The door to her apartment slid open upon recognizing her identity. Emi sighed and eased up. She dragged the struggling scientist on the ground behind her by the cuff of his shirt. She casually tossed him towards the white coffee table in the center of the room as if she were tossing her coat. He let out a yelp as he landed face first on the floor. Producing a long zip tie from one of the shelves on the wall, she grabbed his wrist and bound him to the leg of the table.

The man glared at her, attempting to show at least a little defiance. She ignored him.

“What do you want? I already told you everything,” he complained.

Emi removed her dark green jacket and tossed it haphazardly onto the couch. Her plate carrier disengaged its locks and she gently lifted it up and over her head before laying it down against her workbench. In the same manner, her belt unlocked as she ran her hand over the buckle. It fell onto the tile floor with a cacophonous rattle. Her hostage stared at her, unable to discern what she was plotting.

Emi brought her Rhea Armory Model 1000 anti-material rifle over to the coffee table. It was the same one she used to bring down her captive's helicopter. With a quick motion, she brushed the loose documents and stray ammunition cartridges to the side and laid her weapon down on the table. She raised her hand to the red-orange triangle on her thorax and gave it a gentle press. It depressed slightly before releasing from her body.

A small holographic figure appeared from the center of the device. Emi placed it on the table and turned it towards the man. The color drained from his face as his reaction betrayed his thoughts.

“Let's see…” the small hologram started, “Arl Alexander. 56. Former ICA Senior Materials Engineer, now affiliated with DECA Group R. Wanted by the Erdiana authorities for… treason?”

Arl averted his eyes.

“Black hair, 5'10”, 142lbs, near-baseline human. His favorite meal is Lunch Set B from Selha's Nook. His most visited intranet nodes are-“

Emi tapped the triangle, disabling Alice's emitter.

Arl leaned forward, “See? You already know everything about me, I don't have anything else to tell you. Let me go already!”

There was no response besides the light hum of the aging climate control system slaving away. She stared at him. He stared back. Arl noticed her pupils were an unnatural diamond shape. He swore he could see light emitting from them.

Emi reached for the bottle of authentic synthetic whiskey gifted to her from Boss. The golden liquid filled the glass on the table. Arl winced as the scent wafted over. It was impossibly sharp. She took a small sip and started on her project.

With a practiced motion, Emi pushed down on the takedown pins on her rifle. They popped out easily with a click. The trigger group and stock pivoted away from the upper receiver, revealing a beautifully simplistic design inside. With a loud clack, Emi extracted the bolt by pulling on the side charging handle. She handled the steel alloyed bolt with care. The residual gunpowder stained her fingers charcoal black.

Emi worked with mechanical precision, inspecting, cleaning, and disassembling parts from the rifle with ease. Arl stared, entranced but confused. He fidgeted uncomfortably. The ritual took place in complete silence, accompanied by the occasional hiss from an aerosol can or the clacking of metal on metal.

Within ten minutes the anti-material rifle was reassembled. The room was ripe with the scent of gunpowder, gun oil, and alcohol. Emi pulled the charging handle back and released it in one quick motion. The bolt, now clean, slammed forwards with a painful ring. Arl winced. Emi turned her attention to her hostage, finally acknowledging his nervous stare. She pushed the glass of whiskey towards him without breaking eye contact.

“Uh… Um, I don't drink, so…” he stammered.

Emi shrugged and downed the rest of the glass in one swig. She stood up and retrieved her sword from the couch without turning away from Arl. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as the lock disengaged the sword from the sheath. Click. His executioner twirled the sword effortlessly in a simple flourish. Arl tried to scramble away, his hand still tethered to the table that was bolted to the ground.

“Wait, no! Help! Someone help!” he screamed. The zip tie dug into his skin, drawing blood.

Emi sat back down, lost in her own world again. With a silk cleaning towel in hand, she diligently inspected the surface for cracks and blemishes. There were small charred bits stuck against the plasteel-RDM surface which came loose with a little scrubbing.

Satisfied, Emi pointed it upwards and pressed the button on the hilt. Within seconds, the blade glowed a blindingly bright orange. Her eyes automatically adjusted immediately. Despite the brilliant glow, little heat emanated from the blade. After a quick inspection, she deactivated the blade once more. The heat began to dissipate into the room. It felt like standing in the afternoon sun.

After it sufficiently cooled, she placed it down on the table once again. Arl whimpered, cowering as far away as he could manage. Emi's eyes focused on him once more.

“W-what do you want!?” he shouted, “I don't know what you want!”

She smiled. It immediately triggered his fight or flight response. It was an uncanny, inhuman smile. Arl screamed. Emi smiled. Her doll-like stare stabbed needles into his skin.

“Stop!” he begged. “T-the Near Dead Zone! 52, 101, 85! There's a rust ocean!”

Emi cocked her head to the side inquisitively.

“The ICA has a cruiser stored there. We were using it as a testbed for nullspace technology,” he continued, defeated. “It has a skip-drive but there's no computer onboard powerful enough to calculate the jump. I made a deal with DECA and told them about Alice. She has the processing power to plot a course and we would get out of this damn system…”

Emi tapped the triangle on the table.

“It looks like there's a rust ocean at those coordinates,” Alice started, “But I don't see any mention of the cruiser.”

“It's a black project, there's no records of it,” Arl replied, his hands on his head. Emi nodded. She stood up and raised the sword once more. Before Arl could shout again, she brought it down, cutting the zip tie. He scrambled back and ran for the door. his frantic footsteps echoed down the hallway as the door automatically shut behind him.

“Alice, contact the ICA and let them know we captured Arl. Give them the tracker information after they pay the bounty,” Emi commanded, deadpan. She turned and looked at the security camera in the corner of the ceiling.

“Boss. I'm going to go check it out.”

—