Arina Xsan's Story

Three months, three weeks, five days; Commodore Fredrick Nash looked at the small calendar displayed holographically in front of him, and surrounding it was several other screens of similar size with various other things. All of them floated about two feet away from his face, all of them controllable using the controls located on the arms of his chair. Looking at the dates for a few more moments, he then hit a button to close down the calendar and bring up a picture of brownish-grey planet in front of him. It showed clouds in its atmosphere, with large bodies of water spread here and there along its surface. It was mostly dominated by large spans of open terrain, with mountains and hills spread out amongst the sands of the deserts that made up much of the planet. The arid terrain stretched from the planets equator, and only ceased when it began to meld into the more frigid poles of the planet.

Ko’val, their destination. It was still a few days out, and getting there would only be the start for The Far Reaching Wind and her crew. Not just for them either. He hit another button, bringing up three screen shots of three different vessels. One was a large carrier, which dwarfed a smaller supply vessel that followed alongside it. The Stella Caeltor, the ship that carried the thousands of colonists that were to re-establish the colony located upon the ko’val. The smaller vessel near it simply carried a large number of supplies to assist in the endeavor.

The third, which looked very similar to his own ship in design, a military vessel of sorts, floated the Gallarhorn. Its hulls contained the large numbers of Knight Sentinels of the Frontier, the Order sworn to protect those who sought to settle the planets hidden amongst the dark reaches of space. The group of people who were quite unhappy to have Naval support.

Nash hit a few more buttons to close the screens in front of him, now having an unobstructed view of the star filled view screen of the bridge. He wasn’t looking at anything in particular; rather he was just lost in thought. It seemed almost like he was just a statue with how still he sat, wondering himself what was to be expected on Ko’val. Something had happened there, something anomalous enough that the Humanitarian Federation wanted more than just the Knight Sentinels to tag along, and so Nash’s carrier had been deployed alongside the re-colonization fleet. In a few days he’d find out what happened though, though he was not entirely sure if he wanted to know.

~~~

The screen displayed several different windows, all of which held all sorts of information for her. Most of the information displayed was that of the planet Ko'val. Separated by two poles of completely opposite weather patterns, the planet was one inhabited. What happened to it, though, remained a mystery to everyone for years. Arina hadn't thought she'd ever get the chance to go see Ko'val, but it seemed that the Federation had different ideas.

It was a good plan, none the less. Ko'val was situated in the right spot to have tactical advantages for spreading out further in the dark reaches of the solar system. Even so, Arina was on edge for some reason. Only a few days out and she was just now getting shivers down her back. She's listened to the tape a few times, the one that held the transmission of the last moments of the citizens of Ko'val. It was scrambled badly, a few words here and there, but the main idea was that something, or someone, had attacked them.

Arina was determined to find out who or what that was.

After going over the information several times in the past few hours, she stretched back in the seat and tapped a button on the desk's clear glass hologram and it all shut down from infront of her. Releasing a sigh, Arina turned in her seat, got up and strode over to the huge bay window that allowed her a nice view of the fleet that followed after her vessel that carried the new colonists for Ko'val. Most notibly was the Naval vessel settled just slightly above hers.

On the other side of the Stella Caeletor was sure to be the Knight Sentinels, following just as closely as The Far Reaching Wind was. Clapsing her hands behind her back, Arina stood there for quite some time, staring out at the two vessels within sight, lost in thought.

Alten skimmed through the information on the tablet held in his hand as he waited for the elevator to reach his destination of the bridge of the Stella Caeletor to speak with Admiral Arina. It was best that they get some information settled, and so she and the other ship captains knew what to expect. He looked up at the display for the elevator, watching it tick by to indicate what floors it was going by, just passing the third level of the ship.

"Alright then, start with previous landing sight, what's there, climate, wildlife, stuff like that. Got it, Alten?" he asked himself as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose with his free hand. As the display went from "1" to "Bridge", a small keypad then lit up on the door with a slot for a security key also being illuminated. He pulled his security key from his pocket and slipped it into the slot before he quickly punched in the code. It was a simple measure of security to prevent unwanted access, though Alten wondered why it didn't go through this process before going to the floor. He withdrew the key and replaced it before he stepped out onto the bridge.

He looked around it, looking at some of the pilots and technicians at work in front of terminals of varying size and complexity. He hadn't a clue what half the equipment did, nor how to operate it, but that's why he didn't work it. It always amazed him, strangely, to watch these people work the terminals with immense speed and dexterity, seeming to be able to hit all the keys and buttons with hardly a thought. He smiled slightly when he tohught of his own ability with a keyboard, which was much less impressive. it was why he preferred speech-to-text software, it made his life so much easier.

He spotted the Admiral looking out the large bay window, seeming to be enthralled by the star-filled darkness that was out the view port. It always surprised him when he saw her, considering how young she was. There were some people who never reached a position such as Admiral at any point in there life, and he knew for a fact that Commodore Nash aboard The Far Reaching Wind and Argos Aigidios aboard the Gallarhorn were both men well into there forties and both had an impressive record to show for why they'd be given the positions they had. Yet Alten didn't know too much about Arina, yet clearly she had impressed a number of people within the administration of Exploratores Stellarum.

Patting down his jacket and shirt, mostly out of habit, he walked towards the Admiral, his shoes making a soft thunk with each step on the hard metal beneath his feet. When he was only a few feet behind her, his heels clicked together, his feet moving to the forty-five degree angle that was a part of standing at attention, his free hand closing to a soft fist at his side while he held onto the tablet with his other. He could never break some of his old habits from his Marine days, but they were hardly a burden to him, and if anything they were good habits. "Excuse me Admiral, if I may speak to you." his voice was soft, and he looked at her directly.

So lost in thought, Arina hadn't heard his approach at all until he's spoken and even then she'd only caught the tail end of his words since his voice was so soft. Turning just enough to peer over her shoulder, The Admiral caught sight of one of the men entrusted in determining if planets were viable inhabitants for humans. Though she'd only met him briefly before their departure from Earth, she'd read through some of his files given by the military.

Arina smiled, "Alten. What can I do for you?" she asked in kind tones, her smile never fading as she turned to face him fully, "We'll be reaching Ko'val in a few days, I'm assuming you're here in regards to the planet?"

Her smile caught him off guard a bit, mostly cause he wasn't use to people in her position or any officers he met with to smile in such a fashion. He didn't let it show though, instead he simply cleared his throat as he held up his tablet, looking at it quickly before back up to her and holding it out. "Yes, Admiral Xsan. Just a few important pieces of information for you, Commodore Nash, and Sentinel-Major Aigidios regarding Ko'val."

"Simple things regarding the landing site that has been designated as the best place, as well as what to expect within the immediate area of it. We are fortunate in that, with Ko'val having already been established we have a fair bit of information on what to expect so things should go smoothly for us." he said to her.

Taking the tablet handed to her, Arina moved from the window a bit, listening to Alten's speech all the while as she skimmed through the information given to her. She'd been informed of the landing site already, but it never hurt to double check information of course. Nodding in agreement to his statements, she continued on through the information, "Nothing hostile as far as plants go... That's good. Ko'val being established already is a plus, we'll be able to colonize it far faster than the first time, I'm sure."

Running her finger along the tablet to move the information around, she finished looking at it briefly and turned back to Alten, the smile retaking it's place on her lips, "This looks good. Should be promising. I'm to assume that Sentinel-Major Aigidios and Commodore Nash wish to send out scouting parties first before we allow the citizens on land?"

He nodded his head, turning to track her movements as she walked away from the window. "Indeed, it should be much easier. Of course we are also fortunate that Ko'val was never a very hostile world...er..ok well the planet itself is not." he looked away for a moment, embaressed a bit at his goof up. Clearing his throat, his usual tick of nervousness, he looked back to her as he recomposed himself. "So that will help, we just need to make sure we are prepared to handle the arid climate of the landing site and original colony location."

"As for the Major and Commodore, I can only assume that they will want to deploy scouts. However..." he paused, thinking of how not to sound insulting when he said it. He respected the two commanders for their capabilities and so he didn't want to possible say something that might reach their ears and make any relations a bit sour. "I think it may be best to discuss with them the plans for scouting parties. We don't want any...issues between them." he glanced away from Arina, a bit worried about the offense his words might cause.

Tapping the tablet gently against her hand, Arina pursed her lips in acknowledgment. Alten had a point. The two factions hadn't gotten along and for the most part as far as she had knowledge of, so far they'd not interacted with one another since the departure. Turning on her heel, Arina handed the tablet back to Alten with a slight grin, "Well then, I think we need to get both parties on board and have a meeting then. What do you think? The Commodore and Major along with the pilots? Or just the commanders?"

As Alten took hold of the tablet again, tucking it into the crook of his elbow as he listened to her. At her question, Alten blinked slightly, looking off as he thought about it. He was still standing in the position of attention, save for his eyes moving away from Arina. He then looked back up to her. "Well, Admiral. Personally I think it'd be best to simply speak with only the commanders in this case. I think that, until we really know how both sides are going to deal with each other we sohuldn't try to force them to interact too much. Of course, it is your decision to make sir, I mean ma'am." he coughed a little, averting his eyes from her and just looking on ahead as he finished.

Arina laughed slightly as he said 'sir' rather than 'ma'am'. He seemed rather nervous which made her soften up more than usual. He shouldn't have been nervous at all, Arina didn't think she was all that hard to talk to.

"Very wise. Thank you for your insight, Alten," she complimented and turned to the staff on the bridge, "Open communication to The Far Reaching Wind and Gallahorn." she ordered, her tone changed slightly as she called out across the bridge. She was answered by one of the attendants who switched desks and did as she asked.

A soft sound filled the air as the communication link was sent out to both vessels. All she had to do then was wait for them to accept and she would proceed with the next steps.

Alten nodded his head when she gave him the compliment. "Thank you, Admiral Xsan." he said as he stood back. He wasn't really needed for the communication, and if they did then the Admiral could get a hold of him. He turned to look towards the main screen.

In only a few moments, one screen lit up to show the image of rather tall, and fully armored man as he stood within a small, yet bare room. The rooms floors had minimal mats to it, and along the backwall could be seen racks of various practice blades. The man stood there in full power armor, which on the chest plate was The Helm of Awe, the symbol the Knight Sentinels wore. The man in question had very, very short black hair and a face riddled with scars here and there. He stared at the screen, a stern, hard look in his eyes as he looked at Arina. On his shoulder rested a rather large blade, at least three-forths the length of the Knight holding it.

Despite the severe look he had, the Knight actually spoke in a rather calm and kind tone. "Yes, Admiral Xsan? What is it that you need?" Sentinel-Major Aigidios asked. Alten had noted that nothing had yet come through from The Far Reaching Wind, course he was a bit distracted by the imposing man on the screen in front of him. To Alten, it was like he was back at bootcamp, staring down a Drill Instructor.

Arina's lips curved upward, her pleasant demeanor not in the least detered by the powerful looking man who bore down upon her via the screen's display, "Sentinel-Major, I'm requesting yours and the Commodore's presence aboard my vessel. I would like to have our plans all in sync with each other. A smooth operation is much more pleasing than a rocky one, yes?"

A scowl formed on the face of the Major as he listened to Arina, snorting a bit as he turned to head over to the weapon rack. As he walked, the camera followed after him to keep him in the shot. "May I ask why simply communicating through this method is not good enough?" he asked as he set the sword he was holding back on the rack. It fell into place with a loud metallic thunk before he turned back around to face the camera.

"We'll have plenty of time to meet and greet when we reach Ko'val, besides, I already promised I'd behave." he said the last part in a bit of a mocking tone as he crossed his arms, the light of the room he was in shining between the individual fibers of muscle-like cords that was on the outside of the power armor limbs.

Arina felt an inward sigh pulse in her chest as she kept her pleasant features intact despite his obvious annoyance to her request. Leaning off to the side, Arina let the side of her jaw rest against her fist as she leaned on the chair she was standing next to, "Sentinel-Major, I must say that I respect the fact that you actually answered my call. As of this moment," her gaze shot off to the side as she looked over to the attendant who was still trying to hail the other vessel, "The Commodore seems to be ignoring me entirely. I think that perhaps he doesn't like me very much," she smiled at the slight joke, though she was actually fairly sure the Commodore wasn't too keen on her.

"In any case, as a show of respect to both of you, I'm requesting the meeting in person. I feel it's more... Hmm, professional? Besides, I like to have things done before they need to be, surely you do as well?"

Aigidios stood there with his arms crossed for a bit longer, just watching her for a few moments. Finally he took a deep breath before letting it out in an annoyed huff. "Fine then, only because you asked nicely." he said as a joke, though his tone hardly conveyed much humor. Alten figured it simply was because the Sentinel-Major was permanently stuck in eat-you-alive-mode. "I'll be over within the hour, and I'll be bringing some fellow Knights as well. Sorry, Admiral Xsan, but only a fool travels alone and we Knights are no fools. Aigidios out." with that, the communication screen cut out.

Alten watched the screen for a few before glancing to the Admiral. "Well then, that part went well. Think the Commodore will be as willing?" As if on que, suddenly the screen opened up again to reveal the image of a man sitting in the chair centered in the bridge of The Far Reaching Wind. The man in question had a look to rival that of Aigidios, and frankly if Aigidios was like a Drill Instructor, this was the face of all the Drill Instructors while smoking a recruit.

The Commodore had a surprisingly young looking face for someone who was in his late forties, and he sat quiet and motionless in his chair as he stared hard at Arina. His right eye was a calming, soothing color of blue and bangs of dirty blonde hair hung just above it. The left eye though, was the more unnatural red that came from a bionic implant. As Alten watched Nash, it didn't look like malice or hatred in the man's eyes. There was an intensity of some kind, though Alten wasn't sure what to consider it.

Nash's voice was a bit raspy, yet still held a great deal of authority to it. "Admiral." was his only response as he sat there.

With no room to respond to the Sentinel-Major, Arina could only keep her smile upon her lips as he ended the transmission rather quickly. Even before she could answer to Alten, the screen lit up again and this time it was the Commodore whom she faced. I get the feeling he did that on purpose... Or perhaps he was just hoping to miss the Sentinel-Major... Should have kept him talking longer, Arina thought to herself with an inward groan.

"Commodore, it is a pleasure. Thank you for responding. I'm extending invitation onto my vessel. I wish to speak with you in person about the details of our landing on Ko'val in a few days," she paused just briefly, wondering if keeping the information that Aigidios was coming on board to herself was a good idea or not, in the end it took her a mere moment to decide, "The Sentinel-Major will be here within the hour. Am I to expect your arrival?"

Though she was asking it as a question, her tone said that it was more of an acknowledgement instead. Inwardly, she'd hoped she hadn't stepped a little too far into territory that was clearly not hers. Even so, Arina was determined to get both men aboard. After all, if things were to go smoothly -and she would have them go smoothly one way or another- she needed them both on the same page, no over lapping plans, and especially no hostility toward one another.

Nash watched her for a moment, still unmoving in his seat. After a bit of a pause, he spoke up. "You can tell the Sentinel-Major that I will allow him and his Knights to handle securing the landing site. I will be deploying my own scouts deeper into the colony sections away from the landing site. I'm intent to make sure nobody else has made a home of Ko'val. I will keep you both in touch before I take any other steps beyond that. It will be a contingent of infantry accompanied by some Mecha support if you or the Sentinel-Major are curious." Finally, he made a movement, even if it was only to blink.

The next movement was for him to hit a few keys on his chair with his left hand. Alten noticed the subtle rigid motions that was also a tell tale sign of a bionic limb. After a few presses, he then let his hand rest back into it's resting position. "Understood?" he finished.

This will be a difficult man to deal with, Arina thought to herself wilst keeping the pleasant smile on her lips present, "I see, thank you for the information, Commodore. Even so, I would feel more at ease should you attend. Simply passing off information via word of mouth tends to get muddled."

Arina moved from the side of the chair to sit down upon it and laced her fingers together as she leaned forward, "Besides. Is my vessel really all that disdainful? And I've only met you briefly in person. Surely you wouldn't mind speaking to me face to face rather than having such distance."

He watched her, now beginning to drum the fingers of his right hand on the arm of his chair. "If you insist then. Nash, out." He then hit a button on the left arm of his chair as the link was then cut.

Alten stood there, watching where the screen was for a few silent moments before he spoke up again. "Well, apparently that part also went well. Well done, Admiral Xsan." he said while looking over to her.

Arina's smile never left though the moment the screen disappeared with his cutting the transmission, she leaned back with a slight sigh of relief. The encounter with both men was rather nerve wracking, though not nearly as bad when dealing with two utterly ticked off countries ready to tear each others throats out at the drop of a pin. Even so, their presence alone on screen was enough to tell Arina that she really had no place amongst the higher ranking individuals of either the military or the Knight Sentinels.

Still, she couldn't help the excited grin on her lips knowing that she'd won both of them over, "Why yes. That did go well, didn't it," she beamed and bounced up out of her seat with renewed vigor, "Although I think I may have annoyed the Commodore a little more than I did for the Sentinel-Major..." Arina shrugged lightly.

"In any case, this is far better than having them on screen. At least now neither of them can just up and leave as easily," she said with a wink toward Alten. Striding toward the elevator, she reached out and tapped the control pad, "Prepare the docking bay to recieve both the Sentinel-Major and the Commodore," she called out as she waited for the lift.

There was an answer to her command which she only briefly acknowledged before slipping into the elevator, "Shall we go greet them?" she offered to Alten.

This was going to be an interesting CO to be under, that was for certain as he watched her almost bounce up out of her seat. Her little wink made him blink in confusion, staring at the viewscreen for a moment before turning his head to follow her movements to the elevator. "Well uh...I'm not sure if you really annoyed him persay. I think Commodore Nash just isn't much of a people person really, odd given his position as an officer."

He watched her move to the elevator, standing where he was when she offered to go meet with them. He nodded his head, fixing his glasses again as he followed her onto the elevator. "I suppose we should. Also, not sure what you might be nervous about Admiral Xsan. I'm the one who has to talk to them." he said as he stood next to her, looking forwards and too the door. "Which, I may add, is not my strongest talent. If you haven't noticed."

As the doors closed shut and the elevator started it's downward descent, Arina laughed lightly at Alten's words, "You will do just fine. If it helps any, you can use me as your focus. I didn't think you were all that bad earlier when you spoke to me," she offered with a glance in his direction.

"And for the record," she grinned, "I'm not nervous."

Alten narrowed his eyes in confusion, glancing over to her. "Use you as my focus? Not..sure what you mean by that, ma'am." He then looked back ahead, before glancing back down to his tablet as he brushed through the information again, more so just to give himself something to do.

"And thank you, Admirla Xsan. Been getting better, but you COs always have a way of just shutting me up, whether intentional or not." He didn't look up from his tablet, still poking at it here and there. "I swear it's a talent you all seem to have that i'll never truly understand." he finished, glancing over to her for a moment before back to the tablet.

Arina placed on hand on her hip as she watched the counter on the elevator that said what floor they were passing as they descended, "Use me as your focus, as in pretend you're only talking to me," she answered his confusion.

A soft huff of a laugh escaped her lips as she tilted her head a bit and closed her eyes, "My apologies, Alten. I do not intend to... 'shut you up' as you stated. You've no need to keep things short with me. I rather enjoy conversation with others. Surely I'm not that intimidating, am I?" she asked with a slightly teasing grin.

He looked over to her, nodding his head at her answer. "I see then, well then I guess i'll give that trick a shot." He then returned her small grin with his own smile. "And to be honest Admiral Xsan, yes you are a bit intimidating." He then turned to look up at the display in front of them.

"Least to me. Only twenty-four years old, and you are in charge of an entire re-colonization operation. An operation that has you working alongside a Sentinel-Major of the Knights, and even more so alongside a Commodore of the Federation Navy." He adjusted his glasses again as he looked back over to her. "Means you have something that caught the attention of ExStella Administrators, and with things like this it usually means that you probably have a rather fierce fire in that stomach of yours. Not to mention I'm already a person who tends to go rather quiet around authority, figures. So it's bound to happen." he then turned to look back ahead.

After a pause, he shrugged as he spoke. "Though the cute face does help to settle some tensions." he said jokingly as he smiled, keeping his eyes forwards.

"I see," Arina commented lightly as he said that she was a little bit intimidating. As he continued, a bit of a blush coursed along her cheeks, not used to be complimented in such a way. A bit of a wry smile curved her lips too and she shook her head a little.

"Cute face hu?" she caught on to that last little bit as the elevator stopped and slid open the doors for them to leave and head to the docking bay where the two commanding officers were to be boarding. Arina laughed, a rich sound that said it was a true laugh, not her usual shorter ones that were more for professional sake than anything else.

"Alten... That's... Oh boy," she grinned as she settled her giggling fit, "Cute... It's been a while since I've heard that. Was not expecting it from you, least of all."

With a heavy sigh, she took a deep breath and straightened, though the amusement from her eyes hadn't faded out, "Well, thank you for the compliments," her gaze caught site of two smaller vessels loading into the docking bay, "I believe our guests have arrived, shall we?" she beckoned to the double doors that would lead out onto the catwalk in order to get to the bay below.

He shrugged, still smiling a bit as he began walking towards the doors. "You are welcome, Admiral Xsan. And what can I say? I've had a lot of training in catching people off guard." he made sure to keep pace with her, having tucked the tablet back into the crook of his elbow. As he walked through the doors and out onto the catwalk, he looked towards the transport vessel of the Knight Sentinels, which was the simple black, red, and gold colors of the Knights. On its sides, colored black so that it stood out on the gold surface beneath it, was the Helm of Awe, meant to inspire fear into those who may seek to harm the charges of the Knights.

As the vessel finished its docking procedures, Alten and Arina had made their way down into the bay to meet with the arrivals. The side doors of the vessel opened up with a quick hiss of air as it was sucked from the transport vessel. It was common that the air pressure with some tranports tended to be slightly greater than the pressure within larger vessels, so it resulted in only a quick noise of rushing air as it slipped through the cracks of an opening bulkhead. As the doors finished openeing, a small ramp slowly extended downwards and down it strode it three individuals.

The one leading the group was clearly Sentinel-Major Aigidios, however he was not wearing his suit of power armor as he made his way towards the Admiral. He still wore the light plates of an armored suit, the plates a simple red and black in color and over his torso was a rugged cloth haubrek, which too has the Helm of Awe, sitting within a golden circle surrounded by black. On the right side of his waist was a large calibre pistol, held on by a simple magnetic hook that connected to a metal piece on his belt, while on the left was a sword held on by a similar magnetic device. His head was exposed, and Alten got a better view of the scars across his features. His face had several crossing about here and there, each of varying causes. the most notable was a jagged one that started on his forehead and stretched back along his head to the center of it where no hair grew upon it. One of the Knights accompaning him was dressed in a similar fashion to the Sentinel-Major, except he had slung on his back a magazine fed shotgun rather than any melee weapon.

As promised, the Sentinel-Major had brought with him a few of his own knights. One in particular was a woman who looked just as fierce as her Major. Dressed in similar clothes, the black -or what looked black to Arina- armor with the Helm of Awe displayed upon her breast, and shiny peices of metal coating what looked like heavy leather cloth. From the woman, Arina turned to the Sentinel-Major as they approached him and gave her signature smile once again.

"Thank you, Sentinel-Major, once again for agreeing to come aboard. I promise this won't take long," she offered to him as she came to stand before him. Her gaze flicked from him to the woman and to the other Knight that he'd brought with, curiosity in her gaze as she stood there.

Argos nodded his head, "Well as I said, you asked so nicely it'd seem rude of me to say no." He then turned to look at the shotgun wielding Knight, "This is Order Sergeant Kasabian Arshavir, a member of our assault group." The knight simply nodded his head to the Admiral and Alten. Argos then turned to look at the female on his other side, "And this is Cavalier Syrin Eulina, one of our better Mecha Pilots. I desired them being here as they will be part of team I will deploy to secure the landing site."

Alten glanced between the three Knights, a miserable look on his face as he sighed quietly to himself. It was bad enough to have to speak to the Sentinel-Major and the Commodore, but now he'd have these two other Knights watching him alongside god-knows-who that the Commodore was going to bring along.

"Perfect," Arina said, her smile growing as she turned her attention to each one that was introduced to her. Kasabian simply nodded to which Arina returned the guesture. Looking to Syrin, she beamed at the other woman who only regarded her with a cold stare before turning away completely, hand on the hilt of her sword at her hip. Arina's lips faltered for a mere moment at the strange display from the soldier.

Turning back to the Sentinel-Major, Arina reestablished herself, "I'm glad that we are going to be in such capable hands, Sentinel-Major. Now, the Commodore should be arriving in a few moments and we will get this meeting done and over with. We've only a few days before we reach Ko'val, best to get everything settled before that."

"The Commodore's vessel is here, Major," the woman's voice was rather soft as she spoke, glancing over to her commanding officer briefly before looking back to the other shuttle that was starting it's docking procedures through the sheild at the far end of the bay. The near invisible layer of energy around the hull of the ship rippled as the shuttle entered. Meanwhile, Arina took a deep breath. Of the two men, the Commodore was most difficult to deal with.

Nash stood in front of the bulkhead that would open up to let them onto the Stella Caeltor, and he to stood with two of his own troops. He kept his eyes forwards as he spoke. "Listen carefully both of you, as you two will be in the scouting operations out away from the landing site. Understood, Holt?"

"Yes Sir." The woman behind him stated, standing there in a simple pair of Naval Fatigues. They were a simple black and hung a little loose off of her body. On her thigh was a holster for a pistol that held a pocket for an extra magazine on the front, and on her other thigh was three more pockets for magazines. Both were strapped onto her belt and also wrapped around her thighs to hold them in place. On the back of her belt, a knife was sheathed with the handle facing out to the left side so that she could quickly and easily access should it be needed.

"Good. And Ryker," the Commodore turned his head so that he could stare the silver haired pilot in the eyes, giving him a look that warned him of the amount of misery the Commodore could put the Petty Officer through if he wanted to. "Behave." was all Nash said before turning back ahead as the bulkhead began to open up, a quick rush of wind blowing past the three of them before it slid up in the wall of the ship, followed by a ramp lowering itself for the three.

Ryker's eyes were trained on the Commodore just as he looked back and gave him a warning stare. Arching an eyebrow as if feigning ignorance as to what in the world the Commodore was referring to, he gave a small grin as well as a shrug in response, "Of course, Commodore," he answered simply, his tone giving no hint of sarcasm in the least.

The Commodore began walking down the ramp, again displaying the rigid movement that came from a bionic limb, able to be seen from the limp-like movement of his left leg and his left arm seeming to not even move with the momentum of Nash's forward movement. The Commodore wore a black uniform, though he didn't bother with any bars or ribbons on it to display what accomplishments he had acheived. Instead all he had was a simple silver eagle on the left side of his chest, sitting over his heart. On both his shoulders were two strips of cloth that had four bars parrel to one another and facing towards his arms, both arms having similar cloth strips sewn onto them.

As he stepped down, he looked towards the young Admiral of the Stella Caeltor, looking her up and down as he approached, Petty Officer Holt not far behind him. There was no expression on his own face as he approached, stopping when he made it to the group of them. He then looked to the Sentinel-Major, who gave him a curt nod. "Commodore." Argos said.

"Hello, Sentinel-Major Aigidios." Nash then turned his head to Arina. "Admiral."

If it was possible, Alten would have deflated in defeat at this point. This briefing was going to suck, was all he kept thinking to himself. Hopefully, using Admiral Xsan as his focus would help him.

I figured he would bring soldiers as well... I suppose Sentinel-Major thought the same, hence his reasoning to bring his own, Arina thought to herself as she took in the two imposing looking Naval officers behind the Commodore.

"Commodore," Arina responded crisply and turned on her heel, "This way please. We'll get this over with rather quickly," as she started walking over to the elevator, her hand motioned over to Alten while she continued speaking, "This is Alten Ashley, he's in charge of planatary specifics. There's a fancy word for it, but I'm not a scientist, so I'll forgoe the formality on that aspect, I hope you do not mind," she offered as she glanced behind her to both the Major and Commodore.

Pressing the button to the elevator, Arina turned a little so she could speak in their direction instead of having her back to them while they waited, "He'll be briefing you on some of the planets specifics and any other details you may require regarding Ko'val for the re-colonizing mission."

"We are not scientists, either, Admiral," the taller man that had accompanied the Commodore spoke, a bit of a wry grin on his lips.

Arina only gave a short laugh in response, "No, of course not. Don't worry, I'm sure he'll make it understandable."

The silver haired officer looked to bristle just slightly at her response. Oops... That might have been a bit too much, Arina thought to herself as she glanced over to the Commodore then back to the man who had a slightly crueler look to his gaze than a moment before.

Argos looked between the Admiral and the other man with the Commodore before back to the Admiral. "Well, I'm sure it'll be simple enough. We only need to know basics to stage a proper operation. So no pressure."

Alten just kept his eyes forwards, not looking towards them as they waited for the elevator. Nope, no pressure at all. Just twelve really heavy stares, that's all. He glanced bck down to his tablet, again more so to just give him something to do. He did manage to find his voice though, clearing his throat first. As he still did not turn around as he spoke, as he found it easier not having to look them all in the face. As he spoke, he tried to do what the Admiral suggested and simply imagined it was jsut her standing next to him. "It should be easy, a lot of data has already been compiled, given Ko'val being a pre-established colony."

Nash looked at Alten before towards the elevator. "Good."

I'm not sure that helped, Sentinel-Major, Arina thought to herself as she watched the numbers on the elevator. Alten's speaking up did surprise her though and she couldn't help the encouraging smile on her lips as he spoke without stutter or pause.

After the Commodore gave the simple answer of 'good', the doors opened to allow them entrance. They didn't have to go far, two levels up and they were let out into the hallway of the large vessel. Arina took the lead, walking briskly to get to the meeting room where Alten could throw all of the needed data up on a large screen for all of them to see.

Punching in her code at the door along with her key card, Arina opened it for them and strode inside, the lights coming on automatically to their presence. Taking a seat in one of the black cushioned chairs, she offered her warm smile again as they filed in to sit down as well, "Well then, whenever you're ready, Alten," Arina said, motioning to him with her hand.

Syrin had kept silent during the exchange and as they entered the meeting room, she simply prefered to stand rather than sit, keeping close to her commander. Both hands behind her back, she took a slightly relaxed, yet still formal stance and turned her attention away from the annoying woman who couldn't seem to wipe the smile off her face and to the man who would be briefing them.

In turn, Ryker did take a seat in one of the chairs, right across -or at least kitty corner- to the Admiral, his dark gaze locked on her and a slightly seething attitude just barely concealed under his tightly knitted frame. Closing his fingers together over his lap, he leaned back and waited for the 'scientist' to start talking, a bit of impatience to his posture.

Alten calmly followed Admiral Xsan inside, taking a seat next to her as he began poking at his tablet to set it up for the display that sat in the center of the room. Argos walked in and took a seat, Kasabian standing to the opposite side Syrin had taken. Nash and Holt both sat down on opposite sides of Ryker, Holt leaning over as she walked past him and whispering. "Someone get their feelings hurt?" She said, smirking slightly at him as she sat down. Nash remained quiet and took his seat, shooting his two subordinates a look before he looked towards the display that sat towards the center.

Ryker glanced over to Aiyanna, a retort on his lips had it not been for the rather commanding look they both recieved from Commodore Nash. He flashed his companion a smile, though, much like the ones he always gave her when they would converse with one another off duty. Despite that though, he was still irked by the woman seated across from them. She wasn't a soldier, but she had an air about her that just seemed to rub him the wrong way.

With a few more button presses on the tablet from Alten, the display in the center lit up and brought up several holographic images. The way it was set up, regardless of a person's position in the room is always displayed a set of images facing them so all could see. Alten took a deep breath before he began speaking, hitting a button to bring up first a far out image of Ko'val. The image showed a large area of the desert they would be landing in.

"This is Ko'val's spaceport, which is located within one of the larger deserts of the planet. It offers the space necessary for a ship such as the Stella Caeltor to land, however there sohuld be plenty of space nearby to also allow the landing of the Gallahorn and The Far Reaching Wind."

"Noted, but The Wind will remain in orbit unless it is necessary to land." the Commodore spoke when Alten had taken a pause.

"Not worried about grounding your vessel, are you Commodore?" Argos asked, moving a bit so he could view the Commodore better. If the jeer had any effect, it didn't show on Nash's face as he kept his eyes on the display in front of him.

After a pause, Nash giving no response back, Alten cleared his throat. "Right...well..."He paused, looking over to the Admiral for a moment before back to the display, again he pushed out the idea that there were others in the room to help clear his thoughts. "A few miles north of the spaceport is the original colony itself, which shares its name with the planet. We are unsure as to the condition of the colony or the spaceport, or what animals may have moved in during our absence."

He hit a few buttons, which brought images of both the space port and the colony of Ko'val itself. Both images showed signs of activity from people, having been taken back when the colony itself had still be occupied. A few moments later another image opened up to display what appeared to be large, lizard like creatures. Most of the images showed most of them to be sleeping in the shade, some lying in groups varying in numbers. Each of them were a good four to six feet in length, and a couple pictures also displayed them walking around on their hind legs. Their other more obvious quality were the rather fierce looking claws on their feet and the sharp teeth they had as well.

"These were simply referred to as Drakes by the previous colony members," Alten began speaking again. "these creatures are the most dangerous of the wildlife that was encountered on the planet. They were not overtly hostile, but they had a bad tendency to settle in shady places during the day time to escape the heat, and they also happen to be a bit territorial. Usually problems occured when they wandered into populated areas and encountered humans. So when you land and begin clearing areas, just be weary of these creatures being within the buildings; it is pretty safe to infer that they have decided to occupy the structures over the past years."

"Oh, splendid. Giant lizards to contend with while going down the dark halls. I don't suppose opening fire on it would be a great idea," Ryker commented lightly, his sentence not really a question.

"If you wish to kill us all," Syrin replied, a kind of cold annoyance in her voice to which Ryker only glanced over to her and shrugged in dismissal.

"Me and the other infantry are the ones who have to worry," Holt said, leaning forwards in her seat. "You'll be riding in Mechas..."

"I would also suggest avoiding contact with any of the insects or arthropods you come across." Alten continued, ignoring the others' interruptions. "Most will react in a similar manner to most other insects and try to avoid you, but there are a fair number that are venemous. Though also it may be in your best interest to warn your soldiers of this critter." Alten hit a few buttons, and on screen the image of what looked similar to a spider popped up on screen. It only had six legs, but it's span was at least a foot and a half across, and on it's front were two large looking mandibles. Holt shifted in her seat some at the sight of the critter, shuddering a bit. "It is not venemous, though it does have a mean bite. I say to warn your men though because according to colonists it had a tendency to follow people as they moved through the day, keeping to their shadow to stay cool we are assuming. If your men just listen to what I suggested regarding the other arthropods by avoiding touching it, their shouldn't be any issues with it." Alten chuckled a little as he looked at it, "Hell, the colonists actually began to like the things, apprently they are great at getting rid of pests."

"Yay..." Holt said as she shifted a bit more in her seat, "So what's next?" she said, more than ready to get the image off the screen.

"Don't worry, I'll shoot it for you if I see it," Ryker offered, noting her squiriming around in her seat, a grin on his lips.

Holt didn't even look at Ryker as she gave him a soft kick to the shin, keeping her eyes on the display as it changed back to show the spaceport and colony once again. Alten cleared his throat as he usually did, looking at the others before quickly back to the display. "As I'm...sure you are already prepared for, remember that it is very dry and hot out there. So just...prep yourselves for operating in such a climate. That should...well just about cover it." Alten said as he closed down the displays, the lights of the room lighting back up. "Any questions you..have?" Please say no, please. Alten thought to himself as he glanced to the Admiral for a moment before looking back towards the projector for the display, not wanting to actually meet the eyes of the others.

"Thank you, Alten," Arina spoke up before any questions could be asked. For the moment she was more than happy to see that the two groups had behaved themselves for the most part, though she'd figured that the Sentinel-Major wasn't going to be the one to start things. Even so, she'd hardly expected the soldier to be the moody one. Or perhaps he was just like that, she wasn't sure yet.

"Now then, with that information, I'd like to know what team will be in charge of doing what exactly when we get there. In addition to that, the Stella Caelator will stay in orbit as well, at least until the planet has been deemed safe to land, wild life as a given that is. I'm sure I do not have to remind either of you that despite the repreive most of us have been living in , rebels and pirates are still a thing these days and even more so now that space travel has been established.

"In short, you're not just clearing out the local invasion of plants and lizards. There's a possibility that rebels have taken the colony. Perhaps I'm being a bit suspicious in that ideal, but I'm not taking it off the board either," during her speech, Arina had leaned forward and interlaced her fingers as she spoke, leaning on the polished black table, "With that out of the way... Your plans?" once again she offered her smile, though her tone had been all business.

Nash spoke up first, "We are all quite aware of the possibility of pirates or rebels having occupied the colony. It is why I am deploying Petty Officers Holt here to lead a scouting party into the colony, as well as the surronding areas. Petty Officer Vondalir here will support Holt and her team, but they are under strict orders to not engage anybody that they find unless absolutely necessary." Nash glanced at Ryker as he emphasized the last words. He then looked back to the others, specifically the Sentinel-Major. "Once we have an accurate picture of what is there and you have secured the spaceport and it's surronding area, then we can coordinate a possibly cleaning operation for Ko'val."

Argos looked at the Commodore before speaking, "Sounds good to me. Order Sargeant
Arshavir will be leading the assault team to secure the spaceport with our own Mecha support led by Cavalier Eulina." He then looked to Arina and then back to Nash. "We'll keep you both informed to our progress, and will let you know Admiral Xsan," He looked at her, "When it is safe for the Stella Caeltor to land."

Arina couldn't help the giddiness that was bubbling in her stomach and making her want to jump for joy. The meeting couldn't have gone smoother -aside from.. what was his name? The silver haired soldier- Both the Commodore and Sentinel-Major had been rather calm and collected, though it was very obvious to Arina that the Commodore wanted to be in full charge of the plans, giving meaningful looks to nearly everyone at the table. His tone of voice was also filled with the authority that said he wasn't going to be questioned.

She sighed, "Well then, I think that wraps things up very nicely doesn't it? Thank you gentlemen," she said, tilting her head slightly, "It was a pleasure to have you aboard. I will keep in touch. In the meantime, I'm sure you've things that need to be done. If I'm not wrong, it's only two days from now before we arrive? I don't want to keep you any longer from your duties," Arina stood up as she spoke, indicating the end of the meeting.

"Good day to you, Admiral." Nash said as he stood up and immediattly made for the door. He didn't say anything to Argos or his Knights as he walked by, nor did he check to make sure Holt and Ryker were following him. Holt was close behind, however she gave a bit of a warmer smile to the others.

"Thank you, Mr. Ashley. And thanks for having us aboard, Admiral." With that Holt continued on out.

The Sentinel-Major watched them head out of the room before looking towards the Admiral and Alten while standing up. "Yes, thank you, Mr. Ashley." Now looking directly to the Admiral, "Admiral Xsan," He paused and glanced back to make sure Nash and his crew had left before back to the Admiral. "I would not bank on the fact that things are going to remain this smooth. We are simply lucky that Nash and I had different plans that happened to work together." He then gave her a Sentinel salute, placing his hand flat over the Helm of Awe, his plam facing towards it. "Be well, be safe, and know we are standing guard." With that he turned and made his way out of the room.

The moment all the others had left, Alten let out a large sigh of relief, letting his head fall forwards so that his forehead thunked on the table in front of him. "Augh...I'm still not sure why I took this job. I think I like to torture myself or somethin'..." he mumbled the last bit as he glasses slid off of his face and lightly fell on the table as well.

Arina let out a soft sigh of air as the door closed, the intimidating presence of all six of them leaving her body. Falling back into the chair, she allowed herself to slouch a little as she sat there, thinking over what the Sentinel-Major had said. It was true after all, it had worked out simply because the two had different ideas, and somehow a miracle had occured to make them work with one another.

Arina laughed when Alten fell forward, thumping his head against the table. Though the sound had her a little worried as to his well being, it was his words that made her chuckle softly. Moving in the chair, she leaned forward and patted his arm gently, "You did wonderfully. Don't stress about it. I think you think too much," she said and fell back into the comfort of the chair.

"Two more days, Alten... Then we can recolonize Ko'val... And maybe then I'll get some answers to what happened," she said, her mind going off into it's usual musings as she swiveled the chair around to look out the small port window into the darkness of the universe.

When he felt a pat on his arm, he glanced over towards Arina as she spoke. With his glasses on the table though, he wasn't really sure where she ended and the chair began it was such a blur. Lifting his head up, making sure to grab his glasses as he did so, he slipped them back into place as he looked at her. "You are probably right, Admiral Xsan."

He watched her as she spoke before looking out the same port window she had. Two more days and then they'd reach Ko'val, though he was less excited about it than she was. Something was there, bad enough to have driven off an entire colony despite the assitance of the Knight Sentinels, and it sure as hell wasn't the Drakes.

He looked back at Arina, "Admiral...you nervous at all? I know recolonizing it is great and all but..." He paused, his words trailing off as he couldn't figure out the words he wanted to use. "You're not worried about what might have scared off the previous colonists?" he continued after a pause in his words.

For a while, Arina was silent as she gazed at the distant stars that burned white in the black blanket. Was she nervous? A little. Worried? Maybe. In honesty, Arina wasn't sure how she felt about the situation, about what they might find on Ko'val. The rumors and ideals of what had happened ranged from pirates, to rebels, to the Tearrocs, to aliens from another solar system.

What they would find there, Arina couldn't even begin to imagine. She supposed she was hopeful that it was simply rebels that fought off the colony. It made the most sense seeing as the transmission feeds were all scrambled. Then to be driven off into the Torrocus system immdiately after was even more cause for her to believe it was rebels. Take over a valuable planet to the Federation, then destroy the evidence.

"I think that we will find out exactly what happened when we get there, Alten. I'm not entirely sure I'm worried or nervous to be honest with you," she swiveled around in the chair to look at him properly, "But whatever happened, I'm going to find out. Even if it is dangerous. I'm still doing it. No matter what."

He watched her talk, listened to the tone she had. The determination in it, to see to Ko'val's mysteries being solved. As she finished, he looked over to the port window again. "Alright then, Admiral. Wish I could say I was excited to find out as much as you were." He watched the stars for a few more moments before looking back to her. "Just promise me something, Admiral Xsan. Don't forget that the people on this ship are relying on your leadership and guidance to see that they don't end up suffering a similar fate to the previous ones. Don't let your desire to figure out what happened take priority over preventing a similar fate to these folks, ok?"

Arina's gaze grew wide slightly as her lips slackened from the usual smile or contented look she usually wore. It only lasted a moment before her head dropped forward and her curving smile returned, "Of course, Alten. Thank you. I will do everything in my power to keep everyone safe," Arina stood slowly then, a bit of a sigh in her voice as she got up from the chair, stretching her bones and muscles, "After all, it's what I do for a living, talk people out of war and fighting."

As she headed for the door, she ran a hand through her hair, flipping it over her shoulders once again as she continued, "Even so, I believe with you around I'll be able to keep focused on what truly needs my attention. Besides, what is it they say? Two heads are better than one?" She grinned at him as the door opened at her proximity, "Don't be afriad to keep me in line if you need to, Alten. I'll be expecting it," she finished and exited out into the hall to head back to the main bridge of the vessel.

"The encounter with the Pirates seems to have subsided. My team and I need repairs for the mecha's, I do not know of the military force, but we are returning to the Stella Caeletor," Syrin's voice was finishing up her short report over the intercom. All the while, Arina sat with her fingers knitted tightly together, her lips resting against the fingers as she stared at the display screen ahead of her. The images that were displayed were not pleasant. Though she couldn't see all of what had been described to her, the fighting had left signs of the skirmish, buildings toppled over, mini explosions in certain places. Arina's chest was tight. The fight could have been avoided if she'd just been allowed to get into contact with the group they'd encountered. However, she'd been unable to establish any sort of contact with the group down on the planet and she had tried several times. None had answered her though, and she had a feeling the Commodore had ignored her hails on purpose.

"Thank you," Arina offered simply and the communication link was cut. Arina was fairly sure the soldier didn't want to talk all that much to her anyway, after all the cold tone wasn't hard to miss. She figured she would get more details from the group as a whole later. The problem of the Pirates occupying Ko'val was definitely a hurdle that Arina had been expecting, but it didn't make it any easier at all. How was she to go about getting the Pirates to leave the place when they'd made a home out of it? She supposed she was just going to have to figure out something to say and offer to them in return for giving up the planet.

Leaning back, she started drumming her fingers on the edge of her chair's arm, the other hand holding her head propped up as she stared at the black expanse outside the main windows of the bridge. She was going to have to request another briefing. That had been difficult the first round, but maybe it would be easier this time. Maybe she would just suffice with them being on screen instead of making them board her vessel. Arina sighed heavily as her mind went around and around with ideas and plans, most of them being thrown out because she knew they wouldn't work out. At the same time she planned to call both ships in the next hour or so, allowing the two teams to reconvene with their vessels and give briefings of their own, aside from the one she'd recieved from Syrin.

Alten had watched Cavalier Eulina give her report of what had occured in the spaceport of Ko'val, and he himself looked over all the images that had been sent to them. These pirates were well equipped, and upon mention of the name Grimfist, Alten had immediately begun doing searches using his tablet. As he thumbed through it, he glanced back up at the images, pausing for a moment as he watched it. It brought him back to his days within the Corps, and the similar kind of battles he had seen. Pirates were not a fun bunch to fight, mostly because they had no desire to control the damage they caused; also because they didn't give a rats ass when it came to war crimes. As such, they would go to any length to insure their victory.

Fear especially, was one of their greatest tools and they knew it. Sometimes they'd attack people and soldiers in certain ways simply with the intention of killing as many as they could in as brutal a fashion as they could, to force their enemies to surrender. It wasn't uncommon for them to even forsake killing someone if they could leave an impression instead, doing things like locking the door to a room some sniper was hiding in and throwing a white phosphorus grenade into the room, rather than shooting the poor bastard.

Alten's movements on the pad stopped as his thoughts got the best of him, standing there staring blankly down at the tablet in front of him, hardly reading the information that sat there. His grip tightened a little on it before he closed his eyes, taking a few deep breaths. After a moment to calm himself, he cleared his throat and reopened his eyes, going back to scrolling through the tablet. "Admiral Xsan, what is your next plan of action? One thing I may offer is that we keep the Stella Caelator in orbit until the pirates have been removed." He then looked up to her, "I'm currently looking over information regarding the pirate Captain they mentioned and..." he looked back down to the tablet. "There is quite a bit on this particular one."

"Yes, I know and agree with you. We'll be keeping Stella Caelator in orbit. I don't plan to land on a hostile planet, not until I know we'll be safe. What I want is to speak with this... Pirate Captain Grimfist. Though that's going to be a feat in and of itself, getting Commodore Nash and Knight-Sentinel Major to agree with me. But I will definitely try. If only I can convince the man of what and why we're here, I'm sure I can make him leave without us having to fire off another shot," Arina answered as Alten gave her his opinions.

Shifting around in the seat that she was occupying, Arina turned just enough to see him clearly, "What I would like to do is get the two of them either on board for another meeting, or at least on screen with one another. We'll do that in a few hours, but I will hail them here in a moment. Their men need to brief with their own commanders after all, and I want as much information as I can get in one shot," she said, her gaze locked on Alten's without a flicker of hesitation, "There's no need for pointless fighting. Pirates are only pirates because they want something. Maybe I can find what he wants. Once I do... Then I've won," she said with a slight smile.

"In any case, tell me about this man, this Grimfist before I hail the other ships."

Alten watched her, eyes widening a bit in surprise at her thought process. Honestly, she was the first person he had had to deal with that wanted to talk down a pirate rather than just blast them into oblivion. Alten was one of those people who wanted to do nothing but wipe them from the face of galaxy. Giving them what they wanted was just...with everything they did to people for the simple sake of looting, they didn't deserve an easy way out. "A-Admiral Xsan...you can't be serious? You want to...to appease those monsters?"

He looked away for a moment, hesitant to continue. He cleared his throat though, looking back at her with a bit more vigor in his eyes. "They don't deserve anything but a bullet to the head. The things they do to people means they deserve nothing but the same in return! You just...if you just give them what they want they'll return for more eventually!" He watched her, his stance having become more tense; not because of his usual demeanor either. It was a rare feeling of anger he was feeling, though it wasn't really directed at the admiral.

Arina sighed heavily and stood up from her chair to turn and face Alten. With hands on her hip, a slightly irritated look on her face, she spoke in even tones, "Alten. People do things for a reason. I want to know what his reason is. I want to know what it is he wants. I said nothing about giving it to him. I just want to know. The art of persuasion lies in the art of lying. I know he's not deserving of what he wants. Many people are not. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to keep sending the Naval and Knights down there to be killed! I will avoid another scuffle like this one that we just encountered. Also, a scuffle that could have been avoided in my opinion, but it seems that things were kept from me for a little while."

Taking a step forward, Arina put a hand on Alten's arm, "I'm not giving in to who's obviously in the wrong. I'm just keeping those of us who are good, alive. What he deserves is not a bullet to his head, but a cell in one of the high security facilities. Where he can stay and die without hurting anyone else in the process."

Alten stood there, looking to the Admiral for only a moment before looking to the side, now a bit embaresed about his outburst. She was right, she had never said she was going to give him anything, now he just felt like an asshole. his voice was soft once again as he spoke, "Yes, your right Admiral Xsan. I'm sorry for my outburst..." He moved his arm from her hand, turning away slightly while pushing his glasses back up onto his nose before poking at the pad some.

"So then, as for Captain Grimfist. His actual name isn't known, nor is there anything regarding his background. He always commands a ship he refers to as the Hammerhead, however the type of ship it is has changed several times. Most of the things in here are reports and sighting of him, where he's attacked and such and he's got a pretty big list. He's wanted in many sectors, and is on the Federation's most wanted list; in fact, he's got a couple million on his head as a bounty. He's notorious for both his ability to evade capture, or even avoid death. Countless times he's been captured or supposedly killed, only to show up somewhere else, commanding a new vessel with a crew at his beck-and-call."

He turned to her, though avoided her eyes as he held out the tablet which had a full-body mugshot of Grimfist. The picture showed a man, with the information regarding his height of six feet six inches, weight and other details. His hair was cut very short and was black, matching his black eyes. He had plenty of scarring covering his face and whatever skin was exposed to be seen, and in the picture he was missing his entire right arm with the visible jack in which a bionic limb could be connected to at his shoulder. Another picture showed him in his actual combat gear, of the reddish power armor, the same black tricorne hat, and his massive ramshackle looking bionic arm. "These photos are of the last time he was seen and captured, about five years ago just after Ko'val was abandoned. He probably moved into the colony not long afterwards and after he escaped." he finished, glancing towards the bay window of the bridge.

Arina took the tablet from him and looked over the information. He was one hell of an opponent. Biting her lower lip gently, Arina scanned over his details before she glanced up at Alten and then back over her shoulder to the planet that was hanging in the dark expanse just outside her bay windows, "Five years after Ko'vol was abandoned and he was taken into custody. I wonder if he had anything to do with Ko'val's abandonment and being pushed into Terrocus territory. I suppose asking him is out of the question isn't it?" she said with a bit of a smile, a teasing tone to her words there at the end. She was trying to lighten the mood, especially after Alten had gotten quite upset with her.

"It is a possibility, Admiral. He would have the capability to drive off a colony not as secured as Ko'val was, especially if he caught them by surprise. However, nothing definite can be given, only inferred. Asking that...man may be the only way to get an answer." Alten said. "If you intend to contact him, then asking wouldn't hurt; just don't expect a worm like him to just give any information away..." he crossed his arms, frowning some as he kept his eyes out the port window. The Admiral's word had made sense, but that did not mean Alten was going to like them. These people didn't deserve even being talked with, nor did they deserve being locked in a cell. They deserved only to be burned, eaten, flayed alive, they deserved all the tortures that they themselves put other people through.

"The only other information I can really provide you with would be information that is not as useful to you as it would be to the Sentinel-Major and Commodore, as it is information regarding Grimfist's combat style. I'm sure though they've obtained that information as soon as they heard the name." He said.

He is angry with me, Arina thought to herself as she turned back to watch Alten as he answered her. He'd avoided all eye contact thus far and his tone said he wasn't very happy. Perhaps he did not agree with her decision to talk the man out of occupying Ko'val. But if she couldn't do that, then what good was she to anyone? She'd just be another body on a ship with no purpose at all. Maybe she should have said that, but she didn't and instead she sighed inwardly and crossed her arms over her chest, "Well then I guess I'll just have to ask the Commodore and Sentinel-Major to join me on board again. After all, your information should be shared with the ones who have to go deal with Grimfist anyway. But lets keep in mind that I would like to keep the plan B of an all out brawl as far away as possible. I know you don't like it, but... That's sort of what I'm here for, now isn't it?"

Turning slightly, she faced her group of workers who were monitoring the ships details and keeping the vessel out of the gravitational pull that surrounded the planet below, "Hail Commodore Nash and the Sentinel-Major please," she ordered. With the rapid response, the communications were opened. She would give them a few hours to let their personel rest and give reports before she expected them on board.

~~~

Kasabian stepped off of the transport vessel that had docked itself within the engineering/docking bay of the Gallahorn. He was walking in the direction Syrin had landed her mecha, since he'd need to report to Sentinel-Major Aigidios alongside her. Or rather, it'd just make things easier that way. Walking through the bay, his helmet tucked under his arm with his shotgun slung on his back. He nodded his head to other knights as he passed, ones who were getting ready to head down and secure the spaceport entierly. As he walked towards Cavalier Eulina's mecha, he glanced up at it, whistlnig some as he did so.

"Well, that was a bit of a mess down there, huh?" He asked out loud, though he mostly spoke to himself. He chuckled some, "Good luck with the red-head." he said while shaking his head.

Syrin docked the jet mecha and the hatch split open, the loud hiss of air depressurizing hitting her ears before any other noise filtered through as the cockpit was opened to the hanger bay. Pulling herself out of the seat, she hopped up onto the top of the hatch and scanned over the entire mecha from her place a top it. A grimace took her lips as she eyed the bullet holes through a large amount of plating on either side of the mech. The black plates were all dented and scratched, ripped apart by the bullets in either clean looking holes or jagged streaks. The dents and dings were no doubt from the building nearly collapsing on her machine, and the rips and tears were most likely from the second mecha that she'd taken on towards the end of the fight.

It reminded her that the outer hull of her machine wasn't the only thing damaged and she made her way over to the catwalk to get down to inspect the area that her computer had told her had been severely damaged. Hopefully it wasn't too bad to keep her grounded on the Gallahorn, but she knew that if it came down to it, her mecha would survive no matter what. Not that Arlan would allow me to take it out like this, she thought to herself. That man was almost as bad a perfectionist as she was when it came to mechanics anyway. As Syrin climbed down to get under her machine and started inspecting it, Kasabian's voice cut through the noisy bay and she glanced over to him.

"Nothing I couldn't handle," she replied to his question of it being a mess down on the planet. She figured it hadn't really needed a response, but she did like Kasabian and thus answered him. A grin may have pulled at her lips, but it might have been hard to tell as she leaned over and peered up under the hull near the engine of her machine, eyeing the jagged wreck of metal that had come rather close to spliting the engine's coil, "Thanks, but I think I can handle Arlan just fine," she offered, still only looking up at the damage and nothing else.

Kasabian leaned over as well to take a look at the damage, pursing his lips as he looked at it. "If you say so, Syrin. If you say so." He had no idea just what kinda fight Syrin had gotten herself into down there, but clearly it had been a hefty scuffle. Though considering it'd been two mechas, and one wielding a rail-rifle of all things, it being a tough fight wasn't much of a shock. "So, were you thinking it'd be pirates we'd find down there?" He asked while standing up completely. "Kinda hope that's all it was really, might get the military off of our backs sooner than later if all we have to pick a fight with is a bunch of looters and thieves."

"I am partial to something a bit more significant than just some pirates. It'd make having to deal with the Commodore and his crew more worthwhile." A voice spoke behind Syrin and Kasabian. The Order Sergeant spun around, and immediately went to attention and saluted the Sentinel-Major as he stood there, a hand resting on the sword at his waist while his other hand rested on the handle of his pistol. "So, how about you start telling me what happened down there?" Aigidios said as he looked between the two of them.

As Syrin was about to answer Kasabian as the two of them were inspecting the damage to her mecha, the voice of the Sentinel-Major sent a chill down her spine. How he'd gotten up behind them was a mystery to her, but it was also a testament to how good he was too. Flipping around just as quickly as Kasabian, she too followed her superiors reaction and saluted their Major, "Major..." Syrin -having been caught off guard for a moment- was only able to speak the one word before her mind slowly fell into place and the events of what had happened down on the planet easily became words on her tongue.

"We were attacked. It felt as if they were trying to ambush us, which failed," Syrin started, "But as to what Kasabian has asked. I believe it is pirates we're dealing with, Sir. The rebels have certain markings on the machines they steal from the Federation. I did not see those markings. All three mechas that I engaged with the Knights came down rather easily, though the one with the rail-rifle was difficult... And the result to my machines damage," she added, glancing up at the under carriage of the mecha, the once sleek black look, now nothing more than jagged edges in more than a few places.

"I was unable to see the foot soldiers uniforms though, so my perspective alone is not enough to truly discern who we're fighting against," Syrin concluded and glanced over to Kasabian. Hopefully his encounter with the group was a little more fruitful than her's. After all, she'd only dealt with three mechas.

Kasabian watched Syrin as she gave her part of the report before looking to the Major when she finished. "I had a better view of there foot soldiers, sir, and they lacked any real uniformity in their uniforms and armor. That alone I feel hinted to them being a pirate band. They were fairly well equipped, as Syrin's report regarding the mechas. I'll admit that their organization and ability to respond to us quickly and even shoot down Sentinel Two, alongside one of Paladin's mechas showed that they were something more."

Aigidios had switched over from watching Syrin to Kasabian as he spoke, listening intently to the two of them. "However, during one engagement within the Northern storehouse, I heard them mention the name Captain Grimfist. With a name like that and how they talked about him, I feel that was enough to tell me we were contending with a pirate band."

Aigidios nodded his head, looking between the two of them. " Pirate Captain Grimfist of the Hammerhead. It is a name and face I recognize, I've dealt with him and his crew a few years back, so I'm not surprised with that name as to why they were as organized as they were. Anything else that I need to know?"

Kasabian spoke up, "We were able to secure the storehouses, and the enemy retreated back towards the city of Ko'val after Cavalier Eulina and Paladin wiped out the three mechas."

Aigidios spoke up again, "So we did actually catch them mostly unaware. Grimfist isn't dumb, nor is he one to miss a fight. He's most likely just reorganizing his troops for the full engagement." he looked between them again. "If there is anything else that needs to be said, then you are dismissed. Enjoy your rest," he then looked at the mecha, then to Syrin. "Get Arlan down here quickly, we need you up and ready to be deployed as soon as possible." He then saluted them, Kasabian returning it before Aigidios waited for Syrin's, then turned to leave.

Saluting her superior, Syrin let out a breath, "Grimfist, hu? Well he sounds great," she offered sarcastically, or rather, as sarcastically as she could manage. Turning around, she once again eyed her machine with a bit of dread in the pit of her stomach, "Arlan's going to be so pissed," she muttered. With a quick look over to Kasabian, she gave him a small nod of her head, "You should rest too, the Major will probably send us both back down. We should be expecting one hell of a fight when we do return to the surface."

Syrin’s thoughts were filled on who Grimfist was aside from being a leader to the Pirate forces down on Ko’val. It seemed that the Sentinel-Major knew all about him, which made Syrin wonder even more. Not a lot of people got away from the Major, in fact, none that she could recall and especially if the war stories were true about him.

“I’ll go get Arlan. See you in a few hours, Kasabian,” she said and then made her way across the hangar bay in search of the red-haired mechanic.

Kasabian nodded his head to Syrin, grinning at the mention of Arlan. "Good luck with him, Syrin." He said before turning and walking off towards the bay's exit. As he walked, he nodded to Arlan who was quickly making his way towards Syrin.

Arlan stopped in front of Syrin, looking her up and down, patting her arms and shoulders as he did so as well. "We all in one piece? Nothing out of place or too badly banged up?" he said with a grin. It was pretty clear that she wasn't hurt, or if she was it wasn't anything serious. However Arlan always found it fun to mess with her in this fashion. However, he had yet to notice the mecha and its condition, as it happened to be on his blindside and he hadn't noticed it landing when Syrin had first made it back. "I hope things didn't get too terrible down there, though even if it did you seem to be all good and fine!" He patted her shoulders and pulled his hands back to put them into his pockets. "So where's the mecha?" He asked, glancing around before his eye settled on the mecha in question.

Slowly his smile faded as he stared at it, shock taking over his features. Its beautiful black surface was marred and dinged up, much of its armor was riddled and torn, and worse yet was the engine which looked like it'd possibly have to be totally replaced. Slowly he walked up to it, just staring up at it still. Sure he knew that it was a combat mecha and that meant it would be seeing combat, but that didn't make this sting any less. Not to mention it was not a model meant to storm a hail of bullets and keep going, so clearly Syrin hadn't been all that careful with the beauty. He just stood there, jaw dropped in a look of horror.

Syrin nodded to Kasabian as he offered her a wish of luck when dealing with Arlan. It wasn't that the red haired mechanic was a difficult man to deal with, just that she knew how he was with the mecha's and anything mechanical. He liked them pristine. She did too, which meant that if she'd nearly had a heart attack after looking at her mecha, Arlan was going to be shocked and possibly angry... Definitely upset. Syrin didn't need to go far to find Arlan as he had been making his way over to her. Patting her down his usual grin was plastered on his face and that made her feel even worse.

"Yes, all in one peice, Arlan," Syrin answered him, "It was... Not a difficult fight. Just a surprise more than anything else," she answered slowly. When he asked for the mecha, Syrin sighed and moved aside as he looked around for it. It didn't take him long to find the beat up craft and when he did, she winced inwardly at his facial expression. Reaching back, she ran her hand through the loose strands of hair as she too looked back over to her jet that was marred and... for lack of a better word, destroyed really.

"Sorry, Arlan. One of the mechs had a rail-rifle. The other damage is due to a building collapsing over me, but other than that it's alright. It's not that bad," she said, trying to lighten the mood, as well as the worst-case-scenario that was most likely running through Arlan's mind as he gazed at the mecha speechlessly.

Arlan just stood there quietly before slowly looking at her, "A building?! The hell were you doing that resulted in a building collapsing on you?!? This mecha is built for speed and agility!" He flailed his arms about before walking towards it, looking it over, still a horrified look on his face. "You don't slug it out with the enemy or....smash through buildings with it! You especially don't let a mecha wieldinng a rail-rifle hit you, Syrin!!" he looked at her before back to the mecha, his arms just flopping limply at his sides as he sighed.

"This is going to take a lot of work..." He shuffled over to the engine, looking at it again. "This thing might need to be totally replaced...augh, Syrin!" He looked back to her with an exasperated look. " 'It's not that bad' my ass, woman!! I was hoping to sleep tonight but it looks like I'm gonna be up all night fixing her up." He said looking back at the mecha. "Well...you are going to go brew me up a whole pot of coffee while I get the equipment around to fix this mess!"

He turned and looked at her again, "Hell you might want to make enough for two people to pull an all nighter cause you are going to help me fix this, Syrin! That'll teach you to dodge rail-shots and buildings rather than take hits with a mecha not designed for it!" he said while pointing at her.

"I was taken by surprise, Arlan," Syrin responded when he asked her what she was doing when the building collapsed on her, but it seemed that he wasn't really listening as he continued on raging at her about the ruined mecha. With an inward sigh, she resigned herself for the verbal railing and put one hand on her hip as she watched him and occasionally glanced to the mecha as he pointed out different parts of it that were ruined.

As he looked at the engine coil, Syrin moved to keep within sight and earshot of him, though she really didn't think she needed to with his angry voice lifted louder than usual. Rolling her eyes slightly she eyed the damage with a frown on her lips, "Like to have seen you try to avoid a building and rail shots," she muttered to herself, half pouting half irritated with him. She was pretty sure Arlan had heard her too, after all she wasn't exactly whispering that part to herself, "Fine. Coffee and we'll get this repaired. I wasn't going to leave you by yourself anyway, you should know that," she said, slightly miffed by the idea and crossed her arms as she gave the mecha one last look over, plans on how to go about reparing it quickly starting to formulate in her mind.

"Goodie!!" Arlan said while walking past her, though he stopped for a moment and turned to face her. "And Syrin!" he said, pointing at her again. "Glad you're ok!" he said before turning again and marching on towards the area they stored tools. He did grumble though as he walked along, also muttering to himself what things he'd handle first and how. It was going to certainly be a long night of work, given the amount of damage on the poor mecha.

"Totally would have dodged a building...I mean it is a building! Not like they are known for running into people and things...bah, you are a pain in my butt sometimes, Syrin." he continued to mutter as he collected some tools and began walking back. The first of them was a plasma cutter, which was going to be essential for removing damaged plates as well as the engine coil, as well as two welding masks to protect their eyes, or eye in his case.. "You're lucky your actually fun to talk to and are cute or else this would be a whole 'nother kinda mess!" He then grabbed a simple wrench, as well as a pry bar then began walking back towards the mecha.

As he made it back, he dumped the stuff down on the nearby work table and began hooking up the plasma cutter. "Alrighty then, first we cut away these plates." he pointed to the pry bar for a moment before finishing up with the plasma torch. "Take that bar, and see what plates you can pry loose. Makes things quicker for both of us." He then paused, then looked at her. "After you get the coffee ready first!"

~~~

Holt winced as she felt the medic slowly apply a second dose of salve into the wound on her face. It would be the disinfecting salve first, followed by the more powerful and helpful healing salve. The second one would actually begin the healing process, and it was astounding how well and quickly it worked. It'd probably only be a day or two before the wound would be healed up, and Aiyanna would be ready to head out into the field again. Currently she was sitting on one of the tables within the medical bay, only dressed in the rather form-fitting undersuit that one wore beneath power armor. It was designed to be comfortable, but also to assit with maintaining a constant body temperature and also to help whisk away sweat. It also served to eliminate chafing that may result from the more stiff material of the Power Armor.

She sighed as she felt the medic begin applying the second salve, which was much less painful than the first. In fact it actually felt rather nice and soothing to the wound. She and the team had returned about a half-hour ago, and had been told to report to the Commodore afterwards, something she was not looking forwards too. She didn't want to tell Nash how the recon mission went to shit so fast and how they lost Derith in the fighting, but also because Holt felt bad that she'd more than likely have to throw Ryker under the bus. Sure he kinda deserved it, and she did feel like it was his fault that it went as bad as it did, but she also wasn't a fan of singling out her fellow Sailors.

"Alright, now we just gotta bandage this up. Then you sohuld be good to go, ma'am." the medic said to Aiyanna as he waked over to a drawer to grab said bandages.

"Thank you, doc." Holt said in return while looking around. The other commandos were being patched up as well, and were stripped down to the undersuits as well. They had dropped off their equipment to the repair bay to hopefully be fixed up quickly for another possible deployment. Hopefully the whizz kid could work his magic and have them all up and running, along with a new helmet for the Petty Officer.

Ryker ground his teeth as the medic who was working to bandage up his chest pulled a little too hard to secure the wrapping. Bruised ribs, a few cracked from the heavy punch he'd recieved were probably the worst of the wounds thankfully. Scratches here and there, but otherwise he was fine. "Think you could pull any harder," he snapped at the guy who only sighed in return and kept quiet. As soon as the wrappings were tied off, Ryker pushed off the bed he'd been seated up on and waved off the young medic who'd tried to keep him seated still, "Leave it, damn it. The less of your horrid medical skills, the better I'll be."

Snatching up his military uniform from the side of the bed, he pulled on the heavy coat gingerly, unable to really lift his arms up too high. Annoyed still at his own injuries, the fight that had went to hell, and Aiyanna's snapping at him in return -not to mention taking him from the fight that he had himself convinced he could have finished- Ryker stalked toward the door. He had already heard they'd be debriefing with the Commodore and he wanted it over with as soon as possible. The only thing that kept him from leaving entirely was Aiyanna, whom he waited for, though impatiently. Ryker occupied himself with putting the uniform together, buttoning up the heavy shirt and trying to make it as pristine as possible with the limited movement while he waited for Holt.

Holt winced as the medic tightened the bandages around her head, the bandages pressing tightly on the wound before he stepped back. "Alright, there you go, Holt. You are set to go." Holt hopped down off the table, rubbing the bandaged area slightly and fidgetting a bit with one of the bandages that wrapped around her chin to help hold it in place. Another one was wrapped around her forehead, also slightly irritating and itchy.

"Thanks. Off I go to hell." She muttered the last bit to herself and began walking towards the door. As she made her way there, she looked up to see Ryker waiting there. She frowned some, mostly because she had no idea how this was going to go. It could just be akward silence, another bitch-fit from him, or anything in between. Regardless, as she figured she'd at least try to start some kind of conversation as she walked up to him. "Feeling swell, I take it?"

"Fucking great," he replied in a grumble as he eased the last button into place. Looking over to her once it was done, his frown deepened, "You look like hell," he comment shortly. With a slight shake of his head, Ryker pushed the door open and held it for her to follow after him out into the hall, "Let's go say hi to Commodore Nash, shall we?" he said as he started down the hall. He fell silent after a while, going over the details that he'd be presenting to the Commodore. After a while, as they neared where they would be meeting with the bionic equipped man, he figured it was a good idea to let Holt know what he was going to tell the Commodore.

"Don't leave anything out when you speak to him. I can cover my own ass. Besides, I'll tell it as I saw it. We were supposed to secure the area. Which is exactly what I was trying to do," he said, the tone a slight bit on the edgy side though he was doing what he could to keep it from sounding too pissed off about the situation, "Not that I expected you to try to butter it up or anything," he gave her a quick glance, a sly grin making it's way on his lips for just a moment.

"I feel like hell. I think the only reason I don't have my own broken ribs is because of my armor. But fuck that arm of his packed one hell of a punch." Holt said while rubbing her tender side as they walked. It was silent as they made their way to where Nash was waiting, Holt mulling around in her head what she was going to tell the Commodore. She still had a frown on her lips, glancing to Ryker for a moment before looking back ahead.

When they made it there, she was about to say something when Ryker beat her to the punch. She watched him, noting that he clearly was trying to keep his anger surpressed. She shook her head some, before looking at the door. "Well, least you relieved me of the guilt of throwing you into the engine of a mecha." She said before taking a deep breath and letting it on in a long sigh, "Here we go..." she said before walking forwards. The doors opened up for them as she moved forwards, walking into a rather large room that was filled with a number of technicians at work on computers. The room contained one large view screen at the back, and had a small ledge that over looked the whole room. This was the central command room, where the COs could observe and coordinate the boots on the ground. A control panel also sat on the ledge for use by the commander, in this case Nash who was standing in front of it. He was leaning forwards, his hands resting on the panel and supporting the rest of his body. He said nothing nor did he turn to look at them as Holt walked forwards.

She stopped and saluted the Commodore. "Petty Officers Holt and Vondalir here to report, sir." she remained there as Nash turned to face them. He returned the salute, Holt relaxing as he did so before he looked between the two of them.

"So, who wants to go first?" Nash asked, Holt glancing to Ryker for a moment before back to the Commodore. "How about you, Vondalir?" Nash said as he looked at the silver-haired man.

"Commodore," Ryker responded also giving the man a salute. With both hands clasped behind his back, Ryker nodded slightly as he was addressed to speak first, "We scouted the outer edge of the city, worked our way in when we found a group of people. The Drakes were disturbed by our presence so we didn't get much information aside from learning that they're Pirates with a leader by the name of Grimfist. We were attacked by the small band. After I interviened in their attack, I followed the remaining group into the city. They're heavily armed, missile launchers were probably the worst of it. Inside the city we engaged with their leader, Grimfist," Ryker frowned again, that edge creeping into his tone once more, "Unfortunately... He escaped me before I could finish the fight," a quick glance to Holt and he returned his gaze to the Commodore, "One of our soldiers was killed, Commodore, during the the scuffle."

Nash watched Ryker, quietly and unblinking before turning his eyes to Holt. "Holt?"

Aiyanna straightened up, clearing her throat. "That about covers it sir, I and my fire team had moved in to support Petty Officer Vondalir when he went into the city to engage the enemy. We held our own for a bit, but eventually they were able to force us back. Derith perished whne he was struck by missle fire from what I believe to have been the pirate leader. Vondalir and I fought with Grimfist, but when our evacuation arrived I grabbed Vondalir and retreated to the vessel to make out escape, sir." Holt finished while keeping her eyes forwards.

Nash looked at her, then back to Vondalir. "I remember telling you two, to only engage the enemy if absolutely necessary. Correct?"

"Yes, sir." Holt responded immediately.

"And now we are down a mech," he then turned his gaze to Holt, "and we lost a soldier alongside his power armor. All in an engagement that was not required of either of you. An engagement you both ran into that could have been avoided entirely, no?"

Aiyanna sounded much less confident in her response. "Yes, sir..."

Ryker's gaze shifted over to Aiyanna briefly. Her tone was unusual and honestly he didn't like it. She was a confident woman, a powerful woman. He despised the sound that she'd made. Keeping it to himself for the most part, he shifted a little to get Commodore Nash's attention off of her and back onto him for the moment, "Commodore, I'm the one who made the decision to go into the city after the rabble that attacked us. And if I may, with all due respect, we were the ones who were attacked first. I think that's reason enough for having retaliated as we did. They were fleeing to their Pirate leader in the first place, I deemed it necessary to try to snuff out any attempts at another attack in that moment. Surely that is reason enough for a necessary engagement."

Nash looked back to Vondalir, a scowl slowly growing on his face. "I'm aware it was you who made the decision, Petty Officer. However, Holt being in charge still puts some responsibility onto her. Certainly not as much as you though. And no, Ryker," Nash's voice dripped with annoyance as he said the pilot's name, "Being attacked first is not enough reason to march into the enemy's fortifications. You had ample area to retreat into, having a vast desert behind you. You had no purpose or reason to enter that city other than the fact your apparently still a child and need to get better control of your ego!" Nash was clearly angry by this point, as he wasn't even trying to keep his tone under control. " 'He hit me first' is an excuse young boys say when they don't want to get in trouble on the playground, so perhaps I should begin treating you like one until you can prove that your are capable of acting like a member of the Armed Forces."

Nash gave Ryker a hard stare, "You will be marked for insubordination, Ryker. You may have had the plan to try and snuff out the enemy right then and there, but initiative is meaningless if you do not truly consider the possible ramifications of your plans. Now until further notice, you both are to remain on The Far Reaching Wind. You are dismissed." Nash's tone had lowered as he continued on, yet it still shuddered with anger. Once he was finished he turned around and went back to leaning on the control panel in front of him.

Holt saluted the Commodore again, replying with a simple "Yes, sir." before turning and heading towards the doors to head on out.

Ryker's gaze darkened. Though he played the perfect soldier, he still utterly despised the military. Even so, it was the one thing that allowed him to vent out his anger on others without getting into too much trouble with the Federation and possibly being put behind bars. After all, if he'd gone any other path in life, he'd probably have committed murder more than a few times. He forced a salute to the Commodore, but he didn't say anything. Turning on his heel he followed after Aiyanna into the hallway. Silence followed after him, anger boiling just under the skin. Ryker was pretty sure that if he'd been armed he might have reached for the weapon. As it was, he was keeping from destroying anything within reach, but just barely. The utter desire to break someone neck was rather appealing at that moment.

After a while, Ryker couldn't contain it any longer and his fist connected with the wall along with a deep growl of anger, "Bastard," he hissed, "What are we here for then? Damned Federation. Should have just left those idiot Knight Sentinel's to go down there if all we were to do was sit back and watch. What was the point of going anyway!?" his fist pulled back and hit the same place a second time, sending a deep vibration all through his arm and into his ribs. Though it hurt, he was far too pissed off to even care

As the two of them walked down the hallway, Aiyanna kept glancing at Ryker. She could almost feel the anger emanating off of him, and she couldn't blame him; at least to a certain degree she couldn't. The Commodore had torn Ryker a new one with that scolding, honestly Ryker was lucky that Nash had kept it only to Aiyanna herself and any technitian in the command room that had decided to eavesdrop. Finally though, she watched as he couldn't ocntain it any longer and punched the wall.

She stopped, watching him as he began to vent off. She didn't say anything as he said his part, though when he punched the wall a second time, she simply sighed and walked over to him. Taking a firm hold of his hand in her own hands, she then lowered it away from the wall. "Enough, Ryker. Breaking your hand isn't a solution to the problem. We'll get our chance to get back at that Pirate, trust me."

She kept hold of his hand, moving to look him in the eyes. "We are not simply here to watch, we were just setting up for the big fight itself." She smiled a little, raising an eyebrow. "Besides, with the impression you left on Grimfist, when we go down there I bet he'll hunt for you specifically, then we'll both be able to royally kick his ass and tear him apart. We will get our chance again, just gotta give it some time. Alright?"

With Aiyanna taking his hand to keep him from hitting the wall a third time, Ryker glared down at her as she spoke, "From what it sounds like to me, Commodore Nash doesn't want to engage in anything on the planet. Which is why I question him. If he's so damned adamant about being here, then he should let us do what we're meant to do!" Ryker's voice was lowered so that only she could hear him.

Rolling his eyes on her insistance that they were going to fight the Pirate Captain again, he took a deep breath to calm down a little. She'd spoken truthfully that was for sure, and he was very hopeful that they would indeed have another shot at the asshole down on the planet because Ryker seriously wanted to tear that man apart limb by limb. After a while of looking at her and getting his anger to subside, his grin returned to his lips as he straightened a little. Still with his hand in her grip, he gave a slight chuckle, "You know, it's times like these that I really wonder if you hate me, or you like me," he teased.

She rolled her eyes at his first comment, looking back to him. "We just got to this colony, Ryker. And we've had one mission so far, cool your shorts and give it time and the Commodore will have us running down their to kill us some pirates. " She watched him for a good moment, waiting for him to relax and simmer down. Once he had, she slowly let go of his hand and looked at him, crossing her arms and grinning slightly. "You know Ryker, it is times like this that I wonder the same damned thing. Your personality is about as comforting as sandpaper most of the time, but...that ass of yours certaintly is a hard thing to ignore." she teased back.

With a larger grin, she then turned and began walking down the hallway. "Now I'd like to get changed out of this suit. It might be flattering to the form, but after a while it starts to get a little uncomfortable. Much rather get back into my fatigues, and gotta check on my armor and see how bad or long repairs are going to take for it."

Ryker's gaze followed after her, his eyes dancing with the wild light of amusement, "Funny, I could say the same thing about you," he shot back as he watched her go. After letting her get a bit of a head start, he followed after her, purposefully keeping her ahead of him, his grinning never ceasing, "Perhaps I could help you out of that... Flattering suit of yours. It looks difficult to get on and off," he said from behind her as he followed.

She slowed her pace, spinning on her heel to face him as she walked backwards, watching him. "I can feel you staring, Ryker." she said, raising an eyebrow. "And you think you are just going to get under my suit that easily?" She then stopped, crossing her arms and looking at him with a smile.

"Seems like you need to work out some frustrations, hm?" she cocked her head to the side, now just enjoying teasing him.

Ryker halted in his steps as well as she turned to face him and stopped walking backwards. Taking the last few feet to get closer to her, he leaned down a little, "I wouldn't chase after you if it was going to be easy, Aiyanna. You should know that. I like a little bite to my women and you've got plenty of that," he replied. He allowed his gaze to drop for a moment before looking back up at her.

"Maybe. But I can find other ways to release my frustrations. Unless you're inviting me, then by all means," he gave a little chuckle at that pretty sure he knew the answer to that one already. After all, it wasn't the first time he'd hit on her before.

"No you would not, Ryker. And I am very aware of it, considering how I seem to have you by the strings every now and then" She raised an eyebrow when he looked down at her before back up to her face.

"Inviting you?" she chuckled softly, lifting her hand up above him and wiggled her fingers aorund as if playing with a marionette. "Like a puppet sometimes, dear Ryker." She let her hand drop and turned her back to him, tapping her chin with her finger. "Hm...I should go check on Trinity...make sure he's getting my armor fixed up." she hummed, shifting her weight on her legs some as she looked away, grinning the whole time.

Ryker laughed again, his grin growing wider by the second. His earlier anger was completely washed away at their banter. He truly enjoyed conversing with this woman, "Maybe I'm letting you pull me around, Aiyanna," he said, leaning over her shoulder to speak the words a little softer than earlier.

Straightening, he eyed her for a moment longer as she shifted her weight from one side to the other, most likely doing that on purpose for him. After he'd watched her for a little while longer, enjoying the view considerably, he stepped around her and headed down the hall, "Well then, what are you waiting for. You still have to strip down, which I'm going to enjoy imagining while I go light a fire under our mechanics ass. How about that?"

It was her turn to stand there and watch him go, smiling before she began following after him. "Well, I guess since I'm already going to be so exposed in your imagination..." She then walked up next to him, looking ahead for a moment before she again spun on her heel, walking backwards as she looked up at him. "Then I might as well find some enjoyment in it as well."

"Besides..."she purred, again taking the lead as she sauntered past him. "The imagination is never as good as the real deal, Ryker." she finished as she began heading down the hallway towards the sleeping section where her room was.

For a moment, Ryker was a little taken off guard, but then his mind recovered and he followed after her, "Well then, if you insist. After all, you're the one in charge. It wouldn't do to ignore any... orders of yours now would it?"

Heading toward her sleeping quarters as well, Ryker lengthened his stride to keep up with her as he'd allowed her to get ahead of him once again, "I'll be taking this as your invitation, Aiyanna."

She giggled, something that she didn't often do as she continued to walk forwards, keeping her eyes ahead. "I am the one in charge, my puppet. You woudn't want to get another insubordination charge, now would you?"

Once they made it to the doorway, she then turned and looked at him. "And no dear Ryker, not an invitation. As you said, it's an order." she winked as him as she slipped into the room, humming to herself.

"Well then," Ryker cooed softly as he entered the room as well. As soon as the door slid shut, he crossed the small room and snatched up her arm, "Allow me to assist you," he offered as he turned her around with her arm in hand, "Got a few days to pass on board, I suppose a little side tracking wouldn't hurt," he said with a bit of a laugh to the tone and leaned down to get a kiss if she'd let him, that or he'd get quite the punch which he didn't mind either.

"No, I think some side tracking would not be a problem at all, my dear Ryker." As he leaned into her, she grinned at him and all softness was gone as she suddenly pulled him down into a forceful kiss, grabbing the collar of his shirt to pull him into her. As she did so, she pushed him back up against the wall before pulling back ever so slightly, giving him a smile that seemed both seductive and sadistic at the same time.

"Or it might, hard to say." She pulled him back into the kiss, keeping him pressed up against the wall as she did so. Her hands remained on his collar, just to make sure he couldn't escape her so easily.

The sudden kiss was unexpected but definitely not unwanted. Hitting the wall, he groaned a bit in pain, wincing for a moment as she pulled away. Even so, his wild grin never left his lips even as he growled to her, "That hurt."

A second later and she was kissing him again. Dropping his arms around her waist he held her in place just as she held him there and deepened the intimate touch. It was most likely going to be a while before they left to go see to the repairs on their equipment. Ryker didn't care at all either way.

"Hail Commodore Nash and Sentinel-Knight Major Aigidios," Arina called out into the room as she entered it from the elevator. It had been several hours and she was fairly certain that by now the two had enough information to share with her to get things going once again. Several voices raised up in recognition of her presence upon the bridge of the vessel. The loud sound of the communications being opened to both vessels on either side of hers rang out through the command center.

As they did that, Arina moved to the seat that was up on the overhang looking out over the many consoles four steps below her. She'd taken one last look at the information given to her by Alten about the man named Grimfist and set it aside as she waited for the communications to be answered by the two men. Hopefully, this time, they would both answer at about the same time.

It took only a few moments before one image opened up to show the Commodore standing just behind the panel within the control room, looking forwards at the Admiral with his usual stare. His arms were crossed as he spoke to her, "What is it, Admiral?"

Another image popped up on screen, this time of the Sentinel-Major sitting in the chair on the bridge of the Gjallarhorn, his face immediately turning to a scowl. On his own ship, an image of the Commodore was also shown for him with the call being a three-way link, the Commodore also having an image of Aigidios in front of him. "Hello Admiral Xsan, Commodore Nash. I'm assuming Cavalier Eulina sent you a report of what happened down on the planet, did she not Admiral?" he asked while looking to her.

"Commodore, Sentinel-Knight Major," she addressed both of them briefly, her smile right in place the moment the call had been linked. Despite the Commodore's rather rude question, she kept her calm demeanor all the same.

"Yes, I did recieve her report, thank you very much. In light of that, I would like to discuss our next steps. More specifically on dealing with the Pirate Captain by name of Grimfist. To avoid another nasty fight like the one that had occured several hours ago, I am looking to communicate with Grimfist to see if we may strike some kind of common ground in getting him to leave Ko'val without any further bloodshed."

Aigidios' eyes narrowed in confusion as he looked at the admiral, his eyes clearly turning slightly glance at his own image of the Commodore. Nash as well made a slightly movement of surprise, a simple quirk of his eyebrow. It was the Sentinel-Major who spoke first, "You want to communicate with him? Admiral, I...respect your attempt to keep this civil, but you are talking of negotiating with a person who is inevtiably going to throw rediculous demands your way." He leaned forwards in his seat, "I've dealt with this Captain before when I was just an Order Segeant myself, and one thing we learned real quick is that he's primarily just interested in a slugfest. I think the only time he contacted our commander was to shout the word 'lubber' at him too many times for me to count."

The Commodore's facial expression went back to an almost neutral state, though he now had his head cocked to the side in a manner to express curiosity. He didn't say anything, rather he too leaned forwards onto the panel as he kept his eyes set on Arina.

Arina's gaze dropped as she laughed lightly, her lips curling further upward in her smile. Lifting her head back up to look at both men she leaned off onto the side of her chair, the side of her chin resting against the fist of her hand that was propped up on the arm of the leather seat.

"That sounds rather unpleasant, Major," she commented lightly, still slighly chuckling to herself, "In any case, I know whom I'm dealing with and I know that I'm only going to get... Excuse the term for a moment but... bullshit requests from him. The important thing is that I make direct contact with him. The last thing I want to see is another battle, and more specifically more of our own killed in what could have been avoided. That's what I'm here for, it's what I'm good at."

The Major watched Arina, before he quietly sighed and put his face into his hand, rubbing his forehead as he sat there. "Admiral Xsan, I just wonder what it is you hope to gain by contacting him." He lifted his head up, looking at her while lowering his hand down. "If you know his demands will be ludicrous, then I am not sure how you can hope to avoid a fight from occuring if you will not be able to meet those demands. I mean...fuck I can't believe I'm saying this, but Commodore even you know how pointless this will be."

Nash leaned forwards on the panel in front of him, eyeing Arina while drumming his human fingers on the panel. "Sentinel-Major Aigidios, it quite possibly could be. However, what is the harm in letting her do so? I say let her give it a shot and see what she can accomplish."

Aigidios stared at the Commodore for a few moments before sighing and throwing up his hands with a sigh. "Guess I'm out voted here."

Nash glanced to the Major before back to Arina. "Contacting him may be a bit difficult, unless you have a specific plan for it. We are not sure where his ship is, so it may be a while before you hear from him. You'll also be on your own, as we cannot connect with the call unless he allows it."

Arina nodded her head. She had been expecting to deal with the Pirate Captain on her own, though she supposed she would have felt better if one or both men were able to assist her. Still, Arina couldn't help the beaming smile as Commodore Nash, of all people, supported her decision.

"I will be just fine on my own. I plan to first try to send a hail down to the city. Hopefully we'll reach his ship, but if I cannot reach him within the next hour or so, I will plan to go down to Ko'val myself and speak to him face to face," she leaned forward a little as she spoke, "If we end up having to go down to Ko'val, I do plan to have an escort, though I will speak with the Captain myself. Does that sound reasonable enough for you two?"

The Commodore's intrigued look faded back to his stern stare when she mentioned meeting him face to face. "Admiral Xsan, if you cannot hail him, I implore you to not to go down there and meet with the man face to face. I can condone speaking with him over a camera, but I will not allow you to meet with him face to face." He stood up from leaning forwards, keeping his eyes fixed on her. "That is simply far to dangerous a prospect, even with an escort."

"I'm amazed to say this, but I agree with the Commodore, Admiral." Aigidios spoke up. "Talking to him over the radio is just a waste of time, but meeting him face-to-face is extremely dangerous for everyone involved. I will not allow such an action from you either."

Arina leaned back in her seat, "I see..." she said, voice soft and the words slowly forming from her lips, "Well then, I guess we had better hope that I can hail him. I'm very adamant about not going down to Ko'val and having another fight like the one that just happened. In light of that, is there any information that you may have that may prove useful for me when I do speak to the Captain?"

Aigidios let out a visible sigh of relief, clearly happy to have convinced her to not head down before sitting up in his seat. "Well, there really is not much I can give advice wise. Sadly I am not very in tune with the minds of pirates. My apologies, Admiral."

The Commodore's features softened at Arina's capitulation, "The most I can give you advice for is one you already know, in that whatever demands he give will be rediculous in nature. At least to begin with, sometimes they can be talked down given time but regardless it will probably be unfavorable on your end. Secondly, they like to talk alot, and especially like to poke and prod." Nash shrugged for once, adding to the number of few movements he'd made during the whole talk. "Whether they are good at it or not can vary from pirate to pirate, but just a heads up for you."

"I'm quite prepared for someone who can talk a lot as well as for someone searching for things to say specificially to get a reaction. There's no need to worry. In any case. I'd like to get this going as soon as possible. If you two would like to stay connected to me while I speak with the Pirate?" she offered as she turned her gaze out to the group down below.

"Hail Ko'val, send a wide broadcast so that we might catch anything that's sitting down there waiting for something like this," she ordered her crew and rested her head against her fingers once again, her confident smile pulled across her face once more. For the second time that day, the bridge rang out with the loud peircing sound of the hail that was broadcasted out down to the planet.

"That depends, Admiral. How much of a distraction would we be?" Aigidios asked, while watching Arina. Nash's eyes turned slightly to look at his own display of the Major before back to Arina.

"I'm used to speaking to crowds of people, Sentinel-Major. Your presence on screen will not be any distractiong to me what-so-ever, I promise you," she answered without hesitation.

"Then I will remain." the Major responded.

"I will take my leave, actually. I have things I must attend to, good luck, Admiral." Nash said, cutting the link without waiting for a response.

"Well, I guess that's one less set of eyes on you, Admiral Xsan." Aigidios said while slouching into his chair some to get comfortable. "Where's your scientist friend? So far everytime I've seen you, he's been right there nearby." he too brought a hand up to rest his head against as he sat there.

Arina laughed slightly, "I guess I should admit that it is a little easier without the Commodores heavy gaze. He has a powerful presence. As do you, Sentinel-Major," she commented and turned to look over her shoulder to where Alten usually stood. Sometimes he was so quiet that she would forget he was there.

"I suppose he had some work to attend to. Perhaps he'll be by later? In any case he has been a very helpful assistant, as well as for guidance."

"A tad bit skittish, it seems as well. I think even you had him nervous rather often, Admiral Xsan. I think he's about to faint everytime I look at him funny." Aigidios said while sitting up and bringing up a leg to rest the ankle on his other leg. His chance to hear an answer from the Admiral was interrupted though as a new display opened up on the bridge of the Stella Caelator. Within the image stood a man donning a black tricorne hat atop his head, and on him he was wearing a long button-up jacket. The jacket was trimmed in gold, and had matching gold buttons down it's front. It's color was also a rust-red, with a black collar that was folded down. Beneath it was a simple white shirt, albeit slightly stained with red blotches here and there. Most apparent about him was his lack of a right arm, with a metallic stump/jack occasionally able to be seen beneath the cut-off spot that had once been where the sleeve of the jacket had been; also was the lack of his entire lower jaw, where two more small jacks could be seen at the hinge point of his upper jaw, which also revealed a speaker like covering over where the back of his throat would be.

The man looked towards the Admiral, seating in his own chair as the sound of people bustling in the background could be heard. He narrowed his eyes at her, before looking off to the side and spoke to someone, apparently able to speak rather properly given his lack of a jaw. Such was the miracle of bionics, though his voice was tinged with a slight hint of synthesization. "This be the one w'o 'ailed me?"

He leaned from his chair to better hear someone shout something, his face scruntching some to indicate he was scowling before he moved back to his chair, staring at Arina and cocking his head to the side. "Alrighty then, who you be then, lass? Not callin' for a date now are ya, cause I kinda like ta get to know a lass before I make that decision."

Arina's features had turned from the calm, smiling demeanor she used with the Commodore and the Major, to a more serious look. One that held no smile at all, "I've been informed that you're Pirate Captain Grimfist. I wished to speak with you regarding the planet Ko'val. My name is Admiral Arina. Currently I'm in orbit around Ko'val."

Leaning back in her seat a little, Arina chose her next words carefully, "You see, we've run into a little problem. I would like your assistance in fixing this problem, Captain."

Grimfist sat there, staring at her quietly before looking around confused, then back to her. "So...ye be in charge of the lubbers w'o shot up ma crew and decided ta come stormin' into ma port?" He then leaned forwards, narrowing his eyes at her. "Ye be the problem, lass, cause ye be the one knockin' on ma port without bein' invited. And the solution ta that be you turnin' around and headin' on out of 'ere." He then leaned back, giving her a thumb up with his arm. "Glad I could be of assistance lass, now less ya gonna give me a show I think we be done 'ere." he finished.

"Captain Grimfist," her voice rose slightly as he finished, hoping to garner his attention a while longer, "I understand as Pirates what you come by you claim as yours, especially if it's easy pickings. Unfortunately, though, Ko'val is not yours. It doesn't belong to you, or to me even. It belongs to the Federation."

"But, that aside, there is a larger problem that I think you need to be aware of. Not the problem of who's occupying Ko'val at the current moment. But the problem of what happened to Ko'val a few years ago to have it abandoned as it was before you claimed it as yours. Something drove out the people that once inhabited Ko'val. I do not know what that something is, and in honesty, I'm only looking out for your well being Captain," she said, choosing rather carefully and knowing that she was going out on a rather thin limb at that too.

"Whatever turned Ko'val into an abandoned waste land could very well still be there and that's what I'm here to find out. It would help me greatly if I could lessen the casualties by asking your cooperation in allowing me to search the planet without you and your pirates in harms way should I find whatever it was that attacked a few years ago." To that, Arina paused and held her breath. At that moment it was only a matter of how much of her white lie he could see through as well as how well she'd played it out.

He quirked an eyebrow at her, giving her a hard look. " 'ere be a lesson for ya. Finders-keepers out in these dark reaches of space, missy. They left it be, they gave it up. I came, I took it. So yeah, it be mine now."

He then looked off to the side as someone spoke to him, Grimfist reaching off camera before his hand came back holding something in the vague shape of a jaw, upon it's front being bolted a metal plate with "teeth" sharpened into it. He then brought the hinges of it up to where the jacks for an implant lay at the hinge of his remaining jaw, pressing it into place for a few seconds. The sound of some servos moving could be heard, followed shortly by a loud click and then clank of metal snapping closed on metal. He then lowered his hand, the jaw moving up and down for a few moments before looking back at her.

"And whatever it be that made the panzies run ain't my concern, 'cause it ain't shown its self the whole time me and ma crew be 'ere." his lower "jaw" now moved as he spoke, "And ye be askin' quite a bit ta come on down 'ere with yer own crew. Especially after the way ye lubbers just stormed on down 'ere uninvited. That ain't the way to a man's 'eart, wench." he said to her.

"With all due respect, Captain, I sent them there not realizing that you were already on Ko'val. I had wanted to start investigating for the cause of the first people being driven off as soon as possible. Surely you cannot blame me so much for a simple mistake. It was not known to me that you and your men were occupying Ko'val. In light of that, Captain. Your men also openly attacked mine."

"As much as I wish to have avoided that fight, there was nothing I could have done at the time. However, I'm doing what I can now. Whatever is down there on the planet with you may be highly volatile, Captain. Is it truly of no concern to you? You're willing to risk the lives of your pirates as well as your own life simply because nothing has shown itself to you so far? Captain, Ko'val had been inhabited for many years before it was attacked. There's nothing to say that you could not be attacked in the next few hours or tomorrow."

"All I'm asking is to be able to search the planet thoroughly. In order to do so, I need the planet cleared of anyone who is not a part of my search teams."

Grimfist stared at her, still giving her a hard look. "We shot, cause we don't take well ta strangers showin' up unannounced." He then narrowed his eyes for a moment before they softened. He then stood up from his seat, casually grabbing it and pushing it aside before he brought a hand up to his "chin", stroking it.

"Alright, ya know what, clearly this is gonna take some chattin' ta figure this all out, wouldn't ya say?" he said while looking to her, lowering his arm from the jaw. "Negotiations aren'ever any fun ta do this way. So 'ow about this, Admiral." He cocked his head to the side, " 'ow about we 'ave this talk over a nice dinner? From one professional to another, chatting over a good meal an'drink is always a way ta come to a reasonable end. Don't ya think?"

He pulled his chair back over, but he didn't sit in it. Rather he moved it so he had something to lean on. "Much more relaxin' and relaxed feelings are the only way to'ave good negotiations I say. So what do ya say? Gonna leave ol'Grimfist without the company of such a pretty lady at 'is dinner table?" he said while cocking his head to the side again, adjusting the hat upon his head once more.

Arina paused for a moment. Now that had been unexpected. It took everything she had not to glance over to the screen that had the Major displayed upon it as he'd remained connected during her negotiations. At first, her stomach twitsted at such a way of being addressed, but she also managed to keep that from showing on her face.

Suppose it's probably a good idea to play along with this ruse... she thought to herself. A smile curved her lips as she allowed her body to sit back in the chair, turning her face away slightly as if flattered by the comment given to her. Looking over to him from the corner of her eye, Arina forced a small laugh that she'd perfected over the years. Certainly very different from the one the Major had heard earlier.

"Captain, that is a very generous offer. I must agree to your idea of eating and drinking. Negotiations are always long and tedious. Which is why I'm going to accept your offer for both our sakes. After all, I'm sure there are things you must attend to just as I must attend to mine. The sooner we come to an agreement on this problem, the better, yes?" she replied, her tone very different from the one she'd given earlier and the smile still remaining. She'd gone from highly professional to a slight bit less so, teetering rather closely on the sultry side of things.

Aigidios' eyes were wide at this point as he sat forwards in his chair, staring down Arina. He was shaking his head at her, trying to get his point across to her. He made no sound though so as not to alert the captain of the extra set of ears. Grimfist chuckled happily, though with the slight distortion from his mechanical voice box it muddled some of the mirth of it. He then spun his chair around so that he could sit down in it, leaning back in it and looking at her.

"Well then, lass, 'ow about you make your way down 'ere later tonight. I suggest ya let me know before ya do so that me crew don't blast ya out of the air and into tiny pieces on your way down. It'd be no fun to 'ave ya not show." he said while tapping his fingers on the arm of the chair.

Arina turned to face him fully then, leaning forward and grinning, "It will be my pleasure, Captain. I'll be sure to announce my arrival before I get close enough for such a... tragedy to occur. I will hail you in a few hours, Captain," she replied and sat back. Allowing Grimfist to cut the transmission first was also part of her plans. She hoped it would give him the idea that she was a rather easy woman to sway, waiting for the 'male' of the relationship to do anything.

"Lookin' forwards to it, Admiral." Grimfist said with a wink before cutting the feed.

Aigidios was still staring at her, waiting for her to finish her conversation. Not having his own feed of Grimfist meant he didn't know if he was there or not still. He was on the edge of his seat, staring at her intently and waiting for her, just shaking his head in disapproval.

A long sigh escaped Arina's mouth, the smile fading out into a very deep frown as her head came down with her chin nearly resting on her chest. She could almost feel the burning stare from the Major. Grinding her teeth together tightly, she took a deep breath. She'd been pretty much prepared for anything, even being invited down upon the planet. Still, the way it had been conducted had her on edge.

She was going to have to be very careful once she was down on Ko'val. A thousand things could go wrong. She could say the wrong thing. He could suddenly decide that he wasn't going to allow her back up to her vessel. He could kill her the moment she got there just because he wanted to. She could piss him off in one way or another also resulting in her being killed or held captive. As the thoughts passed through her mind, her heart pounded hard in her chest and she took a while longer to calm down before looking back up to the Major. Arina knew full well that he was very disappointed in the outcome of that negotiation.

However, there'd been nothing for it. For her to have refused... Well then they wouldn't have gotten anywhere. She just hoped that the Major would understand her reasoning. With that in mind, she lifted her head, her gaze meeting that of Major Aigidios', the frown still on her lips, "Major." She said softly and waited for the angry retort to come through.

"You are giving him control of the situation, Xsan. Do you not understand this?" Aigidios kept his eyes locked on her, his voice tinged with an anger that seemed to be held back only by sheer willpower. "You either throw yourself into the lions den and risk yourself, or we fight our way through him. Hell i'm more than certain this is going to have to come to blows no matter what."

"This is not a pirate who is known for being cordial, diplomatic, and kind. He is a pirate whose name is based on a giant prosthetic limb that has no use beyond crushing and bashing anybody he does not like! I was willing to put up with the farce of a negotiation but I will not, as the man charged with protecting you and the people on board your ship, put up with this plan of action." his fingers were digging into the arm of his chair as he spoke, the rest of his body tensing up.

He then stood up from his chair, still keeping his gaze on her. "I am going to prepare my Knights, because I believe there to be no other choice at this point, Admiral Xsan. You are not to leave your ship until we have secured Ko'val, Aigidios out." With that, the Sentinel-Major cut the link without waiting for Arina's response.

"Major!" Arina shouted for him, standing from her seat but it was no use. The feed had been cut and she knew hailing him again would only make things worse. In a rare show of anger, Arina threw the tablet that was laying out on the desk next to her chair, "Damn it! I didn't go through all of that for you to go down there and pick a fight anyway!"

Silence permeated the bridge at her outburst. All eyes of the personell were on her, but Arina didn't care. Taking a moment, she straightened and took in a deep breath to calm her body. Being angry wasn't going to help her. She needed to be able to think straight. Closing her eyes, Arina willed her anger away and when she reopened her gaze, she no longer had anger dancing in her eyes.

"Do not answer any hails from the Gjallahorn or The Far Reaching Wind until I get back," she ordered the crew and left the bridge. With Major Aigidios planning to go back onto Ko'val she had to move quickly, far quicker than she'd wanted to. There was going to be little time to plan her next steps, but in honesty it wasn't the first time she had to wing it when dealing with difficult people.

As she made her way down to the loading bay, she grabbed the nearest person and pulled them away from their duties, "Prepare a vessel for me. I'm heading out immediately to Ko'val," she ordered him. The stunned worker stared for a moment but after recieving a rather pointed look from her, he ran off to do as she'd ordered.

Sighing heavily, she ran her fingers through her hair as she started looking for things she would need on the way down, "The Major will probably hate me for this, but there's no other choice," she muttered to herself as she gathered up a few essential supplies from one of the lockers against the wall.

Alten had refused to be there when Admiral Xsan had chosen to communicate with the pirate. He just didn't want to be there to see the pirate captain, and to see the lie that was going to be his "kindness." Alten's quivered some, holding back a sense of distress. He'd seen the kindess of pirates before, and had been on the receiving end of it before. Closing his eyes and shaking his head, he took a deep breath and then looked up at he made his way through the loading bay to get to where he needed to be.

He blinked though when he saw the Admiral grab and tug some worker to the side. He raised an eyebrow, confused before he saw her run a hand through her hair in a frustrated fashion before turning and marching on over to a locker. Confused, Alten decided to see what it was that was bothering her.

As he reached her, he cleared his throat, raising his voice so he could be heard over the hustle-and-bustle of the loading bay. "Admiral Xsan, how are you doing?" he asked as he stopped a few feet from her.

Admittedly, Arina hadn't been paying attention to her surroundings and with her thoughts all centered on dealing with the Pirate Captain and disobeying the Major's orders, she was more than a little high strung. As Alten's voice cut through her thoughts, she jumped and twisted around so quickly that it was probably very apparent she was doing something she was not supposed to.

Slamming the door to the locker shut with her back, her fingers tightened around the items she'd collected. Water, some food, but more notibaly the knife that was just barely hidden behind the packets of water. For a mere second Arina nearly snapped at Alten but quickly calmed herself as that wouldn't do any good for either of them.

"Alten. I'm preparing to finish my negotiations," was all she said and attempted to slip by him to head to the vessel that was being prepared for launch.

Alten raised an eyebrow at her reaction to him calling to her, and he flinched slightly when she suddenly slammed the door of the locker she had been rummaging through. He looked at the things in her hand, then back up at her. "Finish negotiations...?" he asked, mostly to himself.

When she tried to slip by him, he did something he hadn't even expected himself to do, and that was snatch hold of her arm as she passed him. "Admiral Xsan, what do you mean? What exactly are you doing?"

He looked down at the gear again, then looked in the direction she had been heading. Then it hit him and his eyes widened. "Wait! No you can't be planning to head down to the surface, Admiral!" he said while moving in front of her, between her and her destination while keeping hold of her arm.

"Alten," Arina's gaze narrowed slightly a frown on her lips, "I have no choice. If I don't go, we destroy the single chance we have at getting Grimfist to leave the planet. It will also have put everything I've just gone through to waste. He thinks I'm an easy woman to manipulate and that's how I want him to think until I pull the rug out from under his dirty feet."

"Now, I must go and I must go now or we'll lose our only chance at negotiations with this man because Major Aigidios is already preparing to go down there and attack! I know what I'm doing," she added the last bit with a little less force than her earlier words,trying to regain her usual calm. Time was already ticking by and she wasn't sure how fast the Major was going to be in gathering his Knights. The urge to rush was getting to her.

"Admiral, going down there to meet him is only doing him a favor, not yourself! Are you even going down there with an escort?" He looked to the vessel for a moment before back to her, " No, dammit you're not are you?! Course not why else would you mention the Major..." he paused mid-sentence, shaking his head before looking at her, this time grabbing hold of both of her shoulders.

"Admiral, I am begging you, do not go down there! It is way too dangerous, so please reconsider this!" his voice had raised from it's usual softness, as he was frantic at this point to prevent her from going down there. He was certain that Arina didn't know just what kind of people she was so insistent upon meeting were like. His tone became one of pleading, "Please, Admiral."

"Alten..." Arina watched him for a very long time. His pleading tone, the way he held her to keep her from going to the transport vessel. He was worried. It surprised her really. Smiling at him as reassuringly as possible, Arina reached up with her free hand and patted his forearm gently, "I know what I'm doing. I'm going down there, and you can either come with me, or stand aside. Trust me on this, please?"

Alten just watched her, his face clearly showing the defeat he felt. He just looked down, trying to think of what he could possibly say to convince her otherwise but nothing came to mind for him. Dammit all Admiral... he then looked back at her before sighing miserably, then stepping past her to move to the locker. "I can't let you go alone, Admiral Xsan. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if I did." He then began fishing through the locker, quickly picking up his supplies of food and water. He stopped when he eyes set on a knife that was sitting within it, a small utility knife. He stared at it for a long moment before grabbing hold of it and tucking it into one of his pockets before picking up the other items and heading back over to the Admiral.

"Admiral, I ask you one more time to reconsider this. Please, this is a very bad idea." he begged one more time, watching her. "I will go with you if you are truly set on this, but please don't go."

Sighing heavily, Arina shifted her weight over onto one leg as she watched Alten go off and grab a few things from the lockers. Insisting that she couldn't go alone, Arina frowned slightly, "If I reconsidered this, it would look bad. The Captain would think I was a liar and things will be much worse. I have to go down there. At least to show that I tried. I will get through to this man. There hasn't been a single negotiation that I have not won. This is no different. Only the setting is," She insisted and headed over to the craft.

Alten just walked behind her, watching the craft and swallowing heavily. He shook his head, saying nothing though as he walked along. With pirates, it is always different, Admiral. And it is always dangerous. Always.

Alten had his eyes closed, just trying to keep himself calm as the ship descended through the atmosphere and began it trip towards the city of Ko'val. It was only the two of them and pilots up front, and Alten was close to panicing at this point. Only sheer willpower was stopping him, as he began to recall all the things he had learned back in the Corps; just trying to get himself back into the mindset that helped him get through it. If he could do that, then he could get through this.

One of the pilots poked his head back through the doorway between the cockpit and the sitting area, looking towards the Admiral. "Admiral Xsan, what or who are we looking for?" he asked, his face hidden behind the mask of his helmet.

Arina shifted from her seat and unhooked herself so that she could properly direct the pilot to where she wanted them to go. Coming up next to him, lingering in the door, she looked out the window to the sands that shifted below and the city that was still smoldering in some parts. The buildings looked like hell, torn apart from the fighting hours ago, not to mention old age making it look even worse.

"First, send a quick message into the city. Dont bother encrypting it..." she added as an after thought, "Simply state that Admiral Arina is landing in five minutes just outside of the city perimeter." she ordered the pilot.

At the realization that she was going to soon be with in five feet of the man who had invited her to dinner made her stomach go cold. A twisted feeling curdled in her chest, making her throat grow tight. It took a moment to overcome the strange feeling that had suddenly welled up in her mouth. With that out of the way, she further directed the pilot to where she wanted them to land.

The pilot looked at her, then back ahead before nodding his head. "Alright then, we'll get this bird down in a few." He then turned and went back into the cockpit, sitting down in his pilot seat to do as she asked. Alten simply remained in his seat, quietly waiting for them to land.

His eyes remained shut, and he was taking slow, deep breaths to settle himself. His mouth moved as he spoke, yet he made no actual sound. He simply kept chanting the phrase over and over as the plan slowly came in to land.

After a few moments, Alten jumped and his eyes bolted open as he felt the ship jolt as it came down. He took one last deep breath before he stood up, the co-pilot shouting into the back for them. "Alrighty, Admiral. We are down. What do you want us to do?" He asked as he leaned from his seat so that he could look back at her. Alten was already on his feet and was waiting by the doorway, hand resting on the handle as he looked towards the Admiral.

"Stay here," she answered simply. Turning from the two pilots up front, she headed toward the back before stopping and glancing over her shoulder to the front of the plane, "Oh, and keep it running, just in case," she shouted back so they could hear her.

Grabbing the knife off her seat, she stared at the weapon for a long time, debating on whether she should take it or not. Her hand hovered back and forth between herself and back onto the seat. With a bit of a heavy sigh, Arina tossed the weapon back down and headed to the doors, "Lets try to make this quick. The less time I spend down here the less Major Aigidios will be angry with me," she said to Alten as she guestured to the door that he held onto.

He watched her play with the knife, and then he looked her dead in the eyes. "Take it, Admiral Xsan. Do not leave that knife." He said before he slowly pulled on the handle of the door. The handle moved slightly before he felt and heard the metallic click of the latch being released, and then he pulled as the door slid back and open. He felt the rush of air of slight depressurization, and then slowly he stepped down and onto the sand and immediately scanning every nook and crany he could see.

He could see up on the rooftops, in some alleys, and just along the ground were various people. They were all equipped with various weapondry, all of which looked military in quality. None of them had their weapons trained in their direction, but they kept their eyes on the newcomers. Alten noted that some of the pirates were grabbing the attention of their friends and indicating to the surronding area. Alten looked off in directions they were pointing, but the buildings blocked any chance of him seeing what it might have been they were trying to point out. There was no sense of urgency from them though, so it couldn't have been anything terrible, or it might have just been them trying to get their friends back onto the patrol path.

Alten stepped away from the vessel, though he stopped and looked back to the Admiral, waiting for her and refusing to move more than a foot or two away from her.

"Alten..." Arina hissed to herself and went back to the seat to snatch up the dagger. Tucking it away on her belt, she pulled the front of her shirt down over it to hide it from view as best as possible. Though she had a horrid feeling that being searched and having it found would worsen the situation, she had to admit that having it made things a little easier to deal with.

Stepping from their transport, her boots sunk in the sand a little making her unsteady for just a moment before she caught herself. Once she was righted, her gaze went from one side of the city to the other. That is a lot of pirates... she thought to herself. Catching Altens gaze, she nodded and started for the city.

Seeing as how they hadnt been shot at or shot out of the sky, Arina had to assume that Grimfist got her message. She could only hope that he would meet them soon and hopefully close to the cities edge as well. Going to far into the city was pushing her limits. Clearing her throat slightly, Arina kept an eye out for the man with the tricorn hat and bionic limbs. After all, that was one sight she wasn't about to forget so easily.

Alten walked right behind Arina, still scanning every new place, and then re-checking places he had already looked over. None of the pirates did anything, they simply kept about their buisness. Some who were resting about, playing games, drinking and smoking, or doing whatever on their down time would occastionally glance towards the two of them. Alten tensed up when his eyes would meet the looks of others, and he also would glance when he heard some make cat calls directed to the Admiral, or to Alten in the case of any female pirates.

Once the two had moved a block or so from the transport vessel, Alten looked up to see a group of three pirates come walking towards them. None of them were Grimfist, Alten knew that, and the group consisted of two men and one female. As they walked up, one of the men and the woman broke off and moved to circle the two of them. Alten immediately moved closer to Arina, hand hovering near his pocket though he made no intent to grab the knife.

"Well now, what brings such a beautiful little lady such as yourself here?" The man at the front of the group asked as he openly looked Arina up and down, his eyes never rising back up to meet hers.

"And such a cute gentleman too~." said the woman as he stopped in front of Alten. "No need to be so tense baby, I don't bite."

"I make no promises." the other man said while crossing his arms.

Remain calm. Do not do anything rash, Arina, she reminded herself as the pirates circled around her and Alten. The one who addressed her first put a sickening feeling back into her stomach, an icy cold taste of bile at the back of her throat.

"Captain Grimfist and I are to meet. He knows Im here, if you wouldnt mind..." Arina said, doing her utmost best to keep her tone calm and pleasant. Even so, she couldnt get a smile on her lips. Not with how the two male pirates where watching her like wolves... Ready to tear into her at a moments notice.

"Well, I think your visit with the Captain can wait, don't you?" the man in front said as he looked up to her. The one to the side reached out and put a hand on her shoulder while the female pirate moved up Alten. However all were stopped by the shouting of a slightly synthesized voice not far ahead.

"The 'ell did ya jsut say about me meetings?!" All three pirates immediately moved away from Alten and Arina, stepping back to give room for the Captain as he stomped his way towards them. Alten eyed Grimfist, who was decked out in his power armor, hat upon his head, and bionics in place. Alten eyed the massive arm which occastionaly scrapped any slightly raised bits of sand before he stopped in front of all of them.

Grimfist looked over to the pirates, raising an eyebrow. "Well?"

"Just saying we were gonna get her right to you to make sure the meeting got underway as quickly as possibly, Captain! But ya beat us to it by showing up, as punctual as ever!" The man looked at Arina, looking her up and down one more time. "Good day miss." he said with a wink before turning and walking, Alten flintching as the female ran a hand over his shoulder as she turned and walked off.

"Sounds about right, I'd say." Grimfist growled before looking at Arina, his eyes narrowing as he also decided to look her up and down. After a pause he looked her in the eyes, " 'ow old are ya, lass?"

The Admiral's heart picked up, pounding hard as the hand fell upon her shoulder. Having never been in such a situation before, her body reacted first by stepping back into Alten. Her hand snatched his wrist unintentionally, holding onto Alten as if he were a life boat for her. Even so, she managed not to draw the weapon she had hidden under the shirt.

For a mere moment, Arina let out a breath of relief as Captain Grimfist showed up, making the three pirates scatter by his mere presence. As she turned to regard him though, it seemed the icy feeling in her throat closed her windpipe and she could hardly get words out. His presence was so much different than on screen. It took Arina a little while longer to get her thoughts together as well as keep from grimacing as he eyed her much the same as the pirate a moment before.

Forcing a smile, Arina slowly let go of Alten's wrist, the tremble in her limbs only just being contained, "Captain. A pleasure. Surely my age is not all that important, is it? After all we are here to discuss the planet and your safety in such a dangerous place. Surely you have not forgotten why I have come all this way to speak to you directly," Arina said, her words growing smoother by the second as she regained her confidence.

Grimfist just held his scowl, or what Alten could guess was a scowl considering the man's lack of half his face. Grimfist then looked around, looking to each of the pirates and watching them for a moment before back to Arina, his face softening before he turned and began walking. "This way then, lass. An' I ask ya cause ya look pretty young for someone those 'igher ups would 'ave doin' these kinda things. Ya the daughter of one of them or ya sleepin' with one of 'em?" He glanced back at her, narrowing his eyes again before back ahead. "I'd say fuckin'em if I 'ad ta guess." he said as he began walking forwards.

Alten watched the pirates again, though he looked at the Admiral, having noticed her grabbing hold of him. He looked back up, and remained close to her. He was certain he'd have no chance of keeping her safe from the pirates, as he would be turned to ground meat just as easily as she would if they really wanted to kill the two of them. But he'd be damned if he didn't at least try. He'd let the Admiral talk to Grimfist, instead he'd just keep his eyes on the surroundings.

"Captain," Arina's tone was different, a sly smile on her lips as she followed after him, "Please, I like to think that I'm a rather refined woman, so no I have not slept with any of the higher ups. I have...relatives, if you must. And if you insist, I'm 24. I'm also well aware of the fact that I am rather young, Captain. However, that doesn't hinder my abilities in the least."

Taking a moment, she glanced around wondering where the Captain was taking them. Putting that dilemma aside, she looked forward again, careful of how she stepped. Not too close to the Pirate Captain, yet not too far back either. There was delicacy in every move she made, every word she said and decision made. Arina was playing it out as a submissive woman, one that would sway at the drop of a pin so that the Captain was fooled by her sweet talking. At least... That was the plan and she was very confident in pulling off too.

"Im just hopeful that we can come to terms on an agreement. One that will satisfy us both, as well as keep you and your own safe -including mine- in regards to this dangerous planet."

"I see then, you young ones only get where ya are by the grace of yer elders." Grimfist said while shaking his head. He kept watching around the area, almost like he was looking for something. "You keep mentioning this place bein' dangerous, yet me and ma crew been 'ere fer a good four years and we ain't seen nothin' we never 'ad ta deal with before." He then looked down to the side, stopping for a moment.

Alten looked ahead to see why, and he nearly jumped as he watched one of the spider-like creatures he'd shown during the briefing a few days ago suddenly go skittering by. It stopped for a moment, turning towards the three of them before continuing on its way, Grimfist watching it go on before continuing to walk.

He chuckled, "Love those buggers. Nuttin' like listenin' ta a grown man scream like a little girl. That and they eat the actually annoyin' bugs. As I was sayin' only dangerous thing we've dealt with are fuckin' bugs and those lizards. Both are easily solved by either a good blast of bullets or with my good ol'grimfist." He said while lifting the bionic limb, snapping the claws together loudly. This close, Alten could see that the arm actually had two elbow joints rather than a single one, probably to allow it more maneuverability given its length.

"So the only dangerous thing 'ere is ma crew and I, and you dumb lubbers who came onto my lawn without askin'." He said before he stopped in front of one of the larger buildings in the city. Alten looked up at it, and near the front door he could see a warn and beaten sign that had painted on it the words, "Captain's" over what Alten could guess was the word city, so that the sign read "Captain's Hall."

Arina kept pace with the Captain and when he came to a stop, like Alten, she too looked for the reason as to why. When the spider rushed by, her heart lurched and she nearly bumped back into Alten. Bugs were not her thing, for certain.

Swallowing dryly, Arina watched as well as Grimfist lifted his arm and demonstrated its movement for them both to see. For a brief, horrifying moment, she had the horrid image of those claws encircled around her, crushing her, or worse, tearing into her and flaying her open. Turning away from the clawed arm quickly, she looked over to Alten for a moment. She was glad he was there, it gave her purpose as well as something to use to help calm down her fears.

Why she was so fearful, though, was a mystery. She couldnt place her unease at all. Something was off, but she couldnt figure it out. It made her feel sick, "Captain," she started, looking away from Alten to Grimfist as they stopped outside of where the man had claimed the building as his own, "As I explained before. I had no information on you and your people being here. If I had known, I would have contacted you before I had sent my men down here to find the enemy that drove out the last civilization that was here. I have no intention of fighting you, I simply need to find what happened here. In order to do so, all I'm asking is for the planet to be evacuated while I thoroughly search Ko'val."

Grimfist looked at her as he stopped at the steps, listening to her. He nodded his head, again looking over towards one of the pirates up on the rooftop. Alten glanced over, seeing the pirate give a quick series of hand signals, Alten narrowing his eyes and moving his hand so that it went into the pocket that contained the knife.

Grimfist eyes narrowed before he turned to look at Arina, then looked at Alten, around the area, then back to Arina. "Where the 'ell are the rest of ya? Is this the only lubber ya brought with you?" He asked Arina, quirking an eyebrow as he turned full to face her.

Moving, Arina stepped up a bit toward Grimfist, a rather confused look on her face, "Captain? Why would I bring them? This is a negotiation between you and I? He is my attendant. If I had brought the search teams, then it would seem as if I were invading you, would it not? That is not what I wanted. This discussion is between you and I. Theres no need for anyone else," her facial features had softened part way through, her usual smile on her lips, the calm one that she always had.

Grimfist just kept his eyes on her for a long while, irritation beginning to cross his human features before he looked off towards the pirate who had given him a signal only a few minutes ago. " 'ey! Ya catch anybody on the scanners at all?! Ya see any lubbers skulking about or somethin' at all?!"

Alten looked at Grimfist, before over to the pirate who shouted back to the Captain. "No captain! Their ship's been the only thing that's popped up, and we've had the patrols up and reporting in regularly and there's still been nothin' funny!" Alten watched him, before looking to Grimfist. The pirate captain still looked frustrated, like he was annoyed they hadn't tried to stage an ambush against him.

He looked at Arina and Alten, the former marine moving up close to Arina and taking a hold of her arm. He was ready to pull her along and run if need be, even if they wouldn't get very far with this many guns on them.

Grimfist then looked at Arina, a look that showed both confusion and irritation at the same time crossing over his eyes. "Ya can't be real? Really, ya 'adn't brought any back-up? Nothin' to ambush me crew and I?! Ya can't really be that dumb, ya wench." Alten then watched as the large limb of the captain's shot up, reaching up to wrap the claws around Arina's neck. Rather, it wrapped around the lower part of her head, as the claw was too large to fit between her chin and her torso to grab hold of it. Alten reflexively tried to pull her away, but there was not a chance of him beating the strength of the hydraulically powered limb.

Arina's heart lurched into her throat and cut off all air as her head was wrapped up in the metallic claw that belonged to the Captain. For several moments she couldn't get any sound out of her mouth. Shocked into silence, she was frozen in fear. Her fingers reached up to try to grasp the claw, but her body was so unresponsive that all she managed was to barely brush at the arm.

A moment later Alten then felt something smack him across the back of the head, knocking him forwards into Arina before he felt both his arms be yanked behind his back as he was then pulled away by a pirate behind him.

Grimfist was holding Arina out from him, and Alten was frantically trying to break free from the grip of the pirate behind him, Even Arina's knife couldn't hope to reach the captain as he had her at the end of the fully extended limb. "I put up with this stupidity in the 'opes ya'd bring the fight on 'ere!" Grimfist growled and then looked past Arina, "Sink those lubbers she came 'ere with!" he then turned his eyes back to Arina. Alten jerked his head around as a moment later he heard the sound of an explosion, followed by another which he could guess was their transport vessel being gunned down by the pirates. A few gunshots could also be heard afterwards, Alten's eyes wide as he continued his struggle.

Grimfist just kept his glare leveled at Arina, growling; which only sounded more menacing to the former marine as the synthesizer added a distortion to the growl. "Or d'ya actually think I felt for that little battin' of the eye-lashes at ol'Grimfist?! Ya actually think this 'ere Captain would fall fer such a cheap trick?!" This time he brought her straight to his face, so that her jaw was touching the cold steel of his jaw plate. "I figured ya ta be smart enough ta try'an' ambush me crew and I! Ta bring a big fight fer us to 'ave. Instead all I get is a dumb wench and 'er little pet!" He slowly began tightening the claws of his arm, another growl emanating from his mouth. "Ta 'ell with this, I'm gonna get a use outta ya anyways."

Finding her voice finally, Arina gasped and let out a painful sound as he tightened his hold. Clawing at the metal arm then, she struggled as hot tears flooded her eyes, "C-Captain..." gasping and trying to be free, she could feel pain all along the side of her face. Either it was going to bruise or there were lacerations.

He loosened his hold on her, though kept her locked within the grip of the claws as he held her back away from him again. "Yeah, me crew and I are gonna 'ave fun with ya two. That's fer sure. That'll teach ya, ya stupid fuckin' wench!" He shouted at her. Alten tried to fight against the pirate behind him, but he couldn't break free from the tight grip they had on him.

Then a gunshot rang out through the air, and Alten watched as the tricorne atop Grimfist's head fly through the air and land on the ground nearby, a small smoking hole there. The Captain jerked his head to it, then to where the shot came from as the other pirates quickly began moving in that direction. "W'o the 'ell thinks they can just shoot me 'at and run like that?! Ya don' fuck with a pirates 'at!" Grimfist roared.

Alten looked in the direction it came from, and caught a quick glimpse of a rifle barrel vanishing out of sight behind the corner of a wall and into an alley. Several pirates were running in that direction, and Grimfist growled and then suddenly threw Arina to the side, who landed nearby two other pirates. He then snatched up his hat, replacing it onto his head and then looking at the two. "Ya two take that lubber an' do what ya want ta 'er! Just make sure she ain't dead, and leave some parts for me to break! The rest a'ya come with me!" Grimfist then turned and stormed off in the direction the shot had come from, then fired off the jets on his back to launtch himself up into the air and onto a rooftop.

With a sharp cry, Arina went stumbling until she sprawled out across the ground. Flooded with fear, she couldn't quite keep up with the situation. Had their transport vessel just been destroyed? Were they stuck on the planet!? Where was Alten!?

Alten was then ushered along after the two pirates who had picked up Arina, one of them quickly grabbing hold of her arms and pulling them up behind her back. The three pirates dragged the two off to the side and into an alley, where Alten was then kicked down onto his knees. He continued to struggle against the pirate behind him, but to no avail. He looked up though as he watched the pirate who didn't have a hold on the Admiral walk towards her, drawing a knife from a sheath on his belt.

"Captain said we can do what we want with you, so I think we will enjoy what time we have before he gets on back here." he said, a vicious grin on his face as he chuckled. He slowly approached her, careful to avoid any kicks she might throw at him before grabbing a hold of her throat. Alten then watched as the pirate slipped the knife beneath the collar of her shirt and then began cutting his way down the front of it. Once he finished, he pulled the shirt down her arms and looked her over, a smile that spoke volumes of the terrible things he and his friends had planned for her.

"Arina!!" Alten shouted, quickly trying to struggle to his feet as he watched the pirate kneel down in front of Arina to begin pulling off her boots. He jerked his head back, smacking the pirate behind him with the back of his head before he spun around and swung, only to hit air and then feel a fist slam into his gut, dropping him to the ground. He gasped for air, falling to his knees as he held his stomach. He felt a hand grab his hair, yanking his head up before an arm wrapped around his throat as the pirate chuckled in his ear. "Easy tiger, just relax and enjoy the show! Think about it, you watch it on the internet all the time and now you get to see it in person!" Alten snarled and tried to get free again, watching as the pirate grabbed the knife Arina had brought and tossed it aside before he began cutting at Arina's pants to remove them.

Already in fear, panic flooding her body, Arina's scream tore through her lips as she was grabbed and her arms pulled up behind her back so that movement was very difficult. Her shoulders strained as she struggled to get free.

It wasn't until the other pirate was headed toward her, knife in had, that realization dawned and she struggled even more. Eyes wide with horror, Arina's screaming intensified as she lashed out to try to knock her leg into the man only to miss no matter how hard she tried. Tears flooded her eyes then, streaming as she continued screaming. The moment the knife cut away her shirt, her heart nearly stopped.

"Alten!" she couldn't concentrate and his name was the first that came to her. She didn't know where he was, or if he was even still alive. All she knew were the two pirates, one holding her down, the other stripping her.

A moment later though, Alten felt himself be tugged back slightly by the arm around his neck as he then felt a warm liquid spray across his neck. He blinked, then felt the arm loosen its hold as the pirate behind him made a slight, yet muffled noise. The other two pirates were too preoccupied with their game, they didn't they notice Alten and their pirate buddy. As the former marine spun around, drawing his own knife to stab the pirate, he stopped, wide eyed as he saw the pirate grabbing the hand that had a knife plunged into his throat.

He looked at an armored figure, who was hunched over the pirate with a hand over his mouth and tearing the knife across their throat. The figure's armor consisted of light plates that covered its limbs and torso, with none at the joints as it was clearly meant to allow easy and unrestricted movement. It was all dark in color, the poor lighting making it hard for Alten to tell exactly. His entire head and face were covered by a mask, the front of which had two opaque lenses and a balaclava covering its mouth. As the being tore the knife from the now dead pirate, having done so quietly and with little effort, Alten could then see that on the ends of its fingers, integrated into the gloves it wore were metal claws on each one, including the thumb, at least half an inch long. On its thigh sat a large pistol, which was tipped with what Alten could tell was a silencer on the end of it, and on its back was a long, large rifle. He couldn't recognize either model, especially given how dark it was within the alley at the moment.

It looked up at Alten, then quietly walked over to him. Alten held his knife back, unsure what to do but then he watched as the person held up the hand with the knife, palm facing down as if offering it. Alten blinked, then watched as the figure dropped it onto the ground. It then spoke in a low, hushed tone, and it's words were muddled by a very guttural accent. "Kill gordarns. Survive" It said, pointing to the pirates who had Arina before it then turned and bolted.

Alten, stared confused about what had just happened, watching as the person vanished into the shadows and out of sight. He then looked down at the knife, now getting a good look at it. It was a high-frequency knife, as he could tell by the switch that was located on the handle, and it was also rather large for a knife. It was of a sleek, low-profile design. He turned around to the two pirates and Arina, then he quickly picked up the knife, flipping the switch on.

The pirate was now sitting over Arina, chuckling as his friend helped to hold her down. He grinned, now going to remove the last pieces of clothing in his way. He had no idea what hit him though as Alten slammed into him from the side, jamming the knife straight through the side of his head. The two fell to the ground and tumbled for a few feet, Alten losing hold of the knife. Worse yet though, his glasses had fallen off his face as he had rolled across the sand, and now in the darkness he couldn't hope to make out anything other than the sand and then where it ended.

Frantically he looked around, futily trying to find the knife that was still plunged in the side of the head of the pirate he had just killed and was lying nearby. Instead, all he felt was a boot to his side as the pirate that had been holding down Arina's arms had gotten up to take care of the former marine. Alten shouted in pain as he fell to the side, rolling for a moment while holding his stomach. He then curled up into a ball, trying desperately to grab hold of the attacker's foot as the pirate stomped and kicked the blind man. "You mother fucker! Now i'm just gonna gut you then fuck that bitch! Captain didn't say we couldn't hurt you!" He said while laughing, delivering a hard kick right to Alten's stomach with the toe of his boot, Alten managing only a cough as he then just curled into a ball to try and shield himself.

"Alten!" Arina's voice cried out the name again, mixed in with wordless screams of terror. Nearly stripped of all clothing, her trembling was uncontrollable. Then the man atop her was suddenly gone. Something or someone had taken him off of her. For a moment her screaming stopped as she watched him tumble and with him Alten went as well.

The pirate holding her down released her and she was left to lay on the ground in stunned silence. It wasn't until the man who had been holding her landed a heavy blow on Alten. Trembling still, her fingers searched for something, anything to get the pirate away from Alten who was no longer fighting back for some reason. Was he hurt too badly to do anything? Arina almost couldn't stomach that realization.

Frantically searching, her fingers came upon the knife that she'd had. With her clothes gone, it was lying in the sands to her right side. Snatching it up, she forced her body up off the ground and lunged at the pirate. Slamming into him, she slashed out with the knife, cutting across his chest and shoulder as they went tumbling to the sand.

The pirate gave a rather animalistic growl at her and she found herself under him as he launched his own strike at her. A heavy blow to the ribs knocked the wind from her lungs, a second time and she was blinded by pain. The knife in her hand shook wildly as her heart pumped what seemed to be a thousand gallons of adrenaline through her body. Panting heavily, she was expecting another strike, but it never came.

Taking a moment to try to regain her sense, she watched as the pirate over her slowly slumped forward and a heavy weight dropped down on her. What... struggling to breathe, Arina groaned heavily as she rolled just enough to get him to fall over. As he fell away from her a sickening sound cut into her ears and drew her eyes to the reason why he had stopped assaulting her. The blade in her hand was slick with blood, coating her fingers as well.

Where had she struck him? When did she put the knife through him? The weapon slipped from her fingers and she crawled backwards, away from the pirate, staring in shock and icy cold fear.

Alten coughed repeatedly, he had noticed that the attack on him had ceased. He heard the sound of the pirate letting out a pained sound as well as the sound of two bodies smacking into one another and tumbling to the side. The only moving he did though was to curl up into a ball, holding his stomach as he grimaced in pain. Taking a moment to recover his senses, he let out a ragged cough once more before he slowly got up onto his hands and knees, taking another breath of air.

His body hurt all over, from his stomach to his arms, his head, neck and legs. Groaning in pain again, he kept an arm around his stomach when he realized it had gone somewhat quiet. Lifting his head up, he cursed under his breath as all he could make out was the black blob that was a building. "Arina..?!" He called out, his voice dry and raspy from the amount of sand that'd been kicked up into it. He coughed again, trying to scan the area and get an idea of where people were though it was a futile effort. "Arina?!" He called again, though he was trying to keep his voice hushed as well. He didn't know if there were other pirates nearby, and he did not want to alert them if they hadn't noticed the struggle yet.

Alten slowly began moving about, running his hands through the sand to try and find anything. He jerked to a stop when his hand met something solid and warm, and patting it down he recognized it as a pirate body. Slowly trailing up it, his hand stopped when he felt the familiar feel of a knife handle stuck in the head of the body. Grabbing the knife, he tore it free, making sure that the power switch on the knife was off before he went back to his blind searching. "Arina?!" he called again.

The sound of her name didn't register to her until the third or fourth call, she wasn't even sure she'd been hearing it right at all. With her heart pounding loudly in her ears, her ragged breathing also echoing each beat in her chest. She stared at the corpse she'd just killed before she even turned to Alten's voice calling for her. As he looked around, hands stretching out across the sands, it occured to her that he was without his glasses.

"A-Alten..." her voice was cracked as she called to him, shaking as her body started trembling too. Her gaze searched the sands for the pair of glasses that he'd lost. It took her a while but when she spotted them she called to him again, not trusting herself to move as she curled up in on herself, "L-left... Alten... Your glasses," a sharp breath pulled into her lungs and she winced. Still crying, she was in utter shock as well. For the moment, though, she hadn't broken down completely, yet.

Alten jerked his head in her direction. Though he couldn't see her, he was at least able to move his head to look in her direction. He slowly began crawling his way over there, making sure not to lead with the knife in his hand. Now he could make out the sounds of her breathing, or rather crying. As he came close, his hand felt the warm flesh of a foot, and his heart skipped a beat as he found her. Quickly he moved over to her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her into him.

He just laid his head against her's, relieved that she was alive. He didn't register her state of undress, he just dropped the knife onto the ground and wrapped both his arms around her. "Oh thank god..." was all he said, not having attempted to retrieve his glasses either. "Arina..." he just said while sitting down next to her.

The first touch made her flinch, but as he wrapped her up against him, Arina's breathing shortened drastically. Shuddering breathes clipped in and out of her lungs as she cried harder in his grip. Reaching up, her fingers curled tightly into the shirt of his uniform, clinging to him like a life line.

It burned, breathing, but she couldn't stop the pain, nor could she stop the tears that streamed. Crying hard, she curled in on herself as she tried to get closer to him, "A-lten..." her voice choked on his name with the sobbing, "S-orry! I... Should have... l-istened," she hiccuped the words, forcing them out between her cries.

To add to the mix, when Major Aigidios found out... She knew he was going to be insanely pissed off with her. He might even suggest her removal from the vessel for making such an idiotic decision, and more importantly, for defying his orders.

He didn't say anything as she sobbed against him, though when she began to speak it brought his thoughts back to reality. He blinked, then looked around for a moment despite not being able to see. He then looked around for where she might have put his glasses. "A-Arina, I need my glasses." he said quietly while reaching over to where he had set the knife down. Picking it up, he held onto it tightly while he slowly pulled back from Arina, at least enough to "look" at her.

"Arina, we need to keep moving. We aren't safe yet, we are still in the middle of the pirates and there's not telling when they'll come looking for us." his voice had returned to its usual softness, yet it still held a sense of urgency. "We need to find a place to hide, then work on getting our way out of here." He glanced around, though he still was not sure why he did so. He was trying to think of what the dead pirates might have for them to take.

Worse yet, he had no ideawhere they were in the city at this point. He'd been panicing far too much when they were dragged away, so now they were lost and had to figure out where to go. Of course, that was also while trying to survive the cold of the night and the hounds that were the pirates. Alright Alten, you were trained for this...you can do this, you've got this.

When he pulled away a little, Arina's fingers tightened on him, a gasp of utter terror in her throat, "Alten!" for a moment she'd thought he was being taken away from her, but as his voice continued she realized he'd just moved.

Looking up at him, she tried to make sense of his words. They were lost. They were in the middle of pirate territory which was very hostile, not to mention that Grimfist was still around as well. At the thought of Grimfist, her eyes widened a little and she went still like stone. It took her an even longer time to get coherent thought through her mind.

She had to focus. But it was so hard. She'd killed a man. They'd nearly succeeded in raping her, nearly accomplished killing Alten, and the negotiation with Grimfist was an utter failure. Arina'd never tasted failure before and of all times, in such a way as the situation she found herself in.

"G-glasses," she repeated his request for his glasses and slowly, she pulled her hands off of him so he could find them. Arina didn't trust herself to move up to her feet just yet, "Behind you... to the r-right now..." she said, trying to direct him as she curled in on herself, knees dragged up to her chest. An arm wrapped around her legs while the other curved along her chest behind her legs.

As for where to hide, she hadn't the slightest clue. Hell, she couldn't even think straight. How was she to find a place to hide? Or better yet, get a way out of Ko'val for them? Their transport ship had been destroyed and her mind was a muddled mess, still filled with those horrifying images.

Alten patted around where she mentioned, and he almost felt like cheering when he felt the familiar frame of his glasses. Almost, as he had no desire to alert any nearby pirates to their presence. He picked them up, shaking them free of sand before he quickly put them on, the world now coming back into focus. He blinked a few times, before looking to Arina. He paused, and his features softened as he looked at her. She was wreck, this was not a situation she was use to or had been ready for.

He then looked around the area, looking down the alley they had been dragged into. There was no telling where it went, but the first thing they needed to do was find some high ground to get a view of where they were. He looked back to Arina, looking her over before he quickly pulled off his jacket and then draped it around her. It was hardly much, but it was better than what little she was left in.

He then reached out, taking a soft hold of the hand that was wrapped aorund her legs. "Let's go, Arina." he spoke, slowly standing up and guiding her to stand up with him. "We'll get out of this, we will Arina." Though even as he said the words, he himself wasn't very sure of them. They were stuck behind enemy lines and neither of them were soldiers. Sure Alten had plenty of training when he'd been in the Marines, but that was over six years ago since he'd left, and even longer since he'd had to use the skills he needed now. He needed to sound confident though, for her and himself. He had to convince them both they'd get out of this alive, because he knew full well that it was the only way they were going to make it out alive. "I promise you." he finished, forcing his voice to exude a certainty to it.

As the jacket fell over her shoulders, she jumped slightly, having not noticed Alten's return to her side. Arina looked up at him slightly. Taking her hand, she felt him pull gently and she was brought up to her feet rather unsteadily. With one hand, she closed the jacket around her frame though it just barely came down past her hips.

Though she wanted nothing more than to curl in a heap and let herself drift off into a never ending sleep, she was brought to reality by Alten's words trying to coax her into moving. They couldn't stay. That was for certain. When Major Aigidios and his men would come down she didn't know. All she knew was that he was launching an attack. Wait... Had she said that to Alten? She couldn't remember.

"M-Major Aigidios..." she muttered, her words muddled by slight hiccups and shaking breaths, "H-he's coming..."

Alten looked at her, a small smile crossing his features. If the Majora was going to come down, then that was a chance for them to get out of here. However, they needed to get hide now because there was no telling when the Knights were going to arrive. "Alright, good to know. Let's get moving." He said while keeping hold of her hand.

He began going down the alley, the knife in his other hand as he walked. He moved at a slow pace, making sure to stay as quiet as he could as he moved along, eyes scanning every nook and crany once again.

"We'll find a place to hide, and then we'll look into getting a hold of the Major and his Knights. If they are going to attack the city, then I'm certain we'll hear them." As he spoke, he kept his voice quiet and soft. It wasn't just to try and help keep Arina calm, but also so as not to alert anybody who may be nearby.

Arina didn't answer him as they left the area in the alley they'd been brought to. She hardly could recall being moved as it was from where the Captain had taken them. With her fingers securing the jacket closed around her body, Arina kept her eyes on the ground and her other hand tightly closed around Alten's fingers. Trying to concentrate on moving one step after the other, the Admiral wasn't paying attention to anything else around her aside from keeping up right and staying with Alten.

She'd stumbled a couple of times. Her bare feet hitting a few sharp rocks here and there that made her lose balance for brief moments. As her adrenaline started to subside, she grew tired. Arina's head pounded with an awful headache that she was sure was a mix of all her fear, her crying and having her face nearly crushed by Grimfist. The overwhelming urge to sleep was nearly too much to fight off. The ground swirled often, making it increasingly difficult.

Arina looked up to Alten's back. It was her fault they'd gotten into such a dire situation. Fresh tears streamed along her face. Because of her, Alten was going to suffer as well.

Alten sighed as he sat himself down atop a rutty old sleeping pad, sniffling a bit as dust was kicked up off of it. They had somehow been able to find themselves into a second story room, located a bit away from where they had barely escaped the pirates. The room was small, with only one window that was closed up by some ratty curtains and a sliding metal door; all it had was the sleeping pad, a decrepit old blanket that had holes in it and was plenty dirty with a seemingly endless amount of sand lost in its fibers. A small trunk was in the room, but it was empty and broken. It was the kind of furniture that was brought along with the first colonists to a new planet, things that were light and easy to carry. Usually it was a few years before much luxury was brought down for the inhabitants, and Ko'val hadn't lasted long enough for the new shipment to arrive for them.

Alten yawned and rubbed his eyes as he sat there, the familiar feeling of fatigue settling over his tired body. They'd been moving for a couple hours, and if Alten was feeling cold from the desert night he could only imagine how Arina was feeling. He looked over to her, having offered the blanket to her first. It wasn't much, but again it was better than nothing.

He set the knife down next to him as he leaned against the wooden trunk, which probably had managed to not rot away simply because of the dry conditions of this place. Speaking of dry, Alten licked his lips as it'd been a while since he'd been able to get a drink of any kind of water. They should have checked the pirate bodies before they had fled, as he was certain they would have had canteens of some kind on them. Sighing, he rubbed his eyes again before looking back over to Arina. "We'll rest here, alright?"

Having taken the blanket that was offered, Arina curled in on herself against the wall. She'd slid down it once they entered the small room and hadn't moved since. Curled up once again, the jacket that she'd been given had only offered so much warmth when the sun set. Honestly she was freezing with nothing covering her legs and a thin jacket to break the wind.

Dropping her head against her knees, she wrapped the blanket around her despite feeling a tingling sensation all along her skin with the knowledge that the blanket had been sitting around for several years. It sent chills of disgust down her back, but at that moment, she was grateful for any kind of warmth really, even if the blanket had holes in it.

At Alten's voice, she hardly lifted her head. A slight nod was her only response along with a mumbled, "Alright," to go along with the head motion. During the long hours of walking, she'd been lost in a haze. It was too horrifying to think straight as all that came to mind were the harsh memories of the attack. In addition to that, the Major's order rang out in her mind constantly that she was not to leave the ship. That he didn't want to fight through a sea of pirates just to save her.

She cringed, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. The icy cold pang of guilt that washed through her made her curl in tighter on herself. What little respect she'd gained from the Commodore and Major were probably thrown out the window then. Surely by that time Major Aigidios knew what she'd done. Arina ground her teeth tightly as she shifted uncomfortably against the wall, her fingers reaching up to grip locks of her black hair and pull painfully in response to her deep frustrations.

Alten watched Arina, a feeling of hopelessness crossing over his features for a moment. He could tell just how upset and uncomfortable she was. Her simple gestures spoke volumes, and he knew she had never been trained to face this kind of stress. From fatigue, to the cold, to facing the horrifying things she'd just gone through, to the frustration she was clearly feeling. Even Alten was certain that had their positions been swapped, he'd be close to breaking under the pressure just as much as she was.

The only thing that was stopping himself from breaking was just a little voice in his head, a tiny one that kept telling him to keep going. The voice developed from the hounding of Drill Instructors telling him to keep going, to keep moving. The simple concept hammered into his head in boot camp, to never stop and never give in.

Watching her, he slowly moved over to her and then knelt down in front of her. He had picked up the knife he had been given by the strange figure from before and had tucked it into his belt. He slowly put a hand on her shoulder. "Arina, I know this may seem awkward, but with this cold...we aren't going to make it through this unless we...uh...well we are gonna have to share body heat if we want to have a chance..." It sounded awkward for him to say, even though he knew it made perfect sense to do. It was odd for him to say, but given her condition he could only imagine that it seemed like he was trying to take advantage of the situation. "A-and I promise, not just trying to take a-adavantge of a be-beautiful half-naked woman...I promise." he said, barely managing to crack a smile as he made a poor attempt at a joke.

Regardless, he then sat down next to her, pulling the blanket away from her slowly, to not startle her. Once he had, he then moved in close to her, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her against him before wrapping the blanket around themselves again. In truth, he had done this partly as a simple means of survival, but also because he felt like she needed something to try and distract her from her thoughts. Something to stop her from breaking under all the pressure. He looked at her, just watching her. "I know it may not mean much, but...to have made it this far does speak of how strong you are, Arina. To not have any kind of experience with this, and yet to keep pace with someone who has done this multiple times." He tightened his arm around her, already enjoying the warmth of her body against his own, looking at the wall across the room. "That takes spirit and strength, a kind that not everyone has."

Arina only flinched when he touched her, but after that she didn't move. Her body was numb with the cold as well as the earlier events. Her mind was a blank slate and honestly that was what had gotten her so far. Hardly listening to him, she didn't hear most of what he said until the very end. Not even his calling her beautiful or commenting on her state of appearance. Numbed to just about everything, she only shook her head when she heard him say that it took spirit and strength. For what? To curl in a ball and cry?

Arina laughed lightly, a sarcastic sound without mirth. She felt his heat then as well and curled into it as she shook her head again and let out a long sigh. The only other heat she felt was the heat of her tears filling her eyes again as she answered him in sour tones, "This... Is not strength, Alten," she breathed shakily, "The only reason... I've come this far... Is because I've shut out everything."

"I can't... Think. I can't move. I can't... Do anything," her voice trembled. Turning her body, she buried her head in his chest as she let out another crying sob and curled her fingers tightly against his chest, clinging to the cloth of his shirt, "You... Could have been killed! I... Disobeyed the Major... I've jeopardized this entire mission!"

He looked down at her, feeling as she moved closer to him and clung to him. He just let her say her piece before speaking again. "I remember thinking the same thing during sniper training back in the Marines." he smiled to himself, looking forwards. "Crawling through yards upon yards of muck and filth, having to duck and swim through stagnant swamp water, followed by miles of running, then push-ups, sits-ups, and whatever ups the instructor could think of at the time."

He laid his head back against the wall behind him."That was only the first day, and we only got a few hours of sleep. Dragging our sorry asses out of bed and shuffling to where they wanted us next. More workouts, more running, then having us do stalking drills." His hand slowly began to rub her back as he got lost in his thoughts. "That first week was hell...by the end, none of us could think, you could have asked us what two plus two was and we'd give you a blank stare trying to figure out if you were even speaking English. In end, the only reason we passed that week of hell was because we simply refused to stop moving, to stop going forwards." He chuckled softly, "Even skittish Corporal Ashley." He let out a sigh of content as his chuckling settled, "Loved the look on the head instructor's face when he had to pay one of the other instructors for losing the bet on whether I'd make it or not."

"Felt good once that week was over, I tell you what. Course that was just the week to see if we had what it takes to physically push ourselves to that brink and keep going. To come face to face with the wall, and then to climb up and over and keep moving onto the next one." He just watched ahead, his hand moving across her back without any real thought on his part, his other hand reaching up to adjust his glasses before it pulled the blanket around themselves again.

For some reason, the more Alten spoke in his soft tones, the calmer she became. Though her body was still tense and her tears still pooling in her eyes, she found it easier to breathe as he talked about his past. It was the first she'd heard of it from him. She'd known about his military past, after all it was in his documents. But to hear it from him was an entirely different thing.

Curling closer to him, she tucked her legs against his side and thigh, hugging her body up against him like a pillow. A warm pillow that was easing into her mind and making it foggy. She was getting slightly dizzy, and her eyes seemed to refuse to stay opened for much longer. Every aching muscle was growing numb as she started to drift.

"That sounds... Horrid," she muttered, "You're... Very strong," Arina managed to get the words out and maybe she'd have said more, but between his gentle strokes along her back, his soothing tone and his heat, her body shut down too quickly. Dragged off into sleep, her fingers loosened and slipped from where she'd been clinging to him. It was blissful really, the darkness that dragged her down from consciousness. Her chest hurt, her ribs, her bare feet, the numbing cold that made every inch of her body ache terribly... The release from all of that was more than welcomed.

Even if the darkness brought back unwelcome memories of pirates.

As she moved closer to him, it caused him to wince slightly when she brushed one of the sore spots on his ribs. He held still though as the pain shot through his side, instead just saying a quiet, "Ow..." and shifting some to make himself comfortable. He watched as Arina just about passed out, straining his ears to catch the last few words she said before she was out cold.

"Yeah...I guess I am." He watched her before looking on ahead, letting his head rest back against the wall behind him while he yawned. He shifted himself, trying to benefit from the heat of her own body as he tried to keep back the cold. "Yet you are the one who intimidates me, Admiral." He closed his eyes, wrapping his other arm around her. "And you are the one who is Admiral of an entire fleet. Ironic, I guess." he muttered the last bit, feeling as sleep slowly began to take over him as well. His head drooped to the side until it was resting on top of her's, his body finally giving out to the fatigue he himself was feeling.

~~~

Arlan's head met the side of the mecha with a loud thunk as he let it fall forwards, just flopping against it as he finally finished up replacing the engine Syrin had broke. He was actually up on top of the mecha, though now he was lying against it, yawning loud and long after having been at work for the past...lots of hours. He had no clue how long it'd been, or how many cups of coffee he'd gone through at this point. All he knew is that he probably should be dead with the amount of caffeine within his system. Maybe he'd built a tolerance over these years or something.

He opened his good eye, scanning the hangar which had never once ceased its buzz of activity. Now that the Knights were down on the surface securing the Spaceport, it seemed the pirates were poking and prodding at them. No serious engagements as of yet, but Arlan knew it was working its way there. Yawning again, he then glanced around, not bothering to lift his head up as he looked for Syrin.

"There! Finally done fixing up your goof up, miss Eulina!" he shouted out to be heard over the sound of an impact driver elsewhere in the hangar. "No goof is too much for this engineer." he said with a grin, voice somewhat slurred from his lack of sleep.

Syrin sighed heavily as she stretched out across the wing of her mecha. The finishing touches of the new plating in place, she let the tools in her hands clank loudly against the metal sheeting as she dropped her hands up over her head as she stretched out on her back.

Unknown to her, dark smudges crossed over her nose and cheeks, dropping down her neckline and coating her fingers heavily. When she heard Arlan's voice from the other side of her mecha, she tilted her head back to look to where his voice had come from. With another sigh, one of relief this time, she rolled to her stomach and got up to her feet to cross the huge wing of her mecha and find Arlan stretched out across the back of her mecha near the engine.

"Good to know, Laddermore," she offered in return, "Seeing as the damage wasn't all that bad," she finished as she leaned against the side of the craft as it lifted up slightly above the wing. Syrin let her head drop against the side of her arm as she looked over at the mechanic. The only things left were calibrating her systems to the new engine and making sure everything was tuned right.

She was so tired though, having been working on the damned thing with Arlan for hours on end. Even so, she knew if they stopped now they would both crash out and sleep for days, and the mecha wouldn't be finished entirely for her next sortie, "Alright 'master engineer', last thing, my computer system. Make sure it all works. But I can do that, I suppose, unless you want to watch," she offered. Though she wouldn't let just anyone touch the systems inside the cockpit, watching was a different thing entirely. She didn't mind, just don't touch it. That was her only condition.

"Oh no, not bad at all..." Arlan grumbled out while yawning, stretching out both his legs and arms as he did so before going limp, turning his eye to look up at Syrin. "We just had to replace a whole engine is all and about several hours worth of armor replacement." He then rolled onto his back and sat up, rubbing his eye, smudging his face as he did so. He looked at her as he let his arms just rest on his lap.

"Yeah, let's get the system check out of the way. Because damn am I tired. So tired I'm considering saying flirtatious stuff to you." He said with a grin, standing up and stretching out his torso and back. "Let's get to it, Syrin. Before I start spitting out terrible pick-up lines to you." He then began walking towards the cockpit. He knew how touchy she was about it, so he had no intention of hopping inside, but he wanted to make sure this bird was set and ready to go should it be needed.

"Flirt? With me? Yes, I think your mind is muddled with sleep. As well as too much caffeine... Seriously, I've never seen any man drink so much and still be standing," she said as he walked by to the cockpit. Shaking her head slightly she followed after him and dropped down into the pilots seat with the hatch still wide open for Arlan to watch from outside of it.

Glancing up at him, she continued with the teasing, "You know I'm tempted to hear what you would say in such a 'flirting' fashion. It'd be very entertaining I'm sure," she said as she turned the computer on and started working away at the keys, her fingers just about flying across the light up board that opened up across the screen in front of her.

"Trust me, Syrin, you do not want to hear me flirt." He said with a grin as he sat down next to the cockpit, leaning against the mecha as he watched her. "It'd result in me making one line comments about your looks, then me awkwardly mentioning either your boobs or butt, then me walking off to smack me head repeatedly with the nearest blunt object."

He looked off towards the coffee, as her mention of it made him a bit thirsty for more of it before he looked back towards her. "Why do you think I stick around machines so much? Far less chance of when I say something stupid, that I'll feel awkward, embarrassed, and also not be smacked, either by myself or by the machine." He smiled at her. "Though I think this mecha has whacked me here and there now that I think about it..." He said, looking back towards the engine and rubbing his head where his wrench had whacked him after having come free while he was trying to pry a bolt loose.

Syrin's lips twitched, a bit of a grin curving there for a moment before it disappeared again, "Well of course, it's my mecha," she said as if it were common sense, "Even so, your flirting is rather... Interesting. Do explain, what would be even the slightest appealing in regards to my chest and ass, Arlan?" she asked, glancing up at him briefly before continuing on with her work.

As her fingers flew away across the keyboard, the engine roared to life and the mecha seemed to shift just slightly though it didn't go anywhere. She let it run for a little while before shutting it off and turning to the controls to make sure that all of the movable parts were in order, especially with the new plating's added onto it.

Arlan blinked, confused for a moment before his face flushed some. "Well...um...uh..." He stumbled along, not really sure what to say. "They...well they are...um...nice?" he said the last part with a tone that clearly showed his hesitation and confusion. After that, he was very tempted to bang his head against the mecha, though with how hard he wanted to there was a chance they'd either have to replace the armor plating or Syrin would be left to clean the blood stains off of it once he passed out from a concussion.

He quickly sought to change the subject, "So! How are those controls and systems?! It all looking good?" he said, quickly looking off as he did not want her to see his face at the moment.

"Nice? That's the best you could do?" Syrin asked, feigning anger, "I see why you would wish to bang your head against something."

Syrin's attention went to the mecha's report as she pulled it up after testing the wings and directional controls. Everything seemed to be in working order which pleased her. So she set to calibrating the controls to fit her style. Making tiny adjustments to the controls in the computer and putting the system back the way she liked it since they had to dismantle the engine earlier.

"So far it's looking just fine. Definitely doing better than you are at complimenting me," Syrin offered to him.

"Yay!" Was all Arlan offered, clearly still trying to deflect the situation away from discussing her...figure. Arlan cleared his throat, glancing to her and watching her for a few moments before quickly skittering off of the mecha and to the floor below. "Good to know, Syrin!" he said while walking over to one of the two coffee pots they had stolen and pouring himself a cup.

He then took a quick sip, and as the cold and bitter liquid met his tongue, it served as a good distraction. "Now then, we can get beyond your wonderfully tight and firm buttocks!" he immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, just standing there with the cup of coffee in his hand. He just stared up at her, keeping his hand over his mouth. After a moment of silence, he lowered his hand and quietly took a long sip of the coffee while turning to look away from her, again trying to keep his face hidden from her view.

"Is that what you think of my ass?" Syrin asked him, perfectly serious as she continued finishing up the minute calibrations to her machine, "Hmm... That's better than 'nice' I suppose, but you definitely need work, Arlan."

Syrin finished up the work she was doing on the systems and pushed up from the cockpit. Climbing out of it, she clambered down from the mecha and dropped to the floor with a soft thud of her boots. Moving over to where he was standing she got herself a cup of the cold, black coffee as well and leaned against the table they had commandeered for use of the coffee pot. Her gaze never left Arlan though as she wasn't quite finished with teasing him.

"Want to try that again, master of seduction?"

He did turn to look at her as he heard her drop down from her mecha then come walking over. When he heard her grabbing another cup, he finally turned enough to glance at her out of the corner of his eye before looking back ahead and taking another long swig. Once done he then turned to fully look at her. "I told you I wasn't very good at it!" He suddenly said, very defensive before turning again to look away from her.

"This is exactly why I stick around machines all the time, far less awkward to talk too..." he grumbled while crossing one of his arms across his chest, lifting the other up to finish off the coffee he had poured himself.

"I see," Syrin said simply. Whether she was miffed about the prospect or not it was hard to tell. Shifting around, she pulled the cup of coffee up to her lips and took a small drink of it, "Well, then I guess if you can't flirt then you'd have even more trouble with other things, wouldn't you," she said, glancing over at him briefly to see if her teasing did anything else to him.

His face went quite red when she made that jab, and he choked slightly on the coffee before wiping his mouth clean after barely managing to swallow it. "H-hey! Ok that's just not fair to make that judgement!" he choked out, pointing at her. "S-so I can't flirt very well! Doesn't mean I'm....I'm too terrible at other...things." He paused before saying the word "things" as now he was wondering just what kind of trap he had thrown himself into.

He watched her for a moment before walking up to the table, not looking at her as he set the coffee cup down. He'd rather do that now before he accidentally dropped it and had another mess to clean up.

Syrin sipped at the coffee as he stuttered and went on the defensive. When he finished and put his own coffee cup down, she stood for a while longer without saying a word as she watched him. Finally, Syrin moved and tilted her head off to the side as she thought of what else to say to him.

"Oh. So you're more physical. Can't talk but you can just dive right into it, hu? How interesting, I didn't peg you for the forceful type. That's alright, not that that's bad or anything. I suppose I wouldn't mind if you did. After all, you're quite attractive yourself, Arlan...At least..." she leaned over to get a little closer, rather enjoying her bout of teasing as well as his stuttering. It was quite entertaining to listen too after all, "You're good with your hands, aren't you?"

She almost lost her composure. Laughter just on the tip of her tongue for the first time in a very long time. Even the little grin that she sometime's acquired when enjoying banter between the men she always was around was hard to keep off her lips.

Arlan's one eye was now as wide as it could be, and his face was almost as red as his hair, or at least it felt that way. "Well....um...I guess....possibly..." His mouth froze open, his words having been caught in his throat. He glanced slightly over at her, looking her over before looking away and clearing his throat. "T-thank you-Syrin-good-luck-bye!!!" he shot out those words as he quickly gathered up some of the tools and quickly began walking off to put them away.

And then he wanted to hit himself, because now he just probably dropped a big chance with Syrin. He hung his head in defeat, cursing his awkwardness sometimes. Come on, Arlan! Not like she'd be the first girl you've ever been with! one voice shouted in his head.

The other shouting back Don't care!! Never getting use to it so screw you!

The first one grumbled back, How about we just screw Syrin and get past this awkwardness already...

Not helping!!

Did I tease him too much? Syrin thought to herself as he walked off. Once again, she felt a little miffed at his ditching her right in the middle of their flirting. Or was she just flirting with him and he was running away? That's what it felt like anyway. She watched him go for a little while longer before letting out a sigh and turning away with a shrug of her shoulders.

Had she read too much into it? After all, he'd dropped lines like that inconspicuously about her being pretty and what not for a while. Maybe it wasn't meant for anything. Well, whatever it was, she still enjoyed his company no matter what. Hopefully her testing his limits like that wouldn't ruin their relationship as friends. As long as they stayed friends, she was happy with that. Though she might have been looking forward to what it was like to have... more?

Syrin wasn't really sure. After all she'd been taught to act like a man and not like a woman. Though the teasing and flirting just then felt rather exciting. Maybe she would try it again, just to see. However, right then, she needed to make sure there weren't any new orders for her and the team to head back to Ko'val. After all, there was a pirate invasion to deal with somehow. With that in mind, Syrin headed off toward the catwalk to search for Major Aigidios for her next orders.

Arlan was so lost in his arguments with himself, he just about screamed when he felt hands latch onto his shoulders and pull him to the side. He looked up to see the mask of a power armored Knight having caught him from running into him. Arlan blinked, as that would explain why he had been moved so easily.

"Careful Laddermore," The knight said simply before letting the engineer go and continuing on his way, followed closely behind by several other power armored knights. Arlan snapped to attention though, giving the Sentinel-Major a salute as the man walked past, decked out in his armor with his helmet tucked under his arm. Aigidios had a very serious look on his face, and on his back was the rather large HF sword the Major was well known for using. He stopped when he noticed Arlan, turning to regard the one-eyed man.

"Engineer Laddermore, is Cavalier Eulina's mecha set and ready to go?" He asked, Arlan relaxing from his salute.

"Y-yes sir, Sentinel-Major." Arlan was still slightly rattled by Syrin's flirting with him, though he was able to recover quickly to stop the stuttering of his voice. "We just finished up repairs of it."

The Major's face scrunched into a bit of a scowl, " 'We'?" he asked.

"Yes sir, Cavalier Eulina helped me with the repairs."

The Major sighed some, before turning and looking down the bay before back to Arlan, "Thank you, Laddermore. Is the Cavalier with her mecha still?"

"I just left her there a moment ago, sir." Arlan said.

The Major nodded his head, "Thank you, Laddermore." Aigidios quickly returned the salute Arlan gave him before turning and walking down towards Syrin's mecha, his quickened steps moving him towards it rapidly. Arlan watched the Major go, now a look of concern on his features before he quickly followed after the Sentinel-Major and his retinue of Knights. "Cavalier Eulina!" the Major called out, looking around as he stopped by the freshly repaired machine.

Partway up the steps to get up to the top of the catwalk, Syrin heard her name hollered out from below. Halting in her advance, she turned to see just the man she was looking for. A questioning eyebrow lifted up as she eyed the Major all decked out in his power armor. Was he going down to Ko'val as well? Not that she didn't expect the Major to ever fight, but it was something she was not used to seeing yet.

Quickly coming back down to stand in front of him, Syrin gave him a sharp salute and stood at attention in front of him as she answered his call with a simple, "Major." Judging from the way he was dressed and the contingent of soldiers also covered in power armor, Syrin was fairly sure they were heading down to the planet and most likely in a matter of minutes. Though she was utterly tired from working on her mecha, it really wasn't anything new to her. In fact, she was looking forward to going back down and getting another shot at those bastards.

Aigidios returned the salute before relaxing, looking at the mecha. "I see you and Laddermore fixed it up quite well. Are you in condition to take it out into the field again?" He looked at her, fixing her with a hard stare. "If you are too tried, then you are to remain here as I do not want you endangering anybody when we attack the pirates. I'll let you make that decision. If you feel you are ready, then get the mecha fired up and get down to the spaceport. Rendezvous with the other Knights down there and await for further orders."

With that, he gave her another salute, waiting for her to return it before turning and walking off with his group, not waiting for her answer. Arlan came walking over, watching the Knights go before moving over to Syrin. "Damn, the Major looks quite worked up." He said while watching the Knights walk off, Aigidios stopping to talk with a few more Knights before moving onwards.

Syrin gave him the salute he was waiting for and just as she was about to answer his demands, Major Aigidios was already marching off without giving her a chance to let him know if she was going or not. She only relaxed once he had his back to her, dropping out of being at attention. Syrin's lips pulled into a frown as she watched him talk to the others that still lingered in the hangar bay.

Looking over to Arlan she shrugged slightly, "Must be something in regards to the planet. In any case, I'll be off then," she said and headed toward the mecha, her gear still on anyway from the last mission aside from her helmet which was in the cockpit of her machine. Climbing up to the top of the metal catwalk, she went out onto the top of the mecha. Before dropping down into the cockpit, she glanced over to Arlan down below.

"I'll try not to scratch it this time," she offered, a very slight, teasing grin on her lips, "Or maybe I'll damage it just enough so that I can feed you more caffeine."

Arlan watched her go, following her and stopping below the cockpit and watching her go. He nodded his head. "Guess it must be; gotta say though I almost envy you, possibly getting to see the Major in combat." he said before looking back down the bay.

He looked back up at her as Syrin climbed into the cockpit, and he grinned some at her comment. He thought of a retort, though he faltered and could only think of something sappy instead. "Just don't come back banged up yourself, ok? The mecha I can fix!" He said while stepping back. "You not so much!"

Once he had stepped back, looking around to make sure he wasn't in the way of anyone else, he then looked back to her and gave her a thumbs up. "Good luck down there!"

Syrin gave a slight huff as she watched him during his response, "I'll be back, in one piece, I promise," she replied and dropped down into the cockpit, "As if I'd let something ridiculous like that happen," she muttered to herself. It was nearly unthinkable in her mind to be wounded while operating a machine.

"Engine start," she commanded and the mecha roared to life. Directing the machine to the launch strip, she tugged the helmet on over her head, the glass falling down to cover her face entirely and the rest of her suit uncurling around her neck to secure itself to the thick black helmet.

Once she was on the strip, the voice of one of the lieutenants on the bridge filled her mecha as she gave Syrin the okay to launch. The engine flared, pale blue light exploding from the back of it as she put the throttle nearly to full and rocketed out of the loading bay and into the darkness of space. It took her only a few minutes to come full circle around the Gjallahorn and head down to Ko'val. From there, it would be about ten minutes for her to arrive at the spaceport where she would wait for the rest of her orders.

As she flew down to the spaceport, she wondered to herself about Arlan, "Maybe it wasn't hinting enough? Too much... Maybe?" Syrin sighed a bit, "I don't know. Well, whatever. Figure it out later I suppose," she said as she dropped through the atmosphere and headed straight for the spaceport. At that moment, figuring out how to 'act like a woman' so that Arlan's little comments about her being pretty could be cleared up as either attraction to her or just him being himself would have to wait until after the mission.

~~~

Alten shifted some, asleep still against the wall of the small room he and Arina had settled into for the night. As the sun had rose, the area now beginning to warm up quite quickly, he had slowly shed the blanket from himself in his sleep. As the sun shined through a hole in the curtains of the room and right into his eyes, he groaned a bit, shifting his head and burying his face into Arina's hair to shield his eyes.

As he shifted, he wrapped his arms around her more and pulled her against him tighter, trying to keep his face hidden from the sunlight shining in his face. He shifted some at the sound of running feet not far outside, alongside the shouting of several voices.

Having been awake for some time, Arina had laid against Alten for what seemed like hours on end. The warmth of the sun as it filtered into the room took off the edge of the chill from the night before, yet for some reason, she still felt like ice had crept over her entire body. She hated the feeling as it made her shiver and even curling the blanket around her wasn't enough to get warm. Even with Atlen's added heat.

Alten moved, taking her attention as he ducked his head down into her hair and pulled her tighter into his arms. Wincing at the movement and sharp shooting pain down her rib cage, she angled her arms up between them so that she wasn't entirely crushed against him. Was he still asleep? She couldn't really tell. Arina was about to say something to him when the loud sounds of running caught her attention. Following that was shouting and her heart skipped a beat before it began wildly pumping in her chest.

With fear clouding her mind and body, Arina strained to see just who it was outside that was making so much noise. The blanket slipped off of her shoulders and she nearly lost Alten's jacket as she wiggled her way out of his grip despite how much her body ached and didn't want to move. Once she was free of him, she crawled across the floor on hands and knees that trembled as her breathing increased rapidly into shaking pants of fear.

Was it pirates? Was it Grimfist? She froze in her advance to the doorway that led into the room they were staying in. Using the door frame to help her to her bruised feet, she stood and leaned out to try to see who it was and hoped to God that they weren't in the hallway and wouldn't spot her.

In only a few swift motions, a hand slapped over Arina's mouth, the body of the hand moving behind her and wrapping its other arm around her to drag her back into the room. It was followed by a figure dressed in the light plated armor, a large rifle slung on it's back and large pistol in its hand with a knife in the other. The one holding Arina dragged her back into the room and ducked around the corner of the door frame, keeping its clawed hand over her mouth to silence her.

The other quickly slipped into the room and shut the door as quietly and quickly as it could, before it backed up away to the side of the door. It had its pistol raised at the doorway and its knife poised to strike. Neither of them made any noise, and remained very still at the sound of running footsteps going by the doorway.

"Where the fuck did they go?!" A man shouted from outside the doorway and in the hallway. The source of the voice was only separated from the four occupants of the room by the thin wall of the room.

"Slippery little shits! The captain is going to be pissed..." a female said, then something crashed at the end of the hallway and a heavy silence filled the area. Both figures in the room froze, Alten shifting in his sleep some and grumbling. At his sound, the one not holding Arina turned and pointed its gun at Alten before it looked back to the doorway.

"Come on, let's move!" The female shouted before the people could be heard running back down the hallway and away from the room. Neither of them moved, one watching the door while the one holding Arina watched the window. After a few tense moments of silence from the individuals, the one holding Arina simply made a soft hushing sound to her, slowly removing its hand and arm from around her and drawing its own pistol from its waist.

The moment the hand clamped over her mouth, Arina's screaming started. The only problem was that it was muffled and hardly got out of her throat as she was pulled back into the room. Her fingers reached up to try to tear at the hand that was over her mouth as her gaze grew wide at what entered the room with the one who had grabbed her. Her legs flailed outwards, kicking as she was pulled back, though it seemed the one who held her wasn't even phased by her thrashing.

As the other closed the door and held its gun to the doorway, the sounds of footsteps clattered through the air and Arina's screaming stopped as she froze in the grip of whomever had her. With shaking, soft little cries of terror, she watched the doorway in horror, waiting for something terrible to happen, for something to come bursting through and killing them all. Or worse.

Then, the sounds of the pirates filled the air, their voices enraged as they trashed the place looking for something. Then it hit Arina... They were looking for Alten and her. A crying moan escaped her lips as tears streamed. If it weren't for the person holding her, she would have collapsed to the floor. Her legs were shaking so badly she could hardly stand.

However, as Alten shifted in his sleep and made a sound, the one at the door suddenly turned and pointed his weapon at the man and Arina lurched forward. Shaking her head frantically, she tried to convey something, anything to the one holding Alten at gun point, though she highly doubted they cared as it seemed she was being ignored.

Painfully long minutes passed by before the pirates left and even then it wasn't until a long while after that the two in the room even moved. The one that held Arina cooed at her softly and released her. The Admiral dropped to the floor in a shaking heap. Everything hurt, it hurt to stand, it hurt to breathe, it just hurt. Not to mention she was utterly freezing still. Trembling violently, she slowly lifted up her head and looked at the two who had entered the room, her gaze dropping to the rather large looking weapons in their clawed hands.

When she opened her mouth, incoherent words tumbled out, hardly even words at all really, more like jumbled sounds as she tried to speak. It took her a few times, but she finally managed a soft, "Who...?" and then her gaze shot to Alten. Glancing back up at the two in the room, she took a deep breath and threw herself up onto her hands and knees and started as quickly as she could over to him, her heart pounding hard in her throat as she scurried across the floor to get to him.

The two figures watched Arina collapse to the ground before she moved over back to Alten. They watched her, their entire faces hidden behind their masks. The one holding the knife and pistol turned to look at the other, who happened to be missing its own knife. "Tredr dak Asu damol, Erba?" it said, it's tone conveying that it was asking the other a question.

The one without the knife watched Alten and Arina, the former marine beginning to stir due to the slight commotion. It then spoke, "Yajad dakol rugundra ra korsa." both of their voices were deep, many of the sounds they made coming from the very back of their throats as they spoke. The one without the knife then pointed to Alten who was beginning to wake up. "Best silence him, before dakul alerts gordarns."

Alten yawned, stretching his arms and then groaning in annoyance when his hand patted around for Arina. Opening his eyes, he then blinked and glanced around in a haze. "Admiral...?" he asked before looking at her, then slowly his eyes settled on the other two within the room. blinking, his eyes widened as he quickly grabbed hold of the knife and moved between them and Arina. As he did so, the one that had both of its weapons had its pistol raised, causing Alten to freeze in place.

"Dur'yi Wu." it said, Alten just staring confused at it.

"W-what..? Wait, you...you gave me this knife." Alten responded, looking towards the one missing its knife.

The sounds of their guttural voices made Arina shiver. It was obvious to her then that they were of a different race. What race though, she wasn't entirely sure. Her mind wasn't working properly anyway to deduce who they were. All she knew was that they were much bigger than her and with weapons. Then they spoke in a language she could understand and her gaze lifted to look over her shoulder at the one who spoke, holding its weapon out at Alten who was starting to wake up.

Her heart slammed in her chest as Alten searched for her blearily for a moment and then once he found her, he crossed the room rather quickly to put himself in front of her. Arina took a sharp breath as he drew up his weapon and faced the two intruders, except he froze as the rather large and intimidating gun was pointed at him. Arina's heart nearly stopped at the sight.

She listened, only understanding Alten after all and her body shuddered slightly. Alten had seen them before? When? She stared at his back for a long while before inching closer to him and curling up against his back, "Y-you saw... Them? Before?" she asked softly, though she was more shocked by the fact they'd just saved her and Alten from the hands of the pirates. It was probably worth mentioning as well since Alten was still holding the weapon and the other was pointing the gun at him.

"A-Alten... They... Saved us... I think. The pirates. They were looking for us. They came very close... But... These two... Helped us, hid us in the room," she said, squeezing the words out from her tight throat. Not to mention a horrid headache pounding away at the back of her skull. Her shivers had turned to being too hot and she was half tempted to take the coat off her back as she knelt there.

"Demz not save dam. Gordarns chasing...us." The one without the knife said, though it was clear that he was having some difficulty speaking Arina's and Alten's tongue. Alten could tell that the two soldiers in front of him and Arina understood the two of them, and even understood how to speak their language. What they spoke or who they were Alten didn't know, nor at the moment was he really concerned with figuring it out. "Convenience brought demug together," the figure continued, waving his hand around to indicate all of them when he said "demug." He lowered its hand, Alten casting a glance to his companion who still had its gun pointed at Alten.

The one with only a pistol pointed to Arina with his empty hand, Alten reflexively pushing her behind himself more when it did. "Daku open door when demz run by, so...we," he struggled for the word "we" for a moment before continuing, "we decide to hide in room." He then looked at Arina. He put his free hand on chest, patting himself as he spoke again, "Deml apologize for scare."

Alten glanced back at Arina before looking at them, nodding his head somewhat. "Well...alright then. Do you want the knife back?" he asked, though he was very hesitant to give it back as it was the only weapon the pair had at the moment.

To Alten's relief, he shook his head at Alten's question and held out a hand to refuse the item back, to at least signal to Alten he did not want it back. "Deml tell dam...you...to survive, damt doing so and continue to use asu to do so."

Alten looked at the knife, what he figured the individual meant by "asu" then back to them. "Thank you, then." he said, though he was a bit hesitant to do so as he was not yet sure how friendly these two were.

The one with both its weapons looked to the other, growling slightly before speaking again, "Wun rata?", Alten could tell by its tone that it was becoming impatient.

The other looked at it, snorting for a moment and nodding his head. The one with both weapons didn't wait and quickly moved to the door, sitting there for a moment listening before looking back at the other who was still looking towards Arina and Alten. The one with just a knife watched them for a moment before it spoke again, "Eelaun...They...call...me, Vasile Surral. Survive." Vasile said before looking to the other and nodding his head. The one by the door quickly opened it up, both of them moving into the hallway with their pistols at the ready and turning to look down both ends. "Yik." Vasile said, the other one responding in kind before the two of them quickly turned and made their way in the direction the pirates had run.

Huddling behind Alten, Arina listened to the two of them speak to one another, Alten's clear words ringing out which made trying to listen to the other harder as his speech was much more rough and hardly clear at all. Arina couldn't quite follow, not with the headache pounding away, but she was able to figure out that the two strangers had been chased by the pirates. The one that had grabbed her even apologized for it... If it was an apology, she wasn't quite sure.

When they left, she let out a sigh of relief and fell forward against Atlen's back, her head nestled between his shoulder blades. Closing her eyes, she felt as if she could sleep for an eternity. Even so, she knew doing so wasn't the best course of action. Arina tried to focus on the situation. The two strangers the one was called Vasile, wasn't it?... Had left out the door, which meant that the pirates weren't anywhere nearby. At least she was hoping that was the case.

If so, her and Alten should take the same course of action. After all, remaining in the building could result in them being found. Hell, she'd nearly gotten Alten and herself in a dangerous situation. Had it been pirates instead of... those two, there was no telling what could have happened. No. Scratch that. She knew exactly what would have happened. Shaking her head, she tried to clear her mind of those horrid thoughts.

"Alten..." she called to him with a cracked voice, "We should leave. Can't stay here. We have to get back," Arina was struggling to get her mind in working order. Needless to say it wasn't really working, aside from keeping the other thoughts at bay for the moment. She supposed that was a plus, but she still couldn't formulate any coherent plans. The only thing she could think of was getting a hold of Major Aigidios. Even that wasn't really something she wanted to do.

Facing that man as she was right then... Arina wasn't sure she could do it. Another deep breath invaded her lungs as she shifted and pushed off of Alten's back. One step at a time... One thing at a time. One problem at a time, she thought to herself and looked over to the doorway. For a moment fear kept her in place, then the thought of having to stand and move added to it. Grinding her teeth, she took the coat in her hands and pulled it tighter around her.

"I'm so sorry, Alten. Please, forgive me..."

Alten watched them leave and then head on down the hallway, then he heard Arina sigh and fall against his back. He looked back to her, reaching a hand back and gripping her forearm then spinning around to face her while still holding it. He watched her, nodding his head to her words. "We do, we do, Arina." he said. It felt odd for him to actually use her name, something he had found himself doing through this whole mess. Course given the circumstances, formality wasn't a necessity and was more a waste.

When she apologized to him, Alten simply moved his head so that they could make eye contact. "Save the apologies for when we make it back, ok Arina? Don't think about anything other than making it back to the Stellae Caelator, focus only on that and we can make it." he smiled softly to her, putting his other hand on her shoulder before he slowly rose to his feet while removing his hand from her shoulder.

His other hand slipped down her forearm to lightly grip her hand, his free hand drawing the knife from his belt. He then glanced around before eyeing the blanket, then looking at Arina. "Arina, I want you to keep the blanket on yourself ok? It'll sound odd, but it'll help keep you cooler when we have to move out in the sunlight. As exposed as your skin is...not to mention its color might help hide us if we need to. Ok? When you are ready, we can move."

"Alten..." Arina's voice was shaking as she watched him. How could he not be angry with her? He was so... Different. Definitely stronger than she was and his courage and comforting tones were helping to get her mind out of darkness. Slowly she nodded in agreement for saving her apologies for later. After all, she was going to owe the Major and Commodore a formal apology as well.

Her fingers ended up in his hand as he stood and continued talking to her, "Yes... I think I'm okay to go," she answered and reached behind her to grab the blanket they'd used to survive through the night. Throwing it over her shoulder with one hand, she tightened her grip in Alten's palm as she started pulling herself up to stand. Though it hurt to get up, once she was standing it was much easier than she'd anticipated.

With a short nod toward him, she turned to face the doorway, "Ready," she offered. She had no idea where they were located at in the city as her attention the day before had been on staying up on her feet. Arina was going to rely on Atlen once more to get them out of the city and back to the Stellae Caelator.

When she said she was set to go, Alten turned and slowly walked to the door, pushing it open and peeking out into the hallway and looking down both ends. Both were empty, and things were quiet at the moment, which Alten was happy to know. "Let's go." he said quietly before he began moving down the hallway in the same direction Vasile and his compatriot had gone.

Alten felt his heart beating rapidly as they moved, it felt like his entire head throbbing as he moved. He was tense and ready for anything as they walked down the decrepit and sandy hallways, looking to the walls which were scuffed and marked from animals and sand blowing through it. Right now, he was just hoping they would not run into anything to terrible as they moved through.

Several minutes of quiet walking brought them to an exit to the building they were occupying, the door lying mostly buried by the sand outside, having fallen from its place after all these years. Alten carefully peeked outside, squinting his eyes to try and shield his eyes as the sand blew on by from the wind having kicked up. He had no idea where they were at this point, as he didn't no Ko'val's streets in the slightest, and so the street they were on looked like just any other. It wasn't helped by the fact that many of the buildings looked identical, being simply structures meant to be easily assembled and moved about by newly arriving colonists. Individualism was a thing reserved for once things were established, so the buildings were not designed to stand-out from each other.

"Ok...we need to get to high ground, try and figure out just where we are. Ok, Arina?" he asked without looking back to her.

Arina followed after him as best she could. Thankfully her feet had gone numb and it didn't hurt to walk as it did the day before. She surprised herself by keeping pace with Alten that time around. Maybe it was because of what he'd told her the day before. About the fact that no matter how hard it go, he kept going. Maybe she could to.

As they stopped by a broken doorway, the sunlight filtering inside blinded her. Wind whistled by as it kicked up bouts of dust and sand, throwing it everywhere as Alten peered outside to see if there was anything out there, and probably to try to figure out where they were. Arina looked as well, though she really didn't know what she was going to be looking for.

Alten's suggestion of getting to higher ground had her nodding her head. Getting up onto a building would be the easiest way to figure out where they were and where they needed to go. Not to mention if the Major and his team of Knights were anywhere around, Alten and Arina could spot them. If the mecha's were out as well, that would make it even easier. Looking around, Arina's gaze was drawn to one of the buildings that looked a little more intact than most, but just barely.

"That one," she offered, pointing to it over his shoulder, "Maybe there will be a staircase," she said, trying to sound somewhat hopeful.

Alten glanced to her hand, then to where it was pointing, nodding his head. "Looks good to me, let's move." he said, though as he uttered the statement, the screech of a jet flying over his head cause him to recoil and duck down. He coughed as sand was kicked up, and a moment later he heard the sound of explosions followed closely by fierce exchange of gunfire. He looked in the direction of the noise, eyes widening as he watched two mechas that clearly had neither Naval, Marine, nor Knight markings on them come marching onto the street. Alten and Arina were spared only by the grace that the mechas were moving towards the sounds of combat, which had them facing away from the two.

"Let's move quickly!" Alten said and began jogging towards the building Arina had pointed out. He made sure that Arina was still with him and was able to keep up. If things were about to get hairy, then he needed to make sure not to lose her.

He quickly moved up next to the building, pressing himself against it as if hiding, which in a way he was. He then looked down the wall they were on, looking to see if there was a doorway for them to use. He flinched some when another explosion went off elsewhere, though thankfully it was still a ways from them.

Arina dropped and covered her ears at the sound of the jet as it shot past. The loud sound of the engine making her chest vibrate and her ears ring terribly. Once it passed, she chanced a glance up and watched as Alten's gaze was locked on something down the street from them. Standing, Arina peered out as well and took a sharp breath as she eyed the two mechas that were heading after where the jet had gone.

Her breathing was short and rapid as she watched. It wasn't until Alten's urging of them going quickly that she turned away from the two mechas. Following after him as quickly as she could, they reached the building she'd pointed to and she pressed herself against the wall next to him, panting and shaking slightly.

It was most likely the attack the Major had said he would initiate. If so, then they had a chance of being spotted by the Knights and getting off of Ko'val in once piece. At least that was her hope and it was that hope that made her edgy and wanting to rush up the stairs of the building to the rooftop.

If there were any stairs at all.

"Hurry, Alten," she said, her fingers curling into his hand tightly, "The Major..."

"Yeah..." Alten said before he began circling around the building, smiling when he spotted a doorway for them to enter through. He moved up to the doorway, knife in hand and flicking the switch on before he slowly peeked inside the room. His eyes narrowed some in confusion when looking in he saw the corpses of two pirates, both of them having been badly mauled. He slowly poked his head in more, trying to make sure Arina and himself would not be ambushed bu the same thing that had attacked these two.

He didn't see anything other than the fresh pools of blood from the corpses that told him they had only been killed at most a few minutes ago. Looking back at Arina, he said to her "Wait here a moment." Before he turned to look back inside. He hesitated for a moment before slowly letting go of her hand and sliding his way into the room as quietly as he could, knife ready to strike at anything that jumped out at him. As he moved in, he could see the room was even more empty than the one he and the Admiral had slept in last night, clearly having been picked clean by the pirates long before.

Slipping inside, he looked over the bodies of the two pirates, and his heart jumped with excitement when he noticed an assault rifles that had fallen from the hands of both pirates. Looking around once more, he slowly crept over to one of the rifles and picked up and began checking it over. It was a model he wasn't use to, but at least the mechanics were similar enough to ones he'd used before. He gave it a quick look over, seeing that the rifle was still well intact, ejecting the magazine enough to see if it was still loaded, and then he slapped the magazine back into place and quickly slid the bolt back and let it snap back forwards. A bullet was ejected as he pulled the bolt back, clattering to the ground before he slid over to check the other discarded rifle.

As he did so, he glanced back up and around, just to remain aware of his surroundings before he went back to taking what ammunition he could find on the dead pirates. Three extra magazines for him to make use of, all three fully loaded. In his search of the area, he smiled as well when he noticed a staircase leading up to the second floor of the building. "Arina." He called softly, moving over to poke his head out of the doorway, looking at her. "I found some stairs for us."

As Alten peered into the building, Arina kept looking around them to make sure nothing came out of the alleys at them. The sounds of explosions and heavy gunfire were filling the air and her heart pounded hard at each loud boom. She hardly heard Alten's words as he told her to wait there. His hand slipped from hers and she looked back at him startled before edging towards the doorway and peeking inside.

Her hand immediately came up and covered her mouth at the sight of the two dead pirates. Turning around, she flattened her back against the wall next to the door so as not to see that awful sight any longer. Her stomach churned and she thought she was going to be sick. It took all she had to settle her body and not throw up into the sands.

As Alten worked inside, she kept her hand over her mouth and her eyes on the sands beneath her feet. Every so often she would glance around to see if anyone was nearby or had spotted them. So far it seemed the fighting was far off in the distance. Silently Arina hoped that it would stay that way.

Alten's voice startled her and she jumped slightly as he peeked out at her. Nodding her head in agreement, she moved to follow after him up the stairwell and did her best to keep from looking at the mangled bodies of the two pirates. She also took note that Alten had armed himself with a rifle as well. Arina hoped they wouldn't have to use it, but she was mostly glad that he hadn't handed anything of the sort to her for use. She was more than certain she wouldn't be able to do it.

"Do you... Have a plan on how you'll get the Major's attention?" she asked softly, distracting herself from both the weapon and her memory of the dead pirate that she'd slain the day before.

As he moved up the stairs, keeping the rifle up and ready for any possible attackers, he listened to Arina ask him a question he'd been wondering. How the hell would they get the Major's or anybody's attention? They didn't have any flares, no signal mirrors, they could possibly use the blanket as a flag of sorts. "Well," he began, "if we can find something to tie the blanket to we might be able to use it as a flag. I know i mentioned it blending in to the surroundings and all, but if we wave it around enough, somebody is bound to notice it."

As he made it to the stop of the stairs, he stopped for a moment to scan the area, noting that it led to a long hallway with three different doorway. There was one at the end that Alten could tell led back outside, the other two led to separate rooms. "Though we may wish to hold off on drawing any attention until we know the Knights are close by...less we get pirates."

He slowly began to inch down the hallway, keeping the weapon sights trained down it as he moved. As he made it to one of the doors, he slowly crept towards it, standing at the far wall away from it as he did so. As he reached it, he rounded the door frame to look inside with his gun ready. As he moved in, he was met with the sight of another dead pirate, currently being chewed upon by the drake Alten figured was responsible for the ones on the floor below. It turned to look at him as he moved in, hissing and quickly moving to strike the new intruder of its territory.

Alten immediately back-petaled out the door, holding down the trigger of the rifle as he did so. The gun began to discharge its payload rapidly into the approaching beast, which screeched as the rifle rounds tore through its hide. Alten quickly moved to the side to get out of its way, moving so his back ended up facing the exit Arina and him were aiming for as he fired another quick burst into it. A moment later, it let out another screech before it collapsed to the ground, dead.

As it fell, Alten sighed in relief, lowering the rifle and looking over its body to look towards Arina. "Arina! Are you al-" his sentence was interrupted when he was suddenly tackled from behind, slamming hard into the metal floor as he lost his grip on the rifle. He shouted in pain, his glasses also flying off his face as he struggled to turn onto his back to deal with the second drake that had snuck up on him. He blindly reached up, grabbing hold of something that he quickly recognized as its snout. It shifted, and then Alten screamed in pain as he felt the drake sink its teeth into the hand on its head, gripping and trying to tear the limb from its prey beneath it.

Alten frantically tried to grab hold of the knife he had placed on his belt when he had picked up the rifle, trying to grab the weapon to fight off the creature. Though in his panicked state he was having a hard time getting a grip on it as the creature continued to thrash with his hand in its mouth, drawing more shouts of pain from the surveyor.

Arina followed after him, her fingers clutching the blanket tightly so that they wouldn't lose it as he planned to use it to attract the attention of the Knights and the Major if they could. She supposed if that failed, using his jacket would work out and she could wrap up in the blanket instead. Whatever they used, she just hoped it would get them noticed by the right people.

As he went down the hallway, Arina right behind him, she kept glancing around. So far there was nothing there, at least until he tried to enter the room at the end of the hall. Arina let out a cry of fear as the sound of gunfire filled the room. Her knees gave out and she dropped, covering her head as she curled against the wall. The drake that Alten had been shooting at came barreling out of the room, snarling and screeching loudly. The sounds of the creatures screams mixed with Arina's.

When it was over, she heard Alten call out for her and looked up just in time to see a second drake take him to the floor. Her eyes grew wide as she watched the creature tumble on top of Alten. The gun slid across the floor as did his glasses. With her heart in her throat, Arina stared for a long while as Alten struggled. When his scream of pain hit the air, her heart nearly tore apart.

The sight of blood made it even worse, especially since it was Alten who was bleeding. Scrambling across the floor on her hands and knees, her fingers curled around the weapon that he'd lost. Shaking horribly she wasn't even sure she dared fire the thing in Alten's direction for fear of hurting him rather than the drake. Even so, if she stayed still and did nothing, he would be torn apart.

Turning the weapon around so she was holding it the right way, her finger trembled against the trigger. The sounds of Alten's cries of pain were what made her pull the trigger. The weapon recoiled in her hand and startled her, sending bullets up and into the wall and ceiling. Letting go of the trigger, she reset herself and fired again, this time fully prepared for the weapons discharge.

She kept the trigger down as she aimed it at the drake as best she could. The weapon continued firing until there was nothing but the sound of rapid clicking, even then her finger never left the trigger as she stared at the drake in the hopes that she'd killed the thing.

Alten wasn't even sure what happened when he heard the spray of gunfire, he didn't even notice the drake being torn up by the bullets from the rifle as he was far to preoccupied with the searing pain in his hand. The drake let go of his hand as it screeched, turning and fleeing from the room and leaving behind it a trail of its own blood. Alten managed to get a hold of his knife, but he let it go immediately as he sat up and cradled his hand against his own body.

"F-fuck..." he chocked out, his breathing wavering and shaking as he sat there, blood beginning to cover his shirt. He tried to look at his hand, but due to the lack of glasses, he couldn't see the mangled mess that had been his hand. Regardless, he could feel the immense pain that was pulsing from the limb. "A-Arina...Arina..." he forced himself to say, falling against the wall as he pulled the hand back against himself, his injured arm shaking rapidly as sat there.

Her finger fell off the trigger as he called for her. The weapon fell out of her hands and she moved to gather up his glasses and then crawl over to him. Trying her best not to look at his hand that was nothing but a bloody mess, she placed his glasses over his eyes again, knowing that he couldn't do it himself, at least not with his hand the way it was.

"Alten..." she breathed his name in slight relief though fear still plagued her. Glancing down at his hand, she took in a sharp breath, "W-what should I do?"

He felt his glasses be slipped back over his eyes, opening them now to look down at his hand that was still held against his body. His eyes when wide as he looked at it, and he was at a loss for words. It was Arina asking him what to do that stopped him from going into shock. Taking in a sharp breath, he let it out in staggered gasps before glancing around. His eyes settled on the jacket that still hung on her frame, and he nodded his head to it.

"T-the...jacket!" he forced out, "Wrap around m-my..hand. Quickly." He closed his eyes, groaning as another volley of pain shot through his arm, causing him to curl over the wound for a moment before his head fell back again. "Tie it....tightly. Gotta stop...the bleeding." He said while looking back down towards his hand.

"A-alright! Alright, I can do that," she said, mostly to reassure herself than anything. Dropping the blanket she took the jacket off and set to work using the entire thing as a bandage. Arina made sure to leave the sleeves out so that she could use them to tie it all down once she'd sufficiently wrapped up his hand.

All the while she tried to ignore how messy it looked, as well as the amount of blood that poured from his wound. Even her own fingers became slick with the warm substance. Her heart picked up as he groaned in pain. She worked as quickly as possible, yet tried to cover the entire hand tightly with the jacket.

Once she'd done the best that she could with it, she took the sleeves and did the final wrappings before tying it down as tightly as she dared on his hand, grinding her teeth as she did so. When she was finished, her fingers were red and shaking. Falling back on her knees, she took several deep breathes as she took a quick look around the hallway before setting her gaze back on Alten.

"W-will that be alright? Can you keep going?" she asked, fearful of the answer. If she had to go alone... Arina shook her head. She would do it. She would have to do it. If not for herself then definitely for Alten's sake at the very least.

As she tightened it around his hand, Alten let out a sharp cry of pain, though he didn't stop her otherwise. It had to be tight, to try and stem the bleeding as much as possible. Once she finished, asking him if he could continue, he nodded his head. "Y-yeah...I can." He said while using his free hand to brace himself against the wall as he slowly rose to his feet. Leaning against it to take a moment to catch his breath, he then looked towards the exit.

"Grab the rifle and knife...we may need them still, Arina." he managed to say between pained breaths. He then began walking down the hallway, keeping the injured left hand cradled against his body as he moved along. He had to keep moving, he couldn't stop just because of an injury. He wasn't dead, so he had no reason to stop yet.

As he made it to the doorway to outside, he leaned against the frame to catch his breath again, or rather to refocus his attention to try and shut out the pain. He listened to the fighting in the distance, glancing in the direction wondering who was winning. It was hard to tell for him at the moment if it was moving in their direction or not, he just hoped that somebody would notice them quickly.

Arina did as she was asked, grabbing both the knife and rifle, though she was fairly sure the rifle was empty and she didn't know how to replace a clip. Or rather, she did, but she couldn't recall how to do it exactly at that moment. So she just settled for taking the weapon and deciding to use it as a club should another drake pop up.

She didn't even want to think about what would happen if a pirate or even Grimfist found them. With how they both were, she doubted they'd survive in a fight against them. They finally ended up outside of the building, up on the room and she walked out to look around. The resounding booms of explosions in the distance, coupled with pillars of smoke rising up into the air showed her where the fighting was at.

Clutching the blanket in her hands, she hoped to God that whomever flew by next or had a mecha in the vicinity would be either the Knights or the Navy. In addition to that, she hoped as well that they would see her and Alten. Arina was at her limits as she stood there, staring out into the destroyed city. She wanted off the planet, and back at the vessel where she could heal as well as get Alten patched up from the drake biting him.

Looking around the top of the building, she spotted a couple of metal bars lying off to the side and went to pick one up, wincing as she walked across the hot concrete with her bare feet. Wrapping the blanket around one of the bars, she tied the corners to it in a makeshift flag and went back to stand next to Alten where the shade of the doorway helped keep the scorching heat off her feet. Standing the flag up, she held it there and did what she could to move it from side to side.

Please... Someone see us... she begged.

((Blegh... Hungry monster exploded with the amount of freaking repeated posts I just did!!! >.< So sorry. Damn RPG))

Aigidios had his helmet on now, and he was standing at the opened side entrance to the transport vessel, gripping one of the handle attached to the ceiling to stop himself from falling out. In his other hand, he fidgeted with his large claymore sized sword, itching to cleave a pirate or several into two pieces. On his left arm, mounted to the forearm, was a belt-fed rifle. The belt traveled along the arm and up over the shoulder to the ammo pack; it was a piece of equipment that was given only to the heavy-infantry of the Knights, the ones who'd be in the thick of the fight swinging about large and powerful high-frequency blades.

He looked out along the side of the vessel to look out at the rapidly approaching city. Enemy fire was already coming there way, and he caught glimpses of tracers and missiles coming up into the air from the pirates. They were well entrenched and set, so the goal was to have his group draw the attention of most of the fire to allow the mechas to slip in and eliminate strong points. Once those were taken out, then the Knights would be able to truly press the attack.

He heard the pilot speak over the radio in his helmet, "Thirty seconds." Aigidios flexed his neck, readying himself as the vessel began its quick desent towards the ground. Several other vessels were beginning to land, and Aigidios also watched as several Sentinel jets flew by, launching their explosive payloads at pirate strongpoints.

"Sentinel Zero here, form up into cover and return fire on the pirate positions. Do not move forwards until Paladin has opened up a path for us." He didn't even wait for his vessel to touch the ground, as he hopped out of it as it hovered a few feet off the ground, letting his armor absorb the shock of his dismount. The display of his helmet was already lighting up with target markers and warnings to indicate just how many guns were pointed his way and were firing on him. Sand was kicked up around him as bullets struck nearby, and he felt the impact of a few bullets against the rigid plates of his power armor as he quickly moved into cover.

He knelt down behind a rock, watching as the rest of his knights quickly moved into their own cover and the transport vessel quickly began to fly off. Aigidios flinched slightly when he watched a missle strike the vessel before it could get off the ground. He grimaced, looking towards the smoking wreckage, though he was happy to see the pilots of it quickly scamper out of it, though one was unfortunate in that he lacked the same armor as the Sentinel-Major, so when the sights of the pirates trained on him he was torn down by the volley of bullets. The other pilot was quick to dive for cover, opting not to expose himself to the gunfire of the pirates.

"Paladin, get to work." Aigidios calmly commanded, standing up over the cover and pointing his left arm towards the pirate position, and by curling his fingers at the second knuckle he triggered the arm mounted weapon which fired off in a quick burst. Whether he hit or not didn't matter to him at the moment, he only sought to draw the fire of the majority of the pirates.

"Understood," Syrin's reply came over the communication and immediately after her mecha shot out into the city from where shed been on standby in the open desert, "Spread out. Go in pairs. Light it up," she ordered to her own group. Her cockpit was filled with the cocophany of voices responding to her in agreement. Outside, she watched as the large group of mechas or jets split up into pairs and took off into different sections of the city.

For herself, she dove down inbetween the buildings and anything that moved with a weapon aimed at either herself, one of her Paladins or the rest of the knights, was a target. Missiles unloaded from her mecha, exploding upon impact and leaving a trail of fire behind her as she streaked deeper into the city. All the while she kept an eye out for a certain pirate Captain that shed heard about. Grimfist was his name and she was well aware that taking out the leader of a group usually resulted in an easy defeat of the rest.

Though she wasnt going to all out hunt for the man, she did watch for him. After all, taking the opportunity given was something she would definitely do. In the meantime, Syrin concentrated mostly on destroying the opponents on the ground who were firing at her with guns, missile launchers and other deadly weapons. Her mecha twisted, barrel rolled and dove behind, through and over buildings as she rained hell from above down onto the pirates.

Coming out of a particularly precarious situation with a heat seeking missile following after her, she cut it rather close to the top of a building to lose the missile, resulting in an explosion of dust and rubble being thrown everywhere. She could hear the dents already being tapped out along the hull of her mecha as she shot over the top of the building. With a bit of a grimace she started her dive back down and immediately banked left with a surprised gasp of sorts.

She'd almost dropped down in between two mechas that were heading toward the front of the battle. At first glance they didnt seem all that harmful, however as she came around the building shed used as cover, she noted the irritating rail rifle attached to one and the other carring a rather large looking rifle also. It wasn't a rail rifle thankfully, but it looked to have quite the kick to it regardless.

Frowning, she pulled up to get up over the pair of mechas and decided that taking out the rail rifle was probably the better idea to start with. As she prepared to get into position, she opened her coms for the Major, "Major, two mechas are heading your way. The Paladins will deal with them as quickly a possible," she informed him right before she came skirting out from behind the building she'd used once again, and unloaded a volley of missiles upon the mecha.

Aigidios looked up and watched the mechas and jets go screaming over, bombarding the pirate positions. He did not wait for any conformation of their strike, drawing a smoke grenade from his waist, pulling the pin, and throwing it up and over the cover. He watched it sail through the air, a trail of smoke following it. Along the battle-line, he could see other smoke grenades going through the air, some flying far into the very limits of the city having been fired from launchers wielded by other Knights.

As the smoke quickly filled up the gap between the city and the Knight's position, Aigidios was already vaulting over his cover, alongside his retinue and began sprinting towards the city. Despite the volley from Paladin and the smoke cover, gunfire was still pelting the advancing forces. Eulina's voice sounded off over the coms, Aigidios just giving a curt, "Understood." in response as he moved forwards.

As he began moving through the smoke, his helmet immediately switched to a sonar style vision, rapidly releasing a ping of sound to give a rough image of the surrounding terrain. Thermal was useless in the smoke as it was designed to shield thermal signatures, and it didn't descriminate between who fired the smoke and who it was shot at. Still the sonar was an extremely useful tool, even if it wasn't the best. He easily jumped over a rock in his path as images of the city walls were coming into view. He could see the image of pirates who were falling back away from the smoke, clearly having no intention of meeting the Knights assault head on.

As he reached a two story building, Aigidios jumped towards the second floor. With the assistance of his armor, it allowed him to easily jump up high enough to grab hold of the ledge and haul himself up. He raised his rifle, squeezing off a few rounds at some retreating pirates and quickly dropping two of them in a burst, emerging from the smoke only a few moments later.

He immediately switched to his standard vision, his visor adjusting the polarization so as to eliminate any glare and to cut down on the brightness of the sun reflecting off of the sand. He stopped at a low wall, peeking over it to get a new idea of the current field of battle. He could see his Knights moving into cover and returning fire to the newly positioned pirate forces. The next objective was to secure the city-limits, so that reinforcements could land unharassed. He clicked on his coms again, "Paladin, do not extend to far forwards." he said before cutting the coms again, lifting his arm up to fire on the pirates not far ahead.

They needed to keep the momentum, or else they'd get bogged down in the pirate's home turf. They knew this city and its various twists and turns, so they could not give the pirates a chance to recover. After firing a few more rounds, Aigidios switched on his sword as he fully intended to get into the thick of things. Quickly vaulting off of the rooftop, he broke into a sprint towards the nearest pirate position. Given the fact they were now stuck in a city, the pirate were less than a block away. He felt bullets ping off his armor, but he paid them no heed as he quickly desended on a group of pirates.

He jumped over the small barricade they had made, which consisted of scrap metal and other junk they had salvaged and put into position. One pirate was knocked back as the Sentinel-Major slammed into him with his shoulder as he landed, Aigidios spinning around to slash the gun of one pirate that had turned to fire on him in half, following up the swing but stepping into the pirate and slashing across his torso. The heavy blade, backed by the servo powered swing of the Major, easily slashed clean through the whole body of the pirate, whose eyes widened as his torso slid free from his lower half and fell to the ground. Aigidios did not pause and moved forwards to engage the other pirates there, his own retinue quickly joining him in the attack.

"Understood, Major," Syrin answered yet again in the same manner she'd used earlier when he had ordered her and her group out onto the battle field.

Swinging around from her second volley against the rail rifle weilding mecha, she dropped another group of missiles on the bastard in the hopes of destroying it. From behind that mecha another of her Paladins joined the fight and also unleashed another round of bullets. Both mechas shot past one another, tilting so as not to collide as they went.

The mecha with the rail rifle was nothing but flame and smoke by the time they were finished, so Syrin banked and went after the second mecha that she had ignored to begin with. Swirling circles around the mecha with the rather large looking rifle, her and the other Paladin launched a volley nearly at the same time. As the smoke cleared from the explosions, Syrin's eyes grew wide as it seemed the barrel end of the rifle was level with her mecha.

Pulling up immediately, she shot straight up to miss the rifle's end and pulled back on the controls to flip upside down and start back toward the mecha on the ground. As she plummeted toward the fight down below, the rifle was aimed straight up at her. From the barrel, a bright blue light began to glow. Surprised once more, Syrin shot off another round of missiles, getting close to being empty on those. Pulling up, she attempted to get out of firing range of the beam weapon.

"Shit..." she cursed, "Take out that beam weapon!" she followed her cursing with an order to the Paladin who was fighting with her.

The sound of the weapon being fired cut through the sound of her engines. In the next second, a louder, slightly terrifying sound cut through the cockpit. Her mecha was thrown off course and sent spinning in an awkward barrel roll. Warning sounds and other blaring emergency lights flooded the pilots seat. Syrin let out a startled cry at first, but then ground her teeth as she struggled with the controls to get her mecha flying again.

When she couldn't get it to stop spinning, she did the next best thing. Slamming her hand upon the consol, the button she activated the mecha's ability to shift between the jet into that of the more humanoid form. The entire machine hummed loudly as the gears started pulling and contracting with one another. The mecha continued its spiral roll, but instead of the rapid flipping the jet had been sent into, the humanoid form simply slowed down considerably. It was an awkward tumble, but far better than flying apart upon impact.

Even so, as the machine slammed into a concrete building, Syrin was jolted around in the seat painfully. For a moment she simply rested in the cockpit, taking a deep breath as the warning signs still flashed at her along the screen. After a few minutes, she finally pulled the mecha up to its feet. As she rose up from where she'd crash landed, Syrin started a search in regards to where exactly shed been thrown.

Turning from one side to the other, she scanned the vicinity to get a better bearing and start heading back to the fight. Just as she was about to leave the area, something off to the right of her mecha caught her attention. Leaning forward in the seat, her eyes narrowed. Unable to make it out clearly, she put in a few commands and brought the image in closer.

"How in the hell..." Syrin's gaze widened as she eyed the Admiral and another attendant up on the top of a building. The woman was dressed in nothing but her undergarments and waving what looked like an eaten through blanket of sorts. Grinding her teeth in anger, she hailed the Major again, "Major! Admiral Xsan is here! She's in the middle of the fighting!"

She couldn't help the rather angry clip to her tone. After all that woman had to have been daft to even think of coming down to Ko'val with the planet being in the state that it was in. Starting forward, the mecha moved rather slowly as the damage to certain parts kept her from using all of its power. However, not but four steps forward and missiles were launched at her from down below. They would have proven to be no problem at all to her, except for the one that was rather well aimed.

The bottom left side of the hatch to the cockpit exploded inward, sending shrapnel all into the cockpit and breaking a handful of screens and controls. Syrin, having lifted her arms to shield her face, felt burning pain all through her arms and side that was facing the explosion. Gasping and giving slight groans of pain, she lowered her arms slowly, dizzied by the attack that had seemingly come from no where. With the mecha already damaged, getting out of the way was nearly impossible to begin with.

The hum of the engine that was usually steady sputtered as it tried to keep running. The mecha itself dropped, falling forward as the power that kept it upright shut down. Syrin managed to get the arms of her machine to halt a complete fall, but even then, the jarring stop had her gaze swirling with splotched color at the jolting pain. Son of a... Bitch... Damn it... she cursed as she gazed at the broken and fuzzy screen, the right side and some of the center still just clear enough to see out of. The computer displayed a list of damage, large sections of the machine blocked out in red meaning that it was either broken or nearly broken.

Whatever the case, she wasnt going anywhere without aid.

The Major ducked underneath a sword swing from a pirate before non-chalantly clotheslining him, knocking him to the ground before he stabbed the pirate through with his own sword. He scowled when he heard the word from Paladin, The Admiral was still alive down here? that he hadn't expected. Not given the conditions of the city. Sneering and tearing his sword free from the pirate, doing so in a manner that the sword cut a deep wound across the pirate to make sure he was dead, Aigidios raised the sword and rested it on his shoulder, using the handguard where the sword would not cut him.

Now he was trying to decide whether or not it was worth saving her at this moment, or to wait until they had secured more of the city. "Damned woman...I'll move to secure the Admiral. The rest of you continue on with your objective." He said, looking to the other Knights with him. All of them simply turned and ran off to continue the fight, Aigidios watching them go before opening up the com again, "Paladin, where is her location?" he asked as he began walking, trying to locate Paladin on his own using the HUD of his helmet.

The belts of her seat that kept her in place were becoming rather annoying not to mention that every breath increased the pulses of pain through her small frame. When the Major asked for the Admiral's position, she replied as best she could, including information of the bastard with the beam rifle. If he was heading that way it was important for him to be aware of such a danger.

"South... of the permeter... Approximately... six... seven hundred yards from me," she answered straining to keep the words in one smooth flow but failing horribly. Working on the only good computer, she attempted to set off her machines distress signal, at least then it could alert the Major to her exact location. It took her a few tries, but it finally went through and the red light in the cockpit started flashing.

"Major... Theres a mecha. It has a beam... rifle," she paused for a moment, getting her breath back slightly, "Took me out of the sky... Be careful," she added the last bit hoping that he would be able to get around that obstacle, unless her Paladins had finished it off already which she was rather hopeful for.

Aigidios' scowl grew as he listened to Eulina, he could tell jsut by the way she spoke that she was in bad shape. Especially at the mention of a mecha with a beam rifle. This just go interesting. A moment later, he saw a blip pop up on his HUD, a red arrow to indicate the location of the ditress signal, along with a distance marker. The small mini-map at the very bottom corner of his screen also marked the location.

"Understood, hang tight Paladin. I'm on my way." He then broke into a sprint, quickly covering the distance as he moved through the streets. He stuck close to buildings so as not to be too much of an open target as he ran. His helmet kept marking targets when they popped up to fire at him, but he ignored them for the most part save for the unlucky ones that happened to be in his way. One pirate lost just about all her teeth and her lower jaw when the Major delivered a solid punch to her face as he ran by her. He didn't bother to finish her off though, as he needed to get over to aid the Admiral and Eulina.

As the distance began to dwindle, a warning popped up in his helmet, indicating an energy signature to his left. turning his head, his eyes widened as he saw the mecha Eulina had mentioned and its rifle was charging up. It also happened to be aimed right in his direction. Aigidios quickly turned on his heel, darting into an alley a moment before the beam came blazing by him. More warnings went off in his suit to warn him of the massive energy spike, and he heard the sound of metal sizzling as the beam cut its way through anything in the way.

In the alley though, the Major quickly took advantage of his greater mobility to jump up to another rooftop, taking a moment to towards the mecha. It was scanning back and forth, searching for him and it'd only be a few seconds before it locked onto his position again. "Paladin, converge on that mecha and take it down." he ordered before he started running once more, jumping over the gaps between buildings with ease. Just as he figured, the mecha had targetted him and was following his movements. His HUD then signaled to him that a friendly mecha was moving in from nearby, and Aigidios could tell the pirate mecha had noticed as well as it turned its attention away from him and turned to engage the approaching member of Paladin.

It gave him the chance to move towards Cavalier Eulina's position now, the sound of missles exploding nearby being dampened by his helmets audio systems. As he ran along the rooftop, he then looked over to what his helmet labeled as an unknown individual. It zoomed the image, and there was the Admiral, waving a ratty old blanket as a flag. He culdn't see Alten sitting against the wall, as the building blocked the view of the attendant. Regardless, Aigidios was first concerned with grabbing his fellow Knight. He quickly jumped off the rooftop when Eulina's wrecked mecha came into view, landing in a roll and coming back up to his feet without a pause in his movements. He even switched off his sword and placed it on his back as he ran up to it and immediately began trying to pray open the cockpit to reach Eulina. "Paladin! You still alive in there?" this time his voie was projected through the speakers of his helmet, which amplified it to help him be heard over the din of the battle gonig on nearby.

Syrin wasn't sure what the time lapse was since she'd last called out to the Major, informing him of her position. She recalled taking stock of her injuries which were quite bad if she were to be honest. Blood was dripping down from where she was strapped to the chair and making small puddles down against the ruined controls. Her head swam as she opened her eyes blearily to the sound of the Major's voice yelling at her.

Metal creaked and she assumed he was trying to pry it open. Unless he had the powertools that were onboard the Gjallahorn then getting the hatch opened was going to be near impossible, even with power armor. Unless he wanted to try cutting it with his weapon, but she doubted he would even try with her still inside it. Groaning slightly, she reached over and fumbled with the controls that still worked. It took her a while, with having to do things the round about way, but she managed to open the coms system that would project her voice out to him through the mechas speakers.

"Still here... Major," she answered, "Retrieve the Admiral... The hatch is... Stuck, Major," Syrin paused again, her voice wavering as another bout of dizziness took her. Keeping her eyes open was becoming a chore, "The Paladins can... Retrive me... Take it back to base," leaning her head back a little, she rubbed at her temple with her good arm, "Arlan can open it then."

"It won't do any good if you are dead by the time you get back, Cavalier." he then looked around, looking in the direction of mecha battle going on nearby. He opened up his coms again, "Paladin, we need one of you to recover and move Cavalier Eulina out of here, ASAP. She requires medical attention, so make it quick." With that, he then looked back at the mecha. "Just hold on tight, Cavalier." With that he patted the hatch of the mecha before turning and running towards the building he'd spotted the Admiral atop of.

It was simple enough for him to quickly jump up once more and climb his way up onto the rooftop. As he climbed up, his sight was met with the half-naked Admiral Xsan, still holding the makeshift signal flag, and near her he could see the barely concious Surveyor Ashlet, whose hand was covered in a blood-soaked bandage. The man was slumpped against the wall, and the Major could see he too was close to bleeding out.

Aigidios didn't even bother to address the Admiral yet as he walked towards them, reaching to his belt to pull free a cartridge of the medical salve. It would do for now as he walked over to the semi-concious man, knealing down and quickly peeling back the bandage, which the Major noted was actually just a jacket wrapped tightly around the wound. As he removed the bandage, Alten moaned and mumbled something in cohearent, his world tinged with black as he tried to respond to the stimuli of the Major messing with his hand.

Alten was so out of it, he only twitched slightly when the salve was being applied to his chewed up hand, the Major working quickly to apply it as best he could. It would kill any infection, and hopefully the bleeding would stop in time to prevent the man from dying right here. Still, the Major could tell that the man was going to die soon if they didn't hurry. He opened up the coms, again reaching out to Paldin. "Paladin, I have two more for you to move out of here. They are flesh-and-bone so be careful doing so, one of them needs immediate medical attention as well." he said before finishing with Alten, carefully picking up the man and turning to head towards the edge of the rooftop. He also grabbed hold of the Admiral around her waist as he moved, and without stopping or waiting for her, he hoped down off the rooftop, landing in the sand. He was careful to make sure he did not jar either of them too much with the landing, and he let go of the Admiral as he walked towards Eulina's mecha once agian.

Syrin tried to rearrange herself in the pilot seat. The position was rathr awkward after all, as the Major conducted his orders. When he finished, the resounding pat of his hand against the hatch took her attention as she'd been slipping again. A bit of a small of smile graced her lips for a moment as she answered him in hardly a whisper, "Im not going anywhere... Major..." only to have darkness claim her consciousness soon after speaking the words.

Arina gasped loudly at the sight of a man in power armor vaulting over the side of the rooftop. Her fingers dropped the pole the moment he knelt down next to Alten and started undoing the bandage around the man's hand. The markings on the power armor finally alerted her to who it was and her heart was lodged in her throat.

"M-Major..." she whispered the word, but he didn't even address her, which spoke volumes in return. Dropping her gaze, she wrapped her arms around her chest and sat there as the Major worked on Alten's ruined hand. It was no wonder the Major didn't wish to speak to her, he was probably far to angry to even want to. Not to mention the Knights being in the middle of a battle that was surely going to cost more lives, including that of his own men.

Lost in her own thoughts, she gave a startled yelp as the Major's arm was suddenly around her waist and dragging her up against him. Wincing slightly at the feel of steel against her bruised side, she clamped her mouth shut though so as not to whimper or do anything really. The Major was already irritated, her weakness would probably only serve to make matters worse.

That was, until he decided to drop off the side of the two story building. With a startled cry of shock and fear, she turned into him and clutched the armor tightly, her fingernails scraping against the metal of his power armor and chipping more than a few. When they hit the ground, she gave a groan and immediately toppled into the sands as he released her.

She couldnt fight the tears then. Rather than tears of fear and shock, they were of shame that time. Getting back up as her knees had given way when he let her go, she stumbled after him, though kept some distance between the two of them. The sight of the mecha tore at her heart as she was sure whomever was inside was injured or stuck, or both. It was made even worse with the knowledge that she'd just endangered everyone. Even so, the silent treatment from the Major was far worse than hearing him yell at her in return.

Aigidios carefully set Alten down next to Eulina's mecha, Alten just falling over to the side, limp now. The Major quickly caught him and then laid him down alongside the mecha, scowling some at the sight of the man. He looked over to the sound of a large machine walking towards them, about to adress the mecha when his eyes widened at the sight of the pirate mecha aiming its beam rifle towards them.

"Admiral take cover!" Aigidios quickly yelled before he did the only thing he could think of. Grabbing the handle of his sword, he flipped the switch on in the same motion, then drew it from his back and threw it straight towards the charging beam of energy at the end of the barrel. The sword spun for a moment, giving a soft hum before it slammed right into the barrel. It sliced its way in for a few inches before its handguard got caught, again it not benefitting from the high-frequency cutting ability. It did however disrupt the beam's charging mechanism, and Aigidio quickly changed his plan and moved over to the Admiral, tackling her to the ground and shielding her when the mecha's weapon exploded, showering the area in sharpnel and a slight burst of energy.

More warnings went off in his helmet, as his armor was singed slightly from the blast. Alten was fortunate to have Eulina's mecha to shield him from the burst of shrapnel and energy. Aigidios quickly got up off the Admiral to see the condition of the enemy mecha, which to his fear it was still standing. It was badly damaged from the explosion, as both its arms had been annihilated and the front of it was badly damaged as well. The problem was, Aigidios did not have his sword anymore, which was the only thing he had that could really damage the mecha.

Standing between the mecha and the Admiral, Aigidios was trying to think of what to do as it began to stomp towards them. "You squirrely motherfuckers!" a voice shouted from the mecha. "Why the fuck won't any of you just d-" the voice was cut off as a massive sword slammed through the center, causing Aigidios to once again shield the Admiral before looking over to see the sight he wanted. One of the mechas from Paladin ripped its sword free of the pirate mecha and let it simply topple over.

"Apologies, Sentinel-Major." The cavalier within the mecha said. "That shit was a slippery little devil." the mecha then turned and walked over towards Eulina's downed mecha and began working to get ahold of just the esential cockpit that contained her. It didn't need the rest, just to make sure it could carry Eulina away. It also carefully picked up Alten's limp form. As it worked, Aigidios turned to look at the Admiral who he still had a hold of.

"That is your ride out of here. Get back, get dressed, and you best take this opportunity to sleep, because you and I are going to talk once I get back." He said before nodding his armored head towards the mecha. He then guided her there, keeping a light hold of her arm to help move her along.

At the sight of the mecha coming around the corner, Arina's heart froze in her chest and she couldn't move another inch. Even Major Aigidio's shout for her to take cover never reached her ears. She stood stock still at the sight of the mecha approaching them, the rifle it was holding begining to power up with a bright blue light at the back of the barrel.

Arina didn't even see Aigidios move and throw his sword at the thing, destroying the barrel. She trembled as the mecha's gun made an odd sound. In the next moment she felt sand against her back and a heavy body covering her and blocking out the sun. With her heart in her throat once more, she hardly even gave a gasp as Aigidios toppled her over and sheilded her.

The explosion jolted her body and she curled under him with a started cry. Metal went flying everywhere and if it hadn't been for Aigidios, she surely would have been torn apart. As he looked up to the mecha, she heard a voice shouting from the thing and she cringed. Unwillingly, Arina was once again crying as she lay on the ground. Following the voice that sounded utterly pissed off was the sound of metal tearing apart.

Once again, Aigidios sheilded her and she felt even more guilt pulling at her stomach as he did so. Why would he even do that? Surely it would have been easier to forget her after disobeying and putting everyone in such a horrid situation. Even worse was the mecha that was half toppled over and hadn't moved since it had crashed there, taking several direct hits from missiles launched somewhere from the city's buildings.

The mecha that saved them from the pirate addressed the Major directly and then proceeded to the downed mecha and pried free the cockpit, quite literally tearing it from the rest of the machine. Shuddering breathes filled her chest as Arina struggled to keep calm. However when Aigidios addressed her she couldn't help the tears that flowed again.

Nodding her head rapidly, she didn't even answer him as he told her to go to the mecha that would take her back to safety and then get taken back up to the Stellae Caelator. Up on her feet, Aigidios helped her along to the mecha that waited for her once it had gotten a hold of the cockpit and Alten.

Turning, she faced the Major and opened and closed her mouth several times while standing next to the Mecha. With guilt hammering at her chest and mind, she dropped her gaze, "T-thank you, Major... I..." she shook her head heavily, "I would have understood... If you hadn't come," she finished finally and turned to the mecha to allow it to take her back to safety.

"As I said, we will have this discussion once this battle is over. Now is not the time, as I need to get back out there." The Major said, watching Arina move towards the mecha. He then looked up at the mecha. "Get them back behind the line quickly. Eulina and Alten need immediate medical attention." He then backed away from the mecha as it carefully took hold of its charges.

"Understood, good luck out there, Major. I will return to the field once I drop them off." Aigidios nodded his head to the mecha, watching it turn and begin heading towards the rear of the Knights battle line. The Major watched it go, shaking his head as he turned to observe the pirates that were closing in on his position. He was surprised that the Admiral and her attendant had actually survived this long out here, though that did not mean he was not pissed with her. Shaking his head, he raised his arm up to fire back at the pirates; least here he could work out his frustrations in a manner he preferred.

Alten mumbled something as he barely managed to lift his head, looking around with a rather blank look. "Arina...." he managed to utter, his head falling against the hand of the mecha that was holding onto him and Arina. It had cupped its hand so as to carry the two, in its other hand it was carrying the cockpit of Syrin's mecha, and the pilot was being careful with both of them. Alten tried to lift his good hand, looking around again. His skin had lost much of its color, and he looked very out of it as he moved barely managed to move his arm and head.

"Here," Arina called, taking hold of the hand that he lifted up slightly. She curled both hands around his, her fingers tightly holding onto him. What had she been thinking? Right then it seemed that her original plan was nothing but a childs dream, an idiotic ideal that held no meaning at all. And she had thought she could never lose. Never.

Yet, there she was, stripped down nearly naked, Alten dying, a pilot dying, and who else knew was either dying or dead. Cursing herself, she tilted her head into Alten's good hand. Was she ever going to be able to perform like she once did? She didn't think she could ever set foot into a negotiation again, not with such a horrid failure beating at the back of her mind.

Arina stayed like that for the entire trip back to safety. All the while she tried to think of how she was going to face the Major. Would she have to face the Commodore as well? Probably. What was she going to say? Would she even have strength enough to say anything at all? Arina supposed it was just a matter of time and she would find out when it happened.

Arina was dressed in the crisp, clean, black uniform that she normally wore. Ever since getting back on her vessel, she'd not stopped moving. Showered quite a few times to try to clean herself of the horrid feeling of pirates hands on her, redressed each time in the same black uniform and then stared in the mirror for a long while before pacing in her room.

She'd been treated by the medics for her slight injuries, mostly burns from the sun exposure and bruising along her ribs. In addition to that she was still feeling hot and cold randomly, taking off her uniform coat several times and putting it back on when she would feel like she was freezing. A headache tormented her, but she found that she just couldn't settle.

Her nerves were too much on end to lay down and rest. Arina's guilt tore at her stomach, making her feel sick most times. She'd gone through an entire box of tissues as well with her emotions all over the place. All the while she was waiting for the dreadful call from the Major, telling her they would be speaking.

Fidgiting and pacing, Arina went over in her mind a deep apology, the words tumbling over themselves often and ending with her shaking her head and starting all over again. Sometimes she thought to tell him the reasons as to why she'd gone down there to begin with, but eventually that disappeared entirely. All that she could possibly think to do was try to apologize in some way or another.

Then the knock resounded in her room. A heavy sound that resounded in her chest and froze her blood. Arina halted in the middle of the room, her gaze wide as she stared at the floor. It took her several moments to catch her breath and not break down right there without even opening the door. Straightening, she headed over to the door and opened it to the one and only man who could issue such a heavy pound on the door and still not break it.

Nash stood there, looking the Admiral up and down when she opened the door. He looked her in the eyes, "Welcome back to a more civilized center, Admiral." he said in a neutral tone. "Wasn't very fun down in the dirt and grime of the red zone, if I heard correctly. Yet here you stand, alive and fairly well."

"I imagine you were expecting the Sentinel-Major, but he'll make his way here eventullay, he's still cleaning up from the fight down on Ko'val. May I please enter?" he asked her, not having moved at all the whole time.

Arina froze as she laid eyes upon Commodore Nash. She'd hardly expected for the Commodore to have shown up or even been informed of what had happened. Swallowing dryly, Arina only managed a short nod of her head and stepped aside for him to enter her quarters aboard the Stellae Caelator.

As she waited for him to enter, she lowered her gaze, her hand tight against the side of her thigh as she held the door opened for him. Arina hadn't said a word to him just yet. After all it seemed that her throat was sealed shut and no words even came to mind to be spoken anyway. So she waited for the Commodore to start, having a feeling that he was going to anyway.

Nash nodded his head to her as she stepped aside to let him in, "Thank you, Admiral." he said as he moved into the room, limping slightly from his bionic leg as he did so. Once he had made it past the doorway and towards the center of the room, he stopped and turned to face her.

"So, what have you learned from this experience, Admiral?" he asked, breaking the silence that had hung for a few moments. His tone did not change at all when he asked, and once he had moved to the center of the room he gripped his left hand with his right, letting them hang in front of him as he looked at her. His eyes remained fixed on her as he asked the question.

"I hope it was something, or else then it would truly have been a waste of time and energy on your part." he said.

Arinas gaze shifted upward toward the Commodore rapidly as he asked her what she had learned. She stared at him for a while, unsure as to how to proceed when he added the last bit.

I learned that I am weak, that I am ignorant, that I cant do the job I was sent to do, that I got many people killed, that I should have listened! What the hell am I supposed to say to this man?! her thoughts tumbled in a chaotic rush.

Taking a breath, she could feel the heat increasing again across her skin, but she ignored it that time and kept the uniform intact. She deduced that seeing the medical bay again for her shivers and getting too warm was probably a good idea. After all, she had most likely gotten a cold or flu of some sort from the harsh experience as well as being in the icy cold night air of the desert.

"I..." her voice cracked and she tried again, her eyes lowering that time from the Commodore's, "I learned that I cannot negotiate with everyone," she answered softly, none of her usual confidence in her tone. Arina sounded like a child being berated by a parent. At least that's what she thought it sounded like.

Nash watched her look away from him, clearly unsure and almost afraid to say anything to him. When she finally spoke and gave him an answer, he moved his head in a slight nod. "Good." he said, this time his tone softening for once.

"I'm glad that you picked something from this experience, Admiral. And learned an important lesson such as that." As he spoke, his tone no longer carried the same authority it once had. Instead, it carried a softness that a teacher might use towards a student. "It is unfortunate you had to learn it through such an ordeal."

"There will be people in the universe that you cannot sway from their path, Admiral. It does not mean you shouldn't give it try, but do not expect to move them with words alone."

"I also want you to be aware, that the initiative you showed, to head down to the surface to meet with the Captain, is good to have. However, initiative that is not balanced by an understanding of the situation will rarely go well for you. Though taking risks and chances is a large part of dealing with war or politics, you must still think about what might come those results."

"Please, look at me, Admiral." He said, waiting before continuing. "Listen to those who have lived and experienced what it is you will be facing. It is the rare few who take huge risks and it pay off with a glorious victory, Admiral. Stupid mistakes like the one you made can result in things such as this." He said while pointing to his bionic eye, "This, and this." he said while then indicating to his arm and leg.

"You were fortunate that you only risked yourself and Mr. Ashley, considering the Sentinel-Major, and myself, were already set on going down to the planet to remove the pirates."

Arina kept her gaze off of the Commodore as he spoke to her. With her head hung down she fought off tears that burned and pulsed just between her eyes. It added to her headache which made her feel even worse than before. She just couldn't bring herself to look up at Commodore Nash. At least, until he called out to her, asking her to look at him.

Lifting her head, she met his gaze and only then did he continue talking. She winced inwardly as he pointed to his bionic eye, arm, and leg. She couldn't really find anything that was fortunate in having risked Alten's life along with hers. If it had just been her own, and no one elses then she could have dealt with it better.

Taking deep, shuddering breathes, her voice was unnaturally high as she answered him, teetering on the edge. She'd never cried so much in her life and she'd never planned to show such weakness in front of two very powerful men but it seemed she just couldn't do it, "Commodore... No one should have had their lives at risk for what I did. I no longer have the right to be called 'Admiral' aboard this ship. My 'risk' was a result of my own ego and look what happened? Several people have died, and Atlen nearly lost his life," she shook her head as she curled her arms up over her chest and squeezed her eyes shut tightly as she took another deep breath to try to calm down as she grew cold rather than hot once more.

"This... All could have been avoided if I'd simply listened."

"Yes, it could have been avoided had you listened to us." He nodded his head, but then he cockced it to the side as he gave her a quizzical look. "But, do you really think you are the only one to make mistakes? You think I pointed to my bionics to blame someone else? To show you what happened when someone else fucked up?"

He moved his head back to its normal position, "My left limbs, my eye, my lung, parts of my skull and ribs, and my lower jaw are metal because I made that mistake. It was a fight I picked that didn't need to be picked. So if you think you are the only one who has ever made a mistake, then perhaps you need to open your eyes a bit more. Welcome to being the leader of hundreds of people, Admiral. Risks will have to be taken, and unless lady luck froths at your mere prescence you will fuck up at one point or another."

"No one died because of your risk, Admiral. Those Knights did not die because they came for you. They died because the Sentinel-Major ordered an attack on the planet, an attack he planned from the start." He narrowed his eyes at her. "So I think the next thing you need to learn is to stop beating yourself up and get back to leading the people. Welcome to being human, where making mistakes is quite common. Enjoy the fact that in the grand scheme of things, your mistake had little cost to it." He finished, locking his eyes with her's as he did.

A faint blush crossed her cheeks as her eyes lowered when he first started talking to her. As he continued, at some point she raised her gaze up to look at him. Her outlook on the Commodore was steadily changing the more he talked to her. At that moment she was rather glad that he'd shown up first instead of the Major though she knew she was still going to have to deal with him and somehow apologize profusely.

"Commodore..." Arina breathed, then took her lower lip and bit it as she nodded her head and clenched her arms tighter together. She couldn't get her voice to answer him that time, only able to nod without leaking tears. So far she'd done rather well at not bursting out, but she wasn't sure how long that would last when the Major showed up. Speaking of apologizing, she couldn't recall if she'd said so to Commodore Nash or not just yet. She didn't think so.

"I sincerely apologize for my mistake in disobeying the Sentinel-Major," she offered to him, hoping that it would be enough for the moment. Arina was already trying to figure out how she would make it up to both of them throughout their mission to recolonize Ko'val and the rest of the trip remaining.

"Perhaps you should direct that apology at me, rather than the Commodore." Aigidios' voice spoke from the doorway. Nash turned his eyes to view the man, the Major meeting the Commodore's gaze. Aigidios walked into the room, shutting the door behind him. The Sentinel-Major was still decked out in his power armor, which was dinged up and dirty from sand, dirt, as well as spots of dried blood. His helmet was tucked under his arm, and he did not have the arm-mounted assault rifle equipped. "What brings you here, Commodore Nash? I do not recall inviting you to join in this dicussion."

The Commodore's voice took on his normal hard tone as he responded, "I do not recall ever requiring your permission to board a vessel that is not under your command, nor to listen in on a matter that involves all of us." Nash responded back, drawing a scowl from the Knight.

"Then if you are done, I wish to speak with the Admiral." Aigidios said, while turning his eyes to Arina.

"Then go ahead, I will not interrupt." Nash said, not having taken his eyes off the Sentinel-Major.

"Without you here, Commodore." Aigidios said, turning his eyes back to the Naval Officer.

Nash turned his eyes to Arina, "I believe it is the Admiral's choice on whether or not I am dismissed from her vessel and room." he said while watching her.

Arina had nearly jumped out of her skin at the Major's voice. As it was she just barely stiffled a gasp of shock, and did jolt as she stood there. Her fear only subsided slightly as he walked into the room with his power armor still on and looking quite literally like hell. Her breath caught in her throat and almost refused to come free as she stood there, frozen to the spot.

It was made even worse as the two commanders had a bit of an arguement with one another. When Aigidios practically ordered the Commodore to leave, her heart skipped a beat and she almost shook her head no immediately. She wasn't sure she could handle the Major on her own, yet at the same time she'd thought for certain she wouldn't have been able to speak to the Commodore alone and she had managed, and surprisingly he was very gentle.

Perhaps the Sentinel-Major would be as well?

There really was only one way to find out. Still, she wasn't quite sure having the Commodore leave entirely was something she was comfortable with. Glancing between them two of them as she stood there with slight chills curling up and down her spine, she finally made her decision, "C-Commodore, if you could step out? But... Remain outside, please," she said, partially asking for him to remain in the hall and hoping that he would agree.

The Commodore turned his eyes to look at Arina before turning back to the Major. "Then I shall." he then walked past the Sentinel-Major, who watched the officer head through the door and shut it behind him before Aigidios turn his attention on the Admiral.

Aigidios watched her for a while, before finally finding his words. "We warned you about the danger of going down to that planet Admiral. And you barely made it out of there alive, hell you barely made it out of there with any dignity."

"I hope next time you will heed our warnings, and swallow that ego of yours. Less you have it forcibly shoved down your throat in an even worse fashion. Honestly, I feel like I should have you suspended from your position, however I have no desire to disrupt the operations as they are right now by having to remove and then instill a new Admiral. That, and I have no desire to put up with the bullshit bureaucracy and red tape ExStella would force on me."

He sighed, crossing his arms, having moved his helmet to be gripped in one of his hands. "So consider yourself very lucky that you get another chance to prove yourself, Admiral Xsan." his tone hardened though as he spoke one last bit, "You do something like that again, however, I will have you removed. Understood?"

Arina couldn't get any words out of her mouth as she watched the Major, frozen to the spot and enduring the best she could under his hard gaze and heavy tone. He was utterly pissed off with her.

It was then that she couldn't keep from crying. Shorter breathes and clenching her arms tighter than before. When he finished, she was all but shaking and trembling.

"Y-yes... Major," she offered the words barely even steady off her tongue, "I will try to improve... F-forgive me, please..."

Her crying made her head swim and she swayed suddenly. Reaching up, she pressed her fingers to her forehead and continued speaking, trying to make coherent sentences by then, "Will start... improving... I can't..."

Arina turned, bracing herself against the table next to her, "I'm sorry, Major... So..." Arina faltered and started to topple, trying to catch herself. She should have gone to see the medic before hand, but she'd been so worked up she couldn't think of doing so at the time.

"I hope for your sake, you do improve." Aigidios said, watching her. He narrowed his eyes though as he watched her seem to sway, gripping her head as she did so. "Admiral?" he asked, his tone having changed to one of concern.

He moved towards her, moving quickly and catching hold of her, making sure to be careful with his grip given that he was wearing his armor still, to stop her from falling over. "Admiral!" he carefully held onto her, having dropped his helmet when he had taken hold of her. He looked over at the door as it opened up, looking at the Commodore as he stepped in to see what the fuss was. "I think the Admiral needs to see the medic, Commodore." Aigidios said while carefully picking up Arina.

Nash nodded his head, looking down at the helmet the Major had dropped. "I'll collect your helmet then." Nash said as he stepped around the Major, who was already heading out the door quickly. Aigidios did not wait for The Commodore, heading straight towards the med-bay with the Admiral in his arms, slipping by people as his pace quickened.

"Admiral Xsan, this is not exactly a good step on the whole 'proving yourself' thing when you get sick waiting on us." Aigidios said as he made his way through the hallways, reaching the med-bay rather quickly, thanks to his power armor improving his walking speed. He walked inside and looked around for the nearest doctor as he did so, casting a glance at Arina for a moment before going back to his search.

"She is an odd one, least in regards to her own well being, Sentinel-Major." Nash spoke up from behind, causing the Knight to turn and look at The Commodore, who had the Major's helmet in his left hand.

"Well, you move rather quickly for someone with a fake leg." Aigidios said back, looking around once again.

"It may be a bit rigid in its movements, Sentinel-Major, but it is still a bionic limb, after all." Nash said back, eyeing the entire bay as he did.

Arina wasn't quite sure how she ended up in Major Aigidios arms. Her head swam horribly as she was lifted up and carried into the hall. She was limp for the majority of the journey to the medical bay, and only half heard what he said. Her not being able to start the 'proving herself' to them was painful to hear and she tried to lift herself in his grip but failed utterly.

"Sorry... Major... It's just... A flu, or cold... I don't know," she muttered, "Got it while on Ko'val..." shame flooded her body and she cursed herself for her utter weakness, "Was already sick before the meeting."

"What now? We just saw you, Admiral," the voice of the doctor who Arina had seen hours ago distracted her from further trying to explain to the Major. He probably already understood the situation, but she wasn't paying attention, too busy with her pounding head, shivers of feeling far too cold and overall aching in every muscle and bone in her body.

Arina looked over to the doctor but only shook her head, biting her lip as she moved again, shifting in Major Aigidios' arms. The doctor made a sound, as if displeased with the situation and pointed out one of the few open beds for the Major to take the Admiral too as he started getting together a few things to recheck her.

"What happened?" he asked, the tone slightly impatient but not to the point of being annoyed.

"Well doctor, either she was hiding some kind of illness, or I scared her so much her body is shutting down out of fright." Aigidios said as he walked over to the indicated bed and set Arina down on it. He then turned, taking the helmet from The Commodore as he offered it to the Knight. "Thank you."

"I suggest you tie her to the bed, doctor. She's prone to running off to do silly things, it seems." Nash added while turning to look at the doctor. He then turned to look back at the Admiral. "Well, I think any discussions can continue after you recover, Admiral. I will be returning to The Wind now." he then looked up at the Major. "Good day to you, Sentinel-Major."

Aigidios looked at Nash, nodding his head and simply grunting in response, watching as the officer turned and made his way out of the bay. He then looked back at the Admiral before at the doctor. "Good luck with her, and if you could, keep the Commodore and myself up to date on her condition. We'd like to know if her illness turns out to be worse than she makes it out to be."

"Fine..." Arina muttered as she was laid out upon the mattress. Dizzy the moment her head hit the pillow she sort of lay there, sprawled out and feeling as if her body was made of lead.

"You look anything but fine, Admiral," the doctor said as she opened her mouth with a wooden spoon like thing and stuck a thermometer into her mouth to which she grimaced but held there anyway. The digital counter climbed in number rapidly until it stopped and beeped loudly a few moments after.

The doctor made an annoyed sound as he pulled it out of her mouth, "Forgive me for being blunt, but damn it, Admiral. The hell were you thinking? 106 degree fever, I'm amazed you're still awake," he shook his head with a heavy sigh.

"Just... Medicine, then I'll be fine."

The doctor looked up to the Major who spoke after the Commodore left. Nodding he worked around Aigidios and the bed, grabbing a few things, medicines and cold patches to bring down the fever, blankets and other items too, "Yes, I'll send you reports on her condition as it changes. If anything happens, you and the Commodore will be the first to know. I'll be keeping her here until she's recovered."

"No, I have work-"

"So that you may run yourself into the ground? I don't think so," the doctor gave her a deadly looking glare before turning to Aigidios, "Perhaps you should stay on the ship? Unless you're needed elsewhere? You say you might have frightened her, maybe it'll keep her in bed," he finished, giving Arina a pointed glare over his shoulder.

Aigidios closed his eyes, shaking his head at Arina's insistence to get up. He then opened his eyes again to look at her. "Admiral Xsan, working at a temperature of 106 degrees falls into the category of stupid. Don't do it, or you might just end up killing yourself and saving me the trouble of going through ExStella. So how about we avoid having you kill yourself, alright?"

He adjusted his helmet in his hands, moving closer to the Admiral's bed. "Besides, you have Mr. Ashley to help you with things if needed. He's right over there, anyways." Aigidios then pointed over to one of the beds a few rows down. In it was lying Alten, who currently was asleep, his hand wrapped up in a thick casing of bandages. Aigidios then looked back down at her. "I'm sure he'll be up and running soon, less the doctors told him to sit still as well. In any case, don't work."

With that, The Sentinel-Major then looked up at the doctor. "I do need to leave, as we are not finished down on the surface. As I said, good luck with her." He then looked at Arina, "Good luck to you as well, Admiral Xsan." He then turned and made his way towards the door, setting his helmet back on over his head as he left the bay.