Ria's breakdown

ON RIA'S BREAKDOWN

Ria looks in the car and kills the perpetrators of the mass killing. She burns the area and walks into the wilderness in the direction of the path. At this point, there's very little of her hardware left. Her cloak is broken and shield mostly depleted, needing to only be turned on when engaged. No helmet either, in fact, the scene prior is the first time we see her face since the beginning of the script. The rage has just become duty. Purpose. It is not a revenge, but a confirmation of her worst fears. "If you come along, you will die." -- "If I don't do this, people will die." -- "They are people, people who will actively choose to do this. They believe killing you is just as important, just as necessary, just as ordained as I feel about protecting you." -\*sounds like you respect their soldier's heart.\*- "I don't." -\_a pause\_- "You deserve full lives away from this. I signed up for it after a more-than-privileged life.-- The strongest ought to share their strength. My hope is that you can just enjoy it." -- "Feel the full sun. I've already had enough for it to power me through this."

HOWEVER BAM! -- It all goes for naught. She's left walking, getting to the relay in the offskirts of the capital town where her mother lives. Her mother is likely dead, as are her friends, but to her, it's not a matter of revenge, it's a matter of preventing more death, of stopping those who see virtue in harm. She walks and walks and walks and walks and walks. Jove, her feet ache, throbbing and burning until the bones shave against one another and the beginning of blisters stirs under the raw flesh of her soles. Every second, a Falcon is probably killing someone. Every second, they wrench and writhe the minds of the human populous into excusing their harm or farming their sympathy. Every second, more of her mothers or her friends or those in that car come into being. She doesn't have the luxury of it being personal. She doesn't have the weakness to be blinded by anything but her purpose. Her body weakens, topples, she eats snow for the water and slaps it against her cheeks for the sting. She breathes heavy with red hot eyes and cries. It hurts. It really really hurts. But she's got the skillset. The knowledge. She signed up for this. She's got more strength than she alone needs. There are still people who need her. Need her skillset. Her knowledge. Who she signed up for. Communities that will flourish again. Bloodlines that will birth happy children. Sick folk who will be healed. Displaced who will be reunited. Enemies, who will be killed, routed, or turned. They just have to win first. And as far as Ria sees it, she's a major part of winning quicker. It hurts. Ria sniffles and rubs her eyes, forgetting about the bear claw scar along her face. It's enough to break her resolve for a moment. She stops trudging. She drops to her knees. She curls into a ball. She bites a wad of fabric to muffle herself before a great wail. A scream. A whimper.

She can't move on like it's nothing. It's not nothing. She can't let it be about revenge. She can't let it be about hurting the Falcons or making them feel as she feels. Deep in her heart though, she wants to. To show them horror like they've brought upon this world. To crush into their iron skulls the weight, the pain, the terror, they bring about in others. But she steels herself.

Horns. Horns over fangs. She signed up for this. The strongest give the strength they have to spare. A selfish path barely serves herself and would only make her sloppy. She trained a skillset for times like this. No war is pretty. She must fight despite it. Sol will shine on human, alien, and everything in between. It will uplift them as it lifts her now. It will falter, as she has, as it has with allowing any of this to come to pass, but as surely as Ria stands, daylight, sunlight, will shine again. Ria walks.

A thin haze of sparks envelops Ria for a moment.

"Why don't you give me the cloak? Pairs nice with the rifle."

"I'd have to dig under my skin to do that."

She raises the shield belt. Gil stammers, "...Wait, like-- literally?"

Ria pulls the shield back slightly. "You know how to calibrate this, right?"

With a snatch, "I'm not THAT old."

1: The Good People of Valera

----A group of people, led by Vergil Kusama, tries to hail the greater Ascendancy for help in an abandoned motel lodge. This, however, is picked up by the mobile IF group scouring the region for them. And the aid they're calling for is jammed and their location transfigured. (End teaser) The Ruby vessel comes down anyway, seemingly anticipating a distrubance, but the IF loads into the area and attempts to clear it. When the pod gets near, seemingly about to prove their plight despite the deaths/captures the pod is shot down and Vergil is taken (midpoint) Return as Ria is dunked alongside the surviving rebels and they are drilled. The magistrate intends to break their will on whether the message got out or not and what to do to deter response now that an ASAB agent is here. -- Too late, though. Ria frees herself and the rebels and fights to Vergil, only for them to realize that the comms tower is severed and they can't call the ship any longer.

2: The Woman and the Boy

----Realizing they need interstellar comms of some kind, (end teaser) Ria tries to track down the lodge of her radio-tracker friend to find applicable stations, however she doesn't want Vergil to come along. At the lodge, they discover something is arwy (pp1) the house is trashed and they believe the IF might have taken her, but the damage isn't consistent with a military capture, but a search, someone might have been looking for the same information, meaning she was more than likely inclined to hide it. "Idk, agent. I'd be surprised if they couldn't find it after all this." -- "They wouldn't know where to look." (pp1 midpoint) Ria goes outside to check under a tree and reminisces as Vergil hears a pound while fruitlessly looking around trash. As Ria finds the map, she hears a SHOT (midpoint) -- Vergil has sparks along his torso and a bullet in his shirt. Damn powerful shield. He gets chased off and falls into Ria. He drags her aside as the shooter raves. "Is it a Falcon?" -- "I don't know." -- \*"Get out of my house!" -- "Is that your friend?!" -- "I don't know." She says activating her goggles -- "I don't know!? It's YOUR friend." -- "Unless she got a kid and a voice change recently, not too sure about that." -- "A what!?" -- "HEY! I SAW THE KID! I THINK WE'VE GOT A CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY!" -- "What kid!?" -- "I have HI-SCAN goggles, ma'am. I already saw." -- "Sh\*t." -- V: "It's okay, we're not with the occupation. We were just looking for something. (to Ria) did you find it?" -Ria shows it- "And we did, so we can be on our way." -- SMACK Boy:"HELP!" -- "Damn it--" -Footsteps; vergil looks to Ria- V:"Was that--" "GO! Or I'll shoot you!"  SLAM, V AND R GET UP. -- "You might wanna--" -Ria cloaks- "--Yeah." \*woman locks door to the radio room and re-tapes Boy's mouth. He bites her. She throws a buncha stuff into the trash as she bandages herself up and she begins to magnet run the consoles. --Invisible feet run up the stairs, vergil close behind. Vergil is like want me to cover you? -- Ria is like I need to you step back. A hole appears in the door and a flash grenade slips through it just as fast. --- KSSHH! woman picks up her rifle and goes by the boy FLASH. The door SMACKS open, the gun flies out her hand and cuffs visualize around her wrists as they're clicked on. Her hands tug her body out the door. Gil trains his gun on her. -- Ria kneels down as she materializes. "Wanna tell me what's going on?" rip tape -- "she--" -- "what are you doing?!" -- "she--" (pointing, tear dropping) -- "don't believe a word he says!" -- Ria motions toward the stack of files. And lifts them. We don't see them, she does. "those aren't mine! I found-- they were with him when I came" Ria turns. -HARDCUT-

Downstairs: "It wasn't her. My friend's name is Behati, the deed of the house is in a Margaret Trilby's name now." -Gil motions up inquisitively- "Yeah. Looks like the Falcons didn't get the memo either." -- "Well, at least we got the map." -- "It's just now we've got a kid." --  "He's probably from one of the nearby towns... You should check. I can map a stealthy path with this." -- A nod. Ria goes over to the boy. "Hey, you were really strong back there. I know this has probably really scary, but we're gonna try to get you home now. Do you know what town you're from?" -he cocks his head nervously- (In Japanese) Do you understand better now? -- "?Que?" -- (In spanish) Ah. We wanted your name and home city so we can take you there. -- "I'm Jimei. From--" He gets up and trudges over to the map, he points to a town a fair few miles from the "home" label on the paper. "Here." he says in english. -- "What is that, common?" -- "Spanish." -- "Hmm. Capital's closer, more guarded. And we'd have to cross some rails. (motions to Jimei inquisitively) -- "Jimei." -- "Jimei's town puts us on a much longer but safer path to the Kenko relay." -- Then you should split off, take him home. I'll go to the capital." -- "Alone?" -- "It's the best use of time. You can keep him safe without me." -- "Hardly. A dead body saves no souls. You can't go to the capital alone. Trust me. It's where we lost." -- "Gil--" -- "Kenko's two birds, one stone. And safer. If Jimei's town has any sympathizers we could get a cart, half the time crunch." -- "But--" -- "It's a done deal. Don't haggle it. Jimei, c'mon. We're taking you home." -he shuffles Jimei out the door- Ria looks all around. Trashed house. Then above. She sighs, then trudges ahead.

3: The Glutton in the Woods

----Group goes through the woods and finds a man tenting out with a boatload of food. They rest with him, but are attacked by a bear, scarring Ria, damaging her armor, and making it so Gil needs medical attention to remain in fighting or living order. Ria's meds can do something, but not enough to survive without a hospital.

4: The Profiteer

----Ria and Jimei go into town and try to look for meds for Gil and herself. Glutton and Gil learn more about each other and Glutton takes steps to improve as a person. Ria realizes the pharmacist is raketeering to injured civilians and tries to get involved but the Falcon garrison catches onto her. -- She doesn't want to kill someone in front of Jimei so she lets the guy go and just runs with her cloak veins entirely running to get Jimei out of there. Jimei also at some point learns through idle conversation that Ria is from the capitol of Valera and her mother lives there.

5: ?Anger?

Time skip. An old man in the woods finds glutton stealing from him and offers them harbor. "Would you mind a few more?" They take some time to heal and eat. Ria finally lets her guard down about her mom after asking about the capital. She cries a little, silently, about the possibility of her being dead after seeing a kimono that looks like hers. But is interrupted by gunshots. She tries to cloak but realizes her cortisol is too high. She destroys the IF group at the cost of her armor and the woman. The guy from before turns off the comms and attacks Ria, only for her to be saved by Gil and Glutton. They take the forest bikes of the couple and go.

6: The Treacherous Man, (Capture)

Jimei's town is the next over, the group marches on with food but little meds and little true rest. The IF scour the forest. However, they get to the city but it is being attacked by Valerans given weapons to clear the area of aliens. Gil notices that he recognizes some of the people and believes them to be resistance members. They patch him up and say they came in to defend the land from the invaders. the if comes by and gil notices them not firing, he then realizes they have allied themselves with the if. Jimei's ghost town is worsened by the fact that they've been taken or murdered. He flees and Ria and glutton chase her but only Glutton gets to him, both Glutton and Jimei are captured. Ria is pushed back to the train terminal as is Gil. both are captured alive as per big beginning bad's orders.

7: The Cargo Terminal

Ria wakes up in the cargo terminal, hung up by hooks. An anti-cloak is in her arm and her ballistic weave is torn. she breaks her hand while escaping the cuffs and tears the anti-cloak out of her arm, but it dangles still attached to her cloak veins. She semi-phases as someone enters and takes them out. She checks them for weapons but all they have is a blunt electro-baton. She tries to figure out where she is and finds out she's at the capital-approaching cargo terminal. She tries to search the data terminals and discovers that they've been shipping back and forth from major cities in the meantime, but the most recent one from Jimei's town is in XYZ land. She goes to there after big beginning bad leaves. He says he got the confirmation he needs. They can stop the Ruby's interrogation and just kill her. guy's like you're taking the garrison? You and your squad is all that's needed for The Work. the garrison has higher duties. Ria works her way through to a car, bangs on it, and hears a bang back. She goes and gets a crowbar by breaking it off of a train handle and she pries and slams the car lock until it opens. Finally, it opens. -- Oh no. ... Ria just stands. She doesn't breathe. She doesn't check. She goes to the garrison building. She doesn't emote, she doesn't wince. She enters the garrison and the garrison ends.

8: The Town Where I Grew Up

Ria walks along the road. For a while. There's a flashback to her mother (all hazy-like) and Ezra stuck on the side of this road as she looks at it. She thinks of Behati and them playing together in the snow beside this area watched over by her aunts. and eats snow, slapping herself to stay focused. She thinks of the war medals he received in piloting a dark skinned woman with dyed red hair runs up and hugs him. She breaks down and cries. She thinks of smashing and breaking and revenge but swallows it. She steps over her fathers corpse and a grandma and other comrades in ruby armor and then a bunch of train toys. She cries as she walks but she keeps walking. she keeps walking. She keeps walking. -- She enters the town where she grew up. No hallucatory damage. She tries and fails to cloak. So she just enters. Ria goes in her house and listens to the song she hums to stay calm. She talks to the old woman. Then hears a THUD. .A man says he played with people's deepest fears to get them to support his work in veiled terms. "You dare point that gun at me? I saved your people. Do you not know the degeneracy you've allowed in your midst?" -- "Don't try that with me." -- "How many fathers were taken by aliens in these past 30-odd years, Rikitake? Do you not mourn them? You decry us for protecting ourselves?" -- "By killing innocent civilians?" -- "They're aliens!" -- "And people. Use our tragedy to excuse your atrocities one more time." -- "I'm sure your widowed mother thinks quite differently." -- "Like she wouldn't be on one of those train cars. Enough cawing, where's your entourage?" -- "Gone." -- "My dying twitch would be your head, you sure?" -- "I'm alone. Due for a meeting." -- "With who?" -- "We both know I can't--" -- "With who." -- "The head of this operation." -- "With access to the comms towers?" -the barrel convinces him.- "...Yes." -- "Then it's my lucky day." \*Ria goes invisible\*

9: The Corpse on the Altar

The meeting man sits. His eyes wander. Paranoid. A gust of wind makes him jump. A creak in the wood. Ancient christmas music plays. -- Upstairs, the cam pulls into a room and it opens. The room is rummaged about until a hunting rifle is pulled out. -- The comms tower taunts from through the haze of snow as a storm rages. HEadlights cut the chaff and tug a off-road truck down the trail. -- A photo of the Rico/Rikitake family. The spectre picks it up. Phantoms of Gil and glutton teaching jimei how to shoot. -Mom cut in, approach house - The japanese family watch the door open and part to make way for the invisible ria. -mom rushes in, it's cold. The officers around her usher her towards the house.- Trains upon trains big and small covered in blood and saturated with flies coats the house. Footsteps cast them aside. Until they stand before a train car door-MATCHCUT- the door to Ria's come opens and a trio of masked figures enter. The camera follows them as if POV, before abruptly cutting to bearded man. -- General"Victory." -- Bearded"In our time, yes." -- "Even your train teams are taking a holiday. Merry christmas." -- "They haven't reported in?" -- "Don't nag. Let them enjoy themselves." -- G:"But I must commend you. Your speed has been remarkable. I've never seen a world recover from such rot so quickly." -- B"Thank you." -- "How many were there here?" -- "In the village?" -- "On the world." -- "Two million, by last count." -- "How many now?" -- "1.5" -- "In three weeks!? (to bearded man) Three weeks!" -- "Unfortunately, the southern hemisphere isn't as efficient as you. Sol will be breathing down our necks soon." -- "The xenos attacked on how many worlds? Tell them we weren't willing to wait." -- "I'll make sure to relay the message." -BLAST- "\*screaming\* -- Cloaker! -- Magistrate, destroy the comms tower, don't let her--" -- "You don't know what you're doing, solite, we're trying to--" -smash hand gun to temple. "Save it. Out." -- "You monster. Siding with them? They're animals. They'd rip you limb from limb. Why don't you go to their worlds and see?" -- "I have. Had a nice dinner with a team member" -- "They're killers." -- "Tell him yourself after you give me those comms codes." -- "Or what?" -- "Guess." -- No encryption, just words. -- You've killed my daughter, you know that? -- ...What? -- You've killed my daughter. By allowing those murderers roam free. Her blood's on your hands! -- I can't believe you. -- My husband! KILLED by those beasts! They deserve to die! -- \*mask slowly off\* -- All of them. Man, Woman, Child, they're just waiting to grow into killers. Supporting them. Lauding them. They're half our population and half of our wars. Are you going to wait for them to turn on us!? -- Mom. -- Wha? -- Mom. -- No. -- I've fought too hard -- No... -- And too long -- NO. -- For you to- -- NO, STOP! You're not my daughter! -- For not helping your murder? -- You're a traitor! -- You've killed human and non-human alike. Give me the comms codes. I'm shutting you down. -- Your father would hate you. -- Look at your trains. -- He died from their wounds -- And spent his life rebuilding with them after the war. -- They killed him, Ria. -- STOP. Don't wring his name around like that! Do you know how many Dads you made? -- In the orcs? Or the bugs? -- Comms codes. Or I'll pivot somewhere else. -- And kill me? Your friends would like that. -- Comms codes. -- Or what? -- Mom. -- OR WHAT!? So quick to fight before you see a human face. A real face. -- Just answer the question. Please. -- Do what you must, then, traitor. -- WHACK! tie up, grab comm and scrambler mask, mom attacks, breaking the comm and ria kills. She sits and cries silently with the blood of her mother on her hands. She scrubs and scrubs. She rebandanges her cloakvein wound. Ria sees her hair in a neat bun and lets it down. As down as possible. She goes up to the height charts and kneels her head against it. She takes the bodies and buries them. She buries a bit for her entourage as well as the train. She makes herself tea and blows on it, trying to phase out. She looks at a bloody map of the relay and departs with her family hunting rifle and mucahuatl with whats left of her suit restrapped as essential's armor (core) and big muscle groups. She gets to the area and fights her way to the top, alone. Solders have cloak-breakers and shock grenades. She steals the shields off of heavy troopers with them and continues her way through. She gets to the comms console and fires it up, but a guy blasts at her and tries to shut it down. The fight goes until the lights flood in. The file is still transmitting but the folks step out. ITS THE REBELS FROM THE BEGINNING. They run and hug Ria and they say you saved them, allowing them to get to the less defended relay and call for help last night. Ria sees the ship and cries into the hug. "The trains. Get them to stop the trains. Ore transfers in the south and--" -- "Relays in the North." -- "You've done your part, Agent. Let us take it from here." -- "But--" -- "You've done enough." -- "But I didn't--" -- "What's your name?" -- "\*stammers...\* My dad called me Ria?" -- "You saved our world Ria. We never would have escaped the Falcons without you. You did enough." -- "I didn't save your friend." -- "Mourn the dead, love, but we'll fight like hell for the living. Medical team is on-board. Just tell 'em where you're hurt." -- Ria steps on board the pelican-like, holds on, she looks back. "And Ria?" -- "As long as you live, we will have done something right." -- Ria smiles... "Right."

discover IT'S ALREADY being attacked! The rebels from before worked their way there as it waas closest, but attracted attention when the Head of Operations failed to report in. Rebel 2 is hotwiring the tower to transmit to Sol. -- Soldiers try to target it, but a commanding officer is like we need that intact! If we lose the all-clear signal Sol would just as easily see something's awry. Soldier is stabbed. Then officer. A heavy is like CLOAKER! - I thought this colony was cheap! -Ria cowers from heavy trooper blasts- Doesn't mean they don't have cloakers, you idiot. -- Ria fights her way through to the rebels and prevents the code from being broken

VALERA: The Valeran GCPD was ordering a detachment of extra support bound for another planet but the call was answered instead by IF units. Valera is a very isolationist corner that only really began to super connect when refugees of the Twin Systems and Hellspawn Wars fled there, ruining the previous urban-less almost-entirely-human nature of the world many racists loved about it. IF units were ferried in in-secret by the higher echelons of the military an federal government before they lightning struck the legislature and judiciary. Many GCPD areas were knocked out as well. The world was held by a military force mostly consisting of green troops with veterans in the higher echelons doing coordination and performing many atrocities.