The final offer

Lily can take care of herself. She is, in fact, one of the most dangerous people I know. For all of her innocence she can be lethal in combat. But that doesn't stop me from being protective of my little Mei Mei when someone does her wrong, as more than one person has found that out to their pain.

I should have known the news of war on Shadow and the strange device the 1st Marines had recovered from the Reavers would bring them out. We should probably have kept it under guard, but who in their right mind would try and steal a hunk of random machinery on skids in the hangar?

Sometimes it's a little maddening that I can't stay on top of everything that's happening in town. It's not that complicated a job. But with everything that's going on off Hale's, it's hard to keep track of it all. Especially playing liaison, meeting with that Alliance Colonel, and trying to sort out a neutral territory meeting between her and the Browncoat leadership from Shadow.

That being said, I didn't hear about Lily being kidnapped and released by the local Loyalist faction until well into the evening. Details were a little vague. No surprise, really, but evidently Lily was somewhere away from town with her little skiff when they ambushed her. They took her prisoner, tried to beat information on Duncan out of her, stole her skiff, released her, then used the stolen skiff to steal the odd contraption the Alliance had recovered from the Reavers. Somewhere in there a "nice one" told the "mean one" who hit her to let her go, which was all the more confusing.

Still. We'd left them out in the desert too damn long. We'd offered them amnesty and had actually refrained from hunting them down. But we needed to make the point that they could come in from the cold, or we'd let the desert claim them. We'd been civilized with them. But even civilized folk had their limits, and the Loyalists had pushed ours one too many times.

With all the upgrades we'd put into navtrak over the last six months, figuring out where they'd taken Lily's skiff was just a matter of picking data out of the traces. Once that was done, it would simply be a matter of taking Lily's very accurate description of her tormentor and delivering a message.

After making sure her physical injuries weren't actually as bad as they appeared - which made sense, since she was again mostly synthetic and configured to simulate fully organic processes - I went back to the boat to get changed and ready for something I honestly didn't want to do. Lily had said "Don't make them suffer," and I wouldn't. Little Aurora had called it well. I desperately wanted peace and abhorred unnecessary violence, but I was still a trained warrior and professional soldier. When the situation required it I could, and would, kill. Cleanly. Efficiently. Coldly.

But not without remorse.

I suited up and took one of the little skimmers out into the desert, briefly thankful that Sabrina was working overnight off world and couldn't chide me for risking myself until after I got back. With passive optics, starlight was more than enough to light my way through the canyons and around the myriad low hills that made up much of Hale's Moon's landscape. I actually felt a touch of pride at the little patches of low scrub that had found footholds in little patches across the landscape. Hale's Moon was still desperately dry, but the humidity was finally up to the point where the hardiest of plants could take hold. They were a bright spot in an otherwise bleak mission.

Parking the skimmer a couple kilometers from their latest encampment, I worked my way inward to their nest. Like others they'd favored, it was in one of the abandoned mines that had been opened and quickly cleared out decades ago. There were dozens of them scattered within a hundred kilometers of the colony, which was part of the reason we'd had so much difficulty tracking them down and eliminating the threat.

Skirting their perimeter sensors wasn't especially difficult. They'd been hastily set, and the coverage was a bit spotty. Something they'd inevitably tend to given time. Not that I intended to give them any more time.

From what I could tell, they had split their encampments into at least two or three sites, spreading out their limited resources to prevent being eliminated in a single surgical strike. Probably a wise move, given their kokorobosoi situation. But it made it easier for me to slip past their perimiter and deal with their lone senty at the entrance to the mine.

In the darkness I could move swiftly, silently, but even I couldn't move completely silently on the scrabble of rock and mine tailings scattered near th entrance. He must have heard something, turning to face me in the darkness, a look of curiosity quicky replaced by one of surprised shock as my boot slammed into his gut just below the armor. Moving in quickly, a knocked him unconscious with a quick elbow to the back of the head, thankfull they had largely abandoned their full helmets for the lighter visors.

Not the one.

I quietly moved the Loyalist trooper's unconscious body out of sight, carrying him, rather than dragging him. They would figure out he was out of action soon enough, but by then I would have delivered my message and been gone. This one was part of the message. I could have killed him easily, but chose not to. All he'd be able to describe was a small figure head to toe in black who'd gotten the drop on him. Surely, they would suspect who'd done it. I didn't care to hide that any more.

I'd offered them amnesty before. They had failed to heed the offer. I had come to them in the night and delivered the message before. They had ignored it. This would be the final message. Take it or leave it.

Moving past the mine entrance, I knew I wouldn't have much time to locate the soldier, deliver my message then get out. But through the icy calm, I still felt the same carefully controlled excitement of being on a solo Op.

Five minutes of searching and I'd found him. The shoes. Cloth with soft soles rather than boots, as Lily described. Alone and awake in an alcove not far from where his companions slept, sitting on packing crate, using another as a makeshift table to clean his assault weapon . So intent on his task he didn't notice me until I was right in front of him. By then, far, far, too late.

It took him a moment to realize I wasn't one of his own. When he did, he simultaneously tried to reach for his sidearm and raise the alarm, a sound shut down before it started by my fingers jabbed straight on into his windpipe. Before he could clutch at his throat, or his weapon, I'd caught his hand and locked the arm, moving almost silently behind him, wrenching his arm up behind his back as he tried to suck air past his broken larynx.

"There is no dishonor in succumbing to a superior opponant." I said next to his ear, my voice barely above a whisper. "There is in harming the innocent," I finished, before shifting quickly to slam my armored knuckles into the back of his neck at the junction of skull and spine. The blow knocked him unconscious instantly and a moment later he breathed his last, neck cleanly broken.

"I promised her you wouldn't suffer."

As quickly and silently as I'd come I evacuated, leaving a calling card behind. A warning. A message. An offer.

Left alone too long
Civilized behavior lost
It need not be so

Amnesty remains
I will not offer again
Come in from the cold

Would they understand the message? Would they accept the offer if they did? Could we trust them? All questions running through my mind as I extracted from the Loyalist encampment and made my way to Lily's skiff, hidden in the mouth of a nearby shaft. Fortunately, she'd cobbled it together from standard enough components that I could set the autopilot to take it home as I made my way back to the skimmer.

The noise of the skiff taking off would certainly wake the camp, but it would also provide a distraction for my own escape.

I'd delivered the message. How they reacted would be up to them, but with one specific exception I'd spared their lives. We had been civilized. Now it was their turn.