Twitching fingers, bloodshot eyes

'Deep Breaths' she thought, as she ran for her life from the trail of Mortiigs that surrounded her, nipping at her flesh, clawing at her armor, tearing pieces off of her exarch robes she "aquired" from a none-too-friendly devoutist.
But that seemed like so long ago, and it most definately was far away.

Raav ran, occassionally turning around to burst of a few rounds into the nearest Mortiig tailing her. The bullets ripped through the beast's chest, seemingly not phasing it at all. Popping the clip out of her Machine Pistol and sliding in a new one, Raav continued to run, straight into seemingly friendly territory.

She hugged a wall and glanced back. The Mortiigs howled in anger and plotted back to their territory, looking for another hapless wanderer to devour. Or kill. Or is it hunt? Raav didn't want to think about the what ifs and whys the mortiigs did what they did. Pushing the thought out of her mind, she looked around to gain her bearings. A gag arose from her throat and she spat on the ground.

Everything was white. Too white. Too...nice.

'Yeck' Raav wiped what was left of her exarch sleeve across her mouth. She felt completely out of place. The beasts, aliens, whatever they were, glanced over. Raav felt a wave of uneasiness wash over her. Adjusting her novelty W.W.P.R.D. bracelet. She approached the nearest of them. Tall beams of light arose from its backside. The humanoid carried a huge irredescant sword made out of what appeared to be a combination of crystal and light, possibly notum. As she approached, her initial questions were answered. They were sentinent.

"You are not welcome among us." the creature thing bellowed. "Leave."

Raav was a bit taken back by this. What the hell did she do to deserve this kind of treatment? "Oh I was planning on it." Raav cocked her weapon "but I have a few questions first."

to be continued...

The redeemed creatures regarded Raav with slight interest and nothing more. Raav couldn't believe it. She fired a shot into the air, somewhat phasing none of them.

"Leave" repeated the monster. "You are too young. Too new. You have yet to find your path."

Raav then noticed she had the attention of the entire city, something she did not notice before. Peering through the doorways and out the cracks of the hallowed temples, sets of eyes were watching, waiting. She could feel the attention she was getting growing, throbbing and pulsating higher and higher. The entire village was waiting, watching, seeming, as far as she could tell, ready to pounce upon her at a moments notice. She could take down 1, maybe 2, she thought, but 30? 40? These creatures all seemed connected somehow, as if some mystical force, perhaps being? was linking them together.

Raav decided it was best to leave. This would have to be investigated further, but at a later time. Perhaps when she knew more about these creatures. Knew their weak spot.

Raav crossed the terrain, keeping mind of the territorial Mortiigs that she ran from just moments ago. She rose a hand to sheild her eyes away from the piercing sun in the sky as she continued onward. Something didn't seem right. Was she being tracked? Hunted perhaps?

Hearing a twig snap, Raav spun around and shot a short 3-second burst in the direction it came from. Knowing their cover was blown, a hunting party of 3 Koolanas yowled with rage and started sprinting towards her. Raav backed a few steps and fired again, maintaining her distance and keeping her composure. One of the creatures slapped a claw across her face, slashing a gash under her right eye. Raav returned the favor and flung a bullet straight into its its neck, and watched with glee as the creature yelped in pain and reeled back. Raav took the oppertunity to dispatch the creature with a well placed 3 round. 1 down, 2 to go.

Raav snapped a tight stance to the koolana to her right, but she wasn't fast enough to deflect its blow. It clawed at her shoulder, piercing her flesh with its sheer stregnth. Raav staggered back, dazed by the blow. 'Stupid' she thought to herself. She was never one for evasive actions.

Raav activated her personal nanomachines coursing through her body. The creatures might be quick, but she also has some tricks up her sleeve. Feeling a warm glow coming from within, she could feel the cuts heal, the pain numb and the scars fade as her body pulsated with a bright red light. The Koolana regarded her with a moments curiosity, not sure what to think, but immediately began their attack again. They did't know what she did, but they knew they didn't like it.

From a distance, Raav her 3 more howls. Another hunting party? The yowls were getting closer and closer, and she quicky assessed the situation. Now or never. Activating her personal nanomachines once more, she emptied the remanding 3 bullets of her clip into her 2nd aggressors face. It crumpled to thr ground and moved no longer. Raav turned and started running. Glancing back, she saw 4 tailing her, yelping with murderous glee. She had heard these creatures had a limited intellegence capacity, could even speak some of her native tongue, but were not to bright tactically. Raav was glad, this worked out in her favor. If they had any intellegence, they would have fanned out, preventing her from bailing off of the side of the lands.

At the edge of the cliffs, high above Rubi-ka, she knew it was now or never. Turning, she shot a burst into the nearest Koolana to satisfy her sadistic tendencies, and lept off the side of Shadowlands.

to be continued...

Falling. Raav felt the rush of wind past her face, the sights and sounds of Rubi-ka closing in on her. After the landing (which suprisingly didn't hurt) she was surrounded by wilderness. 'Time to get back to civilization' she murmered to herself. The nanobots in her system reached out to locate the nearest entry into the grid it could find. Latching onto it, her body started to rip apart, piece by piece, modulating into a digitial signal, still capable of thought.

Traversing the grid always seemed to soothe Raav. The light blue digital textures, the feeling of pure enrgy surrounding her body all had a profound effect on her mental psychie. Contemplating where she could find the nearest place to get her fix, she quickly traversed to the City Borealis.

Upon arrival, she ran to the nearest store and bought a few packs of speed stims. Raav knew she had a problem, but she didn't care much. She started taking the stims a while ago. The great come-down was the worst part, but soon she stopped caring about that as well. She needed her fix; like a fish needs water. After taking the speed stims, Raav felt envigorated. She felt rejuvinated and alive again. She ran to the shop terminal for people of her profession and updated the programs she had stored within her nanobots. Slowly and surely she was developing a natural inate understanding of the technology within her system, and she was able to better utilize it.

She glanced down at the weapon in her hand. A low grade Kyr machine pistol. This would definately need to be updated. She decided to gather more information over her comm.

"This is Raav. Over" she spoke with bloodshot eyes and twitching fingers. "Do you hear me, over." Raav was never known for her patience.

"Yeah, I read ya, what's up doc?" Ahh, Ffiona. Raav ran into Ffiona back on the plane of Nansence. Demon summoner and worshipper, Raav was intrigued by how she could conjour demons at will to assist her with her needs. Ffiona and Raav recently became companions after they had a long conversation in the garden of Thrak. Raav had prior information about Rubi-ka and Shadowlands that Ffiona was curious about, and was glad to fill her in.

"Do you have the intel I requested?" Raav queried. Raav liked sending her on random missions, she figured that what better way to teach Ffiona and gain intel at the same time.

"Oh yeah, I spoke with the contact you gave me, Tightii i believe? The fixer? Yeah she hacked a datastream coming out. Apparently they have a prototype pistol upgrade they have been working on. It fits into the classic desert reet pistol." Ffiona paused, took a breath, and continued. "None have been retrofitted yet however."

Raav spat. She could feel the stims draining from her body, and her mind stopped racing and her body started to ache. Raav couldn't wait til the next boost.

"So what does tha..." Raav started to say but was interuppted.

"However," Ffiona replied "Tightii did come across something you might be interested in..." Raav perked up her ears on this. This sounded a bit fun. Raav boosted again, feeling the soothing energy she was so accustom to. "It appears that this prototype pistol upgrade has been fitted a few times. Tightii knew this because of the surveillance footage she picked up on the drone cameras inside of the place. Looks like the high officers use them. And use them affectively."

Raav sat and contemplated on this. Taking these officers out might pose a challenge, but getting her hands on a couple of these Customized Desert Reets might just be worth the risk. She inquired more into this base.

"What else is there that I could use to possibly entice people to help me break into this place?" Raav asked. Solo operations posed a challenge for Raav. She was a healer, not a meatshield. Raav's eye twitched. Maybe she should cut back on the stims.

"Well," Ffiona replied, "there was footage of a new prototype droid as well. It appears to have new optical sensing equipment, which utilizes more resources, but is much more accurate. Somewhat of a scope, you could say."

Bleh. Just what Raav needed. A damn scope. Although some of her more stealtth friends could might find a use for it...

"Where is this place?" Raav inquried. She already made up her mind to scope it out and check out its security. If the detail was light and she could, she would ransack the place. But if it proved to be a threat, well, she would have to go with plan B."

"The longest road." Ffiona replied. Raav sighed. That was all she had to say.

The Longest Road is named that for a good reason. It is long. Quite a hike. Raav was suddenly glad she spent the creds needed to get her jetbike. Not quite as fast as the Yalm, but it gets up and flys. That is all she needed.

Raav summoned the jetbike, jumped on, and flew to the skies.

End of part 1