Super Robot Wars ∀: Deep Space IC Thread - Part 1: The Culmination

[Sandalphon]

Nikolai stirred a bit, his mind hazy and filled with fog. Sometime during his agitated rest, he had tangled the sheet around his neck and arms in a complex manner. Blood and saliva tricked down his chin as he focused his blurry eyes onto an unknown point in the horizon.

His sleep had, as per usual, been filled with chaos and death and pleading eyes begging for salvation and him.

He untangled himself from the sheet-trap and flung it off his body with a disgruntled groan, trying to collect his thoughts. He had been captured, there was no cyanide capsule, he had struggled and fought but hadn't been executed yet and now he was left to rot until he was useful to them. he shuffled slightly on the floor, getting up would be pointless, afterall, and tried to plot his next course of action. He could try to subdue the next person to enter the room but without weapons that would be difficult...

This whole situation struck him as problematic and fucking shitfuck.

Plan "Let's See How Long I Can Carry On Until They Snap (And Snap My Neck)" it was then.

He hummed Danse Macabre to himself as he waited. He was used to waiting. They had to come back for him soon, right?

[MechanicalBull]

And so Talog lead or was lead into the hangar, where the mechs stood in their bays like sleeping deities.

"So," she barked happily. "Who too?"

She glanced at her own, battered mech. Well, she'd have plenty of places she could install a few little lasers. She wouldn't even necessarily need dedicated dectors, really, depending on the coverage of cameras on the hull. Her gaze turned to Elaine's, and the small lad working on it.

"He'll do," she said, answering her own question, and with just a few steps she was by him. Buck, or something?

"Hey there," she boomed. "You're one of the mechanic bossmen, right? I had a little idea that might be doable."

[Dandragon]

At some point, Talog had gotten ahead of her and was speaking to Buck before she had a chance to ask where Avery was. Well...that was fine. It wasn't like she still couldn't ask, regardless, but perhaps letting him know about Talog's idea wasn't a bad...idea, for lack of a better word.

"Yeah, she's got this crazy idea about using a lasercomm system to communicate when we have to use the jamming system again. And I think it just might work!"

[Phoenix]

The Captain hadn't officially given the order for Megumi to interview Nikolai on her behalf, but she didn't want to be caught unprepared if it did happen. With only herself left in the infirmary, she began gathering some injectors. She wound up with ten in all, a couple of duplicate chemicals mixed in. She was sure she had everything she needed, both to keep the prisoner from moving around too much, and to keep him alive in the event of the unforeseen. Not that Megumi planned on torturing him to that point, or at all, frankly, but it was always good to be prepared. While she waited, either for her next assignment or for the mission itself, she could probably get some reading done.

---

So, her first move was to address the appearance of her room? Brant wondered why that got such high priority. Admittedly he hadn't wasted much time messing with his room's settings, either, but he was already wearing something comfortable, and his things had already been delivered as well. If Christina was going to be in her room for the time being, then neither Brant nor Thorvald would have to worry about escorting her, and could handle their own business. The Captain had warned her that if she was caught outside her room without an escort, it was the brig for her, and she seemed rather comfortable with the prospect of having a room over a cell. Hopefully that would be enough until a guard was assigned to the door.

"Alright, I guess we'll leave you to it, then," Brant said, "also, don't forget what the Captain said: if you need to get out for a bit, call one us."

[Ether]

It didn't take long for Christina to move herself over to what was apparently to be her room, at least for the time being. She seemed in quite a rush, but Seung-Min supposed that wasn't much of a surprise, all things considered. They kept walking along with her, apparently her arrival had cut Thorvald off, as he appeared to have taken out a picture of his family, which the prisoner had commented on briefly, He did seem to be quite the family man so far, a rather fatherly figure in general, though that topic appeared to have passed for the time being, as the small group gathered outside Christina's room, the girl fiddling with the interior design settings.

"Name, Seung-Min." Kim replied, as it was brought up that her own name had never been given to Christina. No need to go further than a given name, really. It seemed she was settling in, so Kim turned from the room for a moment.

"Suppose see, anything spare can borrow." She called back, walking towards her own room to see what she had about.

[Xinnidy]

"...Ugh." Roxanna had to hold back her groan as the pipsqueak deflected her trail of thought. Could she really be blamed for feeling that way?

Apparently so. Nobody in the crew seemed to be sympathizing with her, and the pipsqueak's gained the favor of Dwight pretty fast, along with her uncle, if the mission briefing that morning was anything to go by... "Fine." Roxanna sighed, rubbing her temples. "Look, I'm not-- I still think something isn't right, but I won't let it harm the mission." Gefalscht had a point, there were much worse sanctions from failing that mission right after her demotion. It took a moment to realize, but with the crew viewing her poorly, a lot of the blame could easily fall onto Roxanna if they organized their complaints.

Roxanna gulped.

"I... I'll follow your orders." She closed her eyes, trying to avoid eye contact for the briefest of moments. This can be salvaged, just, just... ugh. "Until we're back and it's a success... I'll work with you. Alright?"

[riariadne]

"She is right, Roxanna," Dwight spoke up. "The success of this mission matters far more than any individual accomplishments or stakes in the matter. Holding a 'potential rookie mistake' over the Captain now is quite petty, because without everyone's full cooperation, it is harder to recover from such a mistake. It is our duty as crew members of the Riese to put forth full effort towards defeating the rebels, and most importantly, ensuring the safety of the First Colony's citizens. Personal grudges must be put aside for their sake." She had conceded that she'd help already, but he felt like the details of the situation were still worth elaborating on.

[Nanami Touko]

Lasers!

Buck had nearly finished replacing the thruster on Elaine's mech before he was hailed, loudly, by Bloduwedd, stumbling up on his stand and tumbling backwards-- but fear not! He'd done this before! A hasty hand grabbed the rail of the stairs leading up to the high platform, and he rode it down with a stiff grip through his glove. He landed a bit heavily, groaned for a moment, but was for better or worse, just fine. "Yeesh! I gotta be more careful! Might not land on my feet one of these days and that would be awful... Anyway, what's that about laser comms?" He's seen the stuff on the ground, on bases, but never used on mechs... But it could work, right? He placed a gloved hand on his chin, thinking it over. "Well! It'd take re-calibrating the stabilizers to maintain some sort of calm movement for the laser to match its mark, but I think it'd work just fine. I guess the top brass just didn't think about that when it came to jamming. Honestly, we don't get hostage situations very often... Well, not that I'd really know, I've only been here for a few months!"

"Well! Never mind that. Sure! I think we can do it. D'you two wanna help since you came up with the idea? Figure if you're thinking about it you've gotta know your way about a good wrench, yeah? Haven't heard anything outta you yet big lady, but you, Elaine, right? You keep bugging me and Avery to help, so y'know what? Let's get to it, yeah? I'll finish your robot, you two get started on whichever ones are beat up the least. Hit it!" He smiled, gave them both a thumbs up, and started back up his ladder. "Oh, an' all the spare parts are near the back, with the spare weapons! Gather whatever you need!"

Follow The Leader

Expecting more backtalk, Jess' frown brightened into a smile near instantly as Roxanna finally agreed to stop being the stickiest stick in the mud over this situation. Dwight backed Jess up with one last moment of points, and she was so glad he had, hoping it would destroy any last remnants of the woman's saucy attitude and defiant nature. "Th... Thank you!" She couldn't help herself-- it was a dire breach of Roxanna's personal space, but having dealt with this frustration for the past week and a half, to finally achieve resolution-- she hugged the woman, nice and tight. It lasted only a few seconds, and was probably too long for Roxanna either way, but Jess seriously needed that. She'd be up for dealing with that rebel kid after all of this positivity.

"Yes! Let's do our best, XO!" For the first time, Jessica said Roxanna's title without disdain or disrespect. "I'm happy to have you here to help." She offered her hand to shake, a much more appropriate gesture than her exploded hug, hoping Roxanna would continue to be amicable.

Comfortable...

Christina listened to Brant's apparent goodbye, for now, feeling herself shrink, just a bit. Most of her was scared, uncomfortable; she didn't want to be around these strangers that she'd just met acting friendly like nothing had happened-- but part of her was craving that, because it took her away from the uncomfortable thoughts and worries that were plaguing her. It was the worst divide she'd have to fight through, but she settled on keeping quiet, smiling at Brant as he reminded her of her situation. "Yes. Of course... I can use the computer and the room panel for that, right? I'll figure it out... Thank you, Brant." Sorry.

The Seung-Min girl, that's what she said her name was, had offered to find some clothes for Christina. "That's very nice of you!" Christina called after her, as she walked off towards her room. She'd have something to wear, aside from this godawful suit... Speaking of, she waved Thorvald goodbye, offering him one more warm smile, and turned towards the room. No point closing the door yet, if Seung-Min was going to come back. She had to remove this thing, seriously. Finally deciding on a nice, midnight blue to coat the walls. It was darker, much darker, than before, but it off set the pure white of the bed sheets and the greyish desk with her temporary computer set on it. With a sigh, and a somber look at the welcoming sheets, she went about removing the pilot suit.

The pressure release was on the wrist, a small hiss escaping her suit as the air released itself. There was one set of drawers in the room. She let the sagging suit lay on her for a moment as she decided to dig through one of the drawers, finding a bland, and basic, white dress. Standard extra attire, she could only assume. She took it with her to what seemed like the laundry room attached to this place; it was pretty extensive, honestly... Stand in shower, bath, nice sink, washer and dryer, and a chute for which she could only assume was disposal. She stepped out of her suit and tossed it down said chute. The less she ever had to see of that thing again, the better. The dress slipped on over her underwear quickly after, slipping her arms through the sleeves. She caught a glance at herself in the mirror and laughed, just a tiny chuckle. "I look like a medical patient..."

A set of small glances was all she did in there, returning to the main part of the room and flopping onto the soft bed... Gosh, was it soft... She could probably curl up there and sleep, but she had to stay awake, just for a bit longer... Just until Seung-Min could come back and give her some clothes, talk about anything she wanted to... I mean she held a gun to me, what could we talk about? There was that scared twinge, hitting her like a brick to the face. She curled up on the bed, wondering if she curled up tight enough, she'd disappear...

Edited August 27, 2016 by Narmaya

[Ether]

Stepping into her room and walking over towards the wardrobe, Kim had a few things to consider. While she was similar in build to this Christina. there were a few notable differences to keep in mind. Kim herself was a bit taller than the ex-rebel, so any pants or dresses would need to be cut short, so as to not drag on the floor. The other main consideration was that the other girl's bust was a bit larger than her own, so any shirts would need be loose, or at least long, to accommodate that difference.

No problem. As the doors of the walk-in wardrobe slid open, one could swear that a golden glow erupted from within them, as though one was opening an ancient treasure trove of jewels and riches. And for all intents and purposes, if one enjoyed fashion, that is in fact exactly what happened. If anything this was a blessing, Seung-Min frowning a bit as the generously sized walk-in closet was practically overflowing with clothing. If anything, this was an opportunity. Lending some clothing to Christina should allow her to clear out some room in here to actually allow her access to the back-end, so in all reality, this would be a rather symbiotic relationship.

But with the parameters for sizing already determined, there was one other notable thing to consider. Colour and pattern. For someone like her, striking colours or pastels would be best. Blues, reds, blacks, anything sharp to deliver contrast. As for the pastels, the lighter, more innocuous tones would do well to accent her golden locks. With those decided, Seung-Min piled together some choices that would suit Christina, opting to place them into a handy box for easy carrying... or two easy boxes... or three... really, Kim had plenty to spare, and plenty of options that would work well for the ex-rebel, so there was no reason to not pile it on thick, as it were. Stopping at three boxes worth of clothing, Kim hoisted them up into her arms, and made her way back down the hall, stepping into the still-open door to Christina's new room.

"Brought stuff, if want take look."

[Nanami Touko]

Dressup

As a set of boxes wandered into Christina's new room, she thought she might honestly be losing it, just a bit, but when Seung-Min's voice spoke up the pair of legs attached started to make sense. She pulled herself up a bit, sitting up on the plush surface. "That's a lot of clothes... You don't want me to try it all on, do you?" She offered the same apprehensive smile she'd been sporting the entire walk, trying to keep how she felt quiet in case Brant was still waiting outside. "But... If you want to suggest some stuff, or pick some stuff out for me, I guess I wouldn't mind." Better than wallowing in my own sadness on the bed...

Clothes had never been the biggest issue for Christina. At least, before she'd signed up for the military academy, she had that sort of figure and hair that, as long as she was wearing whatever was the latest fashion, or something tame, she'd have looked fine, if not good. So this could bring something positive in, right? Better than hospital clothes, that was certain. She crawled off the bed and stepped over to Seung-Min, taking one of the boxes off of her hands and setting it near the bed, plopping back down onto the edge. There was... A lot of clothes. Like, wow... How did one person own this much, and on a battleship, no less? "Impressive..." she mumbled, opting to poke and prod her way through the various articles... Huh...

"You... Picked this all out to fit with my hair, didn't you?" she asked, as most of the colors would accent or contrast, depending. "...Thanks." The kind gestures from this crew weren't going to go unnoticed, as uneasy as she was... Still, it was impossible to quiet that feeling, as hard as she tried.

[Ether]

"Should fit, we about same size." Kim replied as Christina asked if she should start trying things on, finally able to see as the first box was removed from the tower, Seung-Min setting the other two down and sitting on the edge of the bed next to Christina, watching as the girl began to look through the first box. It didn't take the girl long to clue in to the pattern behind the assorted clothing, at the very least.

"Yes, you good hair, good figure. Shame waste, yes?" Seung-Min replied with a nod, feeling unease and apprehension grip Christina. This still must be a hard pill to swallow, after all, Placing her hand gently on the girl's shoulder, she gave her a comforting squeeze.

"Is going be okay."

[MechanicalBull]

"Sergeant Bloduwedd Talog," she introduced herself, offering a large hand to shake and easily reaching his height on the ladder, "An' yeah, I'm an engineer meself - so I'm a fair hand with a power tool, I feel safe in saying."

After shake or no, she turned to Elaine, and gave her a friendly slap on the back as she began to head to the spare parts.

"Well, that's a green light. Let's get to it!"

[Dandragon]

Elaine gave Talog a nod. "If we got the time and the parts, let's get to it!" Within no time at all, Elaine had rocketed from Talog and Buck all the way to the back, where the parts were. Her eyes sparkled as she looked at everything lying around, a wild grin on her face as she started looking around. It was like she was back in her workshop, and she loved it. "So!" She began as Talog arrived behind her, "What you got in mind? How do you want this to look?"

[Balcerzak]

"Isn't she though," Thorvald beamed with pride when Christina commented on the picture of Holly. "I've got plenty more, but I suppose now's not really the time. You'll have to make do with just a taste."

Their escort mission at an end, Brant departed, repeating again the captain's directive that the captive get in touch with one of the two of them if she needed anything. Thorvald had a pile of things on his plate to take care of as well, so he also prepared to make a clean break. "Make yourself comfortable, and wish us well on the hostage rescue. Hell if we're really lucky, maybe we can talk that Abigail woman down, haha."

Then it was off down the hallway again, but he stopped by Lt. Kim's door on the way past. He hadn't ignored her earlier, but it had been mostly non-verbal and he had honestly been a little distracted. It didn't seem right to leave without having said anything, though, so as the woman seemed to be rooting around in her closet for some spare clothes for the new girl, he called out couple small things, not really waiting for a reply, before heading back to the elevators.

"Good work out there, Minnie. Mission wouldn't have gone nearly so smooth without you there," he started. There was a brief pause when he decided against telling her to try to get along with Christina, as that was obviously already under way, but the sentence soon shifted its way to something that actually seemed to fit. "I think Miss Troy's just pretty lost and confused right now, and will probably need some time alone at some point, but I'm sure your company will be appreciated until she tells you otherwise."

---

Thorvald radioed over to Avery on the elevator ride to the mid-decks, just to make sure he wasn't going on a fool's errand and would actually be able catch up with the head mechanic somewhere. "Hey, Thorvald here, though now that I think of it I'm not sure we were every properly introduced, so you might just know me better as the guy who bangs up Giant-2... Anyway, that's not important. Was hoping to meet up with you, got some jobs need doing and would prefer to discuss 'em in person if that's alright. You're still in the hangar, I assume?"

Edited August 27, 2016 by Balcerzak

[Xinnidy]

Return to Grace

"I..." Roxanna frowned, looking down as Dwight laid some more of the bare truth onto her plate. She wasn't any more comfortable of being there at that point in time, and didn't even know what to reply to that. We're going to be all worse off if it fails, I get it... The point was being hammered pretty hard on her skull. They're all against me already, shit...

Then there was a hug.

Roxanna was very confused. Wasn't she making her life hell? For Gefalscht to turn around on her mood so quickly and hug her was several magnitudes of... unexpected. "Uh." Roxanna stared dumbfounded at the girl's salute, only able to return a very slow "Okay... Captain."

[Nanami Touko]

Proceedings!

"Yes! Thank you!" Jessica said it again as she saluted Roxanna once more, turning to Dwight with a wide smile, and then back to her finally cooperative XO. "Alright, Iiiiii have to go and find Dr. Hart. You two, uh... Battlestations, I suppose? Unless you have anything else to do about the ship. We should be fine until we're near the colony, so take a load off as best as you can... We're still an hour away, at best." Jessica headed off, a new spring in her step. She hadn't expected that to proceed as well as it had; Roxanna's pride was a mountain-- But! It had, and she was free from that stress for just a little bit longer, meaning she could take care of the next stresser on the table. That boy.

The Guy That Bangs up Giant-2

Avery heard the call come out over her radio, lasering down one of the annoying panels on Thorvald's robot, at the time. "Huh? Speak o' the devil, eh? Workin' on it raight now. Yeh, ah'm in the hangar still, so iffin ye wanna come talk 'bout whatever yer needin', just find me at yer bot, alright? Least you didn't beat this one up as much as that there new sergeant, geez... Keep it up, Eriksson!" Avery turned her radio off after that, going back to working the hands. This one wouldn't need too much more work, which meant she was nearly ready for the next one~

Take it Easy

Christina was surprised by the amount of clothes, really, going through a few things before-- before Seung-Min put her hand on Christina's shoulder, the quick squeeze shaking her more than enough. "What? I'm... I-I'm fine, Seung... Min..." Why am I crying...? It took her a moment to register things as they started to pour up, vision getting a bit blurry under the tears. A trembling hand bright itself up to Seung-Min's, grabbing onto her wrist, as her face leaned into it as well, trying to bite things back. "I'm fine... I'm s-supposed to be, fine..." I'm not fine...

Christina let herself sob into the girl's wrist, trying to control herself-- she had to talk, right? She couldn't just cry, sitting here on her loaned bed, with someone whose only previous interaction had been at gunpoint. "I'm sorry! I-I'm sorry, I'll..." She sucked it up, trying to stop herself, letting go of Seung-Min's arm and wiping her face on the sleeve of her storage dress. "I'm trying to act, like e-everything's fine... And yet I made such a huge, mistake... I almost died; I could h-have, killed... One of you... What if I'd hit, Th-Thorvald's cockpit? What about his family? What about... My... oh, Daddy..." The water works were back on, but she was keeping quiet about it, as best a she could, as the mix of guilt and comfort clashed in her mind, guilt winning out in the end.

[Juliette]

"What wrong with new ship? It supposed to be best ship, yes?" Juria seemed to not be really understanding Astin's point, possibly because she didn't really know most of the crew of the Riese individually very well. "All crews different. Maybe we closer than other big ships, so it up to us for saving everyone from colony." She turned towards her plate of food, which she found much easier to focus on than scary things like the colony being in danger- about half of it she'd already eaten. "Does Astin friend need anything for drink?"

[Ether]

And there were the waterworks. Not that Kim was... immensely surprised, feeling them coming moments before they had started, but she had never been... the best at comforting people. She supposed she'd have to try, regardless of all that. Moving her hand from Christina's shoulder to behind her back, Seung-Min pulled the ex-rebel closer, allowing her to rest her head on Kim's shoulder and cry there instead, gently rubbing her back as she gave her a hopefully comforting hug.

"That war. You forget enemy human... have to, to pull trigger. You not kill any us... Thorvald alive, no hurt, you alive. We all... knew risk, before launch. We not blame you... cannot change past. Can only move forward, change future. What good look back do?" Kim began, hoping she was going the right way with all of this.

"Clearly you... cooperate with Captain, got room instead brig. Hopefully help ANF now, not know all details, stop needless death. What good do, me come out room, see you, scream 'Rebel scum', shoot and kill? Nothing, no good. Show remorse, not bad person. Want make amends, not try correct past, make better future." She concluded, giving Christina another comforting squeeze.

[MechanicalBull]

"Let's start with your mech then, eh?"

Talog began to sort through the piles of stuff.

Hmm.

"Grab some lasers with different wavelengths, yeah? Shouldm't matter too much in space, ut might be worth testing in atmo. This doesn't have to look pretty for now, but it should work."

She picked up a solar cell before discarding it. While technically she could fudge a reciever from it, it really wouldn't be worth the effort.

"Might be a bit of effort to get it to integrate properly with the mech's comms, but I'm sure we can overcome."

Having salvaged a bunch of parts, she withdrew datapad and sketched out a quick diagram. She gestured Elaine over and pointed to each part and it's place.

"So if that goes there, we can solder that on there... should work alright. The mech can power it, so no need for any batteries or something like that."

[Nanami Touko]

Treated

"But I shouldn't treated this well just for that," she blurted out, not expecting the further display, freezing a bit as Seung-Min hugged her. It helped her, in its own way, but it meant she'd be crying more, as her face buried itself into the shoulder that she'd been offered. She got a talking to about what war was. Everyone knew the risks. Everyone knew the chance they were taking, getting into the steel coffins and going out into live fire... They knew that, but it didn't make the pill easier to swallow. But you can't change the past, as upsetting as it is... That stuck with her, as she slowly let Seung-Min go, wiping her eyes once again.

"I don't feel what I've done is enough to deserve all of this... This niceness... So I've been trying to suck it up and hide it all, from Brant, especially. You know, he's Telekinetic, so he'd be able to tell right away if something was off... I don't think you deserve this either, but it's nice, that you're trying so hard to help." She nodded again, looking back at the clothes. "I don't deserve it, yet... But I'll do whatever I have to, to help, and rid myself of this guilt... Hopefully the captain will let me help!" She smiled through the last remaining tears, looking up at Seung-Min. "Thank you for letting me cry." She wiped away everything, taking a deep breathe, and trying to bottle up what was left. She didn't need to be bawling her eyes out right now. She could do that later, and let it all out... But right now, someone was trying their hardest to make her feel welcome, and not like the prisoner she was. She needed to relish that.

"What did you have in mind for me to wear?" She'd been too distracted to really have been paying attention to any of the clothes, and was hoping Seung-Min knew her own well enough to suggest things.

[Xinnidy]

Cautious

"Ah..." So she was dismissed, simple as that, without any resent in Jessica's words. Roxanna just nodded, and was left really unsure how to feel or proceed after that. "Uh... I guess we're dismissed now, then." She turned to face Dwight after --imagining he hadn't as bouncy a mood as Gefalscht, at least. "So, uh, anything else?" Even with Jessica leaving, Roxanna was been expecting the conversation to end with a backlash and a heavy note, and was still steeling her nerves as if she were just to receive one.

Edited August 27, 2016 by Xinnidy

[Ether]

So she was aware that Brant was telekinetic after all... it must have come up from the man himself, as it wasn't the sort of information she would have been given formally... especially as she seemed as of yet unaware that Kim herself was also of the same sort. At least she was trying to open up a bit now, that would make things easier. If she was unaware that Seung-Min herself was telekinetic, and thus not trying to shield her feelings, she would be far more easy to read.

"You alive, human. Seen error ways, want move past, help. More than deserve this much. As for Captain... seem forgiving. Show you mean help, sure let... once calm down." Kim replied, letting Christina pull out from the light hug, gently patting her shoulder instead to maintain contact. She seemed to be a bit more calm now, clearly still bottling up some of her woes... but pushing her to hard wouldn't help any. If she wanted to move to a different topic for now, so be it.

"Is okay, cry when need, As for clothes, picked few colours good for you, which like?" She asked, picking up a few sample colours to start with, a dark blue, sharp red, a classic black, and a light pastel pink.

[Balcerzak]

Things could hardly have lined up better for Thorvald. The mechanic he was looking for was working on his Legionary, and he remembered right where he parked it, so tracking her down should be easy as pie. "Heh, I suppose you're right, though technically since she took a hit that was meant for me I'm not sure if that counts," he countered with a bit of friendly banter back before killing the connection.

Shortly thereafter, the elevator dinged its arrival, and he strode out and down the hall to the hangers, quickly making his way over to where the bubble-gum popping woman (or more accuractely the repair robots she was directing) was buffing out some of the remaining dents and scratches, having already finished reinforcing the hull integrity. Circling around with an appraising gaze, he gave a thumbs up and a grunt of approval. "Gotta hand it to ya, you guys are real professionals."

Time to get down to business though, he chided himself. "It's good that you seem to be finishing up the repairs so quickly, cause I'm afraid it's just gonna be one thing after another here, as far as piling onto your workload," he sighed. "First thing's first, and it's definitely the most important: based on what we've learned from the captives the Prioxis computer handles the encoding and decoding of their transmissions, though it's sadly limited to only those with other Prioxis. If we'd managed to get our hands on a Heracles for you, you might have been able to have a bit more fun playing around with it, but we're working with what we've got. Captain wants you, Buck, and anyone else you need to get started on reverse engineering that sucker so we can get something installed or uploaded or whatever to our mechs and have a bit of a leg up on the rebels in the next engage. I dunno the specifics that go into that, and while cap didn't mention her specifically, I expect you might get some good help from Juria on that front, maybe I'm wrong though."

He paused for a bit, not just to avoid overwhelming the lass with too much info all at once, but also because the gravity of the next item still weighed a bit upon him. Lowering his voice to keep it from carrying and alarming any other workers who might pass by he vicinity, he continued "Second, we've been informed of the presence of a bomb of some sort acting as a self-destruct in the cockpit of the intact craft," sparing Christina's plane a glance here, and seeing once again the extent of the damage it had taken, he corrected himself, "Err, the mostly intact one. Whatever, the one that's not just a cockpit, you know? There might be one in the other fella's too, but then again, maybe not. So, yeah, that's gonna need to be removed and disarmed, carefully. Since it's tied to a lever, though, and not a countdown, there shouldn't be any reason to take alarm, or prioritize it over the mission critical task that gets us access to enemy comms. Still, the wrecks should probably be roped off or whatnot, so someone isn't fiddling around where they're not supposed to and accidentally end up setting something off by accident."

He stopped at two for now, giving the mechanic a chance to get a word in edgewise and say her piece, though there were still a couple items in his checklist of things he wanted the ground crew to take a look at. The way he'd phrased things should have probably made that apparent as well, what with the "first" and "second" instead of "first" and "last" or "finally" or whatever, so he expected she'd prompt him for the rest after she was finished with any questions she had, and was good and ready for them.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Balcerzak

[Nanami Touko]

"Clothes"

"I hope so... Er... Long story short, I know how to work on T-Links, so I wanted to offer to help with Brant's, or any others on board, just to make sure calibrations are working properly and no one's getting any unnecessary feedback... It can be pretty painful." She spoke as if she knew, but Christina hadn't mentioned being a Telekinetic. "Say, Seung-Min... You're a Telekinetic too, aren't you? Or, if you're not, you sure have a risque choice in pilot suits..." She smiled, but, didn't know if it was the right thing to pry into. "I couldn't tell with Brant, because he was wearing ANF standard, but... Well, your 'flightsuit' was a bit less than that, and I've seen plenty before. Sorry if I'm wrong, or prying, I, uh... You don't have to worry about reading anything from me, if you think it's necessary. If I seem like I'm gonna slip into another moment, or something." She nodded, hoping to quickly change the topic if she'd gone too far.

"R-Right, clothes, uh..." The blue was a blouse with a skirt, though the skirt was... Well, on Seung-Min it might've been a bit short, but it would probably be just about above the knees on Christina. That'd be fine if she was just staying in the room, right? Well, maybe not, if she was going to go walking around at all with Brant or Thorvald. The black was a dress... Which was nice, but not really something to wear on a ship? She'd take it all anyway, just to have stuff to wear, but maybe just for the room... Though the red seemed alright. She liked shorts! The shirt was... "Do you have anything bigger in red? I, uh... Ahahah..." She didn't want to say it straight out, so hopefully Seung-Min would pick up on it.

Then there was the pink, which was a nice pair of jeans, and... Uh... She picked up the sweater that went with the jeans, and did a quick take between it and Seung-Min. "So... Whhhy is there a big hole in the...?" She put her arm through the hole to exemplify her point, but didn't do much more than that aside from blush. "You know, I'm not gonna wear this sorta stuff just 'cause you're cheering me up," she offered with a small smirk. "Maybe your choice of flightsuit wasn't for the reason I thought, after all.

A Bomb

Avery stepped down as Thorvald came over, offering her smuggest grin. "O' course we are. Ain't gonna get hired fer this sorta ship iffin we can't strap together some dents. What'd ye need then, Eriksson?" Well, he'd get right into that, wouldn't he? It was a pretty hefty order. Sounded like the Prioxes could be reverse engineered to give the crew a hand up on radio transmissions. That would leave Avery and some spare hands checking both to see which frequencies they were running. It wasn't a difficult task, but dealing with the encryption would be a hassle. Thorvald mentioned their saviour for that mess! "Yer darn right I'll be gettin' Juria's help fer that one. I ain't gonna lie, I can smack at a set o' numbers all day, an' I won't get anywhere. She might be a bit crazy, but she's smart, an' prolly better'n most when it comes to messin' with that. I'll hit her up."

Now, that was something taxing, but simple. Thorvald's next mention? Avery froze, then looked at him, looked at the wreck, back at Thorvald, back at the wreck, scrunched her face up like she was about to shout-- "HOLY HELL," was all he got as she ran off from her spot and drove it towards the wreckage, a few hands turning their heads as the head mechanic bolted through the hangar. She stumbled for a moment climbing up into the wreck, but very quickly pulled herself back up towards the cockpit, diving inside and immediately poking her head as far under the seat as she could--

"Mother fuckers," she grunted. There it was. She looked to her right and spied the aforementioned lever that would trigger the countdown for the explosion. She couldn't tell what sort of explosives were packed into it, but considering it was meant to vaporize the pilot, from where it was placed, it would be something bad, and that going off in the middle of the hangar was not a good thing.

"BOYS!" she called out, popping out of the hangar for a second. "I'MUNNA NEED FOUR A Y'ALL, BEST HANDS. RIGHT NOW!" Whatever Thorvald had to say was going to be put on hold. Avery was not taking a chance with a bomb. Not another one. "Sorry Thorvald!" she barked over at him. "This takes priority! Won't take more'n faive minutes, alraight!?" He should've been able to hear her over the hangar, the repair bots were fairly quiet with their laser work.

Edited August 28, 2016 by Narmaya

[scorri]

Astin shook their head. Clearly Juria was not the person to talk to about all of this. She didn't seem to understand what they were trying to say, much less understand the situation going on with the ship and crew. Still, it probably was best to not talk about it much more with her right now. She still clearly had a lot on her mind. They took the last few bites of toast and pushed back from the table slightly. "No, I'm ok without anything, thank you though. You should probably try and find the captain at some point if you want to talk with her about being a co-pilot. I think I might just head back to my room. Need to think some before the next battle." They started to stand up, hesitated, and then smiled at her. "Thank you. It was nice talking to you."