The Agent glowered up at the command pod for spoiling her fun. There she saw the big Rothian from the earlier simulation, and Captain Andersen. She was standing among the technicians and some other officers, staring right at 595; she didn’t look pleased.

The Agent huffed. She turned around and headed quickly for the staging area and exit, pushing past a marine who was chatting with the soldier beside him. 

“Move!” 

As she navigated her way around the mounds of nondescript cover and thought it through, a little seed of dread germinated in her head. Even if the Rothians captured her little toy and had the nerve to disable the controls, they wouldn’t see the same thing she’d just seen. They couldn’t, not yet. She’d covered her tracks too, so diplomatically they couldn’t touch her. 

But that wasn’t what was unnerving her. It was how [i]connected[/i] she’d been to that virus in its final form. She’d been training for this over fifty years, but nothing could have prepared her for the raw [b]power[/b] mainlining through her implants. 

She’d gotten a partial map of the inside of Vreta’s head, but otherwise the controlled virus had obviously been outmatched, fighting with one hand tied. But the other one...she couldn’t help but wonder if it would’ve accomplished its mission and more…

“Everyone make your way carefully back to the staging area while we reboot.” The co-ordinator ordered.

595 checked her arsenal, making triple sure the Scrivener-Fujikawa controls were fully enabled again. It looked secure; although she couldn’t help but distrust the virus’ willingness to go back to its prison. 

The Agent’s skin crawled; she suddenly wanted to feel the open air. She peeled back her visor but wasn’t satisfied. She opened the whole front of her suit and stepped out, clad in shorts and a vest. It remained open and walked confidently behind her, ready for re-entry at any moment. 595 snatched the assault weapon out of its hands and shoved it into the armoury-tech’s arms before stalking to the doors.
[hr]
“Not yet, anyway!” Kjartan jokingly responded to Vreta. His blood rage faded away quicker than it had appeared. He offered a consolatory hand to Thebes, who was on his hands and knees preparing to get up. The Sacred Band leader took it and got to his feet, holstering the energy blade he’d hidden under his body. Kjartan seemed close to deprecating the team leader, but something stopped him. "I serious about joining Sacred Band." He admitted gruffly, nodding respectfully at Thebes as they made their way towards the exit with everyone else. "I know." Thebes replied.