Ivory Hill had spent the majority of her adult life running. Throughout her twenties and the first part of her thirties it was from bombs and bullets. Now, at thirty six years old Ivory was running from something that she could never truly escape fr...
The enormous metal guideway could not have looked more out of place as it towered in front of the lush forests of Pandora.
"How much longer have we got to wait?" Norm asked, pulling his jacket tighter around himself to shield himself from the biting wind that was bowing through the clearing.
Ivory twisted her watch around her wrist. "About a minute. They should be here any time-" Ivory broke off as a sharp grinding noise split the air in two. "Now."
"Ground team go!" Jake's voice crackled through the communicator that was hanging around Ivory's neck.
"Move back!" Ivory yelled. Her breath caught in her throat as the maglev thundered down the tracks, flanked by gunships.
Norm moved abruptly, pressing himself as close to the trees as he possibly could. "Come on!" He grabbed Ivory's arm and forced her backwards just as the track exploded.
Ivory watched in silence as the guideway collapsed, sending ribbons of flame into the air. Sparks flickered along the base of the maglev as it poured off of the track, careering sideways as a second explosion went off.
"Christ," Norm breathed, his eyes fixed on the flaming wreckage.
"Ground team incoming. Sky team attack from above!" Jake yelled through the communicator.
"Let's go." Ivory grabbed Norm by the hand and pulled him in the direction of one of the smoking carriages. "We want RPGS, stingers and mags." The woman took one last look at the damage that the explosion had inflicted on the track then turned to Norm, her jaw set. "The Na'vi will be here in twenty six seconds, let's start on the cases."
Norm immediately moved towards a large metal case and tugged it open, only pausing when he heard the hollers from the approaching Na'vi. "They're here," he said unnecessarily.
Ivory turned to the approaching crowd. "Take any weapons that you can find. They should be in cases like these," she waved her hand in the direction of the box that Norm had pried open. "Watch your backs."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Grace tossed her data pad to one side as soon as Ivory's link unit opened. "Are you okay?" She asked urgently.
"I'm fine. We got what we wanted, the Na'vi stripped the maglev of all of the supplies." Ivory swung her legs over the side of the link and got out, stretching like a cat.
"Did anyone get hurt?" Grace immediately moved to her girlfriend's side, barely noticing as Norm's clamshell opened.
"Everyone is fine, stop panicking."
"I wasn't panicking," Grace grumbled.
"Is there any of that whisky left?"
"Under the desk." The redhead's brow furrowed. "Are you sure you're alright?" The woman couldn't understand what was going on, normally after something like this Ivory would be glued to her side for the rest of the evening. This hadn't always been the case but after the nightmare flight to Site Twenty Six where Grace had almost lost her life and the battle where Ivory had almost lost hers the east assumption that one would always have the other was gone.
"I'm fine," Ivory insisted, reaching into the box that was neatly tucked under Grace's desk and withdrawing the remnants of the whiskey and a glass.
Grace watched in silence as Ivory sank down into an empty chair and filled her glass with amber liquid, gulping it down in one go. The woman immediately filled the glass again. "Do you want something to eat?"
Ivory shook her head.
"Do you want to go watch a film? Grace asked, pulling her hoodie down from one of the hooks on the wall.
"No. You go ahead, Norm will probably want to watch some of his shitty sci-fi."
"My sci-fi films are not shitty," Norm interjected. "We can watch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine if you want."
Grace pulled a face. "I've watched enough Star Trek with you to last me a lifetime." She tugged her hoodie on, pulling the sleeves down so that they covered her hands.
"There's always Batman," Norm said hopefully.
Grace shook her head. "Go ask Trudy, I don't think she's doing anything. I don't have the energy for one of your films tonight."
"Fine, fine." Norm said grudgingly, disappearing from the lab in search of his girlfriend.
"What do you want to do?" Grace asked as soon as the door to the lab had swung closed.
"I think I'm just going to go to bed." Ivory got up and pushed the remnants of the whisky back under the desk.
"I'll come too, I have some reading that I want to catch up on and I don't think I'm going to be able to do it in here without people bothering me."
"Please can you just give me some space?"
A/N: Happy Christmas if you celebrate, if not happy Monday
