This logfile is imported from aitelogs2 and may contain errors or wrong timestamps.
#FreedomFalls – May 18, 2015
Eventually, a dark-blue sky-car approaches the coordinates, and it slows down after getting within a few hundred meters of the destination as Renala tries to get a view of the situation.
Steve is standing just outside of an alley. He's dressed in boots, jeans, and a button up black shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He's pacing somewhat, but stills himself as he sees the approaching vehicle.
Renala speeds up slightly at the sight of Steve and pilots the car to just above the road beside Steve and descends. Once the vehicle is on the ground, she opens the doors, but doesn't get out of the car. "What's going on?" she asks.
Steve glances off behind her. "You said you might've been noticed? Were you followed?" he asks, turning his back to her and heading back to the alley, gesturing for her to follow. The street is empty at the moment. Being early in the morning, not many people are out, and most of the nearby stores and such are still closed.
Renala gets out of the car and closes the door. "Not very far," she says, "let's hope she didn't see me put my helmet on." Renala is still wearing her armor as she did while working at the dam, and she has her Locust in a holster. She puts on her helmet (since she took it off while driving) and jogs to catch up with Steve.
Steve leads Renala into an alley behind a couple of housing units. Two bodies lay among some bags of trash. A human man and woman dressed fairly ordinarily. The man is on his side and has a small blade jutting out of the bottom of his jaw. The wound has since stopped bleeding, but a pool of blood has collected beneath him. "Came downstairs this morning and these two were sitting in a
booth eyeing me up. The moment I left. They left. They played it up as if they were a couple. Held hands. Laughed. But I've done this long enough to know a tail when I see one." he says. He gives a nod arbitrarily towards the market district, "Stopped in a little grocery store that opens up early to see what they'd do." he continues, "Sure enough, they followed me in. Didn't buy anything.
Left a couple minutes after I did. I managed to duck out of sight in this alley. Grabbed 'em as they passed by."
Renala follows beside him, and nods a couple times while he tells the story. She looks over the bodies with a sigh. "That does sound like they were following you," she says in a lowered voice. "Did you find anything on them?"
Steve leans down beside the guy and turns his body over. He pulls open the man's jacket and feels around for a moment before removing a folded up SMG. "Both were holding." he says as he hands the SMG over to Renala, "Check the insignia." he sighs.
The M-9 Tempest bears the telltale black insignia of the Eclipse, easily recognizable if Renala is familiar with the group.
Renala frowns. "Fuck," she says. "Is it the group I think it is? The one... you've mentioned in the past?" She keeps her voice lowered.
Steve nods and reaches back, pulling a Carnifex from the back of his pants which has an identical insignia. "This was the woman's. Eclipse. No doubt here looking for me. We need to make these bodies disappear. At the least it'll buy me some time. No telling how many more are in town."
Renala glances around the alley to see if it's wide enough to bring the car in. "Let's get them into the car," she says. "And figure it out from there."
Steve gives a nod and stands from the man's side. "I figure we take 'em a little ways out of town. Leave 'em for the animals to take care of."
Steve scoops the gun up for himself, then, and tucks it into the back of his pants along with the Carnifex. "Careful. Last thing we need is to draw attention to ourselves."
Renala gets out of the alley and, without looking around, opens the car and gets in. She starts ascending it and turns it towards the alley. She takes a few seconds to align it.
Steve nervously awaits in the alley and attempts to help guide Renala in, waving his arms to help her line up the vehicle.
Renala pilots the skycar into the alley with a slight tilt to lessen the chance of hitting any protrusions. Once it gets about 2 meters from Steve, she descends and orients it to land on the ground. Then, she opens the canopy since there's too little space for the side doors.
Steve takes a knee beside the dead man and hoists the body onto his shoulders in a fireman's carry. He rises back to his feet with a grunt and moves over to the car. "Where'd you pick this thing up, anyway?" he asks as he shoves the man into a seat.
Steve straps the corpse into the seat before turning and heading back for the woman. "The important question is... Did she recognize you?" he asks as he returns, tossing the woman into the seat beside the dead man with a grunt.
Steve begins strapping the woman into the seat as he nods. "Yeah, yeah... We'll 'deal' with her if we need to." he says. He hops into the skycar in the passenger's seat with a sigh and rubs at his forehead. "Fuck... I knew it was only a matter of time before they tracked me down. I'm hoping these two were just feelers that happened to get lucky. I think if they knew exactly where I
Renala closes the doors and starts ascending, tilting the car a little to the side. "Did you check their bodies for trackers?" She checks if she can get the car out above the alley instead of driving through it. "Or do you know their protocol for missions like this?"
She would have a much easier time ascending straight out rather than attempting to drive through the narrow space.
Steve shakes his head. "Took their omni-tools and smashed 'em. I don't think we've got much to worry about beyond that. Like I said, I don't think they knew exactly where I was. Probably just keeping eyes on a few different locations to see if I pop up. Those two going missing may set off some red flags if they were assigned to the Respite. But it could've just been a lucky run-in..."
Renala turns the skycar around once she's out of the alley and speeds off towards the closest edge of town. "Sounds like there's a lot that could go wrong," she says with a frown. "Maybe we should find a place that's not the Respite, and lay low for a couple of days."
Steve sighs and shakes his head. "I can't exactly avoid my job. Not without pissin' off the Redrock folks. You think you could pull some info off the omni-tools? I smashed 'em up pretty good..."
Renala nods. "I can give it a shot," she says. "I make no promises, though." She pauses for a moment. "Can't you give him some excuse and tell him you're going off-world or out of town?" She keeps driving out of the town.
Steve rubs at his forehead. "I could probably come up with something... But to what end? I might as well just up and leave if the goal is to avoid Eclipse... A few days isn't going to make them forget about me, ya know?"
Steve shifts his weight and begins digging into his pants pocket. He eventually produces a crumpled mess of what was once an omni-tool. He tosses it into Renala's lap with a sheepish grin. "Seems like this would be a good starting point for now... Maybe we can figure out who is ordering the sweep..."
Renala picks up the omni-tool and puts it into a compartment in her armor after looking it over. "I'll look at it when I get up in the afternoon," she says. "I have tonight off, I think."
Steve gives a nod. "If you can get anything... A name-... something to look into so I don't feel like I'm stuck on the defensive... It would make a world of difference. These people don't fuck around..."
Sounds like a waste of time to spend over a year to look for you... unless you really pissed them off.
I doubt they just dumped resources into it. Probably a side project for somebody with a hard-on for some blood...
Renala sighs. "I don't think disposing those two is the end of it," she says, "if they went through all this trouble tracking you down."
Which is why I need to get to the bottom of this. There's no credits to be made from my death, and I left a nice trail of bodies when I left. This is either personal, or about making a point. If it's the former, then it's just one more body to put in the ground. If it's the latter, then they just need some 'convincing' that it may be healthier to rethink their priorities...
Renala keeps looking ahead. "What kind of force would we be up against if convincing them doesn't work?"
Steve glances out over the surrounding area and points arbitrarily towards a few sets of hills with tall grass. "May as well toss 'em out over there. Take the car out another 10 minutes in another direction and we'll ditch it there. Try to keep it away from being connected to the bodies if someone happens across it. I doubt anyone out here gives a shit about a couple of bodies, but
Renala taps on the haptic interface and the car slows down and turns. "On it," she says. "Let's hope I don't run into the owner before I can change out of my armor."
Any techno mumbo-jumbo you can pull off to make sure the car doesn't have any tracking devices? Maybe do something to disable the car when we find a spot to drop it off? Might disuade someone from fucking with it.
I can take a look when we get there. If it's rented, it might have a hidden tracker somewhere. I didn't really have time to check for that.
Steve turns around in the seat and steps over into the back. He takes a moment to retrieve the blade from the man's jaw, pressing a knee against his face to steady his head. He uses the man's shirt to wipe the blood free from the blade before sticking it in his boot. "I appreciate this, Ren." he says as he unbuckles the man and pushes him out of the vehicle, "I know it's asking a lot,
but you've really come through for me." He wastes no time grabbing the woman's legs and hoisting her out of the vehicle as well once she's unbuckled. The two bodies crash to the ground with a loud thump. "I mean it." he says as he climbs back into the front seat and reseats himself.
Renala closes the canopy and starts off towards the west, slightly south. "I'm glad I could help," she says with a faint smile, "but you might want to save your gratitude until we know how well we've covered our tracks."
Steve gives a bit of a smirk and runs a hand through his hair. "Still. Good to know I've got someone on my side."