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originally posted in:The New Dojo
1/21/2018 4:11:08 AM
1
Michael leaned against a tree trunk, idly cooking some spare rations from the Sparrowhawk over the still-burning wreckage of a crashed fighter. The snow was still coming down hard, to the point where most of the bodies had been mostly submerged in snow. But for some wreckage, and the Arrowhead sitting in the distance, it would’ve been nearly impossible to tell that a battle had occurred in the first place.
As for himself, Drake was feeling almost ill with the acute sensation of failure. It’d been a while since the Arrowhead—no, he—had failed like this. After failing her, and then somehow making amends, he’d let Caroline slip again. After all the promises he’d made her, after all the talk of being better, he’d messed up. And who knew what Frontier was going to do with her?
Drake felt a buzz on his wrist commlink, and almost spit out his rations when he read it. It was a distress signal, from Caroline herself, by the looks of it. He wasn’t able to track the signal by himself, but with the ship’s assistance, he’d be able to tell where she’d gone. He scarfed down the rest of his bar in a single bite as he ran off towards his ship to trace the signal.
English
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After scanning, assuming that's what he did, the distress signal could be pinpointed to a small spot 25 miles west. Due to the anomalies present, it appeared to be some sort of crash site. Of a highly advanced Frontier ARES craft. Maybe she was there, but if not Drake would at least find some clue as to where she had ended up.
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[spoiler]Sorry this took so long. Had to get my final tests out of the way first. [/spoiler] This... this was at least something. A promise of a clue, at the very least. It was a chance Drake was willing to take for redemption. But this wasn’t something that he wanted to bring the crew into. No... this was something he had started, and it was something that he would damn well finish. After a brief conversation with the crew, it was decided. He’d take the [url=https://m.imgur.com/QpCeqQS]crew car[/url] on a little road-trip, while the Arrowhead sorted out their business with the NTR elsewhere. Drake parted ways, and set off through the forest in his sleek ride. Presuming that nothing went wrong, it wouldn’t be too long until he got to the crash site.
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[spoiler]I understand.[/spoiler] Drake would soon arrive at the site, spotting the Frontier craft impaled into the ground. It was in the midst of a small forest, and the trees hadn't taken the sudden invasion very well. It all seemed... slightly odd. Probably just the fact that the crashing of ships because of Caroline was happening so often as it did. A little food for thought. Maybe she should be banned from them. Might prevent constant crashing. And then he saw her. A woman, matching Caroline's description, could be seen sitting on a knocked over tree. As soon as she heard the car, she got up, grabbed her gun, and hid.
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Drake stopped the car, and looked over the area from behind the safety of the car’s bulletproof windows. If this was Caroline, she’d have every reason to be suspicious of a car that seemingly pulled up out of the blue... but something here smelled fishy. Just in case, he grabbed a cylindrical object, which sparked to life a dull energy shield that enveloped him. Finally, for added measure, he packed his signature blaster, re-strapping the holster to his hip. As he stepped out of the car, his boots made a satisfying crunch as they came into contact with the snow. He closed and locked the door, but kept the engine running, just in case things went downhill. Then he turned back to Caroline, and called out, “Hey, it’s me. No need to be afraid.”
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At first, there was no answer, but then Caroline peaked out from behind cover. When she saw Drake, she holstered her gun and ran out to meet him. "Oh my god. Drake?" She said, a smile on her face.
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“Well, you said that I should stop leaving you behind... so here I am.” Drake said nonchalantly, holstering his own weapon as a grin spread across his own face. He was, more than anything else, relieved that she’d survived, and that she was seemingly okay.
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Nothing more than a few scrapes and bruises on her, with most of the impact being absorbed by an exosuit. Those things had saved her life more times than she knew. "I'm glad you came back, even though I... already had it taken care of. Apparently Frontier doesn't know how to administer sedatives." She said in jest, looking at Drake with a glint in her eye. Without pause, she moved closer and... hugged him. Because he had been there. He had been her friend... sort of.
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"It's the thought that counts, right?" Drake replied jokingly, returning the hug with his prosthetic arm. It had been a while since he'd been hugged like that, and quite frankly, he'd forgotten how good it felt to be a good guy again. He withdrew from the hug after a few seconds, but kept her at arm's length as he looked over her. "Well," he said as he brushed some snow off of her exosuit, "you don't look too much worse for wear. I take it Frontier doesn't know how to administer bullets well either?"
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"Apparently." Caroline said, smiling. "I guess they forgot that I'm a trained assassin." Something seemed... off. The thought would have occurred to him that the soldiers who picked her up were spec-ops. ARES. They were trained for this. They would make sure that she wouldn't escape. Yet, she was alive. Here. "Drake... Listen. I've been thinking about something. Something I need to tell you."
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"Yeah? What's up?" Drake looked at her expectantly, waiting to hear what she had to say. Other than his lingering sense of dread from earlier, he hadn't quite picked up on anything wrong yet.
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"I'm..." She said, emotion conveying from within her. Yet the next thing she said would be almost emotionless in comparison. "I'm sorry about this." She opened up her hand, and jabbed some sort of syringe into his neck. Within moments, his vision would began to blur, and he would stumble. Caroline pushed down on the side of her neck, and her appearance changed completely. A hologram perhaps? The stranger had brown hair, brown eyes, and an overall generic face. Alpha had had a brief encounter with people like this earlier. Spies. Assassins. "Poor thing." The woman said, dropping Caroline's voice in favor of a bland one, as if by design. "I feel sorry for you, really. Frontier wants you, and that's not a good thing." Drake only had a few seconds before he would be knocked out completely. [spoiler]Second time I've done someone like that.[/spoiler]
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"I guess... They do... Sedativvee... goood" Drake fumbled for his blaster, but his fingers were already numbing. His prosthetic eye twitched, and unbeknownst to the assassin, snapped a picture of her for his neural implant, before passing out completely.
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Edited by Kruos the Wicked: 1/26/2018 10:03:07 PM[url=http://example.com]Unknown Location, Sometime later...[/url] Drake would wake up in a [url=https://imgur.com/jJKVgTF]strange bedroom[/url], not bound or anything like that. It was... almost comfortable. Very strange indeed, considering who was holding him. What did Frontier want?
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"I... Uh, lemme guess: Sawyer let me have a little too much to dri-..." Drake attempted to sit up, but his head was still swimming. It took him a moment to finally realize where exactly he was. Comfortable, clean... Definitely wasn't the Arrowhead. Suddenly, everything came back to him. "Oh," was all he could muster at that point. Drake slipped out of the bed, and decided to look around the room, merely for curiosity's sake.
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The only notable thing was a computer on the desk next to him. It had the Frontier insignia plastered onto it, but nothing else. However, what would be most notable is that an intercom came online... "Hello, Mr. Drake." A female voice said.
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Drake was taken by surprise, but didn’t quite lose composure. He went over to the computer, and replied with a casual, “That would be me.”
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"Thank you for identifying yourself, that was very... helpful." The woman said sarcastically, yet completely in jest. "If you would, can you please step into the analysis chamber?" A section of the wall opened up, revealing a short, dark hallway that led to a completely white room.
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Drake was silent, but complied nevertheless. There was no point in resisting... yet. It'd be far better to see what he was going up against on good terms.
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When he entered, he would be expected to stand in a ring that was in the very center of the room. If he did so, the door would shut, restraints would activate, and the lights in the room would go out. "Thank you Mr. Drake. Please wait while we configure the analyzation chamber." Metal pieces on the floor would rise up and assemble, creating a dark isolation pod with scanners that shone lights on him. Red, Green, Blue. A projection screen was showed before him, complete with a progressing scan of Micheal Drake himself. His vitals, age, and most of his file would show up on the screen, moving about. Yet there were other things like "Precursor DNA Match" and the like that didn't make much sense. It was all moving so fast that it didn't really matter.
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Edited by GingerlyWalnut3: 1/27/2018 8:35:13 PMDrake looked at the screens, attempting to glean as much as he could from the rapidly changing displays. Years of being a Captain had given him practice in split-second reactions, and his prosthetic eye made him surprisingly capable at filtering out important information.
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A mixture of data, numbers and words scrolling and flashing. His history, his health, his... file. And something else. Something that looked like it might be... brain scans. Patterns. A complete analysis, partially done while has was asleep and finished here. Then it said something else. [i]0.0% Corruption[/i] The screen flashed green, as if he was cleared, and the pod immediately disengaged. The lights in the room turned on once more, the restraints released, and the door opened. "Analysis complete. Please proceed back to your room." Once he made his way back, he would encounter someone. A woman, in her late thirties, with short blonde hair and blue eyes, stood by the window. "Hello Mr. Drake." She said in a smooth, partially British voice.
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"What do you want?" He growled quietly, though not with any particular hostility. He wouldn't be aggressive, but he wouldn't exactly be polite in his compliance either, Drake had decided.
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"Hmm. That's... difficult to necessarily answer." The woman said, eying him. "Answer me this first; what do you think of us? Are we the enemy to you?"
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"Well, you took a bounty on my head... tried to kill me... tortured me..." Drake sarcastically starting putting up fingers, counting their transgressions with each finger. After he finally stopped listing offenses, he nodded, "Yeah, I'd say that you're the enemy here."
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She chuckled, glancing out into space. "Has this question ever been posed to you before? 'Would you sacrifice one person to save the lives of many?'" She said, glancing at the planet that floated in the distance. "You were a threat, Drake. At least, we thought you were. A third party. That is, at least something made us believe that."
