David gets in the chair, and instead of pressing the on-switch on the remote, he simply lifts both arms up, as if willing the room to activate... which it does, then numerous option-lists soon start appearing in front of him.
Jaden rolls her eye, "Pfff... show-off..." But she smiles to herself as she watched him continue.
After some time waving his hands around some diagnostics' tests, satisfied with the settings, he rubs his hands together, "Now... uhh... What's the name of the yacht model again?"
"Angelic Temptation." She replies without hesitation, grinning excitedly.
But a moment later she remarks with embarrassment, "... oh wait... Heheheh! You meant the model? It's a Democritus Yacht."
He rolls his eyes dryly, "Ah..." and he began again in a sharp, crisp voice, "... Democritius Yacht, floor plan."
Suddenly a large, slowly-turning translucent model of a Democritus Yacht, complete with all of the aesthetics and design features save for the weapons, appears in the middle of the room; first the outer hull plating fades and leaves the entire internal circuitry of the ship, then the circuitry fades away as well, which exposes the plumbing system, etc. etc., until everything save for the basic floor plan and inner furnishings remain; The layout was organized into numerous, differently-sized, 3-dimensional boxes and rectangles, each interconnected amongst each other, probably the representation of the various possible rooms in the ship, and their numbers and sizes only limited by this very bright border that outlined the outside of the layout, "Now... Want to make adjustments?" David looked back at Jaden.
She exclaims as if she had just gotten her present for Christmas and was really eager to open it, "Oh! Can I?" She approaches the side of David's chair, before takes one more step closer to the holographic projection.
"Just do it all with your hands. If it doesn't do something right, tell it to go back."
She tilts her head to the side a bit in confusion, "... so... Just like that...?" She tries waves her arm around the model's side first, which the whole layout rotates; she then tries to nip various boxes around with her fingertips until she felt comfortable with how it worked.
"Think of it as a ball in your hand: move your hands away, it gets bigger; together, smaller; you can spin it on the spot, anything!"
She turns back to David again, "Uhm... How do you make a certain box tile permanently-placed in an area in the case I'm satisfied on where it'll be, so I don't want it moved?"
"Double tap it." He replied.
"Now..." He swings the chair 180 degrees around; he brings up a large board with many different icons representing ships: it's clear this is a simulation of the still-ongoing Liberty/Rheinland war, the ships and the battleplain itself being properly-scaled to their appropriate sizes.
Jaden was now starting to fiddle around a bit, but then she had more questions needing answered; she turned back to David, but was disappointed to find him watching something else, "He--- ..." She gives a very upset frown.
She turns back to the holographic image; then she pauses for a moment, a sly grin emerging from her face, "... Right then..."
"Montana... Move to F-4, mid! Prepare for long range bombardment of enemy capitals..." David points the Interceptor wing from the center-North side of the field to engage the oncoming Fafnir waves that cruised along through top of the plane's East in an arrow-formation; as the Liberators initiates a rain of chaos from below, the lumbering Dreadnought, LNS-Montana, begins to move into position near the east side along with the other Dreadnoughts to form a parallel-line formation.
... Meanwhile, Jaden opens up a list of options to the side of the projection; she eventually taps one, and the drop-box closes; without warning, provocative music is heard throughout the entire room.
She continues to move the floor plan boxes around and starts re-arranging them, but the way on how she does it is in a sort of dance... a very provocative dance; though her hips move slowly from side to side, and her hands flowing around her body in a sensual manner, the job was still being done, and the floor plan still went on to take shape.
Interrupted by the sudden pulse of music, he looks behind him and exclaimed, "What the...?" When he notices Jaden dancing, he simply shakes his head, "Sounds screen, middle room."
All of a sudden, a force field pops to life in-between him and her, splitting the room in two; almost immediately the music on his side stops pulsing, bringing the room back to its quiet-state, "Now... Chicago, launch bomber wing, and target that bloody huge brick eating the Montana!" He starts exclaiming as the Rheinland Battleships start focus-fire on the LNS-Kentucky
Jaden, however, looks behind for a moment, and is quickly surprised to see this force field behind her, "Wha--... Hmph..." She went on her usual dancing, but not with the same energy as before, continuing to plan out as usual.
After several rooms arranged, some security-turrets positioned in strategic positions, escape pods located in accessible areas, etc. etc., she does the usual routine: two of each utility room in case one of them breaks down, like two bathrooms, two repair rooms, two med-bays, and the like.
After the basics were done, she finally gets to the interior-aesthetic parts of the ship. The first room she organizes is a large spa area, the circular pool filling up most of the space; on one side there were massage tables, while the other harbored a cocktail lounge and round tables with soft, adjustable neon-based lighting, with small, waterproof, wooden chairs; the walls were decorated with many soft tapestries and various other Kusarian-style wallpapers; the pool, however, was the most meticulously-improved so it wasn't just an ordinary pool: it was given a thermostat, turbulence control, lighting-fixtures for safety and/or ambience, fog and even aroma emitters that spray out various fragrances that ranged from Libertonian-strawberry to Rheinland-mint.
On the other side and adjacent to the pool-room was placed a dedicated holo-room; basically, it was almost identical to the room they were currently in, but on a smaller scale to accommodate the size of the ship; but one difference with this one was that there wasn't a chair in the center of this room, so it was practically empty...
... Then she gets to the point of the quarter-rooms, where David and Jaden would sleep, "Ooooo..." and she makes a very big, lustful grin to herself.
She turns the two small, individual rooms into a single, large room where the walls would be painted goldenrod with brown-velvet trim, the floor lined with gold-colored tiles and a red carpet that led to the bed, full-surround-sound, more fragrance emitters hidden from view, strobe and laser lights alongside, and heavy-soundproofing that prevented any potential noises from coming in or out; there was only one very large bed with thick, blood-red sheets and blood-red pillows with a very large mirror placed right on top of it, then two wardrobes with no privacy-walls in-between, an NIV-screen opposite to the side of the bed, and a Kusarian paper chandelier on the ceiling; other than the bed, no other furniture save for a chair and one stiff, yet fancy workbench for any work to be done, were there.
A swish here, a push there, some rub-sweeps on occasion, and she was more or less done. Now satisfied with the set-up, she finalizes the last rough edges, and then twirls the whole thing around in one last check up, just before the music ends its run.
After she clicks another option, the music stops, and another tag makes the sound barrier come down; quickly, her part of the room is suddenly filled with lots of war-sounds and potshot-firings, "GOD DAMNIT!" a loud curse is heard amongst the noise.
She looks overhead David's chair, and finds that, initially, Rheinland is winning: the Battleships were clearly outnumbering the Liberty Dreadnoughts, which have already lost a few capitals, while the former had only lost one...
... And to make matters worse, the destruction sequence of another dreadnought can be heard in the foreground: the LNS-Montana was lost, "Not the Montana... again!"
Jaden looks left and right, and then activates another drop box; Suddenly, in front of David's eyes, an A.D.M.I.N. ship comes in the middle of the battlefield and decimates the entire Rheinland fleet in one fell swoop; the A.D.M.I.N. ship then hails the Rheinland side for some strange comments like ganking-sanctions and what-not, "Ahhh... now THAT's more like it, heheheh." She licks her lips enthusiastically.
He quickly looks back to Jaden and yells in surprise, "JADEN!!!!! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?! In a real battle, command can't just use cheats!"
She shrugs her shoulders, "What? You clearly saw that your dreads were outnumbered by a 3:1 ratio against the Rheinland bricks. From the stories I've heard, such things would make an A.D.M.I.N. ship come to the... uh... rescue, heheheh."
He rolls his eyes wryly, "Like hell... I suppose you didn't notice the two 5-bomber-strong wings coming in from behind, or the Chicago moving well out of range of those capitals..." Sure enough, the Chicago and a couple of other capitals were well above the plain, ready to rain down upon the Battleships by surprise.
"And the bombers only arrive just NOW?" It was true: though there were two wings of Upholders coming into the battleplain, they were still 20K away from the main engagement area, "... Some response time.
"But hey... I guess the Rheinlanders would've turned tail by the time the cavalry arrived, so yeah... maybe I should have still went on to watch the fireworks fly before deciding to let the A.D.M.I.N. ship in all the fun."
"The Rheinlander's didn't even they know they were in space, let alone heading up their arse...
"... Anyway, I can try again another time." David rubs his forehead with utter disappointment before turning off the simulator with the flick of the wrist, "So how'd your designing go?"
"Oh, right!" She grabs the chair and swerves David back to the now-modified Democritus hologram, "You'll find that it's got all the necessary things installed now." She grins to herself.
He only does a quick browse over the design, "... Not bad. I'll have a closer look later, but right now I want to try and organize purchasing a bomber for you...
"What model were we going with again?"
"Uhm... hmmm... that was some time ago, lemme think...
"... AH! I think it was the Roc."
"Ah yes... righto.
"Well, if you could be kind enough to leave me, I'll have that ship being built by tomorrow. I need to talk to a... friend."
Jaden nods slyly, "Mmmhmmm... right then..." She walks towards the wall, and then after opening the door she turns back to David with narrowed eyes, "Goodnight... Don't overdo yourself... Señor David..." She giggles to herself as she steps out of the room, the wall closing shut behind her.
"Right...
"... Now... Computer, call George Darwin." He aimes his chair to the large screen.
A small beeping is heard from the interface, but after a small time passes no reply comes back, "Hmm... He told me he was upgrading ship...
"Meh, I'll get him another time... Now, back to finishing that mission WITHOUT loosing the Montana..."
The Gforce descends into the estate hangar that late-afternoon. David, after having finished deactivating his Virage, gets out and does his usual stretching; as continued, he notices that Jaden's Tiger Shark, the Terminal Velocity, isn't around.
All of a sudden, his PDA starts beeping under the guise that it intercepted an NN-active-transmission; he soon takes the thing out of its pocket and inspects the caller...
... it was Jaden...
"Hey David... Could you, uh... pick me up? I'm currently in a Luxury Liner called the JhC-Pacificator, in-orbit above Planet New Berlin." The transmission comes almost crystal-clear on his PDA-screen.
"Yea... Alright... Take a holiday did ya?" He smirks at her.
She smirks back, "... I wish...
"No, I'm here in a luxury liner cause my ship got downed around Rheinland, and the client I was escorting, which was THIS luxury liner, picked up my hulk...
"I sure hope that copy of the Tiger Shark you pre-ordered's ready by now... if not, then I guess staying at the estate for a while longer while I wouldn't be so bad...
"... though a longer stay here would... nah... I don't have the budget for it yet, huhuhuh..." Jaden chuckles to herself.
"Well alright, I'll come pick you up... out." He turns off the transmission, then shakes his head to himself...
... 30 minutes later...
The Gforce slows down from the trade lane jump, Planet New Berlin now looming over the cockpit window. Looking around a bit as the ship swooshes to a stop, David finds this massive Luxury Liner the size of a city orbiting just above the mooring fixture. A quick scan of it, and he sees it as the JhC-Pacificator. He contacts the Luxury Liner traffic control, and eventually he lands on Docking Bay 3.
Jaden was already waiting inside the docking bay when the Virage descends onto the bay's platform; she steps to the side of the ship and, climbing up the side-ladder, gets on the rear-cockpit seat and quickly straps herself on.
David chuckles at her, "A turn-and-burn eh? I can't even stop for a drink?"
Jaden smiles at his remark, "Well, I'm not stopping you if you'd like... Just wanted to stay here in the ship for the time being, if that's okay with you.
"... but if you'll be going out, AND be staying for a while, I guess I'll go and come along."
"Meh... No point wasting time here, lets move." And he reactivates the engines.
"Mmm... si... let's go." Jaden then puts her flight-helmet on.
As the Virage lifts off and exits the bay, Jaden looks over to the right of the cockpit window, and sighs heavily before going silent...
Whilst they were travelling along a trade lane on the way back, David looks towards Jaden and asks, "... So what'd you get yourself into?"
Jaden responds slowly at first, "... huh? ... oh, uh... Just that the TV's scrapped cause of me 'forgetting' I had a bounty on my head on Rheinland..."
She then gives a wry smiles, "... And the next thing I knew, green fire engulfed my ship as soon as I exited the Gate... and poof..." Her hand blooms open in expression of an explosion.
He nodded his head in agreement, "Yea, gotta remember those bounties. I almost got caught once in Dublin, a group of hunters were after me after I helped some Mollies take out a key target. I was sitting by Essex when they came."
"... mmm... si..." She sighs and goes silent again.
Thinking Jaden was most likely upset about loosing her ship, David doesn't try to get her to talk again for the rest of the trip...
... another boring 30 minutes later...
... Planet New Tokyo comes up on the cockpit window as they make their approach; they enter through the docking ring, and make their way towards the estate... It's almost night-time when they finally arrive on the hangar bay.
Jaden smiles as the Virage begins its descent, "... Mmmm... Swimming pool, here I come, heheheh..." And her smile turns into a grin.
"Hehe..." As he sets the Virage down he further replied, "You head off and get changed, I have a couple things to do first."
"Don't have to tell me twice..." But her smile slowly fades to a still face as she looks at David.
At last, the Gforce sets down, and Jaden somewhat-hesitantly slides down the ladder; as she heads off, she shakes her head from side-to-side as if trying to disbelieve something, then gets back on her usual self.
When Jaden was out of the hanger, David begins to beam a wide grin, "Hehe..." He had put his Virage down in bay 1, but nearby, in bay 4 and 5, were 2 new ships: a Tiger Shark identical to Jaden's first, and another ship that was concealed by this large blue-black sheet.
He pulls the covers off and opens the cockpits of both, then sets the ship to standby. He then turns the lights off, pitching the hangar back into darkness, "Now to get Jaden... She's going to love this!"
Going into the house he calls out, "Hey Jaden? I got something you might want to see!"
"What is it?" As David enters the living room he finds Jaden standing on the stairs towards the roof-pool; she's wearing a pink bikini and flip-flops, a pink towel hanging around her shoulders.
"You might come and have a look at this." He gestured her to come over.
Jaden initially raises her eyebrow in suspicion, until she begins to smile a bit excitedly, "Hmmm... alright... not like I have that much of a rush to the pool..." She goes down and begins to follow David back to the hangar, "... So what is it you'd like me to see?"
"Well, it's a little surprise for you." As Jaden walks into the hanger David stops to turn the lights at bay 4 and 5 on, showering the Tiger Shark and Roc in bright, white lights, "What do you think?"
She squints her eyes for a second at the sudden flooding of light, and when her eyes finally adjust, she raises an eyebrow at the Roc. When she eyes the bomber, her face goes still, and a tear drips down the side of her cheek; but before David could catch her expression she quickly wipes away the tear, and tries to put on a grateful grin, "... mmm... Is that the bomber?" She starts walking over to the brand-new ship.
"That's the one... kitted out to your specifications." He opens up a wide smile at her.
Jaden runs her palm over the side of the ship: the sleek wings, the 3 powerful engines, the golden-yellow plasteel-glass cockpit, the menacing-looking SNAC.
Then without warning she screams out a blood-curdling battlecry, doing a well-aimed sucker-punch with her cyborg arm at the bomber's hull, which afterwards she inspects the affected area: not even a blemish on the paintjob... She fashions an impressed smile, "VERY nice, si... not even a scratch on the surface."
Next, she opens up the cockpit and climbs aboard; without bothering to put on her flight-suit to proceed on still half-naked on her flight chair, soon the ship's engines begin to hum, then roar to life, and it starts to ascend up to hover; using the flight-interface she tries to do a few maneuvers in place; then she touches the comms of the ship and said, "The controls are a charm, David! I'm surprised they're much more fluid AND easier to get hang off than the Tiger!"
"Well that's because it's more of a Liberty ship! That Tiger is a Rheinland design." David points out.
Eventually satisfied with the testing, Jaden sets the ship down, then she gets off and climbs down the cockpit, "Mmmm... that should do nicely... t'was MUCH more sluggish than I first expected.
"... but I guess I should expect that since I have a light-fighter background, heheh..."
"Yea bombers are a bit slower. I still find it hard going from the Virage to the Havok sometimes."
"Yeah... I can relate..." She suddenly turns to a frown and quickly looks painfully to the right, as if recalling something painful; quickly shaking her head, she whispers a few words to herself which David couldn't hear; but as soon as she did so she quickly goes back to her usual self and looks back at him, "... Yeah... so anything I should know more about handling this bomber?"
"Nothing that you won’t soon learn, though it'd be a good idea to read up on how to use the SNAC."
"I suppose...
"... So I'll do my research sometime tonight... right after I get my aphrodisiac-fix on the swimming pool, heheheh..." She waves farewell to David and giggles to herself as she heads off.
David scratched his head in some confusion, "Huh... I would have thought she'd be a bit more excited...
"... oh well." He shrugs his shoulders, and leaves the hanger. He then heads off towards the holo room to play another mission...
... But unknown to David, as Jaden walked away she was actually doing her best from sobbing her heart out, her human eye flowing down lots of somber tears that dripped down the floor as she headed off to the roof-pool...
... meanwhile... 20 minutes later...
... The glowing gas giant in the night sky was masked by the foggy, winter clouds that cold, December night. Jaden was glad that the roof-pool came equipped with water heaters, the hot water steaming slowly around her, "... A bomber... it's been awhile... but..." And tears slowly creep down her eye once again.
Soon, intense emotions engulf her, and she cradles her face on both her hands, "... SOB... I... I... am I... ready for..."
Then she suddenly pauses... and she quickly stands up from the water, shaking a fist at the gas giant, "N-NO! I've been given another chance at this... I will NOT fail like before... I WILL not... I cannot... cannot..."
She covers her face again, more tears flowing right through the seams of her cupping, "... no... Jaden, you girl, just... no... don't beat yourself up... not again... not anymore...
"... you already have someone willing to teach you the works, si... You won't fail... He'll make sure... si...
"... David will make sure..." She looks up back at the sky, and a pained, yet contented smile wrings out of her face.
... But the smile fades again, and she slumps back down on the pool, "... Wouldn't he? ... But... could... could that man have been right...?
"... Do I really love David for himself, or... Is it only because I... ?" She submerges herself neck-deep into the hot water, then, reaching for her bikini, she unfastens the straps and takes the pieces off, letting the thin, pink clothing float freely on the water's surface.
"If David hadn't tried to sacrifice himself... would I have still loved him...?" She lifts her cyborg arm above the water and stares at it for a moment before whispering to herself, "Oh, Terry..."
*BUZZ*"Alright Jaden, I'm going to show you a few of the tricks I learned when it comes to using the SNAC.*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Now, I'm certainly not the best pilot, but you should at least learn how to use it without blowing yourself up."*BUZZ*
The Gforce and Jaden's newly-commissioned and -christened Roc, the Princesa.de.Jade, were drifting around one of the Hokkaido clouds; within the purple gases and bright particles of the nebula were the occasional floating rocks scattered everywhere. The background was still... silent... serene...
... Jaden, however, was practically shaking in anxiety, but she did her best to hide her fear, *BUZZ*"... r-right..."*BUZZ* she stammered.
*BUZZ*"Now, here's a very basic question, but so many pilots forget: when you fire your SNAC, will the shot comes from your left or right?"*BUZZ*
Jaden looked to her sides, and remembers the SNAC to be on her east-side of the ship, *BUZZ*"Right....?"*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Good, remember that. The SNAC has a better chance of hitting its target if it's on the side your passing the target."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"... Cause the SNAC can't rotate to the opposite side with the mounting-limitations, is that correct? It can only rotate to the right, and not to the left?"*BUZZ* She informs David.
*BUZZ*"That... and your cockpit is in the way. It may seem like a simple thing now, but when you have an enemy capital firing at you and its escorts on your arse, you wont have time to think about where it is."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"ehm...? oh... another form of accidental suicide...? That sure would make my day, si..."*BUZZ* She tries to put on a grin, but it cringes up into a horrified crack.
*BUZZ*"Alright, lock on to one of the little rocks floating round here and hit it with the SNAC, you'll see just how much power that thing has."*BUZZ*
Jaden's eyes widen in terror, *BUZZ*"... ehm... like... now? Uhhhh..."*BUZZ*
She starts the activation sequence to the gun, then power starts rerouting towards the SNAC, and the cockpit soon starts to hum with power as the cannon gathers up the energy to convert into raw, brutal antimatter-antimatter in a matter of seconds; she starts to murmer a sort of mantra as the energy-meter begins to ascend towards the 5 Megajoule-mark, "... Fire the gun at 5 Megajoules... fire the---"
All of a sudden, the meter jumps from 1 to 6 Megajoules in a few seconds; she basically panicks as the SNAC overcharges and starts to beep loudly in bright-red warning tones, "ACK!!! It's been added with a hastener! Where the FRAK is the firing button?! Frak FRAK FRAK!!!"
Quickly, she manages to find the firing button, and upon pressing it the cannon launches a shot so large and packing a lot of recoil it pushed the ship back by 30 meters.
David laughs long and hard as he watches the Roc move backwards with that one shot, *BUZZ*"It'll do that to ya!"*BUZZ*
Jaden, however, takes in lots of heavy breaths at what seemed like a close-call, "... Oh my God... Oh my God... Oh my..."
Then she suddenly witnesses the shot hit something from the distance; the resulting explosion bursts outward in a brilliant, blue explosion that's 200-meters in diameter, which she couldn't help but at least smirk, "... Mmmm.... pretty..."
*BUZZ*"Panic a little did you?"*BUZZ* David chuckles in laughter.
*BUZZ*"YOU didn't tell me you installed a power rerouter that connected the darn thing DIRECTLY to the power core, which would enable it to be fed with energy in a matter of a few seconds instead of half a minute!"*BUZZ* She scowls at David.
*BUZZ*"Well yea... In battle the thing already takes too damn long to charge.*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Also, you may find the workload high, remember that the Roc normally has a crew of 2, not 1."*BUZZ*
She grins wryly to herself, *BUZZ*"... great... now not only do I have to fly the ship, but I ALSO have to manage the right calibration for the SNAC shot as well?"*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Well, the Upholder and Havok only had 1 pilot, so you'll get used to it."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"But those models had at least a built-in software to take away the added pilot! This Roc still doesn't have that luxury yet...*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"... oh well..."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Did you think I didn't think of that? You've got as much workload as me in that thing."*BUZZ*
Jaden tries to recall what she learned, "eh... oh right. The SNAC's at the right... the right... mmmm...
*BUZZ*"Sooo... I think I'll try it again..."*BUZZ* She starts the activation sequence for the gun once again, and the SNAC restarts its power cycle; just as the energy-meter reaches the 1 MJ-mark, which was where the trouble started, she starts counting; she finds out it takes 2 seconds to get to the 5 MJ of power, "VAMOS!!!" She presses the firing button in the nick of time, and the shot comes out cleanly and effortlessly, *BUZZ*"... phew... 2 seconds..."*BUZZ*
The shot hits something, but though the explosion isn't as spectacular as the first one, it's observed this shot is cleaner and more uniform, *BUZZ*"... but still... firing the SNAC's one thing... piloting the ship, AND firing the SNAC is another, heheheh..."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"You'll soon get used to it...*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Now that you know how to fire it, time to hit some targets, set your ship to go at 40 m/s in a straight line. When the SNAC is ready, try and hit one of the little rocks you can see.*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Once you get the hang of that, increase your speed to 80, then 120 and so on till your at full power.*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"I don't expect you to get all the way today, but try and come out of do that practice as often as you can."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Ehm... a... alright..."*BUZZ* Jaden activates the engines of the Princesa.de.Jade, and heads off in a straight line at the 40-meters/second speed-mark.
She basically multi-tasked the whole way: whilst trying to keep the ship stabilized with ship-controls that usually needed full attention upon a single person, she also had to quickly switch her attention to the charging and aiming of the SNAC, which was already an entirely-different entity by itself; it was like trying to drive a Military Tank on one side, whilst trying to aim the main cannon on the other, "Fr... frak..." Soon, the ship starts drifting off several degrees as she adjusts the SNAC calibration, which she then goes back to the flight controls, but almost immediately the SNAC-overcharge-warning starts beeping loudly, with the mark alredy reaching 6 MJ, "Ah, FRAK!!!"
*BUZZ*"You know how long it takes to charge! Don't look at the meter, just get the timing right."*BUZZ*
She quickly tries to aim the SNAC at one of the rocks as the ship still regained its momentum, and fires it; but it was too late: the ship had already went 3-degrees off-center, and the shot whizzes by the rock with several meters to spare, "... Awww FRA---"
Suddenly the shot hits something, and the explosion of a ship is seen in the thickness; upon squinting her ocular implant, Jaden catches that the target affected was a GC ship that was just passing by at cruise speed, and it somewhat managed to get an unlucky hit with the SNAC bolt, "... wha...?"
"Hmm... That's not good..." He rubs his chin in disbelief.
She pauses for a minute, then she screams out excitedly in seeming-triumph, *BUZZ*"CHIDO!!! MY FIRST SNAC KILL!"*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"No Jaden... That just screws up their shield for a while... The ship is still there, and I'd say the pilot is somewhat angry."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"... oh right..."*BUZZ*
All of a sudden, scanners pick up a hostile target: it was the affected GC ship, which was, upon closer inspection an Eagle, from the east-side, the thrusters at full power, and heading towards them at max speed, "BANZAAAIIII!!!!"
"Awww [A.D.M.I.N. Censored]!!! Jaden steers the ship around just in time before the fighter shots almost hit the Roc.
*BUZZ*"Hey hey hey! Stop shooting, we're just having some practice, that shot wasn't aimed at you!"*BUZZ* David activates his weapons just in case the pilot decides to continue.
The GC-female responds in an obviously-furious tone, *BUZZ*"THAT WAS A SNAC! AND I WAS IN CRUISE, YOU INFERIOR GAIJIN! That shot would've only hit if it was well-aimed ambush! Now, TIME TO DIE!!!*BUZZ* Soon, system-wide transmissions for backup for more GC fighters are heard across the comms.
*BUZZ*"Ay, porbida! David! Let's get the hell out of here, si?"*BUZZ*
David sighs before responding, *BUZZ*"Fine... We'll do it your way."*BUZZ* He opens fire on the GC ship, which is almost destroyed in the first volley of IRONHAMMERS and ARCHANGLES, *BUZZ*"Now...Either you call it quits and leave us alone, or I finish the job on you and your buddies that are on their way!"*BUZZ* His threat was cold and direct.
The GC's tone calmed a bit, *BUZZ*"tsk... I'm clearly outmatched..."*BUZZ* The Eagle, now leaking coolant, flees without another moment's notice; transmissions eventually follow, saying that engagement should be avoided for the time being.
David turns the Gforce back to face the Princesa.de.Jade again, *BUZZ*"... Alright...*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Jaden, you can get back to practicing now. Remember: you don't need to get the 5 exactly. Focus on just hitting what your aiming at and try and get it around the 5."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"I had a 4 week course to learn how to use it properly, I expect it'll take you just as long."*BUZZ*
A facepalm is heard on the other side, *BUZZ*"... What rotten luck... at the first day of practice I already start antagonizing people with only the second shot... ugh..."*BUZZ*
He only laughs at the remark, *BUZZ*"Don't worry about it, the locals of Kusari aren’t the nicest bunch, that's for sure."*BUZZ*
... But very slight sobbing is heard from the comms on Jaden's side...
After a few more moments pass she goes back, her tone of voice now somewhat sad, *BUZZ*"... uh... can we... stop for today, David? ... if it's alright with you... I'll... try to run over the simulations on the Holo-room instead... SNIFF..."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Eh... Sure. It's not something your going to pick up in a day... or a week. Drill, drill, drill, that's what I did."*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"... Y... yeah... let's go..."*BUZZ*
The two ships soon head off towards the New Tokyo Jump Gate, disappearing into the denseness of the cloud...
It would be sometime around 5 in the afternoon when the two ships come into view of David's estate. As the ships make their approach, David touches his comms interface again, *BUZZ*"Hey Jaden, do you want to have that pistol bet we keep putting off?"*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"... eh? The pistol bet...?"*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"Oooohhhh... si, heheh... we keep forgetting about that. So yeah... where is the range anyway?"*BUZZ*
*BUZZ*"It's not far, down that path that trails off from the main house. Actually, we can walk there from the Estate."*BUZZ*
Slowly, the ships touch down on the platform, and eventually the two pilots are out on the hangar bay floor, "Well! I could always go right now... but I think I'll need to prepare myself a bit before we go there. I'll meet you at the start of the path in a moment, alright?"
"I'll be waiting for you beside the door, alright?"
"si..." And she walks off...
... a few minutes later...
Going though door beside the minibar would lead to another hallway that was lined with lots of other doors which led to other areas of the Estate; the 3rd door straight ahead to the right, which was another shell-lined door, just before a bend to the left in the corridor, led directly to the outside and directly in front of the path towards the ranges...
David, who was leaning on the door-sill, is waiting patiently for Jaden to arrive. After a few minutes pass, the door opens and she walks outside; it didn't seem she had changed from her flight-suit, but instead her pistol's now at the right side of her hip, "Hola... Didn't take too long. Let's go then."
"Yep." And they start walking down the path.
... A few minutes passed before David decides to break the ice, "... Now Jaden, why is it you get so tense in the bomber? I think that's where a lot of your problems are coming from, you're not relaxed and flowing as you normally are in the Tiger."
Jaden was reluctant to reply back, "... I..." She pauses a bit and looks away for several moments, unwilling to look at him directly; but her eyes slowly go back, and she continues in a hurt voice, "... Well... I guess you should know... after all, you're the one teaching me..."
She starts off with a large breath, "... Remember the time when I said I wasn't used to the bomber? Well... It was because of... lack of training..."
She then looks up to the slightly-clouding-sky, "... It was many years ago, not that long after I had completed my initiation rites by getting an Artifact from the Malvada Cloud...
"... My papito had already fashioned a brand-new ship for me to use as I began my new life as an adult: a Praetorian... a two-seater-bomber... He was so proud of me for having completed my rituals into adulthood... So was I...
"... Then all of a sudden, my papito was called to serve the Empire: a large task-force of Outcasts had just managed to pass through the Omicron Eta Minefield, and were currently engaged in a large battle... But from the expression on my papito when he received the call, it sounded like the Outcasts were winning..."
The Corsair takes another pause, "... And the unthinkable happened... Out of pride, he told me... I should come along with him... to 'baptize me in the fires of battle', as he mentioned... And, as the greatest honor he could ever bestow on me, I... was to use my own newfound-bomber, and he'd be my co-pilot to handle the Nova Torpedoes... My papito kept assuring me that it'd be fine, what with a well-decorated veteran being my guide...
"... He... expected so much of me... I also had such expectations on myself..." Tears start dropping down her eye, "... He shouldn't have... I shouldn't have...
"I remember that battle very well... I and my papito were had just de-warped from the Omicron Theta-Eta Jump Hole, and it was an incredible sight: an initial invading Outcast force of 4 Sabres and 2 Tridentes, and all around them were a cloud of remains of my fallen compadres...
"My heart was racing... I didn't feel ready for battle just yet, knowing that I hadn't even got any practice with my bomber, but... I was in the presence of my papito, so I dared not show any fear... We were a flotilla of 15 Titans, and, including myself, 5 bombers-strong...
"I and my ship were to be 'made' as the head of the bomber-attack force, the arrow-point, the ship to initiate the battle... but those infidels..." Her cyborg hand tightens its grip in anger, "They had used the debris to their advantage, and we didn't anticipate that 5 more Sabres and 4 more Tridentes were lying in wait for an ambush from the two sides... My squadron was caught in a pincer-maneuver..." She tries to wipe away some of her continuing tears.
"... And they hit my ship first... My shields went down... and a gunboat missile impacted on my cockpit a second later. My bomber didn't take that much of a beating, but... out of all the things that could've happened, my papito just had to be knocked unconscious from the missile hit...
"We could've won the battle... at least barely... but... my papito had been crippled, and so no one was there to man the torpedoes... I had been reduced to a sluggish Titan, which meant our force had only 4 working bombers against 6 Tridentes... the odds were stacked against us...
"Though we managed to defeat a couple of the infidel Tridente's due to our superior skill, sometimes no amount of skill could ever match against being heavily-outnumbered and overpowered... One by one our bombers fell... Until I was the last remaining 'bomber' left.
"My squadron demanded I try to use my wits to control the torpedoes myself, but... I never had any training on firing Nova's... never... I was called on to serve too early... and my papito wasn't there to guide me...
"... And soon, my own compadres fell before the concentrated fire of the remaining Tridentes... and...
"... in panic, I ran... I ran away from the battle... ran away from the horror of of it all... and from that day on, I... was to be called a coward..." She covers her face in shame.
"I couldn't aim the torpedo... I just couldn't... I only knew how to fly, and that's it... why..." Jaden sobs heavily as they continued walking...
David only watches in silence, not sure of what to say or respond...
... Eventually, after several minutes more of following down the dirt path, they can finally see the range in the distance, "... is... is that it over there?" Jaden pointed out at the large clearing and the small building to the side.
"Yep. That little building is the armoury. I got some fun toys in there."
The Estate Targetting Range measured 200 meters long by 20 meters wide, entirely-enclosed with 2-meter-high wooden fencing; targets were placed at varying distances that could flip up when activated, all lined up at one side; on the other was the entrance into the range, and there connecting the clearing to the entrance was this tall, three-storey concrete building that had full-length windows that were adjacent to the clearing, possibly serving as the firing positions for any test-fires.
A minute more of walking and they are only a small distance from the entrance, "... S... so... can you... help me...? In aiming the SNAC, I mean..." Jaden squeaks hurtfully at David.
"Well... Even I don't bother with nova torpedos, I blew up 4 training craft trying to master them..." He scratches his head, beaming a very sheepish smile to himself.
"Si, I suppose... but times have changed, no? The interfaces should be a lot more user-friendly, and..."
"And I'm never going to touch them again!" He remarks with relief and points out, "I'll tell ya, the debriefing after the 1st one was bad enough, but by the 4th... uh, screw up, it was decided I wouldn't be using them."
"But the SNAC should be better than the Nova, si?" Jaden worriedly-asks.
"Hell yea! You have half the chance of blowing yourself up with it." He chuckles with a sure grin.
There was something in David's confident grin that made Jaden feel she'd make it out alright after all; she looks at his sheepish expression, and then smiles back with an inner warmth in her heart, "... I... guess you're right..."
Soon, they reach the front door towards the range. David approaches the door and palms it open.
They walk into the building, and inside, lining around the walls, are a varying number of weapons that ranged from the common laser-pistol, to huge, shoulder-mounted missile launchers; this alone was the first floor of the armoury, and there might possibly be a greater selection of sidearms should one decide to go up higher.
Jaden raises an impressed eyebrow, "My, oh my... What a list..."
David smiled at her remark, "Hehe... Take your pick."
She wanders her eyes around a bit until something large catches her gaze: she quickly approaches what looks like this very large minigun that was equipped with a back-pack magazine, where a belt of rounds ran towards the gun; she picks up the large cannon with little difficulty, and grins excitedly as she grips the handles, "... Oooohhh... haven't seen one of these things since 3 years ago."
"I've had some fun with it... But it ain't cheap to run."
"You don't say... These things usually consume, what, 1000 rounds a minute? 2?
"Pfff... who cares?" She rolls her eyes and then gleefully exclaims, "So where can I shoot this little baby?"
"Out the front here. Didn't you see the range?" He points towards one of the windows that have already been left open.
Jaden takes her place, and was about to aim the gun at one of the farther targets when a rabbit-like animal suddenly skampers around the grass, "OH LOOK! FRESH MEAT!!!" She quickly aims the minigun at the poor, hapless creature and fires whilst laughing maniacally, "MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!"
But the creature manages to evade the shots, which then escapes into a hole somewhere hidden from view; Jaden couldn't help but sob a bit in shame at not being able to hit her target.
Then David taps her on the shoulder, the hand holding what looked like a plasma grenade, "His hole is over by that tree on the edge of the range." He motions his other hand towards that lone tree.
She widens her eyes cheerfully, "Ooo, a grenade! You're such a sweetie, David!" She swipes the grenade off of his hands, and, after priming it, throws it long and high; the cylinder lands on the very base of the tree, and it quickly explodes in a spectacular green mist, "Ahhhh..."
"I myself would have shoved it down the hole... but that wasn't bad either." He smiles at the hole where the tree was supposed to be.
"Would've been too easy if I did that." Jaden shrugs her shoulders, then she suddenly remembers something, "... Oh right, I almost forgot why we're really here!" She takes out her Neutron pistol from its holster and sets it, which soon starts to hum in a high-pitch.
"Oh, alright..." David takes out his three-barreled laser pistol which had a knife fastened on the bottom, and sets it on standard fire, "Ok... How bout 20 targets, starting at 10 feet increasing in range by 5 for every interval, 30-second-time-limit and 25 shots? After that will be stage-2, which'll be 30 targets, starting at 20 feet increasing by 10, 30 seconds and 40 shots."
"That'd work... BUT! We'll have to divide the bet into two parts, if you will... The first one will just be ordinary, while the second... well... you'll see..." She offers her hand to seal the bet, grinning slyfully at him.
"Deal." He formally replies the gesture back.
"You first, as courtesy of being the home-player, heheh."
"Alright." David goes over to the front of the window and sets up the rounds via a terminal adjacent to the firing window, "You pistol will only be able to fire 25 time before the system lock it, so you can't over step the shot restriction. There'll be a horn to signal the round, and when the horn sounds again it means the time's ended." He steps up to the line and waits for the horn to sound.
As soon as the horn sounds David gets shooting. His laser pistol seems decently-accurate and damaging enough, but it also runs with a defaulted-high refire-rate which makes him miss more. He hits 17 targets in 19 seconds, and fired 25 shots, "Not bad... now your turn." He steps away from the line as Jaden makes her approach.
"Nice..." When the horn sounds, she shoots and hits all 20 targets, and as each bolt makes it's mark straight and true the damage imparted on the targets instantly irradiates and ionizes the material like a white-hot knife evaporating the butter it passes through; but unlike David she seems to take her time and almost uses up the entire 30-second time limit, "... Hmmm..." She scratches her chin with her human hand, her ocular implant inspecting the shots critically.
"Just got in on time... Now to stage-2: 30 targets, starting at 20 feet increasing by 10, 30 seconds and 40 shots."
Jaden unloads her pistol and places in a new clip; then she gives a thumbs-up, "... Ready when you're done."
"Alright." He presses the start button and soon the horn sounds. David leaves some of the closer targets for later, focusing on furthers away ones.
After 24 seconds pass he had hit all but 1, yet he already used up all 40 shots. In one quick move, David detaches the blade that was stuck in front of his pistol, and throws it at the last target, which was 20 feet away: the pistol stabs into the target with only 1 second to spare, "Woo! That was a close one!" He shakes his fist in the air in triumph.
Jaden laughs hard in disbelief at the unexpected way David dispatches his target, "Hey! That wasn't with your pistol! That shouldn't count!"
He chuckles, "It was a hit, and I didn't exceed the shot limit, why do you think I had it designed into it anyway?" He jumps through the window, and after walking towards the target and taking his knife back he goes back in the building.
"Pfff..." She continues to chuckle for a bit, but she soon gets her composure back, "Alright... My turn, then."
When the starting horn sounds, she takes in a quick breath, then exhales continuously as she fires at the farthest-targets first; her aim still dead-on, she manages to hit 28 targets with exactly 28 shots, but her time limit exceeds with the blasting of the horn, "... Frak."
"Bad luck...
"Now, shall we swap pistols?"
Jaden raises her eyebrow in surprise, "Swap pistols...? Well, uh... sure, why not?" She hands over her pistol to David, and the latter gives his pistol to her.
"The barrels fire from left to right. With it, you'll have a wicked rate-of-fire, but it can be hard to aim at long range." He explains
The Corsair appraises David's pistol: it was a silverish-grey thing that looked more exotic than an ordinary laser pistol, sporting a fixed-triangle triple-barrel with the apex pointed upwards; the apex-barrel had U-notch and Post open sights, along with the words 'G's Force' embezzled deeply into the cylinder; there was a medium-sized cell built into the butt of the gun, but there was no apparent way to know how much shots the cartridge still had.
"Hmmm... rate of fire... Heh, quite the opposite for MY pistol then: it isn't recommended you fire fast, but you'll be darned-straight it can hit your target exactly where you point it at if your hands don't shake...
"... Well, you 'could' fire faster, but... it'll reheat real bad... so if you don't want your hand to suddenly meld into the gun, I'd advise you fire at 1 shot a second."
"I'll see what happens... you first eh?"
"Mmmm... a pleasure..." Jaden steps up the line, and when the horn sounds she pulls the trigger; the sensitive trigger and the quick refire-rate catches her off-guard, and she only hits 10 targets using all 40 shots in a short 11 seconds, "The hell? This is like a minigun for lasers!"
David laughs to himself, "That's why it's got a 253 round battery. I'll have to recharge it soon, though..."
She grins smugly at his remark, "Well, let's see you do some shooting with my pistol this time."
"Alright, lets do this." David looks closely at her pistol in his hands: it was a small, copper-red gun with an oval cross-sectioned body; the body was smooth and simple, and since there didn't seem to be any apparent barrel, there was instead a gunhole on one side, the top featuring ghost-ring aperture sights; the clip was a D-shaped cartridge at the very back of the gun that blended well with the body; he raises a curious eyebrow at the pistol before trying to feel the gun's handle: it didn't fit well with his hand, but then it wasn't his pistol anyway.
The horn sounds and David opens fire like he usually does, yet despite the high rate of fire, each shot is dead-on; however, after hitting 28 targets in 10 seconds David suddenly throws the gun down in exclamation, even with 20 seconds to spare; the air around the pistol was vibrating from the heat generated, "Holy crap that's hot!"
After waiting for several more seconds he picks it up again and takes down 2 more targets before the horns sound, which prompts him to throw the red-hot pistol on the table, "Accurate yes, hot hellYES!"
Jaden laughs hard at David's exclamation, "As someone once said to me, 'it'll do that to ya', hahah!"
"I see you've picked up on my catch phrase." He grins at her remark.
She shrugs her shoulders, "Well, it seemed appropriate to use it, si? Heheheheh...
"So... 30 feet, 10-interval this time?"
"You want another try with mine?" He asks.
"Well, we now both know the guns a bit, so yeah... Why not?"
"Alright." After setting up the computer he calls out to her, "Get ready!" Jaden gets into position just before the horn sounds.
She inhales and holds her breath, then shoots on the first-15 closer targets; then she exhales slowly as she continues shooting, managing to nab a total of 26 hits out of 30 targets in the 40-second time limit.
"Not bad." He raises in impressed eyebrow.
She scratches her head and grins sheepishly, "Yeah... honestly, I'm even surprised myself!
"So then... who wins this first part?"
"Well... Your pistol's much more accurate, but becomes a reactor at a high rate of fire while mine can spit rounds that are only slightly less accurate.
"So uh... I'd say mine...?" He beams a wide grin.
The Corsair shrugs her shoulders, "Heh... Time's against me, I guess... oh well...
"... but now... is the second and last part of the bet." She starts to smile.
"Right... Lets hear it."
"Oh no... You don't have to 'hear' it... You'll just have to see it..." And the smile becomes a lustful grin.
All of a sudden, she places her fingers to grip her flight-suit zipper, and then slowly brings it down, unzipping herself; she takes off the bulky wear and lets it drop down to her feet, leaving only white underwear covering her; apart from her boots which she decides to keep wearing, she was now half-naked right before David's eyes.
She rubs her skin softly and sensually, sighing very relaxedly to herself, "Mmmm... Clothes usually restrict me, so I'm at my best the lesser the amount of clothes I wear, heheh..."
Next, from the pockets of her dropped-off flight suit, she takes out a large spraying can and a thick, blue glove, which she promptly wears on her gun-hand, "... Want to now compete against me at 90% of my best?"
Though he never expected her to suddenly take her clothes off, he didn't look too surprised at it, "I'm still completely confused, but ok."
"I'll go first then..." She positions herself on the firing place, awaiting the horn to sound.
She slowly does a few deep, comforting breaths as the wind starts caressing her skin, and somehow it gives her near-unparalleled comfort that would allow her to focus better on the stage-1's 20-targets; when the horn sounds, she wastes no time hitting the marks at a faster rate of fire of more or less 2-3 shots a second, hitting all of the targets in only 14 seconds at STILL the same exact accuracy she had before; to further add, all of the shots were either aimed right between the eyes, or at the what-would've-been-sensitive groin area, all of them near-perfectly-alike in their respective hit placements.
But as the gun begins to overheat, she aims the spraying can towards the gun. She squeezes the nozzle, and a very cold mist blasts directly onto the gun, the extremely-cold temperature counteracting the heat generated from the gun, whilst the glove she wore on her other hand protected it from the flash-freezing temperature; the gun quickly loses its heat, and when it was finally at the default temperature she reloads in another clip and twirls the gun in triumph, "... Now top THAT, David." And she grins at him eagerly.
David laughs pleasantly in reply, "Alright..." He moves up to the mark, then turns on some settings on his pistol before giving a thumbs up, "... Ready."
When the horn sounds, David begins to fire these very powerful single beams of light, each shot so thick it takes out 2-3 targets in one blow, but giving enough kick to throw his aiming off a bit; nevertheless, he takes out all 20 targets in only 10 shots and 13.9 seconds.
Jaden raises her eyebrow in disbelief, "... Whoa... like... whoa... That's an impressive feature, David!"
He gives a large grin, "That is the combined power of the 3 barrels."
"Hah! Tis' not over yet, David! There's still the 30-feet, 10-interval!" She smugly berates.
David laughs confidently to himself, "Good luck."
Stepping up to the mark, as Jaden waits for the horn she heaves in another breath. As the cold wind slowly and softly caresses her skin, her senses sharpen significantly, allowing her to calm down and concentrate deeply on the targets.
The horn sounds, and she fires even faster than before whilst continuously-spraying more mist on the pistol; in one, non-stop barrage of bolts, she manages to down all 30 targets in only 10 seconds, each shot equally-consistent and equally-precise to within a millimeter.
"Well damn..." David scratches his chin with amazement, "Those 30 targets just got their arse kicked... Be hard to top that."
Jaden gives a smirk as she exits the firing line, "... But I suppose you've got a trick up your sleeve?"
"You know em all now... Going to have to focus on this one." He steps up to the line, then the horn sounds and David fires as quickly as he can pull the trigger. Because the shots usually take out 3 targets, missing was not a problem.
After taking out 27 of the 30 marks in 9.3 seconds, David lines up the last shot and pulls the trigger, which could've let out a shot that would've set his time at 9.9 seconds...
... But as he does so, nothing happens, "FRAK! Dead battery! Where's the spare?!" He quickly tries to reload the pistol in time but just as he inserts the new battery the horn sounds...
Jaden went somewhat breathless as David had almost beaten her: one could've sworn she almost fainted in relief when she saw David had unluckily ran out of ammo; as David walked back she twitches her eye in undeniable shock, "... I... I won...?"
He lets out a heavy sigh, "... Yes..."
".............. CHIIIDOOOOOOOO!!!" All of a sudden she starts dancing around and shakes her hips slowly from side-to-side as her arms and hands were raised up in the air in triumphant cheering; David was initially surprised as she began to move, but he soon was staring at her with a glint in his eyes as she went on, "He ganado! Una fantástica, cerca del partido victo---"
But then she quickly calms down and starts to contemplate, "... Oh wait a sec... but the first part's still on your side... so...
"... does that mean we're even?"
"I guess so..." Then he looks away and whispered to himself, "... Though I'd be willing to lose any day to see that again---"
"What? See what again?" Jaden's senses were still sharp enough to have heard his murmer's clearly, replying almost immediately after he spoke.
Quickly realising she must have heard him he tries to faint a cough, "Uhh... That grenade going off again, those things are always good."
For a moment she narrows her eyes in suspicion...
But she soon shrugs her shoulders and smiles smugly to herself, "... Well, this could STILL be my day! Out of all the major bets we've done, like shooting down that sassy-mouth's ship, this time... I at LEAST get it even! Fantástico! That sure does still deserve some praise." and she continues on with her victory dance.
As she carried on with her dancing, David continues to watch her with a sly grin to himself, "... Yes... yes it does..."
... When Jaden was done, she grabs her flight suit and puts the uncomfortable garments back on, "Ugh... back into the grim-filled wear... I can't wait to get another dip into the pool now...
"Let's head off home, si?" She walks over back to the entrance.
"Sure..." Then he remembers something and exclaims, "... Oh wait! I finally got a second round for that launcher, and I've always wanted to see what it was like firing it. Want to watch?"
She suddenly stops in her tracks and turns her head back, her face once again excited, "... Really? I get to see a rocket launcher fire its rocket?! Awesome!!!"
"Hehe." He goes up the stairs for a minute, and returns with the launcher on one hand being carried on his shoulder, and a very fat rocket on the other hand, "Damn this thing is heavy... But then again, it can take down a grizzly freighter."
"... Is there any way I could help along in using it?" She grins devilishly.
"Nah... It's designed for only one person... And you'd probably be in the way of the jet. Don't want to get fried after you win big, do you?"
"ehm... Alright then..." She walks over to David's side and waits anxiously for the shot to be fired.
He kneels down and aims at a target right at the end of the range, "Alright... Safety off... Target lock on...
"... Ready?"
Her ocular implant whizzes with its' optical-zoom at the ready, "As prepared as I could ever want!"
"Ok... 3... 2.... 1... fire!" He presses the trigger and the rocket shoots off: designed to hit armored space craft in low orbit, the rocket travels the 200-meters in less than half a second and squarely-hits the target; when the rocket's antimatter payload spreads outwards and meets matter the reaction releases tremendous amounts of explosive force around a large radius, creating a blast of air that could be felt by the two who were already a distance away; the explosion bursts into a dazzling array of blue and yellow light, with sparks flying off like welding particles in all directions; then it further explodes again, sky-blue gas electrifying around the air for a split second. The force creates a dust-cloud several dozens of meters high up in the air.
Jaden looks on in awe, "... Wooowwww..." She unconsciously-leans on David's shoulder as she remarks, "... That explosion looks like a fireworks display on New Year's Eve... so... beautiful..."
"Or like a SNAC hitting a fighter, phew...! It's so cool when you get that hit..."
It's only as the dust settles she now notices herself leaning on David; she quickly stops and scratches her head embarrassedly, "... ehm... Sorry for that."
He replies absent-mindedly, "Hmmm, what?"
"... uh... Yeah... Nothing happened..." She grins sheepishly for a moment, "Got anymore?" And she clasps her hands in hopes of a positive answer.
"One more shot... But I want to keep that in case a not-so-friendly ship comes around here."
"huh... How much does each shot cost anyway?"
"Well, the average SNAC shot cost 7k in power consumption and antimatter. That missile, which is a tad more powerful, cost me 10k. And the launcher alone? 5 million. And you try getting the ammo through without detection!
"But by god it was worth it!"
"Yup! Praise be to awesome weapons technology!" And she laughs out admirably.
"And this thing isn't the biggest on the market."
"Like hell? You say there are BIGGER heavy-arms out there?"
"Well, this," he points at his current rocket launcher, "was the VR960FX. I think the VT series is a bit bigger. We can check when we get back." He brings the launcher back up to the upper floor and then comes back after a few moments, "... Shall we?"
"Get back? With pleasure..." And the two head off back towards the estate. It was already near sunset by the time they exit the range...
(//this is actually just the other post's ending, edited to feel more developed)
... After several minutes of walking up the path they reach the point where the estate now came into view; the soft sunset now glittered gorgeously across the open ocean, the estate complex to the opposite side as a great scenic backdrop to the picture, "... Wow... New Tokyo sure is a wonderful place..."
Jaden then turns to face David, "... don't you think so, David?" and she smiles politely.
"But the people aren't..." He smirks wryly in reply.
His remark sent her bursting in laughter, "... Yeah. That would make this planet 'meh', I guess..."
He shrugs his shoulders, "The goods and the bads... got to take them together."
"Si... The good and the bad... just like... uhm..." It seems she began to daydream as she went on to speak half to herself, "... Just like David... Though you have your quirks and slow-wit... you still have your mo---"
And all of a sudden she realizes what she had just been saying and her eye shoots wide-open in shock, "... OH WAIT!!! WHAT AM I SAYING?!" She turns back to face him, her face blushing a bit, "You didn't have to hear all of that!"
He raises an eyebrow, "... I'm guessing that was money?"
"...s... Si... The mo-ney... that must be it." She tries to point out with trouble.
"Oh? Money wasn't it?" He narrows his eyes suspiciously.
She blushes even more, "Wh-wh-what are you implying?! It's the money, no?"
"You're just filling in what I thought it was. Come on, what was it?"
She stammers, "Wh-what d-do you mean 'j-j-just filling in what you thought?' I-isn't it wh-what it was?" She quickly looks away, "... It's not like you'd be able to understand anyway, what with your slow-wit."
"Slow wit? Now your going to insult me and my money?"
Jaden suddenly pauses, then her tone goes apologetic, "... I... I'm sorry for that... but... how...
"... How could you come to believe it? We've only met a few months ago, and... Just anyone could shrug it off as nothing... as you've always done... but... I..."
She covers her face with her hands, "... I don't know... I just don't know anymore..."
"What don't you know? What have I been shrugging off? You're not making this any clearer." David replies in confusion.
She lifts her hands off her face to stare at him in a bit of disbelief, "Have... have you not noticed anything at all, David? Is it really that not understandable? Haven't you even noticed the signs, at least?" her eyes twinkling with tears.
"Signs for what?" he wonders.
Pausing for a while, Jaden bites her lip as she contemplated deeply...
... And all of a sudden her eye shoots wide-open in realization of something, "... of course...
"Listen closely, Freelancer, for this'll probably be the last clue I'd be able to give you..."
She slowly walks over to David, eventually standing right in front of him; she places her cyborg hand on his right shoulder, and she slowly closes her eyes.
Then, she leans her head over to his left shoulder, and slowly heaves in a deep breath on his neck; she pauses for a moment before walking away, "... There... That should be sufficient enough... if that don't tell anything, then I don't know what will...
"... Except for the blunt truth... but I don't think you deserve such bluntness unless you still don't get it..." She turns away to look at the sunset for the next few minutes.
... Eventually, David touches the affected area with his right hand and said to himself, "... The hell happened to a professional-relationship?"
"It exploded... right after your ship exploded by that Blood Dragon Gunboat Missile... but I think it already started to stray off when you tried to fend off those Wilde pilots before then." She replied without turning her head to look.
He asks, somewhat confused, "And why did it end then?"
"I... I just don't know... well, maybe at the time I didn't know, but..."
Then she looks up at the sky, "... Over the weeks where I got to think about it... if you hadn't tried to hold those Wilde off... would it have been different...? Would... would I not have seen you... as I saw Terry all those years ago...?"
She looks at her mechanical arm, and a tear drops down her human eye "... He was a good man... one who never gave up... he..." She closes the hand tightly and continues in-between sobs, "... He worked hard for me... he never yielded... he did everything in his power to make me feel happiness again... and he did eventually succeed in making me happy... happy in a long while, and...
"... When he never came back... when I found out later he was killed in his escape pod... I almost gave up...
"I guess... to say the least, when you tried to fend those Wilde off, I saw Terry in you... he helped me escape that Outcast ambush all those years ago... he gave up everything, even his own life... for me...
"... And that's why I don't know anymore... that's why I initially never wanted to rush things... because it wouldn't be fair to treat you as I did Terry... You weren't him... you're different... You're David. Though you have your quirks and everything, you still have your moments... It'd be wrong if I compared you to him, for you both are two different people."
David was listening the whole time, and when Jaden was done he bats a sincere smile at her, "... Well... At least now I know why you've been trying so hard to give me a boner."
She couldn't help but chuckle at the remark, "... Was that what my actions looked like to you? Heh... I guess I only learned half of what Terry taught me."
"I said trying, I didn't say you succeeded." The smile turns into a grin.
Jaden grunted at the remark, "Owww... Now that certainly hurt!"
David laughs jokingly at her response, "I never said you failed either..."
And his tone gets a little serious, "... And no. I wasn't so thick as to not realize what you were doing... I just remembered that you wanted only a professional-relationship and so I wasn't going to do anything."
"Yeah... My bad on just remembering that now... I also wanted that at the start, yet... it just happened... and everything fell into place for me... as for you, you still kept going..."
Then she turns to David, "... and that's another thing I like about you... though you may not appear to be, you're also focused. You've kept at being professional for as long as you thought it was appropriate, and..."
She smiles at him, "... Just think if it were NOT a professional-relationship...?"
"Well the last time I mixed work and play I almost got blown to bits." He points out.
She gingerly giggles to herself, "Hmmm... That's also a good reason.
"So yeah... I've given you my most direct clue as could possibly be... it's up to you if you understood and act on it... or not... but whatever it may be, I just hope I don't get kicked out of the house for it... would really bring me down if I couldn't enjoy another moment of swimming pool for myself..." Then Jaden slowly continues walking back to the estate.
David scratches his chin for a moment, but he decides to just follow close after her...
"... So what's so special about me trying to hold off those Wild?" David eventually breaks the tense silence first, "I've done it before plenty of other times." He smiles and says half to himself, "It's amazing how long a transport can take to charge cruise."
"It's the act itself that's special...
"Over the course of my entire life, I've witnessed several incidents where the odds were so against us that unless a few were to stall the opponents, everyone would perish, even though they'd know... there was little chance of returning back alive...
"... and out of all of them... only 1 instance where they came back to tell the tale..."
"I wasn't doing something like that... I could have stalled them for 10 minutes easily and still retreat. My plan was to have you to get out of the way, so I could retreat back knowing they didn't have any other targets. It almost worked... Damn Gu---"
"HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN THAT?! HOW COULD I HAVE KNOWN YOU'D BE ABLE TO SURVIVE, EH?!" She scowls at him.
David still kept his cool, "1... You know I had a very fast ship. 2... You knew I had no intentions of fighting, so I could focus on dodging only. And 3? You know I was in the LSF, and they taught us things like that."
Jaden stops in her tracks, calming a bit, but with tears dropping down, "... How could I... have known... it all went so fast, you know...? I could only rely on gut instincts at the time... in battle, you usually trust your instincts, and it's with training that they becomes decisive.
"But I... couldn't know... I didn't know... I wanted to know, but you could say emotions overuled logic..."
He shrugs his shoulders, "Well you could blame the fact we hadn't been working together all that long... in combat I mean. It's hard to work well if you don't understand your partner."
A short pause in speech... Her lips quiver a bit as she says in a hesitant tone, ".. Y... you're right... I...
"... I'm sorry, you're right. It was..." Then she bites her lips hard, "... It was foolish of me to love you. It's entirely my fault I got myself into this." She starts walking off hurriedly.
David stops walking, his face apparently stricken with disbelief, "The hell did that come from? I only said the reason as to why you didn't know I'd be fine."
Jaden turns around and looks at him frustratingly, her face really red, tears running down her cheek, "You don't have to sugar-coat it, David! You don't have to hide that I was stupid and clouded in my judgement! You don't have to hide it anymore that I was stupid to have thought you were going to die when I should've trusted your word! You don't have to hide it that I brought all of these complications upon myself! You don't have to hide it that I'm just a big, stupid, stupidESTUPIDO! You don't... you don't... GAAH!!!" She palms and covers her face very shamefully.
But then he walks up to her, and slowly puts his arm around her shoulders, saying in a comforting voice, "... But I'm still here now, aren't I? Don't bother regretting the past, you can't chan---"
Without warning she swiftly oustretches her arms and gives him a tight embrace; she buries her face on his shoulder, and as she continues to lightly sob he could feel the tears soaking up into his flight-suit.
He is taken back by the sudden gesture, "... I... erm... You wanna go to the pool when we get back? It's been a long day for you."
She suddenly stops her sobbing, her face still covered in his shoulder, for a few more moments. Then she looks back at David, her face still red, but her tone was clearly being sly, "... You've never had a girlfriend... have you?" She tries to make a sly grin, but it comes out crooked because she still felt sore.
He points out with a grin, "Ah, you're wrong there. I have had a girlfriend... Though it didn't last long."
Then he looks back at Jaden, "Trust is a hard thing to come by... And I need to be able to trust those around me."
She looks down to his feet, "... And I suppose... you don't trust me... not after I had cost you a valuable ship...?" She lets go of her hold on David, this time embracing herself, "... I'd understand if you didn't."
He smiles, "If I didn't trust you... would I have shown you my huge collection of weapons? Would have I purchased some very expensive ships for you? If I didn't trust you, why would I let you enter my life?"
She pauses at the remark, and then looks around for an answer...
However, she instead replies, "... Then... why do you trust me...? I haven't done anything that would deserve such... well, at least none that I could reasonably think of."
He thinks for a moment, but he himself turns up blank, "I... Don't know... I wish I did." He scratches his head with a slight grin.
Jaden jokingly implies, "... Soooo... We're both screwed up?" She tries to give a smile.
David laughs at the comment, "No... We're both human."
She nods her head, "... Si... Human..."
She walks for a few paces more before turning her head back at David and smiles warmly, "... So you... really do trust me...?"
He sighs, "... Not fully... No one has ever made it that far, but your close. Closer than you think."
She frowns a bit, but she nods in acknowledgement, "Si... I respect that... and forgive me once again for being so stupid as to have tried to give you my heart so readily, eh? It was unprofessional of me, and it would've been dangerous..."
She looks back up at the sky, "... especially in these troubled times."
"And impossible..." David continues in a stern, yet uncomfortable tone, "There are reasons why I don't trust people, Jaden... Some of these you may already know, but many you don't. I've had my heart broken once, and that will never happen again...
"... Thing's I've seen and experienced have taught me that trust is a far more valuable thing than most. Trust can save your live... but it can also take it..."
Jaden grips her chest very tightly, and she closes eyes as her next words come out painfully, "... I... remember... when I said those same words to Terry...
"Yet, unlike him, who was so sure of himself, I may not have the fortitude, nor the constitution to fight for such trust... and it would be pointless of me to try to prove it otherwise.
"For I get the feeling that you... may never change from that view." She lets out a long sigh before finally continuing on the path back to the Estate...
... But not before pausing for a second to finish with a statement, "... But thank you, at the very least... for having accepted me... into your life." And with that, she continues on her way...
... For a minute more, David just stands there on the path... alone... He watches on as Jaden got farther and farther from ear-shot.
When she was now too far for him to even shout out to, he whispers to himself, "... Time will tell, Jaden... Time will tell me if I am ready..."
*BUZZ“... Anyway, we should take a trip in the yacht. Bought the damn thing and never even used it.”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“The yacht's all done?!”BUZZ* Jaden squeals delightedly.
*BUZZ“Yep, had it for about a month now.”BUZZ*
After having had some training with David for the duration of their stay in Sigma-13, Jaden began tapping her fingers impatiently on the flight controls, awaiting the hour when she would be able to ride their highly-anticipated (at least to her) Democritus Yacht. As The G and the Terminal Velocity were cruising through the bluish, desolate Crow Nebula, heading northwards along the otherwise-empty space, she figured it was only a matter of time that that dream of hers would---
:::DANGER: VOLATILE GASES DETECTED::: As sudden as the computer quickly knee-jerks Jaden back to action, and to reality, the Terminal Velocity began to shudder under the wake of violent explosions blasting all across the Tiger Shark's shield array. Breaking formation, her ship barely misses another concentrated gas pocket which could've knocked the shields right out of commission had it been any closer. But no sooner did she save the ship from the mishap did the computer again annoy the Corsair woman's ears, :::HOSTILES DETECTED:::, and a GMG wing of three Hawks and a Falcon literally emerge from out of the blue.
“Frak... of all the-” she rolls her eyes in disgust, “Ugh... in a gas pocket of all places!”
Quickly, she tries to engage the thrusters, but instead of activating the appropriate switch she presses the mine-dropper button, mainly because she forgot it was also beside the thruster controls. With the Havoc being the closest foreign object to the Nuke Mine's sensors the ordinance wasted no time detonating its payload upon The G's shields.
It was David's turn to roll his eyes in his own disgust as the energy field on his ship drained to zero, *BUZZ“Yes Jaden, that's a nuke mine.”BUZZ*
Too focused was the Corsair in her battle to listen to David's drooling sarcasm. Fighting against the GMG was one thing: not only were they famed for some of the best pilots in this side of the Sigmas, but Jaden was STILL getting used to the flight controls of her ship; yet fighting the GMG within a field of perilous explosive gas pockets was a daunting task at best, “The GMG sure are a bunch of pitas!”
As the battle dragged on, Jaden began entering through increasing levels of stress and frustration. She was still winning the battle, however the circumstance, as three out of four of the ships were downed by the wailing of her Purple Goddesses. Unfortunately, the battle had dragged on for too long, for another wing of 5 Falcons had just rudely entered the fray.
This proved to be the last straw in her already-thin line: Jaden suddenly let loose a blood-curdling scream on the comms that rung sharply upon David's ears, *BUZZ“Ugh... Haven't heard that in a while... Wasn't expecting it either.”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“What're you babbling about?”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“Nothing...”BUZZ* David could only watch as the skirmish raged on. It wasn't that he couldn't help: he could, but he wasn't hostile with the GMG... And besides, she apparently didn't need his assistance anyway.
Though their skill was admirable, luckily for her it seemed the backup-GMG weren't familiar with their surroundings: numerous times the pilots would clumsily run into an explosive pocket, significantly damaging their shields. Jaden quickly took the advantage, and with her admirable light-fighter agility she lead the enemy towards their own imminent deaths through well-timed engine kills and dizzying strafing maneuvers. As each pocket lit up the battlespace like countless surrounding supernova blasts, one by one each GMG fighter vaporized into the nothingness of space.
As the last Falcon popped open like a pricked party-balloon, Jaden sighs to herself, relieved that she had just exterminated one more annoyance in her life... at least for the time being. She forms her ship back with The G, and head off on their way.
Soon enough, David spots something on mid-range scanners, *BUZZ“Huh, cool... A Honshu Jump Hole.”BUZZ* He ventures in the anomaly without a second thought, with Jaden just trailing behind...
As soon as the Terminal Velocity finishes the jump successfully, the comms suddenly ring out with the familiar ultimatum Jaden knows only intimately, *BUZZ“Well...! Look what I found. If you know what's good for you, you'll spill your bay right NOW!”BUZZ*
A wing of Corsair Legionnaires demanded David to surrender his H-fuel stocks. Sure, being equipped with a top-of-the-line bomber against lesser snubcraft he could easily best the Corsair rookies; but he didn't. To do so would sour his relationship with his Corsair friend. Besides, what harm would losing 10 units'-worth of H-fuel do? He could always resupply the next time they were docked. After a few seconds of thought, he opened up the Havoc's cargo bay doors and released the crates, the leader more than willing to tractor the booty back to his ship, *BUZZ“Shame... I was expecting a fight. No matter.”BUZZ*
But there was something familiar about this place that Jaden just couldn't put her finger on, *BUZZ“Hey... wait a minute...
*BUZZ“I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS JUMPHOLE!!!”BUZZ* ((A while back, she decided to do some recon around the Honshu system, and heard a rumor in a bar that there was a jumphole somewhere that led to the Sigma-13 system. She couldn't find it, despite hours of searching the nebula.)) Upset at how it just conveniently-appears to her now, she mumbles to herself something about luck being a frakker.
*BUZZ“You take point.”BUZZ* After calming down a bit, Jaden plots a course on the Navmap for the fastest point back to Planet Honshu. Upon doing so, she executes the Go-To command on the flight-controls, propelling the ship forward in cruise to the nearest Trade Lane, with The G following closely beside.
*BUZZ“Can I check something out on Planet Honshu? I've heard they've got some prosthetic upgrades.”BUZZ*
He shrugs his shoulders, *BUZZ“Sure.”BUZZ*
They soon arrive in-orbit above the water world, Planet Honshu. Just as Jaden contacts traffic control for a request to land, David stops short of following her, and decides to latch his ship on the mooring fixture instead.
Her task on Planet Honshu was pretty straightforward: go to the nearest Kishiro Biomechatronics Emporium, find some suitably-adapted prosthetic limbs and parts for herself, pay for them, and finally get back, “God knows I need to find some replacement prosthetics for these old, ugly models,” she soliloquized to herself, looking at her robotic left arm and leg which were now showing signs of wear and tear due to frequent use.
And the short trip turned out all right: Jaden was able to replace her ugly, cylindrical ocular implant with something that finally resembled a decent eye, and still complete with all the features of her old one; now the only way one could tell one of her eyes was artificial was when the pupils changed color. Sadly, she couldn't find any suitable replacement for her arm and leg, but at least the mechanic gave her a more thorough general maintenance.
Several minutes had passed by the time Jaden left the docking ring of Planet Honshu. The G was no longer moored, but was instead pointing itself towards the planet, *BUZZ“Hehehe....”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“What?”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“You see it? What's that landmass look like?”BUZZ* His ship was pointing directly to one of the more distinct landmasses, the continent Sarito: it was a chain of 3 large islands, one of them being the largest of the three, *BUZZ“Call me immature, but I just find that funny...”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“Huh?”BUZZ* David's ship was pointing meticulously towards the largest island, the sub-continent Sarito-Makoto. Jaden angled the ship and made a closer inspection: it was squarish-ovoid, with a long and slightly curved peninsula on one of the corners.
*BUZZ“Wait... Why am I telling you?”BUZZ*
Jaden simply shrugged her shoulders at her first impression of it, *BUZZ“Looks like a big pot with a handle... Why?”BUZZ*
*BUZZ“Nothing... Yea that's it.”BUZZ* His reply was immediate, and somewhat slightly anxious, as he quickly turned the ship back en-route to Planet New Tokyo.
“Hmmm...” Jaden suspicions makes her take another look at it, and after a few more seconds something lewd comes up: a person's manhood pointing slightly upwards to the right. She couldn't help but make a foxy grin to herself as she entered formation with David's ship, *BUZZ“What were you thinking it was, mmmhhhmmm?”BUZZ*
... He didn't reply back.
... Eventually they reach Roppongi Station, in orbit above Planet New Tokyo; moored nearby was a Democritus Yacht, with the word, Ultrasound, embezzled on the sides of the ship, “I can't believe I... we... have a real Democritus Yacht now... I must be dreaming...!”
Shortly after David docks The G in Roppongi, the Ultrasound undocks. Its' sleek design, its' strong twin engines, its classy outside features: Jaden was beginning to sweat a bit at the thought of just what's awaiting for her inside the fabled vessel of luxury, *BUZZ“I wanna board in... Can I?”BUZZ* She says impatiently.
*BUZZ“Alright, dock up.”BUZZ* A hatch on the hind-ventral side opens up, large enough for a single fighter to fit; but the Tiger Shark's autopilot has no trouble maneuvering itself into the landing bay...
"Andres... Home." The Tiger Shark, Terminal Velocity, flew high above what looked to be a small Corsair settlement on the steep slope of this enormous active volcano, Mount Andres. Jaden Armand, the pilot of this Tiger Shark, leaned her head to the side to get a good look at the hellish, ash-covered lands beneath her, "... At least it was until I was cast out for my cowardice."
The Andres settlement was a mining town that relied heavily on exporting artifacts for its income and labor. But despite the vast quantities of artifacts and the occasional mineral vein to be found underneath the volcano, living conditions here were quite harsh: Mount Andres constantly spews smoke pillars upwards and lava down its mouth, the smoke blotting out the skies with thick ash and soot, which then fall to the ground like fine, grey snow, while the red-hot lava rivers were an ever-present hazard and nuisance for the residents, keeping the air constantly hot and dry. While it's bad enough having to deal with the build-up of soot that risked solidifying like concrete if it wasn't shoveled out quickly enough, the town relied on supply shipments from other cities to survive, but even these were hard to come by due to the ash clouds presenting navigational hazards like poor visibility and frequent lightning strikes.
Fortunately for Jaden, the skies were clear enough that day for spacecraft to pass safely, and with the help of ground control she got her ship to dock on the nearest public hanger available. It was tricky landing a ship with its cockpit glass being buffeted by falling soot, having to rely on scanner-imagery to see through the soot, but eventually she touches the Terminal Velocity down on the dusty landing pad. As the hanger roof retracts to shield the ship from further falloff, Jaden begins powering down the ship and grabs her rebreather before heading out.
After sliding down the cockpit ladder, she puts the rebreather on and then brushes the dust from her black flight suit. Moments later, service robots arrive to start maintenance procedures on the Tiger Shark, followed by a gravitonic platform to ferry the food rations from the ship's cargo hold. Guessing that the robots can manage on their own, she leaves them to their duties and exits the hanger building.
Much of the town runs underground and is powered by geothermal energy from the volcano itself, the residents only having to come up topside to work in the towers connected to the cave network poking from underground to serve as ground control for visiting and departing ships, maintain the powerful fans that keep the soot from solidifying on the entrances into Andres, and see to it the lava rivers are always diverted from the town's entrance ways.
When Jaden exited the hanger bay, she was surprised by how populated the town's caveways were: she could note down hundreds of people passing her by, many of them in comfortable-enough clothing, while the rocky cave walls were now polished smooth... a far-cry from the dozens of shabby mining denizens walking through rough cave stone she was used to seeing in her childhood days. Looking around, she found herself unfamiliar with the place she was in, but thankfully a nearby public info-terminal pointed her in the right direction.
It was surprisingly-easy to blend into the crowd as Jaden passed through the brown cave halls of Andres since most of the people were usually busy with something, and being a Corsair settlement, it was alright for her to open carry her pistol so long as she behaved. The passageways were large enough to fly a light fighter through, but most of the traffic consisted of people, with the occasional gravitonic platform following behind groups, carrying either heavy luggage or commodities like artifacts or supplies. Another change was how there were many more complexes connected to the tunnels than when she first left. In fact, some of the doors were high above, reachable by wide, robust catwalks connected to the ground by elevators and escalators. Jaden couldn't help but smile, knowing how much Andres had developed since she was last here.
Soon, Jaden arrives at the crossroads she was very familiar with, Felipe-3 Junction. What made this junction very familiar to her was that it used to be a very busy place: being a crossroad that led to various dig sites on one side and several hanger bays on the other, Felipe-3 Junction had become somewhat of a market district. Even now she can still find many services here like restaurants, bars, mining stores and some specialized spacecraft equipment dealers. She could even find her favorite restaurant, Pueblo San Carlos, still running in business.
But more importantly, however, Jaden used to live near here.
After weaving through the crowds of people, a task easier said than done because a small fiesta was going on in the middle of the crossroads at the time, she soon came upon the dusty metal door, and a tear fell down her eye. It felt like an eternity since she left this place, an age since she was exiled by her own people and made an untouchable.
But the door suddenly slides open, flinching Jaden, and the next thing she saw in front of her was a small boy, probably no older than ten years old, "Uh... Hola?"
"EEEK! Mamá, Mamá! There is a strange woman at the dooor!"
"Ack! Hijo, please don't panic, I---"
"Who's there?!" Jaden suddenly looks up to see a woman in her early 30's sporting a fairly-large rifle at her, "Who are you?! What are you doing here, hermana?!"
"Why shouldn't I, hermana?" The rifle starts humming, indicating it was fully warmed up and ready to shoot at drop of a hat, "For all I know you could be an assassin, or a kidnapper trying to take my precious hijo away! Now, ON THE GROUND, PITA!"
Jaden quickly falls to the ground as the boy motions back inside. Satisfied her son is safe, she slowly motions to Jaden, but stops a distance away to avoid any sudden ambush, "Now... why are you here, hermana?"
"I u-used to live here, señorita. I j-just wanted to pay a visit."
The woman raises her eyebrows from Jaden's statement, "You... used to live here?"
The Freelancer, David Gee, was busy applying polish onto his ship, the Gforce, in the estate's hanger, when he looked up to see the Corsair-exile, Jaden Armand, wearing what appeared to be a black flight suit, thicker and more durable than what she'd normally wear, but it looked new, was ironed neat and had no creases in its clothing. She was spinning slowly on the spot so he could get a good view of her entire package.
But he only glanced for a moment, before going back to polishing his ship as he said, “Uh... what is it exactly?”
“Hmm?” The Corsair-exile stopped and replied, “It's my attire for the party we'll have tonight! I hope it's... uhm... neutral enough for Darwin, is it? I'd go in my normal flight suit, but as you know it's cruddy, worn out, and actually shows my cleavage more. This one's a rental, it's what capital crews use when expecting breaches and boarding action.”
The Libertonian stopped polishing his fighter's port wing, took a proper gander at Jaden, and then laughed lightly at now noticing how bluntly-drab her outfit looked, “It's still a formal event, Jaden. Look, this is what I'm wearing to it.” He climbed into the cockpit, and pulled out a blue-and-golden military dress uniform from a locker behind the second seat. The suit had the LSF symbols on its shoulders, while the front was decorated with the medals David earned during his time within the LSF.
“Ehm,” Jaden frowned upon seeing the snappy garment, lowering her head as she murmured, “Well... If I wasn't such a mercenary vagabond who's been in exile for years before we met, I'd have a little more decent clothing, or access to it in the Empirio.”
Her eyes shut tighter as she continued, “It's actually been a while since I've had parties like... no, this is my first time to have parties like these, Dave.” She bit her lip, twirling her hair with an uncomfortable finger.
David, on the other hand, couldn't help laughing aloud, “Wow! Someone who's gone out less than me. That was not something I thought possible, hahah!”
The woman glared back, “Hey! Can't help it if I'm a Corsario who's been cut off from her own people! I'll have you know that I do go out, but they're not these posh occasions that command luxury. The places I frequent are more like nightclubs and bars and... such...” She pouted her lips, rubbing her arm awkardly, “So... yeah... My clothes are usually of the small and light and... well... thin kind, you know?”
“Ah, so I thought right.” He turned around and went back to his polishing business, “Never been to a nightclub, neither do I plan to. But this party ain't that fancy. It's simply a get-together of those who'll be going on the Gallic operation. A chance to meet each other and learn more about the people we'll be working with.”
The Corsair-exile folded her arms, thinking of what he said to her. “... Well, alright. I'll try and see if the Hogosha have any Corsair-suits for me to wear.” She sighed tiredly as she turned to leave David to himself.
“You should know, it doesn't have to be Corsair,” the Libertonian called out. “It can be whatever you like, just... a little more... mature. I'm using my LSF uniform simply because I've been itching for a chance to wear it.”
“Nah, I'd rather appreciate it if I could find Corsair-based attire. But if I can't, that's a welcoming thought...”
Then she stopped in her tracks, an idea popping in her head. “Say!” She suddenly ran back to David and leaned near him on a still-unpolished side of the fighter. She smiled hopefully while asking, “What if you stretched out your contacts and let me borrow an LSF suit like that of my size?”
David lifted his head and looked at Jaden with a slightly confused face, “You? In a LSF uniform? That'd be... different...” He scratched his chin with his cleaning rag, unknowingly smudging himself there as he thought out loud, “Ask Darwin, he might have one on the Timepiece. He usually has everything on the Timepiece. Besides, my only LSF contact isn't actually in the LSF. He just knows people who are.”
Well, that shot down her mood again. “... Oh. Uh...” But remarkably, she jolted up smiling and exclaimed, “Well in that case, I might as well ask if he's got a Corsair uniform for me. If not, then one from the LSF's an interesting alternative!” She leaned out of the ship and began jogging out the hangar, “Alright, gracias!”
When she finally passed through the door, David shook his head and breathed to himself, “Dave? That's getting casual again. And for me to get a uniform in at such short notice? I ain't magical...” With that, he went back to cleaning his little baby.
Meanwhile, Jaden hurriedly went to the Living Room and opened the hidden door to the Holoroom. Once she disappeared into the darkness, she heaved in a puff of air, then let it out in the form of orders, “Holoroom activate. Account: Jaden Armand, Password: Six Nine Dash Alpha Beta Crete.”
The whole room immediately flooded white in Jaden's eyes, and after adjusting to the sudden brightness, she paced over to the chair and leaned on one of the arm rests. She called out again at the shining emptiness, “Computer, contact Darwin.” She thought about relaxing on the plasteel furniture, but decided against it to appear more formal before her de facto superior.
The calling icon only lasted a few seconds before the voice of George Darwin echoed through the room. It was audio only, as he was using an earpiece and was not in the holoroom aboard the Timepiece. ::: “Yes, Jaden? No, I think I'll stick to the red.” ::: Jaden wondered what that last sentence meant at first, until she noticed the transmission was accompanied by other sounds on Darwin's end, things being moved, other crewmembers chattering, etc.
“Hola, Sénor Darwin.” Guess she could relax herself after all. She sat on the chair comfortably while letting her legs hang on an arm rest. “I'll make it blunt and brief. Do you have a Corsair formal uniform, or at least LSF ones, that I could borrow from you, please? It's for the party tonight, didn't have much luck finding one on my own.”
A sudden laugh from Darwin was heard in the other line, making the Corsair-exile grunt. ::: “I suppose you never came across such events in your previous lines of work?” ::: Darwin voiced out, ::: “No no, I wasn't laughing at you, just... The black is fine, don't stress over it.” :::
Calming down in lieu of his quick clarification, she asked, “So... Should I go with the garment I filed to you a few days ago, or is my original flight suite fine? If latter, I can find a new one.”
::: “Yes, excellent idea, I'm sure they'll love that...” ::: Too bad it wasn't directed at her when he continued, ::: “Now Jaden, you should choose neither. You asked for military attire, that I can provide. With my line of work, you never know what you may need. I'll leave it up to you, which you'd rather. Is that all you've called for? NO, I don't want that sculpture, for god's sake!” :::
That last one almost made her burst out laughing, but she quickly composed herself and replied back, “Y-yeah, that's all I called for... Where and when can I pick it up?”
::: “When you arrive on the Timepiece, I will personally greet you and see you to where you can get changed. But until then, I must get back to the preparations.” ::: The audio suddenly blasted the room with soft cement crashing on metallic floor, followed by someone shouting, 'Sir I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, sir!'. ::: “Good! Good! I didn't like it anyway, clean it up and move onto another duty... STOP COWERING LIKE A BOY! I'm not going to beat you! What have the other crewmembers been telling yo-” ::: And with that, the transmission cut off.
Sheer, unadultered laughter came out of the woman's mouth, and it took a short while for her to recompose and digest what Darwin instructed to her. “I would've loved a sculpture for myself... Oh well. Computer, interface deactivate.” The room descended into darkness once again as Jaden opened and walked out the room, heading back to the mansion's hangar.
David raised an eyebrow when he noticed Jaden quickly rushing back in, waving cheerfully as she jogged to the Tiger Shark, “Hi Dave!” And just as quickly as she had appeared, she climbed up her ship's ladder and vanished into the cockpit of the Terminal Velocity, plotting a course to somewhere on the NavMap, before waving again at him, “Bye, Dave! Going ahead to the Timepiece to grab my new clothes, alright?”
His face broke into a frown while shouting back, “It's David...!” just as the Shark's cockpit sealed shut, and the ship lifted off through the roof doors and into space.
He scratched wonderingly to himself, “... And we're not due 'til...” But a quick check on his PDA made his eyes pop out in shock, “Oh, hell.” David quickly scrambled to get everything he needed into the Gforce, and after having done a hurried check to see he hadn't missed anything, he set off for the Timepiece himself, hoping to whatever higher power was up there that he'd be able to catch up with Jaden.
----------
... Half an hour later.
The Terminal Velocity warped out of the Honshu Jumpgate into the Sigma 19 nebula. Following the Nav Buoys, she activated Trade Lane sequence to Gas Miner Ogashawa, making the little fighter zip through the network at blinding speeds. Still, Jaden wasn't that much in a rush, so she had the time to notice the far-off stars cast a faint glow on one side, the radiant blue of the nebula surrounding her shadowing the rest. Exiting the Trade Lane jump, she switched on cruise engines and braced for the momentary thump of Cruise Speed on her body.
The moment the Tiger Shark's sensors returned to full capacity from exiting the nebula, Jaden noticed passive scanners had strangely picked up the signal of the Gforce, trailing several kilometers behind. Wondering why, she interfaced with the com and voiced out, ::: “David! What're you doing here? Thought the event wasn't in a couple hours. Here, I'll slow down a bit so you can form up.” ::: She disengaged Cruise Speed momentarily to allow the Virage to catch up.
His reply came back snarky, ::: “Yeah, only a couple. I won't have any time to show off my Virage!” :::
::: “Pfff, you and your ships...” ::: Jaden rolled her eyes, switching her ship to cruise again when the Gforce got close enough to enter formation. ::: “Ah well, I suppose that's also enough time for me to put on my make-up too.” :::
The pilot of the Gforce laughed in response, ::: “I was told to pick one of these two: women, or starships. I chose starships because they could: One, kill things and blow stuff up, Two, get you from place-to-place, and Three, do both One and Two, and look badass while doing so.” ::: With the Gforce now in hot pursuit, all the Terminal Velocity had to do was continue on its merry way. Soon, the Liner, Enthusiast's Timepiece, came into view as a thin, metallic thread in the distance.
::: “Hah! Well, I can tell you this much, no starship could ever give you the experience of a proper blowjob... Unless you're one of those types with that fetish, hahahah!” :::
Then she added in with a sense of obligation in her voice, ::: “And if you're talking about those three qualities alone, sheesh, then get a Corsair woman! We kill and blow stuff up FOR A LIVING, and can get you from place-to-place in more ways than just travel, heheh... Furthermore, we have to look badass for our mates, or else the other houses will call us pussies and think we're getting soft, before coming to invade our territories with massive fleets of gunboats and capital ships, hahahah!” :::
She felt proud, maybe even a little smug at first for figuring she had countered his points deftly, but the more she thought about it, the more her face flushed embarrassingly from feeling she wasn't really living up to her own marketing stunt. ::: “Because that comment wasn’t advertising yourself at all, was it?” ::: Oh, the nerve of that man to laugh insult to her injury!
::: “I wish, heh... Sue me for being a bad representative of my people, eh?” :::
::: “You ain't anymore. You're a high-rolling Freelancer who can do whatever she wants... to a point.” :::
::: “High-rolling Freelancer, eh?” ::: That had a nice ring to it, though... Jaden Armand, femme fatale of the cosmos, once father[A.D.M.I.N. Censored] by her own people, now the father[A.D.M.I.N. Censored] to those who dared threaten whatever she held dear. ::: “ Well... Yeah, I guess. Maybe I should start counting my blessings more... Especially... well...” :::
Another pause as her face turned red again, doing her best not to accidentally spoil the name of you-knew-who. ::: “Yeah. Blessings, hahah!” :::
Eventually, the liner came close enough for the two ships to hail it. ::: “Liner Enthusiast's Timepiece, this is Jaden Armand and David Gee of the Terminal Velocity and Gforce, respective, requesting permission to dock.” :::
::: “You don't need to nanny me... I can make my own calls, you know.” ::: David remarked with a frown.
::: “Terminal Velocity and Gforce, you're both cleared to proceed to Dock 1. Gforce, you are second in line.” :::
::: “Roger. Second in line for dock 1.” :::
Jaden shrugged her shoulders before replying to her wingman. ::: “Suit yourself, David. Just thought it shorter if I did it in one go instead of letting each of us do so on our own.” ::: With that, the Tiger Shark entered the docking port, with the Virage only seconds behind.
The two ships glided over and created shallow updrafts all over the for-now-empty hangar floor, shuffling, but not crumpling George Darwin's red suit as he stood there, waiting for the ships to finish landing.
The first one to touch down was the Gforce, but once the pilot came out of the cockpit he quickly noticed that the polish on his beloved ship had been dulled of it's shine: the nebula proved to be quite the [A.D.M.I.N. Censored] for the night, it seemed. “Oh, come on! Ugh...” Knowing the maintenance bots never did much more than refuel and resupply, the Freelancer went back up the ladder and rummaged about his stuff to get his cleaning equipment out.
Meanwhile, the Terminal Velocity's pilot fared more contently than her staffed counterpart as she climbed out and saw David going in his ship's cockpit, thinking he went back simply to get his party stuff ready. After getting her mini-suitcase from her ship's side locker, Jaden climbed down and smiled as Darwin walked up to the base of the ladder to greet her. “Hola, Sénor Darwin! I hope our arrival wasn't on too short of a notice?”
The gentleman laughed lightly with a thin smile as the woman landed on the hangar floor with a metallic thud, “No, I quite expected David to get here first and prepare his ship. He does love showing off that Virage of his.”
“Speaking of which...” Jaden turned around and noticed that the Virage looked like it had been newly sand blasted, its polish peeling off grimly. She couldn't help whisper loudly to herself, “What happened to the Virage?”
“The Fields you flew through on the way here would've taken the shine off because he applied it too late.” The fact that Darwin heard her self comment no longer surprised her as he continued, “I'm pretty sure he was too busy playing that strategy game again.”
Poor David... She saw him take out a cleaning box from his locker, and snickered to herself out of pity and irony as she watched him climb down and mumble angrily while trying to reapply the polish back onto his crummy ship. But then her eyes widened when she remembered her own predicament, “Oh! Sénor Darwin, I didn't mean to waste your time! So, where can I change for the evening?”
George gave a nod to a nearby Rheinlander female crewmember, making her come over. “This is Valerina. She'll take you to where the attire's located.”
Jaden nodded politely to Darwin before turning to the blonde, fair-looking woman in front of her. “Gracias, Valerina. I hope it's not too far?”
“Nothing's far on the Timepiece, Ms. Armand.” The crewmember had an evident Rheinland accent on her voice, but it wasn't deep and rough, unlike the 'ze's' Jaden had grown accustomed to hearing from such people. “It may be a large ship, but the transit system makes short work of that.”
She motioned the Corsair-exile to follow her to what was a small tramway on the far end of the hangar, a cab already waiting. After the two stepped in, the cab quickly gained speed, and pretty soon they were off. “So, Ms. Armand. Tell me about yourself.”
Jaden seemed to wake up from a daydream and her reply came out slowly, “... Huh? Oh, well, there's not much to tell that Darwin doesn't already know of. Was born in Crete, had a father while mother died during childbirth.”
Valerina giggled softly in response, “No need to go back that far. What do you do for a living, and how did you come to meet Mr. Darwin? I myself used to work for Republican Shipping, Colossus captain. While hauling a load of ore to Bretonia, I ran into Mr. Darwin and his transport, The Escapist. We then flew together to our respective destinations in Bretonia, and shortly after we got talking. Now, I'm part of his crew's Logistics Division.”
Jaden scratched her head sheepishly, “Oh, well I suppose not that far. But didn't Darwin at least brief you about my exile from the Empirio? If not, then you'd have a slight bit of trouble understanding my misadventures...” She frowned disgustingly as she continued, “... That'd be understandable if he did, considering a man like him.”
“No, he didn't tell me. He doesn't share everything to even his business partners, let alone his employees. Instead, He tends to want to know everything about us first, which at first I found unsettling, but it's so he understands us completely, and is why he always seems to pre-empt us. That's the whole reason why he got to where he is."
“True... But please understand I was raised in a culture where if there's information, it's either already being disseminated to the rest of the trusted family, like radiation poisoning, or is being used to put you out of the picture... also like radiation poisoning. Corsair politics can be quite... messy, heheh. But I digress...” Jaden puffed in a breath before continuing, “So, my career, eh? It's kinda long, colorful, but mostly sad, really, and would take a bit to orate the basic stuff. I'd say there are three phases to it, but it's more accurately to describe it as the three changes in my personality over the years.”
The Rheinlander laughed lightly, just as the tram reached a station and began to slow down, “Mr. Darwin did tell me you may not be used to this kind of environment.”
Reaching their stop, they stepped through to enter another one of the numerous hallways around the Timepiece. Guiding Jaden down the carpeted corridors and halls, Valerina began again, “In that case, what was it you were doing before you met Mr. Darwin, and what do you do now?”
“Before I met Sénor Darwin? Technically, being David Gee's wingwoman, but he later revealed... Well, maybe revealed's not the right term.” A snicker came out of Jaden before continuing, “More like, turned out to be a lone wolf kind of pilot, which at first made me wonder why he practically turned me into part-bodyguard, part-money-sink, heheh! But after meeting Sénor Darwin? Somewhat the same, really, but now I can really feel the metaphorical chain on my liberties shorten ever since that... ehr... incident.” She cringes slightly at the memory of that fateful mansion-intrusion.
“David Gee, the so-called LSF agent?” Jaden gave a confirming nod in response, making Valerina frown a bit. “He's certainly created many a problem for me. Getting the parts for his Virage, and then have them covertly shipped in without raising too many questions is not particularly easy. But... he gets things done, and his ability to size up an enemy force and their weak points quickly does come in handy.”
“You forgot to point out he's also handy in orchestrating escapes too,” Jaden chided in. “I remember when he and I were running away from this Blood Dragon Gunboat and an Iseijin infidel, I saw him dodge those gunboat missiles and laserfire from BOTH ships single-handedly, giving me the chance to escape... Which, in the spirit of irony, I didn't take the chance to and continued fighting, which then also points to another of his good traits: he knows how to maneuver the battlefield to somewhere he'll get the advantage. You may look at my amigo and not like him now, but I'd vouch any day his ability to save your sorry skin in a dogfight!”
Grinning to Valerina, Jaden's face somehow flushed a shade of pink as she said, “... Skin... yeah.” It was pretty obvious she was daydreaming again when she looked dazed as she walked further, biting a lip while smiling to herself, but she quickly realized this and shook herself back to reality, “Oh, lo siento. Got a little carried away there, hahah!”
Valerina didn't seem to mind the sudden space-out as she remarked, “Well, he does fly a Virage, but the only good thing about it is the maneuverability. I've flown with him before, when we had a high value cargo to be moved. He was assigned as a scout, and while he did perform his task, his methods were... less than the professionalism I had come to expect of one of Mr. Darwin's employees.”
Soon, the two stopped in front of a large, wooden door. Valerina cleared her throat, “This room connects with one of the dressing storage lockers. I'm sure you'll find something for tonights' occasion.”
“Ah. Gracias, Valerina.” Jaden nodded and was about to press the door open, but a lingering thought in her head made her pause, then turn herself back to the Rheinlander. “Uhm... Don't suppose you could please explain what you meant by... less than professionalism?”
The Rheinlander laughed cheddarly in response. “Hitting on someone while on the job isn't exactly professional. But by the sound of things, you might be able to pull him in line.”
Jaden's eyes couldn't help widen at Valerina's answer, but she decides to keep silent for now and let the Rheinlander finish, “Now, I must go back to the hangar. I'd like to meet my friends from Republican Shipping when they arrive. See you later tonight!” Valerina then turned around and walked the way they had came from.
Jaden curled an eyebrow to herself, taking to heart what she just heard for future use. “Hitting, eh? Interesting...” Afterwards, she switched to the door and headed in.
It was a changing room that Jaden first entered into, the walls lined with mirrors in almost every direction, save another part of the room where another wooden door stood. She opened this, and found it was the attire storage room Valerina mentioned, but inside was a vast array of military formal uniforms from almost every corner of Sirius, all coincidentally her size! It amazed her, to be honest, that Darwin had such a collection in just this single room alone.
“Madre mia...!” Jaden began to madly rummage about the wardrobe, scanning through the various uniforms and attires available with keen delight. After scrutinizing through every last one of them, eventually she found what she was looking for and took out the Corsair uniform, in addition to the Kusari-based ones as well.
Going back out to the mirror room, she first went through the KNF's elegant, golden-plad uniform, smiling as she noted herself very regal and noble-looking. Next, she tried out the KSP's simpler, but no less stunning attire of gold-and-black, the uniform giving an air of underestimating deadliness about it. Then she fitted herself into the Hogosha's almost-business-like uniform, which gave her an almost masculine-feel with its broad, no-nonsense shoulder pads and bold, thick trim. Finally, she took out the Corsair-based one, began to fit into it, and almost burst into tears by how patriotic she felt as she saw herself in the mirror, wearing the honored colors of her original House. Proud and her spirit uplifted, she took the rest of the attires and hung them back on the storage room.
But as she placed back the last one in its proper place, a sliver of blue somehow caught the woman's eye. She pushed aside the clothes covering it, took the garment out, and found it was the LSF's formal uniform, very similar to what David showed to her back in the estate, minus the awards, except this one was tailored for her fit. Though she had what she was originally looking for, she remembered the talk she just had with David that afternoon, and couldn't help but feel a little inclined to at least try the blue-and-golden-trimmed garment out.
Taking it with her back to the mirror room, she changed out of her colors, fitted in the LSF uniform, and found it suiting her like a well-tailored glove. “Heh... Jaden, you never fail to impress. You usually don't wear lawful colors unless you're in an assassination mission.”
She twirled herself slowly, inspecting every spot on the uniform for any creases or blemishes, but it seemed whoever dry-cleaned them did their job perfectly. “It's really impressive! If I wear this, then me and David's uniforms would match! That'd look so sweet, we'd look like an official couple, teehee!”
But her giddy feeling quickly dismissed when a memory popped in her head, making her rub her arm awkwardly, “... Although... we did have the talk a while back, and in our flight here he clearly voiced out his opinion regarding relationships.” She frowned at her LSF reflection as the saddening realization slowly dawned on her. After taking herself out of the lawful uniform and changed back into her unlawful attire, she glared sternly at her Corsair image and proudly exclaimed, “So yeah! I still have my heritage to one day come back to! A Corsario born, is Corsario forever!”
But a deep feeling of sadness slowly washed into her as she looked at her reflection. “But... What if I really don't have a heritage to come back to? They never missed me in the first place, anyway. Mi amigos have shunned me all those years ago, and they could so easily do so again upon my public return. Am I truly just chasing a fool's dream?”
The woman covered her face with her hands, trying to hold back the tears stinging and breaching themselves into her human eye, but it was a vain attempt as the sliver of bitterness flowed down the side of her cheek, hitting the ground beneath her feet with a drip. She glanced back at the mirror, at the image of the woman she always dreamed herself to be, the woman she feared she may never become. She placed her human hand on the mirror, whispering to the image before her, “Jaden... So close to me, you always seem, yet still no closer to reaching you.”
Then her eye fixed again at the LSF uniform, which made her lean out of the mirror and rub her human fingers against the garment's silky-soft cuff. The cloth felt like freedom, like liberty, like challenging, yet endless possibilities for the future. But it also felt like escapism, like sheer cowardice, like a bitter breach of moral code and family honor. Did she dare disrespect her heritage, here and now, even after all the people who sacrificed their lives in helping her realize her dreams, all for the sake of a man who only showed a mild, mostly professional interest in her?
She heaved a heavy sigh to herself as deep, paradoxical thoughts continued to assault her mind, body and soul. The only words she could reply to the lawful uniform in front of her was:
“... High-rolling Freelancers, eh...? Is that what you see yourself and me as, David?”
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