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[i]"There is no greater calling than to explore the stars, seeing all you can ever see, experiencing all you ever could, and bring glory to our race. Then you shall return to enrich our home, and take your place with honor."[/i]

High Explorator Savas Kalhian of the Explorer's League
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Well, it took them long enough. Banshee, the gas tank (a tank in both senses of the word) arrived, prompting memories of Sar-Vanthan and Rainbow Comet City warships going to join a war involving the Thetos. They fought on both sides of the conflict; it just depended on who paid them more.

A far more concerning arrival would be Aftershot, who came after Banshee. Now, Kelmandrar suspected that the Cybertronian so far had just been polite for the sake of professionalism. After all, the Eye of the Storm, Kelmandrar's old ship, participated in the Cybertronian Civil War, and committed some spicy war crimes. Even the Sarveli on-board was shocked at the captain's complete lack of ethics, and, just as surprisingly, were sad over the city-wide nuking. Though that sadness was more in a sense similar to when a human is saddened when they witness news that the population of a certain animal species had been extinguished. Well, on top of the fact that they were wasting ammunition, anyway. Hopefully they don't have too many quarrels in the days to come.

Then came the rodent. At first, Kelmandrar couldn't figure out whether Slink was a mutated rat from the sewers of some human city, or were a wholly different species that just happened to look similar to rats. The major concern, though, was that he entered through the air vents. Could be useful should they be boarded…

After Slink was the spectral… whatever. Kelmandrar that Strata comes from wherever the Sarveli pull their powers from, if it wasn't from out of their buttholes. It was pretty comical seeing him… she… it… them being impaled in many places, though. 

Skylar the human came next, the cybernetics reminding Kelmandrar of the scientists back home. They too liked to replaced their body parts with machinery in a quest for maximum efficiency.

Wex the slimy fish entered next, ducking under the human's arm as if there were no alternate routes. Oh, and the doctor. Why is she late?

When Kura mentioned that they were going to a desert planet, Kelmandrar almost fell over from his standing position like a drunk. Despite his long life so far, he'd never actually set foot on a desert world. The closest equivalent to it was the small desert in one of Sar-Vantha's constituent space stations, but that was there to serve as a training ground for the pyromaniac Sarveli psykers that made up the psychic forces of the station-chain. They'd often take turns heating up sand until it turned to glass before grinding more rock from the nearby asteroid belt to make even more sand. At times, the more artistically inclined of them would create glass sculptures made using pyromantic psychic powers and a copious amount of sand. He supposed that those arrogant immortals weren't a total waste of oxygen.

Still, this was a new opportunity for him. As he belonged to a species that was nigh immune to radiation, the rays of the sun wouldn't be a concern for him. 

"A most excellent deal, honoured captain," Kelmandrar stated, half cackling, half laughing (or was it just cackling?). "It will take me no more than a quarter of an hour to be fully prepared. Lucky for us, solar radiation cannot harm me."

He said that last part while looking at Skylar with wry eyes, as if stating "I got you homie." That's how the humans would say it, anyway.