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[sH0tgUn jUliA]

The sarge gave Ereba and Shayrana the all clear signal to move past the opening and ahead to their next cover position. Now it was their turn to cover for Ranassa and T as they moved up the right side. Ranassa and T took cover behind an overturned delivery truck.

"Okay sarge, move out." Ranassa said, then she felt something wrap around her ankle. "What the ****? They're down in the sewers!" She started shooting and took off running ahead to Soniri's position. T followed her.

Husks pushed the grates off the storm sewers and they started pouring out onto the street. Soniri, Errika and T provided some cover while Ranassa set up the LMG. Shayrana pulled out her assault rifle and was ready to unload, but Ereba pushed it down.

"They've got this. We're low on thermal clips be ready to provide covering fire for them when they fall back to our position." Ereba said to her.

T was throwing warp bombs at the husks, and the sarge dropped a couple of grenades down the storm sewer. A large explosion could be felt all the way to Ereba's position. No more husks emerged.

"What did you hit down there?" T asked.

"I don't know." Soniri replied. "Probably a gas pocket, and that took out anything that was left. I think we can make it the rest of the way."

Soniri gave the signal. The teams moved toward their respective buildings. Shayrana heard a moan inside one of the buildings they passed by, but it an organic moan. They shined a light inside and found an Alliance soldier propped up in a corner of the front room. The door to the back was barricaded shut.

"I'll keep watch." Ereba said. "You check him."

"Hey, soldier. Where's the rest of your unit?" Shayrana asked him.

"Dead." He coughed. "I'm all that's left."

"What's your name?" She asked him.

"Sean." He said.

"I'm Shayrana."

Sean tried to talk. "We were making the push to the beam, clearing this flank for Shepard's squad when we were hit by brutes and overrun by husks. *cough* *cough* *cough*"

"Your leg, it's broken in the femur and tibia." Shayrana said. "And from the looks of things you're bleeding internally. Ereba, see if you can reach base. We need a med evac."

"I'll try. 'Artemis to base. Artemis to base. Over......'"

"You really think they're going to come?" Sean said. "We're getting our arses kicked out here. It'll be a buggering miracle if we even punch through to that bloody beam."

"Look at me, Sean." Shayrana said. "Eighteen of my platoon was killed in a bombardment, and I shot my lieutenant as she was turning into one of those monsters. I'm not going to lose you. Don't give up on me. We'll get you out of here."

Ereba poked her head in. "I'm sorry. No dice on the med-evac. There are no shuttles available." Ereba said. "Mission critical only. We're expendible."

Shayrana held his hand and tears started rolling down her cheeks. "It's alright ma'am." Sean said. "You tried. The best thing you can do for me is kill me so they don't turn me into one of those things."

"You have a side arm. Why didn't you..." Shayrana asked him.

"Against my faith." He replied. "Please."

"You don't know what you're asking." Shayrana said. "Please don't make me do this."

"I hate to break up the party in there, but we've got incoming." Ereba said.

Sean grabbed her hand firmly with what little strength he had left. Shayrana could shoot him, but he was very weak. She could hear gunfire outside. They were low on thermal clips. With her condition, even as low grade as it was, bonding would probably kill him, and she could use the extra biotic power right now. And she could guide him into the next realm while she was absorbing his energy. He would find it pleasurable.

"Hurry!" Ereba said.

"Are you ready, Sean?" She asked, and she pressed her pistol between Sean's jaw and windpipe.

Sean nodded.

"Goddess forgive me." Shayrana looked into Sean's eyes. She smiled, and her eyes blackened. "Embrace Eternity."

Sean smiled as he slipped away into the light.

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 16 juillet 2013 - 12:46 .

[Redbelle]

The citadel transway was more packed than usual as hover cars buzzed by the Presidium. The buzz of traffic would have been a welcome diversion had Wyld been able to take her attention off what she now faced. There was a enemy, a singular enemy, with one face but had, over the course of it's existence, plagued the lives of countless hundreds of thousands of perhaps billions of people in the time since it had first come into existence.

Well Wyld would conquer it, and prevent it from adding one more to it's collection of victims.

Jan stared down at the Volus stood behind the customer service desk, who for the past ten minutes, had remained as still and quiet as a statue. She drew in a deep breath.

“English! En-ger-lish...... Do you un-der-stand what I'm saying”? The Volus continued to simply look up at her. If it hadn't been for the hiss and wheeze of his gas exchange she would have sworn she was talking to an inanimate object.

“IS... ANY... OF... THIS... GETTING... THROUGH”???

“What is the problem here”.

Jan grimaced. The tone, the slightly off modulation of the voice. The question in general. She turned around and sure enough there was a Turian C-Sec officer standing behind her. “Morning. I was just”....

“This Earth Clan is pestering me and <hiss> disrupting my business”

“Uh huh”. The Turian brought up his Omni-tool and started taking notes. “Start from the beginning. What's she been doing”.

“Wait a min...” Began Wyld, but the Volus was already talking over her. “<Hiss> She has been making <Hiss> Wild and disparaging remarks about me. <Hiss> She is noisy and rude. <Hiss> I want to press charges for her being a public <Hiss> nuisance”.

“Uh huh”. The Turian turned to Wyld. Look Ma'am, I can tell you this isn't the first time we've had complaint's from this”..... He paused as he grasped for the right word, aware of who else was in earshot. “Fine upstanding citizen. But unless you have actual business here I'm going to have to ask you to move along. I assume there's nothing pressing you can't find at another store”?

And that was the hell of it Wyld thought. She did have pressing business at this store. Business that had arisen during her time at the Purgatory night club. Business she'd gotten to drunk to remember much of the details about. But had written down. As even, drunk out of her mind, she understood the words she had written down, were ones that she could not write lightly.

Quarian at this address. Afternoon appointment. Can. Help. Me. Dance. Again!!! !!!! !!!!!!!!!

Those were words that not even a visit to the citadels largest alcohol depository, with the intention of making a significant dent in it had been able to blur into nothingness.

Waking up the next morning in the hospital had been unfortunate. But that was hardly important now.

“I'm here to see a Quarian. He said he worked here. I have an appointment”. She looked down at the Volus who was fidgeting. “He told me, At this place. At this time. So here I am”. She looked back up at the C-Sec officer. “It's a medical matter, you see. Private”. She added.

The Turian huffed and looked down at the Volus. “Ok Sorla. Looks like you've picked on the wrong human today. I know a Quarian works here. Go get him”.

“<Hiss> You must be <Hiss> mistaken. <Hiss> There is no one else <Hiss> Here toda......”

At that moment a Quarian walked out the back room and looked at Wyld. “Your late. Come along then corpsman let's look at these legs of your”.

Wyld and the Turian both fixed the Volus with a glare. “Except that one”. He admitted.

Thanking the officer Wyld went with the Quarian to the back room of the shop, which, after closing the door behind them, became quiet and cut off from the sounds of the Presidium.

“Now then”. Said the Quarian. “Remove your trousers and go and sit on that bench over there”.

Wyld looked over at the bench which seemed to polished to a gleam. Looking around the room she saw that it too was as neat and pristine as the bench. With all the wall space being filled with cabinets and worktops.

“Did you hear me Corpsman”?

“Ah”.... Wyld hesitated. “Sorry, but..... Could you tell me who you are first”?

The Quarian sighed. “I suppose the number of shots you put away last night would make anyone forget any conversation they had. No matter the level of impact it would have on ones life”. He went over to a terminal and started punching in number's. “I suppose I should be grateful you even turned up. My boss outside delayed you I gather”?

“You could say that”.

“Well then”. He said looking up. “My Quarian name is Koran. No vas anything these days”. he went on. “Decided that our galactic image was so bad I'd bring a bit of Quarian know how to some of the galaxies problems”. He looked up suddenly. “How are your ribs by the way”?

Jan winced. “Bruised I'm told”.

“Not surprising”. Koran went back to his work. “You did get into a fight last night”.

Jan's memory was hazy at best. “What happened”?

“Trousers off! I'm not about to replace those abominations to engineering when I can't get at them”.

Jan paused, then slowly unbuckled her belt as she walked over the bench. As she undressed Koran explained. “As it so happened an Asari took offence to a young soldiers incessant propositioning and tried to have her guards handle the situation”. He paused. “You however saw what was going on and went to pull him out”.

“Why'd I do that”?

“Well..... at the time you were worried that every soldier in the bar would protect one of their own and be up against a very powerful biotic”.

“How'd I know she was powerful”.

“I told you. As well as telling you her name was T'loak”.

“Huh”. Said Wyld as she pulled the legs of her trousers over the flat metal panelling of her prosthetics. “Can't say I recognise the name”.

“Neither did you recognise it last night. You pulled the boy out and were about to leave yourself. That's when one of the guards said something you didn't like”.

“How do you know”?

“You hit him”. Koran explained as he brought out a tool from a drawer and powered it on. “You punched him so hard he flew into the Asari. That was when things got a little tense”.

Wyld thought hard. The dim memory of an Asari hitting her seemed to be nearly within recollection.

“She however deemed using biotics in a room full of Alliance soldiers was not wise so she slapped you”.....

Wyld rubbed the side of her face. “I wondered where that bruise came from”.

“You then punched her”......

Wyld looked down at her fist and flexed her aching knuckles.

“To which she grappled you and gave you a few solid rounds to the sternum”.

Bruised ribs...... Check.

“At which point you tried to kick her away, though the drive chain to your right leg slipped it's cog and rendered that leg useless”.

Wyld brow furrowed. It was like listening to another persons fight and receiving all the damage. Hardly fair.

“At which point you pushed off with your other leg and managed to throw both yourself and her over the balcony onto the floor below”.

Hence the overnight at a hospital she supposed. Along with a medical chart that said, possible concussion. Well at least she didn't have a concussion...... she thought.

“So. All in all a fairly rough evening for you”.

“Cripple”. Wyld said abruptly.

“Excuse me”?

“The bodyguard”. Wyld's memory of the evening suddenly flooded back. “He called me a cripple and that I shouldn't pretend to be a soldier”.

Silence seemed to stretch. Broken only by Koran walking forward and running his scanner over each of Wyld's prosthetics. “Hmmm”. He mused. “You seem to be running these at less than optimal peak efficiency”.

“Alliance rules”. She explained. “Maintenance means that when not on active patrol, everyone who uses this model has to run them in power saving mode. That means”.... She went on. “..... That I only get full use out them when I am authorised to be on a mission”.

“How are they when you run them at full power”?

“Heavy. Like walking with Mako's for legs. But they operate well enough to let me keep up with the squad”.

“And when not on mission's”?

Wyld sighed. “Just heavy”.

“Any times you have used full power when you shouldn't have”?

Jan paused. There had been one time. She had been in a different bar, before the war, on the Citadel. Nursing a scotch and watching as soldier's talked and flirted with the opposite sex.

No one did that with her. The whole leg thing was well known. It was as if she had a sign above her head saying 'less to love'. She spotted another woman alone at the bar. Felt a momentary respite that she wasn't alone in not being able to score a guy before a walking slab of rippling muscle and good looks walked up to her and said something. The woman laughed. They talked and left together. Jan sighed. Strike 1 for the sisterhood, she lamented.

Then he had showed up.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and she turned to meet the most drop dead gorgeous specimen of male manliness she could ever hope to conjure up in her imagination.

He'd said something.

She laughed.

And the evening seemed to melt away till it was just the two of them.

They'd gone round to her place. He was talking and smiling. She was getting nervous about how far he'd want to take the evening. Not because she didn't want to go all the way. She did.

God did she want this.

She needed to feel his warm embrace and lose herself in another human being. The feeling of closeness and heat and sensual melting into each others arms as they mutually surrendered to one another. She'd wanted this for years and she knew it could happen tonight.

But like all the others. No one had ever seen past her handicap.

When they'd reached her place she bitten the bullet and told him outside her door. She expected him to walk away.

Instead he's started nuzzling her.

Then he started, kissing her.

Before she knew it they were falling through the door and as a lark she'd put her legs into full power mode and carried him to the bed.

She could hardly breath from the thrill of anticipation as they had torn off each other clothes.

Then things had settled down, soft sighs and slow caresses. He was atop. She was taking her fill of his insane presence. Then she found herself unable to wait and her legs had come up and scissored around him. To pull him closer.

His scream woke up nearly all the neighbours she'd later found out. As she scrambled for the vid comm she already knew what the doctors later told her.

She had crushed his pelvic region.

His recovery would take years. And rehabilitation would take even longer. After being admitted to hospital he'd been medically released from the Alliance military almost immediately after the accident.

It was not the discharge she'd been hoping to end their evening on.

“Corpsman Wyld”?

She abruptly came back the present as she saw Korans faceplate hovering in front of her.

“Corpsman, have you ever run your legs at full power when you shouldn't have”?

Wyld held up a single finger between them.

“Once”. She admitted. “And never again”.

Modifié par Redbelle, 14 juillet 2013 - 09:17 .

[Redbelle]

Koran looked at his scanner. “Ms Wyld, May I call you Ms Wyld?”

Jan nodded.

“Ms Wyld, these legs seem ideally suited for combat, but I'll be frank. They will kill you one day”. He moved away to a cabinet and punched in a code to the lock. “The drive chain, the lack of control over the power management system. The simple fact that cannot adapt to their circumstances”. He looked over. “The leg may not require the ambidexterity of the hand, but those we are born with are still capable of feeling a situation and responding accordingly. Those”.... He pointed at the prosthetics attached to her. “Are machines. Metal constructs that were built to do a job and only that job. And I can tell you this. Keep those limbs and you will never dance again”.

Jan felt her eye's get hot which she blinked away rapidly. “How do you know I want to dance”?

“You told me last night”. Came the response. “You were so inebriated I could have asked for your credit code and gotten it”.

“Why”?

“For the money. Luckily I'm not interested in becoming a petty crook who prey's on those who have to much to drink”.

“No I mean.....” Jan took a breath. “Why are you doing this for me”?

“Two reason's Ms Wyld”. The cabinet swing open and he fussed over something inside. “The first is that I am extremely keen to get away from from that fat oaf outside and take my skills somewhere were they are appreciated”?

“And the second”?

“All in good time. Now then....”

Without warning Koran crossed the room, took hold of one of Wyld's prosthetics, and running a tool over the join seal, pulled it off and placed it to the side.

“Hey”! Wyld exclaimed batting him away. “What do you.....”

“You either want to dance again or not. Do you Ms Wyld”?

“I didn't say you could just take them off”! Wyld just managed to keep her voice down from screaming at him. “You can't just pull my legs off”!

“Your legs?” Without warning the tool came down and the other came undone faster than the last which he tossed aside.

Wyld felt sick to her stomach.

“Those were never your legs Ms Wyld. They were something made by someone you never met who never asked what you wanted from artificial leg constructs you rely on to lead any kind of quality existence. They have broken in the past. You've probably been to see an engineer about them more times you've seen a doctor for a cold remedy”!

Wyld was suddenly aware she was in a sound proofed room with a Quarian who had effectively immobilised her. And was starting to sound agitated. She was wondering how any of this was a good idea as she gripped the bench, wishing it wasn't so clean, that something heavy was within reach to grab. Her legs were within easy reach. Resting by her side, but they were made to go on and off with a tool. She couldn't just jam them back on. And the tool was with the Quarian walking to the cabinet.

Well if worse came to worst she could beat him to death with her own legs. She certainly felt like it right now.

He stopped outside the cabinet. Reached in and withdrew two long limbs. They dangled from his grasp. Swaying freely as if made of nothing rigid. “These will be your legs from now on Ms Wyld. They will give you full freedom of movement. They will exceed your dreams of what you ever thought possible. These, will give you your life back”.

She peered at them. “Are those, Geth legs”?

“Not exactly”. Koran said as he walked towards her. Jan braced herself on the bench, but he simply knealt down to her side and held one up to where the tip of her thigh ended. “It is true that the Geth use limbs like these. But they are no more Geth than a microchip taken out of a computer and placed into a Geth processor hub is that computer”. He looked up at her. “These are parts. Built according to the technological prowess of those who make them. And these, while made using the same techniques, are modified for organic use of someone like yourself”.

“So they'll just be more prosthetics I'll need to have retuned sometime”?

“My word Ms Wyld”. He said holding one up to her stump. “You'll never need see anyone to tune anything again”.

He aligned the prosthetic to her stump and as it made contact, Jan could feel an almost sticky sensation before it seemed to adhere itself to her. She looked down at the sinuous mass of what looked like exposed muscle without skin to cover it and wondered what the foot looked like.....

….. and gasped as her innate desire to move caused her leg to bring itself up and stop exactly where she wanted it.

She also almost kicked Koran in the faceplate.

“Ms Wyld”! He exclaimed as he dodged out the way in time. “Please refrain from moving until I tell you”!

“Sorry”!

She let her leg..... funny, she thought. I think it's my leg already? She let it fall back down and it dangled there, over the side of the bench. Taking a moment she looked down at the foot and saw it was a simple pointed wedge. No toes to grip with, she thought wishing she could flex her foot out. Her desire was met a moment later as the wedge split into three sections. Now they were two smaller wedges separating out from the main while a point at the back came out from the side. She knew this foot configuration. Koran had the same. Every Quarian did. She looked up as Koran sealed the other leg into place.

“You gave me Quarian legs”?

“Ms Wyld I must insist you stop moving them till I adapt them to your physiology”.

“But there Quarian, In design”.

“Of course”. He stated. “All Quarian biotechnics are built to ape our physiology. Now hold still. They seem to have adapted to muscle signals your nerves send out. Now I have to adapt them to send signals to those nerves”.

“Send them”?

“You'll be able to feel sensation”.

Jan looked at him with incredulity. “Making prosthetics that can move isn't hard. But what your talking about is the.... the holy grail of prosthetic technology! You can't just say you've YEEOWW”!

Jan's right leg jerked as Koran produced a small pin from nowhere and stuck it in the sole of her foot.

“I'm sorry Corpsman. Were you saying something”? Jan couldn't see behind the visor but she could imagine him smirking in there. “Now. I'd like you to stand if you can”.

Jan couldn't wait. She hoped off the bench. And nearly fell as her legs crumpled under her. She caught the bench edge just in time and heaved herself upright.

“Unlike the legs you are used to. These have no internal or external skeletal structure. They will bend and move in any direction as a result. You need to adapt to walk while maintaining muscular focus of the synthetic fibres”.

Jan struggled to understand what he had just said. “And that means.... in English”?

Koran sighed. “If you keep the synthetic muscle active the muscle itself will work in place of bone. All while, retaining a greater field of motion”.

Jan struggled to stand. “It's hard”.

“Reach for the pin”. Koran held the pin above Wyld's head, out of reach. Jan gritted her teeth and pushed up with her legs. And that was it she realised. Just keep pushing up. And in a moment, she was standing tall enough to reach the pin.

“Very good.” Koran nodded. “Now, I could go on about what these could do, but you’ll get the hang of them faster if you just go about your daily routine. But there is one feature that will require explanation”.

“Which is?”

“Molecular attraction forces”.

Jan tilted her head. “Huh?”

“The nature of atoms and and molecules to attract one another”.

“Huh?”

Koran sighed. “The physical chemistry understanding of how anisotropic forces between two molecules relative to the orientation of the molecules can generate........”. He stopped as Jan's blank, slack jawed gaze continued unabated. “Keelah corpsman”! He exclaimed. “How did you ever become a medic without an understanding of science”!

“Yeeeah”. Jan said slowly. “I'm more of a biologist when it comes to the science”.

“And you've never studied your own Earth Gecko”?

Jan paused. “I don't think the army uses Gecko's in battle. So, no. I've never had to treat one”.

Koran pointed to an open section of wall. “Just place your foot on the wall, dig your toes in and walk up it”.

“Your joking”.

Koran's voice carried a serious note to his icy response. “I never joke about my work Ms Wyld”.

Jan walked up to the wall, aware that Koran's gaze was drilling into her back. With a shrug she decided to humour him and, splitting her toes, placed a foot on the wall and dug her toes in. Her toes didn't to much as scratch the finish of the wall, but that was unimportant as she lifted her leg to propel her up and found that her foot was stuck to the wall. She was so surprised that she forgot to dig in and fell back down. Landing on her other leg.

“Again”. Koran said behind her.

Jan looked at the wall. Set her jaw in determination. Reached out. Dug in once more.

It stuck to the wall like glue. She tried to bring her other leg up but found the weight of her body was to much to stand as normal when she was ninety degrees to the plane of gravity. She crouched and brought her body closer to the wall so she was propelling herself upwards, rather than dragging herself up. She reached the top of the wall. And continued as she stepped onto the ceiling and hung suspended there, one foot holding her for a moment as the other moved to join it. She paused before setting it down. She felt perfectly anchored. She tried lifting a toe of the foot and still she stayed in place. She put herself on tip toe and still she clung on. It was unbelievable. She looked over at Koran.

“This.... Is.... AWESOME”!!!

“Simple science Ms Wyld, and I..... DON'T DO......”!!!

Giddy in what was happening Jan took a step, then another. Till finally, she felt like skipping. So she did. The moment both feet left the ceiling she came crashing down and only with a deft spin in mid air did she avoid landing on her head.

“….that”. Finished Koran. “Don't do that. Unless you want another trip to the hospital”.

Jan got up on all fours. Shook her head. Got back on her feet. She looked over at the wall again. Then with a running leap planted a foot high up on it as she pushed off and flipped herself backward bring her other foot around and over so that it skimmed the ceiling. She stopped in place and hung once more. “Look at me”! She called down. “I'm like a human spider”!

“Gecko, Ms Wyld”.

“This must be how spider's see things all the time! Well, when they're upside down at least”.

“And Gecko's, Me Wyld. Now if you could come back down.....”.

“So that make's me like a spider”.

“Ms Wyld. If you could just.....”.

“No, not like a Spider”. She said, not listening to a word he said. “It's like I'm some sort of amazing....... Spider-Jan”.

“MS WYLD”! Koran shouting got her attention. “Will you come down now”?

“So you can stick a pin in me again”?

“Of course not”. He nagged. “That can wait till you've fully acclimatised”.

“I guess you'll just take these off again if I don't come down. Right”.

“No”. He sighed. “Those are now biometrically sealed to your body. Only you can remove them”.

“What?” Jan crouched, then rolled herself into a ball till she was almost doing a handstand with one leg in the air as she detached with the other. She fell and this time, landed on her feet as she turned to the Quarian. “You mean no one can take these from me if I don't want them too”?

“There are means and ways but all of them involve far to much time and effort. And a court order”. He explained. “These are intended to be legs for life. Not best fit replacements like those”. He pointed to her old prosthetics. “Now, for the purpose of payment”.

Jan's hairs on the back of her neck crept up. She knew there had to be a catch somewhere.

“This is the sum total of what those legs cost to produce and manufacture”. He handed her a pad and she looked at the bottom number.

Soooooo many zero's. She thought, eye's widening. Never mind that she could keep the legs by not taking them off for him. She wanted these! She wanted there to be no question that these were hers.

Koran cleared his throat. “If that is, however, unsatisfactory, I have a proposal.”

Jan looked up.

“I want to work for a medical company that specialises in artificial limb replacement”. He explained. “Sadly, my work has resulted in only the prosthetics you now wear. To demonstrate my ability I need my work to stand up on their own merits”.

Jan sighed. “Ba boom ching”!

“Wha...”? Koran head titled in puzzlement. Then he understood. “Oh. Yes. I might use that in the advertising...... At any rate.....”. He went on. “I require you to simply go about your daily life and let me now how well they work. I am confident there will be no issues to take affront to”. He went on. “But having someone with a rough and tumble life style such as yourself, who has a medical background and is already accustomed to life as a prosthetic user would benefit me greatly”.

Jan needed no more persuasion. “It's a deal”!

“Good. Most good. Though to help me in this endeavour further......” Koran suddenly looked around the room and leant in close, his voice at a whisper. “May I...... photograph you, in them”?

Jan blinked. “I guess that would be ok”.

“All of you?”

Uh oh. Jan felt she was beginning to see another side to Koran. “I'm good as I am. Thanks”.

“Without trousers”?

Jan was abruptly aware that she had taken them off earlier for the fitting and was having this conversation in her underwear. Koran looked on. Hand's rubbing together in nervous anticipation.

Well it wasn't like she didn't owe him.

“Sure”. She squeaked. Then cleared her throat. “Ok. But these do not go out to anyone. Not on the extranet or to anyone else without asking me”. She dropped her voice an octave. “Or they will never find the body”.

Koran nodded vigorously. “And can you dance while I shoot”?

Jan felt herself smile at the notion. “Let's see if I remember the steps first. We'll go from there”.

Modifié par Redbelle, 16 juillet 2013 - 12:26 .

[Redbelle]

Jan left the back room with a hop and skip in her step.

She had danced!

It had been awkward at first, and she was not where she had been all those years ago. But her new legs.........

They were graceful and sleek, and slipped through the air with the greatest of ease and.....

“<Hiss> What have you two been up to in my back room?!? <Hiss> Earth Clan”!

And completely on display for all to see. She looked down and suddenly remembered her trousers were still on the bench in the room. So giddy with having danced again as Koran took image after image she had simply grabbed her old legs. Thanked him profusely, and walked out the door humming to herself.

She was now standing in a store front with a irate Volus in her underwear.

“Hold these”. She said as she handed the Volus her old legs and called into the back. “Koraaaan”?

Her trousers came flying out the door. Catching them she quickly put them on as the Volus struggled to look over the pile of prosthetics in his arms.

“<Hiss> I will not stand for this, <Hiss> lewd behaviour from <Hiss> customers”.

“Koran started it”.

The Volus seemed to tremble in indignation. “This is, <Hiss> The last straw! <Hiss> I never want to see you here < Hiss> again. <Hiss> Do you hear me Earthclan”?

“Loud and clear.” Sealing her trousers up she took her legs back. “Though now I have to wonder if all Quarian underwear's crotchless”.

The Volus was silent as her statement registered. Then spluttered several curses and remarks after her retreating form.

Jan meanwhile was whistling to herself.

She'd danced.

Actually danced again!

She had spun and pirouetted. She'd leapt and kicked and moved in ways the legs she carried could never have allowed.

She could live a normal life again! Because right now..... Right now she felt as light as a feather. The only weight that begrudged her were the limbs she carried over her shoulder. And they were no longer a part of her. She was free to do things as just another regular person.

And that thought made her come to a complete stop in the Presidium. What was a normal life for her? Since she'd made the life choice to go into medicine, all to find legs that would let her dance again, she'd come to the conclusion all those years ago that it was a pipe dream. No such prosthetics had existed back then. She'd thought she'd shut down that dream of continuing to dance, and had focused on serving the military, who had given her the finance she'd need to complete her med school training. Going into combat medicine and becoming a soldier had simply been payback for what the military had done for her. But now......

Did she still want to be a soldier?

The answer was yes. She did. But that was because she had seen no other avenue to take. Now she had options. Another tour of service in the military had been her plan. But now...... Could she pick up on her dancing again? Stage a comeback to the scene?

And wouldn't that be perfect advertising for Koran. The amputeed girl who lost her dreams, but had them given back to her by a masked man whose face she had never seen.

Her Omni tool blinked and she looked at the display. She had been summoned to dispatch. That was perfect. She'd get a new assignment and talk to them about what her future could hold.

The prospect of leaving the army altogether was frightening in many ways. It was the only place she had ever had the chance to set down roots after all. She needed to talk this out.

She stopped off at her at her assigned quarters to drop off her former legs. Then walked up to dispatch. Skipping a few times along the way.

Modifié par Redbelle, 16 juillet 2013 - 04:09 .

[Khambilo]

2 years ago

“You know Reiza would flip if she caught you guys,” Rothan said, narrowing his gaze.

Lenaia groaned and Celis rolled her eyes as she took another swig from the bottle of Thessia Red. A little bit dribbled out of the corner of her mouth as she giggled. “You’re just upset because you can’t have any.”

“I am not!” he said, indignant. “I’ve never had a drop of alcohol in my life.”

Celis nearly spit up her recent swig of the alcohol.

“What?” Lenaia said incredulously as she snatched up the bottle from Celis. “Seriously? You’re nineteen and never had a drink? Damn, you are sad, you short lived Quarian bastard.”

Rothan sighed and looked away, already knowing where this was heading.

“That’s it,” Celis said. “We’re sneaking back out to that liquor store and snagging you a bottle of some Turian spirits.”

Lenaia sniggered at the play on words. “Turian spirits!”

Celis did not catch the pun at first, but was soon doubled over in laughter at the lame pun as well. It was their third bottle of Thessia Red.  Celis and Lenaia's contraband party in the dorm was beginning to get out of hand.  Rothan shook his head as his Asari friends as they bounced on Rothan’s bunk. He took a quick glance around to see if anyone was looking. Luckily there was nothing. Alcohol was strictly forbidden to academy students, despite that all students were of legal drinking age. Being impaired in any way while trying to master biotics was a bad decision, but that did not stop Celis and Lenaia, or numerous other students for that matter, from smuggling in drinks from the liquor store just off campus. 

“Do they call it spirits on Palaven?” Celis pondered through a giggle.

“Probably not,” Lenaia spouted back. “Sacrilege and all.”

They each took another swig. Then Lenaia plopped onto the bunk beside Rothan. “Goddess, I can’t believe you haven’t had a drink before. I bet you’re a virgin too.”

“A what?”

Celis blinked once. “A virgin.”

Rothan shook his head uncomprehending.

“Goddess, please tell me you know what sex is,” Lenaia said leaning closer to Rothan. Even through his suit, he could smell the stench of alcohol on her breath.

Rothan recoiled a bit “What? Of course I do. I just didn’t—“

“****, you are!”

“No!” Rothan yelled. “Well yes, but I— its—I mean---“

“Called it!” Celis sneered.

Lenaia crooned off the side of the bed, cupping her hand to the side of her mouth as she shouted out the door. “Hey, Niria, Rothan’s a virgin!”

“Not really surprising!” Niria’s voice returned from down the hall.

“I mean it makes sense, I suppose,” Celis said pouncing up on the bed beside him. “I mean if you’re going to do it with another Quarian, you would have to do it in a sanitary place, you know, so you don’t getting sick, which if you’re a horny teenager in the Migrant Fleet, that’s gotta be hard to come by.”

“R-Right,” Rothan fumbled. “I mean that doesn’t stop some kids, but it does—“

“Stop you.”

“E-Exactly.”

“Typical. Niria’s right about you being such a baby.” Celis said with a chortle.

Rothan wasn’t sure if that was a joke, but he strained a small giggle anyway.

“Tell me,” Lenaia asked playfully as she snuggled closer to him. “What features do you find most attractive in Quarian girls?”

Celis curled closer as well, effectively surrounding Rothan. He stammered a little, feeling heat rise under his visor.

“I—I don’t—“

“Okay then,” Celis smirked. “What features do you find most attractive in Quarian boys then?”

“Eww, no. It’s not like that,” Rothan quickly shot in. Lenaia and Celis high-fived each other over Rothan. “Hips!” Rothan finally spat out.

“Hips?” Lenaia asked. “Like big round hips?”

“Well not too big,” Rothan said.

“Show us,” Celis jeered.

Rothan shrugged and traced out a vague silhouette of a Quarian female in the air. When he finished, the girls collapsed back into the bed laughing.

“What!” Rothan attempted through the laughter. “What is so funny?”

“You just did this,” Lenaia said through hysterics. She made a similar gesture but exaggerated the hips portion of her invisible Quarian gal.

“I did not!”

“Did too,” they countered in unison.

Soon the laughter subsided. Then Celis burrowed in closer, tucking her hand through the crook in Rothan’s arm. “You know,” Celis cooed mockingly, “most of the other races consider asari to be attractive.”

“I know,” Rothan stammered. He remembered a few boys at school back in the fleet who managed to get their hands on a copy of the Asari-only edition of Fornax.

“Okay, Rothan,” Lenaia giggled. “Here’s your challenge question of the day. Out of our whole class, who is the most attractive to you?”

Rothan’s throat felt dry. “Guys, c-come on.”

“Ooh answer it,” Celis said as she traced a pattern in Rothan’s suit with her finger. “Is it Lenaia?”

Lenaia gave a sidelong smile as she mockingly caressed her hips. “Or is it Celis?”

Celis giggled. Meanwhile, Rothan was glad that his visor obstructed his blushing face. “I-I—“

“Don’t be shy,” Lenaia jested. “Niria maybe. Gendri? No wait, Solara!

Celis nodded in agreement. “Solara. It’s gotta be her. You seen that girl’s hue?”

“Damn,” Lenaia said to herself. “I’m too busy checking out those curves to notice her hue.”

Rothan remained silent, praying that this moment would end sometime soon.

“No? Who is it then?” Celis demanded.

“Maybe he has it hot for teacher,” Lenaia suggested to Celis.

“Ooooh.”

“Stop it,” Rothan laughed.

“Not until you say a name,” Celis urged.

“Deira.” Lenaia suggested.

“No—“

“Shaelin?”

“I—“

“Uthra?”

Rothan took a second to think about. If he gave them a name they would probably stop, and even as he reviewed his time on Thessia, only one name came to mind.

“What’s this I hear about Rothan being a virgin?”

It was unmistakably Firelle whose head was crooning through the doorway to their dorm room. Even in the dim light, her skin was a luminous aquamarine shade. He could even make out the purple streaks running the length of her scalp and the glinting golden flecks in her green eyes.

Firelle had been the name on the tip of his tongue and now with her in the room, he couldn’t bear to say it.

“Just torturing, Baby,” Celis answered. Her chirping voice broke Rothan from his reverie.

“You guys do that enough,” Firelle laughed. Then she glanced over at the mostly empty bottle in Lenaia’s hand. “Is that some Thessia Red?”

Lenaia nodded. “Want some?”

“No thanks,” she responded. “Have my ABEs tomorrow morning.”

The Applied Biotics Examinations were being administered all week, and annual exam for every education level at the academy, which determined if you could advance to the next training level. Rothan had completed his earlier that week, but results would not be posted until everyone finished.

Celis bolted up from Rothan’s bed. “****! I totally forgot! I have mine tomorrow too!”

“What!” Lenaia exclaimed. “You never said—“

“I just said I forgot,” Celis yelled.

“Damn! You’ve got a couple hours to sober up, right?” Lenia said.

Celis wasn’t paying attention anymore. She was pacing around “I’m gonna fail. I’m gonna fail.”

Now it was Rothan’s turn to torture them “I told you that was a bad idea.”

“Shut up,” they said in unison. Celis was already tearing up, clearly on the verge of drunken collapse. Both she and Lenaia shoved past Firelle in a hurry.

“Those two…” Firelle sighed.

“Uh… yup,” Rothan answered. “How about them…”

Firelle remained in the doorway staring down the hall at the bawling Asari then back to Rothan.

Say something. Anything. You idiot. He thought.

“Come here often?”

“Huh?”

Stupid. Rothan fumbled. “What I mean is, I don’t see you... uh around here… often.”

“Yeah, my dorm is on C block,” Firelle explained. “I was just visiting Niria. She’s studying, so figured I drop in, say hello. Then there was all this commotion”

“Oh yeah,” Rothan nervously smiled. “Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize,” Firelle chuckled. “Though you should probably hide the evidence”

She was pointing to the empty bottles of liquor scattered around Rothan’s bed. He quickly scurried over to the remains and snatched the up.

“Here,” Firelle said. “I’ll take them. There’s a public trash receptacle on my way back to C block. No one will ever know about this little party.“

She discretely rushed into the room and took the bottles from Rothan’s hand, her fingers brushing over his as she did so. She stuffed the bottles into her bag, then leaned in.

“By the way,” she whispered. “If you want to get back on Celis for the prank she pulled on you last week, she hates spiders.”

Rothan looked to her. She winked with a devilish smirk.

“Just food for thought,” she grinned. “Good night!”

Then she rushed off down the hall, back towards her dorm.

“G-good night!” Rothan called after her. Then he mentally cursed himself some more for not having anything better to say.

~~~~

“Rothan.”

The voice came soft, but it was enough to rouse him. Rea squeezed his shoulder, searching his face with an expression of pain herself. It wasn’t fair. Rea did not know any of them. How could she possibly know how far he had fallen?

“We need to move out now.”

He looked up at Rea, whose pained gaze reminded him once again of all he had lost. He could not bear to look at her. Instead, Rothan gazed at the civilians who remained hunched against the tunnel walls, finishing the remains of the ration packs they had been given.

Somewhat separated from the other Misfits sat a girl, cradling a stuffed animal. While the Misfits were teens or young adults, this girl looked barely out of childhood. Her face and scraggly red hair were matted with dirt and grime. She looked pale, sickly even. From across the tunnel, her green eyes locked onto him. Questioning him.

“Rothan?”  Rea’s hand was still on his shoulder. She squeezed a little, giving him a reaffirming nudge. Finally, he pulled himself to his feet.

“Sorry,” he said quietly.

Rea bit her lip. “There’s nothing to apologize for,” she whispered.

Perhaps to Rea there was nothing, but to Celis, Lenaia, Firelle, and all the others, there was plenty to apologize for. He had utterly failed them in every way.

Rea moved to the center of the tunnel, calling out to everyone. “We’re moving out!”

Elderis and Hylar immediately formed up on Rea, while the Misfits shambled to the center. Their lack of military training could prove problematic. Protecting the missiles and protecting the Misfits could come at odds down here. Rothan knew that if it really came down to it, protecting the missiles would come first, something the Misfits would never understand.

“Which of you consider yourself to be the best shots,” Rea addressed the civilians. Hugh’s hand as well as a few others shot up. Rea gestured for them to come forward then took them aside. She was likely giving them orders.

Moments later, they were moving. Rea and the Misfit elite took point while Arkeer pulled up the rear. Two of the other Misfits carried the missile rig for now, though it was likely that those duties would be traded off.

The lighting got no better as they travelled further down the rails. Rothan himself was wondered how the Misfits did it when Rea asked about it.

“It’s amazing what you can do with a little bit of liquor and some matches,” said the dark haired girl. Her tone was confrontational, as if Rea was suggesting that she was somehow less capable.

Rothan meanwhile immersed himself in omnitool data on the missiles. Firing them would be easy, provided they fired like other ML-77s, but configuring guidance and maintain accuracy would prove tricky unless he could figure out the modifications. He was making some progress when Rea slipped beside him.

“I got word from Grelk,” Rea said, as if calling his attention. Rothan refused to look her way but she continued all the same. “He says he was finally able to establish radio contact with Hammer.”

Rothan remained fixated on his omntiool, unable to look at her.

“Missile squads like us are making their way toward the beam,” Rea continued. “A coordinated strike will take down the Reaper, guarding the Conduit beam. Then Hammer slips onto the Citadel and ends this whole thing.”

“Good,” Rothan grunted in monotone. “I’ll have these working in no time.”

Rea gave a slight smile as she moved away. There was nothing the she could say to him now that would make him feel better.

Modifié par Khambilo, 17 juillet 2013 - 02:48 .

[Kel Riever]

The ponytailed girl was on point. Rea watched as she scanned with her Mattock. Hugh had explained that the scavenged gun had a thermal imager, one of the Misfits treasures. Rea asked as they walked, “What’s your name, stockings?”
 
The girl continued her scan, and answered curtly, “You can call me A. Q., sister.” 
 
Hugh chuckled. He was walking on Rea’s left while Arkeer was on her right. The dusty haired youth casually carried an old Mantis over his shoulder and sauntered as if he didn’t have a care in the world. If the asari had been less observant, Hugh would have looked like he wasn’t taking anything seriously. But she noticed his footfalls were quiet, and his eyes gauged each of his team members intensely. “Don’t be too concerned, Rea. She just hasn’t figured out if she likes you, yet. I personally have always found her to be a bit of a snob.”
 
“That’s only ‘cause I got standards, you mutt,” A. Q. jibed back, “Standards you’ll never meet.”
 
“A. Q. is what she likes us to call her,” Hugh continued, with a smirk on his face, “That’s for Ashanti Queen. She says her family can be traced back to royalty in Ghana, but of course when we found her, she’d been scrounging around like the rest of us.” 
 
“This gun shoots people, too,” A. Q. warned her pesterer.
 
Rea took a look behind where two of the stronger Misfits were hauling the rig along. The turians seemed to settle into their role as immediate guards for the missiles, more comfortable now that they had defined roles. Rothan busied himself on his omni-tool. Rea’s attempts to get the quarian through whatever he was experiencing didn’t seem to help, and she thought about what her father would say. Trust your fellow soldier. When the rounds are in the air, you’ll find out who they really are. 
 
A skinny, red-haired girl followed Rothan. She seemed to watch him closely. As with most of the Misfits, she was scruffy looking. But Rea watched her green eyes pop out from all the unkempt mess. The girl wore a pair of black, adult sized shoulder pads. They were grimy, like the rest of her, but showing through the grime was a bold, hand painted, “N7,” insignia. 
 
A. Q. held up her hand for the group to stop. She studied a point down the tunnel, and then stepped quietly backwards until she came to Rea and Hugh. A. Q. whispered, “There’s a train up ahead, and three husks outside it. Might be more inside.”
 
Arkeer raised his shotgun, but Hugh hissed, “Keep your hair on! We’ve got to stay quiet.” He looked at Rea, “This is a shank job. A. Q. and I can do this with one of you.”
 
“I’ll go,” Rea affirmed. Hugh and A. Q. slung their weapons and pulled out long knives from their coats. Rea shut off her suit’s light, secured her pistol in her holster and drew strange looks from the two when she didn’t produce any other weapons. “Come on,” Rea urged, “Let’s make this quick. Everybody else remain here.” Hugh and A. Q. shrugged.
 
The three advanced into the darkness. Rea felt conscious of the sound of her footsteps, though she made as little noise as she could. As the ambient light from the others behind them began to wane, the asari struggled with maintaining their stealth as their path was littered with debris. Hugh, sensing her trouble, reached out to steady and guide her. Some minutes passed as they travelled, and they were enveloped in blackness. Yet Hugh’s steps remained confident of where they were headed. Eventually they came to a halt.
 
Distinguishable through the gloom in front, dim blue lights could be seen slowly swaying about. Rea knew they were the husks, and the barest hint of the train could be seen behind them. She felt A. Q. press her face right next to her ear and talk softly into it, “It’s just the three. The scope shows the train’s empty. Hugh and I got this. Help only if we bodge it.”
 
Rea gently pulled A. Q.’s arm and spoke under her breath, “Trust me, this is my specialty. Wait.” A. Q. tried to clutch her in protest, but she yanked away and approached the husks.
 
None of the husks reacted as Rea shuffled her way forward, no longer aided by Hugh or A. Q. She lit the lamp on her suit to a soft glow. The three grotesque forms froze momentarily, and then they began running at her. Rea raised her arm to them and concentrated.
 
The first biotic throw hit the lead husk and flung it back into the second, crumpling both forms. A gurgling moan emanated from the third monstrosity and it closed. Hugh stepped up to Rea’s side, knife ready. But when the husk was only a few meters away, Rea crouched and set off her second biotic throw, blasting the husk upward at the ceiling. It made a revulsive thud on impact, and then fell to the ground, motionless. Rea slowly turned up the power on her lamp so the three could see normally.
 
“Nice, sister,” A. Q. approved as she sheathed her knife. “I was wonderin’ about you. But maybe I do like you now. Just a little bit, though. Don’t push it.”
 
The three heard a far off wail further along the tunnel. Rea felt as if her neck became ice and the incomprehensible horror in the back of her mind grew. She saw the color drain out of her two companion’s faces. An unknown amount of time passed, and another wail could be heard, but was barely discernable, and further away.
 
Hugh shuddered, “That’s Moaning Myrtle. Quitting us, I hope. We need to get out of here. That rig of yours will be a pain to put past the train anyway. Best if we use a service door a bit up ahead I know of, and we can use those corridors to get us further.”
 
Rea questioned, “Who?”
 
“Never you mind that,” Hugh shot back, “Let’s get back to the others. If we’re lucky, everything will work out fine.”
 
A. Q. was already jogging back to the rig. Hugh waved Rea on. As she picked up her pace, Rea wondered exactly what the Misfits hadn’t told her about, yet.

[Redbelle]

“I'm CAT6”!?!?

Jan slammed her hands down on the table as she shot out of her chair, so fast, it tipped over behind her. She was in the dispatcher's office. She had expected to have been given a new assignment. Most likely a squad to shadow while they were on some mission. Tasked with their mission while supporting them as the teams field medic. That was just the way things worked. Instead of that however.......

“CAT6 is for dishonourable discharges”! Jan exclaimed. “I've done nothing to warrant that, sir”. She added on the end. Aware that the dispatcher was looking at her sternly. Sternly, she thought, but oddly, happy. Or perhaps, satisfied? Self satisfied she decided as she took a step back to take a closer look at the man. He also had bags under his eye's and a slight twitch in his right hand she noted, dispassionately, even as her rational mind was under assault from the notion that CAT6 could be applied to her.

“Look Wyld”. The dispatcher voice could have soothed a Krogan in a battle rage. “It's no good. You've been skirting the edges of bad behaviour for years. That fight in Purgatory was the last straw”.

“I was provoked. I was trying to stop a fight and a Batarian provoked me”!

“And caused the fight you seemed to wish to avoid”? The dispatcher clucked. “Face it Wyld. You finally got collared as a bare faced liar and a time bomb waiting to go off. The alliance doesn't need you. Which reminds me.....” He added. Opening a drawer and placing a prosthetic removal tool on the table. Those legs you use are alliance military property. I'll expect them back before the end of the day”.

Jan looked at the tool with disdain. “I don't......”. She began, then stopped. It wasn't this pencil pusher's business what had happened earlier with Koran. “Look”. She tried. “I know what the CAT6 criteria is. Part of my job is to monitor troops morale and their frames of mind. I don't qualify”!

“It's immaterial Wyld”. The dispatcher waved her off. “This decision was made above you. The fight in the bar. The failure to save those who relied on you when out on the field. The number of reprimands you've had since being in the service. And now on top of that, we're in a galactic war”. He shook his head. “You'll thank me for this one day Wyld. Your better off out and getting the help you need. Now leave. Before I have to call security”.

Jan was about to argue some more when she saw his finger move towards the intercom. “Fine”. She said holding up her hands. “I'll go”. She stormed out of the office in a foul temper. The little ****** had just called her incompetent. Undisciplined. Came to within an inch of calling her a damn traitor. And for what? A fight at a bar? Alliance soldier's got into those practically every night across the galaxy! It was just a fact that soldier's had more steam to blow off than regular people. They didn't get CAT6'd for it. And calling in every reprimand. Those were slaps on the wrist. Something to call on if a soldier did something truly awful to back up a discharge claim. Which to her mind. She hadn't! And then, her face clamped down as her muscles tensed and her hands balled into fist's. Daring to blame her for the deaths of every man and woman she hadn't been able to save?

Unforgivable. Unfathomable. Ignorant!

She hadn't killed any of them. Someone else, usually with a gun, had done that. And her intervention's over the years had saved more than she'd lost. She knew that. She hadn't thought of it in those terms before but somehow, it just couldn't be true. Something was wrong. The whole thing felt off. And she'd find out what after she found something to kick. She spotted a fire fighting cupboard down the hall and wondered if they still stocked buckets with sand. She could use a good bucket to kick. When she noticed someone standing next to it blocking her path.

Two security officers stood by either side of him. She came to a halt as she recognised the person being flanked.

Admiral Hogan. The man who effectively ran this department. Who sent troops to where they were needed. Or cut them loose when they fell from grace. And he was standing in her way with two guards. She noticed the batons in their belts. Armed guards? From a promising start the day was fast going downhill.

“Admiral”. Jan stopped in front of him and saluted. Determined to be on best behaviour. “I know what this is about. But I swear I have done nothing to warrant being CAT6”.

Hogan nodded. “I know”.

“The fight, fight's.....”. She admitted. “I never started any of them. Except the one in Purgatory. But that was more to do with defending the honour of the alliance military”!

“Completely understand, corpsman”.

“And I know it'll come up later but these new legs are brilliant, sir! They may not be alliance issue but I've got full range of motion again with none of the drawbacks of the old ones”.

“We'll have to see if they can be made standard issue then”.

“So discharging me and dragging me out under guard is......” Her brain finally caught up with what the Admiral had been saying. “Wait..... You agree with me”?

“Corpsman, let me be clear with you on something”. Hogan waved his guards back a step as he he took a step closer to Wyld. “You are not CAT6'd because I have not signed off on anybody being CAT6. Yet, I've found my thumb print of numerous discharge orders for a lot of people over the past few weeks cropping up.” He paused as he drilled her with a straight look. “Yours came through ten minutes ago and they came from that office”. He pointed to the office Jan had stormed out of. “So if you'll excuse me. I'm kind of busy putting my house in order”.

It was at that point that the dispatcher chose to leave his office. Then all hell broke loose.

Hogan spotted him and levelled a finger over Wylds shoulder. “You stop there”. He shouted. “I've got question's for you”.

The dispatcher paused as the guards moved past Wyld and the Admiral as Wyld began to turn down the hallway. She never saw the gun come from under the back of the dispatcher's uniform jacket. As shots rang out the dispatcher made good on his job description, and both guards crumpled to the floor. Jan meanwhile grabbed the fire cabinet door and flung it open. She felt a sharp pain crease the top of her upper arm. Then the Admiral cried out as he grabbed his shoulder, even as Wyld grabbed him and hauled them both behind the open door, as far against the wall as they squeeze themselves. The door was no match for the gun. Bullet holes appeared as more shots rang out. But without a line of sight they appeared in the centre of the open cabinet door, where the dispatcher thought a person would be crouched. Wyld watched as parts of the door simply exploded out till finally, it stopped. She reached out a hand. Looking for a weapon.

“Get him”. Hogan growled through gritted teeth as he clamped a hand over his shoulder. But Jan was ahead of him. Throwing herself forward she skidded round the fire door and ran full tilt for the end of the hall. The dispatcher saw her coming and turned to run back inside the office. Hands fumbling for a thermal clip. Jan covered the distance, looking down to see that in her hands, she held a fire axe. She threw her shoulder against the door and was surprised when the door sensor, registering her as wanting access, slid the door open before she made contact. She fell forward and skidded across the floor as more shots rang out. Jan just had enough time to see the dispatcher firing from one hand while he keyed his terminal with the other before he disappeared as she skidded under his desk. She wasted no time.

Before he could fire through the wood, she brought her legs up under the desk and pushed as she rolled backwards. The table went flying into the dispatcher and he and the desk hit the window at the back of his office. There was the sound of a crack and shattering glass. Then the table fell back on the floor, revealing the dispatcher. Back against the broken window. Gun still in hand. He raised it, pointed it at Wyld. And shouted “You didn't save my son! All of you”!

Jan saw the axe on the floor. Her foot separated out as she brought it down on the axe's handle. Then she dove to the floor as more shots rang out, passing overhead. She hit the floor. Spun and snapped her leg around releasing the axe that flew straight for the dispatcher.

It struck him just above his right eye and he was spun around as he fell backwards. He scrambled for something to grab hold of, but the broken glass in the frame simply made his efforts impossible as he slashed his hands to ribbons. He disappeared over the edge even as Jan lunged to grab his legs, coming to within an inch of grabbing hold. Then he was gone.

Jan lay on the ground breathing hard. Then heard a soft thud from outside. The screaming happened moments later as she looked up at the broken window. Being careful of the glass she got up and looked over the side to see the dispatchers body lying several levels below her on the presidium. Blood pooled around his head as a crowd gathered around him.

“Where is he”?

Jan looked around at the door and saw Hogan leaning on it. Hand still clamped over his shoulder. Jan immediately went over and righted a chair.

“Sit”. She ordered. “Off your feet, sir”. I'll summon medical”.

“Where is he”. Hogan ground out. Still sounding angry, but taking the offered seat. He was looking pale.

“Pancaked, sir”. Hogan looked up incredulously. “Out the window”.

“Suicide”?

Jan grimaced. “If you call throwing an axe at his head and knocking him out of a window then yes. If not, then it was self defence”.

“With an axe”? Hogan looked paler and Jan moved his hand to examine the wound. Straight through. Bleeding but not profusely. Probably hadn't hit anything vital but she'd leave that to the doctors as she closed her hands around the wound as he slumped back. Right now, he seemed more in shock than anything else.

Minutes later the medical team arrived. After that Hogan had been whisked away while Wyld was grilled over what had happened to result in two dead guards and a wounded admiral. With the perpetrator now a dead smear on the lower presidium floor.

Jan told them what she knew. Video evidence and Hogans secretary supported Wylds claim and Hogans suspicion's that the dispatcher had been falsifying CAT6 reports and adding them to the system.

As it turned out, the motive wasn't all that hard to discern. The dispatchers surname, when revealed to Wyld, reminded her of another younger man who had fallen afoul of a Brute while her squad had been patrolling. The names of those who had been CAT6'd were all squad member's of that patrol. Then branched out to people those squad members knew, and so on. All of which had been blocked thanks to Hogans efforts before he had gone tot he dispatchers office.

All except one.

The dispatcher had started a new file, independent of the others, solely for the woman who had failed to save his son's life. It had been separate from the others and had not been prevented from being uploaded into the system. Which was what the dispatcher had been doing as Jan stormed his office. Destroying his desk had also destroyed his terminal and by the time anyone had figured out what had happened the file had made it into the central system that only admiralty could touch. And Hogan had gone into shock and was unable to help.

The end result was that Wyld's file had been updated across the galaxy. Now everyone who ever looked at her record would see words. The words no soldier wanted to see on their file. On display for all the galaxy to see. Printed in bright red capital letters.

Jerry-Ann Wyld

CAT6.

Modifié par Redbelle, 17 juillet 2013 - 10:47 .

[Redbelle]

Wyld made the long trip back to her bunk.

It had been a long day.

A new set of legs, which was good. Then banned from the shop she'd gotten them at, which was bad. Then summoned to the Alliance dispatch office where she'd been CAT6'd, which was bad. Only to discover she wasn't, which was really good.

Then..... she'd been present when the dispatcher she'd seen had shot two security men dead, which was really, really bad. Hit the admiral who would live, and grazed her enough to draw blood, before he'd faked the admirals ID signature, that really had resulted in her being CAT6'd. Just before she'd all but thrown him out of a window.

There was no category of bad to sum up how badly things had developed in that office. The only saving grace was everybody in that office knew the story and had managed to clear some of her security clearance’s to stay active. Her military extranet access was still up, though significantly parred down. Her citadel transport privileges were now restricted to free public transport as long as she kept the e-receipts and put in a claim. She was continually being told by the Avina VI to report to the C-Sec office's wherever she went. Only to be reset by C-Sec when Avina started forwarding alerts that Wyld was ignoring requests. At which point the VI would cycle back and start the process all over again.

And that wasn't the worst of it.

The central system was tracking her and forwarding messages to every military officer she came within fifty metres of that she was CAT6'd and had to be taken to dispatch for processing. She'd already left dispatch twice only to be carted back by a group of Turian's and a squad of Alliance marines. The only comfort was the chewing out she'd seen them get by the senior dispatch officer, who was busy trying to get the department working again while part of the office was shut down as a crime scene. Finally the officer had had enough. He called a Kodiak pilot in and under a C-Sec escort, Jan had been returned to her barracks while the officer called ahead to tell the Sargent in charge that she was, under no circumstances, to be removed, or allowed to leave the barracks.

Which left her trudging down the empty hall towards her room where she bunked. Everyone else was either out on the town, or away on assignment, or just.....

Screw it, she thought. I'm going to bed, and when I wake up, it'll have all been a dream. That meant no dead people. No Volus hurling abuse for not being a Volus. No CAT6 on her record. She looked down. And no legs that she had forgotten about, she realised. The legs of her trousers hid the sight but the wedge shape of her foot poking out reminded her. She smiled. To have forgotten she relied on Prosthetics.

Koran did good work.

She straightened. Craned her neck to ease some tension there and rounded a corner to her room.

She stopped. And groaned.

The Batarian she'd punched in Purgatory was standing outside her door, dressed in armour with his arms folded across his chest, looking straight at her. Next to him stood an Asari she had never seen before wearing the popular drapes Asari favoured in high office. Together they made an odd couple. The Asari beckoned and Wyld approached, with caution.

“Greetings corpsman Wyld”. The Asari purred. Up close, Jan had to admit, the Asari looked stunning, even by their standards. “My name is Lendra I was asked by those I represent to ease the passage of your meeting”.

Wyld looked at the Batarian. “We've met”.

Lendra's laugh was like honey. “Not this one. The one whom he protects”.

“Look....”. Jan stifled a sigh. “It's been, very nearly, the worst day of life. I don't want to meet people now. I want to go inside and bunk down the night”. She nudged past the Batarian who growled as he had to take a step back. “So if you don't mind.....”

“Not at all Jerry-Ann”. Lendra said. “The person you will be meeting is inside as we speak”.

The door slid open and a moment later voice came from inside. “That will be all, Lendra”.

“Of course mistress.” Lendra bowed towards the door. “And if it pleases you. Counsellor Tevos asked me to extend her warmest regards”.

“I'm sure”.

Lendra bowed once more, smiled at Wyld, and turned to leave. Only the Batarian was left. He jerked his head towards the door. “In”.

Wyld walked inside. Eager to be done with what ever else the day had planned for her. As she entered, the door slid closed behind her. As it did something flew towards her. She reached out and grabbed it in mid air.

It was one of her prosthetics she'd replaced that day. Someone was going through her stuff, she realised. She looked up in the direction the leg had come from.

“You”.

The Asari she'd thrown over the balcony the previous evening was standing, leaning a hip against her table, holding her other leg while running a finger over the shiny surface.

“For someone who has to rely on other means to walk. I'll grant you have, some taste”. She looked up and let go of the leg, leaving it to fall and bounce off the floor before coming to a rest. The Asari casually walked over it and stopped just a few metres from Jan who was glaring at her.

“How are the ribs”?

“How's the eye”? Jan noticed a slight swelling and a patch of not quite right colour indicating that she was wearing make up over, what Jan assumed, was a real beauty of a shiner. Though to think about it, she wondered. Did Asari get black eye's? or did they just turn, what in this case, would be a darker shade of purple?

The Asari sneered. “Better than you after you fell off that balcony”.

“I threw you off too”.

“I can survive falls from hi places. You landed hard enough to break your legs”.

“Good thing they're not made of flesh and blood then or I'd have really been in trouble”.

Both woman regarded each other till the Asari half turned away. “I assume you know who I am”.

Jan made a show of squinting up at the ceiling as if in deep thought. “Sorry. No idea”.

“I find that hard to believe”.

“Really”. Jan said earnestly. “No idea. I got the name T'loak but I could probably find a dozen T'loak's in the classifieds”.

The Asari looked over with a cruel smile tugging the corner of her mouth. “Not even Aria T'loak”?

Jan shrugged. “Sorry. Not ringing a bell”.

“Of Omega. The mining asteroid”? Aria's eye's narrowed as she looked over Wyld's face for any trace of deceit. “You haven't heard of Omega”? She made a dismissive snort and shook her head. “You Alliance type's are all the same”.

“Uh huh. Try studying interspecies muscle and skeletal systems. Doesn't leave alot of time for seeing the galaxies tourist spots..... Look". She said sighing. "It's late, so cut to the chase. What do you want”?

Aria's turned sharply. Her words, though controlled implied the violence Jan saw in her eye's. Both the good one and the bad. “I don't make visits on people like you lightly. It's not in my interests to tolerate people who talk to me that way. You made the mistake of making me look weak at the bar”. She leveled a finger. “Push any more....... and I'll make you suffer”.

“So you need medical help? Try a clinic. Or a cold press over that eye”. She added smugly. “Or I could snap on a glove and see if I can remove that stick up your......”.

The glow of Aria's biotics was all the warning she got as she was suddenly driven backwards. Without thinking about it, she dug her feet into the ground. Her feet suddenly refused to move even as the rest of her was flung back. Time seemed to slow as she felt, what seemed like a strong wind rushing past her as it pushed her towards the ground. Then it was gone and she hit the ground with a jolt.

She looked up and saw Aria stepping forward, a look of momentary confusion on her face that she had not flung Jan against the wall. But was instead, just a few feet from where she stood. Jan wasted no time and pushed off the ground and up. She leapt into the air. Her right leg bent at an impossible angle that would other wise have cripled a normal person as her foot grabbed Aria's shoulder.

Jan's surprise recovery and charge caught Aria off guard and she went down with Jan on top of her. Jan pinned her arms above her head and for a moment they lay on the ground. Glaring at each other.

“In case your wondering”. Jan ground out between clenched teeth.. “I'm all kinds of hot for you right now”.

Aria's face suddenly went from angry to something else entirely that saw her sneer as Wyld felt the cold metal of a gun barrel pressed against the back of her head. She tilted it slightly and saw the rooms door was open.

The Batarian stood behind her with his gun pointed at Wyld. “Get off of he.....”. The rest of his sentence never came out as Wyld's head disappeared from his sight as she ducked, bringing a foot up to wrap around the wrist of his gun hand. Their was a crunch, and suddenly the gun dropped from his shattered wrist. Jan whirled around, catching the gun mid fall while letting go of Aria. From below Jan rammed the gun into the Batarian's open mouth. His scream became the muffled cries of agony. Jan put her shoulder into him and ran him backwards towards the table, put a foot out before they reached and tripped him so that he was flung, prone, onto his upper back with his feet unable to find a solid purchase. All the while the Batarian held onto his shattered wrist. Jan looked back over her shoulder.

Aria stood there. Bringing her hands together in a slow clap. “Seems I was right”. She said advancing. “Your not completely hopeless. You may be what I need”.

“Stop”. Jan ordered as Aria approached. “Don't move or he.....”.

“Just shoot the weakling”. Aria said, not slowing her advance. “He's failed to stop you twice now. He's obviously not cut out to be one of my guards”.

Jan pulled the gun out of his mouth, pressed the gun into a crack of the Batarian's leg armour and shot him through the fleshy part of his leg. The sound was muffled somewhat and Aria clucked. “Not how I would have done it”.

“I'm not you”.

“Your loss”. Aria pulled up beside the Batarian, the opposite side of Wyld and leant over. Wyld shifted, uncertain as to what was happening. As Aria beant to loom over her bodyguard.  “You couldn't protect yourself”. She hissed as her hand disappeared behind his back. “From a woman who hasn't spent a day adjusting to her new limbs. Your fired”. She straightened and her hand emerged from behind the Batarian with another gun. Wyld tried to bring her gun up but couldn't in time. Not that it mattered.

Shots rang out as Aria fired three shots into the Batarian's chest. His armour wasn't up to it and he slumped down and fell to the ground. Wyld could tell he was dead before he hit the floor. She started to bring the gun up.

“No need for that”. Aria tossed the gun on the Batarian and walked away from the body as if even in death, the Batarian's presence offended her. “He failed his duty to me”.

Wyld felt her breath coming in angry gasps. “What. Do you. Want”!

“I want you”. Aria let that statement hang in the air before she turned around. “I want you to do something for me”.

“I'm alliance. I don't work for murdering criminal scum”!

“The job I have in mind is to save someone”.

Wyld shook her head. “You expect me to believ......”

“What you want to believe is irrelevant. I want you to go to Earth. I want you there and I want you to wait. Do your little good doctor routine if it makes you happy. But at some point you'll be given a task. You may not even realise your doing it”. She added. “But you'll go to Earth and be ready as someone I can count on to save the person I want to survive this war”.

“We're fighting Reapers”. Jan pointed out, lowering the gun. “Whoever this person is, if she's a soldier, she'll be a lot safer if you pull her out”.

“She won't agree to be protected like that”. Aria stated. “She's has too much free will. It's what I value about her. Even if it causes her to disobey me and fight a war she has no chance of surviving”.

“She has the same chance as the rest of us”.

“Unless we lose the war, the Reapers won't be the one's to kill her”.

“Who then”. Jan asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“Her sister's”. Aria replied. “She was one of three and she left them. The other's did not take kindly to that”.

“Who is this person”?

At that point Lendra suddenly appeared around the door. “My apologise mistress. But it seems that C-Sec has heard reports of gun fire. They are on there way as we speak”.

Aria took the news without blinking and thrust her face within an inch of Wyld's. “You can stay and ask question's. Or you can stay and explain a dead Batarian in your room. Which I would pay to watch”. She added with a cold gleam in her eye's.

“Or....”. She went on. “.....You can come with me and I'll get you off the citadel to Earth. You'll have everything from the past 24 hour's behind you long enough so that you won't feel the effects. You'll be in the one place in the galaxy where you can do the most good. I'll even throw in the Quarian. I'll make him lean towards Alliance prosthetic development if that's what you want”. She took a step back towards the door. “But I need an answer. And I don't want to hear that I've wasted my time with you”.

Jan felt the heavy weight of the gun in her hand. She was being offered a chance to get out of town by the woman who had just manipulated her into having to leave town in the first place. She felt like a chump who had just been rolled over for her lunch money and then made to thank the bully who had taken it from her.

“I'll go”. She said, managing to keep her lip from curling.

Lendra moved forward. “It'll be easier of I take that”. She took the gun from Wyld's grasp and Jan moved past her into the corridor with Aria. “I'm on the net though. They'll see me moving”.

“That's already been taken care of”. Aria's confidence grated on Wyld's nerves. Aria looked over and seemed to read her thoughts. “Consider yourself lucky. If I didn't need someone to go to Earth I'd just have had you removed for what you did to me. This way you disappear. I emerge as being untouchable once more, and ultimately, we both get what we want”.

They emerged out of the barracks area and Wyld noticed the guards were not at their posts. Likewise, the camera's were not tracking their movements.

Even Avina was not bothering her.

A sky car drew up and the cockpit opened. “Get in”. Aria ordered. Wyld jumped inside while Aria got in close behind her. “Drive”. She told the Salarian behind the wheel.

Modifié par Redbelle, 19 juillet 2013 - 05:37 .

[Kel Riever]

“A Reaper Ardat-Yakshi? Is that what you are talking about?” Rea asked as she double-timed it alongside of Hugh and A.Q. The two of them looked at the asari, confused. “Ah, sorry. You call them banshees?”
 
“Not just any banshee,” Hugh answered with concern, “That’s Moaning Myrtle, been down here long enough to learn things like we have. She comes through walls, kills you in an instant. She’s taken plenty of us, but we mostly manage to stay ahead of her. Hasn’t been as much of a problem as of late, since you soldiers landed. Probably too busy hunting more of you.”
 
Rea wondered about the unexplainable feelings she had; the cold clawing at her from inside. Was it the proximity of so many Reapers influencing her with the subtle affects she had been warned about?  Did it affect the others? No one else seemed to act unusually, but then again, they might be hiding how they felt as much as she was. Except for Rothan, but given what had happened to him, it wasn’t hard to expect that his mood had nothing to do with anything unnatural at all. 
 
When the three returned, they briefly went over what occurred. Hugh explained that down the tunnel, before the train, there would be a door to a series of service tunnels that they could use to haul the missile rig, though it might be a tight fit. After he warned everyone about being quiet until they were clear, the group picked up and advanced.
 
Getting through the service door was uneventful, despite Rea having the sensation of her heart stuck in her throat. The problem was that once in the hall, it was only wide enough for a comfortable single file. Both turians went to carry the rig, and while Hugh lead, Rea followed close behind. It was impossible to determine how long they went on for, but eventually, they passed through another door that opened into some sort of electrical room. It was filled with rusted transformers and switchboards, and even an ancient paper display diagram. The room was for an older part of the system and hadn’t been used in centuries. A. Q. moved ahead with the mousy youth in the dark green Aran sweater to make sure the room was clear. After a couple of minutes, they came back and A.Q. gave Hugh a thumb up.
 
“We can stop here but let’s keep it down,” Hugh told Rea. She enhanced her suit lamps again and passed on the instructions to the other soldiers. The turians let the rig rest with a sigh of relief. While most of the group took the opportunity to check their gear, the mousy youth came up to Hugh and spoke with him in a hushed tone. Hugh turned to Rea, “Trev tells me there might be a concern, though it isn’t immediate.”
 
“Something we can check out?”
 
Hugh scrunched his nose, “Not us, but one of our crew. We use this room every now and then, though we haven’t been here in a while. Trev says he spied a hole, large enough to crawl through, in the wall at the far corner. Sometimes we’ve made adjustments -knock out a wall here, move some thing around there- but we’re no excavators and that hole wasn’t made by us. It leads to a crawlway that goes back far, well, far as we can tell. I’m going to have someone take a gander and see where it comes out.”
 
“I can go,” Rea offered.
 
“Nah. No offense but we’ve got someone who’s good at this sort of thing.” Hugh called out, “Mia?” The green eyed girl with the oversized shoulder pads stepped forward. Rea watched as the girl stuck out her chest in determination. Hugh bowed to look at her directly, “Mia. We need you to scout this crawlway for us. Trev will be standing right at the entrance. Come back when you’ve found where it leads or if there’s any sign of trouble, all right?” Mia nodded smartly and headed to the far side of the room, with Trev in tow.
 
Rea followed out of curiosity. When the far side of the room and the corner with the hole came into view, she could see that the aperture was rough hewn, and whatever had made it, had clawed its way through hard clay. Trev leaned against the wall and peered into the crawlway before beckoning Mia. She bent down on her hands and knees and dauntlessly went in.

Modifié par Kel Riever, 20 juillet 2013 - 12:41 .

[Redbelle]

The skycar whizzed through it's surrounding with nothing in it's path to slow it down. Yet another priveldge this T'loak woman seemed to enjoy, Wyld thought, as she peered out to see other sky lanes more packed than usual. She looked over at the Asari who seemed to be doing her level best to ignore her.

Just who is this woman?

Wyld coughed.

Aria fidgeted but otherwise remained as she was.

Jan sighed heavily and started drumming her fingers on the sky cars interior.

Aria's jaw twitched but remained staring out the window.

Jan's fingers increased their tempo till her hands were a flurry, then pulled them back as she clicked her fingers a few times to finish with smacking her open palm atop her fist. “Are we nearly there yet”?

“No”!

Jan smirked at the heat behind the response. “So when are you going to tell about this person you want saving”?

“When the time is right”.

“Are we nearly there yet”?

“No”!

“Can we stop for ice cream”?

“No”!

“Can you do this with your fingers”? Jan started making signs in human sign language. Signing out the words, 'Are we nearly there yet'.

Aria turned and glowered at her. She was very good at glowering, Wyld decided.

“I have a plan. Stick to it. I won't have to reconsider choosing you for this task”.

Wyld signed. 'What task'?

Aria growled. “What, are you doing”?

“Before my people could re-map peoples genes to eliminate deafness at birth, they used sign language to communicate”. She explained. “They used hand shapes and arm and body movement's, along with facial expressions to express words. I learned it. It's relatively died out now with modern medicine but you'd be surprised where it crops up on colony worlds”.

“Stop it”.

“If you don't want to talk we can still converse”. Jan's hands weaved through the air leaving Aria clueless as to what she had just said.

“I'm starting to reconsider my offer”.

“I'm not”. Wyld shot back. “You said someone needs saving. Clearly, it's not immediate or you wouldn't take the time to pull me in and send me out. Which means, you have to send me to a time and place where this other person is, on a planet that is a war zone, where people like me can be called in and out of zones on the drop of a hat”. Jan settled back in the seat facing Aria. “My curiosity, is piqued, as to how your going to get me to save someone, when I don't even know who they are.”. She finished by holding up her right hand as if holding something in her finger tips, and mimicking the shape with her other hand brought it down, brushing the tips together as they separated.

“What was that”?

“I'm sorry, didn't you understand”? Jan said innocently. “It must be tough. Trying to figure out what's going on when your completely in the dark”. Jan made a loose fist and jerked it up and down a few times.

Aria poured a look of absolute venom at her before turning back to the window. It was some minutes before she spoke. “She can change her name. There's no point looking for her that way. When your on your way you'll be given a package with her picture”. She looked at Jan in the reflection of the window. “I'll see to it she reaches you. I have other's on Earth I can depend on”.

“Just not to save her”?

Now Aria did look at her. “I'm not trying to keep her alive. I'm offering her a chance to live. You're deceptively capable. You might be of some help. If I'm lucky.....”. She said looking straight ahead. “.....Maybe she'll use you as a bullet shield”.

“And if not she might need a medic with a gun”. Wyld finished for her. “I guess it helps that you have that medic over a barrel who can't say no to you”.

“Girl. If I ever decide to have you over anything. I guarantee. You'll wail your eternal devotion. No one says no to me”.

“If you say so”, Wyld said as she quickly signed the word 'no',

Aria caught the motion out of the corner of her eye and, making a loose fist, jerked it.

“You don't even know what that means”. Wyld said smugly

“Girl. I've worked the night club dance scene. I have a pretty good idea”.

“Really, Jan leaned forward, interested. “Maybe we should trade moves sometime”.

“The only move I want to see from you, is you getting on your ship. We've arrived”.

The sky car dove and then levelled as Wyld looked out to see they had made it the docking area. They were not heading to the usual berth's however.

“You'll be smuggled out on a freighter. The captain owes me. He'll get you to Earth. You'll be provided with all the documents you need along the journey. Then you wait”. Aria said. “You wait and who knows. Maybe the situation will change, that your unnecessary to me”. Aria forced the last words out as if, through sheer willpower, she could make it so.

“Wait on Earth, huh”. Echoed Jan stepping out of the car as the hatch lifted. “That's just another way of saying, stay alive”.

“True”.

Jan turned around to face her. “You know, if you'd left me alone this CAT6 thing would have blown over and I'd be cleared in a few weeks”.

“True”. Aria admitted. “But you are a Category six. Deserved or not. My influence can either protect you from your own alliance, or it can feed you to them”. She smiled and Wyld felt like she was staring into the face of a hungry predator, trying to decide if it should eat it's prey, or let it escape so it could play with it. “Data on the extra-net changes all the time. One little soldier slipping through the cracks would be unfortunate”. She smiled faded as she lanced Wyld with a stare. “But hardly something anyone but that soldier would care about. Don't you agree”?

“You owe me for this”.

“I owe, you”? Aria actually seemed faintly amused by the notion. “I suppose asking you to do this, out of the goodness of your heart isn't something I'd normally do”. She pulled an Omni-tool data card from a pocket and tossed it to Wyld. “There. We're even”.

“What is it”?

But the hatch came down before the question had ended and the sky car lifted off again. Looking over her shoulder she saw the freighter with a crewman outside, waving to her.

Taking a moment she brought up her Omni-tool and downloaded the data cards file. She watched as her Omni-tools micro assembler reconfigured itself to a different arrangement. Then with a hum it spat a small glowing ball that appeared as a probe would have. Then the probe flashed and Jan brought a hand up to shield her eye's. When she looked again she saw that she was holding the glowing form of an axe. It's long handle reaching to her thigh while the blade sparkled with orange tint's while the back formed the point of a pick.

It was nearly identical to the axe she used on the dispatcher.

She shrugged it off as co-incidence. Or a common design. But had a niggling feeling that Aria was deliberately tormenting her.

Speaking of torment.

She thumbed her tool and the axe disappeared, leaving her free to open her Omni-tool's messaging program and set it to release a time delayed message.

“Admiral Hogan”. She began. “I appreciate you will most likely get this after you leave the hospital. But a few things have happened and if it's not to much trouble......”. She paused as she considered the event's that had led her to this point. “Could you write me a note and....” This next part would undoubtedly rile him up. "..... and, send it to me, on Earth"?

She spent the next few minutes outlining what had happened. Then she shut down the Omni-tool and boarded the freighter.

Whatever happened next, was up to fate.



Baldurjack listened as Wyld's story ended. “So you see Brigadier”. She shifted forward a little closer to him. “I have enough going on in my life right now, without you, not telling me, what you know about these teeth......”. She drew the decapitated head of the husk out of the bag she had put it in, and using her Omni tool, made the miniaturised dragon's teeth lance out, skewing the husks own face in the process. “..... and whether it has anything to do with out little friend here”.

Baldurjack looked at the head in her hand. Looked at her. Then looked over where Zia paced over yonder where she threw the odd glance at where he sat. “Very well then”! He boomed. “You have made a compelling case Corpsman. I shall lead you to our destination, and we shall have at these scoundrels”.

Jan lifted an eyebrow. “Don't you think.....”. She said hesitatingly, “Don't you think you'd be better off....... not going? I just need to know where you think they are, after all”. She allowed the teeth of the husk to retract and replaced it in the bag. “No sense risking an officer after all....... right”.

The desperation in that last word seemed completely lost on Baldurjack as he rose and tugged down at his uniform. “Nonsense M'dear. I must lead from the front! Tip of the Spear, Wyld. Tip of the Spear. We shall all go. And I will lead naturally”. He added. “Though I believe you should remain in command of the men..... so to speak”. He added, looking around at the crew Wyld had arrived with.

Zia seemed to be pacing back and forth with some urgency. Naomi was atop the vehicle they had arrived in keeping lookout. The elderly Pepper and the adolescent Gizmo had just finished the welds on the replacement wheels of the Mako's front section. Turning the former 6 wheeler tank into a four wheeler, as the wheel axles they had removed had been buckled, when the Mako had hit the Brute. The detached wheels lay off to the side now. Clearly broken even to the untrained eye.

Only the Mako crew were male, Baldurjack realised. “We should bring them with us”. He said once he'd totted up the total number of people who were present and alive at the site. “In fact I insist”!

“They have their order's Brigadier”. Wyld said, standing up. “They can't come with us. Though I think we can get resupplied off them”.

“Damn”! Baldurjack exclaimed. “Well I suppose it can't be helped. But look at them. Barely a fighting man's bit of hair among them”. He said drawing a finger over his own bristling moustache. "If only I'd had my hands on them sooner. Burly lads! That's what I'd have turned them into"! He sighed "I suppose that I'll have to make do with what I have though, eh Wyld. Unless your holding out on me”?

Good Grief. She thought as Baldurjack wandered off, apparently to inform the men of 'his' decision. Is this what I put..... that woman through in the sky car? She struggled to remember her name but drew a blank. She'd had a lot on her mind at the time, but if this was universal karma coming back to bite her. She looked at the smoke filled night sky. “I promise, I'll behave better in future”. She told no one in particular. “But please. Just pretty please! Let this man, not be the death of us”?

Modifié par Redbelle, 20 juillet 2013 - 06:31 .

[Redbelle]

Zia was thrumming.

Pacing.

Feeling the tight coils of electricity surge through her. The enemy was close somewhere and her body was surging in anticipation for what was to come.

It just wasn't coming. Despite being the centre of the galaxies biggest F.U.B.A.R. She'd barely had a chance to meet the enemy. It was the reason why she was here.

It was the only reason.

She had a lot to prove. To the one she admired, to those who despised her decision's in life. But most of all. She just had to prove to herself that she could cut it on the path through life she had chosen.

She flexed her finger tips as the tingling surged from her centre to her farthest regions.

I am a creature of action. Her mind told herself.

Her finger's couldn't stretch far enough apart to satisfy the sensation within them. She needed to be in motion, driving forward. Her chest didn't seem to be able to hold enough air to satisfy the urge to be filled. She needed distraction.

She glanced up and saw Naomi on lookout aboard the vehicle they had driven in. A new sensation crept up on her, giving her focus.

Naomi, she thought. The girl.... Zia had trouble thinking of her as a woman after she had froze, nearly getting herself and Zia killed, had an air of youth and purity about her that was at odds with her environment. Zia's mind seized on that thought and dragged it out.

Naomi was untouched by the ravages of war. Had most likely never seen an enemy up close. Seeing them instead, from a distance, through the scope of a rifle. She was a trained gun turret. Able to kill at a distance. But when pressed into seeing the whites of the enemies eye's, faltered. That relative innocence made Zia want to fold her into her arms. To tell her the honest truth that she was weak. To see in her eye's that she understood that she was weak, whereas Zia, in obvious contrast, was strong, and then have her melt into her arms for the comfort and protection Zia offered her. Naomi was a balm on Zia that she never knew had even existed, because through only her presence, Naomi made Zia feel good about herself.

It was petty self indulgence of the highest level, Zia knew. She could live with it.

She planted a step forward and stretched out her toes as far as they could go within her boot. The feeling of anticipation had dissipated somewhat and she took the opportunity to stretch her shoulder's back as she arched her spine. Looking over to where the two were sitting she saw that they were still talking. Wyld's request that she monitor their discussion was one that she was obeying.

She seemed to be telling him her life story. The surges came back, stronger than before. Gaining the so called Brigadier’s trust or not. Having her sit back while eavesdropping on them was as cruel as it was boring. She wanted to go to the front lines and fight. She understood the importance of needing the equipment in the Mako for the troop's, but that hardly applied to her.

She flared her biotics in the palm of her hands, causing tendrils of biotic energy to surge. It helped give her relief from her desires, just a bit. Then she'd heard Aria's name dropped in conversation and she'd paused. All her attention riveted on the two sitting just a little away from, where she stood while she listened.

Wyld knew Aria......

Wyld knew Aria?

How the hell did Wyld know Aria??

She listened intently and as she did, she found herself beginning to shake with laughter. She clasped a hand over her mouth to stop any hint of it reaching anyone else. It was just too good to hear how Aria had screwed Wyld over and sent her to Earth. It was classic Aria all over. Probably she'd just been so pissed at her that she'd sent her here to die, but in line with a good cause. After all. Why order a hit on someone when you could send them to war and have them kill the enemy, and have the enemy kill them?

Aria could always order a hit if she survived.

If any of them survived.

The sombre thought dragged Zia's buoyed spirits down a bit as she listened to the rest of Wylds tale.

Aria gave Wyld that axe?

Aria had never her an axe! Zia felt a little bit of jealousy creep up on her. Now she wanted an axe! Maybe Wyld would let her copy the program.....

Wyld.

The name....

It conjured up images as she thought back to when she had met her. Using her enemy to free her and Naomi from the shuttle.

Cunning.....

Standing over the body of that Brute while it's blood splattered across her armour.

Primal.....

Puking her guts out on it's twitching corpse.

…..

Um....

…..

Unpredictable, She guessed? Zia hadn't been able to call that one till it happened. But it was an easy point to poke fun at her on. Added to that now, her effectively being exiled to Earth by the galaxies King Pin of the galactic underworld. She brought herself back on track. Mostly, what drew Zia's attention was the primal savagery she kept seeing in Wyld's face. It had been there briefly at the shuttle. She'd seen it when she'd pancaked the husk horde. She felt another surge within as she latched onto those memories.

Whereas Naomi was a balm. Wyld was a sting. An agitation. Someone who made her want to act. Wyld had already killed more Reapers forces than she had. And done it with imagination and creativity. She'd spent every thermal clip she had when they had met. Yet, even on empty, she hadn't slowed down a bit. If it wasn't the axe, it was the vehicles giant oversized wheels, crushing husks to mulch and leaving them hanging on the undercarriage while Wyld showed Zia and the others how to pull doughnuts with a stick shift. Then, if not head butting the ones that had managed to climb aboard, then she'd simply pulled out a scalpel and jabbed it into the soft and vulnerable spots she seemed to know so intimately well.

Wyld made Zia feel like she wasn't doing enough. And Zia wanted to be the best. To prove that she could be. To show anyone that what she earned, she deserved. Wyld was a medic, after all. Zia was a Fury!

That should be the end of it! Fury trumps medic on the battlefront. She wanted to be ahead of Wyld in the numbers of ass's she'd put to her boot. Yet she was utterly transfixed at times by Wyld's single bloody mindedness when it came to the wet end of a soldiers job. And to top it all off. She was a double amputee victim.

She'd seen Wyld work.

Victim was not a word she'd associate with her.

Her talk with Baldurjack had ended with him walking away to the Mako crew while she looked up into the sky. Zia was caught by just how striking she looked. A band holding her hair back with a strand or two escaping to flutter in the warm breeze. Her widow's peak, just visible, making Zia wish she'd take off the band to see how far up it went.

Down girl. She thought to herself as she felt biotic tendrils flare in her palm again. Wyld was having an effect on her alright. They needed to talk. Wyld was ignoring her. Taking things on for herself that Zia and the other should be shouldering. It was less concern and more a desire to contribute, she told herself. The more Zia could put into their group, the less distracted she'd be by the both of them.

She saw Wyld look down from the sky and start walking towards her. Good. She thought. The sooner they talked the better. She walked around the other side of the vehicle. Paused, and removed her mask as she pulled her hood back. The warm air hit her and she breathed in deeply. She heard steps behind her as she felt the energy of anticipation surging within, begging for something to vent on.

“Zia?” Wyld said from behind her.

Zia. A creature of action, didn't know what she was doing till she did it. She turned and saw a look of surprise cross Wylds face as she dropped her mask on the floor, reached up to grasp Wylds face and roughly claimed her lips with her own. She wasn't gentle. She roughly pushed Wyld backwards, against one of the vehicles large wheels, leaving Wyld slightly arched over a wheel ridge. Wyld seemed to spasm under her. Legs pushing against the dirt while her arms couldn't make up their mind if they wanted to be. Up? Around? Down? Pushing? Pressing? They were everywhere as Zia pressed against her while putting an arm out to block any escape while holding her exactly where she wanted her. The other reached up and grabbed the back of her head as Zia's gave into the energy within that had been building up with ungentle passion.

Wyld meanwhile seemed to be reciprocating, only to tailor off, and then back again. As if she couldn't make up her mind what to do. It was then that Zia discovered the third funniest thing, that she knew of, about Wyld.

She was a squirmer.

Modifié par Redbelle, 21 juillet 2013 - 10:32 .

[Redbelle]

Wyld's eye's went wide as Zia turned to face her. She saw her then, without the Fury mask hiding her face. She saw her for the first time. Briefly. Because before she had a chance to process, Zia had all but thrown her up against a tyre and shoved her tongue down her throat.

Jan practically gagged and threw her arms around Zia to lever herself up. To dislodge the obstruction when Zia withdrew, just a little, allowing Jan to gasp for breath.

Oh my god it's her! Her poor, oxygen starved brain told her shut up and enjoy the experience.

It's not every day someone presses you against four tonnes of armoured engine.

Shut up brain.

Uhhh, she's done this before.

Jan tried to move back but had nowhere to go. And honestly, she was of two minds whether she wanted to get away or not. Everytime she made a move, Zia moved with her, devouring her with an animalistic passion that Wyld found intoxicating. She tried to breath again , but all she drew in was more of the woman who was checking to see if she had tonsils. Wyld groaned and Zia took the opportunity to travel down to her throat where she drew a small circle with her tounge before sucking at the exposed flesh that Wylds armour left exposed.

Wyld felt utterly dazed. The world was refusing to lay still even as she brought her Omni-tool up because, dammit! Something important was on her mind before her brain been overwhelmed and reduced to mush. Her arms felt heavy and her legs, despite being synthetic, buckled so that she relied on the wheel to support her. There was a small sensation on her neck

And then Zia was back. Capturing her mouth once more.

This time, Wyld was slightly more prepared.

Even as she gasped at Zia's ministration's she managed to tilt their heads so that she could bring an eye over  to see her Omni-tool. Somehow despite unsteady fingers, she got to her message display. She barely had the will power to scroll through her logs. Fortunately, it wasn't to far from the beginning.

The contact that Aria had said would appear had done so and given her an omni data card. Downloading it had produced a photo of someone.

Someone......

Could barely remember her own name right now.

Wyld tried to get a foot on the wheel and dig in so she could raise herself above and beyond the oral lashing she was receiving. It was no good though. She was gripped in the embrace of someone who could literally curl toes. That left one option.

From somewhere Wyld managed to get a hand between them and pushed. Zia resisted and Wyld pushed harder. Still her body wasn't ready to escape just yet, her neck arched forward even as she piled on the pressure to push Zia away. Finally, with a cry of frustation she gave a shove and Zia was pushed back a few steps. Enough for Wyld to bring up her Omni-tool screen for a quick comparison.

“It's you”! Wyld gasped.

Zia put out a hand and pushed Wyld's Omni-tool down. Her breath was unsteady but her eye's shone with desire. “It's me”. She said as she closed the gap between them.

Wyld tried to put up a hand.

She's in danger?...... Screw that, she's sucking my soul out past my teeth. I'm the one in danger here!

"What's wrong"?

Jan gulped down several lungfuls of air as she flopped against the wheel of the vehicle. "We....... need..... to talk".

Modifié par Redbelle, 21 juillet 2013 - 03:10 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Shayrana snapped out of the moment with Sean, and laid his head gently down. She heard a banshee scream very close by, picked up her side arm and charged out the door. Ereba was being taken in her grasp. Shayrana focused her power and threw a warp at the banshee's head and sent it flying off. A sickening grey-green fluid shot up out of the body cavity of the banshee and it shook and slumped to the ground. Ereba lay on the ground stunned looking up at Shayrana.

"Not that I'm not grateful or anything, but what took you so long?" Ereba asked. "And what the hell was that? I haven't seen a matriarch throw anything like that."

"Come on, just give me your hand, and let's get out of here." Shayrana said.

Ereba grabbed her hand and stood up, and said. "Let's get to our post. It looks like the others are going to make it okay. You did it, didn't you? I'm not saying a word. You saved my life, but you did, with that soldier in there."

"How many thermal clips do you have? Six? He was dead anyway. He begged me to kill him." Shayrana said. "I could shoot him, but he was weakened. If we run out of thermal clips we're dead. I bonded with him and guided him onward."

"And you took his life force." Ereba said.

"Yes, I did. I fed. Alright. I'm an ardat-yakshi. I fed. If we find anymore dying I will feed again. Kill me if you want, but if you want to live you'll keep me alive, and you won't tell anyone what I did." Shayrana said. "Remember though I can only kill with a gun under normal conditions. I am not deadly."

"What about your meds?" Ereba asked.

"They control it. Under these conditions, it makes me weak and vulnerable to them. When I have fed, I am stronger and I can protect you." Shayrana said. "I'm tired of being the vulnerable one. At least now I can defend myself for a while, anyway."

"Here we are. Alright, I won't say anything. You have my word, hon." Ereba said. "Promise me, though. You'll go back on them after this is over."

Shayrana nodded. "I will. Let's go inside. Cover me."

_____________________________________________________________________________

Soniri and Errika caught their breaths after taking killing two brutes, and a half dozen husks that came charging at them. What the name of the Goddess did they expect us to do? It's a damned miracle we've made it this far. Soniri was thinking. Did we just lose Ereba? No. She's back up.

"Okay people, let's move before more decide we're dinner." Soniri said. "Ranassa get into your building and fast. Come on Errika, just a few more meters and were in..."

"Sarge!!!!" Ranassa shouted.

A brute burst through the door, bowled over the sarge. Errika rolled out of the way and tried to open fire with her Harrier, and only three rounds discharged. She fumbled for a clip.

"F***!" Errika shouted. "Where are my clips? ****! ****! ****!"

Soniri moaned and shoved her Athamic Assault rifle to her, but it was still quite a stretch to get it. The brute made anothe swipe at Soniri. Ranassa saw it and fired a burst at it with her LMG to distract it. That gave Errika the opening to grab the AA and she opened up on it.

As Ereba and Shayrana were entering their building they heard the noise, and saw what was going on. Shayrana landed a powerful throw on the brute that staggered it, then rended its armor plating with a heavy warp. Errika took it down. Errika got a good look inside their building. It was trashed.

"Help me with the sarge!" Errika shouted.

Ereba ran out and grabbed Soniri's ammo bag, and Errika's Harrier, and helped Errika drag Soniri to the building where Shayrana was waiting.

"Come on." Shayrana said. "Get her upstairs quickly. Fourth floor. I'll get on the com.

"Alpha to Bravo. Alpha to Bravo over." Shayrana said.

"Bravo here. Shayrana what's going on? over." Ranassa asked.

"Ranassa, get to your assigned spot. Center is a no go. We have to improvise We have the sarge. Over." Shayrana said.

"Will do. How is the sarge? over." Rannassa asked.

"Not good. Will advise later. Keep me apprised of any movement. over." Shayrana said.

"Affirmative. Give our best to the sarge. Bravo out."

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 20 juillet 2013 - 11:23 .

[Redbelle]

“We don't need to talk. But if you want to use your tongue for something else”?

Zia had closed the distance between her and Wyld so that there was nowhere she could go. She wasn't pressing into her however. The animal was gone, followed by a more playful personae as Zia ran a hand up her side and over shoulder to gently cup her chin.

Yes! Screamed Wyld's mind.

“No”. She said as she brought her hand to move Zia's away. Instead it hovered where they were connected. Armoured glove resting against Zia's exposed skin.

“No”?

“Zee”. Wyld said with a throat that felt like it had to much blood in it. “Your in danger”.

“I think I can handle you”. Zia angled Wyld's chin as is choosing which side she liked better. “Afterwards, maybe you'll have a less inflated opinion about yourself”.

“Not me”! Wyld felt to tightly wound to be having this conversation as she tried to tell her. “Their after you”!

“The Reapers”? Zia questioned, moving her mouth closer to a spot just below Jan's ear. “I think their after everyone”. She whispered.

Wyld felt her hot breath hit her lobe and gasped as Zia's tongue followed up. She closed her eye's and bit down, hard, on her lip. The pain allowed her to focus for a moment. Long enough to ground out two words before she surrendered. “Your sisters......”.

The hotness abruptly went away as Wyld sensed Zia moving out of her personal space. She opened an eye and saw her a step back. Her face a mixture of anger and something else. Wyld didn't know her, but it almost looked like worry.

“What do you know about my sisters”?

“You listened to my story, right”?

“Yes”.

Wyld put an elbow on the wheel ridge as she struggled upright. She felt like she'd run a marathon. How did she do that?

“That woman.....”.

“Aria”!

“Yes”. Said Wyld a little taken aback by the heat in Zia's voice. “Aria. She said that a group of sister's were coming for their target”. She raised her Omni-tool and showed Zia her own picture. “She thinks your the target”. Zia looked at her for a moment. Then turned to leave. “Wait”!

Zia paused and turned as Wyld took a step towards her.

Why are your sisters out for blood?

What's your connection to Aria?

Why can I taste strawberries?

Question's rolled around in her mind until finally one disappeared down the hole and emerged from her mouth. “Why did you kiss me”?

“Because. You were there”.

Wyld waited for more but, with nothing forthcoming, she prompted. “And”?

“Don't be needy Wyld”. She made to turn away again.

“That was my first kiss”! That stopped her. Made her look at Jan incredulously. “I mean.....”. Jan went on. “It wasn't my first, first kiss. I've kissed before. But that was.......”. Taking a deep breath Jan let it out slowly, straightened and took another step towards Zia. “Don't do that again”.

Zia raised an eyebrow.

“I have to focus, here. I have to fight a war. We have to. I mean.... Everyone”. Jan stopped abruptly as she felt an urge to walk right up to Zia and pick up where they left off. “I have to have a clear mind and I can't do that thinking about this”!

“Your thinking about it”? Zia said slyly. “I wasn't even warmed up”.

“Stop it”! Wyld breath was finally coming back under control. “Look. I need you as a comrade. As a soldier. I need you with me, as that”. Wyld ground her jaw as she decided to tell her. “I'm not good with relationships. I've never really clicked with people that way. Not after the accident. And the one time I did I turned him into someone like me”.

“Like you”?

“Someone who can't walk”.

The corner of Zia's mouth twitched. “Now I am curious”.

“Don't”! Wyld barked out. “Just don't”. She repeated in a gentler tone. “I just want to, not think, about what happened here. So promise me.....”. Her voice trailed off.

“Promise you, what? Not to give you what you want”?

With a sullen look. Jan nodded.

“No promises”. Zia bent down to pick up her mask, but made no effort to tug it back on as she turned to leave.

Wyld watched her go. Then stepped back to slump against the wheel that had supported her throughout. She squeezed her eye's shut.

This is not happening. Thisis nothappening. Thisisnothappening.

“Stay away from her”.

Jan opened her eye's to see Naomi looking over the side of the vehicle at her. “I'm stuck with the pair of you.” She replied. “We're all in this together. In fact.....” She went on. “....it's time we moved out. I'll.....”. She paused as she considered what she had been about to say. “I need you, to tell Pepper and Gizmo they'll be riding with the Mako from here on. Grab Zia, tell her I need her helping with supplying us for action. Clips, explosives. The whole works”. She moved away from the wheel. “I'll grab the Mako commander”.

Naomi watched as Wyld walked off through narrowed eye's that had witnessed everything. “That's not....”. She said, darkly, “....what I meant”.

Modifié par Redbelle, 23 juillet 2013 - 10:44 .

[Redbelle]

They rode in silence. All four of them. Wyld, Zia, Naomi and Baldurjack.

Pepper and Gizmo were gone.

In all respects it was probably not much of a kindness given the Mako's destintion. But Wyld's gut feeling was that wherever Baldurjack was taking them, would either prove to be to dangerous for those two. Or a complete waste of time. The Mako could probably use the help getting to where it needed to go anyway. Especially after the damage it had suffered. Though it would probably ride easier now that several crates ordnance had been transferred from the Mako to their own vehicle. That was when Jan had finally snapped and decided to do something she should have done long ago.

She'd had a word with Michael who had dissapeared and then reappeared with a crate of beer. They'd passed them out. Even given one to Gizmo over Pepper's objections.

The world might end today. Do you want to be the person who stopped him having a toast with friends?

He'd grumbled, but relented. They'd all gathered around the vehicle and Jan had climbed up to stand on the hood.

Gentlemen and ladies, and our esteemed Brigadier, she'd added. We are gathered here to say goodbye to two, who have been with us since the beginning. Who have proved invaluble in their contributions. And now, must part ways to take on new challenges and show us ground pounders the error of our ways, in thinking that going somewhere on foot was a good idea to start with. She raised her can, seeing the reality set in among the group. The Mako crew were happy to be gaining people they needed, even as her team reluctantly accepted their engineer's were leaving them. To Pepper and Gizmo! Cans were raised and clunked together as a feeling of cheer seemed to grow among them all. The toast also drowned out a feeble. That's not our names.

Jan cleared her throat and silence once more settled. However, while we bid farewell to two of our comrades in tools, we also must welcome another. Someone who can carry us forward. Someone who has demonstrated grit and determination unparalleled by any here to date. Baldurjack chest puffed out as he prepared to step forward. In fact the old girl's gotten us of more scrapes than ever. I am of course talking about The Bucky Valkyr! Everyone stopped talking as Jan banged her foot on the hood. That right! I finally named her! Gizmo had been the first to speak.

Her names Momma!

No it isn't.

Her suspension doesn't buck.

And we can all learn something from that, eh Zia?

Ahem!

And lets all say hello to the Brigadier again.

The ceremony had come to a close when Michael had been the one to say that they had to go. They finished their cans. Wyld handed hers to Pepper. Driving. She said with a wink.

And that had been that.

Baldurjack had pointed them in a direction he said they needed to travel and set out.

Strawberries. Wyld thought as the suspension worked over the torn up tarmac. Why did she have to taste like strawberries. Zia sat next to her in her customary pose of an elbow on the side with her chin propped up by the back of her hand. Wyld had tried to put Baldurjack in the front seat with her, but Zia had simply jumped for shotgun and jerked a thumb towards the back as Baldurjack tried to tell her to get out.

I love strawberries.

Zia was doing this on purpose, she decided. It was throwing off the whole group dynamic. Even Naomi seemed to be affected, Wyld thought. Dammit. Why had Zia kissed her? Why had she responded? And why was she thinking about Zia and running her own tongue across the roof of her mouth checking for more strawberries? When she ought to have been thinking about the next phase of whatever it was they were getting into!

Oh well..... I just have to, not, love strawberries. She thought to herself. The city street's were a mess. Often blocked and often they went down routes that seemed open but were then sealed by fallen buildings and shattered frames of burnt out vehicles.

The Valkyr took it within her stride but at times, even she to had to admit defeat. Leading to them backtracking to find another way through.

The silence was getting intense.

Modifié par Redbelle, 22 juillet 2013 - 10:29 .

[Kel Riever]

The minutes passed tediously since Mia had gone into the crawlway. Rea was aware of A.Q.’s eyes on her and the Misfit apparently couldn’t put up with the silence anymore as she stated bluntly, “Looks like you got a bad case of the shakes, blue.”

Rea looked down at her hands, then into A.Q.’s eyes. The Misfit shifted uncomfortably, but didn’t look away. Rea drew a deep breath and sighed, “Yes. Don’t know what is really going on with that. But don’t worry. If we come across any bombs, I’ll let you handle them.”

Hugh wised off, “Her highness is above such things. We peons must do what she says.”

“Oh shut up! Look who’s talkin’ anyway,” A.Q. retaliated. “You should get in that hole yourself. That asari is all right in my book anyway. More than your rancid self.”

“Hugh’s more rancid than a meal off the floor of the Tube,” one of the other Misfit’s teased. Several of the youth snickered. Hugh smirked and rolled with the needling.

In a concessionary tone, A.Q. said to Rea, “Hugh likes to rile me up, but nobody here’s foolin’ themselves; it’s just a matter of time before good ol’ London gets ripped apart. The last time my family history mattered was a hundred years ago. Mum an’ dad made nothin’ but a hard livin’, and there’s nothin’ in my life before the Reapers landed that was special. So if I’ve gotta die, why the hell shouldn’t I get to die bein’ called a queen if I want to?”

There were some scraping noises from the crawlway and Trev leaned in, “You all right in there?” He pulled back as Mia poked her head out and looked at everyone.

“It goes back really far,” the green eye girl said meekly.

Hugh asked, “You want to keep going?” Mia nodded enthusiastically. Hugh crouched down, pulled something shiny out of his pocket, and handed it to the girl, “Here. Take this and if you go on for more than fifteen minutes, you just come back.” Mia took the object and disappeared back into the crawlspace.

“Was that a mechanical chronometer?” Rea’s curiosity had been piqued by the object, which looked antique.

“Yes, well, we call them watches,” Hugh acknowledged. “That one was a wind up. You have to thank the Swiss for their dedication to keep the things made. Started 400 years ago and never stopped manufacturing them.”

Arkeer grunted, “You humans and your sense of time always amazes me. I feel like I’m talking to a bunch of salarians. Four hundred years ago, not that I knew any of them, but of some of my brothers were busy knocking each other out on the sands of Tuchanka. A hundred years ago, I was reminiscing about my right of passage which was over a hundred years before that.” The krogan paused, noticing the humans seemed captivated. Feeling a bit ill at ease from the attention, he withdrew his scorn, “Bah, nobody likes a braggart. Anyway, I’d only expect the asari to understand, and she’s smart enough to not talk about her past.”

Surprised at how fitting Arkeer’s last words rang, Rea reflected. “Well, I don’t know if it is really about being, ‘Smart,’ Arkeer. There just always seems to be something more important to talk about right now.” The eyes of the Misfits had lain upon her then, and Rea began to feel the same awkwardness the krogan had by all their attention. Thessian born and grown, tied to the asari commandos, she had never spent time around so many humans at once. Such young humans, no less. Rea was more than ten times any of their ages.

One of the prying Misfits spurred her on, “Tell us something. You know, from a long time ago.”

Defensive, Rea folded her arms, “I don’t know where to start. I can tell you when I had as many years as some of you, the hanar began saving the drell from extinction.” Several of the Misfits looked confused. “Sorry, in human terms, I think that was when your piloted space flight programs were still orbital, if that helps at all.”

A.Q. clarified, “No, sister. Somethin’ about you.”

Rea began to feel the Misfits desire for connection and she understood, “Sure, then. I suppose I could tell you my turian father was forty when he met my mother who was three hundred twenty-six. He died when he was one hundred fifty-eight, which was ninety-six years ago. That was a little over ten years before your first colony, I think it was on Mars, right?”

“Anyway, he was a good disciplinarian. Not surprising. My mother was a Siarist but I think my father’s beliefs rubbed off on me more. He used to tell me about the units he served with, the way things had a life of their own beyond any one being’s thoughts, opinions or actions.”

“I could tell you about what he’d thought of this place, your city, London. He would tell you it carries its own life with it. All the wars you fought here, all the writers and their accomplishments, your disasters, all the things your people have gone through here. ‘It lives on,’ is what he’d say, ‘And it can give you strength.’ He’d say you could see it in each of you, whether it was in your red scarf, or your dusty hair, or your green eyes. ‘Those are the Londoners,’ he’d say.”

Rea noticed how the mood had changed among the youths. They listened to her intensely, drawing in everything she was saying, as if to use it to make themselves stronger. She felt their closeness, their vibrancy, and their tenacity. Its power quelled her doubts and unexplainable fears. Rea let her arms drop, “Or maybe my father would say, ‘Those are the Misfits, the toughest survivors this city has ever known. He’d probably talk about how you lived so long after you should have been dead. Or how you kept the most destructive force ever known in the galaxy tripping over itself. But he wouldn’t mention your names like Hugh, or Trev or A.Q. He’d just talk about the Misfits, and how it was all of you who did it. And how lucky I was to be a part of it.”

The Misfits were still as they reflected on Rea’s story. Hugh finally broke the silence, “I think I’d have liked your father.”

The comment drew a little smile from Rea. She remembered the day that her father had given her his medal. He had pushed it into her palm like she had pushed it into Rothan’s. In his rough Turian voice, he had said, “Rea, that’s me in there. Never doubt it. You hang onto that, and in some way, I will always be with you.” Rea looked over to Rothan who still worked at figuring out the missile system, and wondered if he could even understand the meaning of what she had given him.

Modifié par Kel Riever, 23 juillet 2013 - 01:02 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Ranassa and T were on their way up to the sixth floor when they heard a commotion on the fourth floor. It didn't sound like Reapers. One of them sounded Krogan. They remained quiet and listened for a while to make sure they were friendlies.
 
".....We've got a good line of sight from here." A woman was speaking to someone on a communicator. "....Good. We'll hold our position. Athena Gamma Out."

"Hey, we're friendlies. Asari Commandos. Artemis Platoon." Ranasssa said. "We're coming in. Don't fire."

The door opened. A Krogan held a shotgun on them, then lowered it.

"Only two of you? Where's the rest of your unit?" The Krogan asked. "My name is Urdnot Grawl."

"I'm Ranassa. That's T. We call her T. They're going into the four story on the next block. What's this a skyway across?" Ranassa asked and looked out the window. "Are you s******* me?"

Ranassa saw a Reaper destroyer about 1/4 mile away, and it was just sitting there guarding the road taking out anything it noticed approaching.

"I am so getting out of here." T said. "We are going to get wasted so bad, Ranassa. The sarge said to do recon. She didn't say anything about... these big things."

"So you Asari are going to do what you always do, then, just run off." Grawl said.

"Damn right we are. You think our little pea shooters are going to do anything against that?" T said. "We may be able to take out reaper troops, but against those things? We're as useless as ****** on a hanar, and if you think you'll fare any better, you go make a charge at it."

"She has a point, L-T. Just what are we going to do against that thing?" One of the other commandos asked.

"We have our orders to hold position and support Hammer Alpha when they get here. Shepard and his team must make it to that white beam, but they've got to get past that reaper." The Asari Lieutenant said. "Our job is to draw its fire while Shepard and his team go by it. We just need to last about ten minutes."

"Have IQs in command suddenly dropped?" Ranassa asked. "We won't last ten seconds. Nor will they. South flank is cleared. That's where we just came from. They can go around the thing. Have they thought about that?"

"The Commander has killed Reapers with honor, Private!" Grawl said. "What have you done?"

"I've done my share, Krogan." Ranassa said. "I've seen the news reports. One time a thresher maw did it. And another the reaper didn't have any support. This time Shepard is going to have everything from hell raining down and little support. I'm talking about an easier way."

"Okay, Private." The Lieutenant said. "Since you're such a tactical genius. What would you do?"

"Send the Krogan and Vorcha on the straight in charge." Ranassa said. "That will draw the heavies. Sure they'll take about 80-90% casualties, but that will let Hammer Alpha swing south and go around the damned thing, and they should face very light resistance."

"You'd sacrifice my people like that?" Grawl said angrily.

"Now look who's balking. Where is your honor now, Krogan?" Ranassa snapped.

"Not bad actually." The Lieutenant replied. "Where did you learn this?"

"I was an Eclipse Sister for 20 years. Ah, sweet Jona." Ranassa said with pride. "If we had to do joint ops, Sederis would use the Blood Pack as cannon fodder whenever she could. The Vorcha were too stupid and the Krogan were too bloodthirsty to refuse."

"You dare?" Grawl said. He was fuming.

Ranassa knew she was getting to Grawl and kept jawing. "Then they threw Sederis in prison for a long sentence on some trumped up charge, and her second in command was a toad who hated me probably because I scored with Jona a few times." Ranassa said. "He kept trying to get into her pants and she'd have none of it. You know how the toads are with that breeding thing. So I joined the Commandos."

The Salarian engineer she hadn't noticed calibrating the instruments in the corner shot her a glare.

"Enough! Unfortunately, this isn't Eclipse, and I'm not Sederis, otherwise I might have gone with this plan, but not for those reasons." The Lieutenant said. "We have our orders. By the way, I heard that Sederis is out of prison."

"Damn! Just my luck." Ranassa said. "I'll have to look her up after the war if we survive."

"What was your rank?" The Lieutenant asked.

"Commander." Ranassa said. "I figured I could move up through the ranks in the Commandos quickly. Besides, the benefits are pretty nice. Then the war hit."

T glared at Ranassa to shut up and let's get out of here. "Then if you'll excuse us, we have our orders, ma'am." T said trying to make a graceful exit. "Recon. We have to get into position, and report in."
__________________________________________________________________________

Shayrana and Ereba were helping the sarge up the stairs and had to set her down on the first floor landing.

"Errika, check out the building up to the fouth floor, and stay in communication." Shayrana said. "Let us know if there is anything unusual going on."

"Will do." Errika said, and she started up the stairs. There were no windows on the first three floors looking out onto the street. Erikka had to go all the way up.

The sarge was badly hurt. She couldn't walk.

"It's my leg" Soniri said. "I think it's a broken tibia. I'm scrubbed for the rest of the mission. Probably the rest of the war. Heh, probably the rest of my life. Get me those pain killers, Ereba, will you?"

"Sure, sarge." Ereba said.

"We'll get you back to that hospital they set up, sarge." Shayrana said. "There's too few of us left to do any good now, anyway. Five out of 25? And were almost out of thermal clips?"

"How many do we have left?" Soniri asked. "I have a four."

"Six here." Shayrana said. "I've been relying on biotics."

"Five here." Ereba said.

"Shayrana's right. I hate to say it. We should either get you back to the hospital or just hole up and ride it out here, and just hope we're not found." Ereba said.

Errika came back downstairs shaking and said "I think I just soiled my armor. I could have gone to art school. No, I had to be a commando. My family had money. I could have rented a ship and travelled with friends around the galaxy. Hey, and when the reapers hit we could have found a planet somewhere off the grid and been huntresses. No, I had to be a commando."

Ereba went up and grabbed her by the shoulders, and said. "Pull it together, Errika. Come back to me."

"What happened?" Shayrana asked her.

"You don't want to go up there. Trust me." Errika said and she was just shaking. "Just stay here. No matter what you hear. It is very bad."

"Would you just tell us?" Soniri said.

"There's a big... f******.... reaper.... right outside the window." Errika said. "We're all... going... to die."

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 22 juillet 2013 - 10:46 .

[Khambilo]

Rothan glanced up from his omnitool display as he listened to Rea’s story. In all that had happened he had nearly forgotten about the trinket he had been given. The medal. With his free hand, he rummaged through his side storage compartment, feeling the tiny bit of metal and ribbon between his fingers. He suddenly felt guilty, as it was clear that Rea’s father meant a lot to her. Though Arkeer dismissed his own words as an outburst, he was right. Rothan now was dead weight. Rea had given him something precious of her to make him feel better. His actions were hindering others.

Had it always been that way? Had he always dragged others down? Had he always failed those who needed him most?

Rea had given him the medal telling him that he needed to press forward, but now there was no one to press forward for. His squad was gone. He had not heard anything from his family or the fleet in months.

He felt so utterly alone, even with all the others around. The Misfits all seemed largely entertained by Rea’s story. It was clear that they all liked her and Rothan caught the admiring glances they cast Arkeer when he wasn’t looking. It was clear that they appreciated strength. But they had largely ignored Rothan.

Then there was this suicidal push towards a Reaper, and there was no real inclination that the ordinance they were carrying would have any effect at all.

Then he remembered the medal again. The medal was given to spur him forward. He curled his fingers around it in his pocket. He wanted to give it back to her now. But it would be wrong to do that now. Rea had meant well by giving it to him, but it was having the opposite effect on him.

The Misfits all returned to milling about, now that the conversation had ended. Hugh and A.Q. still crooned into the tunnel where Mia had disappeared. Rothan stared at them for a moment, but the looked away. In the process, he caught Rea’s gaze. She was searching him with a bit of a pained expression. He quickly looked away, back to the omnitool display. She moved toward him.

“How’s it coming?” she asked mildly.

“Good,” Rothan said. “I guess.”

“You guess?”

“Well they could launch right,” Rothan said. “Or they might just blow up in our faces. Either way, this is all ending soon right?”

Rea nodded slightly. “I suppose.”

They stood in silence for a moment. Then Rea moved in closer, as if trying to see through his obscured visor.

“Rothan,” she stopped slightly. “Do you want to talk about them?”

Rothan’s head sunk a little. “It’s okay. We don’t have the time right now and you don’t have to—“

“But I want to,” she cut in. Then she paused. “What were they like?”

Rothan actually smiled a little as he thought about his academy days. He had endured some pretty relentless teasing, but now he looked back upon those days fondly.

“They made me laugh,” he said. “No one back on the fleet really did that. My mom and dad are the quiet type.”

He thought of Celis and her practical jokes. She had always taken so much time to set up little traps here and there for Rothan. All were mostly harmless, of course, like getting ink on his visor or putting a tidbit of rotting food in one of his spare filters so that when he installed it he would smell something terrible all day.

He smiled again. “Celis used to play these jokes on me all the time. I used to hate them. Lenaia too, a little bit. They were like a tag time.”

Rea smiled back. “My sisters were like that too. When we were younger anyway…”

“Reiza would get so upset with them every time,” he continued.

“Who was Reiza?” Rea asked.

“Our teacher back at the academy. Then our CO during the war,” Rothan answered. Then he hesitated for a moment. “She helped me a lot…”

“How so?”

“When I first got to the academy, I knew nothing about biotics,” He began. “They had only recently manifested and I was very uncoordinated. Most of the Asari who came into the academy had basic control over their biotics. They were there to train for combat. Reiza spent a lot of time with me one-on-one trying to get me caught up.”

“What was she like?” Rea asked curiously.

“Tough. Real tough,” Rothan nodded. “She had fought in nearly every single military conflict that the Asari were involved with during her lifetime. She could have been some big Asari military official if she wanted to. She turned down every promotion so she could stay in the field.”

“She sounds real stubborn,” Rea said.

“She was,” Rothan said, remembering. “Never let anyone get away with anything. Kept us alive though…”

They fell silent again. Rothan realized his statement was now unfortunatley untrue. Reiza’s strength and leadership did not save his squad from being obliterated by a Reaper.

“What do you do when all you have to fight for is gone?” Rothan asked Rea.

She pondered the question. After a moment she drew closer to the Quarian. He was unsure what exactly she was doing at first, but it became clear as soon as here eyes darkened. His mind raced as she joined her consciousness to his, a gesture that he knew meant a lot to the Asari as a people. He could hear her voice, echoing from some place telling him to relax. He soon no longer saw the decrepit walls and fixtures of the underground, but a soothing light, wrapping warmly around him. He could feel Rea standing beside him looking on into the nothingness.

A procession of images broke through the light. A Turian playing with an Asari toddler. Two Asari children playing in the grass. An Asari with her arms wrapped around Rea in a romantic embrace. A human male standing in the doorway, drenched from the rain. An Asari infant cradled in Rea’s arms, as the mother, one of Rea’s sisters, stood by smiling warmly. A salarian, doubled over in laughter as he tried not to spill his drink.

As quickly as it all began, it ended. Rothan shook himself to his senses, acclimating back to reality. He instantly knew what he had seen. A long time ago, Reiza shared a memory with Rothan as well, though it was to demonstrate one of her lessons. What Rea had shown him was far more personal.

“Those are some of my favorite memories,” Rea said softly. “But that isn’t the reason I showed you them.”

Rothan could see the intensity in her eyes and for a moment forgot about the war, the missiles, the underground.

“All of those people you saw with me,” she said. “They meant so much to me. Every last one of them.” She swallowed hard. Even though it was clearly hard for her to speak about, she remained resolute. “They’re gone now.”

Rothan’s head fell, finally understanding that he was not alone in what he was feeling.

“The reality is Rothan,” she continued. “They’re never really gone. A part of them is always with you. That’s why you keep going.”

Rothan nodded. “Thank you.”

Rea smiled as she clapped him on his shoulder. “We’re a squad now, Rothan. Fighting for each other, fighting for the lost. That’s what we have now. We can do this… You can do this.”

As she said it, it felt like he really could. Since losing his squad, Rea was the only one to embrace him as an equal. It was clear from the way she looked at him, from they way her firm but comforting touch felt, that she meant what she said. That she valued Rothan. He had to make it clear to her that he appreciated al of this. More than that, he wanted to return the favor.

As she turned to return to Hugh and the others, he called after her. “Rea.” She looked back, curious. “I need you to hold me to something.”

She shook her head now, looking confused.

“No more carrying dead weight,” He said.

“Rothan, if this is about what Arkeer—“

“It’s not,” Rothan quickly assured her. “Trust me. It’s just… I need this. I don’t want to be the “Baby” I was. So I’m going to pull my weight now around here. As long as we’re together. Okay?”

He extended his hand forward.

“Promise to hold me to that.”

She looked to him. Somewhere deep down she had to understand how he felt.

“Okay.” Rea smiled a little as she took his hand, shaking it. Rea looked deep into his eyes, as if the visor was gone. Then as her their handshake ended, Rea glanced down to her own hands.

For the first time since they entered the underground, they had stopped quivering.

Modifié par Khambilo, 22 juillet 2013 - 08:49 .

[Redbelle]

The drive through London streets was getting easier. Less so for the teams ability to find navigable paths through the rubble and debris. The closer Baldurjack told them they were getting to their destination. The less city there was to get in their way.

It was fast becoming obvious that the Reapers had torn this area of London apart.

Buildings had been reduced to rubble, barely a story high. As they went further in it got worse. With door frames and the corner's of the once towering blocks standing. The rest was either blown away or lying where wall had once stood. Every so often they came across a deep trench that the Valkyr had to drop into and crawl out of. It had been an exciting challenge till Naomi had pointed out.

“Aren't these trenches where Reaper's strafed the city”?

From that point on, each trench was less a challenge, and more a sombre obstacle as all who rode the Valkyr knew they were driving through spots where people had likely been standing.

The drive went on and on until from up ahead they saw something they hadn't expected to see. Wyld brought the Valkyr to a halt as Zia stood in her seat.

“That building's still standing”. Zia said as Wyld brought the Kestrel helmet's optics to bear. The rising structure stood prominant from across the field of debris.

“We're a half mile away”. She announced. “And that building's taken some small arms fire by the looks of things...... Is that where we need to go Brigadier”?

Baldurjack tilted his head to one side. A habit he'd shown a lot of lately whenever he'd been asked a question, Wyld noted, before turning to address the group. “That's the spot exactly M'dear. As I said! I'd get you here and in one piece too”!

“I don’t' remember you saying that”.

“Really, you must pay attention Corpsman”. Baldurjack chided. “I need you to be at the top of your game”! He paused as he turned his head again. Then ducked down as he whispered. “There is danger all around us”.

All three ladies looked at each other at his abrupt change in demeaner. Baldurjack noticed and tried to straighten while staying as low as possible. “I mean. Obviously. There's danger all around! This is where I'm told the teeth come from”.

“And the husks”?

“What”?

“The hus..... never mind”. Said Wyld as she turned and zoomed back in on the building. “Actually, not never mind. The buildings surrounded by Reaper forces”.

Zia sounded hopeful. “That's bad”!

“There all dead”.

Oh, Zia sounded disappointed. “Well, isn't that good”.

“There's a sign. Not a good angle to see it”.

“I have it on good authority they make excellent tea there”! Baldurjack chipped in. “Shall we go and see if they have any left”?

“Good idea”.

Jan revved the engine and Baldurjack settled back in his seat as Wyld drove, off to the side and came to a stop near a rubble strewn area that was all but hidden near an underground entrance. Baldurjack sat up.

“Erm, the building is that way”.

“We're going on foot”. Said Jan as she signalled for everyone to dismount. “Grab gear. If it's a facility we'll need explosives”.

“Now look here woman”.

“Brigadier.....”. Jan said sweetly. But Zia put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let me”. She heaved herself up till she was nose to nose with the Brigadier. “Guess what Wyld did with me earlier”?

“ZIA”! Wyld leaned forward to pull her back, when Zia held up a finger. “You wouldn't believe what she's capable of. She knows just what to do, at just the right time and in just the right place. So if she says we're walking. We're walking. In pairs. Apart. And we'll be less of a target that way than if we drove up to the front door and rang the doorbell. Now, is there anything else you'd like to tell us about where we're going? I'd hate for a surprise to ruin our little outing”.

Baldurjack sunk back in his seat. Unnerved by Zia's close proximity. “No, no, valid points all round. That was a test you see”. He cleared his throat. “And you passed! So yes. Well done. Naturally we're walking”. He looked around as Zia remained practically in his face. “And since pairs are best, I think it only proper if I go with her”. He pointed at Wyld.

If he comes with me I can keep him away from Zia. Wyld thought.

Zia grinned a feral grin as she looked over her shoulder. “I think I should go with our lustrous leader”.

Or if I take Zia I can keep her from talking to anyone.

Naomi chimed in. "I think I should go with Zia".

Two to one in favour of not travelling with Zia. Thought Wyld who brushed off the suggestion's. Get a grip. Zia's a professional. She's messing with you. Make the right decision. Calm.

“The Brigadier comes with me”. Zia made a show of looking crestfallen while between Naomi and Baldurjack was elation and relief. “I need his intel on point”.

“Eh, now what's this about a point”?

“Tip of the spear Brigadier. Just following your example”.

“Eh, right”. He muttered. “Right of course. Into danger then eh? What”? He said looking as if he'd rather stay where he was.

“Look at it this way Brigadier. If you stay you'll be in charge of guarding the Valkyr. In fact.....” she went on. “Maybe you should stay behind.” Baldurjack looked more and more hopeful as she spoke until.... “That way if any Reaper patrols find her. We'll have one man. Alone. Facing incredibly overwhelming odds against an unstoppable force of......”.

“Enough Dawdling!” Baldurjack said, scrambling out of the Valkyr. “The sooner we go the better. All of us”!

“Maybe your right Brigadier”. Jan said smiling as his back was turned. “You two”. She said pointing at Zia and Naomi.

Zia looked around. “There is only us two”.

“Grab the explosives crates and bury them. If someone comes calling while we're gone, I don't want them walking off with the fire-power to level a city block”.

Jan jumped out the Valkyr as Zia and Naomi got to work. She walked up behind the Brigadier who was peeking out from the corner of where they were parked. He was looking at the building. “I do hope, there is a cup of tea at the end of this”.

“Keeping a stiff upper lip, Brigadier?”

“Hmmm”? He looked over and when he saw Wyld standing there. Puffed himself up again. “Naturally. Got to keep the British end up. Though a tot of rum would hit the spot to right about now. Don't you think?”

Wyld was saved from answering him by Zia and Naomi approaching. Naomi held onto a back bag which held the explosives. “Ok”. Wyld brought up her rifle. “Us two on point. You two behind. Anything moves, you drop and signal. We want to get in without causing a scene”.

“Last chance for a personnel switch”. Zia said with a smirk.

“We're fine as we are Zia”. Wyld said with a forced smile.

“Suit yourself. Gives Naomi and I time for some girl talk”. She swatted Naomi's back and she leapt in the air in surprise as she realised what had happened. After that she blushed and found something incredibly interesting to look at on the ground.

Wyld fought down a wave of.... resentment? Oh for crying out loud! “Go”! She pushed Baldurjack just a little harder than she intended and he fell out onto the street. She pulled him close as she folded over to crouch. “Stay behind me. Do. Not. Fall. Behind”. Without waiting for an answer she moved off, still crouching as she brought her rifle up to scan the street ahead.

They moved that way, taking their time looking around, before making quick runs from cover to cover for just over half an hour. Jan scanning the street's, Baldurjack proving capable of keeping up with his only form of protection. Jan had noticed earlier. He hadn't asked for a gun. Not that she would have given him one. But still.......

What soldier walks through a battleground without asking for gun?

It had been the other reason she'd wanted him with her. She was as alert to his presence as she was looking for others. Something about him did not add up. Credentials or no. He was acting strangely and she couldn’t tell if it was onset madness caused by the war. Or something else. Just one more thing she had to juggle.

Keeping an eye on the Zia's teams progress, she made the final advance and came up to the corner of a demolished building across the street. She looked up and saw the sign. “Good tea huh”?

The building across from them had lost some of it's signage. Some letters seemed to have been destroyed by whatever fighting had gone on to result in the Reaper forces lying dead around it. It was the Ritz.

Or the Hotel _it_, as it seemed to say on the buildings front.

Wyld saw Zia and Naomi further back and waved them to her.

“This is wrong”. She said when they arrived. “If Reapers are making Dragon Husks in there, why are they sending troops in against it”?

Naomi peeked out. “How do you know they weren't defending it from someone”?

“Look at the bodies”. Wyld pointed out. “In the corps we deal with the aftermath of the fight as well as the fight itself. Bodies tend to fall a certain way depending on where they stand and where they're shot”. She nodded over at a dead cannibal. “That one was running towards the building. He was hit and he went face down pointing face first at the building. If he'd been standing still he'd have gone over on his back or side”.

“You know this how”?

“Battlefield medicine. Find the ones who need help. Looking at how troops fall gives you an idea of where they were shooting. And if they shoot in a given direction. Chances are someone was on the receiving end getting shot at. Trust me....”. She said. “I do this a lot. And they were shooting at the building”.

“Looks like they didn't take it”.

“I know”.

“Why no orbital drop? Or Reaper laser? Look at it”. Zia said as she drew back from looking around the corner. “Aside from weapons fire it's been untouched”. They all looked around the site and saw the crumbled buildings around them.

Wyld shook it off. “Nothings changed. We go in, we look around”.

“Tell me we're taking the front door”!

“We're taking the front door”.

“What.....” Zia was surprised. “Really”?

“Quickest way in. I've looked and I can't see anything to suggest it's a bad idea”.

“Except the dead Reapers who tried to storm from all sides”.

“Any other suggestion's”? They were all silent. "Then it's a dash forward. Blow the door. Get in. Zia with me”. She said, ignoring the look Naomi gave her. “Breaching charge”. She told her holding out her hand. Naomi slapped a rectangular block of explosive putty in her hand along with a detonator and firing pins. “This....” Wyld said after a glance. “This will take out the front of the building”.

“We don't have breaching charges”. She said, “Just tear some off and guess”.

Wyld sighed and stowed the gear in her harness. “Ok, Zia on me. Ready”?

“For you? Anytime”.

“Go”!

Together they dashed across the street and only got half way when both came skidding to a halt.

Red dots had appeared in front of them on the ground.

Wyld turned to Zia and saw that she was painted with them, as was she, she saw, as she looked down.

From the building's windows, mechs had popped up and and held rifles at the ready. Trained on them. Wyld turned to see red dots covering where Naomi and Baldurjack were hidden.

“Merde”. She groaned.

From the building a loud speaker blared to life. “This iz addressed to dah force's outzide. Raise un hands and no von vill be shot”.

Wyld raised her hands. “Did that sound German to you”?

Zia raised her hands also. “Yeah”. She agreed. “This is all your fault”.

“Hey, you wanted the front entrance”.

Zia glowered at the door ahead of them. “Don't remind me”.

Modifié par Redbelle, 22 juillet 2013 - 09:49 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Artemis Alpha to Artemis Bravo, come in." Shayrana repeated over the com a few times. She'd made up her mind what they were going to do.

"Artemis Bravo, go ahead Alpha." T said.

"Mission is scrubbed. Repeat. Mission is scrubbed." Shayrana said. "We're pulling out. Report to rendezvous point delta."

"Huh?" T said.

"Just get your asses over here." Shayrana said. "And see if you can find any wooden planks or something we can use as a stretcher."

"It just so happens there was a medical clinic on the first floor." T replied.

"Good." Shayrana replied. "See if they have any pain killers, medigel, and antibiotics. Oh, and a real stretcher. Most of the good stuff is probably gone, but you never know."

"Affirmative." T replied. "Bravo out. Come on, Ranassa. We've got to go."

"Wait a minute." The Lieutenant said. "I need you here."

"Sorry, ma'am. We just got new orders from our commander." T said. "We've got to report back to the rendezvous point immediately."

"Who is your commander, Private?" The Lieutenant asked.

"First Lieutenant Nasanna Dirouri, ma'am." T replied. "We've got to go, ma'am. You're outranked. Grab your gear and let's go Ranassa."

Ranassa grabbed her LMG and battle rifle, and headed out the door. "Good luck with that reaper. Try to talk some sense in to command, ma'am."

The two of them got outside the door and hustled downstairs to the first floor. The clinic door was locked. Ranassa produced a set of picks and went to work on it.

"Quick thinking back there, T, getting us out of that hell hole." Ranassa said. "That's that last place I want to go out. Nice lie of omission about our L-T."

T was looking up the stairs for a bit, then said. "You sure went out of your way not to make friends in there. That Salarian engineer was shooting you dirty looks and that Krogan was about to smack your ass."

"I'd like to have seen him try." Ranassa said. "And that toad? Who gives a ****?"

"I don't know if you got the word, but we're all in this together right now." T said to her. "I like you and all, but where the **** do you come off with all this superiority crap?"

Ranassa heard a click. "There! Got it. What was that you were saying? Okay, I've got the LMG, I'll back you up. Open it."

They shined their light around inside. It was pretty well trashed inside. That meant all the easy stuff was gone. There was a stretcher in an unlocked case, and some telescoping crutches, some rapid setting epoxy and fiberglass wrap.

"Grab that ****, T." Ranassa said. "Maybe they could use it back at the hospital. Well, well, well."

Ranassa spotted something in the wall behind the counter that hadn't been vandalized, and some other stuff in locked areas that hadn't been vandalized behind 3 cm thick acrylic.

"What did you find?" T asked.

"Drugs, and a wall safe." Ranassa said. "Here, take my LMG and keep watch. We're grabbing this ****. Heavy duty painkillers and some other stuff. Someone tried to get in here, too, using brute force. I'll use finesse. They may chew us out for retreating, but not after they see this."

"Good thinking. Just try not to call the Salarian doctors toads, okay?" T said. "Just where do you get off with that?"

"My father was Turian." She replied while she was picking the lock. "He'd always say things like how the Salarians were screwing around with everyone's genes like they did the Krogan, and if anyone got out of line they could be next. You couldn't trust a toad.

"Then Sederis used to use the term in private. So it's not like it's unusual. If they'd stop meddling in everyone's business and leave things alone, maybe we wouldn't have things like the Krogan rebellions. What's next? The Yahg? You heard what they did to the Council's first contact team, right?"

T stood there in silence listening.

"Got it!" Ranassa said when the lock clicked open, and she started filling her backpack with the stuff. "And you mark my words. If we come out of this war in one piece in the next month, the only world that will not have been hit will be Sur'Kesh. Damn toads will be untouched."

T was getting a little nervous. "Hey, Ranassa. I think maybe we should just get back. Forget the safe. I've got a bad feeling. Let's go."

"Come on." Ranassa said. "I'm just getting warmed up."

"No. Really." T replied. "I've got a really really bad feeling. Let's get the **** out of here, now. **** is going to hit the fan. I'm leaving."

"There could have been some great stuff in there." Ranassa said. "Oh well, another time, because miss antsy pants has a bad feeling."

T handed Ranassa her LMG and they had to carry that stuff back over across that open terrain. They felt the ground shake.

"I told you." T said. "Artemis bravo to Alpha. We are coming home. Cover us." They exited the building and moved quickly across that open terrain.

"Affirmative bravo." Shayrana said. "We see you. Run!"

T and Ranassa hustled as fast as they could with that stretcher and other materiel. They really couldn't shoot with anything but a pistol, and that was iffy. They got about half-way to Alpha team and they heard a shrieking groan and that big reaper fired and hit the position on the fourth floor where they had been. A large explosion shook the ground and nearly knocked them off their feet.

"****! I'm glad we got out of there!" T said. "I told you I had a real bad feeling. Come on, it's just another 40 meters."

"Remind me never to question your intuition again." Ranassa said.

Ereba ran out and grabbed the stretcher. Shayrana and Errika provided cover if needed.

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 23 juillet 2013 - 01:23 .

[Kel Riever]

The connection between Rea and Rothan had left the asari weary but calm. It was as if somehow the thoughts in the back of her mind had been released, making her want to lie down and surrender herself to a tranquil slumber. Rea leaned on a wall to let the sensation pass. She had never melded with anyone and had that experience.

Ninteen years old! Rea was astonished at how young Rothan was. His mind was so full of doubt on the surface. But to know just how unique Rothan was to the quarians, how treasured, and how dedicated he was, astounded Rea even more than his age. And though in such a limited span of time there was only so much she could understand about Rothan, she learned he had stood up to someone difficult to confront.

“You all right?” The question surprised Rea and she was suddenly aware of Arkeer’s hulking form next to her.

“Yes,” Rea answered. She composed herself then, breathing in deeply and addressing Arkeer purposefully, “Listen Arkeer, I have a job for you. You are the only one who can do it besides me, so I want you to promise me you’ll do it.”

“Sure,” Arkeer said jovially, “Get the missiles to the launch sight. Kill lots of Reapers. What else could you possibly add to the list?”

“I want you to stand by Rothan.”

“Haha, I…what?” Arkeer’s face contorted into an expression of distress. “Hey, I told you, he’s not my baby.”

“And he doesn’t want to be,” Rea continued firmly, “He’s got to come into his own. That’s not going to happen with you cushioning him, or coddling him, or treating him like he’s some lesser being keeping you back. For all your individual achievement, for all your prowess, and for all your good old-fashioned inability to be killed unless someone drives over you with a Tomkah, you krogan have clans. And when it comes to your clan, you stand by them, fight with them, cheer them on and maybe if it comes right down to it, you die for them.”

Arkeer gritted the teeth in his maw. “Hey, not just anybody gets in a krogan clan. You do things. It isn’t called a rite of passage for nothing.”

“Oh,” Rea challenged, “Let me ask you this. Are any of those things that you do tougher than what we are going through right now?”

“N-no,” the krogan stammered. Then annoyed by his own hesitation, he growled, “This is crazy. In all my years I have never heard of an idea more ridiculous.”

Rea felt her cheeks get hot. She was standing in front of a one-ton killing machine, probably thinking he could just pop her head off and leave everyone else behind to go fight the war he wanted to. But Rea felt the elation of righteousness in her. She knew for all the gruff, Arkeer cared. He was a warrior after all. Not just some butcher to be pointed in a direction and let go. Arkeer was a warrior with honor. “Fine,” Rea leveled her fierceness at him, “Don’t call him a clan member. But you swear on the skulls of your ancestors until this thing is done, you’ll treat him like one.”

Arkeer snorted, leaned in, and leered at Rea with one eye, “You’ve got a hump on you, that’s for sure. Even some of my own kind wouldn’t give a damn enough about anything to be standing in front of me like you are now. So I promise, Rea, on the skulls of my ancestors. But you better be right about this. Because when I’m done with Rothan, there’s going to be a krogan under that suit of his.”

Modifié par Kel Riever, 23 juillet 2013 - 02:52 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

"Quick! Get inside!" Cpl Shayrana shouted.

T and Ranassa ran into the building. "You'll get no argument from us." T said. "You guys holding out alright?"

"For now. Sarge has a broken leg. We need to get her back to the hospital." Ereba said. "Other than that one more attack, and we'll be throwing rocks and biotic attacks at the reapers."

"I'd just like to know who the crap for brains was who came up with the assault plan." Ranassa said.

"What was the plan?" Soniri asked and winced.

"Hey, sarge. Catch. You'll like these. Just take one." Ranassa said and threw a bottle of pain killers. "They're running Hammer Alpha, you know with that Commander Shepard right up into maw of this thing. Shepard is the one who's supposed to get to that beam, they said. Bunch of idiots.

"I told them I would have sent the Vorcha and Krogan up the middle as cannon fodder and let them hit hard, then sent Hammer Alpha around this damned thing. The Krogan got all pissy."

"Tell me you didn't use the words 'cannon fodder.'" The sarge said.

"She did." T replied.

"Well, that's what Sederis would have done. But no. These idiots send their main team right down the throat." Ranassa said. "A lot of good girls lost their lives today clearing this route and for what? Nothing. At least if Hammer followed us it would have been for something."

Morale was hitting bottom fast. Ranassa wasn't helping. Even Ereba wasn't doing so well, but at least the sarge had some pain killers. Ranassa just couldn't keep her mouth shut.

"I mean who gives a damn about Vorcha? Am I right?" She went on and everyone nodded. "And they're tough, too, almost as tough as Krogan. They're just dumb as tree stumps so they'll do about anything you tell them."

"Hey Sarge! Has that pill taken effect?" Ereba asked.

"Huh?" The sarge replied.

"That sounds good." T said. "I've got some fiberglass cast material in the bag. Maybe we can set the bone and wrap it. We've got some crutches, and she can hobble back to the hospital."

"Are you nuts?" Errika said.

"No. It'll give us a couple more guns, and biotic attacks just in case." T replied.

Shayrana was scanning things out the door. "That's some good thinking, T, thanks, but we're going to close up right now. I see some movement, and I don't like what I'm seeing.

"Errika, see if you can find something to barricade the door. Shove a sock or something in the sarge's mouth and set the sarge's leg right now if you're going to do it.

"Ranassa, you're up first on the barrier. Keep it on the door. Let me know when you get tired." Shayrana ordered. "And everyone, no matter what you hear. Keep quiet. We are going to survive this night."

Shayrana went to tend to the sarge. Errika grabbed a clean sock out of the sack T had brought back from the clinic and shoved it in Soniri's mouth. Shayrana opened Soniri's armor up around her leg and felt around. The bone was definitely broken, but it hadn't broken through the skin.

"Sarge, this is going to hurt." She said and she shoved it back into a reasonbly straight position. Soniri let out a muffled scream. "Hand me the sleeve. Get me a pair of gloves. Now the fiberglass wrap and epoxy. Errika, I'll wrap you brush." After about 30 minutes they were done, and it was set up like a rock.

"Not bad for an art major." Soniri said. "I'm glad I took that pain killer, though. It could have been a lot worse."

"We'll get you back, sarge." Shayrana said. "I promise you. Ereba, your turn on the barrier."

Shayrana collapsed next to the sarge. The sarge took her hand.

"You're really coming into your own, 'Rana." The sarge said. "You stepped forward when things started falling apart. Now you've got to get their morale back up. It's sinking fast."

"How? I don't know what to do." Shayrana said.

"Setting a mission, no matter how small, and succeeding at it will be the first thing." The sarge said. "That may be getting me back to the hospital safely, and the sooner you do that the better the odds of success, judging by the looks of these girls."

"Okay, sarge. I'll do it your way." Shayrana said.

"No. Not for me. You have to believe it yourself, and you have to show them that you believe in it." The sarge said. "And tell that Ranassa to shut up if she gets negative. You're stronger than she is. I can feel it in you.

"Ereba is your head basher, but she's going to be more reserved now."

"Why?" Shayrana asked.

"'Rana, she's smitten." Soniri said. "As long as the L-T was alive or I was in command it was one thing. But with me under these drugs, and you in charge, it gets complicated."

"I see. I'm going to have to chew some ass." Shayrana said. "I'm just not used to it."

"Leadership comes from within." Soniri told her. "Now, lead what's left of this squad to safety."

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 23 juillet 2013 - 06:10 .

[Kel Riever]

“She’s been away long enough,’ Trev said anxiously.

Hugh frowned, “Agreed. I’ll go get her.”

“Wait,” A.Q. declared, “I think I hear somethin’.” She pulled the scoped Mattock to her eye and looked into the crawlway. “Yep, that’s her. She’s comin’. Slow.” A.Q. raised her voice slightly, and called into the aperture, “Baby doll, you hurt?” There was no answer. Her voice lowered, “Hugh, in!”

Hugh tossed his rifle to Trev and scrambled into the hole. All eyes were on the crawlway until Hugh emerged with a silent, wide-eyed Mia a couple of minutes later. He was rubbing her shoulders, “I think she’s in shock.”

A.Q. snatched Mia up and away from the hole. She carried the girl to the center of the room where the missile rig was, and lay Mia to rest. The Misfits gathered around.

Rea had to shove her way through the youth. With medkit in hand, she urgently demanded, “Let me help.” A.Q. had Mia flat on the floor, facing upward, with the girl’s head resting in her lap. Rea knelt beside Mia and activated her omni-tool. She then pulled out an applicator from the medkit and administered a minimal human child’s dose of stim. Mia twitched, and then seemed to relax, her eyelids slightly drooping.

Mia softly said, “All the people are dead.” Her eyes began to water.

Rea stared at A.Q. and then up at Hugh. Both appeared stunned and uncertain. The asari stood up and faced Hugh directly, “I’m going in there to see what’s happening.”

“Aye,” Hugh responded, his voice wavering, “I’ll go too.”

“Let me go,” Arkeer suggested, “Besides, I’m getting tired of waiting around here.”

“No,” Rea disagreed. “You’ll barely fit in there. If Hugh and I need to get out quickly, we can. No one should be moving until that little girl is back on her feet, and maybe Rothan can get some more work done. You move if you have to. Other than that, please, stay put.”

“Splitting up is a bad idea,” Rothan interjected, surprising Rea.

“Could be. But I don’t see a better way of doing this.” Rea became stern, “Whatever is down there, I don’t want to ignore it and have it catch up with us later. Especially if we move on and it ends up behind us. Hugh and I go. We’ll be back, you have my word on it.”

No one protested beyond that. Rea and Hugh went to the crawlway. Trev, who had stayed to keep an eye on the small tunnel, volunteered a Shuriken sub-machinegun to Hugh and said, “Here. Better than going unarmed. I’ll keep the rifle until you bring it back.” Hugh accepted it and bent towards the hole, but Rea placed her hand on Hugh’s chest and stopped him.

“Me first. I have armor, a pistol and biotics. Plus light.” Rea pulled out her Paladin, got down on her hands and knees, and entered the Crawlway. Hugh followed.

Rea had her suit lamps on low and saw the rough-hewn crawlway stretching forward further than the range of her lights. The clay was loose and brownish at the entrance, but changed almost immediately to become bluish and firm. She tried to judge the size of it, not tall enough for most to be able to hunch over or stand in, but neither the sides nor the top of the crawlway pressed in on them. Arkeer would have a hard time, Rea judged, but he could make it. And if that missile rig could be broken down, it could possibly be dragged through, though that would take a fair amount of work. Of course, the passageway didn’t look exactly as if had been designed for the Alliance to use, and she could only think that whatever Mia had seen must have something to do with their enemy.

The two of them travelled on for some time, with the crawlway eventually turning gently to the right and slightly downward. Neither spoke, until Rea looked down at her omni-tool which showed they had reached the fifteen minute mark since they started. She asked, “Do you think Mia could have gone much more than this?”

“She’s faster than us. Probably could have even gotten up on her legs,” Hugh explained. ‘Not that I’m a fan of being found out, but it is quiet. Do you think you could turn up those lights to get us a better gander ahead?”

Steadily raising the power on her suit lamps, Rea revealed that the tunnel still kept going until the slow bend cut off their view.

Hugh sighed, “Yes, well, sometimes I would prefer to be wrong. Nevertheless, if I have crawl through this god forsaken thing, at least I can do it behind one of the most fabulous asses I have ever seen.”

“How old are you, exactly?” Rea rolled her eyes.

“Eighteen. And I’ve got the ID to prove it.”

“Let’s stick to the job at hand.”

“Well, the little things in life are what keep me going, sometimes, in this misery,” Hugh confessed. “And it happens to be true; your ass is like a work of art. But yes, monsters to be slain and all that. I’ll dutifully keep my hormone driven observations to myself.”

They continued without speaking for a few minutes before both became aware of a biting, pungent scent. Rea and Hugh had been around long enough to recognize the smell of rotting flesh. In a couple of more minutes, the stench became overwhelming. Rea coughed and looked back to see Hugh wiping tears from his eyes. The asari reached into a storage packet on her belt to pull out her rebreather and two orange plugs. She put the rebreather on and offered the plugs to Hugh, “Here, take these. They are normally meant for your ears but you can shove them up your nose.”

The youth graciously accepted, “That smell is bloody horrible!” Relieved after he pushed the plugs vigorously into his nostrils, he glanced ahead. The bend in the crawlway came to its finish in a sliver of blackness. “There. It is still quite a way but I think we can see the end.”

Rea dimmed her lamps and the two went on, much more cautiously. At irregular intervals, they could feel a breeze, which also served to exacerbate the stench. When they finally came to the terminus of the crawlway, they saw it open into a massive space. Rea knelt at the exit and Hugh looked over her shoulder.

Hewn out of the earth was an enormous cavern, reaching as far as they could see. Light filtered through the occasional fracture from above, allowing the murky space to be taken in by the naked eye. Rea and Hugh had come out on some sort of ledge high above the floor of the cavern, which at first, seemed to roil like an underground sea, shimmering with captured luminescence. But as the two stared closer into the depths below, it dawned on them that what they witnessed was no body of water.

Rippling like a tide, corpses rose and fell, lifted or lowered on huge spikes. Thousands worked, undulating in their task as innumerable human bodies were processed into husks.

“Dragon’s Teeth,” Hugh choked. “Holy mother!”

Rea crawled out on the ledge, the bloodcurdling scene so abhorrent that it lured her to seek the limits of its extent, to somehow know it was finite in its existence. Other openings became apparent in different parts of the cavern walls, some large, some as small as the one she had exited.

Hugh whispered, panicked, “Where are you going?”

The clay felt packed beneath Rea. She placed her fingers on the lip of the ledge and gazed outward. Beyond, it was apparent that the cavern had severed some railway tunnels, and where they could, mobs of husks shambled into their exposed passageways. Rea peered over the edge directly downward, noticing the ledge fell away in a nearly vertical slope. There were no Dragon’s Teeth immediately below, but what looked like a wet surface, brimming with indeterminate detritus. The asari felt a tapping on her boot.

“Forget the bargain,” Hugh spoke earnestly, “This was never what I expected. We need to pack your missiles and get all of us the hell out of here.”

Maneuvering around on her knees so she could face Hugh, who still hadn’t left the crawlway, Rea affirmed with a bow of her head. The youth looked deathly pale, all haughtiness gone from his expression. She motioned for him to turn around to go back. After he did, she pushed herself to get to the tunnel. Rea felt the clay beneath her leg give, and crumble.

The disintegration of the earth alerted Hugh with its sound. He spun and dove to grab at Rea, barely reaching her fingertips. As the clay collapsed beneath Rea’s entire form, Hugh lurched forward to grab whatever part of her that he could as she fell. He was only able to clutch the top part of one of her hands and struggled to hold her. The youth was spread flat, clawing out with his free hand for anything that could give him leverage. Rea looked up at him, terror in her bright eyes.

“Hugh!”

Rea's fingers slipped through his grasp, and then she was gone.

Modifié par Kel Riever, 24 juillet 2013 - 08:01 .

[Redbelle]

The voice on the PA directed everyone to move together. A move Wyld had been against as Naomi and Baldurjack were at least under cover. Until several of the mechs disappeared, only to re-emerge with what looked like heavy weapons of the exploding kind. At which point it became moot where they were.

They all moved into a group in the middle of the road. At which, the door's of the Hotel began to open revealing someone who stood in the shadows cast by the doors.

“If the gentlemen and ladies would like to put down their hands now.....”. Came a breathy, wheezing voice. “....The master has asked for your presence in the Burlington room”. The figure shuffled forward and the group saw that the man was an elderly gentleman. Impeccably dressed in a black, long tailed jacket whose effect was ruined slightly by the stoop in his gait and slump of his shoulders. His hair, what was left of it, was combed over and as white as snow.

Wyld stepped forward to address him. And was met with the sound of over three dozen rifles being chambered.

“However”. The elderly man went on. “Before I admit anyone. We should like to know who it is, we would be receiving this night. There are some strange characters about and we rarely receive guests”.

“Fine precaution's to be sure”! Baldurjack piped up from behind Wyld. “But I assure you, completely unnecessary! I am Brigadier Baldurjack Baldwin of Her Majesties Space Beret’s and these are my plucky assistant's. We came to.....”.

“.... See if anyone needed help”! Wyld interjected suddenly. “We saw this building still standing. We wondered why. And if civilian's might be hiding inside”.

Wyld pictured Baldurjack in her mind. Please shut up please shut up please shut up.

“I see”. Said the man at the door. “Well, I'm sure the master will assure you, we need no assistance here. But by all means, if you will not disturb the other guests then I welcome you to the masters estate”.

The mechs at the windows abruptly withdrew and disappeared from view as fast as they had arrived. Wyld blew a sigh of relief and jerked her head to the team. At the door Wyld found herself standing a full foot over the elderly gentleman.

“Welcome”, he said. “I am Sir Humphrey I arrange the affairs of this estate. If you will follow me, I shall take you to the master. But first.....”. He said as he stepped back to allow the group to enter. “....I must ask you to check your weapons at the cloak room”.

Wyld stared incredulously at Sir Humphrey and was about to ask why when Baldurjack chimed in once more.

“An excellent suggestion! Clearly this establishment has maintained the proper etiquette of polite society! I mean, I would assume that going to meet the master armed to the nine's would be the height of a social faux pax...... don't you know”. He added. “Corpsman....”! He said, swinging around to Wyld. "Have your men disarm. We will not disrespect a man in his own house”!

Wyld fought the urge to grind her her teeth. Well, I did say we wanted in without a scene.

“Sir Humphrey”? She queried. “Would your master be offended if we kept our small arms”? She spoke hurriedly before Baldurjack could weigh in. “As soldier's, we are required to be armed. We can leave our rifles, but surely, with the state of the Earth, asking us to disarm completely would mean we couldn't do our job...... If Reaper's suddenly broke in to kill us all”! That last comment was squared solely and Baldurjack, whose open mouth suddenly clicked shut.

Humphrey blew out a sigh of exasperation. “Well why not. The other soldier's insisted on keeping their weapons. I don't see why you should be different”.

“Other soldier's”? Wyld asked, her interest piqued. Humphrey however pointed at the coat desk. Moving over to the unoccupied section she looked from side to side, and seeing no one. Rang the bell on the desk.

A small LOKI type robot, no taller than a Volus appeared from a back room and looked up with it's glowing blue optics. It buzzed as it's vocaliser activated. “May I take your coat”?

Wyld handed over her Rifle and the small LOKI took it. After examining it for a few seconds it offered it back. “This is not a coat. Please report to the authorities for possession of a dangerous weapon.” It's head jerked to one side a few times before it looked at her again. “May I take your coat”?

“Oh heavens sake”. Humphrey stomped past. “Clerker, override your protocols and take their weapons. He does this every time”. He said to Wyld as Clerker disappeared out back and arrived with a golden token. “Please return you token for your items. Is there some other way I may assist you today”?

The line of weapon's being handed over went on. Leading to Humphrey overriding Clerker each time. Finally the weapon's had been exchanged . Token's were pocketed and all that was left were their pistols and Zia's SMG.

Following Humphrey out of the lobby and down a hall, they arrived at an oversized set of doors. “The master is within and expecting”. He said as he swept the doors open.

They entered into a long room, Crimson wall's, splashed with white from wall fixtures, ornately decorated and trimmed with gold and white leaf patterns. They saw a man down the end of the room leaning against the mantel of a lit fire place, looking up at painting. Humphrey ushered them forward. “May I present.....”. Humphrey declared. “Brigadier Baldurjack and party”.

Baldurjack made a sound from the back of his throat. “Space Beret's”. He hissed.

Humphrey ignored him. “And if it gives you pleasure. May I introduce you to your host for this evening. Count Berger von Clausewitz”!

The count turned and Wyld raised an eyebrow.

He was certainly dressed the part..... of what she couldn't say, though the term swashbuckler sprang to mind.

The count wore light brown trousers that he seemed to have been poured into. Giving Wyld a clear view of his muscle tone. His ruffled light coloured shirt was obscured at the front by a open dark green breast coat that finished at his midriff, exposing both broad shoulder's and a smooth chest, where the buttons were left undone, that likewise, showed that this man took car of himself. Over his right arm, he wore an off the shoulder cape that dangled down to his thigh. And it was swept back far enough to reveal the most outdated of close quarter weapons Wyld could conceive of in modern times.

The man wore a Rapier.

And a monocle.

I'm done trying to figure out what comes next. Wyld thought as she felt a thud starting to drum in her head. Go ahead galaxy...... Surprise me!

The Count stepped forward. “I vould very much like to velcome you all to our little refuge here in London”. He took a step past Wyld, past the Brigadier, past Zia and arrived in front of Naomi who suddenly realised she had become the centre of everyone’s attention. “And I must apologise. Had I known someone of your rare beauty vas at my door Fräulein, I vould have come to collect you myself”.

He took her hand and Naomi's cheeks went crimson as he raised her hand and pressed it to his lips. “Thanks”! She squeaked.

Wyld caught Zia's eye, who just shrugged. As Wyld surreptitiously put both hands behind her back and activated her Omni tool out of sight of the group.

“I'm sorry, I didn't catch your title”.

He dropped Naomi's hand and turned looking puzzled. “I am the count”.

“I assume you have wounded. We saw dead reapers outside. I'm a medic you see”. She said by way of explanation.

“No ve von without casualties”.

“And I assume you've had other incursion's”?

He waved off her concern. “Ve von those too”.

Wyld pointed at Humphrey “I assume you can prove he's not a slave”?

The count was taken aback by the question. “Wha...”. He saw the seriousness in her eye's. “I assure you. He is quite free”.

“What do you call before you hit a golf ball”? Wyld asked. Well aware of just how far she was pushing her luck.

“Four”. The count answered. Then his eye's narrowed. “What is the meaning of these questions”?

“Just getting a feel of the man”. Wyld answered as she deactivated the voice recorder on her Omni-tool.

Ringtone!

“I'm Corpsman Wyld, Count Berger. We're here to assess the danger to you and any staying here”. She lifted her hand in greeting. Count Berger looked at it without offering his own.

“Ve are safe here”. He proclaimed. “My mech's are fully able to defend us from any and all approach by those who vould vish us harm”.

“They're doing a good job. This building is the only one standing for a mile”.

“Perhaps the Reaper's appreciate the architecture”. Count Berger noted dryly. “Who knows vhat goes on within the minds of those creature's. The fact is they have not destroyed this building. For vhat reasons I cannot say. But providence brought me both here and to this country on business vhen the Reapers first began to land”. His eye's grew sad as he sighed. “I vish I knew if the same has happened in my country. If any safe haven's exist for other's around the world. It is good fortune that brought me here. If there vas purpose of intent I know not of it. But I choose not to question my good fortune, Ms Vyld”.

Hearing her name come out like that. There's something to get used too. She thought. Thrilling, yet also a bit..... wrong.

“Do forgive the lady my good Count”. Baldurjack stepped forward and offered a bow, which the Count returned. “She's been under a bit of stress of late. I was wondering if you'd be so good as to show us the teeth”.

“The teeth”? Said the Count.

“The dental facilities”. Wyld injected hurriedly. She pointed back to Zia who thus far had not said anything. “She's come down with a bit of.....mouth flu”. She winced inwardly as she scrambled to remember her dental training. “Canker...... She's developed a bit of Canker, you see. You wouldn't happen to have some, mouth wash”?

“Canker”? The Count looked at Zia who, as Jan had been talking, had pushed the tip of her tongue against the side of her mouth, so that when he looked, give the impression of something growing inside. “By god voman. Mouth Vash? My own Mother had Canker! She needs a doctor, not some medic who thinks some hotel freebie’s will cure a condition”.

“Your right. Wyld said as she grabbed Baldurjack and Zia and pushed them towards the door they'd come in from. "Don’t' know what I thinking. We'll just have a look around and get her to a doctor”.

“Wait”! Baldurjack exclaimed. “By any chance, is there a cup of tea available”?

“Sir”. Humphrey interjected. “If I may be so bold, perhaps, they would do well to meet the other guests. In that case, I can have tea prepared for all”.

“Yes, yes”. Count Berger waved him off. “Make the preparation's”.

“Good sir! You are a true gentlemaaaaan”.

Wyld shoved him out the door. “Keep him in line”. She hissed at Zia who nodded and disappeared after him. Wyld then turned back to see Naomi still standing where the count had left her. “Naomi”? Naomi turned and looked at her. “I may need my gear...... In the bag”?

Naomi looked down and appeared to remember she held enough explosive putty to bring the building down around them. She looked up at the Count who gazed down at her. “Very pleased to meet you”. She said as she turned and hurried after Wyld.

“And I you, Fräulein”! He called after her as the door's closed. “And I you”. He repeated as he smiled.

Unpleasantly.

Modifié par Redbelle, 24 juillet 2013 - 11:33 .

[Redbelle]

From the crumbling roof of a far away building, three women stood. One dressed in blue, hooded and masked in the garb of a Fury. The other two, unmasked and human, but clad in Crimson and Green.

Crimson stood tall and erect. Her skin crackling with biotic energy as she held the one in green close to her. They both looked in the direction of the hotel. They could not see, but rather, could feel the one they wanted entering the building.

Crimson felt her disappear behind thick walls and her nails dug slightly further into Green's body.

Her name was Disdain. She had another name. Long ago. She had discarded it when it became baggage. A dead weight that slowed her rise to greatness. So she had torn her name and everything attached to it and tossed it aside. Her nail at the throat of Green dragged across her skin causing her to whimper.

“Do you feel that Lucy”? Was Disdain's question. Lucy nodded and pressed deeper into her embrace. “She is in there now. Zia is within our reach”.

Lucy tilted her head up, dragging more of her skin across her crimson red nails. Though equal in age to the one who held her, she stood a head shorter than her dominating mistress. “I want to hurt her now. Please”? She asked in a small voice.

Disdain looked down into her wide eye's and saw her desperate thirst for blood. “No pet”. She mummered. “I shall take her life. You may have what is left”.

She looked up at the one in blue who sad nothing. Blue had been a recent addition to their group. A new sister to replace the loss of the one who had run away. Hand picked by Aria herself which was the only reason she suffered the interloper.

Disdain looked at the building. Saw the remains of the letter's still attached to her wall's.

The Hotel _it_

Zia may emerge. She may fall. If she succumbed to what lay within then she had never been worthy, and Disdain could return to Aria with that news.

But if she lived.......

Her nail broke the skin of Lucy who shuddered even as she reached up and brought the bloody nail to her lips.

If Zia lived. She would suffer the sister's of Fury.