SC - Fugitives

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Keira Kelly
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

Ava stood and watched Emil dispassionately as he tried to figure out through the drugged stupor what was going on. Being near a drunk person, feeling their mind was.. not too much fun and being near a drugged one was even less so. The ghost was struggling to focus on her other senses rather than on her psionic one at the moment but it was difficult. That was another reason she was more than glad for Miranda to take over the interaction which this former noble; Miranda had the mental buffer of Ava in regards to feeling this man's mind, Ava had no such filter. It got worse as he became distracted with.. what she knew to be the nearby lamp but his mind.. was flitting about with half-formed thoughts at the same time, also being as slow as molasses in a confusion contradiction. Ava grimaced at Miranda. "I could have told you it was working..." she replied with a frown, tapping the side of her own head. She returned concentration to Emil as Miranda continued with the questioning. Despite the unpleasantness of being in the man's mind, she had to confirm his answers with what she could sense.

She grunted lightly, standing with arms crossed, at hearing the man's answer as to the first contact with the UED. So this Earth-based organization had reached out first. Somehow that didn't really surprise her at all, what with all Miranda had explained to her. That was also very worrisome because it meant that the UED knew a lot more about the Koprulu Sector than the sector knew about them... and if the UED were this confident they could do what they promised, that meant they had hidden cards to play. If they were going to be the new player in the sector, more information would have to be discovered about them, information that Ava highly doubted this lowly former noble was privy to. Her nose wrinkled at hearing the confirmation that the UED had been 'keeping an eye' on the state of the sector.

As Miranda was making notes in a datapad, Ava was making like notes in her own memory. Gerard DuGalle and Alexei Stukov. The leaders of this intrusive, unwanted force. And Colonel Sokol here on this base.... She paused in her thoughts, eyebrows raising up high. The second in command of the UED fleet in the sector would be here within a few days? She breathed out a noise breath. 'It's true as far as he knows.' she replied psionically to Miranda's unvoiced thought. 'What concerns me is that we have a new enemy player to add to our already numerous enemy players... the remnants of the Confederacy, Mengsk and his Dominion... and now this UED.. I wouldn't mind just letting them get into it, fighting for dominance and weakening each of them in the process, especially Mengsk... but.... well, you know how much I hate the Confederacy but that's nothing compared to how much I want to see Mengsk taken down.' she explained. 'But I'm worried.. what if the UED decides that they want to BACK Mengsk instead of the failed, tattered remnants of the Confederacy? Depending which path the UED goes down, if we do something it could lead to disaster, or doing nothing could also...' she added, feeling conflicted. There was just too little information to even make guesses at what the UED would do. She wanted to see all three organizations wiped out of the sector but... it felt like there was little they could really do at the moment.

Ava was beginning to get a serious headache by the time Miranda started asking Emil more about the experiments, but this time, the ghost did not pay such close attention. Most of the details were beyond her expertise anyways. At least, she wasn't until Emil began speaking of the test subjects for the psionic experiments. Ava turned back, fury simmering in her green eyes now as she stared at the young nobleman. Her face reddened, the anger becoming more than obvious at hearing the WHY of what they were doing. Psi-emitters. The one thing that had effectively ripped away the only chance of Ava being able to reconnect with her sister. The one thing that had truly destroyed her sister's life, turning her into a monster. Ava had a special hatred such those devices. Once again, powerful people were turning innocent people into antennae, ruining lives to make people into weapons of mass destruction. The look of anger had become an outright snarl on the ghost's face, an expression that was so rare for Ava's features, a look of pure, unbridled hatred and rage.

She could feel the energy within her brimming now, seeking a release along with her ire. The second Miranda asked Ava if she wanted to ask Emil anything, the ghost's only response was a hissed "No." She could easily feel that Miranda didn't need anything more from this man and that was enough for Ava. At that moment, Miranda's intentions for this man meant nothing to Ava and she released that ire, the rage, the energy into Emil's mind. The drugged man's head blew apart, right there, in the middle of the lounge as he sat on the couch, a fine mist of red hung in the air for a moment before the rest of the body toppled sideways with Ava glaring at it, breathing heavily. What this man had participated in... it was personal. The Psionics used, former ghosts or not, they were HER people. Her sister had been one used. Ava had been used by the Confederacy and the Dominion as well, though to a lesser extent. She had still been enslaved to them. It was personal for her. And now she had taken one small revenge for all of that, a drop into an ocean but.. it was a start. Still.. exploding a head like that was not something she had accomplished before, at least not to that extent... not that messily or extreme. It was showing that her powers were becoming stronger, it seemed.

Ava looked up at Miranda, her eyes still angry but tear-filled now too. "Let's go." she agreed, her voice strained, trying to calm down, to focus on what they needed to do next, to move forward. "We need to... deal with the psionics..." she added before glancing down at herself. Though she had removed her armour for the most part, she still had her skin suit underneath and that was what was important for cloaking. "After we deal with that, before we go past the guards at the elevator, I'll cloak..." she said, taking comfort in coming up with a plan of action to forget what she had just done. "The guards, seeing only you, will assume I stayed with..." she trailed off, not wanting to look at the body. "They will assume I stayed here. I'll reinforce the idea that.. Emil doesn't want interruptions for the rest of the night to the leader of the guards..." she added.

She turned her back on the body, heading towards the door out of the lounge quickly at that, wanting to be gone from this place and headed out into the hall as soon as she was sure that Miranda was joining her. They made their way back to the room with the psionic test subjects, Ava just making sure the hallways were clear of guards as they went. It was easy enough, there was only one way onto this level and the guards were guarding the elevator. It seemed they found little reason to patrol down here. Slipping into the lab with the test subjects was easy, especially with the access card Miranda had taken off of Emil and the code to go along with it.. well, most people thought the numbers as they pressed in codes. Emil had been no different and Ava had recalled the exact number sequence.

Once they were inside, Ava flinched back. While still filtered, the unleashed damaged psionic minds were even stronger inside the room. Any anger Ava had felt, or shame at what she had done, melted away beneath the onslaught of the minds. She turned a tortured look at Miranda. "End them quickly?" she asked, almost pleadingly, still standing right near the doorway, wincing in distress at the overwhelming psionic sensations. While the ghost had had no issues with actually ending Emil's life, it was different here. She had her knife still but not her gun... and Ava did not want to get that close to these damaged souls. It would be bad enough feeling them die... At least Miranda, with the drugs, could make it a peaceful passing....
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

'Pff, as if.' Miranda immediately denied the possibility of the UED backing up Mengsk.' That man would never be the second fiddle to anyone or anything. He'd rather destroy something than not be the one to possess it, you think he'd willingly step down to being a simple underling? I know him, I know him well enough to know that he'd never submit to these people no matter the offer. Rather i'd imagine he'd more be tempted to figure out a way to bring the war to them if he has to. His lust for power is well... about as all consuming as the zerg are. Otherwise he wouldn't have been around still or you know... be the damned emperor. Even if they do decide to temporary cooperate, expect them to start the backstabbing right away.' Miranda wasn't really happy with the whole situation either, but the UED provided a very nice change of the situation here.

'Actually it's not that bad. With the situation being what it is, the Zerg are still rampaging, the protoss are active, the Dominion need someone to keep it in check. The UED is just the perfect thing to pull off some heat off us and weaken the players around indeed. We just need to be one step ahead of the game and be at the right places to make the difference for the ordinary folk and kick Mengsk's ass and ego while we are at it. There will be opportunity, we just need to be careful. I'd imagine us getting captured by the UED wouldn't be in any way better than the Dominion...'

The doctor gently placed her hand on the ghost's shoulder in reassuring manner, but otherwise seemed unphased by the man who's head went pop. It wasn't unusual when one dealt with combat psionics to see such sights. What's more she was already present at the cases where Ava had went berserked back at the academy, this was nothing next to those events. She just let her warm and reassuring thoughts dominate her mind, to provide calmness and stability to Ava when she'd need it the most.

"Very well. We will be out of here soon enough and those men and women would be at peace." She noddeda s they headed back to the lab. When the doorways into the lab finally opened, Miranda's expression changed as fast as Ava's. While she didn't feel it the same way as the ghost, Miranda was still a low level telepath. She was sensitive and the combined pressure from all the men and women here and their minds, especially after whatever experiments htey had done on them, it was enough to affect her. Her brain was practically buzzing by merely standing inside this labatory hall. She grimaced, feeling her head hurt, but was still able to hold it. She was just glad she was used to Ava's presence. Otherwise this much might have been a bit too strong unless she had a psi-screen of her own. Still she focused on the calming thoughts and nodded at hte ghost." It will be over soon, they won't feel a thing. I will make it peaceful." The doctor reassured and walked deeper into the lab to the main terminals. She didn't forget to do a very quick glance through the data, frowned at what she was reading, decided it was worth the DL not for the psi-emitters experiments themselves, but for the results they had achieved and the data that might lead to other uses and breakthroughts. She had no desire to create Psi-Emitters, but with this data, other things would be possible too. Ones without the need to sacrifice people... hell she might even be able to figure how to reverse this condition in the future should anyone again decides this sort of experimentation is a good idea.

Once the data was downloaded, she set it to be deleted from the system here and while that was going on, Miranda started operating the automated infusion systems. On the side she fiddled with another system for a moment and turned off the additional psi-screens over the room. She picked up a special mix of drugs and medication to be injected in specific dosages and watched as the bright liquids were injected into the IV systems of all the patients. It was a mixture of painkillers, sedative and a few others. They simply slipped away. Without pain, without sadness and without distress. What Miranda felt was indeed quite akin to peace. Their nightmare was ending. It didn't take more than a minute before the final person passed away in pleasant painless sleep. She grabbed her datapad, tucked it away in her jacket and headed out of the lab.

"So... just before they passed away, the psi-screens were down. The planet's dampening field was still around, but with so many of them at one place, I'm pretty certain at least someone or something, might have picked if nothing else their presence." Miranda stated and looked at the ghost." So... time to bail." She stated and started walking towards the elevators of the lab. She made herself look a bit haggard and distressed. A typical, ' she got tricked and was shocked by the reality of hte world' look. Probably a thing that happened often with Emil's former lovers." When we are out of hte labs, we won't have time to lose. We should be heading for our exit point, the one we used, the barracks are on the way, so we can grab your gear from there." She warned as they were nearing the elevators.

Sure enough the guard by the elevator was surprised when he saw her appear, but when he saw the missing Ava and Emil and Miranda's expression he seemed to have thought of a possible course of events. Miranda almost choked when she got the thoughts via Ava, but she had to admit it would probably be the usual MO of Emil most of the time. Somehow or other they got the elevatored opened. She promised hte man a pack of cigarettes with a sad face and defeated expression as teh doors of the elevators closed adn it started ascending.

'We should be ready for all hell to break loose at any moment, should the brief time without hte psi-screens in the lab did indeed attrack any zerg. However even if the zerg attack this planet, they wouldn't be able to use their usual swarm tactics here with the psionics being so limited, so we shouldn't have much issues in getting back to the dropship.'
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Keira Kelly
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

If Ava had thought it was hell being in this lab with these tortured ghosts, what it was when Miranda turned off the psi-screen within the room was... indescribable. The mental screams and just.. sheer amount of noise took her to her knees, her mouth opening in her own soundless scream. Being a ghost, being a strong psionic, meant involuntarily taking in the minds of others around her and to an even greater extend if the other minds were psionics as well. Even had she been able to maybe block some of what she picked up from other minds, there would have been no way she could have with these. They were just too strong.

These psioncs were not only picking up the surface thoughts of every single person on this base at once, all meshed on top of each other, but they were able to do that no other psioncs could do: read beyond the surface thoughts. And they were broadcasting it all psionically. They were taking in the full memories of everyone in range as well, at the same time, all the time. They couldn't tell themselves apart from the confusing mess of all the other hundreds of people on the base and, on the receiving end, Ava began to start to feel like she was losing herself as well. Just as she was beginning to wonder if she could keep holding herself together, some of the noise evaporated. Then some more, and then some more... By the latter ones, Ava could feel the tortured minds slipping into death, the twinge of fear but also the quick acceptance at the realization. The torture was over.

When the last had passed, Ava slumped heavily, gasping for air, only now realizing that she had been holding her breath tight against the deluge of minds. "Oh god.." she whispered as she finally started to regain control. Finally she turned her green eyes up at Miranda, noting that while the doctor was psionic was well, she had not felt nearly the level of those minds that Ava had. Unsteadily, she began to pick herself up, getting to her feet. Focus, 24602, she told herself, focus.... Breathe. She had to get it under control and ready for the next part of the mission despite her mind feeling raw and battered. She still needed to use her psionics to cloak to get out of here.. She felt exhausted by what she had been through but she had to push past that... She had been trained to push past that. With a nod at Miranda's warning, Ava quickly stripped off the "borrowed" uniform, dumping it in a far corner where it wouldn't be easy to spot unless someone came well into the lab, and checked the small power unit on her hip. Only that and the skin suit.. and herself of course, was all that was needed to actually create and maintain the cloaking field. All the rest of the gear she had left in the one soldier's quarters were more for combat.

As Miranda began to head out, Ava used her psionics to interact with both the power unit and the actual fibres of the suit itself to refract the light around her, causing her form to flicker and then fade out of existence, save for slight ripple in the air when she moved to follow Miranda closely. The closer she stayed, the less likely that one of the guards would notice her, as their focus would be on the one woman returning by herself. She pulled the knife off the holster on her thigh though, just in case. 'If they start to suspect that you aren't alone.. if they do notice me and know what a cloaked figure looks like.... I'm going to have to eliminate them. If that happens, try to stay out of the way.' she sent psionically as they walked, knowing the warning would probably not be heeded anyways but.. she had to try. Miranda wasn't armed and the guards were. If something went down, Ava stood a much better chance of tearing into the enemy as an invisible force, meanwhile the doctor might just get caught in crossfire. They didn't need that to happen. As the approached the guard point in front of the elevators, Miranda added back her own warning to Ava which the ghost merely acknowledged. Grabbing her gear and getting out was all she wanted to do at this point.

As they drew closer, Ava kept a careful monitor on the mind of the leader of these guards. The first thought was surprise. She felt his thought go back to this happening once or twice before.. not often. This guard suspected that Emil had found ways to keep unwilling women in bed with him more times than not.. Ava carefully nudged his thinking that this was one more of the few, that maybe she hadn't partaken in whatever it was Emil normally used to make the women more.. agreeable. The man's acceptance at that conclusion came with an actual sigh and a wistful, pitying look at Miranda. This one had escaped. He was sure her friend hadn't been so lucky and would come to regret it in the morning. He turned back to what his men were doing as Miranda passed by, none of them really wanting to draw this... distressed looking woman into real conversation.

Yet... the guard leader couldn't quite stop himself. "You should be happy you are out of there that quickly..." he muttered under his breath, just loud enough for Miranda to pick up, giving a wave for her to make her way out through the elevator.

The minute of waiting for the elevator car to arrive was tense for Ava, but at least standing still now, any hints of her presence there was virtuously non-existent. The thoughts she was picking up from all the guards though only made the ghost happier about what she had done to that pompous, womanizing predator. That's what he had been: a predator who had often used his position and power to force women to serve his needs, and when that didn't work... he did worse. No, Ava was glad now at what she had done to him, only regretful that it had been over so quickly and painlessly for him. Finally the elevator arrived and the two women moved inside, Ava glad when the doors closed without any of the guards being the wiser to her presence. During the ride, the ghost kept the cloak on, suspecting that even the elevator car would have a camera.. and likely even with audio pickup as well.

Ava breathed out loudly, still invisible, at Miranda's warning that the tortured psionics may have drawn in the zerg. 'I'd like to see this place razed to the ground by the zerg, as much as I hate those creatures, I want to see this place burn....' she sent back, her mental tone full of vitriol. As soon as they were back on the main concourse, they headed straight for the quarters of the first soldier they had taken out, and once safely inside, Ava decloaked and wasted no time in retrieving her armour and rifle, gearing back up, feeling good to be wearing all of the familiar weight of it again. She pulled the hood on again and pulled the mask over her face once more, creating an air-tight seal against the acid rain they would once again encounter when they exited the base. Her knife back in its holster, she slung her rifle over a shoulder for the moment, taking a few seconds to recharge, both mentally and for her power unit. "Okay, I'm ready to go." she said finally, gesturing to Miranda to lead the way out before cloaking again.

( Not sure if you were wanting the zerg to indeed show up.. or maybe some protoss or something? Or maybe something to get found just as we get to the final guard post and alarms go off and we have to fight out? XD Or could make a clean getaway? )
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

'Mmm, I feel you.' Miranda confirmed her agreement with Ava's sentiment about the Zerg razing this place to the ground, though admittedly there wasn't any proof it'd happen. From what the readings and the data showed earlier, these people weren't of the same power as the psi-emitter used on Tarsonis. If it was used in any other system in the sector, especially since a lot of the major systems were infected, Zerg would swarm from all around, but here on this world in this remote part of the sector there might not be any in responce, what's more the planet's psi-dampening effect might have masked them completely. Still Miranda hoped that the sheer concentration of all of them before they died, would be enough to attract something here, zerg or protoss didn't matter, the place would be razed in the grand scheme of things.

Miranda watched as Ava was gearing up. She herself fixed her appearance good, put on the baseball cap again, hiding a good deal of her face from the cameras that were usually in above, but since it was a regular part of the uniform, no one would bat an eye." Alright, let's get going, it wouldn't be far from now when someone might realize something's up. Even if I tampered a bit with the lab sensors from the command console there, if someone actually checks what's happening there via the manual security feed and actually pays attention, it'd be pretty obvious." Miranda warned as she headed for hte door as soon as Ava was ready to follow.

Walking out in the halls, it wasn't much different from before. Miranda kept quiet verbally and just silently lisnted to the surroundings via Ava's perception as she headed and passed by the locker rooms in the barracks. She very quickly put in the combat armor jackets over the regular uniform and then took on the full face concealing helmet again putting it on, followed by the gloves and soon she was once more geared for outside patrol duty. Passing further towards their exit, she also pulled a rifle from the racks, walking confidently. It was the best way to not draw attention, act like it was just a regular day in the office and so she did, all the wya down the long halls until she saw the blastdoor at the end of the hall and hte single security standing guard on the inside.

"You the next patrol shift? Aren't you heading out a bit early?" The guard asked as he saw her walking up to him. Still he was already preparing to open the blast door.

"Mm... yeah. The guys at one of the observation posts asked me to bring them some smokes, so I figured i'd leave for the shift earlier, so I catch the vending machines before they are emptied clean from all the other people getting off their shifts." She explained. If there was ONE thing that people got antzy about it was the rationing of such things such as tabacco, coffee and so on. Depending on the situation these things could be worth their weight in gold and made a good excuse for all sort of things. A spy's most favorite thing.

"I se..." The man had just open the blast door and was in the middle of his sentence when the entire base came to life with syrens and red lights.

"..." Miranda had a neutra expression under the mask, apaprently it was on.

"THIS IS A RED ALERT, REPEAT THIS IS A RED ALERT. UNIDENTIFIED HOSTILE OBJECTS HAVE ENTERED ORBIT."

The base's speakers blared loudly as hte man ushered Miranda to hurry and leave because the blast doors were being closed automatically. She nodded and slipped outside as she looked up in the dark stormy sky... Honestly visibility was kinda bad right now. The helmet set she had on from the uniform had a basic night vision that helped a little. The true main thing htat allowed her proper visibility was the advanced sensors and night vision on the enviromental suit that she wore. They were differen't from Ava's ghost headpiece and required the entire mask to operate, tied to the suit itself. It was what was used for low visibility conditions such as deep mining shafts, dust storms and heavily gas cloud locations where conventional visibility was zero.' Let's go, quickly. We already know the way, so we shoudl be making better time, especially with the current situation.' She sent Ava and started moving fast across the rocky pathways, of course she recalled the earlier dangerous slopes that she nearly fell down and put a good effort in moving carefully there.

Even in teh darkness of the stormy night, through the flashes of light and the sensors of the suit, shapes could be seen moving through the cloud levels and some were actually falling through in scattered manner. Miranda froze in place as she pulled her bynoculars and with their night vision mode in the very far distnace spotted a flock of Overlords and other flying type of zerg descend in clumps.' Ohh... indeed.' She noted as she lookeda round and saw the way zerg were randomly impacting across the planet as far as she could see, but no organizaed activity aside the few clumps of overlords.' The overlords are having troubles maintaining the control and the link with the lesser zerg!' She sent to Ava in a brief amazement as she started moving again, they were nearing the observation posts now. She'd honestly just run past them now, with the storm and the zerg appearing no one would mind them.' Alright the zerg haven o actual idea where the base is on the planet, they cannot sense the minds of the humans there and they cannot stray too far from the overlords, so we won't encounter any major groups of them by the looks of it on our path to the ship, but we should be wary of stray zerg who have turned feral from their disconnection from the sawrm.' She explained as she started descending the mountain.' Hey Ava, I still carry the signal flare gun of these guys' uniform... Want to use it?' She asked, Overlords aside psionic communication and sensors also had eyes for visual data of course. A signal flare would attrack them to a general location. As for the planet's effect on the way the zerg were being controlled, she already had an idea for an useful tool she'd have to work on along with Alexander once they get back to Kalisti.
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Keira Kelly
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

It felt good to be completely armoured once more, including the mask. To Ava, her gear was a physical barrier between herself and.. everyone else. She couldn't really block out the minds, the stray thoughts, in the immediate area without her psi-screen but with her gear and cloak, she was apart from everything here. Nobody here would ever know that she was passing them. She was a ghost, both literally and figuratively.... and it comforted here. Though living on Kalisti, interacting with the colonists there, and with Miranda and Nick's directions, Ava was becoming a bit more comfortable with social interactions but.. she didn't think it would ever be truly a comfortable activity for her. Being as strong a psionic as she was, she was just too.... different from the norm to ever feel truly at ease with more than her most trusted companions. She was anxious now to get back to the dropship and away from this planet. She shuddered involuntarily, still feeling dirty from the acting they had played at, even if it had not gone anywhere. She had seen enough in Emil's mind's eye to be sickened at even going that far.

As Ava followed Miranda out into the hall, the ghost kept as mentally silent as the doctor was verbally. A part of her mind was scanning the immediate vicinity, checking for any warning signs but the rest was thinking about this place and what had been going on here. A desire to lay waste to this place was rising in her. It wasn't just because of those tortured souls down in the labs either, she realized. A lifetime of resentment over how she had been treated, life that she had been denied, was feeding her ire for this safe house of Confederates. She had never truly been allowed to fight back over her own imprisonment. Hell, it might as well have been slavery. She had never had any choice in the slightest, being expected to work, and even sacrifice her own life on someone else's whim. It was people like the ones here that had allowed it. Perhaps someone here had even had a hand in 'recruiting' Ava and her sister twenty-something years ago, for all she knew.

As they walked, Ava began to realize that she could lay waste to this place herself, if she so chose. Despite the dampening field that limited the range of her psionic abilities, she could still feel many minds, especially when they got closer to the hub of the base. She had injured and killed before with merely a thought... Emil was proof of what she was starting to be able to accomplish, what she was learning she could accomplish. Could she kill more than one at a time with her mind? Imagine, an invisible foe that could disintegrate minds or even pop heads with merely a thought... If she had been more sure of her own powers, well... it was a very, very tempting thought.

As Miranda stopped at the blast door, Ava slowed too, keeping well to the side, to one wall, out of the line of sight between the guard and Miranda. Though cloaked, she now had her rifle trained on the guard just in case. Her mind was also similarly trained on the man. Once false move and either psionic energy or a canister round was going to go through his head. But it proved unnecessary as the guard easily accepted Miranda's answer to his query and began to open the door. That was when all hell broke loose. The invisible ghost swung her rifle, still at the ready, away from the man and back towards the hallway behind them, looking for any targets or signs that they had been spotted. A quick psionic scan picked up nothing directed at the two women.

As the speakers came to life, a voice began to warn of approaching objects in orbit. Ava's eyes, beneath her mask, widened in anxiety. She reached out instinctively with her mind but... no, the dampening field did not allow her to sense that far. Damn. With having talked about the zerg before, that was the first thought that came to Ava's mind. She ducked past the blast doors, following Miranda as the doors began to automatically close. At least with the flashing red warning lights going on, any chance to have her cloaking effect spotted was basically nil.

The doors closed behind them, sealing the two women outside. It was still raining but it was pitch black out ahead of them. With only a thought, Ava's HUD lit up, as she turned on not only enhanced lighting but thermal detection as well. Suddenly, she could see everything, better than normal eyes during the day in this stormy jungle planet. She sent a message of assent to Miranda in reply to the doctor's suggestion to get out of there as quickly as possible, following her friend at a dead run down the path, her heavy boots splashing through puddles of acidic rain water. Halfway down the path, Ava finally turned off her cloak, deeming it not as necessary anymore.

Closer to where the jungle really began below the mountainous slope, she turned back, stopping for only a matter of a few seconds, her mask scoping in on the observation turret, using the thermal vision to full effect. With the alarm going on inside, the man at that post was on full alert but it took her only seconds to zero in on his heat position, angle and all the other factors she had been trained for to make this shot through the thin opening in the bunker. The rifle shot rang out, followed closely by a more distant echoing explosion of her canister round striking her target. She had made sure it was one of the higher explosive rounds, knowing that while it was overkill for one man inside, it would take out anyone else in near vicinity that she couldn't see... and probably cause enough damage that nobody could instantly man the sniper post either.

Turning back to follow Miranda again, the thought she caught from her friend's mind drew her attention upwards. "Oh god..." she whispered to herself at seeing what had been approaching the planet. A sharper fear raced through her at Miranda's observation that the zerg overlords were having trouble controlling their charges. From what they had learned in the past months, that could likely mean feral zerg units on the planet if they strayed from their overlords.. but that wasn't what worried Ava. 'We have to move fast then before they can get close to us...' she sent back. 'I don't want them getting anywhere near our ship.. near Nick... but also, if there we come to close to any that don't have an overlord nearby, they are going to be drawn to ME!' she warned. Fear at what had happened to her sister ran like ice down her back. Normally, she wasn't afraid to fight, even zerg, but here... they were seriously outnumbered and fighting something as fast and varied and numerous as a zerg swarm in a jungle, at night, with limited ammunition was.. just suicide. Well, it would be suicide likely for Miranda. Probably would be a far worse fate for a class 10 psionic....

She turned to look at Miranda, trying vainly to control her own emotions and thoughts in the face of a rising sense of panic, but Ava did so. Miranda's thoughts, the reasoning of the suggestion of the flare gun came to Ava's mind. A sense of hope, at having a plan, helped secure Ava even more. A small smile came to her lips beneath her mask and she nodded as she held out a hand for the flare gun. She caught it out of the air as Miranda threw it to her and then paused. 'The range on this thing isn't all that great. Get back to the dropship and I'll meet you there. I can cloak on the rest of the run back so they will concentrate mostly on the visual input of the flare.' She hoped anyways. 'I would just rather not have them see you in the light from it.' she added. She was sensing that Miranda was reluctant to leave. 'I can run faster than you can with my suit and my powers and... please make sure Nick is okay?' she added, almost pleadingly.

With that, she cloaked, heading back towards where the base was hidden on the mountain, close enough that the flare would reach it effectively. She reached back with her mind, feeling for Miranda but.. the signal was dim with the distance. Good enough. She aimed the gun, up but at a good angle towards the base, trying to time the shot with the random gusts of stormy wind. As soon as one died down, she pressed the trigger, the gun making a sound she wasn't used to. With the thermal vision, she kept track of the projectile, seeing it arc.. fairly well up the mountain slope. At the peak of its arc, the thermal trace began to change, flicker.. get hotter until it flared a bright white on her HUD. She knew at that point, it had ignited and was now throwing off a bright light. Time to get out of here.

She turned, stilled cloaked and ran back towards where she knew the dropship was, using her own psionic powers to boost her suit and her own strength to give herself added speed. The problem was now, she was beginning to be able to sense zerg here and there on the edge of her mind. The overminds, despite the dampening field, still had some decent range and her own normal range wasn't anything to scoff at either... As she ran, splashing through dark puddles in the dark forest, more than once, she came upon zerg springing out of the underbrush. Quick shots from her rifle took them down and she didn't even slow her pace, being able to hip-fire the complicated, heavy weapon with ease due to decades of training with it. At one point though, a hydralisk came out from behind a tree, almost instantly going into a crouched pose as it got ready to shoot its impaling spines at her. Ava dove down to the muddy ground, sliding as a number of projectiles went past above her. Before the creature could get another try, Ava had it in her sights and two burst shots of her rifle tore its face apart.

She got to her feet, running again. The rest of the way to the dropship was quiet enough.. for the moment as she got to the rear ramp of the ship. Miranda was waiting at the top for her and Ava did not delay getting up it and inside the ship. She heard the door close behind her and the ghost dropped to her knees as her cloak turned off, displaying a form completely coated with thick, acidic mud all up the front. Trying to catch her breath, Ava sent psionically rather than talking. 'We need to get out of here now. Some of the zerg were getting close to us. We need to leave.' she sent. 'I did encounter some ferals... like I said, they are drawn to me if they get close enough... but I can feel an overmind or two not that far away... and they are aware of my presence now too...' she added as she pulled off her mask and hood, lying on her back now on the deck as she caught her breath.
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Miranda got to the ship first as planned. She had to fire her new rifle a few times actually when a zergling showed up just near the ship. It was looking confused and lost, so it was one of the ones who had lost touch with the overmind... or was it the QUeen of Blades now that the Overmind was gone? Or was it one of the many Cerebretes? Hard to tell at present, in any case she downed it quick with a full burst of the rifle, managing to target vitals and hurriedly made her way into the dropship. After telling Nick to be ready in case Ava need's covering fire, Miranda jumped into the pilot seat, and started to prepare the engines in low power mode as to not show up on scanners as easily.

As soon as Ava was on board, Miranda hit the full power to the engines and the generators. The ship let out a roar as it came to lfie, the powerful engines quickly bringing it off ground as it was already speeding across the treetops, leaving a trail of broken and ruffled from the wind pressure trees underneath. Naturally in this nightly storm, with the ship's sensors in night vision mode, it had a good time visually seeing the sky." Alright people, this is going to be a bit rocky." Miranda's voice echoed through the comm of the ship as it took a sudden turn left.

A pair of mutalisks had attempted to intercept them, but Miranda's quick reaction, made their initial salvo miss. Mutas were rather fast, but this ship wasn't exactly a slow thing either, It was more maneuverable than a regular dropship, so she had a somewhat easy time dodging as they were pulling away from the overlords." Okey, prepping for atmo escape." She stated as the ship rocked just a bit from one of the mutalisks' shots glancing the hull, but it didn't seem to leave much damage. Miranda's piloting was getting more refined as she was actually using it for these things since they left the academy. She was rapidly recalling old stuff, admittedly it wouldn't be bad to have a dedicated pilot, that way she'd be always able to provide Ava with backup instead of having to be ready on the ship...

In any case, she hit the afterburners as the ship rocketed forward as she pulled the controls up, steernig it towards the sky and the dropship was making rapid ascend, leaving mutalisks and any other zerg fliers in the dust as it made it into teh clouds before hurling out on the other side and momentsl ater into space as the trusters turned down for cooldown after the intense burn. She activated the stealth system and made a course away from the planet.

"You know... this is actually very... impressive spectacle." Miranda commented watching in the distance above the planet they jsut left where there was a massive warp rift and masses of zerg were being thrown out off it and falling to the planet. She had heard that this was how the main protoss forces traveled, by the cerebretes and the overmind opening warp windows and tossing zerg through those to new planets. On that note, something else suddenly picked up on the sensors." Uh oh...." Mirnada made a very unpleasant sound as the ship rocketed once more to the right, as she made a near complete 90 degree right turn as something massive suddenly warped right in front of their path and she would ahve collided if she didn't move.

Flashes of blaster fire and plasma filled the viewscreens as a fleet of terran vessels warped in and started firing at the zerg. Miranda could easily see the flocks of wraiths moving off the battelcruisers... partly because she was currently attempting to not hit any of those since one such squadron was moving through their path. It caused a rightful confusion among everybody involved in this weird event as Miranda was forced to actually make use of the ship's weapon systems as the machineguns came into play, shredding an unsuspecting wraith that realized too late it was on collision course with a stealthed object. It was usually them who were doing the stealthing up! In any case, The dropship flew through the cloud of smoke and debry, leaving a trail, making it obvious that something happened, naturally two wraiths moved to chase while hte rest continued towards the planet. Miranda had no intention of involving herself in the conflict between the UED and the zerg, she was rushing to reach the safe to warp distance from the planet. The dropship could stand a few hits from the wraiths and it idd, being hit by a couple of lasers and a missile that actually exploded next to them. Still before they could take any real damage, Miranda activated the wrap and with a lurge, the ship vanished from realspace, leavin a pair of disappointed wraiths that broke chase and headed back to their carrier ship to provide escort and cover for hteir battle with the zerg was just starting.

Now in warp, Miranda felt a lot more comfortable, but didn't leave the pilot seat right away. SHe took a few deep breaths, double checked all the systems and only then headed to the main cargo area that was converted into their living space. She still hadn't tkaen off the helmet from her suit, so she did so. Her face and hair were wet from sweat from the earlier running all the way from the base to the ship and the rush down the mountain. Ruffling her hair a bit to make it get some air through it, she looked at Ava." You know, this wasn't in any way worse than Redstone. In fact I think it was overall better." She stated with a sigh and sat nearby." In other news we can indeed confirm this thing can take some beating, we took a few shots, but honestly it barely registered them. If it was a regular dropship, we'd be in need of emergency dewarp and repairs." She commented and looked at Nick and Ava.

"Let's take stock, we've confirmed the Confederacy had cashed in with these UED folk. Ohh yeah, Nick, you need to hear this." The doctor stated and quickly gave nick the main points about what htey had learned. She'd write a more detailed report and give it to nick to read down later, also to Sid and the red of the irregulars. They all had to hear this. After hte bullet points were relayed, she closed her eyes. This could have went better and it could have went a whole lot worse. All in all she gave it a pass. Miranda suddenly throught of something and looked at the ghost." Later I'm thinking of writing a message to the families of those people in the lab. I downloaded their files back hten, including where each of them were taken from. So with some minimal searching we should be able to track down at least some of them. Figured that some closure is better than the unknown. You want to help?" She asked. Honestly that was for after they get some good well deserved sleep however. They had at least 8 hours of warp before their furst exit point. Only then they would be thinking of where to head to next. They also had to contant the Irregulars and check up with them, see how they are and if something new had happened while they were away to this god forsaken part of hte sector.

"Anyways, we should get some rest first. Especially you, Ava." The doctor said with familial concern." You used your powers a lot today. I Will get changed off these first." She mentioned and headed for the sealed shower cabin where she quickly took off the suit and changed into a loose set of pants and blouse before exiting. She folded the enviromental suit to teh best of her abilities and set it aside for the moment before heading for her bunk bed. She knew that Nick would provide the comfort that Ava now needed after today's events.
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

As Ava lay on the deck of the cargo area, she could hear the engines whine as they powered up, fighting to pull the ship up and out of the planet's gravity. Despite being muddy and a pool of slightly acidic water collecting beneath her, Ava just lay there, closing her eyes. She felt.. drained. That was the best word. And it wasn't even just from the frantic run to the dropship either. While her use of her powers had been notable during this mission, whatever it was on that planet that had dampened her psionics had been wearing. She hadn't even realized how it had taxed her more than normal until now. Added to that though was the mental contact with the psionic captives. Her mind and nerves just felt.. raw still after that and now she just wanted to melt into the floor and sleep. With all the adrenaline of the mission, she hadn't realized before just how severely she felt it all.

Her eyes flew open as the ship veered suddenly but very shortly after, Ava could feel from the minds of the other two that they were now safe, out in space and cloaked. The idea of being cloaked was always a deep-down comforting feeling for a ghost and she let herself relax again. She began to feel, in Nick's mind, his desire to ask if he could leave the cockpit to go and check on Ava. He was getting concerned that she hadn't joined him and Miranda up front yet. Ava groaned softly to herself as she reached out for his mind. 'Stay and help Miranda fly this thing.' she sent to him, knowing that he would at least pick up the gist of it if not the full details of the sending. He had gotten better at that at least.. and so had she... even if only at close range.

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

Nick was staring out one of the windows at the full-blown zerg invasion of the planet below in a mix of awe and horror at what he was seeing unfold and what it meant for the people down on the planet's surface. "Impressive.... and terrifying. Having been on Redstone I... I don't envy those people down there, no matter who they are..." he answered back to Miranda's comment. An involuntary shudder ran through him at the memory of having been in the midst of a zerg invasion of a planet and he knew how lucky he had been that he had gotten away with as little injury as he had from that hell hole. And he knew how many of his former comrades had not come back from it.

That thought though made him think of Ava. Miranda had said she had made it on board but... where was she? Could she be hurt back there? He had better go and check... He was just opening his mouth to say something to Miranda when a voice popped in his head, dim but.. clearly recognizable. He closed his mouth, his face taking on a worried frown at the feel of the message. A long glance back towards the rear and then Nick shrugged, turning back to the co-pilot's console in front of him. He was about to make a comment to Miranda when the doctor suddenly made a worried exclamation and pulled the ship in an incredibly tight turn, allowing them to very narrowly miss a ship that was just warping in-system. He swore out loud at how close they had come to hitting something. Though they avoided that one, the excitement wasn't yet over as Miranda had to make quick work of a wraith fighter that ended up on a direct collision course as well.

As soon as they entered warp, Nick got up and headed back to the rear cargo area. There he found Ava, still lying on the ground. The front of her, facing upwards at the moment, was... completely covered in a thick layer of mud and only her head was currently uncovered, though her eyes were closed. He was... a bit confused at the tone of the sending so he stopped beside Ava, nudging her leg lightly with a booted toe. "You alive down there?" he asked half jokingly, half tentatively. He could see her breathing and no blood anywhere so his concern wasn't at red alert just yet but...

Ava didn't bother to open her eyes. "No." she answered. After a long moment of silence, she winced and finally peeked her eyes open. It wasn't the light that was hurting but her mind, receiving strong thoughts right now actually made her realize her mind was... sore? She was very tempted to ask Nick to get her her psi-screen but she had a feeling Miranda wouldn't exactly approve.

Nick held a hand out towards Ava. "Come on, let's go get you cleaned up." he said.

Ava didn't react right away other than to stare and the offered hand for a long moment, trying to fight with new conflicting emotions. She sighed. "Don't think you want to touch this mud with your bare hands... it's acidic." she said finally.

Nick didn't remove his hand but took raised an eyebrow with a frown. He knew the stats of the planet's weather well enough, knew that the acidity was weak at best. "Is it going to burn my skin off?"

".... You know the answer to that already." she replied back with a bit of annoyance. It wasn't really Nick himself that she annoyed at but she was too tired, to raw, to curb her responses. When he still stood there, she finally let out another annoyed groan and forced her tired arm up to grab his. Letting him do most of the work, she was pulled to her feet, still a muddy mess. When he made a move to move closer, to help her if need be, Ava backed off. "Don't get all muddy." she said simply, moving tiredly past him and heading for the living area of the ship. She could feel that Nick was confused by her treatment of him and a little bit hurt but... she couldn't deal with that right now.

Making it to the living area, she found Miranda there, just starting to take off all the gear, and Nick stopped just behind Ava though she didn't make a move to really acknowledge him as she listened to Miranda begin to speak. She remained quiet through Miranda's pride about the new ship, just trying to.. focus, trying to.. distract herself even. She felt bad about how she was treating Nick right now but the exhaustion combined with the raw nerves from the searing contact with the other psionics plus... plus what had gone on with Emil... at least what she had played towards with him, his thoughts on the matter, hell, his imaginings.... and then killing him as she had... Ava just wasn't in the mood for any sort of close contact right now, emotionally or physically, but she really didn't know how to communicate any of that. It was all just a jumble of conflicting feelings in her own mind at present.

When Miranda addressed Nick, he moved in closer, just past Ava, giving the ghost a look as he passed before turning to Miranda to hear what she had to say about the mission. When Miranda addressed Ava again, about the other psionics, Ava's face turned away, looking at the ground, her eyes winced shut for a moment at the memory of what she had felt down in that lab. She forced herself to nod, even though she did agree with Miranda's plan to contact the families wholeheartedly. The nod stopped when the doctor asked Ava if she wanted to help. The green eyes turned slowly back towards Miranda. "I can help with the searching..." she said with a strained voice, knowing that it wouldn't be an immediate task. She'd be able to get some rest first. What she didn't want to do though was help with writing whatever messages would be sent to the families. She didn't think she could write anything like that.

The ghost's reaction to Miranda's suggestion of sleep was... almost nil as Ava was withdrawing into herself. It took effort to finally nod in reply. When the doctor moved off to the sealed off shower cabin, that left Ava and Nick alone again for a minute or two. Ava's eyes sunk to the floor again as she let her mind blank out as best she could.

"Ava..." Nick began, moving over to her again. "Seriously... what's wrong? You were fine when you left, and now.... I didn't do something, did I?"

Ava's eyes closed as her face turned back towards Nick and she shook her head negative. "I just need some.. space...." she said, raising a gloved hand to rub at her temples, stopping just in time as she remembered the mud. She sighed, letting her hand drop back down. She winced as she opened her eyes, barely giving Nick a glance before she moved towards her nearby locker. She pulled off one glove before going into her locker and pulling out her psi-screen and quickly putting it on and activating it. The silence was something of a balm to her seared mind, not erasing the pain but... keeping anything else from adding to it. Her shoulder's dropped at the sudden relief. She turned back to him, finally turning her green eyes at him. "Just please, not now, Nick..." she added.

As soon as Miranda was out of the shower cabin, Ava headed in and turned on the shower. She shoved her armoured glove back on for the moment before stepping, gear and all, into the steam of water in the shower, letting it begin to slough off all the mud from her suit. As soon as it was as clean as it would get for the moment, Ava stepped out of the stall, stripping off her gear and suit and undoing her ponytail, before getting back in for a proper shower, wanting to wash the feel of this mission off of herself, wishing she could wash her mind of all of it as easily. She lay an arm across the wall under the stream of water, leaning her head against it and just letting the warm water fall over her, taking some quiet time for herself.

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

After Ava had gone into the shower cabin, Nick turned to Miranda, his concern growing. "What went on down there?" he asked worriedly. He pointed in the direction of the shower cabin. "What happened to her? Ava is all but refusing to even speak to me. I.. I don't think I did anything but she won't even let me get near her..." he added in exasperated worry.

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

Some time later, Ava emerged from the shower cabin, dressed only in her skin suit, carrying the rest of her gear which she dropped in a heap beside her cot. Nick and Miranda were currently elsewhere so she dropped heavily onto her bed, barely remembering to turn off the psi-screen before she fell into the blackness of sleep.

( At the end, I'd assume Nick and Miranda are either somewhere talking or maybe back in the cockpit of the dropship.. If nothing else, Nick will then be up there, giving Ava space. )
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

After storing the gear away, Miranda had taken her datapad and went to the cockpit, dealing with the data they had gathered and keeping an eye out on the readings and other things that could be taken from the instruments on the ship. She too was tired after all that, but decided to spend her time in here, with the instruments and the solitude and the beauty of warp space. She was running things through her mind right now and this wasn't looking too bright in the long run. Between the forces of the sector, one of them was going to probably gain advantage before long. For now it wasn't likely it would be Mengsk. He's forces were suffering on all fronts between zerg, now UED and rebels. However the UED shouldn't be allowed to win, otherwise chances were that what awaits the sector would be even worse than the Confederacy or the Dominion.

For now though the zerg and the UED would do a nice job at each other throats. Miranda just wanted to focus on austing Mengsk in this multy faced struggle. Suddenly her thoughts were interrupted with the arrival of Nick. She put down the pad and gestured to him to take one of the other seats as she finished sorting out the preleminary info. She already had an idea on how to use the data they got from those horrible experiments and it involved using it to hinder the zerg and not attract them anywhere. She'd need to talk with Alexander about it, maybe run a lot of experiments, but maybe eventually they'd be able to turn it into an effective crowd control tool against the zerg.

"Mmm... a lot of things happened, some maybe affected her more than others." She replied, sensing full well that Ava was already asleep, very deep so." We as expected found the base, it was actually quite lively down there and not in a good way. Nick I don't know how much you've heard about Earth, but apparently they've decided to come here and make us join them one way or another. Send a whole expeditionary fleet by the sounds of it. The Remnants of the Confederacy have already joined in with them. Anyways... long story short we were forced to do some... ahm... spy work and flirt our way into the labs. I think the things she felt from the guy we used might have affected her somewhat, so don't push her. However that isn't what would make her act such. That would have been easily solved by her hugging you for a while or the two of you kissing it out while I wasn't looking, believing I wouldn't have noticed anything." She partiallly joked.

"What we found down at the core of the base, the lab was a damn human experimentation site.." She rested her head on her knuckles, using the armrest of the chair to up her elbow." Some of the Confederacy scientists were making human psi emitters. You cannot understand it because you aren't a psionic and never felt it, however I am to a degree and through Ava I felt it even more. The sudden presence of all those crazed incredibly powerful minds leaves a mark. As lower psionic I can resist it to a degree because I do not feel it as strong directly, but honestly I still hear their mental shrieks even now. Hell I'm going through a headache you wouldn't believe." She explained to him." That's the real reason she's like that. She was there and she felt them all also slip into the grip of death when Igave them the mercy of it. She will be ... shell shocked for a while. Just give her the space she needs for the moment and be there for her when she needs it. I hope she will feel better in a couple of days. If we have to, I will stop us on one of the planets on the way just to stretch our legs on an uninhabited world or moon or something." She added, returning her eyes at the scenery of the warp space outside.

"It's a very pretty view." She mentioned as a matter of fact, looking through tto the outside. She rarely focused on the simple things such as this one. It was actually a flaw of hers that she was well aware off, but her own emotions and desires kept her mind usually occupied with other thoughts, making her unable to actively enjoy many of the smaller things in life. She thought for a bit and looked at him again." I've got footage of the lab, do you want to see the same things she did down there?" Miranda asked suddenly. She was planning on getting it all broadcasted later to show the world that the confederacy remnants were still in need of culling and that these UED were even worse. Thus she had downloaded video journals and log entries along with the simple research data.
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by Keira Kelly »

Nick's heart sunk at hearing what Ava must have gone through down on the planet. He felt helpless... he WAS helpless in protecting the woman he loved from so much that was out here, even if he knew she would never want to be protected even so. He still wished that she didn't have to experience such terrible things. Added to that, he wasn't sure how he felt about the fact that Ava had flirted her way into where they had to get into either. Actually he had some trouble believing it, knowing her as well as he did now. She was still damned inexperienced in a lot of social aspects, especially that sort of area.. not that he minded at all. It was almost refreshing because he knew she didn't play games. Still though... he could feel a small, sharp spike of jealousy at the thought of her flirting with another man....

He was too focused on his own thoughts to really register Miranda's banter about the view but when she spoke up again about footage, that did catch his attention. A part of him wanted to back away, retreat... to not have to see anything that would be in that video, knowing that it would be the human experimentation stuff... but he had to know, he had to see what had affected Ava so much. Slowly he nodded. "Show it to me..." he answered in a hoarse voice.

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HOURS LATER
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Ava had no idea how long she had been asleep. A good while, she figured, based on the amount and length of the bad dreams though. She let out a long sigh as she lay on her cot, resting a forearm across her eyes, wishing she could go back to sleep, but this time a dark, dreamless sleep.... but she doubted she could find that peace right now and returning to the nightmares was most definitely less appealing than putting up with the tiredness and pounding headache. She could still hear them... in her mind... like an afterimage burned into a screen. Slowly and with great effort, she pulled herself into a sitting position on the edge of the cot, cradling her head in her hands, trying to ease the pounding pain. She felt somewhat queasy from it too which wasn't helping matters any.

When she could stand it no longer, she forced herself to her feet, grabbing and donning the psi-screen once more and turning it on before going over to where Miranda kept some of the various, more benign medication and fumbled through it, looking for the usual painkillers. Finding some, she took a couple of the pills, then headed over to where she knew her friend had a stash of alcohol and grabbed a random bottle, not even bothering to glance at what it was. She opened the cap and took a long swig, grimacing at the foul taste. The heat of whatever it was boiled down through her to her stomach, worsening the nausea even more... for a minute, before it began to abate. How could anyone drink this stuff?

Despite herself, she took another long drink from the bottle, wincing again at the taste.. Her head was beginning to pound less though and her thoughts, the memories of the lab were becoming just a little bit more fuzzy. She took a third swig, beginning to feel decidedly buzzed, her thinking becoming more foggy. It hadn't been that much had it? Must be some strong stuff, as she had heard the others say before. She felt better than how she had been feeling anyways, and even if this stuff tasted foul... well, it was starting to not taste quite so bad now. Holding the bottle limply and a sagging hand, she made her way towards the cockpit, leaning on the doorway just inside when she got there, watching Miranda and Nick from behind for a moment before either noticed her.

"I see why you like this stuff..." she spoke up, staring at the bottle. She didn't feel quite as ragged as she appeared for the moment because of the alcohol, and ragged she did look with uncombed hair, her face being paler than usual and dark circles around her eyes.

Nick turned at the sound of her voice, his concern growing at seeing her. "Ava?" He began to get up to move towards her.

She held up the bottle. "Sorry, M-randa... I drank some of your alcohol..." she said, then made a face. "How do you know when you've had enough?" she asked, squinting back at the bottle again. She made a sound of surprised protest when the bottle was taken out of her hands but didn't resist as Nick led her to sit down in the co-pilot's seat which she did. Nick ran his hand over her hair as he knelt beside her, looking at her with worry.. and maybe.. pity? Ava frowned, confused. Miranda likely had told him what had happened on the planet but... this level of concern seemed excessive for someone who had no way to truly understand what it was like for a psionic. Still... She closed her eyes, enjoying his comforting presence.

"I'm sorry, Ava... I saw what happened down there..." he began.

Saw? Ava's eyes opened in surprise. With a thought, she turned off the psi-screen and instantly, his memories of watching footage from the lab flashed into her mind. From his, she could see herself from outside herself, falling to the ground in agony, curled up in a fetal position. She cringed now, turning the screen back on, pulling back into the seat as her memories of it came surging back. She could feel tears streaming down her face.

"Ava? What's wrong?!" he asked at her sudden and violent flinch.

The screen being on again and the alcohol in her system helped Ava find something of a troubled calm once more. She settled heavily back into the chair, letting out a deep breath and shook her head, still feeling tears on her cheeks. "Just... what happened back there... It just came back in a rush..." She looked over at Miranda. "I don't think I feel so well..."

( The pain meds and alcohol probably isn't a great combination for Ava XD nothing dangerous but let's say it will make her feel a bit sicker..., though dont think Miranda will know what Ava took the pain meds. Added to that the restless sleep and all the exertion beforehand has really, really worn her down. )
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rivaan
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Re: SC - Fugitives

Post by rivaan »

Miranda was mildly surprised when Ava showed up again with a bottle of alcohol no less." It's fine, it's for everybody to drink to begin with." She said, her eyes narrowing at the younger woman as the bottle was pulled out of her hands by Nick, the bottle was quickly taken over by the doctor." Usually you don't... at least not at the moment. People tend to learn their limit after the first time getting hammered... and I see you might already be at that position..." Miranda stated and raised hte bottle to check what exactly Ava pulled out. Her expression cracked for a moment, yes slowly lifting from the label to look at the clearly drunk ghost." Of ALL things this is what you took? I don't know if I should call you lucky or stupid." The doctor chuckled." That's among the heaviest alcohol content alcohols avaible... this is 97% pure alcohol. Didn't you read hte label and the warnings?" This would explain why Ava looked heavily hammered despite the fact that there wasn't much drank from the bottle." If you had drank more of this, I would have had to clear out your stomach before you die of alcohol poisoning..."

Miranda sighed, guess it was time to put the safety lock on the alcohol cabinet in the ship. The doctor's gaze returned to the ghost and eyes narrowed down." You with a psi-screen? I thought I told you it's NOT good for you. You already wore it for a long time back on the planet. Your head's clearly not recuperated enough for it to stand more of it... let alone dead drunk like this." She stated, meaning clear - for Ava to take off hte dangerous device. When she heard the ghost wasn't feeling well." Sigh... if you wanted to drink, you should have called me, ohh well. This will be a lesson you will remember at least." Miranda rolled her eyes, so her little Ava finally had her first drunken stupor. Tomorrow will be the first proper hangover." Nick, go bring a bottle of water and grab a bucket while you are at it." Miranda stated as very carefully turned Ava's chair around. Last they needed her was Ava in her drunkness to throw up all over the consoles.

"Wonder what you will think tomorrow of this." Miranda sighed as she waited for Nick to return with the things entrusted to him. Normally Miranda would have Ava rest in a bed, but given her intoxicated condition, laying down was the WORST possible course of action. They needed her to stay sat up and drink water, also awake." Ohh well... got to note, bring hangover medicine along next time." She mused and reached over to Ava's hair, setting int into a makeshift 'bun'. This way if the girl starts throwing up from the nausea, her hair wouldn't fall over her face when she's leaning over and get all over it. Ahh the benefits of experience of her own youth. Miranda had her own fair share of alcohol induced stupors back in her teenage years and later the medical academy. Good times. Eventually the water and the bucket were delivered, the bucket was put on Ava's lap while the water bottle was stuffed in her hands." Drink." Miranda simply stated, helping/ushering her to get the bottle to her mouth and start drinking it down.

"You know if you don't want me to feel your mind so much right now and not hear me either, you could have asked me to wear the screen." Miranda stated with a sigh.
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