@Andraina

"Looks like you've got a choice to make." Bishop started as Archangel drew ever closer to Freya. "I'll go with you either way. So factor that in. Though I'm leaning more towards the generator. No doubt it would have the greatest effect on the battle but it's also all the more risky."

Kyras wasn't doing to good himself to be honest. His nerve endings were friend, the locations where they connected were bleeding as was his nose. His everything hurt, so he figured he would have dropped by the infirmary anyways. As he started walking by his friend, he figured that journeying there with a comrade wasn't exactly a hassle anyways.

"But Mr. Kelley, you should really let the team check out your injuries." Veronica pleaded once more, only for Kelley to shake his head.

"I will be fine Veronica. Have you done as I asked yet?" Veronica shook her head and was about to say something again when Kelley cut her off. "Then do so, please." His tone stopped her fussing, but she still looked worried as she turned and went to the troopers getting off their mechas after seeing Kelley at least getting some medical supplies from the medical team.

Kelley again waved off the medical team, though some of his wounds were still bleeding from under his armor. Despite that and the pain, he had more important things on his mind though, so he left by himself to his quarters after grabbing some medical supplies from the team at the very least make Veronica more placid and to proceed with her task. The rider returned the digi-pad after logging out to the nearest member of crew, though conveniently he also showed up to report something to the Rider.

"Sir! We've moved your FRAME to holding bay 03." He reported after accepting the digi-pad from Kelley. The rider nodded his thanks then went to his quarters.

After what was a pretty long walk with many stares cased his way for his rider armor, not to mention a blood trail dripping behind him, Kelley finally made his way back to his quarters. There three robotic arms began to take the armor off of him. These automatons lacked the gentleness and accuracy of Veronica, thus the process was quite unpleasant as several wounds reopened during it, causing more lines of red to run down his body.

Painfully, Kelley got into the bathroom and stripped out of his skin tight body suit. There were dozens of cuts all over his body, on top of the dozens more bruises surrounding them. He pulled himself into the shower, braced himself, then turned on the water. A thousand nerve endings flared up at the same time as the warm water felt like a colony of fire ants bit all over his skin at the same time as the water disinfected cuts and wounds all over his body. He grabbed a shower cap he never uses and shoved it into his mouth, tearing through it with his teeth as the pain subsided after a while. The Rider then scrubbed himself down, being careful not to avoid the wounds but to get those especially with soap for further cleaning of wounds.

After an eternity in that pain chamber, Kelley got out and toweled himself down. Taking another half hour to do that and dress his wounds and clothes, he finally propped himself down on the chair in his room, flipped the screen on in front of him. Kelley immediately sent the official after action report up command. Not bothering with a shirt for the ice pack strapped to his left shoulder, he began going through the post battle analysis of all enemy FRAMEs and how the Riptide reacted. He gazed over the entry for Ioren Kilat, which wasn't much:

Ioren Kilat is registered as being born on Jieorrick, a planet that joined the Splinter Rebellion. PERSONAL DATA: [REDACTED] It has been theorized that he fights because he is forced. He does not show any loyalty towards his allies, often coming to blows with them.[REDACTED]

Kelley shrugged and flipped back to the other parts of his report. His frown grew deeper and deeper as he reviewed the content, as the conclusion the Rider had back on the planet solidified into existence in his mind. He finished his review of the private after action report for himself and closed it. He sighed, then pulled out a blank blueprint page on his console as well as the last engineering textbook he had read next to it and began getting to work.
___________________________________

To say Private Williams was surprised at the life sized Veronica greeting her was an understatement. Veronica had a suspicious look about her as the black and purple haired girl gotten off her rifleman trooper and followed the SOUL. She wasn't as pretty as Morain, but still poses a threat. However the fact that Kelley asked her to show the young girl to Morain instead of himself made Veronica feel better. Her deposition was improved even more as she saw Morain on the bridge. She waved and Morain smiled at her, strange, it seemed strained.

"Hello, Veronica. Who is this? What do you need?" Veronica stepped aside to reveal Private Williams.

"Hi sis! Mr. Kelley asked me to introduced you to Private Williams, though I'm not sure why. Though I did see a transfer paperwork for her to be station under you though..." The SOUL looked over at the situation with the gunnery station at the moment, but restraint herself from doing anything further. She's been chastised for her pro-activeness in the past with mess with other people's stuff, so she decided to ask for permission with her sister first. "Um, Morain? Do you want me to help with some of the weapon controls? I noticed you're a bit... swamped." She pointed at the targeting computers, which was true in that there were a lot of targets on the screen.

< @Xanxas >

The medics went over Kyras, stitching up open wounds and not much else. "Mostly synaptic overload, always happens in battle, of which I am sure you're aware. It'll pass in a few hours. For her, though..." Medical Officer Giruan told him, gesturing over to Yalei "She's in pretty bad shape. Infection has set in already, very high fever... She keeps asking for you..." She sighed "And I would go to her... there are no guarantees that she'll make it through the night... she's in a lot of pain."

< @WanderingJester >

"Loran did?" Morain looked the newcomer over, and she smiled. "I see. I could use some help, both of you." A small gunnery sphere appeared in front of Williams and a feed of targeting data was fed into Veronica.

"Wh-what am I doing?" asked Williams

"Touch the sphere... feel the gun, and destroy our enemies. Loran wants you under my command? Let's see you at work" And, so the rest of the bridge couldn't hear, she added in data-speak {And stay away from Loran Kelley. He's ours} Her face was smiling, but it was not a Jest.

{FIRE AWAY, VERONICA!}

[Feel Free to bot Williams if you so choose, IMO it would be interesting if you did.]

Kyras walked over, and sat sadly next to her bed. There had been a lot of sitting in the last few days, he mused, though this time he really wasn't enjoying it. He was no medic. His only real skill was killing things, and in a situation like this he was utterly useless. Never had it been so obvious t0 him that all he really did was destroy, never had his incapability to build or heal been so damning. He couldn't heal her. He couldn't fix the situation. But stay here for a while....that at least was within his capabilities

[ @Xanxas ]

"K-k-k...k-k-ky...ras..." Yalei struggled to speak, coughing while she tried to turn her head, moisture beading at the corners of her eyes, flowing down her cheeks. Her eyes opened, the normal brilliant purple dulled by pain and her Auburn hair disheveled. She saw Kyras' face, and smiled.

"Ky...ras... You...you're...a-alive... th...ank g-goodness..." The tears were flowing freely now as she gazed upon Kyras' face, his handsome, gorgeous, friendly face. She wished...she could tell him... how she felt...

"I...I..." Her voice trailed off into a horrible coughing fit.

(OOC: Aaaaand I'm off for a while.)

"Don't push yourself" he said. "You are badly wounded and obviously in pain. You saved my life today, and for that I am grateful. Just...just rest. I'll be here if you need me." And he would be. Wounds non-withstanding, he had no obligations, and thus no intentions of leaving the infirmiry before she did.

[Me to. Be back in 4hours]

OOC: I'll just leave Williams at the guns, she's not even as major a character as Lillia, so I'll leave her realtively blank in case you want to use her for something else. Sorry took a quick nap.

Veronica smiled as Morain looked over the Private.

"Loran did?" The SOUL smiled and nodded, followed by Morain's. "I see. I could use some help, both of you." With that Veronica disappeared into the mess of the guns computer hardware. It was a mess indeed, guns not properly utilizing cross fields of fire, targets not being led by gunners, and a hundred other problems. In Veronica's slightly self superior opinion for a moment, it was mostly human errors, but she shook the thought out of her head as she began solving the closest problems on screen.

Meanwhile Private Williams was startled when a targeting sphere appeared in front of her. She looked nervously at Lieutenant Dereso.

"Wh-what am I doing?" asked Williams. Lieutenant Dereso studied the girl, her smile getting a bit worrying for the younger girl every moment this happened.

"Touch the sphere... feel the gun, and destroy our enemies. Loran wants you under my command? Let's see you at work." Instantly Williams gasped and looked down. Rider Kelley wanted me to join the gunnery crew? Rider Kelley noticed me? A tinged of red came on William's face as she touched the targetting sphere, but it blew into a full and very deep blush when she got the data speak from Lieutenant Dereso next.

{And stay away from Loran Kelley. He's ours}

William's eyes widened and darted at her commanding officer now, seeing her still looking at the technomancer, and quickly looked away. Ours? Kelley have multiple women at his beck and call? Williams was so panicked she didn't realized she was already seeing from the perspective of one of the gun batteries, and accidentally shot a wide miss with her first fire as she fired the gun offhandedly, her mind flooded with a million thoughts. Wait, Lieutenant Morain Dereso is a technomancer?

[She means me you silly girl, now focus and start shooting people. Keep your eyes on the enemy and not Mr. Kelley!]

Williams gasped and nodded, though Veronica was already gone. Taking up a turret, Williams knew the trajectory and the firing techniques of the gun she had even without training, listening to the machine's urges and prompts, guiding it across the night space. Soon enemy troopers and fighters were exploding out of the sky. Morain at the same time, shot a message to Veronica.

{FIRE AWAY, VERONICA!}

If Williams was doing a good job, Veronica was doing what ten technomancer couldn't match. They were only human after all, and have limitations. Veronica wasn't and could process data faster than nearly all super computers on Earth. Within a minute she had re-calibrated every gun under Morain's command, every gunner realizing that their control is a bit tighter than before, and react better. Not only that, she had installed lines within each sights and screens of the gunners indicating best field of cross fire between them as well as a useful little box automatically calculating approximately how much they should lead their targets by. Finally she had personally took command of guns when a particularly valuable target came into range, blasting at it to at least give it severe damage if not outright destroying it.

After five minutes of letting Veronica into the system, the gunnery team nearly triple their kills than before. Needless to say Veronica was happy to help her sister, and sent an extra message to her.

[Mr. Kelley's not in the best of mood right now. Things went really bad down on the planet. I think he's in his room and even though that's natural after every mission I can't help but worry. He took a few hits down there.]

Michelle caught a bit of the message, but tried hard not to eavesdrop on the conversation.

_______________________________________

Back at his quarters, Kelley just finished his work. He stretched, but stopped when he felt his wounds and bandages pulling again. He pulled up a list he had drawn up. It consisted of thousands of pieces of a thousand different parts, if not more. The Rider saved the document then sent it to Chief Mechanic Hushion, requesting all the parts be requisition and sent to Kelley as soon as possible. Then he switched to the schematics of Void Riptide. He placed all of the blueprints, from the earliest prototypes to the latest version with the Harpoon attachment into a file. He encrypted it with the highest encryption program Veronica had given him, and sent it directly to UTC archives on Terra. Then Kelley deleted all of the schematics on his personal computer. He shut off the screen and put on a jacket, though still no shirt due to the bandaging and left his quarters.

He slowly walked down the hallway. There weren't many people about since the battle was still technically still going on, so general quarters was still active. Kelley counted on this, he needed some time alone for what he was about to do next, and since he wasn't usually an emotional person he would like to not have anyone witness this, not even Veronica. The lone rider slowly hobbled to holding bay 03.

As he walked into the holding bay, lights illuminated the broken down FRAME in front of him. Void Riptide had seen better days, one of its legs was gone completely. By the looks of the arm it would need to be completely replaced as well in order to restore full functionality to it, along with the laser sword on it. Scars rippled across the vast chassis and in some parts the armor had been cut so deep into it that one could see the basic structural framework of the FRAME. Kelley walked up to the doors of the Rider's chamber and placed his head on the closed door.

"Void Riptide. My friend. You have been with me since the last day of the academy. You have carried me and Veronica through more battles than I can remember safely, and made me into the rider I am today. I owe everything to you. But..." Tears rolled down Kelley's face now, dripping down on to the metal covered torso of the Riptide, "the time has come for us to part. With every friendship that begins there must also be a time of parting, and I have heard that we should not be sad for goodbyes, but rather cherish the moments we have shared together." With that the doors automatically opened, as if the FRAME was beckoning its rider into it one last time. Through tears Kelley looked at his FRAME. "Thank you Void Riptide. I... I am sure we will meet again one day." He got into the Rider's chamber, and hit a few switches, activating the timed self detonation program.

Kelley felt numb as he stumbled into the control room of the holding bay. He couldn't feel the buttons as he pressed them to opened the holding bay's airlock, and could only watch as the rack that the FRAME attached to gently moved up, releasing the FRAME into the void beyond. One could almost hear the explosions occurring on the opposite side of super carrier. He watched as Void Riptide's rear thrusters boosted it forward, and as it moved to become a speck in the void suddenly a flash of light appeared and the FRAME detonated safely beyond the reaches of the supercarrier. Kelley felt himself whispered to his now gone friend one more time, "Until then, farewell my friend."

There was no mistake in what Kelley had needed to do, this had been a long time coming for quite a while now, ever since the climax of the last campaign he had fought in. At first it was a split second delay between his reaction and the Riptides, then a slight miss by a foot or two with a swing of the sword. Even Veronica told him there was a problem at the last battle before he joined the task force on Star Carrier when the chain cutter jammed on him, but sentimentally made him keep the Riptide just a bit longer, convincing himself that with a bit of elbow grease he could make the FRAME just as good, if not better, than when he had received it all those years ago when he first graduated the academy. That arrogance nearly costed Kelley and Veronica their lives last mission. Some might say he could've done something less drastic, maybe restore the FRAME and give it to a museum of the UTC or something. But Void Riptide's a soldier like Kelley, and the rider would not let his friend rust in some long forgotten archive of the UTC's bureaucracy. If they wish to commemorate it, let them build another one using his schematics, it will not be his Void Riptide.

Void Riptide's armor had been outdated by two years two years ago. Its shield system's manufacturer doesn't even produce the replacement parts for it anymore. The targeting system would be nigh useless had Veronica not boosted its capabilities with her own. The laser sword had decreased its energy power by at least 50% over the years and the chain cutter jammed at least once every skirmish. Only the whip sword had kept its quality and that was because Kelley designed and added that piece himself. He had made the mistake of adding the harpoon on to the retiring FRAME but at least he knows it works now. It had been cleared for a while that Loren Kelley as a rider had outgrown the capabilities of his FRAME. As the holding bay airlock closed and Kelley wiped away his tears, he made a vow to his old friend. He would build a better FRAME from scratch, just like he always should have. It will be stronger, faster and all around better at everything that Void Riptide was famed for and more. Kelley will not rest until this became a reality.

No one noticed the lonely rider walking back from holding bay 03 to his quarters, throwing himself hard on his bed and drifting off to the deepest sleep he's had for a while. Not even Veronica.

@Shadhunter
"No I agree. Shall we Mr. Bishop? I imagine the Captain would be perfectly happy to break those guns himself. Let's give it a shot!" She flicked back to the Tactical command line, "StarRunner, This is Lævateinn, enemy shield generator is vulnerable to a joint assault by Myself and Archangel. We're going for it, Please be prepared to blow them away." Agalia transmitted the Tactical information back to Oracle hoping the Captain didn't mind a little improvisation before she sighed, "Remember your hand and don't let fatigue beat you again Sister." She rolled her eyes, "Yeah Yeah."

< ORBIT TEAM >

< @Shadhunter @Andraina >

Freya charges forward, and the flak turrets fire at her, their shells detonated harmlessly on Bishop's Deployable shield.

"Roger, Rider Unison. Lieutenant Desero, focus all Cannons on the Destroyer!"

The tag team worked perfectly, Enduring Winter piercing the generator, causing it to explode. The flak cannons did get a few hits in, Blowing Bishop's shoulder and a knee joint of Freya's

"Arcadia, Unison, MOVE NOW!"

< PLANET TEAM >

< @Xanxas >

Fredrick the SCARAB poked Kyras awake. He must have fallen asleep at Kalei's side. Speaking of which, she was gone. This could mean a number of things: She got better, she was moved somewhere, or... she was dead.

< @WanderingJester >

"Lieutenant Desero, focus all Cannons on the Destroyer!" The order came in and she grinned. {Veronica, Williams, Align all guns to this point. Fire on my mark } She designated the front-most point on the enemy destroyer. { FIRE! }