Title: FFXIV Write 2024 - 4. Reticent
Characters: Aemilia sas Valentina, Valens sas Varro, Nyx Blackmoon
Rating: Teen
Summary: Message sent and received.
Notes: None
Valens rem Varro did not look up from his paperwork. "What."
"You have a delivery, sir."
"The courier has very specific instructions to deliver it to you in person... sir."
"Fine, fine. Show them in."
Valens frowned, looking up, as the soldier saluted him, and disappeared out the door. He reappeared a moment later, a small Miqo'te woman following behind him.
Well, Miqo'te-looking thing, anyroad.
Valens knew what it was, and he smiled broadly to himself. Maybe the officer he had sent over on exchange had been far more successful than he had assumed he would be. Maybe said officer had managed to get the Frumentarium to finally see the light and decide to turn over their little toy to proper magitek engineers who would truly be able to finally make maximum use of the thing.
Not bad, for a man who was just supposed to try to sneak a few secrets out from under their nose while forwarding their work.
In his mind's eye, he could already see the grand strides his own magitek projects could undergo after fully examining the thing. A few days of destructive testing, perhaps. Pull its myomar fibers apart, rebraid them. Stress tests, impact testing, ductile and brittle failure tests. The thing supposedly had an impressive capacity for self repair and regeneration. He could do so many tests finding those limits, letting it return to baseline, then pulling it apart again. And then the material science data he could get by going right past those limits, why, he wasn't sure he'd been this excited since he was a teenager.
But, he was getting ahead of himself. He watched as the project 'Nyx' prototype walked in, and presented him with a folder. The soldier who had brought her in saluted, and excused himself. Valens paid him no mind as he took the folder, recognizing the type immediately.
A Frumentarium report, written by Aemilia sas Valentina herself. Nominally the woman in charge of the Nyx project, but she had temporarily turned it over to Semon while she visited the capital with her pet head scientist. All part of the officer exchange.
Interesting. It was a report on the officer he had sent over, Semon oen Moruntarium. Interesting. Perhaps they just wanted him to know what Semon had been up to, though he wondered why they hadn't just let the man make the report himself.
He leafed through the first few couple of pages. He was pleased at what he read. Semon had been allowed to be temporarily in charge of the Nyx project, as agreed, and he had used his authority to perform a few tests of the kind Valens himself wanted to perform. Strangely, though, the results had been redacted. Well, no matter. He'd have to give the man credit for trying.
On the next few pages, another report. Semon had used Nyx as part of a mission to foment a little dissent in one of the colonies. A simple in and out job. Apparently he had modified the original mission profile which was meant to just be simple observation, and almost caused a rebellion.
Valens remembered talking to Semon about such things, about how Semon felt that the best way to bring a populace to heel was to drive them to open defiance, so as to justify the eventual crackdown. That way, there would always be a few of the savages who would blame their would-be revolters for their lot in life, for daring to step out of line. Bold. Valens himself preferred more direct methods, but he had to admire Semon's initiative in carrying out his own vision.
Aemilia took a somewhat dimmer view of the situation, judging from the language she was using. Valens chuckled to himself. Well, observation, dissent, whatever, it all forwarded the goals of the Empire, and as far as he was concerned, all was well that ended well. Having to redirect a few units to crack a few savage skulls was hardly any cost at all in the grand scheme of things, and Semon now had some practice at doing that sort of thing. Good for him. Valens continued on.
The next part was just a note on an injury the man had maintained attempting to fight Nyx. Valens glanced up at Nyx at that part, but it was staring off into nowhere, same as it always was. He harrumphed, and returned his attention back to the report. Semon had apparently wished to test its combat capabilities, and had overrode one of the scientist's recommendations to impose certain limits. He had been armed and armored, Nyx had been neither, and it had taken no damage while breaking his arm.
Well, fine. He would have to talk to Semon about that one. There were reasons he wanted to study Nyx, and it was known to be a more than capable combatant.
He turned to the last section.
Here, he slowed, reading carefully.
Semon had apparently taken some materials out of the Nyx project building. A major breach of confidentiality. Valens had no idea what the files were, as that information had been redacted, but there was a note of plans to place a rebuke in Semon's file.
Said rebuke would not be coming. The Frumentarium had fortunately managed to recover the files.
Valens studied the last page of the report very carefully. It was a picture of Semon, on an empty train car. Unquestionably on his way back to Valens' castrum, in fact, judging from the timestamps that Aemilia had carefully placed on each of the lithographs. He had been stabbed straight through the head, apparently, by a Mark 8 type 'S' gunblade.
He recognized the type. As a magitek engineer, he was intimately familiar with a fair amount of the Empire's armaments, and that was one in particular was an uncommon one.
Generally it was issued to, and only used by, Frumentarium agents, in fact.
Valen's gaze drifted up to Nyx's hip, and his lips thinned.
Nyx noticed, and spoke the only words it had said so far.
"Aemilia sas Valentina sends her regrets."
Valens looked back down at the report. Investigation into the death was ongoing. But apparently the current best guess was that Semon had met his demise at the hands of a disgruntled former agent who perhaps had some grudge against him, of a personal nature.
He closed the report, and set it down, and looked at Nyx.
"Dismissed," he said brusquely, though he hated that even he could hear the slightest unsteadiness in his voice. Nyx, without another word, turned and left.
Valens decided that perhaps... this was not worth his further curiosity.