SC - Fugitives

[Keira Kelly]

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The Third Day
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Ava had lasted barely a day and a half at Miranda's bedside before the other woman's chaotic emotions, freed by the withdrawal, had made it untenable for the ghost's continued bedside vigil. Not only was Ava's own mental shields not strong enough to keep out another psionic's heightened thoughts and feelings yet, but... the darkness of some of what she was being bombarded with was.. too much for her to deal with emotionally after her years with the inhibitor halting her own emotions. She had needed to get out of the medical building. Other gathering places for the colonists had not really been an option for her either. She was too unsure of proper social behaviour without having someone to watch over her so she had spent some time in the dropship until she became restless. Even here, she could faintly feel Miranda. She had needed something else to focus on.

That was why she was out here, in the blowing snow, a distance away from the main village, stalking through the deep, white drifts. It was still snowing heavily but at least the daylight filtered through, making the white world around her seem not quite so small. In fact, with the thermal vision turned on in her visor, she could see a little bit better than she would have been able to otherwise. Slightly. The blowing snow reflected a lot of the vision but... there, she could see hints of something warm through it in the distance. She paused as she heard the long, drawn out howl. She knelt, slowly raising her rifle and aiming. It was impossible to get an accurate distance reading in these conditions. The invisible laser that shot out from her visor that measured distances was being deflected by the fat snow flakes everywhere. But she didn't need distances here.

Ava let out her breath and held it, becoming motionless, as she targeted where she thought the target was. It had to be a couple hundred meters away at least but.. Ava had always scored high on her marksmanship. She could do this. She had spent the last day and a half doing this as well. This wouldn't be her first successful hunt. Just as she was about to lightly squeeze the trigger of her rifle, there was a sudden crunch of the snow to her left.

Instantly, she dropped, flattening herself as low as she could and it wasn't a second too late as a massive form flew over her, having intended to lunge into her. Ava rolled in the opposite direction, coming up just as the huge, wolf-like creature, like the one she had been hunting, was recovering from its failed pounce. This one though was the biggest one she had yet seen. Fur nearly as white as the snow when seen with normal vision, at least three times bigger than the largest Terran wolf, and with barbed spikes around its ruff and down its spine. The creature snarled as it fixed its hungry gaze on the ghost, showing the impressive set of recurved teeth in its mouth.

Out of the corner of her eye, Ava could see that the one she had been hunting was now moving closer. It had been a trap. Were there others? Maybe. From what she had picked up from the colonists, these beasts were very intelligent... and dangerous. Pack hunters, just like Terran wolves. Before she could do anything, the one before her pounced again. She had just enough time to roll backwards as it landed, using her and its momentum to throw it off behind her and come up on her feet, a maneuver likely beyond most normal humans when it came to a beast of this size, but Ava had been trained how to channel her psionic talents to augment her strength.

Before it could recover, she stood and began to run at a dead sprint. She knew that just over the slight rise before her was a long slope down a big hill. With at least two of the creatures around, she needed some distance. Her rifle would be near useless against multiple targets at close range and while she might have been stronger than a normal human.. there was no way she could survive multiple of these wolves at close range with only a combat knife. As she made the rise, she could hear both of the creatures now right behind her, snarling and snapping and her heels. Without hesitation, she launched herself over, landing on her feet.

The slope was slippery, the wind and angle had left the hill slick and Ava struggled to maintain her balance.. but she did as she began sliding down, picking up speed as she went, skiing without skis. She lowered herself enough to maximize her acceleration, trying to gain precious space away from the beasts. Behind her, she heard a thud and a loud whimper and whine as at least one of them lost its balance. She was gaining some distance though. Some...

As she reached the bottom and slowed to a stop, she turned, bringing her rifle around. It seemed that only one had fallen and was still a distance away, trying to catch up. The bigger wolf was right there and pounced again, this time hitting her, chomping down on her shoulder as it knocked her down to the ground. One fang pierced her suit.. and her flesh but the armoured pauldron she wore blunted the attack. With practised ease, Ava her combat knife in hand and stabbed it up into the underside of the beast's jaw.

It released her with a whimper and a snarl but not for long. As it rushed back, Ava was ready, bringing her rifle up and catching the muzzle of it in the beast's open jaws. One press of the trigger, a unique, sharp thunk sound of the canister rifle firing and the huge body went limp, dropping to the ground. The other wolf had almost made it to the fight but at the sound of the rifle, it froze instinctively. It waited, seeing what it's alpha would do but when the bigger beast did not move, self-preservation kicked in. It turned and ran.

Ava got up slowly, pushing the head of the fallen creature off her feet. Good thing her boots were fully armoured or else the neck spikes might have pierced her there as well. Her shoulder though, hurt. A quick glance showed a fair amount of blood on her suit, already freezing, but no hole in the resilient material. The beast's tooth had just pushed it down through into into her flesh. The pain was nothing to her though. It hurt.. but she had been well trained to disregard pain. The tightness of the suit would help stem the bleeding in short order.

She turned her attention to her prize. The people her valued a number of parts of these beasts but hunting them was often dangerous and most people on Kalisti had other jobs that needed attending more than hunting. The last two that Ava had brought into town, though much smaller than this one, had generated quite a buzz amongst the colonists and the ghost had been recompensed for the corpses quite well, receiving a fair sum of credits for one, and two cloaks made of the luxurious, long fur from one of the wolves some colonist had managed to long before their arrival. Ava wanted to give Miranda one as a gift once the doctor was well enough.

Looking at the beast, she was glad that she had turned off the charge that converted the ammo in her weapon to an explosive. Had she, there would have been no head.. or shoulders left of the beast. As it was, with the shot in the mouth, the corpse was unscathed other than the stab wound under the jaw. Though it was huge, Ava gathered up both front paws in her armoured glove, making sure she had a strong grip and, using her enhanced strength, began to pull the corpse through the snow towards the town.

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Upon hearing his name over the monitor in his office, Byrne returned to the observation ward where he had put the other doctor for her detox regimen. Arriving there, he approached cautiously. This wouldn't be the first time in the past three days that the woman had called him and then tried to get him to release her.. or to end her. "Doctor Jade." he answered slowly. "How are you feeling?" he asked, as he turned to look at the bio readings being printed out on a screen nearby before turning back to her. At least this time, she wasn't trying to fight the restraints or tear out her IV.

He took a deep breath of relief. Asking how long it had been was a good sign that the withdrawal was over, not to mention the bio readings supporting that. He would have to take blood to be sure but.. it seemed the worst was over. And the other doctor had survived it. "Three days." he answered her. "It's been three days, my dear." he added. "You're over the worst of it. I need to take some blood. How are you feeling?" he asked as he took a clean syringe and a swab and moved over to Miranda, gently cleaning the crook of her elbow and drawing some blood.

He moved over to a machine nearby, and put the sample he had taken in, pressing a button or two and turning back to look at the doctor. It would take a minute to complete the test. He winced in sympathy, moving over to the lights and lowering them down. "Is that better?" he asked before moving to the tray and grabbing another syringe and a bottle, taking a portion of the liquid from the bottle and injecting it directly into Miranda's IV line. "There, that should help with any pain. It's a mild but fast-acting analgesic." he explained.

Just then, the doors to the ward opened, admitting the female doctor's companion. He hadn't seen a lot of the younger woman in the past couple of days, but he had understood why. The first thing he did notice upon her entry was the mass of red over her left shoulder and down the arm. that put him into emergency mode and he rushed over.

Ava started at the man suddenly moving towards her and she reacted instinctively, almost pulling her knife before he screeched to a halt, staring at her hand on her weapon and she realized that he was intending to help her. She relaxed, giving him a nod to continue, looking past him at Miranda, still strapped to the bed. "I'm all right, Doctor. How is Miranda?" she asked.

She didn't really need to ask though, she could sense it. A sense of relief from Doctor Byrne and.. she could feel Miranda. The other woman's pain was sharper but.. it was different than it had been too. More focused but.. in a more clear way, less... overwhelming. She could sense the details of the pain now, much better than she had been able to before. The pain of a mother for their lost child. She could understand it a bit more now, being able to feel it more clearly. She vaguely wondered if her parents had felt like that about her and her sister.

She pushed at the male doctor's hand as he was trying to move her shoulder pauldron to see the injury but her focus was on her friend. Pushing away, she moved over to Miranda's bedside, she removed one of her armoured gloves and put her hand on Miranda's. The physical contact brought an altogether new level of the mental contact and Ava closed her eyes for a moment, working to block it out as best she could. "How are you?" she asked in a quiet voice.

There was a beep and she heard Byrne move over to a nearby table, checking on the blood sample he had taken just before her arrival. After a moment of reviewing the readings, he spoke up. "The Periferixilin is completely gone from your system, Doctor Jade." he said, finally moving over to the bed and beginning to undo the bindings.

After he had undone them all, he helped Miranda to sit up. "You're going to feel run down for some time. This drug did quite a number on your system not to mention the withdrawal... I wouldn't be surprised it the headaches and nausea remained for the next couple of weeks. I'll get you some medication for that once the IV comes out... but for now, leave it in. You are getting medications to help with that right now. Medications that AREN'T addictive." he stressed. He turned to look at Ava, pointing at the bed beside Mirnanda's. "And you, young lady, sit here. I need to see to that shoulder." he ordered.

It was still hard for Ava not to obey an order, and seeing that Miranda was recovering, she complied, silently sitting on the bed. When Byrne came over and began trying to move the armour out of the way to see if he could see anything, Ava reached out, finding the release on the pauldron which disconnected it from her environmental suit. The glowing lights on the armour piece died out as it came off in her hand and she placed it on the bed beside her along with both armoured gloves. She gestured for the male doctor to give her a moment as she began to disconnect the beastplate as well, placing it with the rest. She undid the seal running down the back of her suit down to mid back, enough that she could expose her wounded shoulder finally.

The male doctor approached again, sizing up the wound, which was something between a gash and a puncture. It had stopped bleeding previously but the movement of the younger woman in removing her armour had started it again. "I'm going to have to put in a couple of stitches." he informed her, watching her cautiously. He knew just enough about ghosts to know he should fear them. It was only really his overriding instincts as a doctor that kept him here, helping her. That and his sympathy for what he figured she must be going through currently. It was unfortunate though that they didn't have any more of those medical nanobots to help.

When the younger woman nodded agreement, he retrieved a suture kit from a shelf nearby along with another fresh syringe and bottle of medication and brought it over, opening up the sterile cover of the kit and getting it ready. He filled the syringe and held it up so she could see it. "This is going to numb the area while I stitch, all right? It will hurt a bit when I inject it but only for a minute." He waited till she gave confirmation again before he swabbed the area as best he could and injected the local anaesthetic into a few places around the wound. He waited a minute or so, going to grab another bottle and some gauze pads and a roll of gauze tape from nearby. When he returned, he checked to see that the shoulder was numb and it was.

Holding a gauze pad underneath, he squeezed the bottle, injecting liquid from it into the puncture, a means of removing any foreign objects from it and cleaning out any remaining bacteria that might have been introduced and caught it has it came out again with the gauze. He wiped the rest of it away and then got down to stitching it up. It only took a few stitches and was done in no time. He put a clean gauze pad over it and began to bind up the whole shoulder with the tape, securing the pad in place. Having finished, he only noticed now the amount of old, healed scars on the extremely pale flesh of this young woman. What had happened to her? Some scars looked very old, some seemed a fair bit more fresh, still vaguely pink.

When Ava caught Byrne staring at the marks on what was exposed of her body, which wasn't that much, she frowned at his look of shock. At the shock she could feel from him. She was beginning to really comprehend that her life, what she had gone through for her whole life.. wasn't typical. It wasn't normal.. and it wasn't acceptable to the morals of most people. "You know what I am, Doctor Byrne." she said quietly. "I know you fear me, fear those like me.. but you can also now see what we went through to turn us into killers... What we were put through since childhood.. We didn't choose to be killers. Our trainers, our commanders make sure we are by any means they consider necessary."

Byrne frowned now, disappointed with himself for fearing the younger woman. Everything about ghosts has highly secretive. Even their existence was an open secret. Not officially confirmed but something that everyone knew. Most assumed they were psionic volunteers or recruits from the military. Now he knew different. "I'm sorry, child." he said sincerely now, helping her off the bed and getting her arm back into her suit without disturbing the dressing. The tightness of the suit would help keep it in place and stop any further bleeding so just as well that she put it back on fully.

When Ava had done up her suit seal once more, she made her way back to Miranda. She knew her friend would have questions about how she had been wounded despite Miranda being the more ill one still.

[rivaan]

"Three days...?" Miranda mumbled, narrowing her eyes to escape that pesky light that was being a literal pain in her eyes right about now." That's on the shorter side than what I expected... thought I would be out for at least 5 if I ever wake up at all..." She said and groaned moving in her restraints just a little to a slightly more comfortable position. She felt still and damn it she was going to need some kind of balm for those bruised wrists and ankles." Back when I was 16 I fell of a Vulture bike... I feel about the same... if that bike had turned around and ran me over on top of the initial impact with the ground." She replied and smiled just a little bit.

"Yeah, thank you, Doctor Byrne." Miranda replied as the light was no longer sending painful stabs into her eyes and by extension into her brain. She looked at the older doctor as her proceeded to add some additional medicine to her IV." Much appreciated...I was just starting to feel the aftereffects..." She added with a nod, waiting for the moment the new meds take effect. Damn she didn't feel right being the patient after all.

It wasn't much after that when the door opened and Ava entered. She was bloodied and Miranda was concerned right away, but the judging by the fact how the ghost was acting, Miranda could vaguely guess that it probably wasn't a critical injury. She could felt a little relief at that, but the fact that her... little sister was injured wasn't pleasing to her. She was out for just 3 days and Ava already managed to get herself injured to blood. Hopefully that wasn't a sign about what was to come.

"Mostly fine... a lot better. At least I feel like a human again." She replied to Ava who went for some skinship. Miranda understood that it was hard for the Ghost to cope with all those emotions now that the inhibitor was removed. She smiled kindly at the ghost." Well... and I feel like I was ranover by a car or something. Most of my body hurts, I dread to think how much I must have struggled in these restraints to put myself to this state." She half jokingly said, but the pain was real and that was teh truth.

Hearing that her body was clear of the Periferixilin, Miranda took a sigh of relief. What a nasty drug, been 100% f ine while taking it and completely batshit crazy when you stop. Periferixilin was not a medicine... for all intensive purposes it could be counted under poisons frankly. In fact she made a mental note about it... It could do wonders in interrogation techniques... Or painful executions where you want to completely destroy a person. A certain Mengsk came to mind at that idea." No worries, Doctor Byrne... at most I will be careful about it from now on." She confirmed as her attention returned to Ava's injury." And how on earth did you get injured, Ava?" She asked, her attention focused on the injury of the ghost. Seening the nature of the injury from the side, Miranda narrowed her eyes." Did something bite through the enviromental suit?" She asked in frank surprise. Those suits were enhanced with psionic sensitive fibers, making them even stronger...

At least seeing the wya Byrne did it, it was indeed not a critical injury. She looked at Ava who was returning to her after sealing her suit back on." Tell me you at least killed whatever it was that hurt you..." Miranda said when Ava returned, searching for some small comfort in the knowledge that whatever did hurt her family was well killed and cold." Also what the hell was it?" She asked with some curiosity in her still somewhat feeble voice. She had now sat up and was careful to not rub her bruised wrists anywhere. They were a really deep shade of red and clearly the top layer skin had been rubbed off, making it seem almost like it was burns it was going to take a lil while to heal and if she had another dose of the nanobots, she was going to gladly use it to fix those. On the thought of Nanobots she wondered if the shipment had been delivered. She had brokered a deal for 5023 credits for the shipment and she had also used the night before she started rehab to compile most of the code. Frankly all that was remaining was to install the medicine code into the nanobots. In fact she was going to leave the code to Doctor Byrne, that way they could order more nanobots in the future and not require her to be there.

[Keira Kelly]

After she had been stitched up and Ava had made her way back to Miranda's bedside, she wasn't surprised at the questions, though the concern wasn't something she was exactly used to. Only Miranda had ever shown concern for her. Still.. she felt.. what was it... amused? By the concern. Amused because there was no need for worry. "Of course I killed it." she answered with a chuckle. It felt.. good to laugh. To be able to laugh. She liked it. "And yes, something bit through my suit. It didn't pierce the suit but.. pushed it enough that it damaged my shoulder underneath but.. it's fine, really, Miranda." she insisted.

She gave a half smile. "It was a wolf." she answered, and then frowned. That didn't sound nearly as impressive as the creatures here were. "Well, this world's version. Three or four times the size, spines, massive jaws..." she explained. "They just call them wolves here though. Not many take the risk of trying to hunt them, though the beasts are prized... so I figured I'd give it a try. I earned us a few things..." she added.

Byrne, overhearing the conversation, spoke up from where he was, addressing Miranda. "Most people on Kalisti.. well, usually if someone had killed even one of the wolves in their lifetime here, that's a rare thing and big bragging rights." he said, glancing over at the women. "Your young friend here has killed.. what was it? It was two as of yesterday... So is that three now?"

Ava nodded in confirmation. "This last one was bigger than the others too... and it brought a friend. They tried to hunt me in return. Should have known better than to mess with a ghost... I killed this last one, let the other get away since I could only really drag one back to the town." She paused for a moment, projecting an imagine into Miranda's mind of the huge, snarling, pouncing beast. 'Two of those against me. I won.' she thought to the doctor smugly. 'I needed to keep my skills sharp.'

She winced at seeing the marks on Miranda's arms and could feel how the doctor felt. Not great. But she had something she hoped would cheer her friend up.. or at least distract her. "Oh, I almost forgot. I have something for you. I was waiting till you awoke. One moment.." she told Miranda, turning and heading just outside the ward doors. She had left the packages there. She'd been sleeping in the waiting area of the colony hospital, refusing a bed or the dropship because she had wanted to be near her friend. Grabbing the packages, she brought them into the ward, placing one on a nearby chair before giving the other to Miranda. It was perhaps a foot and a half squared, and fairly thick, something soft wrapped in brown paper and tied up. "Open it!" she encouraged animatedly.

As Miranda did, she sent to the doctor mentally again. 'I also earned nearly a thousand credits and...' she paused, squinting in confusion, 'lifetime drinks on the house at the tavern?' she quoted, unsure of what it meant. Who would put drinks on a house?
'But I also got two of these.' she added, gesturing at the package just as Miranda finished unwrapping the luxurious wolf-fur cloak. 'One for each of us.' The fur was a brilliant white, each strand was nearly ten centimeters long and incredibly soft. She had been told it was very warm too. "What do you think?" she asked.

[rivaan]

"It's really not as fine as you believe it is..." Miranda mumbled a reply to Ava's reassurances. Imagine now that what jumped Ava wasn't whatever crazy wolf things were found here, but a bloody zergling? Hydra spines pierce through hard CMC armor, even a enviromental suit of a ghost wouldn't protect her completely unless she's using her psionics to shield herself which will eventually drain her cause humans really weren't built to create forcefields via psionics. It was rather hard thing to create and maintain. She was pretty sure a zergling could also chew through the suit given enough bites.

Miranda's face took a neutrace state when the good doctor let her know that Ava's been on the hunt since yesterday it seemed. She narrowed her eyes at the ghost, but then sighed. It was pointless to ask her to keep out of trouble. She was a ghost, she was trained to fight and hunting such a prey was like second nature to her by now. Miranda was also glad because she could see a certain degree of confidence and pride in Ava about her acomplishments." Good job." Miranda finally complimented the ghost and relaxed down in the bed, resuming laying position instead of sitting.

Well that wasted all of 10 seconds before Ava said she had a gift for her and went to take it and Miranda found herself sitting once more cause taking a gift laying down was just not how this was done. She wondered for a good few moments what her sister had in mind as she watched her return with a box." This is...?" She mumbled as the box was handed over. She followed the ushering of her new family and quickly opened the box and wrap up.

'Wow. My little Ava's now a local town folk hero!' Miranda returned a thought to Ava after the other established the link. She now found it amusing.' Means that you get to drink all the drinks you want without paying of course. Perk of being a local hero I guess hehehe.' She also mentioned as the secret gift was revealed and Miranda was left completely god damn out of words or thoughts even. Her mind sort of blanked out for a good few moments as she stared at the magnificent and luxury coats that Ava had secured for them." These are... absolutely beautiful!" The female doctor stated, running a tired hand across the incredibly soft fure." Wow..." She mumbled, absolutely mesmerized by the cloak. Cloaks weren't something well used on the core worlds, but in the frontiers it was a must have! Seeing this wonderful claok also stirred a thought in her head. It was about the fact they were going to need some aliases and code names to use out there. Calling each other by name wasn't going to do, since she highly suspected bounty hunters and probably other ghost were already on their trails more likely than not. Just using your real name and having a papertrail about it wasn't going to fly.

Another great thing was that they were finally able to toss away the rest of the wrangler's clothing. Now with those great fur cloaks, they could ditch his jacket and coat." It's a great gift, Ava." Miranda finally said to the younger woman." Thank you." She added pulling the fur to her face and rubbing her cheek into the softness. What a wonderful sensation this was!" What a nice feeling~ This already feels times better than even the best fur I've seen back in the core worlds."

"I'm planning on leaving by tonight." She finally stated with serious voice." We should leave, we've stayed a little too long already. I will show Doctor Byrne how to program the nanobots and after the last of my IV finishes, I want to get ready to go. Ava, can you get back to the ship and start up the air conditioning?" She asked, throwing a questing look at the ghost." We should also use the chance to buy some meals for the road. Meals that could last such as dried meat and the like."

'By the by, did you find the untrained psionic here on this world?' Miranda asked Ava suddenly. An untrained psionic here and probably not an infant either. They were lucky, they avoided it because of the nature of this colony.

[Keira Kelly]

Ava's smile grew as Miranda discovered what was in the package and her reaction to it, pleased that she could do something for Miranda for once. She nodded in agreement at the beauty of the cloaks. Beauty was not.. something that Ava was well versed in but... the fur was sensuous feeling and unlike anything she had ever seen before. Well, she had not seen much but.. still. That it came from savage beasts only added to her enthusiasm. True these two had not been from the beasts she had felled herself, it was still.. a trophy of sorts for her. She had been given them because of her kills. "The people here should have been able to export fur like this.." she began, her brow furrowing a little at the strange concepts having to do with trade, "but they don't have the manpower to spare over something so risky as hunting the creatures."

She hooked a loose strand of red hair behind an ear. "At least risky to them." she added with a shrug. The tug on the stitches in her wounded shoulder caused her to frown. "The first two had been solo. If I had realized they really were pack hunters, I'd have cloaked and there would have been no risk at all." No risk.. but no fun either, she thought to herself. Better to tell Miranda what the doctor wanted to hear though: that Ava wouldn't be that reckless again. Cloaking would have made it too unfair though. No fun at all. There had been a certain thrill fighting the creature that Ava had relished.

She nodded in reply to the thanks. "I can't repay you for saving my life.." She tapped the side of her own head lightly. "For making me whole again. But at least I can do small things like this for you. Sister." she said sincerely, smiling again. But then frowned again when Miranda asked her to power up the environmentals on their ship. Miranda had showed her once, during their trip here, how to do it and though Ava remembered it exactly, she was not as confident about it. She could take on snarling beasts twice her own size, two of them at that, but.. she wasn't all that sure about fiddling with tech, fearing that she might break something by mistake. "I'll.. try." she agreed hesitantly. At least she could contact Miranda mentally should she need to.

She moved over to the neighbouring bed again, getting the rest of her gear that she had left there while Doctor Byrne had been seeing to her shoulder. Popping the pauldron back on was easy though, the local anaesthetic was wearing off now and she could really feel it. She winced, making a very small sound of discomfort. Putting the breastplate back on though was thankfully easier. Finally the armoured gloves followed along with her ever-present rifle and the second package, the one containing the cloak for herself... and the credits she had made.

She paused another moment, deciding. Finally, she unslung her rifle again, unwrapped her own package, putting the credits to the side for a moment and unfurling her own cloak. She ignored her protesting shoulder as she flung the cloak around herself and tied it up. It fit very well over her armour and the stark whiteness of it matched well the light colours of her armour and environmental suit. She caught sight of herself in a mirror over in the far corner of the ward as she hooked the strap of her rifle back over her good shoulder. From far away at least, the look seemed striking on her, her red hair a stark contrast to the paleness of the rest of her. She smiled, liking the look.

Her head snapped back towards Miranda as she picked up her friend's question. She paused, blinking slowly. Miranda may have been a lower level psionic but.. she was most definitely not a trained one. The sudden burst had.. been sent with a bit too much power. Shaking her head slightly, she replied, as she handed over the bundle of credits to her friend. It would be better for Miranda to handle the money. Besides, Ava had no pockets in which to keep it. 'I found her.' she confirmed. 'A young girl. I warned her parents and the protectors of this colony to watch out for wranglers. I showed the girl how to recognize those with psionic powers as well, how to read them.. If the people here suspect a wrangler, they will be sure to apprehend them.. and perhaps terminate them so they don't take word of a psionic here back with them.' she explained telepathically. 'Unfortunately, there is not much more that I can think of for them to do.' She hoped it would have been enough. The young girl, Sophia, had been sweet and innocent. Ava would have hated to see her end up like she herself had.

As she sent this, she had headed out, giving Miranda and Doctor Byrne both a nod. Two doors later, and she was outside. The wind blew snow through the air even though the sky was clear currently, the pale sun shining through with little warmth. The air felt almost brittle against her bare skin of her face. She nudged the collar of the cloak closer to help block out the bitter wind as she began her way towards their dropship. It took longer than she'd have liked to make it. In many places along the path, deep drifts of snow had been blown across and it had taken work to step through it but eventually, she did make it to the bottom of the ramp of the ship.

She keyed in the code that Miranda had reset and the ramp descended. Before it had even touched the ground, Ava leaped up and into the ship, glad to be out of the cold for the moment. At least when she had been hunting, she'd had other things on her mind than the chill. Inside, she pressed a button to close the airlock again behind her... just in case. Once inside, she got to work right away, going over to where Miranda had shown her to start. She had been trained to have an eidetic memory from a young age so she was pretty sure what she was doing was right as she began to type in commands and press buttons in a specific order.

In a short amount of time, she heard the air systems switch on, like the ship taking a big first breath as it began to warm up and pump air through the ventilation system. That done, Ava took a quick look around, through some of the side rooms and in the cockpit, making sure the ship was clear. In addition, she scanned the area with psionics, looking for any signs of life on board but found nothing. Good. In a short amount of time, she could feel the air warming and decided it was time to head back for Miranda.

She exited the airlock and descended the ramp, closing the ship back up for the moment as she trudged back to the medical building. She was smiling to herself as she did, knowing that to get to the provisioner's building, they would have to pass the carcass of the last wolf beast she had caught, which was at the moment, hanging by its back legs across the street, outside a building that dealt with preparing animal carcasses. Miranda would get to see first-hand the beast that Ava had felled and she was proud of that.

Finally making the medical building again, she went inside, finding Miranda and Byrne working in an office off to the side. Not wanting to interrupt, she sent to Miranda. 'The ship is ready to go. Whenever you are done here, we can go and pick up that food.' she sent as she leaned back languidly against a nearby wall, waiting for her friend to finish up.

[rivaan]

"..." Miranda sighed, looking at Ava's face. The doctor couldn't read thoughts... yet, but se couldn't shake off the feeling that Ava was telling her stuff to make her feel better. Well she wasn't going to push it. The ghost was a big girl now, Miranda was going to protect her as much as she could, but Ava had to learn about the real world sooner or later and this experience will come in handy. It was almost certain this wasn't going to be the first time she would have to operate in the wilderness with dangerous local life present. She highly doubted that Ava would allow herself to be blindsided again by animals...

She focused her attention as Ava's voice appeared in her head, explaining the situation with the intrained psionic girl at the colony.' Good... thought I fear that might not be enough if a wranger arrives. If one goes missing, someone will eventually check why.' Miranda explained and made a pondering expression.' I have an idea that might help, I will talk with Dr. Byrne in the meantime about it.' She added with a smile as Ava moved to leave the clinic. Miranda waved to her and made herself more comfortable in the bed by the time the little sister left the place. She sighed and called the doctor.

Didn't take her long to explain to him how to program the nanobots. She went through all the steps of the process and since she had brought the ready to use code it was pretty much a fancy version of copy paste really. With that done, she proceeded to talk to him about hte psionic girl's situation. She pulled her small metal drug case and from it took one of the few containers in it. She was keeping the Periferixilin though. She had another idea use for it for later... and certain someones. Miranda sensed that Ava had returned and heared her sister.' Almost done.' She replied.

" Dr. Byrne, here..." She said to him and handed him the transparent container that held a clear dark green liquid." Consider this a farewell gift. This is a medicine I developed off a type of rare poison. 15 ml of this will slow down the heartbeat to a near complete stop for about 5 hours with no issues. Afterwards they will return to normal as if nothing happened." She smiled, putting on her cloak." You could use this to help people with heavy bleeding. Almost no pulse, almost no bleeding... Or you know... fake someone's death if you have to." She casually threw in as Ava entered. She was pretty sure that the ghost probably picked her thoughts and what she said even from the outside anyways.

Having all that done and over with, Miranda now dressed in snazzy cool warm cloak, shakyly made her way over to Ava. Her steps were a little bit uncertain as she was trying to get used to her rather wrecked body right now." Alright, we're done here." She smiled at Ava." Let's get out there and get that food, so we can leave. A much as I like it here, I want to go somewhere warmer next." Miranda laughed a little.' Besides, we've got a Dominion place to raid... I need to blow something up, after the past 3 days. You up to it?'

[Keira Kelly]

Quite a few of the thoughts running through Miranda's head were more or less an open book to Ava at the moment, given the ghost's lack of practice at shielding herself mentally combined with Miranda's lack of training in psionic control.. but didn't take most of what she felt personally not responded to it. That had been part of her training as well, at least before the inhibitor had been put in. She had broken that ingrained rule a few times in the past few days but.. overall, she did realize that very few people had strict mental discipline. She was relieved though when she sensed that her friend would trust her enough not to intercede on Ava's recreational activities, no matter how dangerous they seemed. At least for now. Hunting those animals had been something Ava had... needed to do. And she was happy that she wouldn't be reprimanded for it, she thought to herself as she waited for the doctors.

She had also picked up on Miranda hinting to the local doctor for a method to hide the young psionic girl living here. Any poison, even one that Miranda was vetting, was a risk to give someone, let along a child.. but.. as Ava had told her friend not that long before, death probably would have been preferable to a life ripped away from all that was normal, tortured and trained to become a killer. Her opinion of that hadn't changed in the slightest... and she was so far beyond grateful that she had managed to escape it all, escape Calan and.. regain feelings again. She felt a single tear of pure joy at being able to feel emotion again slide down her cheek and she smiled to herself.

When Miranda got up and began walking towards her, Ava could see the doctor still lacked strength and she quickly closed the distance, giving Miranda something stable to rely on if she needed it, ignoring her own hurting shoulder. Before Doctor Byrne could say anything.. and she could feel he was going to, Ava interrupted. "She will be taking it easy for the next few weeks, Doctor Byrne." she said adamantly, giving Miranda a sharp look with one raised eyebrow. She nodded though to her friend's desire to go somewhere warmer. She nearly froze for a second at the follow up mental sending. She cocked her head slightly, a smile at one corner of her mouth and chuckled. Raiding the Dominion. She liked the sound of that. She would have liked to get at those responsible more but.. they need need supplies and.. well.. they were owed something by the Dominion. 'What kind of Dominion place do you have in mind?' she sent back curiously.

Byrne sighed. He had learned.. a fair bit from these two. "You both be careful out there. And know you have a friend here on Kalisti should you ever need one." he replied, following slightly behind them as they began to make for the door. "I can't thank you enough, Doctor Jade, for getting use the nanobots..." He turned to look at Ava when she glanced back. "And thank you for making me remember not to jump to conclusions about people." he added to her.

Ava gave a smile and nodded back at him before pushing open the front door and helping Miranda out into the cold outdoors. As the door closed behind them, sealing off any radiant warmth, Ava nodded over to their left, where the majority of the buildings were. "The provisioners is right over there." she said indicating a building not too far away. She pointed at the building across from it, across from where they were and the huge white, furred form hanging in front of it. There was a pool of red on the snow below the wolf's massive jaws that hung open in death. The beast had to have been close to three and a half meters in length. "They're getting ready to prepare it, to use what they can from it but I was hoping I would be able to show you one of the ones I killed." she said, indicating the one she had brought in today. "That's the one that bit me.." she added with a smile as they drew level with it on the way to the food and supplies store. "See? It didn't get away with it." she chuckled, referring to Miranda's earlier sending to her about it. "That one is going to make warm clothing for quite a few people.. not to mention the other uses they have for the rest of it."

[rivaan]

"Thank you doctor, I've left you the source code for the nanobots and a contact info for the broker who can deliver more of them. If you ever need to order additional ones you can use that. Just make sure for him to not scam you, he tends to do that." Miranda warned with a smile." I hope next time we come to visit, it will not be under the current circumstances." She added as she weakly waved her hand and they left the clinic. The cold air hit her like a speeding truck the moment she stepped outside, but otherwise the weather today was completley different from the one they arrived in. The sky was still covered in heavy clouds, but there wasn't any snowing going on right now so the visibility was great and there wasn't much wind either. It was probably as close as you can get on this ice cube as a nice summer day she supposed.

'I've been thinking about it and there's the perfect place to strike... I recalled it in the initial stages of my dellirium..." Miranda replied as she tucked herself even better in the fur cloak.' There's low level ressuply facility that was created by the then Sons of Korhal. It holds no strategical importance what's o ever, but it was fully stocked up to serve as a ressuply point for Mengsk during his rebellion from the Confederancy.' Miranda explained, wading through the snow. She actually liked this place without the blizzard going on. She liked snow.' It has weapons, ammo, other useful supplies of all kinds and most importantly of all... Access to the Sons of Korhal old Database.' She mentioned and her face took an unusual grim expression.' Among all the other data will can syphon up, there's what I really want in there... the name of the scientist responsible for my son... I want that name and their location...' She didn't really trully projected her thought on what's she's going to do with them, but for Ava who had the link with her, reading the unsend thoughts was an easy thing. She was going to kill them in the most painful way possible. Miranda was going to tie them up and inject them slowly with acid solution right into their bloodflow.

Miranda then observed the wolf creatures that Ava pointed her out and she rose an elegant eyebrow." Wow... I'm not really sure it can be as easily called wolf with that size really, but it does resemble one. Frankly I'm actually surprised it didn't actually bite through the enviromental suit. Look at those jaws, must have been close to doing it!" She was rather impressed though it brought her a thought." Hmm... wonder if they are called anythign aside 'wolves'. Remind me of this old Earth legend. There were stories of giant wolves like the wolf Fenris who will swallow the sun." She mused, to be fair a lot of crafts and tech were named after mythological entities from the old world. Miranda then pulled her attention from the huge wolves and to the supply... ehhh grocery store.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
5 Days Later
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It took a couple of days, but they had made their way over to the location of the Dominion Outpost that Miranda had mentioned. It was located on a frindge system without much going on it. It had heavy asteroid belts and only a single habitable planetoid which was the moon of a gas giant. Even that was barely able to support life. It had oxygen atmosphere, but it was thin. People had to use breathing aids if they planned to stay outside for too long, otherwise they'd basically asphyxiate from lack of oxygen no matter how long they breath.

In the meantime Miranda's condition had improved a lot from the initial post withdraw state. She no longer lost her breath while walking around and exterting minimal physical effort and her body no longer ached as if she was hit by a speeding vulture. Her face was still somewhat sunken and the color of her skin had yet to regain a proper healthy blush, but overall she was alright. At night sometimes she had nightmares or would lose herself to crying about her son, but she was recovering. She had goal to acomplish and she wasn't alone, so her depression wasn't as strong now as it was back in the academy.

"Alright... this is it." Miranda said as she piloted the dropship right under a big asteroid so they can have a good vantage point at the moon where the dominion outpost was. It was a big round dust rock really. The reason why it had thin oxygen atmosphere wasn't quite as clear, but the base was build on top of an underground water reservoir. There were a few oasis like location, but the base wasn't build on one." I activated the IFF on our treck here so their sensors would pick us up as a Dominion transport once we get closer. The ship's miltary design and with the IFF reading dominion, we should be able to land with no issues." Miranda explained and looked at Ava." But we should locate an alternative IFF to use in general aside the Dominion one. Will allow us to hide better too because ships without IFFs of any kind are suspicious." She smiled.

Miranda was dressed in a very simple clothing, but this time around she was the one who had picked up the coat instead of Ava. She had altered the wrangler's ID papers a little and slapped a fake name and picture on it. She looked somewhat wrangler-y. If a sickly one at that." I will tell them I'm coming for resupply and small medical assistance. There should be maybe 5 marines and a mechanic with them. Aside the backup access to the Sons of Korhal old database which should be more or less abandoned and the generic supplies, there shouldn't be much here. I suggest we silince the facility completely... We shall take out all the dominion forces present, load whatever we can onto the ship and then set up the self destruct. Sounds like a plan? First target will be yours. You will need to locate teh communications room and take those guys out." Miranda said to the ghost.

[Keira Kelly]

The trip to their next destination had been roughly the same length as the previous one but it hadn't seemed so to Ava, not this time. Now that she could really.. feel, boredom was something she found she had to contend with, and being in an relatively small vehicle with absolutely no distractions for days on end other than talk and exercising.. was.. well, boring. While the stars going by during the jumps were pretty, she had found that it didn't really vary and had gotten old pretty quickly. As a distraction though, the ghost had taken to asking Miranda to expand more on old Earth legends like the one she had hinted at before their departure.

Ava had become enraptured at hearing about Fenris and other old Norse myths, as well as those from other cultures too.. but the ghost was the most taken with the Norse ones for the moment. It was something about the gregarious culture in the myths that seemed to draw her in. She had even settled on a favourite figure in the myths, one that had seemed to share a number of similarities to herself, and.. since Miranda had suggested choosing codenames to use at the beginning of this trip, Ava had decided that that one would be more than fitting for herself.

It was now the 5th day of the journey and Ava was lying in the small cot, her armour put to the side as she had gotten some sleep, at Miranda's urging of course. It was now Miranda's voice over the ship's intercom had awoken the ghost, telling her to head up to the bridge. Ava sat up, unwrapping herself from her warm fur cloak. It was not only dashing looking but made for a very comfortable.. and warm blanket as well. Ava yawned, then forced herself to get up and stretched before making her way to the cockpit.

Getting up there, she glanced at her companion, noting that Miranda was definitely looking a lot better already than she had when they left Kalisti. Ava stopped, sitting in the co-pilot's chair, trying to shake the remnants of sleep as she listened, glancing out the window at what they were now approaching. "Fairly hostile atmosphere, right?" she asked, looking at the moon. Miranda had mentioned a little bit about it the other day, but Ava wanted to check over the intel again. This would be a mission and Ava had been trained to know how to prepare for a mission, even if she had never been sent on one.

She glanced back as Miranda began to mention IFF transponders with a blank look. She knew what they were, theoretically, of course, but... it was by far not Ava's field of expertise. "Where.. would we get a non-Dominion one?" she asked. She didn't hold up much hopes of finding it on this run, not on a Dominion base like this anyways, but she had zero clue where they could get one. Something she would leave completely up to the doctor.

When they had landed, the two women headed back into the living area of the ship. While Miranda was getting the former-wrangler's coat and some other items, Ava took the moment to put all of her armour on, connecting it up to her environmental suit that she wore pretty much constantly. As she did, each armour piece had areas which powered on, glowing. Ava sent a test through the suit using her psionic talents, causing powered lines to glow as she felt the psionic-reactive fibres of the suit respond to her mental commands. Testing all equipment before a mission was essential. It was foolhardy if not suicidal to skip. With all the armour on, she fixed her fur cloak back atop it all, put on her visor and connected the leads before grabbing her rifle. That too she checked, making sure the barrel was clear and checking the clip and ammo count. Low. Not good. At least she had her combat knife too. She slammed the clip back in place, chambering a round before she turned to Miranda, as ready as she could be.

She cocked her head at the new intel, assessing, planning variations. Five marines. That could be dangerous.. but, then again, she was a ghost. She was dangerous by herself. "Did you want me to take the ones that show up out first or to stealth past them and take out communications, security and anything of the like first?" she asked. Planning of this was very important. She didn't want to risk Miranda and that meant them both being on the same page. She nodded about the rest of the plan though. Taking out everyone and destroying the place suited the ghost just fine. This was the kind of thing she had been trained for all of her life.

"I will cloak then, find Communications, take anyone out that's there as well as the equipment, then find the security office, clear that out too. No alarms, no reinforcements that way. After that, I'll come back here and clear out the ones left here." she told Miranda, having decided on the course of action. She was concerned if there was any sort of monitoring of the landing area by Security. Taking out the men here first could be noticed in a way that she couldn't stop in time. She wanted to play this cleanly. "You'll be okay with those men in the meantime?" she asked, concerned. While cloaked, she would hold off long enough to make sure that whoever came to meet Miranda believed the doctor's story and held no suspicions before moving to her first target.

Before they left the ship though, Ava stopped her friend. "I've been thinking, Miranda. About the code names you mentioned we should us. This is our first mission. We should have our code names." she explained. A slight smile played at the corner of her lips. "My code name will be Skadi." she informed the doctor proudly. Miranda had told her about Skadi, among with others but.. Skadi had captured Ava's imagination. Goddess of hunting and winter, reminding Ava of her own hunts on Kalisti. Skadi, a giantess that the other gods feared but also highly respected, one who was just and fair. Her name also either mean shadow or harm, either trait fit a ghost's reputation perfectly. And Ava, being on the taller side for a woman, dressed all in her white and very light grey gear, bearing the white fur cloak, looked to be a near perfect embodiment for such a goddess, the only thing not quite fitting was her red hair versus a typical Norse's blonde. "I will be Skadi." she said again, nodding to herself with a pleased smile. It felt.. right.

[rivaan]

"We could totally grab one from a derelict civilian vessel for example if we find one." Miranda replied to Ava with a shrug." Alternatively the second hand ship part vendors around any junkyard would probably have one and probably add in a bonus name change just for good measure or we can go the extra mile and grab one from the black market, enrusing a completely faked legal background for the ship to make it seem like it belongs to a merchant group or corporation or something." She finished her explanation, fixing her collar." I personally would prefer a second hand one of a junk yard. We can easily change the name and it serves pretty well for access to most places." She concluded her suggestion and plan on that subject as they were preparing to disembark.

"I will be fine. They wouldn't shoot a wrangler with proper IDs which I have." She stated and tapped the badge now hanging on her chest." They wouldn't be able to check for complete authenticity either in short notice, and since now all wranglers work for the Dominion means they would think of me as an ally." Miranda added and just in case checked her gun. After a few moments of fliddling and making sure it was loaded and there was no jamming going on, she put it away again.

Miranda then looked and listened as Ava said that they should ise codenames on their first mission. She listened to the other's explanation of what name she chose and let out a soft laughter." Figured as much. No wonder given how insistent you were on me telling you nordic legends and myths." The doctor stated and nodded." Very well, Skadi. In that case I will pick hte code name Idunn." Miranda stated and was just about ready to hit hte button and open the hatch so they can exit the ship." Time for action, keep in contact and inform me if anything changes on your end. I will do so the same as long as they aren't observing me all hte time. If they are, I will just leave my thoughts wide open and as strong as possible so you can pick them out." Miranda told Ava with a smile. During the last few days among other things, she was practicing in psionics... sort of. She couldn't initiate telepathy still, she was quite the distance from that, but she got better at psionic presence sensing and also regulating the brightness of her thoughts so to speak.' It's show time~' She mentioned to Ava and waited for hte other's ghost cloak to kick in before hitting the hatch control and hte door openeing. She walked out first and quickly down the ramp

As expected they were being met by 2 marines and a maintenance looking guy who was some distance away, fiddling with some kind of vulture bike." Idenitfy yourself!" The marine called as Miranda used the chance to track Ava's progress with getting into the facility with her psionic sense which was a lot narrower rangewise than Ava's but she still could sense her for some 10-15 meters away.

"Juno White, Dominion Wrangler." She replied with straight slightly tired voice, clearly putting on her physical fatigue and lowered health to show. Had to play the role after all and she really didn't feel in as good condition as she could anyways. She also pulled her Modified Wrangler ID and tossed it over. It should hold to scrutiny from this abandoned wasteland base. After one of hte marines studied it for a few moments, he called someone over his radio. A few brief sentences back and forth, they seem to have confirmed the Dominion signature on the ID and the marine hurried to return to her the ID.

" Happy to have you here, Ma'am." The man greeted her, earning a twitch in the corner of her mouth." How can we help you? Also we should get inside, the thin atmosphere is really taxing on one's health." The man explained as he invited her with a jesture into the big hangar bay door. Her dropship could be left outside, there wasn o corosive effects in the atmosphere, just thin oxygen. Once she was inside the facility and hte big bay doors closed behind her, she suddenly felt a lot better as she took a deep breath, ahh normal atmo!

"I'm here to resupply, soldier." She said to him." Been tracking down an enemy of the Dominion for over 4 weeks now... They nearly killed me a few times too, I'm running low on general supplies such as provisions and also require some medical attention. My health's been getting worse as of the last few days. There's a working medical facility in this supply base, right?" She asked as hte man nodded.

"Of course, Ma'am. We usually do not have a stationed doctor, but all the facilities are at your disposal. You could run some automated tests to attempt and see your condition and what should be done. Here, right this way." The two marines started leading the wya down one corridor. While walking, she couldn't help but study the frankly hundreds of crates stacked up all around the place. It wasn't the grandest supply base, but was probably well enough resupply quite a few of the civilian ships and other smaller vessels that hte Sons of Korhal original ran. She was sure there were also CMC suits here, ocne all the soldiers were out, they were going to have to loot the place good.