Post by Vio on Jul 9, 2016 15:25:54 GMT -5
Beep… Beep… Beep…
The slow and steady rhythm of a machine chirped softly within the confines of G-6’s medical ward, monitoring the vitals of the girl who lay still and quiet amongst the clean white covers of a hospital bed. The weak heaving of her chest as she took in slow, steady breaths was ominous at best, watched over by a man in medical scrubs as he scribbled hastily upon the papers of a clipboard. Warrant Officer Mari Anette of the CHIMERA Corps was locked in the slumber of a near comatose state, wounded by the events of an encounter that none of her associates could have predicted.
“Lord knows how you survived, Mari,” muttered the doctor as he dropped the clipboard into the pocket at the foot of the bed. No response. The teenage Marine with hair the colour of cherry blossom was, for all intents and purposes, dead to the world. Sat upon the chair beside her, the limp wooden form of a puppet rested, as still and as lifeless as the young woman whose fingers could guide its motions like no man could. By her side as always, the mysterious marionette known as Mahogani seemed like nothing more than a statue – a stark contrast to the rumours that still echoed throughout the fortress’ halls.
“I guess stranger things have happened, eh?” With that, he smiled and walked away.-~-
Four Days Ago…
-~-1900 Hours
Wermengard’s Office
G-6 Naval Fortress
Lanza Island Chain
“So, you all know why I’ve called you here,” said Vice Admiral Ronald Wermengard. A hulking example of a man, his usually cheery visage looked uncharacteristically greyed and gaunt at this hour of the eve. His eyes were sore and weary, his knuckles cracking softly as he massaged his fingers between one another, limbering them up once more for the inevitable torrent of paperwork that would flow across his desk in the hours to come. There was no rest for the wicked, so the saying goes, and to match it, Justice would never sleep. Clearing his throat somewhat, he spoke again, the deep boom of his voice having long since receded into a calmer and more serious set of intonation: “I’ll spare you the boring introductions. What happened?”
The short answer: A training mission gone awry.
“F*€%, where do we start?” quizzed Seaman Seeley Rosmarus, brushing his bristly moustache with forefinger and thumb as he stared absently at the desk separating himself from his superior. He was not the only one there. An arrangement of no less than five chairs each held a member of the special operations ‘Fire Team’ under the charge of a certain Warrant Officer. Seeley himself sat on the far left; Nikila Booth perched between him and their Master Chief Petty Officer, Brennan Lesovik. To the right, Sweets McGeek sat twiddling his thumbs, while Kojak Hodgins crossed both arms and legs in a subdued attempt to keep himself in check. They were tired, shocked, and generally irritable. It did not take a psychologist to see it on their faces. Even Lesovik and Hodgins were noticeably detached from their usual demeanours.
“It’s… It’s all a jumble,” Nikila huffed.
“Hrmm! Let’s just cut the c^@#,” Kojak grunted gruffly. “We got a bunch of party crashers who f*€%ed us over! That’s all there is to it!”“Easy, Kojak.” Lesovik.
“Easy? Dammit, Leshy! There’s nothing easy about this! Because of us, the kid’s lying on the Reaper’s bloody doorstep!” The cross-legged man unfurled himself, wrought with turbulent rage as he glared at the MCPO. His fury crackled about him like a flame, but soon ebbed as he grimaced and turned to face the filing cabinets, coiling himself up again. An emotional man was Seaman Hodgins, but also a man reluctant to share his feelings. This side of him was rarely exposed to others, least of all his superior officers, but his temper had gotten the better of him before. He was not going to let it do so again.
He owed Mari that much.
“Don’t blame yourselves.” Wermengard grunted. “None of you are at fault, here. Truth be told, if you want to pin the blame on anyone here, it should be upon me. I’m the one who permitted you to undergo training schedules in that region – if you weren’t there, none of this would have happened. But there’s no benefit to be had from pointing fingers at each other, is there? Decisions were made, mistakes too, and in the end we’ll have to live with them. But we don’t have to live poorly. We can make the best out of a bad situation, persevere and learn from our mistakes, and we can d@mn well bring Hell to the ones that did this! But before we can do that, I need to know from each of you what happened. I’ve already debriefed Captain Toctic and others, but you five were on the forefront of this. I’m filled in up until the point you clashed. So, if you would…?”“Mm. Mind if I go first?” Sweets spoke up.“Sure.”
“We arrived on the shore about ten minutes after we heard the alarm call. Mari – I mean, Warrant Officer Anette – was tailing us with Rosmarus and Booth, so it was myself, Hodgins and MCPO Lesovik who got there first. By that point, the skirmishing had already broken out into an all-out battle, and the rest of the crew were already attempting to load into the Avernus in preparation for an escape. Under orders of Captain Toctic, we were to disengage and regroup and prepare the ship for departure…”-~-
One Week Ago…
-~-1225 Hours
Forest Path
Coast
Red Line
“All troops hold your ground! Do not let a single one of them breach the Avernus!” yelled Alyss Shuman, head of logistics, taking charge of the retreat operations. Captain Flynn Toctic was absent, still, as too were the accompaniment of Cazadors whom he was training with in the dense forestry of the landscape. The shore itself was alight with the glimmer of steel, the air filled with the bittersweet tangs of sea salt and black powder as men and women of both sides screamed out battle cries and spewed forth iron and fire. The cacophony of sights, sounds and smells reached deep into the trees, stinging the senses of Mari Anette as she marched haphazardly through the undergrowth.
Flanking her, the familiar forms of Seaman Apprentice Seeley Rosmarus and Seawoman First Class Nikila Booth pushed through the branches and shrubbery, following in the wake of the rest of the fire team. In the noon sun that broke through the emerald canopy, the soft shimmer of silver showed them the bonds between their leadership and her active associate. With sharp and graceful swings, the polished timber of a wooden katana batted aside bracken and greenery, helping to clear a path as the troupe scrambled at the double towards the site of the battle.
Something’s not right about this, Miss Anette thought to herself. A few yards ahead of her, Mahogani pushed aside the fleshy fronts of a succulent growth. Just another dozen or so yards, and the group would reach the rocky slope that led back to the shoreline, thus allowing them to join the fray. But despite the good time they were making, the timorous teenager could not help but feel something on the wind that unsettled her. More precisely, something seemed to unsettle the ornate idol that walked before her, the entity’s nervous quiver carried across strings of taught steel and felt by the fair femme’s fingertips.“You feeling alright, ma’am?”
Mari flinched slightly, snapped free of what had turned out to be a slight trance by the words of Miss Booth. Nikila, standing just a few inches taller than her, looked at the girl with deep brown eyes that shimmered like glass in the sunlight. Rosé hues returned the look, but soon shifted back to the front in order to keep up with her carven comrade; concentration was key when commanding such creations as these, for to tangle the strings could end in disaster.
“Y- Yes,” she lied.
Truth be told, she was growing increasingly wary. Something – though she was unsure of what – was putting a sense of uneasiness into her mind and body. Mahogani could feel it, perhaps more so than she could, and there was not an ounce of doubt in her mind that Teak – the shield-bearing doll that rested upon her backpack – could feel it too. Many a time past had she felt unsettled by her surroundings; from the dim and dusty halls of an abandoned laboratory, to the shady streets of the Pirate’s Market, such places had proven to be worthy of caution. But that was a stark contrast to this. A lush, coastal paradise that seemed so tranquil and rich had suddenly turned into a chaotic battlefield. However, it was not the pangs of warfare that bothered her. It was something else.
“Watch your step! It gets pretty steep here!” Seeley.
Rosmarus, short and somewhat portly, turned to them. The bristles of his moustache flickered in the wind. In one movement, the seaman hopped down, vanishing almost entirely from view just a yard ahead of where Mahogani stood, causing the puppeteer herself to pull back on the strings. The Samurai halted, fiery amber eyes looking towards the site of the battle as it raged and writhed like some sort of beast. There were no familiar blurs of movement – no distinct whirring hiss of chainsaws carving through armour to indicate the presence of the silver-haired cyborg. Out there, somewhere, Flynn likely did battle with another foul enemy secluded within the forestry.
What horrors awaited them this time…?-~-
“Officer Lesovik and Seaman Hodgins joined the frontlines at that point, while I helped prepare the Avernus for emergency departure. I’m no CQC specialist, so I couldn’t contribute to that fight – helped where I could though,” Seaman McGeek explained. He bit lightly at his fingernail, words no longer finding themselves an exit as easily as they had done before. There was not much more he could say, given that the others were more heavily involved than he.
“Understandable.” Wermengard. “Don’t let it worry you, Sweets. You did your job.”“Mm. We couldn’t have got out of there without you,” Brennan confirmed.
“Seaman Hodgins, would you like to continue from where Sweets left off?” asked the Vice Admiral, jotting something down upon a notepad as he did so. Beside the desk, the Chocolate Labrador that had since become something of a mascot for CHIMERA and Project Cazador yawned, resting its head upon its forepaws as it eyed Hodgins curiously. Kojak exhaled throatily, turning to face his superior whilst maintaining his bundled up stance. Again, he groaned slightly, then closed his eyes and nodded.
“Right,” he answered. “Like ‘Geek said, Leshy and I were on the front lines ASAP. The enemy forces pretty much came out of nowhere – matched us for numbers and arms; give or take. We split to help hold the line after a couple o’ men got injured. You know me, pretty much doubled up with sabre and flintlock. Their whole frontline was a ragtag bunch o’ b@$#@/>’s, swinging swords around. It wasn’t until I got to fight one of ‘em head on that I realised something was off…”-~-1230 Hours
CHIMERA Frontlines
Coast
Red Line
By the time Mari Anette and company had reached the shores, the battle between CHIMERA and a myriad of unknown forces was in full swing. The rattle of clashing steel and the thunderous crackles and roars of flintlocks enveloped the coastline, turning a tranquil beach into a fervent frenzy of a battlefield. Even so, this was not the time to hesitate, and the cherry blossom-haired girl quickly marched her way to join the forefront of the conflict and lend whatever aid she could to the men and women with whom she worked. This whole ordeal reminded her of Pirate’s Market – a scare tactic attack upon one of the largest piratical fortifications in the South Blue had won the division merit, but it had come with troubles of its own.“Ma’am! They’re pushing us in!”
“Hold on for a little longer – we need to buy more time!” Shuman replied, waving a line of troops and munitions forward as they stowed themselves within the steel hull of the Avernus. Retreat – or a ‘tactical withdrawal’, as Flint Anderson liked to put it – was paramount. The Warrant Officer soon saw why.“Line breach!”
A soldier yelled. The teenager’s eyes shifted to the frontlines, just in time to witness half a dozen of the Navy’s troops being ploughed through by a matching force. Around four men had managed to push their way through CHIMERA’s defensive wall of troops and barricades, crashing through the perimeter and flailing their weapons with rabid ferocity. Their off-coloured skin flushed red with the heat of battle-lust; such individuals did not suit the term ‘soldier’, but rather seemed to embody a primal ferocity. The puppeteer was right to feel panicked.
There was no time to hesitate.
Crescendo! Acting swiftly, the Marine maiden twisted and flicked the pine control bars as one of the four intruders rushed towards Ensign Shuman. In diligent response, Mahogani – sword already unsheathed from their trek through the undergrowth – kicked herself towards the skies, timber blade cleaving upwards as she did so. Such blows were not meant for cutting flesh and bone, but that did not deny the raw power of a well-timed and precisely delivered puppetry assault. Her target felt it. The full force of such a blow was enough to stop the feral fighter in his tracks, striking clean against his Adam’s apple and causing him to reel backwards in a fit of coarse coughs and salivating splutters.
Bang! Pew! Pow! The crack of supporting fire filled her ears as a pelting of hot lead downed another of the careless crusaders. But Mari’s eyes were still firmly fixed upon the fellow whom had just felt her company’s sword. Attacks like that were good at temporarily incapacitating individuals, but unless she could land a concussive blow to the skull, she had very little chance of actually knocking a man out completely. The only doll of hers with that sort of power was Sequoia, but alas he had not joined them. Still, Mahogani’s fierce finesse would more than suffice.
“Thanks,” Alyss huffed. Mahogani nodded. “There’s something not right about these guys, Mari. Watch yourself.”“Where’s Flyn- err- Captain Toctic…?”
“Still out there, for all I know. Knowing him, he’s probably dealing with one of this goon squad’s commanders,” she replied hastily. “We need to get out of here, ASAP, but they’re giving us a hard time. Don’t worry about the Captain – he’s no pushover, but you know that, don’t you?”
“Toctic, Toctic, Toctic,” another voice recited. Rosé eyes kept their focus upon their decided opponent, whose surprisingly lean body now towered once more, and revealed just exactly what it was that Shuman had meant. The heated radiance of the man’s exposed flesh was one thing, but his face told all the more about what fuelled him. Pupils were narrow, almost entirely swallowed by pale irises and their bloodshot yellowed sclera, and his nostrils flared constantly from thick and heavy breaths. Spittle lingered about the corners of his mouth. He looked nothing like a soldier, very little even like a pirate, donning baggy cotton trousers and a loose sleeveless jacket. Leather belts stowed knives and his sabre’s scabbard, but his bare chest showed signs of stitching – relatively recent. He spoke again: “Have I got news for you, lovey! Toctic’s runnin’ out o’ time! Hah!”
He leaped forwards, outstretched arms attempting to wrap themselves around Mahogani, but Miss Anette was one step ahead of such predictable movements. With a whisper, she tugged forcefully upon the silvery bindings that connected them, causing the white-faced warrior to parry one of the attacker’s grasping hands with a keen blow from her blade. And then – immediately afterwards – the idol’s feet left the sand, allowing steely tension to tear her back towards her wielder and out of harm’s way.Saltando!
“Grr! You little rat – ARGH!” The horrid sound of steel piercing flesh came to be heard, the monstrosity of a man stopping in his tracks as a familiarly diminutive form entered the fray. His mass of a beard alight like fire in the sun’s scorching heat; Flint Anderson of CHIMERA Corps had charged haphazardly into the battle and driven the keen steel of an axe into the opposition’s shoulder. How on Earth such a miniscule man had managed such a blow was beyond her, especially given that Mari effectively towered over the man who stood barely an inch above the majority of her marionettes. Big things, small packages – her grandfather’s words echoed softly in the back of her mind.
“The f*€%’s wrong wi’ these guys?” Flint quizzed, turning to Shuman and Anette.“Flint!”
“What? Kid’s sixteen – bet she’s heard worse,” shrugged the dwarfish gent.“Behind you!”“Eh? Oh, mother of f-”
“That stung a bit, it did!” Once more on his feet, the feral fighter of the enemy forces brought down the point of his sabre towards Anderson, but the stout one was quick on his own feet as well. With startling agility, the bearded brawler sidestepped the assault, reached up and grabbed his axe’s haft, then tore it free of the enemy’s bloodied shoulder. Understandably, the already pale-faced Miss Anette turned several shades of green at the sight of such an atrocious wound, but somehow managed to steel herself against it. As much as she wanted to look away, she could not help but stare on in wonderment as the violent and vertically challenged Flint delivered a few more blows to the bestial combatant. She covered Mahogani’s eyes while doing so…-~-
“Those b@$+@^£’s were drugged up on something. I’ve seen men fight tooth and nail – I know sometimes you’ve got no choice but to let your emotions take control. But,” Kojak paused. “I don’t know any sane man who can fight like that. That wasn’t natural. And if it was, I’m sure as hell not calling it ‘Human’.”
“You escaped injury?” Wermengard asked.
“No. Nothing major, but I got more than a couple of fresh scars to remind me of what happened,” the Seaman replied, pulling his collar to reveal minor stitches on his shoulder. He pointed to his calf, too, from which one of the enemy had managed to take a small chunk in the midst of the fight. He seemed less fazed about his own injuries, however, and more concerned about what else had transpired during the chaos. His eyes seemed to gleam for a moment, as if he was about to cry, but he huffed and held it back. “We all know who took the biggest hit.”
Silence.
“Let’s just be thankful that you all made it out,” the Vice Admiral continued. Kojak held back an obvious scowl, before folding himself up again and nodding vehemently. As hard a man as he always appeared to be, there was no doubt that he was shaken by what had transpired. He’d said it himself, and his background confirmed it; Hodgins was a man far too prone to bottling himself up until he could not hold it in any longer. His emotions could erupt when something pushed him over the edge, and it was frightening to think of what he was capable of. The way he’d said the word ‘Human’ was an apt reminder of how much the man knew of his own tendencies, and only further served to solidify what he had meant about the enemy’s behaviour.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to retrieve samples during the incident, correct?” Wermengard asked. The others nodded. “That makes it difficult to assess exactly what was happening, and even more so if we wish to try and mount a counteroffensive. Simply put, the only knowledge we have of these ‘battle drugs’ is what you – those who were on the frontline – can tell us. To think there’d be a group who works on such unethical sciences in this day and age.”“Sir…”“Miss Booth?”
“It wasn’t just the drugs that were the problem,” Nikila explained, brushing her brow with the back of her hand. Her dark eyes seemed to be lost in the void of nightmarish reminiscence, but the look on her face was otherwise neutral. The moustachioed man scratched his jaw, well aware of what she meant, but harbouring some degree of intrigue. Without words, he gestured for her to speak, and so she did: “When I joined the frontlines, CHIMERA had already managed to cut the flow down to something more reasonable, though we were still being pushed back. Seaman Hodgins was up in the front with me when the first wave dropped, but that’s when things got… scary. The Warrant Officer joined us at that point, after the breach had been repelled…”-~-1240 Hours
CHIMERA Frontlines
Coast
Red Line
“D@mn! Close call,” Kojak grunted. “Thanks.”“Y- You’re welcome…!”
“The f*€% is this thing!?” questioned an enemy trooper. Another man, dressed in similarly tattered garb to the lean one, had managed to down Seaman Hodgins with a swing of a sword reminiscent of a meat cleaver. However, the path of the brute’s finishing blow had been interrupted by something distinctly more durable than it appeared. Tethered by chords that glistened softly in the sunlight, the iron grey marionette known as Teak stood valiantly against the warrior’s test of strength. Even the sharpened steel blade had found itself halted by the block of smooth timber that was the armoured puppet’s great shield. “Huh? Whatever! I’ll just split it in two!”Hold your ground, Teak…!Thwack!
“The heck? Why. Won’t. You. Cut!?” Again and again did the ogre of a man’s blade strike against the silvery sheen of Miss Anette’s carven comrade, but to no avail. The subtlest of smiles crept onto the girl’s lips as she watched – as she felt the tremble of strings dulled by the sheer defensive power of her latest ally. It had taken her so long to shape him into being, but the dark-eyed doll was proving his ability here and now against an adversary that was overwhelming the vast majority of average soldiers.
Now! Crescendo! Flicking the control bars that bound her to her wooden brother, Mari’s gesture sent Teak’s shield forwards and skywards to meet the mightier man’s last strike. The blade dulled by the silicate of the lumber, the clashing forces caused the weapon to bound free of its wielders grip, sending the sabre spinning through the air and crashing into the sand several yards away.
“Good work, Teak, now- Uh…?” Something was off. Just like before, the cherry blossom-haired girl could feel something unusual about the whole situation. Something distant, but familiar, seemed to plague her senses, drowning them out for the briefest of moments – more than enough for the opposition to take advantage of her lapse in concentration. Indeed, the next thing she knew, Teak’s hardwood body collided with her own and knocked her to the sand.“Oof!”
Bang! Bang! Bang! The sound of gunfire nearby made her ears ring, but alas the girl’s foe had at least fallen as not one, but half-a-dozen lead shots had been fired into his chest from various angles.
“You alright, ma’am?” asked one of the Marines, two of such troops coming to her aid. Accepting the assistance in righting herself, the pallid puppeteer soon did the same to Teak. She frowned, sighting that his movements were restricted by the very coils that connected them. But her mind was on something else. That pestering feeling in the back of her head had grown stronger, drowned out only temporarily by the shock of being knocked down and the subsequent deafening by ballistics discharge. She could not quite place it – the closest comparison she could settle on was the nauseous sensation that came about from confinement within the Avernus, but even then that was far from perfect. Why was it so familiar?“Oi! What happened?” Kojak grunted:
“You spaced out just then.”
“I… I’m not really sure,” the mousy maiden mumbled, a little taken aback by her squad member’s blunt analysis of the situation. Not to mention, of course, the gentleman’s appearance. Fierce on the frontline, the stout one’s leg was bloodied as he forced himself to walk straight across the reddening sands. Unnerved by the sight of blood all about, the WO tried to put her thoughts and feelings into words: “I keep getting this… It’s sort of like a ringing in my ears? But, it doesn’t feel like a sound… It’s quiet, but there…?”“I don’t hear nothin’…?”“I don’t, either.”
Hmm… Her thoughts wandering through a forest of possibilities, Mari shifted and squatted beside her entangled ally, carefully slipping Teak’s limbs free of the silvery wires that embraced him. If only she could forgo the need for such a medium. Alas, ‘A Bene Placito’ was the closest comparison she had to such an ideal as far as she was aware. Trying not to mope about the fact that her range and mobility were both so heavily limited by the normalcies of puppetry, the cherry blossom-haired teenager turned to take a gander at the battlefield. The initial horde had been thinned, but the onslaught continued. Clashing frontlines had deteriorated into pockets of combat as medics snatched up bloodied, battered and bruised bodies upon stretchers and hauled them towards the Avernus.
“Does anyone else notice something odd?” asked Nikila Booth, the woman in the midst of reloading her rifle. At first Miss Anette did not quite understand what her subordinate meant, nor did Kojak, who grunted something akin to a ‘No’ while shrugging off the attentions of an allied field doctor. The Seawoman continued to speak, locking her weapon as her charge finally freed Teak from his turmoil: “There’s no enemy medics on the field…”“Wha…?”
“Not surprisin’, Booth. There’s no wounded for ‘em to tend to – if they ain’t dead, they ain’t stopping,” Hodgins barked as his own doctor patched up his wounded limb and offered painkillers. The gruff one downed the pills with no hesitation before taking a supporting sip from his canteen. Guttural yells from afar made the mousy maiden’s innards squirm. Still, she’d rather go through this than the fight the undead again.
“Wait… Oi, Kid, what were you sayin’ about hearing something?” Kojak quizzed, his ears seeming to prickle at something as he scanned the farthest edges of the war-torn shores. Anette went to answer, but sensation soon caught up with her, and it was bizarre. She could feel it in the strings between her fingertips – a quavering energy – and could also now hear it on the air. Somewhere, somebody was singing, or at the very least exercising their voice to some operatic extreme. It was loud enough to be heard on the wind, despite the rattle of arms and barking of orders. It steadily became clearer, and then…
“Enemy reinforcements, incoming! Rifle units, mow them down!” The order was swift, the Marines responsive. Booth, Hodgins and several others took up their carbines and nestled themselves shoulder to shoulder. It was terrifying to consider just how efficient the men and women of CHIMERA were – how efficient they had become since banding together. Still, without the ability to wield firearms to any extent, the Warrant Officer did her bit and watched. From across the way, breaking from the woodlands, a second wave of enemy troops marched. But this wave was different; drastically so. Not a bunch of ragtag soldiers pumped on unknown concoctions, but a mass of robed entities that marched in perfect unison across the coastal dunes.
Teak? Mahogani? Are you two okay…? Uttering mental concerns to her carven compatriots, there was a definitive sense of uncertainty and urgency welling up within the young woman. Both the redwood samurai and the silvery paladin seemed to quake, as if bearing an unseen pressure upon their shoulders, the likes of which they were both struggling to hold. The marching men drew closer – closer still – until they passed a point of no return. The beach roared with the flare of muzzles and the shriek of lead. Mari’s vision was momentarily obscured by a wall of rising smoke, fading away steadily.
“They… They’re…”“How in the f*€%…?”“What in the Sea Devil’s name?”
“They’re still marching!?” It was impossible to believe, the youth’s own eyes barely understanding how – through such a volley – not a single robed figure had fallen to the dust. They had not even slowed their advance, continuing to the rhythm of the aria that now echoed more loudly from the forestry. It was not one voice, but several; a single leading vocalisation with an accompaniment of unknown proportions. Were the soldiers singing? She could not tell, and her mind was soon distracted by something more physical. Ahead of her, Teak seemed to be trying to pull away from the ties that bound that, but was otherwise stilled by the limitations of steely chords.“Second wave! Open fire!”
Bang! Crack! Pew! Bam! Again, the rifles of the World Navy screamed in synchrony, unleashing a fresh torrent of hot lead in the direction of the encroaching opposition. This time, rosé eyes got a better look at the result. It was neither evasive manoeuvres, nor tough armour that protected the cloaked regiment, but instead something else. The impact of bullets upon their bodies was clear, their attire rippling and their bodies stuttering as the metallic swarm struck them, but still they did not cease their march. Not a single body fell. Not a single cry of pain. Not a single change in itinerary.“The heck? Why won’t they stop…?”
“All units! Fall back!” Alyss Shuman’s voice yelled above the chorus and cacophony. “Everybody is to board the Avernus immediately! Full emergency withdrawal…!”-~-
“We got out of there as soon as we could, but Warrant Officer Anette was stuck. Her puppet – Teak – wouldn’t move properly, and we all know how protective she can be when it comes to those dolls of hers,” Nikila explained. “Fortunately, that’s when Captain Toctic showed up again. He plucked Mari and her puppets straight from the sands and got her back to the ship. The rest of us followed in step, and we started to pull off from the continent. I thought we were done, but the enemy wasn’t going to let us get away so easily.”“They boarded?”
“Yes, sir… And that’s when things spiralled out of control.” The soldier was about to continue, but the Vice Admiral cut her off with a gentle hand gesture. It was obvious how shaken she was, and her demeanour had become increasingly more unstable throughout her explanation of the events unfolding.
--{OOC}
Brennan Lesovik, MCPO (55ffff)
Sweets McGeek, Seaman (ffff55)
Seeley Rosmarus, Seaman (5555ff)
Nikila Booth, Seaman (ff5555)
Kojak Hodgins, Seaman (55ff55)
Ronald Wermengard, Vice Admiral (dd7700)
Doctor (eeeeee)
Alyss Shuman (000077)
Flint Anderson (aa0000)
Drugged Soldier (68e638)
CHIMERA Troops (999999 - 111111)[/font][/sub][/ul][/ul][/spoiler][/font][/sub][/blockquote][/div][/div][/div]
