Act Casual

Posted on Sep 21, 2016 @ 12:06pm by Selyara Chen
Edited on on Sep 21, 2016 @ 12:06pm

Mission: Fortress: Earth

"Act Casual"

(cont. "Unsung")

* * * =(/\)= * * *

Location: USS Phoenix

Stardate: 2.16.0920.2203

Scene: Marine Barracks

The table in the Marine Barracks looked as though a bomb laced with glitter, ribbons, paint, and pipe cleaners had exploded in it. Jake was not the least bit surprised to find Dahlia and Benito at the center of this mess, along with the walking mop of curls that was Buttercup, the walking ball of mischief from LIMBO that Kassandra’s second had taken in.

What did surprise him was that the Major was up to her elbows in glitter, a somewhat maniacal expression on her face as she painted glue onto a helmet. She stopped what she was doing and waved at him.

“Revenge,” she explained as she sprinkled a heavy dose of hot pink glitter onto an area of glue, and blew it away gently to reveal a neatly painted pattern of a bunny rabbit. She gestured over into a corner, where her own body armor was stacked. It had been be-ribboned and bedazzled with rhinestones. “Horatio had the bright idea to keep the kids entertained by givin’ them an art project. But he weren’t so specific on what the art project was. Glitter’s mah nuclear option. So, what’s up Perfect 10?”

Jake looked between her and the piece of armor and then suddenly, surprisingly, found a laugh building up in his chest. After the grimness of the last few days it was nice to laugh. The expression on the woman’s face was quizzical, and clearly conveyed that she thought he was a few cards short of a deck.

“Suit up, Major,” Jake wiped his eyes. “We’ve got a phase cloaked shuttlecraft ready to go down to Earth, and we’ve got intel on Edgerton’s base.”

Kassandra gave a withering glare in his general direction, and then stared at her bedecked armor, her blue eyes wrinkled in irritation.

“Sergeant Bellecotte, suit up! We’re going planetside!” She suddenly bellowed, making Jake jump. “That’ll teach him,” she muttered to herself. “Kids, report to Lysander in counseling.”

The big man entered, took stock of the table and then let loose a long suffering sigh, and gathered up his armor from it before disappearing into a ready room.

“You sure we need him? We’ll be meeting up with Selyara, Barton, and another compatriot of hers. We don’t want to be too big a target once we’re there,” Jake cocked his head.

“Bellecotte is dependable. He ain’t got the physicality of Barton, nor the inventiveness with destroyin’ things, but he’s the one you want at your back, especially now. From the way he left things, I ain’t so sure Barton is plannin’ on getting through this one, and I also ain’t sure this whole Paris thing ain’t turned that spark of insanity he’s got inside his head into some sorta firestorm.” She said this carefully, almost bashfully, as though she worried that Jake would accuse her of being disloyal. “I ain’t castin’ aspersions nor nothing, he’s one hell of a formidable fighter, but you don’t get to be an old Marine without bein’ brutally honest, even about yer friends. Especially about your friends. As fer this bloke Miss Chen has with her… Well, knowin’ her he’s either brainwashed or some sort of criminal element in it for the money. Bellecotte is a predictable tank. Keepin’ you lot safe is always gonna be his first priority, an’ he ain’t gonna second guess my commands. Now, next point of business…” She threw open two lockers and waved a hand at the neatly stacked contents. “How much of a bang do you want to be able to make when we get there?”


“We don’t need to cause a bloodbath here, incapacitate and move on. Who knows how many of the people at that base actually share Edgerton’s convictions, and how many of them bystanders sucked into his orbit looking for a way out. This is also an underwater base, so nothing that might puncture the bulkheads.”

“Gotchya. Big bang bad. Give me a minute to suit up and get rid of summa this frippery offa my armor...” Kassandra pulled out the equipment from one of the lockers, shoved it into Jake’s hands, and began to strip out of her uniform. She’d evidently been prepared to muster at a moment’s notice because underneath it she was wearing the thin nano-textile jumpsuit that Marines wore under their regular armor. It looked simple and form fitting, but in reality, it was a marvel of engineering ingenuity, comprising of two layers of heat dissipating textile, sandwiching a non newtonian gel, the jumpsuit on its own was capable of stopping a projectile and provided a measure of protection against blunt force trauma. Over it she efficiently fastened her armor, each piece hissing softly as they locked together. “How we plannin’ on gettin’ from the shuttle to this underwater base, swimmin’? Or we gonna try and set the shuttle down on the hull and seal it, then cut through?”

“We can’t get a proper read on the base. We’re going to have to wing it.” Jake admitted. Kassandra didn’t look particularly happy about that, but she didn’t say anything, instead nodding to someone behind. “It’s about 100 meters under water. A standard pressurized suit should be able to handle it, but the currents are supposed to be dangerous in that area, so I’m hoping to stick to the shuttle.”

“Well, goin’ off on a halfassed plan is better than sittin’ on my whole ass, I suppose. Let’s get ourselves goin’ then. Barton’s already got to do the death defyin’ space jump, an’ I don’t want to let him have all the fun, or I ain’t gonna hear the end of it. Ever. Probably won’t hear the end of his damn jump as it is.” Kassandra grabbed her bag of gear from Jake’s hand, and grinned at him. “Well, let’s get a move on then!”

* * *=/\=* * *

Location: Earth

Scene: Raxl and Selyara’s hotel

“We will be going in the front door using this wonderful gift you boys brought home for me.” Selyara smiled and held up Mr. Johnson’s communicator. She had a rather creepy self-satisfied smile on her lips that Raxl immediately identified as gloating over outsmarting someone. She paused expectantly. When no one said anything, the pause became a long, awkward silence.

“And how are we going to do that?” Raxl finally caved with a sigh as he gingerly dabbed his split lip with a towel.

“Mister Barton is going to call in using Mister Johnson’s communicator, he’s going to inform them that he’s captured the infamous Selyara Chen and her companion, and that he needs a beam in.”

“And what if whomever answers, or the people on the other end of that beam-in know Mister Johnson? We’ll be in the brig quicker than a Ferengi leaves a bar when it’s his round.”

“That bounty on me is still active, Mister Barton will just tell them he killed Mister Johnson so he could turn us in. But with everything that is happening, I highly doubt that anyone who knows anything will actually be there to meet us. The high level players should all be occupied with other things, like stamping out civilian dissent and combing through intel. You *do* still remember how to play the hulking mercenary, don’t you, Mister Barton?” Selyara smiled sweetly, Barton glowered back, and abruptly left the room. The sink began to run in the bathroom.

“You probably should stop poking that particular bear. I’m pretty sure he’s getting close to punching you in the face.” Raxl tried to reach the back of his bicep with the dermal regenerator. Selyara shrugged, a look of great weariness replacing the sardonic smirk on her lips. She took the regenerator from him and gently took him by the arm and ran it over the bruising on his arm in a manner that was almost caring. She opened her mouth to say something, and for an instant Raxl thought she was going to say something nice, or considerate.

“Did you two have a nice conversation about me?” Selyara asked instead, a bit of sourness in her voice. “Oh, don’t bother denying it, and you don’t have to sugarcoat it either. I know exactly what he thinks of me. He is probably largely correct, but you should really take what he says with a grain of salt.”

“I’ve already known you long enough to form my own opinions. What did you do to this guy anyway, to make him dislike you so much?”

“It’s not so much what I did, as what I’m not doing, if he was honest with himself.” Selyara finished healing the ugly bruise on his arm and started attending to his other injuries. “Not changing, not trying to. I would say he sees us as very alike, normal people with distinguished Starfleet careers, turned into monsters by mistakes and circumstance. The difference is, I don’t want to go back to what I was, while he desperately believes that his only hope of redemption is by cramming the monster back into that little box of who he used to be. The fact that I don’t have the same internal conflict is what really annoys him about me.”

“You aren’t looking for redemption?” Raxl winced as she prodded a spot on his ribs that he hadn’t even realized he’d hurt. “Because from where I’m sitting, you’re in this awfully deep for someone who just wants revenge.”

“And you are occasionally awfully deep for a ne’er do well bounty hunter.” Selyara pulled back and looked him over. “I think you’re fixed up well enough, we don’t want you looking too fresh. Our story is already thin enough that we should avoid raising any extra scrutiny.”

“What are we going to do if they don’t buy it once we’re in there?” Raxl asked as Barton returned to the room. Selyara’s face hardened back into the insouciant smirk she’d been carefully pasting onto her features around the enormous man. It didn’t quite reach her eyes, which still looked tired or sad.

“Then you do what I hired you to do, Mister Dreyton. You hand me over to Edgerton, I try to talk him into believing that I’m on his side.” Selyara spread her hands wide. “Failing that, Mister Barton tries to convince Edgerton that he’d sell his mother for a strip of latinum, we get thrown in the brig, and Mister Barton hopefully gets put in a place with lax enough security that he can get out and do what needs to be done. Hopefully in the latter scenario, Edgerton doesn’t kill us instead. I don’t think he will. I do have quite a bit of information that he would still find useful, and if he thinks he can use me as a bargaining chip with Michael, he might even be willing to keep us close. But I’m still optimistic that we will be lucky, and will be able to get in without anyone really stopping to question us. Input, Mister Barton?”

“Only that you seem to be relying an awful lot on luck for a supposed mastermind. If we’re going to be believable, you’re going to have to look and act like you’ve been beaten.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Selyara stepped away from Raxl and tossed her head. “Alright Mister Barton, I know you’ve been dying to do this all day. Hit me with your best shot.”

* * *=(/\)=* * *

Scene: Edgerton’s office

[[Sir, we’ve got an incoming transmission from a Mister Johnson. He says to tell you he has “The package.” His words, not mine. He’s asked for a beam in. Should I give the okay?]] Edgerton’s new aide’s voice said suddenly over the intercom. He sounded nervous, sickly, as though he’d heard of the reasons for the sudden vacancy he’d filled. Edgerton derived a fleeting satisfaction from the man’s fear. At least he wouldn’t dare betray him as Leonard had done.

Far more substantial satisfaction was the news that Selyara Chen was finally in custody. The self-styled Shadow Master had been a headache ever since she’d used him to break free of Jaros II. He’d never quite been able to figure out why she’d bolted instead of taking up the offer he’d made her, though he had some suspicions that it had to do with that cursed bastard Rawyvin Seth. The deviant Seth was sick and twisted, and from the tales operatives in LIMBO had told him of the lengths she’d gone to try and eradicate him- causing a wholesale massacre just to try and kill him- he must have turned his attentions on her, and thus turned her against Edgerton before he’d even had a chance to try and charm her.

But now she might finally be of use to him. Or at least she’d be one less thing to worry about.

“I’m on my way to the transporter room, I’ll give the order to transport them from there. Have a security team meet me down there. She’s dangerous. We’re not taking any chances.” Edgerton swept out of the room. He hurried down the halls, his mind churning with how this new development might give him some leverage to use against the fleet in orbit. Maybe she knew something he could use. The doors to the transporter room hissed open in front of him. The security team was already there, phasers aimed at the transporter pad. The blue of the transporter beam began to coalesce into one familiar figure, and two very, very unfamiliar faces.

Selyara Chen was on her knees, arms tied tightly against her sides, her back arched in pain as she dangled painfully. Her topknot was held firmly in the meaty hand of an enormous mountain of a man with long stringy hair, too big to chalk up to normal human genetics. At their feet, tied and lying prone on the floor was a second man, small only in comparison to the hulk that had incapacitated him.

“You’re not Mister Johnson.” Edgerton spat finally, his eyes moving back to the man in the center, his nerves on tenterhooks.

“No.” The enormous man said, his lips twisting into a mocking smile. “Mister Johnson is dead, I’m afraid. I don’t like sharing. My name is James Barton, and I’m here to collect the bounty on a certain Selyara Chen.”

With that he threw the woman forward. She stumbled, hissing, her forehead bouncing painfully off the transporter control console, a fresh stream of blood adding itself to the streaks of blood already on her face. She writhed around and fixed James Barton with a vicious, angry stare, her lips curled back in a rictus of fury, and Edgerton was certain it was genuine.

“Damn you,” she spat, trying to wipe the blood off her face, and turned her gaze to Edgerton. She smiled an ingratiating, if somewhat stiff smile. “Richard Edgerton. We meet at last.”

* * * =(/\)= * * *

NRPG: Aaaaaaand Poooost!

Alix Fowler
As:

Kassandra Thytos
Bored Woman of (in)action

and

Selyara Chen
Flying by the seat of her pants