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Description
Ash had arrived not a second too soon to be herded down the smooth corridors around the staggering number of office units on the third floor of the sector central headquarters. Like a hundred columns holding up the high ceiling, the office cubes were spaced evening and each had a door with panes displaying the name, rank, and current status of the offices and those who were assigned to them. Working his way along the corridors, Ash stopped at the largest office, staring at the pane on the door.

"Sector Chief Matthias Anderson. IN MEETING, DO NOT DISTURB" scrolled across the pane and as Ash moved to take hold of the old fashioned doorknob the door swung open and revealed the very unhappy face of the Sector Chief. "Get in here, Scarborough!" he barked, pointing to a chair before the massive synthetic wood desk. "You're late!"
"Sorry, Chief, I didn't even get a call until twenty minutes before you wanted me here."
"I had you contacted an hour before this meeting."
That asshole on the phone had fucked Ash by intentionally waiting until it would be impossible for him to arrive on time. "Who was working the call?"
"It's not important right now, Scarborough. Sit your ass down, we need to talk."
"Yes sir." Ash replied curtly, taking a seat.
The Sector Chief moved behind the desk and sat down in his immense chair. "Scarborough, you put me in a very bad position."

"I--" Ash began to reply.
"I'm not done!" the Chief barked, grunting. "When we get called out of reserve the chain of command becomes a lot more important. You disobey orders and it sends hell up to me. I have enough trouble with the other fuck-ups here, I don't need you adding onto it. You are a good cop, Scarborough, but when we're called out of reserve? Juno calls the shots. I can't do anything then, everything goes way above my level."
"Sir, the kid was just defending his home, we went in guns blazing and it was completely unnecessary, there was -no- offensive action taken against us, the mission changed half-way to the settlement and the next thing I know the pilot is strafing the damn place and slaughtering them. It was supposed to be a search and retri--" Ash spoke but was then interrupted.
"I've read your statement, Scarborough but that doesn't change a thing. You disobeyed a direct order from well above your rank."
"So what do I do now? Are you going to fire me or dock me for a ridiculous amount of time?"
"No... there's actually someone from Juno here to speak to you."

Ash's eyes went wide and his fingers curled into tight fists as irritation threatened to show itself. That was definitely something that was bad. Juno officials generally had little room for sympathy because so much of their personalities were dominated by being complete dicks. "You're fucking with me, right?"
"No, Scarborough. I'm stepping out until your meeting is over."
"Fuck me. Are they going to try and shove me down to patrolling the low tiers or something?"
"Find out for yourself." the Chief said, nodding to the door as it began to open.

The man stepping in wore a black suit with a name-tag clipped to the lapel, displaying his information and rank with JUNO dominating the background of the tag. He wasn't exactly tall but definitely not short, his hair was brushed back and as slick-looking as oil. Ash disliked him for his poor choice in hairstyle if nothing else. He looked about the room for a moment with ocular implants the color of dried blood and then at Ash, saying nothing. The Chief stood and excused himself as the official sat down, placing a briefcase on the desk before opening it. A pane quickly extended and began to show information that Ash couldn't read anything due to rear-scrambling on the back of the pane. The man looked up and examined Ash in a way that made him feel unnerved and just a bit nervous, his eyes were normal but the color was just... wrong, somehow.

"Mister Scarborough, I am a liaison for Juno. I'm here to discuss your inability to follow direct orders in a combat situation."
"Officer Scarborough." Ash corrected, his eyes leveling and his face going stoic.
"Officer Scarborough, my mistake," the man said, clearly irritated about that correction. "Regardless, you refused your orders in a situation that could have compromised the lives of you and your squad."
The stoicism was going thin. "I refused to fire on a child that was just defending himself. There were absolutely no other hostiles, we scoured the parts of the settlement that weren't destroyed or burning. There wasn't much at all."
"In a combat situation, Officer Scarborough, you are placed under the command of Juno military officers and their superiors. In this situation you are outranked exceedingly, even your Sector Chief would be similarly ranked."
"The Sector Chief would've been ordered to shoot a child by an asshole Lieutenant?" Ash returned.
"If he were in your squad he would have outranked Lieutenant Green but he would have only done so by an increment of one rank." The man clarified, seemingly happy to point out how high Juno officers were in comparison to Juno police forces.
"Well, we could've avoided shooting down children, in that case." Ash grumbled, eyes looking over the name-tag. Vanderbilt, Dane.
"I suggest you take this a bit more seriously, Officer."
"I'm very serious, this whole thing is a big fucking joke, though."
"Elaborate."

Ash sighed, running his hand down his face. "We were sent on a search and retrieval mission, we were about forty seconds away and then our commands changed to wipe the damn settlement out. We weren't given a reason, I -still- don't have a reason, that the settlement suddenly became a threat but If they wanted to fire on us they had plenty of time to prepare for it. There was no warning from the speakers, there was not a warning shot, there was not a single shot fired at us until we had been on the ground -shooting- at them for twenty seconds and even then it was one-sided at best."
"You lost three men in this 'one-sided' conflict, " Vanderbilt said "Just what enabled them to do that?"
"A fucking railgun, Juno tech or some really damn precise prototype-- maybe reverse engineered from scrap they found from the conflicts before the Christians left for war."
"Don't you think that outlanders in possession of this technology is dangerous?"
"Anyone with it is dangerous but they didn't fire on us. Was it possession of a railgun that killed that entire settlement? One fucking railgun that killed only three men in fight that we were dominating?"
"I'm not at liberty to say, Officer Scarborough."
"Don't give me that bullshit, there wasn't justification for our orders given to us."
"You -don't- get justification, you -follow- orders."

Ash growled, simmering in his coupled frustration and anger, the only thing tempering him at the least were the now-distant thoughts of Marie. She was really the only reason he would not mind going to prison for over this. There was no telling what his sentence would be but he would at least be put in prison with other such people, not street crime or murderers but people from the upper tiers of society who had fucked up somewhere along the way. Looking Vanderbilt over Ash studied a bit of skin he could see on the man's forearm, just above his wrist. Although it was upside down, it was some manner of an identification sequence. "What is that, anyway?" Ash asked, moving his hand to tap himself on his forearm for clarification.

"That's a Juno ID Sequence. They didn't cover that in the academy?" Vanderbilt asked, condescension in every syllable.
"No, they also didn't cover killing children either." Ash shot back quickly.
"I'm don't like your tone, Officer."
"And I don't like your hair, are we done here? You want to just go ahead and tell me what the hell you're going to slam me with?"
"I recommend you watch your words, Officer, not showing the proper respect to your superiors is a punishable offense."
Ash forced himself to reign in his frustration. "I'm aware. Can you not see how terrible this is?"
"I am paid to see what Juno sees, Officer, and I see a law enforcer who refused orders in a combat situation and endangered the lives of everyone in his squad. Possibly also allowed the deaths of three of his squad-mates due to reluctance to follow orders."
"That's bullshit and you know it, I did everything I was told until I was being pointed at a kid who was defending himself and told to shoot him."
"You were ordered to shoot the child, Officer, you did not follow that order."
"Could you do it, -Dane-? Could you shoot a kid point-blank in the face who was just defending himself?"
"I don't have to do it, Officer. That's your job."
"And your job is being a dick, I guess?"
"Officer Scarborough, I'm going to be lenient and not disclose exactly how unprofessional you have been today--"
"And I didn't even get you anything."
"As I was saying, I cam going to report to my superior and discuss the situation with him before we find out what exact punishment you will receive."
"I miss you already, Dane."

Dane Vanderbilt had lowered the pane, closed the briefcase, and slipped out before moving to a private office to make his report. The Sector Chief had moved to stand in the doorway of his office, shaking his head at Ash. Ash gave him a slight shrug and the Sector Chief grinned just a bit. It was likely he had wanted to say some of those words Ash had said to Juno officials himself. As time passed Ash spent the minutes thinking about Marie and the way she smelled, the heat of her skin, the sound of her voice, it was all wonderful. He wished he could just rewind the day and go through the night previous and the morning of the current day over and over. With a sigh, Ash crossed his arms and began to consider how stupid he was to have let his anger to flow from his mouth unfiltered.

Ash was facing a substantial suspension without pay at the least, at the most... well, he was fairly sure he hadn't crossed enough lines for 'that' punishment. The Sector Chief moved from the doorway a few moments later and Vanderbilt returned, sitting down and opening the briefcase again before turning it to face Ash. The pane extended and displayed the face of a Juno official Ash honestly couldn't even recognize, there were no designations upon his attire to show anything of the sort. Vanderbilt leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together, looking into Ash's eyes.

The man on the pane cleared his throat and shook his head. "Officer Scarborough, upon review of your actions we have come to a decision for disciplinary action."
Ash remained quiet, watching intently.
"Given the circumstances of your refusal to follow orders in a combat situation and your disrespectful attitude toward a Juno official we have come to the decision that you will be assigned to the Gutter for one week."
Ash's eyes went wide. Working the Gutter was the most dangerous post one could be assigned. The mortality rate was ridiculously high and few came back from the post alive. "Are you kidding me!?"
"No, Officer, you will be starting your assignment tonight at 1700 hours."
"This is bullshit!" Ash barked, hands smacking hard to the desk. "That's a fucking death-sentence and you know it!"
"Officer Scarborough, we have been very lenient in this decision. You will not be suspended without pay, you will not lose your job, you will not be forced to go through the academy again. This is a very fair disciplinary action."
Ash seethed, his hands curling into white-knuckled fists as he fought back the urge to beat Dane over the head with the briefcase. The asshole hadn't been lenient at all, he'd most likely told his superior every damn word. "So you're basically saying if I can come out alive, I'm fine?"
The man on the pane cleared his throat, "Officer Scarborough, this post is admittedly a dangerous one but I feel it is more than fair as a punishment for your actions."
"It's a wonder you didn't just put a gun to my head."
"We don't believe in such crude punishments."
Ash could see the irony in that statement like it were a flashing signboard. "Right. You'd take care of things a lot quicker if you just had the balls to put the gun to my head right here."
"You have until 1600 hours to retrieve your badge, gun, and gear. At 1600 hours you will check in with your Sector Chief and then go to your assigned post in the Gutter." The man spoke, his face unmarked by emotion.

Ash was staring at the man, wishing he could strangle every bit of life from him. A cop did not live long in the Gutter, if at all. The lawless nature of it all made officers exceedingly juicy targets for harvesting tech. Weapons, implants, even raw organs. He had only seen a handful of officers return from that post and they all looked like hell when they return. It was easy to see why law enforcement was targeted, really, and the thought of working that area for a week was just the same as staring down the barrel of a gun for Ash. Furrowed brows his eyes as his head leaned forward, his mind running through every dead or missing officer put to work in the Gutter. Suddenly it was all overshadowed by the fact that it was very likely that he would never be able to see Marie again after the hours he had left to return home.

Shit always rolls downhill, the saying went, and the thought of not seeing her again was exceedingly unfair. Ash let his anger and frustration clash in his head until the Sector Chief's voice brought him back. The Juno liaison had left and the Sector Chief sat in his chair, his face betraying a bit of sympathy. Ash looked at him with expectations of some sort of good news, something that might make things easier to handle for the next week. The Sector Chief sighed and shook his head. "Scarborough, I would contest it but it's above my reach. I know just as well as your how many officers never return from that post but... I'll see if I can't find you a heavy assault weapon, something to keep you alive."
"I appreciate that..." Ash trailed off, looking down at his legs.
"I had no control over sentencing."
"I believe you."
"So get out of here and go see your fam--" The Sector Chief cut himself off, recalling Ash had no living family. "Just... go and relax. Grab something to drink so you can just get shitfaced the moment you're off-duty."
"I've got that pretty well covered, Sir."
"I see. Well, we're all going to be waiting on you to return."
"Don't get your hopes up."
"Everyone knows those assholes love fucking us over but you can get through it."
"What about Stonewright, can he come and assist?"
"Phoenix has been assigned to desk work until the end of the week, he can't join you."

Ash growled in frustration, he couldn't even have the only man he trusted to watch his back with him in the middle of that shithole. "Juno do that, too?"
"I'm afraid so. They said something about it being a mandatory assignment, how studies show that it's good to take a week off the street every so often. I know he's going to be furious."
"I'm already there. So what do I do, just... write a fucking will?"
"You go and see everyone you care about and don't let them know a thing. That's my best advice. Go home, take a shower-- because you smell like alcohol-- call or message those who are important to you. Tell them you're on special assignment."
"I guess that works. I am pretty sure Phoenix will figure it out, though."
"He already has."
"Smart son-of-a-bitch."
"He'd be tearing through the offices if it would do any good. He can't do anything from a desk, we all know that. Just... go home, get a shower, relax a bit. If you have anyone to see, go see them."

As it turned out, Ash did have someone he wanted to see but he was unsure if he would be able to contact her. If there were one last mercy it would be spending the rest of his day with Marie and forgetting everything if only for a few hours. Ash nodded slowly and stood. "I'm going to get on that, sir." he said before turning and leaving. Every step he took dragged him further into a special kind of despair that made him want to lash-out at everything and everyone, everyone was now irritating enough to warrant a beating. After spending his time with Marie he had little hope for anything else. The Gutter was a deathtrap and everyone knew it. Word spread quickly enough that people was looking at Ash as he headed out and they were whispering amongst themselves about it. He was sure no one envied him but it was just the same, he didn't need sympathy, he just had to hope he could survive a week of it all and then return to service in a place that was not likely to kill him.

Some time later he had made it to his car and pulled out his communication hub. He dialed the number he had programmed into the device the previous evening, drunk. It took a full minute before there was an answer. Upon the fanned pane the image of Marie smiled at him. It made him forget everything for a few moments and he smiled back at her. Then, reality slowly clawed its way back into his head. Her smile faded when he went over what had happened and her eyes were full of something between sadness and frustration. She had tied to keep his spirits up, to keep his mind out of the dark places but it did little good.

"I need to see you before I leave tonight." Ash said.
"I'll be there, Cherub." Marie assured him.
"Thank you, Marie."
"For coming by?"
"No, just... for everything you've done to help me."
"I just showed you what you weren't looking at."
"Still... No one has ever bee able to help me like you have. It means a lot."
"I'm happy to do it, I'll be over within the hour. I have a small bit of business to settle and then I'll be right over."
"I'll be waiting for you."
"I know, Cherub."

Ash slipped the ID-stick into the steering column and started the engine, pulling out of the parking space he was given and quickly leaving the parking structure, moving through the air without much care for how fast he happened to be going. This could, and likely would, be the last chance he would get to see her and he wanted to make it count. He went over words in his head, things to say to express his gratitude to her for pulling him out of that depression. He could see her in everything at that moment and it was then shattered with the memory that he would likely be murdered and harvested within the next 24 hours. Furrowing his brow and sighing, Ash drove home. He might survive, who knew, stranger things had happened... but surviving gutter detail was one that hardly ever happened. Honestly, if it weren't for Marie, he'd have taken a bullet to the head right there. At least then they could bury him with all his pieces still connected

Description
Ash had arrived not a second too soon to be herded down the smooth corridors around the staggering number of office units on the third floor of the sector central headquarters. Like a hundred columns holding up the high ceiling, the office cubes were spaced evening and each had a door with panes displaying the name, rank, and current status of the offices and those who were assigned to them. Working his way along the corridors, Ash stopped at the largest office, staring at the pane on the door.

"Sector Chief Matthias Anderson. IN MEETING, DO NOT DISTURB" scrolled across the pane and as Ash moved to take hold of the old fashioned doorknob the door swung open and revealed the very unhappy face of the Sector Chief. "Get in here, Scarborough!" he barked, pointing to a chair before the massive synthetic wood desk. "You're late!"
"Sorry, Chief, I didn't even get a call until twenty minutes before you wanted me here."
"I had you contacted an hour before this meeting."
That asshole on the phone had fucked Ash by intentionally waiting until it would be impossible for him to arrive on time. "Who was working the call?"
"It's not important right now, Scarborough. Sit your ass down, we need to talk."
"Yes sir." Ash replied curtly, taking a seat.
The Sector Chief moved behind the desk and sat down in his immense chair. "Scarborough, you put me in a very bad position."

"I--" Ash began to reply.
"I'm not done!" the Chief barked, grunting. "When we get called out of reserve the chain of command becomes a lot more important. You disobey orders and it sends hell up to me. I have enough trouble with the other fuck-ups here, I don't need you adding onto it. You are a good cop, Scarborough, but when we're called out of reserve? Juno calls the shots. I can't do anything then, everything goes way above my level."
"Sir, the kid was just defending his home, we went in guns blazing and it was completely unnecessary, there was -no- offensive action taken against us, the mission changed half-way to the settlement and the next thing I know the pilot is strafing the damn place and slaughtering them. It was supposed to be a search and retri--" Ash spoke but was then interrupted.
"I've read your statement, Scarborough but that doesn't change a thing. You disobeyed a direct order from well above your rank."
"So what do I do now? Are you going to fire me or dock me for a ridiculous amount of time?"
"No... there's actually someone from Juno here to speak to you."

Ash's eyes went wide and his fingers curled into tight fists as irritation threatened to show itself. That was definitely something that was bad. Juno officials generally had little room for sympathy because so much of their personalities were dominated by being complete dicks. "You're fucking with me, right?"
"No, Scarborough. I'm stepping out until your meeting is over."
"Fuck me. Are they going to try and shove me down to patrolling the low tiers or something?"
"Find out for yourself." the Chief said, nodding to the door as it began to open.

The man stepping in wore a black suit with a name-tag clipped to the lapel, displaying his information and rank with JUNO dominating the background of the tag. He wasn't exactly tall but definitely not short, his hair was brushed back and as slick-looking as oil. Ash disliked him for his poor choice in hairstyle if nothing else. He looked about the room for a moment with ocular implants the color of dried blood and then at Ash, saying nothing. The Chief stood and excused himself as the official sat down, placing a briefcase on the desk before opening it. A pane quickly extended and began to show information that Ash couldn't read anything due to rear-scrambling on the back of the pane. The man looked up and examined Ash in a way that made him feel unnerved and just a bit nervous, his eyes were normal but the color was just... wrong, somehow.

"Mister Scarborough, I am a liaison for Juno. I'm here to discuss your inability to follow direct orders in a combat situation."
"Officer Scarborough." Ash corrected, his eyes leveling and his face going stoic.
"Officer Scarborough, my mistake," the man said, clearly irritated about that correction. "Regardless, you refused your orders in a situation that could have compromised the lives of you and your squad."
The stoicism was going thin. "I refused to fire on a child that was just defending himself. There were absolutely no other hostiles, we scoured the parts of the settlement that weren't destroyed or burning. There wasn't much at all."
"In a combat situation, Officer Scarborough, you are placed under the command of Juno military officers and their superiors. In this situation you are outranked exceedingly, even your Sector Chief would be similarly ranked."
"The Sector Chief would've been ordered to shoot a child by an asshole Lieutenant?" Ash returned.
"If he were in your squad he would have outranked Lieutenant Green but he would have only done so by an increment of one rank." The man clarified, seemingly happy to point out how high Juno officers were in comparison to Juno police forces.
"Well, we could've avoided shooting down children, in that case." Ash grumbled, eyes looking over the name-tag. Vanderbilt, Dane.
"I suggest you take this a bit more seriously, Officer."
"I'm very serious, this whole thing is a big fucking joke, though."
"Elaborate."

Ash sighed, running his hand down his face. "We were sent on a search and retrieval mission, we were about forty seconds away and then our commands changed to wipe the damn settlement out. We weren't given a reason, I -still- don't have a reason, that the settlement suddenly became a threat but If they wanted to fire on us they had plenty of time to prepare for it. There was no warning from the speakers, there was not a warning shot, there was not a single shot fired at us until we had been on the ground -shooting- at them for twenty seconds and even then it was one-sided at best."
"You lost three men in this 'one-sided' conflict, " Vanderbilt said "Just what enabled them to do that?"
"A fucking railgun, Juno tech or some really damn precise prototype-- maybe reverse engineered from scrap they found from the conflicts before the Christians left for war."
"Don't you think that outlanders in possession of this technology is dangerous?"
"Anyone with it is dangerous but they didn't fire on us. Was it possession of a railgun that killed that entire settlement? One fucking railgun that killed only three men in fight that we were dominating?"
"I'm not at liberty to say, Officer Scarborough."
"Don't give me that bullshit, there wasn't justification for our orders given to us."
"You -don't- get justification, you -follow- orders."

Ash growled, simmering in his coupled frustration and anger, the only thing tempering him at the least were the now-distant thoughts of Marie. She was really the only reason he would not mind going to prison for over this. There was no telling what his sentence would be but he would at least be put in prison with other such people, not street crime or murderers but people from the upper tiers of society who had fucked up somewhere along the way. Looking Vanderbilt over Ash studied a bit of skin he could see on the man's forearm, just above his wrist. Although it was upside down, it was some manner of an identification sequence. "What is that, anyway?" Ash asked, moving his hand to tap himself on his forearm for clarification.

"That's a Juno ID Sequence. They didn't cover that in the academy?" Vanderbilt asked, condescension in every syllable.
"No, they also didn't cover killing children either." Ash shot back quickly.
"I'm don't like your tone, Officer."
"And I don't like your hair, are we done here? You want to just go ahead and tell me what the hell you're going to slam me with?"
"I recommend you watch your words, Officer, not showing the proper respect to your superiors is a punishable offense."
Ash forced himself to reign in his frustration. "I'm aware. Can you not see how terrible this is?"
"I am paid to see what Juno sees, Officer, and I see a law enforcer who refused orders in a combat situation and endangered the lives of everyone in his squad. Possibly also allowed the deaths of three of his squad-mates due to reluctance to follow orders."
"That's bullshit and you know it, I did everything I was told until I was being pointed at a kid who was defending himself and told to shoot him."
"You were ordered to shoot the child, Officer, you did not follow that order."
"Could you do it, -Dane-? Could you shoot a kid point-blank in the face who was just defending himself?"
"I don't have to do it, Officer. That's your job."
"And your job is being a dick, I guess?"
"Officer Scarborough, I'm going to be lenient and not disclose exactly how unprofessional you have been today--"
"And I didn't even get you anything."
"As I was saying, I cam going to report to my superior and discuss the situation with him before we find out what exact punishment you will receive."
"I miss you already, Dane."

Dane Vanderbilt had lowered the pane, closed the briefcase, and slipped out before moving to a private office to make his report. The Sector Chief had moved to stand in the doorway of his office, shaking his head at Ash. Ash gave him a slight shrug and the Sector Chief grinned just a bit. It was likely he had wanted to say some of those words Ash had said to Juno officials himself. As time passed Ash spent the minutes thinking about Marie and the way she smelled, the heat of her skin, the sound of her voice, it was all wonderful. He wished he could just rewind the day and go through the night previous and the morning of the current day over and over. With a sigh, Ash crossed his arms and began to consider how stupid he was to have let his anger to flow from his mouth unfiltered.

Ash was facing a substantial suspension without pay at the least, at the most... well, he was fairly sure he hadn't crossed enough lines for 'that' punishment. The Sector Chief moved from the doorway a few moments later and Vanderbilt returned, sitting down and opening the briefcase again before turning it to face Ash. The pane extended and displayed the face of a Juno official Ash honestly couldn't even recognize, there were no designations upon his attire to show anything of the sort. Vanderbilt leaned back in his chair and laced his fingers together, looking into Ash's eyes.

The man on the pane cleared his throat and shook his head. "Officer Scarborough, upon review of your actions we have come to a decision for disciplinary action."
Ash remained quiet, watching intently.
"Given the circumstances of your refusal to follow orders in a combat situation and your disrespectful attitude toward a Juno official we have come to the decision that you will be assigned to the Gutter for one week."
Ash's eyes went wide. Working the Gutter was the most dangerous post one could be assigned. The mortality rate was ridiculously high and few came back from the post alive. "Are you kidding me!?"
"No, Officer, you will be starting your assignment tonight at 1700 hours."
"This is bullshit!" Ash barked, hands smacking hard to the desk. "That's a fucking death-sentence and you know it!"
"Officer Scarborough, we have been very lenient in this decision. You will not be suspended without pay, you will not lose your job, you will not be forced to go through the academy again. This is a very fair disciplinary action."
Ash seethed, his hands curling into white-knuckled fists as he fought back the urge to beat Dane over the head with the briefcase. The asshole hadn't been lenient at all, he'd most likely told his superior every damn word. "So you're basically saying if I can come out alive, I'm fine?"
The man on the pane cleared his throat, "Officer Scarborough, this post is admittedly a dangerous one but I feel it is more than fair as a punishment for your actions."
"It's a wonder you didn't just put a gun to my head."
"We don't believe in such crude punishments."
Ash could see the irony in that statement like it were a flashing signboard. "Right. You'd take care of things a lot quicker if you just had the balls to put the gun to my head right here."
"You have until 1600 hours to retrieve your badge, gun, and gear. At 1600 hours you will check in with your Sector Chief and then go to your assigned post in the Gutter." The man spoke, his face unmarked by emotion.

Ash was staring at the man, wishing he could strangle every bit of life from him. A cop did not live long in the Gutter, if at all. The lawless nature of it all made officers exceedingly juicy targets for harvesting tech. Weapons, implants, even raw organs. He had only seen a handful of officers return from that post and they all looked like hell when they return. It was easy to see why law enforcement was targeted, really, and the thought of working that area for a week was just the same as staring down the barrel of a gun for Ash. Furrowed brows his eyes as his head leaned forward, his mind running through every dead or missing officer put to work in the Gutter. Suddenly it was all overshadowed by the fact that it was very likely that he would never be able to see Marie again after the hours he had left to return home.

Shit always rolls downhill, the saying went, and the thought of not seeing her again was exceedingly unfair. Ash let his anger and frustration clash in his head until the Sector Chief's voice brought him back. The Juno liaison had left and the Sector Chief sat in his chair, his face betraying a bit of sympathy. Ash looked at him with expectations of some sort of good news, something that might make things easier to handle for the next week. The Sector Chief sighed and shook his head. "Scarborough, I would contest it but it's above my reach. I know just as well as your how many officers never return from that post but... I'll see if I can't find you a heavy assault weapon, something to keep you alive."
"I appreciate that..." Ash trailed off, looking down at his legs.
"I had no control over sentencing."
"I believe you."
"So get out of here and go see your fam--" The Sector Chief cut himself off, recalling Ash had no living family. "Just... go and relax. Grab something to drink so you can just get shitfaced the moment you're off-duty."
"I've got that pretty well covered, Sir."
"I see. Well, we're all going to be waiting on you to return."
"Don't get your hopes up."
"Everyone knows those assholes love fucking us over but you can get through it."
"What about Stonewright, can he come and assist?"
"Phoenix has been assigned to desk work until the end of the week, he can't join you."

Ash growled in frustration, he couldn't even have the only man he trusted to watch his back with him in the middle of that shithole. "Juno do that, too?"
"I'm afraid so. They said something about it being a mandatory assignment, how studies show that it's good to take a week off the street every so often. I know he's going to be furious."
"I'm already there. So what do I do, just... write a fucking will?"
"You go and see everyone you care about and don't let them know a thing. That's my best advice. Go home, take a shower-- because you smell like alcohol-- call or message those who are important to you. Tell them you're on special assignment."
"I guess that works. I am pretty sure Phoenix will figure it out, though."
"He already has."
"Smart son-of-a-bitch."
"He'd be tearing through the offices if it would do any good. He can't do anything from a desk, we all know that. Just... go home, get a shower, relax a bit. If you have anyone to see, go see them."

As it turned out, Ash did have someone he wanted to see but he was unsure if he would be able to contact her. If there were one last mercy it would be spending the rest of his day with Marie and forgetting everything if only for a few hours. Ash nodded slowly and stood. "I'm going to get on that, sir." he said before turning and leaving. Every step he took dragged him further into a special kind of despair that made him want to lash-out at everything and everyone, everyone was now irritating enough to warrant a beating. After spending his time with Marie he had little hope for anything else. The Gutter was a deathtrap and everyone knew it. Word spread quickly enough that people was looking at Ash as he headed out and they were whispering amongst themselves about it. He was sure no one envied him but it was just the same, he didn't need sympathy, he just had to hope he could survive a week of it all and then return to service in a place that was not likely to kill him.

Some time later he had made it to his car and pulled out his communication hub. He dialed the number he had programmed into the device the previous evening, drunk. It took a full minute before there was an answer. Upon the fanned pane the image of Marie smiled at him. It made him forget everything for a few moments and he smiled back at her. Then, reality slowly clawed its way back into his head. Her smile faded when he went over what had happened and her eyes were full of something between sadness and frustration. She had tied to keep his spirits up, to keep his mind out of the dark places but it did little good.

"I need to see you before I leave tonight." Ash said.
"I'll be there, Cherub." Marie assured him.
"Thank you, Marie."
"For coming by?"
"No, just... for everything you've done to help me."
"I just showed you what you weren't looking at."
"Still... No one has ever bee able to help me like you have. It means a lot."
"I'm happy to do it, I'll be over within the hour. I have a small bit of business to settle and then I'll be right over."
"I'll be waiting for you."
"I know, Cherub."

Ash slipped the ID-stick into the steering column and started the engine, pulling out of the parking space he was given and quickly leaving the parking structure, moving through the air without much care for how fast he happened to be going. This could, and likely would, be the last chance he would get to see her and he wanted to make it count. He went over words in his head, things to say to express his gratitude to her for pulling him out of that depression. He could see her in everything at that moment and it was then shattered with the memory that he would likely be murdered and harvested within the next 24 hours. Furrowing his brow and sighing, Ash drove home. He might survive, who knew, stranger things had happened... but surviving gutter detail was one that hardly ever happened. Honestly, if it weren't for Marie, he'd have taken a bullet to the head right there. At least then they could bury him with all his pieces still connected