milliways_bar | (no subject)

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Some pregnant women occupy themselves with knitting baby clothes. Others fuss over the decorations of the nursery.

Alyx Vance? She tinkers.

The largest table in the Bar is covered with a dropcloth, upon which are arrayed dozens of mechanical and electronic parts, some more identifiable than others. Next to the table sits a partly-disassembled D0G, who's watching Alyx's work with great interest. You'd be interested if you could watch your own inner workings being cleaned, too.

[ooc: One mun, two pups, tag one and get one free!]

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Shephard would consider that part weird if he thought about it too hard. Generally, though, he figures the robot doesn't mind, so why should he. Thus he just pats the big fellow on what he assumes is its shoulder and clears his throat a little. You don't want to surprise Ms. Vance when she's working.

D0G turns (as much as he can with the bulk of his moving parts missing) and whurps agreeably at the Marine.

"Hey there, boy," Shephard says. "You doin' all right there? Looks like you got some, uh...." He pauses. "Shit. I got no idea what I'm lookin' at."

"Anterior left leg assembly," says Alyx without looking up. "He was limping."

"Gotcha," says Shephard. "Thank you, ma'am. Uh. Speakin' of legs..."

Look, they don't teach segues at Scout Sniper School.

Alyx puts down her soldering iron and looks up at Shephard. "Whaaaat have you done this time?"

"Nothin', ma'am," Shephard says automatically. "Just- I got somethin' from the garage I think's gon' do us a shitload more good than that Tiger helicopter I was lookin' at."

"Oh?"

This should be interesting. Hopefully in a good way.

Shephard nods. "Wasn't really plannin' on it at first," he says, "but y'know, when you see an opportunity, you kind of got to grab that fucker, y'know? I parked it near the elevator, in the garage. Didn't wanna leave it out back or nothin'."

"Uh-huh. Mind telling me what it is, exactly? Because the fact that you haven't yet is kind of a red flag."

So much for the surprise. Shephard shakes his head a moment before saying, "Fine, ma'am. It's a big fuckin' robot lion with lasers'n shit. You ever hear of Voltron?"

...

"...a what."

That would be a 'no.'

"See, ma'am, this is why I wanted to show you first 'stead of explainin' this fucker. It ain't the kind of thing you can explain less'n you want that kind of look you're givin' me now." He gestures towards the elevator. "I c'n tell you more once you seen this thing."

Alyx considers this for a long moment. "Okay, let me clean up a little here and we'll go."

"Whatever you say, ma'am," says Shephard. He's pretty easygoing, once he knows people are listening to him.

Cleaning up consists of turning off the soldering iron, setting everything back into their appropriate piles on the table, and ordering D0G to make sure no one touches anything. Alyx then hefts herself out of her seat and waddles toward the hidden elevator door.

Shephard's not quite bouncing on the balls of his feet as he follows, but he's coming close. If this works out, no more helicopter. At least, he hopes so.

"Here we go, ma'am," he says as the elevator comes to a stop at the garage level. "Right down there at the end of the aisle."

Alyx doesn't move, yet. She just gapes.

"Had to hotwire that fucker the first time," says Shephard. "Noriko Ashida got it turned on. We've worked up a key. Makes shit a lot easier."

"Wha--bu--j--how does that even work??"

"Fuck me if I know," Shephard says happily. "Works real fuckin' well, though, I'll tell you. Walking or flying."

"...flying? Flying?"

"Legs fold up under, more or less," Shephard says. "Flies seriously fuckin' fast."

"O-kayyy... how does it steer?"

"Steering rockets, I think," Shephard says. "See those vents there'n there? Directional jets. Got a real tight turn radius, too- all eight directions."

"Huh. And the weaponry? You mentioned lasers..."

Shephard scratches at his nose. "Energy guns on the shoulders, 'nother in the chest, couple missile launchers- big missiles, y'understand- coverin' the rear. Ain't sure about getting those replaced once they're gone, though, so we gon' want to keep the use to a minimum."

"You wouldn't happen to know what kind of power it runs on, would you?"

What she wouldn't give for her toolbox right now...

"Fuck me if I know, ma'am," Shephard says apologetically. "You're welcome t'git a look in the cockpit if you want, see if there's anything y'all could plug into'n investigate."

"I might just do that." A beat. "How do you get in?"

"There's a hatch down here-"

It takes some scrambling for him to get it open, but he spent some time working this out before coming to show Ms. Vance. Turns out there's a way to make the pilot's chair drop down from the beast's belly for the pilot to get in before it retreats back to the cockpit. He and Noriko got in the hard way.

Alyx lets out a low whistle. "Nice."

"Ain't it just?" says Shephard. "Wait'll you actually see the cockpit. Fucker's huge."

"Really. Is it designed to be piloted by more than one person at a time?"

"Not exactly," Shephard says. "'Parently whoever built the son of a bitch built it so's it could connect up with a couple other lions'n shift some parts around to git one big fuckin' robot out of the deal. This here lion's supposed to be the central lion, so there's room for the other lion drivers. 'Course, there ain't but three other lions down here'n Noriko says you need all five to git 'em together."

Alyx eyes the craft critically. "Huh. It doesn't look like Cybertronian tech, but..."

"Dunno where it came from. Some planet called Arus, Noriko said." Shephard shrugs. "They use 'em to hold off the next planet over so I reckon it's probably gon' be a better choice in a fight than a plain ol' murderbird."

"Let me have a good look at her before we make any decisions, okay?" Alyx waddles up to the pilot's seat.

"Sure thing," says Shephard. "Key goes in that oval there, the on button's the end of the left arm rest, and that one switch there opens the eyes up'n puts the displays on screen."

"How do you get it to--oh!" Alyx starts in surprise as the chair starts to rise up into the belly of the beast.

Shephard grins and braces himself for this part of the trip; he knows what comes next. "Ma'am?" he says. "How d'you feel 'bout goin' for a little walk 'round the garage? Maybe head on out back some?"

"Well, now that you mention it..."

Watch out, Shephard. If you let your CIC drive this vehicle too much, she might just get it into her head to ride it into battle herself.

And that would be why there are three other lions.

This should be interesting to watch.

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