Arc 4 – Chapter 1 – Border Breaches

Online Interview - 12:45pm, Synergy Resear - 

Goddamnit! Liena shook the pink glittery gel pen furiously in her hand, then scribbled it just as furiously at the corner of the page. After a few tense moments, the sparkly liquid trailed from the rolling ballpoint, smoothly across the paper. The sweet smell of artificial strawberry filled the small room, and Liena's tongue flickered softly for a moment from between her lips, savouring the scent. 

She finished writing the entry in her planner, then leaned back with a sigh. The battered old office chair beneath her squeaked and groaned - it had been advertised as 'second hand, but like new.' Absolute lies. It was easily fourth or fifth hand, and looked like it had tried to take a short-cut through an asteroid field to get to her. Stupid Spacebook Marketplace. Liena ignored the creaking protests however, continuing to fidget as she glanced back down at her planner. She folded her legs crossed beneath her. She sat at her desk for a few moments, tapping her pen rapidly against the rusting metal surface, and thinking. With her other hand, she flicked aimlessly through the planner. There were far too few entries in it. As she flicked through the pages, multicoloured notes, equations, formulas, diagrams, annotations, acronyms, molecules, and silly little doodles flashed before her dull, grey eyes, their own unique scents almost faded, but clinging desperately onto their ink. The combined smell of them all however was sickening, almost unpleasant, and Liena crinkled her face, then slammed the planner shut. The pink pen dropped to the desk with a clatter, and she ran her pale pastel-green hands down her face.

This has to pull through… Jeez, I never thought this would be so hard… 

Liena hadn't adjusted to nomad life as easily as she thought she would. It should have been easy; she'd had a job lined up with a small starter corp, and everything had seemed perfect - but apparently, things outside of the DA are no-where near as certain as they are on the inside. The opportunity had fallen through just days before she was due to start, but by that point, she'd already announced to her parents that she was leaving, had already had numerous fights with her mother, and taken the brunt of the snears and remarks from her siblings. She'd been so scared. And if it hadn't been for Seres to support her, she would have run straight back to the lot of them with her dreadlocks between her legs.

We told you so… We knew there was no way you could do it…

Seres. God she felt so guilty. She'd been more than happy to leave the DA behind and travel out into the unknown with her friend, but that had been when Liena had a plan. They'd spent the last few months living out of a tiny old spaceship which they'd managed to get cheap off a scrappy, literally minutes before it was due to be scrapped. Liena had to completely rewire all the electrics to get it back online. When they started the engine it made a horrible noise, a loud cross between a concerning-sounding clunk, and a dying man's cough. The integrated minifridge had conveniently packed in a few hours after they'd spent the majority of their remaining dies on groceries. And Seres had had to pay for all of that. And she'd been funding the two of them every moment since, with the little savings she had, and by picking up merc work as they travelled across nomad space. And she said she was fine with it; Seres always did, nothing seemed to bother that girl. Liena felt the butterflies fluttering in her stomach and her cheeks warm at just the thought of her. She always felt safe when she was around, her raging anxiety would quell and her overthinking mind would calm… and her heart would race and she would tingle between her legs, but Seres couldn't know that! Gosh, just the sound of her firm, confident steps echoing through the ship was enough to make Liena's head spin -

- Wait a minute! That wasn't in her head; the airlock creaked and closed loudly, and Sere's footsteps echoed up the main deck. Oh my god! 

Liena leapt out her chair and quickly pulled on the black leather jacket she'd thrown onto the mattress-and-blanket combo they called a bed hours earlier, and zipped it up over her baggy plain t-shirt. "Seres! That you? It better be you!"

"Who else would be coming by to see your flat little ass?" Seres poked her head round the door with tired eyes, but a wide grin. 

"Hey, my ass could be in high demand! You're never here to know!" Liena retorted with her own grin, and stuck her tongue out at her friend. She was still blushing slightly, but her chest was already swelling with the confidence that just being in Seres' presence gave her.

Her chest wasn't the only thing swelling however, and Liena quickly sat down on the mattress, crossing her legs as casually as she could. "I-I wasn't expecting you back until the morning." She continued shyly. 

"That a problem?" Seres plopped herself down on the mattress opposite her. "You got a girl hidden here somewhere?" 

"W-What?" Liena laughed awkwardly. "I-I wish!" Liena cleared her throat, desperate to change the subject. "I take it your date didn't go well?"

"Ugh." Seres leant back heavily against the back wall. She was tall for a czarite, around six foot, athletic and well-built too. She unbuttoned her trousers as she sat back, and pulled her bra out from underneath her top as she relaxed. Liena tried her hardest to pull her gaze away from Sere's bouncing cleavage, as she readjusted herself. "Men are an absolute nightmare, Liena. I can see why you like girls instead."

"Ah yes, because I've had so much success." Liena siddled slightly closer to her friend. In comparison, Liena was the complete opposite of Seres, despite them being the same species. Seres was broad and strong, with strong charcoal-grey carapace adorning her body. Nearly all her tops were off the shoulder, and her trousers were specially made with slits to help cater for her carapace. Her skin was a beautiful soft lilac, her eyes a shining bright amethystine, her dreadlocks thick and wavy and sparkling. Liena in contrast was a tiny little thing, five-foot-eight and built like a pencil. Despite her average height, she looked lanky, her hair was long, flat and straight, almost greasy-looking. She was nowhere near as well endowed as her friend, and actually, usually didn't bother wearing a bra at all. Seres said she should consider herself lucky she didn't have to, but looking at Sere's soft and gentle curves of her body, Liena considered herself anything but. She was all sharp edges and skinny limbs. She didn't even have the carapace that most czarites did; she had a pretty little flower-looking crown gracing her face, but that was pretty much it - it was an unfortunate side effect of her Oak's disease and its treatment, the lack of carapace growth. Seres had tried to convince her that she was lucky for that too, that she could wear pretty much anything she wanted, without having to make adjustments or going to special shops. But after a lifetime of teasing for being different, Liena would have given anything for those inconveniences, and just be like everyone else. For a change.

"It's shocking how many guys get weird as soon as they see you're taller than them." Seres was saying. "And then you get to talking, finally a bit of flirting after a few drinks and the subject of penises comes out - apparently it's not well known around nomad space that czarites are hermaphrodites. Honestly, his expression when I told him, he went white as a sheet."

"Not many of them fancy getting pegged by a dommie like you then?" Liena teased with a smile.

"Nope. It would be funny if I wasn't so fucking fed up." Seres sighed. "Oh well. He was kinda ugly anyway. On the plus side, they always pay for dinner." She grinned then. "They're too scared shitless not to."

"Speaking of…" Liena looked up at her hopefully. "Did you get anything for meeee?"

"Of course I did, gotta feed my bestie!" Seres reached into her bag and pulled out a little paper doggy-bag. She tossed it gently into Liena's waiting hands which, of course, she fumbled, missed the catch, and had to scramble to stop the food from spilling everywhere. Finally, she ripped the bag open and immediately shoveled a handful of cold fries into her mouth. 

"I wish I could eat like you and stay as skinny as you." Seres laughed, and lay down on the mattress. 

They didn't say anything else for a few minutes. Liena finished her food while Seres half-heartedly scrolled through a dating app on her phone. Liena glanced over, and couldn't help but feel a pang of jealousy. Once she finished eating, she shuffled down and lay next to Seres, anxiously careful not to touch her - even though her body was screaming out for the contact.

"I… I got an interview today." Liena said softly. 

"Oh, that's good! Pfft, here's me going on about my crappy dating life when there's more important things going on!" Seres twisted into her side and smiled at Liena. "When is it?"

"Late next week." Liena replied. "Hopefully I'll do better at this one than the last…"

"Don't worry about it! You just gotta take a deep breath, try and stay calm. You're in control, not your anxiety." Seres took hold of Liena's hands and squeezed them tightly. "You got this!" 

"Y-Yeah?" Liena said, blushing again in the soft orange light of the singular light bulb, dangling precariously above their heads. 

"Yep! I believe in you, Liena."

***

Jace leaned ever-so-slightly forward over the railing in front of him, so as to get a better view of the bay below. There was nothing quite like it, after all. Two hundred dragoons marching in unison, their servos whirring in time with one-another, rifles clutched against their shoulders. Their mechanical march was the pounding drum that kept the Draconic Alliance's hearts thumping in rhythm.

It was almost enough to make the old man smile. 

The DA's muscles were being flexed, several different squads had come together to make this battleship their quarters. Specifically, his battleship. There were the specialists of the Riot Control & Psyonic Suppression division, equipped with gas masks and riot-shields, currently tinkering with ice-blue caskets of cryo-fluid and crates filled with cinnamon brown powder. The crates had 'NULLIPHINE CONCENTRATE' stamped in red on their sides, and took up a significant portion of the floor around the RCPS squad. As they tinkered, a fresh batch of equipment descended from above via bright white cargo drone. It landed with a gentle clunk and was quickly unboxed, revealing freshly manufactured high-grade environshields, with a distinctive orange hue to them. Heat resistance.

The squad immediately set about fixing the modules to their rubberized armoured suits. Jace had taken a liking to their odd design of gently clinking scale mail and heavy hazmat plating, it reminded him of his own days as a soldier in the field… He had been assured that they weren't as hot to wear as they looked, thanks to the various life support systems within. It was just a shame that this stuff was needed in the first place.

Above the RCPS division, the gleaming white razor operatives of the Anti-Gravity & Air Superiority division floated weightlessly, marching through the air as though taunting their gravity-constrained cousins stuck marching on the bay's floor. The AGAS division was primarily tasked with planetary air to air combat, and intercepting fights between capital ships in space warfare, but they had landed their expertise to produce infantry battle suits known as razor operatives. Although agents took many years of training to produce, being able to lug vulcan weapons whilst traversing the battlefield at mach-three made them a force to be reckoned with, if expensive to deploy. Aside from their slick-plated armour, they had a pair of ominous glowing ports on their gauntlets, facing towards any would-be targets. These were plasma lances, limited in use but able to generate twenty foot long plasma jets. There and gone in the blink of an eye, they could punch bowling ball-sized holes through the sides of tanks and buildings as though they were little more than butter.

These were just two of the many platoons stationed aboard the battleship, each going about their own preparations and drills. The ship's interior had become a carnival of military activity, each squad as anticipating as the last, mobilized under royal decree. But the dragoons at the back of the hall dominated the soundscape with their every movement and it felt like every other division moved in time with the thunderous applause of their metallic feet against the floor.

Jace was stationed far above the hustle and bustle of the main deck. It was a lean deck that lined the walls of the hall on one side, lined with a glass railing and high above the soldiers below it. A similar deck was positioned on the opposite side of the hall, where Jace could just about see a squad of Royal Praetorian Division soldiers resting. They gave him a friendly wave from across the hall when they saw him, and Jace nodded in return. It was an odd feeling seeing so many divisions united within the same space. It felt like they were about to go to war…

He sighed heavily through his nostrils and pushed himself off the guard rail. Behind him, the cloudy glass doors of his office awaited him. There was no doubt. There absolutely would be more paperwork.

Back to it, I suppose.

He pushed through the heavy double doors, his eyes adjusting to the sudden shift in lighting, from the orange warmth of the hangar's downlighting, to the sterile white office LEDs irradiating his reception area, a mid-sized room, in which his new personal assistant sat to his left. She was currently sighing herself, and pushing the buttons of her keyboard with the tail-end of a pen. Warmth flashed in her eyes however when she noticed the commander.

"Hoi, boss! Great news! There is absolutely no end to the journalists trying to get an interview with you." Aybel grinned sarcastically, resting her pretty face against her palm. She was a slim dragoness, her scales a moody malachite green, which contrasted sharply with her soft pink eyes. Her wings were folded behind her neatly, and she was currently dressed in a sharp looking DA military suit, with white and blue patterning down its lapels. "I swear I'm gonna lose it if they keep phoning, all of them thinking they're the most important person in the whole entire empire."

"All journalists so far?" Jace asked tiredly, making his way towards another door ahead of him.

"Ayup. All looking for their next big story. They're rabid over the attack, and even more rabid over their perfect headlines!" Aybel threw her hands up in the air in exasperation.

Suddenly, there was a sharp knock behind him and Jace glanced over his shoulder to see a familiar silhouette through the clouded glass. Theo pushed his way inside, a roll of newspapers and magazines under his arm. He grinned at Jace, and flipped Aybel a middle finger with his free hand.

"Oi! Don't you give me that!" Aybel protested sharply, standing from her desk. "I don't need attitude from a living zimmer frame, I'm getting enough from these assholes!" Her words were followed with a sharp nod towards the phone on her desk.

"Well, maybe don't do thirty-two flips in a dragoon during a parade, then." Theo laughed heartily. "You got the whole platoon in trouble, they're still washing the paving slabs by hand outside the Sapphire Lane Courthouse."

"Oh piss off, grandad! The crowd was bored! They wanted to see what we can really do! Not just marching back and forth up the same road! I can't help it if I'm just more in touch with the public!"

"And now you're more in touch with the phone!"

"UGH! Theoooo! Stoppit!" Aybel glared, slamming her butt back down on her chair. "I just wanted to inspire people!"

"Enough, the pair of you." Jace finally intervened. "Be glad you still have a wage and a position, Aybel. Theo, stop winding her up please, she's handling the media storm that's battering my gates, and I'm incredibly grateful for that. Come on, my office please."

The rhargnorn snorted with laughter and quickly closed in behind Jace, following him through the next set of doors as they closed softly behind them. Jace's office was revealed in its full glory, an overly spacious room more akin to a trophy room than a traditional office. Glittering marble slabs lined the floor, shimmering in the soft amber downlights that kept the room feeling oddly cosy, all considered. It was on two height levels, separated by a couple of steps that spanned the entire width of the office, with his desk placed on the higher half at the back. Solid wood cabinets and bookshelves lined the edges of the room, along with a solid metal armoury display and a mannequin covered in sleek white armour. The armour matched Jace's broad stature perfectly, and featured a sizable combi-jet-pack array built into the back of the chest plate, designed to work in tandem with functional wings. The armour had been repaired and restored, and fastened to its front were several medals, different-coloured ribbons adorning each one. Behind the armour stand, fastened securely to the wall was an impressive, seven foot long halberd, constructed from thick silver and adorned with various ceremonial sashes tied over its worn handle.

Opposite the armoury and armour display was an imposing filing cabinet, spanning the width of the wall, somehow more intimidating than the weaponry opposite it. The centrepiece of the room, Jace's desk, was hewn of solid obsidian marble, and currently stacked with papers and documents from the last few days. 

The commander strolled his way around to his side of the desk and planted himself on the cush black leather chair, inviting Theo to the still impressive but not quite as tall chair on the visitor's side. Theo chucked his magazines onto the desk and quickly helped himself to a seat, happy to take the weight off his feet - foot.

"Some choice headlines for you there." He grinned, rolling his metal ankle and watching Jace eagerly.

The commander leaned over, raising an eyebrow as he picked up the magazines one at a time.

"The Daily Scale. Hmm. Quality reading material here, Theo." Jace scoffed dismissively. 

Printed on the front of the paper was a blurry aerial shot of Diego, running for his life with Karen on his shoulder as the horde closed in on him. The headline read Komodo Kapers! Slave saves colony from sudden assault!

A brief skim showed the article to mostly be focused on the sudden nature of the assault, Diego's heroism and the response from the DA, eager to highlight all the detail and drama for readers. It did mention just how rare Diego's species was, with there being only single digit figures of recorded coralith komodos across the entire draconic empire, highlighting just how unusual the event was.

Next up was Wyrufal Weekly, a more respected contender in the DA's printing press. The front had another blurry aerial shot of Diego, but this one was him mid-strike, showing a visible shockwave of energy rupturing through the horde. The headline read; Enemies within the border, a colony under siege and our hero was a prisoner? with its final word in bold and underlined twice. This one was a stronger read, asking questions about Diego's origin and why he was a prisoner, but it didn't seem to contain anything more than speculation.

The final magazine, Membrain, brought a smirk to Jace's face immediately. The entirety of the front cover was graced with the presence of D'Boris Thornscale's portly face. The photo was in black and white, with the main man himself positioned under an intense spotlight, looking as serious and sorrowful as his flaccid face could manage. Diving deep with D'Boris; 'How a slave seduced my wife and took my home!' 

Unable to resist the tepid writing, Jace quickly flicked to the article and was greeted by the same aerial shot used by The Daily Scale, only this time it was crudely annotated with speech bubbles. Apparently, the editors thought it was prudent to have Diego saying 'Bun in the oven!' whilst the horde yelled behind him 'Homewrecker!'

A quick scan of the article revealed that D'Boris's interview mostly centered around his alleged friendship with Diego, that ended with the komodo eventually seducing his wife and impregnating her, supposedly against D'Boris' wishes. It was a dubious article at best, if not amusing, not dissimilar to D'Boris himself.

"Well, this is just… delightful, Theo. Thank you for bringing me such fine reading material. Do you think Diego was a close friend of Mr Thornscale?" Jace smirked again, gently sweeping the magazines aside.

"Oh, I'd never question the journalistic integrity of Membrain." Theo grinned, his pointed teeth bearing from between his lips. "Nah. Diego seemed like he had more than two brain cells, it's hard to enjoy that prat's company when you can actually understand words and concepts. D'Boris is just a thoughtless bottom." Theo shifted his weight and leaned onto his metallic leg. "Honestly, I thought this bullshit might at least bring a smile to your face. Although, I gotta say, seeing a rack full of D'Boris' face like that sent my fight or flight reflex into overdrive. I nearly threw my coffee across the room like it was a grenade. The media is going crazy over the attack."

"They definitely slimmed his cheeks down in the editing suite… But regarding the media, can you blame them? It's a hell of a story. A dreadnought showed up out of nowhere and began a planetary invasion, three rims deep into the border. Plus it's got all those fun little details people like to speculate over. This will be feeding the media for months."

"Diego can't catch a break apparently. There was… something I noticed though."

Jace sighed quietly and leaned his head back against the leather. He could feel his heart rate rising uncomfortably.

"Cyrune?"

"Mhmm." Theo nodded, plucking Wyrufal Weekly from the pile. "I'm surprised no one has talked about it yet. Or speculated. The satellite imagery is kinda shit, I guess... But, uh…" Theo cleared his throat and tossed the magazine aside. "I think he might be from Cyrune."

"Are you certain?" Jace asked, his gruff voice several shades softer than usual.

"...On reflection, I'm absolutely convinced he is. Or… well -"

" - Did I station an agent of Cyrune on a class-B colony at the new spheres?!" The colour was visibly draining from the dragon's cheeks.

"I don't think it's that simple." Theo interrupted quickly. "I didn't get Cyrunian vibes from the dude up close. I just… recognised the psyonics. You can't get that anywhere else. He must be Cyrunian… Or at least, used to be. Although I'm not entirely sure how that can be the case. No one leaves Cyrune." Theo frowned down at the magazines, and D'Boris frowned back.

"Tell me about the psyonics." Jace said quietly, the leather creaking under him as he gently rocked back and forth in his chair.

"It was high-tier, complex psyonic work. Multistage, powerful shit. From what I know, that sort of stuff is absurdly difficult to conjure and even harder to make effective. But he made himself bulletproof. I saw AC rounds bouncing off him. Not sure if he'd be vulcanproof, but the fact it's even a question is terrifying."

"Defensive psyonics are rare, no matter the faction. Harder to stop energy than simply conjure it." Jace nodded in agreement, tugging at the cuffs of his sleeves.

"More than that though - He protected Lockblade, and his friends in high orbit with it too, so the dude's got reach."

"It reached Seeth's crew in orbit?!" Jace exclaimed, his eyes widening in shock.

"Ayup. I heard them talking about it when I checked in afterwards. From the way I saw him swinging Lockblade's axe, I would think he was a crusader captain maybe? He knew how to swing and handle great weapons, which lets face it, ain't exactly common either. He was doing some weird psyonic thing as well, adding force to his swings. That was new to me though, not seen any Cyrune cultists doing that. They usually just do that generic physical enhancement one… what's it called?" Theo clicked his fingers a couple times as he tried to recall the name of it. "Champion's Boon! Makes 'em stronger and tougher by a few degrees."

"If he's not using the latest stuff on Cyrune's roaster, maybe it's old?"

"Yeah, could be." Theo nodded in agreement. "According to his ex-keeper, he told her he was over five hundred years old. His control over it was flawless though. No wasted energy, and it made the axe sheer straight through several bodies without slowing. Just a flash of red and then a ton of blood. He turned a few of them into organic shrapnel too, slapped their bones straight out of them. It was precise, effective and powerful as hell. Dude would have sheared clean through a hover barge, for sure."

"Obviously well practised at whatever this old combat style is, then? Likely a senior or high rank?"

"You can say that again. His defensive incantations ramped up too, I saw golden energy arcing off him, frying the Barons taking pot-shots at him. That one is definitely Cyrunian. I've seen it before."

"What's its purpose?" Jace asked, pulling out a pad of paper from inside his desk drawer and scribbling to make notes.

"Fuck people up for shooting at them. If you shoot long range weapons at folks protected by the psyonic, you'll get a nice, painful zap. Strength and range varies of course. You know Cyrune looooove melee, sending hundreds of thousands of cultists straight at you, knives to the sky at dusk. The counter-bolts are a big middle finger to those trying to gun them down at range. Again though, even among them it's rare as hell. From what I gather, those kinds of psyonics are difficult. Diego's was fucking strong, outright killed the Baron's shooting at him. It wasn't just a deterrent from shooting him, it was forcing the battlefield to go his way. "

"Which is…?"

"A 'come into axe range, no, I'm not asking' kinda way."

"I'm guessing you don't see lowly zealots using that then?" Jace sighed, then fumbled and knocked his pen to the floor. He pressed his fingers against his forehead sharply.

"Unfortunately not." Theo chuckled lightly as Jace leaned over to pick it up. "We're reaching about the limits of my knowledge on this stuff. The only other thing I'd add is that these types of psyonics are extremely expensive and difficult to maintain, which is why the Cyrunian's offload the cost onto their psyonic web, rather than trying to use their own energy for it. But Diego was clearly using his own strength." Theo paused then, seeing the stress wrinkling the corners of Jace's eyes. "Oi! Don't beat yourself up, the dude's profile was falsified! Whoever fabricated this whole thing is to blame. And beyond that, I should repeat, in spite of everything I just said - the dude did not give me Cyrune vibes."

"It could have been a disaster, Theo. I put everyone in that colony in danger. As well as the moral issue of keeping him prisoner for my own plans."

"Okay, dick move on the last part but… I don't think you put people in danger." Theo responded more firmly this time. "You said his only offenses whilst in the labour program were some escape attempts? He didn't stab or try to convert anyone. And we're still haven't talked about the fucking shockwave he did at the end."

"I saw the report. You said he floored the entire horde? I don't see how that helps my position."

"Just listen!" Theo insisted stubbornly. "One of the clean-up drones found part of Lockblade's axe on the colony's moon! He flattened thousands of them! The civvies in the bunker felt the ground quake! That sort of power… Jace, if the guy was bad news, he would have used that strength on us. If he wanted us gone, he could have flattened the civic centre, and me with it. But he didn't."

"Hmm. Fair point." Jace's shoulders relaxed a little at Theo's words. "He seemed well-enough liked within the community from what we gathered, ignoring D'Boris' interview. Final opinion on his psyonics then?"

"Ultra-class for sure. Diego's kit is tailor-made for leading armies from the front and kicking your nuts up through your mouth."

"...Hmm. I have to say though, this only poses further questions if he explicitly didn't give you the typical Cyrunian demeanour. How did he escape from them? And why is someone of that calibre just milling around nomad space? And from our side, who would be stupid enough to cross someone with that kind of history?" Jace's eyes briefly flickered to the floor before landing straight on Theo. "If this is the Dynasty, their hubris has grown exponentially over the last year. And that doesn't bode well for us."

"Maybe he was onto the Dynasty? Or had tangled with them in the past?"

"Could be. Or it could have been a mistake. The Grey Wall hasn't just hidden the empire's past. Maybe, for whatever reason, he made a preferable target, but they bit off more than they could chew with him? Scyler stretched pretty damn far to bring this guy in. He knows something. I just don't know how to bridge that gap yet. But, there is another elephant in the room that needs addressing."

It was Theo's turn to look uncomfortable now. "The dreadnought." The rhargnorn grumbled, wiggling back and forth in his chair.

"I know these conversations are uncomfortable, even for the two of us. But I need to know what you know."

"Okay. Look - "

The back of Theo's neck suddenly bristled, a sharp electric shock-like feeling spreading down his spine. From inside his head, audible to no-one else, a voice suddenly barked;

"TELL HIM WHAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE SHIP. BUT SPEAK OF THIS ARRANGEMENT, AND YOU KNOW WHAT WE'LL DO."

The words echoed up his bones. It was shrill and near-deafening, revibrating through his body like a circular saw to his skeleton.

Understood, cunt. Just you fucking wait.

If only they could hear his thoughts.

" - It was pre-Grey Wall. Hell, it was pre-Red Ditch!" Theo continued quickly, eyeing the subtle raise of Jace's brow at his pause.

"Before the Red Ditch?" Jace's expression turned to one of mild shock. Usually any conversation directly involving the civil war was handled very districtly by the pair, fearful of who could overhear them. Even in the privacy of Jace's office, surrounded by DA technology, was it ever truly private? "Should we be discussing this here, Theo?"

"Yeah. I'm fed up of dancing around this, we need to start being honest. Besides, the ship has exploded across the tabloids. If we're not talking about it, they sure as fuck will." Theo shrugged, leaning back in the chair. "I know the ship was used in hit and runs of escaping civilian craft who got beyond the border. But it wasn't built for that purpose explicitly, I guess? I don't know what its service history was, but it was around for quite a while before then."

"I'm guessing it was ordered to be mothballed as part of Grey Wall, and someone found it. Why is it I just have more and more questions the more I find out?" Jace sighed, picking up the copy of Membrain and tearing D'Boris's face off the front of it. He crumpled the page into a ball and threw it across the room at a small bin in the corner. As he watched the paper ping off the rim, his eyes narrowed, his scales bristled uncomfortably. A cold shiver dropped through his spine and landed straight at his feet.

"Jace? You okay? It's just a bin, man." Theo asked, his chair creaking as he leaned forward, his face wrought with concern despite his crack at a joke.

"The - The dreadnought… It warped in at the exact coordinates I gave Seeth. I only sent them to her. No one else."

"You think… Lockblade betrayed us?!" Theo asked in disbelief.

"No." Jace replied firmly. "She spent the last six months doing everything in her power to make this happen. And she fought against the attackers. It makes no sense. Either she is compromised... Or I am."

"Someone's tapped your gear? How?!"

"No idea. But I always keep it secured in RMD facilities… My list of trusted RMD officers has just dropped to a single page's worth. After the Barru X incident, I had a bunch of comms officers and data handlers fired because of the sloppy work on Diego's profile. The whole smash and grab for him was fabricated, so everyone involved was cut loose. I figured I'd scrubbed the RMD clean at that point, but…"

"Listen, before you get too deep into that, you should at least ask Seeth to check her stuff. She's a nomad, it was her ex-crew that turned up, there's more chance it's her, right? Of all the divisions, I don't reckon its the RMD thats infested with scummy Dynasty fuck heads."

"Theo. Do I need to remind you that Scyler used to be RMD? I fired him of course, but… Maybe this rot is deeper than I originally thought." Jace's brow furrowed, his voice trailing off towards the end of his sentence.

"True… I didn't think about that! Shit… I still think it's more likely that Seeth's end was compromised this time, that's all. I… think I just saw one of your chin plates change colour. This shit's turning you grey, old man." Theo smiled, trying to find some humour in the situation.

"You're one to talk." Jace muttered back; he wasn't sure if he appreciated the change in topic or not. "I'm avoiding the mark three therapy for as long as I can. Although the reasons why make me sound like a conspiracy theorist." Jace rolled his eyes and shook his head at his own opinion. The line between inspiring commander of the RMD and gossiping lunatic felt perilously thin sometimes within the DA. 

"Yeah, me too man. Although, I got a huge question right now, it's been bugging me all day." Said Theo his toothy grin returning sharply, his claws drumming the arms of the air menacingly.

"Oh no. No. No. As a commander in the RMD I forbid this next question."

"When are you seeing Isabelle next?" Theo asked, outright ignoring Jace's orders as the wyrufal crumpled up another page of Membrain, and threw it at Theo instead.

"Tonight. She's just helping me arrange my thoughts again! Last time I confided in her, she was extremely helpful."

"Fuck! That's sooner than I thought! You move fast, old man, already asking her out on a date." Theo continued to grin unabated as the paper pinged off his head.

"Date? N-No! Why would it be a date? That ship has long since sailed, Theo." Jace scoffed, seemingly offended at the suggestion. "And you're older than me!"

"Pfft. Bullshit. Things didn't end between the two of you because you stopped loving each other. Isabelle left because you're a stubborn old fuck. For the record, I get you. I'm a stubborn old fuck too. But she still loves you. And you still love her."

"Sometimes I appreciate your dryness and willingness to speak plainly. Sometimes." Jace rolled his eyes. "It's not a date, Theo. If - If she was here, she would clear this up immediately! You would see. We both completely understand, it's purely professional. Just two friends helping each-other." Jace laughed nervously, his eyes suddenly widening as Theo raised his arm and tapped on his gauntlet. "Don't you dare. Theo! Stop! You fucking -" 

But before Jace knew it, Theo was on the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Isabelle! It's Theo Kintrax!"

"Theo! So nice to hear from you!" Isabelle's smooth voice came through loud and clear, only amplified as Theo turned the volume up higher. "I've only got a couple of minutes free, is it a quick one?"

"Super quick, hun. I've heard you're going on a date with Jace tonight, is that true?"

Jace pulled on his ears and spun around in his chair, showing the back of the leather to Theo as the rhargnorn's menacing grin only continued to grow.

"A d-date? I mean… I-I-" Isabelle stuttered and laughed awkwardly. "Theo! We're just having a few drinks! He just wants to talk about work, and how much of a pain in the ass you are..! Wait, why? Has Jace said something?!"

"Nope, nothing you need to worry about! I'm just being a nosey fuck if i'm being honest with you, Bells. Speak to you later!"

"O-Oh, okay… Bye Theo?"

The line cut and Jace span back around in his chair, his cheeks bright red with embarrassment.

"THEO! ASSHOLE! I should write you up on the spot!"

"That didn't sound like it was purely professional to me! I should write you up for being a total wimp!"

"You are unbelievable!" Jace sighed, resting his arms on his desk.

"Hey, do me a favour, chat shit about me together tonight over a nice bottle of mulled wine and bond over how much you both hate me." He chucked, pushing the chair back a smidge to stand up. "And stop lying to yourself about this. Have some fun with the girl, for Chance's sake, Jace. Isebelle is a fucking catch, girl's like that don't grow on trees."

Jace inhaled sharply through his nose, taking a deep breath and holding it in his chest. He raised a single finger, looking like he was about to scold Theo, but the words just wouldn't come to his throat.

"That's what I thought. You know I'm right. You can lie to yourself, but you can't lie to me."

"You do remember that I was married to her, Theo?!"

"I remember, you sure you do?"

"One of these days, Theo, your mouth is going to land you in trouble."

"I'm in more trouble than you'll ever know, boss." Theo smirked. As Jace went to reply however, a sharp knock on the door grabbed both of their attentions. Aybel quickly entered the room, looking a lot more concerned than she did just a few minutes ago.

"Jace, I've received an urgent priority alert for you."

Jace's face immediately hardened again. He sighed deeply and made to stand. 

"Let's hear it."

"A nomad ship has crossed the border and gone straight to the ruins of the XITD space station that was attacked earlier this year."

"Evangeline's station?!" Jace bolted upright from his chair.

"Yes sir. And we believe it's the same ship that conducted the assault!"

The corners of his eyes twitched as too many thoughts and ideas colidied in his cerebrum. 

"Tell the shipmaster to warp us over there immediately! I want to handle things personally this time."

His shoulders tensed and his scales bristled, but it wasn't from anxiety or fear. It was a call to action. 

And it was about time too. 

*

 Aboard the Minitaur - eight hours after planetside return

*

Tivy padded quietly through the steel corridor towards the med bay. The air had a hopeful warmth to it that perhaps only Tivy had felt over the six months, but was now finally flowing freely amongst the crew. She carried two large metal canisters, each not far off the size of her, her antenna bobbing up and down with each step. The left canister had 'Seeth' scribbled on its side along with a couple of hearts, the ink worn and old. The right canister had 'Diego' written on it, the ink as fresh as could be, with an ample amount of kisses around it.

Her journey took her past the living quarters, where Oxyi was snoozing on a comfortable looking blue sofa. A blanket was lovingly draped over her, with far more care than she'd taken arranged herself anyway as her arm was hanging off awkwardly to the side. A tired but happy smile found its way onto Tivy's face as she spotted Oxyi's canister by the lioness's hand, a small trickle of dried orange soup stained its lip.

She huffed and puffed to keep the canisters upright, shuffling their positions a couple of times to get them more comfortable before finally looping them under her arms and scuttling up a small set of stairs to get to the correct deck.

The med bay was open, just another door of a few in this corridor. The Minitaur wasn't super homely at the moment, but Tivy had plans to fix that at a later date. Right now, there were much more important tasks at hand. From within, she could hear two sets of quiet snores…

She rounded the door and was greeted with sight of fast asleep Seeth, leaning over a far too small for her table, right next to Diego. The lizard was placed one of the inset med-beds within the room, one of four, all cosily built into the walls themselves, leaving the middle of the room clear for more specialised equipment if required.

There were a few vital monitoring screens above and to the side of his bed, most of which didn't mean much to Tivy, but they all seemed to be steady and nothing was flashing red. Like Oxyi, both of them had blankets draped over them and both were completely asleep. Seeth still had drying black goop lining her neck, despite changing out of her clothes.

Wash cloth. Okies. I'll get her a bowl too! Tivy thought to herself, placing the soup canisters down carefully on the floor. There was no force in the universe that was going to separate Seeth from her man, so the sink was going to have to come to her. Tivy's eyes landed on Diego, only somewhat visible from this angle. Despite everything, there seemed to be a small, subtle smile on his face. It was infectious, as Tivy soon found herself just idly grinning at him, a warmth permeating through her chest and tingling through her limbs. She exhaled deeply, feeling all the pressure, anxiety and worry over the last few months just released from her body. 

And with that, she had only one thought in her blissful mind:

I hope he likes soup!