Urd scowled as the dusky skinned goddess listened to a message from the Almighty. "Why can't we help the Knight Sabers?" she asked, eyes flashing. Belldandy put a hand on her half sister's arm, "Calm down, please." Gently the brown haired woman continued, "There must be a good reason." The voiced echoed within them all, "In the past you've assisted the Knight Sabers, but this is a critical juncture for humanity. The destiny of humanity may be decided in this test of fire, and the goddesses must stay out, or risk bringing the demons into the fray." "He's right," Mara conceded, the former demon smiling grimly, "if you get involved it means that Hilde can send her forces in, too." Urd closed her eyes, her expression pained. "All right," she bit the words out, "can Skuld at least help them? She's all ready a Knight Saber." "Yes," it answered, then the Almighty was gone. "So," Mara sighed to the others after a few seconds, "who gets to go break the news to Sylia and the others?" "I will," Belldandy said and rose into the air, the wings of her Angel Blessed Bell carrying her away from the roof of the Silky Doll and over the city of Megatokyo. Belldandy took in the city, the fires of combat burning away in parts of the city, the worst of the damage soon becoming visible at AD Police headquarters. With a sad sigh she opened her senses, getting a lock on her little sister, then with a beat of her wings was off. The mobile Pit van was near the battlefield, the four Hardsuits tearing into a band of corporate mercenaries that were attacking the AD Police. Priss Asagiri smoothly cut the enemy down with her suit's railgun, Linna and Sylia using a more up close and personal approach to destroy their foes. Behind them Skuld had the hacker suit operating at peak levels, overriding and jamming mercenary systems to give the Knight Sabers the best advantage. As the final mercenary suit dropped, Belldandy settled to the ground not far away, watching cautiously as the besieged AD Police officers emerged from hiding. Nene Romanova ran a hand through her hair and smiled, "Thanks guys." To a friend Sylia's voice was still recognizable, despite the distorting effects in her suit. "Glad to help," she said then quietly added, "Is everyone all right?" "One fatality and a few injuries," Nene said softly, "we lost a new recruit named Harrington, he didn't duck fast enough." Banishing the wings Belldandy emerged from the shadows where she had been watching to quietly say to Nene, "I'm so sorry." "Belldandy," Linna started only to have Nene gesture her to silence. Nene studied Belldandy intently for a moment before the older woman said, "You and the others aren't allowed to help?" "How did you..." Belldandy blinked in surprise. "I've seen you, Urd, Skuld and Mara," Nene said quietly, "there's no way you could stand by while people were being hurt, not unless you were forced to." "There are other forces at work here," Belldandy said softly, "if the goddesses become involved, the demons can, too. If so, it could tip the balance in your enemy's favor." "It's all right, Belldandy," Linna said to her lover reassuringly, clearly tempted to go to her side but restraining herself in front of the AD Police. Skuld quietly asked, "Big sister, does that mean I can't help, too?" "You should be fine as long as you don't use your abilities," Belldandy said gently. Changing the subject she looked to Nene, "When I was coming here, it looked like AD Police headquarters had been attacked..." Nene looked like she had been gut punched. Turning away she activated the radio in her AD Police armor, contacting headquarters and speaking softly. Her mood quickly leeched to the other officers nearby, the rest looking at her with no small degree of concern. "Ma'am?" Lisa Valente asked her, the dusky skinned younger woman gazing at her boss with no small degree of concern. Nene shut her radio off, her expression grim. "Mercenary forces hit AD Police headquarters shortly after we deployed," she said, "Chief McNicol and most of the brass are gone." "Oh no," Lisa whimpered, her legs suddenly wobbly. Priss reached out to steady the young woman even as she looked at Nene intently, "Who's in charge? We need the AD Police together if we're going to do this." Nene stiffened her spine, her eyes narrowing slightly in thought. "With Daley still out of town I'd guess that would be me," she said. She looked up, "Skuld?" Skuld stepped up to her side, already deploying several connector cables from the arm of her hardsuit as she anticipated Nene's request. Plugging in to Nene's radio and deploying the antennas on the back of her suit she said, "You want me to boost your radio so that you can reach every other officer in the city." "Good girl," Nene smiled slightly. "Good luck," Skuld wished her softly. All across the city of Megatokyo AD Police officers heard her voice, sounding confident and calm as she announced, "This is acting Chief Romanova, AD Police headquarters has fallen to the mercenary forces, repeat, headquarters has fallen to mercenaries. All officers, desist in attempts to apprehend the corporate suspects and devote yourselves to containing the mercenaries, protecting civilians must be your first priority." "Leaving us to go after the corporations behind this?" Linna murmured softly. "There's no one I'd trust more to do so," Belldandy said to her lover softly. With regret she said, "I need to go join Urd and Mara, we'll try to keep an eye on any demonic forces that might think of interfering." "Do whatever you can," Sylia nodded slightly then looked over at Nene. "Do you have anyone in particular you want us to hit?" she asked. Nene was grim as she looked at the building nearby, "Bioware went into a lockdown mode as soon as we got here, then sent the mercs out after us before we could even ask for their surrender. Obviously, our arrival panicked them." "Then I'd say getting into Bioware is our first priority," Priss said simply "Good luck," Nene sighed then she began to organize the AD police force to move out. "Let's go," and with that Sylia led the Knight Sabers forward, the hardsuits giving them a inhuman level of speed as they raced towards the building. From concealed mounts weapons deployed on the surface of the structure, lasers lashing out but the four were just too quick. Before a second wave could start Skuld was already at work, her suit systems jacking into encrypted broadcasts from the building, hacking into the computer core then shutting down the defenses. Not waiting for a cue Priss hammered the front doors, the reinforced alloy bending under her suit's powerful blow. It took three punches to burst through the durable metal, Linna joining her to pull the bent doors aside to reveal the lobby within. Boomers looked up, eyes glowing red, then they began to shuffle forward towards them. "Rogue boomers?" Linna looked slightly surprised, "But I thought that with the new designs they weren't going rogue any more?" "They're not supposed to be," Sylia said tersely, her suit's swords deploying. "Skuld, get into a terminal, we need to know what's going on." "Right," Skuld raced towards the main entrance desk as the other three began to rip into the boomers, the pseudo-organic flesh tearing easily beneath their blows. Deploying access cables Skuld connected to the terminal, scrolling through directories and evading intrusion defenses. "Uh oh," she muttered softly. "What?" Priss demanded, kicking out to crumple one boomer then bringing up her cannon arm to turn the head of another to a red mess. "They've already created a hybridized clone, a new Galatea," Skuld sounded grim, "using DNA samples taken from Sylia, Rei Ayanami and the original alien codes incorporated into first generation boomers." She scowled, "I don't understand all of it, but I think they intend to use her to trigger another full scale boomer uprising." "When?" Linna asked, the cables from her suit slicing a boomer to ribbons even as she leapt over another one. "As far as I can tell," Skuld looked at them worriedly, "now."
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