trans_9 | Unicorns Take To The Skies [open]

Welcome, visitors, to the Hangar, storage place of all the crew's marvelous mecha and other vehicular machines. We have rows of automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, tanks, mechs...and the small group of mechs that doesn't quite seem to fit in a military storage area. Today the activity is around those, the Zords, animal-shaped machines painted in a variety of eye-catchingly bright colors. Sure to intimidate the Ohm!

The mechanic of these large machines, one Billy Cranston, has been assigned a daunting task taking place within this hangar. Make them capable of combat outside the atmosphere of a planet. In the great void of space.

Now, Billy is very lucky, for two of the six are already prepped for this! That's one third less work than he would otherwise have, Billy reminded himself as motivation. Adding flight capabilities to four very large mechs was still a challenging task, but it could definitely be worse.

He'd learned from Trudy that it would be a wise idea to put his plans into motion (and complete them) as quickly as possible. Luckily, the initial designs and supply-gathering had already been completed. That just left him (and any volunteering assistants) to install the necessary rockets within the Zords. One night of continuous work had resulted in the completion of the Lion Thunderzord---under the paws, he'd found convenient places to install rockets. All he needed was a round of coffee, and he'd be able to get through one more.

Visitors would find him kneeling on a fairly long temporary high platform attached to the Unicorn Thunderzord, sporting a sleeveless mechanic's uniform and a coating of sweat and grease. One 'wing' of the zord had had its paneling removed, and his head was currently somewhere inside that mass of machinery running the new wiring through.

It might take a try or two for him to answer calls or come down the ladder. Sounds tend to echo when your head's in a giant unicorn.

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The magic, strangely enough, is working exactly as intended. Billy smiles, providing the next bit of guidance. It's all fitting into place.

"Ah. I'm sorry I wasn't around to give you the tour myself, but I'm glad you met Ronnie. She hasn't been around much longer than you have, actually---but it doesn't take long to get things sorted out here. I hear you're already doing very well. Trainer, right?"

"No apologies necessary. Getting the tour from a gorgeous girl who knows her way around a wrench just made the tour that much better. Shame she's taken... but, y'know, not surprised. Lucky guy somewhere. So yeah, anyway, no worries. You were working... lot of shit needs doing." he rambles while he works, glad for the conversation."

The mention of training gets another pause and glance. "Til we see combat duty. Still trying to figure out some of that. My main background is commando shit... but since we have to wait for the missions to come to us, I'm doing what I can here and there. I'm volunteered to be given assignments by Weapons & Defense... when you guys need a hand... doing some exploring and scrounging in the city.... working on building up an armory... and training those who want it. Y'know, long as we're at war, I intend to do my part to make sure we win, anywhere and everywhere I can."

Billy has come to a point where he has to choose between two conflicting thoughts: One, he doesn't like his relationship being public. Two, he gets uncomfortable when people describe his girlfriend in such terms. It's already an open secret regardless, so he shrugs and goes for it.

"...I'm her boyfriend, actually. We're just quiet about it."

He nodded along with Chase's list of his daily activities, noting the similarities. "So you like to take a heavy workload and keep yourself useful as well, huh? My schedule's similar, but necessarily with a larger focus on Engineering work. Training's slotted in morning and evening. If I'm not doing enough, I feel like I'm falling behind."

"Lucky guy, congrats." he replies simply, before leaving it at that and getting back to more work-related topics, while they're at it.
"Honestly? Don't know anything else. Back home, we were at war too. World already halfway to destroyed... so, I mean, we got out here and there. Go out, get hammered, go clubbing, whatever. But most'a the time... yeah, if we were at war, we fought to win, and far as old Jack was concerned, if we weren't scrounging, fixing up weapons and vehicles in the yard, training, fighting, or blowing something up, we were wasting time."

Billy understands that. Always worrying about destruction, never knowing if the civilians were safe. It's hard to maintain a 'normal' life when the responsibility for their lives is on you.

"I come from a war effort as well, though ours probably wasn't as intense. I always tried to keep ahead of the battle, but it definitely hurt my social life. My friends insist that it's possible to have both, but for now my priority is here."

And speaking of priorities, they're making some admirable progress. Core wiring done already? It just has to go down to each paw, and he moves to indicate that.

"All I've heard is that something serious involving space combat is likely to happen soon."

"I don't envy anyone whose war was more intense. My social life pretty much was my pack most'a the time... which wasn't entirely a bad thing. Either way, any war experience is still valuable... and I figure most people on the ship have some kind of experience that'd make them useful, anyhow."

He double checks his work to make sure the system he was working at is operational. It'll probably need some quick and minor follow-up from someone who actually knows these systems when post-battle maintenance time comes up, his version of magical repair works, but it isn't always the prettiest work - but it'll do everything its supposed to do.

"Not ideal, but we fight where we have to. I'll see what we have that needs a gunner."

Billy walks over to check, adjusting something here and there, but by far it meets his approval. He smiles gratefully, feeling rested and accomplished for the first time in a while.

"As mine was. I have a larger circle now that secrecy is no longer involved and we're all working toward the same goal, but it didn't leave much time."

Ah, a gunner. "We should have a space for you. These are my team's personal vehicles. The one we're working on at the moment is mine, but as far as I know the six of us are the only ones whose vehicles combine. We have plenty of solo vehicles and larger ships with room for more. I've been checking on those as well."

"Yeah, I figured there'd be space somewhere or other in here. So these things combine? Man, Jack would love to see that. Of course, then he'd want to build his own."

Unicorns Take To The Skies [open]

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