”Hey, no thanks necessary.” Mackie said cooly, a soft smile gracing her lips as she paused her petting Annag’s hair just long enough to wipe her eyes, then get right back to it. ”It’s not, like, a favor or anything. I mean it.” There was only earnestness in her voice. Mackie felt no obligation to make this decision - it was simply the natural thing to do. The thing she had always been meant to do.
How, she had been asked on many an occasion, could someone who delighted in the machines of death and destruction serve the purpose which had been jotted down on that slip of paper all those years ago? Mackie didn’t always have an answer. It was a complicated question, after all - because people were complicated things. She had always stuck to her principles and philosophies, and still did. She had proven herself to countless waves of cadets and ship crew. Perhaps it was easier to prove herself a healer over a killer during times of relative peace. But why did the two necessarily need to conflict? Mackie never believed they did - and now she was more certain of it than ever.
The long silence that followed the eventually declining string of incomprehensible gratitude did not bother Macks. She had always been a cuddly sort of person, but rarely had the occasion to make that known. Not due to any bashfulness on her part - just a simple lack of opportunity - and the cybernetics didn’t help either. Most people were a little bit skeeved out by that right shoulder and arm of hers, when they could feel the embedded metal through the bulk of her sleeve. She didn’t blame them. Feeling the metallic spinal cord was almost like touching exposed bone. Most folks were perfectly okay with outright cybernetic limbs or internal implants, both of which were absolutely commonplace - but the things embedded in Mackie’s skin, some gruesome inbetween, were more akin to some kind of unnerving deformation.
Jack and Robyn, as much as she adored them and they her, generally weren’t physically affectionate to anyone but themselves - for the same reasons why they preferred to be known only as their names or nicknames. The same reason why their vaguely parental view of Macks was a strictly unspoken thing, never openly acknowledged.
So the opportunity to just sit there and hold the girl who, in return, clung to her with no regard for the stigmatized strangeness of her body was taken full advantage of. She would stay like that all day if Annag wanted, even going so far as to shift back so the kid wouldn’t have to keep standing. Macks guessed that there were a lot of years of loneliness to make up for. Probably the only one aboard objectively better equipped to that variety of ‘making up for lost time’ in general was a certain synth that Macks had only met once, briefly.
”Of course you can.” Mackie replied without hesitation, letting the words be jostled by a soft chuckle. ”I’d like that a lot.” It really did sound quite nice. ”We’ll have our work cut out for us.” She added, switching from petting to softly scritching. ”I love the crew but like, between you and me? I’m totally the only one around here who really knows how to keep the gear runnin’ smooth.” A playfully conspiratorial tone that spoke of the lopsided grin on her face. ”Don’t worry though. I’ll, like, totally teach you some tricks.”
When it came to interacting with Head Engineer Miles, it seemed that every good and wholesome moment was always somehow vaguely tainted - and while the days and weeks that followed did pass for both of them in more or less a rose-colored bliss, there was always..something. It always seemed to be three steps forward, two steps back - progress, but the bottom line was that RIley was just plain difficult to be around.
The nightmares had lessened in severity and frequency since the synth had taken to curling up about her in the night, but she always seemed inexplicably irritable when she first awoke, tensely rolling out of bed with pointed haste each time she awoke before him. It was much easier to accept his company when she was ‘down’ than it was when she was back ‘up’ and feeling the instinctual need to act with independence.
It didn’t take long for the way he hung on her every word to start getting obscurely irritating - though one would have been hard-pressed to figure out why. For all intents and purposes it just seemed like he simply couldn’t ever do well enough - but in reality it was something else entirely.
On the off chance she ended up in a scuffle with one of the cadets or crew and Ike decided to jump in to assist, her reaction would be outright - shoving off and storming away in an indignant huff, and not be seen for several hours. Riley did certainly have a way of disappearing when she wanted to be alone - knowing the old boat as well as she did, there was simply no finding her when she wanted to hide away within its depths and focus on some project or task without being bothered by anyone.
When something happened - it didn’t even matter what, since something was always happening to the brat who simply refused to learn - and Ike found himself crying on her behalf, she would become flustered and irritable and, again, storm off in a huff - regardless of how terribly callous and insensitive it was to do so. Indeed, their talk about te nature of ‘being programmed’ was the last time she showed him any real support in an emotional context - probably because it had been the last time that Ike had been upset for himself.
Of course, when someone decided stupidly to call him ‘robot’ or ‘machine’ or any variant thereof which Riley found offensive, she did not hesitate to retaliate both verbally and physically, often with a wrench. But at the same time, when she ended up getting injured for any reason, she had an extremely low tolerance for allowing him to help her with it, even going so far as to shove him off if he made too big deal out of it.
It was not to say that their friendship was falling apart. Quite the opposite, in general. She still started taking to falling asleep with her head on his shoulder while watching TV late at night in their quarters, on the musty old two-seater sofa that the previous occupant had stuffed into a corner where it only barely fit. She still giggled or even laughed openly when he did or said something funny - something previously unheard of. She still spun around and flushed when he walked in on her belting out some old prog-metal song with surprising vocal skill, and merely went about pouting and blushing at having been ‘caught’ rather than getting overly defensive and hostile. She still came to him when she needed what only a real friend could provide.
She could still, on rare occasions, be caught staring at him when he wasn’t looking with a soft light in her steely eyes.
But those little moments kept happening, and as the days went on, they grew more frequent. The fact was that there was something still bothering her under it all, and either it was Ike’s fault, or she was simply taking it out on him.
When, one morning, Riley awoke to see Ike already standing there watching her, the little engineer was immediately put off, groggily pulling the blanket over her face and muttering a muffled ”Wot.”
As he proceeded with an explanation that was obviously taking some courage to work through, Riley proved totally unsupportive and mostly unresponsive, just hiding under the blanket almost as if she had gone right back to sleep. Half way through, she peeked just her skeptically narrowed eyes out from beneath, and watched with what was surely too harsh an air of criticism.
She watched him for several seconds, then went back under the blanket fully.
”Woy’de @#$% would I wanna’ go lookit’ that @#$%in’ thing.” She replied gruffly. ”Ain’t nothin’ down’ere but @#$%in’ @@#$%heads an’ rocks.”
It seemed that RIles had no love for Ringworld. While this was not entirely true, as she had always been curious about what what places like Lisara and the ocean looked like - it was true that she had little in the way of fond memories from back on that mighty megastructure. Despite whatever it was she had been dealing with over the past days, despite the rocky start all of this had gotten off to - up here was still her home now. Up here was where she had met the first person to actually give half a pinerat’s anus about her. IF she had it her way, RIley would have been more than happy to wipe away all memories of life down there, just to make it all go the @#$% away and leave her alone.
For several long moments, it seemed that she had given her answer, and that her answer was a resounding absolutely not’.
But then she once again peeked out from beneath the blanket and there was little doubt that she would see anything but poorly concealed heartbreak on the synth’s face at having been so stoutly rejected over something that clearly meant so much to him.
She went back under.
She peeked one eye out to see if the situation had changed - which even if Ike had tried to conceal his disappointment it was not about to get past Riles. At which point she would give an exaggerated huff, throw off the blanket and hop to her feet. ”Ugh. Fine.” She grumbled, exasperated in a clearly melodramatic fashion. ”But only ‘cause Iain’t got nothin’ betta’ t’do.”
Ater all, she couldn’t go admitting that the only reason she was agreeing to this was that it obviously meant so much to Ike, and contrary to popular belief, she wasn’t actually a monster who could handle seeing her best and most beloved friend so heartbroken.
”An’ I ain’t gonna’ like it.” She added for good measure, really not pulling off the facade with more than marginal success.
In the blackness of the cabinet, a long period of silence followed. Long enough that the Corporal might have begun to doubt that he had actually heard a voice at all.
Then, after some indeterminate period of time, the voice came again. ”...That was pretty deep.” The hidden figure - who rather sounded as though they were male - whispered, sounding genuine enough. ”Have you ever thought about writing a book or something?”
Following that, assuming Firth didn’t decide to just cut his losses and go thrusting his blade into the shadows, another moment of silence followed. Then, again, the whispered voice, sounding polite enough, even reasonable; ”...Please don’t stab me?”
How, she had been asked on many an occasion, could someone who delighted in the machines of death and destruction serve the purpose which had been jotted down on that slip of paper all those years ago? Mackie didn’t always have an answer. It was a complicated question, after all - because people were complicated things. She had always stuck to her principles and philosophies, and still did. She had proven herself to countless waves of cadets and ship crew. Perhaps it was easier to prove herself a healer over a killer during times of relative peace. But why did the two necessarily need to conflict? Mackie never believed they did - and now she was more certain of it than ever.
The long silence that followed the eventually declining string of incomprehensible gratitude did not bother Macks. She had always been a cuddly sort of person, but rarely had the occasion to make that known. Not due to any bashfulness on her part - just a simple lack of opportunity - and the cybernetics didn’t help either. Most people were a little bit skeeved out by that right shoulder and arm of hers, when they could feel the embedded metal through the bulk of her sleeve. She didn’t blame them. Feeling the metallic spinal cord was almost like touching exposed bone. Most folks were perfectly okay with outright cybernetic limbs or internal implants, both of which were absolutely commonplace - but the things embedded in Mackie’s skin, some gruesome inbetween, were more akin to some kind of unnerving deformation.
Jack and Robyn, as much as she adored them and they her, generally weren’t physically affectionate to anyone but themselves - for the same reasons why they preferred to be known only as their names or nicknames. The same reason why their vaguely parental view of Macks was a strictly unspoken thing, never openly acknowledged.
So the opportunity to just sit there and hold the girl who, in return, clung to her with no regard for the stigmatized strangeness of her body was taken full advantage of. She would stay like that all day if Annag wanted, even going so far as to shift back so the kid wouldn’t have to keep standing. Macks guessed that there were a lot of years of loneliness to make up for. Probably the only one aboard objectively better equipped to that variety of ‘making up for lost time’ in general was a certain synth that Macks had only met once, briefly.
”Of course you can.” Mackie replied without hesitation, letting the words be jostled by a soft chuckle. ”I’d like that a lot.” It really did sound quite nice. ”We’ll have our work cut out for us.” She added, switching from petting to softly scritching. ”I love the crew but like, between you and me? I’m totally the only one around here who really knows how to keep the gear runnin’ smooth.” A playfully conspiratorial tone that spoke of the lopsided grin on her face. ”Don’t worry though. I’ll, like, totally teach you some tricks.”
When it came to interacting with Head Engineer Miles, it seemed that every good and wholesome moment was always somehow vaguely tainted - and while the days and weeks that followed did pass for both of them in more or less a rose-colored bliss, there was always..something. It always seemed to be three steps forward, two steps back - progress, but the bottom line was that RIley was just plain difficult to be around.
The nightmares had lessened in severity and frequency since the synth had taken to curling up about her in the night, but she always seemed inexplicably irritable when she first awoke, tensely rolling out of bed with pointed haste each time she awoke before him. It was much easier to accept his company when she was ‘down’ than it was when she was back ‘up’ and feeling the instinctual need to act with independence.
It didn’t take long for the way he hung on her every word to start getting obscurely irritating - though one would have been hard-pressed to figure out why. For all intents and purposes it just seemed like he simply couldn’t ever do well enough - but in reality it was something else entirely.
On the off chance she ended up in a scuffle with one of the cadets or crew and Ike decided to jump in to assist, her reaction would be outright - shoving off and storming away in an indignant huff, and not be seen for several hours. Riley did certainly have a way of disappearing when she wanted to be alone - knowing the old boat as well as she did, there was simply no finding her when she wanted to hide away within its depths and focus on some project or task without being bothered by anyone.
When something happened - it didn’t even matter what, since something was always happening to the brat who simply refused to learn - and Ike found himself crying on her behalf, she would become flustered and irritable and, again, storm off in a huff - regardless of how terribly callous and insensitive it was to do so. Indeed, their talk about te nature of ‘being programmed’ was the last time she showed him any real support in an emotional context - probably because it had been the last time that Ike had been upset for himself.
Of course, when someone decided stupidly to call him ‘robot’ or ‘machine’ or any variant thereof which Riley found offensive, she did not hesitate to retaliate both verbally and physically, often with a wrench. But at the same time, when she ended up getting injured for any reason, she had an extremely low tolerance for allowing him to help her with it, even going so far as to shove him off if he made too big deal out of it.
It was not to say that their friendship was falling apart. Quite the opposite, in general. She still started taking to falling asleep with her head on his shoulder while watching TV late at night in their quarters, on the musty old two-seater sofa that the previous occupant had stuffed into a corner where it only barely fit. She still giggled or even laughed openly when he did or said something funny - something previously unheard of. She still spun around and flushed when he walked in on her belting out some old prog-metal song with surprising vocal skill, and merely went about pouting and blushing at having been ‘caught’ rather than getting overly defensive and hostile. She still came to him when she needed what only a real friend could provide.
She could still, on rare occasions, be caught staring at him when he wasn’t looking with a soft light in her steely eyes.
But those little moments kept happening, and as the days went on, they grew more frequent. The fact was that there was something still bothering her under it all, and either it was Ike’s fault, or she was simply taking it out on him.
When, one morning, Riley awoke to see Ike already standing there watching her, the little engineer was immediately put off, groggily pulling the blanket over her face and muttering a muffled ”Wot.”
As he proceeded with an explanation that was obviously taking some courage to work through, Riley proved totally unsupportive and mostly unresponsive, just hiding under the blanket almost as if she had gone right back to sleep. Half way through, she peeked just her skeptically narrowed eyes out from beneath, and watched with what was surely too harsh an air of criticism.
She watched him for several seconds, then went back under the blanket fully.
”Woy’de @#$% would I wanna’ go lookit’ that @#$%in’ thing.” She replied gruffly. ”Ain’t nothin’ down’ere but @#$%in’ @@#$%heads an’ rocks.”
It seemed that RIles had no love for Ringworld. While this was not entirely true, as she had always been curious about what what places like Lisara and the ocean looked like - it was true that she had little in the way of fond memories from back on that mighty megastructure. Despite whatever it was she had been dealing with over the past days, despite the rocky start all of this had gotten off to - up here was still her home now. Up here was where she had met the first person to actually give half a pinerat’s anus about her. IF she had it her way, RIley would have been more than happy to wipe away all memories of life down there, just to make it all go the @#$% away and leave her alone.
For several long moments, it seemed that she had given her answer, and that her answer was a resounding absolutely not’.
But then she once again peeked out from beneath the blanket and there was little doubt that she would see anything but poorly concealed heartbreak on the synth’s face at having been so stoutly rejected over something that clearly meant so much to him.
She went back under.
She peeked one eye out to see if the situation had changed - which even if Ike had tried to conceal his disappointment it was not about to get past Riles. At which point she would give an exaggerated huff, throw off the blanket and hop to her feet. ”Ugh. Fine.” She grumbled, exasperated in a clearly melodramatic fashion. ”But only ‘cause Iain’t got nothin’ betta’ t’do.”
Ater all, she couldn’t go admitting that the only reason she was agreeing to this was that it obviously meant so much to Ike, and contrary to popular belief, she wasn’t actually a monster who could handle seeing her best and most beloved friend so heartbroken.
”An’ I ain’t gonna’ like it.” She added for good measure, really not pulling off the facade with more than marginal success.
In the blackness of the cabinet, a long period of silence followed. Long enough that the Corporal might have begun to doubt that he had actually heard a voice at all.
Then, after some indeterminate period of time, the voice came again. ”...That was pretty deep.” The hidden figure - who rather sounded as though they were male - whispered, sounding genuine enough. ”Have you ever thought about writing a book or something?”
Following that, assuming Firth didn’t decide to just cut his losses and go thrusting his blade into the shadows, another moment of silence followed. Then, again, the whispered voice, sounding polite enough, even reasonable; ”...Please don’t stab me?”
Robert replied in a whisper, as for all he knew they were on the ship right now, “thanks, and i’m not going to stab you, at least for now, i’m here to bust some kids going on a trip without any permission, the ships going to start, i’m going to count to ten, i’m gonna kick the door right next to me and scare the everloving crap out of them.” He said chuckling softly, keeping the knife on hand, as it’d bring his point a bit more to home when he monologued, then sighed, as he’d been there how for very long without something to pass the time, then continuing his conversation with the man(?) in the dark, “anyways, what’s your name? I’m Robert.”
What a strange sensation this was.
Everything about this moment felt slightly strange, yet it wasn't the same sort of strangeness that had accompanied her first meeting with Mackie, that creeping dread of the entire world suddenly having flipped on its head at her expense. This was the strangeness of new and happy emotions, the sort of soft warmth that came of snuggling up under a blanket on a cold day.
It was a warmth that made Annag happy enveloping her mind, just like the warm comforting arms of her mother surrounded her physical body. As this sensation spread throughout her, another even newer feeling was triggered in her brain, a feeling that she had never before felt in her life. There were no more insurgents coming to take over the ship, no more guards standing outside the door, ready to shoot her if she made a mistake, no longer having to look at the people around her and wonder if they were going to try and kill her for prestige. She was safe.
What a strange and yet wonderful world this ship was.
And while Annag had never been a particularly cuddly person at the best of times, she had always somewhat wary of physical contact and never had the pride to admit when she was so desperately craving it, here she felt none of that in the slightest. Even with Reina before she'd shared more of a comforting but distant sort of relationship, they'd lie side by side, but would never snuggle up close. Even down there in their room, both had still pretended to not want such affection and in the end, neither had given it. Yet up here, snuggled up in her mother's arms, she was able to suppress that natural urge to pretend she didn't care about that persons affections, she was able to just simply snuggle up close and relax.
The augmentations too felt almost reassuring, someone else's body from another part of the ringworld was as twisted as her own. It wasn't that she saw augments as twisted, the complete opposite to be exact, she knew that as a little girl, before the bunker, she'd lost her arms and taking new ones was a choice she'd have gone for every single time, but to know there was others out there like her was a nice feeling. So in many ways, she was certainly more equipped than most out there to wholeheartedly accept affection from someone with a body like Mackie's, but even if she hadn't, she simply wouldn't have cared. This woman wrapping herself around her was her mother and for Annag, she could have had anything embedded into her skin and she wouldn't have cared.
"Thanks, mom." The phrase repeated itself again, although this time it came out more naturally as if every time it was spoken, Annag was slowly slipping into a routine of just knowing without a doubt that her mother just meant these words. That the two spending time together was just a natural thing to do.
"I'll do my best to work as hard as I can! I'll make sure to be a good assistant!" Her comments might have seemed a little bit desperate to please to some others, but to someone who could read that girl well enough, it would be the eagerness to help someone she cared about that permeated that voice. "I'd love to learn some tricks from you! Maybe I could even show you a think or two I learnt to build back in the pit." She'd pause feeling the hand scritching away and a wide smile burst out properly over her face. "An' that way ya don't have to work all alone, though I do warn ya mom, I eat a lot."
In a strange way, it seemed so normal for this girl to be talking to having such a casual conversation. Maybe it was just a trick of the brain, but she was perfectly content in this new life for her. Eventually she'd move up onto the bed, still deeply wrapped in her mothers arms, she could and would stay there the entire day unless prised away with a crowbar.
To try to sum up Ike's want to go on this little trip into space with his best friend as 'desperate' would be severely underselling just how much it meant to that little synth. Even it had simply just been a preprogrammed need or more rather, want to explore space, or simply sitting there watching the marvels of that ringworld humanity lived on. Yet even beyond that instinctual desire to simply experiance it at least once, there was that clawing need to have Riley experience it with him, it wasn't so much that he expected her to like it. Almost the opposite, from what she'd said to him before and no doubt during their time together he knew she probably would find the idea silly.
It would just be this once, after that he wouldn't ask her to go with him again, he simply wanted one chance to let her experience the ringworld as he did: This marvel of human engineering that was both an utterly serence image of that artificial sun tracking around the planet while at the same time, it bustled with so much life that counting it would take all his artificial life. Everything about it enthralled him, the way from space this structure - thousands upon thousands of miles of the world seemed so utterly small, the sheer beauty of it.
Ike always had been a team player, it was programmed right into that mix of wires and circuity that he fondly referred to as his mind. A moment like this was something that he could certainly have enjoyed by himself, but to do it with someone else would make everything better. Even if he did have to pretend that Riley was enjoying it as much as he was during the whole thing. It was that same desire to feel like a team, or more rather in the case of his best friend, a duo that was now really bothering him.
While the two had been sharing many close moments, the way she fell asleep on his shoulder, the way she would giggle and laugh with him at something funny. It all felt right, the way a friendship should work and yet ... there was something missing.
Perhaps it was the way whenever he tried to do something for her or to work openly with her, be it helping in a fight, or even just letting out emotion for the two of them that his best friend seemed utterly unable to do then she stormed off, never to be found until she was willing to talk to him again? Ike felt that was probably true and yet it seemed to hurt even more than it should whenever she did so. It wasn't so much that she was unwilling to properly display their friendship openly, that he could have handled and besides the way she flew at people with a wrench whenever they made a comment about him proved enough otherwise on that front to satisfy him.
She doesn't trust you
It was a nasty thought and yet he never quite managed to push it back, not able to stop it bursting through at random intervals whenever he wasn't on guard. That synth so desperately wished to ignore it and yet ... yet ... for whatever the underlying problem she had, be it with him, or simply something else she was taking out on him, she didn't trust him enough to tell him. That thought stung more than any others ever could.
But that wasn't a thought for the present, he was going to go up on a small trip out over the Ringworld with his best friend, just the two of them.... or at least, he hoped they were. A hope that died just as much as the light in his eyes did as she gave her initial answer.
Ike would do his best to hide it of course, he'd spent much of the previous day working up the courage to ask, while at the same time preparing himself for the worst. Still, just like in true Ike fashion, he wasn't able to hide his emotions very well. Everything about him seemed to droop, his shoulders sagged and his eyes couldn't even muster any strength to lift themselves away from the floor and most telling of his mood beyond anything else, those tiny details within his eyes. No matter what he tried they always managed to display the exact emotions he was going through in those seconds, something Riley would have probably grown to read very well. Now they were empty of those sparkles he had so often when around her, now they seemed almost dimmed.
They'd manage to glance up for a second as she poked her head out from under the blanket, before dropping back down towards the floor.
"I guess ... I'll go by myself then, sorry to ... to bother you. "
That would be something else, the fact that Ike had reverted back to using the way he talked before coming aboard the ship and meeting Riley. It was something he did only when very distracted or very down, a little tick that he couldn't stop from sneaking its way out of his mouth.
And then she agreed.
"Wait ... you mean it??" It was like someone had flicked a switch. "Thank you, Riles! That really makes my day!" Everything about that Synth began to light back up, glowing with the same internal light and passion for life that he seemed to possess. "I've snuck some food aboard already in my practice runs with the ship, so it should be fun, just the two o' us!"
Afterward, he'd barely wait long enough before she was properly dressed before he was out and barreling along the corridor at full speed to reach the ship, no doubt either hurrying her along or simply attempting to take her by the hand and gently maneuver her towards the hanger bay.
The journey there would pass in a generally blissful haze for that little synth, for just a few hours it seemed he could show Riley exactly how he saw life. A chance for him to pretend that the two of them just get along perfectly without any little niggling issues, he could trust her.
But did she trust him?
Everything about this moment felt slightly strange, yet it wasn't the same sort of strangeness that had accompanied her first meeting with Mackie, that creeping dread of the entire world suddenly having flipped on its head at her expense. This was the strangeness of new and happy emotions, the sort of soft warmth that came of snuggling up under a blanket on a cold day.
It was a warmth that made Annag happy enveloping her mind, just like the warm comforting arms of her mother surrounded her physical body. As this sensation spread throughout her, another even newer feeling was triggered in her brain, a feeling that she had never before felt in her life. There were no more insurgents coming to take over the ship, no more guards standing outside the door, ready to shoot her if she made a mistake, no longer having to look at the people around her and wonder if they were going to try and kill her for prestige. She was safe.
What a strange and yet wonderful world this ship was.
And while Annag had never been a particularly cuddly person at the best of times, she had always somewhat wary of physical contact and never had the pride to admit when she was so desperately craving it, here she felt none of that in the slightest. Even with Reina before she'd shared more of a comforting but distant sort of relationship, they'd lie side by side, but would never snuggle up close. Even down there in their room, both had still pretended to not want such affection and in the end, neither had given it. Yet up here, snuggled up in her mother's arms, she was able to suppress that natural urge to pretend she didn't care about that persons affections, she was able to just simply snuggle up close and relax.
The augmentations too felt almost reassuring, someone else's body from another part of the ringworld was as twisted as her own. It wasn't that she saw augments as twisted, the complete opposite to be exact, she knew that as a little girl, before the bunker, she'd lost her arms and taking new ones was a choice she'd have gone for every single time, but to know there was others out there like her was a nice feeling. So in many ways, she was certainly more equipped than most out there to wholeheartedly accept affection from someone with a body like Mackie's, but even if she hadn't, she simply wouldn't have cared. This woman wrapping herself around her was her mother and for Annag, she could have had anything embedded into her skin and she wouldn't have cared.
"Thanks, mom." The phrase repeated itself again, although this time it came out more naturally as if every time it was spoken, Annag was slowly slipping into a routine of just knowing without a doubt that her mother just meant these words. That the two spending time together was just a natural thing to do.
"I'll do my best to work as hard as I can! I'll make sure to be a good assistant!" Her comments might have seemed a little bit desperate to please to some others, but to someone who could read that girl well enough, it would be the eagerness to help someone she cared about that permeated that voice. "I'd love to learn some tricks from you! Maybe I could even show you a think or two I learnt to build back in the pit." She'd pause feeling the hand scritching away and a wide smile burst out properly over her face. "An' that way ya don't have to work all alone, though I do warn ya mom, I eat a lot."
In a strange way, it seemed so normal for this girl to be talking to having such a casual conversation. Maybe it was just a trick of the brain, but she was perfectly content in this new life for her. Eventually she'd move up onto the bed, still deeply wrapped in her mothers arms, she could and would stay there the entire day unless prised away with a crowbar.
To try to sum up Ike's want to go on this little trip into space with his best friend as 'desperate' would be severely underselling just how much it meant to that little synth. Even it had simply just been a preprogrammed need or more rather, want to explore space, or simply sitting there watching the marvels of that ringworld humanity lived on. Yet even beyond that instinctual desire to simply experiance it at least once, there was that clawing need to have Riley experience it with him, it wasn't so much that he expected her to like it. Almost the opposite, from what she'd said to him before and no doubt during their time together he knew she probably would find the idea silly.
It would just be this once, after that he wouldn't ask her to go with him again, he simply wanted one chance to let her experience the ringworld as he did: This marvel of human engineering that was both an utterly serence image of that artificial sun tracking around the planet while at the same time, it bustled with so much life that counting it would take all his artificial life. Everything about it enthralled him, the way from space this structure - thousands upon thousands of miles of the world seemed so utterly small, the sheer beauty of it.
Ike always had been a team player, it was programmed right into that mix of wires and circuity that he fondly referred to as his mind. A moment like this was something that he could certainly have enjoyed by himself, but to do it with someone else would make everything better. Even if he did have to pretend that Riley was enjoying it as much as he was during the whole thing. It was that same desire to feel like a team, or more rather in the case of his best friend, a duo that was now really bothering him.
While the two had been sharing many close moments, the way she fell asleep on his shoulder, the way she would giggle and laugh with him at something funny. It all felt right, the way a friendship should work and yet ... there was something missing.
Perhaps it was the way whenever he tried to do something for her or to work openly with her, be it helping in a fight, or even just letting out emotion for the two of them that his best friend seemed utterly unable to do then she stormed off, never to be found until she was willing to talk to him again? Ike felt that was probably true and yet it seemed to hurt even more than it should whenever she did so. It wasn't so much that she was unwilling to properly display their friendship openly, that he could have handled and besides the way she flew at people with a wrench whenever they made a comment about him proved enough otherwise on that front to satisfy him.
She doesn't trust you
It was a nasty thought and yet he never quite managed to push it back, not able to stop it bursting through at random intervals whenever he wasn't on guard. That synth so desperately wished to ignore it and yet ... yet ... for whatever the underlying problem she had, be it with him, or simply something else she was taking out on him, she didn't trust him enough to tell him. That thought stung more than any others ever could.
But that wasn't a thought for the present, he was going to go up on a small trip out over the Ringworld with his best friend, just the two of them.... or at least, he hoped they were. A hope that died just as much as the light in his eyes did as she gave her initial answer.
Ike would do his best to hide it of course, he'd spent much of the previous day working up the courage to ask, while at the same time preparing himself for the worst. Still, just like in true Ike fashion, he wasn't able to hide his emotions very well. Everything about him seemed to droop, his shoulders sagged and his eyes couldn't even muster any strength to lift themselves away from the floor and most telling of his mood beyond anything else, those tiny details within his eyes. No matter what he tried they always managed to display the exact emotions he was going through in those seconds, something Riley would have probably grown to read very well. Now they were empty of those sparkles he had so often when around her, now they seemed almost dimmed.
They'd manage to glance up for a second as she poked her head out from under the blanket, before dropping back down towards the floor.
"I guess ... I'll go by myself then, sorry to ... to bother you. "
That would be something else, the fact that Ike had reverted back to using the way he talked before coming aboard the ship and meeting Riley. It was something he did only when very distracted or very down, a little tick that he couldn't stop from sneaking its way out of his mouth.
And then she agreed.
"Wait ... you mean it??" It was like someone had flicked a switch. "Thank you, Riles! That really makes my day!" Everything about that Synth began to light back up, glowing with the same internal light and passion for life that he seemed to possess. "I've snuck some food aboard already in my practice runs with the ship, so it should be fun, just the two o' us!"
Afterward, he'd barely wait long enough before she was properly dressed before he was out and barreling along the corridor at full speed to reach the ship, no doubt either hurrying her along or simply attempting to take her by the hand and gently maneuver her towards the hanger bay.
The journey there would pass in a generally blissful haze for that little synth, for just a few hours it seemed he could show Riley exactly how he saw life. A chance for him to pretend that the two of them just get along perfectly without any little niggling issues, he could trust her.
But did she trust him?
”Huhuh. I guess, like, someone’s gotta’ work hard over there.” Macks replied with one of her low, vaguely dopey sounding chuckles. ”I know ya’ will.” Whether through their strange bond or simply the woman’s perceptive nature regarding the nuances of others, there was no doubt in her mind that the girl’s eager enthusiasm was just that. She had always been a strong believer in the goodness of people who were given the opportunity to be themselves in a safe place. That had always been a powerful aspect of her passion for weaponry - the tools of keeping others safe and happy.
”Hell yeah, bet we’ll be able to come up with some, like, totally rad @#$% that way.” Though even mentioning that place Annag had come from sent a pinprick of pain through her chest. Not that she’d let it show.
The next comment made Macks laugh enough to induce a short coughing fit, but even through that she never stopped grinning. She had always been the sort of person who would prefer being in pain and laughing over being sad and healthy. She hoped Annag knew that, because the last thing she wanted was for the kid to feel bad about making her laugh. ”No worries kiddo, so do I. But I got a stash so we’re good.” The ‘stash’ she spoke of would, at a later point, be revealed as the sizeable crate of junk food she always had brought up on the monthly supply shipments. Paid for out of pocket, of course.
As nobody had a crowbar or any intention of using one, the two remained more or less attached to each other. After a time, Robyn poked her head into the room, silently snapping a picture of the inseparable pair and sending it over the network directly to Kato (Who hadn’t even been alerted that Mackie was awake yet), accompanied by a short message;
Don’t ever tell me you’re not a good person.
Shortly thereafter, both Vox’ would enter and spend a sizeable portion of the day sitting around. As the hours went on, word would slowly spread around the Light that everyone’s favorite hippie gunsmith was awake, and periodically visitors would pop by to say hello. Mackie knew their names by heart, without exception, and always had something to say in return, usually regarding how they were doing, how their lives were going.
Of those who did come by, almost all of them were visibly surprised to see the girl that so many people had questioned the loyalties of snuggled up with one of the most inherently, univeraly trusted individuals on the ship. Any doubt that Annag might be anything less than a bonafide member of the crew was dashed away, and word of that began to spread too. Nobody really knew what to say to the girl, and thus did not say much - after all, most of them had thought up until today that she was probably still up to no good.
When one stubborn marine poked in and was giving them an incredulous look, Mackie didn’t skip a beat. ”You shoulda’ seen it. She like, ripped the dude’s arm right off and threw it in his face. I’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for this kid.” She’d said, with a pat on Annag’s head. Nothing wrong with a little white lie here and there - though in a way, it was true - since she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if she hadn’t gotten there in time.
And so, in short, everything was okay.
”Good. Oh, Corporal Firth, right?” The voice whispered in return, the light of recognition audible even in the hoarseness of near silence. ”Lance Corporal Tsuan. I’m one of the replacements.” he continued, identifying himself as one rank below Firth, and as one of the people who had been shipped up to the Last Light after several crew who had taken the battle harder than the rest had opted for transfer back to Ringworld. ”And, uh, don’t get me wrong but...Don’t you think it would be a better idea to wait until they’re on their way back?” Tsuan suggested, trying to be helpful. ”I mean, just so then you know why they’re going for this little joyride in the first place. They’re still official crew, right? So maybe they’ve got a good reason…?” That, and if they were up to no good, the Corporal would have proof in seeing it with his own eyes.
”Fa’@#$%’s sake ya’tool ven’abit’n offa’rail’a’tick would’ja!?”* Riley yelped as Ike practically flew down the halls with the little engineer stumbling behind him. It was a testament to the isolation of the M’Draani people that there were still times when even Ike, of all people, with all his advantages, would likely have a hard time understanding what the girl was trying to say. Her speech really did sound like another language more than merely a dialect sometimes. ”Skip’ain’t tossinoff lonewolf’like s’woy’s’ye grind’n’tin!?”**
Whatever she was trying to say, the girl did sound a bit distressed - mostly because her smaller stature made it tough enough as it was to keep up with someone of a more average height at the best of times, let alone when that someone was so incredibly eager to get where they were going. Having barely woken up with Ike antsy to get moving, she was a tad out of breath.
Even when he slowed down to let the poor thing keep up, Ike still ended up tugging her along by the hand, and she did not resist. Just because she couldn’t hope to understand her friend’s ridiculous need to go sit in a ship and stare at the big, stupid world from above didn’t mean she was willing to actively try and ruin it for him. She had no reason not to humor him.
And, most importantly, it was something she could actually do to make him happy.
When they arrived at the hangar, it was mostly empty...save for one other person.
It was a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, with deep, ebon-black skin and bright, punkish blue hair cut asymmetrically. She was dressed relatively similar to Ike, when he had first arrived. Clothing indicating a position somewhere in the Federal hierarchy close to Lisara. She was walking around with purpose and looking quite angry. She appeared to be looking for something.
Upon seeing the synth and girl, the young woman turned light brown eyes in their direction and gave them a slightly impatient wave of the hand, more to get their attention than to greet them.
”Ayo’! Kid!” She shouted, still sounding angry, but not at them. ”Y’all seen a lanky, smartass-lookin’ brown mutha’@#$%a wit’a smug-ass look on he’ face ‘round here?” Riley bristled at this, her knee-jerk reaction to become defensive and, thusly, offensive when faced with anybody talking to her and/or her Ike with such aggression - but she did not fly off the handle...Partly because the woman wasn’t actually upset with them, and partly because Ike had doubtless given her a squeeze of the hand which would encourage her to stand back with him and not go starting trouble.
Turning back to peer into the open cargo bay of one of the several ships docked in the hangar, the woman went on ”I know he’ass in here somewhere. Mutha’@#$%a think he’gone skip out on trainin’, I’ll show him ta’ skip out on Dal Armston, yessuh! Ain’t nobody standin’ me up an’ gettin’ away wit’it!”
*Translation: “For heck’s sake you weirdo, cool off and slow down for a second, would you?”
**Translation: “The ship isn’t flying away on its own, so why the big hurry?”
”Hell yeah, bet we’ll be able to come up with some, like, totally rad @#$% that way.” Though even mentioning that place Annag had come from sent a pinprick of pain through her chest. Not that she’d let it show.
The next comment made Macks laugh enough to induce a short coughing fit, but even through that she never stopped grinning. She had always been the sort of person who would prefer being in pain and laughing over being sad and healthy. She hoped Annag knew that, because the last thing she wanted was for the kid to feel bad about making her laugh. ”No worries kiddo, so do I. But I got a stash so we’re good.” The ‘stash’ she spoke of would, at a later point, be revealed as the sizeable crate of junk food she always had brought up on the monthly supply shipments. Paid for out of pocket, of course.
As nobody had a crowbar or any intention of using one, the two remained more or less attached to each other. After a time, Robyn poked her head into the room, silently snapping a picture of the inseparable pair and sending it over the network directly to Kato (Who hadn’t even been alerted that Mackie was awake yet), accompanied by a short message;
Don’t ever tell me you’re not a good person.
Shortly thereafter, both Vox’ would enter and spend a sizeable portion of the day sitting around. As the hours went on, word would slowly spread around the Light that everyone’s favorite hippie gunsmith was awake, and periodically visitors would pop by to say hello. Mackie knew their names by heart, without exception, and always had something to say in return, usually regarding how they were doing, how their lives were going.
Of those who did come by, almost all of them were visibly surprised to see the girl that so many people had questioned the loyalties of snuggled up with one of the most inherently, univeraly trusted individuals on the ship. Any doubt that Annag might be anything less than a bonafide member of the crew was dashed away, and word of that began to spread too. Nobody really knew what to say to the girl, and thus did not say much - after all, most of them had thought up until today that she was probably still up to no good.
When one stubborn marine poked in and was giving them an incredulous look, Mackie didn’t skip a beat. ”You shoulda’ seen it. She like, ripped the dude’s arm right off and threw it in his face. I’d probably be dead if it wasn’t for this kid.” She’d said, with a pat on Annag’s head. Nothing wrong with a little white lie here and there - though in a way, it was true - since she wouldn’t have been able to live with herself if she hadn’t gotten there in time.
And so, in short, everything was okay.
”Good. Oh, Corporal Firth, right?” The voice whispered in return, the light of recognition audible even in the hoarseness of near silence. ”Lance Corporal Tsuan. I’m one of the replacements.” he continued, identifying himself as one rank below Firth, and as one of the people who had been shipped up to the Last Light after several crew who had taken the battle harder than the rest had opted for transfer back to Ringworld. ”And, uh, don’t get me wrong but...Don’t you think it would be a better idea to wait until they’re on their way back?” Tsuan suggested, trying to be helpful. ”I mean, just so then you know why they’re going for this little joyride in the first place. They’re still official crew, right? So maybe they’ve got a good reason…?” That, and if they were up to no good, the Corporal would have proof in seeing it with his own eyes.
”Fa’@#$%’s sake ya’tool ven’abit’n offa’rail’a’tick would’ja!?”* Riley yelped as Ike practically flew down the halls with the little engineer stumbling behind him. It was a testament to the isolation of the M’Draani people that there were still times when even Ike, of all people, with all his advantages, would likely have a hard time understanding what the girl was trying to say. Her speech really did sound like another language more than merely a dialect sometimes. ”Skip’ain’t tossinoff lonewolf’like s’woy’s’ye grind’n’tin!?”**
Whatever she was trying to say, the girl did sound a bit distressed - mostly because her smaller stature made it tough enough as it was to keep up with someone of a more average height at the best of times, let alone when that someone was so incredibly eager to get where they were going. Having barely woken up with Ike antsy to get moving, she was a tad out of breath.
Even when he slowed down to let the poor thing keep up, Ike still ended up tugging her along by the hand, and she did not resist. Just because she couldn’t hope to understand her friend’s ridiculous need to go sit in a ship and stare at the big, stupid world from above didn’t mean she was willing to actively try and ruin it for him. She had no reason not to humor him.
And, most importantly, it was something she could actually do to make him happy.
When they arrived at the hangar, it was mostly empty...save for one other person.
It was a young woman, perhaps in her early twenties, with deep, ebon-black skin and bright, punkish blue hair cut asymmetrically. She was dressed relatively similar to Ike, when he had first arrived. Clothing indicating a position somewhere in the Federal hierarchy close to Lisara. She was walking around with purpose and looking quite angry. She appeared to be looking for something.Upon seeing the synth and girl, the young woman turned light brown eyes in their direction and gave them a slightly impatient wave of the hand, more to get their attention than to greet them.
”Ayo’! Kid!” She shouted, still sounding angry, but not at them. ”Y’all seen a lanky, smartass-lookin’ brown mutha’@#$%a wit’a smug-ass look on he’ face ‘round here?” Riley bristled at this, her knee-jerk reaction to become defensive and, thusly, offensive when faced with anybody talking to her and/or her Ike with such aggression - but she did not fly off the handle...Partly because the woman wasn’t actually upset with them, and partly because Ike had doubtless given her a squeeze of the hand which would encourage her to stand back with him and not go starting trouble.
Turning back to peer into the open cargo bay of one of the several ships docked in the hangar, the woman went on ”I know he’ass in here somewhere. Mutha’@#$%a think he’gone skip out on trainin’, I’ll show him ta’ skip out on Dal Armston, yessuh! Ain’t nobody standin’ me up an’ gettin’ away wit’it!”
*Translation: “For heck’s sake you weirdo, cool off and slow down for a second, would you?”
**Translation: “The ship isn’t flying away on its own, so why the big hurry?”
“Please to meet you, although under...unexpected circumstances.” *he said as he turned to look at the door, not wanting to respond to his questioning, he figured if they did have a good reason for going, he’d supervise, after all he hadn’t been to the ring world in quite a while, and a change of scenery from after what happened would help drastically.
Emptiness.
Vast unknown and yet enclosed emptiness, untouched since its creation. Sitting there, calling out for something to exist within its empty halls, demanding the universe give it something to fill the void.
It went on demanding for a long time, the walls losing count of each year that went by, slowly forgetting why they were even there, what they were even supposed to be doing. What that vast emptiness contained and why they had been forgotten, why they had to be forgotten
Emptiness.
An entity blinked into existence within that enclosed space, pushing the emptiness back into the walls. It was no longer alone.
Slowly that entity looked around, stretching, testing the boundaries of where they were. Not that they could see anything, but they didn't need to, simply existing within that space told them all that they needed to know. It was a contented feeling which spread through that being, they'd made it.
Moments later a second entity blinked into existence alongside the first.
For a long time, the two entities merely existed within that enclosed space, testing its boundaries, exploring every surface of this new and unknown place. Neither communicated with the other, at least not to any degree that could be noticed, the two continuing to explore, their limbs stretching out to cover this new space.
In its own strange way, the emptiness felt a kinship with these two entities who now suddenly existed within its halls. They were different than anything they'd ever experienced, but somehow it was as if they'd always existed there, that surprised the emptiness. Yet it wanted to help these two beings, it didn't need to ask their goals, it just instinctively knew them, after all that was what the emptiness was waiting for wasn't it?
A small bluish glow flared up in one corner of the vast space, bathing for a split second the two entities in the light. The glow gently illuminating their forms, giant and bulky as they were, the two shapes quickly scuttled over towards the source of the light.
"IS ... THIS WHAT WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR?"
Silence, many eyes examined the little glow, it didn't contain much information, but those few tiny lines were all that they needed to read. Those few lines which would forever change the galaxy.
"IT ... IS"
The emptiness held its breath, it had made its choice, it had shown the two what they'd wanted to see, given them the key to one of the longest asked questions those entities had searched so long for. Many eyes blinked softly before turning to focus on each other.
"THEN THIS REALLY IS OUR DESTINY, WHICH MEANS WE CANNOT LET THEIR LEGACY FESTER FOR ANY LONGER, IT IS TIME WE TOOK IT."
"AND THOSE WHO WOULD REJECT US?"
"THEY WILL BURN, WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN CUSTODY OF THIS GALAXY, THOSE WHO OPPOSE THAT HAVE NO PLACE HERE."
"THEN WE SHOULD BE RETURNING ... WE NEED TO SHARE THIS KNOWLEDGE WITH ..."
The entity trailed off as the entire emptiness began to light up, bathing the two beings in almost blinding light. At first, the multitude of eyes blinked furiously in the sudden light, but within seconds they had adjusted enough to understand what they were seeing. Around them lay a control panel, beginning its boot up sequence after years lying dormant. Sensor readings, additional information, production records and a question.
Do you want to resume production? Y/N
The first entity scanned the information, taking in the production records. They looked at the question, then back to the information. They made their choice and pressed down on one of the buttons.
The universe had changed forever.
Vast unknown and yet enclosed emptiness, untouched since its creation. Sitting there, calling out for something to exist within its empty halls, demanding the universe give it something to fill the void.
It went on demanding for a long time, the walls losing count of each year that went by, slowly forgetting why they were even there, what they were even supposed to be doing. What that vast emptiness contained and why they had been forgotten, why they had to be forgotten
Emptiness.
An entity blinked into existence within that enclosed space, pushing the emptiness back into the walls. It was no longer alone.
Slowly that entity looked around, stretching, testing the boundaries of where they were. Not that they could see anything, but they didn't need to, simply existing within that space told them all that they needed to know. It was a contented feeling which spread through that being, they'd made it.
Moments later a second entity blinked into existence alongside the first.
For a long time, the two entities merely existed within that enclosed space, testing its boundaries, exploring every surface of this new and unknown place. Neither communicated with the other, at least not to any degree that could be noticed, the two continuing to explore, their limbs stretching out to cover this new space.
In its own strange way, the emptiness felt a kinship with these two entities who now suddenly existed within its halls. They were different than anything they'd ever experienced, but somehow it was as if they'd always existed there, that surprised the emptiness. Yet it wanted to help these two beings, it didn't need to ask their goals, it just instinctively knew them, after all that was what the emptiness was waiting for wasn't it?
A small bluish glow flared up in one corner of the vast space, bathing for a split second the two entities in the light. The glow gently illuminating their forms, giant and bulky as they were, the two shapes quickly scuttled over towards the source of the light.
"IS ... THIS WHAT WE'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR?"
Silence, many eyes examined the little glow, it didn't contain much information, but those few tiny lines were all that they needed to read. Those few lines which would forever change the galaxy.
"IT ... IS"
The emptiness held its breath, it had made its choice, it had shown the two what they'd wanted to see, given them the key to one of the longest asked questions those entities had searched so long for. Many eyes blinked softly before turning to focus on each other.
"THEN THIS REALLY IS OUR DESTINY, WHICH MEANS WE CANNOT LET THEIR LEGACY FESTER FOR ANY LONGER, IT IS TIME WE TOOK IT."
"AND THOSE WHO WOULD REJECT US?"
"THEY WILL BURN, WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN CUSTODY OF THIS GALAXY, THOSE WHO OPPOSE THAT HAVE NO PLACE HERE."
"THEN WE SHOULD BE RETURNING ... WE NEED TO SHARE THIS KNOWLEDGE WITH ..."
The entity trailed off as the entire emptiness began to light up, bathing the two beings in almost blinding light. At first, the multitude of eyes blinked furiously in the sudden light, but within seconds they had adjusted enough to understand what they were seeing. Around them lay a control panel, beginning its boot up sequence after years lying dormant. Sensor readings, additional information, production records and a question.
Do you want to resume production? Y/N
The first entity scanned the information, taking in the production records. They looked at the question, then back to the information. They made their choice and pressed down on one of the buttons.
The universe had changed forever.
Kato stood in the center of the C.I.C looking out over the holographic display projected in the center of the circular room. Hundreds of tiny ships were attempting to reform their positions into something that could even begin to be called a formation. While somewhat of a defensive position was being established around the warpgate it looked to be way too little, far too late.
"Form up with Atlanta! We need to get into position now!"
All around him marines and officers scrambled to direct the ship into the desired position, organising cannons, directing weapons fire. Communications between them flying thick and fast about his head, not that he paid much attention to any of them. Instead, he was intently focusing on watching the unfolding battle, his heart sinking as he watched the Federation's fleet burn.
"Rigel's been hit! Requesting assistance!"
"What the @#$% do they think we can do about it?"
"Alliance fighters inbound!"
Smaller dots, vast numbers of them suddenly blinked into existence like a wall of angry bees descending upon the unprepared Federation ships. Where there should have been defenses to quickly repel such an attack, now there were only giant holes for the mass of crafts to exploit.
"Captain! A message on open channels for all ships!"
"Open?! By the twin moons, what is it?"
"A...." The voice faltered, the eyes of the hapless communications officer glancing down at their screen before up at the ship's captain once more. "Admiral Kain is dead... Rear admiral Seran is assuming command of the fleet."
"Kain's dead ..." There was something in his voice as he swallowed that news, not that he'd let on how much it stung inside, how badly that burnt away at his very core. "Understood, ALL HANDS! prepare the ship for point defense combat, we need to plug up the holes!"
Even as he spoke the display showed the swarm descending upon the outer ring of Federal ships, melting them away under countless shots. Shielding no longer being able to take the strain giving in and within seconds the ship in question would be reduced first to unusable superheated metal, the crew inside boiling to death before properly cracking and torn into many shards. It didn't matter that some tried to surrender, all were met with the same fate.
"Atlanta's reporting heavy damage, we won't make it to them! Aleria's suffering hits, request - "
"Rigel has been destroyed!"
"Pull back to the supports, they're our best hope to force the fighter wave backward!"
"Understo - .... SIR!"
Even through the confusion, the sheer panic in the marines voice cut through the ship, chilling the crew to the very bone. That panic could only mean one thing, they'd seen it before, they'd heard it before. Many a time they had been the cause of it in the enemies view, but now it was their turn to face the unthinkable.
"RADIOLOGICAL SIGNS DETECTED! They're launching nukes!"
Fitting Kato thought as he watched innumerable small red dots, little signifiers of a nuclear warhead appear on the display before him. That after everything he had won, all the titles awarded to him, that he should face his final moments under the barrage of something he'd inflicted on so many people, so many worlds before him. He could see the panic on the crew's faces, they didn't deserve this, it seemed unfair, to punish so many for the sins of one individual. He should have faced the fire alone, not dragging all of their lives down with his own, all their memories, all that they'd seen and done was about to be erased.
Everything went white.
Even through the blinding light, Kato could feel the fire scorching his skin, tearing away at the outer layers, bubbling and boiling them. The flesh peeling under the intense heat, he wanted to pull away, to throw himself into cold water, anywhere and yet there was no escape, only fire, and pain. He couldn't escape, he could only force himself to concentrate and listen, listen to the screams of everyone he'd forced into the same horrific fate that was his just end. If they were to die for his mistakes, then he would damn well make sure he remembered their memories longer than they could.
The ship went sheet white again.
Something struck him, tearing through his chest and spilling its contents out onto whatever remained of the floor around him, There wasn't much left of him now, but that small bit that remained was glad. At least as he expired, the fire wouldn't be so bad, the air being sucked away through the newly made hole began draining the flames, sucking that torturous heat away and...
Bing!
Huh....?
Hey Kato wake up!
What was that noise ...
Bing!
He sat up in bed. Eyes roaming the ship around him for a few seconds before promptly vomiting, one more he'd have to clean, another little mark to add to that stain he could never remove anymore. The dream had been back, damn that was a vivid one. Punishment he supposed, a guilty conscience preying on his in every moment it could, never giving him the chance to rest.
Yet it felt so real, but that was impossible, he always died in that dream, burned, impaled and then sucked out into space. Now he was once more awake in his bunk, the light from a dimly glowing screen bathing his face in its fluorescent glow. On the little device, he could read the memories he'd been writing moments before falling asleep on the task, words upon words ... and one small notification.
He pressed it, opening up the picture and the accompanying message and for a second, the slightest of smiles curled its way across his face. He'd been right about that girl, he'd done the right thing ensuring that she lived, he'd helped to create a family. People thought hewas a good man.
We all know the truth
Couldn't they leave him just one moment in peace? Just one moment to feel like he was able to achieve something other than all the misery he'd caused... Then the thoughts of that dream returned and he vomited again.
Yet ... he saved that picture, taking it as one small anchor, one reminder that he was something more than his guilty conscience. He could manage to create.
As Ike flew down the hall towards the hanger he'd occasionally glance behind him at first, making sure that Riley was at least still within his sights as the weird little synth practically bounced off the walls in his haste to get to his destination. Yet in the moment where she did work up enough of a breath to spout her increasingly hard to understand dialect at him, he'd be felt pretty lost for words.
That wasn't to say Ike was completely baffled by what she was saying, while he could not understand or translate out each individual word, her tone and speed made it all too clear the message she was trying to get across. Something that was inevitably followed by a small half stifled apology. "S'rry, This is just something I've wanted to share with you for so long ..."
In the end, of course, he'd slow down enough that she'd be able to keep a rough pace with him, although he'd still end up holding her hand. Ike was still always so pleased about whatever chance he got to spend time with Riley that he was not going to pass up on the opportunity of taking her hand, especially if she wasn't going to be resisting it, so once more she'd find his fingers curling possesively around her hand, content to just belong there.
Soon he would be out in that ship watching the Ringworld with his best and only friend and he could not imagine anything more perfect.
The second they arrived, he'd stop dead in his tracks, staring at the other person occupying the space he had assumed to be entirely empty.
The clothing caught his eye immediately, he recognised it within seconds and winced as it brought back memories of the place he'd left behind to come up here, all the lies he'd been told back down in that workshop he'd been built in. It also gave a twinge of pride, thinking back on it, he had been so uptight then, now he was so free to be himself, his own quirky, weird Ike self. What was worse was that they looked angry.
He gave a quick glance around to see if he could identify in any form whatever it was that this marine was looking for so he could point her towards it. Unfortunately, he suffered no luck in that department and instead watched with a sinking feeling as they waved over towards the two of them. He knew exactly how well Riley and authority mixed, especially a pissed off authority.
Before the marine could even open her mouth Ike was gently applying pressure on Riley's hand to calm her, he'd waited for so long for this time to spend with her and anything he could do to keep it from being ruined he'd take that path. He so desperately wanted for this day to go right and if he could avoid confrontation he would. "Errr.... I don't think I've seen anyone of that description around here ... to be honest, I don't think I've seen you around here before, did you transfer on recently?"
It wasn't grade A distraction tactics by any means, but he hoped, that if he could stall her just long enough an opportunity to make a break for the little ship would present itself. Either she'd loose interest or go away, hopefully the latter. Although the way she seemed to be intently inspecting the crates suggested otherwise.
"Do you know why he skipped out on training? Or at least is attempting to?" That was when a bright idea struck him. "If he's in here I could always help look, I'm a combat synth after all. I should be able to scan the room for ya." As he spoke he tried pointing to one of the ships, a small scout in the leftmost corner, doing his best to indicate to Riley that while he distracted whoever this was she was to go to the ship first and that he'd follow. He just hoped she'd be able to understand him, even though he was her Ike, it might still be hard to understand him, without any verbal directions backing up his erratic pointing.
"Form up with Atlanta! We need to get into position now!"
All around him marines and officers scrambled to direct the ship into the desired position, organising cannons, directing weapons fire. Communications between them flying thick and fast about his head, not that he paid much attention to any of them. Instead, he was intently focusing on watching the unfolding battle, his heart sinking as he watched the Federation's fleet burn.
"Rigel's been hit! Requesting assistance!"
"What the @#$% do they think we can do about it?"
"Alliance fighters inbound!"
Smaller dots, vast numbers of them suddenly blinked into existence like a wall of angry bees descending upon the unprepared Federation ships. Where there should have been defenses to quickly repel such an attack, now there were only giant holes for the mass of crafts to exploit.
"Captain! A message on open channels for all ships!"
"Open?! By the twin moons, what is it?"
"A...." The voice faltered, the eyes of the hapless communications officer glancing down at their screen before up at the ship's captain once more. "Admiral Kain is dead... Rear admiral Seran is assuming command of the fleet."
"Kain's dead ..." There was something in his voice as he swallowed that news, not that he'd let on how much it stung inside, how badly that burnt away at his very core. "Understood, ALL HANDS! prepare the ship for point defense combat, we need to plug up the holes!"
Even as he spoke the display showed the swarm descending upon the outer ring of Federal ships, melting them away under countless shots. Shielding no longer being able to take the strain giving in and within seconds the ship in question would be reduced first to unusable superheated metal, the crew inside boiling to death before properly cracking and torn into many shards. It didn't matter that some tried to surrender, all were met with the same fate.
"Atlanta's reporting heavy damage, we won't make it to them! Aleria's suffering hits, request - "
"Rigel has been destroyed!"
"Pull back to the supports, they're our best hope to force the fighter wave backward!"
"Understo - .... SIR!"
Even through the confusion, the sheer panic in the marines voice cut through the ship, chilling the crew to the very bone. That panic could only mean one thing, they'd seen it before, they'd heard it before. Many a time they had been the cause of it in the enemies view, but now it was their turn to face the unthinkable.
"RADIOLOGICAL SIGNS DETECTED! They're launching nukes!"
Fitting Kato thought as he watched innumerable small red dots, little signifiers of a nuclear warhead appear on the display before him. That after everything he had won, all the titles awarded to him, that he should face his final moments under the barrage of something he'd inflicted on so many people, so many worlds before him. He could see the panic on the crew's faces, they didn't deserve this, it seemed unfair, to punish so many for the sins of one individual. He should have faced the fire alone, not dragging all of their lives down with his own, all their memories, all that they'd seen and done was about to be erased.
Everything went white.
Even through the blinding light, Kato could feel the fire scorching his skin, tearing away at the outer layers, bubbling and boiling them. The flesh peeling under the intense heat, he wanted to pull away, to throw himself into cold water, anywhere and yet there was no escape, only fire, and pain. He couldn't escape, he could only force himself to concentrate and listen, listen to the screams of everyone he'd forced into the same horrific fate that was his just end. If they were to die for his mistakes, then he would damn well make sure he remembered their memories longer than they could.
The ship went sheet white again.
Something struck him, tearing through his chest and spilling its contents out onto whatever remained of the floor around him, There wasn't much left of him now, but that small bit that remained was glad. At least as he expired, the fire wouldn't be so bad, the air being sucked away through the newly made hole began draining the flames, sucking that torturous heat away and...
Bing!
Huh....?
Hey Kato wake up!
What was that noise ...
Bing!
He sat up in bed. Eyes roaming the ship around him for a few seconds before promptly vomiting, one more he'd have to clean, another little mark to add to that stain he could never remove anymore. The dream had been back, damn that was a vivid one. Punishment he supposed, a guilty conscience preying on his in every moment it could, never giving him the chance to rest.
Yet it felt so real, but that was impossible, he always died in that dream, burned, impaled and then sucked out into space. Now he was once more awake in his bunk, the light from a dimly glowing screen bathing his face in its fluorescent glow. On the little device, he could read the memories he'd been writing moments before falling asleep on the task, words upon words ... and one small notification.
He pressed it, opening up the picture and the accompanying message and for a second, the slightest of smiles curled its way across his face. He'd been right about that girl, he'd done the right thing ensuring that she lived, he'd helped to create a family. People thought hewas a good man.
We all know the truth
Couldn't they leave him just one moment in peace? Just one moment to feel like he was able to achieve something other than all the misery he'd caused... Then the thoughts of that dream returned and he vomited again.
Yet ... he saved that picture, taking it as one small anchor, one reminder that he was something more than his guilty conscience. He could manage to create.
As Ike flew down the hall towards the hanger he'd occasionally glance behind him at first, making sure that Riley was at least still within his sights as the weird little synth practically bounced off the walls in his haste to get to his destination. Yet in the moment where she did work up enough of a breath to spout her increasingly hard to understand dialect at him, he'd be felt pretty lost for words.
That wasn't to say Ike was completely baffled by what she was saying, while he could not understand or translate out each individual word, her tone and speed made it all too clear the message she was trying to get across. Something that was inevitably followed by a small half stifled apology. "S'rry, This is just something I've wanted to share with you for so long ..."
In the end, of course, he'd slow down enough that she'd be able to keep a rough pace with him, although he'd still end up holding her hand. Ike was still always so pleased about whatever chance he got to spend time with Riley that he was not going to pass up on the opportunity of taking her hand, especially if she wasn't going to be resisting it, so once more she'd find his fingers curling possesively around her hand, content to just belong there.
Soon he would be out in that ship watching the Ringworld with his best and only friend and he could not imagine anything more perfect.
The second they arrived, he'd stop dead in his tracks, staring at the other person occupying the space he had assumed to be entirely empty.
The clothing caught his eye immediately, he recognised it within seconds and winced as it brought back memories of the place he'd left behind to come up here, all the lies he'd been told back down in that workshop he'd been built in. It also gave a twinge of pride, thinking back on it, he had been so uptight then, now he was so free to be himself, his own quirky, weird Ike self. What was worse was that they looked angry.
He gave a quick glance around to see if he could identify in any form whatever it was that this marine was looking for so he could point her towards it. Unfortunately, he suffered no luck in that department and instead watched with a sinking feeling as they waved over towards the two of them. He knew exactly how well Riley and authority mixed, especially a pissed off authority.
Before the marine could even open her mouth Ike was gently applying pressure on Riley's hand to calm her, he'd waited for so long for this time to spend with her and anything he could do to keep it from being ruined he'd take that path. He so desperately wanted for this day to go right and if he could avoid confrontation he would. "Errr.... I don't think I've seen anyone of that description around here ... to be honest, I don't think I've seen you around here before, did you transfer on recently?"
It wasn't grade A distraction tactics by any means, but he hoped, that if he could stall her just long enough an opportunity to make a break for the little ship would present itself. Either she'd loose interest or go away, hopefully the latter. Although the way she seemed to be intently inspecting the crates suggested otherwise.
"Do you know why he skipped out on training? Or at least is attempting to?" That was when a bright idea struck him. "If he's in here I could always help look, I'm a combat synth after all. I should be able to scan the room for ya." As he spoke he tried pointing to one of the ships, a small scout in the leftmost corner, doing his best to indicate to Riley that while he distracted whoever this was she was to go to the ship first and that he'd follow. He just hoped she'd be able to understand him, even though he was her Ike, it might still be hard to understand him, without any verbal directions backing up his erratic pointing.
As he heard faint talking, he shushed the patchwork corporal, trying to hear what they’re saying, and to enforce his element of surprise, although he heard very little, he heard the word “scan” and silently panicked, hoping that whoever they were wouldn’t find him and his little bunker buddy.
Hearing the cadet actually reply instead of just running off, Dallen idly made her way closer, seeming to pay more attention to the rows of ships she was peering under than to the pair of kids. ”Yeah, Tsuan’an I come up on’a last shipment. ‘Placements fo’som’a the folks didn’t feel safe on the Light no’mo I guess.” She explained distractedly, now sounding more conversational than outraged.
A wry smile passed over the woman’s lips at the question of ‘why’. ”Cause he’a laz’ass mu’@#$%a, that’s why.” She said, standing briefly on one leg to swing down and peer under one of the ships landing gear. ”Skip out ev’chance he git. Ratha’ jus’ si’round an’...Well @#$%, I don’even know wha’he do.”
Riley, meanwhile, satisfied that the lady wasn't going to go being rude to Ike, had instead let her attention shift to Ike himself. Particularly, the erratic way he was pointing in the general direction of one of the ships. Blinking, the girl looked cluelessly from his essentially flailing hand, to the direction it was pointing, to Ike himself. She repeated the cycle several times in no particular order - utterly oblivious to the message he was trying to convey.
With no regard whatsoever for subterfuge or tact, she blurted out innocently ”Whatchu’ doin’at for?”
Unrelated, Dallen had apparently made up her mind. Smirking wanly, the marine shrugged with complacency. ”Eh, @#$% it. I’ll let’im get away wit’it this time. He ain’t worth thedamn trouble. 'Preciate the offer though.”
Deciding to exit via the way the two of them had come in, Dal sauntered past Ike and Riley. ”B’if you see he’ass, tell’im Dal’s lookin fo’im, yeah? I’ll see you boys later.”
This unfortunate error in observation - an understandable one, really - had the obvious and entirely to-be-expected result of making Riley whip around. ”Oi’ain’t n @#$%in’ boy ye’blind-ass @#$%-!” She snapped - Ike would have to restrain her bodily in if he wanted to keep her from starting yet another fight that she had a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning. To her credit, she wouldn’t try to shrug him off or yank herself free - just sort of catching her would do the trick, after which she would pull back and simmer down.
Dallen, too new to the ship to know who Riley was and what she was known for, had every reason to look amused by the tiny engineer’s outburst. She snickered, put up her hands in a placating gesture and, to her credit, did actually sound genuine when she apologized. ”@#$%, ma’bad, ma’bad, sorry bout’at, ain’t tryna’ step on no toes. We good.”
And with that, before the situation could escalate, Dallen took her leave and the door slid shut behind her.
A wry smile passed over the woman’s lips at the question of ‘why’. ”Cause he’a laz’ass mu’@#$%a, that’s why.” She said, standing briefly on one leg to swing down and peer under one of the ships landing gear. ”Skip out ev’chance he git. Ratha’ jus’ si’round an’...Well @#$%, I don’even know wha’he do.”
Riley, meanwhile, satisfied that the lady wasn't going to go being rude to Ike, had instead let her attention shift to Ike himself. Particularly, the erratic way he was pointing in the general direction of one of the ships. Blinking, the girl looked cluelessly from his essentially flailing hand, to the direction it was pointing, to Ike himself. She repeated the cycle several times in no particular order - utterly oblivious to the message he was trying to convey.
With no regard whatsoever for subterfuge or tact, she blurted out innocently ”Whatchu’ doin’at for?”
Unrelated, Dallen had apparently made up her mind. Smirking wanly, the marine shrugged with complacency. ”Eh, @#$% it. I’ll let’im get away wit’it this time. He ain’t worth thedamn trouble. 'Preciate the offer though.”
Deciding to exit via the way the two of them had come in, Dal sauntered past Ike and Riley. ”B’if you see he’ass, tell’im Dal’s lookin fo’im, yeah? I’ll see you boys later.”
This unfortunate error in observation - an understandable one, really - had the obvious and entirely to-be-expected result of making Riley whip around. ”Oi’ain’t n @#$%in’ boy ye’blind-ass @#$%-!” She snapped - Ike would have to restrain her bodily in if he wanted to keep her from starting yet another fight that she had a snowball’s chance in Hell of winning. To her credit, she wouldn’t try to shrug him off or yank herself free - just sort of catching her would do the trick, after which she would pull back and simmer down.
Dallen, too new to the ship to know who Riley was and what she was known for, had every reason to look amused by the tiny engineer’s outburst. She snickered, put up her hands in a placating gesture and, to her credit, did actually sound genuine when she apologized. ”@#$%, ma’bad, ma’bad, sorry bout’at, ain’t tryna’ step on no toes. We good.”
And with that, before the situation could escalate, Dallen took her leave and the door slid shut behind her.
"Oh man, you're Kato right?"
The ancient metal hulk of a warrior that went by that name looked up in surprise, it wasn't a voice he recognised and he was also fairly certain that only those with the proper authorisation should have been able to get in there. Was he really going that mad that he was unable to recollect the voices of those he trusted the most?
"Oh my goodness it really is you, I can't believe this, I'm actually getting to see you! I've read so many of your memories!"
This new wave of information blurted straight towards his face did little to help matters, just who was this person? It was starting to look more and more likely that the years he'd spend aboard this ship really had sent him mad after all, first he was hearing voices in his dreams and now this! Although the more thought he put into it, he was able to recall the small fact that this person seemed to be meeting him for the first time, so maybe he really hadn't forgotten his loyal officers, besides that he didn't recall any of them ever speaking to him from the ceiling.
Kato looked upwards to be greeted with the sight of a grinning young marine in that particular set of combat fatigues which denoted them as a recent transfer over from Lisara as replacements for those lost due to the aftermath of the attack.
The young female pushed the rest of the air vent aside before dropping neatly down into the room, her brown skin contrasting with the mottled blue of her uniform. She followed the landing with a salute so smart it would have brought a tear to the eye of even the most jaded of drill instructors. "Sir! Intelligence officer, Zurha El-Kaleel reporting for duty, Sir!"
"How did you get in here?"
She looked upwards towards the ceiling before pointing to it casually, "Oh through the vents, I've studied the ship quite extensively. It's just such an honor to meet you sir!"
Kato looked up for a few seconds before down towards the young officer infront of him. At least she seemed enthusiastic, even if he wasn't entirely keen on the prospect of someone being able to sneak into his room whenever they wished. Still it would be good to have another new face onboard his ship, especially someone who was interested in his memories.
Just as he had sat down to invite her to stay and talk about everything he'd seen in his long life a small familiar body appeared at the door. Hey Kato, you lazy hunk of jun - Who is this and how did they get in here? They should know damn well they shouldn't be here! The familiar voice filled with righteous anger and bobbing fury brought a slight grin to Kato's lips.
"Good to see you too Sec"
Ike watched Dallen curiously as she wandered closer towards the pair of them, half in anticipation of her actually asking him to do a scan of the room and half just waiting for her to ask him what he was doing racing along the corridor into the hanger like he had been doing. At least she seemed far too distracted to be paying much attention to him, which was a bonus he guessed, the two of them probably looked more like wayward kids than anything else. "Well ... its nice to have you abord then!"
He meant it too, he always did when running into new people, that was one of the things about Ike when someone new appeared he was always genuinely curious and interested in them. Although his interest in them was never as great and caring as the one he had for the even smaller girl beside him. For Riley, he had all the time in the world.
Which was probably a good thing, as it seemed that no matter what he tried with small frantic hand gestures it wasn't working. Which he assumed was probably on him for attempting to signal to Riley something she had no way of properly understanding, especially without using words. It was a shame really he thought, he could have been so cool distracting the marine to allow Riley to get on the ship. Not that the marine seemed interested really in observing them, it was all probably for the best though as regardless of what Ike imagined in his head, real life never really tended to work out that way. "Uhhh, I'll tell ya later"
His attention was diverted back towards Dal when she spoke to him again and even though she had rejected his offer of help he glowed a little. At least she'd thought about it, she had appreciated the offer, that always made him feel good. "Thanks for considering it at least, if you need to another time, I'm down in the engineering bay"
Even as she uttered that line Ike's eyes were widening in surprise and fear, he knew exactly how Riley was going to react to such a statement and like before a fight was exactly the last thing he wanted.
With a sudden speed born of a desperation to keep events on track to allowing them that little bit of alone time he'd been waiting for fo so long he turned to grasp onto Riley. Quickly wrapping his arms around her in his own little version of a restraining hug, keeping her from lashing out forwards and starting something that would most certainly end up in ruining the day. Yet as he felt minimal resistance his heart welled up once more in a little glow, he knew Riley well enough to understand that this wasn't her usual modus operandi when confronted with what she percived to be a challenge and he assumed rightly or wrongly that she was doing it for him.
As a full show of faith, he unwrapped his arms quickly and simply stood contentedly by her side, grinning from ear to ear as he watched Dallen leave. Now he felt there was nothing standing in the way of exactly what he'd fantasied doing for a long time, spending a few hours alone with Riley, sitting together watching over the Ringworld as it passed by below them.
Still with that stupid grin plastered all over his silly face Ike would slowly attempt to entwine his fingers around Rileys and lead her towards the ship he'd been pointing at earlier. If she looked properly she would be able to see a little bounce in his step, something which was a usual signifier of a very happy and very excited Ike. "'Bout earlier, I was trying to see if you wanted to head to the ship while I distracted Dal. Guess I didn't need to in the end. Isn't this great though? We get to spend some time together watching the ringworld! Looking out into space! Or at least I can and you can be with me!"
The ancient metal hulk of a warrior that went by that name looked up in surprise, it wasn't a voice he recognised and he was also fairly certain that only those with the proper authorisation should have been able to get in there. Was he really going that mad that he was unable to recollect the voices of those he trusted the most?
"Oh my goodness it really is you, I can't believe this, I'm actually getting to see you! I've read so many of your memories!"
This new wave of information blurted straight towards his face did little to help matters, just who was this person? It was starting to look more and more likely that the years he'd spend aboard this ship really had sent him mad after all, first he was hearing voices in his dreams and now this! Although the more thought he put into it, he was able to recall the small fact that this person seemed to be meeting him for the first time, so maybe he really hadn't forgotten his loyal officers, besides that he didn't recall any of them ever speaking to him from the ceiling.
Kato looked upwards to be greeted with the sight of a grinning young marine in that particular set of combat fatigues which denoted them as a recent transfer over from Lisara as replacements for those lost due to the aftermath of the attack.
The young female pushed the rest of the air vent aside before dropping neatly down into the room, her brown skin contrasting with the mottled blue of her uniform. She followed the landing with a salute so smart it would have brought a tear to the eye of even the most jaded of drill instructors. "Sir! Intelligence officer, Zurha El-Kaleel reporting for duty, Sir!"
"How did you get in here?"
She looked upwards towards the ceiling before pointing to it casually, "Oh through the vents, I've studied the ship quite extensively. It's just such an honor to meet you sir!"
Kato looked up for a few seconds before down towards the young officer infront of him. At least she seemed enthusiastic, even if he wasn't entirely keen on the prospect of someone being able to sneak into his room whenever they wished. Still it would be good to have another new face onboard his ship, especially someone who was interested in his memories.
Just as he had sat down to invite her to stay and talk about everything he'd seen in his long life a small familiar body appeared at the door. Hey Kato, you lazy hunk of jun - Who is this and how did they get in here? They should know damn well they shouldn't be here! The familiar voice filled with righteous anger and bobbing fury brought a slight grin to Kato's lips.
"Good to see you too Sec"
Ike watched Dallen curiously as she wandered closer towards the pair of them, half in anticipation of her actually asking him to do a scan of the room and half just waiting for her to ask him what he was doing racing along the corridor into the hanger like he had been doing. At least she seemed far too distracted to be paying much attention to him, which was a bonus he guessed, the two of them probably looked more like wayward kids than anything else. "Well ... its nice to have you abord then!"
He meant it too, he always did when running into new people, that was one of the things about Ike when someone new appeared he was always genuinely curious and interested in them. Although his interest in them was never as great and caring as the one he had for the even smaller girl beside him. For Riley, he had all the time in the world.
Which was probably a good thing, as it seemed that no matter what he tried with small frantic hand gestures it wasn't working. Which he assumed was probably on him for attempting to signal to Riley something she had no way of properly understanding, especially without using words. It was a shame really he thought, he could have been so cool distracting the marine to allow Riley to get on the ship. Not that the marine seemed interested really in observing them, it was all probably for the best though as regardless of what Ike imagined in his head, real life never really tended to work out that way. "Uhhh, I'll tell ya later"
His attention was diverted back towards Dal when she spoke to him again and even though she had rejected his offer of help he glowed a little. At least she'd thought about it, she had appreciated the offer, that always made him feel good. "Thanks for considering it at least, if you need to another time, I'm down in the engineering bay"
Even as she uttered that line Ike's eyes were widening in surprise and fear, he knew exactly how Riley was going to react to such a statement and like before a fight was exactly the last thing he wanted.
With a sudden speed born of a desperation to keep events on track to allowing them that little bit of alone time he'd been waiting for fo so long he turned to grasp onto Riley. Quickly wrapping his arms around her in his own little version of a restraining hug, keeping her from lashing out forwards and starting something that would most certainly end up in ruining the day. Yet as he felt minimal resistance his heart welled up once more in a little glow, he knew Riley well enough to understand that this wasn't her usual modus operandi when confronted with what she percived to be a challenge and he assumed rightly or wrongly that she was doing it for him.
As a full show of faith, he unwrapped his arms quickly and simply stood contentedly by her side, grinning from ear to ear as he watched Dallen leave. Now he felt there was nothing standing in the way of exactly what he'd fantasied doing for a long time, spending a few hours alone with Riley, sitting together watching over the Ringworld as it passed by below them.
Still with that stupid grin plastered all over his silly face Ike would slowly attempt to entwine his fingers around Rileys and lead her towards the ship he'd been pointing at earlier. If she looked properly she would be able to see a little bounce in his step, something which was a usual signifier of a very happy and very excited Ike. "'Bout earlier, I was trying to see if you wanted to head to the ship while I distracted Dal. Guess I didn't need to in the end. Isn't this great though? We get to spend some time together watching the ringworld! Looking out into space! Or at least I can and you can be with me!"
After a moment of scowling resentfully at the door through which the marine had exited, Riley allowed her hand to be clasped and found herself once again being tugged along toward the scout ship. The two of them were a hilariously incongruous pair - the bubbly synth, giddy with anticipation, a bounce in his step, and the angry little engineer, pouting and looking the part of a wholly unenthusiastic grump as she plodded along behind.
But to her credit, she didn’t have to be dragged. She was tagging along of her own free will - and disgruntled as she might be, it would be inherently obvious to Ike that if she was really as unhappy as she looked, she simply would not be here. Actions had always spoken louder than words, and such was twice as true with little Head Engineer Miles.
That said, she honestly couldn’t understand what in the name of black space Ike was so bloody excited about. He regularly baffled her with his strange behavior, his weird...weirdness. But Riley didn’t think she had ever seen him quite this worked up - and over something so dumb at that!
She was here, though, and that was what mattered. Regardless of how perplexed she was over the whole thing, if it really meant so much to Ike to go make off with a boat and stare at that big, stupid Ringworld for a bit then she could put up with it. Anything was better than that crestfallen, heartbroken look she had woken up to. Abrasive little @#$% she might be, but the girl wasn’t a monster, dammit.
”Yeah. Buckets.” Riley replied gruffly, a distinct lack of enthusiasm in her tone which very strongly suggested that she was not at all looking forward to this thing that had Ike all worked up. But still, she was there - which was what mattered, what spoke the message that her words tried to deny.
Crossing over to the scout in question and proceeding up the entry ramp behind Ike, Riley’s fingers idly, habitually brushed against the door’s hydraulics as she passed through. A purely unconscious little gesture, born from her typicallyparanoidcautious nature and the prior knowledge that this particular model tended to have a problem where the pistons would heat up when activated. A benign thing, but useful for determining if anyone else had used the door recently.
Given that she hadn’t even done it intentionally, Riley was a bit surprised when the metal turned out to be warm against the pads of her fingers. Not so much as to cause her any distress, and certainly not enough to so much as grab Ike’s attention, let alone slow him down - presumably it had been that marine lady snooping about for her missing companion. Nothing to worry about. But still, that subconscious watchdog in the back of her head had perked its metaphorical ears.
Not that she was going to waste any conscious thought on the matter. The idea of a stowaway was too preposterous for consideration. Besides, the only place to hide was the cabinets, and who in their right mind would squeeze into those?
”A’royt, les’get this ove’wit.” Riley grumbled as she slunk past a pair of cabinet doors which, unbeknownst to her, had recently been pulled shut from the inside. Then, with a mild note of curiosity and one quirked brow; ”Oi, did you get clearance f’dis? No’like this ol’tub’s much f’regs an’all but I ain’t wanna’ get snipped’at f’no dumb @#$%.”
Really it was just something else to complain about. It wasn’t as if she actually had any objection to breaking what she considered to be arbitrary rules. As if to punctuate this, she proceeded to flop into the copilot’s chair, knowing that no copilot was actually necessary unless the pilot was incapacitated. ”Well, ‘arry it up then. Ge’on wit’it.”
But to her credit, she didn’t have to be dragged. She was tagging along of her own free will - and disgruntled as she might be, it would be inherently obvious to Ike that if she was really as unhappy as she looked, she simply would not be here. Actions had always spoken louder than words, and such was twice as true with little Head Engineer Miles.
That said, she honestly couldn’t understand what in the name of black space Ike was so bloody excited about. He regularly baffled her with his strange behavior, his weird...weirdness. But Riley didn’t think she had ever seen him quite this worked up - and over something so dumb at that!
She was here, though, and that was what mattered. Regardless of how perplexed she was over the whole thing, if it really meant so much to Ike to go make off with a boat and stare at that big, stupid Ringworld for a bit then she could put up with it. Anything was better than that crestfallen, heartbroken look she had woken up to. Abrasive little @#$% she might be, but the girl wasn’t a monster, dammit.
”Yeah. Buckets.” Riley replied gruffly, a distinct lack of enthusiasm in her tone which very strongly suggested that she was not at all looking forward to this thing that had Ike all worked up. But still, she was there - which was what mattered, what spoke the message that her words tried to deny.
Crossing over to the scout in question and proceeding up the entry ramp behind Ike, Riley’s fingers idly, habitually brushed against the door’s hydraulics as she passed through. A purely unconscious little gesture, born from her typically
Given that she hadn’t even done it intentionally, Riley was a bit surprised when the metal turned out to be warm against the pads of her fingers. Not so much as to cause her any distress, and certainly not enough to so much as grab Ike’s attention, let alone slow him down - presumably it had been that marine lady snooping about for her missing companion. Nothing to worry about. But still, that subconscious watchdog in the back of her head had perked its metaphorical ears.
Not that she was going to waste any conscious thought on the matter. The idea of a stowaway was too preposterous for consideration. Besides, the only place to hide was the cabinets, and who in their right mind would squeeze into those?
”A’royt, les’get this ove’wit.” Riley grumbled as she slunk past a pair of cabinet doors which, unbeknownst to her, had recently been pulled shut from the inside. Then, with a mild note of curiosity and one quirked brow; ”Oi, did you get clearance f’dis? No’like this ol’tub’s much f’regs an’all but I ain’t wanna’ get snipped’at f’no dumb @#$%.”
Really it was just something else to complain about. It wasn’t as if she actually had any objection to breaking what she considered to be arbitrary rules. As if to punctuate this, she proceeded to flop into the copilot’s chair, knowing that no copilot was actually necessary unless the pilot was incapacitated. ”Well, ‘arry it up then. Ge’on wit’it.”
To say that this moment was the of the happiest of his life would be a lie, there had been one other moment that had made that little bubbly Synth that happy, but that memory had been long forgotten. That memory was never coming back, but this one, he was here and this one he would remember: There was nothing anymore that could stop him remembering the day where he took his best friend, who he loved so much up to do the thing he loved to do more than anything else: explore space.
As the completely overexcited Synth led Riley towards the ship, with his mind almost entirely devoted to ideas of what it would truly be like to sit and watch the Ringworld from space, the thing he wanted to do more than anything else. Enough brain power was still devoted to understanding how much Riley was doing for him, the fact that she was actually coming along willingly made his heart swell with joy.
"Thank you Riles" There were those tiny hearts in his eyes again, the little symbols that Riley had still refused to understand exactly what they meant. The fact that they didn't appear when he was around anyone else and only when the two were close together and doing something that involved them doing something only really reserved for best friends had probably slipped by her.
Then again, Ike hadn't spoken much about them too, he knew why they were there. He was madly and utterly head over heels in love with that little head engineer who was trailing along behind him. The one who despite her complete disinterest in looking at the Ringworld from Space was still doing it for him. Yet this was the one thing he didn't know how to bring up, he didn't know how she'd respond and their friendship was something he couldn't afford to ruin.
Of course once they'd reached the scout, thoughts like that, confusing, frustrating thoughts, were swiftly pushed to the back of his mind as he let go of her hand and practically bolted it to the cockpit of the scout, despite that thing only really being ten or so steps away. It seemed that that weird Synth really couldn't wait any longer to get up on that ship and start flying it.
Within seconds he was in that pilot's seat and beginning the startup sequence, hands whirring across the desk in front of him with a speed and efficiency that she would have never seen before. It was a speed that Ike himself had never seen before too, if only he'd been regulating himself before, but now his mind had slipped that little personal desire of his, besides if he really had been pre-programmed to know all of this stuff perfectly, why shouldn't he use it? If only to make his time with the one he loved that bit more enjoyable.
In that cockpit Ike was utterly at home, much like the engineering bay was to Riley this whole ship was a comforting place, it was somewhere he'd wanted to be his entire life and now that he'd achieved that it felt like home like somewhere he was meant to be. Not that the silicon brain that inhabited his head would be able to put any of this into words, after all, it was just some sort of nebulous feeling, something he knew to be true. All the while as his hands moved like a blur of the little buttons the ship lurched to life, lifting up and blasting out of the hanger within moments of that Synth grabbing the controls.
Much like Ike knew Riley had essentially been designed to be the perfect engineer, Riley would now be gaining a little insight into one of her best friends pre-programming. Aside from being as heavily armed as he was, it appeared he had also been fitted to be able to pilot any of the smaller ships - although there had only been one ship in mind when his programming had been designed: the heavy fighters sitting in the hanger next door.
"Wit' pleasure!" His voice sounded almost as bouncy as his step, if it hadn't been clear before just how happy she was making him, this would tell her everything. That in tagging along in his adventure out into space she was making that weird boy the happiest she'd ever have seen him, even happier that when the two would sit by the old tv and cuddle up together. "Clearance for this? Oh Kato said something to me about taking it out for a spin if I wanted to, an' I do, so I guess that counts."
With that said really, the little scout was already making its way around the silent, dented, grey bulk that was the Last Light. The display screens in front of them that perfectly replicated the effect of a windscreen using cameras attached to the front of the little ship showing the giant vessel in all of its silent glory, the ship that had survived so many wars, done so many terrible things and yet seen so much beauty. If Riley looked hard enough she would be able to spot in extremely faded letters along the side, a name: VALIANT. Somewhere below a new name had been painted in in gold lettering: LAST LIGHT.
In those free moments now that he'd pretty much plotted the entire course in and with nothing left for him to do Ike snuck a glance over at Riley and his face slowly colored itself a deep share of red. While Riley would have no idea what had suddenly come over that odd person the answer was a simple one. He'd just been struck with a thought, that this was his favorite place after all, wouldn't that then mean that this would be the most romantic place to Ask Riley out? That, in turn, had led to a small flash of imagination: the two of them together, sharing a kiss, all of which served to leave Ike sitting there staring needfully at Riley, his face turning brighter shades of red by the second.
As the completely overexcited Synth led Riley towards the ship, with his mind almost entirely devoted to ideas of what it would truly be like to sit and watch the Ringworld from space, the thing he wanted to do more than anything else. Enough brain power was still devoted to understanding how much Riley was doing for him, the fact that she was actually coming along willingly made his heart swell with joy.
"Thank you Riles" There were those tiny hearts in his eyes again, the little symbols that Riley had still refused to understand exactly what they meant. The fact that they didn't appear when he was around anyone else and only when the two were close together and doing something that involved them doing something only really reserved for best friends had probably slipped by her.
Then again, Ike hadn't spoken much about them too, he knew why they were there. He was madly and utterly head over heels in love with that little head engineer who was trailing along behind him. The one who despite her complete disinterest in looking at the Ringworld from Space was still doing it for him. Yet this was the one thing he didn't know how to bring up, he didn't know how she'd respond and their friendship was something he couldn't afford to ruin.
Of course once they'd reached the scout, thoughts like that, confusing, frustrating thoughts, were swiftly pushed to the back of his mind as he let go of her hand and practically bolted it to the cockpit of the scout, despite that thing only really being ten or so steps away. It seemed that that weird Synth really couldn't wait any longer to get up on that ship and start flying it.
Within seconds he was in that pilot's seat and beginning the startup sequence, hands whirring across the desk in front of him with a speed and efficiency that she would have never seen before. It was a speed that Ike himself had never seen before too, if only he'd been regulating himself before, but now his mind had slipped that little personal desire of his, besides if he really had been pre-programmed to know all of this stuff perfectly, why shouldn't he use it? If only to make his time with the one he loved that bit more enjoyable.
In that cockpit Ike was utterly at home, much like the engineering bay was to Riley this whole ship was a comforting place, it was somewhere he'd wanted to be his entire life and now that he'd achieved that it felt like home like somewhere he was meant to be. Not that the silicon brain that inhabited his head would be able to put any of this into words, after all, it was just some sort of nebulous feeling, something he knew to be true. All the while as his hands moved like a blur of the little buttons the ship lurched to life, lifting up and blasting out of the hanger within moments of that Synth grabbing the controls.
Much like Ike knew Riley had essentially been designed to be the perfect engineer, Riley would now be gaining a little insight into one of her best friends pre-programming. Aside from being as heavily armed as he was, it appeared he had also been fitted to be able to pilot any of the smaller ships - although there had only been one ship in mind when his programming had been designed: the heavy fighters sitting in the hanger next door.
"Wit' pleasure!" His voice sounded almost as bouncy as his step, if it hadn't been clear before just how happy she was making him, this would tell her everything. That in tagging along in his adventure out into space she was making that weird boy the happiest she'd ever have seen him, even happier that when the two would sit by the old tv and cuddle up together. "Clearance for this? Oh Kato said something to me about taking it out for a spin if I wanted to, an' I do, so I guess that counts."
With that said really, the little scout was already making its way around the silent, dented, grey bulk that was the Last Light. The display screens in front of them that perfectly replicated the effect of a windscreen using cameras attached to the front of the little ship showing the giant vessel in all of its silent glory, the ship that had survived so many wars, done so many terrible things and yet seen so much beauty. If Riley looked hard enough she would be able to spot in extremely faded letters along the side, a name: VALIANT. Somewhere below a new name had been painted in in gold lettering: LAST LIGHT.
In those free moments now that he'd pretty much plotted the entire course in and with nothing left for him to do Ike snuck a glance over at Riley and his face slowly colored itself a deep share of red. While Riley would have no idea what had suddenly come over that odd person the answer was a simple one. He'd just been struck with a thought, that this was his favorite place after all, wouldn't that then mean that this would be the most romantic place to Ask Riley out? That, in turn, had led to a small flash of imagination: the two of them together, sharing a kiss, all of which served to leave Ike sitting there staring needfully at Riley, his face turning brighter shades of red by the second.
With a smoothness, efficiency and rapidity that would have made a fifty year veteran pilot jealous, Ike maneuvered the little scout ship up and out of the old hangar bay. Riley was impressed - though mostly because the only other time she had ever been on an actual vacuum-capable ship had been the ride up to the Light several weeks prior. That ride, though, had been a relatively bumpy one, more akin to the flightcraft she was accustomed to. The old-fashioned, dual-rotor helicopters that would have looked like the equivalent of a flying horse and carriage to someone like Ike - or the mag-jet dropships that were at least reminiscent of modern technology, but still a bumpy ride to be sure.
Before she knew it, the blackness of the dead universe was stretched out before Riley in a way that made her feel...Very little, actually. Thousands of years ago, when the stars had still burned in the night sky, she might have felt a sense of awestruck smallness at witnessing the vastness of the gulf stretched out before her. But that was when people actually knew how massive the stars were, knew just how very far those pinpricks of light must be in order for their magnitude to be so immensely reduced from the great, fiery orb of power in their daytime sky.
Picking up Ike looking at her from the corner of her eye and getting the impression that maybe he was hoping for some reaction on her part, Riley gave it her best shot.
”Yup. That’s...ah...that’s space a’right.” She said awkwardly, unaware or unconcerned with how terribly forced it had sounded.
Riley, as with just about any other member of the modern remnants of humanity, it was merely a curtain of blackness. With no points of reference for which to judge the scale, it was just...nothingness. Only the faint glow of the monitors even gave away the fact that they were actually showing what lie beyond the nose of the ship and not just turned off.
And that was fine. Riley did not mourn the stars. She did not feel an emptiness, gazing out into that endless space of blackness. There was nothing to be sad about - it wasn’t as if life for her would have been any different if points of light had burned lightyears away. She would still have grown up as a manufactured, subhuman tool in the narrow corridors and claustrophobic chambers of a bunker buried beneath a great mountain. She would still have watched the terror in her best friend’s eyes as his executioner made their way down the line. She would still have the lingering regret that maybe, if she just hadn’t said anything, Milo would have been standing beside her instead of across that muddy expanse which rivaled the old stars of yore.
Not that such thoughts lingered in her mind presently. Riley had to admit - if only to herself - that there was a sort of appeal to all this. No, she couldn’t have cared less about looking at that big, dumb Ringworld. A part of her even rather dreaded it. But everything else - the way Ike was so happy it was @#$%ing stupid, the way she actually felt of some real value - not just a tool, not a project to be fixed - but a friend. That was the appeal of this. Ike wasn’t trying to help her, make her feel better.
This was about him. It was her mere company that was delighting him so. He wasn’t doing things for her. Wasn’t trying to make her happy. Wasn’t trying to make her feel like something she wasn’t, couldn’t be. And while she did have some rudimentary understanding that Ike did derive some form of happiness from doing all those things, she couldn’t help but feel somehow wrong about it all. Maybe she was just an ungrateful little brat, but Riley couldn’t help feeling like some kind of charity case when it seemed like everything her friend did in life was somehow to benefit her. Maybe she should have been grateful just for the opportunity to have someone treating her well despite her insufferable personality - but she couldn’t help seeing a kind of insincerity in it when someone kept fighting for her, crying for her, doing things for her her as if she somehow wasn’t capable herself. And if she wasn’t, maybe she didn’t need to be.
But this seemed different. This was an opportunity to give back. To feel that she was his friend as much as he was hers. An opportunity to show him that he didn’t need to give her things or do things for her - that all she needed to feel truly valuable - to feel like more than just some defective little thing that people liked to try and spruce up to make themselves feel good - was for someone to appreciate her company.
That was why Riley’s outwardly grumpy demeanor seemed to soften gradually as the bouncy synth navigated the little ship out of the hangar bay, banking it around so that the blackness of space fell away to the girth of the Last Light’s broad, battle-scarred hull. Why she let herself seem as though her interest had been piqued just a little at the sight of the thing, which she had never gotten the chance to see before from the outside. That was an impressive sight. Not only a technical marvel which had fascinated her since childhood, but a place with no bad memories to taint it forever. On the contrary, in fact. She might have passed an appraising eye over it, glancing with some disapproval at some of the damage, a few odds and ends that could use work - but it was still something she appreciated, at least a little.
It would take a minute or two for the little scout to orbit around the hulking mass of metal to a position where the Ringworld could be seen in full - and it was around that time that Riley again noticed that Ike was staring at her. But this time, his face was lit up like a runway landing beacon. Her brief moment of what passed for tact having been expended, this time she just looked at him and blinked with an uncomprehending gaze.
”You, ah, you feelin’ a’right there bud?” She asked, awkwardly, but still sounding passably concerned. He might have even had a chance to conjure up some semblance of a reply before things started to get interesting...
In the blackness of the cramped little cabinet, Lance Corporal E’tzu Tsuan had really been doing quite a good job at keeping perfectly silent. He had always been a sneaky little bugger, very good at hiding - particularly if it meant hiding from his responsibilities - and this was no different. Granted, this time his responsibility was sitting right beside him, stuffed into the same little black space as he was - that responsibility being the obligation to not blow his superior officer’s cover. Regardless of whether Tsuan thought Corporal Firth’s plan was justified or even intelligent, he was obligated not to interfere with it. Even disregarding the issue of rank, Firth was a very big and frightening man - and while Tsuan himself was of an average build with no shortage of toned muscle, Robert was really not the kind of person he wanted to start a fight with.
He also just plain didn’t want to be caught, because that was the whole point of hiding.
Unfortunately for him, Tsuan was about to be defeated by a depressingly underwhelming enemy; lax cleaning standards. Or, in layman’s terms, the perilous and subtle evil known as dust.
It must have been the movement of the ship as it lifted off and out, or maybe some minute side effect of the nature of artificial gravity. Whatever the reason, an insignificant little puff of [/i] had lifted off the floor of the cabinet which, as it turned out, was long overdue for a wipe-down.
He tried. He really did. Tsuan tried with all his might to resist the urge, to hold it in - but all his efforts were in vain. Without warning, suddenly and loudly, Tsuan sneezed.
Though he could not be seen there in the darkness, his eyes turned to saucers and he clamped both hands over his nose and mouth as if this could retroactively fix the problem, which it could not. Guiltily, his eyes swveled over to the general area where he knew the Corporal to be crammed into and squeaked out a tiny, virtually inaudible curse.
”@#$%- sorry~”
Riley heard it, of course. They both did. Though an old model, the scout ship’s engines were virtually silent, the hum of the air recyclers and ambient sounds of controls and interfaces not loud enough to cover up the muffled sound that had come from one of the cabinets several feet to the rear of where the pair were seated. Ike having been interrupted in the middle of whatever he was saying, Riley instantly went into defense-mode, hackles raised as she whirled around and looking a tad wild as she fumblingly withdrew the old, heavy metal monkey wrench from her coat pocket - the girl’s principal form of self-defense. Now ‘armed’, she glanced wide-eyed toward Ike, almost as if he knew what to do about all this. Because she sure as @#$% didn’t.
Startled as she was, the fact that it was very unlikely for their stowaway(s) to be hostile had skipped her mind. Chances were that anyone capable of hiding out here would be a member of the Light’s crew, and therefore they would not be intending to do them any real harm - but for the moment, Riley was convinced that whoever was hiding in that cabinet must be a dangerous enemy...
Before she knew it, the blackness of the dead universe was stretched out before Riley in a way that made her feel...Very little, actually. Thousands of years ago, when the stars had still burned in the night sky, she might have felt a sense of awestruck smallness at witnessing the vastness of the gulf stretched out before her. But that was when people actually knew how massive the stars were, knew just how very far those pinpricks of light must be in order for their magnitude to be so immensely reduced from the great, fiery orb of power in their daytime sky.
Picking up Ike looking at her from the corner of her eye and getting the impression that maybe he was hoping for some reaction on her part, Riley gave it her best shot.
”Yup. That’s...ah...that’s space a’right.” She said awkwardly, unaware or unconcerned with how terribly forced it had sounded.
Riley, as with just about any other member of the modern remnants of humanity, it was merely a curtain of blackness. With no points of reference for which to judge the scale, it was just...nothingness. Only the faint glow of the monitors even gave away the fact that they were actually showing what lie beyond the nose of the ship and not just turned off.
And that was fine. Riley did not mourn the stars. She did not feel an emptiness, gazing out into that endless space of blackness. There was nothing to be sad about - it wasn’t as if life for her would have been any different if points of light had burned lightyears away. She would still have grown up as a manufactured, subhuman tool in the narrow corridors and claustrophobic chambers of a bunker buried beneath a great mountain. She would still have watched the terror in her best friend’s eyes as his executioner made their way down the line. She would still have the lingering regret that maybe, if she just hadn’t said anything, Milo would have been standing beside her instead of across that muddy expanse which rivaled the old stars of yore.
Not that such thoughts lingered in her mind presently. Riley had to admit - if only to herself - that there was a sort of appeal to all this. No, she couldn’t have cared less about looking at that big, dumb Ringworld. A part of her even rather dreaded it. But everything else - the way Ike was so happy it was @#$%ing stupid, the way she actually felt of some real value - not just a tool, not a project to be fixed - but a friend. That was the appeal of this. Ike wasn’t trying to help her, make her feel better.
This was about him. It was her mere company that was delighting him so. He wasn’t doing things for her. Wasn’t trying to make her happy. Wasn’t trying to make her feel like something she wasn’t, couldn’t be. And while she did have some rudimentary understanding that Ike did derive some form of happiness from doing all those things, she couldn’t help but feel somehow wrong about it all. Maybe she was just an ungrateful little brat, but Riley couldn’t help feeling like some kind of charity case when it seemed like everything her friend did in life was somehow to benefit her. Maybe she should have been grateful just for the opportunity to have someone treating her well despite her insufferable personality - but she couldn’t help seeing a kind of insincerity in it when someone kept fighting for her, crying for her, doing things for her her as if she somehow wasn’t capable herself. And if she wasn’t, maybe she didn’t need to be.
But this seemed different. This was an opportunity to give back. To feel that she was his friend as much as he was hers. An opportunity to show him that he didn’t need to give her things or do things for her - that all she needed to feel truly valuable - to feel like more than just some defective little thing that people liked to try and spruce up to make themselves feel good - was for someone to appreciate her company.
That was why Riley’s outwardly grumpy demeanor seemed to soften gradually as the bouncy synth navigated the little ship out of the hangar bay, banking it around so that the blackness of space fell away to the girth of the Last Light’s broad, battle-scarred hull. Why she let herself seem as though her interest had been piqued just a little at the sight of the thing, which she had never gotten the chance to see before from the outside. That was an impressive sight. Not only a technical marvel which had fascinated her since childhood, but a place with no bad memories to taint it forever. On the contrary, in fact. She might have passed an appraising eye over it, glancing with some disapproval at some of the damage, a few odds and ends that could use work - but it was still something she appreciated, at least a little.
It would take a minute or two for the little scout to orbit around the hulking mass of metal to a position where the Ringworld could be seen in full - and it was around that time that Riley again noticed that Ike was staring at her. But this time, his face was lit up like a runway landing beacon. Her brief moment of what passed for tact having been expended, this time she just looked at him and blinked with an uncomprehending gaze.
”You, ah, you feelin’ a’right there bud?” She asked, awkwardly, but still sounding passably concerned. He might have even had a chance to conjure up some semblance of a reply before things started to get interesting...
In the blackness of the cramped little cabinet, Lance Corporal E’tzu Tsuan had really been doing quite a good job at keeping perfectly silent. He had always been a sneaky little bugger, very good at hiding - particularly if it meant hiding from his responsibilities - and this was no different. Granted, this time his responsibility was sitting right beside him, stuffed into the same little black space as he was - that responsibility being the obligation to not blow his superior officer’s cover. Regardless of whether Tsuan thought Corporal Firth’s plan was justified or even intelligent, he was obligated not to interfere with it. Even disregarding the issue of rank, Firth was a very big and frightening man - and while Tsuan himself was of an average build with no shortage of toned muscle, Robert was really not the kind of person he wanted to start a fight with.
He also just plain didn’t want to be caught, because that was the whole point of hiding.
Unfortunately for him, Tsuan was about to be defeated by a depressingly underwhelming enemy; lax cleaning standards. Or, in layman’s terms, the perilous and subtle evil known as dust.
It must have been the movement of the ship as it lifted off and out, or maybe some minute side effect of the nature of artificial gravity. Whatever the reason, an insignificant little puff of [/i] had lifted off the floor of the cabinet which, as it turned out, was long overdue for a wipe-down.
He tried. He really did. Tsuan tried with all his might to resist the urge, to hold it in - but all his efforts were in vain. Without warning, suddenly and loudly, Tsuan sneezed.
Though he could not be seen there in the darkness, his eyes turned to saucers and he clamped both hands over his nose and mouth as if this could retroactively fix the problem, which it could not. Guiltily, his eyes swveled over to the general area where he knew the Corporal to be crammed into and squeaked out a tiny, virtually inaudible curse.
”@#$%- sorry~”
Riley heard it, of course. They both did. Though an old model, the scout ship’s engines were virtually silent, the hum of the air recyclers and ambient sounds of controls and interfaces not loud enough to cover up the muffled sound that had come from one of the cabinets several feet to the rear of where the pair were seated. Ike having been interrupted in the middle of whatever he was saying, Riley instantly went into defense-mode, hackles raised as she whirled around and looking a tad wild as she fumblingly withdrew the old, heavy metal monkey wrench from her coat pocket - the girl’s principal form of self-defense. Now ‘armed’, she glanced wide-eyed toward Ike, almost as if he knew what to do about all this. Because she sure as @#$% didn’t.
Startled as she was, the fact that it was very unlikely for their stowaway(s) to be hostile had skipped her mind. Chances were that anyone capable of hiding out here would be a member of the Light’s crew, and therefore they would not be intending to do them any real harm - but for the moment, Riley was convinced that whoever was hiding in that cabinet must be a dangerous enemy...
Corporal Firth watched as his company sneezed, and briefly gave a look of disappointment, knowing that the element of surprise was gone, he still stayed perfectly quiet, maybe they wouldn’t know where they were, and he still could, in his own mind, salvage his personal mission with no justification, but he didn’t need any, personally, he saw this as a horrid idea, at least when the enemy attacked Ike and Riley, they were on their ship, but if they weren’t, they had no protection, and either could be kidnapped or killed, and wether they liked it or not, he wouldn’t let it happen, or die trying.
"Oh err uhh I ... " Ike stammered quickly as he began to realize exactly what he'd been doing. The shining violet eyes glanced as fast as they could at anything but that small red-headed girl sitting next to him, which unfortunately was the only they wanted to be staring at. "Everything's fine yes! It's just a small coloring glitch within my skin! Nothing to worry about, I'm sure it will all be fixed soon!"
While this was a lie, it was also a very poor one, something Ike knew even as he spoke those words. He'd seen Riley researching basic synth engineering before and knew that she would know exactly that synths didn't get coloring glitches, only the face could ever change and that was to mimic human emotions. Though he'd probably have worked that out from when he'd have overheard her muttering something about the stupid textbook after it mentioned something about even though synths being able to mimic human emotions they were still nothing more than machines.
He'd never said it to her yet, but her anger whenever someone called him a machine warmed his heart more than almost anything else she'd done. Back down in Lisara he'd made himself used to the idea that synths and humans were simply different things, one of which was designed to be nothing more than an imitation of the other, not an actual person in its own right. Something that meant less than normal rights and less than humane treatments in some areas.
At first, he'd been a bit confused about why she got so angry, but after their conversation on both having been made, he began to adore the way she treated him like a human, just like everyone else. To her he was just like any other person and there was nothing anyone could ever do to take that away from him while she was there.
"What I mean is that errr ..... ummm " What else could he say? Should he admit he just made up a lie? or would that lead to something even worse? "I meant to say that the happiness is just messing with my err..." After a few more stammers he shut his mouth. There was nothing more he could actually say in this situation to alleviate it apart from - the truth?
For a second he turned back to look at space and managed a few more bubbly bounces, allowing himself a few seconds just enjoying her presence, the way Riley liked things to be.
Then another idea stuck him, a small little idea that made the Synth happier than he'd ever been. "Hey Riles .... I uhhh ... well you see - "
Whatever Ike was going to say it was lost in the silence that followed that single telling sneeze. Despite the fact that the noise was muffled by a cabinet and the fact it simply wasn't very loud to begin with, it still sounded deafening to the mind of that suddenly extremely frightened synth. Then again, any noise made by someone other than the two of them abord the ship would have frightened him out of his mind, he never thought that there could be any official members of the ship so the only conclusion he could draw was that there was someone else, someone with a lot more sinister motives and considering his track record aboard the ship, that wasn't hard to imagine.
It had only taken a few seconds, but even as Riley had reached down to withdraw her means of defense Ike's own startled brain was initiating its own self-defense mechanisms. This time he promised himself, was going to be different, this time he wouldn't let some strangers tie them up and try to kidnap them, this time he was going to be ready. With one stray finger, he'd already pressed up against the button to reverse the ship's direction, setting the autopilot maneuvering straight back towards the hanger. The other hand, of course, was already transforming, the fingers peeling back, the skin covering the palm retreating back into the rest of the fake flesh, revealing once more that massive in-built hand cannon.
"Who... whoever you are, come out with your hands up! We've got you covered ... I ... I've got a cannon aimed straight at the cabinet if you don't come out ... I ... I .... I'll blast you!"
"Well see ya Kato, thanks for letting me chat to you sir!"
He nodded his head slowly, that faded grin which always seemed to appear on his face, if only ever for a few seconds at a time when he allowed himself to feel like a normal person, instead of the monster he usually tortured himself for being. Naturally the utter instant she disappeared from his sight, it vanished back into the inky depths of his mind, the shadows clawing their way back into the empty space, the same way the void had reclaimed space from the shining beacons that had once illuminated it.
And yet as he sat there and listened to the voices a strange feeling came over him, a determination to once more make something of himself. He'd spent too long just sitting here writing down his memories, allowing the ship to rust out here protecting the Ringworld ... but it wasn't really, was it? Nothing ever came here to attack, nothing even was left out there, the only thing the ship could do now was be used to destroy ... or to explore.
There was that gap in his memories - that hole which seemed to pop up after the battle of sector TrS-OR-S87, not the most snappy name, but then again those that had survived it weren't really looking to have it be easily remembered. He knew that ... but what came afterward? The voices and haze set in then, all that was left after that was piloting the ship to the Ringworld and protecting it. This was the time to try and fill in that gap, after all, he reasoned there would surely be one terminal out there with the power and data needed to give him the information he wanted, right?
Gently he pressed on a nearby screen and quickly typed out a small message which he then sent out to the two people he trusted most, Corporal Robert Firth and Mackie, both of whom he wanted to inform first. The little message which would display with a small bing on whatever device they could use to read it was: Can you both please come over right away, there's something I wish to tell both of you. It is going to affect the future of everyone abord this ship so I feel it's only right if you two know first.
Slowly he sat back and waited in the darkness of his room for the two of them to arrive.
While this was a lie, it was also a very poor one, something Ike knew even as he spoke those words. He'd seen Riley researching basic synth engineering before and knew that she would know exactly that synths didn't get coloring glitches, only the face could ever change and that was to mimic human emotions. Though he'd probably have worked that out from when he'd have overheard her muttering something about the stupid textbook after it mentioned something about even though synths being able to mimic human emotions they were still nothing more than machines.
He'd never said it to her yet, but her anger whenever someone called him a machine warmed his heart more than almost anything else she'd done. Back down in Lisara he'd made himself used to the idea that synths and humans were simply different things, one of which was designed to be nothing more than an imitation of the other, not an actual person in its own right. Something that meant less than normal rights and less than humane treatments in some areas.
At first, he'd been a bit confused about why she got so angry, but after their conversation on both having been made, he began to adore the way she treated him like a human, just like everyone else. To her he was just like any other person and there was nothing anyone could ever do to take that away from him while she was there.
"What I mean is that errr ..... ummm " What else could he say? Should he admit he just made up a lie? or would that lead to something even worse? "I meant to say that the happiness is just messing with my err..." After a few more stammers he shut his mouth. There was nothing more he could actually say in this situation to alleviate it apart from - the truth?
For a second he turned back to look at space and managed a few more bubbly bounces, allowing himself a few seconds just enjoying her presence, the way Riley liked things to be.
Then another idea stuck him, a small little idea that made the Synth happier than he'd ever been. "Hey Riles .... I uhhh ... well you see - "
Whatever Ike was going to say it was lost in the silence that followed that single telling sneeze. Despite the fact that the noise was muffled by a cabinet and the fact it simply wasn't very loud to begin with, it still sounded deafening to the mind of that suddenly extremely frightened synth. Then again, any noise made by someone other than the two of them abord the ship would have frightened him out of his mind, he never thought that there could be any official members of the ship so the only conclusion he could draw was that there was someone else, someone with a lot more sinister motives and considering his track record aboard the ship, that wasn't hard to imagine.
It had only taken a few seconds, but even as Riley had reached down to withdraw her means of defense Ike's own startled brain was initiating its own self-defense mechanisms. This time he promised himself, was going to be different, this time he wouldn't let some strangers tie them up and try to kidnap them, this time he was going to be ready. With one stray finger, he'd already pressed up against the button to reverse the ship's direction, setting the autopilot maneuvering straight back towards the hanger. The other hand, of course, was already transforming, the fingers peeling back, the skin covering the palm retreating back into the rest of the fake flesh, revealing once more that massive in-built hand cannon.
"Who... whoever you are, come out with your hands up! We've got you covered ... I ... I've got a cannon aimed straight at the cabinet if you don't come out ... I ... I .... I'll blast you!"
"Well see ya Kato, thanks for letting me chat to you sir!"
He nodded his head slowly, that faded grin which always seemed to appear on his face, if only ever for a few seconds at a time when he allowed himself to feel like a normal person, instead of the monster he usually tortured himself for being. Naturally the utter instant she disappeared from his sight, it vanished back into the inky depths of his mind, the shadows clawing their way back into the empty space, the same way the void had reclaimed space from the shining beacons that had once illuminated it.
And yet as he sat there and listened to the voices a strange feeling came over him, a determination to once more make something of himself. He'd spent too long just sitting here writing down his memories, allowing the ship to rust out here protecting the Ringworld ... but it wasn't really, was it? Nothing ever came here to attack, nothing even was left out there, the only thing the ship could do now was be used to destroy ... or to explore.
There was that gap in his memories - that hole which seemed to pop up after the battle of sector TrS-OR-S87, not the most snappy name, but then again those that had survived it weren't really looking to have it be easily remembered. He knew that ... but what came afterward? The voices and haze set in then, all that was left after that was piloting the ship to the Ringworld and protecting it. This was the time to try and fill in that gap, after all, he reasoned there would surely be one terminal out there with the power and data needed to give him the information he wanted, right?
Gently he pressed on a nearby screen and quickly typed out a small message which he then sent out to the two people he trusted most, Corporal Robert Firth and Mackie, both of whom he wanted to inform first. The little message which would display with a small bing on whatever device they could use to read it was: Can you both please come over right away, there's something I wish to tell both of you. It is going to affect the future of everyone abord this ship so I feel it's only right if you two know first.
Slowly he sat back and waited in the darkness of his room for the two of them to arrive.
He silently sighed, as the stutter to him was a tell of a bluff, he gave his cabinet buddy a gesture to stay quiet, and he’d do something, if he didn’t know that it wasn’t a bluff, he probably would’ve cooperated, as he put his feet on the cabinet doors, and kicked them open, pushing himself forward with his arms in quick succession and got onto his feet, towering over the synth And then seeing that he did have a laser cannon, and with his hand he pointed it away from him, saying, “you try to fire it, and we’ll see who gets burned.” he tried to remain calm, but he was afraid a little, he didn’t have the upper hand here, morally or physically, as two against one, while he was big and strong, didn’t have a freaking laser cannon for an arm, and his “ally” wasn’t even in on the plan, which there wasn’t one, and he waited for either to ask a question, he stood there, staring into Ike like he was nothing, a tactic he found from other troublemaker recruits. As he waited he kept a hand on his knife, not to use it, but to show he had something, his goal was to scare them out of doing it again more than hurting them.
Cornered.
”You think you’re to͠ug͢h͝, don’t you~?” Crooned that soft, saccharine voice from lips that brushed sickeningly against her ear. The warmth of his breath made her tremble to the core with a terror and revulsion and loathing that was becoming more familiar by the day. ”You sure do a̧c͠t͏ tough. But...would you like to know a secret~?”
RIley didn’t make a sound. Her mouth clamped closed, eyes screwed shut, hands balled into white-knuckled fists to where they hurt, but not enough to take her away. Nothing could take her away from here. The concrete at her back felt like the end of the universe, and she was being pushed up against it bt the man with the icy blue eyes.
”Well? d̀o̕ ̶yo͞u҉?” There was a razor edge in his voice now, a hiss that demanded of her a reply as the warmth shifted to the front of her face. Riley dared not deny him one, forcing herself to give an almost imperceptible nod and virtually inaudible squeak of affirmation. She was rewarded with a sudden, violent pressure on her windpipe as Dayes’ hand clamped around her neck. Air cut off immediately, the girl began to panic, letting out a choked whimper and scrabbling her boots on the cold concrete floor as she clawed uselessly at his wrist - still unable to open her eyes.
”You’re n͞o͔̤̣̟̺t̖͝.” Dayes growled, suddenly dark and vicious - she could feel those soulless blue eyes staring down at her. ”You’re not, and nobody thinks you are. You’re not fooling anybody. You’re p̷at̢h͡e҉ti̵c” Eyes closed, she could still see that gut wrenching smile on his face, delighted at how much power he had over the pitiful little trainee writhing literally within his grasp.
Riley could not stop her body from attempting to cry out its distress, but the hoarse sound was barely a choked whisper.
Nobody was coming to save her.
Nobody even knew where she was.
The sub-blackness of unconsciousness was creeping into the edges of RIley’s thoughts, but she knew he would not allow her the relief of passing out. He never did.
Nobody was coming to save her…
-
RIley didn’t make a sound. Her mouth clamped closed, eyes screwed shut, hands balled into white-knuckled fists to where they hurt, but not enough to take her away. Nothing could take her away from here. The concrete at her back felt like the end of the universe, and she was being pushed up against it bt the man with the icy blue eyes.
”Well? d̀o̕ ̶yo͞u҉?” There was a razor edge in his voice now, a hiss that demanded of her a reply as the warmth shifted to the front of her face. Riley dared not deny him one, forcing herself to give an almost imperceptible nod and virtually inaudible squeak of affirmation. She was rewarded with a sudden, violent pressure on her windpipe as Dayes’ hand clamped around her neck. Air cut off immediately, the girl began to panic, letting out a choked whimper and scrabbling her boots on the cold concrete floor as she clawed uselessly at his wrist - still unable to open her eyes.
”You’re n͞o͔̤̣̟̺t̖͝.” Dayes growled, suddenly dark and vicious - she could feel those soulless blue eyes staring down at her. ”You’re not, and nobody thinks you are. You’re not fooling anybody. You’re p̷at̢h͡e҉ti̵c” Eyes closed, she could still see that gut wrenching smile on his face, delighted at how much power he had over the pitiful little trainee writhing literally within his grasp.
Riley could not stop her body from attempting to cry out its distress, but the hoarse sound was barely a choked whisper.
Nobody was coming to save her.
Nobody even knew where she was.
The sub-blackness of unconsciousness was creeping into the edges of RIley’s thoughts, but she knew he would not allow her the relief of passing out. He never did.
Nobody was coming to save her…
-
Him. Of all the people on the ship, it had to be him. Aned to Riley’s mind, that could mean only thing.
Firth leaped out of the cabinet with predatory swiftness and was towering over them practically before she knew what was happening. And it was immediately apparent that if Firth had been trying to scare her - it had worked. Riley’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of him. She put on a valiant attempt at a brave face, but it wasn’t fooling anybody.
This was the man who had lifted her off the floor by her neck, told her in no uncertain terms that she was small and weak and, worst of all, had told her that somebody ‘on or off the crew’ was going to inevitably ’put her down’.
He had made her feel like dirt in a way nobody else had in a long time. To be held like that, so perfectly helpless, all her struggling and flailing costing him literally no energy at all, effortlessly neutralizing her. ”Just because you think you’re tough and you act tough doesn’t make you tough”.
Except that Riley didn’t think she was tough.
It was herself more than anyone else that she needed to convince of that by the only means she was capable of - blustering and acting tough. Fake it until she made it.
But being grabbed like that, being so effortlessly proven wrong had been a serious blow to her self confidence. It didn’t mean she had been any more discerning in who she picked fights with - but it did mean that now, glaring weakly, fearfully up at this hulking man had her feeling like the pathetic insect she really was.
Breaths shallow, Riley unconsciously took a half step backwards, sidling closer to Ike. Without realizing what she was doing, the girl gently grasped at the hem of his shirt with the free arm at her side - more for her own reassurance than to get his attention. Another half step, and she was partially behind him, having been thoroughly cowed. The effect was that of a tiny dog with tail between its legs, looking terrified and standing behind a much larger dog for protection but still having the audacity to growl anyway. As if it meant something.
It was around then that a second stowaway revealed himself. Always room for one more.
”Uhhh, hi? Hello?” THe man said from within the cabinet, his voice muffled and metallic from the not-so-spacious confines. He sounded tense and uncertain, and maybe just the tiniest bit hysteric. ”Yeah, I’m gonna’ come out now okay? Don’t shoot, I’m unarmed, see?”
A pair of brown hands poked out from the open cabinet door, waving brieflty before giving a double thumbs-up. Then, in a relatively awkward series of quietly grunting gestures that made sure to keep his hands visible the whole time, the newcomer extricated himself from his hidey hole, stood up, and stretched the grandest, most relieving stretch in the history of stretches. It was accompanied by a long, dramatic groan and the popping of several joints.
The man was tall, fairly well built, and dressed in the same blue and white fatigues nad shirt as Dallen had been back in the hangar. His face a collection of boxy curves and angles, mouth wide and eyes little more than narrow slits, hair standing stiffly atop his head in a cropped cut. He was not exactly the most conventional definition of ‘handsome’, bt not bad looking either, in his own way. Somehow, he gave the impression of looking older than he actually was. If anyone still knew what ”Malaysia’ was, they would have thought hm to be from there - though when he spoke his voice sounded like it should have belonged to a caucasian door to door salesman.”OOooohboy that felt good.” He grunted to himself, making sure to keep his hands visibly out to either side as he lowered them. ”Those accommodations are really not worth the rent...Okay, so, hi! I’m Tsuan.” He said chipperly, with only a faint edge of tension in his voice - fair, given the virtual superweapon he was currently facing down. And a jumpy superweapon, at that. He accompanied his cursory introduction with a little waggle of the fingers which supposedly constituted something like a wave.
”And, uh, I’m sorta’ getting the vibe that things are maybe getting a little out of hand here- Eh? Out of hand? Get it? No? That’s fine. and I don’t know about any of you guys but I for one really don’t feel like getting blasted out into the void. SO-” Putting his hands together and completing the image of some kind of dorky middle-management guy addressing a dreadfully boring staff meeting and trying to be optimistic about it, ”How about we all just take a figurative and literal step back, cool off, and try to talk this all out, huh~? Nooobody needs to get hurt here. I’m sure this is all a big misunderstanding anyway~!”
It had not taken long for almost the whole of the ship to realize that the two of them were now an inseparable pair. An odd pair, to be sure - but nobody was all that surprised. The perplexing gunsmith did have a way of being able to befriend just about anyone, regardless of what type of person they were. Then again, someone as fundamentally strange as Macks was bound to form some strange relationships...Even if the fact that a hardened, abrasive warrior was somehow looking up to arguably the kindest, most gentle and laid-back person on the ship was a bit hard to swallow.
Just as the crew was quick to accept (Begrudgingly or otherwise) Annag as a part of the crew, so was the pair quick to recover and get back on their feet. They were a couple of very resilient women, even if most people were under the false impression that Macks was more on the delicate side. At that, most people were dumbfounded when they heard about the enemy she had so recklessly charged into battle with.
The first couple days following Mackie’s regaining of consciousness were mostly spent sleeping, with Jack and Robyn working to better integrate the new robotic leg with the woman’s existing cybernetics. Though they did not speak much of the details, it seemed that their weird armourer had a lot of metal inside her as well as outside. What should have been a simple job was thus complicated - but luckily in the end they were able to get it fully functional.
The subject of what all those mechanics actually did and why on Ring they were so unusually designed conspicuously never came up.
Once the leg was in full working order, there was the matter of learning how to use it. Mackie spent the majority of one day essentially re-learning how to walk - and while the leg was intuitive and designed (as all cybernetic limbs) to operate in exactly the same way as an organic one, there was still some necessary getting-used-to. To her credit (and nobody’s surprise) she found those first few tries and the resulting stumbling to be quite humorous. Luckily she had it down solidly by that night.
When at last both were deemed well enough to be ‘discharged’ from the Intensive Recovery Ward, their relief was a palpable thing. They had returned immediately to the Armoury, finding it almost exactly as it had been left. There was plenty of work to be done, given the various rifles and sidearms that had been left respectfully on the front counter for servicing, as well as the host of damaged equipment left over from the battle in the hangar - but Macks knew her priorities, and first thing’s first-...
-
Presently, the Armoury was not exceptionally different than it usually was. It was still in relative disarray, with the only truly (and meticulously) organized section being the weapon lockers - perhaps slightly more in disarray given all the work that had piled up both literally and figuratively. A thin film of pale smoke hovered just shy of the ceiling - Mackie’s special, homemade blend which eliminated the skunky smell in favor of something more reminiscent of incense and herbs. (In reality, the average ‘connoisseur’ would likely be disappointed with Mackie’s blend given that it was particularly mild. This was why most people did not tend to be affected by it unless they actually took a hit, with the secondhand smoke being virtually impotent.)
The music that played over the speakers situated about among the myriad machines and work benches was still the perfect volume that one didn’t have to raise their voice to talk over it. She had opted for a slightly heavier selection than usual after discovering that she and Annag shared a sort of middle ground in their tastes - which mostly amounted to ‘hippie rock and progressive metal’ - both of which the woman was more than well versed in and there was a whole universe of music she seemed enthusiastic to eventually get around to sharing.
And there was food. A lot of food. Far more than there normally was. Where several mysteriously acquired pizza boxes were usually strewn about the room, the occasional empty beer bottle or soda can forgotten here and there - today it looked like the aftermath of the biggest house-party on the block. This was because the first thing Mackie did when returning was proceed into the back room - which was reserved for storage, but also contained what amounted to a cozy, all-amenities-included apartment that she had built herself over the years - further proceeding to the industrial sized freezer she had also installed herself. (Lots of free time in this profession)
From there it was only a matter of using her little backroom kitchen space to prepare an absolute feast of snacks and junk food. Modern technology made it a fairly quick and low-effort process, and some ingenuity - such as using one of the welding machines to cook a pizza like the mad scientist she was - further expedited the process.
Presently, between the two of them, the pair had consumed enough food to make four grown men queasy. Those cyborgs and their fast metabolisms!
And, for her part, Mackie was still munching contentedly on some kind of diabolically delicious potato-cheese-meat-more cheese…thing that probably had enough calories in it alone to satisfy a suggested daily value several times over.
Dressed once again in her usual manner of clothing, the loose fitting jeans and oversized shirt made the woman look as convincingly unmodified as she always liked. It was impossible to tell how heavily augmented she was, save for the wrap-around neck panels being visible if the floppy dreadlocks happened to expose them. By some miracle, her useless sunglasses had survived the battle with no damage, and so she was once again peering owlishly over the rims of the lenses perched on the tip of her nose. Conspicuously, she was not wearing her favorite ’FONK’ hoodie, opting for an overlong, overlarge pinkish shirt in its place.
”Yo, I like, totally gotta’ get my electric outta’ storage.” The hippie drawled around a mouthful of starches, as though it were a revolutionary new idea that nobody had ever considered before. She was referring to her her electric guitar, which she rarely played given that her go-to was acoustic folk music played on her precious classical - but the gal could rock, too. ”We could like totally do duets and whatever it’d be rad.”
Ungracefully Stuffing the rest into her mouth, Mackie kicked her feet off the desk they had been propped up on, did one rotation of her spinny-chair in the process, and somehow managed to come to a stop perfectly in line with facing her newly adopted daughter. ”A’ight, I think I’m done. Like, for now at least. You good?”
Even before Riley came to hide behind him, even before he realised that Firth's hand was on his knife, before he could truly grasp what was going on Ike was angry. He'd spent so long hyping himself up for this moment, preparing himself for a chance to spend some time with Riley alone floating onboard some small scout ship. Now that moment had been ripped from him, first by the thought of intruders and now by the presence of one of the Last Lights officers.
At first this just translated out to defiantly staring down the vastly larger man, his arm cannon held tensely by his side as that Synth fought down ever instinctual need to salute. If he gave in to his programming now then he would never be able to face Riley down who he assumed was looking equally defiant by his side.
"I ... I was given permission by Kato to be on this ship! I'm a good pilot, I was literally created to be good at this, I have every right to be here!" How he loathed having to bring that fact up, the way he was forced to seem to lord it over those who had to learn the whole thing the hard way rather than simply be handed the knowledge right from the second of their creation. It made him no better than he had been when he'd come aboard the ship and that thought revolted him to his very core.
It made him feel no better than a simple collection of wires.
"So ... with all respect sir ... could you y-"
He paused as he felt a small tugging sensation on his back, something that frightened the already tense synth. Then he saw the cause and if he had had blood in that second it would have gone cold, wether in fury or in fear that would be left to those around him to decide, but either way as Ike saw just how cowed Firth made Riley, just how scared that person he'd always looked up to as unbreakable was, something within him snapped, or more rather, clicked into place.
The change was tiny at first, tiny targetting reticules slowly sliding down across his eyes, replacing those warm lavender pupils with harsh grey sights. Then something would happen that no one on the ship had seen before, the skin on his entire left arm, the one that now ended in a cannon was changing, the slightly lightish pink color fading away to be replaced by a cold grey metallic color, almost crystalline in look and appearance. Before it had looked almost like a perfect replica of flesh, weak and fragile, but now this new change that had finished spreading across his arm was the exact opposite. was inevitably spreading out across his body, hidden by that navy blue shirt he loved to wear.
"Sir, please, I can take care of myself, I do-" Even his voice had changed, it was deeper, more unnatural in nature, practically robotic.
Whatever he had been intending to say however was cut away the second the second person appeared, the surprise seeming to halt the transformation moment before the grey metallic substance emerged from around his neck and could begin to cover his face. For just a second the small sights in his eyes gave way to those violet pricks he called eyes. "huh!?"
There was something different about this newcomer that put him a little more at ease, perhaps it was the way he seemed to be approaching the situation from a more calming position, rather than threatening the two of them, but either way Ike still didn't want them on the ship, this was meant to be his and Riles moment alone and the fact that two people had snuck on board frustrated him.
"Look, I'm just taking the ship out for a spin! There's no need for all of this! I got clearance from Kato and I'm gonna land the ship as quickly as I can and can you two then leave? Please? I just want to show Riley the Ringworld from space, then I'll bring the ship right back! I promise! I'm more than capable of protecting myself!"
He paused for a few seconds before looking pleadingly between the two of them. "please..."
Comparative to the rest of the crew Annag was a lot less surprised at how quickly Mackie had recovered, she knew the foe that her mum had fought to save her, everything she'd been through as a result of protecting that abrasive warrior girl. More than most abord the ship Annag knew the pain of loosing a limb, those were memories seared into the back of her brain with a welding torch.
Those among the crew who had a hard time accepting that she looked up to Mackie would probably be spitting feathers or even flat out refusing the notion if they knew it was full on adoration that the girl had for her adoptive mother. Despite everything she'd assumed about the woman during their first meeting she'd now realised more of the truth behind this person, something that she was going to treasure.
While she knew nothing of the actual attachment of cybernetic limbs and therefore knew almost nothing of the struggle that it was to attach Mackie's new leg onto her through all the previous wiring and metal stored away in her, she did know about the rehab process. So whenever Mackie stumbled she would be there to help prop her up, occasionally using the chance to sneak in another embrace, one more chance to wrap her arms snuggly around the woman's body disregarding the notion that it might be uncomfortable due to the many protruding bits of metal all over the body. No, this was one of the most comforting things she'd ever managed to do.
Aside from the majority of the time which she spent snuggling up to Mackie, Annag spent it training, getting her body back to the shape it had been closer to when she had arrived on the ship. The muscles which had practically wasted away during her extended stay in bed were now properly beginning to work their way back onto her body.
When the time came, at last, to finally leave the medbay and re-enter the armory Annag would pause at the doorway, just for a second, what ran through her head during those moments no one would really know, but at the end she still allowed herself a little happy grin before dashing into the room.
The instant the food would be produce that warrior girl would practically begin salivating at the mouth, for so long she'd been on the stuff which barely could be qualified as food down in the pits and then on all the medical sterile "food" which had been so gracefully been provided to her by that werid medical bot. Then again, what bot on this ship wasn't utterly nuts?
As she grabbed her first taste of the junk food, a tiny little drop of liquid would well up in the corner of her left eye, one she wiped away as quickly as she possibly could. Followed by a feeding session to put professional large meal eaters to shame. It helped that her cybernetic body broke down the food at such a needed rate that she was able to keep on plowing through enough food for herself twice over. Had not she eventually had the presence of mind to slow down on this utterly delicious feast of ambrosia which had been prepared for her it look like she might have begun to eat the entire food stock.
Part way through she had quickly searched for something "more suited" to change into and while she had eventually found a tank top and jeans - something which seemed to make up 90% of all her outfits, this one had a slight change to it, in the form of a loose-fitting hoodie with the word FONK written over the front. After finding it and seeing her mum choose to not wear it she had slipped it over her own arms and head, the familiar smell making her think of the place she now called home, bringing another small set of tears to her eyes.
After having learned of the similar middle ground between their music taste, Annag endeavored to do her best, when not devouring the amazing food placed before her while simultaneously keeping it far away from that most treasured hoodie, did her best to memorise the lyrics to songs and if any (which was unlikely consideirng just how much catching up on music Annag had to do) song was repeated she would be happily singing along to the bits she remembered.
Having just finished a Pizza the fighter had just sat up to try another round of memorizing song lyrics when her mum spoke up between mouthfuls of food. "You ... you've got an electric ..." the words were whispered in this awed wonder of someone who'd just felt their entire universe expand. "Could .... could you teach me ... please? I ... I would love to learn!"
Dropping everything she practically rushed over to the base of the chair. Oh ... um yeah I'm done .... want me to help with the cleaning up? I could do that for you! What's on the agenda for today?"
At first this just translated out to defiantly staring down the vastly larger man, his arm cannon held tensely by his side as that Synth fought down ever instinctual need to salute. If he gave in to his programming now then he would never be able to face Riley down who he assumed was looking equally defiant by his side.
"I ... I was given permission by Kato to be on this ship! I'm a good pilot, I was literally created to be good at this, I have every right to be here!" How he loathed having to bring that fact up, the way he was forced to seem to lord it over those who had to learn the whole thing the hard way rather than simply be handed the knowledge right from the second of their creation. It made him no better than he had been when he'd come aboard the ship and that thought revolted him to his very core.
It made him feel no better than a simple collection of wires.
"So ... with all respect sir ... could you y-"
He paused as he felt a small tugging sensation on his back, something that frightened the already tense synth. Then he saw the cause and if he had had blood in that second it would have gone cold, wether in fury or in fear that would be left to those around him to decide, but either way as Ike saw just how cowed Firth made Riley, just how scared that person he'd always looked up to as unbreakable was, something within him snapped, or more rather, clicked into place.
The change was tiny at first, tiny targetting reticules slowly sliding down across his eyes, replacing those warm lavender pupils with harsh grey sights. Then something would happen that no one on the ship had seen before, the skin on his entire left arm, the one that now ended in a cannon was changing, the slightly lightish pink color fading away to be replaced by a cold grey metallic color, almost crystalline in look and appearance. Before it had looked almost like a perfect replica of flesh, weak and fragile, but now this new change that had finished spreading across his arm was the exact opposite. was inevitably spreading out across his body, hidden by that navy blue shirt he loved to wear.
"Sir, please, I can take care of myself, I do-" Even his voice had changed, it was deeper, more unnatural in nature, practically robotic.
Whatever he had been intending to say however was cut away the second the second person appeared, the surprise seeming to halt the transformation moment before the grey metallic substance emerged from around his neck and could begin to cover his face. For just a second the small sights in his eyes gave way to those violet pricks he called eyes. "huh!?"
There was something different about this newcomer that put him a little more at ease, perhaps it was the way he seemed to be approaching the situation from a more calming position, rather than threatening the two of them, but either way Ike still didn't want them on the ship, this was meant to be his and Riles moment alone and the fact that two people had snuck on board frustrated him.
"Look, I'm just taking the ship out for a spin! There's no need for all of this! I got clearance from Kato and I'm gonna land the ship as quickly as I can and can you two then leave? Please? I just want to show Riley the Ringworld from space, then I'll bring the ship right back! I promise! I'm more than capable of protecting myself!"
He paused for a few seconds before looking pleadingly between the two of them. "please..."
Comparative to the rest of the crew Annag was a lot less surprised at how quickly Mackie had recovered, she knew the foe that her mum had fought to save her, everything she'd been through as a result of protecting that abrasive warrior girl. More than most abord the ship Annag knew the pain of loosing a limb, those were memories seared into the back of her brain with a welding torch.
Those among the crew who had a hard time accepting that she looked up to Mackie would probably be spitting feathers or even flat out refusing the notion if they knew it was full on adoration that the girl had for her adoptive mother. Despite everything she'd assumed about the woman during their first meeting she'd now realised more of the truth behind this person, something that she was going to treasure.
While she knew nothing of the actual attachment of cybernetic limbs and therefore knew almost nothing of the struggle that it was to attach Mackie's new leg onto her through all the previous wiring and metal stored away in her, she did know about the rehab process. So whenever Mackie stumbled she would be there to help prop her up, occasionally using the chance to sneak in another embrace, one more chance to wrap her arms snuggly around the woman's body disregarding the notion that it might be uncomfortable due to the many protruding bits of metal all over the body. No, this was one of the most comforting things she'd ever managed to do.
Aside from the majority of the time which she spent snuggling up to Mackie, Annag spent it training, getting her body back to the shape it had been closer to when she had arrived on the ship. The muscles which had practically wasted away during her extended stay in bed were now properly beginning to work their way back onto her body.
When the time came, at last, to finally leave the medbay and re-enter the armory Annag would pause at the doorway, just for a second, what ran through her head during those moments no one would really know, but at the end she still allowed herself a little happy grin before dashing into the room.
The instant the food would be produce that warrior girl would practically begin salivating at the mouth, for so long she'd been on the stuff which barely could be qualified as food down in the pits and then on all the medical sterile "food" which had been so gracefully been provided to her by that werid medical bot. Then again, what bot on this ship wasn't utterly nuts?
As she grabbed her first taste of the junk food, a tiny little drop of liquid would well up in the corner of her left eye, one she wiped away as quickly as she possibly could. Followed by a feeding session to put professional large meal eaters to shame. It helped that her cybernetic body broke down the food at such a needed rate that she was able to keep on plowing through enough food for herself twice over. Had not she eventually had the presence of mind to slow down on this utterly delicious feast of ambrosia which had been prepared for her it look like she might have begun to eat the entire food stock.
Part way through she had quickly searched for something "more suited" to change into and while she had eventually found a tank top and jeans - something which seemed to make up 90% of all her outfits, this one had a slight change to it, in the form of a loose-fitting hoodie with the word FONK written over the front. After finding it and seeing her mum choose to not wear it she had slipped it over her own arms and head, the familiar smell making her think of the place she now called home, bringing another small set of tears to her eyes.
After having learned of the similar middle ground between their music taste, Annag endeavored to do her best, when not devouring the amazing food placed before her while simultaneously keeping it far away from that most treasured hoodie, did her best to memorise the lyrics to songs and if any (which was unlikely consideirng just how much catching up on music Annag had to do) song was repeated she would be happily singing along to the bits she remembered.
Having just finished a Pizza the fighter had just sat up to try another round of memorizing song lyrics when her mum spoke up between mouthfuls of food. "You ... you've got an electric ..." the words were whispered in this awed wonder of someone who'd just felt their entire universe expand. "Could .... could you teach me ... please? I ... I would love to learn!"
Dropping everything she practically rushed over to the base of the chair. Oh ... um yeah I'm done .... want me to help with the cleaning up? I could do that for you! What's on the agenda for today?"
“Hmph.” He mumbled, then thumped the hand cannon onto his chest, where the heart is, if he’s going to take the shot, it’d better be only one, saying, “if you’re going to kill me over spooking you’re little princess, then do it, make a situation worse.” As he prepared his counter argument, starting his little rant with, “one thing we need clearing, its not you or your piloting skills that has me hiding in cabinets, it’s her, she has had multiple break out brawls on the ship ever since she was brought to it, and we were able to stop her, but now if she tries a stunt like that again she’ll have nothing to hold her back, and she’ll bite off what she can’t chew, you want to go to ring world, fine, but if she continues the way she acts she’ll get herself killed down there.” And he bent down to Ike’s ear to drive his point further and whispered. “And you wouldn’t like her being hurt, now would you?” He slowly rose up, and waited for a response.
This couldn’t be happening.
No.
No no no.
Just when it had started to feel like she was leaving it all behind, here it was again. Life, a circle, always coming back to where it started. Always coming back to remind her over and over that everyone would be better off if she had never been born.
The horror she experienced as Ike began shifting into combat mode was only in a small part due to how disturbing it was to see and hear her friend acting the part of wr machine - a role which did not seem suited to the usually bubbly little weirdo she had come to appreciate so deeply. It was disturbing to see his flesh change like that, doubly so to hear that almost robotic voice - she hated that part.
But it wasn’t the change in Ike that disturbed her the most. It was what had stayed the same.
The situation was escalating. It was happening again, righ before her eyes. She could see it now - this new life she had somehow managed to scrounge together just falling to bits, turning to stand between her fingers as she watched on, helpless to stop it and knowing all the while that it was her fault alone. She had brought it upon herself - but far worse than that, she had it brought it upon others. The one who was stupid enough to care for her, to try and protect a self-destructive creature who had been born to die.
Frozen in stark terror, a horrible clarity came over Riley as all the parallels lined up in perfect order.
Ike was standing with a cannon aimed point-blank at the heart of a superior officer. What would happen if he did something stupid? If he was goaded into attacking by the insufferable Corporal? Riley knew very well what would happen. He would be scrapped in a heartbeat, and it would be all her fault for having put him in that situation to begin with.
Her breathing became uneven and shallow as the fear truly began to take root in her soul. She paid no attention to the other man, barely even realizing he was there at all.
No no no NO NO.
Not again. Absolutely not again.
Tsuan, perceiving that he was officially out of his depth, just stood back and subtly reached into his pocket. Blindly fumbling with the hand comm stowed away there, he opened up a one-way connection with Zurha and Dallen - a little shortcut they had set up in boot camp to keep them all connected. The visual feed was only the dark interior of the marine’s pocket, but the audio that he was now secretly broadcasting to his friends on the Last Light was more than clear enough. Remaining silent, he tried to just stay out of the way - knowing that now was not the time to crack any clever jokes.
Rileywas just close enough to hear the words that the Corporal whispered into Ike’s ear. That did it. At once, all the fear and regret and guilt and pain and love and loss came together in one furious burst of adrenaline and rage and hatred and grief.
”Back OFF!”
No sooner had Firth returned to standing at full height that the wrench formerly clutched in Riley’s hand was slamming brutally, point-blank into his face, having been flung with all the might of her combined fear and rage and sorrow. it hit with an audible, nauseating sound of iron on bone. In the same gesture as winging the heavy iron tool, Riley stepped around Ike, shoving him back behind her in the process so that she stood between him and the now rather severely wounded Corporal.
”Ike just stand down okay? Put th’ guns away an’ stand down.” She barked, the resolve and determination marred only by the tremor in her voice which bordered just barely on bursting into tears. Hands balled into aching fists, terrified to her core but determined to absolutely under no circumstances let the past repeat itself, Riley stood between them and locked eyes with the Corporal. Eyes that were openly brimming with tears as the anger and fear mingled together into the exact kind of furious desperation that made soldiers charge headlong into suicide missions. Her hands were trembling visibly at her sides.
Whatever was coming at her next, Riley would face it head-on. She would take whatever the man had to dish out. Nothing was getting at Ike without going through her first. No matter what it cost. No matter how badly it hurt or how much damage was done. Even if it killed her.
”You go’a @#$%’in problem wi’me ‘at’s fine! You wanna' @#$% me up'en go for it but you leave Ike the @#$% outta’ it y’hear! You leave him ALONE!”
No.
No no no.
Just when it had started to feel like she was leaving it all behind, here it was again. Life, a circle, always coming back to where it started. Always coming back to remind her over and over that everyone would be better off if she had never been born.
The horror she experienced as Ike began shifting into combat mode was only in a small part due to how disturbing it was to see and hear her friend acting the part of wr machine - a role which did not seem suited to the usually bubbly little weirdo she had come to appreciate so deeply. It was disturbing to see his flesh change like that, doubly so to hear that almost robotic voice - she hated that part.
But it wasn’t the change in Ike that disturbed her the most. It was what had stayed the same.
The situation was escalating. It was happening again, righ before her eyes. She could see it now - this new life she had somehow managed to scrounge together just falling to bits, turning to stand between her fingers as she watched on, helpless to stop it and knowing all the while that it was her fault alone. She had brought it upon herself - but far worse than that, she had it brought it upon others. The one who was stupid enough to care for her, to try and protect a self-destructive creature who had been born to die.
Frozen in stark terror, a horrible clarity came over Riley as all the parallels lined up in perfect order.
It was a waking nightmare.
He stood there like a knight in shining armor, even dressed not unlike herself. He stood like a pillar of steel, like a mighty wall. With his ridiculous shock of white-blonde hair, those eyes like rings of fire blazing with all the fury of a thousand ancient stars. She had never seen him like this. It scared her.
She had tried to stop him. Begged and pleaded for him to just stay put, stay in their little room. To not stir up more trouble than they were already in. She could handle it. She could take it. But she couldn’t sit idly by and watch her friend do something deadly stupid in a fit of rage.
Even now, she tugged at the back of his olive green field jacket. A knight in shining armor he might have been, safe and secure he might make her feel - but there were some fights that even a knight could not hope to win, and this was one of them.
He just wouldn’t listen. He stood there like a rock, his fists clenched at his sides, knuckles white. The screaming fury in his eyes bore up at the tall, limber man who stared back with icy eyes andn agonizingly self-assured smirk.
”Well?! Answer me you disgusting @#$%!” he roared, RIley flinching involuntrily behind him as she redouble her efforts to pull him back. She hated to hear his voice like that. It didn’t suit him, the chipper, carefree guy she so deeply appreciated. ”You really @#$%ing think you’re gonna’ jus’ ge’away wi’this?! Do ya!”
But the teenager’s fury only seemed to amuse the tall man, whose heinous smirk only widened. He knew he couldn’t be touched. He knew he was goading the boy.
This was all her fault.
If she had only kept her mouth shut-
Everything was falling apart, and it was all her fault.
”I’ll @#$%ing kill you, do you hear me?!”
He wasn’t taking him seriously. It was a bluff.
Except that it wasn’t.
She saw him shift, saw his arm move toward the lump in his pocket, the handgun he had snatched from @#$%-knew-where.
”M-MILO!”
Without thinking, a desperate panic overcoming her in an instant, Riley half screamed, half sobbed his name and lurched forward, wrapping her arms around him in an ineffectually restraining bear hug. She pressed her face into his back and bawled, squeezing him as tight as her undersized arms could possibly manage.
The boy could easily have wrenched himself free - but he didn’t. He just froze, his furious glare locked on the man with the icy blue eyes, as Riley begged and pleaded with him between shuddering sobs. ”P-please Milo les’ jus’ go back! Please!”
It seemed like hours before Milo’s stance at last shifted in a manner indicating that he was no longer planning to attack. ”Yeh. Les’ go back Riles. This @#$%in’ sack’a @#$% ain’t worth our time nohow.” He said lowly, his glare lingering meaningfully on the icy eyes as he spoke, making it known that the inevitable was merely being delayed.
And he was right.
Riley had been a fool to think she had saved him then. His fate had been sealed the instant he stepped into that room with rage in his eyes. The ate of his execution had already been set before he even spoke.
They would have two more weeks together. And the clock was ticking.
He stood there like a knight in shining armor, even dressed not unlike herself. He stood like a pillar of steel, like a mighty wall. With his ridiculous shock of white-blonde hair, those eyes like rings of fire blazing with all the fury of a thousand ancient stars. She had never seen him like this. It scared her.
She had tried to stop him. Begged and pleaded for him to just stay put, stay in their little room. To not stir up more trouble than they were already in. She could handle it. She could take it. But she couldn’t sit idly by and watch her friend do something deadly stupid in a fit of rage.
Even now, she tugged at the back of his olive green field jacket. A knight in shining armor he might have been, safe and secure he might make her feel - but there were some fights that even a knight could not hope to win, and this was one of them.
He just wouldn’t listen. He stood there like a rock, his fists clenched at his sides, knuckles white. The screaming fury in his eyes bore up at the tall, limber man who stared back with icy eyes andn agonizingly self-assured smirk.
”Well?! Answer me you disgusting @#$%!” he roared, RIley flinching involuntrily behind him as she redouble her efforts to pull him back. She hated to hear his voice like that. It didn’t suit him, the chipper, carefree guy she so deeply appreciated. ”You really @#$%ing think you’re gonna’ jus’ ge’away wi’this?! Do ya!”
But the teenager’s fury only seemed to amuse the tall man, whose heinous smirk only widened. He knew he couldn’t be touched. He knew he was goading the boy.
This was all her fault.
If she had only kept her mouth shut-
Everything was falling apart, and it was all her fault.
”I’ll @#$%ing kill you, do you hear me?!”
He wasn’t taking him seriously. It was a bluff.
Except that it wasn’t.
She saw him shift, saw his arm move toward the lump in his pocket, the handgun he had snatched from @#$%-knew-where.
”M-MILO!”
Without thinking, a desperate panic overcoming her in an instant, Riley half screamed, half sobbed his name and lurched forward, wrapping her arms around him in an ineffectually restraining bear hug. She pressed her face into his back and bawled, squeezing him as tight as her undersized arms could possibly manage.
The boy could easily have wrenched himself free - but he didn’t. He just froze, his furious glare locked on the man with the icy blue eyes, as Riley begged and pleaded with him between shuddering sobs. ”P-please Milo les’ jus’ go back! Please!”
It seemed like hours before Milo’s stance at last shifted in a manner indicating that he was no longer planning to attack. ”Yeh. Les’ go back Riles. This @#$%in’ sack’a @#$% ain’t worth our time nohow.” He said lowly, his glare lingering meaningfully on the icy eyes as he spoke, making it known that the inevitable was merely being delayed.
And he was right.
Riley had been a fool to think she had saved him then. His fate had been sealed the instant he stepped into that room with rage in his eyes. The ate of his execution had already been set before he even spoke.
They would have two more weeks together. And the clock was ticking.
Ike was standing with a cannon aimed point-blank at the heart of a superior officer. What would happen if he did something stupid? If he was goaded into attacking by the insufferable Corporal? Riley knew very well what would happen. He would be scrapped in a heartbeat, and it would be all her fault for having put him in that situation to begin with.
Her breathing became uneven and shallow as the fear truly began to take root in her soul. She paid no attention to the other man, barely even realizing he was there at all.
No no no NO NO.
Not again. Absolutely not again.
Tsuan, perceiving that he was officially out of his depth, just stood back and subtly reached into his pocket. Blindly fumbling with the hand comm stowed away there, he opened up a one-way connection with Zurha and Dallen - a little shortcut they had set up in boot camp to keep them all connected. The visual feed was only the dark interior of the marine’s pocket, but the audio that he was now secretly broadcasting to his friends on the Last Light was more than clear enough. Remaining silent, he tried to just stay out of the way - knowing that now was not the time to crack any clever jokes.
Rileywas just close enough to hear the words that the Corporal whispered into Ike’s ear. That did it. At once, all the fear and regret and guilt and pain and love and loss came together in one furious burst of adrenaline and rage and hatred and grief.
”Back OFF!”
No sooner had Firth returned to standing at full height that the wrench formerly clutched in Riley’s hand was slamming brutally, point-blank into his face, having been flung with all the might of her combined fear and rage and sorrow. it hit with an audible, nauseating sound of iron on bone. In the same gesture as winging the heavy iron tool, Riley stepped around Ike, shoving him back behind her in the process so that she stood between him and the now rather severely wounded Corporal.
”Ike just stand down okay? Put th’ guns away an’ stand down.” She barked, the resolve and determination marred only by the tremor in her voice which bordered just barely on bursting into tears. Hands balled into aching fists, terrified to her core but determined to absolutely under no circumstances let the past repeat itself, Riley stood between them and locked eyes with the Corporal. Eyes that were openly brimming with tears as the anger and fear mingled together into the exact kind of furious desperation that made soldiers charge headlong into suicide missions. Her hands were trembling visibly at her sides.
Whatever was coming at her next, Riley would face it head-on. She would take whatever the man had to dish out. Nothing was getting at Ike without going through her first. No matter what it cost. No matter how badly it hurt or how much damage was done. Even if it killed her.
”You go’a @#$%’in problem wi’me ‘at’s fine! You wanna' @#$% me up'en go for it but you leave Ike the @#$% outta’ it y’hear! You leave him ALONE!”
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