Oh man, these dropships were awesome. Cassie twisted precariously in the five-point harness that strapped her down to the row of jumper seats bolted to the interior wall of the aircraft, hoping to get a good look out of the cockpit windows as they began their nose-dive to Libra’s surface. The mass of little butterflies that hid in her began fluttering to life all at once and lifted her stomach. They frenzied to churn all her stored adrenaline through her body faster and faster and the buzz of it thrummed through her every nerve-ending to make her light and giddy. She loved that feeling. Constantly strove for it, really. Everything was so much more keen, more real… more alive. The boundless energy that normally simmered beneath the thin layers of her skin, waiting for the opportunity to explode forth, began to boil.
She couldn’t help but grin, especially as the excitement from the others bounced around the ship, but still didn’t peel her glittering black eyes from the tiny slice of window she had snagged from her current angle. She watched as they blasted through the layers of the planet’s atmosphere quickly. She felt the steadily increasing jostle of metal as the ship muscled it’s way into the condensing air and Cassie’s excitement rode along beside it. Only when they had busted through the last layers of cloud cover did the 'Dan' finally lift its nose to decrease speed and Cassie took that as her cue to release the catch of her harness and stand up; riding the last few thousand feet down with only a hand on the wall to steady herself.
The drop came to a complete halt and Cassie pushed herself off the wall to head for their little transport craft. She grabbed up the nearest ratchet strap that secured it down to the floor of the ship and loosened it up enough so the troopers could unhook it from the other side. Helping was good, and she was glad to lend a hand, and hurrying up the start to their mission was even better.
"Hey!"
Cass threw her eyes towards Selene, and she had a no-nonsense look about her that made the other woman reluctantly join the group to hear the plan. Regardless of the fact that their Anatolia born friend rarely followed the things to begin with, calling what the sergeant had told them a “plan” was generous at best. Even by Cassie standards. Actually, to be fair it was pretty close to what she would have come up with had she been forced into the job. Essentially, go there and do a thing. She could probably handle that.
Cassie liked the marshes, she decided as she watched the landscape speed by from her position hanging halfway off the little cruiser. They weren’t all that pretty, exactly, and the smell was a little off with all the stagnant water around, but it was real. Not a synthetic, terra-formed sciencey land like Elysium had, but actual Libra. And not home either, exactly, but it was closer than she had been to it in a long time. Hell, if you added a little permafrost and some white, it’d look just like many parts of her home continent. All flat and brooding in its icy hibernation. She smiled into the rushing wind.
A heavy jolt from the opposite side of the craft launched her out of her musings, but luckily not off the side of the vehicle. She had instinctively flung her sword away from the impending crashing halt though, because flailing bodies around an unwieldy, stupidly sharp beast as hers was not the best thing to have. And because accidentally decapitating, de-limbing, gutting, or otherwise maiming her best friends was not very high up there on her list of ‘fun things to do.’ She’d really need to work out an appropriate sheath to house her uniquely constructed blades when they got back.
Two things became very apparent to Cassie then. One, she probably had too good of a throwing arm for her own good. And two, they were being attacked by a large fish… thing. Wren already had a head start on her and was running headlong at it, but now she had to get her sword back? Everyone else was going to kill the stupid beastie before she even got a single lick in. Lame. "Shit! Time out, guys! I wanna play too!"
She dashed, or at least slogged as fast as she could, towards the hilt of her weapon sticking resolutely out of the marsh waters. She didn’t dare try to Pull the thing to her. As simple as her two oldest spirits may have seemed to work at a quick glance, they were actually incredibly finicky, intricate things. There were a lot of factors that changed the velocity in which things moved to or away from her, and she had learned the hard way that her sword had a tendency to hurtle. She had also learned the hard way that trying to catch said hurtling sword was not the greatest. So she ran.
She grabbed the sword up and gave it a good flick to dislodge all the muck that had jammed between the spacers. Now, she thought, she was more than willing to use Pull. Immediately two little wisps of spirits appeared whirling complicatedly around her person, chasing each other but always maintaining a precise, equal distance between them. Always together, but opposites, Cassie suspected they were somehow spirit-twins.The one with the coppery sheen was Pull, and Push a bright silver.
Cass jumped straight up out of the water, getting herself at the proper angle, before rocketing herself back towards the fight via the metal of their transport. She’d stopped pulling nearly as quickly as she had started, but the strength of it gave her more than enough momentum to make the sixty or so yard horizontal leap. Guardian strength meant that she didn’t snap her legs as they impacted with the ship, and instead she used that energy to spring off the vehicle. A little change in trajectory had her flying towards their fishy enemy, who was currently enjoying a few fireballs courtesy of Aurelia, and she adjusted the grip ever so slightly on her sword in preparation for a swing.
A torrent of water from the Mordrem clipped her right side as she closed the distance between them, attempting to throw her off from her stationary target. And while it did send her into a far less graceful, spinning flight than what she had previously employed, Cassie still managed to orient herself enough to angle her sword so that she cut a deep line along its mushy side as she tumbled past.
Cassie’s descent into marsh waters was pretty spectacular, her speed making her skip on her ass a few times like a flat rock before coming to final, big splashing stop. She popped back up onto her feet immediately, grinning widely despite the slight dizziness she had from all the head over heels spinning and the fact that her pocket pancakes had undoubtedly been ruined from the swampy waters. Ah well. On the up side, she was now stood flanking their oozing friend; If he hadn’t decided to lay down and die yet, he was about to.
She couldn’t help but grin, especially as the excitement from the others bounced around the ship, but still didn’t peel her glittering black eyes from the tiny slice of window she had snagged from her current angle. She watched as they blasted through the layers of the planet’s atmosphere quickly. She felt the steadily increasing jostle of metal as the ship muscled it’s way into the condensing air and Cassie’s excitement rode along beside it. Only when they had busted through the last layers of cloud cover did the 'Dan' finally lift its nose to decrease speed and Cassie took that as her cue to release the catch of her harness and stand up; riding the last few thousand feet down with only a hand on the wall to steady herself.
The drop came to a complete halt and Cassie pushed herself off the wall to head for their little transport craft. She grabbed up the nearest ratchet strap that secured it down to the floor of the ship and loosened it up enough so the troopers could unhook it from the other side. Helping was good, and she was glad to lend a hand, and hurrying up the start to their mission was even better.
"Hey!"
Cass threw her eyes towards Selene, and she had a no-nonsense look about her that made the other woman reluctantly join the group to hear the plan. Regardless of the fact that their Anatolia born friend rarely followed the things to begin with, calling what the sergeant had told them a “plan” was generous at best. Even by Cassie standards. Actually, to be fair it was pretty close to what she would have come up with had she been forced into the job. Essentially, go there and do a thing. She could probably handle that.
Cassie liked the marshes, she decided as she watched the landscape speed by from her position hanging halfway off the little cruiser. They weren’t all that pretty, exactly, and the smell was a little off with all the stagnant water around, but it was real. Not a synthetic, terra-formed sciencey land like Elysium had, but actual Libra. And not home either, exactly, but it was closer than she had been to it in a long time. Hell, if you added a little permafrost and some white, it’d look just like many parts of her home continent. All flat and brooding in its icy hibernation. She smiled into the rushing wind.
A heavy jolt from the opposite side of the craft launched her out of her musings, but luckily not off the side of the vehicle. She had instinctively flung her sword away from the impending crashing halt though, because flailing bodies around an unwieldy, stupidly sharp beast as hers was not the best thing to have. And because accidentally decapitating, de-limbing, gutting, or otherwise maiming her best friends was not very high up there on her list of ‘fun things to do.’ She’d really need to work out an appropriate sheath to house her uniquely constructed blades when they got back.
Two things became very apparent to Cassie then. One, she probably had too good of a throwing arm for her own good. And two, they were being attacked by a large fish… thing. Wren already had a head start on her and was running headlong at it, but now she had to get her sword back? Everyone else was going to kill the stupid beastie before she even got a single lick in. Lame. "Shit! Time out, guys! I wanna play too!"
She dashed, or at least slogged as fast as she could, towards the hilt of her weapon sticking resolutely out of the marsh waters. She didn’t dare try to Pull the thing to her. As simple as her two oldest spirits may have seemed to work at a quick glance, they were actually incredibly finicky, intricate things. There were a lot of factors that changed the velocity in which things moved to or away from her, and she had learned the hard way that her sword had a tendency to hurtle. She had also learned the hard way that trying to catch said hurtling sword was not the greatest. So she ran.
She grabbed the sword up and gave it a good flick to dislodge all the muck that had jammed between the spacers. Now, she thought, she was more than willing to use Pull. Immediately two little wisps of spirits appeared whirling complicatedly around her person, chasing each other but always maintaining a precise, equal distance between them. Always together, but opposites, Cassie suspected they were somehow spirit-twins.The one with the coppery sheen was Pull, and Push a bright silver.
Cass jumped straight up out of the water, getting herself at the proper angle, before rocketing herself back towards the fight via the metal of their transport. She’d stopped pulling nearly as quickly as she had started, but the strength of it gave her more than enough momentum to make the sixty or so yard horizontal leap. Guardian strength meant that she didn’t snap her legs as they impacted with the ship, and instead she used that energy to spring off the vehicle. A little change in trajectory had her flying towards their fishy enemy, who was currently enjoying a few fireballs courtesy of Aurelia, and she adjusted the grip ever so slightly on her sword in preparation for a swing.
A torrent of water from the Mordrem clipped her right side as she closed the distance between them, attempting to throw her off from her stationary target. And while it did send her into a far less graceful, spinning flight than what she had previously employed, Cassie still managed to orient herself enough to angle her sword so that she cut a deep line along its mushy side as she tumbled past.
Cassie’s descent into marsh waters was pretty spectacular, her speed making her skip on her ass a few times like a flat rock before coming to final, big splashing stop. She popped back up onto her feet immediately, grinning widely despite the slight dizziness she had from all the head over heels spinning and the fact that her pocket pancakes had undoubtedly been ruined from the swampy waters. Ah well. On the up side, she was now stood flanking their oozing friend; If he hadn’t decided to lay down and die yet, he was about to.
