SC - Fugitives

[Keira Kelly]

Ava wasn't liking what she was feeling from her friend. She knew it probably wasn't life-threatening directly; in fact, it was easy enough to glean from Miranda herself that it was likely a concussion. It was the fact that Miranda was disabled though in the middle of what would amount to a massive firefight with no way to hide herself unless she could get moving that was the issue. "I know it takes time to get out of the armour without the machines... but if you aren't able to get up, there isn't much other choice with who knows what bearing down on us!" she answered. "I might be able to increase my own strength with my powers.. even life things with it but... that armour is a little too heavy even for me at the moment..." She'd need to practice with her burgeoning telekinesis with the empty CMC suits when they had some more downtime.

She saw Miranda's armoured hand reach out, grasping in the air and grabbed onto it, easily being able to take that weight at least. Her own gauntlets were tiny in comparison to the CMC suit's, though they were invisible at the moment. Over the massive roar of the battlecruiser's engines, Ava could hear shots from the ground zinging by, hitting and ricocheting off the piles of junk around. Though they were shooting at Miranda, if one of those stray shots or even ricochets hit Ava... well, her own suit and body armour were less substantial protection than the CMC suit. As Miranda started to rise slowly, Ava did begin to use both the enhanced strength from her own suit and her psionics to help the doctor stand up. At one point, a pirate came running around a pile of debris but Ava was ready, her rifle up, being held one-handed, aimed right where the man appeared. The ghost held the trigger long enough for three automatic shots to be let off, dropping the pirate easily before she went back to assisting Miranda.

As they began to move out, Ava pulling the arm of the CMC armour and using her powers to try to channel and reduce the strain of the armour, kept a watch around them. The black of the CMC armour was keeping them low key for the moment thankfully.. though Ava was sure her cloaking unit's power was likely beginning to run low by now. She felt the strain of keeping her suit's fibres set to being invisible as well, not to mention assisting Miranda with it at the same time. 'It wasn't a bad plan...' she objected back. She gave a grim, invisible smile that no one could actually see. 'That's war. If everything is going according to plan, something is not right. Besides, I'm sure the people we are saving today won't think it was a bad plan...'

An explosion behind them caused them both to stumble but at least Ava was able to keep Miranda upright and moving. Ava swallowed hard as she glanced back over her shoulder. 'Yeah, not too much further.' she answered, wishing they were closer. Miranda's pain was beginning to affect Ava too. 'Just keep going.. one foot in front of the other...' she urged.

Every step, she could tell that Miranda was fading and by the time they had reached the cloak around the dropship, it was probably more Ava than it was Miranda moving the armour forward... and Ava was just about ready to give out herself. She called out for Nick to come and help just as they crossed the bubble of the cloak and suddenly they were at the open hatch of the ship. At least she was able to turn off her own cloak, relieving a little of the strain on herself. For some reason, Nick was feeling shocked as he joined them, and it wasn't about Miranda's condition, though that was worrying him too.

"Ava... I heard you.. and it wasn't over the comms..." he said as he joined in trying to drag Miranda onboard the ship. He was still wearing his own CMC armour, thankfully taking most of the work from Ava. "I heard you in my head..."

Ava glanced over at him quickly, realizing that in the stress, she hadn't bothered to flip it on, she had just reached out with her mind. Nick most definitely wasn't any higher on the Psi Index than any other normal person but.. well, if Ava could each into other minds like that, that might be helpful in the future. Right now though, it didn't concern her one way or the other. Finally inside the cargo area, they managed to lay Miranda down, who was now completely unconscious. "Have more important things to focus on..." she said, her voice strained and exhausted, bending down to check on the doctor.

Miranda was breathing fairly regularly, though totally out cold, but that was about all Ava could tell. Ava reached in the open visor of the armour to check Miranda's pulse at the neck, feeling it.. stable enough for the moment as well. Ava went to stand up straight again but her legs gave out and she found herself sitting on the deck of the ship beside Miranda's CMC armour. It was hard to explain to other people just what using the cloaking in her suit, not to mention feeling the pain and heightened emotions all around her in addition to the physical rigours of the mission did to her, took from her. Her limbs felt like they were made of jelly. Suddenly Nick in his suit was crouched down in front of her, taking hold of her right arm and leg, gently but with determination trying to move them out of the way. "What are you doing?" she asked, feeling more annoyed due to the exhaustion, as she tried and failed to fight against the servos of the armour. "You need to get us out of here.."

Nick frowned as he stopped, but prodded her gently in the side with a big, armoured finger. "You've been hit."

Ava winced at the touch and glanced down, seeing a thin track through the suit along the side of her abdomen, the fibres dyed a dark red now. Looking at it, she scowled, pushing him away. The amount of blood was very little. "I'm fine." she objected, glancing at Miranda's armour, the adjoining side to her own wounded side. Just as she expected, there was a bigger mark in the armour there. A bullet had likely grazed the armour and a part had ricocheted and grazed Ava. "Just a graze. It's not serious." she said, less harshly this time. She realized that he was only worried. She nodded over at Miranda, still lying face down in the armour. "We need to flip her over on her back... but I don't know if I can help with that right now...." She caught the thought before it was spoken. "No, it's not because of the graze, it's because I'm dead tired from using my psionics as much as I was..."

Nick moved over to Miranda's head and carefully gripped the shoulder pauldrons. "Well, if you aren't really hurt, can you at least direct her legs?"

Ava nodded, too tired to answer. Another minute of work and she could just lie down and die on the deck plating. She dragged herself over to the legs of Miranda's armour, gripping one of them as Nick began to very carefully roll Miranda over, Ava keeping the legs moving with the rest of the body, having to enhance her strength again to do so, having no clue where the current reserves of energy were coming from. When it was done, sat back against the wall of the dropship. She closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the cool metal, wishing she could feel it through the suit. Hell, she hadn't even taken off her mask yet. Too tired to do that.

"We need to find someone who can give Miranda some medical attention..." she said. She opened her eyes a crack. "Can't get back home with her like this..." She looked at the other people, the refugees and the injured young girl. "They need attention too." she told Nick under her breath so the others at the far end of the ship, closer to the cockpit, couldn't hear.

[rivaan]

The attack on the pirate hideout had caused a little bit of a stir with it's lethality and scale of operation. Honestly one of the rare battlecruisers wasn't expected to take actual part in the conflict and much less to yamato cannon teh whole thing afterwards. In fact once Ava, Nick, Miranda and the rest had gained some distance, yet another massive flash filled the sky even from that distance, before the ship was struck by a powerful blast wave, as a massive mushroom cloud could be seen in the far distance behind them. They ahd completely purged hte entire location by using a high yield nuclear device by the looks of it, not hte usual smaller nuke. This was a full blown tactical nuclear warhead. The ones you used when you wanted nothing to be left of hte place and a huge radius around it. As of why... well that secret was now burried or rather melted away along with all the remains of the husk of a battlecruiser.

As for Miranda, she was completely out cold right now and couldn't feel the multiple of cracked bones around her body. Luckily nothing actually broken, but still all in all it wasn't completely without harm experience. Her face was bloodied, but the bloodflow from the wound that was in her hairline had stopped bleeding by now, so had her nose and the blood inside her mouth. She was about as stiff as a block of iron though. And she might have internal bleeding, so she did need to have a scan at the very least.

The people that got saved from the pirates were currently nervous as they looked about the ship, throwing looks at the unconscious woman inside the CMC, the agent in enviromental suit and also the pilot. Those were all peopel abducted from various transports that had the bad luck of getting targetted in the past little while. They were grateful for salvation from the pirates, but were now neverous about what their savious would do with them now. Most of them weren't stupid, they knew a dropship of this size couldn't support an extreme distance journey that would take days of warp travel to arrive to the nearrest habitable system. The rescue target was currently sitting by herself at one corver of the pilot area, behind the seats, holding onto the cloth that was soaked with her blood now. She had already stopped crying, but she was feeling faint, because of loosing blood. She was just a girl after all, but she was saved and by the looks of it her father had hired people to get her! She was grateful, despite losing a finger.

As for Nick, well there weren't too many places to take the whole group to, On Dead Man's Rock, there was Deadman's Port, Paradise and some other minor settlements scattered across the plains outside of the massive ship graveyards/junkyards. THere were great green habitable plains, but those were mostly operated by local warlords of their own, payign tributes to the most powerful one, which in this case was Ethan Steward. The one most likely responsible for the attack on that pirate base as well. So the options were between trying hteir chance with a minor settlement, hoping they wouldn't try to backstab them, or trying Paradise, which was a hell of prefab buildings, filled with slaves, drug dens and all other manners of lowlifes. The only thing htat Paradise had going for it, was that the mercs there were oposion Deadman's port and the most powerful leader, Mira Han had decent rep, especially with trying to put some semblance of order to Paradise and secure the safety of refugees and the like, as for htem to not simply fall prey to the slavery system.

After a little while, one of hte former captives finally stepped forward. They had discussed it between themselves until now, on what to do and finally elected a representative to go discuss the situation with the ones who had a ship. They didn't have any vain ideas like taking over the ship, they weren't stupid and they weren't ungrateful. They knew full well these people could kill them. So a man in his fifties walked over to where Ava was. They concluded that judginb by the interractions from earlier with the man, she might be in charge or at least higher than him in the ranking. THey didn't know after all that the whole crew of this group consisted of only the 3 people they've seen." Excuse me, but what do you plan to do with us now?" The man asked as he looked at Ava." I'm a former pilot of a trading ship. I Know dropships like these cannot support a number of people this great over day long journeys across space, especially with limtied resources."

"We also can help with taking that armor off yoru friend if you want. One of us is actually a mechanic... Lost one of his legs some decades back in a clash with the Confederacy. He knows hows to deal with CMC armors." The old man proposed. It probably wasn't a good idea to keep a wounded, unconscious person in a CMC armor. They might need to perform emergency medicine actions later, and htey would have to first take off the CMC then. Better do so in advance and not waste time.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava had closed her eyes again, taking a moment to rest when she felt the presence and heard the footsteps moving across the metal deck towards her. As he began to speak, she pulled off her mask and rubbed at her eyes before opening them to look up at the face of the older man that had tried to tackle her when she had freed the captives. She left the mask on the floor beside her, feeling the man's surprise at finally seeing the face of the dangerous killer who had just freed them. They all had seen the grisly sight of the three pirates without heads who had been looking for the missing guard. They realized that had been her handiwork and they had all witnessed the coldness she had displayed in the matter of their dead.

There was some fear in this man's mind of her, but now that he saw her, saw that she was just a young woman, a young and striking looking woman, Ava could feel his thoughts conflicting. Was this truly the same person that had infiltrated a base filled with dangerous and armed pirates and who had killed who knew how many of them? Ava could feel every thought that went through the man's mind, the concern and doubt and... hope that they would be able to all get to safety. Ava sighed and frowned, knowing his words were true. The issue wasn't so much the air supply of the ship but they had brought food for only a handful and it would take days to get somewhere safe at least. And Deadman's Rock was far off the beaten path. She hadn't thought about that.

"We'll find a way to get you out of this place." she said finally. "Even if we evacuate small groups at a time, small enough for the dropship to handle, I'd be willing to stay back and watch the rest.." she said, her exhaustion clear in her voice but also the sincerity of what she was willing to do to make sure these people got away. "If we can find another way though, even better...." She looked down at the CMC armour lying nearby, feeling a deep pang of worry. Ava wasn't a doctor; she knew some basic first aid but.. beyond that, she was at a loss. And Miranda was the leader. Ava didn't like having everyone here looking to her. It should be Miranda. "Yes, please.." she answered the offer to get the armour off her friend. "She needs out of that armour... I think she got pretty knocked around out there... You wouldn't happen to have a doctor in your numbers either, would you?" she asked, knowing that it was unlikely at best.

Ava raised her left hand up, towards where Nick was standing beside her. He understood and grasped her still-gloved hand, giving a tug upwards, helping Ava to her feet. She winced at the small but sharp pain in her side at the quick movement but it settled to ignorable quickly and she was standing. How she stayed standing, she wasn't sure; her legs still felt like jelly with lead weights. "I'm Skadi. This is Njor and," she nodded towards Miranda, "Idunn. We were here to rescue a hostage, the girl I had you carry, but running across you lot, I couldn't leave you in here either. If there is anything you can do to help Idunn though, we'd be grateful."

Ava turned to Nick. "We can't keep sitting out where we are. We need to find somewhere to hole up." she said.

Nick was frowning. "I can't say that I've ever been here before but.. I know a little bit about this place. I've been with the Illicians since I was old enough to join up and they.. tended to be among the more... reputable mercenary groups. The type you will find here..." He made a wishy-washy gesture with his hand. "There is one though.. I've heard her mentioned before. Can't tell you if she is trustworthy for sure but.. less underhanded than the average scum you will find out here. Last I heard, I think she was around... Paradise I think it was called? I remember someone mentioning her and remember thinking it was ironic that there was a place called Paradise on a planet named Deadman's Rock..." he explained.

Ava sighed. "Well.. get me close enough to her and I'll tell you if she is trustworthy enough to deal with..." She turned back suddenly to the older man who was still nearby enough to have overheard. She was too tired to play games or pretend to not notice the thoughts. "Yes, I'm a Ghost. No, I'm not Dominion. No, I didn't come here to kill anyone. I told you, I was sent her to rescue a scared little girl from terrible people. Yes, I am Psionic. Yes, I can read your mind... your surface thoughts anyways... No, I am not going to hurt any of you. I have no desire to, no reason to. I'd rather see you all safe, like I said." she ranted tiredly. "I am here of my own choice, to help people. Got it?"

She turned back to Nick. "Now, how about getting us near enough to this Paradise place. We can decide then and... maybe we can find some more supplies at the very least to sustain this many people in the meantime..." As Nick moved to the cockpit to fly them out of the combat area this place was becoming, Ava turned to watch some of the freed captives working to get Miranda out of the armour.

[rivaan]

The man listened ot her and nodded. He didn't ask for more, he was aware the names were aliases of some kind. Most mercenaries used them and juging by the quality of gear and the like, these people were of some skill at least." Name's Mark." He introduced himself when Ava introduced herself, Nick and Miranda." And sadly no, we've got no doctors with us." He sighed and without further ado, called a few of the people that were rescued to help with getting Miranda out of the CMC armor. Another middleaged man came out of the crowd of people. He had an obvious metal prostetic leg as he casually walked his way over to Miranda with a slight limp as he crouched over and studied her unconcsious form and the CMC in specific.

"Wow." THe mechanic mumbled, realizing this wasn't a regular CMC-200. Still the basics were actually pretty much the same. The 400 series were just refined more, with more functions and the like." Ok, Mark help me out, while I trigger the 'eject'." The man said as they started dealing with it. THey procured a few tools from the ship's toolbox and started disassembling the armor. The mechanic did something he didn't specify, but the entirety of the currently stiff armor that had all it's servos locked, relaxed. With that done, they started disassembling and taking off the armored plating and finally after a little while, they carefully managed to pull out Miranda's unconcsious form out of the armor, letting her lay down without moving her further. They might not have had doctors or medics, but soem of them knew first aid at least. After some discussion it was decided that Miranda current state was probably stable, so better to not move her for hte time being. The mechanic especially pointed out that if she's got a really cracked ribs, any sudden movement might finish the crack and cause the shattered rib to puncture a lung or something. So she shouldn't move until they get a medical scan done.

The rest of the people were confused on how to react to Ava's revelation. People feared ghosts, but most never met one over their lives. Ghosts were mystery to them, aside the knowledge that they were telepaths or the like. THey were nodding at her and promised to not cause any problems as they just decided to sit down and wait until the ship arrive somewhere.

"Heard you are taking us to Paradise." Mark, the representative suddenly appeared again and mentioned as he sat on a bench nearby." I'm different from most of the others. I've been on Dead Man's Rock for a long while now." He explained." The person you might want to find in Paradise is Mira Han. Be careful with that one. She's better than the other bastards around here, but doesn't make her less dangerous. She's principled htough, last I hear she very rarely goes back on a deal and she's been putting some pressure on Paradise to clean it up a lil, but the rivalry with Deadman's Port has hit her forces bad and she doesn't have the people to spare to also properly control Paradise, so there are a lot of drugdens there. You should be careful while there too, even if you don't get in a fight. People are known to slip drugs into drinks or food or anythign you mgith get there. IT's the drug runners' way of hooking up even people who don't want to deal with ti."

Mark seemed to be a decent guy. His age and way he spoke of the planet, spoke he was qutie familiar with the local situation.

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

Paradise was a good 7 -8 hours of top speeds away from Deadman's port. Even from distance the prefab buildings could be seen, it was a jungle of cheap buildings and the living conditions overall at the place didn't seem too great. There were mercenaries and pirates here of course, but even here the law of hte jungle worked. There was a hierarchy going on that wasn't too differnet from the one in Daedman's port. Ava, Nick and Miranda were nobodies here right now and they had both injured and also slaves on board. Luckily the ship had stealth and well no one could directly see what was inside it. While it didn't have a complete proper space port, they still had a decently sized landing pads to land ships at.

Out there on the streets, one could see people, acting like a metaphorical anthil. All heading somewhere, doing something. There were of course also the hookers who were selling themselves, by choice or forced because of slavery. There were different salesmen, mercs, pirates, workers of all sorts and of course drug addicts and drug merchants. It was about as lawless place as you can get." When you get your friend to a doctor here, don't trust them." Mark warned Ava with a serious face." It's not unknown for doctors here to actually sell their patients for credits or drugs or anything really. Both you and your friend would be especially valuable with your looks. If htye know of your abilities even more so." The man added and looked at hte other former slaves." As for us... well we don't plan to be leaving the ship if we can. Most of these people won't be able to go 5 minutes before htey are recaptured by someone."

[Keira Kelly]

The flight to the next city had been a long one but thankfully, it seemed Miranda's condition hadn't worsened considerably, though the fact she hadn't awoken in the several hours was still worrying Ava who had stayed at the downed doctor's side for the whole trip. It hadn't only been worry that Miranda would get worse though. The ghost hadn't exactly trusted leaving the doctor under the 'watchful' eyes of these former captives either. Some, like Mark, were level-headed enough and, from what she could feel of his mind, trustworthy enough but there were others who were.. unpredictable. Not that she felt any real malice towards their rescuers, to be sure but... they were people who had been stressed, pushed to the edge for too long. Those individuals were like caged animals, ready to snap at the first provocation or leap at any illusion of an advantage. Ava was sure if left alone in the dropship, there would be at least one that would try to take control of the ship and fly away, despite not having enough supplies to make such a flight. They would rather die running than return to the hell they had been living in.

It was good at least that Ava had mentioned what she was. That fear at least was keeping those particular people in check.. for now. Thankfully though, the rest did not seem as fearful of the ghost as they usually were to learn of deadly Psionic in their midst. The rest of these people were just.. grateful to Ava that they now had a chance at freedom. Though through everything that Ava had lived and learned in her life, and how good she was at killing, it felt good to really be saving people, saving lives rather than taking them.

Finally though, Ava felt the ship land, sensing the minute to minute events from Nick up in the cockpit. As they did, the leader of the captives, Mark, came over to talk to the ghost. She gave him a tight-lipped look. "I can read minds. I'll be able to tell if they are trustworthy or not. Where I came from.. what I've lived through my whole life... it was hell too in a way. I don't trust without reason." She gave a glance behind him, at some of the other captives before meeting his eyes again. Her frown grew to a look of distaste at hearing the way doctors on this planet acted. She was liking this trip less and less. It almost might be better to bring a doctor out to the ship. Too dangerous for two women, one of them gravely injured to roam these streets alone. She didn't even note that what the man had said was a compliment either.

She grunted. "I think it's more than just the doctors out there that we will have to watch out for, isn't it..." she said. "I think.. it feels like there is a high probability of being... what's the word.... mugged? A high probability of being mugged, at the least, if I take her out there alone." There was no way that Ava was having Nick take Miranda either; she wanted him to watch the ship.. and these captives. In his CMC armour with a nice gauss rifle, there would be very little chance of the unbalanced ones wanting to risk trying to overpower him. That left very few options.

Finally she pointed a finger right at Mark's chest. "You. You might not want to leave the ship but I need you to. You and one other. Choose someone else who can help you carry Idunn's weight comfortably." She lowered her voice. "Someone you trust inherently from your group." she added so only he could hear. "The two of you carry her. I'll be cloaked, watching your back. That way, I can keep my mask on too and make sure that no one can sneak up on you." Her expression as determined if not aggressive now. "When we get to the doctor, I can either remain cloaked.. or not if we need some... intimidation to help things along. If the doctor figures out what I am and gets any ideas to make some money off of it, well... I will know. And I can deal with them... after they help Idunn." she added threateningly with a small, devilish smile.

Her expression turned more serious. "Mark, I know you don't want to go out there. None of you do... I get that, but, I sense that you are.. a good person, an honourable person. That's why you tried to tackle me when you thought I was a guard. You are a protector. You were willing to risk your life to protect these people against those monsters. And you know I went in there, risking my life to save people too. Maybe I didn't come here for you specifically but when I came across you, I didn't leave you behind. You weren't the reason we came here. I didn't have to rescue you. But I did. Because it was the right thing to do. I wouldn't ask for any recompense for doing that, not for myself, but.. I could really use your help to save my friend." she added. "You know this place better than any of us do. And I can be of more advantage in watching your back than I can walking out in the open through a city like this. Please..." she said, knowing before he did what his answer would be.

( Up to you whether you want to play Mark as we go through the city to find a doctor or just skip right to getting to one. Or do you have ideas of Mira showing up? XD )

[rivaan]

Mark quietly and calmly listened to Ava speaking and asking him for help. Specifically help with moving her friend about, cause she wouldn't be able to both protect her unconscious companion and also carry ehr at the same time and the moment she leaves her down for a brief span of time, bad thigns could happen. He sighed, nodded and looked at hte rest of the people whogot saved from the pirates. After a moment he decided on who to call out." James, come here." The man said and a young man showed up. He looked no more than 17." This is James." He introduced the young man who just gave a polite nod." As for the task, I will help you, I've spend the majority of my life on this hunk of rock. I've been all across the different settlements in my life."

With that the two men, very carefully picked up Miranda who was still out cold. It was weird she hadn't woken up just yet, but nothing to be done until a doctor actually looks at her. Mark and James were actually really careful, especially since Mark did mention the possibility of cracked bones that could actually worsen at a moment's notice from the slightest of stress.

They slowly walked off the ship, carrying the unconscious Miranda, even in her current state, she attracted the eyes of some of the passers by as the men carried her along. Some had naturally inpure thoughts in mind, others were neutrals, some were just wondering how much a woman like her would cost. All manners of differnet thoughts, but not a single one that could be picked would be of actual compassion, pity or desire to help out. Mark was naturally aware of what most people were about. He had noticed more than a few people who moved in to probably ask if they were selling the woman and for what price. None made it to them, he suspected Ava's handywork. All of them just turned pale and walked away.

Anyways, after about 16 minutes of walking about, they found a doctor's office he knew about. The doctor wasn't really a decent person, but he could do good work as long as he was paid. And since the ghost was with them, chances of him pulling a fast one on them was slim. As soon as the doctor saw people enter he stood up from his chair that was behind his desk. For a doctor he looked nothing of hte part. He was somewhat fat, half his head was shaved clean, had a handlebar moustache, was dressed in gray leather apron that had old bloodstains that refused to be properly washed after dozens of tries and he was fixing up his pants. What was going on in his head was... well... better not say. Made that brothel back Red Mesa look like a daycare...

"Hey, if it ain't my old buddy Mark. How are ya faring, you bastard?" The presumed doctor asked, with clear contempt." Last I heard, did they was about to lynch you." He added as he took a few steps closers, studying the person they were carryig. He spotted the dried up blood and more or less figured out why they were here." Get her on the slab." He coldly stated as Mark and James did so. The doctor's name was Frank, but everybody called him Fat Frank. He was decent at his job. AS soon as Miranda was on the slab, he started the scanners. It was a tech build by himself and it did the same work as al those fancy ones at bigger hospitals on the core worlds. He had a nice gig going on here, he was teh best one to call when you wanted someone in heavy condition saved. He already was having different ideas swirl in his head as he saw the woman's condition.

:How is she?" Mark asked, with serious voice.

"She's fine... or at least will be." Frank replied and grunted at Mark." You are lucky, she's got a slight brain injury, not fatal or one that will cause long lasting effects. Will need about a day or so more to clear up without medicaments and she should be fine afterwards... Well probably. 10% case she might become a lil simpler in the head... better if you ask me. A woman like this one should be simple and easy to control. As for the rest of her, well 2 of her ribs are holding on to dear life. Even a strong enough sneeze would have made them shatter and probably puncture her lungs. Those could be fixed well enough with a dose of nanites." Frank grumbled and looked at Mark again." Can heal her alright, 30k. What ya paying with? Can you even pay??" It was clear he was asking WAY more than it was needed. He was making things hard for Mark on purpose with clear intents on keeping the woman as collateral when Mark wouldn't be able to pay. He would fix her body, maybe 'tweek' her brain a lil bit. When he got bored with her, he could sell her for a great price afterwards.

[Keira Kelly]

Just as Ava had felt from his mind, Mark agreed to her plan. The man might have been a trader, one who lived among cutthroats on this planet, but he was still an honourable man. She suspected that, had she not just saved his life and offered him the greatest chance at regaining his freedom, he still would have chosen to help anyways. She gave the older man a grateful though small smile, probably something rare for anyone to see on a ghost, especially in the middle of a mission. Mark called on a young man to join them and Ava studied him. Very young, definitely grimy.. just like all the other captives.. but that was just superficial. For a ghost that could sense minds, first impressions were often on that field rather than on simple visual inspection. Deferential, polite.. determined. That was what she could feel. Despite this James' young age, he had lived through hell here but still held an iron core. Good.

Ava gave the young man a nod of the head in greeting. "Nice to meet you, James. I'm Skadi.. though you know that, with how your group has been gossiping about me over there." she said, giving a bit of an amused smile. She had told Mark her name earlier, or at least her codename... but any information about the ghost in their midst spread like wildfire among the small group. Ava nodded as Mark spoke again. "Give me just a second before you move Idunn... I'll be right back." she said hastily, grabbing her visor off the ground and heading up to the cockpit where Nick was.

"Ni... Njor," she said, remembering the injured girl sitting in the cockpit, to drawing the attention of Nick who was sitting in the pilot's seat, still in the CMC armour. "Me and two of the former captives are going to take.. Idunn out to a doctor." she began to explain. She glanced behind her quickly, checking to make sure that nobody was eavesdropping too closely but lowered her voice anyways as she continued. "Some of these... are more than trustworthy. Like the two I'm taking with me... there are a couple though that... well, let's just say captivity and the conditions didn't leave the best impacts on their minds." she warned with a grimace. She didn't like having to be so wary of victims.... but they were what they were and she could feel their minds. "Don't take off your armour, keep your gun on you at all times.... and don't let them into the cockpit alone...."

Nick frowned through the open visor of the armour. "That bad, huh?"

Ava shrugged with one shoulder, pursing her lips. "Think... caged animal, desperate for freedom. So desperate that they might not even think about or realize the fact that they are already moving towards that freedom...." She sighed. "Only the potential threat of us here, a ghost and a soldier in armour, are keeping them in check for the moment."

Nick nodded as best he could. "Be careful out there. I know the reputation of a place like this." he replied. "Don't worry about this lot. I'll keep a good eye on them in the meantime." he added.

Ava cocked her head to the side, giving Nick a tight-lipped smile. "I'll keep in contact. Speak to you soon." She pressed two of her gloved fingers to her lips, then pointed them out in his direction, a wordless gesture that she had learned from some of the people of Kalisti. After he returned the gesture as best he could in the armour, Ava headed back to Mark, James and Miranda. Ava nodded. "Okay. We are good to go." she told them and then put her mask on. As they collected Miranda's unconscious form, Ava went over and pressed the button to open the hatch. "Just go straight to this doctor." she ordered them. "I'll be following. You won't see me but I'll keep trouble off you." she promised.

As they began to move down the ramp, Ava secured her rifle across her back and pulled her combat knife instead, as her form shimmered and vanished. She glanced back to see Nick standing in his armour in the doorway to the cockpit, his gauss rifle in hand, keeping an eye on everything. She paused one extra moment and then headed off down the ramp after the others. Once clear, she pressed some buttons to close the hatch again and began to shadow the small party. There were quite a few pedestrians around as they began to move through the city, and Ava had to try to filter through all the minds as she walked, keeping her companions in line of sight but also staying near walls and shadows where it would be hard to see the shimmer of the cloak. Some of the minds made her want to use the knife she held on the people but it wasn't worth killing just for innocent, although abhorrent, thoughts that would not be acted upon.

There were a few along the way, though, that were more interested and decided to at least approach the group, thinking these two men carrying Miranda were human traffickers. Ava could feel they intended to offer to buy her friend but.. most were... well, what would pass for businessmen on this world. They wanted to pay, they didn't want to take by force. A small consolation for a disgusting thing. Still, again, they weren't truly a threat, merely an obstacle that wasn't worth the time it would take to send them away. It wasn't worth killing. Instead, Ava sent out a small burst of Psionic energy into each one, not enough to damage or even knock unconscious, just enough to make them feel decidedly unwell and disoriented for a time.

On two occasions though, there were more aggressive men who decided to move in and take. Neither made it two steps after coming to their decisions. One took her combat knife, up to the hilt, through the back of the head. The other, took a blast of Psionic energy big enough to fry his brain. Both crumpled to the ground, any passersby glancing over, unsure of what had happened but not willing to check on the men either. What a lovely world, she thought sarcastically. It made her appreciate Kalisti even more.

Eventually though, they reached a building without any real trouble, and went inside. Ava slipped in as the door was closing, the only indication of her passage was that the door jerked just a bit open for a second, something that would have been missed unless someone was looking specifically for that. Once inside, she studied the lone man behind a desk and was instantly disgusted, both by his outward appearance and his inward thoughts. She was surprised to realize, from Mark's thoughts, that this fat man was the doctor they sought. He looked more like a... butcher. His surface thoughts though were... well, they made Ava long to silence them. But he was the only one who could help Miranda now.

She moved around behind the doctor, whose name was Fat Frank, Ava picked up from Mark's thoughts. By the time the scanners started up, Ava knew her cloak wouldn't last too much longer. She didn't want to distract this pig of a doctor though before he finished; she could hold it out a few more minutes. Thankfully, Mark prodded the pig into answering how Miranda was doing finally and Ava was relieved to hear that her friend would be okay. Slight brain injury.. That would be the concussion. Ava had felt what Miranda was feeling at first and having had experience with concussions... thanks to Lieutenant Calan's fists, Ava had been able to guess that diagnosis herself. At least it was only that.

Ava scowled at the pig's comments about women and she had to restrain herself from acting as Fat Frank continued to explain what was going on with Miranda. When he got to the fee, it was more than clear though what his game was, at least to Ava. Well, she could tell Mark figured it out right away too. How could people do this sort of thing to other people? It didn't matter though, he wanted to.

She decloaked right behind Fat Frank. She saw Mark and James' eyes go to her but Frank did not notice right away as he continued to almost taunt Mark into trying to make a deal. Ava had had enough. She was actually taller than Fat Frank, and in her glowing and masked Ghost outfit with the combat knife if her hand and the rifle over her shoulder, she knew it would be very intimidating indeed. Even more so after he heard her voice through the mask's filters. "The cost of healing her will be that you remain alive." she hissed. "As long as you don't try anything funny, that is..."

She watched placidly as Fat Frank spun around, so fast that he almost lost his balance. At seeing Ava's masked figure, he let out a shriek, not unlike the sound of a pig. His eyes flashed around, looking for escape, looking for an ally in the two men who had brought the woman in but... they didn't look surprised. She could feel that he realized that they weren't going to be allies to him in this. He had no choice but to help now... at least, for now, in order to protect his own hide. She had a feeling she would be killing him after all of this anyways though. He wasn't the type to keep quiet about what he had seen here today, even if she made him swear on his life to do so, and Ava didn't want to have to deal with him trying to sell the location of a Ghost in addition to trying to sell the beautiful though injured woman on the 'slab' as he called it. Ava spun the combat knife in her gloved hand. "Now, are you going to help her? Or shall I start learning how a dissection works..."

[rivaan]

Fat Frank had a nice gig going on here. Here in Paradise, he was the best doctor around, well he had some medical education that was true, but he was the best around because of anothe reason, medical nanobots. He had the best supply of them on Dead Man's Rock. That and his medical scanner made it that his place had the best service for healing on this whole god damned world! If people were really injured and in need of medical care, he was the only one who could take care of the worst of cases that would be otherwise fatal. This allowed him a great deal of freedom to do whatever he wanted cause no one did anything to him. If they did, they'd risk the ire of the different merks and pirates that needed his services.

He had honestly gotten used to doing whatever he pleased, at least until now when he saw a ghost behind him and he knew she was a ghost. He knew what ghosts were, at least knew enough of it. In a moment his advantages and lofty position on this world melted away at the danger of being tormented by Ava.' This psychotic bitch!' His thoughts were still in disarray. His eyes darted to the nearby desk where he had a gun and a panic button. Then realized he gave it away. Then they darted over to Miranda, wondering how to use her, but realized it wasn't possible since this woman here would deal with him before he could move a finger. After what seemed like eternity for him he finally gave in... for the moment at least. Men like these were fickle and ready to betrya you as soon as the danger was over it was in their nature.

"Fine." Fat Frank stated as he very slowly headed over to a armored locker nearby where he kept the good stuff. From the locker he very carefully puled out a container with nanites and insirted them into the machine." You reading my head right? So you know I'm going to help her now, right?" He asked as he walked over to the console and very carefully set up the needed routines into the console so it could set up the nanites programming right for her needs. When all that was done, a mechanical arm with a needle moved over to Miranda's unconscious form and stabbed in her chest one, before pulling away, then after the process with reprogramming was done, it stabbed at her head very carefully with utmost precision.

The nanites got to work right away, helping med up her nearly shattered ribs and also lowering the swelling at the side of her head that was keepign her unconscious. She was bound to wake up in a few minutes now. Fat Frank slowly pulled away from the console and pulled a smoke, looking at Ava again." So there... you got what you wanted. You gona let me be now?" The man stated, throwing angry glares at Mark mainly. It was that man who brought this madness to his head. They mutual dislike was turning into one sided hatred at this point.

It was about this point when a big number of people neared the 'doctor's office' and a group of 5 people barged in. 3 pretty huge buffed men, a guy who had a damn mean hole in his stomach that probably came from a really mean gun and a woman. The woman had pretty short spikey looking pink hair and occular implant. She looked really angry right now as she led the group inside." FRANK, GET YOUR FAT ASS HERE, GOT WORK FOR Y...a." She shouted as she barged in, but only to find that fat pig in the presence of other people. There was a woman on the slab, two men that were in some pretty old clothing and well... a ghost. This gave her a moment for pause, but it didn't last." Patch up my guy, quick. This is priority and cannot wait." She added and looked at Ava, since she assumed that Ava was the current person in charge here. It was also basically telling them to get Miranda off the slab, so they could start patching up the injured man. She didn't seem to be in the mood for opposition, especially since she had a hand on her gun already and the other 3 big guys all had pretty good guns as well. Ghosts might be dangerous, but her obys weren't slouches either, especially with uncloaked ghost and the greater number of them. Besides this was really a matter of life and death. One of her boys returned from scouting injured and the rest of the scouts were gone. It was clear something was happening and she suspected the bastards from Deadman's Port, but needed to know more before she acted out.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava could very well hear the thoughts, the insults that the fat pig was thinking in her direction. Let him think she was a psychotic maniac as long as it motivated him to do whatever she asked him to do though. As fast as his ideas of escape or fighting back came though, he would have no chance. The ideas might have been going by quickly, but his deciding on one and then the precious seconds it would take to begin to take action... well, he would have a knife through his fat head before he could take more than two or three steps. Ava's whole concentration was on him for the moment. Eventually though, the realization of the truth hit the man. There was no trying to subvert a ghost. Not in this situation anyways. So she remained standing impassively, merely spinning and twirling her knife in her hand with expert precision.

Her masked face turned to follow him as he moved over to a cabinet nearby, watching, not out of concern for his actions but to let him know that the targeting was locked on. She let out a long breath, sounding almost like a grunted hiss through the mask filters in reply. "You know what I am. Of course I am in your head." she answered with a tone of annoyance. "I know you are going to, else you'd be dead already." she added. The man's mind knew he had no other recourse right now but to play along and bide his time. He also knew that if he did anything to hurt the injured woman further, his death would not be fast nor pleasant.

She didn't watch as the machine went to work, her head still turned towards Fat Frank, her knife still twirling in her fingers. she was picking up enough from Mark and James to know that whatever was going on with Miranda was.. normal enough not to be concerned. She watched as the fat man pulled out a cigarette, glad that she had her mask on which would filter out any smoke. A disgusting habit. He asked if they would leave him alone now, if she would leave him alone. "I'll answer that after she wakes up." she replied, moving her head slightly in the direction of Miranda.

Ava really didn't have any intention of letting the man live. He was opportunistic at the best, and there was no way he was going to keep his mouth closed about this. The hate coming off the man in waves was nearly staggering but, while directed at Mark behind her, she could tell that Frank would make no moves with Ava there. Suddenly she felt something, chaos, anger... fear and pain. Really bad pain. The knife stopped twirling as it was passed off to her off-hand, her right hand going to the butt of the pistol strapped to her thigh. In close quarters like these, it was easier to maneuver than her rifle would be. She moved, slowly enough, to a position where she could see both the front door and keep an eye on Fat Frank.

Within moments, just as she had sensed, a group of people came rushing in. Upon seeing them, she could tell though that they weren't reinforcements for the doctor. He felt just as surprised to see them, and the wound in one of the men looked quite critical. The pain and fear coming off him was far from pleasant for Ava even. She felt nauseous from it, in fact, but she kept up the impassive pretense. The pink-haired woman, the obvious leader of the new group, drew Ava's attention away. Ava's own presence seemed to give the other woman pause for a second but only a second, then the woman began giving orders as if she owned the place. It was true her own guy was in much worse condition than Miranda and, there being only one bed, was in more need of it.

She turned her head half towards Mark and James. "Take Miranda off the bed." she said, issuing her own orders, moving over to Frank's nearby desk and began to push everything off of it, despite Fat Frank's objections. She turned to Frank. "You have a new patient to see to." she said to him harshly. "Put her on here." she told her own men, before turning back to watch the new group, studying them, studying their minds.

What she was picking up was interesting. Amusing. The woman thought that these handful of men could take on a ghost. She obviously did not know much about ghosts then. These were the types of men that the trainees routinely had to fight against, often multiple against one ghost. Many of these training sessions were kill or be killed as well. Had she to, Ava could have taken out this lot without breaking a sweat. But she didn't have to. Not at the moment anyways. Besides, there were innocents around and Ava did not want them to get hurt. Hmph. Rivalry with Deadman's Port... She checked Mark's mind. All right then.

She took a step closer to the woman who she was now sure was this Mira Han that both Nick and Mark had mentioned. The movement did not go unnoticed. She watched as hands went to the butt of guns but Ava didn't flinch. She merely stopped, inclining her masked head just a bit. "You are Mira Han?" she asked, getting the answer before anyone could even speak. "I've been told that you are dangerous.. but principled. You are having some issues... As am I." she said, glancing over at the injured man currently being treated by Fat Frank. Her gaze returned to Mira. "Perhaps... we can be of some help to one another..." She glanced over at Miranda, hoping her friend would wake soon, to help with.. negotiations. In the meantime though, Ava would have to try to make do.

There was doubt now in Mira Han's mind. Thoughts of why would a ghost, an Umojan looking ghost at that, be on such a planet AND be trying to broker a deal for help. Why was Umoja not backing one of its own operatives? Perhaps it wasn't truly a ghost, but someone who had somehow gotten their hands on a suit and was using it for intimidation. Ava barked a laugh at the thoughts. "I can assure you, I am what I seem but I am not associated with Umoja. Or the Dominion." she answered the unspoken thoughts. It might have been dangerous to admit that but, admitting to be backed by either and having infiltrated this bandit world would have been just as dangerous if not more so. "Did your people have something to do with the Battlecruiser attack on Deadman's port several hours ago?" she asked.

[rivaan]

Having Miranda be out of danger and stabilized properly now, Mark and James hurried to get her off the bed where the machinery was at. They carried her over to a chair nearby while the mercs hurried and put their guy on the slab instead, Fat Frank getting to work right away, knowing well enough that if he fucked this up, Mira was going to have his hide, literally. If he failed to heal the guy or if he mistook something and didn't manage to do it out of carelessness, she was literally going to tear him to pieces. She wasn't a woman to mess around with. Having arrived for a while now, she had quite the reputation.

The wounded man was already delirious and barely hanging on. It wouldn't be mistake to say he was kept alive by a absurd dose of combat drugs that were barely keeping his heart pumping through the wound. The injection of nanites came fast, causing him to finally go unconcsious and then Fat Frank also started injecting him with blood for all the blood he lost in addition to simply healing injuries. Chances were he would survive, but might take him a while.

Mira Han rose an eyebrow and looked at the ghost. Umojan tech, standard brand new off the factory newnest model canister rifle, Confederacy designs. This one was weird." I am. You are?" She confirmed her identity, it wasn't unusual for people she didn't know to know of her. This was one of these case. In either way, once thing was certain, the ghost and the unconscious woman weren't locals to Paradise. She would have at least heard of them and she was certain they weren't local to Dead Man's Rock. Same thing, a ghost of this tech would have been known or at least romoured about on this dead chunk of rock and Ava wasn't.

At the obvious confirmation of her ghost status, Mira narrowed her eyes slightly as she listened to Ava's explanation." Quite obvious, neither Confederacy nor Umojan ghost would risk infiltrating here and actually revealing themselves, leaving any witnesses alive... nor arrive with non ghost companions." Han stated as she glanced at Mark, James and of course Miranda." Though I guess Confederacy is done for and I should say Dominion now. Second verse same as the first if not worse."

"No, we didn't." Was her brief reply as she threw a glance at the wounded man who was currently recuperating at the slab. The wound was healing at rapid pace, but it was honestly not certain about his survival. He had lost an absurd amount of blood in the process and the transfusions weren't a perfect solution neither were the nanites. Even with those it was possible to die. Now the question was if his body would survive the shock of the rapid healing, the cellular activity and of course the lack of the combat drugs he was basically drowned in initially." That was the work of the bastards from Deadman's Port. Lately they've started taking out some of the independent groups that reside around the settlement and aren't under their direct control, but this one was different. Those pirates apparently had taken something from one of the ships they raided... My guy on the slab was undercover in the Deadman's Port forces. By the time he managed to escape form them and return, he was already in beyond the ability to speak properly. All we got was that there was something big or bad or big and bad that the forces from Deadman's Port took from the pirate hideout before they proceeded to finish blowing it up." The mercenary leader explained for some reason. She felt like socializing and she had heard over the grape vine that there were other people present during the attack... Given the ghost knew, logic stated it was probalby her and co.

"Should he survive, we shall get the informaiton, but if the fact that the O'Banon's guys were willing to chase him into our turf and suffer heavy loses in an attempt to finish him before he could speak, in itself speaks volumes. Whatever it is, it's going to be really important." Mira stated and stared at Ava for a moment." You wouldn't happen to be able to pick up on his thoughts or the like even while he's unconscious? Willing to repay you good for that info." It was a longshot , but she had to ask.