2018-01-02: Betrayal
- Log: Betrayal
- Cast: Siegfried, Yarobeleedt, Malfi, Fenrir
- Where: Photosphere - Control Level
- Date:2018-01-02
- Summary: Siegfried finds out about Riesenlied's disloyalty. He is not pleased.
======================<* Photosphere - Control Level *>======================= The core of the Photosphere is where the Quarter Knights operate out of. The highest level of the Photosphere is led to by trams and stairwells, with a ring of the critical systems that powered it: engineering, life support, and the now long-defunct faster-than-light drive. WIthin that ring is the command center itself. The command center includes numerous screens, showing maps of Filgaia and readouts on Metal Demon operations throughout the world. The high tech nature is abundantly clear, as this operates as the room from which the Quarter Knights command the Metal Demon war efforts. At the center of the room, though, is the heart of their race: sealed double doors, inscribed with runes of fallen Hyades, that mark the final resting place of their beloved Mother. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygpjMbQeBas <Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried, as ever, is in the command center of the Photosphere. He is not at the highest level, gazing at Mother today, though he is often there. The Quarter Knight paces, instead, inside of one of the war rooms. Maps of Filgaia, mostly of Ignas, are displayed on projected images across the walls. He stops to look at one, his eyes briefly on the city of Marze. His lips curl back into a frown.
Dots are lit up. They mark where statues have been sealed, such that the Demons' efforts will buy them nothing; they also mark where statues have been destroyed. His expression is one of concern.
Although a few of the metallic wolves that often ride with Siegfried are here, the Metal Beasts are silent. They sit, on their haunches, and attend their master -- as if standing at attention, awaiting his orders.
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Yarobeleedt, one of the advance scouts of the Metal Demons, is charged with scouring the rotting lands of Filgaia. Enemy movements, places of interest, that sort of thing. For his degree of injury following Arctica and - in all honesty, being kind of obnoxious even before all that - those that watch the homefront may be surprised and/or disappointed just about any time he makes it back /to/ report.
Usually there is a lot of bragging and self-aggrandizing, even if the contents of his reports usually aren't above-and-beyond more detailed than others of his field. Building himself up before anyone in earshot, anyone who has no choice to listen... there's always a quick turn-around to see him right back out, lest he spend an unsettling amount of time just outside of Mother's chambers for as long as he can manage.
Today is different.
On Yarobeleedt's latest return in which to give a report, he slithers across the flat, polished (just polished, it's gonna need waxin' again after he passes by, ugh) metal floor towars the war room. Past some of the usual intermediates that speak between the will of the Quarter Knights and the rest of the ranks. Making all sorts of panicky screeching noises that are decidedly not happy screeching.
"Load Ziekfried!!" The half-melted slug-naga-thing calls. Even for someone as Yarobeleedt, the idea that one would rush to the very chain of command with such a loud, attention-grabbing tone is unusual. He has either forgotten his place (again)...
...Or there is something serious.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Two figures follow in Yarobeleedt's -- well, they can't actually be footsteps if he doesn't have any feet, can they? And they aren't directly behind him because they're studiously avoiding his slime trail! Two women, one golden-skinned with long white hair and amber eyes and the other lupine, with silver hair and missing her right arm. They stride with purpose. Undoubtedly Yarobeleedt has simply outpaced them, fast and agile as he is.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
Fenrir comes from behind Yarobeleedt, left arm normal and her reaction firm, knowing that she's about to see a commanding officer. The fact that she's coming with Yarobeleedt is probably a good sign that Yarobeleedt has backing to whatever he's saying, because otherwise no one would put up with him. "Lord Siegfried." Fenrir grunts, a brief salute, as she finally catches up. "We've got important intel for you on treasonous bastards among our ranks. Do you have the time to hear us out?"
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried turns, when he hears the strange screeching of Yarobeleedt. His expression is measured and careful, as it often is around his subordinates. He is a firm believer in exhibiting only a certain character to those who serve him -- and the exceptions are few. He regards Yarobeleedt for a moment, before looking up from his monstrous form towards Malfi and Fenrir. His expression is cautious, as he regards them.
"Yarobeleedt," he says. He forgives -- or at least, chooses to momentarily overlook -- the mispronounciation of his name. "Malfi. Fenrir."
Something must be wrong, he thinks. Perhaps another statue was lost.
Or something far worse, Siegfried thinks, after Fenrir explains. He nods once to her, and then looks between them for a moment. "You speak of treason. Of betrayal within our ranks. I would hear all of it."
Anger creeps into his tone, at the very idea.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Blacksteel starts to glimmer across Malfi's skin in spots -- the beginnings of her armor, and a shapeshifter's nervous tic. Siegfried is intimidating at the best of times, and to hear him angry...
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
"Is true! Is true. True true true true true," Yarobeleedt sounds as though he's close to hyperventilating as he begins to rub his fingers together. There is a metallic scratching and scraping that the Beasts in the audience will not enjoy.
The 'is trues' continue until it trails to a hushed whisper, as though he were so overwhelmed with emotion he had to practice and build up towards a proper volume for delivery. A marriage of both tact, and a complete lack thereof.
"Riesenlied and Noeline... they... they... traaaaaaaa~aaaders!" How one gets a nasal whining out of whispering... "I see it I see it! Noeline hit me when try to kill humaaaans.... and, and, and! Riesenliiiieeeed--" He's either so furious or so scared that he's trying to work up what it is exactly is so tattle-worthy.
Someone else present probably has more succinct evidence to present that would be a much, much better summary than whatever comes out of that creature's mouth, honestly.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
"He's right, sir. I- I have proof," Malfi stammers, reaching for her scanner and cueing up a video. "She's a turncoat. A traitor. An apostate." The video resolution isn't the best, and the sound is tinny, but it unmistakeably shows Riesenlied, bandaged from injuries, behind a podium somewhere outdoors making a speech. One can see an audience of Tainted -- and are those some humans among them? She admits to making a deal with a Guardian -- and worse, rejecting Mother. Near the end she declares:
"If the Photosphere and Mother is where you still feel you belong... then so be it. And I apologise, from the bottom of my heart, that I could not deliver you this news more swiftly."
Her true conclusion follows:
"My faith ultimately rests with the future of the Hyadean people. Every single one -- Tainted and otherwise. To this end, my resolve shall never falter. My service in the name of our existence shall never stop. There is hope for us -- a hope for collaboration, for coexistence. Let us seek the new world -- a world where we can all flourish!"
Malfi removes the scanner's data crystal and proffers it to Siegfried. "In case you want to keep it," she explains.
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
At Yarobeleedt and Malfi's explanations, Fenrir continues, being the more 'gruff layman' of the three. "She's working with the humans to seal the statues. She's taken a whole slew of the Tainted and other loyal Hyadeans and tricked them into this without even telling them, convincing our brothers that they could have a better life and then perverting them. She's not even a Hyadean anymore, she's a human in everything but biology!"
Fenrir huffs, moving up ahead of the other two. But it's not hostile. "She's holed up in her 'town' called Wayside, where she protects them and acts like a human 'mother'. I have coordinates, if you request them."
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Yarobeleedt shakes where he... stands? Settles. Let's go with settles. "She give tribute to ^Tiny Warrior Caste^. Bend knee for tiny humans..." He says this with a hushed whisper, as though this were the ghastliest matter of all.
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
Siegfried's nostrils flare. His eyes widen. He tenses; any illusion that he would handle this with calm, or even a cold anger, is quickly dispelled. He might have questioned Yarobeleedt's accusations, but Malfi steps in with something rather more concrete.
He falls silent as the video plays. Deathly quiet, though the way his jaw sets -- and with an anger not so different than a human's -- reveals much. He listens to the end, and then past it. They are words that he has heard before, but the context was different.
This...
This is something something different.
"Unthinkable..." He has lost many a friend to the humans, but he has never lost one to betrayal. His eyes narrow, and he lets the rage roll through him. He exhales it out, and looks -- first to Yarobeleedt, and then to Fenrir. "I will have them. I will end this farce. This treason... this treason will not stand! To profane Mother so, to speak ill of her!"
<Pose Tracker> Yarobeleedt has posed.
Yarobeleedt peeks out from behind Malfi somewhere around the time Siegfried exhales. Wow, he got there fast. He nods vigorously at Siegfried's declaration. "Yes! Yes. Yes. Unstroy them all. I will! I will. Fufufu."
Of course he feels bravest when he thinks someone else might feel the brunt of a Quarter Knight's anger first. (Giving reports to Berserk is an excellent trainer for spatial awareness and tactical maneuvers around one's fellows.)
<Pose Tracker> Fenrir has posed.
Fenrir pauses only briefly. It's not out of hesitation. It's to consider how long she'll have to make it back to Wayside to take anyone still loyal with her. And then, she speaks. A set of coordinates. Wayside's been sold out.
<Pose Tracker> Malfi has posed.
Malfi bows respectfully at Siegfried's proclamation and waits to be dismissed -- unless he has questions to ask her. Truthfully, she could provide more details if needed. She suspects, however, they won't be necessary -- the evidence is more than damning enough.
<Pose Tracker> Siegfried has posed.
The evidence is more than damning enough.
Siegfried calms himself. He does not stop his anger, but he holds onto it and focuses it -- otherwise, he could well rampage to Wayside right then and there. His eyebrow shakes, before he looks to Fenrir, and then nods once to her. "I will attend to this. The other Quarter Knights... they must know."
He turns on a heel, then. His cape swirls after, and the Quarter Knight begins to stalk forward, towards the exit. "I will set this right. I will bring them to accounts for this. You have my word. The Metal Demons..."
Not Hyadeans, he thinks. Demons. "We do not tolerate betrayal."
His eyes set on the door, blazing with anger; their metallic nature reflects red, as he walks. And Riesenlied, his former friend...
It pained him to think of what he would have to do. That, too, was a shame.