[color=00a651]"Wizard, you crazy son of a bitch!"[/color] Maki yelled through the comms of her Hellcat as she continued to lay down covering fire for the mad man. Well, against the Ferir's at this range, the most she could really do was slow them down if their pilots had two brain cells to rub together. Though she couldn't quite hide the mad grin crossing her features. Though her tone was more amused than angry.

She would have tried the same thing herself, if she wasn't already low on ammo and lacking in a firepower. Well, that wasn't strictly true - the Hellcat's gun was more than capable of ripping through a frigate and utterly wrecking it, but not within the 10 minutes she had to get back to the Lincoln. Not at the kind of range she needed to pull it off.

There was a grim satisfaction when she saw the Mosquito turn the frigrate into floating scrap. [color=00a651]"You are going to get yourself killed one day, you magnificent bastard."[/color] She commended him as he raced back just in time to dock before the Lincoln made the jump.

[hr]

[color=00a651]"Yeah, yeah, we're pilots, not actors, Trapp. Unless you're trying to go for the whole angry-hate sex thing, in which case keep dreaming."[/color] Maki replied privately to the man, though her tone suggested she got the message. Some might have told her to learn her lesson from her time at the academy, but someone [i]had[/i] to be the one speak up. Even if she was speaking up against royalty. She docked the Hellcat once the last of the 7th were clear and in the hangar, promptly getting out of the cockpit and handing the reins over to the engineers as they rushed to get the MAS combat ready before the next mission. It wouldn't take them long to remove the pieces of shrapnel embedded in the armour, unlike some of the other machines, which she suspected would have been easier to replace rather than repair.

[color=00a651]"Wolves are pack animals, Gerard, this man is no wolf."[/color] Maki added to the French man, now that they were out of earshot of the admiral. Her disdain for Ardin was clear - she had no respect for a commander who could coldly write off the lives of thousands without a second thought. Whatever the Lincoln's next mission was, she suspected it wasn't so important that the admiral had to abandon the Ulysses to achieve it. Was he making a calculated decision, or saving his own skin? [color=00a651]"[i]Asu wa ame, hito ha dorobou[/i]. Rain will come tomorrow, and people are thieves."[/color] She quipped another Japanese idiom, this one referring to how unpredictable people and things could be, expressing her distrust of the admiral.

She sighed and removed the top half of her flight suit, winding down after combat and revealing the black standard issue tank top underneath, letting the sweat evaporate. [color=00a651]"Not like we can do anything about it now. I'll reserve my anger until we have the tally of those who were left behind."[/color] She commented, and sat herself on a crate, waiting for the jump and awaiting Alexis' debriefing. Her instructors, in the beginning weeks of basic training, had commented on something like this - [i]Those who fall behind, get left behind.[/i] It wasn't a threat as much as a reminder that in battle, a soldier had to be prepared to pull his own weight, and not to rely on the luxury of having assistance from their team. It was a reminder to always do what you could to survive and win the fight and keep the person next to you alive. It rang hollow now knowing that part of the Lincoln's crew had been left behind for no other reason than being at the wrong place at the wrong time, sheer dumb bad luck. Well, that and one man's ego.

It was then that she noticed Yuu making a beeline towards the paint and noticing the admiral's parked shuttle in the hangar so close to them, Maki could tell immediately what the other Japanese woman was trying to do. [i]She wouldn't... She would.[/i] She sighed and gestured at the rest to look in her direction. [color=00a651]"I'm not saying I don't want to join in, but someone should stop her, no? The fool might not be able to court martial us, but he might just tell the captain to leave us behind on the next mission just for ruining a paint job."[/color]