A Hidden Backstory (Assassini & KariaShinzou)
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		<h2 id="linktree">Play-By-Post: Bondage, D/s, S&amp;M =&gt; Bondage: Exotic Solos =&gt; Topic started by: Assassini on 26-08-2012, 04:23:43</h2>
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				Title: <strong>A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>26-08-2012, 04:23:43</strong>
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				Art examined his reflection in the mirror of his quarters, like so many other rooms on the ship it was spartan and bare, while life in the military permitted luxuries and often provided many advantages for people after leaving the service, the possessions you took aboard ship were usually minimalist. Like a number of other cabins aboard the cruiser HNSS Morningstar there was space for a single bunk, underneath of which was a plain footlocker. A metal cabinet was placed at the foot of the bed and beside it he had his own sink and a reasonably sized mirror, not made from glass but from some plastic. Glass could only too easily shatter and break in combat situations. His quarters were those of an officer, one of Lieutenant or above, and the rank and file would be bunking together. Art was a little different, even amongst the officers of the ship, which for a ship the size of Morningstar meant 18 men and women, he was an outsider and treated with no little suspicion. "The Agency" as it was known amongst the majority of worlds was the combination of a large number of the old Earth's secret agencies, the CIA, MI6. In reality CMIHK, or The Agency, or Chimk sometimes, was supposed to be about knowledge and science. The Centre of Military and Intelligence and Human Knowledge was supposed to work on everything which worked for the betterment of the human race as a whole.<br><br>Part of this meant top secret laboratories working on how to cure space fever or how to truly travel faster than light. Another part of this meant supersoldiers, the best humanity in all it's splendour had to offer, Art was one of these. However, CMIHK was secret and a lot of it's work was secret as well to prevent the other races of the known Universe from obtaining it. Secrecy meant things that many of the common man did not understand, and what one did not understand one was afraid of. Rumours of assassination, spying, perhaps even terrorist deeds had all been pointed towards CMIHK, along of course with messing with the space, time continuum. Art did not know if half of the rumours were true, probably no more than 5%, but he did believe, no he knew, that what CMIHK was always in the best interests of it's people and to a certain extent those species in the Galaxy which bore humanity no ill will.<br><br>He examined his dark hair, cropped short over stormy grey eyes and a youthful face before finally turning towards the door. He wore the standard grey uniform of a marine, or any soldier in fact, no ranks or labels, except for the long black coat which he pulled on which came down to just above the knees. He was powerfully built, the combination of years of hard work and genetic and chemical engineering in a lab, and tall, although surprisingly slender. His grey eyes seemed to flash with a danger and mystery which made him an imposing and impressive figure in the coat, swathed with an aura of the unknown. He left the room, pressing his hand to the hand scanner which automatically locked the door behind him. Spinning on heel he marched down the stainless steel and perfectly clean corridors of the Morningstar. He was used to travel far less clean than this, every light shone mimicking sunlight back on Earth at 4:00pm. Some argued to use the calendars and time-scales of the colonies to whom the ship belonged, but that would mean the start of a military which did no work in unison or act as one.<br><br>He marched towards the bridge, his years as a soldier obvious in his flat-footed and purposeful stride, but there was more to it, a fluidity that suggested he might suddenly break into dance or twist into a somersault. As he marched along engineers, soldiers, NCOs and other technical staff looked up and would salute smartly, heels clicking before they returned to their work. Morningstar was not a ship he frequented and so he did not know the crew and vice versa. He walked quickly up to the bridge where the comm unit in his room had summoned him not moments before. They were finally closing in on the planet dubbed Meothro III after about three weeks in hyperspace, the smaller science and exploration vessel, on which Art would have felt infinitely more at home, was pulling up alongside according to Captain Averbuch.<br><br>The corridors of Morningstar were uniform and pleasant, each door jutting off at right angles would lead to some other part of the ship, the crew quarters, the holo-theatre, the combat sim room. This main corridor, a large thoroughfare enough for 5 men to easily walk abreast lead up to the bridge of the ship. As he approached, the doors sliding open automatically with a faint hiss of hydraulics, he glanced around the permanently busy room. He was greeted by a bustle of men and women, darting between large glowing holo-decks, comptuers showing everything from scans of the surrounding 5000 kilometers to the temperature of the food stores aboard the ship. There were two lines of terminals, each facing inwards, and he walked up the centre aisle they created to the raised dais which stood by the main viewpoint of the Morningstar. The thick plexiglass was all that shielded the entire room from being sucked into the infinite black of space, stars twinkling in every direction, each a mote of life, mystery, danger and a million other things upon a pitch black canvas. It was always magnificent, and the viewing deck was always even better. Captain Averbuch was talking faintly to Major Cheng but both looked up respectfully and silently, their conversation coming to a dead stop, when Art approached. Dominating the entire viewing point was the garden world of Meothro III, a large glowing green globe illuminated by a faintly blue sun, flickering off towards the left, around the size of a fingernail compared to the planet which seemed to be larger than life and unbelievably massive.<br><br>The colony founded on Meothro III was a free colony outside of the influence of the United Republic of Human Nations, this meant that whatever occured on the surface of the planet was outside of the jurisdiction of anyone aboard the Morningstar unless help was specifically asked for. The Meothran's had been free for a long period of time now and had no intention of giving up their way of life. That was of no concern to the crew of both the Morningstar and the crew of the science vessel in it's shadow, although supposedly a team of scientists aboard the vessel were going down to the surface for a few planetary rotations to catalogue some of the more interesting examples of biology on the planet. The Captain cleared his throat slightly causing Art to turn his head towards the shorter man. Captain Averbuch had a completely shaved his head over a heavy-set brow and dark facial features, his accent when he spoke made his clear that his ancestry lay somewhere on old Earth in Eastern Europe "We've got an incoming ship Arterius, they passed the checks but it's not official military" he frowned as he spoke, not sure what to make of this and obviously disliking his confusion "They are already approaching docking bay 17 so for whatever reason, we've got ourselves a new guest... I figured you might want to know" his tone was clipped with military efficiency and something approaching dislike, Art merely nodded.
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				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>26-08-2012, 19:56:22</strong>
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				A blue flashing light lit up, indicating there was an incoming transmission. on the screen showed only a shadow of a man wearing a crash helmet and a dark black battle suit. <br><br>"Good evening Morningstar, this is Captain Jorgin of the ship Yarimanda. We are ready to dock and will transport the prisoner with in the hour to your holding cell. Do you need more time preparing Morningstar?"<br><br>The captain had a note of worry and relife in his voice, as if he hadnt given the whole truth in his report. Everything was going acording to plan..the captian only had this 'prisoner' for three star dates and he was in a hurry to get rid of her. Yes her..the frightening little minx that was delivered to them in a straight jacket and it still took them four hours to get her onto the shuttle. She was only deemed a prisoner because she assulted seventeen armed guards and five civilians.<br><br>"Upon placing the prisoner into her cell, my ship will retreat and leave you to release or do as you please with her. She is meant to be sent to the planet Katagarri Prime and to be left to her own devices. Whether you do or not is up to you. Yarimanda out."<br><br>Katagarri Prime was a class M planet that was nothing but ravenous forest fit for the worst types of beasts known to the universe. The tougher species of the universe travel there to hunt down and kill high priced beasts and foliage to make money on. But as far as the report said, the prisoner comming on board...was a human woman.<br><br>"Captain, prisoner vessel Yarimanda is landing in dock seventeen and requesting back up to remove the prisoner from the ship."<br><br>Once back up arrived on the ship, 20 plus soldiers walked to the prisoners holding cell and peered throught the large three foot thick glass window that seemed to have just been put in. Inside, there was a long coffin like box with a set&nbsp; of four by ten very small holes near the top to let air in. There was a combination lock on the outside of it and four poles jutting from the ends of it. Filing in, the box rattled, making every soldier step back a foot of two.<br><br>"Get your asses moving! I dont want that thing on my ship any longer then need be."<br><br>Captain Jorgin shouted as four men took up the poles and the rest huddled a safe distance from thrashing box. When they finally reached the holding cell on the Morningstar, Captain Jorgin followed Captain Averbuch to the cell were the box now layed silently as if waiting to scare the shit out of another person. <br><br>"Captian Averbuch, I suggest you leave the prisoner in that box untill you are able to reinforce the room. Also, she wears a muzzle over her nose and mouth with a small slot to fit food into. Never remove it, you will sorely regret it. My soldiers and I have learned a little trick on how too remove her straight jacket. Connect a chain to her neck and connect it to the ceiling, do the same with her feet, once removed, step back quickly and only release her once the door is secured and you are out of the room. She doesnt look like much, but she it one evil bitch."<br><br>Captain Jorgin only said these things to the Captain and those soldiers standing around because he wanted off this ship and as far away from the imprisoned female as he could. Handing the file over to Captian Averbuch he gave a sarcastic salute and said.<br><br>"Good luck Morningstar."<br><br>With that, the Yarimanda and its crew left with haste, they had even left skid marks on the docking platform as they hit hyperdrive as soon as they closed their doors. Needless to say...it wasnt a good sign that a large ship of over 40 men and some women...were kicking up dust to hight tail it away from the prisoner they had just dropped onto the Morningstar.
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				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>27-08-2012, 03:59:08</strong>
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				Art turned towards the communications screen at the same time as the Major and the Captain, older vessels still communicated using screens or sometimes just voice while these days the ships developed in the Human Nation's made use of holographic projectors to create a holographic version of a speaker wherever they were communicating with. Art frowned at the screen as he allowed the Captain to deal with the other Captain, this was his command after all. While they spoke Art tried to gather what he could from the slightly out-of-focus image of the man on the other side of the transmission. The armour was black, and not the shining black of some of the Human Nation's military forces, it appeared slightly grimy and the worse for wear, as if it had recently seen combat. As well as this the armour appeared to be of an older model, but without a full view of the suit it was impossible to tell properly. Whatever the case, his initial impression was one of a man who had seen combat but not in an official governmental capacity. His frown deepened as the man spoke, his eyes narrowing as his sharp mind tried to make sense of this situation, the man on the other side of the communication was obviously in a hurry and wanted rid of the prisoner he carried. It was not entirely unusual for the military to be given prisoners to escort back to secure locations, but it was certainly unusual for the man delivering the prisoner to seem to desperate to be rid of them.<br><br>Captain Averbuch dealt with this Captain Jorgin quickly and efficiently, passing control of the bridge over to Major Cheng and Lieutenant Garrson while he went to personally oversee the transferring of the prisoner. The two ships computers seemed to work together seamlessly and the Yarimanda was quickly and efficiently brought close enough to the far larger cruiser for the docking tubes to extend from either vessel. Once the airlocks on both sides had been sealed, travel between the two vessels was possible. Art watched silently from the bridge, moving to an unused terminal to watch through the multitude of cameras abroad the Morningstar as the prisoner was brought aboard. His initial impression of the Captain had been right as he saw a number of his men, all of them wore older Thorian Mark VII.2 armour which had never truly been used in the military due to their inability to deal with ultraviolet lasers which cut through them like butter. They were all sprayed completely black and often seemed in cases of semi-repair as if the men were patching them up as they went along. It was a mercenary company, perhaps even bounty hunters of some description, and Art felt his nose curling with distaste at the thought. He had never once approved of men who put their loyalty with money, thugs and gangsters all of them.<br><br>He leant forward in his seat as Captain Jorgin requested reinforcements, how much trouble could one prisoner cause? For whatever reason, Captain Averbuch agreed and within minutes 3 full squads of soldiers, the dark blue armour with gold banding indicating they belonged to the 0543rd Fusiliers, one of several battalions aboard the Morningstar. Around half of the men disappeared onto the mercenary ship with Captain Jorgin, with Captain Averbuch watching on with a stern and disapproving eye as his men boarded the other ship. Art found himself watching the proceedings closely, ignoring as the rest of the bridge continued with their work quietly and efficiently, unaware of the drama unfolding aboard their very ship. He only looked up long enough to nod respectfully as Major Cheng disappeared on some errand, possibly to deal with some of the other soldiers who tended to get a little uppity when cooped up aboard a ship for too long.<br><br>Art's eyes widened at the rather dramatic appearance of the box, which thrashed in the arms of the soldiers carrying it. That aroused his interest enough, he turned off the screen, logging out so no-one could abuse his clearance and set off through the well lit hallways of the Morningstar. It took him three minutes during which he only slowed down enough so as not to appear in a rush. He arrived back at the docking bay in time to watch Captain Jorgin disappearing back into his ship, the connection between the two vessels withdrawing. There was a sudden rush and clang and it seemed the Yarimanda was pulling away as fast as he could possibly manage, watching through the windows next to the bay Art saw as they hit the hyperdrive even before they were a safe distance from the Morningstar. He heard a hissed inhalation from Averbuch at that, "Merc scum! If they've even scratched this ship I ought to send some light speed fighters after them and teach them a thing or two about manners" he held a datapad in his hands, his knuckles turning white as they gripped the small device. Art approached the man cautiously and said softly <strong>"My interest has been aroused by this Captain, if you would prefer I could oversee the dealings with the prisoner... Maybe find out why they've got her... It is a her yes? Her, held in a box better suited for a lion"</strong>. The Captain jerked in surprise, turning to Art with a blazing look on his face at first. After a second of pause, where he considered the younger man's offer he nodded though, "I'll be on the bridge if you need me" he said, the red colour on his face draining back to it's normal colour, "Second Lieutenant Parker from the five-four-third Fusiliers is already overseeing 'her' release from that box in cell oh-oh-seven. Do what you like, when you're there". Art waited only until Averbuch had finished before saluting promptly, turning smartly on heel and jogging towards the cells, as he moved he turned on the datapad and started to read about their new guest.
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				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>27-08-2012, 19:44:33</strong>
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				On the datapad, the file on the prisoner showed up. Where most prisoners had a full wrap sheet and information on who they were, this prisoner...was far different.<br><br><strong>Name:</strong> Unknown<br><strong>Age:</strong> Estimated 20-25 years<br><strong>Blood type:</strong> Unconclusive<br>P<strong>lanet of Birth:</strong>Unknown<br><strong>Species:</strong>Undocumented<br><br><strong>Crimes:</strong> <br>First Offence&gt;&gt;74 counts of assult: 23 counts of assult on military personel, 51 counts of assult against civilians. <br>Second Offence&gt;&gt; 14 counts of attempted mudrer against goverment officials.<br>Third Offence&gt;&gt;31 counts of assult against military opertaives during arrest.<br><br>The list scrolled on and on and the numbers wracked up higher and higher and the assults dated back only a couple of months. Apparently..either alot of people had a problem with her..or she had a huge problem with people in general.<br><br>Laying in her box, she waited and waited, finally...she heard the sound she was waiting for...the sound of hevy military boots.&nbsp; She could judge by the sound of their foot falls about how heavy they were and by that she could guess their size. She smiled as she heard the combination lock beep and the box opened.<br><br>"God she smells..."<br><br>One of the men said as they grabbed her chains and started to undo them Finally with the weight of chains off of her and her legs freed, they helped her to her feet. The moment the buckles on her straight jacket was released...it was over.<br><br>"Dont move or-"<br><br>With a burst of speed and agility, she slipped behind the man and grabbed the mans hair whilst the other two guards shot their tazer guns. Smiling as they hit their Liutenant instead of her, she ran up and delivered a harsh upper cut that made his jaw snap.Turning to the other man, he finally had time to reload his tazer gun and shoot her with it. Hit in the stomach, the man kept the trigger pulled for almost five minutes and counting. One could see the inate fear in the mans face, as the girls body layed there cunvulsing in what should have been pain. She wore only a disgusting and old big t-shirt and the muzzle on her face. <br><br>By this point, as she was still and unmoving as the military man continued to shock her with the tazer gun. The smell of burning flesh and electricity filled the room as the charge on the tazer gun finally ran up, leaving the guard backing up towards the door ofthe cell.
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				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>28-08-2012, 05:51:00</strong>
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				Art's movements through the corridors of the Morningstar were swift and energetic, he had been bored out of his skull on this routine inspection especially as the Cruiser's mission had only been to escort the civilian scientist vessel to the planet Meothro III. The only reason such a large ship had even been given such a routine and quiet mission was that this colony was outside of Human Nations controlled space and pirates, slavers and raiders of all sorts and species were only too common. With the cruiser around though the entire journey had been quiet and had involved Art mostly either inspecting the whole of the ship or spending time brushing up on his physique or reading papers. All in all he was finding that the distraction of an unknown prisoner, who apparently was kept in a cage strong enough for something along the lines of a Class II wild animal, with an unknown name, planet of origin or history might provide enough distraction for him to not go numb with boredom.<br><br>Taking the short elevator ride down to the detention levels though he found his perspective changing, aside from a brief recorded history of extreme levels of violence against large numbers of people, and even the places where these events had occurred was not mentioned in the merc's skimpy report, there was literally no information about the girl herself. Had she originally been born in the URHN everything about her would be recorded and stored in the massive databases kept by the Government, her entire identity and everything official about her would be known until she disappeared into free space. But it appeared she hadn't been born in the URHN, or if she had her records were either gone or could not be matched with her. She was a complete enigma, a woman with no identity, not even an alias apparently. His mood had taken a severe downturn as he exited the elevator and passed through the security checkpoint. Where he had initially been buoyant and enthusiastic he now felt a little more pessimistic, a little more concerned and a lot more interested. Nobody had no history, that didn't make sense. But apparently, according to the URHN, she did not exist. He even had the ship's computer running through the census data for anything that could possibly be her, but without anything else to go on he doubted even the super fast processor of Morning, the name given to the computer, would find her.<br><br>The men on security duty let him through quickly, the pass on his uniform allowed him all levels of access, well above those of the highest ranking officers aboard the ship. He was polite, but absent-minded, nodding to one of the soldiers he recognised from a battle simulation and drill which they had performed together, he believed the man's name was Private Westmoor or similar.<br><br>He arrived at cell 7, a cell large enough for 10 men and so large enough for the crate the girl had been brought aboard in. He turned slowly to face it, in front of him was the door to the cell with a second door to the right. The second door led to a viewing room, which would look into the cell through one-way glass strengthened with a kinetic field, where a security team would be posted who would keep an eye on the interrogation. He decided he would enter the viewing room first, in case any sensitive interrogation was being done on the prisoner. He typed in his access code, pressing his thumb into the scanner causing the door to slide across noiselessly and allowing him into the viewing chamber. The security was fairly low level, but then this area of the ship did not require high access so there was no need for retina scanners or DNA testers. He was still lost in his own thoughts as he entered the room and for a few heartbeats he was oblivious to the shocked and horrified looks on the man and woman occupying the viewing room.<br><br>Slowly their expressions filtered into his concious mind and he did a double take, quickly taking in all their expressions and spinning towards the glass. His eyes widened in shock, pressed against the far wall of the large and completely white cell was the dull metal box the prisoner had been brought aboard in. Lying huddled in the doorway was a body with a Lieutenant insignia stamped on the shoulder and beside him was a marine rolling around on the floor, clutching at his face and moaning in pain. Closer to the glass, almost in the centre of the room, lay a filthy and dishevelled creature which, after a year of scrubbing and looking after, might have been a human girl. Watching this girl with eyes so wide that you could see the whites was a second marine, his finger still working the trigger of the tazer he had pointed at the girl.<br><br>Art sprang into action immediately, yelling orders at the other soldiers, fury evident in his voice, eyes flashing dangerously. <strong>"I want a full security detail down here right away, no less than 10 marines! Get me medics as well! Four of them! Any support staff we need too! Just fucking get to it!"</strong> both the man and the woman, privates and completely out of their depth, stared at him as if he was an alien for a few seconds <strong>"MOVE YOU LAYABOUTS!"</strong> he roared, causing them to jump into action towards the console on the wall next to their table. He moved with a similar speed, dashing out of the viewing room and into the cell. He took a moment to calm himself down as he stepped into the bright lighting of the room, closing and locking the door behind him. The woman on the floor was still convulsing weakly but he kept his eyes on her. Turning towards the other private he said slowly and clearly, his voice projecting calm and reassurance to the terrified man <strong>"Listen soldier, come slowly around the room, just grab your friend there and get him outside. Back-up is on the way"</strong> as he spoke he indicated the man still groaning and clutching his face, the wound looked serious but he ought to be able to walk. To a wonder the soldier complied and as he did so Art slowly approached the girl, glancing over to the Lieutenant to confirm to himself that the man was indeed still breathing. He crouched down next to her, out of arm's length and spoke slowly and clearly <strong>"Can you hear me?"</strong>
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				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>30-08-2012, 03:43:36</strong>
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				Medics moved in quickly, checking for signs of life they realized her heart was beating irregularly. With a squad of armed guards intail, the woman was scooped up onto the streacher and rushed to the hospital wing. Once there, she was strapped down with both metal and leather bindings. After the third medicine the medics tried to give her, they stepped back and acessed their next course of action. <br><br>The prociding doctor recorded her findings in a video journal. "The patient has suffered severe trauma due to excessive shocks of electricity repeatedly scent through the patients body over a 15-25 minute period of time. The patients stomach is burned but easily mended over time. The patients heart beats irregularly, it is prossible that her hearing and vision may be damaged due to hemoraging in her eyes as well as damage ear drums..."<br><br>Pausing for a moment to cough, she continued to speak.<br><br>"The patient also has muscle tearing through most of her body and it seems she has an extreme allergic reaction to any sedative or antibiotics we give her, so its only a matter of time untill she either dies and or wakes up from her temporary unconciousness."<br><br>With that she ended the diary and rubbed her palms over her face. They had spent hours getting her cleaned up and trying to do what ever the medically could. But it seemed, her body rejected everything. She looked over her shoulder at the fifteen armed guards in the room and shook her head. What woman in this condition could fight trained soldiers? Let alone break the restraints, it seemed exaggerated, but to each their own.
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				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>30-08-2012, 05:19:48</strong>
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				Art was trained in dozens of types of combat, he knew how to fight in most of the terrain that the Universe could throw at him, and it wasn't just that he was a good soldier. A good soldier would be a Captain or an NCO in the marine corps, he was however amongst the best of the best. He could fly short-distance fighters, light-speed jets and any other type of vehicle. He also had a basic understanding of the mechanics of most science including computers, physics and biology. This meant that compared to the average soldier his first aid training was outstanding, he knew how to react from anything to a gun-shot wound to a number of extremely rare virulent diseases and poisons. For all his training, expertise and rank though when the field medics arrived they took the whole situation in quietly and competently and then pushed him gently out of their way. His concern for the men and the girl, while well-meaning, would just have prevented them from doing their jobs.<br><br>The soldier who had taken the young girl's fist to the jaw had a tiny hairline fracture in his jaw and possibly a minor concussion from banging his head off the ground, indicating she had him with not inconsiderable force, but it was the sort of thing that wouldn't hinder the young man and would heal easily. He would only have a little problem chewing for a while. The biggest wound to him was to his pride, even the medics gently ribbed him, about being decked by a girl around half his size, as the carried him on the hovering stretcher up to the medical bay. The other soldier, one Private Toby Lars was checked by the psych consult and told he was perfectly healthy. Because he wasn't injured or distressed in any way he was sent to his superior officer, with orders from Art to be severely reprimanded. For all that he had been scared out of wits, the use of the tazer on a civilian ought to have been a last resort and tazering her for well over 5 minutes, a ridiculously unhealthy length of time, was completely ludicrous. While Art did not believe that the young man would have been able to restrain the girl, something about her told him that, some tiny part of his mind saying there was more to her than met the eye, he did believe that the soldier deserved however many shifts he got on cleaning duty for tazering the helpless woman into a coma. The Second-Lieutenant, despite being hit by two tazer shocks simultaneously, had barely taken much of a shock and would be on his feet with no repercussions in less than a day. The medic also mentioned that the twitching ought to disappear after a few hours as well along with the smell of burnt skin and hair.<br><br>All in all, for the disaster that it had been the soldiers could have been far worse off. The woman on the other hand was in a bad state and remained that way. Art made himself check up on the soldiers and the Lieutenant first, making sure that they were all in one piece and being punished soundly respectively, before he allowed himself to check on the girl. There was something about her that kept itching at the edge of his conciousness, his interest in her growing and growing now especially when the ships computer reported that so far it seemed she had not been born on any of the Human Nation's planets. She intrigued him beyond the fact that she was a ghost, her violence and ferocity spoke of something far more primal and vicious than any animal and she had overcame some of the best trained soldiers in the known Universe. She was an enigma and it was one his mind was slowly gearing up to try and solve, the great spokes that drove his mind clicking into place as he shook off the last vestiges of his boredom and lethargy from the weeks before. Something about the girl, be it her smaller stature, the fact that she had been caged, or the fact that she seemed to have been so harshly treated awoke very mixed reactions. First was simple human concern and sympathy for her, followed by anger and rage at whoever had turned her into the creature he had witnessed in the security tapes. Finally though, and perhaps predominantly, he wanted to protect this girl, something about her just made him want to put himself between her and whoever had done this to her. It was a reaction he chuckled ruefully over, mocking himself with thoughts of trying to be a knight in shining armour. For all that though, the feeling persisted.<br><br>The medical bay in any human vessel of the size of the Morningstar, a cruiser with around 3,000 people living on it, would be well stocked and well equipped to deal with any form of malady, from whatever was the local planetary equivalent of the common cold to laser burns and missing limbs. Using a combination of nano-bots and lab-grown tissue the doctors aboard the Morningstar would be capable of anything up to replacing an arm or a leg in about a week (followed by a further three months in therapy of course). Naturally they could not do everything, the truly complex and detailed parts of the body such as some of the organs, the nervous system and the brain were mostly beyond their aid, but even then they could limit damage done before sending the soldiers off to the hospitals groundside (those in the armed forces could thankfully expect some of the best medical treatment available). For all their high end technology and general competence the Doctors seemed as perplexed by the girl as Art was. When he spoke to the attending physician she told him that while they were able to clean her up and repair the damaged tissue without much difficulty there appeared to be a large number of abnormalities with her body that they could do nothing for.<br><br>It added only another level of mystery onto this girl, a woman capable of beating the crap out of some of the hardest men in this Galaxy and there was something wrong with her too, something even a Doctor could not explain. One of the other physicians complained to him about the number of guards she had and he managed to persuade the Captain to reduce her guard to only five men or women. Both the Captain and the Major had had something of a minor fit when they heard of the incident, and it had taken a lot of smoothing over to convince them to not just look her up in a cell for the rest of their tour and be done with her. Art wouldn't have that, for the first time on the whole trip he resorted to pulling rank on the Captain and made the older man promise that he would allow Art to continue his investigation. He had thought initially that this would have made his relationship more strained with the man but oddly it had seemed to relax him, it made sense in a way that he had been uncertain around Art for so long because he was uncertain who had the authority and now he knew. An old military mind indeed. Art spent hours working on his computer, keeping a small video up in the corner to track the girl's progress. He spent hours pouring over census data, planetary movements, DNA charts, everything he could think of but he got nowhere. He suspected that if he went to one of the brains, one of the central processing centres of the Human Nations where all data on every subject was stored, he still wouldn't be able to find any trace of this girl. He was on the point of giving up and perhaps even getting some sleep, leaning back in his chair and rubbing his eyes while frown-lines marred his youthful face, when the feed in the corner suddenly told him that the girl's status was changing. She was waking up. Without a pause for thought, he leapt up from his chair and nearly ran from the room, the door sliding shut and locking noiselessly behind him. He would be there when she woke up and he would be one of the first things she saw, he would make sure of it, his heart and breathing picking up in anticipation of finally starting to solve her puzzle.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>01-09-2012, 04:27:44</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Silence...cold....the smell of amonia and death filled her senses and she refused to move a muscle. For once, she was in a relaxed position and not chained up or in a straight jacket. She could feel gauze over her eyes and the IV pumping into her arm, but where was the sound of beeping machines? Or the sound of dripping water or people talking. She could feel her pulse throbbing through her veins as her whole body seemed to thump along with her heart.<br><br>A gust of wind...a door must have opened, she could feel the vibrations of heavy foot steps. A soldier? No too fast and purposeful for a soldier. Maybe someone higher up, seeing how their 'prisoner' was fairing. No...they would only want to know if she were alive or dead. Her fingers twitched, a brush of polyester cloth touched her as someone came close. What was the purpose? Killing her? Revenger for his men? By the scent of him he was definently male, the pugnant smell of aftershave and the fresh scent of freshly burned cedar trailed this man and she would know it was him even without her eyes. Another brush of wind...lighter foot steps this time...the doctor, female by the way her weight shifted into each step and the scent of syntheic flowers....<br><br>"She is awake...but refuses to speak. Though her vocal chords were stressed...she wont respond at all. I know for a fact that she is responsive and able to understand everything around her. I havent taken that muzzle like contraption off of her face because not only does she get shocked...but so do I if i try to remove it."<br><br>The doctor explained. She could feel her voice across her skin like a cheese grater on her tounge. She hated this woman especially after how much more damage they had done to her after trying to give her medicine. The damn doctor should have just let her lay there and recouperate on her own, what care did a prison ship have for its prisoners other then delivering them to the destination and making their money?
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>03-09-2012, 04:14:47</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He tried not to run as he moved through the bright and quiet corridors of the ship. Ship time, which was always based as close as possible to Earth time, said that it was after one o'clock in the morning and as such in the brief journey to the infirmary he met only a pair of crewmen on the night's watch. Security was automated and handled by the ship's computer, ran through camera's, sensors with security-bots in holding areas ready to jump into action at the slightest sense of wrong-doing. Despite that, all Human Nation's ships were required to have people on standby at all times, so as to avoid becoming too dependant on the machines for everything in military life. The pair of women on the security detail, marines by their short cropped hair, saluted smartly as he approached. He walked past them swiftly, slowing from his jog, and only just acknowledged their salute. When he was a little further down the hall he heard a very un-soldierly giggle coming from their direction, his trained and genetically advanced senses picking up what they said beyond the normal range of human hearing. He made himself ignore them, eavesdropping was something he tried to avoid especially if it was just something to stroke his ego.<br><br>He tried not to hurry, to merely walk swiftly and with purpose, but on a few moments he gave in to his need for speed and jogged down some of the empty corridors. He arrived at the entrance to the infirmary less than ten minutes after noticing that she had woken up. He took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders and easing the tension in his neck before he typed in the key-code to open the secured room. He passed the soldiers on the evening shift of guarding the woman, as one they leapt to full attention on their feet, abandoning the card game they had been busy with. He nodded to them muttering <strong>"Carry on"</strong> before sweeping past them into the room.<br><br>As he entered the same doctor from when the girl had arrived approached, she did not seem surprised that he knew about the girl waking up nor by his appearance. She appeared healthy and in reasonable spirits but for some reason there was a tiredness in her eyes that never left, he made a mental note to suggest that she take some shore leave at some point soon. She spoke the clinical and efficient tone that all men and women of science shared when talking about hard facts and data, although she did start to trail off towards the end. He glanced over at her, he could see the concern in her face and the obvious irritation that she wasn't able to help the young woman. His own heart rate began increasing as he approached the side of her bed, he felt nervous and unsure why. He turned his attention to the clean white linen of the bed-sheets and the obscured form which lay there. The doctor had an obvious personal stake in the patient, he imagined she would with all of the people she treated, but he could not understand his own stake in this and why it suddenly bothered him so much that he knew nothing about the girl.<br><br>He thanked the doctor in a quiet voice, the dismissal in his tone clear and he grabbed a chair and drew it up by the side of the bed. He sat down slowly, a frown written across his face, marring his normally handsome features. He leant forward towards her, placing his elbows on his knees and his head into his hands as he looked at her, suddenly unsure of how to proceed. The doctor hovered about for a few moments before deciding to return to her station, harrumphing slightly about soldiers, men and officers, her mutters almost causing a grin to appear on his face. He looked at the young woman, most of her under sheets and held down by the straps. She smelled of simple clean and clinical soap, but it was a pleasant scent rather than a harsh one, and from what he could see she looked a lot better than she had when she was dragged aboard. <strong>"The doctors say you can hear me and I'm inclined to believe them"</strong> he started slowly, <strong>"The entire time you've been aboard ship I've been trying to puzzle you out, trying to figure out what lies beneath the mysteries and the crimes. I want to try and figure out who you are and how you make a team of mercs like those who brought you aboard quake in their boots."</strong> He paused for a moment, he had been speaking slowly and quietly, trying to be as gentle as he could, unsure how she would respond. His next words were almost under his breath, as if he expected her not to hear and it was more a question for himself than for her, <strong>"What happened to you?"</strong>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>07-09-2012, 04:32:11</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The mans voice was like a warm smoothing water over her body as he spoke. The smooth lilt of vibrations cascaded over her body as she breathed softly. Moving her fingers slowly, she seemed to jolt as though it pained her. Moving her fingers slowly, she made they symol of requiring something to write on. Feeling the cold smothe metalic piece of technology slipped under her hand and the stylst placed into her hand, she scrawled on it with crude letters.<br><br><em>Cant hear major asshole...</em><br><br>The pad dissapeared from beneath her hand, which only meant he was proably reading it. Flexing her hand back slowly she acted as though she was trying to hand the stylst back to him. Then, as if from out of no where, the stylst was jammed hilt deep into the machine that vibrated the floor with the sound of her heart beat as well as her stats. It was drivingher crazy for hours and finally...it stopped. Audibly breathing in deep, the woman flexed her body, she wanted out of the restraints like nothing else. She hated feeling like a lab rat, not to mention, she wanted to go crawl into a hole somewhere so that she could heal as well be free to move incase another person comes to try and harm her. <br><br>Over and over again, she calmly pulled at the retraints, her IV threatening to bend and possibly laserate a vein and make her bleed again. Where ever they were taking her, she wanted them to move faster so that she could maybe break out of another facility or possibly con them into letting her go. Though her luck was dismal...it was still a good oppening to attmept to flee from those who wish to either kill her, trap her, or make her into a lab rat for research. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>07-09-2012, 04:57:01</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He watched and waited for her to respond to his words, she seemed to take a moment to absorb them when he finished talking and he wondered what she was thinking, would she see him as just another merc, Another person who would try to harm her in some way or another? Inwardly he considered asking for a psych consult and then forgetting about the whole thing, he couldn't really do much for the girl and a trained psychologist would be far better suited to trying to get her to reveal her past. Whatever had happened to her it would not be an easy fix and it had probably left her with all sorts of problems, especially if she was really as dangerously violent as her history claimed.<br><br>She gave a sudden jerking movement, almost as if she had received an electric shock or was waking up from a nightmare. The sudden movement after the brief period of silence made him inhale sharply, surprise registering on his features before he quickly made his expression blank and smooth again. She was signalling for him to pass her something to write with. He glanced around the ward, giving it a once over for anything he could use. He quickly spotted a data tablet and electronic pen. He moved swiftly over the empty room, boots ringing off the clean floors, grabbed the equipment and returned to the bedside. He slid the tablet under her hand and placed the pen into it and watched as she slowly, but carelessly scratched out some words. She indicated he should take it and he leant forward again and picked it up. He frowned at the words, leaning back in the chair by her bedside. It seemed for every step they took forward they took another two steps back.<br><br>It was while he was looking at the words that she suddenly, in the flash of an eye, had flicked her hand. The stylist was sent flinging through the air and slammed deep into the heart monitor a few paces away from her bed. The machine gave a few fizzes of light and beeped once or twice and then went silent. Art barely moved, admittedly he tensed up when the pen was sent flying from her hand, his muscles all preparing him to leap into action, but he did not act on it. Nor did his expression change, he merely looked up from the words on the tablet and over to the machine before refocusing on her. <strong>"Nobody ever said it would be easy"</strong> he muttered, a determined expression writing it's way onto his face. The doctor on call appeared in the room, flanked by two concerned looking soldiers, tazers already in hand, and he turned to them and pointedly stared at the door. They left in a few moments, after making sure it seemed that neither he or the girl were hurt. He looked at her, the whole time she had been lying on the bed she had barely paid him any mind and now she started to strain against her restraints.<br><br>She was methodical and strong, testing each strap and binding holding her down, over and over. He found the process oddly hypnotic and only suddenly moved when he noticed that the IV stuck in her arm seemed to be jiggling slightly, as if it were in danger of tearing through the skin. He leaned forward and grabbed her arm, pressing it down firmly but gently while he raised the other hand in the universal gesture for "stop". He quickly grabbed the tablet and moved across the room to retrieve the stylus from the, now smoking slightly, wreckage of the heart monitor. Sitting back down he etched onto the screen some new words. "I am Art" he wrote, his handwriting inelegant and swift, "Who are you?" he raised the stylus over her face, making sure she could read it and then finally set it back down under he hand and gave her the stylus again, not caring that she still had the strength to hurl the small piece of plastic into a metal machine.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>08-09-2012, 02:06:22</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The patient jolted as the cotton pads on her eyes were removed, even though her eyes were still closed, the light pierced her eyes like lazer beams searing her pupils. Her eye lids were black and blue from the blood vessles poping during her electricution so she looked as though she had been beaten. Slowly she opened her eyes, and the whites of her eyes were completly red and the iris was also saturated with blood.<br><br>Reading the message and then feeling the pad slide softly under her hand, she scrawled onto it in large letters.<br><br><em>RELEASE ME</em><br><br>Once again she felt the cold piece of technology dissapear. Turning her head slowly, her muscles quivering from the strain, her blood filled eyes looked at him as if she were trying to pierce his very flesh. Not that she particularily ment it that way, but with eyes like that...it was hard to tell her emotions. Blood seeped from beneath her eyes as the strain was too great to keep them open, and so she shut them again. She couldnt afford to loose her eye sight completely. It, and her hearing, was the one thing she feared most of losing. 
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>08-09-2012, 02:47:52</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Art was a military man, you could meet him and see his intelligence, his surprising knowledge on a large field of topics, and forget that at the heart of him was a soldier. He had been on seven tours of duty during his life already, not including his current pointless position aboard the Morningstar, and four of them had seen action. Twice he had been fighting other races and twice he had fought humans, humans always didn't take much provoking to go to war, in fact many had been rather shocked to discover that humanity was one of the more warlike races in the Universe. During these tours he had killed and seen men and aliens killed, allies and enemies both. This all meant that injuries and blood were no stranger to him, only on his last tour he had watched a man torn to shreds by a pair of lasers cutting through the kinetic barriers and armour which encased him. Her eyes were badly damaged, horrifically so, but he did not flinch or look away. In fact he did not react at all, even though it seemed like she was trying to evoke some form of response from him.<br><br>She seemed to barely pay attention to the words he wrote onto the data pad and quickly took the stylus and wrote on it again. Instead of answering his question as he had hoped she demanded to be released. He frowned, leaning back in his chair, reading and re-reading the message as if by repeating the action enough times he could use the words to find out more about her. He looked up in time to see her staring at him, the whites of her eyes red from blood. The intensity of her gaze pinned him to his chair, his own green eyes fixed on hers. Her eyes could have been saying anything, they could have been screaming anything pain and hatred to longing and sadness. The only emotion those eyes did not contain was any joyful one, no happiness, no laughter. He seemed to notice that more blood was collecting in her eyes at the same moment she did. She closed her eyes and he leant forward to replaced the cotton padding which had been placed over them, not tying it off but merely positioning it to block out the worst of the light.<br><br>He leant back in his chair, considering her words. He could release her, his rank would protect him and his decision on board the ship for as long as the girl did not cause any trouble. His superiors would probably chastise him for it, especially if something went wrong, but then as an agent of Humanity he was allowed a little leeway to make his own decisions. If something good came of it, he would get away with nothing more than a few stern words and then some hearty congratulations for solving the puzzle. Then again, the agency probably would not care less for the troubles of one girl in the Universe where they had to deal with nearly 100 billion humans. However, he was bored which was part of the reason for his interest in the girl, this tour would not be over for another few months at least and the Captain would almost certainly just keep the girl aboard until they were safely back in Human Nation's territory and then simply throw her into a proper prison or asylum, whichever was deemed necessary. The girl was not the Captain's problem, the only thing he probably would not stand for would be leaving the girl on Katagarri Prime unless she did something which really pissed him off.<br><br>His internal struggle proved pointless though for Art had already made up his mind about what he would do. Once again he carefully wiped the datapad's screen clear of the previous writing and then etched down the words <em>"I will release you, if you give me information. Let's try again, what is your name?"</em>. He grinned as he finished writing the words. If she refused this then he could leave and try to come up with a better tactic, preferably one which involved waiting long enough for her to be able to hear again. If she accepted however, then he would have a fingerhold into finding out more about her. He knew that perhaps he was being too intense about this, but it was not just boredom which drove him now. This girl had suffered, that much was obvious, and finding those who had made her suffer like this might end up being worth the trouble. Besides, his instinct told him that something was not right here, so perhaps solving this puzzle would turn out to be far more than just a personal project. He shook himself from his thoughts and carefully removed the cotton from her face again, once again showing her the words and then placing the pad under her hand. He then proceeded to sit back and hope.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>08-09-2012, 03:32:20</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She had no perception of time, date, or even day and night. If one were to look into her medical statistics, they would see that she was infact awake for twenty three and a half hours out of everyday and she never slept those 30 minutes all at one time. The longest recorded sleep time was sixteen minutes and thirty nine seconds. It seemed that no matter what, she was aware of everything and her brain function during the day was at maximum without it overstressing her body. It was incredible that the human body could function like normal with so little sleep and so much trauma done on the body.<br><br>Reading the note slowly after forcing her eyes open, she once again felt the data pad slip under her hand and she replied.<br><br><em>I was given no name...and I have many names...you may call me Viper.</em><br><br>The writing was softer now, the letters seemed to connect smoothly as she wrote in sloppy cursive. Pausing for a moment she continued to write, she handnt meant it to sound as pitiful as it did, then again when writing it was hard to convey emotion.<br><br><em>How much more must i take...at least put me in a cell...i dont want to be trapped anymore...</em><br><br>Setting the stylus down on the data pad, she closed her eyes again as blood seeped between the lids. She was stressed, tired, afraid, worried that at anymoment she would be tortured and or hurt again...and she would be strapped in this medical bed...defenseless....and no one would care to help her.<br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>08-09-2012, 18:31:20</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Art breathed a sigh of relief as she started writing, it seemed that for whatever reason she might be amenable to the deal he had proposed, a good start at least. He waited as she wrote out her new response, it seemed to take her a little longer than previously but then she was writing more. Also the way she wrote now was considerably less harsh, now her hand flowed across the tablet in a clear hand and less as if she were trying to drive the pen straight through the pad. He used the few moments to review her condition in his mind and whether he would be able to in good conscience allow her to move. He would need to keep an eye on her himself and keep the guard detail nearby, Captain Averbuch would insist on that much at least. Her condition was not good but she would be able to move around if she desired. She was badly burnt, her eyes and ears were damaged and would take time to heal and there was some possible neurological damage, despite these injuries though he personally believed that it would be safe for her to roam about freely, if a little uncomfortable for her and more uncomfortable for everyone else. He also considered briefly the other bits and pieces the doctors had managed to work out about her, how she was able to stay awake almost permanently, how her heartbeat was oddly arrhythmic and how she had allergic reactions to all the drugs they had attempted to use on her, which their report insisted was so incredibly unlikely she must unique amongst every human being in existence, inside and outside of the human nations.<br><br>He broke from his thoughts and reflections when she stopped writing, gently he again replaced the cloth pad over her eyes and proceeded to take the stylus from under her hand. He read the words quickly, flicking over them and absorbing them in an instant. Viper. She called herself Viper. For whatever reason he found a small smile playing across his face, it seemed her name reflected her deadly personality. Whether it was a name she had chosen for herself or whether another had given it to her he did not know, he knew now that the chances of finding out who she had been born as were remote. He wondered briefly if she had once had a name, whether she had once been a normal girl on some colony, a remote one probably and outside of Human Nation control. He wondered how it was one could turn a normal little girl into the woman he saw on the bed.<br><br>He took the datapad and wiped the screen clean and then turned on the comm unit. He quickly gave a series of commands directly to the central computer of the Morningstar, to keep a close watch on Viper through the security systems but to accept her as a guest with access to all but the restricted sections of the ship. He had a brief conversation via a video chat with the Captain who was in his quarters, the man was not happy with Arthur's choice, but again he seemed to relax slightly when Art pulled rank. The Captain did remind him though that if anything were to go wrong it would be entirely on Arthur's shoulders, to which he nodded solemnly that he understood. He stood up and started to move over towards the door he had entered placed a hand reassuringly on Viper's arm, hoping she would not worry about his sudden absence. He quickly informed the soldiers of what he was about to do, causing a pair of them to start trying to argue with him, along with the female doctor. Once again he pulled rank, but he did make the effort to draw the doctor away and inform her that he would keep her updated about the girl's recovery. In short, after a few minutes he had informed everyone necessary that he was going to free the girl and had irritated a lot of people in the process. Returning to her bedside he muttered under his breath <strong>"You had better be worth this..."</strong> <br><br>He stood quietly beside her bed for a moment, wondering if it would not be better to simply keep her strapped down where she would be safe from harm and from harming others for the rest of the tour. He frowned, pinching the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. He was going through a lot of trouble for this, was it really worth it? He sighed and opened his eyes again, focusing on her. Determination flashed across his face, he could do this and even if it went horribly wrong he would be able to deal with the fallout. Before he could reconsider he moved and undid the magnetic straps which tied the girl down, first the one across her shoulders, then her abdomen, then her waist, working quickly and methodically until every last of the metal coils had retracted into the table. He then took a slow step back, like a man taking a step away from an angry wild animal, keeping eye contact and never running. He had made his decision and now he would have to hope it worked out.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>09-09-2012, 02:32:32</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Vibrations rumbled as voices rumbled in fierce emotion as another vibration silenced them. Feeling a rush of air and then steadied silence streached over the room, slowly she could feel his body heat streach over her as the man methodically released her. She steadied her mind, if she could get them to be semi comfortable and unafraid of her, then maybe...just maybe...she could find a way to sneak off the ship. <br><br>She felt him step back, the room seemed devoid of breath as no one seemed to breathe and yet...she breathed slow and steady. Her fingers slowly flexed as did her toes, with each muscle in her body she tested its strength and acessed her wounds. Sliding her hands up the table she slowly sat up, the cotton pads on her eyes fell off of her face but she did not open her eyes. Reaching up, she peeled the wrappings off of her body that were left on for far too long. She also had wrappings under the mask that covered her nose and mouth where the electric shocks had heated the metal up and singed as well as bruised along the lining that touched her skin.<br><br>Turning slowly, she reached out gently and took the data pad from the mans hands gently and scrawled on it. <br><br><em>Thank you, I would like to be directed to my cell. I require some things. Or am I allowed none?</em><br><br>Considering the man had released her, apparently he was generous, handing the data pad back toward him she did not attempt to open her eyes, her body was completely tense...as if she could feel thousands of eyes set upon her and she was ready to jump into battle. Even in her condition...she still had the strength to life things. Normally after being shocked and apersons body being over stressed like that, the wouldnt even be able to lift their head. She had so much control over her body that she could push past that. <br><br>Her breathing seemed to increase and sweat beaded her brow as it seemed to wear her out just by sitting up, but she seemed to pay it no mind, her focus was completely on her next task, and that was...integrating herself into the crew. She needed to learn everything she could as quick as she could, and if this man was dumb enough...she could get it from him. She had known many military men, all of them...were no match for her in a game of chess. She may make them think they are winning...but she already had check mate in motion.<br><br>(imagine her eyes saturated with blood and bruises around her eyes, along her nose and cheek bones, and under her jaw and thats what she will look like without her mask)<br>(http://us.123rf.com/400wm/400/400/carlodapino/carlodapino0906/carlodapino090600071/4986714-cute-girl-with-black-hair-on-face-red-lips-stunning-eyes-looking-up-angry.jpg)<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>10-09-2012, 18:44:36</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Art watched quietly as Viper sat up on the bed, he watched as she slowly and carefully checked every single muscle and joint in her body. Her movements had the practised appearance of someone who had done them many, many times before. He sensed rather than saw or heard the female doctor, Arthur had by now learned that her name was Dr. Johnson, come back into the room, she was obviously concerned about her patient but at a glance from Arthur she stayed put, she whipped out her own datapad and started glancing up at Viper and then down at the tablet, making notes and annotations about who knew what. She had a hand-held scanner in her belt which one hand occasionally danced down towards, as if she wanted to give Viper one final check-up before letting her go. Arthur however sensed that Viper would not be happy at anyone else trying to interfere with her body. His suspicions proved correct when Viper started to remove the bandages and bindings wrapped around her body. The Dr. Johnson made a small noise of combined irritation and shock and started forward. Art raised a hand, not needing to say anything as he pinned her to the spot with the intensity of the gaze he levelled at her. It was easy enough to see that Viper had not enjoyed being restrained on the bed, what had been harder to spot was her dislike of doctors, or perhaps all scientists and people who wore white coats. Whether she had a bad past with them or whether she just didn't like people interfering with her body was something he had yet to deduce yet.<br><br>Finally, she started towards him and took the datapad from him again. He let her have it without complaint and watched as she wrote on it again. He wondered whether her vocal chords were damaged as well, or whether she would simply not speak to him until she could also hear him. He took back the proffered tablet and stylus and read quickly. His eyebrows raised instantly in surprise, of all the things he had been expecting he was not ready for politeness from the girl. He had expected her to brush off being released, to be dismissive or rude. Instead she thanked him and asked, in what seemed to be a perfectly polite and quiet way, whether she could have some "things". He looked up from the datapad at her, his green eyes focusing on hers, intense and searching as if he were able to pluck the answers right from her mind. A frown covered his face, he wondered whether this was some form of play, some way to make him trust her, or whether she was genuinely pleasant and polite when she wasn't trying to hurt anyone.<br><br>He nodded slowly, and wrote down underneath her words in his own blocking script <em>"What do you need?"</em> He turned and twitched his hand towards him twice to indicate that she should follow. He turned slowly and started to make his way towards the exit of the infirmary. He nodded to the doctor who glared at him in response, as he passed her he leaned close to say softly <strong>"I'll keep you updated doctor"</strong> before moving past. He glanced back again to make sure Viper was following him and in time to see a small nod from the doctor. It was perhaps not what she wanted but she accepted his attempt to make some form of peace between them. As it was the ship would be able to keep an eye on Viper's vital signs wherever she was and he could always scan her himself if he deemed in necessary.<br><br>Exiting the infirmary the five marines all saluted as one. While the salute was directed at him their focus was clearly on the woman behind him, three of them were young, possibly having never seen action and watched her nervously, as a mouse might watch a cat. The other two, a man and woman in their early thirties both had the appearance of career soldiers and watched impassively. All five had their assault rifles slung across their back, hopefully loaded with tranq darts, and stun guns at their belts, all five however were not holding any weapons as instructed by Arthur. He did not want to spook Viper into attacking more of the ship's men. He had inwardly decided to treat her in a similar way one would a wild animal, gently and soothingly, trying to keep them comfortable so that they wouldn't do anything unpredictable. He moved off down the corridor towards the elevator, making sure that Viper was always only a few steps behind him, which they would take down to the detention levels. As the two of them walked away from the infirmary the marines fell in behind Viper. They kept pace with them but kept a few steps back from the girl, perhaps even the veterans were still a little uncertain around the girl.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>18-09-2012, 03:23:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The entire time Viper walked with the man and his soldiers, her eyes remained shut. She didnt need to see to follow foot steps, ontop of that if she ever needed to escape, its better to know how many paces and turns she needed instead of visual cues on where to go. She learned that lesson the hard way the first time she was on a prison ship when she realized...every hallway looked the same.<br><br>She could feel his heavy foot falls leading her, though her pace was slowed from injury, she seemed unfazed by what would have put normal humans in a coma. Even in her battered state she seemed calm, collected, and unfearful even after the traumatic event. All in all, Viper was not the likely type to swoon or faint from any type of distress. In any event, Viper heard his feet stop and she presumed that he stood opposite of the door frame of her new or old cell. Her head jerked slightly as she heard the tones of the security code being logged and the harsh metal scrape of her door sliding open.<br><br>Viper had yet to make a move to enter her cell, she felt the stagnant aroma of uneasiness in the corridor as the soldiers seemed to tense around her. Moving slowly as if that was all she could manage, she gestured for the mans data pad. Scrawling on it, the list was handed back to him, it had slipped from her fingers and nearly crashed onto the floor. <br><br><em>Basic first aid kit<br>towels<br>tampons<br>a change of clothes<br>soap<br>a way to communicate</em><br><br>Viper didnt request much, just basic essentials, she didnt even ask for a blanket or pillow. Just the bare minimum and she could survive on her own. If there was rats..she would eat them, if there was a toilet..she would drink that water, about the only thing she couldnt control was the ability to control temperature in the room.<br><br>Turning into the room, she opend her eyes for a shear moment and noted that there was a bed, a shower, a seat, a toilet, and a window that led to nothingness, which only meant that she was watched through it. Walking over to the bed, she sat down and waited for them to leave.<br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>20-09-2012, 02:43:27</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Art had been ready to take the girls hand, to lead her as one would a blind person, and was always close enough to her that if she bumped into something or stumbled or even fell he would be able to redirect or catch her. For all his well-meaning worry it seemed that none of it was needed because she followed him easily and kept pace without any noticeable difficulty. He assumed that she was following him by the sounds his footsteps made, his voice, maybe even his breathing if her ears were particularly good. That didn't explain why she didn't once stub her toe, accidentally stumble into a door-frame or trip over some of the raised partitions between corridors. Again, he was left to make his own deductions about how she managed it, the most obvious answer being that she had absolutely astounding situational awareness. Behind the logical and reasoned thoughts though some more wild theories did flit through his mind, perhaps she had been a subject of untested genetical manipulation to give her the ability to "see" her environment through with her ears or maybe she had some unknown sixth sense which could account for her bearing and ability. He paid these thoughts no mind though because without any facts to base them on they were as likely as her being an oddly humanoid looking and unknown alien species.<br><br>The trip was short, the elevator quickly whipping the group of seven down to the detention levels again where Viper had first been before her visit to the infirmary. The elevator was one of the smaller ones on the ship, not designed for carrying large groups of men about quickly when needed, this meant that the marines were close to both Viper and Art and the looks on their faces told him that it was too short a distance by a long way. He understood their fear of her, she was an enigma and humans always would fear what they did not understand, of course it did not help that she was an enigma who had put another two men into the infirmary. It was not entirely directed at her though, as always the men and women of the rank and file were slightly uneasy around Art himself, but this was customary and was mostly drowned out by the uneasiness caused by her. They seemed to almost be holding their breaths, not even the blue armour of their suits touching either Art or Viper.<br><br>The automatic doors in corridors and between rooms normally opened with a swish or a vague hum, smoothly and cleaning opening, this was in stark contrast to the doors on the cells which opened with the obvious sound of the metal on metal. He indicated the room to the right, the door of which opened with the more usual hum, and jerked his head towards it while facing the soldiers. As one they saluted and then moved away into the room, a few visible signs of tension easing from all of their bodies, although none each one had the self control to avoid sighing. Art had only been able to wrangle one of the high-level detention cells for Viper, even the Captain was unsure of her capabilities and did not want to take any chances, as such it had a one-way glass partition through which the soldiers would be able to keep a constant eye on Viper, working in shifts of five as per usual. The window could be darkened on both sides when the woman wanted to wash or use the toilet, and would be automatically by the ship's computer even if the soldiers weren't looking, but the tiny camera in one of the corners of the room would always feed into the computer. The surveillance from the guards was more of a formality when the sensors the ship had access to in the room would allow it to monitor her vital signs and anything unusual she did 24/7.<br><br>When she gestured to him for the datapad he handed it to her willingly and directed her into the cell as she wrote, the door closing behind him but not locking yet. When she held it out to him he reached out to take it back and he only just caught it when it slipped suddenly from her hand. He frowned at her for a second, perhaps she was in a worse state than he had originally assumed, but he could see nothing particularly out of order with her. He quickly gave the list the once over and nodded, other than the first aid kit and the communication device all of these things would have been given to Viper anyway. He pressed the list up against the glass, knowing the marines would be able to read it, saying briskly <strong>"See that she is provided all these things... Also get her a datapad with a direct link to mine and to the terminal in there, but tell the tech boys to make sure it can't access any of our inter-networks"</strong>. He turned back to her, keeping the pad up against the wall until he heard a voice over the intercom say "Done sir, the supplies ought to be up here in a few hours". He nodded, satisfied and quickly ran through the rest of the detention protocols in his mind. She would be fed three times a day and he understood a service robot was already on the way down with some lumpy sheets and pillows which would be deposited in the room for Viper to use. He quickly wrote out a response on the pad, trying to scrawl it down as quickly as he could <em>"All of what you ask for will be provided. You won't be able to communicate with anyone except me or your guard unless you make another request. Doctors will probably want to keep checking up on you every now and again. You'll be fed, and be comfortable to a degree. We don't treat people like animals in the Alliance"</em> he finished and handed her the pad. He waited long enough for her to read it, took it back from her and then left, locking the door behind him. When she was ready, she would contact him. Then it would get interesting.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>20-09-2012, 04:46:14</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Standing up as she heard the scrawling on the data pad, she opened her eyes half way and read it. Reaching out to take the tablet from him, she was shocked when he turned on his heel and left the room, soldiers on his six exiting as well. The moment she heard the metal door lock closed, Viper slammed to the ground and groaned audibly as her breathing suddenly increased. For the first time since she had been injured that she could curl up in a ball and just cry. Though, strange thing was, on the medical sensors, it didnt alert the medical squad because it wasnt due to pain that she had collapsed on the floor...but pleasure? It was to such an incredibly ammount that she was reduced being that of a puddle on the floor.<br><br>Finally after almost 16 hours passing, Viper had fallen asleep. Surprisingly enough, she had slept for almost five hours before waking up. She would have slept longer had the soldiers not come in to drop off her things. Moving around only after they had left, she had grabbed the sheet that was to be her blanket, and tied it to the bars of the ceiling to shield the toilet from the camera view. She didnt care about her shower because in every other prison she didnt have privacy, so nakedness wasnt an issue, but she did value the ability to take a shit in peace and solitude.<br><br>Walking over to her things, she grabbed the towels and soap and layed the near the shower as well as laying on towel on the floor. She placed her tampons above the toilet, and put her clothes and first aid kit on her bed. After using the bathroom she stripped down and stepped into the shower. One could tell if looking at her that she was nothing but muscles. The only ammount of fat she had on her body where in her breasts and they were far from small. Finally after cleaning up, some of her true beauty could be seen, Her long sheen black hair stuck to her skin and looked as though it were plucked from the gods themselves as she grabbed her towel and wrapped her body from view. Walking to her bed, she dried her body and put her plain orange shirt and pants on,taking the towel, she dried her hair off and sat down onto her bed slowly.<br><br>Opening the first aid kit, she found peroxide, gauze, needle, thread, medical tape, cooling and heating packs, and antibiotic creame. Taking the creme, she threw it across the room where it landed in the garbage can without her looking at it to aim, she did the same with the peroxide. Picking up the gauze and medical tape and she lifted her shirt and wrapped the gauze around her stomach to keep her supported where the tazer had litterally burned her muscles to a crisp. After taping them, she also put gauze between her muzzle and her nose as well as rapping her eyes. She took special care in keeping her hair from notting with the gauze as she layed her wrapping over her eyes. Though her hair was beautiful...it was definently out of control and untame. Laying down on her bed, she layed the data pad next to her with her palm laying over it and rested herself.<br><br>She didnt know how much time had passed since she had fell asleep, pulling off the gauze, she looked down at the clock on the data pad and realized that as of the star date...she had slept for almost five days. Refreshed, but hungry, she looked to the door to see that she had been undisturbed the entire time she slept, she knew this because none of the smells changed and she would have definently woken up to the sound of boots. Looking down at her reflection in the data pad, she picked up the styls and wrote.<br><br><em>Im hungry.</em><br><br>Clicking the send button, she waited, seeing what would come of this new type of 'friendship' she would have between prisoner and her warden.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>20-09-2012, 20:47:29</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Five days passed, they dragged slowly by and Art found himself returning to the same state of boredom he had been in before the arrival of Viper. After three days in orbit of Meothro III the science vessel had finally announced that they had finished situating an operating base on the surface of the planet with a quantum communicator in case of trouble with the locals or pirates or whatever other dangers were present in this galaxy. This also meant that they were now able to begin their investigation of the planet's unusual fluorescent fauna and flora. This meant that the escort duty to which the Morningstar had been assigned was now officially complete and so they were ready to leave the system. A platoon of the 0543rd Fusiliers was left as a security detail for the science camp and vessel while the remainder of their battalion, and the other battalion aboard the Morningstar were left kicking their heels and being as bored as Art was. Even those amongst the detachment were not too thrilled with their new assignment, despite it getting them off ship, the science vessel comprised of mostly xenobiologists and chemists and so any data or material they gathered would most likely only be of interest to other scientists, so attacks on their base would be unlikely. Art had also decided to not inform them of Viper's presence aboard their ship, the chance that they might try to investiaget her was too great a risk, and so they went down to the surface none the wiser of the Morningstar's guest. Art paid little attention to all this though and only went up to the bridge a few times, including the time the Morningstar turned, left orbit and jumped back into hyperspace to continue it's patrol of the sector.<br><br>He tried to fill his time with training, some research and looking into Viper's history but for the most part he was simply going through the motions and waiting for her to wake up. The soldiers had reported that almost as soon as he had left Viper had collapsed onto the floor and the only thing preventing them from going to her aid had been the unusual readings coming from the medical scanners in the room. Arthur had been amused by this, he was absolutely certain that it was not only due to "unusual readings" that the men and women did not want to get near Viper. For whatever reason though Viper had fallen asleep very quickly and Arthur left strict instructions that she was not to be disturbed. Dr. Katajawi, the woman who had initially been in charge of Viper's treatment, apparently visited once every day to make sure that Viper was still healthy. However, after contacting Art once he strictly forbade her from entering the room as well. Thankfully she didn't contact him again, although he was sure that she was in a bad mood about being so brusquely dismissed, apparently she accepted that Viper did not want treatment and that any treatment the doctors could offer would not be effective, unless they found out more about her. The doctor had admitted, however reluctantly, that despite the fact that Viper was sleeping for an inordinate length of time, she seemed to be in acceptable health and so perhaps her body was recovering from sleep deprivation, or indeed any other number of injuries or mental hurts. The robots had left her first meal by the door, but it had remained untouched and so they quickly ordered the computer to only resume the normal service of the prisoner when she woke up.<br><br>For a few days the ship swished through hyperspace, heading back into the human nations territory. While humans had colonies across dozens of Galaxies, only four were deemed to be under Human Nation control and a further seven were shared with other, thankfully friendly sentient beings, on top of that a further twelve galaxies had smaller colonies which were independent of Human Nation rule, but they were few and far between. The current Galaxy was one which was deemed partly under Human Nation control but for the most part was unexplored, as such there were only a few colonies and a number of exploration vessels and a reasonable defence force. Captain Averbuch took the Morningstar out of hyperspace nearby one of the defence installations, a space station with docking capacity for a number of warships. Viper's timing was impeccable and she started to wake up while Art was on the bridge, silently watching Captain Averbuch speak to the man in charge aboard the station. He was first informed by the current shift of marines that the prisoner had woken up and so he made his excuses and turned to march smartly over the elevator.<br><br>He took his time and so when he arrived in the detention level and he entered the observation room, he found the marines playing cards while keeping an eye on Viper sorting through her medical supplies. They quickly informed him that the doctor had already visited and deemed her healthy, dehydrated and starved most likely but healthy otherwise. As well as this she had also apparently mentioned something about him checking out the unusual readings she was getting from the scanners. He took the readings onto his datapad, storing them to be examined at his leisure, and sat down with the men to wait until she contacted him. She looked different now that she had cleaned herself and was carefully bandaging herself, she looked in control, strong, and surprisingly very womanlike. For all that she appeared to have no fat anywhere on her limbs she looked at the moment surprisingly beautiful, her shiny black hair tangled and messy but still worthy of admiration. He was about to give up on her contacting him and was in the process of loading up the results from the medical scanners when suddenly a small handwritten message appeared in the bottom right corner of the screen. He glanced over at the guards, asking <strong>"Have you ordered any food brought down for her yet?"</strong> The shift commander looked up from his cards, his frown turning to the blank stare of addressing one's superior officer "It actually ought to be here by now sir" he said calmly before turning back to the game. It amused Art no end that while the soldiers were now relaxed enough around him to play cards, they still were made uneasy when talking directly to him. He nodded solemnly towards the man and waited. Again he didn't have long to wait, a small chime playing on the console in the room informed all present that the service robot was outside of the door. <strong>"I'll take it to her"</strong> he said, standing up and giving a small nod t the guards he left the room. The small service bot on it's treads was waiting patiently outside the door holding a tray with a large portion of protein, carbohydrate and vitamin mash along with a canteen of water. He took the tray as he pressed the buttons on the keypad by the door, entering the room slowly as the robot disappeared back up along the hallway, the door locking silently again behind him.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>25-09-2012, 19:12:28</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Viper gave him no notice as she finished re-bandaging her wounds, carefully and methodically, she placed the supplies back in her case and closed it. She seemed relaxed, this alone would set anyone's internal alarms off due to her previous violent behavior, and yet she seemed to be a civil person when she didn't feel threatened. Looking up at the commander, the whites of her eyes were no longer red and the deep grey blue of her iris's seemed to be soft and not so angry. Viper seemed almost human except for the fact that the crude muzzle that hid her nose and mouth made her look like a caged beast. <br><br>Standing up, she grabbed the data pad that was laying neatly on her pillow of her perfectly made bed and started to write on it. It seemed, that Viper was accustomed to being in prisons and or places that stripped her of choice as well as voice, though with the little amount of things that she did control, she made sure they were the way she liked them to be. Her hair was notted, but it looked as though she had tried desperately to comb out the knots with her fingers, but to no avail. Everything about Viper seemed so put together and yet so broken at the same time that it seemed as though her scars were the only thing that kept her limbs together and gave her purpose to live. Pain was this womans life, and it could be seen by anyone who layed eyes upon her, only if...they could see past the feral beast she wore on the outside to protect herself from others.<br><br>Handing the pad to him, seeing no reason to send it to him when he was standing with her in her cell, it said.<br><br><em>What ship am I on?<br>What planet am I going to?<br>How long until we arrive?<br></em><br><br>After asking the questions she also wrote below them, she had no problem demanding information or speaking her mind, either she would get what she wanted, or punished for thinking she had any control, either way...she really didn't care. She was ready for blood at anytime...but a break everyonce in a while would be nice.<br><br><em>I require no medical assistance nor do I want to be seen by any medics, my injuries are painful but not threatening my ability to move. I wish to know what prison planet I am going to for I hate to be unprepared. Was it forward to ask such things? If so please forgive me. I believe my hearing has returned though I am not sure how well.</em><br><br>Her stance and body language mimicked her subservience in her writing, though, it was probably something she had done often in which either helped her escape previously, or helped her avoid harm. Either way, she was trying to ascertain some sort of relationship with the commander, she was a warrior, and she was assessing her enemies every time one entered her presence. Watching him closely, her eye betrayed her as they showed loathing and hatred to have to grovel and kiss the feet of her warden. But there was nothing in this universe she wouldn't do to be free for once, and she had knocked many things off that list...that she was not very proud of.<br><br>Her writing style was extremely formal, as if she had learned it from old English books, and since she couldn't, or refused. to speak...it remained unknown whether or not she spoke in the same manner that she wrote to him in. Pausing for a moment, she reached out for the tablet again before he could answer her and scrawled on it quickly.<br><br><em>I will answer questions that you have of me, If for every question I answer, I in turn get something that I want or require. Are these terms agreeable?</em><br><br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>26-09-2012, 01:45:37</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				As she paid him no heed he kept his focus almost entirely on her, even though she seemed calm and serene as she bandaged herself. Combined with her clean appearance one could almost be forgiven for forgetting that she had put two highly trained soldier into hospitals already. Of course, that was not counting the scars which covered her body, even though she was clothed and covered in bandages there were still scars visible all over her. Art would not have liked to guess what had caused a number of the scars but at the same time some seemed vaguely reminiscent of the holes which could be caused by small arms and some which spoke of knives or even claws. All in all, despite the way she seemed quiet and relaxed, there was no way that Art was ever seeing anything except something dangerous. He was not afraid of her, that much would have been obvious from his casual stance nearby her, nor did he believe that she was a bad person, this would naturally have been less obvious. He had met bad people, truly bad people, and she did not seem like any he had met before. Perhaps she was insane, that was not out of the question, perhaps she had done bad things, that almost seemed possible given her history, but something about her put him off from assuming she was a criminal. Even now she seemed vulnerable, as if she was constantly in pain and pain was what defined her, if she had done less than savoury things then he would like to find out what it was that had caused her to do those things in the first place.<br><br>He carefully put the tray down beside her on her bed, the grey mash on the plate would be slightly salty but mostly tasteless and the blue fluid beside it would seem slightly sweet. It was regulation fare for prisoners and contained all the vitamins, minerals and proteins needed to keep any person in shape (it had been assumed that she was still human despite her otherworldly appearance). What still struck him about her was her muzzle, it was unlike anything he had ever seen on any creature, other than perhaps a rabid dog in danger of biting others. Perhaps that was why she wore it, those who had forced it upon her thought she would bite others. Even now he assumed that everything about her was caused by the work of some "others" some unknown agency which had created the girl he saw before him, no matter how illogical or bizarre it seemed.<br><br>He spoke while he waited, intending for his voice to be heard by the soldiers in the waiting room as he was not sure whether or not Viper could hear yet, <strong>"Could you get me a chair please?"</strong> and he turned back to her, watching as she wrote on the datapad he had provided for her. He waited, standing a mere pace away from her, arms folded behind his back while he watched her. Even now his form was stiff and upright, always a soldier, but it would be obvious to any trained eye that he was relaxed and at his ease, merely curious and patient to see what Viper had said. One of the soldiers opened the door long enough to pass him a plain metal chair before disappearing behind the locking door again, Art took the seat gratefully and placed it directly in front of Viper, sitting down and continuing to wait.<br><br>Eventually she finished and he took the proffered pad from her, nodding to her with a small smile turning up the corners of his lips before he turned his attention to her words. Before he could fully read all that she had she suddenly yanked it away from him again and wrote something else, almost as an afterthought before handing it back to him. Even as he focused on what she had written a small part of him was always focused on her, even now prepared for the eventuality that she might turn hostile towards him. Her first question was simple and he wrote an answer beside her question on the pad. He had noticed straight away that her writing was surprisingly elegant and formal, as if she had been brought up in a great or wealthy house in the Human Nations rather than some out-of -the-way colony on the reaches of civilisation. His own script seemed blocky and stark in comparison but he persevered, writing beside her first question <em>"The HNSS Morningstar"</em>. That answered her question without providing anything of value, unless of course she knew about the Morningstar from the Extranet on another planet, in which case he learnt something about her anyway.<br><br>Her next question he answered with a small frown on his face <em>"You were to be taken to Katagarri Prime and we pass the planet in less than two weeks. Whether we actually leave you there is still uncertain"</em>. Major Cheng had been all for following the recommendation of the mercs, no matter how immoral, in his mind the girl was not their problem. Captain Averbuch remained unconvinced while Art personally believed she ought to be brought back to the civilised worlds to the doctors and psychiatrists who could help her. While he read and wrote the small part of him which kept it's focus on her noticed that she seemed to be trying to ingratiate herself with him by appearing subservient and submissive, while he would have liked to believe that she was already friendly towards him he knew better than to be so naive. His eyebrows rose as he continued to read, shaking his head slightly at her written apology, he wodnered whether she could really hear again and decided to test it out, <strong>"Can you hear me?"</strong> he asked softly but clearly. His voice echoing slightly in the sparse metal room.<br><br>It was the final part which caused a small intake of breath on his part. She would supply him information in return for answering questions about herself, it seemed almost a little too good to be true that she would be so co-operative. Without thinking he quickly wrote out <em>"Deal."</em> The die was cast and he was ready to submit to his superiors if necessary, for now though he was determined to find out more about her. Two questions quickly came to his mind, the first a very general and wide question and the second more specific. He, again scrawled them out underneath the word Deal on the pad. <em>"If I were to ask you to tell me: A. what happened to make you like this? B. Why do you wear a muzzle? What would you require in return for an answer?"</em> And then, finally after he looked back up at her, his green eyes sharp and focused on hers he passed her back her datapad.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>26-09-2012, 02:16:41</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				The small could not be seen yet for the light squinting of Vipers eyes as she read over the tablet that had his replies. Wether it was for the information she had retrieved from him, or the prospect of making her living condition more...comfortable...one wasn't quite sure. She could hear the deep rumble of his voice and nodded as he asked her the question. Unbeknown to him, she could also read lips just as easy as she could breathe. <br><br><div class="quoteheader"><div class="topslice_quote">Quote</div></div><blockquote class="bbc_standard_quote">"If I were to ask you to tell me: A. what happened to make you like this? B. Why do you wear a muzzle? What would you require in return for an answer?"</blockquote><div class="quotefooter"><div class="botslice_quote"></div></div><br>Pausing for a moment, she started to write.<em>That is a high price question. Since it is two questions I will require two things. For the first, I dint care much about telling you so I only require semi recognizable meals and not piles of mush. For the second, I require that the window in my room to be boarded up from within my cell and no one is to see the security but for those who absolutely must see it. I value my privacy sir, and the second question you ask requires a truth that I truly do not want to divulge.</em><br><br>She returned the tablet to him and awaited his response.<br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>26-09-2012, 02:34:27</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She nodded when he spoke and so he decided to test her, to make sure she could hear him completely clearly before he would try to communicate with her verbally. <strong>"I told you my name when I first communicated with you. What is it?"</strong> if she could not follow him or answer his question then he would assume that she could not hear, at least for now anyway. She quickly read over his answers, seemingly sparing no more than a glance for the answer to the ship she was aboard and the planet to which she had been bound. Just as she had before she took up the pen, this time clearly the pad and starting a new page and wrote again, the flowing lines of cursive easily curving off the stylus onto the pad.<br><br>He took the pad back from her after she had finished, his eyes flicking up and down the lines of script. He paused for a moment, for her to answer his first question she required ordinary meals? Well that was something he could at least supply, it might rankle here and there but there were no shortage of supplies aboard the ship and if there ever were then Viper would be the first to have to do without. He answered her slowly, keeping his deep voice clear and smooth, even as he spoke he continued to write down the answers in case she could not hear completely, <strong>"I can supply 'recognisable' meals after today, that should not be a problem. You'll just have to wait until the orders filter through"</strong>. As soon as he finished writing he showed her the answer, hanging onto the pad before taking it and typing in a short message to the galley, where food was prepared. He paused for a moment at her second request. Boarding up the window was not going to happen, not least because there was no wood aboard the ship and no way of nailing it into the smooth metal walls. Again, he wrote and spoke at the same time, <strong>"I can have the window blacked out from the opposite side, nobody will be able to see. is that agreeable?"</strong> and then he handed her the pad again.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>26-09-2012, 02:50:43</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She scrawled his name 'Arthur' in beautiful scripture that made his name look less and less manly everytime one read it. She nodded at his first compliance to his request. But shook her head no at his second. Taking the tablet, she started to write.<br><br><em>All my life I have been hunted because I am feared. My parents imprisoned be when I was but a young gril, at eight years old I broke free and have been hunted, caged, beaten, and almost killed because people fear what ever it is that I am. I dont even know if I am human...or something else. All I know, is that I have never understood why people desire me...or want me dead.</em><br><br>So she lied a bit, she knew why people desired her, and why they wanted her dead...but what she didnt understand...was that if they knew what she was before they acted...why were they so appalled and fearful of her after the fact?<br><br>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>26-09-2012, 03:05:40</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He took the datapad back off her, chuckling slightly at the way she had written his name. He could not tell whether she had deliberately written it in such a feminine way to try and get a rise out of him, but for the moment he would ignore it. He nodded slowly and handed it back to her, it appeared that from here on he would have to read but she at least could listen to him. It seemed a little odd at first, speaking to someone with them writing back, but he ignored his discomfort.<br><br>He frowned as she shook her head, they would never be able to board up the window but perhaps a screen could be erected, he muttered aloud as he thought it through. Perhaps some sort of blanket glued up above the window or tie up a table of some sort. The Captain would not be alone though in refusing any sort of permanent screen. He looked up at her, <strong>"I could maybe block off the window in some way, or I could position a camera behind it to prove that nobody could see through it... I can't barricade it permanently though I am afraid..."</strong><br><br>After he finished he turned his attention back to her words, his eyebrows rose ever so slightly as his pupils flicked up and down the lines of cursive, but other than that he showed no reaction. It seemed that perhaps she was not something which had been created, an unusual mutant maybe or maybe even an alien life-form after all. Unless she was lying of course. What she wrote painted a very small picture, only one piece of the puzzle that was her history, but it was not a pretty piece and it did not point to a greater or happy overall image. What struck him, as well as the implication that she had been born into a human family and was not some scientific laboratory experiment gone wrong, was her use of the word "desire". She was a good looking woman so surely any desire for her would be understandable completely. Unless she meant something else, something more. <strong>"I know this must be hard... But there must be some reason... Where are you from? Do you know the name of the colony?"</strong> his words were softer than before, sympathetic but still mystified.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>26-09-2012, 03:26:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				She scrawled again on the pad. <em>Something temporary can be removed, precious memories (good or bad) can not be removed once word leaves ones mouth. I can not give you the answer you seek unless I get what I desire in turn.</em> Moving down the page to answer his second request she wrote. <em>Since those two questions are the same as one I will answer, but I will again require something in turn for answering you, even if the answer is something you do not desire to hear.</em><br><br>Handing the pad to him, she shifted uncomfortably as if she hadnt had a moment in her life with calm conversation as she did right now. She wasnt sure what to expect from him, as he did not know of her, so this was an assessment. To measure each other up and to see what potential their 'relationship' had.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>27-09-2012, 01:05:06</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He muttered slightly to himself as she showed him her words, a barely audible curse or oath, he couldn't decide whether she was being difficult or not. It seemed only too possible that she was simply trying to stall him in some way for reasons of her own, perhaps to trick him into thinking that she knew something worthwhile. All he did know though was that he could not barricade the window, nobody would stand for that and he didn't think any amount of pulling rank would help. More than that he was always a Human Nation's man and he was not about to put the ship in jeopardy. So far everything he had done was perhaps against protocol or against the wishes of the Captain or the Major, but if it would save the lives of those aboard this ship he would pull the trigger on her himself.<br><br>He thought for a moment, he could possibly breach protocol and keep her private in another way, even though he was slightly unsure whether the benefits would outweigh the risks. She did seem like she was behaving a little better now and he felt that perhaps he could trust her far enough where this was concerned. Making his decision he spoke again, <strong>"I cannot barricade that window, I'm sorry but it's not in my power... However... If I could take you somewhere I know to be completely private, would you tell me why you wear the muzzle?"</strong> He already knew several choice locations on the ship which could be made completely private, the best and most obvious one was his own quarters.<br><br>Her second response confused him further, an answer he did not desire to hear? What could she possibly mean? He frowned at her, wondering what she took him for. He was made of strong stuff, he had had to be on numerous occasions through his life, whatever she thought him not strong enough to handle he knew he could take it no matter what it was. He handed back the datapad, and spoke again this time simply saying, <strong>"Name your price and I will see what i can do..."</strong>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>28-09-2012, 01:34:22</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Taking the pad back, she wrote on it again. Only this time it was a short response, one that he would most likely like. <em>As long as there are no cameras and no other way to see in to the cell, then I will agree to answer all questions that pertain to the muzzle alone. Nothing else. <br><br>I will require some time everyday to go to a seperate place in the ship to train and excersize, im going crazy going from cell to cell and not being able to move.</em><br><br>With that, she handed the pad back to him.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>30-09-2012, 01:37:20</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He was silent, contemplating how the Captain and the Major would react when he informed them of his intention to take Viper to his rooms. They would not be happy, of course he could always take her to a number of other areas around the ship where ensuring they would not be disturbed would be a simple matter of locking the door. One of the smaller observation rooms would work, one of the virtual reality studios, even though they were always busy the individual rooms were never disturbed unless the individual's time in the room was finished, he could even take her aboard one of the gunships docked within the hanger and close the blast shields, which would shield them from any eyes or ears aboard the ship. It would be a simple matter and then he would be alone with her and she could reveal whatever it was about her muzzle that was worth keeping so deadly secret. It could always be a ruse of course, get him alone and then kill him or perhaps even attempt to obtain some of his DNA. There was a horror story circulating the Galaxy wide internet at the moment of a starship where the Captain was killed and an imposter with cloned DNA took his place, Art understood that for all that it was a ridiculous notion there were three of his fellow agents actually investigating something along those lines, so perhaps it would not be the worst thing in the world to take precautions.<br><br>He was still staring blindly into space when she pressed the pad back into his hands. He took it mindlessly and stared down at the screen, not actually reading the words for a few moments before he shook himself out of the reverie. He nodded at the first line, cutting off the computer's access to the camera's in his room, or indeed the other areas he had in mind, would be easily done with his level of clearance. The thought flicked through his mind, he could even simply tell her he had switched off the cameras and leave them on, she would never know the difference.<br><br>The second part also didn't cause him any pause, there were three separate training holodecks on the ship, usable for anything from a one on one hand-to-hand sparring session, to a full blown battle with hundreds of men on either side. There was also a large multi-purpose gym which had all the usual equipment the marine's liked to show off on, as well as that it contained machines known as "Stressors" which would individually tense and relax the muscles in the body, causing them to grow like they were being trained without any of the exertion behind training, they were astoundingly effective.. He could take her to one of the virtual reality studios as well if she would prefer, although they were more about the immersion and the feeling and would not actually involve any physical movement. <strong>"Exercise and working out should not be an issue, neither should finding some place private. Which should we look for first?"</strong>
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>03-10-2012, 02:42:13</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				<em>I require the items in the order in wich i requested them. Once i have recieved the last two requests, I will answer the last two questions you have asked me.</em><br><br>She returned the pad to him, since most military or prison escorts did not know sign language, she figured that this was an anoying but easier way to converse with someone. She was in shock and awe of the fact that this officer...this man...was being nice to her. No it was more then that, instead of torturing her for the information he wanted, he freely did an exchange and doted on her requests without hesitation. She smiled inside, this could be easier then she thought, but she warned herself...this man was in no way stupid. And if he needed to, he could easily put her down.<br><br>Reaching her hand out, she offered an act of agreement, but more then that....it was an act of trust. He knew that she had a dark side, a side that could easily get many people hurt or killed. And though she hated pretty much every being that existed, she was reaching out to him...and only him.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>06-10-2012, 00:58:45</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Art kept a closer eye on her this time as she wrote, taking care to not allow his attention to waver for once. He was trained in many things and mental exercises were amongst them, he really ought to have been keeping focused this entire time but had already more than once let his attention wander due to the quiet and still seemingly slightly submissive appearance of Viper. At the moment she still acted nothing if not normal and only where she was held and the data held in the ship's computer would have said any different, of course the muzzle was a little unusual as well. Art had asked about the muzzle because he believed that it was somehow key to who she was, he had not yet seen her remove it nor had the doctors tried, whatever it was it was something that she seemed to wear all the time.<br><br>She offered her own pad to him again and he took it without hesitation and glanced down from her face, which he had been studying quietly, to read the words written there. While he read he noticed that she seemed to study him as he had her, it was hard to remember that whatever plans he had, she doubtless had her own. He kept his face calm, but it seemed that he was slowly starting to solve the puzzle of who she was which excited and pleased him.<br><br>She offered her hand to him, it was not a sudden gesture or a threatening one but Art still twitched ever so slightly when she moved as if some reflex had fired which he suppressed. He looked at the hand warily and glanced towards the observation room, it might be a trap and it might make him vulnerable but he once again thought he could trust her not to kill him if he touched her. Nodding and allowing the corners of his lips to curl into a smile he reached out and took her small hand in his larger one, he gave her a firm handshake and then allowed her to have her hand back. <strong>"Are you sure you would not prefer to exercise first? It's really up to you of course..."</strong> he spoke, standing slowly and nodding meaningfully at the window, the soldiers would already have their orders by now.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>10-10-2012, 17:07:19</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Viper watched every move he made, every twitch of his muscles and every movement his eye made. She was ever wary of whether or not he was going to attack her and her body was always tense and semi crouched as if always ready to lunge...or run. For some reason though, she kept turning her face slightly to the left constantly as if her right eye was the only one she could see out of. When she fought others, she always did alot of spinning moves so that she could see 360 degrees around her at all times. <br><br>The warmth of his hand was shocking to her incredibly cold one, her room was awfully cold and though she had every muscle in her body locked to keep from shaking, she had to relax her hand to shake his so that he didnt find her tight grip agressive in anyway. Watching him pull his hand away she listened to the deep reverberation of his voice as she softly took the pad into her hands again and wrote in shakey writing.<br><br><em>I dont require excersize today, seeing the excersize room would be enough. But i then wish to retire to my new cell. Do I need to bring my things with me? I will answer both questions once we enter my new cell.</em><br><br>She asked, not wanting to depart with the few things that she had earned. She had no clue she would have a room, his room, not once in her life had she ever had a room. It was always a cell or a cage, no privacy and it was always torture to her. To be respected as a human being for once in her life...that...was all she ever wished for.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>13-10-2012, 19:05:02</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He did not react to the cold of her hand as he shook it, but a brief moment of worry flitted through his mind. He hand was not just the cold of someone with poor circulation, as he knew all too many woman had, but instead had felt as if her hand had been carved of ice. He would have to talk to the technicians to increase the heating in her rooms to higher than normal level. As she started to write on her pad, responding to his question, he brought out his own and started issuing orders. Getting her transferred to a minimum security cell would not be an issue, the Captain seemed to be perfectly happy to let Art take responsibility for the girl and her actions. The minimum security cells were different from the high security ones in that there were two rooms, a small bunk room and a separate toilet, there were no viewing windows and only one camera in the bunk room. Disabling the camera would probably be necessary to fully get Viper the privacy she wanted but that would not be too much of an issue. Again the thought occurred that he could lie and not disable the camera, but somehow he thought Viper might see through that and she definitely wouldn't be pleased if she did. Other than the increased privacy the cells were much the same, sensors kept track of vital signs that did not require invasive techniques to measure, the doors could only be opened with the necessary ID and code and a force field could be activated in the doors as well if necessary.<br><br>Keeping his eye on Viper he noticed that she seemed to be as aware of his actions as he was of hers, as if she too was expecting him at any moment to drop everything and attack her. Earning her trust would not be easy, if it was possible at all, but he still felt that it would be worth it to find out more about her. Even if only to cure the boredom he felt on this tour. He wondered whether she would make use of the gym or the simulation rooms, he always tried to keep his skills sharp in both and the long hours showed on his body. She offered the pad back to him again and he took it and read it quickly. He nodded at her words and said to her <strong>"Yes, grab your things and I will take you to the minimum security cells after showing you to the exercise rooms. You won't need the things for your bed, that ought to be dealt with"</strong>.<br><br>He pocketed his own data tablet and handed hers back, standing up and straightening to his full height, giving her a minute to sort out her things before leaving. He turned to the one way glass and said, <strong>"You ought to have your orders now, go and set up the security in one of the cells. I'll take her to the sim deck and then bring her back down"</strong> there was a brief pause and then the intercom activated and a tinny voice confirmed and acknowledged his orders. He nodded brusquely and turned to stride over to the door, he typed in the code while the scanner read the ID attached to his uniform and then turned back to wait for Viper to follow him.<br><br>It was a quick journey to the exercise areas of the ship, the designers had anticipated that prisoners would require exercise as well and so it was a simple case of heading to the nearest security elevator, which could only access certain floors, and taking on short journey up. As he walked he pulled out his data tablet again, he had remembered that before he had entered Viper's room the soldiers had mentioned some unusual readings coming from the girl. He opened up the data sent from the Doctor. What followed was a series of meaningless graphs and data which he did not understand, his understanding of human anatomy did stop somewhere. At the end of the list though was a note from the Doctor. Tapping on it to open it up he read as the elevator swished upwards through the metal belly of the ship. An eyebrow rose slowly and he glanced up at Viper. It appeared that she had collapsed after he had left her cell when Art had left her in it for the first time and not due to either pain or exhaustion but incredibly high levels of pleasure hormones. The doctor's writing seemed to express her incredulity that Viper seemed to have almost literally collapsed from pleasure. He closed the data package and returned the tablet to his folder, it was another piece of the puzzle but he still couldn't see where it fit.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>08-11-2012, 02:34:47</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Walking over to the sheet Viper had tied up to hide her toilet, she ripped it down and in record time, she had all her things tied up with in the sheet. If one didnt know it, she was excited to leave, maybeeven shocked that he was holding up his end of the deal. Walking beside him, she was kind of hunched over, her eyes closed even though her eyes no longer bled. She was counting...listening...feeling her surroundings and not letting her eyes decieve her destination. She had her bag slung over one shoulder and her left arm was strangly relaxed, as if she had no worries about being attacked. But her body betrayed her, her shoulders were hunched low, as if she was ready to launch forward if there was a need to get out of the way of an attack.<br><br>Walking onto the sim deck, a sudden thud sounded as her bag hit the floor, she had never seensucha a spacious place before. Since her life as she could remember it was only prison cells on ship, this room though completely metal and no simulations set up yet. Dropping to one knee, she suddenly took off into the room, reaching the other side she ran up the wall, but her strength was not at full yet. Falling back to the ground she twisted her body and landed on all fours like a cat. <br><br>The strange thing was...if one were to follow the trail in which she ran across the room at, small droplets of water betrayed her path. Though it would be hard to believe that they were tears...the shear bliss of being able to move with such freedom gave her a happiness that she has never known, even if he never permitted her to enter the room again...it was a memory she would never forget.<br><br>And it made her focus on her desire to escape all the more. Standing up, she walked back over to him and picked back up her things and nodded to him, waiting for him to take the lead to her new cell.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>13-11-2012, 04:57:18</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Inwardly he worried whether he was going to too much bother with this girl, this Viper. While it was feasible that studying her and her background could yield some benefit for the Human Nations, however small be it some new scientific technique or some knowledge of whatever it was that made her body react so allergically to most drugs, as time went on he had to force himself to admit that the possibility was low. In reality he was doing what he was for two reasons, first and foremost: because he was bored. The tour had been almost two months of Earth time and he would be on-board for at least another 2 months before he would be allowed to be repositioned in a combat zone or somewhere where he could be of some use, perhaps with a research team on some distant planet, and there was only so many times he could lose against the Captain at chess before he started to go mad. True there were always a variety of distractions on board HN ships but he still tended to feel the need to actually be doing something with his time. The other reason was less prominent but was slowly starting to take root in the back of his mind: he felt sorry for the girl. If what he knew was anything to judge by then she clearly had a troubled past and he wanted to do what he could to alleviate that, some sense of honour or righteousness kept him on the path to help her. These reasons though were causing him to go to a fair amount of trouble so far, nothing he couldn't handle and nothing that bothered him personally but it was definitely worth a moments pause for reflection.<br><br>As he thought and worried Viper had dashed about her room, clearly eager to be done with the intrusive and high-security cell, gathering her few meagre belongings. She showed a practicality and a resourcefulness which indicated a few things about her background which no text records could show. The most obvious thing he could deduct about her from her actions as she had tied up her new belongings in a sheet was that she was used to having to do things herself, he imagined she would have been completely stumped if he told her that the service robots would be able to retrieve her belongings for her. Now, along with these small mental notes and thoughts, the fact that she had apparently collapsed from sheer pleasure was thrown into the mix, she was an enigma and it bothered him that even now there did not seem to be any possible solutions.<br><br>He stood quietly in the lift, one arm folded across his chest, the other scratching his clean-shaven chin while he worried and contemplated. He wondered whether he ought to try and make some conversation with Viper, but decided against it and ignored the awkward feeling that the silence left him with. He instead retreated back behind a manner of brusque professionalism, cool and slightly aloof. While he wanted her to see him as an ally, maybe even a confidant, he was certain that if he tried too hard to be friendly that it would have a detrimental effect on her trust of him.<br><br>The doors sliding open, nearly silently, to reveal a short corridor at the end of which another set of doors were already opening to show the bright and open space of the sim room. It was in the shape or a large oval, a high ceiling with white walls, floor and roof. Instead of the fluorescent lights used throughout the rest of the ship every single part of the room seemed to glow slightly, making every single shadow all but disappear, a rather disorienting effect. At the long sides of the room, raised high above the floor, were two viewing windows, both apparently empty, and at the far side was another door which led out into the main decks of the ship. The sim room was capable of running up to four virtual reality simulations at any one time, enclosing them in walls raised from the floor and ceiling to join in the middle. Now however the place was empty, which was a blessing in a way. The marines of the 0543rd had probably, to a man, heard about the incident of their comrades being beaten up by this girl and they might not take her freedom the right way. He had only just began to raise his arm to describe the rooms capabilities when suddenly she was off, running out into the open space of the room.<br><br>He took a few small steps after her before stopping and watching her, a curious expression on his face. It wasn't an escape attempt, he didn't believe she would be so foolish as to believe she could escape while she was held in a military ship in the middle of space. He cocked his head to one side ever so slightly as she sprang at the wall opposite him and bounced off it to twist and land back on all fours, there was an elegance to her movements which spoke of either hard training or an innate strength and flexibility. As he had expected she turned and came back over to him, once again retrieving her belongings. He watched her silently, only the slightest frown of confusion marring his face, were her eyes slightly redder than they had been previously or was that the lighting of the room?<br><br>He turned back towards the elevator, indicating that she should follow him with the crook of a finger. <strong>"Is there anything you need to know about this?"</strong> he asked her as they re-entered the large metal cubicle and he pressed the button for the upper cells, the lower security ones. This time as the lift made the short journey up through the ship he did decide to speak with her, <strong>"As far as I am aware we have no other prisoners at the moment so you'll be on your own on the deck. There haven't even been any marines fighting recently"</strong> his voice was smooth and quick, informing her of the facts, <strong>"There will be a security detail at the end of the corridor where we are about to arrive who will keep an eye on you and the robots will still be delivering your meals three times a day"</strong>. As he spoke the doors swished open again, revealing a semi-circular control panel behind which lounged four bored looking marines in half-combat gear. They leapt to their feet to salute as he passed them by, drawing Viper with him with a few small gestures, and he made a beeline for cell 01. He pressed his ID into the identification slot and the door swung open with a clang.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>15-11-2012, 22:46:03</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				Viper shook her head at his first question, she knew how to run a computer and how to read. Following again Viper closed her eyes, counting steps, counting doors and turns, it was all methodical to her. Without realizing it, Viper bumped into him when he abrputly stopped, snapping her eyes open she shot across the hall and slammed against the metal wall, in that split moment, she heard every gun click and aim on her.<br><br>Whether it was shock,&nbsp; suprise, or fear, her eyes were wide and her breathing ragged. This was the first time anyone heard any sort of noise from her. What they didnt realize, was her rising anxiety of dealing with other people. Her fear of them hurting her ate at her psyche untill it felt like she couldnt breathe. She was in panic mode, the moment her door opened, she dashed into it, and the moment she moved a gun shot rang out...and drops of blood was on the floor. Her sack was scattered around the hall and had dissapeared within her room. <br><br>The door was still open, she was standing in the middle of the room holding her right arm she was panting heavily, but no alarms went off on his PDA that recognized pain. She was facing the door, her body bent down a little bit, her knees hinged as her right arm dangled and blood seeped between her fingers. Oh she was pissed, no one was in the door way yet, but daggers shot from her eyes as every single cell in her body was focused on who would show up infront of the door.<br><br>She wasnt the rational subservient Viper that she was earlier, now...her fangs were showing...and she...was about to<del><strong> strike</strong></del>.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Assassini</strong> on <strong>21-11-2012, 00:27:48</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				He gave the barest indication of a nod at her silent response to his first question before he continued speaking to her. The silence that greeted his words would not have been out of place if he had been talking to a wall but he accepted her silence as he had her unusual actions in the virtual-reality simulation room. He assumed he would get at least some of the answers he sought soon enough and for now he did not want to press her unnecessarily. There had been a shift change in the marines he noticed, these new ones were of the 0543rd and while they stood to attention quickly and respectfully, nothing out of place there, there was an unmistakeable animosity towards Viper that even the older of the four could not hide. Marines were always protective of their own and these were no different.<br><br>He did not know whether Viper had just been lost in thought, whether she had been ignoring him completely, or whether she simply had been distracted by the slightly hostile stares from the soldiers watching their every move but whatever the reason when he stopped and opened the door of her cell she kept walking and bumped into him. Arthur's initial reaction was to bring up his right hand to almost touch her elbow, to steady both her and to hold himself upright as he had to take a step to the side as he slightly overbalanced. The reaction turned into him turning to face back the way they had came where the four marines were now watching with guns trained right on the girl. The deep blue armour hid the muscles of the four of them but he had no doubt that they were all tense and straining. From their perspective it had probably appeared that the hostile and dangerous prisoner was far to close and had bumped deliberately into one of their commanding officers. <br><br>Arthur was instantly completely tense as well, and he probably showed it through the tight fabric of his dark uniform. He felt that old and burning desire for a gun in the back of his mind, that feeling he got when there was a threat and he felt in the need of some defence. The marines would not shoot him, plus they were close enough that he was certain they would not hit him if they shot at Viper, but the need remained nonetheless. The rifles fired simple bullets, hardened and round-tipped so that they would pierce even some of the strongest armour, but this was not a front line battalion and so they did not have the latest in plasma-encased rounds. Time seemed to drag, suddenly every heartbeat and every breath seemed too loud and too hurried. The marines were twitchy, their fingers already on triggers and the laser sights of the rifles clearly painted four red dots on Vipers still form.<br><br>He started to raise his left hand towards them, to indicate that they should lower their weapons, keeping his actions slow and steady. He started deliberately relaxing his muscles and tried to turn the grimace on his face into a more relaxed and calm expression. Only as he started to move did he finally glance at Viper. Instantly he knew what she was going to do, he could see her chest rising and falling in a harsh and exaggerated motion, her eyes flicking from gun barrel to barrel. She was panicking and was about to do the worst thing possible when four twitchy and vindictive soldiers had guns trained at your chest. He moved faster than the eye could follow, simultaneously trying to bring the arm by her elbow to grab her upper arm and his left hand stretching out towards the soldiers, but even for all his speed Viper was faster. She moved in the blink of an eye, dashing towards the door and in that same moment a single gunshot rang out, filling the hallway with a loud echoing bang and flash of light. Instantly an alarm started to wail and Arthur knew that within a few moments a patrol would be here, if not security robots. He turned slowly, fully facing the soldiers, a furious glare on his face. To his satisfaction all four looked horrified and three of them were staring with complete shock at the one on the far right, the youngest and clearly new off the recruiting lists. <strong>"Stand down"</strong> he roared at them, his hand now outstretched pointed directly at the young soldier, who's eyes were wide and horribly white, <strong>"Lock him into one of the cells, I'll deal with him in a moment."</strong> He was not yet finished yet and turned to point at the oldest of the four, the one who had already regained her calm, <strong>"You, inform security what just happened... I have to try and fix whatever damage you just did..."</strong><br><br>Taking a deep breath he turned back towards the cell, closing his eyes as he did so, the door still open and Viper nowhere in sight. Fury raged through him, coupled with an intense desire to lash out at something or someone, and he had to take a moment to bring his emotions back and under control. Taking another deep breath and releasing it slowly, he opened his eyes and slowly took a step forward towards the door. He heard the clanging of the metal boots of security and the whooshing of one of the cells further down the corridor sliding open but ignored them. The force-field was already active on the door, but it read his security tag and would allow him to pass unharmed. He was ready, he did not appear tense but instead looked relaxed and calm, for all that anger still bubbled beneath the surface and that he was ready for anything from an unharmed and quiet victim to a snarling and raging animal. <strong>"Viper?"</strong> he spoke slowly and questioningly as he took the final step through the field and into the room.
			</dd>
			<dt class="postheader">
				Title: <strong>Re: A Hidden Backstory (Assassini &amp; KariaShinzou)</strong><br>
				Post by: <strong>Viper</strong> on <strong>23-11-2012, 19:47:12</strong>
			</dt>
			<dd class="postbody">
				"<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="bbc_size"><em>sssssssssss......ssssss.............sssssssssssssss</em></span>"<br><br>A sound emitted from Viper, though hushed and indistinguishable, it was surely coming from behind her mask. Upon entering the door, one could see Vipers eyes were blood shot from tears, she was fearful, beyond afraid, and she couldnt get rid of it. Clenching her hurt arm, her chest heaved as if it were trying to stop what was happening to her. <br><br>"<span style="font-size: 8pt;" class="bbc_size">ssss...sssaaa</span> <span style="font-size: 10pt;" class="bbc_size">ve-</span>"<br><br>All the sudden the smell of electric spiked in the air as she suddenly released her hurt arm and grabbed the back of her head, dropping to one knee more tears spilled from her eyes as her body shook from the electrical shock. Snapping her head up to see if he had moved any close, she looked at him from the door with wide terrified eyes. She couldnt stand that she was for the last four years, unable to speak.<br><br>But then...she knew...she would loose control if the mask was removed. She just wished they didnt put electrical charges on it so that she couldnt speak.
			</dd>
		</dl>
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