2011-03-02 - Acemos Church

With the A-Laws laying low for a while, BAHRAM command has gotten suspicious. They've gotten reports of Acemos being active across the domes on the red planet, and decided to send some of their people in. And one such group of people are Hera and Ascian. With their Orbital Frames parked in a gigantic freighter at the edge of town, they are sent in by a... girl... with feline-like yellow eyes and pink hair. She hadn't even named herself. She didn't need to; the stripes on her uniform had spoken enough. High ranking. Don't mess with her.

And that is the state of things, that's led to the two framerunners to be wandering into the industrial areas, patrolling the area, on the lookout for white LEV unit or men in yellow uniforms. Ascian looked around, staring at the pink haired and mean looking woman, before turning his attention back to Hera. "Well. Talk about a mission that is not really... my forte." He doesn't really complain, but is rather trying to start up a conversation as they are approaching a nearby abandoned warehouse.

The smaller female keeps up with Ascian with ease. Hand behind her head as she smirks, "What is that again? Sneaking around, keeping sharp eyes out?" She muses, "This will be a peace of cake, so long as you don't get distracted."

"More like, being in the city doing those things. I can infiltrate a base just fine. But information gathering on this large a scale... is just slow." In a way, he admitted to being impatient. "But I guess at least I get to spend some time with you, rather than either of us being out of the base half the time, or being too tired to do anything." The young man adds, as they continue towards the abandoned warehouse.

Ascian lays his hand to one of the doors, which creaks as he pulls on the latch. "Ah, it's open." He says, and does indeed pull it open, only to appear in... the wreckage of the warehouse. Apparently, what had not been visible from the outside, was that the entire roof had collapsed. "Well... they're not going to be here. I can tell you that." And he casually closes that door again, before nudging his head about. "Let's take it slow and finish this road. There's plenty of empty warehouses." Indeed, plenty of them. They were in somewhat of a shoddy neighbourhood.

There were some adults and kids walking around, and even a few beggars. There was a mother with a child who was missing legs sitting against one building, begging simply for food. Ascian looks at the woman, then at Hera, giving her a pained look. "I can't give her money. It won't end well." He whispers to her. "And I don't have any food on me. Come, let's go." And waits to see if Hera will keep on walking with him.

Hera follows along, keeping her hands in the pockets of her pants. She, in an odd way, seems at home here; like she has walked the streets many times before. Hell she may have. Her steps are calm and her eyes ever watchful.

However when they cross the poor mother with child who is missing legs, Hera also stops. Ascian whispers to her, but Hera soon as Ascian starts to walk away, she walks over to the woman before crouching down to her. "Hello Ma'am." She says with a warm smile, before reaching into her pocket, and pulling out a bag of nuts. Nuts were after all high in protein and carbs, sooo.

Hera then handed her the bag, "What happened to you, if I may ask?"

Ascian turns about, seeing as Hera was not following him. When he sees what she is doing, his face warms a bit. 'Good, she had food on her.' He thinks to himself. After all, he'd had the bad experience of giving a woman like this money before. The next day she'd been beaten to death by other beggars who wanted it for themselves. That's just how bad things sometimes got.

The woman looks at the bag of nuts with crazed eyes. Food. She reaches for it with one arm, whilst holding the child with the other, taking the bag from Hera before she tells her story. Apparently her husband had been part of BAHRAM once, who'd taken her child with him to show his work. But during an unfortunate sabotage accident that caused a LEV to go out of control, the husband had ended up dead, and the child's legs had been forced to be removed due to how badly damaged they were. After all, the bloodstream was being poisoned by parts of her feet which were dying.

"And then the economy went further down. I never had a job, and I was soon put out into the streets. BAHRAM gave us money for a while to keep us on our feed... but that money only lasted so long." The woman ends the story. Ascian has wandered up next to Hera by then, and is looking at the child, then at the ravenhaired girl next to him. "A lot of people in this area are here because there are houses for the poor - who give away food. But with recent food supplies dwindling, life is getting harder and harder for these people." He explains, then turns towards the woman. "Any chance you've seen any men in yellow suits? With an emblem that claims 'Acemos' on them?" His answer gets a shake of the head. No.

"I know." Hera says softly before she stands up again, crossing her arms over her chest. "... Your forgot what I once was, huh?" She says looking at him, before she starts to walk away. "I roamed streets like these, we stole whatever we could, salvaged what we could, and sold it on the black market here on Mars. Devil kids, we sometimes were called. All of us either runaways or orphans."

"We took from the rich, gave to the poor, and stored some to make pocket money. Heroes to some, demons to others."

"I remember. -- " Ascian says, then adds: " -- I just didn't know where you and the rest of the 'Devil kids' lived." The young man looks down at the girl as she has her arms crossed, and doesn't follow her quite right away as she wanders off. Rather, he listens to her, until she speaks about the Robin-Hood like approach they took, and finally wanders along. His longer legs let him catch up quickly.

"So in your eyes, at that point, BAHRAM was just the rich? And the money spent on an Orbital Frame would have been better spent on making the lives of these people better?" He inquires about this without sounding really judgemental or anything. He simply made an assumption based on what she'd said earlier, and tries to confirm this.

Their continued path takes them past some more beggars. A line of people in front of a large building, having plates ready. There's a twosome of kids playing soccer in the middle of the road, but they quickly get grabbed by their mother and dragged away as Hera and Ascian approach. It probably had to do with the uniform. "It looks like Acemos was indeed here." Ascian mutters. "Assuming that that lady is scared because she saw other people in uniform before. You wanna see if you can get something out of her?"

Hera gives a nod, "Pretty much.. we.. didn't like BAHRAM much." She laughs gently, "... now look at me..."

She watches the woman run and narrows her eyes slightly, "... yeah, I'll talk to her. She may be kinder to another woman, you know?" She says with a soft smile before she makes her way over.

"Excuse me miss, may I ask you some questions?" She says with a friendly smile, "We wont hurt you, I promise."

The bluehaired framerunner nods. "But do you truly like BAHRAM now?" He asks her curiously. "Also, about that. I got something to ask you... but..." he looks at the woman and nods. "Go on ahead and talk to her. I'll be here."

As Hera approaches, the woman looks a bit scared and glances over Hera's shoulder at Ascian, who hesitantly turns his head away to show that he was not a threat. The two kids she is holding both get a pat to their backs; "Go on to daddy, and wait for me." She tells them, before standing up straight. She was easily in her fourties, but looked more like sixty due to the strained look in her eyes.

"You're BAHRAM, aren't you?" The woman asks. Ascian bore its insignia on his uniform. And even though Hera may or may not, the association is clear enough. "I guess you want to know about the men in the yellow suits?"

Hera gives a gentle nod. "That would be correct, ma'am." She says gently with a soft smile. "If you don't want to give us any information, that is fine. We wont force for you to speak or say more then you want too. You have my word."

Even though Hera spoke gently, she still gets a somewhat suspicious... no... scared look. The woman shakes her head. "It's alright." She then finally claims. "They've been bothering us lately, looking for BAHRAM operatives. It's a witch-hunt out there." She explains and then turns her head to the left, further along the street, at a church of sorts. "They've been trying to find a band of thieves lately - who have been rumored to have ties to someone in BAHRAM."

Ascian takes a few steps into the direction of the church. It was still a good way from here, but he believed he might get a better look at it even if he was just a few steps closer. His eyes squint. But he sees nothing. It looks abandoned. And he's only half been able to hear what Hera and the woman have been saying. As far as he is concerned, Acemos is in there.

Hera raises a brow, before she glances over her shoulder to see Ascian walking that way, then back to the woman. She gives her a nod before catchup up with Ascian, "We should be careful, you know?"

"I know." Ascian replies, and halts his step for a moment whilst patting his right side - tapping on the gun there in a holster. "I'll be careful." The young man turns his head as to look at Hera properly, and then... reaches the other hand to her cheek to touch her lightly. "I'll protect you." Is he... trying to be romantic? That smiles, that light touch, that look in his eyes. Yes. He is. Perhaps at a bad moment, but still...

He then lets his hand linger and fall to his side before he tries to get in front of her and begins approaching the church, unclipping the top of the holster so he can pull out his gun at any time, and holds his hand on it, whilst he keeps on walking forwards. There's some other beggars he passes on the way there, who have decided that 'now' is the perfect time to get the hell out of here.

Hera smiles at the touch, closing her eyes for that short moment in time, which in her mind seems to take far longer then it really did. However, this is alright; She can stay in such a moment.

The female doesn't protest as Ascian walks in front of her, she watches the beggers run, though her eyes narrow slightly as she starts to give more thought to what the woman said, "... kids... tied to a Bahram pilot..." she whispers softly.

Those eyes blink before they go wide, "... no...."

That's right. It was them. Kids are hiding behind the doors of the church, looking through the cracks as Ascian approaches. For a moment, Ascian turns about to look at Hera, nodding at her, and then... looks confused when her eyes widen.

He stalls.

That's exactly the moment that the kids seem to have been waiting for, as they run out. A foursome of them, one going for the gun to try and wrest it from the blue haired framerunner, while the other three try to knock themselves into him in order to make him fall. "Why you!" Ascian cries out, grabbing for the gun - stopping the kid who was trying to steal it... and raises it.

Hera watches this before she yells. She doesn't recognize these kids, but she has an idea. "Stop!" She yells, "Knock it off!" Her eyes then dart over to the church, "Felix!" She then yells loudly, "Felix! Call them off! NOW!"

About that time a kid with near silver hair walks out, with green eyes staring right over to Hera, followed by three other older kids. The white haired one looked close to being around his early twenties. "The goddess has returned." He muses, ".., and probably become a traitor, hmm?"

Hera sneers, "Call them off Felix. We are not here to hurt anyone and we are trying to find someone who is very dangerous."

"Dangerous huh?" Felix then snaps his fingers, "Let him go, but slide me that gun, if you be so kind chum."

By the time Hera yells, Ascian is already on the ground. The gun is aimed at the air, but it doesn't go off. The safety is still on. The young man tries to struggle himself out from underneath the four kids, but is having a hell of a problem until...

Well, until Hera manages to convince someone Ascian couldn't even see from the bodies on top of him to call off the kids. He groans as the youths get off of him, and looks at Hera, before he looks at Felix. Again? Why was it him who constantly needed the saving? He felt like he was losing face, and seemed somewhat angry.

The young man gets up to his feet and gives a hesitant look at Felix... then at Hera... then back at Felix, as the silver haired youngster demands his gun. He didn't trust this Felix guy... but he trusted Hera. He drops it to the floor and kicks it over. "We're looking for Acemos." He snaps. "Heard they're trying to find you, since you know someone in BAHRAM." A pause... "Guess I found out who that person is as well, while I am at it." Yep, definitely sounding angry.

"Yep, they are." Felix admits as he picks up the gun. He looks it over, before he removes the clip, pockets it, and then kicks the gun back; Smart guy; Or stupid. "At least they /tried/ to find us. Hera can tell you all about how good we are at keeping our heads low, huh, goddess?" They all sorta laugh a bit.

Hera hmphs softly, "Felix, stop being a jerk for once huh and why don't you get over yourself. We are trying to find these guys, they are dangerous."

Felix tsks softly, "So says the one who decided to go work for the big game and get all pampered and feed. Happy were you are, little kitten?"

Hera growls and then about goes to move forward but stops herself. "..come on Ascian, they are not going to help us.." She says starting to walk away.

Felix raises a brow, "Hm."

Ascian looks down at the gun as it is kicked back over and lifts it to his side - holstering it. He does have extra ammo on him, obviously, but he's not going to go shooting some kids. Especially not Hera's old friends. Instead he backs off a bit in order to get next to Hera as she asks for him. The framerunner doesn't try to reason against the kids though. He knows that at BAHRAM they have quite a lot of luxury compared to others.

"Sorry about that." He whispers to her, appologizing for the fact that she'd needed to 'save' his sorry behind from some kids. The young man then looks about towards Felix, reading that brow-raise... and halts. He doesn't go with Hera, and even puts a hand to her shoulder to stop her.

Hera tsks softly, "Felix always been a jerk and slightly paranoid... even if those traits are annoying.. it kept us alive." She admits. Then that hand comes on her shoulder which stops her and she looks over her shoulder and then turns to look at Ascian before it falls on Felix.

Felix stares at the two of them. He then starts to head back inside, before he does a hand motion as if to say 'follow'.

Ascian looks at Hera, then back at Felix. He wanted to see if she was okay with going inside. "I can go alone, if you want." He whispers at her, then lets that hand fall from her shoulder and he follows Felix inside into the decrepit church which had been made into a 'home' for homeless kids.

Hera shakes her head, "No, I'll come with." She then begins to follow calmly.

Felix leads them inside the church, it could use some fixer-uppers, but it aint bad. There are many kids in here actually, all watching, all staring.

Felix then walks over to a female, who is a bit younger before he whispers to her, then he apparently walks off.

Hera stares at the female before she raises a brow, "... I don't know her..."

Ascian remains at Hera's side... or rather, gets behind her for a moment, slowly walking, before appearing on her other side. And knowing he isn't being looked at, without making too much noise, he reloads his gun. He felt insecure without it loaded. He then bends down a bit as Hera says that she didn't know the female Felix was with. "We'll see who she is." Ascian replies. He was good at reading expressions, he'd simply have to keep good track of those around them.

So he looks over at the kids for a moment, and then Felix - who'd walked away - before finally concentrating some of his attention on the woman, wondering what this was about.

The female looks up after Felix wanders off and smiles at them. "Ah, so you are the so called Goddess they sometimes speak of. How is life in BAHRAM treating you?" Her voice is overly sweet and nice, but her expression... it spells 'bitch'.

Hera crossed her arms under her chest and narrowed her eyes slightly. She looked on the defensive and didn't trust this girl. Just /who/ was she and why did Felix hand them off to her anyhow. "Fine, look, we just want answers and we'll be on our way, ok?"

The girl raises a hand and chuckles slightly behind her fist. Obviously, she finds Hera saying this funny somehow. Ascian crosses his arms too and stares at the girl. "Look. Just tell us where to find Acemos, and we'll be out of your hair." He demands. The girl just keeps chuckling and shakes her head. "Why would we wanna tell you that. It's not like there's any Acemos operatives around here." Wait... what?

Hera raises a brow and then glances over to Ascian before she pulls on his jacket slightly and whispers to him, 'I don't like this.' She then looks at the girl, 'my instincts are going nuts.'

Hera then steps up to the female narrowing her eyes, "We were informed that there was Acemos operatives in the area, and they knew that I was connected to the lot of you. I was worried they may have come to harm you guys because of me, now please, stop the games.."

The girl just shakes her head, as if this is the biggest joke in the world. "Acemos found us a while ago. You see, we finally found a way to get a lot of money without having to steal for it. We'll finally be able to make a live for ourselves." A few of the boys around them look away in shame, where-as others just... grin. A small group of girls at the back leave, heading down a small hallway.

Ascian begins looking around. 'Yeah, same here.' He already had whispered back to Hera when she'd told him her insincts were going nuts. And when Hera finally walked forwards, and the girl had finished her little spiel... he finally notices the dim light of a mobile phone in that girl's pockets. "Run." Is all Ascian manages to say before a group of men in yellow suits suddenly run inside and lift machine guns up - aimed at the two. "Hands in the air, dirty Ender scum!" They shout.

Hera narrows her eyes and sneers sharply she then swings her fist out to deck the girl, "Felix!!" Hera yelled, that was when Ascian took ahold of her and as they started to run, guess who was there to meet them.

The female then snarled her teeth at them like an angry dog, before glancing around quickly. "... son of a..." She hissed out, before suddenly, she darts and actually runs straight up one of the pillars, before leaping off to grab the rail, probably at this point not only does Hera show off she still has it, but probably some kids scatter.

The girl just grins as Hera decks her, falling onto her ass... then begins screaming at her. "You betrayed your own friends! You joined BAHRAM and you never came to try and find them!" She tries to guilt-trip the ravenhaired framerunner. "This is all your doing!"

Ascian just... stares as Hera then makes for the pillars and shows off her incredible acrobatics. The Acemos do the same, but quickly start opening fire on her! Bullets go flying, and the kids in the church quickly try to take cover. And Ascian? Ascian makes use of this moment of confusion to run between some pillars and down a small side-hallway to get to the back of the church. A lieutenant then steps into the church and quickly does some signs, getting the group to split up.

So now there are two squads of three Acemos operatives, one trying to get up to where Hera is whilst firing at her, whilst the others try to get to where Ascian is - who is hiding behind a door and opening his gun up at them. And Felix? Felix looks stunned, standing in the open somewhere.

Hera gets down low when the shots go, and she starts to crawl pretty much, before waiting and as soon as one of the Acemos guys gets up there, she grabs his machine gun, before smacking it into his face, forcing him to lose his balance most likely and fall back down, before she then herself opens fire.

Taking cover from time to time.

As Hera shows off that she's grown up from being a streetrat to an actual soldier, Ascian decides to do the same. Not that the two are particularly related, but as the Acemos men are forced to move around as they are getting attack from above and from the same level, they are having a lot of trouble keeping their own cover.

One of them just stands still trying to hit Ascian by emptying his machine-gun like rifle... until the clip runs out of bullets. And that's exactly when the young man comes out of hiding and shoots the guy through the helmet, in one well aimed shot.

He quickly is forced back into hiding though, as the two remaining ones that were hoping to pick him off open fire on the dooropening. Hera in the meanwhile manages to shoot one of the men in the chest with her confiscated weapon, and is fairly safe whilst the remaining person darts between another series of pillars to find his way upstairs. The lieutenant at the entrance of the church meanwhile is sneaking around, trying to get a bead on Hera. He seems very skilled.

Hera quickly ducks down and attempts to look for someplace to go. It was starting to get hot here and she grits her teeth. Quickly Hera does something completely unexpected. She makes a jump for it, with the machine gun strap slung around her shoulder, reaching to grap some old cloth, before it tears and she uses it to swing down, and the hides behind the old alter, before she quickly starts to fire above the alter at one of the soldiers who was trying to sneak up on her.

The man who had been trying to get up the stairs gets completely blindsided by Hera's maneuver. But she fails to see the lieutenant when suddenly... BOOOOOONNNGGGG! A loud sound of a hollow metal object smashes in on the guy's head; Felix standing behind him with what looks like a Japanese gong. He gives a sheepish grin at Hera, before he quickly ducks down. The people who'd been shooting at Ascian decided to fire at the guy who just knocked out their lieutenant.

That is the moment Ascian comes out of cover, and with two well aimed shots takes both of them out. "Is that all of them!?" He shouts... whilst turning his attention towards the girl who'd betrayed them... who was on the floor. Rolling around. Laughing. Apparently this was the funniest thing in the world to her.

Hera glances over before she stands and carefully walks, looking over the kids and looking for anyone who may work. "Looks like it!" She calls over to Ascian, before her eyes move over to Felix, "You ok Felix?"

Ascian comes out of hiding, breathing a sigh of relief, and quickly approaches Hera to check if she is okay. Felix in the meanwhile is giving a hesitant smile at Hera - knowing he's betrayed her trust. "I'm sorry." Is the best thing he seems to come up with, then turns his attention at the girl who is still... laughing. "I think she needs to leave."

"She needs to go into a mental hospital." Ascian replies, staring at the girl, then shaking his head and wandering over to the Lieutenant that was unconcious and reaching for his gun - setting it to the back of the guy's head... it looks like he's going to shoot the guy in cold blood. Anger showing. It's Acemos. They've had some history. But just 'some' history doesn't explain the dead cold killing intent visible on his face.

Hera walks up to Ascian quickly before taking his hand, perhaps to move it away, before she looks at him and says softly, "... we did enough here... we should head back...."

Ascian's hand shivers a bit, his finger shaking against the trigger. He looks up in confusion as she takes his hand and lets her move it away. It is only when she speaks that he puts the safety back on. He looks away in guilt. "Sorry." He replies, and then quickly looks for identification on the guy. The young man manages to find a datadisk and the guy's wallet.

The blue haired framerunner then stands up and holsters the gun, his body trembling a bit. It'd been a long time since he'd shot someone like that. During the 'assault', he'd been calm. But... Hera would probably need to calm him down. By methods of booze or otherwise after they'd get back. "Yeah. Let's head back." He stammers and begins to wander off. Some soldier he is.

Hera glances over her shoulder to Felix before she yells at him, "Try and stay out of trouble, ne? I'll see if I can send you guys something!"

The female pilot then walks with Ascian before she takes his trembling hand as they walk. "... it's ok Ascian, we were in this together and we came out together, and that is what is important."

His hand stops shaking as much as she takes his hand - the warmth spreading through his slightly colder extremities. "He smiles weakly at her. "Thank you, again." He says to her. "I'm glad you were there for me." The young man doesn't designate for what part in particular. Stopping him from killing that man in cold blood? Saving him from the kids? Who knows. She'd have to ask.

They continue down the street. It looks somewhat odd, in a way. Two BAHRAM soldiers, walking hand in hand, after having shot a few men to death. Freud would have a fieldday with this.