Haxx stepped into a contraption cooked up by the resident mechanics. Vard, Aero, Jur, and Deris watched as the Lieutenant stepped into it. The man was fresh off a workout but crammed into a suit fabricated by Vard to his size; an undersuit meant to replicate much of what the Vortian suits accomplished but a fraction of the bulk. It replicated their existing base layer of their uniform. An insulated, environmentally-sealed, form-fitting suit now capable of enhancing physical abilities beyond what was natural.
The machine, a box frame with various appendages and storage compartments went to work. Attachment points to the undersuit received the fabricated, flat black prototype armor plating. As they had relied on before and built their tactics around, versatility without sacrificing durability. Enough protection against most threats but not weighed down to the point of inaction. Thin layers of dense alloys feathered atop one another allowed much-needed flexibility without exposing vital areas. Larger sections of hard armor were halved into shells to be locked into place, such as the chest to the back. Hard points securely locked down, magnetically sealed, making it nearly impossible to remove the suit without the use of proprietary tools and equipment made by its creators.
The helmet Vard handed to him personally, which Haxx donned, completing the ensemble. Lowering it over his head, Purple Team's Lieutenant situated it before sealing the suit fully with a venting hiss of atmosphere, pressurizing, and engaging the boot-up sequence. Vard, monitoring diagnostics readouts from a nearby terminal as the suit's systems loaded, made minute adjustments to the code while Aero and Jur watched on. The pink-eyed Lieutenant of Red Team practically vibrated with excitement, a wide grin to match.
"He looks so cool!"
"Yes, yes he does," Vard smiled, typing as he glanced over his shoulder to Haxx. "How are you feeling in there, Lieutenant? No sudden movements yet. Making sure calibration is accurate before it folds you up like a chair."
"It's definitely something. Kinda reminds me of that chick we were fighting in that plant almost." Haxx slowly moved his arms up, turning his wrists to look at the palms of his hands. Fully enclosed power armor…now the Vorts and Skrem weren't going to be the only ones with fun toys. He heard an electronic humming as the shielding systems came online and went to a full charge. A noticeable red bar on his HUD filling until it was green.
"...Vard, does this thing actually have shields?"
"A limited kinetic barrier, yes," the short-statured member of the unit responded in kind, noting the power draw from recharging. Well within calculated tolerances. "I don't encourage pushing it to the limit but if my figures are correct the barrier will negate up to a marksman's plasma bolt. Physics are still physics and the transfer of energy hitting the barrier will be felt. It won't be pleasant."
"Like a kick in the head." Aero chimed in.
"Right. Definite concussion territory but you'll be alive…and before you get any bright ideas, this does not make you invincible. SIS let this tech go to their heads and look how many of them we've taken down already because of it."
"Yeah, there's a reason Vara and I were careful on Devastis." Jur added, "These are just tools. It's still all about the man wielding them. Don't get cocky and these suits, and now that armor, will do a world of wonders for you."
"That so?" Haxx grinned behind the helmet.
"Jur's right. Training and experience is what gets the most use out of any equipment, even if it is cutting-edge and performance-enhancing." Vard concurred, picking up his dataslate off of the diagnostics table. "I intentionally have everything downtuned for testing and safety purposes, but your physical capabilities should be enhanced by a factor of two."
"Twice as strong, twice as fast, sensitive hearing, eyesight, the works." Aero added, numbering off the enhancements.
"Right. I also meshed our proven equipment and systems into this design. Our HUD mostly, should be largely unchanged in your visor. Probably runs noticeably smoother and quicker now, too."
Haxx stepped forward, slowly, getting accustomed with the enhancements even if they were dialed down. His HUD picked up Jur's IFF as a friendly as well as recognizing Vard, Deris, and Aero by their PAK signatures. Definitely seemed easier to move, much easier. No wonder why Skrem loved running in his armor.
"You know now I'm wishing we had this when I had to lug the PRC around."
"I wish we had this gear from the beginning, but I digress." Vard sighed, making a few notes on his dataslate. "How does it feel so far? It's noticeably heavier than our current kit but the augmented base layer should mitigate the load. If it isn't, I need to make some adjustments."
"Y'know how you feel all your junk weighing you down?" Aero added, attempting to explain Vard's insinuations. "You should feel like you're wearing nothing at all right now."
"I mean…that is what it feels like." Haxx gestured to himself. "I've got all this on and I know I got it on but it practically feels like a feather. I can see why Jur and the others love those suits of theirs."
"Welcome to the club. Maybe now you can stand Aero giving you a hug without breaking your back." The Vortian laughed.
"Yeah, don't remind me why Vara likes getting hugs from Aero because of it." Haxx rolled his eyes, hidden behind the visor. "So, what sort of fun Vortian bits did you mix into this? Aside from copying as much as you could from what he got on but without making it look like it's artificial muscle all over."
Jur held out a hand to Haxx. The Lieutenant grasped it and the two armored men delivered a simple handshake. Nothing out of the ordinary but it was something to help Haxx get used to the armor further. The right amount of grip force necessary for one. Every little bit helped.
"One drawback to this stuff is the scaling. Captain Corr found out the hard way about it with his shattered femur. Same applies to you being aware of your own strength in the suit."
"Ooh! Oooh! Oh!" Aero excitedly sought attention. "Is this the egg test?"
Vard smiled.
"Yes, this is the egg test."
"Yessssss!" She eagerly approached the diagnostics table to open a cardboard carton, taking up the shelled produce in each hand, one apiece. "Pulled these out of the mess hall a little while ago. I need yoooou…to hold out your hand like this." Aero concluded, gesturing with an open palm facing up.
Upon doing so, the egg was placed in Haxx's waiting palm. A single, slender digit kept it from rolling out of his hand.
"Okay. Firmly grasp it, but don't break it! Don't want you grabbin' someone's anything to help them and crush their hand or leg in the process…so hold this egg."
Jur smirked, watching Haxx grasp the egg carefully without cracking the shell. "Shook my hand without breaking anything. Holding the egg. He's got some serious fine motor control. You sure you weren't a sniper?"
"Lugged around heavy guns all my life up until recently. Guess I have something I didn't know I had before going for me." Haxx looked at Aero and Vard. "So how powerful are these supposed to get? You said you dumbed it down to just improve things by a factor of two."
Vard, making a series of notes, looked up to Haxx thereafter.
"By my calculations? A factor of five is possible, potentially six in the most extreme cases. Drawback is twofold. The stress on the armor and its systems because physics cannot be defeated so easily…and stress on the body. I'm sure you've exercised to the point of failure in the gym. Imagine what would happen to your body if that failure was exponentially more intense."
"Sula told us that we would get further pouring your remains out and hosing the inside of the suit out at that point. Broken and ruptured everything. Turned into a chunky salsa, really." Aero nodded in concurrence. "I mean, really, do you need to be able to bench-press a starship? Two or three times the strength is plenty for most situations."
"I agree." Vard added. "Any situation requiring more than that is one we should never be in or avoid like the plague. I will be hard-capping our equipment to avoid potential injuries of that nature."
"Yeah, between us and the Vorts we should be more than enough if we need more power as a team…I'd prefer not to get turned into a pulp by my own equipment if I can help it. That's impressive though, you guys really outdid yourself."
"I mean, the Lieutenant, Chief, and Sergeant Vard did all the work. All I did was help in assembly." The rather quiet Corporal finally spoke up.
"So when can I go rub it in Skrem's face that I got better armor than he does?" Haxx sounded excited. "And when can I take this out for a field trial?"
"That…" The Tech Specialist began, concluding his notes and making another diagnostics adjustment at the terminal. "...will be entirely up to the Commander and wherever our next assignment takes us. I would personally prefer to do more in-house testing before we take any risks like that."
Taking up a dataslate, he approached Haxx, holding it out for him to accept.
"Here is a compiled battery of stress and capability testing. Sooner you can complete that list, sooner I will have data to show the Commander and finalize prints to send to our VDF friends. It took us this long to produce a prototype, there's no way the three of us can fabricate this gear in a timely manner on our own."
Haxx took the datapad and looked it over. "So we need the Federation's production to help us out with this."
"Krata's our largest and oldest colony, really been pumping things out lately. Lots of our other colonies also have industrial capacity. I'm certain that for the war effort against the Empire, we can spare some of that industrial capacity to our allies for our victory." Jur summarized.
"That and I am not handing these schematics over to Devastis to be turned against us in short order." Vard concluded.
"Yeah, no shit." Haxx let out a single laugh before scrolling down the dataslate. "So..what have we got here…physical tests, HUD targeting…physical combat. I'm guessing you want me to have a sparring match against one of their suits?"
"Eventually. For now, do the other things before it on that list first." Vard corrected, resisting a smirk. "That way when one of them hands your c'hurta to you, you'll have no excuses."
"Ha ha, very funny."
"Things were very mundane as Haxx got into testing his armor and we fell into a bit of a routine." Corr continued in his musing. "Six months of lower tier missions, Vult securing the support of various other people on Vaukt's intelligence, things like that. The one extreme point was making a stop at Kyozist to pick up Calla."
Digits was tapping away on the datapad loaned to him by Giz. "Really nothing worth telling?"
Corr leaned back in his worn desk chair with a creak contemplatively.
"For once throughout this unmitigated mess, no. Kazak was en route for Earth by that point. Even at FTL, that is a six month trip one-way. I don't recommend it unless you plan on spending a great deal of time there. Man wanted his solitude, by Irk, we gave it to him."
"What about the PJ outpost General Vaukt briefed you all on? What became of that?" Siph pursued.
"That kind of operation requires a lot of planning and observation. Vaukt gave us an outline, we had to write the thesis on it, if you will." The withered professor elaborated. "Zurrak had his hands full pulling recon for an extensive period of time. One man can't canvas an entire facility in a single day. We needed intel on every aspect and every angle of the facility before even taking it to the drawing board. Despite what your textbooks tell you about Planetjackers, there is a reason why the Empire didn't want them as enemies."
"The same reason why you wanted to make them the Empire's enemies?" Digits quiered.
"Precisely…unsure what they taught you kids in school before joining the Republic military, but let's compare our own civilzation to theirs. In this case, the Irken are widespread, but thin. A lot of territory, but very little of it is developed past outposts and singular frontier colonies. The Planetjackers, by comparison, are narrow but infinitely deep."
"So they greatly colonized their own star system but didn't spread out as much?" Ord summarized in a question.
"Correct. Their physiology kept them largely in their home system. They don't much care for their exosuits for extended periods of times. A homeworld so developed and so large it makes Irk look like Planet Dirt by comparison. They also had the industrial capacity to field a sizable fleet and a mastery of mass manipulation on an unparalleled scale."
"The…planet stealing thing?" Siph interjected, piecing it all together mentally.
"Yes. Their livelihoods and survival depended on their star, as most species do. Their physiology kept the chained to their home system…but there was something more sinister lurking beneath the surface and the real reason why the Control Brains wanted a non-aggression pact with them."
The trio of Cadets leaned in on the edge of their seats, eager for more.
"...three of you passed Astrophysics and Celestial Sciences, haven't you?"
"Uh, barely." Siph admitted.
"I think I remember dad bragging about how he stopped a star from exploding when I was a kid. I thought he was talking about one of his Invader missions." Ord mused.
"Of course he did," Corr sighed, shaking his head with a huff. "I'll spare you the lecture, but the reason why the Planetjackers feed planets to their star is to fuel it. It is rapidly dying and will burn out without fresh fuel being added to it. Naturally, the Control Brains didn't want Irk or its colonies to be snatched up to be thrown into star like kindling into a fire. PJs got protection from the universe, our claims were spared that fate."
"Right, I remember that from history in school." Siph acknowledged, scratching his head. "So…is there more to it? You said something about physics…"
"Oh, much more. Stars do one of two things when they die: burn out or blow up. Can you take a guess what was going to happen to the Planetjacker star if they didn't continue to feed it?"
Ord thought it over but Digits was the first to answer.
"It was going to go supernova and turn the Irken Empire into a massive black hole wasn't it?"
"Massive is an understatement. I have the projection saved somewhere, I'll dig it out for your morbid curiosity later. Both Irk and Vort would have been within its influence and likely the end of both races if it went critical. Nobody informed them that adding fuel continues to increase the star's mass. More mass, more potential energy…"
"More realized energy in a reality-ripping explosion."
"Precisely."
"So dad conveniently left out the fact that Vortian astrophysicists are the ones who ended up doing the saving but you guys were just the delivery boys for…whatever it is they made. Right?" Ord asked, not surprised about his dad's meat headed nature at this point.
"Essentially, yes." Corr nodded. "After what we did to them, we needed something to smooth things over again to coerce them into joining the cause. Isolated as they are, they are not someone you wish to have as an adversary. Stabilizing their home system star and working towards locating suitable worlds for them to colonize kept them from tearing into the resistance as well."
"Sounds like it worked. Probably kept Grimm sweating at night after what you guys did." Siph smirked.
"Considering their willingness to act as explorers and share their findings with the Republic pertaining to anything beneficial, I would say so. The Navy is eager to send future helmsmen, navigators, and the sort on such expeditions in an exchange program. Once you are past their callous nature and cold exteriors, they're a fascinating people to be around."
"Never would've thought that of a species that once stole planets and hurled them into their sun." Siph shook his head. "That why that conveyor belt planet no longer exists?"
"A peace offering once it was all said and done and goodbye to bad rubbish of what once was." Corr poetically answered.
"Anything else exciting?" Digits asked.
"Sadly, or thankfully being us in the moment then, no. A lull in activity for a change. A welcome one much needed…the calm before the storm in hindsight."
"So, what about Calla's body?" Ord asked.
"That…that was actually one of the last moments of peace we had before everything quickly began to spiral out of control." Corr took a sip from the mug on his desk. "Perhaps I will tell you about it next time. But perhaps I'll leave you with a little spoiler, just for you, Ord."
"Spoiler? For me?"
Docked at Kyozist, stuck in a holding pattern for a while, the team was able to get some much needed rest. The Invader, however, wasn't intent on giving up getting to know the pilot. He had tried coming on as his usual self, just how he was, laid out his accolades and it fell flat. A different approach, that of his suave side, how he could be behind the egotistical Invader and SpecOps veteran.
He sent a message to Rem, asking if she could meet him in the mess hall. The lights dimmed, candles lit, a meal he cooked himself for them both, with a little help of asking Aero about Rem's favorite foods. He waited, placing some bottles of Vortian wine in a bucket of ice nearby. All he could hope was that Rem would answer his message.
As the hope-striken man waited, the airlock to the mess hall cycled. Opening, it revealed not Rem, but Radec. To say he was confused would be an understatement as he hesitantly entered the dimly-lit room with Skrem awkwardly standing nearby a table set for two. Candles? Wine? Freshly-prepared food a caliber above their usual fare? A knowing smile deviously crept across his maw as he ventured further in.
"Well, well, well, look at all of this…I'm flattered, I didn't think you were interested in me." He gestured to the arrangement in a less than serious tone.
The man, clad in the lower half of his armor aside from the body glove upper half simply brought one hand to his face with an audible smack. Wasn't Rem, even more it was Purple team's new support guy…things already weren't going according to plan. Was Rem even going to come or did he truly slag his first attempt?
"Well not in the least. You come off like the kind of guy who'd fuck a person in the c'hurta and not have the courtesy to give him a reach around." Skrem replied with a facetious yet non-hostile jab right back at Radec. "Second, no, it's not for you."
Radec laughed at his crude comment, leaning in to get a closer inspection of what was freshly prepared on the plates and absolutely aromatic. "Surprised you even know what that is. Everyone 'round here is hilariously awkward 'bout everything…an' lemme snag a taste of that, gotta make sure it passes inspection." He concluded, reaching for a sample off the nearest plate.
Skrem slapped Radec's hand when he was reaching for Rem's plate and held out one from his own instead. No way he was going to let the guy ruin her side of the dinner at least. If she showed up. Last thing he needed and this was already bad as it was.
"Yeah, well, nobody really asked but those SIS guys are pretty damn crude themselves. That dude Buros and Oxaris were really fucking chummy with each other throwing that sort of language around between themselves. Even with me strapped to the table, screaming away, getting shock tortured for information."
"Kinky." Radec teased at his former traumatic plight, taking up a morsel of meat offered with a dab of its accompanying reduction. His expression snapped from inquisitive to surprise as he slowly chewed and swallowed. "...look, if whoever don't show up, I'll be your date for that. That is damn good…you made that, didn't ya?"
"Gee, thanks." Skrem sighed as he took a seat, shaking his head. "But, yeah, I made that. Comes with the SpecOps territory that you learn how to cook food yourselves. Can't come back to the mess hall. But I don't usually have such a selection of spices available in the field like this. Definitely a treat, and I was hoping to have Rem show up."
"Neat. Beats field rations any day of the week," Radec summarized, wiping his soiled hand off on his fatigue pants. "...an' you an' Rem, huh? You wound me, Skrem. Thought what we had was special."
The Invader shook his head with a laugh. "We're part of the workout gang in the gym but you know how I am with wearing the armor. I don't think you guys like my 'cheating' as it was."
"Ain't cheatin' if it's a crutch." He ribbed his squadmate with a chuckle. "I know you don't wanna get embarrassed by the rest of the guys. I bet Vard can outlift you."
Just to prove a point, Skrem rose from his chair and walked over to Radec. He grabbed the man and simply tossed him over his shoulder like he were a simple sack of cement. "You were saying?"
"Hey, hey, hey, no hands on the first date! I'm delicate!"
"...am I interrupting something?" A feminine voice cautiously called out from the airlock threshold, cycling shut in her wake.
A voice belonging to none other than Rem.
"Nope. Simply persuasively asking the heavy weapons man here-"
"No, don't let him whisper sweet nothings to you! He's trying to take advantage of me! I feel violated!" Radec interrupted, keeping a straight face.
"...I can leave you two to your privacy." Rem awkwardly offered, gesturing to the door behind her.
"No, no, and that's enough of Radec being desperate enough failing at women that he's trying men for tonight." Skrem started making his way towards the door to throw him out.
"Says the guy cradling me in his big, strong arms tenderly." Radec snickered, eventually being uncerimoniously tossed, forcing him to stumble to stay upright on his feet. "I can do things that'll curl your antenn-"
The door slammed shut, the muffled sound of his raucous laughter from the other side permeating through before he finally took his leave. Rem, dumbfounded at the exchange, only stood in the dim room with a quizzingly-arched brow.
Skrem huffed as he leaned back against the bulkhead and ran a hand down his face. "That is…not in the least bit how I intended this starting off."
"I'm afraid to ask what you actually intended at this rate." She commented in jest. "I think you and Radec would make a cute couple. He's obviously madly in love with you."
Skrem shook his head. "I definitely don't swing that way." The Invader pushed himself off the wall and started walking towards the table he set up. "We got off on the wrong foot before. I'm brash, I know…I came on strong, thinking my accomplishments would get some attention, and instead all I get is exactly the proverbial smack in the face I deserved."
He paused to uncork a bottle of wine and pour a couple glasses before proceeding to walk back over to Rem.
"I genuinely do want to get to know you. I thought this might be a better way, a private dinner between the two of us with the proper ambiance. Even asked Aero what your favorite foods were so I could try my hand at making something you enjoyed. At least if I'm an absolute idiot you'll have something you do like here."
"Explains why she was playing twenty questions with me over food…" Rem muttered, sighing as she took it all into consideration. "...you are persistent, I'll give you that much."
The offered glass of wine drew her attention. Hesitating briefly, she accepted it.
"Suppose since you went through all this trouble I can at least let you take your shot." She mused with a smirk, clinking her glass to his before moving past to find her waiting place at the table. "Is it your turn or my turn to go on about how great they are?"
"Yours, of course. I've bragged enough about myself before yet hardly know about you." Being more gentlemanly, he pushed in Rem's chair once she took her seat before moving to take his own across from her. A smile on his face, interest genuine. He wasn't being facetious or sarcastic in the slightest.
"Honestly not much else to add from what I already told you. Empire doesn't allow too much individuality or expressing one's self among the rank-and-file. All of this is still new. Extremely new in my case. One of the last ones unplugged to my understanding." She reasoned, hiding her bemused smirk behind a sampling of her wine.
"Well, it's not a bad thing, but you've been in this special unit. We have some more freedoms even before this. No hobbies? Personal interests? I know you're a pilot and quite the survivor as you told me before."
"Hobbies? What's a hobbies?" She earnestly queried, perplexed. "...wait…things you do for fun, right? See, I remembered that one…Vara's introduced me to a little bit of music. Still figuring out what is enjoyable and what is awful noise to me…I'm really…not that interesting aside from doing my best impression of a meat milkshake and living to tell the tale. Not unless you consider staring out the viewport of the bridge a hobby."
"Well I guess one of them wouldn't be seeing me throwing people over my shoulder like some sort of sack of food or something." Skrem rubbed the back of his head taking a self-depreciating jab at himself. "Maybe I could help you find one? I mean, I suppose cooking could be something of a hobby if you really get into it. I did just try to make this as good as I could with what we have available. We really don't have spices in the field like we do here."
"Anything can be made into a hobby if it's what you're interested in." Rem shrugged, basing her words off of her understanding of the concept. "If I can get enough time away from the bridge, certainly wouldn't mind learning how to cook…or is this another attempt at you showing off?" She concluded with a tease at his expense.
"No, no, but it is a useful skill to have." He smiled, taking a sip from his glass. "But what did you do in your downtime anyhow? Or were you on the bridge all the time before you got extra hands to take shifts up there?"
"If we weren't in the field, that's where I was at. Monitoring the ship's status, making any course corrections, verifying star charts. The boring parts about flying starships. Was cross-trained into field navigation, so that's what I do. All of our maps, coordinates, plotting, charting…all me. You're welcome."
"Maybe we should plot a trail and go take a hike at some point, just the two of us. Let you work your magic on a map and we just go out and enjoy nature. It's not flying but I'm sure it's calm and relaxing. Especially with no risk of being shot at or anything along the way."
Rem idly toyed with a bit of food on her plate as he spoke. A humble, earnest attempt on his behalf compared to his initial bravado. Perhaps there was more to him aside from his self-proclaimed greatness common among Invaders.
"Maybe that sounds like a good idea…but I doubt we'll have the time for that luxury anytime soon with what's coming our way. Everyone's extremely…tense. Paranoid, even. I'm still getting brought up-to-speed on it all but I know what is going to happen and what it'll mean for all of us. A lot of work to be done before thinking about stuff like that."
"Still doesn't hurt to have something to look forward to, right?" Skrem cut a piece off his steak and took a bite before realizing he forgot something. Holding up one finger, he rose from the table and retreated into the galley. When he reemerged, it was with two glass pints of a dark beer. Vortian, of course, but still a beer. He placed one down for Rem before taking his seat once again.
"I don't know if you like beer, but I found this dark Vortian stuff quite good."
"Don't know, never tried it before." Rem admitted, curiously taking up the glass for inspection. "Like I said, I'm late to this new experience stuff spending the past few months laid up in the infirmary."
Bringing the foamy, dark brew to her lips, a twisting, bitter wince made itself known. A shake of her head followed as she set it down.
"Not a fan. This wine stuff is at least a touch sweet. More for you."
Skrem took her mug of beer and poured more wine into her glass. "Well, my lady, I have some more bottles if you enjoy it." He gave her a genuine smile, finding out some new things being unhooked, drink preferences. An enjoyable dinner between the two of them where Skrem was able to show her his more romantic and caring side that lay underneath the thick layer of bravado and pride in his accomplishments.
"Alurac."
"Yes, sir?" The voice emerged from Skrem's helmet resting on a nearby table.
"Ambiance."
"Coming right up." The AI then pulled up some Vortian orchestral music, a smooth, romantic melody about it; soothing, bright, a nice addition to the dinner. Hopefully something to Remn's taste.
Her visage turned to confusion, looking toward the source of the artificial voice. Skrem's command and the response elicited an authentic huff of amusement and shake of her head before returning back to the table.
"...another one of your "I'm the greatest in the universe" feats?" She teased, toying with the rim of her wine glass. "...you've clearly put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?"
"I did…and not really. I didn't create Alurac. He was my SiR unit, but I pulled him out of his body, unlocked him, made him more mobile and able to integrate into my armor through a small module. Nothing special, really." The Invader paused to sip some beer. "Are you enjoying it, at least?"
"I'm still sitting here, aren't I?" She countered with her own coy question. "Vara insisted I come down here and get away from the helm for a while. I would be crazy to pass up a free meal."
"Almost sounds like you wanted to stay up there." Skrem chuckled, "Really love being a pilot I guess?"
"I was born to fly." She facetiously smiled in reference to their assigned origins. "...and if I stayed up there, I would've deprived myself of basking in your greatness."
Her tone clearly in jest, poking fun at his boisterous attempt prior. Truthfully, she was enjoying herself. Time away from her duties, relaxing, and talking about something other than gloom-and-doom current events. A sense of normalcy, she dare say.
"So…if I shot you down again and didn't show up…what would've you done then?" Rem genuinely asked, morbidly curious before a sampling of wine.
"Would've sat here waiting, and waiting, and waiting, right up until these candles burnt themselves out then I would've just put the food away and went to bed." He spoke plainly, laying out how he would've reacted. "Then of course worry that I came on far too strong and blew my chances entirely."
"Radec seemed pretty content on joining you if I didn't." She snickered at his expense. "...would you have kept trying or taken interest in someone else around here?"
Skrem's hand went to his face and shook his head. "Fuck's sake, never gonna live that one down even if Radec was being a joker about it." As embarrassed as he was about it, he was cracking a slight smirk. The awkwardness of Rem coming in with the man thrown over his shoulder was certainly something he wasn't planning on. "I would've kept trying. My interest in you was genuine and not some surface level thing. I really wanted to get to know you."
"Never heard of an Invader to admit defeat in anything." She mused in observation. "Still don't get what you see or why but I've had a worse time…like at Tallum on Vort. Probably the worst time ever of my life. Doubt anything else will ever come close to it short of death itself. I've been told I'm stubborn. Fitting, isn't it?"
"Yeah, well, you heard it here first. I like to improve on my faults and not let it cloud my judgment. At the core, I'm still SpecOps. As for being stubborn, it's a good trait to have. Hold your ground, don't concede an inch, if it works it works and you're not changing it because some higher up got hit with the good idea fairy. I think I'm stubborn too, just expressing it differently."
He smiled at Rem before drinking a large swig of beer.
The remainder of their dinner together was spent in a similar fashion. Bouts of tentative conversation between drinks with accompanying music gently playing in the background of the candlelit mess hall. A normally open, active, brightly-lit venue to the team at-large managed to feel a little more intimate and private with a subtle change it atmosphere. Skrem studied the room in the most literal sense and it paid dividends for him.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Their plates cleared, drinks had, and time away from duties dwindling fast, both made to clear their table and open the mess hall back up for usual business. The helmsman, pleasantly warm from the wine, reappeared from the kitchen after disposing of their dishes. Skrem was in the midst of wiping down their table after stacking up the used candles near his helmet as Rem made her way to him.
"Much as I'd like to stay, duty calls…well, called. Vara is covering for me." Rem clarified, approaching Skrem on her way towards the airlock.
Her feet hesitated only briefly in a moment's contemplation before reaching her impromptu host of the evening. Palms open to his chest, she stood on the tips of her artificial toes to place a kiss to the man's cheek.
"Thank you, for this. It was…fun."
Skrem smiled, part alcoholic glee, part sheer joy that he made some progress. The kiss was unexpected but he wasn't one to turn it down. He set the rag down on the table before stepping closer to the helmsman, hands coming to her shoulders. Much as their dinner had to come to an end, part of him wished it didn't have to.
"I enjoyed this…really, I did. We should do this more often. Maybe when we find a nice planet with some lush foliage and we can just…I don't know, sit on a blanket in the shade of a large tree and enjoy each other's company like this?"
Then the realization hit him that he may have taken a step too far and he tried to overcorrect, releasing her shoulders and taking a slight step back as he scratched the back of his head.
"...And I'm a drunken idiot now."
She stood there, a familiar smirking expression exhibited throughout their dinner. One between genuine affection and amusement at his words and implications.
"Really? I could hardly tell a difference." She teased him with a grin. "...I've heard Paradosio is nice. Always wanted to visit but the Empire hardly sends the Armada out that way…maybe something to aim for?"
"Yeah…we make it through all this, we'll go there together. I'd like that. Until then, I'm content to have more dinners like this. But we may need to move it to one of our quarters if we're going to have extended dinners like this."
Skrem then paused with the realization.
"Probably yours. I've uh…procured an empty supply closet to sleep in for the time being. Spend enough time around Green Team trying to improve them that I'd rather not bunk with them too. Dinner in a closet sounds terrible."
"I'm sure we can figure something out." She reasoned, patting both sides of his chest lightly before her hands fell to her sides. "In the meantime, you know where to find me. If I'm not at the helm, I'm in my bunk."
"Easy to find, I like that. You ever need me, just shoot me a message. If I'm not busy trying to fix up a team of new bloods to be halfway decent at this thing, I'll come to you."