Abhaya breaths slowly... in.. out... in...out. The cold of the air numbing her lungs as she steps from the shuttle into the frigid night, her boots sinking into the snow making a startling sound in her silent surroundings.
She had been here before.. it seemed just yesterday that she had pulled her sister's unconscious form into a shuttle, much like the one she had just stepped from, as her own father tried to kill them.
The sound of another pair of boots wished to break the quiet. Sat'tal looks around, his white overcoat, speckled with gray, clung to him from the cold. His black hair soon dusted in white flecks. Violet eyes narrowing a bit at the monochrome world before him. Gray, everything here, the dirty snow on the ground, the overcast sky... everything was gray. It was oddly beautiful, spectacular in its own way. His home had been more desert than mountains. Snow was always something unexpected.... something he usually hated, but he often forgot how beautiful it was. A world of beauty soon to be filled with death.
He quickly follows after Abhaya, a half glance back at the shuttle behind him as they departed. Immediately he wished he'd brought a proper rifle. Such would have made this so much easier.
Refusing to have let her go alone, let alone without a plan she could articulate, here he was.
How much further? He pings to her silently over a comm, wanting a good sense of how long before they'd start getting shot at. His Augmented reality was flooded and flooded again, nervousness made his subconscious data happy. He shut his personal HUD off and resigned himself to enjoying the view. He doubted he'd get the chance again anytime soon
Abhaya shifts in the night air.. dressed completely in white she would blend in with her surroundings.. all but her hair, the red of it fanning out around her face and soon catching some of the snow that fell from the sky as she moved through the world of white. She walked along the familiar path up the side of what used to be her own prison, her hair was the only thing visible against the snow to those above who even now scrambled as they saw her moving up the path with Sat'Tal and toward them.. it was the only warning her father would get.
They knew she was here.. she wanted them to.
Abhaya stops for a moment staring up at the massive home that was still a few miles from them. The mansion was beautiful in her eyes... but she knew the horrors that hid behind the pretty yellow facade.
The mansion was a monstrousity...beautiful... but a monstrosity none the less. A three story tribute to what used to be. Light shone from the massive walls of glass.. a portion of the home, having once been a small two story Minmatar home, seemed to be out of place in the design. It would be obvious to anyone who looked upon it that the majority of the mansion was an add on and the builder had not tried to hide it.. just succeeded in making the original portion look sad and out of place in its surroundings.
A tear slid down Abhaya's cheek as she looked at what had become of her childhood home before glancing a ways out over the hills to a sad lonely grave.. the last resting place of her mother. Only then did she answer Sat'Tal... but she didn't bother with the comm. She spoke aloud into the cold night air.
"They won't shoot... they know its futile. I am stronger, and better trained than any one of them... because im the one who trained every one of them. If i wan't in none of them can stop me, and i most definitely want in." she wipes the tears from her eyes as she looks from her mothers grave back up to the home.. a slow wicked grin spreading across her face as she opens her coat and pulls the only weapon she had chosen to bring. The Khumaak looking a bit out of place in this white wonderland, though it seemed fitting for the mission at hand.
"Just because you trained them doesn't mean they don't have snipers.” He comments dryly, switching his HUD back on, soon the augmented reality flashed with all sort of interesting, but useless information. No active scans on them yet, at least that he could detect. He closes his eyes, blocking out the world as his mind makes preparations. Small white characters along the bottom of his vision twist and change to red as dormant Cyber Knight implants were willed to life.
She takes a steadying breath before shouting out into the night air toward the mansion "Daddy... You're baby girl is home!"
Snapping his eyes open at the sound of her yell, Sat'Tal cringes visibly “Haven't you ever heard of stealth?” He comments, annoyed at her rather rash action. “Confident, Cocky, Lazy, Dead.” He repeats to her, eyes a little wide at the weapon pulled from under her coat “And haven't you ever heard of subtlety?” He says, fingers curling into his sleeve, touching the switchblades within, never mind his mind's eye knew exactly where they were.
He follows after her, coat opening a bit, a hand reaching to brush snow from his stark white tie over a thick black shirt. “So, the front door then?” He asks, pulling the coat closed once more.
Abhaya winces slightly at the reprimand as she proceeds up the snowy incline to the mansion before glancing at Sat'Tal with a frown as she ponders his words "You forget that i have been here before..." her frown deepens "But your right... It was stupid."
She glances down at her weapon and then offers him a grin as she trudges with him through the snow that now seemed to be coming down in a white blanket to hide the mansion from her "Subtle is my middle name love.. haven't you notice that as we walk the snow gets so thick they can't possibly see us with the naked eye?"
The snow was now so thick it was hard to see even the lights coming from the mansion before them, which at some point in their walk through this white hell she turns slightly to the left of as she continues to move over the blinding white ground.
"The naked eye? In this day and age? You forget about infrared, my dear." He says with a shake of his head, "Snow or not, if they're looking right, we'll light up." He pauses, "And if they're looking on other spectrums.. I probably glow even more..."
Abhaya pauses and crouches down into the snow and seemingly begins to dig "My father is old school... Besides, i don't care if they see us. I just dont want them to see what im doing. Very few know what im about to show you...They won't shoot me but i doubt they would have any qualms about shooting you."
“They can most certainly try to shoot me.” He comments grimly, “But thats a shame. I enjoy going through the front door. Nice bit of terror to give when you do it suddenly to enemies.” He says, crouching down to help her dig, their work eventually revealing a solid wooden door that obviously lead underground. “Minmatar..” He says aloud, shaking his head, “No offense meant but when technology is available, only insane people don't adopt it. Still, I'll take any advantage I can get.” He nods firmly, tapping the door's casing gently, “Does this lead directly into the mansion, or a bunker beneath it?” He asks.
She looks around them at the shear white out all around and chuckles slightly at his comment before glancing over at him from her position with a serious look on her face " It leads to the dungeons below... where the slaves are held. This tunnel is how i escaped those many years ago. I will go down and take out the guard.. wait until i call for you and then follow."
“Excuse me?” He comments, looking at her, narrowing his eyes, “What do you mean, wait for you to call?” Oh, he certainly did not like this plan, and it showed on his face.
She sighs and drops the Khumaak before standing, placing her hands on her hips she glares right back at him "Don't give me that look Sat'Tal..." she shakes her head, her hair now dripping with cold wet snow, the look on her delicate face just as fierce as the one he was giving her while she listened to him lecturing her.
“Do you know how many guards are down there, where they are, and what they are armed with?” He asks rather bluntly, violet eyes gazing at her. He hadn't trudged all this way with her just to watch her go off and do something stupid when they could go off and do something stupid together instead. He was honored that she was even showing him this, and figured it was part of her plan.
"I do indeed know how many guards are down there... Three. The first two are armed with the same weapon i have. The third has a Sword." she wipes snow from her eyes, she had known when she agreed to bring him along that he would be of help.. but she had also known this would happen. He would do anything to keep her from harm, just as she would do the same for him.
she sighs again as she picks up her weapon from beside the door "The guards are placed far enough apart that all i have to do is take out the first and then we can do the rest together..."
“Its also very cold up here.” He mutters, more of a complaint then a reasoning, fixing her with a bit of a stare.
She chuckles lightly and smiles at him "Fine.. you can be such a cry baby sometimes love." said as she steps back and, pushing Sat'Tal a few steps back as well, bangs the bottom of her khumaak four times on the door.
“Crybaby nothing, I'm from a tropical world, and I keep my pod warm. This damn cold is biting me to the bone. Call me what you'd like. Its a damn blizzard.” He says, frowning, stepping back from the door when she pushes, raising an eyebrow at the sound "I thought the point wasn't too...."
After a few moments the hinges creak as the door rises.
Sat'Tal blinks, a bit in awe. Clearly they couldn't be so stupid as too... and a young Brutor, who couldn't possibly be more than fifteen, pokes his head out and glances up.
With a shocked look on his face the boy tries to scramble to get out of the door to the underground tunnel.
There was the sound of metal against metal, Sat'Tal's knife drawn and thrown.
Abhaya says with a grin "Hello Malik." before he even gets his shoulders above the door the front of her combat boot connects solidly with the front of his face knocking the boy unconscious.
The knife was aimed for Malik's forehead, but, when he was kicked, Sat'Tal winces. Hard to tell where it would end up with your target snapping back in pain.
Abhaya frowns blood now on her white boots and spilled across the white ground.
Sat'Tal watches the man go tumbling down back into the hole, shaking his head, “No firearms, huh? That will make this easy.” He says, motioning, “Want to go first?”
Abhaya shakes her head in disgust as she continues to stare down "I really liked these boots..." she groans out as she studies the ruined footwear "I think i may have slightly miscalculated when i wore all white to go to a blood bath..."
"You mean you don't have anything on under that?" He says, tugging his coat open, reavaling the black armored pants and flexweave shirt. He taps his tie and it fades from white to a dark grey, breaking up his outline a bit. "Well, you'll have all red clothes after."
She looks at him with a frown "No Sat'Tal.. im naked under the coat..." her words dripping with sarcasm before she opens her own coat to reveal a pair of white armored cargo pants and thick long sleeved top underneath a matching white armored vest.
Letting out a huff into the snowy air she shakes her head before jerking up her khumaak and moving toward the opening, she mumbles "Into the abyss we go..." under her breath before dropping down into the dark warmth of the tunnel.
He shakes his head, chuckling softly, “Not with that mace of yours...” He comments, brushing as much snow off himself as he could, before jumping in after her, careful to aim to land somewhere.. not atop her. He drops into a crouch, coat billowing out around him, a quick glance around, and he tears the coat off, and then his white leggings, tossing them aside into a corner. He straightens his tie, looking to her “lead on."
Abhaya reaches up and pulls the door closed behind them, plunging them into darkness, the only light coming from small lamps every few feet in the tunnels ceiling.
She slips out of her own coat as well, after using it to slightly dry her short hair she tosses it into the corner and then gives Sat’Tal’s tie a playful tug “Oh… and i never said they didn’t have firearms… I just said the ones in the tunnel don’t.” before turning and walking further into the tunnel, her own quiet laughter echoing back at him as she goes.
Sat’Tal blinks, his eyes adjusting, bathing the world into black, white, and gray as the light vanished from them. He reaches, pulling his knife from the poor Malik, wiping it clean on the corpse, before returning it to its sheath up his sleeve. He regards her words for a moment, smirking, “Oh good. Here I was afraid they wouldn’t have a fair chance.” He follows after her “Keep laughing like that, and they’ll all start running.”
As they move through the tunnel the only sounds to be found is that of a slow steady drip of water in the depth of the tunnel before they come to a turn. To the left the lights seemed to be getting less frequent but the unmistakable sound of someone snoring lightly was coming from around the corner.
Sat’Tal moves with Abhaya down the tunnel, trying to gauge how far the dripping water was from them. He hugs the inside of the turn, peering out around it, “How inept are these guards?” He whispers to her at the sound of snoring.
She simply shrugs and whispers “The first two are merely babes… the last is going to to make it difficult to get out of this tunnel alive. She is quite lethal with her sword..and make sure she doesn’t get her hands on a Khumaak or you wont live to see the light of day again..” peeking around the corner into the larger section of tunnel where the guard was asleep she waves at Sat’Tal and signals him to take out the next guard “You’re turn my dear..“
He looks at her with a heavy frown on his face before saying in soft words ”merely babes with the intent to kill us horribly.” and then shaking his head “I was hoping I’d get a real fight. If she’s so damn deadly with a Khumaak, why doesn’t she always wield one?”
She shrugs at his words and stares off into the shadows of the area around the guard as she ponders what is to come after the snoring guard.
“Her sword is almost as deadly… either way, my father makes his closest guards wear the swords. By the time you reach her rank you are expected to no longer wield the Khumaak.” she glances back at Sat’Tal “Now get going.. the sooner you take him out the sooner i can use her own sword to chop off her head.” all of her words said in whispered tones as the darkness surrounds them and the dripping of the water seems to get a bit louder.
He whispers sighing. “You give me the hardest of jobs.” Oh yes, murdering a snoring guard was hard work.The sound of metal on metal again, and Sat’tal bolts nearly silently towards the guard. Crossing the distance from the shadows the beneath the light the guard was snoring beneath in moments, he attempts to strike from behind as the guard sleeps leaning against the wall, his blade driven into the back of the man-child’s neck, up into the brain stem… death nearly instantly as the nerves were severed.
Abhaya didn’t move as she watched Sat’Tal dispatch the sleeping guard, her eyes scanning the darkness beyond that small scene and its scant light.. a small gleam of silver in the shadows catches her eye. Suddenly springing forward, she gives a low laugh as she jerks sat’ tal back into the darkness, a blade narrowly missing him and taking a small piece of his hair as she moves him.
A low throaty laugh can be heard echoing hers almost minacingly from the darkness beyond the guards dead form, a small voice whispers out at them “Do you honestly think you’re father didn’t expect this? A pity you caught me before i could lop off your lovers head.”
He frowns, looking up at the little bit of hair lost from his head. “Probably mono-molecular. Thanks hun, next time, warn me.” He comments, slipping a visor out of a pocket,
It was a flat, dull metal, and boxy, sticking maybe a half inch from his face. Fitting neatly over his eyes, it clicks into place and the shadows of the small cavern they were now in stripped away, revealing everything as it was, though, colorless. “Next time, you get to be the bait.”
Abhaya gives her khumaak a little twirl as she ignores sat tal and pulls a pair of goggles from her pocket. Slipping them over her eyes she glares at the women she can now clearly see before them.
Surika was slightly taller than abhaya at her 5′2 but all else was completely diffrent. The womens waist length hair was in a long thick braid and slung over the shoulder of a blue-black Amarrian robe. The women was obviously of khanid decent and looked to be no older than 30 or so, her face was marred by a jagged scar that reached from below her left eye to just below her right ear, as she moves a set of slave bracelets now catch the light.
“Surika.. you have gotten slow in your old age. Not long ago i would have lost my arm doing what i just did.” Abhaya moves slightly toward the women with a smirk on her face as she moves into a defensive position slightly in front of Sat’Tal.
Abhaya felt a tap on her shoulder from Sat’tal, “Excuse me.” He comments at her stepping infront of him, twirling his drawn switchblade between his fingers, “Exactly what do you..” He doesn’t even pause his words, suddenly sending a dagger of black metal across the distance, aimed at Surika’s heart “think you are doing infront of me?” Abhaya flenches as she watches Surika fend off his blade with a simply flick of her wrist bringing her own sword up and knocking the blade back to land a few inches from Abhaya’s toes. “She is a snake Sat’Tal… never forget the reach of her venom.” said as she inches back another step and never takes her eyes from the khanid women.
Surika simply gives off a high pitched laugh, the sound akin to that of nails on a chalk board “I taught you well dear one… such a pity really.“
