ARES:Gods of War

Kilo

Rapi stared at another set of paperwork. It was getting mundane after a month, the same request forms she denied for the Commander in absentia came back twice just this month alone. She understood the need for post-operational recovery and the training needed to utilize the new MJOLNIR armor, but still. She missed him dearly and would not be afraid to admit it at this point.

The Counters and Lucky Strikes also hadn't gone on an operation in a long while, meaning the work fell upon the shoulders of other Strike Teams, including Absolute. Exotic was still missing, which was terrifying enough, but they couldn't have fled to the surface. Away teams would've spotted them, what with bases now slowly growing around every Elevator tube to the Surface.

It was rather unsurprising, honestly, considering no squad ever went without their commander and the Luckies and Counters had such good chemistry. Command wanted their star teams working together both for the sake of the good-looking propaganda and for the sake of quickly-accomplished missions. They were no Goddess Squad by any means, but...

"I'd argue you girls are doin' just fine!" A voice spoke, one that Rapi heard more-so in the back of her head, than anywhere else. She blinked, then sighed deeply, recognizing the peppy female voice and deciding to ignore her for now. Going back to her work, she sent a message to Delta, asking how they were doing in terms of their own paperwork and receiving a so-and-so reply from her.

"Ya really just gonna ignore your best pal like that, Rapi? I'm actually kinda hurt!" The voice quipped with a chuckle, causing Rapi to sigh deeply. The girl looked at herself in the mirror and saw the scarlet-haired figure of a taller woman, her horns, her smirk, her orange eyes, beautiful face and form all visible despite that being Rapi staring at herself in the mirror. The woman spoke, "Heh. I knew ya wouldn't~!" with a teasing grin.

"Hood..." Rapi spoke as she stood up, walking to the mirror, her face impassive, "You're active again...?" and noticing her. Clad in rather revealing, almost cowboy-like black leather, with an unzipped 'bra' of a type, as well as a red sash around her neck, the same color as her hair, plus horns and auburn eyes. Red Hood, one of the deadliest members of Goddess, stood face-to-face with Rapi.

"Someone had to deal with the attempted intrusions into the NIMPH, right?" Red Hood still retained her standard smirk, leaning against her strange shoulder-mounted high-caliber anti-materiel rifle, Wolfsbane. She looked as young as the day Rapi had first met her out there, so many years ago. Though, obvious as it was to her, the girl hadn't aged because she and Rapi shared consciousness from time to time.

"Wait, what?" Rapi soon realized what the girl said and stared at her like someone would stare at a Ghost. Intrusions in her NIMPH? It would explain why Red's firewalls felt like they'd been activated. Less random chance, more actual active protection. Rapi sat herself down in a seat opposite the mirror, then sighed deeply, waiting for the girl to explain.

It didn't take long, Red Hood stating, "Yeah. The Chief, your new pal," before shrugging, "His AI's been trying to poke into our brain for a while now... Firewall's keeping her out, though. Guess she wants to learn more as to why you're so weird," and still, she retained that peppy attitude. She was seriously strange with how calm she could be about this kind of mess.

"... I'll have a talk with Chief or her about it," She then replied, arms crossed to her chest. She started using them to gesticulate as she said, "We both know nobody can find out about you," with the added concern slowly filling the back of her mind. Normally, Red would've been extremely angry if she popped up like this, but the fact Cortana had managed to surprise her enough to... No. Red was still Red.

"Why not? Missilis is under a friendly face now, meaning they won't experiment on us anymore! Probably... Eheh..." Hood chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. She could read Rapi's mind, seeing as they shared a brainstem at this point, but her concerns on the matter were really not making themselves felt in the back of Rapi's own mind. Red seemed actually quite peppy.