In a remote area of Aekea, deep underground and drilling its way south, was a peculiar armored machine with a peculiar pilot. A zurg in goggles and a white jacket and his machine drilling through the ground so fast it might've well been flying. The zurg pressed some buttons on the console in his little cockpit. "Come on Diesel, we got a small window to pull off the drop off before the designated guard enters his post!" The zurg urgently said. The machine gave a jerk knocking the zurg's head against the window. "I am drilling as fast as I can Remmy. This is bedrock I am drilling through and drilling any higher up would risk being picked up on their radars." The machine known as Diesel spoke. The zurg known as Remmy facepalmed and dragged his hand down his face. "I know. I just wanna get this 'borrowed' tech back before it's missed too much." Remmy said pointing out the back of the cockpit where a crate was attached. The two bickered back and forth as above ground an egg shaped base came into view.
~ Ch.4: Corp Tech and a Tiny Zurg
Within the egg shaped base, known to many as E-corp, a soft rumbling was heard in a closed off room as a drill broke through the ground and a person sized drilling machine with a crate on its back emerged. After emerging, the machine twisted and turned, taking on a more humanoid form with the crate held on its shoulder. Within the mech's head, a zurg no more than a foot tall was reading a monitor. "Dangit, this isn't the lab, this looks like it's the armory!" Remmy said as he took in the site of the weapons around him. "Let's just leave the crate here before we're caught." He groaned before a warning light flashed on the console. "Too late. Hostile inbound." Diesel said setting down the crate just as the door to the armory opened revealing a grunt clad in E-corp trooper gear. It only took a second for the grunt to notice the intruders and raise his weapon. "Who are you, this is a restricted area! How did you get in he-!?" The grunt cut himself off noticing the hole in the ground. "Now now, we don't want any trouble." Remmy said. "Indeed, trouble is not our objective." Diesel said raising his arms in surrender, unfortunately his arms held weapons that the grunt took as a move for a threat. The grunt fired at the intruders who barely managed to dodge. "Hey be careful with that! We're in the damn armory!" Remmy shouted, after which he realized he accidently pointed Diesel's arm baring a shotgun at the grunt. The grunt shot at them again. Diesel quickly sidestepped the shot and Remmy saw it hit an explosive. "Oh shi- DUCK AND COVER!" The small zurg yelled as he hit the controls making Diesel tackle the grunt to the ground, covering him just as the explosive set off a chain reaction that shook the whole base.
As the dust cleared, Remmy opened his eyes and looked around. The blast had blown a giant hole in the base to the outside, luckily most of the damage seems to have been limited to the armory thanks to the thick walls. Remmy groaned before turning to the console and pressing some buttons. "Diesel, are you alright?" The lights on the console flashed and an electronic whirring sound was heard. "Sys-sys-systems online. External armor hold-holding at 5% condition. Internal struc-structure at 35%. Heavy repair nee-nee-nee-needed." The mech informed. Remmy swore loudly as he gently worked the banged up mech to his feet and looked down at the grunt, the zurg let out a sigh of relief seeing the grunt was still alive. "There may be some nasty bruises from that tackle but you should live." Remmy stated softly before turning back to the console. "Diesel, flight check, go or no go for launch?" Remmy asked the mech who whirred and sparked. "Flight capacity-ty-ty green, we are go for lau-lau-launch." Diesel spoke in an increasing static voice as wings spread out from his back. "Then let's punch it and get you fixed up old buddy." Diesel took to the air and flew out the hole blown in the wall. After a bit of distance a warning light flashed and Diesel dropped quickly before catching himself and barely missing a lone tree on the mountain side. "Ok Diesel, let's just take a nice slow flight, ok?"
After a shaky flight, the flying mech approached the outskirts of north Aekea. Upon approaching a base of welded sheet metal, one of the wing rockets sputtered out smoke. "Nonononono, emergency landing!" Remmy shouted as he hit a few buttons. Diesel's legs came together and sunk inward before being replaced by a large wheel just as the damaged rocket sparked and gave out. Diesel revved up the wheel and came to a frantic skid of a landing with Remmy franticly pressing buttons and pulling levers trying to keep control… and find the breaks, because they were fast approaching the base. "Shi- screw the breaks!" Remmy said as he grabbed the steering and did a hard turn putting Diesel in a sideways skid. Diesel withdrew his shotgun into his arm and grabbed at the ground slowly dragging him to a stop just centimeters from the base. Remmy let out a sigh of relief as he slumped in his seat. "Come on Diesel, let's get inside and fix you up." He said, a little short of breath.
Upon getting Diesel into his repair dock, Remmy left the mech and grabbed his tools. He lowered his goggles and lit a welding torch with a grin. "Gear up Diesel, it's time for your upgrades!" He said turning to a bunch of parts he reverse engineered from borrowed 'top secret' corp tech.
Sparks flying, gears cranking, old parts replaced with new. Diesel's repairs were almost finished. Remmy shut off his welding torch and lifted his goggles. "How ya feeling now?" The zurg asked. Diesel lifted a hand and clenched it into a fist before unclenching and turning it. "Systems green at 98%." The mech informed. Remmy gave a puff of pride. "Leave it to a genius to manage such spectacular repairs." He said with a laugh. "'Mad' genius." Diesel corrected, making Remmy fall in exasperation before jumping back to his feet. "How many times must I say I'm not mad?!" Remmy shouted, earning a chuckle from Diesel. "Not only did you steal top secret tech from several corps, you returned to each corp with the tech to give it back." Diesel argued, Remmy grumbled in defeat. Point, Diesel. "Ahh, shut up ya big lugnut so I can finish with the upgrades." Remmy said as he pulled down his goggles and went back to work.
A few hours later, Diesel was flying across the oceans northeast of the shallow seas. It was a standard system check to make sure his upgrades functioned well in high speed flight. "Alright Diesel, standard flight with upgrades is good. Now let's go full flight mode." Remmy said with a grin. "Affirmative." Diesel said. The mech stopped in midair and began to transform. His legs came together and melded with each other and his body. His arms melded along his sides and his body twisted at the neck and turned horizontal. The cockpit then locked in place along the former chestplate. Diesel now looked like a miniature jet. "Flight mode engaged." Diesel said. Remmy smirked. "Let's see just where your flight limit lies. Full speed ahead!" He said loudly as he pointed forward. The jets on Diesel's wings revved up and ignited, sending the mech turned jet off with a sonic boom. "Yeeehaaa!" Remmy shouted with a massive grin as they sped through the air just over the waters of the open ocean.
Drifting in the middle of the ocean, the Grand Crimson's crew was relaxing. Yoshi had taken out a dummy to train his fighting on, Nina was sitting on deck reading a book, and Neko was up in the crow's nest taking a nap. His nap was interrupted when he heard a faint sound that made his ears twitch. He opened his eyes and got up before grabbing the telescope and looking around for the noise, it was getting louder fast. He suddenly saw what looked like a torpedo coming in fast. Wide eyed he cupped his paw over his mouth and shouted as loud as he could. "PROJECTILE INCOMING! EVERYONE BRACE FOR IMPACT!" Meanwhile, in the distance, the drifting ship had just come into sight and Diesel was going too fast to turn. With a loud curse Remmy grabbed the steering and pulled up as hard as he could to try going over the obstacle. No one on board the Grand Crimson had time to react to Neko's warning before Diesel ripped through the side railing just barely missing the hull of the ship. The speeding mech turned jet screeched by tearing through the rigging and sail. Everyone grabbed what they could to steady themselves as the ship shook from the impact. Yoshi looked over at the projectile and saw it was turning in the distance like it was coming back.
Diesel had various ropes and fabric wrapping around him and the cockpit was covered by it. "What the hell happened? I can't see a thing!" Remmy said as he franticly tried to see through the debris covering his view. "Scanners offline from impact. Situation assessment, we're flying blind." Diesel informed. "Way to state the obvious you bolt brain!" Remmy shouted with a hint of panic in his voice. Back on the ship, everyone gathered on deck and watched as the projectile object swayed back and forth but kept speeding back in their direction. "I could fly up there and see what I could do about that thing." Nina suggested and Yoshi shook his head. "That things moving too fast for you to do it alone. Fly over it and Neko, stick to her shadow till you're on top of it then do whatever you can." He ordered. The two nodded and went to work.
Remmy was franticly trying to get the scanners online while hoping they don't crash. He finally got the scanners flickering back online just as a thud slightly shook Diesel. "What the heck, this things a jet?!" A voice said from outside. Remmy banged on the cockpits window. "Yo, who do you think you are climbing aboard my mech like this?!" He demanded. The debris began moving away from the cockpit. "I'm part of the crew from that ship you attacked!" Said the now visible feline. Remmy sweatdropped and gave a nervous chuckle. "It was not on purpose, was just going a little too fast for the scanners to pick anything up." Neko looked behind himself. "Well if it was really an accident then turn around, you're coming in for a return strike. Remmy bolted up. "I'm what!" He panicked as he turned upward, narrowly missing the crow's nest which Neko jumped off onto.
Remmy had Diesel transform back to normal and slowly flew back to the Grand Crimson, landing on the deck. The crew gathered around and Remmy was admittedly a bit intimidated by the one with the sword and gulped. The red clad pirate stepped forward. "My friend says that your attack was an accident, is this true?" He asked. "Y-yeah it was, I recently gave my buddy here some upgrades and was testing out his flight capacity. It seems his speed out performs the scanners as by the time your ship was in range it was too late to avoid collision, although I did try." Remmy explained. The air was filled with silence as the pirate glared at the zurg who was increasingly nervous. Suddenly the man grinned. "Well, at least no one was hurt which is always a plus." He said and Remmy fell out of his seat in shock at the shift in attitude. "Wha- you're letting me off the hook just like that?" The small zurg asked. All eyes turned to the pirate as he let out a mighty laugh and said. "No way is it gonna be that simple! Well it is simple though, we are just gonna have you pay for the repairs." Remmy froze, he had not even a piece of gold to his name. Everything he had was either salvaged from junk, stolen, or built by hand. Looking at the zurgs face, Yoshi could tell what was going through his head. He then looked at the mech and thought of another idea. "Say, this mech, did you build him yourself?" Yoshi said with a grin breaking Remmy's train of thought. "Umm, yes, I mean- Diesel is not bargainable!" He shouted and Yoshi raised his hands up. "Not what I was going with so calm down." Remmy gave a huff but calmed a bit. "What I was thinking, is how about joining my crew to work off your debt. I'm good with tech myself but we could always use a good engineer as part of the crew." Yoshi stated with a grin. Remmy thought about it a bit and found it to be a decent idea and nodded. "Alright, I'll join. But imma need to return to the Aekea outskirts to pick up some things from my base, then Barton to meet a contact of mine for something." He said. Yoshi grinned and headed to the helm. "Alright! Welcome to the crew zurg and his mech!" He stopped and turned around realizing something that made him sheepishly scratch the back of his head and chuckle. "We totally forgot the introductions didn't we."