Yankee
Not a Sayan
Iwannabeyours
Candy Cane Elf
Shazamrock
Leon "Leo" MacAoidh, Akula Gun Team Frosty
Heavy Crossguard - Destroyed warehouse
In collaboration with: @Herald
Interactions: None Mentions: @Estylwen Vincent, Erza
Leon stood staring at the spot where the Akula’s leader had suddenly dropped through the floor. Like nearly everyone within reach, he had tried to grab ahold of her but it was too little too late. Now, wherever she was he doubted it was a good thing for her and he had another gyfted person to watch out for. Someone who could open portals near instantaneously.
In a city where godlike powers were given to bastards that lurked around every corner, what hope did law and order really have?
He sighed heavily, looking around himself as EMS and regular Nocturnia Police Officers assumed control of the scene. He had released his bestial form, but kept the armor on just in case of trouble. The surviving members of the Akulas were being checked out by medics from Burberry under Leon’s direct orders. He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do with them but it was better to have them under his control where he could arrange for their paperwork to get lost in the shuffle or lock the cell door on them himself.
Hugh fell into step with his commander as Leon walked over to the Akula team. “I’m guessing whoever pulled the rug out from under your commanding officer isn’t on your team?,” Leon asked.
Lucky kept brushing his hand over the concrete where Khor once laid, still in disbelief that she could just fall through the ground like that. Grinch offered words rather than stunned silence. “I haven’t got a good goddamned clue how or where she went.” His eyes met Leon’s. “So no. Believe me when I say I wish it was just us pulling a fast one on you.”
“I’ll make this quick then. Who the hell are you? And what are you doing in the middle of my operation?,” Leon asked bluntly, clearly out of patience for surprises today.
Grinch stopped for a moment and groaned. He owed the good captain an explanation, even if this wasn’t the best of times. He gave his orders first. “Snowy, collect Blitzen, Comet and Dancer’s helmets. Lucky, keep trying to…” He stopped to watch Lucky’s futile efforts for a second before groaning louder. “Shit, keep doing whatever you’re doing I guess.”
Grinch sat down on some rubble and got to the Captain’s request. “You ever had problems in your districts or around town with punks trying to deal with crime or corrupt cops themselves?” Grinch thrusted a thumb at himself. “Well chances are they were Akula’s. People who just got sick of waiting on the police to deal with shit in their own neighbourhoods.” He raised a hand to indicate he meant no offense.
Grinch looked at Lucky searching on all fours while he continued to speak. “You get four kinds of Akula’s. Well that’s a lie, you have five types.” Grinch flicked a finger out. “The first are the Runner’s. Where every Akula starts and most stay without being officially recognised as an Akula. They just perform the small jobs. Stuff that isn’t going to get them into much if any trouble. Dumb kids too big for their boots that kinda crap. The real Akula’s are the Gunners, and you can break them down into four types.”
Grinch flicked out another finger from his fist. “Second, the smart ones who just want to give back. The engineers we call ‘em. Some of them even try to avoid carrying guns but we’re fairly persistent in encouraging some form of self defence. They tend to be the civil kind of operators. Building and repairing infrastructure that would cost too much or take too long for the city to approve. So they say ‘fuck it’ and do it themselves on our budgets. Doesn’t pay anywhere near as much but they’re just happy to work without the bullshit and it helps us reinforce our smuggling operations and general reputation. Hearts and minds, all that crap.”
He flicked another finger out. “The third. The specialists. Those guys are kinda like the central nervous system of the Akula’s. They deal with intelligence, strategic planning, economic stimulus, you name it. If it’s got something to do with the city getting hammered by supply shortages or power struggles, they’re the ones setting up operations to try and cushion Nocturnia from the blow.”
Another finger flicked out. “The fourth. Troopers. Bread and butter of the Akula line. Those guys are the poster boys if we had any. The ‘don’t shoot unless shot first’ types, unless the rule of engagement is a kill house or something like it. They’re trained more like you’d expect of a traditional militia. Full of piss and vinegar and not afraid to die for what they believe in, that usually being the prosperity of the city so they show a fair amount of restraint, avoid collateral.”
Grinch, now out of fingers, thrust his thumb at himself again. “Then there’s us. The mercenaries. We like making a mess and we like getting paid.” He showed an idiot grin as he threw his arms out before they fell to his side. “In all seriousness, we’re the guys willing to do what it takes to win. None of this honour or nobility shit most Akula’s live by and die to. We want to fight for the city, and aren’t going to play by bullshit rules for the sake of our consciences. Because if you haven’t noticed.” Grinch gestured to the mess around them again. “War ain’t got no rules. Only survivors.”
Grinch frowned. “Only issue with that is that other Akula’s accuse us of all sorts. Threaten us with being Branded because they shit themselves at the idea of a real war with real consequences. So ‘mercenaries’ are the people they loosely affiliate with so as not to damage their image.” He snickered. “Fuckin’ smugglers worried about their image. Self righteous cunts.”
Grinch pulled out a flask. “So that’s who we are. Akula’s for the most part, even if some Akula’s would prefer that we weren’t. The politics are a bit tricky and if you end up on the wrong side of the line they draw it’s a good way for another Akula to mount your head on their wall, but, they’ve got some cool shit and some really big guns. So it’s transactional.”
He took a swig. “As for why we’re here. Akula’s are about community. As we saw it, Vincent was bad for the community, pushing all these drugs and what not. So we blew his fucking stash up.”
Grinch shrugged. “Simples. Just glad there were still real Akula’s like Eel who saw the necessity of throwing a rocket or two and had the sense to rally us for the job.” His face fell slightly. “And god willing, she’s ok. Where ever she is now.” Grinch offered the flask to Leon, the fumes now close enough to reveal its bathtub brew origin.
Leon’s mind drank in the possibilities even as he reached for and took a swig of the gin. It was truly awful, considering his usual drink of choice tended more towards whiskeys, but he understood the gesture for what it was. Besides, there would be little point in trying to poison him. His own medic was well versed in Leon’s biological makeup and could counteract anything short of a virulent toxin designed specifically to kill him in seconds.
“Mercs. Engineers. Troopers. Smugglers. I’d heard rumors of civilian militia operations in other districts, widespread enough to know you lot probably have agents in my own neighborhoods,” Leon admitted, “never quite would have imagined you nutjobs had this level of firepower.” The barb was good natured, intended to admit he had underestimated this underground network.
“How much you guys charge for a job like this? Indulge me,” Leon asked, as Hugh shifted uncomfortably next to him. Private Military operations were of course, highly illegal on top of their admission to possessing military grade hardware, committing what could be labeled as domestic terrorism, and endangerment of bystanders.
Grinch raised his hand and started tilting it side to side. “Agent is a strong word. Think more concerned citizens. This being Nocturnia concerned citizen means crazy enough to stand up to maniacs who shit fire balls, so can you really blame us for the hardware?” He slapped an empty pouch on his vest. His eyebrows raised to address the next question. “Terms of pricing, if some rich entitled idiot needs some protection we like to highball it to get what we can. Situations like this though?” He smiled again. “Free of charge. We’re just concerned citizens dealing with a problem.”
Grinch scratched his head. “If you’re wondering where we get our baseline, it’s the smuggling. Nocturnia is missing a lot of critical supplies and the aid drops are only enough to scrape by on. We like to get the city what it needs. Little stuff we tend to distribute through the Runners cheap or free. Real money comes through the big orders. Hell I heard a rumour we helped commission the fission reactors underneath HOCJOC HQ in Brewery. Shit I still need to catch up with Crackler. If that crazy bastard can get fuel rods, I can only imagine what else he could get us.”
He thought a little deeper about Leon’s question about pricing. “If you’re asking about our price tag for yourself, that depends. If you serve yourself we’re real expensive. If you serve the people, you just throw some ammo our way and we’ll be happy to better coordinate ourselves with you next time.” Grinch’s head tilted. “Only clause is to keep yourself honest with us and we’ll return the favour. If not, well, we love to be a problem.” His smile returned.
“Honesty is a currency all in itself in this city,” Leon commented, then turned his head to the side, “Hugh. Take a walk.”
Hugh nodded, hefting his weapon and heading in the direction of the CSI teams poking around the warehouse. Leon had faith the Lieutenant was trustworthy, but the best protection he can offer his teams is plausible deniability when he slipped close to the line between legal and illegal.
“Here’s the situation. I’m a cop, and you all are an illegal militia. By all rights I am supposed to cuff each of you and have you sentenced to something like 10-20 years in prison, confiscate your gear and let it rot in my armory for those 20 years as evidence, and take your personal belongings to have them checked for links to anyone else I can put the steel rings on,” Leon said, sighing to himself, “but I am not an idiot. Your shots could have gotten us killed in there, but like I said, I suspect I owe your boss a favor. So here is what is going in my report:”
“This op was carried out by Squads Hercule and a private military contractor who’s license I can pull from the records. Your actions here are my responsibility, but the overall success of the operation should mitigate the damage from the fucking building nearly being leveled. A communications breakdown occurred, and as per our contract you went with a direct fire suppression plan while my team infiltrated the access point and seized the evidence,” Leon said, already getting a headache over the paperwork he would have to backdate to make that pass an inspection of his records.
“Why does this matter to you? Simple. I want to hire you to find your boss,” Leon said, crossing his arms, “if it comes out that you all are a bunch of fuck ups, I can discard you when the license to operate doesn’t match your unit. An unfortunate oversight prompted by an illegal hack into the PD systems when I ran a search on you initially.”
“Of course, this isn’t the end of the deal I want. I have a research unit working on something big in pharmaceuticals… and I need a distribution network outside of my zones that the regular citizen might be able to trust. Time comes around, a few crates end up falling off a truck somewhere and end up in the hands of people who need it, fine. I’ll just write up the loss of inventory and move on with my life,” Leon added evenly. “In exchange, your people end up with anything on Vincenzo Accardo or Ezra Blackheart and it happens to end up reported to my department, I’d consider it a favor.”
Grinch considered his words, head nodded gently before standing up. Though he was slightly shorter he ran his eyes and scanned Leon as if to be sizing him up. Shortly after Grinch spoke. “Sounds like you missed your calling as an Akula.” He chuckled. “We’re with you. Not just to get our girl back, we’re with your operation free of charge. You ever need idiots who enjoy getting shot at or some ‘special’ cargo.” He reached into a pouch and handed over a list of frequencies. “Skip over these till you get us. We’ll update you when they change.”
Grinch looked over to see Snowy approaching. Reaching out to collect the helmets tied together, Grinch then pointed to Lucky for Snowy to help find any trace or clue as to what happened to Khor. Holding the helmets of the fallen in one hand he spoke on. “We operate on a cell basis so we can align ourselves with you no problem. We’ll spread the word to other cells that Burberry enforcement is with the people so other Akula’s will stay out of your way. Hell, some might even volunteer their own cells to help you. Not often you find honest cops.”
Grinch raised an open hand offering a shake. “Next time we’ll integrate under your command. Save you any more surprises.” He swayed the helmets tied together, voice falling a bit. “Hopefully next time we won’t be doing so much dying either.” His eyes fell to the helmets. “Say you don’t have any road flares do you? The boys.” He lifted the helmets up. “They deserve a proper send off. Cultural thing. We’ll get out of your hair afterward.”
“Sergeant!,” Leon shouted in the direction of the officers still holding the cordon to keep curious citizens away from seeing anything of the operation. At his command, one of the line officers jogged over and stood at attention.
“Pull a crate of flares and give them to this gentleman, tell CSI to clear out of the open space for the moment,” Leon ordered.
“Sir, shouldn’t we be taking the bodies for-”
“What bodies, Sergeant? The fallen were consumed by the gyfted fighting. I’m sure your vision is clear enough for that. But if you’d like to protest, Mr. Grinch here will be happy to hear your complaints,” Leon said, an edge to his tone, “it’s all on my orders anyways, Sergeant. Do your job.”
For the first time Grinch’s expression became soft. He didn’t expect this level of allowance, at most just to light the inside of the helmets. It seemed Leon was willing to give them full rights to deal with their own fallen. The favor would not be forgotten. He brought himself back to the moment. Grinch cleared his throat. “We won’t interfere or cause a mess in your crime scene.”
The Sergeant nodded, then jogged off shouting another handful of orders that pulled the CSI teams away from the ruined section of the warehouse and pulled Nocturnia PD officers to the edge of the property.
“Remember the dead. Fight for the living,” Leon rumbled, stepping away to a respectful distance.
Grinch gave his orders. Not long after Blitzen and Comet were laid on the ground, Dancer’s body was already fully incinerated by Merc’s hounds. Rudolph limped over on Lucky’s shoulder. Words coming groggy from him. “Did we win?”
Grinch nodded, voice quiet. “Yeah. Took a lot of blood though.” He opened the crate of flares. “You all ready for Omega?” Lucky and Rudolph nodded. Snowy looked confused but Grinch spoke before questions could be asked. “Just watch. This is the one thing we promise each other no matter what happens. That we be remembered for who we are. Our bodies are dealt with so those memories can’t be altered or tarnished. An unalterable conclusion to our stories.”
Grinch packed the flares under the bodies. Lighting the first, the rest began to pop off. It wasn’t long before the bodies were alight. Finding a secluded area beside the warehouse the three helmets were placed on the outcrop of a building. The impromptu shine was out of the way enough so no one would likely stumble on it but visible enough for any passing Akula that knew about this fight could take a moment to honour the dead. Grinch lit the three last flares and placed them face down through the visors, the light shining from the openings in the helmets.
The flares would burn for a long while, but they only needed a moment. Just a minute or two to reflect and remember those they fought with no longer here. To honour who they were and the sacrifices they made today and to this point. Grinch spoke to Snowy. “That’s the promise we give each other. The Omega pact. Even at the end, we still have each other's backs. We make sure to protect each other's legacies so no one can take advantage of the fallen. So we’re always held accountable for the lives we lead.” He huffed. “Keeps us honest, and if something terrible happens, we can end the story before it’s tainted.”
The flares continued to burn. Grinch turned while the rest watched the glow. He nodded at Leon as if to ask if they were clear to leave now.
