One of the station doctors walked in and slumped on the bar, head in hands. "Ugh..." He motioned for a drink, any drink, then said, "Got one of the 42nd in hospital. We found her barely clinging to life in the smouldering wreckage of her Nephthys about thirty clicks west of Chillmark a few weeks ago, right after that Keeper attack." He downed the drink. "Got her back here as soon as we could. Goddamn miracle she's lasted this long. She's lost a leg..." He shook his head.
Cooper slowly walks towards the bar, and waves at the bartender.
"Good to see you alive and well, Major", said the bartender.
"No need for formalities, Cross", Cooper said.
"Well then Cooper, it's bloody good to see you again. I heard it got nasty out there, in the past few days"
"Yeah... we had a lot of casualties, but the doctors are doing a hell of a job. One of the rescue teams managed to save a 42nd fighter pilot, from a wrecked Nephthys that was stranded for days..."
"What about you Cooper, how're you holding up?"
"The damned jelly beans almost got me yesterday. I was brawling one of their assassin specimens, but the bastard induced some visions in my head. I thought I'd lost it, but then my control stick started shaking frenetically, as I was having hostile vessels around me, and the ship was almost inert. Fortunately, with these new safety systems, I managed to smash the emergency glass, and got an adrenaline boost into my body, waking me up in a violent twitch, as the jelly was almost on top of my cockpit. I almost didn't make it."
"And then? "
"Then, surprise for the damned bugger, I blasted my guns at him like there was no tomorrow. It got scared or something, because it went right were it came from. And that was it. However, I did managed to tag him with a tracking beacon. With luck, we'll be able to anticipate further attacks now..."
"Well that's good news inde..."
Cross doesn't even finish his sentence, and the proximity alarm engulfs the station. Nomads are crawling around the station.
"So much for my drink, was good to see you, Cross", Cooper said, before he rallied to the briefing room.
Montgomery emptied her glass for the third time now, but she still felt the urge to drown her sorrows before she could get drowned by them. At least drinks were always cheap and of irritating plenty at The Lounge.
'Jessica, if you'd need good ship parts some day, let me know and I'll contact a friend or two of mine. But with the other thing ...' he paused and just stared into nothingness for a moment as if listening to unheard voices.
Then he turned towards the doctor: 'As usual?' He did not wait for an answer, but instead started to walk up and down the counter assembling several bottles from the shelves behind. Then he poured their multicoloured liquids carefully into the shaker. He emptied the earth-brown miture after another minute into a little pot, holding his nose.
'Outcast Milk, Dr. Presble' he groaned serving the fuming drink. 'Let me know when you finished your drink, sir. I'd like to hear news about the methods you're using to replace legs today.' He turned away coughing.
Replacement parts for ships, replacement parts for pilots - he wondered, if there had anything been left whole.
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
- Oscar Wilde
Upon Christopher entering the bar a group Nephthys fighters landed as an Osiris came in to View, as the others look out the window Christopher walks up to the bartender "Brace your self your about to get a lot busier, they all just came from a Wilde hunt while i went on a Keeper hunt got me two of em." Walking off he quickly looks around for some one he hasn't talked to in a while
Dr Presble accepted the second drink gladly, choking slightly as it went down. "She's still comatose, but stable. God, it was a battle the first couple of days. We barely slept. The leg was pretty much gone from the start - what the crash didn't get the frostbite did. We had to amputate it. She won't be pleased when she wakes up..." He shuddered. "We've been fitting her for a prosthetic which should work almost as well as a real one. Though of course it won't be. Her face is intact, which is a miracle in itself... Fortunately the purple bastards didn't manage to infest her, which is always good news..."
The barkeeper nodded his thanks to Christopher instantly starting to collect the ingredients of the Oucast Milk.
'A pretty face's much worth' he said to Dr. Presble 'if she'd liked to work for Holly's Dream Inc. on Manhatten, but I'd bet my iron scullcap that she'd prefer having both legs to kick their purple antics.'
He walked over to Christopher and his friend serving them their drinks and returned as quickly as he could to add 'But you're right, sir, it's traumatizing to lose a limb. She'll adapt to her new feature one day, but she won't smile for a long while though. I thought ...' he diasppeared shortly in the back room reappearing with two crates both filled with different bottles '... that our fighters are better equipped now than they were in 800. Even the onboard Secure Body Systems of the LSF are capable of instant, and this literally means instant, complete closure on cockpit burst and are also providing nearly unlimited longterm survival after ejection.'
He looked out of the window over to the docks where the Hathor crew began to descend from their ship. He sighed and said 'I wonder why we don't pay a visit to our good old friends and their assembly hangars to get a close look on their SBS!?'
A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.
- Oscar Wilde
"From what the rescue teams said," the doctor explained, "her ship was pulled into Toledo's gravity well after being shot up by the jellies. She couldn't eject in atmo, woulda been suicide..."
After a long hunt sector wide Christopher steps into the bar noticing things have barely changed, after a while of searching the room he walked over to his usual spot that looked over the whole room
Rand slowly walked in to the lounge, had a brief moment to look around... Since he signed up, he never truly had the time to come to the pilot country. He was still on partly training and double shifts due to the increased Hunter and Jelly attacks.
The bar was empty at the moment, his shifts were usually on different schedule than the most of his flight friends. He was used to see Ulrich, Venture, Kennedy, Romeo at space as well as high ranks.
Rand took a place at the far corner of the bar and started to think about that Rheinlander showing up... Lauffer guy...
"Now... tell me your secret Von Lauffer... What is hiding inside your head that everyone so desperately chasing you..."
There was something about him, still missing in the puzzle. He started gazing to the table and didn't even realize he fell asleep while thinking hard on the Lauffer, Keepers and Rheinland Military...
There was Rand "Ophidian" Seith's moment of peace after a long day's shift... Sleeping on a bar table he visited for the first time...
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