RP: NSS Sledge Mama [NSS Sledge Mama] Ep. 1 - Pig Iron

Walking in behind the two women, he heard the clanks of the automaton before it showed itself. Upon seeing the large spider and the voice of the shopkeeper, the marine cocked his head to the side. It reminded him of one of the squids crab type shock troopers he was used to seeing on the battlefield more and more toward the end of the war. Shrugging it off as he took a few more puffs of his cigar before he heard Lisa's question. Turning his attention to the woman who was now holding two color schemes of the Silver Special. "The gun metal for sure. Gotta stick with the classics." replied Aleksei through another puff of cigar smoke and a large smile.

Having answered her question, he wandered through the shop until a large barrel caught his attention. Following the length of the barrel to the cylinder, he knew exactly what he was looking at. The Styrling .455 Loud Boom. Picking up the sidearm, he felt the weight which seemed minimal as he held it in a one handed grip checking the weight of the barrel. It felt much like his HHG that he unfortunately returned at the end of his tour with the 4th. He was in love and there was no denying that the .455 was the target of his affection. "Hey, Mr. Clank. I'll take it." called the marine to the large spider-shopkeep. "Got any ammo that makes a bigger bang though?" questioned the man. He figured they wouldn't, but it never hurt to ask.

Finally feeling the heat, Aleksei peeled the leather jacket off, tucking it into his rucksack. Like most ID-SOL's, his t-shirt hugged to his form as his stretched his shoulder muscles a bit. His cybernetic arm plainly visible now due to his desire to forgo the synth flesh. A few squeezes of his hand gave a dull whir of servos with each squeeze. Finally comfortable, he turned back to the shopkeeper as he dug into his wallet for the money to pay for the weapon.

Seeing Lisa still holding the two Silver Specials, he grabbed more money out of his wallet. "Whichever one she chooses is on me. This should be enough." spoke the man as he dropped 2300 DA on the counter. "I also need a 250 round box of the .455, a 250 box of the .45 and the .45 cylinder and barrel." spoke Aleksei. "Keep the change, mate." added the man. It would only be 40 DA, but every little bit helped a shop.

Nodding his thanks to the shopkeeping spider while he secured the black holster to his belt, sliding the large revolver home. Walking back over to the others in the group with the bag of items, he dug out the box of .45 ammo and the holster for the Silver Special before holding them out to Lisa. "Got ya covered this time. Whichever one you want is paid for. We'll call it a reunion gift." spoke Aleksei with a grin as he puffed on the cigar again.

"And to you too," the machine replied to Lisa, a claw casually waving in response.

As the others looked at their guns however, Ylfa simply walked up to the counter and stared at the Junker-Bot. Its glowing red eye stared right back, even as a pair of its limbs reached out to open the back of the counter and hand the other marine the pistols to examine. "Why not black or olive?" Ylfa asked in regards to the Silver Special, still staring at the machine. The woman only turned her head towards the others, but her eyes stayed stubbornly locked onto the Freespacer machine. Its red eye still kept staring back at her, and it wasn't until Aleksei asked for the Hand Cannon that it spoke.

"Mister Clank? I have a name you know, but I guess that'll do," it replied with a little bit of annoyed amusement in its faintly tinny voice. "The funny thing is that the company isn't very big on making too much of an ammo selection for it - instead, the handloading community is really big on this gun, unlike the HHG," he began to explain. "I made some tungsten core armor piercing if you're interested; it's got penetration like a rifle, but don't expect it to leave much of a wound channel after going through someone's plates. I also got some plain lead to spit out if you're feeling like being an asshole to people. If those aren't to your tastes, I got a few extras too." At that, one of its back legs reached into the shelves under the gun racks and grabbed a pair of 20 round brown boxes, placing them on the counter top.

Prying opening their handwritten sides, the ammo slid out, all standing point down - taking a pair out of their respective slots, they were placed on the glass counter for all see. The armor piercing round looked like any other FMJ, save for the black painted tip, while the lead round was just that. Cast lead shined brightly like silver, with the very tip of the bullet ending in a flat top; a semi-wadcutter.

At the same time, The Machine and The Sarge refused to blink in this staring contest.

Lisa raised an eyebrow as Aleksei moved in and played a gentleman. Generally she liked getting free things, but this time it did not seem right. Maybe because this was supposed to be her gun and she wanted to buy it herself and maybe because of positions Lisa and Aleksei were to each respectively. "Thank you private, but I can buy my own gun. It does not look good when private buys gun for a corporal, not matter how nice her tits are. I appreciate it, but it is not proper." She said and grabbed the weapon, walking back to counter. "I will get both two-tone and gunmetal, holster for each, 90 rounds will be sufficient, plus a box of hollow-points if you have those."

Outside the gun shop there was a small commotion going on, voices raising slightly. Two hand fulls of bystanders were crowded around a marine. It was easy to tell the marine was fresh out of boot camp, he was in full uniform and every thing was crisp and clean. The dark skinned man stood slightly above your average natural Nepleslian with a build that portrayed his commitment to conditioning his body. His dark brown hair was tied up in dreads and pulled back into a pony tail to keep them out of his face which was clean shaven, with the exception of a well maintained goatee. The man had an air about him, he was almost dignified yet still imposing, like he was used to presenting himself to the public.

It would take a moment before the crowd all stopped speaking at once and anyone could make out that they were requesting autographs from this marine. He took a pen from one of the people and began signing different things from pictures and shirts to footballs. One question that soon followed the request for an autograph was "When will you be returning to the game?"

This question seemed to be the only thing that effected the man's composed expression but it was only slight and temporary before he returned to his composure. "Well while I took some time off form the game I decided I should try doing some more for Nepleslia then just playing, so I became a marine. When my tour is over I'll return to being an athlete." He spoke with certainty but there was a notable lack of interest, as if he had practiced that response for some time.

"Sure, no problem," 'Mister Clank' replied. Finally breaking 'eye contact' with Ylfa, it made to reach under the counter and pulled out the very same pistols, unboxed. The ammo followed up after, and he was nice enough to give her a half-and-half selection of hollow points and FMJ since she didn't specify. Placing them all on the table, it added, "That's 900 DA for each gun, and 10 DA for each of these two boxes of ammo," before it began to walk around on its spider-legs. The usual folding counter-top that most employees would have to lift up to pass into the rest of the store was simply walked under, the faint mechanical whir of its servos could be heard as it did so. Picking up a trio of holsters, it half-snarked, "Polymer, Leather or Plether?"

"Ok, how did you do it?" Ylfa asked it, hands on her hips as she leaned forward. "I know you're a person in there now, but I don't get how your brain would fit in there." The Junker's red mono-eye stared at her for a brief moment. Almost long enough to wonder if her assertion was wrong.

"Well, it was weird, but hey! I'm alive." Handing all three holster types to Lisa, he added, "Be right back - try those on in the meantime." Walking over to the front door of his store, it was clear now that a crowd was gathering outside. One that the owner didn't seem to be too happy with. Throwing the door open, an underslung Cannon popped out of its body instantly transforming the Junker Drone from scavenger, to Mini-Spider-Mech. "Either buy more guns, or scram! I'm here to sell guns, or shoot, and I'm not seeing anyone else to sell guns to!"

Lisa grabbed the holsters offered. Leather was always nice, but she wanted to be effective, though the leather would be perfect for the two-tone. In the end she decided for leather and polymer on for, her gunmetal Special. Lisa wondered, why she did not get Silver Special sooner. She did have Zen Arms .45, that her dad got her, but it was not as nice of a pistol as special was. ZA was too rugged, too military for her. Fine for standing watch in front of captains cabin, but not to go out in town and look good.

"Well," Lisa said to Ylfa as the spider huddled off to do his shouting. "It is possible his brain is now completely electronic. Transfer like that is not impossible, especially if he got help from the cats, though Freespacers are perfect capable of doing so on their own. What is more interesting is the choice of body. Not to mention, that he could be an artificial intelligence. In the end, I doubt it matter much, unless you want to satiate your curiosity sarge."

Being the Nepeslians that they were several members of the crowd pulled an assortment of guns out at being shouted at. However when they saw the cannon, most of them were smart enough to realize they were out matched and scattered, three still stood guns raised. The center of attention, the apparent athlete did not want to get into the middle of a fire fight. He stepped in between the men and the spider. "Okay okay, let's all just settle down." He noticed a few uniforms inside the store, and though he didn't know them, he knew he could use them to get out of any further questions.

Richard pointed to Thomas inside the gun store and turned to the three men. "That guy right there is my superior officer, so I gotta get going. I'll answer your questions later." He began to walk without even waiting for a reply, just wanting to get away from the fans, heading towards the gun store. The three remaining men lowered their guns and dispersed now that there was no reason to stick around.

Nepleslians were a tough, hard people, but they had plenty of common sense.

As a Delsaurian standoff went on outside, Ylfa gave Lisa an utterly incredulous look. "Hell yeah, I want to know!" she replied with disbelief. "The more I know, the more likely I got the edge," the Sergeant replied, a hand at her hip as her lips curled into a predatory smile. "I'm sure you've been curious about one or two things now and then, right? As long as it doesn't get anyone killed, it's good." Turning her attention to the outside however, she couldn't help but sniker and then laugh. But it was the way she did it that was special. "Oh-Em-Gee!~~<3" the tall woman fawned over them. "Look at the little guns they have Lisa! They're just so small and adorable!" she went, pointing a finger at them all like a dumb blond bimbo. Bouncing up and down - literally, and in more ways than one, she called out to Thomas, "Sarge, sarge! Come take a look!" She made it sound like they were some zoo animals or a freakshow.

Nepleslians had common sense, and for some, it just took someone even more stupid to realize it themselves.

As the others holstered their handguns, leaving in embarrassment and with feelings of inadequacy , the Athlete-turned-Marine entered, soon followed by the mechanized storekeep. Ylfa kept her Neo-Jersey Shore expression on her face, right up until the last second when the door closed and the unwanted left. The woman practically exploded, clutching her sides as she struggled to wipe the tears away, "The look on their faces! Did you guys see? Hey kid - thanks for gathering the idiots for me!" the marine remarked.

A long, relaxed sigh came from the man in the machine. "Priceless." The eye fell on Lisa however. "And that's not. The holsters are 475 DA a pop, but I'll knock off that 75 and replace them with zeros. Sound good?"

Richard walked into the store already feeling embarrassed enough at having to be in the middle of a crowd causing such a ruckus, but hearing the laughter as he entered just made it worse. This had reminded him of his first shoot out in a gang, he had a small concealable pistol and the other man had pulled a large caliber revolver fortunately he couldn't hit the back end of a truck, let alone a person. Richard had learned his lesson from that but it had seemed like most Nepleslians didn't learn a similar lesson. Figure out what their gun is first before you draw yours, save yourself some dignity.

He noticed a few of them were in uniform and since he was fresh out of camp he just gave them all a salute, chances are most if not all of them out ranked him. "Sorry about the commotion, fans can be a hassle." He looked around the store a bit noticing that it was a gun shop, expected, but he didn't really know anything about guns besides what he learned in basic and just handling them some in gangs, they were never really his thing. His attention turned to the other marines now wondering if they could help him. "I'd like if that didn't happen again, so do any of you know how I can get to Stanton Shipyard, without walking around in open streets?"

"Try taking a bloody taxi," Lisa said with a sneery grin to Richard, before looking back at the spider. She looked at the holsters, then back the spider. "Seriously? 400 bucks for a damn holster? What does the holster do? Play radio, reloads my magazines and calls a taxi for me? I can get a gun for 400 bucks. Seriously man, I am not gonna argue, but with that price, I would just get the regular Styrling holsters. I do not get paid that much."

Still he took provided 1820 DA for the guns and ammo as instructed. She did not mind paying money for guns and shit that is easily expensive. But paying what she gets for a two weeks of hard work just for a stupid polymer holster was too much for her. Especially when regular Styrling holster cost about quarter of that price, while doing the same bloody job.

As she resisted the urge to laugh again, Ylfa reached over to one of the hangers and pulled off a piece of clothing, tossing it to their latest addition.

"Yeah. Try wearing a balaclava or something scrub," she replied with a smirk. "Seriously, if you're always having fans on your ass, you should have gotten used to figuring out even the basics of dodging them," the woman remarked. "It all new to you?" Meanwhile, the man in a can stared at Lisa for a moment before looking at the holster, the price tag, and then Lisa herself, and then the holster again.

"That's odd. What did I say it was? Can you say it back to me?" he asked, the faint whir of processors and their cooling fans becoming more audible. Hearing this, Ylfa couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

"You said it was 475 DA." The eye turned to her next, settling on the woman as she made to sit on one of his counters.

"Damn. Must be time to defrag again," he remarked. "It's this much." A holographic 50 DA appeared above the spider-machine as it stood there on the ground. "Sorry or the mixup miss - let me toss in a small discount for that. 1729 DA for what you're buying...that did come out right, right? Just a 5% discount? Oh shit - don't tell me the 5% isn't coming out right either!" the storekeep started to panic. Ylfa simply rested her chin on an upturned palm, watching him or it with curiosity however.

Richard catches the clothing and sighs a bit looking between the two women. "I tried taking a taxi, he knew who I was and he wouldn't shut up so I got out mid way." He looks at the balaclava a moment and then notions to his dreads and tosses it back, no way was it fitting on his head. He began to walk around the store just looking at what they had, even though guns weren't his thing he couldn't go right back out there or he might have to deal with more people.

Hearing what was going on, it sounded like the owner was having some trouble with calculations. The marine pondered a moment if he should mess with the spider a bit he did point a canon at him at him after all, but well it was not his order, and the spider did help him get out of the crowd so he decided to just leave it alone for now and stay silent. So he continued to look, heading to the counters to see what kind of hand guns they had, particularly revolvers.

"Just keep the 1820 for being honest," Lisa said waving it off. She put the holster and guns in her backpack, being done with this. "Mix-ups happen, do not sweat it. What about you sarge?" Lisa turned to the tall woman. "Not getting anything for youself? I think TV Remote would fit well in your hand." Lisa laughed and joined the sarge and young private near her. He was supposedly someone famous, but Lisa never saw him before. That mean he was no musician, cause Lisa knew everyone that had to do something with Nepleslia's music industry and was any good.

"Heh, you really do sound like a newbie, and I definitely haven't heard of you - you're not one of the popular heavy hitters, that's for sure," one of the two blonds replied with an amused smile. As Ylfa sat there on the counter however, she soon leaned back, putting a finger to her lips as her eyes looked up in thought. "Let me see... my be is that you got drafted into the team not too long ago, was a rising star with maybe a few awesome games where you stuck out. And then, somehow ended up with us next," she guessed. "Am I right?" Ylfa's gleeful, toothy smile simply shone at him as she sat there, legs idly kicking back and forward.

Despite her near-childishness, she was still mindful enough to avoid hitting the glass case.

Meanwhile, 'Mister Clank' shook his mechanical body back and forward. "Sorry, I just can't do that - I feel pretty crappy about it," the Nepleslian-in-a-Junker replied. "Just let this stubborn spider here keep his comforts," he added, gathering up all the items with a few legs, and accepting the card with another. With a single swipe, the transaction was done, and at discounted price. "There. I'll be here if you need anything else though - I'm just going to pop onto my charger and see to that defrag." At that, the machine strode up and over one of the counters and settled into a slot built into one of the wallsl. The way it sat there, it wasn't hard to imagine that most customers would come in and do either a double-take or a spit-take, thinking it was a massive, mutant spider. The glowing red eyes were practically the perfect touch.

"A TV Remote?" the Sarge asked Lisa. "Nah, I'm good. I already got stuff - didn't I tell you I was here to finger this guy's guns?" Ylfa added. Taking advantage of something the storeowner forgot, she reached over and prodded the Junker-Bot's cannon, the weapon instantly snapping back up into the chassis.

"Whoh there! Things are going a little too fast!" his slightly tinny voice replied - he might as well have been blushing as she snickered.

"Anyways, you guys all done here? I think there's a new Ori-Mart that's opened up recently, and they got some tanks for sale," Ylfa mischievously grinned, rubbing her hands together.

Richard glanced to Ylfa as she took a guess at his condition, it bothered him a little that it was so easy to figure out, but it's not like it was a secret either. He couldn't help but smile a little seeing such a joyful expression on her face. "Richard Magnus, up and coming rookie who fell off the face of the earth after his second season, then two years later showed up a marine to start his tour on the NSS Sledge Mama, that's me. And I've been asked a million times, no it wasn't because of any illegal drugs, money problems, or getting caught with a secret cat girl harem. Seriously that last one is annoying."

He leaned back against a wall to just watch them a bit, he was a bit confused by how they behaved, at some parts they acted just like he expected marines to act, but in some areas they were much different, which he was thankful for. All in all they seemed like his old team, but with a bigger love for guns instead of the game. "Now if the crew I work with could be like this I might just not hate this job." He thought to himself, not yet realizing the situation he was in.

"Silly, I would not mind a cat girl harem ya now." Lisa laughed as she took her card back. She leaned on the counted next to Ylfa. Her eyes looked at the spider, checking him out, her technical skill coming in to work. It was quite a piece, rugged, but that was just a look. It was clear this was a good technical job. She then stopped caring and looked at Ylfa. "Orimart sounds good. Though I doubt, I have enough money to buy me a tank. Not sure, what I would do with one too. I think my Lo-cas is enough for me. I prefer flying to rolling."

"Pffffft! Like I was going to stroke your ego and ask. Ball jocks like you already have it big enough," she exclaimed. "Though, I got to admit, Lisa's got a point - I got no clue what your story is and don't care, but if it were a secret catgirl harem, then I would have!" the buxom blond playfully began. Sliding off of the counter, she strode up to his side and put an arm around his shoulders, pulling the younger man closer against her warm self. "Can you imagine," she began, looking off into the distance, arm stretched out and reaching towards the stars, "You, and a whoooooooooole bunch of sexy catgirls, all getting it on....and every single bit of it caught in glorious ultra-high-def by their eyes and uploaded to The Net? All because they realized you were cheating on every single one of them, with every single on of them?" She playfully mocked him.

"All right before your spectacular murder as they go all Ninja-Neko on your ass?" Ylfa asked him again. Stepping back and grabbing him by both shoulders, she shook him, "It'd be absolutely GLORIOUS!" The Sarge let go of him and sighed, as though something great was lost. "Damn shame you just weren't up to it."

"God damnit, you're making me miss my old meat and shit," the Spider-Mech-Storekeep remarked. Ylfa pointed at him and winked, clicking with her tongue as her finger recoiled. "Seriously, I really felt that." It took a lot on her side of things not to laugh.

"Hey, if there's one thing a Marine's good at, it's killing time. By any means necessary," the woman replied to Lisa. "If it's not messing around with a real tank, it could just as easily be blowing shit up in the arcade their bigger stores have, and like I pointed out earlier, there's also an upscale indoor sports place they opened up recently. I know I wouldn't mind visiting the nearby junkyard though - never know what you're going to find and buy for cheap if you don't mind searching. It's like an adventure!"

Richard couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the two women's responses about the cat girls, and he actually laughed at hearing Ylfa's explination of the situation. He hadn't laughed in a while so he decided to play along some. Though he really didn't expect the tall woman to be so animated. "See that's why I like dogs, they're loyal. If they were all dog girls they wouldn't mind me cheating on them." He straightened himself up and stretched lightly as he listened to what they were talking about.

"Do you mind if I tag along with you? It sounds like you're going to be doing some stuff a lot more interesting than sitting on a ship waiting for it to launch."

As Richard talked about dogs being loyal and doing whatever he wanted them to, Lisa frowned for a tiny fraction of second. Then the face of mischief returned to her face. "See this is why you don't have harem of any kinds. Women don't just do what they are told like dogs." She patted him on the shoulder and then went to Ylfa, standing next to the sergeant.

Lisa notices the mention of 'old meat' made Lisa study the valkyra standing next to her more carefully. If Ylfa was cybernetically enhancad, Lisa could not tell properly just by looking. Especially with the jumpsuit, the woman wore. As for to say, if Ylfa was full body cyborg, Lisa would have to see her walk on something fragile. Cybrog tended to be rather on the heavy side, so just by watching their steps, you could guess if person was a cyborg or not.

"A junkyard eh? If it would be any good and we had a week, I could build you a tank there." Lisa said with a laugh. "Shitty tank, but still a tank. Arcade sounds good, but I am gonna warn you, I was damn good gamer back in the day. Don't be surprised if you get your virtual buttocks kicked. We can take the sports-star too."

"Ha! If they were all, uh, what was it...Inuvalkyrja?" Ylfa seriously thought, slowing down to figure it out. "I think that's the word for it. If they were all that, you'd end up knocking up every single one of them, and have your wallet sucked dry," the blond triumphantly smiled, her hands on her hips as she leaned forward to near him sightly. Kids that were on the up-and-up were always fun to mess with. Pointing a finger at his chest, she added, "With a young kid like you, a relationship's likely a lose-lose scenario. It's almost never that it works out well this early on."

When Lisa spoke however, she grew more serious."I'd like to see that," the woman remarked, the words nearly a challenge. Nearly. "But seriously guys, where we going next? There's still time, and way too much to do around here." As she finished, 'Mister Clank' spoke.

"You know, you guys could just go grab a brew or something," the spider-machine suggested. A part of him felt a pang of loss - it was just another thing he couldn't do that anymore.

"Mmm! I do like that idea too now - with all this talking, I am getting thirsty."