Chapter 2: Unexpected Addition
There was too many of them. She could tell that even as she had her back pressed firmly against the cold square pillar at the corner of the room. Her hands shaking as her heart thundered in her chest. Could they hear her? The infrared receptors on
her snout told her there was at least four, no five humans in the room, their weapons still hot from use; The Viper's mind swapping frantically from thought to thought.
She was no soldier, chosen to research Earth's numerous toxins for use on and off the battlefield. How was her death going to come? Was it to be fast and painless, a simple bullet to the head? Or would it be drawn out and slow, riddled with far too many bullets and left to bleed out on the once pristine white tiled flooring? The latter brought her sick to her stomach as her hands visibly shook, threatening to drop her rifle in the sudden fear of such a slow, painful death.
She didn't realise how heavy and deep her breathing was, wincing as she clasped a hand across her mouth, forcing herself to calm 'I can't die like this...maybe..maybe if..' She cut her thoughts off right there, what she was thinking of would be punishable by death for high treason. She shook her head, her hood flexing nervously as she awaited her fate, mind running at a million miles an hour in vain hope of surviving; Cowering behind the cold stone pillar - praying for miracle.
Domino shook his head in disbelief as he heard Central Bradford's voice down the Comn link. "Negative Firefly-1-1, Still have one hostile on our scope here" he said rather matter-of-factly, he swore under his breath, cursing what other alien creature
was still present. He kept his Plasma Sniper rifle raised, slowly scanning the mostly empty room, soon he heard Chives' voice pipe up in his typical British slang "Fan out, Central says we've still got one bugger alive in here" - the squad didn't need any more prompting, moving into cover behind a few of the stone pillars, or behind a few display casings, with Kitty flipping a table over and taking cover behind it.
The look on the Squads face was grim, for all they knew it could have been an Archon that they were yet to face, grimacing, he shook his head slightly as the Commander had the squad slowly push forwards through the room, with Chives and Jackie on point, while he was left on overwatch - covering their approach.
There was a doorway that looked like it led to a lab like area at the far end of the room. "That's where the bastards hiding.." he said in his own, well-spoken British accent. The squad slowly moved toward it, with Kitty moving slowly up along to a pillar just across from the open door, peering inside to the brightly lit room - oblivious to the Viper, hiding just behind them.
The Viper couldn't believe what she was seeing, the young female that pushed up just across from her had failed to spot her hiding place - and the viper now had the perfect flank on her and lowered her rifle to point it towards her - but something
about the girl gave her pause. She was young, too young in fact, perhaps on her way towards adulthood, yet not quite there. She was shocked at just how young the human girl was, were all human younglings like this?
The girl's black hair was tied back in neat ponytail with a bubbly, loud voice "Nothing in here, least from what I can see. As empty as Chives' head when he's staring at Lyanna" she said with a slight giggle. With the sounds of a few groans from several of her comrades, were they injured?
She couldn't tell.
"Yeah, yeah - we've all seen you staring at Char though, Kitty" chuckled one of the males, the man with Spiked up black hair and slanted eyes as he looked back towards the kicked in doorway. The Viper's muscles tightened, mind paralysed by the medley of emotions, her blood lust stifled - like a wet blanket over a fire.
The slow sound of footsteps broke her from the frozen state she was in, slowly moving down her side of the room. It would be impossible to stay concealed if the human in question came much closer 'What do I do..what do I do..' The ideas
/flashedthrough her mind 'I..I can't fight them...surrender?' The word wrenched her gut like a vice. She would betray her own, for a chance at life?
'The elders don't care...they would have had reinforcements here by now..' She silently thought, not wanting to be used as cannon fodder, used to be tossed and thrown away like broken tools; her rifle clattering to the
floor with a definite metallic thunk, forcing the humans to jump and swivel round to face her - weapons raised.
The young girl, Kitty as she had been called, looked more surprised than most as she slowly moved out from behind the pillar, eyes as wide as saucers. She slowly lowered her head down, raising her arms above her head in surrender.
The humans stared in surprise or for a better word, shock asa black haired man stumbled backwards away from her, a few mere meters away raising his plasma sniper rifle in shock. She froze, feeling as if a thousand tracers were
now on her spine, the humans now entirely handed her fate.
The sudden appearance of the huge snake like Viper before him caused Domino's blood to run cold. He swore a little voice was in his head - screaming at him to get the hell away and run from the massive predator. The rest of the squad looked at it, eyes wide as it slowly raised its yellow-orange scaled hands above its head.
"Jesus Christ on a bike!" He yelled, cursing as he stumbled backwards before training his rifle on the creature's skull "It get you?" Asked Kitty, her voice unable to hide the quivers of fear.
"I-I'm fine..just...fuck me, could've made a noise as you came out..." Domino looked at the Viper as it regarded him with its menacing red eyes. He couldn't help but feel a chill down his spine. 'If that viper wanted to kill me...it could have...kitty
/too' he couldn't help but think, his mind stunned in disbelief.
"Since when do ADVENT not fight to the death?" Asked Jackie, his hand on his blade's hilt, while pointing a plasma pistol at the Viper, Domino pressed a finger to his ear."Firefly-1-4, you seeing this Central? Got a Viper trying to surrender".
The comn link hissed, Lord knows what was happening on the bridge of the avenger as the Commander's Gremlin swept in, likely to get eyes for himself, their voice came from the Gremlin.
[Firefly, Detain and Capture that surrendering Viper, We'll take her in and see what she knows - grab her weapon - Central will get a room prepped for our unexpected "Guest" to be arriving]
The squad stared at the Xeno in disbelief, it seemed it was quite visibly shaking, Domino couldn't help but feel a pang of pity as he slowly spoke to it.
"You, Viper, hands behind your back and move towards me slowly, any sudden moves, we shoot you dead, understood? Kitty, grab her gun". The viper nodded briefly, looking down at the floor as she slowly slithered towards Domino, her hood flexing slightly while her breathing was quite heavy, she reluctantly did what she was told, lowering her clawed hands behind her.
Meanwhile Kitty quickly broke across the room and snatched up the Beam rifle into her hands, while the rest of Firefly squad slowly made their way back out of the facility, to an awaiting Skyranger with the ramp down.
Domino pressed the cold barrel of the plasma sniper rifle into the viper's spine, forcing it forwards out of the building "You speak English?" He asked the creature somewhat off-handed, the Viper then spoke in somewhat broken English with an unsurprisingly hissy tone. "Yes, just not good. I can speak some".
Domino nodded "Good, do exactly what we say, yeah? Get in the Skyranger, and no sudden moves, OK?" He said in a rather soft tone as once again she slowly slithered her way up the ramp into the back of the Skyranger, facing the wall with her head looking down at the floor, as the rest of Firefly squad clambered in and took their seats. Domino was sitting in his chair, strapped in and with his revolver pointed at the Viper's head. She was forced to coil her tail a few times so everyone could fit into the Skyranger as it then lifted off the ground, speeding away from the burning building and bodies of ADVENT soldiers.
"Firefly-1-1, returning to base" said Chives, his fingers on his earpiece.
{Good work Firefly, Clean, minor injuries, and a prisoner to boot, Sending in recovery teams} they all heard Central Bradford on the line. The viper shifted uncomfortably at the end of the Skyranger, before seemingly sitting on a part of her tail, seeming to sigh.
"So, snake lady, you got a name?" Piped up Jackie with a slight grin, Domino shaking his head in dismay.
"What is name?" the viper hissed a little. Somewhat quietly with a confused look on her face. A pang of sadness seemed to wash over the team as they all kept their watchful eyes on her.
"It's what people call you, like people call me Domino" he added, sighing a little, why was he feeling pity for this thing? Her kind had slaughtered plenty of his own; he gritted his teeth, scratching his cheek a little.
"I am Six-Two-Five-Two-Zero-One" the viper said, seeming to look rather saddened by his words.
"That's a number, not a name" Kitty chimed in rather sadly.
"It is all they gave me...my kind do call each other sister" the Viper hissed again, her tongue flicking out briefly.
"Sis' eh? That's cute" Chives finally added sarcastically through gritted teeth, his face beetroot red in a combination of sunburn and barely concealed rage. Domino noticed his gaze as Chives slowly stroked his rifle towards the trigger - their gaze
meeting for a moment, before he reluctantly ceased, instead shooting a vicious glare to the Viper that was now rather silent, perhaps fearing the ramifications if she spoke again.
The rest of the journey for the next hour or so travelled in relative silence, with Jackie's occasionally smartass remarks doing little to stem the crushing atmosphere to silence.
There was a terrible sound of crunching metal as the vehicle the humans called a 'Skyranger' powered down, the suspension kicking in as the occupants inside were thrown upwards a little. The rumbling that followed was as the landing pad slowly retracted to the inside of...something.
The Viper was quite clearly terrified.
'These humans must have more than we thought' she thought to herself quietly as the team of her Captors stared at her, weapons still at the ready.
A bright light was seen by her as she looked towards the ramp as it lowered, forcing her to hiss and dart to the side from it, her eyes pained by the sudden light as many of the others raised their weapons up at her. "We told you not to move
biggie, hard getting used to that floodlight when I first came here too" said the human a black coat on in a calm voice.
"I...apologise. I do not like bright light in eye" she replied in her broken English, wincing slightly as the human in the black trench coat nodded simply, leaving it at that. She nodded back, a little confused as to what she was feeling, it was...pleasant? She was not one who particularly liked humans, nor hated them like some of her kin. It gave her comfort that this human seemed more impartial than a few of his compatriots.
The small flying robot then spoke, [Right I have ordered a security detail to join us. We will take you to our medical facilities to have you inspected by a female officer, ensuring you are healthy. Following that you will be escorted to your holding cell while I and others draw up questions for you. Any attempt to resist will get you killed, am I understood, Viper?]
She stammered for a moment to find words, perhaps shocked at such a small robots voice could Instil such a sense of robust authority, also what was this thing called a "Viper"? Was it one of those "name" things the humans gave her and her sisters? Breaking from her thoughts she then nodded briefly.
"Yes, I understand."
[Good, Domino - you will be assigned to her as escort. Take Kitty with you too] the robot said, no, commanded to the human in the black coat who nodded, bringing his arm upwards and crooking it at a 45 degree angle, before pressing his hand to his head sideways. She blinked, confused as to what such an action meant, and was it a greeting? "Understood Sir" said the trench coat man, as the rest of her captors stood up and left with the exception of him, and the young female. The latter of which looked twitchy as she slowly slithered out the back of the Skyranger.
She still held a pang of envy towards the humans for having something called "names". Why didn't the elders let her and her sisters have these names? Was it a status symbol - like a rank? Her mind was swamped with so many questions it was intoxicating and made her feel a little dizzy.
Her attention was then drawn to the huge vessel she was now inside the belly of, a huge hangar bay housing a number of transports similar to the "Skyranger" she watched as around a dozen humans of all shapes and nationalities were jogging around the unused areas of the hangar bay, while the door leading deeper in opened with a hiss.
Four humans armed with combustion rifles, all of whom were female marched out in column to meet her and her escorts. They looked battle hardened and all regarded her with a vicious glare. The lead woman nodded to the man in the trench coat. "Commander said we had a snake aboard, sent us lot to help you escort the bitch" in a Hispanic accent with an almost growly undertone as she regarded the viper with utter contempt.
The man in the trench coat rolled his shoulders a little "Let's get moving then".
They moved off at a relatively brisk pace through the ship's extensive interior - the four women keeping a tight watch on her with their fingers on triggers; Passing several numbers of doors and dozens upon dozens of personnel. It was a little staggering to her - the resistance to be so well organised. And she was curious as to how much more the resistance had at its disposal.
They took a right, and then another right - eventually arriving at a White doorway which was marked with a pair of wings atop of a staff which had a similar vespine creature coiled around it - one not too much unlike her, the symbol a deep red.
It opened with a hiss - the smell was the first thing that hit her, burnt flesh, damp and chemical scents were prevalent, and did little to put her at ease at the sight of the beds which held a few humans. A few with limbs swathed in bandages, others with limbs missing, and one or two with severe plasma burns on their limbs.
She hissed slightly at the ungodly sight of such horrific at the sight of her as she was led through to a separate room - obviously it being a medical facility, it had several isolation rooms, into which she moved into one.
A female human in a pristine white lab coat with platinum blonde hair tied back in a neat pony tail awaited her as they entered the room, the blinds closed. She spoke quite plainly "Right, two of you stay in here - the rest wait outside, no boy in
here too". The youngling in front of her nodded, the man and four of the other females filed out of the room in an orderly fashion. That left the seemingly lead security woman, the bright haired woman- and the young hatchling called Kitty they walked over to the doorway, weapons lowered yet still wary enough to keep fingers on triggers.
The room smelt foul, a sickeningly clean and chemical scent filling her nostrils - the chilly air doing little to improve the feeling of surgical unease that toyed with her mind. The Lab coat woman approached, seemingly unafraid of her, speaking
in an icy, brutally logic tone - it sent shivers down her spine. "Right, I'm going to ensure you are healthy and if injured, you're healing - Commander's orders. I'll have to ask you to remove your armour too - ensure you aren't hiding anything".
The Viper nodded simply, a feeling in her gut telling her to not speak - she moved her hands from her back to the clasps on her armour, unfastening several before lifting it off to set it down beside her with a metallic thunk.
In spite of the chilly air it was a little comforting to not be inspected by a male - only a life mate or a female should be allowed to ever see her naked - She silently thanked this mysterious "Commander" for his thoughtfulness while the white haired woman began inspecting her for injuries.
They were taking far longer than Domino had expected, "I mean, it's only a check-up, right? I mean seriously - I know Doc Lyanna is a sucker for Xeno-biology - but still, shouldn't take this long" he was idly tapping his foot, sparking conversations
with the security personnel while picking out a little of the eye candy. One of the girls stifled a small chuckle "Oh shush already, Snake bitch'll be okay - even if I'm sure the Doc wants to collect "Samples" with that scalpel of hers -
they'll be done soon enough".
The group smiled a little, they all knew Doc Lyanna had been begging the Commander to bring in a live subject for weeks now after she grew bored of helping Dr Tygan dissect corpses and patching up wounds in the Avenger's Medbay. "She must be excited - I bet Dr Tygan will be itching to join in the fun" said one of the other girls, the group nodded in agreement as the conversation fell back into silence.
Five more minutes passed, still no Viper. "God what must she be doing to her? Taking out an eye?" Domino complained, shaking his head "Bitch deserves it after all they've done to us" replied one of the girls quite coldly.
In near perfect unison, Kitty and the head of security - Spanish or Portuguese Domino had reckoned walked out of the isolation Viper close behind, hands behind her back as her hood flexed slightly, she held a small cotton bud to her arm it darkened little by her blood. A few of the girls groaned, handing over a handful of rounds over to some of the others whom had a smug look on their faces - the girls had grew bored and started a betting pool of rounds to see whether the Doc would be taking blood samples. "Well you took your sweet time" Domino chuckled softly as he walked over to join them, ruffling Kitty's hair roughly who cried out a little in protest, shying away from him a little "Nooo you ruined it Domino!" She whined, punching him on the arm a few times.
A few of the girls chuckled, awwing as they gathered up their weapons. The viper was watching them, perhaps curious as they play fought with each other a little. "I win" Domino chuckled as he snatched up his sniper rifle again, moving to the Viper's side. Kitty on the other hand just made a farting sound with her mouth as she got into her place. A few of the girls rolled their eyes as they soon started off, oblivious to the Viper's utterly confused gaze as she moved her hands behind her back once again.
The group started moving off again at a more leisurely pace, the Chief of security leading the way. She had a ghost of a military pace to her step and carried herself on an air of cold confidence that while looked professional, gave her an icy - even
cruel appearance. The Viper had obviously noticed - and her head was looking about a little wildly, shivering while her heavy hot breath put him off.
Domino sighed before patting her on the shoulder briefly with his gloved hand, perhaps to try and put her at ease. No matter how sincere it seemed to him, it backfired as she hissed in surprise, a few of the girls moved their fingers to triggers, furrowing their brows. The viper herself looked confused, or above all else - frightened as she soon seemed to calm as they continued on their path, her head no longer swaying side to side in slight panic. Her breathing had calmed too, back to a steady rattle through her nostrils.
After a while of navigating the convoluted and complex corridors of the Avenger -they eventually reached the lower levels -and came to a door at the far end of the Corridor that was manned by a pair of guards. By the way the walls in this section
looked - it was still in the process of being reclaimed, the walls still their dull dark grey-black sheen, and lines of green lights still ran across the walls, pulsing with alien technology. The oppressive, cold and outright inhospitable feeling given from
the atmosphere that the corridor alone gave off was enough to make Domino less than optimistic at their Guests dwelling.
The Guards by the door stood at attention, regarding them with a friendly nod, followed by a contemptuous leer at the Viper. One stepped forwards with a Sergeant's insignia on his spoke in a rounded American accent - perhaps from
around Ohio - a grizzled old man in his late forties, with a greying beard and short jet black hair with the odd few grey streaks. A scar ran down his cheek that pulled his eye out of place as his lips moved.
"Bradford warned me we had one of those things aboard. Go on through - He'll be with you soon." He spoke briefly and matter-of-factly - not wasting a word, they nodded, the girls moved apart to stand by the wall, as Domino walked to open the
door, with a slight hiss it rolled open into a scene that made his brain itch and spine tremble.
The room before them was still home to piles of rubble, the room partially walled off, with curved pillars of sorts between the two halves of the room, piles of broken machinery were forced into the side of one of the first half of the room. In the middle of the walkway was home to a series of thick ropes that looked like they were designed to hold down shipping containers. They were criss-crossed and pulled taught until they were as rigid as bars.
The room itself had the entire comfort of a walk in freezer, and he had a mind to think that the room was not even suitable for an animal to stay in. A simple camp bed with a thin blanket on it was on the opposite side, while a simple table with a few chairs was set on the side of the door with a pack of cards piled up on it - likely for guards to busy themselves while on duty.
The pair of them walked up to the ropes to take a few of them down, allowing enough room for the viper to make her way inside, before putting the ropes back up again "There we go. Now I'm sure central will have plenty of questions for you now." Domino spoke softly, smiling as he and Kitty took up place on the chair with Kitty, the two playing a few card games while waiting for Central to show up.
Author's notes: Well accidentally pushed this out a little early, but anyway - been having fun with writing this so far - and thanks for the criticism guys - I'll be working on sorting out the grammatical errors - blame me for doing this on a phone instead of PC. But anyway, I'll be working on getting a chapter 3 out soon. Lemme know what you lot think.