SKYNOM△D

[Ardent]

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skynomAd

// SCI-FI - FANTASY - ACTION/ADVENTURE //​

They did everything they could to stop the contamination, but it was too late. Earth was no longer home to the humans, nor was it ruled by them. Life on Earth had changed, evolved, into something sinister and deadly. The only hope for humanity's survival was written in the stars. Those who survived the contamination built a colony on the moon and, eventually, Mars, with the hope that they could rebuild civilization anew. Yet, there were a few that had to be left behind. It was a small price to pay for humanity's overall survival... or so they claimed.

Years passed before the first signs of trouble arose. There were some who, dissatisfied by the increasingly authoritarian government, rebelled. They fled to Earth or started wars against the colony. Meanwhile, a virus had also begun to spread.

There was one thing that could put an end to all this madness, but even those who'd discovered it remained oblivious to its true power. They called it Skynomad. It was a ship--that much was certain--but it had not been made by man. It was merely found, not created. Whoever built it had been lost to mystery.

However, they believed that Skynomad was the key to ending this war. It was a powerful weapon.

They just had to figure out how to use it.

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

"What do you know about Earth?"

Kai didn't know what he hated more, the hours of torture at the Inquisitor's hands, or the suffocating claustrophobia he endured while being interrogated in this white, windowless room. The withdrawals from Rapture merely worsened his condition.

He remained silent, staring blankly at the cuffs that bound his wrists. There must be a way to escape. His mission simply could not end here.

Every day, he kept his eyes and ears alert for even the briefest chance of freedom. Every day, he observed the guards and their patterns. He had sleepless nights, but something kept him going. A spark from within. They had cleansed his body from Rapture, but they had not cleansed him from hope.

Even now, he remained on alert, watching the Inquisitor's every move, although he tried to give nothing away. There were two things Kai knew for certain: first, that the Inquisitor hated silence and disobedience. Second, that the man enjoyed inflicting violence upon his prisoners. It was clear he did it--not for his job nor devotion to Glorian like he often claimed it was--but for himself and his own twisted desires.
"We already have your accomplices in custody. Your friend ratted you out, you know. In exchange for her life."

Kai raised his head ever so slightly, but no word came out of his mouth.

"The only reason you're still here with your head still screwed on, is because of the simple fact that I want to understand why. Why did you do what you did, Harlan? A brave veteran such as yourself, committing treason against the colony he swore an oath to protect? For the longest time, your comrades believed you were dead after the Montburry incident, but here you are. Alive and… er," He regarded the man's many augmentations, "...Mostly in one piece."

The audacity of this lying, manipulating bastard. Kai refused to believe that Violet had betrayed him. He trusted her more than he trusted himself at times.

No. This man was simply playing with his emotions, trying to break his sanity.

"We can lighten your sentence, you know. If you would just speak the truth now."

A few moments passed. The Inquisitor, finally having had enough of Kai's silence, stood up and gestured to the guards. The sudden movement caused Kai to wince.

"We'll continue this tomorrow," the Inquisitor said. Then, to the guards: "Take him to his cell."

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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nox

Tap, tap, tap
"That isn't helping me focus ya know?" Nox said from his crouching position. A panel was open in front of him and spilling wires everywhere, his fingers working to twist and reconnect wires.

"Shouldn't you have this open already, it's a door," Violet muttered, pausing in her tapping to begin pacing.

"Oh I'm sorry, I must have missed 'hacker' somewhere in my info file, let me just go add that nonexistent skill shall I?" Nox muttered, shooting the girl an irritated look..

"You work with Cybernetics, surely getting things to open is easy for you."

"I'd say I'm better at getting other things to open for me," Nox hinted, a cocky smirk beginning to curve at his cheek, at least until a hand whacked him in the back of the head.

"Focus damnit," Violet growled. She finally paused her pacing and opened her web link, checking if any problems had arisen since they'd started this madness. News on Glorian was the same as usual, curfew, rations for RX-11 and food and then a few brief emergency maintenance issues. Courtesy of her own handy work.

"Least the tapping stopped," Nox muttered to himself, peeking a glance at Violet from the corner of his eye. Looking as deep in thought as ever. How exhausting.

"Nox, I will strangle you if you don't get these doors open in the next five minutes," Violet warned, clicking her link closed. She cast a brief glance to the guards slumped against the wall, out cold.

They'd wasted too much time trying to locate this place, make a plan and finally enact it. Only problem was, the plan for after they freed Kai was still in the workshop, and time was a fragile thing, not to mention the inquisitors were unpredictable in their times, likely a tactic to throw Kai off.

"Voila!" Nox said when the door finally gave a beep as it unlocked.

"About time," Violet muttered. He'd been at it for nearly thirty minutes after they'd knocked the guards out. If they'd only been minutes earlier they could have just dealt with the guards and gotten out of there.

"A thank you wouldn't hurt," Upon receiving a hard glare he shut his mouth. He stepped to the side and waved his hand to the door.

Violet rolled her eyes and shoved the heavy metal door to the side, opening the sad excuse of a cell. "'Ello princess," Nox said as he leaned around to look into the room, never able to keep his mouth shut for longer than five minutes.

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

He sat on the cold floor, feet and hands bound, eyes closed. It was so quiet here that Kai was almost convinced he had gone deaf. He preferred Nox's endless chatter to this sound vacuum. It made him acutely aware of the discomfort around his wrists, and the shadow of pain that lingered like a ghost over his body. Even though the torture had been virtual, the pain had felt real. And there was nothing to distract him from the memory.

Just then, he heard something with his keen inhuman ears. The sound of voices. Muffled but distinguishable. Soon enough, metal scraped against metal. He lifted his gaze to familiar, welcome faces.

"I miss the silence already," he deadpanned upon Nox's greeting, a hint of a smile curving upon his lips--barely noticeable to most, but obvious if you knew him well enough. "Think you can magic these cuffs away for me, Nox? The guards will be rounding that corner in three minutes. We need to hurry."
Neither Violet nor Nox had any time to react when Kai suddenly picked up the sound of urgent footsteps.

"Make that 30 seconds," he amended, "Nox, please tell me you disabled all the cameras and sensors." He felt himself sighing as he said this, as if he already knew the answer.

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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nox

"Kai!" Nox exclaimed as if actually hurt by his words. "You wound me," He said with a dramatic hand resting against his heart. "I know you missed the delightful melody of my voice," He said with a wide grin.

He stepped past Violet into the room, while she anxiously checked down the halls, they hadn't exactly done extensive research before deciding on their prison break. Though Violet had managed to find details that would be vital, didn't mean Nox had been completely effective in his part.

"Sure thing Princess, let me just twist your arm off eh," He quipped, moved over to him, ready to do just that. "Come on Princess, you know I don't work well under pressure," He said with a pout, not appreciating the pressure of vanishing time.

"Are you actually an idiot?" Violet demanded, quickly coming into the room, pulling a vial of rapture from her pocket.

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

"20 seconds," Kai warned urgently as Nox prattled on. "Do you at least have Rapture on you--"

But Violet was already ahead of him. Kai took the vial immediately. With some effort, he managed to twist the cap off. He downed the contents of the vial, before letting the now-empty container fall to the ground. It did not take long for the drug to take effect. Suddenly, his dulled senses grew stronger. And he felt stronger. So strong that--

Crack

With sheer power alone he could break his cuffs. He stood up.

"Thanks, Vi," He said, as he stooped over the toilet and ripped it off the floor with his bare hands. Water erupted from the broken pipes, but Kai paid no mind to them, instead flinging the toilet against the first two guards that entered the room.

"Well that's a shitty situation," he remarked dryly as he approached the guards, lifting the toilet from their crumpled bodies and dropping it once more for good measure.

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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nox

A small snort of amusement came from Nox at Kai's remark. He kind of wished he'd thought of it first. "Unlike you guys, I'm not a fighter...I'm a lover…" He said, slipping out behind Kai. "So I'm a firm believer of flight rather than fight."

As if to prove that point, he tripped over the two disabled guards that Violet had taken down earlier in their mission..

"If you hadn't noticed Nox, our escape is that way," Violet said, gesturing to the oncoming guards. She grabbed his arm, giving him a tug, helping him back to his feet.

"Here, just use this, aim, fire, easy enough right?" She said as she handed him her tas gun. She moved forward to help Kai while Nox looked at the simple weapon in his hand. He personally despised them. He didn't inflict damage, he fixed it.

He levelled out the weapon, closing one eye to help his aim on the approaching guards before pulling the trigger. When the weapon didn't immediately go off, he frowned. Giving it a shake then smacking the side of it. It suddenly went off in a spray of white and blue light and hit Kai right in the ass. "Oh fuck!"

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

Kai immediately jumped from the shock, glancing back and shooting Nox an annoyed look.

"Just drop it, Nox. Weapons turn into safety hazards when you're using them," he said, picking up two discarded guns near the men he'd killed earlier.

There was an ominous click as he turned off the safety switch. He aimed one of the guns in Nox's direction and fired. Thump. A body crumpled on the ground behind the unsuspecting boy.

"You're welcome," Kai said before turning to Violet. "Heads up!"

The spare gun arced in the air with an inhumanly graceful position, a feat only possible with Rapture and augmentations. It was a good thing he had a bit of both.

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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nox

Nox stared at Kai, his eyes as wide as they could go. "R-right, yeah," He said, flushed and felt mildly embarrassed though in his defence they should have known better, they both knew him well enough.

A small squeal left Nox as Kai's gun fired in his direction. He flung his hands up, gun falling from his hands as a body flopped behind him. He was about to breathe a sigh of relief that his friend hadn't in fact shot him in retaliation, though he shouldn't have expected that to begin with.

His own weapon went off when it finished clattering against the ground, shooting him right in the leg. His whole body spasmed, legs giving out and sending him flopping on top of the guard who Kai had shot. "S-s-s-so-son o-o-of aaa-ah b-b-itch," He stuttered out, still jerking. How the fuck was Kai still on his feet.

Of course the two of them had to have their epicly flawless moment of gun toss and catch. Clearly well accustomed to working with each other. Violet didn't even hesitate before firing the gun.

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

"Is that deliberate? It's starting to feel deliberate," Kai remarked, a smirk betraying his usually stony demeanor. "Need some help, princess?" Nox might not know how to fight, but he certainly made things more entertaining. He scooped up Nox from the ground, carrying him bridal style.

Within minutes, Kai and Violet had cleared the hallway. Kai immediately set off at a run. It wouldn't be long until reinforcements came to greet them. In fact, gauging from the blaring alarms, he estimated they had a mere few minutes to escape the prison.

Fortunately, Kai had made good use of his time in the week or so of his imprisonment. He had some knowledge of the general geography of the area, although of course that wasn't quite enough to ensure their freedom. Still, it gave them a good chance of escaping.

Or so he thought.

Upon turning a sharp corner, he found himself gazing upon not one, but two giants. He'd never seen men so huge. They were perhaps 10 feet tall, if they weren't apelike in their posture. He'd barely registered the sight, when one of the creatures grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall. Kai groaned, cursing himself internally for not activating his optic augmentations. He'd gotten them for the purpose of being able to see through walls. Now he'd missed the opportunity. Fortunately, Nox had slipped from his arms and flopped to the ground. Unfortunately, the other giant loomed over him.

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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nox

Nox made a dramatic sound of protest when he was scooped from the ground by Kai. He was still spasming and couldn't exactly use his feet to follow them both. However he'd gotten a handle on his voice at least. "No leave me to die here," He said with his usual dramatic flair. Violet gave him a brief glance of irritation as she stashed spare charges into the back of her pants.

However, when Kai didn't put him down, doing the good friend thing he supposed, he decided to let him enjoy just a little of the embarrassment along with him. He wrapped his twitching arm around his neck and patted his cheek with the other. "You could never, you'd miss me too much." He grinned at him. .

Of course their escape couldn't have been easy after that, nothing was ever that easy. Nox released a grunt as he landed on the ground while Kai hit the wall. Violet immediately lifted her gun, firing at the thing pinning Kai by his neck.

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

There was an audible succession of thwacks as the bullets made contact with flesh and muscle. However, the bullets did nothing but merely agitate the beasts even more. The giant pinning Kai to the wall released its hold, turning instead to Violet. The other beast had also shifted its attention away from Nox.

Kai gasped for air and felt for his neck. The beast had left noticeable dents on it. If he had had a human neck, it would likely have been crushed by now. And he would be dead. From decapitation, most likely.

He struggled to get up. Even Rapture did not make him immune to such an attack. Clearly brute force would not be effective against these beasts. Bullets had no effect, either. Yet they seemed easily distracted, and they were sluggish in their movements.

Any weakness was good enough.

"Keep shooting them! And Nox, get out of the way!" Kai yelled, then started climbing up the back of the giant that had nearly crushed his neck just minutes before.

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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violet

Violet backed up as the focus shifted to her, two hulking creatures both coming at her. She didn't need to be told twice to fire, in fact the pistol was already firing before Kai had even finished speaking. Not that it did anything but keep the focus on her.

She spared a brief glance towards Nox, who managed to crawl himself a small distance away, behind the things. He really was useless in a fight especially against these things...whatever they were.

"Kai!" She warned, backing up another step, the one he clung to was getting closer. The other one was coming up on Kai and the one she fired at looking as though it was ready to pummel Kai.

Her gun gave a click, letting her know the charge was empty, she quickly scrambled to reload it, trying to keep her focus on both the two giants and Kai as well as any potential danger coming for Nox. Clearly she was trying to focus on too many things at once.

Just as the fresh round slid into her gun reading for renewed firing, a wall of muscle slammed into her side, flinging her from her feet and into the wall. She felt like she'd been hit by a cruiser and that was with her suit absorbing the brunt of the attack.

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ardent]

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kAi

Kai swore under his breath as he tried to maintain his grip on the beast. He could feel the other giant staring at his back. Just in time, he looked back to see its large fist coming down on him.

Well, at least he didn't have to try and get its attention. Kai let go at the very last second, and the giant's fist landed on the other beast's neck. Kai hit the ground and rolled onto his back, knocked out of his breath. It took him a few seconds before he could muster up the strength to stand up again. He could feel his Rapture running low. He could only hope that his plan worked, or none of them would get out of this alive.

The beast that had been punched in the neck roared in anger, turning towards its partner with a fist raised. For now, at least, they had managed to turn the two giants against each other.

Kai rushed to Violet's aid, placing her arm around his neck to help her stand.

"Can you walk?" He asked. There was concern in his voice, although his face betrayed nothing.

@Ghostly Boo

Overclouds - Uppermost

 

[Ghostly Boo]

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violet

Violet grimaced slightly, getting to her feet with Kai's help. She leaned heavily against him for a moment, steadying her legs and holding an arm around her middle, the pressure helping the ache somewhat. "Yeah, I can walk," She muttered.

She cast a hard look towards the fighting giants, wishing she had a few more moments to study them in case they had to face them again in the future. Turning them against each other was a clever idea and worked well, but it wouldn't be realistic if the group was bigger than two.

She pulled herself from Kai, too stubborn to lean on him for too long. "Let's get out of here while we can. Get off the ground, Nox," She muttered, moving past the raging things as Nox scrambled to his feet more than happy to lead the way out of there. She wasn't so sure there were any other options besides getting off planet.

@Adrian

Overclouds - Uppermost