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Thank You For Calling Tech Support [Cheesi!][M][That escalated quickly :D]

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Cheesigator:
Kirkley found himself standing by the bay doors with his jaw clenched, muscles tight and shoulders set. The safety was off on the pulse rifle he'd picked, and his good eye was locked on the oxygen level indicator. This was the moment of truth; either he'd let another criminal into the ship or he'd actually have some good fortune and get some help. He wasn't really sure what to expect--you never could, out here in space. Anything could happen, which had definitely something that took many years of exploration and learning from his own damn mistakes to properly understand; y'know, back when space exploration was still a relatively new concept.

Hell that'd been forever ago. He really shoulda just told the stranger thanks but no thanks and called for professional help from someone he at least knew he could trust. He wasn't sure if he could survive getting thrown out an airlock, after all. Hadn't tried it yet, and sure as shit didn't want to.

The light buzzed green and the bay doors unlocked; he opened them, the din echoing off of the fortified steel walls inside. He stepped down the ledge into the bay proper, the butt of the gun pressed to his shoulder though he didn't look through the sights.

The visitor's ship was relatively small, sleek, and he couldn't put his finger on it but it had character. As did the person who piloted it, apparently.

"Hello?"

The voice echoed in the open spaces of the room and Kirkley stepped around a strapped-down crate a few feet taller than his own head and saw the lone man in a void suit with a kit in hand.

He did a quick sniff test, but all he got was this guy's scent, which meant if there was anybody else in that lil' craft then it'd have to be a droid. Feeling comforted by that fact, he slowly lowered the gun and nodded to him.

"Hey there--sorry, just gotta play it safe." He said in reference to the gun.

His eyebrows knitted a tad, he thought his ears picked up something like a rhythmic humming, but he couldn't tell if it was a weapon or the guy's ship, or hell even this stranger himself. Or maybe it was ringing in his ears from when he'd been thrown to the deck earlier, he mighta hit his head. Wouldn't have surprised him in the least.

If he recalled right, stranger said his name was Otto Ripley earlier, and he was certainly a strange one to look at, not that Kirkley was one to judge. There was something slightly off about him he couldn't put a finger on, but he sure had some rather disarming looks--pretty eyes, full lips.

"Name's Kirkley--if you can get this ship up and running I'll gladly pay you for it, saves me time having to call someone else." He stepped aside, nodding for Otto to follow him into the ship proper. "Seems like my ship got hit with an EMP of some kind, made me stop halfway through my getaway jump and shut down just about every major computer system. Mechanical stuff I can fix well enough, computer? Not so much."

The bay doors sealed shut behind them as he glanced over his shoulder at this Otto, the buzzing still there. Weird.

nephero:
You see, you see, you see! Otto's boarders shrieked and chittered, clawing at his nerves in a desperate attempt to take hold, to climb and hijack his limbs and fight back against this behemoth with everything he had.

Thankfully, despite his overwhelming and persistent sobriety, Otto was able to push through the stinging cacophony behind his eyes, blinking them soundly until the world righted itself to where he could feasibly process the common tongue.

At the very least, the boarders screamed a little more quietly once this gigantic man (and wow, he was gigantic) lowered his weapon. A potential threat still maybe, but at least no longer actively aggressive.

"Ah," Otto said, super duper smartly, "yes, I understand."

If he didn't have such a splitting headache forming, and if every outside stimulus weren't screaming for his attention, Otto might have thought to correct his speech to be more... hm. At all even slightly understandable.

But he did have that imminent headache, and so he didnt, and the most he could manage was stilted and slow-- like a drunk trying to convince the local authorities he absolutely was not trying to operate loading equipment while totally shitfaced.

"This it... happens. Navigations run kn sequence, and when this sequence is interrupted, it is a safety thing... to cancel all of the sequence. Otherwise--" Otto pursed his lips and made a loud popping noise, "inside of a star is where you go."

Thankfully, from what this man, Kirkley, was saying, it would he a simple fix-- find the wrinkle and iron it out. Talk to the bobble headed dog. Commune with the flurry of ones and zeros.

Otto followed Kirkley into the ship, and if he had more time, he'd have wanted to stay and linger on it further. Because it was a right beauty, unique and individual all its own, the steady thrum of life support systems a separate and distinct voice from what he'd hear on his own ship.

It smelled different, too, though that didn't seem to be all Kirkley, something else on the edges to where even Otto couldn't quite place it. Even when the entirety of the hive put everything into his nose to try and suss it out.

All they got for their efforts was a quick sequence of sneezes from the Aedolian man, just as he was brought in to see the systems he'd be working on.

"Sorry. Different filters, it's been some time since breathing outside of mine. Eh. Okay. Let me just have see here." He moved low, reaching under one panel to feel for a release, popping the casing just enough to lift a square of metal away and expose the terribly still heart beneath it.

Reaching into his kit, Otto pulled out a small tablet and a set of cords, creating a daisy chain from ship to tablet to the port set at the base of his skull. He grimaced as the rod slid into place, but the unpleasant chill didn't last, soon replaced by buzzing warmth as electricity flowed between him and the ship, passing along bits of data as they both went.

Luckily, it really was as simple as Kirkley had made it sound. All it would really take was a readjustment and quick reboot, the interstellar version of unplugging a thing and plugging it back in. Because hell if technology ever really changed that much.

"It is hard," Otto said, mildly distracted by the information flow and sounding a little dazed as a result, "if whole system is down like this. The... off button is off, like that. Can't do without extra tools..."

He flicked a finger up, just as several lights blinked into existence on the board, a growing hum signalling the resurgence of operations.

"Bam. It is done."

Cheesigator:
The more this stranger spoke, the more Kirkley found his eyebrows raising into his hairline. He had a very unique accent, one he thought he'd heard before but couldn't remember where or place even what country it might be from. In the universe they lived in, it coulda been anywhere. Or maybe he was just remembering something that sounded similar--either way, he didn't press it. It wasn't important.

What was more important was keeping an eye on him, and hoping he hadn't just let some raider onto his ship that would just disable it further and summon all his buddies to come help take it apart and toss Kirkley out an airlock. He didn't know yet if he could survive the freezing... Ness, of space, and he didn't exactly want to find out.

That being said, even though he was paying attention... He couldn't exactly understand him. And it wasn't even the accent--guy sounded like he was drunk and now he was really questioning whether or not it had been a good idea to let him on board (no, Kirkley. The answer is always no when it comes to letting strangers on board your space ship.) But maybe that was just how he always talked? His ears twitched, he could still hear that buzzing and there was no doubt now that it was definitely coming from this stranger named Otto. He paid the sneezing no mind, understanding and waving it off like nothing. It wasn't like he could get sick so what did he care?

"I'll make pretend like I understood ya and we'll call it a day at that, how 'bout."

He said as he leaned against the doorway to what he called for lack of better words, 'that there computer room.' Reva had probably told him hundreds of times now the name to every part on this ship and he still forgot. An engineer he definitely was not, but he at least had a vague understanding of how most of it worked, even if he referred to most of the parts as 'doohickey', 'thingy', 'that other thingy', and so on and so forth.

His eyebrows raised yet again as Otto immediately got to work, and as he stood there in the doorway it gave him a good few moments to look him over without it being obvious he was staring. He found his head tilting naturally the way a dog's would, he tended to do that whenever he was curious about things. It let the sounds bounce off the inner workings of his ears better, cause listening to things always helped.

Kirkley heard that distinct buzzing even better, along with the beat of the man's heart, and to a point even the little electrical pulses running through the wires as he hooked himself up to the ship's mainframe and... Did that thing. That he was doing. Look, he'd seen a lot of things in his time, and it wasn't the first time he'd encountered someone that could literally hook themselves up to a computer. Was he a cyborg? Potentially. But that didn't explain the constant buzzing, because while it was mostly uniform it had fluctuations in it, because nothing in nature was perfect, only computers were. If he were a computer, the noises he'd be making should've been consistent, like a constantly looping pattern. But the minor changes in tone, intensity, etc, made him think that whatever this Otto guy was it was more alien and biological than anything else.

He didn't really realize it, but he'd instinctively stepped over towards Otto as he grew more and more intensely curious about the man himself rather than what he was doing to the ship; he crouched down by him in silence, close enough to sense the other's body heat as he glanced at the tablet he held in his hands, looking at the wires. He smelled interesting, too. He just couldn't place it and that was driving him fuckin nuts.

The words Otto was murmuring weren't paid attention to so much as the sound of his voice laced with that accent as Kirkley tried to figure him out. He started a bit when suddenly the stranger raised a finger and the lights all went up, the unmistakable and familiar hum of the generators and engines filling the ship again and making the ancient beast look around in mild surprise. It didn't seem like he hacked the ship or anything just yet.

"Color me surprised," He murmured as he stood up, before all lights switched to red and the ship's warning alarm filled every room and corridor.

"Oh, great timing." He looked at Otto, hesitating briefly as he wondered if he could trust this guy at all now before he unlocked a touch-screen panel on the side wall and pulled up the ship's external cameras, which didn't show strange raider ships that might be buddies with buzz-boy over here, but more of the same little aliens he'd pissed off earlier that were coming out of warp a bit too close to The Loveless for comfort.

Damn, it'd only been a matter of time before the fuckers caught up but they were faster than he'd expected.

"Which would you prefer, steering or shooting?" He asked as he looked at Otto, because when push comes to shove there ain't no room for doubt and if either of them wanted to get out of this without making a huge mess, then they might as well do each other a favor and work well together for now.

nephero:
Despite the near-overwhelming flow of information that was cascading along his spinal column, translated back and forth until it became something marginally understandable, Otto was very, painfully aware of how close the other man was getting.

It wasn't like he'd have minded the approach, at any other time. Any other place. On the Cancer, at a bar, something. Something that wasn't in the middle of nowhere and all by himself and half-way pulled out of his own stream of consciousness. His boarders hissed and chittered, forcing every hair on the back of his neck to stand on end, gooseflesh erupting beneath his voidsuit. Thankfully, invisible.

But, it didn't seem like Kirkley was approaching with attack in mind-- quite the opposite, the giant of a man seemed almost wary of Otto. Which was, honestly, downright hysterical. Otto was pretty sure Kirkley could snap him like a twig. Because let's be real, here, he hadn't exactly been eating right the past few weeks, and he'd always been this side of slender.

But hey, could never be too careful. For all Kirkley knew, Otto had set the engines to self destruct, or some shit like that. As if they had any such protocols, though he supposed overloading them would do the same. Not that he would, but the consideration helped him zone out, ignore the buzzing in his nerves.

Otto opened his mouth, about to say something-- and never got the chance. Everything went red, and his jaw snapped shut, tight, teeth grit hard beneath closed lips. Fuck him sideways in a nightgown, the parasites were right, this was a goddamn trap--

He'd reached for his toolkit, fingers just brushing the handle of his multitool, though that was an absolutely laughable option. What did he even expect to do with that? But Kirkley was speaking, and after a few scattered, terrorized milliseconds, Otto finally understood.

This ship, the lovely Loveless, as she had introduced herself, had been damaged badly, and it looked like whoever was responsible was back to finish what they'd started. He'd just had the bad luck of still being on board when they showed up, it seemed. Quickly detaching himself from the ship, Otto stashed everything back in his kit, kicking that under one panel for safe-keeping. All except the laser-cutter, which after a few tests to make sure it was fully functional, he turned the dial way up on.

Nothing said hello like a stream of metal-melting heat to the face.

"Your ship," he said, in answer to the question of preference, "she'll move better for someone she trusts. I'll take shooting gallery."

Cheesigator:
Kirkley eyed the man for a moment before pursing his lips and nodding, glancing out to the corridor outside where the gun he'd stolen had been left leaning against the wall.

"Gun's there if you need it, try not to die." One less body to clean up, and also Kirkley would feel real bad if he did cause then it'd technically be his fault.

At that he bolted to the front end of the ship to take the helm, pulling up the monitors on the big screen/windshields that displayed the total damages. It looks like the first round of aliens had managed to do a pretty good number on Loveless, the port side engine was damaged and the thruster was broke pretty damn good. It wasn't life threatening or mission ending--but it did mean they'd be crawling at a snail's pace to sail anywhere and while that'd be fine if they weren't being chased... They were being chased.

There were three ships total, and he knew he couldn't avoid them all but he'd be damned if he didn't try. He took evasive maneuvers, or as best as he could given Loveless's capabilities. As the ships flanked them, one on each side and one coming up from behind and below to try and board the ship he turned Loveless, narrowly missing the ship on the left side in favor of leveling the one on the right with one of her cannon's and blowing it to smithereens.

The aliens had smaller ships though, zippy, and while the one on the left couldn't stop in time and started to crash against Loveless's siding (she was built like a tank it was the least of Kirkley's concerns right now tbh,) the third ship had managed to hack their way in to the bay where Otto's ship was stationed. He didn't notice quickly enough though, as he was trying to set the ship straight again to ease off on the collision with the first alien ship, and by the time he saw the camera monitor for the cargo bay that was now filled once again with aliens, who were now sabotaging Otto's ship, he swore.

He did his best to fire at the remnants of the first ship, missing part of it due to the poor angle but that was enough for him; time to go run to the other end of the ship and make sure his mechanic friend here wasn't dead yet.

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