It was there that the Freelancer-for-hire, David Gee, who went by the nickname 'G', sat on one of the bar stools in the bar on that late evening. On his hand was a medium-sized "Sidewinder Fang" shotglass (triple strength) just for the occasion, while directly to the right of his leaned elbow were three other equally-sized shotglasses lying empty. And from the look on his face it was evident he was pissed-off...
VERY pissed-off...
"... God damn it... Not another bloody Virage!" He slams a very upset fist on the narrow countertable, making the empty glasses beside him jump a couple of inches, "Those things cost me nearly 60 million each... And I only have 4.
"Well...At least they recovered 3 of the guns...
"Yea... That saved about 30 mill... So it's not THAT much.
"But number 3's heavily damaged and will take a while to fix up.
"Eh...Just don't take on another cruiser.
"Well we didn't, bloody Leon decided to fly to the damn thing... then he just sat there.
"He's lucky he didn't get blown to bits!
"Probably thanks to me, I was more annoying, so it targeted me." He beams a wry smile.
"Yea... And yet ANOTHER batch of nomads lost." He sighs disappointedly to himself.
"This trip is turning out to be much less profitable than expected... I so need them to deliver the goods now.
"Yes... And Iota?
"Iota? I didn't even think about that... A transport can't go there, it's just too damn big... I mean, 4 guard assassins almost killed them, Iota only has THOSE in it!
"Hmmm... He needs a fighter... we'll have to ask him.
"Hehe... We could punish him if he was in a fighter too.
"Ohh..." He starts to grin maniacally, "Good point, though the ship alone wouldn't be even with mine, my ship is one of the best in Sirius... and damn expensive.
"Then what would we do?
"Well he hates nomads... why not let him get to know a few?" He argued.
"Ohh... That's nasty... And it goes against all the training I've ever had.
"Pfff! What training? Hehe...
"Well... I could take him back after an hour or two.
"Nah... He'd just get pissed, hahahah..."
"HAHAH, yea... And his crew would follow him..." He tries to act like he cares, but it's evident its purely sarcasm, "Poor buggers are blind..."
"Not totally blind, thankfully..." A Libertonian man approached the bar stool directly to David's left, and sat down with a soft thud, his face showing signs of weariness and fatigue.
"Oh...snuck up on me...Get me another drink will you, Jack?" He lets a shiny card glide across the table to the Libertonian's side, "Stole it from a 'Sair, I never had it... And keep the change."
The man named Jack eyes the Sidewinder Fang on David's hand, and grins to himself as he calls the nearby barkeep to get the drinks, "... Sure is a pain to be under a captain like ours, I can tell you that..." He breathes a frustrated sigh.
"HAHAHAH! Wolfe was hell... And after I screwed those comms up... yea." David has a flashback-moment to himself, and starts to stare blankly in front of him.
"Heheh... must've been a charming fellow..." He chuckles as the barkeep soon arrives with the new drinks. Jack throws the shotglass to David's hand after getting his first.
Laughing again from the reply, David caught the glass cleanly and took a long sip before continuing, "... She was a hard arse."
"... So yeah. The captain hates the Nomads like an ex-wife trying to bring the downfall of her ex-husband... Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned, HAHAHAHAH!" and Jack proceeded to drink his.
"I thought that was Jaden's job, HAHAHAHAH!" David takes another swing of his drink.
"... Say... It'd be interesting if Leon and Jaden should ever decide to get together..." He tries to ponder the scenario in his mind with a grin, "Just think of the fireworks that'd spark and fly, heheheh..."
"Oh God... And the offspring..." He shivers at the very thought of it; the Libertonian almost snorting out his beer in laughter upon hearing the remark.
Slowly the Freelancer leans back, and his face becomes serious, "So... What happened exactly? I'm sure you guys were trying to get out of there... yet you didn't."
Jack places both his hands behind his neck as he began, "Well... Basically, Stokes managed to save us all, that's what..."
"Save you... Not me." David pointed out.
"... Oh yeah... your ship's screwed... sorry for that... but it's not like we could've done anything to avert it."
"Screwed?! it was DESTROYED... Though you did save me and 3 of my precious guns... So that's 30 mill and gods gift, heheheh.
"Well... I won't blame you... I'd say it was Leon. As soon as my scanner alerted me that something bigger than a gunboat was present, I was itching to hit cruise engines... but the Vaga didn't come too... So I had to stay, can't let you kill yourselves."
Jack said in a very wry tone, "Aww, I'm touched, Freelancer...
"But still... We aren't that surprised anymore when Leon decided to swerve the ship to the Irra... God knows what would've happened if Stokes hadn't been using Mila as a 'proverbial-shield', heheheh..." He sips his drink again, "... The only thing that man hates more than the Nomads is losing her... You'd think he would rather leave her in Erie if that were the case, but oh no... she CONVINCED Leon to get to tag along with him whenever... That girl's actually tougher than you'd think: she's been with the crazy through thick and thin... Women... I'll never understand them..." He sips his drink for the last time before finishing it.
"Don't try. You'll be dead before you finish half that course." The Freelancer pointed a friendly finger at the Libertonian.
Jack smirks in reply, "You sound like you've been through that frak before... haven't you...?"
Finishing his drink, David continued, "Yea maybe. But the good thing instead of having a broken heart, I learned how to survive without depending on anyone."
"Too bad the captain doesn't share your resiliency..." Slowly, Jack looks around suspiciously before continuing, "Let me tell you something: The captain sure does care so much about that girl... so much it got him to back down from his vendetta... voluntarily... and as you know, not even Jaden's been able to do that, and she's been trying to do that for like, FOREVER!"
"So he really cares about her eh?"
"Obsessed is more like it, heheheh..." He signals the barkeep for another drink.
"Make it 2 drinks." And the Freelancer passes another card, "Well..." he sits back with a somewhat evil smile, "That IS interesting."
"Yeah... I don't know what exactly is the history between them, but all I know from face-value is that if she ever so much as suddenly vanishes without a word even just to go to the toilet, he'd snap... BAD..."
"Anyway...Who cares about them now? Do they regulate your free time?" David gives a hearty laugh at the Libertonian.
"Nah... That's one of the FEW things I like about that man: he's understanding of our needs a bit... IF it doesn't include the word 'Nomads'."
"Well I'm going to try and do something bout that. I'm going to take him to Iota, maybe if I take him to the real place of doom, he'll realise that he can't do all that much against them. Does he own a fighter or something small?"
"Take him to Iota? What for?"
A wide, evil grin appears on his mouth, "To teach him he's not the biggest thing in Sirius, heheheh... He hasn't even seen a Marduk."
Jack pauses for a moment, "Ohhhh... Iota... The hell-system I kept hearing from the captain... That WOULD make him learn his place...
"Orrrr it'd just make him go berserk..."
"If he did that, he'd die. I went there once, I was in Gamma squad. Of the 6 ships that went in, 2 returned and I was one of them.
"It was pure luck... My position in the wing saved me."
"What was it like there?"
"Hell...
"... I need another drink... And stronger."
Jack calls out to the barkeep to get something called 'black grog', "You're gonna love this drink..."
Soon, the large mug arrives shortly, it's large rim frothing with a very evil-looking black liquid, "This is NOT your ordinary drink, Freelancer... I hear it's almost 80% alcohol content... Most guys get put down in one sip, heheheh..." He swings the drink to G, some of its contents spilling. The smell alone was intense and choking, almost like burning concentrated napalm in one tankard.
Unfettered by such measly first impressions, he caught the drink and simply said, "Bring it." Downing half of it in one swing, which takes almost 30 seconds, he slammed the tankard down in triumph and breathed out, "HOLY... That isn't bad."
Jack was dumbfounded by what he witnessed, "... Damn... Let me have the rest... I think I need all the help I can get if I'm gonna survive a captain like ours."
The Freelancer only laughs as he passes over the drink to the Libertonian.
Grabbing the drink and only getting to the first 5 gulps before stopping, upon putting down the drink the Libertonian's face turns scarlet-red, and he began to speak in a slurred manner, "Ugh... Shure izzz hard tuuhh beee with a cap like ours... mmm."
"HAHAHAH! Bit too much for you eh? I used to take on ol' Rodeny back on the Kodiak... no one could beat him, but I came close."
"Shuhht up! ... HIC... Thish ish nuuthin... ugh... maybe I'll... uuuugh..." He quickly falls flat on the table and goes into a deep sleep.
David inspected Jack for a moment before concluding to himself, "Yep, it'll do that to ya."
He slowly pulls out his pistol and begins to spin it on his fingers, doing his usual tricks with it.
Moments later, a Corsair woman sits 1 stool away to David's left. As she begins to squat on her place, she heaves a deep sigh and palms her face hard with a robotic hand, trying to cover a look that bordered between utter frustration, and to that of going berserk.
Jaden Armand was a cyborg: her left arm and leg had been replaced with a pair of crudely-constructed artificial limbs, the internal components glinting silverish-grey in the dim light of the bar, visible for others to see, so exposed were they that with every movement they made their pneumatics huffed and squealed a bit; where her left eye used to be was a cylindrical ocular implant, its plasteel lens capable of zooming and switching to various other viewing ranges like infrared and nightvision.
It's a real shame, for if she hadn't been cursed with such ugly and horrendous mechanical implements she would've been a mighty-fine catch with her exquisite natural beauty.
Too busy she was in her own affairs that she hadn't noticed David, who was only one seat apart. As the bartender approached her with raised eyebrows she gruffed, "... ugh... Barkeep. Give me whatever's the strongest, I don't care... I've been through a lot of [A.D.M.I.N. censored], and I need to drown my sorrows, heheheh"
When the man went away to get some Black Grog, she bowed her head low and gurgled to herself, "... This job can't get any worse than this... The ship banged up... all of us almost killed...
"... all because of one... man's... stupidity."
The Freelancer only snorted a chuckle to himself when he heard what she said.
The Corsair must've heard it cause she immediately afterwards takes her pistol out and points it at David with a glare on her face that would spoil Gallic Wine, "YOU THINK THAT'S FUNNY, YOU FRA---" But she pauses when she realized it to be David, and her demeanor quickly calms down, "... Oh... It's you, Freelancer..." She slowly holsters her pistol back in its belt, and looks back at the back counters.
Still spinning his pistol, David initially in a cool tone, "No, I don't think it's funny..." which suddenly escalates into rage, "Because I lost ANOTHER SHIP to YOU idiots!"
She sassed at him, "SOOooo WHAT?! We were up against an Irra... A [A.D.M.I.N. censored] IRRA, of all things! IN A BWT! We could've gotten our ship tentacle-raped so bad it wouldn't even be funny!"
"I was in a fighter! You had a shield that could take a few hits, one took mine down, the second shot set the reactor off." He takes another sip of his huge drink.
"At least you could evade, dammit... We're just sitting ducks for cannon fodder."
"At the range we were, I had no chance, YOU saw it for yourself." He pointed out
Jaden was about to give another remark until she paused to think. Finally admitting in disgust she sighed, "... yeah..."
As her tankard arrives she leans back on her stool and said in pure sarcasm, "... And all of it... is because of our 'wonderful' captain. We sure couldn't have survived if he hadn't been there..."
Laughing to himself, David leaned on the bar counter and continued, "He got a fighter? Jack here didn't answer." He prods the knocked-cold Jack on his opposite side.
"Jack?" She raises her head a bit to catch a glimpse of him, "Huh... He's here... figures.
A fighter? Why? He does have 3 in his estate, however: a Starflier, an Arrow and a Moldy Crow." She swipes her drink and proceeds to drown herself in the black liquid.
"Crow?"
She only replies after finishing half of the tankard several seconds later, her face getting slightly flushed from the drink, "... Yeah... a Crow."
"Hmmm... Any chance he could bring it out here?"
She thinks for a moment before continuing, "... He might... It's an old ship he found in his Estate during one of his estate-expeditions. It may not be a very powerful ship, when he found the scrap of the thing and replaced it with another power-core... but it's somewhat reliable."
"Righto...I hope your right, otherwise he wont be leaving Iota..." He smirks for a split second before his face returns to normal.
"Iota? What's that got to do with the Cro---" Pausing for a moment, she rolls her eyes and said, "Pffah... what does it matter to me...?" She takes another sip of her drink.
He laughs again at her remark and continued, "I'm thinking of taking him on a little 'trip'... If he survives, I'm sure he'll be less aggressive towards Nomads." A very evil grin appears on his face.
"... 'Trip', you say...?" His words seemed to pique her interest and she scoots her stool a bit closer, "Do tell me more, Freelancer..."
"Iota jump hole, co-ords D1. It's a Nomad controlled system. Most people who go in don't come out... I myself have been lucky enough to survive my 2 trips. Maybe if he sees a Marduk or something, he'll realize he's nothing against them, and he alone can't do jack..." He looks to his side and at the sleeping man and remarked, "...Oops, heheh."
She snickers at the unintended pun, then sips her drink again, "... Hmmm... Humble him a bit? That WOULD be interesting, Freelancer... Hell! I'd pay good money to see that man get his arse kicked bad."
"If we got attacked, we'd be killed. They don't screw around like they do in Delta." He pointed out frankly.
"What does it matter? That man's a psychopath... and Mila's the only tether on him. I'm just lucky Stokes managed to use her as a shield back then... Heheheh... I owe that scientist a drink." Another sip from the strong liquid makes her cheeks flush even more.
"Well... What I'm thinking is, you guys head back with what Nomad remains you've got, cash them in, then send me my cut.
"Afterwards, get Leon to get his fighter, come out here, then we roll the dice and see who dies." He takes a swig at his own evil drink.
"Be able to head home...? Oh, I'd sure like that, heheheh..." She drifts off to herself, "Enjoy a nice, warm, uninterrupted baaath..." She sips her drink again before continuing, "I don't give a rats' arse what happens to that man... Either he dies, or he learns his place. Either way, the bottom line being that I don't see another blue squid in my life again..."
David also stretches himself, "I wouldn't mind another lazy week at my place in Kusari... You should see it sometime... real nice."
"Oh? Kusari? You actually a Kusarian, Freelancer? From your tone, you sound more like a Libertonian..." She takes one, long sip, and her face afterwards flushes red.
Laughing to himself he answered, "I am from Liberty, but a while back I bought an awesome pad in Kusari after I took some leave there. It's in another name, so the LSF can't track it...
"... And the best of all? No... TAXES..."
Jaden gives a thin, teasing grin and replied, "Hah... some guys have all the luck... What's your place like? From the sound of things, it'd be like a small boarding house."
"'Cept it's only I who lives there, when I'm there. It's got a couple of pools: one on the roof, the other out the back; awesome spa, nice bedrooms... Oh, and a 5-ship garage that could probably fit your BWT.
"... And on top of that, it's by a heritage forest, so not many other people around, and I can do anything I want in that area... It's great."
His explanation evidently elated her interest: her eyes noticeably glint as she replied with an impressed grin, "Niiiiice... Either you're more successful than I first thought, or the LSF must've made your account really fat...!
"Heh... never been to a pool before, though..."
"Not fat, just the bonuses."
Suddenly, she slams her free hand on the table, points her tankard at David, and speaks in a very cool tone, "... I don't believe you, Freelancer. I wager 1 Million Credits your place is just a schmuck bachelor hut..."
He simply grins back and said daringly, "Your on." He pauses for a moment before going on, "How will we fit in this bet? I have to take Leon and Mila to their graves, HAHAHAH!"
She doesn't move her head, but her eyes give a sly, almost seductive look at David, as if expecting something specific from him, "How's about this: I go along with you as your co-pilot. Not only I'd be able to witness you screw the guy, but would I be able to... see your pad..." She giggles lightly before one last sip finally makes her face flush very noticeably, "... Frak, it's friggin hot here... Damn Zoners not turning the thermostat down..."
"Co-pilot? She's a single-pilot craft... but then she is a tandem...
"Won't Leon notice your gone?"
"The fffrakker? Pfff! He'zz veeery lenient. All I have-ta do is ask for ma resignashun, an' he'll do the rest in the paperwork... And I'll be freeeee as a fish..."
"Hahahah... But with me..."
"Well... Anything's better than a total xenophobic psssssychopath, right..?
"... And besides... you look smart... you don't look like you'll head into danger too needlessly..."
Jaden finally turns her head at him, an audacious grin beaming wide on her face, "... and that's good enough for me..." She stands up from her seat, bringing her tankard, and sways her hips a bit as she transfers to the nearer stool.
David notices her get up, and, realizing she's really drunk, smiles, "You haven't seen the half of it... I take gunboats on solo."
"Huh... I guess. But that comes with the job as a mercenary, doesn't it?" When she sits down on the chair she swerves her pointing finger around the rim of her drink, and leans her head on one arm whilst still looking at him.
"Well if I take on 2 of those bounties that'll support my expensive tastes for the year... maybe 3 if I have... company."
"HAH! Don't coooddle me, Freelancer... I was once a mercenary mysssself. I can handle my own in a fight...
"But unlike in the Vagabond III, my... expertissse... isn't used to its full... potential..."
He turns away to think for a bit, "You'd need a ship... And to my knowledge you don't have one."
He pauses for another moment before deciding to look back, "When I was in Rheinland... I saw a ship I really quite liked... The Tiger Shark Rheinland civilian fighter... I was thinking of getting one... But then I have my Virage... perhaps you could fly it."
"... You sure you wanna use your own baby to suit my needs, Freelancer?"
David wryly smiles, "... Perhaps not... But what I'm offering, at the least, is the Tiger Shark. Test flew one myself, fast little thing like the Virage. Probably have the advantage that the opponent becomes over confident. Most people think the Virage is crap, till they're sitting in their pod, heheheheheh..."
"Nah... I have enough in my private account to buy myself several Rrrrrocs. I can buy my own sssshhhhip, thanks."
"Well the offer still stands: custom armour, weapons of your choice, AND... It comes in a nice paint job... Just like my baby."
Jaden knew better than to turn down a good offer, "Hmmm... That sure would be an interesting prospect, freelancer... I might just take you up on that offer."
"Well...First we need to head to Kusari...
"... When we can bomb el-cap-it-tan?" It was his turn to reply the flirt back, giving her a suave raise in the brow.
She slowly licks her lip eagerly as she replied, "... I wouldn't have it any other way...
"So that's the plan, then?"
He points at the Corsair with a teasing finger and laughed, "Your captain... your problem..."
Jaden couldn't help but snicker, "... Fine then... I'll resign from the Vagabond III crew, and afterwards come and see if you're pad is all that it's hyped up to be."
"Oh I know, bring him here. Oh, and can we get rid of Jack here? He's starting to drool on the table.
"I'll break the news to him... he'll love the idea of Iota... and as for you... well, you can tell him to kiss your arse."
"HAH! He isn't even worthy to have the priviledge to look at my hardware! He can lick pond scum for all I care, HAHAHAH!"
"HAHAH! I think 1 more drink will do me," and he signals the bartender for another.
Looking at her mug, Jaden realizes it's still 1/4 full, "... I can't finish ma drink... not if I'm taking the sleeper there back to the Vaga.
"... Maybe you can have it?"
He only hesitates for a split-second, "Hehe... sure" Finishing the drink dilates his pupils, "These things aren't bad."
"... Say... Jack's kinda heavy... I don't suppose you could... I dunno... help me?"
"... Oh fine..."
He yawns a bit from late night and tries to get up; but it's clear that the beer made him struggle to keep his balance, "Oh... looks like the stations gravity is out of wack... or... it's me... naw."
Jaden also has a hard time trying to keep herself from tipping over, let alone come to help, "... Frak, you're right, heheheh... Freeports... so unreliable these days..."
Grabbing one arm he signaled Jaden to come over, "Alright, ready to lift?"
She tries to sober a bit and gets the other arm, "Yup. Let's go... Ugh..."
Although the Corsair and the Freelancer are fairly strong, the drug's effects prove to be too much: when they get to the point of dragging him, David's legs start to buckle, and he begins to topple to one side.
"Ack! H-hey-w-w-whoa!"
The three crash to the floor as quickly as you could say 'jettison'. The next thing he knew he was being crushed at the bottom of the pile, with Jack on the top, and Jaden in between the two: she began to blush either because she realized just how close her face was with David's, or that it was simply Jack's body crushing her lungs.
"Y... you... bloody... stupid idiot...!"
Immediately, the two manage to muster enough strength to shove Jack aside. Catching his breath from the heave David blurted out, "Can't you just call Leon here or something?
"And Jack... wake up, will you?!"
Also trying to recover herself she replied, "... oh yeah... right..."
Raising herself up, and after helping David to his feet, she gets her PDA and tries to contact Leon; but after a few moments she becomes frustrated and turns the console off, "... The ffffrakker's asleep... But Stevie's still up... Think I ssshhhould call him?"
"Who's he again?"
"He's the systems programmer and... uh... 'idiot' of the ship..."
"Yea ok. I'll go wake Leon... where is he again?"
"He should be at rrrroom-20 on the Starboard Module of the Freeport 11." She tries to give hand directions, but her gestures are groggy and drunken.
"Ok..." Pulling his pistol out he said, "I'm going to have some fun, but don't worry. I wont kill him... much, HAHAHAH!" David then starts to stammer off to the Port Module.
Jaden was about to stop him, but then she goes 'meh' and then looks at Jack, "... You're llllucky you're useful to the crew when you're ssssober..."
But the Freelancer eventually heads off in the right direction, "... I know where I'm going... just forgot to turn around."
"Hahahah... You sure are blllloody drunk, pfff..."
"Your face is." And finds the exit of the bar.
"I'M NOT DRRRRUNK! *HIC*... Now..." She gets her PDA once more and contacts Stevie, "HEY, FRRRRAAKER! GET HERE, NAO! *HIC* Jack's out cold frruuuum liquor, and we need your help getting his sssorry arse outta here..."
"Why should I?!"
"YOU WANNA KNOW WHAT I CAN DO WITH YOUR SORRY BAAALLS, FRRRAKER?!" She screamed out.
Several minutes pass before the Freelancer, David, staggers successfully to the front door of Room-20, "Oh... I need to sober up."
Reaching into one of his pockets he fashions out a small, round tablet and quickly ingests it: almost immediately his senses return to normal, and his grogginess disappears, "Ok! I think I'm good." Satisfied after doing a last-minute check on his signature triple-barreled Gauss pistol he said, "Everything is good... Lets do this."
Banging on the door, he shouted, "Leon! Wake up! I have some news and a deal for ya!" Soon afterwards he said to himself, "Heheh... He has 20 seconds to reply or I break this thing down."
Only 14 seconds pass by when the metal door slides open, and Leonardo Tigre, a Zoner of mid-build and green eyes in his mid-20's, appears on the other side of the portal, still wearing his usual black cargo pants, but with a black tank top on his chest. He yawns a bit as he replied, "... What is it, Freelancer?"
But he quickly notices the pistol on David's hand, and in no time Leon upholsters his own, his voice being urgent, "What's going on...?"
"Meep!" Right afterwards a woman with long, copper-toned hair in her mid-20's appears just behind the Zoner, her face still brimming with the aura of childish folly, but also apparently looked tired, "What's going on, Leona--- OH! Hiya, Mr. Freelancer!"
David grins darkly for a second before going back to his usual cool self, "Nothen... I was thinking I might have to break the door down to wake you up...
"... Now come to the bar. We need to talk about some things."
Leonardo continued in his usual cool and monotonous voice, "... Can't we talk about it tomorrow, Freelancer? We're trying to sleep here."
"Nope." David flatly said.
After thinking for a moment he frustratingly remarked, "Fine... Let's go. Mila, you stay here, alright? I'll be back in a sec."
"Meep! Alright, Leonardo!" She pitter-patters back to the bed and quickly falls back to sleep.
"Lets move." He disappointedly sighs to himself as he places his pistol back in its holster. The two men then proceed back to the bar.
Meanwhile, Stevie Black, a relatively-short Libertonian in his early 20's, struggles greatly under the weight of Jack, even with the help of the still-drunk Jaden, "Damnit, Jack! What the hell have you been eating?!"
"Jushhh shut up and lift, damn you!"
A few moments pass before Leonardo arrives at the scene with a confused look in his eyes, " ... uh... What happened here? ... He's drunk again, isn't he?" He pointed at the snoring Jack.
"Yep... though I had a lot more than him, and I'm fine."
Leonardo facepalms himself lightly before continuing, "... Great... Jack always did try to push his limits when it came to drinking..." He goes under Jack's left armpit and support-carries him.
David then turns to Jaden, "Say when."
Groggily looking at David she slurred, "... Whuut?..." Barely reading David's finger pointing at Leonardo, she then turned her head towards him and her voice changed to a low growl, "... Ohhh... Hello, 'captain'..."
"Have one of these." He tosses a tablet to Jaden, who (luckily) manages to catch it.
Taking it in, she quickly sobers up, "... Ahh... That sure hit the spot, Free---" But as quickly as her senses came back her expression goes to that of shock and total disbelief, "Oh my... God... I remember what... Did I just---"
Giving a quick glance at David, her entire face blushes wildly, and she looks down on the floor in sheer embarrassment. Palming herself hard on the face she whispered, "... God, I'm such a... Pfffah... I'll deal with it later... for now..."
Recovering herself quick, she clears her throat and began again, "... Now then... Captain, I wish to dissolve my contract as the Vagabond III's Security Agent. You're just too frakking crazy and wacko to work with, and not even the generous salary you've offered to me for all these months' worth it anymore."
Seemingly-unphased by what she said, Leonardo replied, "Oh? Fine then. I have no qualms with that. But where'll you go afterwards?"
"I'm gonna... stick with the Freelancer... I've got a 1 Million Credit bet that he's being a snitch that he's lying about his 'estate'." One wouldn't notice at first that she said the statement painfully.
"A bet I've already won, heheheh..."
Stevie, on the other hand, gives a very foxy smile at Jaden, "Oooohhh... you wanna do him i---"
Without hesitating, the Corsair clicks out a switchblade, dashes towards Stevie, and points it on his neck, growling in a very menacing voice, "I suggest you don't finish that sentence... That is if you wanna keep your worthless balls, frakker," and slowly glides the blade down to the subject's groin area.
"... Um... oookaaay... Let's just go."
"... That's what I thought you said..."
David couldn't help but laugh at what had just happened, "You sure have a way with em."
"Oh, you don't know half of it! There was this one---"
Before he could continue, Jaden gave a glare so frightening it would've ripped the fabric of space and created an alternate dimension to hell if aimed anywhere else.
"I mean... uh... Captain, can we go now... please?"
"Affirmative... Oh yes, before we go, you said you had something for me, Freelancer?"
"Oh yea... Jaden says you have a Crow or something, a fighter.
"Anyway, I was thinking... We hit up Iota in fighters of your current ship, cause your BORDER WORLDS TRANSPORT is just too big a target, no matter how much skill you have: it'll get eaten. But 2 fighters have a chance."
"Hmmm... I suppose. Very well, Freelancer. We'll go and sell the nomads we still have and give you the respective pay for your services... After which, I'll set up the Solardancer for the expedition.
"How much time would you need to prepare yourself?"
"I just need to run home, then I can come straight back, say... 24 hours?"
"Hmmm... Give me at least twice that. I'll still need to find a decent buyer in the CRS to deposit the Nomad Crates, and then dock the Vagabond III back in Erie."
"2 days is fine, I could use a day of... R & R..." He gives a quick glance at the Corsair with a very sly grin on his face.
Jaden quickly blushes and hastily turns her face away, yet her eyes couldn't help but return the glance back with a hidden glint of fire in them; though next she quickly stared darkly at Stevie in an effort to keep him silenced.
Starting to sweat from the tension he's being put into he pleads, "Uh... pleeeaassseee, Captain...?"
"Right... anything else, Freelancer?"
"Yea... Will Mila be coming with you? I need to know, cause the Nomads respond differently to the number of people entering."
"No... She's not gonna come... I'll be going in alone in the Solardancer... She doesn't have to know this."
"Alrighty."
"YUS! Let's go while I still have my literal manhood left!"
"Yeah, you'd better enjoy your sorry manhood while you still can. It's gonna be different when we meet again cause you won't have my contract to use as your shield, frakker!" She snickers to herself as Leon and Stevie drag the large Jack back to their ship.
"Well... Time to head home eh, Jaden?"
As if still trying to process her thoughts, she pauses for a moment before eventually replying with a daring grin, "Let's see if you aren't just a man full of hot air...
"Still... A pool sure sounds nice too..."
"I have 2, one's on the roof so it has a nice view, but the ground level one out the back is much bigger."
"Well, we going right now, or should we go tomorrow? I can go now, but I don't know bout you... What with your ship still screwed and all."
"...Eh...
"They've fixed the port engine, the coolant leaks are mostly fixed, and we can dock on Freeport 14 to make sure every thing is going ok. Then once we're in house space we can dock wherever we see a problem, so we should be able to go in an hour or 2.
"So... you got anything to do before we go?"
"I'll still need to get my personal things in the ship... Only my weapons, clothes and Cybertronic Maintenance Kit, then I'm good as done."
"That easy. All my stuff is in the Virage, so meet you there ok?"
"That's fine enough." And with that they parted ways for the time being...
... After an hour and 26 minutes...
Holding a mid-sized leather briefcase on one hand, Jaden arrives at Docking Bay 1, where David's Virage, the Gforce, was moored. She looks around for a bit until she finds him working on his ship with 3 other Zoner technicians.
... and apparently he was arguing with one of them about some problem with the power cables...
When Jaden locates David hanging on a metal ladder on the port side, she jogs a short distance until she comes within hearing range, "Ah... There you are, Freelancer. I'm all set for the trip. Don't worry, I don't require much."
Looking down the ladder he answered, "Just let me finish this." Turning to the Zoner on another ladder nearby, "I don't care how much those power cables cost, I want the same ones as I had before! No other model can handle the stress I put them through."
"It took me 10 minutes just to get the right clamps for these ones... And it's a Virage, by Eris! There are fighters that use these cables that are much heavier."
"10 minutes? It's a SIMPLE plug and play clip if you had of used the specified cables...
"And have you noticed the core isn't exactly the original?! This baby will sterilize you in half the time compared to others."
"Fine I'll go get them..." He jumps off and walks away, "... Bloody Freelancers."
"Now that's finished."
"Anything wrong?"
"Naw, the idiot wanted to use the standard cables; but they can't handle all the reactors' power going through to a single point, and if I apply full power to one engine, it'll all just melt."
Noticing the briefcase he remarked, "I see you travel light. That'll fit in the nose compartment. Lets throw it in." He slides off the ladder and slams the front end of the ship, opening a fairly-large empty space.
"Being a merc teaches you that, I'm afraid..." She walks over to him as she continued, "Numerous times I've had to lose my stuff when the bounty suddenly headed off to another location without me knowing..."
She snickers sheepishly to herself, "Heheh... I wonder how that Junker's doing with my underwear that I left on Trafalgar..."
David beams a huge grin to himself, "Damn Junkers... salvage anything these days, HAHAHAHAHA!"
She laughs boisterously at the remark, "That's another way to put it, HAHAHAH!"
Before tossing the case into the compartment, she opens it up and takes out a Corsair-make pistol that gleaned copper-red in the docking bay's lights, "There... that should do it."
Eyeing the pistol she held, David jested, "Not bad."
Jaden smiled when he announced his admiration for the pistol, and smugly said as she showed off her weapon like a trophy, "Of course, Freelancer. The Corsair-made weapons are always the best compared to even pathetic 'Military-grade' firearms, possibly the best in all of Sirius."
The pistol was indeed Corsair-issue: it was Neutron-based, light-brown in color, a trapezoid-shaped frame, a mid-length barrel, and had a brown universal grip that was comfortable for all users to hold on to; it was particularly small, only measuring less than half a foot from barrel to the gun-butt. The engravings of a burning skull were etched into both sides of the frame.
"... But unlike my other counterparts, when you work as a mercenary, you learn that concealment is far better than simple brute force... especially in public areas." She then places into one of her pockets.
"Agreed. My own little baby disappears beautifully, and has enough firepower to bring any fighter down with a well placed shot." He takes out his own Gauss pistol and shows it off by clicking it at the ready before putting it back on the sheath, "But as for whose is better... We'll find that out on the shooting range."
"... is that another bet I hear?" She grins.
"Why not...?" He returns the grin back.
Jaden chuckled at his reply and continued, "I like your style, Freelancer...
"Hmmm... Anything else I should know more before we go? Anyone else on this place of yours I should know about?"
"The ship's ok, cause both engines are working, so cruise is safe. One of the Hammers on the port side isn't connected, but I don't think we'll be needing it. Hull integrity is at about 80% at best, but the bots should be able to hold it there if we get in trouble. Coolant leaks are fixed, and the power cables are good... that Zoner finally installed the right ones... Oh and fuel is secure too.
"I think that's it. As for other people, I live alone 'cept a droid that keeps the place neat."
Jaden sighs to herself, and all of a sudden her tone of voice becomes formal, "Okay. Let's discuss the nature of me coming along with you.
"While the initial reason why I'm coming with you is for the bet we made, since I've resigned from being the Security Agent of the Vagabond III, I currently have no employer...
"... But you look like you need an extra hand in your line of work... I don't suppose you'd hire me as your wingman? My price is 300K Credits per month... 1/5th of it's because of the need for me to constantly maintain my bothersome circuitry... The rest is for my own personal use.
"The other things... well... a girl's got her own needs to satisfy, right?"
"Hahahah! I'll gladly pay you that, though I usually operate solo, so you'll be right to take on your own bounties. But on average, we'll be reeling in over a million a month each if I decide to actually do any 'work'."
"Hmmm... I'll also need a place to sleep... I could get my own place in Kusari, and you can contact me anytime should you ever need me...
"Orrrrr..." Her eyes glint very excitedly, "... Would you take me in instead, or what? I'll understand if you don't; but if you do, to pay for the rental space I'll offer a 30% discount from my original price. What do you say?"
David pauses for a while, "... I don't usually have company... Though the place is built for a family of 20 or something...
"Sure, you can stay. Just make sure you don't blow the damn place up... Oh, and it's free: you don't need to pay for your rent there."
"That's a generous offer, Freelancer.
"Uhm... will it also be alright with you if I... hardwire in some security features in my room... You know, a turret here, a mine there... but only up to my room... You up for that? It'll help me feel easy knowing intruders can't just come into my room... not without become Rheinland Cheese, heheh."
"Well... Why don't you see what I currently have before hand... and by the sound of it, I think you want to lose this bet." He starts to smile devilishly at her.
She blushes a bit from that last statement for a moment, but manages to recover her original mood quickly, "No way! I ain't a chicken, Freelancer! I'm sticking with my bet... and I have lots of credits to spare anyway, so you don't have to worry bout me.
"But I'd just like to know if I can make my room safe... There were many occasions 'normal' security measures didn't keep me safe at night, and numerous times I've been through many close calls..."
"Well, if you don't like the current systems, we can figure out one that will."
"I guess you're right... We'll deal with the rest when we get there...
"... and I think that's it... Ready to go?"
David does a small session of stretching and loosening up his neck before saying, "Alright, you first."
Jaden goes up the ladder leading to the cockpit and crawls to the back seat, with G just behind her and eventually reaching the front. But as she begins to sit she feels a large, sharp object that makes her seat irregularly-leveled and very uncomfortable.
She rummages about on her seat until she finds a piece of scrap metal, and flings it to one side of the compartment, "Ugh... it's not totally clean.."
David momentarily looks back to inspect what happened, "Yea well, I was lucky to get this thing home. You saw the crash landing? Bloody engine popped out 30 seconds before I was done."
"If we ever do manage to capture the frakker and return him to your place, let me do the first blow, will ya? I'd like to repay him for his great, 'safe' service through the months we've been working together," and her smile gets replaced with a maniacal smirk, "... But if you decide to let him lose, that'll be fine with me too... Let him rot in space for all I care..."
"What? I'm not going to blow his ship up in Iota. Sure, I'll let him get ruffed up a bit, but what I mean is it's not worth his life...
"Anyway... Start up checks. Time for CHAOTIC. Now C- Controls..." David turns the maneuvering stick in various directions to see if all the different strafing thrusters and directional rudders work.
Satisfied upon seeing that all of them do respond to the controls, he continues, "H-harness... I'm secure. You're secured Jaden?"
"There seems to be a rip in one of the seems, but it's too small to be of serious effect yet."
"Noted... Now on to A.
"A- Aerials and radios... Signal is good... on local frequency 2-4-5 decimal 9.
"O- Outside and Options. We're heading to Kappa via patrol lane 1... Nearby stations is the 'Sairs Yaren Base or Freeport 11 if something goes wrong."
The phrase 'Yaren Base' seems to get Jaden's tone to worry a bit, "... Mayyybe we should steer clear of Yaren, alright?"
"... Alright, just the Freeport then."
"... Thanks." and she heaves a sigh of relief.
"T-Transponder... It's transmitting correctly... 3-D position is good.
"I-Instruments..." He quickly scans the overview of the ship systems before concluding, "... Looking good.
"And lastly, C-Controls, Core and Cockpit." David does the control check again, then goes through the procedure of starting the reactor, inspecting for any and all fluctuations in the levels, "... Reactor is good... Not leaking any radiation. Not becoming sterile today... And finally, Canopy..." He flicks the canopy switch to closed, and the cockpit windows start to clamp down until they fully seal in with a screeching-puff, "All ready to go?"
She inspects her pistol and the things she's carrying in her pockets, "Right... All set here."
"Roger that...
"Freeport-11 Control, this is Virage-Delta-Golf-Echo requesting permission to taxi to docking bay 1 airlock, over."
"We read you, Virage-Delta-Golf-Echo, this is Freeport-11 Control. You are clear to proceed with your taxi run, over."
"Proceeding to Airlock Delta-Golf-Echo..." David eases the ship forward and towards the airlock of dock 1. Soon, he has the ship right in front of the blast doors, "Virage-Delta-Golf-Echo ready for launch, over."
The large blast doors huff open from their pneumatics, "Virage-Delta-Golf-Echo, you are clear to engage launch procedures. Good flying, over and out."
As soon as the Freelancer punches the engine the ship throttles up and exits the airlock. Eventually reaching to impulse speed, he then activates the Cruise Engine Sequence and lets the ship do the rest.
Grinning triumphantly to himself he exclaimed as he places his hands behind his neck, "Alright! Lets head home."
Jaden wanted to say something, but she got a feeling it would turn out alright, so she decided not to. Smiling to herself, she whispered, "... Nah... I'm already committed to this... No turning back, now..."
So she decides to look out the window instead, watching as the three Delta suns slowly pass her by as the ship roared away at Cruise Speed, their bright coronas still casting their strange, eerie glow.
"... Right after I see that psychopath learn his place, I hope I never come back to this system again..."
"And here we are... New Tokyo. Ready to loose your money?" The Freelancer, David Gee, smiles eagerly to himself.
"Don't be so over yourself, Freelancer." The Corsair Cyborg, Jaden Armand, rolls her eyes in disgust.
"I'm just sayen..." As the Gforce descends through the docking ring of Planet New Tokyo, the atmospheric stabilizing mechanism punches a hole for the ship to pass through the air undisturbed. When the Virage finally reaches a minimum height of 6000-meters above sea level David takes over the autopilot, and directs the ship towards his home.
"Shouldn't be long now. We timed our arrival nicely: the ring and my place were on the same side."
Jaden looks out the cockpit window as the Virage passes over the countless towering skyscrapers; she begins to smile to herself as they continued, "Hahahah! This must be one of your pads! I'm gonna get lucky this---"
After a few seconds more of dodging through the ship traffic the ship runs into a sudden clearing free of any skyscrapers: first they saw a small strip of prairies and grasslands, which then was cut-off by this enormous forested area that stretched off to the coastline.
And as they continued further, right between the forest, adjacent to the said coast, slowly coming up into view, was this large mansion. Cracking his neck and smiling a smile of obvious triumph to himself he began, "... And here we are..."
As the Gforce comes to hover several tens of meters above the mansion the full size of the place could be seen: it was the only civilized establishment within tens of kilometers in every direction, surrounded entirely by the scenery of trees, and only a small, but well-paved road led away from the mansion and deeper into the forest itself; it was a very neat and well-kept place that had 2 complexes, one which was evidently the mansion itself, while the other, connected directly to the former, seemed to serve as the Hanger, the latter large enough to hold 5 bombers side-to-side, with 5 doors for ships to pass through.
When David initiates the landing sequence one of the doors grinds open, the ship slowly descending into the building. Within the Hanger one could make up huge, yet rather organized, sets of tools and equipment lying around the walls, all in their proper places; aside from the ship they came with there were two other ships already moored, one was another identical Virage, the other being an unfinished Tiger Shark.
Upon touching the ground David began again, "Alright... shutdown... Just flick em right to left." He flicks about 20 switches from the on to off position without even looking at them. Soon after the ship winds down and opens its cockpit window the Freelancer quickly juts himself out his seat and slides down the side of the ship, "You coming Jaden?"
... Jaden twitched her eye in utter disbelief....
After pausing for a moment she stammered, "Uh... yeah, I'm coming Freelancer... In a minute." She unstraps her harness and slides down the ladder.
"Alright... This'll be our ride back." David pats the side of the second Virage, "And that's your toy over there." He points towards the Tiger Shark in the far-off distance.
She inspects the Shark with her oculars as she gets her briefcase in the nose compartment, "Hmmm... Not too shabby, Freelancer. Should suite my needs just fine."
"It's all ready, just need know your preferred loadout for it so I could get them. But we'll do that once we're settled in..."
"You pre-ordered the thing as we were coming here, didn't you...?"
"Nope. It was here before I even left for Delta. I like to buy the kit, and then put them together myself. Then I'll know exactly how they work, the flaws and other things.
"Well, I have to do a few things, make sure nothing’s chanced since I’ve been here. Have a look around; I'll be back soon enough." He walks away, a very huge grin on his face.
Soon after David was far enough from ear-shot the first thing she did was slap herself with her robot hand so hard it almost left a mark on the cheek, "... I must be dreaming..."
She approaches one of the nearby windows that viewed to the outside, and inspected as much of the landscape as she could, "This does look like New Tokyo... But isn't this planet supposed to have very limited land area? What is this place?"
She glimpses the far-off distant skyscrapers and their lifeblood going through them, "... There's the Kishiro Main complex just in view... This is DEFINITELY New Tokyo..."
She goes to the other side of the hanger to another window to view the rest of the estate, "... What a place... Sure does look big..."
She catches where the exit door was and walks to it.
Opening the blast door she enters this small corridor where several paper lanterns hang on the ceiling to light the way, the floor rugged with snazzy red carpet, the walls lined with various Kusarian calligraphy artwork. Jaden stoops down to feel the rug beneath her feet: authentic artisan-class material. Her face goes slightly white from the blood escaping her face.
When she gets to the other side of the hallway she comes upon this large two-door portal with wooden dragons carved onto their boards.
After opening the door, Jaden could hardly believe what she saw as she entered the room: it was the main hall fashioned into a living room, the ceiling had a large, box-like paper chandelier in the middle and several other smaller paper lanterns on the corners, the walls surrounded with extensive pictures of black-white calligraphy paintings of misty mountains and dense forests, the floor layered with wooden boarding that gleaned with brand-new waxing.
The room had 3 large, white sofas at the very center of the room, forming a crescent shape towards the large Viewscreen; there was a rectangular oakum table backed by a dozen chairs at the other side; a decently-stocked minibar was at the left side of the room, and a semi-opaque shell-lined wall that allowed some natural light to enter was on the other; there was a open spiral stairwell near the NIV, and there were two other doors besides where Jaden entered from: one right beside the minibar, the other connected by the shell-lined wall.
The Corsair looked around in wonderment, "Wha... What is..."
"This?"
Jaden turned to her back to find David leaning against the doorpost, "F... Freelancer..." Her face reddens for a moment, but she quickly recovers herself and tries to put on a skeptical face, "Hmmph! Surely all this is just a ploy to get my money. I could even say this isn't even your house!
"Yes, that must be it! You're probably living with somebody else, and you're just being a tenant here. You probably don't even own every single one of these things, HAHAH!"
He smirks back, "Then why was there a second Virage in the hanger, AND the Tiger Shark?
"... and have you checked the pools yet?"
Jaden begins to rant, getting full of herself, "Cause you could also be using the hanger for rental space. You may own many of the ships, but---" She suddenly pauses and her eyes glint, "... pool?"
"Remember? I have 2, the big one out the back, and the one on the roof...
"Let's go have a look, shall we?" David walks over to the door on the shell-lined wall and opens it.
When she follows David and passes through the portal her eyes could've practically popped out of their sockets: there in front of her was a swimming pool the size of half an acre; it had a 3-level diving board on one side, and was surrounded by various beach-benches for use; there was a small wooden changing house to the opposite side on where she stood, "Wha... You... This... I..." She tries to rub her eyes again, and even uses her ocular's cleaning cloth to see if her left eye hadn't been fogging of late.
Enjoying himself from the expression on her face he said, "It'll do that to ya..."
Her face blushes red again as she stammers, "This isn't right! Your house can't be this... this... FANCY! And apart from only a single droid, you live with yourself?! Pure fallacy! I will not back down from my bet just yet!"
"Ok... What will it take to convince you?"
"I'll need to see the deed to the house AND this other pool of yours!" She demanded.
He shook his head as he snickered to himself, "Alright. Just go back inside and follow the stairs up, and there you'll see the roof-pool. Meanwhile, I'll get the deed: it's signed to the name 'The G', another one of my nicknames."
"FINE!!!" She pouts angrily and stomps back inside. She starts to climb the stairwell slowly, mumbling to herself as she went, "Think he's so high-and-mighty with all of these fancy pieces of crap... He's probably wetting his pants right now cause he won't be able to forge a deed that quick enough!"
She finally reaches the top of the well, and comes up to the front of another wooden door, "And I bet that this roof-pool of his is very pathetic compa---"
Her jaw drops when she opens the door: it led to an open platform that had a 180-degree view of the outside, with the trees and forest on one side, and the other being backed by the ocean that stretched over the horizon, its waters sparkling and twinkling in the late sunset.
The platform had a small, frothing-white circular pool with a diameter of 10 meters across at the center; there was another minibar located nearby, but unlike its counterpart downstairs this one was built for outdoor use, and unlike the other pool on the bottom this place had tables and chairs to accommodate patrons and a larger area to walk, and even dance, in; to the opposite side of the minibar was a changing room and an intricately-patterned gazebo, the latter which looked like a place to get a relaxing massage judging from the sets of perfumes and minty scents that surrounded a large, white mat.
"Here's the deed." David suddenly walks up behind Jaden.
"Ack! F-F-Freelancer!" Momentarily startled, she quickly recovers herself and said, "What you say? The deed?!" She snatches the parchment and inspects it with desperation.
.... After a few moments of reading her face turns pale-white, and she basically becomes petrified with shock...
"Hello?" He snaps his fingers in front of her face, but no response comes out.
After a few more moments Jaden walks over to the ocean-side of the platform. She slowly leans on the balustrade with both her arms, and finally responds in a cool voice without turning her head to him, "... You win, Freelancer... I admit defeat. This place really is your estate... It's no use denying it now... Not only is this place flawless in every way, but you even have the proper paperwork to prove it. Why should I say otherwise...?"
She sighs for a moment more before continuing, "I'll transfer the credits to the account you desire..."
"Heh... Don't sweat bout the credits, it was an unfair bet. I knew I'd win from the start...
"As for the pistol's, that bet is still on."
"Right... Also, since you already own the ship in question, I'd appreciate it to have some Corsair weapons as either it's loadout, or part of it. With the Tiger Shark being a 4-gun fighter, I'd appreciate it if you equipped it with at least 2 slots."
David pulls something out of his back pocket and waves it in the air, "This is all the paperwork for the Shark, I'll get onto those ‘Sair weapons... I could even use a couple for my own ship... A little extra power always helps."
"I'd also like to view the room where I'm going to stay, see if it's sufficient enough or otherwise for my needs."
"Your room? Eh... You can choose any one you want, doesn't really matter. I don't normally sleep in the same room twice in a row, anyway."
"Noted...
"Other than the room, the paycheck and the ship, you really don't have to provide for me anything else: I can take care of my own meals, supplies and other such requirements with just my paycheck..."
She suddenly turns to face the Freelancer; she twiddles her fingers as she continued painfully, her face blushing red in apparent embarrassment, "... since it'd be unlikely you'd... 'provide' more than that for me, being only a guest and a total stranger to your home as it is, right?"
He walks up next to Jaden and replied, "... And as my guest I can ALSO choose to do everything for you. There hasn't been another human here apart from me since Kyle... And before him it’s been AGES since someone other than me set foot here..."
His words make her face blush so red it looked like it was about to explode, and she stammers in response, "Y... you... you'd do that... fo... for..."
"Why not? Go ahead and relax... Enjoy yourself. You can even have the place all to yourself while I run around with Leon." He hands over the Tiger Shark papers to her.
"For now, I'll be in the living room, watching the news if you want anything else... Wonder how many episodes I missed on 'Guns and Death'...?" He walks away scratching his head.
When David finally disappears behind the door leading downstairs Jaden turns around and views the ocean again, sighing to herself in disappointment, "... A pleasant man, but it's apparent he only views me professionally. Such a shame...
"Pfff... Anyway, Fate seems to have blessed me with a PERMANENT home for a change... AND an ESTATE to boot! I should consider myself lucky I don't have to scrounge around for food anymore..."
As if remembering something from out of the blue, she suddenly turns towards the pool behind her and looks at it with wonder...
... and then a huge grin comes out of her mouth...
The Corsair, Jaden Armand, was relaxing to herself on the middle couch in the living room, channel surfing the TV with only a pink, two-piece string bikini covering her obscene parts, but the cyborg parts spoiling an otherwise-beautiful specimen of a woman, "... Ahhh... Now this is the life... I never thought that it'd be sooner than later I'd be able to just relax like this... Good thing he's---"
Just then, the sounds of the Virage landing can be heard in the background.
"HUH?! ... He's here already? That was fast...
"I better go an---" She pauses when she quickly notices she's only wearing a skimpy outfit, "... Uh-oh... better change to something more decent..."
The Virage slowly lands in the bay, very clear that it has taken fire: small chunks of the wings are missing and scorch marks are all over the body of the ship.
The cockpit eventually puffs open, and David slowly takes off his helmet and stretches.
"... Ugh... That was a looong flight... Iota to Kusari in one leg..."
Upon getting out of the Virage, he does some more stretches in his scorched-flight suit, which takes the best part of a minute to complete.
Soon after, Jaden comes in to the hanger, now wearing a more decent set of clothes, holding a pistol to her side, "Hey. There you are, Freelancer." She notices the beating the Virage took, and her eyebrow raises in surprise, "Hmmm... Some trip.
"Do you have the frakker in the hold?" She smiles devilishly as she readies her pistol in a slow hum.
"... Ugh... Can we not worry about them right now? I've been in that ship for over 5 hours... I was hunted by the biggest Nomad known to man...
"... I just want a long warm bath... then we can unload the ship."
The Corsair only manages a stifled laugh at his comment.
As they began to walk out of the hanger he continued, "Had fun while I was gone?"
She wanders her eyes around with a big smile on her face, "... Weeeell... maybe."
"Maybe? Will either you tell me or will I look over the security footage?" He grins at his comment.
Almost immediately her face starts to blush, "ACK! N-no! There's no need for th-that! I just spent most of my time on the pool...
"... and I've got to say, Freelancer, you've got a room where lots of pictures and killcam-shots of your LSF-days are located. Impressive, I must say."
Then she rolls her eyes in apparent disgust, "... On a side-note, your droid doesn't know how to cook good spaghetti..."
"Spaghetti? Maybe I didn't get that software package: it's standard Libertonian, the best burgers in Sirius."
Jaden chuckles as she rolls her eyes, "Huh... that's why that droid always kept suggesting to me by default 30 varieties of those things. It got so bad I was forced to order at least 1 of them to shut the thing up... But yeah, those... burgers, you say? They're... alright, I guess."
"Alright? You get the right one you'll never eat anything else... In fact I could use an Uncle Jack's Mega-Supreme Stack."
"... And you could too!" He takes out his PDA and taps in a few commands before disposing it back into his pocket, "There we go... Lets go to the spa on the roof."
Suddenly, the blood on her face escapes, leaving it white in horror, "WH-WHA--- THE ROOF-POOL?! Uh... uhm... m-maybe we shouldn't... uh..."
David looks at her, and thinks for a minute, "... What did you do...?
"No matter, I still have enough energy to beat you there!!!" He begins to run to the living room stairs.
Taken entirely by surprise she cries out, "OH NOOO!!!" and runs after him.
When the Freelancer manages to get there, it appeared that the place was just hit by a very large drinking binge: there were various empty bottles of whisky, rum, gin, vodka, etc. on various tables, chairs, and even on the edges of the pool, the shot glasses beside them, but the tables and chairs weren't disorganized in a way; Eerily enough, there were also various sets of bikini-wear lying around the floor and railings of the platform.
Jaden catches up seconds later, and as she pants lightly to herself her eye widens in terror, ".... uh... uh... I can explain---"
Rising an eyebrow as he examined the place he began, "... I see you had some fun..." He turns to Jaden and continued, "This place sure got hit with one wild party... It's like Beer Night back on the Kodiak all over again... I wonder how many people...?"
"... Guests...? Uhm... uh..."
She scratches her head and beams a sheepish smile, "... There were no guests... "
David's eyes open up in shock, "... You're joking, right...?" When she shakes her head in a 'no' he exclaimed, "Bloody... You mean... this is all YOUR doing?!"
He pauses for a moment before snickering to himself, "... You didn't expect me to come back, did you?"
"... well... I did, but I expected at least a few days... I was gonna clean up on the next day, where you'd arrive the day afterwards..."
Smirking, he said, "... We were in Iota for 30 minutes... That's when Leon's ship went down, I just bolted after that... I can't take on 2 Keepers at once.
"... Some people would say I'm a coward... But then those people are dead... So I'd say I'm doing the smart thing."
"The frakker's ship blew up? BWAHAHAHAH!!! That served him right!"
And all of a sudden, he takes off his flight suit and everything else, down to his boxers; Jaden's face goes REALLY red with surprise as she witnessed him take off his clothes right in front of her eyes, "Wha--- You... But..."
"... I'm going to start relaxing... The droid should be here soon and can clean up." He soon dips into the pool and heaves a relaxed sight to himself, "... Ahhh...
"Care to join me? The droid’s here with our meals..." As the robot comes by with two trays that carried the biggest burgers anyone has ever seen, David eyes the red set of bikini-wear near her, "... It looks like you already have the dress wear for the pool, heheheh..."
Her eye twitches noticeably.
It was apparent she was on the edge of losing control, but she manages to turn around and mutter to herself, "No... must... not..." Yet her eyes gaze back at the pool, "... but... pool..."
The droid hands over David a plate he calls out, "Where do you want your burger Jaden?"
"... N... no..."
... her pupil dilates...
Jaden suddenly enters this strange state of calmness, then she walks over and picks up the red swimwear before heading off to the changing room, "... place the burger near the edge of the pool... I'm coming in..."
It takes only half a minute before she comes out wearing the skimpy, red bikini. She enters the pool slowly, and comes near David's side.
"Now... What do you want to know about my little trip?" He takes a bite of his burger.
"Everything, I guess... But most especially how that frakker's ship blew up. I sure hope you had a kill-cam shot of that too..."
"I only got one shot, and that was of the huge ass Nomad waiting to ambush me In Delta. As for his destruction... the Voidrunners decided to target him: if they had of targeted me, we'd both be dead...
"Oh... And Mila showed up."
She grabs her burger and takes a nibble, "... Mila? I thought the frakker left her behi--- oh wait..." She smirks as she recalled something in her mind, "... She stowed herself in a scanner-proof crate didn't she...?"
"I'd say so. I scanned him before we left the Freeport to check he was in order, and I only picked up 1 person."
Chuckling to herself sheepishly she continued, "I was the one who taught her that by accident, I'm afraid. Persistent little twerp, that one..."
"God she talks...and like a 2 year old! If Leon had enough for a new transport, surly he could afford her a brain upgrade."
Jaden looks at her robot limb for a second, then laughs playfully, "Yeah, I suppose... Or maybe knock her on the head with a gun-butt... maybe she had developed the child syndrome through a hit on the head, eh?"
But David groans a bit and sinks down the pool up to his chin, "Lets not talk about them, please? We'll have our arms full when we get their pods out."
She rolls her eyes with a grin, "... You're right... they're an annoying couple, those two..."
He chews down another piece of the huge burger, "... I love it here..."
After a moment of silence the Corsair nudges closer, her eyes narrowing down and a sly smile appearing on her face, "... So how about you, Freelancer? You said there was this one huge nomad waiting in ambush...
"... Care to tell how that went?"
"Well... luck to be honest."
"I had a voidrunner and a bomber on my arse the whole way. As soon as the jumphole opened up, I thought I'd have a break. They'd still be on my arse, but at least there'd be some distance...
"As soon as I was through, I checked the scanner and it had picked up something... big.
"Did you see that picture of the Liberty dreadnought I have?"
Jaden raises her eyebrow in response, "... Liberty dread... OH! That large portrait of a thing in the trophy room you had in the middle of a wall? What's the story behind that one?" She takes a large bite out of her burger.
"Another time... anyway, a Marduk can fit one of those IN it."
"That large thing... was a MARDUK?! Hesus Christo! I once saw such a thing in my mercenary days, Freelancer! And you say you've actually... escaped one?!
"AND you make it sound so... so... easy! I remember in that time I barely escaped in my own lifepod..."
"It wasn't thanks to me, it was thanks to my ship... There's ain't another VHF in Sirius that can out maneuver my baby."
She leans back and rolls her eyes, still holding the burger, "Pfff..."
"Waaa?"
Jaden waves her burger around the air as she explained, "... Riiiight... and then you're gonna tell me that rainbows come out of your arse..."
"What did you want me to say? That I did it cause I'm awesome?"
She gives a coy smile at him in reply, "Heheh... Maybe... I know that in even a light fighter I had my ship blown up, and got myself floating around Omicron Kappa for the better part of a month until I was rescued by a Zoner patrol."
"Ouch...
"Well, I didn't just go, I was thrown her round a bit. I just made sure they never knew where I was." He submerges his head under the water.
"Yeah..."
Jaden then notices something red come up the water's surface. Her eyes shoot wide-open upon knowing what it really was: the lower half of her bikini floating in front of her. She spat the burger pieces she was chewing out of her mouth so fast they reached a fraction of lightspeed.
Managing to grab it quickly, in a split-second she swims to the farthest corner of the pool, a blush of shame on her face.
She panics, "[A.D.M.I.N. censored]! I forgot why I threw away the red one!!!"
David surfaces where he was before, yawning to himself, "They'll do that you..." He takes another bite of the burger.
Her jaw drops as she eyes the burger she still held, and places it on the edge of the pool, "... This burger... is evil..."
"HAHAHAH! What did the burger do? They're great!"
"N-N-N-NOTHING!!!" She turns back, whispering to herself, "Frakfrakfrakfrakfrak... the red one has its garter snapped off... what the frak should I do?! Gotta think of something quick---"
"You know... You could always just ask me to turn around..." He points out as he finishes off his burger.
Her face turns white with horror, "Y... you kno---"
She screams at the top of her lungs, "THEN TURN BACK, FRAKKER!!!"
Laughing hard he responded, "Alright." He turns around and leans on the pool side, "It wasn't hard to figure something’s wrong, shooting off like that, talking quietly to yourself. What exactly is wrong I don't know, but I do know it's something you don't want me to see."
In the total span of only 3.5 seconds, a large splash is heard, then sprinting, and finally a slam on the changing room door.
After 2 minutes pass Jaden comes back out of the changing room her bikini now pink, but this one was a bit skimpier; she plops back on the pool, grabs her burger and goes back to David.
"Happy?"
"Shut it..." and she facepalms herself hard.
"Aw... There's no need for that... I didn't see anything, the problem is solved, everything thing is ok."
Then she takes out her red bikini and flings it high in the air; she somehow grabs a nearby pistol and rains the cloth with a hail of shots mid-air; giving a huge smile to herself as the vapors disappear into the sky she said, "... NOW I'm happy..."
"That works too."
"Now then... where were we?"
"... I have no idea. I was relaxing... and you were... something."
Trying to recall back she started off, "... oh right... You still didn't tell me how you dealt with the Marduk single-handedly..." She takes another bite off her burger.
"Oh... You think I killed it? I didn't kill any of the 3 of them. If I had of turned and fought, I would have been dead before the first volley.
"That is what most people don't realise when they go there. We're not in human space: we're visitors, like them in our systems. As soon as they enter, we hunt them down to the last atom... And that's exactly what they do to us."
"Well, you didn't really say how you managed to escape WITH your ship in one piece."
"Well... The whole time they're in your head, talking to you, and I noticed they kept saying something like 'return to us.' At first, I thought they wanted me back... so they could kill me... But then I realised I had 15 brains in my hold.
"As soon as I ejected them, they broke off and turned around."
Jaden doesn't respond for another long while.
Without warning she bursts out in heavy laughter, "OH, THAT'S RICH, SEÑOR! THAT'S THE FUNNIEST STORY I'VE EVER HEARD, HAHAHAH!"
"... Yes... joke." and goes under the water again.
"But Hesus Christo... if only I'd known about that technique sooner..."
She looks up at the sky, mumbling her next words, "... that man must be a lot smarter than I thought..."
Then he comes back up, "... Because they decided to let me live, I lived... that is true... But I didn't have an option for 52 K's whilst trying to escape Iota."
"So what's it like there in Iota? Was it really the hell that you kept saying?"
"Yep... Though we got through the Jump Hole alright... I took most of the damage, Leon came in second to help mop up.
"And while we were out of the cloud, we encounted nothing, but as soon as we entered the south cloud, they came..."
Raising her eyebrow from his long pause she asked, "... and then what? How many were there? Who got the most kills anyway?"
"Well... After the 8 we killed at the entrance, we then ran into another 8... plus the 2 Keepers. While I only got 7 of the kills, I was focused more on the Keepers than the lesser Nomads... Leon wasn't so smart.
"The lesser Nomads are deadly, but the Keepers are better... In every way. Their Ships are faster, heavier, and more powerful... And they milk that advantage to the last drop."
"But wouldn't dealing with the numerical advantage of the lesser nomads, THEN doing full attention on the Keepers not help as well? I can tell it would've been really bothersome to aim straight on the keeper with 7 other small fry on your back."
"Oh... did I mention for every one you kill, it screams and so attracts more?
"After Leon kill about 4 of them, the second Keeper showed up."
"Hmmm... Makes sense... I never knew that, Freelancer... another thing I should've realized when, on a mission I was in, we managed to get ambushed by 26 vessels in under 4 minutes... and I only had 3 other fighters on my back, two of them eventually destroyed, and the other, along with I, barely escaped..." She jitters very frightfully.
"Yep... Killing them doesn't always work: more come. The key is to kill the more powerful ones, or the ones giving you the most trouble, then just leaving the others
"I've had to take out 36 of them in 5 minutes... Back in the LSF... Patrol route Kappa... should have taken 15 minutes round trip... took me 30 minutes for half the first leg."
"36... very impressive, Freelancer... Are the LSF always this skilled in your time?"
Her eyes glint as she continued, "... or were you just so... awesome..?"
"Hahahah... I like to think it's my skill, but I'd say it's more a combination of luck, training and skill, with most of it training and luck, heheh...
"But we had to be... the training they put you through is unreal."
Jaden reels her head back, and leans her back on the pool wall, "Yeah... figured as much..." and snickered to herself.
"Well, what would you prefer?"
"Are you always this unsure, Freelancer?"
"I like to choose what most other prefer, if I don't mind either myself... But if I prefer one option, that’ll be the one I'll take."
The Corsair looks up to the darkening sky with her face reddening a bit, "Well, most people would think that someone with a background such as the LSF would be more sure of his skill-set and abilities, but usually don't brag about them in the open for it would just put more attention on them, which is generally bad for a covert organization's members..."
Then she looks back at David, "... But you make yourself sound as if you're the average joe of the whole crop... yet your tales say otherwise... in fact..."
She scoots closer to the point that both their shoulders touched, "... Your tales say you're... more than the rest..." She begins to lick her lips very slowly.
He grins back, "What can I say? I'm just the class idiot who also happen to excel at flying: a great combination of talent, discipline and ice breaking comments... that's me."
"... and being the class idiot usually makes the rest look good... makes you wonder how the REAL pros are..."
"Well, when your in a wing with the top 8 pilots of your class, and the top 5 die in 6 seconds, you soon find out..." David stretches a bit, seemingly unshaken by the recall... but he really was.
"And here you go again... unclear on what your skills are... and you say some of the best have fallen beside you, while the 'class idiot' survives---"
His next words come out in anger, "It was position in the wing, alright? It had nothing to do with skill, training or anything else. When we jumped to Iota, the missile blew the head of the formation apart, and because I was on the left tail, I survived. That's it, like if we were lined up at a wall and someone shot randomly at us, those who lived didn't because they were skilled, it was luck...
"... And I just guess I've had tons it my whole life..."
He covers his face with one of his hands, "I'm nothing special... I'm just another Freelancer in space. The only difference is my ship, and my tactics. And they're aren’t all the special... but no one else has figured them out yet."
Seemingly struck by his words, Jaden slowly submerges herself up to her neck, and goes to nibble it a bit before trying to reply, "... I..." but she stops herself, instead turning back to her meal with still eyes.
"... I need to go..." Jaden raises herself up and gets out of the pool, still bringing her burger along her hand, "... Thank you for the burger, and for letting me relax with you..." She walks away quickly from the pool and proceeds downstairs.
"... Ha..." David rubs his eyes as he said to himself, "... Never trust anyone else... ever. All they do is rink your beer, eat you food... spend your money...
"Oh well." He gets out of the pool and dries himself, "Time to watch some TV... The Virage can wait."
----------
It's around early evening when Jaden comes back to the roof-pool platform. She walks towards the ocean-viewing railings, and leaning on the wooden balustrades her human eye begins to water, "... I... never realized..."
As she takes a good look at her robot arm that gleaned grayish-white, a sad, solemn tear shines upon the dark, starlit-night... She covers her face with her human hand as she said the next words painfully...
It was somewhere on the mid-morning the next day when David just woke up from sleep, still in his sleeping garments, heading off to the bathroom, yawning to himself.
"... What to do today...
"Today, I have to unload the bloody Virage... And fix it," he streches as he reaches the bathroom door, "... but first a shower..."
Entering the bathroom he puts on his robes and steps through the shower curtain, "... Gotta get those guns for Jaden... Have to check the pods..." He ponders as the water runs down his back, "... Didn't the ship eject one due to lack of cargo space? Oh well... I'll have to get the ship fixed...
... Wait a minute... I didn't get my cut of the Nomads!"
Finishing, he gets into the day's clothing: a Kusarian sun shirt and shorts; and then heads to the main dining hall, "I wonder what that Jaden did? Didn't hear the ship leave... Once she gets the guns she can go. I don't really care.
"Remember G... Trust no one... Be attached to no one... People are like machines: they're to be used to help you; and if you don't pay the fare they'll screw everything up for ya...
"So be nice... Be professional. If she sticks around, well ok. If not, move on. You’ve never needed a wing man before, you don't need one now... Now for breakfast..."
As he walked through an open corridor that overlooked the forest area, he finds Jaden leaning on the railing; it was evident that she was confused about something, her eyes solemnly looking outwards.
"... What... am I gonna do...?" But she notices David's presence, and turns her head to find him, "... Oh... Freelancer...
"Where are you going? Breakfast?"
"Aye. Then I'll be unloading the ship and installing the two ‘Sair guns I looted off a wreck I found."
Her eyes narrow down in upset suspicion, "... Looted? From a Corsair ship? Where? How?"
"It was one in Delta: I can look it up on the map for you when I get to the ship."
"Now wait just a---" She suddenly stops herself; her face becomes confused, the look close to that of worry; she pauses for a minute, and finally she decides to turn around and pout to herself, "Hmph... What does it matter...?
"Let's just go and have our meals... We'll talk about it when I have my nutrition."
"Righto."
It would be several minutes later that they arrive at the living room dining area, and soon sat down to their meals: a large burger and French fries on the side for each of them. David munches his food without any worry; but Jaden eats it with a little less eagerness, occasionally playing with the food, and coupled with occasional breaks of staring at blank space.
Easily noticing Jaden's odd behavior, David asks, "Alright... What's wrong?"
She seemed to wake up from deep thought, "... huh?
"... oh... uh... nothing..."
"Yea, right." he rolled his eyes with sarcasm.
"No, it's nothing at all, Freelancer... It's not important..." She shakes a hand in the air to brush off the topic, "Just some things that are of... personal nature...
"I'll get through it, you can be sure of it..." She continues eating.
"Eh, ok..." and he continues enjoying his meal.
When they finish and let the robot take the dishes away David pats his stomach from the hearty meal he enjoyed, "Now that's a health breakfast, hahahah."
"Yes... those... french fries? They were... oily... very, VERY oily..."
"Ahhh... that's the good stuff."
"Now that that's been settled... Let's head over to the Virage and see if the frakker's still asleep..."
"Who? Leon?" David scratches his head with a sheepish smile, "... Oh yea... uhhh... about that..."
Jaden gave a narrow look, "... about what...?"
"The pods... Umm... When I got those guns off the ship, I didn't have enough cargo space... So the ship automatically ejected something. I think it was a pod.
"So... either we have Leon or Mila---"
"MILA?!" her eye shot open in utter disbelief.
"---OR Leon! It could be Leon, don't forget that." He quickly pointed out.
"But what if... Meh... It'll still do if we get the sillymouth...
"Alright... You lead the way. Your ship."
"Alright." and they head off to the hanger.
But as David exits the dining room Jaden hesitates on her tracks, and clenches her fist as she looks down at the floor, "... But... Is this... what I really want...?" and then she goes to follow him.
They arrive in the hanger, and to G's Virage, "Ok..." He gets up on the side and clears his throat a bit, "Master on... Open the bay doors..."
The bay doors open with a very excruciating and painful screech...
"I'll have to get that fixed..."
... then one of the bay door circuits spark and blow up.
"Ahhhh crap..." giving himself a disappointed facepalm he turns to Jaden, "That's Iota for ya."
Jaden only manages to stifle an elated giggle.
Though one of door opens fully the other remained locked shut, "Aright... crowbar." He grabs a nearby crowbar and positions himself, "I'll pop her open." Using the crowbar he forces the broken door open, allowing them to see the contents of the hold.
The inside is filled mostly with the contents of Nomad Missiles and a couple of the Corsair 'Salamanca' guns mentioned earlier; then on the corner was the drab-white escape pod.
"Yep... only 1."
Jaden meditates her next words like a mantra, "Please let it be the frakker, please let it be the frakker, please let it be the frakker, please let it be the frakker..."
"Lets get it out..."
The two eventually manage to drag the heavy thing onto a gravitronic platform. Standing on the sides they inspect the thing with anticipation.
Wiping her hands of dust she said, "... Okay then... now what?"
"We tell it to open..." He approaches a panel on it's side, "Now..." After he presses a few buttons, suddenly the escape gives a hiss.
... but as the hiss prolongues, it pauses... and then... nothing...
"... is that it?" Jaden raises her eyebrow.
He sighs heavily, "Crowbar again." He grabs the metal chunk again and begins to leaver the top; when the lid is pushed some centimeters apart the motors start up again.
He smiles dryly, "These crowbars may be old technology, but they work."
The escape pod hatch quickly pop open; the two look inside with eagerness and crossed fingers...
"Frak..."
... it was Mila...
Her jaw drops open in amazement, "... WHAAAAAAT?!!"
Kicking the side of the pod in a wild tantrum she screamed out, "NO NO NO NO NO!!! WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE HER?! HEEERRRRR?!?!"
David takes a step away from Jaden and prepares for the fury...
"AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!" Practically foaming in the mouth, she takes out her pistol and does a few angry shots in the air; in consequence, parts of metallic scrap from the ceiling clonk her on the head.
"God damnit... I'll have to fix that too!"
Mila slowly opens her eyes from the noises going on.
Weakly, she asked, "M... Meep?
"... where... where am I...?"
David grins, "By the looks on how Jaden is pissed, your in---"
"YOOOOOUUUUU ARE IN HEEEEEEEEEELLLL!!!" Jaden menacingly roared with angry, murderous eyes.
"MEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPP!!!"
"Uh... Jaden... I think you need to take a break before you break anything more of mine?"
"How about I take a break from YOUR limbs instead?!"
He snarled back, "Just try it..." and he takes out his pistol.
She smiled wryly, "... Pfff... Maybe during that other bet you still owe me..."
Then she turns back to Mila, fury dripping from her mouth, "... as for you..."
"M-Meep! Wha-wha-wha-what're ya gonna d-d-do with me-me-me-meeeep???"
She was about to say something, but her mind goes blank, "... uhm... I don't know..."
"Shoot more holes in my roof?"
"Nah..." Jaden paces around for a bit; then a very, VERY evil grin slowly streaks out of her face, "... oh... I know...
"Freelancer... come here for a second..."
"You know... I have a name."
"... oh fine... G... or should I call you David?" Jaden reddens faintly as she rolls her eyes in disgust
"David... G... Just not Freelancer"
"Anyway. Just come here... I have a plan."
"Fine..."
Mila gets curious as their whispering dragged on, "Uhm... meep? Wha-what're you guys talking abo---"
Quickly, Jaden turns back to Mila, "Girl... you like games... don't you?"
"Uhm... yeah... I do like games..."
"Well..." a spine-chilling grin appears on her face, "... You're gonna LOVE this..."
--- a skip of several minutes ---
"Ooooohhh..." She eyes the new starflier in the hangar with anticipation, "I getz a brand new ship?"
"Yeah... a brand new ship... and you'll be flying it during the game.
"Now then... You're gonna go ahead and fly around the ocean for a bit... We'll catch up later. We'll teach you the game when we get there, okay?"
"Mmkay!" She climbs aboard the cockpit of the starflier and initiates the starting sequence.
"How did you know I had an old one of those?"
Jaden smirked, "I didn't...
"Anyway... You set up your other virage and I'll put up the guns you brought with you on my new ship."
"Alright... It got fixed while I was away, so I won't take long."
... Some time passes...
Mila's currently enjoying herself cruising along near the surface of the water just outside David's estate.
"WEEEEEE!!! This is fun!"
Suddenly, her scanners get a reading that two ships are on approach: they were David's Virage and Jaden's Tiger Shark, embezzled on its sides are the words 'Terminal Velocity'.
Mila becomes excited that the two finally came, "YAAAY! The game's gonna start! The game's gonna start! So how's the game gonna---"
"*BZZZ* Okay David... Let's see who's the faster pilot, eh? *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* Well that's a no brainer: your ship is faster, it's an LF, while this is a VHF. You have agility, while I just have awesome power. *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* No, what I meant was--- ahhh, what does it matter? ENGAGE!!! *BZZZ*"
"Meep? What's goin---"
All of a sudden, a volley of Iron Hammer projectiles fly in front of Mila.
"*BZZZ* Have to get her a warning, otherwise it wont last long enough. *BZZZ*"
The starflier's shields quickly disappear, and her ship's systems go red, "MEEP! WHA-WHA-WHA---"
"*BZZZ* DIE, DIE, DIIIEEEE!!! *BZZZ*" She launches a chain-fired set of her Salamancas on the starflier.
Mila, now realizing what's happening, manages to evade that last volley, and starts to circle around the two ships in a desperate effort to buy time for her shields to come back online.
"*BZZZ* You keep her spinning round, I'll line up for a razor shot. *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* It's a free-for-all, Free--- I mean, David... Whoever deals the killing shot on her ship wins the entire set of drinks for the whole day!
[i]"*BZZZ* ... and I'm not gonna give up on THAT!!! MWAAHAHAHAHAHAH!! *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* Oh fine, I'll do it the normal way. *BZZZ*" David flicks his ship into a 90 degree corner, opposite to Mila's turning circle, "... Just time it right..." As the two ships converge, Mila quickly flicks her ship the other way, but David grins with expectation and applies full power, "I've got you now..."
The Virage ends up right behind Mila's, and in an instant the starflier is engulfed in an explosion, "Woooo hoooo! Razor hit!"
As the cloud clears, to his utter amazement the interceptor bursts out of the cloud, still flying, but suffering from severe hull integrity failure and both wings destroyed.
"Damn... The shield must have just restarted... Oh well." He flicks the Ironhammers and Archangels back on
"*BZZZ* HAHAHAH! Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...
"... MY turn! *BZZZ*"
Jadens ship slip in front of David's and unleashes a volley, but as she does so she notices her shields going down.
"*BZZZ* HEY! No friendly fire! *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* "Says who, HAHAHAHAH! *BZZZ*"
She wipes her nose with a smirk, "Heh..."
The starflier quickly employs a new tactic of zig-zagging wildly around, combined with the original circling, but this one was highly erratic and unstable... though coupled with her failing engines she was beginning to slow down.
"Hah! This'll be fun..."
"Mine time..." David ejects 5 mines from his ship, they quickly lock onto Mila's ship.
But she quickly stalls the interceptor, and does a very quick drift-turn to the right, then thrust away, managing to BARELY evade the mines... but her new trajectory was now in a joust with Jaden's ship.
"Those things cost 5k a pop! *BZZZ* All yours, Jaden. *BZZZ*"
The Tiger Shark unleashes a chain-fire of Salamanca-bolts in quick succession: with the engines on the Starflier at critical condition Mila wasn't able to do a barrel-roll: she evades the first couple of shots, but her large cockpit soaks up 3 clean hits: the first two downing her shields, and the last one shutting the ship's systems down.
"HAHAAAH!!! I---"
But 2 iron hammer projectiles slam into the side of the starflier, and it promptly explodes into a fiery fireball as it heads towards the sea.
"*BZZZ*... And who won? *BZZZ*"
The Tiger Shark stalls, and thinks for a moment, "*BZZZ* ... Those last two shots were uncalled for! I call dibs on making her START to descend into the ocean! *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* Please say word for word the rules of the game.
"*BZZZ* Whoever downs her ship wins, and I’d say those 2 hammers helped in that, also being the last shots, I’d say I win this round. *BZZZ*"
David grins to himself, "*BZZZ* Shall we head back? *BZZZ*"
"*BZZZ* Yeah, sure... Ugh... out. *BZZZ*" and she turns the comms channel off.
"Awwww... I don't think she liked my little move..."
As the two ships blast off back to the estate, Jaden grips her controls tightly, "... Ugh... I'm getting rusty... letting a rookie get the better of someone like me..." Then her face flushes a bit, giggling softly to herself, "... But that sure was witty of him, I can give him that..."
Then David flicks his ship upside down and positions it above the cockpit of the Tiger Shark. Looking above she wondered, "... huh? What the..."
He grins and simply waves.
She gives a perplexed look for a moment, then she shakes it off and puts full power on the cruise engines, blasting off ahead.
"Ohh... Good thing my ship has more power."
Upon applying full power and its cruise engines fully charged, the Virage blasts by so fast it broke the sound barrier and went way ahead of the Shark.
Her cockpit shudders from the sonic boom, "... Whoa..." Her face blushes even more as she stared in amazement; but she quickly tries to shake herself, "NO NO NO!!! I CANNOT!!! I WILL NOT!!!"
"Now... All I need now is some music." He takes out a datastick from one of his pockets, inserts it into a nearby port, and the song BREAK ON THROUGH TO THE OTHER SIDE thrums throughout the interior.
--- several hours pass when they finally get to the Estate ---
... And a very heavy thump is heard on a far-off table.
"HAH! I win this match!"
Rubbing his sore arm from the arm-wrestling match with Jaden's robotic limb David said, "... Yea yea..."
The venue that time was on the roof-pool, somewhere in the late evening, faintly illuminated by lanterns filled with Neon that shone brilliant-red; the tables around were lined with lots of different drinks and shotglasses, some were of average strength, but most were those of the strong variety like spirits and whiskey; Jaden was wearing a white, two-piece bikini with a transparent towel on her lower body, while David was wearing some black swimming shorts; both of their faces were a bit red, but the former's was more pronounced.
"So yeah... my account..." She checks her PDA, and gets a bit depressed upon looking at it, "My precious account... feels oh so lighter..." then grabs a full bottle of whiskey and proceeds to drown it directly from the bottle mouth.
"Oh don't worry bout it. Money here is easy. I can make about 3 million a day just in escort duties, and you rarely strike any decent pirates... Easy money..." He takes a swing of a rum bottle by his side.
Slamming her shotglass on the table so hard it cracks on the bottom portion, her face flushes noticeably, "Mmmm... Whishkey's alwayshhh better than Shake... *HIC*"
"Yea I get the good stuff..." He looks at the pool, "... Care for a dip?"
Her eye glints, "... Sure... Why not?"
While David enters first, Jaden wobbles a bit to the pool stairs and plops in slowly.
She sighs to herself, "Mmmm... What a day... Downing the silly-mouth's ship as a shtart, and coming back to the estate for a day of rest... and relaxation...
"I gueh that by the day after tomorrow... when you get your ship fixed... we'll be shtarting the real work, huh...?"
"Real work? I never work, I have fun.
"But yea... We'll head out of the atmosphere and see if we can't pick up a escort or something, maybe even take some bounties. You stop em from running, I kill em."
"Hmmph... an' get all the glory for gitting them to meet their maker... Not really my style to let someone else do the killing, but hey... whatever gets the dough on the table..." She rolls her eyes.
"Not really... They could just run off on me, and I can't shut down their cruise. But you can, anyway... The fella who put the bounty up would want to know why there were 2 ships, though."
"Pfff... his problem, not ours.
"So long as we do the job right... He shouldn't complain."
"Yep...
"But that's only if we do bounties; escorts are easier."
"Say... I don't suppose you're more of the... opportunistic type?
"Like... When the trader offers 400K for escort services... but a pirate comes along and offers 800K for blowin' him up... You up for that?"
"What? Nawww, I'm more lawful, and I try to not turn my back on deals."
Jaden raises her eyebrows in surprise, "Huh... You really are something, Free... uh... David. You have ideals... Normally rare in a universe like thish..."
"Well just remember, I was an LSF-agent."
"... and also remember... an ex-LSF agent." She pointed out.
"Eh... I had it coming. Too many stupid things, stepped on too many toes... shot the wrong LABC..."
"... oh? You had the balls to stand up against a Battlecruiser?" She scoots slightly closer.
"Yea... The captain tried to pin the damage of his vessel on me, so I damaged it a bit more."
"There's gotta be a deeper reason than that."
"The head of R&D was on the comm channel at the time... He heard everything."
She smirks at him, "... and were you guilty?"
"Of the heavy damage done to his ship? Nope... to the 23% drop in their fully charges shields that recharged within 10 seconds? Yes..." David pointed his bottle at the sky.
"Pfff... what an arsehole of a captain...
"... And what happened after that?"
"I had to stay on the Kodiak, a LSF research station in Zone 21... But they were lax, and I escaped in my Virage before my court marshal."
She paused for a moment before continueing, "... oh... So that... was the story of how you left the LSF... isn't that right?"
"Yep..." he flatly replied.
"Well now... so that's what happened...
"Just one thing: how safe are you that the LSF won't just drop in on your doorstep and come barging through the door? The LSF has ties in many places and backgrounds... shouldn't be surprising that Kusari would be one of them."
"That's worried me for a while, but the fact that they haven’t got me already... If the LSF wants something done, they do it."
"You think you're not worth their time?"
"Well, it's not like they haven’t tried to catch me. They did... but a mate busted me out of the transport shuttle.
"After that... nothing.
"And it's not like I'm a threat. Maybe they see that too now."
Jaden snickers to herself, "... yeah... I guess not."
Seemingly finding nothing else to talk about for the moment, a long pause descends on the night...
Eventually, David broke the ice and placed his arms behind his head to cushion it as he lied on the pool edge, "Ahhh... It's good to have a friend here, I'm used to myself but... always something nice about company."
Then Jaden slowly closes her eyes as she whispered, "... Brrr... Is it just me, or is the pool colder than usual?
"... Maybe if I just..."
And she begins to lean herself on David, her soft, smooth skin touching his chest.
"Mmmmm... You're warm... and you're strong..."
... Several seconds more pass before all of a sudden, Jaden gasps to herself and quickly dashes away, "ACK! N-NO! Wha-what am I thinking?!"
She uses her hand to feel her pulsating head, "Ugh... I'm friggin' drunk... mmm...
"P... please don't mind what I just... did... that was... unprofessional..."
David shrugged his shoulders, "Ehh... It happens
"... But the fact is... We're now living together. So how can we stay professional if we're going to be so close all the time?"
Those words seemingly shocked her, and her pupils dilated as her face shot up flushing scarlet-red, "... wha... d... Did you just...?"
"Did I just what? I'm just stating the facts." He produces a perplexed look at her.
But soon she hesitates for a moment, pauses, and finally she laughs sheepishly to herself, "... ooohhhhhh... Yeah, you've got a point."
He raised an eyebrow in suspicion of her strange behavior before eventually brushing it off, "... Anyway..." and he sinks his neck down the water.
"Y... yeah... Maybe I should just... head off for bed before... anything else happens..."
"Okay then. Goodnight. I'll stay here and continue relaxing..."
When Jaden finally exits the platform and heads off downstairs David ponders to himself, "... What was it that I said that made her look at me like that...?" and he fully submerges himself.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Jaden screams out in horror as David's Virage, the Gforce, ignites into a brilliant fireball when a Gunboat Missile hits the engines, "DAAAAAAVVVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDD!!!" It was as if time had suddenly stalled for an eternity, her life quickly crashing down right in front of her.
But no time was spared for her to mourn: still dodging from the fire of two Wilde ships and the missile volleys of the nearby Blood Dragon Hachiman, her comms quickly picked up the Yukawa Shipyard's transmission, and she immediately turns it on, "*BZZT* Freelancer Jaden, docking bay 4 is open for you! We suggest you head in now if you're to have a chance. We've given you only a narrow window as we've signaled the blast doors to close again. *BZZT*"
She quickly does a 156-degree turn towards the installation, punches the thrusters at full power, and bursts off at max speed towards the quickly-closing docking bay hatch. Gritting her teeth, she manages to thread through the narrow opening with only meters to spare, and in the nick of time as well as the shipyard re-activates its orbital shields right after the doors slam shut. With its engines and wings burning from numerous fuel and coolant leaks around the hull, the Tiger Shark, Terminal Velocity crash-lands on the docking bay platform and hits the side-walls with a loud bang.
Fire-teams stationed nearby quickly spray the wreck with carbon dioxide jets, starving the flames off of needed oxygen and combustibles, eventually putting the fires out. They scramble to try and see if the pilot was alive, but a loud hiss rings out on the cockpit as the pressurizing mechanisms engage. They run to investigate, and thankfully find the pilot alive, with nothing more than ash and soot covering her orange flight suit.
Slowly, the pilot takes off her helmet, revealing the face of a beautiful Corsair woman with a cyborg ocular implant that replaced her left eye; but her beauty was marred by the sad, utterly-broken look on her face, tears quickly streaming down the side of her cheeks. She painfully whispered to herself, "... D... David...
"... Why... Why couldn't I have done anything to prevent this?" She tries to cover her tearful face with her hands, "... SOB... Why couldn't I save him...? Why is it that I'm the one that survives...? Why... can't I ever... defend the things... that I hold dear...?"
The atmosphere was engulfed with an air of sad, solemn and silent despair. The only sound that rang out other than the fire fumes that slowly extinguished with time was the slow sobbing of the Corsair to herself...
... 2 and a half days later...
... David Gee suddenly wakes up from a deep slumber. Without getting up at first, he uses his eyes to identify where he currently is: he could see a white room with a wall and a window attached to it to his right, while on the far-left were a few chairs, a table, and the door. He tries to feel for himself and finds that he's wearing a standard hospital gown, lying down on a white bed. A white collar strap was fastened to his wrist, the words 'David Gee' on its side.
Groaning as he got up, he said to himself, "Well... this sucks." Eventually concluding he's in a hospital, he looks out the window and confirms that he's safely back in New Tokyo, "Looks like I lost the fight...
"... DAMNIT, not another one."
The door suddenly opens, where a doctor wearing a white, knee-long coat and holding a datapad on one hand, steps into the room, "Ah... Gaijin... you're awake now. How are you feeling?" It's evident his demeanor looks and sounds unhappy and unimpressed.
"If one more person calls me that, I'll rip their frakken head off!"
"Hmph..." He looks over the data on the PDA he held, "... It looks like you're very lucky. From the looks of it you seemed to have escaped a large battle unscathed... let's see... Hmmm...
"... Minor bruising over on the abdominal region, and only a mild concussion on the forehead... other than that, you're alright..."
"The ship?"
He looks at his datapad again, "... No mention of a ship was recovered... Sir..." He said that last word with disdain, "... A Kishiro convoy managed to find your pod and---"
"The Blood Dragon... Anyone get him?" David growled.
"Unfortunately, the news reports state that the three ships, two being of unknown design, and the other of gunboat-size, managed to get away."
David looks at the doctor, "Thanks to the frakker those two Wilde got away..." He shakes head as he continued, "... That idiot would prefer to attack a Freelancer rather than an alien... I'll be sure to teach him a lesson he wont soon forget..."
"Oh... So they were Wilde, huh? I'm surprised you survived... many stories say they don't take survivors. Maybe you should stay here and await protection from the KSP?"
"KSP? KNF?" He rolls his eyes in disguist, "Idiots... All they care about is their own pocket, and maybe a local here and there. They'd never help an 'outsider' like me.
"When am I free to go?"
"Actually, you're free to go... as in... right now..." He said his words as if he hoped they'd come true.
"My stuff?" David steps out of the bed.
"They are over there," and points to the large, steel footlocker near the front of the bed.
"Good..." He goes through the locker, and the first thing he gets is his pistol. He inspects it, and a large frown appears on his face, "... I see you had the police tinker with my toy... I don't like that."
Getting impatient, the doctor holds himself a bit longer, "Just go..."
David flicks the pistol up, and in the blink of an eye it's facing the doctor, "I'm not very happy. I just lost a ship worth worth 60 million credits... Now what did they do to my pistol?"
"Why not go ask the police yourself? I'm a doctor, not a gun specialist. Head over to the Security Office if you want your question answered." He seemed unfazed at the pistol's threatening display.
David points the gun at the floor and pulls the trigger... Nothing happens, "... Right..." He checks the battery, and finds nothing out of the ordinary, "You guys really played around with it. Did you find this feature?" He pulls the grip off the gun, takes a hidden blade from the inside and clips it onto the front of the gun, "... Looks good, doesn't it?"
In a cool tone the Doctor continued, "I couldn't care less... look, just go, okay? I've got 5 more patients on the waiting that need medical attention, and one is in need of direct surgery. If you don't want to be responsible for the death of a 'local' because of you stalling my time, I suggest that you pack up and move."
David throws the pistol, which shoots mid-air past the doctor's face by milimeters, and then sticks to the wall, "... Sure." He collects the rest of his things and heads for the exit, picking up his pistol on the way out, "Good day... Doctor."
When David exits the door the man grimaces to himself, "... Huh... that went a lot better than that last patient who had short-term memory loss..."
The Freelancer, walking down the hallway, finds a restroom and changes back into his flight suit, "Now... to get my pistol fixed.
"...Security... Where are they?" He pulls out his PDA and taps away until the coordinates flash out on the screen, "... Ah, here we are. Section 3; level 4." Finished changing, he places the pistol back in its holster and heads off.
After some time, passing through several more hallways and through sleezy, elevator music, he arrives at the Security Office Counter, which had a bullet-proof glass pane that separated clients from the teller on top of the counter, "Finally..."
He goes up to the counter and began, "Hello... I just got released, I guess... But someone's been playing with my Personal Defense Weapon. Any chance you could fix it?" He places the pistol on the white, plastic countertop.
"... And your name?" The teller remarks in a quick, yet apparently-bored tone.
"David Gee."
He taps some commands on his console, then pauses to look at him for a moment before continuing back. After a few more moments he looks back at David, "Right... Patient David Gee... Let's see...
"Can I have your weapon for a moment?" he opens a slit through the glass window for the pistol to pass through
David complies and hands out the pistol through the hole. The teller grabs the pistol, then seals the slit shut; and as if second nature, he taps onto a few buttons here and there, and soon the pistol starts to hum in a higher frequency. He opens the slit and gives it back to David, "There... The pistol's been adjusted to its proper laser frequency and power IF and ONLY IF you finally exit the hospital."
"I hope your right... Thanks."
The teller responds only with a drab and unhappy frown.
As David walks off and arrives at the entrance of the hospital he remarks to himself, "Man... They really hate foreigners here... Oh well.
"... Now how to get home." He checks his PDA and notices the time, "Hey! My Havok should be here... You beauty!" He hails a Taxi as he exits the Hospital and gives the Taxi driver the co-ordians as to where he wants to go, which are a few blocks off where the ship is really stored...
... meanwhile...
The next setting was a pitch-black room, the windows turned opaque... The eerie silence was interrupted when a loud beeping sound was heard, and a small light illuminated a bed with a figure lying down on it.
The figure, without looking, outstretches an arm and attempts to grab the beeping implement, and after a few tries grabs hold of the item; the figure then raises its head, and the dim, green light of the PDA reveals Jaden, her face heavily-soiled; it was evident that she had been crying all night, what with signs of evaporated tears remaining on her cheeks.
She looks at the screen, and the numerous texts read that the dock engineers have her ship finally repaired. Afterwards, she thumps back down on the mattress and says in a weak voice, "... Ugh... What's the use...? I should just stay here all my life...
"... No more worries... No more pain... No more responsibilities...
"No more---" Suddenly, her tummy begins to growl angrily, "... Ugh... No more food... How long have I been here...?" She checks her PDA and looks at the time, "... huh... 3 days... Has it been that long I was on this mattress...?
"Ugh... can't help it... might as well try to get some food." She uses the PDA light to look for some sort of remote around the place she found the PDA; after finding some sort of box-like aluminum remote, she clicks the button and the lights go off in a quick flash; unfortunately her eyes had gotten used to the 3 days' worth of darkness, "ACK!!! THE FRA---!!!" She quickly taps a few buttons and the lights dim enough for her to see fine.
Wryly smiling to herself, "... mmfff... What a mess I've gotten myself into... Guess I'll go and change my clothes." Jaden heads off to the bathroom door opposite the bed and after a few moments she comes out wearing her usual clothes, "Now... I gotta eat... maybe a burger would---"
But that last word suddenly makes her sob so hard she slumps to her knees, "... I'm so broken... I am really so pathetic..." A few more moments pass before she barely manages to recover herself, "... How about... a sashimi...?" As if waiting for a response, she pauses; when she feels no intense melodrama bursting out, she breathes a sigh of relief, "... Alright then, sashimi it is."
Jaden takes out her PDA and walks towards the nearest Cafeteria on Yukawa Shipyard... A few corridors and a level later she gets to it. She steps to the counter and says in a yawn, "... I need a sashimi... fish... whatever... What do you have...?"
The cook raises an eyebrow at her, "... Have you just been raped or something, Gaijin?"
She gets very furious and takes out her pistol in one quick motion, "WHO YOU CALLING RAPED?! AND WHY THE FRAK DO I KEEP GETTING CALLED GAIJIN HERE?!"
He raises both hands nervously, "L-l-look!" He takes out a mirror from the side and gives it to the angry Corsair.
She looks at her crumpled, heavily-soiled face, "... Oh Hesus Cristo! My face is a mess!
"... But you still owe me a sashimi."
"C-c-coming right up!" The cook leaves the counter as Jaden begins fixing her hair...
... Half an hour passes...
... Jaden, her hunger now satisfied, sighed to herself with a smile, "... ah... That was some fine Salmon... Now to get---"
But then she hears a far-off drinking binge going off between some Samura pilots who were having a good time, and she looks overhead them for a bit.
Yet she eyes the group suddenly raising toasts of whisky bottles in the air; her brain fries up again with thoughts of times past, and her head facedesks on the table, "... must... get... outta here... before I lose my head for sure..."
... Meanwhile...
... David finally arrives at the top of a very long elevator ride. The steel doors swivel open to reveal a long, wide, metallic corridor filled with many blast doors to the right, while the left side had a conveyor belt for those people who carried a lot of baggage. He walks a bit, passing by a number of doors until he gets to the 4th one.
He clears throat before speaking to a nearby comm on the side of the door, "Alright... Code is... XNFS2"
With that, the door hissed as the pneumatics released their seals. The Freelancer crosses his fingers as the doors groan excruciatingly whilst they open, and he closes his eyes in worried anticipation, "Come on... be there.
"......... OH YEAHHH!!!" The doors reveal a very large, well-lit room, its floodlights focused at the center of the area, where a Havoc II sat safely and comfortably, its dark blue-green outline complementing the shimmering, golden-yellow cockpit window that seemed to gleam in a brilliant eagerness as if to say, 'welcome back'.
He runs to the underside of the bomber and identifies with a smile the words 'The G' embezzled in black, flaming letters. After patting the hull of the ship, he runs his fingers down the side, the polish still new, making it look in mint condition, "Good to see you old girl, it's been a while...
"Lets get you to your new home eh?"
David wastes no time on getting in and beginning the startup sequence. After a few moments the ship slowly hums, and finally roars, signalling the bomber was ready to go. He laughs excitedly as the ship purred nicely, "Wooo! As good as the first day I flew you! Lets head home."
He plots a course for the Estate on the NavMap, and after the roof overhead opens up the ship hovers into the sky, and blasts off towards home...
... A few hours later The G arrives at David's estate. The ship comes in low and fast: were it not for David pulling up just in-time, the ship wouldn't have missed the house; it then goes 90-degrees to the right and suddenly stops, hovering above hanger bay 4. As the Hangar Bay doors open the ship descends smoothly, if not noisily. After shutdown, David gets out and does his usual streching routine.
"Damn that was fun... Bloody good ship the Havok!" He pats the nose in gratitude, "Welcome to your new home baby. You'll have some friends to talk to while your here: Jaden has herself a nice..." He looks around the hanger, but notices the Terminal Velocity isn't present, "... Tiger Shark... Huh. Mustn't be home yet." He checks his PDA for a few moments before looking back up, "... I was out 2 and a half days... well then."
He heads down towards the main building, "Time for another one of them huge-arse burgers... And oh! Catch up on my show too!!!"
... Meanwhile...
... Jaden is found in space, on the cockpit of her ship, already on the tradelane towards New Tokyo.
As a tear goes down her face whilst the planet slowly looms towards view, she whispers to herself, "... New Tokyo... Estate... SOB... what the hell am I gonna do now...?"
She tries to put a smile on her face, "... The only thing good about it is that all of it might just turn over to me... but..." Her smile quickly fades and she starts sobbing again, "... But it all isn't worth it if they just remind me of my guilt for the man I had lost..."
Slamming the console of her ship with unholy rage, she turns on the autopilot and then covers her face with her hands, screaming her highest pitch for a full 7 seconds.
... A few more minutes later...
The estate soon gets into the view of the Tiger Shark cockpit, and Jaden looks overhead as she starts the landing sequence, "... Home sweet home... home... home..." And a facepalm is heard on the background, "Frak me... This is too much...
"Ugh... can't help it... Hopefully, I'll get over it... you always have, haven't you, Jaden?"
As the Terminal Velocity hovers down into the hangar, she eyes the new Havoc II bomber within the vicinity.
Getting suspicious, she takes out her pistol from its holster, "... Hmmm..." After touching down and getting out of the cockpit, she inspects the Havoc quickly; the words 'The G' are embezzled on the underside; she shakes her head in disgust from the relation of the memories, "... Nah... must be a coincidence..."
She readies her pistol, which hums deeply; she puts on a wide grin, "... Well now... Hunting someone in the Estate's far better than sulking... Directing negative energy into positive action, heheheh."
As Jaden exits the hangar and enters the hallway towards the main hall, loud music could be heard in the background, "FILTHY LOAFERS!!! Think they can just barge into my estate like that..."
Eventually she gets to the door that lead directly into the main hall; she positions herself to the door-sill, and readies herself to open it in one quick motion in the hopes of surprising the suspected infiltrators.
And she initiates the plan: Jaden bursts into the scene, with her gun pointed at the closest person, "YOU PICKED THE WRONG ESTA---"
... And there this man standing a distance away, wearing only some blue swimming shorts, with nothing covering his chiseled chest, save for a towel on his shoulder, one of his hands still holding a very large burger; he was caught completely by surprise at the sudden intrusion and flinched.
"The hell?!" He drops the burger and rolls to the couch; he snatches his pistol from the table by the couch and uses it for cover.
Quickly shaking her hesitation off, Jaden dives behind the opposite couch, "... Who the frak was that?!"
"Who the hell are you, and what the hell are you doing here?!" He demanded.
"I should be asking YOU that, frakker! This is where I live, you loafer!" She screamed out.
"You? This is my estate you crazy frakker, and you'd best leave before I use you as target practice for my bomber!"
Jaden scoffed at his seeming arrogance and scowled, "Wha--- Who are YOU to say it's YOUR estate?! Only David Gee used to own this pad, not some sleezy-ass hobo!"
"I AM David you wanker...
"... Wait... How'd you know that?"
"Well, duh! Because I---" She pauses for a moment, "... wait... that... voice...
"... Is... is that...?" She looks over the corner of her side of the couch to get a view of the other person.
The guy pokes his head up above the couch, "... Jaden?"
"... D... D-D-D..." Jaden slowly stands up, her jaw open wide in utter shock and disbelief.
He also gets up, "The hell you scaring me like that for?"
... Standing right in front of Jaden was David Gee, alive and fine, if not better...
David looks at the floor where he dropped the burger, "... Ahhh... Damn, in the carpet...."
He then looks at her, "Do you have any ide---... You okay, Jaden?"
Jaden just stands there with a face of total shock, as if unable to comprehend what her eyes were seeing: doubts, thoughts and intense feelings raced through her head like a hurricane, "... b... but... y..."
David pauses for a moment, then looks at his half-nakedness, "... Ah, I see. Why, just let me get into something better."
"... Y... you..." and tears start dripping down her eye.
Before David could finish turning around, Jaden quickly runs over to him...
... and gives him a big embrace.
He is caught once again by surprise at this sudden action, "Hurk... No... choking... ple---"
"YOU MADE ME WORRY, DAMN YOU!!! YOU MADE ME WORRY LIKE FRAKKIN, FRAKKING HELL!!!" She repeatedly hammers him with her fist as she continues burrying her face on his shoulder, tears flowing heavily from her face.
"The hell did I do? My ship blew up! Of course I'm not indestructible!"
"You bastard! Idiota! You estupido... You... You... UWAAAAAAA!!!!" she begins to sulk long and hard.
"What? You think I died? My ships' got some pretty good escape pods."
In a tone that's mixed with utter anger, misery and joy tempered together she continues, "I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!!!"
"Well...... I'm not!"
"You made me worry, dammit... SOB... I hadn't heard from you in 3 straight days... SOB... I... thought the worst... SOB... I... I..."
"... I was out for 2 and half days if that helps..."
"Estupido!!! You could've called and told me you were all right at least! Instead, you made me worried sick the whole time! You're going to PAY for making a woman worry like that, bastardo! YOU'RE GOING TO PAY, DAMMIT!!!"
"How lovely..." He rolls his eyes wryly, "... You worry like hell about me, then abuse the crap out of me when you see me...
"... And make me drop my burge---"
"The burger can WAIT, damn you!" Her fury calms a bit, "... I thought I had just lost the one last man that could give me the chance to make me feel better! I thought I had finally lost EVERYTHING when you kapoofed! I thought about a lot of [color=#FF0000][A.D.M.I.N. censored] when you blew away... I thought... I had killed you again... I thought... that my... SOB..."
"As I said... I didn't. I'm still here, aren't I?
"... But at the rate your going I don't be here too much longer---"
"Don't you say that, David! Don't you EVER say that!" She abruptly interrupts, "... please...
"... P... promise... to me you won't... die on me again..."
David laughs a bit, "Well I didn't die in the first place, and I don't plan on it in the near future... So I'd say I can do that.
"But why are you getting so worked up? I got blown up, it happens! If it had been you, well... I wouldn't have been happy, but I would have just come back here and waited for---"
"BECAUSE I LOST ALMOST EVERYONE THAT WAY!!!" She begins to quickly scowl as if her mouth was spitting fire, "MY PREVIOUS LOVER HAD SAID TO ME THE SAME THING, THAT HE COULD HANDLE IT, YET HE COULDN'T! HE NEVER CAME BACK!!! I SOON FOUND OUT HE DIED WHILST STILL IN HIS POD! SO HOW THE MOTHER FRAKKING HELL CAN I BELIEVE THAT YOU'D EVER COME BACK?!
"... I don't wanna lose another man like that... I don't!" Jaden hugs David even tighter, "... No... I'm never letting go... You won't die if I'll never give up... no matter how many more limbs will have to go... and TO HELL with luck...
"You're probably the only family I have left, don't you realize that?! ... I... I can't..."
David bowed his head shamefully, "Well... I didn't know that...
"... Wait, what? You think of me as what?!"
"I lost my entire family back in the Empire... I'm the only one of my blood left... I... have no one else to turn to... I've been in the dark for so long... so.. so long...
"... and to have met someone who'd willingly let a stranger accept me into his home... to have met someone who'd let me eat on the same table without having to hold a pistol in one hand... to have the security and safety in his home, knowing I'll be able to finally sleep soundly in the night...
"... To have no more need of travel... to have no more need to run away... to finally... finally..."
She suddenly doesn't finish her sentence.
David laughs, "You originally came to try and win a bet."
"I thought that was the reason as well... but... I...
"... I was drunk... and..."
"You weren't when you got into my ship...
"Anyway, what we both need is somthing to eat, a nice shower, and then relax in the pool."
"... y... yes... The pool... would sound nice right about now..." She looks up to David's face directly, her eyes sparkling like a starry night sky.
"Alrighty then! I'll just clean up here and be with you in a minute."
"R... right..." It was evident she was reluctant to loosen her grip on David; but she does so.
"I guess I'll meet you at the pool. Cya in a few minutes..."
As David walks away to get some cleaning tools, Jaden goes to get her swimming attire in her room...
... Several minutes pass, and on this setting, David's now relaxing himself on the roof-pool; a big bottle of whiskey on one hand, and the other had an equally-large burger; though none of the Neon lanterns were on, at the distance one could witness Planet Kitadake giving off a small, bright-blue halo which helped illuminate that smooth, cool and slightly-breezy night.
He sighs contentedly to himself, "... Now this is a reason to come home each day..."
"Hey there... David."
The Freelancer heard the soft voice of a woman to his left, and when he turns his head to look he finds Jaden slowly entering the pool; she was wearing a common, white bikini: David could swear the bikini Jaden wore on that occasion was comparatively thinner than usual, bordering the line to that of translucency; but in the dimness of the night he could hardly prove it was either white or grey, let alone prove it appeared so.
"Well...... There you are." He squints his eyes a bit for a moment to catch a better view of her.
Jaden began again, "... uhm... Sorry about before... but everything I've said is true... In fact, it's been a while since I revealed my private life like that to anyone..." She strokes the hair from her ear away slowly, "Under normal circumstances... I'd have to kill you... but you could say that you're the... exception." And she bats her narrowed eyes at him.
"Yes, well... That'd put all your worry to waste wouldn't it? Oh, and we haven't even done that bet with the pistols yet... We'll have to get round to it some time."
"Oh, you're right about that, si..." She replies with a cool, yet somewhat strange grin, "... I just hope you're a good shot as you say with your... pistol..." She bites her lip, seemingly with ecstasy, as she finishes saying the last word.
David raises an eyebrow at her remark, "... uh... Anyway... See my new ship?"
The Corsair frowns for a moment, but quickly reverts back to her usual, tomboyish demeanor, "... Well yeah. A Havoc II Bomber... fancy that, senor... I never knew you had one before... well, neither did I know you had a starflier, so why should I be surprised?" She giggles, albeit sheepishly.
"Well, the Starflier was a scrap. I was probably going to set it up for target practice; just by using Mila I had to do less work."
"Too bad about your Virage... Was a fine ship that one."
He brushes it off, "Eh... I still have one here, and the original's in Rheinland...
"That reminds me, I'll have to get another one built, as well as a copy of the Havok! Copies are always much cheaper... But still ain't cheap with my equipment."
"Si, sounds like a good idea for me to get a copy for my ship as well."
"Oh, and you should probably get a bomber, that way we'll be able to start taking out big targets, which is always fun." and he grins.
"Mmm... bomber... it's been ages since I've flown a bomber..." Her mind drifts off as she went on, "... and the last one didn't end too well: I remember it was when Geronimo and I---"
She pauses momentarily, and then looks away sadly, "... uhm... just, no... A bomber's not my style, anyway."
"Yea, alright. They can be hard to get used to."
"It's not really... It's just that... I..." She looks at David painfully, "... Let me tell you something that only few of my friends... and most of my enemies, know...
"... I... I'm used to the light fighter cause of one fact alone: I'm not the best of shots... the only asset that I have is getting out of tight spots... usually by myself... being the survivor...
"I've... mostly relied on my luck those whole times; it's only rarely that I could fend off true pilot aces... and..."
Jaden places her human hand on her face, "... That single fact has gnawed on my conscience my whole life... I've never been able to defend the things I've held dear, David...
"I... I'm sorry... all that I'm good at is being a scout... being an 'untouchable' ...
"... and I feel so... so pathetic...
"I just wish... that I could finally... defend what I truly held dear..." The Corsair then looks up at the night sky, "... But as I quote a poet from a time long forgotten, 'Can a Leopard change its spots?'"
The Freelancer takes a bite out of his burger, and after swallowing he replied, "Heh, well, a scout saved my life back in the LSF."
She looks at him in with an intrigued face.
"... Intel had found that a wing of Order fighters had entered Zone 21, and was ripping up any Liberty ships they could find. Kappa squad was dispatched to take em out...
"It'd be easy... A team of fighters and bombers taking on no more than 5 fighters... should've been easy. But as we neared their last known location, Kappa 4, the scout of the squad, decided to go ahead... And what he found was nasty...
The Order fighter wing was in fact a swarm of 8 fighters and 2 Osiris Battleships. As soon as he told us on the comm, Kappa leader had us turn around and wait for some heavy backup. If we had of gotten within scanner range of those ships, we could have been toast. Five ships up against 10 is bad odds to start with, but Battleships? Ain't anything 2 Bombers can do with a swarm of fighters on their arse."
Jaden narrows her eyes a bit in evident doubt, "... You're not frakking with me, are you?"
"Nope."
She looks at him for another moment, then relaxes a bit, "... So you're not... mmmm..." She then looks down on the water's surface, replying half to herself, her voice a bit hurt, "Well... Back in my homeland, the Corsair Empire, the scouts were some of the more worthless fighters in the Military, that only your influence goes as far as you could 'throw' an untouchable...
"It kept paining me that one such as myself couldn't be of much use except as the eyes and ears of the Corsairs Main Force unless we honed our skills in combat much further...
"I wasn't alone, though... We tried to appreciate our role as scouts, and for a time we were content... we all were... but..."
Jaden closes her eyes, and dunks her face in the water with a splash; and what seemed like a minute had passed her head resurfaces, gasping for air, "In the Empire, to run away from your duties would've been to tarnish your honor... and being an untouchable would entail that you had already shamed your family by just being alive... Resources were scarce enough as it was and still is now, and if you couldn't contribute much to the Empire you were basically dead-weight... Sometimes, it just wasn't our fault that we managed to survive where others could not... yet...
"... Cannon-fodder or not, I... We... couldn't just forfeit our lives... We were still needed... The Empire still needed scouts to keep the Main Force safe, to guide the way... to soak up the first missile salvo, so to speak. We were treated like peons, and the higher-ups looked down on us, to the point that should we eventually improve, they'd do their best to pull us down and put us back in our 'rightful' place..."
Then she looks at him with sad, miserable and slightly-tearful eyes, "Tell me, David... How could you ever face your superiors with the knowledge that, by being alive, you have shamed your family honor by running coward and leaving your compadre's to die...?"
David looks back at her, and seeing as she was serious, tries to give smile in an attempt to calm her, "Well, I don't know to be honest..." He looks up to the glowing gas-giant as he continues, "I don't live my life by words like honor and duty... I left those things before for the simple reason that they can get you killed... I detached myself from those kind of things. That's why I'm still here."
The Corsair stares at him for a few moments before staring back at her reflection on the water, "... I... I see... You have a point though, David... it's... it's just...
"... Could I have done something different...? If I had been given the chance... to turn back time... to re-live those moments...
"Do you think... that I could've done something otherwise to... I don't know, make things better? Anything...?"
"Depends if you already have all the information. To make a choice knowing all the results is easy; it's when there are unknowns in the results do choices become risky..." A sigh comes out of him as if a heavy weight had been lifted.
A long pause follows as Jaden looks back up to the stars, "... And if the latter were true... then all you'd have... is faith... and luck...
"... Isn't that right... David?" and she glances back at him.
"Yep..." He snorts a short laugh to himself before continuing, "The best thing to do is to just use the cards you're delt with, not dwell on the cards you wanted... You do that, you waste time... time for other things... time you could've used to getting the cards you want."
"... Getting... the cards you want..." she repeated.
"Yep. Just make sure..." He returns the glance back at her, "that you know what to do when you finally get 'em..."
Jaden blushes red for a moment, for it seemed his words had struck a chord in her heart; a smile starts to crack on her face; then a giggle; and finally she comes out bursting in laughter, cutting the stillness of the night, "Your words are truly wise, señor. I never knew you had it in you, HAHAHAHAHAH!!!"
"Yea, but look at the difference: I have everything I want, and will most likely ever want, with me already...
"... and you?" He chuckles slightly, "I don't think I need to say anything more."
Her face quickly goes smug, "Oh, you are SO going to pay for saying that..." She then gives a very wry grimace at him, "But such as it is, you're right... as I hate to admit it."
A shiver runs down his spine as Jaden looks at him with a daunting stare, "Yes... yes, I probably will...
"I'll tell you, if you really want to hurt me, destroy my ships. Those are the things I truly care about: my ships are a part of me, and whenever I loose one, I loose a bit of myself."
She rolls her eyes unexcitedly, "Pfff... men and their toys...
"... which reminds me... Why not pay your dues NOW?" She gives a somewhat devilish grin.
"Eh?"
"Si, David... Like, I've already told you part of MY story... but I'd like to know YOUR story for a change, no?" She giggles a bit to herself.
"Oh? Not much to it, actually: my Father was a commercial pilot on Manhattan; I took after him, learned to fly and the usual.
"I joined the LSF after the company I worked in went bust: I was mainly a paper pusher then, and I was one of those in the LSF for a while. I did the reports for cardamine smuggling operations on Manhattan.
"Then when I got my hands on that Havok, I lerned space flying, and fell in love with it. I then changed my job to LSF space agent and went on from there."
"Oh? There's got to be more to it than that for you to become part-jackarse, heheh."
David shrugs his shoulders, "Guess it's just in my nature... I've always been different: I can look at situations in ways that people never even considered. Unfortunately, I didn't get on with most people.
"So instead of trying to become a 'nice' person, I embraced my inner-jackarse. People knew me for that, I didn't blend in, and they accept me as I am... if you could call it that."
"Huh. You really are something, aren't you?"
"Yep... A pilot who uses brains instead and duty and honor, and also enjoys making other people's lives miserable."
"... Only that the latter part's sometimes bigger than the former and makes you a friggin [A.D.M.I.N. censored]...
"Oh... and by the way... what happened 4 days ago when you were all frakked-up and filled with all sorts of bull[A.D.M.I.N. censored]?"
"I..." He pauses for a moment, "... Get angry sometimes."
"Yeah?" Jaden gets a bit closer, her look evidently showing suspicion, "... Then what the hell caused that rage at the time? I know many things sure do make you spin your head off pretty easily, but...
"That arsehole-ishness lasted for a bit too long if you asked me..."
He hesitates, as if unwilling to say more, "I... Just get in a mood where if something doesn't go right, I tend to want to smash them until they work."
She says in a dry tone, "Well... Aren't you the cute, little barbarian?" She calls the robot for a burger, which promptly responds and heads off, "You're hiding something, I just know it...
"Anyway, at the least just make sure you point it at your... OUR enemies... and boy, do I have a lot of prospective enemies for you to turn your anger onto, don't worry..." and she grins darkly to herself.
"... heh... maybe reducing 1/3 of the Sirian population wouldn't be so bad.. so long it's the frakkers that get kicked..."
... another long pause comes around the night...
Deciding to break the silence, David lets out a long yawn, "Well... May as well get some rest. Can't wait to rip it up in my old girl: that Havok has been with me a long time."
"Hmmm... so when do you think it'll be... appropriate to set up your... pistol, for our upcoming bet, mmm? The heritage forest kinda seems not so suitable cause it's so god-darn dense.
"... Know any other place you think that's more... private?" She grins a bit.
"I already have it covered: there's a shooting range in the forest we can head to tomorrow."
"Oh... you do? Huh... fancy that." She rolls her eyes before continuing, "That should make things a lot easier."
The robot comes with the burger on a tray, "Ah... there you are, finally... I've been starving to get some San Corsico's onto my belly for quite some time." She gets the very elegantly-made burger from the robot and starts munching it happily, "... mmm..."
"'Bout time you started liking them!"
"Ah... this is just one of the good ones... lots of meat, and not that much disguisting oil... Sometimes I swear you could power a single house with a single burger's worth of oil..."
"Naw, it takes 12 to do that, heheheh."
"Anyway..." She waves the burger on hand around the air, "If you really are tired, you go on ahead... It's been 3 days since I've been to the pool, and I've been dying to get back. So I'll stay here for the time being, alright?"
"Sounds like a plan." And he gets out of the pool and, grabbing his towel hanging on a nearby chair, heads downstairs to bed.
She counts for 30 seconds right after the sounds of David heading down the stairs finish; she then looks at the robot with intimidating eyes, "... Leave... now..."
After the robot leaves the Corsair to herself, now satisfied she was finally alone, Jaden slowly grips the garter on her bikini, and pulls down the swimwear off her body, stripping herself until she leaves her gorgeous body entirely naked and exposed.
With the burger still on hand, she submerges deeper in the water and takes a large bite out of her meal, smiling to herself.
The Corsair-Freelancer cyborg, Jaden Armand, slowly enters the bar of HMS-Hood: the atmosphere at the time was noticeably heavy, the sound of drinks and bottles clinking in the air was everywhere, and people from all walks of life, pirates, smugglers, daring miners and other undesirables watched either the numerous viewscreen-monitors attached to the walls and ceiling or directly through the outside window that featured a race that was occuring just outside the Battleship.
Managing to dodge much of the hysteria of thrown creds, and possibly glassware as well, she eventually gets to the bartable and sits on one of the stools. She heaves a heavy sigh to herself as the bartender approaches her, 'Right... Give me a Saint Lukes... party strength,' and she grins to herself.
As the bartender went off, Jaden swivelled her stool around to watch at one of the viewscreens to see what all the commotion was about: apparently, it was an exhibition-match between a local Molly in his Bloodhound, and a visiting Lane-Hacker in his Dagger; how the latter got as far as Dublin without getting banged-up is anybody's guess, but there he was.
'Race...' Jaden shivered with failure... It was just recently that she had been in a race herself: Earlier, Jaden explained to David that she needed to do some bounties to get the merit for her guns, and the Mollys were prime targets for such; when David volunteered to head over to Dublin with her, Jaden just HAD to inflate the venture into a bet to who'd get there first, with a winning-prize of 1M Credits (originally 5M, but David decreased the price in 'pity' for her).
... Unfortunately, she lost that race... 'Darn Jump Gate being an equalizer... I could've SO won that race for sure if that gate had responded properly!' She bangs upon the bartable with an upset fist.
Finally, the drink she ordered came. Jaden grabs it and starts to drown her sorrows away, 'Heh... They don't make 'em like they used to.'
Still sipping her drink, she turned her eye towards the main viewing window: and there she saw David, enjoying the race to himself, holding a Sirius Credit Card on hand and nothing on the other; Jaden turned back to the bartender and said, '... Make that another Saint Lukes, Keeps.'
After the next one arrives, she grabs it and proceeds towards the Freelancer. Dodging the hysteria once again, she clears her throat a bit to get his attention and said, 'So who's winning?'
'The dagger in this race.' He responds without turning his gaze from the race, 'Not much to it, really: he's taking on a Wolfhound.'
'Pfff... Wolfhounds suck... Not that great of turning.' She gives the drink to him, who promptly accepts it.
All of a sudden, the Wolfhound suddenly tries to do a hard bank to the side, but ends up crashing into one of the race gates and takes out a tail fin in the process.
The whole crowd goes ballistic for a moment, 'BWAHAHAHAHA! What a loser!'
'Yep...
'Anyway...' He finds a chair and sits back, 'We should check the rooms and see if we can get some. If we can choose, that is, then get the best available.'
'Fine. I'll go check to see if they've got some decent... and safe ones free.' Jaden turns around and walks out the bar...
Soon, she is at the room-keepers desk. Jaden approaches the short counter, where at the back sat a bored, IMG man in his 40's, who was fiddling a bit with a strange, metallic rod.
'Hey, IMG. What've you got as the best?'
'Sorry, but I've got only a single room, missy. All th---'
'WHAT?!' She quickly takes out her pistol and points it at the man, 'What did you say?! ONLY a SINGLE ROOM?!'
'I can't do nothin' about it, arsehole! A couple of our mining ships just got back from the asteroid fields and are resting here.
'But anyway... With the way your hanging round that guy you're with, you look like your in a rela'"
The pistol in her hand starts humming excitedly, signalling that the safety had just been deactivated, 'You will NOT finish that sentence.'
'Uh... Okay... But if it'll help, it's got air-conditioning, a fine window-view of the outside, it's own private bathroom, and even soundproofing.'
Jaden thinks for a bit; she soon replies with some degree of embarrassment, 'Tell me... How many beds does it have?'
'Erm... 2.'
She puts down the pistol in a relieved sigh, 'Oh god, that was close... heh, fine. I'll take it.'
'That'll be 10000 for the night.'
'WHAT?! ten friggin' thousand for one friggin' night?!'
'HAHAHAH! Fine, fine... 1000.' He gives the room card to Jaden, who furiously swipes the item from his hands. Only too happily she storms out of the man's sight to see if the room'll turn out as it's said it'll be...
By the time Jaden re-enters the bar, the race was already over. With the initial excitement over, and the crowds having already dispersed, Jaden had no trouble in passing through. David now sat on one of the chairs near the center of the room, drinking a beer to pass the time he waited.
'Here's the room.' Jaden gave the card to the Freelancer before sitting down on a stool, 'I checked it out, and it's not too bad.'
'Alright... and your number is?'
'5-25-YB.'
David looks at the card for a moment, and afterwards raises his eyebrow, '... But that's this one.'
'Yeah... uh... About that...' Jaden scratches her head with a slightly-sheepish smile, 'There's only one room left in this hunk of junk. All the miners took the rest.'
'Ah... Yea, Kyle and I had some trouble getting a couple.
'Oh well...' He hands the card back and yawns a bit, 'I can sleep in my ship anyway.'
Jaden was dismayed at that remark, 'Eh!? Y-you don't wanna sleep there? It's got air-conditioning, its own restroom, and it's even got soundproofing so noises from the outside won't interrupt our sleep.
'Besides, it's got two beds! So we won't be needing to share a single one, in fact.'
He simply shrugs his shoulders, 'Meh, doesn't worry me. My ship's nice enough to sleep in, and it's not the first time I've done so.
'Anyway, I thought you'd like the privacy to yourself.'
Her face blushes slightly, 'Well, uh... ehm... what I meant was that... uh...' Then her face snobs up all of a sudden, '... You know what? Never mind then! I'll go have the room all to myself, hmph!'
David raises an eyebrow in surprise at her moodiness before shrugging his shoulders again without a care, 'Alright. I have a few things to do on my ship.'
'Right then,' she nodded, 'I'll stay here a bit longer to drink more before heading off to bed.
'I'll see you tomorrow.'
'That you will...' The Freelancer stands up from his seat to go to his ship, leaving the Corsair to her drink.
Jaden frowns to herself before sighing disappointedly, '... I know I don't wanna rush things, but... Is he really that slow...?
'I'm starting to think I should... 'up the ante' if I'm to get through that thick skull of his, if at all...' She grins slyly to herself, but the smirk turns wry as she looks at her ugly, robotic hand, 'I just hope I've still got it in me despite missing some... parts.'
The New Tokyo sun hung shallowly that late afternoon as the Terminal Velocity arrives above the Estate's Ship Hanger. Several minutes pass until the Tiger Shark smoothly lands on section-3, which was right in the middle of the large bay's flooring. Jaden slowly descends down the ladder from her cockpit, and does some stretching after a long week's worth of hunting in Dublin, which was unfortunately not that fruitful save for a single worthwhile bounty...
Finishing her session, she looks around and notices that David, and his ship, Gforce, aren't around, "... Huh... must still be busy..." She takes out her PDA and glances over the time, "... almost time for dinner... mmm..." Jaden slowly strips herself off of her black flight suit, save for her steel-toed combat boots; and underneath that thick jumpsuit was nothing more than a pair of black, skimpy, cotton-fabric bikini underwear.
Jaden always did feel a lot more comfortable the less clothing she wore on her: they only hindered her movements and made her feel heavier and more sluggish. In fact, she was at her best when her body was fully exposed and unhindered, where she wore absolutely nothing on her skin, except of course for some footwear for the cold and jagged floor; ironically, however, she usually was against having anyone, even robots, see her in her pure, primal form, due to common-sense implications that could AND would be brought upon her if ever she was caught exposed to the wrong people... at the wrong place... and at the wrong time...
... Eventually, Jaden reaches the welcoming place that was the living room. A quick review of the place, and concluding she's finally alone to herself, she grips the garter of her bikini with her fingers and slides the pieces down her body, fully exposing her entire body for no-one but herself to see and enjoy.
She hurriedly and excitedly jumps up into the air and then lands on the couch spot-on; but instead of the comfy whoosh-sound of soft pillow on her tush, was the hurtful sound of a hard object's bludgeon on flesh and bone.
Quickly standing back up, and rubbing the reddened area painfully, she eyes around to find out what hard object she had the misfortune to land on; it was a remote... But something was peculiar and unique about this remote, for it had different buttons and names for the buttons that made it stand out from the NIV.
She picks it up and scans it thoroughly, soon arriving to what looked like the universal sign of the power button. She presses it, and suddenly the entire wall that held the mini-bar slides open, revealing a mysterious, dark room; Jaden could only stare out for a brief moment in amazement at the discovery.
Putting on her underwear and taking out her reserve gun from underneath the couch, she proceeds to enter the room. She tries pressing another button on the remote, and quickly the lights go up, revealing a very large, white room that was empty of anything but a chair near the center, and a large, white screen dominating one side.
Jaden fiddles around with the remote a bit more, until she accidentally presses one button. In seconds, the whole room fills up with lots of holographic letters that spouted what seemed like drop-down options; after more experimentation, she finally arrives to the conclusion, "... a Holo-room? Now why didn't I notice this thing?"
Looking around, a devilish smile quickly appears on her face, "... hmmm... Maybe after I go prepare dinner I'll see what this place has to offer, heheheh..."
... 1 hours and 34 minutes later...
The sun had long sank beneath the horizon by the time David's Virage, Gforce, arrives, the ship only visible from the bright-red docking lights that flashed occasionally.
After the usual docking procedures, the Virage now landed on section-1, he lets out a low yawn as he unstraps himself from the cockpit, "Well at least the bomber is on its way."
Getting out of the ship soon after checking everything is order, David heads to the main building without even bothering to even take out his flight-suit, "Where are you Jaden? I don't want to surprise you like you did me."
... When David enters the living room, the first thing that greets him is a finely-decorated table: with a blood-red cloth skirting, yellow chrysanthemum petals garnering much of the table surface, a very large, pre-cut burger on the center, a red candle & sweet-smelling local flowers on a thin pot just beside, and two plates and silverware on the side, it somewhat resembled more of a restaurant-style set-up than an ordinary dinner.
... But on the corner of his ear he notices some muffled disco music on one of the walls, the sounds just finishing it's cycle, "Don't tell me..." He groaned.
He moves to the wall and presses his ear to it, and pauses for a moment.
"Yep... She's found it... Now where's the remote?"
He looks around for a second, and is relieved it's still on the couch.
After grabbing the remote and pressing the power button, the wall slowly opens, revealing a dark room that's wildly-illuminated with strobe and laser-holographic lights all around the four corners like a full-on nightclub; near the center is Jaden, who is wearing only her black, cotton bikini-underwear and ebony-black high-heel shoes; With the room being dark, her eyes closed, and a New song just beginning, its volume tuned to the max that the bass beats could be felt by David's chest, she hadn't noticed that the portal had opened as she soon began to dance provocatively to the music.
//Notes: depending upon your region, this may NOT be work-friendly, nor suitable for ages <16; also, the links are not necessary, and are just there for those that want to get a perspective of how the event would've looked like//
//Instructions: the dancing vid is to be muted; play the music vid first until 0:08, and then play the dancing vid, so as the movements will be in-sync with the music//
David rubs his face in disbelief to make sure what he's seeing is real.
“... uh... Ooookaaaayyyy...”
He quickly closes the wall and then thinks to himself, “... How can I make her stop... Oh I got it!” He then runs out of the building towards the hangers. Soon the blast of the Gforce's engines can be heard roaring to life all across the entire Estate.
Despite the beating music surrounding her, from out of the corner of her ear, Jaden catches the faint, yet still noticeable roar of engines firing up, “... Huh? He's here?”
She immediately stops dancing, then after waving her hands around some drop-down holo-display-options everything quickly stops and goes back to the original white room.
Then she looks at herself and realises she's only wearing underwear, “... uh-oh... I better change to something more decent before he sees me!” She opens the wall and sprints towards her bedroom.
After David lands the Virage again, hoping that Jaden will have heard the engines, he walks back into the building, “Where are ya Jaden?”
“I'm here, David.” She's now wearing only plain-black tank-tops, along with a knee-length, black-pleated skirt and black high-heels, “Heheheh, sorry I don't have any other decent clothes to wear cause they're still being cleaned.”
“That's fine.” He proceeds to sit on one of the chairs on the dinner table, “What have you been up to?”
“Well...” Grinning as she begins to sit on the other chair, she continues, “... I found your secret holo-room... not so secret anymore, though, heheheh.
“But if you're talking about beforehand, I've just been doing some more escort missions.”
“Oh... I guess I forgot to put the remote away”
Her grin quickly turns sour, “... Sat on the darn thing... ugh...” She rubs the affected area painfully, “... still hurts, too...”
“You must have jumped on it pretty hard...
“Anyway, what's all this?” He points to the decorations on the table with a weird look, “I didn't think the bot could do that... not without the upgrade at least.”
“Well... the bot just cooked the burger... but it was I who did the preparations. I hope it's not too fancy?” She places both elbows on the table top and leans her chin on her hands, “Let me tell you! Those flowers over there grow like grass around this Estate!” She points over to the sweet-smelling flowers on the pot.
“You picked every one of those yourself, even the Chrysanthemums?”
“Uh... the latter I just asked the bot to grab, then I plucked the petals and spread it around. Didn't take too long: 'took the bot only half an hour to get them.
“But as for the former, well... Most of them were still immature. I got lucky finding a few which were already blooming this season.
“... or maybe I was just lazy... just picked the nearest blooming flowers I found, and then left it at that! Nothing too hard about that, Si?”
“Umm... Sure”
“So yeah... not much else of interest happened. Just managed to escort some very quiet and un-entertaining traders to-and-fro for a few hours before heading back.
“Not much excitement either: no pirates, no anomalies... just plain boring...”
“Easy money.” David remarked as he sliced a piece of burger for himself.
“Yeah... 10M credits of easy money.” Jaden grabs a slice puts it on her plate, “... So how goes you're day? Took you long enough to come here.” She forks some into her mouth as she finished her statement.
“Oh... I was just... getting some plans, organising the bomber to moved... That kind of stuff.” He grabs the piece by the hand and simply takes a large bite out.
“Getting some plans?” She raises an eyebrow at him; suddenly her eye shoots wide open in surprise, “OH! What was that you said about you having a 'better' yacht than that Hogosha? You especially don't LOOK like one that does...”
She suddenly looks around her before saying, “... uhm... You know what, I take that back,” And she smirks sheepishly, “So yeah... is that true?”
“Well... I always wanted a mobile place... And there's a good deal on those... umm... it starts with 'D' in the model label...” He scratches his chin in thought.
“... D... D?” Jaden slumps a bit down under the table; she gets her PDA, and punches in the letter 'D' in the search bar; her eye shoots wide open again, and even the ocular implant's coronea increases in size, as she leaned back on the chair.
“... You can't be serious... a 'Democritus'?!”
“Yea that thing.
“The weapons systems are a bit of a challenge though. It has a boat turret of all things!”
Her jaw drops down to the floor, and saliva starts dripping a bit to the side of her mouth.
“And I have to make sure it stays in sink with the other turrets, which is going to be har---” He notices Jaden's blank stare, “... You ok?”
She tries to recover herself, her face blushing slightly, “Uh--I--I meant that, uh, I uh... uhm...” Then she quickly stares back at her plate, and continues eating silently.
He raised an eyebrow in a bit of surprise, “I didn't know you thought that highly of those things.”
“Wha-wha-what?! Huh?! ... oh... uh...” The Corsair scratches her head sheepishly, “... Well... it's just that... I've never, uh... been in a luxury yacht before... and... I've heard the stories, and...”
“Stories?”
She places her utensils down on the tabletop; then she places an elbow on the table, her hand on her chin, as her mind starts to drift off for a moment in seeming-bliss, “... Yeah... the stories of how they had everything in those yachts... everything... red, fluffy cushions made from the finest Libertonian wool... hot spa-pools that could take away even a month's-worth of stress and age... mini-bars that had drinks even as far back as the 4'th century... and best of all... privacy at its' awe-inspiring best...” It seems she was enjoying her visions as she sighs flustered to herself.
“Well... I guess you would end up on it... So I guess you can help with some of the designing; but the bridge is strictly mine.”
“... Designing? It's still under construction, or you meant the interior furnishings?
“But hell! A yacht, you say? And I can help in modeling it? Oh, Hesus Christo... now THAT... would sure make a woman get all flustered up. Just imagine the possibilities: state-of-the-art security system, suite-style luxury-class modules, the best swimming pool you could ever dip your skinny-arse in...”
“Skinny-arse? That's some detail.
“And since the thing is still in planning it'd be good to get it underway soon.”
“So you really do have that much dough on you to make so much meaty bread?”
“Well... I can afford most of it, but I'd be paying it off for years; And I want Mk-V armour, which ain't cheap: 88 million! Just for the armour!”
Jaden, upon hearing that last part, went into shock, “Oh my god... 88 million... and how much did the yacht alone cost?”
“Umm... basic model is 72 million.”
“Damn... My current account can't even cover up 4/5 of that thing's cost!”
“Yea... But the good thing is if I can pay half before construction they'll give me till the end of construction to raise the extra cash.
“And they say it'll take about 3 weeks.”
“... and how long ago was this?”
“I'm hoping to have the plans done and construction started by the start of next week.” He replied
“Huh... Maybe tomorrow I'll see those plans and see what I can do, eh?”
“Sure. But remember, the bridge is MINE!”
She rolls her eyes unimpressed, “Meh... I don't care about piloting the thing...
“... All I want is to LIVE in it to my heart's content...” and she sighs again happily.
David puts up an eager smile, “Well... Seeing you seem so keen on it, why don't we spilt the ownership? 50/50? That way, you can also pay half of construction.”
“... Fif... Fifty-fif---” Her face goes into shock, and her eye starts twitching involuntarily, “... My account... my precious, precious account... only got 50M on me, excluding today...”
“Well if not, it's going to cost me about 165 million.” He simply shrugs his shoulders and takes another bite.
“Oh my God... oh my God... oh my...”
“Of course, we could go with the lower armour: Mk-IV is only 48 million... But is 0.3 times less effective.”
“... 120 Million... uhm...” She counts a bit using her fingers, “60M for both of us, if fifty-fifty... uhm...” She braces both elbows on the table, both hands now covering her face, “... What to do... so much of my money... but... for the ultimate of luxuries...
“... money... or ship ... money... or ship ... money... or ship...” She rants on to herself
“Well, If you don't pay anything, I'm still going to get it. I can make 60 million in 3 weeks.”
Jaden breaks out of her hysteria upon hearing David, “Hmph... You make it sound so easy...
“But now that I think about it, actually it's not that hard, but...”
“So that's... what? 20 million a week? You yourself said you made 10 million today alone.”
“yeah... that... but---”
David finalises his decision, “Yea, I'm going to get Mk-V armor.”
Jaden couldn't help but sob silently a little.
“Last thing I want to do is have it built and then blown up because it lacks a bit in plat---”
Then the Corsair suddenly slams the table with her robot arm, “... If I'm going to help you pay the thing... then there's also MY condition, si?”
He riled his head back in amazement, “... Eh?”
Jaden continued, inner fury evident in her eyes, “... I'm designing the furnishings for the thing, the interior security and amenities, the rooms save for the bridge, there'd be the best pool, the most deluxe and comfy rooms, the best luxury goods, anything and everything money could ever buy from Spa and Cruise.”
“So what? You want me to pay you for designing my ship which I'm paying for even though your designing it for you and you will be able to get on it for free?”
“I'm not asking for you to pay me... I just want the interiors and luxuries accorded to MY wants and needs. Of course, I'd also make sure it's comfy for you... for both of us... I just want it to be the best IF I'm pitching in... is that acceptable?”
“It's up to you if you help pay for it,” and he stares back, “... but remember that's it MY ship: If I don't like something, it goes out...
“... Especially you.”
The Corsair clenches her fist and gnashes her teeth angrily; but she quickly calms down, and slumps back on the chair, her face very evidently sad, “... You're right... it's your ship... I can't do anything about it if you so choose... hell, I should be thankful I'm even living here in this estate... with you... free of charge...”
He angles a frown before continuing, “... Look, even if we made 5 million a day each and only worked 5 days a week. We'd still have more than enough to buy this thing.”
“Y... yeah...”
... a moment of silence before Jaden continues, “... S... sorry for trying to push it... I had no right to do so...” and went to eat solemnly.
“I'm sure you wont be changing much anyway.” He makes a slight grin.
She smiles a bit, “... so... uh... was that all you did today?”
“Yea... That, and get a copy of the Havok built. I also lined up one for your ship as well.”
“Oh, you did? That's good... I'll also need the manual for the scanner, but you can give it to me tomorrow.”
A disbelieved grin cracks on his face, “How the hell could you not see the ore?”
“Hey! I just got this ship a month or two ago, so you know... still trying to work out the... quirks you put into that Tiger shark...”
“That reminds me... I still don't know where to sell that stuff at round here.”
"Didn't I say they sold those things big at Detroit Munitions, back at Liberty? I already sold my ore there before coming back here, so yeah...”
She rolls her eyes before proceeding, “... and if it'll put your mind at ease, no... I wasn't followed.”
“But I know you can sell it good 'round here: I escorted two mining ships up here once.”
“Hmmm... how long ago was that run?” Jaden moved the hand that held her fork to point at David.
“Only about 2 weeks ago.”
“... is that right...? Huh. The stock market must've changed really quick for that to have happened in only 2 weeks... Ah, economics. A fickle thing at best,” and she finished off with a grin.
“That's why I let the traders ride the market, and I ride the traders: I get paid so long as they get from A to B.”
“True, that...” She takes a cut at her burger piece...
... another a pause of silence as the two continue eating...
Jaden glances her eye slightly to the left and right; Then she looks at David, who still went on eating heartily; she starts biting her lip a bit, her cheeks slowly starting to blush.
All of a sudden her hand slips as she was cutting a piece with her knife, and the utensil drops to the floor beneath her; she gives a disappointed frown to herself, “... great... my knife fell.”
She very slowly starts bending down on her chair to pick the knife up with her hand; David could plainly see Jaden's cleavage through the top of her black tank-top as she stooped, her breathing somewhat slower and more pronounced than usual; though he couldn't help but glance for a moment that's as much as he did before going back to his food.
Eventually, Jaden manages to grab the knife, then leans back on her chair with relief, “... Darn silverware.”
“You'd know I was a rich man if they were made of silver.” He sarcastically remarked.
She replied the remark with a quick smirk, “... You're already rich, considering you're the one with the yacht.”
“Not yet, I only have enough to pay for half.”
She waves her right hand in the air unenthusiastically, “Well, a yacht's a yacht, and no ordinary guy could ever save enough to even have 1/10'th of the money to pay for it.”
As her arm goes down, the sleeve of her tank-top slides down, leaving her shoulder bare. She looks at the sleeve for a moment, then grabs it and lifts it slowly back up to her shoulder, muttering somewhat to herself, “... mmmm... note to self... be more spendthrift...” She grins sheepishly to herself before continuing to eat.
“Oh, that reminds me... It needs a name.
“I've already used the good ones on my ships... And if your going to pay for part of it, it has to be a name you'd like too."
She ponders the question for a while, “Hmmm... mmmm...” Then her eye narrows at David, and makes a foxy smile, “... How about... the Cunning Linguist...?”
David raises an eyebrow at her suggestion, “Waa? I can't even be bothered to think about what that means.”
“Didn't hurt to try, si? ... Something you'd like, eh?
“Oh yeah... I've always wondered why you call yourself the 'G'... What does the 'G' stand for, anyway?”
“It's my last name, Gee. It's pronounced just 'G', so that's where that came from.”
“... But the name Gforce on your ship... it sounds akin to what people call G-forces like increased gravity when you experience fast manoeuvres on ships.
“You made that connection yourself?”
“Me and the many many people who have found me and my ship.” He chuckles for a short time as he went on eating.
“Heheheh...
“... anyway... A good name...?”
“Hmmm...
“... How bout... Ultrasound? Cause isn't going to be a mobile version of this place.”
“... ultra... what-now?” She gives a strange look at him, "Ultrasound?”
She thinks for a moment before rolling her eye, “... It doesn't sound bad, but it isn't amazing either... why that?”
“Well... Have you a better idea?”
“Uhm... how about... uh...
“... Bane of LSF?” She grins at David, which made it evident it was meant to be a joke.
“Please... I don't want the name to stand out. If the LSF don't notice the construction of this thing, we'll have a place to fall back on.”
Jaden thinks again, “... Eternity's Chord?”
“And the meaning of that IS?” He pointed a wry grin at her.
She raises her eyebrow as if not expecting the response he gave, “What are you implying? It just sounds all so luxurious, and all...”
“Well the name has to have a meaning behind it.”
“Or... how about the Silver Lining? Would make the ship sound like hope and all that jazz...”
“EH... That doesn't really fit for a ship...
“We need something interesting, with meaning, but not blaringly obvious.”
“... Uhm... The Unfaltering?” but she starts to grin again after a few moments, “Nah... sounds too generic, heheh.”
“Right now it's either Ultrasound or Eternity's Chord... And I'm liking Ultrasound better: makes the ship sound like it's a rave pad or something, just another rich junky throwing away credits.” he said, smiling to himself.
“Hmmm... how about... Angelic Temptation?”
“It means?”
Her response was a devilish grin, “... A place where even the innocent can't help but submit to their darker side of sexy...”
David raises an eyebrow, “And WHY would we want to call it THAT?”
She plainly continues, “What? You don't like that theme? I thought that would make it sound interesting.
“Just imagine...” And her mind starts drifting off again, “... all of your heart's desires, taboo or not, fulfilled and sated to your will's content, and that not even the LSF could interrupt your own deepest, darkest desire from being fulfilled...”
“... uhhh... I must be missing something with this yacht-thing: it's just another ship, like a Virage, 'cept it's a tad bit bigger.”
Jaden raises her voice at him, “It's not JUST a ship, David! That's the point!” Then she calms down again to her elated daydreaming, “... The Democritus was originally designed to be a luxury ship that could still pack a punch when put in a tight spot. It could satisfy anyone's deepest, darkest, and most provocative desire, whilst still keeping their secrets reasonably-safe from mortal eyes to see. It's the closest thing a civilian could EVER get to executive-class other than being a government official and getting a dedicated luxury liner.
“... and THAT'S why I want something royal or rich-blooded for a name... or at least something really hot.” She closes her eye as she bites her lip in what looked like ecstacy.
"Well... Until you come up with a better one, it's Ultrasound.”
She makes a disappointed frown, “... Hmph... your ship, your call... But I still think Angelic Temptation, or at least Eternity's Chord, sounds more sassy."
“I don't want sassy! I want something smooth... Something that'll allow that ship to fit in anywhere with any crowd.”
Her next words were lipsed to herself, “... How 'bout Shmuck's more like it...” She rolls her eyes, “Anyway... You never told me you had a holographic room, David. Why keep something as cool as that from me?”
“Because it has some equipment in there that not many people know about. I'm sure you didn't notice them: I've hidden them well.”
Jaden raises her eyebrow, “... oh? Like what? Experimental weapons? Secret Training Scenarios?” She pauses a bit, then she starts to grin very lustfully, “... Your own realistic porn selection?”
His reply was short, and immediate, “No, yes, and yes.”
“Huh, figu--- wait, WHAT?! You're NOT hiding the fact if you're porn's there?!” The Corsair was struck with disbelief.
“And I also have a connection to some very close people who can get me things quickly. I'd hate to see them caught.”
“Oh... yeah, I guess so.” She bows her head a bit and lips her next words, “HOLY FRAK! That [A.D.M.I.N. Censored] would've really helped me in knowing his tastes more!”
She raises her head back up, “Mmmm... yeah. Anything else I should know more about that room that would be a no-no to access?
“... I'll be a good girl... I promise...” She tries to smile as innocently as she could.
He scoffed as he pointed out, “Heh, right...First thing your going to do is try and find the porn, next the contacts! I KNOW how you tick...”
She was taken aback at his observation, “Wha--- now WHY would I wanna try to access your porn collection!? I'm not a lesbo!” A bead of sweat slowly trickles down her right cheek.
“You'd delete it most likely.”
Her next words were of a calmer disbelief, “Huh? Delete them? Now I myself even admit that'd be a low-blow for anyone to do. Actually, I was thinking more of us--- HEY! WAIT A MINUTE! Why would I wanna get involved with any of those gross fantasies anyway?!” She quickly raises her voice again.
David scratches his chin in disappointment, “Well... It seems I haven’t gotten you figured out yet...”
She began to sound a bit more furious, "WHA--- Figured me out?! Is that what you think? Now why am I not surprised? Your wit's slower than I thought! Why, you probably couldn't tell if a stripper was trying to flirt with you even if she smacked her naked boobs in front of your face! Why, your wit's so slow you still haven't realized that ever since I nearly lost you those couple of weeks ago, I've been in L---” She suddenly hesitates, “I-I mean...
“... that... I've been in L... L... Liking the way the robot cooks the burgers, HAHAHAH!” Her tone changed to that of hysteria, “Why, yeah! I've never eaten such fine burgers in my entire travels as the robot makes, HAHAHAH! Yup! They're mighty-fine burgers they are, HAHAHAH!
“Ahem... ehm... anyway---"
“Yet when you first got here you said you hated them...” David starts to slowly grin at her.
Her cheeks start to blush, “Eck... uh... Y... yeah... I, uh... hated the things when I got here, cause uhm... uh... I... uhmmmm....”
“I TOLD you they'd grow on you! Who could ever resist the masterpiece that is the hamburger?” He pointed his fork at her, which still had a piece of meat stuck on the prongs.
Jaden simply gives a blank stare at him for the next couple of moments; then she laughs out loud and continues, “Y-yeah... I uh... guess they did... yeah, that must be it...
“R-Right then! Let's go and finish this burger up before it starts getting cold, si?”
“That sounds like an excellent idea!” He continues eating.
She gives a VERY BIG sigh of relief to herself before shaking her head slowly from side to side as she continues on to eat.
... Soon, the large burger-cake was long gone. The two of them had a happy and satisfied look on their faces, “That... Was not bad at all.”
“Yeah. I never knew that thing was a lot heavier than I -BURP- thought... ehm... excuse me for that.”
As the robot starts gathering the plates to be washed, her eye wanders around a bit; she starts to twiddle her fingers somewhat anxiously, “... soooo... What now?”
“Well!” He gets up without a moment's notice, then heads off to the couch. He grabs the holo-room remote and opens up the room, “Lets take a look at the ship design eh? I'll show you how to use that holo-room too.”
“I thought we were going to do that tom---”
“Nah... I've got some things to do there, anyway. So might as well get this over with.” and enters the holo-room.
![[+]](/forums/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
Factions Involved In![[Image: Golden%20Oaks%20Tours_zpspoqc1yoj.png]](http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac347/Leonardo619Tigre/Golden%20Oaks%20Tours_zpspoqc1yoj.png)
![[Image: avatar_30918.png?dateline=1449208332]](http://discoverygc.com/forums/uploads/avatars/avatar_30918.png?dateline=1449208332){kind=avatar}
![[Image: mgasxy7.png]](http://i.imgur.com/mgasxy7.png)
![[Image: bM9dE4l.png]](https://i.imgur.com/bM9dE4l.png)