Private An Arm and a Leg

[Shai Maji]

Shai kept kicking up as much dust as she could. Her plan seemed to be working because they looked ready to throw her out. But the entire building fell quiet when blasterfire suddenly tore through the air. Shai's head spun around towards the door then back to the person she was arguing with. "The kark was that?" she started before moving towards the door. Her eyes went wide at the sight she was witnessing.

"My ship!" she shouted, drawing her blaster and firing at the woman by her ship. "She's stealing my ship!" she shouted. Soon enough there were a bunch of people firing at her ship, angering Shai even more. "HEY! You break it, you pay for it! Watch your fire!" she shouted at them before joining in with the shooting. It was no use, however, when Aerith made her way inside the ship. Now they were only scratching off paint at this point.

Shai sighed and kicked a dustbin over in frustration as Aerith flew off with her ship. "And that?! The kark you gonna do about that?" she asked the office worker who merely shrugged. "We can't pursue that ship and we got nothing to stop it. I'm sorry to say this, ma'am, but your ship's gone." he admitted, earning a punch on the nose from Shai. Storming out of the building, Shai made her way to the outskirts of the town. Once out of sight, she pulled her commlink out. "Yo that was some smooth work. I'm at the outskirts, I'll ping you my location in a bit. Please don't take too long." she hailed to her ship, sending the coordinates as promised. She also took a precaution to silently ping Baby for if Aerith got any ideas. If she tried to fly off, he would make sure she didn't get far. Shai couldn't lose that ship. Not with how much memories and mementoes were on it...

Aerith Castiella

 

[Aerith Krayt]

As the world below her shrunk, eventually vanishing under a cover of clouds, Aerith sunk into the chair. She couldn't stay here. As nice as Shai was, the woman had no idea what she was dealing with. The cyborg knew well enough what she was capable of, and she knew something wasn't quite right with her head. Shai knew too much anyways, and there was always the chance that the past could go back to haunt her. But then again, she had to give the woman back the ship. She went to low orbit before cutting the engines off, waiting for Shai to give the signal, then would reposition to the location. It felt nice to almost feel like she had a normal life. But that wasn't something for her. It wasn't something she could ever have.

The sound of binary caught her attention, and turning Aerith found the source; Shai's little droid. She relaxed, knowing it meant no harm. Looking at the coordinates Shai had sent her, Aerith only glanced to the broadcast and shook her head. "Hey, Baby, right?" She asked, punching in the coordinates as the ship readjusted its course. The scavenger wouldn't understand, probablytell Aerith she was being stupid. But it was better this way. For both of them. She was just a disposable weapon after all. The Sith had taken all of that from her. She set her favorite gun on the dash of the ship; a momento for their little meeting. "Tell Shai I said thanks." She rose, moving to the back of the ship as she'd let the droid take over the situation.

Aerith atched the ground come closer as the ship neared the final stop, it would be in Shai's hands soon enough. That was her cue to get off this train. They were still roughly 10 meters off the ground, more than enough for Aerith to survive what she was about to do. Punching the release for the landing ramp, Aerith began to move down the lowering stairs, knowing the droid would stop what she was doing at any moment. She quickly dropped low grabbing one of the struts and flung herself over the side of the ramp.

The droid would have shut the ramp shortly after she made her escape, though it would probably be puzzled as to what the organic was doing.

With the wind howling past her, Aerith tucked and rolled, catching the approaching ground out of the corner of her eye, her implants were already making the corrections needed to soften the landing. Her arms crossed over her chest, her knees bent, and her cybernetic spine deployed it's impact counter measures. She hit the ground hard, landing on her arms and knees, then swiftly shook off the sensations that followed. Aside from some stiffness and aching, she was fine; the kinetic dampeners sure did their job. Several onlookers looked at her with a sense of horror and shock, but Aerith didn't pay them any mind. She began to run, quickly losing herself in the crowd. At least she got to help Shai. Some good had come of this ordeal after all.

Shai Maji

 

[Shai Maji]

Calmly Shai waited for her ship to land at her location, confident that it will. Sure enough, the ship touched down by her and the ramp lowered... but Baby was the only one onboard. Blinking in surprise, Shai checked the rest of her ship. Aerith was gone. Simply gone. Shai checked all over the ship, ignoring her droid's explanation completely until she reached the cockpit. When she got there, all she found was a very nice pistol.

Sitting down in the pilot's seat, Shai picked up the pistol and looked it over. "Where did she go?" she asked Baby, only to receive a rather odd explanation. She looked back at the pistol again as Baby relayed Aerith's message. Shai set the pistol aside and quickly worked on paying her doctor for the parts and stuff before flying off. She barely knew the woman, but for some reason it tugged at her that she simply left. Once she was out of orbit and jumping to hyperspace, she relinquished control to Baby and made her way back to her room.

She set the pistol aside on her desk and laid down on the bed. Biting her lower lip, she fought back the insecurities and irrational thoughts as to why Aerith would simply leave her. Her mind went to worse places, thinking of all the people she met that simply fell off the radar. First Zemi, now Aerith. That's not even including the others she met and really thought she could make something with.

A sniff broke the overwhelming silence as a headache started to build up. Shai pushed the feelings aside and got some music going at a rather ludicrously loud volume. She didn't want to face her thoughts now. Resigning herself to her bed, she let Baby do the steering and simply blocked herself off from everything as she let the music overwhelm the depressing and self-conscious thoughts that were threatening to get in her mind.

Hopefully the fight in Underworld would be able to cheer her up. It always had some sort of surprise that helped get her mind off things...

/End thread

Aerith Castiella