To the Left of Grace

**Demoana** · 12/31/2006 15:40:11

(Side note: The reasons I gave in the meeting for what happened still stand....but hard to incorporate into rp. Liberties have been taken in this story, just to make sure that's known SMILEY

)

Memorywipe:

The news was disheartening, but not a surprise.

I sat with my peers, looking like nothing more than a group of friends gathered together to chat. Until you got closer and heard the words being spoken.

Betts' voice was steady, well-thought out. But then again, as an agent, I guess that was the way of things. You never would sound rushed or passionate, would you? At this moment, his words carried a mild tone of regret, worry. "This is for Maruth to decide, whether or not to trust such information with the Terminix faction."

Trucidos spoke up, his voice whipping through the room. "No it isn't. When my faction gets attacked, it's my decision now."

The conversation grew more heated, and all I could do was to try to hold on to my dignity. I'd messed up, no doubt about that, and the crappy part of it all was that I could see why they were so upset. Didn't mean I agreed with it, but it made it harder to keep afloat here.

Ah, hell. When Terminix was formed, things were so much clearer. Eradicate the Merovingians, simple, right? The truce with Zion was still in effect, but the irresponsible mervs were siphoning the power away from the system. Throwing the balance off, disrupting the lives of the bluepills in our care, and it had only been growing more and more pronounced. So we were formed, for the sole purpose of extermination.

The only thing is that, in our quest to dig deeper into the Merovingian's records, I'm afraid the lines may have become blurred. Our plans must take into account the elimination of all of the Merovingian's allies, and eventually the Frenchman himself. Our efforts, our plans, must prepare for all contingencies, and if we have to make sacrifices to manipulate the situation to our advantage....

Well. It's easy to slip down that slope. Once we allowed a group of mervs to 'rescue' one of their soldiers we had captured. On the surface, it looks insanely counterproductive. But underneath the surface, ah, that's where you scratch at it, and reveal the time bomb we set in place. Did we do wrong? You could look at it that way...I know for a fact that the operative in question is quite active when it comes to battle. If we had kept him prisoner, not only would they have been deprived of his prowess, but we would have gained it for the cause of the system. I'm sure it wouldn't have taken long to fully change his personality. Modern drugs and psychological techniques are so much fun. But the fact of the matter is that we allowed him to return, to fight against the people we are allied with. All for the purpose of setting plans in place which won't bear fruit for quite some time.

So how much further is it to let slip some information, something that will place our enemies in a particular location at a particular time? Get their leader out in the open where we could study him, record his actions for future use? It should have gone according to plan. They weren't supposed to win, dammit....but I underestimated them. The first time they found us, we smashed them. Just as planned. But they coerced the festive lady with the snowflake fetish to reveal that Maruth was indeed a client of hers, and set up an ambush for her there.

Even at that point it might have been all right...if we had all been there with her. I received intel at the last moment about the impending attack, and could only watch my datapad helplessly as the life signs of the liason to the Cypherites went red. Crap, crap, life sure went to hell fast.

However...

Even now, in this room with the consequences of my actions hanging over my head, I had to admit to a certain grudging admiration for their quick thinking. If it hadn't been Maruth they'd gone after, I might have felt more. But I'd both liked and respected her....and I knew I'd be exacting punishment from ManatikLuniak once we finally had him in hand.

"What do you have to say about this, Memorywipe?"

I licked my lips. "I accept full responsibility for what happened." I couldn't really do anything differently, even with the sick feeling in my belly that said I was screwing myself. But I wasn't going to snivel and try to wriggle out of something like this, that just wouldn't work for me.

"Members of Terminix have ruined the faction's credibility amongst the other Machines. Is that a correct assumption? Answer yes or no, everyone," WarBlade's voice sounded loud in the little room. I swallowed as the others voted.

"Yes"
"Yes"
"Yes"
"Yes"

Their voices sounded oddly alike as they each agreed to cut me off, me and my factionmates....Trucidos, Warblade, Yas and SokudaBlade. I could feel my jaws clench as I automatically started to get angry. What the hell was this? Who the hell were they, to dictate...but no...

Calm. Emotions cloud the thinking. Detachment is the key.

They were right, galling as it was to admit it. I relaxed, bit by bit, loosening the muscles that had grown so tight in the back of my neck. They needed to protect their interests, and we in Terminix were, like it or not, a possible threat. We had our own agenda - and I couldn't guarantee that we wouldn't utilize whatever resources were needed to meet it.

Speaking of which...there was nothing saying I couldn't use my other contacts to find out information, if needed. We may have been ejected from the state of grace, but we hadn't fallen. It was more like we were a little to the left, in our own space. Still with our orders, regardless of the feelings of our peers.

I made my goodbyes and left, dignity intact. Pleased that even in these circumstances, the tone of the people involved was professional. Impersonal. I shuddered, thinking of the intel I had on the Merovingian's method of dealing with potential leaks.

Yes. I'd rather be a machine any day.

And yet....perhaps I had been spending too much time buried in my research into the Merovingian's forces. Lately my dreams had centered around having my enemies powerless, at my mercy in my very own dungeon. Disturbing.

I'm tempted to start building one.

As my feet carried me into a courtyard, I checked for onlookers. No one, not at this time of night, good. I used the payphone....no sense in letting this call get traced to me.

"Yes?"

"Hello, I'd like to discuss something of possible interest to you. Would you be able to meet me somewhere?"

I could hear the static as his breath puffed out against the phone....had I surprised him? No matter, he answered after only a few seconds of silence. "Sounds fun. Where to?"

"Club Jade."

**************************************************************

He beat me there. Nice. I moved to the little alcove nestled behind the dance floor, music pounding through the room. Rather distracting, but I didn't think anyone would be able to overhear what we had to say.

"So what's up?" Brief and to the point, I appreciated that...it had been a long night.

"I'm wondering if you'd be interested in helping my people out with something." Now that we were here, for some reason it was me pussyfooting around...what the hell? Did I trust him or not? Well, maybe I didn't have to tell him everything...

"What is it you need? You know we won't be including you when it comes to escorting our liasons or...."

I interrupted him. "Yes, yes, I know...but just because we won't be invited to your parties doesn't mean we don't want you at ours." I smiled at his puzzled look. He didn't need to know all of my reasons. "My people are skilled, but there aren't too many of us. I'm anticipating a good deal of danger in this undertaking, and you've impressed me....we could definitely find a use for you by our side."

I watched his face as he thought it through. He knew what our primary objective was, it shouldn't be too hard to figure out...

He smiled. "Sure. I'd love to give you guys a hand. As long as it doesn't go against my own orders."

How did I know he was going to say that? I smiled back at him and ordered a drink from a passing waitress.

"But of course."

**Zerotolerance**

Regardless of what's happened, what truth came to light, I doubt we've seen the last of this faction.

**TonyJaa**

Demoana FTW

**Abigor666**

I'm simply looking out for the integrity of our security and being honest.

**Demoana**

Of course, Trucidos. Your actions weren't being held against you, you acted in accordance with your beliefs and i respect that. Of course I'm still acting in accordance with mine, so guard your secrets tight. Our faction will be using whatever or whoever we can to make our goals a reality SMILEY

**Abigor666**

Demoana wrote:

Of course, Trucidos. Your actions weren't being held against you, you acted in accordance with your beliefs and i respect that. Of course I'm still acting in accordance with mine, so guard your secrets tight. Our faction will be using whatever or whoever we can to make our goals a reality

I have always guarded my secrets tight and I think you know I plan two step's ahead better than anybody. I believe it was Maruth that put to much trust in people and although she can be passive she is not one to repeat her mistake's most notably putting her good intention's in front of her security.

**Good_Game_son**

Abigor666 wrote:

Demoana wrote:
Of course, Trucidos. Your actions weren't being held against you, you acted in accordance with your beliefs and i respect that. Of course I'm still acting in accordance with mine, so guard your secrets tight. Our faction will be using whatever or whoever we can to make our goals a reality
I have always guarded my secrets tight and I think you know I plan two step's ahead better than anybody. I believe it was Maruth that put to much trust in people and although she can be passive she is not one to repeat her mistake's most notably putting her good intention's in front of her security.

sweet chess with real peopel !

**Demoana**

Our informant had given us something. One of the exiles who'd set himself up as a businessman had had dossiers compiled on many of the Merovingian operatives, supposedly lots of juicy information. Even though we already had enough data to proceed with our plans, I was always eager to find out more about our targets....you never knew when something would come in useful.

His offices were downtown, and we waited until people were leaving for the day to make our move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-IYt8KGFpk

**exsuscito**

Amusing in its bizarre nature, and nicely sync'd. The main female character is extremely natural doing voice-work also, so credit to you.

**Demoana** · 01/19/2007 22:23:59

((lol ty, we had a great time making it SMILEY

))

**TonyJaa**

"can i watch too"
LOL
demo=TEH SEXY VOICE
great job

**SureShot187**

I love the "Eww I got gum on the bottom of my shoe" near the end. lol Nice job with the music and editing.

**Mona**

lol its well annoying getting chewing gum on ya shoe, it will ruin a pair of decent heel's. SMILEY

**darkhaze**

awww man...its called impossible infiltration...I THOUGHT IT WAS GONNA BE PORN..

meh. good stuff anyways SMILEY

**Demoana**

(((lol on the porn, that's on a different forum...)))

The door shut behind of the last of them, sealing the leaders of the Merovingian's forces within the richly decorated meeting room. Jokes and good humor filled the space for a few moments, before they got down to business.

A hit list, a botched assassination attempt on one of their leaders, and a breakdown of the various communication options were discussed, and I stretched, relaxing. When they started talking about having parties, I bared my teeth in a grin. This wasn't going to be hard at all. The leaks I'd discovered had concerned me, but I'd given the mervs too much credit. They weren't worried at all, good.

They filed out the door, assuring each other that they would be on guard, watch for anything out of the ordinary. Standard practice for a group of thugs. I rocked back in my chair as I watched the screen before me, saw the room empty. All of our plans were in place, and the only thing I was worried about - the intelligent cooperation of the Merovingian forces - wasn't going to be a problem.

It had taken a good deal of trouble to bug Dark Evolution's meeting room, but it was worth it, especially at times like this. I walked out of the monitoring room and made my way to the kitchen, stretching, almost purring. Grabbed some salad and boiled eggs from the fridge. An orange from the fruit bowl. A supersized coffee mug, and I went back to my station, balancing everything neatly on the way. Pleased but not surprised when I made it there without anything even slipping, much less spilling.

Yes. Discipline. Focus. I sat in front of my terminal and lost myself in the details.