The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Terenia]

When the cell door slides open Chris tenses up again. But he can see that the Hork-Bajir in question has moved on and, more importantly, he can see Tara, alive and seemingly unharmed. "Tara, are you--" he stops mid-question as he steps from the cell, his words interrupted by the sound of his name. Turning, he spots Tess. "Oh," he whispers, one hand going to his mouth. He abandons Tara, rushing to Tess' side, throwing his arms around her best he can with her pregnant stomach in the way.

"Tess, oh god," he says. His hand automatically goes to her stomach, to his unborn children, his worried eyes, shining with unshed tears, watching her. "Are you okay?" he asks, his voice cracking a little. Out of the corner of his eyes he vaguely registers familiar faces, all in various states of shock and dissaray, but his focus is entirely on Tess.

[Chad32]

<<I guess that noise I heard earlier really was something.>> Claxter said as he emptied the stuff out of the locker into the bag. He started from the opposite side of Ehvrin, so they wouldn't get in each other's way, and eventually they got everything. He felt a bit safer with allies looking out for him. Still, he moved as quickly as possible. <<do we know how the others are doing?>>

[Shenmue654]

Joanne's irritated, tired thoughts are abruptly interrupted by something unexpected. The hologram flips off. That infuriating, Andalite-tease hologram with all the hippy happy scenery. It's just....gone. Leaving her in a tiny black room with no Kess. For a moment Joanne simply stands there dumbfounded. Did he pull it off? Are the Andalites getting sick of being nice to them? Is there a power outage going on? Joanne experimentally kicks the wall hard.

"****!" Joanne cries out as the attempt bruises her foot. She hops up and down for a few moments in pain, rubbing her foot against the ground. "What the hell!" She has no idea why she thought that would work.

Joanne's foot throbs unpleasantly and she continues to pace the room, gritting her teeth. There had to be something she was missing here, and she didn't like it.  Some kind of panicked Andalite thought-speak message goes over her head about the facility being under attack. Ah. So it was the attack option. Great. Kill any non-Andalites? So...Hork-Bajir and humans, probably. I mean, who else would it be but the Empire?

If it was the Empire, she had to wonder why they came here. There's no way they'd know what happened to the Peace Movement specifically, and why else would they attack? The facility was likely in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't good. She had no defenses. Her Dracons were gone. Kess was gone. .....god, Keshin was still gone....the empty spot in her mind nearly ached. 

Every muscle in her body is tense. At some point, the cell....opens. Thank god. Joanne shoves her way past the Hork-Bajir that opened the door and into the hallway, suddenly surrounded by Empire troops speaking in Galard  and....freed, unharmed rebels? Err. Unfortunate that without Keshin's help Joanne doesn't understand a word of Galard. She's picked up a coarse form of Yeerkish, but the trade language is over her head.  Joanne glances around in utter confusion, warily holding her arms closer to her chest. The Empire goons are...definitely opening the cells and doing nothing to the rebels. The rebels are even contacting one another. One of them's Tara. Good she made it out.

"What." Joanne states flatly, staring at the nearest Hork-Bajir. Hm. Better try and rephrase that. She states in Yeerkish toward the nearest Hork-Bajir, "....what under Kandrona is this ****?"

[Estelore]

Norry heard the irate voice to her left, and she turned toward Joanne and spoke quietly, hating the Yeerkish language and so keeping her phrasing short and simple.

"This is an escape. Follow or don't. Nobody will stop you." Enorryma gestured with one clawed hand in the direction they were moving, then proceeded to approach the knot of humans and morphed Andalites.

<<Sir, how many are left?>>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin allows the rebels a few seconds to reunite and mingle.  He turns back to Joanne, but despite being able to understand most spoken Yeerkish, he's far from fluent.  "Follow.  Not harm.  Free."  He speaks quiet Yeerkish in response to Joanne.

<<This is all of them, Enorryma.>>  He doesn't allow the sadness welling up within him a place in his mind.

He turns to the group of milling rebel hosts and addresses them again in Galard.  "Our next task involves your supplement.  If you help, the process will go that much quicker.  The sooner we collect enough of your supplement, the sooner your controllers will be freed."

Ossanlin moves to the small crossing corridor between the host cells and host supplement storage.  He crosses quickly and steps into a room of durathane crates.  Some contain Hork-Bajir nutritional supplements, the others contain human nutritional supplements.  Little more than protein-based powders mixed with fiber-content...almost completely devoid of taste.  He opens a couple of crates of human supplement while he waits for Norry to join him with the compression packs.

~

Ehvrin empties those lockers in front of him with the appropriate dates and activates his compression pack before stowing it away.  <<I do not know, sir...I suppose we can assume Esarvit and Aurellia were successful in obtaining the necessary Yeerk supplies.  Prince Ossanlin and TO Enorryma arguably have the most difficult task, however.>>  He moves back into the hallway and toward the eastern ramp-well.

[Estelore]

Norry carefully threaded her way through the humans, mindful of her own blades and the fact that her tail could easily swipe one of them if they moved too close in one of her blind spots. She drew up next to Ossanlin and activated her compression pack.

<<How much are these packs rated to carry? Surely we will not need the humans to carry any excess; that would slow us down considerably.>>

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

<<If each can carry one package of supplement, in addition to what we stow in the compression packs, it will help greatly, and it won't be a great burden.  Ten kilograms isn't much stress.  The compression packs can carry several.>>  Ossanlin begins to fill his compression pack with human supplement while he waits for the hosts to join them.

[Chad32]

<<Yes. Hopefully all the hosts are coming willingly. As long as they get done quickly, and we get get out, the other Andalites won't find their way to us in time.>> Claxter said as we went to the rendevous point and sat down. He dug around in his pack until he found the painkiller, and used it as the burns were really bothering him. He was glad his plan had worked, though he wished he had been a little faster. He should probably demorph, but was afraid to ask Ossanlin for fear of seeming weak. He didn't think he'd die from them before they returned to the ship, so he'd try to tough it out. When the painkillers kicked in he felt kind of drowsy. He leaned against the wall on his good side.

[Estelore]

Enorryma worked quickly, appreciating the Hork-Bajir's very strong arms, which allowed her to move palettes of supplements at a time. As she filled the compression pack, she looked over her shoulder.

"Each of you carry a package. Almost finished here."

She didn't know how to say 'please' in Yeerkish, or if Yeerkish even had a word for please, but she tried not to be overtly commanding.

[Myitt]

Overwhelmed, Tara smiles incredulously at Chris, touching his arm before he moves away to Tess.

Tess! Alive and teary-eyed and still hugely pregnant.

Niko, thin and haggard and olive-skinned, badly in need of a shave, his long black hair oily and disheveled. He blinks around in the sudden cacophony, bewildered, rubbing sweaty palms against his jeans and his dark black shirt. He, too, is looking for someone--or staring in confusion, it is hard to tell. In the end he moves toward the assembly line of people helping to pack up the human supplement packets.

Tara's heart leaps into her throat as her eyes lock with Daniel's. Wordless, she rushes to him and nearly tackles him in a sobbing embrace.

"Oh Jesus Christ, Daniel," she breathes against his neck, tears streaming down her face.

[KitsuneMarie]

Tess nods to Chris tearfully, swallowing. One hand drifts down atop his, and she leans in to kiss him, the gesture brief and desperate. "Now I know you're okay, I am," she whispers to him.

Heart still hammering wildly, she takes a second to look away from him at the other survivors around them. Her eyes focus momentarily on Tara and Daniel, the latter of whom is as teary-eyed as his wife, his arms tightly around her, and his head lowering to whisper something Tess cannot manage to hear. If she could have read his lips, though, she would have known he was saying, "Tara, thank god you're alive."

But for as many joy-filled reunions as there are, there are just as many of her friends walking around, shellshocked, lost, without their dearest loved ones.

Tess sniffs and brings a hand up to wipe at her nose. "Let's... let's help them and get out of here so we can take stock," she whispers to Chris, her dark eyes returning to him, her forehead wrinkled in worry.

[Myitt]

"You're alive," Tara repeats, brushing Daniel's cheeks with her thumbs, staring at her husband incredulously. "My god, you're alive, you crazy bastard."

She swallows, looking over her shoulder at the others. "We need to move. Um." She nods quickly. "Yeah. Right now."

[Terenia]

Chris nods. "I have to find James," he says, keeping a tight hold on one of Tess' hands as he moves through the crowd. Something one of the Hork-Bajir says piques his interest.

"Our controllers?" Chris echoes. "Does he mean our Yeerks?" Sudden hope wrenches at his stomach. Keslin...

He continues searching for James, his eyes roving the crowd for the familiar red hair of his younger cousin. He sees several of his people, which relieves him. He makes note of Dom, looking around with a slightly stunned expression and none of his usual arrogance. His usually pristine suit is rumpled, the shirt untucked. He seems to be searching the throng as much as Chris is. He also sees Aya, who somehow looks more put-together than anyone else there, her scrutinizing gaze shifting from person to person, no doubt committing as much as possible to memory, as she'd been trained to do.

No red hair.

"Tara," Chris breathes, remembering her abruptly. Maybe she had seen him. Keeping hold of Tess' hand he pushes through the crowd, which the Hork-Bajir seem to be trying to move forward and organize in some way. When he finally reaches Tara she is busy embracing someone -- Daniel, he realizes after a moment, feeling a stab of relief for Tara's sake. Chris is reluctant to break up their reunion, but a sense of urgency pushes him forward and he puts a hand on her shoulder. "Tara, have you seen James?" he asks, feeling the panic beginning to return to his stomach.

The moment he asks the question a young woman with unwashed, unbrushed blonde hair rushes up to Tara, expression frantic. "Where's Mike?" she asks, sounding a little shrill. "Where the hell is he?"

"Terenia," Chris breathes, even though she wasn't addressing him. "I haven't seen him." He looks to Tara, awaiting a response.

[Myitt]

Tara holds up her hands, stepping back from Daniel.

"I haven't seen Mike," she says miserably. "The last time I saw him was on base. I don't know where he is, or if he's alive."

Her eyes lift to Chris. "James, and...and Reven." She shakes her head, another quiet sob wracking her chest, backpedaling until her shoulder blades bump into Daniel's chest. 

Niko nearly runs into Dom, his arms full of paper packets.

He drops them, gripping Dom's own arms with clammy hands.

"Have you seen him?" he asks desperately.

[KitsuneMarie]

Tess watches Daniel's face as it gains a look of concern, first at Chris's question, and then especially at Terenia's. "Stay with us," he reaches out to Terenia with his right arm, the one that is not living metal. That one has snaked around Tara's stomach, keeping her close. His voice is calmer than any of the other humans' around them, and Tess wonders how he manages it.

"We'll find him," Tess whispers to Chris, tugging on his hand. "We have to get out of here, though. We have to help them. We can't wait any more."