The Galactic War: Rogue Element ~The Beginning

[Myitt]

Tara breaks away from Daniel reluctantly, staring as Mike passes by, her own boots glued to the floor.

She forces herself to move, pressing a hand against Terenia's arm.

"That wasn't Mike," she intones lowly, staring at the specter of Myitt's brother's host--and one of her oldest friends. She swallows hard. "He can't be here, he...he escaped capture. I don't know where he is, but he isn't here. He was there when..."

She pauses and shakes her head, changing the subject abruptly. "And did you hear his damn voice?" She eyes Mike's wife, mouthing the Andalite name that twists her stomach with anger, trying to gauge her recognition.

[KitsuneMarie]

Tess squeezes Chris's hand tightly, her eyes meeting his before returning her gaze to those around them again. Her relief at seeing Mike and Terenia fades as she watches Terenia and Tara fall back, stricken, as Mike keeps moving away. Then her eyes turn towards Niko and Dominic, and her sadness deepens as she notices the missing form of Gene.

The last face she studies is Daniel's as he stops, turning to watch Tara and Terenia, his forehead creased with wrinkles, refusing to move on without them.

Then she lowers her eyes to the nutrient packets she is holding over her swollen stomach with one hand, her other still holding Chris's. Despite the joy of being reunited with him, she knows the next few days will be devastating as they account for all they have lost.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin watches as the last of the rebel hosts finally come through the ingress, followed up by Enorryma.  He takes a deep breath, thankfully there hadn't been any issues.  He activates the repressor field and a slight bluish hue of energy spreads across the ingress.  "Follow me."

Ossanlin begins to make his way to the rendezvous point and contacts Claxter on his ARC.  <<Claxter, activate the cutting sequence on floor-breacher one.  We'll be with you in a few moments.>>

He closes the communication and opens another to Esarvit.  <<Esarvit, begin transferring the prisoner data to my ARC, we'll be there shortly.>>

He closes that communication as well and makes his way through the maintenance tunnels toward the rendezvous until he finally reaches the four waiting Andalites in morph.  He nods.  <<Refrain from using any thought-speech with them.  If you must speak, speak Galard.  Claxter, Ehvrin, allow them to claim their weapons and personal effects.>>

He looks more-closely at Claxter.  <<Are you doing alright?  Those wounds look serious.>>


~


<<Yes sir.>>  Ehvrin immediately removes his compression pack and deactivates it, emptying the contents on the sterile floor of the tunnel.

[Chad32]

Claxter pulled the control for the floor breacher out and activated it, and the floor breacher started doing its work. He'd been sitting against the wall as he waited, with the painkillers lessening the pain to a dull ache.

<<I believe I can make it back to the ship and demorph, my Prince.>> He said. His right arm still wasn't moving, and it took effort to move his right leg. He pulled out the compression packs, and started taking things out for the hosts. <<We encountered the enemy, but led them into an ambush. I was the bait, as you can see, and didn't make it to cover quickly enough. The Andalites...won't be bothering us anymore. I don't suppose you encountered Efaen?>>

[Terenia]

Terenia blanches, picking up on Tara's meaning almost immediately. Another tremble runs through her and she shakes her head, one hand pressed firmly against her mouth. She looks as though she isn't sure whether she should be furious or crushed. Tears streaming down her face her eyes narrow at the Andalite imposter. "I'm going to kill her," she says at last, in a high pitched voice that doesn't sound at all like herself. She takes a step forward, in the morphed Andalite's direction, then stops again, a shuddering sob wracking her body as she fails to keep her composure.

The sound makes Chris glance back again, and his gaze catches Tara's. He jerks his head forward, indicating that she should get moving, before their chance for escape disappeared. "Something is wrong," he murmurs to Tess. Everything is ****ing wrong, he amends silently.

[Chad32]

Claxter looks over at the Humans. They all looked shell shocked. Broken. He felt sorry for them. One of them had a stomach that looked like it would burst. Did she have an eating problem, or perhaps she was pregnant? he'd seen little baby Andalites, and considered them cute if sometimes frustrating. He wondered what Human babies would look like. "Is that one pregnant?" He asked the closest one to him.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

Ossanlin steps up in front of Terenia.  "Everything will be taken care of.  Remain calm."  He turns back to Claxter.  <<I see.  Claxter...Efaen isn't the same anymore.  She wasn't with the Rebellion when they fell, I don't know why she'd be here.>>

He shades his eyes against the bright sparks of the floor-breacher cutting through the ceiling...it had almost completed it's full rotation.  He checks his wrist-pad to make sure it was ready to receive data from Esarvit's ARC before running his eyes over the rebel hosts.  He directs another thought at Claxter.  <<Stop Terenia if she tries to claim a weapon.>>

[Chad32]

Claxter decided the best way to keep Terenia away from a weapon was to gather them up and hand them out personally. "Here are some weapons. Keep them on stun." He said as he handed them out from a pack he had strapped to his shoulder.

Where wuld Efaen be, then? How could he find her?

[Terenia]

"They're actually arming us," Chris says under his breath, incredulously. "With our own weapons." He shakes his head in amazement, dropping Tess' hand for the first time, stepping forward to claim his holster. He buckles it around his waist, glad to have the familiar weight back where it belongs. As soon as he is outfitted he returns to Tess' side, his gaze drawn to her stomach. "How are they doing?" he asks quietly, glancing up as Dom steps into line to claim his own holser -- easily identified by the designer belt strap it is attached to. Aya is right behind him. She casts a quick, strained smile in Tess' direction, but her gaze hardens a little when it falls on Chris.

Dom takes his holster and snaps it on, looking shell-shocked and miserable. As soon as it is buckled he rests a hand on Niko's shoulder, swallowing back a swell of emotion. "I'm so sorry," he murmurs. "Reyliss, she...she was with Gene. Or in the pool. I am not sure, but..." His throat works as he trails off.

If Terenia hears Ossanlin, she shows no indication. Shaking, her skin pale, she turns to Tara. "He's dead, isn't he?" she asks, barely able to get the words out. "They both are. Oh God, and Esreth, she was feeding. I--" Quite suddenly she finds that she does not have the strength to continue standing. Her knees buckle, and she leans heavily against the wall, her tears impeding her ability to speak.

[KitsuneMarie]

"Aya," Tess whispers, relief clearly readable on her face as she sees the young woman for the first time. She doesn't take her own weapon, though, one hand pressed against her stomach, the other still clinging to the nutrients. She turns her head back towards Chris and murmurs, "They're moving a lot, but that just means they're still alive." She tries for a smile, but it's weak.

Her gaze catches sight of Daniel as he hurries out of line to join Terenia, kneeling to try to help her up. "Come on, Terenia," she can hear him urging her. "We can't do this here. Please. You've gotta get up."

[Myitt]

Tara pulls herself out of her dazed reverie, staggering along after Ossanlin and the others.

"Terenia," she murmurs softly, taking her friend's arm, her expression written in grief. "Come on, we'll deal with her. We need to keep moving."

She casts a dark look up at the leathery Hork-Bajir backs in front of them, whispering another Andalite name to Terenia and holding a finger to her mouth to indicate the severity of that secret.

Niko takes his weapon, scowling a little at the Hork-Bajir handing them out. As he buckles his simple black leather holster through his jeans loops, his expression sobers.

"We've gotta stay positive, Dom," he says in a hushed voice. "The ones that are simply missing...they've gotta turn up. Like you said. But Yarin...I couldn't get to him in time, Dom. I tried..." He trails off, tears in his eyes as he looks back up at Dom.

Tara sinks to one knee next to Terenia as the girl collapses, trying to console her along with Tess.

"****, man, we need to go," she hisses. "Do you really think Mike and Corliss would want you to die because you were grieving for them? Huh?" Her tone is gentle, in spite of her firmness. She tries to pull Terenia up with one hand wedged at Terenia's armpit.


 

[Ember Nickel]

Esarvit taps at his ARC, sending the data over to Ossanlin's machine. He relaxes slightly as Ossanlin checks his wristpad. If it's this easy to change security levels I'd better be sure it's really his computer picking it up... But all seems well, and he follows along.

[Chad32]

"Don't give me a dirty look. I'll take the weapon back." He said to the Human who scowled at him. Hopefully when they found out Claxter and the others were Andalites loyal to their cause, they'd be less suspicious. He decided to let Enorryma, who was taking up the rear, handle Terenia. anything he did would probably make it worse. It was odd to see her so broken up like this. He thought anger and detachment were her only emotions. After he was done handing out weapons, he found a spot by the wall. He wanted to sit down again, but he didn't want to do it in front of his Prince.

[Estelore]

Enorryma's feelings were a mix of bafflement and disgust. The humans had been brainwashed by their parasites; this was the true evil of the Yeerks: they could rewire your brain until you were not only sympathetic with them, but protective of them... grieving for them.

She stood over Terenia. "If you do not stand, I shall be forced to leave you or carry you. Your choice." Norry spread her hands in front of her, again trying to look harmless, but not really relishing the idea of trying to carry humans when her arms were inherently so dangerous to anything she carried. She figured she might be able to toss the human over her shoulder, like the sack of Hork-Bajir supplement, but... that would put Terenia in dangerously easy reach of Norry's ASAR, or even her sidearm.

She lowered her voice a bit more, for Terenia's ears only. "You are not the first to lose somebody. The others need you."

She didn't know if it would work on this human, but she knew that it was the one argument which would be guaranteed to get Norry herself into motion, no matter how far into despair she might be.
Brainwashed or not, perhaps we can still reason with them this way.

[Luke Skywalker (Ossanlin)]

There's a fairly loud metallic clang as the floor-breacher finishes its cutting and begins to lower the disc of excised metal.  Ossanlin's ARC receives the Yeerk prisoner data and he immediately commands his ARC to read the files.  His hearts seem to drop as the number of those Yeerks with the appropriate parameters...namely their apprehension date...is less than that of the hosts.  Either some of the humans had been uninfested, or hadn't had controllers, odd as that last possibility seemed.

He nods at Norry.  <<You're first.  Remember, there shouldn't be any Andalites within the cells, the chances are very remote.  The blast doors will be sealed and secured.>>

"Hosts, watch for Andalites.  You see any, stun them."  He glances around the room as the floor-breacher lowers the disc of ceiling far enough for people to be able to squeeze through.  "We're retrieving your controllers now.  Any kind of counter-productivity would be a waste of your time and a danger to everyone."

He glances at the other four morphed Andalites.  <<Keep some eyes on them.  We don't want someone thinking they're a hero...this could still go terribly wrong.>>

His ARC lists prisoner numbers in front of his eyes as he waits for Norry to clear the space above.