One Tall Order

Posted on Tue Jun 6th, 2017 @ 4:41am by Lieutenant Commander Thex sh'Zoarhi & Warrant Officer Cato West

Standing in shuttlebay two, the team's gear had just been released from quarantine. His armor looked like it had been put through the meat grinder. "Well fuck." one of the support craft deck hands carted over his 'equipment' visibly gagging and trying not to breathe, the smell was rancid; Old blood and overgrown rat saliva were on the left leg of his armor from where he became a chew toy. The armor was crushed on one side from the brutal impact of where he hit the deck after being flung through the air. Tapping his commbadge "Chief West to Lieutenant Thex, I need a hand with something in Shuttlebay two."

"On my way." Came the answer from the other side of the com badge. After five minutes the door to the bays jefferies tubes opened as the andorian engineer stepped out. Notching the human with the equipment crate she walked over. " West is it? What do you want me to look at and why does it smell that bad?" She asked politely.

"That..." he pointed with his right hand, 'knife' style. "Is my EVA suit / combat armor, or rather what's left of it. Let's just say some things can't be unseen." he winked "I need an upgrade El-tee (LT). I need my duranium armor panels replaced with tritanium ones coated in neutronium. I also need a few more things, it'll take some engineering trickery which is why I called you. I need a personal forcefield generator integrated into the suit, something large enough so that I could push forward against enemy fire in say a corridor?"

He continued "In addition to all of that, I'd like the ability to electrically charge the exterior of the suit. That way if anything tries to use me as a chew toy again, it'll get the piss shocked out of it." He paused before continuing "I also need energy magazine pockets, plasma grenade pockets and a place for my bubblegum." he smiled. "Oh, I also need a a way to stow my katana. But I doubt half of that shit is even possible, right?" he grinned.

"Impossible has possible in it doesn't it? " The andorian replied with cheeky grin as she picked up one of the leg sections and turned it over in her hands. " Some parts will need flat out replacing by the look of it. Will you give me a hand and we can get this to one of the workshops? "

Cato moved to take hold of the cart that his gear was on and started to push it across the deck. "It needs to be secure and this needs to be kept between you and me." Cato added as he started to hobble across the deck to the turbo lift with his massive cart full of his equipment that didn't fully exist anymore.

" Don't worry I've worked with intelligence before. I know how stuff that you work with just stops existing as soon as it leaves my sight." The andorian replied grinning to herself as they stepped into the turbolift. " Engineering." She said to the computer as the lift began to move." So how did this end up in this state?" She enquire politely.

"The same way I ended up in this state" Cato quipped with a smirk, pulling up his left pant leg to show her the dermal bandages wrapped around his recently reconstructed leg. "Shit happens." he smiled "Wouldn't have it any other way." That smile turned into a grin. "Thank you for taking time to help me, I appreciate it Ma'am."

"Please don't call me Ma'am it makes me feel old. My names Thex and that will do just fine." She replied with her own grin.

"Better pop that rank off your neck then." he smiled "Then I guess you'll call me Cato." The turbo lift opened up and out they walked. "Alright, where to?" he said as he hobbled pushing the cart out of the lift.

" Workshop seven just through here." The andorian replied as she lead him into one of the small ships workshops. " Just put it here and I'll see if my boys have left the tool kits." She said walking over to the storage locker. " Oh, computer bottle of industrial disinfectant. " She said to the rooms replicator which quickly replicated a bottle of green liquid. " Can you start disinfecting the gear? " She said as she began gathering tools from the locker.

Cato nodded and grabbed the bottle of green liquid and began disinfecting. "In addition, we need to integrate this EXO suit. Build the interface into the undergarment for the suit." He smiled as he began disinfecting his armor. "You'll have your work cut out for you, luckily we have time." he stated "I need you to make me a monster to fight monsters Thex. We lost three good men on the last run, on the next one if anyone doesn't make it back... It's going to be me."

"After we're through, the borg will be scared of you." The andorian replied as she placed all the necessary equipment down on the table. Picking up the chest section she began running a micro-molecular repair tool along the broken sections. " So how did you end up on this ship?" She asked politely.

Cato smirked "A series of bad choices, led to another series of mistakes, which led to MACO being disbanded and me being thrown into intel." He paused as he picked up a spanner and began to disassemble the micro-computer access cover on his helmet. "How about yourself?"

"My old boss recommended me for promotion and the fleet sent me here." Thex replied with a reassuring smile on her face as she continued her work." Doesn't sound as hard as your journey.
I hope things turn around for you."

Cato laughed and shook his head, continuing to work. "You sound like T'Pral." a small shock from the capacitor overloading when the spanner touched the casing Cato yelled "Motherfucker!" before shaking the hand that had been shocked. "Turning things around for me at this point is moot. I have a job, my job is to fight the enemy. When there's no enemy left for me to fight, then I will disappear until I'm needed again. That is my place." he responded bluntly "Sure, it's not the Starfleet way, but I love blowing shit up."

"Nothing wrong with a good explosion. Providing it's not my ship that's exploding. " came the andorians response as she picked up the replcament plates that would be needed. " Hand me the bottle of silver liquid will you?"

"Sure" Cato said as he reached over and grabbed a bottle of silver liquid and handed it to Thex. Going back to working on the micro-computer, he pulled the small core which resembled one of the larger ones seen on starships; Placing it down on an anti-static tray before going back to remove the remainder of the computer.

Thex smiled and applied the liquid to the armor. To this, she began to lay the new armored plates fixing them to the armors base. It would be much tougher to break through. " How does the armor hold up against EMP's?"She asked as she worked.

"Valid question." he perked a brow "If we shield the computer with some kind of insulation material, similar to a Faraday Cage, it would be relatively successful in deflection of a multi-wave EMP event. What do you have that can reflect EM radiation, yet is thiner than 0.01 microns?"

"I have something though it's still experimental. Not only does it reflect radiation, but it also turns part of it into a charge that can add power back into the suits power cells. I'm still working on it and it only lasts for thirty days before it needs replacing, but if you'de be up for using it i have some sheets in storage." Thex said pausing in her work.

"Absolutely, as long as it comes in black." Cato joked, continuing to pull the helmet apart and set pieces of it down on the anti-static tray.

" It's only in one colour I'm afraid. " She replied as she left the room before returning with a rolled up sapphire blue material. " Here it is. Took me a week to make this amount. " She said rolling the material out on the table. It glimmered like metal despite it flexibility.

"Well, that's pretty. Can we sandwich it into the liner or the suit itself and on the interior of the helemt?" He asked, it wasn't that he hated blue... But it was reflective and reflective would get him killed when he was trying to be stealth.

" Off course. I wouldn't let some reflective be put on the outside of the armor. " She grinned as she began to use a small laser to cut it into shape. After a second she began laying the material inside the chest piece. After that she reattached the suits liner before checking the suits electrical components. " Everythings looking good here. Want to try it on to make sure it still fits?" She asked as the positive readings came back.

"Eh, not yet. We need to integrate the exo-suit into it and figure out a power source for it. Ideas?" Cato replied, shifting his pant leg to give him some relief from the dull pain that was his wound healing.

"Latest alorian batteries that can last seventy-two hours. Combined with the rechargeability and you should have plenty of power. " Thex said running the ships inventory through her head.

"Hot-Rod." He grinned. "Alright, sickbay needs me back... I'll blow my replicator rations for the week on a nice dinner." he smirked. "Bring the suit, I'll bring you a date. You, me, T'Pral and a mystery man." he winked. "I owe you one Thex, thank you!" Cato said, gimping out of the engineering bay heading back for Sickbay.

" See you later than and I'm okay wth girls." The andorian called after him as she got to work installing the gear on the suit.