churbooseanon

My shoulder is good enough to write for now. Also, Churby has a Ko-fi.

Fragments - Defusing the Situation

    The hold of the Pelican was a mess. Of course that was something that had to be qualified in a very specific way. Normally a Pelican could come in several states: it could be neat and tidy to regs, it could be full of the overworked forms of UNSC soldiers or special operatives, or it could be a disaster zone of bodies and munitions and blood. For the course of her career with the military, and with Project Freelancer actually, Lacey had done a damn fine job of keeping her hold clean, pristine even. No matter how hard Marines or Freelancers tried to bleed out and die in her care, she always had her lady up to spec. These days, though, it was a disaster compared to that, and a simple mess when compared to her new standard of living.

    “You don’t have to go this alone, you know,” Lacey sighed as she watched Tex lift the bed to stow without even stripping the sheets or pillows. The roughly rigged up fold-down cot looked terrible like that, its sides bulging and a corner of the sheet brushing the floor. Not that she was a sucker for regulation corners or anything, but when the next laundromat could be light years away, couldn’t she try not to get oil on the thing?

    “This isn’t your fight, Lacey,” Tex countered immediately as as crouched above the box of medical supplies they stowed under the bed. Well, medical for Lacey and something else for Tex now doubt. After all, her skin was synthetic. She had no need for this stuff. “Not even close to it.”

    That earned Tex a scoff from her girlfriend. “This became my fight when I helped you and the boys out of the Director’s grip. It became my fight when you and I became a thing. Maybe it even became my fight when I saw all the agents dying for no damn reason. So why can’t I help you enough to pull your ass out of trouble when everything goes wrong again?”

    In the time they had been together Lacey liked to think she had gotten a good idea of where the edges of Tex’s impressive anger were. She knew how flirt along them but never run quite up against the wall of fury. There had been enough little signs for her to know when she was pushing too hard. There were buttons she knew to avoid pushing if she wanted to keep things good between them. The problem was that the hints she had to work on came from not one, but from four people. For instance, the way Tex was stretching her neck from one side to the other was all Omega, but it was usually a good indication that Tex was getting… a bit frustrated.

    “Are you kidding? Do you really not get the problem here? We’ve got multiple issues, Lacey. I’m being hunted by person who hates me most and who would probably be willing to disobey the Director’s orders to drag me back with her. And, oh right, that wouldn’t be the only person hunting me at this point, what with the Meta being both Omega and myself. And, from what I heard from Wyoming last time we shared a bounty, it’s not like Florida is all that okay with me either for helping get the trio away from him.”

    All of that was well and good, but it didn’t even phase Lacey for a moment to hear Tex saying all of that. A life on the run had been something she had signed up for. A life of never seeing her family again was something she had agreed to back when she’d joined up with the UNSC, and it wasn’t changing now. Maybe the cause was different, but she still had something she intended to work towards, and in this case it was the day where Tex could stop running. Which was something she doubted the woman could manage to find on her own. So Lacey stood there, arms crossed over her chest, and considered Tex, watched as the woman raided repair supplies to start filling her duffle.

    “I get all of that,” she said after a long moment, while Tex was moving to an overhead compartment, no doubt looking for her supply of grenades. “But really, for a supposedly badass AI, you sure have shit plans, Tex. I get what the other fragments are, but I am really getting the idea lately that you’re Alpha’s stubbornness. Either that or his recklessness, because fuck, Tex, are you willing to throw away a tactical advantage or what?”

    Nope, no clenched fists, so Lacey can keep plowing on if she needs to. But it’s getting close to the point where yelling at her wouldn’t get anywhere. Soon she’d have to change tactics. Loving Tex, she had come to realize, was like a goddamn dogfight. More about dodging the bullets of the other party than it was about risking yourself to shoot them down. Okay, so maybe that wasn’t entirely accurate for most people, because dogfights were between things like Hornets or Longswords, not Pelicans. Her baby was primarily a troop transport, and she was a transport flier. It meant the best offense was a damn good defense, and that defense was made out of all sorts of crazy maneuvers that other people either weren’t willing or able to pull off.

    Actually, that wasn’t a half bad description of her relationship now that she thought about it.

    “Maybe I’m not willing to see you killed over all of this!”

    No more pushing, Lacey can tell with the raised voice and the way the woman had turned, head snapping to glare at her. This was Tex near her breaking point. Any further and the Pelican could have a lovely new dent in it.

    At the same time, if she stopped…

    “Lacey, this is g…”

    “No,” she hissed out, stepping forward and grabbing at Tex’s arm. “No it damn well isn’t. Because, see, the thing is that I can follow you. Maybe not easily, but I will do it. And if you make me follow you then you’re going to be more obvious. But if you work with me, then I can pull you out of tight spots. We’re partners, Tex, and that isn’t changing. I’ve already lost enough people I care about. I refuse to lose another.”

    At last, defeat. Texas sighs and wilts, before at last wrapping her arms around Lacey. A sharp kick behind her against the wall of the Pelican caused the cot to fall back into position and before Lacey could react, she was sitting on the edge of the cot.

    “Lost people before?” Tex asks quietly.

    “A lot,” Lacey admits. “Most of my family. Which is saying something because I’m the second-youngest of eighteen kids. Don’t ask, it’s complicated. But what it really comes to is that part of the reason I joined up was because there wasn’t a place for me back home. And if you go, well…”

    What would she do if she lost the last thing she had?

    “Tell me about your family.”

    “And what are you going to do?”

    For the life of her, Lacey couldn’t read Tex at that moment. Couldn’t see what decision her partner had come to, other than sitting here for the moment.

    “Listen. Until I know everything there is to know about them. And with that big of a family, sounds like this could take a while.”

A new job with his team leads to York getting himself into a spot of trouble with a menacing presence as its source.

York adjusts to life on a new world, and learns a way to make his life work there. And sometimes that goes wrong.

Data secured, David now needs to get out.