The Ring of Acies

Chapter Ten: Her Eyes are Violet

All the newsfeeds of Initium Station share the good news: The Acies-UC-101 has been captured. The feared beast is off the streets. It is safe to go outside again. Sergeant Zekris has been suspended from active duty after endangering the lives of the members of the task force tasked with capturing the Acies-UC-101. Detectives Hetra and Catram have been hospitalized due to injuries sustained during the final chase of the Acies-UC-101. Both are expected to make a full recovery.

In the station security headquarters in P. Op. Terrine and Nevistri sit outside of Duodecant Chief Rhein's office, awaiting debriefing. They talk while they wait.

"...And did you see the look on Ms. Gnye's face when you lost you shit?" Nevistri says.

"I know! I'm surprised I wasn't fired for that." Terrine responds.

Terrine is happy with how their friendship has blossomed over the past few days. All objectives aside, she finds Nevistri to be a very kind and interesting person. She is happy that she has had the opportunity to get to know Nevistri a little better.

"Hey, once all this security crap is over with, wanna get a drink? I know a cool bar in my district. I've always wanted to go with someone." Nevistri offers.

Terrine internally bursts with excitement. She needs to be cool about this. How she responds and behaves when they go out for drinks will heavily influence their future relationship.

"Yeah. Absolutely! Sounds great!" She says.

As she goes to continue the conversation, but she gets a notification on her tasker. She discretely checks it and sees that it is one of her programs that was scanning through security footage. The program found some footage that appears to be noteworthy. She needs to go and examine it without being watched.

"Please excuse me, Nevistri. I'm getting a call from Avener." She lies.

"Yeah, no worries. Take your time. Tell him I say hi." Nevistri responds.

She steps into a corner, being mindful of the range of the security cameras. She steps into a corner and opens up the footage. The footage is from the same camera perspective she saw before, looking down on the processor from the space elevator shaft. At first, it seems like a regular stormy day but then, off in the distance, she sees a bright flash of violet light. Then the entire processor and the elevator shaft shake as though it were experiencing a shockwave from an explosion. She downloads the footage and sends it to Argentum immediately, then she returns to Nevistri. She is looking up as if in thought.

"Hey. Avener says hi." Terrine says.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. Wolfram is finally at peace now that the Acies-UC-101 has been captured." Nevistri replies, coming out of her thought space.

"It wasn't easy. Many died for this to happen. Did anyone tell you what happened when we tracked it to the space elevator?"

"I heard some details. I heard a bunch of workers got injured, and one of the grunts got killed."

"That's a summary, but it was so much more intense than that. It fought us like it had nothing left to lose. It threw a transport at us like it were a paper airplane. It flattened Private Langley like a meat accordion. It was a terrifying experience."

Before Terrine can continue, Chief Rhein's assistant tells them they can go in. They both stand up and walk into his office. The door is too narrow for them both to enter, so Terrine casually allows Nevistri to enter first. They both stand respectfully in front of his desk.