Severed, but not Disarmed

[Admiral Hart]

"Alright Captain, now flex." Doctor Cassidy said as the finishing touches were put on Annabelle LeValle's new hand. From the midway point on her forearm to the tips of her fingers, her new hand was made of a dark blue aerantium-star-born composite metal. It was light, responsive, and had enough crushing strength to literally break every bone in someone's hand if she wanted to shake hard enough. LeValle did as she was told, and the hand flexed and rotated at the wrist like she had had it all her life.

"Excellent. Now, with this model hand, you should be able to switch out spares easily. The hand will release by mental command." The doctor said. LeValle looked at the hand for a moment.

"Can custom hands be made for the socket, Doctor?"

"Why, yes, if you want." LeValle smirked very slightly at that.

"Good."

---

Some time later, Miller was adjusting a few things in Fang, doing field repairs and such. She had not been terribly damaged in the fight, but it was significantly enough that he had had to withdraw.

"I hope his AI wasn't hurt." Miller worried to his mecha as he made sure some pistons were in place.

"I doubt any AI in that piece of junk could have done much more than articulate a sentence." Fang, still in the ninja outfit she had worn for the fight, said flippantly.

"Sis, be respectful. I know I would hate it to lose you." Miller replied.

"So, is that why you didn't finish off that troublemaker when you had the chance? Sympathy for the enemy?" Came a cold voice behind him. Miller winced and turned to see Anton's sister Annabelle there.

"He was out of the fight. I didn't see any need to kill a helpless man." The Mamba replied.

"Well, Colonel, that 'helpless man' gunned down five of my men after returning to the Plunder." Annabelle said bitterly. Miller did not really see the resemblance between the two siblings, beyond physical. As crazy as she was, she actually cared that her men had died. Anton would have been mildly annoyed. "You will not hesitate to end him next time."

"...yes, ma'am." Miller replied at length. Out of her line of sight, Fang stuck her tongue out at LeValle.

"Good." Captain LeValle said, gesturing with her right hand in a prominent manner. The special forces soldier noticed with somewhat surprised eyes that, in place of a metal hand, LeValle had fastened a large, jagged, star-born metal hook to her cybernetic wrist. At her belt, on the other side from her rapier, were hanging several other hands, including her "normal" hand and something that looked very much like a pincer claw.

If she had equipped the hook to be intimidating, it had worked.

"Make sure you leave mercy in the hanger, Miller. Otherwise, people could get hurt." LeValle ended as she turned on her heel and walked towards the bridge.

There was a pause, before Fang broke the silence. "Okay, normally, hot rich officer, I would tell you to marry her. But something tells me that's a vein best left untapped."

Miller could only nod in agreement.

[Hayden Douglas]

Hayden "Sidewinder" Douglas rapped on the jamb of the Captain's quarters. A large man at 6'4", his frame powerfully built with muscle and his eerie black eyes holding a dead-cold confidence in their depths, his was a rather intimidating countenance. Even more so when one knew that he was an absolutely deadly fighter that had few equals in the galaxy, an eight year veteran of the elite black-ops fighting force Mamba who had more than earned his rank as Lieutenant Commander in the United Earth Military.

The thirty-two year old former soldier-turned-Security Officer waited until he'd been granted permission to enter before stepping inside Captain LeValle's quarters. The tall, slim woman was seated behind her desk going over last minute readings from the various officers on board the ship. Younger than him by more than a few years, Anabelle LeValle was still a very competent Captain. She was also strikingly pretty, but cold. Whether from circumstances beyond her control or stubborn choice, Hayden didn't know. He'd never asked, nor would he.

It wasn't his place.

He had his own demons to contend with, after all. Eight years pulling black-ops missions in some of the ugliest places of the solar system--bending and blurring his own moral beliefs time and again in the name of a government he believed wholeheartedly to be right and just and had sworn to serve and protect with his dying breath--took it's toll on a man eventually. Hayden's loyalty remained undamaged and unbroken. His soul, on the other hand, was another matter entirely.

Captain LeValle glanced up from her reports to see him standing at painful attention, her blue eyes steady and clear. "Yes, Mr. Douglas?"

"All systems have checked out, Ma'am," he rumbled, only a faint brogue lacing his voice after so many years from his native home of Scotland. "The Heart Breaker is back tae peak capacity. If the Plunder's Heart makes a move, we won't be unprepared."

The Captain gave him a small, humorless smile. The hook she currently had connected to her severed limb absently scraped across the surface of her desk, her blue eyes drifting a little off his face, growing slightly faraway. "Oh, Hart will be making a move. That faithless strumpet won't be able to resist the temptation of trying to get at my brother. And we will be ready for them." Her eyes snapped back to his, suddenly sharp again. "Won't we, Mr. Douglas."

It wasn't a question, it was a declaration, and he treated it as such. Hayden nodded curtly.

"Of course, Ma'am. Always."