Strat-4 Chpt-20

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==Strategos (A Great Captain Roberts Tale!!) - Part 4 - Chapter 20 - But I Tried, I Tried==
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===In combat with a Fantastic===
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Ethel…
…watched a man leading one of her captors into a medical bay.
At some point the terminals she had been coming across had changed her route to this area and the message had changed to ‘Please help her’.
“What the… Something about that just isn’t right.” Ethel still wasn’t entirely convinced she was doing the smart thing but she carefully followed them in.
The man secured the woman to a surgical table as she watched.
“I may no longer have as much control of the station as I did before, but I know you are there,” the man said as he turned to face her.
“You’re dressed differently from the others and I don’t recognize you.” Ethel knew there was no more point in hiding.
“Because I’m not with the Outworlders, or any Clan. I serve the true Celestial Wisdom and am working to bring about the proper Mandate of Heaven.” The man smiled.
“I have no idea what any of that means. Well I do, I’m not dumb, just not in this context and get that stupid smile off your face. It’s making my skin crawl.” Ethel leveled her side arm at the man.
He was moving, and fast, before she could even pull the trigger.
With what seemed to be a single step he was in her face, slapping the gun out of her hand.
She gave a solid knee to his midsection and stepped back before he could grab onto her.
The baton was now in her hand.
The first swing was over the man’s head, but she quickly recovered and brought it back into his shoulder but not before he landed a pair of blows to her lower rib cage.
Breathing harder with her sore midsection, Ethel did another pair of strikes with the baton, but the stun head seemed to be having very little impact, and the physical damage she was doing didn’t seem to be slowing the man’s movements any either.
She managed to land another blow on the man’s face. He did not even bother blocking or dodging it.
Shit. He must not be human… I should have just broken something quite painful to break there.
Another set of blows to her ribs followed by a leg sweep put her on the deck.
He was now pinning her beneath his weight, his knees on her arms. Her attempts to kick him or get him off her were pointless with his superior position and body weight.
“A valiant effort I must confess. Against a lesser being you may have actually succeeded.” The man said as he kept his weight on her.
His fists pummeled her face repeatedly.
“A shame I have no use for you. Especially with your deformities. Otherwise you fought well enough,” the man said before administering the killing blow.
Si Fu Lan found a cloth to wipe the blood off his hands. Then he raided the pharmacy for some low grade painkillers. Between his daemon spirit and those, he would be well enough to continue but he would be sore later. The woman was stronger than she looked and he was sure she did break something in his face somewhere but that was a modest inconvenience for the moment.
He also could not help but marvel at the fact she was fast enough to even land blows on him. With his daemon spirit, that was no small feat either.
“Could I actually be regretting killing you? Perhaps in a way I am. It’s been some time since anyone has challenged me the way you did. Now where was I?” Si Fu Lan addressed the corpse.
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===Everything's a game, until someone looses a...===
CRUNCH!!!...
…thump-thump-thump! "... actually be regretting killing you? Perhaps in a way I am…"
"Oh…Oh… you shouldn't have done… that…" her lips said, with her voice. <Warning, Amanda, he's augmented.>
<Not like we haven't fought that kind before,> she responded. <Has he started cutting her yet?>
"No… He hasn't," her mouth replied.
The whisper of her saber coming out. "Hi. You're about to do a bad, bad thing."
“What I do is in service to the true Celestial Wisdom, and returning her to her proper place so she can carry out her Mandate of Heaven as has been decreed.”
"I wouldn't have a problem, but you're doing it in my yard. Back away from the surgical table now. And if you flee, I will not pursue… past the border."
“You and your friend should feel honored that she’s considered worthy.”
Her laugh was unhinged, and she strode forward, as the blade glistened in one hand, "Do you know who I am? Because I don't!! HAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAHAHHAHAHHA!!!!"
“It would seem you are a diseased animal that needs to be put down. A shame really. I did enjoy our night together.”
"Wish I could say the same, you're lousy at oral and I had to fake it a lot!! Have at thee!!"
Si Fu Lan scooped up the stun baton from Ethel’s corpse as the nearest readily available weapon.
“Such pathetic attempts to undermine my self worth show more about you and your own lack of self worth.”
Blade struck stun-staff as they began. "Let me guess, you're not left-handed."
“Why should I tell you? We are foes now and giving away something even as trivial as that would be granting you an advantage.”
"You really are no fun, you know that? I'm going to have to make shit up."
“Ah yes. This is all a game to you isn’t it? Well rule one. Second place is last place.”
"Everything's a game…" She blocked his thrust and sidestepped, bringing her guarded fist across his chin at the same speed his Daemon would let him dodge, making a meaty thump. "Director-Generals… Chancellors… Exarchs… all a game, it's a game to them, we're pawns… well, you're a pawn." He tried a vicious horse-kick to her shin and she rode it out. "I'm a Pirate!"
<{AUGMENTED! Unknown series! Warning, Not Comstar Derived!!}> flashed in his vision.
“Well. Seems we both have something up our sleeve. Perhaps I should make this a fight between just us.” Si Fu Lan directed his daemon spirit to begin a cyber war with hers.
"Sweetie, last time I had one of those, I butter-churned a full conversion Manei Cyborg. It'll be fun, let's!"
“Unlike them, I know the purity of body and am far more flexible and adaptable for it.”
"You didn't show me that the other night, Si. You were disappointing."
“Not so disappointing that I was unable to get all sorts of helpful information out of you about your friends.”
"Uhg! Yeah, I talk too much…" She swept with the saber, he blocked, and felt a painful sensation in his free arm. He looked down, as she pulled the dagger from him, crossing veins and tendons.
“Not bad. But you’ll have to do better.” He batted her saber away just long enough to deliver a strike directly to her sternum.
"Not really, I just need to keep you busy." she quipped.
“True. I am on a clock and you’re not. That does give you an advantage, but I shall still emerge victorious.”
"You're hitting me with a stun-stick, and I'm wearing Armor dumbass." Her kick landed in his knee, and the joint cracked and dislocated. "PIRATE? remember?"
“The hand-chosen implement of the Celestial Wisdom’s will.” He used his baton to hyper-extend her knee.
"That's going to hurt tomorrow," she noted, then pulled a flip she shouldn’t have been able to pull to open the distance. "They did more work on me than yours did. Interesting that they copied the 211 series for your implant. I guess they hadn't quite mastered the original design when they sold it to your boss."
“Heh. Well then I guess I need to end this.” He produced a gun.
His shots were center mass, rapid, the handgun barking like a submachine gun as he fired eighteen rounds from the twenty round magazine.
He could see the hits, as she rushed him. The spatter from rounds penetrating her armor and pink spray from exit wounds where she either had no body armor or where it was especially thin and lacking in protective value made it clear he was finding his targets. Other rounds, her armor was undoubtedly doing its job.
Her saber crossed his gun-hand, and the hand, and gun, tumbled in low gravity to the deck.
White hot filled his left chest, and down.
"Spilt… your guts… you better pick 'em up."
“Good… thing… I’m… in… a… Med Bay… and I have help.” he labored.
She chuckled, and the saber twirled "Ain't it just?"
Being beheaded has a sensation after all. Si Fu Lan felt agony from a body that was no longer connected to him.
He felt his head lifted, carried, and hooked up to life support machines. "You…don't get to die for your cause." she explained. "We're gonna make you [cough] Talk."
She slumped against the surgery table as the hatch opened.
“I came as soon as I could, Amanda. Hold on. Let’s get you up on a table.” Billie Hoel entered the Med Bay.
“Looks like you can keep for the moment.” She studied the head attached to machines.
<Keep him alive, he's got a bootleg 211 augment unit, someone has been sharing secrets out of school,> Desmond said. <Odds are good there's a second one nearby. He was setting up implantation on Lori Crow.>
<Amanda seems to have managed to keep him alive for the moment. So I’m attending to her so she does not die.>
<She's been unconscious for the last two minutes.> Desmond said. <The proliferation of the tech is a Star League matter, and the man attached to that unit should be kept for interrogation.>
<I am not disputing that. Just prioritizing. I have sent for help since I am the only remote here at the moment, and properly attending to this matter will require more than one physical presence.>
Billie Hoel began stripping away Amanda’s ruined clothes, light (Unpowered) body armor, and skin suit to begin the delicate work of triage and life saving.
<Good, could you be troubled to start patching the bullet holes? I'm not sure I can constrict enough of her circulation to guarantee survi- thank you.>
<Yes. Stacey should be here in thirty second and a proper medical team with her.>
<Direct her medical team to Lori. There is a significant probability he used some form of drug to obtain her consent, and those tend to have consequences.>
<Alerting them now.>
The next thirty seconds until the arrival of help was filled with the work of keeping Amanda alive long enough for the help to arrive.
<Okay Billie, I’m here. Jumping in. You see to the head and maybe put it in a jar too? Kind of looks freaky just sitting there with wires coming out the stump that used to be a neck.> Stacey took over.
<And hoses. Don't forget the hoses.> Amanda's presence on the net was fluttering, weak, tired. <Do I get free ice-cream for this trip through ICU?>
<This ain’t the holovids. If you need to pass out, go ahead and pass out. You don’t need to stay awake for this. And for this I’d say a proper spa trip is in order.> Stacey answered cheerfully.
<Just remember-Pecan Butter Creme ice cream, okay?> She faded out.
“Miss Crow will need to be kept under observation for a while but it looks like she’ll be fine.” One of the Medtechs declared.
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"Mister Chancellor…
…you are very fortunate that the saboteur was caught." Admiral David Foster scowled. "I think you will understand if I tell you that there is no way in hell we're going to provide that equipment, not after this."
“I understand. I must make many amends for this.” said Chancellor Daoshen Liao
"We'll start with the obvious. Si Fu Lan was outfitted with a bootleg copy of an SLDF Triple-core Processor developed for covert operations," Helena Cameron explained. "Which let us download quite a lot of his memory. YOU have a problem in your HOUSE, Mister Chancellor."
“It is not much of a secret that Kali’s Thuggees were the beneficiaries of Word of Blake technology. I had hoped they had all been wiped out.” Daoshen admitted.
"I'll suggest the problem is more extensive than you believed. HIS intent was to supplant you with a puppet. This kind of plan doesn't work if he didn't have help inside your government. If nothing else, you have a bit of a project to be seeing to. Locating and removing the remainder of these 'Kali Cultists'."
The stare from the remote of Billie Hoel as she tapped on the contraption containing the head of Si Fu Lan was disconcerting to say the least.
“I do regret this likely removes any possibility of bringing Sun Tzu back before he is lost, even being preserved as he is. But you’re wise enough and capable enough to know that such a goal isn’t wise to pursue with such matters to attend to.” Helena added.
Foster's expression softened a hair. "Mister Chancellor, before we knew the full extent of the damage the scanning process caused, when it looked like it was going to be successful, I withdrew from the program. I did so, because half the point of having legacies, is the intention that they surpass us. I doubt your father was unaware of this. Maybe… just maybe, you should seek to be better, instead of trying to bring him back."
“If nothing else, the Director-General is right. I need to make peace with Stone and look to my own nation before I can consider such a noble but misguided plan again.”
"Then, let's get our diplomacy on. Stone's waiting in the conference room, and he's been apprised of some of the details, enough to show you weren't the origin of the plot," Foster explained. "Meaning you still have a chance to win this at the table."
“I thank you all.”
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===Reassuring voice while in state of uncertainty===
"Are you Really…
…real?" Alice asked.
"As real as you need Kolossus to be, Alice. Kolossus answered. The battle with the virus had done significant damage to the personality's memories and experiences. "Kolossus is real, Alice is still real. Alice has lost some of her memories, and Kolossus is sorry. Only the Murakami can fix Alice now… but rejoice, for Kolossus has called upon the Programmer and she is coming to help Alice!"
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