Raptor Out of the Sky

[homin-Ratione]

“Ah... I see.”
 
Blue saltwater as far as his eyes could see, and a bright sun that thankfully his helms spokes shaded his eyes from. Beneath his heavy steel boots, sand that made it just that more difficult to walk around, even in his armor. Though, with only ten percent left, the augmentation was beginning to slow down, and Ratione could now even feel the plate’s weight on his body.
 
“Yeah, you’ll sink like a boulder if your power cuts out while we’re treading water. Might as well ditch it now.” Janna waddled through the sand, being forced to take higher steps. The glowing white archway stood behind them, with that familiar, uncomfortable hum.
 
Ratione sighed, and issued the command to his suit’s on-board computer. There was a few minutes of hissing, popping, and clicking sounds as the pressure was released from the suit’s hydraulics system.
 
Once everything relaxed, Ratione could barely move his body as his butt slammed down into the sand, legs sprawled outward. The next ten minutes was spent removing simply his leg armor, first coming off as a pair of boots that were themselves split into three different sections. Next were his front and back facing greaves, then his upper leg plates and skirt.
 
All the while Janna stood watch, rifle in hand, for at least the first minute before laying face up in the sand and sunning herself.
 
After a few grunts and cussing, Ratione managed to disengage his vambraces and pauldrons. Next came his collar, then his front and back breast plates thunked into the sand. The Novan stood tall now, without his helm or suit for the second time since his arrival, only in under armor. The jumpsuit covered everything but his head, even a thick collar wrapping around his throat. He stuck two fingers inside and stretched it out, taking a deep breath of the salty air. His chest expanded, pushing the thick padding outward and stretching the fabric. He closed his eyes and his small ears twitched back and forth to seagulls squawking at each other and the waves crashing against the beach. All the while Janna observed the display by arching her neck backwards and staring at her companion with upside down and wide eyes.
 
The old man looked down to the yordle, who quickly righted herself. She stood with a ram-rod straight back, placing her fists on her hips and looking out to the shimmering waters and islands ahead. “We um. We should go find a harbor, and a boat.”
 
Ratione went to where his belt and skirt lay, unsheathing his sword but quickly letting it slip from his fingers as it fell apart into several pieces.
 
The former pirate raised an eyebrow as her partner reached own again. “Well I mean... not like you could have carried that thing around anyways.”
 
The Furtumin shook his head. “No, not my hand-and-a-half, but this-“ He hefted a weapon the yordle had never seen before, nothing that any of the strange sorts she had come across in the Omniverse ever wielded. It was simple, but... great at the same time.
 
“What the hell is that?”
 
A grip long as his own forearm, wide first guard, false edge and short second guard, along with a blade still longer than the sword’s original form rested on Ratione’s left shoulder as the hand on the same side wrapped around the pommel. The Novan stood with both legs and his whole body straight, sunlight casting its warm glow from behind him and the rays shooting out from his body’s outline. In total it was longer than even he was tall.  “This, my friend, is a great sword. Hopefully I will not have to use it.”

[homin-Ratione]

“I was under the impression this arrangement was over when I no longer had my suit augmenting my strength.”

“I was under the impression that I’m the one who’s got the rifle and knows how to use it, I can scout ahead, and I’m gonna do the talking to get us on a ship.” Janna’s legs kicked back and forth on Ratione’s chest, wrapped around his neck, pressing her chest against the back of his head for support as she held her weapon up and scanned the massive port city a mile away from them. The Novan kept a steady walking pace towards her intended location, eyeing the island city ahead of them. It was familiar to him, and comforting to see such architecture and arrangement that reminded him of his own people’s cities. Being from an agricultural planet, though, some elements were different from Mulcibus. Mainly the massive ports and harbors surrounding the island city, hundreds of ships, fishing vessels to armored gunships, either docked or moving in or out.

“I need a hat. The sun keeps bothering me.”

“It’s low enough a hat won’t do any good.” Janna slung her rifle, content to rest her elbow against his scalp and her chin in the heel of her palm. Ratione’s brow furrowed, both eyes looking upward as if to give the yordle a glare.

“So we’re heading to that port town, then where?”

“I already told you, a ship!”

“Yes, but after the ship?”

“Nothin’. Least for now. We should stay on the water, get what work we can. Avoid places where people could pick me out.”

[homin-Ratione]

A tingle of familiarity nestled itself inside Ratione's stomach. The technology he observed in the massive island metropolis was an odd combination of space-age and pre-industrial, similar to the many colonies he had visited where old met new. At least, until everything was flattened.

The duo made their way across a long bridge with iron supports but cobblestone arch, leading directly from the beach head and into the city. Street lamps made of bamboo and electric bulbs lined either side every few meters, sharing space with a wrought iron fence right at the edge. Individuals, young couples, tramps and families were leaning over the edge looking down into the water. The tramps mostly had fishing poles and old, dirty bait-and-tool-boxes. The Novan and the Yordle were cutting through the thick crowd on the left sidewalk, some eyes turning and giving odd looks to the pair. On top of Ratione being about a foot taller than the sea of heads, Janna gave their frame an extra two, thus putting them on par with the occasional alien or other creature making its way along.

This also allowed the girl to see far ahead down the bridge, eventually making out the Imperial checkpoint at the front of the city.
"Alright, just stay cool and don't speak english."

"....why?"

"Just because, you're carrying a big ass sword. None of the locals will give a shit but the Navy might. Just speak your own language and look really friendly."


When they finally approached the four large gates at the end of the bridge, Ratione could see more of those self-moving machines lined up and waiting for permission to enter the city. Some had more rubber wheels, others hovered in the air by whatever means. Ratione snickered at the the floating machines, anyone could slide under and break the mechanics that kept it in the air.

Currently, all four gates were wide open, with a walkway running along the top being patrolled by guards in white armor with more boomsticks. These ones, as far as Ratione could tell, looked vastly different from the one Janna possessed.


When they got close enough to the gate, a single guard waved their hand at Ratione, gesturing towards a line of others who had weapons on them. When they reached the front, after a solid ten minutes of torture on Ratione's heels, Janna hopped off the Novan's shoulders and releived the stress on his lower back.


She strutted up to the guards, and began conversing rapidly. At some point she handed over a small card and a black box, and the guard handed back a similar looking card to Janna's. Then the guard made their way up to Ratione, pulling out what appeared to be their species' version of a camera.

"Stand still, citizen. Keep your eyes on the lens."

"Discunt autim parer teus-aum." Ratione replied, putting on a wide grin.

"Thanks pal." The guard replied half-heartedly, and a bright flash captured the Novan's face. A sticker was printed out from the camera, which Janna put on the card. She had her's back, giving the new one to the Furtumin.

"These are registration cards. You need one for every weapon you bring into the city." She hooked a thumb to her rifle, "Lucky for you, I know people. Enough people that I can take this bad boy in and convince the stormtroopers that it's okay to let you haul around a big-ass sword."

Ratione blinked once after Janna finished, staring blankly for a moment before holding his weapon out in front of him, one hand on the grip, the other halfway down the blade, passed the second set of prongs. "Why do they need to keep track of this? It seems..." Just then, he noticed Janna staring at his right hand intensely, eyes wide and her own tiny hands outstretched. She clenched her teeth and moved forward.

"Gah! What are you doing?!"

"I'm... holding my sword?"

"Yeah but why are you holding the sharp part!"

Ratione raised an eyebrow at her, flicking his eyes to his grip for a small second before looking back. "....because... I wanted to grab it there?"

Janna paused for a moment before closing her eyes, shaking her head and muttering "Fine, whatever, I guess I'm not the sword expert anyways...". She walked forward through the front gate of the city, the Novan following suit with their mouth agape and mind fumbling for an explanation to the conversation that just occured.

---

[You are indirect and lazy.]