Author Topic: One Week (Read 3889 times)

Marjorie · « **on:** October 22, 2019, 01:13:55 pm »

One week was seriously short notice. It was a very slim deadline for gathering Intel, but Emrys had been under the gun before, and what's more there was a lot at steak this time, the least of which was his son's life. If he was still alive. He could only hang onto their mental link for so long. Once the distance became to great, he lost even the faint sense of him.

A preliminary search threw the archives had revealed something about Redtide to him, but everything beyond that name, or code name? Was classified above his level. He'd had to get special clearance to access more than that, and he needed some help if he was going to figure out what he could about whatever or whoever this Redtide was.

That's why he was here, at the ATC, in his full dress uniform (because that was his usual, given his job title) and picking up Nova the way that a Candidate's mentor would normally. He'd told her before hand that dress uniform was necessary.

"Candidate," he said, entering the room she was waiting for him, "let's be on our way."

DragonSong · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2019, 02:20:05 pm »

[Cont'd from What You're Made Of]

Nova had to resist the urge to fidget in her dress uniform as she waited at attention for Emrys to come and collect her.

This is bullshit. Not a word from him for days, weeks, and then suddenly he wanted her to go haring off with him to gods knew where? Fucking asshole.

Although it wasn't like she was exactly in a position to tell him no.

She snapped into a sharp salute when he entered the room, but she somehow managed to make the move look snarky. "On our way to where exactly, sir?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2019, 02:30:14 pm »

Emrys returned the salute. "You know, Candidate," Emrys said dryly,"[/b] "someone might get offended if you don't learn to reign in that sarcastic streak. Candidates exist at the pleasure of their superiors, just as Pilots serve at the pleasure of the Dragons."[/b]

Emrys turned on his heel and exited the building. "Come along, Candidate." He brought her to one of the exits of the ATC and scanned his own chip, which opened the door for him, and logged that he was taking Nova with him.

"We're going to the Citadel Archives," he said as they exited the ATC. "We're going to do some intelligence gathering today. I imagine that chip of yours comes in hand for gathering and analyzing data."

DragonSong · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2019, 03:06:55 pm »

Nova snorted as she followed him. "Yeah, because you're the first person to tell me that," she muttered. A little louder, she added, "I thought you were above such petty emotions as taking offense, hm?"

She paused while he scanned his chip, then continued along beside him as they exited the ATC. Head cocked slightly, she replied, "Yeah, it's...useful. I can store about half a library in the thing, if I really need to... Am I gonna need to?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2019, 04:38:40 pm »

"I'm not offended," he said, "but if I bring you on a field trip and you start disrespecting me in public or you disrespect the people I work with there will be consequences." He did have a reputation to keep up, as he'd said before.

"Not half a library, I don't think," Emrys said, "I don't know how much information there is out there about it, actually."

There was a care waiting for them outside. The driver opened the door for them as they approached the car. Emrys got in and scooted over to the other side to make room for Nova. "I'll tell you more when we're someplace more secure."

DragonSong · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2019, 04:56:11 pm »

She gave him a droll look, but didn't reply to that. Sure, he had a reputation and all that, bla bla bla. She wasn't stupid. She wasn't going to make him look bad in front of people.

But if he'd expected her to kowtow at the very sight of him, he should have damn well known better.

"And where exactly is someplace more secure?" Nova asked as she shifted into the car behind him, screwing her face up when the dress uniform tugged and tightened uncomfortably in places.

Marjorie · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2019, 06:53:25 pm »

"The citadel archives," Emrys said. Much of the database could be accessed externally, but there were some portions that were secured so you had to physically be there to access them. It also stored things that were not electronic in nature, like a museum. That should tell her something about the nature of whatever information they were looking for.

DragonSong · « **Reply #7 on:** October 22, 2019, 07:10:22 pm »

"So you're taking me on a field trip to the library," Nova deadpanned. Propping her ankle up on one knee, she leaned back and let her head flop back against the seat. "Exciting. Wake me when we get there."

Marjorie · « **Reply #8 on:** October 23, 2019, 05:57:51 pm »

[[FYI if she scanned him this time she’d find he’s armed with a standard issue side arm.]]

“Very astute observation,” Emrys said rather dryly.

When they got to the citadel building Emrys brought her right up threw the front. Unfortunately with him in uniform that meant pausing for several “good afternoon Pilot Noble’s” and returning a ridiculous amount of salutes because most of the office staff in the citadel were regular military while the people who did the ‘important’ work was the Pilots.

Emrys brought Nova to an elevator and they went up several stories to the archives, then he brought her around to a privet room and locked the door. He hooked up his data pad into the computer terminal and secured the room electronically.

“Alright, Candidate. Anything we discuss in this room is top secret as is anything we discover during our research. My security code is required to do this data search, so if you leak anything I will take a very personal interest in ending you Candidacy.”

He pulled up a standard non disclosure agreement on his data pad. “Type you name and signature code on this. Stating that you understand if you reveal anything about what transpires in here to any unauthorized personnel you will be charged with treason.”

DragonSong · « **Reply #9 on:** October 23, 2019, 06:14:15 pm »

[Gotcha!]

Nova just huffed at him and let her eyes slide closed, taking the opportunity to rest--such as it was--for the rest of the ride.

She fell surprisingly easily into the role of subservient Candidate when they reached the building, always one step behind Emrys and standing at attention, even as every fucking person they ran into felt the need to stop and salute.

Once they were alone however, she slouched back on one heel, cocking her hip and rubbing at her biomechanical wrist. "Damn, don't these people get a cramp from doing that all day?" she muttered to herself, more for the form of the thing than anything else.

Nova took his threats seriously, and they hit home, though she'd be damned if she let him know it. Rolling her eyes, she reached out and let her fingers fly over the datapad, typing in the required information. "Yeah, yeah, got it. Very scary. Will you tell me what we're actually doing here now?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #10 on:** October 23, 2019, 11:15:55 pm »

Well, at least she could be professional in public. “You get used to it eventually,” Emrys responded. It had been a novel thing, for the first day or two after Candidacy, to go from having to salute everyone to everyone having to salute him, however it had quickly grown old. There was literally no one except equal or higher ranking Pilots that didn’t have to salute Pilots, which meant you had to return the salute of literally almost everyone you walked by.

Well she didn’t have to LOOK like they hit home, as long as they didn’t. Emrys wasn’t the sort to make idle threats. He did exactly as he said he would.

“We are going to find out everything we can on an organization or entity named Red Tide.”

There was another computer terminal that Nova could swipe in with her chip at to allow her own data chip to search threw his security log in. “This incident occurred two days ago,” he pulled up a file of the attack Red Tide had made against himself, and sent it over to her. It had been slightly abridged and all names redacted. “Officially, this was reported to the public as caused by a gas leak. In light of the meeting that is supposed to occur between the Pilot in that report and who was discovered to be Red Tide or one of their associates it’s important that we gather all intel available so we can use it to our advantage.”

[[fyi there is a PM gonna come your way with info. they can find on on Red Tide. He’ll start with giving her an abridged version of this thread: http://remnants.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=8353.0 She’ll get it as an aftermath report with names redacted.]]

DragonSong · « **Reply #11 on:** October 24, 2019, 07:05:35 am »

"Red Tide?" Nova repeated, frowning as she took in the file. It was rather strange to watch; instead of her eyes scanning the text back and forth, she just sort of...stared at it, that single red pinprick blinking behind her left pupil, then after a few seconds glanced away and blinked a few times, storing the information in the proper space.

Finally, she looked back to Emrys, almost incredulous. "A gas leak," she repeated flatly. "People bought that?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #12 on:** October 26, 2019, 11:03:06 pm »

"People are smart enough not to question what they're told," Emrys replied. In the end it didn't matter what they believed, just that they did as they were told. Besides the reports had been burred in among sport and other entertainment. That's what happened when you lived in a hedonistic dictatorship with strict censors and a lot of propaganda. You just went about your good time and went along with whatever the government told you.

Emrys knew better than to even bother with the news... a Pilot should, so should a Candidate. Of course they were essential parts to holding up the facade that the government created.

"What... there's," he scrolled down the list his search brought up again, "there's mentions of Red Tide referencing back to old Earth eras... sense well before the time that the Dragons came into power." That was, he didn't know what. Unexpected.

DragonSong · « **Reply #13 on:** October 27, 2019, 11:00:02 am »

"Oh perfect." Nova glowered and folded her arms, eyes going slightly unfocused as she blinked the command to pull up the holoscreen in front of her face, projected from the chip behind her eye. "I hate magic," she growled under her breath.

Marjorie · « **Reply #14 on:** October 27, 2019, 06:31:22 pm »

"Look at this," Emrys took the file, rather news article, something from several decades ago. Something he didn't recall seeing, though he never watched the news anyway. There was an image with it: a large stone with writing in several dead languages and are water moccasin inlaid on the top of it.

"There's a translation... The Staler of Souls, daemon of the sea, poisoner of men's hearts will one day flood the world. There's a description of control over water, plants, and poisons..." He glanced at Nova. "Defiantly magic." He didn't seem much more pleased about it than she did.

DragonSong · « **Reply #15 on:** October 27, 2019, 06:52:33 pm »

"Fuck." Nova glanced to the side, scrolling through her data feed and scanning for the words "sea", "flood", "poison", and "flora" with quick flicks of her eyes.

She gritted her teeth. "There is...a lot here. I don't know how you want me to process through this. What exactly are we looking for? What's the big deal with this "gas leak"?"

Marjorie · « **Reply #16 on:** October 27, 2019, 07:00:03 pm »

"This red tide - whatever they are, I think an amalgamation of minds," which was information she wouldn't find anywhere... that was what he had gleaned from touching it's - their? mind(s) with his own during that event. "Almost captured a Pilot during that catastrophe. We think they are trying to declare war on us, or otherwise intend to take over Aedolis. Flood the word seems like an assertion of world domination, yes?"

As for her second question: "We need to find out what or who this red tide is and what they are capable of - separate myth from fact, and also ascertain any weaknesses."

DragonSong · « **Reply #17 on:** October 27, 2019, 07:14:52 pm »

"Gods." Nova scowled again, reaching blindly behind her to find a chair before turning it around and sinking into it. "No pressure or anything though..."

She reached out to tap a few of the buttons on her holoscreen--not as fast as eye cues, but it took less brain space, and she was apparently going to need as much of that as she could spare. "Why now?" she muttered after a few moments, almost to herself. "Why bother now? The world's been going to shit for centuries, they could have struck at any time..."

Marjorie · « **Reply #18 on:** October 27, 2019, 07:34:38 pm »

"I don't know," Emrys said - he'd almost said and why me instead, but he hadn't decided if she should know he was the main subject of search, even if they were not looking for information about him. He was examining what they gained by capturing him - first, most obvious, he was a Pilot of rank enough to know many things about Aedolis government, social structure, and military... second, specifically because of his job, he was privy to information about Aedolis' friends and enemies... information that could potentially be used against Aedolis or used to launch off the planet if red tide's goal stretched beyond just one world's domination.

"This is a translation of the last warning on that stone."

To stop the spear took the aid of the remaining gods all together, with the men of their tribes luring the spear into the temple ahead, and the gods imprisoning the spear. The spear must never be released, for it will surely know it is being trapped, and will not be sealed again. To release the spear is to doom the world, traveler. All will be stolen. All will be lost. So hearken to the warning carved in the stone, and release not the Red Tide.

"Guess, ah... someone didn't heed their warming. I don't know about Gods... but apparently it took a lot of magic to seal up whatever this thing was in the past. That's something. There is or was a way to lock red tide up at some point. Maybe it can be done again... though, of course we don't know how they did it."

DragonSong · « **Reply #19 on:** October 27, 2019, 07:47:53 pm »

"Spear," Nova repeated slowly, tapping away to search through the data she'd just uploaded for the word. "Like, an actual spear? That shit is...ancient. Archaic. What are the chances something like that is still around?"

She paused, her eyes flicking away from the screen in front of her to Emrys's face. "Is there any way to figure out who freed the damn thing? I mean, someone must have, if we're taking this old prophecy bullshit as face value."