Flesh vs Steel (Started)

Zephyr

Zephyr looked at the little girl clasped in father's arms. The kid reminded her too much of Carver, and the way he had gripped her knees, begging her not to leave him. She wished everyday that she's listened.

"I don't know about scrap, but she can wear this until we find something stronger," she said, shrugging off her heavy leather jacket. "It's not much protection, but it's better than nothing."

Logan

He took the jacket, carefully helping his daughter into it without putting her down. The little girl wrinkled her nose, face scrunching up in a way that said she wasn't quite satisfied. "It's too big." Well, obviously. "It's heavy!"

Logan sighed and gave her temple a kiss, offering the woman- Zephyr, wasn't it?- a half-hearted smile. "Thank you." To his daughter, he whispered a quiet, "It'll keep you safer, love." Safer. Not necessarily safe. Something in the back of Logan's mind was telling him to look harder, to try to do better than just a leather jacket- but he knew that it wasn't really an option. Still... maybe they'd find something they could use later.

He chanced another look at Micah, and then at some of the others, before nodding at the door. "I'd go first, but I'm not putting her down and I'm not taking her straigt into a warzone if there is one." He wasn't. Putting her down would mean having to come back in and pick her up, which would waste more time than they already were, and bringing her with him to make sure the coast was clear... well, it should have been obvious as to why he had no intention of doing that.

Leah sighed into his neck, which just made his heart feel heavier. The knowledge that he had to do better coupled with the fact that he couldn't was incredibly oppressing. What about food and water? Where would they get those from? Would the others be willing to share it with a little girl, or would he be forces to steal if worse came to worst? And the guns and bombs and heaven knew what else... how was he going to save her from those?

She was making it off of this blasted ship alive.

Logan had made a promise.

Mercury

'Listen up!', Mercury commanded. 'Now while we can all pitch our dillusional ideas and get absolutely nowhere, I'd rather form a plan that won't get me, or anyone else with the faintest common sense killed. I have a very large knowledge of the layout of the sanctum, especially the military bases. I say that our first move is to head north to Shaft 21, there is a heavily equipped security outpost, however we will have to put up with makeshift weapons until we make it there'. Everyone stared at him, and they knew that, although he wasn't a genius, Mercury's plan was the best so far.
'Well', Koron said, 'sounds good to me'.
'So, unless anyone has any better ideas', Mercury contiued. 'Beast?' he finished, giving Cancer a glare that could kill. As far as Mercury was concerned Cancer was nothing more than an android with a load of flesh glued on. His kind was responible for the death of almost a billion people, and Mercury wasn't about to forget that. Not ever.

Zephyr

She wanted to tell Mercury where to go. Who was he to boss them around like that? BUt like it or not his plan was the first one to actually make sense. If they could make use of his expierience, then fine.

But she wasn't going to let him push them around either.

"Hey, Jerk. Leave him alone."

Micah,

Everything seems to be devolving into pointless quibbling again. And none of them have paid any attention to the fact that they are still being loud. I raise my voice to be heard.

"Look, I'm fine with the plan. It's cool, right? But, honestly, we all need to keep it down. They will HEAR us."

Mercury again turns to me, "Oh, yeah? I don't hear you being quiet!"

I roll my eyes, "Yeah, well, you never would have listened to me if I hadn't gotten louder."

I look at the others, my eyes lingering on Logan and Leah.

"Can we just agree to be quiet from now on? If we don't I can guarantee that they will find us."

Logan

Logan felt himself growing defensive. Perhaps Micah hadn't meant the stare to be a warning, but he had taken it as one. "She's been quieter than the lot of you," he muttered, planting a kid on his daughter's head. Still, he kept it down.

"But we obviously can't stay here, I agree with that much." He was speaking in a whisper, just to please Micah. "I'll just sit over here and wait for you to agree on something, and I suggest you keep the yelling to a bare minimum. Leah will start to cry if it gets to tense, and as Micah's been so kind to point out, the extra noise will probably be fatal."

He wandered to a corner and flopped down in it, holding out his palms for Leah to take. She did, although she didn't seem to know why, and abruptly let go and returned to snuggling into his chest, eyes half-closed. This probably wasn't a good time for her to sleep, but she needed the rest, and Logan could use the break from forcing himself to keep up the good-mood act. At least the adults would understand that it wa just the high stress levels getting to him-- Leah would be terrified if he got snappy or started getting angry.

Micah,

I can sense that Logan thinks that I was specifically referring to his daughter when I looked at them. I didn't, but I'll have to tell him that later. I turn back to the rest of the group, Hatter clanking around with me.

"Also, will there be food and water at Shaft 21? We'll need sustenance fairly soon..."

Mercury grunts a yes, and then seems to notice Hatter.

"What is THAT doing here? It's one of them!" He takes a step closer to me, "It's gonna kill us all!"

I stare back at him calmly, "No, he won't. His one purpose in life is to keep me safe. He doesn't know anything else. His circuitry is completely separate from the androids'."

The others are looking at Hatter suspiciously now. I sigh.

Mercury

'Well, either way, I suggest we get moving' Mercury conluded, 'standing around is only gonna get us killed. I've got a small 35 calibre pistol and not much ammo, so I'd urge you all to avoid conflict as best you can. And as for that mutt', Mercury flashed a look at Hatter,'keep it quiet, or I'll blow it's voice imitator out of it's waste shaft'. With that mercury opened the bunker door, letting out a huge creak, and stepped out into the iron streets.

Koron

Mercury was the first out and seeing it was safe, signalled for the rest of them to follow. Koron was out second, followed closely by Zephyr.

"Look out, Borg, only one," Mercury whispered.

"Let me deal with it" Koron replied.

"And if you get caught?" Zephyr joined in.

"I'm probably dead."

Koron snuck up behind it but only just. While on his way to destroy it, he managed to find a piece of mining equipment. He recogonised the equipment as a mining laser. It had a couple of charges left. He got behind it and shot it in the collar bone area, oil spewing everywhere. The Borg bot turned around seemingly unaffected. It then shut down and fell back like a tree. Koron breathed a sigh of relief and pocketed the laser.

All clear, he signalled.

Logan

Logan adjusted the jacket collar, covering Leah's neck before he dared venture put behind the others. He hesitated by the door when her arms tightened around his neck. It wasn't until just then that he realized the wetness in his neck, warm and only getting worse. She was crying- his little girl was crying. Byte sobs and squeals hadn't come, which Logan was thankful for, but his heart was breaking in whatever places hadn't been shattered already by his wife's death.

It was Mercury who turned around and made an urgent gesture for them to get moving.

Logan forced his legs to work, but he only made it a step before Leah started kicking and shaking her head into his neck. "No-oo!" It came through as a quiet squeal, which earned them a warning glare from some of the others. to make matters worse, her crying was turning to sobs. Audible sobs. He didn't know who it was, but somebody hissed for him to quiet her down. It wasn't worth a glare.

"Sh, Sh, Leah. We have to go, alright? They'll get us if we stay in there for too long." Leah stopped fussing for a second and peeled her face out of his neck, staring wide-eyed at the empty room behind them. "Can we go?"

She thought for a second before nodding and re-hiding her face. Logan exhaled slowly and started forward, not bothering with an apologetic smile this time around. He had a feeling thy it wouldn't be appreciated anyways. Instead, he just nodded and tried to keep Leah's body as concealed by his arms as he could.

Zephyr

She didn't want to be "the girl" on the team, but creeping through the darkness, she found herself reaching for the hand of the person beside her. It didn't matter who it was, she just wanted the comfort. While she considered herself an expert at sneaking around, it was different now there was something after them. If she got caught now, it would be fatal.

If anyone asked, her excuse was perfectly plausible. She was NOT going to be left alone with those machines out there. It made sense to take precautions against getting serperated.

No one ever needed to know how scared she was.

Mercury

If Mercury was right, the team needed to head 5 miles north, and from the Terra-exterior-view parascopes, Mercury could estimate the time at about nine O'clock at night. That meant around four hours of travelling before they reached the shaft.
Lamposts shone on the group as they made their way through the streets, and Mercury halted to a stop when he heard a hydraulic pivot rotate. He looked behind him to see Zephyr's hand tightly wrapped in Koron's. 'Not now you two', he sighed before checking around the corner of the street. Ah a beast, easy enough to deal with. Mercury signalled for the group to wait where they were before sneaking up behind the droid. As Mercury pulled a knife from his belt he stabbed up into the skeletal robot's skull before twisting to disable any chips inside. He signalled for the others to continue west.

Koron

Heading north-west through the dark streets, Koron tried to start a conversation with his fellow survivors. After all they did need to get to know one another. Koron started with on a topic a little less sensitive than how they got here.
"Tired?" he asked openly.

"Yes," Zephyr replied.

"I'm not," Cancer cut in.

"Well you wouldn't be would you, beast?" snarled Mercury.

"What have you got against him?" Zephyr darted back.

"Nothing, except that his kind killed tens of miilions of people"

Koron butted in "He's not one of those mindless drones. He still has the ability to think, and anyway I have a cybernetic eye, so are you calling me an android?"

Mercury paused then continued advancing towards their goal. Zephyr went to taunt him but Koron raised a finger to his lips to stop her. He then turned to Cancer "Just ignore Mercury, he's just a bit frustrated".

Cancer nodded, "I do feel his agony, afterall, I too have lost those I loved. Even though they didn't me"

Koron flashed him a smile, he had a feeling no matter how tough things got, Cancer would be loyal to the very end. And he hoped that this would be true.

Cancer

Cancer let the words escape his mouth before he realised what he was saying.
"even if they didn't me"
It was the story of his life. Or at least, what he remembered of his life.
He took a peek at Zephyr, but quickly looked away. She was looking at him.
'No,' he thought, 'she's looking at the crab,'
He knew that it was the cybernetic implants which drew the most stares- they'd really gotten under Mercury's skin- but the thing that Cancer hated most about himself was the crab tatoo which adorned his left cheek, under his eye. It had clearly been done by an amateur- the thing was blotchy in places, and his skin was reddened and raised in ridges of scar tissue where the needle had done it's work.
He pulled back the cuff of his bodysuit. Another adorned the inside of his wrist. He felt as if he had been branded- a traitor, a pirate? He didn't know. It was all lost, everything he had experienced was lost to him.
He felt Zephyr lean in close to him, so close he face almost touched his ear as they walked, but he didn't want to look up.
"You don't have to be afraid to be who you are," she said.
Nothing could describe how much those words hurt.

Zephyr

"You don't have to be afraid to be who you are," she said.

Zephyr had always belived that, even when it got her in trouble. She felt Cancer really needed to hear. He seemed so conflicted. She wanted to hug him, and tell him that he hadn't done anything wrong, even if SOME people felt differently. Instead she pulled him over to where Logan was trying to comfort his little girl.

"Talk to the kid," SHe commanded, "Show her there's nothing to be afraid of."