"I think we're done here." Javi replied, looking at the bloodied lip of Scion, aware he was holding on the rail, and thus making it a clear run to get out of here. With it, he flipped the craft around, and hit the accelerator, heading straight back the way they came, and out of there. This fight was done and dusted, and there was home to return to. They'd pick up Tahlia, before hitting the ocean once again, headed towards Narsarsuaq Fjord, and the airport that sat within where the A400 could safely head towards.
Adam Stanislaw Kajtanowicz
With all members of the team dragged aboard, the water lapped at the ramp, the flaming rig lighting up the dawn chorus, as Adam exhaled hard, pulling in Ebrima and Ban, pulling them aboard as the SDV was left behind and once Freya and Chuck had joined in, dragged aboard from the SDV's presence aboard the rear. The submarine that was no longer in the sea made the floor a wet mess, but it mostly poured out of the rear ramp, Adam peeling his helmet away, cuts and bruised, coughing out water, looking to the front.
"We're good, Vincent, get us the fuck out of here!" His bark was all he had left, as he panted, exhaling hard, looking back at the flaming mess, and the group that had survived it. He couldn't get the words quite out of himself, just considering how insane that had gone. He didn't want to know how Freya felt, probably in need of a hug too, but she could tell she needed a moment. Nothing needed to be said, and the team silently knew what had gone on, what had went down, and that they needed to get home. With it, the VTOL peeled away from water and hit throttle.
Raven's Rock, Camp Hannula, Pöyrisjärvi National Park, Finland
The team from the former oil rig turned geoengienering platform had turned in first, whilst that was then followed by the crew from Greenland. Athena had disappeared, as had Purna and Oliver to stow the airship, well, somewhere, before they'd get a private flight over to Camp Hannula later in the day- probably dropping it at the Kantaario family ranch in Upstate New York. Skye and Sam, on the other hand, had taken an express from Halifax back over to Finland after getting dropped off, whilst Fireteam Viking, then Fireteam Poseidon, had taken their transports back, the A400 and the V38 respectively making a return after some fuelling.
And returning on to Camp Hannula, the now significantly more casual looking Skye Lyons walked with a certain uncertainty about it all. The armoury was abuzz, as she dragged herself in with her almost comically sized black duffel, containing all of her gear, throwing it down by her station, unloading the various bits, from rifle, to fatigues. By her exo, where her rifle now was positioned, as well as her other gear, the wingpack taken on a separate collection.
The mood should have been cheery, and most people were, crews upbeat about the fact that their families were safe, and Armageddon had been prevented. Who knew how much untold violence Sol Hestia could have caused- it would have certainly got a few billion in one fell swoop, and that would be more than enough anarchy for Rose's liking. A revenge prevented, and while she had escaped, and that was knowledge only locked down to the immediate team and any support staff that needed to know, the remainder was at least positive. Artemis had been disarmed significantly, and the options for Rose were looking like dilemmas, not so clear cut anymore.
She looked around, the team quiet, almost as if nothing more had to be said. It was over. The spring had rolled into the green of northern Finland, the end of the world prevented and instead filled with greenery and more importantly, people that now owed a hell of a lot to the team. It was a quiet respect, a certain kind of untold thanks, because the situation was still volatile. Tahlia looked to Skye, almost as if to still be in shock of her own. But even they were quiet. There was an unsaid positivity about what they'd done, an achievement, yet a certain feeling that they were all processing it, absorbing it beyond simple interactions, a Hello and such.
They all felt vacant, and were still unpacking a hell of a lot of emotions. And there was this feeling that despite it all, this wasn't over yet.
The sight of the older Punjabi officer, dressed in full MTP uniform, Oracle himself, Imran, the CO to Skye and Adam, changed that a little.
"Major Lyons? Need you with me for a moment. Alone."
With it, Skye's face seemed dejected, almost completely uncertain. A rare thing indeed. She looked over at Sam, and then at Freya, Ebrima, and lastly, Adam. No matter what any of them wanted to do, this was not a moment that could be interrupted. Skye was going willingly, and even though Adam was wondering why he wasn't getting a call, he knew it was because of well, the situation that was now established.
Imran headed up, the stairs, the Scot following, breaking the ice, probably audible from behind.
"So that's it? I expected no parade, but a quiet chat, no, "Oh, you saved the world?" I mean, even in our line of work, come on." Skye seemed a little childish, but she had to poke back at Imran, knowing full well what had just gone down.
"Our best assets are searching for her. You know this isn't over. You did a good thing, but we can't let up."
"Yeah, well, she's gone to ground. What I did to you, she'll do back to us." Skye barbed back, with an honesty that would have gotten most commanders reprimanded, but well, she was honest, if anything. They entered the office, Adam's technically, but appropriated by Imran whilst here, the door now shut.
"Then what do you think she's up to?" Imran returned the favour.
"Going to somewhere we won't go. Rather than can't. A blimp in the sky we can hit. But somewhere we're not allowed, then I'd have to go outside of the usual rules." Skye's thoughts were rather simple too. She didn't like where this was going. It felt...just a bit too simple.
"Why do you think that?"
Skye looked vacant for a second, shrugging her shoulders as if to say, it was rather obvious.
"It is literally what I'd do. And I imagine you've got me here to tell me that. Or something worse."
"On a tangent, Skye, but do you understand why I chose you for Raven?" Imran's question was a pointed one, one he knew an answer to already.
"Because I did the things that others weren't willing to. Torture, kill, then lead people to do the same. I got the job done. And despite all of that, still believe.....believed, in a greater good. Kept my head when others lost theirs. Are you now going to use that against me?" Skye uttered, Imran nodding.
"All noble things. But the reality is, it's because deep down, you can't ever stop. And you won't, no matter what I tell you. I wasn't sure what I would do to you when you got back because of it. There's no end of three letter agencies who would want your skin up on a wall so they can make another one of you, and we are ever so lucky Sam wiped all the servers and any possibility of it. I am getting told by certain people I deserve to get crucified for that, and they want to do that to Sam. And Ebrima, two for one deal. Off the books though, thank fuck Sam did that, because it means the bodies, the servers and everything with it, is nearly of no use to anyone anymore. That, and your legend seems to scare anyone off from doing anything too stupid. For now." Imran started, looking over the Scot, the blue merino wool fleece wearing operative leaning against a wall, smirking with response.
"We weren't on the record to begin with. You can't just put black marker over the black marker. That's now how that works. Not with the situation at hand." Skye reminded him, Imran scowling in response.
"Well, you wrote on it in pink highlighter with your specific existence, I'm afraid. And now, anything, all of this, is fucked." Imran was perhaps more blunt in response.
"So...what else changed your mind? Spare me the monologue. You have me here because you want me for something insane and you know nobody else will take you up on your offer. Because you think I have nothing to live for apart from solving this." Skye added, looking over as Imran headed to the desk, pulling the folder open. And with it, he pushed a picture across the desk.
The one of Skye's father, Henry, and now the figure that was shaded out, rendered back in.
"You didn't see this, I showed it to Adam, but not you. That is Henry Simmonds, the scientist that the team captured in Marrakesh, and was part of the team involved in...creating you. Henry filled in the blanks on the rest of the programme. Movers, shakers. That sort of thing. And namely, who else was involved. So imagine my shock when I found this person to the left of him, next to the man who raised you." Imran began, Skye eying up the picture. Imran described it as a reminder.
"And this is General George Zhao, formerly a Lieutenant Colonel in the British Army, our man in Hong Kong before it was handed back to China, and a rat bastard that defected to the People's Liberation Army five years afterward. He was the military liaison for the project that spawned you. Your third father. And someone who was far too beyond our approach to ever eliminate. And now, he's in Artemis. Not that even Rose would have known the link, after all, we scrubbed George's name from everything we had, damage limitation. She would have been the perfect double agent, if the circumstances were right, yet herself, of her own volition, did what she did because a lot of people that are now dead hurt her beyond a measure any of us can believe. Broke her mind, and well, she just decided we all had to die for it. All of this also means you, Major, were a product of Artemis to begin with if we draw some lines together. Another mark against you those three letter agencies have. Who knows, maybe Ian was too." Imran walked around, looking direct to Skye.
"Fuck. Then Zhao got what he wanted if that's Rose, not me. Maybe my old man too." Skye replied, unable at all to make out of it was her, or her quite literal evil clone sister. Which still felt cartoonish.
"Rose was the fulfilment of all of their dreams and hopes. You, on the other hand, thankfully, weren't. Or else we'd all be dead right now." Imran said, Skye looking in a certain amusement that well, the well just kept going deeper.
"Well, not much shocks me anymore, I'll be honest, at this point you may as well tell me I'm made of wee fucking Tunnocks. And you have Henry? And thought it might not be an idea to introduce me, by the way?" Skye had known rumours. But now, those were true, and well, she had something of a thread on a past before that was tangible.
"Henry's not part of the conversation. Unlike me or you, he has a family he can go back to, so he's left. And no more operational intel for us. We blasted any relevant stuff out of him with a significant amount of MK Ultra derived drugs that we sent him home with. Our standard procedure. Hardly like you have any blood from him anyway."
"Fine."
"Back to Zhao. He's the last piece of the puzzle, and one I put together whilst you were away with Henry. Far as we can tell, he's the only remaining, and operable high level Artemis member still in play. He is the only place that Rose can go to. Yet, we have no idea where he is. Officially, we cannot strike him, hit him in any capacity, at all. I mean that, even in spite of the fact China provided operatives to us before. There is so much tension between America and China right now that any escalation, like killing one of their Generals, might lead to mistakes. All out war. Forget Spectre, or Christian Moller. He's just a broker. We'll get him again, but Zhao, he's the one that counts. Get him, we get Rose." Imran seemed confident, as Skye already could tell where this was going.
"So unofficially, you want us to find him, eliminate him, and torture the hell out of him to find out where Rose is, and then kill her to put an end to this, in the usual geopolitical shitshow we work in?"
"When we have intel, we'll task you up. I expect it to be a hell of a fight. And this time around, there may not be the support you received in your previous missions, given how sensitive this is. This might be off the books. And require you to do something extraordinary."
Skye looked back at him with a cold stare, leaning back against the doorframe, sighing.
"And why do you expect me to work for you, considering that after this is done, there may not be a tomorrow for me? You said it yourself. A lifetime of looking over my shoulder because of what's inside of me. Ian felt that way, I wonder. Maybe that's why he was killed. More I stew on it, more I think that."
"And yet he believed in what you were. While going through the bottom of the draw with Henry, we found this. I think you should have a look at it."
Skye took it in hand, pulling it out. And there it was. a picture of Skye with her father in her youth, she remembered that picture, being held up and smiling on his shoulder. Must have been maybe when she was about eight? Her golden-red hair, curly at that time for some reason. Turning the Polaroid over, she gently brushed the dust off the marking. It was almost as if a snapshot of her past flashed in her eyes, as she read it back.
'My sweet, I'll be back soon.'
Skye looked up to Imran, a certain realisation hitting them both. The text had been faded, the print that it had been inscribed in fading back into colour once the masking on it had given out.
"You don't think he's dead either, do you? You don't have any cracks in your skin. Yet I think looking into your literal self, you wish you could ask that question more." Imran asked an open question, that Skye gave a very closed response to.
"I spent ten years quietly looking in the shadows. And found nothing."
"Then is it worth having a tomorrow for to go find him in?" Imran asked, Skye rolling her shoulders.
"I know what you want. And what you're doing." Skye retorted, as she walked over to Imran, looking outside, at the trees, and spring bloom in the endless conifers.
"Suppose I have nothing to lose. This is all I know, Imran. You got the weapon you wanted. But so long as the team go home after, I don't care."
The Next Day
2200 Local Time
ViolinSitting there alone, it was something that Skye had packed that she'd wanted to get back to, and before the others came along, she just felt like was the right place for it. The right time, at least. The redhead sat with a puffy jacket and trousers, a scarf wrapped around her neck in the cold Spring night, her red hair beginning to resemble something more than what a tomboy might have. And as she peeled it out of the case, well, it was as if for a brief, if not uninterruptable second, the fiddle reminded her of something else. But instead of playing something old, she played something new. A smirk came across her face. A rare crack, a rare brief glimmer.
It was like some part of her stopped playing old Highland ditties and felt a melody that felt a little more ironic to the situation, a film she'd watched a while ago, that the melody just hadn't left from. A little more of a poking of fun she was getting to learn. That she had picked up from Sam, or was it more Freya? Either way, she played it along. And smirked.
The sound of the fire crackling could be heard, Athena and Purna joining the rest of the crew, wrapped up warm. Antti diligently stoking up more of it, and the small logs and stumps providing seating, under a tree, a little bit away from the main part of the base itself. The orange glow was feint, but growing, bit by bit.
The sky was full of stars, almost reminding Skye of Chile in how beautiful, and endless it was. The crew had gotten up to a variety of tasks throughout yesterday and today, from fixing armour, catching up, to generally keeping busy. Skye finished with the fiddle, seeing Adam come in, the Pole in his usual green wooly sweater and trousers.
"Hey up." Skye added, Adam moving his hands away from the fire, grabbing a seat.
"Hey." Adam replied in a quiet turn, little to response.
"Where's Freya and Chuck?" Skye asked, with almost so much as a glimmer in her eye.
"They uhhh....well, when a man loves a woman very much..."
"Fuck right off, Adam." A cackle of laughter joined, Athena walking over.
"I heard. And I'm not getting in the way of my big sis. Her choice. But, he breaks her heart, I break him into two. And I mean that." Athena giggled, overhearing as she sat down, on a significantly larger log than most, the bubbly, cheery merc living down the fact she'd stolen a blimp yesterday, saved the world too, then got to come back to here.
Purna almost seemed like he disappeared behind her, but then again considering Athena's....well, overbearing nature, and his quiet attitude, that sort of went hand in hand. He took a seat as well, the Nepali wrapped up in a traditional tan-coloured coat, his hair allowed to grow a little back out.
"We did a good job. More to come. But, that feels like half an ending." Purna commented, the wisdom not masking complacency, but at least, not sugar coating what they'd achieved.
"We did. World's not over." Skye smiled back, her words short, perhaps still processing, still taking it all in. There was a lot more in the archive she'd found that Imran had left her. A lot more on the project. A lot of it that needed to be burnt.
"Nope. And because of that, I finally found a use for these." Tahlia added, coming across, lobbing a large packet over towards Skye, the Scot catching it with her spare hand, keeping the violin in one. Putting it down, she chuckled, smiling at what she saw.
"You got the good shit. And this is a reason to stay in that world. No marshmallows in a world where every particle's got some biochemical toxin attached to it." Skye smirked, chuckling as she saw the others come in, one by one, slowly but surely.
Going one by one, Skye unloaded the packet of marshmellows, the one request she had managed to snag since getting here. Adam prepared a few sticks, and with it, Skye, Adam, and quickly gathered the small bundle of sticks.
The others would be joining, and no doubt coming along for a last campfire. A last chance to enjoy this, because Skye knew that whatever was coming next, it might be an even heavier op, requiring all of them, and she had no idea what entirely to expect.
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