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Oly Oly Oxen Free [[Open]]

Kelly had been wandering around the living area of the ship, and like most of the other occupants, it seemed that she'd found the sensoriums. It took her awhile to figure out how to effectively use the unit she was in, but once she did it was better than any workout she'd ever had. Taking a long while to instruct the room how to build her scenario, she soon had an effective layout of the mountains on Reach. Checking her guns, she moved carefully through the underbrush. The sounds were all right, the ground underfoot felt like real ground, the rocks poking at the soles of her feet as she moved. It was almost like being home again. Almost.

The brush pulled at her Podsuit as she slipped silently through the trees, moving in long arcs as she crept closer to the old meeting spot. That place where the Pelican had been all those years ago on Mendez's last training mission for them. It seemed like hours as she moved closer to the point, it had been easier with the rest of the team, John and Sam, Linda and Fhajad, but she arrived at the point soon enough. Keeping low, she leveled her rifle over a log, looking through its scope at the hilltop. If she didn't know in the back of her mind that this was all a simulation, she would have been burning white hot with rage. But as it was. the sight of a Covenant outpost built over the top of the hill merely served to set her mind working on strategies to take it down.

Three stationary guns. Those would have to be taken out first. Then the twenty or so grunts that were milling around. Twenty steps to the hilltop. Five seconds. Pick up the fallen plasma pistols and take out the five Elites. Drop behind cover of the second stationary gun, three steps. Half a second. Take out the Hunter on the far side of the hill. Level the rifle, aim through the scope and shoot between the armor plates at its neck. Four seconds. Her eyes swept the hilltop again, waiting for one patrol cycle to finish before taking a deep breath and taking aim at the grunt in the first turret. Letting out the breath, she squeezed off her shot, the grunt falling from the gun with a neat hole through its skull. The other two followed before she switched the rifle to burst fire. The rest of the grunts were scrambling across the open hilltop, spraying the trees above her with plasma fire as she picked them off.

The Elites charged to the side of the hill spraying more plasma from their rifles. Throwing her rifle over her back, she burst from cover, legs pumping furiously as she counted to five. The Elites barely registered a blur before she dove, grabbing a plasma pistol in each hand and opening fire. Two Elites went down quickly, the third diving for cover and throwing a plasma grenade. She kicked it back, watching it sail through the air and stick to the alien's shield before exploding and taking the Elite with it in a spray of purple blood. A plasma bolt whizzed past her ear and she dropped down to one knee, firing at the Elite until his shields dropped, then in one fluid movement, she dropped one plasma pistol and pulled one of her knives, with a quick flick of her wrist, the blade went whizzing through the alien's forehead. The last Elite charged her and she leaped over it, turning in a moonsault and firing the last plasma pistol at its back, punching through the shields. When the energy blinked out, she pounced onto it's back, pulling her second knife and raking it across the alien's throat. It fell, blood flowing from the wound, and she quickly dropped to the ground behind the turret as the Hunter came running up the hill.

Taking aim she fired at the open spot between the plates of its neck. Fired and missed. "Goddamnit."

Throwing herself to the side, she fired again, bullets pinging off the alien's armor. It's arm cannon charged up and fired, the beam of supercharged, green plasma streaking toward her. It slammed into her and she went flying, slamming into a boulder. The simulation paused and a female voice spoke. "Simulation Paused. Subject Injured."

"@!#$ing aliens," she cursed as she pushed herself off the ground, casting a glare at the simulation. "Computer, run the program again, from the beginning."

"Recommendation: Crew Member To Halt Exercises For One Sleep Cycle To Ensure Peak Condition In Event Of A Mission."

"I said run the goddamn program from the beginning."

"Program Rewinding; Executing."

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Brenda had strolled into the sensoriums when they were already in use a few times before. Usually she just strolled back out and didn't disturb whoever had beaten her to the punch. It seemed like the most polite route. This time though?

Simulation Paused: Foreign Subject On Field

Brenda froze up as Stacy's voice boomed overhead and the world around her... froze for lack of a better term. Even the blades of grass stalled in the midst of swaying in their artificial breeze.

"....crap. S-sorry! I didn't realize anyone was in here."

When Stacy's voice rang out, Kelly straightened up from the underbrush. Passing an arm over her forehead, she wiped the sweat away and rested her rifle over her shoulder. She turned to regard the newcomer almost predatorially, her eyes taking in the girl with a sort of calculating coldness.

After that moment though, she managed a tight smile. "It's fine. I should take a break anyway. Stacy, remove hostiles and resume program."

Confirmed: Hostiles Removed; Program Resuming.

The world snapped back into motion around them, the 'sun' slid out from behind simulated clouds, and a bird even chirped somewhere in the distance. Kelly set her weapons down, dropping to a sitting and leaning against a boulder.

"I don't think we've met."

Brenda wandered over closer, plopping herself down in the grass next to the older woman and holding out a hand politely. If she was going to interrupt she might as well do so full throttle.

"Well, we can fix that part at least. Brenda Del Vecchico."

Kelly took the offered hand, her grip was firm but friendly as she shook it, nodding at the girl as she sat down.

"Kelly. You've been on the ship awhile?"

It might have been an odd couple of days, but now that he'd found his old worn-out vest and his trusty sidearm (sadly, no rifle) in that giant hall of equipment, Jim Raynor was feeling a lot more at ease. As cliched as it might have been, he felt naked without his gun.

Now that he had the holster strapped around his belt (or, where his belt would be), Jim felt up to exploring the place. It was huge - way bigger than any ship he'd ever heard of before. Spaceship his ass, this could've been a small moon!

He was passing down a corridor that he thought he might have passed down before - they were starting to look the same - when he heard a sound he knew all too well - the sharp cracks of gunfire, coming from just behind that door.

Jim's gun was immediately in his hand as he pressed himself to the (disturbingly fleshy) wall, listening to what was going on inside. Goddamn, it sounded like a warzone in there... there were also other noises that he thought he could recognize as energy weapon discharges, but they were softer than, say, a Wraith or a Dragoon.

Well, whatever was going on, if there was someone in there in the middle of a fight, he'd be damned if he was just gonna stay out here and listen. Jim moved for the door, his gun coming up to sweep the room as the opening dilated to let him in.

Once Brenda had left, Kelly had resumed the program and was stalking the Covenant again. She was trying a different angle this time, creeping around the hill to the other side to take out the Hunter first while it was unaware. From her vantage point, crouched beneath the treeline on the far side of the hill, she saw the man step into the simulation.

The problem was, that the simulated Covenant saw him as well. One of the Elites did anyway. The alien roared, charging toward him, plasma rifle firing wildly and Kelly swore under her breath. Jumping to her feet she called to him.

"Get out of the way!"

A warzone indeed. Looked like a base of some sort - but Jim had no time to examine his surroundings as one of the creatures (he'd never seen anything like them before, but they sure as shit weren't Terran) noticed him... and charged him. Little blue bolts of energy tore through the sky as Raynor dove to his side, hitting the ground in a roll and coming up on one knee with his pistol aimed dead center on what he thought was the alien's head.

He fired.

It hit dead center, and the creature's head snapped back from the recoil... but the shot triggered some kind of aura of light around the alien's body. An energy shield? It wasn't exactly like what he'd grown used to seeing on the Protoss, but it was close enough.

And more importantly, the creature had recovered from the impact and was once again firing on his position.

"Well, shit."

Jim took off running to the side as fast as he could, knowing that those little blue bolts were going to catch him sooner or later, and if he didn't get to cover quick - or if whoever'd yelled at him didn't take that thing out - he'd be in a bit of a tight spot.

Kelly ran. And that's saying something. She blurred, moving so fast the other Covenant barely registered a blip on their motion trackers. When she was close enough she kicked off the ground hard, slamming her feet into the alien's back, throwing it to the ground. Her rifle was up almost immediately raking the shield with bullets until it dropped. Then a vicious chop with the butt of the gun to the alien's neck stopped its squirming.

Whirling, she faced the newcomer, looking him over in a split second before she spoke again. "You alright? The rest will be coming now, the small one's aren't shielded, see if you an help with those."

Raising her rifle again, she changed the magazine and moved back to cover, motioning him to follow and duck down as well.

Well damn.

Jim had seen a lot of things in his life. Seen things he was pretty damn sure no other man in this world had seen but him. And he'd never seen anyone run like her before. If he'd been the type to let distractions get to him on the battlefield, he might have even stood and gaped.

But bullets were flying, and the gaping could wait.

"'m fine," he answered, pausing to catch his breath for a moment (strange, though. It was easier than it should have been. When was the last time he'd had a smoke?)... and then he followed her, already moving to crouch behind the cover by the time she motioned for him to get down. Jim might have never seen someone who could fight like her before, but he knew that for the moment, following her lead was the smart thing to do.

"Not as long as some of the others but it feels like a couple weeks to me." She sighs, plucking out a few blades of grass and idly braiding them.

"It was all chaos when I got dumped out of the slime but I'm getting used to it. How are you holding up?"

Kelly reached out, scooping up the fallen Elite's plasma rifle and holding out her own BR55 to Jim. "It's pretty simple. Burst fire, semi, or fully automatic. Think you can lay down some cover fire for me while I got take out that big one?"

She pointed at the Hunter which was standing atop the hill scanning the trees. The other aliens were moving down toward the woods in a staggered line, fanning out to catch the two in a net.

"On my mark, yeah?"

She nodded, leaning back on her arms to look up at the sky. Simulated or not, it was always beautiful. "I've only been here a couple days."

Kelly offered her a shrug. "I was trained to adapt to any environment. This ship's probably the most peaceful place I've evere stayed in for an extended period of time."

Raynor took her rifle, glad to have something a bit more substantial in his hands. He quickly did a once-over, familiarizing himself with the weapon ... smaller and lighter than his familiar C-14 Gauss, but recognizable as good ol' Terran hardware, all the same.

He followed her gaze, saw the big one - half the size of an Ultralisk but standing on two legs? He'd never seen anything like that before - and saw the smaller ones marching in their direction. Jim made mental note of their positions before switching the lady's gun over to burst fire and rising into a crouch from which he could easily open fire.

"Give the word, sister." He held the weapon up to his shoulder, taking careful aim at the nearest group of whatever-the-hell-they-were.

Kelly watched him take stock of the gun noting his familiar handling of it with a satisfied air. Raising the plasma rifle, she checked its battery level, satisfied that it was okay, she began to take deep breaths, slowing her heart rate in preparation for the run.

Raising up into a crouch, she rested on the balls of her feet for a moment before looking back at Jim over her shoulder. "Give them hell."

And with that she took off, not waiting for him to start firing, running straight toward the line of grunts and Elites strung out between her and the Hunter. She tore up the distance, plasma rifle charging as she blazed across the ground.

Meluly takes a step inside the Sensorium chamber, lost in her own world—

—and the sound of energy weapon fire snaps her out of it in half a second, and she drops behind cover, pulling her huge, chunky pistol from the holster on her thigh. She only takes the time to wonder what's going on after the near-autonomous combat reflexes have gotten her into a temporarily safe position.

Fortunately for Meluly, the Covenant troops seem to be busy right now. If she focuses she can probably see Kelly blurring toward the Covenant line and Jim firing from cover at the aliens bearing down on her. A cannon blast from the Hunter impacts near her, sending bits of molten glass flying into the air.

What's she going to do?

First rule of suppression fire: You don't actually have to hit. Make 'em stay behind cover because they think they're gonna get hit, and your job is done.

Second rule of suppression fire: Hitting 'em helps.

The moment she took off, Jim Raynor squeezed the trigger, and the tiny alien he'd been aiming at fell backwards. Accurate at that far away? Damn nice gun. Predictably, the rest of the group scattered. Raynor rose to a half-crouch, visible and vulnerable, and gave a loud, wordless yell as he sprayed the bastards with short bursts, trying to pin them into cover as best he could.

Yeah, he was making himself a target, but hell. If they were aiming for him, they weren't aiming for her. 'Course, that didn't mean stupidity. One of the bigger aliens - the shielded ones - stepped out from behind a tree and leveled that strange energy gun of his... Raynor quickly ducked back behind cover as blue bolts streaked the air where he'd been moments before, then rose to return fire.

(from here (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/59003.html?thread=5114747#t5114747))

If only this was night, Luly thinks fleetingly, she'd be much more comfortable. But she quashes that train of thought. Her pistol is meant to be a manstopper, not a support piece, but that doesn't keep her from leveling it with both arms and firing at the Hunter—

—and then she realizes that this is a simulation. Damn. What if that breaks something?

She holsters her pistol again and dashes from cover to cover closer to Jim, moving low to the ground and swift like a cat despite her bare feet.

(continuing over here (http://community.livejournal.com/trans_9/59003.html?thread=5128059#t5128059))

Kelly heard the gunfire from Raynor and saw several grunts get cut down by his suppressive fire. As she reached the line she leaped high into the air, twirling a hundred and eighty degrees in the air to blast the Elite targeting Raynor. When she saw its shield drop, she broke off, leaving the rest to him as her feet touched the ground again and she rolled behind cover.

Then she heard another gunshot, it sounded like a heavy gun, big bore, high caliber. The bullet pinged off the Hunter's shield and it fired a long burst from its cannon. Whirling, she caught sight of the new woman running through the trees toward Raynor. At least she was getting to know the crew members. Sort of. What better team building than nearly getting your asses shot off together?

Ducking down she yanked a grunt from his seat in one of the turrets, snapping its neck before jumping into the gun and firing on the remaining turrets. A Hunter beam whizzed over her head and she shouted to the two laying down her cover fire.

"Distract that thing!" He jerks an arm in the direction of the large alien, turning the turret toward the remaining Sangheili and Unggoy.

Footsteps coming up quick to his right - Jim turns, ready to fire... and his finger halts on the trigger. It isn't one of the aliens. Or rather, if the woman running toward him is an alien (and he's certainly never seen anyone that looked like her before), she's not on the same side as the ones shooting at him, because now they're shooting at her.

She was armed, too - hand cannon, by the sound of it. Powerful, too. As she skids to a halt near him, Jim throws her a curt nod of acknowledgement - glad to see someone else on their side. He hears the other woman shouting down at them, sees her gesture to the hulking alien - was that a laser cannon on its arm? Fantastic - and takes his own pistol, sliding it across the ground to her in case she needed some reserve firepower. "Eleven shots left in the mag. Shoots high."

That said, he vaults over the downed log he'd been using for cover, sets his sights on the giant alien, and squeezes off a quick burst of fire. There's no energy shield, and he's fairly sure he hit with at least a bullet or two, but it doesn't seem to hurt the bastard any. Jim catches a glimpse of the creature turning towards him as he sprints toward the treeline.

Well at least he got its attention.

"I am afraid to ask what sort of life you lead that would make this place seem homey." Brenda said with a frown.

"Although, lucky you I guess."

The turret swung around spraying the Covenant with superheated plasma until there was nothing much but mangled, burned and twisted bodies left. Flesh fused to armor. Kelly drops from the gun and sprints around to flank the Hunter on the side opposite from Raynor.

Her plasma rifle fired, the blue bolts of energy screaming through the air before bouncing off the creature's armor. She called out to the other two. "Aim for the exposed areas! Neck and midriff! I'll distract it."

That having been said, she charged straight toward the alien, throwing herself off the ground. A hand slid to the knives at her back as she sailed through the air in a high arc. They were drawn in one swift movement, as she turned in the air to lash out a kick at the thing's head before she landed, using the force of her jump to ram the knives into the shield on its arm, puncturing the thick armor. The blades bit deep and the alien growled, swinging its arm wildly to try and get the irritating thing off.

"Now would be a good time to shoot this *@!#ing thing!"

Luly has been moving, darting closer from minimal cover to cover, Jim's pistol held close to her. Now she drops into a crouch, dropping it, pulling out her own gun, and aims.

She fires a set of shots, none aimed quite as precisely as she wanted it—but she's close enough the huge Hunter could practically run her over with a short jog, and it's a big target. Two pings off the helmet, one the chest... and the last finds its spot right between the head and neck armor.

He's still got half a clip left. And that half a clip is going into that damn alien.

Jim braces himself up against a tree and waits until the creature turns its back to him - he thought he'd seen something exposed there - in its flailing... and then opens fire, aiming for what might as well be a big orange bulls-eye.

The two shots, one from Luly and the burst from Raynor both impacted the creature at the same time, orange blood sprayed from the wounds as it bellowed loudly, flailing and whirling around as its arm cannon charged again. It fell to one knee quickly losing strength, and Kelly droped from its arm, ripping her knives free from where they had lodged in the shield.

Ducking under the swinging cannon she held both knives low before ramming them up into the unprotected midsection, jerking the serrated blades upward as orange blood sprayed out over her arms and plantsuit.

The hunter made a gurgling noise as it slid to the ground. Stacy's voice rang out through the room.

||Level 1 Complete. Hunter Terminated; Commence Level 2?||

"Pause for a bit, Stacy."

||Affirmative. Simulation Paused.||

Wiping off her blades, she took a seat on an edge of the alien's armor, glancing around the field littered with bodies.

"Thank's for the assist. That was some good teamwork there."

Luly lets out a hiss of breath, with enough peace of mind to retrieve Jim's pistol from where she dropped it before she wobbles her way over towards Kelly. "Noshtana, I haven't felt like that since the crazy stuff they had us through in gen-prin." She takes a seat on one of the few patches of undisturbed grass, carefully examining her own pistol and making sure there's not a round in the chamer. "You were incredible."

Jim blinks. A simulation? How the hell...?

...okay, whatever. He'll just roll with it. By this point, he's seen enough so that he's not really surprised anymore. Jim swipes the back of his hand across his forehead, wiping off some accumulated sweat, as he makes his way over to the fallen giant, prodding it with his foot. Doesn't look like a simulation, but hey, no concern of his.

"Ain't never seen anyone run like that before," he admits with a nod. That was quite the show.

Stacy can do anything in the Sensoriums, Jim.

Kelly chuckled lightly at the praise. It wasn't exactly something she was used to. A slight breeze blew over them as they sat around the dead alien. The place smelled of burned plasma and molten rock, even the alien blood was beginning to stink, mixing with the stench of their burned bodies.. Within the confines of the room they were as real as anything else. Even the weapons and armor felt real. Except in here, you didn't die. (Unless you wanted to. And maybe not even then.)

"S'what I was made for. No big deal." She offered each of them her hand in turn. "Name's Kelly."

"The same kind of life every soldier leads. In a time of war anyway. In peacetime the military's been known to cause endless trouble for other people." She waved it off. No big deal.

"It's peaceful at least."

"Sounds like it won't stay that way though, from what Stacy said about other hostiles on the ship."

Yay! Living on a death trap is fun!

"I wouldn't worry about them. My brother and I can handle anything anyone has to throw at us." She paused to run a hand through her hair. "I'd like to see them try something."

It really is!

"Oh," Brenda's surprise only lasts a second before she smiles. "I didn't realize you had a family member here. Who is he?"

Edited 2009-06-11 16:32 (UTC)

Jim took her hand, shaking it - damned if that girl didn't have one hell of a grip. "Jim Raynor. Pleasure to make your acquaintance, sister."

He hefted the gun she'd given him, holding it and taking a better look now that he wasn't being shot at. "Nice piece of hardware you got here. Ain't nothin' quite like a good ol' Terran gun. Bit more portable than what I'm used to."

Luly shakes Kelly's hand in turn, breathing heavily from all that short but energetic running. It's a few moments later that she offers Jim his pistol back, again holstering her own. (The movement, with the way the holster is hidden under the flowing skirt of her drapey garment, exposes a bit of tattooed thigh—not that she seems to particularly care.)

She lights out a light, half-amused huff. "Uhh, I'd've rather had something twice as big as that with twice the punch."

"I think most of the people would know him as Chief. Head of Security from what I've heard."

She shot him a smile. "That was some good shooting back there, Tex. Definitely, these alien things feel stupid in your hand. It's not so much the gun as it is the shooter. Looks like you know your business. Military?"

Kelly on the other hand barely seemed fazed by the intense action they'd gone through. It seemed like she hadn't done anything more strenuous than a morning run, her breathing easy and she'd already stopped sweating.

Her eyes are drawn more to Luly's gun than any parts of her anatomy and she watches it go back into the holster.

"So would I, but this was all of my stuff I could find in the Lockers. Nothing like a good shotgun, or better yet, a couple of Jackhammers."

Jim raised an eyebrow at the name 'Tex' (not being familiar with the name, or indeed Texas), but said nothing. "Used to be. Work freelance these days. You got quite the gun-eye yourself."

He takes the pistol back from the dark-skinned girl, casually flicking the safety on and sliding it back into its holster. "Wish I could get my hands on a C-14. From what you two ladies are sayin', seems like you'd take to it like a fish to water." He chuckles, wishing he had a cigarette to light up. "Got a kick that'll knock 99 men out of 100 flat on their ass without a suit of power armor. Strong men, too."

((ooc: The C-14 (http://starcraft.wikia.com/wiki/C-14_rifle)))

Luly's is a strange-looking pistol—as might be expected by the recoil compensation and gas venting needed for something that size that fires practically rifle-size bullets.

"I wouldn't mind the power armor, either," she says. There's a momentarily empty look in her eyes—"Or something bigger. Military myself... pilot, actually."

It sounded like everyone had power armor these days. Kelly smiled slightly, shaking her head. "I suppose I'd be considered a deserter if I ever get home. I was raised around guns." That's about all the answer Kim was going to get about that.

"A C-14, huh? Sounds like my kind of gun." Also? Kelly would probably not have been knocked off her feet. Spartan enhancements FTW.

"Both Military or ex-military. Looks like Stacy wants fighters. I was from my world's Navy." She turned to Luly. "A pilot? What class ships?"

"Ah... not ships," Luly says, her jet-black skin blushing a little purple at the confusion. "Mecha. Superheavy-class, I do line-breaking work."

Having regained some energy, she sits up straighter instead of her half-sprawl, hands stretching together towards her feet.

Now that's kind of interesting. Jim cocks an eyebrow at her. "And how heavy is 'Superheavy'?" He's seen some mecha with his Goliath and Thor, but he'll need a good frame of reference.

Kelly cocked her head, as much at the blush as at the terms she used. "Mecha? I don't think I've heard of those before."

Kelly works a kink out of her neck as she turns to Raynor.

"So you left the military? Discharged?"

He shakes his head. "Guess you could say I quit. Me and the folks running the place ... well, let's just see we didn't see eye-to-eye anymore." Or that he got bit by the very snake he helped into the tree, but let's not talk about that.

"Mecha—bipedal mobile armor. They use the Operator Side Effect to maximize general manueverability." Or, at least, the ones in her world do.

Luly stretches a little. The smell of all the carnage doesn't seem to be disturbing her much... not that that's very different from the other two. "Colo—ah, he's my mech, he's a Malach model, forty feet tall. Ahh... I'm not sure how to describe the weapons capacity without some context you can use," and she smiles sheepishly, "but his dead-lift weight capacity maxes out at about twenty tons, if that helps..."

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