Operation Hades

Fatal Arrangements

"How about..." Acheron moved a few cans in the cupboard aside, surveying the contents. Wesley sat on the counter beside him, swaying her feet to occupy herself.

"Corn?" He held out a generic can, and she quickly shook her head. He set it down on the counter, before pulling another can out. "Potatoes?" She shook her head once more, and Acheron let out a quiet, annoyed sigh, before getting out a third and final can. "How about oranges?" To his relief, she nodded approval. With his knife, he gently dug into the metal of the can and began sawing the lid off.

While he was working, he remarked, "You're allowed to talk, you know." To his dismay, she remained silent. Acheron concocted a way to try and get her to speak.

"What's your last name?" He had a thoughtful expression, although keeping his eyes trained on his knifework. A little small talk wasn't worth a cut finger. After what seemed like a minute, the girl replied.

"Mactavish," She brought her legs to a stop, and set her hands on her lap, "Why? What's yours?"

"Oh, no reason. Namkeni," Acheron chuckled to himself. He was usually not willing to reveal anything like that to a lot of comrades, but he ended up spilling to a child he'd met about an hour ago.

"Why's your hair white?" She boldly asked. Even though it was good that she was talking, it was still difficult for him to find a response that didn't involve the Agency or augmentations.

"Someone forced it this way," Acheron responded with a shrug, giving the best answer he could without any real details.

Wesley cocked her head, confused and brow-furrowed, "That's silly, no one can force anyone how to be." Acheron paused, provoked by her response.

"Yeah, you're right, but it happens nonetheless," He popped the lid off of the orange can, before sifting through some nearby drawers and pulling out a fork and handing them both over to her. She thanked him and started eating. He was surprised at how polite and soft she was, compared to most children he'd met over the years. Then again, most children he met weren't in the greatest of environments. He deeply sighed, before sitting up on the counter next to her, "Even so, I've gotta change the topic. Do you know exactly what happened to your parents?"

She barely even changed her tone, talking whilst eating, "They told me that they had to go and then made me get under the bed. These guys walked in and took them outside, that's all I remember."

Acheron looked away with a burning feeling in his chest. He definitely feared the worst. From their landing, after he saw just what that swordsman did to the random civilians, he only wondered what the foot-soldiers would do after rounding up a bunch of them. There was most likely a large execution. "How long ago?"

"Before you came..." Wesley's legs started moving again, "I dunno how long." Acheron nodded.

"Alright, that's alright," Acheron stood, noticing Lyle reenter the other room that the others were already discussing in, "Wait here, we have to talk about something." He left Wesley without even waiting for a response from her.

"... From here," Zephyr was explaining something to them, pointing out a position on the three-dimensional TacMap projected from Lyle's Enterprise, "Easy three story building along their route up to the base. Could make a good crow's nest for an ambush." He pointed, lightly tracing the enemy route up the town's main road.

With a snap judgement, Acheron threw in, "If we can funnel these guys into the buildings, we should have no problem thinning them out." The three MTF operatives glanced up at him, Kerrigan giving him a sole nod.

"Right, but one sniper isn't going to force a hundred men into shelter. If anything, they'd try and overrun you after they figure out it's only one man," Kerrigan explained, before putting a finger up, "Luckily enough, they replaced our chopper with a more heavy one mounting a doorgun. A GAU-17, plus a few thousand rounds."