[Captain]
Silently, they surveyed the stillen city: a series of hoary pillars, cracked grey stone and fractured, wrought iron, made twisted and alien by the unrelenting touch of atmospheric elements. In the Autumn, it had been a land the colour of rust, towers unburnished and wilting like steel edelweiss in the ides of January.
But now it was the English winter, and the plane through which runners had pounded their path was covered with white, like a spilt bolt of bridal satin hung gracefully over a withering maid.
New London was static, the snow didn't stir nor an animal scurry, and the only thing that disturbed the peace was the sound of muffled footsteps as different members of Sector N stepped gracefully up and down from their places upon the perch that overlooked it all, cycling gradually through their ranks. Each taking their turn to stand beside their most esteemed leader: Eden Law, the iron maiden.
Sector N was, and always had been, a loosely organised group of fresh-faced recruits, naive as the day they were born. Its purpose was purportedly to train new runners in every facet of runner life: the graduates would be moved to a new Sector later on in their careers, better suiting the talents they'd exhibited in N.
However, that was just a slight mistruth: in actuality, Sector N was more of an exercise in camradarie, a months-long exercise in teamwork and taking orders. And when it came to instilling those lessons into new recruits, nobody was better suited to it than Eden Law.
She was, by all reports, a powerful young woman. Her shoulders were narrow, but when she walked she threw them back hardily, and when she stood still she squared them as though at any instance she was prepared to make haste and draw blood. Her figure was svelte and graceful, but in stature she overtook even Churchill, an amazonian of a woman. Her skin was like coffee, and dappled with dark freckles, and her eyes were large and deep like still waters, and seemed always to reflect the world back at her witnesses with a darker hue. She wore her hair in a bun when she sensed trouble on the horizon, and wore it in a bramble of curls elsewise. She wore a red shirt with a ruffled lapel, and at her waist hung a fencing saber. Unlike the other Sector leaders, she oft left her golf club at home.
"Beautiful, isn't it?", she asked softly, in tones that echoed distinctly of Celtic brogue. She spoke, of course, to the recruit who had stepped last onto her ledge: Kenna Vagen.
It was the first she'd spoken all day.
[SuperTitch]
Kenna, as per usual, tried very hard to look like she wasn't scared of everything and everyone that so much as looked at her. She wasn't sure she pulled it off as well as she'd hoped.
"I-It- yeah- nice," she mumbled, barely coherent as she remained staring at the ground.
Eden Law, the Big Boss as far as Kenna was concerned, wasn't really as scary as she first appeared. Kenna remembered her first meeting with the woman; she was so nervous she barely managed a squeak. She was quite calm, battle-ready, cold on the surface but pretty easy to talk to. Yet she didn't take crap from anyone. In short; she was the kind of person Kenna most aspired to be like, and of course the one she was least able to become.
Even standing next to her, Kenna felt small and insignificant - well, more so than usual - despite knowing that that wasn't what Eden Law was about.
Over her time with Sector N, aside from the usual difficulties one would experience in a new place, Kenna had managed to slide quite easily into the close-knit life at Sector N. They looked after each other. After all they were, to some extent, all new recruits.
[Captain]
"Aesthetically beautiful," she remarked, in that placid, soft timber she maintained at all times, it was lulling and warm, and her accent made it odd and rhythmic, "Tactically beautiful. Can you see why the snow is so important for us?"
[SuperTitch]
Kenna wasn't sure what 'aesthetically' meant, but she also didn't want to appear dense so she left it. As for the snow, she thought for a moment... Surely, for a runner, the glistening white canvas that left evidence of their passing beneath their feet would work against them, not for them. She also didn't want to contradict the woman, so she took the safe bet.
"Um," Kenna stumbled over her words, trying to think of a quick and somewhat reasonable solution to the little riddle. "If, uh,there's someone... others looking for- uh- us, I mean, for runners... they... wouldn't be able to see... very... well? L- low, uh, visibility? Low visibility."
She could imagine a little circle of snow that gathered around her feet slowly melting from the heat of her embarrassment.
[Captain]
Eden considered this in silence for a few moments, "Low visibility is a positive for us, definitely. Especially given..." she glanced back over her shoulder, down towards the small tent city Sector N's worker bees were cobbling together beneath them. In the days to come they would erect scaffolding, makeshift walls and windows: attempts to colonise outside of Sundown had failed astronomically in the past, but Eden was certain this time they would succeed.
"... that we're all in one place. Very good," she nodded sagely, "But there's something far more simple, too. If we were on the move, the snow would be terrible for us: we'd write our ghosts right into the floor. But when we're not moving," she turned and gesture to the clean canvas of New London, "Then we'll see an Omega sneak attack coming from miles away. Isn't that wonderful?"
[SuperTitch]
Kenna followed Eden's gaze, thinking about what she had said and mentally admonishing herself for not seeing something so obvious. A shiver went through her that had nothing to do with the weather at the mention of the Omega. She had never been unfortunate enough to come into contanct with them - and nor did she ever want to. The rest of the Sector often told stories. Kenna had soon learnt that any story involving the Omega wasn't a happy one, and she was suddenly very grateful for Eden's reassurance.
"The- uh- The Omega..." Kenna considered her words carefully; she didn't want to come across as cowardly. "Do you think... they'd ever- ever try an attack? I mean. Here? Even though we could see them?"
[Captain]
Eden folded her arms across her chest, and cast her darkling stare across the cityscape vigilantly.
"It's hard to say," she admitted, as she did so.
"The thing about Omega is that they don't... think, like we do. Runners are a society of planners and movers, most of us that we cashed our chips in with Lady Luck the day we were born, because it was only by random chance that we inherited the gene that saved us. So we plan meticulously. We elect leaders to promote the best of a group's ability to survive, we employ our cloaks but rarely ever our daggers. And we do it because we understand that our preservation lies upon our own shoulders."
She paused, and exhaled deeply: her breath rose into the air like an upwards stream, "Omegas are... different. They don't plan things, they don't rely on skill or tact. They depend on their own brute force. We work around problems, they smash through them."
Eden turned her gaze slowly skywards: a maelstrom of darkening clouds twirled and gathered around a patch of purest white, right above them. That was the cloud that had snowed most recently, whereas the others were blizzards in the making.
"Despite that, though, they aren't idiots. They're just like animals, they only hunt if they're hungry. We're way outside of Omega territory, so if they do stray into our line of sight, we'll be plenty prepared for them."
Eden patted her saber reassuringly, "I don't think they'd send in the cavalry for a few new recruits, do you?"
[SuperTitch]
Kenna had to physically bite her tongue to stop herself from saying something stupid like but they don't think like us and decided to take comfort in her mentor's words. She had a very valid point, even if the Omega did think differently, where was the tactical advantage in attacking a place like this?
Eventually, attempting to put the anxious over-analysing in her mind at ease, Kenna nodded. She was even less fond of the Omega now, if that was even possible, but she began to relax and allow the tension to gradually ooze out of her.
"I- I guess not," she muttered eventually, fluffing her hair in an attempt to distract herself. "Um. Sorry. S- Silly question."
[Captain]
Eden clapped Kenna on the shoulder in a firm, but nonetheless supporting way, "Exactly. And don't you worry for a minute," she squeezed briefly, and then released her grip, "Never forget that anybody who comes for you has to get through me first."
She paused for an instant, and then smiled a very faint, very thin smile.
"And the last time somebody tried to get through me, it was Margaret Blair. Did you ever wonder how she lost that eye?", Eden jested, coolly.
[SuperTitch]
Kenna tried hard to ignore the inexplicable twist of guilt in her gut and gave Eden a gratifying smile. Surely if she had someone like Eden on their side, they wouldn't have a problem defeating anything that came their way. It took her a moment to match a face with the name 'Margaret Blair', but she was sure she'd seen a one eyed woman around Sundown at some point - though there was sure to be more than one.
"Um, th- thanks... Thank you." Kenna tried very hard not to seem like a little kid, but she wasn't sure she succeeded. "I'll- um- I'll go back... back to my...thing. Uh. Job."
Giving Eden a grateful little wave, Kenna headed off towards the half-assembled tent that held a number of resources and equipment that they would need throughout their current endeavour. She couldn't believe how lucky she'd been when Eden had assigned her such an easy job - not that she was lazy or anything, just because she was luckily away from people a lot. She couldn't help but wonder if Eden had put her there on purpose, after all it didn't take a genius to work out that she had, at best, lacking social skills. And yet the little voice in her head still pecked at her, reminding her that she was probably put there so that she was out of the way, but she managed to ignore it for once. She was grateful for her current job, that's all there is to it.
[Captain]
Eden kept her gaze out on the horizon as Kenna stepped away, stood tall and proud against the blackening sky to her flank. Then, once she was sure Kenna was gone, she slowly began the process of binding her hair up.
There was something in the air.
"Ma'am," her second in command- Sean Weisser- greeted from her flank, a few instants afterwards, "Have you checked the Southern perimeter?"
"Not yet."
"There's something you need to see."
"I think I already know what you're going to tell me."
They travelled through the camp in restful silence, Eden seemed no more anxious now than she had moments ago. Once the two had jumped across two sizable gaps between the towers which constituted Colony N's territory, however, things began to change.
There was a trail of footprints moving in large, looping circles about the nearby rooftops. Not so close as to discover them, but close enough that they might have happened upon a member of the unit on a recreational run.
"How many do you think there are, Sean?"
"We've counted four sets of footprints headed North-West, they can't be more than a klick out."
"Have you sent out any scouts?"
"Not yet. Should I send word to Sector S?"
"I don't think that'll be necessary."
She extended her hand wordlessly to him, and obediently he transferred a monocular into her grip. It looked almost like an old camera, cylindrical and made of a resilient plastic.
"If they haven't found us yet, I don't think we need to worry. Hunters like the Omega, they're probably not clever enough to scour every roof top, and even if they are, they'll be no match for us."
She peered through the monocular, and glanced North-Westward.
"Well?"
"Hm... I can see some figures about two hundred meters out."
"Do they look dangerous?"
"I recognise one of them, her name's Valeria. One of Dominicka's old pupils, she's a hell of a fighter but I don't think she's what we'd call hunter-grade intelligent."
"What about the other three?"
"Hold on, hold on!" she waved her hand at him dismissively. Sean scowled but obeyed.
As the lens focused further, two other shapes came into play: one was an older man she didn't recognise, but she imagined, perhaps incorrectly, at his age he wouldn't be an issue. The other was Tabitha, and that was when she began to worry. Tabith had, at one point, been quite an admirable runner. And, she wasn't too shabby in terms of tactics, either, although she was very much an embodiment of The Omega's policy of brute force.
"Tabitha Reynard, one hundred ninety meters North-by-North-West."
"Noted. The other two?"
"I don't recognise one of them, he must be an older Omega. The last is..."
His bow came into focus first.
"... Sean, mobilise our defence force."
"What? Is it trouble?"
"Sean, just do as I tell you."
"Why're you so tense?"
"They've definitely gotten our trail, they're just looking for an ideal point to snipe from."
"'Snipe'?"
"They have an archer with them, get everybody into the camp and mobilise our fighters, get them behind cover."
"An archer? Surely you don't mean-"
"Sean."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"
"And find me Kenna Vagen."
"Why?"
Because for all of her anxieties, Kenna had something specific only to her amongst the recruits of Sector N: whereas runners tended to be quite tall and gangly, meaning they never truly got used to being at full speed until they'd been reassigned to a specialist sector, Kenna had been gifted with a smaller, lighter frame.
"I want her dispatched to Sundown immediately."
"M... Ma'am?"
"Tell her it's a Code Telum, Roark Swallows and his crew are imbound. I repeat, Ex-Sector V is imbound."
"And what about you?"
Eden unsheathed her saber keenly, "I'm going to go raise some Hell."
Sean bowed his head respectfully, and then turned tail and sprinted back towards camp: he practically hurled himself into Kenna's respective tent, "Kenna!"
[SuperTitch]
So used as she was to being alone in her little tent with her job, Kenna nearly jumped out of her skin when Eden's second in command came carreening in like the world was on fire- wait no what was his name? Shane? ... No- Sean! That was it, Sean.
"I- um- y- yes?" Kenna mumbled, trying very hard to hide her heated cheeks. As if she actually jumped because someone entered the tent... no wonder she was put on a job on her own.
In the small gaps between her fringe, Kenna could just about see Sean's expression and body language and a shudder of fear ran through her. Hardly anyone but Eden really spoke to her much during her job, being the smallest and very probably the youngest had never done her any real favours.
"I- What's happening?"
Already her breath was catching in her throat and her stomach was twisting and her hands were shaking. She dropped whatever it was she was holding - thankfully it wasn't something fragile - and turned her full attention towards the second in command, lifting her head to see him fully and not just through the gaps between her fringe.
[Captain]
He slid the box she'd dropped to the side with his foot, and whipped the tent entrance wide open, "No time to explain, you're headed back to Sundown on the double! Tell them it's Code Telum, Roark Swallows is on the move! We're requesting immediate assistance from Sector V, understood?"
[SuperTitch]
"C-Code Tel- Telum? Roark- what? Why am I... ? Sean- What's happening?"
Her shakes were far from subsiding, instead they seemed to be spreading throughout her body. Her legs were shaking and she could feel her eyes burning already. What the hell was going on? She had just been told to return to her regular job in the tent on her own, as per the norm, and all of a sudden this happens! Roark... Not that Roark, surely. Not- he couldn't be here, right?
[Captain]
Sean opened his mouth as though to explain, but simply shook his head, "There's no time, they're barely a hundred meters out by this point! Your orders are from Eden herself, move out, runner!"
[SuperTitch]
Though Kenna stillfelt like crying and panicking, she knew it must be important. If this Roark guy is just a few hundred metres- no, nevermind.
"R- Right- but-" Kenna swallowed heavily, barely mumbling something about 'not the fastest runner' before jogging out of the tent, straight past Sean.
As she got further and further away her speed increased, cold air scraping the flesh of her throat, making it sting and every breath painful. But she ran. Occasionally her boot would slip and she'd nearly head-plant the floor, and yet she managed to stay on her feet, she managed to keep running until every muscle in her body was screaming.
And she tried hard, she tried very hard not to look behind her, but she could only manage for so long before she looked back at the conglomoration of tents she had just left.
[Captain]
The runners of Sector N were at arms, and already Valeria was descending upon them: somewhere in the imperceptible distance was the sound of metal upon metal, the grunts of hard combat, and Eden bellowing "Come and get some! Swallow this!"
[SuperTitch]
For a split second, Kenna hesitated - which really was not a smart thing to do mid-run over icy terrain - and resulted in a weird leg-spasm as her feet skidded across the slippery surface and sent her flying backwards onto the hard ground. Gasping in more cold air, Kenna brought herself to her feet again, watching the tents, wanting to go back and help but not wanting to disobey an order from Eden at a time like this.
A combination of panic, pain and anxiety sent the burning feeling straight to her eyes, leaving a cold trail down her cheeks.
Her sole thought was She chose the wrong person to do this
[Captain]
In the distance, there was the sound of cracking leather.
Eden watched with a sort of cold fury as Tabitha's whip wrenched her swordarm backwards, setting her beloved saber clattering to the ground. All around her, arrows had embedded themselves into the floor, but now she was restrained, and a perfectly easy target.
Roark nocked an arrow calmly, and smiled in a manner most cheshire, "Ahh... it has been a while since I've had such a good fight! Usted tiene el corazón de un león, my friend!"
Eden lunged forwards, fist extended, but even with all her might she was just mere inches from landing the strike. Roark sighed, almost fondly, "I regret having to do this, I really do. But orders are orders, sí?"
"Orders?!"
"Oh, of course! You think I just picked a fight with you, of all people? God no, I wouldn't be here unless I had to be."
"And what are your orders, Swallows?"
"Eliminating the one who trains the new recruits," he explained, calmly, "Hitting the runners in their newest generation. Hobbling you."
"You bastard," she said plainly, coldly.
"Yes, yes, I get that a lot."
"We trained together, Roark Swallows! What turned you so bitter?"
"Well," he lifted his bow steadily, "The fall was a good start. Nothing quite makes you hate people like being tossed off of a building."
"Just shut up and do it already."
He shrugged, and drew back his arrow, "Adios."
She smiled at him thinly, "Hasta luego."
"Is that a threat?"
"It's a promise."
Roark chuckled...
In the distance, all Kenna heard was the thrum of a bowstring, and one last, pained cry.
Smoke rose slowly into the blackened air, where Valeria had set fire to the tents.
The Colony was no more.
And, it seemed, neither was Eden Law.
[SuperTitch]
That hadn't happened. It couldn't have. Eden wouldn't... she wouldn't lose. She'd yet to lose. She was their trainer, what could they do without her? All the new recruits? And- what about the other recruits?
Why did they ask her to do this, of all the runners in Sector N, why her? She wasn't fast enough. She should... what? Go back and help? What could she possibly do?
Choking on a mixture of sobs and cold, brisk air, Kenna set off sprinting once more, legs aching and arms pumping and determined to get Sector V here as fast as possible.
Maybe Kenna was no good, maybe she couldn't do anything, but Sector V could.
All she had to do was run.
~~~
Kenna flailed in her bed sheets as she was overcome with the feeling of falling, tears still running down her face. An odd hiccup escaped her as she tried to control herself, breathing deeply and pretending she was calm.
She sat up shakily, rubbing her eyes. Her hands dropped to her lap and continued to shake even though she wasn't moving them. Kenna really wished she didn't have to have that dream. The dream where she was too slow, where she hesitated. She hated that dream. She let all of Sector N down - especially Eden...
Fresh tears came and she hastily rubbed them away,suddenly noticing that she was not the only one awake.
However after seeing that public display of affection between the leader of Sector V and their second in command, Kenna sort of wished she had rolled over and pretended to sleep on. Automatically, her head tilted down and her fringe covered the upper portion of her face.
"M- Morning," she greeted, attempting to sound nonchalant but not entirely sure if it worked.
