Along The Straits.



Wednesday December 4th, 2069 The Jericho Straits.
2100 hrs. Twenty six miles from Mordes Keep . She is there, right in front of him, in this brilliant moonlight he can see her clearly as his eyes slowly move up and down the length her body, where she stands at the front of the vessel that is taking them once again down the Jericho Straits. Demon, woman, or whatever else you may call this individual known as Priss, one Ethan John Klinger is clearly enchanted by her visual attributes. Milo Tripper has taken notice and silently moves in beside of Klinger and studies the captivating Priss.
“You can’t be seriously considering what I think you may be considering can you Kling?”
With a cold indifferent silence, his stare slowly drifts in the direction of Milo Tripper but his head doesn’t move. he isn’t smiling, and Milo can see it , right there in his eyes, there is something suddenly different about Klinger now. Priss turns her head towards what will be their landing zone, and he knows that the conversation that he is trying to have with Klinger will have to wait for another time. She walks towards the cabin where Samantha Bliss is making contact with Lifeguard, and as Priss passes him, she looks at Klinger and smiles, Tripper sees how her Threshold uniform, follows every contour of her perfect body, and Demon, woman or not, horns and all, there is nothing that Milo will be able to say or do to keep them apart if it is Priss’s will to have Klinger as her lover. They make it to the landing zone and they muster just ten miles out from the keep, the straits have made it painfully easy for them to be this close as the reds clearly want nothing to do with the waters of the straits They rarely come this far north Priss tells them.
“In fact we should be almost three miles from the Keep before we even have to really start watching what we are doing, that where the serious patrols start.” she tells Samantha Bliss that this particular path will take them three miles into the jungle before they turn to the southeast to get to the Keep. They walk on in silence with two columns, one on each side of the path, Samantha too has seen the curious exchange of looks between Klinger and Priss, and has decided wisely to keep them apart as much as possible. Priss walks in front of Samantha’s column while Klinger takes the point of the other column, all of the while The skywatch satellites tell Lifeguard what to tell Bliss about what is happening on the ground around them in the failing light. As they make their way through the first mile of jungle none can help but feel as though they are walking an alien landscape, as mounds of unfamiliar looking earth swell up around them with black trees that seem to go on forever with each spinning endless miles of Vines covering them from the light, they are now farther in than any human has been in five years.

Breaking Nightfall.



It seems as though it is as pitch black as any night could be, The progress along the winding path leading into the jungle surrounding Mordes Keep is very slow and tedious. It would appear at times, as though even Priss is unsure of direction here. sky watches satellites have no thermo activity to lock onto, the only heat signatures that are seen belong to the bodies of the members of team Alpha, and so Lifeguard cannot lead them through it.
“I’m getting nothing from Skywatch except you Sam, the only other thing that I’ll be able to catch is if any reds try to sneak up on you, better tell your team its time to break out the night vision glasses, time to trust your own eyes, I’ll keep mine open just in case.”
She holds her hand up in a closed fist to her column and silently crosses the path towards Klinger and tells the team to break out the night vision glasses, upon hearing her own words, she wonders to herself why she hadn’t done that to begin with, perhaps she was becoming too reliant on Lifeguard being there to always warn her of impending dangers hidden in her path. She needed to start trusting herself more again, and even though the whole team hated wearing the glasses, they all wore them only when told to, for after awhile, some would begin to get headaches after seeing the world through them for hours at a time. She slowly pulls the glasses over her forehead and clicks the soft button on the side and watches as the night lights up and slowly comes to life. Ahead of her Priss slowly struggles with her glasses, she can’t seem to get them to navigate over her horns. Samantha almost smiles and moves up behind her to give aid, they give way and she moves them over Priss’s eyes and whispers to her to close them until she turns the glasses on and when she opens them she draws a deep breath.
“Well, at least we know one thing Samantha Bliss.”
“Yes? And what might that be?”
“My eyes work in the same way as yours do.”
She puts her hand on Samantha’s cheek and slowly rubs the back of her fore finger along its length and whispers to her.
“ I know that no one here but Klinger trusts me, but I am going to prove myself to you Samantha, I’m going to put the bullet or knife into Krotas’s hollow heart myself and rip that necklace off from his dead neck and bring it to you.”
“I already know that you’re not like them Priss, and as for trust, mine isn’t easily won, but if we make it through this and end up back at Threshold without you betraying my team, that will be a large step in the right direction concerning trust.”
Priss smiles and nods, she pulls the plasma rifle out in front of her and slowly makes her way into the black jungle, Samantha and team Alpha silently follow.. They would be at Mordes Keep by dawn.

***** First Break. *****

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