ZZZZZZZAAAAPP!!!!
Exploding like some small wounded animal fleeing a source of sudden pain something flew out of a narrow crawlspace in a flash and smelling of burnt resistors. Through dirt and patched blue overalls it revealed itself to be a small slight little man, large round goggles covered his eyes, magnifying them and making each sudden blink seem alien and bug like. Cradling his hand he flipped up into some tight little nook and examined a new electrical burn, small jerks and twitches accentuating his movements.
Twitch had earned his name long ago, his almost supernatural ability to repair and modify anything technological always came at a cost. The poor tiny technician was always getting shocked, he couldn’t seem to work anything without some kind of jolt. And because of that, not to mention an already somewhat nervous demeanor, Twitch always twitched.
“I’m, uh, you - hey!” Twitch stammered and stuttered, high pitched mousy tone just as jerky as he was. “Wh-Wh-Wh, eh, pro-problem?” As he blinked his gaze seemed to be at once unfocused and yet analyzing every detail of his crew-mates at once.
Grizzly tried to bring the minute maintenance monkey up to speed as fast and concise as possible. “We have ADU in orbit, Mag-lock tethers won’t disengage, and there has been a situation on the station we can’t afford to be connected with.”
Twitch blinked again, then his head jerked to turn his full attention on Ace. “Ag-Again?’ Ace rallied to his own defense but before he could even get a “Hey” out Grizzled cut him off with a firm hand. “Yes, Twitch, cards again. Can you get us out of this pickle? We’re cutting it close as it is.”
Pulling his trust Ion Torch out Twitch hopped down from his perch, grabbed at a hand rail and smacked against the floor in a skid coming to rest under a console. Twitch was never without his favorite little tool, it served many of his needs. It could cut, weld and even solder, not to mentions serve as a handy light source. He even used it as a weapon on the rare occasions Twitch actually left the ship. But in his hands it was a artists tool, he cut and spliced like a surgeon. Panels and circuit boards flipped and switched, wires spliced and changed and in moments he popped his head out.
“Tr-Try it now,” he said with a half grin. “I think I man-man, degaussed the hull.” Ace slapped the release and with a thud the tethers released and retracted. Now free from restraint the Noble Steed’s engine roared to life and shot off into the turbulent wind-storms of Owerth II.
“Prep the fold drive,” Ace snapped as his tense grip on the controls fought to drive them through buffeting winds. “Let’s be ready, once we break orbit to disappear before they can try to intercept us.”
“On it,” Grizzly started setting up calculations for the fold drive. And then the sensors caught his eye; “they’re already launching a pursuit unit!”
Ace’s slammed the throttle down, hoping the wind-storm would distort the pursuit ship’s sensors. This one, he thought, was going to be close.
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