By the time the town Haruka had mentioned finally appeared on the horizon, Michiru sincerely doubted that she'd ever regain feeling in her behinds; she did enjoy sitting so close to Haruka on the bike, and having her arms wrapped around her, but the vibrations and the not all too comfortable seat were taking their toll on her by now, and she was quite relieved when buildings became visible in the distance.
"Old Haven", Haruka called out to her over the roar of the engine, "if the piece is not there, someone who might be able to help us find it could be. We'll just have to try our luck."
Michiru let out a vaguely agreeing noise, briefly tightening her hold on Haruka when the bike bounced more than usual on the uneven road; she held back the urge to shift on her seat, focusing on the town up ahead instead, her relief short-lived though as something caught her eye, a frown creasing her brow as she squinted.
"Stop the bike", she called out to Haruka, the blonde reacting at once by slowing down, then stopping fully, not bothering to question her; she just watched curiously how Michiru hopped off the bike, briefly grimacing at the tingling in her thighs and a bit farther up, then raised one hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she squinted at the object which had caught her eye again.
"…I think we have a problem", she then stated, turning to look at Haruka again, momentarily distracted though by the dashing figure the blonde cut on the motorbike, "that looks like a crimson flag, and unless this town happens to have the same colour as our army friends…"
"Ah crap", Haruka let out in response, making the sniper smile slightly, "that's just our luck, isn't it. At first some creepy giant monster thing comes out of the ground to eat us and now, the only town in this area has been taken over by these douchebags."
"Makes sense though", Michiru had to admit with a sigh, Haruka's words having completely ruled out the option that perhaps, the town used a flag similar to the one of the army, "if there really is a piece of the key around here, and they are after it, it'd make sense to have a base close to it."
"Yeah, but it still sucks", Haruka gave back, making the sniper smirk as she nodded; she glanced at the town again, asking herself how much of it was under control of the Crimson Lance, if they had just taken parts of it over or if everyone who had been living there had been forced to leave, realizing that either way, approaching on the quite noisy bike wasn't an option any longer.
"I hope you're good with stealth", she thus said, looking at her companion again, "do you know anything about the layout of this city?"
"Stealth should be doable", Haruka told her, killing the bike's engine and waiting until Michiru had gotten off before she did the same, "but I don't know anything about that town. I just know it exists."
Even though this wasn't what she had hoped for, Michiru shrugged it off, figuring they would find a way; and while Haruka hid the bike, moving it behind one of the larger boulders for that purpose, not the perfect hiding place, but on such short notice, it would have to do.
"We better give that town a wide berth for now", Michiru suggested once Haruka was back at her side, "just walking up on that road is a bad idea. Perhaps we can find some more discreet way inside after dark."
"Let's hope they haven't spotted us yet", Haruka said with a grimace, earning a nod from the sniper; they both took another look at the town, neither of them spotting any suspicious movement though, Michiru taking the lead after another moment, walking off the road and into the dry, brown and sandy wasteland, Haruka right beside her, both of them glancing at the town every now and then, asking themselves what would await them there.
Neither Haruka, nor Michiru wanted to risk discovery by lighting a fire, and so, they had cold lunch, Michiru thinking to herself that the beans lost quite a lot of their appeal when eaten cold and straight from the can; still she forced herself to eat it all up, knowing she would need the energy, especially if they'd spend a big part of the night sneaking into the town.
"Perhaps we should try to get some sleep after lunch", she suggested once she had realized how long their nightly mission might take, "if we go to that town after dark, who knows how long we might have to stay awake, and we should be fully alert and not tired."
"Good point", Haruka agreed at once, "but we should find a spot with a bit more cover, we are quite out in the open here."
Michiru nodded to that, realizing that this was a good point – they hadn't encountered any patrols so far, but that didn't mean that the Crimson Lance wasn't sending any into the area around town, and the last thing they needed was that a patrol might stumble upon them as they slept, even though she was quite sure they wouldn't end up getting surprised, not with her light sleep and alertness even when she wasn't awake.
Briefly, she wondered if this was a result of her years of training, or if it was another manifestation of her Siren powers; just a few days ago, she pondered, she would have been sure that she had been taught how to be alert and aware at all times, even when asleep, but now, after she had learned what she was and not having an idea what her powers even were yet, she knew that she couldn't be so sure anymore.
"Maybe we can find a cave nearby", Haruka distracted her from those thoughts, making her look at the blonde again, "then it'll be dark, and we won't have to bother with the tent. Not to mention that the tent would be quite… noticeable."
"Good point", it now was Michiru's turn to say, making the taller woman smile, "so we better eat up quickly and see if we can find a good spot. Or a cave."
In response, Haruka sped up the consumption of her meal, and Michiru did the same; and not long after, they had finished and got moving again, searching for a good location to get some sleep, Michiru still looking at the town every now and then, mildly disturbed by the lack of patrols and activity, having the feeling that something wasn't quite right about this, suddenly worried as she wondered how their infiltration of the town would go.
To Michiru's relief, Haruka turned out to be quite good at moving soundlessly; and so, neither she, nor the blonde made any noise as they approached the town under the cover of darkness, making sure to keep away from the few spots of light which illuminated several areas around the town.
"Strange", Haruka whispered to her after they had successfully navigated another circle of light, "I haven't noticed anyone in there. Maybe they packed up and left."
"That would be bad though", Michiru pointed out, keeping her voice down to a whisper, as well, "because it would mean that they found the piece and that is why they left."
Realizing that Michiru was right, the blonde grimaced in response, making her smile slightly; and just then, as if to reassure that they wouldn't get disheartened, voices came up several feet ahead, close to one of the small gates Michiru had chosen as a possible entry point for them.
"…we are still staying here", one man said, sounding gruff, making them both wonder if they were stuck on guard duty and not quite happy about it, "if one of these things would be anywhere around here, we would have found it by now, don't you think?"
"Well, yeah", a second male responded, while Michiru gave Haruka a brief questioning look as she slid her gun from the holster, then pointed at the butt, earning a brief nod from the blonde, gesturing at her to stay put afterwards, making her raise an eyebrow before she apparently figured that Michiru knew what she was doing, since she nodded again.
Curious, Haruka watched how Michiru snuck closer to the small entrance, gun raised to shoulder height, moving with a silent grace she never had seen like this before, her movements so smooth and quiet that it made it look as if she was underwater, and not in some dusty wasteland, after an afternoon spent sleeping on the cold stone floor of a cave.
She didn't even notice that she held her breath as Michiru got closer and closer to the gate, only realizing now that she didn't know much about how good the sniper was with hand to hand combat; she had bested her in the bar, after she had commented on how she doubted that the smaller woman truly was a vault hunter, but she was no soldier, and had no idea how good the Crimson Lance soldiers were at defending themselves in close combat.
Up ahead, Michiru paused, and Haruka swallowed heavily, her hand dropping to her machine gun and loosening it in the holster so she could pull it out quickly, should it be needed; and then, Michiru exploded into motion, and Haruka forgot all about her intentions to help her, unable to do anything else than stand and stare.
She never had seen anyone move that fast, she realized, as Michiru sped up to one of the soldiers; while he still was turning his head, she already pistol-whipped him, either landing an exceptionally lucky hit or having frighteningly good aim, since the man went down without even a grunt, and while he still was falling, her free arm already shot out to grab the other one and yank him forward, a quick sidestep allowing her to bash his head against the iron frame of the gate.
He, at least, managed to get out a grunt, Haruka randomly thought to herself as she watched him slump to the ground in a lifeless heap; she wondered if moving like this and taking two well-trained and well-armed soldiers down like that was part of Michiru's Siren powers, or if she had been trained to do this, unaware of the gobsmacked way she was looking at the sniper when Michiru turned to face her again.
"Wow", she then whispered, realizing that she had to look like an idiot, hurriedly moving to Michiru's side, "that was impressive. And a bit scary."
"And effective", Michiru pointed out, bending down to take the men's weapons from them; thanks to that, Haruka couldn't see her face, and couldn't see her brief struggle to control her emotions, after she had noticed how the blonde had stared at her just moments ago.
She's scared of you, a small, nasty voice whispered in the back of her mind, none of this showing through her features though, as she had regained perfect control over them, and you didn't even use any of your more spectacular powers yet. Who knows what she will think of you once you discover what you really can do.
She didn't even know herself yet, she had to admit, having not the slightest idea of what her powers contained; still the thought of doing something which might scare Haruka away made her heart clench up, nothing on this showing through her expression though by the time she had taken the weapons and extra ammo from the men and straightened up again.
"Gun?" she asked Haruka, forcing a smile to curl her lips as she held one of the two pistols out to her; unlike the blonde's machine gun, it was practically brand-new, Haruka's eyes lighting up as she accepted it, the gun apparently still not distracting her enough though to let her notice that something was a bit off at Michiru's smile, as she briefly frowned, then took a closer look while tugging the gun into the waistband of her pants.
"You okay?" she asked after a moment, surprising the sniper with how well she apparently could read her already; she forced herself to nod, telling herself that there was no time to discuss her worries now, unable to keep a slight edge of her voice though when she told her that they should keep moving, before the men would come back around and raise the alarm.
Clearly, Haruka didn't quite believe her, giving her a sceptical look, but nodding her agreement nonetheless; Michiru smiled at her again, managing to make it look a bit more genuine this time, then got moving again, quickly walking away from the gate and into the nearest dark side alley, just in case there were patrols in town after all.
To her relief, Haruka stayed behind her, the narrowness of the alley not allowing the blonde to walk by her side; thanks to their positions, she thus could let her feelings show once more, frowning to herself as she quietly moved through the alley, unable to stop wondering how Haruka might react to her powers manifesting even further, if she'd end up scaring her away once she'd discover all the things she was capable of.
This was a mistake, she thought to herself as she kept walking, her frown deepening, starting this whole thing with her. She's gonna freak when you discover what you really can do, and leave you, and you'll be stranded alone on this dump of a planet…
Just as she finished this dire thought, a series of strange noises came from behind her, prompting her to glance over her shoulder; and seconds later, her eyes widened as all she saw was the empty alley behind her, Haruka gone without a trace, as if she never had been there.
With her heart hammering up to her throat all at once, Michiru just opened her mouth to call out for her; before she could though, an all too familiar voice came from behind her and spoke her name, forcing her to turn yet again, her hand automatically dropping to the gun at her hip.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you", Steele said, casually leaning against the wall and smirking at her, "unless you fancy the thought of having your brains splattered all over this wall. A sniper almost as good as you is aiming at your head as we speak, and another one has his crosshairs on your heart. You pull that gun out an inch and you're dead, so raise your hands now."
For a second, Michiru considered drawing her gun anyway, confident that she'd be able to have it out and shoot the Commander before the snipers would manage to put a bullet in her; then, she realized that, even if she could pull it off, her chances to not end dead as well were ridiculously small, and she raised her hands, glaring at the other woman when she received an insolent smirk from her.
"Disarm her", Steele then said to someone behind her, and moments later, rough hands removed her gun and rifle; and afterwards, the soldier grabbed her at the forearms and pulled her hands down behind her back, the sniper forcing herself to keep her face perfectly controlled when cold handcuffs closed around her wrists.
Once this had been finished, Michiru had to suffer the indignity of the man patting her down, to make sure she had no more weapons concealed somewhere on her person; to her dismay, he found the knife she carried strapped to her ankle, taking it from her before he let Steele know that she now was unarmed.
"Good", the Commander stated, with another smirk, unimpressed by the glare Michiru levelled her way, completely ignoring the sniper when she demanded to know what had happened to Haruka, nodding at the soldier behind Michiru instead of answering her, the sniper unable to keep herself from flinching when moments later, a hood made of thick, black cloth was pulled over her head, blinding her.
The soldier grasped her arm quite roughly, but this time, she managed to not let any reaction to this show; and as he started dragging her along, Steele spoke up once more, now not bothering to keep the malicious glee out of her voice any longer.
"Sorry that your adventure ends so badly", she stated, Michiru practically hearing the smirk she still was wearing, "but I promise you'll at least get to keep your life. Welcome to Old Haven, Ms Kaioh, I hope you're prepared for a long stay."
She chuckled, a sound which grated on Michiru's nerves, then her footsteps moved away while the soldier roughly shoved her and told her to keep moving, the sniper breathing deeply in an attempt to keep her calm as she tried to figure out where the man was taking her – and what they had done to Haruka, the uncertainty scaring her more than the fate which might await her.