Epilogue

It was now a month into what was supposed to be a week long campaign, a fortnight at most, much to Nova's dismay. Nova was distraught, she was feeling homesick by the end of the first week, the feeling started out as a slow but steady groan at the back of her mind, now it had become a deafening scream in her ears, affecting her judgement and concentration. She would spend hours upon hours working tirelessly during the day for what seemed to be eternity that is until she returned to her quarters which was her only respite, containing little bits and pieces from home to remind her of why she was there.

Calls home with you were now far and few between, given that she was away on operations and often times deployed further north closer to the pole which often meant limited access to her own private link to home. Nova also didn't have the luxury of her own quarters out in the field, often times forced into sharing quarters with other officers, further reducing the amount of privacy she needed. But these were all aspects all too familiar with her, she had experienced all of this before, but this time she knew that circumstances were different. Nova felt more mature, having a sense of purpose in her life in knowing that she had people to protect, people that were important to her, relationships which meant things to her, all of which were all things that she had never concerned her previously.

Nova's alarm rang out across her room, sat by her bedside as she lazily batted away at it as a futile attempt to try to turn it off. Moments later she awoke suddenly, raising herself into an upright position in bed, with the alarm still ringing she remembered the purpose of the early alarm which she had set for herself the night before. Nova was at a forward operating base, and today was to be the day she participated in a large scale raid of a Zerg hive cluster about 50 klicks North. Luckily for Nova, this forward operating base just so happened to be large enough to allow her to have her own quarters, as she began her morning routine as it has always been her top priority no matters how busy the day was planning to be.

Upon opening the door to her quarters, with the sun rising in the East it shone brightly into her eyes, forcing her to squint to see her Lt had too woken up early and awaited for her outside her quarters. Before he managed to say anything Nova decided to have the first word in "Is it normally this bright this early? And Lt you know I don't take anything to read before I have my coffee" and with that she closed the door behind her, cloaked and moved with a sense of purpose towards the base's makeshift canteen area. At first the Lt wasn't sure on whether or not he should be following her footprints she was leaving in the snow or not but after several more steps he figured she wasn't in the mood. Drawing closer to winter this planet had strange day-night cycles particularly towards the northern and southern poles of the planet, which meant for longer days and shorter nights.

In her mind, cloaking on base had to beneficial aspects to it, when she wasn't in any particular mood to talk to anyone she didn't have to, and secondly could be used to avoid blank stares followed up by forced salutations by the large number of Marines on her way to wherever she was going. This particular morning she had decided that she wasn't having either of the above and didn't uncloak until she was sat down on her own table in the back of the officers lounge, much to the shock of her fellow officers. Going over the mission briefing in her head and looking over detailed notes on her tablet she knew that this one was going to be a crucial one.

Over the past month the Zerg attacks on northern colonies were growing more and more brazen, attacking larger and larger settlements and overrunning local groups of militia and law enforcement. Today's mission entailed the early stages of a coordinated attack effort to reclaim the largest colony this far north of the parallel. What made this raid particularly tough was the presence of Infestors which meant a large number of infected Terrans were going to be in the area. With the area being only lost weeks prior, a sizeable amount of the infected to be expected to still be "active". Nova is to lead a team of ghosts into the area before anything happens, calling in precision strikes on important ground assets of the Zerg with assets of the first and second fleet along with Air Cavalry on standby. Secondary objectives were to eliminate any overlord clusters seen in the area and eliminate any Infestors as priority one targets above other Zerg units in the Area of Operations.

The primary AO was to be a city named New Castle Rock, a city noted for how close it lies to the northern pole. Primarily a tourist destination often visited mostly by tourists during the colder months. Going over her papers, Nova details the location of the sky scrapers with recent high resolution images of what was now a creep infested city, noting down which towers were still standing as well as which ones were ideal positions to give the best coverage of the city. In Nova's eyes, accomplishing all set tasks of the mission, including secondary targets were always necessary, she went so far as to reading the minds of her superiors to ensure that there weren't any other tasks needed to be accomplished that may have been withheld from her, even though that was strictly prohibited. Finishing her coffee she headed over the armoury with her C-20A rifle in tow with the intention of getting more than what was enough in terms of ammunition, "just in case" she thought to herself with a grin. Nova wasn't too particularly fond of carrying 25mm shells for the grenade launcher attachment, she had always felt that a well-placed shot with the gauss rifle was more than sufficient for most things the Zerg had to offer, particularly in this urban environment from a high angle.

Reclaiming this city was Valerian's idea, once again a part of his hearts and minds campaign on this planet, he needed to secure the largest city on the parallel to leverage his way to winning the campaign. Valerian had specifically tasked Nova the task of leading of the clandestine strike to be carried out by a number of ghosts, it was the only Ghost he could trust similar to his late father. Nova and the ghosts were to be loaded on board several orbiting battlecruisers orbiting the planet, infil by means of drop pods precisely 1 klick away from the AO and egress into the city and reach predefined points of interest in the city and call in air support on targets of interest. SOCOM were to be heading the operation the moment the ghosts touched deck on the ground, while Fleetcom were to ensure the ongoing covering fire provided by air assets. The Ghosts would enter the city after a substantial siege laid upon the city by air assets moments before entry. The idea behind such a move was to try to cause a large degree of confusion and disarray in order to draw attention away from the presence of the Ghosts en route to their locations of interest.

Nova sat in her drop pod quietly, normally she tried to keep her mind clear and mission focussed but today she found it particularly difficult to do so. She had a lot on her mind, but knew this wasn't the time to let her emotions get the better of her. Nova pulled out an image of the family which she tucked underneath her arm guard and kept on her person at all times as a memory of who she was now and why she was fighting. She was a changed woman, once cold apathetic and indifferent about most things, she was now someone with purpose warm and compassionate where appropriate. You had noted this change in her upon first meeting her, comparing what she was then and now you could be mistaken into thinking these were two separate people, but the reality was that Nova had two sides to her, a professional side which involved a cold shoulder approach to things, but also a much warmer side to her she had around family and the few friends she had.

Suddenly Spaulding's voice came across the intercom overhead "This is your captain speaking, Ghosts prepare for infil in ETA 5 mikes". With that Nova caressed her rifle, and tapped her bolt catch release pin on her rifle causing the bolt to lock into the place, making an audible "snap" in doing so, her gloved finger straightening out over the magazine well. Placing the Rifle's butt stock against the floor between her legs, Nova rested her forehead against the barrel and let out a silent prayer, she wasn't too much of the spiritual type but she left like it was the right thing to do this time. Looking back up at the time display in her drop pod she noted one minute left until drop, notoriously Spaulding was known to drop early so she braced herself for the descent, she decided to remain standing through the drop, swinging her rifle across her chest with barrel pointed into the floor. She gripped tightly against the hand railings in the pod as the pod began its initial separation from the ship, violently engaging the on board thrusters ensuring the landing occurs in the correct place.

During the descent Nova looks out the window to see the large amount of plasma being spewed forth out of the fleets in orbit towards the AO, some narrowly missing some of the disembarking drop pods, not that the words danger close meant anything to Spaulding. She was sure that if Spaulding had his way, he would nuke the city from orbit just as he did the other small towns in previous campaigns. This time Valerian had specifically instructed Spaulding to show restraint, wanting the city "intact" as much as possible which ruled out the rule of nuking the city into a pile of molten metal. This battle had to be won with eyes and ears on the ground and precision, as much precision as Yamato cannon strikes and carpet bomb strafing of Banshee's could provide.

Just before hitting the deck, the pod was programmed to slow its descent into the ground by engaging opposing directional thrusters, softening the landing drastically, allowing the outgoing forces to suffer little to no impact related injuries or concussions. Nova's pod plummeted closer to the ground, she felt the secondary thrusters engage which made her sling her gun into her hands and point the barrel towards the ground ready to be lifted up immediately after the drop pod's walls collapsed on the surface. The pod hit the deck with a loud thud which briefly shook the cabin before the outer shell seemingly lightly exploded at the hinges, revealing Nova who quickly lifted her gun up in anticipation some degree of a Zerg welcoming party. To her surprise there wasn't a Zerg presence at all where they landed, Nova quickly then slid down her visor to ensure with her suits on board computer read similar results. Upon confirming what she saw and sensed with her mind, she turned around to see her squad of Ghosts forming up behind her.

With her squad in front of her, Nova could sense that some members of her squad were more experienced than others, all in all including her, the squad consisted of 8 of them. The task ahead on paper appeared to be a simple one, reach positions in the city under the suppressive fire of the orbiting battle cruisers, it all sounded to simple but Nova didn't distract herself with the intricacies of the mission now, she ordered her Ghost's forward. Their suits allowed them to move at a bristling speed for short periods of time, instead of having short bursts of speed, Nova had decided to move at a steadier rate which could be sustained but nevertheless quickly. The thought of moving while cloaked crossed Nova's mind but she thought against it on second thought because of the suppressive fire being lashed out by the Battlecruisers in orbit.

Minutes later Nova and her team were positioned at the City boundaries, she reported to Valerian directly that the first phase of the operation was complete. With the second phase of the operation Nova had decided that she would split the group into pairs to secure 4 separate buildings in the city, assigning each pair a name, having no time to get to know her squad she blindly organized them into pairs and assigned them alpha, bravo, Charlie accordingly, with her group being assigned "Nova". Nova hastily rushed the pairs off to their positions, grabbing her partner by the arms and rushing over the cities trench into what was the outer rim of the city, primarily comprised of slums and small businesses.

The pair progressed through the city blocks with brisling speed, the battlecruisers overhead had ceased fire to allow the Ghosts to progress the city without the fear of blue on blue contact. The ceasefire at the moment the ghosts moved into position was intended to allow the ghosts a window of opportunity to move into their positions with as little disruption from the Zerg as possible, but as Nova quickly discovered, the Zerg had begun moving far sooner than expected. Nova quickly held up her inexperienced Ghost partner as they were moving through a building en route to their target building. A small pack of Zerglings were roaming outside and overhead overlords had begun slowly rising into the sky above. Nova could sense the fear in her partner, to stop her from showing fear, Nova decided to try to make small talk her with, finding out her background even though Nova was well aware of such details through mind reading. She was an inexperienced, fresh out of the academy Ghost, who was assigned to Nova's mission because of her promising academy results, she was a PI 6 which didn't account too much since she was paired with Nova. As they sat silently inside the building, the small Zerg force passed them but Nova wasn't happy with letting them go.

The pair began moving upstairs, working their way up to the roof of the building Nova marked the cluster of Zerglings with her laser designator on her rifle and called in a Banshee carpet bombing as she fired 3 rapid shots into the overlord hovering above them. Three Banshee's rapidly flew overhead in and let loose their Blacklash rocket pods onto the cluster, causing significant splash damage and eliminating the cluster with relative ease. With the gained momentum and boost of confidence in her partner, Nova pushed forward towards the objective building. Crossing the city street which was covered in remnants of Creep spread across the road the pair rapidly moved from building to building, being careful to not attract any unnecessary attention along the way. Upon entering one building Nova sensed something particularly strange and decided that it was within their best interests to investigate.

Finding the building's stairwell leading to the basement, the pair cautiously began creeping down the steps slowly in stealth. The basement was almost entirely dark, with no power running through the building as the power conduits outside were severed. The air began to suddenly become warmer, damper and more humid as if the basement was in a completely different atmosphere to what was only one story above. Through their visors Nova began to see something at the end of the tunnel as they drew closer to it, what looked like calcified elongated teeth sporadically spread outwards from an opening in a wall, it was a Nydus Worm. Nova swapped to Thermal vision which showed signs of relatively fresh tracks of Hydralisk slime on the floor. Nova took a moment to more deeply analyse the tracks leading towards the Worm's opening, she found it particularly strange as she nor the other groups had detected the presence Hydralisks in the city thus far, air assets had also confirmed that they suffered little to no resistance upon entering orbit which further backed the idea that the Zerg had not deployed Hydralisks on the ground. Judging by the relatively fresh tracks Nova had decided it was in their best interest to swiftly exit the building and call down several Yamato cannon strikes upon the building in an attempt to kill off the Worm.

Nova signalled to her partner who was securing the stairwell to exit the building, Nova quickly followed soon after as the pair made it to street level. Nova knew that they had to gain distance on the building rapidly before she could call in the strike. "This is Nova, requesting successive Yamato cannon strike on my position delay ten mikes, how copy over" she reported to the fleet which were now in high orbit over the planet. Upon receiving the go ahead, the pair moved as fast as possible away from the building after placing down a strobe for the Battlecruisers identify the building. As the pair exited the area they received a transmission from one of the other groups, "Mikey's down, there aren't any remains, Roach got him, proceeding to objective area solo". To Nova it was the harsh reality that was what they were doing, but to her partner Nova could clearly sense the amount of distress she was in. Nova read her mind as the pair traversed the urban environment, it was the first loss of a comrade she had ever experienced, even though she wasn't anywhere near to the scene she was particularly sensitive and began to show signs of emotion.

As the pair laid low on one of the higher levels of an apartment building overwatching the building containing the Worm, preparing to do Battle Damage Assessment; Nova was indecisive about asking her partner about the recent events which had transpired. Instead, Nova decided to take the more subtle approach and began trying to ask her partner about her upbringing, background and other such information to draw her attention away from what was currently clouding her mind. She took her helmet off and removed her visor and pulled back her mask, revealing long brown hair and a tan complexion, visibly distressed her cheeks appeared lightly flustered and she appeared disinterested, maintaining a focused gaze on the building a few blocks away. Nova delved back to her past, if she was what she was 2 years ago she would have never been this concerned about her team mate, but she had changed emotionally drastically since then, into a much more warmer and empathetic towards others. But that didn't mean that she showed the warm and friendly side of herself to everyone, she was just as cold and apathetic towards the vast majority of who she came into contact with daily.

After a period of silence, moments before the strike was due the silence was broken. In a shaky and shy tone, "My name is Shae, I was born on Tarsonis but was taken away from my family at a young age by a Wrangler sent to get me". Nova sat and listened intently, trying to not maintain eye contact as Shae was still fixated on the building, so as to not provoke or intimidate her. "My family wasn't particularly rich, nor particularly poor, Normal I guess, I was a sibling among a household of 5 other children, my parents weren't particularly too concerned about the Wrangler and if anything was ecstatic that he was going to take me away" she said with a deep and heartfelt tone to her voice, which had reached out to Nova. "I read their minds the moment the Wrangler stepped through the door, filled with happiness and relief that one of their own were going to be taken away from them. I on the other hand was anything but, I enjoyed my simple life as it was progressing through school. The wrangler had let me find out about all I wanted to know about what was going to become my future at the Ghost academy, as we were leaving Tarsonis, leaving behind everything I knew and loved" Nova began to draw similarities between her upbringing and hers, most notably the moments relating to the indoctrination process which every ghost undergoes with their Wrangler.

It was generally understood that if you were important enough to get a Wrangler specifically assigned to your case that the Directors themselves at the academy had shown a particular interest in you. It was also relatively common place that the Wrangler had a high success ratio in turning over persons of interest, with the full extent of the law behind them, they essentially were given executive privileges to ensure the capture of their person of interest, by any means necessary. Typically the children were young enough that they had no say in the matter, nor did their family for that matter as any form of struggle would be swiftly met with force. This practice often resulted in kicking and screaming individuals entering the doors of the ghost academy, a practice not often talked about or detailed in any account as the lucrative academy covered itself in a veil of plausible deniability. Most individuals who pass through the academy gates were most often commoners, people who had no significant importance and thus generally did not receive any interest by the public abroad. Upon leaving the academy, frequent memory wipes ensured that the individuals would have no prior memory of the past lives, becoming fully indoctrinated into the indefinite serving of the dominion. However, the practice of frequent memory wipes had since became lax, particularly with the influx of fresh recruits and numbers post the Tarsonis events, it became too costly to maintain the need to memory wipe each and every individual after each and every mission, to a degree where it was almost entirely optional on the individual as to whether or not they felt the need to receive a memory wipe.

A period of silence ensued, which was abruptly ended by the oncoming of several Yamato cannon blasts landing in the general vicinity of the building. The battlecruisers were generally known for having terrible aim with the blasts but this time a large number of them landed in onto the building. A loud groan rang out across the city as the worm extended its body out of the ground and collapsed onto several buildings, coming to a rest along what was a large city block, it's body bloody and messy missing several large portions of its body and receiving scorch marks all throughout. "Good effect on target, Nova out" she reported before looking back at Shae who had appeared to picked herself back together, with a much more determined look on her face now than before, much to Nova's relief. The pair were now only about three city blocks away from their objective building, a tall high rise tower with a large amount of visibility over the city, one that was still standing allowing for ideal conditions for calling in accurate strikes as well as serving as a vantage point on Overlords in the air and Infestors on the ground.

"Are you okay now?" Nova said with a warm expression on her face looking intently at Shae who was just a foot shorter than her. With a bubblier expression on her face, Shae intently looked back at Nova and nodded with a grin on her face. Nova and Shae rapidly descended down the vantage point building, on their way down they had noted the substantial rise in presence of Zerg on the ground, it was then that they received a call from the Fleet above them "Be advised, we're detecting a large presence of Zerg fliers rapidly moving into the city from the North of the planet, we're going to engage as many as we can but they seem to be moving at great speed towards the city". The Zerg counter attack was now in full swing, Roaches were tunnelling out of city streets, packs of fast moving Zerglings were sprinting up and down the streets and Hydralisks were now slithering rapidly through the creep highways into staging areas. Alpha and Bravo teams had already reached their destinations, Charlie squad weren't responding and were presumed KIA which left Nova's squad the last one to reach their objective, the furthest one into the City from their point of infiltration.

Silently the pair crept across the City streets in stealth, being careful their presence wasn't detected by Overlords, Nova had taken out as many as she could upon exiting the building but she was powerless to stop the ones that were spawning in from the abundance of larvae in the city or the ones that rose out of the underground network of subterranean tunnels that were dug by the Zerg. Nova had displayed a particular disliking towards Zerg forces by psionically taking out lone or small numbers of them that they came across or any which impeded the way to the objective. Soon enough the presence of Mutualisks in the Air signified that air support would have to wait as the battle for the skies above was being fought. The skies lit up with flashes of white and red, shining through the clouds the Battlecruisers let loose their Anti-Aircraft laser batteries and point defence turrets to deal with the flock of incoming Mutualisks and Corrupters from the planet. With the increased presence of Zerg fliers came a mass of Overlords and Overseers which remained close to the surface of the planet to coordinate the larger numbers of Zerg forces in the area. Seeing this Nova knew they had to move towards the building at a faster pace, she swung her rifle around her back and moved at a blindingly fast speed towards the relative safety of the building, with Shae following behind her with a distance between them as Shae could not yet maintain the same speed Nova was moving at.

Nova reached the steps of the building now much before Shae could, but she had no time to turn back now and check, she entered the building which was the tallest building in the city that was still in one piece. It looked exactly like how it was pictured she thought to herself, albeit the huge gaping holes in it when the Zerg first attacked it. Nova reached the building's foyer before she realized Shae wasn't right behind her, turning back she saw a now struggling and traumatized Shae running towards the tower with everything she had left. With the Overseers coming ever so closer to the tower from the North, Nova knew she was going to be in trouble and sprinted out to try to carry her back into the building. Nova sprinted down the flight of stairs with great speed and noted mentally how far Shae was away, her visor had told her she was at the time a hundred and thirteen meters away which she knew she could cover in next to no time. Nova reached a struggling Shae but noted one of the first few overseers had begun moving towards them, she boldly uncloaked and fired several shots with her rifle into the Overseer, shredding it to pieces virtually instantly but now she found herself vulnerable and open to attack in doing so. Nova screamed at Shae to keep heading towards the building, and no matter what to not turn back for her as she lay down covering fire to allow Shae to get to relative safety inside the building. Shae took it upon herself to call for air support on the final objective, "Saturate the entire area around the building with whatever you have available! NOW!" Shae turned around to see that Nova was only now a short distance away from the flight of stairs of the building, deflecting wave after wave of oncoming Zerglings and Roaches while slowly backing towards the tower.

"ETA 1 minute, how copy" Aircav had responded to Shae but it was already too late, abiding by Nova's orders she had not opened fire when she saw a slew of Hydralisk spines flying through the air, saturating the area around Nova seemingly missing her. Nova had managed to teek away most of the spines but two had managed to slip past her as she had to deflect oncoming waves of Zerglings, screaming out in pain as one lodged into her shoulder, lodging itself in her shoulder guard but the other piercing straight through her left thigh muscle, causing her to collapse onto one side. Shae immediately let loose a volley of suppressive fire as she too had begun screaming and running towards the downed Nova who was crawling towards the building. Vikings had begun appearing on the horizon and began firing away volleys of Ripwave Missiles at the flock of Overseers and Overlords, with Banshees following closely behind as they began bombarding the Zerg forces closing in on the Ghost's position. Shae clasped her arms around Nova, manually activating her Cloaking device before activating her own and ran with all she had left towards the safety of the tower. Shae had particular difficulty with raising Nova up the stairs but the oncoming explosions caused by the carpet bombings behind her to move with even greater vigour.

Shae slowly lowered Nova down onto the cold floor of the building's Foyer area, Nova was bleeding heavily from the thigh and shoulder wounds she suffered but tried her best to remain conscious. Shae clasped her hands together and held them over Nova's thigh, a dull bright green light began to show from her arms, "Psionic healing?" Nova asked, sounding astonished "I wasn't expecting you to know how to do that…" as she said as she slowly lost consciousness, her head falling back against the wall. After doing all she could, realizing that she couldn't do all too much for the shoulder wound, she picked Nova back up and caressed her body in her arms she began to make her way on foot to the higher levels of the tower. Being careful to not cause Nova any further injuries in doing so as she made her way up the spiralling staircases which was made even more difficult as Nova had begun going in and out of consciousness. After great difficulty and completely out of breath in doing so, Shae managed to get to the 20th floor of the building and placed Nova down gently against a wall when suddenly a thought crossed her mind, it was Nova sending a telepathic message to her.

"Behind my left Armguard, below the shoulder I got hit on, I have a note, I don't make it, Shae could you give that note to the man in the picture provided" Nova opened her eyes in the process to look up at Shae, who was visibly stunned and shaken. "I-I'll try Nova, I won't let you down Nova" Shae said whole heartedly to a visibly weaker Nova and reached for her armguard to retrieve the note, showing it to Nova before placing it down the side of her leg guard. "Finish the mission" Nova said with great difficulty which made Shae rise up rapidly and ran to the nearest window "Requesting immediate med-evac for critically injured person, how copy" she said into her headset as she raised her rifle to laser designate a number of Infestors in the distance. Moments later a Medivac drop ship descended onto the top of the roof as a pair of Vikings descended onto the roof of the tower, the landing gear and ramp landed onto the roof with an audible thud as Shae turned around to Nova. A medic had departed the Medivac and began to more thoroughly tend to Nova's wounds, at first apprehensive and fearful of treating a Ghost, Shae stood behind her and did what the medic could not, Shae wrapped her arms around Nova's chest and legs and carried her onto the rooftop and placed her onto the medivac dropship. As the mission was not yet complete, Shae stayed behind and watched as the Medivac and pair of Vikings flew with great speed into the sky towards the now much closer Battlecruiser before continuing the task of marking points of interest for the orbiting Battlecruiser's Yamato cannons to destroy.

Nova arrived at the Battlecruiser's medical bay with the wound on her leg mostly sealed up and treated, luckily it had missed her Femur but had severed the Femoral artery which Shae had quickly assessed and sealed up with her Psionic Healing. The Spine in her shoulder however had caused paralytic toxins to enter Nova's body, and it was rapidly taking affect. The medical team rapidly removed the Spine and sealed up the wound, it had not penetrated all too deeply, the impact was mainly taken by the shoulder guard, it was apparent that Nova had intentionally teeked away the spines which were going to impact her to land in non-critical areas of her body. The next task was to ensure the removal of the toxin from Nova's body, which wasn't as easily accomplished and would require a long and drawn out period of close observation. Nova was sent back to Castle base, it was only officially named days ago as Highcom began having difficulty with different words used to describe the same base.

That evening you receive a call from a highly secure line as you and Delta had just finished up dinner and began washing the plates together. Delta yelled out "I'll get it!" dropping her plate abruptly into the soapy water causing it to splash soapy water into the air, much to your displeasure. "Ahuh, ahuh, ahuh, yeah sure Daddy and I aren't doing anything at the moment" Delta said relatively enthusiastically but had a concerned tone to her voice. Delta hadn't had any particularly bad dreams or night terrors the last few nights, which lulled you and Delta into a false sense of security, thinking that perhaps they had finally granted Nova's calls to bring Delta and yourself up to Castle base. Nova had been urging and arguing with Valerian specifically to be able to grant you and Delta refuge at Castle Base at least until the campaign was over but had little luck in doing so. To your surprise however, they had come far sooner than expected, Delta yelled out "Daddy there's someone at the door!" before they even knocked. Delta swung the door open as the drop ship landed in the same place it did to retrieve Nova the first time, Delta looked at it landing in awe but at this point you were pretty hard to impress, barely lifting a brow to the landing.

"Sir we think it would be within your best interests that you come with us, like right now" The Lt said, Delta had spared no time in reading his mind and knew what little details he knew about what had happened to Nova. "What happened to my mommy!" Delta screamed at him, clenching both fists and slammed them against him, demanding that he start talking, even though Delta now knew all that the Lt knew. You stood there in shock and awe, unsure what's happening you stood there further dumbfounded until the Lt realized you weren't psionic like Delta. "Sir, I'm afraid your partner has been severely injured in the field of battle and we are now granting your requests to go see her effective immediately" the Lt said in an authoritative tone, you could tell he was the same guy that was sent to retrieve her the first time. Unsure of how to react you pick up a teary Delta off of the floor and calmed her down as best you could. "Can we uhh, get a minute to pack things or is that uhh, not necessary" you asked in a muddled manner to which the Lt reassuringly said "You can take as long and as much as you want sir, but be advised that I have been sent to your premises to retrieve you with a degree of upmost urgency" and with that you quickly proceeded upstairs and gathered a few necessities before heading back down stairs "Do I have enough time to call her school and tell them she'll be away?" to which the Lt grunted and seemed even more impatient. "I'll uhh, take that as umm, no then" with Delta in one arm and a bag of necessities you quickly rushed out the door to board the awaiting drop ship. Upon being seated a teary eyed Delta wrapped her legs around your waist and arms around your neck and dug her face into your chest. "I hope mommy's okay" she whispered quietly. Lifting her teary face up you nuzzle her and thought "I hope so too Delta, it's getting late, why don't you get some sleep Delta" to which she nodded and gently fell asleep in your arms.

It was dark outside when you landed, little to no wind to speak of and a light snow was starting to form as you proceeded towards the entrance of the base. Most things now didn't quite surprise you but the sheer magnitude of the protected gate made your jaw drop, mainly how large and thick it was. After a brisk walk through upper levels of the facility to make your way to the elevator which took you all the way to the ground floor of the facility. You haven't seen anything like it before your whole life, but then remembered why you were here to begin with, remembering Delta's scream in your head made you all the more concerned and worried what had happened to Nova. "She's kind of freaked everyone out on the base here', only the doctors go in and even then they want out soon after they get in" the Lt exclaimed as you walked towards her quarters. Upon reaching the far end of the level, you reach Nova's quarters the front of which has been all but covered entirely in psionic padding. The Lt waved a key card onto a scanner located near the door, causing it to swing inwards revealing a darkened room. The lights in the hallway did little to light up the interior of the room only managing to show up to the foot of the bed "The lights are over her-" You cut the Lt off as he reached in to turn on the room's lights "I think she left the lights off for a reason, don't you Lt?". Placing your bag of necessities on the floor you quietly wandered into the room and placed the now fast asleep Delta into Nova's bed placing her against Nova's body being careful so as to not wake either of them. You turn on the much smaller bedside lamp in the room to provide just enough lighting to see your way around.

It was filled with ornaments from home, scattered around the room were pictures of you and Delta as well as some of her and your own possessions which she held dear to. On a chair to the side of the room lay your pillow which you picked up and placed behind her head. Nova had IV drips stood by her bedside as she lay in bed asleep, on bedside you noted a log book and decided it was in your best interests to read its contents to gain a better understanding of what had happened to her, as it seemed nobody you had talked to thus far knew exactly what had happened to Nova. Even the log was worded very vaguely as to exactly what she had or what had happened to her, but the most important points you noted was that she was in fact not currently in a deep asleep, but rather the anaesthetics were predicted to wear off sometime tomorrow morning. Deeply concerned by some of the contents of the log you slip into her bed, Nova was still in her Ghost suit as the medical staff didn't dare remove it which also meant that it detailed the injuries she suffered. Deciding against finding out all the answers right now you decided that it would be better to just wait it out until morning, you slid your arm all the way around to Delta as your other gripped tightly against Nova's hand being careful not to push against the needle near her wrist.

Longest chapter yet (I think, if I'm not mistaken), Not sure if I'm going to make Shae a returning character, will definitely be back next chapter, I don't think I do a very good job at depicting battle or fight scenes, might re-read some portions of the two starcraft ghost novels to get a better idea of how better writers do it (haha). I currently have some vague ideas with what I want to come, but at the moment I think I've kind of dug myself a hole in terms of where I want the story to progress, from now on I think I'm going to spend more time in each individual chapter and try to produce more detailed ones, the last two I think I pumped out in a single day which resulted in much shorter length. As always reviews help out a lot, and gives me ideas as to where to go the series, I'm very open to ideas with where the story goes, if you have ideas send a PM or write a review and I'll definitely look into it c: