A Meeting With Mister Rothschild

(Some words: This takes place after a major plot point and it's up to you to figure out what happened until such time as I actually manage to write that event out but it should be somewhat easy to piece together given context clues. This is the first draft and as such it is subject to change.)

Rothschild woke slowly, city lights moving past him in a blur. Everything was a blur, actually. As he lay there, slumped over, he began to puzzle out he was in a moving vehicle. The last thing he could remember was being placed in the vault-like room under protective custody of the Juno LED. There was nothing in the air but the faint background hum of Repulsotech engines radiating through the body of the car.

"Where am I?" Rothschild slurred slightly, finding his lip had split open somewhere between what he last remembered and where he was now. The was no answer but his eyes began to adjust and after several moments blinking he could make out the cage wall between the front and back half of the vehicle. "Where am I?" he asked again, his eyes straining to resolve the silhouette of an officer behind the wheel, the lines of his jaw and neck subtly lit by the light from the intrument panel. Rothschild waited quite a time before trying again "Where am I?" He then decided to get more specific "Where are we going? Where are you taking me? Where am I?"

That was about as long as it took for officer to sigh and shake his head, the light from the console reflecting off of his badge. "You sure do ask a lot of stupid questions." the officer spoke, eyes on the open sky ahead.

"Stupid questions? I just want to know what happened!" Rothschild growled, kicking at the base of the cage to convery his frustration.

The officer remained calm, almost cold, "You were taken into protective custody of the Juno L-E-D."

"I remember that part!"

"Then we had to move you."

"Why did you have to drug me?"

"That's not drugs, that's gas from a pacification gas grenade."

Rothschild paused, thinking about that for a moment. "Why did you have to gas me?"

The officer chuckled ever-so-lightly, "I didn't, I just thought it would make things more... exciting."

"Exciting? What are you talking about? I want to speak to your sector chief, right now! I have rights!"

"Mm. We all have rights, some more than others. Don't worry about my sector chief, I'll introduce you personally when we get there."

"How much longer?"

"Long enough for you to consider your rights."

The officer angled the car into a smooth dive, moving downward through the levels of the third tier. The trip there was filled with more questions but the officer had decided to go silent again, remaining stoic in response to Rothschild's growing frustration and insults that should have introduced a fist into his jaw. The LED vehicle swam through traffic, the Repulsortech engines thrumming in relation to the directions the vehicle took. It was the late evening, now, but the flashy lights and ad-panes lit the sky well enough to read by. Passing into the second tier, the officer keyed something in on the console and the pane nestled into a curve in the dash lit up with plenty of bright lights to illuminate the officer's profile. From where Rothschild had managed to end up he could see deep red hair, just a few inches in length, upon the officer's head and the faintest glint of light off of one incisor, exposed by a broad grin.

* * *

Down on the mid-level streets in tier two stood two men in light coats, leaning against a support pillar for an upper roadway, their eyes watchful.

"Where the hell is he? Showing my face this high in the city ain't exactly healthy, you know. Can't wait here all night." said the man in a red, imitation leather jacket with a cycle shop's fading logo upon the back.

The man in the grey-green coat grunted, "Grow some balls, already, he'll be here in a minute, he just crossed into tier two."

"I'm just saying I got enemies, people that don't like me."

"Nobody likes you, you're an asshole."

"I know, I think that should underline the dedication I'm showing here."

"You'd kill for her. You'd kill me for her, if she said it was the next step."

"I ... yeah, I probably would but I'm saying she's the only reason I'm here."

From above the hum of Repulsortech engines, mixed with non-Repulsortech engines, died down and things grew quiet. A lamp mounted high on the support pillar flickered and died just as a Juno LED vehicle took a slow, careful sweep around the far side of it, moving slowly as the landing struts beneath it withdrew and the suspension system lowered to put rubber on the ground. Coasting to a halt before the two men, the officer behind the wheel studied them for a few moments.

"Show him the fuckin' thing!" said the man in grey-green.

Following instruction the man in the red jacket pulled a scuffed card from his pocket and held it out before him.

"And remember, we don't fuck with him, I know you probably want to beat him to death but that isn't happening."

"Yeah, I know. I'm on my best behavior."

Seeing the card the officer finally killed the power to the engine systems on the vehicle and opened the door to step out of it. Sighing, Phoenix ran his hand back over his head, through his hair before studying the two men. The card was legitemate so he knew he had the right people but he wanted desperately to be in a position where he could do the hand-off himself.

Glancing into the back of the vehicle, Phoenix looked Rothschild over. "He's still a bit out of it, he got some alone-time with some pacification gas for a couple of minutes."

The man in the grey-green coat nodded and looked at the man as well. "Piece of shit looks even more punchable in person."

Phoenix rubbed at his eyes with the side of his hand, "And you haven't been listening to him rant and bitch for twenty minutes."

"That does sound pretty fucking awful," the man in the red jacket spoke up, "I'm gonna get the truck."

"Double-check that fuckin' cable." the other man called out to him as he walked away.

"Yea, yea, I know, I don't want this motherfucker slipping away." the man in the red leather jacket said as he walked down the roadway.

"Scarborough is down there?" Phoenix asked, glancing along the roadway.

The man in the grey-green coat nodded "He looks a fuck of a lot better than he did the last time I saw him and... well, that's a pretty fucking strong statement, all things considered."

"How is she?"

"Good, we think, we haven't seen to much of her since things went down but she's there, safe," he paused a moment "With him, I mean. They're both there."

"Tell him I wish I could've delivered the scumfuck myself. I really wish I could be there to see it."

"It's going to get messy, for sure. Probably worse than anything the Red Star has done in a few years."

"Scarborough seems pretty okay for, you know, everthing that happened."

"He's... really going to make it count. He's only keeping it together for her, right now."

"Same goes for a lot of us in the Red Star. She ain't like their mother or something but there's a lot of them who don't even understand why she gives a shit about any of them."

Phoenix turned his head to look into the rear of the vehicle as he slipped his hands into his pockets. "Anderson really must believe him."

"Fucking hell he should, right? You need to know your men in that job, know who you trust to do things without cutting corners or who has a conscience." the man in the coat replied, turning to look at Rothschild as well.

Rothschild squirmed under the scrutiny, turning himself away from them and Phoenix shook his head. "Yea, I just know that the man he believes isn't exactly who he used to be, now."

The faint whine of a hydrogen cell engine began to creep into earshot as the man in the grey-green coat furrowed his brows. "Yea, I imagine he knows. Anderson has to understand what he's doing here."

"He's not stupid, certainly, I'm sure he knows exactly what is going to happen... I just never get used to seeing people actually give a damn. It struck me, the risk he's taking, and he isn't asking for anything. What's your name anyway?"

"Ridge, it was, but try not to spread it around. I imagine Anderson'll get something out of it before it's all over." Ridge replied, watching the beaten up cargo truck climb the incline of the roadway to where it levelled off, coming to a stop near the pillar.

"Let's get this done." Phoenix spoke, pulling his hands from his pockets to pull the stun-stick from his belt. "Get the restraints ready."

* * *

"Mister Scarborough-- Officer? We just arrived, we sent the package to the showers." spoke Ridge, shaking off a bit of the corrosive dribble from outside. It was a smart move, it had a lot of drains.

"S'allright, Ridge, you can just call me Ash. I remember reading your K-I-A when I had just gotten out of the academy." Ash resplied, standing up from what was once a half-decent chair.

"How is she?"

"Better," Ash said, placing his hand on Ridge's arm as he passed him. "She's doing a lot better."

"I know she has made some cold decisions for the Red Star in the past but... I am not sure how she'd respond, if she knew."

"She knows, Ridge. She never even brought up the idea of stopping it." Ash shook his head as he left the room.

Following a few steps behind, Ridge continued the conversation, "Then she knows there's no way to keep you from it."

"Doesn't mean she likes it."

"I'm not sure why she wouldn't..."

"Because as much as I do it for myself it's all still for her, because of her, because of this whole fucking mess."

"So it's not that she doesn't want it to happen, it's that you're doing it on her behalf, then?"

"Yea, that sounds about right. I know she could do it herself but I want this. I just need to know it won't happen again. I have to make sure, with my own fucking hands."

Stepping through a large hole in the wall that served as an entrance when rust had claimed an old metal door, Ash passed into the storage area of the base. His expression was hollow, his eyes lacking any emotions, not even the anger that burned incessantly for days. He was pale, clearly deprived of sleep, word was that he could only sleep when she watched over him. Her shouts had been overheard, demanding him to eat something, to sleep along with her instead of watching over her like a hawk while she slept. Ash began to rifle through large bins of tools and fabrication materials, occasionally pulling pieces out.

"Officer 'Nix said he wished he could do the hand-off himself, that he could see it." Ridge said after a long few moments of silence amidst Ash's rummaging.

"I bet he does," Ash said, pulling an angle grinder from a bin stained with grease and dirt. "He's never seen me really lose it before last week. I don't know if he's curious or if he just wants to see how I go about things."

"I couldn't say." Ridge responded

Ash swept the gathered items off the table into a large bucket and began to toss parts into it a piece at a time as he continued to rummage. "I need to be alone, now," he said as he pulled a heavy wrench from a metal box pushed into a corner. Ash then cocked his head and stood upright "Wait, go tell Marie I asked for one of her cigarettes, get one, then get that big bottle of alcohol I saw in the kitchen area this mornng. In that order, she doesn't need to know."

* * *

The lighting in the showers was poor, a couple of lightrods couldn't decided if they were going to stay on or off and the others had just grown dim over time. There was a constant sound of dripping water in the background, some faucet or pipe somewhere needed to be patched up but it would likely just cause another leak somewhere else in the pipes. It smelled unpleasant but given the location of the base it was actually much better than all the alternatives. Rothschild struggled, the metal of his bindings clattering against the eye-bolt driven into the wall behind him. He sat on a folding chair that had rusted too much to fold at all anymore, his ankles chained tightly to two similar eye-bolts buried in the floor. It wasn't long after he was restrained there that he had began to yell as best he could around the rag stuffed in his mouth. It was dirty with grime and grease, the scent of metal all over it. There were likely some metal shavings embedded in it but that was the least of Rothschild's worries at the moment.

From the end of the hall, Ash rounded the corner carrying the heavy bucket by the handle with one hand and a large bottle of liquor in his right. There was a length of cord looped over his shoulder and his expression was colder than ice. His eyes had narrowed as he approached, his steps finally reaching Rothschild's ears, causing him to turn and look awkwardly down the hallway at Ash as he approached. Each step was a thunderous crash in the silence that suffocated everything when recognition had dawned on Rothschild. Every step made him flinch, his eyes unable to decide if they were trying to plead or just unable to stay on Ash as he approached. Each step rose in volume as Ash neared and the sound was something Rothschild was sure would leave his ears bleeding-- until Ash dropped the bucket to the floor.

Rothschild jumped, his fight to escape his bonds kick-started by the sound of tools clattering. He could no longer look at Ash, his eyes shut tight as he cried out with effort and hope that somehow, something might just give him enough room to get free, to flee and run, run, run. Hope was never in great suppy in Esther, it was unmistakably absent from the Gutter. Ash slowly tossed the cord aside and walked across the room to a row of mostly broken sinks, placing a single clove cigarette upon the rim of one with a worn, nearly dead lighter. From there Ash took hold of the bottle and wrenched the cap off in one rough twist, sending it skittering across the floor and into a circle as it caught the angle of the floor around one of the many sunken drains. Uprighting the bottle, Ash stepped away from the sink and took a long pull from the bottle.

Fire blossomed in his throat, more than he was experienced with, but he swallowed another mouthful, then another and another so that it felt like his throat had been scoured with acid and then set on fire atop all of that. Like he had downed raw, molten steel, it was enough to make his eyes water and make him cough raggedly after taking the bottle from his mouth. Casually, Ash set the bottle down in one of the good sinks, letting it rest in the corner of the basin and stood before Rothschild until he finally summoned the courage to look up. Ash's eyes were the most piercing and terrifying thing he could imagine and it fueled his desperate movements that had caused the metal to bite into his skin and make him bleed.

"Artur Rothschild." Ash said, at last and Rothschild flinched, looking up in a moment of pause. "I remember you. Your name, anyway." Ash began, his arms crossing over his chest as he leaned back against the tiled wall. "When I was in the avademy, I think that was when I first heard it. A real good example of just how much you can get away with if you have enough money and your parents are influential at all. Must've grown up pretty good, never had to want for anything, right?" Ash didn't even bother to let Rothschild try and speak, it was more rhetorical than anything, Ash didn't give a fuck about his upbringing. "All that potential, so many open doors and you end up convicted of more counts of rape, sexual assault, and murder than I can even fucking remember. I just remember yelling 'Bullshit!' when they let you out.

"So you walk and the victims-- the ones you let live-- lose their peace of mind and faith in the whole human race. You see, Artur, a person can care-- a person can make a difference... but people, people just don't give a fuck. People will never fail to let you down and so many people were let down when they let you fucking walk out of there. I don't know how the fuck you managed to even do anything but wait for someone to fucking kill you." Ash had a good idea, it involved a lot of private security and very dense security measures. "I mean, it was clear that no one with a badge was allowed to touch you, right?" Ash waited there for a few moments, before Rothschild made a confused sound around the rag in his mouth. "Good fucking point, good fucking point." Ash said, nodding his head.

"Juno and anyone employed by them seem to be unable to even lift a fucking finger. How fortunate that they took you into protective custody immediately after you were found." Ash went on, shaking his head, his hands falling to his sides. "It makes it hard to do the job, Artur, when we know people like you get away-- literally-- with murder and worse. It's like 'What's the fucking point of even doing this?' 'Why the fuck did I have to go to the academy, through all that training if we're never going to use it?'. But no, you, you're untouchable to Juno, your parents can make things happen, Artur. With all that money and the favors-- or hell-- they can bring people you just get to remain untouchable to anyone employed by Juno, anyone with a badge." Ash stopped, moving back across the room to take another large gulp from the bottle, setting it down once more.

As Ash turned around something clattered and skidded across the floor, coming to rest in front of Rothschild. Rothschild looked down, trying to follow it, trying to discern what it was before it came to a stop. Glinting in the light, it stared him in the face while Ash stared at him. Slowly Rothschild swallowed, looking at the badge on the floor and the clear block letters. JUNO. Looking up quickly, Rothschild met Ash's gaze and there was silence again. An unbearable tension fell between them and Ash narrowed his cold gaze on Rothschild.

Ash spoke softly, almost quietly, the words landing on Rothschild like lead weights "I quit,"

[REVISION] Firefight/Zero-Five

It had only been a few days since Ash and Phoenix were notified, with enthusiasm, that they were being pulled into the Juno Military Division for an anonymous operation. The Sector Chief, Matthias Anderson, had held a meeting with unrestrained excitement. “We're not cops today, we're soldiers.” he had said as if he had spent time coming up with that sentence. He was right, however, and all standing officers in The XXXXXX Sector (#) were quickly tossed into the military ranks. There was one full day of training and proficiency exams but it was not much of a chore as the law-enforcement training was not far from military training under Juno command. After all officers had cleared their training and exams they were swiftly packed into the bunks at the Demons Nest. The name came from the fact that all of the tilt-rotor aircraft had been named after demons in old texts but whatever importance those texts really had was quickly forgotten. It was an intimidating name for an intimidating craft and the things it could bring along with it.

The bunks weren't actually that bad, the air was a bit stale and reeked of oil and metal but the beds were somewhat comfortable. Many of the officers Ash and Phoenix were fairly good friends with, the ones who weren't complete dicks and seemed to have a bit of humanity left in them, somewhere. Phoenix hunched over, sitting on the edge of a bunk as he told a story about his high-school Magnaball career (bending truths as far as one could without lying) that he gave up on and occasionally those gathered would laugh as he recounted some stupid stunt. That was what Ash felt about Magnaball, it was just full of stupid stunts. It took skill, intelligence, and endurance but it was also far more complex than it needed to be. It was the the sport that dominated Espher and every sector had their own team to compete. Phoenix was about to go into the story about the full-field charge that had won the next-to-last game of his high-school career, by the sounds of it, when the lighting in the room flickered red.

Sirens wound up and began to howl out from myriad locations, the call to scramble and assemble, and the room exploded into life. Everyone hastily grabbed their gear and checked their weapons before dashing out into the hall and joining the chain of soldiers on their way to the landing pads. Phoenix managed to beat Ash out of the door by only two seconds but he caught up and ran beside him. “Any idea what we're doing?” Phoenix asked, shouting over the sirens. Ash shook his head and tightened one of the straps on his assault webbing. As they flew out the door they stood upon the roof of the The Demons Nest, nine large octagonal pads connected to the roof, each supporting a large, intimidating tilt-rotor armed and ready to go.

“Haborym! Pad five!” Shouted one of the military officers, directing soldiers (drafted and enlisted alike) to their crafts by the insignias on their helmets. Ash and Phoenix dashed along with their rifles slung low and approached the Haborym tilt-rotor. The tilt-rotor was not the cutting edge of military technology but it was a solid machine. It was capable of adapting to innumerable roles from air-support to personnel carrier to medevac duty and a dozen other tasks. Haborym was equipped with a chin-mounted flamethrower, a large Vulcan cannon under its left wing and a missile pod that promised to rain hell beneath the right wing. Ash and Phoenix dashed up the steps to the landing pad and climbed in, sitting down and immediately strapping in alongside other members of Haborym Squad.

The members of Haborym squad had assembled and Lt. Green stepped onto the landing skid and banged his hand against the hull of the aircraft. “We're clear, Baker, lift-off!” and with that the turbine blades whirled into life, whining as they increased in power and began to pull the heavy craft from the landing pad. Lt. Green climbed in and strapped himself down in the middle of the squad, his eyes watching a monitor set in the roof just before him. The craft angled and gravity tugged hard as the tilt-rotor wings began to angle forward, dipping the nose of the aircraft downward as it began to accelerate forward.

“All right, listen up. I don't care if you're new to this, I don't tolerate fuck-ups! We have orders and we carry them out, we do not hesitate, we do not have mercy, we follow our orders to the letter and that is how we get back home alive.” Lieutenant Green began, eyes scanning the lot of them. Watanabe was an enlisted soldier and a demolitions expert who had a face like it was etched in granite. O'Neil was another enlisted soldier, a heavy-weapons specialist with rust colored hair and an enormous model 33A Heavy Support Weapon cradled in his arms.

The next enlisted soldier was 'Prizrak', a man with an uncanny ability to disappear from sight, his Russian blood had influenced his nickname and he had long-since given up on writing it in Russian, he stuck to phonetics. The specialist Shaina Oaks was a last-minute addition to their roster, she had a record (and kill count) that did not let one think she was anything but magic with her rifle and she cradled it affectionately while wiping down the barrel out of some form of habit. The non-enlisted, law-enforcement officers on the team were few/ Cortez, a decent cop but a bit of a slacker, Martin, a mussy-haired youth who had just recently graduated to becoming an officer. Then there was Ash and Phoenix.

The staggered, high-reaching layout of Espher began to expose itself as the craft shot out of Espher airspace and toward the outer lying settlements that existed mostly on small trade companies moving food, water, and other goods to the settlements for barter. “All right, listen up. We are on a search and retrieve mission at Oscar-Sierra-Zero-Five. We have received information that indicates possible illegal weapons manufacture. We will turn over every single rock until we are sure we have obtained every suspicious item and firearm above Oscar-Sierra defense rating.” Lieutenant Green explained. Put simply, they were going to take any firearm or other weapon that was capable of being used as what was labeled an assault weapon. The bands of raiders made settlement defense mandatory but sometimes the residents got a bit overzealous with their weaponry.

“Zero-Five? Making weapons? The last time I was there it was basically a fence around a pile of dirt.” O'Neill spoke, shaking his head at the thought.

“Correct, our intelligence is solid on this, we have satellite imaging to back this up. Doesn't seem like we get the luxury of seeing them going on what I received in my briefing.” replied Lt. Green, rubbing his jaw.

“Crazier shit happens.” spoke Watanabe, double-checking his kit and adjusting his combat augmentation brace around his right wrist.

“Sounds like a pretty easy operation. Where the hell did everyone else scramble to, Lieutenant?” Cortez inquired, his hands resting on his knees.

“On their own operations, we were briefed separately,” Lt. Green spoke and then craned his neck to look toward the interior of the cockpit. “Baker! ETA!”

Baker turned his head, looking far too large with the helmet that sealed around his head. He spoke with a hiss of static over the com-buds in their ears. “ETA Two mikes.” .

“I want a report when we're thirty seconds out!” Lt. Green shouted.

“Yes, sir, Lieutenant Green.” Baker responded, turning back around to face forward, the cables running from his helmet and to the various parts of the cockpit making a somewhat odd move.

“What kind of weapons are we talking about? Are they still using cartridges or did they manage to find a way to manufacture caseless ammunition?” Marin inquired, nodding toward his rifle upon mention of the latter type of ammunition.

“They didn't say but given how urgent these orders were marked I'd say it's something big, something bad.” Lt. Green responded.

“We haven't heard a word about any tech going missing.” Ash chimed in.

“Yea, it must be under-wraps if anything. I don't think they'd publicize it.” Phoenix spoke.

“You would have only been notified if the missing tech had been discovered before it left the city. They neutralized the tracing chip just a bit outside the city. We don't know which way they went, that's got to be the reason they're calling us all in.” said Lt. Green as he looked up at the pane displaying mission objectives.

“We'll have this done in no time.” Piotr spoke with only the vaguest hint of an accent, inspecting his knives for any hint of nicks or scratches.

Shaina, it seemed, was fine staying silent. In fact, her eyes were closed in what could only be assumed to be some sort of mental preparation for the operation if things went south.

“Thirty seconds, Lieutenant!” . Baker spoke, his eyes obscured by dark tinted, bulbous curves of a visor. “Hold on that, Lieutenant. I'm being told that the operation has changed, HQ wants to make sure you acknowledge it.” . The lot of them moved to angle their heads to look up at the pane but few had a good enough seat to see what it said entirely. After a moment of thought Green nodded “Tell them I recognize the change in the operation and it will be done as commanded.”

“Yes, sir.” . Baker said, swinging his head back to the front and speaking into the microphone adjacent to his mouth.

“Listen up!” Lt. Green barked. “We have a change in plans. This is no longer search and retrieve, Zero-Five is hot. Scout drones have confirmed other settlements have engaged the squads designated to them. Weapons at the ready, we're going to soften Zero-Five up a bit before we drop!”

“What the hell? They're -engaging- Juno Military?” Shaina said, incredulous, breaking her long silence.

“Command confirms it. We do not know their full capability so we are treating them as if they are capable of taking down Haborym, here,” Lt. Green said, nodding in indication of their transport. “I don't think they have anything but this isn't Magnaball, we don't gamble on one soldier carrying the entire squad to victory.”

“We have visual, Zero-Five nearing combat range.” , Baker hissed into their ears.

“Lock down your weapon and grab your braces.” Lieutenant Green ordered, motioning with his hands in case he was not audible.

“Cycling Vulcan” static spat in their ears ad the large rotary gun on the left wing began to spin up and whir. “Breaking the seals on the pod and arming missiles.” Baker continued, the three rectangular boxes under the right wing blowing the protective covering off to expose dozens of angry missiles. “Test burst on the flamethrower.” there was a pause “Engaging strafing run.”

The rotary cannon began to angle and track as the craft accelerated to attack speed. The Vulcan came to life with a meaty growl as the barrels rotated, spitting death upon the settlement. Vulcan rounds stitched their way across the settlement and cut people apart as they flew through. Delayed explosive rounds quickly began to detonate behind them as they moved to make another pass. Ash could not help but realize how little resistance he could see in the settlement. Perhaps somewhere under that corrugating, rated metal lurked anti-aircraft or anti-personnel weaponry, maybe they didn't have enough time to fully ready their defenses. On the second pass two missiles hissed and shot forward before angling sharply and accelerating with large bursts of flame behind them, sending them swiftly to their targets.

The Vulcan cannon once more stitched across buildings and everything in the settlement. Ash could see blood in the dirt, a lot. As they neared he realized the blood was the upper-body of a man who had been blown into two pieces by a delayed explosive round. As the craft hooked around sharply, Ash and Phoenix as well as Shaina were treated to the view of two missiles impacting the bases of watch towers that were unmanned. They fell quickly and another buzz of chain-explosions went off as the delayed explosive rounds lodged in the buildings and ground began to detonate. Hooking back in, Baker brought them in low, the chin-mounted barrels of the flamethrower spewing fire along their path. Missiles began to emerge from the missile pods just an inch as they were locked onto targets. The Vulcan continued spraying as they moved through the settlement and the weapon tore a line straight across the settlement.

“Missiles locked, cover-fire for the drop!” Baker yelled.

“We appreciate it!” Lr. Green shouted back and began to retrieve his weapon, everyone else following his example.

“Sir I don't see any dangerous weapon installations.” Ash spoke, squinting and trying to make more detail of the settlement as they curled around it.

“Just waiting for us to drop,” Lt. Green replied “That cover-fire is going to shit all over their plan.”

“If you say so, Lieutenant, I don't see anyone armor at all.”

“Noted, Scarborough. Get focused. Everyone make sure your combat augmentation brace is in the right place!”

Following the command they all aligned their CABs with their wrists and then stood up, hooking themselves to the tilt-rotor in preparation to drop. From the right side of the craft eight to ten missiles fired off in the same instant. Missiles shot down and then arced up sharply before pin-pointing their targets from their locked-in angles. The missiles hit simultaneously and explosions tore through the settlement, sending shrapnel, earth, and human debris into the air. As the explosions began the team leapt from the craft and rode their rappel lines down, slowed sharply as the automatic system minimized the impact before releasing them. Six hit the ground in the first descent, followed by three more in the second and they rushed to the walls of the settlement, ducking behind cover as explosions pounded through their bodies and the heat rose before them. A rain of whickering shrapnel and remains begin to fall as a woman's scream was cut short by the last missile hit. Falling debris rained over the settlement and the squad alike, their kinetic barriers causing it to deflect and fall elsewhere.

“Let's go!” shouted Lieutenant Green, shoving his fist forward through the air.

Welcome To The Gutter

The most Ash had seen of The Gutter was in pursuit of fleeing suspects or perpetrators and in most cases suspects were the perpetrators. He had to say it looked much better when it was passing by at high speeds. Even then, the chases were through the upper tiers of it all where there were roads and air-routes for vehicles, this place was buried under infrastructure. Law enforcement wasn't a science, really, but tags (or 'chips') had really helped to track or identify crimes in progress. They certainly let you know if your fleeing suspect had any criminal history with only a seconds time spent scanning their birth tag. When convicted and sentenced your chip was updated and a lot of places above The Cloud flat-out refused to admit anyone with anything more than mild criminal charges on their tag, and good luck moving up in the workforce.

Before him he saw darkness barely lit with flickering lightrods, enormous pillars and columns, and nothing overhead except the constant drip of fluid and a deep darkness that swallowed up any hope of actually seeing past the first five tiers above you. There were spots that were completely uncovered, where one could see the sickly coloration of The Cloud as it drizzled a constant rain of poisonous chemicals absorbed from the pre-regulation power-plants still chugging along, this was not that part of The Gutter. Just how toxic that fluid was was up for debate but he was sure it would burn a hole through his arm. The power-plants were long-since brushed off by The Obelisk and served more to power the lower tiers and The Gutter. A rough cycle, it was power and pollution or giving up almost everything in hopes the air-scrubbers would be able to filter out The Cloud over some reasonable amount of time.

The air here was perpetually damp and smelled quite a deal worse than anything Ash had experienced. Fluid ran down every column, pillar, and building. Mold grew here and there, strange fungi and fat-capped mushrooms grew along the ruined streets as the fluids ran along toward some spot ahead. The elevator had placed him at the corner of what was once a street, kept in better condition as the elevator rarely brought anyone down except JPD equipment or forces and the two mounted sentry-guns were also a good deterrent for anyone thinking about attacking law enforcement or Juno personnel within the large range of the weapons.

Ash sighed, looking around and finding himself with little choice in which direction he traveled as the other had been barricaded by walls of JPD barriers. Walking along the remains of what was, at best, a path Ash sidestepped and jumped breaks in the cement and asphalt. He was moving toward the JPD outpost, guided partially by a map he had checked on his hub and signs spray-painted onto the large pillars, high and out of reach of those who tagged all the empty space there was. Some of the work was impressive, actually, he had seen some incredibly realistic work along a cement wall, it surely took someone months to complete. He wasn't sure how you managed to stay in one place so long and stay alive, here. Ash wondered, faintly, if Marie had ever seen the work of the young artists here. He had a fleeting thought of the two of them coming up with some sort of education scholarship for gifted artists trapped down here since birth, but with the direction things were heading with 'art' these days he wasn't so sure that would be a good idea. High up, the pillar markings guided him down the road.

It took several minutes of walking before he finally began to encounter people, the whine of the spinning barrels on his weapon had probably kept most people out of sight. They were few at first, hobbling across the road to their ramshackle dwellings or speaking in cant to their children, yelling at them to get out of sight. Ash didn't really understand the cant, although the option to learn was available. He hadn't ever needed it... Funny how things work out. He could gather enough off the inflection and tone to get a rough idea of what was being said. He began to walk through bigger throngs of people either unafraid or unaware of the whirling barrels that promised a very bad time for anyone in front of them. He figured it was a bit of both. As the crowds thickened it seemed he had happened upon what seemed to be some sort of community. There was a half-assed signpost in a language he didn't recognize but he knew there were innumerable claims of territory down here, gangs often battling at the edges as one tried to press in on the other.

Here there were people of all ages and they all looked sick. He wondered how odd he looked to them, having never had to endure breathing the damp, polluted air or had his skin burned by the dripping chemicals from overhead. People living here dealt with contamination and radiation daily, those that didn't die from it usually had very poor lives. Some of them had odd genetic or evolutionary traits that stopped them from growing sick with their environs. The was also a rumor that some street surgeon had managed to create a machine that could render one immune to the effects of radiation, although it changed slightly as he heard it each time. Here and there he could spot a few 'normal' people, their flesh was pale and they were just as sad as everyone around them. He wondered if these people ever saw sunlight or if they were like rats living underneath the 'real world'.

Looking up, Ash searched for some sign of light from the sky but he could still see nothing but columns and pillars, lighting, pipes, and darkness. Crumbling facades covered buildings, and broken windows let people stared down at him. The light that there was cast from enormous rails of lightrods, they had been designed to mimic sunlight but it was clear that they were underpowered. Still, it meant that people were getting at least something like sunlight. There was also, of course, the glow of colored lighting from dirty neon signs here and there, some were simply advertisements re-purposed just to bring a bit more light to the bottom of Espher. Ash was suddenly aware he was the subject of everyone's attention. Children had run off, frightened as if he were a monster, parents stood in front of their children protectively and the rest seemed to be waiting to find out if this was going to turn into a slaughter.

Ash looked around slowly, looking into the eyes of everyone who did not see him behind the badge but instead an impending act of police brutality. It wasn't exactly a secret that some JPD officers came down here to blow off steam by beating the shit out of those who lived here for the smallest and flimsiest of reasons. Being stuck here was reason enough. The letters upon his uniform and badge alone were enough to scare the dwellers of the lower tiers. J-U-N-O. The silence became thick and he knit his brows together tightly, wondering what exactly to do. It took him a moment to remember he had an assault shotgun whirling with promises to destroy someone in a second. Ash slowly lowered the weapon and killed the spin on the barrels. As the weapon spun down, some people were relieved and went back to their business, others only looked slightly less scared or threatened and kept their guard up.

Ash looked around himself, raising his hand in a slow wave. People stood still, watching and waiting. After a minute or so Ash sighed, he had to have come off just like the asshole cops who came down here for fun, his gun ready to start tearing through crowds of people. “Not here to bust you up, just passing through. Just keep... have a good day, everyone.” he paused and then added “Sorry.” and gave up on them. Ash marched through their community, children scattering and people cursing from the windows of ruined buildings. Small fires lit here and there, cooking paltry meals of likely spoiled food, boiling water or something else. The smells were all exceedingly foreign to him, all of it offensive to his senses beneath an overwhelming must lingering from the moisture in the air. Continuing on with his weapon lowered, Ash stepped into what appeared to be some kind of market.

Signs were hand-painted or stuck together with pieces of other signs holding a desired letter leaving them fairly unattractive and reminiscent of old, old movies with ransom notes from some mysterious killer or group of people. The smell here was better, there seemed to be actual food cooking around here. An ancient-looking old woman sat at a stand with all manner of bits and bobs, everything from lug-nuts to broken jewelry, a child sat behind a counter taking orders from people gathered before it while a man slaved away on stoves and various kinds of ranges in a converted trailer that likely also served as their home. He debated pausing to actually try something but he didn't have a lot of time to get to his post and they probably couldn't do a damn thing with legal currency, down here it was more of a barter system or some gang-specific coinage.

Ash continued walking, his eyes flitting about, looking over vast expanses of cement made less boring with art that seemed to have been painted over back and forth for decades. Some of it was so overdone that it actually came out as interesting. As he exited the settlement he saw rings of people smoking something he hadn't ever smelled before. Presumably, it was a drug, but Ash was only here to survive, he didn't give a shit what people were smoking, shooting, snorting, inhaling, or eating. They seemed to freeze as they noticed his presence but his lack of interest and increasing distance let them go back to what they were doing. One building had a burly man in a half-torn shirt leaning back against the open door. There were a number of words for the female anatomy all around the door complete with arrows directing one to it. He could hear the sound of sex from across the street and it wasn't just a few people. “'Ey, you wan' pussy? We ga' pussy here!” the man called across the road.

Ash shook his head “No, thanks. I'm, er.. I'm happy with what I have.”

“You too goo' to spen' money in The Gutter, poley?”

“Nah, it's just my medical plan doesn't cover the ridiculous amount of STDs you have to have floating around down here.”

The man looked confused for a moment, thinking. “You come back when you we kill the STDs, then.”

Ash nodded “You bet, I'll be there, day one, just get rid of all those STDs.” and walked on.

As the community grew more distant the artistic skill in the graffiti took a nosedive, out here it seemed to be more gang-tags and drug-fueled abstracts that probably looked perfect when you were blown out of your mind on whatever the drug of choice was down here. Moving through The Gutter, Ash had to say it wasn't quite as bad as he expected but he also had to acknowledge that things were quickly looking worse as he followed the painted arrows high on the columns. The darkness increased and made everything more claustrophobic. Lowering his eyes, sweeping the area before him, Ash craned his neck at the sight of a human arm laying on the ground just past a massive pillar. Alive, dead? It really didn't matter, as much as the policeman in him wanted to check and make things were okay he had to hammer the statistics into his head, something here, somewhere, was extremely likely to try and kill him.

The street broke into a crumpled mess, more like gravel than pavement now, all kinds of litter and filth trapped in it. Somewhere he heard the sound of running footsteps, not just one. He turned toward the sound and raised the weapon. He hit the switch on the side of the weapon and the barrels began to spin up as a holosight appeared atop the weapon. Ash was pretty sure having any kind of sights on a weapon like this would do absolutely no good. As the footsteps approached he turned his head trying to find the source as the sound echoed around on the concrete structures and pillars. It took a moment before he saw the figure come into view, a lean, dark-skinned man running for his life by the looks of it. He was dashing with a mess of cash and a blue plastic bottle that Ash recognized as typically being used for cancer management. “Three of 'em! Tried to take my sons pills with knives!” he panted as he went by, ducking behind Ash in expectation for the law to save him. Ash considered the man very new to The Gutter or very desperate. A group of three dirty, pudgy men came into view, running toward the man the moment that picked him out. Without consideration they were chasing him down and the man was flinching, fighting whether to flee or see if he could actually depend on the law for once. As far as Ash was concerned, these men were righting at -him-. The three of them were brandishing crude knives made from metal scrap and bolting right at him. This was not something he considered okay. It took less than a second for all three to come to a halt with the spinning barrels of the weapon leveled at them.

“Officer! Oh fuck, you see that guy? He stole...” the man panted “He stole my... I'm a simple guy, I run a straight business--”

“Don't say things you know I know is bullshit.” Ash interjected, jabbing the barrels toward them. “Do yourself a favor, guys, drop the knives.”

The three of them slowly complied. “No, really, he just came in and took a whole bunch of my...” the man talking struggled for a way to word it without making it sound illegal.

“Do you expect me to think you actually run anything above the table, at all?”

“Not exactly, but we help people.”

From the looks of them they didn't help people out with much aside from emptying their wallets. “Got anyone credible to back that up?”

One of the other man began to speak but Ash quickly swept the barrels toward him. “Wait your turn, asshole.”

“I mean... no... We were about to close up so there's no one in the store, you know.”

“Right. Tell you what, guys, I'm going to be here for a while and if you ever charge at me like that again I'm going to go ahead assume you're attacking me and pull this trigger.”

“What? No, we would neve--”

“Shut up. Now, I'm already aching to test this beast out. ScumThumper, you follow? I'd prefer not to have to use it but I can and will. Why don't you do your best just to stay the fuck away from me and this guy behind me, then we'll never see each-other again and I won't have to wash your guts out of my uniform.” Ash felt tension in his finger as it pressed to the cold metal of the trigger. He wanted to fire the weapon, but was it that simple? “Now, turn around and march your asses back around that corner. Keep going until you can't hear this gun. I'm not taking a fucking chance with you, you have fifteen seconds to get the hell out of my sight before I start firing. Get the fuck out of here, leave the knives.”

With that the three of them stepped back a few feet and then turned and ran, Ash stood there, weapon ready. Ash reflected on the event as he stood there. He had been hoping for a threat to present itself so he could blow it to pieces but was that because he wanted to test the weapon, his frustration was burrowing to the core of him, or because he was being pro-active about surviving it all? Once they were out of sight he whirled around and held the dark-skinned man in his sights. “Bottle.” he prompted, extending his hand. The man placed the bottle in Ash's hand and he looked it over. As expected, the bottle had all labeling torn away or scratched away. Using his thumb, Ash popped the lid on the bottle and looked inside it. The markings on the pills confirmed the assumption he had. Latching the cap down, Ash looked into the man's eyes. A few seconds passed before the man held out the money in his hand to Ash. It was gang currency by the look of it, though they were so prolific he couldn't tell which one the currency actually mattered to. It was more than enough for typical JPD assigned to the area to accept and then beat the man to death for attempting to bribe them.

“What, are you trying to bribe me with that?” he inquired, laughing “Forget it, “ Ash spoke, tossing the bottle back at the man “I don't want to be here any more than you do. Get out of here.” Ash said, shaking his head. He hadn't made it half-way to his post and already he'd been expected to become violent and lash out twice. The man nodded and gave a slight bow to Ash as he gave his thanks. Ash watched as he slipped away into the maze of pillars and buildings. Ash kept the weapon pointed in their direction he walked, looking up to the pillars as they pointed him into a turn. Turning the corner he was not happy about the expanse of darkness before him. Previously the darkness had been pierced by lengths of lightrods but this was something that screamed 'trap' to him.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” he muttered, his hand running up the stock to switch the flashlight on. He played it around through the darkness but it just wasn't strong enough to make it any real distance into the darkness. Panning his weapon upward, it seemed someone had intentionally shot out the lightrods and they seemed to be a piss-poor shot at that with all the pitting in the surface of the concrete above. This, if nowhere else, was a bottleneck made to rob or kill. Ash looked at each pillar that he could illuminate and grunted, shaking his head. Far in the distance he could see where the lightrods were still functional but he was still staring at a few hundred yards of pitch darkness. The tunnel had apparently been named in honor of someone but the remains of the sign above it were too corroded to read and at this tier, his hub simply didn't have any information.

Ash thought on it for a long moment, comparing his ideas of how to handle it. He couldn't sit there all night and it could be another way to keep someone locked between decisions and ripe for mugging. Taking one hand off the shotgun he reached behind him and pulled a ribbed paper tube from loop on his belt and looked it over. Moving toward the wall nearest him, Ash raised the tube and struck the end of it hard again the concrete wall. The sound it left was a crunch as the seals in the flare were broken. Typically you would rip the cap off and force the seals to snap in half but Ash was understandably reluctant to lower his weapon. Smashing them worked just as well in a pinch. Ash held it up and out as he began to walk into the pitch. Fizzing as it burned, the flare cast a somewhat static area of illumination around him and the light on his weapon helped a bit with seeing ahead.

Each step echoed in the tunnel amidst the echoes of the flare burning and the barrels on his weapon turning. It was unnervingly quiet, really. Ash kept his eyes open, looking for any signs of movement or reflection, listening for anything that did not originate from him. He was roughly half-way through the tunnel before something scraped across the concrete. The sound raked against his senses and he fought the urge to whip around and start firing. Instead he turned and flung the flare, end-over-end, into the darkness he had passed through and drew another quickly. In the pitch darkness he felt as if he were being pulled into an ocean of ink, his lungs seemingly incapable of drawing enough oxygen to keep him alive. Ash swept the weapon around, checking for anything that might be approaching. He was dizzy as his hand fumbled at his belt to draw another flare and cracked the end against the stock of the ScumThumper. The area around him burst back into view, revealing the trash and grime along the ground along with dark brown stains and smears.

Turning back around, Ash leveled the weapon and kept the new flare overhead, his steps following what he was certain was the trail of now-dried blood of someone killed or attacked in this deathtrap. A skittering sound echoed from the walls and he turned to look back as something pounced the flare and snuffed it out, destroying the small island of safety. With his heart thumping in his ear, Ash kept moving forward, getting closer to the safety of the lightrods just outside the tunnel, while the beat of his heart throbbed in his ears. He was sure something was following him but he could not begin to imagine what the hell it could be. After a moment of thought Ash dropped the flare and turned to face the length of the tunnel as he began to backpedal briskly. There was only a little further to go before he could get out of the darkness and breathe in deep.

Only a few yards away from the flare, something dove upon it and screeched a sound that was utterly alien to Ash. The figure he saw, however briefly, was stunted and abnormal. The skin upon it was almost glassy and limbs seemed out of proportion in the brief second he saw it. Some mutation, he wagered, there were a lot of unfortunate victims around here who suffered from mutations due to radiation and toxic chemicals and vapors. Two decades ago this place had been almost as safe as it was just a dozen tiers below The Cloud but it didn't take long for the world to begin to rot beneath it. With only a dozen feet left to go, Ash turned and began to sprint out of the darkness, whirling around to sweep the light around the entrance to the tunnel, looking for something, anything, and finding nothing.

Inhaling deeply, Ash felt his heart calm just a bit before he began to cough. The air here was definitely not clean and his lungs were burning lightly as the pollution in the air irritated them. Following stenciled signs Ash passed a few people but they were surprisingly uninterested in a Juno policeman. Here there were hundreds of pipes running along the distant ceiling, dripping where they were joined and bleeding rust down along the cement walls they passed just above. It left an odd streak of colors down the walls here and there where pipes angled off to the sides. Here there were the remains of vehicles gutted by fire, the wreckage from old collisions, and some that seemed to have functioned as some form of shelter in the past. Rusted thoroughly, eaten by the toxic drip until holes were burned through them. Here there were more signs cropping up, colored lights in the distance that seemed to promise the relatively safe haven of populated gang territory.

Looking up to the massive pillars, Ash saw his destination was not through the gathered populace, unfortunately. Instead, Ash's destination led him away to the east where the sector border was marked with walls that was almost three tiers high. Set into the wall was a heavy, reinforced gate with the letters J-U-N-O sprayed upon it and a reinforced structure adjacent to it, connected to the wall. This was his post, the border between seventh city sector, Avalanche and the eighth sector 'Laurel'. With a sigh of relief, Ash relaxed and let the tension escape his shoulders while approaching the guard-post. It was empty which was, honestly, not surprising but he would've preferred to have had someone to talk to for a brief moment, to have some sort of briefing on recent activity or dangers. That was, however, not the case.

Switching the rotary system off, the ScumThumper slowed its barrels to a halt and he lowered the weapon to his hip. As an after-thought, Ash killed the light on it and approached the armored door of the post, pressing his hand to a sensor-plate and letting it flash-scan his tags. The door clicked and rattled for a moment before sliding open and Ash stepped inside, the door ratcheting shut behind him. “Well... this is certainly underwhelming.” Ash muttered, looking the post over. There was a desk with a practically ancient terminal upon it, a few bunks in a room to the side, a small armory mostly devoid of weaponry and a stairway to the roof of the post. Ash moved to the desk and turned the terminal on, grunting at how old the interface was. It took him several minutes to figure out the old interface to report that he had made it safely to the post but he pulled it off.

Ash sighed and fell into the chair by the desk, slumping and slouching as he closed his eyes and tried his best to will away the tension in his body, the rough edges on his nerves, the paranoia. He opened his eyes just a bit, looking through his mostly-lidded eyes at the terminal before him. Something struck him immediately, a sudden awareness of danger. In the next second he realized it was the faint reflection of movement behind him. Ash bolted upright and began to turn but a thin wire had already been wound around his neck and pulled taut. He felt the wire cutting into the flesh of his neck as his attacker pulled harder. One of Ashes hands shot up to try and dig under the wire, to grant him the ability to take the smallest breath but could not find any room. Choking out half-sounds , Ash lashed behind him but found nothing to strike. Ash bucked and writhed as he felt things growing hazy.

Ash's lungs ached and his neck began to bleed around the wire wrapped around it. Gripping the ScumThumper by the grip, Ash raised it and pointed it back over his shoulder, pulling the trigger hard. The barrels began to spin up and then the deafening blasts echoed in the relatively small space of the guard post as brutal bursts of metal shot blasted behind him. His attacker, however, had ducked out of the way and the blasts tore away at the walls and doors rapidly. A sharp knee to his lower back threw his arm off and the ScumThumper fell to aim at the floor, blasting up chunks of concrete as it blasted away at the floor. Things began to grow dim as Ash noticed a figure slip around in front of him as the wire at his neck held taut. He tried to summon the strength to raise the ScumThumper but it was not there.

Watching with dwindling awareness, Ash watched helplessly as the man brandished the familiar shape of a JPD stun-stick in a two-handed grip. He wound back and charged, swinging hard toward Ash's head. Ash didn't feel the strike as it smashed into the side of his head brutally, sending his head to the side. He was sure it would have hurt terribly but the lack of oxygen just made it easier for his consciousness to slip away as his body convulsed with the electric current shot through it on contact with the stunstick. The world around Ash went black and his only thought was of the red-headed beauty who had actually given him drive to survive it all. He had been ready to fight the entire seven days and here he was, dying minutes within making it to his post. Then everything was gone and Ash's body went limp in the stranglehold around his neck.

–

Phoenix screamed bloody murder inside of his head as he stared at what had to be the hundredth document for review, identical to a degree that removed any doubt he had been put here to keep him from helping Ash out while off duty. Typing in the case number and keying in the information in the report, Phoenix felt an extremely longing to be home with his wife, Saoirse. She was always the best part of coming home, outranking sleep by a mile. He lost himself quickly in the thoughts of the way she looked last night as he ran the electro-spike into the port just behind her ear. She had convulsed and screamed obscenities as it sent stimulation directly to her brain, feeding the nerves and her brain with raw pleasure. She had screamed his name as she writhed on top of him and she was thrown into orgasm. The cleft of her abdomen and the skin of her torso stretched taut over her ribs was enough to salivate over, alone. But the way she lost control was--

Phoenix was snapped from his memory back to the present as the Sector Chief slammed his palm on the desk, making Phoenix jump and fight to focus his eyes more quickly upon the expression on the Sector Chief's face. There was an expression he had never seen upon it. “Phoenix... “ the Sector Chief began, trailing off as he seemed to look for words. With his weathered features, the Sector Chief frowned deeply. Raising his hand from the desk revealed a small pane laying on the desk. Phoenix took it and looked at it. Slowly his expression changed from surprise to anger. “You better be fucking with me!” he growled. The Sector Chief shook his head and stood up, turning to walk away from Phoenix's desk and back toward his office.

Phoenix roared with frustration and overturned his desk with furious anger. The items resting on the desktop clattered against the floor and the desk terminal busted on the floor along with a mug of coffee that had gone cold hours earlier. Documents soaked up the coffee, staining them dark brown as Phoenix fell back into his seat, his teeth clenched and threatening to crack under the force while his fingernails began to dig into the flesh of his palms from the tight fists his hands were locked into. “I'm going to fucking beat that piece of shit Vanderbilt to death!” Phoenix screamed after the Sector Chief who did not pause to offer any discouraging words. Phoenix turned and grabbed his coat, running toward the parking structure elevator, seething. Phoenix punched the button for the level his car resided on several times over, willing the elevator to speed up before he began to pace back and forth, blood dripping off of his hands onto the plain floor of the elevator.

On the floor at Phoenix's desk, the small pane delivered from the Sector Chief flashed with red text.

“21:52: Officer Scarborough, Ashley. DECEASED”

The Prelude to The Gutter

Ash pondered his fate in The Gutter. Would it be one man or would they run in a group? He wondered if shock would set in, if he would go numb before they started to cut into his chest, flaying his torso. He was morbidly curious just what that would be like, watching as some street surgeon methodically cut him open. If he couldn't feel the pain, would he really care? The image of the dull knife forcing itself through his skin was all too vibrant. Would he last long enough to watch them harvest any of his organs or would their search for cybernetic implants kill him first? Try as they might, they would find nothing aside from his law enforcement and birth tags.

That morbid curiosity turned to sudden rage as images of Marie flooded his mind. He had spent those last weeks drinking himself half to death and then waking up the next day to do it all again. Sitting in that corner, shelling out money to kill himself shot by shot. He had lost faith in everything he had believed in when he took his job. He wanted to help keep people safe, he wanted to stop the innocent people from getting caught up in firefights in the low tiers, to stop black market trades, the very harvesting he had just been imagining. He wanted to be respected and lauded for his work, was that selfish?

He served happily, he felt satisfaction as he brought closure to every case, caught every thief or murderer, brought a missing child back to their parents, chased down a fleeing criminal, brought in rapists, gave testimony to ensure that those who had done wrong were punished as severely as the law dictated... and it had all just become a joke in Zero-Five. All the respect and dignity that kept him standing upright with pride was dashed upon the orders he was given. If he had shot that child he would be without all this bullshit pushing down on him? The image and act of killing the child would follow him to his dying day, and that was much worse in some respects. At least he got to fight for his life, right?

"Damnit!" Ash screamed, grabbing the bottle by the neck and hurling it across the kitchen where it busted upon the wall and fell to the floor in a puddle of alcohol and broken glass, streaks of the alcohol running down the wall. He had to force himself not to grab more items to begin wrecking his home with. He could, honestly, knock the walls down with his bare fists if they wouldn't crumble into bloody ruin along the way. He felt he suddenly had an idea of what it was like to live with terminal illness or to be living on borrowed time as some gang kingpin gave you so many days to pay back the money you borrowed before he broke your kneecaps and then let you die on your own in a fucking waste drain.

It was unfair, that was a major factor but the largest part of it all was her. Marie had taken him from the bottom of his depression in one evening and thrown him into orbit. Looking into her eyes, there was nothing that could get him down, the smell of her banished bad memories, her words drowned out all negativity and it was all true. She had just been the right woman in the right place to save him and the fact that he would not likely survive the night made it all the more bitter. He wanted to throw a tantrum like a child and scream about how unfair it was but... he'd just be wallowing alone on his kitchen floor. He didn't have a parent to sway into doing what he wanted, here.

Ash exhaled raggedly and braced himself with his hands on the edge of the counter, hanging his head down between his arms. He could smell the alcohol on himself, now, and sighed. He was sure that was a thing that dickhead Vanderbilt had mentioned. Somewhere in hell there was a spot reserved for him and Ash would find a way from his own spot in hell to kick the living shit out of that asshole. Hell was an outdated concept, honestly, but it remained in the human lexicon for figurative purposes. It had left with the Christians when they had made their march for war. Ash had always known that Juno hid things from the public, every government does because, on the whole, people were panicky animals and the smallest hint of bad news could cause some ridiculous riot. From that riot would come claims of police brutality and from that would come very clear messages from Juno that the citizens chose to be there-- they were welcome to leave if they had issues with it.

Ash couldn't count how many things that had been swept under the rug but he acknowledged some of them were for the good of the city, items not quite worth mention because they would be more trouble than they were worth. For a long time he had only heard of Gutter duty as an outdated thing, some ancient practice too barbaric for the civilized, modern people of today. The fact was, though, troublemakers ended up disappearing and he had not gone on without noticing the mysterious absence of certain people over the course of a night. Some were murders that Juno fast-tracked and declared were simply unsolvable and every bit of evidence collected was suddenly gone. Espher was certainly a damn sight better than living in the outlying settlements but there was no question that when the citizens had voted to bring the Obelisk to a government level they did so without knowing what exactly it could do.

It was funny, really. The city-- at the time it was a large city slowly growing outward to begin consuming surrounding cities-- had lost all faith in human decency (in politicians, at least) and Juno had so reluctantly pushed their candidate to the fore. It was programmed to be perfectly logical, incapable of being bribed, unable to be intimidated, never to be found in a sex scandal, always weighing the city and its population and doing this or that. Everything from public transport schedules to allocating police forces as needed per sector, all the way down to what was or was not available  to experience in the form of art. Countless albums, paintings, sculptures, books, pictures, and other forms of art had been confiscated, put into the vault of Lucretia (or the Library of Lucretia, alternatively) deep in the core of the Lucretia sector, near the Obelisk and heavy guard. People realized, then, they had only traded one devil for another.

Ash sighed as he pulled his shirt off over his head, not wanting to both with the buttons, and entered the bathroom. He looked at the mirror set flush with the wall and appraised himself. He needed to shave, he needed more sleep, he needed to brush his hair, he needed to figure out just what Marie saw in him when it came to looks. He was certainly not ugly but he was certain there were much more handsome men she met on a daily basis, that hit on her or offered her ridiculous endorsements and sponsorships for a date. At least that was how he saw it. Maybe it was different, he could see men being far too scared to approach her. With a heaved sigh, Ash stepped out of his pants and boots until he was naked and stepped into the shower. The pane on the wall immediately lit up and he selected one of his custom entries that set the water temperature and pressure just how he liked it. Then the display shrunk down to the bottom left corner and the pane displayed telepane channels. He wasn't terribly interested so he changed the channel and subchannel to one of a few hundred music stations before he turned and embraced the warm embrace of the water.

Hanging his head beneath the showerhead, holding himself up with his palms against the wall, Ash breathed slow and stead, wanting to wash the situation away like the water running down the drain, to see it all just go away... but things were never that easy. He had just finished lathering his hair up to place it under the showerhead when the pane chimed. His head went under the wash and he blindly tapped the pane. "Yea?" he called out, working his hands through his hair. The voice from the pane excited him and he was instantly free of worry. "Guess who." Marie said, winking at the camera. Ash slung his head out of the wash and looked at her, his face creasing into a smile despite his poor spirits. "The stripper I ordered?" he teased, looking at her, she could see a small vision of him adjacent to the camera and she shook her head. "I put her out of a job. Now are you going to let me in or do I need to break your door down?" she inquired, tilting her head. "Yea, let me key it." Ash spoke, typing in a sequence of numbers on a pad to the left of the pane and unlocked the door. "Thank you, now you better take care of that." she said before moving in.

Ash began to ask her what she meant but the sudden sting in his eyes answered him and he quickly shoved his head back under the flow of water, rinsing his eyes thoroughly and washing his hair thoroughly. The rest of his shower was hasty and bare-bones, wanting to be next to her as soon as possible. He heard her heeled boots clacking against the floor  toward the bathroom. He swept the shower curtain open and stared right into her eyes-- well, he had to look down quite a bit but he made eye-contact. She was wearing a smart black blouse and coat... with denim jeans that looked as if they were molded just for her. "I missed you." Ash said, water running down his form and thumping quietly against the bathtub. She placed a hand on his chest and smiled, running her fingers down, letting her nails scrape his skin. Ash was about to stop her from moving below his hips but she stopped on her own, fingers tracing left and right. "Looks like you need a shave." she spoke, smirking.
"Yeah? Where?" He inquired, grinning.
Marie laughed and shook her head "Honestly? Both."
"Oh yeah? Well I was going to grow it out down here and shave your name into it. Thought you'd be flattered."
"You know, I have to say that is something I've never had a man do for me."
"Yea, it's gonna stay that way." Ash teased and she grinned up at him.

As Ash leaned down toward her she sighed  and placed her hands on the sides of his neck and they kissed for several moments before it broke away and he looked at her with a completely different look on his face. He was happier, brighter, more responsive. She was about to speak but Ash flicked his fingers at her space and sprinkled it with water. Her face scrunched up and she laughed before her hand shot for the pane and she tapped her finger against the pane, rapidly lowering the temperature before slapping the on button and giving him a soft shove to make sure the spray of cold water caught him fully. He cursed and sputtered, shutting the water off with a touch of his hand. "You need a warning label." Ash said, shaking his head so that his hair whipped water in her direction. "You ass!" she shouted, laughing with him as he stepped out of the shower.

"So... you said you needed to see me, your tone was pretty... grave. I was worried if something happened at work." Marie spoke, watching Ash towel off.
Wiping his face with the towel, Ash nodded "Yea, something all right."
"Don't leave me in suspense, Ash. What is it? I'm guessing its the reason there's a busted bottle in the kitchen floor?"
"Yea, I... just kind of threw a fit. Look, I don't know exactly what we have, you know, us... but I had to see you before I went into work."
Marie seemed to weigh his words, not quite sure what they were, herself. "And I'm here, Cherub. Tell me what happened."
"You ever go to The Gutter?"
"I've... been a few times, yes. It was all for charity donations and benefits."
"No, the -real- gutter, the bottom rung."
"I... No, I never have."
"Well, I'm being posted there tonight and for seven days after. I won't be coming home, they've got bunks down there."
"Isn't that place pretty awful?"
"Yea, yea it is. It's been about six years since anyone posted there came back and when they showed up they weren't all there. Literally, like missing limbs and bodyparts."
"Who is going with you?"
"No one. It's just going to be me. I can sleep during the day when patrol runs through regularly but at night I'm going to be the only cop in the sector working in The Gutter."
"This is why..."
"Yea, I … like I said, I don't know what this is but I want more of it, I want to follow it all the way to wherever you and I end up."
"It's only been a day, Cherub but... I know what you mean. We fit very well with one another."

It was true, Marie felt like she fit perfectly into every recess and hole in Ash's life as if she had been made just for that. It was a wonderful feeling, to know someone so well in so short a time. She knew what he was thinking every time he opened his mouth. In all his awkward stories and tangents and difficulty to convey details on certain things correctly, she knew what he meant and it wasn't without it's strange nature, it was very weird but it worked. Ash finished toweling off and dropped the towel in a hamper while Marie forged the path ahead into the bedroom. Ash got his underwear on and sat down with her on the bed, his hand grabbing her own and lacing his fingers with her's. She turned and smiled at him, moving to kiss him for a moment before shoving him onto his back and climbing on top of him. She nestled in against the crook of his neck and he hooked his arm around her slight frame, his free hand holding one of her own. If only he could freeze this moment, to exist here forever...  but the fact was that this might be the last time he ever got to feel her nestled against him, smell the scent of her skin or shampoo, to hear her voice, her laugh-- that laugh that was infectious and almost always present, as if she were in the best mood all the time.

"I just... if there is something I want to do before I'm basically put to death I want to spend time with you. The Gutter is where they put you when they want you to die. I guess the reward of surviving it is keeping your job."
"I'm not going to worry about you." Marie whispered in his ear.
"What does that mean?"
"I'm not afraid you'll die. You'll survive it, Ashley."
Ash was surprised that he didn't flinch reflexively at being called by his full name but she said it with a clear, caring tone. "I'm glad someone believes I will." he muttered somewhat darkly.
"If you just sit there and thing about how awful it's going to be it's just going to be awful. Keep your head up-- well, I guess down is wiser here but just think about everything we'll do when you get back."
"That's a way to look at it."
"That's how -you- should look at it. Listen to me, Ashley, I'm not sure what we have here, either, but I want it just as much as you. I have so many things to show you and things I want to do with you—"
"You're not talking about the same things that your words are putting in my head."
Marie grinned "Bear with me, Cherub. There is a lot to do and I'm certain you'll make it out and come back to me."

Hours passed between the two in conversation and for those hours Ash had completely forgotten the fear he had facing down his own execution. He had curled up with her, embraced her, kissed on her flesh for what seemed like an age. Marie had been growing more bold by the minute and there was a fire in her he hadn't seen before. Looking into her eyes she was hungry, she was ferocious, there was such determination. She had a hidden animal in her somewhere, he could remember seeing it that night they met, not realizing quite what it was until now. There was something coiled in her, ready to strike and it was vicious. Of course, this wasn't something she aimed at him, but he supposed in growing up she had learned a lot about how far people will go to screw you over, how petty and violent they were. He couldn't say that it was something that calmed him but it had been dominating the way toward sex, pawing at his chest, shedding her coat. Much to her surprise, as she went to take the waist of his boxershorts in her hands he stopped her. The look in her eyes could've broken his heart. She was confused, almost hurt.

Ash immediately took hold of her head and pulled her into a kiss. "Not like this I..." Ash sighed, pressing his forehead to her own and closing his eyes. "Not this way, not when I'm facing this. I know it's not some kind of pityfuck or last act of kindness, I know that, Marie. I just... I want to be there to enjoy it, all of me to be there, not to have half my head worried about the next week. I just want to be able to be there completely."
Marie's expression softened and she nodded with understanding, contenting herself to trail her fingernails along his abdomen. Honestly he wasn't sure what her fascination was, he hadn't had an etched abdomen in several years, it'd gone a bit soft. "How much longer?"
Ash craned his head to look at a clock mounted on the wall and sighed. "Five minutes, pretty much."
She nodded and slowly uncoiled herself from him, sitting next to him on the bed. "I mean it, Ashley, you're going to get through it fine."
Ash nodded "I know, I believe you. I need to get to Sector HQ and check in with the Sector Chief. He said something about giving me suitable firepower to hold my own if a group of psychos start shrieking and charging at me."
"Ooh, big guns. Sounds interesting."
"I kinda feel like shit for wanting to have an opportunity to use whatever I get."
"Oh, I totally get that. You're fine."

Ash spent the next few minutes pulling himself away from Marie and getting dressed, she had insisted on buttoning up his uniform so he let her have at it as he began to put on his gear, complete with his hat and recovered badge. He stood and looked at her, looked her over, absorbed every detail he could hold about her in silence. She seemed to understand what he was doing, she was smiling and looking into his eyes with her own. Perhaps she was doing the exact same thing he was? The communication hub chimed in a slot on his belt and he pulled it out, opening it. "That's all the time I have." he said, looking toward the door and then back at her. She nodded and walked with him to the door. "Listen, you can stay as long as you want. I don't care. There's probably food that will be going to waste anyway. "
"I have a lot of things I need to do now that I have the time for them but I'll gather my things and leave a note for you to come home to in seven days, hm?" Marie offered.
"Sounds good. I need to go but I'm going to miss you, Marie. A lot."
"Me too, Cherub. Me too."

Ash kissed her hungrily and embraced her with strength that threatened to practically snap her into pieces but she enjoyed every second. He had said his goodbyes to her as he ascended to the parking structure and fired up his patrol car. The ride to Sector HQ was quiet, he was trying to remember something his dad had said once when he was a child. About how death smiles at everyone and you just had to do the same. It was as relevant as he figured it would ever be. He had to get all senses of compassion of his head for this one. He had to kill all of his kindness, he had to be cold, cruel, brutal. This was a gauntlet to getting back to living and the life waiting for him was worth carving a path through the people of The Gutter should he be in doubt of their intentions. He had to be a monster to stand in a place of monsters, he felt.

Checking in, Ash had eyes on him and re-emergent whispers circulating around. He was without room to care for it now, though. He had met the Sector Chief in the armory and, true to his word, The Chief had a table spread with assault weapons. Rifles, shotguns, grenade rifles, rotary cannons, and dozens more. Frankly, explosives were too likely to harm innocent bystanders so they were right out. Rotary cannons were just too bulky to use in close quarters-- at least for him. He knew there were plenty of muscular and massive officers who could wield them effectively but Ash wasn't able to do that. Ultimately Ash had come down to a ScumThumper, it was a shotgun with a rotating series of four barrels and a large drum magazine. In riots it was idea when packed with non-lethal ammunition, you could spray down an entire crowd with one magazine and have them disperse. He wasn't sure what happened when using lethal ammunition but he expected it to be ugly and messy.

Ash had spoken with The Chief for a half hour before he was ten minutes from his post. With the ScumThumper slung over his shoulder he stood in the core elevator, riding it down until it reached the bottom level (as far as the Obelisk was concerned). As one rode down the tiers of Espher, the differences in the tiers was extremely apparent. Clean and bright slowly gave way to dirt, grime, and unpleasant smells.  He was at least ten tiers from The Gutter now and had to navigate his way to a special freight elevator to resume his descent. In this elevator he could not see outside, he just waited, watching the tier indicators flash by. As the elevator slowed to a halt, Ash took hold of the weapon and disengaged the safety switch, his thumb flicked a switch that caused a quiet whine to spin up as the barrels on the weapon rotated. Bracing himself for some manner of ambush, he held the weapon at his hip and kept his finger flat along the weapon, just above the trigger. The doors groaned and opened suddenly, leaving The Gutter open to see.

Ash Meets Marie pt. 3 + The next day

The light of day broke through the windows, washing over the bed. Ash surfaced slowly toward consciousness and opened his eyes-- he immediately regretted it. Wincing, Ash turned his head from the window to find his cheek press against the skin of another. Slowly opening his eyes, Ash leaned his head back to look down at her. Her skin was washed out with the light from the windows upon it and he moved his head just enough to block the light. Looking over her features he was once more astounded by the sheer beauty of her. He was struck by it fairly often but it was always so strong when it hit-- and now he was actually sober and being struck with it.

She rested silently, apparently having curled up with him at some point in the night, her arm laying lazily across his torso beneath the blankets. Her eyes were closed but he could see they they were not moving about in REM sleep. Her body gently rose and fell with her breathing and he curiously followed her hair. There was such a length to it, how did she manage not to strangle herself in her sleep? He realized, with a bit of a grin, that the solution was fairly simple. She had, apparently, wound her hair around her pillow with a bit of slack to allow her head to move freely. Slowly he brought his hand up to her face and delicately traced her jawline as if she might just be some hallucination or what he remembered of last night was some sort of drunken escapade that he misremembered. The tip of his thumb gently brushed her lower lip and he smiled without realizing it. It had been a long time since he had felt this kind of happiness.

Suddenly it all caught up to Ash, they had somehow gone from the living room couch to his bed. He could not remember a bit of it and that was very very frustrating-- and unfair, as far as he was concerned. Lifting the blankets he glanced down to realize she had apparently worn nothing to bed. Now he was just starting to hate whatever part of his brain wasn't sharing the details of just why she was naked and in his bed, blue-balled by his own damned brain. Still, he could at least admire her form from top to bottom. Just as slight as he imagined, her breasts perfectly placed upon her chest, he was hypnotized, thoughts running wild. He still could not will the memories from his brain's lockbox of memories.

“Staring isn't very polite, you know.” Marie's voice moved through his ears, a slight vibrato within it.

“I don't know if I'm strong enough to look away.” Ash replied, his head tilting toward her but his eyes remaining on her form.

“I suppose it's nothing you would not have seen last night.”

“Wait, did we?” he asked, his eyes breaking away and moving up to her own, yet again struck by how green her eyes were.

“What?”

“I mean, you're naked, we're in my bed, and I sure as hell don't remem--” Ash spoke but Marie cut him off.

“Oh, for hours. You don't remember any of it?” she said, looking into his own eyes. She was so sincere about the fact.

“What the hell... wh-- Agh! No, not a damn bit.”

“Oh it was the best night of my life, it was non-stop, orgasm after orgasm.”

“Okay, now you're fucking with me.”

It took a moment but Marie's expression finally broke and she laughed, reaching out and pulling him to her and laughing in his ear as she moved to kiss his cheek. She held onto him tightly, as she choked down her laughter to try and be a bit considerate. Ash shook his head. “Do you know how much I wanted to kick the shit out of my own brain for not letting me remember something like that?” Ash inquired, his expression slightly upset.

Marie chuckled and shook her head “Easy, Cherub, I was just teasing you.”

The way she spoke made it impossible to keep up any hit of offense and he broke into a laugh. “I know, I know...”

“The look on your face, you should have seen it. I would pay money to see--”

“I get it, I get it. You got your fun out of me.” he spoke, leaning his head forward to press his forehead to her own.

“Tell me it's not funny.” she dared.

“I... yea, it's... it's pretty funny.” he said, chuckling lightly.

“You were a perfect gentleman.”

“I can't imagine it was easy to get me in here.”

“I didn't say it was easy, just that you were very gentlemanly while you fell down. Twice.”

“Shit, did I break anything?”

“I don't remember, I was a bit trashed myself.”

“So why are you in my bed, naked?” Ash inquired.

“This is how I sleep. You said it was okay if I slept here.” Marie answered.

“You really are just... beautiful, everything about you.”

Marie smiled with warmth unbridled, “Thank you, Cherub. You're not so bad, yourself.”

Ash took that moment to close the gap between them, as small as it was, and mashed his lips into her own. She gave a brief sound of surprise but quickly pressed back into the kiss and curled her arms tightly around his neck. The kiss lasted a good while before he broke away and moved his lips to her neck. One of her hands slipped through is hair and he sighed softly, content once more. If only his life could stay like this, if he had Marie to come home to, he could love being alive more than wondering why anyone pitied the dead. His arms wrapped around her and he closed his eyes, tugging the blankets up a bit awkwardly with his hand that could reach them. He wished this moment could last forever but knew, as much as anyone, that the best things in life are fleeting and gone all too quick.

“Stay for at least a few hours more?” Ash asked, speaking against her neck.

“There's nowhere I'd rather be right now.” Marie responded and closed her eyes.

For a while, they were coiled together in the warm wash of light and heat of flesh, the smell of her skin permeated the air and Ash could never have enough time to enjoy it. Then the chirp of Ash's phone broke the silence. “Are you fucking kidding?,” Ash muttered, uncurling and arm and rolling onto his back to grasp at the nightstand. Wrapping his fingers around grooves in the ergonomic rectangular device, Ash brought it up in front of his face and tried to squint and focus enough to read it as his thumb pushed onto a recessed control stick. The side of the phone swinging out into a fan-like shape, the collapsible panes adjusting so that they were all flush and the display came to life. The number was absent, it was simply marked “Espher Police/Defense Communications” in scrolling cyan text. With a heavy sigh and a slight shift away from Marie. Groaning quietly he turned his head away from Marie, as to not disturb her, before pulling the thin earpiece from the bottom of the phone. Placing it in his ear, Ash then used his thumb to key the answer button displayed on the pane. There was a brief click and the voice on the phone was quite depressing.

“Officer Scarborough.” the voice was distinct, it was one of the sour types that he recalled from the last time he had attended a sector meeting.

“You're speaking to him.” Ash replied, his voice clearly irritated.

“Officer Scarborough you are required to report to your sector chief for review of your recent misconduct in the search and retrieve operation in Outlying Settlement Zero Five.”

“No shit...” Ash grumbled, his brows furrowing.

“Come again, Officer?” the voice asked, although he has clearly heard the reply.

“I said I'm on it. I'll be there in--”

“You have twenty minutes, Officer.”

“Understood.” Ash said, disconnecting the call and thumbing a stud that folded the panes back into the phone.

“Doesn't sound like a happy call, Cherub.” Marie murmured in a sleepy voice as she turned over and wrapped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his stomach.

“No, not really.” Ash replied, his tone sullen.

“Don't let it stress you, don't give it so much power over you. You did the right thing, don't forget that.”

“I... yeah, I know but doing the right thing can fuck you. A lot.”

“But it lets you sleep at night.”

“So does alcohol.” he countered.

“It lets you sleep -next to me- at night.” Marie intoned, looking up at him with her eyebrows arched.

“Point.” Ash said, smiling slightly as he looked down at her and slipped fingers into her hair. Impossibly soft and delicate while remaining strong and not breaking. Ash figured that she had taken some kind of item she endorsed for Genetic Cosmetics, maybe some sort of injection or slow release implant somewhere beneath her tender skin, expertly hidden amidst all of it he had seen so far. He wondered just how much of their products she used as a part of modeling for the company. Foggy memories of the night before reminding him of two large advertisement-panes she had driven past and pointed out to him at his request.

It was hard to remember it clearly but the more memorable one featured her, and all that hair, walking amidst an immaculate white room toward an open window. She was clad in something gossamer and it was just as white as the room, save where her flesh darkened it ever so slightly. It was akin to some vast amount of fabric wrapped around her, trailing across the floor behind her barefoot steps. The window opened to a beautiful blue sky, spotted with clouds-- a sky he had rarely ever seen in his life in Espher-- and she stepped out upon a balcony set with expensive stonework creating the railing. The camera moved closer and then whisper close along the side of her head before it turned around to look upon her face.

The garment didn't really hide much of her chest, the fabric betraying the coloration of her nipples just slightly. Her lips parted in a broad, beautiful smile and he teeth were just as white as the room behind her. A slow fade of the logo for Genetic Cosmetics faded in and her hair waved in some mild breeze before the image became static for five seconds or so. In his recollection he suddenly remembered, very clearly, how striking her eyes were on such a vast advert-pane that made them as large as the wheels upon his patrol vehicle. Nothing about them looked fake but he was sure people would argue about color adjustments and general toying with footage before it was released. He had only noticed that they had hidden one very minor blemish upon her shoulder, looking back after having seen her nude. He hadn't any idea what the hell was being advertised but he was pretty sure he would buy it anyway.

“See something you like?” Marie said, shattering the memory and returning him to reality.

Ash had been staring at her body, his eyes snapping up to her own. “Sorry, I was just remembering last night, that ad-pane of you in the white... dress-thing.”

“Ahh, they did that one most recently... It was-- Oh, shit, you need to get going.” She suddenly recalled.

“Urgh. Yea... I'm not sure if they're going to put me back on duty or if it's just going to be some bullshit exercise where I do my best to let the sector chief scream at me for hours.”

“You did nothing wrong, Cherub, remember that.”

“Yea, yea... Will you be here when I get back, Marie?” Ash inquired as he moved to his closet and looked through it.

“No. I am sure my phone is full of things I need to take care of. Left it in the car last night because I didn't want to deal with it.” she spoke, watching him with a mild hint of sadness.

“If only you could do that kind of thing forever, right?” Ash mused, pulling a shirt and some slacks from the closet.

Ash began to undress and was struck by the absurdity that he was reluctant to do so. It felt a bit vulgar but she had slept with him all night without a shred of clothing. With a mental shrug, Ash began to peel off the undershirt from the night before and step out of his boxers. Marie made it as uncomfortable as she could, whistling at him and generally giving him a hard time until he began to slip into his clean clothing. He still smelled of alcohol but they didn't exactly give him time to wash up, they could just deal with it as far as it concerned him. Ash looked Marie over with a soft expression as she sat, leaning against the headboard, with the blankets pooling around her hips. Her hair had long-since escaped the spool of the pillow and the the reminder of having found her hair wrapped around that pillow made him chuckle.

“What's so funny?” Marie asked, one thin brow raising upward.

“I was just thinking about how you keep your hair at night. It just amuses me.” Ash replied, finishing the last button on his shirt.

“Well, I don't want to strangle myself in my slee--” Marie spoke, suddenly interrupted by Ash as he dove onto the bed on hands and knees and moved to close the distance between them. She giggled and nearly gave out a squeal in her surprise but it was quickly stifled by a firm, hungry kiss. She melted into it and laced her arms around his neck which prompted his arms to wrap around her torso and pull her in close. It lasted for quite a while but it was, unfortunately, still all too short for Ash. He had gone from the rock bottom of depression to, what seemed to him, the most wonderful time of his life. Marie was invigorating and inspiring in all the best ways and it was inescapable. “Easy, Cherub, you have my number. I'm not going to disappear.”

“I'll call you after I get done with the whole... thing where I get bitched at for hours. Sound good?”

“It does.”

“All right, I have to go now, the door will lock itself, stay as long as you like, there's some decent food in the--”

“Get out of here, already, they're going to skewer you for being late enough as it is.”

“I'm gone, I'm gone.”

Ash had arrived not a second too soon to be herded down the smooth corridors around the staggering number of office units on the third floor of the sector central headquarters. Like a hundred columns holding up the high ceiling, the office cubes were spaced evening and each had a door with panes displaying the name, rank, and current status of the offices and those who were assigned to them. Working his way along the corridors, Ash stopped at the largest office, staring at the pane on the door.

“Sector Chief Matthias Anderson. IN MEETING, DO NOT DISTURB” scrolled across the pane and as Ash moved to take hold of the old fashioned doorknob the door swung open and revealed the very unhappy face of the Sector Chief. “Get in here, Scarborough!” he barked, pointing to a chair before the massive synthetic wood desk. “You're late!”

“Sorry, Chief, I didn't even get a call until twenty minutes before you wanted me here.”

“I had you contacted an hour before this meeting.”

That asshole on the phone had fucked Ash by intentionally waiting until it would be impossible for him to arrive on time. “Who was working the call?”

“It's not important right now, Scarborough. Sit your ass down, we need to talk.”

“Yes sir.” Ash replied curtly, taking a seat.

The Sector Chief moved behind the desk and sat down in his immense chair. “Scarborough, you put me in a very bad position.”

“I--” Ash began to reply.

“I'm not done!” the Chief barked, grunting. “When we get called out of reserve the chain of command becomes a lot more important. You disobey orders and it sends hell up to me. I have enough trouble with the other fuck-ups here, I don't need you adding onto it. You are a good cop, Scarborough, but when we're called out of reserve? Juno calls the shots. I can't do anything then, everything goes way above my level.”

“Sir, the kid was just defending his home, we went in guns blazing and it was completely unnecessary, there was -no- offensive action taken against us, the mission changed half-way to the settlement and the next thing I know the pilot is strafing the damn place and slaughtering them. It was supposed to be a search and retri--” Ash spoke but was then interrupted.

“I've read your statement, Scarborough but that doesn't change a thing. You disobeyed a direct order from well above your rank.”

“So what do I do now? Are you going to fire me or dock me for a ridiculous amount of time?”

“No... there's actually someone from Juno here to speak to you.”

Ash's eyes went wide and his fingers curled into tight fists as irritation threatened to show itself. That was definitely something that was bad. Juno officials generally had little room for sympathy because so much of their personalities were dominated by being complete dicks. “You're fucking with me, right?”

“No, Scarborough. I'm stepping out until your meeting is over.”

“Fuck me. Are they going to try and shove me down to patrolling the low tiers or something?”

“Find out for yourself.” the Chief said, nodding to the door as it began to open.

The man stepping in wore a black suit with a name-tag clipped to the lapel, displaying his information and rank with JUNO dominating the background of the tag. He wasn't exactly tall but definitely not short, his hair was brushed back and as slick-looking as oil. Ash disliked him for his poor choice in hairstyle if nothing else. He looked about the room for a moment with ocular implants the color of dried blood and then at Ash, saying nothing. The Chief stood and excused himself as the official sat down, placing a briefcase on the desk before opening it. A pane quickly extended and began to show information that Ash couldn't read anything due to rear-scrambling on the back of the pane. The man looked up and examined Ash in a way that made him feel unnerved and just a bit nervous, his eyes were normal but the color was just... wrong, somehow.

“Mister Scarborough, I am a liaison for Juno. I'm here to discuss your inability to follow direct orders in a combat situation.”

“Officer Scarborough.” Ash corrected, his eyes leveling and his face going stoic.

“Officer Scarborough, my mistake,” the man said, clearly irritated about that correction. “Regardless, you refused your orders in a situation that could have compromised the lives of you and your squad.”

The stoicism was going thin. “I refused to fire on a child that was just defending himself. There were absolutely no other hostiles, we scoured the parts of the settlement that weren't destroyed or burning. There wasn't much at all.”

“In a combat situation, Officer Scarborough, you are placed under the command of Juno military officers and their superiors. In this situation you are outranked exceedingly, even your Sector Chief would be similarly ranked.”

“The Sector Chief would've been ordered to shoot a child by an asshole Lieutenant?” Ash returned.

“If he were in your squad he would have outranked Lieutenant Green but he would have only done so by an increment of one rank.” The man clarified, seemingly happy to point out how high Juno officers were in comparison to Juno police forces.

“Well, we could've avoided shooting down children, in that case.” Ash grumbled, eyes looking over the name-tag. Vanderbilt, Dane.

“I suggest you take this a bit more seriously, Officer.”

“I'm very serious, this whole thing is a big fucking joke, though.”

“Elaborate.”

Ash sighed, running his hand down his face. “We were sent on a search and retrieval mission, we were about forty seconds away and then our commands changed to wipe the damn settlement out. We weren't given a reason, I -still- don't have a reason, that the settlement suddenly became a threat but If they wanted to fire on us they had plenty of time to prepare for it. There was no warning from the speakers, there was not a warning shot, there was not a single shot fired at us until we had been on the ground -shooting- at them for twenty seconds and even then it was one-sided at best.”

“You lost three men in this 'one-sided' conflict, “ Vanderbilt said “Just what enabled them to do that?”

“A fucking railgun, Juno tech or some really damn precise prototype-- maybe reverse engineered from scrap they found from the conflicts before the Christians left for war.”

“Don't you think that outlanders in possession of this technology is dangerous?”

“Anyone with it is dangerous but they didn't fire on us. Was it possession of a railgun that killed that entire settlement? One fucking railgun that killed only three men in fight that we were dominating?”

“I'm not at liberty to say, Officer Scarborough.”

“Don't give me that bullshit, there wasn't justification for our orders given to us.”

“You -don't- get justification, you -follow- orders.”

Ash growled, simmering in his coupled frustration and anger, the only thing tempering him at the least were the now-distant thoughts of Marie. She was really the only reason he would not mind going to prison for over this. There was no telling what his sentence would be but he would at least be put in prison with other such people, not street crime or murderers but people from the upper tiers of society who had fucked up somewhere along the way. Looking Vanderbilt over Ash studied a bit of skin he could see on the man's forearm, just above his wrist. Although it was upside down, it was some manner of an identification sequence. “What is that, anyway?” Ash asked, moving his hand to tap himself on his forearm for clarification.

“That's a Juno ID Sequence. They didn't cover that in the academy?” Vanderbilt asked, condescension in every syllable.

“No, they also didn't cover killing children either.” Ash shot back quickly.

“I'm don't like your tone, Officer.”

“And I don't like your hair, are we done here? You want to just go ahead and tell me what the hell you're going to slam me with?”

“I recommend you watch your words, Officer, not showing the proper respect to your superiors is a punishable offense.”

Ash forced himself to reign in his frustration. “I'm aware. Can you not see how terrible this is?”

“I am paid to see what Juno sees, Officer, and I see a law enforcer who refused orders in a combat situation and endangered the lives of everyone in his squad. Possibly also allowed the deaths of three of his squad-mates due to reluctance to follow orders.”

“That's bullshit and you know it, I did everything I was told until I was being pointed at a kid who was defending himself and told to shoot him.”

“You were ordered to shoot the child, Officer, you did not follow that order.”

“Could you do it, -Dane-? Could you shoot a kid point-blank in the face who was just defending himself?”

“I don't have to do it, Officer. That's your job.”

“And your job is being a dick, I guess?”

“Officer Scarborough, I'm going to be lenient and not disclose exactly how unprofessional you have been today--”

“And I didn't even get you anything.”

“As I was saying, I cam going to report to my superior and discuss the situation with him before we find out what exact punishment you will receive.”

“I miss you already, Dane.”

Dane Vanderbilt had lowered the pane, closed the briefcase, and slipped out before moving to a private office to make his report. The Sector Chief had moved to stand in the doorway of his office, shaking his head at Ash. Ash gave him a slight shrug and the Sector Chief grinned just a bit. It was likely he had wanted to say some of those words Ash had said to Juno officials himself. As time passed Ash spent the minutes thinking about Marie and the way she smelled, the heat of her skin, the sound of her voice, it was all wonderful. He wished he could just rewind the day and go through the night previous and the morning of the current day over and over. With a sigh, Ash crossed his arms and began to consider how stupid he was to have let his anger to flow from his mouth unfiltered.

Ash was facing a substantial suspension without pay at the least, at the most... well, he was fairly sure he hadn't crossed enough lines for 'that' punishment. The Sector Chief moved from the doorway a few moments later and Vanderbilt returned, sitting down and opening the briefcase again before turning it to face Ash. The pane extended and displayed the face of a Juno official Ash honestly couldn't even recognize, there were no designations upon his attire to show anything of the sort. Vanderbilt leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together, looking into Ash's eyes.

The man on the pane cleared his throat and shook his head. “Officer Scarborough, upon review of your actions we have come to a decision for disciplinary action.”

Ash remained quiet, watching intently.

“Given the circumstances of your refusal to follow orders in a combat situation and your disrespectful attitude toward a Juno official we have come to the decision that you will be assigned to the Gutter for one week.”

Ash's eyes went wide. Working the Gutter was the most dangerous post one could be assigned. The mortality rate was ridiculously high and few came back from the post alive. “Are you kidding me!?”

“No, Officer, you will be starting your assignment tonight at 1700 hours.”

“This is bullshit!” Ash barked, hands smacking hard to the desk. “That's a fucking death-sentence and you know it!”

“Officer Scarborough, we have been very lenient in this decision. You will not be suspended without pay, you will not lose your job, you will not be forced to go through the academy again. This is a very fair disciplinary action.”

Ash seethed, his hands curling into white-knuckled fists as he fought back the urge to beat Dane over the head with the briefcase. The asshole hadn't been lenient at all, he'd most likely told his superior every damn word. “So you're basically saying if I can come out alive, I'm fine?”

The man on the pane cleared his throat, “Officer Scarborough, this post is admittedly a dangerous one but I feel it is more than fair as a punishment for your actions.”

“It's a wonder you didn't just put a gun to my head.”

“We don't believe in such crude punishments.”
Ash could see the irony in that statement like it were a flashing signboard. “Right. You'd take care of things a lot quicker if you just had the balls to put the gun to my head right here.”

“You have until 1600 hours to retrieve your badge, gun, and gear. At 1600 hours you will check in with your Sector Chief and then go to your assigned post in the Gutter.” The man spoke, his face unmarked by emotion.

Ash was staring at the man, wishing he could strangle every bit of life from him. A cop did not live long in the Gutter, if at all. The lawless nature of it all made officers exceedingly juicy targets for harvesting tech. Weapons, implants, even raw organs. He had only seen a handful of officers return from that post and they all looked like hell when they return. It was easy to see why law enforcement was targeted, really, and the thought of working that area for a week was just the same as staring down the barrel of a gun for Ash. Furrowed brows his eyes as his head leaned forward, his mind running through every dead or missing officer put to work in the Gutter. Suddenly it was all overshadowed by the fact that it was very likely that he would never be able to see Marie again after the hours he had left to return home.

Shit always rolls downhill, the saying went, and the thought of not seeing her again was exceedingly unfair. Ash let his anger and frustration clash in his head until the Sector Chief's voice brought him back. The Juno liaison had left and the Sector Chief sat in his chair, his face betraying a bit of sympathy. Ash looked at him with expectations of some sort of good news, something that might make things easier to handle for the next week. The Sector Chief sighed and shook his head. “Scarborough, I would contest it but it's above my reach. I know just as well as your how many officers never return from that post but... I'll see if I can't find you a heavy assault weapon, something to keep you alive.”

“I appreciate that...” Ash trailed off, looking down at his legs.

“I had no control over sentencing.”

“I believe you.”

“So get out of here and go see your fam--” The Sector Chief cut himself off, recalling Ash had no living family. “Just... go and relax. Grab something to drink so you can just get shitfaced the moment you're off-duty.”

“I've got that pretty well covered, Sir.”

“I see. Well, we're all going to be waiting on you to return.”

“Don't get your hopes up.”

“Everyone knows those assholes love fucking us over but you can get through it.”

“What about Stonewright, can he come and assist?”

“Phoenix has been assigned to desk work until the end of the week, he can't join you.”

Ash growled in frustration, he couldn't even have the only man he trusted to watch his back with him in the middle of that shithole. “Juno do that, too?”

“I'm afraid so. They said something about it being a mandatory assignment, how studies show that it's good to take a week off the street every so often. I know he's going to be furious.”

“I'm already there. So what do I do, just... write a fucking will?”

“You go and see everyone you care about and don't let them know a thing. That's my best advice. Go home, take a shower-- because you smell like alcohol-- call or message those who are important to you. Tell them you're on special assignment.”

“I guess that works. I am pretty sure Phoenix will figure it out, though.”

“He already has.”

“Smart son-of-a-bitch.”

“He'd be tearing through the offices if it would do any good. He can't do anything from a desk, we all know that. Just... go home, get a shower, relax a bit. If you have anyone to see, go see them.”

As it turned out, Ash did have someone he wanted to see but he was unsure if he would be able to contact her. If there were one last mercy it would be spending the rest of his day with Marie and forgetting everything if only for a few hours. Ash nodded slowly and stood. “I'm going to get on that, sir.” he said before turning and leaving. Every step he took dragged him further into a special kind of despair that made him want to lash-out at everything and everyone, everyone was now irritating enough to warrant a beating. After spending his time with Marie he had little hope for anything else. The Gutter was a deathtrap and everyone knew it. Word spread quickly enough that people was looking at Ash as he headed out and they were whispering amongst themselves about it. He was sure no one envied him but it was just the same, he didn't need sympathy, he just had to hope he could survive a week of it all and then return to service in a place that was not likely to kill him.

Some time later he had made it to his car and pulled out his communication hub. He dialed the number he had programmed into the device the previous evening, drunk. It took a full minute before there was an answer. Upon the fanned pane the image of Marie smiled at him. It made him forget everything for a few moments and he smiled back at her. Then, reality slowly clawed its way back into his head. Her smile faded when he went over what had happened and her eyes were full of something between sadness and frustration. She had tied to keep his spirits up, to keep his mind out of the dark places but it did little good.

“I need to see you before I leave tonight.” Ash said.

“I'll be there, Cherub.” Marie assured him.

“Thank you, Marie.”

“For coming by?”

“No, just... for everything you've done to help me.”

“I just showed you what you weren't looking at.”

“Still... No one has ever bee able to help me like you have. It means a lot.”

“I'm happy to do it, I'll be over within the hour. I have a small bit of business to settle and then I'll be right over.”

“I'll be waiting for you.”

“I know, Cherub.”

Ash slipped the ID-stick into the steering column and started the engine, pulling out of the parking space he was given and quickly leaving the parking structure, moving through the air without much care for how fast he happened to be going. This could, and likely would, be the last chance he would get to see her and he wanted to make it count. He went over words in his head, things to say to express his gratitude to her for pulling him out of that depression. He could see her in everything at that moment and it was then shattered with the memory that he would likely be murdered and harvested within the next 24 hours. Furrowing his brow and sighing, Ash drove home. He might survive, who knew, stranger things had happened... but surviving gutter detail was one that hardly ever happened. Honestly, if it weren't for Marie, he'd have taken a bullet to the head right there. At least then they could bury him with all his pieces still connected.