Lost Mission

He began explaining, and though she didn't understand, his conviction and his hug convinced her to at least listen to him. Exycoran? Taelrikon? Both sounded made-up to her.

However, he did succeed in calming her. The keening stopped, and the trembling slowly eased as Rare buried her face against the man. Still nervous, but not terrified as she had been.

She still smelled the wreckage clearly. She heard the loud explosions and bangs and felt the overpowering sensation she couldn't put a name to, and even with her wrecked vision, light shot out and she could only bury her face further to try to block it out as she struggled with her fear.

Her defenses slipped, offering a brief image of a girl taken from her loving father as little more than a toddler by a stranger in the night.

Her defenses returned.
 
The poor girl finally calmed down and Miles sighed with relief. He never liked to see crying, panicked children no matter where he was stationed, so it warmed his heart that he finally managed to get through to this one with his words. Even better, he did not have to lie to do it, which helped his conscience tremendously. It was good to tell the truth after he had to fabricate so much, but the truth was not going to help his situation of being in the middle of a warzone in a completely vulnerable position.

"We should move from here," said Miles as he reached his helmet with his free hand to lift his visor, toggle darkened vision, then lower the faceplate again before he opened his eyes. It was a little bit of a hassle, but the on-board computer no longer took remote commands because he had been a little too close to the explosion of a Fusion cannon. But at least now, he would not be blinded by the battle that raged on in the heavens. "Keep your eyes closed, all right? It's still bright outside. And don't be scared," he said as he brought Rare a little bit closer to himself before he started musing about the current state of things.

They were still not very good. The arrival of an Exycoran shifted the power balance in the skies and the soldier watched with no small amount of satisfaction as one of the taelrikon battleships was basically peeled before it was melted with its own fusion projectiles. He also caught a glimpse of the human ship itself as it stopped between evasive maneouvres, but the success up there was not helping his situation at all. His leg was still completely busted, not to mention that he was filthy and he had a child to take to a shelter before he could resume his duties. Which meant that he needed to get a vehicle of some sort, but long range communications were down.

Well then. It was time to look for some vehicle that miraculously survived the fusion bombardment.
 
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Rare held tight as he told her they needed to move, but not with the same grip that had nearly suffocated the man. She simply held on, silent and burying her face.

Everything was scary, with all the burning light above, and only a man separated from her by armor as a companion. If he didn't smell so strongly of sweat-meat-fear-relief, she might have thought him a robot, for all the lack of flesh-to-flesh contact.

His armor was warm, but had no pulse and held the scent of fighting and suffering.

He smelled calm, though. Nervous and sweaty, but not fearful or lost.
 
After much deliberation, Miles had come to a very unpleasant conclusion, namely, that even though the shelter was completely busted and wiped off the face of the planet, there might be a vehicle or two that survived the fusion bombardment. That is, if their electronics were not fried or their chassis was not fused together from the heat of the nearby impact. It did not help that he could smell the characteristic fragrance of exploded munitions too, because that meant that most of the military forces that guarded the compound somersaulted into the air along with the shelter itself. But that also opened up a new possibility, especially with the thick smoke that came out of the ruins: maybe one of the vehicles had been flung away from a shelter or landed in an awkward position that he could not see.

"Sorry, but you'll have to breathe through your mouth," said Miles bitterly as he clutched the girl a little closer despite the filth on his armour. "I promise I'll get you to a safe place soon, all right? Just hold on and wait until I find something that can take us there and please don't get sick of the smell." That was probably too much to ask of a child, because the whole thing was horrible, but what choice did he have? He could not just put her down and leave her alone in the middle of somewhere. She was blind! He did not feel good about the whole thing and he was sure that this would leave Rare with lasting trauma, but it leauges better than any other alternative that he could think of. She seemed to be clinging to him as if he was his life, too and from his experience, trying to peel panicked children off himself only resulted in crying or panic.

He did not want either of those, so he kept Rare in his arms while he searched around the ruins. And it seemed that today, fortune was with mankind as he found an overturned military buggy just after a couple of minutes. Sure, the wheels were completely busted, melted onto their rims, but as long as he got the thing running, it would do.
"Now let's hope I can get the electronics working," muttered Miles under his breath, but he was probably loud enough for Rare to hear.
 
Rare held tight as the man searched, eyes shut tight as her ears were forced to take in everything. She could breathe through her mouth, but could taste the same thing she smelled, and it clung to her mouth gritty. She buried her face against his armored chest and simply breathed as slowly as her lungs could bear.

"Nn?" She heard that he spoke, but missed what he said over her ears ringing. She tried to look, to see what he'd found, but was too frightened over becoming even further blinded that she resumed hiding her eyes against his chest.

She couldn't do anything to help the man. She could only hold tightly to him and hope he didn't try to pull her away—hope he didn't decide to make her fend for herself, blind and confused as she was.
 
"We'll be heading to safety very soon," said Miles as he walked around the buggy with his limp and checked it for sings of damage. It was in a pretty horrible condition if he was honest, but fortunately, it seemed that the armoured plating had protected the engine along with the ignition system, which made him smile. The damaged doors along with the now absolutely uneven weight distribution were secondary to the operation of the vehicle, because once he had it running, it was only a matter of paying attention to what he was doing. Now to roll it back onto its wheels!

"I'm going to put you down for a moment, okay?" asked the soldier as he carefully placed the poor girl on a relatively spotless place on the ground, then suppressed a mental wince when he realised how damaged her clothes were. Those things looked incredibly expensive and they were nothing more than shreds now! Her parents must have been well-off people to dress their daughter into such clothes for an everyday outing. "I'm not leaving, but I'll have make this thing work," he said as he indicated the overturned buggy with his hand. "I'm sorry." A smile. Obviously, she could not see such things because of the damn fusion cannons, but he hoped that he got through the girl at least a little bit with his genuine tone.

With that done, Miles briskly walked over to the buggy, then flexed his arms before he slammed both of them into the roof of the buggy with a loud, resounding crash that overpowered the steady staccato of explosions in the background. Of course, he quickly discovered that he alone was not enough to overturn a heavy military vehicle with his bare hands, but that did not get him to stop trying. There were several more crashes before he realised that he was probably going about this the wrong way, so he scavanged and improvised a little. Then, another much louder crash could be heard that was strong enough to make the ground shake a little, before reverberating through Rare.

"Yes!" Miles exclaimed both to celebrate his victory and to reassure the young girl that they were on the road to safety. Within moments, strong hands that smelled of vomit mixed with devastation came around the poor thing to swoop her up, then place her into a relatively comfortable seat. It was not luxurious or anything, not to mention that it was clearly not made with the slight form of Rare in mind, rather, the average soldier that wore the same armour Miles had, so it was not the best of fits.

"Sorry about that," said Miles as he settled into the driver's seat. "I promise we'll be there soon all right? And then we'll find you a doctor to look at you and find your parents!" If they were not dead, he reminded himself, then he reached for the keys... Only to find them lacking. Oh, of course. The soldier muttered a few curses under his breath, hopefully not loud enough for Rare to hear lest she learn how to cuss like a sailor, then he ducked under the dashboard to fiddle a little. This resulted in a few very strange noises that somehow ended up in the unfamiliar, low growl of an unknown engine.

"All right!" Miles raised up from his position with a smile on his face, then he shifted into gear and carefully stepped on the accelerator. In reponse, the buggy started rolling on its damaged wheels in what amounted to be a tortorously slow speed barely faster than walking, but it sure as hell beat burdening his injured leg.
 
Rare held still, nearly holding her breath as she stood, waiting. Crashes and impacts sounded nearby, and she flinched at each, until she crouched on the ground, covering her head and face with her arms.

A sudden shout, muffled by damaged ears, caught her attention and she looked up, eyes open a moment before she covered them again. "Nnn?" the wordless sound came out, intended as a question, and was answered as he picked her up again, only to place her down in a seat.

It was a firm, uncomfortable seat that had a very unnatural butt print, but she felt a little safer in a seat than standing clueless. She started to relax as she gripped the sides of the seat.

After a moment, she lifted her hands and reached out as she felt movement, to tap where she could smell and hear Miles. With her right hand, she held a fist with one finger raised and flexed it a few times. She then opened the hand and flipped it over her chest, like she was petting a cat rested there. She then used a closed fist with the first finger extended to point to her right eye before she lifted both hands and crossed them with fingers splayed, only to close them as she pulled them to the other side. Then, she repeated the first sign again.

The signing took only a few moments, and to those that understood, meant "QUERY - OUR EYES - SAFE - QUERY" or "Are our eyes safe now?"
 
Of course, Miles was busy paying attention to the road as all drivers should be, so when Rare's hand reached out to him, he almost jumped out of his skin with fear. Then he realised that the small girl was obviously just trying to get his attention, which was when the troubles started. First of all, he could give Rare his complete attention because he had to somehow keep the buggy straight on the roadless expanse they travelled, so he missed at least part of the signs. Second of all, he had almost absolutely no knowledge of sign language, which is what the little girl seemed to be using. He knew a few things about it, like how it was supposed to be obvious, yet he had not a single clue as to what his travelling companion said to him.

The only thing he could go on that it had something to do with her eyes and that she was still young. From that, he thought he deduced that she was still scared about her eyes despite the fact that he had told her many times they would heal slowly.

"Don't worry about your eyes," said Miles as he shifted his attention back to the road to steer the car around an especially large ditch. "Like I said, they'll heal soon. The fusion cannons... uhh... the bright light that blinded you has blinded many people before and they all recovered." Except for those who died, noted Miles silently, but he hoped that the little girl would not pick up on that omission. Those people were the ones beyond help, burned on the surface of their entire bodies and merely thinking of them was enough to make Miles forecefully swallow his saliva. It was enough that he was covered with Rare's vomit, he did not need to add his own to the mix.
 
She stared at him, or rather, at the place his voice came from, and nodded, then opened her eyes. She still couldn't see much: some contrast, a few very vague shapes. Mostly, she still saw teal and fuchsia after-visions and stars that didn't truly exist.

Eyes open now, she could vaguely see that they were moving. She could feel that well enough, though, so it wasn't new information. she could see they were inside of something, but she could feel that, too, or at least that she was in a seat with a belt around her middle. She bit both her lips as she gripped the front of her skirt. She could feel holes where it was burnt and torn, and began to toy with them while they traveled. She kept herself still and quiet, waiting for the vehicle to stop as it jostled and bumped her around in the belt.

Her hands shook still, even as they distanced themselves from the worst of the smell, but the stink of death and ruin was everywhere. She wanted to cry and vomit. Even though Miles seemed so sure they would be safe, even though he didn't seem scared anymore, she didn't know anything about this place but its stink and the ruin she'd seen before she was hit and blinded. She knew also there was a man here, in armor, who was doing his best to protect her.

His protectiveness reassured her, but it wasn't enough, and tears began to fall down again, though this time she didn't sob or whimper, she simply directed her unseeing eyes down to her lap and held her skirt tightly until her knuckles turned white.
 
Despite Miles' reassurances, the journey to wherever they were going was still quite frightening. The battle above them raged on without regard for his or Rare's safety, occasionally causing a rather bright flash that even the Hunter could see with her damaged sight. Fortunately, they were not that blinding anymore as the taelrikon fleet above decided to resort to controlled bursts of fusion fire rather than filling the sky with them in panic, not to mention that they were more distant now. The Exycoran was leading them away so that the planet's people could breathe some fresh air and any ships that did not focus on humanity's finest was given a harsh reminder as to why that was a horrible, horrible idea.

Of course, with Miles being a ground-pounder, he could not really read the situation in the sky. He was more focused on the terrain anyways as he had to orient himself towards the other shelters he knew of with the help of only a compass. It was not a perfect method by any means, but it did lead the buggy to a road and from then on, things got a lot more comfortable. Comfortable enough for the soldier to finally glance back at his travelling companion, only to purse his lips in a mixture of frustration and worry. That... did not look good. He had thought he managed to calm her down, yet it seemed that he could not have been more wrong. The girl was crying a practical waterfall, so he reached out to her, gently touching her shoulder.

"Hey, we're going to make it there just fine," said Miles as he lifted his eyes to the sky which was starting to clear of the metal monstrosities. The battle was being lured away from them into space. "The metal things are gone now." Mostly. "And we're almost at the shelter! Everything will be all right. We'll find your parents and they'll give you a nice, big hug." Hopefully. He had no idea where her mother and father were, but they were sure as hell getting a lecture from him about proper paring. Leaving her alone like that in the middle of a warzone...! They should have informed the military.

"We're almost there," he added after a couple of moments as his hand returned to the steering wheel. Indeed, the outlines of a ruined city were visible on the horizon, but hopefully, he could use the buggy's radio to contact the shelter here once he was close enough to use short-range communications.
 
Rare's tears fell as she fought against the stress of the situation. The lights she could see made her flinch, but they'd lessened and grown more distant. She didn't understand anything but the language, and even then... Exycoran? The word meant nothing to her, but everything to the man who'd decided to protect her. She looked toward him, but all she could see was a hazy outline that blended into the scenery in blotches of color formed by her own mind.

She looked away, and moments later, felt something touch her. She flinched and looked, eyes unseeing. The blurred and unclear outline of her rescuer spoke, promises Rare knew he couldn't keep, but she believed the first: that they were going to be fine now. The stench of death and defeat didn't claw at her nose anymore.

But finding her parents? Her father, she was certain had died long ago to age. Her mother even longer.

Still, she nodded and wiped at her eyes with her fingertips, and he withdrew his hand.

She let her eyes roam, and paused as she saw something on the horizon ahead. She signed a question, then pointed and looked at her rescuer. Her eyes couldn't make it out.
 
Sign language again. Or at least something that vaguely seemed like sign language to Miles, which meant that the girl was unable to speak for some reason, but then how could she have made those sounds? She could not be deaf either, because then she would not have been able to understand him, so what the heck was going on? This was confusing on more than one level and he had absolutely no clue as to what was just said to him. It could have something to do with the city ahead, an obvious conclusion, but there was no way she could see it if she really had been blinded by the taelrikon fusion cannons. It took days, if not weeks to recover from an injury like that in his experience. It was impossible for a human to recover so quickly which meant...

No, that was not a can of worms he wanted to open. There was no way they had the gall to pull that off, so he took the other alternative that maybe her eyes have not been injured that badly. In that spirit, if she could vaguely see things, that probably meant she was asking about their destination.

"That's another city," said Miles after a couple of seconds that he used to prepare something appropriate for a child. He did not tell her that it was more accurate to say that the few buildings which managed to remain upright were more like ruins than a proper settlement, because she did not need to know. "The shelter's nearby and then everything is going to be fine." Naturally, his second sentence was a lot more convincing than the first one as Miles reached for the buggy's short-range radio to toggle it. The thing spewed some strange white noise at first, but it came to life nevertheless and the soldier wasted no time with trying to contact his comrades.

He got a reply within a few minutes of trying and a militaristic conversation followed which was probably a little scary given that it was spoken with a firmer voice than Rare was used to hearing from Miles. Then there was also the fact that he, along with the man he was talking to often referenced strange codes she had no idea about. At least she could get the gist of it; apparently they were being directed towards a different part of the city where they would meet up with some other soldiers that would lead them to the shelter. This was confirmed by the buggy shifting under her and then coming to a halt about fifteen minutes later.

"All right, we're almost there," spoke Miles as he clicked his seatbelt off with a smile on his face. Of course, he logically knew that Rare likely would not see it, but he was relieved that they got through everything. "We'll meet some other people who can help us, so don't be scared. Even if they're a little strict, they only have our best interests in mind."

Unfortunately, however, it turned out that lady luck was not quite as kind to Miles as he thought it would be. Mostly because in the very next moment, a harsh and rather disbelieving voice came forth from the radio.
"Staff sergeant Miles Conner, why the hell do you have a civilian riding with you? Over." Oops...
 
Rare slowly nodded as he explained that it was a city, and they'd find a shelter nearby. Hadn't they nearly been to another shelter before? She couldn't smell the same level of ruin as before, so could only assume this was intact... so far. She almost felt it would be safer to keep moving, even with the scary noises and flashes she could barely see. If she could move freely, she could run. If she could move freely...

Freedom.

She touched her collar, and her whole body stiffened for a brief moment as a wicked shock traveled through her. For a moment, a bit of steam came from her neck, but her hair succeeded at hiding its appearance, but not the faint scent of cooked flesh.

She kept her hands away from her collar as she waited, quiet as the man spoke, his tone clear it wasn't directed at her. She understood most of what he was saying, but kept quiet until the buggy stopped. She felt certain her rear and back were well-bruised by now. For a few moments, she waited until she heard a click, and the buggy shifted as Miles' weight moved. She reached to one side to try to find a clip, but even when she looked down to try and find it, her fingers roamed blindly. She lifted her head to look toward Miles for help, only to flinch as an angry voice spoke suddenly from where she heard Miles' breathing. She signed more question marks rapidly as her brows knit and raised, a pouty frown on her face as she tried to understand why he was being scolded.
 
Of course he had forgotten about something. In this case, that little something was rather important to the continuation of his military career along with his conscience, so he quickly turned the radio on again to salvage his absolutely massive blunder. He would have called himself an idiot a thousand times over in his head, except that he wanted to react as quickly as possible.
"Don't shoot, I repeat, don't shoot," he said just to make sure that he would not be blown to kingdom come the next moment in case someone thought that he had been compromised or worse. "She's a civilian that got lost in Kalrina, nothing more. If possible, I'd like to have her assigned to this shelter, over."

"You gave me a heart attack for a moment," came the reply through the radio a few seconds later. Obviously, the soldier on the other side had picked up on the subtext of the message, namely that the city along with the nearby shelter had been blown to bits. He sounded sympathetic to Miles' cause. "I'll radio command while you join us on foot, over."

"Thanks for the assistance. Over and out."
"Over and out."

"You heard him," said Miles as he reached for Rare's clip and pressed the button to free her of her predicament. The scent of her cooked flesh did not reach him as he still had his filters on for the sake of his sanity along with his safety. He really, really did not want to vomit into his helmet in case this city had been vaporised as well, so he had kept it on since the other shelter. "We'll be walking for a couple of minutes to join them. Then we'll get inside something a little bit more comfy, all right?" he asked cheerfully as he carefully lifted Rare out of her seat, then deposited her to the ground. He wanted to make sure that she could stand on her own before he let go of her.

The rest of the military vehicles were still a couple of kilometres away, but now that the explosions of the battle could no longer be heard, Rare could recognise the barely audible growl of many engines along with the distinct nosie that tank treads made. Reinforcements were clearly nearby, consisting of strange vehicles that she had never seen before. Ranging from armoured transports that boasted spherical turrets on their hull through wheeled crafts which had open rail accelerators as a turret up to vehicles that hovered above the ground with a blue glow, the collection of machines around her came in all shapes and sizes. All of it unknown of course, though some of the designs did resemble modern Earth ones about as much as a walnut resembled an apple.
 
Rare frowned as she listened in to the conversation. Her ears rang off and on throughout, and she eagerly accepted Miles' help. With her feet on the ground, she leaned against the man.

It took a few moments before she stopped swaying enough she no longer felt ill. She forced a deep breath, then signed with her right hand. Fingers flat and thumb down, she used the side of her hand to tap her chest in an 'ok' for him as she looked around. Pale brown eyes squinted ineffectually as she tried to identify the source of the approaching sounds. She looked toward where she could see the faint outline of Miles. She could just barely make out the various shapes that made up the armor she had felt he wore before. She signed again to him, her finger tracing a hook, but this time she drew a tail straight down, in hopes he would understand that she was signing a question mark.

She turned her attention to the approaching sounds again, and then signed the mark to Miles once more.
 
She had definitely not been blinded completely. Miles was fairly sure that the young girl could see the approaching convoy of vehicles, which were hard not to notice given the sound along with the sight they produced. They would not have ventured out in the open like that if the bombardment had been still going on, of course, but now the planet was safe for the time being and there was no telling if the taelrikon have left any surprises on the ground. It was not in their usual tactical handbook as they preferred orbital bombardment, but one never knew where the devil lie in wait, or so the saying goes.

Nevertheless, Miles took a moment or two to get that Rare was signing a question mark, mostly because he was not sure what to make of her strange gestures or her demeanour. She was definitely not mute or deaf so why the hell did she do things like that? Never mind, there was a little girl to be reassured, then taken care of.

"They're allies," he said reassuringly with emotion clear in his voice. He was glad that his leg would finally be seen to, not to mention that the person he was rescuing would be finally reunited with her parents. It would most certainly be a heartwarming reunion, but he would make sure that the parents would get an earful too. How dare they leave her in the middle of chaos and endless devastation! What if they had been in the previous shelter, however? That... was a hard pill to swallow for Miles. He had not even considered that possibility back then, but it would make sense if she was left out in the streets that her caretakers would belong to that city, not this one.

Before he could wallow in misery, however, the familiar roar of engines reminded that he had a little bit of distance to walk.

"Right, let's go," he said as he started, but kept his eyes firmly on Rare. Could she walk by herself? He still was capable of it, but she seemed to have trouble standing just a few moments before.
 
Rare nodded, and continued to lean against him, gripping tight to what she assumed was his arm, based on position. She walked slowly at first, steps uncertain, before her balance grew more regular, and she no longer wobbled.

However, missing one shoe, she limped obviously on legs made uneven by the sheer fact that one foot had a protective sole and elevated heel, and one foot was bare, save for a knee-high white sock, marred now with dust, burns, and blood. Rare could already feel the bottom of her sock growing holes as she walked across the harsh ground of whatever hell-like place she had been sent.

At least she had the company of a kind man, but even then, and even with his confidence they would be safe, gnawing worry tore at her stomach. She wiped at her eyes one at a time with three fingers and tried to keep her breathing regular. Perhaps, if she made a good impression, things would go better? Crow always told her that punishment waited for the ugly. Once the tears were managed, Rare slowly began to straighten her skirt. She could feel the gaps in it, and the place where it was held in place entirely by the waistband. Her top was similarly ruined: charred spots, holes, and even through her gloves, she could feel the grit of dust.

It felt like her chest trembled as she forced a deep breath and kept walking, though her pace slowed slightly.
 
The girl seemed lost, confused, hurt and distressed, so Miles tried his best to support her by putting one of his hands onto her shoulders. He would have hugged her like he had some time ago, but now that another military division was close to them, he had to mantain some discipline even when it came to lost pre-teens who were partially blinded by fusion cannons. He was already skirting the rules as he was, but only because his weapons have either melted, ran out of ammunition or their electronics completely fried. Hopefully, the extraordinary circumstances would overwrite the regulations that required him to be armed to teeth when escorting unarmed civilians, but he did not have too long to think about the possible consequences.

Within a few moments, the unit he managed to contact stopped just about a hundred metres shy of them, their engines winding down to a subtle white noise of machinery. This was soon followed by a number of footsteps as they were promptly surrounded by a squad of soldiers mixed with medics. The latter had rather large, white armbands with a red cross on them, a symbol that Rare would probably recognise as belonging to people of healing. They did not approach her just yet, because the leader of the squad wanted to make sure that everything was in order first, so he stepped forward. He was wearing an armour similar to Miles', but his was clearly in better condition as it did not have dirt, burn marks or scratches on it.

"Staff Sergeant Miles Conner?" asked the man in a respectful, but also slightly suspicious tone as he lifted his faceplate and pointed his weapon at the ground, which looked as if it was constructed around its remarkably sizeable barrel.
"Yes, sir," responded Miles in a snappish and concise tone.
"Can you explain to me who this is and why you brought her here?"
"She is a civilian whom I found in Kalrina, like I said, sir. I think she is partially mute, so I could not get her name, sir."

That earned Rare a look from the person apparently in charge and despite her lack of clear vision, it was obvious that every atom of hers was being scrutinised. From her clothes to her worn-out appearance, there was not a single detail that the other man missed with his eyes. Unlike Miles, he was highly suspicious of something like this turning up in the middle of a devastated city, because how unlikely was it that a young preteen child could survive a fusion bombardment through sheer force of luck? She did not seem all that injured either, but she did carry the scent of the battlefield.

"You will be escorted to the shelter and there we will check her out," said the man in charge and the relief of Miles was almost palpable. He was sure to get a reprimand of some sorts of couse, but this meant he would not have his head shouted off at least.
 
Rare looked up towards the familiar blur, and then towards the unfamiliar and blinked, squinting to try to see better. Through the buzzing in her ears, she could hear them talking, and it was getting more clear as her body's healing of her senses overcame her willpower. Thankfully, her injuries on her skin remained, though that pain didn't bother her too much. Probably would hurt to heal more than it did to get hurt, due to the nature of being burnt.

She felt ready to collapse as Miles' relief only grew. She could smell how his fear dissipated more and more, even through his armor, and she gripped his arm more tightly as she lowered her head to the stranger who brought the man such relief, and then offered a curtsy. A spike of pain accompanied it, and her eyes twitched with discomfort before she straightened again and signed.

Fingertips of her flattened right hand rested near her lips and she dropped them forward toward the blur that offered an escort—a thank you.

She wasn't sure what to do, but go forward with her protector. She didn't want to leave the man, whose emotions she could smell so strongly, and who tried so hard to protect her. He reminded her of the doctor, Alsoome, back home, though Alsoome's emotions didn't smell so strong.
 
She definitely seemed mute. Though the hand sign was not recognised as none of the soldiers present could speak sign language, the commander seemed to loosen up at least a little bit... Even if there was something a little off about Rare. It was the way she looked at everything around her, as if she was not quite aware of her surroundings. It did not take him long to piece everything together: the effects of Fusion Cannons were well known to everyone within the Interstellar Human Republic and a child so injured was bound to take a hit that did at least superficial damage if not more. He would nevertheless interrogate this Miles person about her as soon as they returned to base then found someone to take care of her instead of her parents. Because as much as he wished to find them, they were likely dead, evaporated along with Kalrina itself.

"Come on," said Miles gently as the commander waved to them to follow, then he reconsidered. The poor thing seemed to be about to collapse, so the kind-hearted soldier chose to scoop her up into his arms and carry her to save her the effort of walking. He got quite a few disapproving looks because of that, but he did not care. Seeing a young girl in such a bleak condition reminded him of his family, his wife and more importantly, the children they had together. He had not seen them for a couple of months now, but thankfully, he would be likely let off the military for a little time until his leg recovered. Or until he forgot about today's attack. A shiver ran down the soldier's spine even as he placed Rare into a far more comfortable seat than before, though still obviously made for adult men. At least it was lined with softer fabrics and some sort of spongy material that made sure she would not get more bruises.

It did not take long for them to reach the shelter and all the while, Miles kept one of his hands on the pre-teen girl's shoulder. He wanted her to feel safe while they travelled, though the next part, he could not do much about. They would have to be separated for the medical exams and then, he would not see her ever again. At least it was not very likely.
"I'm sorry, but this is where we part ways," he said as he helped Rare out of the armoured vehicle and deposited her on the ground. "The doctors will check you all over and make sure you are all right, okay? They might be a little scary at first, but they mean well." Hopefully, that was enough to reassure Rare. Even this much was probably extremely unprofessional, but he just could not help it.
 
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