Need to Know 1/?
anonymous
March 31 2014, 20:14:30 UTC
Chapter One
Miranda Lawson was in trouble. Again. This time she actually knew she was careless, but she was getting tired of running and the short bursts of ten-minute talks she could have with Oriana. Even though the red light started to blink on her secondary console, she ignored it and let her sister finish her story.
Miranda set up shop in an empty office on the Embassies district on the Citadel, where she could piggyback her signal on the encrypted diplomatic channels and talk to Oriana on Illium. As long as she was not listening in on communications, she was safe from the detection from the authorities. However, she knew that Cerberus agents were after her, and they could trace her back if they eavesdropped on Oriana.
Miranda set up an elaborate workstation, attaching a datapad and an untraceable second omnitool that monitored the call and all the searches and responses. A third display tapped into the security feeds so she could see everything around the office complex, while they talked. Right now, warnings were blinking, informing Miranda that she has been traced, estimating response time at seven minutes. Still, she ignored the signals and the pop-up countdown and let Oriana finish her story.
“That sounds great, Ori,” Miranda nodded, trying to hide the tension and the despair from her voice. It has been months since she was on the run, chased by Cerberus assassins, an Alliance APB out on her, and she was tired. She just didn’t care about the consequences any more. For once, she needed to have a proper conversation with her sister. Up until now. But if she wanted to have a chance of ever speaking to her again, she had to wrap up now. “Listen, uh, I might not be able to call you for a while.”
Oriana nodded solemnly. She knew that Miranda was on the run, but not the details and the severity. “Is it that bad?” “Nothing that I can’t handle. But I’m going to run out of resources if I’m not careful.” “I understand. How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine,” Miranda shrugged. “I admit, it gets lonely, but I’m still a step ahead of them. And I need to keep it that way. So don’t worry, if you don’t hear from me. I will keep in touch.” “I see.” There was no trace left of her earlier enthusiasm, when she talked about school and projects and her plans for life. “Take care of yourself.”
Miranda glanced to the monitors that showed movement on empty corridors, some of the feeds going dark. She really needed to hurry. “I will.” “I love you, sis.” Miranda nodded back with a faint smile and cut the feed before she would get too emotional. She lost a few more seconds, staring at the darkening screens before moving to action, reattaching her omnitool, frying the datapad and the secondary terminal with a tiny pulse that would wipe all info from the memory crystals.
She had just enough time to register the two assassins closing in on her location before the video feeds died. She looked around the dim embassy office, eyeing the balcony as potentially the best escape route she had. Probably the assassins knew this, too, so she couldn’t go for it right away. Miranda left the screen on, set the chair up like somebody was sitting in it and slipped to the wall, crouching down near the door, waiting. She didn’t have to wait long.
There was a quiet chirping and the door started moving silently, pulled away manually by one of the attackers, just wide enough to slip in. Miranda leaped as soon as the shadow stepped inside, grabbing a wrist and pressing it into the assassin’s chest as Miranda went for the tackle, while the dark figure was only one leg inside.
There was a quiet grunt as the assassin lost her balance, Miranda landing on top of her, the gun trapped between their bodies, her phantom’s one leg caught in the door. Miranda lifted a glowing blue fist and slammed it down on her head, cracking helmet, knocking the killer unconscious with barely a sound.
Miranda Lawson was in trouble. Again. This time she actually knew she was careless, but she was getting tired of running and the short bursts of ten-minute talks she could have with Oriana. Even though the red light started to blink on her secondary console, she ignored it and let her sister finish her story.
Miranda set up shop in an empty office on the Embassies district on the Citadel, where she could piggyback her signal on the encrypted diplomatic channels and talk to Oriana on Illium. As long as she was not listening in on communications, she was safe from the detection from the authorities. However, she knew that Cerberus agents were after her, and they could trace her back if they eavesdropped on Oriana.
Miranda set up an elaborate workstation, attaching a datapad and an untraceable second omnitool that monitored the call and all the searches and responses. A third display tapped into the security feeds so she could see everything around the office complex, while they talked. Right now, warnings were blinking, informing Miranda that she has been traced, estimating response time at seven minutes. Still, she ignored the signals and the pop-up countdown and let Oriana finish her story.
“That sounds great, Ori,” Miranda nodded, trying to hide the tension and the despair from her voice. It has been months since she was on the run, chased by Cerberus assassins, an Alliance APB out on her, and she was tired. She just didn’t care about the consequences any more. For once, she needed to have a proper conversation with her sister. Up until now. But if she wanted to have a chance of ever speaking to her again, she had to wrap up now. “Listen, uh, I might not be able to call you for a while.”
Oriana nodded solemnly. She knew that Miranda was on the run, but not the details and the severity.
“Is it that bad?”
“Nothing that I can’t handle. But I’m going to run out of resources if I’m not careful.”
“I understand. How are you holding up?”
“I’m fine,” Miranda shrugged. “I admit, it gets lonely, but I’m still a step ahead of them. And I need to keep it that way. So don’t worry, if you don’t hear from me. I will keep in touch.”
“I see.” There was no trace left of her earlier enthusiasm, when she talked about school and projects and her plans for life. “Take care of yourself.”
Miranda glanced to the monitors that showed movement on empty corridors, some of the feeds going dark. She really needed to hurry.
“I will.”
“I love you, sis.”
Miranda nodded back with a faint smile and cut the feed before she would get too emotional. She lost a few more seconds, staring at the darkening screens before moving to action, reattaching her omnitool, frying the datapad and the secondary terminal with a tiny pulse that would wipe all info from the memory crystals.
She had just enough time to register the two assassins closing in on her location before the video feeds died. She looked around the dim embassy office, eyeing the balcony as potentially the best escape route she had. Probably the assassins knew this, too, so she couldn’t go for it right away.
Miranda left the screen on, set the chair up like somebody was sitting in it and slipped to the wall, crouching down near the door, waiting.
She didn’t have to wait long.
There was a quiet chirping and the door started moving silently, pulled away manually by one of the attackers, just wide enough to slip in. Miranda leaped as soon as the shadow stepped inside, grabbing a wrist and pressing it into the assassin’s chest as Miranda went for the tackle, while the dark figure was only one leg inside.
There was a quiet grunt as the assassin lost her balance, Miranda landing on top of her, the gun trapped between their bodies, her phantom’s one leg caught in the door. Miranda lifted a glowing blue fist and slammed it down on her head, cracking helmet, knocking the killer unconscious with barely a sound.
Reply
Leave a comment