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There it was- Rin giggled lightly, a hand coming up to try and stifle the sound, almost shyly. He sounded a'right now! A fond, wistful look came over his features- then it was gone, eyes clearing to look up at Tsuan more closely.

"Vaxur!" The way he said the name- there was no mistaking the lilt in his tone. "He- not Nyran. Aksen. Like- aqua- aquatic-land alen-alien. Real- tall, way tall! Six... uh... fou- no, sixsix, talleren me..." He grumbled a bit about "teasing" and "height" before perking up again.

"He'swas- first-" he darted up to Tsuan's ear- or as close as he could get by tiptoeing, anyway. "Crush," he whispered, then rocked back in his heels, giggling. "En- so nice, always takin care'a me an- perce- per-" he frowned, then lit up again. "Per-cep-ti-ave. Yeah, that. Everyone's friend!"

He leaned a little closer, whispering in the the same playful, conspiring tone as before. "He's a joker, all smirky an' happy lik'ou," he said. He swayed back a bit, never breaking eye contact.

"He can also be," his voice dropped, along with his expression- low and foreboding. "Serious." He kept the dark facade- and apparently thought his sudden change of voice and mood was funny, because he giggled again, tilting to rest his head on Tsuan. He peeked up at him, grinning.

"Wan hear how'e... met? Is- funny." His eyes twinkled.

Dallen stifled another laugh - allowing herself to flop onto the bed for a moment in a show of keeping herself from hysterics. Tsuan watched her out of the corner of his eye.

"I remind you of an aquatic-land-alien. huh?" He said softly, still grinning - and directly addressing exactly what Dallen was finding so hilarious. Or, at least, part of it. He adjusted his stance slightly to compensate for Rin's new angle of swaying.

"Well, I hope he's a good looking aquatic-land-alien." Even Sands had to snigger at that one, just a little. Affectionately, Tsuan let the arm around Rin's shoulders slide back just a little - he maneuvered the bottle into the other hand, then went about putting his fingers in about the pinkish hair at the back of the neck. He rubbed his thumb soothingly back and forth. "Sounds like a good guy though. Sure, how'd you meet?" Just as Rin had not broken eye contact, neither did Tsuan - except for that one half-sidelong-glance to the giggling Dallen. But, as usual, it was hard to pinpoint the look in his peculiarly blue eyes.

Rin sighed a little. That felt... really nice. His eyes lit up in glee.

"S'funny t'me, see- was new to- in the base, an' I was in the tour," he said- though his speech was slurred, it was at least still capable of being comprehended. "I saw im, passin' the trainin' room." He swayed a little bit more. "He was- a dream. Ne'er saw an'one so handsome before."

He giggled to himself, then waved a hand. "I stayed 'n watch, while thgroup wen 'heada me. He thought I wana fightim. I did- he's real good. Beat em all." He clapped his hands together suddenly, childishly. "Aksens not suppose t'be good in fights, yanno? Good docs, pacifists. Didn't know tha, till he tolme later..." He paused for a while, then blinked. "Oh yeah, where's I? Ah- righ..."

"He motion me over, thn I was there, standin' fron 'o him." This was when he started to giggle. "I wanta- impress 'im, so as soon as he wen' for a punch-" he made a vague punching motion- "I ran up to him, used his arm as lev'rage an' wrapped m'legs round his neck and BAM!" He made a dramatic slamming gesture- "Slammed him to'a ground."

He shook his head then, blushing slightly. "Didn' like that. Got up, said he's gonna beat me, two outta three, then I was foun' by th'tour guy and escort'd out. He cald- call'd me rival."

He shrugged. "Thought I'd ne'er see'im 'gain. Nex day-" he let out a fond chuckle. "Nex day Comman' Wyr comes in an' tells me I'm parta her team, and waddya know- I see Vax in the back, chokin' on his drink!"

He giggled some more, then sighed. He tilted his head, this time in thought. "I miss them," he said, soft. But not... sad. More... wonder. "I never had friends before," he whispered.

Tsuan, placing the bottle down on a nearby surface, grin broadening at the indirect compliment he'd been given. This, of course, only furthered Dal's fit of giggles, since it seemed that the expression was more for her than himself. Even the other two were watching out of the corner of their eyes.

As Rin told the story, Tsuan began to gently, wordlessly ease Rin in the direction of his bed. He seemed thoroughly interested in it all the while - as they slowly made their way over to Tsuan's corner of the room. He did not bring any attention to the fact that they were slowly walking, and it was unlikely that Rin would be in any condition to notice - particularly since his eyes were so thoroughly locked on those of the taller man.

"Heck of a story, kid. Makes me think of how I met Ty." He began once Rin had concluded - by that time they had arrived at the bed. But abruptly, he went off-topic, as though mentioning a side-note. "That armor don't look to comfortable. Take a load off, ah? Yeah, Ty and I practically hated each other before we got put into the same spec-ops division. We practically turned the firing range into a battleground." Ty gave a little laugh from around the divider - but otherwise, it seemed for that moment as though they were quite alone. The dividers were only thin, temporary things, lined up against one wall, and the rest of the room was open space - but they did provide a sense of coziness.

"And, to tell ya' the truth, Dal and I didn't really like each other when we first met, either." He continued. "She thought I was a cocky bastard, and I thought she was an arrogant bitch."

"So, nothing's changed then." Sands said from around the divider, with enough deadpan in his voice to induce a hoot from Dallen - who was now sitting in one of the chairs in the common area.

Rin laughed- a little more open, a little more bright. He loosely rolled his shoulders, taking the the statement as it was, and proceeded in taking off his armor, one piece at a time.

"We're mor frien'ly now-" he took off his arm pieces, setting them surprisingly gentle on the floor. "Frenrivals!" he exclaimed, pronounciation not quite right, for the sake of easier syllabic rhythm. He paused in the middle of taking off one of his leg pieces, a sly smile overtaking his initial innocent expression. "I still beat him," he whispered loudly, then giggled, hopping on the other foot to take off the armor from his other leg.

He took off the shoulder pads, humming an unknown tune, about to take off his chest armor- and stopped again. He slowly, carefully, took one half off, and traced the purple design. He looked up, contemplative. "I hav'a bett'r one," he said dazedly. "Iz- custom arm'r. Mat'rials from mil'tary." He scratched his head. "Needa- finishit." He looked at the chest piece again, shrugged, and took the other part off.

Pretty soon all his armor was off, in a neat little pile on the floor. He swayed. "Ya'll- funny. Make me wanna- frien's wi you..." he tilted to the side. "Am I... friens...?"

"I kind of Am an arrogant bitch." Dallen admitted contemplatively, and took a swig from her flask. "Me? Annoying? Perish the thought." Tsuan replied, cutting her off before she could say exactly what he knew she would.

Watching with mild interest as Rin removed the armor, he went on "Dal or Sandy might be able to help out with that."

"Uh, I work on...like...groundcars and @#$%." Dallen said, as though the very idea were preposterous.

"Yeah, I think crazy intergalactic alien tech is a little out of our league." Said Sands.

"Don't let your dreams be dreams." Ty said.

Tsuan was going to add a few more cents to the banter, but found he was caught off guard by the look Rin was giving him. The tilted head, innocent and wonderstruck expression. He blinked, then smiled as warm as anyone had ever smiled. "Course we're friends. All of us." He said earnestly - then gave the Nyran's arm a little tug as he half-flopped down onto the bed, sitting on it so his back was against the wall. He kicked his boots off so as to keep from getting residual ice on the bed, then pulled Rin toward him again. Likely this would put the two sitting side-by-side, backs against the wall, with the darker-skinned soldier's arm around the pale Nyran's shoulders, as before - unless Rin decided otherwise, of course.

"Dal n' Sands can lookit wen im done 'ith the plasma liniing" he said absently as he was gently tugged to the bed, side-by-side with Tsuan. He blinked again, looking up at his smile. He smiled back, leaning toward him as he rested his head on his shoulder.

"Thanks," he whispered- and fell silent, totally and completely relaxed for the first time since- well. His impromptu trip to this universe...

He opened his eyes since when did he close them? How long has it... maybe a minute...? and breathed out, slowly.

"... Sleepy..." he said. He drowsily rested his cheek on Tsuan's shoulder, peering up at him with dazed, half-lidded eyes. "...Night...?"

For the cat, in his drunken anger went ahead towards his ship into Hanger 4, the place where he keeps his nice "toys" at as well as a bit of DIY on his stuff. Of course as a cat he could only do so much and so he went he decided to do is little project he's been working on for sometime since he found the metal beast of a machine. While still covered by giant white tarp, he worked on the machine's engine converting the sucker from diesel fuel into taking Vodka in which he would significantly decrease his fuel cost for this towering machine of 10ft and a half and at least 20ft long. After getting the parts and a little help from some muscle that Cathorine keeps around on her giant capital ship. After making sure the hydrolic systems worked and a few other things to see if worked as well, feeling confident, he went ahead and started up the engine. After a few clicks it didn't run, but by the third turn of the key the engine went ahead and started, coughing up smoke from its two exhaust pipes.

With it fully running, Laurent couldn't be as happy as ever and so he with his teeth and a little help, from his helpers of the Crew of the Skadi, the tarp was pulled and the machine was exposed

Its dark green tone that covers the body, with a vibrant red star on the side of its large turret, this ancient tank of old now comes to new life with a with pleasantries of life within it, like an better drive system as well as stabilizers since a tank of this size tends to be a bit top heavy. The mighty Kliment Voroshilov 2 or simply KV-2 rumbles to life and with a man on the driver seat and a little instruction from Laurent, the cat went inside the fighting compartment and put on an old black Ushanka and popped open the commander's hatch as the old tank trend forward out of the ship into the much larger hanger of the Skadi, its rumble of the engine caught everyone's attention, bringing deadly activities in the hanger to a halt as everyone gathered around to see such an old piece of machinery driven around. "FEAST YOUR MORTAL EYES UPON THIS BEAUTY OF A TANK, THE MIGHTY KING OF DERP, THE KV-2 FROM EARTH, THE SOL SYSTEM!" he yells out in his little cat form as he sets bottle a vodka next to him as the tank rumbles around the hanger, awing crew as the old dinosaur tank moved around.

Tsuan's hand found the spot again - tangling his fingers up in the pinkish hair around the back of Rin's head - and resumed the rhythmic rubbing of one thumb against the back of his neck. An intoxicating combination, and even though Tsuan's hands were hard and calloused, the pads of his fingers felt solid and firm, rather than scratchy. Meeting the peculiar, gold eyes with his own peculiar, blue ones, Tsuan gave a little half-nod. "Night, kid.""

Five minutes passed, and Tsuan gave the Nyran a little poke on the cheek. "Out like a light." He said - not whispering, but voice low enough that Rin would probably be aware of it only as a slight vibration, or perhaps the distant, muffled nonsense that constituted voices unheard through slumber.

Shortly thereafter, the others began appearing. Dallen was the first to come into the cluttered, but cozy space that was Tsuan's. She leaned casually against the divider. Sands glided over on a wheely-chair, spun halfway around before slowing to a halt - allowing Ty to give him the extra push. Ty himself then pulled up a stool.

"There's somethin' @#$%ed up about that cat. I mean more than jus' bein' a slimy pervert." Dallen began, without preamble. It seemed the whole crew knew how to keep their voices down - and, of course, on the slim chance that Rin stirred, Tsuan's potently intoxicating thumb was there to see to it that he stayed asleep.

"He knows more about this than he's letting on." Ty agreed. "How did he know Rin had been attacked?"

"Word does spread pretty quick on the Skadi." Suggested Sands, "Even if nobody talks to him, I could see him snoopin' on other peoples' conversations."

"Is it possible..." Ty suggested, "That he's in on it? It could be a trap."

"Everything about this whole big mess is a trap." Tsuan said. "I really don't see how we're supposed to walk right down onto this bitch's home planet and just hand him over. I mean, I know we're gonna' take precautions to see that we don't get separated, but...Still. It doesn't look to me like this can go anywhere but downhill."

"Well what about-" Dallen began, turning impatiently to Sands - who held his hands up placatingly. "I don't know."" He said, annunciating clearly, but speaking patiently. "I have no idea how he might be able to help us. Maybe he's got some magic science-helmet that can keep Rin safe from the attacks. Maybe he's got...I dunno', some awesome @#$%. But you know I can't promise anything."

"Ova is a whole other level." Tsuan pitched in, "Even if he really has been playin' around with pilfered Lord tech, there might be nothing he can do."

Dallen only barely restrained herself from cutting him off, but the intensity of her voice was unmistakable."So then what-...What the hell are we supposed to do? Just and him over and-and-, I mean, look at the kid. Whatever she's got in store, he don't deserve it."

"We all know that." Sands said, his solid voice serving as the boulder that Dallen's anxiety could wash up upon. "And I think we can all agree that even if the Doc doesn't have anything to help us, we-" He was cut off by an unobtrusive beepbeep from his section of the room. He kicked his wheely-chair in that direction. A moment later, "It's all set. Everyone be quiet for a sec." As though anyone would be loud.

In the silence of the quarters - only the light breathing of the sleepy Nyran, the gentle hum of air recyclers and the distant, ever-present thrumming of the stardrive - they all could hear as Sands' archaic device made the connection. Of course, none of them had any idea what the sound actually was - because none of them had ever heard of dial-up. It was, admittedly, a slightly unnerving sound, and none of them particularly liked it.

It was cut off by the sound of a voice. It was of a moderately high pitch, and the person sounded as if they were very angry. Only Sands' half of the conversation would be properly audible. Over the line, there was only the loud, indistinguishable squawking of what must have been a bitter old man. Or something.

"Hey Doc. Yup. Got something you might be interested in. Yes I'm in a secure location. No bugs. Okay. We might have a chance for you to make some ground on Ova." The squawking doubled in intensity then - though, of course, since it came from the tiny speaker of an old piece of plastic with an antenna, it was still only barely audible to the others. "Yeah. It's kind of a weird story. We got this kid - his name's Rin - and, get this, he's not only from another galaxy, he's from another universe." There was a miniature explosion on the other end - or so it seemed - as the voice went ranting and raving about...something. Sands just moved the old thing fractionally farther from his ear for the duration.

"He came through some kind of wormhole generated by the drive on his ship. Yeah, it's badly damaged but mostly intact. No, you can't have it. I was getting to that. The crazy bitch's started shooting these nasty, psychological attacks at the kid. Turns out she wants him to meet her in-person on her home world." Another redoubling of impassioned squawking. "Yeah. Yep. Yeah, that's-...We already...Yes, that's exactly-.........You done? That's exactly what we were thinking. You got anything to help us out?...Awesome. Awesome. Hold on, hold on...Okay, go ahead. Yup. Yup...Uh huh. Got it. Alright, we'll head out first thing in the morning. See ya' soon, old man - on, and keep your...what's this thing called? Keep your phone handy in case we need to get in touch."

There was nothing for a few moments - then Sands came spinning wildly back around the corner, beaming. "He says he's been preparing for this day his whole life. He's got a whole personal arsenal designed specifically to take on the Lords. Most of it's untested but he's pretty sure it'll all work fine."

"He's pretty sure it'll all work fine?" Tsuan repeated, tone disbelieving and snarky. "Famous last words."

"But it's still better than nothing." T'yzfir said, "Even if his toys backfire and blow us all to Space, it's better than just giving Rin over to Ova for nothing. Did he say anything about making sure we don't get separated?"

"Yup. He didn't explain, but the guy hasn't done wrong by us yet."

"So, you're sayin' we got a chance at this. Not a real big one, but a chance." Dal said, eagerly. Sands nodded. Ty stood. "Alright, I'll send a note to the Boss and get us a boat for tomorrow."

"Better than nothing." Tsuan said, looking down at the sleeping Rin.

T'yzfir returned some five minutes later, and the conversation did continue - it had been a habit among them since the earliest days, those long discussions deep into the night. Though the subject was more dire than before, the tone was the same. They speculated, supposed, theorized, strategized, jested - and eventually, retreated to their separate bunks.

By morning, Tsuan would still have his arm around Rin, holding the kid in close. He had reached over to grab his pillows and stack them on his other side, opposite the Nyran - allowing them both to lean more toward that side, while still with backs against the wall. The result was something like a lounge chair, with Rin very slightly atop Tsuan, while still keeping snuggled up next to him.

To Tyr:

Dear Tyr, I have given it some thought and I will allow to have the yacht you require. It will be in the hanger bay waiting for you use as well as the Cat and his new toy he is so proud in getting operational. Seeing what it it myself and seeing possible uses for it, I can see some usage in it for this endeavor. You'll understand once or if you make it to Lord Ova's capital planet. I sadly, wont be able to send you off since I am currently busy at the moment with other plans, but I do wish you luck though. Just remember the cat is key to getting to Ova so...at least tolerate him or you'll never get close to her.

Frost Queen Cathorine


Once the group where ready to move, they would see there yacht ready to go as well as the KV-2 parked inside its large cargo hold with Laurent sleeping soundly on top of the turret, after an entire day of giving it a spin and transferring a butt ton of booze into the yacht, he was sleeping like the little cat he is. Proud of his accomplishment in getting this old girl from the back country up and running again.

Rin laid very still, head close to Tsuan's chest, listening to the soft breaths that indicated sleep. The arm around him kept him in place, keeping him warm and relaxed. He was almost afraid to move, for fear of waking him, except-

This headache is awful he thought, grimacing slightly. He tried not to shift too much, but... ugh.

He needed to do something about this.

He inwardly cursed the after effects of alcohol consummation- if it weren't for this godawful headache he'd still be sleeping in and feeling safe for once but no, this had to happen because he accidentally got himself drunk.

Note to self- take smaller sips. Another painful throb, and he groaned. Another note... get rid of headache.

... To do that meant actually getting up. His eyes cracked open- and he just barely managed to hold in a louder noise of pain. He carefully sat up, lifted the arm around him, placed it on the owner's stomach, and paused.

Tsuan slept on.

He made a cautious movement out of the bed... another... he crept out of the bed, each motion slight but continuous until he finally, finally got out of the bed. He closed his eyes, moaning slightly, then opened them, seeing if Tsuan was disturbed somehow.

Tsuan slept on.

He sighed in faint relief. He looked toward the pile of armor he'd taken off yesterday- and shuffled toward it, kneeling in front of the pile. He picked up an arm piece, and opened the side compartment. A purple crystal rested there, among other metal compartments. He studiously ignored his throbbing head as he removed the crystal and placed it a little ways away. He picked up his other arm piece- and did the same thing. He continued on with his shoe armor- two crystals on each shoe this time- and gods his head really hurt but he was done now. Good.

He gathered up all the crystals- six, in total- and made to step out of Tsuan's corner of the room- and stopped, inches away from the divider. He looked back, over his shoulder, at Tsuan.

He fidgeted. It was... stupid. But. He-

He quickly walked up to the sleeping figure, paused, and bowed a little, next to his head. "Thank you," he whispered, pecked him on the forehead- and hurried out of there, cheeks burning. Before he knew it, he was out of the room designated Quarters, a few paces away from the door.

He kept walking. "He said we were- friends. Friends do that. Its okay," he muttered frantically to himself. His head throbbed. Ugh... hopefully those painkillers are still stocked in the Nemesis... He looked up, took quick note of which hallway he was on, and turned toward the hanger where he remembered his ship was. Well... where he hoped the ship was. His memory was a bit fuzzy, but he still managed to remember what happened last night so-

Luck seemed to be on his side. He let out another sigh of relief- finally, some good was happening. He went inside the Nemesis, opening a compartm- oh my freakin' £&-

He stared blankly at the bottles of vodka, his head pain a consistent thrum in the background. He stepped away from it, stopped, rolled his eyes- Oh, £&€¥ it, I'm not smuggling anymore- and proceeded to take the alcohol out of his ship, two at a time. All while still holding the crystals. Hey, who said he was still fully awake and able to function properly?

After the last bottle had been put in a pile, away from direct view, he went back inside, opening another compartment that usually held the first aid. The supplies weren't fully stocked, but there was still at least half of the medical supplies here- some of them several painkillers. He quickly swallowed the pill- it would kick in in a few minutes- and made his way to the back of his ship, where his new armor was stored.

He took out each piece, placing them all in a semi-circle around where he was now sitting. He took out a few tools, got his old helmet- and set to work.

Should take an hour or two to finish... he absently thought, tapping on the screen of his helmet- it would be a little past what constituted as 'dawn' back at base, according to the time- and opened up the sides of the helmet. One crystal, extracted- he flipped it to the other side. Should be done by then...

     Sinister anticipation had fallen over Severin and Wanheed as the duo made their hasty walk towards the Research Department. It was located just two long hallways, and one wide far from the Bridge. A short trip, however, one that could be enough for one another to throw their thoughts of what the research saw. They weren't even close to the first bulkhead door before Wan Nabes drew his weapon out. Even though it was not uncommon to hear it, the metallic whirring of a hypersharp blade being pulled out always startled Severin.
     — While I highly suspect that's one of... "Codsworth" doings, you don't need this atrocious thing yet. — Even though Severin was mostly impervious to certain past shocks, he was at constant struggle to not lash on the Captain. That sword was once a weapon of bravery and defiance. Now, no more than a tool for sadism and insanity.
     — 'Wat?! Who in 'da <****> guarantees 'ya 'dat 'lil <*****> didn't bring 'er playthings 'board 'ma ship?!
     — Nothing guarantees otherwise. Besides- Give me a hand. — Severin would always have problems opening the tightly locked bulkhead doors. However, there would be always someone to lend him a hand. Wan had readily spinned the valve, singlehandely for his friend. — ... Besides, our Exotic Particle Array is working out fine. If the alarms are not on yet, this means nothing have made inside through teleportation. — Wanheed answered with a confused frown as the idea formed on his mind. The widespread collective of antennae and radomes around the Kingsbane had multiple purposes ranging to electronic warfare and signal hijacking to most rudimentary radars and the most advanced FTL travel detection equipment. One of those pointy sticks and round plates across the ship's hull had the uncommon use of detecting exotic particles. While useless to countless battleships, it was unvaluable for Severin to find out exotic particle beams that passed through the Kingsbane without any notice. Not only including cosmic background radiation but also incoming teletransporting objects.
     Or metallic insectoids with very bad intentions.
     — 'Ar 'ya 'tryin to <****> with I, gramps?? Radars 'was clean as supernovae! — With this, Severin frozen in place. Not many things in the galaxy could make one of his staff members sound so horrified like he was when the message was sent. After the series of strange events that the Kingsbane was involved, countless scenes came into Severin's head. None of those looked good even in a one millionth of a fraction, and in his imagination, all would end up with the ultimate end of Wanheed's ship.
     — No FTL objects detected. No teleportation of any kind. No EP-Based weapon of any kind.
     — 'Nayt even a 'dayumn BD Drive. 'Watta hell... ?
     — This could only be... ... ... !!!

     The vitality that took Severin away reminded him of the younger years. He darted. Wanheed was left in a daze about the astrophysicist taking a marathonic sprint towards his laboratory. He ran without a sligh twitch or limp from his frail body. Truly, Wan had never seen his friend run like this in the entirety of their crusade and misadventures. Unless the Old Man was said to be missing a live supernova or a soon-to-form quasar.

     Then it struck the Captain. Notspace.

     — Aelyn, 'ye <*************>, do 'ya think 'ye can make inside 'da nerd dept. away from 'ma <*******> watch, 'eyyy? <************>, 'Imma 'gonna slice 'da <****> out of 'YA NUTSpace. 'NAYT from 'sum naive scout like those 'lil <*******>.

     — 'Tis 'da KINGSBAAAANE!!!

     ”K-Kingsbane…??”

     With his fiery, dreaded blade in one hand and a Pablito in another, the Captain's face twisted in a rage that could almost burn whoever looked directly at him. It was the same cosmic fury that descended upon his being after having his hat stolen by a certain thing. color=darkblue]"'Ay could slice 'da <****> 'outta 'ya a billion times 'moar 'fo 'dat!"[/color] Hateful words formed on the Captain's mind as his eyes scanned the research department for any biometallic insectoid beasts or any more girls with Notpsace tricks. At first, a confused frown faded into Wan Nabes as every single men under Severin command were all in one piece, tightly in a corner. Then, gradatively, his eyes started to open wide with what he saw.

     — Lord Almighty... Unbeliavable. Un- '<******> -beliavable.

     He saw the slender figure of Severin crouching calmly. A very familiar figure twitched as sobs and whimpers echoed from it, while the scientist observed it calmly. The horrible screams Wanheed heard were muffled by his own roar, that creature's very last words which would be remembered for entire uneternities. Then he saw the petite form skidding through another desk. Severin, without a scant of hesitation, serenely following behind.
     — Hah... I knew it already.
     Even though one could perceive Severin as an arrogant know-it-all, his staff could see the widest smile that the old manever had. Since he laid his feet inside the Kingsbane. Even the creature could read how genuine was the joy on its acquaintance face, despite being devoid of apparent eyes. A smile of the kind that this being had whenever it dreamed of gazing upon the marvels of the a universe unknown to it. Extending a helping hand to the cowering creature, the Astrophysicist spoke a word he only wondered about its true meaning.

     — S'Teea.

     Regardless of her reaction, Captain Wan Nabes would stay immobile. Baring his teeth with eyes wide open in utter disbelief. The view was still frightening, though.

The Don heard the little speech and he smiled. Before he could do anything, he had to deal with the fat grandpa shoving his barrel into his mouth. Hearing his threat, he dropped his gun in which in turn the bartender dropped the shotgun, however Cesare goes ahead with both hands to wrap around the handle of Arnaldo's gun almost signalling to shot the Don's brains out, but Arnaldo will feel the two of the Don's fingers wrapping around were the trigger is and resting behind the trigger and pressing forward with pretty good force and so in affect, if Arnaldo wants to fire the gun he wouldn't be able to because of the finger placement. Using that, he looks at the man angrily and goes to head butt the old man hard and with that, was a que for both men to jump Arnaldo to the ground and pin him there.

If all successful, Cesare would stand up and look down angrily at Arnaldo and yell at him. "Alright you fat &*$#^! The kid said no killing! Yet here you are when I was about to give my offer and about to blast my head open! Now stay there or I'll bash your skull in!" he then sighs and turns around looks at the kid as he pulls out his sawed off shotgun and looks at Ketin as he hopes over the bar top. His appearance was slightly calmer but he was still slightly irritated. He points the gun at Nirix and says "Keep it right there tootis unless you and your boyfriend here want to pick 12 gauge lead out of your ass" as he gestures towards Ketin. He then focus more on Ketin then. "Alright Kid, you persuaded me, I don't know if you know, but murder in my business is a bit bad for business especially if its constant, I'm here to make money and as tempting as it is to shoot you, but that would mean my death, but I'm pretty sure my client wouldn't be very happy about that since I know the code towards the box in which she needs" he explains. He's feeling a little bit cocky since he knows his client being Doctor Glades will be very mad if her precious plant that was recently extracted never makes it to her and will have a cow if the Don dies since he knows the lock code towards the black box that holds the special plant.

Feeling confident, he smirks and says "I agree in stopping the needless bloodshed and so I propose a truce for the rest of this journey. I don't come after you or your friends and thats the same for your little rad tag crew. If you don't agree I won't mind blasting you with this" as he points the shotgun at him. "But if you agree, me and my crew will leave you alone as long as you and your crew leave us alone"

If Ketin agrees then Aranldo will be freed as he regroups with his men and lets Aranldo walk back towards Ketin and Nirix. If he doesn't agree then Ketin will be shot at with one shot while no doubt Nirix will immediate retaliate and goes to shoot her as both men do there best to hold down Foxy grandpa behind the bar counter.

"Oh I like the sound of this" snarled Jet as he began his stretches...which took a full minute to finish. As soon as Jet set foot on the mat, the raging bull that was his pride and his heart sprang forth in the form of mad dash towards Kovacs. Kovacs, with the superior speed and prosthetics, sidestepped Jet's charge while simultaneously retaliating by lashing out a quick kick to the back of Jet's knee. From there, Jet slammed the mat with a resounding thud. As if an ungodly spirit had taken hold of him, Jet turned his body to face his challenger, wincing in the process. From there he grasped hold of Kovacs leg and slammed him into the ground as if he were sinking a nail into a board. After this, Kovacs clings to the mat with his fists as raises Jet with his leg and slams him into the mat. After being driven into the mat, Jackson makes a feeble attempt to stand up. Seeing this, Kovacs seizes the opportunity and assumes side mount on the large man, after which he tries to assume an arm bar position. But as if fulled by pure masculinity and rage, Jet pulls out of the position. Then the counterattack begins, Jet tries to angle his body in a way that allows him to punch Kovacs, but his attempts are to no avail, Kovacs has established his mount, as if he were an unmovable sentry at his post. In this flurry of confusion that Jet produced, Kovacs uses his established position to try and dislocate Jacksons shoulder. As Kovacs gets closer and closer to popping it out, Jet quickly flexes his upper body muscles in an attempt to keep it in place.

This action would keep his arm in place, but severely injure it as well. Jet, in a desperate attempt, tries to turn and face Kovacs to attempt another punch, but this only gets Jet to his feet and nothing else. With Jets arm still within his possession, Kovacs attempts to vault over Jet and assume a sleeper hold, but this is to no avail as he forgets to properly level himself with his other leg. Seeing this only helps to infuriate the raging beast that is Jet and he goes for a headbutt, which misses spectacularly.

Kovacs leaned back from the conking headed his way, - no pun intended - and responded by dropping his body, pulling Jet back down to the mat with him. Springing to his feet, he attempts to slam his fist into Jet's temple, ending the fight with a knockout, but with a speed that belied his size, Jet rolled away in time. The fist whistled past his ear to slam into the mat with a resounding thud!

Jet, now back on his feet, bellows, "FOR THE KO!" as a nasty left hook sails into Kovacs' cheek. The Commander's head snaps back, his cybernetic right eye glitching out for half a second, but for intents and purposes, the man ate the hit.

With the other man close enough, Kovacs executes a Hug-Me Drill, stepping into each hit as they flew with lightning speed. All four strikes landed within one second but all the good it did was stun Jet for maybe a second. Mr. Jackson returns with four punches of his own.

The first jab hits Kovacs' forearm, the second missing entirely. What came next, a left hook, he ducked under, but he was too slow for the next hit.

A whammy of an uppercut caught Kovacs in the nose as he ducked down, breaking it. He recoiled, jumping five metres backwards to leave the mat. Gingerly, he touched it, suppressing a hiss as blood flowed freely from both nostrils, and the split skin on the bridge of his nose.

"Gah," his voice was nasally. "Good hit. We're done for the day. Clean up in here, and take your personal things to your quarters. You live there," he paused to twist his nasal bones back into place. "Not in here, and I will not have you trashing my ship. Am I understood?"

"Yea, sure, and after you junk my ship and fix yours, this ship will also be mine, atleast a portion of it." said Jet as he gave a little laugh and rotated his right arm, testing it to see if anything was permanently damaged. After determining that everything was alright, Jet grabbed his duffel bag, washed the mat, and grabbed as many movies as he could carry, before heading off to his quarters. "This is a pretty nice ship, how'd you get it? And what's with the prosthetics? Space battle? Alien creature? Angry Sushi chef?" joked Jackson as he set all of his stuff down next to his bed. "But in all seriousness, how is my ship going to benefit yours?" Jet asked calmly as he sat on his bed, awaiting an answer from Kovacs.

Kovacs grabbed the medkit off the wall, and withdrew a tube of medi-gel and a gauze pad. He applied the medi-gel to his nose using the gauze to smooth it out and clean up the blood. After letting it set for a minute, he sniffed, the bleeding stopped.

"I saved it. This was the same ship I served on when I was in the Marines, and when I found it three years ago, she was a wrecked hulk in space. I was flying a Type-7 Transporter, and those big haulers were designed to double as hyperspace tugs. Brought back to Hawkes Enterprise, an Orbis starport, and we got her fixed up for a pretty penny.

"Afterwards, we grabbed the black box, took it back to Federation space, and asked to buy the ship registration, since they were going to retire the old girl in a few months." Kovacs sighed, melancholy passing over his features. "It all worked out. The families got their bodies, the Navy got their Intel, and I got the best damn ship I'd ever worked on. For free, too, since the shipwright happened to be the former cheif engineer on that ship, and he and I went back to high school."

Satisfied, Kovacs gathered up his gear, bundling it all under one arm. "Now, for the legs, that's a whole other story. I'll tell it to you sometime, provided I feel you've earned it. I've got an onboard maintenance unit, which will break down the necessary components from your ship, and manufacture replacement parts that the repair limpets can use to fix stuff. Anything small, I can take care of."

"Earned it? Don't make me laugh buddy, we've already seen that meat is better than metal, so your stories aren't worth much." grumbled Jet as he began to fall asleep on his bed. "Wake me up when we are at the nearest source of adventure, or ya know, a space station, really any place with food" mumbled Jet, slowly falling asleep. "He got your legs pretty well didn't he? Well you gave a him a good knock to the head, so that's forgiven." said Father as Jet kept hallucinating. "Did you see that body slam? It sucks that I didn't get the headbutt though..." Jet said giddily, "You did fine" answered Father as the hallucination began to wrap up.

When Kovacs was on the bridge, he was still scowling. He allowed this man aboard his ship, his home, and he was a musclebound meathead with a superiority complex. He still found it difficult to believe that he had his nose broken, but he reminded himself that it had been years since last sparred with anyone.

Kovacs was back in his Remlok, freshly showered, and he took his rightful place in the primary control seat. Pulling up his systems panel, he saw that the limpets had fully deconstructed the little ship, and the atmospheric pressure was increased by two kilopascals as a result. Now, all he had to do was wait until the limpets repaired the thrusters to full capability, and he could go for the nearest repair station, according to Me. Jackson's database.

Already, Mr. Jackson was a godsend, but he was certainly not the perfect savior. Thus far, Kovacs professional opinion was that the man was so weighed down by his muscles, it deprived his brain of any higher thinking capacity.

A notification appeared in his event log, alerting him that thrusters will be restored to full functionality, and the overall hull integrity would be raised to 31% in seven hours. Of Earth time. Kovacs nodded to himself before falling asleep in his seat, arms crossed and leaning back.

5 hours, that was how long he had slept for. After rousing himself out of bed, Jet went to the gym with a bag of chips, this time actually trying to keep the floor clean out of the newfound respect he had for Kovacs. He respected Kovacs as a living creature, a human, a man, because of the firm handshake that he had received upon meeting him. Now he respected him as a warrior, which is the highest amount of respect Jet could have for anyone.

Jet would give his life for anyone that had any iota of respect from Jet, that was just how he was taught, but he saw no one below him. He also didn't see anyone above him either, he saw everyone in the same light, if someone had his respect as a warrior, it would confirm, in his mind, that this person was in need of no help when it came to fights. That was just how he was taught.

After doing calisthenics, or atleast what he could manage agility wise, for about 40 minutes, he went to speed training, hanging some pieces of paper from the ceiling and punching at them. "Did I really let myself go that bad? I didn't use any technique whatsoever, I just ran like a mad bull. This isn't what Father taught me." thought Jet, "Damn it! Whenever I fight someone, I get cocky, I act irrational. Beings with this level of sentience aren't predictable like the beasts I am used to. Beasts use instinct, humans use strategy. Have to remember that..." then a sudden thought donned on Jet as he was thinking about Kovacs, "...Me and Kovacs are complete polar opposites...He is an organized militaristic space traveler in search of work, while I am some blockhead in search of what I call 'a worthy opponent'...jeez...I really am a sad sack of @#$%. Some man I am, claiming I have high morals and the muscles to back it up, when in reality I am just a feeble gym-rat trying to live up to the morals my dad tried instilling in me. Well, this is a new opportunity to go beyond and live up to those morals. Yea, YEA" Jet thought to himself, getting more pumped. "First things first, I am going to clean the entire ship, and then lets get the feng shui in place going." Jet went on for about an hour, rearranging things and cleaning them to how he envisioned someone in Kovacs position would like, and changing certain things he liked, to accommodate himself, bringing a nice flow to the ship. "Man the look on Kovacs face when he sees this...maybe then !@#$%& would tell me about his injuries" said Jackson, followed by a hearty laugh. This was to be the Jet of now, not some poser or slob, but one who helps and is fearless, the one he always envisioned himself to be, the one his father always envisioned him to be.