SC - Fugitives

Moderators: Keira Kelly, rivaan

User avatar
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 »

Ava blinked at what she was reading from this man's mind. Even mercenaries, like the Illicians, who fought for money were at least loyal to each other. If this man was a typical example of the type of person in this organization.... How the hell did these people function without loyalty to ones' superiors? Coming from a lifetime of strict military regulation and unquestioning fidelity to her commanders, this setup was difficult for Ava to even comprehend. It was... or at least would succumb to pure chaos if the head was cut off the snake. That would be perfect though for her needs. Well, now her objectives had changed priorities. The captain would die first.

She paused, at something she sensed from the man's mind. Guards that weren't part of this crew around the labs? Likely better trained, better armed.. and likely more loyal than these ruffians. So if the captain died.. this man seemed to think Wesker would be next in command.. or at least had the position to seize power. Maybe her assumption of the lack of organization here was just a bit off. Good, though. Wesker was Mira Han's man, or so she had been told. If Ava could take out the captain and get an ally leading the ship, she could use them to get at the guards and/or the scientists. Yes, her objectives had now changed. Now, how to find that captain though... Maybe getting to Mira's man was the best bet. If she could.... Finding him might prove just as difficult if not more so than finding the captain.

She froze. Now there was an idea. The red glowing eyes of her visor fixed on the man. She could feel his fear of the imagery it was painting in his mind and thought to use it now. "I will leave you alive... if you do one thing for me. Go and get Wesker and bring him here. I will be in your mind the whole time. I will know if you decide to say even a word about me to anyone.... and the second you think to cross me, your brain will be boil to the point where your head explodes." she warned him. "There is nowhere on this cruiser that is safe from me. I know the feel of your mind and I have burst heads with nothing more than MY mind before... Many, many times.... I don't even have to see you or be close to do it if I choose to. As long as I can feel your mind, I can destroy it."

Some of that was a lie, of course; the ship was too big to feel this man's mind all the time.. probably. It depended on where this Wesker actually was on the ship, how far away. That, and that she had enough control to burst a head at will. She had done it accidentally before, and even.. somewhat intentionally, though that was usually through anger rather than actually trying. But she had to make this man believe she could do it at will. She reached with her mind into his, bringing just enough psionic force to cause him pain. Not enough to damage, not enough to even cause him to shriek but just enough that he knew she wasn't lying about what she could do.

"Understand?" she asked as she stopped the feedback. "You think to cross me and you won't live long enough to even give one word of warning.... And it won't be nearly so pleasant a death as a quick blade across the throat. Get Wesker and tell him anything you need to to get him to come here... alone." she said. She paused a moment. "I want you to return too. Do as I tell you and you will not only get to live, you will be rewarded as well. My... employer will be most grateful to anyone who helps." she added, realizing this man was motivated by profit as well. "Do we have a deal?"

She waited, knife still at his throat, trying to dig as deep into his thought process as she could to see if he would try to warn someone or if he would go along with what she had told him to do. Her blade would quickly slice into his neck should she find any cause to think that he would betray her presence.

( If he gives any hint of betraying her, he is dead... if so, tell me and I'll add more to my post XD. Though hoping the fear of what she can do will motivate him o_o )
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
rivaan
Antediluvian
Antediluvian
Posts: 1977
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:47 am
Clan: Gangrel
Garou Tribe: Glass Walkers
Sabbat Clan: Tremere Traitor

Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

The man was really concerned but suddenly a ray of light came to his troubled mind as she told him that she'd left him live as long as he does her bidding. What she wanted right now was to bring Wesker to her. Well... that was fine. As long as he was living, he was going to worship the side of roasted bacon if she said to. Beside Wesker was going to be fine... probably. He was a smart guy, always seemed to be able to avoid the blows and plans from others of the crew. How he ended up getting the second in command and the inheritor position afterall.

"Fine, fine..." He said looking at her." No need to tell me twice... I will get him to come, don't worry. I'm not lying!" he agreed rather honestly here, mostly because he cared for his own life better than anything else. With the task set and his work cut out for him, he carefully left as he started walking. She told him that she could sense and read him from distance. There was no point in lying.

He quickly made his way to the nearest elevator that brought him to the upper levels. Wesker was supposed to be in one of the hangars right now. He was tending to his wing of Wraiths. He was a top pilot actually. Real good at his job. Though admitteldy, there were rumors that before pilot he used to be a marine. It was not certain, but it made snese. He was great at fighting on land too. IN training, he'd usually break more than a few noses.

Sure enough, he found the man exactly where he expected to. Wesker and his guys were surprised to see a low level guard coming to them, but the guy explained he had important News for Wesker. The pilot was surprised be agreed to talk with him. When they got to the side so the others don't overhear, the man explained that there was someone who wanted to talk to Wesker down in the lower decks. Someone important... He didn't get into further explanations because he was fearing for his life, but Wesker had gotten a few clues form tehe man's nervousness to a degree. Soemone probably threatened him to call him down there. No one on the ship would do it, this left someone from outside the ship and there was only one who knew him really, MIra Han. He realized it might be a person sent from Han.

Without wasting time Wesker and the guy went back downstairs, real careful to not be spotted by security and walked all the way to the store room." Hey I brought him, Can I now just leave? I don't want to get any more involved... I will just lock myself in my room."
User avatar
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 »

Though Ava had felt the man's sincerity in complying, she was still uneasy about letting him go off on his own, especially if it meant out of her range. Yes, he was sincere, but he.. like everyone else here, was an opportunist. If he thought he had some way of evading her and being rewarded for tipping someone else off to her presence on board, she had no illusions that he would jump at it despite the fear she had instilled. As she felt his mind get weaker and weaker, she strained to keep tabs on it until she couldn't sense it anymore. At least if security was sent to chase her down, she would feel them coming, know where they were before they knew where she was. That was one reason why ghosts were so effective, so deadly.

After what felt like an eternity, though probably was no more than twenty minutes at most, she suddenly felt his mind again, and as he drew closer, she could feel another with him. By the feelings of success and relief in the first mind, Ava could tell the other was this Wesker. Well, best make a good entrance, she thought as she activated her cloak. Finally two figures were back-lit in the entrance by the lighting from the hall as they entered.

Ava smiled at the brief conversation, the second questioning the first as to what he wanted to show him. She took that moment to decloak, right in front of the two men. "He wanted you to see me. At my request..." she answered for the first man. Her glowing eyes turned towards him as he asked to leave now that his job was done. A part of her wanted to just kill him, to eliminate the chance at a threat. That was how she had been trained. A ghost stayed alive by being cautious in the field. But then again, he might be useful later too. Well, if she had Wesker and at least a good portion of the crew on her side, it didn't matter if this sorry sack of a crewman betrayed her now. She nodded. "Fine. Go. If anyone calls on you in the next twenty-four hours, tell them you have a virus and have quarantined yourself in your room." she ordered him. She tapped the side of her head. "If you don't, remember, I can find you... anywhere..."

She watched him nod vigorously and then scurry off to go and hide like the rodent he was before she turned now to Wesker. She inclined her head in greeting. "You're Wesker." she said, feeling the confirmation from his mind before he spoke it, sensing also that he had guessed some of who she was right. "And yes, I am here at the bidding of a mutual pink-haired.. friend. I don't know how much Mira may have told you, if she told you anything but... well, you can call me Skadi for now." she added. "She has decided it's time you get your own command of a ship... And, of course, for your loyalty, and that of the ship and crew, to return to her." she explained.

"I have a few objectives here, but the first one is to get you in full command. That means taking out the captain. If I do this, you will be able to take control of the crew, right?" she asked. She was continuously scanning his mind, looking for any hints that he might choose to double-cross Han... or anything else. "How would you like that done? Subtle? Make it look like an accident? Or do you want it to look like a killing? Being second in command, I assume you can get me where I need to be to take care of him for you."

She paused, knowing the questions he had. "I will inform you of my other objectives AFTER you are in command. It's not a trust issue. There are things here that.. hell, O'Banon may not even have told the captain about. I don't know. Just in case, I want to limit what you know... for now. For all you know, I may not be the only person who can read minds on the ship..." she added in warning. "So for now, trust me. Or trust Mira, as she sent me. Give me the intel, or even help set up the opportunity to eliminate the captain and then, I will tell you the rest. At that point, I will need your help to finish the rest of what I was sent here to do anyways so you will need to know."
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
rivaan
Antediluvian
Antediluvian
Posts: 1977
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:47 am
Clan: Gangrel
Garou Tribe: Glass Walkers
Sabbat Clan: Tremere Traitor

Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Wesker initially was thinking why a ghost would show up on the ship without going on a murder spree, but then it was revealed that the woman was indeed send in by Mira Han. Wesker wasn't stupid. In fact among Han's crew, he was pretty well off. He had some degree of importance and trust. Otherwise she wouldn't have send him to this important assingment that will lead him to getting control of a whole BC. Sure he would have to follow her, but she was actually a very good leader for him and many others. She wasn't really too bad either to the populace.

"I see." He replied, studying Ava. Skadi, now htat was a name that oozed alias/codename. He was also aware of many ancient myths. Well he didn't known the specifics, but was pretty sure it was the old norse mythology that was the origin of the name. The more curious question was when did Mira Han actually attract a ghost to work for her. Usually the rare renegade psionics and ghosts, didn't stick around her for too much time. He also suspected this Skadi was the same, probably just for a work." The ship will be ready to go to her service as soon as I take control of it. I assume you already know how that can happen, no?" He asked casually.

He then nodded at her confirmation and a lil speech about how he wanted it done." Honestly... just do it, but I suppose a suicide or accident might be most prudent. As long as he dies, it's going to be fine. Most of the crew and teh group leaders have been heavily dissatisfied with him for a while now. O'Bannon promised all of them untold riches and the like, instead this brand new Cruiser just stays anchored here above the planet. The ship was acquired over a year ago and has not made a single jump since. Instead it's kept here as O'Bannon's personal secure lab."

"I cannot bring him to you... he will figure out that something's up. Otherwise he wouldn't have survived this long." Wesker mentioned and looked at Ava for a moment, before he pulled his Datapad and pulled a map of the entire ship." Here... top deck. This is his own personal Cabin.... the captain's cabin. Security to it is somewhat Heavy, but for you it shouldn't be impossible to break through. I will sabotage the scanners across the halls for you, render them unable to activate for a day. No one would notice it. Just wait for him at his room, if you could make it appear as suicide with his own gun. I will take care of the rest afterwards."

The man then turned quiet when The ghost mentioned there was more at work here. Once more... he wasn't stupid. He knew that O'Bannon had delivered somethign to the ship, under most heavy of security. No one knew what it was, but this time he was more paranoid about security than usual. The guards had also increased around the secure labs section and the only entrances into the labs. There was also a brand new egghead scientist old man that was brought over. Wesker normally wouldn't have even seen the doctor, if he wasn't skulking across the hangars that serviced the labs. He had a hidden route into them, spying on stuff that was being brought." Very well... I will love to hear the full details after this is done." He nodded and looked at Ava." I will now go to disable security."
User avatar
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 »

Ava nodded once, happy that what she sensed of this man was above board so the speak, he was loyal to Mira. That meant a definite all for herself onboard and easier access where she might have had issues otherwise. She smiled to herself beneath her mask as she caught the man thinking about the name she had given him. Most people wouldn't have even recognized the reference. To be honest, it had taken some scouring of old stories on a computer for her to learn of it even, but it had seemed to fit her well when she had run across it. She cocked her head slightly as she picked up more from Wesker. Smart man, she thought. He assumed things rather accurately. No wonder Mira was relying on him up here.

She listened carefully to the answer to her questions about the captain, playing out scenarios in her head as she still listened to the rest. Not well liked. Well, that would make it easier. The ship holding its place in orbit, being just used as labs was interesting though. What else might they have up in the secured section? The Psi-Emitter only arrived recently so.. that means the labs were in use for something else previously. What, she didn't know. Well, as long as it wasn't a threat to her, she didn't really care. Mira and Wesker could deal with it... after she had dealt with the Emitter and the one scientist.

Ava looked at the map that Wesker brought up on his datapad, studying it intently for a minute before nodding. "That's fine. The location of his cabin is more than enough." she answered. She looking up at the man again. "That was my original plan anyways if I could find the location of his cabin." She paused. So there were scanners on board.... someone was paranoid. They must have feared cloaked agents gaining access... and since the only cloaked infantry were Psionics which were rare enough... It didn't matter either way though. "Rendering the scanners inactive there is all I need." she assured. "I can do that, make it look like a suicide."

She gave him her secured comm channel. "Contact me when the scanners are down. I'll have to stay here until you can get that done." she told him. It was too difficult to know if she could find another good hiding place between here and the cabin since she didn't know how long it would take Wesker to disable the scanners. Waiting here until that was done was the best option. "I'll let you know when he is dead. Meet me in his cabin when I call and I will tell you the rest, then you can be the one to have 'found the body' afterwards. You can say you had a report to give him but heard a gunshot through the walls or something..." she added.

Her head shot up at the thought she caught. The scientist, her other target. Wesker had seen him. At least that was confirmation that he was on board. Good. She was tempted but decided not the share anything more on that, or the scientist just yet with Wesker, just to keep things simple. Ava nodded as Wesker continued, saying that he was now headed off to disable security. Ava settled in to wait for the message that would spin her into action, knowing it might take a bit. Time to go through potential contingency plans.

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

It had taken nearly an hour but finally, Wesker had contacted her, sending her only three simple words: 'it's all good'. Concise and short and vague enough that if anyone was able to break the security, they would have no idea of the meaning. Time to go. Ava cloaked and set out, using her telepathy to scan for nearby people and avoiding hallways where she could sense anyone. Thankfully, on a ship such as this, there were often multiple paths to the same destination. Travelling between decks was more tricky though as she chose to find access ladders between decks rather than risk the lifts that were more commonly used. At least once, on the way, Ava had had to wait in one of the access ladder areas for her cloak to recharge. The ship was rather large and she was not only going from bottom to top but nearly one end to the other at a cautious pace.

Eventually though, she had made it up to what Wesker had pointed out as the desk which contained the captain's cabin. Just as the man had said, there were a lot more people on this deck, one or two people it seemed at many of the intersections. While Ava could easily go on a killing spree through here, that would defeat the purpose of making the death of the captain look like a suicide. So she had to resort to pure stealth. That was rather difficulty though as, in the enclosed, artificially lit space, the waver of air that was her cloak during movement could be noticed by a sharp-eyed guard if she wasn't careful.

The map she had been shown had been an overview, without precise markings so Ava had had to roam a bit to try to find the target. She had to bet on the fact that more of the guards would be clustered closer to it. She would find out soon enough, she thought as she came to another intersection. Carefully peering around the corner, she saw what she had felt. There were two armed men slowly walking towards her, just a routine, bored patrol. What was not a good thing though was her cloak was.. nearing its end again. She wasn't sure that she had time to wait for them to pass at this speed and they were between her and where she was fairly sure she needed to be. What to do, what to do....

Coming up with something, she moved back from the intersection just a bit, and using the butt of her rifle, whacked into the bulkhead as hard as she could, creating a loud thud and then pressed herself back against the wall, waiting. Sure enough, the two men came running at the sound, weapons drawn. She stayed motionless, silent as they moved towards her new hiding position. They slowed, seeing now there was nobody in the corridor but still cautious. Looking around for the source of the sound, they passed her, one of the guards coming within an inch or two of the cloaked ghost. As soon as they were past, Ava moved, silently backtracking where they had come from, around the corner.

Soon enough, she came across some rather large, double doors in the wall. If this didn't scream captain's quarters, she didn't know what would. She pulled out a small, electronic code breaker device that Mira's people had given her, holding it up to the access panel for the doors. She pressed a button, waiting as a series of numbers jumped across the screen, waiting for it to give the green signal. She glanced both ways down the hall, silently urging the device to finish as warnings of the cloak's energy level flashed within her visor. Come on, come on.... Then finally numbers flashing green and then a click. The doors parted, letting Ava slip inside.

She replaced the device quickly in one of the pouches on her belt before moving further inside as the doors closed behind her. Studying her surroundings, she was pleased to see that these definitely looked like personal quarters. Investigating around more led her to a holo-image of the captain, whom she had seen in the intel reports, along with a woman and a child. His family perhaps. She shut off her cloak, sensing that no one was in here at the moment. Well, time to settle in and wait once more.

---------------------
A few hours later
---------------------

Ava was curled up in one of the back rooms of the suite, resting, not sleeping, when she heard the doors to the suite hiss open and then close again. The mind of the sole person who had entered seemed.. heavy in thought. He was not happy with his assignment, not happy with his commanders and.. well, just not happy with where he was in life. Ava turned her cloak back on and walked out into the outer rooms. The man who had entered was most definitely the captain. She watched as he sat heavily in a chair in front of a low table, the man having no clue that his doom was standing there, studying him. She watched him pull the holo-image of himself and his family closer, looking at it, regretting... something. Regretting putting O'Banon before them, even though he had known doing otherwise would have meant his death if not theirs too. So here he was with a ship that moved no where, while his wife was on some other planet, remarried and their child knew next to nothing of him.

Ava didn't jump as the man slammed a fist down on the table in anger. She had felt it building up. She almost felt sorry for him... until his thoughts turned to murder. Murder of the new husband of his wife. And the wife as well for leaving him when she realized that he was stuck as a pirate. Graphic thoughts of vengeance for the betrayal. Well then... This was most definitely a many with anger issues.

Best to make this quick and clean, then. Ava could sense no one directly outside in the halls at that moment; the patrols were much further on. There was no real point of even letting this man know what was coming. Ava directed a psionic bolt into the captain's mind, rendering him unconscious. It would leave basically no trace and she watched as he slumped in his chair. That done, she uncloaked, collecting an open, and nearly empty bottle of liquor... whisky, she read on the label, and a cup that sat on a sideboard not far away, planting them both on the table beside the holo-image of his family before the sedate man. She poured some of the drink into the cup, then opened his jaw, forcing him to drink it. Though unconscious, the body would still swallow liquid poured into the mouth in measured amounts.

Once the cup was empty, she replaced it with the bottle and grabbed the man's sidearm and pulled him nearly upright. Fitting his hand around the gun, she put the barrel in his mouth, making sure the trajectory was believable enough before depressing the trigger. The shot echoed in the cabin but she was counting on the sound-muffling qualities of the bulkheads to prevent it from travelling too far outside in the halls. Blood, bone and brains sprayed up, coating the wall behind. She let the body slump, making sure the gun remained in his hand, one figure lifelessly against the trigger.

That done, Ava sent a short message to Wesker. 'It's done.' Now to wait for the new 'captain' to show up.
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
rivaan
Antediluvian
Antediluvian
Posts: 1977
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:47 am
Clan: Gangrel
Garou Tribe: Glass Walkers
Sabbat Clan: Tremere Traitor

Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

The death of the captain didn't come with a chaos on board. It was a situation everyone was prepared for for quite a while now. There was a reason why pirate crews were quick to recover from such cases and in this situation, doubly so as he had earned himself quite the ire from a lot of the crew. Wesker did his position proud as the moment he recieved Ava's message everything was played out like a text book tragedy play. The old captain was discovered, a story about his regrets was formed up from the 'clues' for his suicide. A few speeches were held and not even 4 hours later Wesker was put captain of the vessel. People pledged loyalty, communications were cut off from the outside due 'routine maintenance reasons' as to cut off O'Bannon's side from learning of what was happening.

Ava was informed by Wesker via message that the ship would be jumping out of the system in short notice as to cut themselves OFF O'Bannon's reinforcements when he realizes they were staging the revolution om board to take out his people and guards and the like. While this was happening, the guards were starting to figure out something was up since communications were down for longer than usual and no one was quite sure what was happening. They tried to contact the boss using their own communication equipment that was separate from the ship, but found out it was jammed. Before anything could be done however, the ship suddly lurched forward and then the suddenly pull from a warp jump was felt. This one had all safeties disabled to which Ava was once more informed of course. The pirates had decided to use the initial momentul of hte jump, to render as many of the O'Bannon's men incapacitated as possible. It had worked to a degree. Quite a few of them impacted the walls and the like and even with teh CMC they still were stunned. Scientists had harder time into the labs. Some were injured and bleeding. Experiments had gone awry and even a fire broke out from a device that broke from the sudden shift in momentum.

Finally the first shot broke out. The pirates had made the first move alright. As soon as the ship was in warp, the firefight began. No one was throwing grenades quite yet though, but people in CMC were fighting on both sides. On one end there was O'Bannon's men who wore black and red while on the other side were the pirates who wore black with white skull and bones on their shoulders. Guass fire was echoing all across teh ship, but there were simply more pirates than O'Bannon's men. Still they were well entrenched in the labs entrances. Finally the first explosion echoed and rocked the ship. One of the pirates had pulled a grenade and tossed it, blasting and damaging a bulkhead, killing 2 guards, allowing the pirates to push deeper into the labs! There were 3 different entrances into the labs at least official ones. There was also an external hangar that led directly into the labs. No other bulkheads or doorways into it, there were vent shafts of course, but those might be booby trapped.
User avatar
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 »

The sudden jump had been rough, even knowing that it was coming. Ava, despite having been as tight as she could be against a wall, had still impacted it with her left shoulder pretty hard, hard enough to be sore and it felt like it was going to be a pretty good bruise under the armoured pauldron. At least she could still move it though. As soon as the lurch had finished though, she had been up and started taking out any of the guards she had seen... at least until the rest of the pirates showed up. Before that, she had simply sniped enemies that were mostly already on the ground and dazed. No alarm was sent up, as those that she did kill were either assumed injured or dead from their falls or... or else she managed to silence the next guard that had seen the shot quickly enough. And then the pirates had arrived. At that point, the ghost had backed off, still cloaked, not wanting to get caught in the cross-fire. At least she had thinned the enemy ranks for her.. unknowing ally pirates. Still, there was more than enough fun to be had for the pirates yet.

After a few minutes of fire going back and forth, Ava saw something arc towards the entrenched guard position at the lab entrance. It was promptly followed by a very satisfying explosion, decimating the remaining guards as well as the doors to the inside. Well, that was one entrance secured... Wesker had told her there were a few others but had promised to make sure his people were attacking those as well, keeping all the scientists inside. He had also told her that there was a hangar connected. She could only hope that being at warp would prevent anyone from attempting escape that way.... That was going to be the point that anyone who feared the pirates would head though. Which meant it would be in Ava's best interest to hightail it there and work her way backwards, trying to sandwich any enemies in between.

With the visible... and audible carnage and threat from the pirates going on, astute observers who would have noticed a moving ripple in the air speed by normally, now paid Ava's cloaked form no real heed as she ran through lab after lab, keeping an eye open for Valenko or the Psi-Emitter. She headed straight for the where the hanger connected to the labs, having seen a more detailed schematic of the ship courtesy of Wesker when she had expanded on the information as to her objectives on board after the death of the captain. She killed any of the red and black armoured marines she ran into along the way but they were few and far between, most having moved on to fight the pirate incursion into the labs.

Finally she made it to the doors to the hanger and froze. There was a lot more people here than she had expected. O'Bannon's marines carrying gear and equipment into the hanger from elsewhere on the ship, looking like they were getting ready to evacuate. Ava slowed, moving low to the ground, nearly crawling her way along the wall and up to the doors that led into the hanger. They were being kept open for the moment. That was enough that let Ava sneak inside, still hugging the wall. Fifteen... twenty... At least twenty guards armoured in CMC suits, fully armed of course. A smallish cargo ship.... And Valenko down there, by the ship, directing an evacuation. Ava was fairly sure that they couldn't leave at warp but... she didn't want to take the chance that they would either.

Quietly, she flipped on the charger on the side of her gun, watching the meter rise as it charged her shot with energy. Within a few seconds it was ready. She knew that the second she made the shot, the scientist would die..... and there would be twenty-something pissed off and liked scared marines looking for her. And her cloak had only about ten percent energy left. Damn... not good. But she couldn't allow Valenko to get off the ship.

She flipped on her comm, on the channel that only Wesker had. It didn't matter at this point if anyone was hear him and overheard. "Wesker, I need backup in the labs' hanger yesterday. Do you have any units that can make it here in the next few minutes?" she asked. Well, it didn't matter when it came to what she was going to do now anyways as it seemed like the final items were being brought. She could feel Valenko's mind, his impatience to escape. It was now or... maybe never. Ava lined up the shot. Unlike what Miranda had said, with a charged round, the ghost only needed one shot to make sure there was no bringing the bastard back. One charged shot could decimate the inside of a siege tank. It would leave even less of a lone, unarmoured human being.

She lined up her rifle over the older man, feeling no fear, no empathy, no anger or sense of vengeance. And no mercy. She had been ordered to kill this man and she would do so. That was what she was. He was in her crosshairs now. She gently eased the trigger and where Valenko had been standing erupted into a spray of red along with an explosion that took nearby marines from their feet.

As soon as the shot was off, Ava was running. There were piles of crates around the edges of the hanger and she dove for the nearest as return fire started to come in where she had taken the shot from. Actually, it seemed the guards were firing in numerous directions as pieces of crates around her were also being chipped off by flying bullets.

Suddenly, there was a clink-clink sound from nearby. Ava turned to see a grenade. She immediately dove out of the cover towards the next set of crates about three meters away, when the grenade went off. The shockwave of the blast slammed her to the deck, knocking the wind out of the ghost, but Ava had been low enough that she had missed the worst of the shrapnel, not only from the grenade itself but the crates it had exploded as well. She managed to crawl the rest of the way to the next set of cover, gasping as she tried to regain her breath, somehow.. just barely, maintaining enough concentration to keep her cloak up.

Finally, she was able to draw breath again and peeked out of her cover. The marines still had no idea where the shot had come from, it seemed. The grenade had just been a lucky toss. For the moment it seemed that no new grenades were coming her way but her cloak's timer was quickly shrinking. Unless Wesker's pirates showed up soon, she would be visible and vulnerable. She had to do something about the cargo ship though. She could just see the cockpit window from this angle now. She set her rifle to charge another shot, getting down low and to the side of some crates so that her cloaked rifle was blocked from view for most of the enemy, she took aim at the cockpit. As soon as the charge was ready, she fired. If it could destroy a siege tank from the inside, it would render the flight controls of the small ship inoperable too.

As soon as she had fired, she could feel the pain emanating from inside the ship. She could hear the screams of agony and panic too and winced. There had been a pilot inside. The shot hadn't killed them immediately but the heat from the charged energy had most definitely burned them severely, probably mortally. If it kept the ship grounded, good. She pulled back behind her cover again, shots still peppering both the crates between her and the enemy and the walls around the bay as they fired covering fire... at any place they thought could hide someone it seemed.

Sitting now behind the crates, out of view for the moment, Ava turned her cloak off. It was just about out of energy anyways. Wesker had better get people down here fast or else she was dead. She moved to lean back against a crate when a sharp pain in her left shoulder warned her not to. It was more than just the bruise. Cautiously, Ava looked back over her shoulder, only then realizing there was a nearly ten centimeter long fragment of plastic from a crate sticking out of the back of her shoulder. She reached back with her right hand and yanked it out, studying the piece of shrapnel. About two centimeters of the fragment were bloody, indicating it hadn't gone in too deep.. but it was really starting to hurt where it had impacted her shoulder blade.

The firing had lessened now. Ava could hear the metal boots of the CMC armours begin to advance, slowly and cautiously but advancing they were. She pulled up her comm again. "Wesker, do you have people getting here or not?" she questioned. With the short rest of the cloak, she could turn it on again if the enemy got any closer but it would only last... twenty seconds at best. Enough to take out a couple of them but.. there were too many in here. She sighed, accepting whatever might happen in the next few seconds...
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
rivaan
Antediluvian
Antediluvian
Posts: 1977
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:47 am
Clan: Gangrel
Garou Tribe: Glass Walkers
Sabbat Clan: Tremere Traitor

Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

All chaos did indeed broke loose with that one canister rifle shot, but it was quickly replaced by silence and the image of marines, looking really carefully around the place. They couldn't spot the enemy no matter how they looked. There was a ghost here! They were afraid now and they had all reason to be, but they didn't loose their cool. There still weren't any update from the comms on Wesker's side, it was all static so either he was not reaplying for a reason or something had gotten wrong with the comms. In any case, the marines formed a tight defensive formation around teh ship. They were grounded now... the pilot was out and they couldn't take the object out of the ship securely. Really frowing, one of them gave a hand gesture to the others, guy ahd a star insignia on his armor, probably a leader of some kind.

One of hte other guys, pulled a device of some kind. It looked like a camera almost. Ava would recognize what it was, it was a multi service sensor device. Kinda hard to make, not entirely relyable and all that jazz, but it did have one really good feature... It could sniff out ghosts rather good, but it had a limited range and well a narrow cone of use. That said, they were at an enclosed hangar so there wasn't much place to go. The marine with the device started scanning the surroundings starting from one side of the hangar, slowly moving to the other, searching for any trace of teh ghost. Chances were they would show even if they were hidden behind the crates. A small portable scanner this was not somethign regular merines let aloen outlaws would have, but O'Bannon was taking all precautions. Before Ava could be found, a shot sounded across the hangar, followed by another and then a whole rain of bullets.

Wesker, decked out in shiny CMC stormed the Lab's Hangar with all his men, taking out one of the enemy marines with what appeared to be a high powered rifle that tore a huge hole through the CMC like it wasn't even there. It wasn't a canister rifle, but it was still a rather impressive piece of hardware and from the sound of the impact it used armor piercing bullets on top of it cause tehre was a hole even in the dropship behind the target. He had taken all his men over to sweep the labs. It took a while since there were a few pockets of defense here and there, but nothing a bunch of explosives couldn't handle. Once all the hangar was secured as well, the fighting finally stopped. The visor of his helmet went up and his face showed up from underneath." Alright this is that..." He commented and looked about the place." Hey, you can show up now, we've taken care of the issue." He added, to the confusion of his men as he discharged an empty shellcasing from the huge rifle, it fell to the metal floor with heavy clang as he just tossed the rifle to one of the pirates nearby." Take it back to storage and have the grease monkeys clean and prep it up. The reciever is slightly hard to move and the trigger was hard to pull." He stated flatly as the man ran out of the hangar.

"So... this is the thing this was all about?" He asked before Ava could even show up as he observed a frankly big secured and armored crate loaded onto the dropship. It had a dangerous label and do not open. Taht said there were 4 locks on the crate he could see and it was clear the thing was made to withstand heavy explosive attempts to open it." Crazy bastards... why were they even trying to get to a ship? Not like they could leave the BC while in warp..." He mused to himself as he noticed finally there was a computer terminal set up nearby on a few crates where a guy in a labcoat was laying in a pool of blood. One of the scientist/technicians of the O'Banon's men who was killed in the firefight. When Wesker went to it, he started cursing aloud. The fuckers had actually rerouted an entire subsystem control over to this hangar. Had they not arrived here in time, any moment now, the ship might have been pulled out of warp via emergency measures triggered by this console here. They were fucking lucky this time. Had the ship been pulled out of warp suddenly before the arrival to their destination, who knows what might have happened, especially when the fuckers had disabled all the safties and shields that usually activate whenever a ship enters and eixists warp. THe majority of the crew could have been killed." That was close." he mumbled and used his CMC to smack the console hard, turning it into fragments.
User avatar
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 »

Sitting crouched behind the crates, Ava let out a deep breath. She could feel something from the minds behind her, on the other side of her cover and knew that one of them was confident that they could unmask her, so to speak. They had the means to see through her cloak now that they knew she was in here. So not even that would give her a fighting chance now. She sighed, thinking about the people that were the most dear to her. She lightly touched one armoured wrist, knowing the bracelet she had made was beneath, around her wrist. This was what happened to ghosts though. This was why their life expectancy was so low. Despite all the advantages, they were still almost always one person surrounded by many enemies and their one true advantage was surprise.. something that was quickly negated once their primary objective was usually completed.

Ava may not have wanted to admit she was okay with dying here.. or anywhere, but a part of her was; a part of her that had been trained to be over the course of her whole life. She didn't want to die but... if she couldn't prevent it, she couldn't prevent it. Still, she wasn't going to go without a fight. She made sure her rifle held a full clip, wincing as the movement aggravated the small but painful wound in her shoulder. She could feel the searching minds almost right on top of her now. Most had a pretty good assumption at what they would find hiding here but oddly, one was imagining a monster behind the crates in front of him. That one most definitely had an active imagination.

She pulled the rifle up, knowing that there was a marine about to come around either side of the crates at the same time. She was waiting to activate her cloak until the final second.... It wouldn't last long but it would give her a little bit of an advantage. Just a few seconds before they came around the corners... Almost.... Almost..... Suddenly she could sense a whole mass of people converge on the hanger. Shots began to ring out. She recognized Wesker's mind at the forefront. Ava counted to five, activated her cloak and aimed her rifle out just over a crate. All the enemy marines had turned to the new threat at the hanger doors. Wesker's gun seemed to have some pretty powerful stopping power but Ava did not want to be left out, and began to help pick off the guards who had their backs to her now.

Soon enough, it was over and a quiet descended on the bay. Ava's cloak had run out again during the fight so she stood there, still mostly hidden behind the crates, letting the adrenaline wear off for a minute. That and letting the memories of feeling most of the deaths in here fade as well. Finally she heard Wesker call out to her, then begin to hand off his weapon to a subordinate. The confusion of his comrades as amusing but she was too tired and sore to be in a humorous mood, so she stood, rifle hanging from her rifle hand and walked out towards the pirates. She did not react, did not stop walking as a number of rifles came up to train on her. Thankfully Wesker quickly ordered them to stand down.

She stopped beside him, beside the open hatch into the cargo ship. She had heard what he had asked just as she had emerged from her cover. She took a deep breath. "That should be it..." she answered. She frowned, seeing the security on it. "We need to get this open.. now." she added. As she studied the locks, Wesker had gone over to a console. What caught her attention was a stray thought from the man. She glanced over, only realizing, because of him, that Valenko had indeed had a way to get off the ship, and with the Psi-Emitter no less.. Had she made any other choice than she had, he would have gotten away.

She moved over to where Valenko lay.... or at least, what was left of him, which wasn't much of anything above the mid-chest. Well, Miranda HAD wanted the scientist's assured death. There was no coming back from this for anyone. What she wanted with the body though was something else. She slung her rifle over her right shoulder and began to dig through pockets that were left on the body. Finally she found what she was looking for. An electronic key. She smiled beneath her mask. Of course the man would have the key; he had been the one to have locked it up so tight. He was the one with the means to open it.

She then stood, moving back to the secured crate and trying the key. It fit perfectly and each of the four locks blinked to green with a thunk as a heavy securing bolt within released. Finally, she pulled the front of the large crate open and it fell to the deck with a echoing metallic clank that filled the whole hanger. There, inside, was what Ava had dreaded would be there. Something that had destroyed whole worlds. Something that had destroyed her own sister. She put her armoured hand out on the device, feeling such a wave of animosity towards it... but at the same time, it was almost a link to Sarah. It wasn't the one she had used, of course but... it would have been an identical device. She stood there for a long moment, lost in a confusing mixture of raging emotions, not even hearing Wesker come back up behind her until he spoke, asking her again if that's what she had been after.

She didn't even turn to him, merely stared at the device. "It is." she answered finally. "This device is more dangerous than you can imagine...." she added. It had to be destroyed now. Destroyed so utterly it could not be recovered. Smashing it or shooting it would not be enough as far as she was concerned. One option was to leave it aboard the cargo ship and have the whole thing jettisoned into space and have the BC obliterate it with its weapons but she was less than enthused at the idea of letting the emitter of her sight either, even for that brief span. She turned to Wesker. "Can you get your men to drag it out of the crate, remove the crate from the ship and leave the emitter in the middle of the cargo deck on board?" she asked.

When that was done, she also asked for a handful of grenades that the pirates carried and then carefully laid them all around at key points on the device. She had Wesker move his people out of the hanger, just in case, and she took up position at the doors, bringing her rifle around. She took aim at one of the grenades with a charged shot for added damage, and took the shot. It caused a chain reaction, filling the inside of the cargo ship with flame and black smoke. Shrapnel clanged off surfaces but at the distance she had moved everyone, it was mostly harmless to the armour, be it ghost or CMC suits. After a minute, Ava moved back, waving away the thick smoke within as she checked on her handiwork. What had been a Psi-Emitter, was now so many scattered fragments of junk in amongst the scattered remnants of the interior of the cargo ship. There was no rebuilding the device, especially not without a blueprint to reference.

She turned to Wesker. "I think... it's time that we reported back to Mira Han, don't you think?" she asked, trying to hide the pain of her left shoulder as best she could, from him and from the pirates.
Image
Image
Image
User avatar
rivaan
Antediluvian
Antediluvian
Posts: 1977
Joined: Sun Apr 15, 2012 10:47 am
Clan: Gangrel
Garou Tribe: Glass Walkers
Sabbat Clan: Tremere Traitor

Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Wesker was rather patient while Ava was disposing of the device. When it was blown up to smithereens, he nodded inaproval despite not knowing what exactly it was. Still he was well aware that a ghost wouldn't join Mira just for anything trivial. This meant this thing was probably worse than nuclear weapons and that was a scary thought. When it was in pieces, he quickly ordered a few of the men to gather up the pieces and just start tossing them through the shields covering the hangar bay door, just for insurance.

"Mhm... probably should do so now." He nodded in agreement and threw a glance at her.

"Well... this ship isn't going back to Dead Man's Rock for the moment. O'Bannon's forces are times greater and he would be able to easily take us out if we return in orbit there." Wesker explained with a shrug." We shall be exiting warp in a little bit, you can take one of the dropships to get back. One of the crew will pilot it for you, cause we are sending it to the boss loaded with some of the goodies that are on the BC from the old guy's forces." Wesker stated as the pirates started doing their regular duties which is looting the labs and stripping all the mercenaries from their armors and weapons for later use.

Sure enough, about half an hour later the ship returned to normal space in the middle of nowhere. There weren't any starts or planets in the proximity. Seemed to be a location somewhere in between the star systems, the dark space between systems. A dropship was rather quickly loaded up and set, one of the few female pirates was piloting it, partly because she had expressed her desire to return to planetside and partly she was the best darn pilot and smuggler on the ship, knowing all of Dead Man's Rock orbital defenses, platform, scanners and satelites, allowing her to easily dodge and weave down to the surface without triggering any of the alarms of O'Bannon's crew without a stealth drive even.

As Ava would be getting onto the dropship, Wesker walked up to her, carrying a fancy looking glass bottle." Here, a farewell gift from me, to my lucky spook." He grinned handing it over to Ava. It was a bottle of rather fine and well aged Whiskey from the captain's reserve." Without you, this wouldn't have gone this swimmingly. Pretty sure we will cross paths eventually again." The man added, his mind having just about zero concerns over the fact she was a ghost. He found her hot, skilled and most importantly NOT just a damsel in distress. He highly doubted she was free though, in any case, guy didn't seem to be concerned over her mental abilities, in fact he wasn't even trying to hide his thoughts. Guy was a person who wore his thoughts on his sleeves so to speak." Hey, probably pointless to ask, but why don't you stay here? It's not a bad life once you get used to it. Could use someone like you about here." He asked Ava, but already knew the answer. Still he HAD to ask, better ask rather than not and regret even trying right? He had zero interest in her as a woman, mainly because well she wasn't his type, but he did fancy the idea of having a beautiful helper like her about, though. In either case afterwards he wished her a good journey as the dropship left the hangar and warped towards Dead Man's Rock again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About 6 hours later, the dropship had returned to the planet. It had taken a little bit more than it had taken teh BC to travel to that location, mainly because the dropship's warp engine was older model and did shorter jumps.

Still the ship snuck through the security of the planet and to the surface, going for the territories controled by Mira Han. It traveled to Mira Han's base where Miranda was already waiting for Ava at the landing pads. The doctor seemingly hasn't changed much in the span of time the mission took, but a few differences were present as one got closer. For one Miranda's hair had gotten some work done. It was shorter and the hair on the sides of her head was neatly tied into small braids that were tied behind. That and Miranda's face had the distinct traces of having been in a close quarters fist fight. There was still slgiht sweelling on one side, a cut lip and blue hues, but she seemed to be in a great mood as she saw Ava finally descend from the Dropship!

"SKADI!" Miranda called, but her mind was screaming her real name.' AVA!' She ran over, before the engines had even gotten turned off. She was filled with joy and relief that Ava was fine and relatively unharmed. In fact Miranda was about a step away from saying to hell with it and hugging the ghost.

"See... I told you it would be fine." Han's voice suddenly rang as Miranda turned her head lightly and gazed at the pink ahired woman. One of Han's bodyguards looked to also have been in a fist fight, only his face looked a lot more beaten up. Ava would be able to get some really weird vibes when he saw Miranda while Miranda didn't even seem to notice him right now, her mind had nearly zero reaction to his presence even though hers and Ava's minds were very tightly connected and emotions and thoughts were very easy to read.

"..." Miranda didn't reply to Han, but looked at Ava instead." Anyway, the former captives have been vacated from the planet yesterday. Mark's bringing them to one of the safer colonies. Njor arrived yesterday as well. We are ready to depart right away." Miranda said and seemingly for no reason started pulling Ava away from this landing pad, Han didn't seem to have bene offended, but was grinning instead.

The guy that looked to have been beaten up blue seemed ot want to say something when Miranda was moving away." Means nothing." She stated as they passed him and continued pulling Ava forward. Only now would Ava get a vague understanding from his mind and thoughts. At some point in the last couple of days, he and Miranda got into an argument, the argument escalated into a fistfight, the fist fight escalated into a full brown fight with no things held back and finally that seemed to have escalated into a rather STEAMY scene after they beat the hell of each other. Guess the guy was a romantic cause he was hoping to get her number or contact info or the like, sadly for him, that served just as the perfect stress relief for Miranda and she had absolutely zero involvement in the whole thing.

As She was pulling Ava away, Miranda suddenly stopped and looked at Han." Deliver a message for the guy who ran that artilery unit back then." The doctor stated with flat voice." Tell him to never show his face to me in the future. If he has the stupidity to do so, I will personally pull his eyes out."

Han shrugged as she headed into the dropship.

"Let's get the hell out of here. I wan't to go home now." Miranda smiled to Ava, noting that Ava felt pain in the shoulder.' Will look at it in the ship. Doesn't seem like something too bad from the go though.'
Post Reply