<div class="floatleft">(https://i.imgur.com/tcy1ck7.jpg)</div><strong>"I see."</strong>Bunny said quietly.  It wasn't the most reassuring answer, the Lieutenant didn't know, but he'd heard stories.  That meant it was possible.  She remembered the way that Lieutenant Fox had lit up with the smell of blood and cordite in the air; maybe, for him, it was enough to know that they were enemies.  The implications didn't sit well with Bunny ... but the Lieutenant was right about one thing.  It didn't affect her mission.<br/><br/><strong>"Thank you, Sir."</strong>she nodded with a soft smile, cutting the connection.  That smile didn't persist long after she was isolated in her cockpit again though.  She sighed, thinking back to the fight as she swept her optics over the cluttered terrain.<br/><br/><strong><em>"It'd be a shame--such a pretty face..."</em></strong><br/><br/><strong><em>"Do you have any idea what I've had to do to keep this thing running all these years?  Who I've had to--"</em></strong><br/><br/>She shivered a bit in spite of herself, she had some inkling of the sorts of methods the bandits around here were using to impose their authority over their underlings.  No, no, she shook her head vigorously, a sample size of one enemy Warrior's frustrated banter and her own extrapolations were not enough evidence to confirm anything.  It was just her imagination.  Her apparently<em>filthy</em>imagination.<br/><br/>As the first rain drops fell from the dreary sky, she pushed those thoughts violently out of her head, focusing on the task at hand.<br/><hr/>As the technicians were busy setting up the docking clamps for the Chalcedon X's field repairs, Bunny slid out of her seat to kneel along the floor of the cockipit.  Her questing fingers found the latch she was looking for, and she slid out a drawer that had been recessed into the base of her seat.  Inside, she found the pilot's field kit, a few days of dried rations, water purification tablets, flares, a thermal blanket that looked like quilted tinfoil, a radio, a sidearm with two magazines, a survival knife with a built-in compass, and combat webbing designed to be worn over her pilot suit and carry it all.  Tucked along the inside wall, she found her own addition to the kit, a tightly rolled bundle of rubbery black cloth.<br/><br/>The pressurized canopy opened to let in the acrid smells of the hangar, Mizuki took a deep breath, the corners of her mouth turning up in a slight smile.  The smell of a busy bay, after all, was the smell of home for her.  As a child, she could always find her mother simply by following that smell, the whine of power tools and the clatter of steel.  It meant "safety" to her, the way fresh, warm linens did to other people.  Still, she couldn't dally, C-Town was known for industry, not tourists.  She quickly gave her report on the damages to the technician with a clipboard on the gantry way, the only part of his uniform that was still bright being the reflective strips on his high visibility vest.<br/><br/>As she approached the caged elevator platform that would carry her back to the ground, Bunny pulled the bundle of black material over her head.  It proved to be a water resistant poncho, the hood covering her distinctive pink hair, though it only reached down to her hips meaning that her legs still stood out as she slipped between tugs carrying armor plates and towards the street.  It wasn't that she was worried about the suit getting rained on, it could handle that kind of treatment with no real problem.  It was more that the rain was making things cool, and while the people at the base might be used to people running around, she was going to spend a couple hours in the company of civilians.<br/><br/><strong>"Hey!"</strong>she called back when someone spotted her, raising her hand high and bouncing on the balls of her feet to indicate that she saw them too.  She splashed through a few gathering puddles in her rush to make her way to the overhang where the rest of the soldiers were discussing where to cool their heels.  Once under the cover, she pulled back her hood, peering around as if to make sure everyone was okay.<br/><br/>She scratched at the bridge of her nose and smiled as the soldiers expressed their gratitude, a bit of color creeping into her cheeks.  Compared to the clipped "good shooting" from the Lieutenant, they were practically gushing.  She wasn't really sure how to accept it ... but the drink seemed like a good place to start.<br/><br/><strong>"Well, I promised Suzy I'd grab some wine for the ground crew while I was in town.  There's a guy my dad told me about back when he was operating near C-Town ..."</strong>she mumbled, producing a small digital screen and quickly flipping through some screens, finally she came to a plain text document with,<strong>"Right, the Knight Stone, the proprietor's a retired Mecha Pilot, so I thought I'd introduce myself while I was in the area."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"You guys are probably going to want to get out of the rain and someplace warm though, right?"</strong>she asked, tilting her head to the side with a smile,<strong>"So, I'll put that off 'til the end.  Let's see ..."</strong>she flicked her finger across the screen, causing it to scroll rapidly down, it was a tiny lexicon of places her father and mother had told her about when she'd asked them about their jobs as a kid.  She'd kept it maintained and started adding her own entries to the list.  Finding one, she checked her watch.<br/><br/><strong>"It's happy hour at the Turnkey Pub.  It's a little upscale, but the lady who runs the place is soft on soldiers.  You shouldn't get hassled over the state of your uniforms, and the food is supposed to be good if you're into Irish.  There's a live band too!  Although, I don't know who's playing tonight."</strong>she smiled a bit,<strong>"Other than that ... I've got a Miyabi's Sushi Bar &amp; Kappo here that's well recommended.  Karaoke rooms for rent if you guys want some sound-proofed privacy to enjoy your food in.  Drink-wise, they're more set up with wine and beer than spirits if that's what you're into though."</strong><br/><br/><strong>"Ah?"</strong>Bunny blinked a bit as introductions began, thrown for a moment.  On a certain level, she felt like she already knew everyone, but Dan was right that they hadn't ever been formally introduced.  She'd simply seen him around enough that he wasn't really a stranger to her anymore.<strong>"<em>Oh!</em>  Oh, I'm so sorry, you're right!"</strong><br/><br/>She reached out and grasped his closest hand with both of hers, the smooth texture of her gloves pressing against the warmth of his skin as she shook vigorously.<br/><br/><strong>"Cotton Mizuki!"</strong>she said earnestly,<strong>"But feel free to keep calling me Bunny, I don't mind!"</strong>she added with a bright smile.  She looked up at Dan with her bright, sparkling eyes, apparently having recaptured some of her usual energy.  He really was a handsome guy, she could see why people might call him a Lady's Man ... of course, with the way soldier humor worked, it was just as likely that he'd crashed and burned spectacularly once and the nick name was just their way of making sure he never lived it down.<br/><br/>Seemingly becoming aware that she'd been shaking his hand too long, her hands suddenly jerked away as if she'd been shocked.  She laughed a bit at herself while running a hand through her hair.  She took the next person's hand, trying to learn everyone's name while they were together.