SIM:Orman Clashing

Lt. Cmdr. Katy Orman - Clashing

((Celes II, Ruin of Abandoned Machinery Storage Warehouse))

::The final bout of The Clashing was about to start; the bout in which, unlike in previous fights, all four finalists were placed in together to fight it out::

::The fight was to take place in a large chamber, around fifty metres to a side. Unlike the rest of the warehouse, this area had not been cleared of machinery. Instead, equipment and junk from other areas had been moved in to further clutter it up. There were therefore various terrains created; piles of wreckage, clear aisles between large machines, random obstacle courses of assorted pieces and parts. There were enough large items around that the fighters couldn't generally see each other until they were close, and each competitor was let in through a different door, one on each wall.::

::When Katy's door opened she stepped through immediately and was faced with a wall made from a large overturned conveyor of some sort. She did not stop to take stock but immediately turned to her left and continued moving.::

::She was on the lookout for a good, defensible position. Despite being somehow completely ready for this--indeed, she was more fully embodying the principles of Shiji more than she could recall having ever done--there were still ways that she knew she could be overcome. One of those, the most likely, was being taken by surprise by a fight with two of the others at once. The best way to avoid that was to pick appropriate terrain.::

::It is worth noting that she wasn't really *thinking* these things, or leastways not in the way one might normally conceptualise thought. She was conscious of them, and acting appropriately. This is not to say that she had no thoughts of the normal sort going on; she was cognising the occasional note or narrative. It simply wasn't where her attention was. But nonetheless the thoughts occurred.::

oO Concept is not truth. It can only model it. Therefore, focus on truth, not concept. Oo

::She rounded a corner into a more open area. Less than a second later, Sakath came into view, moving extremely fast. He spotted her and made for her, leaping over obstacles as needed.::

::Without any reaction time between, Katy was moving into the most appropriate position to respond, a small platform that allowed her the greatest advantage when meeting the attack along the path he was clearly intending to launch it from.::

::He stopped in his course having crossed just over half the distance. Despite the inhuman speed at which he'd been moving, he showed no signs of exertion. He tilted his head in curious inquiry, then shifted his weight to change to a different line of attack.::

::She shifted in response at the same time.::

::Sakath raised an eyebrow, nodded, and with a graceful pivot he dashed off on a different path.::

oO What we call separation is merely a form of distinction. Distinction does not divide reality, it only divides concept. Oo

::She took in the area around her, determined it was favourable enough to use. A large metal bar caught her attention; the arm of some sort of digging machinery. She squatted down next to it, got a grip, and lifted. Then she heaved it into a new position, lying flat just next to a pile of twisted metal plates. The noise, like a clamorous giant bell, rang through the chamber, reverberating from the walls and ceiling, and putting a ringing into her ears. She stepped back to wait.::

::Just moments later, a man came into view, his bright green eyes locking onto her position quickly. Like his eyes, his long, braided hair was bright green. His ears were pointed, but he wasn't any sort of vulcanoid she recognised. He wasn't showing any particular speed, but he was distinguished by an extremely controlled grace. He made his way towards her cautiously.::

::When he reached the pile of twisted metal he leaped over it--only to come down with his foot partially on the bar she'd tossed. It was only a moment's worth of catching himself from falling, but she'd already started moving when he was in the air, and she was there to aid his fall and direct it onto her upraised knee.::

oO It is important to understand what is context and what is content. Now is not a part of the context of time. Time is a part of the context of now. Oo

::She heard and felt ribs cracking on her knee, and let him roll off of her leg and onto the metal floor, struggling to draw breath; whatever species he was had a celiac plexus. He also had a carotid artery, which she reached down and put pressure on. After a few seconds, there was a noise and he was enveloped by the shimmer of a transporter field, taken away to an intensive care biobed in another part of the building.::

::Two left.::

::Katy had dispatched one opponent by arranging to make him ungrounded and vulnerable, then taking advantage of that situation. But two opponents were left to fight, one of whom she'd not taken the measure of.::

::She stepped back again towards the row of what looked like long-outdated computer banks, moved to settle in against an unidentified piece of equipment--maybe a storage cabinet at one time, it was hard to tell--where she could view most of the potential field of attack, but was concealed from a large part of it. She took position and waited.::

::Nearly ten minutes passed with no movement. Probably one or both of the others were also laying in wait somewhere. It didn't matter.::

oO Emotion, be it joy, fear, anger, love, frustration, impatience, or any other, is an activity, an attempt at self-manipulation, nothing more. See it for what it is and cease the activity, and the emotion is gone. Oo

::Soon after, she began to hear the occasional noise. The noises were indistinct, hushed, and probably relatively close, though it was difficult to be sure in the acoustics of this place. The likelihood that they were coming from her quarter of the room was high, however.::

::Yet no one emerged. The noises, which had never become distinct enough to be identifiable, ceased, and nothing occurred.::

::Another fifteen minutes passed. She heard more noises. This time, someone entered her vision.::

::He was Terran, or one of the races that was outwardly difficult to distinguish from Terran. Short, full of nervous energy, and with a day or so worth of beard growth, wearing a hard hat and a stained workman's jacket with bulging pockets. They had all been sent in wearing identical outfits, so he'd probably picked those up somewhere on the battlefield.::

::He gave the area a quick once-over, but she was blocked from his view by the probably-a-cabinet. As she watched through the small gap between cabinet and wall, he stopped, frowned, and looked the place over again. The actions of someone who expected their prey to be there. He had either narrowed the possibilities down to here, which seemed unlikely--he would have been found by Sakkath at some point during his search, and this man showed no signs of recent battle--or he'd been directed here to find her. In either case, hiding would not help her.::

::She stepped out of concealment, and was noticed very quickly. So quickly that the average observer would have called the snapping of his gaze towards her, and the resultant reaching into the bulky pockets of the jacket and hurling a series of several small objects at her head, instantaneous.::

::She was already moving, stepping out of the way of all of the projectiles. It didn't look like dodging, because there was no reaction involved; it looked more like she was doing an intricate dance that just happened to take her out of the flight paths, moving closer to him.::

oO If one is at the effect of other, one is not truly experiencing other. If one is experiencing other, one is not at the effect of it, and one is therefore free to act appropriately. Oo

::He was closing the distance as well, and when they were within eight metres, the projectiles he was throwing now came from another pocket. Now he thew handfulls of 2cm ball bearings, and she was unable to continue moving forward. In order to dodge all of the metal spheres, which the man was throwing with a force that could do terrible damage, she had to change her direction, ducking and rolling away, back towards the wall of tall computer consoles. It was not quite possible to dodge them all, and she was hit in a few places, gaining some tissue damage and at least one broken finger in the process.::

::Nearing the wall, she dove and rolled behind the same cabinet she'd been concealed behind before. It would not offer that protection any longer, but it was still a useful resource. One of the doors was hanging off, only attached by part of one rusty hinge. She tore it off of the cabinet, cutting her right hand up badly in the process, then emerged with the door held in front of her. Another barrage of ball bearings hit, but she deflected them all effectively, gaining only dents to her makeshift shield and one crushed finger in the process.::

oO Pain does not exist. Sensation exists. Pain is a label, an attitude, an action. Accept the sensation and it cannot be pain. Oo

::The barrage no longer serving its purpose, it was ended. Instead, he leapt for her, deflecting the swung cabinet door with an upraised arm. At the same time, she got a strong sense that being in this spot was inappropriate, but moving away and avoiding her opponent's attacks at the same time was not possible in the immediate moment. She took the optimal available path, allowing his knee strike to connect and swinging him around behind her...::

::So when the massive console came down, she was only caught up to her hips. The man she'd been fighting didn't fare quite so well; he was completely underneath the bulk, and not moving.::

::Katy attempted to wiggle out. One of her legs was tangled up with her opponent's shoulder and arm. She couldn't feel it very well, which probably meant some nerve damage at the very least. And she was unable to extricate it.::

::The antiquated computer console was, by her reckoning, too heavy for Sakkath to have pushed over. However, if he used a lever and fulcrum, it would be possible.::

::The Vulcan in question stepped into view, his shadow falling over her. In his hands he held a thick metal bar perhaps a metre and a half in length. The lever.::

::The metal bar whipped down towards her head.::

::The speed it moved at was tremendous--and irrelevant. Timing and awareness were more important than speed, by far.::

oO Presence is that which naturally occurs when we stop doing the activities we do to cover it up. Oo

::The Vulcan's stance showed that he did not intend to crush her skull, only concuss her. That made all the difference as to the strike, and the response.::

::At the last moment, she turned her head; not moving it out of the way, simply turning her profile towards the strike rather than facing it squarely. This made the difference of several inches, and the pulled strike barely clipped her, an inch or so above her temple. At the same time, she was moving her arm, relaxed, as fast as she was capable. She wasn't as fast as Sakkath, but at the right point, when his pulled strike was missing its target, he wasn't as fast either.::

::She got ahold of the bar, and pulled in the most effective direction--but her hand was slick with blood, and her thumb was too damaged to apply the grip she needed. It was enough to pull the bar closer, but not enough to take it from the Vulcan's grasp. She used the opportunity to strike with her other hand at his gripping fingers, but at the last moment he twisted, and her fist struck iron instead. Sakkath used that moment to pull, trying to take the weapon from her weakened grasp.::

::It would have worked, if not for two fortuitous (for Katy, anyway) circumstances. First, Sakkath's back foot came down on a ball bearing, causing him a moment of stumbling, which spoiled his pull more than a little. Second, the other fighter's brainwaves chose that moment to dip into full unconsciousness, and he was transported out, giving Katy the briefest moment of freedom. She used that moment to leap forward and twist, and successfully pulled the bar away from her opponent's grip. This further unbalanced him, and he fell.::

::Sakkath was not the only falling object, though, and Katy was not able to get clear of the console in that brief time allotted; it came down on her lower legs and feet. She distinctly felt her right ankle snap; it had not been in the most favourable position. As a result, she was not able to follow up on her successful disarming with a strike before her opponent sprang back to his feet and up out of her reach.::

::The two fighters made eye contact for several seconds. Katy saw his gaze flick briefly towards an area of the floor upon which lay several ball bearings.::

oO There is no such thing as a 'fight,' and there never was. Oo

::Katy dropped the bar onto the ground with a loud clang. Still holding the Vulcan's gaze, she flattened her less-injured hand, palm down, and tapped the floor twice.::

::Moments later, she was transported away to an intensive-care biobed. Seconds afterwards, she passed out from the pain.::

Lieutenant Commander Katy Orman Chief of Security This is what she does with her free time