Hiigaran Sorrow

"No choice.." he said. "The truce has expired. We either have to surrender and your Cole attacks."

He carried her outside and may her down inside the ship that was meant to have taken then away from Hiigara. pulling the helmet from his head and cradling her as the ship took off again, heading for Gondole.

"Be happy, the war is over for Hiigara, she will know peace and there is no way Veers can invade without another army."

There was blood seeping from under his armor now, it was obvious he was still bleeding but he didn't seem to notice.

"General Cole, the threat has been averted and I have ordered my men to stand down, I am bringing Imala on a transport ship to Gondole, shes been hurt... Then you may accept my formal surrender and that of my men in accordance with the truce." He looked down at her. "Stay safe for me.. alright?"
 
"Averted is well enough. The Core is grateful to you, Jido Vikal." General Kole spoke, extending a hand out to shake Jido's. Imala was transferred over into the arms of a Core that Imala didn't know. She could barely open her eyes enough to look over everyone's faces. The pain was still starting to seep in. The blow to the head had left her spinning and fighting to stay awake.

"Jido...?"

"We do owe you, that is sure. This surrender may be long enough for you to pay for your other crimes apart from the Rebellion." General Kole said.

"Jido?" Why was she being ignored? Why wouldn't he answer her? Why was General Kole still agreeing to take him away? Imala fought to say something, but the Core that had carried her made a turn away from the men. General Kole's voice was growing dimmer and dimmer as she was being carried away to what she expected to be the Gondole Medical Center. There were a lot of people outside, cheering and shouting that the threat was gone. Imala winced in pain and opened her eyes, trying to take a look around at the jeering faces, but the moment she did, the only thing she saw was the doors slide open to the hospital.

"Mam, I will take you to your room now."the Core said. Imala didn't recognize the voice and didn't care, for seconds passed before she slipped into unconsciousness with thoughts of Darmoor on her mind. Jido, Alex, the nuke. They all filled her head until her mind was a blanket of black.​
 
As soon as Imala was out of sight it was like Jido deflated, dropping the act of being unhurt and dropping into a seat the sapped under the weight of him and his armor.

"I already surrendered to her. My men will come unarmed and peacefully, Alexander's don't really have a choice."

He was feeling the effects of blood loss and was sure he wouldn't be awake much longer but this was his first face-to-face meeting with Cole and he had things to say. "Get her away from the front lines. Shes been wounded enough. I don't care what you do to me just made sure she gets through this.

His vision was swimming and he couldn't focus on Cole's face as he spoke, he needed a doctor, he needed to get out of this armor. He needed the bullet takes out of him and he be sewn shut. But all he knew right now is he was blacking out.
 
General Kole watched as Jido broke down. It seemed as though he took the full blunt of the attack in Darmoor and he was only pretending to be strong in the face of Imala, who herself wasn't in the best condition. He admired his bravery, but scowled upon his stupidity.

"Taking Imala off of the front lines is the same as taking her out of the Allied Core. She signed up for this. She knew exactly what dog shit she'd be getting into."he said. He was standing straight above Jido, watching him strip of his armor. Every piece left him, it was only replaced by a blood caked area of skin. He looked as if he was barely hanging onto consciousness. Kole never once took his eyes off of him, even as he reached for his tact pad and spoke into the mic.

"General Kole. I need a medic to the entrance."he said, still looking down at Jido. Even after the transmission was turned off, Kole stood up straighter, sunken eyes looking ahead of him at the sandy plains of Gondole. "You have saved us for the time being and your surrender is more than enough cost. As for the rogue rebels, they ought to pay with their lives. However, they didn't kill a mass number of our Core so we will let them get away from prison time...unless of course they plan to fight back. In that case, I can't say that I will not retaliate."he said. Kole watched as the color swam from Jido's body and two medics rushed to him with a white stretcher and necessary items in hand.

"Try to survive the surgery. The surrender would mean nothing if you died, now would it?"​
 
"They were following the orders of their general." Jido pointed out the the stretcher came in for him. "No soldier would do any less, and their general is dead, I am your prisoner. What is there left for you to fight? She is needed here on Hiigara to rebuild..."

the nurses put a mask over his face as the laid him on the bed.

"You need rest sir, no talking."

They opened the valve and the cold gas forced its way down his airwaves. Oxygen... it cleared his head but the sedative the injected int his arm made his eyes close and and a prisoner they secured his arms and legs with leather straps.

"Surgery, immediately... we'll worry about cleaning him later."

They wheeled him off more medical jargon chattering around him as he lost consciousness.
 
Kole watched as the medical assistance whisked Jido away in a hurried rush towards the medical center behind him. He turned on one heel and watched as all three of them were growing farther and farther away until they were eventually a black dot in the distance. Jido Vikal had told him to keep Imala off of the front lines...why? Was there something going on between the two of them? If he could recall right, she was the one who had captured him from Azriel and brought him aboard Ronset, only to have it brought down by him in turn. How could they possibly be anything after that? Ronset was her home. He remembered recruiting her and taking her on a tour around the ship. Having it hit the ground in a smoldering mass of metal, flames, and debris...by a Rebel she knew at that...

Kole sighed and trudged onto the medical center as well. He had to talk to the little leaders he had left to tell them that Firelance would be on the way in the next couple of hours. The ship would not be another Ronset, not even close. However, they needed something to get them off of Gondole, and Firelance was all they had in the short amount of time.

"It'll have to do."he whispered under his breath, hearing the sliding doors to Gondole Medical Center open for him.​
How long had it been? She felt as though she had been asleep for days, but a digital clock on the desk beside her only told her tha an hour and a half had past. Imala groaned as she sat up, rubbing the side of her head. There was a large, stitched cut that met her fingertips in return. Alex had made his mark and she would proably bare that scar for the rest of her life...however long that would be. The wound was the only real damage she took; any harder, and he would've given her a concussion or sent her into a coma for weeks.

She hoisted herself up and hobbled out of her room in the medical center. That room was really starting to get familiar, but she only walked on, hoping she'd never see it again. Her mind went back to Jido's state when he brought her back to Gondole. He was messed up in a pretty bad way. Someone must have been looking after him in the medical center as well. Kole was not that heartless to the let the man (Rebel or not) save many of lives in Gondole, just to have him die of blood loss...would he? Her answer was dead ahead of her.

VIKAL, JIDO
ROOM 204​

Imala looked at the name plat for a minute, breathing silently down the quiet halls. She didn't know nor cared where everyone was. Imala opened the door quietly and walked in, feet lightly stepping across the tiles of the floor. The room looked much like her own, except there was a man in the bed. Jido. He was sound asleep and looked a great deal better than he had looked before she was taken away. The blood was gone and the armor was off. It was just him. His body, his hair, his skin. Imala reached a hand out to push a strand of hair from his face but she stopped, hand in mid air.​
 
His eyes opened.

His head tilted up and his eyes focused on her. He was clearly weak but he was awake.

The beeping machines surrounded him, alerting the the medical staff in to the increased heart rate, and spike in mental activity. They would arrive soon but for a few moments they would be alone.


His hand reached up and weakly gripped hers pulling it down to him.

"You're awake." he said his breath fogging up the oxygen mask he wore. It was blear his surgery had been drastic and most likely risky and had taken a lot out of him. In fact ti was unlikely he would have been able to walk off the battlefield without the help of his armor's added strength.
 
The gesture was strangely unfamiliar to her but he was weak and probably loaded with sedatives in his head. He was recovering but it'd be a while before he was on his feet again without the help of others. Imala was lucky that she didn't get the full blunt of the attack, because now the Core was going to be as uptight as ever. Jido was not going to like the plans they had for him, whatever they were. However, as for then, he had to focus on recovering.

"And you should go back to sleep. The medicine would probably work out if you were asleep. Besides, there's nothing you can do but look around and talk anyway."she said, a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. He still held her hand in his own but the grip wasn't firm and strong. Imala had to loosen her own squeeze up just to match his own. She was starting to feel awkward, standing in there with him in a hospital room. It was a perfect opportunity to pour out what was going on in her head since she met him again. Hopefully he'd be too weak to reply.

"I'm sorry I pulled you into this. I don't know who I was back then in Azriel. I knew it was you, the rebel that I brought down, and I had the mind to kill you. I did and I was going to, but when I saw it was you, I stopped. I was...I was just so damn angry! You left me back there to walk on that ship after you PROMISED me you'd show up! Whatever happened to that?" her voice was rising and she was getting out of hand with her speech. Imala's grip on his hand tightened but after an exhale, it loosened.

"I wanted revenge. I don't know, some kind of payment or something. But...now I don't understand why you saved me and the rest of Gondole. Was it just for your Rebellion pride? Pay back to Alex? I swear, I don't understand you at all! I thought I knew you, but then you do these confusing things like, apologize for destroying my ship, and kis--" Imala stopped and looked down at the floor.

"They're calling for another ship, I believe. I don't know which one but try not to sabotage it. If destroying my home is showing me you care about me..."the sentence trailed off again. Imala's blue eyes looked over at the dials and tubes that were connected to his body and the machines. She had no idea what the numbers meant but hopefully it meant something good. Imala's gaze then returned to his own. It was obvious she was done talking. She said enough. Now more than anything, she needed to fire at something.​
 
He shook his head. "Look up records for the primrose." he said "That was my ship." His ship that was stopped by a Core border patrol and then it and the patrol were destroyed by pirates. That was all he could say. He wasn't fool to believe there wasn't a camera or microphone hidden in the room.

Kole wouldn't listen to him but maybe Imala would.. maybe.. "Got out of the war, I'm going to spend the rest of my life a prisoner so I will live through this. Promise me you'll do the same. The rebellion has no more strength, no more bases they're no longer a threat to the core, just leave, go back t what you were doing before the war."

There was a weak passion in his voice despite his injuries and sedatives and his eyes looked into hers before they slid half closed as he began losing consciousness again.
 
"Get out of the war? I thought you just said that the Rebels are done for. So, there really is no war, is there? There never should've been a war. I don't want to go into Allied pride as much as you don't want to talk about your Rebel hearts. I saw the records, Jido, and they're not good. Is that why you couldn't make it? Because of this...Primrose?" Imala lowered her voice to a whisper just in case the cameras were focusing mainly on their conversation. Jido had a right to be under a watchful eye, but Imala was not going to let this chance pass her up. Jido's eyes were fluttering open and close. He was fighting to remain awake, but she knew he'd soon go back into a slumber.

Time to get personal.

"Listen to me as best as you can. I'm sorry about Choime. I don't know what happened to her but I loved her like a...like someone close. We all grew up in the same area, so don't think just because I went into the Core I have no feelings or memories of the two of you. I only went there because...I didn't want to be one of those sappy ass war wives crying and bawling their eyes out until their husbands returned. You know me. I've never been that type. But Kole got into me you, you know? I was always good with a gun, but to have the Crescent Annihilation sword at my hip? That was an opportunity that I couldn't pass up. I was supposed to be suppressing violence...but then it all turned into an all out war."she said. The beeping of the machine was still on its right course so he wasn't dead. Imala slowly slipped her hand from his.

"I think it's Firelance they're sending. I know the Rebels are done for. At this rate, they'd spend most of their time trying to walk than trying to wage more riots. I sorta hate to say it, but we beat you guys in a bad way. And...you kinda helped. So thank you. For everything."she said. Imala bent down and placed a small kiss on his cheek, pink hair grazing the side of his neck before she bent back up and backed away from his bed. The other nurses would be in soon and Imala had to speak to Mikel about the ship that was going to port in the next hour. Injured or not, Jido was still a Rebel. Imala's eyes dimmed worry before she turned on one heel and marched out the room, hands sliding over the walls so that she wouldn't stumble due to the distant fuzzy feeling in her head.​
 
His breathing remained strong and even when his eyes closed. "Not your fault. War kills, I learned that. Just stay out of the rest of it what little there is. I Don't want to lose anyone else."

He took a deep breath. Anyone listening would be able to tell there was something between them, that they knew each other. "I'm happy that for me this war is over, that I'll spend the rest of it in a prison.

His eyes opened again. "We've both lost a lot of people in this war Imala, I don't want us to loose each other too. I will not resist, I will not escape. When the war is over get me out and I'll live on hiigara in peace. Just make sure you survive too."

The door opened and nurses came in to check his vitals and see if he could be moved. The sooner he could be transferred to the Firelance the sooner it could leave.

"I'll see you after the war..."
 
"Is he awake, mam?"

"For the time being." Imala answered to the male nurse that dashed into the room with one more person, presumably the doctor. Imala stayed in long enough to hear him give her a statement that he would most likely not follow. See her after the war? He had barely, barely made it out of Darmoor alive. It's a trial to even calculate how long he would sit in a Firelance cell. His crimes, reputation, that all weighed against him in the Allied Government's eyes. Allied Government. What a fucking joke.

There should be no 'Allied Government.' There should be a 'Hiigaran Government.' Imala's fingers never left the wall even when she led her way to the main lobby. There were actually less people since the last time she had been in. not a settling thought. These people were actually, if one could believe, more active now than they had ever been. Some were packing while others were helping out others. Imala even saw some of the Leasers holding conversations and nodding as if they knew what the other person was talking about. As nice as it was to see the Core back on its feet (for the time being), Imala needed to check the status on Firelance.

All items were stripped from her, so she had to know by word of mouth. She'd much rather hear it from Kole, but his whereabouts were unknown at the moment. Imala also had a throbbing headache, so trying to search for him would be a needle in haystack mission. Striding up to a Leader who was speaking to a Cores soldier with a broken nose, Imala tapped him on the soldier.

"I need information on the next ship to port." The man looked at her as he had seen a ghost. All of the color was drained from his face and his answer was a stammer. Any other time, Imala would've snapped at his late response, but she wasn't feeling in the dictating mood for the time being. In all actuality, she wasn't feeling it at all. The man finally swallowed and gave the Allied salute.

"Lady Imala, Firelance ports in an hour, minus the time to refuel and stop at the ADSS station, mam."

"Thank you, solider."she responded with a light nod. The man lost his color again and did his best at a nod in return. Imala turned around and walked back down the hallway in whence she came, thoughts of the Allie's...and her own next move in the war for Hiigara. What now?​
 
In a little over an hour Jido was aboard the Firelance. The pristine white medical bay was barely visible past the press of doctors and nurses crowded around him plugging him into machines and monitors and making sure he was securely strapped to the bed so he didn't fall off during launch.

The said he'd be better soon, that the advances equipment aboard the Firelance would have him in fighting trim before he reached the prison he'd call home. Ironic. There was however one person he was glad to see and when the medical staff moved to check on the other patients he smiled.

"Nothing life one final word is there?" he asked. He wasn't going to tell her to leave the military again, she would or she wouldn't and now was not the time to ruin the moment with concerns. "Then say I'll be fine. On my feet again in a couple of days and back to doing pushups and jogging before we reach the core. How about you? You're not in here with me for treatment so I guess that means you'll be fine too."

If he could move his arms he would take her hand but strapped down like he was he could only pat the bed in invitation for her to sit. "Thank you for coming to see me."
 
"My headache passed over an hour ago. It's just a late reaction to the hit, I suppose. Nothing to get medical assistance over."she responded, making her way over to sit next to him.

That hour had passed so slowly. Imala what to do or make of herself while she was on Gondole. Instead of doing something productive, like any other Core Leader would try to accomplish, instead she sat in her bed in her medical room, awaiting the call that Firelance was ready to port. The Allied Core were finally leaving Gondole. Some of them almost ran into the ship, not looking back at what was the Gondole Medical Center, while others decided to stay. Even a couple of Leaders stayed back in Gondole to see if they can discover any information from Darmoor. The rebel threat was nothing less than word of mouth, and yet, the Core still stand tight to their words. Mikel was one of the members who decided to stay, and he spent minutes on end trying to coax her into doing the same. Imala didn't respond to anything. It was only fair to pay him a visit before they left.

"I'm staying in Gondole."she said finally. A nurse passed in, fiddle with something on his arm or other, and then rushed right back out with her sterilized utensils. It was awkwardly silent for a moment on end. Firelance was hovering over the ground in Gondole and any moment, she would have to get off.

"You told me to get out of the war. This is the best I can do."she said. Something in her reminded her that he could give a rat's ass about what she did from this that point on. He was going to be a prisoner for a long time to come. Imala looked down at the state he was in and was forced to look away. All of those wires, guazes, wraps...they looked so foreign on his body. She almost wished he had the power armor back on with a gun in hand. That way he'd at least look alive.​
 
Somewhere the five minutes to launch siren sounded and he smiled. "Thank you." he said. It was obvious she knew his fate as well as he did, he would be old and grew before they let him out if they ever did, it would be easier to kill him but he hoped that they were not like he had been told they were. "If you're not coming with you should go." he said... "I will see you when this is over. A promise is a promise and I'm not breaking another." Well maybe she didn't.. one of the doctors who had already left had winked at him and he'd know the scar above his eye anywhere. The Firelance would never reach the core.

With on last smile he reached over to his bedside table and picked up a bottle, in it was a tiny scrap of metal on a simple chain. "They pulled this out of my lung, its the only piece of my armor I have left and I want you to keep it. They would probably take it away from me in prison."
 
Imala wasn't sure whether to accept that.."piece of him" but it was the least she could do. His reign in the war was over and if it gave him any sort of honor to have her keep a part of his armor, then she would oblige. Grabbing the bottle in her hand, she forced a smile on her lips and obeyed the rushed orders of the doctors and nurses at bay in the room, each one shouting orders to the other. Imala grasped the bottle in her hand and waved to Jido while walking backwards out of the door.

"Hopefully you can actually keep this one."she joked before turning around and walking off the ramp of the Firelance. Mikel and some of the other leaders were there to watch Firelance take off, making sure that nothing was wrong with the exterior hull of the ship and also that everyone had gotten on safely. Imala felt bad that she had to leave Jido to be a prisoner on Firelance alone, but she may have been needed in Gondole a great deal more than he needed her on Firelance. The debris and casualties were not going to be cleaned themselves. Besides, if her departure of the war was what he wanted, this was the closest to it.

Mikel was waiting at the bottom of the ramp to wait for her. He had an inkling in his mind that Imala may have wanted to stay in the war and he didn't want that at all. When he saw her pink hair flutter across the shoulders of her Allied uniform, he smiled, scar leveling with the curve of his lip.

"I almost thought you were going to stay on there, mam."

"Almost thought I was too."she responded back, standing to his left to watch the ramp of the Firelance close. A couple of doctors and nurses were gathering the last carts of equipment into the back of the ship. Imala watched them, wondering if one was going to bring a cart to Jido's room...until something caught her eye. It was a doctor. A very hefty one at that. Imala slanted her blue eyes as hard as she could to get a better look at him. If she could remember right, none of the doctors on Gondole were that big and known were brought along with Firelance...so where did this guy come from? The last view Imala got of him was the scar above his eye when he turned around back to the ramp. In a rush of memory. Imala remembered all too well where the pain in her legs came from. He was a Rebel!

"Imala. Are you listening?" Mikel said, waving his hand in front of her face. Imala's skin drained of all color while she focused on the waving hand in front of her face. This was going to be a repeat of Ronset.

"We...we have to go."she whispered barely above the thundering hum of the ship as it took off into the sky.​
 
Engines roared and the capital ship inched skywards with gathering speed. In hidden parts of the ship however hem were putting on full body armor and loading weapons.

Blockade cleared, Firelance leaving planetary orbit.

That was the signal... across all decks brief bursts of gunfire roared up before the crew here herded into makeshift prisons, even the captain found himself with a gun pointed at his head under Veer's sadistic smile.

"The ship is ours." he barked into the intercom as cheers came from the rebel infiltrators.

Just then three men entered the bridge. Jido and two others carrying his his arms over their shoulders.

"You could have ratted us out to your girlfriend. Good to know your layalty is unchanged." Veers quibed.

"Maybe I should have." Jido replied.

"It would have ended the war for good. Tell me WHAT NOW? We have less than a hundred men and one ship, what can we do against the core with their armada and legions. We're all as good as dead."

"Now now Jido, you need to watch your mouth." Veers growled. "We've been thinking too large, fighting fair, what we need to do is strike then melt away, hit military and civilians and make them bleed, make them scared."

"And become what they've been calling up all this time? Ter...."

The bridge shook as a well placed shot took out the Firelance's sensors.

"Dammit, get me those core sons of bitches..." He gripped a microphone and his voice was filled with hate as he spoke to every alliance ship in the sector.

"This is Veers, the captain and new owner of the Firelance. On board I have about... and entire crew of hostages.. shoot at me again, follow me, and they're all dead men their bodies decorating space and all it's hard vacuum. Do I make myself clear.... ? Let me go and I will tell you where you can pick them up, alive and in the Firelance's shuttles."
 
Imala had to make a rushed explanation to Mikel about what she had just seen. It did not help that he hadn't understood her the third time she told him, so instead of explaining to him while standing on the grounds of Gondole, she decided to pull him towards an empty shuttle ship. It would take more than Mikel and Imala too pursue the Firelance, so Imala barked an order towards too Core members who were standing idly by watching Firelance turn into a black spec in the sky.

"With me! Now!"she barked, still pulling Mikel by the hand and making her way to the shop, scrambling into the entrance and making her way to the pilot's part of the ship. Her head was rattled with the fear of Firelance being brought down just as Ronset did only weeks before. The other two Core members were just as confused as Mikel, but Mikel knew that something was array if she grabbed him and hovered the ship off of the ground and out of Gondole at a much quicker speed than the Firelance did.

"So you're saying that Firelance is being sabotaged?"

"Yes. By the Rebels."

"But there are Core on that ship!"

"...I know."she said. They were creeping on Firelance but she was careful not to get to close. They would not take well to knowing they were being followed. The first thing she had to do was take out the radar. That would alarm them that they were being pursued, but they didn't know from where. That was good enough.

"I need a shot at 305 degrees."she said to her left at the gunner of the ship. Her answer was a "Yes mam" while the blast zipped through the stars. Imala picked a good one because there was a satisfying silver spark that hit the Firelance, the familiar show of the radar's being shut down. Mikel got closer to the dash of the ship. Before he could congratulate anybody, there was a call in their transmitters. The Rebel voice rattled through her ears and she couldn't mark it, but as long as it wasn't Jido's, she was fine.

"Plan?"

"Follow, but we need to constantly keep out of sight. A destroyed radar can only do so much."she tapped a destined coordination of a serpentine pattern in slight intervals while they followed Firelance.

"What do we do when they port?"

"I don't know that yet. I just need to remain calm and try not to shoot it down."she muttered.​
 
The Firelance was going full speed he course was heading for deep space. far beyond the range of any shuttle. The turrets at the back tried to use their targeting sensors to scan the void but found nothing.

"I don't like it. They knew, they took out our sensors s they must plan on following. We're blind... WHAT THE STATUS IN THOSE REPAIRS."

"The entire dish is blown away, and we'll need to stop to replace it with a spare.

"Set course 39 by 6 six, series dust cloud we'll hide in there as we repair... Jido, I want you on your feet."

Jido was back in uniform despite not being fully healed. "You're forgetting something. If we're being followed they'll know where we are."

He was bent over the charts as he spoke, trying to figure out where Veers was planning on going.

"Yes but in the could they will be just as blind as we are, fair fight."

The bridge lapsed into silence. Jido didn't like the plan, it wasn't because it wasn't good but because he didn't like where it would take them. Raiding civilian ships as little more then pirates, he had done that dance before.

"We should surrender. Use the hostages to get good terms, a promise that Hiigara would be free to govern herself."

"And they can be trusted to keep their word? No, we keep fighting.. is that clear."

"Chrystal"
 
"Mam. Engage?"

"No. We are at the mercy of the hostages. The only thing we can do is keep on their six and out of their line of fire."she said, maneuvering the ship out of the way of the turrets. With the Firelance radar on the fry, their tiny advantage seemed short live when they all realised that didn't even have half as much equipment on board as the Firelance did. If they ever went head to head, they would not last long. Luckily for them, Imala was a damn good pilot. Mikel rushed over to her side to check out the tiny radar they had aboard in an attempt to figure out where their destination is.

"Do they have some sort of camp structure or prison hold?"

"I doubt that the Rebels are going to bring the few Core they have to a prison hold. That would be practically asking to get raided. No...I think they're doing something worse..."she said, eyes slanted to a low. In her head, she thought of Jido's place in the current sabotage. One just can't keep an old dog down? Once a saboteur always a saboteur? She had little time to dwell on those matters. There was a constant beeping on their radar, warning them that they may be getting too close.

"Pull back on the engines a bit. Give them paranoia."​
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back