2023-06-20: Into the Blue: Trembling Fate of Traitors
- Cast: Sousuke Sagara, Kaname Chidori, John Danigan (NPC)
- Where: TDD-1 Tuatha de Danaan
- Date: U.C. 0097 07 01
- Summary: Kaname desperately runs to execute a plan that might just save the Tuatha de Danaan from the hijackers, but first she has to escape from them. Fortunately, gunshots are quite loud in a submarine.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
The Danaan has been seized. Traitors aboard set Gauron and the rest of the captives free and have seized the bridge. Using the facade of a drill, they've evacuated the entire command half of the sub, and sealed the doors. The odds of anyone coming to the rescue from the ship's fighting forces are slight.
Tessa has a plan, and it hinges on Kaname getting out of the bridge and securing the key to the AI Core so they can force out OWL, the Super AI that Gauron has downloaded on top of Dana.
Step one and two are done. Tessa sacrificed what little freedom Gauron allowed her to ensure Kaname could flee the bridge; and now, the sub's master key is in hand. But she's being pursued by Gauron's cronies, and there's no way to know where they are. Hazy memories of desperately merging with Tessa's knowledge of the TDD might provide a sense of the layout, but...
A sneering voice laughs, "There you are!" from down the corridor. He doesn't fire just yet. Ricochets in a space like this are as dangerous to him as her. But there's the sound of feet rushing.
--how useful is that against a trained soldier with a gun!?
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname's in front of the captain's quarters, still deciding where to go, when that voice calls out from down the hall behind her. She gasps and, barely even taking the time to look behind her, BOLTS in the other direction. She's not a top-10 on-base-percentage batter for nothing!
She turns the first corner she finds, and ducks into the first door she sees after that--into the cafeteria. It's dark, but maybe that means she can hide... so she ducks underneath one of the tables on the far wall, and waits... all the while, cursing herself for choosing pretty much the most obvious room to hide in.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Something's wrong. It's not just the people crawling the halls. There's been heavy mechanical noises, loud THUDS thumping through the whole vessel.
They're shooting missiles and rocked, and a lot of them. At...what, exactly? Impossible to know. Gauron didn't talk like he had a plan like that.
Fortunately, a Whispered is quite capable of processing both trains of thoughts at once. Lucky duck. It's a breathless few seconds as his footsteps draw nearer. Unfortunately...
Well. The SRT are the best.
The shadow of his entrance, the change in the way his footsteps resound through the room. "Kheh," John Danigan grunts, scratching the side of his head with the hand holding his weapon. "Trust Sagara not to tell you how to assess a space for an ambush," he laughs. "Honestly, think I'm gonna enjoy the look on his face. C'mon, girly."
He rounds the corner and starts walking down the aisle, eyes scanning under the tables. "Don't make this harder than it's gotta be, yeah?"
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
The sound of Kaname's breath seems deafening. Her blood rushes in her ears. She's cornered, she thinks as Danigan moves closer. What can she even do? He's a soldier. She's a communications officer. A desk jockey. Like he says, Sousuke's never trained her for things like this.
... But she's not helpless. Quietly, she leans onto her hands, one foot hovering just above the floor, leg tilted just slightly to the side. And as Danigan crosses in front of the table she's underneath, she kicks, leg swinging out behind Danigan to strike his calf mid-stride. If she can't knock him over, he'll at least be off-balance, which should give her enough time to get out... and from there, into the kitchen.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Kaname is a gifted athlete, and that's not nothing. But more than a soldier, Danigan's SRT. Mithril's Special Response Team. Kaname will have seen the absurd expectations put on people selected for the role, the kilometers of marching in unbearable heat under mountains of gear. She won't outlast him But speed might be a play she can make.
He finds her eyes just as she lashes out. "HNGh!" She tags him in the calf - indeed, he doesn't fall, but he nearly does, stumbling back a whole table before he catches himself, rights himself. But he's blocked the way to the door, which means...
As Kaname rushes for the kitchen, there's a thunderous BANG!!!
In a submarine, noise is everything. They're built so that not a single screw so much as squeaks. Right now, with the ship even quieter than usual with this half evacuated, that roar of a gun going off will have been heard up and down the vessel. Small comfort. A ding in the wall of the kitchen shows where Danigan's shot landed, informing Kaname in no uncertain terms the danger she's in.
He approaches, his lips curled up in a cruel sneer. "What's the matter, huh?" he snaps. "Corner yourself!? Little miss hundred meter dash isn't going anywhere, now?"
His frame is imposing. Maybe he only looks athletic normally, but now, with his body blocking the door way, he may as well be a wall. "Heh. What's wrong? Get running. Out of ideas? Thought you were supposed to be so clever."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname nearly stumbles and falls as the shot rings out. Are her ears bleeding? It feels like they are. She can't tell if she screamed or not. The gunshot sends her brain into a rush, a panic, it feels like there are too many thoughts happening at once, screaming by at 200kph, and she can't grab onto any of them.
She backs away from Danigan until she's up against the stove, and as he taunts her, the panic starts to melt away. Her hand searches, and her fingers curl around the handle of a cast-iron pan in the dark. Eyebrows furrow together in anger... instead of warning him to stay back, to stay away, she remains silent. Almost daring him to come after her.
Doesn't he know that animals are at their most dangerous when they're cornered?
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
Danigan remains in the door for several precious seconds, staring her down, that frustrated sneer turning into a totally unthreatened smile. "Hah. Cannot believe they wasted so much time and money on a little thing like you. Well. Sorry, babe, but the line ends here."
He takes a step inside.
And then someone yells "CHIDORI!"
Danigan whips around. Sousuke Sagara is standing there, out of breath, eyes rapidly scanning the scene. Flicks to Danigan, his gun, Chidori - and then as the gun moves to firing position Sousuke dives to cover, a bullet spanging into the metallic bench used for the table he's behind. "The hell are you doing here, Sagara!?"
"Kaname, are you alright!?" Sousuke calls, ignoring him.
"Neither of you will be for long!" Danigan yells back. He takes a step, apparently having totally forgotten he just turned his back on a desperate woman with an object.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname's teeth grit as Danigan takes his step. One shot at this. Make it count.
Her heart nearly leaps into her throat at the sound of that voice. "Sousuke!" she answers, spirits lifting, even as she flinches from the sound of gunfire. She doesn't answer his question, though, instead taking one look at the back of Danigan's head...
And with all the grace of a varsity softball player, smashes the cast-iron pan into the side of his skull with a dull clang. "RRRRAAAAH!"
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
They're soldiers. They're used to the sounds of bullets. Though if you survive this, maybe have his hearing checked.
Sousuke sees Kaname winding up. Danigan's fast...if he catches her in that position--!
Just briefly, he imagines a spatter of blood. He moves, vaulting the bench despite the danger. The immense danger of an SRT closing in on him erases Kaname from Danigan's peripheral vision; one shot misses, then a second lands square in Sousuke's shoulder and he cries out, misses his next jump and lands hard on the floor.
Danigan's in the middle of lining up a shot to blow Sousuke's head off when Kaname slams him across the skull. For just a second he nearly loses consciousness. There's a clatter as his gun hits the ground and banks off a wall, sliding into the kitchen.
Danigan rallies fast, rounding on Kaname with intent to smash her across the face.
Sousuke sees it again, and screams as he forces himself from prone to a mad dash, tackling Danigan around the midsection with his good arm.
It's...just not enough force. Danigan sneers, and his attention switches again, snapping an arm down to grab Sousuke by the hair with one hand, pull him up even as Sousuke's eyes water from the pain, and then Danigan grabs him by the throat and SQUEEZES.
"Haven't had to do someone like this since Gryps. Not bad, Sagara."
His thumb pushes into his trachea.
"Now die."
The gun lies on the floor. How many bullets were left....?
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Two shots ring out in the time it takes for Kaname's improvised weapon to impact Danigan's head. He crumples, the pan clatters onto the floor, and and she just... stands there. Is that it? Is it over?
Unfortunately, most knockouts aren't as long-term as they are in the movies.
Before she can process what's happening, Danigan is on Sousuke. She can see her heartbeat in the back of her eyes. She's trying not to panic, trying to think rationally. Danigan's back is turned to her. She has a kitchen full of--
She lays her eyes on the gun.
She doesn't have time to second-guess. Trembling hands grip the firearm, holding it as stable as she can in both hands, training it on Danigan.
BANG. BANG.
Two more gunshots ring through the submarine.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
BANG. BANG.
Sousuke's head is swimming, but he hears that.
Danigan emits one gurgle of shock as blood seeps out of his side. The second fully dislodges him, sending him toppling to the side; he hits his head on the far wall, and...stops moving. Spittle and blood pool from the corner of his mouth as his head lolls to the side for the last time.
Sousuke gulps for air, his good hand yanking at his collar reflexively. But after two, three, four ragged gasps for air, already he's turning away. He's injured. He was being brutally choked, yanked around; there's blood coming from the wound in his shoulder.
But he goes to Kaname first. "Kaname! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere!?" he asks, looking her over for obvious injury.
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
BANG. BANG.
Sousuke's head is swimming, but he hears that.
Danigan emits one gurgle of shock as blood seeps out of his side. The second fully dislodges him, sending him toppling to the side; he hits his head on the far wall, and...stops moving. Spittle and blood pool from the corner of his mouth as his head lolls to the side for the last time.
Sousuke gulps for air, his good hand yanking at his collar reflexively. But after two, three, four ragged gasps for air, already he's turning away. He's injured. He was being brutally choked, yanked around; there's blood coming from the wound in his shoulder.
But he goes to Kaname first. "Kaname! Are you alright? Are you hurt anywhere!?" he asks, looking her over for obvious injury.
In the heat of the moment and his worries, he does not quite realize this will be her first time killing a man.
CHANSYS: No channel with that name or alias found.
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname falls to her knees. Her mind replays the last few moments... Danigan was about to kill Sousuke... so she picked up his gun... and shot him with it. Twice. She looks at the pistol, then at Danigan.
She stares at his body, trying to catch her breath. It doesn't come. She blinks slowly, and she doesn't appear to register Sousuke's question.
Her voice is barely a whisper. "Is... is he..."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
....ah. Now it's familiar. Sousuke's own mind is hazy after being choked, but seeing someone in this state is familiar, and...unhappy, to see that expression on Kaname's face. Gently, he follows her to the ground and reaches to take the weapon, putting it aside. Best she not hold it right now. The wound in his shoulder is painful, but the danger has passed, for now.
He meets her eyes, and then looks back to where a pool of crimson is leaking from Danigan's wounds.
"Dead," Sousuke confirms, quietly. "You saved my life, Kaname."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname blinks slowly, looking back at Sousuke. "D... dead," she echoes. "I... killed him."
A loud ping echoes through the submarine, pulling her back to reality and reminding her that they're still in danger. She pulls the master key out of her pocket and shows it to Sousuke. "Tessa asked me to get this. I'm supposed to get to Lady Chapel," she explains, "But I don't know where that is. I was trying to get there when..." She trails off.
Kaname looks from his eyes, to his shoulder. "--Sousuke, your arm..."
<Pose Tracker> Sousuke Sagara has posed.
"Yes," Sousuke confirms. He watches her with concern for several moments. "You had no choice," he assures her, because he knows the kind of panic that can drive a person in a moment like this.
The loud ping startles him. "Active sonar," he hisses, and tries to push himself up, then grits his teeth and falls back to the ground. "Kgh," he croaks.
She's seen him like this before, in Khanka, with shrapnel in his stomach. "I'll be fine," he hisses. "Just a flesh wound, I think. If the enemy is engaging active sonar, we're in serious danger..."
With a rough grunt he sets his back to the cabinets and breathes deeply. He looks at the key with the most thought he can muster. "Lady Chapel...that's the computer core. I know where it's located."
He breathes a few times. "Mao's holding down Nguyen. Seolla came back here with me, but she split off. I think she saw the woman who surrendered to her. I'm not sure where they are."
He nudges his chin to a cabinet across the kitchen. "There's a first aid kit in the upper shelves," he says, figuring he doesn't need to be vague for her this time. "I can't defend you like this. We need to get this bandaged first. Hopefully...we have the time."
<Pose Tracker> Kaname Chidori has posed.
Kaname nods, taking a few breaths, trying to calm herself as she stands, scowling as Sousuke tells her he's fine. "You're clearly *not* fine," she insists back to him, but nods as he explains the situation. She pockets the key again, and rustles around in the cabinet, producing the first aid kit.
Making her way back over to him, she pops it open and moves to open Sousuke's jacket to see what other damage Danigan managed to do. "We don't have any other choice," she sighs, "I'm not leaving you here..."
She pays a glance back to Danigan's body, and wishes she hadn't. She tries to occupy her mind with helping Sousuke fix himself up.