Artificial War

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"Easy work then. Lay down, and I'll begin." Lucy pointed at the ground between her and Nurixin. "Close off what you can, it'll help keep coolant from squirting out on me while I work."

Kim gave a heavy sigh before she settled down right where she had been standing. She knew it wouldn't be long before somebody else showed up, and that suspicion was confirmed when Azm had appeared.

"I thought I'd take some shots at their new toy, damage and-or break parts of it and make it useless." Kim answered him, keeping her attention on the rifle in her hands. "Armor is tough on it though, and they spotted us almost immediately."  

[cptflint]

"I don't have that hardware installed but my pumps are not active and the shrapnal made sure there's no pressure left. I'm going to shut down to keep from over heating..." she said as she laid down and closed her eyes.

Azm nodded. He took in a deep breath and let out a sigh. He didn't seem happy about what had happened, but he stayed quiet about it. "at least you'll both make it. Your legs ok? Let me see," he said as he started to take out a medical kit.  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"Ah, right." Lucy sighed, slightly frustrated as she had gotten far too comfortable with Azm's systems and perks. Made repairs a breeze for her when she had on to work on him. Doing it the old fashion way was just a minor headache now.

"I'll begin waking you when it's necessary. Otherwise, just rest and let your body cool." She told Nurixin before she went offline. Once Nurixin was done, Lucy cracked her knuckles and began her work.

"Nothing serious, cuts and scraps." Kim muttered, glancing at her leg. She could see a few bloodied spots in her pants, and was beginning to feel some amount of pain relatively close to bloody areas. Adrenaline was still pumping through her which made it harder to make judgement calls on her injuries without actually seeing them.

"Gashes at the most, probably." Kim set aside her rifle, and rolled up her pants. "I'll live. No need for band aids."

Ben and Niles came out of the trees, breathing heavy and sweat covering their faces, but still holding enough energy to keep going if need be.

"Lovely little present they had in there." Ben groaned, looking between Kim's legs and Nurixin. "So you're who it was shooting at, huh?"  

[cptflint]

"Still, just to be sure," he said as he began to clean the dirt off her wounds and using some basic field stitching to sew up the larger gashes.

Marie, who had shown up at about the same time Azm did, took a seat near where Lucy was working and watched curiously.  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

Lucy quickly glanced to her side, curious and slightly annoyed with the sudden presence beside her. "You're crowding me." She quietly muttered to Marie as she focused her attention back onto Nurixin.

"Luckily, this isn't a delicate procedure, so you may stay."

"I doubt I'd really get an infection." Kim snorted before she winced, flinching her leg back as her tender flesh flared up as Azm began to stitch it back together.

"Not like we're gonna go truding through s**t soon, are we?"  

[cptflint]

Marie backed off a little until Lucy said she could stay. "Sorry... I don't mean too."

"No but we are in the woods and we're probably going to be walking through some rough terrain. Dirt in the woods is one step below s**t," he replied as he finished. "There. That's it for the worse ones," he said. He grabbed her hand and set what looked like a piece of shrapnel almost as big as a quarter. "Little souvenir?" he asked smiling. "I know you wouldn't want to be walking around with that in your leg."  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"Its fine. There's no harm in curiosity." Lucy replied as she pulled out damaged tubes from Nurixin's systems, and tossed them to her left. "I'm still getting use to all of this. There was a reason why I just sat here after the androids were taken out..."

Kim scoffed and wanted to argue how a little bit of dirt wasn't going to be the death of her, but kept quiet, knowing it would be a waste of time anyway. The work was already being done on her legs, leaving no point to argue to not treat them.

She looked down at her hand, rather surprise Azm had been grabbing it, thinking he was simply trying to hold it affectionately. When the shrapnel was placed instead, Kim chuckled a bit as she stared down at the piece of metal.

"The docs at base were telling me I could use a little more iron in my blood." She teased, flipping over the left over piece in her palm a few times before she shoved it into one her pockets. "Not sure if hat really counts though."  

[cptflint]

Azm smiled. "It definitely does not," he replied as he stood up. He looked over at the damage done to Nurixin. "She's going to be cranky when she wakes up... If it had been any other bot she would've taken to much drive damage. You're both really lucky..."

"I would be too if I just took a rocket to the back..."  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"Cranky mildly puts it." Kim grunted, thinking about how the conversation with Nurixin had been going prior to the rocket. While she wasn't regretting anything she had said, Kim was beginning to wonder if the timing was really appropriate. To late now to fix it.. She let out a heavy sigh, sticking her hand in the pocket with the shrapnel.

"She might be cranky, but she'll be fully functional and able to be cranky here in a few minutes." Lucy added, adding in replacement tubing to Nurixin's body. "Relatively speaking, she hasn't suffered much damage."

"Must be nice to be an android sometimes." Ben grunted.  

[cptflint]

"Battle androids were designed for abuse no matter what they make themselves look like," Azm said. "However most of us have the luxury of time to pay to be so durable," he added. "This is the second time you've seen one of us get wrecked and come right back to life..."

He turned to Kim. "Something is bothering you..."  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"And compared to your injuries, she's basically got some bruising in human perspective." Lucy commented.

"Hm?" Kim looked up at Azm, hearing his voice more directed at her.

"Oh, just... Nothing, don't worry about it." She casually waved him off. "Just thinking about something, don't worry."  

[cptflint]

Azm frowned, clearly unsatisfied with her answer, but now was not the time to be talking about it.

"And she took the hit for Kim?" Marie asked. "I guess she knew she could take it..."  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"Obviously. She wasn't to stressed about her injuries anyway." Lucy shrugged her shoulders before she began changing out filters in Nurixin.

A few minutes later, and Lucy was wiping her hands off with a rag.
"Good as new. Or, well, what can be called new on the field." She tiredly sighed, packing up her materials including what had been pulled out of Nurixin.

"Do we need to keep moving? I can wake her up, but I'd prefer body cool down naturally and spare her coolant fluids from over working."  

[cptflint]

Azm pulled a can of cosmetic sealant from his pack and tossed it to Lucy. "You're familiar with the spray on skin. Should be enough there to cover her back. She'll be less upset with the cosmetic damage this way. Dress her in a new uniform when you're done please." He turned to leave the group and signaled for the seals to follow, intending to give Nurixin some privacy. "Wake her up when that's done and radio us. We won't be far..." As he walked he pulled a small satellite pad from his bag and started sending a full report back to command.  

[Randomly Gone Insane]

"Alright, alright." Lucy sighed as she caught the can, waving Marie to come closer. "I'll need your help rolling her over, and looking out for any 'wounds' she may have that I'll need to spray."

The SEALS quietly nodded, following Azm into the woods, and taking a few glances back at the others before they were out of sight.

"So what are we going to do about the new toy the androids have?" Niles asked as Azm was sending out his report. "There's no way they can expect us to take that thing out on foot."