After the first punch landed, it had taken a while for him to recover his senses. An unprovoked attack inside Ambrosia, on a superior officer, and one that told her to get lost none the less. A few seconds more, his forehead may have been bleeding from the punches and he might need stitches, but this wasn't over yet. A swift kick of his boot to her hip had her tumbling backwards with a spin, as he kicked himself up to his feet his left hand reached behind him, drawing the sidearm from his belt and brought up, sights lined up her calf in his view, he pulled the trigger once.
Watching her land flat on the floor, he walked up beside her, threw the broken sunglasses out, and drawing a new pair from his pocket, he squatted down beside her.
"You've made multiple mistakes today, and i suggest you re-think your life in the Colonial Military."
Standing back up, he walked over to the bar, leaving her on the floor, expecting no further reaction from her as the Corpsmen rushed to her aid, along with a Guardsmen group. He himself was holding a towel to the open wound on his face.
"Great, now i am going to need stitches. Barkeep, give me a Peppermint Schnaps."
Finally, it was good for the squadron to relax after arriving at Sabah.
The past years had been a hell; months at a time travelling from system to system, all duties rotating between flying escort and ship maintenance, repairing and rearming where they could before having to move on. The constant travel had taken its toll on their small fleet; the squadron’s carrier limped into Coronado, its cruise engines finally collapsing as they we welcomed by their Colonial brethren and it was now moored in the yards for extensive (and expensive) repairs.
The pilots, finally able to relax and drink something other than recycled fluids and whatever water they could find had hit the bar and hit it hard in the traditional squadron way; drink now and worry about the hangover tomorrow.
“Yeah yeah yeah Marv, we all saw it!”, Major Daviel “Spades” Montaan said, cutting off the eager second lieutenant as their latest round of drinks arrived. “You’ll get your Ace’s pin for it, don’t worry.”
It was the third – or was it fourth? It was getting a little fuzzy – time that the story of how he had strafed the gunboat had been told, with each version getting slightly more embellished as more drinks were had and different people listened. It had already gone from being partly disabled and distracted by their cruiser to fully operational and targeting just him; no doubt after a few more rounds it would be two gunboats and he was flying solo.
“Drinks!” roared the squadron’s 2IC, LTC “Wildcard” Dwyer, arriving with another full tray of glasses and putting it on the table as he sat down and the others helped themselves.
“A toast!” the Major offered, raising his glass “To our new home, and old acquaintances!”
Looking around the pilots could see an altercation taking place between a fine looking young female Colonial Officer and an older officer in sunglasses, "Lively in here tonight" observed Spades.
There was a round of “Here here!”s from the other pilots, before their attention was drawn to an angry cry of “Hey, that’s my wife!” from the bar. Looking around, Daviel saw their other First Lieutenant - Monty “Pieman” Wittington - stood next to an attractive girl and a rather irate looking miner.
“Shall we?” He asked Wildcard, who nodded as the two of them got up and headed over to the bar in an effort to resolve the situation.
“Is there a problem here?” the Lieutenant Colonel asked as the pair of officers approached, moving to stand between them.
“Your pilot was hitting on my wife!” the miner angrily replied, pointing at the lieutenant past Wildcard with an accusing finger
“I didn’t know she was married!” Monty tried to defend as he held his arms up, but couldn’t help but smile at the attractive blonde as he did so.
“Well, he does have a point, she is hot!” Daviel responded. It was meant to be a joking compliment to appeal to the miner’s ego, but the fist that contacted with his face and sent him reeling into the LTC said otherwise.
The punch was a spark that set off a powder keg; Wildcard leaped at the miner with a return punch, Spades was back on his feet to tackle another miner who had taken a bottle and was advancing on the brawling pair. Across the bar the rest of the squadron and the miner’s companions were on their feet too, a few choice words exchanged before they too exchanged communication via fists.
The room was a scene of chaos for a few minutes as the squadron and the miners went at it, the other patrons retreating out the door or the around the edges of the room to avoid the flurry of swearing, fists, kicks and glasses as the brawl went on.
The end finally came as the Squadron’s commander, Col. Cassidiac, arrived with a squad of Colonial guards, fresh from a meeting with the station commander after hearing about the brawl.......
"Weapons hold gentlemen !" barked the squadron commander, "Wildcard, what is occuring here? What have you started?" he enquired.
As he spoke, a wistful expression crossed his fatigued face, as he looked upon his pilots and knowing the trials and tribulations that they had been through he thought to himself "mustn't be too hard on them...".
"All of you out into the hangar......NOW !" he bellowed to his pilots, "While I work out what to do with you all", He then walked to the bar and silently threw down a bundle of credits for the damage caused. With this he followed his pilots out of the bar, closely followed by 3 burly Colonial security officers.
Yawning, Lou got out of his bed and stretched widely. Looking around, he noticed the bottle of Peppermint Schnapps. Grinning, he thought back to the time when the Ambrosia was full of life and activity. *That's it, things need to change* he thought to himself. Getting up, he made his way towards the closed doors of the Ambrosia Colonial bar.
"About time we opened this baby up!" Lou grabbed his keys, slid them into the electronic lock, and walked in. Turning on the lights, he placed his hands on his sides and grinned.
Nighthawk had been walking down the corridors of Sabah, his focus onto his datapad as all in his path moved aside anyways, as he noticed the lights turned on in one certain place of good memories and fun. He raised a brow and put the datapad into his chestpocket as he walked towards the doors of the Ambrosia, the doors open, he stepped inside to find himself standing beside Lou, looking into the room.
"It's been a while, Lou. You think you can get this place up to where it used to be? You better."
He flashed a grin as he re-adjusted his shades, turning towards Lou.
He laughed and patted Nighthawk on the back. "Oh don't you worry bub, don't you worry. She'll be up and running in no time. Hell, everything should already still be there in storage. Here, come give me a hand." Making his way towards the back, he handed boxes over and told hawk to place them on the bar.
After spending a few hours putting everything into place, Lou sent a couple comms out to his old staff, whom started filtering in shortly after. "Alright boys, we're back. So let's get ready, we're about to have company!"
He just walked out of the medlab when he saw a young man in a crewmen's uniform swiftly walk past him, down the corridor. He was muttering something about a message and a bar being open soon. Figuring a few shots might help ease his pain, he slowly walked in the direction the fellow ran.
Eye-catching lights were pouring out of a doorway further down, one he had only seen locked before. Peering in, he saw the hurried guy nod over to another then start cleaning off the dusty tabletops. At the main bar of this establishment, he saw the former Mover Maestro, talking to someone whose voice was all he recognized. They were handling boxes of some sort.
Tightening the bandages on his left hand, he quietly approached the bar and spoke, "Nice old place you've got here." He gazed around the room a little longer as he continued with a mild grin, "How soon can I order something?"
"You see what your knowledge tells you you're seeing. ... how, what you think the universe is, and how you react to that in everything you do, depends on what you know. And when that knowledge changes, for you, the universe changes. And that is as true for the whole of society as that is for the individual. We all are what we know, today. What we knew yesterday, was different; and so were we."
- James Burke, The Day the Universe Changed (1985)
Nighthawk grinned as Lou spoke, and then went to help him with the boxes he was gathering from the back, putting them all to the counter, one next to another. It had taken them a while to get done, but it was done nonetheless. Hawk leaned against the bar and flashed a grin as Lou addressed the recently arrived employee's.
"I remember the days after the Grand Opening. Many fun nights were had here, and I expect many more to be had!"
Noticing the newcomer, he nodded and motioned towards the bar itself. "Right now if you want lad! Just give me a couple minutes to set things up."
As he finished unloading the rest of the boxes, and motioned for his employees to start their work, he leaned back against the counter, facing the bar."Ok boys, what'll it be tonight?"
Hawk grinned as he took a stool up by the bar, laying his data pad on the counter as he looked around to the newcomer, with a nod he greeted him. The boxes were unloaded, the bar ready.
Black left her desk after finishing her report, standing at the door of the bunk she hears some blabbering regarding the Ambrosia bar being re-opened and back to business.
It was the break time for her, she chuckles "Time to have some fun myself." she moved down through the corridors towards Ambrosia, as a few people were swiftly passing by in and out of the bar that she could see at the end.
She moves down and enters finding Nighthawk with Lou and the rest of employees arranging the boxes and drinks. she moves down towards the counter "Back to business I see?" she looks towards Lou and Nighthawk smiling. "I've been waiting for some fresh drinks for a quite a while now..."
![[Image: ADc1VG0.png]](http://i.imgur.com/ADc1VG0.png)
![[Image: c2bsIGsml_zps88c8d924.jpg]](http://s97.photobucket.com/user/cherry2blost/media/c2bsIGsml_zps88c8d924.jpg.html)
![[Image: drrobe.gif]](http://sig.grumpybumpers.com/host/drrobe.gif)
