SC - Fugitives

[Keira Kelly]

Ava blushed when she realized it had to be more than obvious at what had gone on between the ghost and the merc before Miranda had returned, realizing that the doctor knew. At least, her friend didn't voice anything comments, either mentally or verbally. Ava was relieved at that. She had very little knowledge on the social etiquette of such things but... as she had had very little experience of others sharing stories of such things, she assumed it was something best kept between her and Nick, and she was fine with that.

When Miranda headed off to her room for a minute, Ava took the opportunity to duck back into her own room, slipping back into her more familiar environmental suit. She had felt too.. vulnerable only in that robe, despite the suit showing more of her figure. The robe though was just very unfamiliar. She felt.. safer in her suit. She paused beside the bed, putting a hand on Nick's chest as she knelt. He woke up at the contact, looking over at her groggily. She kissed the side of his face. "Miranda just got back. I'll be out there, talking to her." she told him in a whispered voice. "You can keep sleeping if you like." She picked up a thought, a worry from him. "Don't ever think that... I couldn't think of a better place to sleep than right beside you. I got up cause I'm hungry and I wanted to find out what's going on with that stealth core... But mostly because I'm hungry." she told him with a grin.

Nick groaned. "You had to remind me about food.. How long's it been since we last ate?" he said, waking up more.

"At least twelve hours..." she answered.

Nick rubbed at his eyes. "Yeah, I'll get up... Need to go have a shower though..."

Ava gave him a quick kiss. "Okay, we'll be out there and see about starting to get some food going in the meantime." she told him before heading out of the room and back to where Miranda was coming out of her own room. She listened to Miranda explain about the generator. She couldn't even begin to imagine how Protoss and Terran tech could be connected in any way, understanding very little of engineering or technology, but.. it sounded like they didn't like being combined. "Well, that's good that it's working better... and sounds very good that Alexander is confident about it." she said. "The pub sounds like it would be the most logistical building.." she agreed.

Ava just started to frown at the news about Alexander's wife. Again, this was something her knowledge was very.. very foggy about, both the impact to a family unit and the.. how's of it all too. That.. was a scary thought though: that Elene was now growing what would likely one day become a person inside of her. The thought of doing that herself one day was even more scary. Ava had read enough of her sister's ghost record to know what had happened to their mother. What Sarah had done to her.... Bringing a child into the universe was terrifying enough, a psionic child even more so. Not just the risk of what the child might do in a fit of childish anger, but... also being a psionic was not pleasant a lot of the time. How could she force that one someone else? On a child? If she ever did have a child, would it be psionic too? Considering though that she was a class ten on the Psi Index, it was probably likely. "That.. is a good thing? Her having a child?" she asked, feeling Miranda's happiness for Elene.

Right in the middle of that, Nick exited Ava's room, clothed in what he used for pyjamas, about to head for the washroom where the shower was located but hearing what Ava said stopped him in his tracks. "Wait, someone's having a child?" he asked.

Ava could feel a flash of worry flood through Nick for an instant and then she suddenly realized, from his thoughts, some of the how's. Oh. She looked over at him. "Elene, Alexander's wife." she explained.

Relief flooded through the merc and he smiled sincerely, as he looked over at Miranda. "If you see them again before I do, give them my congratulations." he told her. His eyes flicked to Ava for a moment. "I.. am going to go have a shower. I'll be back in a bit.." he said, hurrying off to do so.

Ava turned her attention back to Miranda, the curious frown still on her face. "Children.. like to have other children around? Do they not.. compete for the affection and attention of the parents?" she asked. That made her wonder: how had Sarah felt about her? Ava had been much too young to remember Sarah but.. Sarah must have remembered.. something of Ava... Unless the Ghost Academy had taken that from her too, Ava thought, recalling Miranda's testimony on mind wipes.

When Miranda pulled out a crystal, Ava looked over it before looking back at Miranda and nodding that she remembered. Her jaw dropped to hear where this crystal had come from. "Their crystals can be.. regrown?" she asked in surprise. That was.. that was... efficient. Need more memory, more data crystals, just break one and grow more. Her jaw dropped even more to hear that the shield one could be expanded on as well. "Seriously?! Wow... Hmm.. I wonder if the Umoja had realized that they could do that...." she trailed off, really wondering if maybe they had.. Maybe that's why this particular shield unit hadn't been that strong. "Did they give us this one because it was a weakling compared to ones they grew?" she asked, knowing Miranda would have picked up her thinking about the Umoja.

"Oh, right... the other thing...." she piped up. "I don't know if you ate over at Alexander's place but.. we haven't eaten yet..." She gave an impish look. "Am I making dinner again?" Last time, there had been some easy things for her to throw together to cook, but now... Truth be told, with them having been gone at least a week or so, she wasn't even sure what there was to make, nor if she could make anything palatable with what there was.

[rivaan]

Miranda found the confusion on Ava's face about Elene's new child adorable." Not always, Ava. Sometimes they will compete, sometimes they will simply love each other. Many children actually long to have brothers and sisters. The competition is not a thing that always happens." She explained it to the ghost with a warm motherly smile on her face. In this case Alexander and Elene having another child was a great thing. They loved each other so very much and this was just a proof of the existance of said love and a manifestation of it. Miranda could see the joy in the woman's demeanor and the pride of Alexander about it too.

"Yeah they can be grown... or rather Alexander said it grew on it's own as he was experimenting with it." Miranda explained iwht a shrug." Apparently he was supplying it with energy to run test, exposing it to other substances and running some experiments when he noticed it was slowly getting bigger. So he just left it in the experiment enviroment and the shard regrew back into what a normal data crystal form should be." She added as how the man explained it to her." Though he said after that it didn't grow or anything anymore. He mentioned it might be linked to the crystal itself and it's original purpose. Those were very simple and small data crystals. He said that the one from the core appeared way more complex on both molecular level and on energy readings. We shall see if he has any advance on that in a couple of weeks." Miranda was actually hopeful about this. If Alexander managed to get the shield running properly and it actually fixing itself in advance, they could protect this colony from a lot of danger. That and it could prove of a lot of avenues for research of their very own separate from Umoja itself. For example Miranda was still itnerested in shielding the ships or even personal shields, but those required power they couldn't provide. Maybe if eventually they figure out how to tap into the protoss energy warp network they use to power up everythin they have, they could also use THAT to power the ship shields and personal ones.

"Who knows. They could very well be testing it too, but one cannot say." Miranda replied to the Umoja question." Alexander did mention that it's unlikely that they are actively growing those crystals. He added that if he hadn't stumbled on the path by accident, he would have never noticed it otherwise. Anyways, honestly can't be certain how they got the crystals or if they have more and how many. For us this is not a question we can afford to try to answer anymore, since well we better not get close to Umoja naymore, for our safety sake."

"..." Miranda gave her a look as if saying ' Do you want to get rid of the guy for good so soon?', in a comedic manner, but she wasn't really thing it. SHe shook her head and smiled at Ava, pulling the bags she brought with ehr and in specific a big sealed box from it." here's some food that Elene cooked and send for you and Nick." She said and handed Ava the box. It was big and even thoguh it was well sealed, one could sense the faint scent of food. It was a stew of sorts and the plastic sealed box contained enough for at least 3 servings. She also brought out another box with salad, ready and prepared, just needing to be put to plates as well." I helped her out with the cooking. While talking, so we ended up preparing a bit too much." She smiled and gave Ava the serious expression." If you want... I can teach you to cook, you know."

[Keira Kelly]

Ava bit her lip as she thought about Miranda's answer. That was something else the Confederacy had taken away from her. Ava was really only just starting to understand what love was: valuing someone more than oneself but were still an equal to. At least, that's where platonic love ended, from what she had figured out. Would she and Sarah have had that sort of relationship if the Confederacy hadn't taken them both? Had Sarah wanted a sibling? Had she been excited to find that Ava was to be born? Had she helped their mother care for Ava after she was born? She sighed, wishing she knew answers to those questions, but... she resigned herself to the fact that it was high unlikely that she would ever be able to find out.

The information about the crystals worried the ghost just a bit. Items that could grow themselves like that, especially alien ones, were an unknown. Who knew what they could do on their own, what they might have truly been meant for? Something like that could easily grow out of control... or perhaps grow dangerously for an ulterior purpose. "Are you sure.. that it's safe to be playing with these crystals like that?" she asked hesitantly. She let out a deep breath at the Umoja stuff. "I guess they aren't.. exactly our enemy right now anyways, so I suppose it doesn't matter if they have some more or not." she decided with a shrug. "Let's just hope they were true in their words that the Dominion is an ally in name only... and they don't decide to help outfit Mengsk's army with hybrid tech..."

The answer to her jokingly asking about making dinner made Ava grimace and smile. "Yeah... that's why I don't try to cook..." she answered the unvoiced reply. The box that Miranda retrieved surprised the ghost and the faint smell coming from it... made her stomach remind her how hungry she was. She cracked it open, peering in to see what it was and the thick scent of it was nearly overwhelmingly good. She got up and began to get bowls and plates, ready to dish out whenever Nick finished his shower. She would at least wait for him before digging in. At Miranda's final comment, Ava looked back at the doctor with a beleaguered expression. "You did try already.... Remember how well that went?" she answered with a wince.

( Um.. I'm thinking we should likely do a bit of a time skip here... Did we want to get to the rescue mission at this point? Considering that one is likely on a ticking clock anyways...)

[rivaan]

~~~~~~~ one week later ~~~~~~~~

"Alright people, time's running short already." Miranda called as Deadman's Port, the main settlement on Dead man's rock was already in view. The place was a hellhole. It was 'build' on top of the countless husks of old vessels piled over the years. Completely lawless, this was the ideal hide away for anyone that wanted to not be reached by the major terran factions. Ships of all sizes and types could be seen moving on to and from it. Some were basically impossible to recognize the models anymore, others seemed more factory designes and there were some that just seemed like a complete mess of parts stuck together and held by good wishes and ducktape. Pirates, smugglers and mercenaries, these were the people who ran this place. Civilians here were little more than slaves most of the time.

"Running out of time, so this will be a hot drop." The doctor exaplined as she was navigating the prototype dropship towards the settlement before she slowly made a turn to the side of it." The agent the employer dispatched in advance has located the hideout of our targets." Miranda explained as she pulled the holo screens to display the location on the map." What remains of a battlecruiser is the pirate's base. Likely air power consists of a number of old fighters, dropships and possibly a bigger freighter modified for combat. The ships are usuall ydeployed out to perform piracy, so we shouldn't encoutner any for the moment. Our stealth generator should buy is an easy way to the ship. Nick, take teh controls." Miranda called for the man as she moved away from the controls and allowing him to take them isntead. In the meantime she activated the stealth as she moved away from the consoles. She was already dressed up in her CMC armor, it was freshly mended and repainted so it was once more black, this time it wasn't shiny black though, it was matted black color with a golden apple on one of the shoulders and a red cross on the other. The dropship itself had also been repainted, courtesy of Alexander while htey were to Umoja. The dropship was also now black with some dark grays.

Inside the cargo space of the prototype ship, the vulture bike was secured on one side, with a crate of supplies next to it. Stuff like ammo both for the ship and for them." Ava, you are going in first. We shall not even break stealth, as soon as we are over the hideout, we shall lower the ship just enough for you to jump down there. Your goal is to locate the girl first and foremost. Deaths among the pirates are allowed, but stealth is preferred to ensure the target's safety." Miranda explained the mission details on this to Ava in the form of a improv briefing before hotdrop." Once target is secure, we will meet at a designated exit from the hideout, pick you up and leave. Ideally without a shot ever being fired." This was teh ideal optimistic outcome." Alright, daydreaming aside... we shall stay hidden on the outside, under the cover of the stealth. Will land upon the husk to transfer all power from the engines to the generator to boost up operational time. Should a fight do break out, I'm going to follow you in and serve as a distraction."

"You got it all?" The doctor added as she tossed Ava an additional spare clip of canister rounds, explosive ones." Just in case... also... there's a high chance that our target aside, there will be a number of other captives or slaves kept in the ship... Wether we save them or not, I will leave the choice in your hands as the person who's at the location. We can afford to save some people. The dropship has a good capacity, 2 dozens or so people should be easy fit, a lil tight one, but easy fit non the less. Anyways... keep contact at all times." Miranda said with concern as she looked the ghost over." Also... be careful." Miranda said as she walked back to the pilot seat, taking the controls from nick again as they were above the ship now. There were no sensor towers or missile turrets or any AA defense of any kind around. This ship's husk was probably their secret temporary hideout. Without breaking the stealth, Miranda lowered the ship and opened the hatch, to allow Ava to jump out. She waited until the ghost was deployed and slowly started to fly the ship above the battlecruiser husk until she found a nice place she can land on top of it. Once hte landing gear touched the hull and the ship was landed, she lowered the engines and focused all power to the shield generator instead, extending the operation time and waiting for News from Ava." Nick, you keep track of the sensors." The doctor said as she walked back to the cargo space and sat down on a bench, checking the guassrifle fo hers.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava was just finishing fitting her armour in place back in the rear of the dropship when she heard Miranda call out. She pulled on her final gauntlet then checked to make sure her pistol was on one hip, combat knife on the other. Her visor resting on top of her head, she did a quick test of the cloaking unit, just to be sure it was functioning smoothly before turned it off and grabbing her rifle and heading up to the cockpit. She stopped as she got her first view of their destination. "Damn..." she muttered, seeing all the... junk. People lived like this? This place might as well have been a massive junkyard. Then again, those were dead ships down there so it WAS a massive junkyard.

She only then glanced over at Nick, who was currently in the co-pilot's seat, returning a small smile as he gave her one. Most of her own insecurities about him had disappeared in the past week, as their relationship had gone up to a new level. She had opened up to him in a way she had never with anyone else and he was still here. He still loved her. That emotion was something else she had come to understand, on a visceral level. She had opened herself to that emotion as well and she found life all the sweeter for it.

As Miranda began to speak though, Ava's focus centred completely on the doctor as they got down to the pre-mission briefing, her mine switching completely into work mode as she listened. They had gone over much of this on the way in but it never hurt to go over again, especially right before drop time, so that details were fresh in the mind. She frowned as she studied the map. Remains of a battlecruiser... Now that could prove tricky. Who knew what sort of maze of twisted metal and bulkheads that might be. But she was a ghost and infiltration was something she had trained for since she was a child. "Well, if you do encounter enemy craft, tell me... If I can get a shot, I can help take them down. The C-10 has enough range and I do have anti-armour shots with it. Got a few EMP and lockdown shots too if needed." she said to both of them. Her lockdown shots were even more limited than the EMP ones, from their raid on a supply base months before but, it at least it was an option. "I was also a pretty good shot on fast moving targets at the Academy."

Miranda handed off the controls to Nick, indicating that Ava should follow her back to the rear of the ship. Ava paused for just a moment to bend over beside the pilot's seat and give Nick a kiss, quick enough that it didn't distract his flying.. to much. "You be safe up here." she told him in a soft voice.

"You be safe down there. You're probably going to be closer to the danger." he answered back.

"No, I will BE the danger down there." she replied with a crooked smile. "Just... see you soon." she said before heading back where Miranda had gone to. She nodded as Miranda spoke, giving objectives to follow while the ghost made sure to stock up on clips of the usual ammo for her canister rifle, hooking them onto her belt along with the specialty clips. For being a doctor, Miranda sounded a lot like the instructors in the more advanced simulated training scenarios. But that was a good thing as far as Ava was concerned. "Affirmative." she confirmed the conditions of killing. Though Miranda hoped that they could get through this mission without inflicting casualties, Ava had no such delusions.. nor qualms about it. If she had to kill, she would kill. That was nothing new, and she knew how to kill smartly.

Ava frowned at the conclusion of the brief. "If this place tries to stay defensible from the Dominion.. or the Confederacy in the past, I wouldn't put it past them to have some form of anti-air, maybe even missile turrets with detectors somewhere in all this junk. Just... be careful, all right?" It wasn't just Nick she was concerned about, nor did she worry that if the dropship was taking out, it took out her only way to extricate. Miranda was her friend and she didn't want to see anything happen to the doctor either.

The ghost caught the clip that Miranda threw out of the air, attaching it to the last free slot on her belt and nodded. "I've got it." she said, totally no-nonsense now. Her mind was already running through scenarios, tactics, her senses ramping up to keep tabs on everything around her. Her telepathy was reaching out, becoming a form of radar for her now which eked out any non-mission related thoughts. Well that was something she hadn't even thought of though. "Other captives?" she asked but then nodded. "If I can, I'll try but, if I can't.. they are optional objectives. Roger. Priority is the primary objective." she said as she pulled her visor down over her eyes, double checking it was working, before extending it into its full mask. "Roger, will keep in contact. Ghost reporting." she said, her voice coming through the mask speaker now. "Ready to deploy."

As Miranda headed back to the cockpit, Ava turned to the cargo bay doors, waiting. She could feel the adrenaline rushes of her companions, the excitement and worry of the upcoming mission, perhaps even more strongly right now that she was actively scanning with her mind, and it was affecting her. She had to struggle to keep her own heart rate from rising. This was another reason why ghosts were often put into the field by themselves or in small groups with other ghosts. As they flew, she could feel people.. below, on the ground. No indications that they were being noticed at all but there was fear and desperation here. After a moment, there seemed to be a lack of minds they were moving close to. And then there were some faint hints of minds.

The ship suddenly shuddered lightly, and then a warning light sprang on right before the hatched began to open. She immediately activated her cloak. The ground was about two meters below but Ava easily jumped to the ground, feeling the shock of the landing on metal absorbed through her armoured combat boots. She froze though at the loud clang the landing had made. No, no minds alerted. She flipped open the comms to the dropship. "Skadi is on the ground." she said and an instant later, the deep vibrations and roar of the dropship engines rose away and it became silent around her. She looked around, taking her bearings. The obvious husk of a battlecruiser was a few hundred meters away so she quickly began moving in that direction, rifle held at the ready and having to jump and skirt all sorts of junk, being careful at times not to skewer herself on rusted, torn metal.

Eventually, she made it to the ship, though moving around to the side where the contact had shown them what was likely the easiest point of entry was difficult at best. Ava had to climb over bits of other ships to reach the location. Still, this hatch apparently was the best choice, the others either being more often used by the pirates or so twisted by whatever had damaged this massive ship that it rendered the door unusable. Time to do a test. She found a suitable spot to hunker down, one where no one would walk by mistake but well within sight of the chosen hatch. Before heading to it though, she quickly banged once on the metal of the door, using her psionically-enhanced strength to power it. Her armoured gauntlet contacting the door with that much force set a reverberating clang echoing. That done, Ava retreated to her observation spot and waited to see if she had managed to kick an anthill. Odd phrase... One that she had picked up from Nick.

She waited, for one minute, two... three. Nothing. No minds that she could feel moving closer, no one alerted in her range. She took a deep breath, giving it another few moments before she rose, going back to the door once more. Shouldering her rifle, she gripped the manual release wheel on the door with both her armoured fists and set to trying to open it. Eventually, with a strained shriek of metal, it began to turn and the door swung open. Her rifle was immediately in her hands again, pointing into the dark depths of the inside of the cruiser. Still nothing. She opened the comms again. "Skadi is heading inside." she informed the others.

Moving inside, and away from the open doorway, the halls grew to pitch black, making Ava grateful for her visor. This Umojan one was even better than her old one had been, which would have been grainy at best in this dim of lighting. She moved through the dark hallways, eventually coming to a T-intersection where dim light was coming from one of the branches and followed it. Yes, there were more minds here. Quite a few concentrated. One hundred? Maybe two hundred... More than she had expected. It looked like maybe they had brought in their whole crews of their pirating fleet to guard this captive. Yeah, getting into a firefight against so many would be.. bad to say the least. She paused to bring up the comms again. "What's the sitrep up there? It's an... anthill down here but quiet for now." she said before moving on.

Further in, Ava paused, hearing the sounds of boots on the deck moving towards her. Then stopping, and moving back. A guard? Yes, the mind showed the guy was bored out of his mind. His thoughts were on women and gambling. There were other minds very nearby too but they were chaotic. She was about to move forwards towards the guard when a voice called out, muffled at moving through metal.

"Let's us out of here! You have no right to keep us in here! We're refugees!" it cried.

There was a sharp clang, a weapon butt hitting a metal wall. "Keep it down or we won't bother to feed you!" the guard called back.

Ava could hear the rest that the man wanted to voice but didn't. 'You're all just here to work for us anyways. We don't need all of you, just enough to get the others to fall in line.' was the thought. Hm. Well, Miranda had said there might be captives. She moved cautiously forward till she could see the guard around a corner and paused, reaching out her mind into his, trying to find any hints of where the objective was being kept. Nothing, he wasn't thinking about that. Damn. Would have to do this the harder way then. She shouldered her rifle, drawing her knife instead.

Keeping to the side of the man, she flanked up close to him, the cloak hiding her from obvious notice. As she drew close, she suddenly reached out, grabbing the man in a bear hug encircled by her armour and at the same time, sending a light psionic bolt of energy into his mind, enough to stun from calling out. She dragged him back into the black hallways, finding a nice nook a good enough distances away from the light. Just as the man began to regain his senses, she let him down, pressing her combat knife to his neck, knowing he could see nothing but he would feel at least that.

"Don't move, don't make a sound." she warned, the mask making her sound so much more inhuman and threatening, especially in this darkness. "Where is the girl you are holding for ransom?" When he failed to answer right away out of sheer fear, she pressed the knife just a bit harder. The man gasped. "Answer me!" The man suddenly decided that even if it cost him his life, he wouldn't betray his people. Well, at least he wouldn't betray them intentionally. He had thought of where the girl was.

"I won't tell you anything." he growled.

A harsh back of a laugh came through the mask. "Too late. You already did." Ava answered, pulling her knife across his neck, deep enough to not only sever the arteries and veins abut also to sever the trachea below the voice box, making it impossible for the man to make a sound as he died in the pitch blackness. "Got a location on the objective." she said over the comms. "There are... optional objectives here as well.." she added, keeping it vague enough in case someone was able to hack their communications. She could almost hear Nick asking Miranda what the 'optional objectives' were.

Ava moved back towards the door the man had been guarded, stopping beside it. Yes, she could feel more than a dozen minds within. She could let them out now but.. it would be near pointless with the only exit currently being back through a maze of dark corridors. Either she would have to lead them and lose precious time.. and maybe the element of surprise, or let them wander blindly in the dark. Not an option. She would leave them here and, if possible, on the way back out, she would try to free them.

Decided, she moved further into the ship, having to find ways to descend to lower decks. The target was being held in the heart of the ship, where these pirates had deemed her the most safe from retrieval efforts. Getting there had proved to be a challenge. It was true her cloak made her invisible but.. there was faint shimmers to the air where she moved, signs that could be noticed if someone happened to look in that direction and knew what to look for. She had no idea if any of these pirates did but.. she didn't want to take any chances, so she skirted a lot of patrols and guards instead of trying to slip by them, close to them. Eventually though, she came to what used to be the brig of the ship. It was even more heavily guarded.

There was at least three, well armed people, one woman and two men, all a rough looking bunch, standing outside of a door that read BRIG. Ava could easily kill all three but with the regular patrols moving around, it would definitely set off alarms. Well, wounds from knives or bullets would set off alarms.... Maybe a medical issue would be different. Finding a niche to hide in, Ava focused on the women. Focused her psionic abilities, strengthening it... getting ready... She unleashed a blast of psionic energy out at the woman's mind. With all the practice she had done on the wolves on Kalisti, she was able to control it fairly well; powerful enough to damage the woman's mind. What the other two guards saw though was the woman simply drop. One of the others went to her aid, the other had weapon up, scanning the surrounding halls for a threat.

The one checking on the woman called to the other. "Hey, there' something wrong with Mag. She's unconscious but I.. don't see anything wrong." He pulled open her eyelids, checking them. "Oh Sh**.... one pupil's bigger than the other.... Doesn't that mean brain injury?"

"Did she hit her head on the deck?"

The first one was already standing, trying to pull the fallen woman up and trying to get the other to help. "Does it matter? Could be an aneurysm or maybe she fainted and got a brain bleed! I don't know. We need to get her to the doctor though! Put that gun down and help me carry her!" he sad, almost frantic sounding.

Ava watched as they both grabbed the woman and began to carry her away down the hall and out of sight. Just as they did, she could hear one of them click a radio on, reporting that they were having to leave their post and to have someone fill in. Damn. Time limit. She moved to the door of the brig and eased it open, peering in. It was a long thin hall within, line with a handful of cells. In the middle of the hall though, at the far end, was a man with his back to Ava. She slipped in, closing the door silently behind her.

"Noooooooo!" came a decidedly female scream of terror.

"Complain all you want. We need proof of life for 'Daddy'. He hasn't paid up and time is running out. We need to send him a reminder.." growled the harsh, raspy voice of the man.

Suddenly his arm moved and there was a shriek of agony that ripped through the brig. Ava stumbled, not at the sound but the mental wave of terror and pain that was near to overwhelming. It felt like her own right hand was on fire and she dropped her rifle. She looked up, zooming in with her visor just in time to see the man hold up a bloody finger. Disgusted and angry at the sight, Ava roared as she stood, her own hand going out towards the man who started to turn at the unexpected sound. Though perhaps fifteen meters distance, Ava's psionic power had no trouble crossing the distance. The man's head lolled back, blood running from his eyes, ears and nose as he fell over backwards. His head made a crack sound as it impacted.

Grabbing her rifle up, Ava moved quickly to cover the distance. She didn't bother with the man. He was dead, his brains liquified in his own head. She turned though to a girl mostly tied up to a chair. The girl was perhaps.. twelve or thirteen, and she was shivering with pain, tears streaking down her face. It broke Ava's heart to see that, to see her hand, strapped down to a small but heavy table and covered in blood. Ava decloaked and watched the terrified eyes turn to her. She lowered her rifle, shouldering it again. "It's all right..." she began but realized that the sound through the mask was only making the girl more scared. She took it off, letting the girl see her. "It's all right, I'm here to rescue you. You're father sent me." she explained.

The girl's teeth were chattering in shock from the pain. "Daddy?" she questioned.

Ava confirmed it was so as she quickly went to work releasing the girl from all the bonds. When she was done, she watched the girl holding her injured hand close to her but trying to be careful not to let the wound where half of her pinky finger had once been touch anything. It was still pumping a lot of blood. Damn. Ava turned to the dead pirate, using her knife to quickly cut off a good sized chunk of his shirt and then used that to wrap up the girl's finger tightly. "I know it hurts but hold this tight against the wound." she ordered the girl. The girl was barely listening, slipping into shock. Ava jostled her, getting her attention back. "Listen to me! Hold that against the wound. I know it hurts but do it!" she nearly yelled, just to get through the shock to her.

She was about to turn back towards the brig door when she felt more minds coming closer. Only two. Replacements for the previous guards. But the previous ones had had radios so more than likely these did too... and opening the door would draw their attention. Not a good place to be. She needed a distraction. She activated her comms. "Skadi to Idunn. Now would be a good time to... kick the anthill." she said. "Draw them aft if you can." she added. The entrance she had used was at the fore of the battlecruiser so it would be better if as many of the enemy as possible went the opposite direction. Especially if she was going to stop at that room of captives as well.

[rivaan]

"Suit up in the meantime." Miranda told Nick. She couldn't have the only other person in teh ship run around without battlegear on." We've got a lil bit of time before Ava needs to be Evaced." The doctor added as she finished maintenance on her gauss rifle. She put it in the holster of the CMC armor and moved to the pilot cabin while she waited. The ship was neatly stealthed, and the power was holding steady." I will be darned, Umoja has really outdone themselves this time with this ship." Luckily the Dominion or the Confederacy didn't have some of these, they would have steam rolled a lot of the neutral planets or each other in this case. A dropship with a stealth generator of this scale and precision. ADmittedly Alexander's expertise had made it even better than a simple prototype. The fact they got it along with the man, dealt a major blow to both the Dominion and Umoja.

Meanwhile while she didn't say it, she was keeping with the ghost's progress and thoughts. Though it was taking some focus to keep as the distance grew further. Never hte less she could still sense the ghost's presence and mind strongly enough. While that was going on, something came on the sensor range. The pirate ships were returning. The modified freighter and it's fighter escort. The freighter aside, there were 4 older fighters, not wraiths. She couldn't recognize the models so either they were extremely old by this point, or they were jurry rigged by the locals which was also a possibility. After all Wraiths were the standard developped craft from the old Confederacy and it quickly spread out for it's advantages. In a normal dropship, she wouldn't be sure they could outperform a fighter, even one like those ones, but with this ship, she was pretty certain she could keep up if a fight broke out. It wasn't a mistake to say this ship was more of a gunship rather than a simple dropship. The weapons on this one, deserved to be called gunship weapons. They had missiles and high caliber rapid fire guns as well.

Not a moment too late, Ava's voice came over the comms." Affirmative, Skadi, however be aware, the enemy air contingent has just returned." Miranda's voice was heard over the comms." Continue forward with the plan. We shall draw them towards the aft of the ship. Nick, we are entering combat!" Miranda called as teh ship's engines came to life with a low purr rather than a roar. A proper stealth ship had nicely tuned engines to lower sound.

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

The crew had just returned with a rather big haul this time around. Scars's crew had just earned them a good deal of credits and loot! He couldn't hear the end of it since Jack's crew captured that lil broad. Every time they met it was about how much money the girl would bring the operation. He was sick of it. Since this time his crew went for the raiding, they managed to snag an actual honest to god freighter loaded to the brim with credits and minerals meant as taxes for the new Dominion core worlds. They had just made so many credits they could buy a bunch of new ships and gear!

Now that htey had finally returned back home, they could now focus on spending all this money! Finally he wouldn't have to go out to raid for a good deal of time with the ammount of credits he would get. His mouth was starting to water when he thought of all the good food and booze he could get. The gambling he'd do and of course the women. He was going to go to the finest brothels at Deadman's port and get the best girls and maybe even multiple at ones! This was the moment he was waiting since he joined the operation.

Suddenly he heard a weird sound and turned around along with the rest of his mates as they were all unloading the freighter off the loot. He was shocked and surprised as teh air trembled in front of the hangar as something black appeared in the air. It looked like a dropship, but distinctly bigger! He didn't have time to think about it, as he noticed the two big guns on the ship suddenly came to life, delivering a devastating hail of bullets at all of them. Madness and chaos erupted right away everywhere. The freighter was turned into a swiss cheese and one of the landed fighters was bascially cut into two by the rapid firepower and then exploded.

Scar was thrown to the side from the blast as two of their fighters managed to escape the initial salvo and attempt to fly up, but the attacking ship suddenly fired out a salvo of missiles that brought them down before they could even make it 3 feet off the ground. This was madness, what manner of ship was this!? Who was attacking them!? They payed the warlords of Deadman's port well to not be attacked by them! Was this someone else!? But this wasn't a ship he'd seen before!. After the fighters were brought down, the ship continued to fire up it's weapons, killing and destroying everything in the hangar. But the rest of their ships would be back soon to take it out! There was no way it could take out a bigger number of fighters in a dog fight!

Scar was hiding behind a huge metal crate as the sound of gunfire finally stopped, the attacking ship's guns red from the heat. Then it confirmed it was a dropship as it's cargo hatch opened and something big jumped down from it. it was a CMC armor. These pirates didn't really have much CMC armors. All of the ones they had were given to the boss and his direct henchment. With the marine finally on the ground, the ship shimmered out in the air and vanished again.

Scar was holding his weapon, an high caliber rifle, now imagining how good he would be rewarded if he took out this marine. He may even get to keep the gauss rifle! But as he was salivating over the idea of shooting the marine in the back when he passes by him, something happened. He heard a metal sound clack by him and saw a grenade." FUC......." His curse was cut short by the explosion that finally killed him.

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

"Nick, keep the stealth up and get the ship to Ava's evac position! After that head for our initial landing location." Miranda ordered as she pulled out her gauss rifle and charged forward, having just tossed a grenade to deal with a pest behind the crates. He could recognize the logo on the crates. It was a regular transport company from the frindge worlds. They often transported taxes and the like from the smaller planets. There was also a reason why she send Nick away and that was the small fact that there was a vulture bike quietly waiting at one corner, that wasn't actually turned to smithereens. But first... she had work to do. She readied her gauss rifle as she charged towards the corridor leading deeper into the base from the hangar. Just in time as a group of people dressed in armors that were basically pieces of scrap metal tied to their clothing were running towards the hangar, wielding a variety of balistic weapons and still no gauss rifles.

Miranda readied her shield to her front, lined up her rifle and started walking forward as she fired in short bursts, turning hte lightly armored people into chuncks of flesh as she did so. She stopped firing only when she heard the distinct clang of power armored feet running across the metal floors of the crashed battlecruiser. She right away tossed a number of grenades as she started walking backwards and keeping up the covering fire until the grenades exploded, causing vast devastation in the old corridors of the ship. Metal jutting, sparks from old cabling being torn and all the good stuffs. She then made a dash for the vulture and hopped onto it. It was certainly rundown one... She wasn't planning to use it much, but it would bring her where she needed to and niftily it came with actual mines. Sadly weren't spidermines, but regular anti vehicle ones. Still would do, she tossed them behind herself as she sped up out of the hangar, making a brief airtime as the hangar was a few meters aboveground.

"Nick, Skadi, status report!" Miranda called as she sped up the vulture along the side of the BC, noting the distinct signs of black dots on the horizon. Something big was headed their way and there wasn't much before it arrives. Either these people called in reinforcements OR they were also being attacked by another band of pirates, mercs or just the warlords deciding they would profit more of they took over their operations. Any of those was bad for their lil group, so they had to hopefully escape soon.

[Keira Kelly]

"Right!" Nick called back as he squirmed to get comfortable in the pilot's seat. Well, comfortable in this CMC armour sitting in the pilot's seat, that was. He had a lot of hours in the marine armour, of course, but it had been a while since he had last suited up. Just would take a few minutes of getting used to again. He had more important things to worry about though than a little discomfort as he kept the ship hovering low to the ground. "Be careful out there, Miranda!" he added quickly as he split his attention between her exiting the ship, keeping the ship level and watching for enemies. As soon as Miranda was clear, he rose the dropship up, closing the hatch and snapping the cloak back on before heading towards Ava's evac zone.

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

As Ava waited with the poor victimized girl, the ghost could feel the pain and fear as thick as the blizzards on Kalisti. Thankfully, it wasn't the worst that she had ever felt, so she could deal with it. She just wished she could do something to help this poor child. She could also feel a sense of shattered innocence, a realization at the brutality of the universe. Hm. At least the girl had had as much time as she had of not knowing true fear and agony. And would likely be returned to such an insular setting. Ava, on the other hand, had grown up thrust into brutality, and so had some trouble sympathizing with the girl over that much. The world WAS brutal and knowing that made you guard yourself against it, the only way to live as far as Ava was concerned.

After a few minutes, Ava felt an alarm go up in the minds within her proximity. She moved up to the door, leaving the girl behind for the moment. Though there was chaos throughout the crashed ship, the two minds outside the door did not move... but they were distracted. She concentrated on one, sending out a blast of psionic energy, as she had the earlier guard. She would have to practice more on being able to kill with it... for now, she would have to just use it to disable. As she sent out the blast, she counted to five before throwing upon the door, her canister rifle at the ready. The standing guard was turning towards his companion, about to go to his aid but stopped, staring down the barrel of the C-10 rifle in confusion. There was a soft thud sound as the gun fired. The man looked down, seeing the fist-sized hole in his own chest for a moment before his body dropped lifelessly.

Ava gritted her teeth at that. At having felt those final seconds. She should have aimed for the head... but she hadn't known the height of the guard and a chest shot was more sure in that situation. Still, that meant a few seconds of feeling the death, the confusion, the life slipping away. All part of being a ghost though. She turned back for the girl. "Get over here!" she called out, but the girl wasn't responding, sitting there, withdrawn into a daze. She grabbed the girl by the upper arm with her armoured glove, hosting the girl to her feet. The girl reacted, flinching and trying to draw away from the tight grip but actually reacting. "Good! Look at me!" she said harshly. This wasn't the time for pleasantries. "We are getting out of here but I can't carry you all the way out and watch our backs at the same time. Do you hear me?" Ava scowled at the look of cowed fear that was being directed at her. "Pick up that cloth right now, put it back against your wound and follow me." she added, letting go of the girl.

The girl did pick up the make-shift bandage and did press it against the wound, but that was as far as she went. As Ava started forward, the girl's legs did not move. With a growl of annoyance, Ava slid her left arm under the girls arms and proceeded to pull her long, nearly dragging her out of the brig and into the hall. It was a good thing that ghosts were proficient with using the automatic C-10 rifle one-handed, unlike most people who tried to use the gun. Ava dragged the girl through the halls, backtracking the way she had come in. This time though, she couldn't cloak. But killing wouldn't be an issue on the way out. Whatever Miranda and Nick were doing outside, it was indeed stirring up the anthill. More than once, groups of pirates stumbled upon the ghost and the girl. Ava's rifle was ready every time the enemy came into view, thanks to her psionic powers, and the groups of enemies were cut down before they even knew there was a threat.

It was slow going, having to drag the girl but eventually they turned the corner where Ava had taken down the first guard, where the people were held captive. There were three pirates there, all talking, looking down the dark end of the hall. They were wondering where the one Ava had taken out had gone. When the attack had started, someone had noticed that that one wasn't answering, and the small patrol was sent to look for him. Without any warning, three silenced shots hissed through the air and the three pirates dropped, each missing their heads. For now, this section of the ship was clear of enemies. Miranda's voice suddenly came over the comms. She paused to answer.

"I have the primary objective. I am just at the bonus objectives.... It might be a bit slow going though... Primary objective is wounded. Not critically but enough that its slowing us. Unknown conditions of the bonus objectives." she answered. "Will need some medical attention when we evac, Idunn." She waited as Nick came over the comms as well.

"Primary EZ is so far clear. Waiting for Skadi." he answered.

"Roger, Njor. Will contact you when I am within range." Ava replied, closing the channel and concentrating once more on what she was doing.

Ava dropped the girl against the wall beside the door where the captives were held and grabbed the lever that kept the door shut and locked, pulling on it to open it up. The smell from inside the room was.. not pleasant. These people had not been giving much in terms of sanitary facilities and the room did not have much ventilation.. or light. Ava winced. For a split second before she dodged back. A man came leaping out of the door, expecting to ambush one of the pirates. Instead, Ava had sensed the attack and the man crashed to the deck instead. Before he could move, she had the barrel of her rifle pressed to the back of his head.

"I am not your enemy. I'm freeing you." she said in an annoyed voice. She kept an eye and her psionic senses on the room he had come out of. "Now you are going to get up... slowly, keep your hands up and turn around to face me." she ordered. The man was older, perhaps fifty and dirty unlike anything she had ever seen and with a disorderly, matted greying beard and dark angry eyes. At least, they were angry until they saw Ava; then they became confused.

"You.. you're not one of them...." he said.

Ava turned, glancing down the hall where she had come from, further into the cruiser before turning back. There were minds getting closer at times, sometimes further... hopefully on another level of the ship but... they couldn't stay here long. "No. I told you, I'm getting you out of here." She nodded back into the room. Nobody had come out other than this man but she could feel a knot of individuals in there. "How many are there?" she asked. "How many can walk?"

The man frowned, his very tall form hunching over. "Fourteen. And two dead." he said, his voice sounding suddenly frail. "All those alive can walk, though some might be slower than others..."

Ava scowled. "Leave the dead. We are getting out of here. Now."

"We can't leave them..." came an older woman's voice from inside the room. "My daugther... I can't leave her...."

Ava looked at the man outside in the hall with her. "The dead are dead. There are more of these pirates coming. We don't have time. Anyone living who stays here will be joining the dead. Make your choice." she hissed at him.

The man looked past Ava, into the room, pushing the door open all the way now. "Iris. She's right. If you stay here, you will die too. And then your granddaughter will have no one... Do you want her to die too?"

There was a long moment. "No. I.. will come. For her." the woman answered as she moved out into the hall finally, holding the hand of a very young child, perhaps five or six years of age. Both were as dirty as dishevelled as the man.

Following them, more people, all thing and dirty came out into the hall, squinting at the sudden brightness. Ava turned to the first man, pointing down at the girl, the rescue target. "Can you carry her?" she asked. The man nodded that he could and Ava turned to all of the captives. "All of you, form a line along this wall, facing toward where it gets dark. Put one hand on the shoulder of the person in front of you and hold tight. It is pitch black down there but it leads to the way out." She pointed at the older man who was now holding the hostage girl. "You go first in line. I'll stay at your shoulder, guiding you along."

It didn't take long for the group to get organized. They had clearly been through harsh conditions together for a long time, relying on each other to keep them sane and alive and they had learned to follow the orders of the pirates in order to avoid harsh consequences. Once they were all lined up, Ava moved them out and soon they were swallowed by the darkness. Ava had put her visor down over her eyes once more, using the night vision to navigate and direct the captives. Some of them were old, infirm and injured so the way was slow going but eventually, there was a bright spot of light ahead, the doorway where Ava had entered. She had left it open only a crack, just enough to be able to see it from here. "Wait here." she told the group, stopping them just before the door.

She moved up to it, glancing out of the small opening cautiously before she pushed it open wider. She could hear lots of gunfire in the distance but it seemed mostly clear here. She paused to open the comms. "Skadi to Sessrumnir. I am at the door. We have guests. Is it possible to decloak?"

"Negative, Skadi." came Nick's voice. "We have incoming! Do your best to get our guests here. Hatch is open!"

Of course. Ava glanced up at the skies, noting targets moving in. She turned back, motioning the group forwards. Grabbing the one man's shoulder, she drew him to the door, pointing out at what seemed like the only semi-flat area around, a couple hundred meters off. "See that flat bit? Get your people there. Right now, as fast as possible. Once you get close, you'll pass through a cloak. My ship is there, our pilot is waiting. I'll be following you, picking off any enemies that get too close. Now go!" she yelled.

As the people began moving, Ava activated her cloak, doing exactly as she had promised. "Skadi to Njor and Idunn. Objectives are on their way to the Sessrumnir. Giving them covering fire but they have a distance to cross and have injured and infirm among them." She glanced up at huge ships beginning to draw nearer in the sky. "Idunn... you seeing what I see in the sky?" she asked, her rifle raising at the trouble on its way.

[rivaan]

Miranda's headsup display from the CMC armor, had a basic zoom function to serve as binoculars, but it wasn't the best. Ghosts had that area covered down pat. Ther visiors most of the tiems had absurd magnification and not even speak of the scopes of their canister rifles. Still she could recognize the distinct shape of a battlecruiser with an escort of smaller ships. The bc and the ships all looked... odd. They were clearely 'modified', but if hse was right the smaller ships were probably combat freighters or other manners of gunships.

Her expression tensed as she watched that spectacle. Certainly NOT Dominion or Umoja. They liked their ship more... clean and certainly not having jagged edges. There was also a weird trail of smoke coming out of the BC's massive engines, clearly not factory design. Getting ships of this calibre was hard and those guys were keepign them running for al ong while. She wondered if some of the ships in active use here, might be since the early guild wars.

She suddnely heard Ava's voice in her ear." Roger that, Skadi. Enemies confirmed." She replied over the comms as she was speeding her vulture bike towards the direction where the evacuation was going to take place, but she was actually... on the wrong side of the ship, so she was going to have to go around it to reach and this was a big ship, going to take a lil, especially since the terrain wasn't cooperating.

"These aren't with these pirates. From first looks, likely another local crew. Possibly one of the local warlords since they've got a bc up and running just for this. Skadi, Njor, proceed with the evac. Skadi get away from the hideout, I'm going to join you as soon as possible." Miranda told them, just as the rest of the crew of teh pirates actually returned, only to find this madness that was going on. The 4 fighters that were patrolling and the dropships, found themselves being approached on attack vectors by an assault fleet. The information they were recieving form their own base was chaotic, only talking about unindentified assailants and a marine in black armor. They spotted the vulture that was driving along the hull of the downed battlecruiser and they decided to at least get some payback before they bail. They were already deciding to abandon their mates on the ground. it wasn't worth it. The dropships already turned around and left, with 3 of the fighters while one went for her.

"Skadi I've got a problem. A boogey on my six." Miranda replied as she pulled the speed on the vulture, causing it to accelerate even faster as the shots started hitting behind her. There wasn't a good place to hide here, but she figured out something. Just in front of her, the hull had sank into the ground, creating a natural ramp she could use to get on top of the battlecruiser. In theory she could cut her distance in less then half and Ava was going to be on the other side.

"Skadi if you haven't joined up with Njor, do provide me a covering fire. Explosive rounds." Miranda added as she put the speed to the maximum, causing the entire vulture to tremble like possessed. The engine was roaring like a wounded beast, bolts were clanking... nuclear fuel was leaking behind her. She was protected into the CMC for the moment, but she would have to ditch this thing before long.

The Vulture moved up the hull of the bc fast as the ship was moving after it, but her sharp turn took him by surprise and the pilot had to make a wide turn to go after her again. Mirande then hid underneath jagged pieces of the hull, driving underneath those, as a makeshift cover from the fire of the fighter.

Suddenly the fighter that was showering her with laser fire exploded, she couldn't tell if it was Ava or not, but she caught a bright light at the edge of her vision, only to suddenly turn white as a sheet. A massive bolt of plasma was being charged up in front of the battlecruiser that had got in range. Holy fucking hell, these guys's ship had a fucking Yamato Cannon! The vulture flew off the other side of the ship, getting terrifying airtime, beforei t finally landed, even she who had a lot of vulture experience, couldn't keep control because of the long airtime and high fall. The Vulture turned sharply, sendhing her flying and rolling across the earth, as the yamato cannon fired and impacted into the pirate hideout, causing a massive superheated explosion. Miranda felt the temperature intside the CMC go up nearly 10 degrees despite the internal cooling installed. SHe was too close, barely 70-80 meters off the base. Her entire body was hurting from the impact of hitting the ground and the following ragdolling.

She had troubles moving, even breathing hurted like hell, but she managed to crawl herself into kneeling position and then stood up, before starting to run, feeling her entire body ache. She might have had a cuncussion... everything was spinning." Damn... Skadi, Njor... status report! " She managed to groan before the CMC suddenly just stooped moving, as her visor opened up and she fell on all fours, throwing up. Everythign was damn well spinning. Getting off the dropship was a bad plan! They should just have kept air to ground fire until Ava escaped... Lesson learned.

[Keira Kelly]

Though Ava kept an eye on the ships getting closer in the sky, she was also trying to watch the downed ship that the pirates had made their home. She did catch a few figures with weapons, heading towards the refugees and promptly took them out with her rifle before they could get close enough to even think to aim their own weapons. Easy shots for a ghost with a visor. The Umojan tech even highlighted the targets and zoomed with greater clarity than had her old Confederacy gear. She glanced back at the ships and let out a deep breath. One of them was a functioning battlecruiser... she thought. There was also an escort of smaller ships with it. Lovely... She did NOT have enough lockdown rounds for those numbers...

Ava took a quick glance back at the line of refugees, seeing them nearly to the flat area where the dropship should be. Scanning back over to her right, Ava saw a larger group of enemies assembling, perhaps fifteen... all on foot. Her rifle slid over in their direction, the visor zooming in as far as it could go but keeping all the pirates in the field of vision and she began to take shots. After the first four went down, the rest started to realize that someone was shooting at them and they spread out, some taking cover among junk piles, some shooting randomly in every direction. A few were still headed towards where the refugees were. Ava quickly dropped those ones then went back to trying to keep the others pinned down.

That was a good thing about being cloaked: even if she continued to fire, the enemy still couldn't see where the shots were coming from. The best they could do is guess what side of cover to sit on by the fact that if they weren't getting hit, they chose the right side. She listened to Miranda talking about the incoming ships but... it didn't really make a difference. They were a threat, one way or another. If their main concern was attacking these pirates, fine but she didn't hold any illusions that they wouldn't fire on the small rescue party if they saw them either. Ava's glance at the refugees showed a much smaller number than there had been the last time she had looked and as she watched, they disappeared one by one as they passed through the cloaking field of the dropship. Ava smiled. There was that, at least.

"Roger, Idunn. Evac is proceeding. Njor, do you have them?" she sent back along the comms.

"Affirmative, Skadi. We have.... over a dozen on board now." Nick replied.

"On my way to evac."

With Miranda's order now that the refugees were getting on board the ship, Ava began to move out. She swung her rifle over her shoulder and began to run, her armoured boots clanging on metal and debris. Ava ground to a halt though, sliding on a thin sheet of metal though managing to catch her balance as Miranda's plea came across the comm. Her rifle was in her hands as she spun around towards... the vague direction she could sense Miranda in. Ava was too close to the grounded battlecruiser though. If it was a ship after Miranda, Ava couldn't see over the cruiser this close up. "I don't have sight, Idunn. Repeat, I don't have visual..." she said.

Even so, she thumbed the switch on the side of the rifle to charge the next shot with energy as she ran back towards the cruiser. With how much of the ship was buried... it wasn't too bad of a climb. She jumped as she reached the side of the cruiser, pulling herself up with handholds of small projections in the hull and torn metal. Soon enough she reached the top and pulled herself over. Quickly kneeling, Ava had her rifle up. It wasn't hard to see the fighter craft moving slowly as it turned not very high up. Ava's aim locked onto the craft. A slight depression of the trigger and the shot was off, the energized round tearing through the fighter, sending the craft to the ground in a fiery explosion.

Almost at a same time, a blindingly white blast hit the downed cruiser a fair distance away from where Ava stood on it, shuddering the whole structure. She had not been watching behind her as a functioning battlecruiser had apparently closed the distance. Ava had stayed right at the edge, not taking the time to get better footing as she had wanted to take down Miranda's bogey immediately so when the yamato shot hit, Ava lost her balance, falling over the edge. It was by sheer luck.. or good reaction time from training that Ava caught herself about four feet down on a small projection, her armoured hand digging into the metal of the hull. In her other hand, somehow, she still gripped her rifle. She hung there for a long moment until her brain caught up with what had just happened. A glance down to the ground below her showed that it was still nearly ten meters below; a fall from this height would have at least injured her severely.

She swallowed hard at the thought of what had almost happened before she swung her rifle, one handedly, up on her shoulder again and then, using both hands now, began to climb down. Ava quickly scaled the distance, and was relieved to have her feet on solid... ground? Off the battlecruiser anyways. She glanced around, having lost sight of Miranda's Vulture. She thought she had seen it driving over the edge just as the blast had hit. She could still feel Miranda in her mind though, but with everything going on, it was too much effort to make more than the very vaguest metal contact. Ava turned, starting to run again towards the dropship location as Miranda's next message came through. Ava did not like how it sounded though.

"Sessrumnir is still waiting at primary EZ." came Nick's voice. "Skadi is not yet here."

"I'm on my...." Ava began between breaths as she flat out ran but the stopped. "Scratch that. Idunn needs assistance!" she added as she changed direction, running towards where she could feel Miranda. A shadow covered her and Ava turned her eyes up, seeing the battlecruiser getting close, blocking out the light for the moment. She quickly changed out the clip on her gun. Just in case, but it seemed the ship was more intent on firing at the hideout for the moment.

She found the black CMC armour, on all fours. She didn't have to check if Miranda was still alive or if she was okay, she could feel it. She could also feel the disorientation and nausea and the pain. Damn. "Idunn!" she called. "I'm here... Can you move? Can you stand up?" she asked. "If you can't, get out of the armour right now and I'll carry you back to the EZ..." she said. She glanced around, noting that there wasn't much room for the dropship to land around here, ruling out her calling for Nick to bring the ship over. Ava waited for an answer as she tried to keep watch all around them; though she was still cloaked, Miranda in her CMC armour wasn't. It was lucky though that it was painted black and so didn't stand out too badly against all the metal junk around.

[rivaan]

Miranda's head was spinning completely. She was a doctor so she was well aware she had a heavy case of head hitting hard object coupled with a lot of spinning and ragdolling earlier. It was a mess though, between the nausea and the head spinning and the pain and the lack of blaance she was feeling. Everything was spinning and she could barely keep herself on all fours as she felt Ava's presence and then voice. It was hard to reply, but Miranda felt the other's urgency and focused all her mental power into this singular thread of focus.

"Can't... takes over a minute to get out of it with assisting machinery." She managed to say, as she tried to push herself up, reaching a hand grasping a few times in to empty air, as she tried to reach for Ava' for support." CMC armors.. have inbuild stabilizers... Going to rely on it to move on, just lead me." Miranda added as she finally managed to get some tracktion into getting up and moving. She could hear the battlecruiser from this close. It was an incredibly loud thing, the engines filling the air with roaring noise, but there were also the other ships and hte fact people were coming in for the pirates base.

As they finally got moving, Miranda was barely keeping the road forward, forced ot maintain balance from the armor's stabilizers, buti t wasn't pretty and she was constantly veering to the sides, unless somethign actually pulled her in the right direction, she'd probably crash back down into one of hte junk piles about. Now that some time was passing, a tiny stream of scarlet red was running down from the edge of her nose and also her forhead. She could also taste the iron in her mouth.

'It was... a bad plan.' Miranda managed to send to Ava as they moved. She wasn't getting better. Ideally she'd lay down and hopefully not move, in hope to not aggravete anything she might have gotten like cracked or broken ribs or limbs or whatever, but there wasn't the option.' Forgot that... unexpected stuff happen. Got overconfident... my mistake... sorry' She added, she managed to add, before an explosion caused hte ground to tremble. The husk of a battlecrusier that was the hideout for hte pirates suddenly had a section of it explode as the generators the pirates used to pwoer up their operations and systems they maintained, was struck by one of the barrages from the flying ship. Then the air to ground bombardment stopped as the smaller ships that were carrying troops started landing about the hideout, intent on cleaning up the rest of the pirates. Whatever had transpired, it had made one of the warlords take out this band of pirates. It certainly wasn't the abduction of the girl, but Miranda's head wasn't quite in the right condition to figure it out quite yet.

Sometimes Miranda realized she had been forgettng an important fact. Despite everything and the mental aid and support she recieved from just having Ava's presence so close, the two of them were at the end of the day just humans. They were still very vulnerable creatures despite the powerful outer shells of psifibers and powered armored plating they wore. Miranda felt her chest hurt ever more with each step and each shock sent through her whole body with every powered movement of hte armor.' We... are close to the ship... right?' She asked, vision turning for the worse instead of cleaning up. In fact even the pain seemed to be being drowned into numbness as she was starting to have troubles moving, but kept holding onto Ava's presence like a liferaft that was her only salvation in a stormy ocean.