SC - Fugitives

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Keira Kelly
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SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

----------------------------
April, Year 2500
----------------------------


Ava sat there, staring blankly at the white, tiled walls of her room. A barren room, as barren as her mind was. The buzzing in her brain kept out most stray thought and emotion. The buzzing kept her mind on the present, the here and now. It swarmed like a hive of bees in her skull all the time, ever since she had been young. Sometimes she wished she could.. think past the buzzing, to pull up some emotion or drive to do.. something, but.. it was futile. Even when they had been forced, only a couple of months previous, out of the academy on Tarsonis, it had failed to elicit any sort of emotional response from Ava. Even in leaving the only home she had ever known, with people panicking and dying all around, the red-haired young woman felt nothing, numbly following the orders of her training officer to make their escape.

She had been told that they were no longer part of the Confederacy now... It was the Terran Dominion they now worked for and her new home was here, at the new Ghost Academy on Ursa. Her trainer had been angry but Ava... she had felt nothing. Nothing had changed. The numb buzzing still filled her mind and one white, tiled room was the same as the next. Ava could only sit, and wait until someone else came, the someone else often being her trainer. Her name though.. Ava, she reminded herself. It was the only thing she knew about herself. The only thing she could hold on to, even if she wasn't supposed to. She was Ghost 24602. Or at least.. she should have been. Her trainer had made her keenly aware that she was a failure, her last and final chance to prove she could control her psi powers.

The buzzing of the neural inhibitor they had implanted in her brain during her youth had taken her memories, her emotions, but it had also served to control her powers. She could do a little bit with her talent, most of the time. Just enough that they hadn't yet terminated her, but not enough that they had been able to send her out into the field yet. She wondered if that would ever happen. It didn't matter. She would do what she was told to do. There was no future, no past, no failures, no accomplishments. There was only here and now and orders, whether from her trainer, the Director or the medical personnel and techs that visited occasionally.

Suddenly awareness of a new sound pushed its way through the haze. Rasping, dripping, pulsing... It was unlike anything Ava had ever heard before. There was nothing that could make a sound like that in the white, tiled, empty room... only Ava, the bed on which she sat and facilities in a partitioned off alcove behind her in the far corner of the room. Whatever this was.. it was moving. It sounded... alive. Ava's head turned slowly, even cautiously until finally, she could see behind her with her peripheral vision. Nothing there. Only more of the stark whiteness of the room. The buzzing numbness began to reassert itself, take all thought as to what the sound might have been away.

At least, it began to. As she turned back, suddenly Ava was somewhere else. Somewhere much darker than the white, tiled room. The sounds she had heard were back, amplified. The pulsing sound, like a great heartbeat was all around her, filling her, the buzzing of the inhibitor completely forgotten. She realized that her eyes were closed. But she hadn't closed them. She felt.. different. Stiff. And warm. Her room had always been on the cold side. Never like this cloying, wet warmth around her. Cooler air hit her suddenly as she realized that she had been submerged beneath some sort of liquid, yet not drowning. She gasped in a breath in the new air, smelling scents that were new and interesting in that newness, but at the same time, wholly repulsive.

Something was.. wrong with her, with her body. With her mind. Another presence. The body moved. She hadn't moved... The other had. She was in the other's mind. A hand rose up, the other inspecting her new self. The hand was clawed, the limb armoured in some sort of chitin plating, swirls of hideous green mixed with brown and magenta skin with spikes and protrusions. It was almost human yet warped into hideousness. Emotion unlike anything Ava could remember flowed through her. Revulsion, fear... She could feel the other's attention pique, a confusion and curiousness. She realized the other had sensed her now, if only slightly. The other though was distracted. There was more in her mind. Far more. Voices but yet not human voices.

Creatures. They were all around too, she realized. There was movement all around. Faces turned towards her. Glowing eyes, dripping fangs out of insect-like features, warped, hideous nightmare creatures. She could feel their HUNGER. One taller than her.. taller than the other, slithered on a snake-like tail towards her, waving giant scythe-like arms. There was something on the other side of her, she noticed now. Giant, twice the height of the first creature. Grey, green glowing eyes.. a mouth.. if it could even be called such, lined with twitching mandibles dripping slime. Its hands grabbed her as it pushed her back into the liquid she had emerged from.

The nightmare creatures.. so many, so hungry... And the other she inhabited, she could feel the hungry ambition, the call for blood. Ava screamed. And around her was a white, tiled room. Her head spun around, searching but her room was empty, as it had always been but still, she retreated into the far corner, curling up against the wall as she continued to search. No sounds other other than the air filtration system, no smells... no creatures. Her breathing quick as the fear still racing through her system, Ava raised her hand, examining it. Her ghost uniform terminating at her wrist with pale, normal human skin and hand. The same as it had always been. Alarms were going off outside her room though.

The door to her room slid open, amplifying the alarms and a number of people ran in, including her trainer, Lieutenant Calan. Ava cowered, her heart pounding, feeling like she should run, run out the door.. she had to get away from the nightmare creatures. They might come back! Before she could though, Calan was on her, grabbing her around the waist and moving her, slamming her back onto the bed. She pushed at him, using the close quarter combat techniques she had learned through her years of training but more of the techs piled on. She could feel their minds now.. It was rare she could feel them this keenly but she could now, heightened by the fear she should not be feeling. Without thinking, she strengthen the hold that she had one one mind until she heard a scream of agony, then repeated that with the next mind.

"Knock her out!" screamed Calan, hitting Ava across the face with a fist in an effort to stop her psionic attacks against the techs.

At Ava's right arm, she felt the sharp prick of a needle. Her body lost its strength as her mind retreated into the buzzing numbness.. for a moment, before blackness overcame even that as the drug took hold.

----------------------------
WEEKS LATER
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That had been the first incident, the first of the waking nightmares that Ava had suffered. Since then, they had only gotten worse, occurring randomly. The visions were horrific, populated by creatures that should not exist in nature. The visions had kept coming, one every few days for the previous weeks and Ava new the Director was displeased. Lieutenant Calan was more than displeased. Her split lip just barely beginning to heal and bruised face attested to that, not to mention all the other bruising and cracked ribs hidden beneath her uniform. These injuries hadn't been like before, from Calan trying to stop her. They had been punishment. The numb buzzing of her inhibitor though was once more working as it had, cutting out all other thoughts, all other considerations, even the remnants of pain. Between the attacks, Ava was as she had always been. Empty. The door to her room opened, admitting one of the medics in, her eyes following them blankly as they approached.
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Re: SC - Fugitives

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Miranda was staying in her room, having woken up rather early today. It was soon time for her shift and get to work, but lately she's been on duty more or less all the time, having random intervals to sleep and being called in as the situations arose. Her charge was Ghost 24602, a lovely younger woman who was still being kept into the Ghost Program. Her name was Ava, Miranda had learned that by reading her file. Well the file that she had access to.

Ava was usually a quiet gentle girl, granted that came with the neural inhibitor, but she doubted that Ava would be an evil murderous thug or somethign even without it. Still ever since she started getting those weird outbursts of halucinations and panic attacks, Miranda's work never stopped. She felt tired... it was taking all she had to not just crumble on the stop. Her boy... her own child was dead and she didn't even get to bury him. She had tried asking her handler who made her infiltrate the Confederacy, but she couldn't contact them anymore. She had realized they never planned to allow her to meet her child. She couldn't protect her only son and that knowledge ate her form the inside. What was even worse was that she was working for his murderers and all the while probably doing the same thing to all these young people at the Ghost program.

She placed her hand on the gun that was sitting on the desk in front of her. The medical personel wasn't allowed to be armed, but she had managed to smuggle it in. She wanted to kill every one here... all those sons of bitches, but the one she most wanted to kill was curretnly watching her in the mirror. She almost felt like she couldn't do this anymore, her hand gently gripped the grip of the gun and it moved to her head, but then stopped midway. There was still one person who depended on her... Ava. Miranda gently placed the gun down and rubbed her eyes. She had fully accessed all of Ava's files and after the escapated on Tarsonis, she had heard some of the folk around Ursa to whisper of what had transpired back there and that the Emperor had abanoded one of his operatives, a ghost named Sarah Kerrigan there. It didn't click to her that was Ava's sister until she heard those whispers and checked it out. Now she couldn't even tell the girl to lift her mood, or maybe located someone to help her out even if Miranda was to shoot herself... Worst yet, whispers were going that Ava was outliving her usefulness with the dangerous outbursts she was having.

Her mind was a complete mess as a message and pda alarm arrived to inform her she was requested to get to duty. Miranda looked at herself in the mirror, she was a complete mess right now. Her face had sunken somewhat, she had quite big shadows under her eyes. She had to keep the illusion so she hurriedly applied her make up. Apply blush to max her paled complexion, hide the shadows under her eyes and so on. Finally she put on her white mantle, took her PDA and left, heading for Ava's room. She knew that the ghost trainees weren't going to complain even if you ranted to them or just used them to vent. They were being conditioned to always comply with orders, but Miranda never allowed herself to trouble her charge with her burdens. When meeting Ava, she was always showing her as kind as smile she could.

"Hey, how's my most favorite patient today?" Miranda asked, not daring to call Ava by her name right now. Despite her inner pain, she wore a bright smile just for Ava. Lately she had started to view the younger woman almost as a younger sister or a daughter. Granted they weren't too far age wise, but yeah. Then there was also all the make up to hide her condition, but she didn't want to alert people of something happening with her. Especially since she was starting to hear whispers that if Ava was going to continue to stay in that unstable and frankly dangerous state, they might put her down.' I'm not going to allow that!' She swore in her mind, pulling the health chart on her PDA to go through routine questions and examinations with Ava." You ready for the health check up?"
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Keira Kelly
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

Inside, Ava felt herself brighten, even if only a little bit, at the sight of the doctor sent today. She liked Dr. Jade, even if she couldn't show it outwardly, and if she had been able to really feel emotion, would have been happy that it had been Dr. Jade sent to her most often. The woman, only a few years older than herself, was at least kind to her. More so than anyone else had been in Ava's whole life, all of which had been at the Academy. She had always been handled by people who only thought of her as a tool, a weapon to be moulded. But in the end, they were right. That's what she was, what she was meant to be, something she couldn't fight against. Still, it was nice that at least one person showed her some kindness. She followed the other woman with a blank stare as she made her way over to Ava. The kind smile the doctor wore though filled some deep, inner need that Ava hadn't ever before realized she was missing.

Unable to analyze it any further than that, unable to dredge up emotion that should have gone with the realization or even just in response to the smile, Ava answered the doctor instead. "I am well, Doctor." she said in a flat tone, beginning to stand up for the check up. Dr. Jade had asked her many times to call her Miranda but.. Ava knew that if Lt. Calan had found out there was any amiability in their relationship, he would have sent Dr. Jade... Miranda away. He had made it perfectly clear over the years that Ava had no one but her command, her orders. She couldn't afford to have anything else.

As she rose, the daggers of pain from her cracked ribs radiated through her chest. Most people would have cried out at the pain but the only outward indication that Ava showed was a quick blink and short, sharp intake of breath. For anyone familiar with ghosts though, it was just as obvious though as a cry of pain. She swallowed back the remnants of it, standing at attention before Miranda, allowing the doctor to begin to get to work. Through the haze, she noticed that something was off though. Miranda looked.. gaunt and wore more makeup than usual. Even through it she could see the dark circles beneath the other's eyes, and the puffy skin which denoted... what... tears? Ava had had tears... years ago. She could.. vaguely remember what it had felt like. She had cried herself to sleep many times before the neural inhibitor had been put in.

Without even realizing it, her hand was reaching up to the doctor's arm, a gesture of.. comfort. "Are you all right, Doctor?" she asked softly, even if her split lip hurt to speak. She knew she shouldn't have asked a personal question but... she was sure Miranda wouldn't mind the question of concern. That's what it was. Concern. Even through the inhibitor, Ava was concerned for the only person that was kind to her. The only person who seemed to see any real worth in her.

She grew stiff suddenly. She could hear them again, in the back of her mind. Whatever these hallucinations were, they hadn't always turned into full blown visuals.. Sometimes, she could only hear them, but she could never be sure when it would accelerated into the visual type. When she was with.. the other. "Doctor, I think you should leave." she said seemingly out of nowhere. She was sure that Miranda could see her pulse rising on the sensor she was using to monitor and record Ava's vitals. "You could get hurt if you remain... I.. don't want to hurt you."

Just then, the door opened again, admitting Lt. Calan who strode over to stand beside Miranda. "Are you about down here, Doctor? Ghost number 24602 is due for weapons training now." he asked, glancing to study Ava, who had returned to a stance of blank attention, staring past them to the wall behind as was proper. "Is she clear to resume training?"

( Miranda will see a spike in Ava's Psi levels when she can hear the 'nightmare creatures' and know its something other than just a hallucination. This is the first time that Ava was being actively monitored when one of these attacks started to occur. )
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Miranda smiled as Ava greeted her, but her eyebrows slightly creased in mildly pouty manner when the younger woman didn't call her by her name. She sighed and smiled again non the less. It was always like this, they wouldn't allow Ava to open up to anyone really and Miranda herself had seen people relocated because of improper way of acting at the facility. She couldn't help it though, treating the kids and the other 'students' at hte ghost program in her way was the best option to provide them with good enviroment and produce better results not dependent on physical abuse. Seemed like she was the only one though and then there was the fact she liked Ada a lot in specific. She always got this motherly feeling around the younger woman.

She then grimaced at the subtle cry of pain from Ava." Did that man hurt you again?" Miranda asked at first planning to make Ava show her the injuries, but hten stopped, remembering she didn't have that kind of authority here. If she got the ghost to the medical ward her words carried more weight than the trainers, but outside of the wards she couldn't do that." I will prescribe you a mild pain killer and some medicaments to speed up recovery." She said quietly as she started hooking up the sensors for the tests.

To her sudden surprise Ava held her hand in a comforting manner. Miranda was shocked at first, but then smiled. Yeah Ava was a good girl. She nodded and patted ghost's hand on her own." I'm alright. Don't worry about me. I'm going to be better soon." The doctor explained with a kind voice and smile. She didn't want to worry Ava too much.

"Hmm?" Suddenly she noticed the readings spiking as the data was streamed into her PDA. She looked at Ava who expressed her concerns for Miranda's safety and requested her to leave, least she hurts her." Av..." She nearly said the ghost's name from the surprise, but luckily before she could actually do it, she heard someone else entering opening hte door and shut up before they could hear what she was saying." Ahh... it's you... Lt. Calan..." Miranda growled. She and that man didn't get along, while she was assigned to take care of Ava both health and mental wise, that man only cared of treating her as a tool and physical abuse was near constant. If it wasn't for Miranda who was lodging constant complaints due to adverse effects and possible long term negative after effects, the abuse would probably have been a lot great in attempts to get results from Ava.

"I can clear her for training..." She said and threw a glance at Ava and then at her PDA, studying the readings for a few moments." Under a condition though. I want to take her for observations for the overnight. Apparently from the readings I'm getting there might be something wrong healthwise... you wouldn't happen to know why her body is currently reacting as if she's rather heavily wounded?" Miranda growled and gave the man the rather angry glare. She didn't mention the possible psionic reaction and the connection to those waking nightmares Ava was having. She had to keep their interest in her to minimum. The escape plan was nearly completed, she just had to prepare a few last things.
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Keira Kelly
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

Calan glared at the medic. She was only a civilian. She had no true authority over military matters. He cast a sideways glance at his ghost, standing stock still, at attention. Despite the bruised face and scabbed lip... 24602 wasn't badly injured. So who the hell was this medic to be trying to make deals with an official trainer? If the woman had been military, corporal punishment would have been in line but.. his hands were tied. Even this new Dominion military took a dim view of physically punishing non-military personnel. The Director had also made mention to Calan that if he caused any permanent damage to Academy property, as in the Ghost trainees, it would be taken out of Calan's own hide. He had a feeling he knew now who was responsible for the Director's warnings.

Another glance at 24602 made him notice a slight tilt to one side. She wasn't standing quite perfectly straight, favouring her right side. He remembered landing a few blows there during 24602's last punishment session. He growled to himself. "Fine. Tonight she stays in Medical. Right now, she's due on the obstacle course. I'll have her report to you as soon as she is done. 24602, follow me." He ordered, and then turned to leave, but stopped, looking at Miranda back over his shoulder. "Don't you ever try to go over my head with this again. You.. are replaceable, doctor..." he warned. "I have a record of training successful ghosts. You are far more expendable. Remember that."

Ava was surprised when Miranda tried to make a deal, asking to keep her overnight, and was even more shocked to hear Lt. Calan agree to it, even if reticently. She was sure it wasn't just about the injuries; Ava had suffered worse before and been kept in active training. A little pain was nothing. It was a part of the training, to be able to carry out the job no matter what, even when injured. Miranda knew though that it had been Calan who had caused the injuries. Nobody had been in the room except for Calan and Ava but.. she supposed it must be rather obvious; nobody ever dealt with Ava directly except Calan and a few medics.

Still, she turned to follow Calan as he had ordered. She had no choice. As she trailed behind him, all the previous thoughts faded away, replaced by only the buzzing and the order. Thankfully, the sound of the nightmare creatures had receded as well.Following behind Calan became all she focused on. Eventually they came to a door. Beyond it lay an obstacle course. As they entered, just inside the room to the right was a table with familiar gear. Her C-10 rifle, ghost visor unit and combat knife in addition to the cloaking device and power supply for it. She waited silently as Calan stopped, talking to the course overseer for a moment. Finally he turned to her, ordering her to equip the gear.

Without a thought, Ava turned to the table, quickly strapping on the combat knife and putting the visor on her head, then added the small cloaking unit and power supply to special pockets on her suit. She flipped the visor over her eyes, pressing a small button the side side to turn it on and waited for a second for it to boot up, checking all the stat to make sure it was working correctly. That done, she flipped the visor up once more before picking up her canister rifle, checking the clip and making sure the barrel was clear before chambering a round. She had been through this procedure of gearing up thousands of times. When she had finished, she turned to her trainer. "Ghost 24602 fully equipped, functioning and ready, Lieutenant." she said, putting all thoughts of the pain aside.

Calan nodded. "Step up to the start, 24602." he ordered. "Go on the signal. I expect you to beat your best time this time. The Director wants to see an improvement." He nodded to the course overseer.

Ava moved to the line, in front of large closed doors, holding her rifle close to herself and pulling her visor down once more over her face, listening to all the sounds around her while taking in the numbers being fed to her in the visor display. Suddenly a loud klaxon blared as the doors before her swung open. Activating her cloaking unit, Ava's body quickly faded out of sight as she began to move forward into the course, rifle up, seeking out the first target.

-------------------------------------------

She'd run the course over and over for almost two hours when Calan finally had her stand down. Despite her injuries, Ava was sure that she had beat her best time each run today, mainly because Calan hadn't berated her at any point. She really hurt now though. The extreme physical activity of running the obstacle course had aggravated the strained muscles, bruises and cracked ribs. But she kept that to herself. Nobody cared if she hurt.. except perhaps Dr. Jade.... but nobody else. Ava herself barely cared. It was a part of the only life she knew.

As she moved back towards the table that she had taken her gear from, she paused. She heard something. She was alone here right now though. Calan and the overseer were both up in the viewing booth where they had watched her runs from. As the sounds got clearer, she recognized them. The nightmare creatures again. Suddenly she was back in that other place again. With the other. The other was walking now, surrounded by the beasts that pressed up against her, eager for her.. attention. She felt her mind seized by the other, held and studied. The mind felt oddly familiar yet at the same time, wholly alien. The sound, the noise... it wasn't just the bodies of the beasts moving this time. Now she could hear all their thoughts.. if they could be called thoughts. She could feel the minds of millions of creatures, screaming through her brain. Even worse was something far more powerful, something hovering over all of it, insatiable, ancient.

She could feel the creatures pressing against her, against the other. They sensed something happening to the other. Ava screamed, trying to bring up her rifle and fire but the other's hand held no rifle. Instead, she lashed out with her mind. She saw one small nightmare creature's head break apart, then another before the other's mind, seized hers, holding the power back. She could feel the anger directed at her. But.. there was also a sort of macabre.. amusement. Panic took over Ava. The neural inhibitor strained to suppress it but it was failing. She tried to run, realizing now that she could feel her own body, her rifle in her hands.. but she could still see the dark.. chamber with the beasts. They were coming closer. She lashed out with her mind again, feeling things die around her. She brought up her rifle, firing shot after shot., this time it seemed ineffective. She used her psi talent again, trying to kill the creatures.

Suddenly, she was in the Academy again. She wasn't in the obstacle course room anymore. She was.. somewhere in the halls. A loud alarm was blaring. The same one the last time she had had an attack. The fear was still very real as she almost cowered, trying to decide what to do, where to go. It was only then that she noticed bodies. At least two marine guards in power armour lay dead, their armour shredded with holes.. much like left by a canister rifle. There were also other personnel around, mostly techs and security. None had an intact head. She stumbled, starting to move slowly down the hall. She.. she had to get back to her room. She didn't know where Lt. Calan was but he would expect her to go to her room in an emergency. So she would. If only she could remember which way it was....

Suddenly she was gripped hard from behind and spun around. Instinctively she began to bring up the C-10 rifle but Calan knocked it out of her hands. His fist caught her in a right hook under the jaw and Ava flew, landing heavily on the ground, her visor flying off her face. She lay there, dazed, confused and still panicked. Her jaw hurt but she was pretty sure nothing was broken. She couldn't understand what was going on.

"This is going to be it, Ghost 24602." he growled, as he leaned over her. "They were worried you were too much of a risk with these hallucinations. Worried that your inhibitor malfunctioned and damaged something vital. But they didn't want all the money spent on your years of training to go to waste. This was your last shot, 24602. And you blew it. Big time. Too bad, you seem to be able to cause a lot of devastation. Too bad it couldn't be channelled." He gripped her arm, beginning to pull her across the floor. "It's time to visit the Director. I'm sure he will agree it's time to terminate..." he muttered to himself through the strain of pulling her deadweight.

( Miranda can show up here.. and maybe take her revenge XD And can gather Ava's rifle and visor off the ground then make their escape. )
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Miranda stood quiet as Calan threatened her. That man was always trying to pick a fight with her, believing himself to be better than her because she was a civilian and he was a former Confederacy military trainer. She was facing away from them, clentching her fist tightly as Calan and Ava left the room, the door closing behind them. Then a grin appeared on her face... a menacing grin." Disposable... fucker on the battlefield there's one person that any marine would never cross... and that's their fucking medic." She growled, her eyes finally turning to look backwards to where they were and her eyes were filled with bloodlust. At this point, Miranda was just at the outskirts of mental breakdown. The only thing keeping her from completely losing it and starting a killing spree and or killing herself was to save Ava.

She had been planning an escape with the younger woman from this place for weeks. More or less since the time they moved to this new complex here on Ursa. It was the best possible time to do so, the new place had yet to finish all arrangements when they arrived so she managed to sneak a lot of things she shouldn't have been able to. Such as the gun and some more... special subsances.

Finally she left Ava's room and headed to her office in the medical ward. Of all places the ward was the only location where her words outweighted the military. Because in the end all physical and mental health issues were being adressed by all the doctors at the academy. That's also why she managed to convince the higher ups to restrain Calan to a degree. Expressing her professional concern when it came to physical abuse and the possible negative effects to actual performance of the trainees was an effective argument. By now she was well aware of the real nature of hte dominion. They were merciless and while abuse wasn't a taboo for them, it better not affect performance.

Still almost everything was in place for their escape. She entered the office and locked the door behind her. Now she only needed to deal with Calan. For all his hateful personality, he was still a cautious person. She couldn't just get close to him without reason. He needed to be out of the way so she could pull off their escape. Miranda had to make sure he wasn't around if he leaves on a task or he just died... yeah that could work. She could poison him...

~~~~~~

For the next few hours she was in her office, waiting for Ava's exercises to end. She had checked all of her preparations since she had the free time to do so. She was tired because of the lack of sleep lately, but took a stimulant to continue trucking for hte moment. She then placed the syringe back into the special case with medical substances she had hidden in her office. It was a special blend of stimulants that wasn't completely unlike the combat stims that marines sometimes used. Hers was with weaker effect, but for far longer. Basically a vein introduced coffee for all intensive purposes.

Just as she was about to leave her office and pick up Ava from the exercise room, the alarms went off. Pulling herself to the personal computer terminal, she quickly checked what was going on. What she saw by pulling some camera feeds was terrible. Ava was on a rampage..." Damn... that's the phenomenon!" She shouted in panic. She had underestimated it! This was the end, they weren't going to allow Ava to live anymroe after this. A tool that cannot be used was to be disposed of!

Miranda panicked and quickly pulled her gun from the locked hidden compartment of her desk along with her drugs case. She hid those in the loose pockets of her doctor mantle, took her PDA and rushed out her office, nearly running into a marine. The soldier just asked her to stay out of hte way and not be a hindrance before running off to whereever." Alright..." She replied as the man went away and she pulled her PDA. It was about damn time to do this. She ran straight away to where Ava was.

Arriving there she heard Calan's voice. She peeked around the corner and spotted him overpowering Ava and then dragging her away. With the demeanor of a seasoned killer Miranda walked around the corner, pulled her handgun from her pocket and shot him in the head, not wanting to give him any chance to react. The last thing he had to see was her smiling expression. Once that was done with, she ran to Ava." Ava, get up! Come on, get up, we've got to go!" Miranda urged as she tried to help the younger woman up. She then spotted the C-10 rifle and ghost visors she she quickly went to grab them." Ava, listen to me, we've got to get away from here!" Miranda called and pulled some app on her PDA before the whole complex was shaken by 3 explosions. 1 at the main armory, 1 at the vents right above security control and another one at her office in the medical ward. This should be good enough to pull all attention away from the hangars.
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

Ava could feel herself being pulled along the floor but she could hardly form a coherent thought let alone act on any of it as she struggled not to pass out. She could hear her trainer talking but couldn't seem to make sense of the words.. other than her own designation. He was talking to her. She had to respond.. had to pay attention.... Had to follow his orders. That was the way of things. She struggled, trying to get up but her movements were uncoordinated. Her face hurt from where Calan had clocked her but it seemed distant. What was the Lieutenant saying? Last shot? Terminate? Was it orders? Was she being sent out on a mission? No, that wasn't right. Her brain struggled trying to make sense of what she heard.

All of a sudden, her mind began to clear. Her struggles ceased as she was continuing to be dragged, finally realizing what Calan was saying. She was a failure, too dangerous to keep around. They were going to kill her. Had she been the cause of the carnage she had seen in the hall? The wounds on the two armoured marines had looked like canister rifle rounds... and she did remember firing... The corpses with destroyed heads though... If she had done that... Calan was right. She was a weapon and if the weapon could not be controlled, it had to be terminated. If they ordered her death, she would accept it. Not because she wanted to die, or even believed she was that dangerous.. but because it was their decision to make. The neural inhibitor took even her will to fight for her very life.

Before they could get very far, there was a loud bang that echoed down the empty hallway, able to momentarily overpower even the alarm, and something heavy fell, partially resting on her shoulder. She could feel warmth there, where it lay, begin to seep across her ghost suit. A voice rang out, calling her by.. name, her name. Not her designation, her name. It gave an order. It was Dr. Jade's voice but she gave an order and that's what Ava responded to. She pushed the object which she now recognized as Lt. Calan's head off her shoulder and his body thunked the rest of the way to the ground. She paused to stare at it, at the rather large hole in the back of his head. That was the warmth she had felt. Her shoulder was coated in his blood. It was a good thing her suit was waterproof.

That didn't matter though. Calan was dead. Her trainer was dead. There was nothing, no emotional response other then a loss of... purpose. What would she do now without a trainer? What was she without a trainer? That was all she had ever known, in all the twenty or so years that she had been in the Academy. Would she get a new trainer? Dr. Jade... Miranda was giving her an order now though. She was in charge now until further notice. Miranda dropped Ava's rifle and visor closer to her as Ava shook her head, trying to centre herself then complied with the order, getting to her feet, picking up her errant gear on the way. She replaced the visor, checking it was on and then holding her rifle defensively. "I will follow you, Dr. Jade." she confirmed the orders.

The base was rocked by one explosion, then another and another. Ava glanced around, slipping into tactical mode. They were under some sort of attack. They had to leave. Maybe it was another evacuation like the one a few months ago. She nodded at Miranda, then slipped her visor over her eyes again. "Lead the way, Dr. Jade. I'll cover you... You won't see me but I'll be covering you." she said, before activating her cloaking device, her form fading away before the doctor's eyes. It would be safer that way, would give them an element of surprise should they come upon any enemy. She shouldered her rifle, keeping it up and ready to fire at the first sign of threat as she waited for the other woman to start moving.
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Miranda smiled when Ava finally reacted to her voice. What she wasn't as happy about was the fact that the younger woman was still under the effect of the neural inhibitor. She obeyed orders, that's how she was conditioned because of it, until that thing was removed from her body, Ava was never going to be a complete and free person. Miranda wanted to remove it as soon as possible, but she couldn't do so until they were away from the academy. They had to grab a ship from the hangar and from there get to the surface of Korhal. The planet was in the middle of being terraformed after the surface being obliterated during the initial rebellion on Korhal by the Confederacy, so the traffic was rather intense right now in between teh civilian experts, independent transports carrying supplies and everything else. Any ship they take from teh academy would be tracked, they had to ditch it soon after escaping. They could probably hitch a ride on a merc transport or civilian refugee one.

Miranda nodded to ava who turned invisible, hid her pistol back into the wide pockets of her doctor's mantle and started leading the way to the hangars. The whole academy was a mess, alarms were blaring off, people were running alll around, mass confusion and panic all around. No body knew who was attacking and no body knew what exactly happened. Since the central security station was down, communications were also affected. The explosion on the main armory was also important since that explosion had caused a huge ammount of damages and then there was the medical ward explosion that rendered the rescue operations harder. She originally wanted to put the medical ward bomb at hte director's office, but that proved quite near impossible, so she had to make do. There was one more bomb she hadn't detonated quite yet.

As she led the way, people didn't really bother with her, they were all being busy with evacuating and trying to put some order to the panic. She led all the way to the hanger which by this point was more or less abandoned. She flicked her access card by the control panel and hte heavy armored doors opened, allowing access to the hangars of the academy. Here in the Ghost Academy there wasn't as much traffic usually. There was currently a singular Drop Ship that they could take. The other crafts were out on tasks. There was also the anti air defense, but she had already taken care of that by taking out security first. She led the way to the Drop Ship and opened the hatch and entered it." Ava, you here? You can decloak now." Miranda stated as she ran to the pilot's seat and started running through the pre flight checks in a trained fast manner. Standart dropships weren't anything new to her. The engines were already starting up, they should be able to leave any moment now, provided no other problems arise. And should they do, she had one last bomb placed by the loading station for the spacecrafts aka all the fuel.
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Keira Kelly
Club Owner / Prince of Toronto
Club Owner / Prince of Toronto
Posts: 5031
Joined: Sat May 28, 2011 2:05 am
Clan: Toreador
Garou Tribe: Fianna
Fera Tribes: Swara
Current Persona: Evelyn Wright
SM Chapter: Space Wolves
Sabbat Clan: Toreador Antitribu
Location: Toronto, Canada

Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

As they had moved through the corridors, Ava had kept true to her word, keeping close enough to the doctor to keep up with her but far enough that she could cover all angles efficiently. At one point, Ava had felt something and called out for the doctor to stop, and moved ahead. That was the biggest reason ghosts were recruited by psi talented people; the ghost could often sense enemies at a distance, though Ava's own gift was.. intermittent at best. This time though, she could sense the approach of two targets. True to her feeling, soon enough the sound of heavy, armoured footsteps could be heard and then, from up ahead, two armoured marines came around a corner. Ava had her rifle up and ready.

Though Miranda was a good distance behind her now, Ava watched as the two marines raised up their own weapons, beginning to call out at the doctor to get down and surrender. Clearing the halls? Or perhaps they were part of the attack. Ava could not take that risk. Two shots rang out and both marines dropped, their heads now missing thanks to the explosive shots the canister rifles fired. That done, she told Miranda to continue on. The rest of the journey was calmer and they encountered only non-military personnel whom left them alone so Ava left them alone. They had orders, procedures for an emergency and it was their own duty to follow it.

Eventually they arrived at one of bigger hangars to the base. An area Ava had never visited, except when they had first arrived. Ships were not a part of her training. She was just a little bit surprised that Miranda had access, being a doctor but.. perhaps that was the way things were. Ava's own experiences and knowledge of things outside combat, outside her own little world of training, was limited. Ahead was a dropship that the other woman was heading for and Ava followed diligently, keeping her rifle up, tracking all over, searching for any signs of threats. Inside the ship, she turned the weapon to point out the back, continuing to be on guard until the hatch closed up leaving just the two of them. They weren't waiting for other evacuees? Perhaps they were among the last then.

It was hard for Ava to stand down when it was clear that her talents weren't needed anymore, for the moment. Miranda called to her and she realized that she was still cloaked, still invisible and the other woman had no idea that she was standing right beside her as the doctor sat down in the pilot's seat. She turned off the cloak, almost magically appearing out of thin air mere feet from the other woman. "I am here, Doctor." she answered automatically as she felt the ship power up beneath her feet.

She waited until it seemed the doctor had completed most of the routine checks, much like Ava did with her own equipment she realized, before interrupting the silence. She wasn't one to usually ask questions but.. sometimes it was necessary to be operational. "Where are we going, Doctor? Do you have any intel on the nature of the threat?" she asked. "Why are we evacuating?"
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Miranda felt incredibly in place at the pilot seat of a spacecraft. She was a trained pilot and could fly anything from a dropship to a fighter craft and even a heavier craft like a transport ships for example. Granted she was not an ace when it came to fighter crafts, but she could fly one should the situation requires it, just don't expect her to win dogfights. Wraights especially were a bitch to fly because of their unwieldy design flaws. It's been a few years since she last touched the control panels of a spaceship though, it relaxed her rather tired and stressed up mind.

Going through hte start up checks, she smiled as Ava decloaked and appeared in the dropship. By the looks of it this was a rather standard issue dropship, it was equipped with boosters so it could probably outrun a lot of things out there, had no guns though. Was also lacking a warp engine... Well not unexpected. As far as Miranda was aware only big spaceships above gunships carried warp engines.

"We are heading to Korhal's orbital staging area. The terraforming of Korhal back to habitable world is still underway. There are a lot of civilian transports carrying goods, mercenary groups resupplying in the sector and so on. I've had a few words with a few people... there are a couple of possible ways to bring us out of the system." She said vaguely as the engines finally reved up to complete strenght. All systems were green as she was ready for them to depart when what dreaded most came to be. Those questions from Ava.

"We have to leave because they are going to kill you here, Ava..." Miranda stated, turning to hte side just enough to be able to see Ava and how she reacts. As a ghost, the conditioning could kick up here in a few different ways. Miranda was hoping that since Ava never really completed her training and was only in the service of her trainer, with her trainer dead, she would hopefully not resist this." They've been delaying your termination order in case you prove useful in some way. Today you killed academy assets... civilians and military. You've been ruled unstable and dangerous by them because THEY cannot control you... I'm not going to let that happen." The doctor stated and slowly pulled her drug case from her pocket and placed it on the control panel by herself. She might have to use it depending on how Ava reacts from now on.

"They are probably going to kill me soon too." She finally said with pained voice, recalling the datafiles she had dug up on the fate of her son." Before that happened I wanted to save you from the fate they wanted for you... What are you going to do now that you know that, Ava?" She asked, wanting to check the degree of conditioning they had on her.
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