Fire and Ice

Chapter 2 [] Ender

Graff couldn't take it anymore.

He was setting her free

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Instead of simulator training Ender was escorted to the other side of Eros. He wondered what Graff had in store for him and the formics.

He followed his escort through a maze of security; retina scans, fingerprints, passcodes guarding what lay beyond.

"Do you know what they're planning?" Ender asked his tour guide, only to receive a blank stare from the guard and a prod to keep moving. They walked for what seemed like an eternity, before entering a laboratory viewing room.

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The room was decently well equipped for monitoring experiments, Ender decided. There were  monitors lining a wall, with several points for data input. The room was protected from experiments by a one way glass covering an entire wall. Graff sat in a chair facing the glass, staring intently at his paperwork. Ender noted that no one else was in the room, except for the guard and him.

Ender walked up and sat in a chair. Through the glass he observed a steamy substance rising from a table surrounded by scientists who were armed to the teeth, and soldiers who appeared to be assisting them. Why were so many guns needed?

†††

As someone on the outside warmed her cryotube, she vaguely hoped it was her team.

Her team.

That was all her fading conscious could bear to hold on to.

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"What is that?" Ender asked softly. It felt more like yelling in their quiet room, but he had to know. Graff had kept him sitting here for over an hour, and he had training to get back to. Graff looked at him and sighed deeply.

"That," he responded calmly, "is our greatest weapon. You have heard the tales of the legendary Gold Squadron, who fought and won the First and Second Invasions?" Ender's eyes widened in disbelief, but Graff plowed forward. "We knew that they were valuable, but too powerful as a team. So we separated them. After the First Invasion, they were put into the beginnings of what was to become cryostasis, and kept hidden until the Second War. They were released onto the Formics, minus one member who had been kept awake and was now an old man, with one objective: to win at all costs."

†††

She felt something. Prodding. Trying to rouse her from her icy prison. Her eyes opened, almost imperceptibly, to gauge her surroundings.

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"Immediately after, they were refrozen and scattered to unknown coordinates, with instructions to only be reawakened in a desperate time of need. The others have been awoken, and all are peacefully buried."

†††

Me and women in lab coats and arms surrounded her tube. They were wearing unfamiliar symbols.

"Keep her down," one scientist ordered. She would not be held captive!

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"But the IF kept this one secret. Because we knew there would be more than just petty battles to win ahead."

†††

She sensed machinery attached to her body. Bright white lights flooded her eyes from everywhere she squinted. A lab? Did they intend to turn her into a lab rat?

"She's waking up!"

""Keep her down!"

"Make sure she doesn't attack!" She played a dumb girl who was just being awakened. Just a few more seconds...

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"This is Gold Leader, more commonly known as Kayleigh Bright." Graff had scarcely finished talking when grunts and gunfire came from the direction of the lab. Scientists and soldiers alike were being pummelled into cosmic dust. Ender caught a glimpse of wavy black hair and brightly lit bronze eyes.

†††

Kayleigh struck. Hard, fast, ruthless, just like she'd been taught. Someone came up on her right and she flipped over the person she was holding to deliver a kick to the nose and take a gun. Two shots had them on the ground, but this didn't feel like a normal phaser... Ah. Locked on stun. She could work with that.

Up and over other people, striking noses, sternums, anywhere she could reach. When they were pushed far enough back, she stunned them. Someone came fast near the wall, so Kayleigh activated her boots...wait. No boots. Old fashioned, then.

She grabbed their arm as they tried punch her, pulled them down, and swung her leg around their neck. She twisted their neck, not enough to snap, just enough to hurt. That was the last one. Now, she needed to get out. She was out-numbered, out-gunned, but not out-matched. Kayleigh took a running leap onto a table, then off of it, latching on to a wall before breaking in a nearby grate and entering the ventilation system. Her small size had its perks.

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Graff watched Kayleigh in pure shock and awe as she took down all scientists and soldiers. It looked to me like she only stunned them, but it was still impressive none-the-less.

Graff almost seemed content to just watch her fight until she jumped to the air grate.

"No!" he screeched. "Don't let her get away! Close ventilation systems! Track her down," he growled at lab assistants who appeared from seemingly nowhere. Alarms started blaring. "And you," he pants, pointing at the guard, "Get him back to his room and don't let anyone in. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" the soldier cried, offering his sharpest salute and a trembling lip. He grabbed my arm and started winding me back through the security maze.