I had signal interference active and everything. Even Closure's own latest drone gen wouldn't detect our location.
Mechanist
What sensory tech is this power armor using?
Can you paralyze it?
Mechanist
I don't want to draw attention...
Mechanist
Hold on tight, Doctor.
Mechanist
10% power, aim—
Mechanist
Bingo.
Strange Power Armor
—
Mechanist
......
Mechanist
Clear damage to right arm plating detected.
Mechanist
No reduction in speed. Showed no signs of slowing when hit, either.
Mechanist
Who's in that suit? Do they not feel pain?
Strange Power Armor
—
Strange Power Armor
—
Mechanist
Damage to left arm.
Mechanist
Damage to lower right leg.
Mechanist
Doctor, it's not reacting to the damage at all.
Mechanist
If we want to stop it, I'll need to paralyze its power core in one shot—
Mechanist
Come on, this makes no sense.
Mechanist
Even the most well-trained soldier wouldn't have this much tolerance.
???
You're right.
???
By mere fact of living, no individual can wholly suppress their most basic nervous responses.
Strange Power Armor
—
A hand smashes through the power armor's core. Countless mechanical fragments burst out like fireworks, just as the blood of a fellow lifeform would.
With no time to waste, that hand pulls out.
The mecha-fragment extracted by her sheer force turns into dust, together with the pure white plating covering her five digits. It all drifts down to the floor, where it forms a paper-thin calcium crystal layer.
The power armor lies on the ground, the heat of its energy snuffed, a clean hole left through its torso.
Mechanist
You—pierced that power armor's core barehanded?
Mechanist
That's a might of mights. And definitely a lot quieter than my defensive cannon.
Mechanist
Doctor, looks like the Bureau of, uh... Originium whatever won't be taking us in for attempted bombing today.
I do NOT want new criminal records for Rhodes Island.I do NOT miss Columbian jail even a little bit.
Thanks for that, Saria.
Saria
No need, Doctor, Mechanist.
Saria
I'm the one getting Rhodes Island involved in Rhine's internal affairs—
Saria
I have a duty to ensure you don't come to any harm.
They say your plan's hopeless, that nobody's gonna listen to us. We can try everything we want, we'll never get our voices out.
Sonny
......
Frontier Team Member
They're also asking who cares what Rhine Lab's up to.
Frontier Team Member
Like, we just need to get this work done sooner, get our money, move onto the next place and keep going.
Frontier Team Member
As for the guys who... went missing, well, their luck just ran out. The Pioneer Teams out in the deep wastes see a lot more dead every year than we do, anyway.
Sonny
I get it.
Sonny
Tell them to just hold on a little longer. I'll bring our people back.
Frontier Team Member
So what's your plan?
Sonny
I'm gonna head out for a bit.
Frontier Team Member
Out? Isn't... isn't that too dangerous?
Frontier Team Member
If the cops sent sharpshooters, they might just be waiting for you to come out.
Sonny
Sounds like a good deal to me.
Frontier Team Member
Wh-What? You're keeping your head together, right?
Sonny
A police sharpshooter, right? Might just be an old friend of mine. Crack shot with a crossbow. If this is how it's gotta be, it's not gonna hurt too bad.
Frontier Team Member
Sonny...
Sonny
Dr. Urbica, Doc Moore—
Sonny
I need you to come out for a walk.
Ptilopsis
......
Elena
You can drop the pretense. Do we have a choice here?
Sonny
Afraid not. Keep your chin up.
Sonny
Once the folks outside get to see the score, maybe they'll change their minds, open up to taking our demands seriously.
You, uh... you made rank, right? Didn't get the chance to congratulate you.
Sonny
Who knew you'd stay at that precinct so long... You keep getting all this hassle from the frontier.
Mary
And I never thought you'd end up so... depraved.
Mary
You still remember any of the classes you took? Your law courses?
Mary
You still remember... the shit you said to me, the day I joined the force?
Sonny
......
Mary
'That's great! We'll be partners again. It'll be just like all those games we played as kids. We'll protect Columbia's peace, bring the bad guys to justice—'
Mary
Hah... how's that irony? You're bad guy number one right here and now.
Sonny
Mary...
Mary
What's all that crap your boys are holding? Homemade weapons?
Mary
Drop those things before you embarrass yourselves any more.
Mary
You degraded yourself this far, but you still have an option. One final option.
Mary
Let those two innocent ladies next to you go.
Sonny
No. That's not in the cards for now.
Mary
Dammit. You're inching over the cliff here.
Mary
Sure, the government lets a criminal join the Pioneers if he doesn't want to do hard time.
Mary
But if... you break the law again out on the frontier? What charges does that buy you?
Sonny
......
Mary
Answer me, counsel!
Sonny
Don't call me that, Mary, I'm begging you...
Mary
You're trying to guilt-trip me.
Mary
Yeah, I feel guilty now... guilty I let you go when you broke into my house. I should've hauled your ass straight to the station.
Sonny
That was a long time ago. I mean, I'd only just...
Sonny
...I'm sorry. I've always been sorry about that.
Sonny
But this time, I have a reason for doing all this. You have to hear me out, please.
Frontier Team Member
Sir!
Sonny
What?
Frontier Team Member
The doc, the doc, she...
Sonny
Doc Moore?
Ptilopsis
......
Ptilopsis
Configuration... error... entering... power save mode...
Elena
Oh, shoot. Joyce...
Sonny
What's happening to her, Doctor?
Elena
You can tell. She's having an attack.
Frontier Team Member
What?! I—Is it Oripathy?
Frontier Team Member
C'mon, I got her! There's drugs for her, right? I... I can't do injections...
Ptilopsis
Ngh...
Frontier Team Member
C'mon, she looks like hell!
Frontier Team Member
I... I got this first-aid treatment band Rhine gave us. This does something for Oripathy flare-ups, right?
Frontier Team Member
I'll put it on her...
Elena
......
Elena
You're willing to give your own emergency care device to Joyce?
Elena
If you hand her that band, your odds of survival go down significantly on the off-chance you get a sudden attack.
Frontier Team Member
The doc's been good to us all this time!
Frontier Team Member
I don't want anything to happen to her...
Elena
You say as the ones who kidnapped me and Joyce.
Sonny
We never wanted to do you dirty.
Sonny
I'm sorry... We're just a bunch of selfish nobodies.
Ma'am, would you mind giving me permission to talk to the Pioneers?
Mary
......
Silence
The Liberi experiencing an attack is my colleague, and my good friend.
Silence
And more important still, I am her attending physician.
Silence
I want to gather her situation from the Pioneers. Judging by their reactions, they clearly aren't unconcerned for her.
Mary
Go nuts.
Mary
But you don't have much time.
Mary
I just got orders from on high. If the Pioneers refuse to cooperate for another ten minutes, we'll cut all comms to the test site... along with all power to their living quarters.
Greyy
Y—You'll cut the electricity?
Greyy
Day-night temperature swings are massive in the barrens... They'll be freezing by midnight!
Greyy
And there's several late-stage Oripathy patients among the Pioneers...
Greyy
They need medical facilities to live!
Mary
I know.
Mary
That's what makes this a warning.
Mary
They need to know how serious Rhine and the police are here.
Mary
All their protests and demands have to be founded on a legal basis... Once they take the criminal route, nobody's going to hear them out.
Greyy
But... aren't you friends with that Pioneer leader?
Mary
Friends?
Mary
The moment he abandoned himself, there was nothing left to say.
