RP: YSS Eucharis [Post-Mission 24] Edges (YE 38)

[The Real Bames Jond]

Fabrication Bay

Nothing was the matter? Maybe it was all of her training leading her astray, but why exactly had a SAINT agent drawn his sidearm, and looked ready to storm a room when there was "nothing to be concerned about"? Mao's lips pulled into a small frown as Candon moved "above" her to return to Hanako's side. Mao spared a glance up to her newly assigned principal still above her.

"Hime-sama, I will return shortly."

It was seemingly one fluid motion to swing herself down towards the doorway with a hand against the wall as a pivot point, while the other returned her Type 33 to its spot concealed beneath her yukata. Her geta met the ship deck and almost as if she'd been walking so casually the whole time she passed through the doorway and into what was clearly a maintenance and fabrication area. Tools, a work station, the subtle smell of grease, and that subtle feeling that this place was well lived-in and used. Then of course the room's occupants.

A minkan. Blonde haired and wearing coveralls slathered in grease.

And then hazel and goldenrod locked onto the room's other occupant.

A trainee. Clothing a pure white and skin . . . not.

Oh yes, and far too close to the young boy to be wholly innocent. But Mao had to wonder why she'd been briefed on who she'd been told were important members among the crew and not been told of a trainee aboard? And for that matter what was a trainee doing aboard a SAoY vessel underway? There wasn't a scrap of blue on the young lady (regardless of just how close to it purple was on the spectrum) and unless they had changed things mere moments after Mao had left for this assignment then only Journeywomen and fully trained Samurai departed for assignments.

And Mao was pretty sure that each was so lost in the others' eyes that dropping her chias between them would probably be one of the most direct ways to get their attention. But she didn't feel like killing anybody or slashing her own palm on her first day.

So instead she stood in the doorway and cleared her throat. Loudly.

Her expression the visage of an Eihei guard. Only a brow raised curiously to the trainee in white.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Wardroom
♫The Cure - The Hungry Ghost♫

Tsuguka wanted to resist the unexpected action at first, bringing a hand up, and ending the contact by embracing one of Taharial's and pushing away. The kiss was repelled in her confusion, but the distance between them stayed intimate. The meek look in her angular face spoke of her feeling out of her depth, overwhelmed with a new found sensation of warmth like no other. Perhaps she had expected such vulnerability to break her iron-willed code, or corrupt her honor, but nobody told her the experience could be like this. Instead of being an affliction of character, it was more like a provenance.

The crimson woman took the grasped hand and relocated it onto her chest, a location slightly less hard and dense with muscle than the rest of her robustly built body. She returned the kiss again only when it felt right. The whole situation felt irrational, but in return for the soft and otherworldly creature in her arms, the soldier's right-minded attributes were still desperate to repay that which she was given...

A sudden commotion. Someone was in the kitchen.

The predatory gaze of a disgruntled nekovalkyrja skulked slowly out of the sanctuary of her companion's wings, through their bodies remained meticulously entangled. The look she gave Wazu was the sort normally reserved for enemies down the scope of her rifle. Eyes suddenly neither warm nor meek, but an unblinking fierceness that was akin to a leveled blade all on its own...

"...Mister Heram J. Wazu..." A voice calm and cold as a statue. "...Would you perhaps care to inform us how long you have been standing there?..."

 

[Zack]

YSS Eucharis, Wardroom

“Hmn?” Wazu looked up from his datapad... Taharial's voice certainly sounded unfamiliar. It took a moment longer than he would have liked to make out the Red One's face among Taharial's red wings.

“Clearly longer than you would have liked,” He replied warmly, turning and picking up his datapad.

“I should go take care of.” Wazu said, pausing for a moment, tapping his datapad against his hand for a second before turning towards the door, leaving the coffee brewing in the kitchen.

---

YSS Eucharis, Hallways

Wazu looked back at his datapad... cell divison, chromosomes... he had been thumbing through beginnings biology all day, refreshing himself on the basics... but his eyes were already having a hard time focusing, his head rebelling against the constant stream of new information.

He'd clip that datapad to his belt, and move onto the next one. Of course... he didn't need to switch pads, but it certainly made his head feel better. On it was a clean slate, his fingers quickly bringing up various device schematics... He knew what the machine looked like, and the gist of how it worked... but he'd need some help putting it together.

“Charisma, Who would I speak to about getting some time in the fabrication bay?”

The answer was provided with the usual speed and accuracy,

“Right, then...”

He would then head down towards the fabrication bay, finding a rather large gathering of crew members waiting just outside...

 

[BloodyScarlet]

Wardroom

Taharial let the Neko take over as she knew that the Neko was new to this kind of thing and wanted the girl to be comfortable, she didn't want the Neko to pull away from her but knew that the kiss was for Tsuguka to decide and was happy to feel the soft lips of the Neko again as she held the girl close to her.

Noise... there was someone here with them, as she felt Tsuguka move away to deal with it she blushed darkly as she realised it was obvious that the two of them were doing things in the wardroom now that Tsuguka poked her head out od her wings. She was really embarrassed not because of the situation but because she may have hurt the reputation of her crimson cutie.

When she heard Wazu disappear she looked away from her partner on the sofa and sighed "I am very sorry for doing this with you, I have hurt your reputation now because I let my feeling take over, will you forgive me?"

 

[Wes]

He then reached the kitchen area, placing his pad down on the prep-area as he fished out a bag of coffee beans

Ripp

CRUNCH

Fump

In short order the bag was opened, coffee beans ground, and a fresh, strong pot was brewing. The planned meeting with Taharial regarding the Rixxikor was coming up soon, and as he still needed to study up.

“Drei, skip this and move onto the next lesson...”

While the coffee was brewing, he picked back up his datapad and started reading.... Meiosis and cellular reproduction, Chapter 4....

Kitchen

"What are you doing?!" Mango demanded to know, emerging from the food prep area where she had been working to confront Wazu with a giant sushi knife in her hand. "Get out of my galley! Cooks only!" Mango was well-known among Eucharis (and Sakura) veterans to be extremely territorial, as Wazu was now discovering. The ship's kitchen had someone in there almost all time, and of the two cooks, Mango was the older, grouchier one. She had taxi-yellow hair and eyes, light skin, and was dressed in a pleated skirt, blue T-shirt, white apron, and a chef hat. She sheathed the knife in a leather scabbard and manhandled Wazu back into the wardroom. "This will be reported," she warned before returning to her kitchen like a bear to its cave.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Wardroom

"We aren't breaking any rules." Tsuguka just shrugged, toying with an errand lock of the woman's scarlet hair whilst pouting. She did care about her reputation, but it didn't feel like she should care about something so minor. These were functions she came equipped with out of the box, so there had to be a reason for it beyond just appearances. "There is nothing to forgive."

Angling her body so that it was more alongside Taharial, with her arms tightly wrapped around the winged woman's upper waist, Tsuguka laid her head upon her shoulder and went back into a state of contemplation again. She didn't really know the ramifications for any of this. It did worry her that the Shosho might think she was playing pretend all this time, but effective actions on the battlefield were all she really wanted to be accepted for anyway. The concept of a new samurai being added to the crew made her defensive style seem obsolete, but Taharial had at least slightly calmed her nerves about that.

A hand was laid upon the red-winged girl's stomach, and Tsuguka took a moment to consider the strange sword marking she had seen there on a previous occasion.

"...Maybe I should start using a blade more..." Grim thoughts back to the crystalline hive. Bayoneting was not effective. The aether saber rifle's weird under-slung blade didn't seem much different in terms of anti-personnel uses. She liked using her combat knife, but it was too small for anything serious. "You think Itto Hei Howard would be willing to create something for me? Failing that, we never did experiment with the nightmare's uses before I departed the last time..."

Conventional pillow talk? Perhaps not. But this was simply the only way the faithful defender knew how to express her caring.

It didn't matter what it took. She was determined to stay true to her original ideals this time, and never leave the Eucharis again. But it would take a complete rethink of her combat strategy, and a lot of hard work, to truly earn that right.

 

[paladinrpg]

Fabrication

As Jax spoke her wan smile from before gave way to one more full of genuine happiness, each note of encouragement seeming to brighten her face's attractive glow again. "So desu ka... you are right, as usual. If I could impress Hanako-sama and even the Rixxikor, then surely I should be able to manage such a task..."

When he leaned forward to bridge that tense gap between them, Umeshu seemed to act like a reflection, her purple lips parting slightly as they moved to join his with an attraction like a magnet. In his head echoed a longing message: "Your words are like a sweet victual to my forlorn spirit... but, there's something else that comes from your lips that I enjoy even more.."

There was a little more than just luck exchanged between the two as they kissed. The only contact between their two bodies surged with a passionate and subtle energy, like a dormant circuit that was momentarily completed.

Sadly, the little tryst was not to last. Looking over Jax's shoulder, the officer spotted the form of a Ketsurui Samurai gazing at them from the entrance to the bay and clearing her throat obviously. The warm feeling in Umeshu's mouth turned to an acerbic fire that ran down into the pit of her stomach. How long had she been watching and listening there without saying anything, with that condescending gaze? This was not how she intended a first meeting with Mao to go at all...

Once the split-second of shock had passed, she decided to try (perhaps in vain) to play it off as concern for her junior crewman. Without much warning to her paramour, Umeshu broke off the kiss and went back to rubbing his head for a moment like she was doing before, before turning to ultimately face the fellow samurai. She brought her hands together and bowed lower to the new crewmate than her official rank above the mere warrant officer would dictate.

"Mao-sempai?" she began, trying to force herself to smile again in a welcoming visage to a elder and not one that was caught doing something shameful. "Gomennasai... I did not expect to see you here. I was about to properly greet you above, but it seems our engineer had a bit of an accident while modifying some equipment for our coming battles. I was making sure that his head was not injured..."

Attempts to double check with MEGAMI roster would indeed show to Mao that while she was dressed in a very humbling trainee garb, the wisteria-skinned Nekovalkyrja before her was most definitely highlighted as 'Chui Hashimoto Umeshu, Starship Pilot'.

 

[Wes]

Passageway

"SNAFU, Ma'am," he explained, "I heard something crash. I think Jax Hei knocked something over. I heard Hashimoto Chui in there. It sounded like she has the situation under control." He spoke calmly with a straight face but quickly. Desperately wanting to avoid spreading any details on the nature of the level of 'control' in that room he tried to change the subject. "Also, I figured out why the Rixxicor plasma weapons hurt Akiashiro's Mindy so badly. There were very small traces of berillium, mercury, and tungsten. When these metals are brought to their plasma state, ionized and fired in succession through a magnetic driver, perhaps a coil, it can increase the effects of each metal. They probably fired the mercury first to super heat the armor because it's soft. Then the berillium pits the surface so the tungsten can bust right in. It's illegal and although it's old tech it apparently can take down our armor."

Hanako just kind of softly gave Candon a close-lipped smile and a nod as he bored her to death with technical details she didn't care about. "Thank you for the explanation," she said after he finished, for the sake of politeness. She was glad it wasn't anything serious.

She turned to Natsumi. "There is a habitable planet down below us," she said "Do you want to do the promotion ceremony there?"

 

[BloodyScarlet]

Wardroom

Taharial listened to her lynx as she said that they were doing nothing wrong and she nodded "I-I know that, I just think I m not good enough for you as you are amazing, a perfect soldier where I am just a medic with a horrible nickname." She slowly realised that Tsuguka was still in her pilot suit "Oh my goodness Tsug have I been overheating you in my wings I am so sorry...."

She was enjoying laying around with her companion and cuddled the kitten one arm wrapped around her lower waist and her other arm stroking the kitten's side, she smiled as she moved her wings so they wouldn't overheat them "I forget how hot my wings can get, I normally don't encase people in them." She giggled as she cuddled up with Tsuguka feeling were the girl's head and body was compared to her own and smiled as she kisses the Neko's forehead "I am always around if you need me."

She looked at Tsuguka as she talked about weaponry and her project with a slight grin she whispers "I guess you have been looking at my body more than I realise as I am guessing all this talk it because of my tattoo~" she looked over at the notebook "Well with the nightmare Neko, I am making good progress, I have found out what is needed, but I don't want to put one of the crew in yet as I think it could be really dangerous the body changes with and that could make the crew member freak. I think the best thing would be 'making' a mind compatible with the body" she let out a giggle "I wonder if this is what normal girls in the army talk about for their pillow talk? I have never had this kind of talk before" she let out a small yawn and blushed slightly.

 

[Primitive Polygon]

Wardroom

"Perfect soldier? During our first contact with the Rixxikor, Akiashiro-Hei ran rings around me." Tsuguka's abdomen tensed up at the caress of another person, still not quite used to the vulnerability of physical contact. Her voice was distant for a moment, reflecting on her history of hodge-podge operations never pulled off quite right. "The crystalline creature hive... I lost an arm, battered to the point where I could barely stand, and you were the one who put me back together... Don't go forgetting that, because I haven't, Nito Hei Chasan..."

The wings were still akin to lying inside a giant duvet. She suspected that Taharial was simply used to all the added heat from the plumage, since it had been attached to her back all of her life. Tsuguka wasn't going to complain, simply because neither leaving the front of her suit unzipped, or getting completely naked, really seemed like proper uniform protocol. It was an active choice. They did have a new crew member arriving any minute.

"...The nightmare..." There was a slightly fuzzy feeling in the feathered girl's head as the soldier reflexively attempted to send some schematic data over using psionics, but quickly remembered that the naturally-born Elyisan wasn't designed for that sort of thing. "...Sorry..."

"Here." Tsuguka fished out her communicator and cupped her palms around it, willing it to volumetrically project a tiny humanoid figure. It was a tall and spindly Mindy-esk design, with a fanciful oversized sword and ranged weapons relegated to the shoulders. "I was thinking on board that bug ship, how we always end up with these long-ranged anti-ship setups for what accounts for espionage and CQC. That is not favorable. It may be a brute, but inside of a MCAS it could really perform both of those duties to a stellar degree. It's possible that we could even control it by remote. What do you think?"

The red neko's expression seemed softer than usual. She was sharing exceedingly strange ideas with another person. Probably wouldn't understand the concept of 'girly talk' even if you explained it to her, but she was opening up.

 

[Blizzard]

Fabrication

Jax didn't mind being shoved away this time. In fact, he wasn't really thinking. His inner thoughts currently consisted of flashes of emotion with TV static filling in the gaps. Needless to say, he was satisfied with the small show of affection. At least for now.

However, there was the small problem of Mao. He wasn't that shaken by her presence, mostly because it was she that had barged in, and they hadn't broken any rules. He was more so kicking himself because he'd caused Umeshu to break her code in front of a fellow samurai. He felt it better to just roll with it, as acting like a spaz wouldn't help his girlfriend's case at all.

He smiled and bowed as well, eager to leave before he embarassed her further.

"Yes, excuse my clumsiness, ma'am. I will be more careful in the future." He affirmed.

'Good luck! I'll see you later!' Jax hissed at Umeshu telepathically. He really did want to help her, but this was Umeshu's battle, and it was best for her to face herself.

"If you'll excuse me, I have urgent tasks that need to be completed." Jax announced and walked to the other end of the fabrication room. He stopped before Candon's armor and pulled out his communicator.

"Mr. Suites! Would you kindly meet me in Fabrication? I finished that mod you wanted and want to try it out."

 

[The Real Bames Jond]

Fabrication

This wasn't Mao's first day out of a vat tank, and while she wasn't a medical professional she was reasonably sure that one didn't use their lips to check for a concussion. But at the moment she hadn't had a clear enough view to offer anything other than an accusation with no undeniable proof. Besides she was more vexed by just what a young Samurai who hadn't even earned the royal blue yet was doing seemingly out an assignment aboard a SAoY vessel. She could talk to the junior Samurai about the required respect of code and oaths later.

For now she returned the bow that had been given to her with one appropriate to their standings among the Ketsurui while the trainee's acquaintance stepped away. Mao took it as an opportunity to approach but as she did she reached out to the ship's MEGAMI system.

'MEGAMI, could you please indicate any personnel on the roster who are trained Samurai?'

The response came. Nothing. Mao's lips formed a tight line.

'Could you please indicate any personnel with Samurai training?'

When the response came to her it took Mao a moment to realize what she had just found out. She nearly flinched as if she'd just been slapped but the only tell was in the twitch of her fingers. But her expression didn't outwardly change at first as she looked at the starship pilot. For Mao had learned quickly that the people of Yamatai could have poison - but they didn't deliver it as other cultures. The Nepleslians and the Lorath were like the scorpion, who latched on with harsh pincers, and brutally stabbed at you. But the poison of Yamatai's societal predators was much more subtle and perhaps delivered an even worse fate than its counterparts.

Mao had seen them before as they left Samurai House. Trainess clad in nothing but their gi and their belongings packed away. Those who hadn't been able to make the training for whatever reason. There was never any public shaming or horrid name-calling when they took the shameful walk out the gate. They were given their things, told that they could not become what they had sought to be, and they were sent away to never be seen or heard again inside those walls. And that's when it sunk in for Mao just how subtle Yamatai's particular poison could be.

Mao's superiors had shown just what kind of poison they had.

They had put the poor woman in front of her to a fate no warrior deserved.

They'd ignored her.

And now Mao found herself in a perilous position. To accept what was in front of her without question would surely step on the toes of more than one member of the crew as a new arrival seeming to assert herself over not only an officer, but one who was presumably well-liked. And to simply deny it or insist she had no need to be formal with her might be seen as just as harsh a slap as her superiors had delivered. Mao suddenly felt like she was walking on a razor's edge and schooled herself into a neutral expression once more.

She returned the greeting as she bowed, "Go aisatsu, Umeshu-kōhai. I only came in because I thought I'd heard a disturbance. It seems you have it handled well." She offered a small smile, "So the engineer is well then? That is good to hear. If you have no need of me, I shall return to Hime-sama." She clasped her hands in front of her at her waist and kept that small smile on her face.

But as she looked at the young woman she reached out with telepathy, "My apologies. They did not tell me that you would be aboard."

 

[Zack]

Fabrication

Weirdly Tense

Wazu was peaking into the Fabrication bay from the doorway. Hanako and Suites were nearby, and a new face was in the medbay.

He had been around NH-series weapons longer than most of these people had been alive, apparently not long enough to know what was going on, just long enough to know he was missing several somethings worth of information. The thought of going into the Fabrication bay now created the same sort of gut feeling that going into an oven would. A sidelong glance at Hanako's polite poker face was all the signal he needed to keep away for the time being.

Luckily, his usual go-to for these kinds of problems was already in hand.

Mr Howard,

I need some assistance with the fabrication bay. Is now a bad time?"

- Wazu

He'd send the text message, and then move back a bit from the doorway so as not to crowd in... bringing his datapad back up towards his face as he started combing through catalogs of medical equipment.

 

[Rizzo]

YSS Eucharis, outside Fabrication Bay

Passageway

Hanako just kind of softly gave Candon a close-lipped smile and a nod as he bored her to death with technical details she didn't care about. "Thank you for the explanation," she said after he finished, for the sake of politeness. She was glad it wasn't anything serious.

"Thank you for listening," he replied with a salute. Though he was glad to be able to fill his leader in on the specifics of why their inferior enemies wrecked a high end, military war machine there was a certain look in her eyes that said everything without speaking. She just didn't care and that was fine, he was off the hook and he didn't have to explain Jax and Umeshu's private matters. But of course Mao had to enter the room anyway despite his dismissal of any problems. Despite his ability to understand why she'd want to confirm his statement he couldn't help being a little frustrated that she couldn't just take his word for it. He'd have to keep that in mind in the future.

Fabrication
He stopped before Candon's armor and pulled out his communicator.

"Mr. Suites! Would you kindly meet me in Fabrication? I finished that mod you wanted and want to try it out."

He heard the voice echo from the bay door into the hallway. Assuming his dismissal Candon drifted to the entrance of the Fab bay and oriented himself to the floor. Landing gently he began making his way to Jax once catching sight of him. Seeing him with his communicator in hand was a dead giveaway that he hadn't read the memo on contacting his friendly neighborhood SAINT guy. "Hey Jax," he called, "My communicator is being used as a tracking device, I wont have a new one until we put in." He closed the gap between himself and the greasy mechanic. "Are we cooking yet?"

 

[Blizzard]

Fabrication

"You know, a real man would be at her side, supporting her." The smooth, feminine voice hissed from beside his head.

"Shut up." Jax grunted at his FAR. He discreetly glanced over at the two, and was happy to see that Mao wasn't acting like he'd expected her to. The last time Umeshu had recounted her story to him, she'd broken down crying. What had been indifference had secretly become an extreme distrust and distaste of the samurai. He was glad that, at least for now, he wouldn't have to make good on his secret vow to beat the ever-loving shit (or at least try) out of the next sword-toting jerk who dared belittle her.

...Wow, that was dark. Very uncharacteristic of him. He should probably stop that.

Jax was busy generously applying coats of industrial adhesive to a baseball when his communicator blipped.

"Come on in, mister Wazu!" Jax called out, not looking up from the baseball. "I'll be with you in a sec!"

"Spooky! Glad you could make it! C'mere and get in your armor. We're gonna take this slow. I installed a CPU to monitor output from the core. It's a diagnostic program. I used yamataium for the grille. I hope its healing properties will be enough to withstand the temperature spike." Jax explained in a single breath as Candon approached. He set the baseball aside and headed for a display hooked up to several sensors which were hooked up to the Mindy itself.

 

[paladinrpg]

Fabrication Bay

Umeshu nodded her head once with a soft affirmative to Jax as he smartly withdrew, her braided plum colored ponytail following the motion. It was regrettable that every time they came together since that first innocent day, it seemed fate cut the meeting short. A part of her heart ached at this seeming fate, and resolved that next time would be different. She owed it to him and to herself as well to explore their feelings away from eager prying eyes that seemed to be everywhere. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this, Jax-san. I promise I'll make this up to you next time we meet... let's go somewhere far away, with no interruptions... ok?" The wireless transmission carried hope within it of finishing what they started.

Now able to focus her sage green eyes and meet the golden ones of her senior in the ways of the samurai, Hashimoto-chui could tell there was that moment of hesitation and consideration going on with the twitch of Mao's fingers. Umeshu's tension was palpable, ready to defend against a scathing attack she was sure would come her way as a result of what had transpired... this was the treatment she was used to, always the black sheep.

...only it didn't quite come. There was an exchange of surprisingly respectful pleasantries towards her. A bit of restrained surprise escaped her lips, before she reigned in the emotion again and tried to match that small, respectful smile of Mao and respond to her. "H... hai. Jackson-hei is very youthful and... energetic in his pursuits," began Umeshu with a vocalized compliment obviously meant to be heard by the engineer as well as the samurai. "Hanako-sama relies much on his talents to keep the Eucharis running well."

When the raven-haired Juni informed her that she would be returning to the Captain, Umeshu gave a simple nod as if this was an unwritten law. "Do not let me take you away from your sworn duty, Mao-sempai. You are yojimbo -- it is where you belong, by Her side." Samurai like Mao were always expected to remain close by their charges... in this way the purple-hued officer was reminded of her sister Yuuki, at this very moment supposedly guarding a Taisa in Eight Fleet. It was an honor that long ago she thought she could attain one day...

The trainee took a few steps back in her white yukata and delivered a bow of her head once again as hime-cut bangs draped down silently and her hands were clasped together in a gesture of gratitude. However, encrypted telepathic bits soon transmitted into Mao's digital brain: "To many here I'm simply the ship's operator, XO Natsumi-chui's kohai... but it would be cowardly of me to hide this secret of who I am from one who has already achieved the way."

 

[Rizzo]

Candon eyed his Mindy suspiciously, had the young technician really tested the device yet?
Why did he need to get into the armor?
What did the young cat change?
The memory of being cooked alive inside his last Mindy was still fresh on his mind. Concern swept over his face, "Um, is this heater safe? I mean, is there any reason we can't run it without me inside, like, just in case it gets super hot inside?"

 

[Blizzard]

Fabrication

He smiled when he received Umeshu's message. he sent back a quick message of agreement, and returned to his work.

Jax, who was booting the software, looked back at Candon over his shoulder and rolled his eyes.

"Well, I thought you'd like to test it with the in-armor controls. I wouldn't think heat would be a problem in your high-tech, vacuum-sealed space armor. But," Jax jested with a lighthearted grin. "If you're going to be a weenie, we could test it from the outside."

For laughs, Jax stood up straight and took on the persona of a stoic man of science, just to ruffle the SAINT operative's feathers.

"Activating Candon is a Weenie protocol." He announced while entering commands into the console, barely containing his desire to laugh. Okay, he'd had his fun, now it was time to work. He wiped the look off his face and activated the device at twenty-five percent. From the armor came a low hum. The grille didn't appear to change at all. The hum, stopped, and Jax kept watch on temperature readings as the grille cooled down, and the yamataium healed itself.

That had been a test to see if the device could even function. Next, Jax pushed output up to fifty percent, and smiled when he received similar results to the last test. Then came seventy-five percent. This time, the grille slightly changed colors due to the heat. It still functioned flawlessly, and the yamataium once again returned to its original state after a couple of seconds.

"Now, for one-hundred percent power. This is the default output when the grille isn't in diagnostic mode. This should be enough to get the grenade off of you." Jax announced, hitting the switch, and unbeknownst to Candon, silently praying nothing went wrong.

The hum had been slowly increasing in intensity and pitch as the tests progressed. This time, it had reached a crescendo. The grille visibly became red-hot. As soon as it had begun, it had ceased. The humming stopped, and Jax tentatively eyed both the grille itself and the readings from his console. After holding his breath, he exhaled with relief when he saw the yamataium begin to heal itself, and not lose any structural integrity.

 

[BloodyScarlet]

Wardroom

Taharial pouted at the reaction of her company "Well I think you are a perfect soldier, I may have saved you but you fought to you couldn't anymore, in my eyes that is a perfect soldier" she smiled sweetly and stroked the girl's cheek "I will never forget saving you as you were the first crewmate I have saved in my duty."

She smiled and saw the girl was still uncomfortable with her wings "I have another idea" she turns so the wings were under the table and she had to hold on to girl tighter to stop from slipping off the table "how is this? No wings what so ever around us." She hooked her leg around one of the girl's and blushed "I need to keep myself from falling off now" she cuddled up to the girl and stayed as close as she could to the Neko "well if you ever want to, you can come stay in my bedroom with me and cuddle more at night."

She closed her eyes for a second as her head went fuzzy "weird feelings" she opened her eyes when it stopped "that feels better now, did you just try to communicate with me? I have never felt that before." She smiled as she watched the communicator and nodded "So like a thinner 'suit' that can be used instead of our bulky armours? I really like the design it looks awesome."

She closed her eyes again and smiled happily "So lets stop talking about work things and talk about other things."

 

[Zack]

YSS Eucharis, Fabrication

"Candon is a weenie protocol?"

Wazu suppressed a laugh. He did not want to antagonize the SAINT operative, especially if he was already having a hard time maintaining his SAINTly demeanor.

"Are you sure now is a great time? I would hate to interrupt your dangerous... " Wazu would have to make a snap judgement on what was going on based on what he could see of the glowing non-standard colors coming off the power armor's grill. , "... Welding... I need a piece of medical equipment put together and I wanted to get your expert opinion on a few things Mr. Howard.... Once you are finished."

Wazu was trying his best to maintain a calm, processed tone of voice... but he was realizing there was no way of saying "Candon is a weenie" that wasn't a little bit condescending.