There was soft beeping and the gentle whirl of electronics that made up the sounds of the bridge while the ship was not in flight. It was rather relaxing to just sit here in silence and listen to the ambiance. The bridge wasn't that particularly big, but the ship itself wasn't all that massive; a mere speck of dust compared to the size of some of the other crafts out there. Ruce had been behind the helm of ships larger then this one back in his younger flight academy days when he were a pilot of the U.P.M.O.H.A. But those large lumbering ships weren't up to his tastes of style. The smaller fighters such as the frigates, assault ships and destroyers were considerably more fun to fly then the ships the size of entire cities. As such, the bridge of the Valkyrie housed three seats but most of the activity was performed at the pilot's seat. There were the same computer panels and consoles at the co-pilot seat, but Tes was more often then not elsewhere in the ship, fixing something or relaxing when off hours or doing her nails or whatever it is girls did.

Turning his chair around to look out the canopy windows, Ruce glanced down to the systems panel on his left and opened up the camera feed to the cargo hold, flicking through the available camera that were active enough he landed upon the one overlooking the rear cargo ramp. He blinked and leaned in closer to the display as he watched one of the Grannok's slowly making it's way up the ramp towards Tes. Flicking the audio switch on and off didn't make any difference so it was unclear what was between the pair, but whatever Tes had said, it caused the Grannok to turn about and head back down the ramp to the dirt below. Glancing through the rest of the available camera feeds, Ruce noticed the shuttle that the Grannok's and Urin had used to meet up with the Valkyrie.
[color=007236][i]Huh... Tha' means their ship is in orbit... Wonder if they got their guns pointin' at us? I suppose it'll be hard to land a larger ship in the middle of no where like this. Too much uneven terrain.[/i][/color]
Ruce thought to himself as he glanced over to his navigation panel and glanced at what contacts were in the local vicinity. A city was several clicks off to the west and, as predicted, there was a large ship in orbit. Ruce's eyes widen as the standard scan he ran came through.
[color=007236]"Shit on a brick... Tha's the Hundu Zephyr! Wha' the heck's one of the Expanse's most infamous ships doin' 'ere? Wha' else 'ave they got us to smuggle 'ere?"[/color]

Approaching footsteps caused the captain to delete the scan results and twirl his chair around, eyes watching his engineer arrive on the bridge. He smiled at her and got up from his seat as he walked over to her, tucking his hand into his jacket pocket to pull out the credit chit. Holding it out for her to take, he nodded his head at her question.
[color=007236]"Everyone's happy. We got paid, the Expanse got wha'ever they wanted an' now we need to get the fuck out of 'ere because the fuckin' Hundu Zephyr is in orbit an' if yer said anythin' tha' might piss the Grannok's off, we can expect a shit ton of firepower to come down on top of out heads within the next thirty seconds."[/color]
Ruce span about and dove back into his chair where he span about and activated the main thrusters, causing the engines to power up. A loud rumble shook the ship as Ruce diverted power to the landing thrusters and lifted the old girl up into the air, kicking up a cloud of dirt and dust underneath them. He didn't really care if the Grannok's were blown over from the sudden take off.
[color=007236]"Better hold onto somethin'!"[/color]
Bringing up the landing gear, Ruce span the Valkyrie about until she pointed west and put power to the main engine, causing a loud groan to shudder the ship as she blasted off across the arid plains below them. Glancing at his navigation panel, Ruce targeted the nearby city and made his way towards it, keeping the Valkyrie low and flying her fast.

Within a couple minutes, there didn't seem to be any orbital bombardment strikes and the city eventually came into view, causing Benner to cut power to the main engine, switching to impulse thrusters to slow the Valkyrie down and make a less suspicious approach. Peering at his communications panel, he hailed the nearest docking station.
[color=007236]"Moni Vortau City, Dockin' Tower 23-B, this is Captain Ruce Benner of the Valkyrie requestin' dockin' permission."[/color]
A snap and a buzz came through the ships speakers before a female voice replied.
[color=f49ac2]Request acknowledged and granted, Captain. Proceed to docking bay 3, pad 2."[/color]
As the comms were cut, Ruce sat up and glanced out the main canopy window to watch as the arid plains below them started to sprout more vegetation with trees, shrubs and plants replacing the dry, brown landscape. The city wall was up ahead, keeping all matter of wildlife out. It was tall, an easy 100 meters in height with large automated cannons mounted to guard towers dotting the wall. The city itself was pretty high-tech, a very unlikely target of an orbital strike from the Hundu Zephyr. Tall skyscrapers full of various companies reached several hundred feet into the sky with skybridges connecting them all. Long highways rose high above the buildings below with automobiles hovering along them. The buildings beneath the highways weren't exactly the slums, per say, but they weren't as spectacular as the towering skyscrapers. These 'slums' though were often way more exciting then the posh places. Better food, better drink, better gambling, cheaper girls. These were also where the better workshops and merchants were found. The top end stores that sold only the best, were not what the Valkyrie needed. As such, Docking Tower 23-B was located near these 'slums' sitting beneath the highways.

Pulling the old ship up and over the city wall, Ruce flew the Valkyrie to the docking tower and gently sat her down upon landing pad 2, where the old girl came to a rest and the engines powered down. With a huff escaping the pilot's lips, he turned to his systems panel and glanced through all the modules on the ship.
[color=007236]"Break-collider coolant relay is fucked, engine has overheated due to the coolant leak on the bridge an' the coolant pipes need replacin', shields are down to 50% an' aren't increasin', rear mounted rail cannon has jammed, rear cargo door hydraulics are worn an' need re-pressurizing, the hyperdrive is offline an' apparently there's a hull breach near the back right landin' gear; maybe I hit somethin' when I took off earlier? Hopefully I crushed those Grannok tossers."[/color]
The Captain turned his chair about 180 degrees and glanced over towards Tes, shrugging his shoulders at her before pushing himself up to his feet and walking over towards the bulkhead door that led off the bridge.
[color=007236]"Anythin' yer need me to get or yer got all tha' covered?"[/color]