[sub][h3][center]Archie[/center][/h3][/sub][hr]

Archie nodded, but didn't look away from what was left of his fries at Natalie's promise to tell him more. Although, the edge of his lips quirked up just a little. He hummed gently, and payed with his student ID. "We should go soon. Cara will probably be annoying us." he explained as he slid out of his seat and allowed one of his hands to fall onto her shoulder in comfort. "Lets get going. I'm sure they'd be happy to have people help setup."[hr]

Nothing prepares a person for a rocket launch.

Sure, there can be special training programs one can undergo to try to condition their bodies to withstand the forces they are subject to. Special machines meant to simulate the acceleration, or sudden lurch of the all powerful engines roaring to life. But at the end of the day nothing can perfectly match what it is like for a person, mentally. All someone knows, all they've [i]ever[/i] known had been right on the pale blue dot called earth. To agree to take a journey to the stars meant not only that they were putting their lives on the line, but also that they were leaving everything they had ever experience behind for something new and exciting and strange.

The launch is like the world's greatest roller coaster, the suspense and buildup feeling distant but immediate all the same. The feeling of your body being pressed into your seat immediately overwhelming one's thoughts of home and family and familiarity as the heart beats twice its normal rate to try to pump blood to the brain in an attempt to you conscious. Some aren't able to stay up for the whole flight, usually the less conditioned and less fit end up blacking out. Those that do are rewarded with a feeling of weightlessness when the engines finally cut. The launch itself had been daunting, minutes passing by like they were both hours and seconds at the same time- but the float? The float feels like forever.

To see the planet one once called home shrinking outside is a distinctly minimizing feeling. It had only been five minutes, but now one is further from home than they ever had been in their lives.

Then there's the sudden jerk when the launch pods are captured, the acceleration and artificial gravity forcing one back into their seats and throwing them forwards at the same time. Suddenly you're spinning, and the earth and stars are gone, and there are flashing lights, and one's mind is almost certainly screaming they you're going to die before you could do anything truly meaningful. That the screeching of brakes doesn't sound right. Part of one's mind does ask if this is it.

But it isn't, one realizes when they see the smiling faces of their peers, when they feel the overwhelming desire to relieve themselves... that this is just the beginning.

Of the end.

The doors haven't opened yet, but the sound of celebration outside pierces even the thick metal hull of the launch pod. The Silent Court sets to work, the strongest of the group assisting the others with righting themselves on their shaky legs and arming them. Taking the launch pod had been relatively simple, they had come quickly, by surprise, and with overwhelming force. They hadn't the people to hold the fort down for long, but just long enough to sever communications and to launch the pod. Those that one had spent so much time with likely laid down their lives for the success of goal. Now that responsibility fell on everyone aboard launch pod three. Words were so treasured to them, having been repressed so much by their neighbors and their leaders in an effort to make the problems appear nonexistent, or at least better than they seemed. So when the eldest member- an older man spoke, everyone listened.

"Today we must scream."

The court gathered their armaments, large machine guns with high magazine capacities and large destructive ammunition. When the doors finally opened, a woman stepped through. She was smiling, but the excitement died in her eyes as the realization of what they were dawned upon her. These were no students. She had barely been able to scream when she was peppered with impossibly loud gunfire. Her body contorting in the dance of death as it reacted to the force of bullets tearing through her. She fell unceremoniously, dead before she hit the floor, but the tip of the spear wasted no time. They marched forwards, stepping over or on her body as The Silent Court began fulfilling their last and greatest journey with red hot lead and fury. Brass, bullets, and blood filled the launch bay.

Today, they hid no longer.

Today, they roared.[hr]

Archie's had felt like something was wrong before the doors had even opened. He couldn't place his finger on it, but his mind kept thinking back to when he was captured. He could smell the gunpowder and adrenaline in the people around him then. Despite being literally a planet away from that he kept thinking back to it. When the doors opened, the smell of gunpowder and adrenaline had poured into his nose and he [i]knew[/i] that something was wrong. The screaming, and then gunfire, and the sudden searing pain in his shoulder had all but confirmed that. Something was very, very wrong.

The floor of the hangar was cold, but it had a warm, slick, liquid-y feeling to it that was wetting his shirt. He couldn't quite place it. He was hurt, he knew that, but he couldn't feel that side of his body much so the sensation of anything was weird. He was dazed, and he could hear muffled screaming but the burning in his chest seemed more important. It felt... weird. Like he was there but he wasn't. This wasn't like his other changes. They always hurt. Was he dead?

He laid on the floor staring straight ahead for what [i]felt[/i] like a while but couldn't have been more than a few seconds. He saw people jerk and fall, some managing to hobble up or move. Some didn't. Amidst the chaos he saw Lynn got shot twice in the chest, the force of the bullets just about taking her off her feet. One landed home on Amelia's upper body, where her neck connected to her shoulder. She fell, and he couldn't see the damage and if it was fatal or not. His eyes flashed to Eli just in time to see a round enter and exit her left calf.

He heard screaming. He wasn't sure if it was his own.