"I've been here a year," Ashley replies, looking at her now-normal looking hand. "There's others that've been here longer. I don't know when it all first started."

She looks at Doug. "They don't make a secret of what they do there either. Anyone who lives in that city would see, and hear...everything. All the time."

As the conversation and on the fly lessons commenced the group walked. Winding around ruined buildings and down streets cleared of debris they made their way slowly across the devastated city. Whether intentional or not they made a beeline toward the ruined building that concealed their "backdoor" entrance to the underground cavern. Doug and Anna rolled aside the massive blocks of concrete that obscured the doorway and the group descended into the darkness. As they did so Raider awoke to the sound of tumbling rocks and footsteps. Hardly enough sleep to feel revitalized but more than enough to feel a hell of a lot better.

"Not bad," Ash admitted in an echoing voice as they made their way through the underground tunnel. "What is this, an old sewer or something? How far do these tunnels go? Doe the aberrants know about them?"

It's not hard to sense the military gears whirling and ticking in her head.

Doug answers,

"Storm run-off, and they know. They use these tunnels themselves but this section is blocked off from theirs on both ends. We think they just forgot it was here, maybe it wasn't useful because water still runs so it might have flooded every now and then."

"There's a wall at one end with a sealed door that opens into a used torture chamber so be careful how loud you talk. The other end connects to a maze with a rail road or something. This might be a dead man zone between empires."

Ashley waits a moment to see if Doug plans on elaborating on that. When he doesn't she prods him, "What empires? You have the aberrants, and who else?"

Doug replies,

"Other aberrants. Far as I can tell 'organization' isn't their strong suit. The strong rule the weak, and if there's a power god-king somewhere ruling everyone I haven't heard of him. So everyone tries to carve out their own personal empire."

"Those abby guards have to be defending those tunnels against someone and it's not us. It's also not likely to be baselines. Either there are feral abbies around down here, and we haven't seen that, or this is a place where two or more empires meet."

"Given the rooms down there that's the way I'm betting. I think this is a multi-factional game."

Ash nods, increasingly distracted.

"Is it much farther?" she asks hopefully.

Gregory was his usual self, out ahead and alone in the dark. In many ways he felt safer here, than in the rubble of the city above. He could 'see' everything around him while most enemies could not. As for the conversations going on behind him, they were no audible: he had to focus his hearing on the reverberating sound waves ahead of him. If there was an enemy that found their way down into their tunnels, Gregory would hear their shape.

"We're basically there.", Anna had to suppress a smile. Ashley had changed a lot since she erupted.

"Are you sure you want to start a war right away? I understand the reasons Doug and Raider have... but it is still something I wouldn't do. I guess I'd just walk away from it. I'm not a warrior."

"I'm not starting the war," Ash replies grimly.

"But I wouldn't mind a chance to finish it."

Her tone doesn't sound like that contemplated finish would involve diplomacy.

"Are you trying to change something or has this become personal?", Anna felt slightly offended by Ashley's tone in her voice but her question was honest nonetheless.

Ashley glances at Anna. "It's always been personal. Ever since they took me, it's been personal. You can agree or disagree or whatever you want, but what's done is done. Nothing's changed for me just because I'm a glow-stick now."

She pauses, then adds, "Except that now I may be on my own."

"I didn't thought you'd be the vengeful type... sorry I asked...", Anna entered the area where they had set up camp and walked over to where Raider must've been sleeping. Carefully she tried to wake him up. There was a lot to talk about, especially now that their little group has gotten a new "recruit".

Raider was sitting up rubbing his eyes. "That wasn't nearly long enough to sleep." He smiled at everyone, "Good to see you all again. I've got good news and I've got bad news, but first introduce me to our guest." He reaches out and offers his hand to Ash.

Ashley reacts out of long, drilled instincts, giving Raider a salute and saying, "Corporal Ashley Logan," before even having a second to think. She quickly amends, "Ex-corporal now."

Ex-human too, she adds privately.

Raider blinked at the salute. "Um, Raider O'Reily, nice to meet you." He gives Doug a questioning look and thinks, *So what's the deal with her, and is it safe to talk in front of her?*

Ashley guiltily drops her hand and belatedly shakes Raider's.

"Sorry...kind of a rough day. Hey, Doug," she looks at Courier, "Do you guys have a bathroom? You still have to do that, right?"

Raider gets a look of horror and disgust on his face, "Bathroom? You have to use the bathroom, yuck!" He can't keep a straight face for more than a couple seconds though before he starts laughing. "Just kidding, yeah, we do and we use the main tunnel out there, just move out into the darkness a little ways from the door. Unfortunately we don't exactly have real facilities down here."

Ash gives Raider a sour look. "I'll manage. Thanks."

She prowls out into the tunnel and follows his directions through the gloom and into the spot they used as a latrine. God, privacy at last. Just in time too. Already Ash could feel the numbness of shock wearing off. Under neath was what felt like a bottomless ocean; dark and stormy and abjectly terrifying.

Finally alone, she sank to her knees and pressed her head into a stone corner of the room. A moment later her shoulders started shaking as she silently, except for occasional hitching gulps of air, cried her eyes out.

Anna watched Ashley go and decided against her desire to follow her and continue the conversation they had on the way to the camp. Looking at Raider she put on a smile and said, "She just erupted recently, I think she needs some time on her own to get her bearings. So what's the bad news then?"

Setting his back against the wall, "Bad news is that one of the missiles didn't fire and caused the station to go spinning out of its orbit. The good news is that all the others did launch successfully. My plan is to dismantle the one that didn't fire and if the others don't successfully do the job, we can take that warhead and plant in in the comet to try and destroy it, but we're gonna have to wait till we find out if the others did their job first. Other good news is that there are quite a few objects still active up there in orbit, but it will take time and effort to track them down and find out what they do and whether or no they will be useful. The other bad news, or perhaps good depending on your viewpoint, there don't appear to be any other platforms with missiles left. I'm not telling James about the one that's left. Once I've got the warhead dismantled I want to get Adam to warp us up there to place it. I don't want James to ever even know that one exists."

Doug sends to Raider, and *only* Raider,

*One left... so if the others work... we'd have a city killing weapon and an abomination of a city.*

"What if the missiles don't hit the comet... or if they cannot destroy it? What do we do then?", Anna sounded really concerned about this. She had finally found some people that had accepted her as she was and now the world was about to get destroyed if they didn't do something against it. Sometimes she asked herself if she was cursed with bad luck.

Doug answers,

"Then we'd better hope James is as smart as he thinks he is."

"So what shall we do next?", asked Anna in an attempt to sound more confident.

"Next?" Raider grins, "We eat." He pauses for a second then chuckles at his own lame joke then sighs when no one else laughs. "After that we head back to home for a bit. I need to contact Adam and make sure he can open a warp for us when we need it. If we need it. Then I think we should Gregory and maybe Ashley should poke around here some more and find out all the info they can for after this crisis is over. I don't intend to leave James in charge around here once we are out of danger. The slavery I've seen here and torture need to end. We need to prepare now so that we will be ready for then."

Raider smiles at Anna, "Don't worry, I'm not talking about war, or even fighting if we can help it. It might just be as simple as providing the humans with a means of escape and a place to escape to."

Thinking to Doug and Doug alone, *I'm not revealing my plans to the others yet because I don't want James to go picking at their minds. I have some defenses against his prying, but not much. I'd rather just not provide him with any reason to poke, and that includes not giving him easy access to the knowledge that there is more knowledge to be had. I'm going to spend the time between now and when the missiles arrive at the comet seeing what those other active satellites are and preparing that nuke for transport to the comet if it's necessary. See if you can coordinate with Ashley to organize something for after the crisis is over.*

"Someone mention food?"

Ashley makes her way back in. She's put her tinted goggles on which, combined with her messy hair, gives her a weird sort of 'mad scientist in makeshift BDU' vibe. Her voice is definitely stuffed up, like she has a cold, even though she sounded fine before she went to the bathroom.

"Because I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm -starving-."

While the rest of them ate, Gregory took Raider's advice and renewed his scouting of the city. He went to places he had never been, and making a mental note when he saw guards and lighted areas.

He couldn't get the image of Ash shooting light from her hands, and he wanted to be able to do the same. A few times, he stopped and tried to create light from his hands, but was unsuccessful. After the fourth of fifth try, he ended up creating a man sized rodent of some kind, which sailed against a wall, before dissolving into quantum dust. Obviously, it was not the desired effect.

Gregory realized that tossing stuff from his hands was going to take a long time.

Doug sent back to Raider,

*Understood. I'm going to try to spiff up my mindshield, I get the feeling I'll be needing it.*

Out loud Doug said,

"Thanks but I'm not hungry. I ate... um... earlier." Doug tried to remember when he last ate but dismissed it as unimportant. He continued,

"So we've got, what, 2 months before we find out if the burners land? Well, since we have the time, I'm going to try to get a handle on how many factions are around here and who is who and what they want. Very similar to setting up a trading run actually."

A thought comes to Doug and he asks Ashley,

"Hey, Ash, how about your people? What do they need and have to offer? Would they trade with a nova? "

Ash shakes her head.

"By now, they should be on their way out of the city if they're following orders. They need...everything. Food. Medicine. Supplies. Transportation. They can't offer anything. And none of them are going to be comfortable with..." she trips over what she was going to say and amends herself, "...with our kind."

"I don't think I'm much use in helping Doug out.", said Anna raising an eyebrow at Doug. "I'd gladly help your people... if they let me. I know there are still sick people and wounded... and I'm strong enough to rebuilt things like housing.", Anna's offer was sincere as very much everything else she has offered until now.

"You already helped them," Ash replies dully. "Much as you could. If you guys want to chase them down and try to do more, you're welcome to give it a try. God knows they could use the help."

She shakes her head.

"But I don't think they're going to want any. Not from us."

Doug says,

"Not the refugees, your home city. You said you're from somewhere else. West Something? Is that a city or just a few families, and would they accept a trading route?"

Ash looks up at Courier and rubs her chin, grimacing. She shouldn't have even mentioned the Point in front of them, even if they did seem all right. Who know if they'd stay that way? At least they probably still didn't know where it was. Even so...

"Uh, yeah. West Point. It's off limits. Sorry."

Anna raised an eyebrow at Ashley but kept her thoughts to herself. Instead she asked, "Why off limits? Is it contaminated? Maybe I can help your people there?"

Anna was slowly starting to feel silly - it appeared that offering help was something rather negative to Ashley... then something occured to her, "Or do you mean off limits for us? Like Aberrants?"

Ashley scowled at the 'us,' and turned to give Anna a dark look.

"Yes! I mean aberrants. And I realize you have this big line you draw between 'novas' and 'aberrants' and all that, but at the Point we're...they're not really making those fine distinctions."

She rubs her hand in her hair and calms down a bit, her eyes still hidden under her goggles. "They're military. Everyone there is part of the United States Armed Forces in some capacity or another. It's been more than a year since I was there, but I can't imagine losing sorties has made them more accepting of outsiders. We really should just...leave them alone. Leave them alone and they'll leave us alone."

Ashley looks at Anna again and sighs. "Sorry I snapped at you. Rough day."

Doug commented,

"A lack of fine distinctions just lost them a commander. A good one too if I'm any judge."

He continued, "West Point. Well, as I was telling Anna earlier, there are a lot of communities with that attitude." Doug shrugged, "See enough people determined to be poor and hungry rather than deal with an 'Aberrant' and you lose the outrage or even amusement."