"Alrighty then," Anna said as she looked over Vincent, whilst searching through her doctor's bag, "Let's get you patched up, you big teddy bear," She put a bottle of high-strength alcohol in Vincent's reach before putting her other tools down.
"Drink up," She advised the ID-SOL as she produced a scalpel, "It's a dirty double-scotch with some painkiller for good measure. I have to thank Jimmy for the idea."
Jimmy was also taking a look at Vincent, acting as an assistant and pointing out where the bullets had gone, whilst administering coagulants and bone repair serums, amongst other things.
Between them, a lot of work was done, just on Vincent.
Luca, meanwhile, was wondering what to do with all of his accrued money, and looked at every member of his crew. He then had to consider how to break it up. He had a solution eventually.
"Might as well get everyone together," Luca said to himself quietly, "Hey, everyone!" He called out to his crew, "Let's regroup, disarm and debrief in the Phoenix, and we'll divide our earnings earnestly!"
-
Eventually what remained of the last Origin truck was rolled in, and the weapons attached to it were detached, unloaded and stored. Everyone else spent time removing and repairing armour, and conducting weapon maintenance,
When everyone was assembled around the table in the Big Bird, in varying states of health and disarmament. What mattered is that they were there. Luca was sitting at the head of the table, flipping a coin.
"Alright, here's what you've all wanted to hear," Luca said as he put his hand down on the table, "We have been given..." He made a dramatic pause, raising a finger, "
...half a million KS."
John's jaw dropped, "By the maker, we could afford a new ship with that!" He put his jaw back to his skull, chomping a few times.
"That's the idea," Luca said as he he leaned back in his chair, "I think this ship is getting a bit too small for its members."
"As a matter of fact," Allison nodded, putting her freckled arms forward, "I've been keeping the life-support systems on a bit extra power to deal with the extra numbers we have."
"The beds have been a bit cramped, too," Anna put her two DA forward, "It's very un-ergonomic."
"And it's hard to store all the food!" Crane complained, "Not that I have trouble preparing it, but it's hard to store it all."
"And I'd like a proper firin' range, maybe big 'ol Vince would too," Melissa spoke out, "Maybe Panther o'er there would appreciate the open space too."
"And I don't think much more can fit in this cargo bay, with all of us together," Sebastian nodded as he looked around, "We need a purpose-made room to unwind and meet in."
Luca rubbed his chin, taking everything into account. He then held up a brochure with the Origin logo on it, "This thing came with the trucks," He flicked it open and pointed to "Apparently there's this shipmaker called Origin Industries, they've got something called a
Courier 2A. If the advertisement is right, we could fit
six friggin' Big Birds in the cargo alone."
"It has rooms for 18 crew members, but only eight cabins?" John asked, pointing at the ship layout.
"I guess some of you will have to sleep in the same rooms," Luca said.
John and Melissa exchanged glares, as a general murmur of who would tolerate each other's presence came across the room.
"This will cost 160 thousand KS, but I think we might get a discount, due to being," Luca made finger quotes, "Valued customers," He then took a look at everyone, "Now, for division of money..."
-
Luca gave 20000 KS each to the people who followed him into combat, that was: Robert, Uriel, Seiren, Enzo, Arin, Panther, Zeta, Robert, Vincent and Naoko.
He gave an extra 8000 KS to Enzo, for saving his bacon from the zombies. Zeta, for being such a close bodyguard. Vincent, for taking such a heavy hit from combat (and surviving).
John and Uriel, for piloting the
Phoenix overhead. Anna and Jimmy, for medical duties, and assisting the civilians. Finally, the last share of 8000 went to Arin, by means of a "Get Well Soon" fund.
All of the others were given 10000 KS for their services. Echelon was not included in the division of the money, since it has no use for money, or legitimate means of trading. This was also due to her not being present.
A remainder of 75000 KS was forwarded to the remains of Rosh's gang, which was the sum of Luca and Enzo's combined bounties, whilst the 160000 KS for the new ship was set aside.
And that was half a million KS distributed quickly.
-
"...by the way," Sebastian said as he smiled at the new numbers on his bankroll, "Where is Echelon, anyway?"
Allison walked over to the armour that Echelon liked to inhabit, and gave it a few hard raps on the head, "She isn't responding. She must be away..."
"Here I am." A familiar mechanical voice rang out as the sound of clanking metal came across the deck.
Luca's eyes widened at the sight of Echelon's new body. It appeared to be a large, feminine humanoid robot at least eight feet tall and weighing a tonne, with a large spherical area in the hips/belly area.
Its right shoulder had a Fingale's Revenge rifle protruding from it, with wires and connections to load and fire it properly. Its hands had two fingers and an opposable thumb-claw. It also had a compliment of thrusters around its body, allowing it to move around in zero gravity environs, or climb short distances.
A single, glowing red eye on the head provided sight, but the effect was very unnerving. For some reason, a rainbow pattern scarf was draped around it's neck, along with childish scribbles and glyphs of Freespacer 'heraldry'.
"Whoa," Luca said with a well contained fear, blinking, "What happened to you?" He asked.
"A proper body, I am surprised that you are not frightened by this new appearance," She vocalised via a speaker implanted in the 'head', plainly, "Many fleshlings judge the appearance, but you would if you were decapitated, and had your brain put in a vat and crammed with wires that control an outer shell."
"Does it hurt?" Allison asked, walking over to the Type Four Freespacer.
"No. But I will require monthly maintenance," The Freespacer requested, "And the maintenance procedures may induce radiation sickness. Otherwise, I am mostly self-contained."
