Petrov (14+)

[Kazinsal]

Spinning the ship around, Petrov docked with the wing of the Barrier Gate Station he had just undocked from. The docking bay was filled with people, one of which he knew well enough to nearly put a smile on his face.

"Paul Contera," he said as he opened the cockpit of his fighter and began to step out. "I haven't seen you in months. Where have you been?"

Paul walked over to Petrov, smiling. "Here and there, you know. Mainly working on the project."

"Great," Petrov said, slapping a suited hand on Paul's shoulder and spinning him around to face the hallway. "Tell me about it later. I have to see someone." He walked out of the bay and through the airlocked corridor to the main deck of the station.

Grabbing a ladder on the back bulkhead, Petrov ascended the deck to the one above it. He dismounted the metal structure and pushed his way through a small crowd in the middle of the armoury he found himself in. A man yelled his name; Petrov paid him no attention.

"I don't like this," he said to a woman who was checking the magazine of an assault rifle. She slapped mag back into place and turned to look at Petrov.

"What're you talking about, Vadim?" she asked, magnetically adhering the weapon to the back of her metal suit, not unlike Petrov's.

"You know what I mean, Amanda."

She shook her head. "No, I really don't."

"There are people challenging the Children of Conviction," he said. "More and more spring up every day. I had to kill one of them a few minutes ago. I don't like to kill civilians. You know that."

"Neither do I, but it's something we have to do sometimes."

"Sure," he said, looking at the cluster of people that had neatly reorganized themselves into their original formation in the middle of the room and were chattering loudly. None of them were CoC.

He fired a round into the air past one's head. "Shut up, you as*holes!" he yelled, turning back to face Amanda.

She snickered. Frightening people was her thing, so she enjoyed watching the group freeze up.

"You were saying?" Petrov muttered.

"I was saying that we have to do stuff we don't necessarily want to in this fact--" she started, stopping in the middle of the word 'faction'.

"You were about to say, faction," he said.

"I was going to say, 'family'."

"I figured you would," he said, laughing.

Amanda walked over to Petrov and gave him a friendly hug. "I have a mission to prepare for," she said, letting go of her friend. "Take care of yourself, mmkay?"

"You too." He walked out of the armoury and towards the bar.

---

Retired, permanently.