Thrust, Sieken and Mutio

[Symphia]

She slowly traversed the ruins of what was once a hospital. The healer was still unable to understand how TXS could have taken so many innocent lives, but it was TXS, so she filed it away under their absolute tyranny. Mutio paused near a corner and watched carefully for the native inhabitants of The West City. She had encountered them once already, and nearly been attacked, however, thanks to her mechanical arm, she'd been spared.

I don't know why I'm even here... according to Ms. Askella there's no one living here... she thought, locking her left hand around a pipe to keep her balance. A low growl filled the air and she looked around quickly. A beast the size of a small car attacked another, spraying blood all over. The healer forced herself to not scream and carefully made her way back to where she'd entered the building.

The healer noticed an APC parked not too far away, however, she knew it couldn't be the one she'd taken, as she'd parked it near the entrance to one of the tunnels under the city. She was worried about the terror Symphia had spoken of, a beast of mammoth size and strength that was said to inhabit the deepest recesses of the tunnels in the area. Still, perhaps the driver or passengers of the APC she'd spotted were injured. Slowly and carefully she approached, her staff held at ease.

[Sieken]

Sieken was not exactly known for her ability to obey orders - that was why she was 8 years into the army, and progressing through the ranks at a snail's pace. No one could argue she was a bad soldier, but it was probably her lack of any real passion for the fight against the resistance that made her what she was. Her stomach fluttered again and she groaned, taking a gloved hand to her mouth for a few moments before the fluttering turned into a still wooziness. She'd been like this for around forty minutes, and it was beginning to bug her. Not only was she the person to draw the short straw in unit dispersement and go out into the city by herself, but she couldn't call her team members to give them a head's up on her condition.

Condition... well, she was barely even past flu symptoms, and after having raced into an alley-way to eject the contents of her stomach not more than 30 minutes ago, it concerned her she didn't feel any better yet. The world was hazy, but she passed it off as a side-effect of looking through a visor. So now, on her way back to the APC to find some sort of ant-acid, she would have a few hours to gather herself and wait for the rest of the team to meet back the next day.

One problem.

There was someone standing outside her APC. Well, the APC wasn't hers, but it was the one she arrived in. Sieken paused for a moment at the corner of a building hiding herself mostly as she raised some binoculars to her eyes and got a good look at the... woman... not 50 yards away. She was dressed as a civillian and seemed to be of around average height. The Gunnery Sergeant paused and took the binoculars away for a moment, rubbing her eyes, then looking at the girl again. There was always a chance she was hallucinating or seeing a mirage.

Sieken sighed, put her binoculars away in one of her many pockets, and raised her silenced P90 to a ready to fire position as she moved cautiously towards the lady. What became more apparent as she drew closer was that this woman was unnaturally tall - she had very poor size estimation skills - and carried a staff. From no more than 20 feet away, she cleared her throat and spoke just loud enough for someone close to hear her.

"Identify yoursel..." She began, voice wavering as white closed in on the edges of her vision and her stomach fluttering, leading her to stagger for a few steps in an attempt to gain balance and fall, having lost consciousness before she hit the ground.

[Symphia]

At the sound of a voice, she whirled around, her modified TL12 laser pistol in hand. She watched as a woman who didn't look much older than herself fell to the ground, her weapon clattering across the ground. Mutio's first instinct was naturally to help her. She frowned as she examined the woman's armor, she was a member of TXS's military, but she was also hurt. Her name tag identified her as Sieken Trylen, a Gunnery Sergent.

She locked her mechanical left hand onto the girl's body armor and dragged her to the back of the APC. The door was unlocked, giving her a safe place to help the girl. Knowing that Symphia had talked about radiation, she first checked through the girl's gear, finding a dosimeter, a device used to measure the amount of radiation someone received in the course of a day. She picked it up and held it up, looking through it. The measurement bar was visible where the scale stopped, so this unfortunate woman's dose was likely well beyond 100 REM. She tossed the device aside and pulled open the back door of the APC.

With a little effort, Mutio lifted the woman, body armor and all, into the vehicle and started undressing her. As she worked, she tossed the body armor and other piece of gear out the back of the vehicle, worried about further radioactive contamination. She found a Geiger counter nearby and flipped it on, using it to monitor the amount of radiation she was being exposed it. It was well under the 5 REM mark, meaning she was safe for the time being.

Mutio rummaged through the APC's medical kits, finally finding what she was seeking, anti-rad, a drug designed by TXS to eliminate radiation in the body. She injected it into the girl's left shoulder and waited. The injection was designed to bring the victim around long enough to take the pill portion of the drug, which eliminated the radiation entirely.

[Sieken]

"Mnn..."

...

What the...?

Sieken's eyes fluttered open momentarily as she slowly became aware of a pain in her shoulder. She wasn't very tough and she didn't pretend to not feel it when something hurt her, so in response she groaned, reaching up with a hand to her shoulder to hold it gingerly. Her face came to halt in front of another - the woman - and instantly she scrambled backwards, the thin gossamer of a sheet used to cover her more gender-specific body parts somehow managing to stay pinned above her chest.

"Who are you...?" she asked, eyes narrowing as she received no answer from the tall woman, but a pill instead. She recognised the TXS monogram on the side and bit her lip before downing the medication without water. Next came the sudden realisation that she was inside the APC she'd arrived in, and more importantly in her current mindset of keeping safe in a hostile environment... that she was naked beneath a sheet.

"Hey, what the hell!? You wanna see my fun parts, buy me dinner first..." she mumbled, pulling the sheet up further in a protective manner as her cheeks donned a pastel pink hue. She took a moment to cough and look back at the woman. "... Who are you, and what in God's name just happened to me?" she asked, chewing on her bottom lip. She didn't like being vulnerable like this - but Sie supposed it was better a stranger saw her underthings than one of her immature, fuck-wit team members...

[Symphia]

Mutio nearly tumbled backwards out of the APC as Sieken suddenly moved. "Please, don't move so suddenly, you might cause more harm to yourself," she said, using her mechanical left arm to pin the soldier to the APC's floor. "From what I've gathered from your things, you got radiation poisoning," she answered, waiting silently for the other woman to calm herself.

The healer was normally goodhearted and gentle, but Sieken was hurt and needed to stay still. "Will you hold still so I can treat you!?" she finally snapped. "I'm not going to hurt you or do any of the hundreds of terrible things that are probably running through your mind. My name is Mutio Kathrine and I'm a traveling healer trained by the sisterhood of Melea, under TXS's jurisdiction," she finally explained. Mutio hated her past life as TXS's lackey, but she was sure that Sieken would be more cooperative now that she knew she was at least a former TXS employee.

"If I may ask, why have you come to a place such as this?" Mutio asked softly, finally letting the young woman up. "I tossed your gear outside because it's too heavily contaminated with radiation to be safe to wear," she explained, feeling a little embarrassed that she'd left the woman naked.

[Sieken]

Sieken bit her lip and looked up at the significantly taller woman, before laying down on the APC's rather cold and metallic floor. The soldier uncharacteristically blushed after looking once down the sheet that covered her body. She was indeed naked, and that didn't look to be changing any time soon seeing as the APC didn't carry spare uniforms more covering than a too-small t-shirt and a set of simple, grey tracksuit pants. Slowly she took a moment to look around the APC. Same as before, nothing had been moved. As she stood, Sieken glanced at the healer. She was incredibly pretty - why was it that all the girls on this planet were so wonderfully bestowed with grace and beauty in one way or another?

"So you're a healer..." the Gunnery Sergeant began, letting the thin sheet drop from her body. She no longer felt embarrassed that she was naked, for the woman beside her had probably seen thousands of naked bodies. Rather lazily, Sie ruffled through the different compartments of the APC's back. Finding a white t-shirt, she pulled at it, a torrent of clothes exploding into the APC's back as she did so. The guys never bothered to fold the clothes so everything ended up in one giant ball inside the compartments...

Grunting, Sie pulled the t-shirt on and held her breath for a moment as she tried to get it all the way down her stomach... but failed. It was way too small for her and hung over her chest, leaving no slack to cover her midriff. "Goddamn stupid boobs..." she mumbled, taking a piar of dark grey pair of tracksuit pants off the floor and pulling them on. She already knew there was no underwear in the APC, so she wasn't even going to try and find some. "Thank you for helping me, I guess, I would've been bull-wolf food if you hadn't..." she said, turning towards the woman and offering a hand to help the healer up.

"My friends call me Sie, so thank you, Mutio," she said, bringing the woman up to her feet. Their faces met for a brief second and the Gunnery Sergeant bit her lip, looking around the exceptionally tall woman, out the back of the APC. Her eyes widened considerably and she scrambled to the swinging doors, which had been left open to push some kind of air through the cabin. She swung both shut with a slam and jumped back as a large object - a bull-wolf - slammed into the back of the APC. "Fuck..." Sie grumbled, her heart racing. They needed to take care of this problem, so she instinctively reached to where her holstered Desert Eagle was usually strapped. She cursed the radiation sickness as she realised where her weapons had likely ended up; outside the APC.

Sieken grumbled and darted to the front of the cabin, pulling out a large, foam-lined drawer from under one of the seats. From the recesses in the foam, she pulled a snub pistol, four HE grenades, and much to her disappointment, a sniper rifle that would likely be useless in close combat. She grabbed a small pack that she slung over her shoulder, loading the grenades into it. Now, armed with a pistol, she stood and ran back over to the doors. The side of the APC rocked as another slam indicated there was more than one bull-wolf outside. The Gunner Sergeant grinned and kicked the back doors open, firing her snub pistol square into the centre of the snarling beast's head, scattering brain matter all over the road behind it as the corpse sunk to the ground.

[Symphia]

Mutio watched as the young woman relaxed and became more animated after she explained who she was. She quickly dressed and introduced herself before pulling the back door shut. The heavy vehicle lurched when a bull-wolf slammed against it. The healer watched as Sie darted around, finally finding several weapons, although it seemed that only the pistol would do any good. She grabbed the door and yanked it shut as the large beast collapsed.

"Excellent shot," she said, steadying herself as the APC lurched again as something slammed against it. She fell to the cold metal floor and looked out the back door, which was now ajar from the impact. The heavy vehicle jolted again before being flipped over, causing the healer to scream as it rolled. She landed on her stomach and got up on all fours. She crawled out of the vehicle and looked up into the growling face of a bull-wolf.

It growled menacing and opened its jaws Mutio rolled to the side as the beast's jaws slammed shut in the space where her head formerly occupied. The healer swung with her left arm, her clawed fingertips slicing cleanly through the beast's neck, separating its head from its neck. She rolled to her feet and took up a crouching stance with her left arm held defensively in front of herself.