Revelations

[Ash]

Only hell could compare to the burning memory of Bourgon-Jallieu in Marcus' mind. Waking up in a bottomless pool of guilt, regret and horror was now a common thing, and he longed to be relieved from it. Groaning as he pulled himself to sit on his bunk he took a glimpse at the time to find he had awoken too early yet again. Abandoning his efforts to slumber he pulled himself onto his feet and caught himself staring back at him in a mirror on the wall. He waited there for a moment in self loathing before reality called him back to the present. He quickly got dressed into his uniform and headed for the commercial deck to find some breakfast.

He cursed himself upon arrival to find that all the stalls were closed from left to right. Frustrated he turned back the way he came and waited for the next elevator down to the landing deck. The elevator arrived almost instantly with nobody inside; "of course there's nobody inside" he thought to himself. There's no insomniac that would be up this early on a regular basis. He stepped inside and pressed the button with a rocket embossed into it and waited for the elevator to arrive. The doors opened to reveal a massive hangar with catwalks stretching out under the rafters. Directly in front lied a clearway zone for pilots to walk and on either side a variety of hull panels, ship components and trolleys loaded with weaponry seemed scattered all over the place.

Nobody seemed to be around, however the lights in the control tower overhead was on suggesting that the night shift controller must be here somwhere. A sudden crash of junk and spare parts came from one of the ship pens to the right and a small round cylindrical shaped component rolled out into the hanger. "Ahg! Piece of petit merde!" Grumbled a mans voice from within. Marcus advanced down the clearway and peered into the pen from which the mayhem was coming from. "Pierre?" Inquired Marcus. "Huh? *bang* ooh! Verrou?". A thin weasly short man appeared from behind one of the junk heaps and pushed a pair of round spectacles up the bridge of his nose. The man was wearing blue overalls stained in oil and some white creamy paint like substance that Marcus couldn't place. "Ah Verrou! It's been a while ah?" The man talked in a high nasal tone like his nose had been broken or blocked. "I saw you yesterday Pierre.." Marcus replied bluntly. "Aye that you did, but the thing is, this new Culver i've fixed for you took me so damn long that it feels like i've been here centuries Verrou! That pass up to Boissons better be headin my way Marcus, Michelle's headin up there tomorrow and I want in! IN VERROU." Marcus stood there contented for a moment before scrambling a satisfactory reply for him to hear. "Alright alright Pierre, I sent it through the tube the other day but there was a mix up and it should be there when you get back home ok?", "For your sake i hope so Verrou." Replied Pierre with an agitated tone."What's the deal with Michelle anyway Pierre? Your obsession with her isn't what i call..", "What!?", "Well, healthy.", "What you mean?", "Well you've only ever talked to her once.", "Ahhh yeah, a routine fix up on her Gecko not two weeks ago. I remember the way thashetor..." Pierre's jabbered words landed on Marcus' deaf ears as the sight of the new and improved Culverin that laid on the table before him was absorbing. "So what did you do to it Pierre?", "..But anyway her friend wasn't that good lookin' and..Huh? Oh, yeah, that's somethin' special right there Verrou you take care. Just a quick transfer of the power supply bolt to a silver isotope and you save an extra three, maybe four seconds of refiring time." Marcus smiled. "Well how 'quick' was it if it took you all night Pierre?", "Don't test me Verrou, this one's for the generosity, if it wasn't for that Boissons pass i may never have done it", "Yeah but you love me though eh Pierre?" Marcus teased as he ruffled Pierre's hair. "Friends and all that Jazz eh?" Marcus continued. "Yeeeeah whatever Verrou, the rest will cost you 10k each. You hand em over now i can get it done by the end of the week.", "We'l see Pierre, i need em for now, just do us a favour and attatch it to my ship would ya? Thanks Pierre your the best." Said Marcus as he began to walk out of the pen and out, down the causway. "Dammit Verrou this is the last favour! THE LAST!!"

Marcus walked out down the clearway to his ship shaking his head with an amused smile.

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