The Day Nova Was Saved.
The plan was set. The group were going to stop the Rakghouls by transporting a bomb to the center of their hive. Once detonated, the bomb would complete collapse the entire tunnel system, crushing most of the Rakghouls, and would allow the group to have an easier time cleaning up what remained of them. The plan was good, and as long as everything goes smoothly, it should work just fine. But the monsters were unpredictable, and there was the slight chance that there could be other factions involved. One never knows when the Empire might try something to get a leg up over the Republic. But worrying about it wouldn't help. All they could do was to be ready for anything.
Right now, Nova was laying on a bed with Lena snuggling next to her. They had been told to get some rest before the attack on the Rakghoul hive tomorrow, and they needed their strength. But before going to sleep, Nova always needed to have a good look of her lover's face. Lena was special to her in so many ways. But most of all, she was the one who saved Nova from a lonely life. Nova never realized how lonely she had been before she met Lena.
Nova remembered the day they met like it happened yesterday. She could never forget it.
Flash Back.
Nova real name is November Terra. She spent the best parts of her childhood as the golden child of one of a wealthy Old Family who provided a considerable amount of funding in the Republic's war efforts. But of course their wealth would earn the attention of the Empire, who saw this as a good way to undermine the Republic by cutting of a healthy source of income. Hiring assassins to deal with them, Nova's entire family was brutally slaughtered, with Nova herself barely surviving the attack. This event would trigger a strong hatred towards the Empire, leading to Nova refusing to take over her family's wealth, and decided to enlist the moment she was old enough to do so.
She would prove herself time and again that she had a lot of talents. This would lead to Nova receiving special elite training, which would ultimately lead her in to becoming a member of the SIS. Nova would become known for being a loner who never said a word more than she had to. But this would be forced to change when she was given her own pilot, and while she tried to argue she works better alone, her superiors made it very clear that no matter how skilled she believed herself to be, there would always be a situation that would be to much for even the best of the best to handle alone. So Nova had no choice but to accept.
Which leads us to the moment her life would be turned around. She had been given a mission, and was going to meet her new pilot. She was told the pilot's skills was one of the best the republic had ever seen and Nova was lucky to have such skills assigned to her. They didn't give her any details on who the pilot was, so Nova could have a more fresh introduction. Nova secretly expected it would be a some cocky guy that would give her perverted looks. Since it was a normal occurrence during her training, and she's had to beat up more than a few pervs.
However, when Nova arrived to where the ship was located... her expectations flew out the window. Not only was the ship beautiful, but the pilot was not some random guy at all. But a young woman, likely even younger than Nova herself. Even calling her a woman might be a little to mature, since she looked young enough to still be considered a girl who just recently became an adult. She had brown hair and a slender build, though some muscles could be seen, showing she wasn't a weakling. The young woman was working on the ship while humming to herself as Nova walked closer. When she finally noticed, she jumped in surprise.
"Wow! You scared me... take it you are Nova?" The Girl asked and Nova nodded "Well guess you aren't called The Ghost for nothing".
"Sorry. But are you my new pilot?" Nova asked.
The Girl smiled and saluted "Yup! Lena Oxton, reporting for duty. I am under specific orders from the higher ups to be your personal pilot and help you out in anyway I can".
Nova was still surprised that her new pilot was someone so young "Good to know. But just to make it clear, I am in charge here. You will follow my orders to the letter. I prefer to work alone, but my superiors all but forced me to accept you as my pilot. But slow me down or undermine my missions, and I will make sure you are relieved from my service. Understood?".
"Yes Ma'am. So what is your orders?" Lena asked, not the least bit intimidated by Nova's harsh personality. Something Nova honestly was a little impressed by, since she has intimidated a lot of people.
"My orders is to investigate a ship that has gone dark. All attempts at communication has been met with silence. They want me to investigate it and check if anything is wrong" Nova explained.
"Understood. Well, let's not waste anymore time and get this mission started" Lena declared as she headed for the ship.
She had spirit, that much was certain. And her back side wasn't bad either... Nova shook her head, what the hell was that thought? She had never been distracted by anything. She needed to focus on the mission, and only the mission. Lena was just her pilot, not her friend or anything else. Nova sighed before entering the ship. Lena whistled as she turned on all the ship's systems before the ship lifted of and they headed out towards their destination.
During their trip, Lena tried to make some small talk "So... Nova. Now that we are going to be working together, maybe it's time we get to know each other a little more".
"No need. As long as we both do our jobs then that's all that matters" Nova said as she was checking her weapons to make sure they were in working order for what could happen.
"But knowing your partner could help with missions" Lena insisted.
Nova sighs "Lena, whatever friendship you were hoping for, won't happen. We are not friends, we are just colleagues. Had it been up to me I would be doing this alone. Like I explained before, I only accepted you as my pilot because my superiors didn't give me a choice. Sorry, I'm sure you are a good person, but I am not someone who makes friends with anyone".
"Forgive me for saying that, but that's really stupid" Lena said, earning a angry look from Nova but did not let it stop her "I am serious. No friends? That's just plain dumb. If you don't have friends, then who will you depend on when you need help? Who will you go to when you need to talk about something? Who will listen to you when you need to get something of your chest? What? Are you just going to keep your feelings to yourself? Sorry to tell you this Nova, but such a stupid thought process will only make you feel lonely and un-needed".
"And who are you to lecture me? You have no idea what I've been through" Nova growled out.
"You're right, I don't. But unless you open up a little more there is no way for me to understand you. But I can tell from the looks of your eyes that you have been through a lot. And you are not the only one who's had to go through hardships. You are just one of thousands of victims, some of which likely had it way worse than you and still didn't shut everyone out for it. Unless you want to carry the pain for the rest of your life, you need to let it out" Lena said, showing more wisdom than her age would suggest.
Nova wanted to retort, but soon realized she had nothing to say "Just... do your job. This is a mission, not a fun trip".
"Fine" Lena said as she focused on piloting the ship. No more word was spoken between them until they arrived "Well, we're here".
Nova looked at the large ship in front of them, the ship didn't show any clear signs of having been attacked "Take us in".
"Wait, before we do that, let's scan it first. My ship has some real state of the art scanners, so soon we will know exactly what is going on in there" Lena said as she activated the ships' scanners. After a few moments Lena checked the results "Hmm, that's odd".
"What is it?" Nova asked.
"The scanners aren't picking up any life signs inside the ship... but the motion trackers are picking up a lot of movement..." Lena explained.
"No life signs yet the motion trackers are still picking something up" Nova wondered.
"Yeah... and the scanners aren't picking up any power sources, meaning whatever is moving around in there are not droids" Lena said.
That did indeed sound really suspicious, and made Nova wonder what was going on inside that ship. No life signs and no energy sources were detected, yet something was still moving around in there. This whole situation didn't make sense at all.
"Nova, I don't think it's smart to go in there alone without knowing what we're up against. I recommend we wait and call for back up" Lena said.
"No, our mission is to investigate the ship, so that's what we're going to do. Take us in and I will handle the rest" Nova ordered.
Lena did not like this at all "But Nova-".
"That is an order Pilot" Nova said sharply.
Lena sighed in annoyance before flying closer to the ship. They entered the hanger and Nova departed from the ship. The life support system was down, so Nova had to wear an oxygen mask as she made her way deeper inside. Right of the bat, Nova could tell something wasn't right about this whole situation. It was deathly quiet, yet for some reason she felt she wasn't alone on this ship.
"Nova, scanners detects an emergency power switch deeper inside the ship. I recommend turning it on as it could prove useful in your investigation" Lena said over the communicator.
"That is some useful scanners your ship got. And your suggestion makes sense. Send me the location" Nova ordered.
"Got it, be careful in there" Lena said.
Nova began her trip through the dark ship. Simple plan, turn on the back up power and then find out what happened. She had an uneasy feeling, since there was a big chance she could run in to whatever the motion scanners picked up. She approached the place where the back up generator was located. After a bit of tinkering she was able to turn it back on. Some of the power was restored. So far so good. But Nova still couldn't shake the feeling that something was very wrong with this ship. So with the power back on she could continue her investigation.
"Careful Nova, I am picking up movement near your location" Lena said.
With her pilot's warning, Nova got ready for anything. She rounded a corner and saw... one of the crew members? It was a woman. How in the galaxy had she managed to survive this long without and power to the life support systems? She should've suffocated a long time ago. Nova kept her guard up as she carefully approached the woman.
"Hey, are you alright?" She asked... but the woman suddenly turned around... revealing her deathly pale face and dead eyes "My stars! Are you alright".
The woman didn't answer, instead she let out a scream as she launched at Nova who fired her blaster out on instinct, hitting the woman square in the chest and knocking her down... but much to Nova's shock, the woman got right back up, growling like a feral beast and launched at Nova again, who avoided the attack and kicked the woman in to a wall. The woman still wouldn't stay down and continued attacking. Even when Nova broke several of the woman's bones, she still wouldn't stop attacking. It wasn't until Nova delivered a kick that sent the woman's head clean of her shoulders that she finally stopped getting back up.
"Lena... did you catch all that?" Nova asked in shock.
"What happened? I saw you moving around a lot with one of those mysterious things" Lena said.
"I... think I just fought a walking corpse" Nova answered.
"Wait what? How is that possible?" Lena asked in shock.
"I have no idea, but I will find out" Nova declared as she continued onward "This was a research ship, so the main research labs should hold all the information we need".
"Be careful, I am still picking up a lot of movement on that ship" Lena said.
Nova had to avoid several walking corpses on her way to the main research lab. But she managed to get there without any further complications. With the power restored the computers should hold all the information she needs. She had to hack in to the mainframe, but soon she got all the journals of the head scientist. She began reading the journals.
Entry 1: It's been a day since we discovered a new sickness plaguing a nearby town. Non of the doctors could tell us what it was, and claimed it was unlike anything they had ever seen before. This is why we were called in. We were given some samples of the plague to study, in hopes of discovering a cure. The lack of information was a real problem. All they could tell us was that the plague started shortly after a brilliant scientist named Kel'Thuzad went missing. No information on if he could be involved with this or not, but I have my suspicions, it just feels like the timing of these events were far to much to be an coincidence. But there is no time to think about it now. We have work to do.
Nova had a feeling something suspicious was going on here. So she read the next entry.
Entry 2: 1 week has already passed since we began working on figuring out what this plague is. So far we haven't made much headway. What in the galaxy could've triggered a plague like this? I don't know, but my friends are growing more tried by the day and all of them are paranoid that the longer we stay in this infected city, the bigger the risk of us catching the plague ourselves. I decided to move our work back on our research ship. It has all the equipment we need, and we can study this strange plague in a far safer location. Let's hope we discover what it is soon.
Nova grew worried as there was only one entry left.
Entry 3: By the stars, how did I not see this? This plague was airborne! I can feel it, we all can. After working on finding a cure, I received reports from the city that the civilians had suddenly become feral, attacking and consuming anyone they came across. I haven't chared these reports with the others yet. If I do, it will cause a lot panik and ruin any hope of developing a cure in time... but I can feel my mind slowly slipping away. I hope we can finish a cure in time... but I am afraid this might be it for us... I can feel the coldness... the hunger... so hungry.
"My stars... what happened?" Nova wondered before she heard something entering the room.
She turned around and her eyes became wide by what she saw. She saw a creature with a bent, twisted humanoid figure. Much of their flesh has rotted away, exposing a fair amount of bone and twisting facial features until they are unrecognizable as human. It seems as the infection grows inside the person's body, it twists and mutates the body, growing fangs and claws. It was also wearing the shredded remains of a lab coat. So this is what became of the head scientist.
The monster roars and attacks Nova with far greater speed and strength than that infected woman had done. Nova barely avoided it. She had to play keep away from the monster's claws for several minutes before she finally gained a clear shot and fired her blaster, hitting the monster right in the head, successfully killing it. Nova took a moment to catch her breath. Good thing she was wearing her mask, or she could've been infected too.
She quickly contacted her pilot "Lena! This ship is carrying a plague. It's what caused the crew to turn in to walking corpses".
"What? That's horrible!" Lena said.
"And it even triggers mutations. If this plague makes it to another planet, there is no telling what could happen. I will have to set the ship on a collision course with a nearby star and destroy everything" Nova declared.
"But, the nearest star is really close. You will never make it of the ship in time" Lena said.
"I have a plan. But I will need to count on you for it to work. Can I do that?" Nova asked.
Lena was silent for a moment before she sounded happy "Yes you can, partner".
Nova smiled "Good. I will contact you soon".
With that, Nova had to fight her way to the ships' bridge. She managed to take control and set the ship on a collision course with the nearest star. Now the most dangerous part of the plan begins.
"Lena, lock on to my position and get ready to pick me up" Nova ordered.
"What? What are you doing!?" Lena asked.
"I trust you, Lena" Nova said before shooting out a window, allowing herself be sucked out in to space. Her suit was never designed to handle the vacuume of space, at this rate she would be dead within minutes.
"NOVA!" Was the last thing Nova heard before she blacked out.
When Nova woke up she felt weak and tired... but also warm. She blinked a few times but couldn't move much... she managed to look down... and blushed as she noticed Lena sleeping on her... both of them were naked. Nova knew why Lena was doing this, she was sharing her body heat to keep Nova alive. Nova couldn't help but to smile. Maybe relying on others wasn't so bad after all. She would make sure Lena remained her pilot for a long time.
End of Flash Back.
That was the day Nova learned that she needs to depend on others if she wants to succeed... and after a while, she and Lena became lovers. Lena saved Nova from herself, and finally helped her feel true happiness again. Happiness Nova did not want to loose.
With that thought in mind, Nova drifted of in to sleep. They had a big mission tomorrow. A mission Nova knows will succeed, as long as her trusty pilot and lover is with her.
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A small break from the story to provide some back story for how Nova and Lena met.
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Tell me what you think.