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RP: Bahram Wing [Bahram Wing Side Story] Wake Up, Frame Runner

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Exhack

Inactive Member
Fort Jarizas, Mazerin
Hangar B1
Yetsava 14th, 935
28:37 Commonwealth Standard Time


Malik arrived in Bahram Wing's hangar bay, and the place was surprising busy, even at night. Maintenance drones buzzed around, workers locked large tubes of nutrient solution onto the ports of de-armored organoid units and massive machines which seemed to be made of glowing sinew and nerves and pseudometallic flesh floated motionless in large orange liquid-filled tanks, their bodies apparently mangled, but regenerating damage. It was a cavernous place, unlike the elegant bay of a frigate, and filled with a combination of smooth organoid tissues, rounded composite plates and large glowing metal outcroppings.Thick, bulging wires were strewn across the floor and hung across the ceiling and walls like hunting trophies.

Malik stood at the entrance, entranced in the scene. This was a beauty all its own, especially to someone like Malik. These machines, these living, elegant machines of war, they were the steeds of Frame Runners. And he was a gallant knight, riding out onto the field of battle, controlling one of these machines. Truly, it was just now that one of his childhood dreams had been realized.

"Idiot! What are you doing here?" A voice called out to him from his left. It was a voice that was feminine, familiar, and chiding.

Malik just smiled, ignoring Khi for a few more seconds, letting his inner child bask in the glory. He turned towards her, smiling. "It's a frame runner's duty to look after his VANDR, correct?"

"Yes..." Khiyai said, putting her slightly grimy hands on her hips and sighing. "But that should only be that case during a battle. Your mechanist should be the one to take care of your unit until and after that time, or else you'll just end up burning yourself out. Even with regenerative systems, these VANDR are high maintenance and require the care of skilled engineering professionals, not amateurs with too many model kits." She said brusquely, shutting her eyes as her face furled into a frown.

The orange haired runner still smiled, looking back at the VANDRs. "Anyway, I wanted to get a good look at these tonight, before I go out on my first patrol."

"So you say. It's the blue one in dock 08, with head and shoulder armor stripped." She explained, wiping her hands clean and rubbing the underneath of her eyes with the tips of her fingers. "I might as well come with you, so you won't do anything stupid."

Mal nodded to Khi, the smile still there, but slightly wiped off by the subtle blush on his dark cheeks. "Thanks, Khi." Looking away from her to hide the blush, he followed her directions, looking up at his VANDR and staring at it in awe.

"Don't thank me! I'm just... making sure you don't do anything stupid, like I said." Khiyai frowned angrily at his thanks and looked away, her face slightly reddened. It had only been hours earlier that she had been exposed to the reality of the young man she had taken a liking to, a childish, impulsive and aggressive frame runner who seemed to exist in a dream world where that blue VANDR would make him a hero. On the other hand... that dream was something more beautiful than her presumptions about him had ever been, and his childish nature allowed him to be unforgivably kind sometimes.

"Anyway, it's a standard So-M1, with some adjustments to the NI to compensate for the conditions of this colder climate."

Mal still had the ear-to-ear grin on his face, his face alight with a childlike wonder. This VANDR, it was his, and no-one else's. Tomorrow, when he would step into it's cockpit, he and it would be irrevocably linked. It would be his steed, his shield, his sword, his closest friend on the battlefield. Still smiling, he turned to Khiyai, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Khiyai, thank you."

"I understand, you mechanists put your heart and soul into these VANDRs. You constantly give your all, and never back down. It would be an insult for me to damage this one." His smile shrank, a tiny bit, a blush growing. "I know you don't like me that much, but I promise that I won't allow any damage to come to this VANDR."

"Aaah! What are you even saying?!?" Khiyai barked, swatting his arm away as she turned around to face him directly. Somehow, that had set her off. She didn't mind the childish idealism and hotblooded banter, but him telling her that he would deliberately avoid harming his unit for her sake was insulting, infuriating... almost unforgivable. "If you go on the battlefield with that mindset, you'll get killed and will never convince me to like you! Wake up, Malik, and stop treating this like a game!"

Mal stepped back from Khi, his smile completely gone, violet eyes with a dull glow to them. "Combat isn't a game, Vayshirin Sahrzad. I'm insulted that you of all people would think that I would see combat as nothing more than a game. I know, that every time I launch, I might not come back, or my wingmates might not come back. I may act like a fool, but I'm not one." The orange haired Runner turned away from Khiyai.

"And I never said anything about getting you to like me."

----

The noise Khiyai and Malik were making drew the attention of the current crew boss. "Hmm? Hey! What's going on over there? Malik! Stop bothering my mechanics!"

----

"What do you think I was telling you, idiot! You think that a putting a dismembered VANDR is like assembling a puzzle?!? I see the scars of battle on the units as they land and on the pilots as they disembark. I watch hours of battle data. And I keep idiots like you alive, even when you use familiar attitudes with words like 'you of all people', while you're lecturing me!" Khiyai glared angrily at him, advancing a step and pointing her index into his chest.

"I don't care how badly damaged the unit is, as long as I know that it served a good purpose on the battlefield out there! You don't coddle a Mechanist! You don't lecture them, assuming you're any more aware of what might happen, just when they tell you to stop acting like a child, when you are." Khiyai was extremely red now, but was clearly more angry than anything else. "So I guess then, you won't have to worry about me liking you, Vayshirin-Rashidan-calls-rank-to-an-equal-ranked-enlistee."

The young mechanist sighed, scratching the half gear pattern on her left cheek. "It's alright Sentulri. Vayshirin Rashidan was just on his way out, since he got to see his VANDR."

----

Malik nodded, turning to leave. "I was, infact, about to leave before you decided to get on my case. Goodbye, Khiyai."

----

"Hmph!" Khiyai replied, returning to her duties. She had a lot of aggression to work out, and a lot of nutrient feeder nozzles that needed tightening. "Good riddance."

END
 
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