Routine Cleaning (Tag Alex, Open)

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki had left the Galley and headed to the Armory. She didn’t mind her duties and that meant taking care of the equipment that would take care of them. She got there and noted that the doors were already open. She always appreciated when people were on time and she entered without stopping. The brunette she found there was t unexpected. She smiled.

“Alex, I have to think that you either live here or just like touching your gun. I can’t blame you.”

She laughed s bit and clapped Alex on the shoulder as she pulled down her weapons set and laid them out. She didn’t stop there though as she pulled down everyone’s weapon sets. She laid them all out on the work bench but stopped at Jacob’s weapon’s. He rarely used them and adamant about he was the only one to clean them. He had named his pulse rifle ‘Disrespectful Stare’ and his sidearm which looked more like an Ancient West revolver called ‘The Last Word’ he had several others, his scout rifle which was custom as well he named it ‘The Cure’ and his final weapon was an auto rifle he called ‘The Number’.

“Which ones do you wish to start with? I know your light machine gun is first but we do have to get to others. I don’t have objections to you starting there.”

Mizuki was rarely conversational but something about the armory relaxed her. That coupled with the fact she liked Alex was one of the reasons.

[Alexandra Kino]

"You know what they say. Happiness is a warm gun." Alex quipped in response to Mizuki's comment about Alex liking to touch her guns, taking the possible double entendre in stride. It was true that the armory was a second home to Alex. Since she was the support weapons user, it was only natural that she spend time in here cleaning them. Weapons that were not properly maintained could fail at the worst times. Alex would not fall victim to that kind of misfortune.

"Eh, my weapons can go last." Alex calmly stated. She saw the captain's personal weapons and recoiled. There was no way she was touching those.

"I'll clean anyone's weapons but the captain's. Anyone's. I'll even let you choose whose weapons I start with." Alex told Mizuki. Alex might not be the sharpest tool in the shed, but even she was not dumb enough to purposely cross the captain. Things rarely ended well for those who crossed Jacob.

Alex was easygoing. People often mistook that tendency for being a doormat or being dumb. Alex knew that everyone on the Dark Echoes would have to work together if they wanted to get through this mess. If she had to put her ego aside, it would be put aside. If she had to be the menial labor, she would be the menial labor.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki nodded and laughed. Alex was right a warm gun did bring happiness. That was a very fair assessment when you cleaned weapons and shot them. A fact she might have never learned had everything not went to hell. Well she didn’t dwell on the past. Only worked toward a future.

“I can’t disagree Alex. At least we can warm them. I am getting a bit bored. We haven’t even done a supply run in over a month. What do you think is going on?”

She liked Alex’s attention to detail and shouldn’t have made a point of telling her that she had no objections. She sighed as she really thought about it. They all knew how to break each of the weapons in her down, clean them properly, oil them, and put them back together. It was part of their training. Jacob made them all versatile.

“You don’t have to do that. I shouldn’t have made a big deal of it. You have my apologies.”

She didn’t disagree with her on the captain’s weapons. They were like going into mom and dad’s room. You just didn’t do that without permission or a very good reason. His weapons were well his and while he didn’t give them shit weapons and have them free run with the modifications they made it wasn’t like he said don’t clean them it was like they were radioactive and you just didn’t touch them.

“Agreed. They stay on the rack until he either orders us to clean them or writes his last will and testament and leaves them to us in case of his death. As for me choosing that’s not why we’re here. We just need to get this done or find out if there is life after death.”

She didn’t think he’d kill them but he was rather stern about performing certain duties while others he would let go at least once. He was strange but kept good order and discipline among them.

“Start with Chi’s sidearm. You know the one that is never fired unless it’s on the range and only the range. I don’t get her sometimes. She would fly into hell to extract us but won’t shoot people who would kill her without hesitation. I don’t get it.”

She already had a weapon broken down to parade rest and was cleaning it. She had tried to understand her sister but hadn’t found common ground with her yet even though they were sisters and twins to boot.

[Alexandra Kino]

"Yeah, Chisana is... different." Alex said diplomatically. She took Chisana's pistol into her hands. True to Mizuki's word, it was seldom used.

"I too thought I wouldn't kill, but that took all of one battle to change. It's easy to cling to principles like pacifism when your life isn't in danger. But when your life's on the line, even nice people can turn vicious." Alex opined as she went for cleaning tools. The brunette remembered the first time she killed... one of her grenade launcher shots landed in the middle of a trio of Death Corps members and an explosive fireball engulfed them. A severed arm landed at Alex's feet, the hand pointing accusingly at her. Contrary to what she saw on old holoshows, she did not break down crying and screaming nor did she hallucinate blood on her hands. It was just another action, like brushing her teeth or brushing her hair.

"I don't like killing. I would have been happy to live my life without ever having to point a weapon at anyone. But I can't afford to live in a dream world. Not when innocent people are dying because of one person's centuries-old grudge. Unless we want to die too, we're going to have to fight." Alex said bluntly. She examined the pistol. The internal components were in perfect working order and just needed minor cleaning. Why did Chisana even bother carrying one? Jacob... that was why.

Alex began cleaning the pistol's barrel. It hardly had any carbon buildup inside. To the untrained eye, the pistol would look like it came straight off the assembly line. To the trained eye, it looked slightly used. Alex cleaned it anyway, going through the maintenance rituals that had become second nature by now.

"Maybe I was too rough on your sister. Sorry, Mizuki." Alex apologized. Maybe it was for the best that Chisana did not become yet another person accustomed to taking life. The station was full of them already. A little bit longer and the pistol would be ready to go again.

Chisana was an idealist who always saw the best in people. Idealism was a rare commodity these days. Many had already given in to cynicism and misanthropy. Jacob had done so long ago and Felix and William were not far behind. Someone had to have hope for a peaceful future.

Finished. Alex reassembled the pistol and handed it to Mizuki. Should the pink-haired idealist ever need it, it would be ready for use.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki found that talking while she cleaned a rifle to be relaxing and this wasn’t forced. When Alex gave an opinion about killing and people’s view of things she nodded as she let a receiver slide home and closed the dust cover and the put the weapon on the rack. Alex’s opinion about the state of the universe wasn’t all that wrong. As far as enjoying killing she didn’t mind dropping bodies of the Death Corps. She would do it until they had their home back.

“Well some people believe they can get by without a little blood shed or some death. I don’t think out particular situation allows us to be so merciful. Some people still hold onto them.”

She grabbed another weapon and started to break it down to parade rest and took a brush to it and just gave it a light scrubbing. They hadn’t been used in over a month. As for not liking it she didn’t know if she disliked it. That was a hard one to think about. She wasn’t going to say thing but then again she was right it was fight or die.

“No. None of us can afford that. You have to do what you need to do right now. Being dead doesn’t really suit me.”

She glanced over at Alex. She wanted to have everything the same.

“You know I was going to abdicate my title to join the military. I suppose I sort of got my wish. I just didn’t want it like it happened.”

Mizuki has another rifle finished and looked at Alex. She didn’t say anything off about her sister. Chi was not wired for violence and she had accepted that. There was no need to apologize.

“No need. Chi isn’t wired for violence. You missed the altercation in the Galley. Freya fought Sakuya. It was quite funny. I didn’t think Freya had it in her.”

She chuckled and had the rifle back together and worked it a bit. The action was smooth. She was happy with it.

“See what you miss for not attending breakfast. Well we are only a third of the way done.”

She looked at Alex raising an eyebrow.

[Alexandra Kino]

Freya actually took a swing at Sakuya? That was a surprise to the brunette. A mild one. Freya was among the more assertive royal children. So was Sakuya.

"It was only a matter of time before it came to blows. I'm sure the others got a good show." Alex commented on the fight. She did not mind missing it. She had better things to do than watch Freya and Sakuya engage in power struggles. The weapons in the armory were not going to clean themselves.

"They can fight it out if they want. The only fight I'm worried about is the one with Death Phantom. That's the only one that really matters." Alex opined as she grabbed a rifle from the rack. She disassembled it. The internal components were functioning perfectly, as was the barrel. Simple cleaning would suffice.

"I suppose that if they really have to fight, it's better to do it here than when we're going against the Death Corps. You can bet your last dollar that Death Corps would take advantage of that kind of internal strife in the field." Alex asserted. The rifle was cleaned and reassembled. Back onto the rack it went. Alex recalled Mizuki saying that she wanted a military career.

"Me, I didn't want a military career. I would have been happy staying on Jupiter and living in peace. But the choice was taken out of my hands." Alex stated. Then she paused for a moment. This was not just about her.

"The choice was taken out of everyone's hands." She finished while looking into Mizuki's eyes. She then grabbed another rifle. It was in the same condition as the last one. A little cleaning and it would be ready to use.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki couldn’t disagree. They lived, trained, ate, and co-habitated in such close proximity that it was a reasonable assumption that they would eventually come to blows. It was surprising that it was Freya. She was easy going at least on the surface.

“Either way I’m glad they got it out here. As you said better here than out in the field while on mission.”

The military career was something she had wanted while on Earth and now that she had one she didn’t know what to think. The choice was taken out of her hands. That right there was probably what rubbed her the most.

“You know without having the choice of yes want to or no I don’t I can’t say I’d choose this type of life. Who knows what choice I’d make.”

She let the slide go home on the pistol and then put it back in the rack. She grabbed an energy rifle as she took apart to examine the coils and apply the anticorrosive to extend their life. She liked energy rifles and the one Jacob used was heavily modified.

“Again your right. We didn’t have the choice to make it was made by our parents. They shoved us off on Jacob and here we are fighting, raiding, and most of all being ignored by the one person who could teach us to use the power they possessed. Why did he bring her anyways.”

Mizuki returned the gaze for a moment before finishing with the energy rifle.

[Alexandra Kino]

"You know Setsuna. She's always been more comfortable working in the background than working on center stage. I don't like it either, but I guess that's just how it has to be right now." Alex opined. She was just as dissatisfied with that answer as Mizuki was. It was like the royal children had suddenly caught the bubonic plague. Setsuna would not go anywhere near them, and on the few occasions she did the visits were brief.

"Jacob brought her along because like it or not, she's the last tie to the old world we've got. As far as I know she didn't produce a successor, so if she died her time powers and her knowledge would be lost forever. That's just my guess." Alex suggested. She could be totally mistaken. If she was, it would not be the first time she had missed a guess.

Alex picked up another pistol. She disassembled it and winced. The internal components of this one needed serious cleaning. So did the barrel.

"Besides, it's best that we bring her along. She knows a lot of things we don't. She also likely knows a lot of things that Death Phantom would stop at nothing to get his hands on. As long as she's out of Death Phantom's hands, we'll be OK." Alex added. She turned back to the pistol. How could anyone let their weapon get like this? Fortunately for them, Alex was here to fix the problem.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki listened carefully as she pulled down one of the grenade launchers. These were rather destructive in the right hands. She broke it down and cleaned it removing the carbon buildup along with some of the left over spent explosive. How did Felix not kill himself with this thing?

“She doesn’t have that option any longer. We are here. Our circumstances haven’t changed from when we first came here. She doesn’t even try.”

She slammed home the magazine in frustration and sighed. She shouldn’t let the woman get under skin but it happened at the oddest times. She wanted their respect but did nothing to earn it.

“Her choice of getting married and having children is exactly that. Her choice. Her knowledge which she doles out piecemeal isn’t worth it and the price it comes with. She can either step up and become part of this team.”

She wanted to tell Alex to stop making sense but that would have been contrary and just mean. She was a leader and despite anything all these people would be one day. It was just a matter of time. Alex was right about having her handy. She knew things that she just wasn’t sharing.

“You’ve made a wonderful point about keeping her close even though she’s not supplying anything useful at the moment.”

She took apart another rifle she had taken down off the rack. It was dirty and she looked at the number on it. Freya! She never properly cleaned her rifle. She went to work on it and showed Alex.

“Freya never cleans her rifle. It kind of pisses me off that she doesn’t clean it. I mean seriously she is more concerned with blowing stuff up and watching stuff be destroyed.”

She was scrubbing hard on the rifle because of the built up carbon. The barrel and receiver. Everything.

“Next time Jacob does hand to hand round robin I’m picking Freya and beating her for this shit!”

She growled as she continued to scrub. She was going to hurt her. This was just abuse of the weapon. She showed Alex.

[Alexandra Kino]

Alex cleaned the pistol. It was disturbing to see how people could let their tools get so... disgusting. When Freya was brought up, Alex frowned. At least Felix cleaned his weapons from time to time. Freya, on the other hand, had a lackadaisical attitude towards weapons maintenance.

Alex frowned even harder when Mizuki showed her Freya's weapon.

"Now that's just careless. I'm surprised it still works." Alex commented to Mizuki with a mild degree of annoyance. She tried to keep an even temper. Not everyone was devoted to maintenance and repair like she was. She understood that. But would it kill them to try a little harder to keep things in working order?

"I'd like to see Setsuna a bit more often myself. You know, just to see that she still cares about us. Working behind the scenes won't be an option for much longer. I think Felix is already starting to dislike her." Alex started, echoing Mizuki's sentiment. It was clear that Felix was starting to dislike her distant nature. Even Jacob was growing tired of Setsuna's way of doing things.

"I wouldn't mind if she started doling out more of her wisdom. Also, it'd be nice if she gave it to us straight instead of speaking in riddle or metaphor. Sometimes the simple approach is best." Alex continued.

"However, I don't have enough pull with her to make that happen. That's a job for you and Chisana. She was always more likely to respond to you two." Alex finished. She picked up another rifle. She frowned again.

"Seriously, Hayate?" Alex asked in frustration. There was carbon buildup in the barrel and receiver. The muzzle was dirty. The internal components were getting dirty.

"Does it look like she even tried?" Alex asked Mizuki, showing her the dirty weapon.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki worked over the weapon hard to ensure it was clean and would work properly. She was going to make the beating Sakuya gave her look mild compared. She looked over at Alex and nodded.

“Careless is putting it mildly. I think she goes out of her way let it go like this. She doesn’t seem to think about these things. The only thing she thinks about is the yield of her explosives and making a better grenade for these grenade launchers.”

She let a small unsuppressed growl escape her lips at the mention of Setsuna’s name again. That woman made her angry for no reason.

“Well when you ignore the people that you’re supposed to helping it doesn’t endear you to them. Jacob is a man who sees both sides of the situation. The animosity she gathers is her own fault.”

She had finally got the action on the weapon to be be normal and not the grinding sound it was giving off. She sighed happily at that. Alex wasn’t pulling punches today.

“The sentiment is mutual and those fucking riddles. It does nothing but aggravate us and keep us off our game. As for me nah. Chi maybe because she’s a bit nicer to her than me.”

She rolled her eyes when she saw Hayate’s rifle. The woman was as bad if not worse than Freya.

“Well that’s a surprise. I can bet if that was a star fighter or other aircraft that it would be in top shape. What do you think?”

She worked the action a few more times and then let the bolt go home and racked the rifle.

“No she didn’t in the least. I still say someone makes them clean them after missions but we are usually to busy taking account of materials and injuries to worry about that.”

She still didn’t like it. It made for failures in the futures of weapons weren’t properly maintained and broken parts reported. It would be deadly.

“We need an android to do this although I wouldn’t want to let them clean mine. I’m talking just for repairs. Other than that I would clean my own weapons.”

She knew she was just complaining to vent but that was her right.

“Ahhh....Lunae it’s been to long.”

She had grabbed her sidearm. It was customized with a larger magazine for a higher caliber round. Armor piercing and most of all the grip was suited for her hand. She loved the weapon.

“Nothing like having something that is completely yours, right Alex?”

[Alexandra Kino]

"It's no big deal. I'll clean it anyway." Alex said to Mizuki, her annoyance over the state of Hayate's weapon fading. Mizuki had a point. The frontline team had more pressing concerns than weapon maintenance. Still, it would help if they tried a little harder.

"I think things with Setsuna are going to come to a head soon. She can't keep ignoring our existence. She can't keep us in the dark forever. Either Felix or Jacob will ignite the powder keg." Alex gave her opinion. She could tell that Mizuki was getting tired of hearing about the green-haired woman. To prevent a more literal powder keg from going off, a subject change was in order.

"Yeah, having your own weapon's nice. Unfortunately, pistols don't do it for me anymore. I need something bigger, say, LMG size." Alex said. Mizuki had an impressive customized pistol, but Alex did not care for them. They felt like popguns to her. Alex was strong enough where pistol recoil was minuscule, even when fired one-handed.

"Unfortunately, if Jacob lets me carry a LMG, Felix will want his grenade launcher. It would only spiral out of control from there. So I guess I'll have to find a pistol and customize it." Alex concluded. She looked straight into Mizuki's eyes for the next sentence.

"I like big guns and I cannot lie." Alex deadpanned, trying to inject a bit of humor into the situation. She looked over Hayate's weapon. It was clean again. Until the next time the blonde used it, anyway.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki looked at her and nodded she could understand her annoyance and when she stepped out to give Hayate her weapon she took a moment to continue to cleaning and after several more weapons she sighed. It was pretty much the same. They had cleaned all these weapons several times over the last two months and now she had to clean them again. They were either clean and in good working order or they weren’t and the replicator system wasn’t advanced enough to replicate replacement parts. They had identified that as one of the needs next to sensors for the station. Those planning sessions always went well. That was until Setsuna came in with her list of............demands.

“It really doesn’t matter. They need to take better care of them because making this job harder for us only adds undue stress to her teammates. I suppose that is just our dynamic.”

She shrugged as she racked another weapon. She came to Alex’s LMG and smiled. It was pretty stock. A compensator, better reflex sight, a recoil compensating stock, and twin box magazines would make this thing mean. Hell they could even add a cooling tube system to the under barrel to allow her to have a longer firing time before reload. She had seen Alex working out in the high gravity gym. She was her mother’s daughter whatever that meant.

“I get that and I’m not going to be a catalyst for that. Let our esteemed commander do the job. He seems to have an axe to grind with her. I have my own grudges but they don’t rate right now.”

She smiled at Alex when she returned and decided to open the topic up about her weapon.

“Speaking of weapons yours could be modified to provide you with a longer firing window. You know a better compensator, a cooling system for the barrel so we don’t have you cooking off rounds, twin box magazines, and a better reflex sight so you can just punish targets. You know just some thoughts. It makes it a better weapon and plus a recoil compensating stock as well so you can just bear down on your target as well.”

Her eyes were bright as she spoke about modifications for her gun and she didn’t seem surprised about her assessment of hand guns.

“I can see your point about them. We all don’t have the strength you have, so it suits you but Jacob makes us all carry one. Some sense of having a last resort.”

She thought about the missions and realized Jacob had never told Alex that she wasn’t going to carry the LMG in fact he ensured that Alex had it on all missions.

“You know I’ve never seen him tell you to not bring it. In fact I think he likes it. He says suppressive is a great thing. It gives others a chance to zero in. I can’t say that I’m not grateful for it. You’ve covered withdrawals to LZs more times than I can count. I don’t think he’ll ever say no.”

She couldn’t help but laugh about the big guns reference to an ancient rap song. It was funny and she smiled again at Alex.

“Well I’m glad for it. Now let’s get this done because I have a final training assessment with the new guy. He’s good and he seems like he’ll make a good team addition.”

She got a devilish grin on her face. She looked at Alex and then at the stun rounds.

“Hey you want to help with the training. You know shoot stun rounds at us to keep us on our toes? It’ll be fun plus we can reproduce your gun on the holodeck to shoot at us with. I need a rogue element anyways to evaluate his reactions.”

She couldn’t help but smile at this idea. She just hoped Alex accepted.

[Alexandra Kino]

"Now that you mention it, my LMG could stand to be improved." Alex stated to Mizuki. It had been stock ever since it was assigned to her. She lacked the time to modify it because the weapons of the others came first. The frontline team had priority on repairs and maintenance.

"Even with my strength, the recoil can be tough to manage. And ammo consumption is always an issue. Even when I'm careful, it can chew through a belt in no time." Alex added.

The brunette was well-suited to the task of being a LMG gunner. She had the strength to carry the weapon over long distances and to manage its recoil. She had the strength to carry plenty of spare ammunition belts and boxes. She could even carry a grenade launcher and grenades, but she took the risk of enemy fire setting a grenade off and blasting her into something resembling the contents of an overturned salsa bottle.

"With all of that in mind, the improvements you suggested are good ones. We'll have to run that by the captain. Depending on the replicator resources, we can either do it all at once or in increments." Alex voiced her approval. Some help with steadying the weapon for extended firing would be nice. So would an extended ammo supply. And an improved cooling system would be great too.

"I'm glad you asked, Mizuki. I wouldn't mind getting in on that training session and firing stun rounds at the new guy. It's live fire with a much lower risk of accidentally killing him." Alex concluded. She had not seen any action in awhile. She was willing to help with training.

[Mizuki Tsukino]

Mizuki gave a smile to her when she said she wouldn’t mind a few improvements. That said with it going into her strength and the weapon still giving her a small bit of a tough time. She still didn’t know how she managed to fire it. She liked her weapons. They suited her. The LMG suited Alex.

“I’ll run the request for the proposed modifications to the weapon and see what the captain has to say about them. He probably won’t say no but still it’s always good since he does the audits once a month on systems, weapons, resources, and vehicles.”

When she said she would like to join them during the training that caused the small smile to grow. She was going to enjoy this. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Ryuusei it was that she didn’t know him very well and that what she had seen screamed slacker to her. She didn’t let that image be what she judged him on. It was all the evaluations he had been through with their captain and now he wanted an independent evaluation of the man’s skills. She had been given the duty.

“Well it’s a good way to evaluate him. Besides a surprise for him would be good to see what his reaction would be when you introduce an element he isn’t used to or expecting. That way he can be surprised plus I’ll program in the modification to the LMG so you see how you like it. That way you get a feel for it. Sound like a plan?”

She had just racked the last weapon and looked at Alex. As she seemed to finishing up her weapon. They only had parts but those counts were done once a month.

“Let’s grab our tac gear and get to the holodeck. Good?”