Warp Whistle

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

There was a haze in Amea’s eyes that lingered from the way her face had struck against the wall. Her cheek felt like it was starting to bruise up and needless to say that when Runi reached out towards her Amea couldn’t really help but wince. Her shoulder wasn’t particularly thankful either. She could thank the force she was alive, but she sure as hell wasn’t without the pain. It pulsed through her torso, her cheeks, and the girl would be lying if she said it didn’t hurt when Runi also touched against it.

The stoic stare grew even worse as the words ‘Don’t hate me for this.’ Those were the words that had started it all. Amea closed her eyes and tried her best to clear her mind. A brightly shining was cast out before her with a sharp glow and calm, yet the tendrils that reached out for it was a dark foggy cloud that tried to drown it out. Like a corrupting shade it wrapped itself around the ball to drown it out, yet the shine still glowed underneath its surface.

Imagery of a blonde girl no older than fourteen appeared before them. In her arms laid a child, blood draining from her body at an alarming rate. Large creatures encroached upon the scene and in that the light finally began to rip through the scene. A bright shining light to tear the darkness away and make it dissapate into nothingness and let the beacon bond between them shine through.

But if Amea had thought the light was bright at first there was really no describing it as it expanded. It grew brighter, blinding and in it the headache that Runi had promised began to spread across the side of Amea’s head with a sharp tension. A grunt parted her lips. Breathing intensified through gritted teeth.

“Fek. You weren’t lying.” The pain continued to push against her mind. “There was a—”

She couldn’t help but let out a muffled scream into her hands.

“A scene.” She inhaled and exhaled. “From my childhood.”

“You didn’t see that, did you?”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

Two became one, one became two.

Runi slumped against the woman as the connection came to an end, suddenly feeling each and every bruise, every cut and every lick of exhaustion from the last few hours magnified ten fold. But even that was preferable to the empty, hollow sensation that was left behind the wake of Amea's departure. The raw emotion of the brunette a stark contrast to the almost habitual numbness that had come to define the salvager's existence these last few years. Or perhaps even longer than that; she couldn't remember the last time she had felt even a fraction of what she had experienced in Amea's memory fragments. The shear intensity of it all dwarfing anything she had felt when connecting with Cerita.

A scene from a childhood, huh?

Her eyes stung and her vision blurred. A foreign wet sensation creasing the lines of the spacer's cheeks as she just hung there, almost lifeless trying to catch a ragged breath between labored gasps. Trying to piece together whatever the kark she just witnessed, all while her ears and skull rang like she'd just gone five rounds in the shockboxing ring. The latter feeling at least six sizes too small for the brain it currently housed.

"I don't know what I saw." She replied honestly, somehow managed to lift her head up right, albeit with no small amount of visible effort on her part. Ignoring the disorientation that even that generated. And the feeling of feeling of intense loneliness that seemed to grow worse in the pit of her stomach now that they were even further apart. She gritted her teeth. This type of osik was precisely why she didn't want to get involved. "And it won't matter one way or the other if we don't get out of here."

Both eager and yet paradoxically reluctant to put distance between them, she forced herself to release the lock on her belt's line. Fortunately, descending didn't require much concentrated effort or superhuman willpower to get the job done. Gravity did the nexu's share of the work, all she had to do was wrap her hand wire to keep herself steady. The beskar weave in the palm far more reliable than any gloved protection. Didn't seem to help the nausea she was still feeling from the residual effects of the link.

The upside to all this gloom, if she vomited right now, no one would likely know.

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

In the end perhaps Runi hadn’t been wrong about what she said when Amea had compared herself to a tool. She had always been a person driven by a sense of purpose, yet with all the events that had transpired over the last few years and months alone she had felt more out of touch with herself and who she was than ever. Her reason to be a Warden was all for the purpose it gave her and how she could help people. Nothing about the pay or the people she helped, she just wanted a purpose or someone to be there for. That was the world she had known for such a long time and now it was gone.

“Good.” She nodded at Runi and began to ease herself down the line. “And agreed.”

Alone. Perhaps that was the best word to describe her in the end. Who did Amea really have anymore except her family? The part about not being ditched by her mentor was more or less a half-truth, and at this point they were pretty much bound to conversations through the net. There were occasions when they met and got together but most of those had been by pure luck, and truth told it made it all the more terrifying to think about.

She had a single person outside her family that she could rely on and now that person was gone because that was what Amea had felt was the right thing to do. She regretted it, yet it was the right thing. Now all she did was to do her job, go back home to her parents and then rinse repeat. That was the life, that was what she signed up for. She never had been one to make many friends, but this lack of them still affected her.

So if that meant superficial friendship, someone who merely had a use for her, that was by many measures okay. She wasn’t the perfect tool, but she could at the very least admit to being one.

“... I’m sorry about what I said up there.” Amea finally spoke as they went low. “It wasn’t my place to blow up like that, or question you.”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

"No, it wasn’t." Runi replied with her particular brand habitual bluntness, obviously intending to end the subject there without further discussion. It came as a surprise then, even to her, when the she opened her mouth a second time. More so for the words that tumbled forth. “I’m sorry, too, for what it’s worth. I shouldn’t have acted the way I did. You were only trying to…”

She grimaced, clearly uncomfortable. How the flying feth did people apologize all the time?

More to the point, why was she suddenly attempting to?

Runi had gone almost a full lifetime trying to avoid this very situation. Taking responsibility for her actions was one thing, but actually expressing her regret and outwardly acknowledging her failings was not something she was cut for. It smacked as weaknesses. Something that was deadly out here on the Outer Rim, where everyone and everything was playing an angle, sizing you up and looking to take advantage of even the smallest cracks. The suddenly change her attitude…

“Oh, feth. You’re in my head." She blinked, her descent slowing as she reflexively clenched the line with her hand at the sudden realization. It was the only explanation that made sense; Runi Verin did not apologize. She kept things under tight wraps. She didn’t let herself feel whatever the kark this was. It explained the reluctance to put distance them, something she was more than keen to do but a few minutes ago. That link must have affected her far more than she realized. More than a simple case of a headache and a front row seat to the other woman’s trauma.

She twisted and stared up almost accusative towards the other woman, searing anger flashing surging through her veins like molten lead, seemingly undeterred by the fact it was at least partially her own fault this had happened. “The kark did you do to m----”

As if drawn by the sound of their voices, the entrance to the floor nearest the pair suddenly crumpled and screamed a metallic protest as a set of thick, blunt robotic digits forced their way through the gap between them and ripped the doors from their hinges. A broad face loomed into the shaft, it’s countenance as familiar as it was unwelcome.

“INTRUDERS LOCATED. RESUMING ELIMINATION PROCEDURES.”

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

Wait, that was an apology given in return. Amea blinked at the other woman for a second having been quite certain that the one who would be apologizing was just Amea herself and then they would move on. They continued their descent and Amea just remained quiet until finally the silence was broken again.

Wait, what did she mean that Amea was in her head? The silence grew tense as a distinct anger began to boil under her skin. An anger that didn't feel like it was hers, at least not all of it. Amea's brows furrowed at the accusation that she had somehow caused this to happen. If anyone had done anything it was Little Mrs. Mentalism and her bright idea on how to pull Amea out of her little Dreamworld Gone Bad scenario. The blame wasn't even remotely on Amea, she had simply tried to accept what was offered. Now, not only was she having a migraine about it but also being accused of the repercussions?

"Me?!" She exclaimed loudly, angrily. "I didn't--"

Yet the silence was torn apart in the most literal of senses as their pursuer managed to track them down. Doors pried open and Amea glared at the door with surprise and lingering anger. This thing needed to die then, there was no doubt about that. Obviously there never had been any, the fether was dead the moment it woke up. It was all about how they would actually go about making it a reality too.

"Fek off!" Amea shouted and kicked against the wall to swing out of reach from the monster's reach. "We were--"

She was interrupted by the wall to the shaft itself getting torn open by a tackle of proportions she had not expected of the war machine before them. A loud shriek of metal and the components hidden behind it echoed up and down the elevator shaft accompanied by the increasingly sparse sound of the old wall tumbling on down the shaft.

The war machine did not care for organic sensitivities then.

Amea glanced down. It would be like jumping into the jaws of a shark. Up was the only way to buy themselves the time they needed to get anywhere, or at the very least find safety. Yet at the same time, through the anger still circulating through her veins, she knew that this ship had to be destroyed. It was too dangerous to have it risk falling into the wrong hands, and something about the way the big one seemed to purge any and all organic life it came across made her think that perhaps that was what the scientists who had worked here had agreed on as well.

Then, as if to add salt in their wounds a distinct red glare began to fall at a rapid pace towards them. A flare dropped by someone up above.

"Whose cables are those?" A vague voice echoed, barely audible over the machine.

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

If Runi’s temper had felt like molten lead before, having it reflected back at her with the addition of Amea’s own ire almost pushed it to volcanic levels. Her teeth flashing in the gloom as her leaps peeled back in the vestige stages of a snarl, bearing their visible anger towards the other woman and the world at large. Neatly diverted from its initial target by the interrupting presence of that blasted War Droid. They’d obviously dallied longer than she realized if it had managed to so quickly overtake, making her wonder just how long she had spent caught up in that mindscape.

Her hand reached impulsively for her tomahawk before she stopped herself. It wouldn’t have done much earlier against that blasted thing and it certainly wouldn’t do much now. With military grade plating that thick augmenting its dark metallic hide, she might as well throw rocks at it for all the good it would do her.

The only thing they could do now was retreat back up the shaft, maybe loop back and hope it was a touch slower on the journey ba---

She blinked, almost owlishly as a red light streaked past her face. Her gaze tracking it with an almost detached sense of curiosity, her anger temporarily frozen by shear surprise as she watched it fall. The smoking red stream lighting the way to alternate possibilities, revealing the presence of a turbolift car as it tumbled and twisted down the shaft before hitting the bottom where it sat as a poignant reminder of just how far they had to fall if they weren’t careful.

Like the droid, it seemed their competitors had taken advantage of their delay.

How could the day get any worse?

“Who the kriff is that? That’s not Allen’s te---”

Ever eager to introduce itself, the droid’s head twisted almost excitedly as it found new, additional prey in which to execute its beloved directives on. “IDENTIFYING ADDITIONAL TARGETS. DESIGNATING SECONDARY PRIORITY. MOVE TO ENGAGE ONCE PRIMARY TARGETS HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED. INTRUDERS MUST BE ELIMINATED.”

“Yeah, you and what army, pateesa? Gorj! Bring me up the rocket launcher. We’ll slag this motherkarker and those wermo cheekas at the same time.”

Oh, that’s how.

If heading back up was no longer an option…

Her lips pursed as she glanced back down. It was at least good forty feet and some change to the nearest lift car. Fifty at an absolute maximum; roughly a five storey fall. A fatal height to most near-humans, but they didn’t have the added advantage of the Force to help mitigate the drop. It was the angle that would be the hardest to pull off. With the War Droid in between her and the car, slipping through its meaty fingers would be almost impossible. Unless…

Her gaze shifted towards the turbolift car. It's twin likely sat at the top of the shaft, out of reach and beyond use at the moment, but that one. That one she could use.

“You trust me?” The words came out clipped and harsh, Runi’s earlier anger at the other woman redirected yet still present. Gnawing away at the edges of her self-control as she fumbled with the catch on her belt. Right now they had bigger issues to handle than each other. She gave her line a tug while she was waiting for answer; knowing that regardless of how the brunette responded she was still going to have to do something if she wanted to get out of this force-forsaken ship alive. Her legs extending and contracting in rapid succession to build up the start of a swing.

The clasp gave a surprised click as it came undone at the apex of her swing. Tossing her into the the side of the shaft feet first, her knees already bending with the anticipated impact so that her body coiled like a spring, unfolding before the ravages of gravity could begin to catch up with what had just happened. The duracrete cracking slightly as she threw the force behind the leap, vaulting head over heels, her feet narrowly missing the droid’s swipe as she slipped through its grasp and fell the remaining twenty feet.

It would have looked like an impressive feat of agility and gymnastics if she had managed to stick the landing. As it was, she had miscalculated her vector by a few degrees, her boots barely landing on the edge of the car’s roof and forcing her to stumble and roll forwards in order to avoid joining the fizzling flare at the bottom of the shaft. A sharp, burning pain lanced up from her ankle. An intense agony that spider-webbed up her calves. She didn’t have time to dwell on it, barely allowing herself the opportunity to curse under her breath before she was hauling herself across the top of the car. Grabbing hold of the safety bars to secure herself before thrusting out an expectant hand.

The bond pulsed with a need for that earlier question.

Do you trust me?

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

The anger welled up in an uncomfortable way. Amea knew deep down it wasn’t hers, yet at the same time it felt like it had always been there. It was like a habitual sense of keeping herself safe, like she needed this extra kick just to ensure that the others didn’t get close. Not quite, but for someone who had never felt this before it was the best way to describe it. There was apprehension and hurt behind it. Sure, the anger simmered down as the flare passed by, but that hardly said a whole lot. It was natural to be curious at the sight of something falling down a turbolift shaft.

Eyes wandered up towards the top of the shaft only to catch glimpse of a man poking his head out before retracting it again. The day was just getting stranger and stranger. Her eyes kept peering up expecting that rocket to send them to their deaths any moment now, but it would seem that never came. Not yet at least. Amea glanced around trying to find ways to slow them down.

Well, there was another turbolift car…

Amea was torn from her planning by a single question. A very simple one at that yet one that caught her by surprise nonetheless. Did she trust Runi? It was a relative question, but given the situation there was only the one answer. An answer she couldn’t provide without a hesitant skip of her heartbeat.

“Yeah, of course.” The words parted her lips almost as if on instinct. The anger within seemed to simmer down and become a sense of worry where it had just a few seconds ago been a firestorm.

As the other woman leapt Amea felt her hand reach out for her before it pulled back. She watched as the war machine just barely missed her, took in the sight of the way she hit against the turbolift and caused her to fall down to the bottom. A sharp pain crushed against Amea’s own calves and with it the worry for her friend’s well-being began to take up the forefront and center of her own mind. At least until the worry shfited back into frustration at the situation.

This wasn’t ideal, this was almost anything but ideal, but the effort had to be made to shift it back in their favor. The only way forward was to go down, and down wasn’t exactly a stroll in the park. The idea of going up wasn’t exactly ideal either. From below she heard the way the machine thrummed and shivered in anticipation of the second woman’s fall down the shaft. Yet from above she heard the arming of a rocket launcher.

It was now or never. Amea’s hand reached for the turbolift at the top to try and unhinge it from the shaft. She pushed against the wall and began her free fall. Her eyes closed to focus on the here and now, to block out the rest of the world and all its distractions. There was a small chance this could go wrong.

Actually no, that was a lie. There were so many ways that this could go wrong.

Amea fell, her hand extended to clasp against Runi’s with a heavy strain. Yet in the moment there was no doubt about what was about to happen.

“That other shaft is falling right for us.” Amea said and stared up in horror. “Get me up, get me up, get me up!”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

Her shoulder put forward a serious and noteworthy set of objections as she caught Amea’s outstretched hands, with the gratification of knowing the other woman trusted her so implicitly becoming a small consolation when compared to the sudden burden her additional weight posed. Jaw knotting with the simple exertion of trying to keep her arm from popping from its joint like a cheap action figure’s. Even the breath she had been unknowingly holding in while watching the brunette fall came out as a form of wordless protest, escaping as a sharp hiss between her clenched teeth.

How the flying kark did someone so apparently lithe manage to weigh this much?

Fortunately for her, Runi was interrupted by a scream from above before she could lend voice to such an inappropriate question. Instead she found herself morbidly distracted watching the rocket wielding mercenary, with a damnable triumphant and smug look plastered across his face as he brought his weapon to bear, suddenly discover the same universal truth she had only seconds ago learnt herself. Gravity is one hell of a ruthless mistress. As evidenced by the way the second turbolift sheared through him like a hot knife through butter, barely even slowing down as it plummeted down the shaft at a breakneck speed.

The War Droid fared a little better. With its military grade, reinforced chassis and powerful motivators driving its limbs, the poor thing actually thought a chance at catching the turbolift car. Almost eagerly reaching upwards, arms out stretched, ready to take the load. As it was, it only really succeeded in buying Runi a few more precious milliseconds to haul Amea up and on top of her before the droid was cleaved apart as easily as mercenary before it.

She shut her eyes, screwing them closed tightly as the car whipped past them on its final leg of the journey. Wincing at the thunderous boom it made as it impacted heavily and all but exploded across the bottom of the shaft. Their own turobolift car shaking worryingly from the kinetic energy that was released.

“Let’s go ahead and agree to never do that again, ‘lek?” She panted, a sardonically amused smirk playing out across those pained and sweat coated features. Relief at being alive washing away the anger, her adrenaline similarly being replaced by a wave of exhaustion that saw head drop back onto the top of the roof with a gentle thud. “Or better yet, just swear off takin’ the lift altogether.”

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

Knees met with the wall to try and help with the pull up and into safety. In the end they managed. The powerful push of force as the turbolift passed them by was enough to rattle their own car with a frightening shiver. A few moments passed before the inevitable bottom was found with a loud boom. Amea’s mind still rushed from the sensation of putting her life in the literal hand of a stranger, and with it she had found that her gamble paid off. At this point it no longer mattered whether Runi wanted it or not, they were friends. The easy solution would have been to leave Amea to her fate, but Runi had chosen not to.

It took another few moments for the woman to realize where she was too. Weary arms pushed her off the ground only to find herself towering above the woman that had saved her. Brown locks of hair filled her field of vision and created the illusion of coming to the end of a tunnel in which nothing but her savior was in sight. It brought an amused smile to her lips that threatened to cleave her cheek. There were many who would pay for a view like, and yet here she was, and the woman below her was—

Nope, not going there.

Amea rolled over on her back next to Runi before she too looked up at the abyss. From up above she could see the shadows of life from where the mercs had dropped their flares, seemingly arguing over what the hell they were supposed to do now while the big droid had withdrawn at the loss of its limbs. For the time there was a moment to breathe and Amea would take it in full.

Her chest rose and sunk to let in as much air as she could muster before she rolled her head to look over at Runi.

“I am never going to say anything bad about stairs ever again.” She whispered through an exhale and looked back up at the doors where their robotic friend had been. “Maybe if we’re quiet,” She panted. “We can get them to take each other out and we can take out the loser?”

“Or we wait, pray the big guy is gone, and see about claiming that payday it was guarding.” She pushed herself up from the cold metal roof of the turbolift and pushed up against the shaft walls. “As long as we don’t wait for too long.”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

Framed beneath the dark curtain of Amea's tresses, the spacer's heart almost skipped a beat as their eyes met in the artificial gloom. Momentarily caught off guard by the sudden spark of emotion that flickered between them. An indescribable pull that surged through the bond like lightening in a bottle. Flickering and dancing across her skin, only to unexpectedly vanish as quickly as it had appeared. Jarring Runi back to reality with no small amount of confusion and bewilderment over what had just transpired between them.

At the same time having the phantom inkling that whatever that was, whatever that moment might have been, it wasn't for her. Not really. She was just a convenient reminder of something else - someone else - in that instance. With everything else simply a matter of attraction by proxy and the heat of the moment. Making it both flattering and yet mildly insulting all at the same time. Like a tender caress and a slap all at once.

She snorted softly, giving a tired shake of her head. Too spent in that second to really care. All she wanted to do was to crawl into the nearest bunk, preferably her own, and sleep for about a week. Maybe two.

"I say we ride this all the way back up to the top." She murmured almost drowsily, giving an undignified grunt as she propped herself up on her elbows so that she could get a better view of their surroundings. The mercenaries would still be an issue, but hopefully with the droids aware of their presence, they'd be too preoccupied trying to hold them off to really give a damn about two itinerant spacers. "I'd love to get my hands on that isotope, but I also have this strange desire to keep on' breathin'. They're welcome to duke out over it while we make our escape."

She frowned, reaching up to the handle to yank herself into a more upright position. Not so much ignoring the pain the movement brought about, but embracing it. Using it to lend herself a sense of clairty and chase away some of the exhaustion she felt. "Then again, I'd hate to see either of these motherkarkers get their hands on it."

She reached for her belt, almost slipping forward as she found her hand coming up with nothing. A bitter note hitting the corners of her mouth as she realized it was still hanging up there, somewhere near the middle of the shaft, dangling freely where she'd disengaged it. They'd have to make a stop along the way it seemed. The first of two if she had her way. "The feel up to doin' your party trick a few more times? I ain't about to let these droids roam free, and I ain't about to let these mercs get their hands on that much isotope-5. People that gun friendly ain't exactly the type you wanna be carryin' around somethin' that explosive...."

"... Which incidentally loops into my plan, with us takin' out three birds with one stone."

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

Up to the top, huh? Amea felt the pain in her nose for each moment that passed them by and the pain only got worse the longer she waited around. Yet it was just as nice to grant herself this moment of rest before they went back up there and their imminent escape that would most likely be as bothersome as the rest of this entire ordeal had already been.

"Destroy the isotopes, destroy the droid, and destroy the ship." Amea let out another brief chuckle at the idea. "Sounds like something I had in mind."

Her back pushed away from the wall and towards the center of the turbolift itself and motioned for Runi to do the same. It was mainly to minimize any risk for injuries. After all, the last time she had tried to do anything with one of these lifts it had fallen off of the rails and cleaved through not just a man but a big scary droid as well. There was a necessity in her caution and they both probably understood that.

"Arms and legs within the confines of the vehicle, please." Amea whispered with a grin and began their ascent towards the top. The familiar hiss of a lift on its way along its track began to sweep into the shaft with a haunting echo of rust and the occasional gap in its track. It would surprise her if the other parties wouldn't become aware of her going about it like this, but then again there was no saying where they were either.

The sound of blaster fire did ring from somewhere, but over the sound of the elevator and with the speed they were going upwards it was hard to really pinpoint where it was coming from. Wherever they were they had met with the guardian at this point and it sounded like an equal fight at this point.

The command deck came up and the lift stopped. The only thing that separated them from the run of their lives at this point was the slight gap between the lift and the doors. Amea let her focus go of the lift with a smile to her. From the sounds, they were at least a level below them now.

"We should be somewhat safe." Amea said and stood up, offering a hand up for Runi on habit. "It sounds like they are preoccupied elsewhere."

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

Runi reached out to steady herself as the turbolift jolted back into life, placing her hand on Amea's shoulder in order to do so. Her jacket smelled of charred spacer leather, her cybernetic arm would need a new touch up, her ankle was likely busted from the way it seemed to scream every time she tried to put her full weight on it, and her head still rang from bashing it underneath that blasted console. Oh, and as if to cap it all off, her nose seemed to ache with a phantom pain for reasons that she wasn't even going to acknowledged. As galling as it might have been to rely on someone else, even for a moment, the last thing the Kiffar spacer needed right now was to add further insult to injury by falling the rest of the way down the shaft. These last few months behind a desk had obviously made her soft.

"Give the mercs enough of a countdown and warnin' for them to run for the hills, but not enough time to try and grab the Isotope." Runi agreed as the lift continued on its upward passage, swaying back slightly only to grab her discarded utility belt, still hanging where she'd left it, as they passed. She left the grapple line where it was. They wouldn't have time to collect it now, and she honestly didn't want to have to use it again anyway. Not for a while at least. "From the way that war droid was talkin', I'm guessin' they're not programmed to think too outside of the box. They'll try to protect their project right up until it explodes in their faces."

It might have stung her professional pride to let such a salvageable treasure slip through her fingers, but it beat the alternative of letting the mercenaries get their grubby little hands on it. More importantly, the droids needed to be dealt with here and now, before more spacers were lured into this death trap of a vessel with the whispered promises of riches. She might not have been half the Warden Jacaro had hoped she would become, but she still enough of one to recognize the obvious responsibility both she and Amea had in that regard.

"You realise the last time we figured we were 'somewhat safe', we met Destructo 5000 down there, 'lek?" Runi replied as she took Amea's hand, wincing slightly as she hopped the gap across to the command deck. Her ankle again becoming vocal in its protests. A little pain might have brought a sense of clarity and focus, but this would be distracting. She embraced the force; pushing the pain away until it became a dull, throbbing storm cloud on the far distant horizon. It would be back with the mother of all vengeance later, but for now she could at least put her weight on the injured limb once more. "Most mercenaries are professional cowards by trade. If those droids are puttin' up even a lick of a fair fight, we're bound to meet a few stragglers along the way."

She clipped her belt back on, adjusting it so the akaa'gai was close to hand. "How far is your ship? With this much Isotope-5 on board, you really don't wanna be anywhere close when it finally goes off. We'll need to give ourselves plenty of time to make that final dash."

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

In the end it was Amea who seemed better off. Her entire torso hurt from the impact against the turbolift's side. Her nose had stopped running bloody from the impact against the wall. In terms of who was feeling their current disposition the most, it looked like Runi was the one who had the pained bragging rights for this one. If one would brag about injury that is.

Worry spiked at the sight of Runi's injuries yet it was clear that she would be able to push through them just fine. It wasn't exactly an ideal situation but it was the hand they had been dealt and the only hand that they could play. Amea was certainly not strong enough to carry Runi for any greater distance and something told her that the other woman wouldn't even want her to do that to begin with.

And if the situation was awkward at first...

"The idiots I came here with thought I wanted them to take off when I arrived." Well, that was a half-lie. They had been instructed to return later but Runi could live without knowing that. "Scared of the ruins, I guess."

"Blow the ship up and they will assume I am a casualty, and I can live with that." Amea grunted as she skipped over and through the doors to where Runi was. "So this is our plan then: Grab a comm device, rig this place to blow, make for the exit, aaand let them know maybe a minute or two into the count?"

The uninjured brunette took the lead. The command center was close from what she could remember. It meant they would have to pass the chamber with their old friends in it but perhaps that was for the better as well. They had no intentions of killing the fools after all. Except that one guy, but that was more of an unfortunate casualty than anything.

Or well, so Amea could hope.

"I vote we make a go for your ship." Amea cleared her throat to stave off the embarrassment. "I uh, think that would be a lot smoother."

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

There was a beat of incredulity.

"Wait, you came here to salvage and you don't even have a ship?" That wasn't just poor planning, that was borderline stupid. For all she knew, the crew she paid to drop her off could've just run off with the cash and called it a day. "You know for a Warden, you really don't get out that much, do you? No osik you vote for my ship. I'm apparently the only one bright enough here to have a gorram exit strategy."

Runi snorted and shook her head, dark tresses shaking freely with disapproving amusement, placing a hand on the wall to help ease the burden on her injured leg as they moved down the corridor. No need to tax it until that timer was counting down. Otherwise that last leg of the mad dash might become a little too literal.

"How you've managed to make it this karkin' far is beyond me," She continued, not even missing a beat as she pulled the brunette back a pace, stopping her from rounding the corner just in time to avoid the pair of mercenaries that ran through the intersection up ahead. Sprinting like the Dark Lord of the Sith was after them himself. In the completely opposite direction of the fight no less. No doubt looking for a quiet place to hunker down and wait out the mechanical storm. As long as they were away from the command deck, Runi wished them all the best in that survivalist endeavor. "I don't think it's even dawned on you that you're the reason these guys are here in the first place, has it?"

She huffed, no even having the effort or the energy. Besides with their current bond, getting annoyed at the brunette would only be akin to shouting at herself in the long run. One of the reasons she had been keen to put some distance between them as quickly as possible. A plan apparently dashed now. "Look, I'll take you as far as the nearest trade outpost. You can probably barter for passage out from there. Plenty of folks lookin' for a mechanic for short hauls in these parts."

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

“For a warden, I have been neglecting my job in more ways than one, yes.” Amea could admit to that. She had gotten this far for several reasons, but one of them was certainly luck. As frustrated as she was at the whole ‘point out why you suck’ thing that Runi decided to get going Amea tried her best to swallow that pride and just bob her head up and down in a strained nod.

The small troupe of soldiers that ran by them passed them by and the rant continued.

“You hold onto that thought right there.” Amea wanted to raise her finger so bad. She wanted to get angry, she wanted to shout, but the frustration that bubbled under her skin and tore at her nerves would not be allowed to ‘get there.’ “We could hypothetically assume so, or we can hypothetically assume that a Warden caught rumor of not just a salvage operation but also people tricking others to certain death hoping to earn a quick buck.”

“Look, I appreciate the offer, and that’s really all I would ask.” Amea sighed and let her frustration go. “The people who dropped me off were good for it, I know that, but I also knew that if they stayed it would be a fifty-fifty that they got shot down just for being around. I didn’t want them to take that risk, so here we are.”

“We blow the ship, we get to your ship, we get me off somewhere, and after that we can go our separate ways as awkward friends if that is what you wish.”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

"Far more likely the folks that dropped you off here had zero intention of coming back and sold you out for some quick creds. Probably a lot more than you were gonna pay them on pick up." It was easy to assume the worst of people she had never met, but out in the less tamed regions of the Galaxy, Runi had learnt the hard way that such jaded cynicism was the only thing that kept you breathing from one moment to the next. Without the feigned trappings of society to judge them, everyone was simply out for themselves and rarely found the need to be subtle about it.

Like a nexu's tail, the bond curled and flicked with suppressed and unspoken agitation, causing Runi to soften her expression and try to keep the hard edge she normally employed out from her tone of voice. "Look, I'm not... I'm not gettin' at you here. I'm just sayin', you're gonna get yourself killed if you don't start thinkin' differently. The game might look the same from the outside, but we don't play by the same rules out here. The pieces move differently. The players more greedy, stupid and self-servin'."

She scrubbed a hand through her sweat-soaked hair, brushing it out for her eyes and away from the cut that was still oozing on her forehead. She was making a mess of it as she always did. The simple truth of it was, talking like this was simply not Runi Verin's forte.

"What I'm sayin' is, you need to harden up. You can't be all.." The Kiffar made a vague gesture with her hand, sweeping up and down Amea's form. As if there was simply no other way of describing the brunette adequately in words. "All this. All whatever...Whatever the kark this is in my head... You can't feel this much. You can't let yourself be this open. You won't survive."

"And right now, I'm not sure I will either at this rate."

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

Perhaps the people had left her behind and to her fate, but that was a lesson learned. Had she not met Runi here she would have come out of this situation with a far different outcome. Maybe some more injuries, maybe dead, but most likely the former. There would be a ship left behind by the mercenaries, and that was the ship that Amea herself could have taken. The option to hijack one of the transports the mercs came here with was always an option, or to jump one of the ships delivering new arrivals.

Her survival only depended on whether or not she could get creative enough to come up with a solution to the problems that were thrown at her. Everything at a price, of course, but she could afford that. The mercs would struggle but she would still get off-world and that was what mattered.

“Sorry.” Amea started before she retracted again. “No, I mean, okay. I think.”

The confusion was evident in their bond as Amea struggled to comprehend the concept. Feel less? Die because of it? Was Runi saying that Amea was too emotional, or that she just had to block it out of their bond or something? She wouldn’t have known how to even if she tried. There had never been a need to when she was still—

Wait. Bond. Amea went pale, almost stopped in her tracks.

“We’re bonded.” The realization didn’t seem to strike her until then. “You feel—” She stopped and took a deep breath. “I feel—”

“Oh ‘fek.” She let out under her breath. This was bad, this was not good, was it? “I should have noticed.”

The room where they had left Allen to rest was coming up. The doors were open and it was fair to assume his friends had gotten out and perhaps run away a long time ago when the first signs of huge robot troubles began popping up. Errant signs of life seemed to flicker in the force, though from where it came from was beyond Amea.

“We need to keep moving, get you to your ship, and get you fixed up.” She nodded onwards. “Let’s focus on that and see where we end up.”

 

[Runi Verin]

[member="Amea Virou"]​

​

"I'm surprised it took you this long." There was an element of bitterness in Runi's voice, yet it was directed just as much towards herself as it was Amea. She had initiated the contact. She had been the one that lost sense of herself, even for a second, when their minds had connected. Woefully unprepared for the raw torrent of emotions, thoughts and feelings that surged through the other woman. It made her connection with Cerita seem like a curt, limp handshake by stark comparison. A connection made all the more frightening not by the shear magnitude of it all, but how magnificent it was. Even with the bitter sorrow and heartbreak that she had witnessed, part of her almost wanted to lose herself in it again. And for someone so fiercely independent, someone that defined themselves the struggles they had overcome with their own strength, that was most troubling of all for her.

She closed her eyes, head turning slightly to the side as she tried to shuffle through which of the emotions currently flickering through her mentalscape were hers and which belonged to Amea. "You've been bombardin' me with all kinds of feely osik since the shaft. It's...." Leeah. "Distractin' to say the least."

Her gaze flickered through the doors as they passed the Engine Room. A pair of heavy solider boots visible just at the edge of the door jam, a pool of congealed blood staining the deck plate around them, forming a morbid outline for the departed Allen. She hadn't felt anything at the time for the man, and she was sure she didn't now, but she doubted also same couldn't be said about her companion. With this blasted bond in her head, could she have done that? What had been necessary in the heat of the moment? A question she was afraid to find the answer for. What it would mean and what sort of person it would paint her as. Concerns she'd never entertained until now.

Feth.

"'lek," She agreed mostly to herself, her unstable gait increasing in pace as she tried to put as much distance between her and the engine room as much as possible. The thought of blasting this place to haran and back suddenly all the more appealing. "Sooner we're off this ship the better."

The command deck loomed up ahead.

"I dunno about you, but I think we've well and truly overstayed our welcome."

 

[Runi Verin]

[Double post.]​

 

[Amea Virou]

[member="Runi Verin"]

In many ways Amea was used to the sensation of a bond affecting her every feeling. The difference was perhaps that back then it was with an individual that was more in-tune with what she felt. Each touch, each sweeping caress against their delicate skin as she pulled them in close. They had been acting on the same emotion regardless of the bond or not and it masked up what the other felt. There was none of that here though. The mindsets of Runi and Amea were different to such an extent that it almost clashed and caused a hard-to-read mess of sensory overload.

They passed the engine room, and Amea would steel her nerves for it. A cold look passed at the tinge of guilt that panged between the two women before she gently bumped against Runi’s arm and motioned with her head forwards.

“Eyes forward, it’s in the past.” It was as unfeeling as she could get. Kaili’s own guilt stung at the sight of the box that had crushed one of the armed men’s legs, but she wouldn’t focus on it. “Doesn’t make you a bad person, just one willing to do what needs to be done in the heat of the moment.”

Much like Amea could feel the guilt between them Runi would be able to feel the tenseness in Amea’s own emotions and the way they seemed to be bursting at the seams of the metaphorical bag she tried to force them all into in order to not let the situation get any worse.

The command deck came up and Amea would boost on up ahead to look over the consoles. It was too much to ask that there would be a big red button right there in the open for them to press, wasn’t it? It would seem so, the room was little more than dilapidated consoles at this point.

“Eenie-meenie-miney?” Amea asked and looked back at Runi with an attempt at a smile. “Unless you got an idea from that console which of these consoles it might be.”