A Pain in the Arsenal ((Mia, Tetro, open))

[Anonymous]

Rikki was thoroughly and pleasantly surprised by a reply from Keir. “Vulpecula here. We got back so you can join us now.”

She nearly dropped her bag of tooth-rotting comfort food, so ecstatic was she at actually getting a shot at being a space pirate. She hammered the "transmit" button, smiling. "Vulpecula? That's a hell of a name... Awesome news, though, I'll be over posthaste." She looked through the eye-cameras, swiveling the Rikkämpfer's head until she caught sight of the ship. "I've got a lock on ya... see you in a few seconds, over."

She put the bag of candy away and rotated the mech, turning the jets on low for a bit and coasting over toward the Vulpecula. She hit "transmit" again, before she made any further moves. "You guys got a dock on this thing, over?"

[Anonymous]

[OOC Short and sucky, I'm thinking of hiring a new muse o.O]

     “I’m not doing that again anytime soon,” Nastusia said unconsciously in common as she sat up with Tetro still hugging her.

     Keir didn’t look amused however, she’d probably hear about it later.

     She then turned to Tetro, “I can’t die permanently, why do you think I’ve lived so long? I’ve had enough people chasing me over the years to have killed me several times over if I stayed dead. I’d probably have died even before I can remember.”

     Rikki’s voice then came over the radio, “You guys got a dock on this thing, over?”

     “Um, Tetro can you let go so I can answer her please?”

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque blushed quite brightly for someone covered in fur as he reluctantly let go of Nastusia.

"S-sorry Captain."  He managed to stammer out the apology as he got his emotions somewhat under control.

"I was just worried about you and kind of let my emotions get away from me.  I've never had one of my friends die in front of me before, let alone come back from the dead.  I'm just happy you're okay."  Then the realization of what he'd done came crashing down on him.  He'd killed someone.  Not just killed them, but tore their throat out like some sort of wild beast.  He suddenly felt disgusted with himself.  There was still a red stain of blood on his usually pristine fur.  His face was one of horror as he quickly backed away from Nastusia, mumbling some sort of apology.

Without another word he ran off to the bathroom to clean himself of the foul stench of blood.

"By the Nine, what am I becoming?"  He asked himself as he disrobed and got into the shower.  He scrubbed at the bloodstains until they were gone, then continued to scrub.

"Not clean... not clean..."  It was hard to tell in all the water but he was crying again, though for an entirely different reason than before.  It seemed the young Kitsune would have a lot to get used to in this new galaxy.

[Anonymous]

Once Tetro let go of Nastusia she went into the cockpit to tell Rikki they did indeed have a dock on the Vulpecula. She seemed alright but he knew later when she went to bed she would be out for hours. Nothing short of the ship crashing would wake her. He was more worried about Tetro however. Now that he knew Nastusia was okay he was probably dwelling on having killed that man back on the Cancer. Keir himself had killed several times, as had Nastusia, it was necessary for survival. He doubted it was different in other galaxies, Tetro’s existence had probably just been more sheltered than most.

     Keir went up to the bathroom door and knocked, “You alright?”

     Nowadays, he wasn’t a very caring person, but he remembered the first time he had killed someone quite vividly; it was several thousand years ago when he was only 26 and still thought he was mortal. He had been protecting Nastusia at the time since she wasn’t as powerful a mage as she was now. It was one of the first steps to becoming the miserable grouch he was these days but being innocent and goofy got you killed.

     “Killing does get easier,” Keir said too Tetro through the door, “But you get used to it. If you’re different in this galaxy you have to kill for survival.”

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque listened to Keir through the door.  What he said made sense, and the Kitsune realized that.  Yet it really didn't help Tetroneaque feel any better about killing that person.  Especially the excessively brutal manner in which the Kitsune had slain the man.  Tetroneaque wondered if it really did get easier, yet more important to him he wondered if he wanted it to get easier.  In fact, he wondered if he'd lose a little part of himself if he stopped feeling terrible over slaying another sentient being.

He finally turned off the shower, dried off, wrapped a towel around his waist, and came out of the bathroom.  His clothes he put into the laundry chute again, as they were stained with blood and he simply couldn't stand to look at them just then.

"That man wanted to hurt Nastusia, and probably me as well.  I know that I didn't do anything wrong, but I still don't feel good about it."  His voice was a bit glum as he spoke.  "I don't know if I'll ever get used to it."

[Anonymous]

Steering the Rikkämpfer was tricky business indeed, as Rikki had learned when she first started piloting it. Over the course of a year she finally got it down, but not before plowing into a few buildings, paying a few fines, spending a few nights in a few hospitals, mortally terrifying a few citizens, and nearly reaming the city of Teinar a few new skylights. Steering around the outside of the Vulpecula while it was moving was a difficult task, but she managed, hoping to whatever God there was that none of her newfound crewmates would get it into their heads to try and fly the thing. Land steering was easy, but flying was reserved for experts.

She landed in the dock (hitting the ground running, so not to burn the inside of the dock with the leg thrusters) and radioed in again. "Rikki here, I'm in the airlock. Ready to lock down and re-pressurize, or whatever, over." She didn't want to let the others know, for fear of jeopardizing her image, but she was extremely antsy and excited to see the inside of the ship. I guess it's true what they say... you can teach a girl to be a calm, collected, badass mech pilot, but she'll still be all, "oh my God, I'm gonna be a space pirate" when the opportunity presents itself.

[Anonymous]

[OOC Faily Goodness]

Nastusia keyed in the sequence to close and re-pressurize the airlock the headed to greet Rikki. However she caught the tail end of Tetro and Keir’ conversation.

      “Getting used to it and not feeling guilty about killing are different. You will always feel guilty, but you’ll get used to the guilt.”

     Keir wasn’t the most sensitive of people. He probably hadn’t explained it properly. And she doubted he cared nothing for killing.

     Nastusia then headed to the air lock and opened it, this time from the ship. She then got a view of Rikki’s mecha. It certainly was impressive, if a little unusual looking.

     “Nice,” Nastusia said brightly.

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque didn't know if it was true yet, but he was willing to believe Nastusia.  After all, she'd been around longer than he had.  So he simply nodded his head and followed her.  He wanted to see what this new crew member brought to the party, so to speak.  He still had the towel on and nothing else, as his only set of clothes were being cleaned at the moment.  He was a bit surprised at what awaited in the docking bay.

"Oh!"  He exclaimed with surprise and just a little excitement.

"That is an interesting weapons platform.  I can't say I've ever seen anything quite like it."  He walked around the strange looking mech, making mental notes of areas he thought needed improvement or at least some repair.

"I think I can improve on this design... if our new member accepts my offer anyway.  Are these types of bi-pedal weapons platforms common in this galaxy?"  His questions were directed at Nastusia.  He was suddenly feeling himself cheering up a bit at the prospect of getting to play around with some new gadget.  His tails started to wag a little as he continued to check out the mech in his bath towel.

[Anonymous]

After Rikki was sure the airlock was shut, and a "ready" light came on on the inside wall of the dock, she cut power to the hover mechanism and felt the mech settle on the floor of the dock. She stood up from the cockpit and made sure everything was in order before crouching down on the exit platform, hitting the button to open the mouth hatch, and pressing a few keys on her little remote. The platform rose, and shook a bit when it reached the top, so that Rikki nearly lost her balance and had to grab the edge. "Piece of shit," she muttered, as the platform slid forward, jerking again, and shot two telescopic metal poles to the ground below, before sliding along them to the floor.

She stood up and stepped off the platform, giving it a dirty look before inputting the same keystroke on her remote and watching it rise back up into the mech, and the mouth hatch shut. She straightened her top and walked forward toward the main body of the ship. She waved to Nastusia and Tetroneaque, who were standing in the doorway. Tetroneaque appeared to be clad in... a bath towel. I’ll never get used to that, she thought. He’s really cute, though...

“Hi, guys,” she said, once she was within earshot. The purple fox walked over to the mech, examining it from closer up. “Nastusia,” Rikki said, “you might wanna tell him the legs are probably still hot. No sense in him burning himself...”

[Anonymous]

[OOC Very short, sorry o.O]

Rikki’s mecha was impressive, but unusual looking. That was good; the whole crew was unusual then. And it was a rather strange sight to see a purple Kitsune, his eyes lit up like a puppies dressed in just a bath towerl.

     “Rikki says the legs will still be hot,” Nastusia warned Tetro, “And yes they that kind of weapon platform is quite common.”

[Anonymous]

"Yes, I can feel the heat coming off the legs.  Seems like a waste of energy to me..."  He stated as he put one hand to his fuzzy chin and stroked it in thought.  His other hand stayed on the bath towel, since his tails made it a rather precarious garment anyway as they swished back and forth.

One of the spider like mini-furies came to investigate the new mechanical device, its 'eyes' blinked orange a few times.  In a few moments the other mini-furies came to investigate.

"It seems our maintenance crew want to get their claws on that mecha and repair it.  Captain, can you ask Rikki if I can proceed with repairs and perhaps an upgrade or two?"  Already his mind was whirring with possible ideas of how to improve this machine.  He'd planned to let the mini-furies repair it as much as possible until it had cooled a bit, and then he'd get to work on it himself.  That was if he got permission to do so.

[Anonymous]

“Tetro wants to know if the ….spider things can repair your mecha and possibly upgrade it.”

     If Rikki said no, she would understand, it was her mecha and she might want to do all repairs and upgrades herself. People could have strong attachments to machines in the current age. It was probably because they had become common. She could remember when machines were in their infancy and many people were scared of them. They didn’t like change.

     Hopefully if Rikki did allow Tetro’s spiders loose on it they and their master wouldn’t get over excited and install something only he’d be able to understand.

[Anonymous]

Tetroneaque suddenly noticed that he was wearing nothing but his bath towel in front of these two women.  With a sudden cough he back away a bit.

"Uhm, excuse me for a moment while I go get into my work clothes."  He stated and walked quickly out of the hanger.  The mini-furies continued to walk around the mech, scanning it and rescanning it to work out its schematics.  Of course they'd download the blueprints directly from it once they could, but this way it minimized how long they'd take to download the plans.

Tetroneaque was happy to find his clothes folded neatly on his bed once he arrived at his room.

"I really need to get some more clothes."  He muttered to himself as he dressed and then hurried back to the hanger, tossing the bath towel into the laundry as he came.

"Sorry bout that."  He let out a nervous chuckle as he went to stand by the little mechanized mechanics again.