RP: ISC Phoenix [Mission 7] - Siege on Sector 72

When Zeta regained her normal self it was already over. Zombies were lying dead everywhere. Her knife and fist was from blood. She was all bloody and some of it was even her own blood.

She slowly stood up. Some parts of her body hurt, hew WIND armour was tough, but running into and firghint with fifty zombies took it price. She picked up her Fatboy, slowly reloaded and walked to Luca. "Reporting for duty sir," she said and saluted to him. "I am good to kill some more wankers," she added and laughed.

Her mind was her own again, but she was sure that even when this happens again she would mind. She felt that captain Luca was someone woth it. She would die for him. She will guard him. She will protect him.

With that she took of her damaged helmet, smiled at captain and said. "Hey skipper, I think this is going to be fun. But from now on I will be keeping eye on your reckless butt. I think you really need bodyguard."

Robert walked up to Luca as well, just in time to hear her telling Luxa that he needed a bodyguard. "How ya figure that Zeta? He's got you'n me." he looked around and then asked "Where's Vincent? I lost sight of him while we were fighting." he looked genuinely worried.

"Look for a parked GP-ORV," Vincent's voice grunted over the squad's COMM frequency. "I'm just a little ways behind it."

Robert hit his Comm "Are you ok, Vincent? I'm coming." he said. Then he looked to Zeta. "Can you come with me? If he's hurt I won't be able to carry him by myself." He started walking over to the vehicle.

Zeta smiled and just said, "pieco of cake." She hanged Fatboy on her backs and limped with Robert. They found injured hulk wuite fast. Zeta kneeled by him watching his damaged armour. "How do you feel Vincent. Where does it hurt, I need to now to move you in the right way." She asked downed giant, she then turned her head towards Rob. "Robert could you drive undamaged GP-ORV here? I don't think it would be wise to move him hands. We load him into car nad I will drive him to to Big Bird. Captain could use drive to the doctor too I think." She said and looked towards Luca.

Robert looked at the vehicle as well. "I think I can manage it." he said as he jumped in. He frowned as he had to adjust the seat so he could reach the pedals. "Freaking longlegs." he muttered to himself and easily drove the vehicle over to Vincent and Zeta. He got out and helped Zeta lift Vincent up and put him as best they could in the Vehicle. He leaned out as they drove up to Luca. "Should we get off the streets and back to the Big Bird?"

Watching Rosh go up in an explosion was probably the last thing Luca needed, since he jumped up, looking for something to shoot, but realised that Rosh had gotten his just deserts, blown up mid-sentence.
"Ah... alright, just give me your details and I'll forward them to the Governor," Luca told the remnants of Rosh's gang, "I'll make sure you get something out of this."

So their details were forwarded to Luca.

Once they left, Luca leaned over to Enzo and asked, pointing his thumb what was left of Rosh's bike behind him, "Enzo, was that really necessary to blow up your neme -" He sighed for a moment to make a verbal backspace, "Uh, former nemesis and dude you ripped off?"
He then realised that Enzo wasn't expecting it either, "Wait, in that case," Luca turned around to marvel at the crater left by Enzo's shot, "How the hell did that happen?"

He spent a moment trying to piece together how it happened with Enzo, "You just wanted to kneecap him and now he's in twenty places at once?" He then got more feedback from the Rogue, "Well, y'see, Rosh was a guy who you stole from, and he didn't like it, so..."

He explained everything he knew about Rosh to Enzo, but the gist of it was that he probably wanted to collect the bounty on him and the Captain, "...so yeah, I kept him in line with mutually assured destruction - but I am a man of my word. I'll reimburse his buddies, so they don't get the idea to avenge Rosh."

Luca hadn't noticed the mostly-intact GP-ORV pull up next to him until Robert and Zeta had come out to give him a hand. He looked up at the duo, nodded and said, "Oh, hi guys, yes, lets roll."

Luca dusted himself off and called for the others to gather around, "Alright everyone, this is gonna be a crowded ride, so let's head on and get our injuries fixed, our weapons cleaned, and hopefully a fat-arse reward," He smiled at the last line, "We've certainly earned something from all this."

The trip back through the rubble and towards the Big Bird had been a short one, as the jeep wheeled its way over the rubble with enough ease to put a commercial to shame.
Meanwhile, John and Uriel had come back the way they came, in the Jilanth T2. Eventually, they and the team on the ground met back at the ISC Big Bird.

-

There was a crowd gathered around the Vampire-Class Cruiser, composed of townsfolk, and what appeared to be a large retinue and a red carpet that'd been hastily rolled out. Galar Vanatosk was standing at a hastily erected podium. His feelings were that of trepidation, and hope for a better future for Drift.

As he watched crowded the GP-ORV come into view, he smiled as he lifted the microphone, "And there, citizens, are our men and women of the day! Give them a welcoming hand!"
Cheers and squeals of joy came from the crowd of freespacers, who saw the 'heroes of the day' on the truck. The Freespacer inhabitants didn't even care that there was a Nekovalkyrja in somewhat-plain view there, but assumed that since she was with the crew, she was a crew member.

Luca was the first to exit the GP-ORV as he walked across the carpet. The members of the ISC Phoenix that'd remained to guard the Big Bird were present, too. Sebastian, Anna, Melissa, Allison, Jimmy, Hitori, and Mitch were present. Echelon was unseen.

"Thank you, thank you all," Luca raised a hand to calm the crowd as Galar walked over to give him a firm handshake. Quietly, Luca asked him, "So, how'd I do? How is the reimbursement going to be?"
"Shh," He said under his breath, with the microphone on his lapel deactivated, "You did an excellent job, some collateral damage though, nothing too serious by your hands. Some money should do, how does half a million KS sound to be distributed through your crew and whoever else as you see fit?"

"Works for me. That'd be..." Luca counted his Crew Members, which equated to 22 people, minus Echelon. However, he added an extra three people to the equation to get a cut of the profits, rounding up to the lovely sum of: "20,000 KS each?"
"I thought you had a crew of 22 people, plus a Freespacer?" Galar asked as he disengaged the handshake, and reactivated the microphone on his lapel after the last word came out of his mouth.
"Don't worry about it," Luca smiled in Galar's direction.

-

He cleared his throat as he made an announcement to the citizens of Drift, "As you can see, our drop-in heroes are victorious over the NMX which attempted to soften us up for a greater force to collect what would be left of us," His tone was somewhat worried, "Fortunately though. That possibility is now light years behind us as we speak and trailing into the distance,"

He clapped his hands together, and continued with renewed vigour, "We may not have expected the NMX to attack Drift, but the NMX did not expect the Interstellar Space Cruiser Phoenix to show up, either!" He motioned to the large ship, and its crew, "Were it not for this fortunate turn of events, the overall damage would've been much more severe than what we currently have to rebuild."

"For that, we pledge our thanks, and we are in your debt. Our doors will always be open for you, ISC Phoenix."

Galar reached for something under the podium, and found a box with a set of medals in it. An assistant came around and handed one to each crew member.

It was a silver coin of a planet in the silhouette of the Great Lighthouse, and emblazoned over it was Drift's national symbol in a gold relief. It was pinned to the chest (or handed to) of every member of the fighting force present, whilst the last one in there was saved for Echelon and instead given to Luca for now.

-

John, who'd joined Luca on the carpet, looked at the medal and asked, "So, do I get that empress-class hotel suite with the Yamataian supermodels now?" He asked over the din of the crowd.
"Yep, but I have dibs on Ms. Sunday if you do," Luca nodded.

John grumbled angrily, since Ms. Sunday was a frequent object of his 'studies'.
"I wonder what the others have to say about this?" He asked, looking over to the GP-ORV that'd parked nearby, with its crew either on the red carpet, or still in the car, or back on the Big Bird, "Like Panther, Uriel, Naoko and Echelon? They've almost no ties to this place or affiliations."

"Hm?" Luca asked, "What makes you say that?"
"I dunno, it's weird thinking with someone else's head."

"I don't feel we really did all that much," replied the now knee-high nekovalkyrja, who looked up from where she had been lingering on Luca's other side. "I mean, to merit the speech, and everyone staring at us."

Although she had been drifting around the group on the way over to the cruiser, and had apparently found a basin of water and washed her hair, her attachment to Luca had become more or less consistant thereafter. Aside from cleaning up quickly and finding a new set of size-appropriate clothing - an off-color knit sweater that she was wearing like a shift - she had been staying close ever since the awards cerimony. The one real change was her hair, which was now pulled back in a loose ponytail bound close to the end with a ribbon. The tree-shaped charm hung from it.

"This is just posturing for the people. He is concerned about himself politically, and is dragging on the coat-tails of your new popularity." Naoko smiled briefly and waved to a rather ardently enthusiastic freespacer about her height, who looked a lot like a mutant toaster with legs and a pair of spindly arms. It was waving at her excitedly. Looking back up to Luca and John, she continued quietly, "This scrap heap can defend itself, we were probably just here to spare them casualties."

Naoko pulled her arms back inside the sweater, folding them against her stomach.

"The medal is very pretty, though."

Robert looked down embaressedly as he received the medal in front of all of these people. He looked up and gave a weak smile and a quick wave. He hurried off the carpet to catch up with his boss. "So what's our plan of action now, Boss?" he asked with a quick glance over his shoulder at the crowd. He quickly unclipped the medal and slipped it into a pocket. "Small break from being blown up?"

Seiren, who had been covered the WIND armor and zombie goo after the battle, had cleaned off the armor opting to keep on the whole assortment for no particular reason. His jaw dropped when he heard the amount that Luca had mentioned. He was thankful for the helmet.

"20 thou?" He mumbled inaudibly, "I am so getting a mecha."

Instead of joining Luca and most of the crew on-stage, Arin crept over to Vincent. Her degree in mechanics was no degree in medicine and her multitool was no scalpel, but the least she could do was ease the pain. While the ID-Sol wasn't around to help her the one time she was (nearly) in trouble during the last battle, she was quite happy that she didn't have to rely on him all the time and of course, that he wasn't dead. "How are you feeling, big boy?" She chided with a happy and relieved smile, removing the bolts and screws of his WIND's broken breastplate with the multitool. This done she then popped off the entire section with a crowbar, relieving the pressure on Vincent's chest.

Zeta drived all the way to the ship. She didn't expected this. So many people, so many people who were happy and treated them like heroes. She was lookin rather silly when she received medal. She also didn't really understood what was happening.

Arin meanwhile worked on Vincents suit. Zeta just stacked medal on of magnetic points on WIND suit. She had no interest in this all. Her Captain was happy, whole crew survives and that was enough for her. Money were good, but she not much use to it anyway. But maybe she will try to buy her somethin like PA or something or at least start saving up for it.

She walked back to Vincent. "Man you look like spoiled pudding," she said and her arm under his and second under his knees. "Hold tight giant, this will looke ricidicoulus but you need to see a doctor. Me too by the way." She said and laughed. "I will get you finnagle later," she added and lifted him up. He was heavy but her strengts and Wind armour was enough to take him and wak towards the ship with him.

She walked to Mrs. Pavone and set Vincent on of the tables of the make-shift medicenter. "Hell Mrs. Pavone. I have hurt soldier for you," she said with smile. With that she you leaned against the wall and slided on the ground. She was spent and tired. There was some blood on her face from few bangs she got from zombies that got through her helmet. "I am thinking about taking a nap......." she added and closed her eyes only listening what is going on and wishing for nobody to try kill captain while she is out.

Arin said:

"How are you feeling, big boy?"

Click to expand...

"I feel like a fully-loaded Red Hill just landed on top of me." Vincent grunted, sighing with relief as the collapsed armor plates were removed, relieving the pressure from his cracked and bruised ribs. He forced a smile, looking over at Arin and lazily raising one arm in a thumbs up gesture. "Thanks," he said, "I owe yone one now."

Then he felt the unpleasant sensation of being lifted off the ground in a cradle carry. Ribs - broken and stressed alike - ground together as his torso was hunched forward, and he coughed as a fresh wave of agony racked his torso. He briefly faded out of consciousness, then reawakened on the med-lab table.

"... Ouch," Vincent grunted again, gritting his teeth.

Robert walked onto the ship right in time to see Zeta round the corner to the medbay with Vincent. Sensing what would happen he started after her. "Uh Zeta I'm not sure that's a good," he winced as he heard the thump which could only have been Vincent landing on something hard, "idea." he finished as he made it into the medbay. "That couldn't have felt good." he said to nobody in particular.

"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."

Robert's jaw dropped at the mention of so many KS. He wasn't sure if he had ever dealt with so much money at once. He opened his mouth to say something, but couldn't think of anything to say. So he let the Boss say his piece about a new Ship. Robert got excited at hearing about a bigger ship, was disapppointed to hear about sharing rooms, then glanced at Zeta, thinking about who he wouldn't mind sharin a room together with. Even with what was taken out of the pay for the ship. Robert still was pleasantly surprised at the amount he got. He laughed as the Boss called him twice for the same payment, but didn't point it out to anyone.

Enzo kept his mouth shut throughout most of the ceremonies, including the money portion of the event. He sat with his feet propped on a table and idly strummed his guitar, picking a few extra notes out here and there. When all was said and done, he lifted a gloved hand to signify he had a point to make.

"I'd likes to seconds that thought on purchasing the Courier. I used to works on a Couier One, and I myselfs flew a Mule for a few years... Until it got stolen." Enzo grimaced for a moment before continuing, "I and my uncles both stands by Origin Industries as decent ships and weapons makers. On an unrelateds note, Uncle Frank has sent me a little message givins me some info reguarding my owns ship. Seems the boys are takin' it out to Fortuna to do some scabbin' offa wreckage from a firefight out there. If we pass through that space, whataya say we pays 'em a visit, yeah? Yous knows my place is here, Cap'n Pavone, but if'n I can gets a ship, I'll go gets it myself."

Enzo smiled weakly, as if to say, 'Sorry' and shrugged. His medal dangled lightly from his jacket, and he fingered it playfully as he awaited the captain's response.

Naoko couldn't sit at the table, so she contented herself with sitting crosslegg'd on it, the sweater more or less draped about her small form like some sort of off-color tarp. She viewed the proceedings from relatively near the center, like some sort of favorite gravy boat, or a candle.

When the numbers came out, she tilted her head, flaring her ears so they stood directly out from her head, displacing several strands of hair in the process, but gave no other visible reaction to the money.

Subtly, she glanced around the table. Everyone else seemed more or less surprised, and that made her feel a little better about herself in turn, so she relaxed. Whatever happened, with a new ship or a better room - or a room at all - she had her money, and that would get her a ways.

Eventually, she settled her gaze on Vincent, glancing over his wounds idly while the rest of the conversation passed over her head, as it did not particularly interest her.

((In this post: Luca & Gallant))

Luca gave a nod in Enzo's direction, "We could investigate that lead. Maybe it's on the way to Dawn Station?" He asked, shrugging.
"Dawn Station is very far north, according to the map," John said, pointing to the location, "As for Fortuna, it sounds possible, it's near Nepleslia Prime."

"For now though, I think we've earned us some rest," Luca yawned widely, "I'm feelin' pretty hungry..." His eyes glazed over a little as he absently looked towards Crane, who got the idea quickly.
"Alright, alright!" Crane scratched the back of his head as he got out of his seat, "I hope you all like steak!" He scurried over to the makeshift kitchen, where the sounds of a freezer being opened and plastic being cut open could be heard.

Naoko watched him go, shifting her attention away from Vincent and his wounds in favor of the cook. Eventually, she found herself refocusing onto Luca, considering the man in detail.

"So," she said, suddenly, "An-chan. That is a lot of money for very little work. Are all of your adventures this lucrative?"

Luca shrugged absently, "Why?" He asked, "I might make more money than a soldier sees, and I never 'set a price', but people just like throwing money at me."
"Maybe they want you to go away," Sebastian said, raising his metal arm and stroking his beard, "I remember once I was paid to keep my nose out of something."

"How'd that turn out?" Luca tilted his head curiously.
"Bad, for them," He chuckled.

"Anyway," Naoko pursued patiently, shifting her legs out from under her so she sat sideways instead, "The money is regular?"

"Mostly," Sebastian nodded in Naoko's direction, "We usually get paid on a case-by-case basis. Half a million KS, however, isn't an amount we've seen before."
"Yeah, we didn't come away with anythin' for that battle on Tami, did we?" Melissa added her two cents, rubbing her index finger and thumb.

The little Nekovalkyrja nodded along. Then she offered, her voice careful, smooth, and placid, "I suppose you would not mind if I stayed, then."

Luca frowned a little, "Er..." He took two glances, one towards Uriel, and the other towards Vincent, "I suppose, then, but we'll be keeping an eye on you. Well, actually, more like Vincent keeping an eye on you," He shrugged, letting his metaphor go pear shaped, "Hopefully you two can learn to have a mutual dislike for other Nekovalkyrja, or something?"
"Not bloody likely!" Melissa scoffed.

Shifting her legs again, Naoko bowed forward somewhat formally, her forehead on her hands, and her hands on the table. Then she righted herself, replaced her hands demurely on her knees, and smiled in a satisfied, but mildly impish sort of way.

"I suppose since I am a crewmember now, I hope I am to be given adequate quarters and provisions?"

"Once we get the new ship, I guess," Luca nodded, whilst some of the others did the same.
"By the way, John, we are NOT sharing a room," Melissa made that point very clear. John frowned a little.
"Anyways... tell us about you." Luca leaned towards Naoko, listening intently.

"Ask," replied the miniature nekovalkyrja, sitting back on her heels and gently brushing her hair away from her face. "If it is not too private, I will answer you."

John was the first to lean in and take a gander, "Well, first off, I thought Nekovalkyrja are six feet tall, sorta like in the magazines. How come you're ... well, two feet tall?" He held up two fingers in a 'V'.

"Magazines, ne?" she asked lightly, unable to hide the smile, "Well, when my memories and soul were transferred the tank was not large enough for a complete reconstruction of my body. I am in fact rather lucky to be here at all. I do not think the people who chose to create me like this were completely aware of what they were doing. Does that answer your question?" John nodded, satisfied.
"Cool story," He nodded slowly, his hand on his fluffy chin.

"So, what were you suppose t' be?" Melissa asked, "Cos' you were something 'fore you were 2 feet tall," She then paused for a moment, snapping her fingers, "Also, weren't you seven INCHES tall earlier, or 'ave I drunk too much?"

"First," Naoko started, her demure appearance unfaultering, "I was part of a drop team of planetary infantry aboard the Hibeki-maru. We were patrolling the border we share with the new 'Nepleslian Star Empire'. As to my size, now-"

"Fer Mishhu?" Melissa interrupted, raising a hand, "Seems like th' sorta thing you'd be after."

Naoko paused, casting a brief glance towards Vincent.

"No," she answered, her expression carefully blanked.

Some of the Nepleslians and Yamataians in the room exchanged glances, and a short murmur of speculation came from them. Hitori, who'd managed to hide behind Luca's shadow, spoke softly, "Ah, I can sense some of your history, but what's done is done, isn't it?" She exchanged a fickle glance with Vincent and Naoko.
Luca, who was surprised by her appearing from nowhere after a semi-prolonged absense blinked, "Can you not scare us like that?" He asked as kindly as he could. Meanwhile, Naoko returned her full attention to the small group of inquisitors, managing to look much less off-balance than she felt.

Sebastian produced a cigar from his longcoat, lighting it and taking a puff.
"Don't we all have dirty laundry?" He sighed lightly, "Some of the things I've done aren't worth remembering, let alone thinking about, and in retrospect a bad idea..." He patted his metal arm lightly, sniffling a little, "...but what's done is done, isn't it, Ma'am?" He addressed Naoko.

In answer, Naoko simply pointed forward, to Luca. "He pays me, now. The war is no longer my concern."

Luca sighed a little, noticing that a black cloud had hung over the conversation, he felt it prudent to move the topic along, "So anyway," Luca piped up, breaking the tension with a cheesy grin, "How many of you..." He rummaged under the table, before holding up a few cases for video discs like a fan, "...like a good movie?"

"Wait wait wait wait WAIT!" Melissa held up her finger in Luca's direction, "Naoko, you were seven inches tall before!"
"Oh," Luca said, a little dejected, "You were."

"Yes," Naoko replied, politically.
"But now you're bigger, so..." Melissa asked, "How?"
Giving up, Naoko continued, "Well, all I really need is more hemosynthetic material. I can grow on my own, in time, but if the materials are..." She trailed off somewhat awkwardly, then gave another demure smile and a brief, dismissive wave of her hand, "on-hand, the process is somewhat more speedy."

Allison caught onto the gist of Naoko's method quickly, and put her index fingers over her mouth, grinning widely. Everyone else laughed a little, then exchanged awkward glances, eventually frowning in fear. Allison, Sebastian and Jimmy slinked away from the table.
Anna went a bit pale, but stood her ground, "I'll have you know that I keep the blood replacement under tight security for emergencies."

"Well? About those movies..." Luca asked in earnest as he put the video disks down on the table. Some of the titles included big-budget action flicks, such as: 'The Unpredictables', 'Breaker's End' and 'Dave the Marine II', punctuated by a pair of screwball comedies: 'Hibbi Goes Camping' and 'G'day, Mate!'

Enzo shifted away from the conversation after his part was done, making his way back out of the ship. He didn't care to participate in the interrogation of Naoko. To him, such information was filler; more easily substitued by the words 'Yammie tech' and 'Yammie agendas'. To him, Naoko was her own person, and especially now; no longer a member of the Star Army. He whistled a tuned as he made his way onto the street and into a nearby shop. There, he was confronted with a variety of wares, ranging from the Fashionable, to the downright viscous. He picked up a large, black fedora with chrome spike ptrotruding from the brim and smiled in spite of himself, trying to find a use for such device in his mind.

After a moment of futility in that endeavor, he made his way to the counter and looked around behind it for the owner. A lone Freespacer manned a terminal behind the counter and waved to Enzo. Enzo waved back and leant in, asking "Say pal, yous don't carry anything... dubious... do ya?"

Moments later, Enzo was pulling a hand-truck with two boxes on it up the ramp and onto the Big Bird. He cackled mischievously as he wheeled the device into the conference room where the conversation was dwindling down with Luca's presentation of movies. Enzo ignored the Captain's frat-boy tastes in movies and instead moved on to Naoko, who was now no longer on the table at all, but on the counter wrapped up in the sweater, apparently dozing, mouth-open, in spite of the heavy Nepleslian accents blaring from the TV. The vagabond tapped her lightly on the shoulder as he lowered himself slightly.

"Wanna see somethins fun?" he asked nonchalantly.

Naoko opened her eyes, and shut her mouth. She sat up off the wall she'd been leaning against and rubbed sleepily at her face.

"If you wish." she replied, quietly. "I was trying to sleep."

Enzo smiled at the tiny creature and replied, "Sleep if ya wanna, but I just thoughts my new buddy would wants to see some new toys." He smiled again, "An I got somethin' for yous."

Naoko flicked an ear. She couldn't really help it. Yawning a bit too dramatically, she gathered the sweater up, stood, and turned to Enzo. "Mind if I sit on your shoulder? It feels awkward, walking beside people."

Enzo giggled a little and lowered his arm in a shape similar to a running-board on a truck. Naoko took it at a jog, turned a quick spin in the air, and landed ass-down at her destination. She shifted for a moment, trying to get comfortable, before saying, "Thank you. Now...?"

"Off we go!" Enzo said, grabbing the hand-truck with his opposite arm and dragging the two of them down to the cargo hold. He couldn't help but feel like some kind of Yamataian space pirate with a Nekovalkyrja parrot on his shoulder. At the same time, he found himself utterly fascinated by Naoko. As a woman too small for him to fool around with, and too powerful for him to rip off, she represented pure potential for a friendly rapport. When they reached the cargo bay, he lowered himself gingerly for her to get off. It wasn't required; in the end, she just slipped off his shoulder while he was kneeling, landing rather easily on the deck.

Idly, she adjusted the off-color sweater as she looked around. Enzo directed her attention to the handtruck on the floor of the cargo bay with a gesture and began cutting open the box with his knife. He removed and holstered his Type 30 NSP from the box, with obvious modifications on the barrel and frame. He also removed a small paper bag.

"I was thinkn' bouts yous when I went shoppin an' I figured yous might likes some nice, pretty, non-patronizin' stuff." Naoko's other ear perked. Enzo opened the paper bag and layed its contents out on the floor before her. It was impliments for personal care, in children's sizes, but grown up colors. A small round-backed brush sat next to a similarly miniscule travel mirror, and both on top of a neatly folded set of clothes. With open arms, Enzo presented the items with a smile.

"Do you likes 'em?" he asked.

"Oh," Naoko managed, covering her mouth delicately with one hand, "It's too much. Ara... Ah... you really didn't have to do this, for me."

Enzo waved her off, saying, "Ah, it wasn't expensive. Y'know, cuz it was little, see? Now, here's what I gots me!" Enzo took the NSP from his belt and lifted it towards the Super Demon set up at the end of the makeshift firing range. "Thisis gonna be pretty," he said out of the side of his mouth.

When he pulled the trigger, a discharge the size of a power armor weapon shot out of the gun, and heat waves singed the cuffs of Enzo's jacket. The weapon chirped to show that it was in need of a reload. Enzo laughed loudly and powerfully at the blast. The armor just sizzled in response.

"You know how NSP's got two settings, yeah?"Enzo began exitedly, "Thirty rounds full auto, Ten rounds heavy. Well, I gots this guy to make me a third setting, see? An' he makes the third setting one round, ultra-heavy. Then he adds a little heatsink to the barrel so's it doesn't melts my hand off, see? How's about that for firepower?"

Having watched the entire display, Naoko couldn't keep the surprise off of her face. As Enzo spoke, she figited.

"Where did you get that?" she asked soon as Enzo had stopped talking, craning her neck to get a better look at the weapon, "That's pretty new. I'm surprised it's on the open market. You're really lucky. I used to have one - First issue, before they fixed the problem with the safety. Didn't know you could modify it. They always told us it would explode or something."

"Actually," Enzo replied, "I trieds to makes a similar modification to my Type 29 back on Nepleslia Prime, and that's pretty much what happened. The Type 30's though, they gots a longer barrel and seperate feeding mechanisms. No problem there. An, uh, it's not all that new, been out for about a year after all."

Naoko blinked, then squinted at the weapon, ears flattening.

"Wait, it's not actually a twenty-eight?" she asked, momentarily confused, "It's a thirty? It looks a bit... odd."

"Well, it is modded."

The small nekovalkyrja examined the pistol for a while before folding her arms beneath the sweater with a troubled look. Enzo frowned in response. "Somethin' wrong?" he said, holstering the new gun slowly.

"I've just never seen that type of pistol," Naoko replied, levelly. "Or at least, not that model."

"Well, maybe yous guys just didn't get it all the way out on the border." Enzo postulated, "The market moves stuffs way faster than beaurocracy does."

"Maybe," Naoko conceded, though it didn't help her expression, "You are probably right. A year already?"

"Yeah, they rolleds 'em out right at the start of YE 30. Really shoulda been the Type 29B for as early as it came out."

Naoko stared at him. He stared back, blankly.

"What day is it?" the small Nekovalkyrja demanded, "What month, what year?"

"Well, before I was here, I gots stranded in an escape pod for a few days, so I'm not sure what months it is, either. But, uh, I'm pretty sure it's--"

"Please," she interrupted, "Just the year, at least. It's important!"

"Well, I knows for a fact it's gotta be YE 32. Winter in Funky City, I think that's the later months."

Naoko stared at him, again. He shrugged. She sat down on the deck - well, not so much 'sat' as 'collapsed'. Her legs refused to hold even her miniscule weight.

"What?"

"YE Thirty-two" Enzo confirmed, nervously removing a cigarette from his pack. The little sweater-clad woman balled up quietly, staring at nothing in particular now with an eerily intent expression. Ezno just sat down quietly beside her and lit his cigarette.

Eventually, she said, "Really, thank you for the clothes and everything. I will try and return you the kindness."

Enzo shook his head. "Don't worry about it. We both gots enough money for a real party. I could buy me a nice broad to shack up with, An' you could buy a tiny man to shack up with and we could both trink till the sun stops risin'. It's just more fun to be considerate when someone's got different needs from everybody else, see?"

Enzo shouted at himself in his head, demanding to know why he would ever be considerate of anything or anybody if he could scab something out of the deal. He then shouted back at himself to shut up and enjoy the show. He than shouted back at himself 'YOU shut up'. And so he did.

After a while of silence, Naoko said, "I don't think I have met any tiny men, recently. Where do you find them?"

"Well, there's that little inventor kid." Enzo said, "But asides from that I ain't seen any... But yous can buy anythings on Nepleslia Core. Anything."

"Well," Naoko said dully, "You know, I'd never been there."

Enzo nodded, "Well, that's where I grew up an' there's no other place like it in space. Maybe someday, this ship'll go there. You know, I thinks you had the right idea."

Enzo lied back and stretched his arms out, crossing them under his head.