A bit of minor-character centric anyone?
Taking a look at pre-sim trooper Chorus. Don’t get drunk on watch.
—-
“Do you ever think about space?"Jensen asks, leaning back on her hands as she stares at the stars.
Palomo looks up from whatever daydreaming he’d been doing. "What?”
“Like, the stars, other planets, places that aren’t here. I hear there are planets that are only cities. No mining or mountains at all, just these huge buildings that literally scrape the sky.”
“No way,” Palomo said, craning his head up to stare at the stars.
“That’s obviously just fiction,” Bitters broke in, “there’s no way there’s a planet that just city.”
“There is!” Jensen said, leaping to her feet. “I read about them! There are places where people are happy and they remember their parents and not everyone can use a gun!” She yells. Then, more quietly, “and they can leave the atmosphere, they aren’t stuck there.”
They all go quiet at that, even Bitters.
Of course it is him that interrupts the quiet.
“Hey, I’ve got some booze.”
Palomo’s head whips toward Bitters and there goes the mood. Well, one mood. Sad contemplation is replaced with inappropriate jokes and terrible vodka and far less vigilance than they should have when outside the base.
Palomo tells some good jokes, Bitters tells some bad ones and Jensen does her very best not to think.
It’s nice, right up until the Feds arrive.
The firefight is short and to the point. It turns out it’s kind of difficult to shoot a soldier, especially one that dove behind a building like some sort of coward, when you’re basically seeing double.
It wasn’t really a fight.
It doesn’t take long for the Feds to round up Jensen, Palomo and Bitters (yeah, it was just them, this was supposed to just be a scouting mission) and start arguing about what to do with them.
There are four there, not including two in the car, and they seem to be leaning toward the ‘kill them and dump their bodies on the side of the road’ style of conflict resolution. Jensen can’t really blame them, given that’s what she would do in their position.
Unfortunately she’s not in their position, which is made abundantly clear as one of the soldiers says, for the hundredth time, “I think we should just kill them and take their stuff.”
“No! We need to find out where they were going, what they were doing, base codes and shit!”
“That’s stupid, they’re just lowly soldiers…”
“Jensen, hide this,” Bitters hissed next to her ear. He pressed a piece of paper into her hands.
She had no idea what Bitters was up to, or why he thought this was the time to give her a secret note, but apparently that’s what was happening. She balled her hand into a fist and tried to figure out where best to stash it.
Unfortunately, Bitters wasn’t as subtle as he’d thought- apparently one of the Feds had seen the exchange.
“What’s that? Get what’s in that girl’s hand!”
Jensen didn’t think, she didn’t have time. She shoved the piece of paper into her mouth and swallowed it.
Everyone stared at her, the Feds, Palomo, even Bitters. She wondered if she did something wrong.
Before she could pursue the thought though, the Feds were grabbing her, shaking her shoulders, one was even trying to pry open her mouth. She bit that one, hard enough to draw blood.
“FUCK!” the man screamed. “Bitch!” and he slapped her hard enough she saw stars.
“Ohymygodwhatdowedo?” One of the Feds squeaked, even as another got right into Bitter’s face. Their expression was impossible to determine behind the helmet, but their voice was hard and furious. “What did you do with the message?”
Bitters spat on their helmet.
And then he crumpled to the ground when the Fed pistol-whipped him.
“Now that that’s dealt with,” they snarled, turning and pointing the gun at Jensen, “you’re going to tell me what was on that note.” Jensen looked at Bitters on the ground, then, getting no help from that direction, at Palomo next to her. The Fed holding her tightened his grip on her shoulders.
What was she supposed to do? She didn’t know what was on the note, she didn’t even know there was a note!
Palomo clenched his jaw and stuck out his chin a bit. “We won’t tell you.”
The Fed turned on him, though that didn’t really make Jensen feel better.
“I will make you,” the Fed said, taking a step forward.
“Wait stop! We can’t kill them!” It was the one with the squeaky voice, of all people, who came to their rescue. “We need that information!”
“We’re loyal to Chorus you Federation scum!” Palomo yelled, and Jensen had to agree. Even if she knew what was on Bitters’ mysterious paper, there’s no way she would tell a Fed.
“You’ll have to,” she said, glaring at the soldier with the squeaky voice. “We won’t tell you anything.”
Falling into unconsciousness saved her from having to figure out just how she was supposed to get out of this one.
