Having been backed into a proverbial corner, Inaki reluctantly accepts the offer.
"Seeing as I have no choice, I'll accept the offer. Do know that if things go awry, you could have the blood of an entire galaxy on your hands." says Inaki as the Longinus transitions back into its normal configuration.
Some Time Later...
"We'll need to figure out Sara's baseline sync rate before we even ATTEMPT to synchronize her with the Ceva." says Risato. "Unfortunately, we did not bring any simulation bodies and our only other Evangelion was corrupted by Iblion." "We can't return to the CEVA Project Site without Ceva 0 Mark 1a, so we'll bring part of the site to us. As the CEVA Project is highly classified, we have to place it in a section of the Amaterasu-Gamma 3 system well away from both Augusta and any space colonies." says Inaki. Both Inaki and Risato are looking at a map of the Amaterasu-Gamma 3 solar system. "If possible, we'll use the Augusta-Amaterasu-Gamma 3 L3 lagrange point. Amaterasu-Gamma 3 should block direct observation of the site from Augusta, and the experimental cloaking fields from Cicada-1 should hide it from passing ships." says Inaki as he points to a spot on the map that is on Augusta's orbit, but on the side of Amaterasu-Gamma 3 exactly opposite Augusta itself. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrange_point) "It will take approximately 48 hours for Cicada-14 and NERV Section E to bring and set up all the required equipment for the sync test." says Risato. "How's the work on Ceva 0 Mark 2 going?" says Inaki. "NERV Section E has just finished embryo extraction and are currently moving it to the assembly hall. Ceva 0 Mark 2 should be ready for its initial activation test in 20 hours." says Risato.
(CEVA-00 Mark II was made WITHOUT Celestial DNA and does not have a Celestial S2 core.)
Augusta-Amaterasu-Gamma 3 L3 Lagrange Point
A Roxium United Armed Force Augusta Division fleet arrives and begins assessing the lagrange point and forcing any non-Cicada and NERV ships to leave.
The cloaked Cicada agents reach the location on the ship where the last detected Gun control signal came from. Meanwhile, the cloaked Cicada shuttle has moved some distance away from the ship, and has deployed a drone to monitor the side of the ship it can't see.
The coffee is quite strong, and the dates very sweet, both balancing each other's taste in an interestingly modern yet unique way.
He nods, "Did you?"
The medical staff, hovering on the other side of the room takes a sigh of relief at the sight of Sarah eating and drinking something.
~Meanwhile, at President Ierna's office~ President Ierna is monitoring calls from different fleets of Coastguard and Navy ships, the treasury, and other sources related to special secret projects. Its barely reaching noon and it seems she is already ready to take a break, but there comes a knocking on her door. "Ah, Mbak Asih, what brings you today..?" The elder woman takes one look at the exhausted President and immediately raises an eyebrow. "I've come to talk about Ms. Sarah Graham." "Who..?" "The diplomat from Aerlanica. She is still on our soil, and I wish to take charge of her." "Ah, the one who doesn't have a nation anymore.. just.." she pinches her nose, "Fine, do as you wish with her, I ain't sending an escort fleet to a warzone to return her." "Are you sure, President Ierna?" A phone starts ringing, "Yes, yes, now please Mbak Asih, I am quite busy.." Mbak Asih shrugs her shoulders, "Good luck" and with that, she turns and leaves.
Alena raised her hands. "Say nothing further; i'll press no issue."
*******
"I must admit, it does feel good...but i think you won't fault me for toying with such a...lesser...entity."
(Careful with the CEVA; it's power is much more than previously concieved.)
Scrap Rats
The woman nodded, stood up, and brushed herself down as she adjusted her assortment of necklaces. "I'm Miranda by the way, i'm one of the three leaders of the Scrap Rats."
Miranda motioned for them to follow, past the now very much busy and apathetic office workers.
"This is one of our admin centres; we push numbers around, make reports, make sure everything goes to where it needs to go, and make sure no one takes any froth from the top."
They walked past this.
"It isnt as easy as you think," Miranda explained, "you have to separate each piece of scrap apart; wood, cloth, rubber, latex, plastic...so on and so forth. And don't even get me started on the metals; can't smelt down scrap steel with aluminium or such, that's just asking for trouble."
She reached a flight of stairs and began to descend.
"We export across Augusta, specifically around the cape, despite a fair chunk of our market being in the City of New Franco itself; Tyramon Factory Manager's quota's running a bit low? we sell him some overhead so he doesnt lose his. Maybe a Monsone or North south kansas foreman needs some high quality steel on the cheap, we've more than enough to sell them."
She shrugged. "We've gotten to the point where we're a very much viable and cost efficient source of raw or refined resources from copper to computer chips in both legal and black markets. So much so that people arent exactly amicable in wiping us off the map."
Miranda continued to descend. "We're setting ourselves up for the long game; as more and more mines dry up and raw resources get rarer and rarer, recylcing is the future. We're the biggest recycling plant and refinery and when we get to the point where we're so influential, it makes sure New Franco stays free and the way we like it. We're not at that stage yet, so we're looking with baited breath north to the Tyramonians, and possibly with some concern to other powers; we don't know if they care or not, but they may see an Anarchistic city-state easy pickings for a base of operations; massive pre-existing and maintained port structure, sizeable oil fields, massive industrial sector and enough scrap to buy out a city of our own? hell...it's a mighty big prize for anyone to have, not to mention the tech."
Sarah paused, sighed, shook her head and shrugged. "Can't have everything." She said mournfully.
She lent back. "I...i couldn't..."
A pause.
"Nightmares?" Mitra suggested. He got a confused grimace.
Lucas smiles lightly. “Well, I really appreciate it.”
Connie tilts her head. “The capital? Why? And what’s all this about her getting killed?”
“I’ll be right back, hang on a second.” Kansas gets up and goes to another table, getting the small family checked out so they can leave, then cleaning off the table and dropping their dishes off in the kitchen before coming back to sit down by Azulakas. “Okay, um. What’s up?”
Witta nodded. "But, yeah, I'll probably take on quite a few apprentices, as many as possible really, so that we can start to increase the population of witches back to its levels of several centuries ago."
******
"Toying? That's fine. In fact, I envy you in that sense. All the people I want to get revenge on are long dead. All I can do now is take revenge on their descendants - that is, the witches and wizards alive today, or at least the witches."
"If there is anything else I can do to help, please, let me know."
"It doesn't happen often. The time it takes to train them may vary, but most succeed eventually. If they are really incompetent, then...well, I guess they can by assistants or something."
(I got a weird feeling of deja vu here...did someone else ask this before?)
******
Delegata looked at him. "You can? Do you need their bodies or something?"
(Sorta; spencer asked it at the beginning. Alena wasnt there."
Alena nodded slowly. "I could always take them under the wings of Azerian...likewise, we could organise some cross-cultural exchanges...perhaps also with the druids."
Witta realised that she had not informed the Druids of their...current...predicament.
******
"Nope; i can just...make them. give me a name and a identity."
"No, as in work work, not healing work; while the Order can do little without the power of Azerian, we are still capable of acting as a formidable network of informants and agents. I need to keep it organised and try to see if Iblion and his ilk seek to dip any further fingers into pies."
******
Iblion shrugged. "Name the name, name the person, i'll bring them back."
Delegata pondered the question. "Well...I think really there is only one person...the rest were merely followers, and revenge on their descendants will be enough. But for this one witch, it was extremely personal." Iblion could feel the hatred emanating from Delegata, two thousand years of pent-up anger surfacing for the first time. "Witch Gatraka. That's the one I want. In fact, if it helps, I can bring you her corpse. Few know it, but witches of a certain level of...of usefulness are preserved, hidden away."
The man shivered. his senses were screaming that danger was mere meters away from him. his engineering skills were put to use after he put in an anti tracking module, but it had failed terribly. he powered the engines even more and began to go slightly faster, and caught a sliver of something moving behind him. Probably some stray asteroid, he thought, trying to calm himself. just to be safe, he signaled to his allies in the hiding spot that he needed help. it was his greatest mistake.
He gives an understanding hum in response, “You’re going to need your sleep if we’re going to get you out and about…" He takes a moment to think, before posing a suggestion, "I usually tell myself stories before I go to bed so maybe that’ll help? Sets your mind on a certain subject and keeps any nightmares away.”
“Oh.” Macy immediately lets go, giving him a little more space to breathe.
Noelle nods. “Okay, we’ll go with that then. I don’t think I’m going to write a script, we can just come up with lines as we go along if you want.”
Kira smiles brightly. “Good, I was always hoping you did.”
Carissa sighs softly. “Well... it’s not really a decision, I’ve already made up my mind no matter what Tsarina or Connie or Cait or anyone else has to say about it. And I’m not really supposed to talk about it, so you can’t tell anyone else. But... basically I’ve been offered to become the guardian of Kansas.”
Lucas nods. “I really appreciate everything you’ve done for me already, it means more than you know.”
“Some... dude...?” Connie tilts her head. “Is this about that guardian thing?”
Kansas nods. “Okay, straight to the point. I’ll take it.” He takes another bite of his pancakes after dumping more syrup over them. “So... do you have any ideas of who you might want to open up to first?”
Corali nodded and looked down at her hands. "Is my chimera form weirding you out or anything like that? Because I can change to a different form - human, back to a dog or cat, or whatever."