My apologies for the double-post, but I wanted to keep my comments separate. Heeeerrrreee's part 2!
Chapter 2
The group scattered, trying to avoid small chunks of falling debris. From above, small, green ships began to descend, firing not at the buildings but onto the streets - Government forces. Kate ran towards a small overhang, not really realizing where she was going. It seemed like there were people with phase rifles everywhere - the tense "peace" the city had been keeping had been broken. Out of the corner of her eye, Kate thought she could see another building go up in flames - but suddenly her vision was too cloudy to tell.
"HEY!" A voice came from behind an overturned hovercraft. Kate whirled her head around, almost falling over.
"HEY! Get over here! What'dyou think you're doing?!" The voice came again.
"Wh- where are you?" Kate spun around again. Everything seemed to shake.
From somewhere Kate couldn't see, a pale white arm shot out, grabbing her and pulling her behind the upturned craft. Kate swiveled her head to look over at the arm's owner, and saw a pale, dark-haired women - though she couldn't make out her face; the world was still shaking.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed? I don't have time for this!" The woman peered over the hovercraft, angling what looked like a phase gun over its side.
"No- I don't- I mean... I don't feel..." Kate couldn't think to form words.
"Whatever, just stay down-" The woman fired two shots, then looked back to Kate. "Are you OK?"
"No, I-" Kate struggled, gasping the words out, "I- can't... breathe."
"What? Dammit! You - get me an oxidizer. From the security pack, over there-" Kate could no longer see the woman, only hear here. Suddenly, two louder, deeper shots rang out, followed by a scream. The voices around her became more frantic. One, a man, screamed, "Trellis! We have to get out of here- Fall back, fall back!" The sounds faded, and Kate's mind went blank.
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West Ceria Medical Facility wasn't prepared. Its staff was about 50 doctors and an assortment of other personnel, not nearly enough to handle the full-scale assault taking place just outside its doors. Nobody knew what was happening; all the Government comm channels - and even some of the less aboveground ones - were dead. All the staff at the Facility knew was that people were being hurt, and they had to help however they could. It was their moment of triumph, in a way - not that you could really help someone with a phase burn.
Still, the staff did whatever they could - but with no way of contacting the rest of the city, there was only so much they could do. In the crowded - but very pleasantly lit - urgencies room, two doctors of symbiosis peered over the body of Trellis Sevril. One bent down, and felt just below the ridges on her neck, for a pulse. There was only one beat - a slow, steady one. The heartbeat of the symbiont. The other pulse, which should have come from Trellis herself, was nonexistent.
"There's nothing we can do for her." The first doctor's colleague agreed, looking up from a series of monitors attached to Trellis' biobed, where he had been studying the same statistics. "We have to remove the symbiont - I'll see about getting a temporary habitat setup."
"We don't have time. Are there any candidates for bonding in the building?" There was a tremor in the man's voice - not for the woman, but for the symbiont inside her. According to Avante tradition (and law), there was nothing more important.
The second doctor bent down to consult his screen again, keying in several commands. But, before he could enter anything, an aide tapped him on the shoulder.
"We've got another one - female, 17 years old, unconscious. No sign of any form of external wound; it seems she's suffering from some sort of neurological breakdown... perhaps something brought on by trauma?" The aide thought it would be impressive (and maybe promotion-worthy) to mention his first impression to his superiors.
The two moved towards the new arrival - Kate. After taking a quick look at her vitals, the first doctor keyed something into a pad and handed it to the aide. "Search for any of these gene sequences. Stop at the first one you find." There was no time for lots of tests, so he skipped to the most useful one.
The aide nodded, and started working. A few moments passed, and the doctor was about to move on to the next patient when the aide looked up, "She has Frenn's Syndrome. The shock from the explosion must've activated it. Unless she's bonded immediately, she might not regain higher brain functions. Sir, she is on the young side, but-"
The doctor had already come to a decision. Motioning to his colleague, he said, "Prepare to transplant that symbiont. We've found a host."
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