Survival

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0811

Diona pointedly looked Mir up and down. "You seem in remarkable good health for a man who's been through so much, all alone, with weapons hardly worth being called as much, and only mediocre armor. Rather better than some of our sisters have faired."

[Tyyr]

0811

"I can see why they have you answering the door, lovely people skills, you must have a lot of friends," Mir quipped. "There's nothing wrong with my kit in the hands of someone who knows what to do with it."

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0811

Diona jaw tighened, and the look in her eyes only served to heighten the feral features of her face. "Mock me again little man, and your final moments will be spent learning what your own intestines taste like." She reached out and took Mir's arm in hand, her grip just shy of bone crushing, and steered him forcably towards the door. "Get in."

[Tyyr]

0811

"Hey, you're the one who started talking shit about me Sister." Mir let himself be steered towards the door.

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0811

"As far as I'm concerned, you are potential heritic scum until you can convince me otherwise. Until then, you will accept what shit I give you, and thank the Emporer I did not give it to you with my melta."

The guard at the door stood aside to let them passed, though she moved just slow enough that Mir clipped her armored shoulder. Between Diona behind shoving him and the sister bracing herself, it was rather like getting pushed into the corner of a wall.

Inside, the building's lobby had been filled with a make-shift barricade of over turned desks and random furniture looted from the rest of the building. A trio of sister stood ready behind it, and the guard came to join them as Mir was steered by. Behind the blockade, Mir saw a pair of melta bombs positioned. The barricade was positioned close to a doorway against the back wall.

Through there was a short hall. Passing by one door, Mir caught the strong, coppery smell of blood. A glance through showed him several sisters laid out on cots, covered in bloody bandages. Then they were passed. Another room flashed by, two sisters holding a third down while a fourth took needle and thread to the stump that had been her leg.

[Tyyr]

0812

"So uh, if you won't rip my arm off for asking, what happened here? You guys just wake up too?"

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0812

Diona nodded. "We woke up inside of a lighter, it's engines destroyed. We barely had time to take in our surroundings when the orks came. They...the craft was too poor a defensible position for their numbers, we moved into the city until we found this sanctified struture. We took it as a sign and set up base here and have been scouting the city for answers."

[Tyyr]

0812

"Well there's your answer. You girls had it rough. I've just had ones and twos to deal with. Sorry 'bout that. As far as answers, this place has gone mad. Cyclops, saurians, orks, space marines, insects the size of ground cars, robots, you name it. It's here and all unpleasant."

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0812

"We know," Diona said. "Some of the things our scouts have reported..." She shook her head.

As they rounded a turn in the hall, Mir saw Atella standing beside a door, inspecting the combat shotgun. She snapped to attention as Diona came into sight, and held it as the older sister approached the door and knocked politely.

"Come in," a bored voice answered, and Diona lead Mir into the room. A rather petite woman stood bent over a desk, examining a map laid out across it's surface, dotted with colored markers. Against one wall, a couch with a rumpled looking blanket stood, and in the far corner a suit of power armor stood, tilted to lean against the wall while another woman took a set of tools to it.

The small woman had a gymnist build to her, and might have been mistaken for a girl mid-way through her teens before she glanced up. Her face was round and she had cute features, but a wicked pair of old, white faded scars slashed across her chin and lips, and her eyes held a mature seriousness to them.

"Celestian, if you have a moment..." Diona began, then cut off as she realized the woman was wearing nothing more than a sleeveless tank top and her under garments while her armor was being worked on. She quickly stepped in front of Mir to obscure his view, and stammered. "M-my apologizes Celestian, I d-did not know y-you..."

"Oh give over Diona," the woman said dismissively. "I've had men see me in less, move aside..." Diona hesitated a moment, then bowed and did as ordered.

[Tyyr]

0812

"Well, howdy," Mir said. His eyes momentarily flickering over the celestian. "Looks like ya'll are making yourselves at home here."

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0812

"We do what we can," the celestian said without enthusiasm. She considered Mir a moment, then said to Diona. "So who is he?"

Diona opened her mouth, and hesitated as she realized she had not asked nor had Mir volunteered a name. "...a loyal servant, by his claim. Whether he is or not..."

"Right right..." she cut Diona off. She reached out a finger and tapped a section of the map. "The scouts found some supplies, food and cookware. I want it here an hour ago, take a squad and get it."

Diona looked taken aback by the sudden dismissal, but she recovered quickly. "Ma'am," she said with a bow, and threw Mir a distrusting look as she left.

"Atella, set those over there," she said, waving towards the couch. Not waiting for the novice to reply, the celestian marched over to Mir and stuck out a hand. "Venus, you?"

[Tyyr]

0812

Mir took her hand and brought it up to his lips for a quick kiss. "Mir. Lost, confused, and just trying to stay alive. You mentioned heading out for food, did you wind up with a pack full of rations too or just some more. My biggest problem is ammo, I've been running on the ragged edge since I woke up."

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0812

Venus twisted her hand free just before Mir's lips made contact with her skin. Not a jerking motion, but a smooth escape that she seemed to give no real attention to. "Ammo is tight, everything is tight." She walked over to where Atella had laid Mir's weapons out. "Thank you novice, now go to sleep."

"Ma'am, I'm not all that..." Atella started, but Venus didn't let her finish.

"To sleep. You will spend the next six hours in your cot, and if you spend it staring at the ceiling, you will have wasted those hours and made yourself of less use to your sisters."

"Yes ma'am," Atella said, unconciously hunching her shoulders a bit before she bowed herself out. Venus considered the weapons and picked up the shotgun.

"Junk," she proclaimed, and tossed it unceramoniously to the floor. "You have a far superior weapon here," she said, picking up the combat shotgun. "You should not burdon yourself with useless weight."

[Tyyr]

0812

Mir frowned. "A wiseman doesn't foolishly leave useful tools behind. If my autoshotty jammed up I'd still have a way to make use of that ammo. I keep the blazers in it so I can get to them easily and not have to fool with unloading them from the autoshotty any time I reloaded it. Those of us not graced with melta's and bolters lavished with attention by techpriests make do with what we've got on hand. The piece of "junk" helped me kill a chaos space marine. Besides, I'm still alive aren't I?"

[Lighthawk]

Mir
0812

Venus listened to Mir with a look of bored patience. "If you can't unjam a gun, you have no business using one. As for your blazers..." She turned and tossed the combat shotgun to the sister in the corner, who quickly transfered her tools into one hand in time to catch the weapon with the other. " Fit a fire selector to that." The woman nodded, stowing her tools away and marching out of the room without a word.

"Choas marine?" Venus asked neutrally. Her eyes were not on Mir, but on the chain sword. She reached for it, but drew back her hand as if burned just before she actually touched the weapon. "Yes, I see..."