Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Westeria City: Azure Heights

The streets of Azure Heights were mostly barren, everyone who didn't leave the district weren't planning to come out until it was safe. It was never safe anymore, not with the city going to hell and the government abandoning it.

There were slivers of hope in the form of good Samaritans, like the several armed, and armored, men and women sitting in the back of an APC driving through the city.

They were Invictus, easy to spot with their logo on the side of the vehicle and the music it was playing. Spice Girls.

"This is unbearable. Why did you put this on, Taco?" One of the Invictus mercenaries, Patrick, said to the others. Patrick was a redhead, fair-skinned with a Glasgow accent coating his words.

"I didn't have any other CDs." Taco admitted to Patrick. "Which Spice Girl do you guys think you're most like?" Taco asked his team. He was the most physically fit of the soldiers, he needed to be considering he was a combat medic.

That meant heavy lifting often and a lot of sprinting to save a life in time.

"Baby Spice for you, Taco." A woman seated beside him answered on Taco's behalf. She had a Mediterranean skin tone, long dark hair, and hazel eyes. "I like to think I'm more like Posh Spice." She said, "Because you're a dirty hipster, Nina?" Taco asked jokingly, "Yes." Nina answered, banging on the roof of the transport.

It came to a stop in front of a pharmacy, the back doors opening and allowing the group of soldiers to get out and stretch their legs. There were at least twelve in total.

"That fresh Westeria air. I hate it." Taco joked.
 
Assara walked the streets of Azure Heights, seemingly unconcerned with the state of the city. She had drones in the air, small little things meant purely for reconnaissance, hunting her quarry while she thought things over. Things like how to deal with a military individual who abandoned his people? How to treat a man who's lineage traced back to the Foremost themselves? How to handle the very man who, at the height of his own prestigious career, robbed his people of their most advanced technology without a second thought and fled to unknown space, risking everything his species had worked towards? She hated him for what he'd done, but his bravado and recklessness had allowed her to petition the Iarin people to allow for exploration or deep space. Without that knowledge, they would never have learned the things they'd learned so far.

Still, the atmosphere of Terra had made her happy. It was similar to Iara'Agar, if a bit heavy in its carbon dioxide content, but had slightly more oxygen to spare, allowing her to, quite literally, breathe easy. That coupled with Terran gravity made her feel extremely light on her feet, giving her all sorts of joy when she'd first arrived.

As she wandered the area, she saw the motion of a vehicle in her peripheral vision. It was turning out of sight down another street as she focused her gaze on it, so she began to follow at a jog. Within moments she was swiftly coming to the corner, the heavy cloth coat over her torso flapping slightly. She skidded as she tried to stop, the slightly wet ground offering less purchase to her hard-worn, thick, military-style boots, but regained her balance readily enough. She saw several individuals moving about aimlessly, causing her to quirk an eyebrow at them.
 
"What are we doing here again?" A soldier asked, carrying a metal crate out of the transport. "Setting up a safe zone for the locals. I volunteered us." Nina answered, Taco nudging her in the ribs and gesturing towards the person that seemed to be observing them.

"A fan or a problem?" Taco asked, "Because, I don't have a pen to sign autographs." He continued, "Shut up." Nina told him.

"Can we help you with something?" Nina called out, "We don't bite. Unless you ask us to."
 
The woman strode forward confidently, showing she was at least lacking fear or good common sense, though which would be tough to tell. When she stopped, perhaps a half dozen yards or so away, she paused for a moment, as if having to think of what she meant to say, vice simply speaking.

"I'm sure you likely would bite if I asked, but I'm not." She winked at Taco. "I'm simply surprised to see anyone else out here, to be honest. Many of this city's people are hiding, though I have yet to figure out why. Everything seems calm enough where I've been so far, except for the wormhole in the middle of the street with the good creatures. And the mechanical creature hellbent of shooting me to pieces. I'm lucky he wasn't a very good shot, and that he shut down for a while." She shrugged, her lithe frame slightly too small for the large coat she wore. "Say, none of you have seen a man about my own age in appearance, rugged looks, likely carrying at least one large weapon, and unwilling to ally with anyone unless they pay him well enough, have you? I've been across all the major arms of the galaxy trying to pin the guy down, and this is the closest I think I've been to catching him in a while." She looked over her shoulder, then felt a drop of rain strike the top of her head. It would not be the last.
 
"She likes you." Patrick said to Taco, "I have that effect on women." Taco boasted, pointing the crate carrying soldier towards the pharmacy. It's security gate never got the chance to be rolled down, the place was probably looted for all the medicine and drugs it had a long time ago.

"You must be new here, lady. War hit, along with all manner of catastrophe." Nina explained, pointing upwards. "Wormholes and spacecraft in the sky with bad intentions. And apparently wormholes in the street too. You'll get used to things trying to kill you. We have." She continued, taking a few steps to close the distance between herself and the woman.

She didn't move too quickly, still cautious about her surroundings and the woman before her. "Can't say that we have. We can keep our eyes and ears open, ask around, if you'll be in the city much longer."

"Oh, uh, I'm Nina, by the way. I work for the Invictus PMC locally, as do my cohorts here."
 
Assara offered a hand forward awkwardly, unsure if these people were of a species that her research had indicated shook hands as a greeting. Despite the oddity of the motion to her, and the whole of the greeting entirely, she still smiled, pleased to see that, if nothing else, these ones weren't too bad. Not yet at least.

"A pleasure to meet you, Nina. I am Assara Ellonin, of the Iarin Collective," she responded lightly. "I'll be in the city for a little while longer, yes, but it may not be long enough. I've not seen his ship anywhere, at least not in the major spaceports, but with the potential danger here, he might flee off-world and out of the system before I can find him." She looked at the the men moving crates and raised an eyebrow.

"Mind if I ask who the Invictus is? Are? I've not encountered them before."
 
Nina smiled at Assara, taking her hand in her own as greeting." The Iarin Collective? That's new. Then again, I haven't really had time to keep up on my homework." She said to Assara, "The Invictus is a mercenary organization, very old, very skilled. Right now, on Valore, we're the employ of the local government, and anyone else who can pay, protecting and securing different parts of this city." Nina explained.

"Keeping the peace, you know? Well, trying to. Easier said than done."

The Invictus mercenary turned to watch her colleagues, taking a few steps back to stand beside Assara. "It makes sense that he'd leave if things are too hot, but if he isn't in the spaceports you can try the more... unsavory areas. Somewhere a guy like that would lay low. The Downs, for instance."
 
"We're new to branching out in the galaxy, though with the branch-out we've found many, many new species that we had no idea existed." She pulled her hand back after the shake, then raised an eyebrow. "You are not from this planet? Odd that you would keep the peace on a world not your own." She smiled softly.

She listened quietly, watching the men working with quiet efficiency, reminding her of the men on her own vessel back in Iarin Space. "Perhaps you're right, but I would not think he would go to such levels just to escape his own people. I'm sorry for bringing it up, actually. It's not that much of a problem in comparison to what else has been going on in the city, after all. Do you intend on getting off-world before things get much worse?"
 
"We're privateers, mercenaries, hired help. We keep the peace until we aren't paid to keep the peace." Nina explained to Assara, "A lot of us don't know any other life than playing soldier, might as well get paid for it."

"That includes being paid to stick around if things get any crazier. We have a job to do, after all."
 
"A job that may end in your death. Seems a bit unreasonable to ask of someone," she said gently.
 
"A lot of us would rather die doing what we love, soldiering, than anything else." Nina said, "I wanted to be a dancer before this. A ballerina."

"I prefer this." She told Assara, "Sorry we couldn't be more help finding your guy."
 
"It's perfectly fine," she replied in turn. "I know more than my fair share of individuals who would-" A small ringing noise sounded near her, causing her to wave a hand through the air to her left. The motion of her hand caused a ripple, and then a shimmer of lavender light, the show resolving into a display with a few readouts on it. One of her drones had found Tenna, and had alerted the others.

"It would seem that he's been found, regardless. I'll see how well the drones do, but they'll have him tagged for tracking later on." She chuckled. "So, a ballerina, hm? Seems an interesting desire to have, though I don't know what purpose such dancers serve beyond simple entertainment."
 
"I come from a place where people appreciated the arts. We had so much war for a time that it made music, writing, dance, all a response to what was going on." Nina told Assara, "It was just a feel-good thing, I guess."

The Invictus soldier smiled, starting to get lost in some of her thoughts. She let nostalgia creep in.

"Anyways, this guy, is he like a criminal or something?" She asked, "I want to satisfy that bit of curiosity before we start talking about more of my forgotten hopes and dreams."
 
Assara flinched at the question of whether Tenna was a criminal, as if she'd been physically threatened. She'd long been ordered to simply kill him an be done with it, but that was an order she couldn't get behind. She had to capture him, to figure out why he'd done what he did. She calmed herself, returning a neutral expression to her face.

"He is, or at least according to Iarin official records. Listed to be involved in sabotage, grand larceny, espionage, desertion, terrorism to name a few of the crimes they've plastered him with. He stole an experimental super-luminal engine system from Iarin Research and Development, and hasn't been seen in our space sectors since. I was sent out about two and a half years ago to recover him, and if not him, then at least the ship he got away in." She frowned, concerned. "But it is unlike my people to so viciously hunt down another of our kind. Freedom is important to us all, second only to our national pride, and though he stole from our government, it is not as though their work was suddenly lost. They were able to pick right back up into the project, albeit the results have never been quite as perfect as the first, for reasons unknown."
 
"Those sound like good reasons to hunt someone down, at least to make a point. Governments like to save face, make an example out of people. It's the same song everywhere." Nina said to Assara.

"I bet they want him dead. Or at least dumped in some hole he can never crawl out of. You don't sound like you're with that. What happens when you meet him face to face?" The mercenary asked, turning to face Assara.

"What if he fights you?"
 
Assara cast her gaze to the ground. "When I meet him, I shall ask him to return to his people, for he is much missed. It is not unlikely that he will be pardoned, but given a mission to complete to atone for the harm done to his people." She paused, looking back up at Nina.

"Should he resist, he will be dealt with swiftly, according to Iarin Law, and returned to Iarin Homespace in a manner that provides for simplest path forward. He will be Unbound, a fate many Iarin consider worse than death, as it kills the Bonded within the Iarin host, while removing any exemplary capabilities from the host that were provided by the Bonded. For his sake, and that of his Bonded, I would prefer him to not resist." She shook her head. "Plus, I'm his cousin. It's why they chose me out of all the admirals in the fleet."
 
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"And you're cousins? That must complicate things like this?" Nina asked, "I mean, you could be delivering him ton a fate worse than death scenario." The Serbian mercenary said.

"When it comes down to it, do you think you're more loyal to your nation or to your family?" Nina asked Assara, "Personally, I'd hate to be in your shoes."
 
"We are, and his Bonded is even related to my own, though it is extremely distantly." She sighed softly, then looked at the display again. The other drones were converging on the point where Tenna was located, and if he decided to resist, she figured that he would do so only with heavy enough artillery.

"As for my loyalty, I would not be an admiral of the Iarin Navy if I were not loyal to my people. The loss of one life, no matter how dear, cannot outweigh the lives of a species. We do not know what other aliens exist beyond the stars, and to have technology that can return us home faster than they can travel would be invaluable." Assara looked down briefly, looking at her shoes with slight confusion. "I would also prefer you not be in my shoes, as they are too small for your feet, even without me in them already." The nuance of the comment was lost on her.
 
Nina couldn't help but snicker. It wasn't often that she was reminded that Valore wasn't her home. It was always when idioms were lost on the many aliens and extra-dimensional beings that she got her wake up call. She wasn't in Brooklyn anymore.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one. I get it." The soldier said. She understood duty. "I get why something so experimental, from the sounds of it, very valuable, uh, invaluable, might be something you can't just let go. You can't let it just end up anywhere in the universe."
 
"Especially without knowing how aggressive other species might be. We Iarin are not fond of conflict and will do our best to evade it, but to lose such a piece of technology would be devastating to our species' capability to wage war when we need to." She shrugged.

"So, a ballerina, hmm? How'd you end up going from such a, well, dainty desire to protecting others with guns and steel?"
 
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