Faction In Too Deep | Darkwire

[Hex]

Objective 1. Environmental Hazards

Tag: Daiya Peyton Steele Ruby Jaxx Ivory Stroud Diocletian Kahmen’’a Under Foot Das

Location: The Tombs
Objective: Reunite with darkwire

Spoiler: Equipment

• Powderpunk armor on loan from Daiya
• Guarderma HE suit metallic pink hex pattern with mag boots
• ap-25i SIMP pistol
• 'Candles' Heavy particle blaster
• 'confetti' Rocket launcher
• Party Poppers (6 explosive, 2 gas)
• 2 x Iadrium charges.
• Dancer repulsor board
• Dervish Knife
• Cheap data pad and communicator
• Hand held plasma cutter

Spoiler: Hex dialogue colors

Poor Hex hears voices in her head

Hex speech to others
Hex speech to herself

Hexes inner voices
'...Neutral...'
'...Doubt...'
'...Anger...'
Coloured '.....' are also words that Hex can hear , but I decided not to write them to reduce clutter

There was a clunk as the girls did something and the redirect engaged. The room that Under Foot was in would quickly empty of fluid and the full extend of the damaged pipe could be seen. As far as Hex could tell, her and Das had managed to divert the sewage into an emergency holding area. Whether that area too was going to leak and ruin someone's day was another matter, but this way they could clear it out for the Amivakkan, fix the pipe and then if needed, reset the flow to wherever it was meant to go in the first place.

<<How is it looking down there now Undie? Think you can mend it or gonna need to go scrounging for new pipes?>> she laughed to herself, knowing the squibb he might dancy going scrap diving whether they needed the new pipes or not. "I'm going to head down the ladder and help out Underfoot with some of the muscle work." She said to Das before returning to the ladder. She put her legs on and began to slide down it quickly. It was a bumpy ride down the ladder, not nearly as graceful as she had hoped, but it was quicker than going rung over rung for however long it would take.

"This is much better" Hex said to underfoot as her feet connected with the dry, albiet slimy, ground next to the damaged pipes. Hex was strong and good with her hands, she would probably be more use to the diminiuitive Squibb down here, than sat up waiting for a call at the tip end of the ladder. Hopefully this was the resolution they needed and could fix things to allow the Amivikkans to return home.

'...They might even agree to help us in return...'

"That's the plan" Hex replied to herself nervously, beginning to miss even the overcast skies of the surface.

 

[Das]

Location: The Tombs | Objective 1: Environmental Hazards | Soundtrack: Everything Is Going Great

Das plucked a clump of toxic sludge from her leg and splatted it against the floor. She half expected it to start melting through the duracrete, like in a cheesy holoflick, but it just sat there… menacingly.

“I think that’ll work,” she commented, nodding to the terminal.

“At least they won’t have any more of this chit flooding their homes.”

It was frustrating to jump through so many hoops when it was clear that Darkwire didn’t want to be forced underground any more than the Amavikkan did, but she understood their side. If dozens of ex-slaves showed up at one of Darkwire’s hideouts, she wasn’t so sure they’d have let them past the door. The fact that they got a chance to earn the Amavikkan’s trust was amazing in itself.

“You ready, Hex? I think I could use a hot shower and a huge cup of caf.”

Bits of the day jolted through her mind as she stepped back to the ladder; The dull ache in her freshly deafened ear, the awful gunk smeared over her vacsuit, the strange new way of life that awaited them all… and then there was her dad.

What was he doing here? Where had he been? She thought he was dead, she searched for him… what happened the night he disappeared?

And where was mom?

Too many questions, and too little caf to help process them.

FINAL POST​

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Tags: Hex | Under Foot ​

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[Daiya]

(Post Soundtrack: "No Reason to Pretend" by Aaron Sprinkle)

The weight of the world hung precariously over her while the deadly cost of her actions hung close by. She could have walked around overburdened by everything happening today, heart heavy and limbs sore. Instead, the all Daiya felt was the press against her body through the armor she wore, feeling the weight of her friend wrapped around her. It softened the teen's rough edges, smoothing the hesitation in her words. "Ahh, Brie..."

Daiya held her best friend for a while longer. Ivory's patience, and her technique, made a measure of improvement. The rebel matron was simply no substitute for a hug from a best friend. It seemed to her that only Brie really understood the major points in her life, in the way that others could only guess at. If she hugged long enough and searched hard enough for it, Daiya was sure she could feel the warmth radiating from her friendship with Brie.

"Soo... everyone is fine, then? At least of the ones we already met...?"

"No," Daiya told Brie, stepping back from their embrace. There was no way she could be fine. That way led back up into the district above them, avoiding CorpSec and hunting down the escape of her target. It led her to vengeance for a boy who didn't want her anymore, and possibly straight to her own death. Her arms wrapped around her body, and the teen took a deep breath. She held it, then out it came in a few, measured puffs. Daiya let her arms loose, her palms up to Brie and her friends, sharing what she could with them. "We're over."

"Cartri and me," she went on, finding it almost hard to do without the customary tears sliding down her face. Daiya was so used to emotion tugging at the forefront of her mind, coloring her words and actions. She hardly recognized her own voice as she explained, it seemed distant and almost uninterested. "We broke up. Well, he broke up with me. So Cartri's gone. He's going to be fine, he just won't be with me anymore."

Daiya's head tilted, as if she had just heard something new. It was only the words from Ivory, filtering in at last. She tried her best to muster a smile, some measure of expression to reassure her friends. Nothing happened, and the teen wasn't in the mood to try harder. "You should eat," Daiya told them, pointing back the way to her table with Ivory and to the line for food. "I'm not hungry."

Her arms drifted back in, offering her a small measure of comfort against her stomach. It didn't grumble or offer anything meaningful to the teen, whose view of the world was too objective for that to register anyway. "Maybe I will be again, maybe not."

Daiya shrugged, not talking much about food anymore. She wasn't trying to reassure her friends anymore, either.

She wasn't fine.

"But I will be. Someday."

Ruby Jaxx Brie Jaxx Cassus Akovin Ivory Stroud

—FIN—​

 

[Under Foot]

Hex Das

<<How is it looking down there now Undie? Think you can mend it or gonna need to go scrounging for new pipes?>>

Pulling out a handheld scanner, the diminutive Squib hopped down from the stanchion he'd been perched on. As his boots splashed down, the fox-like alien held the scanner out, analyzing the structure of the pipework.

"Short term? I think the current installation will get us going," the fuzzy salvager uttered finally, tucking the scanner away. To address her larger question, he added, "Probably don't want to put too big a warranty on this one."

As Ree was pondering the design, he heard a splash. Turning, he saw that Hex had joined him.

"I think we could patch this section with foamplas," the Squib remarked, indicating the original pipe that they'd come across, with the break that had flooded the tunnel. Holding his arms apart, he continued, "Double wrap with plastoid tape and louar clamps on either side."

It was a band-aid, but it was the best band-aid he could think of. Might even last longer than year, but he wouldn't count on it.

"Long term, I'd say we need to replace the mains with ferroceramic and probably some animated metal bonding to seal the joints against the corrosive compounds polluting the sewage," Ree commented, thinking aloud at this point.

Turning back toward Hex for a moment, the Squib inclined his head to the bustd pipe and added, "Drop in some enzyme extractors and we might actually manage to put a dent in some of this pollution."

Not a very large dent. But change wasn't easy.

Particularly on Denon.