[b]Boringverse[/b] After a few moments during which Ali hashed out some of the finer points of his contract, Flit joined the ertswhile crew of the [i]Nava-Hoe[/i] in drinking coffee in the mess. Shinn drank it, but complained about wanting cream and sugar, which resulted in a truly spectacular beating courtesy of all others present. After leaving the child curled in a corner, al-Saachez took the boy's mug, and poured some whiskey into it. After receiving approving nods from the other adults, Ali and the rest resumed their previous conversation. "So." The blond engineer began, "We're supposed to escort this [i]Dominion[/i] as you go around investigating the damage, is that right?" The blue haired man nodded, "Indeed. We have an infestation of vermin, so it's only natural that if they popped up in one place, then they would likely show up elsewhere as well. There's also the risk of out-lying installations being wiped out, so we'll be retrieving whatever information we can from them and backing it up as a failsafe in case the worst comes to pass. To assist you in this..." A beeping noise echoes through the room, causing Aaron to look up, "It looks like Azrael's decided to make a call." Flit nodded, "Of course. We'll pick this up again afterwards." The men got up from their seats, walking past the curled up Shinn in the corner of the room, who shivered as they passed by him. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Gentles, tell me, where's the Vice Admiral?" Azrael opened the call, sounding sickeningly sweet, "I've got something a [i]bit[/i] urgent to discuss with him, so if you could run along and fetch-" "I'm right here, Azrael." Flit interrupted, walking into the Chairman's field of vision, "Is this about the thing the Allster girl brought with her back to the [i]Dominion[/i]?" The greaseball nods, "Of course." He pauses, his expression growing manic, "They're...hehe...[i]N-Jammer Canceller[/i] schematics." The blue haired X-rounder blinked, his expression growing grave, "It all works out, Flit. The math, the designs. These things are one hundred percent fucking legit." His face split in an insane grin, "With this we can wipe out those filthy Cooridinators! I've already ordered mass production of them in our facilities at-" "Why did you do that?" Flit replied, rubbing his forehead in protest of a growing migraine, "Azrael...don't think that just because I can't see you doesn't mean I don't know what youve been doing the past hour. Setting aside your habit of going off a bit...half-cocked, you do realize that an alpha strike as soon as those kinds of plans were leaked to us is exactly what the enemy wants, right?" The faggots jaw drops in shock, "B-b-but, Flit! If we don't strike them now, then they might realize that we have this stuff before we get a chance to [i]use[/i] it!" "And so what?" The X-Rounder replied coldly, "They probably already have a contingency for that. Azrael, I swear to god your idiocy will get us all killed one day. This is just like our conversation about you accompanying the [i]Dominion[/i]..." Azrael smirked, "You have to admit, Badgiruel has got one [i]hell[/i] of an ass." Flit brushed the comment aside, "I suppose if you find the idea of fucking a gynoid attractive, then yes, the Lt. Commander would indeed be right up your alley." He and Azrael rolled their eyes at one another in a well-practiced synchronized movement, "setting that aside, who designed these things?" "The PLANTS, obviously." "Now, who's had them [i]even longer[/i] than us?" "Also the PLANTS." "Good, good," Flit replied, stroking his chin, "Now, who's in charge of said PLANTS?" "That freakish bastard Zala, of course." Azrael nodded, "I [i]had[/i] thought it odd that someone who hates Naturals so badly would hesitate to use nuclear weapons against us, or hell, even field more units such as the [i]Freedom[/i] or the [i]Justice[/i]...Unless..." The Chairman of Blue Cosmos blinked, as if he suddenly realized something. Flit nodded, "Yes. Unless he has something even more devastatingly effective up his sleeve and he's merely waiting for the opportunity to use it against us." The Vice Admiral shrugged, "Regardless. We now have the aliens to deal with, and I've already offered the PLANT Supreme Council a peace offer on the basis of uniting against the common threat. We can't wipe out precious resources when they could be put to far better use against our common enemies." The blond smirked, "I got ya. I'll hand the data over to Morgenroute then. Gentles, Mr. al-Saachez, good work on that Black Hole engine machine, by the way. We were able to get the data just fine, now once we get the completed prototype over, we'll be able to reverse engineer it almost immediately." The man's smirk grew wider, as a thin line of drool began edging down his face, "Oh man, two promising prototypes of new technology, one right after the other. [i]Sooo[/i] many possibilities, ehehe." Flit walked over to the viewscreen, switching it off. "I'm informing you both from person experience, we did not want to see where he ended up after that. Regardless, there's something we need to retrieve from the [i]Dominion[/i] before we depart. Gentles, you'll be coming with me. al-Saachez?" "Hmm?" The mercenary opened one eye from where he had been drowsing against the wall, "Keep on eye on things here." "Heh, you're the boss, man." Flit turned towards the other engineer, "Come with me." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Some time later, the two stood in the Mobile Suit Hanger of the [i]Dominion[/i]. While Aaron could admit to himself that the general layout of the craft itself was only a step above it's more outdated counterparts, the Hanger itself was, from his perspective, in a league entirely all it's own. "Gentles." Flit began, waving down towards the numerous Strike Dagger, and then towards a trio of unique machines, "As you can probably tell, the [i]Dominion[/i] truly does not need an escort. However, the ship itself, while advanced, lacks a trained and efficient crew in ensuring it's maintenance. Given your role with the [i]Nava-Hoe[/i] and how it was built primarily off the same technology that created the [i]Archangel[/i]-Class, you are a prime candidate for hiring for this task." "And as such, there's nothing too suspicious about me being hired out to accompany you all, correct?" Gentles replied, "Of course," Flit nodded, "Not to mention, given the Junk Guild's almost legendary neutral status, the fact that we have you fulfilling the role of a Tender ship shows that we've taken on a neutral observer in the Junk Guild. There's simply no way we'd be doing anything suspicious while we have you breathing down our necks like the goody-two-shoes you Guild Techs are known to be." Flit replied, rolling his eyes in apparent exasperation, then reached out with his hand and pointed at one of the unique Mobile Suits, this one colored blue with massively oversized spaulders, with two large beam cannons attached to it's back, "GAT-X131 Calamity, it's the first of the second generation G-weapons developed by the Earth Federation after the disaster at Heliopolis." He pointed to a second one, this one colored a dark green with a series of massive shields on it's left, right, and back, "GAT-X252 Forbidden. It's a transformable mobile suit, with it's notable features being it's ability to send out erratically traveling beams, a heavy scythe, and most importantly, it's "Geschmeidig Panzer"." "Geschmeidig Panzer?" Gentles replied. "It's a system that uses powerful magnetic fields on specialized Mirage Colloid particles, much like your own suit, in order to deflect energy weapons while active. It's apparently not as useful on melee beam weapons for whatever reason. And finally, it last feature," Flit gestured to the Forbidden's hanger, where a massive scythe hung, "The Nidhoggr Heavy Scythe." "I'm assuming there's something special about it? Hard metal weapons like that are pretty ineffective in this day and age." Flit snorted, "Have you ever heard of the Graveyard?" Aaron was taken aback. The Graveyard was where Lowe Guile had said that the man who made his original Gibraltar Straight resided, and it was where he was taught the metallurgy techniques to forge his massively oversized version of the weapon. It was uninhabited now, with the death of Lower's teacher, but even something that was a leftover relic from that place was likely to be of truly exceptional quality. "I...may want to take a look over that later." Flit nodded. "The last one," He said, pointing at a black and red mobile suit, "GAT-X370 Raider. It's another transformable mobile suit, but this one is comparatively straightforward. It has a number of mid-range and short-range weaponry making it suited for Mobile Suit combat, and really, its only other standout feature aside from the transformation is it's "Mjolnir" Spherical Breaker, which is just a flail on a cable treated with anti-beam properties. It's nothing too impressive." Flit shrugged, "Anyway, these suits can handle themselves, Gentles. Let me show you to the bridge...But before we do that." He reached into his pocket, and withdrew two PDA-like devices, "Find some way to install these into al-Saachez's machine. Their devices that record your battle data and analyze it for reproduction and potential countering of enemy technology. It's live, and is equipped to send the data to a secure mainframe back at Morgenroute. It only sends combat data, thankfully, so don't worry about anything being leaked as a result." Aaron accepted the gift gratefully, and followed Flit to the ship's bridge.