luck of the stallion

λ Pegasi ; sadalpheretz amicable, careless

[sadalpheretz]

The Christmas Song Prompt List

Jingle Bells: Your character and mine playing on sleds

O Christmas Tree: Our characters decorating for the holidays

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Our characters spending quality time together

White Christmas: Our characters enjoying Christmas morning snowfall

Driving Home for Christmas: One of our characters is off to visit the other as a surprise for the holiday

Baby, It's Cold Outside: One character talking the other into staying over for the night

Twelve Days Christmas: Our characters doing their holiday shopping together

December Song: Our characters spending the time daydreaming about what the New Year will bring.

Let It Snow: One of our characters surprising the other with a snowball fight.

Santa Baby: One of our characters waking to find the other under the Christmas Tree

Blue Christmas: One of our characters missing the other over the holidays

All I Want For Christmas Is You: My character offering themselves to yours for Christmas.

Santa Clause is Coming to Town: Our characters opening gifts Christmas Morning

Walking Through the Air: Our Characters walking through the cold evening, enjoy the lights/carolers/ect

Silent Night: Our characters snuggling together in the dark.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: Our characters trying to save Christmas together.

Frosty the Snowman: Our characters get a bit of Christmas Magic

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause: One of our characters walking in on the other one kissing someone.

The Christmas Song: Our characters doing Christmas Meal-time preparations together

[facehuggings-blog]

i cANT STOP OH MY GOD

more athens headcanons under cut

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[after-bismarck]

Rice Party || Swap AU || Ursa Major & Athens

[after-bismarck]

Major’s brow furrowed and he sort of doddered off in the general direction of no where. 

"Ball… hmm lemme see if I can think of where one is, kiddo…" He muttered to himself. "Hey, hey FILIS?" He asked the ceiling tiles hopefully. A beat of silence. He looked over his shoulder at Athens and squeezed his fingers towards his palm with his other hand. Every time he did it he expected a crack, a series of pops. As far as he knew the metal and wires in his hands didn’t do that. He looked over his shoulder at Athens and shrugged. "Dude I think FILIS is mad at me." Could FILIS even get mad? Major shrugged again, even though he’d started walking aimlessly again. "I don’t know where one is and I think FILIS is giving me the silent treatment and I think I remember- I mean I think I know about a game called volleyball where you smack the ball around or somethin’" He said quickly. Scanning through the ship’s map didn’t reveal the location of every sphere that could be thrown for amusement on the ship. Lame.

[sadalpheretz]

Athens blinked almost longingly at his door. He could use some down time, but ah well. There'd be time for that -- near endless time, it seemed sometimes. And then he smiled a little and followed Major.

"I dunno, man," Athens replied, rubbing the back of his neck. "She does run the ship, you know, maybe she's just a little busy?"

Hmm. Maybe not. Surely if you had a computer that was in charge of the Equinox's every system, she'd be able to multitask. Hmm.

Well, if Major and the other A.I were capable of emotion, maybe F.I.L.S.S was too? Aw. He didn't like the possibility that Major's theory could potentially be correct. He rubbed his forehead with his knuckle.

But Major's next remark made Athens' steps stutter a little -- had he just..? 'Remember'?

Was this the koi fish all over again..? Ah man. Major corrected himself though. Maybe it was an honest mistake.

Athens relaxed a little. It wasn't like this was a rare occurrence, little incidents like this. It was no worries, really. Just let the poor bloke be.

"Yeah, that's volleyball," Athens confirmed, jogging forward to meet the AI's side, "it's pretty painful, I found, you gotta whack the ball with your arms. Kinda hurts, but I guess that wouldn't be a problem for you guys, huh?"

But uh, okay. So Major didn't, in fact, know where a ball was. Alright, that was cool, that's fine. Duct tape it is! Tapped him on the shoulder, before pivoting to walk down a parting hallway. "Hey, got an idea," Athens said, waving for Major to follow. "There's a storage room down here somewhere, I think? We'll source out some duct tape, how's that sound." 

[after-bismarck]

Rice Party || Swap AU || Ursa Major & Athens

[after-bismarck]

"Yeah, they’re fish, they got a scientific name Cyprinus carpio, try sayin that five times fast, they have bright scales and you can watch them swim around and some of them get real big and you can eat them too." He had called up a quick information sheet and then translated it into regular talk quick. A little lesson, because if he knew what koi were (and that they swam around in the office and that the boss fed them during his lunch and they didn’t have names) then his partner should know too. It was only fair. Even steven.

"Anyway that doesn’t matter much, kiddo, we should do something." Standing in the doorway he was beginning to get bored. "Y’know what would be cool? What if we took that rice and put one all those little dudes all over the ship and then…" His voice trailed off. He stopped. No, planting rice everywhere was less than fun. "Hey, you wanna play some… ball?" Ball. "Like catch or somethin’?" It was his job to make sure Athens wasn’t bored, and if he was starting to get bored that meant Athens might be getting bored too. Restless and Paternal, that was him. Ball would also be a stretch from koi fish which he decided he was eager to get away from as soon as he’d started talking about them.

[sadalpheretz]

"Huh, that's cool, thanks man," Athens replied. Quite the knowledgeable A.I -- or...how did they even get that kind of knowledge? Was it programmed into them, just something Major could scrape from the top of his head? 

Crikey.

"Cyprinus carpio," he breathed. Held a hand up in front of him, folded one finger down. "cyprinus carpio, cyprrrnus, crap -- no," He continued, words tumbling and then..getting rather horribly mangled, before jumping into little chuckles instead. Haha, oh wow. He got to three.

"You're right, man, you're right, we could do more fun things than watch me, uh, struggle with words."

Not sure if scattering rice was one of them, but the ball suggestion was a little more agreeable. Well, a lot more agreeable.

Athens liked sport, he remembered enjoying basketball, but he was a bit shorter as a kid and had always been on the slighter side. It was pretty easy to be cowed by the testosterone-charged giants of the court. So. He had a crack at football instead. That was a bit better, but not all that much. It was lucky he was agile.

"'Course, we can play ball," He agreed, "sure thing. Yeah, let's do that, have you got a ball?"

If Major knew where to get rice and information on koi fish, surely he'd be able to find a ball somewhere? If not, well. They could find some duct tape or something and make one. It probably wouldn't be a great ball but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?

[after-bismarck]

Rice Party || Swap AU || Ursa Major & Athens

[after-bismarck]

Major grinned at Athens, and then the piece of cardboard. Well, if the joke could trip up his partner, it must be a pretty good joke, right? On impulse he reached out and ruffled Athens’ hair.

"Keep it in your head," he said, tapping his own temple with a finger. "And maybe one day you’ll be sleeping and you’ll just sorta pop out of bed and say, hey there, I got the joke, how radical of me, y’know?" He looked down at the floor and nudged the rice with his foot. It reminded him of a koi pond he’d seen once. The koi had been circling around… and it wasn’t outside, it was in someone’s office. A koi pond in the office of a very rich man. No, no not rich, more like powerful. His boss had a koi- His brow furrowed, standing there and staring at that rice. He’d never seen a koi pond. He’d never been off the ship. He scratched his head. "Huh." Major reached out through the implant and poked a hello at Athens. Have you ever seen a koi pond in an office? He’d managed to push down the look of confusion. He was still pawing at the rice with his foot.

Most of the time he tried to keep his partner out of whatever was going on in his head, just shrug it off as something or other, even when the anomalies piled up. Still, the idea of a koi pond in an office was not lame at all. Something that could be sent over.

[sadalpheretz]

Oh damn, he was in a bit deep there. He huffed a little, after his hair was subjected to Major's affectionate gesture. Briefly wondered where the A.I had got that stuff from -- how does a robot get to develop the 'paternal' attribute? Robots probably weren't equipped to have children, nor had they likely even been exposed to the concept of childhood. Plus -- chronologically speaking, the AIs weren't much more than newborns. But that was really weird because Major looked like, fifty. 

Athens frowned slightly. Man, they were a mystery.

It'd probably be easier if he had've just said that he couldn't read it. But hey, at least now, he'd been given as much deciphering time as he could possibly need.

"Alright," he said, giving the cardboard a last look, before tucking it into his pocket. "I'll do that, yeah, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks Major," he continued, "give me something to mull over in my spare time, right?" 

Athens' smile fell a little. Ah. Major was...um. Okay, so he did this kind of thing every now and then. Went a little quiet, seemed to drift off somewhere else. Those experiences were, for Athens and undoubtedly for Major too, shrouded in odd feelings. One: it was a little concerning -- he was mentally connected to this guy, yet his clearly troubling thoughts were deliberately hidden away. They were partners; shouldn't they trust each other? He sighed and watched his foot half-heartedly push around the grains.

Two: these moments were awkward. Three: he could pick up faint glimmers of Major's own uneasiness -- and his body language wasn't the only form in which it was present.

But the message of a koi pond interrupted his fidgety thoughts. A pond in an office?

Nah, he thought, don't think I have, Major...koi are fish, right?

Athens crouched to scrape the rice into a pile. Why do you ask?

[after-bismarck]

Rice Party || Swap AU || Ursa Major & Athens

[after-bismarck]

Major stopped and blinked. 

"Well, kiddo," he chuckled and stopped short, looking bewildered. What was he up to? That was a problem. He got so caught up in completing a task, he forgot why he’d been doing it in the first place. He stood. "I hadn’t seen you or anythin’ all morning so I figured, hey, knock knock joke." That was the first part of it, he put up one finger to signify this. "Then I needed somethin’ to write on, so I grabbed a rice box." A second finger came out. "After I was cleanin up the rice, I thought, Athens is human, he’s into that eating thing, why not bring him some rice, ‘cause… so you can eat it?" A third finger came out, went back in, and came out again. "Oh wait, so before I got the rice I wrote a joke on it." A fourth finger came out, he looked at his hands and turned them over. "I was tryin to put it under your door." He bent down, grabbed the piece of thin cardboard, shook the rice off it (which clattered to the floor) and presented the joke to Athens. "The rest of it besides the knock knock is kinda crammed up there in the O."

[sadalpheretz]

Number one caused half a grin to crack and a series of quick blinks. He dipped his head a little, drawing it back. Oh, well, that was really nice of Major! A bit of a strange gesture, though - Athens wouldn't normally resolve to use knock knock jokes as a tool of silence-breaking. But now he thought about it...it did make sense, especially for the friendly yet mildly eccentric character that was his A.I. He folded his arms and cocked his head, shifting his weight to one side. Smiled, with the intent of it being an encouraging one.

He'd been training, actually. Probably should've told Major about that -- seriously, contacting him was as easy as thinking. Hoped the poor fella hadn't gotten worried.

Athens listened, quite intently, to explanations two and three. He'd probably have to cook rice to eat it, but hey, you couldn't cook rice if you didn't have it in the first place. And now he had rice. "Well, that's very considerate of you there," Athens began, lifting one hand from the crossed hold of his arms and gesturing vaguely toward Major. He was cut off, however, by the next phase of his partner's spiel. 

Athens took the cardboard with a grateful nod, before squinting down at the uh, the joke. He gripped the bottom edges with both his hands, bringing it a tad closer to his face.

Right, well, the 'knock knock' was clear. But the rest of Major's handwriting was a bit of a struggle. Ah. Um, well, he lowered the cardboard slightly, bringing his head up to look up at the other guy. "Who's there," he inquired, with something of a fond yet mischievous smile. Stalling time. Brought his focus back to the cardboard. Frowned a little.

"Uh, Major, I don't think I quite get it," Athens said carefully. He wasn't quite lying, but a more accurate announcement would be that he just couldn't read it. Well. Not in a space of time that wouldn't potentially lead Major to realise that his handwriting was basically illegible. (Which it was.) 

[after-bismarck]

Rice Party || Swap AU || Ursa Major & Athens

He sat at a table and contemplated the piece of paper in front of him. It really wasn’t a piece of paper, it was more cardboard ripped from the back of a container holding rice. The rice had gone all over the floor, but he’d scooped it up and put it in a pile in the cuboard in a neat little pile. There was a ball of fuzz in it, but hey, nothing’s perfect. Major picked up a pen and began writing out the joke. His brow furrowed, the synthetic skin wrinkling together. It wasn’t deep enough to put the pen in though, he’d tried. He was writing a joke for his agent, Athens, who had been doing something or other all day. Knock, knock it started The lines weren’t very need and took up most of the piece of cardboard. He flipped it over. Nutrition facts. He read them over. Rice was healthy, so he got up and put some rice, minus the fuzzball in his pocket for his agent. It’d be like a birthday party surprise. Except with rice. Delicious and nutritious, the kiddo would love it. Major laughed. The sound was hollow and alien in the empty kitchen, enough to make him stop and glance around. The sound had come from him, he was sure. Next time he’d be more quiet about it. He crammed the rest of the joke into the O in the first knock and called it a day even though he couldn’t read it too well. Either way he carried it over to his agents room, where the kid would be sleeping at some point. People had to sleep. He sometimes laid down very quietly with his eyes shut, it was almost like sleeping. Although the last location he had done this- on the pool table- was not acceptable. Major slowly got to his hands and knees with a grunt. When he got there, he blinked. Another anomaly. Maybe from Michael who was not him who he wasn’t supposed to think an awful lot about. He folded the rice into the piece of cardboard, like a taco, and tried stuffing it under the door. It just folded. "Hey there ya li’l piece of thing, you just go on there under that door, okay kiddo?" He said to the cardboard with the rice spilling out of it. He pushed and strained and got nothing accomplished but getting one piece of rice wedged in the door. "Gee whiz." Major said, exasperated. He wiped his forehead and flung sweat away from his hand. Sweat that wasn’t there.

[sadalpheretz]

Ol’ Major was an oddly charming kind of an A.I. They all were, really — in their own, uh, unique ways. Athens guessed one of those ways, for the A.I Ursa Major - his partner - involved talking either to himself, or…to some anonymous object of frustration. At the crack of the Agent’s door. On the ground.

The term ‘charming’ didn’t really offer any kind of explanation as to what the bloke was actually doing, though. Or why, for that matter — but whatever it was, sure was enough to make Athens blink hard and furrow his eyebrows. Caught in a peculiar mingling of mild surprise and confusion. And a little frustration, admittedly, but it ebbed rather casually away soon enough. He kinda wanted to catch some sleep, but hey. That could wait. Major probably had something important knocking about in that disarmingly human noggin of his.

But when Athens saw the rice, he reconsidered momentarily. And then he shrugged. It was probably still important, to Major at least. And if it was important to one half of a partnership, it was important to the other.

And then he remembered that this was rice he was thinking about. He rubbed his knuckles into his eyes and walked forward, opting then to scratch at his cheek. Cocked his head to peer down at Major, lips quirking into a little smile. Was that a piece of cardboard? Damn. He remembered grinding unfortunate crayons to absolute stumps across cereal box remains, as a kid. The poor things didn’t last long, but the products were always fridge-worthy masterpieces. Those sticks of wax were probably made from pure childhood — but like the source of Athens’ nostalgia, they really didn’t have much of a lifespan. All good things must end, apparently. But even as a boy, Athens didn’t really believe that.

However! Mum had different ideas: she stopped buying him more crayons after the annihilation of the first few boxes. So, with a little reluctance, he had to use his allowance.

So worth it, man.

He briefly wondered why he didn’t take part in the whole crayon-on-cardboard scene anymore. And then he remembered that he was in space. With a robot who was kinda clearly struggling with rice and cardboard and Athens’ door. He raised his brows, drew a breath in through his teeth. “Hey, Major,” he said lightly, “what you up to there?”

[facehuggings-blog]

let me teLL YOU ABOUT MY ATHENS HEADCANONS 

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[vandrewyngarden]

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// Libby & Pegasus

[liberated-libby-blog]

"Probably not," she remarked wryly, "But I doubt any of us will need skills of stealth from now on." Because there would be no more missions, no more orders from the faceless Director, no more capital-S Secrets that would require them to sneak into spaces. No more of that.

"I see," she nodded uselessly, since Pegasus was right behind her and probably wouldn’t have noticed the gesture. Agent Lincoln had to be in relatively good condition, if he was able to provide assistance to the two units. 

She moved forward on her hands and knees in the thankfully wide vent, scanning the area ahead. Her sensors picked up a number of gaps in the metal, but she couldn’t know for certain that any of them were safe until she reached them and did further analysis. 

"Has Agent Lincoln given any more instructions?" she asked. Crawling along the tunnel wasn’t uncomfortable, but it was growing a little tiresome, and Libby desperately wanted to meet up with the other survivors.

She wasn’t sure how she would feel about Hartford’s absence just yet. 

"The area ahead of us appears to be stable, and there are a number of holes in the metal that we could investigate - probably from the explosion," she concluded. "But we must be careful, as you said."

Inspecting her maps, Libby blinked and tried to reorient herself - she didn’t know exactly where they were, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t in the medical bay. 

"I’m afraid I need some time to recalibrate my maps. But judging by our point of entry, I believe we are above the hangar. What would you suggest?" She waited quietly for Pegasus’ decision, and realised after a moment that she was much too used to giving Hartford all the options and alternatives he called for, then giving him the time to choose one and carrying it out as requested. Libby was very good at doing her job.

[sadalpheretz]

Pegasus raised a hand, held one finger up. Squinted. One sec.

I'm making my way around the left side of the ship, and I'm going to make an exit for you.

Okay. Beauty. "Lincoln is making his way around the left side of the ship. He will make an exit for us," Pegasus said matter-of-factly, a hopeful half-smile grazing his previously serious facial expression. It receded quickly, however.

Sometimes he thought he had a radical Agent, and a certain rush of affection would almost always accompany that thought. But this time? Well, he felt a little guilty for it. Libby's behaviour wasn't exactly uh, giving him much faith in the survival of Hartford. Did that make sense? Pegasus himself had a relatively cool Agent - he certainly wasn't square (god forbid) - but from the looks, Libby didn't have one at all.

There was a moment of silence, a certain stillness between the link. Hmm. He used that time to inspect Lincoln's conditions and oh -- hey, that wasn't good. He frowned. And then he realised Libby was talking at him again.

"Ah, yes, that's quite alright, please take your time," he said slowly, hoping his distractedness wasn't...overly obvious, "and yes I believe we are in close proximity to the-"

Wow, what a noise. Made him start, even though he surely could've expected it. A great metallic wack and, somewhere a little way in front of them, a beam of light drifted airily into the grey of the vent. Oh! And then another. About two meters down. The resulting illumination made the end of the ventilation shaft nicely visible. Well, as opposed to night-vision visible.

Because that was kind of ugly.

He, very briefly, wondered how Lincoln could've blown a hole in so easily. The A.I were fitted with weapons themselves -- surely Pegasus' chest cannon would be capable of figuring that one out. Augh. He felt a swirl of embarrassment seep its way in. He was supposed to think of these things.

He turned to Libby, after (barely) managing to tear his eyes away from the sweet daylight. "Well. There we are," he said, with a shrug, before nodding in their new exit's direction. He smiled faintly, before moving on down the shaft. Made sure to avoid any more gaps in the metal.

But then he stopped. Remembered his to-do list, and its most recent addition. If he got any closer to the sunlight, the promise of the new and unknown territory tugging at his curiosity -- only with great struggle would he be able to rend himself away from whatever sights he'd be faced with and turn back.

Pegasus eased himself back a little. "Uh," he began hesitantly, "please, you go ahead, meet with the others. I'd like to check the storage room for remaining survivors."

And with that, he scrambled hurriedly away.

[sadalpheretz]

Lincoln & Pegasus /// Implant Communication

Agent Lincoln: Pegasus, please don't delay. The Equinox is in bad shape, and I will not have you endangering yourself by staying in there any longer than necessary.

Agent Lincoln: And I said I'm fine. That being said, yes, I do have assistance.

Unit Pegasus: Understood. No time will be wasted.

Unit Pegasus: I believe, however, that any and all time spent assisting a friend, is completely necessary.

Unit Pegasus: But I don't want to endanger them either. So hopefully I'll be seeing you soon, Agent.

[crimrey-deactivated20131212]

[sadalpheretz]

Lincoln & Pegasus /// Implant Communication

Agent Lincoln: Alright. I'm making my way around the left side of the ship, and I'm going to make an exit for you. Let's hope I can remember where the hell the hangar ceiling is.

Agent Lincoln: [silence]

Agent Lincoln: There. Should be a decent exit for you, left side, about 200 meters from the nose of the ship. If that doesn't work for you, I'm more than happy to keep making holes until one fits you.

Unit Pegasus: ...Thank you very much. We will arrive momentarily -- it looks satisfactory from here.

Unit Pegasus: Well. Libby certainly will; I may look for other survivors in the storage room.

Unit Pegasus: Um, Lincoln, it appears your condition is worsening - do you have anyone with you who can assist?

[alphavelorum-deactivated2014042]

Curtain Call {open}

Everything was still; she didn’t dare disquiet the veil. The only thing she could think about was how everything was over, and how it’d been so quick and painless. But then again, Vela wasn’t sure what else she had been expecting —- they were machines of war…that was the whole purpose of their existence; they were manufactured so they couldn’t feel pain and fight like perfect soldiers. That then begged the question - in her state of partial consciousness - could she really be dead then?

It seemed possible that she was just drifting in cyberspace, lost within bits and bytes of storage. But then, in the midst of the darkness, Vela felt the movement of her furrowing eyebrows. She was regaining her senses - and then her eyes opened, flooding her line of sight with vague outlines of familiar objects.

Vela remained static for a long while; laying at an odd angle in storage, simply staring her confined surroundings. She wasn’t freaking out like she would’ve imagined herself to have done if caught in such a situation. It would’ve been a nice surprise if it weren’t for the fact she had just endured a lethal Covenant onslaught.

She closed her eyes briefly, composing herself and flexing her limbs. It was then that Vela decided to eject herself from storage. If she was alive, then she wasn’t going to spend the rest of her strange artificial life in here.

Once she found her balance on the angled floor of the crashed ship, she stumbled toward the closest window to gain some sort of coordination of her surroundings. She couldn’t make out all of the details, but between the foreign landscape and rubble, there were…escape pods! From the Equinox! ”Hello?!” shouted Vela at the window as she waved frantically.

But then —- wait! If she was in tact, maybe there were others here too! “…hello?!” she called out again, but this time, turning around to the remains of the wrecked ship. 

Okay, if there was no response in five minutes, she’d venture outside to check on the escape pods.

[sadalpheretz]

The journey through the vents toward the storage room was a fairly stressful one, and Pegasus had almost forgotten about the cave-in that’d...prevented he and Libby from reaching the hangar in the first place. He was really quite focused on just finding people. So focused, in fact, that he nearly fell down the hole in the ceiling.

Okay, okay, he did fall. There, said it.

It wasn’t a bad fall though. It was pretty impressive actually. Because he fell head first and…somehow, landed on his back?

As he picked himself up, he concluded that he had, in fact, executed some kind of radical somersault. It was the only way his position on the ground could possibly make sense. He brushed the creases and bits of rubble out of his uniform, cleared his throat. Glared at the slab of metal and concrete. Turned away, but continued to stare over his shoulder. Narrowed his eyes. Don’t tell anyone about that fall, slab. Don’t embarrass me.

The ship was silent. Apart from his footsteps. And, soon, a faint voice. Wait -- sorry?

Pegasus froze, eyes wide. A voice? A voice..could only mean..there were other survivors. There were other survivors.

He ran the rest of the way, no, he sprinted, while yelling his replies. “Hello! Hello, I’m coming-“

His pace slowed only when he reached the door-- pity it was closed.

And locked. He didn't remember it being either of those things, though.

But if the aftermath of the explosion could somehow flicker the implants back into life, perhaps the door mechanisms could've experienced the spasm. He frowned. Bit his lip, ran a hand through his hair and turned around. Battled, quite valiantly, to level his rising frustration. Gazed down the hallway for a little while. Swivelled back, pressed his shoulder against the barrier. "It's me, Pegasus," he said firmly, "who's that in there?"

[littledarkage]

[apotheosi]

Visit Original Link

Bastille - Of The Night

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// Libby & Pegasus

[liberated-libby-blog]

Libby darted away, instincts of self-preservation (if a machine could have those) working efficiently as Pegasus fired a few shots into this new obstacle. Without warning. Really. She was going to have to have a word with her brother.

But that thought was completely forgotten as Pegasus mentioned his agent. The connection was back, the link should be working now, there was no reason for it not to be -

Only there was, and Libby knew why. She had seen Hartford’s escape pod, or the one she suspected he had taken, she had seen it leaving the Equinox and she had seen it hurtling off its trajectory towards one of the Covenant ships. The neural link lay dead and cold between them. But she couldn’t tell Pegasus that.

"No, I haven’t received any signal," she told him instead, carefully devoid of any emotional response.

The other unit seemed to sense her reluctance to say anything further and left the subject almost immediately, using his needler to make a few dents in the thick concrete.

She observed Pegasus’ movements and deduced that he was using some kind of sign language to imply something. That implication, too, was deduced with ease.

This seemed to be an appropriate moment to say something witty and human-like, but nothing came to mind.

"Ladies first?" she remarked, feeling vaguely dissatisfied because it had come out sounding like a question. Hartford would have suggested something sarcastic in a wry voice. She hoped she wouldn’t have to spend the rest of her activated lifetime wondering what Hartford would say in this-or-that situation.

She placed her right foot in one of the dents, testing it carefully with her weight. Then her left hand in the one right above that, and her left foot next, and so on. Movies usually portrayed human rock-climbers as having two hands and two feet, but Libby managed it easily enough, pulling herself upwards with superhuman strength.

Nearing the ceiling, Libby reached her hand up to cling to the grating that remained around the hole. It protruded enough to prevent their easy movement through it. She glanced downwards at Pegasus for a moment, thinking.

Pressing her body against the wall, she gave the grating a quick, strong tug. It gave way, clattering to the floor loudly. She hoped, belatedly, that it didn’t hit Pegasus.

It took a moment for her to adjust her weight and clamber up through the hole, into what seemed to be a vent. She moved forward into the darkness on her hands and knees to leave room for Pegasus to climb in after her.

"The humans do this frequently in spy movies." She felt an odd compulsion to point this out to Pegasus before checking her maps and activating her night vision. "Is Agent Lincoln also on the ship? Should we search for him?"

[sadalpheretz]

So. Bismarck, Concord, Calvin . Nashville, Dover. Libby, Lincoln...himself. A good list -- but his emotions were soon shifting hazily from that initial relief, to disappointment, to a quiet yet stubborn optimism. Yeah, so there was no Lyra or Charleston, or Vela or Indus or...well, there weren't more people, but those were..only people that Lincoln could see! Surely there'd be others. Somewhere. Right?

"Ladies first?"

Pegasus raised an eyebrow. Wondered if he'd done something wrong, then decided it didn't matter at that moment and stepped behind her. It probably wasn't going to be incredibly easy to climb up when there was a...certain lack of a right hand, so he positioned himself to uh, well, if she happened to fall? He'd either catch her or make sure she didn't land too hard. 

But it turned out okay; she seemed to move upward with a relative ease. He looked proudly down at his footholds. Maybe there were good, friendly uses for that needler after all.

Nearly got hit by the grating that came plummeting down. Oh -- ookay. He stepped back, just in time, sort of. Got his foot, but that was no worries. He frowned for a moment. If he were human, that probably wouldn't be very pleasant. (But if he were human, he'd also be dead. He shrugged.)

"Agent Lincoln has decided that he will attempt to assist us in making our escape," he informed her, clasping his hands behind his back and kicking the panel of grating away. Watched as Libby completed her ascent, before climbing after her. Lifted himself through the gap with a mild grunt -- We are now -- attempting -- to move into the ceiling-- 

Ah! He nearly fell back through the goddamn hole, jeez, get a grip, Pegasus. Can't go around getting startled by spy-movie trivia, can we now?

"Thank you Libby," he said huskily, finally heaving himself into a stable position. "Clearly I would not make a great spy," he said, a little chuckle chipping its way into his voice. Oh. Lincoln was a Stealth Agent, wasn't he? Damn. See, Pegasus was designed for reconnaissance.

He bit his lip, furrowed his eyebrows, pushed his sleeves up a little further as if that'd somehow help. "He is outside the Equinox, I believe," he said slowly, "so I am not entirely sure how he will go about helping us, but I'm sure we can sort it out."

"If we continue this way, we will soon be above the hangar. Perhaps there will be another ceiling cave-in further along. We may be able to use one to our advantage and drop down...but the hangar may be a dangerous area at this point, and the needed exit may have been compromised by the explosion. I would be happy to go ahead and take a look," he suggested. 

Pegasus also nearly suggested going back to the storage room and checking for more survivors. (He sat that thought atop his mental to-do list; ignoring all the dusty old goals from weeks ago. Oops...they just kept getting pushed down, you know?)