Exusia Part I: Isis

[Paintcheck]

"It's a one-off I built for myself. My family has been arming the Gunslingers for centuries now. I wasn't lying when I said I knew how to smith. If I had this on that hill it would have been lights out for Eros." He stops polishing the bolt. It reflects his face it is so shiny. He slides it back into the weapon. The outside of the rifle looks like it has seen a lot of use. He shoulders it and racks the bolt, then pulls the trigger. He sets it aside almost reverently. He then removes his revolver from its holster and sets it on the table. He begins to clean it, seeming to forget about Taylor's presence. The motions for him seem almost automatic and his hands fly over the gun and complete the procedure seemingly on their own.

[Tom]

she rubs her chin staring at this "Wow. . . Ill keep that in mind." she stares at him and his insane handy work, "So. . . Umm. . .You've done that ALOT, I can see."

[Paintcheck]

"Mmmmhmmm"

He reloads the revolver and drops it back in its holster. He picks up the rifle and brings it back to his room. He steps back out, scratches his head like he doesn't know what else to do with himself.

[Tom]

She walks out of the Work room, patting him on the shoulder as she walks by smiling slightly, she goes into the living room and turns on the TV, and browses through the channels trying to find something interesting to watch.

[Paintcheck]

Ares takes a seat on the couch. She flips past the new and he notices it's a report on Isis. "Hold it here for a second please."

"...raided a rebel camp on the outskirts of Fort Brag late last night. After brief but heavy fighting it has been confirmed that the camp has been completely destroyed." The image on screen flashes to a flyover shot of the burning camp. Exusian solders are seen sifting through the rubble for intelligence and off in the background sits a mass of prisoners.
"It is now believed that this camp was a major staging area for supplies coming in from the Border Worlds. Officials say that they expect this to be a huge blow for rebel operations. And now Sports."

"You can change it, thanks." No word about Eros or his girl though...Why do I have the feeling that they will show up again?

She changes the channel and Ares drifts off into his own thoughts, most of them about Ashley. Probably still languishing in a prison somewhere on Pharos...I hope. He frowns at the thought.

[Tom]

She turns off the TV after realizing that there is noting interessting on and picks up her guitar, tuning it at first, then she notices Ares frown. "Whats up bro?" She continues to tune her guitar.

Eros on the new planet crosses his arms looking at the report, he turns to his woman with a frown on his face, she stares at him, and a few rebels watching the report sniff.

[Paintcheck]

Ares sighs. "You heard about the Rout at Pharos right? That's what I'm thinking about."

He stretches out on the couch and interlaces his hands behind his head, watching Taylor tune her instrument with anticipation though it seems he can't get Pharos out of his head. At least you were able to get off that rock. And you made them pay for every inch of the capital city...of course she did also and she was left behind... He sighs again.

[Tom]

She tilts her head to the side, "That was your last mission. . . And she got captured. . . Didn't she? That was one of the few rebel victories though both sides Lost ALOT of people" she continues to tune her guitar. She starts to play a song called "Rhylynn"

Andy McKee - Rylynn - Acoustic Guitar - [url=http://www.candyrat.com]www.candyrat.com[/url]

[Paintcheck]

"Very good. Now tell me what my real name is, Ms. Observant." He chuckles. "As far as I know she's still alive though I haven't seen her since...since the evacuation." He stops, and then realizes he might as well tell her the whole story. After all you're already sharing your home with someone you met all of 2 days ago and were all set to kill with your bare hands at that time.

"It was the last couple days. We, Ash and I, were on the last flight in before they fully blockaded everything. And we knew that we were going to lose the planet but they wanted us to draw it out as long as possible so they could get a fleet together. So we get inserted and she and I decided to stick together because....well...we had hit it off pretty well in training despite the fact that she was a Highborn..." And damn she looked good in that dress the night she invited you over and- that memory causes a smile to flash across his face for an instant and then he continues, "...and this was our first deployment. By the time we all got there the enemy was pretty much at the capital city's gates I mean they were already evacuating all the nobles and shit. Which did wonders for morale." he rolls his eyes and keeps talking

"So we spend days in the city, getting pushed back little by little. We got really good at climbing rubble and using the sewers to get behind the enemy, get over them, get around them and our snipers were just doing work. But we didn't have any heavy artillery and no air support so basically anything bigger than a jeep and we couldn't do much. We were trying to stay as far out as possible and we'd let troops encircle us and walk past us so they'd think the area was safe. Which again worked brilliantly...until we had to move again. We got the call that the last ships out were leaving the next day.

We were in the top floor of this old apartment building and it was all bombed out and we were working out way back but by this time there were just so many rebels everywhere that we could only move at night and even then sometimes we had to literally walk through a rebel camp to retreat. Well we're in this building doing what we do, and we are getting pinned down and we know we have to move but we are absolutely surrounded and low on ammo since we've been shooting at stuff nonstop for several days and they are literally coming up the stair case. I was watching the stairs and she was still shooting out of the window and over the comms we here that the very last bird is about to leave so we basically charge down the stairs behind our guns just 'bambambambam' as fast as we can go and we book it as hard as we can getting shot at the whole way and then she gets hit and we have to stop. We duck into this building and we can literally see our ride out and she's bleeding and trying to move and we go up the stairs to get to the roof because the rebels are right behind us and are inside this building. So we get to the roof and I call for the bird to fly low and we'll jump into it and it flies by and I make the jump but she...but she stumbles or something and I'm inside the bird and it's booking it as fast as it can away from all this and I see her lying on the roof trying to crawl after us and she pulls out her gun and shoots the first few that come up the star well but she runs out of ammo and the last I saw of her was her being taken handcuffed by three rebels as we break the sound barrier and run home."

He takes a deep breath. "Play another song if you would. Please."

[Tom]

She nods not really having much to say besides "Im sorry."she sniffs relating to his story somehow she starts to play Motion Potion.

I wish there was something I could do for him to help him. . .

[Paintcheck]

"Not your fault." He listens to the crazy guitar song and when its over yawns. "Wow that was...impressive. I'm going to sleep. You can take my bed whenever you get tired." He stretches out on the couch and closes his eyes, in moments he's sleeping peacefully.

[Tom]

She nods at the compliment and goes off to bed herself since its really late and stuff.

[Paintcheck]

Ares opens an eye sleepily and looks at his watch and debates going back to sleep. His keen ears pick up a sound from inside another room in his house. His hand flies to his revolver and he bolts up...before remember that yes, of course someone else is in here, that girl. He sighs exasperatedly and holsters the gun. Swinging himself out of bed he heads to the fridge and grabs...something edible. He doesn't really pay attention to what it is as he shoves it into the microwave. He rubs his eyes and then his temples sleepily. Remembering Pharos did not put him in a good mood; thinking of Ashley ruined his sleep.

She's probably dead the cynical, practical side of him said. This side had been seeing more and more use these days. Or she's not and getting raped  and tortured every night. That thought was even less comforting. I need to find her. He smacks the counter top with a closed fist just as the microwave beeps. He removes the food, scarfs it down and tosses the wrapper into his trash disposal unit. He waits for Taylor to wake up.

[Tom]

Taylor snaps awake for some reason, and sits up, she looks around then yawns. She goes to the kitchen and trys to find something with Caffine in it, she nods to Ares "Good morning"

[Bucky]

// So this time Tom is the female and Paintcheck is the male?

[Tom]

// Not necassarily, I have 2 possibly 3 character 1 is Taylor the musician, 1 is Eros a high ranking rebel.

[Paintcheck]

"Taylor I know you were only in the rebellion for all of a week but did Eros give you any way to contact him at all or do you know how to contact anyone else? I know you're probably hesitant to give that information up but I need to know where Ashley is. I can't stop thinking about her, even just mentioning her last night has fucked me up."

He waits for a response. Long shot but...I need to know where to look.

[Tom]

She thinks for a few moments I didn't know any of them but. . . Should I really betray them all and release the acess codes to the Network? I could cause the rebelion to crumble do I really want that  blood on my hands? Then again I could always just tell him where Eroses PDA is located at the moment. . . I think Ill do that instead "I can find where Eroses PDA is. . . Its linked to a network of other PDA's you can track specific Rebels if you know there name, in this case its Eros, its for just incase a Rebel gets captured. . ."

She pulls out her PDA and types on it a bit, then shows Ares a large map of the Exusain Domain, she types in track PDA "Eros" it begins to hone in on sector 63, Then it hones in on Pharos, "He is on Pharos. . . Its probally where the Leader and your girlfriend is. . ."

[Paintcheck]

He WOULD be on Pharos...actually more like he WOULD have survived the raid.

"I asked for his contact info not where he is," Ares replies gently. He wasn't sure whether the absolute lack of security in the rebel camp was a good thing or a bad thing but at least he had a lead.

"Actually scratch that," says Ares, coming up with a new idea. "Let me see your PDA, I want to send him a message."

[Tom]

"Ummm. . ." Yeah but then I'd either have rebels thinking I tucked tail and ran and betrayed them, Or they may think I was captured BOTH of which seem really bad "Maybe I should just give you the contact info. . ."

[Paintcheck]

"I'd rather do it my way. If I send it from my PDA he'll know someone talked. If I send it from yours telling him you've been captured and a certain gunslinger would like some information in exchange for not putting a very large hole in your head he'd be more inclined to answer positively." Ares holds his hand out for the device.

[Tom]

She hands it over hesitantly "I hope you are right. . ."  Hopefully Eros takes the bait. . . I'd rather not die soon

[Paintcheck]

He starts to type out a message

Eros

They captured me at Isis. I'm so sorry but I can't resist any longer. The Gunslinger wants some information from you. He knows you survived the assault. He wants to know the location of a certain person, a Gunslinger named 'Athena' who apparently was captured at Pharos. Please answer in some way or they are going to execute me. Forgive me, Eros.

Taylor[/i]

He hands the PDA back to her "Is there anything here that doesn't look like something you would say?"

[Tom]

Taylor shrugs. He sends the message.

A few minutes later Eros replies.

Taylor? Taylor. . . OH YEAH TAYLOR! heh. . . Forgot who you where for a moment. . . So umm. . . Ask them why they want to know for me

~Eros

[Paintcheck]

Ares takes the PDA That was fast. Guess he really is still alive. Shame.

"Cheeky asshole. Alright let me see it." He takes the PDA back and types in another message.

Eros

They didn't like that question. PLEASE just tell them if you know where she is, Ares is not happy right now and he might just kill me.

Taylor

He holds it up for approval again.