daisy023 | REPORT 018 :: SIMULATION // ACTION

Entry tags:

REPORT 018 :: SIMULATION // ACTION | VOICE

[ACTION]

[Once again, SPARTAN-023 walks towards the Battle Dome, trying to see if it had been fixed already. Having been a raining day, yesterday was unbearable for the taller girl in a red jumpsuit, so she tries her luck again... But she stops on her tracks. She could hear something near the village. Her keen ears were able to hear familiar things from the woods.

The Chief Petty Officer walks towards these voices, and presses the voice function of her journal.

She removes the safety lock of her pistol.]

[VOICE]

[There is the low rustling of leaves, sign of someone moving stealthily... and whispers in a language that the wings translate into one deep military voice, and three high-pitched ones.

A lone alien voice yells in panic upon seeing the woman.]

Covenant!

[There are more alien screams of alert upon hearing the growl of the Spartan, before rapid gunshots mute one of the high-pitched voices, making the rest of the voices panic and shoot. The deep voice roars devout threats before it is interrupted by the sound of a broken body, followed by alien gunshots that mute the remaining voices.]

This is SPARTAN-023. I need a sitrep. Now.

((OOC: Set the moment the simulated drones begin to show up, at 12:00pm. Even if in this post Daisy is concerned over the Covenant, you can bring in your own monsters and items! :D))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I'm from a world without magic, too. Don't sweat it.

[She puts a hand over her injury, closing her eyes. Might as well test this herself now and see how much had she learned... The burn mark dissolves, replaced by renewed skin.

It feels just like MediGel. Daisy blinks before they continue their way.]

The Dome has safety limits, even when you want it to hurt you. Every time someone is harmed in a way that his life could be lost, the sim immediately shuts down. It can harm you, but never to kill you if you were unattended.

[She takes position near a corner, taking a quick peek.]

But you're right. For Covenant weapons, it's too weak.

[... Could it explain why hadn't they found more in these few moments?]

[Robert watches in fascination as the burn mark disappears like it was never even there. Well... he certainly needs to figure out a way to use this sometime.]

... That... c-could explain some things... p-perhaps this is a simulation similar to the B-Battle Dome's, then...? I mean, this entire enclosure is artificial... presumably there is a manner of controlling the simulations.

[It's actually reassuring if it's true. Then it means Daisy didn't really kill anything. Though Robert knows that if they had been real, she probably would've done the same thing. It's still enough to make his stomach drop - that fluid perfection her motions had had while killing...]

[The possibility makes her pause for a second.]

GLaDOS.

[She hisses to herself. Was that machine rampant?]

The way looks clear. I'll take point and cover you.

[The Spartan moves out of cover.

She had done the same when she first assumed the Covenant were real... Had she worn her armor, the title of "death machine" would have been more fitting than ever.]

[Robert isn't certain if GLaDOS could control the entire enclosure - though she certainly did seem capable of manipulating parts of the Battle Dome.]

A-Alright.

Wh-where should we be heading...? [Even as he asks, he's setting himself up for another short dash. He doesn't think he can ever remember hearing where Daisy lived, and it will be even harder to get there than it would normally.]

Community Housing five. Seventh floor. Crossing the bridge.

[She dashes to the front, directing her weapon everywhere she was unable to look.

There were more threats, but they hadn't seen them yet.]

Go.

[Robert nods again, lining himself up for the sprint. He's definitely not the trained body Daisy is - not even a ghost of it - but he is going to make this count as much as he damn well can.

And when Daisy says go, he starts running.

The time spent in Luceti has greatly increased his strength and endurance - enough that his flat sprint actually covers the distance to the bridge in a surprisingly short time, and though his breathing is a little ragged he's able to keep it up without significantly slowing, trying to make his way to Community Building Five.

Of course, the environment might decide not to cooperate with either of them...]

[He had improved. Daisy reminds herself to offer Robert a chance to exercise and zen together once this thing ends... And once he comes to terms with what he saw her do.

Her eyes still scan the area, with her weapon at forty-five degrees, and spots a Jackal that locks on to them.

Daisy shoots the creature in the chest before it can raise its' shield.]

We're not far off!

[Robert tries not to watch the precise firing of Daisy's weapon into the abdomen of the avian-like creature. He tries not to think about how reflexive, how easily done it was.

This is Daisy. This is... what she does. It's what she's been trained to do. It makes sense that she would be able to kill so efficiently - just, seeing it in action right there is disconcerting.

The burn in his lungs distracts him from all else, and he keeps up his sprint until the Community Building looms into their vision - patchwork, with pieces of random worlds stuck into and onto it at random. He wonders how much of it is actually the building, right now.]

[The Spartan knows what the Doctor may be thinking right now. About what she is. Even people from her world were amazed at how easily could she and her group end lives. This talk... would have to be one they'd need to have.

But not now.

She notices the shift in worlds melded into her building. As if pieces of many places had been stuck along with her quarters.]

Oh, come on.

[Daisy says to herself.

She stands by the side of the door, directs Robert to do the same, then opens the door with her weapon moving in a trained pattern to clear a building. The interior looked like the ruins of a mesoamerican civilization consumed by vegetation.

She goes up the stairs that had been changed for stonework that reminded her of the last draft. Her floor should be found soon enough. They were close.]

[Robert picks his way through the thick carpet of foliage that obscures everything. If he wasn't so worried about what it might bring, he'd be examining everything. It's beautiful and it piques his scientific curiosity intensely, and he really wishes that it didn't accompany this event, or that at least there was nothing dangerous about it.]

Ms. D-Daisy...? Is... is the way clear?

[He trusts her judgment far more than he trusts his own in this case.]

I don't see anything.

[It is honesty. As augmented as her senses were, she could be taken by surprise.

She goes up the stairs, seventh floor, then to the stone door where her room should be. Like when they first found the Community Housing, she stands by the side. She opens the the door...]

[And her stance slowly breaks. Her weapon lays low in one hand. She stands still for almost a minute.

Beyond her door, she sees an island.]

[Robert's jaw drops, and he stares open-mouthed for a moment. He hadn't expected this much... space could fit in an apartment.

... An entire island. And it's beautiful.]

M-M... Ms. Daisy...?

[He cautiously extends his fingers, expecting a wall that doesn't greet them.] ...

[In spite of all her training, combat experience, and everything she had gone through in two worlds, all of her senses are overwhelmed. Thousands of memories come to her. Tastes, words, games, toys.

She mutters things too low for anyone to hear.

Robert's words bring her back to Luceti. Her pupils return to normal. Daisy looks at the scientist, awkwardly. This time, her eyes completely separate from those of the weapon Robert had seen seconds ago.]

I'm fine. [She mutters. Insincere to herself.] I'm fine.

... Let's move.

[Those same thoughts had crossed her mind. Maybe the Dome had found a way to mess with space.

She takes point, but her march is slow, almost a walk. Her weapon is high to check for threats, but she hears nothing alien. Nothing that shouldn't be there.

She hears the ocean. She feels its' breeze. She sees the flowers in the gardens of that house.

Her house.]

[Robert is... more confused than anything. Daisy seems lost, almost, to him. Like she isn't quite sure of anything right now. He can't read expressions well, but he's starting to get used to hers, and her eyes...

He feels overcome by the inane urge to protect her. Him. The pathetic barely-under-five-foot-five scrawny little scientist, protecting the sculpted death machine...

... Nevertheless, he goes to gently take her hand, if she'll allow it.

Either way, he'll fall into step with her, taking in the sights of a foreign ocean - a foreign ocean that, by all rights, should never fit in this building.]

[The Covenant are a familiar threat. She knows what to do in combat. It is part of her being, and she had no reason to hesitate in battle. It's what she is. Battle does not faze her. It was where she belonged.

But this is different. She doesn't know what to do. She is shaken.]

--Sir?

[Daisy's head bolts when seeing Robert's hand. She looks at it... And hesitatingly takes it. Her weapon lowers.

Passing the arch, they reach the cobbled roads near to the house and garage, along with gardens that surround the island with the variety and colours of a lush world. The girl looks everywhere, but not in the way she studied her environment. She stops, and her posture softens as she looks in silence.

There is an empty electronic wheelchair in the roads. Hidden amidst a batch of orchids, engraved with long hair, a younger smile, and a frail appearance, a tomb with Daisy's face on it.]

[Robert was about to ask Daisy if she knew this place.

And then he sees the tomb and he knows.

For a long, quiet moment, all he can do is stare. Daisy's face is on that tomb. It doesn't look like the Daisy standing next to him - maybe soon he'll realize that face is too young to be hers - but for a horrible moment he stares and he thinks the woman standing next to him is dead and this is where she died.

... She is dead, of course, but for an entirely different reason.

His grip tightens against hers, and his gray eyes sting, but he tries to keep his voice steady.]

... I'm sorry.

It's not me. [It is a saddened look, but of something she knew would happen long ago.] It was someone else.

[She took her place. She took her life. But Daisy could not blame her. She could only hope that this person lived a good life, and that unlike the monster that did all of these things to them, that her parents gave her the love they would've given their true daughter.

Daisy directs Robert towards the house. A sign not to dwell on this, for the two of them.]

Good bye, sister.

[The girl thinks to herself, before she opens the doors.

A massive house that had been adorned with vegetation and windows with the same delicacy and care as they had been on the outside. The kitchen, the dining room, the stairs to the bedrooms, and living room, could all be seen from the center.]

Armor's got to be around somewhere.

[She needs to keep herself focused on something. Remember that none of this is real. Even if she wishes it to be.]

[Robert is confused, for a moment. He isn't quite sure what to think. Someone else who looks nearly exactly like Daisy...]

... A twin...?

[But she's already pulling him into the house, and so he follows her with little protest.

It's actually a very nice house with a radial arrangement that is pleasing to Robert's mind. He keeps an eye out for the flash of red that would indicate Daisy's armour.]

... Are... are you certain it would be here, in... in this house?

It wasn't out there. It has to be in one of the rooms.

[She evades the first question. She could've told him it is classified information... But, so were her name and her origins.

Spartans are obsessed with their armors, they can spot it better than anyone. Daisy directs him upstairs, through a large room, into a bedroom with a single bed by a big window.

Surrounded by stacks of plush toys, electronics, and furniture covered in "get well" wishes, the MJOLNIR Mark IV.]

... Ah.

[That is such a jarring contrast. So very jarring.]

... Th-there it is.

[He is still painfully curious about this place, but Daisy doesn't seem to want to answer.]

[She picks the helmet, and makes a quick check with her radar to see if things were idyllic enough not to have anything in this place. There were only the Spartan and the scientist. She removes it.]

Doesn't seem there's anything in here. [Strange that a combat scenario wouldn't load enemies.] We can use this place to rest. The kitchen should be to the right of the main door.

[This is not an order, but an offer... An option that Daisy herself wants to take.]

... I... I would be glad to, but...

[As Robert retraces his steps back to the main room, he asks - fearfully, as if he expects Daisy to be angry:]

Wh-where... where exactly are we, if... if I may ask?

[Her grip on her helmet increases, but it is not of anger. It's of melancholy. She doesn't know how much could she tell him. But for the things they had gone through today, he deserved to know some of what was happening.

Daisy does not answer at first. She looks at the window of her room.]

My home.

Your home... [It raises more questions than it answers, but he says the first thing that comes to mind.]

It is... a beautiful place.

[He's being entirely sincere. Save the pieces of Terra, this is one of the loveliest areas he's seen so far.

He smiles gently, though it's a little wavery.]

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