Rungholt

Tera

"Huh."

He'd admit, he was rather surprised to see Mercury in its current state, looking exactly like when he'd first gotten it. Well, almost. The blue paint had been stripped off, revealing gray metal.

"I didn't expect it to look so good," Tera said.

"Impressive, isn't it?" Krys said, clasping his hands together. "My dad's real good at his job, so it's not too surprising, but still!" He looked over Mercury, and his grin slipped. "Although...I did like the blue...picked it, after all..."

He shook his head, then started chatting with his dad. Tera, for his part, stared at the suit, trying to think of anything to ask for. He didn't know much about this sort of thing...but he did know that Krys liked blue.

He looked at the mechanics. "Can you make it blue?"

Stefan

“Ohhh, look at you...~!” Stefan crooned upon seeing the Panther, an appreciative smirk on his face as he walked up to it and delicately rubbed its frame. “She's perfect, insofar. Only things I'd recommend are for vanity's sake. An all-black coat of paint, for instance... though I love that red glow—”

He cleared his throat, calming himself forcefully. His tail was still weaving about in an excited fashion, however—seemingly out of his control.

“Mm. Given my... limited acquaintance with this darling, are there any options you'd suggest? Faults, weaponry...? Etcetera. I'd rather not take up your time too much...”

Judah Reborn always looked like that; Astrid noted they'd swapped the shotgun though, to a lever-action one. Normally that wouldn't be a huge upgrade, but on an exo-suit you could actually twirl the level one-handed and not break your wrist. You'd see gangers in the city try it all the time, and some of the freaks could actually pull it off. What had her really interested though were the comments about the Mercury. The dark, utilitarian brown of Judah was a dedicated choice on Astrid's part.

"Why'd you pick those colors?" She asked Tera, and tapped Stefan on the shoulder. "You as well. I'm curious. Judah was a specific choice to look distinct in how plain it was."

Szelejewski shrugged and gestured for a young woman to come over with a black spray-can. She was a Tinkerer, like most in his crew, though in her case a piece of her skull had a bulky processor sticking out of it, which was linked to her right prosthetic arm. It soon became clear why, as she began to paint the PANTHER with a black camo, with the precision normally reserved for industrial machinery.

"Its a fast one," explained Szelejewski to Stefan. "Its previous owner at the very least knew the importance of efficiency, so he didn't mess too much with the configuration. Pretty much your basic Mk.III set-up. Gyro, retractable blades like the MERCURY and improved actuators in the legs. Not too tough, though. We hadn't found the right material, so you're going out with just the basic Tung-Steel alloy, which is a bit too heavy to allow for proper plating."

He gestured to a nearby table, which had two heavy handcannons laying on it. Each one big enough to require a two-handed grip from any normal person and with a recoil that could break wrists, if one wasn't careful. "Hezzler HK-5's. Got a nice punch, but with limited ammo-capacity. Magazine has twenty rounds."

Then he heard Tera and Krys talked and whistled at them. "Blue is not gonna be an option, android. Tera, was it?" He walked over to them.

Krys looked a bit confused. "Why not? Its a good look."

"No about the look, son. These suits have to keep their drivers alive, so blue isn't something I recommend, if you head out into the woods. We stripped it off, because if not than any Zet with any kind of visual organ will see you coming a mile away."

He pointed at the girl currently painting up the PANTHER. "Maria is happy to help you with a proper camo, so just talk to her." He looked at the MERCURY, briefly rubbing the lenses of his bionic eyes. "Damn piece, if you ask me. Complicated and difficult to repair. You sure, you wanna use it? There are easier ways to die."

"Don't bother," came it from the side. Victoire was putting on the DRAGON, testing out its movements. Her helmet opened up and she shook her head. "I tried talking him out of it. No use." She held up her arms, opening up the integrated weapons-system within them. "Hey, do you have special ammo for this? I was looking for something like hollow-point bullets."

As Szelejewski focused on her, Jagoda looked at Tera and gave him an apologetic smile. "Guess your suit got a reputation...what modification do you want to get done, seeing as we got some time for it? Maybe a gun?"

Edited by TheNohen on May 15th 2021 at 9:27:50 PM

Stefan

“Short answer—I think a black coat of paint looks gorgeously dangerous...” Stefan answered Astrid with a small smirk. “Second, I myself have a darker fur, so it's fitting. Thirdly, it'd make good camouflage to have as a basecoat. Assuming we ever go out at night. Though the forest camo I admit looks...”

He studied it, nodding to the girl busily spraying away in appreciation of her work before smiling in approval.

“...it breaks up its outline neatly enough. Even if it's not conventionally stealthy, if it's as swift as I hope it'll be hard to get a lock on in the forest with that patterning. Nonetheless... she seems perfect for what I have in mind.”

Tera

"Oh." That made sense. Krys did seem a bit disappointed, but there wasn't much Tera could do about that.

At the question of whether he was sure he wanted to use it, he nodded. "I like it," he said, voice a bit more defensive than he intended. "It works for my purposes, it didn't fail catastrophically, and Krys gave it to me and I like him, so I'm going to keep using it." Krys's cheeks went a bit pink at that. Tera had no clue why.

"Yeah, don't bother," Victoire said from the side, where she was testing out her own suit. "Tried talking him out of it. Didn't work."

"All you did was tell me the suit's history."

"And that should've been enough to dissuade you. But it wasn't, so..." She shrugged.

At Jagoda's question, Tera frowned a bit, putting his finger to his chin. "I...guess a gun could work?" He really had no idea, but you couldn't go wrong with a gun.

"Do you have some hesitation about guns?" Astrid asked Tera with a raised eyebrow. She grew up around the things, so she was dimly aware she was certainly more comfortable with them than most people, but on the other hand life was hard, always. You needed a piece. "Camouflage is more effective from a distance. Even the ten, fifteen feet that Judah's flashers and shotgun pellets reach will benefit from a little silhouette disruption. Though, yes..." She sighed, and cracked a small smile. "I'm going to miss a sky-blue suit not popping off shells. Reminded me of some kids show or something. Maybe another time. Might be useful if the Zets really are impressionable, hold grudges, maybe feel fear, or admiration."

They chatted away a bit more, before finally everything was ready. The hissing of pneumatic muscles and the low hum of powercores signaled the end of the preparations, as the pilots entered their exo-suits. Jagoda stretched cautiously, before reaching out and grabbing the pistol, she requested, along with three separate silencers. Astrid and Veronika had to wait for the mechanics to put on the ammo-stores, while Victoire was already stepping off the platform and activating and de-activating her wrist-guns.

"If you don't intend on shooting somethin', I suggest you lower those things right quick," came it from their right. Heavy steps followed and a green-grey splattered medium-suit walked towards them. It had a camo-cloak draped over its head and on its sides a pulse-rifle and wicked looking machete, with a laser-edge. It took a second for the group to realize that this was a heavily modified EVA suit.

The helmet opened with a hiss and they looked into the scarred face of a mutant-woman. Wide jaws, with criss-crossing scars all over her face as if someone had smashed her into a grater. Down the neck they could spot her green scales stapled over cold metal, suggesting a prostethic on her right side.

"Sgt. Stur," she introduced herself and saluted. "I'm here to pick up Warden Runtienne."

"Why?" Veronika opened her helmet, puzzled.

Stur gestured for her to get down the platform. "'Cause one of my newbies is out and your squad is oversized anyway, so the brass decided to hand you over to me."

"What?" Victoire looked seriously upset. "You can't just do that before our first mission. We trained weeks with her!"

"Tough luck, sweetie. Those are the orders. And you still are full-strength, while I have a hole to fill in my squad. Deal with it." She looked at Victoire still holding up her wrist-guns and frowned. "And put those things down, before I make you."

For a moment it looked like Victoire was seriously considering defying her, but after a few tense seconds, she complied. Veronika also did not look happy with the decision, but stepped down and followed Stur.

"This is bullshit!", cursed Victoire and kicked an empty bucket away.

"It is what it is." Sgt. Vanleer arrived, his heavy HEPHAESTUS lumbering towards them. "I agreed to this, just so you know. This is a big operation and all squads need to perform."

"But we now have to give up Veronika and get this freak instead!" Victoire pointed accusingly at Stefan.

Vanleer looked at her with his usual unnerving calm. "We don't choose our orders, Warden. We merely execute them. I expect that you guys take this change of circumstances with a level of professionalism."

Then a horn sounded and the Wardens around them began to move to the transports. Vanleer gestured them to follow him and they made their way to a small troop-transport. It wasn't as huge as the PCC they had been in during the Crucible and instead was much more compact and lightweight, clearly meant to transport a squad at most.

The driver opened the backdoor for them and waited for them to file in, before returning to the front and starting up the engine. With a audible sputter that went over into a much more comforting buzz, the small transport lifted up the floor and began to slowly hover towards the Hangar-Gates.

The gates slowly opened wide, the like the maw of a giant beast. The rusty metal tinged red in the light of the hall and by the headlights of over a dozen transports. One by one, they flew out into the windy, bright day.

Edited by TheNohen on May 28th 2021 at 1:31:53 PM

Tera

"No, I just don't know—"

Tera did not get a chance to explain, however, as it was time for the mission. Shrugging lightly, he clicked and clasped Mercury into place, then waited on everyone else.

As he was waiting, a mutant-woman came up to them—Victoire's mother? Probably, since they shared a last name—and said she was there to take Veronika for her squad.

...Tera felt bad about being a bit relieved. Less people to look after.

At Victoire calling Stefan a freak... "Victoire, I get you're upset," Tera said, voice unusually serious. "But that's no excuse to go around insulting people. Especially when he hasn't done anything wrong."

"Yet."

"Even so. Don't take your frustration out on anyone. Even him. Got it?"

Victoire muttered something under her breath, but nodded. And with that, Tera headed for the troop-transport and took a seat, waiting patiently on everyone else.