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Soshika awoke when the storm struck. Rain pattered down in never-ending lines, driven by some mad force to hurl themselves aimlessly on the already muddy ground. Droplets fell and shattered, fell and shattered again on the saturated ground. The falling water was a thick curtain; the rat-a-tat-tat of the rain drops a sound screen impenetrable by all but sonar. Thunder rumbled onward across the clouds, one following another in a parade of booming sound.
The storm had been brewing along the horizon for some days now, though the sky had only begun to show it the day before. Soshika had known long before, as she always did, that it would be severe, though not severe enough to stop the fighting. The storm had moved in as she's slept, creeping up only to rudely dump down torrents of water upon her unsheltered form.
The Cat flattened her dripping ears, blinking water out of her eyes and blowing it out of her nose. Wrapping her old jacket tightly around herself and pulling the hood up over her soaked head, she noted how the jacket kept warm and dry inside, despite the storm. Even if Humans were morons, they did still make a good jacket.
Soshika turned, looking for Miron only to find the sniper still asleep though his head was nearly submerged in the raising water. Craika, that half-blood'll sleep through anything! Best I wake him or he might drown before he realizes it's flooding. With the flat of her blade, the Cat tapped Miron's shoulder. The sniper stirred, rolled his face into the mud, then shot up coughing and gasping. His face was now coated with a thick lair of the cold, sticky slime which mere mud had become. Rain yet pattered on his head, leaving clean streaks down his otherwise filthy features. The Cat took a slight comfort knowing she looked the same, if not worse.
"Morn', oh High Queen of Drowned Rats," the sniper said cheerfully, saluting with the empty rifle.
"More like eve, oh Master of the Mud People," she retaliated with a chuckle. "What a find day for a war this had been, eh?"
"Hasn't it though?" Miron was prepared to let the Cat's previous indignity slide. He sighed slightly, whipping at his mud-streaked face, looking off into the secretive rain. What hidden dangers lay behind that curtain of water?
"I was right," Lypha muttered, peeking over the now slick mud mound. "The Uagh left to find something dryer and more entertaining. Now's our chance." Creeping out from behind the mound with a grace only a feline could possess, Soshika trotted through the ankle-deep water, Miron at her back. Mud leapt from the ground and clung lovingly to her feet and legs, showing no sign of giving up its embrace. Though the going was slow, wet and muddy, it seemed merely moments before both the Cat and half-blood stood before the empty elevator shaft, ready to scale upwards at any cost.
Miron summed up the moment with a single smug line. "Now," he said with a devilish grin, staring up the lift-less shaft, "The fun really begins."
Soshika looked up the shaft as well, assessing the climb. There seemed to be plenty of handholds, at least for her clawed hands. Miron should be able to make it as well, she thought, gazing at the thick cables that had been used to hoist up the lift. At the time there had actually been power here, that was.
Placing the katana in its well-worn shieth, and gripping the sheer with her claws, the Cat began to climb. She did so quickly; trading energy for agility as the top of the shaft grew slowly larger above her. Miron's sharp breathing told Soshika that the half-blood was still with her, though slightly winded.
In what seemed like mere moments to the Cat and hours to the half-Human, the lift shaft ended and only metal sky stretched before them. Soshika took a deep breath, smelling rain and earth anew, the scents of war muted so far up.
Miron grunted a laugh and brushed matted hair from his eyes, looking about the puddled launchpad. "Well, that was interesting."
"Not to mention wet." The felinoid shook herself gingerly, flicking water towards her companion. "But now is the time we fly."
"Right," grinned the half-blood. Barely motioning to its silhouette in the rain, Miron roughly dragged the Cat towards the hanger door.
