WHOSE SIDE ARE THE ARMORED WOMEN ON?
By L.M.Taurus
3/20/0029 UWC
15 hours before headline
Kara, Leonie and Irma traversed through the forest as they searched for a lead. Leonie had heard that Calixte and her friends had been seen going into this forest. Kara tracked their trail while Leonie and Irma followed.
"Do you recognize this place?" asked Kara.
"Should I?" asked Leonie.
"Not you, but Irma should."
Irma stopped to observe the area. She noticed the river they were approaching. "Is this the same spot where we first met the girls?"
"It is," said Kara. "They must have had a hideout in the area this entire time."
"You guys met the girls out here for the first time?" asked Leonie.
"We did," said Kara. "It was during the hurricane. Instead of going to a shelter, the girls had decided to go into the forest to see how the hurricane affected the bottom of a river."
"Sounds dangerous. What were they thinking?"
"They were children who'd live through multiple hurricanes. They had no idea how bad that hurricane was going to be. Irma had gone looking for them and was lost too."
"I wasn't lost," said Irma as she moved forward, making everyone start walking again. "I was just far from everyone and the hurricane was in full force."
"That was quite the mess," said Kara. "We were walking by the river through the heavy rain. Honestly, I was getting worried for Irma and the girls. I had no idea if they were hurt."
"How did you find each other?" asked Leonie.
"I fired my rifle into the sky," said Irma.
"Yup," said Kara. "And we were also near them when she did."
"I had found the girls, but we were far from shelter. I fired my rifle hoping someone would drive up to us."
"And that's exactly what eventually happened," said Kara. "One of the soldiers reached us in a military howler and we hunkered down on site."
"You spent the hurricane in a military howler?"
"Yeah, it was a crazy experience."
"You were with the girls?" asked Leonie.
"Yeah. It was the first time we met. They seemed like nice girls. Adventurous, but I didn't think they had the ability to build armor."
"I don't think they have that ability either," said Leonie. "They've never shown an ability for that as long as I've worked with them."
"Someone must have built it for them," said Irma.
"Question is who," said Kara. "I don't think it was Dependency who built for them."
"I would be shocked if it was," said Leonie. "They attacked Dependency the first chance they got and they killed one of their Agents. It would be shocking if they got their armor from Dependency."
"They must be working with an engineer," said Kara. "It's the only thing that seems possible to me."
Kara stopped. She motioned for them to get low. They could hear voices nearby. Kara moved forward until she could see the bottom of the river. There was a crowd gathered around.
There were Haitians camped there and a big group of them. From the world military leaders position, they could see the Haitians were washing clothes, cooking and some were even training with swords.
"What is this?" asked Irma.
"I'm not sure," said Kara. "But it looks like they live here."
"There," said Leonie as she pointed at the group who were training. "That Calixte leading them."
"I see her," said Kara.
They watched as Calixte demonstrated some hand to hand combat against three opponents at the same time. She dropped all three of her opponents as she maneuvered around their strikes and used their momentum's to push them into each other.
"She's good," said Kara.
"What should we do?" asked Irma. "If these people are hostile, I can't see us taking the girls in without a fight. Some of these people can get really hurt."
"Maybe we should come later with a bigger force," said Leonie.
"Maybe, but I just want to talk to one of the girls," said Kara.
"Then let's talk," said Lovelie, who somehow snuck up behind them and put her arm-cannon at Irma's head.
Irma raised her arms slowly. "We're not looking for a fight."
Kara and Leonie turned around to face Lovelie while Irma stayed still.
"Don't do anything you're going to regret," said Kara.
"We have guests," yelled Lovelie, causing everyone by the watering hole to look up. "You wanted to talk, then we're all going to talk."
A group of the Haitians surrounded them with spears.
"I repeat," said Kara as she and Leonie raised their hands. "We are not here for a fight."
Esterline walked between the men and next to Lovelie. "If you're not here for a fight, you won't mind disarming."
"I wouldn't, if you didn't have a bunch of spears aimed at us. I'm not just going to let you kill us unarmed."
"Then just drop your swords and the rifle. You can keep your clubs and your armor."
Kara stared at Esterline, realizing she must be the leader. She gave her a nod and dropped her two swords on the ground. Leonie and Irma followed suit. Irma had to remove her arm armor since it was attached to the rifle.
"Can you not aim your arm-cannon at my head?" said Irma. "You know, considering I saved your life all those years ago."
"This isn't personal," said Lovelie.
Esterline pushed Lovelie's arm-cannon down. "That's enough of that, girl," said Esterline. "Follow me." Esterline walked past the world military leaders and everyone followed her down to the camp.
Lovelie stayed at the back, watching the world military leaders carefully.
Esterline led them to the middle of the camp as more people surrounded them. Leonie noticed among the people were Allegra, Calixte, who was now wearing her armor, Jenniflore and Beatrice.
"What is this?" asked Kara. "Are you people living out here?"
"We are," said Esterline. "It is by choice, but that's because we don't trust the people who are supposed to protect us."
"You mean us," said Kara.
"Yes and no. I mostly mean President Delfina, but the world military is the one who leaves her in charge, so we don't trust you either."
"We don't like Delfina either," said Irma. "But she hasn't done anything warranted to be removed from her position."
"Nothing that we can prove," whispered Kara.
"We really don't have anything against you," said Calixte.
"Speak for yourself," said Allegra.
Calixte ignored her. "But we have to take things into our own hands. Dependency and Mexico have been tearing our people down for years and you can't protect us."
"So you're going to take down Dependency and Mexico yourselves?" asked Kara.
"Yes," said Calixte.
"That easy, right? You're going to do something we've been trying to do for years. This group of people are going to do what the world military can't."
"We're going to do exactly what Jacmel Saint is doing," said Calixte. "We're not going to arrest the terrorist. We're going to put them down. We might not be able to wipe them out but we'll make them scared enough to never want to step foot on our land again."
"You've said enough, girl," said Esterline. "Are you here to arrest the girls because we can't let you do that?"
"Actually, we originally wanted to recruit them, but I guess we're not on the same side," said Kara.
"You wanted to recruit us?" asked Calixte, surprised.
"Yes. You girls have skills. The fact that you were able to build your own armors is very impressive. You still need to learn discipline, but we can help with that."
"We didn't build the armors," whispered Calixte.
Esterline shook her head. "What's the plan now then?"
"The girls attacked President Delfina," said Kara. "We have to arrest them, but you're young. I doubt your punishment would be anything serious if we are the ones to take you in. The world military will protect you."
"Yeah right," said Lovelie. "Like we're going to believe that."
"You have my word. Mexico will have nothing to do with your punishment if you come in with us."
"I know what you're doing and I would recommend the girls don't turn themselves in," said Esterline.
"What are they trying to do?" asked Calixte.
"They want your armors," said Beatrice. "They want to replicate it."
"Is that true?"
"There's truth to that," admitted Kara. "But we do want to recruit you as well."
"We don't want to work for you," said Allegra. "We've seen how you handle things and we're not impressed."
"I think we've heard enough," said Esterline.
Calixte, Allegra and Lovelie aimed their arm-cannons at the world military leaders.
"We don't agree so you're going to kill us?" said Kara as she held her club.
"Nope," said Esterline. "We're going to tie you up and lock you up as we move camp. We'll leave somebody here to free you once we're gone, but we have no intention of letting you arrest any of us."
"You're going to lock us up?"
"Correct," said Esterline. "We don't want to hurt you, but if you try to fight us, we will defend ourselves. I recommend you surrender now."
Irma and Leonie looked to Kara as they held their clubs ready for a fight.
"We really don't want to hurt you," said Esterline. "We know you've tried your best to help us. It's just that your best isn't enough. Let us tie you up and no one has to get hurt. You have my word."
"Fine," said Kara as she dropped her club. Irma and Leonie follow suit. "I do have one question. What did Delfina do to you?"
"You don't know?" asked Esterline as some of the men went to tie up the world military leaders.
"I know they did the bare minimum to help, but I haven't noticed anything else."
"They have been stealing our land since we rebuilt the country. They kept all the best properties for themselves and replaced our stores with their own."
"I had no idea."
"That's because they hid it really well. A lot of our people have been killed by Dependency so that left a lot of land open for the taking. They're using our homes as their vacation spots."
"And you guys just let that happen," spat Lovelie. "Another reason not to trust you."
The world military leaders didn't say anything else as they were locked up in a tent. They were left alone inside. They could hear the Haitians moving camp, but they couldn't see anything.
"How did we fail these people so badly?" asked Irma.
"I think we were too distracted by Dependency to notice what was going on here," said Kara.
"And Delfina pushed us out when she arrived here," said Leonie. "We weren't allowed to see what was going on."
"We have to fix this," said Irma.
"We will," said Kara. "We're taking down Delfina."