"So, what'll you have?"
Max looked at Joseph for a moment, his expression unreadable due to his glasses fully covering his eyes, and then sighed after another moment. "I thought you were running the Union Dorm's Canteen?"
"Did I ever say I was running the union canteen?" Joseph countered with a hearty grin as he held up a spatula in one hand.
"No, I suppose you didn't."
"Besides, how am I supposed to give you that extra desert I promised ya if I was running the union canteen? Doubt you would ever go there after all."
"Union canteens are a sometimes a necessary evil," Max said before his mouth twisted into a grimace as he recalled how bland the food could be. "It's the royal canteens I'll avoid like the plague."
"Right. My question still stands though, what do you want for your breakfast. I got more options here than I did on the ship after all."
"Just my usual then," Max said prompting Joseph to give him a full plate of hash browns, sausages and a pair of sunny side up grilled egg. He took it and went to a table to eat, only for joseph to sit done across from him a bare minute later. "Shouldn't you be ready if others come for breakfast?"
"Ha, it's five in the morning and the only ones using this canteen right now are civilian contractors. Most won't be up till at least six or seven. Besides, there are six of us in the kitchen and everything is already prepped."
"Fair I guess," Max said as he began eating.
Joseph, after a few minutes of silence from the both of them, put down his fork and looked at Max. "How do you find the rooms we've been given as contractors?"
"Better than what I expected honestly. Kind of dreary though."
"I agree on that," Joseph said with a chuckle. "We'll all need to order some personal effects to spruce the rooms up for us."
"Only if the rooms do not fall apart," Max said with a sigh as he continued to dig into his food, with only an egg and some hash browns left.
"They didn't look that bad of shape to me. What did you see?"
"Signs of a speedy restoration, some with more focus on looks than utility. Some of the fixtures and the appliances in my room are new, but probably draw too much power for the buildings age and its wiring. Won't be a problem now, but when it gets colder and more people try to cook in their rooms we may have some power shortages."
"Fabulous. do I deed to report it to your group or are doing it?" Joseph asked honestly.
"I'm sure the others in the maintenance division will have seen the same things I did, but I will be making note of it," Max said as he finished his breakfast and followed it with a glass of apple juice. "Anything in the kitchen to add to the list?"
Joseph thought to himself for a moment before nodding. "All the appliances in there are new, but I heard one of the other cooks saying the ovens were not running as hot as they should be. Also seems like the water pipes have a bunch of air in them. Could be from neglect of use though. The base was mostly inactive until a few months ago after all."
"I'll mention those then," Max said as he picked up his tray and stood up from the table.
"You heading right to work already?"
"Yes."
"Awfully early still, no?"
"In my room there was a note stating the head of the maintenance division wanted everyone there at six for an orientation."
"Ah, good luck then, I'll see you around when you're next by,"
Max simply nodded as he left and prepared to head to the first day on the job.
Xxxxxxxxxx
Azur lanes maintenance division building was located in the islands central area, but far at the back behind the dorms and the academy area, quite out of sight of anyone who had no need to there. The building itself did not look big, simply a few meters of concrete sticking out of a cliff beside a large garage door built into it, but as Max entered he was pleasantly surprised by what was inside.
The inside was a warehouse like those that could hold untold tons of machinery and people. Nearly twice the width and length of the average sports field with a ceiling almost twelve meters high, the warehouse was filled to the ring with mechanical wonders and the tools and materials to bring them about. On the left wall were large shelves and truss's that held up raw materials of wood and metals, as well as a number of strange looking machines that a few of which resembles oversized extruders. On the right side was what appeared to be a number of smaller walk in machining shops that, upon closer inspection appeared to have people's names written above each of them. Lining the middle of the warehouse were a number of trucks of various sizes, and above built into the celling were a number of crane systems.
Walking down the right side of the warehouse by the small work areas Max found most of them empty, devoid of people, or equipment aside from what was built into the workbenches. The reason became clear as he reached the back of the warehouse. There, built into the back wall was an absolutely massive screen, and a small throng of people in front of it, at least three or four dozen. The screen showed a timer up at the top, counting down till the time of the orientation meeting that was soon approaching, as well as a pair of sides to a table, the left marked as 'run-around', while the right was marked as 'central'. Both sides had names in them, though the central side of the table had easily double, and after a few moments Max found his own name on the left side.
"Hey, what's with the coat?"
Max turned to see a stocky woman of maybe five feet standing to his side looking at him. She was wearing coveralls and a simple top, and her belt was covered in a number of tools. "It's a duster, and it doubles as my tool bag," Max admitted as he undid the front of the coat and pulled the left side out, revealing a number of pockets in the lower section with tools and small odds and ends."
"Heh, that's kind of odd, but all of us here are a bit odd I suppose," the woman said as she rubbed her nose with a thumb and then offered the other hand. "Emily McClain, I'm a plumber and electrician from the Woad islands."
"Maximus Grey, I do a little bit of everything," Max replied as he shook the woman's hand, a comical sight due to him being over a full foot taller than she was. "I'm from the Maple Dominion."
"Heh, a fellow soul under the heel of Royal Bullshit and tomfuckery, I like ya already ya Emo fuck," Emily vulgarly said with a hearty laugh. "So, why you wearing those glasses anyway? It's not like it's bright in here."
"Personal reasons,"
"And they are?"
"Personal."
"So, you're not saying."
"No, I'm not."
"Eh, okay, that's fine, I'll find out one way or another," Emily said with a grin as she turned to look at the massive screen. "Bloody overkill sized screen, but what side of that thing are you on?"
"Left side, run-around," Max answered after a few seconds of looking for his name.
"Same. I wonder what that is supposed to mean anyway?"
"Well, if I was to guess-," Max began to say, stopping when he saw a man walk up to the front of everyone just as the timer on the screen hit zero.
"Alright everyone, quiet down," the man called and waited a few seconds. "I am head technician Davion Christenson. I oversee all maintenance and installations on this base and am the person you all, as of right now, report to. In regards to your jobs, the only one more important to impress is the base commander himself. You are all here to work maintenance, whether that is electrical, mechanical, plumbing or whatever else, you all are here as contractors, and I expect to see good work out of you! Now to begin, I would like everyone to split themselves according to how you find your names on the board behind me. Get to it!"
Everyone began moving as one, with Emily and Max joining a much smaller number of people to the left. After a few moments everyone was split and Davion nodded to himself.
"Alright, first off those of you marked as Central are part of the main central maintenance group. Your jobs will be working directly under me and my subordinates to repair, install, and do other things around the islands central hub, or act and deal with issues around the island far too large for one or two people. There is a lot of maintenance work to still be done on this island as I am sure many of you have noticed, and much of that we will be starting to deal with. For now though, all of you can go find your own workstations and familiarize yourself with them. I will gather you all in an hour or so. Get to it!" Davion called, sending the large group off. Once they were mostly gone he turned to the rest. "Alright, the rest of you. I'll be frank, you are all eccentric mavericks as far as most companies and organizations would care; You bend the rules, you play by your own, you cause problems, but you get things done. All of you are the run-around group. You are the ones who will be answering maintenance tickets from around the island and looking into them. If it is something you can fix on your own you are free to do so, if not, you can report back and either grab a bunch of the rest of you to help, or submit it as a large scale repair for the main group. You all will be dealing with the various factions on the island, so keep your chins up and do not say things that will bite you, or me, in the ass. Any questions?"
"Yes sir!" Emily exclaimed as she raised a hand and then began speaking before he even said anything to her. "Where exactly do we find these maintenance tickets you mentioned?"
"There is a screen on the wall of my office to your right at the back of the warehouse that will show them, and at each of your workstations you will find a phone for each of you that is connected to the base network and the maintenance network. You can find them there, as well as converse with each other on them as well."
"Are we expected to appear here every day if we are working on a repair, sir?" a man with a Sardegnian accent asked calmly.
"No. If you have all the tools and supplies you need I will not require you to appear here or even make yourself known. When you finish a ticket it will be marked as to who completed it. As long as you do work, you will continue to get paid, but if I find out you have been slacking you will be docked pay, or outright fired and shipped back to your home county."
"And what if there are no maintenance tickets at some point?" Max spoke up curiously.
"Well, I don't think that will happen for a while. The fools that Azur Lane sent to get the base operational did the bare minimum, and some of the factions areas are barely even that. But, in the future if such a time occurs, well, you all have small workspaces and can do whatever you want with them. But only when there are no maintenance tickets for you all to look into, is that clear?"
"Crystal, sir," Max responded with a nod.
" Good. Now then, there are currently eight of you, and there are a total of twenty seven maintenance tickets right now. So I'd suggest going to your workstation, finding your phone, and choosing one and getting to it. There will be a few more of you in the coming weeks when the Crimson techs get here, but until then you have your work. Get to it!"
The whole group began moving at once to find their workplace, though Max found Emily walking beside him with a scowl on her face. "I really hope none of those tickets are for the royal's areas. Bloody tea drinking fops probably wouldn't even know how to turn a stove on properly!"
"That feeling is mutual," Max admitted. "I will be staying as far away from the royal faction area as possible,"
"Oh you too huh? What do you have against-," Emily stopped for a second before smacking herself. "Right, Maple dominion, don't mind me. History was not my best subject," Emily said as she then ran into her workshop that appeared to be right beside Max's own.
Max simply sighed as he glanced around and found the phone he was looking for, as well as a trio of charging stations for it, and flicked it on. After a few moment of fiddling with it he found the ticket list and discovered a large number were from the various ship girl faction dormitories or work areas, and that a high number of the union and royal ones were already marked as being looked into.
"So, what ticket you taking?" Came Emily's voice as she walked into view outside of max's work area with a grin.
". . . I'm thinking of checking . . . . . the Ironblood ticket here," Max said as he slipped the phone into his pocket and looked to see Emily looking horrified. "
"Uh, you sure that's a good idea? Isn't that one for their shipgirl dorms?"
"So?"
"So, their rigging is alive. Mechanical monsters that can bite holes in ship hulls, blow apart concrete, infinite stamina to chase people to their end," Emily said in obvious worry. "Sounds like a death sentence getting anywhere near them. Not to mention all the rumours of what the Ironblood did during the wars and what they are like."
Max shrugged. "The only ones I have a beef with are the royals. I'm not going to let a few rumours, or history, get in the way of my job."
"Well, all the more power to ya I guess. I'm gonna head over to the union area, got a ticket about a whole bunch of plumbing problems to look into and I doubt the Yanks like swimming in their workplaces as much as some of em like swimming in sweat. Talk to ya later ya glasses wearing emo!"
Max opened his mouth to respond only to find Emily already running off. With a sigh he checked his tools and left the building and began heading to the Ironblood factions area of the island while looking over his accepted maintenance ticket.
Apparently a number of automatic doors were only partly opening, and one of their tactical holographic tables was non-functioning despite being new. From the sound of it the issue could be mechanical or electrical in nature, but it was also noted that the Ironblood dorms where this was occurring currently only had a sparse four occupants as the rest of the Ironblood forces coming would be arriving in roughly a weeks' time.
This meant there was a time limit to get everything in their dorms fixed.
Max did not pay much attention to the area around him as he walked through the base and its various areas as he headed toward the one used by the Ironblood. All the factions areas were connected to the central area, and each major faction had its own docks and facilities. This made the base as a whole of mix up of facilities, roads and places, and made it easy to get lost if one did not know where they were going. Luckily for Max, the Ironblood language was similar to English and it was easy to find the Shipgirl dorms.
The dorms were a large building, or more likely multiple connected buildings, that were built in a very simple style, but accented by grey, red and black everywhere. There were no bright colors anywhere, and even the wood that he could see in use was varnished dark. He could see Ironblood scientists and marines nearby but paid them no attention as he walked straight up to the door to the dorms and rapped his fist on the door three times.
He could hear some of the nearby marines talking about telling him off, but just as he could hear one of them approaching the door in front of him opened. The girl who answered was a little short in height and slight of body. She looked lithe and dexterous, and her serious face was framed by blonde hair that accented her green eyes nicely and suited her well.
"Who are you?" the girl asked standoffishly, not moving from the doorway as if to bar entry.
Her question did bring up what was the best way to introduce oneself, but after a half second Max simply smiled. Simplicity and respect would likely get him furthest when not dealing with Royal bastards. "My name I Max and I am from the Maintenance division. There was a ticket submitted in regards to some auto doors and a Holotable not working and I am here to look into them."
"About time then," the girl said as she stepped back and allowed Max to enter the building." Well, come on already, we don't have all day, idiot."
Max simply nodded as he stepped inside, the girl continuing to speak as she closed the door behind him.
"Those things have been causing us no end of problems, and they need to be fixed before the rest of the fleet arrives."
"I understand. Shoes on, or off?" Max asked politely.
"Doesn't matter to me," the blonde said as she looked at Max uncertainly. "I assume you need to be led to the problems themselves?"
"The ticket did not include a map, so that would be helpful."
"Whatever, this way then. Quicker you fix it the better,"
"Fair. Exactly how are the doors acting, may I ask?"
"Badly. They open halfway, not at all, close halfway. One of them is stuck open too," the blonde explained as they walked down the halls, quickly arriving at a doorway that led into what appeared to be an Ironblood beer garden style tavern. "This one is the one that's stuck open."
"Alright, I'll get to work then," Max said simply as he stepped up to the door and began looking it over for a few seconds before yanking a protective casing off of one side of the doorframe to look at its insides.
"So, what is with the jacket and glasses? Going for some kind of stupid secret agent look or something?" the girl asked as she stood by the wall across from the door to give Max room to work.
"Nothing so dumb," Max stated as he slid his jacket off and spread it out on the floor, slipping a couple tools out of the many inner pockets. "I keep tools in it."
"I can see that," the blonde grumbled in indignation. "What about those sunglasses?"
"That is personal," Max responded as he began fiddling with some mechanisms and a wire. A second later a sparking noise caused him to take a step backwards before the door suddenly slid shut, then opened again due to his presence.
"Wait, it's fixed just like that?" the blonde asked in surprise.
"Whoever installed it crossed a cable with one of the small actuators. They were catching and causing it to not close due to a safety feature I'd guess," Max explained as he stepped away and promptly put the casing back on it before picking up his jacket and turning to the blonde. "Where is the next one miss?"
"I have a name," she said with a scowl.
"And I would like to know it. But as I do not, what else am I to call you when you did not introduce yourself?"
The blonde almost growled a bit as she turned and began walking down the hall. "Admiral Hipper."
"Ah, then it is a pleasure to meet you Admiral Hipper, shall we move on?"
"Obviously. This way. The next one is not that far away," Admiral Hipper said with a shake of her head. "If you can fix the rest of them that quickly this may be done sooner than I had expected."
"You expected it to take more time then?" Max asked as he followed her down the halls.
"Obviously!" Admiral Hipper said in frustration as they went. "there are only a few of us here, and as soon as we get here we find problem all over the place!"
"hmm, not a good first sight when the alliances are just barely back in place to deal with the Sirens then," Max mused as they came around a corner and Admiral Hipper stopped in front of a door that was, quiet obviously, stuck open as it twitched and jittered in place.
"No, it isn't. This is the next one."
Max nodded as he put his coat down and unfurled it before removing the wall panel for the door just as he had before. Upon doing so however he took a step back as sparks jumped out toward him
"What, scared of a few sparks?" Admiral hipper asked with a smirk on her face.
"Of sparks, no. of the fact that an auto door would only spark if the electronics were shorting, yes. I don't feel like being electrocuted if I can help it," Max said as he pulled a pair of gloved out of an inner pocket of his coat and put them on. "Are you the one in charge of your factions Ship Girls until the rest of your allies arrive?" Max asked out of curiosity as he took a couple tools and began carefully shifting wires, using the sparks a way to guide him to where the short was.
"Yeah, got a problem with that?" Admiral Hipper asked accusingly.
"No, just curious is all. I've never really spoke with any of you before."
"Hah? I thought you Union folk watched those carriers of yours like idols or something?"
"I'm not from the Union, actually," Max said as he found the sparks coming out a burned wire that had no covering. "Do you have access to the circuit board for the wiring in this area? I need these doors shut off to change out the mis-wired section."
Admiral Hipper nodded as she turned away from Max and put a hand to a n ear, talking in a low tone. A few second later she turned back to him. "It should be off in a minute. If you're not from the union where are you from then? You certainly don't look like you from Sardegna or the Royals."
"I'm from the Maple Dominion actually. North of the union territories," Max said as he noted the sparks suddenly stop. Taking a second to check the wire for charge with a tool he nodded slightly as he confirmed it was not live and then set to work on replacing the section of wire.
"Oh, that rugged land kind of like the Northern parliments territories, right?"
"Yes," Max said as he scowled. The damaged wire was disconnected but it was partly suck on the casing itself. Gripping it firmly he yanked on it until it came out, dropping it to the floor as he reached down and pulled out a replacement section of wire. "The same territory that has been shelled and bombed repeatedly due to our rich resources."
"Well, a lot of places got hit in all the wars," Admiral Hipper said noncommittally.
"Yes, they were," Max said as he double checked his work and nodded to himself as he picked up the outer casing. "This one can be powered up now."
Admiral hipper nodded and tuned, placing a hand to her ear and talking in a low tone again for a few seconds as Max put the casing back together. Right as she finished the door sprang to life, closing slowly, then opening due to their presence once more. "Right, there are a few more doors still."
"I am aware," Max said as he deposited his told back in his coats inner pockets and picked it up, draping it over his arm as he again followed Admiral Hipper down the hall. "May I ask why you were touching your ear earlier?"
"I was using my radio," Admiral Hipper answered instantly as she shook her head. Wasn't it obvious?"
"Perhaps. As I said, I have never seen a Ship girl before today, not even at a distance. All I could claim to know is what people talk about in rumours, and I do not trust such things."
"Huh, I didn't expect that."
Max simply shrugged as they continued to the next doorway, their conversation essentially done. The next couple hours involved finding the door that was not working and fixing it. There was five of them, and once done they went to the second floor of the dorms, slipped into an adjacent building and came into an area of the building with a different feel to it. The doors were all reinforced and had locks on them, and the walls were painted with more black and grey with less wood, and much more metal.
"I take it this is the more, business oriented area of this building and is where the Holotable is?" Max asked as he followed Hipper.
"Obviously, did the reinforced walls not clue you in, jeez," Admiral Hipper said with a shake of her head. "Honestly I wasn't expecting anyone here would be able to fix an Ironblood Holotable until our own engineers arrived, but considering how easily you fixed most of those doors we may as well see if you can fix it while you are here."
"It was part of the repair ticket, so I had planned to anyway," Max said simply as they arrived at a larger door with a keypad beside it.
Admiral Hipper punched something into it, using her body to hide the keypad from sight, and a second later the door slid open. The room itself was not large, maybe three meters wide by five long. There were no chairs of any kind, and the only thing of note was a very sleek and advanced looking Metal Table that sat in the room's center with enough room to walk around it, and little else. The room was lit only by a small red light above the door and Max assumed in would normally be lit up by the table as well.
"So, what is the problem with the table then?" Max asked as he looked at the table for a second.
"It turns on, but doesn't do anything," Admiral Hipper explained as she walked around to its far side and flipped something, causing the table's entire surface to light up in a dull gray color. "it should load an operations screen, but it doesn't."
"Is this the color it is supposed to be when it turns on?" Max asked as he laid out his coat and began pulling some tools out.
"No, it is supposed to glow red I believe when it first starts up"
"so a software start-up error, or a power issue then," Max reasoned out loud as he crouched down at the side of the machine and, after a few seconds, found the screws to unconnected the external plating's. "This won't be quick, so if you want to get lunch or have something to do-"
"I am not leaving you here unattended, idiot!" Admiral hipped exclaimed instantly before Max could fully finish.
"Aright, no need to scream," Max said as he began unscrewing bolts and taking the external plating off.
Admiral hipper simply huffed as she took up a position in the doorway with her arms crossed and began watching Max work. It was odd. The way he held himself was unlike most humans she had met, yet did not seem to be at all dissuaded by her words or riled up by them like was common. He was oddly quiet as he worked as well. Normally engineers seemed loud and boisterous, swearing as they worked, but he made no noise as he did, though the holotable made noises occasionally as he worked.
"is it supposed to be doing that?" Admiral hipper asked.
"Doing what?" Max asked from below the table, only his legs sticking out from underneath.
" it's flickering, and the screen almost went red for a second."
"Well, that is a good sign then," Max said as the sound of something snapping came from underneath the table.
"what was that?! Are you breaking something?!"
"No, I'm unpacking things," Max said alongside some kind of crinkling noise. "this Holotsble is new, correct?"
"Yes, it came here with us," Admiral hipper explained.
"But it was the Azur lane people that put it together, right?"
"Yes, some Royal engineers were the ones I think."
"Well, that explains it. Imbeciles just unpacked it and hooked it up. Didn't think to consider that a piece of tech like this would normally have some internal lock and packaging inside so it couldn't get damaged. They are stopping it from starting up. Removing them should be simple, but I'm checking the internal connections as well, just in case."
"How long will it take?" Admiral Hipper asked.
"Well. . . . Hour, two tops I think."
Admiral Hipper let out an Aggravated groan in response.
Xxxxxxxx
After nearly two hours of poking, priding, shifting, removing, and having his fingertips zapped by sparks of static, Max heaved a sigh of relief. He was finally finished fixing the holotable, and doing so made him want to find the ones who installed it and beat them. Not only had they not properly unpackaged some of its parts, leading to those parts fitting incorrectly or not at all, they had put a number of the power cables in backwards, leading to power loops which were a bitch to track down. It was almost a miracle that he had not gone over his quoted time
"Hey, you're almost done ,right?" Admiral hipper asked as she walked over, her feet stopping a foot or so beside his own that stuck out from under the holotable.
"Just finished. Just need to put the outer case back on, and it should bot up perfectly fine this time," Max said as he started scooting himself back out from under the table.
" Good. That is the last thing that needed to be repaired though, so I guess I can say I'm impressed you fixed all of it yourself," Admiral hipper said in a very odd tone, like she was praising while trying to be standoffish at the same time.
"Well, it comes naturally to-," Max began to say as he finished scooting out and looked up, only to realize he was in a very precarious position, as he could ever so slightly see up the side of Admiral Hippers skirt. He instantly rolled to the side away from her, the sudden movement catching her off guard and making her flinch.
"Huh, what was that about?" Admiral Hipper asked as she turned her body toward him and placed both of her wrists on her hips.
Max sat up and looked to her to answer, but quickly saw her expression and let out a sigh. "I apologize. When I slid out I saw beneath a small portion of your skirt. It was accidental, but that does not change that it happened and I am sorry."
"You!" Admiral hipper began to say, looking like she was about to start screaming before she suddenly stopped and took a step back, one of her hands pressing down on the front of her skirt itself. "You saw?"
"I say up the edge, a bit of your upper leg," Max admitted as he stood up and lowered his head a bit, keeping quiet about the fact that they were very nice legs.
"That's it?" Admiral Hipper demanded to know while blushing furiously and looking like she could start screaming at any moment.
"Yes, again I apologize, it was not my intention."
Admiral hipper looked at him in annoyance before she turned around and let out a loud and aggravated sigh. "Idiot, its fine, you didn't see anything, and I need to be more careful. I'm not used to there being men around. That's all."
"Well, thank you for being understanding," Max said as he let go of a held breath. Everyone knew the stories of how strong ship girls could be after all. Angering one on his first day of actual work would be likely to drastically lower his employment time, if not his lifespan.
"Don't thank me for something like that, idiot," Admiral hipper said with a grumble as she walked to the doorway, but then stopped and turned around to see Max depositing his tools back in his coats inner pockets. "Do you need some kind of, signature or something?"
"That is a good question actually," Max said honestly as he realized that that was not something that had come up. Slipping the work phone out of his pocket he opened up the repair ticket and looked it over and, after a few seconds, found a section near the bottom for a signature for completion of the project. "Yeah, looks like it. Can you sign here?" he asked as he held out the large phone to Admiral Hipper.
"Fine, I guess I could do that," she responded nonsensically as he took the phone and pulled its pen out of its slot before scribbling a bit and handing it back. "That good?"
Max took the phone back, looked over the signature and nodded as he tapped the confirm button, marking the ticket as resolved. A second later it gave an almost cute congratulatory message. "Yeah, that's it then."
"Good," Admiral hipper said with clear relief. "It would have been a problem if all of this was still broken when Bismark and my sister arrived. Especially the holotable."
"The leader of the whole Ironblood is coming herself?" Max asked as he made sure all of his coat pockets were secured before throwing his coat back on and fixing the collar.
"Who else would come?!" Admiral Hipper responded incredulously.
"Well, I do not know how your hierarchy is built, now do i?" Max said before letting out a chuckle. "Probably doesn't matter. I doubt a simple technician like me would ever meet a big leader of any faction anyway."
"I suppose not," Admiral hipper said as she motioned for Max to follow her out of the room. "Why do you call yourself simple?"
"Because I am," Max said simply, and upon seeing Admiral hipper looking back at him he opted to continue. "I'm good with machines and the like, but fixing things is not hard. Just look for the machineries pattern, find what doesn't match, make it match and you're done. Nice and simple."
"I would not call it simple. Machinery if far more complicated than that. I tried to figure out what was wrong with one of those doors and couldn't figure out anything about it," Admiral hipper admitted with a shake of her head. "Plants are far easier to deal with compared to machines. And people."
"I agree," Max simply said as he and Admiral hipper arrived back at the main entrance of the building. He was thankful to be led back as, with how many turns they had taken while doing repairs, he probably would have gotten himself turned around somehow despite the buildings intelligent design.
"You, don't like people?" Admiral hipper asked in surprise.
"Not most people, but that doesn't matter," Max muttered as he double checked his coat, and finding nothing wrong walked past Admiral hipper to the door. "Thanks for the escort back here, and sorry the table took so long."
"It didn't take long, it took the time you said you idiot. Why do you keep apologizing?"
"Force of habit I guess. I am from the Maple Dominion after all," Max said as he turned and opened the door. "This base is pretty big, but I'll see you around at some point."
"Yeah, whatever."
Max said nothing else as he left the Ironblood dorms and headed towards the islands central area and the canteen, thinking that some food would do him good as it was already the afternoon. On the upside, as long as things kept up the way they were, working at Azur lane could be quiet enjoyable and keep him out of trouble. What was the worst that could happen?