Venom Drops (Open)

[GEAR]

To say that Bertram Kessler was surprised when a half-wrecked Rhinoceros Class trundled up to DEI's Jeddah facility, MARV in tow was an understatement. He had already dispatched the Cornixes en route to pick through what he presumed would be its remains in search of his prize, but to see Eliza alive and well was... A surprise, to say the least. He had been so focused on his study of the Lunar pulse that he'd briefly forgotten about the Tripoli and its errand until an aide reminded him, causing him to hurriedly evacuate its contents. Both it and the "Sphere" were now secured in their subterranean testing facilities, undergoing intense study.

At present, he made his way to the hangar, having issued a call to those involved in the incident, his fur-lined coat seeming out of place in the Jeddah heat. Within the hangar itself, bright sunlight poured in, having finally poked its way through the dreary, DEC-residue afflicted clouds, casting the skeletal Rhinoceros class in a healthy glow. All around him, Directory personnel worked tirelessly to restore the ship, carrying armor plates and power tools as it slowly came back together after what amounted to a near total loss.

It had been two days since they had arrived, and news about the Lunar pulse had been nonstop.

Dimensional Beasts, a rare occurance, were now materializing all across the globe. Wherever bolts of lightning from the pulse had struck, DEC had grown - and with it, the reptilian invaders soon followed, their presence in the world seemingly augmented by its presence. Two new categories of DAMON had already been recorded as well, in areas where the concentrations were thickest.

Worse still, horrifying creatures known as Lamalice were descending from the Moon upon the Colonies, as well as the Earth, destroying everything in their path. The only saving grace, it seemed, was that the Lamalice and DAMON seemed to hate one another as much as they did humanity, and wherever the two met, they clashed violently. This gave the Directory time to regroup - but no news of a counterattack, or even a source for the phenomenon, had been forthcoming.

Until now.

Clicking a notification setting on his personal terminal, Bert clambered up on top of a raised set of armored plates, issuing a notice for the crew of the Tripoli - and the MARV team - to assemble. Some announcements were due to be made...

 

[Lukas]

Message transmission recorded during retrieval of MARV and Riot units from dimensional wasteland.

Apologies for using your machine as a footstool during sortie. Will not happen again.

===Directly after debrief===

News. No news was good news, with how bad things were. Every channel, every webpage, was dedicated to the world falling apart. Every discussion somehow veered back to who had relatives in a danger zone or who'd not heard from a friend. She'd just come out of that hell, the last thing Ashley wanted to do in her downtime was force more information on it down her throat. Eventually she shut down the machine and went for a more mundane method of keeping her brain occupied while her system purged itself - a toy. Some sort of model car this time.

Ashley'd built enough of them to not have to bother with instructions. Put it together, screw everything in, take it apart. Over and over. Build, destroy, repeat. Build, destroy, repeat. Creation. Destruction. Over and over. By the time her brain felt normal, it had been destroyed and rebuilt five times - but finished. A good omen, of sorts. Superstition was normally above her, but whenever she finished on a build things seemed to go well. It went on the shelf with the rest for now - just another brick in the wall of model machines.

===Meeting day===

Ashley arrived at the assignment point almost as soon as the notification was sent out, having discarded her pilot suit for a bomber jacket and jeans. Her left hand was fiddling with a small cube of some sort, while her other was clutched around a bottle in the jacket's pocket. Whenever a door opens or an unexpected sound is made she'd twitch, glancing at the source of the offending noise before returning to her fiddling.

 

[XekuZwei]

The waiting woman would be alerted to the presence of the second individual to arrive by the sound of a low groan. It was the sort of involuntary noise that was caused by a particularly satisfying stretch, and investigating the source would reveal Anastasiya - as gargantuan as ever - rolling her shoulders as she approached with a blissful expression. It had taken her a hot minute to recover from tumbling after contacting the sphere, and finally being able to stretch without shooting pains was just divine. 'Course, she had Eliza to thank that it hadn't been a lot worse.

She had spotted Ashley without undue difficulty, though Ana was beginning to wonder if she'd slipped into some kind of singularity for white-haired, crimson-eyed women. It was sort of like looking at a more mature, bustier version of Prisca. They'd given her a crash-course on the folks the Tripoli had ended up fighting alongside, and if she wasn't mistaken this was the pilot of the bladed machine she'd shouted to mid-battle.

"Yo!" A hand the size of a dinnerplate was extended with the greeting, proffered to the smaller girl. "Ashley, right? Anastasiya Mikhailov."

 

[Lukas]

"Y-yeah. I'm Ashley Chase. You're the pilot of that tiny Gespens..t..." Ashley's brain encounters something akin to a stack overflow as she stares up at Ana. I've made a terrible mistake. "Uh... Sorry for calling you tiny on the field." There were several burning questions on her mind as she looked, but none of them seemed particularly appropriate so she went with something similar that might lead into it.

"So... are you joining DEI, or just sticking with us through all of... well, the mess outside. I've not seen any mech quite that..." dontsaysmalldontsaysmalldontsaysmall "...unique before. It a custom, or some sort of prototype?" She stumbled over a few words, pocketing the cube for now and cautiously reaching out to shake Ana's hand.

 

[XekuZwei]

"Hah!" Ana let out a hearty chuckle at Ashley's stammered apology, a grin flashing across her features. She gave the smaller woman a friendly, reassuring clap on the shoulder - gently - with her free hand as they shook. "I get that a lot, don't worry about it." Her gaze turned up at the Tripoli, still in bits and pieces as the landship was reassembled and rearmed.

"Unfortunately, no. I may not look like it," Ana motioned to the casual tracksuit-like outfit she wore, about as far from a military uniform as one could get, "but I'm with the Directory forces. Special ops, you know." She gave Ashley a exaggerated conspiratorial wink. "I expect I'll be along for the ride until things stabilize a bit, though...there's too much chaos for them to bother with us right now." The woman was, of course, referring to Prisca as well as herself.

"There isn't much I can say about the Gespenst, top secret and all that. But how about your, uh...Riot, was it?"

 

[Lukas]

Ashley smiled nervously back up at Ana, taking a step back once the handshake was over and rubbing her shoulder. Directory special forces? What, did DEI finally get their attention with some terrible experiment gone wrong? Her body language was more relaxed now that it was clear Ana was friendly, but she was still wary of the giant in front of her.

"I see... don't exactly know how much I'm exactly allowed to reveal about the Riot, but it's not like I really know the technical specs as it is." She let out a nervous laugh, checking over her shoulder just in case before she started speaking. "It's an anti-DAMON machine, second in the series. Couch special, uses some... weird reactor that needs constant modulation in combat. Supposedly really unsafe, but it's the only way to get a blade that'll slice through the barriers on b-" Oops. Ashley stopped herself mid sentence, taking a sharp breath and then continuing where she left off. "-on this other project he was working on. Something to do with D... dimensional energy barriers needing a specific frequency... you'd have to ask him, I think?" There was an edge to her tone of voice now, a delay as she tried to choose each word carefully.

 

[Tarsier]

Pushing open the door to the briefing room as Ashley continued her explanation, Prisca gave Ana a quiet salute before taking a seat, avoiding any interruptions to her conversation; while she disliked civilians being involved, this was the DEI's facility. Whatever their assignment would be, she would be reliant on their specialists for it.

With time left before the briefing, and no reason to involve herself in the conversation, Prisca instead retrieved a dataslate. Dismissing Ashley's still unanswered message to reveal charts and data from her Huckebein's sensors, readings from Ultimate X's lead mobile weapon, she began scanning across the screen for any anomalies. While the group was still in their range, she saw no reason to end her own investigation, even after submitting the information with her report to the Tripoli's captain.

 

[XekuZwei]

"I see." Spotting Prisca's discreet entrance over Ashley's shoulder, Anastasiya absent-mindedly flashed the woman a return salute of her own even as she continued speaking. "Don't worry about it. Sounds like your machine and mine probably have more in common than either of us realize. Except for size!" She might even have sparkled a little, beaming as her face split into an even wider smile than before, clearly feeling quite satisfied with her own (lame) sense of humor. A little good-natured ribbing, that was all it was.

"Really, though...," Was this woman bipolar or something? She went from chortling at her own joke to stone-cold in the space of a moment as that self-pleased expression faded into something more serious. "Anti-DAMON, huh? You must have it rough, based on that bastard we had to fight. I've never actually seen one outside of a dossier, are they all like that?"

 

[Lukas]

“Afternoon.” Ashley gave Prisca a wary look as she came in, politely greeting her before returning to the conversation.

“Not exactly. The small ones are honestly pathetic, but we’d confirmed and named a bigger version... just before you arrived. Similar barrier, no real regeneration. Like a massive bull but with some brain mass in there. Not something your average mech could handle - not even for me, and I started fighting the normal ones at melee range in a randgrith!” She described the last part cheerfully, occasionally gesturing to illustrate a point - a far cry from her previous backtracking and nervousness. “That’s how I got hired here, actually. Lost a contract because they didn’t like me taking a mech out to protect a bunch of people, but someone from here was watching and decided to extend me an offer as security.”

 

[XekuZwei]

"In a Randgrith? What did you do, just punch them until they fell down?" The statement made Ana raise an eyebrow. She was marginally familiar with the design - it was fairly widespread - and as far as she was aware, they didn't come packaged with a dedicated melee weapon. Impressive; she was liking this girl already. It was difficult not to poke fun at her use of 'smaller' to refer to the lesser DAMON, though.

The larger woman's expression darkened - just a bit, but noticeably - as Ashley recalled why she'd been let go of by her former employer. To defend those who couldn't defend themselves, especially against a threat like DAMON...that was why she'd enlisted in the first place. It wasn't her place to criticize Ashley's previous compatriots and she knew it, but the facts still made her blood hot, and not in the same enjoyable way as combat.

She blew out a deep breath, willing the anger to go with it; being upset wouldn't change the past. She proceeded to slump into one of the seats near Prisca, motioning for Ashley to join her.

"Might as well relax, they're probably about to get this thing rolling."

 

[Lukas]

Ashley shrugged, taking the seat next to her. "Sorta. At first I was only up close to draw their attention, but you can't really use missiles at that distance and the shotgun got bit in half. They've all got this backup blade that you can use though, but that didn't last too long either. Was in the middle of trying to throttle the last one when the authorities showed up. Side note - they don't actually breathe in the way a real living thing would, so don't try that. Damn thing wrecked my machine with all its flailing too." I like her. Bit like me motivation wise... I think. Getting along with one out of two isn't bad... other girl seems to be pretending I don't exist though. Can't say I wouldn't have done the same in her circumstances.

Katri would arrive soon after, politely nodding to Ashley and getting a semi-formal salute in return as she took her seat. She looked rather bedraggled, wearing a set of oil-stained overalls rather than her previous captains outfit.

 

[GEAR]

"Thank you for joining us, everyone."

Bertram Kessler made his way over to the group at length, waving away the throng of various aides jostling for his signature on releases, bills, and other such sundry as he walked. He features were sharp as his eyes darted between each one of them, clasping his hands and giving a winning smile - every bit the larger-than-life personality he was depicted as on television, DEI's corporate chieftain clearly self conscious as to the image he so projected.

"I don't think I need to mention what an incredible service you've done humanity. Our expedition will go down in history as a triumph of science in the face of danger."

Of course, it was easy for him to say, having sat on the sidelines the entire time while his subordinates were nearly blasted into atoms, chopped up, or electrocuted. The fact that he had talked around the details of what, exactly, they had recovered, as well as the absence of the scientists Dr. Couch and Eliza Kruger... Was telling as well. In fact, no word had been heard from Eliza since they came back - she had apparently been so engrossed in her research that the young woman had barely even slept.

"I've just finished speaking to Director Beckman, of Sector 11, who was appraising me of the current situation regarding the, ah... Lamalice problem."

His features wrinkled slightly at the ugliness of the word, as though he found it a profoundly unscientific description of the monstrous lifeforms that had emerged in the aftermath of the Lunar pulse. It was perhaps fortunate that Bertram had not been given the opportunity to name them as well, if "Dimensional Armed MONster" was any indication. After that brief reflection however, he continued, giving a nod in Prisca's direction as he did:

"Suffice to say, the Directory needs any and all assistance it can get during this time of need... and we here at DEI, of course, will cooperate to the best of our ability."

 

[XekuZwei]

Anastasiya had seen Bertram Kessler before, of course; some of the activities she was linked to within Terra Sentinel, primarily the Gespenst, was too closely related to the DEI's work for her not to have run across at least the man's name. Now, seeing him in person, she was finding herself not particularly a fan. There certainly could be no doubting his aptitude for the sciences, but his overblown mannerisms brought to mind the politicians she'd had to deal with in the past a little too readily. Taking any assurances he made at face value would be...difficult. A bias she would have to overcome.

She glanced over at Prisca; Kessler seemed to be looking to her for a response, despite their difference in rank. A little odd, but no skin off Ana's nose.

Where is Eliza...?

 

[Tarsier]

Stowing the dataslate as Kessler entered the room, Prisca adopted a more formal posture, quietly listening and watching as he spoke. Absorbing what little information she could from his speech, she continued to sit nearly motionless as he seemingly addressed her; whether a response was expected or not, it would be inappropriate to give one.

 

[Lukas]

Ashley found herself wondering what Bertram would have called the Lamalice if given the chance. Negative emotion monster something? She figured some sort of acronym that spelled out a word like Nemesis or invader or whatever. It wasn't really something she needed to be concerned about, but it kept her mind away from thoughts of what could have gone wrong in the expedition - or what Dylan was currently doing with their prize. Her train of thought went off the rails as Katri coughed from beside her, drawing the director's attention before she started speaking.

"Director. While the MARV and second Riot unit both proved their worth against DAMONs, without proper testing I'm not sure if we'll be able to engage these.. Lamalice safely until proper data on how to defend against their claws can be retrieved. Any attempt to send Ashley or the Riot Beta against them would likely result in her swift demise, and I cannot in good conscnience allow that." Ashley herself would look vaguely offended by the assmuption, but said nothing to avoid undermining her captain.

 

[GEAR]

Never one to waste a crisis, Bertram waved off Katri's concerns with a self-assured smile. His certainty was seemingly as impenetrable as his ego, and brooked no argument.

"I have absolute confidence in Ashley's abilities. After all, if it weren't for her, we wouldn't have been able to acquire that object, would we? Yes... The "Sphere"."

He mulled over the last word in the sentence, as though he liked the sound of his own voice saying it, and placed a hand on his hip as he continued. There was a faint tone of... Condescension towards Katri that dripped into his voice as he spoke. Ashley was useful in a scrap, and Dylan's brains were worth their weight in gold - but the driver? The most easily replaced of the three, without a doubt.

"After all... Because of her efforts, I'm pleased to announce that the Riot has been officially adopted by the Directory as one of its next mainline mass production machines." - A faint flicker of concern made its way across his features as he continued, hands going quickly from being rubbed together to wrung;

"Perhaps you should have more confidence in your teammate, Katri?"

Meanwhile, for Ana in particular, there was something else: Her phone gave a quiet rumble from within its confines, but a glance at its surface would reveal nothing - that could only mean one thing: A direct message from Hyperion, the anonymous leadership of Terra Sentinel, stowed away in a secure messaging application. The devices carried by TS members were specially modified for these purposes - and their destruction, if they were captured, was nothing short of vital.

 

[XekuZwei]

Anastasiya was fortunate that part of her Terra Sentinel training had included subterfuge on an interpersonal basis - her face didn't express the surprise she felt at the announcement regarding the Riot's adoption. This was the same machine that Ashley had just - just! - described as being unstable and 'really unsafe', wasn't it? Before, that information had felt like idle talk between pilots; now, she got the distinct feeling that the other woman might have been a little too chatty, even before she'd stopped herself.

The exchange between Bertram and a woman she didn't know just went to show that maybe that gut bias against the man wasn't so off-base after all.

As much as Ana disliked the idea of the Directory's pilots being blindsided by their own units' pitfalls, design flaws hidden from them by their superiors...pragmatically, she knew that this would work in TS' favor. It just rankled her conscience that the rank-and-file, people who had nothing to do with the atrocities that she was sworn to avenge, would be the ones truly taking this fall even if it ultimately suited their goals.

As if on cue, her personal device buzzed to signal an incoming message. Covertly stealing a glance at it revealed the blank screen - she knew what that meant. Funny, almost, that the moment she received a piece of information pertinent to pass along that they would contact her directly. It was a mite unnerving, frankly. But the message would have to wait until she got some privacy, as abruptly leaving at this moment would surely arouse suspicion.

 

[Lukas]

Ashley felt strangely proud of herself at Bertram's comment, but at the same time a hint of worry tugged at her. The riot was something she still had trouble handling with all her experience, and now they were going to mass produce it and give it to every soldier who made it out of boot camp? She did her best to smile and look proud of herself, but her hestiation was evident.

Katri glares back, refusing to budge an inch and crossing her arms. "I have the utmost confidence in Ms. Chase's abilities, what I lack confidence in are the capabilities of a melee-only unit against those... things. If you're going to demonstrate the Riot series to the Directory, the Alpha would be a far better - and safer - choice. Keep the Beta close with copernicus units for emergency support, and you'll demonstrate the effectiveness of the series without turning your prize pilot into a drained corpse and the surrounding area into a smoking crater."

 

[GEAR]

"An appropriate redesign has already been submitted, Ms. Katri… One that takes the best from the prototypes. We call it the Riot C - Composite!"

The Director beamed unflinchingly, slamming a fist into an open palm with excitement at the mention of the new - and previously unknown - Riot type, his confidence seemingly undaunted by Katri's glare. Was it simply an act? Or was he every bit as predatory and reckless as he seemed? ...With Bertram Kessler, whose past with the Institute was... sketchy, at best, it was impossible to tell. He had founded the Institute, it was true... But, few reached such heights of acclaim and kept their hands clean all the while.

"We already have an order placed for fifty units... They won't be being assembled here, of course. Somewhere in Russia, I'm told." - He gave a shrug, as though the manufacturing of such things hardly concerned him;

"The Directory wants them ready in time for..." - He paused, folding his arms, brow furrowing as he seemed to realize he'd forgotten something important; "Well, I suppose I haven't mentioned it yet, have I?"

He lifted up an arm, checking a high-tech watch, tapping its surface irritably.

"...I suppose it's about time. There's an announcement about to be made - Follow me."

- And with that, he turned on his heel, striding away purposefully away from the hangar, totally expectant that the group would follow along in turn...

 

[XekuZwei]

Stone-faced and silent, Anastasiya observed the remainder of the exchange without comment. Clearly there would be further words had regarding the Riot's suitability behind closed doors, but the Director was doing his best to make it clear that the discussion was over. Seemingly recalling a talking point that he'd forgotten, Bertram called for them to follow. She lingered a bit in the shuffle as people rose to accompany the man, stretching her arms above her head with a grunt, fingers interlaced. Surreptitiously taking her time, intentionally falling into step at the rear of the progression...

The next time anyone thought to glance back over there shoulder...she would be gone. The colossal woman had somehow managed to vanish without a peep, disappearing down a side passage with none the wiser. Striding confidently forward - they always said that if you looked like you knew what you were doing, people would leave you alone, and it was true enough - Ana flipped her phone out of her pocket as she went, humming quietly to herself all the while.

Passing the device casually near her lips as she reached up to 'brush back a strand of hair', it picked up on a segment of the tune. That particular snippet of song happened to be the first passcode that unlocked the secondary functions buried deep in its hardware, and the blackened screen flashed briefly as it came to life. At first glance, it would appear no different than the normal user interface of the unlocked phone - that was only the initial, outward layer of security. Blindly navigating through a dozen more screens with well-practiced movements, she at last arrived at the highly secure messaging program embedded in the OS. A flick of her thumb brought up the covert message that had arrived earlier.

Let's see what you have to say...