[London, Democratic Solidarity Party] Remembrance (closed)

The man who had collected Alexis Mitchell from the shuttle port hadn't spoke much as he drove her to Victor Sector, Administration District 02, except to tell her that a meeting was taking place in forty minutes and Brandon Wright would be organizing everything for her stay when they got there. No amount of weather chit chat would pry his jaw open.

The car looked like it had seem better days-dented, paint peeling off, but the whole city did. They were in the reconstructed places at first-trickles of both ground and skycars, Alliance engineers scurrying around like ants, well-fed people (you could almost imagine them in a city from a war ago, if you ignored the hollowness of their faces) and scarred but whole buildings. But as they drove, they went further out and the rebuilt sections got sparser.

Finally, he pulled up in front of a tall building, "Welcome to Sutton," He told her, opening the door, "Thee meetings already started."

He took her to a room with close to a hundred people packed in, seated in cheap plastic chairs, a small stage for whoever was speaking and a table in the corner with a kettle, teabags, instand coffee and biscuits.

Someone had scrawled 'Free England' on the back wall, above the head of the woman speaking.

The only free seats were beside a woman in a billowing white shirt and an Italian man who smiled like there was a joke in the room. The woman smiled too but it was sharp as a knife as she looked at the woman speaking.

It was more of a 'you're an idiot' smile really.

Alexis looked about as dirt poor as she was. Her clothing was third hand and her tattered half gloves revealed missing fingers. Still she had managed to pick up a pair of sunglasses for cheap. Most people wouldn't require shades in London, but they served to hide her ruined sockets from casual glances. She could not see her fellows but she could sense the atmosphere. She did not like the idea of settling into that particular seat, but with no other choice but to stand, she fumbled with her tea, cursing softly as a little spilled over her hand, and settled into the chair. She could have done without the neighbors... but beggars couldn't be choosers.

The woman up the front spoke strongly, her voice filling the room. She spoke of compromise. She said that if they agreed to the reformation of the European Union over England, the Alliance would be more likely to take them seriously. She asked the assembled to look out the window, to see their city.

"Now, more than ever, we need friends rather than enemies. The EU has been our government for a century-why turn away now?"

The woman sitting beside Alexis murmured softly, "So we're looking to the Alliance for validation now, are we?" Jasmine's eyes fell on Mitchell, taking in the missing fingers, the clothing. Not an unfamiliar sight. Atkey herself had been lucky to escape major injury.

She spoke, "I haven't seen you here before." She liked to keep an eye on the newcomers. As she shifted, if one listened very closely, they might hear the scrape of material against metal.

Mitchell kept a straight face though she frowned internally at the metallic noise. It was a bit odd because most bionics made some sort of whirring sound when they moved. Filing that bit away for later consideration she nodded. "Alexis Mitchell, I'm here representing the colony of Ur." Which in all likelihood the other woman had never heard of before. Few had as she had found out on several occasions. She still wondered about this... Democratic Solidarity Party.

She was all for protesting SATAE, and they were doing it peacefully so bonus points, but it was sounding more like they were focused on Earth than the colonies. She supposed they were taking it one step at a time. At least it was to be hoped.

"Ah," Atkey said, quite simply. Her eyes flicked back to the woman speaking.

Why did she bother with these people again? She glanced at Brandon Wright who was standing near one of the walls, talking to one of his supporters. He was gesturing with his hands, his eyes gleaming with that light they got when he had an idea.

A new speaker stepped up, calling for a vote on whether the DSP should support the movement of Alliance-backed civilian engineers into the area to assist with the construction effort, or oppose it. When he called the ayes, Jasmine rose smoothly to her feet. Giovanni jerked to his feet, surprised.

"Uh what?" He asked her, raising an eyebrow.

"We'll never get the hospital finished without them," Jasmine replied matter-of-factly, ignoring the glance Wright sent at her.

"But that'll give them an excuse to move more troops into the area."

"They've already got an excuse," Jasmine said dryly. When she blinked she was in that dark room, with her fingers numb and blood splattered across the floor, "The community won't support me if I make their lives harder. No matter how many husks we shot." And well...they'd lost three people in the last week. She didn't want to make their lives harder.

"Politics," He sighed as the motion passed and Atkey sat.

She ignored him. To the woman from Ur she said, "What's a colonist doing in London?"

Alexis was sorely tempted to comment that if the London community did not want Alliance engineers rebuilding their infrastructure Ur would happily take them off their hands. But she held her peace, she still didn't have a handle on the hows or whys here and making a misstep could cost her in the long run. What she wasn't certain, but it was a feeling she had. She instinctively turned her head towards Atkey despite the fact that she could not see the woman, "At the moment? Drinking tea," She replied with a faint smile, "Honestly I'm not entirely sure myself, the... Democratic Solidarity Party got in contact with my colony, said they wanted us in on this. Though it seems more focused on Earth issues right now."

Atkey exchanged a look with Giovanni, before returning her attention to the colonist, "One imagines that if we get what we want, it'll be easier to free the colonies as well."

Whatever legitimacy the Systems Alliance had, it had sacrificed that the moment its military had seized control.

And she needed allies, "Let me guess. Wright." He was up to something.

"One imagines," Alexis replied noncommittally, she didn't mention that this was the sort of attitude most colonists tended to dislike about Earthers. It would be impolitic for one thing. For another she was on their planet, telling them how to run things would be just a bit hypocritical. It did not change the fact that she did not see this effort benefiting the colonies any time in the near future.

Atkey leaned forward as the speaker stepped down from the podium, "What's it like-on your colony? Much different to here?"

She was fishing, that much was clear, but there was no threat in her voice or demeanor. She was curious. And trying to ascertain something.

"More like Antartica," Alexis replies a bit dryly, "Before the war we had a fair sized city inside a hab-dome. Then as the Alliance was leaving a cruiser got shot down and crashed through the dome. Then the Reapers landed ground forces and... well there's not much left."

Atkey had, as a young woman after finishing university, thought about leaving Earth. About seeing the Citadel and the colonies. In the end though, she had simply spend two months travelling the EU before returning to England. Akari had talked about taking her to the Citadel, but in the end it had never happened.

The world this colonist described was vastly different to what Jasmine had.

"That must be...difficult," She said quietly. "You have my sympathies, worthless as they are. I fought during the war. Husks aren't something I'd wish on anyone."

Sometimes she could still hear the sound of them.