Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Isla dela Fortunae

as written by Krysis

The few other patrons scattered. Some slipped out through the emergency exit without care of the alarm going off. It would only whine for a few seconds before the bartender hit the reset button. The tender's gaze meet Marlene's for a split second before his eyes slid towards the front door, behind her. He seemed to be kinda trying to remind the blonde of goon just outside the place. Then he quietly eased through the kitchen door and towards the other exit back there.
___

Outside, Soledad pursed her lips as she looked at the bar, but no other sign of her annoyance made it to her features. Thankfully, the person she most wanted to talk to was headed their way and she stepped into Albert's path.

Lifting one hand in the classic 'wait a moment' gesture, she began to speak, "Are you the one known as Al Siemens?" Her lip curled slightly as she added, "Hero of the Mansion Charge? Honorary captain of the irregulars?"

Of course, Soledad had just gotten those particulars from Zamorano, so there was no point in denying it. Hence why she was already pulling a thin sheaf of papers from her handbag. "I need a favor of you."

The farmer stood back uncertainly, ready to escape the scarlet storm, but unwilling to leave Albert alone to the machinations of the former first lady.
 
as written by glmstr

Lucille reached into her purse and produced a cellphone, spending a few seconds punching in a text message.

She reached back into her purse, pulling out the submachine gun and unfolding the stock. Her stance and weapon handling suggested previous training of some sort.

The guard posted outside felt his phone vibrate, quickly whipping it out to check who it was.
We have trouble. Has something, it might be a fancy gun or some shit.
Luci
He cocked his assault rifle and burst through the door, flanking the target as a result.

"I'd say get the fuck off the island while you still can," Luci lowered her weapon and waved off, as if dismissing Marlene. She made her way towards the door, but in such a way that she and the guard were still flanking the alien.
 
as written by Ottoman

For the most part the Austran slipped past Soledad, not paying too much attention to the woman that had stopped Zamorano, at least not until she spoke his name. Even in his stupor his last name rang out like a gunshot in his ears, the lieutenant stopping in his tracks with a slight, shuffling stumble, bracing himself on whatever was close enough. A slight kernel of panic bloomed in his mind, and in his heart, as he fought to find some reason as to why she would know it, though it took him a moment or two to come to the obvious conclusion - that she had heard it from his friend. Bracing himself as best he could, the officer looked to her, doing his best not to look as inebriated as he was.

"Yes ma'am." Albert was already getting the feeling that she might not share the sentiment of his drinking buddies, or of much of the island. But having been raised in a society where any action could be checked and verified had lead Albert to put little stock in lying about what he did or didn't do, and so he had no qualms with owning his actions here, whether they were entirely accidental or not. Hopefully there wouldn't be anything brash about to happen - Albert really wasn't feeling up to it, and beyond that was in no shape to fight or resist interrogation - as he had just vacated the bar for the very same reason. "Can I help you?"
 
as written by barney_fife

Marlene nodded calmly to the Bartender's subtle gesture to the door. She had positioned herself between Lucille, and the bar door. In the milliseconds that followed a plan was quickly formulated. The goon would be neutralized the moment he stepped inside, with simultaneous aegis activation and seeking cover.

Marlene's eyes watched the cell phone, as Lucille sent her text message. While Luci's thumbs were moving across the screen of the phone, and her attention was directed otherwise. Marlene's eyes were on the door, and her stance had shifted ever so slightly.

Then the Machinegun came out, and the moment Lucille's machinegun cleared her purse, the personal aegis activated with an audible pop and a blue flash of light. The shimmering blue barrier held steady in front of Marlene, between her and the Mob girl before her.

The immediate next thing to occur was the sound of a weapon chambering. The sound reached the IIA Agen't ears and almost immediately the remote like device was raised back towards the door.

The goon would hardly have time to move completely through the door when Marlene opened fire. There was a brilliant, disorienting green flash, and streak of light that surged straight towards the goon. Whom having not even cleared the door would likely be unable to evade. Thus the bolt would likely strike him center mass with a brief flash of orange, and a plume of thick white smoke that stank of seared human flesh.

The impact of eighty thousand kelvins of ionized plasma would likely send the goon careening back a few feet with a still smoldering wound, should Marlene's weapon find it's mark.

Ducking low, and expecting the hail of gunfire from Lucille, which would likely harmlessly impact against the shimmering hard-light shield of Marlene's personal Aegis. Marlene turned the weapon on Lucille in front of her, and once more opened fire; sending a eye-searingly bright bolt of green hurling towards her opponent.

In the split seconds that passed, the IIA Agent had moved closer towards the Ocean-facing window. Personal Aegis facing Lucille, as it's hue slowly began to redden into a slight purplish color.
 
as written by glmstr

The guard toppled backwards when the shot was fired, the bolt caught his left shoulder. His left arm had lost almost all of its flesh, and his torso was heavily charred.

Lucille opened fire, but the aegis seemed to stop the bullets from reaching their mark. The shield was becoming redder, and she assumed it was getting weaker (if those sci-fi shooter games were to be trusted, that is).

The bright bolt of what looked like plasma grazed a few inches past her side, enough to burn a hole in the side of her shirt and leave a shallow scar seared into her hip.

Lucille clutched her hip and crumpled, the burns were too much for her to get up right away. Her submachine gun ran out of bullets too, but she wasn't able to reload it.
 
as written by barney_fife

With both threats neutralized, Marlene's personal Aegis disengaged with another pop, and a fizzle. The reddish-purple shield vanishing into thin air.

The interior of the bar was thick with the smell of charred flesh and ozone. This was a smell that Marlene was all too familiar with. Her stance relaxed considerably, as she looked to the bar, and frowned at the shattered drink back against the wall.

The Bartender was gone, probably hiding in a freezer or something. The Patrons had all cleared out, and there was only the badly wounded goon, and Luci.

Marlene made a face, her disruptor pistol still clenched in her hand as she walked up to the wounded mob girl, standing over her with a frown.

"Next time mind your tongue, you might live longer." She said, while shaking her head. She then reached into her purse to produce a white and red box, she opened it and withdrew a small pouch of nanocream, a specific nanite blend designed to treat superficial burns and prevent infection.

She tossed the pouch to floor besides Luci. "No hard feelings." She said as she attempted to kick the SMG Away from Luci, and then fire her weapon at it, another blinding flash of green, liquefying the metal of the firearm and rendering it useless.

Should that be successful, Marlene would turn to walk away, eyes down on the goon who was on the ground. Her lips thinned into a line, and she fired her disruptor at his head, attempting to execute him on the spot.

Stepping over the potentially dead body, she pushed the door and stepped out of the bar, pulling her sunglasses on and surveying the street, as her disruptor pistol was slid carefully back into her purse. At that moment she withdrew her cell phone, and dialed the emergency number.

"I'd like to report a shooting..."
 
as written by glmstr

Lucille didn't bother to reach for the SMG.
"Fuck off, I don't need your medicine," she hissed, throwing the cream aside. She crawled towards her purse and started rummaging around inside it.

The guard was promptly killed, his weapon and some charred flesh and bone being all that was left.

Lucille managed to fish out her phone and snap a few pictures of Marlene before she left the building, at what point she sent them to her husband.

Got into a fight at the bar, this bitch had a shield thing and some laser gun. Ronnie is dead. I'm hurt, but I'll be OK.
Please Ice her if you see her.

-Luci
 
as written by Krysis

Soledad gave a warm smile, which was unintentionally predatory with her crimson lips and the blackness of her sunglasses. She placed the release papers in Albert's hands then, "Just your signature, as often as asked for. A hero's work is never done."

Then she was frowning at the business and the sounds from within. She recognized the vehicle outside of course, and saw the goon duck inside just before there was a flash of green. When the firing stopped, she would leave Albert and walk up carefully to peer through the windows. At just about that point, Marlene stepped out and Soledad gave her a wary look. She did happen to see the disruptor going back into the purse, so she had an inkling about what happened.

Of course, the call to the emergency number was useless, since the island was in such a state of chaos.

The woman in red looked Marlene up and down and asked, "How many hurt, please?"

Zamorano lingered with Albert though, his hands in his pockets as he glared at the bar. "That dark haired broad is trouble. Another foreigner, but she married a local boy. Now she helps put pressure on the 'sugar' farmers. With the tongue she has, and the itchy trigger finger, it is a miracle that she hasn't been dealt with long since."
 
as written by Ottoman

"Uh... yeah, suuure." Albert managed, slightly put off by both the woman's authority and just how quickly she handed him something, something with clearly outlined instructions. He knew that he was far from home, that this place didn't work in quite the same way as the Supremacy, but he figured that here, just like back home, people didn't just hand out papers to be signed in the streets without any sort of catch. That was how you wound up in the Salian Foreign Legion. The second Soledad slipped away and Zamorano came over, Albert offered the other man the piece of paper, asking the favor of him, "Could you tell me what she's wants me to sign? I... ah, can' read it."

Albert Siemens was a drunkard, perhaps even a slubberdegullion in some circles, but his mother didn't raise a complete fool.

"... the blue-haired chick?" Albert asked after the fact, realizing that his friend had said something. "We got some people like her back home. They're..." He searched for an appropriate term, and one that wasn't quite as vulgar as the first that came to mind. "Spirited."
 
as written by barney_fife

Marlene stopped as she shifted the weight of her purse to fit more comfortably onto her shoulder.

"One dead, one hurt, but the young lady will be fine, I just grazed her." She said, shaking her head slightly. "She bit off.. ah... a little more than she could chew, so to speak." Marlene explained, before she glanced back to the door. The stench of burnt human flesh and ozone began to waft outside.

"These silly civilian personal defense weapons; so inaccurate." She said, as she moved to unbuckle the personal aegis from her arm.

"You forget a thousand things every day. Make sure this is one of them." She said out loud, as she looked Soledad in the eye, almost menacingly.

The Aschen Ambassador spoke of the IIA during their time together, describing them in great detail as ruthless and efficient. To the mind tuned into Aschen poltics, Marlene would no doubt be recognized as one of the agents of the Empire. But why was she on the island? Perhaps the Ambassador had something to do with why she was here.
 
as written by Krysis

Soledad gave an impatient snort at Marlene's attitude, "Maybe you should also be wary about what you bite and try to chew. Lucille Lacroix is not the biggest fish on the island, though she might have thought she was."

She offered her hand to Marlene then, in greeting, "Soledad Arce, first lady of Fortunae. It is a pleasure to meet the person that removed the thorn from my toe. Now please, try not to make anymore messes while I clean up this one."
___

Zamorano looked over the papers for Albert then, rubbing his thumb over his chin before he promptly tore up a few of them, and then handed the rest back. "Spirited is a compliment here. She's just a mouthy bitch that was lucky enough to marry a man with power."

"These papers. Release forms for a few men in the jail. Decent sorts, just doing their jobs. They get their trials, maybe all goes well for them. Maybe not. But no reason to keep them from their families while they are organizing defense, ya?" The torn up pages, the farmer scattered to the ocean breeze though, like a handful of confetti.

"El Presidente, the former, he does Not get to go free. Not even to organize his defense. But visits from his wife should be okay, until he gets executed." Ángel's smile was grimly satisfied as he considered that prospect.
 
as written by Ottoman

Albert nodded at the other's assessment of the young woman, finding he agreed with it, he just lacked the gumption to speak so boldly of matters he had only recently been introduced to. Carefully enough he took the papers that Ángel handed back, folding them as he could and tucking them into one of the pockets on his shirt, the loose-fitting thing an alien, if comfortable, garment to the man. "I'll sign these once I find somewhere quiet, with a pen." Wasn't that what this island advertised?

Siemens had yet to see any of it, and to see Marlene stepping out of the bar told him that this wasn't where he'd find any. Quickly enough he set out down the street, eager to find somewhere away from the belligerent woman.
 
as written by barney_fife

Her expression softened for a moment, as she took Soledad's hand.

"Emma Angelos, I'm the special Attache to Asha Janik, I'm a special diplomatic investigator for the United Aschen Empire." She said, withdrawing some fake credentials.

"Unfortunately." She said as she glanced back to the bar. "I was forced to defend myself from attack." She said, explaining the circumstances behind what went on in the bar.

"That woman carried herself like she was some kind of big shot, who was she?" Marlene asked.
 
as written by Krysis

Soledad was actually a little impressed that such a small polite gesture got so much information out of Ms Angelos. Sure it had to be fake, but Soledad was starting to get used to the space faring people being reluctant to share truth in any form.

"She is no one on her own. She married money and power though, and seemed to think we would be impressed with some school in Lutetia. Luci is not a good enemy to have, but you could have done worse. She's just arrogant, stubborn, and violent. No, not really a big shot, no matter what she thinks."

While she was talking, Soledad was also making sure that Luci wasn't pulling out another weapon to use on the next person to step into the bar. She gave Marlene a little gesture, politely asking without a word for her to back up, out of direct line of sight.

If the maneuvering was done to her satisfaction, Soledad would give a wry smile when she noticed Albert and Zamorano walking away. "If you want dangerous, big shots, those two would rate high on my list. `Angel knows how to play the game. When to bow, when to follow, and how to lead, but he usually prefers to be pushing someone else from behind. Now he has the ear of a local hero, and numbers will ever be on their side."
 
as written by barney_fife

Marlene frowned, and then took a step aside once asked. "Not a good enemy to have.." She repeated as she withdrew something from her purse. It wasn't a weapon this time, more along the lines of a smart phone.

"Memoriam; tollere familia puellam noceret mihi.." She commented in anquietas, before she keyed up again, transmitting a coded bitstream text message to Tidus Khaine in Van Leugen.

"Somebody call an exterminator, the hornets are bothering me again."

After keying the communicator a few times to send the message, and record her own reminder, she looked up back towards Soledad. "I've dealt with people worse than she, when I served in the Imperial Navy." She admitted. "I want you to tell me everything you know about this place. The Empire's taken a particular interest here, and I want to ensure that our operations proceed smoothly. I understand there was a regime change recently."
 
as written by Krysis

"If you are going to ask like that, try a newspaper. If you actually want my help, try such quaint words as 'please' and 'would you'." Soledad smiled in amusement at Marlene, having already had a similar conversation with the 'ambassador' over the past weeks. She actually found it funny that the Aschen had tried to threaten her with their empire, as if they actually had any power at all on Fortunae.

"I am going to go inside and get Lucille now. That will give you a little time to acquaint yourself with the concepts of 'polite' and 'courteous'." In the grand scheme, the political 'game' that Soledad was involved in, Marlene was a bit player and of less importance than the wounded girl in the bar. So the woman in red would finally enter the bar. She pulled off her sunglasses as she stepped over the remains of the dead man with hardly a glance as she looked around for her acquaintance from Lutetia.
 
as written by glmstr

Lucille had managed to lift herself to a sitting stance propped up against a barstool.

She cracked a smile when a familiar face came through the door, the former First Lady of all people.
"Hey, Soledad!" Luci's voice was surprisingly chipper
 
as written by Krysis

The tall, elegant woman knelt next to Lucille with hardly a change in expression. "I see you've gotten yourself in a predicament here."

The red nailed hands would gently pull at Luci's shirt to make sure the ragged edges of the damaged clothing weren't stuck to the burn. That would be very painful later, if allowed to stay. "The hospital is full, all the doctors from the smaller clinics have gone to help. I think even your husband's personal physician is doing his civic duty."

Soledad gave Luci a wry smile then, "Which means there is no one to fetch you, and we'll have to see about first aid ourselves. You are going to have one hell of a scar to remind you not to pick fights while the entire island is reeling from civil war. And may I offer my condolences for the loss of your friend?"
 
as written by glmstr

"To say the least, yeah," Lucille shifted slightly, seeming to be largely devoid of shame. From her perspective, that weird shield thing was the only thing that kept her from killing the stranger and saving Ronnie.

"Well let's hope you're good at first aid. This bar would have a kit or something behind the counter, wouldn't it?"

"And thank you, we're all going to miss Ronnie. A nice guy, and tough as nails. I'm going to have to break it to his family," the Lutetian's face grew sullen at the thought. It reminded her of the day her uncle Jaime was killed as a paladin, and the misery that came alongside it.
 
as written by Krysis

"I know a fair amount. Let's get you off this filthy floor at least." Soledad would slip her arm around Luci's shoulders then to attempt to assist the younger woman to stand up. Since the floor was covered in sand, it was not a good place to tend any sort of wound, but particularly a burn that could get infected even under idea circumstances. The bar stool was probably helpful in this too, and if the girl needed to sit down, well, that was handy.

"Was Ronnie your driver as well as your guard? I have far too much to do to stand around and play nursemaid all day, and if you can not get yourself home-- Well, the other option is the same woman that shot you, and somehow I do think that would be well with either of you." Sole did pause to glance out the wall of windows that faced the parking to see if 'Emma' was still hanging about outside.
 
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