Ambriel Evades Taxes in the United States

The Sankta on the Run

2024 Author's Note

So, this has been staring at me mockingly for the past two years, because I've never been able to finish it. I won't, but I'll add context in the text so that readers can understand what was meant to be written between the blocks of text.

2022 Author's Note

A story concept that I had in my head. For now, it'll just be a one-shot. But I might return to expand this sometime in the future. That's assuming I get the inspiration and ideas.

I did my best to write this story so people without any prior knowledge of Arknights can read it and still infer a general understanding of the plot. But I do recommend having some level of background knowledge on the game, as it'll be easier to understand then.

Due to this being basically a one-shot that takes place in what's supposed to be the middle of a story, it'll kinda read like that. But there'll also be a lot of info dumped, too.

. . . . .

Her body was weak.

The sedation wasn't heavy by any means, otherwise she'd be fast asleep. But it felt as if almost every single one of her senses had been exploited, in one way or another, to prevent her from falling asleep.

There was nothing for the pink-haired girl to do. She couldn't even struggle, her arms and legs too weak to even more with what little slack she had.

Her eyes had remained narrowed ever since she woke up, as the glaringly bright light shone from a tool above her head in the otherwise dark room. The blue glare from above, which seemed to shine directly into her eyes, prevented the girl from falling back asleep.

Ambriel's mouth was plugged up by a plastic breathing tube. Her gag reflex had kicked at the moment she woke up, and her body attempted to expel the foreign object out of her windpipe through a series of weak coughs.

It was anchored stiffly in place, and the coughing gradually died down as her body grew accustomed to the lingering discomfort.

The girl could hear the muffled sounds of beeps and whirring near her. With what little strength she could muster, Ambriel looked up and to the side of her. There were a variety of white monitors, buttons, tubes, and pipes... one of them beeped repeatedly, which she could only assume was a heartbeat monitor. Another seemed to be pumping a chemical into her body, which was administered through an IV inserted into her arm.

The mass of medical equipment reminded her of Rhodes Island. That pharmaceutical company... it felt so long since she had even interacted with someone from there. 

The intubation tube was connected to a nearby device that was steadily pumping air into her lungs. A ventilator... they would use those in Rhodes Island should Oripathy infection make it to the chest cavity and collapse the lungs. They were also life-saving devices on field hospitals, for troops that had been shot or stabbed through a lung.

Never would Ambriel imagine that one would be used to facilitate her live capture.

Months ago, the pink-haired girl would've been unsure if any fate would've been one that was worse than death.

Now? She was living said fate.

Ambriel did not go down without a fight at all, certainly not. The details of the entire ordeal leading up to her capture were fuzzy, but she knew that she thought she would've died.

She would've preferred dying over staying trapped in this position. But they kept her alive, and the girl believed she knew why.

A bright, fluorescent blue halo levitated just a few centimeters above her head. And, to both her left and right, held open by clamps, were her two crystalline wings. Although they did not physically touch her body, like her halo, they would move in place if she shifted her body.