The Captain of the Valkyrie glanced at his empty drinking glass and wrinkled his nose at the thought of ordering another one. Whatever what stuff was, it was pretty potent and if the pilot wanted to do some work on the Valkyrie later today, he'd need to stay sober. He broke the ship enough as it is getting through atmosphere and leaving the meeting with the Expanse so he'd not want to bodge a hull repair and end up turning the Valkyrie into a vacuum when in outer space. Tes wouldn't ever forgive him for that. Still, the thought of what happened with the Expanse earlier today continued to leave a sour taste in the pilot's mouth... Unless that was an aftereffect of the alcohol he just drank? Either way, now that the hull had been paid for, it might not be a bad shout getting some weapons on the old girl. The young man lazily slapped a hand onto his datapad and dragged the metallic object across the wooden bar top, causing a scratching sound to come from the device as it moved. Nagivating his tabs to find his credit balance, the Captain frowned in depression as he noticed the lowly figure of 12,000 credits of his own personal funds remaining.
[color=007236][i]Shit... Okay we need to find some more work an' sharpish... it wouldn't 'ave been so bad to 'ave 20k in hand without needin' to spend the lot on repairs... Well, I ain't spent any of it. I gave the lot to Tes.[/i][/color]
The brown-haired pilot grumbled something under his breath as he tucked a hand into one of his cargo pant pockets and pulled out a small holo communicator, which he placed besides the datapad and watched as holographic 'wires' and 'connections' spread between the two devices, syncing them together.

[color=007236]"No one says no to Alexia because no one has the balls to do so. I'd tell her 'no' an' to sod off if she asked somethin' ridiculous of me. Mind yer, I think she knows my limits an' wha' I'm capable of, so she'd know where to draw the line. Maybe. Doesn't matter. Ruce Benner is his own master an' he carves his own path!"[/color]
He said proudly towards the end, sitting up straight and sticking out his chest, trying to look intimidating. He exhaled with a sigh and slumped back down over his datapad and holo communicator. Tapping a few buttons, a holographic image of the Valkyrie appeared hovering over the communicator, slowly rotating. She looked in much better shape here then she did in real life. Probably because the holographic image was transparent with blue lines, not solid and rusty and dirty. Bringing his right hand up, the Captain 'gripped' the Valkyrie and span her around so she was facing the pilot, where he leaned in closer and glanced at the weapon hard points located either side of the bridge canopy.
[color=007236]"Huh? This old girl supports Grade 3 weapons? Who'd have thought a tiny ship like her could pack such firepower!"[/color]
Ruce span the ship around again to see her rear and squinted at the railgun on her tail. Selecting it, the information given proved next to useless. The thing was broken and probably rusted in place, but Tes said she was going to get it fixed and having a Grade 3 Railgun on a ship like this would cause devastating damage... if it were working. Therefore, the Captain left it alone and went back to examining the front hard points.
[color=007236]"Back in the U.P.M.O.H.A Academy, we used to use lasers when we went on combat missions. Ate through shields like a plasma cutter through flesh, but they drain a heck of a lot of system power an' did fuck all damage to hull an' armour plating, especially on the larger ships."[/color]
Glancing at his datapad and selecting a weapon specialist store, the pilot dragged a 400mm Tri-barrel Repeating Carbine Autocannon onto the Valkyrie and watched as the holographic image gained a pair of large miniguns on the front. Ruce glanced at Sky and smirked confidently at him.
[color=007236]"I always preferred ballistic weapons; they used little systems power to fire and could chew through armour without any trouble, even shields with the right ammunition. They also don't have limited range like lasers. Also, THESE bad boys, 400mm!! They'd cause damage even to the Zephyr if we caught her with her shields down!"[/color]

The brown-haired pilot then frowned and placed his left elbow onto the bartop, resting his chin in his hand as he drummed the fingers of his right hand against the wooden bar surface. He wondered what Tes would think if he put weapons onto their home. Would it make them a bigger target? Did she feel the same way as he did where, after their dodgy meeting with the Expanse, that some defenses were required? They did have the rear-mounted railgun, but the only trouble with that was they'd need the enemy to be behind them in order to fire it, and if the enemy was behind them, you could bet your ass that they'd have their weapons locked onto you, and Ruce didn't like that idea what-so-ever. There was something else bothering the pilot, and it seemed to be coming from within the tavern itself. There seemed to be a pair of eyes on the Captain and that they had been for some time now. Before he got distracted with this though, Ruce made a decision to purchase a pair of 400mm Tri-barrel Repeating Carbine Autocannons and have them deliver to the loading bay the Valkyrie was in. She was his ship at the end of the day and he didn't want to risk getting into an encounter with the Expanse and not have any claws to fight back with. He'd deal with Tes later on if she had problems. It would be 8,000 credits well spent, just you wait and see!
[color=007236]"Sky..."[/color]
Ruce leaned into the mercenary ever so slightly and lowered his voice a fraction.
[color=007236]"In the far corner, 4 o'clock from us, I feel a pair of eyes on us. Can you see anything?"[/color]