15 Miranda
'Status...'
She voiced the word over and over in her mind.
And a blue screen popped up spontaneously every time.
As expected.
*Personal Status Overview*
------------------------------
Name: Miranda Ve Rhea
Job Descriptions: Mercenary lvl.8, Chosen lvl.3
Species/Race: Elvheim Andii
Level: 32
HP: 100/100
Stamina: 74/100
Satiety: 89%(89/100)
BP-Proficiency lvl.4 (63%)
------------------------------
Charisma: 13
Physical Proficiency: 15
Agility: 26
Wisdom: 55
Physical Defense: 46 (+44 Armor)
Mental Defense: 41
------------------------------
*Additional stats* -View-
She waited a few minutes for the screen to disappear, shifted uncomfortably on the sleek, green supply container she sat upon, looked around at the spacious area in which she resided...
Then voiced it once again.
The blue screen never ceased to please, in its repetitive presence before her.
...
It was becoming a nervous habit. Something she had started to build up over the years. She knew it too.
...
Even so, Miranda continued to repeat the process over and over, but the sudden flapping at the entrance to the tent she was in, pressured her into suppressing all of it.
A figure illuminated greatly under the outside light, revealed themselves, looking around as if searching for a hiding child, then came to rest its eyes upon her.
"There you are! I was looking everywhere for you!"
They seemed indignant at first, but after a moment of silence, sighed out in exhaustion. Taking notice of Miranda's mood.
"You weren't brooding again were you?"
Miranda immediately faced the being and scoffed.
"Of course not!..... I don't "brood", Tiv'va..."
"...I'm just...a little nervous, is all."
The being, Tiv'va, looked Skeptically at her, then spoke in a lighter tone.
"I don't see why....the mission is only to investigate that weird, small door somebody found by accident at the foot of the mesa-"
"It's not that..." Miranda interrupted.
"Then I don't understand what it could be", Tiv'va, with her strong face and blue eyes made a sarcastic gesture, throwing her arms into the air.
"You are a Chosen, after all, missions such as this shouldn't even put a drop of sweat under your brow. I really don't understand why you doubt your own capabilities so much"
"....that's the problem", Miranda Murmured.
Tiv'va perked up at this.
"What?!...don't tell me...you actually... want to do work?!"
"No!!!" Miranda yelled out in annoyance, "The problem...it that I AM a Chosen...yet my current strength...gives me no rights to such a title."
...
Her only response was Tiv'va's confused expression.
"That makes no sense...."
Miranda sighed, standing up and adjusting the leather armor she was fitted in.
'If she had my experiences...and knew what it meant to BE...a chosen Elvheim...she would...'
Her mind flashed back to the day the sky was blood red on Sava V, the air stank of war, and screams reigned everywhere.
She remembered how she couldn't save her, that red-haired girl, who had been a friend for life, from being pinned under the metal beams of a building on fire. She felt...powerless...for the first time...Even more so when another companion, an Uminos Andii of all types of beings, desperately ran in... tried to do the same... And actually managed it. Succeeded where she couldn't.
She remembered his face as he tried to drag her torn body out from the flames...to safety, but ended up having to leave her there...
Miranda felt relentlessly more worthless in the fact that she couldn't find the strength to even help him...
The rest of that event was a blur of pain and misery.
'Who am I as a "Chosen" being unable to do what even an Uminos can?'
'What is to say that in a similar situation...I will not falter....and fail to live up to the expectations placed upon me...resulting in the death of my companions...like with Sera'
.
In the end...Miranda dismissed such thoughts...standing up and adjusting the leather armor she was fitted in. Her unnatural white eyes, Traits only seen in the Elvheim, as were her pointed ears, burned in fiery determination.
"Then lets head out, shall we"
Tiv'va stood there, still confused, at what had taken place.
.
__
.
As the two snuck out of the large tent; designated as one for supplies (and also Miranda's secret brooding place), a large portion of the surrounding camp became visible.
It wasn't massive or enormous, for a settlement, it was quite small in fact, but it served the needs of an Elvheim/Unimos Andii society.
Just because this was a bandit-infested planet, did not mean, that everyone was a bandit.
People of both races could be spotted lingering around or inside of tents, most, however, were feasting or chatting away at the dining hall; another large tent, similar to the one she had been in, except fitted with tables and other such things. The kitchen was another entity altogether.
.
This wasn't a bandit encampment, contrary to what outsiders would view it as. The armor worn by her fellow mercenaries was confusing, after all, sending mixed signals to the eyes. She may be wearing leather, but it was a special kind, coated in a common substance, used to lessen the effects of a plasma blast and weaken kinetic damage.
Nonetheless, It was a cheap armor.
Although she was a Chosen; Meaning, unlike many others of her kind, she could manipulate BP-Particles and therefore enhance her body and mind, she was not rich. In fact, no one was. Except for bandit warlords, who even then, had relatively few possessions, because possessions - could be stolen.
She and Tiv'va proceeded towards the far edge of the encampment, where the small Runner stables were.
Runners were an ostrich-like creature that ran up and down the deserts of Sava V. They were useful in a sense that they only needed the bare-minimum of water; pumped from wells, pulling it from underground, to live. They also had an attractive speed to them, not nearly as fast as a motorized vehicle, but enough to be worth the while of raising and breeding.
.
They met up with a group, mainly consisting of Uminos, dressed in bandit styled arrangements; as they were just back from the completion of another mission - given by the settlements "directors", most likely one having to do with the infiltration of a nearby bandits nest.
"Directors" were just fancy names given to the old people around here, ensuring that everything within this fine establishment remained in order. With guards. Rules. And laws. They even went so far as to hire mercenaries... to complete "missions" for them.
Missions...
Things they paid people like Miranda for...
"Looks like we've got 'The chosen one' on our next our next fiasco boys, try not to get your minds fucked up." Were the first words she heard upon entering the stables. After that. Resounding laughter.
'...'
Miranda nor Tiv'va paid any mind to it.... it was... typical.
Mercenaries weren't much different from bandits. Aside from stealing things, and killing people, they also operated under the policy; "Its mine if I kill you for it", and "I'll respect you a little if you've killed more than I have"
Miranda pertained to the latter.
Before she had met and befriended Tiv'va, another lonesome soul in the deserts.
Before conforming to the rules of settlement society, she was herself, a bandit. In a renowned bandit group.
The group was small, with only eight members, six of which presumably died, and the last other member vanished from her sights....but to her....it all ended with the death of its leader...
Anyhow, according to plan. The mercenaries disembarked on Runners towards the described location, and after arriving, in an unexpectedly easy search, found the entrance. The numerous and grand mesas didn't seem to care for hiding it at all. Leading to thoughts on how it wasn't discovered much earlier.
...No abnormal happenings or events played out so far.
But... It was in that moment that they had opened the door...that Miranda felt...disturbed...
It was like...she knew....that entering "that" place was the single worst, most "wrong" choice.
Exactly as it turned out to be.
It all began with the footsteps; loud metallic banging noises like a hammer up against Iron, mere minutes after they had entered and begun exploring the insides of whatever dis-used base they had discovered.
At first, she had mistaken them for the sounds of a potentially salvageable and operational machine that had continued to run after the base was abandoned. However, the place was completely empty. Unnerving her.
Then it was the screams of her fellow mercenaries, who had separated in attempts to quicken the pace and complete the mission; to explore the area. She knew then... that everything about this place was off.
She started to hurriedly make her way towards the exit. Wondering every bit of the way if Tiv'va had begun to do the same.
Along the way, piece by piece, and in a trail of blood, did she discover the remains of a familiar face.
'...This can't be right...'
A massive figure held a body in its red grip. Round, bulbous shoulders.
'Can it...?'
"Tiv'va?"
.
A single eye, rotated from a fixed point, erratically, to face her. The object in its grip, spasmed with the movement.
She began to think that this horrifying image, would possibly be one of her last.
...
But a sudden yank off of her feet, backward, left her screaming out of surprise and fear.
"I think you're screaming might get me killed faster than that thing will"
Miranda heard an unmistakably familiar voice while being hefted into a bridal style carry.
She then looked up to find the corresponding handsome face.
"W-wh-wha....Carrian?!!!", Miranda couldn't believe her eyes.
.
"I'd be quiet now if I were you..."
"...It said it could barely help control my movements over so great of a distance, with 'just that "tiny" helmet'."
The face contorted into a worried smile.
"And I'd rather there not be any kind of audible interference...
... while we run for our lives."
