Polemic

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<<script>> UIBar.unstow(); <</script>>Henrietta had a song stuck in her head. She tapped her foot against the metal floor of the cockpit to a beat that seemed to be constantly shifting, like <<cycle "$beat" autoselect>> <<option "one, two, one, two">> <<option "tap tap bam, taptaptaptap bam">> <<option "papapa, pa, papapa, pa">> <</cycle>>. She couldn't remember the song, or songs, more clearly. Looking down at the glass dome of the Evening Song colony, she could make out the apartment building she lived in with her girlfriend, Elisia. The night before, they'd stayed up talking with the radio going in the background, and now it was all blending together in Henrietta's brain, in a fog of love. She was tired, but felt it as a shaky buzz. She was happy to be out here, in the space above the Evening Song, in the <span id="repond-link"><<click "Repond.">><<replace "#repond-link">>Repond. The pilfered Tamran mech was all the Evening Song had for defense. Some days she felt nervous about being out in such an old model; it was a little rickety, its sword-and-shield knight aesthetic was both out of fashion and outclassed by beam units, and its orange paint needed a touch-up. Tonight, though, she was proud. <</replace>><</click>></span> She could [[protect]] the place she loved.

She refocused, checked her screens for threats from all directions. Nothing but stars. Evening Song generally went unnoticed. It was in its own quiet corner of space and completely self-sufficient, only ever trading in non-essential goods with space truckers. Elisia had wondered once who would even bother to attack Evening Song, a colony with no military and no resource needs, but Henrietta knew. It had been drilled into her head pretty well during training. Fascists. The very existence of the Evening Song, the mere fact that people could live the way they did, could be a threat if you needed people to believe that a better life wasn't possible. Henrietta had thought that way once. Under the thumb of a dictatorship, all she'd hoped to do was get by. Now she would guard the Evening Song [[with her life]].

With a trio of beeps, a curved line shot across her screen like a shooting star, catching her eye and guiding it to a speck of light in the distance. Just a star, she would have thought, but her combat AI would not have brought it to her attention if it were only a star. She scrutinized it, and saw that it was getting <span id="bigger-link"><<click "bigger.">><<replace "#bigger-link">>closer.<</replace>><</click>></span> The white gleam slowly took shape, its details filling in. Its edges were almost absurdly sharp, its hips weapons of their own without the beam sabers hanging off of them. A rifle sat on its back, nestled between its thrusters, expelling energy like great white wings; an angel of death with red eyes. Henrietta set out to meet it. She felt a fight coming, and protecting the Evening Song would mean nothing if it got caught in the crossfire. She left the Repond's hands empty. On the off chance that this visitor was peaceful, she did not want to jeopardize that peace. It slowed as Henrietta approached, and the two mechs halted with 100 metres between them, close enough for the Repond to pick up the interloper's [[ID tag]].

UNIT: TR-176 ADELGRIEF ASSIGNED PILOT: CLASSIFIED SPECIFICATIONS: CLASSIFIED ARMAMENTS: CLASSIFIED . . . It went on. A voice came over the Repond's intercom: "Hey bitch." "Oh shit, Tess?" Two things happened simultaneously in the cockpit of the Repond at that moment. Henrietta [[smiled]], and Henrietta set her hands at her [[weapon controls]].

Tess had been a good friend to Henrietta once, years ago, when they were both Tamran citizens. Though they did not see eye to eye when Henrietta began criticizing Tamra and sought to escape, they had made enough memories together that leaving Tess behind was Henrietta's one regret. It was good to hear her voice again. "Surprised?" said Tess. Henrietta could tell that Tess was revelling in her astonishment. "Yeah. Shocked," she said. "What are you doing here?" "Henrietta," she said, drawing out her name to an interminable length. "Don't you think it's time you came home?" Henrietta took a moment. "Tamra was never my home," she said. "Well, that's a shame." The Adelgrief's right hand went to its left hip. "Are you sure I can't convince you? Tamra is where you belong." [[ATTACK|attack1]] [[DEFEND|defend1]] [[EVADE|evade1]]

Henrietta had known Tess in Tamra. When Henrietta left, Tess doubled down and insisted there was no better nation in the galaxy. There was no reason to believe Tess had since defected, as much as Henrietta wanted that to be true. "Surprised?" said Tess. Henrietta could tell that Tess was revelling in her astonishment. "Yeah. Shocked," she said. "What are you doing here?" "Henrietta," she said, drawing out her name to an interminable length. "Don't you think it's time you came home?" Henrietta took a moment. "Tamra was never my home," she said. "Well, that's a shame." The Adelgrief's right hand went to its left hip. "Are you sure I can't convince you? Tamra is where you belong." [[ATTACK|attack1]] [[DEFEND|defend1]] [[EVADE|evade1]]

As the Adelgrief drew its beam saber, Henrietta had the Repond draw its sword, too, and she wasn't playing around like Tess was. "Tamra," she said, as the Repond's blade smashed through the Adelgrief's hand, "is a prison." Tess put distance between the two of them, leaving behind shards of white metal. "Your little Evening Song is more of a prison. You were way freer in Tamra!" She grabbed her other beam saber in the Adelgrief's remaining hand. [[ATTACK|attack2]] [[DEFEND|defend2]] [[EVADE|evade2]]

Tess launched herself at Henrietta, who put up the Repond's beaten-up shield. The Adelgrief's beam screeched against her metal, and she could only hope it would hold. "I'm happy here!" she said. "I'm happier here than I ever was in Tamra!" Tess scoffed and pulled away. The blank face of her mech seemed to be reproachful, somehow. "Personal happiness? Is that all that matters to you?" [[ATTACK|attack3]] [[DEFEND|defend3]] [[EVADE|evade3]]

Tess's first strike was slow, almost playful. Henrietta had plenty of time to move out of the way, even with the Repond's unresponsive thrusters. "What are you doing here, Tess?" Henrietta asked. She was still trying to get a grasp on the situation. Tess chuckled. "Were you always this slow on the uptake? Or has the Evening Song been coddling you too much?" [[ATTACK|attack4]] [[DEFEND|defend4]] [[EVADE|evade4]]

"I could never be free under a dictatorship!" Henrietta screamed. She went for another pre-emptive strike, but the Adelgrief proved to be the more agile machine. It twisted away and closed in at the Repond's back before Henrietta could shift out of the thrust she'd locked herself into. "What, don't you have anything good to say about your precious Evening Song?" said Tess. Henrietta could hear the smile in her words, until all she could hear was the buzzing of the Adelgrief's beam searing away her metal shell. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

Tess was angry now. Henrietta could see it in the way the Adelgrief flung itself towards her, beam saber out. The Repond raised its shield and caught the beam. "The Evening Song is the only place I've ever been allowed to be myself." She let her opponent's weapon slide off her shield and floated back with as much poise as she could muster with her rusty old Repond. "And what's that?" Tess spat. "A commie? A //dyke//?" [[ATTACK|attack5]] [[DEFEND|defend5]] [[EVADE|evade5]]

Tess attacked, but Henrietta danced away from her blow. She remembered that Tess was right-handed. "Go home, Tess, before I break your other hand, too." This was partly showmanship; Henrietta wasn't sure she could win this fight, and Tess leaving would at least buy her more time. But she made it sound convincing. "Woooow," said Tess. "I thought the Evening Song was supposed to be all about peace and tolerance or whatever, but //you're// gonna attack //me//? And without so much as a rebuttal." [[ATTACK|attack7]] [[DEFEND|defend7]] [[EVADE|evade7]]

"Everyone in //Tamra// is miserable," said Henrietta as she readied her sword. "I was miserable when I was there, and I know, Tess, that you're miserable now. And I won't let you bring your misery any closer to my home!" She dove and swung, and seemed to catch the Adelgrief off guard, as all it did was raise an arm to block. That arm was crushed to bits. Tess put distance between them. "Stop! What the fuck are you doing, you psycho?!" She sounded so innocent. [[ATTACK|attack8]] [[DEFEND|defend8]] [[EVADE|evade8]]

"What else is there?" asked Henrietta. Tess dove forward again with her blade in front of her. Henrietta caught it with her shield, but the shield began to creak and shake. "Your happiness," Tess said, "means nothing to me." The shield split down the middle, leaving a clear path to the Repond's heart. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

The Adelgrief charged again, and Henrietta pulled back on her controls, trying to put space between herself and Tess. But Tess was faster, and was slowly gaining on her. Sweating, Henrietta asked, "What matters to you? Not happiness, so what?" Tess stopped, so Henrietta sighed and did the same. The Repond's thrusters wouldn't have been able to put up with that kind of stress forever. "Security," said Tess, finally. "Safety. And power." [[ATTACK|attack6]] [[DEFEND|defend6]] [[EVADE|evade6]]

Taking offense, Henrietta had the Repond draw its sword. "It's better than Tamra's approach. Always telling me I was useless, that I could never achieve anything, pitting me against others..." "Whatever. You're way too soft to hit me with that--" She didn't get to finish her sentence before Henrietta thrust at her side. Tess reacted quick enough to get away with only a little bruised metal. "Damn, I'm impressed!" she said. "You've still got some Tamra in you after all." [[ATTACK|attack9]] [[DEFEND|defend9]] [[EVADE|evade9]]

"What you call coddling," Henrietta said, "I call actually giving a shit about people's well-being. This might seem like a bizarre idea to you, but being made to feel safe and loved is good, actually! Hey, what's so funny?" Tess's wild laugh slowly wound down to an exhale. "Oh, Henrietta," she said. "I just knew you wouldn't be able to fight back!" It was all Henrietta could do to get her shield up in time to intercept Tess's attack. Sparks flew as beam struggled against metal. "Whatever you want to call it," said Tess, "it's made you weak!" [[ATTACK|attack10]] [[DEFEND|defend10]] [[EVADE|evade10]]

The Adelgrief came again, but Tess wasn't playing this time. "I don't want to fight you!" said Henrietta. She tried to pull back, but Tess was still able to slash open the front of the Repond. Henrietta felt the beam saber's heat through her suit. She could see Tess's machine now, and not on any screen. She was looking right at it, her view obscured only by the occasional spark flying from the Repond's severed wiring. The Adelgrief's cockpit began to open, inch by inch, until the women were face to face at last. Tess's lips were moving, but Henrietta couldn't hear what she was saying; her comms were as busted as everything else. It didn't matter. There was nothing she could do. A great white hand appeared before her, and she watched as its fingers wrapped around what was left of the Repond, and squeezed. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

There was nothing Henrietta could say to that, nothing that would make any difference. She raised her sword. "What, no comeback?" Tess teased. As the Repond's blade came down, Tess began to move, but Henrietta saw this coming. She shifted her attack to catch the Adelgrief's remaining wrist, shattering it, then reversed course to lop the mech's head off. It went spinning off into space, trailed by glittering white shards of steel. Left with no weapons and limited sensors, Tess flitted back and forth like a mosquito. "Nothing to say for yourself, huh?! Huh, bitch?!" she shrieked. Henrietta wished she could leave Tess there to flounder, but it was too risky. Someone could still track her to the Evening Song, or rescue her for her to attack again later. Sighing, she sheathed her blade, then took the Adelgrief by the arm and dragged it towards home. "So much for freedom, am I right?!" Tess cried with a strange sort of glee. She was right, Henrietta thought. After all, she was to be the colony's only prisoner. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"All that and more," said Henrietta with a grin. "It's that freedom that makes the Evening Song so special. There's a place for everyone. Even you." It was silent for a moment, and Henrietta began to wonder if she had actually gotten through to her old friend. But then Tess came in with a gagging noise. "No thanks," she said, and resumed her assault. "Tess, please!" Henrietta pleaded. "You can come back with me!" Tess splintered her shield. "You would be welcomed!" The Adelgrief hacked away the Repond's legs. "You belong with us!" Tess showed no sign of mercy. "There's only one place I belong," she said, and she ran her sword through the Repond's guts. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"Oh, name-calling now, are we? Real mature." Henrietta scoffed. "Jesus, you were always so sensitive. Who cares what I call you? You're missing the point!" Her blade surged forward on 'point', missing the Repond by inches. "And that is?" asked Henrietta, strained. "The Evening Song..." Slash. "...made you..." Slash. "...weak!" Slash, and this time she hit, severing the Repond's sword arm. It was a feeble counter-argument, but Henrietta knew that weakness wasn't all bad. It meant vulnerability, openness. Would Tess ever be able to open up to anyone? When Henrietta had finally opened up to Elisia about her past, that was the night they had fallen in love. In her last moments, she thought of Elisia. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"Tess... I never felt safe in Tamra. I always felt like someone was looking over my shoulder, making sure I did the right things, said the right words. It made me afraid." "Oh, bullshit!" shouted Tess. "Nothing was ever gonna touch you in Tamra. And what'll you do when I go back and tell them where you are, huh? How will you protect your precious Evening Song then?" Henrietta drew her sword. "Then I suppose I can't let you leave." "Excuse me?" The Repond gave a no-nonsense thrust, catching the Adelgrief in its right shoulder and making its arm go limp. But the sword wouldn't come loose, so Henrietta abandoned it in time to lose only her mech's legs from Tess's retaliatory strike. As Tess wound up to attack again, Henrietta raised the Repond's arm. She had one other trick up her sleeve: an emergency arm rifle. There was no time to deploy it properly. Instead, she had it blast through the Repond's armour. She got off three shots. One took out the Adelgrief's head, one hit its chest--but missed its cockpit--and one severed the Adelgrief's other shoulder, but not before Tess had already put in motion a thrust to obliterate the Repond's arm. With that, she had nothing left, and neither did Tess. Both machines floated in space, sparking intermittently. The broadcast was distorted, but Henrietta could still hear Tess, shouting, "Move, dammit! Move!" at her controls. Henrietta sat back and closed her eyes. Someone would be out to pick them up soon. No one was going back to Tamra. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"I have all those. Every day I feel looked after, I feel loved, I--" "Oh, shut up," said Tess. She was right up in the Repond's space before Henrietta could react. She tried to extend her shield but the Adelgrief slipped its beam saber behind her defenses and lopped off her head and right arm in a single stroke. From there she cut down. With a surgeon's precision, she lasered off the front of the Repond, leaving Henrietta with nothing between her and space but her pilot suit. With Tess's sword so close, she couldn't risk even the slightest movement. She couldn't protect herself, or her home, anymore. Tess made a show of moving the Adelgrief's head to examine the length of its opponent. "You know," she said, "this is Tamran property. I suppose I should just... take it back." Henrietta would have rather died. She went for her sword, but she had no chance of doing anything with it quickly enough. Tess didn't hesitate to push her blade forward, frying Henrietta in her beam. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"What do those matter if you can't enjoy them? What is safety without freedom?" "Oh, I enjoy them. Want me to show you?" Tess's voice dripped with bloodlust. Henrietta clenched her controls. The Adelgrief rushed forward again. Henrietta pushed the Repond to its limits trying to retreat fast enough. The cockpit shook around her. "Run, bitch!" said Tess with a high-pitched laugh. The Repond's thrusters began to sputter, and the Adelgrief got closer and closer. "Tess, please! Come back to the Evening Song with me!" It was a last ditch effort. "Not a fucking chance!" She lashed out with her beam saber as soon as she was close enough. It was clean; one strike was enough to bisect the Repond. The momentum sent the mech's top half twirling off into space, leaving Tess with only the bottom half. "Yuck," she said, and turned her camera away from the bloody mess of the Repond's cockpit. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"You know what? Yes," said Henrietta, and she came down hard on the Adelgrief's other wrist. "And as for a rebuttal, you don't deserve one." She swung back and cut a gash across the mech's stomach. "What would be the point?" She pierced its head. "You won't listen!" She cut down, slowly, into its chest. "You don't care!" Screams came over the intercom. "You're a fascist." She cut clean through her opponent, and the screams stopped. Henrietta was panting. It was the emotion, the fear and the thrill, more than the physical exertion. She took a deep breath and looked at the destruction she had wrought. Glittering metal shards floated all around her. It was beautiful in the silence. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"A peaceful society," said Henrietta, "cannot be tolerant of fascism." "Oh, okay. So what're you gonna do about me?" It was a question asked with delight, like she knew there was nothing Henrietta could do. The Adelgrief attempted a slash, but Henrietta caught it with her shield, then kicked the saber away. Left without a melee weapon, Tess backed out of range and reached for her rifle. The Repond was a close-quarters machine. It had no response to this. Tess fired a shot that left Henrietta's shield steaming. Then she fired again, and again, and each shot bore a little further through the defensive plate until one made it all the way through, and through to Henrietta's cockpit. She was consumed by light and fire. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

Henrietta sighed. "What is it with you, Tess? You just have to stir the pot, huh? You just have to make things worse?" "Oh, you're making this about me now?" said Tess, indignant. "Sure. You know, I think you feel as powerless as I did when I was in Tamra. You need to feel like you have power over something, the ability to change anything at all, and what you've settled on is being a bitch and pissing people off." "Fuck you!" Tess tossed her remaining beam saber at Henrietta, who ducked out of the way. Tess reached for her rifle, then stopped. "I could kill you right now, but it would be way more satisfying if you got to see your precious Evening Song burn to nothing. So I'll be back. With an army. Your so-called home is toast." As she watched the Adelgrief leave, Henrietta felt her heart rate rise. She had worked so hard to make a home away from Tamra, and now Tamra was coming to her. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"Admit it," said Henrietta. "Admit what?" Tess asked. "Admit that you're unhappy in Tamra. That you could never be happy there." "Um, I am happy. I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Tamra's a great place." She was lying, and it made Henrietta furious. "Admit. It." "Leave me alone, Henrietta." The Adelgrief turned, as if to leave, but Henrietta knew she couldn't allow that. She brought her sword down on her opponent's back, eliciting a scream. "Admit it! Admit it!" she cried, striking and striking again. "Admit it!" She needed to hear Tess say it, validate it, validate everything that happened to her. "Admit it!" It wasn't fine. "Admit it!" It wasn't normal. "Admit it!!" It wasn't okay. She woke up sweating some nights, dreaming that she was still there, still in the clutches of fascists, still in a place where even her best friend told her she was crazy. That wasn't nothing, and she needed to hear it. Her sword finally snapped, snapping her out of her trance. When she looked, there wasn't enough of her old friend left to say anything. The silence of space was deafening. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

What a baffling question. "Tess, I... I'm defending myself." "That's what you call defending yourself? Attacking me out of nowhere?" "But, but you attacked me first!" said Henrietta, though it made her feel like a child. "The Evening Song's really done something to you. You never used to be this violent." The Adelgrief shook its head, a ridiculous thing for a mech to do. "Look, I... I don't want to fight you." She let go of her sword, letting it float gently before her. "See?" Tess began to laugh. "God, how stupid can you get?" She burst forward, beam saber at the ready. Henrietta tried to put her shield up, but the Adelgrief knocked it out of the way with ease, leaving room for a fatal beam saber strike. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"You were always like this," Henrietta remembered. "Nothing was ever your fault. It was always me, apparently making things up, or just not shutting up quick enough for you. If I'd had some support, maybe I could have stuck things out, but... more than anything, you were why I left." "How. Fucking. Dare you!" Tess came in like a storm, furious but unfocused. Henrietta dodged deftly. "You can't touch me, Tess." Even so, she wondered how long she could keep it up. The more Tess tried, the closer she got to landing a real blow. Henrietta decided to keep talking. "I think about you all the time. I go over my last days in Tamra and wonder what I could have said to convince you to leave with me." As she spoke, Tess got sloppier. "There is nothing, is there? You'll always put your loyalty to fascism first, and one day it'll probably kill you." Tess screamed, backed away, and threw her beam saber at the Repond. Henrietta knocked it away with her shield. "I'll be back," said Tess, "with reinforcements. And when that day comes, you will be so fucking dead." She then flew away at maximum speed. "I know you will," said Henrietta. She was tired. She turned to head home. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

Henrietta felt hot in her suit. "What a fucking insult," she said as she took a chip off of the Adelgrief's hip plate with another glancing blow. "Tamrans are selfish. Violent. Dishonest. Callous. Cruel." She remembered being all those things, how she had to be because everyone else was, and it made her angry and ashamed. She swung harder. "Come on now, I was only kidding," said Tess. The Repond dented her shoulder. "Be reasonable." The Adelgrief lost a finger. "Can't we talk this out?" "Not a chance," Henrietta said. She impaled the Adelgrief's stomach, then pushed down on her sword's hilt, sending the blade creeching up through Tess's cockpit. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

"Wrong," said Henrietta. "All you're seeing is my devotion to the Evening Song, and my desire to protect it." "And therein lies one key difference," said Tess grandly. "If an enemy got this close to Tamra, they'd be dead by now. We don't allow anything to threaten our nation. So how can I take you seriously when you're wasting so much time?" Perhaps Henrietta had been too hesitant, too slow to treat Tess like a real threat, but it was too late now. The Adelgrief was circling like a vulture, like Henrietta was already dead in space. She put up her shield, for however much good that would do. Tess zipped by and took a chunk off of the Repond's armour before returning to formation. Then again, and again, buffeting Henrietta around. Her mech's sensors were too slow, and she couldn't keep track of her enemy's position. She turned to where she thought Tess would be, only to get slammed in the back. "Do you get it yet?" said Tess, her voice ghostly with distortion. "Strength is all that matters." She swooped in one last time, claiming her prey. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

The thought of having held onto pieces of her worst self embarrassed her. "Do you think of yourself as a good person, Tess?" she asked. Tess groaned. "What does that have to do with anything?" "I guess you don't think about it. I guess it's more important to be right than to be good." Tess deactivated her beam saber and replaced it on the Adelgrief's hip, then grabbed her rifle instead. "Here's something I think I'm right about. It'll only take one shot to kill you." She fired. The Repond dove out of the way of the beam, avoiding it by inches. Tess tsked. "Ah, shoot. Guess I was wrong. Contrary to popular belief, though, I don't mind being wrong... every once in a while." She fired again. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

The Repond's shield was struggling to hold the Adelgrief back. Henrietta didn't have much time. "Tamra has so many weak links, Tess. At any time, someone like me could up and leave because they've had enough of being mistreated. How long until someone more important escapes and ruins everything for you?" "That's why we have to make an example of you!" "Then I won't go down without a fight." While they were still locked together, Henrietta took her sword and smashed it through the Adelgrief's core. The extra pressure shattered the Repond's shield. Tess's beam broke through to the weak front plates of the Repond, and beyond. As her surroundings lit up, Henrietta whispered an apology to Elisia. She wouldn't be returning to their home, but at least she had protected it. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

Henrietta stood her ground. "No, it's made me care enough to stand up to you! I have a reason for fighting, people I want to protect!" "That doesn't make you better than me!" Tess shouted. She pushed harder, and Henrietta watched as her shield cracked. She was mesmerized and horrified, watching her defense break, and as slow as it was it seemed to keep her frozen. She knew she had the moral high ground, the better reason for fighting. She knew it even as the Adelgrief's saber penetrated through to the Repond's centre. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

Henrietta left her shield behind and slipped to the side as the Adelgrief destroyed it. She could have counterattacked then, but instead she paused. She still wanted to convince Tess, to believe she could be reasonable. "Why do you fight so hard, Tess?" she asked. "What reason do you have? What loyalty? What has Tamra ever done for you? They'll throw you away someday, or you could just leave. You don't have to come to the Evening Song, but fuck, you don't have to do this, either." Tess was silent for a while, long enough for Henrietta to have hope that she got through. But then Tess's voice came through, and it was dry and empty. "I'd just be hunted," she said. "They would send someone after me like they sent me after you." She holstered her beam saber. "I'm not in the mood for this anymore. But, Henrietta, I'll be back, or if not me, someone else. This won't end until you're dead." Henrietta watched the Adelgrief leave, and knew Tess was right. Even convincing Tess wouldn't have meant much. Tamra wouldn't stop until it got what it wanted. CONVERSATION TERMINATED

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