| Out Riding in the Badlands | ||
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| Summary: Once again, Violet and Alexa are out in the Badlands, seeking a ship to call their own. While out there, however, they come across a familiar threat... And perhaps just what they were looking for.   |
The 22 isn't far behind, and it's pilot seems to be doing some wide circles around the area. "He's been early, I've been gettin' sleep. I ain't complainin'. But what do you mean eager to put you into the conversation, beautiful?" Alexa asks over the comm Victoria_Gundam raises a hand and waves as its pilot spots the 22. "I mean he's patched me through to Artanis directly. I'm kind of on and off on the military comm channel right now." The mecha turns back to look out over the damaged wastes, then Violet comms up again, "Well, might as well start here today, I suppose?" As is typical, she starts the gundam walking along the ground, looking in viable places for a small ship to be hiding, while letting Alexa get a larger but less detailed picture from the sky. Alexa nods, and grins. "Well, other guy.. I don't miss him one bit. Sure glad I ain't the one that had to give him the boot. No offense, darlin'. You know I ain't the command type." she chuckles a little, glancing between her sensors and out the window itself. Violet makes an annoyed sound. "Command's a bitch, Love. But I've been thrown into it for the third time, so it's my job, and I'm gonna do it. For instance, Artanis is doing his 'civil defender' bit again where he treats being part of the NTSDF as if it was a police force... I swear, I'm gonna get in trouble with the NTPD for something he does one of these days." She looks through an open door to a large warehouse, but moves on fairly quickly. Out in the distance, however, some dust clouds seem to be getting kicked up. There are a few heavily modified pickups out there driving along, which seem to have turrets mounted in the passenger side of their cabs. Alexa grins a bit. "Well, I think you're doin' a damned fine job. Then again, I may be a bit biased." She sees the dust getting kicked up and swings wide around them to investigate, hopefully out of firing range, but she can't be sure. "All I know is I can't do it. I ain't the type. Violet smirks lightly into the camera and says, "So you're gonna stay an Ensign forever, eh? Well, lack of confidence in command ability does look bad on promotion reviews, of course. Since that's basically what a promotion is for." She doesn't lose her smile through that, nor does it turn mean. "And yeah, I don't think I could really count on you to give me an unbiased review... Which is why when I really do need to get an official review done for you, I'm gonna have Artanis do it for me." She's pretty sure she can cut through Artanis' honor laden speach by now to get to the core of what he's saying, at least. Off in the distance, one of the oddly masked guys in the back of one of the trucks points up at the flying fighter before pointing his gun up and opening fire. Nevermind the aim, the weapon doesn't even seem to have even the range to take down aircraft. Apparently his buddy is more aware of this, because the guy firing gets a dopeslap for it. Alexa laughs a bit. "Okay, clarifyin'. I can't command a whole ship, but I can tell a baby pilot what to do. I don't want to stop flyin' because of a promotion." She notices the lack of power on the gun and just starts laughing. "Well, someone's not risin' to the challenge." Violet pouts slightly, not knowing what Alexa is talking about just yet. "Hey, it's not about challenge! It's about being fair and impartial! Even if I can be completely impartial, there's gonna be grumblings from half the crew if I'm even the slightest bit positive on the review, just because that's what people do, you know?" Meanwhile, on the trucks, someone is pulling a rocket launcher out of a crate. Alexa blinks. "No, darlin', the challenge was the guys down here who are... now bringin' out a rocket launcher... Stay back, would ya, love?" she asks, giving them a wider berth for a moment, debating internally whether or not she's actually going to fire back. Victoria_Gundam, having been looking into another warehouse, stands up straight again, looking up for where the VF-22 is and trying to extrapolate from that where the threat is... but she doesn't move in on the spot yet. This isn't an actual mission, so she doesn't necissarily give the orders right now. "All right, but if I see a smoke trail from the ground, I'm moving in." Meanwhile, among the white masked men out in their trucks, the man brings up the rocket launcher to bear... just in time for his truck to seemingly erupt in a giant cloud of dust. Whatever caused the dust explosion must have been massive, powerful... like the tan and black striped, bipedal giant crocodile that is slowly revealed as the dust starts to settle. The first truck is nowhere to be seen, but the second has flipped over onto it side, dumping the men in its bed onto the ground nearby. But they're not done yet, and are trying to right their truck again. Alexa blinks. "Hey darlin', I'm seein' a big lizard of some sort..." she flips a switch to feed what she's seeing into Violet's cockpit. "Should we just go ahead and find another way to go? Violet peers into the image feed for a moment before just nodding. "Yeah... unless it starts being hostile to us.... Let's just... find another way to go. Or if it starts heading for the wall." She turns the gundam to peer off into the distance, as if deciding where to go next. "See anything that looks like it might be able to hide a ship out there?" Alexa cuts the feed and starts circling around again, half looking, half keeping an eye on the thing she thinks is a lizard. She doesn't know better! "Good call. I ain't lookin' forward to dealin' with it, don't know 'bout you." Violet grimaces slightly and nods. "No need to stir up kaiju trouble. If they're out here and happy to be out here, best we not mess with them if we don't have to, probably. That platypus was a mess!" It's not visible to Violet, but there, off in the distance, is that same huge hovercraft whose mecha compliment had given them so much trouble last time! While only two mecha seemed able to escape last time, it seems perhaps they've picked up another mecha since then, as there's a third of another type with them. The hovership has pulled up to some odd, lopsided almost teardrop shaped metal thing that looks like it's got a section of some other object lodged into it, and is currently lifting it up with a crane. Alexa takes another pass, and that's when she sees them. Her face scrunches up and she tries to flip around to go back towards Violet's location. "Hey beautiful, we got a problem... Those guys we met on the last run are back, and they got new toys. Violet's expression turns a bit more feral. "Oh reeeeaaally. Well then, I guess it's time for round two then, huh?" The thruster packs on the back of her mecha open up reveal the actual thrusters again. "How do you want to do this, then. You draw fire, or should I?" That was perhaps said a bit early, however, as the tall, spindly one is already taking aim at the flying VF-22... but isn't opening fire just yet. Perhaps they're hoping they haven't been spotted? Or maybe they don't recognize the Sturmvogel just yet. Alexa smirks. "I'm a better flyer than fighter. I'll draw, you take 'em out, gorgeous. Deal?" she comes about again. Violet nods into the camera, then sets her machine in motion. "Right, coming in on foot then. When I see something hit the sky, I'm flying in, though." This isn't the leisurely walk that the gundam was travelling as it was searching, however, but a determined actual run. Certainly not stealthy at all, but if other mecha are running about, perhaps the sound will be masked? Meanwhile, the spindly machine continues to track the Sturmvogel, but as the fighter comes about once again, one of the others, the green one, takes aim as well, lifting its almost tommygun-like weapon up at the now incoming fighter again. The purple one, however, isn't raises the aimpoint of its own weapon, the same type as the green one's. It's looking out into the field, perhaps expecting something else. After a tense moment, as the Sturmvogel continues its approach, the green one opens fire with the machinegun. The spindly one leaps to the side before jumping up into the air... and changing configuration completely. While it's certainly not in the VF series of fighters, it's clearly designed to fly on its own as well in this new configuration, and shoots up into the sky with its large linear cannon blazing. Alexa starts cursing in Mandarin, and starts to take evasive maneuvers. She makes her movements as unpredictable as possible so she keeps the firing mecha guessing. She then blinks as she notices the other one transform and fire, then hits the throttle, speeding her own craft up. "That's it, come at me..." she smirks. "You ain't gonna hit me, but good luck tryin'!" Even the carrier's turret opens fire on the VF-22, hoping to box it in so the spindley transforming mecha or the now moving green one can get a better hit in. Meanwhile, the now fighter is much faster than its odd appearance would would suggest. Surely something else must be going on to get this kind of speed! And yet, it's nothing compared to the speed of a Sturmvogle II, a variable fighter renowned for its speed. Still, the linear cannon's shots easily can make up for the speed distance to hit if Alexa isn't careful, especially with the added fire from below. The purple one on the ground, however, seems convinced that something else is coming, keeping its weapon pointed more for a ground approach target as it starts stepping away from the carrier as well... And the pilot is most definitely right, as the Victoria leaps over the remains of a ruined skyscraper with its beam saber and shield powered up. He opens fire on the Victoria as soon as it clears the building, but the rounds bounce harmlessly off the shield. As Violet flips the gundam to a position where the head is lower than the feet to power dive, she yells out over an open channel, "Surprise! The Gundam's back, boys! This is why you don't shoot first and ask questions later!" She doesn't target the machine that's firing at her, however, instead targetting the green one to take out one of the threats to Alexa. The result is as often can happen when a gundam takes on a grunt level unit from a similar tech base... A complete bisection of the green mecha at the waist. "One down, three to go!" she says with a bit of a manic grin on her face. Alexa can't help but laugh at her fiancee's dialogue. "You tell 'em, beautiful!" she almost cackles. Pulling up suddenly, she flies vertical for a moment before flipping around to head back towards the group, banking left at the last moment somehow still keeping an erratic serpentine. "Neener neener neener!" she grins. She does blink as a shot does come at her, missing her cockpit by inches. Violet, for her part, is letting Alexa handle herself up there, but her manic state and the overdramatic strike has left her open to getting several rounds from the purple machine's guns, both the tommygun looking handheld as well as the torso mounted ones, barrelling into her gundam. "Damnit! Hit, but fine! Armor's holding for now!" The Victoria staggers to the side before bringing the shield to bear to block again, crouching down low to maximize the coverage of the shield now as she replaces the beam saber onto the shoulder and pulls the beam rifle off the hip plate. As the purple one comes in closer, she opens fire, scoring a few hits that clearly peirce the armor, but it's on the arm that's only holding the handheld weapon steady. As the enemy mecha realizes its own attacks aren't peircing the energy shield, it suddenly charges, a beam bayonette emitting from under the gun's barrel. Luckily for Violet, she's close enough to the carrier to be too low for its beam cannons to train on her, but unfortunately for Alexa, they're still capable of firing on her position. "How's that thing so fast?!" cries out someone over open comm, and the enemy fighter continues trying to hit Alexa's fighter with its linear cannon, but now that the VF-22 is headed back towards it, it's juking more, leaving its accuracy a bit looser. Alexa scowls at the word that Violet's hit. Regardless of whether or not she was fine, damnit, she was hit! During a return pass, Alexa opens fire, raining rounds on the mechs in her range when she can (avoiding Violet, obviously) before speeding up for evasive maneuvers again. The enemy fighter continues to try to fire upon Alexa's, its own evasive maneuvers saving it from taking any hits that attack run, and the purple mecha's proximity to the Victoria Gundam is giving it an effective sheild against Alexa's attacks. The near sitting duck of the carrier, however, isn't so lucky, as rounds penetrate the armor down the left hull, detonating the beam cannon turret and blowing a hole clear through the bridge. Apparently the bridge isn't completely out of commission, however, as the carrier suddenly starts moving again, dropping the lopsided haul that they had been attempting to take aboard and now trying to get away from the situation. There's some shouts on the open comm of concern from presumably the fighter pilot, as he now stops trying to evade as much and instead is focusing entirely on trying to hit the elusive target. Down below, however, a duel seems to be starting. The purple mecha is mostly stabbing with the beam bayonet, trying to get around the Victoria's shield. With a mild curse, Violet once again switches weapons, tossing the beam rifle to the side in order to speed up retrieving the beam saber back from the shoulder mount. Her focus primarily on defense, she's able to deflect the incoming stabs, but is unable to get in a strike of her own just yet. Alexa narrows her eyes, and then for some reason lessens the movements of her craft, as if she wants the fighter to get up directly behind her. Once she's certain she's being followed, she slows her speed, and then suddenly drops. Once the persuing fighter realizes she's not in front of him anymore, she's already behind him, opening fire. Apparently this fighter pilot is better than previously thought, because he seems to be able to follow Alexa's movements. Instead of letting her get that easy shot in on him, the machine instead transforms mid-air, which in turn causes it to tumble about, momentarily out of control, but also very unpredictably. Just in time, however, it regains control and pulls out a blade from a forearm while holding up its small shield to try to absorb incoming shots. Moving to try to intercept Alexa's fighter directly, it seems to be aiming to make a cockpit hit with the blade as it suddenly emits plasma into a longer, more potent sword. Meanwhile, on the ground, things are going a bit more predictably. The enemy unit, with its off arm already damaged, isn't able to control its thrusts nearly well enough to overcome Violet's shield work. She lets it strike the beam shield over and over before finally batting the weapon to the side and making a stab directly into one of the chest mounted cannons, detonating the ammo supply on the back and destroying most of the rest of the mobile suit. Alexa gasps as the fighter transforms, then tries to suddenly drop speed and bank hard, unfortunately leaving her underside wide open for the blade. The plasma sword cuts into the underside of the VF-22, barely scraping the nose section but cutting into the main body of the fighter. Thankfully due to the design of it, the bottom is actually mostly armored plate, but the left conventional landing gear, housed in the plates, is destroyed. As far as more internal damage is concerned, the design of the VF-22 is once again in Alexa's favor as there's relatively few vital components in the area struck, though the gunpod stored on that side is also destroyed. This does, however, have the effect of severely hampering the Sturmvogel's aerodynamics. The two mecha passed, the enemy mecha turns once again to face at Alexa's unit and opens fire once more with the linear cannon. Down on the ground, the Victoria Gundam looks over the remains of its opponent, then looks over at the retreating carrier. Deciding it isn't a threat anymore, she looks up into the sky just in time to see the strike on Alexa's fighter. "Alexa!" she shouts out in a near panic before outright diving for her beam rifle. She manages to grab and roll with it, coming up in a firing position, but missing the enemy fighter widely.
Its strike successful, the enemy craft spins in mid-air to face the Sturmvogel, once again bringing its linear cannon up for another strike. It's high speed in its less aerodynamic form, however, means it's shaking fair amount itself, and the shots go wide. Inside the cockpit, the pilot takes stock of their situation, and soon the mecha's engines are pointing it down, instead, towards the more easily hit, though better armored, Gundam on the ground. Violet, for her part, isn't letting up just yet. "Hold it together! Are the legs damaged?" she asks while sending a few more shots downrange at the now incoming mecha. One of the shots looks good at first, but the transforming flier just throws away its newly ruined defense rod. Alexa checks her instrument panels. "Landin' gear yes, legs no. Nothin' critical damaged either..." she slows down and attempts to put the craft into half-jet, half mech. That manages to be successful. "And now I'm in new territory..." she says really to nobody in particular as she turns back around. This time, on approach though, she starts lighting up the one that tore a hole in her hull. The spindly mech continues to swoop down upon Violet, firing as they descend. The shots hit harmlessly on the ground just short of where the Victoria was standing before it leaped into the air and engaged its boosters to try to meet the enemy part way as she once again drops the rifle in favor of a beam saber. But Violet's efforts at attacking turn out to be just as pointless as her dodging the missed attack, as the mauler energy cannons tear into the back of Alexa's target. "What the- It transformed?!" comes a slightly hypocritical shout over open comm before the mecha is hit by one last shot, ripping right through the torso. Now completely shredded, its parts rain down upon the badlands below. Alexa hehs. "Looks like..." She slows down and puts her legs on the ground. She's rather paranoid about the integrity of the Sturmvogel until she can give it a real once over. Once she's landed, she slumps back in the seat and sighs heavily. Victoria_Gundam adjusts its path to come to a landing next to the now gerwalk mode Sturmvogel. It bends over to look over its partner machine before turning to look at the still retreating enemy carrier hovercraft. "Do we want to persue, or are we just gonna let them run?" comms Violet over before her attention is drawn to that peice of debris that it was trying to load when they first engaged it. "What the-" Alexa shakes her head. "Let 'em go. I ain't goin' nowhere until I make sure I'm ship-shape." she says, content to just sit and relax for a moment. "What's up, beautiful? Violet sends Alexa a video feed of what she's looking at with her camera, even though Alexa should be able to see it from where she is on her own. It's a vaguely circular shape, with two braces coming out to hold a tube where one end looks certainly very cockpit like, though something's clearly missing from the other end of the tube. That large chunk lodged in front end looks very much like it doesn't belong in it, but behind it can easily be seen what appears to be a gun turret, though it's clearly damaged. "Does that look to you what it looks like to me?" Alexa looks at the screen, studying it, and then looks out to the actual thing in question. She blinks, then sits up straight again. "Yeah, I do believe it does.." She walks the Sturmvogel over until she's quite a bit closer. "I really, really think it does..." She checks the sensors again before popping the hatch and hopping out onto the wing. Victoria_Gundam holds out a hand for Alexa to hop onto. Assuming she takes the offer, it quickly walks over to what is becoming more and more clear is a ship. A clearly heavily damaged ship, but a ship nonetheless. "Alexa, my dear, I think we've hit the jackpot," says Violet through the PA system in her mecha. "...A very damaged, clearly needing a lot of work done jackpot." As she gets closer, it becomes more and more clear that it is indeed a ship of some sort, though also more and more clear that it's definitely not space ready. That chunk of foreign object clearly hit the ship with a lot of force, tearing meters into the ship and twisting itself around as well. "She's definitely not looking vacuum tight anymore." She walks around the back of the ship, which, if it has landing gear, doesn't have them deployed. "Something's missing behind the cockpit... Engines look beat up, but I think they're salvageable... I'm almost afraid to look at the underside." She lowers the hand down for Alexa to hop off before opening her own cockpit hatch. Alexa hops down off the hand after making mental notes of everything she sees. "Well, I ain't." she grins up at Violet. "I've seen a lot worse get life again." she stands there, waiting for Violet to join her before taking a real close look. Violet hops down from Victoria, and walks over to the ship. From down ehre, she can easily see the underside, which looks better than she thought it would. Sure, the lower turret looks completely destroyed, but other than that, it doesn't actually look that much worse for wear. "I'm thinking I'm seeing... Two entry hatches? One towards the front, one right there between the braces?" She then looks over to the cockpit and blinks at the opening at the back. "Hey... Look there. That hole's way too clean. You think that's where a life pod was?" Alexa heads over and inspects the hole. "Yeah, probably." And then.. she jumps into the opening. Violet quickly follow in, putting on her helmet again to use the headlamps on it. There's clearly no power on inside, so it's fairly dark, though the pathway is clear to the cockpit, with the exception of debris that's made it in through the gaping hole in the back. She peeks into the cockpit, looking it over. Four seats, though only the front two seem to actually have shown much use. Dust from the badlands is covering the instrument panals as well. Stepping back out, she peers down the hallway that is now to her right. Three doors down the hallway to the right, then a slight bend to the left before hitting another curved hallway. Alexa does a quick look at the cockpit, but figures anything in there can be repaired or replaced easily enough. She grins, then goes after Violet. Catching up with her fiancee, she smiles. "Anythin' interestin' down this way? Violet walks down the hallway finally, trying the doors. Clearly they're intended to be opened with power, as Violet has trouble at first opening them. She does manage to get them open a few inches, enough to look into, though. The first looks like the captain's quarters. The second looks like it's been converted from group crew quarters into a storeroom, boxes stacked up on top of berths that no longer have padding. The third is more clear in purpose, the head. Violet then continues on down and then walking around the curved hallway, which turns out to be a complete ring. She starts by turning to the left first, though. A much more sturdy door is here to the left, looking like an airlock. As she continues around, there's a large door to the left and a smaller to the right. She pops the small one open and takes a quick look, it's clearly access to a lot of circuitry. Turning around, she puts more effort into opening this door. With the door now open, she sees the engineering bay. IT certainly looks like the front end of a bank of engines, at least. She peers in long enough to see the door to her left in there, which she checks and opens enough to see that it's mostly an empty room. Rings here and there suggest it's intended for cargo, but this is the only entrance to the room. Heading back out into the hallway, to her left is another small hallway that leads down to another door, which when opened reveals what seems to be another escape pod, this one unused. "It's looking like the crew was all in the cockpit?" Alexa whistles low. "What was left of 'em?" she asks, continuing her looking around. "I mean, it'll take a bit o' elbow grease, but I think it's a good base. Violet just past the hallway is another door, behind which is another room for living in, which looks much less lived in than the one next to the cockpit. After that is yet another door to another hallway, the end of which appears to be another airlock. Across from that door, however, is where some natural light is coming in from, light from the upper gun turret, which has a transparent viewport and chair for a gunner, much like below. Oddly enough, the chair on the underside is mounted upside down. Continuing down the curved hallway, real damage can start to be seen again. A broken door seems to have burst from pressure from the other side, behind which is a large cargo hold through which the foreign object can clearly be seen. Just past that broken door is an open space that appears to have been a crew lounge, though the space is thoroughly wrecked, likely from a shockwave from that large impact the the cargo hold. The corner between the front of the ship and the wall to the cargo hold is dented inward, as well. After this is the hallway that they entered from. "...Well, no bodies. I'm gonna take that as a plus," says Violet after a pause. She pauses another moment, then looks over at Alexa with a grin. Well, it's hard to see given the lighting. "Well then... I think you might want to switch over to battleoid mode, because we're gonna have to drag this old bird back home, I'm thinking. Maybe we can lift it between us?" It takes quite a trek, and the sun is well down by now, but finally the two mecha and wrecked starship arrive at the warehouse. Luckily Violet was able to pull rank/cater to some fanboys at the NTSDF base at the wall, and thus get a large hauler to transport the ship the rest of the way. Now outside, Violet suddenly looks concerned again. "Huh. You know, I didn't even consider until now that everyone in there might be asleep right now..." Alexa grins, nodding a little. "I was too damn excited to get it here myself to even think about it, really. Should we find out or just put it in an' call it good? Violet can't help but grin and laugh herself, and suddenly she's leaning on Alexa again. "Oh, I totally, totally know exactly what you're thinking! Well, I say we go in and try to keep things reeeeeal quiet... or at least as quiet as we can, and just... leave a note or something if no one is awake?" Laying her head on Alexa's shoulder, she looks up at her face. Alexa laughs. "Who's gonna see an itty bitty note on this thing?" she chuckles, giving Violet a kiss on the cheek. "I'm sure we can just come back tomorrow. Ain't like our future home is goin' anywhere. Violet looks over at the building, then at the hauler with the YT-2400 (which was identified by a fanboy on the base) on its back. "Sooo.... shall we just leave it parked here, then?" The driver of the hauler looks at the two with a slightly exasperated look. "Hey, if you've leaving the ship outside here, we're unloading it onto the ground. I gotta get this transport back to the base." Alexa nods. "Ain't like we got a lot of choice, darlin'. Though there are worse places." she grins. Violet glances back at the hauler again, then finally pulls herself off of Alexa. "All right, well, let's see if anyone's up, then." She goes ahead to walk up to the door and punch in her access code. Not the big door, no, that makes too much noise, it's a normal, person-sized door. The door unlocked, she walks on in to see if anyone's around. Violet looks about in silence at the quiet warehouse, then steps back outside, shaking her head. "No.... All right, just, uh, unload it here. I'll leave a note for Raven inside that we left something out here because we didn't want to wake anyone up... I guess that works? I'll let her know to call me if she needs any help moving it." Alexa chuckles. "Fair enough." she slips her arm around Violet's waist. "Though if I were of the mind I'd go work on it right now." she smirks. "I'm a bit anxious to get this beauty in the black." Violet leans against Alexa again, eliciting an eyeroll from the transport driver as he uses its crane to unload the ship. "I hate to say it, but from my eyes, that might take a while. She's clearly seen better days." As it's fully set down, still without its landing gear deployed, Violet turns to give Alexa a quick kiss on the cheek. "But it will be. We will be." Alexa smiles, stealing a quick kiss from Violet. "I know. And it'll be beautiful and ours. Just like we've always talked about, beautiful. Violet makes almost a light squeeking noise at the quick kiss. "Well.... I think the adrenaline from all this is finally starting to die down for me... and I am exhausted... Lemme leave that note for Raven and what say we head back up to the big ship for a good night's sleep, eh, love?" She smiles tiredly to Alexa as she finally lets go before walking back to the still open warehouse door. Alexa nods a little. "Sounds like the best plan ever right now, darlin' It doesn't take Violet long to write the quick note and leave it on Raven's work desk, then another copy of more or less the same note on the door itself before she steps outside and puts an arm around Alexa's waist once more. "So two to beam up, Love?" With her free hand, she's pulling out her communicator. Alexa smiles and nods, pulling Violet close. "Well you sure ain't leavin' without me, I hope. Violet smirks lightly and kisses Alexa on the nose. "I said two, didn't I?" She then actually turns on the communicator and requests the beamup for the two. Alexa seems to be a bit distracted as they arrive at their current shipboard home. "Love? Can we talk for a minute?" Violet pauses a moment at the tone of the question... and that Alexa felt it needed to be asked. "Y.... yeah, of course..." She does look a little worried, actually, now. "What did you... want to talk about?" Alexa frowns, and is silent a moment before speaking again. "Darlin', one of the reasons I fell in love with you is your passion, mostly for your ship. You know that, right? Violet takes a moment to respond, long enough to make it to the captain's quarters. "...My ship? When we met... I didn't have a ship. My most recent ship at that time was Eagle Flare, under my mother's fleet," she says cautiously. She then winces. "Or did you mean Nobara... She was... more than a ship." Alexa nods a little. "That one. But I know you become attached and..." she sighs a little. "I feel like I let ya down when I let your fighter get hit. Violet suddenly laughs and hugs Alexa. "Love, I was way more worried about you than the fighter. It's... its battle, it's the Badlands... Did I ever tell you the first time I tried to fly a variable fighter I scraped the tail on the tarmac on takeoff? The Sturmvogel can be repaired. Don't worry about it. It's not like Victoria isn't dinged up as well, and remember last time?" She shakes her head. "I knew the risks of a mecha getting damaged going in. The Sturmvogel... even Victoria, they're... They're mecha. Nobara was... like I said, she was more than a ship. You remember Mitsuo? Mitsuo's the same... Nobara was Mitsuo's Aunt." Alexa nods a little and hugs Violet back, not letting go just yet. "I just felt bad, is all. I didn't want you feelin' like you were losin' somethin' important... and because of me, no less. Violet shakes her head again. "It still would have just been a thing. If it got destroyed, but you ejected safely, I'd not be mad. I'd just be happy you made it out okay." After another moment, she finally lets go, covering her mouth as she yawns. "Now, like I said, I'm exhausted. Let's get to bed, hrm? Maybe tomorrow morning we can celebrate some more." Alexa nods, smiling softly at her response. "Bed sounds great right now... been too damned long of a day." | |
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