Weapons and armour had been purchased and they'd all be on their way to the docking tower within the next hour or two, which means that the brown-haired pilot had to conclude his business here and start making his way back to his ship. There was still the matter of the mercenary on the far side of the tavern though that was giving the Captain cause for concern. He didn't look himself, only managing to catch a glimpse in the black eyes of the alien bartender whenever he walked past to serve more customers. Sky glanced over though and confirmed the pilot's thoughts; there was someone there and they seemed rather interested in the Captain of the Valkyrie. Thankfully, according to Sky's description, whoever sent this guy, picked the wrong man for the job. On second thought, what was to say there was not a toxin or poison in the air right now? The most likely answer to that would be because the mercenary wasn't paid to murder a tavern full of innocents or perhaps that wasn't how this guy worked. Either way, the scruffy pilot had to act first.
"Well so long as the Royale has hard points tha' can retract into the hull, the size shouldn't really effect the efficiency of yer cloakin' device. Yer gotta take care though tha' weapons are heavy an' their mass will reduce the range of how far yer ship can jump an' effect it's overall agility. So, if yer not one for gettin' into a good ol' fashioned dogfight with another craft, better to strength ya shields and ditch weapons for a more maneuverable ship. Just be aware tha' shields can leave a detectable trace if they're high powered on a small craft. Get a shield generator tha's of appropriate size. No point 'avin' a shield built for a battleship on a frigate. It'd drain system power instantly an' leave ya open for a good 'ard thrashin'."

As Ruce spoke, the pilot disconnected his holo communicator from his datapad and tucked both devices back where they belonged. He tapped his right hand fingers on the bartop a couple of times as he watched a waitress of the tavern make her way behind him, carrying a metal serving tray with her. It was empty and it looked like she was returning to the bar to pick up more drinks for the patrons. It seemed that the chubby mercenary on the far side of the tavern was thinking the same thing, for as soon as the waitress was clear, Ruce sprang to his feet, his right hand gripping the handle of his long bladed dagger and pulling it from it's holster, where as his left hand zipped up and snatched the serving try from the waitress. By the time Ruce span about to face the mercenary, he was already on his feet with a surgical injector in hand, modified to shoot poison needles at range. The weapon was silent as it fired a dart towards the pilot, who used the serving tray to deflect the dart down into the ground, hearing a wooden 'thunk' it as jammed into the floor. Using the momentum of his rise and spin to his advantage, Ruce brought his right arm up and let his dagger fly, watching as it flipped through towards the mercenary, homing in on him like a missile locked onto a ship. There was a sharp cry from the chubby alien as the dagger sunk deep into the creature's left shoulder, pinning him back against the seat he had rose from. He managed to get another shot off though, his right hand holding the injector. Like before, Ruce counter this dart with the serving tray, deflecting it down into the ground before he tossed the tray like a frisbee, a loud metallic 'clank' echoing the tavern as the tray smacked against the mercenary's forehead, putting him out for the count.

It was over in seconds, but Ruce placed his hands onto his knees and buckled over slightly as if he had just run a marathon. That was one of the longest experienced he had ever... well, experienced. As the shocked partons scuttled away from the scene, Ruce took a few deep breaths before pushing himself back upright. He walked over to the unconcious mercenary and retrieved his dagger, wiping the dark green blood off on the alien's attire.
"Well now, tha' was excitin'."
Sliding the dagger into his holster, the Captain rummaged through the alien's belongings and pulled out a credit chit from one pocket and a datapad from the another. Tucking the datapad into his cargo pants pocket, he walked back to the bar and glanced down at whatever concoction was within the darts, seeing it eating it's way slowly through the floorboards. As he approached the bar, Benner tossed the credit chit onto the counter and bowed his head a fraction to the barkeep.
"Sorry about tha'... Thanks for the drink though."
Turning away, Ruce grabbed his jacket from the stool he was sitting on and made his way down the flight of stairs to the lower floor where the exit was.
"C'mon Sky, we ought get outta 'ere. If there's one, then there's gonna be more somewhere."
Pushing his way back outside into the sunset that was now covering Moni Vortau, Ruce looked either way down the street and frowned as life out here seemed to be going on as normal. Turning away from the tavern, the pilot slowly started to make his way back towards the Valkyrie, slow enough that Sky would spot him and be able to catch up should he leave the tavern also.

Online
“I’ve had a lot of time to think, so let’s see if I can explain this in terran terms like those old transmissions. Faster than light travel spoils sentient species just like fast food. You lose the real sense of what you’re doing and it’s natural effects on instinct. People become dependent sheep on their technology. I learned this when our FTL went out about----30 years ago now? Let me give you a little context.

My name is Aeschylus, and I was chosen for captain of the Exodus on the Tenacious. The Tenacious is the most sophisticated of the expedition craft built by the Portia for the Exodus, the only one using original alien parts we couldn’t reverse engineer. The Tenacious is built around the landing pod the tyrant Sobek used to first arrive on our home world of Arachnos, before the air became black and flames devoured the forests. The Tenacious job now is to allow the Portia to safely settle anew, despite the fact,” Aeschylus transmission on the history of the craft (one of his few remaining sign in functions) was interrupted by the activation of another ai core, and already he could feel himself begin to wane. He tried to continue transmitting, but then he felt the heat on the hull, the thrashing of the prisoner inside as he woke….it was her. He signed off.

Red. Alarm. She opened her eyes and the cameras on board sprung to life, she listened and the sensors responded. She could already feel the hunger, the hate, and she turned off the heat shield to the prisoner compartment. She opened her mouth to speak and the prisoner compartment filled with air. 12 x 12 x 12 ft, the only open space of its size in the Portia fleet, it’s life support systems didn’t attempt to recycle air but simply store and remove it on command. They let the tyrant breathe only when he had to hear them.
The voice from the speaker came quickly, in a pitch so high the Tyrant Sobek winced as it shook his whole frame.
“Sobby, baby, I’m finally back, and it only took” she paused, and than a gasp left the speaker, only to be drowned out by the roar of the engines and Sobek ’ screams as his scales began to bubble. The voice filled the ship as system after system began to activate.

“Those useless males have been drifting for almost 100 cycles, solely checking their own chronometer! You let those idiots waste so long!”

Sobek’s screams had faded as his skin sloughed. The new layer was already phasing in, and could be seen only by the Tenacious advanced sensors. But for now, it had burned through Sobek’s nerves.

“You puny fools, you can bring no pain upon me greater then the loss of lands. I shall make you watch as I turn your race into the lowlife and slaves of the galaxy, and they’ll exterminate you like the other tiny races”
Soon, Sobek’s speech turned to nothing but cries and screams again, but she could see his smile…she had to escape.

She started spamming the wavelengths, trying to track anyone within listening range. She heard something in the sensors, and tuned in.

She couldn’t believe it. They are in a populated system and those fools just weren’t trying any other kinds of broadcast. Someone had to have something down there….

She activated the full strength of their shields and aimed the Tenacious toward the planet. She realized she forgot about the alarm…there’s something in orbit, preparing to fire
….she faded away, as a new core took hold. He quickly adjusted their course, moving to avoid fire. He wasn’t sure who thought a crash landing was a good idea has lost their noggen, but he had no choice. He send out one more broadcast.

“This is Vulture to residents of the planet below, you should be able to calculate our trajectory, but damages to external sensors mean I cannot. We will be crashing below, don’t send rescue. We keep to our own.”
Vulture didn’t know what else to do before the Tenacious crashed, so he activated the diplomat core as the deep pain of the crash tote into his mind. He tried to scream but he felt it in him. He felt himself slipping, the man fading as the ship re took control. And he waited for transmissions.

Indeed, killing an entire room full of innocent people wasn't exactly something that would look good on a mercenary's resume. It was a very difficult business to be in, you couldn't be seen outright killing someone for the obvious reason of it being murder and a punishable offense. Couldn't show your face in public if there was proof of your transgressions after all. That's partly why Sky wasn't going to just walk over and cut the man in half without what was considered just cause, after all he could just be looking at Ruce for some other reason. Unlikely, but enough for reasonable doubt at least and Sky didn't want that kind of trouble. Only reason his own fight later wouldn't land him in prison was because the emperor would sanction it, the sadistic fool did love to get under the blond's skin. He wouldn't likely get out of it alive, but he'd worry about that then. For now though, he had his friend to relax with.

"Pretty much what I figured, just don't know if it's worth it. The shield and cloak settings on her are perfect as is, and besides having to tinker with them if I have weapons she's never been caught so... Don't know if I should or not, maybe later I'll let you look at her and deside. You're better than me at that anyway," it was tough for Sky to admit, but was the truth. He might've come up with the basic plans, but it was engineers that made the ship a reality. The mercenary was an expert at fighting, and though he wasn't smart he lacked the mathmatical prowess to reliably run the needed calculations. Either way, that was hardly a cause for concern at the moment. A different, grace scenario needed his attention first.

While Ruce noticed the waitress, Sky spotted the movement of the mercenary's hands as he reached for the injector. His own hand grasped the handle of his sword and while the foe reached up the blond sprang up while drawing his blade, ready to deflect any projectiles that came their way. Fortunately Ruce had already readied himself, snatching a tray from a passing waitress to deflect the needles instead. Well, at least he wouldn't need to do anything a the moment. So instead of slashing his blade, he held it firmly in front of him while he started walking towards the transgressor in the corner. A dagger from the pilot pinned the alien to the seat, before the tray knocked him out before the blond had a chance to do it himself. Pity, he would've loved to 'accidentally' swing the dull end of the blade too hard in defending his friend and kill the fool. Whatever, his boss whoever he was would probably do the job for him. With a snort, Sky returned the sword to his back, and turned to face the pilot as he retrieved his dagger.

"You alright old man? You're out of your element, should've left it to me," he teased, crossing his arms over his chest. Ruce stole the datapad, probably to figure out who it was that hired the brute. Brilliant move really, something that someone outside of the mercenary profession would hardly think of doing. Heh, wouldn't expect any less of him. While Ruce left however, Sky turned towards the thin alien that had been sitting beside the mercenary. He was sweating bullets, going so far as to gulp while he scooted his chair back against the wall. While the innocent had fled, he was the sole patron to remain inside the bar, a red flag if the blond had ever seen any. Waiting until the pilot left the bar, Sky drew his sword once more and swung it upwards towards the alien who visibly flinched at the motion, though the blade purposely fell just short of his torso. Instead Sky then thrust it forward, letting its tip make the force field sizzle and its edge forming an angle against the wall in a threatening position that threatened to cleave the man's head clean off his shoulders. While Ruce took a route which took some serious time to go through in case the mercenary wasn't sloppy, Sky wanted to make sure to get the answer now. His advantage over the pilot was that he actually knew this duo, and what he could do to make them crack.

"Listen here, Kazura, I know that you and Chussin down there aren't afraid of death, but let me give you one piece of advice..." his eyes narrowed, and what followed would come as a harsh whisper so only the two of them could hear. "You know as well as I do that I know where every member of your family lives, and that my ship is more than capable of getting there and retrieving them undetected before you'd even have a chance to warn them I was coming. Velle and Vexion aren't they? The twinkle in your eyes, and Marias... The witch that birthed them both. I want you to tell me everything you know about who hired you, and if you don't..." while keeping the blade at the man's throat, Sky knelt down and grabbed the injector with his free hand, before smirking darkly as he rose to his feet.

"I'll leave your wife naked and smothered in honey, tied up in the deserts of Kinich, next to a starved nest of Supay ants... Who you know thanks to that sweet substance will eat her dry... With the only two able to save her, you and Chussin, tied up at her sides with damp leather on your heads that will certainly crush your skulls as it dries... The only way to save your wife being to somehow smother all of the honey off of her and onto the two of you... While your children are slowly dissolved from the toes up in this deliciously painful poison you've concocted..." he warned as he lifted the injector, frowning now, "Easily within earshot of their parents..."

"Ug E'mm dy-"

"Don't test me," Sky spat, his eyes fierce as ever. Kazura mumbled incoherently in his native tongue, tears streaming down his face as he took deep breaths and tried to form the words. He knew he only had moments to respond, because Sky was rumored to have committed such atrocities in the past to someone who marked his wife for murder.

"O-o-og kay, E talg. Twas Fal'tokg, wanteg cargho paig ten shousang for kill. Very important stuff, upcharge much ang disrespectful tung. Dunno how Fal'tog know, some shink pirate, others Expanse, but seem like pirate to Kazura," wincing, he closed his eyes and started to beg. "Please, no harm chilgrin, no part in this, shey-" starting to continue in incoherent babble, he then found himself with the blade closer to his neck.

"How can I know you're not lying?" Sky growled, and Kazura balled.

"On pag, please let Kazura show Sgy, please for Marias ang chilgrin..."

"Fine," placing the injector into his belts, he then held out his hand to the mercenary. "Give me yours, hands off the trigger, then log into your account to prove it to me."

"Yes yes," Kazura whimpered, following the instructions carefully. With the second injector in Sky's belts, his clawed fingers danced across his pad until he got to the screen with the information the blond wanted. Taking it, his sapphire eyes danced across the screen as he inwardly sighed. Unfortunately it was mostly in the man's native tongue, though the transactions were in the common dialect. Sure enough there was Fal'tok's name, and Sky nodded as he looked back up to Kazura.

"You'll understand that I'll keep this for now, to follow up on this. Remember, if you so much as look at Ruce wrong again I'll treat it the same as if it was my wife's life, understand?" Sky snapped coolly, earning a wary nod from the mercenary. With that answer he then withdrew his sword from the neck of his foe, returning it to his back before turning and walking towards the door. With a nod to the barkeep, he looked over his shoulder to see the mercenary on his hands and knees beside his brother sobbing. Still though, he called out to the poor guy.

"Oh, by the way... E ghuf fryd oui cyet." Truth was Sky only knew the one line, but Kazura didn't need to know that. He was just being an ass anyway, putting an exclamation point on the interrogation he'd just put the man through. It was only then that he made his way down the steps to exit the bar, his eyes immediately scanned the area for any sign of the emperor yet. None yet... Damn. Oh well, at least Ruce wasn't too far ahead of him. Making his way to the pilot, he held out Kazura's pad as he returned to his usual self.

"So who'd you piss of this time? Someone named Kal'tok?" he asked, cocking an eyebrow as he handed the device to Ruce.. It was the obvious question with what had happened, and might give him an idea of who else to look for in case there truly were others out to get him. Maybe his friend had a better idea of how to read this lead than he did, and the two of them could put a lid on it before they went their separate ways again.

Benner slowly made his way down the street away from the tavern, smiling slightly as he watched a couple of kids chasing each other across the street up ahead of him. They were carrying sticks and were pretending they were swords as that made the sound effects whenever one of them swung their 'blade' at the other. It was nice to see that there was still time for people to enjoy themselves. There was no danger here, nothing on the surface at least where the general population could see it. No, to them, the great wall that enclosed the entire city was keeping them safe from anything and everything that was lurking outside. Honestly, it was probably MORE dangerous inside the walls, but they didn't need to know that. The pilot just kept on walking slowly, glancing to his right when he heard a third kid pop out from behind some wooden storage crates and shoot at him with a toy blaster.
"Pow pow!!"
Ruce chuckled and played along, turning to face the kid and bringing a hand up to his chest where the kid had 'shot' at him.
"Argh! Oh no, yer got me, aaaah!"
The Captain crouched down and faked a cough, pretending to be dying when the kid looked shocked and ran out from behind the boxes up to the pilot, looking at him with concern.
"A-are you okay? I didn't mean to shoot you!"
"It's okay. I 'ave a healin' ray on my holo comm. 'ere, I'll fix myself up."
Ruce pulled his holo comm out and 'scanned' it over himself, making a whirring sound with his mouth as he did so, standing up straight afterwards and showing the kid he was all better. The kid laughed and clapped before turning around and running off to rejoin his friends.

The Captain chuckled to himself and watched as the kids vanished around a corner to keep playing their games, when Sky approached from the side, causing the brown-haired pilot to glance at his friend. Ruce placed his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket and pulled the heavy piece of clothing about himself, frowning as his friend as he started to slowly walk towards the docking tower again.
"Makin' friends again? I wonder 'ow long yer new friends are gonna piss themselves for? It's a shame tha' even in this part of the galaxy, there are shitheads who just wanna ruin the day of someone. Well, tha's a bit cruel. You technically count as one of those shitheads too."
Ruce grinned from over his shoulder as he peered towards his friend, listening to him as he asked his question about some guy named 'Fal'tok'. The name didn't ring any bells at the moment the question was asked. Ruce shrugged his shoulders and turned about to take the datapad off his friend, looking at the alien language that was on the display. He didn't say anything though about it, but was clearly able to read what was written. After a couple of minutes walking in silence, the scruffy pilot glanced back over his shoulder.
"We met two Grannok and four Urin about seven clicks east of 'ere, where we exchanged 'solar farmin' equipment' an' some other cargo with 'em. They used a shuttle to meet up an' the Zephyr was in orbit pretty much directly overhead. I wasn't able to perform a detailed enough scan to see if they had their weapons pointed at us. I took the Valkyrie to the air an' brought her straight 'ere when I discovered the Zephyr."
Ruce turned about and started to walk backwards a short distance as he glanced at Sky and brought his arms up, interlocking his fingers behind his head where he leaned his head back into his hands.
"Whether this 'Fal'tok' was one of the Grannok, I dunno. I can't see any reason why he'd try an' off me anyway. Hm... Well, I did make him cough up four times the agreed upon amount for the cargo... Whatever was in those crates, he was willing to pay up without a fight to get them."

The Captain of the Valkyrie turned back around and made his way to the turbolift that would take him back to the docking tower were his ship was. Pressing the button to call the lift, Ruce glanced back at Sky and frowned.
"I've had a bad feelin' in my gut ever since I docked 'ere. It's part of the terms an' conditions, NOT to check the cargo I'm deliverin'. Money tends to be good, an' tha's usually because I'm smugglin' illegal cargo over what is actually written in the job descriptions. I would take combat missions and bounty huntin' missions, but I'd never forgive myself if I was responsible for hurtin' Tes in any way, plus as couriers, we get to see parts of the galaxy we've only seen in holovideos."
The sound of the lift reaching the ground level caused the pilot to turn around and step into the lift as the automatic doors slid open. Waiting for Sky to get in, he pressed the button for the floor where the Valkyrie was and held onto the handrail as the lift took off, quickly gaining speed as it rocketed up towards the more high-tech and upper class city levels above. Ruce tapped his fingers against the metallic handrail and pondered for a second as he glanced back at Sky, tilting his head at him a fraction.
"Mind you, I did see Tes speakin' with one of the Grannok after we received payment, but the audio was out so I dunno wha' they said. The Grannok looked suspicious though, but why'd he send a mercenary after me if he was upset with Tes? Honestly, I ain't got a clue an' I'm actually worried I've got myself an' Tes involved in somethin' serious. We can't run away. It'll be too suspicious an' they're bound to send the Zephyr after us. We can't outrun a ship like tha'! I doubt even the Royale could. Best chance we'd 'ave of gettin' away would be to hyperjump to another planet an' drop out of hypercruise when we're inside the planet's atmosphere to avoid showin' up on long range scanners. But do yer know how difficult an' dangerous such a maneuver is?"
Ruce grumbled and complained as the turbolift doors slid open to reveal the Valkyrie sitting on her landing pad. The pilot's face lit up immediately and he walked out of the turbolift and over towards his ship with arms spread wide, as if he were about to give the ship a big hug. Actually, that's precisely what he did, walking up to one of the landing gears and wrapping his arms about it as best he could.
"Hey gorgeous! Daddy's 'ome!"

She lay there with her thoughts for a while, her IMP floating around her head. She wasn’t playing music or anything but she had to admit that she found something soothing about having the little ball of blue light dancing gracefully around. She debated heading down onto the surface and perhaps going to a bar or something. Whilst it would only be a short term fix to her melancholy, a few drinks and some feigned, no-strings-attached intimacy would take her mind off things. She swung her legs off of her bunk and steadied herself with her hands. She was about to push herself to her feet when she picked up a transmission on her IMP. She’d obviously left it on a random mid-range comms frequency. It stopped her in her tracks…particularly the last sentence.

“We keep to our own”

It was that segment that stuck in her mind. There was always a reason for such stringent privacy and it was exactly that kind of temptation that Tes found hard to resist.

Finally standing, she left her quarters, followed the corridor round and into the cargo bay. She thought she could hear Ruce’s voice outside. She crossed the gantry and passed through the bridge bulkhead before slumping down in one of the rear chairs on the bridge. Swinging one of the command panels in front of her, she opened the long range scanners. On the monitor, she watched as the Valkyrie sent out an invisible pulse across the planet’s surface. It wouldn’t do the entire planet, of course, but she knew it would do enough to find whatever it was that sent out the enigmatic distress signal. The readout finally bounced back, showing what was obviously a crash site.

“Gotcha!” She chirped. “Now what the hell are you?” She tried to perform a systems scan on the downed craft but found no joy. Whatever was left of the craft was too far away or badly damaged or both to get any solid readings. She felt an ache begin to settle into the right side of her face and she winced. She’d need to get some pain relief at some point but, for now, the thrill of the mystery was enough of an analgesic. She opened short range comms on her IMP and turned into Ruce’s frequency.

“Chief, if you’re not too busy, we’ve come across something I really think you should have a look at.”

She knew that she wouldn’t have been the only one to have picked up on the signal so they were on the clock. She couldn’t tell how big the craft was but if there was life on board, they ought to at least try and lend a hand. Failing that, there was the case of Galactic Salvage Rights. If they got there first and the crash happened outside of a settlement, it was first come, first served and who knows what kind of tech and supplies the crashed vessel had.

“In case it was too subtle for you, Chief, time is a factor.”

She interfaced her IMP with the Valkyrie’s communication systems and broadcasted on the Vulture’s distress frequency.

“This is the Valkyrie to any survivors of the Vulture. Distress call received. What is your status? Over.”

Ignoring the captain's initial remark, he asked his question then crossed his arms over his chest as he awaited an answer. Sky guessed it probably was rather obvious that he'd stayed behind to interrogate the scum that attacked them, why else would he have stayed back since his drink had been finished? He wanted to chuckle at the shithead comment, but kept it inside and rolled his eyes instead. At least Ruce got serious right afterwards, looking over the datapad to see if there was anything he recognized. Unfortunately there wasn't any direct leads that his friend knew of, besides that maybe it had to deal with the last shipment he made. When he mentioned spending four times as much as expected, Sky nodded and closed his eyes. Just like Kazura had said, the connection was real then.

"Sounds like it's one of them, from what I learned. Good reason to want you dead at least," Sky teased him, then opened his eyes and followed Ruce towards the dock where his ship was located. The blond kept his eyes peeled on their surroundings, trying to see if any of the mercenaries around them had their eyes on the two of them. After all depending how bad they wanted the pilot dead it was more than reasonable to expect there to be back up somewhere. When his eyes fell upon an insectoid that seemed to have its gaze on the two of them, the blond reached up and grasped the handle of his sword which made the thing scurry away. Whether or not it was a coincidence he didn't know... But better to stay on their toes than risk another run in again.

The one thing that bothered Sky was that while Ruce had initially said he didn't know why someone would want to kill him besides maybe the pay he mentioned the bad feeling and other details in his explanation. He should know better, getting involved in illegal activities like that. Sure he was involved in it too somewhat, but due to him being a mercenary potential foes would be more hesitant to attack. The blond also had the thing he'd done in the past as further incentive to be left alone, while the couple would be viewed as nothing more than disposable couriers. Live and learn though, Ruce was too stubborn to die.

Joining the captain in the elevator, Sky set his gaze upon the crowd as he turned around. Sure enough, before the doors closed he saw the insectoid squatting as he walked trying to keep out of sight. Sighing, he shook his head then bowed it with a sigh. He hated being right about this, but at least he was here to watch his friend's back until he left. Side stepping towards him, the blond leaned in to whisper the warning in case he'd missed it.

"Bug seems to be the backup, if it comes let it shoot first to avoid charges, like you did in the bar," with that said, he too grasped the rail and waited for the lift to reach its destination. Ruce continued on about the Grannok, and Sky nodded in recognition of his words. He was right, they needed to just be careful on their way out and make sure they laid low for a while. Chances were that the mercenaries would be killed for their failures, if they were anything like he knew, and that would prevent most other mercenaries from taking the job. There was that measure of safety at least, he hoped. He didn't have long to ponder it though, for the lift's speed brought them to the Valkyrie in no time. The Royale was elsewhere, so if something happened in here he wouldn't have to worry about her getting hurt. That was a relief at least. The captain's actions though... They earned a sigh as Sky followed him, stopping a couple meters behind Ruce with his arms crossed over his chest with a head shake and a sigh.

"You're as ridiculous as ever, you know that?" he taunted, then turned his side towards the captain so he could watch both him and the door in case the bug was indeed coming to get them. Better safe than sorry.

The Captain of the Valkyrie didn't really care how odd he looked by embracing the landing gear of his ship. He loved this spacecraft as any parent would love their newborn child. This to Ruce was his child, one that both Tes and himself looked after. That was an odd image, picturing him and Tes as parents of an actual child. The scruffy pilot smirked to himself and scoffed at the thought. First, she wasn't his type and Ruce knew more about that blue-haired girl then perhaps everyone else in the galaxy, namely that cocky egotistical pilots weren't a thing she looked for. As Benner pulled his arms free of the spacecraft, he felt the worn metal of the landing gear through the leather of his gloves and he sighed as he looked back up at the hull breach. It was a gaping open wound, but the replacement parts should be arriving pretty soon and then he'd get the old girl fixed up good as new. This was more his side of the maintenance of the Valkyrie. Tes enjoyed and excelled at the engineering side of things, such as wiring, electronics, computers and all that.

Glancing over his shoulder at his mercenary friend, the pilot just grinned at the blonde and then shrugged his shoulders.
"Shaddap! Yer act like this when yer with Alexia I bet. Just so 'appens tha' the Valkyrie is my sweetheart. She won't ever let me down, won't cheat on me an' I know her inside an' out. We're a perfect pair!"
Ruce claimed, where upon an alarm started to ring out from the far side of the docking bay, yellow warning lights flashing as a large bay door in the wall to the Valkyrie's left started to open from the ground, revealing a transport craft with the goods Ruce had ordered. The craft gently flew up beside the Valkyrie and touched down, where a handful of droids scuttled from the craft and unloaded the cargo, before scrambling back inside and taking off again. A couple large sheets of armored hull and three large wooden crates, two with the autocannons in and the third with ammunition. Benner's eyes widened in delight as he hopped on the spot of couple of times in excitement. However, Tes calling him on his communicator ended the excitement, causing the young man to frown as he angrily pulled communicator from his pants and held it up before him, listening to her message.
"Oh hey Tes, still stuck on the ship? Go get some R&R woman! Anyway, the replacement hull has arrived, so I gotta fix tha' before we can take the Valkyrie out anywhere to investigate this 'thing I should really see'. Do some long range scans an' find out whatever it is you've discovered."

The scruffy Captain returned his communicator to his pocket and glanced back at his wares, before he ventured off to the access lift underneath his ship and glanced up at it, tilting his head a fraction as he wondered why it was closed. Perhaps Tes did leave the ship after all and had already returned. A shrug of the shoulder was all that came of this, as Ruce sunk a hand into his cargo pant pocket to retrieve his datapad. Turning the device on, the Captain pressed a key buttons before the hydraulics of the access lift 'PSSSSSH'ed to life and begun to lower down to the ground. Hopping on and riding the lift back up, completing forgetting about Sky, the Captain returned within a few minutes with a tool bag, which he tossed on the ground not far from the right back landing gear, beside which was the hull breach.
"So this 'bug' yer mentioned in the turbolift. Wha' did he look like? Any distinguishin' marks? Yer know the race?"
Ruce asked as rummaged about in his tool bag for a moment, pulling out four metallic discs, about a foot wide. There was a suction pad on one side and a hover thruster on the other. Attaching the pads to the corners of the breached hull section, Benner flicked a switch on each that made a circular red light shine around the hover thrusters base. Once that was all done, the Captain pulled a plasma cutter from his tool bag and a pair of welding goggles, which he pulled over his eyes before glancing back at Sky.
"I'm busy right now, so if tha' bug does show it's face, chop it off for me. Literally."

Ruce turned the plasma cutter on and got to work slicing out the damage hull section, which soon fell from the base of the ship and plummeted to the metallic dock floor below. The pads detected the sudden drop and speed change and their red lights flicked green, the thrusters igniting and catching the hull section before it clattered into the ground. Pushing the floating hull section out from under the ship, Ruce flipped it over with aid of the hover thrusters and gently set the sheet of damaged metal down. Turning the pads off and removing them, he placed them onto one of the new pieces of Titanium hull and basically reversed the action, pushing the hovering sheet under the ship, powering the hover thrusters to raise the sheet up into place and then used the plasma cutter to weld the sheet into place securely. Once that was down, Benner dusted his hands off and tossed the plasma cutter into his tool bag, smirking at Sky.
"There! Good as new! No shots will be gettin' through THA' part of her anyway!"

While the captain continued to fondle his 'sweetheart', Sky's eyes were unable to keep from spotting the breach in the Valkyrie's hull. His first though was that maybe it was from some sort of fire, but wouldn't the breach have been cleaner in that case? Maybe something just impacted him, it happens, or because of being in a rush due to his illegal cargo Ruce accidentally bumped into something. Whatever it was the ship needed some work regardless as far as the blond could tell, so maybe it was a blessing in disguise. Another glance towards the doorway... Nothing, so sign of the bug. Several other people were coming up now, why hadn't it yet? Was it waiting, hoping that in time they'd let down their guard? Or was he being paranoid? It didn't matter, he wasn't going to become lax regardless. Keep an eye out, just in case. Better safe than sorry.

"Whatever you say," Sky answered to the comparison of the ship to Alexia. It was an inanimate object, able to be completely replaced. A living being however could not, even clones or twins had small differences in personality that could never be perfectly duplicated again. Valkyrie could always be stolen by somebody else, would that be considered cheating? Or maybe she was just being raped, but then again there really was no consent here other than that of Tes or Ruce so he didn't know. Not that it really mattered, it was all just philosophical anyway. It didn't take long for the mercenary to be forgotten either, after the captain's retort to his first mate he went straight to work without so much as a word to Sky. Typical of Ruce, so the blond didn't really mind. What else was he going to do anyway, just keep an eye out for the emperor? Regardless of whether he was here in the bar he would know just as quickly, so it didn't matter where he was. So there he stood, eyes carefully scanning their surroundings until his friend returned and questioned about the bug.

"Galvantian, hetero chromatic eyes one blue one violet. Extremely rare in their race, especially violet. Easy to spot if it shows up, so there's that at least. Just have to wait and see if it's daring enough to continue the hunt."

After finishing his report, he nodded at Ruce's suggestion of dealing with it on his own. Probably better that way, since under these circumstances Sky could make sure everything was fine for the Valkyrie and its crew while also looking out for his prey. Not that he didn't think the captain couldn't handle his own, it was just nice to have an extra pair of eyes. Turning his back to Ruce now as he worked, his eyes returned to their scanning. Families and smugglers were going about their normal business, with the occassional scavenger or mercenary making their way past. None of them seemed to care about the mercenary or the ship, so at least there was that. The relative peace though only made Sky worry even more, just what was that bug up to? Was he really just being paranoid, it really wasn't like him to let something get to him like this. Maybe it was because Ruce was there, he was used to being alone and knew he could handle his own. Add someone else to the mix though, and things could get complicated fast. He was probably just worried about his friend, speaking of which he finally seemed to finish his work. Turning his side towards the captain once more, Sky chuckled as he glanced over to the new hull piece.

"So at least that'll be left floating in space when the rest of her disintegrates, right?"

Where they'd been before however, the bug was relaxing against the wall waiting for Sky's return. Chances were he'd come back this way, since his ship wasn't with the other man's and after how obvious he'd made it that he wanted to see the mercenary he'd undoubtedly return to investigate. That made his job easy, just needed to wait it out. The only problem would be avoiding suspicion, since next to the lift was a security station. That along with the presence of the nursing station on the other side should make the blond more at ease though, only a novice or a fool would try to attack someone under those circumstances. Hopefully it wouldn't take long, the emperor wasn't a patient man and if kept waiting for too long... Well, neither he nor Sky would appreciate the consequences...

The Captain of the Valkyrie was pretty proud of his handy work, getting those new armoured plates fitted onto the old craft relatively quickly. The colours weren't off too much, nothing you'd notice at first glance anyway. Yeah, it wouldn't hurt to dig out the spray cans and get the old girl looking smart again. Mind you, the rest of the ship wasn't in 100% condition. She was certainly both flight and space worthy now, but who knew who many hits the older pieces of hull would be able to take? A pity the Captain wasn't rich enough to replace all of the armour of the Valkyrie. That would make him feel a heck of a lot safer when taking the old girl back out into orbit. Well, that was why he brought the autocannons. Tes was going to have a fit, he knew this, but Ruce had his reasons and he'd be more then happy to spell them all out for the blue-haired engineer at a later date. For the time being, he had said weapons to install and said engineer barking in his ear once more. The scruffy pilot just rolled his eyes and tugged his communicator out of his pant pocket, bringing it up to his face.

"I ain't got shit-faced yer unauthentic pea-brain! I 'ad one drink, bought some replacement parts fer the old girl, then came back. Yer think armoured hull gets delivered instantly?"
Benner snorted and glanced over his shoulder to see what Sky was up to, observing the mercenary in silence for a couple of moments, listening to the silence coming back from his communicator mixed with the rushing of traffic and bustle of life coming from outside the landing bay. Then came the message from Tes about going silent and the Captain just raised an eyebrow at her words. She must have found another one of her old toys or something and wanted to test it out. Whatever, that was cool. Or perhaps she was doing as she was told and was trying to get a better reading on whatever that signal was she had picked up earlier. Either way, Ruce rolled his right shoulder as he stomped over to his weapon crates and prized one of the lids off using his dagger as a makeshift crowbar.
"Holy smokes these guns are big!"
The scruffy pilot ran a gloved hand through his hair and scratched his scalp lightly as he pondered how on earth he was going to lift this up onto the weapon hard points located either side of the cockpit canopy. After cracking open the lid of the ammunition box, Ruce reached inside and pulled out one of the 400mm rounds the autocannons would fire. This thing was ridiculously heavy and he turned to show Sky. The bullet was over a foot wide and easily stood about three feet high from the ground.

"Yo Sky, 'ow many of these yer think the Royale could take?"
He asked with a cocky tone and a smirk spread across his scruffy face, in return to the mercenary's jibe about that new piece of hull being the only thing left once the Valkyrie gets disintegrated. Knowing Tes would be wanting to get her ass back into orbit sooner rather then later, Ruce hopped across the landing pad and get himself suited up into a maintenance MEC suit, using it to pick up and install the autocannons onto the weapon hard points. It didn't take too long, Ruce clearly knew his way about his own ship and where and how to put and connect everything. Within minutes, both the weapons were installed and the were armed with the round provided. After returned the MEC back to his recharge station, Benner stomped back over to the underneath of the Valkyrie and up to Sky, staring at him for a couple of seconds.
"A Galvantian mercenary workin' for a Grannok businessman in the Zantu Expanse? Tha' seems an awfully odd combination, don't yer think? I've not seen anythin' happenin' or comin' from the turbolift durin' my occasional glance over there. Seems pretty quite. Wha' do yer think?"
Sky was the merc after all and the most battle experienced one here. He may have seen things that Ruce and Tes may have missed.