Restoring Order

Rain was still silently berating herself for having failed to follow her own safety protocols. The moment Director Kiyoshi and Moses had arrived in Geneva Prime she had insisted that all executives and officers be accompanied at all times by a disLocator equipped bodyguard. The purpose of such measures was to ensure the survival of key personnel in the event of sudden catastrophic occurrences. Yet she of all people, had been the one to tell her bodyguard to wait outside the room, during the advisory board meeting.

At the time it had seemed like an appropriate action. Her guard at that hour did not have the necessary security clearances to be present in the meeting, and Moses had unleashed one massive attack on the city just 24 hours prior. It did not seem likely he would strike again, so soon. But by the time the warnings started coming in the building had already begun to tremble. Clouds of dust burst in through the open sides of the building, where the glass had been demolished by Nevergem shards. Coughing and sputtering she had stumbled for the door. She found her man just as the entire room lurched sickeningly to the side and something struck her in the forehead.

There was no point dwelling on mistakes, but Rain was not accustomed to such narrow scrapes with death. As she sat in her new office in Marina looking at a display counting off the number of Goshi employees reporting, those injured, those declared dead, and those still missing, she could not help but reflect on how close she had come to being in the column labeled 'deceased'. A shiver went down her spine. It was the only expression of emotion she allowed herself. From that point she returned to the business at hand.

Goshi losses had been staggering, no question. Even Rain was forced to swallow the bitter admission that she had been brutally defeated. By what she could not say. By some power beyond the rational.

Katashi Blade had understood what was happening. She was sure of that. She was also sure that he had somehow intended it, or planned it. Not, perhaps, the destruction of the Goshi Tower, but at least he had intended the conflict with Moses and friends. He had known what he was getting into and believed he could handle it.

Rain had no such illusions. She would not enter into situations she could not control and since Daitokuji Kiyoshi's new associates were uncontrollable she would not engage with them. Despite her brush with death she felt no resentment toward them. They were merely an obstacle to be avoided rather than overcome. Based on the principal of avoidance she had ordered a full withdrawal from Geneva Prime - an order that included her new airship, Varan. Giving that order was the first time in her life that she had directly contradicted the will of Katashi Blade. It was vaguely possible she had been indirectly responsible for his death, by abandoning him, but she did not think it likely. The words of Moses echoed through her mind, "I'm going to show you that there is something more powerful than Katashi Blade..." Yes. She had not always believed that to be the case, but it was undoubtedly the truth. She realized it the moment she gave the order to retreat and leave Blade to his fate.

With Blade now dead, she was effectively the new Executor. Executor of a defunct corporation without access to its source of income, or means of production, and with very little capital to speak of. What she did have at her disposal was an enormous military.

Prior to the upheaval Rain had already begun the process of decentralizing, as a precaution. She'd established these offices in Marina, a series of armories and supply depots along train lines, outside major cities, and several redundant command centers for deploying the Hei Shi. Though Goshi no longer meaningfully existed as a mining corporation, it was still the most powerful military force in the world, and with this military Rain intended to reestablish order.

Order, it seemed to her, was her purpose. She had been created with a gift for figures and logistics. Not a telepath, nor physically gifted like the Hei Shi, she had nevertheless earned a place for herself in this world by demonstrating repeatedly that she understood how to make things function. Blade had trusted her like he had never trusted anyone else. A choice, which ironically had turned out to be incorrect, but he had based that trust on her incomparable competence. If you wanted something done right, Rain was the person to ask.

And so she planned to wipe out the resistance in Stardown, not because she bore it any grudge, nor even because she had any loyalty to Goshi, but because the resistance, going back to the UMA a year ago, had been the source of disorder in her estimation. Cheldrun society would go back to a normal, functional, kind of existence if she could only excise the elements of disruption.

Yes. Surely that is how it will work.