"If she's making her rounds so soon after getting back, it also means we've got another mission." Maki added, turning to Ariana. "Good luck, rookie, you're going to get blooded nice and early. McKnight's got a good head on his shoulders, he'll look after you. Just don't let it get blown off." She stepped into the hangar with the squad, who broke off towards their individual MAS units. Then she noticed Ariana being led towards the Astelion. [i]Fuck, this is going to end badly.[/i] She glanced towards Eric, who noticed as well.

Maki's Hellcat was standing beside the Astelion, so she had an excuse to be nearby when the outburst happened. She halted and gestured for the technicians to bring the paint for her gun up ahead of her, and stepped closer to where the two men were facing off. McKnight probably had it under control, but all the same, it was better if Ariana had more than one member of the squadron standing up for her. "Back off Eric, it's your decision, or hers." She added quietly, in the same tone she always used when she was ready to put someone on the floor for doing something stupid.

"Eric's sister died in that machine and it's hard for him to see a rookie stepping into it." Maki explained to the new recruit. "I'd steer clear of him for a while if I were you." She crooked her head towards where her Hellcat's autocannon was being prepped for its maintenance and new paint.

"On my Hellcat's gun is the name of every squadmate I've ever lost. I'm adding hers to it today. We all deal with losing one of our own in different ways. The only advice I can give you is this: You're not here to be some dead woman's replacement. You're here to be a pilot of the 101st. Know the difference. They'll warm up to you soon enough." She turned around and headed back to her own machine, turning around with a sad smile. "And Williams? Don't make me add your name to that gun when we get back."

[hr]

Maki looked at the M103 Autocannon of her Hellcat, sighing. The names of the Raiders who died in that ambush were painted on it like some complicated camouflage pattern. She had a holo projection rendered of where she was filling in Tori's name, guiding the paint jet like a stencil while the technicians made sure all the battle damage had been fixed and all systems were functional. "Ma'am? We've done all the hardward maintenance, we just need to run the cockpit diagnostics. We're waiting on you."

Maki nodded. "Thanks, Johnson. And it's Maki. I keep telling you guys to stop addressing me as an officer." She replied with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. They were fixed on the paint filling out the last letter of Tori's name. "You're making sure this thing doesn't kill me before I get to do my job, the least you could do is be a little friendly with me." She joked. The technician gave a half-hearted chuckle and mentioned something about protocol before shuffling off to the console display the Hellcat's readouts.

When the paint job was done, Maki stepped into her cockpit, hitting the button for her music to start blaring. "This is depressing." She snapped at her player when the song on the playlist was a slow mournful rock tune. Hitting the skip button a little too forcefully, Maki booted up the rest of the electronics in her cockpit. A more forceful, faster tune started blaring.

(Song: [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrC_n5hUDKs]Die by Jeff Williams[/url])

[center][i][color=ed1c24]It was just fine, we lived in peace
Looked to a happy ending
The days were bright, they shined like gold
Every step ascending

Our dreams came true, our path was clear
The moon watched safely from above
But every smile is not the same
And every hea-rt's not filled with love

For mankind
Look around it's getting very hard to find
Not every open wound is simply healed by time
But revenge is always sweet
And chaos is the prize[/color][/i][/center]

The heads-up display booted up, and Maki scanned it as lines of code started running up before her eyes, checking off all the subsystems and confirmed they were online and functioning. Placing her hands on the controls of the Hellcat, she went through the usual drill to make sure the Hellcat was responding as intended. Swiveling around to check the head movements of her machine, she lingered a moment on the Astelion beside her and took note of how Ariana was doing before testing the targeting systems and weapon deployment by drawing the autocannon and moving it around to make sure it wasn't locking up or lagging. 

[center][i][color=ed1c24]Feel it everywhere and you see it growing
Enemies arise and the hate is flowing
Shattering the moon and bloodying the sky

The machines of war will fill both sides
And the greed will only grow more lies
Farewell to days of peace cause now 
It's time to die.[/color][/i][/center]

"Everything checks out." The technician yelled over the speakers, accustomed to the loud music in the cockpit during her maintenance times. Maki nodded and checked her tallies, which took the form of horned skulls. Each skull represented twenty kills, with ten fangs and five "sections" of paint for each horn denoting a kill. The third, hornless skull was missing three teeth. She had yet to fill in the 48th kill - the MAS who had shot Tori.

[center][i][color=ed1c24]Where did it go?
Our peaceful youth, seems to be gone forever
And in its place, a life of war
Every truth has severed

We'll live our lives
Watching our backs, not knowing who to trust or fear
The hate just swallows all the love
And the truth will disappear

Lost and blind
Seems our dreams of peace have all been left behind
It's always said white clouds aren't always silver line
But the future's looking bleak
And a storm is set to rise[/color][/i][/center]

Maki sighed as she filled in the missing fang with a marker. If she had just been a little faster on the trigger, perhaps... No, her rational mind argued. There was no way she could have gotten around that corner and locked that bastard down before he pulled the trigger. Survivor's guilt was always a bitch to deal with, especially after the Raiders. Everyone from her previous CO to the psychiatrist she had been assigned to kept telling her it wasn't her fault, that dying in a hail of gunfire with the rest of her squad wouldn't have served any purpose.

[i]"Mourn them, but honour their sacrifice. Do not let them die in vain."[/i] Someone had said to her. She only found herself replying with a quote from some really old movie she had watched with her father. [i]"Why do men believe they can justify death? Is it arrogance or...?"[/i]

She shook the memory from her mind, stepping out of the cockpit and shutting off the music. Her own combat inspection done, she headed over to the Astelion, where Tori's tallies were being removed from the cockpit and wiping the slate clean for the machine's new pilot. She looked at the small piece of metal plate the technicians removed. "Take that to Eric, will you? Ask if he wants to keep it or..." She instructed the techician who had removed it. Better he do it than Ariana, she pondered.

"Alright, rookie, I'm right here if you need my help. Alice is usually listening in on the comms as well if you need her help. Just make sure you don't go mentioning anything you don't want her to know." Maki warned Ariana, remembering the time Alice had cut off her music while she was headbanging along to tell her that the Hellcat was bobbing its head along and alarming the people around who didn't know what she was doing.