Gran had been quiet and followed Kagura around. Honestly was being a little quiet cause he was still tired. Rest was a rare commodity for a soldier, especially for a tech sentry. He yawned softly as they entered the bussling star base. "So Kagura. You sure you wanna go down to Nepleslia? I'm sure we can find some cybernetic shops here."
Kagura brushed her hair behind her ear as she walked toward the Scorpion, the Mersina Cruiser parked nearby. "Well It would be good to shop aorund here as they might have the better facilities. What do you think?" She asked and pointed to the desert tan and black highlighted cruiser. "That's my real home by the way." she smiled.
Gran nodded and pulled out his datapad. "Yeah I think it would be worth checking out what they have up here. We just gotta find a place or two. Let's see... Any preferences to what kinda arm you want? One that looks like a real limb or one like your old cybernetic?"
Kagura laughed a bit and looked around. "Well I prefer the metallic look, that way I never forget how I got it in the first place." she said as they walked toward the business area. "I want it to fit better but be detatchable still and swap out for other weaponry. But not easily jerked out ya know?" she said. "And I wanna get it made with claws for fingers from about here down." Kagura said, ponting to the first joint of her finger.
Gran's nodded slowly as Kagura explained to him what she wanted. "Ahh... Very specific... Let's see..." He spent a second on his pad bringing up a list of shops near-by. "Well there's See's 'netics shop nearby." Gran gestured ahead of them. "Shall we?"
"Sure." Kagura said and looked over at the cybernetics shop. "I"m afraid I don't know much about installation, I can do maintenance and all but how it works in detail is beyond me." she confessed as they headed over toward it. "Ever been here before?"
"Well, I'd be glad to help with whatever I can." Talk about fixing things always allowed Gran to relax at least some when he felt tense. As they neared the store Gran spoke up again. "Hey, mind if I ask how you get your cybernetic limb? I mean, did you choose?"
The purple haired PFC thought back a while and sighed a bit, looking a bit sad. "I've told everyone it was during an accident in basic training." she said and looked at him seriously with her crimson eye. "I actually lost it in a botched raid on an undercover military ship." she said. "We had thought it to just be a simple cargo ship but we were wrong. It got blown off in the combat that ensued and my father practically forced a cybernetics expert on Halna to replace it at gunpoint, which is probably why it's starting to break down. Being a rush job and all." Kagura sighed as they approached the shop.
Gran frowned slightly, seeing that he had brought up something painful. "Oh... Sorry if you didn't want to talk about it..." He looked up as they got to the store. "Well, here we go."
The doors slid open, revealing the store. The ivory walled shop was pretty much one large room with several chromed pedestals scattered about symmetrically. Each pedestal had a large screen on it and a touchpad. People, several of whom were missing arms, occupied a few. A metallic eye the size of a basketball floated down in front of them. The voice that emanated from it was soft and slightly metallic. "Welcome to See's. Please use one of out customer friendly pedestals if you'd like to see our commercial models. If are looking for something more personal then I'd be more than happy to help."
Kagura shook her head at Gran's worry. "Don't worry I don't mind talking about it." She said and walked into the shop and looked around, blinking. "Swanky." She whistled and blinked at the metallic eye. "Yeah I need a custom job done to upgrade my busted hunk of crap." she said, making a fist with her cyber arm, the shoulder sparking a little.
"Oh dear!" The eye said, almost cheerfully as it swiftly floated down beside Kagura and looked over her. It was strange, it really did look like a giant metallic eye complete with what seemed to be an optical never out the back and eyelid like sheets. It blinked softly as the black iris glowed blue for a second as it scanned Kagura's arm. "What ever did you do to your arm?"
Gran stepped to the side slightly, the eye was invading his personal space slightly. "Gah. Well... Nice place" Gran said quietly
Kagura laughed a bit, glancing to Gran. "Well that's how it happens in places like this sometimes." she said. "Maybe you can look around a bit?" she said and responded to the eye. "I don't know who did it I was barely conscious at the time." Kagura shrugged a bit. "Is there anyone here that can make the custom arm I want?" she asked. "I can pay cold hard cash."
"Oh and what did I do? Normal military action." she said.
"Yeah I guess... Let me know if you need me." Gran said with a small wave as he started to turn.
"Oh but your boyfriend must come with us." The eye circled around Gran and nudged back closer to Kagura. It floated back up to Kagura with a small spin. ""We would be happy to do custom work for you. I will tell you now, it will cost more than our common models. Well then, we should get started, follow me."
Kagura chuckled and paused. "He's not my boyfriend, just a comrade of mine, we're on the same ship. But I bet he wishes it were more." She said and gave what would be a wink if she had two eyes. "Sure." she said and followed the eye through the plain looking doors in the back. "And I don't mind, I can pay for pretty much whatever I want."
"I'm n-" Gran raised a finger and sarted to correct the eye when Kagura did the same. Gran frowned slightly as she seemed to tease him a bit. "Alright, I'll just be out here unless you think you need me." He said as he started to pace the floor.
"Oh. I apologize for my miscalculation." The eye seemed to do a mid-air bow at Gran and Kagura before turning back to the doors. The door slid open and the eye entered first. The back room was the same ivory as the main room and there was what looked like a round metal harness high up on the wall. Along with that was a large screen that nearly covered a whole wall with a touchpad control. The eye floated up and attached itself to the harness and it recessed into the wall slightly. The screen emanated a relaxed sigh and the screen came alive with the image of the eye floating in it. "Ahhh, much better, that eyeball is sooo cramped inside." It rolled its... eye on screen and continued. "Now, where to start... What sort of performance would you like to achieve with your custom arm?"
"Top quality, high performance." Kagura responded to it and looked up at the screen. "So you're just an eye?" she chuckled. "Dont' have a humanoid form? feels a bit weird talking to a floating eye, no offense."
"Ahh very good. I haven't had a good custom job in a long time." As Kagura asked about it's form the eye laughed and bounced slightly on screen. "Oh hohoho! I'm sorry dearie, let me change into something more fitting." The eye fly off screen. Moments later, the image of a tallish man walked on screen, seeming to be pushing an eye into his head, The virtual man had a handsome face and short blond hair. He was dressed somewhat plainly in a green button up and a pair of jean. "Is this better?"
Kagura laughed a bit and nodded. "It's ok." she said and thought. "But I'm used to having my arm a mini arsenal in itself, this one has these built into it." The purple haired woman said and shot her skewers out from the back of her index and middle finger knuckles one of them being electrified, and a black NSP rising up out of her forearm. "But these feel a bit outdated..."
"Oh my." The man said on screen, he leaned in as if to get a closer looks at Kagura's arm. "Fascinating. Well, we are not liscensed to actualy put a weapon like a gun in an arm, but what I can do for you is make your arm to fit it and sell you the customised gun. After that, it's a simple matter of plugging it in."
"A customized gun?" Kagura blinked a bit and retracted the weapons. "That would be good, I also have a general idea of what I'd want in terms of appearance for the arm too." she smiled.
The virtual man nodded. "Yes, it would be easy to alter the gun's body without changing the performance. Plus we could make it more compact." Eye-man pulled out a pad from his pocket and pretended to start to write down note. "Alright, How would you like it to look?"
"Can you make it just like a normal arm, just without the synthetic skin? OH and I'd prefer to have claws for fingers on these..." Kagura said, showing the middle, ring and pinkie fingers. "from here down.." she said indicating the first joint of the finger. "And a retractable one on the index finger." she said. "I'm not too sure on the actual structure or materials for it but preferably something akin to armor?"
The man nodded and scribbled. "Mhm... So slender and exposed... Alrighty, we can do those spikes. Yes we can get something armor-like. But of course the stronger it is, the heavier it becomes."
"Well something basic, similar to this but a bit stronger." kagura said. "And the spikes but also claws tipping the fingers from the first joint down." She reminded him. "I imagine it'd automatically come with better connections and locked into my shoulder and not so easy to pop off." she said. "But I think the anchor point needs to be replaced as well..." she said and pulled the shirt back some to show the red skin along the edges of the metal. "It's been hurting lately...I don't think that's normal."
"Alrighty, I have just the thing for the plating. Right right, the claws. I would just like to warm you that those may be slightly dangerous if they are permanently mounted. I mean you might scratch yourself up." He said as he tapped his pen to his cheek. He leaned in again to her arm from the screen. "Oh dear, that looks like it could be trouble. We don't have any of our 'netics surgeons on call right now but I can page one to be here in under an hour."
"I've got the time to wait." Kagura said and sighed some. "Then can you make the claws all retractable?" she asked.
"Alrighty, he should be here momentarily. Thank you for being patient. We can do those as retractable. One more thing, the more internal space we make hollow, it will lower the integrity of the arm."
"I don't mind, I'd like it as sturdy as reasonably possible" Kagura said and nodded. "Is ther anything else I should know or be able to choose from as preset options?"
The man onscreen nodded, jotting down some stuff again. "Alrighty. Well let's see, we have what sort of attachments you would like. Someonewhat of a basic form. If there is anything else you would like then tell me." He smirked softly. "That's why it's called a custom job after all.”
"Well I'd like to have hardpoints for attaching weaponry to if I can, and eliminate the pain I experience when reconnect it as well as waterproofing the mechanism itself." Kagura said. "But otherwise I'd just like the best money can buy currently."
"Of course. I would like you to be a little more specific about what sort of weaponry you would like to attach and where. Also, the surgeon will help you with the pain problem. Waterproofing is standard." The on-screen man seemed to smile slightly. "You really know what you want."
Kagura nodded some and chuckled. "I'm used to getting what I want...by anymeans possible." she pointed out. And Just basic weapons really, I had a bad run in with bastards packing aether weaponry so a shoulder mounted shield uunit might be helpful." She said and thought a bit about it. "Maybe something mounted to the forearm."
The screenman tapped his chin again. "Hmmmm I don't believe a shield system would work. You would have to carry around a generator the size of a small backpack all the time."
"Bummer, not even a personal one that'd sheath the arm alone?" Kagura pouted a bit and shrugged some. "It's alright, what I want is the best I can get with the already specified mods."
"One that small would be very delicate and not provide much protection. Plus it would be prone to burning out or overheating. And power supply would still be a problem. Sorry if I disappointed you, but we will do our best to build your arm as you specify it." The man spoke with a small bow. "Now, if you would, please exit out into the main lobby and I will call you back when the surgeon gets here." The man walked off screen and the eye lit up and detached itself from the wall, floating down to lead her out.
"Baaah it's ok." Kagura said and stood up and stretched some to head out the doors and to take a seat in the lobby, glancing around to see if Gran was still around. "Gran? You still around here somewhere?" she called, joking.
Gran was standing by one of the terminals along with an oldish lady with an old dirty cybernetic arm. The woman was obviously the one that was shopping, and Gran was beside her talking with her about what she should get or how to take care of it. He was demonstrating something with his hands. "Just give is a half twis-" He looked at Kagura as she called for him and them back at the lady. "Well, I gotta go. Good luck." He said with a smile and a wave as he walked over to Kagura, leaving the woman with a slightly perplexed look on her face. "Ohhh Gran is it? Your boyfriend is quite the salesman." The eye said with a slight chuckle as it floated near Kagura's shoulder.
"Seriously Gran, don't leave an old woman hanging like that. Get back over there and finish explaining what you were saying." Kagura instructed, slipping back into her commanding ways for a moment and sighed some. "I'm single..." she pointed out. "Most men get put off by my lack of an eye and my arm, I can accept that." she said, combing her organic fingers through her thick purple hair, brushing her hair back. The closed eye with the scar over it becoming visible for a second.
"Uh, sure..." Gran turned, but the woman was walking toward him with a small white, plastic card in her hand. It looked like a receipt of sorts. "Lemme guess, half-turn clockwise on the shoulder servo, raise the limiter on the power output and get a better battery?" The old lady said with a grin. Gran nodded slowly. "Yeah, and make sure you don't build up a lot of heat." "Thanks hun, you're a mound of help." She smiled and patted Gran's shoulder before walking off.
"See there you go." Kagura laughed a bit and settled into her chair and leaned back, looking around some. "You should be a cybernetics salesman." She pointed out and continued to chortle for a moment before stopping. "I have to wait for the cybernetics surgeon to show up to help with the inflamation in my shoulder and chest. I'll be here if you want to go wander around the starbase while I'm waiting."
Gran sighed slightly and rolled his eyes with a grin. "Nah, I wouldn't leave the army. Plus, I don't think I could deal with customers who didn't know anything but were certain they did, way too much stress." He yawned softly as he listened to Kagura speak again. "Oh... Well I don't really have anythig else to do. By the way, what did you ask for them to put in your arm?" The floating eye semmed to tilt slightly, like a dog tilts it's head. "Why would you want your boyfriend to leave you alone?" People continued to come in and out of the store another eye greeting them at the door as they came in.
Kagura's eye ticked a bit at the eye's mention of that. "It's.not.like.that." she said in a low growling tone. "And that’d rather show you when it's done." she smirked.
The eye seemed to retreat slightly, seeming to almost grin with it's eyelids. "I apologize... There must be a bad sector in my memory." Gran tilted an eyebrow at the floating eye. Maybe it was trying to be funny. He sighed slightly and nodded slightly. "Alright. I guess I can find someway to entertain myself for at least a while." Did she want him gone? He didn't think so, but it crossed his mind.
Kagura sighed a bit and shrugged. "I don’t' want to hold you up Gran, it IS your shoreleave time too." she pointed out, it sounded more like she was trying to be nice. "And bad sector my ass, eye..." she huffed a bit.
Gran nodded. "Yeah, I know. I just never have much to do on these shore leaves. I either end up just sitting around or fixing stuff on the Alliance. I don't have what you would call a budding social life." He finished with a chuckle. The eye chuckled softly. "I apologize again."
The eye turned to Kagura. "The surgeon will be here in under ten minutes. I need to get you ready and preped." Gran nodded and pulled out his pad, glancing at it. "Alright, there's a few parts shops I can look around. Good luck." He gave a small wave and started to head to the door.
Kagura stood up and nodded. "Alright then, I'll see you later then Gran." She said and headed for the door in the back. "This won't hurt too much I hope." she chuckled a bit and went on through the doors.
The eye led her into a small corridor that led to another room like the one before, but this one had a large metal table in the center and the walls are lined cabinets and machinery necessary for surgery. "Alright, lets get a quick look at your shoulder." The eye flew up to another harness. A smaller eye on a stalk slid down from the ceiling and looked over her shoulder. "Alright, just hold still for a minute..."
Kagura just got up and sat down on the table and looked around at all the cabinets the tools. "Alright." she said and relaxed some.
"Oooh.. tsk tsk... This shoulder does not look good." The voice echoed from above. Within a minute the surgeon walked in the door. He was not too tall and a little beefy. He stretched out slightly and looked over at Kagura and reached his hand out to shake hers. "Hi, you must be Kagura. I'm going to be your surgeon for today."
Kagura nodded and shook his hand and nodded. "I am." He said and thought about it for a moment. "I appreciate you coming in for it." she said and nodded.
The man chuckles and pushed a button on the table, causing a small stool to slide out from under the table. "It's my job, now lets see what we got here..." He pushed another button pulling up a screen showing what the eye had scanned. "Well... good news and bad news... We can replace and repair the connections you currently have... But your nerves have suffered a lot of damage over time. It won't remove all the pain you have but with new clean connections we can reduce the pain greatly and allow your shoulder to heal."
Kagura nodded to him and sighed a little, having been dreading that type of news. But you really had to take the bad with the good on stuff like this, if you wanted higher performance, you ha dto give up something for it. "It's alright, hopefully the nerves will heal up once the constant irratation goes away. Is it because of how the initial job was kind of rushed and such?" She asked, curiously.
He nodded as he put on a pair of glasses as he leaned over and visually inspected her arm. "Mhm... The nerves should heal if you are creful and don't put too much pressure on it for awhile." He leaned back up and tucked his glasses away. "Well, it would appear so, hard to tell though. But it does look like you've abused your arm pretty bad. So, we can go ahead and get started." He got up and walked to a sick and cleaned his hands quickly then returned to his seat. "I need to put you under for the duration so you're gonna feel a small prick, ready?" The short beefy man looked down at her with a small smile as he slipped on some gloves.
Kagura laughed at that in a haughty, superior sort of way and nodded. "Well I've got at least 2 weeks off I can take it easy after that it's back to the grind of miltary life." She said and just laid back on the medical bed and crossed her legs in a lazy fashion, making sure her hair fell over missing eye to conceal it. "I'm used to it" the purple haired woman said.
The doctor slipped on a somewhat baggy pair of scrubs and filled a syringe. "Here we go. Sleep tight." He gently pushed the needle into her neck and emptied the liquid into her.
Kagura's red eye closed when he jabbed her with it, and automatically tried to resist it and did for a few minutes before just tanking and falling asleep. Perhaps it was a good thing she didn't snore........loudly at least.
The surgery was completed successfully and with no complications. The surgeon let out a sigh, content in his work. The sleeping agent would be washed out of her system shortly, allowing her to wake up. She would find her cybernetic arm removed and sitting on a counter along the wall. There was also a large metal bowl beside the bed with all sorts of metal bits with splotches of blood on them, the remaining bit of her old anchor points. She would find that her shoulder was wrapped completely in gauze, her shirt had also been removed, though the gauze also wrapped around her upper torso.
Kagura blinked a bit as she came around and yawned as she did but felt too sleepy to sit up just yet and glanced over, wincing some. "Well I feel more human now." she quipped and looked over a bit at it all. "And that's like instant relief on my skin."
The surgeon pulled off his bloody gloves and nodded slightly. "Good. I also can give you a small topical anesthetic. It should keep your shoulder from being too sore."
She looked over and sighed a bit, and yawned. "So will I have to go back under when you reattach the new arm or do I gotta go armless for a while?" Kagura asked as she just watched for a moment. The purple haired pirate really did just want to get up and check out her own ship to see if that the crew did the renovations she'd told them about.
"Well, you need to keep pressure off your shoulder for 24 hours. That means cybernetic arms too. I would also recommend against using your old arm with your new shoulder, the half dead circuitry could cause all sorts of short circuits." "One more thing." A voice rung out from the wall as the floating eye popped out from the wall again and hovered down to the table. "We need you to finalize the design on your arm. Here is what we came up with." The screen popped up from the table again and showed a diagram of a robotic arm. It looked somewhat vicious and it showed where the claws and spikes would grow out and even the hole where the gun would go. "Is this acceptable? The claws on the third and pinky finger are not going to be highly functional but they are very intimidating."
Kagura sat up slowly and looked at it, having the display rotate and show various angles of the design. "You'd be surprised how damaging those extra claws can be if I were to slap someone." Kagura snickered. "What materials would it be constructed of, as in what would be standard for a design like that." she asked.
The surgeon grinned and the eye chuckled slightly. "I see. The skeleton and plating is going to be a duradium alloy and the claws were going to be Nerinium. This is going to be particulary costly because every piece of this arm must be custom made."
"That's fine with me." Kagura said. "I can pay with practically anything I want afterall.." she laughed and stretched her left arm out and sighed some. "So I'd have to come back in about a week or so?" She asked.
The eye shifted slightly in the air. "It is had to pinpoint the exact time, but it should made in just over a week."
“Well then I suppose I gotta find something to do for a week or so." Kagura said. "You can contact me privately by datapad too." She said. "Just send the message for PFC Balfour." she said, shifting to stand up off the medical bed.
The surgeon helped her up and handed a small bottle of pills. "Take one a day for a week. It's an antibiotic and will help you shoulder heal faster." The eye nodded, as well as an eye could. "Will do. If you would like, we could provide you with a temporary arm for the time being, you would just need to make a security deposit."
"Well you've made it plain I can't put pressure on my shoulder until the new arm's ready..." Kagura said, accepting the antibiotic from the surgeon. "I can just make due without an arm for a little while it wont' be a big hassle, but it means no partying in Los Apagos for me tonight" she laughed a bit and went to get her clothing back on.
"Very well." The eye floated back to the door and waited for her to be ready. The surgeon spoke up. "I should warm you though... It might not be a good idea to be walking around all one armed... People might think you're vulnerable."
"Then I'll make sure I'll travel around with a few guards." Kagura said. "And I'm a bloody marine, I can handle myself." she chuckled. "But thanks for your concern." The woman said as she dressed fully. "I'll see you in a week or so." she said and started to head for the door.
“Alright them, good luck." The surgeon waved as the eye lead Kagura back into the main lobby. Things were just the same in the lobby, random people occupying terminal and looking through the different models. One other person was tailking to another floating eye and it seemed to also be about a custom job. As they headed towards the front door the eye spoke up. "Miss Balfour, we will need a partial payment to begin the construction of your arm. How would you like to pay?"
Kagura looked over it and thought for a moment. "What would you suggest? I'd personally like to pay about 25% of it upfront." She said. "Would that be acceptable?"
“With how custom your arm would be we would have to do 30%" The eye said shortly but politely.
"It sounds like it'll be rather expensive, that's fine. Where can I pay for it?" She asked.
"The extra percentage is just due to the rarity of getting an order for something nerinium. And if you have a DA card I could simply scan it now." The eye's... eye glowed a faint blue again.
Kagura shrugged a bit and dipped into the coat and pulled out a DA card to let it scan it. "This should work."
The eye bobbed a little as a nod and the blue flashed slightly brighter for a second. "Alright. The charge has been made. You will receive updates intermittently as we get parts of it done. Is there anything else I can do for you?"
"That'll be all." Kagura said and nodded. "I appreciate the work, i know it'll be complex." she said and started for the door again, feeling a bit odd having a non-metal arm for the moment.
"Have a nice day miss." The eye said as she exited and it floated up to the ceiling, awaiting another customer to enter.