FFFF

[X] Tell her a lie that you have merely an abnormally strong AI core riding you
[X] Go to the Chrysanthemum authorities with what you have and try to implicate ECHO CHAMBER

"I don't think we've got much choice but to report this to the Chrysanthemum," you say. "If we don't, we could potentially find the whole peace keeping force hunting for us on ECHO CHAMBER's behalf." You push your hair back and realise the swimming expedition and the impromptu nap have given you a terrible bedhead, and start the bed brushing it into order. "But I don't think we should all go. You're right there's a danger of us being arrested, in which case we'll need people still on the outside to act. And we need to avoid being completely obvious. I'll go alone."

"Can't we just send them the footage?"

<<No way.>> Luyu says. <<Anonymous footage won't do us any good. They'll want a source, and if they come visit there's no way to tell that from a kill team.>>

"You don't know your own history." Mirareki protests. "You could be walking into anything."

"I'll be okay." You shrug. "Right now, I'm the one at a loose end. We need Luyu for security, you and Reizay and Juketta for research. Besides, I feel like I know the Chrysanthemum."

"I think going alone is too much of a risk," says Juketta. "I'll come with you."

"But, you need to do the university stuff." You protest a little. It's less fun making a potential sacrifice if you put someone else in danger.

"I'm not indispensable here, we have a full Academician."

"Shouldn't I come too?" Jessica says. "I'm just a civilian. I wouldn't be in any danger."

"We can't be sure of that... I don't want to put you in danger if something goes wrong." You say, half manipulation, half admission.

"I'd have Alawen with me. And you're hurt."

"I'm alright. I have an AI core in my head connected to a dead switch. It overstrained me a little, but there's no real danger. Just a migraine."

Juketta gives you a look over Jessica's shoulder for that one. The Historian doesn't like lies any more than any other eternalists. Mirareki seems more sanguine about it, but then again despite being a journalist she's also a Firewatcher, so basically a mystery cultist.

"It's not that I don't trust you," you say, "or Alawen, but I'm much more experienced than either of you in this kind of situation."

Jessica sighs, and hangs her head, then glares at you. "Alright, but I'm going to keep working with you. Don't you dare try to cut me out."

"Alright." You can work out how to fob her off later. You raise your hands and get up, and start thinking of what you'll need. There's probably ECHO CHAMBER and other operatives patrolling the city.

You need a disguise. The locals are pale but you don't think you can pass for one, and your skin won't stand out otherwise so you leave that alone. and instead pick out a different outfit - a blackbody bikini, accented with golden bangles and red flowers in your hair. You upload a quick override package to your gait and mannerisms and pull on a privacy mask over your face. It flickers to holographic life.

Juketta pulls on a raincoat and sprays on a new skin tone. You want to argue her out of it, then catch yourself. What are you doing? Is the prospect of being alone in the Chrysanthemum's hand so appealing? At the mercy of their power. Free of responsibility.

It felt pretty good when Alex was doing it.

"My poor thing," she says in your ear. "Shouldering so much on only months of life."

"Is this a side effect?" you mutter.

"If it is, I wouldn't call it an unnatural one." Her fingers walk down your spine. "I can do it again, if the situation-"

"Let's not," you say hastily. "Anyway, I'm busy right now."

Alex laughs, somewhere.

"You're flushed." Mirarek frowns. "Are you alright?"

"Yes. I'm fine." You power on the privacy mask. Juketta falls in next to you as you walk out into the rain.

The air is full of the sound of the rain. A white noise that blankets the city and shrinks perception, which suits you just fine. Messendra's Bay is a tall city, like most in this region of the Garden, made of slender towers of slightly organic looking extruded material, surrounded by lower structures using older techniques such as bricks, glass and metal or polymer tent. Greenery is everywhere, climbing plants around the towers, street trees dripping in the rain. If not for the extreme paleness and prevalence of black eye makeup among the locals, it would seem like just another newly built Chrysanthemum side city.

People move around in small groups, maybe enjoying the rain. There's a lot of it to enjoy. Your navigation map is a mess of flood warnings. There are regular Chrysanthemum patrols, mostly Sakuran Colonial light infantry with thin tac-sleeves and white face paint under billowing rain hoods. Other units can be seen as well. Chrysanthemum core world heavy infantry in their iconic battlesuits, with four arms and five eyes. Security troops in lighter power armour. Lemnosi or Lemnosi exile units in their aggressive masks. Various Melians in tac-sleeves in clean grey and dark green Some units you don't recognize in bronzed articulated plate.

People stand around watching big projections of the news, pictures of spacecraft and mobilisations. A glamorous, pink haired Chrysanthemum Liaison is doing an interview with a local news station. Like all Liaisons on official business she's wearing a personal interpretation of their traditional gold-on-white ornamental getup, with flared sleeves and chunky platform thigh-highs. You want to say you hear a bell of recognition, but maybe you're just making excuses to stare.. Other screens show a pair of aircraft carriers ripping through the waves, the great black whale shapes of sub-frigates, even the blue crested form of a Nereidi ambassador that has come to town and whom nobody seems to know what to do with.

"Should we just walk up to one of the patrols?" Juketta asks. "That stands a low chance of them being associated with the conspiracy."

"I don't think so. It feels too easy to compromise. Let's just get to the HQ."

It's not actually too far. You hop on a tram and ride it around a flood zone. Even with the theatre stormshield deflecting half the drops along a massive implicit dome, the city's run off systems are in total overload. As you ride you're treated to a new surge in the storm system, and a forest of lightning bolts silhouetting the defence aura above. You wonder if there's going to be a full on storm breach. The people out to enjoy the exciting weather might regret it by the time to get to shelter in that case.

You get off the silvery snake of the Tram outside the Chrysanthemum trade enclave. It's a large dome shaped building of black hypercarbon, reminiscent of the one the hobbyists had set up on Haraway but much, much larger and surrounded by lush Gaian gardens. The Chrysanthemum sure do love to show off. Even the security system is showy. A powered aura that's almost totally transparent and a squad of gate guards. How proud and wealthy are we, the imperial power, that we can have living sentinels to just stand in front of a building all day. The security troops are Chrysanthemum regulars; they're in their white-frill-on-black dress uniforms. They only have small arms, or in some cases treated paper parasols to keep the rain off, but the emitters on the front of the structure track you along with the guards eyes. If there is trouble, then they can simply zap it with atom lasers fed by the building's reactor.

"Good afternoon." You try not to think about the firepower named at you. "My name is …

[ ] Introduce yourself as Stella (Tying your new ID to this body, but unlikely to cause immediate suspicion)
[ ] Introduce yourself as Chalita (If they recognise the name it'll get you taken seriously but could have serious consequences)
[ ] Introduce yourself with a fake name (unknown consequences)