Tina had felt the ship rock and immediately sensed that something terrible was happening. She stopped talking to the ship's crew and ran for the stairway up to the deck.
That was when she heard first gun shot. They were closely followed by hundreds of others. Chaos rained over everything. She could feel the onset of panic building inside of her. She bit her lip nervously as soldier after soldier ran around her. Her hiar blew past her face as next to her a line of three jet fighters rode past her, waiting to be catapulted out of the ship. Looking behind her she saw that quite a few of the jets were already gone. There was an explosion which right in front of her. The third jet n the line was blown out the ship. The following shock wave threatened to throw her back down the iron stairway and killing her. Heat from the blast pressed on her body and face. She felt herself fading from consciousness and she fell back. She heard a manic roar which sounded too much like Cerle's laugh before it was drowned out by another explosion and gun fire. That sound, above all things, woke her from her weakened state. Tina caught the rail and balanced herself. She turned around and headed back into the ship. Her mind was reeling as he sprinted on. One thought filling her mind. There's a fire fight on the Arc and my Admiral is up there.
In a mad dash, she made her way to the armoury and pulled out as many weapons as possible before passing them to any and all personal she could find. Once armed she sent them up.
"Go! I want all hands on deck and I want…" She trailed off and looked at the least battle capable person she could see. A short stocky woman with a look of an inexperienced soldier etched on her face. Tina pointed her out, "You," she called with strong authority "Go up to the me a report on both the Admiral and the command room." Tina sorely regretted not taking a radio like the Admiral had ordered but there was no time for lingering on bad decisions.
A massive explosion rocked the ship. The last one sounded and felt like it came from the far side of the deck, the area she'd seen Cerle last. Knowing Cerle he'd be in the thick of whatever battles were occurring on deck. Not only was he most likely fighting hard, he was most likely trying to figure out who was behind the attack. And now there was a realistic chance that that explosion could have forced her into a leadership position. She hated the thought and preyed that he was okay, she didn't want to un a ship. That was Cerle's thing not hers.
She geared up and bound for the deck unable to wait down below and away from the action anymore. She'd done her job as Sergeant even if she did leave from her task early. Cerle wouldn't reprimand her too badly.
If he was okay.
She couldn't just stay down here while he was up there, she told herself still finding herself struggling to break an order.
She had two rifles strapped to her back. The one rifle was a jet black machine gun type weapon, which pretty much weighed as much as she did but that didn't slow her down for a second. Desperation tended to hand out strength to any who asked for it and it had always been generous to her. Tina played with it as it were a toy. It also made her one of the strongest soldiers to have especially in an emergency.
The other rifle was a sniper rifle. Something unnatural pulled on Tina's mind and forced her to stop. She stopped and stared back at the bottom of the Arc. Tina didn't quite understand but she suddenly knew she had to get her own sniper rifle. Her want of her own weapon become a heavy need. It was stronger and fired quicker, anyway, but not by that much. That didn't seem to matter though. All that mattered was that she go get it. The admiral was up on top with her own weapon. He had both Nirvana and Soul, his pride and joy, she told herself.
She stopped, unable to move, when a wave of fear hit her. It struck at her heart squeezing it tight as if it were a human hand squeezing and pulling it up through her throat. Her whole body trembled and the larger rifle slipped off her shoulder. Her knees felt weak and she wanted nothing but to cry out as loudly as she could. She leaned on one of the metal walls, unable to hold herself up. Genuine fear, something she thought she'd forgotten, something she thought she'd mastered. How she would have laughed if it were anyone else but her who was so filled with fear. In all her life she'd never felt such debilitating fear. Something which was completely unacceptable to her. Fear was for the weak and boring. As a child she and been weak and fearful she was nothing like that now and worst of all she didn't know what she was frightened of. She'd never allow it. Her fists clenched and she hit her head against the wall. She hit it repeatedly with her skull till pain washed over most of the fear. It took a minute but she calmed herself down and returned to her room determined to stay confident in her Admiral's ability.
Her room, as usual, was spotless in its outward appearance only. Anyone looking into her room at first glance would nothing out of place. If anyone looked carefully they'd be shocked by what they would find. Under her bed was her favourite hiding place. All of her items and mementos filled the under are from the floor up to the bed itself. Half read books she grew bored of reading and grew indifferent of their endings, shoes she wore when she found the time, weights she trained with constantly and with greater joy than any book could give, her photo albums in the back where she kept pictures of her previous battles before moving to the ship and most importantly her sniper rile. To Tina it was the most beautiful thing in the world. At that moment the weapon was split in half, the long silver barrel sitting separately to the gun itself.
She pulled her favoured weapon out and put it together by screwing the barrel in. She was on her feet and still screwing on the barrel when she heard someone run to her door. She looked up, still screwing the blade on, and saw the stocky soldier run and halt at the door.
"Report. What's happening? Where's the admiral and who's who or what is attacking us. "
The stocky soldier stood at attention. "Maam. The ship is under attack by the Admiral."
"What are you talking about?" Tina demanded, the barrel reached it's final rotation and clicked in. At the exact moment the stocky soldier stared hard past Tina's shoulder and screamed falling back. Tina didn't get a chance to turn around. The iron walls behind her exploded outwards as they were engulfed by a blinding light. It burned through everything in her room and turned at the doors only inches away from the stocky soldier's face. The shock of it threw the soldier backwards dropping her on her buttocks.
She watched in silent shock as before her eyes, she saw Tina's uniform burned off her body. Tina screamed in agony and writhed and twisted around on her feet clearly unable to fall down. She rose up a few inches from the ground and hovered in the middle of the room. Her hair floated up as though she were underwater. Only white light could be seen where her pupils once were. Light streamed out her nose and mouth too as she continued to scream.
The stocky soldier got to her feet once more and stared in shock. She tried to reach out but hesitated. This wasn't what she signed up for at all. Suddenly the screaming stopped along with the twisting and turning. Tina's body hung limp in the air, her head staring down at nothing. The light fizzled then faded and she fell to her knees where she sat on her knees completely naked. The soldier, now oblivious of the attacks from the deck, stepped forward and reached out to Tina. A dim red light floated around Tina's body and the soldier jumped back at the sight of it.
"Maam?" The solder asked reaching out once more. Tina looked up. She looked fine nothing looked different, Tina smiled. It would have been a sweet smile to anyone who had never seen Tina before but for those who had, like the soldier, it was a cause for worry. She recoiled slightly but recovered still reaching out. "Are you alright?"
Tina hugged her chest tightly with one arm. "I'm not wearing anything. How irritating." She said scowling at nothing in particular. She was completely oblivious of where she was or of anyone near her. Then she heard gunfire from above and looked around her. The room she was in was destroyed and there was nothing in it she could make out. Behind her there was nothing but ocean as far as she could see. By the looks of it she was in a melted metal box hanging over nothing but ocean. she'd never seen anything close to this kind of magic.
"Where am I? " Tina asked.
"Miss?" The soldier asked stunned.
"I said where am I?" Tina repeated raising her voice. She ducked lower at the sound of gunfire, he eyes alert and weary but soon she calmed herself down. This wasn't the gunfire she was used to, even in the wars she'd seen she'd never heard gunfire go off so frequently in her life.
"You're on the Arc Royale miss." The soldier answered.
"You know me?" Tina asked staring hard at the soldier. An explosion rocked the ship.
"Yes maam. You are Lieutenant Tina Crow."
"Tina Crow you say." Tina asked standing up quickly. "That's soldier's name right? I can see your one too right? Its why your wearing the uniform. And we're on water. We're British marines correct? The clothing's changed but-"
"No maam." The soldier interrupted getting up. "I think you need to se the medic, maam."
"Why would you say that? I'm fine. I was just a little confused. All I need is you to answer my questions and give me your clothes. She said pulling up a metal hoop with razor sharp edges which lay under her. she shouldered it resting the blunt interior against her.
"Maam I-" The soldier didn't' finish. Tina's barefoot collided with the side of her head with such speed that she didn't get a chance to move a millimetre and with such power the kick launched her off her feet. Tina's foot swung around and dropped the exact same kick on her back launching her into the metal walls.
"My name is not maam. I am not this Tina Crow. I am simply Tira." Tira said calling for her birds, but none came. She sighed, she hadn't really expected them to come. that would have been to good to be true. Tira stood for a moment listening to the chatter of what she was sure was gunfire. the sound of coughing broke her from her concentration. To her surprise the soldier was still alive, for now in any case. Tira walked over to her and lifted her up and started unbuttoning the soldier's top. She kicked he soldier into the wall again and put the top on herself. She pulled the soldier's pants off and put them on herself. The pants and the top didn't fit but she tied both to make them fit. The soldier started to move, shuffling across the floor. Tira kicked her in the bck of the head dropping her face first into the iron floor. She pressed her foot agasint the back of the soldier's head and wrapped the soldier's hair around her toes until she had enough hair to pull her head up and slam it against the floor. Crash! Crash! Tira savoured the sound of bone cracking and slammed her one more time before jumping over the pool of blood and walking away.