SC - Fugitives

[Keira Kelly]

Ava nodded once at hearing that they would be securing the whole ship. Her question hadn't been as much to determine IF they would be, but more asking if they would be NOW. There was nothing in this command centre of the ship that Ava had any expertise in. Her field was combat, whether on a battlefield or silently eliminating threats and she was anxious to get back to it, to wipe out all further threats. The people she cared most about were on this team and that made the priority of eliminating threats all the more a priority for her. The faster they got them all, the less chance of something going wrong and someone being hurt... or worse.

Ava's masked head cocked a little towards Miranda as the doctor walked over to one of the fallen protoss, the only outward display of emotion the ghost could make with her full suit on. "These protoss, their minds are strong... but their arrogance.." she began. Had her mask not been on, she would have been giving a crooked smile. "That one that came through the wall couldn't even comprehend what I did, that an 'insect like this could possibly command such use of psionics'. At least, that thought ran through his mind just before he died." she explained. "Some of them might be psionically stronger than me but at the same time, they don't believe that any other species can even approach them in skill either. That is one of their weaknesses." she added. "They will and do underestimate us."

She watched as Miranda retrieved an object from the dead protoss's belt, tossing it far down the hall and then took aim at it, destroying it utterly. It was almost too bad that it had been friend, thought Ava. Had it not been, they could have used it against some of the protoss. Well, maybe anyways. Truth be told, it was too risky without knowing more about it anyways. Who knew if the thing could be remote detonated by someone else as they were carrying it. Hell, who knew HOW those things were detonated, or how sensitive they might be? It was probably best to have been destroyed now.

Ava took a moment while Miranda was distracted by the cameras to start sweeping her mind through the ship, as far as she could. Had there been only humans on board, her range definitely would have been more limited.. at least with normal humans, but with psionics, be they Terran or apparently protoss, she could sense them at a far greater distance. Psionic minds were like beacons in the night to other Psionics. Ten other protoss on board. And one had a very powerful feeling mind. She kept her own distance from that one, not wanting to draw its attention, its aggression, just yet.

She looked over suddenly as Miranda addressed her again. No point in hiding.. but that's what ghosts did best. Having a tail of four marines made that a little harder to do though and Ava was pretty sure none of them would let the ghost go off on her own. She nodded instead, acknowledging leaving the most powerful for last as Miranda called the male marines over and handing the reins over to the ghost. She could sense surprise from the two loaned marines that they would now be following a ghost, a typical reaction. She could sense pride.. from Nick, and an anticipation of seeing her work up close for once during a live OP. Well, that would be a trick: watching a ghost do what a ghost did.. while invisible.

She raised a hand towards the marines. "I will be scouting slightly ahead of you all and I will be cloaked. You will all check your fire until I give the order to. I don't want to be taking any friendly fire just because you thought you saw a shadow.." she warned, specifically to the two loaned men. "That being said, if I do go ahead, it will be for a reason. With what I can do, we can set up ambushes for the enemy as long as you follow my orders.. and don't get me killed. Got it?" she asked. The men acknowledged that they did. Well, Cy said they were good men. Hopefully that meant they weren't jumpy or quick to shoot under pressure. At least Nick and Miranda would be beside them though.

She turned to Miranda as the doctor did something on one of the consoles and suddenly some more info popped up on Ava's HUD. This Umojan design definitely did have a superior computer to her old training suit. Her attention was drawn back as she was asked about her EMP rounds. "Based on your suggestions, I brought more than I normally would have. I still have six left." she confirmed. Not enough for every single remaining protoss individually but enough for each of these.. dragoons? plus the powerful one and still two left over for other encounters.

Finally she brought her rifle up. "Time to move out." she said to the others as she began to lead the way through the hole blown in the wall, dodging hanging wires and debris and navigating the hole riddled floor around the blast site. On the other side they were once again in a long hallway and Ava quickly moved out in one direction. It seemed as if the protoss on board were combing the ship for something as well and had been moving towards the front of the ship from the rear. They had already cleared out all the protoss from the rear to this far forwards, the majority of the enemies that had boarded the ship being further aft already.

She kept the place mild, not for fear of tiring anyone out but to keep the sound level lower. CMC suits at a dead run on metal decks would echo down the halls. She wanted as much surprise as they could muster as they drew nearer where she could sense a cluster of enemies. Not too far was what had to be a more open area, perhaps a hanger she surmised, where she could sense the odd feelings of what Miranda had thought of as a dragoon. Closer though she could feel three of the.. foot soldier types they had mostly encountered thus far. They had been fighting the security traps and had destroyed a number. While injured, these three were still in fighting form and currently taking a rest.

Ava stopped at a four-way intersection of hallways, double checking what she was sensing. She was beginning to catch some notice but these ones weren't highly skilled. It was more that they thought they felt something but weren't sure yet. She turned to the four in CMC armour, then pointed to the hallway they had come from. "I want two of you here. You can press up against the walls for some cover, one on each side..." She pointed to the perpendicular hall, to the corners where it met the one they were currently in, on each side of the direction they had been travelling. "And one of you on each side here, using the corner for cover. There are three targets ahead. I will go and draw them back here for you. Do not shoot until I give you the order to." she said.

She turned to Miranda. "Can you take out the lights.. quietly? With only two marines in this hall, and the other two peeking around the corners, I want to make the way ahead into a pigeon shoot. If it's dark here, they will have a harder time choosing a target." She turned to the others. "Remember, no shooting until I give the order." she added yet again.

With that, Ava activating her cloak, disappearing from sight as she began moving further down the hall. She moved slowly, giving her team time to set up. All too soon, or at least it felt like, she encountered what had once been a door into what seemed a mess hall. The door was torn to shreds, almost looking as if it had been sliced up. She peeked in around the corner, confirming what she had sensed. Three of the foot soldiers. Dark liquid, perhaps purple, blue or even black in the half broken lights, dripped from wounds onto the desk as they tried to tend to themselves. What was interesting was that not one of the three was trying to help either of his brethren, but only tending to himself. The strong survive, the weak perished and helping the weak made one weak.. apparently.

'Are you ready?' she sent to Miranda, psionically. Intentionally. Sending that close did draw the attention of the protoss who heard the sending but were less than adept at determining its location. Ava already had her backup pistol in hand and aimed just around the corner. When Miranda replied, Ava fired one shot off. The pistol failed to do anything to the shields of the protoss but they now had a source to chase. With cries of rage and curses, they as one charged into the hall.

But Ava was already running. She fired again in their direction, still invisible but letting them follow the muzzle flash, something that her rifle couldn't accomplish with the cloak on. The bullet again did nothing, but it wasn't supposed to. It was a straight run back to the ambush point and Ava did not slow to even check behind her. She could feel the targets there though they were not terribly close. Not being able to see her made them a bit more hesitant. But only a slight bit.

As she neared the intersection where she had left the marines, Ava prayed that the two loaned men would listen to her orders and not open fire on the three highly visible protoss with glowing arm weapons behind her. Thankfully, they didn't. Ava charged past the two of her team hidden on each side of the corners of the intersection and then finally past the two just a bit further down her hallway, taking her out of the field of fire. She turned around as she activated the comm, only now seeing that the three charging protoss were only ten meters back from the ambush now. They were slowing, confused. "Fire!" she screamed into the comms, letting off one of her EMP shots into the cluster of the enemy, taking out the shields of all three with one shot. When it was over, she finally let her cloak drop, kneeling to catch her breath.

She turned to Miranda. "There's a.... what did you call it? Dragoon? not far from here. I wanted to be sure we took out these three first so they couldn't flank us if we get into an extended fight with that thing...." she explained. She winced under her mask. "That thing.. it feels.. weird... It's mind feels odd. Like it's not exactly whole... something isn't.. natural about all of it..." she struggled to explain. The mind didn't feel unnatural but.. the mind felt that it's... body was? "This one.. is not used to it's new body?" she added tentatively, not really understanding what that meant.

( If you want something, have Miranda and one of the marines on loan be the ones down the main hallway, aka, beside each other, and have the loaned marine have tried to fire on the protoss as they approached while Ava was still cloaked between the ambushers and the protoss XD. Miranda can stop him from firing and catching Ava in the crossfire. )

[rivaan]

With Ava on the helm of the operation, Miranda allowed her mind to rest a tiny bit, loosing her focus on maintaining top perception at the limits of her meager psionic ability. It was honestly quite straining to do so, without the mental link support she gained from having Ava's mind present. The two had created quite the bond apparently and Miranda wasn't sure if it was for the good or bad. They helped each other even if the psionic power was uneven. Having a mind lessen the burden was very useful. But at the same time, Miranda was sometimes afraid that someone might use her to get to Ava. There was only one solution to this... get stronger herself to not allow anyone to use her to hurt her treasured ones. She already lost one family, she wasn't losing another.

With Ava requesting the lights out, Miranda nodded and using the rifle's bayonet, she carefully pried open a nearby wall panel and tore a few of the wires inside it. The hall they were in was of the smaller ones so the panels and lights were close. directly tore all the wires in the panel, making the hall turn dark with nary a shot fired.

They formed the firing squads as Ava instructed and turned to wait with weapons readied and aimed at the direction. Ava's provocation to the three protoss didn't go amiss to anyone. Those psionic screams echoed far and wide and reached Miranda and the rest. Miranda and one of Sid's men were waiting at the hall for Ava, she ahd to reach a hand over to hold him from actually firing the weapon before Ava arrived. The guy was just startled by the powerful voice inside his head that was filled with such rage, hatred and abhorence. Miranda was sure, these weren't your usual Protoss. When Ava arrived and gave the order, teh gauss rifles were unleashed on full auto! Usually they were made to fire in bursts for a reason, but Miranda turned teh setting for full auto on. It kicked like a horse, even hte powerful CMC armor was trembling from the recoils of the rapid firing rifle, but in this close vicinity and narrow place, it wasn't too much of an issue for the aim to be slightly off.

After the concentrated fire finally passed and the protoss were dead, Miranda finally realxed, still feeling the sensations of vibrations that had spread through her body. It was a combination of a massage and being hit by something big speeding fast at you. Clicking the button on the rifle, the ammo magazine was ejected and fell to the floor with a clank. She pulled a spare one from the ammo slot on the rifle holster that stored the spare mags. Once it was loaded, she restored the rifle to burst fire and took the empty mag, storing it away.

Miranda looked at Ava." Well..." She started and looked down the hall in the direction leading to the dragoon." I've read a few reports from the Sons of Korhal and the Confederacy back when this madness first started. There was one about a downed dragoon. Those things are basically mobile life support tanks. The protoss mind you sense, must have been hurt too gravely to heal completely so they put him inside the mechanical hull for him to continue his service. Those dragoon things are rather powerful." Miranda commented." They have a single weapon, but it does deliver rather high powered shots. Be careful to not get hit. It could eat through CMC armor's in a hit or two. Also it can fire at any angle, it has a 360 degree firing arc." Miranda warned. Usually fighting a dragoon, she'd want to have a heavier weapon than a few gauss rifles and a canister rifle. The canister could deal huge amounts of damage with it's exploding and armor piercing rounds, but they had to drop the shields first and on a dragoon, doing that with 3 gauss rifles would be a hard task without getting shot and hurt yourself at least. She was carrying a few grenades that actually could help about that. At times like this she actually missed her Medical CMC armor she had back in teh day. Grenade launchers were very useful. On that note, she was pondering why she doesn't get Alexander to modify her rifle with a underslug grenade launcher for the future. She pinned that mental note in her mind palace for the moment.

The dragoon was actually walking about teh hangar, it's heavy metal feet making clanking noises with each step. He, if it was a he underneath that shell, certainly appeared to be agitated. Nervously pacing back and forth, hitting what might have been once a fighter with one of his mechanical legs until it was a heap of scrap. what's more on random intervals as if to vent rage, it would fire it's cannon in the direction of the hall leading into the hangar. The hangar itself was actually now illuminated with the red glow of the emergency lights as the rest of the ship.

Miranda looked at the others and gestured them to fall back." Alright... I got a flash grenade here." Miranda mentioned and showed it." Once it goes off, we've got maybe 5-10 seconds before the dragoon recuperates from it's blinded condition. Get into cover and each of us should toss a grenade. It's shields are quite tanky, but 3-4 grenades should be enough to down them. Skadi, you should use armor piercing here, or explosive rounds the moment the shields are down. It's armor is sturdy, but a few well placed shots should damage it. Most importantly all of you stay in cover. If you see the weapon activating duck down and don't get taged. It could take you out in a single well placed hit. If it doesn't, you won't be in a state to contiune onwards and might die from your wounds before we've the chance to return. Got it? It hits you in the arm, your arm is gone." She asked. She knew that the dragoon weapon was horrifyingly dangerous and powerful, capable of eating through all manners of materials and armors.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava grimaced inside her mask at hearing what these dragoons were, and though nobody could see the expression, Miranda at least would be sure to feel the ghost's distaste. The thought of being broken in body, confined in a machine was.. horrible. Better to just be dead, she thought to herself. Despite the individual's crippled body inside though, from Miranda's ongoing description, these dragoons sounded formidable. What Ava really wanted to know was could one of these things see through her cloak? That was not a question she had an answer to.. and highly doubted that anyone else present had either, at least not with absolute certainty... and Ava would not risk her life just to find out, not when they had other means to deal with the dragoons on board.

The group quietly made their way to the hanger, carefully checking in to get intel on the dragoon. As they had approached, Ava had activated her psi-screen again. The remainder of the protoss on the ship weren't that near and it would be best not to tip off the dragoon of their approach. Before she had cut off her psionics, Ava had felt that the dragoon pilot knew there were enemies somewhere in the area thanks to the psionic emanations of the three infantry units that been killed, but it couldn't leave the hanger to seek out the enemy, and was currently both frustrated and anxious. What they saw of the giant robotic form only reinforced what she had felt.

As Miranda explained the plan of attack, Ava flipped the charged shot on her rifle on. One of these shots could go easily through a siege tank. Hopefully it could do the same kind of damage to one of these dragoons... though the armour would need to be down. Hopefully, the grenades could handle that much. When all of them checked in as ready, Ava watched Miranda move to the corner of the doorway, then tossed in the flash grenade. Thankfully all of their visors were ready and instantly annulled the flash since they were ready for it. Ava cloaked as the other marines jumped in front of the door, throwing their grenades in.

Just as the last was thrown, a beam of blinding light shot through the doorway, hitting one of the marines in the torso, the rest just barely jumping clear. Though the dragoon HAD been blinded, it had been targeting the doorway, as it had shot through it a number of times in its frustrations, and at the blast that blinded it, it had managed to let off one lucky shot. The unfortunate marine did not even have time to scream as the torso was vaporized. Though it had happened right in front of her, due to the brightness of the dragoon's shot, Ava had no clue who had been hit. There was no time to find out either. This had to be finished first. As soon as the beam cut off, Ava dove into the doorway, rifle up and ready.

There was the dragoon, the massive four-legged walker that was now half down on the ground, at least two of its legs ruined beyond recovery. Blue liquid dripped and splashed from the central container as it struggled to move. Ava didn't even hesitate, moving off to the side a bit to avoid the other Terrans shooting her invisible form from behind, and fired herself with the charged shot. The explosive round hit dead centre, splattering more of the blue goo and the dragoon twitched spasmodically. From behind and beside, the other marines opened up with their guns and in short order, the movement of the protoss vehicle ceased.

Ava stood frozen, terrified to find out who had been hit. With the psi-screen on, she couldn't feel anything. She wasn't sure she wanted to find out....

"Ava?" came a voice over the comms. Nick's voice.

Ava turned off her cloak and then.. slowly, hesitantly, turned off the psi-screen. Instantly she could feel both Nick and Miranda's minds nearby. She let out a breath of utter relief even as she still felt shaky at the thought of losing either one of them. She felt Miranda's assuring thoughts in her mind, though quickly the doctor switched to doctor-mode, going back out into the hall. She felt an armoured hand touch her shoulder pauldron. She glanced over at Nick in his armour. She reached back, putting her own hand on the chestplate of his armour for a moment, then gave a nod.

She glanced once at the broken shell of the dragoon, being able to feel now that the protoss presence within was gone, dead. It was no longer a threat. She turned and headed out back to the hallway. All the was left of the downed marine was legs and half a torso. She quickly closed her eyes, swallowing hard as she turned her head away. Even if Miranda was a great doctor, there was nothing to be done for this man. The other loaned marine's mind though was affecting her. They had been really good friends. To a merc, death was an ever constant threat but... this had been so fast, so... decimating to the body... And there was survivor's guilt to go along with it....

"Colm... Colm!" Nick yelled at the remaining man. "You with us? We still have a mission to finish."

It took a moment but finally Colm answered. "Yes... Yes, sir." he answered, his mind turning somewhat numb. He began to move towards what was left of the body but then stopped, staring down at it. "We can't take Troy out of here with us, can we..." he asked in a dead voice.

Nick's answer came after a heavy pause. "Once we've finished clearing the ship and surroundings, Sid and the rest of the Irregulars can come in. They will recover Troy's remains." he answered in a quieter voice. "But we have to finish the mission before that can happen. Are you with us?"

Colm's suit stood to attention. "Yes, sir." he said determined but his voice still hollow with grief.

Ava took a deep breath. She could feel the man's mind, on the surface it appeared.. duty-bound and focused but beneath it was roiling with guilt and grief. The ghost had little experience with people going through such emotions. She knew that she could put aside all of her feelings and continue with a mission but.. she had been trained to be able to do that. She had no idea if Colm would be able to do that or not. So she turned to Miranda, who had more experience. 'He may prove a liability..' she warned Miranda psionically. 'He might not but.. well, while we can sorely use the extra firepower, is it worth the risk?' she asked, actually curious as to the answer.

[rivaan]

Sadly even increased attention and carefulness couldn't protect them from everything. As the grenade was thrown and the fight started, Miranda dove in first. She was missed however. She and Nick had combat shields, curtesy of Alexander, sadly the other two didn't. Miranda had hoped that even if a first hit did come true, it would hit her since she had a shield ready. Never in her wildest dreams, would she imagine that the antimatter shot of the dragoon would in blind luck chance, slip between the combat shield and the walls, instead hitting one of the marines behind her.

There was no time to stop and thing however. She didn't know who was that got tagged. At least for the moment, Ava was the only one who was ahead of her. The doctor made a note of where she was when the firefight started. With the ghost's skillset and help the dragoon was rapidly brought down. THey unleashed a lightning fast rain of metal upon the protoss walker and with a few additional shots from the canister rifle it finally was brought down in a pile of blue fluids and metal.

The mighty dragoon was brought down, but they lucked out. A solitary dragoon could be dangerous, if it was able to actually fire off all those shots without being blinded, it could have vaporized most of them. Miranda was sure the combat shield could actually withstand a hit from that. Maybe hit and a half. The third one would have been her death for certain. If it had hit Ava, even if the ghost had her enviromental suit, it would have been possibly lethal despite it's higher performance. Antimatter charges were devastating weapons. Luckily it only holds a single weapon of that type. It it had a few, it would have been too devastating.

Miranda took a deep breath as she confirmed the condition of everyone present. Nick was alive, Ava was alive, one of the marines Sid sent was alive. The unlucky sod... Miranda placed a hand on the grieving comrade's shoulder. She even crouched down, raising the visor so she could very gently and carefully close the man's eyes." Buckle up soldier." Miranda said calmly, but reassuringly to the man.

'I think it's actually best he's not left alone. He would be certainly more dangerous for himself and us if he's without any observation. Imagine he causes a commotion or incident big enough that the protoss outpost notices it?' Miranda sent to Ava.

"Yes, Ma'am." The man replied, again, voice clearly displaying his sorrow. Why did he left the man go first?

"Focus now." Miranda patted his shoulder more forcibly this time, causing his CMC to creat slightly aside the expected metal clangs." We've still got more of these unusual protoss to deal with." She informed him and pointed at the downed dragoon." There's at least one more of these things and a few more zealots. One templar at teh command deck area." Miranda explained." Anyways, we will need help, cannot risk loosing any more of us here. Thus change of plans." The doctor barked an order to attention." There are still a few of the security drones! For the next dragoon, we shall approch under the protection of one of them. The heavy security drones could handle a few shots from a dragoon. We shall use it to tank for us! What's more it's heavy calibre machine guns should drain those shields very fast."

She then pointed down the hall." However we require additional weaponry for this. First we shall locate the nearest armory. This is a hangar, thus it must have an armory within short distance of it. We shall resupply the ammo and check if they have heavier weapons avaible. Preferably more grenades or even missile launchers of some kind." With that she made the hand sign to order a get moving command.' Ava, I'm taking command again. Keep your attention focused on the protoss within the command deck. We need to know if he moves from there or he tries to send a message. Don't try to intrude too close to his mind. Keep a good distance and observe.'

"After me!" she spoke aloud and led forward. The armory was indeed within short walk distance from the hangar. It sadly lacked much on the way of weaponry of any kind. Maybe it was never stocked or maybe it was emptied before the ship crashed here or after. There were at lesat enough ammo magazines for the gauss rifles, they needed those. Next one was actually a set of grenades, regular frag ones. No special one. 2 frag greandes, regular ones, not made to combat heavy units. It was to be tossed at crowds of unarmored and unarmed civilians. It would affect zealots and dragoons, but chances were, it would be enough to drop a shield even if they threw 4 of those.

Meanwhile what was left of the protoss on board the ship were displaying some unusual movements within Ava's mind. THey weren't heading to chase after them, nor were they hiding or leaving. The dragoon was within some of the wider corridors within the ship, guarding the road towards the area of the aft area of the ship on it's level. As for the zealots, they were all waiting, gathered at the same location, the bulkheads leading towards teh command decks. They were waiting for them. There was no crazed hunt from what could be sensed. They were waiting to see what their pathetic enemies would throw at them, then they would crush them. Heck a powerful presence was looming over them, Miranda felt it as well, old, powerful, arrogant, prideful and it only spoke a single phrase." I'm waiting." It was needless to guess who it was, it was obviously the protoss within the command deck, the high templar. It was amused by them. Wanted to see them struggle.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava blinked hard behind her mask and then nodded, trying to block out the last marine's emotions as best she could. Well, not really block out but filter out. There were still six protoss including the leader with the powerful mind on board that she had to keep track of psionically. Two dragoons, the leader... that left three of the infantry ones. The minds of these particular protoss felt.. much like the ones on the ship at Redstone had been but... there was on particular difference: that ship had carried a network of minds, all linked. She had been able to feel that, even from a distance. These protoss here were not connected in such a way. Yes, they were psionic, but... with all the normal limitations that a high-level ghost faced.

She glanced over at the grieving marine as Miranda sent to Ava psionically. Ava nodded after a long moment. She wasn't necessarily happy to be bringing someone along who might be unreliable, though even more to the point, was projecting such strong, distracting emotions, but at the same time, she wouldn't have been happy leaving him behind either. They needed all the firepower they could muster. Losing even the one gauss rifle they had, it would slow their ability to kill these protoss down. Losing any more would make a stand-up fight dangerous for the Terrans. 'Fine. He comes with us, then.' she sent back. She would just have to put up with feeling those painful emotions.

"Two more of those things." Ava spoke up, correcting Miranda about the number of dragoons remaining. "Two dragoons, three.. zealots?" she added, testing the unfamiliar name for the infantry units. She was sort of worried about what would happen after they finished clearing this ship. There were still more of these protoss nearby on the asteroid. Taking them out too to avoid pursuit or even to avoid fire if they tried to fly the ship way.. if it COULD fly, would be ideal. It was one thing killing these enemies within such close quarters, with them cut off from each other. It was going to be a whole different game to attack the base camp they had set up on the asteroid's surface. Ava was beginning to wonder more and more if the nukes on this ship were working.. and if painting a target in the middle of their base wouldn't be the best next course of action....

Ava was heartened a bit to hear that they would be leading now with security drones. Any advantage right now to protect their small numbers was a necessity. Suddenly the big bulk of a CMC suit knelt down beside her. The visor opened, just about at eye-level for her unarmoured form, the hand of Nick's suit lightly touching her shoulder. She was partially glad he was here. She had fought to allow him to come on missions with them from the start but.. now she questioned doing that. It could have been him that got hit. Ava knew her own abilities to avoid enemies and was confident in it, but when it came to the others... well, she knew they weren't inexperienced with combat but, in war, there were always chance surprises. If Ava ended up being the cause of Nick getting killed because it had been her that had allowed him to join in the first place... She didn't know if she would have been able to handle that. At least, she hadn't had to.. yet.

"You all right?" Nick asked through his open visor rather than over the comms. He couldn't see Ava's face but he could read her body language and knew something was off. He saw her masked face turn slightly off to the side then back to him. The ghost before him finally nodded slowly and suddenly, there was something in his head. It was very brief but the message was clear. He felt the pain of losing a comrade, someone like a brother... a feeling he knew well enough. In the same instant, he knew it was Colm's feelings he had felt and that.. Ava had somehow tapped him into the edge of it, or at least relayed it to him. Nick wasn't psionic but Ava had managed to.. tap into his mind like this once or twice before so it wasn't as complete a shock as previously.

A realization hit him of why she had wanted him to feel the other marine's feelings though: she was feeling that, probably a hell of a lot stronger than had been relayed to him, and he understood. She wanted to let him know without letting Colm know he was being spoken about. Before Nick had met Ava, and even for a bit after, he had never really understood what it must be like for them, always able to pick up the thoughts and emotions of the people around. Throw them into combat situations at that... Hell, it was a wonder any of them could stay sane, feeling all that pain and death and.. often being the cause of it too. He made a point of trying to think strong thoughts to her, not knowing if it was working or not, but.. trying to do whatever he could to show his support. Ava's masked head cocked to the side for a second then she gave him a long, grateful looking nod.

Ava took a deep breath as Nick's suit stood back upright, his visor closing again. Sending to him as she had, had taken a lot of energy. With another Psionic like Miranda, such things were as simple as conversation, but to communicate like that with a non-Psionic.. it took a lot. Pulling things out of their minds was easy enough but not the opposite. Sending to another Psionic, each side had their half of the bridge built but for a non-Psionic, Ava had to not only build the whole bridge, but bust through a defensive wall between too. Still, sometimes it was useful enough to send like that despite the energy cost. Maybe one day, she could see if there was a way to make his mind more... receptive.

She turned back to Miranda as the doctor spoke of raiding the armoury. That.. was actually a good plan. While her own rifle was all she needed, if the other marines could obtain some heavy ordinance... that would definitely be very useful. She let out a breath of relief when Miranda resumed command of the mission. And orders. She had orders now that she could use to concentrate on rather than the strong emotions around her. 'Yes, sir.' she answered, psionically but almost on automatic, returning to what she had learned over the course of her lifetime. She could feel the protoss of whom Miranda spoke easily enough, even without having to press. His presence was like a cloud at the edge of her consciousness.

They moved out finally for the armoury and the walk there was thankfully quiet. Ava could feel there was more to that than just being lucky or avoiding the enemy. They were being led into the centre of the trap. No, not a trap. The arena. These protoss wanted to face them, face them and kill the Terrans. These protoss knew they were coming and would wait for the small band of humans to come to them. After they had reached the armoury and had looked over the apparently meager choices there, a single voice entered her head, loud and full of contempt and condescension. 'I'm waiting.' it said.

Ava wanted nothing so much as to rise to the challenge, to issue her own back... but she stopped herself. A ghost wasn't meant to stand toe to toe with the enemy. She didn't have the shields that these protoss had and not even the armour of the CMC suits around her... A ghost's threat was being able to strike out from the unseen. And that.. she could do. She flipped on her psi-screen as she turned to Miranda. "That one, he can sense us... especially me..." she said to her friend. Her hand raised up near her masked head. "With my screen on though... and cloaked... I could be right beside him and he would have no idea I was there..."

She paused. "I can get past all the other enemies without being detected, as I am trained to do... and take that bastard out without anyone knowing where I am. That one, the leader... he is directing the rest of them. If I take him out, they will be leaderless. I can get to him, hit him with an EMP and... one charged shot and he is gone. He'll never see it coming... This is what I'm trained to do. What ghosts do best..." she implored. She didn't want to do this out of anger but because she knew she could and doing it would eliminate a real danger without putting anyone at risk. She would be the only one risking anything, and even then, being cloaked and her mind cut off from the enemy, the risk would be minimal if this templar was alone.. which he currently was. This is what ghosts were for. She looking at Miranda, waiting for a decision.

[rivaan]

Miranda wasn't pleased with the way the protoss were acting up on this vessel. Especially the one that was at the command decks. She felt him all the way here, a proof of his psionic presence about and a clear immense danger to everyone present here. She knew that protoss wielded psionic devastation on levels nop terran could achieve... She was glad she had never seen a psionic storm personally, but had studied the effects. The terrifying bolts of energy that shred through everything be it machine or flesh and even ground.

Hearing Ava speak, Miranda felt a shiver run down ehr spine as she looked at the ghost of a mixture of concern, worry and rising anger." Never underestimate the enemy." She slowly stated." Something's off about him, don't believe that the cloak and the psiscreen would protect you from him for certain." Miranda added and sighed." That one has control over the main deck. In fact he should be in the bridge right now if I'm getting this correctly. There are no working cameras within the CIC, the sensors are down as well. It's possible he's got some kind of detection with him, so maintain extreme caution. In fact I suspect he's allowing us to activate the security systems by this point. At first it was probably a surprise, but if he really wanted, he would have been able to at least shut them down. He want's us to struggle and bring everything we could and so he could crush us in that peak state." Miranda continued to warn the ghost. The doctor had seen the reports, seen the results... protoss were extremely dangerous, if Ava felt the assassination from the first shot, she'd be at a disadvantage on all fronts. Psionic might on that level would ensure that all psionc attacks would be devastating and from what Miranda felt, he was certianly surpassing Ava right now.

"He is arrogant and proud, but I don't feel that he's stupid..." The doctor sighed. It was folly to believe your enemy would always do what you wanted. Ideally for them it would be for that protoss to be ignorant adn not prepared for Ava. Sadly Miranda doubted that was the case by this point. Sure he didn't believe they were much danger to him, but that didn't mean he would be stupidly showing his back to them. That was never the way of the people in charge.

"We shall buy you time, attept an assassination, but if you are discovered... dive in, keep as close to him as possible. Keeping distance with a protos high templar is suicide. Buy time in the worst case. I will come, even if I have to crush my way through those zealots." The doctor patted Ava's shoulder as she closed the reinforced visor of the helm and gestured to the others. Like that 2 black CMCs and the one of the Irregulars acompanied by Ava headed for the main decks.

On the way, Miranda managed to scrounge up actually 2 working security drones. One was a quite damn huge, a warmachine of some kind, probably prototype model maybe. Moving on threads, it carried massive cannons for arms and a few additional weapons. Systems read yellow for internal damage and missing supplies so only one of it's cannons was actually operational. The other robot was actually smaller one, about the size of a CMC, with machineguns. They were going to do. As they neared the entrance hall to the main deck, Miranda's head was starting to pulsate and hurt from the psionic pressure she felt from the templar. He was just messing with her now, showing her who was the true power adn who was the bug on this ship. She refused to give in to him despite the focused presence that was causing her pain. She went through THAT drug, buddy, this was nothing! She put the huge warmachine on full speed to head in first as it barged through the entrance, standing as a metal wall blocking the first anti matter blast from the dragoon that was guarding this location. Miranda on purpose sent the security robot first. It made the Dragoon move away from it's doorway, clearing the way for Ava to continue forwards. Miranda and the rest were going to be following at a slower pace for the moment. After this dragoon was the place where the zealots were waiting and only after them was the high templar. The ghost had to be extremely careful of them having stealth detection of some kind.

After the first shot hit the robot's torso, it turned to the dragoon and started firing it's cannon. The mighty impacts on the shields of the dragoon, eachoed across the halls, pieces of the giant bullets were flying off the shields, shattering on impact. Then Miranda showed on the side of the robot, joining in on the fire at the dragoon. It tried firing at her, but she hid behind the robot. THe dragoon started to reposition across the hall, attempting to be a slightly harder to hit target. Then the 4rd antimatter bolt came. It impacted dead center the robot, after 2 previous shots in that area, the systems gave up and the drone turned motionless. Then started sparking hard as Miranda ducked away for cover. The Robot exploded, sending chunks of metal as she rsumed firing at the dragoon from lying face flat position in a CMC! A very weird and probably silly sight, but it saved her skin as the antimatter shot flew right above her, maybe an palm distance away. With Nick and the other soldier providing covering fire and Miranda using the laying down chacne to again switch to full auto, what was left of the protos shield depleted rapidly and a bullet flew though a weakness in the shield, hitting the cannon on top. Then more started to pass through the barrier as it crashed completely. The dragoon was turned into a veritable swiss cheese from all the needler shots that it took. It must have tkaen more than a 1000 hits in the span of few brief seconds from all the rapid full auto and semi auto attacks. On a plus side, this one's mechanical legs wer actually at a pretty great state.

As for the templar, he was still casually waiting. He was both amused and bored by these primates. How daring they were to attempt to return and retake this ship. All others were killed until they stopped coming. He was surprised to see new ones. Rather curious ones. IN difference from all others he faced on this joke of a ship, this time there were psionic ones here. One was decent for a bug and the other was clearly mediocre even for a bug. Still He had to at the very least admit that will power wise both seemed decent. Could make for a fine slaves or maybe a prey to be used during hunts to train his men.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava's head cocked to the side, the faceless mask looking back as impassively as her mind would be to anyone trying to read it right now with her screen active. Though she didn't much like the device usually, right now it was not only blocking the protoss from accessing her mind but also blocking out the emotions of the remaining marine, for which she was thankful. "Everyone is fallible to underestimating an enemy.. but, he's the arrogant one." she answered. "I know he is stronger than me; physically, psionically... Believe me, I am going to take this one carefully... but at the same time, this IS the sort of thing I trained my whole life to do..." she added.

The other reason she wanted to go in alone was because she KNEW that that one protoss' mind was so strong. While Ava had her psi-screen.... Miranda didn't. Even being a low to mid-level Psionic left the doctor's mind more vulnerable to being read by another Psionic. If nothing else, this particular protoss would easily be able to just detect Miranda's presence as the group moved in. With the psi-screen, by design, it would allow Ava to move in without being detected psionically. Even if it only mostly covered her presence, Miranda would be the one that still stood out more and likely, this protoss leader would be focused on the group attacking the last pockets of protoss instead. "He isn't stupid," Ava repeated back, "but neither am I."

She sighed in relief as Miranda finally agreed to the plan. This was really the only way to even attempt any sort of surprise against this psionically impressive protoss and they both knew it. The only other option was barging in there in force... and while that might work, it was very likely to lead to more casualties in the process. That was the biggest thing that Ava wanted to avoid, why she had suggested this tactic. Had it been units on a battlefield, she might have chosen otherwise.. Heck, had it been people she didn't really know, she might have gone with the more forceful option but the lives of people she cared deeply about were on the line here.

As Miranda turned to get the second security drone running, Nick turned to Ava, kneeling down and opening his visor so they were more or less eye to eye again. "I don't really like this..." he began.

Ava moved closer, leaning against the font of his suit. "I don't either but... you don't know what that mind felt like." she told him. "If we go in like this, as a group... he will know before we get there. The things Miranda is worried about, he can let loose on all of us... There.. are.. other things too." she added hesitantly. She hated saying things like this out loud, admitting it to others. Other people, normal people feared those like Ava for a good reason. "I can kill with my mind... This one protoss is more powerful than I am.. If he knows we are there, imagine what he could do..." she added quietly, so only he could hear her.

"But wouldn't more of us there be stronger?"

Ava gave a humourless laugh. "No.... not one bit." she answered. "Besides, even if he could only take out one at a time, which I'm not convinced of, who does he hit first? Me? You? Miranda? Who would we risk sacrificing?" she asked bluntly. "I couldn't live with it being either of you..." She put a hand to the side of her head where her ear was beneath the mask and hood. "If I go alone, he senses the rest of you further away, not having reached him yet. Hopefully... likely, his concentration will be on you all at a distance. My screen is on so.. it SHOULD be blocking out my presence from his mind." she explained. "I'm the only one with a chance here to get in close enough to take him out without us taking casualties."

Nick was quiet for a long moment but then let out a long sigh. "Maybe... but I still don't have to like it." He turned concerned eyes up to the glowing, inhuman sensors on the front of her mask. "Promise me you'll be careful, Ava."

The ghost reached into Nick's helmet, running a finger on the side of his jaw. "As careful as a ghost who has critical objective that will protect the lives of those she loves." she answered quietly. At that moment, she wished she could kiss him but.. her mask was on and, this wasn't an ideal time to be messing around with her gear simply for a personal gesture. Instead, she touched her fingers to where her lips were under her mask, then touched the fingers to his lips. "You just be careful against the other protoss in between." she added. She pulled back as Miranda got the second drone up and ready to go and they moved out once more.

As they neared the approach to the main deck, Ava noticed Miranda's movements change, just slightly but enough that the ghost noted that something was going on, something painful. She surmised that it was this templar but.. with the screen on, she could feel neither Miranda's discomfort nor any hint of a psionic attack either. Well, the device was working that much at least so far, she thought. Too bad they didn't have a second one for Miranda though. Well, they would have to use what they had. She switched her mind to the present now. All of her senses now would have to be focused on the task at hand.

She watched as the one drone charged inside, ignoring the first few hits and circling the dragoon that had been awaiting them inside. That was the ghost's cue. Ava cloaked, and without even looking back, charged in, going the opposite direction that the drone had taken. Though she would have to take it slow moving ahead, right now, she had to clear this hall with speed. There was fire coming from the drone in her direction and soon enough, the others in the CMC suits would be adding to the gunfire with their gauss rifles. Ava surely did not want to be in the line of fire any more than necessary. She sprinting through the hall at a dead run, half ducking down to avoid random bullets from the drone.

Thankfully she was soon past it, out of the hall, and as she ducked to the side where she was fully protected, she stopped, taking account of her surroundings. More hallways splitting off. Without being able to sense, Ava was relying on what she could see and hear, and what the sensors in her suit were picking up and displaying on her HUD. Thankfully, the suit was very sophisticated as well. As she moved forwards, even before she heard the sound of feet on the deck, her HUD began to track outlines through the nearest door and soon enough, three of the protoss infantry, the zealots, came through it. The final three zealots. Ava had more than enough time to freeze, curled up in a niche along one of the walls. Short of someone accidentally walking into her, less likely because of the niche, she was nearly impossible to find.

Quickly, they marched past her, heading to where the others were fighting the dragoon. She guessed that likely the templar had known that the dragoon was under attack and had ordered these three to move in, possibly to take advantage of the Terrans not being ready for another confrontation so soon. As much as Ava wanted to help take out these three and protect the others, she had an objective that overruled all else. What she could do though was send a message over the comms. Once the zealots had passed, she activated it. "Incoming zealots!" she whispered harshly over it, hoping that the others had been able to take care of the dragoon by now.

She uncurled slowly, and began to move on, moving slow enough to not miss anything around her, heading towards the bridge. The rest of the way there was empty, devoid of anything other than Terran bodies, the former crew of this ship who had fallen. The command deck had obviously been busy when the ship had fallen. As she neared the bridge, a calm descending over Ava. Emotion did not exist, merely action. This was probably the most crucial thing that ghosts trained for: the ability to disengage themselves. It kept them, under normal circumstances, from failing to act, to fight when feeling the emotions of the enemy, or from becoming fearful or angry and putting themselves at a disadvantage in combat, from letting their focus become distracted. Emotions were not needed here.

As she neared, Ava could see the bridge doors were open. This templar did not fear the Terrans. If he expected them to get this close, well, he wanted to face them himself. He wanted to invite them in. That was what she had sensed before she had turned on the screen anyways. With acute slowness, she moved in line with the doorway, keeping far enough away from it at the same time. It didn't take long to spot the one she was after. Clad in red and black armour, with pale, almost white-grey skin, the alien stood near the centre of the room. Suddenly his head spun in the direction of the door, his eyes blazing red but he paused.

His red eyes studied the hall outside of the bridge, shifting left and right, searching for any sign of something furiously. "Zealots, where are you?" his multi-toned voice asked suddenly as he activated their own communications.

"Under fire from these bugs!" came the reply.

"All of them?"

"Hard to tell, Ascendant. I believe so." came the answer. There was a pause. "I think... three here. You said one or two were killed by our first dragoon." That bit of information was followed by a scream of rage and then the communication cut off.

The templar, an Ascendant of the Tal'darim was not fully convinced however. One of these insects had most certainly been killed. He had felt the death. Very shortly after, though, the mind of one of the others.. the one with the strongest psionic ability, had simply disappeared. It could be that it had died of wounds from the fight as well. If so, it was too bad. He would have liked to have played with that one, studied it, tested it... just to see how far these primitive creatures were and how far they could be pushed before breaking. Ah well, his remaining zealots had orders to attempt to overpower the rest of these creatures and capture them. If they failed, as had all the previous attempts, then the Ascendant himself would face these Terrans. If they killed his three elite zealots, they might be worthy of facing himself...

He was about to turn back to something when he stopped again. There was a.. hint of something, a presence outside. Maybe. It was like a tickle that vanished when he strove to concentrate on it. He froze. While it was difficult to pick up on the presence, there was a slight feel of psionic energy, some sort of field out there. He could not pinpoint it as it seemed to reflect his own senses but.. it was.. nearby. Perhaps.. perhaps this was the stronger prionic that had disappeared. But how had it gotten past his units without notice? Did these simple creatures have cloaking? "Insect! Are you out there?!" he called out.

Ava knelt motionless, her rifle trained on the alien figure. She had been about to change the projectile type on her rifle but with this templar actively looking, she didn't want to risk even the slightest movement that could be noticed by someone knowing what to look for. Suddenly she could feel the hairs on her arms inside her suit begin to try to stand on end almost painfully seconds before she could hear slight crackling all around the doorway to the bridge. The second she saw a charge of energy erupt in front of her, Ava dodged to her left, rolling over and over, making sure she could get clear. At this point, she was easily out of line of sight as the psionic storm built and erupted, mostly in the doorway, not as much at where she had been kneeling but.. she still would have been on the fringes of it. Somehow he knew of her presence but couldn't locate it exactly, it seemed.

Ava retreated further down the hall, away from the bridge as the psionic storm finally began to abate and cease. This templar may not have been stupid, but she was willing to bet he was anxious to get into this himself at the same time, he was anxious to fight. She loaded up one EMP round as she positioned herself an adequate distance away, making sure the next round was a standard one. This would have to be quick. As soon as she saw movement at the door to the bridge, she fired the EMP round. A floating ball with fins came around the corner just as its own cloak failed thanks to the EMP as Ava got another round ready, a standard round. As it did though, Ava's own cloak stuttered and then failed. That ball was a damned detector! Hot on the ball's heels was the templar who exploded out into the hall, eyes blazing. He raised his oddly shaped four-fingered hands towards the now visible ghost, ready for the next attack.

But Ava already had him in her sights. And he had been close enough to catch that EMP too. Without any hesitation, she caressed the trigger of the canister rifle. The powerful shot hit the protoss dead centre in his right eye. The red, glowing orb burst and without any sound, the templar dropped, the shot, meant for more heavily armoured targets than simple flesh and bone, disintegrating the brain behind the eye. Ava's next shot moved swiftly to the floating ball and hit that as well, dropping it to the deck in a shower of sparks. Ava finally took the risk to turn off the psi-screen. The overwhelming presence was gone.

On the other hand, she could still sense two of the zealots and one dragoon remaining somewhere else on the crashed ship. "Templar is down!" she sent over the comm. "Need backup for those last 2 zealots?" she asked, beginning to head back. With the templar eliminated, it was better to stick together once more anyways. From what she could sense of those zealots though, they weren't going to last much longer in any case. With that, she made her way back.

[rivaan]

The dragoons charged over extremely fast as soon as they appeared on the doorway. Miranda was happy that one of hte smaller security drones had managed to arrive before they stormed through the doorway, so they were met with even more machiengun fire, but it wasn't as effective. They didn't even try to hide. One charged the robot and slashed it in two with his psiblade.

Their psionic screams filled hte air as the terrans opened fire again. Nick and the other guy were holding their zealot at distance with concentrated attacks, but Miranda's rifle alone wasn't enough. With Alexander's modification it packed more punch, but the zealot was in melee range in a single breath, so firing rates and firepower weren't of that much importance. With a flick the bayonet was released as she started using the rifle as a melee weapon again. She could vaguely feel the zealot surprised at her choice of engaging it with a melee weapon instead of firing at him. Taldarim and protoss do not like the gauss rifles, they considered them cowardly weapons, thus this decision of hers at least put her in some positive light with the zealot.

Using a shield and a gauss rifle as s short spear, she fought the protoss. Luckily the shield was holding for the moment , though once or twice the psiblade stabbed through it, showing on the other side. Miranda used the chance to literally pull the protoss's arms away while his blades were in the shield to open op the chance to stab at him directly.

She vaguely heard eventually Ava's voice over hte comms, but her mind was preoccupied. The other two had almost taken down their zealot. His shields have given out and he was resisting with his armor itself. He managed to reach and scratch Nick's armor, but finally fell down at their feet. Meanwhile Miranda's state was slightly worse, her suit leaking atmosphere as the protoss punctured through it, luckily missing her body by a little. She in returned had gotten his wrist munted psi emitter on the right arm broken after she finally got his shield down. In return her shield and rifle were tossed to the side, so she and the protoss were basically fist fighting when one side had a psi-blade.

The CMC was somehow still holding though Miranda saw the notifications it was damaged and also running low on power, probably electronics got damaged from the stab after all. She was not a trained warrior like him, even with one psi-blade he was overpowering her when she lost the shield. Previously she directly used the huge metal plate to bash him and with the mechanical suit she was at least keeping herself in the fight. Her team couldn't help her, cause the protoss was positioning himself so she's between the rifles and him. Finally she saw him stab at her torso, after he easily enough broke through her guard.

That psi-blade would cut through her chest like butter even through teh CMC. Time as if stopped, she had to do something and that she did. Instead of retreating, she made a split second decision. She ran into him and jumped instead! She might have been running short on oxygen with the shuit being breached and it's interal seals failing. Now she had a brand new hole right into the side of the stomach area. The hands of hte CMC grabbed the protoss head and using all the mechanical power of it, she twisted it to the side to break his neck and with some crunching they fell over.

"IDUN!" She heard, probably from nick as someone pulled her from the protoss's corpse. The following little while was a bit of a haze, as the suit's automated stim inject systems kicked in, but injected her with healing nanites instead of stim. With her injuries stabilizing and the pain subsiding, she spoke out." I'm fine..." She groaned as she moved and found that the breaches in the CMC suit were 'fixed' using temporary patches of synthetic soft plaster that seal the opening in the armor, preventing oxygen from leaving. She put a few other medicaments to be injected through the suit as she saw Ava appear in the hall." Ship taken!" Miranda said, having taken a lot of damage this time around. Even with the nanites, the wound in the stomach wouldn't close completely right away. Those were preprogrammed nanites, for specific task, in this case it was to not allow her to die from internal bleeding, so the ywere repairing blood vessels mostly. Luckily it didn't actually puncture her stomach or she might have had a sepsis... which would be horrifying unless she gets treatement right away.

"Help me up... we need to check the ship's systems, see if the nuclear missile launchers are still operational."

[Keira Kelly]

Ava tuned in more to the minds in the distance, beginning to run back to where she had left the others when she received no reply back. She could feel some degree of pain and flashes of dire combat. While she had had to take out that templar one, she felt bad that she hadn't been able to also support her allies at the same time. But she could still feel three minds which was a bit of a relief. As she arrived near the room where the dragoon had been fought, she could now feel the pain beginning to lessen, not to mention the intense combat emotions abating. She still had her rifle up as she ground to a halt at the chaotic scene. Three dead protoss lay on the ground and the three remaining marines looked a bit worse for wear, one, quite a bit more than a bit. Ava's stomach clenched at seeing the extent of the damage to the suit.

She knew exactly who's suit it was too. She could feel Miranda's mind and the pain, though she didn't mind it: having the psi-screen off and being able to feel those close to her was a relief. Despite what she knew Miranda was feeling, the doctor exclaimed the ship being theirs. Ava re-slung her rifle over a shoulder as she approached. She had heard Miranda also say that she was fine but she could feel that Miranda was covering the full extent of the injuries, even if they were only temporary and why. Miranda's mind was an open book to her right now. "Yes, you WILL BE fine, Miranda.. but only if you take it easy for now. You don't want to tear anything else before it can heal up." she warned, coming to a stop beside Miranda and Nick. Despite the warnings though, Miranda insisted on getting up, and Ava backed up, letting Nick in his power armour, help Miranda to stand in hers.

Nick, though, laughed. "Doctors make the worst patients, huh, doc?" he joked as he was helping her.

Ava shook her head and sighed, deciding to change the subject. "Well, the templar one is dead. I think I angered him before he went lights out too. He was dying for a stand up fight between warriors... He wasn't prepared for an assassin which he couldn't sense the presence of." she explained. She wasn't really wanting to relate the particulars such as being decloaked and having had only time for the one shot before he would have retaliated in the extreme. What mattered was that she knew she could make that shot and she had, so what-ifs were moot. She had done what she had said she could and would do. What she had been trained to do.

She suddenly frowned as they began walking towards the bridge to check on the nukes. 'There was another dragoon on board... I can't sense it now though...' she sent to Miranda as she realized it. Through all the combat, she had lost track of that one as it hadn't been an immediate threat. She did another scan, feeling no protoss minds on board. Finally she shrugged. Either it had died somehow or escaped, which would mean the mission would get harder. They would find out soon enough. For now, they would have to proceed according to plan.

Finally they reached the hallway just before the bridge. There on his back lay the templar, one eye a gory mess and an even bigger whole that had taken out most of the back of his head as the canister round had exited. Ava lightly kicked at the side of the protoss corpse with an armoured boot. "Here's your templar, Miranda. I heard him talking to the three that came back for you. They called him.. Ascendant. Like his title or rank, I guess." she added.

Nick pointed his rifle in the direction of the trashed device that had once been an observer drone. "What's that?" he asked.

Ava tried to still her mind about it all. "He sent that into the hall as he came after me. I killed him and then shot that down." she answered with a shrug. She didn't want her loved ones to worry about how that could have gone.. but didn't. She looked at Miranda, changing the subject again. "You'll be able to check on the status of the nukes from the bridge?" she asked.

( We can say the last dragoon died to automated turrets. )

[rivaan]

Miranda's movement was a little sluggish as she was basically injured to high hell right now with a wound gaping open. At least the bleeding was rapidly lowering for the moment under the effects of the nanites, helping her some with ti and the other medicaments to lower the bleeding so at least for hte moment, she wouldn't be bleeding out right here. As they moved to the control center she spied the high templar. What Ava told her picked her curiosity. This was indeed unusual... Admittedly all her knowledge on the subject came from second hand reports from Mengsk's forces and the Confederacy, but she was pretty sure the protoss here were different from the ones they've met in the past.

Using the suit's cameras, she made sure to record everything just n case as she just moved past him. A dead protoss was not a priority right now. Eventually his friends will notice what was happening here so they had limited operational time. Miranda walked up to the main controls of the battlecruiser and tried to initiate the console's start up.

At first the computer refused to boot, but after a few flickers it came to life, displaying different statistics and values. After a little while, the room's lights came to life as well as the bridge became bathed in a pale light. Flicking a few swithes and command across the screen, Miranda had the bridge's bulkheads closed. Soon the backup lights were replaced up with the main lighting as she was slowly typing commands, following hte main lights, she ventilation systems suddenly moved as air was rapidly pumpted into the bridge." There's some air, but the main life support won't be up unless we restart the main engines and reactors fo the ship." She commented, studying the displayed readings and data.

"Most of the reactors are not possible to reach, probably structural damage from whatever ended the ship into the rock." She added and suddenly stopped moving her hands, staring the re status report." I managed to reactivate one of the reactors however... part of the ship's weapon systems came online... nuclear silos... online." She mentioned and threw a look at Ava." The entirety of the ship's nuclear reserves just came online, the ship has the absurd amount of 43 tactical nuclear missiles on board. Out of those 8 are loaded into the launching tubes." She added, her voice a little raspy and tired as she lightly moved, causing her injurty to ache. She really needed to pick up on the CQC skills. Though to be fair a CMC wasn ot as dextrous as a protoss in combat armor, so it was fair she ended up hurt, that said if she wasn't in a CMC she would have died...

"THe ship's sensors are offline however, we need a spotter. Ava, you and nick will have to go scout the protoss base. Using the stealth, to get just close enough, once you are within spotting range, start the guiding systems. I will activate all 8 armed and ready to launch missiles at the base... Pretty sure there wouldn't be anything left after that." MIranda mentioned. In the meantime she was going to start to go through the ship's logs. The data on this one was surprisingly little on the public channels aside the fact it ended up here somehow and the ship being in a barely complete state prior to launch.

Honestly she was not feeling the best right now, she needed to get out of the suit. So after Nick and Ava left teh bridge, after seh confirmed the room's atmosphere was right and not poluted by anything, she got the other guy to help her out of her armor. A rather painful thing as she ahd to move out with the wound, but having someone else in power armor to lift the heavy parts helped. Once she was out of, she studied the wound on her stomach. Most of her lower half of the body was scarlet red from the blood that she had bled... no longer she felt a lil weak. It was a miracle she wasn't out cold from teh anemia. Anyways, now it was barely seeping out blood cause a lot of the flesh had patcehd up at least to some state from teh nanites. She was still injured and any violent stress on her stomach might cause the fragile flesh to tear up since it was nowhere near healed up properly.

Cursing inwardly she pulled the medkit and started to apply proper medicine and decided to not stitch it up this time around. Instead she was going to simply put a healing plaster on top with agents to speed up healing. The wound was somewhat deep, but with the nanites help to bring her to the current state, she would probably need a couple of weeks at most to be to proper working state. She patiently waited for the ship to register the spotting signals for the nukes, while reading logs after she finished patching herself up. SHe wouldn't be getting into the CMC again for the time being however... SHe didn't want to risk tearing herself a hole in the stomach from it.

As soon as teh signal arrived, she launched all nukes, set them to a certain degree of spread, to make sure they hit evenly across the entire location of the target, this should make certain it would hit all parts of the enemy base and then set up the eight nuke to move slower and hit afterwards. Just to finish off stragglers. Finally she rested back in the chair. Trying to get the life support back online, but as she ahd said earlier, it would require a full sheep reboot. Ship wide life support needed the main reactors, without them it was impossible. SHe managed to restore the life support to a few decks from the limited use of the local smaller reactor that the bridge had access to however.