Chapter 15

 “SAY THAT AGAIN, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!” Cassius shouted, whatever had happened in the time when HK and Sofia were on standby had apparently threatened to sabotage the whole negotiations. He was being held back, quite easily, by Mariposa.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Oryn was being ushered out of the room. “I said you’re a goddamn coward and this deal is nothing more than a veiled threat! You must think we’re stupid because we don’t use your fancy tech, but you think you can just roll up here with your military and threaten us into compliance? WELL SCREW YOU, SCREW THE ENTIRE CONSORTIUM!”

Sofia just stood there in stock disbelief and sighed, “it’s always some guys in a dick-measuring contest…” She clapped her hands together while the two men continued to yell and threaten each other. “HK, dear… can you kindly take the gentleman out of the room, I think he needs to cool off for a while.”

Then she turned to Syllvester, “Agent, as much as you would like the… commander, to be part of the negotiations, his presence is actively sabotaging efforts. I believe it would be best to suspend negotiations for now and work on getting a replacement representative to take his place.”

“...These terms are agreeable. Well then, Commander Ironsides, if you’ll please vacate th-”

“ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS?! YOU’RE GOING TO JUST TAKE THEIR SIDE, YOU DAMN TRAITOR?!”

Sylvester just smiled, while Cassius anger was clearly getting out of hand. Then, with absolutely no hesitation, he placed his hand on the back of Cassius’ head, and slammed his face into the table with a loud thud.

Through pained breaths, Cassius tried to shout: “Wh-What the hell do you think you’re doing, Agent? I am a commander of the 47th legion, y-you can’t just-”

“No. I think you’re the one who is misunderstanding things, commander. I’m an agent representing the Soluna Consortium’s interests. You, on the other hand, are a washed-up pathetic excuse for a soldier.”

“I-I-I am… the descendant of-”

A knife was slammed into the wooden table, right next to Cassius’ head, causing him to flinch. “You are not nearly as important as you think you are.” Sylvester then turned to the rest of the room. “Now, Gatekeepers, kindly escort Mr Oryn back to his home? I have some things to set up for the next meeting that we’ll have to go through. And after that, I think the dear Commander here will need a refresher course on military decorum.”

HK placed a hand on Oryn’s shoulder and guided him, with slight resistance, to the door. Before the door closed, she could clearly see the sadistic smile on Sylvester’s face.

‘So that was your true face, eh?’

As the two of them walked down the stairs, they passed by several confused guards from both groups, unsure what the yelling was about and if some incident had occurred. HK didn’t have time to answer their questions though.

“And what are you, some kinda Consortium dog? Do you always do what your masters tell you, why are you even here?”

She didn’t answer him, he was just angry and lashing out. By the time he calms down, he’ll have forgotten all about this, and HK will have deleted his face from her memories. Because she could just do that.

The two of them stepped outside into a thick fog blanket.

“Damn weather reports, wrong again.” Oryn muttered under his breath. “Man, I can barely see anything past this.”

“Where do you live?” HK didn’t really want to conversate with this person, she just wanted to get this job done, and go home.

“.....”

“Where do you live?” She repeated the question.

“I heard you, just gimme a minute!” He looked down the streets, as if unsure of where he was, like he hadn’t lived here his entire life. “Nothing looks right here?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well-”

“He’s saying that he doesn’t recognize the area.”

HK turned her head to see Naomi — who was supposed to be on patrol duty — just casually resting between some boxes. She slowly rises up and lazily waves to HK. “Cycle through your image options, we can’t see past the fog.”

‘That can’t be right.’ Heat sensors only showed themselves, night vision couldn’t see past the fog, zooming in to see what’s beyond was impossible, none of the other vision options could pierce the fog’s veil.

HK was confused, until she remembered what their enemies are, then she started piecing things together. “Is this… an enemy attack?”

Naomi looked around, and then finally said, “Probably.”

And then, all of a sudden, the signals from Irene, Claire, Kumoko, and even Bell went down. “We have to get Sofia.”