Work Text:
Sagume sat at her desk, looking over a collection of screens and other displays. It was very early in the morning, earlier than even Sagume would usually wake up. Her aides had insisted that she get to the command center as quickly as possible.
Some rabbit on guard duty had reported suspicious activity. Sagume knew it was probably nothing, but she hadn't spoken up about it, and not just for the usual reason.
The rabbit guards always got jumpy at night, no matter how long they'd been assigned to a late shift. Going through the archives of their reports was quite the experience. They read more like ghost stories.
Despite everything, Sagume had come straight to the command center. She'd even skipped her morning tea. She took all reports seriously enough, even if it was just to avoid ending up like Toyohime.
Sagume spent some time scanning the monitors for anything out of the ordinary. The motion trackers hadn't picked up any anomalies. The security cameras were all clear. The barrier was intact. The entire defense grid seemed completely normal.
Sagume leaned back in her chair. She really hadn't woken up properly yet. She decided to rest her eyes for a moment. The others should be here any minute.
A shrill beeping sound woke Sagume from her nap. Her eyes shot open, and she sat up in her chair.
On Sagume's desk, there was a phone. A red light was flashing next to it. Whoever was calling Sagume had an emergency. She reached over and grabbed the phone. There was no time for text based communications.
Sagume hesitated for a moment before answering. “Sagume currently speaking.”
“Lady Sagume? Is that really you? She said she'd patch me through directly to you,” a voice said through the phone.
Sagume did not recognize the voice. It sounded like a young woman. Sagume guessed it was some low level rabbit.
“This is... uh... RT6409331 Suisei.” The rabbit's voice was shaking. “I know you're not supposed to talk about things, ma'am.”
“Situation report,” Sagume said.
“I... I have an intruder here. It looks like... It's one of...”
Sagume's grip on the phone tightened.
“Suisei, please remember standard procedure,” she said, making sure to be especially vague.
“Standard... Standard procedure... I'm supposed to...”
Sagume wasn't sure if her words had caused the rabbit to forget her standing orders, or if it was just the usual rabbit incompetence.
“Oh, right!” Suisei said. “I'm at the treasury office, ma'am! Just outside the inner vault.”
Treasury office? Is this some sort of heist? Sagume thought.
She made a simple grunt of acknowledgement.
Sagume opened up one of the security monitors and flipped over to the treasury cameras. After a brief search, Sagume found Suisei on the monitor.
Sure enough, Suisei was a moon rabbit. She wore a standard LDC uniform, but she'd managed to lose both her helmet and her weapon. She was up against a wall, crouched down, nearly in the fetal position.
Sagume reached over to a nearby joystick and began to waggle it around. The camera panned around in response to Sagume's inputs.
For about a minute, the camera slowly panned around in a random fashion.
Come on, you're a soldier, you should see this by now.
Eventually, Suisei looked over to the camera. She picked up a small headset that seemed to have been removed from an LDC helmet. Modifying equipment was supposed to be forbidden.
It was hard to tell from the grainy security feed, but Suisei looked terrified.
“Lady Sagume! They've hacked the security system!” she whispered, staring up at the security camera in horror.
Sagume moved the camera side to side, as if shaking her head.
“Wait, is that you?” Suisei asked.
Sagume moved the camera up and down in a nod.
“Oh, okay.” Suisei pointed off to something out of shot. “It's over there.”
Sagume flipped through the treasury's security cameras. She found the treasury's main vault. It was sitting wide open.
Definitely a heist.
Sagume's mind ran through possible suspects. There were countless lunarians she could imagine staging some sort of high profile robbery.
Before Sagume could choose a prime suspect, something began to exit the vault. It was a single fairy, with red hair, a red dress that had some sort of fruit themed design on it, and translucent green wings.
The fairy wandered out of the vault. She had a blank expression on her face, as if she'd forgotten what she came there to do. She stood by the vault door, completely idle.
“Do you see it, ma'am?” Suisei asked.
Sagume switched back to Suisei's camera and gave a nod.
“What are your orders?” Suisei asked.
Sagume spent a moment choosing her words.
“LDC squads usually have an authorized strength of twelve rabbits and sometimes a lunarian officer,” she said, dancing around the subject.
“Oh, well my squad leader didn't show up tonight, along with about four of the grunts. There's this one other guy who hasn't been here in weeks. Everybody else ran away when they saw the monster.”
Of course they did.
Sagume switched to a different monitor. She entered a few commands into a keyboard. She sent out orders to reinforce the treasury security detail as soon as possible.
Sagume estimated the first squads could be there in a few minutes, but she expected them to take much longer. Until reinforcements arrived, she had a single scared rabbit to work with.
Sagume continued typing away. For a brief moment, she forgot about Suisei entirely.
“Lady Sagume... the target is on the move,” Suisei said, her voice quivering even more than before.
Sagume returned to the security cameras. The fairy was heading straight for Suisei. The rabbit was frozen in place, staring at the fairy.
“What do I do?” Suisei asked.
“You were given combat training, correct?” Sagume asked.
The fairy came within a few feet of Suisei, and stared at her. Suisei stood up, and stared right back at the fairy.
“I can't take her on alone,” Suisei muttered.
The fairy began to speak. Sagume couldn't understand her through the rabbit's microphone. She was too distant and muffled.
“I'm sorry, I don't work here,” Suisei said.
The fairy said something.
“Stay away!”
The fairy slowly moved towards Suisei. The rabbit held her ground for a matter of seconds, before turning and running away.
Suisei sprinted right into the vault, effectively cornering herself in one move. She'd done it so quickly, Sagume didn't have time to fully comprehend what she was doing, let alone try to stop her.
There weren't actually any cameras within the vault itself. With every other part of the building covered, it was redundant. At least, that was what the workers had said to Sagume at the time.
Sagume tried to come up with something to say. If she chose her words poorly, it would just cause a disaster.
“Lady Sagume, I'm so scared! I don't wanna die! Tell me I'm not gonna die!” Suisei screamed.
Why did she have to say that?
Speaking was now far too dangerous to attempt.
“It's coming! Tell me what to do!” Suisei yelled.
Sagume silently watched the security feed. The fairy slowly entered the vault.
Suisei screamed and cried, then fell silent. Sagume could hear the fairy moving around on the microphone now, even through Suisei's heavy breathing. She assumed the rabbit had dropped her communicator.
Suisei blubbered and cried. The fairy got closer and closer.
“Tag, you're it!” a young sounding voice said.
After a brief moment, the fairy exited the vault. Suisei continued to cry into the microphone.
“It touched me! It touched me!” Suisei screamed.
Suisei repeated the phrase multiple times. Her voice faded away as noisy footsteps came over the microphone.
After a moment, Suisei ran out of the vault. She was still yelling, but Sagume couldn't hear her anymore. It was probably for the best.
Suisei took off the blazer she wore over her shirt and cast it aside as if it were on fire. The jacket seemed to be completely normal.
At least we can clean and reissue that.
Sagume hung up the phone. She knew there wouldn't be much more coming over that line. As soon as she did, the phone rang again. She picked it up.
“Lady Sagume, I'm en route to the treasury. Should I take command on site?” Yorihime asked.
“Please,” Sagume said.