[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/i6i9BGQ.png[/img]

[h2]Club Banebdjedet[/h2]

[h3]Blackout Zone, Osiris, Day 1[/h3][/center]

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The road back to the blackout zone was packed with the busy comings and goings of the spaceport. Lyen's orange kasaya robe had become a common sight to see for the inhabitants of the Capital City's working class such that they scarcely reacted to the sight of her as they once did. Over the last two years Lyen had made the atrocities of the blackout zone her chief concern, and as a result, had drawn much attention to the gap in Alliance justice.

In a city planet as wealthy as this, the dark underbelly existed with a blind eye so that the Alliance could comfortably exploit without having to look into the faces of the people who bore their burden. The ingress to the blackout zone closest to the spaceport manifested as a handful of guards stationed at a nondescript back alley between two bars that rode the close edge between dive and derelict. The guards wore rifles slung over their shoulders and there was a bright screen fixed to an archway scanner emitting a visual message of warning and illegal entry.

As Lyen approached, her eyes followed the trajectory of the men's gaze. One guard tapped another at her arrival, who, upon sighting the orange robe, rolled his eyes and placed a palm on the scanning apparatus's controls. "Sister," he intoned with gall, yet the scanner let out a different chirp which signaled to the nun that she could pass. As her robe faded from view, the archway scanner returned to it's previous menacing red digital signage.

"Why do we just let her through?" asked the third guard of the first.

"Order of the Interverse has pull with the powers that be. Spiritual folk can come and go as they please. Waste of time, if you ask me," the guard replied, bringing up another screen and notating on it.

"And that's why we track when we see her?" he followed up.

"Nah, that's something else. Need to know. So turn around and stop asking questions." After clearing his throat, the guard busied himself with his cortex.

The base of Lyen's operations inside the blackout zone served several purposes, from childcare for the indentured inhabitants, to a medical clinic for minor healing and tending to the sick. Today, as she stepped over the threshold, she was greeted by many of the same faces that had assisted her last night at the China Doll's rendezvous point.

"Sister Lyen!" came the cacophonous calls, which the Sister answered with a wide wave. The hall she squatted in had once been a strip club whose neon signage still professed 'les nudes,' 'showboys,' and 'XXX' around the space in various stages of disrepair and dismantling. From the exterior, the edifice read 'Club Banebdjedet' for the Egyptian god of fertility and virility, with the neon outline of a man's body and ram's head horizontally balanced on a pole, legs spread wide.

"[i]Jùjí zài yīqǐ, háizimen![/i]" she called, as she hoisted herself onto the center stage, one hand resting on the pole planted there. "I have a message for you to bring back to your families: Tell them to gather their belongings; I've found a ship to take you to a better place." (trans: gather around, children)

At this pronouncement the throng of children watched with wide eyes in silence until the nun's brow raised quizzically. "Now go!" she laughed, pointing to the door, "And tell them to be ready when I call."

The children began chattering in their native tongue, a dialect spoken only on the rim planet from where their families had been forcibly taken and, eventually, indentured here on Osiris. After a minute of watching them go, Lyen shook her head, a smile spreading to her eyes. The Verse had finally answered her prayers of two years, and it would mean freedom for the oppressed.