lost to them, and she'll want answers."

"...And what would those answers be, Andersen?" Joe pointedly asked. "Why were us three, you, me, and Red Hood present in the Ark, while the rest of Goddess have apparently been on the surface this entire time, thinking us dead?"

Andersen opened his mouth, only to have his watch start loudly beeping, eliciting a curse from him. "Damn it, got too wrapped up in the nostalgia bait… I'm out of time here, I put off an important meeting and have to return to the Ark before I run the risk of pissing off the Central Government brass and drawing eyes we do not want on us." Standing, he adjusted his uniform to make sure everything was in order, and with a nod, reached out and grabbed the pictures of Liliweiss specifically, depositing them into a spare envelope he'd evidently had on him… then he reached back out, for the picture of Cinderella. But he halted mid-reach, expression unreadable.

After an awkward moment of silence, Joe started moving to hand the photo to his commanding officer, only for Andersen to sharply retract his hand entirely, shaking his head at the motion. "No," he said, voice again taking on a strained edge. "...No. She'd have… she'd have wanted you to have at least one nice picture of her."

…Well Christ alive that statement carried all sorts of implications Joe couldn't even begin to sort out. Nor did Andersen give him the chance to even start, pointing at a seemingly random floor tile. "There's a hidden safe under that false tile. Tie its lock to your biometrics, and do not let anyone else see these. As soon as I have more time, we'll meet again to continue discussing these matters. But, until then, before I go…" he took a deep, bracing breath. "Either Chatterbox knew who you were because the Raptures simply never forgot you, or, more worryingly, this relates back to the matter of how, exactly, Marian was Corrupted from within the Ark itself."

It felt like a hot iron zipped up Joe's spine, and it took everything he had to not demand more information.

"For now, recuperate and ready yourselves for more deployments to the surface. Counters is, after all, still a member of the Ark's military, and there's no rest for the wicked on this bitch of an Earth." With that, Andersen set his cap back on his head, nodded to Joe, and departed with the pictures of Liliweiss in tow, leaving the rest with the displaced Canadian… including the picture of Cinderella, the currently most mysterious member of Goddess, maybe? What exactly was her relationship to both Andersen and Joe, for the Deputy Chief to react the way he did to the discussion even beginning to move onto her? And the matter of Snow White being expected to be looking for him and Rapi now… and the implications behind the notion that Marian's corruption may have tied into Chatterbox's knowledge of Joe…

The apparently Legendary Commander was deeply frustrated by the realization that this talk with Andersen had wound up leaving him with far more pressing questions than those he'd had answered. "Man, fuck this cloak-and-dagger cyberpunk conspiracy dystopia bullshit..."

---

Marching forth through the untamed no-man's-land of the surface with a purpose, the wind causing her long, silvery locks to whip to-and-fro with wild abandon, Snow White dead-focused on her target as though nothing else in all the world mattered. Not Chatterbox, not right now. The wretched, vile, lowly creature had managed to evade her punishing grasp, and for as terribly as she'd love to strangle and crush and rip and tear every last fragment of life from that abomination, it was nearing that time of the month. The time when the remaining members of Goddess convened to discuss what they'd found, what had happened, what they'd done since their last meeting the month previously.

The Commander and Red Hood were alive. They were alive, they were alive, and serving the Ark. Why? Under what pretenses? Were they being coerced? Were they willing servants to those that had betrayed them so callously all those years ago during Operation Ark Guardian? Why did the Commander seem so… shocked to see her? As though he couldn't believe his eyes? As though… he were seeing a ghost?

Questions. Questions with no answers, not yet. But answers they would receive. Pioneer squad walked this forsaken Earth in honour of those long lost - those thought long lost. Their Commander, their sister… both were there, and in her unhinged wrath, Snow White had made the mistake of letting them slip away, of letting herself lose them in favour of unleashing all of her fury upon the writhing Tyrant when she should have driven it off, and returned to the Commander's side, where she belonged, where they all belonged…

Once again, once more, she had failed him. Once more, the Commander was there, he was right there, and she just… let him go. Let him march into the maws of the beast, did nothing, did the wrong thing, and for so many decades, he was lost to them. Yet… Red Hood, she was there, she was protecting him, despite how things had been between them last they'd been together at the Ark's main entrance, she was shielding their Commander she professed to detest so much.

But, now she knew. Now the rest of Pioneer would know too. They were alive. They were active, they were operating on the surface - that meant they could track them down, find them, and… Save them? Or interrogate them? She supposed that it depended on the answer they received from their old comrades, from the man they all cherished so much, from the sister they'd all thought lost to the cruel malaise of her mysterious, unseen departure, her closing chapter forever unknown to them…

Idly, she wondered: if Joe and Red Hood were alive, if perhaps Andersen might be as well. Perhaps such a thought, a hope, was gluttonous greed in its purest form. A miracle had presented itself to her once already - to hope for the impossible beyond that, she might as well pray that Liliweiss herself would in turn step out from behind the tree she was about to pass, right as rain, ready and raring to bring the fight to the Rapture Queen, as though nothing had happened all those terrible years ago…

Questions. Questions upon questions upon questions - they would need to formulate a plan, get to their Commander and sister, and, if need be, rescue them. Their Commander, their sister, they'd found their way back home... and Snow White dared to doubt them. No, never. Never again, never again would she fail them. She knew them. She trusted them. Their Commander would need them, Joe needed them. This entire time, once, and now again... Red Hood, for how long had she shouldered this burden alone?

No more. Never again. They'd bring their family back home. Once again, they'd be made whole.

"Wait for me, Commander," Snow White said, projecting her voice forth and into the wildness unheeded, her gaze steely and unbreaking, free hand intensely gripping the hilt of one of the blades he'd left with her - the promise - the tools that he had her promise to cherish, until the day came that he returned to reclaim them. her purpose renewed. "I'll be right there. So... just wait for me. I'll be right there."

But, in the midst of the storm of thoughts and emotions that raged in her mind, one thought in particular shone more brightly than any other. A declaration which, so many long years ago, had cost them their leader, had driven Dorothy to the wretched depths she had sunk to.

Why?

Why had Oswald lied to them?

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 28 - Blood in the Water
===

The following day, Joe was woken up by an alert from his phone, and checking it revealed a message from-

[How much?]

Syuen.

That caused the Commander's brow to furrow heavily, to which he replied, [What?]

[How much is she paying you?] Syuen elucidated. [I'll double it.]

Joe paused, blinked, then his brain kicked back into high gear and at once, he was immediately done with this day. Without missing a beat, he sent a message to Ingrid instead of replying to the CEO of Missilis. [Syuen is trying to poach me from you.]

Several moments passed before he got a reply. [Of course the little dumbass is. Wardress apparently gave you a glowing review, attributed driving Chatterbox off to your command instead of reporting on the intervention of the Pilgrim. She tried to buy your 'contract' off of me directly, and I told her to shove it. Tell her off however you see fit.]

Well then…

[I looked into the squad they have assigned to you,] Syuen continued messaging Joe, eliciting a roll of his eyes. ['Counters,' a rag-tag mish-mash of Nikkes from different manufacturers, one of which is an Absolute has-been, some no-name never-will-be fresh out of Elysion boot camp, and a Tetra Line fashion model reject, of all things? Don't you think that's a bit beneath you? With simulation scores and a deployment record like yours, Ingrid can't even have the decency to give you command of Absolute? I think that's pretty insulting. I'll give you limited command of Matis, the best the Ark as to offer. You think you're toppling Tyrants now? Just imagine if you had the might of Matis backing you! You'd be rich and famous in weeks!]

Instead of replying, Joe just set the phone down, rolled over, and growled at the ceiling. Not even because of Syuen, but because mornings should go explode forever.

Eventually, he clambered out of bed and went about the process of getting dressed, checking his phone, then setting it right back down every time he saw it was another message from Syuen.

[Hey! Answer me! I'm a busy woman, you know!]

[Do you have any idea how lucky you are to have me extending this offer to you directly?]

[I know you're reading these! I can see the 'message read' indicator on my end! You'd better not DARE leave me on read you little-]

Silencing his phone, Joe proceeded downstairs for breakfast.

---

"So," a new, prideful and haughty girly voice called out as Joe finally reached the bottom of the stairs, having decided that the exercise of climbing and descending them would be better for his health in the long term. "This is the 'amazing' new Commander I've heard so much about?"

By all the blessings of sweet baby Buddha, Joe was grateful that he had been holding onto the stairwell's guardrail when he looked up and noticed the young woman standing in the hallway of the Command Centre's ground floor. She seemed to be bracing against some unseen force, arms crossed beneath her modestly well-endowed chest. Long, shapely legs spread wide, anchoring her to the ground as though expecting to meet resistance where she stood.

Several things had run through Joe's mind when he laid eyes on the new girl - first and foremost at a glance was 'Hatsune Miku!?'

Second, was Christ alive, she's fucking gorgeous. That pose, that posture, the cocky grin on her face…

Absurdly long pale blue hair was tied up in a pair of high, silken twintails that ended in glamorous drilled curls which reached her knees. That hair framed a pair of large, expressive golden eyes which themselves were bordered with thick, perfectly tailored eyelashes that emphasized the great amount of care she put into her looks. A fair, soft face gently tapered down into a dainty chin, and atop her crown rested a white and black military cap accentuated with gold.

Her full-sleeved one-piece bodysuit was much the same - tightly hugging her figure, the stark whites, blacks, and golds created the impression of a naval uniform - though, most naval uniforms didn't tend to terminate mid-way down the upper thigh, strategically leaving a good four inches of exposed and skin with visible squish between the uniform's integrated shorts and the zip-up oily black leather thigh-high boots with what had to be four-fucking-inch heels. Startlingly, strikingly, gloriously, despite wearing absurd four-inch heels… she had to be three inches shorter than an already teeny-tiny Rapi. Joe would be able to easily rest his chin atop her crown, if he so chose. In fact, if she went barefoot, he'd have to squat to do so!

And her midsection, Jesus fucking Christ, why were so many of the girls Joe met in this world so damned curvaceous?

She was about- or, no, she was literally one step away from being his platonic ideal of a woman, at least in terms of looks, Joe had to admit.

Needless to say, given that he was kind of a dumbass, after getting a good look at her, he just wound up standing there staring for way longer than was probably acceptable. Which made it all the stranger when it occurred to him that she wasn't saying anything either… In fact. She seemed to have the same, exact expression on her face that he did. Staring right back at him, just as dumbly wide-eyed.

Surprisingly, it was Joe that wound up breaking the stalemate. "U-uh…" he started like a total goon.

"P-Privaty!" with a jump, the twin-tailed beauty sharply cried out, eyes somehow widening even further beyond the point they had been. "R-representing Triangle!"

Triangle, and… "Ah, I've heard of you," Joe started, to which Privaty immediately started preening.

"Of course you have!" she declared, gorgeously flipping her hair like a proper anime noblewoman. "Everyone has heard of Triangle. It's difficult to not have heard of the best of the best! And Triangle makes the best look like a mere runner-up!"

…Damn it, overconfidence was cute. "EG mentioned that you had her taking notes on us," Joe noted. "Decided to come and check out the competition yourself, huh?"

"'Competition?'" Privaty looked almost offended, narrowing her eyes at Joe in an accusatory manner. "What 'competition?' What's there to compete with?"

"Rapi?" Joe remarked, crossing his arms and leaning against the landing wall. He remembered EG's unspoken assertion that Privaty apparently had beef with his squad mate.

At that, Privaty pursed her lips, furrowed her brow, and after a moment sharply upturned her nose at the notion. "Rapi may be impressive, but I'm more impressive. The score is tilted in my favour, as is only natural! I'm a full ten points ahead!" She declared with supreme confidence.

Somehow, that only caused Joe to feel as though it was actually Rapi that was winning their apparent competition by a fair amount. "That so?" he asked, admittedly amused by her posturing, if only because of how… cartoonish it came across. She was trying way too hard, but in a way that struck him as more endearing than annoying. Might that have been because she was pushing like, literally all of his buttons? Maybe. Joe had never claimed to be above being influenced by the looks of girls - he was just quick to get over their looks if they were unpleasant bitches, Eunhwa. "So, if you're not here to scope out Rapi's new squad… actually, right, it sounded like you were here for me, right?"

"A-as if!" Privaty… blushed, suddenly looking the part of a cornered rabbit as she recoiled back a step. "W-why would I be interested in you!?"

"So… you're here for Rapi, then?" Joe pressed, detecting blood in the water and wondering if she was teasable.

"W-why would I be here for Rapi? She's second-rate compared to me! I have no reason to feel inferior to her!" Privaty blatantly lied, also showing her hand despite Joe having made no comment suggesting that she would have reason to feel inferior to Rapi in the first place.

Blood and panicked splashing at that. "So… if you aren't here for 'the amazing new Commander you've heard so much about,' and you're not here to check out the squad, or even Rapi… what brings you to our humble outpost? Sightseeing?"

"That's right!" Privaty quite transparently leapt on the first excuse she was presented. "Just… seeing the sights!"

She went quiet at that, and Joe let that quiet percolate for a few moments. He milked the silence, as Privaty looked visibly uncertain, even increasingly worried. Once he'd given her some time to sweat… "So you're really interested in construction, then?" he asked. "Since there's literally nothing else going on around here. No entertainment, no shopping, not even public utilities…"

At once, Privaty was back to looking the part of the cornered bunny. Glancing around in shock and horror, she glowered angrily at him, her cute little button features scrunching up in frustration. "Well, more interesting than you! Like I'd come here just to meet you or anything like that!"

Oh lord, she was making this entirely too easy. "Really? That's a shame, since you're doing a real good job of making me interested in you…" Joe declared, giving her a mildly hurt look.

"W-wha…?" the bluenette looked visibly shocked, wavering and staring wide-eyed at the Commander. "W-what the hell are you talking about!?" she panic-shouted through a rapidly rising blush, the corners of her mouth twinging upwards ever so slightly, which she tried to hide by spinning in place and turning her back to him. "L-like I care! Who even says something like that to someone they've just met!? What are you, some sort of wannabe player? Don't get cocky just because you're some hotshot commander with a reputation for being nice and handsome to Nikkes!"

DON'T STARE, DON'T STARE, DON'T STARE, FOR THE LOVE OF CHRIST DO NOT STARE.

To Joe's delight horror, it turned out that Privaty… Yeah, no, it turned out she was actually his platonic physical ideal of a woman. To not dwell too much on it, her posterior was flawless, and his eyes were in open revolt and rebellion against his commands to not stare.

"And here I came here to touch base with the rising star of the Outpost and find out what sort of Commander that problem Nikke Rapi got herself attached to…" Privaty shook her head, cupping her cheeks as she basically went and word vomited, completely ignorant to just how much spaghetti Joe had started spilling all over her heels the moment she'd presented her backside to him. "Y-you think you're h-hot shit!? Like I'm even impressed or intrigued! What a waste of my time! There isn't even anything impressive around here to do or look at or talk to! Hmph!" She upturned her nose at the open air in front of her again, declaring: "There's clearly nothing of worth here for me to do or whatever! I'm going! And I'm never coming back! Like there's anything worth coming back for anyways!"

Once again, she huffed, immediately moving for the front doors of the building, while Joe's crude and rebellious eyes refused to move from her backside, watching her power-walk the entire way out. He couldn't help but dwell on how she even walked pretty.

Just as the double doors automatically slid open for her, Privaty suddenly stopped just short of crossing the threshold into the street. The pause, mercifully, was enough to shake Joe's focus and let him tear his eyes from her rump… which allowed him to notice that she wasn't wearing a peaked officer's hat, but rather a visor, of all things.

What kind of military distributed military-themed visors to their elite counter-terrorism operatives?

As Joe watched her stand there for a few moments, Privaty peeked back over her shoulder as though attempting to steal a glance at... something, face still beet red and bearing one hell of a nervous pout - which snapped into wide-eyed, open horror upon noticing that he still had eyes on her.

Privaty, at that, seemingly reflexively cried out, "What're you looking at!?" Starkly embarrassed by his gaze.

"You," Joe matter-of-factually replied, owlishly blinking as he spoke without thinking.

While a blush threatened to emerge on his face at the revelation of just how smitten with this idiot woman he'd rapidly become… her blush redoubled, and Joe wondered if she just might start to whistle like a kettle from the attention. "D-don't get the wrong idea! It's not like I'm interested in you or anything, jerk!"

Then she bolted out of the building, leaving a dumbstruck Joe staring after her. Then, over the course of several long moments, he slowly lowered himself onto the stairs, sitting down, then lowered himself yet further onto his back - now staring up at the plain concrete ceiling as he did his level best to recentre himself and recover.

Holy shit, that was not what he was expecting first thing in the morning. Privaty… she was certainly gorgeous, strikingly so, but… was she a Nikke? Probably, given how ridiculously pretty she was, but he didn't actually know, considering how remarkably little information had actually been imparted between them as they'd instead engaged in pure dumbass-to-dumbass communication. Just…

The burly man took a breath. He didn't expect the gut punch of interacting with her as he had. Which had been, actually, thinking about it… genuinely fun, if embarrassing. Joe could tell that she was a fellow idiot already, and found himself low-key genuinely hoping that she'd wind up being a common sight around the Outpost, especially as it was gradually built up over time.

"...But god damn is she pretty," the rookie Commander all but whined into the uncaring roof. "Pretty little dumbass elite counter-terrorism agent… Dangerous, most dangerous…"

What a powerful little woman.

---

"Morning, Commander," Anis greeted Joe when he stepped into the dining area. She was working her way through a large bowl of what looked like off-brand Froot Loops, her phone propped up in front of her on its kickstand. "You look beat. Didn't sleep good?"

"Slept fine," the displaced Canadian replied as he popped open the cupboards and started sifting through the 'real' food they had on hand. Of course, everything was still made from Splendamin or Nutrium at the end of the day, but military rations were designed with longevity in mind over flavour. "Took the stairs to get down here… and also had to entertain our guest."

"Guest? We have a guest? It isn't Syuen, is it!?" the honey blonde immediately shifted into fight or flight mode.

"...Do you mean that blue-haired girl?" Neon spoke up, pausing from rapidly vacuuming up her dinosaur Nutrium nuggets. "I noticed her standing out there next to the entrance like, an hour ago. How long did you have to talk to her, Commander?"

That gave Joe pause. "...Like, three, maybe four minutes?" he blinked in confusion. "Hold on, are you saying she was milling about there for damn near an entire hour before I ran into her?"

"...Well, that's assuming she'd just arrived when I spotted her in there," Neon noted. "I didn't feel like talking before I had my dino nuggies, so I used my super spy skills to slip away without being seen!"

"...It took you nearly an hour to prepare dinosaur nuggets?" Joe asked, genuinely befuddled.

"I couldn't figure out how to turn on the oven!" Neon protested. "And Anis wouldn't help me either!"

"It was really funny watching her put her nuggets in the dishwasher first," Anis said with a shit-eating grin. "That being said, a microwave, toaster oven, or air frier would be nice to have here."

Shaking his head, Joe pulled back before Anis and Neon distracted him further. "-Anyways, Privaty was seriously just standing around in the foyer for at least an hour before I showed up?"

"Wait, Privaty? As in, the Princess of First Squad!?" Anis all but jumped in her seat. "What would she be doing here!? Is Neon being subpoenaed for being a spy or something!?"

"What!? Who squealed about me being a spy!?" Neon demanded, sounding genuinely taken aback and betrayed. "It was you, wasn't it, Anis? I knew there was something deceitful about you from day one!"

"Says the spy! The self-proclaimed spy that goes around constantly telling everyone she meets that she's a spy at that!" Anis countered harshly, glowering an aghast Neon's way. "But, uh, seriously, why was Privaty here? I can't imagine what a human would be doing hanging around the Outpost unless they had to…"

That caused Joe to blink owlishly. "Wait, she isn't a Nikke?" he asked, genuinely taken aback.

"...What- are you being serious right now?" Anis looked at him like he was stupid. "Nikkes aren't allowed to serve in high-ranking governmental positions. She's the second-in-command of Triangle. Plus, if she was a Nikke, what worth would she be to a counter-terrorism unit?"

"Triangle mostly winds up fighting humans; lethally." Neon added. "A Nikke wouldn't be able to contribute to operations against them, since the NIMPH would prevent them from trying to harm a human in the first place!"

"Yeah, what she said," Anis gestured Neon's way with a nod. "Seriously, why did you just assume that she was a Nikke?"

"...Uh, she's really, really pretty?" Joe answered, realizing how dumb that sounded now that he said it aloud. "I've, uh, kinda started just assuming that any unreasonably beautiful woman I meet is a Nikke…"

"...You assume that every beautiful woman you meet is a Nikke?" Anis repeated the declaration as she gave Joe just about the most dubious look he ever did see.

Neon, meanwhile, looked for a moment like she was doing advanced trigonometry in her head before piping up with an inquiry of her own. "Wait a minute... Did the Commander just call us 'unreasonably beautiful?'"

While Anis started, for lack of a better term, pogging at the suggestion, Joe immediately grabbed a Tetra Line ration and beat a hasty retreat to escape from the danger zone without uttering another word. Anis called out after him with a declaration of: "Coward! Face us!"

He saw little reason to subject himself to the embarrassment of Anis and Neon pressing him for details on that matter. Privaty had already (unintentionally) given him a mild heart attack and that was more than enough for one day so far as he was concerned.

Still though… curious as he was about the twintailed beauty, he supposed it would have to wait-

Joe jumped when his phone buzzed in his pocket - he must have just silenced Syuen's messages in particular, and upon unlocking it he had found… several hundred new alerts from the pint-sized CEO, many of which were displayed as [MESSAGE REDACTED FOR EXCESSIVELY CRUDE LANGUAGE], along with one from a new contact.

[YOU DIDN'T EVEN INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO ME YOU JERK!] Privaty all-caps'd at him with the white-hot fury of a thousand burning suns. [AFTER MAKING ME WAIT SO LONG TO MEET YOU TOO! I HAD TO GET YOUR CONTACT INFO FROM INGRID! AND YOU CALL YOURSELF A GENTLEMAN COMMANDER!?]

Joe blinked dumbly. Did… did she just admit in all-caps that she'd been waiting in the foyer specifically to meet him after making a point to deny having been there for him to begin with? [I thought you weren't here for me.] he replied matter-of-factually.

For like, three minutes 'Privaty is typing…' periodically appeared and disappeared for long periods between each other, though nothing was actually sent.

Now ascending the stairs leading back up to his room, Joe blinked and realized something. [Oh, and Commander Joseph Pholus. Most people just call me Joe. Sorry for not introducing myself properly earlier, I really wasn't expecting someone famous to show up at the Outpost like that.] He gave her an excuse. Halfway expecting her to blow him off regardless, given how temperamental she seemed to be-

[Well I suppose I can hardly hold that against you,] she immediately replied without missing a beat. [But you'd better be more respectful next time I take time out of my day to go and see you!]

After a few moments, Joe once again replied, [So you were here specifically because you wanted to meet me, then? And I thought you said you were never coming back here again.]

Two minutes of 'Privaty is typing…' later, and Joe rolled his eyes, though with no small amount of endeared amusement. This really isn't what he'd been expecting out of what he'd understood to be basically the local equivalent of Rainbow Six's ace. But he certainly appreciated her vibes, if nothing else.

[Are you always this frustrating to deal with!?] she eventually demanded. [I was expecting like, a big teddy bear or something going off of what I was told about you!]

[Is that a roundabout way of asking me for a hug?] Joe had to immediately ask, since she set up and ran face first right into that wall herself anyways.

'Privaty is typing…'

Joe wasn't entirely sure why she, of all people, seemed interested in him, but hey, if being in contact with her would be this entertaining all the time, he wasn't about to complain.

At least the day seemed to be starting a lot better than he thought it had been, if nothing else.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 29 - Beneath the Mask
===

For once, there didn't seem to be anything immediately pressing to tend to. So, once Joe had finished his breakfast and Privaty had to stop messaging him to work ([I'm not talking to you ever again, you heartless jerk!]) , he turtled up in his Command Centre suite at his computer. While he'd have liked to do something altogether self-centred, if not self-indulgent like spending his free time playing video games, it would be far and away better if he spent his time researching new equipment to replace and supplement what was used against Chatterbox.

A few hours into that, the door to the room slid open, revealing a heretofore unaccounted for Rapi. "Commander," she began as she stepped inside. "Ingrid instructed me to inform you that the iDolls Mustang arranged to be assigned to Counters will arrive by the end of the day."

Rapi spoke to Joe. Her words were clear and concise. She talked as plainly as a woman possibly could. This should help establish just how significant it was that Joe heard not a word she uttered, staring blankly at her like a starstruck baboon.

It was one thing to see somewhat blurry old photos, her hair and eyes literally aglow with an unnatural light as Red Hood, dressed so absurdly boldly and wearing such exaggerated expressions that she simply didn't look like the same person. It was another thing entirely to see Rapi stride in, face entirely bereft of makeup in person. It was… like night and day. Where every time Joe had set eyes on her before, the sight of the little Nikke had triggered an uncanny valley effect which had given him no small amount of unsettled pause, given how she looked like a literal person-sized porcelain doll which was up and walking about. It did a lot to distract one from Rapi's… various assets.

Now? Though she was still strikingly curvaceous - even while not landing in the absurd extremes of say, Emma, or even Anis, with her face no longer caked in starkly distracting amounts of garish makeup - Rapi was, to be as classy as was possible for a smitten dumbass, a walking testament to the mantra of 'medium is premium.'

Grumpy. Pretty. Grumpy-pretty, she had such a pretty little grumpy frown plastered on a decidedly feminine, mature face. Though her features were soft, there was a sharp, womanly aspect to her countenance that sharply contrasted with Privaty's more wide-eyed, youthful visage.

Though there was a degree of a cold, distant harshness in her almost withering gaze, Rapi was a striking natural beauty. Her eyelashes, previously overdone, were now naturally perfectly formed without any manner of overt adornment. Her almond-shaped ruby eyes, like lightly glowing embers which yet sparkled like diamonds, seemed to pierce the Commander's soul from across the room…

Holy mother of all that is good and holy, Rapi was drop-dead gorgeous.

Two jaw-dropping beauties in one day, damn near back-to-back. It was almost too much for the Commander's delicate sensibilities to handle. In fact, one could easily argue that it was too much, given how he'd all but blue-screened and, aside from staring… "...Beautiful…" he all but whimpered in dumbstruck, smitten awe, very clearly failing to notice that he'd spoken that aloud.

Joe wasn't sure how long he had gone and stared. But eventually, some distant part of his brain cried out and fought to be released from this prison it had been trapped in. Crying out for freedom, to be released from the tyranny of hormones and to stop leering at a visibly uncomfortable Rapi.

With a jump and something damn near approximating a yelp, Joe actually smacked himself and let out a wheeze. He all but launched to his feet, declaring: "I-I apologize! I'm afraid I didn't catch that, could you please repeat what you said, Rapi?" he asked, wide-eyed and doubtlessly blushing like the complete nincompoop that he demonstrably was.

"...Ingrid asked me to tell you that the iDolls you requisitioned from Mustang should be arriving by the end of the day," the black-bedecked Nikke reiterated her earlier point. "I came straight here without stopping to… re-outfit myself first." She reached up and the tips of her gloved fingers lightly brushed against one of her bare, beautifully naturalistic cheeks bearing all the hallmarks of a woman's skin - the micro imperfections that only served to highlight her own individual character a flawless doll simply lacked. Yet, she was visibly self-conscious about her strikingly apparent lack of makeup, however.

Though Joe was, honestly, a little upset by the notion that Rapi lacked the self-confidence to go bare-faced, she was trying to be professional about delivering him an official message. So he'd damn well get his shit together and behave respectfully.

After taking a moment to recentre himself, he mused on how it certainly took long enough to have their new forces actually assigned to them. But, bureaucratic incompetence seemed to be the Central Government's bread and butter, so Joe couldn't say that he was all that surprised. "Okay, great, fantastic," he remarked as he clapped his hands, stepping around the desk to face Rapi more properly. "I suppose you've been at Elysion HQ since yesterday, then?" he asked, given that the little strawberry blonde was missing since they'd landed back at the Ark.

"Undergoing… special maintenance, yes," she answered him, eyes drifting aside suspiciously for but an instant. "There are no lasting damages to report from our encounter with Chatterbox. I will be ready and able to be deployed the next time we must sortie on an operation."

As per usual, she was attempting to be unfailingly professional, all business. While Joe understood where she was coming from, he still didn't exactly want Rapi making such a conscious effort to hold him at arm's length. Especially since…

Looking at her, long and hard… with the heavy makeup gone, he could see quite plainly that this was indeed Red Hood - a former friend, which Andersen had provided a startling amount of evidence of the night previous.

While Joe believed Andersen when he'd warned the so-called Legendary Commander that there was a possibility of Rapi experiencing a Mind Switch if she was confronted over that fact… What had happened had to be addressed. Rapi was standing right in front of him when Snow White recognized both of them, and declared as much aloud. Doubly so considering that Rapi must have also heard Joe address Snow White as he had too.

As convenient as it would be if he could just… not address that, Rapi wasn't stupid, and he didn't want to blatantly disrespect her like that. So, as awkward as it could wind up getting… "Rapi…" he trailed off, wondering how exactly he'd-

"...I don't know how that Pilgrim recognized me, Commander," she seemed to predict, at least to an extent, what he intended to ask. Her gaze was diverted, making a point to not make eye contact with him now.

There was a beat as Joe waited, and got nothing more.

"...Um," the rookie Commander rubbed at his beard- God damn, he'd let his whiskers get away from him, hadn't he? Nearly had a full moustache at this point. He should go and shave after this. But, to not lose focus…

"Or-" Rapi started up again, visibly uncertain, internally debating with herself as she hesitated heavily. "Or… I met her at some point prior to my Mind Switch."

…Oh. Well. Joe hadn't been expecting her to reveal this much to him, that she knew she'd previously experienced a Mind Switch…

"If that's the case, Commander, then there's nothing more that I can tell you," Rapi continued. still not quite meeting his gaze. "I don't have any memories of my life from before. She might have known me from before. But I'm not that person anymore. I don't know her."

…That, was a fucking heartbreaking statement to hear someone so earnestly and bluntly say in person, right to you. Doubly so when you knew that… you should have been someone they'd recognize as well.

What a horrible affliction.

Rapi, at that, remained silent.

…

She kept her eyes off of him, and the air was rapidly growing incredibly uncomfortable.

It was likely that she was avoiding bringing up the matter of… well, the fact that Snow White had recognized him first, and even actually said his name aloud.

Joe didn't much care for the thought of Rapi being so closed off. It wasn't common for Nikkes and Commanders to remain in constant contact like this, or even for Commanders to treat the Nikkes under their command well at all, but… "Rapi," he started. "I understand if you're still uncomfortable around me. Most Commanders aren't like me, most would take offence to you speaking your mind or opening up about much of anything. But we're permanently assigned to each other, and so far, you've given me no reason to not respect and trust you. I hope that, even if you aren't there yet, you'll be able to trust me enough to know that you can ask me anything someday soon."

At that, silence once more reigned between them.

After a few long moments, however, Rapi gradually met his gaze, a deeply forlorn expression on her features. "Commander," she started warily. "You are kind. Shockingly, unreasonably so. But I… I don't think you would be, if you actually knew me. Who I am, what I've done… Your kindness is wasted on… something as broken as I am." One more, her gaze was averted, shame writ large on her features. "You should spend it on the others… not misallocate it to me."

All the while, Joe did his level best to not lose his temper upon hearing Rapi refer to herself using such deliberately dehumanizing language. "...No," he firmly declared, rejecting the notion out of hand. "Give me cause, a good fucking reason, and only then will I even begin to consider writing you off - and even then, only if whatever crime you've apparently committed is truly something worthy of damnation."

Rapi looked tired. At that, she looked truly and terribly tired. Suddenly, she appeared a woman more than twice her apparent age, seemingly outright refusing to look in Joe's direction now. She didn't reply at first, just letting out a singular, full-body sigh. When she did eventually reply… "I killed a human," she stated with a bone-deep resignation.

Once more, a long quiet followed. Once it became clear that Rapi thought that was enough… "Elaborate," Joe outright commanded her.

Eyes snapping to him, Rapi looked dumbstruck, confused, and somewhat offended, even. "...What?"

"Context. Matters." Joe very forcefully, albeit slowly declared. "So elaborate."

She seemed unsettled, but, eventually, turned aside, seeming to stare out the window overlooking the Outpost as she did so. "...It was back when I was still with Absolute. We were in a firefight. In order to clear out hostiles, I threw a grenade… the explosion threw a person back. A human that had been blown in half from the waist-down by the explosive I'd tossed. They were still alive, made eye contact with me. They were in shock, but I could still make out the terror, confusion, the pleading glint in their eyes, before they just… died. And I didn't care."

That… actually caught Joe off-guard. Yet…

"I was just annoyed," Rapi continued, pointedly not looking Joe's way. "'I'm going to have to write up an entire report about this.' That, that is what went through my mind as I watched that person die, as that person looked into my eyes, as I watched the life fade from their face. Not… horror. Not guilt. Annoyance, because I felt like it would be a waste of my time to have to write up a report on this… murder I'd committed." She fell into something barely registering as a whisper. "That's… that's when I realized that I'm broken. That there's something fundamentally wrong with me. People… even humans shouldn't think like that, and that is anathema to what a Nikke should be. We exist to serve humans, to protect them, to fight for them and their future. We shouldn't even be capable of considering harming a human, and yet, when I killed one, I… I felt no shame. I felt no regret, no guilt. Just… annoyance."

She went quiet for several long moments, looking like she wanted to cry, but couldn't.

Joe was no mental health expert, but he knew exactly what he was looking at. "How long have you been serving? Before, with, and after Absolute," he asked.

That visibly disquieted Rapi. It wasn't the reply she'd been expecting, and she didn't like it, that much was clear. "...Too long," was all she said in response.

"And you haven't spoken to anybody about any of this," Joe stated, because he, again, had figured out where the pieces were falling into place. "You've quietly shouldered your burden, kept your mouth shut, and did what you were told this entire time. Am I right?"

"...Yes," Rapi answered matter-of-factually.

"So you've spent all this time," Joe continued. "As a Nikke of demonstrably higher calibre than most, being doubtlessly given mankind's greatest and most daunting battles, for years upon years upon years, just soldiering on, never saying anything, never asking for anything in return."

"...That is what it means to be a Nikke," she said, as if attempting to justify something to herself.

"Meaning that you've been bearing a burden greater than what even most other Nikkes would experience because of your capabilities. Unending combat. Rarely, if ever resting. Fighting, fighting without end. Against the greatest threat that has ever existed on planet Earth, always forced to be ready to fling yourself into what could be the last battle you ever fight."

Rapi did not respond. She'd weakly crossed her arms over her waist, almost daintily holding onto her own forearms. That wasn't a sign of defiance or stubbornness. That was an unconscious attempt at a self-hug. She was trying to comfort herself.

"Rapi. All throughout history, soldiers that have gone through less than you have developed worse coping mechanisms to deal with the stresses associated with combat. Blunted empathy… it's more common than you probably think it is-"

"So you're saying that it's normal that I didn't care when I killed a human!?" She snapped at him, almost snarling as she glowered openly.

"No," he firmly replied. "It's tragically unsurprising that the weight of your actions didn't hit you as it should have, when it should have. Being forced to fight for so long, being put in a combatant's mindset for so long, without support… that's what happens, Rapi. People cannot handle that. Something has to give. If it hadn't been your empathy, it would have been something else. Maybe even your sanity. I understand that it doesn't feel right, that you feel like you must be broken and can't be fixed… but that's only because you've been isolated, and haven't seen that it's not necessarily a one-way road you've gone down."

The little Nikke had gone quiet again, now staring at the floor, she didn't reply immediately to that. "...I'm a monster, Commander," was the eventual reply she did provide, however. "The fact that you believe otherwise is evidence of that. All that makeup… did its job too well."

Joe's brow furrowed in confusion, he didn't quite know what to make of that. "...What do you mean by that?" he asked.

"I can see mirrors just fine," she declared. "I can see… how hollow my eyes are. How inhumanly blank my face is. I saw it with my own two eyes… That's why I tried to cover it up. To hide it. To stop everyone from recognizing what I myself do whenever I look in a mirror. I don't have a soul. It's so obvious that I'm just a killing machine, but I didn't want anyone else to realize it. And… it worked, it worked because you think there's a person to be helped here. Not a…" she reached up, and again, the tips of her gloved fingers brushed against her deceptively soft cheeks. "...A tool. A weapon."

That… certainly explained the terrifying makeup. Rapi was in such a terrible head space, that she started to see something horrible in her own reflection; something that wasn't reflected in reality. She'd been trying to cover it up, to hide her shame. It worked in the wrong way - Joe hadn't noticed until it was gone, just how wildly apparent it was that Rapi was in pain. She… it was like she was seeing the inverse of what was actually in the mirror, wasn't it? She saw that porcelain doll without the makeup, even though she was just another person bearing her unaddressed, outright ignored trauma.

Fucking hell, even in the future, soldiers were emotionally neglected and just allowed to gradually break instead of being given the help they needed. Same shit, different day. Goddamned worthless fucking governments, no matter the time or place.

"...I can't cry, Commander," Rapi declared. "No matter what, no matter how much I try, no matter how much I think about what I've done, what I'm supposed to be… I don't cry." Her voice trailed off quietly, even as another few large chunks of the puzzle slammed into place for Joe. "People… humans cry. They cry when they make mistakes. They cry when they hurt others. But I don't."

She was trying to convince him, and in so doing, receive validation. How long had she been dealing with this trauma, to be at the point where she struggled to let it go, to be at the point where she clung to it like a safety blanket, like she needed it?

"There was a time when I couldn't cry too, Rapi," Joe asserted. "When life had become so hard, that I too, had to become uncaring, develop an edge, a wall just to make it through. It took a long time, it took a good deal of painful self-reflection… but eventually, I broke down those walls I'd once built up to protect myself. It sucked. Every minute of it, but eventually, I managed it, and I let myself feel again. The evidence of those walls may still be present, even readily apparent at times… but they don't dictate how I behave, how I treat others. Not entirely. Not anymore."

Stepping over to her, Rapi leaned away, but she didn't outright move to create distance. Joe reached out, and gently set a hand on her shoulder.

"You're a Nikke. According to the Ark, you're supposed to be a hero, unbending, unbreaking against all odds and hardships. But, it doesn't matter if most of you has been replaced with steel. A monster wouldn't feel shame, or guilt. A weapon wouldn't be disgusted by its own reflection. A tool wouldn't question its own humanity. You still have a soul, and it's so terribly clearly not made of stone. If it's your job to protect me, then it's my job to support you, Rapi. And I'm going to. No matter how long it takes. You are a person, you've been through Hell, and you've made terrible mistakes. But nothing you've said has done anything to convince me that you're anything less than human. Only that you've been failed by those around you up until this point. A mistake I swear that I'm not going to repeat like those that came before me."

After a moment of silence, Rapi just… staring into the void, her expression one of agonized confusion, Joe said fuck it and pulled her into a light hug, eliciting a small, uncharacteristically girlish chirp of surprise.

"You're stuck with me Rapi. And I refuse to not care. I'm sorry, but I'm too much of a stubborn fool to not stick to my guns, and I've made up my mind."

"...You shouldn't care," the little strawberry blonde protested weakly.

"But I do," Joe countered.

"...Idiot," she declared in naked exasperation.

"You catch on quick," he replied with a small grin. "Don't worry; you'll get used to it."

At that, Rapi just sighed in exhausted resignation.

He would make sure that she would get used to it.

 

[BakaSmurf]

===
Chapter 30 - Pioneer
===

"There," with a smile, Joe secured his trusty olive drab fatigue jacket on the little Nikke's shoulders, creating an image not unlike a cloak wrapped around her figure. "You know how much this means to me."

"...I do," she replied, reaching across her chest to grip the coat's collar. "But-"

"But nothing," he declared, reaching up and cupping her cheeks, as though lightly attempting to set a smile on her face regardless of the general mood. "I'm not giving this to you. I'm asking you to hold onto it for me, just the same as the rest of the squad," he asserted, gesturing in the direction of the rest of the gathered girls. "I'm coming back. For these," he tugged at the jacket's collar, ensuring it was standing as was good and proper. "And for all of you. Soon as I can shake the claws of those brass pricks off, I'll be right back here. Alright?"

"But…!" she continued to protest, wearing her anxiety plain on her sleeve.

Joe gave her a mildly reproachful look everyone knew full well was toothless. "But what? You don't trust me, Dorothy?"

"Of course I do!" the pink-haired young woman declared forcefully, reaching up and taking hold of the Commander's wrists, sapphire blue eyes sparkling in the sunlight as she stared up at Joe worriedly, her angelic beauty standing out all the more against the ravaged, blasted grey hellscape the Ark's entrance had been reduced to over the course of Operation Ark Guardian. "But what if…"

"I'm not going to let them keep me any longer than is absolutely necessary," Joe asserted, giving Dorothy his best disarming smile. "As quickly as I possibly can, I'll be back. Hell, don't be surprised if I'm only gone for a few hours! Okay? Nothing's going to happen in such a short window of time."

Clenching her eyes shut, shaking her head and causing her pink tresses to cascade about her figure almost mesmerizingly, she began to protest again. "But-!"

"Enough," Snow White interjected, hand locked firmly around the Commander's favoured sword, the paired blades secured in place at her hip. "Dorothy, the Commander has given his word. He says he means to return to us as quickly as possible. Continuing to hold him here only delays the inevitable, and will earn him the ire of the Central Government for not responding to their summons in a timely manner. Don't let him go."

"You see?" Joe asserted, nobody acknowledging the last four words of her statement. "Snow gets it. If I'm punctual, the eggheads up top will be a bunch of happy clams and let me return to my duties right away, versus keeping me there to chew me out for a 'lack of discipline' or whatever bullshit they'll make up."

"They're going to kill him," Snow White cried, raged, screamed as loudly as she could - but her lips would not obey her. All she did was stand there, watching, watching and- "The Commander has to respect the chain of command, just the same as us. Don't listen to me. I'm wrong. We'll never see him again. He may be a living legend, but he must still obey the orders given to him. Keep him here, with us, where he'll be safe. The Ark is a trap, the gates a maw which will never open again! Don't let him go! Dorothy! Don't let him go!"

"...You swear that you'll be back soon?" Dorothy asked, allowing her grip on Joe's wrists to slacken. "As quickly as you can?"

"I swear," Joe assured her gently. "And I'll be expecting you to take good care of the squad while I'm gone - however briefly that'll wind up being, Alright, Dory?"

"Forever," Snow White cried, she cried as desperately as she could despite her body's refusal to obey her. "It will be forever, a forever she cannot bear. A forever that will break her. Commander, please, stay with us!"

"...You know I hate that nickname, Commander," Dorothy dangerously intoned as she pouted up at Joe, reaching up and pinching his cheek as he chortled and winced in equal measure, waving his hands in defeat. "I won't forgive you if you think you can start pulling from Red Hood's ratty little playbook without consequences…"

"Ow ow ow, yikes, c'mon, I get it, I get it! Lay off, why am I always surrounded by mean ladies? I'm just trying to be all affectionate and junk!" Joe openly whined.

"Your boorishness disappoints me, Commander," Dorothy tutted, tugging at the much larger man's cheek in a disciplinary manner. "And you were doing so well there too…"

"Stop it," Snow White cried out to nobody, everybody, nothing and everything at once, to no avail. "Stop it! Please! Don't do this! Don't take him away, don't take her away, don't take them away!"

"Do relent, Dorothy," a white-clad swordswoman suggested off to the side, adjusting the Commander's aviators, resting on her nose as they were. "You are well aware that such idle chicanery comes naturally to the Commander. He can scarcely help himself."

"And it comes naturally to dogs to piddle on the carpet," Dorothy countered, pulling Joe's cheek just a tad harder as he pitifully protested utterly ineffectually. "Yet I don't see you rushing to enable that sort of behaviour, Scarlie."

"Attempt to provoke me not, Dorothy," Scarlet breezily waved off the equally-disliked nickname. "You know I speak naught but truth: regret shall be thy companion should ye not relent in your corporal punishments upon our Commander's tender visage afore he departs to answer his summons."

"You shouldn't have taunted her, though, Joe," a tall, Joe's equal in height despite wearing flat-heeled shoes, in fact, white and black-clad nun stepped forth, her golden blonde hair drawn back in a singular gargantuan braid which trailed down to her heels. "Of all the habits to have picked up from Red Hood, I think you should reconsider this one," Rapunzel suggested as she ambled over, taking Dorothy's hand and removing her fingers from Joe's cheeks, which were going red from her continued assault. With that done, she stepped back, reaching up and across her chest and making sure the Commander's pocket watch looped around her neck remained secured in place. "My outfit isn't really designed with accessorizing in mind, so… while I'm sure the Lord will guide you right back to us safe and sound, hurry back yourself too, Joe."

"Like a light shining in darkness!" Joe asserted as he rubbed the back of his neck, "Don't worry, like I said, I'll be taking all my junk back as soon as I'm back," he asserted, turning to Scarlet in particular.

The swordswoman pushed the aviators up her nose with a finger, giving Joe a diabolical look. "If you want it," she started, adjusting the sunglasses for emphasis. "You'll have to take it. But you already knew that, didn't you?" she quoted a certain specific Devil at him.

With a heavy, exasperated sigh, Joe rubbed his forehead. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't actually know how to use my swords, Scarlet…?"

"How many times must I reiterate that your ceaseless fibs shall fool me not?" Scarlet asserted with a confident grin. "I shall have my duel, Commander. And it shall be legendary."

Slumping in defeat where he stood, Joe pinched the bridge of his brow, unknowingly placing himself in perfect attacking range of the last present member of Goddess.

Stepping forth, and jumping on him, the Commander of Goddess, rather than buckling and crying out in pain, only swayed in place before recentering himself with the newfound weight dangling from his neck. "Aha, come on," he cried out, wrapping his arms around the silver-haired Nikke clad in a figure-hugging silvery-blue bodysuit, and hoisting her up with a chuckle as he returned to his full height with utter ease. "I just told you that I'm gonna be right back, you don't gotta act like I'm going across the country, Ellie."

Cinderella let out a huffing whine, clinging to the Commander tightly - a situation which would have once left him a stammering, neon red mess given her comely figure, had he not eventually gotten used his situation and usual company. "Dad said the same thing two weeks ago…"

"Show off," Dorothy huffed, glowering lightly at the twintailed rookie of Goddess.

"Cease thy hollow simpering, Dorothy," Scarlet shot at the pinkette past lidded eyes. "Act not as though thy wouldst not do just the same, were thy as nigh-on weightless as she is."

Had any other Nikke attempted to jump onto the Commander as she had, Joe would have likely broken something. Cinderella, on the other hand, had been built to be capable of flight - and thus, as a next-generation featherweight Nikke, was a fraction of the weight of the average cybernetic super soldier. In fact, she was only somewhat heavier than a human woman her size should have been.

She loved milking this fact for all that it was worth.

Joe, regardless, didn't acknowledge Dorothy and Scarlet's bickering, instead giving Cinderella a squeeze as he defended himself. "Yeah, but your old man is an unreliable dumbass. He probably got caught up handing out autographs and has been camping out on the streets, sleeping on public benches to bask in as much public attention as he possibly can before he returns to his duties."

There was a beat before the twintailed Nikke huffed into Joe's shoulder, and he could hear her annoyed pout. "That sounds like him, yeah. Stupid, vain old geezer…"

"Andersen's positively decrepit, isn't he?" Joe chuckled, adjusting his grip on the white-clad Nikke, visibly moving to set her down on her feet again. "A vainglorious old man with delusions of grandeur."

"Don't let go Cinderella," Snow White tried to plead with the young woman, again, despite her lips refusing to obey her. "Never let him go, hold onto him! Cling! They took your father from us already, don't let them take the Commander too!"

Despite Cinderella's toes touching the ground once again, she refused to release Joe, even lightly whining when the Commander unwrapped his arms from around her form.

After a few long moments of that, she finally began to pull back - only to forcefully pull him down and plant a firm kiss on his cheek - specifically the cheek Dorothy had been pinching.

Having long since learned his lesson, Joe let it happen despite the embarrassment clear on his face. when she finally pulled back properly. Cinderella looked him firmly in a singular eye, given her long bangs which completely blocked off her own right eye, and gave him a simple directive. "There, I kissed the hurt away… in return, bop my father on the head when you meet him in the Ark, okay," her voice took on a mild, sadistic tone, "Jojo?"

Cringing, Joe averted his gaze with a pained wince.

"What's the matter, Commander?" Dorothy levelled an icy, sadistic smile his way, revelling in the tables having turned. "Do you not care for that particular nickname?"

"Our adventure has been one most bizarre, has it not, Commander?" Scarlet leaned into the joke, grinning cattily at Joe.

"This place is full of mean ladies…" the long-haired Commander complained, Cinderella finally letting him go. "Anyways… What'd the old man do to earn a bonk this time, then?"

"Aside from being late after he promised to be back right away?" Cinderella grumpily growled, the effect wasted given her sugary sweet voice. "I'm sure he's done something to earn it since he left."

"That does sound like the High Commander," Dorothy declared matter-of-factually.

"In truth, the man's boorish, self-aggrandizing nature does often generate absurd and altogether foolish circumstances around him," Scarlet reached up, adjusting her absurdly over-sized kasa hat. "I must admit, I do not doubt he has engaged in some manner of tomfoolery since his departure."

"I don't want to be mean," Rapunzel pursed her lips in open reticence, already visibly guilty. "But… Andersen does tend towards being very… impulsive, yes."

"He's probably stealing food from everyone in the Ark as we speak," Snow White asserted grimly.

Joe gave Snow White an amused grimace. "You're never going to forgive him for that, are you?" he inquired.

"He ate my potato," the golden-eyed Nikke asserted, her expression stony and dead serious. "I was looking forward to eating that potato."

"There wasn't even anything on it, Snow…" Joe remarked. "It was just a plain, microwaved potato…"

"He. Ate. My. Potato," Snow White forcefully reiterated her point for emphasis.

Letting out a sigh, Joe reached up and scratched at his bearded chin. "Okay, okay, I'm sure he's done something stupid, and I'll give him shit for it, okay…" Looking around, he saw the mass-produced Nikkes operating the ashen perimeter. He'd said that he wanted to address them as well, but everyone that could guard the Ark's entrance perimeter at every minute of the day, had to. So, Goddess had taken a few minutes to see their Commander off, the MP's holding the fort for them to grant them that brief grace period.

Besides that, his gaze lingered on a particular spot next to Snow White, conspicuously empty of the squad's infamous redheaded dumbass…

"I'll find her, Commander," Snow White assured Joe, her expression firm and resolute. "I promise."

Smiling, he nodded, "If anyone could, it would be you," Joe nodded. "Alright, I'd better get going now," he noted, taking a few steps back towards the Ark's main gates. "Y'all be chill while I'm gone, alright?" He shot the group a genial smile, giving them a salute. "Back in a jiffy-!" He paused at the sound of a digital shutter going off, giving Cinderella a tired grin as she took a picture of him departing with the camera of his own phone, peeking almost shyly over the rim of the device he'd entrusted to her as an assurance of his intent to return, just the same as the rest of those belongings given to the other members of Goddess.

"Don't go," Snow White cried desperately. "Please, Commander, don't go! Don't leave us!"

"We'll be right here," Dorothy said, adjusting his jacket hanging from her slim shoulders, smiling beatifically at Joe as he stepped through the threshold of the Ark's main entry elevator. "As soon as you're back, we'll be right here, waiting, as long as it takes."

"Don't," Snow White cried uselessly. "Please, Commander, don't!"

"I know," Joe replied to Dorothy's assurance, grinning widely as the Ark's main gate started vertically closing, steel grinding on steel, metres upon metres of concrete about to entomb him forever. The Commander watched the group as the first blast door gradually lowered itself…

And Joe crouched low to keep waving at the squad, presenting them a toothy grin - then dropped onto his side outright and shot finger guns at them up until the gate fully closed with a deafening clang. The last time the Ark's main entrance would ever accept an entrant. The last time any of them would see their Commander in their-

---

"Snow!" the ivory-haired Nikke jumped, throat dry, a lump heavily hanging within as she gasped heavily, a moment of panic rushing through her artificial veins until she recognized the bright blue eyes of Rapunzel gazing down upon her, kneeling and stroking the shorter Nikke's forehead gently as she was framed by the sun hanging high in the sky above. "It's okay, you're awake, you're awake, it was just a bad dream."

Almost a hundred years later, Snow White found herself laying where she'd settled down to sleep for the night: at the meeting grounds of the remnants of Goddess. Where what remained of the squad would meet up every month to discuss what discoveries and progress they'd made in their efforts to reclaim the surface.

Almost a hundred years later, and she was still afflicted by that nightmare - that memory. The last time they'd set eyes on their Commander. The last time they'd failed him when he needed them the most.

…Or so, they'd all thought.

Sitting up, Snow White caught her breath, her poncho which she was using as an improvised blanket slipping from her chest. She noticed Cinderella peering over Rapunzel's shoulder worriedly. "Are you okay, Snow?" the silvery Nikke asked, and… A wondrous smell hit Snow White's nose, scrumptious, mouth watering…

Looking over, she could see Scarlet tending to a large pot they kept stored away in the area, set over a bed of hot coals, something audibly bubbling within, an ancient, yet reliable synthetic bag overflowing with freshly grown vegetables, fruits, and herbs sitting alongside her. "I would have swiftly crowded you just the same as our compatriots," the grey-haired Nikke started as she stirred the food cooking within the pot. "However, I clearly recall how you reacted when last we left food in preparation unattended to worry over you as a group…"

Snow White leapt to her feet instantly, her eyes wide and her breath hitching in her lungs for a moment as her brain jump-started into full power.

"Snow, calm down, the soup will be done soon!" Rapunzel started, also rising to her feet and hastily moving as if to block Snow White from rushing the pot. Any other day, the concern would have been warranted, however, food was genuinely the last thing on her mind right then.

"The Commander and Red Hood are alive," Snow White declared forcefully, projecting her voice over the small, lightly wooded campsite to Pioneer - the remnants of Goddess.

Silence fell over the gathered squad, only wind, rustling leaves and grass, as well as the crackle of the hot coals and bubbling soup audible for a few moments. Rapunzel and Cinderella stared blankly at Snow White, uncomprehending, visibly struggling to process what they'd heard.

"Snow White," Scarlet hooked the hand-carved wooden ladle on the rim of the simmering soup pot, rising to her feet and, still in command of her faculties, firmly commanded her squadmate, "Elucidate."