SC - Fugitives

[Keira Kelly]

Nick hunkered down just inside the door of the landing bay, trying to keep a low profile as he tried to look across the vast chamber. The zerg biomass was spreading quickly, covering the metal floor and walls from the far side, already having taken over a fair chunk of the bay, though he couldn't see far. The main lighting seemed not to be working and many of the emergency lights seemed to either be broken or covered by biomass. So far he still hadn't seen any zerg but he could hear echoes of clawed feet and other things in the hall behind him and further in, out of his line of sight, in the bay.

Added to that, the delay in Miranda's answering his call was worrisome, not to mention how she sounded when she had answered. "Working on getting there." he answered Miranda's order. There was a lot of biomass and a massive tentacle that went from the ceiling through the floor between him and their dropship... and chances were, there were probably zerg over there, behind all the debris that that tentacle had caused. He had to be careful. Added to that, he was still expecting Ava to show up at any moment.

He grimaced, almost guiltily as it felt like Miranda read his mind, asking about Ava. He hesitated a long moment before answering. "No, she isn't with me..." he admitted slowly. "I got cut off from her on the way back... She said she would meet me here though, that she was going to go around." he explained. It was a perfectly valid explanation and the truth.. but he couldn't help feel guilty about leaving her. He didn't bring up the point that he hadn't been able to reach her on comms since either...

A sound much closer in the hallway brought his attention back to his own plight. He would not be much good against a horde of zerg without a combat suit. At least Ava had her skin suit with its invisibility. She would be telling him right now that it was more dangerous for him to be waiting there, that he would be drawing more attention and making it more dangerous for both of them. He also reasoned that if something was indeed wrong, it would be better if he could get into his CMC suit before he and Miranda headed back into the station on a rescue mission. He growled softly to himself, getting up and beginning to head towards the dropship. "On my way in now, and likely be coming in hot." he warned over the comms to Miranda as he began to run, rifle ready.

The first zerg emerged from somewhere off in the darkness, a snarling zergling. He quickly put a bullet right between its eyes. He heard more snarls and shrieks, the sound of heavy impacts on the spongy biomass as something chased after him. Instead of turning though, he broke into a dead run now that he could see their dropship ahead, having faith in Miranda at the guns....

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After hearing that voice in her head, Ava had desperately sought a way out of the trap she was in but had found none. She was in a box, with solid deck below and above, two solid metal walls and 2 dense, armoured zerg flesh walls keeping her trapped. She had tried to shoot one of the tentacles but even her canister rifle shots did little damage to it. At this point, she was using her combat knife, trying to carve into one of the tentacles, making only a little headway. Suddenly the fleshy mass flinched, then began to move, retract through the wall where it had come from. The hallway now stood open before her but it was bathed in darkness for a long span, with only another dim emergency light probably thirty meters away.

That wasn't what caught her attention though. It was the glowing sets of yellow eyes staring out from the deepest darkness ahead. As they began to move closer, she could better see the silhouettes. One was perhaps human height, another one that was much taller and a few that were much closer to the ground. As they drew ever closer and into the light in her section, Ava gasped at what she saw. Her fear flashed out, overwhelming her. Monsters! Monsters like she used to dream about, like what she had seen on Redstone. Zerglings, and what she had heard called a hydralisk were the escort. An escort for a being she had only dreamt meeting face to face in her worst nightmares.

The Queen of Blades chuckled, her voice having multi-tones which made it sound inhuman and alien. "My, my my... to see you in the flesh finally..." she began. "When you called me 'sister' all those months ago, when you invaded my mind.. I had doubts. But here we stand. Seeing is believing." Her clawed hand came up as she strode serenely into the light. At the gesture, the other zerg stopped where they were, content to sit and guard the only way out. Her membraneless wings flared out slightly for a moment. She stopped directly in front of Ava, her yellow eyes flicking over the younger woman who looked so much like.. what she had once been. Her taloned hand came up, gripping the other woman's face lightly, tilting it one way and then the other as she examined her.

"They told me you had died." she said finally, the statement lacking any emotion. "That I had killed you too... And I had believed them. I see you followed in my footsteps though... Or at least some of them." The Queen of Blades began to smile. "Well, let's correct that, shall we? I think you will be rather useful to my swarm. We can have you remade into something far superior... though of course, without the independence..." she began.

With that, Ava brought up the knife she still had in her hand, stabbing into the torso of what had once been her sister. "Never! I will resist you to the end!" she yelled through gritted teeth as she hit the hard carapace. The knife barely cut through, refusing to go deep, the wound being nothing more serious than a scratch almost.

One of the Queen's wings rose up, bringing its tip between them. With surprising force, the knocked Ava's hand away, the knife going flying somewhere down the hall. The Queen of Blades merely laughed. "I said the same thing at first back then. I said the same thing when they trained me. I said the same thing as they took me to make me into this. Mere words." she scoffed, grabbing Ava by the throat with one hand, putting her other hand around the barrel of the rifle on her sister's back. With strength beyond anything human, she crushed the metal barrel, rendering the rifle useless, just in case. "I am in control of the swarm now and I need it to stay that way. You will be of use to me, I'm sure....."

"You would do that to your own baby sister?" Ava asked, struggling to get the words out with the Queen's hand still around her throat.

The Queen of Blades cocked her head slightly, curious but lacking any empathy. "I would do that to anyone who gets in my way or is of some use to me. You have fought my swarm before, haven't you. So you are both in my way.. and of use to me then." she answered. "When you are made compliant, you will see it is for the better, in the end."

[rivaan]

Miranda's head was still ringing as she brought the ship to battle readiness. The prototype gunship's systems were brought completely online as Nick approached in full sprint with a pack of zerglings hot on his heels. Now it had to be said that Miranda generally was of mild temper for hte most part, but between the ache across her entrie body, the ringing in her head and generally being pissed off right now, she was very very angry. The Queen of Blades might have nearly wasted her with that one psionic attack, however she wasn't letting that woman get Ava.

She snarled as the moment the man was close enough the entire dropship came to life, lights going off suddenly as the engines roared and the entire thing lifted off a step away from the ground and turned around at his direction with the angry roar of engines. Twin spotlights aimed at the zergling, blinding their eyes as the Twin Rotary High Speed Cannons revved and spun and within a moment two chans of slugs, fired at obsense speeds and numbers cleaved the air above Nick, tearing into the zerg. The effective was instant, everything behind the running man was turned into minced meet and bloody mist as zerglings rushed from the doors and through the hangar, only to run into the meatgrinder.

When he was about to reach the ship, the hatch opened to allow him to jump on board and once that done, the dropship did an imrpessive backwards maneuver, using it's direction trusters to spin around and she rocketed them out of the death trap that was the hangar as the hangar gates were drawing to a close, gortesque organic growth spreading through them.

As Miranda's head cleared even more, her mental state soured fruther as she realized that first, the zerg were swarming the space around the station. She right away had to maneuver around mutalisks and scourges... she took a few shots of the Leviathan, she hadn't seen that thing before, it warranted further studying later. Second thing that was ultra bad was that she couldn't reach out and contact with Ava... she had a rough spot on where the younger woman was on the station, however she couldn't establish the mental link they shared so often over the last months. It had become second nature to the doctor and the fact that Queen of Blades' presence blocked the link unnerved her a lot. She fired the cannons once more as hse piloted the ship back around towards hte station, taking out mutalisks from the benefit of stealth while there wasn't any advanced strains of Zerg that used detection in the immediate area. there were some already moving towards the station, but not right away.

"NICK! GET OVER HERE AND MAN THE SUPPORT SYSTEMS! We need to get a lock on where exactly Ava is so we can blast our way there withotu hurting her. Those missiles will breach the hull and with her ghost gear she can come out easily so we can grab her and bail, but we need to make sure we don't hurt her in the process!" She shotued as she was piloting the gunship around, firing at any zerg that got in the way and paying attention to both the cannons' ammo and the supply of missiles they had. The missile pods were 6 that were ready to be fired at any point and a few more reloads that would require time.

'AVA, WE ARE COMING!' Miranda tried to establish the link once more when they passed by the section of the station where she most strongly felt the ghost.

This was going to be equal to a suicide run... they didn't have great odds of success, but she would be dead, before she left the zerg capture Ava. They were doing this one way or another and if she had to pilot this gunship against the whole swarm, she'd risk it... Suddenly she saw a massive zerg similar to a flying wasp that dwarfed the gunship veer their way and she grit her teeth. THey just needed a bit more time! Mirand was preparing for a suicide run as a last ditch effort, but then something blew flew past and impacted one of the zerg. Then more flashes of gold and blew filled the air. The entire section of space was lit abuzz with the psionic presence of a massive fleet of protoss vessels arrived into teh system. The Golden Armada was here! Well, Miranda did ask for a distraction and a bit more time and she got it as the zerg started heading for the Golden Armada, but now they had another problem... Ava was on the station, likely with the Queen of Blades... and they had to get her out before the protoss explode the station or Sarah drags her into the massive leviathan of a zerg...

"At least our chances are better now..." She mumbled.

[Keira Kelly]

Nick ran to do as Miranda ordered, throwing himself into his training so he wouldn't just fall into panic. He didn't have any psionic powers like his two female companions so he couldn't know what was going on with Ava right at that moment.. but from Miranda's demeanor, well.. it had him more than worried. He sat himself down at the support console, prepping it quickly and trying to judge how best to use the missiles: strong enough to get through the hull, weak enough not to vaporize what was beyond. "Missiles are good to go!" he said after a few moments. Inside he was just praying against all hopes that this would work....

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Ava still stood, being held by the Queen of Blades by the throat, though the queen had slackened her grip a little bit, at least enough for Ava to breath and speak. "What did they do to you?" she whispered, more half to herself at her sister's lack of empathy and emotion.

The queen leaned in closer, her tentacle-like hair falling over her shoulders. "They made me STRONG." she answered with a grin. "Now.. exactly what to do with you.. Merely infesting you would be a waste of your powers.." she mulled. "Abathur will likely have some ideas..."

Ava frowned, having no clue what that meant. Before she could even try to say anything, something pushed its way into her mind. She hadn't been able to feel Miranda psionically since the queen had caught her... though she had not tried to force contact either, her focus having been more on what was physically in front of her. But now, she heard Miranda's mental voice pushing its way in, telling her that they were coming for her. Ava smiled.

At the same time, the Queen of Blades bared her teeth menacingly, but that turned quickly into a cruel smile. She had picked up the mental message too. "You friends? They cannot help you." she said with a laugh. Suddenly her smile faded, her golden eyes flicked off to one side as a worried look crept onto her face. "Damn those Protoss! I didn't think they would track us this quickly!" she said angrily to herself. She turned, starting to drag Ava, still by the neck, with her as she started moving back the way she had come as her zerg minions joined in an entourage with her. She glanced at her sister in her taloned hand. "We will continue this discussion back on my leviathan." she said hastily.

The station was beginning to be rocked by explosions from somewhere outside, not enough to destroy it yet but it was causing the queen and Ava to stumble a bit. Suddenly, there was one that threw them and all the other zerg hard into the far bulkhead, sending shrapnel and debris everywhere with a cloud of fire and smoke. Ava had been lucky that there had been a hydralisk to her side and it ended up being between her and the wall, preventing her from hitting her head. Almost immediately though, a force began to pull everything blown in back out into space, Ava with it. She was suddenly floating freely, with nothing right around her... in space. She let out her breath, feeling the impenetrable cold flow over her. Though her suit was rated against this lack of atmosphere.. she didn't have her hood or mask on... The intolerable cold drained her quickly, and her vision began to dim, going black quickly. Right before she passed out though, she sensed something huge approaching....

( With how cold it is in space, Im thinking that Ava will wont be breathing, might not have a heartbeat by the time they get her in the dropship... and be very cold, so she is going to need.. some... medical attention lol. Advanced medical attention. This is going to be quite a recovery... going to at the last have blow blood vessels in her face and eyes, possibly some lung damage? and maybe even a bit of frost bite... XD poor ava.. but at least she will be alive? )

[rivaan]

Miranda was in a doing some impressively dangerous flying around the staiton, evading zerg and anything other of danger as they were getting the lock-on Ava. There wasn't much time. Finally they had it, the sensors lockedo nto her and the zerg signature nearby. Miranda growled." Alright, move to the main controls, once I give you the go, just start firing the missiles, I will jump out to grab her with the pulley." Miranda ordered as she dahsed away form the piloting controls, allowing him to take over.

Head pounding and nerves frayed, she growled, as she ran down the ramp to the cargo area and pulled her own mask for hte enviromental suit she wore underneath her clothes and put it on. It lacked the psi-reactive fribers, but it would be perfect for the vaccum of space. Most things in their cargo area were secured to the surfaces for a reason. She locked the passage to the cockpit, making it maintain pressure. Once she opened the main hatch to jump and grab Ava, a lot of stuff will be flying away, mainly random trinkets and junk though. They maintained good order in the ship for a reason. She walked ot hte hatch, attaching the pulley rope and savety harness in a hurry and picking the spare canister rifle, loading an EMP shell into it.

Checking the sensor readings over the tablet, she noted that it was almost itme and hit the hatch release. The magnetic features on her boots turned off, keeping her inside the ship as it depressurised in a snap and a lot of random bits and peaces such as blankets and clothes laying about were tossed outside." NICK, NOW!" She roared.

The salvo of missiles was fired at the designated spots as explosions rocked the station, one of the hull panels gave in and the explosion burst the thing open. Organic bits and metal flew out as the zerg were exploded and sucked into the vacuum of space. She knew they will live, at least the ones not killed in the explosions, but most zerg weren't vaible in vacuum and zergo gravity. Miranda aimed the sniper rifle, eyeing the breach. She saw the flash of white and red as Ava was sucked out into space. She also immediately knew the younger woman was without her mask. She suspected it before, but knew it now. Moment's later she fired the EMP shell into the breach, as she felt the psionic presence head to it. That will deal with the Queen of Blades for enough of time. She tossed the rifle away, released the mag locks on her suit's boots and jumped into the vacuum of space, grabbing a pressure air bottle for steering. She wasted absolutely no time propelling herself at Ava, not caring of hte metal bits and zerg floating about. She couldn't hear their screetching or anything really aside the blood rushing into her head, her heartbeat, Ava's growing or rather weakening presence and Nick's comms.

As soon as she was within range of Ava, she tossed aside the airbottle and wrapped her hands nad legs around the ghost, pulling into the small lever on the safety harness that was attached to the pulley system. It immedaitely recieved hte signal and began reeling them in. She could see the Queen of zerg at the breach. Her psionics would be disrupted for a bit, she could fire her pistol at her, but didnt' risk it. The pulley was rapidly pulling them away to safety." GO,GO,GO! PULL US AWAY FROM THE STATION! WE ARE ALMOST ONBOARD!"

Within a few more seconds they were pulled back into the ship and Miranda's back heavily hit the pulley, blasting some of the air out of her lungs. She directly slammed her fist into the hatch lever, making it close up. The moment the hatch was closed, the artificial gravity systems kicked back on and she and Ava's limp body fell back down on the floor, though in this case, Miranda held Ava, so the ghost fell on her." WE ARE CLEAR! JUMP!" She called over the comms, having already set the jump coordinates earlier.

After the initial lurch happened, she pulled the mask off her head and pulled herself free from the harness, picking up Ava, who didn't look good... not at all." It's going to be alright, Ava. It's going to be alright. You are away from her." She said, knowing the ghost probably wasn't conscious, but it didn't hurt. Miranda carried the ghost over to the bed." Nick, hurry, leave the autopilot to it's job and get over here! Ava's in critical condition, we need to act right away!" The doctor shouted as she ran over to the secured lockers, pulling her medical box. Not the small first aid kit, this one was a more secure, field medical kit, complete with nanite injectors, but the nanites in those wouldn't do much more than stabilize the ghost, given the injuries and even Miranda wouldn't dare to try to inject too many nanites into Ava with the ghost in that state. Nanites were a marvelous, but brand new tech for such portable uses. There were recorded cases that ended with the 'healed' person literally wiped clean as the nanites did heal their bodies, but shut down blood flow and effectively after fixing everything, they left the patient in complete bland slate... as if a newborn. So she wasn't going to risk it with these preprogrammed portable ones. She'd stabilize the ghost with the shot, but not much more.

Miranda pulled the injector and pierced it into Ava's neck. It will help deal with the blood flow and fix any possible hemorraging and deal with any ice crystals that formed in the blood." Pull the medical sensors from that crate!" Miranda ordered as soon as Nick arrived and was already in the process of taking off the enviromental suit. She had enough things here to basically make a field hostpial room and also perform surguries if she needed and she might. These were going to be some really long hours. They needed to hook the ghost to the breathing machine as fast as possible and from there, Miranda was going to start dealing with the worst of the damages.

[Keira Kelly]

Nick was doing his best not to just fall into panic as he took over control of the ship, doing his best to watch over any potential incoming hostiles and plan for what was going to be needed. At the same time, all he could think about was that he was soon going to be firing missiles AT the woman he loved and that she was being surrounded by zerg. There was just too much that could go wrong. It would be a miracle if things went right... But he couldn't afford to think that... It will work, he tried to convince himself.

He glanced at the chronometer, ever second feeling like an eternity passing as he waited for Miranda's order to fire. He had to keep his hand away from the button so he didn't fire accidentally ahead of time. It seemed like hours but suddenly Miranda's voice came over the comms, telling him it was time... finally. He slammed his hand into the missile button, watching as a group of them fired out from the dropship's pods and slam into the side of the station. The explosion was fiery and angry but short lived, followed by a storm of debris being sucked and blown out into space. There was more, he could see, things bigger than the small pieces of metal and plastic. Bodies and pieces of bodies. He felt sick. But maybe.. if this didn't work and she... at least she wouldn't be turned into one of them. If what he had done killed her, at least she wouldn't be turned into a monster.... He knew she would want him to prevent that from happening to her more than anything.

He saw a flash in the hole in the ruined side of the station where the missiles had hit, then something shoot out from the ship. In the darkness of space, he quickly lost track of it but he knew it was Miranda. He frowned slightly, daring to hold out hope. If she was jumping out, like she said, she must have been able to see.. something, right? Dear god, say she had a target... Suddenly the comms lit up again, Miranda yelling a new order. Nick jumped into action, putting on the reverse thrust to move them away. He glanced out the window, seeing a hulking shape in the distance in space and immediately turned on the cloaking device as well, before beginning to get the pre-programmed jump sequence ready. A few moments later came confirmation. As soon as he heard 'jump', he hit the button, initiating a jump, making the whole dropship lurch for a second.

When he heard the doctor's voice on the comms again, he wasted no time in setting the auto-pilot and jumping out of the cockpit, running back to the rear of the ship recklessly. He was overjoyed that somehow.. they had gotten Ava back but Miranda had also said that she was in critical condition. It felt like he was running in slow motion but finally he skidded to a halt, finding that Miranda had carried Ava to one of the beds. He froze at seeing Ava. A lot of the skin on her face looked almost white and blotchy, but he could also see a lot of broken blood vessels. Her eyes were closed and she wasn't moving... or breathing.. and there looked to be hints of frozen blood from her nose, mouth and ears.

Just as he had arrived, Miranda was injecting something into Ava's neck. She wasn't breathing.. was all he could think. It took him a moment to register Miranda's order. He shook his head, trying to focus, as Miranda had to repeat herself. He turned and grabbed the device she wanted from the nearby crate, bringing it over. As he did, Ava took a first gasp of air, whatever Miranda had injected seeming to have done something. Probably nanites, he realized. Still, Ava's breathing seemed unsteady and didn't sound all that good.. but at least she was breathing now. He knelt down near her head, but out of the way of Miranda, putting his shaking hand to the side of Ava's face. He looked up at Miranda, his near-panic more than obvious. "What now? What can I do to help?" he asked.

[rivaan]

"What you can do is, start unpacking everything in that crate and hooking the machine to the power system." She ordered and pointed at the sockets nearby on the wall as she was currently struggling to free Ava from the suit that while it had protected her body on the surface from the explosure, the insides weren't quite as lucky. SHe stopped the moment she had freed enough of hte ghost's upper torso, they could undress her completely form the rest later... She had done enough for the moment.

With the machines being powered on, she directly began to intubate Ava. Very carefully because of the frostbite across her throat and downwards. Once she was done with it, she hooked the ghost to the breathing machine that came as part of the health monitor. It was a sort of compact system of a number of things honestly, even a defiblirator came with it. With Ava's breathing secured, Miranda set the machine to warm the air pumped just a tiny bit, nothing too great to dry it up, but not cool either. It was to slowly relax the frostbitten insides of the ghost without causing her massive stress from sudden shift in temperatures." Get some of the green IV bags from the crate and help me set up the rest of the things as fast as possible." She added, attaching the health minitoring sensors to Ava's chest and head. Within moments the erratic heartbeating sound of the machine came to life, showing an unsteady weak rythm, but the breathing machine was helping.

Afterwards the doctor returned to taking off the rest of Ava's suit. It was a bit awkward because the thing was Umoja make and she hadn't actually had practice taking one of those off somebody in a hurry. She had done it with confederate and dominion ones, and there was similarities, but some of the safety features were slowing her. In any case, once she had enough of the thing undone and she freed ava's arms, she directly pulled hte IV bag, hanged it on the hanger and hooked the ghost to it. It was a solution that was administered for victims of short term space exposure... also to sub zero temperatures planetwise. It was to help with the bloodflow, and help with the burst bloodvessels." You finish taking off the rest of the suit. Here's a clean blanket to keep her warm." She added, taking a sky blue soft blanket from a locker. I need to prepare a few medicines as fast as possible. She must wake up for the time being."

Miranda, still in her own enviromental suit, didn't dare dally and waste time. She hurried to the box of medication and carefully pulled some bottles and a delicate syringe with a few needles. Ava being given the IV helped in this regard since hse had to only really pour the medicine into the IV bag, the system would deliver it steadily overtime. So she did. In turn, drawing from a few different bottles, she made the right mix she needed and after triple checking the dosage she had drawn, she injected it into the IV." This will keep her asleep through the worst of it." She informed Nick and took a deep breath, picking up the portable scanner to run scans of Ava's internals and make sure there wasn't anything too bad going on beneath the surface." We caught her in time, she's breathing again, suffered a lot of serious damage to her internal organs. Mainly lungs and hearth, possibly the brain. The brain one shouldn't be anythign serious, but she might feel out of it after she wakes up or even have some memories missing for a while..." She exlpained." Still, she's alive and while not well, Ava should be out of danger of death, but I will keep her monitored for the rest of the evening... " Miranda sat, looking at hte face of her heavily hurt friend." Nick, I need you to reach out to the Irregulars, send them the recordings and files on what just happened and that we are going to be laying low and hiding until Ava's better. Tell em to keep an eye and ear out for news about this." She said, looking at the ghost, before closing her eyes and moving into action once more. Once the initial shock passed through Ava's system, she'd being with the other procedures, Ava had a long road ahead on her recovery and honestly, Miranda suspected it would be best to not wake her up until after they return on Kalisti. In anay case, she pulled the next set of medications, in this case a small bottle for eye solutions to help with that. Hopefully Ava's sight wouldn't be affected by this, but these drops would help properly hydrate the eye once more. The burst vessels in the eyes weren't nice to look at, but it coudl be worse... way worse. Naturally just to be safe she also ran tests and scans to confirm Ava wasn't already infested, she thankfully wasn't.

[Keira Kelly]

Nick jumped to the task, doing as Miranda said, glad that he could do something that would be helping... and glad that he could be doing something that he could focus on as well. He hooked up the machine that the doctor had indicated, wiring it up to the ship's power and turned it on, testing to make sure it worked. The flicking lights and beeps as it calibrated quickly indicated that it was running smoothly. He moved to another crate, grabbing a big handful of IV bags, allowing himself to be momentarily surprised at the colour of the liquid inside. Very odd but Miranda must know what she was doing, he figured, bringing them over to her quickly. As Miranda began to remove Ava's chest and shoulder armour, he helped by moving the bulky though light pieces of gear far enough away to be out of the way. When he took the armoured gauntlets, he did note that there were claw-like indentations in the metal in some places.

He glanced over at Miranda with some consternation when she asked him to finish undressing Ava. At first embarrassed because of Miranda's presence, he chided himself. It was a medical emergency and, he supposed, it needed to be done. He took the blanket from the doctor, laying it over Ava before he even started. "All right." he answered. He really wanted to tell her to hurry and do what she needed to do but he knew that was just his panic talking so he held his tongue, turning to the task.

Soon, he was holding Ava's skinsuit, as she called it. He tossed it on to the pile of the rest of the ghost armour, turning back to the ghost herself, tucking the blanket that was covering her in, making sure she was completely covered and would be warm. He glanced at the readout on one of the machines, seeing that Ava's temperature was still much lower than was normal. Much, much lower.. But it was going up now at a slow, though constant rate, thanks probably to the IV. He knelt down beside the bed, holding on to Ava's hand that was protruding from beneath the blanket.

He glanced back when Miranda started talking, eager to get any information about Ava's prognosis. He himself had some basic first aid and whatnot, as any soldier would, but when it came to something like this, he really had no clue. Being out in space usually would mean dead.. "So she is going to be all right?" he couldn't help asking. He was prepared to sit here as long as it took for Ava to wake up and get better. Miranda's next request drew a quick sound of objection from the former mercenary but it quickly trailed off. He closed his eyes for a moment, and took a deep breath, holding back tears of worry that had up until this point, been kept at bay by the things he had been tasked with doing. He nodded slowly, forcing himself to stand up. What Miranda was asking would be important. "All right. I'll go and contact them." he answered in a strained voice. He reached down and touched Ava's face. "I won't be gone long." he said softly to the ghost before he turned, heading for the cockpit.

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DAYS? LATER
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There had been dreams but most of it had just been blackness. Ava struggled to move out of that blackness. She could hear things.. maybe voices, but her mind felt sluggish and she just couldn't comprehend. A part of her just wanted to go back to sleep, but she didn't.. She wanted to know where she was. What had happened? The world started to come back to her, slowly though. Her eyelids almost felt glued together but she managed to crack them open, immediately regretting it, the low light felt insanely bright, hurting her eyes. She closed them again, taking a deep breath. She was thirsty, she realized. It even hurt to breath too deeply. Still.. she had to... "Wa...ter.." she managed to croak out. It was only then, when she felt something move in her hand, that she realized her hand was being held.

"Miranda? She's awake." came a voice from very nearby.

Ava cracked her eyes open away, wincing still at the light but determined to at least take an accounting of her surroundings. What she did see was very blurry though. She tried to blink the film on her eyes but not really to any avail. Failing that, she reached out with her mind. So much was a blur that she couldn't even think clearly still but.. she felt two minds. Two minds that comforted her, that cared for her and made her feel safe. She relaxed, contented at least by that, waiting to see what would happen next.

( Im not sure if we should still be on the ship or have made it to Kalisti by now so I will leave that decision up to you XD Also, Nick doesn't know if he should give anything to Ava to drink so he is going to wait for the doctor's orders XD )

[rivaan]

The time had slowed to a crawl after the events at the station where Ava nearly lost her life in more way than one. Miranda had flown the ship directly back to Kalisti. It had taken a few days to do so, but with Ava being kept unconscious to not aggravate her injuries and to simply protect her from the possible influence of Kerrigan, she along with Nick ahd spent the most of their time keeping the unconscious ghost company. Of course Miranda had taken to cleanign the ship, arranging everything once more after the vacuum of space messed everything up in addition to performing regular health checkups on Ava and the required medical interventions to make sure the caused injuries do not worsen. For one they had to proceed really carefully with Ava's eyes, lungs and ears.

Luckily by the time they had arrived on Kalisti, everything was ready to settle good. They contacted the colony as soon as they were in orbit and when they landed, there was already a warm transport vechile resembling a van that would serve as ambulance. They moved Ava's on a mobile hover bed and got her inside, where they afterwards moved to the doctor's place to do more detained inspects and scans with proper equipment. By the ned Ava was cleared of the worst of the dangers and eventually moved to their comfortable cozy home and her own bed. They had even dressed hte ghost in nice comfortable pajamas to sleep. Miranda had stopped keeping the ghost under medication, so she was bound to wake up in another dya or two.

Sure enough 2 days later, Ava woke up, judging by Nick's shouts. They took turns to stay by her side and it was his. She hurried over, dropping what she was working on and rushing to Ava's bedroom. Thank the stars she was moving and awake. Naisha smiled and quickly walked over, she felt Ava's thirst weakly." Nick, she can drink water, just on small sips from a straw. There should be starws in teh cupboard over there. I put some in last night." She informed him and turned to Ava.

"Shh, it's alright, Ava. We are home, on Kalisti." Miranda said in soothing voice." I know you are thirsty and probably everything hurts, but it will pass. Nick's coming over with the water in a moment." The doctor explained and placed a reassuing hand on Ava's shoulder." Don't try to force yourself to stand or even open your eyes. They are still very sensitive after what happened. Take time to adjust, in fact I will bring you some darkened glasses to help you with that."

Of course Miranda also was paying attention to Ava's vitals at the moment.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava could feel the minds concerned for her, greatly so. What had happened? She had been hurt before in the past, but this felt really odd, like nothing she had experienced before. It hurt to breathe too deeply and her skin felt like.. pinpricks. She tried to lick her parched lips, feeling how dry her mouth was. She needed water. More than any other consideration right now. Someone said she could have some water and she felt elated at that, though it didn't come right away, making her open her eyes again, squinting but trying to make out what was around her.

One figure was beside her now, and began speaking. She heard the words but her concentration was wholly on getting something to drink. After a few moments, she felt a hand take hers, raising it up until she felt an object which she couldn't quite focus on but it seemed to be coming out of a cup. A straw. The hand helped guide it to her lips and she drank the water, almost greedily until the cup and straw were pulled away. She made a small sound of objection.. but at least her mouth wasn't so dry anymore. She took a deep breath, despite the pain.

The names of the people that were with her came to her now. Nick.. and Miranda. It had been Miranda talking to her and Nick with the water, she realized. "We're.. home?" she asked in a weak voice, trying to confirm what Miranda had been saying before. She closed her eyes again, resting them. They felt dry too when she opened them. She felt Nick take her hand again, knowing that it was him, not only the physical feel of his hand, but also the mental feel of him she could get through the contact. She squeezed his hand gently, trying to get through the message that she was all right.. or at least that she would be.

It hurt enough to speak that she turned to psionic communication instead. It was a little bit easier to think than move right now. A little bit... 'What happened?' she sent to Miranda. 'I remember.. a mission.... to a station? Something happened. Monsters came...' she sent, her mind in its muddled state resorting to what she had once called the zerg when she had only ever sensed them. Her eyes suddenly opened wide despite the pain, her hand gripping Nick's hand in a death grip. "She... came...." she croaked out in a near panic, moving to try to sit up. "Where....?"

[rivaan]

"Yes, we are. Kalisti's just as we left it." Miranda replied with a small smile, looking at Ava, seeing the lingering damage. It would clear up eventually, but Ava would carry the traces of the vacuum exposure for a while longer. Maybe at least another week or two. She looked at the nightstand nearby where she had lined about a dozen different medicines and other misc medications. Such as eyedrops to help with eye dryness and irritation. She's gonna have to use those for a good deal of time in the future and of course a set of shaded glasses while the nerves in the eyes regenerate from the damage done.

"Yes we were at a mission to the borders of Umoja." The doctor replied, noting that Ava was starting to remember the events. It wasn't unusual for victims of such events to gradually recall the events soon after waking up. IT was very common in fact and sure enough, the ghost started to panic moments later as the memories rushed back." Ava, it's alright. She's not here, she and the zerg cannot touch you in this place." Miranda quickly reassured, seeing the way the younger woman had clutched Nick's hand. The doctor hurriedly placed her hands on Ava's shoulders and as gently and as softly as possible kept her from getting up." Rest, don't try top get up. We are home, on Kalisti. She's not here." Miranda repeated softly in caring manner." I will tell you, don't struggle, you need to rest more."

Once she was certain the ghost had stopped trying to sit up and possibly cause herself a good deal of more problems in the process, Miranda pulled a small bottle of eyedrops from the nightstand." Alright, Ava, I need to put some eyedrops on your eyes, so I will do so while I explain what happened, alright?" Miranda suggested.

"Well... everything was going swimmingly until you two boarded the station. The headache was still killing me though. I sensed what it was the moment the zerg burst from the warp portals they use." The doctor explained." The Queen of Blades. Showed up along with what I'm pretty sure is one of the broods along with a colossal zerg I've not seen before. Anyways, the moment she showed up, I got blasted across the ship by a psionic attack of some kind, took me out of it for a while until I started to come back to cosciousness when Nick started calling me over the comms. Was honestly lucky I didn't get my head popped off like a balloon, probably what she expected to happen, but I've had a few tracks up my sleeve it seemed. She didn't focused her entire power on me, but I still survived when most wouldn't have." Miranda of course didn't mention that the lil Khaydarin crystal on her ear had grown a bit in the process. She suspected the thing had grown off syphoning the psionic energies from the attack and effectively serving as a buffer between the her and the worst of it.

"Anyways picked up Nick on the ship and we went to space cause the station was already being consumed in biomass. We located your signal from the outside and given our options, I made the call to get you out. When we did so, I hit her right in the head with an EMP round when she showed up in the breach and jumped out to get you. After reeling both of us back in, we jumped away. She's unlikely to show herself near you anytime soon, seeing the Protoss's Golden Armada's on her tail now. She took a risk coming for you and well, they've actually got her fresh tail this time around. She will have to keep away and be stealthy and careful least she get's vaporized. By the time she's gottne enough leeway to try again, I've finished the preparations for a counter measure of sorts I've been working on. Anyhow you've been unconscious since then. It's been days, but you are alive and already recovering. Either Nick or me have been with you at all times." The doctor reassured and pulled her hands away having finished putting on the eyedrops." How do these feel? Is it still dry and irritating or did you ease up? I can get something a bit stronger if you need?" She professionally asked and put the bottle back on it's place on the nightstand.

"Any questions?"