A Long Shuttle Ride

[Admiral Hart]

"And then what happened?" Fang asked, laying with her head propped up on her eblows in the air while Miller read from a red, leather bound books.

"Then the dwarves started singing." Miller replied, and began to sing aloud the song about smashing plates and such from The Hobbit to his mecha's AI.

The trip thus far had been...interesting. Willie had quite a lot of volume on her, and was as well completely unafraid to speak her mind. While an entertaining companion, the Mamba had decided, on their second day out, that he would go back and spend some quality time with Fang.

"Well, I think Bilbo's right in not wanting to go out on adventures." Fang replied. "It's perfectly reasonable for him not want to get killed."

"You'll see, little Sis." Miller replied, smiling warmly. "Just give the book a chance."

And then, from the cargo bay's entrance, came a cry of, "Oh hell no!"

[Willie Barbary]

Willie stood in the cargo bay entrance, her mouth gaping and an almost wounded look to her widened eyes.

"No!" she repeated angrily, shaking her finger at the somewhat flabbergasted looking male sitting cross-legged at the foot of his Mecha suit, an old red book in his lap. The tiny blue AI blinked at her in confusion as well--a ridiculously adorable looking fox-girl dressed in an elaborate kimono. "No, no, no, no!" she continued, affronted. "This isn't happening!"

"Uh . . . what?" Miller questioned, looking half-afraid of what the answer would be.

Willie came to the firm conclusion then that he had to be undercover or something. There was no way the tentative, polite young man was a member of Mamba. Especially not in the face of this.

"This!" she snapped, motioning angrily to him and his suit. "Mamba soldiers are selfish, alpha-male, egotistical dickwads! They do not sit there reading books to their five-ton death machines!" She glared. "So cut that the hell out right now, before I have to do something drastic!"

Like run over there and jump your bones like a horned-up slaver girl, she added in her head, and then her face flushed uncomfortably at the stray thought.

[Admiral Hart]

"Well, I mean, what's wrong with it? She likes it, and I've always wanted a little sister." Miller explained calmly, while Fang gave her an appraising eye.

"It's an aberration! You're supposed to be some big tough killing machine, not having a Sunday picnic!" She exclaimed.

"Most of the other Mamba shorten that to, "Queer."" Miller replied, a slightly sardonic tone to his voice.

"I'd be liable to agree with them." Willie snarked back.

"My big brother is not gay! He's going to get married and have a billion kids and make me an auntie some day." Fang suddenly said, affronted.

"Shh, Fang. It's not a big deal." Miller replied.

"Not a big deal? Not a big deal?!" Willie rolled her eyes and exclaimed. "I just called you, a Mamba, gay. And you think it's not a big deal?" She threw up her hands and made an exasperated noise.

"Well, I mean, I know it's not true." Miller replied. "And I'm not exactly the most manly built guy in the world, so I've been hearing it for a while."

[Willie Barbary]

Geezus, this guy couldn't possibly be for real. He read to his five-ton death machine. He called her "Little Sis." He shrugged off his fellow Mamba members calling him queer. Calmly replied that it wasn't true.

Honestly thought he wasn't one of the hottest things walking on two legs.

Willie just glared at him, frustrated. "I give up, Miller. You're either a complete and total freak of nature, or you're deep undercover. In either case, I don't really wanna know. My poor heart can't take the strain."

The AI suddenly straightened, her expression brightening and her ears perking forward eagerly. "Heart?" she chirruped enthusiastically.

Before Fang could say anything else or before Willie herself could respond, proximity alarms suddenly began blaring. The small pilot gasped, turning on her heel and pelting back through the shuttle for the cockpit. She darted through the halls, leapt over anything in her way and then threw herself into her chair. Her fingers began flying over the controls, eyes darting across the read outs.

Her whole body grew chilled at the sight of the massive ship coming up their port side. It was a thrown-together derelict, but the massive plasma cannons welded to it's fore and aft as well as the somewhat obscene white jolly roger painted on it's nose was more than enough to make her nervous.

Pirates.

Willie shut off the autopilot and took a hold of the controls, jerking the ship hard to port in an attempt to break far enough away not to be caught in their tractor beams. Alarms started screaming in protest, and Willie felt the whole shuttle begin to shake under the strain.

They had already been caught.

"Shit! Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!"

"What is it?" came Miller's calm voice from somewhere behind her.

Willie kicked at the levers beneath her viciously, deploying the landing flaps, trying to put as much drag on the ship as she could to slow them down.

"Pirates," she snapped, her voice cracking with fear. "We're caught in the fucking trac-beam. This shit-shuttle doesn't have enough drive to break loose."

Willie fought with the controls for a moment more, but it was a losing battle. Her breath caught as the vid-screen in front of her suddenly flickered to life, showing a somewhat fat, toadie of a man wearing a mockery of pirate gear. He smiled at them greasily.

"UE Transport, this is the Buccaneer, Captain Tunstall speaking. Power down and prepare for boarding. If you do not comply, we will blast you out of the stars."

[Admiral Hart]

"Let them." Miller said calmly.

"Are you crazy? This is Tunstall. He'll kill us anyway!" Willie replied.

"We aren't the ones who are going to be dying. Just stay calm, stay focused. And most of all, stay behind me." The Mamba replied.

"Okay, okay, you're the special forces nutjob here." She sighed, mumbling "Theoretically" under her breath.

The shuttle clamped into place onto the Buccaneer with a rough jostle. Miller never lost his footing, or his cool, when five burly men, led by a massive, bear of a man with clawed bracers and more scars than he could count, stepped into the shuttle.

"Alright. Walk back there and leave us alone and you walk out of here." Miller said coldly.

The bear-man guffawed loudly. "You and what army, Snake-boy. I'm Madman Hoskell. I've eaten stronger men than you for breakfast. Plus, it's five on two, pretty boy. And after that, maybe a little five on one with your friend over there."

"I only count one of you. But math has never been my strong point." Miller suddenly had a fan of small knives in his right hand, and before the pirates could react, he threw them in rapid succession. Four of the pirates went down, leaving only Hoskell. "Well, except for subtraction."

The bear-like man obviously did not have much common sense. He lunged at Miller then, roaring a battle cry as he did so. Miller dodged around him, a pair of combat knives in his hands. With a quick slash, he hamstrung the giant. The angry man turned and roared again, swinging widely with one claw. A less agile man would have been fileted then and there, but Miller just dodged out of the way and slashed Hoskell's wrist wide open with surgical precision before cutting in close to the giant and burying his dagger into the side of Hoskell's neck. The berzerker tried to crush Miller, still standing despite massive blood loss, but once again the agile Mamba was too fast for him, dropping back in a crouch, both his knives behind him.

"I'LL KILL YOU!!" Hoskell screamed and lunged at Miller once again. This time, a claw caught his jacket and ripped it open, not damaging anything but his clothing, though. The agile Snake ducked away and flanked the huge man, dodging away from another fierce, but slowing strike as the bear-like man started to bleed out. Then, in one fast lunge, Miller jammed a knife into the back of Hoskell's neck. The huge man shook a little, and then toppled over, dead.

Miller removed his damaged and bloody shirt and jacket and turned to a stunned looking Willie. "I'm going out in Fang to make sure they can't follow us. Roll the bodies into the airlock and seal that door and don't let them come in, no matter what."

"Yeah...I mean, uh, right." The pilot replied, unholstering her pistol.

---

One of the pirates had apprently snuck in here, and was examining Fang.

"Hey." Miller called. The man turned quickly, just in time for a throwing knife to meet him in the forehead. "Hands off my little sister."

"Where's your shirt? I'm so scandalized." Fang said.

"Ready to kick some pirate tail, little sis?" Miller opened and hopped into the cockpit, the mono-eye of his mech flashing on.

"Yes. All systems are go."

The cargo door opened, and Miller flashed out into space. Plasma cannons from the Buccaneer immediately sought out Fang, but it was too quick for them, dodging and twirling around torrents of star fire while firing precise and well placed shots from the Fang's shoulder laser cannons. In very little time, all the weapons, including the tractor beam, had been surgically disabled. Then, Fang rushed in towards the thrusters, both swords out and charged, and slashed deeply into each of them, causing the ship to be both toothless and dead in the water. The last action he did was to slash open the docking bridge, which sent more than a few non-vaccuum protected, furious pirates swirling out to death in the black.

Fang landed once again in the cargo bay, and the doors closed. Miller hopped down and walked to the bridge, sat next to Willie, and said, "Okay, pirates are no problem anymore. We can keep on our way."

[Willie Barbary]

Willie just sat stock-still in the seat, staring at Miller, unable to summon up enough wits to even close her still-gaping jaw.

He really was a Mamba. She'd never seen somebody move so fast in her life, and the way he'd taken out that bear of a pirate named Hoskell had been a thing of deadly beauty. Not to mention the precision skill he'd shown in Fang had been mind-boggling.

Miller was hot. He was bad-ass. And he was sweet and courteous. He was perfect.

And she was so horny right now she could barely think straight.

Miller's eyebrow slowly lifted at her continued, gaping stare. He shifted a little uncomfortably in the seat. "Uh . . . Willie? You okay?"

She snapped her jaw shut, blinking rapidly before jerking forward and grabbing the controls. The shuttle lurched forward with a powerful lunge--flawless despite her current upset. It was just adrenaline and hormones. Battle-lust. Everybody got it, sometimes. Irrational surge of lustiness after coming through a dangerous situation alive and unscathed. Made a person want to reaffirm their livelihood or some such ridiculousness.

And oh God, did she want to re-affirm a few things with that hot, skinny ass sitting just across the way--,

"Your face is red."

"It's hot in here," she lied, tone snappy, flushing darker. "Just mind your own business, Major. Leave me and my skin-complexion in peace, thank you very much."

[Admiral Hart]

"Sooooo." Fang began, appearing from nowhere, a crafty look on her face. "What do your parents do? What're you like in the bedroom? Are you married?"

"My dad's an Admiral and my mom's the daughter of one of the richest families from Martian aristocracy. I know. I look nothing like them. Try not to die of shock. And as to the other," She gave Miller a shameless wink. "A girl never kisses and tells, sweetheart. Else where's the fun in discovery? And I'm not married."

"Date history? References?" She asked, not missing a beat. Miller knew better than to try to stop the AI when she was on a roll.

Willie sighed and sat back, popping some gum in her mouth. "The list is small and undestinguished, I'm afraid."

"The questions only get worse from here." Miller sighed.

"Are you a virgin? Or a lesbian?"

The pilot laughed at Miller and answered, "Not a virgin, not a lesbian."

"Do you do backrubs?"

"If the situation calls for it. What's with the questions?"

Fang said, very matter-of-factly, "I have to see if you're good enough to marry my big brother."

Willie blinked, as if suddenly realizing the common theme of the questions. "Oh . . .OH." She then once again blushed. "Well, uh . . . hon, that's really sweet. But uh . . . I-I don't . . . date military men. Call it a hang up from my old man, but soldiers don't make good bedfellows in my humble experience. N-not that your brother isn't . . . um . . . well he's . . . very . . . " Her red face got even darker. " Well, look at the time. I gotta go. Talk to you later." Then she literally bolted from the chair to her cabin.

Fang watched her leave and asked Miller, "Think I came on too strong?"