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[Redbelle]

Humpfrey sat at a table and poured himself a cup of tea.

The master had gotten himself into a spot of bother it seemed. The count was fighting the Brigider. Aweful business. But not one he could do anything about he knew.

Not in any way.

All because of the tea.

When he'd stumbled into the hotel on the first day of the invasion, The Count had taken him in. He'd been given a cup of tea. He thought he'd detected a slightly perculier taste. Something that was not supposed to be there.

It was several cups later when Count Berger had admitted that it contained a compound, that made the drinker very vunerable to suggestion. And when The Count had discovered his medical credentials, had readily admitted him to his staff.

His first task was to eliminate the bad taste.

The second was to help process the refugee's, as they were all turned into monsters. Turned, and stashed away in the basement. Letting only a few out, to test each batch, as The Count took to calling it.

The signal alone was not enough after all. It could not break a mind. The mind had to be adapted. Conditioned to accept the breaking while the reforming of it's neural path's took place. Till it was ready to accept order's without question on a piggy backed signal of alternative modulation. He and the staff had done it as the refugee's had stopped coming in as the war went on. Giving them time to work through the backlog. Yet another of The Count's terms.

Then when they no longer needed the staff. He'd drugged their food with the tea supplement and turned them as well.

He picked up his cup. He felt like he ought to have been crying. Something inside wanted to claw it's way out of him. Guilt perhaps? Self loathing? He no longer knew. Instead, all he could do was follow the order The Count had issued him so many times, he no longer needed to be ordered anymore.

He had a cup of tea.

The sound of running footstep's drew near and Humpfrey looked up to see Baldurjack run past and into one of the rest room's. He opened his mouth to tell him he was going into the ladies, then he shrugged. When a man needed to go and all that, he thought.

He took a sip and sighed in contentment. Knowing that he had done as he was supposed to. After awhile he heard more feet. The sounds of gutteral moaning and anguish. He looked up.

Husks were approaching through the door. Amoung them was the man he knew as Tector. His grey face gaunt as biosynthetic illumination's pulsed under his skin. They surrounded him, not seeming to know what to do. Humpfrey gestured at the empty chairs. “Won't you join me”?

The husk's looked around and one by one they all sat down. Tector sat beside Humprey, looking around with a listlessness to his movement's.

“Here”. Said Humpfrey as he took the pot and poured a cup for the Tector husk. Tector looked at the cup with incomprehension until he saw Humpfry raise his own cup. Mirroring the image he brought the cup his dessicated lip's.

Humpfrey extended his pinky as Tector did the same. “To your health sir”. Said Humpfrey as they both tilted back and drank, as the world around them blew apart.

[Redbelle]

As Zia eye's opened, her mind struggled to piece together everything. Why did she seem to be lying in a giant hole in the ground? Then she remembered.

She remembered being about to go back into the hotel to kill the Count.

She remembered the hotel exploding while it was being shot to piece's from the sky.

She remembered the ground cracking and falling away from them all.

Them all.....

Her mind struggled to put the piece's together. She'd been going back to kill The Count because......

Naomi!

She jerked upright and looked around. Off, not far from her, she saw Naomi's body lying on the ground. Wyld was nearer and she clawed her way to her.

“Wyld”! Wyld didn't respond and Zia pulled her over and checked for a pulse. Still alive. “Wyld”! She shouted again and slapped her for good measure. Still nothing. She was completely out of it.

“Zia”? Zia looked up and saw Naomi raise her hand. She scrambled over to her and nearly took it when she saw bioluminesces under her skin, pulsing with each breath Naomi took. She took a breath and gripped that hand. “Zia”! Naomi said as she turned her head to look at her.

Zia nearly cried out.

Naomi's face looked desiccated as her eye's shone with an unnatrual blue light. Zia gripped her hand hand tighter. “I'm here girl”. She said.

Naomi smiled. “I was hearing voice's, but their gone now”.

“That's good, right”? Zia wished Wyld would wake up and do something. Anything! She needed her to do something medical and make this better.

Naomi frowned suddenly. “I wanted to tell you something. I forgot what though”.

“Don't worry about it”.

“It was something..... like when we first met”. Her eye's squeezed together as a luminous blue tear esacped from her eye. “How did we meet? I can't remember”!

Something caught Zia's eye and she pulled Naomi's top lip back.

Her mouth was full of Dragon teeth.

Zia looked at Naomi. Saw the changes from the nanite's doing their work. Knew that Naomi didn't have long.

“I didn't get to kill a Reaper for you”. Naomi said suddenly. “I killed some for Wyld. But I wanted to keep my promise”.

Zia shushed her. “You didn't freeze”? Naomi nodded. “That's all that matters. You did good”.

“But still, I wish I.....”. Naomi's stopped talking and her eye's drifted away. As if catching sight of something.

Zia felt her breath coming in shudder's as she flipped out her Omniblade. “Don't worry about killing Reaper's for me girl”. She said as her throat consricted. “I'll kill your's for you”.

She hugged her close and the blade went in cleanly. Naomi's breath caught in Zia's ear. Then let out a long soft sigh as Zia bared her teeth against the howl she wanted to release. As Zia felt the life leave Naomi, she gently lowered her to the ground. Naomi though, found enough breath for.“I love you..... That was it”.

Then she was gone.

“NO”!

Zia looked up to see Wyld looking up from wher she lay. She saw the blade Zia held come out of Naomi as Zia stood up.

Zia felt numb. She clung to that feeling. Refusing to let anything break past. Not wanting to let anything push her over the edge when her feelings were so raw.

“YOU KILLED HER”!

And as usual, Wyld wasn't helping. She watched as Wyld pulled herself up and half crawled, half sprinted to Naomi's side. She ran her Omnitool across her body as Zia looked up. The road they had been on had collapsed into a tunnel. She saw railway lines leading further into the tunnel while ahead of them the road had fallen at an angle, blocking access that way, but leaving them the perfect way to walk back up out. Smoke billowed across the surface of their escape route. Obscuring everything beyond it.

Zia pointed “I think we can get out there”.......Wait. was that her voice? To her ear it sounded lifeless.

Wyld remained knealt by Naomi's lifeless husk. She switched off her Omnitool. “She's dead Zee”.

She could have told her that. Some great medic she was.

“She's dead and you killed her”. She looked up and glared. Eye's that felt like they were judging her from the inside out. Some part of Zia stirred under that gaze.

“She was weak”. She said in the same lifeless voice. “She should have stayed with me. I can protect her if she doesn't go far”. Past tense. Something inside her seemed to yell from far away. Use the past tense because she's dead because you killed her!

“She's dead because you killed her”!

Zia blinked. The voice she was trying to blank had said the same thing. She wanted the voice gone but Wyld was being a parrot. Well pluck the parrot! No. It was Wyld. It was all going wrong as Zia felt an urge to do something, say anything! It was all being bottled up and she was about to explode!

Wyld suddenly became a blur of motion and Zia felt her head rock backwards as a blow struck the underside of her jaw. Strangely it didn't hurt as much as it should. But it finally unlocked the biggest want she could think of right now. She wanted to explode and tear everything down around her. She wanted this pain, inside of her, out! She wanted to punch someone.

“Puta do Caralho ” Wyld shrieked in her face.

Well if Wyld insisted on standing that close......

Her fist sweapt up and hit Wyld in the cheek which split as she was spun around. Wyld quickly regained her footing and struck back. Zia brought her other arm up to block the blow. She charged her biotics.

She wasn't holding back.

Not now.

Never again!

Or Naomi.....

She didn't care about the logic. With Wyld in her grasp she charged her against the tunnel wall and both hit with a crunch. Wyld armour absorbed most of the impact but still felt the force. Blind rage gripped her and she brought her raised fist's together and brought them down on Zia's back who tried to pull away. Wyld knee rocketed up and Zia was knocked back to standing. Using her momentum she grabbed Wylds harness and pulled her down onto the floor with her and the two rolled across the ground. Punching, gouging, biting and kicking till, together, they hit a fallen piece of road and came to a stop with Zia on top. For the entire fight Zia had not put away her Omniblade and by some miracle, had forgotten about it.

Not anymore.

She saw Wyld's bleeding face beneath her. Eye's still glaring judgementally at her and she knew she'd give anything to make that go away. The Omni blade came back as Wyld saw her intent and suddenly her expression changed. As if her rational mind had taken back control and she now realised where the two of them were heading.

Well screw rational! Zia's mind screamed. And she plunged the blade right for Wylds left eye!

It stopped a bare inch from her.

Zia looked around and felt, before she saw, Wyld's prosthetic leg, twisting at an impossible angle. Holding her arm just above the elbow. The pressure of the grip was intense and her teeth bared as she pressed harder. Not caring about the consequnce's or the reason's or the Reaper's or the war. She wanted the guilt to stop and tears in her eye's to stop running and for everything to just go back to how it was and.........

“Zia....”?

They both stopped. Neither let go. From the road leading up to the outside world a voice came. “Zia....”?

Zia and Wyld looked at each other and broke away, scrambling for their sidearms. Somehow they came away with each other's and they both turned to point them at the slope.

“Zee”?

A figure began to emerge from the smoke of the world above. A bare leg appeared out of the cloud.

Wyld and Zia dropped their arms and stared with open mouth's.

Naomi appeared out of the smoke. Naked. Her body covered in ash and soot and covered in grey goo which left footmarks as she descended the slope. But otherwise, unharmed. She saw them then, and tilted her head to look at Zia.

Relief and joy in equal amount's sprung from her. “Zia”! She dashed down the slope, nearly tripped on something. She looked down and both hands went to her mouth. Her husk body looked back at her. Her eye's still open. Blue luminscnet eye's staring without seeing as Naomi saw the wound in her chest.

She looked over at Zia's bloody face and the Omniblade that she still had out. “Zia”? She asked in a voice that trembled. “Is that......Did you just kill me”?

Modifié par Redbelle, 31 juillet 2013 - 08:21 .

[Khambilo]

Six Months ago.

“So he tells me that our ‘union had been foretold by the stars,’” Firelle continued through a laugh. “And I’m thinking, is this guy for real?”

Rothan giggled as he swirled his glass. It so happened that the bar happened to have an old bottle of filtered Turian wine, a considering that most of the patrons at the bar were now Asari soldiers stationed at the outpost and not the colonists who had long since been evacuated, the drink was on the house. That very fact, in addition to Firelle’s insistence urged Rothan into his first drink. He was taking it slow, making sure that his suit’s induction filtration systems could further screen the drink for anything that could set off his immune system. He had just recovered from a fever, and was not looking forward to not being sick again.

He was however looking forward to enjoying the night with Firelle. Celis had been urging him to say how he felt about her for weeks now.

“I can’t believe you are wasting time like this,” Celis would say. “She’s got the time to waste, you don’t!”

It always came back to lifespan with these Asari, Rothan often found himself thinking.  A thousand years to live and not a moment to understand the pure terror of liking someone.

Still he had not made his feelings clear. He never had a girlfriend back in the fleet. The majority of the Asari at the academy had numerous lovers under their belt by the time they entered. Rothan’s relative lack of experience did not help one bit. He was trying to maintain his composure, his nerves, and his excitement all at once. He was hoping it was coming off that way.

“I mean,” Firelle laughed, “how many Krogan do you know are into astrology?”

Rothan shrugged. “None. I guess.”

“Exactly, I thought it was a pickup line, but this guy—ugh…” she sighed. “This was legitimate. Tried to convince me about the meaning of Krogan constellations crossing.”

“It seems so…” Rothan shrugged. “Un-Krogan.”

“Tell me about it,” Firelle said. “Most Krogan try to impress you with their brawn. They can’t get it through their thick skulls that their not on Tuchanka trying to woo a fertile female.”

She laughed, then sighed contentedly as she leaned back onto the bar and took a sip of her drink. It was good to relax. With the majority of Rothan’s graduating class enlisting, and now working together as a unit, they all felt unstoppable. Coordinated biotic strikes made it possible for Rothan and the others to buy time for evacuating colonists, quickly and efficiently clear enemy positions, or even protect precious resources. They were sent to some of the worse places, zones teeming with enemy activity where the odds of success, let alone survival, were low. Yet they made it through unscathed, for the most part. Minor injuries. No casualties. Reiza attributed the squad’s success to its cohesive teamwork. Everyone had a vested interest in keeping each other alive. They had known each other for years now. But it was more than that. They knew how each one used their biotics. They could predict each other’s moves, almost like completing another’s sentence, coordinating their abilities with explosive results.

Their most recent posting had been so far uneventful. They had been transferred back to an outpost world, a strategic position for mobilizing Asari forces throughout the system. So far, the Reapers had not reached this point. Compared to their other postings, this was shore leave, and Reiza treated it as such, letting the squad visit the settlement. Most of it had been evacuated, but a few enterprising civilians elected to stay behind to make some credits off the soldiers.

This bar was one of the few such places left open. Even so, it was mostly vacant. Unlike the booming nightclubs back on Thessia that Celis and Lenaia loved to frequent (and drag Rothan to), this place was cozy, warm and felt more like a lodge and appropriately so. It was winter on this world and the cold was absolutely bitter. A handful of Asari, mostly soldiers, were scattered around the bar. With Rothan’s fiedld of vision, Celis and Lenaia sat giggling, presumably at Rothan, as they drew close to the fire. He could hear them in his head teasing him about Firelle and it was not helping.

Luckily, Firelle leaned back in her barstool, obstructing his view of his sniggering friends, as she took another drink.

“So how about you?” She asked.

Rothan was momentarily caught off guard as he looked from Celis and Lenaia to her. “Huh?”

“I mean how to Quarian’s… you know… flirt?” She asked innocently.

He gulped a little. Considering their previous topic of conversation, he supposed it was a valid question to ask. Still, flirting was not really his forte. Not by a long shot.

“Well…” he stammered. “I-I suppose you talk to them a lot.”

“Uh-huh.”

“I mean, we talk everything out in the fleet,” Rothan clarified. “It’s not like you guys where your facial expression can help convey meaning.”

“Of course,” Firelle returned. “It makes sense. But I was looking for more practical application. For instance… Say I’m a pretty Quarian girl.”

“How would I know?” Rothan jested nervously.

Firelle laughed, which he took as a good sign. “For real though. I’m a quarian girl you like. What do you do?”

Rothan thought about what other boys his age would have done. “I guess I would ask you to go to the arcade with me.”

“Arcade?” Firelle asked. “Like games?”

“We don’t get a lot of the up to date entertainment equipment in the fleet,” Rothan clarified. “It’s too expensive and the power drain isn’t worth it. But most ships have a cargo bay where amassed old entertainment technology ends up. Everyone’s free to use it. Fix it up. The bay on the Ketsa is called the Arcade.”

“What kinds of games are there?” Firelle seemed genuinely interested.

“There’s a couple old Quasar consoles,” he said. “They don’t pay out real credits, so there’s really no point. A couple of screens for Galaxy of Fantasy. Oh and there’s a Kepesh Yakshi machine.”

“No way, you play Kepesh Yakshi!” She exclaimed.

“It’s my favorite!” Rothan nodded.

“Okay, so we go to the arcade and play a game of Kepesh Yakshi,” she continued. Rothan cocked his head, confused for a moment. “Remember, I’m a quarian girl now. Keep up with me. So the real question is, do you let me win or do you beat me?”

“I—I---What?”

“The game! Do you intentionally throw it so that I win?”

Rothan turned his head a little. “…Yes?”

Firelle shrugged. “Cute, but obvious. Not a bad thing. Show’s that you’ll put me first, though maybe at the cost of your honesty.”

Rothan immediately tensed up. Did he say something wrong? It obviously showed in his body posture because Firelle immediately started laughing at him.

“I’m kidding!” She said with as she gave him a light shove. “So then what?”

“Well, we could watch a vid,” Rothan offered.

“Classic, except that my quarian girl persona finds vids just so utterly predictable and boring.” She sighed.

“Oh well there are other things we could do,” he quickly added.

Firelle leaned in as she took another drink. “Really,” she smiled deviously. “Like what?”

“I—um---well there’s always--- dinner, you know food,” Rothan stammered. “Not a terrible romantic thing, I guess. But I mean…. You could-- I suppose...  Its—it….” Rothan groaned a little. “Ugh! I’m terrible at this.”

Firelle cocked her head. “Terrible at what?”

Rothan looked to her big greenish eyes. “Flirting.”

“Really?” She flicked her eyes away ever so delicately then with the same deftness, back to Rothan. “It wasn’t a complete disaster.”

The blood drained from Rothan’s face as he gulped. Then it surged back through his entire body like a lightning strike, nearly matching the pace of his fiercely churning mind.

The ice in his drink began clinking as his hand began to become unsteady. With as much grace as he could muster he set it down on the bar.

“At least my quarian girl persona thinks so,” Firelle grinned as she took another sip from her drink. “She’s also playing hard to get. Girls do that sometime.”

Rothan didn’t know what to say to that. He just nervously nodded a bit, then smiled the he realized that there was no possible way for Firelle to see that smile. By the time he come to the realization, Firelle was already sliding on her coat.

“I better go,” she said. “It is getting late. Last thing I wanna do is come back to Reiza absolutely smashed.”

“Oh--- Okay…” Rothan managed to blurt out.

His distress was clearly visible as she leaned toward him with a slight grin. “I had a good time tonight.”

Rothan, again at a loss for words could only say, “Thank you.”

“Thank you.” Then she began to pull the fasteners together on her coat. “Now if only it was'nt so goddamn cold out there. This walk back to the barracks is going to be mis—“

Behind the bar, a bottle shattered. Glass and liquor splattered to the floor. Rothan could barely see it. Something dark had sprayed across his visor. Then more glass began to shatter as projectiles whizzed through the bar. A wall of immense heat threw Rothan from his seat to the ground.

“Rothan!” He could hear somebody, maybe Celis, yell  His ears were ringing, his vision was blurred, and he had lost all sense of space and time. It was not the call the beckoned him to his sense but the blaring roar of the descending Reaper tearing through his suit. The sound rattled his core, his bones, and awoke him to the truth.

Firelle was on top of him, limp. A massive hole tore through the side of her head. The bar was on fire as glass from the windows shattered everywhere. The icy winds swirled with the raging inferno, the confluence only penetrated by the fire of Reaper ground forces as they shot the bar to shreds.

“Rothan!” The call came again, closer. A split second later, Lenaia was yanking Firelle’s empty body from over Rothan.

“Stay down!” She yelled. It was hard for Rothan to see. His visor was covered with something. Oil? He quickly ran his hand over his visor as Lenaia helped him to his feet. His suit olfactory sensors immediately flared up: the unmistakable scent of blood.

Firelle's blood.

Through the chaos of flying glass, collapsing beams and fanning flames he could only see Firelle’s lifeless body. Leaving her here—it was wrong, and every fiber of Rothan’s being called out for her, as if he could will her from slumber.

“We have to get her!” Rothan yelled. He was not calling to Celis or Lenaia. Maybe it was to the Goddess by which the Asari swore. Or maybe it was Khelish ancestors, revered by his own people. Only Lenaia answered.

“She’s gone! We have to go!”

Rothan screamed, howled against anything that would listen, but he was drowned out as the Reaper’s beam cut through the building next door. Debris blew through the bar, tearing through the scattered remains of the bar. They would have been cut to pieces, had it not been for the barrier that Celis had thrown up in the split second.

It was all that fast. They were running as fast as they could through the snow. Instinct commanded Rothan’s biotics though as they pushed for the barracks.

They had managed to escape, only barely. The Reaper had shot down multiple escape vehicles. They were lucky enough to not get hit.

The oupost had been utterly obliterated, the first step of a Reaper offensive push that would later make its way to Thessia.

Sometimes, Rothan wondered if it was really luck that dictated that day. He and Firelle had only been inches apart that day. Why hadn’t he been shot as well?

Reiza’s answer was the only comfort he had.

“We don’t know why they are gone, or where they have gone to,” she addressed the whole squad on the shuttle. “But we do know this: Many were lost today. Many more of us may and will die. But we can't lose ourselves to some ill-conceived notion of revenge. We have to keep our heads. You have to realize that your greatest hope for survival is sitting next to you now. Not one more person dies. Do you understand?”

Reiza gave a variation of that speech on Selvos when Deira died of an infection.

Again on Chalkhos when Shaelin died taking enemy fire as they recovered a surveillance drone.

And again in the jungles of Niacal when Solara died as they escorted civilians to safety.

He even imagined the speech in his head when he heard word of Reiza’s death.

~~~~

They were running again. The biotic crashes of the banshee were behind them and all around them. In the relative darkness of the tunnels, he ran without direction. He ran without any thought but the eminent. Mia was in his arms screaming, tears streaming down her face.

When the banging finally subsided, they were still running and it wasn’t until sometime later, that they all finally stopped.

The rig fell to the ground over the ancient tracks as Hylar and Elderis collapsed in breathless heaps. The Misfits, Arkeer, everyone had stopped breathing deeply. Some were crying like Mia.

“She got Trev!” A.Q. at last said. “She got Trev!”

“I know!” Hugh shouted back.

“No more of this!” Hylar called as he regained his footing. “I’ve had enough of these tunnels to last a lifetime.”

Arkeer shoved his way through the Misfits to Hugh. “You know the way out?”

“Of course!” He cried.

“Then take us there,” Arkeer demanded. “Now.”

“We’re runnin’?” A.Q. shot back to the Krogan. “Aren’t you Krogan supposed to never back down?”

The Krogan leaned in, towering over the grubby girl beneath him. “There’s a Reaper out there and I’ve got missiles ready to blow it to hell. You kids running around in the dark down here, getting picked off, that’s no way to fight. I'm fighting the battle on my terms.  I'm fighting the battle that gives this whole cluster**** an end once and for all. I’ve never backed down from that, and if you ever insinuate something like that again I’ll bash your skull in with my mine. Clear?”

A.Q. gulped and nodded. The whole ordeal had been harrowing, and from her perspective there was no telling if he was serious about his threat.

Elderis seemed level headed despite the situation,  as he glanced from Hugh, Arkeer, and A.Q. to Rothan. “What about Rea and the Husks?”

“I’m going,” Rothan answered. “I meant what I said.”

“Ladies and gentlemen, the definition of insanity,” Hugh said with an aggrandized gesture.

Arkeer grimaced as he made his way over to Rothan. “You don’t have to do this. Rea would understand.”

“I’ve made up my mind, Arkeer,” Rothan said. “We don’t have the time to argue about this.”

"Rothan--"

"Not one more person dies." Rothan said.  Reiza's words had so easily become his own.

Arkeer looked down, his face twisting slightly. He looked as if he was about to say something, but what ever it was, he held back, swallowing the words. Instead, he simply removed a belt stocked with grenades from his armor.

“I have a feeling you’re going to need these more than I will. Blow something up for me.

He jutted the belt forward and Rothan took them. Then the Krogan leaned in, lowering his voice to a whisper. “You’re a much better man then you give yourself credit… Don’t forget that.” He looked away, clearly trying to find the right words. “When you find her, tell Rea that it never would have worked between us.” He chortled at his own joke.

“Oh... and if this doesn’t work,” He glared as he waved the OSD in his hand, “It’s your ass.”

Then he smiled slightly only so that Rothan could see before turning back to the others.

“We’re moving out!” He yelled.

“Oh yeah?” Hugh countered. “Who put you in charge?”  The Krogan only had to glare at the boy before backing down. “Right. Shutting up now.”

Despite it all, they began moving out. The Misfits. Hylar and Elderis. They looked tired in more ways than one.

Arkeer is right, Rothan thought. An end once and for all…

As they began to move out Rothan felt a tugging at his side. Mia had been pulling on one of his compartment straps.

“Your friend… the bodies….” She trailed off. Then she pointed down an adjoining tunnel. “That way.”

Rothan knelt down to her, taking her small dirty hands into his and staring into her green eyes. “Thank you. Now go with the others.”

She nodded and began to follow the others though her gaze never peeled away from him. It was curious, searching as her gaze had been when she first saw him.

Rothan had to ask. What was it that had drawn her attention?

He shrugged. “What?”

Her answer was simple. “I’ve never seen a Quarian before.”

Then she turned back and scampered off with the crew of misfits. Children grown up too fast. A secretly warm hearted Krogan. A pair of weary Turian soldiers, undeniably scarred by all they had seen.

Moments later, they were gone, the darkness seemingly absorbing the sounds of their footfalls. He was alone now.

The memories that Rea had shared with him played in his mind.  Understanding her on that level... it gave him new perspective on Reiza's words.

He had to save her.

An orange light broke the darkness, eminating from Rothan himself. His omnitool was already illuminated by the time he brought it within his field of vision.

A message. Text only. Rothan clicked the display.

"Rothan, I'm still alive," it read. "I'm terrified."

Every cell in his body cried out in urgency, sending new life into his limbs.

Rothan was running again. This time he wasn't running away.

Modifié par Khambilo, 02 août 2013 - 03:22 .

[Redbelle]

When the dust settled everyone was quiet.

Zia sat as far away from Naomi as she could, in her shirt. Her Fury uniform top now hanging off Naomi's shivering shoulders. When she had seen her standing she'd gotten up and walked close to her. As if she couldn't believe she was real. She'd taken off her top and hung it around Naomi's naked frame. Naomi looked at her with eye's that seemed full of need and fear. Zia couldn't stand to see her eye's look at her like that and she'd turned away to see the other Naomi staring up lifelessly from the ground. Yanking out her mask she draped it over her huskified face and then walked as fast as she could, away from both of them and sat herself down, which was where she was now.

Wyld had managed to find a grip too, and had taken Naomi away from staring down at her other husk self, and was fretting over her. Running her scanner over her while she collected some of the grey goo that still clung to her. Until eventually.

Finally.

She walked back over to Zia who was clutching at herself.

Wyld sat down next to her. “Hey”.

“Hey”. Silence stretched out between them as Zia searched for something to say. “Sorry I hit you”.

Wyld rubbed the side of her face where the cut had stopped bleeding. “Yeah. Me too”. She shrugged. “Let's chalk that one up to circumstance”. Zia looked at her increduously. “We've still got work to do. We can go to piece's on each other later”. Wyld explained. “And the first job is......”. She gestured to Naomi sitting off alone. Clutching Zia's top around her frame.

Zia stared off at her. “I killed her”.

“I know”.

“No you don't”. Zia said. “I killed her and now she won't stop looking at me like I'm some kind of monster”.

Wyld sighed. “Maybe it was kind what you did. I don't know. It's not what I'd have done”.

“Have you ever”?

Wyld thought back to the Asari in the alley way and frowned. She couldn't remember. Was she starting to feel the effect's of the war too?

“Basic rule of medicine”. Wyld said finally. “Do no harm. The line blurs for people like me. So that mandate becomes, do no harm unless you feel you have to”. She shrank down beside Zia who seemed to listening raptly. “I'm not going to judge you. I was just...... I promised her I'd save her”. She looked up at the dead Naomi. “I'll never know if that's a promise I could have kept”.

“Sorry”.

“It's done”. Wyld said firmly. “We lose who we lose and maybe.....”. She drew out a tube of the grey goo she'd collected. “Maybe we don't have to lose her completely”.

“What is she”? Zia asked as Wyld inspected the tube.

“Early day's to be sure. But I'd say a clone. I've just never seen one like her. I mean. I've seen clone parts but this is beyond that”. Wyld explained. “She doesn't have Naomi's scar's from injuries throughout her life. She has no implants. No Omnitool implant. No nothing to give her a soldier's fighting edge. It's like she just popped out the womb as nature intended. Except for this”. She threw the tube to Zia who caught it. “It's basically us. Without the chemical bonds that shape us. It raw building material for organic life. And it's saturated with Eezo”. Wyld looked over at Naomi who was looking at her hands. Turning them over and over. “She should be dead”.

“Don't joke”. Said Zia as she held up the tube. “Not now”.

“You don't understand”. Wyld went on. “That much Eezo in that sample is toxic. She should be dead. Yet she's covered in it and shows no sign of being affected by it”.

“What does that.....”. Zia began to say, when they both turned as Naomi screamed.

Naomi's hands were aglow. They radiated power as biotic aura's manifested and roiled and surged and arced between her hands. Naomi held them away and shouted. “Make it stop”!

Wyld tried to get up but Zia forced her down. “My area. Keep down”. She called back. “She may explode”!

Zia ran to Naomi just as a barrier flung itself out from where Naomi sat shrieking. Zia scarely had time to get her own barriers up as she was pushed back by the force of Naomi's. How is she doing this? She thought to herself. Biotics required years of training. The best implants. All the things she had been given over the years and Naomi was throwing her own peak condition a serious contender for top biotic of the year.

Then again she was also a dead husk lying on the ground.

Zia gritted her teeth as she dropped her barrier, threw everything she had into her hands and jammed her hands into Naomi's barrier and pulled. The barrier resisted and Zia gritted her teeth. “You....”. She said as she struggled. “Are going.... To let..... Me..... IN”! She threw the barrier's aside and flung herself thrugh just as it sealed itself behind her. Zia scrambled up to Naomi who saw her.

“What's happening”!

“Shhh”. Zia cooed as she took her face in one hand. “Calm. Be calm. Your having a flare”.

“I remember everything”!

“Flare's happen when your emotion's get the better of you”. Zia went on. “We're trained to block them feeding on our biotics”.

“I killed The Count”!

“Really? Good”! Said Zia as the saw her biotic's amping higher. “Naomi”. She said, taking her face on both hands and making her look at her. “Tell me. What's wrong”?

“He was there”. Naomi cried as her biotics flared out of control. “He stood by and watched that man cut into me”! Her breath was coming in gasps. “I couldn't move but I could feel the blades. He cut into me and fed the piece's into a tube”. She shuddered. “Oh god Zee. He fed me into a vat of Reaper goo. And that's me isn't it! I'm not her”. She shook Zia off and stared at her husk body. “That's the real me. I'm just something grown out of goo. I'm goo. I was made out of dead people”!

Zia forced her to look at her again. “You have to stop. You have to stop or let it go. You can't keep building up like this”!

“And there were thing's he put into my head. Thing's that cut in and he put me inside the goo didn't he! He made me into this just like he made me into that”! She shuddered as her biotics charged themselves to the point of no return, Zia knew. She grapped Naomi's hands by the wrists and hoisted her up by them, making her uniform fall from Naomi's shoulders. She thrust Naomi's and her's hands above their heads. “You need to release this now”! She yelled as she felt the air hum around them. “Let it out anywhere but here”!

“I don't know how”! Naomi sobbed. “You have to kill me again”!

Zia gaze hardened as she looked into Naomi's eye's. They were clear and sparkling and her biotics above her head reflected in her eye's. Dancing like wild fire. She took Naomi's wrist's in one hand and held them above her even as her now free hand coiled around her waist.

“Never again”. She promised. “I'l never put you through that again”. She found the words she'd alway's found hard to say. The one's she hadn't had a chance to tell Naomi as she had died the first time.

This was her second chance...... that she suddenly felt slip away as her throat constricted around the words and she felt dizziness try to pull her down.

So instead, she showed her.

Zia's mouth came down savagely on Naomi's as she pulled her back into her body. Naomi's eye's went wide as she felt Zia's tongue enter her. And as she closed her eye's to surrender to that sweet bliss, her biotics became cooler. Tempered and controlled instead of the wild raging roar they had been.

Ziacast an eye up and saw the change. But the energy still to much and had to be released away from them, before it fell outside their ability to contain. Her hand at Naomi's back slithered up and over her arm as she used her own biotics to form a ball.

Naomi had provided the power. Now Zia had to provided the control and precision.

As she tilted her head back to watch and guage her work she felt Naomi's lips cover her chin and travel downward to her neck as she gently kissed that soft flesh, making it harder for her to focus. At last Naomi's biotics powered down and her arm's wrapped around Zia tightly as she was left holding more biotic energy she had ever imagined possessing. Wrapped in a ball of her own. It was coming apart under Naomi's power.

She pushed with all her strength and the ball spun away from them. Firing up into the air at an angle. It soared upwards, throwing back the smoke and clearing the air around them as it grew smaller the further away it travelled. They lost sight of it and a moment later they heard the impact from far away.

Zia felt drained and would have collapsed had Naomi not caught her. It occured to Zia then that she was in the arms of a beautiful naked woman and for once their was nothing she could do to take advantage of that fact! She raised her head to look into Naomi's concerned eye's. “You sure know how to show a lady a good. time”.

Wyld would be proud.

Naomi hugged her with one arm as she tugged a strand of hair out of Zia's face. “Sorry. I'm going through some stuff”.

Zia placed a hand over Naomi's. “Don't go through it alone. Let me help you. Just, no more biotics without me around. Ok”?

Naomi beamed a the idea. “I love you”. She said suddenly. “I don't know if it was because I thought I was going to die in the shuttle or because your just you. I just know that when I thought I was going to die my only thought was, Zia noticed me. You saw me and it felt good. And I don't want to let go of that”.

“Believe me. I'm catching an eyeful now”.

“What? Oh”! Naomi returned Zia to standing and turned to retrieve Zia top. Zia though caught her hand and pulled her back to her.

“Tell me, you need me”. She said as she looked down into Naomi's eye's.

Naomi looked up. Saw the passion inside of Zia. And for the first time since she'd known her.

She didn't look away.

“I need you”. She said stubbornly. “And I need you to need me too”.

“Good enough”. Said Zia as she tilted Zia's chin up and once more captured her lips with her's. This time it was gentle. It was patient. And both wrapped their arms around the other as the fires above continued to rage.

Wyld popped up from where she had taken cover and saw everything. She stared at the scene in front of her. “Yeahbuwha........”?

Modifié par Redbelle, 01 août 2013 - 09:56 .

[Khambilo]

His breath was running thin, yet he couldn’t bring himself to stop. His lungs were burning and his eyes were straining to make out anything in the darkness.

There was no telling how far away he was from the Reapers and more importantly, Rea. He kept his omnitool’s lighting to a minimum as he pushed forward.  Better to struggle in darkness than to give his position away.

Rea’s message kept playing over and over in his mind. They very thought of Rea being terrified shook Rothan to his core. Granted this was it, the end of the war one way or another and every soldier fighting now had to be in some shape or way terrified, but something about her message, maybe the very fact that she sent it, told him that this was somehow different.

Since he had met her, Rothan had looked to her as a source of stability, never thinking for one moment that she could be scared out of her mind as well.

And yet in the brief moment that their minds were joined, Rothan could feel a part of her that she was keeping hidden. A part of her rather intent on holding something back.

Now alone, and possibly wounded, maybe that was all coming down. In the moment that Rothan realized that, there was no Reaper, no missiles, no impending death on his mind, just Rea. Her desperate need.

He wished he could send back a message, reassuring her that it was alright, but sending any communications into the area would be risky. The Reapers would not leave hundreds if not thousands of husks underground without some sort of defenses. Rea likely had not been in the right state of mind when she sent the message, and it was pure luck that they had not found her.

Then he realized that it was entirely possible that she was already dead. That her messaged signaled the Reapers to her position. That he had failed her and that he was running to his pointless ruin at this very moment.

“Your insecurities effect you,” Reiza had taught him. “Bodily. Fear. Doubt. It paralyzes the muscles, clouds your focus.”

“Everyone worries,” Rothan defended.

“You must know when to shut it off,” she snapped back. “You think you are weak. Don’t. You posses the power to bend even the physics of the world around you!”

“Yes, but—“

“But nothing. When are using your abilities, when you are fighting alongside your squad, when you are surviving on scraps of ration packs, your insecurities must not exist in those moments. Or else, you might not.”

The lesson was one of the hardest for Rothan to learn, but now more than ever, he needed it. Rea was alive and he could not doubt that for a single second.

He needed to stop. Recollect his breath, his bearings, and his thoughts. Slowing to a halt, Rothan took a deep breath. Exhaled. Then another.

With that he was already thinking more clearly.

Rothan scanned the tunnel, unsure of his exact location. It looked the same as every other tunnel they had been in since they arrived. Dark, old rails, faintly resonating with the noise of the battle above.

Rothan took a minute to think about Grelk and Elaine. They were up there somewhere fighting. They had set a rendezvous point before this had happened, but considering all the complications that had come for Rothan and the others who went underground, let alone the complications that might arise above, it was unlikely he would ever see them again.  That and his chances of successfully finding Rea and getting out alive had to be slim at best.

Something rattled.

The noise resounded throughout the tunnel and considering the reverberation, it was hard to tell where it was coming from.

It was not Myrtle’s telltale noise. This was different. Smaller. Rothan drew his Avenger and clicked on the lamp, aiming it through the black. Something was here with him.

When he did not find it ahead of him, he quickly whipped around

“Easy!”

Rothan jumped at the sound of the voice. He was expecting to be alone when he turned, not be face to face with A.Q. He lowered his rifle and regathered his composure.

“Its me!” She said indignantly.

“What are you doing here?” Rothan asked impatiently. “You were supposed to be with the others?”

“And what were you supoosed to do? Find Rea?” A.Q. sneered. “How exactly were you going to do that? You don’t even know the way!”

“This is dangerous,” Rothan said, stepping closer. “You are a civilian. You have no right to be here.”

“Hey, me and the others survived down here for months,” she snapped. “You need me, admit it.”

“I can find my own way! Go back with the others,” he said stomping off.

“Ivy.”

Rothan stopped dead in his tracks, baffled by her response. He turned back to her. “What?”

“Lily. Carson. Matty. Jake. Salim. Fiona. Trev.” Tears were forming in here eyes as she spoke their names, though her face remaind absolutely resolute. “Myrtle took them. All of them. You think for a second that I’m going to leave these tunnels with out doing something about that, you are sadly, ****ing mistaken.”

She quivered a bit as her eyes bore through Rothan’s visor. The look alone assured him of what he needed to do.

Carefully he detached the belt of grenades, his parting gift from Arkeer, and moved to her.

“Hold these for me,” He said, placing them in her hands.

She smiled a little getting Rothan’s true meaning. She fastened them around her own belt as she joined Rothan at his side.

“Which way?” He asked without looking to her.

“There’s a maintenance shaft up ahead. It will cut the time to get to the tourist area in half.”

They were silent for a while as they made their way through the darkness. Rothan never considered himself a terribly social person, but something had to be said.

“Reiza.” He said, facing the black.

It was now A.Q.’s turn to stop. “What?”

“My list. Celis, Lenaia, Niria, Firelle… There are others too…” He said. “The reapers took them all. I know that there’s nothing that will bring them back…”

“But killing a ton of reapers will make it better?” She asked the question almost rhetorically. Rothan gave an answer anyway.

“Maybe,” he said. “I just don’t plan on adding Rea’s name to that list.”

A.Q. nodded.

The maintenance shaft was only a few meters away. It took them a few moments to pry open the rusted metal doorway, but when the shaft was at last open, A.Q. dusted the dirt off her hands.

“This shaft will take us right there.”

“Let’s waste no time then.”

She smirked, then cocked her head. “Good. So what’s the plan?” 

Modifié par Khambilo, 01 août 2013 - 11:54 .

[Redbelle]

Wyld tried to say something.

And failed.

Naomi had just demonstrated biotic abilities. Abilities she had never possessed. Suddenly the Eezo in the goo made sense. It had been designed to clone exact duplicates. Exact but with one important difference. The clone would come out as a biotic. But not just a biotic. A super biotic!

She waved her hand to attract Zia's and Naomie's attention.

They were otherwise occupied.

....


....

Really occupied.

Maybe she's just doing that to keep her from flaring again. It seemed to be working, even as Wyld felt a tinge of annoyance. At last she found her voice. “Zia! If you keep on like that, you'll get Eezo poisoning”!

Zia and Naomi suddenly jerked away from each other. Naomi looked down at herself. “Urgh! I'm still covered in goo”!

Zia nodded. “You need a shower”.

“And something to cover the bottom half”. Wyld offered from where she lay. The two looked over at her and then down at Zia's top which lay on the floor.

“It is a bit small for you”. Zia noted coyly as Naomi blushed. “I doubt it would barely cover anything down there unless you pulled the front down”.

“Stop it”. Said Naomi as her cheeks burned red. “Your just teasing”.

“You love it”. Zia bent over and grabbed her top. She threw it round Naomi who quickly stuck her arms through the sleeves and zipped up the front. “Well. How about that”. She smirked. “It just about hide's everything”.

Naomi blushed. But this time a small hint of a smile appeared on her lips as Wyld approached. She looked to Zia, to Naomi. To Zia again. “We're leaving. Head back to the Valkyr. We'll figure out what to do from there. Go on ahead”. She added. Zia looked over at Wyld and mouthed why?

“Medic stuff”. She said jerking her had over to Naomi's husks body. Naomi missed the interplay as she was trying to get Zia's top to come down a little lower, causing certain area's to ride up higher.

Strawberries and peach. Wyld thought to herself. Then shook her head to clear the mental picture. “Just take her up and keep her safe”. Wyld said. “She's got no equipment now. She's vunerable”.

Zia thought about it. Then walked over to pick up Naomi's rifle, tossed it to her, which made the bottom ride up again.

Wyld averted her eye's. “Saint's preserve us”. She muttered as Zia walked past.

“C'mon girl”. She said putting a hand on Naomi's back. “We need to teach you about biotic barrier's. Without Kinetic barrier's anymore you'll have to try and compensate. Without blowing us up”. She added as Naomi followed her up the slope and out the tunnel.

Wyld watched them disappear over the top and turned to Naomi's other dead body. She knealt down and uncovered her face. Puting the fury mask away to see her dead eye's still glowing, looking up into the cloud covered sky.

Even as she was. She still looked innocent and sweet. Like the face of someone, who had discovered the truth of the universe.

Wyld covered her eye's with her hand and closed them. Then she went to work. Pulling out kit from her harness she took a blood sample and stashed it in a hazard pack. Next came the part she was not looking forward too.

Taking a scalpel she opened up Naomi's right arm. She found the omni tool implant right away and located the memory module. Anything that happened to someone with an Omni tool kept recordings of event's to some degree. Anything to explain what happened to her. And how the other Naomi came to be. She looked down at her body as she finished her work. “Sorry soldier”. She whispered. “You rest now. We'll do the rest”.

She got up and climbed out the hole to find Zia and Naomi waiting for her. “Let's move”. She said as they picked up the pace back to the Valkyr. Wyld in front. Naomi in between. Zia, insisting on taking up the rear.

When they got back they found the Valkyr parked exactly where they left it. Wyld boosted Naomi up. Trying not to look up as she did. When it came to Zia's turn however, she paused.

“What?” Asked Zia.

Wyld chewed her lip. “Zee. Listen. I'm....”. She suddenly felt anxious as she tried to find the words that she wanted to say. “When you kissed me before....”. She stopped again. Why was this so hard for her? “I want you to know I'm sorry you stopped. I'm sorry I mentioned your sister's. Because, I've always had this part of my life that never happened. And then you showed me, what that part could feel like and.....”.

Zia placed a finger on Wyld's lips. “What happened at the Mako, was just what I needed”. She said as Wyld's heart soared. Then, she said the words that caused her heart to crack. “What we did happened because you walked by. It could have been anyone. And if your really looking for someone take some advice”. She said with a friendly smile. “Don't be needy”.

She took her finger away as Naomi popped over the side. “There's some room in the back if your coming up”.

Zia grinned and gave her the thumbs up. Then looked back down to Wyld. “Well”?

Wyld took a moment to realise she wanted a boost ad she cupped her hand as Zia scrambled up and into the Valkyr. Wyld stood where she was. She felt like she'd just lost something. Something important that she couldn't just shrug off. She took the Kestrel helmet and rather than putting it on. Just held it, feeling the grooves and dent's as her mind whirred. Knowing what was happening, but refusing to admit it.

Did Zia just dump me? That was ridiculous she thought. She and Zia had never been together so she couldn't have been dumped. She had never actually been dumped before. Unless she counted the one time she'd put that man in the hospital on the first date. But this was........

Zia called out over the side. “We're waiting here”.

Wyld donned the helmet. She had a job to do, She thought. She was supposed to be fighting a war and here she was standing around feeling down and depressed. It had happened once before in her life. Feeling as if she had no future the day her leg's had been cut away fro her. She jumped up and adhered to the Valkyr's side as she climbed into the driver's seat.

Zia was not in her customary position riding shotgun. Instead, she and Naomi were in the back, Wyld saw as she sat and started the engine.

Pulling away she heard giggles and used the kestrel's rear view display to show Naomi leaning against Zia. Her top riding high, her calf obscuring what lay under as Zia took her hand, raised it up next to hers, and with a flick of her wrist, bought a sphere of biotic energy to life. Namomi tried and only got a few flashes, before Zia placed her hand under Naomi's and on her next try, Naomi caught it. A brief sphere appearing before it fizzled out into nothingness.

Naomi looked up at Zia with a hopeful look that said have I done well?

Zia's hand took her chin and raised her mouth to her's. Very well, pet.

Zia caught Naomi's mouth with her's and Noami's arms came back as she arched.

Zia was unzipping her uniform, allowing the material to slide away as she wrapped her arms around her.

They slithered down behind the seat's as Wyld deactivated her rear view cam. Her breath was coming in gasps as her vision blurred. She blinked it away but her eye's stung. The only one. She remembered her crone saying. Who will ever love you, is me. She felt her chest trying to collapse on itself even as she clung on rigidly to the notion that she had to keep moving forward. This Zia will make you believe it in the future. She grit her teeth and forced the despair back down. It wasn't fair! A lifetime of denying herself these urges. Only for someone to awaken them. And then snatch them away!

Never find happiness .

What had she ever done to deserve all this pain and suffering the galaxy seemed all to keen to heap on her?

Deep down you know you don't deserve her .

She knew what this was. She had been counselled through the worst of it. Taught to recognise it. As a medic, even taught how to help those on the battlefront through it. She'd left it behind.

It had caught up.

And it was all because of the woman in the backseat doing things she wanted her to do herself.

To be embraced. And loved. And wanted. Years of isolation and now this. It made her want to howl. She choaked it back, but couldn't stop a small sob from escaping before she clenched her teeth. Angry at her own weakness.

It didn't reach the ears of the two ardent lovers.

Where do I go from here?

As if in answer the far away sound of a Kodiak came through and her hud showed it. As well as it's projected course. Wyld turned the wheel to follow. Managing to focus despite her turmoil. It occured to her that if they came under attack, they'd all be in danger. She was misfiring and the two in back were to occupied with each other to respond.

Thankfully they weren't attacked. As the terrain became an upward slope Wyld spotted what looked like a fortification. Up ahead. It flew the Alliance flag above it's gate.

Zia popped up behind her. Back in her clothes, Wyld was glad to see. “Nice. You found a camp! Maybe they'll have a smaller top for Naomi”. She teased over her shoulder as Naomi came up to join her. “For moral”. She added as Naomi gave her an arch look.

“I think your moral is as high as it can get”. Naomi shot back with a light hearted laugh.

Kill me now. Thought Wyld.

They gained entry easily enough. Brought the Valkyr to rest in the vehicle pool as they all got off. Wyld took a few deep breaths, squeezing her eye's together. Something she was supposed to be saying.......

“Fury”. She barked at Zia who looked up, suddenly, as she was addressed that way. “Get that soldier to whatever passes for medical. Then get her kitted out for combat”.

Wyld got down and Zia spoke up. “What's up with you”?

What's up with me? WHAT THE FLYING ****S UP WITH ME? “RRRGGHHHAAAA”! Wyld flung the helmet as hard as she could causing everyone around to look where they stood. “WHAT'S UP IS WE'RE DONE! OVER WITH!
 FINISHED"!

Wylds eye's blazed as she accepted what a fool she'd been Every shattered hope and dream of a better life poured out of her. “We only came together because circumstance forced us together”! She managed to dial down the volume, but not the intesity. “I never wanted to be in this position. Not again! Never again”. Zia and Naomi's confused look only heightened her rage. “You'd better think long and hard about who I am. What I've been through in my life. And how dangling yourself in front of me and snatching it away was the cruelest thing anyone could ever do”. She said as words became quieter as her intensity grew. “Now I'm going to find whatever passes for this places still. And if I'm lucky, maybe I can drink enough to forget this evening. Because you need to know just how much I liked yo.......”.

Wyld came to a halt as she suddenly ran out of breath. She could feel her eye's stinging again and her pride refused to let her have that outburst in front of either of them. But she couldn't let it go at that. Pulling up the last of her self control she looked directly at Zia as Naomi hung by her side. “Next time. Don't kiss me unless you mean it”!

She spun and turned to go.

And bumped into the chest of a man. She looked up and saw one of the MP's she'd met at the camp where she'd begun this whole sorry evening. He looked down at her.

“New orders for you corpsman”. He said. “Your under arrest on the order's of Captain Radcliffe”.

Wyld looked over at the vehicle pool. There, sure enough, was the command Mako of Radcliffe. The one she'd accidently run over and destroyed the comm's antenna. Cutting the man off from the entire theatre of war.

She looked up at the MP. Back to Zia and Naomi.

“Let's go”. Was all she could muster.

Modifié par Redbelle, 02 août 2013 - 08:55 .

[FuriousFelicia]

''Come. Let's go.''

Naomi looked at Zia giving her a hand. She turns her look to her hand, and then back at Zia.

‘’Do you think I’m married?’’

‘’Girl, let me tell you…I’ve never noticed that ring on you before the _it_ . How you got it, when you got it is something we’ll need to figure out together. Luckily, Jan got your Omni implant.’’ Zia smiled at Naomi, taking a measure of her standing there half naked. ‘’You know, you’re legally blond now. You even got the ring.’’ Laughs Zia.

‘’Stop teasing me!’’ Naomi snaps back giving her a cutting stare. Zia twitched for a moment. She never looked at her that way. That look when you’re clearly saying back off, I’ll bite, and you mean it. But before Zia could react, Naomi suddenly claps her palms and jumps in place. ‘’Ok, let’s get this show on the road then, shall we.’’ She brushed Zia’s shoulder while she stepped forward. Zia slaps her bun. Naomi snaps back with the look but this time not as convincing. ‘’You’ve come a long way kiddo.’’ Says Zia.

MP stood by the Valkyr, but no sign of Wyld. He seemed distracted looking amazed at the vehicle before him. He scratched the back of his head when he turns. Now the sight was even more puzzling, and both were a sight to behold. ‘’Alright now.’’ Placing both hands on his hips he continues in a cocky tone. ‘’Which one of you two bunnies is the Fury.’’ He gives them an eyebrow dance and a sly smirk. ‘’You gals look like two pieces of puzzle that fit just perfectly, and chocolate and vanilla at that…’’ A sudden change in mood at the sight of ‘’chocolate’’ lighting waist up tendrils of blue and purple, her face as of a goddess bearing a piercing stare of two sapphires illuminated by a biotic aura.

‘’I am the Fury. And I’m not impressed by your performance.’’  Zia steps firmly forward while still lighted up like a neo Christmas tree, shoves her face up to MP’s, looking straight in to his eyes as his face reveals a twitch of anxiety. Zia continues in a firm tone while she lowers her burst.
’’ This woman needs medical treatment, and a good bath. That’s without the obvious of course. I do hope that this establishment has the basic necessities required to justify its existence.’’ MP stared at Zia baffled and confused, forgetting the fact that he should be the one giving the orders here, but Zia just went on. ‘’Good morning my good sir! I’m talking about things like the infirmary, the armory, and all the other wonderful places one can go to in this place called the Bastion.  MP snaps from what seemed as a trance and fires of quickly.

‘’Yes mam, right away mam. The infirmary is just right down this building, and the armory and motor pool are just behind you.’’

‘’Thank you private. Your well manors and enthusiasm are to be commended. Bye, bye now.’’ Finished Zia, and grabbed Naomi’s waste in turn as they walked away. MP just stood there in place with hands across his back as if at ease, with a face expression of a dog taking a dump. Slowly lowering his hands down as the brain processed what’s been said. He slaps his face realizing what just happened. He was suppose to get them debriefed, but he was bewitched. He knew he should probably go to the infirmary to get them but the thought of facing that woman again was something that urged him not to. They’ll be back…sure…she will leave the blond at the infirmary and come back to get the details..no worries Percy…..but than she’ll be back, and I’m still here…Mp’s was mind blown. But he figured that the best thing is to go to the armory as an excuse for leaving his post while giving him a chance to avoid Zia’s possible return.

Meanwhile.

Zia and Naomi reached infirmary. It reeked like death when they entered what looked like a small lobby with a counter placed in the center with two staircases on each side curved opposite to each other. A voice breaks the silence, and behind the counter a silhouette appears. The two stop in place at the sight of a salarian greeting them behind a counter of what seemed to have been a small motel once.

‘’Greetings. My name is doctor O’Reilly…Benjamin O’Reilly. Please state the nature of your medical emergency .’’  The salarian’s tounge was fast as lightning, yet the words came audibly through his mouth, and in a fluid Irish accent as if the name it self wasn’t enough.

Great. A salarian…wait wat? O’Reilly? As the thought went through Zia’s mind, Naomi speeks. ‘’O’Reilly? But..but you’re a salarian.’’

‘’True. Long story. Born and raised on Earth. Short story.’’ The girls looked at each other astonished.  

‘’So predictable.’’ Smiled the doctor. ‘’So what’s your medical emergency?’’ Eyeballing the doctor in suspicion, Zia utters through her teeth. ‘’Are you the only doctor in here?’’

‘’Yes.’’

‘’Of course you are. And I suppose the nurse is a vorcha, right?

‘’There’s only me. Is there a problem?’’

Taking a deep breath, Zia softens her tone by a cent.‘’Ok look…Ben, you don’t mind calling you Ben?’’

‘’No. Actually, my friends call me Ben.’’

‘’I see…I think I’ll stick to doctor then.’’ The doctor looked at Zia but the smile was gone.

‘’This is Naomi and she needs this back inside of her.’’ Barked Zia shoving an omni tool implant in doctor’s hands. ‘’She’s also a biotic without implants, so…you might wanna throw in those while you’re at it.’’

‘’Zia! What is with you all of a sudden? Excuse my friend doctor. She’s had a rough time. Let me introduce our selves. My name is Naomi Brooks and this is Zia…Aliance.’’ Zia maintained a casual face but the doctor didn’t seem to be touched by Naomi’s charms.

‘’You are the subject?’’ The doctor asks looking at Naomi

‘’Yes.’’ Replies Naomi as the doctor switches his gaze towards Zia again.

‘’You can go now. I’ve got work to do.’’ Said doctor addressing Zia than takes Naomi’s arm by the wrist. ‘’Come now Naomi. We’ll fix you in a flash.’’

‘’Wait, Zee.’’ Cried out Naomi. ‘’Can’t she stay? Please..she’s not that gloomy..it’s just that she had trouble and…’’ But before she finished, the doctor interrupts her keeping his gaze on Zia.

‘’Benjamin is not a fool young lady, and if you can’t see what’s going on here, I sure do.

’’ What do you mean?’’ Naomi looks supprised at the doctor.

‘’Your friend has a racial problem. She’s a racist.’’

‘’She’s not a racist.’’ Says Naomi as she turns to Zia with a smile, searching for a confirmation. There was none.

‘’Don’t worry kiddo, I’ll go and find you some nice piece of armor. And when I get back, we’ll go and get us some chow.’’ Said Zia. ‘’Wait Zee..’’ Cries out Naomi and rushes to Zia, gripping her firmly in a hug. ‘’Whoa there girl. I’m not going far.’’ Zia watched Naomi once again looking like that little scared girl in the shuttle. What was once a sight of a helpless prey, now turned in to a heart tremor, that tickle in side of a stomach that can’t be described. Naomi tilts her head and brings her lips close to Zia’s, gives her a slow kiss and says

‘’Red.’’

Zia nods her head. ‘’Red?’’

‘’My colour. It’s red.’’ Naomi giggles. ‘’Just in case there’s a Red Armax arsenal breast plate size 8 available.’’ Zia smiles at her and gives her a kiss to the forehead. ‘’You’ll be alright. I’ll be back.’’ Zia turns and walks out, leaving Naomi and the doctor alone.

Modifié par FuriousFelicia, 03 août 2013 - 03:16 .

[Kel Riever]

Parnitha shone through the window, bedazzling the asari toddler who tried to reach up for it. Maybe this time she could get it. She felt her father’s hands pick her up and lift her higher. “Go get it, Rea!”

Rea tried again. It was closer, but she still couldn’t touch Parnitha. Her father chuckled, “One day, you’ll be able to get as close as you want to.”

“You can’t get Parnitha, Dad.” Rea recognized the voice. “It’s a star. That’s silly.”

Rea called out, “Layl.”

“See her? That’s your sister.” Rea’s father turned Rea so she could see Layl below. Layl was looking back at Rea with wide eyes, surrounded by orange flecks.

“She’s my favorite,” Layl said. Layl was fiddling with something red in her hand. Rea wanted it, and tried to grab it. The red thing was too far away.

“You want to play with Layl?” Rea’s father turned around and sat on a sofa by the window. The turian held her in his arms. Layl climbed up next to him and peaked over at Rea, who giggled.

“She likes me, Dad,” Layl delighted.

“She loves you, Layl,” her father responded. “When you grow up, Rea, you and all your sisters will have each other, and be there for one another.”

“Rea’s still my favorite,” Layl insisted. “She has eyes like Mom.”

The red thing was closer. Rea bubbled with joy and tried again to capture it.

“I think she wants your toy, Layl. Go ahead, you can give it to her.”

Layl held the red toy above Rea, just out of reach.

“Don’t tease your sister.”

Rea lunged and snatched the red toy out of Layl’s hands. Her father laughed.

Layl shouted proudly, “I knew she could do it!”

“Well done, Rea,” her father praised. “You’ve got some fight in you.”

The red toy was shiny, smooth and fascinating. Rea explored, turning it around and around.

“That’s a racer cycle,” Layl told her.

“Waysew sykew.”

Layl beamed, “She’s my favorite!”

~~~~

Rea opened her eyes. She pushed the step she leaned on with her left hand and reached up to the red brick wall with her right. Despite the pain, she fought to lift herself to her feet. When she was finally stood, Rea forced herself up the stairs. Each step was difficult, but somehow became easier than the last as she ascended. By the time she reached the top, she limped, but walked without having to support herself at all.

Old passageways continued to the left and right. Without any real idea which way she was going, Rea examined the compass on her omni-tool and headed to the right. What have I seen? She tried to comprehend the horror of the cavern, and the dread she had felt even before that. Are you part of me, or something else? A grating sound interrupted her thought. It repeated itself, but louder. They found me!

Bricks and mortar exploded as a monstrous shape rammed through the wall of the passageway. Rea felt a claw gouge into the armor on her left thigh as she flung herself out of the way. Another claw swung at her and this time, she used her biotics to help herself dash backwards at blinding speed. The wound caused a shooting pain and she clenched her teeth. Filling the passageway was a Brute. It strode towards Rea, scraping the edges of the masonry with its sinewy bulk and protective plates. Spikes protruded from several of those plates, and on many of them were impaled skulls or limbs of prior victims. Instinctively, Rea reached for her Paladin, but found only its empty holster. Without any other choice, she administered one of her limited doses of medigel and fled. The pain from her wound and strained muscles subsided, and she picked up her pace. Bellowing, the Brute pursued.

The asari ran past the stairs she had come up, through the unknown, ancient, confining passageways. She gained distance, but for what the Brute lacked in speed, it made up for in unforgiving relentlessness. Where Rea cut a corner, or ducked through a thin archway, the Brute sundered these obstacles, loosing none of its headway. When she could, Rea would cast warps over her shoulder, trying to do at least some damage to the creature. Yet it forged ahead, determined to rend her to pieces.

A long straightaway allowed Rea to pull farther away. It ended in a room. She ran in and saw no exits. Trapped, she searched it. In one corner were an overturned bin and a pile of black rocks. In another was a stack of spare bricks. And in a third was, what looked like, a rack with rusted tools, untouched for centuries. Her mind rushing, Rea went to the rack looking for anything that she could use as a weapon. She found an axe, but when she picked it up, the wood handle broke apart. The only other useful instruments were three long iron bars. They looked like weighty, archaic versions of what humans called crowbars. Rea took them, testing their firmness. While the half-meter long tools might be efficient at opening containers, they would make pathetic weapons against a Reaper heavy. The Brute roared as it closed. An idea crossed her mind.

Rea seldom used her one defensive biotic power. It wasn’t extensively trained, but she could create a mass effect field to place a target of roughly her own size in stasis. Seldom used since she developed her ability to throw enemies with biotics, it likewise wouldn’t be useful on the Brute, which was far too big to be affected. But certainly smaller objects could be. Rea stepped to directly face the Brute coming down the passageway. Soon it would reach the room and charge. Rea tossed a crowbar, point first, towards the Brute, and immediately froze it in mid-air with a stasis field. While the field held, she tossed the two other bars next to the first, so they were suspended the same way.

When the Brute entered, it lunged. Rea focused, flicking out her hand to cast a throw at the crowbars as the stasis field collapsed. The bars shot forward, as if fired by a cannon. Each sank into the creature to nearly its full length - one in the arm, one in the shoulder between a seam in the plates, and the last straight through an eye. The beast stopped instantly, and collapsed.

Astonished, Rea gaped at the fallen Brute. She drew nearer to it, cautiously, as if it would arise and attack again. But the Brute remained lifeless. Convinced it was over, Rea sighed and breathed deeply.

When Rea had recuperated, she went back into the passageway from which she had come, to retrace her steps and find a different path. She noticed it was hard to move, no longer because she was hurt, but because her armor on her thigh had been mangled by the Brute’s claw, and her shoulder pad had been damaged from the fall. Though it would increase her vulnerability, to stay moving, she decided to remove the armor from both areas. Once torn away, Rea could see a massive bruise on her shoulder. On her thigh, though the medigel had done its job, there was a thirty-centimeter long, sealed gash. The rest of her form was near black with dirt, stuck to her by the moisture and film that covered her in the shallow gore lake. Rea cleared the gunk from her suit lamps, and set them to a minimal glow, so she had something to see by as she moved.

A far away humming barely touched the edge of Rea’s hearing again. It seemed mechanical, and yet there was more to the sound. I don’t want to go there, she thought to herself, but then, the familiar desire to search out towards it, to find out what it was, began to overcome her. Rea moved in its direction. Is that you?

Modifié par Kel Riever, 03 août 2013 - 03:12 .

[Redbelle]

Whatever happens next. Whatever next indignity get's heaped on us. Do at least one thing. Wyld thought as she sat on a stack of empty containers.

Don't cry.

Not that it should be a problem. She felt utterly drained. Her earlier outburst had taken a good deal out of her She felt to tired to do anything but slump against the crates and try to catch a few winks of sleep. At least, she would have if her mind wasn't racing around in circles.

I just ended whatever friendship I might have had with those two. She thought.

Zia never had any interest in me. I only imagined it.

Zia kissed me. That thought brought her hands to her eye's as she fought back the sting the feeling's that memory invoked. But even reliving that memory she could see she'd screwed it up.

She'd enjoyed it. That was the simple truth. But she'd tried to stop it at the same time. The picture she'd been given by Aria's agent was of Zia and somehow, confirming that it was in fact Zia had been important.

It happened so long ago though.

Wyld reached over and picked up the kestrel helmet. At least she hadn't lost that. On the way to the brig she'd found it lying on the ground and had scooped it up on the way over. She turned it in her hands.

It was a good helmet. Banging on the outer shell it felt sturdy and unyielding. A compulsion grabbed her and she shoved it on. Without power it served as a blindfold against the world.

“Ok brain”. She said out loud. “We're dealing with this....... what's the problem”.

Your upset.

“Why”? She demanded.

You fell in love.

“I.....”. She felt her chest constrict as she answered her own question. “I don't even know her”.

You like her

“Pfft”. Wyld went as her inner monologue continued unabated.

You like her because she picked you up and gave you the one thing you've always wanted in life. The promise that you could have someone to share life with.

“Now”? Wyld was incredulous. “We're in the middle of the war to end all wars! You'd think I could have chosen a better time......”.

You didn't have any say. The time was then and you felt like it would go on forever and ever. Your upset because it didn't last the night. You feel betrayed.

“Zia never said she loved me”! She interjected. “How can someone betray me if you don't make a promise”?

She didn't betray you. You did it to yourself. Wyld stayed quiet, allowing her thought's to reach the conclusion they seemed aimed towards. You've always been alone. So long that you've replaced any semblance of a private life with being a soldier. When you can't be a soldier, your a medic. When your not either one, your in bar's, watching other's enjoy good company.

“I'm in bar's for the booze and atmosphere”. Wyld interjected.

Same thing. There's no you any more. The most you've ever done is imagine yourself dancing again.

“I danced at Koran's”!

When else?

Wyld thought back. And realised that since that time. She hadn't so much as pulled off a quickstep.

Your locked in. You've been a soldier and a medic for so long that it's comfortable. You'll never leave unless your pushed. And then another soldier gives you a tongue sandwich and suddenly you can see a future for yourself here?

“It was just a kiss”. Wyld said, bringing her leg's up and settling her head on her knee's. “There's no future in that”.

That's everything you dimwit! Because in your mind a kiss is affection. Affection is longing. Longing is desire and desire can lead to love! You went from cold fish to red hot ground thumping Neanderthal faster than a sky car's get's from nought to sixty. When are you going to admit that you fell in love and got rejected?

“Fine. I got rejected. My heart came out on it's own. Got stomped on and now I know better”.

Can we do it again though? That's the question. Can we consider loving someone when this has been your second foray into that world. You crippled a man the first time. Been devastated the second. You just don't have what it takes to get it right! It's what you want. But if the cost is feeling like this........

Wyld pulled her knee's tighter against her chest and wrapped her arms around them.

Your borderline depressive again! This whole, 'Zia doesn't love me' thing is getting set to turn you into a victim again.

Wyld felt her chest shudder in response.

We are not this pathetic! We overcame once! We can do it again. Just shut out everyone and everything. Focus on yourself.

“Then I'm alone again”. Wyld whispered.

Well it beats feeling like this! Doesn't it?

Wyld managed to hold back the tears. Instead, she imagined crying. She looked at herself in her minds eye. Tear's rolling down her cheek's as she let out everything she'd held in for years. She reached up to find her cheeks bone dry.

“It's Zia's fault”. She said, trying to muster up some anger. “She used me just to make herself feel good. And who the hell needs to kiss someone to feel good about themselves? I've not kissed anyone for so long and I'm.....”.

She'd been about to say she was fine.

And let's not sugar the pill sweetheart. You'd have used her just as much as she used you. Only she never let you. She took what she wanted and never let you give anything back. She gave you a kiss? She took your resolve! Then refused to accept what your resolve has been holding back all this time. All that desire and commitment and....... maybe she felt intimidated? And maybe this is all just going on in your head and you should wait for new information.

Wyld slumped. "Fine. So we're waiting. Brig's as good a place as any for that".

And let's not get started on the fact she's a woman.

Wyld opened her eye's. Not that it did much good as the helmet left her seeing nothing but darkness.

I mean, I know we're desperate. And we were considering widening the field. But you never actually seriously considered it till Zia made contact. Right?

Wyld allowed her head to thump against her knees. "Identity. It comes down to identity. Figuring yourself out is a full time job and...... I don't know. I like her. Not other girls, just her".

Yeeeeaaaaaaah. Her inner voice drawled. This coming from the person who thought Naomi's bottom looked like a peach.

Her inner monologue suddenly went quiet for a moment as it switched tracks.

Maybe, we're being to harsh on her. You still love her right?

“No”. Wyld lied. "She hurt me".

So maybe instead of blaming her, we should accept that we kinda blew our second romantic encounter in all the wrong ways and chalk it up to experience.

Wyld felt some of the tension ease at that thought. The permission she needed to forgive herself. Coming from herself. Then her whirling mind offered.

It was completely your fault though. Miss I'll lead the team and I'll get you through all this and got all distracted and didn't we forget to pick up a few thing's when we left.

“I hate you brain”. Wyld grumbled as she left out a long held breath. “You think to much”. That last part though bothered her. Thinking back she remembered ordering burying the explosives. She forgotten to get them back again. But there was something else.......

Something.......

“Holy Crap”! She jerked upright as the realisation hit her. “We forgot Baldurjack”!

Modifié par Redbelle, 03 août 2013 - 11:26 .

[FuriousFelicia]

Zia stepped outside the infirmary on what use to be a pavement but now a cracked pile of dirt and stone. She looked around while tugging her shirt in to pants. Outside was a bit chilly as she was standing there in just pants and short sleeves. She crossed her arms tightly across her chest, and twitched from sudden surge of tingles across her spine.
She looked to the left and saw the Bastion entrance. It was a tall metal barricade with a sentry on top and a gun turret placed on the right side. Just to the right stood a tall building with a few vehicles parked out front. She noticed the Valkyr parked there with all the rest. The sign above the building entrance said 'Armory'.
Just the place I wanted to visit. Hope they have something nice for Naomi…I could sure use my hoody now.
Zia thought to herself as she strolled down the road in the direction of the armory. Where is everybody? A thought flew through Zia’s mind when she realized that the street was empty. There was only one man at the top of the barricade keeping guard. She came to a halt when she reached the motor pool. She stood in front of the Valkyr looking at its chewed side plate. You're one hell of a machine girl. Zia stroked her palm across the side of the vehicle as if petting it. Then she turned to the sentry on the barricade.

''Hey there! Where is everyone?'' She yelled at the soldier.

''They’re at the Pub.'' Replied the man, and with no other words turned back to face the road outside. A Pub? We have a pub? Zia stood baffled. Oh well, at least some good news.

Leaving the Valkyr, Zia headed for the armory. The large steel gate appeared before her, closed shut with a smaller door on its right wing that was open. The gate was big enough for two makos to pass through at the same time. It looked like it could have been an old fire brigade station once. There was no one outside the door to great Zia as she entered.
Inside was a large hall and a mako parked in the middle under a big crane that stood above it. The mako looked like it's been stepped on by a reaper. It's com array along with the gun mount were missing. It was as if something squashed it. The silence broke at the sound of welding and the sight of sparks flashing from under the mako.

''Hi there!'' Said Zia, and there was silence again as the welding had stopped. The sight of a small man rolling from under the mako appeared before Zia. The man got up removing his welding goggles, wiping his forehead with a back of his palm. He was in overalls, greeased from neck down. He stared at Zia for a moment, and then his mouth curving in to a slight smile, he waves his hand in salute as he stepped forward extending his arm to Zia.

''Howdy! Private Sully Petersen at your service.'' He introduced himself as he shook Zia's hand. ''Well that's a strong handshake you've got there miss…''

''Zia.'' She smiled. ''Just Zia.''

''Well Miss Zia, what can I do you for?'' Zia watched this grease monkey smiling at her. Do me for? She thought. I'll do you for free. Just like Zia to associate every little remark thrown at her with sex. Although this man was not quite her type, still he had a pretty face, and even though He was short, shorter than Zia's, yet his bare arms were strong and ripped with protruding veins. Zia liked this but made no effort to show it.

''Ok. A couple of questions first and then we'll see if you can.'' She said to Sully. ''First…where are all the people? If I didn't know better, I'd say I was on a cemetery rather than a military base.''

''That building across the road is the HQ. Captain Radcliffe is likely up there along the rest of the brass. Percy was just here looking for...you I believe from the description he gave me. The rest are probably at the Pub, trying to escape the reality no doubt. Though not likely any more since the cap forbid the booze.''

''Wait you have alcohol?'' Zia, astounded by the mention of liquor widens her eyes.

''We have all sorts of things here at the Bastion, you'd be amazed.'' Sully smirked as he turned his head to a wall on the left. Zia followed with her eyes. On the wall stood a cabinet made of wood that had a sign carved on its door. The sign said 'Toys'. Sully approached the cabinet and pulled out a key. While unlocking he, turns to Zia giving her a gesture to approach. He opened the cabinet that was packed with all sorts of stuff. There was an Eviscerator, an old dismembered Mattock, a couple of Predators, some thermal clips stacked on a pile  along with some carniflex parts, few stem packs, and a ton of armor parts just shoved in with the rest.

''What's that…is that a..?'' Says Zia looking at a handle of a gun sticking from under a shoulder plate.

''I knew you'd notice.'' Smiled Sully taking the handle, pulling the gun out of the cabinet. ''Yes my dear lady. That's an N7 Hurricane standard issue with a twist of Petersen tech hehe.'' He handed the gun to Zia.

''This is my favorite gun.'' Said Zia examining the gun. But there was something different about this one. It had a strange attachment on its top side that looked like two spools.

''What's this then?'' She asks looking at the strange attachment.

''That's an amplifier unit. It can be calibrated to amplify any kind of implants real time. Basically it boosts implant efficiency and helps calibrating them to their optimal values in situations that require a more responsive, and quicker modulations and tweaks. It can be set both to boost or to limit implant impulse frequencies.'' Sully proudly explained. Zia quickly remembered Naomi.

''Nice. Does it have an universal attachment clamp or does it fit just this gun?'' She asks. This could be ideal for Naomi.

''It fits almost any small gun or a sub machine gun, and can be calibrated to manage any kind of implants. Take it, it's my gift to you my lovely Fury.'' Sully giggles giving Zia a wink. She rises one eyebrow and looks to the man.
''Oh, Percy gave me a heads up when he stopped by.'' Quickly explains Sully. ''I was saving this piece for myself, but I think it would benefit someone like you better.'' Sully smiled ta Zia sheathing the gun to her side.

''Thanks.'' She replies and gives him a nod. ''You wouldn't happen to have a red Armax breastplate size 8 laying around here somewhere?'' She asks letting a short laugh out.

''An unusual request…I don't think I do…''

''It was a joke.'' Zia smiles. ''But I really need a piece of armor.''

''I have something, but it's Aliance blue. But don't you Furies wear hoods?''

''It's for a friend. She's got my hood now, and I should have it back. Hence the inquiry.''

''Does your friend have bionic legs?'' Bionic legs…oh..Jan! I totally forgot about her. Zia suddenly realizes. ''Where is she?'' She says in excitement.

''She..she's been taken to a hold at the brig by Radcliffe's orders..'' But before Sully could finish, Zia turned in haste, waved at him, and with just 'See ya' she ran outside, leaving Sully standing confused.

Zia ran through the door but in all the rush she bumps her shoulder in a man standing outside only to crash them both to the ground.
The man picked himself up wiping his pants. It was the MP that Zia had bewitched earlier.

''Sorry.'' Zia says looking at him from down.

''You again.'' The MP moans. ''I've been looking for you all over the camp. You cost me a load of trouble, and I only known you for like half a minute.'' He continues looking at Zia getting up.

''Yeah…sorry about that.'' Responds Zia making a grimace that spelled ‘s*** happens'

''Well…it's probably my fault anyway.'' Said Percy. ''But now you'll have to report to captain Radcliffe or he'll have me scrubbing the HQ toilet again.''

''Yes sir right away.'' Zia fires off in a flash. ''Btw where can I find the brig?''

''It's just next to the stairs that lead to HQ. You can't miss it.''

''Thanks sir. See ya around.'' Zia finished and leaped across the road. Percy stood there rubbing his right thigh that was still soar from the fall. He startles suddenly bringing his hand to his cheek. Damn it Percy…you stupid idiot..she did it again. A thought flashed through his mind as he realized that Zia somehow fooled him once again. He was suppose to bring her to the captain personally, and again, for reasons unknown to him, he forgot his duty. The thought dwelled on him.

Zia entered a small room where an officer sat in an old rocking chair. Behind him a cell with bars, a small barrier generator in front of the cage, and one bed in the corner. On the bed sat Jan, her face tugged between her knees, her hands wrapped around. She didn't seem to notice Ziar as she stepped forward. As Zia approached, the officer stands up. He was a turian. He wore an Aliance blue armor with a shotgun attached to his lower back. In his hand he held a pheston rifle while extending his other arm to Zia.

''Yes?'' He looks at Zia. She had no top to go with the bottom, only an undershirt tugged in her pants, and a hurricane attached to her side. Zia spotting Wyld behind him looking like she had just lost everything in her life made Zia feel angry as her eyebrows came together, forming a stare of a mad man. She looks to Jan and back at the turian. Zia's emotions grew with a sight of her friend behind bars but before she let her rage get the better of her, she thought. She wanted a time with Wyld to try and sort out the things between them, but judging by the fashion she left them, she probably wouldn’t be much interested in having this conversation. Zia didn’t quite fully understand this because she never had to explain her actions to anyone she had been with before as she was more a creature of a quick flirt. Besides, she never felt heartbreak before. She was a kind of person that acted without second thoughts. She had never been in a situation where she would see an object of desire, and then stopped to think about variables. She would take it right away if so she desired. No doubts, no second thoughts, just action. And when it came down to pure lust, she would do it in a trench below the belly of a reaper if so she desired. Zia figured that the best chance to talk with Wyld was to get slammed as well. So she let go of the brakes.

''Why is this woman in chains?'' The furious roar echoed in the room as Wyls suddenly lifts he chin, but Zia just went on. ''This woman is one of the best soldiers I've met, and a few people, me included owe her our lives. In fact if it wasn't for her, you might not be here too.'' She barked away at the turian who just listened to her without any changes in expression. Zia's arguments didn't seem to be getting through as his face was like of a statue. This only provoked Zia in her rage. ''Hello. Cat got your tongue?'' She said scornfully.

''Take it easy now there.'' Replied the turian with a calm voice like a rider calming his spooked horse. Zia's face turned red as this reaction only poked her nerves more. She grabs his arm by the wrist and pulls it towards her shoving her face up to his chin. The turians face now showed some change and he was not charmed by this gesture.

''I demand to know why is she here.'' Says Zia gnashing her teeth. The turians face darkened as his hand gripped Zia's. He plucks her hand holding his wrist.
 
''You demand? You demand.’’ He jelled ‘’The captain demands!'' He roared. Wild staggered at the sound and sees the two standing there like two cats getting ready to pluck one a another’s eys out.

‘’What do you want? Go away.’’ Said Wyld but Zia didn’t seem to care. She grew inpatient as she swung her free fist to turians jaw. She smacked him before he could contra, right on the chin. The turian staggers for a second and turning his head to recover from a blow he lets out a grin.

''You've got some fire, I'll give you that.'' He nods. At that moment a man stepped through the door. Zia felt her hand go free again as the the two saluted eachother.

''Captain Radcliffe sir.'' Said the turian as he addressed the captain standing at the door.

''Lieutenant, what's all this rattle?''

''Sir, this woman just barged in here, and started shouting about the prisoner saying she should be released at once. And then she hit me.'' Zia stood silent.
Radcliffe approached Zia with his hands behind his back.
 
''You are a feisty little tiger aren't you. Maybe you should have some peace and quiet to contemplate your actions.'' Said the captain but Zia said nothing.
''Throw her in with the corpse for the night. Let her cool down a bit before she's debriefed.''

''Yes sir.''
''Oh, and you might wanna throw up that barrier and set it for quick frequency modulation while you're at it. She's a Fury.'' Finished Radcliffe with a smile as he turned and left.

Modifié par FuriousFelicia, 04 août 2013 - 01:47 .

[Redbelle]

Zia's hands clenched and unclenched as she watched Radcliffe leave. Radcliffe however, came to halt. As if able to feel Zia's eye's boring into his back. He turned, seeing her barely contained ire. He looked unimpressed.

“What's your name”.

“Zia”.

“Zia.....”?

Zia let out a hot breath. “Zia..... sir”.

“You recognise these bar's as being a captain”?

“Yes sir”.

“Are you a captain or higher”?

“No...... sir”.

He gestured to the barred door behind which Wyld sat and the Turian crossed the room to open it.

“There are two types of soldier in this outfit Fury. One I can depend on. The other I can't. Which are you going to be”?

Zia looked at the open door. Back at Radcliffe. Thing's were not going well.

It could be worse.

Taking her weapon's she handed them to the Turian and entered the brig. She heard the door close behind her and she turned to see Radcliffe address her.

“That's one point for you. And one point against. Next time I'll judge which side you fall down on soldier. Make it count. Now, since your both here....”.

Radcliffe activated his Omni tool and pinged Wyld and Zia's for mission updates. “I understand you went off mission”. He addressed Wyld. “I won't ask why just yet till I've had a chance to go over your mission logs. But when I call for you, you'd better be ready to explain just what happened out there”.

He turned, but before he left he turned back. “One last thing. This camp is blocking all communication's. No information comes in or out of this area. Try and get around the block and you risk exposing us to the Reapers”. His face became hard set. “No one want to see another repeat of what happened last time”. And with that he left.

Zia stalked the cage for awhile before looking back at Wyld. Her face was covered by that driver's aid helmet she'd worn in the Valkyr. The one she'd lobbed when she'd poured out so many feeling's that she'd not known about. Zia took a deep breath and let it out.

What was going on behind that helmet?

Wyld's head shifted up and from a pouch on her harness she brought forth Zia's mask and offered it. “You forgot this back in the tunnel”.

Zia took it from her. “Thanks. Thought I'd lost it”. The silence between them grew. “So why are you in here”?

Wyld ticked off on her fingers. “Any number of reasons. I'm officially down as a CAT6. I crushed Radcliffe's communication array on his Mako when we were evacuating the camp the Reaper dropped on. I went off on my own without authority and wound up following a madman into a Cerberus facility that got Naomi killed before they brought her back to life again as a clone”. She took a deep breath. “There are some frankly, embarrassing pictures of me on the extra-net that don't exactly show the alliance military in a good light. I'm using non sanctioned prosthetics in place of system alliance ones which is against regs. And I'm technically responsible for the death of a systems alliance officer who had a mental breakdown because I failed to save his son when the squad got attacked by Reapers”. She paused. “I think that just about covers it”.

Zia blew air between her lips. “Wow”.

“Yeah”.

Zia sat down on the opposite end of the container Wyld sat on. They sat there for awhile. No one talking while the Turian outside tapped at his holographic keyboard.

“Sod it”. Wyld took off the helmet and set it down before reaching her arm out to Zia. “C'mere. I'm in a cuddling mood”.

Zia raised her eyebrows as she moved closer. Wyld leant forward. Wrapped her arm around her and pulled her back into her chest so that Zia was lying against Wyld who kept an arm wrapped around her. “What are we doing”? Zia asked as she twisted her neck to look up.

Wyld took a deep breath. “We need to talk”.

“Urgh”.

“And I need to apologise”.

“Huh”? Zia was taken aback. “Not sure what your talking about”.

“And that's the problem”. Wyld said as she adjusted herself under Zia. “I've been taking to much for granted. You've been unwilling to talk to me at all. And I've been filling in the pieces......”.

She stopped suddenly as she closed her eye's. “I can't keep doing this Zee”.

“Doing what”?

“I'm in love you”.

Zia tried to open her mouth to say something. But no words came out.

“Back at the Mako, you forced yourself on me”.

“I didn't”! Zia exclaimed.

“You did”. Wyld persisted. “You kissed me right out of the blue. I panicked. It's not something I'm used to. I had to think about it because I think about everything”. Wyld tilted her head down to meet Zia's eye's. “And the one thing I've been regretting since then is that we stopped”.

Zia's looked questioningly at Wyld.

“It's about identity”. Wyld sent on. “I've never seriously considered being with someone like you. I always figured I'd find some guy. That was the plan. But I could never find the guy. And eventually, I just gave up on having a love life. I only ever thought about widening the field but it never manifested. I was shut down and I thought that's all my love life would ever be”.

“And then you pop up”. She went on. “And suddenly that part of my life got fired up again! It was a shock and I had to adjust. But all I've ever really wanted since we left the Mako was to taste your lips again. Which, by the way. Strawberry”. She said with a deadpan look.

“I taste of strawberry”? Zia asked incredulously.

“Don't tell me, no one's ever told you”.

“Funnily enough, no”. Zia said as she looked ahead. “No one's ever said that to me”.

“Well you do”. She slid her other arm around Zia and rested her mouth against her hair before she went on. “You awoke a part of my life I've been aching to see get started. But it happened in wartime. We're soldier's Zee. We're supposed to be fighting the enemy. I shouldn't be marking time in the hope you'll jump me again. I started losing sight of what I'm here for. I'm here to help win a damn war and you've been on my mind so much. I feel like I'm losing my edge”.

Zia shifted so that she rolled onto her side. “Can I be honest with you”?

“Sure”.

“Your crazy”.

Wyld laughed. “Yep”.

“I mean, you think to much. You talk to much. You do things that all seem wrong. Yet somehow. You make everything right. And I.....”. She sighed as she rested her head against Wyld's chest. “I like you. But I feel like I'm chasing after you sometimes. And then there's this look you get in your eyes”.

“What look”?

“Like your about to possess whatever it is your looking at. I saw you look at me that way in the hotel. I don't want to be tied down”.

“What about Naomi”?

Zia let out a contended sigh. “She's sweet. She yielding. She's safe”. She looked up at Wyld again. “Your dangerous. You make me doubt I can tame you. The first time we kissed I thought you were putty I could mould”. She paused. “And then you talked about my sister's, and then Aria! It's like you knew me before I got to know you. And.....”.

“And what”?

“And you cared”. Zia said plaintively. “Your a complete stranger and yet you keep looking out me. And Naomi. The Mako crew. Pepper and Gizmo. Even Baldurjack”.

“Yeah”. Wyld said sarcastically. “I really looked out for him”.

“I take after Aria a lot in some ways. I can't help it. It's what I know. And when I'm with you it's like your a softer gentler Aria. And I can stop being her and just be myself”. Zia stroked her hand across Wylds arm. “I just don't know. I act before I think. That's me. I need to act or I bottle everything up inside. Sometimes it get's to much. I spend my life trying not to explode and taking comfort in the thing's that let off the pressure. You and Naomi give me release”. She looked up into Wylds eye's. “I....”.

“Don't tell me anything you don't want me to know”. Wyld told her sternly. “I get you..... I think. Maybe not completely but I get you. And that apology I said I owed you? I'd like to say sorry now”.

“For what”?

“This”. Wylds lips came down on hers and Zia's heart rocketed into her mouth. As if an exposed wire had been jammed into her. She felt Wyld brutally beating on her psyche as Wylds gloved hands reached up and pulled her further over into the kiss. Zia didn't know what was happening. She'd had a lot of encounters over the years. But this was something else completely separated from any of them. She basked in Wyld's presence as she relentlessly claimed Zia for her own

How did she get this good?

It was another reason to be afraid of her on one level. On the other, she rejoiced in it. She panted and groaned into Wylds mouth,and would have flipped over on her front. Except Wyld had her in a vice lock with her one remaining arm around her chest. Preventing her from moving. From deepening the contact between them.

At last Wyld allowed her to come up for air. She flopped back into Wyld's embrace. Feeling saturated with her own lust and the warm glow, spreading out across her limbs, of satisfaction. She saw Wyld's face, flushed and breathing hard.

She felt it too! Zia realised as she felt a drop of moisture collect in the corner of one eye.

Wyld reached up and brushed the tear away. “We're even”. She said in a horse whisper.

“Why”?

“Because I may never have the chance again. Because you need to commit to Naomi”.

Zia blinked. “But what about.....”.

“If you keep batting between the two of us you'll only hurt one of us. And your not a bad person Zee. You don't want that. And Naomi needs you to show her how to be a biotic. She's untrained and on the front lines. She needs you. I've been doing a lot of soul searching and I've decided I have to let you go. Can you commit to Naomi”?

Still feeling overwhelmed, Zia nodded.

“Then I'm sorry again”. Wyld said as her breathing quickend. “Because this is going to count as cheating”.

Wyld brought her lips down again. This time she loosened her grip enough that Zia was able to turn over and press herself into their embrace. They slid down together. Unable to stop themselves. Zia brought her head up as Wyld nibbled her throat. “This.....this is wrong”. Wyld groaned in a way that told of her agreement. “I.... have to.... stop”.

Wyld pulled herself up level with Zia. “Kiss me”. Zia grabbed Wyld's head and pulled it in as they wrapped around each other. Wyld felt her way down to the hem of Zia's vest. Zia put her hand down to stop her as both pulled away, breathless and gasping.

“Naomi.....”. Zia choked out. “You meant it? I should be with her”?

“Yes”. Said Wyld, equally breathless. “But she can't find out about us. We have to keep it secret”.

Zia captured Wyld's lip's once more, who returned the fervour with equal passion before pulling away. “What if being with Naomi means we can't meet like this”?

“I'll wait”. Wyld said. “Believing this could never be? It drove me crazy. Knowing we're a possibility is healthier”.

“Healthier”?

“I nearly hated you Zee. I love you and it almost became hate. I don't know about having a relationship. But I know I'd do anything to not hate you. This is just playing for time. We can sort out our feeling's when the war's over”.

“You said we're soldier's. We may have to leave each other sometime”.

“Then don't die. Keep Naomi safe. I'll stay alive. And we can work it all out later”.

Zia tugged at one of Wyld's gloves. “Well, now that's sorted out”. Zia tugged the glove off and felt Wyld running her hand back down her back as she attacked her armour fastening's.

Suddenly Wyld stopped, causing Zia to have a moment of panic. “Second thought's”?

“No. It's just”. Wyld looked away with a touch of embarrassment. “I didn't actually plan for what would happen if you said yes”?

Zia was bemused. “You planned all this”?

“Sort of”. Wyld admitted. “I've got so much I want to tell you and......”.

Zia saw the look and understood. “You don't know what to do”?

Wyld nodded.

Zia grinned. “Well then. You couldn't ask for a better teacher”.

Zia grabbed Wyld and rolled them off and behind the container. As they disappeared there was a thud and squawk from Wyld which devolved into giggles, and then silence.

Outside the brig. The lone forgotten Turian sat quietly. Peering around the door from where he sat. As the two women disappeared he bit back a disappointed sigh. Then glancing out the door to the outside. Raised his Omni tool and activated it's remote probe fabrication feature.

It was a long time later that a messenger was sent to send for Wyld.

It was slightly longer till the Turian delivered it.

Modifié par Redbelle, 04 août 2013 - 11:41 .

[Kel Riever]

The path Rea and the Brute had taken was plain to see. Along it, masonry was scraped and cracked, and in some places, bricks had been torn out of the walls. Once Rea had retraced her route out of the dead end she had been trapped in, she saw several side corridors branching off. Where the humming originated, however, was from where she had been chased. Rea passed the stairway again, and then the hole in the wall where she had first been attacked. All was dark from the rough-hewn cavity beyond the hole, but in contrast, the old passageway she had originally traveled through had the faintest hint of something ahead. Rea turned off her lamps, and noticed a mild orange hue. Light? Rea listened. The humming came from somewhere in front of her. Her conscious mind warned her, but the desire in her to continue grew stronger. She went on. Is that you?

~~~~

Layl looked like she could barely contain herself. “I’m so excited!”

Rea grinned from ear to ear, “Me too.” The two sisters rode together in a luxurious X3M. The aircar was on autopilot, rising high through the urban skyways to take them to Tizzy and Ben’s penthouse. Rea was impressed how well Ben had done for himself; it wasn’t uncommon for an off-worlder to live in the shadow of their mate on Thessia. Instead, Ben had thrived. His prominence in architecture had made him a local celebrity, and his job earned him more than the income of the entire Iallis family put together.

Layl echoed Rea’s thoughts, “I can’t believe Ben. Who would have ever thought a human would be so well known for designing buildings on Thessia? That child is going to grow up with everything. You know, both Ben and Tizzy can’t wait to see you. How long has it been?”

“Ten years,” Rea rolled her eyes as she answered. “You can thank my thirteen different commanding officers for that. And that last deployment on Illium? Please, spare me. That place is wrapped up in so many laws and contracts it makes my head spin.”

“Well, you’re here now. I missed you too, Rea. And I love that every time we see each other, its like we never left.” Layl held Rea’s hand, “You were always my favorite sister.”

The two siblings enjoyed the last moments of their ride to the top of the eighty-story apartment building that was their destination. Parnitha had disappeared just below the horizon, and the twilight was spectacular. The aircar nestled itself on the edge of the rooftop garden, where several others were already crowded. Rea and Layl stepped out to see a small group of family and friends outside, enjoying the view. One of the group was a human with salt and pepper hair. His wrinkles reflected a life of happiness. The human squinted at the new arrivals, “Rea, is that you?”

“Ben!” Rea shouted and ran to her friend, hugging him tightly. “How is it going, daddy?”

“Ow!” Ben winced as he returned the hug. “What have they been feeding you in the military? Look at you, Rea. My god, you’re ripped!”

“I’ll take it easy on you, old man. Speaking of which, how old are you now?”

Ben pretended to be grieved, “Almost fifty. But don’t tell anyone I’m heading toward the matriarch stage of my life, okay? I want to keep the secret of my youth as long as I can.”

Rea and Ben clasped each other again. Layl broke them apart, “Let’s catch up later. We want to see the star of the show.”

“Absolutely. Ben, I’m sorry, but I want to see my niece!” Rea let go and saw the glee in his eyes. Her face was beginning to hurt from grinning so much, “I’m so happy for you.”

“Go. We’ll catch up, later.”

Layl and Rea waved quickly to the others in the group and entered the penthouse. The living room was empty but a cooing mother’s voice led them to the master bedroom. Layl pushed open the door. Inside, their mother stood over Tizzy, who rested in the bed cradling the newborn.

Tizzy glanced up, “Is that you, Rea? You look so different.”

“Of course it’s me, lil’ sis.” Rea went to kiss her mom while Layl went straight to Tizzy.

“So precious,” Layl melted. “Yours is the most beautiful of any of the nieces.”

“Layl,” their mother tittered, “You always had weak knees for babies.”

Rea looked down at the infant, swaddled and snug in Tizzy’s arms. “Who doesn’t? Besides Mom, I think she’s right.”

The baby fussed at the unfamiliar sounds in the room. Tizzy raised a finger to her lips and then pointed to Rea. Rea mouthed the words, “Can I?” Tizzy nodded, and stood, gently relinquishing the bundle of new life to Rea’s embrace.

Whispering, Rea asked, “What’s her name?”

Smiling warmly, Tizzy answered, “Denzillian.”

Layl drew her breath in sharply, “You named her after Dad? That is so divine!”

Rea’s eyes welled up, and a tear dropped onto tiny Denzillan, who snorted her protest. Rea apologized, “Sorry little one. Tizzy, you are brilliant.”

“Tizzy wasn’t nearly as excited at seeing any of her other sisters as she is seeing you two,” Mom noticed. “Particularly you, Rea. Layl at least can get a senior officer to do her a favor in the navy. I’ve never heard of a tighter schedule than an asari commando’s.”

Tizzy remarked, “She gave her word, Mom. You know how Rea is about that. I bet you don’t want to go back now. Do you, sis?”

Rea shook her head. “If I could stay here forever, I would.”

~~~~

The orange hue was distinct now. It was warm and inviting. The humming was no longer distant. More corridors branched off, but the passageway Rea was in beckoned her. Every footfall placed her closer to the truth she needed to know. I don’t want to go back now. Is that you?

Modifié par Kel Riever, 05 août 2013 - 02:37 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

Jack grabbed her Mattock, and hopped to her feet in the dimly lit room. She stepped over the commandos and members of her squad to make her way to a window in the front of the room that looked out onto the street. It was still dark out, but one couldn't tell if that was due to smoke from the fires burning in the city or just because it was still night. Jack flipped her night vision goggles down. Both directions looked clear of enemies.

The street was strewn with wreckage. There were dumpsters, burned out vehicles, scattered in random places. Then about every block there she could see an organized barricade set up. People had fought here against the reapers. A lot of people died. A lot were taken. They were probably killing them a second time now. She couldn't think about it like that. They were still the goddamn enemy, and they were dead.

Many of the buildings had been hit by reaper fire an had collapsed. 'Those things are a menace' She thought. 'I don't know how we're going to rebuild if every city is like this. ****, Jack! This is how those ****ers win! Get ****ing angry! Stay ****ing angry! Pull it together!' She was crying inside.

"Alright people! On your feet! We're moving out!" Jack said. "Rodriguez! Reilly! Help the sarge! Prangley, take the Asari and three others across the road and up the other side. Stay in contact."

Ensign Prangley was still seated. He had dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. He got a smirk on his face and shook his head. Then he got to his feet.

Ranassa got to her feet. Her dark facial markings made accentuated the darkness in her eyes "This is bull****!" she exclaimed. "You humans come in here, think you can just take over and just start giving orders? Well **** you!"

T grabbed her before she did something stupid. "We're all on the same side, Ranassa!" Ranassa broke free and started to move toward Jack.

"You talk the talk. Can you walk the walk?" Ranassa said to Jack.

Jack prepared, but Shayrana said. "I've had enough of your whining!" and she picked Ranassa off her feet with a biotic field. "Now, are you going to settle down and follow orders so we can come out of this alive? Or do you want to leave a spot on that wall?" Shayrana pointed to a steel reinforced concrete wall. Some of the rebar had been exposed.

Ranassa took a deep breath and said "Okay okay."

Shayrana set her back on the ground and said to the rest of the squad. "Okay, listen up. They're taking us to where we can stock up on ammo and supplies. They're helping us. Then we are going to help them. I want to survive. I'm sure the rest of you want to survive. We will cooperate. Is this clear?"

The squad members except for Ranassa said "Yes." Then T hit Ranassa in the ribs with the butt of her assault rifle.

Ranassa said "Yes, Corporal."

"Thank you." Shayrana said. "Now let's all follow Jack's direction. She's had a lot of battle experience, and Prangley will follow her orders, right Ensign?"

Prangley gave Jack a look of 'what? Do I answer to her?'

"In the interest of cooperation, Prangley, answer the question." Jack said.

"Yes, Corporal, I will be following Jack's orders." Prangley reluctantly answered.

"Thank you." Shayrana replied. "So can we finally get the **** out of here?"

Jack opened the door and checked both directions of the road again. It was clear. Her group exited first so that they could provide cover from behind a few deserted cars.

"Okay, Prangley, go." Jack said. "Take cover when you're in position."

Prangley's group sprinted across the road. There was some fallen concrete behind which they took cover. Jack told Rodriguez and Reilly to go next with the sarge.

"Good luck, guys." Jack said.

"You too, Jack." the sarge replied.

"And Rodriguez, remember what I said about the leg." Jack said.

"Yeah, yeah." Rodriguez replied.

Jack waited until the sarge, Rodriguez and Reilly had gotten beyond the truck parked two blocks down the road back toward the hospital before giving the signal to move out. The downed shuttle wasn't far from their position, but it could be crawling with reapers.

"So Shayrana, you gonna be the humans' **** for the rest of the mission? Or are you too good for us now?" Ranassa asked in Lusian dialect not on the universal translators while they were waiting the order to move out.

"You really think you're hot ****, don't you? Just because you were a commmander in the Eclipse." Shayrana replied in the same dialect. "Why didn't you stay there and spare me the agony of having to listen to your incessant whining? Hey, T, you didn't see any cheese in that store did you?"

"No. I think she ate all of it." T said. Erikka laughed and bumped her shoulder.

"Funny." Ranassa said.

"Well, you did bring it on yourself." Ereba laughed.

"Alright, let's move out." Prangley ordered. "You, with the LMG, take point."

Ranassa glared at him and hocked a loogey on the road, then climbed over the debris and took her position.

"Keep an eye on her." Prangley said to Smith, one of the three humans Jack sent over with Prangley. Smith nodded.

"I'll do my job, assh0le." Ranassa snapped.

Chief Smith was about 1.8 meters tall and weighed about 82 kg with short brown hair and brown eyes, but recently added a battle scar over his left eye. He had very good biotic skills for his age. Jack had taught him well, and he'd kept a good attitude.

T walked over to Prangley, grabbed him by his upper arm and pulled him close and said quietly to him. "I'm just going to warn you. Do not **** with that b*tch. I'll watch her. Keep Smith out of her way. Don't answer me." Prangley nodded.

"Godinez, Taylor, you two take rear." Prangley said, and he waved off Smith. Smith looked at him a little confused. Prangley shook his head no and pointed to T. Smith nodded.

Prangley contacted Jack on the radio. "Jack, we're ready."

"Let's move people." Jack said.

Ranassa flipped her motion tracker on and waved everyone forward. It was pretty much the same thing for the next couple of blocks: ruined buildings, overturned vehicles, debris in the street. Some of the debris had smoke rising from it. Periodically they'd look up and check the sky for any incoming reaper troops.

'Odd, it's pretty quiet down at this end. Everyone is concentrating on the main push up where that Reaper Destroyer is blocking. Those dumb ****ers!' Ranassa kept thinking. 'Why didn't they just send their prime squad around this way and send a main horde to get slaughtered up the middle? Human idiots.'

They reached the half-way point. Ranassa raised her fist to halt. They had to cross another open area at an intersection, and she wanted to do a sweep with her tracker first. It was clear.

"So, are your panties still in a bunch 'nassa?" T asked. She was right behind her.

"Nah, I'm alright. I've just had it with all the stupidity I've seen today, T. A lot of Asari got killed for no good reason because of some dumb ass orders." Ranassa said.

"Everything okay up there?" Prangley asked.

"We're clear." Ranassa said.

"Hold it a sec. Let me check IR." Ereba said and she pulled out her sniper rifle and scanned the buildings. "Looks clear to me, too."

"That's Alliance issue, Specialist." Prangley said when he noticed her Black Widow. "And they're very rare. Where did you get that?"

"Found it on a dead spectre. It was far better than mine, and he didn't need it anymore." Ereba said. "I've already bagged a dozen tangos with it. We're not going to have a problem, are we, sir? Because I don't see anyone in this entire unit other than myself who is qualified to use it.

"Besides since it was on a spectre it technically never belonged to the Alliance. So technically it's Asari property, now, sir. The sarge never complained about it, but hey, if I find another one, it's yours, okay sir?"

"Okay let's move out." Prangley ordered and the group started crossing the road. 'I was just b*tchslapped. Very politely, but b*tchslapped.' Prangley thought to himself.

Shayrana spoke to Ereba in Lusian "You can really be an assh0le, you know that?"

"Ah, but there is a proper way of doing it, hon." Ereba replied.

Erikka drifted toward the rear of the group. Godinez was a medium built Hispanic with dark hair, dark complexion, and very handsome, and he was soft spoken and well educated. Taylor was a Mid-Westerner from Chicago. He was about 2.5 meters tall and played had played basketball for Northwestern before joining the Alliance.

Errika had dyed the lines on her crest purple and had a decorative thin lined facial tattoo, and rare purple eyes. She was considered quite pretty by Asari standards.

"So I see you're not too good to come back with us humans." Godinez said.

"As a matter of fact I'd like to get to know you a bit more, you know since we're going to be spending this time fighting along side each other." Erikka said. "I'm Erikka."

"I'm Roberto, and this is Jon." Roberto said. "Pleased to meet you. So besides the war, what brings a...."

Ereba nudged Shayrana and said in Lusian. "Will you check out Ms. 'never a missed opportunity' back there."

Shayrana glanced out the corner of her eye and giggled. "Even when things are at their worst, there is hope."

"What? What about us?" Ereba asked.

"I... I didn't mean...." Shayrana said.

Ereba started laughing. Shayrana hit her in the shoulder and they both laughed. Prangley shot them a look to be quiet.

Ranassa raised her fist to signal a stop. The shuttle was less than 50 meters away. There was debris scattered all over the place. She gave the 'five-meter spread, no noise' signal and pointed out the locations of several tangos.

The block had been blown away by a strike and there was no cover except rubble. The shuttle was in the middle of it. This was not going to be easy.

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 15 août 2013 - 12:20 .

[FuriousFelicia]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naomi's hair swirled around her head, tickling her cheeks and neck as she felt a cool breath of wind blowing in her face. The air felt so fresh, and good that made her spread her arms wide as she closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She smiled, eyes shut in total bliss. It felt like flying. A slight tremor below her feet that broke the moment made her open her eyes again. She was in the clouds, not flying but standing, hands spread like wings. It was the best feeling she had had. She closed her eyes again, feeling the breeze, savoring the moment. She wanted it to last forever. But when she finally opened her eyes again, the clouds were gone. She gazed upon clear sky around her and slowly bowed her head to see the ground when she felt a tremor at her feet once more. Indeed she wasn't flying. The ground beneath her was metal. Black as coal. Suddenly the picture became clear. She was standing on top of a reaper. It strode over a city, scorching the ground. A walking mountain from hell. Startled at the sight, Naomi slips losing her footing, and starts to fall.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naomi's eyes slowly opened. A bright light stabbed her in the eyes, forcing her to close them again. She could feel that she was on her back. Her heart quickened when she realized she couldn’t move her limbs. The first thing that flew through her mind was that she's still at the _it_ . Her heart raced as she opened her eyes again. She was laying on an operating table with her feet and hands bound in constraints. Fear and panic kicked in while she tried to lift herself of the table, only to fall back down again. She felt weak and hazy. She was alone. The unfortunate events that happened to her left some scars. She wasn't sure if she's dreaming or this was real. An image flashed in her mind. A terrible sight of herself laying on the floor in a pool of her own blood, and Zia kneeling beside her, holding her head on the lap, watching her own eyes glowing blue, lifeless. She started to wiggle trying to get loose of the constraints holding her.

''Let me go! Let me go!'' She cried out. ''Zeeeee! Help me! Help….'' A blue aura entangled her body, and a soft hum radiating throughout the room, getting louder and louder with every twitch her body made. ‘’LET ME GOOO….’’ She felt a sting. Her voice slowly faded while she felt what little energy she had left leaving her. Her eyes began to close and before her eyelids fell shut she saw a vague silhouette of what seemed a horned head. She was asleep again.

''There, there lass. Take it easy now.'' Soft words echoed in Naomi's head. She was awake again. Still on her back. Even with her eyes closed she saw the white as if she was standing before the very gates of heaven. Am I dead? Is this it? A thought flew through her mind. Suddenly she felt a soft touch on her shoulder. She opened her eyes and turned her head to side. Her vision was still blurred, and her eyes were sore from the light shining down on her. Beside her stood a slim figure that looked like it had horns as she could only see a silhouette of this image. Her eyes slowly started to adapt to the light when she heard a calm voice.

''Easy now lass. Here let me get that for you.'' She saw the doctor unbinding her arms and legs. She felt a relief as she remembered what happened. The hotel, the count, Zia and Wyld, and her husk. She turned her head to the right as she heard a strange voice. There stood a blue ball, hovering by the table. A medical VI drone that spoke to her.

''Good evening Naomi. Feeling better?'' Said the drone in a robotic voice, ''Good evening.'' Naomi replied looking confused at the drone.

''Naomi, meet Bob.'' Said the doctor while smiling, pointing at the drone. ''How do you know my name?'' Asks Naomi looking at the drone, ''Naomi Brooks, human, female Caucasian, born on Earth June 14. 2160, weight 58 kg, height 175 cm, mother and father deceased, no other siblings, graduated top student at Grissom academy, enlisted in the Alliance…''

''All right Bob, that's enough. I'm sure Miss Brooks knows who she is.'' Says the doctor and glances at Naomi. She watched him, tending a fresh scar on her left forearm, looking at her, his eyes full of inquiry, ‘’You are a clone’’ He says, but Naomi laid silent. Her face was saying enough to the doctor as he continued, ‘’Well the important thing is that you’re safe, and healthy as an ox.’’ He gave her a little smile and shifted his attention to her arm,

‘’I don’t know what I am.’’

‘’Well I have to do some more tests, but there’s a lot of interesting stuff going around in there.’’ says the doc, softly tapping Naomi’s bely, ‘’One thing is certain though, you are a clone.’’ Says the doc smiling smugly, ‘’Your full bio scan will be finished shortly, and also I’ve managed to extract some peculiar substance from your cells that now seems to be a part of your blood.’’ While the doctor was talking, he kept looking at Naomi, searching for some sign of confirmation or surprise in her face, but there was none. The only thing that was certain is that she knew she was different, ‘’Not very chatty are we.’’

‘’You are the doctor. You tell me what I am.’’

‘’Alright. You are a beautiful young human female biotic...clone. An hour ago without, and now with a complete set of new L3 wetware. Not really the latest thing but proven efficient and reliable.’’ He smiled. ’’I’m sorry...’’ The doc stopped. The suspense was killing his curious nature. He had to know.

‘’What happened to you really?’’ He listened to Naomi as she explained to him in short about how she became a clone. She said only what little details she knew as she herself wasn’t really sure what exactly happened at that horrid place. Nevertheless, the doc got his cake, and for the time being, his mind was at ease. They chatted while doc and Bob calibrated her implants.

‘’Where’s Zia?’’ Suddenly remembers Naomi

‘’Don’t know, she never came back.’’ Replied the doc ‘’Judging by her character, I’d say she’s in the pub.’’

‘’The pub?’’ Naomi looks distraught at the doc

‘’Yes. I know, a pub in this place, at this time…but I have to admit, it has done wonders in sense of moral here. Everyone is there since yesterday. The capt ordered radio silence three days ago, and instructions to keep a low profile. That’s why the streets are empty and lights are out. Yesterday, the attacks stopped after that reaper smashed your hotel. Yeah, the best place to bee now, is the pub.’’

‘’I have to go find Zia.’’ Said Naomi pulling herself upright on the table.

‘’Well you can go if you feel fine. The pub is just down the street to the left, before the south barricade, easy to find. I would accompany you but I still have some work to do so..maybe I’ll come by later.’’

‘’Doctor, the full bio scan is complete.’’ The drone says, ‘’There are some irregularities.’’ The doctor looked at the data pad with Naomi ‘s biometric scan, and while he went through the data, Naomi noticed his face change as he curiously examined the data. He stroked his chin mumbling something to himself.

‘’Is something wrong?’’ Naomi leans to see the pad ‘’Amazing.’’ Says the doctor, ‘’Your eezo nodule count is off the charts.’’ He exclaims, ‘’I’ve treated dozens of biotics in my life, but never before have I seen this numbers. You are a human nuke my dear lassy’’ The doctor talked fast in excitement while his big eyes shone with intrigue. ‘’Oh what I wouldn’t give to be able to fly.’’
‘’What do you mean?’’ Naomi’s question made the doc laugh as he looked at her with a grin, waiting for Naomi to confirm the joke adding her laughter, but she stared at him with a dull expression.

‘’You are joking, right?’’

…….

‘’Well I guess that some things can’t be learned at school, but I expected more from a top student from an establishment such as the Grissom academy. So let me teach you some biotic stuff, and afterwards you can show me how to do a heart transplant.’’ He smiled, ‘’Your body is a home of a host of tiny little creatures and organisms with one in particular. The element zero nodules or as we doctors like to call them, eezo nods. Some people have a few dozen of them imbedded into their tissue, some have none.’’

‘’Yes I know that from school. I may be Naomi’s clone, but I still have her mind. What does this have to do with flying.’’

‘’Well if you let me finish, I’ll get to that part soon.’’ Naomi let the doc talk

‘’Where was I…oh yes. Eezo nods. As I said, some people have a few dozen, some have none. You my dear lass, have hundreds.’’ Naomi looked at the doctor in shock. She understood, and was puzzled by the fact as much as the doctor.

‘’You see dear lass. If an average biotic can manipulate an object’s mass, the logic implies he can manipulate his own mass as well. Now while some biotics can easily use their mass effect fields to hover or glide, a small number of highly gifted ones can actually fly.’’ The doctor explained while Naomi’s ears carefully listened.

‘’So you’re saying I could fly?’’ Naomi’s pupils widened at the thought.

‘’Well now that I think about it..I should have done the surgery after the scan. These implants just won’t cut it now.’’ The doctor said ‘’You should really take it easy for a while. Don’t stress yourself too much for the time being until I figure something up.I strongly advise you to restrain from any biotic manifestations. Those implants won’t be able to withstand more than 2000 N yield. You could break that threshold in a sneeze.’’ Naomi looked at her hands as if saying ‘what have we got here’, and then slowly stood up.

‘’How do you feel back on your feet again.’’ Cheerfully asked the doctor

‘’I feel fine, thank you. Can I go now?’’

‘’Here.’’ Said the doctor pulling a pair of overalls from the drawer, ‘’We can’t have you catching a cold now.’’ He smiled at Naomi as he helped her get dressed.
‘
’Thank you doct…Ben.’’ She says politely with a smile

‘’No problem.’’ Says the doc and gives her a wink, ‘’Oh, one more thing before you go. Here take this.’’ Said the doc as he picked up a small bracelet from the table. He strapped it around Naomi’s wrist. It was white with a big red button on the side and two smaller ones, yellow and green on the top.

‘’What’s that?’’

‘’It’s a personal locator unit with a small dose of tranquilizer. If you need help, press the yellow button, and I’ll be able to find you wherever you are within this base. If you get a seizure, administer the sedative with the red button.’’

‘’And the green one?’’

‘’Oh…you don’t wanna touch the green one.’’ Said the doctor as he laughed at his own jest ''No seriously now. The green one will emit a wide frequency distress, and the captain strictly forbid any wide frequency broadcast. The yellow one acts like a pager.''
Naomi thanked the doctor once more and then left. She took Zia’s hoody and decidet to look for her.

Modifié par FuriousFelicia, 05 août 2013 - 04:47 .

[Redbelle]

Wyld's head popped up above the crate. “Did someone say something”?

Zia raised herself up and slipped her naked arm's over the muscle of Wyld's shoulder's to wrap her arms around Wyld's neck, trying to drag her back down. “Not me. Though I could go for a round two about now”.

“Ahem”. A voice said outside the door.

Wyld looked outside the cell, then ducked down. “Zee”. She hissed. “There's a Turian outside”.

Zia looked up at her. “The guard”?

“The guard”. Wyld's mouth dropped open “Merde! I forgot about the guard”.

“He probably heard everything”. Zia said with a coy smile as she wiggled herself for Wyld's benefit.

“Lieutenant Wyld”. The Turian said out of sight. “Captain Radcliffe sent a messenger for you about ten minute's ago”.

“Ten Minutes”! Wyld scrambled to grab her clothes as Zia looked on bemused.

“Want to make it twenty”?

“This is no joke Zee. I'm late”.

“I'll write you a note”. Zee said as she collected her own garment's strewn on the floor. She quickly got dressed. Noting that a Fury had a much easier time getting dressed than a soldier in standard issue armour. Even one who didn't need the leg coverings. “Here”. She said as Wyld threw her top on. “Let me help”.

Between the two of them Wyld was strapped back up in no time. Zia clicked the last fastening closed. Looked over at the empty door. Then grabbed Wyld and pulled her in as their mouths opened to one another once more. Wyld pulled away, reluctantly. “Your making me late”.

“Just giving you time to remember what your missing”. Zia mummered as she held up Wyld headband. Pushing her disheveled hair back Wyld took the band and rolled it over the top of her head. “Hmmm”. Zia purred. “Now. Can I unwrap you again”?

“Your terrible”. Wyld pouted as she let her hair fall. “How do I look”?

“Insatiable. Sweaty. Flushed. Ready for more”.

Wyld's grin was feral. “Play later. Captain now. We'll talk again. Have you seen my helmet”?

Zia cocked her head to the kestrel they left on the container and Wyld scooped it up she left the brig.

And turned to see the Turian guard standing by the door. “Um, look about what.....”.

“Go see the Captain”. Zia said inside the brig door. “I'll just sit here and tell our new friend how many ways a biotic can implode a man's internal organs without leaving a mark on the outside”. She smiled sweetly at the guard. “That was a hint”.

“Uh”. The Turian stammered. “Okay”.

“I'm talking about liquefying your organs”.

“Uh”.

“If you so much as breath a word of this to anyone. I'm going to leave doctors puzzling for years over what happened to you”.

The Turian seemed to remember who was the prisoner and who was the guard. “You can't do anything in there. We have modulation barrier's up”.

Zia seemed to mull it over. “True. But I won't be in here forever. Right”? She looked over at Wyld. “Put in a good word for me”?

The Turian made a strangled choking sound as he turned away while Wyld raised an eyebrow. “Deal”. She said as she turned to leave. Walking out the door she saw stopped by an MP. “Corpsman Wyld. Your to come with me”.

“Been waiting long”?

The MP growled. “Your Jailer wouldn't let us inside. Said he had to get you ready”.

“That was nice of him”. Wyld said. Making a mental note to ask Zia not to do anything to bad for giving them those extra ten minutes.

The guard gestured and Wyld walked out ahead of him. They left the build and emerged into the street's that now served as Bastion.

“I guess a CAT6 like you will want directions”.

“Huh”? Wyld turned around and saw the guard glaring at her. “What did you say”?

“It's out. Everyone who's anyone knows your a reject. Probably a Cerberus spy right”? The MP pressed in close and growled. “So what made you decide to go over? Money? Better position? Or was it that you were always a traitor and we only just found out? You may as well tell me”. He went on. “No reason to bother the Captain right? Your a CAT6 who got caught and we'll figure out what it was you've been up to. So save us the bother. Tell me what your mission was and I'll take you back to that comfy cell. It'll be better for you in the long run”.

It always amazed Wyld how quickly her fortunes could go from good to bad. One moment she'd been wrapped in the throes of passionate love making with a woman who had helped her rediscover her heart. And now...... She looked the guard up and down. Taking his measure. She tilted her head up till she looked at him under a thundercloud of rage and anger.

“How dare you”. She hissed. “What did Radcliffe lock me away for solider”?

The MP drew a finger and poked it in her chest. “Save the act. You'll need it for.....”.

“WHAT DID RADCLIFFE LOCK ME UP FOR SOLDIER”! Wyld bellowed as she slapped the offending finger away. “And straighten that back! We're going to see Radcliffe now! And when we see him, do I tell him that you tried to make yourself look good? You think I don't know this game”? Her eye's bored into his and she saw the flicker of fear that told her she'd read him correctly.

“You don't know do you”. She threw the accusation in his face. “You heard I was CAT6 and assumed that makes me a traitor? You think going to Radcliffe with whatever juicy secrets you get me to spill will make you look good”? Now Jan poked his chest. “Radcliffe would have you in the brig for that. He still might! He ordered you to act as his gofer. That's all he wants from you. And you botched what should be a simple job by telling the prisoner it is now common knowledge that she is CAT6”?!?

Wyld continued to stare down the man who was beginning to sweat. “Where is he”?

The MP rallied his dignity as he jerked with his chin towards a building.

“Ever dug latrine's for Krogan before”? The MP expression told her he didn't understand. “Take my advice”. She said reigning in her temper. “Requisition a breath mask before you do. You'll be unconscious in the first hour if you don't”. She held a finger up as he tried to say something. “And I've seen it happen. Now carry out your orders soldier. Me! Radcliffe! Now”!

The MP narrowed his eye's. “You made a big mistake sixer”.

Not as big as yours. Wyld thought to herself. She kept that back though. She had to see Radcliffe. He'd straighten this clown out. They'd talk. And then Wyld would know where she stood.

She already had an idea of that though.

Her CAT6 status had become common knowledge.

Modifié par Redbelle, 05 août 2013 - 07:16 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

BoL - The Lost Asari XIII

Ranassa ducked down behind a fallen column. She set up her LMG, then turned to Prangley and asked quietly, "Do you have any thermal clips?"

Prangley was squatting behind a newstand on corner about two meters from her. He was taken back by the question, but answered. "Of course I have thermal clips."

"Give them to me." Ranassa told him. "All of them."

"What?" Prangley said with disbelief. "No. What am I going to use?"

"Do you want to live or do you want to die, ass****?" Ranassa asked. "I have 60 years of combat experience. What do you have? Three months? Now give me the ****ing clips. You're a biotic. Use your skills to back me up."

Prangley quietly reached into his bag and gave her half his clips and asked. "Then why are you only a private?"

"Long story, and I said all of them." She replied as she started loading them into her LMG. "I saw eight over there, and I'm guessing there's more. Your pea shooter isn't going to do sh** against that brute anyway. I'm going to hit that first. Did they teach you to do a heavy warp?"

"Yes, they did." He said. Prangley reluctantly handed her the rest, then got on his radio. "Jack, how are things over there?"

Jack and her team were hiding behind an overturned truck completely concealed from view of the reaper troops at the moment. She could see Prangley, but not the rest of his group.

"We're in deep sh**." Jack said. "There's no way we can take them. This was clear an hour ago. There's maybe a dozen here now, and I thought I saw a couple of brutes and banshee as well as the usual assortment of Marauders and husks. We've got to call this off."

"The Commandos are preparing to attack." Prangley said.

"What?!" Jack replied. "You're f***ing kidding me?"

Prangley told Ranassa "Boss said this is a no go."

"F*** the boss. We've handled worse." Ranassa said. T looked over and nodded.

"But these are just kids, and there's only five of you." Prangley said.

Ereba was in her position standing behind a red taxi with her sniper rifle mounted on top of it scoping on the banshee that was walking lazily around. "You tell the boss she's never seen an Asari Commando unit in action before, sir." Ereba said. "Also suggest to your boss that it would be nice if they could get into that building right next to them so they'd be above the enemy, sir."

"Do you always treat superior officers like this, Specialist?" Prangley asked.

"It's a past-time of hers." Shayrana replied.

"Fine. I'm guessing none of you has any respect then?" Prangley asked and was just about to contact Jack.

Ranassa scratched her nose and said. "Consider yourself lucky. The corporal just shoots 'em."

"What?" Prangley asked.

"Long story." Shayrana replied.

Prangley shook his head and contacted Jack. "The Commandos are insisting they can take them. The sniper specialist suggests that you get your team inside that building above and rain hell down on them once we've got their attention."

"None of that p**** support s*** either." Ranassa said.

"We want to have them looking both ways." T said.

"They said to let loose with the heavy artillery, Jack." Prangley said. "Let us know when you're in position."

"Sounds like a plan. Jack out." Jack said. "Okay, people. Someone get that door open on the side we came up, quietly, we're going up to the third floor."

Prangley made his way over the debris really watching his footing not to step on anything that could snap until he got to Godinez and Taylor. Erikka was still with them.

"You guys, give your thermal clips to the commandos." Prangley ordered. "We're going to provide biotic support with warps and singularities. They're going to need the clips. Our small arms aren't going to do much anyway."

Godinez and Taylor agreed and passed their clips to Erikka. She took her share and passed them down the line. Prangley made his way back to Ranassa's position.

Prangley got a call on his radio. "Okay we're in position." Jack said.

"They're in position." Prangley said.

"Steady. Steady." Ereba said while she held the cross hairs on the banshee's head. Then she squeezed the trigger three times and the banshee's head exploded.

"Let's rock mother****ers!!!" Ranassa shouted and Prangley hit the brute with the warp and she cut loose with the LMG on it.

Jack's group started throwing warp bombs down on the reaper troops, and the reapers turned their attention to the second floor. T gave a hand signal to her comrades and ran across the street to the reaper side tossing lift grenades into the area where the Marauders seemed to be coming from. She got a glimpse of it, and got on her radio.

"Shayrana, they seem to be coming out of manhole. It's behind that demolished truck in the middle of the intersection." T said. "No wonder we don't see any movement on the surface. I don't like this s***."

"Thanks, I'll pass the word." Shayrana said. "Stay frosty."

A very large group of 20 husks came charging from behind the shuttle and got the bead on T. Jack saw it and order a volley. T was charging up and let loose with a flare which set off a massive biotic explosion that took out every husk. Then there was another scream and a couple more snorts. T ran back over and leaped like a dancer over the fallen column and sat down with her back to it. Then yet another scream.

"****! ****! ****! I shouldn't have cut loose." T said to herself. "Come on, baby, recharge, baby, recharge."

Godinez hit the charging brute with a warp and Erikka dropped a dark channel on the first banshee. Ereba hit the brute with a double throw and it really took a lot of damage. More husks were coming and when they got near the banshee Shayrana hammered the banshee with a piercing warp causing an explosion which took out the husks. Then Shayrana finished off the banshee with her Paladin.

The second brute was coming up the road that ran right to left in front of them from their right. Ranassa saw it and she stood on top of the column, and shouted. "Okay, Prangley, hit it!"

Prangley, threw a warp at it and Ranassa let loose with the last of her ammo in the LMG screaming "Die, you mother****er!!!!!" and flattened the brute. Then she threw down her LMG. The banshee was getting near. It was coming straight for them across the road near the shuttle. The kids were spent, but this was the last enemy.

"Are you ready T?" Ranassa asked.

"Almost." T said.

"You'd better hurry. She's getting close, and I don't plan to be her ****ing brain salad surgery." Ranassa said.

"Ready." T said.

The banshee had reached the intersection. Ereba staggered it with a shot and it began to walk toward Ranassa.

"Now." Ranassa said and she hit it with a Piercing Warp.

T hit it with her Flare and a thundering explosion shook the intersection and knocked Prangley off his feet.

"And that is why Artemis Platoon is the biggest bunch of badasses in the galaxy! Right, girls?" Ranassa shouted.

"F*** yeah!" They other four shouted.

They were all winded, and they gathered together at the intersection. Jack and her team emerged from the building exhausted. All of them except Jack were dragging themselves to the intersection.

"You did good, Prangley." Ranassa said.

"I did?" Prangley replied.

"Yeah." Ranassa said, and extended her hand and he took it. "Your warp isn't bad. You just need.... to practice for another hundred years." T cracked up laughing.

"What's so funny?" Prangley asked.

"Alright, what's going on?" Jack asked.

"Nothing. I'm just busting Prangley's balls." Ranassa said looking over at him. "He did alright out there."

"It was a tough fight." Shayrana said. "Thanks for the artillery. We needed it since we were conserving clips and all that. Well everyone except 'nassa here was conserving clips." Then she got in the screaming pose with the 'air' LMG and mocked Ranassa.

"What?" Ranassa said. "It's my style. Besides, there's more clips in the shuttle."

"You hope." Jack said. "Come on. Let's go have a look before anything else gets here."

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 05 août 2013 - 10:19 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

BoL - The Lost Asari XIV

There was a huge mountain of debris and rubble from a collapsed building in front of Rodriguez, Reilly and the sarge. It was blocking the road and they couldn't proceed further. The only way was to head north for a half block then turn right down an alley. Asari corpses were still visible partially buried by the debris.
 
"Is this where your platoon got hit?" Rodriguez asked the sarge.

"Yeah. It was brutal." The sarge replied. "If you don't mind I'd like to rest a bit." She stopped and leaned on one of her crutches and pointed with the other one toward where she knew a number of them were killed about twenty feet from their position. across the street. "Reilly, see if you can find any tags on the Commandos we can bring back with us. Their families deserve to know. Goddess knows there's enough pain and misery in this war."

"Okay, sarge." Reilly said and he scampered off to check the bodies.

"I could use some.... more of that pain medication, too." the sarge said to Rodriguez.

"Sarge, you had a pretty hefty dosage not too long ago. I don't want you to overdose." She replied. "Let me elevate your leg and check it." The leg was swollen really bad again. "My kingdom for a saw right now. We've got to get this cast off of you, but we can't."

"Just some more... pain meds please. It's ****ing throbbing." The sarge said. She handed her the bag.

"I'm going to give you a half dose." Rodriguez said. "You're not getting anything more until we get to the hospital."

"F***!" The sarge said. "Just give it to me, please." Tears were streaming down her face. Rodriguez administered the medication. The relief was almost instantaneous, but the sarge was delerious.

'A quick and easy job. Low security. Decent payoff.' Tasha thought as she cleared customs and left the spaceport on Sur'Kesh for the hotel in the taxi. 'The Agent's docs were all in order. So far so good. So a Turian diplomat. I clean the place then leave traces of this Salarian DNA at the scene. There are supposed to be a lot of Asari in attendance at this conference as well. I'm sure he'll have one up for "professional" reasons. That can be dealt with easily enough.

'I'll park around back here in this alley, exit the vehicle and cloak.' she thought. She followed someone into the hotel lobby then walked over to a corner out of the way and went to work on her omni-tool. 'Standard hotel security. Easy... Okay hacking... and in.... Ambassador Octavius: Suite 525. Standard Turian Security detail of two bodyguards with light arms. Four tranq darts should do the job. Oh, and he's already got "company". S***. He'll be awake. Well I'll have to convince the guards to open the door. Things are going to get a little messy. But you know how thorought toads are.... okay I just have to wait for someone going into the elevator....now....' She darted into the elevator behind them.
They pressed five then one said to the other "No, we're on four."

'That was lucky.' she thought. 'When they get off I'll hack the camera.' The elevator stopped at four and a kid started to get on.

"It's going up, we want to go down." His parents said.

'Another lucky break.' she thought as she hacked the camera to show an empty elevator.

The elevator stopped at five and she exited. The carpet was deep red, and the wallpaper matched it, with your commercial "art" hanging on the wall. Suite 525 was down one of the private wings. Tasha was wearing her black catsuit with built in tech cloak and had her silenced pistol in the belt in the small of her back. She checked the hallway. It was empty. She decloaked and approached the guards.

"Halt!" They said.

She kept approaching. "I'm here to see the Ambassador. I'm his... enterainment."

"Get lost! He already has his entertainment." The guard said.

"Are you sure? The agency just sent me over. You can call them if you'd like.... I am so fired." Tasha said with desperation. "I mean, what if that's not entertainment in there?"

"She's got a point. We should check on the Ambassador." The other guard said.

They opened the door. Tasha, cloaked pulled her pistol and shot the guards with the darts, then shot the prostitute with it, then the ambassador. Everyone was unconscious. She switched clips, and shot the Ambassador in the head twice, left the Salarian DNA on the scene, walked to the prostitute and touched her mind "forget", then walked out executed the guards cloaked and left the building.

She contacted the number given her. "It's done." She disconnected.

"Sarge! Sarge!" Rodriguez slapped the sarge on her face.

Soniri jumped. "What? Where am I?" She asked. "Oh, never mind. I must have been dreaming."

"You were out of it for a while." Reilly said. "I found eight dog tags, but we've got to get moving before your leg gets any worse."

"Yeah, good idea. Let's get moving." the sarge replied. "Give me a hand to my feet."

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 08 août 2013 - 04:16 .

[FuriousFelicia]

16 years ago....

Two figures stood in the room next to a bed, conversing. One was human, the other one asari. The object of their conversation was there, lying on the bed in a form of a little girl. The girl was human, no more than 12 years old. She was asleep, but easily mistaken for dead. Her face was battered beyond recognition, lips split in half, eyes a pair of eggplants. What little hair was left on her scalp just made the scene even more grotesque as the rest was plucked out. Her uncovered arms revealed deep wounds that looked like they've been made by talons of some monster. The rest of her skin was full of what looked like bite marks of some beast. The nose was almost completely chewed of as well as
a good portion of left cheek. The rest was covered, fortunately hidden from sight, jet a notion was clearly written in stains of blood that soaked the sheets. Both fists were locked in spasm, but not empty. They were holding something. Something bloody. A sceen that would chill the blood of any man, yet the two didn't seemed bothered as they carried on
their conversation.

"Can you fix her?" It felt like a demand, rather than an inquiry when the asari spoke. She didn't even look at the man when she posed the question, but the man didn't seemd much interested in disappointing the lady, and fired off

"I can fix her, but.." he stopped when the Asari lashed him with her eyes

"I can fix her." He corrected himself with a sudden increase of optimism in his voice.

"Better." The Asari said imperiously "Now tell me about 'but'" she implied in the same manor. That seem to made the man nervous.
He had fear written all over his face. Yet not talking is sometimes worse than talking perfect sense, so the man talked.


"I can fix the bones and dermal tissue, that's simple. Scars are also no problem. It will take at least a week for those
swellings to reduce for me to be able to examine her eyes, but I don't think they made it. But that's not a problem either,  we'll get her a bionic pair..."


"No!" The Asari jelled "No bionics, no artificial crap, no implants, no cloning I want her exactly the way she was three hours ago, is that clear."

"Y..yes, yes..." the man stuttered nodding his head

"Good. Make the necessary arrangements with Lendra, she's just outside. Now leave me." The Asari commanded and the man obeyed at mutual pleasure as he was eager to leave. She stared at the girls body in the dark of the room when a
shadow appeared behind her, creeping its way towards them. Slowly it came closer behind the Asari, and just as it came to hands lenght, it stopped dead in its track.


"What's this now? A new candidate?" The gostly figure behind the Asari suddenly spoke in a whisper. Without turning or any sign of surprise the Asari replies

"She is strong, and I see a great potential in her. This one will be perfect"

"We shall see." The hooded apparition replied "You musn't get attached to them Aria. Time will tell if she's a candidate. That is if she lives."

"She will. She's a fighter." Replied Aria still eyes fixed on the girl on the table "You should have seen her. The way she
fought that vermin."

"Yet she failed."

"You don't understand. She fought them before, during and after they had raped her. She didn't stop fighting, she just went on untill they tore her uterus out. And I swear I saw her glow blue for a moment. That's Kriisk's finger she's got in her right fist. And I can't say for certain but that might be his eye in her left. I think she even killed Gnark before I intervened. This
girl is just 12, and she survived a brutal attack from three grown Vorcha, blood pack scum at that, while killing one of them and crippling the others. Now tel me I'm getting sentimental. I could have stopped it at any time but I
didn't.  I wanted to see." The hooded one made no sound when Aria finished it came closer to the bed looking at the child. For a moment the two stood in silence and then the hood slowly went back the way it came from, dissapiring behind Aria, merging with the shadows.


"You know who she is?" the whispering woice lingered in the dark

"I know." Replied Aria "That's how I found her. It doesn't matter now but she must never know.''

Modifié par FuriousFelicia, 06 août 2013 - 01:02 .

[Kel Riever]

Noopen’s laughter filled the bar. The salarian was doubled over and he tried not to spill his drink. He could barely ask, “Did that hit you pretty hard?”

“Like a hammer,” Rea answered. The world spun around her and she flailed out an arm to catch hold of whatever she could. At first, she held onto a chair. The floor was tilting, the colored lights were blurry, and she felt the blood pumping through her temples. Then the chair gave out, or so it seemed to Rea, and she fell over. Noopin only laughed harder. Getting herself up to rest on her knees, Rea protested, “Not fair, salarian. And how did anyone ever let you on Thessia?”

“I told you it would be strong, but no, no, no. Rea said she could handle her liquor.”

“What did you put in the drink?” Rea put her hands to her head. “Everything went straight to my brain.”

“Yulda juice, it pulls the alcohol through your digestive membranes and right into your bloodstream. That’s how it’s served on Mannovai. You’re supposed to sip it, not g…gu…gulp it down.” Noopen’s own beverage was affecting him. “Oh, my.”

Pointing a finger at her friend, Rea slurred an accusation, “STG. That’s how you win your fights, right? Before anyone knows they’re fighting. Don’t even try to put this on me.”

“Okay, Rea, you figured me out,” Noopen snickered. He noticed his omni-tool array had popped up and a light was blinking on it. “That’s highly inconvenient. I must be really wasted. No, wait. That’s the alert function.” Noopen’s face became serious, “You’re going to have to finish my drink, Rea. This looks important.”

Rea’s own omni-tool sprung to life and flashed frantically. She pulled it closer to see what it said, but the spinning wouldn’t stop. When she tried for a second time, she felt Noopen’s arm around her, helping to lift her to her feet. Rea looked at him, confused.

“It is an All Forces Alert, Rea. We’ve got to sober up and get to our rally points. The Reapers are ignoring the fleet and heading to Thessia.”

~~~~

Six hours later Rea was standing in full uniform with her commando unit on a tarmac. Crews were preparing the crescent shaped Scythe class shuttles that would deploy them to their various destinations. Gunships flew above, already on their way. The news had come out that the Reapers had finally decided to ignore the hit and run tactics of the asari fleet, and were positioning themselves in orbit above Thessia to begin bombardment.

Rea’s head was pounding but she forced herself to ignore the awful feeling. Next to her, a tall commando shook her arms restlessly, looking like she couldn’t wait to get moving. Their commander, a Huntress with deep violet skin, was waiting for the order to board.

Finally, the Huntress addressed the team. “Fall in! Let’s go. Everybody except for you, Iallis.”

“Huntress?”

“Platform one. You’ve got a special assignment. Report to Captain Lysic. Get your gear and double time it over there.”

“Affirmative.” Rea had no idea why anyone would remove one commando from the team. Platform one was on the other side of the hanger array and she broke into a jog to get there. Picking up her pace seemed to help her headache.

When Rea cleared the other side of the hangers, a lone Scythe waited, its engines running. Two heavily armed soldiers stopped her at the edge of the platform and checked her tags. After an unusually thorough scan, they let her through. “Go right on board, Lieutenant,” one of the soldiers grunted.

The moment Rea stepped on the loading ramp and ducked her head inside the Scythe, she saw it was refitted with sophisticated command and communication gear. Two asari stood to meet her; Rea stifled her surprise as she saw one was Layl in full navy uniform. Layl winked and subtly angled her head towards the other asari, a captain.

“Lieutenant,” the superior officer greeted Rea, “I’m Captain Lysic. This is a priority vessel. You are here because of your abilities to escort a VIP, and while I am the military commander on this shuttle, what the VIP says, goes.”

“That’s a fair enough introduction, Lysic,” a self-assured voice interjected from the fore of the shuttle. Rea’s attention turned to a silhouetted figure behind her sister and the captain. The figure walked toward Rea so she could be fully seen.

Rea knew the robed asari immediately. “Matriarch Syra,” she stammered, “I-I’m honored to be in the presence of a council representative.”

“Apologies for the regalia. I was rushed from my offices during a live conference. We are getting off Thessia and you are here with the rest of this crew to see me to safety.” The matriarch spoke sideways to the captain, “You said this one is the best in the unit?”

Lysic answered, “Without a doubt, Matriarch Syra.”

“Welcome aboard, then, Lieutenant Iallis. We’ll be leaving shortly. Perhaps you would like a moment with your sister, the navigator of the cruiser we are going to. Quite the family you have there: a top commando and one of the best navigators in the Navy.”

From the cockpit, the pilot and co-pilot spoke apprehensively. “Matriarch,” the pilot called, “You might want to see this.” Displays patched to the cockpit view screens lit up in the aft of the shuttle for all to see. From the sky, red lances of light appeared and struck the city neighboring the military base, 50 kilometers away. Each lance left behind a fireball, rising upward.

“Cancel that family reunion,” Syra gravely ordered. “Pilot, get us out of here.”

The engines whined and everyone strapped themselves into the closest available seat. Rea read the displays nearest her and it seemed like the entire base had the same idea; Scythes and gunships were lifting off from the tarmac. Rea noted that while most of the other craft were heading in the opposite direction of the matriarch’s Scythe, two gunships were, in fact, pulling alongside to escort. She heard their pilots reporting in, “This is Harriers One and Two. We are on your wings.” The three craft then sped away.

A jarring lurch sent the asari hard against their straps as they heard an electronic sizzling noise loud enough to pierce the hull. They felt the Scythe drop momentarily before the pilot increased the throttle and recovered. Rea looked to the displays. One that monitored the base showed a vast section of it reduced to rubble and burning.

Layl broke her silence, “Goddess, we were just there!”

Rea nodded. She couldn’t fathom how many asari were losing their lives, at the base and elsewhere.

A look of horror passed over Layl, “Rea, we’ve got to talk to Tizzy. We’ve got to make sure she, Ben and the baby get out okay.”

Lysic barked, “Cut the chatter!”

“The Reapers are coming; we need to make sure they’re in a bunker.”

The captain warned, “I’m telling you to shut it, navigator.”

Layl began to hyperventilate, “No! We’ve got a sister who has a three-month old baby and we’ve got the communication gear to make sure she’s okay.” Her visage crossed with rage and she snapped her head towards Syra, “What good is some politician if she can’t even let two of the people she picked to be her personal puppets find out about their loved ones? It’s an infant, for Athame’s sake!”

Lysic was out of her seat but Rea was faster, putting a strong hand on her senior officer, and placing herself in between the captain and Layl. Rea’s voice was even, “I’ve got this.”

Matriarch Syra cut the captain short, “Stand down, Lysic. Let her deal with her sister.”

Rea clutched a handhold to keep herself steady and leaned within centimeters of Layl’s face, “You’re panicking, sis. You have to calm yourself.”

“I know, I know,” Layl sobbed as tears began flowing from her eyes. She took a deep breath, but she began shaking, “I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s coming over me. But I have this terrible feeling. We need to reach Tizzy.”

Layl’s tone struck Rea and she knew that her sister wasn’t just being scared. Her eyes were wide, imploring Rea to understand something was wrong. And Layl was always the guardian of Rea and Tizzy. Rea herself gazed to Lysic and Syra.

“Give them access,” Syra commanded.

“But Counselor,” Lysic dissented, “This is highly irregular.”

“We have the capacity. Do as I say.”

The captain submitted reluctantly. She used her omni-tool to make adjustments allowing the Scythe’s special communication gear to be used by the sisters. Rea brought up the vidphone call on a screen near Layl and herself, and Layl verbally entered Tizzy’s call code.

There was an answer. The video screen showed Tizzy and Ben, holding each other with Denzillian between them. Ben had picked up with his omni-tool, “Layl? Rea? Is that you? How did you get through?” A loud mechanical note blared from behind the couple, causing them to look away apprehensively for a few seconds. The baby cried.

“You’ve got to leave,” Layl urged, “The Reapers are coming.”

“They’ve landed,” Tizzy wept as she spoke. “They’ve landed here in Phileb and they’re destroying everything.

“Just get out, please.” Layl’s voice was trembling. “Run, hide, get away. What are you still doing in that penthouse? It isn’t safe.”

“The whole evacuation fell apart.” Ben sounded defeated. “The aircars were taken and haven’t come back. There’s nothing in the sky. And there’s been an explosion somewhere below us. Emergency told us they were on their way up to get us.”

Rea knew what was happening, “Forget Emergency. You leave immediately!”

Tizzy choked back sobs, “It’s too late for us. Ben’s making it sound nicer than it is. The building’s burning. All the bodies…nobody’s coming. Everyone left up here is trapped, and no one can get through on the com lines anymore. We’re not going to make it.”

Layl shouted in disbelief, “No, you will! Get out! We’ll find a way to get to you!”

“Listen to me, big sis. I don’t want this to be how it is, either. Ben and I have made our peace. It’s a miracle we are talking. You’ve got to come to terms with it now, however you do that. Think of things Dad would say, or Mom. I don’t think we are going to be here much longer. Just remember us and take care of Rea for me, okay?”

“Tizzy!”

The building lurched, causing the view to rattle. Fire was burning somewhere in the background and the mechanical note blared again.

“We love you both. All is one,” Tizzy forced a smile. Ben squeezed her tight and they placed their bodies around the baby.

Layl screamed, “TIZZY!”

The screen went to static. Rea looked at Lysic and Syra, who cried as they watched. Layl was shuddering as she broke down wailing. Rea wanted to break down too, but saw her helpless, needing sister. She embraced Layl, and choked back her own devastating grief, “They’re gone, Layl. They’re gone.”

~~~~

Rea had come to the end of the passageway. Tears streamed from her eyes as she looked down into a massive pit carved out of the earth, and at the black mechanical evil that dwelled there. A slow slurry of gore cascaded from an opening in one side of the pit that undoubtedly led to the cavern she had been in. On the far opposite side of the pit, near its bottom, humans walked with mindless gait towards the gargantuan machine-monster. A single, immense, orange-lit lens on the black horror peered upward towards Rea, like a single, cyclopean eye.

Rea glared at it in return. “I’m here now, you motherless freak of the void! Now tell me what you want!”

Modifié par Kel Riever, 11 août 2013 - 05:35 .

[Redbelle]

Wyld entered the building the MP directed her to and stopped outside a door that he had pointed at. The MP knocked smartly and was bid entry by a voice inside.

Wyld entered to find herself in a makeshift office. Holographic charts obscured the walls while Containers and a slab of masonry formed a desk that Radcliffe sat behind. He looked up as they walked in and then looked down as he continued looking over pad’s on his desk. “Thank you Percy. That will be all”.

MP Percy looked over at Wyld and back at Radcliffe. “With respect sir. I should stay and supervise the sixer”.

Radcliffe looked up under his eyebrows. “The what”?

“Sir. Nearly everyone's heard she's a CAT6. And everyone knows that Cerberus have been taking in every CAT6 they can. Regs say that a uniformed presence needs to be present while a prisoner is in proximity to a command officer. Especially this one”.

Radcliffe rubbed his eye's. “I appreciate what the regs say son. She's not a prisoner”. He looked up. “And I'd not go spreading that rumour around if I were you”.

Wyld watched the interplay between Radcliffe and Percy. On one hand he was dealing with the situation well, on the other, he wasn't hearing the whole story. “Sir....”. She began. “You should know that as we were coming here, Percy told me he knew I was a CAT6. And then offered me a deal where he'd take me back to my cell if I told him what it was he thought I'd been up to as a member of Cerberus”.

The room went quiet as Radcliffe digested that news. He stood. “Your a Warrant Officer correct”?

Percy stood up straight“Yes sir Warrant Officer Percy Pike”.

“As a warrant officer. Are you aware of any regulation that says that an MP may question someone when they are tasked with bringing them to the officer who ordered their presence”?

“Uh”?

“The answer you are looking for, is no sir”.

“No sir”.

“Do you consider this woman a prisoner”?

“Yes sir”. Percy said firmly. “I do”.

“Is it taught practice within the ranks of MPs that you should divulge information to a prisoner while they are being escorted to a location”?

“Sir”. Percy protested. “She's got Cerberus written all over her! You know what they'll do to us all if we let one slip......”.

Radcliffe's voice was no louder but the trembling tone it carried pulled Percy up. “Just answer the question, Warrant Officer”.

“I.....”. The look on Radcliffe's face told him not doing what he'd been told to do would be a bad move. “No sir. We are not taught that”.

“Do you have solid evidence that this woman is a CAT6. Or that she is a member of Cerberus”?

“No sir, I don't”.

“I see”. Radcliffe jaw worked several times as he regarded Percy. “Warrant Officer. Hereby as of now you are stripped of all previous responsibilities and are being reassigned. You will go directly from this place. To your commanding officer. And you will explain to him that you have exceeded your authority due to exercising poor judgement. You will then tell him and anyone you come into contact with, after you leave your commanding officer, that Corpsman Wyld is not a CAT6 and is not a member of Cerberus. When he asks you what this is about you will tell him that you are under order's from me not to divulge your error in judgement. That he is to report to me. And that you have been reassigned, and will report to the back yard for Krogan latrine digging duty”.

“We don't have any Krogan on base”. Pike pointed out.

“I didn't give you permission to talk”. Pike's mouth snapped shut.

“I don't know where you heard of this CAT6 nonsense. But it stops now. I gave you a simple order. You botched it. Badly. You let yourself down today Pike”. Radcliffe finished. He turned and picked up a pad as he sat down on the edge of his makeshift desk. “I'd take this opportunity to reflect on how you want your career to go Pike. And take a breath mask with you”. He added. “If Krogan find this base and use your facilities you'll be passed out in no time. Dismissed”.

Percy threw a look at Wyld who managed not to shrug her shoulder's in an 'I told you so' way. He threw a salute and backtracked out the room.

Radcliffe watched him leave the room. “Warrant Officer Percy Pike”? He shook his head. “Stupid boy”.

Wyld stepped forward and saluted which Radcliffe returned before gesturing to another group of crates against the far wall. “Sit yourself down Corpsman. We have a lot to go over”.

“Thank you sir”. She paused. “Sir..... how did he learn about the Cat6 dismissal? Did it come through”?

“Nothings come through to me. The net's still sorting high priority traffic. No, I would assume someone from the comm's tent talked”. His face went hard. “Someone talked after I told them not to”. He looked at Wyld. “Discipline in the ranks is getting harder to maintain. Everyone knows we're waiting for our all or nothing push. The longer this goes on the harder it'll be to keep the troops in line”.

Wyld coughed. “Is that why I'm here”?

“First things first Corpsman. I've been going over your auto logs from your Omni tools.....”.

Wyld nodded. An Omni tool's auto logs took snapshots of what a soldier was doing at any one time. Marking things like environment, vital signs, ammo expenditure and target's into it's data that could be used to support the official record. Wyld had managed to keep hers fairly up to date till they entered the Hotel. After that......

“So you managed to get to the Mako and get her up and running again”?

“Yes sir”.

“How”?

Wyld's mind flashed back to Pepper and Gizmo. “When the Reaper fall alert sounded I had two vehicle techs with me. They said they didn't have an evacuation plan set out for them so I took them with me”.

“Why”?

“The Mako wasn't moving. It could have been for any number of reasons. Mechanical failure was one of them. Seeing two mechanics who would have been put at risk staying or providing them with an escape plan”. She shrugged. “It was two less that the person in charge of evacuation was responsible for. And it gave me the capacity to deal with the possibility of repairing the Mako, sir”.

Radcliffe tapped his pad. “And the prisoner”?

“Brigadier Baldurjack Baldwin of her Majesties Space Beret's, sir”. Radcliffe gave her a look. “I'm not joking”. She insisted. “He was in the Mako's data banks”.

“He's in ours too”. Radcliffe admitted. “But aside from his professional credentials, it's as if he came out of nowhere”.

“Honestly, sir. My professional verdict was that he was insane”.

Radcliffe scrolled down his list again. “Yet you thought his information was good”?

“Suspect is more like it”. Wyld noted. “It seemed convenient at the time that we discovered a new form of husk at the same time he started raving about them”.

“What convinced you to follow him”?

“He had to have had prior knowledge of the Zombie husks sir”. Wyld saw Radcliffe's eyebrow go up a fraction at the name. “Zombies bite people you see and turn......”.

“Into zombies themselves. I'm familiar with the concept Corpsman”. Radcliffe said dryly. “Go on”.

"Baldurjack couldn't have known about them when we became aware of them. He was stuck in a Mako. Cut off from the outside world. So he had to have at least known of them before he got stuck in there”.

Radcliffe nodded. “Alright. I accept that. Go on”.

“Well, we got the Mako up and running. Split up the group so that our two techs would go with the Mako crew.....”.

“Why”? Radcliffe interrupted again.

Wyld frowned at all the interruption's but pressed ahead. “The Mako was in bad shape. And we were going to investigate the zombie husks. We had to. If the Reaper's had miniaturised their dragon teeth and put them into mobile platforms. That being the husks”. She confirmed. “Then our troops on the field would be in dire trouble as the Reapers wouldn't have needed to capture our people to turn them.

Radcliffe grunted. “Okay Wyld. Consider me convinced that you made the right call leaving the Mako to find it's own way. What happened next”.

And so Wyld told him. About the Hotel _it_. About The Count and his Cerberus connection's. About the soldier's who died there and Her and Zia's attempted indoctrination. Naomi's torture and experimentation. Wyld's recollection was detailed and by the end Radcliffe was looking at her. His sole attention fixed on her.

“So this other Naomi......”.

“Is a clone sir”.

“Our doctor's said the same thing”.

“She destroyed the Hotel. She must have triggered the explosives we left in there when she went ape and her biotics flared”.

“Coinciding with a Reaper attack from orbit”. Radcliffe finished. He shook his head. “Damnest thing. What's you thought's on the mission?”

Wyld looked up. “Honest sir? I think we got lucky. I think we were picked up outside and made to dance to The Count's tune. We got through by the skin of our teeth. And we lost two people”.

“You don't think Baldurjack survived”?

“Nothing human could have lived through what happened at that place”.

“And Naomi”?

Wyld sighed. “Sir. The person we brought back is Naomi. She has all her memories and personality that I can distinguish. But the Naomi I saved at the shuttle crash site died. Practically a husk. This Naomi's a second chance, to not let her die again”.

Radcliffe tapped his finger on his pad as he leaned back. “There's something I want to you to recognise Wyld”. He said at last. “No matter how it turned out. You did a good thing out there. You got the result we needed”.

Wyld's head came up. “Sir”?

“You say you got lucky. That's probably true. But in many ways you arranged for that luck to come through in several ways I can see”. He huffed and stood to walk to his desk and reach into a drawer. “Wyld. I don't like how you do things. But right now I need someone who can get the results we need out on the field. Maybe it's time to stop playing by our rule book and start thinking outside the box”. He returned with a small box that he placed on the table and pushed towards her. “This isn't a reward. And it's certainly not a punishment. It's a call I need you to answer. Because right now we've lost to many people and we need to replace our loses with what we have left.

Wyld curiosity was aroused as she leaned forward and flicked open the box.

She gasped.

Inside were the three bar's of a commander.

“Consider yourself promoted Commander”. Radcliffe stated sternly. “I've lost to many people already who'd I'd rather give the job too. But then, everyone I'd give the job to is dead. And your alive”. He paused. “I'm not going to force you though. I can't order you to take a two rank promotion. It seems that word is out that the official line is that your CAT6. You'll have to overcome that and the falling moral while rounding up enough people to make a beam run possible”.

Wyld ran her finger over the bar's. This was crazy.

“So what do you say Corpsman”? Radcliffe asked leaning in. “You ready to step up to command”?

Modifié par Redbelle, 07 août 2013 - 07:12 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

BoL - The Lost Asari XV

Jack looked over at Prangley and laughed as they were walking over the debris toward the shuttle. She called Ranassa over to her.

"Hey, Private whoever you are, with the LMG. Come here a minute." Jack said.

Ranassa walked over. "Yeah, what do you want?" She said.

"You like this ****. The killing. The violence. You kinda remind me of someone I once knew." Jack said. "So where did you learn all that ****?"

Ranassa smiled. "Like it? I love it. I live for it." She said. "T and I make a good team. Without Ranassa there's no T. Without T, there's no Ranassa. Right T?"

"F*** yeah, 'nassa!" T said. "Nasty 'nassa!"

Ranassa slapped T on the ass. "And she's the only one who can get away with that. I was a commander in Eclipse. When Sederis got busted by this Bailey ass**** on some bogus charge a year ago, her toady replacement had it in for me. Gave me these crap desk assignments." She said and hocked a loogey. "So I quit and took the entrance exam for the Commandos. The pay was good and benefits good. Then the reapers hit. I was assigned to Artemis, met T and we been kicking ass ever since.

"And who do I remind you of?" Ranassa continued to say as she climbed over a bench.

"Me a few years ago, before I got all respectable." Jack said. "Then there were these kids. No one f**** with my kids."

"Don't worry. As long as they got our backs, they'll live." Ranassa said as they passed that manhole.

"Hey, Jack." T said. "Hold up a second. That's the manhole the husks and stuff were coming out of. There's something real bad going on down there. I just know it."

"They probably just fell down in the sewers and followed them to this location." Jack said.

"Sarge threw grenades down one up near the main assault and killed a bunch more. I'm telling you it's too organized." T said.

"Husks don't organize." Jack replied. "They're like... zombies."

"Okay, don't listen to me." T said and continued on toward the shuttle talking to the air. "No one ever does, do they Athame. Then all s*** is breaking loose, and I'm sitting there saying 'told ya.' Just sayin'. But pay no attention to me. I'm just some dumb old private who don't know s***."

The shuttle was partially buried in concrete and rebar in the middle of the block. The doors were partially blocked by a heavy beam. The kids were spent.

"Oh this is just great." Prangley said.

Shayrana took a close look at the beam and said. "This is one of the vertical support column beams. The shuttle is wedged between it and the ground. We obviously can't move the beam. Can we move the shuttle?" She asked.

"How far do we have to move it?" Prangley asked

"About 30 cm." Shayrana said. "With all of us pushing and with a biotic assist it shouldn't be that difficult."

"But we're spent after that fight." Smith said.

"I'm feeling fine." Ereba said. "Come on, you guys have to have some reserve in the tank."

"It's why we can float fall and humans just flail fall, Ereba." Erikka said.

Alright, muscles then, and we'll use both." Ereba said. "Everyone find a spot." Everyone found a spot on the shuttle. Then she gave a countdown. "3-2-1-Push. Well you didn't expect it to work the first time. Again. 3-2-1-Push." It moved and gave way with a screech against the metal beam, then slammed against the ground. Unfortunately the doors were still blocked.

"Alright, start moving rocks." Jack ordered.

"S***." Prangley said.

Erikka stood back and was using her biotic lift to move the rocks while everyone else was just digging in. Jack glared at her.

"Well no one said how to move them." She said.

"Erikka just doesn't want to break a nail." Ereba said. "Not that it matters, Erikka since we've got reapers around."

"It's not that. I just got these gloves." She said. "And they weren't cheap either."

"Well, we're through to the door." Ranassa said. "T, you do the honors."

T hit the door opener on the shuttle, and the door popped open. It was a mess in there. There was an entire squad of dead marines, plus a pilot and copilot. Ranassa jumped inside and started ripping the dogtags off the soldiers, and one of the others tried to enter and she got really hot.

"Hey! Back off, Pressley!" Ranassa said. "This first." Then she stepped outside and handed them to Jack. "Twelve dogtags. Commandos always remember the fallen."

Jack looked dumbfounded at her. That was totally unexpected, and Jack hopped inside. "Let's see what we've got." She said.

There was a munitions locker with 4000 rounds of thermal clips, a weapons locker with the usual assortment of Alliance Avengers Assault Rifles and Predators, and Cain heavy weapon "mini-nuke", and some 4000 rounds of AP ammo.

"Well well. It's about time." Jack said. "The Alliance is issuing AP ammo to the troops, and who's trained with heavy weaponry? None of you? Okay, let me guess."

T was pointing to Ranassa who had a big grin on her face. Jack handed it to her very carefully.

"Holy f***ing Athame! A ****ing Cain? Are you ****ing s***ing me?" Ranassa said.

"Be careful with that thing. The blast radius is something fierce." Jack said. "Fire it too close and you'll fry the whole damned unit, and it's only got two shots."

"Yeah, yeah. Almost only counts in handgrenades, nukes, and Cains." Ranassa replied. "Do they still use the depleted uranium casing? or was that banned by the Council?"

"Makes your panties wet just holding it, doesn't it?" Ereba asked.

"How about explosives?" Jack asked. "There's some plastic explosives in here."

Erikka pointed to Ereba who was grinning "Yeah, I'm your gal. Looks like we're going to be giving the reapers a welcome party." Ereba said. "Now all we need is a tactical nuke and we're set."

Ranassa was giddy. Jack was shaking her head. 'All I'd ever seen of Asari was Liara, Samara, and bunch of dancers. These chicks get more excited about blowing up **** than some Krogan I've met.'

"Okay, let's divvy up the thermal clips and ammo. There's plenty to go around." Jack said. "No one take more than they need."

She and Prangley pulled the ammo and thermal boxes out so that everyone could get their fill. Next were the grenade boxes. Then any of the biotic squad who wanted Avenger ARs could have one. They were beginner ARs, and Jack gave them basic instruction with them.

"Okay, people, now we've got to get to checkpoint bravo." Jack said. She looked down the road toward the checkpoint and it was going to be a narrow street. "It looks like the way isn't as wide as before so we're going to group up. Ranassa, T you've got point. My guys in the rear giving support. I'll be right behind the Commandos. Prangley, you're back with the kids."

"Aww, and Prangley and I were getting along so well, too." Ranassa said. T cracked up again.

"You guys..., just.... shut the f*** up." Jack said. "Let's move!"

Ranassa flipped her motion tracker on. They cleared the open area where the shuttle was and entered the narrow street. The street seemed darker than elsewhere. It was lined on either side with three to five story buildings, most of them old and seemingly untouched by the reapers.

"You know it would really be the ****s if a group of banshees came running at us right now." Ranassa said. "Boo!" And grabbed T"

T jumped about three feet in the air. Ranassa laughed.

"Quit screwing around." T said.

"Not to worry." Ranassa said. "Me and Mr. Cain would f*** 'em up in a hurry."

"Hey Shayrana, have these guys always been like this?" Jack asked.

"Ever since I've known them." She replied.

"The time to worry is when they're not like this." Ereba said. "Take Erikka, she's quiet. But when she starts talking, something is wrong."

They reached the first intersection. Off to the right was a bus stop. Ranassa raised her fist, swept both directions, then gave the signal to move out. As they were crossing the street, something ran across the street parallel to them, and one of the students opened fire with his Avenger.

"It was a ****ing rat!" Jack said. "Now just chill out."

"It was an awful big rat." Smith said.

Ranassa checked the area. There was no movement.

"I saw something." Ereba said. "I'll check IR.......... Well well... we have something. Good eye, Smith. It's small. But it's definitely alive. Smith, Connors, Check it out. It's across the street in the front room of that red brick building near the door in the corner. Go slow and quiet."

Jack was glaring but knew that it was the right call. Smith and Connors drew their pistols and flashlights and very quietly crossed the street. Connors circled around the otherside of the building. T had her night vision on and was covering him. There was a high pitched scream. Then Smith yelled. "F***!" Connors had a child in his arms. A little girl.

"Put me down!" She protested.

"You're safe now." Connors said. "We're not going to hurt you."

"Jack, you talk to her." Smith said. "Prangley, get me some medigel."

"What happened?" Prangley asked.

"The brat bit me." Smith said.

Connors brought the girl to Jack. "Hey, my name is Jack. What's yours?"

"Lisa." Lisa said. Lisa had dirty blonde hair that was matted and tangled. Her clothes were filty and torn. She did not look malnourished, so apparently she'd been finding food.

"This must have been awful for you, Lisa. We're going to get you to safety." Jack said. "It's going to be alright."

"No place is safe. Can I go now?" Lisa asked.

"Lisa, I survived some really bad stuff. Do you see these scars?" Jack showed her the scars on her neck. "Really bad people did this to me when I was your age. I won't let bad things happen to you."

"Promise?" Lisa asked.

"I promise." Jack said. "Ask these guys. Then there's this bunch of angels up here protecting us." She pointed to the Asari.

Lisa started to relax a bit.

"Now what can you tell me about this place?" Jack asked.

"The monsters, they come from under the road....

"Told you." T said.

"Quiet." Jack said. "Go on."

"They come about twice a day." Lisa said. "Between after the soldiers either kill them or they've moved to where the soldiers are, I go look for food."

"What have you been eating?" Jack asked.

"Stuff in cans." Lisa said. "I have a can opener. My mom showed me how to open cans once."

"Where are your parents?" Jack asked.

"They're dead." Lisa said almost crying.

"I'm sorry." Jack said. "We're going up to the next soldier base is located. Do you know where that is."

Lisa shook her head yes.

"Can you show us the best way to go?" Jack asked.

Lisa grabbed Jack's hand. "This way. The monsters come out of the drain up the street you were going." She took them one block south. There were stores along this road with some short trees. Then Lisa pointed right at the next intersection.

Ranassa scanned and it was clear. They stayed grouped up, and proceeded westward toward the base. This was an older section of town where the buildings were brick, shorter, and harkened to a past era. However part way down was a newer building that was about 40 years old that was about 20 stories tall and had taken damage in the first attack. There was also evidence of a reaper having passed this way, from some damage to the roadway. The fog had come in as well making it even more unpleasant. Halfway down the block they heard the screach of one flying overhead.

"Harvester!" Ranassa shouted.

The Harvester stopped and hovered. Shayrana hit it with a Rending Warp, and T hit it with a Flare before it could drop anything. The Harvester exploded with such a thunderous volume that it sent a shockwave that knocked the corner of the tower over onto the roadway directly in front of the Asari causing it to cave in. Everyone was knocked off their feet.

The Asari and Jack could not escape and fell down into the underground. Prangley managed to grab Lisa's arm and prevent her from falling.

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 07 août 2013 - 04:11 .

[Khambilo]

5 years ago

“It could be tension,” Dr. Faarza explained as he displayed an image of Rothan’s bioscan on the screen. “Working under the sorts of conditions you’ve been under in engineering could easy result in the migraines you’ve been having.”

“We’ve already been to see Dr. Hargel,” Rothan’s mother, Frola explained. “He said that it likely wasn’t that.”

Rothan cradled his head in his hands. His mother’s voice was raising and it was not helping his migraine.

“Please, just tell me it isn’t a tumor,” Frola said.

“His scans came up clean for any masses,” Dr. Faarza assured. He pointed to Rothan’s brain on the screen. “There is some inflammation here, but nothing to indicate a tumor. Is there any reason why you would suspect a tumor?”

Frola cleared her throat. “When I was pregnant with Rothan, there was an accident in engineering. I was exposed to lethal levels of element zero.”

“Well then, it is nothing short of a miracle that you both lived,” the doctor beamed. “Element zero exposure can lead to some nasty business. Still, there may be one other test I can do…”

~~~~~

The cramped access tunnel pretty much only allowed A.Q. and Rothan to go through single file. Intent on advoiding the pipes and fixtures through the area, plus the added pressure of what they were about to do -- there was not much conversation.

Rothan tried to keep his mind off everything. Making a plan without knowing all the facts was worthless. Besides there was a fine line between planning and fretting and now more than ever Rothan could not afford the latter.

“Tell me something about yourself,” he said to A.Q. She was pulling herself under a pipe at the time.

She sighed heavily. “What’s there to tell?”

Rothan’s head fell. Maybe trying to make conversation was a bad idea. Still he gave it one more try. “Have any family?”

“Had two brothers…”

“Had?”

“Hal was a bona fide Alliance Marine,” She said without looking to him. She continued to lead him through the passage.

The way she spoke about him… Rothan knew that he was gone. “The reapers?”

“Yes, only three years ago,” A.Q. grimaced. “Battle of the Citadel.”

Then she stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to him.

“You think if we prepared more, recognized the Reapers for what they really were… Do you think that this would all be different?”

Rothan did not know the answer. “What’s it matter now? I think the Reapers meant to catch us off guard. One way or another.”

She nodded, though clearly not satisfied with the answer and she turned back to the passage.

“What about your other brother?” Rothan asked.

She shot a chilling look back to him. “Mum and dad we’re hell. Jay and I both ran away, learned to survive on the streets here. I found the Misfits. Jay found red sand.”

“Oh…”

“He was a junkie.” She said turning back. “I’m glad that he’s gone.”

“You think he’s out there somewhere,” Rothan asked.

“Don’t know. Don’t care.”

“Maybe you’ll find him… after all of this is over I mean,” he said.

“If we survive this,” A.Q. grunted.

Then he realized just how slim the chances of that were. After all, he had a similar sense of optimism when he was first separated from Reiza and the others.

“What about you?” A.Q. asked. “Family?”

“My parents run the engineering deck on the Ketsa, the ship I am from,” Rothan explained. “I have a sister too, but I haven't seen any of my family in years.”

“Why?”

“I was training my biotics on Thessia,” He explained. “I guess you could call it my pilgrimage.”

A.Q. shook her head. “Pilgrimage?”

“It is a custom of my people,” he explained. “When we reach maturity, we are sent out from the fleet for a time. We can choose to return or not, but if we do we must bring something of value with us back to the fleet.”

“So your family just lets you up and leave?” She asked. “I wish my family was like that.”

“Right, you were a runaway.”

“So what did you bring back to your people?”

“What?”

She shook her head. “Your valuable thing?”

“I suppose that it was supposed to be me…”

“Huh?”

“Biotic Quarians are rare,” Rothan explained. “I only got mine because I was exposed to Eezo while my mom was pregnant with me.”

“You ask me, you won the lottery,” A.Q. chortled. “The things I would do if I had biotics.”

“Are we close now?” Rothan asked.

The girl nodded. “Just a little bit more. You have a plan yet?”

“I plan to improvise,” he returned.

Once again, A.Q. seemed dissatisfied with the answer. But the passage abruptly ended in a metal hatch and it was clear that the time for casual conversation was over. A.Q. pried the door open, trying the generate as little noise as possible.

Immediately after the door opened an eerie blue glow gushed in followed by a steady mechanical thrum. Rothan and A.Q. carefully peeked their heads out of the hatch.

“Holy ****!” A.Q. gasped.

Both Hugh and Mia’s descriptions of the scene were entirely inadequate. The tunnels were much wider in this area, but they were filled to the brim with Dragon’s Teeth, each one loaded with the prone form of an impaled human. A network of glowing blue tubes snaked through the tunnels like spider webs and the unmistakable scent of blood permeated the air like a thick haze. Through the dragons teeth that rose up like a forest, Rothan could make out the hulking form of a brute patrolling the area, and it was likely that he was not the only thing guarding the area.

Rothan’s heart sunk. Rea was down here somewhere, and now being brought face to face with his odds of finding her – or rather her odds of survival – he felt more afraid in his life than he ever felt.

Carefully he pulled himself and A.Q. back into the maintenance shaft, then leaned in.

“A.Q., do you still have those grenades?”

Modifié par Khambilo, 07 août 2013 - 03:12 .

[Redbelle]

Wyld traced the bars with her fingers.

Commander Wyld, She thought to herself. Commander, Frickin, Wyld!

She looked up suddenly. A question on her lips. “Are you frocking me”?

Radcliffe looked up at the ceiling. “I can't confirm if we have vacancies for Commander position's. Though I'd say it's a safe bet. You won't be down, officially, as a Commander since the net's over stressed”. He looked back at her. “The best I can do is see that the word is spread and have the camps rank roster updated. That should spread word your new status if you accept. But the short answer is yes. If you accept, you'll be frocked”.

Wyld looked back down at the bars. Frocking, she knew, was a well established term to describe someone who was given the honour and responsibilities of a higher rank, without being confirmed by command, or given the pay increase to go with the job. “I accept”. She said. “Though if I hear you've been frocking other commanders behind my back. I'll be killingly jealous”.

Radcliffe rubbed his eye's. “Here we go”. He muttered.

“How many other's have you been frocking while I was away”?

“I haven't been in Bastion that long Wyld”.

“So I'm your first frock”? She said with a wry smile. “And I said yes so quickly. Do you think I'm an easy frock”?

Radcliffe tried to glower but the slight turning up of the corner of his lips gave him away.

“I'm not exactly a one frock woman you know”. She went on, mercilessly. “If your up for another, I'm game”.

Radcliffe made a strangled noise at the back of his throat and stood. “Don't forget your place Commander. I still outrank you”.

“Yes sir”. Wyld said nodding. “Though if you plan on frocking anyone else. Can I stay and watch”? Wyld looked up innocently as Radcliffe's face turned an interesting shade of red. He marched back to his desk. As Wyld rose and replaced her lieutenant stripes with the commanders.

At last Radcliffe turned around. His composure restored. “Let's clear the air and get you caught up with event's”. He said. “You were sent to the brig because I can't allow anyone to just damage an important piece of equipment and get away it”.

“You mean the Mako”?

“Yes Wyld. The Mako. The one you ran over and crippled my ability to command the theatre”.

Wyld sucked her teeth. “I'm really sorry about that”.

“So you should be”. Radcliffe said sternly. “But it had an effect that it never crossed our minds could happen”. Radcliffe brought up a holographic display from a device on the table and the scene in front of them changed to a command view dated from after the Reaper fell.

“When we lost our ability to talk to the troops we thought we'd be overrun. Turns out we were half right”. He said. “We lost position's. But the troops holding those position's switched tactics without us issuing orders and began to fight back using different tactics”. He looked up. “Turns out an overbearing command presence was holding our people back from taking the fight to the enemy. Once we went silent commander's on the field took charge. Fell back to other dug in position's and nailed the Reapers as they advanced”.

He waved at a display which became prominent. “We sacrificed territory for lower casualties. But soon after, we achieved a higher kill rate than at any other time. And once that happened our soldier's had the breathing room and on site authority to fight the best way they knew how. The Reapers are no longer fighting the alliance which fights one way. Their fighting us the way we know they fight, against' individual unit's who are throwing a multitude of different battlefield tactics at them. The Reapers can't seem to react fast enough to overcome this tactic”.

Wyld studied the display. “So central command was holding us back”?

“Exactly. Command had objectives and tried to organise the troops to meet them. Turns out, we should have told the troops our objectives and left them to fight the best way they know how”.

He waved and the display disappeared. “This battle will be won or lost in the field. Any camp left standing will probably be the last to know if we won or lost. That's because all our information is coming in old”. He took a seat behind his desk. “We can't risk another Reaper fall on this base. We need it. That's why no command or communication signals are being broadcast or received here. To get a picture of what's happening we've had to send out Mako's to intercept comm chatter and bring it back here”. He looked up. “It's old fashioned. But it turns out that mixing old fashioned with modern tactics is an effective counter against the Reaper force”.

“What's our goal”? Wyld asked.

Radcliffe looked at her. “This camp is now a rallying point. I need an army out there ready to make a move on the beam. The problem is we can't recall our unit's because they're either needed out there holding back the hostile forces, or out of communication's all together. That's where you come in”. He leaned forward. “I need you to pull an army together. I need people out there to know that Bastion is where we move out from. Or I need them close enough that when we move out the message get's to them and they move with us”.

“I won't lie Wyld”. Radcliffe said with a note of sadness creeping into his voice. “Between Bastion and that beam is a zone swarming with Reaper forces. If I went out with what we have now. We'll be crushed. And that helps no one. I need more boots to march when the time comes. I need every man and woman believing they can stop the Reapers when that happens. If not, then any attempt from Bastion at reaching the beam will fail. It's going to be a one shot punch from here to the beam. If we don't connect, we fail and the Reapers will go onto kill every last one of us”.

“Do we have a plan”?

Radcliffe actually smiled. “No. Turns out our very own Shepard is the one with the plan. Apparently he needs to get up to the citadel to make it work. Some sort of doomsday device that need to dock with the Citadel”. He noted Wyld surprise. “Hadn't you heard? The Citadel's in Earth 's orbit now under Reaper control”.

“I didn't know. What happened to the people up there”?

“Best not dwell on it Corpsman. Regardless. Your job is to bring an army together. If there's anything you need to get it done consider yourself to be operating under the terms of command by negation. If you can't or haven't the time to tell me what your doing. Go ahead and get it done. It's results I need now'.

Wyld nodded. “In that case sir, I need you to let Zia out of the brig”.

“She struck another officer”.

“She's also the only thing standing between this base and destruction if Naomi has another flare up. That biotic blast that destroyed the hotel. She nearly did it again afterwards. Zia averted it. Naomi needs her to show her how to handle her power”.

Radcliffe shook his head. “Hard to believe she has that much power in her. Harder to believe that something Cerberus did may actually help us. Alright Commander”. He conceded. “I'll let her out. She'd better behave though. I need everyone to show some discipline at this time. Heaven forbid if the troop's think it's okay for them to just walk around and assault one another. Anything else”. Wyld shook her head and straightened. “Then dismissed”.

Wyld turned and as she did the door opened again and one of the wall guards poked his head through. “Sir, new arrival. It's a Mako coming in. Only it's got four wheel's”.

Four wheel's?

Could that be.....?

Wyld turned to Radcliffe. “I'll go and welcome them in sir”. She said as the wall guard disappeared.

Radcliffe nodded. “You do that”.

“Shall I send the pretty one's up for a good old fashioned frocking”?

Radcliffe glowered at her and Wyld could imagine thunder clouds forming over his head. She threw a salute. “Yes sir. Going now sir”.

Modifié par Redbelle, 07 août 2013 - 11:38 .

[FuriousFelicia]

14 years ago…

Aria sat in a garden enjoying her drink in the shade of a tree. Lendra stood by her side. The two were conversing about some business while they observed the scene that was playing out not far in front of them on the lawn. There the three teen girls were sitting on the ground, gathered around an Asari who talked as the girls carefully listened. She looked wise while she spoke to them, slowly but graceful and with a firm voice. She wore a dark-blue cloak with a hood. Her face dark, purple in hue, clear of marks. She looked old and dry, considering that she was an Asari. But there was a notion that she once may have been very beautiful. The girls wore the same cloaks, one red, the other green and the third dark purple. They listened as their mentor concluded their lesson.

"Alright my darlings, today’s lesson is over." She said, "And tomorrow I will show you how to channel your energy, and how we can manifest it from within other objects from a distance."

"Does that hurt too?" Asks one of the girls. She was no doubt the youngest of the three. Her hair was ginger and curly. Her face softly covered with freckles revealed a pinch of fear and concern as she posed the question.

"Now Lucy we've talked about this." Said the Asari raising her note, and continues in her usual calm tone, "You must learn to embrace pain. Pain is our ally, it keeps us sharp, and our minds absent fear, and soon you will be able to simply switch it off."

"Will you give us the medicine again?" Asks the oldest of the three.

"We'll see how it goes without the medicine first, and then maybe. But you did good today Disdain, I'm proud of you. And you too Zia. You had the best focus today, and without the medicine too." The Asari smiled as she encouraged the girls.

"Loopy smelled the medicine three times today. Look, she's still got red eyes." Laughed Zia mockingly pointing a finger at Lucy. Lucy frowned as she crossed her arms, and stuck out her tongue at Zia. The Asari covered her face with the palm as she tutored them.

"Girls you are sisters now and should be helping one another, not teasing and mocking each other. Come now, let's go say goodbye to auntie Aria." Said the Asari as they got up.

"And how are my darling furies today?" Smiled Aria while the girls lined up their hugs and kisses. The girls bragged endlessly about their feints and abilities, which shortly resulted in a squabble. This made Aria tired as she gave a discrete signal to their mentor that the fun was over.

"Alright girls, say goodbye to auntie, it's time for your meditation. Go with Lendra now." The Asari waved her hands rounding the girls towards Lendra. They took off, leaving Aria and the other Asari alone.

"How is our little sisterhood progressing?" Asked aria,

"Quite well. Lucy has progressed even though she still dissipates her energy without the aid of the sand. I must admit you were right about the Baker girl.."

"Don’t utter that name!" Snapped Aria, "I don't want her even aware of its existence.” The Asari just bowed her head amenably in acknowledgement.

"So she's been able to keep up with Disdain and Lucy then?" Aria continued.

"Yes. She's a natural, and learns fast. Her focus at this stage is impressive, I might even say she even bested Disdain today. She kept her flare in focus for almost 10 seconds before she collapsed, and she was clean."

"Good." Said Aria "Avoid giving her the sand. I need her to have a clear mind."

"Oh she refuses. The pain seems to have little effect on her, she only took it once and that's when I was showing them how to maintain the field."

"Good, you should keep them away from that junk altogether as much as possible."

"Well I'm afraid that it's too late for Lucy. She's hooked. But why do you concern your self with this so much? The drug makes loyal and dependant subjects."

"I want them strong, sane and focused. Watch over Zia and Disdain. I believe Disdain isn’t very happy about her little sister who by the way I intend to appoint in charge of this sisterhood once they come to Omega.” Aria glanced at the Asari notably, which the Asari recognized as she followed up with a remark.

“You can’t put Zia in charge. That would devastate Disdain. She is the soul of what we’re trying to achieve here. Zia undoubtedly is the strongest, but the fact that she will never go through what the other two did plays a great part in our cause. Disdain is a natural leader, and she’s your answer to the Justicars.” The Asari pleated, but Aria’s mind was made up long before this conversation had started. She just continued in her usual commanding tone.

''You finish their training; keep Zia of the sand, use Videlicet instead if you have to, but when they come to Omega, she’s mine. They are mine."

"As you wish. I'll give my best efforts to get Lucy of the red, but I don't have to explain to you how hard will that be at this point."

"Just keep Zia of it." Said Aria taking a sip from her glass.

"And how are things progressing back home?" Asked the Asari.

"Good." Replied Aria, "I'm still the official ruler with no runner ups. The Bloodpack ann the rest of the scum don't even breathe unless I say so. It's business as usual. I'll be going back in a few weeks. After that I won't be coming back. Once you complete their training here, we'll get them to Omega and suit them up with implants. I hear there's been some innovating developments in that field. The humans are proving their selves quite the entrepreneurs. They even managed to create their first true AI as I hear.
That's all for now. We'll keep in touch through Lendra. Leave me now, I need some time alone to think." Aria finished, and the Asari just bowed her head as she left her alone with her thoughts.

Modifié par FuriousFelicia, 07 août 2013 - 10:58 .

[sH0tgUn jUliA]

BoL - The Lost Asari XVI

Reilly and Rodriguez help Soniri navigate the boxes and broken bottles in the alley. One misstep and a slice on the bottom of her foot could spell disaster. It was slow going. The dampness of caused by the fog made the footing slippery. Every once in a while they came upon a corpse that was being chewed on by rats.

'Rats.' Reilly thought. 'Rats are all that's going to be left of this world soon. Rats and cockroaches. That's it when the reapers are throught with us. Fortunately there haven't been any reapers. I guess they're not expecting anyone to be retreating.'

They could see a lighter shade of darkness. That meant the alley was ending, but the sarge would have to rest again soon.

"How are you holding up, sarge?" Rodriguez asked and she felt her forehead, not that she could tell if an Asari was running a fever or not, but it made Rodriguez feel like she was doing something.

"I'd like some water." The sarge said. "I'm really thirsty."

"As soon as we get out of here." Rodriguez said. "We're almost to the end of the alley. Just hang on."

"Okay." The sarge replied and trudged onward.

When they emerged, there was a bus stop, and a bench. Nearby there was some fallen debris, boxes in a collapsed building and a furniture store on the right side of the street.

"Hey Rodriguez." Reilly said. "Why don't we take the sarge in there. I'll do a quick sweep."

"Okay, but make it quick. She's fading." Rodriguez said.

Reilly ran over to the store, and smashed the window and opened the door. He did a quick scan of the first floor. It was clear. There was a bedroom display in the window. He ran back to Rodriguez.

"Grab her crutches. I'll carry her." Reilly said.

"You're sure?" Rodriguez asked.

"I've got her. Just do it." Reilly said and he carried her into the furniture store and laid her on the bed and propped her feet up.

"Here, sarge, have some water." Rodriguez said giving the sarge her bottled water. The sarge took three swallows and passed out.

------------

Carina went to her drop in Nos Astra to pick up her next job.

'Hmmm... a piece of artwork. An 40 cm tall ivory figurine, hand carved from the Asari Bronze Age era. Artist is named Talixi. A museum heist? No. No. No. 50,000 CR. The copy is in the museum. The real piece is in a Salarian named Tazzik Ledra's Penthouse in a display case. Laser triggered alarm system. Weight displacement alarm trigger. Plus camera security. Ledra loves this piece. It's priceless. He lives in a neighborhood with highrises. The Agent said 25,000 is deposited in my account immediately should I accept the job. ACCEPTED.

'This should be a snatch and grab. Dual zip lines. Drop down. Just need to find out exactly how much the figurine weighs.'

Carina did some research on the extranet and got the exact weight to the tenth of a milligram, thinking it couldn't be anymore accurate than that due to dust. 'But do I trust that? The replica in the museum is supposed to be exact, and it will be under high security. Probably similar, and will give a dry run.... I can hit both on the same night, but I can visit the museum during the day. I can't wait to try out this Geth Sapper Tech. Next I need to hack into the building database and get the building plans.'

The exhibit in the museum was in a plate glass room with UV lasers floor to ceiling and the figurine enclosed in a second display case and placed on a pressure sensitive alarm plate. Carina had made a weight that exactly matched the item. It was a figurine of the Asari Goddess Cyone, the goddess of war, who is no longer worshipped. She is depicted in this statue throwing a spear. One of the Asari worlds is named after her.

Carina parked her vehicle behind the museum and cloaked it. The vehicle cloak is illegal tech available only in the Terminus on the Black Market and was made by a Quarian on Omega, at least he was on Omega at the time she bought hers. He moved around a lot. She remained in the shadows and cloaked and activated the sapper tech and leaped up three stories on the building then moved around looking for a ventilation shaft.

'Here it is. Now to pry it open very carefully.... there... and I'm in.' She thought and decloaked. 'This should put me over the security office, and hack into the camera feed from the room, time the full camera sweep copy, and loop. Now disable the UV lasers and let's go quietly down to the exhibit room.

She went down the ventilation shaft which made a sharp turn to the right then again to the left and came to a junction. One way was an exhaust fan. Two other ways were available, but she knew it was straight ahead. 'Here we are. The vent screen and it's in the wall. How convenient. Remove and bring it inside here, and do a quick scan for the UV. Clear.' She pulled out her gun and fired a bolt into the ceiling right over the exhibit, and clipped the rope to her belt, and pulled herself up and swung over the exhibit then lowered herself slowly and cut a hole in the top of the display case. She held the cutting between her knees and lowered herself and inverted herself to where she was able to replace the figurine with the coffee mug of the same weight. Then she activated the retract on the rope and fired another anchor bolt into the wall over the ventilation shaft swapped ropes and escaped.

She drove over to the building across from Ledra's penthouse to do a snatch and grab. She scaled the building using her sapper tech. When she got to the top of the taller building across the street she realized this was going to be a little bit tougher than the previous one. She checked her thermals, and there were two guards on the roof. This wasn't going to be a problem. She assembled a long barrel pistol with scope and used tranq rounds. Killing wasn't in the contract, and besides on a straight thief job it would look sloppy. She was anything but sloppy. Both guards were down.

She could see the prize with her scope. Carina used her grappling hook and fired the anchor bolt across into the other building to make a zip line. Hack the cameras. Next was to cut a hole in the window big enough for her to crawl through. She put a suction cup on the window adjacent to where she was cutting the hole to secure the piece of plate glass.

'Now to check all spectra for beams to make sure we're above them. Oooo. Tricky. He's got pressure plates on the floor. Now up to the ceiling like before, easy..... And drop down like a spider who sat down beside her and cut the hole right in the top, and swap.'

She shot another anchor, and swung back over to the window clipped onto the zipline then rappelled down the building back to the ground. Got into her vehicle and sped off to the drop point.

'What a f***ing rush!' She thought. The drop point was in sight, but there was an accident in front of it and police were on the scene.

'S***! I can't make the drop. Not tonight.' She thought then punched in her number. "Drop point is compromised."

"Ms. Brown?"

"Mr. Orange?"

"Yes. Sending coordinates on encrypted channel."

"Got it." She said. 'Set up. I knew this was too easy. I've got to ditch this thing, and get the f*** out of here.'

----------------------

The room started to come in focus. Rodriguez and Reilly were trying to wake up the sarge. Rodriguez had splashed some cold water on Soniri's face and she began to come around.

"Sarge, we've got to go. Now!" Reilly said. "Come on. Put your arm around me."

"Okay, give me a second to catch my bearings." The sarge said.

"You were saying stuff about a 'drop point.'" Rodriguez said. "You must have been having a dream."

"Yeah, I guess so. 'Drop zone' at a Point somewhere, I can't remember right now." Soniri said. "It was a mission a few months back. Let's get moving."

Modifié par sH0tgUn jUliA, 08 août 2013 - 04:19 .