[Citadel/Nimbus] A Party On The Rocks (closed)

"You're one hell of a motivator, Temria." Freh'ya replied to the doctor with a chuckle She would see to it that everyone was getting through this.

By now the stars were cluttering a dark sky and a blue and white light was dimply illuminating the landscape. The top of the ridge was visible as a dark line, just a dozen or so meters above them, easy to reach over a field of rubble. Freh’y pulled Rahi up and padded her shoulder reassuring.

“We are, it seems. Just a few meters more.” She waited for everyone to get ready again while musing how to do this. They could have the drones do an initial peek but in reality, the infrared binoculars were probably their best bet in this situation. With sigh she realized that they were missing proper night fighting gear. The darkness often was the natural friend of the huntress, but without proper equipment it was more of a disadvantage now.
And the group needed a break.

“We’ll just move up there and I’ll have a peek. We will take a break then if the situation is allowing it.” Standing around in the cold was making her feel tired but getting tired was dangerous in this cold.

When they finally reached the top of the ridge, what had started as whistling sound became a strung gush of ice cold wind as soon as they cautiously poked their heads over the top. The darkness had come with an immense drop in temperature and the wind-chill now added to it. Until now the cliff had shielded them but now the small ice crystals the wind was carrying were crackling against clothing or face masks, slowly building a crust. The temperature would have been next to unbearable on any spot of bare skin. The heating units in the suits had to crank up a notch.

Freh’ya’s face mask was suddenly feeling too thin, her cheeks becoming numb very slowly as she turned her face into the wind.

But there it was…. The beacon of the mountain retreat, in the distance its green light slowly blinking, reflecting eerily from the snow around it!

Between them and their target was a slowly descending plateau of snow with rocks and boulders protruding, casting pitch black shadows even at night. Mountains of Ice and rock were lining the horizon, caving them in like huge black demons. The huntress was scanning with her binoculars but infrared turned out nothing above the temperature of liquid helium.

“All right ladies. We can’t get there by night, it’s too dangerous… we can barely see shit as it is. Rahi, can you set up a perimeter with the drones in that wind?” She exhaled, causing a cloud of breath, immediately blown away by the wind, as if frozen in an instant.

“We should set up camp in the wind shadow of the big boulders over there….” She pointed. The group needed a rest, they needed something to eat… “I could need a bite, I can tell you that.” and I need to pee but have no idea how I could perform that, tides.

“Okay, okay…” she replied to Temria’s suggestion about the pills, as her senses came back. It was a joyful revelation to realize that the top was with reach and they would be able to see the beacon from up there.

~~~~

Just a few meters more… the wind was significantly less cutting in the shadow of that boulder! Arina leaned against the rock and slid down into the snow. She was tired and hungry and… and frightened. She wanted to walk on, towards the blinking green light of safety but in reality she just could not walk anymore. She had blisters on both feet (courtesy of new boots) which felt like bleeding.

She got back up with a heavy sigh, taking together what strength was left in her.
“Let’s put up one of the tents, I’ll prepare something to eat… maybe a hot stew from some packs… something hot in any case, okay?”

Freh’ya nodded and Arina unhinged the roll from the huntresses backpack. The two-person tents were self inflating, there was a label on the outside explaining its use. It could be either fixed to the ground with bolts, which they had no tools for or with stones, which they had plenty off in this area.

Arina turned the pack in her hand and then found the cord. She pulled and let out a surprised gasp as the pack basically exploded in her face. Stumbling back, she let go of the unfolding bright blue tent…. which got almost immediately caught by the wind and after a couple of rolls into the open, got carried into the air by a heavy gust and blown over the ridge….

“Shit.” She stood there, hands in front of her face in anger and shame. “I want something warm to eat goddessfuckit! Arrrgh!” She screamed into her fists, helpless.

Their ascent at last complete, Temria took a moment to look out over the wastes they had traversed in such short a time, (from a comfortably safe distance from the cliff, of course...) Somewhere down below, the Sala lay beached and alone, ripe for the gutting... The breeze kicked up, as though Trategos approved of her thinking of it in such bloody terms, the doctor shivered and quietly hoped one of the pirates found something amomg the remaining drugs just a bit too tempting and overdosed on it. The optimistic one, she thought bitterly, the one they all begrudgingly looked to for hope.

Shaking the melodramatic narrative from her mind, she turned in time to see Arina deploy one of the emergency shelters. Oh but it did seem awfully easy to batter around in this wind, didn't it?

"Can we use the pitons to- ah- Ah!" -Nail it down, she would have said, had the thing not flung itself from Arina's grasp and come bouncing along. Temria was too far to intervene, though her instincts sent her chasing after it, if only for a few steps, before coming to a disappointing halt as it sailed off the cliff majestically. In the distance, she saw its trajectory shift rapidly in the wind, and was at once reminded of a moment in her childhood, when her mother explained how the universe punished those who wished ill on others; as the tent smashed itself asunder on a rocky outcrop.

"Well... that's okay..." she sighed at last, affecting a calm tone though her voice was cracking, just a bit. "It did seem a bit spacious, too opulent for just two people, anyway..."

"I think... thank you," Rahilan interrupted herself, as Freh'ya offered her a hand to help her up the last clamber onto the top. "I think, I've re-evaluated my feelings about this place, as a para-ski location. Next leave rotation, somewhere more... temperate. And horizontal."

She took a moment to catch her breath, and looked around. Perhaps she was being a bit unfair to Trategos - with the stars out (and what a starfield it was, with a clear sky and none of the light pollution of urban growth) the landscape was a watercolour of blue and white under a blanket of shadows. Rahi couldn't quite bring herself to like the look of it, but she admitted circumstances were influencing her. For that matter, she wasn't sure if she ought to see the distant beacon light as a ray of hope, or a portent of doom; who knew what they would find when they finally arrived?

Freh'ya's query brought her back to immediate concerns, and she opened her omni-tool and studied the environmental readings.

"Perhaps," she said thoughtfully. "The gun drone certainly, but if we send it high there's a risk it'll be picked up, even with the interference - even a distorted reading could give our position. The tac drones should be able to manage, keeping their narrowest profile aimed into the wind, but they'll burn drive time doing it in this." She looked around, studying the rock formations nearby, guessing where would give good lines of sight, and where wouldn't end up buried if there was a heavy snowfall.

"The tacs can anchor," she mused, pointing to outcrops. "If we set up four - there, there, there, and up there - they'll be able to hunker down and keep their eyes open without exhausting themselves. I'll program in a cyclic pattern to have another couple venture further out, say every half hour? Just out-and-back flights, a couple of minutes each way. If anyone tries to sneak up, they'll have to be moving pretty fast to get through the window between scans, and if they're moving that fast the stationery sentries would probably pick them up. Actually," she added, as an idea struck, "I'd also like to mount a pair on the cliff face - we can do it manually, and pick them up before we move on tomorrow - just in case anyone turns up down at the... the wreck. Uh, with the two configured for interferometry, even on passives there's probably a better than even chance they'd be able to..."

She broke off in bemusement as a tent sailed past.

"...Oh!" It was almost gone in the moment it took her to realise what was happening - she made a panicked attempt to grab it biotically, but her field was barely forming by the time it dipped down below the level of the cliff, and without line of sight she lost it.

"Um," she said quietly to herself. It was the kind of mistake that, in cadre training, would earn the unfortunate huntress-to-be a lifelong nickname among her peers to remember it, and in the immediate future, at least a few nights spend huddled in her suit reflecting on why everyone else had a tent and she didn't. Arina was a civilian though - she had acquitted herself well already today, with her injury no less, and it wasn't her job to know every last potential pitfall of survival in a hostile environment; that was the huntress's job. Rahi tried very hard to keep that in mind, and not be frustrated at the senseless setback. And that she was now going to be huddled in her suit all night. That was the huntress's job, too.

Freh’ya didn’t pay attention the decisive second, being occupied with containing her bladder. The crucial error happened behind her back and for once she just wasn’t fast enough. A pull reflex shot from her hand but missed the tumbling tent…

“Tidesdamnit…” she turned and grabbed Arina by the shoulders quite rough. “YOU…” She exhaled and calmed down, almost to Trategos temperature. When the going gets tough….

“It’s not your fault, I should have done this myself, It’s not your fault.” And instead of shaking the daylight out of Arina, she hugged her for a moment. The last thing the group needed now was a fight over someone’s slip under stress.
“We have a second tent, see?” she pointed at Rahi’s rucksack with another roll attached to it. She knew full well that the two person tent would hold three at one time maximum but well, someone had to do watches anyway and body warmth was even higher that way. “You guys have to cuddle up a bit.” She tried a laugh, it sounded a bit off with her freezing cheeks, but still, the attempt was recognizable.

She patted Arina once more and the turned to Rahi.
“C’mon, let’s put this baby up.” She unclasped the role from the pilots back and in conjunction with Rahi unfolded the construction.
“Watch, you will be able to do it yourself next time.” She tried to encourage Arina.

The wind tried to pry it again, but this time the two trained huntresses were mastering it. Eventually, Rahi hammered the last piton into the ground and Freh’ya was lining up a couple of stones. Now, sitting low on the ground, the wind only playfully ruffled the sides of the construction. It was almost two meters long and one meter and something wide, with a double folded cover over the entry.

“Alright, I will be on first watch, Rahi, you can set up the drones. Doctor, please get some rest with your arm and Arina…. You will cook us something hot as a punishment, okay? You are carrying most of the supplies anyway.”

I need to find a calm protected spot or I’m gonna explode.

“Rahi, I’ll go check the perimeter quickly.” Freh’ya waved and with the rifle slung over her shoulder, she went for a walk around the boulders.

Arina was close to crying and when Freh’ya grabbed her, she tensed up, awaiting some sort of physical punishment – which she would have earned, she had put the team in terrible danger. But then Freh’ya just hugged her.

Arina slumped in her arms, all strength gone from her body. She was totally out of her depth, she should have stayed on the Citadel or in bed or… somewhere else at least.

When the commando and the pilot were putting up the tent like the pros they were, she sat down, her back rested against the stone, hugging her backpack in front of her, like an item of protection. When she got invited by the commando to cook for the team, she choked on a small sob but nodded.
“As you order.” She was carrying her bag in a hand and trying not to get too close to the doctor, as the two got coaxed into the small housing. The prospect of a warm stew of something was at least a silver lining on the horizon.

She couldn’t let everyone down more than she already had and she found some resolution again. This would not be the end of things.

Temria shared the younger diplomat's visible flinch when Freh'ya closed the distance and took hold of her. Though the doctor wasn't keen to watch it happen, that mistake had earned Arina a harsh reprimand and it was the best she could do now to watch it happen, both to use her own age and authority to try to calm their nerves if things went to far, and to kindle the less nuanced, more reactionary fear of failure of her younger fleet days. In fact, Freh'ya's response had been much less than Temria had expected, and she at once began to wonder how that would influence Arina instead, even as she nodded dutifully and entered the tent with her.

Oh but it was good to have a roof over ones head. Even if she had to crawl to keep from scraping against it, the rattling, waving membrane was a welcome shelter from the wind and already she dreaded leaving. Temria sat gingerly at one end, careful not to lean too hard against the edge for fear of yet another disaster, she fought the urge to curl up at the behest of her aching arm and legs at least for the time being, there'd be time enough for that soon...

Arina slunk past her, and Temria observed her quietly, moreso dazed but the sudden realization of her exhaustion than any malice. Indeed, she was actually trying to guage the younger asari's mood: had Freh'ya's calm, collected admonishment set her at ease or spark a flame of second guessing and self-doubt? And if it did, what could Temria do right now to keep it from spreading out of control?

The doctor's head dipped a bit, and she pulled it back up sharply, alert. Squirming a bit to keep the aching muscles moving, she leaned forward and assisted Arina's setting up the small cooking apparatus. Safe enough by itself, her desire to do so was fed by the need to keep her mind focused and awake a bit longer, she hoped Arina understood that. She'd promised herself to ask Freh'ya to let her help on the night rotation, and the promise of an early morning already made her feel tired, and she could feel a headache coming on- Oh wait.

"How's the forehead?" she asked at last, not recognizing the awkwardness of the silence between them until she'd broken it. "Are you feeling any dizzyness? Would you mind if I ran a couple of scans on you?"

Rahi, who was still looking forlornly over the cliff, whirled around at Freh'ya's stifled shout, then froze.

What- she's angry- of course she is, but- She's the leader, the leader can't always be nice about everything- but- what do I do- do I do anything?

She let go of a breath she hadn't realised she was holding when Freh'ya hugged Arina - belatedly she recognised the movement for what it was, forestalling any further tension, but it worked. She had been in similar situations, and never mastered her reactions in them - even among huntresses, enough stress could sabotage the instinct to cooperate, and the final weeks of the war had been 'enough stress' by any definition. Those were her most miserable moments, standing by - far too junior to intervene - while commandos broke down and shouted at one another.

She squeezed her hands together, feeling the chill in her blood abate, and murmured a thankful "Yes ma'am" when Freh'ya took the second tent from her back. It didn't take long to set in place, helped by both huntresses' expertise - she smiled faintly when Freh'ya left her the last piton, and stood up feeling satisfied, looking over the elongated dome. One thing remained - she found the control tab just inside the entry cover and connected a power pack to it briefly, running the momentary charge needed to set the smart fabric to a dull white, mimicking the snow.

"Drones, yes," she agreed afterwards. She set the gun drone down by the tent, as a focal point, and set her visor to show her a radius around it that the tac drones would be able to 'talk' over without their signals degrading - it was dispiritingly small, with the interference, but better than nothing, and encompassed the various look-out points she had suggested.

For a moment she considered following Freh'ya, seeing if she needed - or would simply like - some company, but she decided against it. The big commando had the look of someone going through the familiar motions of command as a means of keeping her mind from dwelling on unpleasant realities. Rahi knew from past experience not to force her way into a situation like that. Perhaps they would cross paths - her route emplacing the drones would take her around the same area, more or less - but for now, she took a last look at the retreating back, then turned and headed the other way, back to the cliff to set up the sentries to watch there.

Arina stayed more towards the front of the tent to give the doctor more room to relax. She was positioning her rucksack between them, maybe involuntarily as if to protect her. The silence fell heavy as she unpacked the heating unit and turned it on, almost immediately, the air in the tent felt comfortable. She removed her gloves, the hood and face covers… warm air on her skin! It made her sleepy instantly though, but she had to prepare the foods.

The stove was basically a small pot with a lid and a heating unit. When Arina stated to browse through the rations, she selected the stews that could be mixed together. While the packs had chemical heaters, cooking them in the pot would make them hot instead of just lukewarm.

She was startled a bit when Temria moved and began to assist her to put the contents of the rations into the pot. The silence had been so awkward; she just moved a bit but could not look the doctor in the eye. She had become a towering Matron all of a sudden.

“No, my head feels okay.” She had indeed forgotten about it, being distracted by her mistake and it was overshadowed by feeling shitty. “No, you can scan me if you want to.” She carefully touched the medigel covering the cut. It was still all in place – now the headache was returning though.

She finally turned and looked at Temria, as the food started to heat.
“I can’t tell you how sorry I am, Temria…. It was just… it all happened so fast.” Her hands were shaking a bit and she began to take plastic cups from her pack to have them occupied. Her leadership skills had been blown over the cliff along with the tent.

“Now I do feel a bit drowsy though.” The warmth was suddenly making her head feel like twice its size but the smell of the food, although just rations, was giving her good feelings, her stomach grumbled audibly; a lot of things at once.

Relief and pain were sisters sometimes, especially when relief had to come at below minus thirty or something. Freh’ya jumped on the spot for a bit to increase the blood flow in her lower body and she rubbed the outside of her suit. Goddess, if anybody could see her now! She thought with bemusement. At least the suits were cut very cleverly, exposing only minimal skin.

Eventually she took up her rifle again. Bringing her binoculars to her eyes, she looked over towards the beacon. By now it was only a black sharp needle with the slowly blinking green light at it’s top. Infrared turned up no surprises between their camp and the station.

She activated her omnitool. The reception was only white noise. A big mobile radio might have been able to contact the station but an omnitool was too weak. Hers was actually showing a temperature warning. Freh’ya deactivated it and returned to the campsite.

Halfway around the boulder, she ran into Rahi, raising a hand to greet the pilot.
“Hey” she was swinging her arms to keep warm. She recognized, the pilot had done her share of professional support for this mission.

“We have managed the hardest part, the climb. That plain will be a cakewalk tomorrow.” They had to fight through the night first though, but it didn’t get better from dwelling on it. On the other hand, anyone who would be a potential threat was facing the same difficulties.

“Ever been in such a situation before? Carrying civvies through such conditions I mean. You think I should have slapped Arina for that stunt? I almost did but we have to keep them together, no use in making them feel more down than they already are.” She started rubbing her cheeks which started to get really stiff now.
“How are you holding up, Rahi?”

Freh’ya was feeling the hunger as well now and hoped, Arina would have produced something hot and spicy.

Permission granted, Temria re-ignited her omni-tool and began shifting through the various settings, not exactly helping the feeling of confinement by closing the distance between them and running a small scan up and down the treated gash.

Head trauma was a tricky thing, as an organ the brain was a tricky, counter-intuitive thing when it came to its reactions and overreactions to trauma. Its nuances a fragile balance that, when disrupted, tended to shift into new and different nuances of their own, a new equilibrium of mood, perspective, and steadily increasing fluid pressure until the whole thing failed catastrophically. Arina needed a specialist, Temria reasoned, the injury alone required one as a matter of course, just to rule out the most unlikely of possibilities... but for the time being she was the best she had, even if all she could do was check periodically and keep an eye out for the catastrophic stuff...

She was so involved with readout she got back that she'd almost failed to notice Arina talking, hesitantly, she reached out with her still illuminated good hand and took hold of the younger's.

"It was a mistake." she said flatly, squeezing Arina's hand firmly, but reassuringly. "Don't run from it, and don't let your frustration over it motivate you, they'll only trip you up. Accept it, find your center, and move on."

Her expression breaking with a warm smile, she patted the girl on the hand before releasing her, "At the very least, you're still doing well from what I can see... see?" she turned the display and outlined the hololithic image of Arina's own head, with a hint of youthful excitement as though she were sharing some secret, "Swelling's still limited to the blood vessels around the impact site, still no sign of any swelling, turning, or aggravation on the other side of that skull."

She smiled, setting the display down and taking a look at the stew as it began to steam noticeably, "We may want to reconsider you taking the night pill, depending on how bad you feel. You may be drowsy on waking after taking it, and possibly a bit tougher to wake up if we need to move quickly..." she glanced at the entrance, "A good night's sleep would probably be better for your day tomorrow, but I'd like to hear what Freh'ya thinks about it, from a tactical perspective."

For a moment, her lips pursed, "... We should also discuss what we plan to do when we get to the retreat..."

Arina relaxed over Temria's words. Just as always, talking things through, assesing the situation and make plans from there was teh best way to overcome such troubles. It amused her, since she had faced such situations before, be it in a conference room, on some colony outpost or not so long a go in the woods of Niacal. It must be the hostile environment, eating on her nerves.
That and the injury, she had not negotiated with severe gaping wounds in her head before.

She smiled at the matron, that's where age and military experience showed. A doctor would probably more often face a situation where she had to cope with a patient's irrational reaction over a diagnosis.

"Oh, I am motivated to not fuck up again like this!" She answered. "Thank you, Temria, you find the right words every time." With curiosity she looked that the scan the doctor was showing her. It was always fascinating and a bit frightening to see inside your skull. But getting it explained by an expert helped. She had the impression she understood what Temria wanted to point out to her, it eventually took her mind off her mistake as well.

"Hm, okay, you are the boss in the medical department. I really want to be up and aware tomorrow. The last leg doesn't look that bad but who knows... the pirates are still out there somewhere.... well, must be pirates, right? Who else would shoot at a shuttle like this? Maybe they thought we discovered their hideout or something." The question about what to do when they had reached the old mining facility was actually a good one. Arina had only thought about getting there and the wellbeing of the Matriarch there.

"I guess that depends on the situation the Matriarch is in. But we can call Trategos via landline and get help from there. I guess the Matriarch would have some personnel on site that can help us too. Thinking about it though... I am concerned why we did not see any SAR flights all day long. Maybe that probe Rahi launched did not reach enough altitude?" And maybe it was not too good to think too much. That was always the worst thing about rests, you had too much time to think.

She stirred the stew and turned the heat down. She took a cup and with a dipper, she filled it with the grey-brown soup.
"Want to taste some?" She offered it to the doctor.

"Freh'ya," Rahi called, returning the commando's greeting; as she moved closer the suits entered the range at which they could transmit to one another without giving off unsecured signal static, and they could talk without raising their voices, despite the wind.

"Not quite the kind of leisure walk I prefer," she said, smiling a little. "But I'll take any positive the Goddess throws out way right now, no matter how slim." The night cold was really starting to set in now. Rahi checked her power level on her HUD, but decided against increasing her suit's heating. They probably had enough power packs along to spare the extra one, but 'probably' wouldn't be a lot of comfort if circumstances kept them out here longer than expected.

"I've been the 'civvies'," she replied ruefully. "Not exactly, but I've always been better up there," she gestured vaguely into the sky, "than down on the ground. I... know what it's like, to not have the skills - have to rely on others." She hesitated a moment, then - glancing at Freh'ya, and not seeing her look uninterested - went on, moving slowly over to an inclined spur of rock where they could be out of the worst of the wind while still keeping a good eye out on their surroundings.

"You know I didn't stay with the service after my training," she said. "I had the aptitude - in a cockpit, at least - but Epira wasn't short on huntresses at the time, and I was... a bit more maiden than huntress I suppose, I wanted to explore. When the machines started hitting the borders I was working as pilot for a surveyor - Daleela - on this..." She smiled to herself. "...this old Cornerstone-class two-seater, Benevolence. We were out past the Ridgeway Gate when we got the news. By the time we got back to Epira the invasion was already on, it wasn't safe to come in anywhere near any of the cities. We put down on the Jiaram mesa, and made for Adalan in Belevolence's buggy."

She exhaled sharply and clutched her hands together, feeling the cold as she had grown still.

"Epira didn't... have the worst of it, but it was rough," she remembered. "Half a day's drive out of the settlement we met up with a refugee nomad train, and before we'd got any further... Harvesters first, they hit the train, and the foot soldiers followed. Daleela had sent me out to scout ahead in the buggy and," she swallowed. "It was all over so fast. The train was just a wreck, twisted. Batarian husks killing anything they had survived the crash. Daleela was in there somewhere and I..." She rubbed the chin of her helmet, as if covering her mouth with her hand. "She was trapped inside somewhere - I think injured - and she ordered me to go. Her helmet had a linkup to the buggy's sensors, she could see what I saw, what the situation was."

She looked up, focusing on the green light in the distance, easier to see now in the darkened sky.

"I did what she said. The ones there didn't see me, but there were others, all over the reserve lands. I wouldn't have made it, I'd have stumbled into them, gotten myself killed any one of a hundred stupid ways, but she - Daleela - she was still with me, through the linkup. She told me which route to follow, how to scout, how to avoid ambushes and choke points, when to move and when to lie low. I don't know how she knew," she said, shaking her head. "She wasn't a huntress, never been trained that she spoke of. I suppose four hundred years of surveying wilderness on uncharted planets. She was... all the skills, all the insight, I didn't have, and she got me through it. And then..." Her shoulders slumped, and she turned away from the sight of the distant beacon and checked the other horizon, making out little in the dark. "Then she was gone. The signal was there but, no voice. I don't... There wasn't any sound of... anything, when it happened, it wasn't them, I don't think. Just blood loss perhaps."

She paused, sniffling slightly as she took a deep breath.

"There wasn't far to go, I got intercepted by a huntress unit operating guerilla. Wound up piloting for them, once they hooked up with other units, and got some shuttles to speak of." She turned abruptly to Freh'ya, clearing her visor so her face was plainly visible in the glow of her HUD, and raised a hand to indicate her cheeks and forehead, with their crisp white markings.

"I got these done after it was over," she explained. "They're not natural, I used to be uncoloured. They're hers. I'm... living her life, in a way - she used the last of hers to keep me alive, and here I am." She dimmed her helmet again. "So I'm... holding up. I'd rather be in the air, but I only have to see my own face to know, so long as I'm not alone, I can do this."

She glanced back at the beacon light.

"What do you think we'll find there?" she wondered. "These... pirates, whoever they are, they had time to be emplaced, waiting for us. The could control the facility."

How can she even talk that much in this cold? It must be the helmet, Freh'ya thought, warmer in comparison to her fur lined hood and face mask.

But the longer Rahi talked, the more Freh'ya traveled back into the war, the more she dragged Freh'ya with her, down the spiral, down the spiral. The huge huntress sat there, rigid as if made from the ice surrounding them, her invisible jaw clenching, teeth grinding. Her finger tensed around the gun, invisible knuckles hurting. The pain and turmoil was boiling in her while she listened to Rahi's tale... living her life.... living their lives. Freh'ya tried to remember ... a wild arrangement of pictures.

Her heart was pumping a rush of blood through her aurals and she realized she was feeling hot. The vibration of biotic flares traveled down her arm, into her hand as she pointed towards the tower in the distance.
"I have no idea what we find there. But I will find the ones who did this no matter where they are, I will find them." the tone in her voice was cold like never before and left no doubt about Freh'ya's intentions. "I won't lose anyone of them." she nodded towards the campsite. "None of you."

The volcano inside her was seeping over it's rim now.
"I am living the lives of others as well, Rahi." She began to vocalize. Her voice sounded like wind scraping ice crystals over sharp rock.

"My unit was among the first sent to Thessia. But we dropped right into a meatgrinder and we we didn't last long. I ended up in a mixed unit with some irregulars. Eclipse was providing logistics and material... or the Republics was just sucking it up, I have no idea. We were extracting civilians, trying to get out as many as possible from the besieged city centers." she stared at the blinking beacon, sitting like a faceless statue.

"Have you ever faced banshees?" Freh'ya didn't move and it wasn't a real question.
"They suck on you, on your biotics, on your skin, your brain, your inner self... suck all that towards them, touch you, eat you up, make you one of them, I have seen that happen." The green light was pulsing slowly and she was staring right into it. Her body was engulfed in a faint blue light which abated slowly. She then turned her face towards Rahi again, dark, goggles staring at the pilot, a mouthless but talking face.

"It could very well be that something's completely wrong with this facility.... I want you to be prepared for anything and I want you to be quiet about it towards the others. Nobody will go crazy over this, we will find out tomorrow. You're my wingwoman on this, Rahi." She held Rahi's gaze like asking an eternal oath from the young pilot but her posture was visibly relaxed all of a sudden, dark against the ice of the mountains and the star cluttered sky.

"It's not out of the question, if they thought they'd been found out I presume they'd try something... It's just... it's strange to me..." the doctor sighed, her brow creasing in frustration as the scenario she played out in her head failed to sink its teeth into the way things had panned out thus far... "I-I mean, if there was something to find, we didn't find it, but suppose there was? We were on a very straightforward course even the casual observer could tell where we were headed, yet they'd take the risk of taking a shot at us? Does it seem suspicious to you?"

Temria sighed, resting her chin in her hand and elbow on her knee as she tried to puzzle it out. "And besides that, you'd think both the Matriarch would be raising a fuss over our not showing up despite announcing ourselves on the way down..."

With a sour face, she doused the omni-tool and leaned back, adopting a more serene expression as she prepared to meditate- only to interrupt herself and ignite it again. She wondered idly if Rahi would be able to furnish her with a map...

"A taste...? Oh! Yes please." Temria smiled, leaning in holding her hands under the offered ladle to keep it from spilling.

"Mmm... It's got an interesting flavour to it, tangy, I guess..." she looked thoughtful at it, regretting they couldn't have brought a few choice spices... "Doesn't really follow through with it though... maybe if we had some kimsae we could mix in with the base... or a small... large dash of hanas? Oh! Or maybe both? And some cherizan to help them mingle better and give it just a bit of a kick?"

Arina sighed when Temria suggested to spice it up.
"Temria... Temria, listen, this is all coming from these fellows." She held two plastic bags with rations in front of the doctor's nose. In one of them, an awkwardly olive brown one, a larger air bubble was rising.
"This is all we have, sorry, we don't have a selection of Thessian spices on hand." she smiled while saying that calmly. "To be honest, it's an achievement if we don't throw up from mixing this." She took a cup herself. It was interesting. No way to identify what it was supposed to be but it was warm and obviously gave them the calories necessary for this kind of weather.

"Hmmm...." she made over another spoon from her cup. The warmth crept back into her limbs and only the blisters were still hurting. "I don't exactly remember what the controller from Trategos said. But I would assume they must have announced our arrival at the retreat. This is strange. But maybe they didn't and nobody is missing us now? Or information got lost somewhere? The staff of some matriarchs is operating so extremely complicated sometimes. Like, if she's meditating, you can't disturb her and that may take two or three days or something... I have seen it all." Indeed, Arina had.

She put the lid back on the pot and tried to stretch her legs, lying down, propped up on one arm, the pistol near her lap. The tent was just long enough, with the pot at her feet. The cozy light and warmth was taking her mind back to the Citadel... what would Sulla do if he were here? Would the turian fight his way through the night or would he do the same they did? And would he even miss her in case of....

The hammering in her head was getting stronger though, this was a side effect of being warmer, Arina guessed. She closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.
"In reality, I would rather not camp but carry on. But I can't, I really can't." She opened her eyes again and looked over to the doctor. The pureblood doctor. She owed this asari a lot already and she regretted that joke she once had made when she had been a child... and other things, stupid things. The Asari had to throw the last remnants of this superstition overboard and when they came out ot this, Arina would do her share. Just being 'tolerant' wasn't good enough, not by a long shot.
"Is there someone waiting for you on the Citadel, Temria?" She asked eventually, slurping more stew from her cup.

Rahi's breathing slowed as she listened; part-way through her eyes began to water, she not having blinked in so long, and she squeezed them closed to control it. She hadn't known Freh'ya long, but long enough to get the start of an impression of her. Jovial in social times, but the core of her was distant, held back deep behind walls of professionalism. Rahi hadn't expected her to reveal so much - ever on their mission, let alone now, or to her. Maybe it wasn't her, maybe she just needed to let this out to someone.

She hadn't faced banshees - the closest she had come was hearing their cries, over comm links to retreating units she was coming in to evac. She had had nightmares about that sound, but worse were the voices of the huntresses, shouting terse orders as they fell back. Rahi had heard a lot of comm chatter from desperate fighters - there had been no 'victories' during the war, not on Epira, only hit-and-run strikes, always ending in retreat before the enemy could regroup and attack in force, and Rahi heard every word. When their own dead began to appear in the husk ranks - the Epiran huntresses dubbed them arahk, 'empty', at first, before the Alliance slang came to them via Republican channels - the voices were different. Ragged, hoarse, not from exertion but from clinging to resolve in the face of a sort of fear huntresses just did not feel. She dreaded the day the war entered its seemingly inevitable final phase, when there were no more fallbacks, no help coming, no escape. When she would hear that scream with her own aurals.

It had been easy to think, hypothetically, what a comfort it would be in those last minutes to have one shot left in her sidearm, to see that she didn't join the arahk. Perhaps she would have had the strength to do just that; perhaps she would have faltered, hesitated too long. There were times the entire war seemed an exercise in holding on to futile optimism, maybe it would be a habit too ingrained to efficiently break in the end. She understood Freh'ya's pain - not the magnitude, never, but at least the shape of it, the primal wrongness that scream dragged up and left festering in the mind like an open wound. She wondered if Freh'ya would ever be able to let it properly slip away into memory. Perhaps not; nothing she could say would make the difference.

"I won't let you down, ma'am," she promised; she could say that, at least, offering her superior a hand to clasp.

What did she expect from Rahi? She didn’t know and the emptiness she was looking into now probably meant: nothing. It had to get out eventually, it just had happened in a situation where all the triggers were pushed at once. It did not change anything and she did not feel relieved or anything. You couldn’t get this ‘off your chest’ really.

Maybe that one sentence, living their lives, had given her a new angle and she would have to meditate about that. Rahi knew what carrying the weight of other meant, in fact a lot of other commandos did these days probably. It’s a burden she could not share.

She grabbed the young pilots hand and clasped it in a silent agreement. This would be continued at another time. Yes, maybe that’s the thing to come out of this, a new connection in the web of siari, the two had just tied a new knot.

She smiled eventually, pressing Rahi’s first. It was showing through the ice crusted fabric covering her face.
“Alright, let’s check what the others are up to. A warm soup, huh?”

She stood and helped Rahi up. One last glance toward that beacon and they continued around the rocks.
“Drinks are on me when this is done.” It was a bit late but a clear invitation in that dry matter-of-fact style to continue this conversation at a later date.

When they came around the boulders, the wind died down notably. The tent was illuminated from the inside and there ware shadows moving. How tiny that thing was.

Freh’ya opened her omnitool, which came with a immediate temperature warning again. She deactivated it and tried to get the signals of the drones in. They were there, all of them showing green or temperature warnings. Well…
“Okay, I’ll be on watch, just get me a cup of… whatever hot the two in there came up with. Your little friends are all up and running. You get some rest.”

"No. There's no one." Temria crossed her arms a bit and leaned back, trying to relax but clearly uncomfortable, "I don't have many ties on the citadel, my work, a few friends I met here and there. You, if you like." Shrugging, the asari doctor adjusted the collar of her survival gear a bit, noting with some relief that the tent was slowly going from tolerable to properly warm. "Nothing really... special keeping me there, if you mean what I think you mean."

She smiled faintly, a sad, weary smile that was the product of some practice. In fact the entire thing was the product of some practice, a lie of omission wrapped tightly in the sort of lonely navel-gazing matrons enjoyed using to make maidens feel uncomfortable. "Not much to do for it, I'm afraid. It's just where I am right now..."

She had more to say, enough to satisfy the curiosity of the immediate questions both spoken and unspoken, but enough too to discourage further prying, but Temria could overhear the sound of approaching footfalls crushing the snowy terrain just beyond the tent, and allowed her explanation to trail off...

Arina raised an eyebrow at the reaction of Temria. It seemed she had stepped on a boundary but there was something else. “I don’t have anyone waiting either. Well, there’s someone I think about but he’s lightyears away and I have no idea if he even is thinking about me, so we’re in this for ourselves, huh?”

What was behind Temria’s reaction? Was it something she was ashamed of? Maybe an inappropriate relationship? But what would that be in this time and age? Or did it have to do with her being a pureblood even? Idle speculation as Arina just did not know but vaguely remembered Temria mentioning something on that extranet forum. It could as well be she was totally mistaken too and there was nothing. Arina had been resting on her side and elbow, she casually put that hand between them, palm up, a nonverbal offer Temria was free to take her up on at any point, now or later or never.

She finished her soup and her head turned towards the entrance when she heard footsteps outside.