[Redd]

"Shit, there's too many." A mumbled voice came from Alex's left. She flicked her glance to the turian leaning out from behind the crate they'd re-purposed into makeshift cover. He brought the scope up to his visor, scanning the area, before falling back down beside her. "I don't like this Shepard. There's a lot of Blue Sun mercs and a few of those YMIR mechs. We don't have the firepower to breach that door either."

"Yeah... damn it." Alex pressed her mouth into a thin line, her thumb pressing a button on her Eviscerator, causing the shotgun to start to compact and fold itself up before it was safely stowed away on her back. She then took a deep breath in, ready to raise her voice. "Grunt! Fall back. Both of you, get back to the shuttle."

The Krogan wasted no time, popping up from cover to lob a grenade in the enemy's direction, before turning and lowering his head and charging. Garrus also sprung into gear, leaping over the crate and starting to zig-zag between cover back to the white shuttle.

Alex drew up to full height, a soft blue light forming around her as she drew her pistol, slowly backing off and firing at any one who was attempting to storm after them. She raised a hand to her headpiece as she turned around to contact the Normandy. "Joker I..."

As she turned around, the ship was gone. Instead, a beach sprawled before her. Black sand stretched as far as the horizon and it met a particularly dark, stormy looking sea. She flicked her eyes back inland and was met with a... grey jungle. The sounds of mechanics and gunfire were gone too, replaced with a cold, audible white noise and bird song.

"What in the hell?!"

[Redd]

(Note to self this is plane-hopping Hawke, post New York, pre Roja)

Korinne blinked up at the ceiling, watching the fan spin lazily, doing nothing to fend off the mid-afternoon heat. She'd been off in a daze, recalling a world she'd long forgotten. A world of demons, magic and monsters. A world of pain, loss and heartache.

Thedas. Lothering. Kirkwall. Towns she'd long discarded in favour of this place, Earth. Specifically Toluca, though she'd spent a fair amount of time in New York before finding a reason to leave. Earth... didn't have the demons and monsters, or the magic. Nor was she locked by status, titles or any of that sort of bullshit. Here, she was a new woman. A free woman.

Still... she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed, rummaging for her old backpack and fishing out her favourite blades that she kept under the bed. With a sombre smile, she reached in, pulled out her old ceremonial champion armour and slung it over her clothes, a flannel shirt and a soft blue pair of jeans, almost finding amusing how jarring it was to see the medieval black metal layered over the modern clothes and even more so when she found a mirror to pose at with her swords.

Then, with only a blink, the room shifted out of focus. With another blink, another world came into view. A beach, black with grey and even more grey when you looked towards the jungle. What... in the Maker's name was this bullshit?

[Redd]

With an offended yelp, Korinne felt the bed straight up disappear from underneath her, unceremoniously dumping her on the cold, damp sand. "Oh noooo... no no no, not again. I liked Earth, what the fuck is this?" She pulled herself to her feet, strapping one sword on her back and swinging the backpack over her shoulder. She swung her head around to take in the scenery, one hand clenching her sword hilt tightly, the other fingers anxiously curling and twining around her hair. ...Oh that too was grey. What the hell?! So did this plane have no color or something? That was... incredibly dull actually.

Like, interesting concept but very dull in execution. Clearly the Maker was extremely uninspired when this place was willed into existence. "Or, I guess, if this is the afterlife, the Chantry bloody well owes me an apology." She huffed, still quite pleased about the same quip she'd uttered after being launched headfirst into the Fade. "Why me though. Can't the universe just... find a world and stick to it. None of this fucking plane hopping business. I liked Earth. Earth was good. Kirkwall would have been... acceptable. Not some bloody jungle! Where... is this anyway..." she swung around again, really nothing here jogging her memory. No color and black sand, that's something that would have stuck.

"Hey! Drop the weapon and turn around, nice and slow."

[Redd]

Korinne froze up, shoulders hitching and her breath getting caught somewhere around her throat. It took a second for her to realise that she had to do something but instead of listening to the voice, she spun around, other hand fumbling for her sword--

-- until she saw the gun pointed at her face. In that moment, a light grey field developed around her and she was lifted a foot off the ground, arms to her side uselessly. Unbidden, her grip relaxed and her sword fell uselessly to the ground below. "H-hey, hold on a moment, I'm just... lost, I'm not-" she stammered, eyes landing on the being in front of her. It was feminine in shape with a sleek black armour or shell. It's head was vaguely helmet shaped and it kind of reminded her of one of his armour designs but... not at the same time. She didn't recognize the N7 printed on the chest piece either. Underneath the visor, two soft glowing eyes peered out.

"Oh Maker it's a magic robot. What will they think of next." she softly grumbled under her breath.

[Redd]

"A... what?" The voice wasn't as robotic as Korinne thought it would be and the field faltered, before dropping her. Korinne landed on two feet, shakily trying to regain her balance before she ended up tipping back on her ass again. Because, you know, that'd be awfully undignified for a first meeting with a magic robot.

"I'm... human, what on earth are you talking about?" the voice continued, the pistol being shoved in her face again.

Oh, she mentioned Earth? That was the first sign of good news Korinne had heard all day. "You know Earth? Are we on it?" she excitedly asked, paying the pistol no heed. If the robo-human was going to kill her, it would have happened already.

"I..." the voice faltered and assumed a thoughtful posture, and lowered the weapon, the pistol starting to fold up into a compact shape. Interesting, Earth pistols... didn't do that. At least on her Earth. "Did you just... appear here?"

[Redd]

"Yep, I'm about as lost as you, so maybe ease off on the telekinesis and guns, alright?" Korinne folded her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow. The feminine figure in front of her almost gave the impression she was rolling her eyes as she shifted stance, but she couldn't see jack shit through the visor. "Before I divulge my dark secrets, I have to at least know who I'm talking to."

The groan that followed up was in no way stifled. The figure stowed away her pistol and raised her hands in the air. "Alright, look. Guns are away, I won't use my biotics. I'm Commander Alex Shepard of the... of the Alliance Navy Military and Council Spectre." she said, clearly faltering over the titles but Korinne held her tongue on that. For once.

"Works for me, though I guess if we're going for our fancy titles, I'm Lady Korinne Hawke, ...Champion of Kirkwall.. I guess." She usually went for more tongue-in-cheek titles, but there was something about Shepard's faltering that felt so damn familiar. There was a quizzical head tilt but that was almost expected. She'd used her Thedas title, not her Earth one. "Military, well I guess that'll be helpful. But okay, I did promise to explain. There's not much to it though, I was in my apartment in Mexico. Next thing I knew, I was here. I don't think I was entirely conscious the last time I got thrown through a portal so I can't tell you the exact nature of this one..." she trailed off, noticing the figure straightening up.

"Portal?" The voice was contemptative, then realisation struck. "Wait, this has happened to you before?"

[Redd]

The grey, the shadows, the static, it was starting to hurt her head. Now this soldier was pushing her to talk. To explain things that gave her a headache. Maybe she was just a simple Fereldan and everything gave her a headache, but the point was, she was not in a good mood.

"Maker, look is this beach really the best place to talk?" Korinne hissed back, waving her hands in the air, finally becoming fed up with this conversation. "Hell, I don't know if this is Earth or Thedas, or if this is even the same fucking plane or universe and it's making my head hurt to think about. You've got guns and space magic, 'biotics', whatever. I'm bloody stuck with medieval era swords and fire runes!"

Alex could only blink back at Korinne who'd launched off into a full blown rant.

[Redd]

"Right, we'll... have a look around." Alex carefully replied, cautiously surveying her new travelling companion. She was... more of a firecracker than she was, somehow. That was a whole new level of impressive. "On the condition that you give me a full report of what you know the moment we're not in hostile territory."

She was fully aware that she had zero command over this... rogue? She wasn't a warrior, at least if the old vids were to be believed, and she didn't have a bow, just those two blades. The way she moved was calculated and deliberately, leading Alex to believe that she was some sort of assassin, and they tended to favour Omni-blades. She clearly wasn't military though, that hotheadedness would have got her nowhere.

[Redd]

"Usually I need to see a bit of money to willingly divulge secrets... but if you're capable of taking that stick out of your ass long enough Shep, it's a deal."

Korinne slid an eye over to the Commander, assessing if her words had barbed in the way she'd hoped. If she wasn't so stressed, she would have drooped a little at the sight of Alex barely registering what she'd said. Military. Stick in ass. Came with the territory.

"Look, I'm sorry if I'm being an ass, this is... just... disorientating." Korinne tried to offer as an explanation, though Alex seemed a bit preoccupied.

[Redd]

"Hmm? Oh, yeah. Deal." Alex replied distractedly, tapping her wrist and pulling up an orange holographic interface. If Korinne hadn't spent so much time with a tech genius on Earth, she would have probably yelped in surprise, instead she was entranced. This looked so much more advanced than even anything else she'd seen. "Normandy, this is Commander Shepard, come in."

There was silence.

Alex tapped a few more buttons, before placing her fingers under her helmet. "Joker? C'mon..."

A few more second. Just more silence.

"... Nothing?" Korinne looked at Alex hopefully. The woman just shook her head sadly. "Right... let's keep looking then."

[Color Harvested]