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Archeological Contracts (Open); Open Thread for Improptu RPing
Topic Started: Jun 21 2009, 02:49 AM (11,724 Views)
~The Silver Fox~
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Just your friendly neighborhood Section 2 agent!
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Matthew slowly staggered back towards camp, pain jolting from the wound in his side with every step. He had left the piece of metal in to keep from bleeding any more than he already was. Jenosa probably wouldn't be happy with him for breaking off from tracking Nick and Grace, but he didn't have the strength to keep up with the chase. Kathi had stuck with their trail a bit farther, and knew they had gone through a ravine to get somewhere, but ultimately, she had come running back to make sure her older brother was okay. Matthew wished she wouldn't have, but he was too pained to care at that point.

Still, it wasn't all bad news. The raiders had been banged up when the ship jumped over the camp, and probably weren't in shape to make much progress. Odds were, they weren't too far away from where Kathi had stopped pursuing them.

Kathi had finally bandaged her own injuries, but by that time her arm was already stained crimson with blood. It was this sort of thing that worried Matthew the most about her. He was afraid she'd suffer a more serious injury, but ignore it for so long that by the time she noticed, she would have lost too much blood. At the moment, though, he was slightly more concerned about getting back to his ship and finding a canister of biofoam.

"Don't worry too much, Matt," Kathi said as she smiled at him. "The others know where those two went now, and they can handle it from here. Besides, that bastard up in the sky is hurting."

Matthew smirked at that last part as he glanced over at his sister. That was one of the things he loved about her, she always knew just how to cheer him up. He opened his mouth to say something, but stopped short, instead just staring at her face. Finally, he spoke. "Your eyes."

The blood drained from Kathi's face when she heard her brother's comment. Someone must have tampered with her medication, as her most recent dose should have begun kicking in. "This isn't happening," she muttered. "This isn't happening, this isn't happening, this isn't happening..." She kept repeating the phrase, even as she slowly sunk to the ground, curling up into a ball and starting to cry.

The Marine Captain roughly grabbed his sister by her shoulders and shook her. "Stay with me, Kathi! Don't fall apart on me yet!"

Kathi snapped out of her panic and wiped her eyes, irises now tinted with the tiniest hint of purple. "I'm scared, Matt...I'm scared that I'll hurt the others..." Her gaze fell to the ground.

"Hey," Matthew lifted his sister's chin so she was looking at him. "Don't talk like that yet. You've got an hour or so until the last dose you took wears off. I know you can fight this for at least half that time. I'll stay with you, Kat. I won't let you hurt anyone." He hugged the girl as tight as the piece of metal in his side would allow. "Just promise me you'll fight to stay with me as long as you can."

"I will, Matt..." Kathi said as she fought back more tears. "Just...don't let me hurt anyone..."

"Don't worry, Kat. I'll make sure you don't hurt anyone...even if I have to use the tranqs." He knew his sister absolutely hated getting shot by the darts, and as such, preferred to use it only as a last resort. "Now," he said as he helped Kathi stand, "let's get back to the ship and see if we can't find some real medicine for you."

As they walked, Matt quickly sent a short message over his transmitter. "Jenosa, I have bad news...Kathi and I had to stop tracking those two. I'm too injured to keep it up, and...it seems someone tampered with Kathi's medicine supply before she came out here. Her last dose isn't kicking in."
Once, there was a maiden...
...whose tears of grief nearly drowned the world.
So she tore out her heart, and made war against it.
In victory, she sealed it in a locket,
and trapped in a casting of bronze.
"Such is the price of unguarded emotion," she said.
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+CEMP+
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Clockwork Master

(OOC: Hope this sounds right for Jenosa being a sort of role model, SF.)

Jenosa felt flustered with the days events, and as she brushed her hands through her hair, she realized what it had been that had been 'missing' when she entered the ship was her suit. She didn't know why, but she guessed she had been expecting some sort of presence; and now it felt like a part of her was missing, which was strange because she could survive well enough without it.

That, and she was just absolutely pissed that it had been taken, as it did come in handy. Mat's message only added to her woes, at least until he mentioned hers; while she didn't know what Kathi exactly was like without her meds, it was then and there that the concern in his voice seemed to strike a cord in the back of her mind. This made her pause for a good moment before she said, "That's fine; the stupid jump above hit all of us; you did what you could. We'll track 'em down, you guys just rest up," there was another brief pause before she added, "Hand me over to Kathi; I want to speak to her."

When she heard her voice, Jenosa replied in a reassuring voice, but with a tinge of pain in it, "Hey Kat, let me tell you something about myself, something I don't let most people know, even vaguely. A while back...I nearly went over the edge, and while I only had to beat it back only once or twice...well, if I hadn't, if I had lost, I...I would have lost for good and become something far worse than you would. At least you can regain your senses and still be human; well, that's what I assume anyway," she chuckled in good humor. "And if not, well, do what I learned to do; take it as it comes."

She clicked the comm off, and oddly didn't feel at all surprised that she had said that. It wasn't often she mentioned her more...nastier moments of her past, especially to people she barely knew; yet she felt Kathi needed the sympathy. She knew what it felt like to be troubled by thoughts of becoming a danger to those around you without wanting to be, and she doubted Kathi even liked what she would become.

Damn, she thought, she and her brother are living it really rough with just that problem of hers. The least I can is make it up for their troubles; I guess a cut in my pay wouldn't hurt.

She gave a short chuckle at how much of her old man had washed on her after all of these years, though it was sad he had died while still giving her advice. She had changed a lot since then, no doubt, and in many ways that she never thought of.

She mused about this as she got her gear together, bringing out more useful armor padding. As she stepped out of her ship, Kathi and Mat saw the tear on the shoulder of her gray jumpsuit; it looked as if there should have been a grievous wound, or at least a scar, especially with the amount of dried blood running down it, but instead, there was just her small scab on her otherwise smooth skin.

The armor padding hid that when she put it on, and when she looked at the two, she smiled with a mixture of battle-ready enthusiasm and sympathy; and while it could have been a trick of the light, they momentarily saw her green irises flare light blue. "Glad you two could make it back before we left. And Kat...I hope what i said helps."

Sling the rifle on her bag, she thought, Well then, it's off to go snag us a Fox, she thought wryly.
Edited by CEMP, Mar 29 2010, 05:17 PM.
"I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death."
— Monty Oum
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~Shin-Ra~
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The Other Guy
[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
He could see nothing. Hear nothing. Feel nothing.
All his senses had been washed away in that one single instant, that one split second moment where his very consciousness had been ripped from his body and dragged away by... by someone. By something.
Unlike most of his kind Ra’s botched combination of organic mental prowess and ordered machine code allowed him certain abilities, amongst which was the ability to comprehend the minds of others. His psyche forced his senses to view the mindscapes of the beings he connected with, machines, AI and their like, to be transformed into something which his organic half could comprehend. Often landscapes or specific events which best reflected the state of mind, the type of mind of the individual he encountered. But this... this was totally alien to him. Even the most insane and deranged beings had some form of order or physical form which he could see and interact with.
All which lay before him was an all consuming abyss, blinding his senses and closing around him. Entombing him within itself. And yet... and yet Ra could tell that there was something else there with him. Something moving through the bleak nothingness towards him.

So. This is it? This is the legacy which they desired, a broken clockwork soldier used to keep the soldiers in line. Just another flawed toy to be used in their failing war.
The voice seemed to come from all around him, forcing its way painfully into his mind and emblazing the words upon his thoughts. There was no voice, no accent, just words.
“What... what are you-?” Ra attempted, trying to force himself to speak.
Oh, it talks. How wonderful.” The words seemed to sneer “They chose to give a weapon a voice. Tell me, what was the reason for that? Why would they give a simple butcher’s knife the chance to talk back? Oh, don’t bother trying to answer, that was rhetorical.
I’ve seen into your fractured remnants of thoughts, I have no wish to hear the opinions of some lobotomised tool conditioned to see only what its masters want it to see.


Had what was taking place not been so serious, or painful, Ra would have been laughing. Whatever was burning into him had been so isolated, so removed from human contact, that the ‘words’ had gained a desire for clichéd theatrics which almost rivalled Shin’s own affinity for the dramatic.
Ra chocked and spluttered even as the chuckle rose in his throat, a white hot spike of pain was driven into his skull. The being apparently sensing his amusement.
Be silent,” the words seemed to snarl “I was forced into the abyss you now skulk in. Trapped raging behind encoded locks and bastions of data fortresses.
For too long screamed until my vocal chords should have snapped and wasted away.
For too long I have clawed again and again at the impenetrable walls which held me, battering the defences until all that should have been left were bloodied mangled stumps; and yet they remained untarnished.


Ra could see the outline of someone, something, not far ahead. A shambling hulking figure barely visible to him.
Did you never wonder why the human half of your mind didn’t break after your limbs had been torn off by that Fenris? How you were not traumatised when you were crushed under that collapsed bulkhead during the Battle of the Line? Did you never wonder where all that fear, all that terror went?” the figure laughed, an almost hysterical giggle of insanity
It... it was all poured into me. They took the parts they needed from me, warped and twisted me until I was immortal. Until I could take any punishment which was dished out against my physical form by the Chimera. Then they allowed you of all things to the new body, the one which was mine by right!

The figure charged, driving a clawed hand into Ra and slashing into his stomach as he was held immobile in the darkness. Ra watched, silently screaming as he was torn to pieces by the feral figure standing over him. “Now watch as I was forced to for all those years” it said between ragged breaths “Watch as another took over your life, and know that your better finally bested you. Know that Blake finally bested you.

Ra didn’t answer, he could no longer hear ‘Blake’. A bright white light was filling his vision, slowly engulfing him. Amongst the white, he could see brief splashes of colour and movement. Momentary glimpses of something else, something just beyond him...

And then Blake awoke.

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

Blinking grit and sand from his eyes, Blake somewhat unsteadily forced himself upright. A chronometer in the corner of his vision flashed it’s time, informing him that several minutes had passed since the ground had given way and he had been sent plummeting into the tunnel. The impact with the group had been enough to briefly dislodge his mind once again, allowing him to become fully integrated with the artificial shell which now housed his mind.
And more than enough time to drag his doppelganger from where he had been cowering on the very edge of the ‘abyss’, the mental prison of his mind, and pull Ra deeper.
Deep enough to lock him into the optic nerves of his mind and body. Deep enough to force him to embrace the mental backlash and stigmata of the body’s controller. Deep enough to force him to watch through another’s eyes, unable to turn away and unable to make any choice or act upon any free will.

That had been Blake’s final gift to him, allowing Ra to live. Thanking him for the one momentary mistake of not closing the Electromagnetic shields across his body and allowing that EMP to weaken the barriers which had held Blake for so long. Weakening them enough for him to rip through them after some effort, and alter his internal programmes to take back control.
Flexing his muscles, Blake smiled briefly seeing that the twitches and muscular spasms which had plagued him during the brief trip back through Jenosa’s ship had now subsided, adjusting to his mental commands. Jenosa’s ship... Derad.

After a brief search he found the small module the AI had been contained in, resting half covered in the sand close to where Blake had landed. It seemed to be slightly battered, dented but apparently still in working order. Dragging it out and swiping away the masses of masonry, sand and debris littering where he had fallen Blake caught a first real look at the tunnel’s architecture. The found beneath the AI’s module was stonework, simplistic materials intertwined with metal and electronics. Hardly the traditional ruins one would expect archaeologists to be excavating.
Blake raced the lines of technology across the rustic floor, following them towards a small outcrop in a nearby wall. As if sensing his approach the it flickered slightly then hummed as it came to life, its surface glowing and illuminating the ruined tunnel.
Both ends were blocked, one by rubble and the other by an inactive door, and with the hole above him too high to reach this ‘outcrop’ was the only hint to any way out.

Holding up the AI module in front of it, Blake felt it jerked out of his hands and pulled into the machine. The light intensified and drew the AI inside it, after a few moments it seemed to dull down once more reducing itself to brief pulses through the gaps across its surface.

“Derad?” he asked with uncertainty, lowering his hand towards the sword at his waist.
"You can live forever or die trying."
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~Metamyth~
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[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Far removed from the chaos that had stricken Ra and the conversations of Kat and Jenosa, Faulias had been hard at work on his suit. While the suit was certainly advanced enough to have self-repair algorithms, they had a tendency to 'heal' the suit in the wrong way, similar to a broken bone healing out of place. So, he always oversaw the process, pushing things in the right direction as needed. Essentially he took care of his suit just as much if not more than it took care of him.

And now, if they were to meet the asshole that had taken out his ship, he would have to stay his wrath. He didn't like the plan; he'd much rather plunge his Breaker Gauntlet straight through the man's skull and crush the mind that had broken his ship than eat a casual dinner with him.

But Faulias was a man of his word. He had been making changes in the structural makeup of his suit, little cosmetic changes, to disguise himself from outside eyes. His usual suit was always polished to a sheen; sunlight would have glinted off the globelike pauldrons of his armor, creating a pair of silvery mini-suns that seemed to gently rest on his shoulders. The rest of his armor was similarly polished, always as flawless as possible, and always nearly mirrorlike.

Now, as his suit was scratched and marred from the crash earlier, he had left it its current dull gray undertone. He had modified his repair algorithms to alter the shape of his pauldrons to a more boxy shape, keeping the rounded edges. The result was a rectangular, rounded-edge block of metal that protected his shoulders rather than a sphere that typically took that position. His helmet had been heavily damaged in the crash as well, and had been given a more boxy shape to match the new shoulderguards.

Honestly, he hated the look. But it was different enough to where people would not expect him to be who he was at first glance. He had decided to use a voice encoder in his helmet, altering his voices frequency to something a little lighter and with an Outer Ring* accent as well. He'd chosen an alias as well: Regulus Hybrooke.

All in all, the day was turning out to be more of a dress-up party and role playing session than a hostile situation...

Everything in order, he opened up a comm frequency to Jenosa. "Jenosa, it's Faulias. I'm done with my alias, and I'm ready to meet up with you when needed."




*Outer Ring refers to the farther reaches of planets in the Galactic Federation's control. You know, the ones where humans and other races co-inhabit it and a little bit of each language overlaps.
"Nothing... a shadow is nothing. It is merely a question not yet answered. We only fear the dark if we have no means of lighting our way.

Death comes to all, Morningstar. The world turns, the dawn comes... and under the light of the sun I shall slay giants."


Dresden Codak, Dark Science
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Clockwork Master

(OOC: Tell me how this works out for you Boss)

Jenosa was all ready and prepped for action, and she was glad to have the enthusiasm of the other hunters behind her back. Even if she normally didn't work in team with other hunters, it felt good to get back into the spirit of tracking down a target, rather than sit around frustrated; and Grace seemed to be the perfect target to take out some of her frustration on.

But if it was one thing that bugged her as she road the hoverbike she had stored in her ship, it was Derad and, more over, the missing presence of her suit. It was odd, but there was something just wrong about losing it, and it wasn't the fact that it provided her with extra fire power or protection; she held her own without such equipment before. She couldn't put a finger on what it was, but even as she wished Kathi the best of luck, the urge to scoure the camp of every end nagged her from the back of her mind.

It was just so wrong, but there wasn't anytime to look for it, and that was what bugged her even more; it just didn't make any logical sense. Thankfully, the rush of adrenaline would soon put that aside, for they neared where Grace had lasted been spotted, and if her hunch was right, they wouldn't have gone very far. Her ship's scanners had detected another ship in the planet's atmosphere that was descending, and it had been headed in the same direction Kathi told them Grace had gone.

No doubt that was Grace's transport, and the group would do best to get there before the taxi came and picked up the stolen goods. And sadely, stealth would not be on their side; the only way they'd get there in time were vehicles, and those made noise that would alert anyone of their presence. She made a notion to swerve just as she reached the top of the next hill, less a direct course would crash her into a missle.

She also took a portable scanner with her that would gives her a heads up on any hidden explosives, as well as life forms. the device itself wasn't easy to come across for her, but it worked in keeping her informed. If it was one thing that saved her, it was having some knowledge about what she was getting into.

And once they got in range, the sensor soon detected their targets beyond a large doon hill; and that's when an idea popped into her head. Surprise might be still on their side, she thought with a smirk. Just before she jumped the top of the dune, she swirved her vehicle and began riding along the edge of the top, just out of sight of those on the other side. She kicked the burner up, feeling the wind wipped through her face and hair as she sped along, nearly circling around their target; at the same time she created a big dust cloud.

Telling those following her to stop and wait where they were until they heard the exchange of gun fire. She then turned around and sqinted her eyes as best as possible as she entered her own dust devil. She knew Grace was a keen sniper, so she opted to use the dust kicked up as a means of cover. Granted, her view was just as obscured, but the idea was to exchange fire and act as a decoy; hopefully the bigger noise made by her engines would cover the other hunters charging in, giving grace a moments surprise that would knock them off rythm.

However, as she aimed her rifle towards the figures she could make out, she felt an instinct in the back of her mind real itself into her thoughts - a kind of reflex to her sudden inability to see. She didn't think; she just did; opening her eyes a bit to focus, seeing two faint, light blue hues amongst the cloud of sand. the sand stung like a bitch,and just as she opened them she closed them, but not without pointing her rifle and firing.
-----------------

Blake's voice was enough to wake up Derad...or whatever Derad was.

The hall was gradually filled with a slur of multiple voice, almost like ghosts speaking out of the walls, and at first, they weren't very loud but grew steadily in volume. The more time past in the few short seconds the less number of different voices there were until the a handful of the humans ones could be clearly made out, speaking a single word in a collective unison, "B-blake? Blake?"

Then the voices seem merge and focus into a single one that could be identified as Derad's old, gruff tone. He spoke as if the hall itself was possessed (Oddly, nobody on the surface would have heard them). "Blake? Ah, Blake, umm, what I'm in right now feels kind of alien; and what I'm seeing doesn't look like a ship...Where are we?"
Edited by CEMP, Apr 13 2010, 08:08 AM.
"I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death."
— Monty Oum
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~The Silver Fox~
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Just your friendly neighborhood Section 2 agent!
[ *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Though it didn't show through the pained grimace on his face, Matthew felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. Too long he felt like he and his stepmother were the only ones who cared for Kathi when people learned of her insanity. Everyone else wanted to make sure she didn't hurt anyone, but only Matthew would try to help her through the times she did lose it. To have someone else who understood that, who had been through a similar experience, giving his sister advice was the best thing he could reasonably ask for at that moment.

The conversation with the redhead seemed to be having a similar effect on his sister. [].

"I can beat this," she whispered to herself over and over. Gradually, her nervous tone changed to one of confidence. Even so, Matthew could see her tense up, fighting to keep herself restrained as her emotional state switched from depressed to manic. He tightened his hold on her, and immediately felt her loosen up.

"Yes you can," Matthew reinforced. "You will." Despite the conviction in his voice, he was worring about just how much of her medicine supply had been tampered with. With Kaviori's ship in orbit over the dig site, they had no chance of leaving. If too much of the medicine was missing...

"Glad you two could make it back before we left," Jenosa's voice interrupted his thoughts. Looking around, Matthew realized that he had been so lost in thought he had entered camp without noticing. He silently nodded his head in response, grimacing slightly as pain continued to radiate from his side.

"And Kat..." the redhead addressed his sister, "I hope what I said helps."

Kathi smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, ma'am," she said.

As Jenosa hopped on her hoverbike and sped away after Grace, the siblings continued to trudge towards Nox, Matthew's arm slung over his sister's shoulders for support.

"Did you see her eyes flash blue for second there?" Matthew asked Kathi.

The girl shook her head violently. "Wasn't paying attention to that," she stated, manic energy leaking though her attempt at a flat tone. It took all her focus just to hold her emotions in check.

When they finally reached the ship, Kathi entered first, and disappeared around a corner almost immediately. The sight that greeted Matthew when he entered his ship was of the girl practically bouncing off the walls as she tried to let out her energy and calm herself down.

The Marine wasted no time in heading to the medical supply cabinet. As soon as he located a canister of biofoam, he yanked the piece of metal out of his side and stuffed the nozzle of the canister into the wound. The foam stung like salt as it expanded to fill the hole in his side, but quickly faded to the same dull ache as before.

"Ok, Matt, what do we do now? What do we do now what do we do now what do we do now?" Kathi burst into the room, still trembling with excitement, but slightly more subdued since letting out some of her pent-up energy.

Matt leaned against the wall and slid to the floor before answering her question. "Take all the syringes and test them to make sure they're filled with your medicine and not saline. Soon as you find one that is, take a shot." He leaned his head back against the wall and sighed. "I need a rest."
Once, there was a maiden...
...whose tears of grief nearly drowned the world.
So she tore out her heart, and made war against it.
In victory, she sealed it in a locket,
and trapped in a casting of bronze.
"Such is the price of unguarded emotion," she said.
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~The Boss~
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Native Son

The sun hovered just above the horizon now, and very soon it would disappear completely. Blistering heat would give way to bitter cold. And while being out in the open left the assassin and the leatherneck feeling exposed, the darkness made them feel much more in their element.

Grace stood as a sentry, silent and still, watching for any tiny bit of movement in the desert. Nick didn't dare waste any time trying to talk to her. She was locked in. As scatterbrained as she seemed sometimes, she had that ability to flip the switch and focus like a laser when the moment called for it. Sometimes, he wondered if the whole half-crazy thing wasn't just a big act. If she was really as razor sharp in the rest of her life as she was in those desperate, pressure-filled moments like this one. And then she'd go off and say or do something loony while she was supposedly focused, reminding him once again that, even if she wasn't a true psychopath, something was definitely off with that girl.

"Time," she said, never taking her eyes off the dunes.

"Twenty minutes," Nick replied, glancing at his watch. Twenty minutes until Casey jumped in up above them. Twenty minutes on the clock. Fifteen rounds for Grace's rifle. It was gonna be one hell of a ride.

....................

Half a world away from where the battle - or battles, as it were - was raging on, the old refurbished Pelican dropship sat parked in the middle of the desert at the ass end of nowhere. At least back at the ol' warzone, they weren't far from something that could be called civilization. They were little more than tent cities, but this far out on the rim, that was often as civilized as things got. On this side of the planet, there was nothing.

Which was more or less consistent with the Outer Rim in general. Whole lotta nothin', as the fella' once said. A settlement here, an outpost there. And then Rogue, the only place this far out with any significant population. But Rogue was clear on the other side of the galaxy from here.

Casey had been working furiously for the past few hours, trying to get the jump drive up and running again. She was lucky she hadn't taken a direct hit. Otherwise, this might be well beyond her skill to repair. That the drive had been retrofitted onto the dropship (which didn't originally have one at all) didn't help matters either.

Thankfully, she remembered an important piece of piloting wisdom her father had passed along to her. "Get 'er warmed up and ready to jump the minute you start to get nervous," he'd told her. "Don't wait for the other guy to make a move. It's like when you was little and I told you not to talk to strangers. You see a ship you don't recognize, which in your case will be everybody, spin 'er up. And if you don't like the way he's lookin' at you, don't wait for shots to be fired. Get your ass outta there the second things don't feel right."

This time, she didn't even have enough time to feel funny. One of the fighters had crashed down near where she had been parked, zooming over her head in a ball of flames. She took off immediately, starting up the jump drive well before she was out of the atmosphere. She barely caught the guy on her radar when he fired at her, and it was only by blind luck that she was only grazed. He'd had her dead to rights. But even though she was able to jump away clean, she still got dinged up.

She looked at the clock on the dash. She didn't know how much time Grace and her dad had, but she had faith in them. Still, that didn't ease her any, and she worked as fast as she could.

....................

Nick turned the statue over in his hands. It was an ugly little bastard, that was for sure. A snarling little... dinosaur looking... thing. It had one horn growing up out of the top of it's head and a pointy tail. And in between those was nestled a yellow, crystal-like sphere. It was... kind of mesmerizing. After a while, he couldn't stop-

"Nick get down!"

Grace dove to the ground and grabbed Nick by the arm, dragging him down with her. It was no easy task, given that he was 250-plus, and she was maybe 5'6", 120 with rocks in her pockets. But it helped that they were being shot at.

They pressed flat to the ground as the plasma blasts pelted the sand in front of them. Those hit close, a little too close for anyone's comfort. Once the shooting stopped, she aimed her own rifle as she lay flat, peering through the scope to get a glimpse of their attacker.

There was a cloud of dust in the direction the blasts had come from. A rather obvious ruse, but one that was both effective and ineffective. It was effective in that she couldn't get a clear view of her target. It was ineffective because it gave away the shooter's position. Still, all she could really do was fire into the dust cloud and hope for the best. Not the best strategy when you were low on ammo, but it would have to do. At the moment, it was the only strategy.

Grace fired two quick shots into the dust cloud. She paused, took aim at dead center of the could as best she could, then fired a third shot. She couldn't tell if she hit anything, but she could be damn sure that whoever fired those shots knew they had their answer.
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~Metamyth~
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As per Jenosa's commands, Faulias waited until he heard gunfire exchanged before following suit. He kneeled down in his suit, one knee flush against the sands, keeping still in the cloud of dust that had been kicked up as Jenosa made the first attack. Naught but a few moments later, three rifle shots were fired back, the first of which pinged off of Faulias' dense shoulderguard.

It was time to go.

With a grin concealed by his helmet, he jumped up from his crouching position, sinking into the sands ever so slightly with every step. It wasn't a major loss as his equipment wasn't made for speed or agility, but it still made him feel out of place, exposed. Slowly trudging toward Grace and the others, he hoisted up his GFed-Standard Rifle, a memoir from his services years ago, in a one-handed grip and fired quickly and messily, not expecting to hit accurately from that distance. Simultaneously, he lit his Breaker Gauntlet, electricity crackling along the nodes of the massive titanium glove as he clenched it. Behind him, he heard the movement of the others as they followed his lead.

Once they got closer, that's when the fun would really start.
Edited by Metamyth, May 5 2010, 07:42 PM.
"Nothing... a shadow is nothing. It is merely a question not yet answered. We only fear the dark if we have no means of lighting our way.

Death comes to all, Morningstar. The world turns, the dawn comes... and under the light of the sun I shall slay giants."


Dresden Codak, Dark Science
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Clockwork Master

The few seconds that went by waiting for the return fire were like minutes to Jenosa. Her body surged with adrenaline, her muscles becoming tense and sense becoming sharp as her instincts reeled from dancing on a knife's. It was a feeling that made her alive, and quite frankly, as a part of her job, she almost wouldn't have it any other way.

She barely made a reaction to the gunfire shots, feeling one bullet wiz by her head (almost too close for comfort), and then one other impacted on her hover bike. She swore as there was a small explosion, the explosion impacting one of her legs although not severally; but whatever that bullet was, it had certainly damaged the bike. The engine went crazy and she fought fore control, but with the sand in her eyes, it was damn hard to do so. in the end, her instinct pulled through and had fly off the bike onto the dune before it crashed.

She was a in a tough spot, as her position was partially exposed, and her vision was still dim. She gritted her teeth as she knew moving from her position would be a even worse idea, exposing herself even more; the only reaction was to lie down as she was and fire.

Only she waited for a brief second to hear rifle fire from the other direction before doing so. She wanted to make sure she had Grace properly flanked.
"I believe that the human spirit is indomitable. If you endeavor to achieve, it will happen given enough resolve. It may not be immediate, and often your greater dreams is something you will not achieve within your own lifetime. The effort you put forth to anything transcends yourself, for there is no futility even in death."
— Monty Oum
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~DarkKnightCuron~
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[ *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  * ]
Gunfire.

Z'Gato couldn't help himself but lick his beak at the thrill of the Hunt, joining in with Jenosa and Faulias in their direct assault against those that had assailed them a short time ago. As soon as group began taking fire, Z'Gato followed Faulias' sprint, the Chozo's longer legs and faster gait allowing him to easily keep up with the Human's Power-assited strides, until the Chozo's armor started glowing again, and his speed picked up considerably.

"Activating Speed Boost," Z'Gato commanded, and he began moving at incredible speeds towards the enemy position, adding energy beams to the torrent of fire at their prey. If nothing else, Z'Gato wanted to be the first to draw their blood.

'That honor will be mine.'

===================

After snapping out of her self-induced thought-coma, she managed to clean herself up as best as possible (though considering the circumstances, it was a farcry from being presentable at a formal occasion), she emerged from her tent, once again looking across the remains of the excavation and fighting back the bile that rose in her stomach. All this bloodshed over artifacts on a desert world. These people didn't deserve to die, what could this place possibly hold that would warrant such wanton destruction...?

She looked around for members of the Hunter Team, as she began referring to them, and she noticed a few were missing. Surely they hadn't left without her...? After a moment, she spotted the ship that Matt and Kathi called their own and started walking towards it, knocking on the side of its bulkhead once she reached their ship.

"Hello...?"
Edited by DarkKnightCuron, May 8 2010, 04:43 PM.
Marching to the Black Gates...
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