Arrival

The first thing that was apparent to Xanthiana was that she had not hit the ground but instead had landed in water. The second thing was now the very real threat she'd drown in a metal coffin. She told herself not to panic as she frantically slammed the release button. It wasn't opening of course and despite all of her attempt at remaining calm the prospect of drowning was not one she relished. She didn't even have a weapon commit suicide with to prevent that horrible death from happening, though she theorized if she had a weapon she'd be more likely to just blow the doors open with it than take her own life. The pod hit the bottom of whatever water source it landed in and fell backwards disorienting Xanthiana briefly before the doors triggered open and dark water flooded in.

At least because of the drop pods position she could accurately judge which way was up (and she thanked whatever luck she lived by that it rolled over backwards and not forwards). She emerged from the water into more darkness.  The op as she remembered it was planned to be an evening drop because Paradise was an independent state. Though technically it was VBI industries who arranged the operation, they were on an Erep ship and the few independent areas in North America weren't exactly receptive to the Ereps. None of that helped Xanthiana see any better in the dark. From the shore she could make out a small fire and what appeared to be some men at it, something about the way they were positioned had her cautious though, too relaxed to have just been pod dropped into a hot zone, and the camp looked a little to built in for recent construction.

Xanthiana made her way to the shore quietly. Her initial suspicions seemed to ring true when she could make out EMC uniforms on the men around the campfire and what appeared to be a couple dead ark hunters on the fire. The EMC soldiers didn't look fully human as well, their features were twisted and mutated clearly not friendlies. Xanthiana was wondering what to do about the situation when her vision blurred, her ears popped and her head felt like a radio signal suddenly exploded inside of it. At first she was worried it was some new enemy weapon she'd never heard of, but then she recalled the EGO unit they'd installed in the base of her neck and what Von Bach was talking about prior to the ship exploding and crashing into the wilderness. As if summoned by the thought the EGO appeared in front of her, it looked like a young woman, though its appearance shifted and adjusted while she watched it.

"Hello operator Roeyka I'm your EGO device." Xanthiana was about to tell it to get down before realizing only she could possibly see it since it didn't have a display device on its own, "Scanning equipment," The EGO's body pulsed for a second and then the it returned to how it looked before "I see the personal defense shield, did not make it, you also appear to be completely unarmed and we are not near other ark hunters, one moment." Xanthiana was grateful and entirely weirded out by a robotic voice talking to her in her own head, but if it meant she had a higher chance of survival she'd get over the weirded out feeling. "Hostile subjects near by, they appear to be using EMC communication frequencies, I'm also getting a signal from south of us of an Erep crashed vessel and other live ark hunter EGO devices, no word from Mr. Von Bach or his staff at this time." The Ego clicked off after stating the situation and then stared at Xanthiana, she didn't know if it wanted her to talk back or what. "If you'd like to respond please do so by thinking of the response I can read the brain activity and respond accordingly you do not have to vocalize."

"So I just think and you can read it?" Xanthiana was completely taken back by the idea of having to talk in her own head to something else, if not for technology she'd swear she'd gone crazy.

"Correct Operator Roeyka."

"Ok EGO suggestions?"

"Acquire weaponry, personal defense shielding, and then sync up with Erep personnel south."

"Sure that sounds easy enough considering there are at least five targets in front of us and we currently have no weaponry, no personal defense shielding, and no transportation." The five EMC mutants at least did not appear to have noticed Xanthiana's pod crash landing, nor did they seem to be at any state of alert, which was good, they did appear to be armed though, which was bad.

"Scan's indicate a pistol near the fire that is unattended, unknown amount of ammunition in the magazine."

"So you want me to run toward a pistol near a fire, with an unknown amount of ammunition in it, and hope that it has enough to kill five men before they return fire?" The EGO shimmered twice and then returned, Xanthiana took that to mean it had just thought something.

"The EGO is hooked into your adrenal system, for a short time I can boost your adrenaline response to increase speed and reflexes, it should give you enough time to get to the pistol prior to the EMC mutants becoming aware of you, from there its up to you."

"And then the pistol will be out of bullets, ok I like this plan this is a great plan not at all a complete failure that will immediately cost me my life." Xanthiana readied herself, she thought for a moment that she could have just swam to the opposite side of whatever water source she was in and hope no mutants were over there, but that would take time and she didn't know how long until the sun came up and she became an even easier target.

"Lets do this." Xanthiana said it out loud if only to have said something before the end.