Palace
As he had expected, asking questions provided insight into how the city's power core functioned. If he had to guess, perhaps they had to start some kind of initializing component to the core, almost like the spark to a flame.
"So then what's the first step to safely starting up the core?", John asked the woman as they continued to walk.
Outside Hospital - CY-001 - Nevaaras
Ethan could tell that this angel was quickly catching on to his movements. Every time he would bob and weave past the woman's attacks, her blade would inch closer and closer to him. It was at this point that Ethan knew he was eventually going to get hit. Did he care? Nope.
"Well look who you're talking to. It's not like I have to worry about taking damage either... I'd just rather not steal away one of the galaxy's finest celestial bodies.", Ethan slyly said with a smile across his face. If Astrea didn't know any better, it would have appeared that Ethan was flirting with her right in the middle of a fight.
Meanwhile, Ethan was still carefully and expertly dodging Astrea's attacks, pulling out his ceramic carbide katana to parry some of her attacks and keep pace with her, all while slowly approaching what he could only guess was an armory.
The Expense | Hallman's Office
Emil silently and patiently listened to what Hallman had said, and so far it at least made sense that they would keep Astrea as-is to develop a better variant. Of course, that still begged the question about how Hallman implied that they had spent too much money to be able to fix her.
"I understand that you would keep her as she is for development purposes, but you make it sound like you blew all of G.R.A.C.E.'s funds on this project.", Emil calmly remarked to Hallman.
Jiff-E-Mart - Electra | Geminea Alpha
*BZZZT*
"Agh!"
Thomas elicited a small grunt of pain as the sparks from the circuit he was trying to repair lit up the rather dark room he was working in, quickly striking his face. Other than the small grunt he had made from the spark hitting him, Thomas remained very silent as he continued his work, not paying any mind to his surroundings as he carefully worked on the internals of one of the store's security cameras. Maybe if some of the Aristocrat's mercs hadn't been in the area and decided to take potshots at random targets, Thomas wouldn't have to fix this almost irreparable damage, almost. At the very least, Rebecca was there to end their fun... as well as their lives.
Either way, they wouldn't be coming back anymore. After the news about one of their patrols dying reached the rest of the mercenaries, another, more powerful patrol would be sent out. Of course, hiding Rebecca and his sanctuary was as simple as redirecting the patrol by giving them a scapegoat. Of course, Thomas had already done that. He had already dragged the bodies and snuck them into the camp of a group of raiders, so the Jiff-E-Mart was safe for now. As for the camera, much of its internal circuitry was damaged by the bullet that had pierced the outer casing, but Thomas had simply gone to a nearby bank and took the camera. After that, he simply gutted the camera and took the parts he needed. After that, he would keep the scraps for any other projects he would have. It was a lengthy process, but he got resources from it, so he was perfectly fine with it.






