<div class="floatright">(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/9/9a/Tony_Leung.jpg)<br/>(http://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/5/5e/Sarna_reserves_kamakura_s_hussars_spider_by_viereth-d585zvf.jpg)</div><strong>Hiro Kagekaze (https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=207352.msg10171354#msg10171354)</strong><br/><strong>In the <em>Dark Star</em></strong><br/><strong>Tagged: Damian Harper (Charybdis), Samson O'Haggen (The Bear), Everett Fletcher Yoshikawa (Butterfly), Kari Moreno (Defiance), Allia Rowe (Gheistwulf), Moshe Dayan (S'hot) </strong><br/><hr/><br/><strong>Trutzburg-Class Dropship <em>Dark Star</em>, outbound<br/>Deneb Algedi, Benjamin District<br/>Draconis Combine<br/>1 January 3145</strong><br/><br/>Back on the ship, I ran into Damian.<br/><br/>"Hey, so, what's going on with the village?  Did Kari come through with the supplies?  And what's happenin with Moshe?  Is he still part of the company and did he get re-assigned to a different lan-"<br/><br/>I'm surprised I got that far with my line of questioning, but it ended up with a typical response of waiting for the full report for my questions to be answered on the matter of the mission.  Damian was good at coming up with solutions to problems, but not so much when it came to providing answers to questions.<br/><br/>I headed straight to the showers as soon as I could after that, just to wash the the smell of battle off of me.  In the heat of the moment, I didn't even notice being drenched in sweat.  But after a battle was done, I wanted to be as normal as possible.  I was there for a while, letting the hot water hit me, but somehow couldn't cleanse myself of what I saw in the village.  Moshe would be dealt with, and I was sure it would get done right by the combination of Kari and Allia together.<br/><br/>Mmm, Kari and Allia together.  Yeah, that's an image that would distract me from... what was I thinking about again?<br/><br/>No matter.  I ended the shower early, content to feel this more carnal kind of arousal now that the adrenaline rush of a battle rage was over.<br/><br/>I was starving, so I headed to the mess hall, next.  Samson was there, sitting by his lonesome as usual.  I got the sense that everyone, even the platoon of battle armor grunts, who were mostly his stature and build, and who were gutsy enough to take on 'Mechs wearing nothing but a one-ton suit, gave him a wide margin.<br/><br/>Not me.  I went right up to him and patted him on the left shoulder, not particularly gently.<br/><br/>"I'm going to help you out, Samson.  Watch and learn."<br/><br/>I gave him a wink, strolled past the battle armor guys talking a bit of good natured smack at them, then joined a table of cute, female technicians.  I was always good to them, treating them as equals in terms of occupation and gender - some Mechwarriors had egos and some males still considered females inferior with engineering stuff.  I told them about the damage to Samson's Thunderbolt launcher, and they assured me they'd take care of it.  They even gave Samson a wave and a smile.<br/><br/>Everett, meanwhile, had taken over a couple of tables and was looking through schematics of his mech.  It actually started to draw a bit of a crowd surrounding him, including the trio of female Mechwarriors making up Recon Lance.  He seemed pretty focused on his task, and it wasn't until I addressed him that he seemed to become aware of his surroundings.<br/><br/>"Bad news, man.  Looks like Team Combine is going to be on hiatus.  I'm getting the impression they're splitting us up, and that Moshe will be in Strike Lance with you, Allia and Samson."  I increased the volume of my voice so the Recon Lance pilots could hear.  "Which means I'll end up being in Recon Lance."<br/><br/>I went up to the three ladies, my new lance-mates.  "I may not be as crazy as Moshe, but at least I can keep up with the pace you set.  So, who's giving the orders around here?"<br/><br/>One of them responded, "Your wish is our command, Hiro."<br/><br/>Nice.  I could get used to this.<br/><br/>Still, I wanted to make sure, so instead of waiting for some report, I headed straight to the room of the boss.<br/><br/>At her door, I thought I heard her talking.  I think I even heard my name.  But then I heard the voice of another female.  Was that, Allia?  My eyes widened as a smile crossed my mouth.  Instead of knocking, I pressed my ear to the door, wondering if I could hear what they were talking about... or what they were doing.<br/><br/><br/><br/>