Requisitions officer Jones took him down the dock at a rapid pace, making Sarasahn jog and cradle his bag as he tried to keep up with the imposing, dark human. The frigate sized ship was a hive of activity, the flow of money was damn near palpable as damaged sections were trimmed and repaired while in their cradles being held away from the mechanisms being refit beneath them. Principal refit goal seemed to be filling the structural trusses with a long thin jump coil. The three reactors of the ship would all pump into it so it was gonna be a passive drive that distributed energy between reactor coverage and acted like a big red button for the captain.
The human clambered into a cart for portside transport and Sarasahn flapped his wings to join the cart's occupants quickly. With his mailbag of stuff as tall as him straddled in the seat and grasping hands clamped pn the headrest the cart roared to life and moved with all the motivation of an ocean predator. The purr putter came in a harmony and made the whole cart shudder as it rolled along faster and faster. It made him hesitate to pull his wings in as he felt the wind rushing over them.
An Ayyatti laughed, a scar of skinpach on his chest, the crater of recovering muscle berraying the plasma hit that got the muscular gecko discharged. He was a specimen of his species, two thick arms on tough shoulders and a humanoid torso, below his thin waiast was the top half of his jumpsuit, rolled down and sleeves knotted together. He had a smile for his speicies, not showing his teeth but eyes wide and whip tongue haning past his lips as he looked at me with a side eye. Noteable for reflexes andfeild of view they were good gunners, even solders as long as a human didn't run up and rip them in half as humans tent to do. Cammo and wallclimbing were not effective in endustrial or urban enviroments above 0.8 standard gravity, meaning no habitat fully functioning could be less than 0.85 standard g.
Janetor Abeki was having a grand time watching the dock fly by, even if the bird next to him wanted to take that thought down a more literal rout. Laughter was all he had, at the mercy of humans, wounded, discovered abandoned. The crucaders had come to his people, their guns tested in fire, armor painted in blood piss and shit of their fallen or fleeing foes and his people were next. He knew the propaganda was wrong but he didn't have any other way, starving and overworked at a factory that could easily be automated. He joined the army under stress and duress and he was thankful when his line was approached he'd sabbotaged the guns. One by one their snub cannons went quiet and instead of being fired on further the ship was boarded. Halls narrow and full of cravices and turns they disabled the drives and main reactors in minutes, the rest was being hunted. He'd been made a feral out of, naked and clinging to anything high enough, not knowing his fear had a smell. When one looked up the eyes were burned into his memory, those yellow slitted eyes, then an orange flash.
So he laughed, he let his tongue waggle in the wind, he looked at the part time predator bird next to him with relaxed dismissal. He was at the mercy of the humans now, he didn't want to stretch it but humans were so generous to him.
He saw reminants of crusader ships in this one and joined, he knew he was safe inside the armor, he was safe on the not front side of the guns. Abeki didn't need a translator to know what the red type around the broadside slits meant. The diagonal channels making a smeared dash that marked the cleverly jointed gun batteries, for six guns on just one side. Shivers went up his spine as he turned his head to look, mouth dry for many reasons as he took practiced, deep breaths. The formation of the guns thus far a mistery as his eye followed the section on the opposite sode as an overhead crane lifted it into a dedicated bay.
Sarasahn followed the suddenly somber gaze and saw the opposite broadside bay lifted away with its ammo racks and crew compartments still attached, revealing three escape pods that would fire from either side of the landing ramp. The drives in their nacelles were already in a sea of scaffolding and shifting parts. He almost squealed at the sudden dip of the cart as it found a ramp, some of the humans laughed, the gecko gulped and someone put on music.
Everyone gripped a little tighter as someone laughed, someone yelled and there was a thumbs up. Sarasahn and Abeki shared the universal 'humans' look before the cart swerved out tward the ledge then sweved backaround a hairpin turn the dock used to compress their ramps between decks. The engine screeched it battle cry as the next ramp passed alarmingly fast and the vart swerved into the subdeck, the space empty except for crates of ration. Sarasahn was fully floofed as the ungodly sound of wheels spinning free accompanied a sliding feeling as they looped from crate to crate, narrowly avoiding each one. Soon, too soon speeding across a bridge and screeching more as they came to a stop too slowly in the hangar bay of the half disassembled Butterfly Sting.
With no more fanfare than a slap on the driver and some pats on the nonhuman passengers. Officer Jones picked up the frozen bird and planted him on the ground, Abeki pail and shakey as he stepped off and made his way away.
