Chimera 4

Nova trotted through the smoke filled room balancing a plastic cup half filled with some cheep beer on his wing.

"Hey Nova!" somepony called across the room. Nova turned to reply but as he did, he bumped into another pony, spilling his beer.

"Ah shi-" Nova stopped himself as he looked up and saw who he had bumped into. It was a light blue mare with a red mane. She had obviously had had a little to much to drink. She giggled and apologized when she realized she had spilled Nova's drink.

"I'm Violet Ray" the mare said with a flirtatious smile. she tried to step closer to Nova but tripped. Nova spun around and extended his wing to catch her.

"My hero" she said batting her eye lashes. "What would I call my hero?" she said with a hiccup.

"I'm Nova. Nova Ring." Nova said as he lifted her back to her feet. "You seem a little tipsy. You should lay down. I know a perfect place"

"Okay", She said with a smile.

"Nova! Wait" Violet yelled at Nova boarding the Equestrian Guard transport ship.

Nova glanced back to see Violet running towards him. Nova dropped his saddlebags and galloped back to her.

"Violet. What's wrong?" Nova asked her as they approached each other. Once he finally reached her he realized that she had tears in her eyes. "Violet I know this is hard, but you have to be strong. I'm going to be gone a long time. You need to forget me."

"I know I know. but..." she couldn't finish the sentence. She began to sob. Nova leaned up against her and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"But what?"

"I'm pregnant". The words shocked Nova. He leaned in to her and kissed her.

"I want you to raise her as good as you can, and when my contract is up we'll be able to raise her right." Nova kissed her cheek, and started back towards the Ferret Class transport.

"It's a colt!"

"what?"

"You're going to have a son!" She yelled at him as he was about enter the Ferret. He smiled and walked in proudly. On his way in he passed a large grey pony. Obviously his CO, but he payed no attention to him. Nova was to caught up in his own thoughts to care.

The VTOL lurched through the air lazily, they were making good time, but for Riot, It wasn't fast enough. This place was too clean, Its ponies were soft, arrogant. The cigarettes were expensive and the alcohol was pathetically weak. College students lazed around on blankets, soaking up the hot sun in their spare time.
If Riot had seen this place when he had first left the stable 5, we would have thought himself to be in some kind of heaven. But now that he was more traveled, more scarred, he found himself to be a demon amongst sheep. He had killed ponies before, more ponies than he cared to remember, he had seen innumerable amounts of bodies, young and old. And these ponies just lazed around. Like everything was right in their world.

Riot let out an exasperated sigh, inadvertently drawing the attention of the newly christened lieutenant.

In his seat Nova looked up at the grey pony that he saw on his way in. Nova took in every detail of this grey pony. His scars were apparent, and he had several obvious cybernetic augmentations. Nova realized that the grey pony was now looking back at him, with a angry scowl on his face. Noticing this Nova quickly whipped up a witty excuse to avoid confrontation.

For some, the silence must have been horribly awkward; but to Riot it was welcomed peace. The rhythmic thumpathumpathumpathumpa of the blades drowned out the sounds of the city sprawling beneath him.
New bucks starrin' at me, giving me a once over.

Riot sent a withering glare at the new pony, but before the other buck could respond, Riot lifted his Pip-buck up and plugged in his ear-blooms, drowning out everything so all he could feel was the VTOL's vibrations and listen to Octavia's finest.

Realizing that the older buck wasn't going to confront him, Nova began to stare off in the distance. Not looking at anything particular, just thinking. The comm spouted out some technical garble and Nova tried to listen, but his mind was other places. He loved Violet...but was he ready for a family? Would he even be in the shape to raise a family when his contract was up? These questions swirled inside his head like a terrible brew of thought. It didn't matter right now. In a few hours he would be in a bunk room filled with Colts he never knew before, all willing to kill for the greater good. That's how it would be for the next eight years of his life.

Nova hadn't even gone through orientation, and yet he found himself longing for his first leave.

Ten fresh new recruits stood inside the Octavia's cargo hold, one of the Leopard Class DropShips belonging to the EQRG. Each pony was fresh out of the military colleges with his or her own high-chair views of their surroundings.

"This thing's a piece of shit! It probably can't even break atmo' with all this garbage inside!" One of the ponies closest to him fired back a retort to a companion's comment Riot had not picked up.

"Well if your so worried about the garbage we could always throw you out first Ruger!" The yellow mare's response shut the other pony right up, with a dark scowl of a scolded child on his face.

"Anypony get a look at our CO? asked a small olive mare, who seemed afraid of her own shadow.

"Yes, he's a grizzly bastard, looks like one of the destitute outside father's compound." A pompous royal blue Unicorn pawed at the ground in disgust.

"He doesn't seem-"

ATTENTION!

All the recruits bolted straight up, frozen into their positions as a white and brown mare came trotting towards them, stopping a few feet away from the new recruits.

Nova stood still as the mare walked up and down the ranks, examining each one. She was obviously experienced, but she didn't seem to be a particularly high rank. Rather she seemed to be figuring out which of these colts to make an example of. She seemed particularly interested in Nova. Suddenly she stopped in front of him, narrowing her eyes in assessment.

"You. Describe a PPC!"

The question surprised him. Nonetheless he answered immediately.

"PPC! Particle Projector Cannon! Fires a concentrated beam of ions or free protons at a target. Causing damage via thermal energy, and kinetic force."

"Very good. You think you can answer another question?" Nova didn't answer. He noticed the Corporal tag on her vest. He realized he outranked her. As did most of guys in his group.

It's a test! Nova thought to himself.They want to see if we'll follow someone who assumes authority, or whether we'll show leadership. I'm not gonna be thrown at the bottom of the heap. If I'm gonna make a name for myself might as well be now.

Nova stood there quietly.

"Don't want to speak eh? We'll see how the colonel feels about that". She started to walk back down the line when Nova cut in.

"I don't have to answer your questions!" This caught the attention of the mare, along with most of the other recruits.

"What did you just say?"

"You're a corporal. I outrank you, and so does most of this group." The group started mumbling about at this comment. Nova stared down at the mare who was now grinning. She turned around and walked away. As she did she nodded to someone higher up. A few more moments later an older grey pony in a colonel's garb came out towards the group.

Silverbolt took a deep breath as he made his way from one corner of the room to the other, not pausing to take his gaze off the bulkhead in front of him; only inches away from the line of pilots. When he reached the final Guardscolt, the furthest right of the bunch, he snapped to a standstill and turned to face him, his muzzle only inches away from the ranking officer. There he waited, not saying a word, watching the colt in front of him sweat, but his face did not waiver. After what seemed like an eternity, he leaned into the buck's ear and whispered,

"You scared son?"

"Sir no, si-" the colonel raised a hoof to cut him off.

"Please son, I've got enough hearing problems without you helping. I admire the enthusiasm."

The young lieutenant looked concerned, obviously never exposed to such an unorthodox situation. He patted the Lieutenant's pauldron, and adjusted the young buck's wedge to the proper position.

"You'll do fine, son."

The Colonel gave him the once over, turned and moved to the far side of the room so he could see the faces of the Guardscolts under his command. He scanned the front line, and began to speak.

"Guardscolts, this talk some sources sling around about the Equestrian Conclave wanting to stay out of the war and not wanting to fight is a lot of hay! The Royal Guard loves to fight, traditionally. All real Guardscolts love the sting and clash of battle. Equestria loves a winner. Equestria will not tolerate a loser. Equestria despises a coward; Guards play to win. That's why Equestria has never lost and never will lose a war!"

The words echoed though the parade hall.

"You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you, right here today, will be killed in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all of us. And every buck is scared in his first action. If he says he's not, he's a goddamn liar. Some men are cowards, yes, but they fight just the same, or get the hell slammed out of them. The real hero is the Guard who fights even though he's scared. Some get over their fright in a minute, under fire; others take an hour; for some it takes days; but a real Guard will never let the fear of death overpower his honour, his sense of duty, to his country and to his ponyhood."

He paused, letting the words sink in.

"We want to get this thing over and get the hell out of here, and get at those bucking Clanners! The shortest road home is through blood, sweat and tears! We'll win this war, but we'll win it only by showing the enemy we have more guts than they have or ever will have! There's one great thing you stallions can say when it's all over and you're home once more. You can thank Celestia that twenty years from now, when you're sitting around the fireside with your grandson on your plot and he asks you what you did in the war, you won't have to shift him over, cough, and say, "I shovelled shit in Stalliongrad."

A cheer erupted among the young officers. As the Colonel turned, he nodded to the tall stallion known as Riot to take over.

They'll do well. Silver thought as he lit a Sweet Mare cigar.

"Alright you little foals, listen up!"

The recruits were slow to quiet down, Rim Shot, the furthest Buck, spoke up.

"Sir, who are you?"

Riot's face contorted and turned a dusky purple. This fuckin pikey...

"Boy, I am your worst nightmare."

"But sir-"

"Oi! YOU LISTEN UP YOU PIKEY. You better abandon all notions of the goddess when you're in me charge, cause you be in hell now! YOU will be mine for the next two years! You will do EXACTLY as I say. DO YOU READ ME!?"

"SIR YES SIR!" they screamed. Riot began to pace across in front of the group.

"Good. This is for all you new people: I only have one rule. Everyone fights. No one quits. You don't do your job, I'll shoot you myself. You get me?"

A small crowd had gathered at the edges of the cargo hold, various mech pilots and technicians were watching the Captain mold the new foals.

"SIR YES SIR!"

"Good, now; stand easy and follow me to your new home."

Nova waited until the rest had gone before he followed. He had already made a scene. Don't want to push it. I've made my point. Plus following behind will give me a chance to get my bearings. Maybe I can get Violet off my mind.

It had been almost two years since his inauguration into the corp. His CO, who he had come to know as Iron Venture, was right. These last two years had been a virtual hell. Nonetheless Nova was top of his class. He only had to pass his PPE (Pilot Proficiency Exam), and he would be a full fledged Mech pilot. The PPE usually took two or even three tries to pass, but Nova was confident. As long as something didn't come up he would be a Mech pilot by the end of the month.

Nova trotted down the halls towards his bunk room to get an early sleep when a voice came over the ship intercom. It was addressing ranking officers and pilots. The message didn't concern him but he decided to listen anyway. It was telling specific lances to ready for battle. Some kind of defensive action to repel a Steiner raid. This kind of thing was a semi-regular occurrence and Nova quickly got bored with the message. That was at least until he heard the name of the system they were attacking. It was his system. The words hit him like a hammer to the head. Without even thinking he ran to the Mech bay, were he knew his CO, Iron Venture, would be preparing for the battle.

"Captain! Captain!" Nova yelled at the large grey unicorn attending to his Mech.

Bloody techs don't know shit about Dragons, I think-

"The fuckin' ammo belt's in backwards! WHAT THE HELL!?" Riot slammed his pneumatic spanner down onto the catwalk. A general announcement was being blared out across the Mech-bay, Steiner was trying to take yet another colony, or was it house Kurita that was attacking? Not that it mattered, Riot wasn't going planetside, not this time. He still hadn't put the remaining recruits through the PPE.

Too bad about Render, he was a good pony. Maybe after I murder the tech who fucked with my baby I'll go get lunch. Yea lunch sounds-

"Captain! Captain!"

Fuck. There goes that plan.

Riot turned towards the white buck, trying to spot him over the ammunition crates he had stacked on the cat-walk.

"What do you need Nova? I'm pretty busy plotting the death of a technician right now."

"Captain. You need to take me along".

"What? Nova...lad, I was joking about the Tech'. He'll prolly just get mop duty. I ain't gonna kill 'im and even if I was, I prolly wouldn't bring you along lad."

Riot turned back to the jammed 20mm Tri-barrel Gatling gun, giving the receiver a solid kick; which sent the jammed round flying into the air.

"No. To the raid."

"Eager to pass the test eh? Sorry kid, we ain't going in on this raid, House Karita- or was it Steiner? Whatever; is sending in their heavies, We've prolly got three lances on the ground right now, no room for rookies."

Riot reconnected the massive ammo belt to the Gatling gun, chambering a round to ensure a smooth action in the receiver.

"Don't worry kid, we'll come across some pirate base, you and the others can take turns blowing them into space."

"I'm top of my class, and you know that are guys are gonna need backup. Besides that's my home system. it would be an advantage to have someone down there that knows his way around. Please captain. I can pass the PPE when I get back".

Shaking his head slowly, Riot mulled over his options.
Should I tell him to let it go? Or tell him to take it to SilverBolt?

"By Tias' toned flanks lad... Alright, let's go talk to the Colonel."

Carefully closing the access hatch on the Dragon's arm, Riot slipped past the guard railing, landing deftly in front of Nova. Nova and Riot headed off to speak to the colonel. Both of them with grave thoughts in their heads.

It's the end. One vs one. Captain Silverbolt's Commando vs the enemy Mad Cat. He had rescued all of the survivors of the other colonies and his team were the only ones left. The only ones to protect the colony. Silverbolt could only sigh as the AC-5 only bounced off the larger Mech's hull.

The enemy wasn't shooting him. It was toying with him, the enemy didn't want to damage a perfectly salvageable Mech. Silver's SRMs were working hard to destroy the Cat. But few actually hit their marks.

"Guards! Protect the main colony! Don't let them have control of it! Don't try to protect anywhere else!" the main colony, called Orion's Reach, was the corridor that connected everywhere. If he didn't control it, he couldn't get to the council, his objective, he couldn't save...

...her.

As the Guard's compiled to the Captain's order, they were cut down quickly. Silver had no clue how the clanners did it, but they seem to have upgraded their version of the PPC.

Suddenly, Silver heard a cry in his earpiece, and saw a bright flash in his rear view panel. Joker's reactor had just gone critical. Looked like the fourth of July, but no one was celebrating. Silver quickly had his Mech jump for safety, narrowly avoiding the scorching heat. But as the smoke cleared, all that filled his viewscreen was the distinctive shape of a Mech's chassis, not 20 feet away, standing on top of him. Seems the Mad Cat was more maneuverable than Silver had thought.

Time stood still.

The Mad Cat waited, almost savoring the kill.

It fired.

*Knock, knock, knock*

The Colonel nearly fell off his chair as he came to.

Ugh, my head

Silver cleared his throat.

"Come in, doors open."

Two Guards stepped in, one tall and battle worn- the other, obvious new blood. Silver stood up.

"Welcome Guards, I heard you wanted to speak to me."

Coming down from his salute, Riot trotted over to a well known cushion, breaking out a cigarette and igniting it with magical fire.

"Not me boss, Nova here wants to ask you somethin' important."

Silver sat down and invited the young pilot to have a seat; or so he assumed.

"So I trust you both have been taking care out there? Fighting the good fight?"

"Yea, about that. Don't let any of the new Techs near my Dragon, they put the bleedin ammo belts in backwards!"

Silverbolt has an incredulous look on his face.

"Backwards?"

""Straight up, back-assfucking-wards."

"Damn, I'll get on that. I trust there wasn't much damage done to the mech itself?"

"Jammed twenty mil', nothing I can't handle-"

*AHEM*

"OH right sorry lad. Sir, Nova wants to ask you something important.

Nova didn't take a seat. Instead he began to speak. "Colonel. I'm at the top of my class. I'm two days away from taking the PPE...." Nova paused. The Colonel had an eyebrow raised in a condescending fashion. "That system that's under attack is my home. I just want a chance to fight for it before it's gone".

Nova waited eagerly for a response.

The question had Silver dumbfounded.

"Riot, did you have something to do with this? He's going to get himself killed for Celestia's sake."

Riot let out a choking cough, spewing cigarette smoke, a surprise etched on his face.

"I didn't know squat about this! I was planning on lunch and the torture of a Tech! Not going spec-ops with an un-tested rookie in the middle of a Steiner assault!"

"Please colonel. Riot's your best pilot. What better way to train a pilot than put him in the battle? And if I get frosted you'll have one less rookie to take care of. Honestly what have you got to lose besides one out serviced mech?". Nova flashed a slight grin. No response. Nova knew this wasn't going his way. "Colonel, haven't you ever wanted to fight for something you loved? How about you Captain?" This was his last chance. If they didn't say agree now, they were never going to say yes.

Silver thought about it a moment.

"Riot?"

"Yes Sir?"

"Outfit this trainee with a working Mech, I don't want to send a letter home to his loved ones due to a faulty ejection seat."

He weighed his actions for a moment. He knew he was sending this young buck to his grave.

"Captain, it's your ass if I see his name written down on the Fallen Heros board next week."

He could hear Nova's heart racing.

"Dismissed."

The door closed with a slight whoosh behind the bucks. Riot shook his head slowly, his stomach grumbling softly.

"You owe me, Recruit, you owe me BIG TIME."

Before Nova could answer Riot cut him off.

"Take The Vulture down in Bay D-6, we're gone in five." Nova galloped past Riot, urgency in his every move.

"Now hopefully- CELESTIAS FLAMING FUCKING OVARIES!! YOU FUCKIN PIKEY, GET OFF ME MECH!!!"

Nova found his way to the Vulture and climbed inside. The controls were new to him. Nova had never piloted a vulture in training. let alone in battle. He didn't care. The Controls were familiar enough, and with a little toying he already had them down. a message came over the comm.

"Eh! Pikey! You ready for the drop?"

Nova looked up and saw Riot signaling to him. Nova walked his mech over to where his CO was waiting with his mech. Nova nodded through the cockpit, signaling he was ready to go land side.

As the Hot-drop door slid open, air whistled through at an alarming rate, buffeting the mechs as they stood in their cradles.

"Alright, I know we haven't covered Hot-drops in training, but you only need to remeber one thing: DON'T MOVE."
Nova began to laugh as Riot cut him off.

"Seriously, the Computers will take care of the entire thing, but the second you move, they shut off. And trust me, hitting the ground goin' 200 clicks sideways in 100 tons of hardware will ruin your day. And mine."

"PREPARE FOR DROP!! FIVE SECONDS!" The pilot screamed over the intercoms, alerting the two pilots.

"You ready for this kid? Well you damn well better hope so. Rangers lead the way!" Riots mech was launched out the bay door at high speeds. Nova gulped hard and braced for the sling to activate. It didn't.

"What the-"

THUMP, and the Vulture was sent sailing through the air, Nova found the ground rushing towards him as retro-boosters fired to life, retarding his speed until he reached the ground at a snails pace. The booster cradle blowing its pins and falling from his mechs body.

The impact, although relatively gentle, rattled Nova's mech. Nova took a second to figure out were he was. He searched for his CO, and found that Riot was already walking towards him.

"You alright lad?" Riot yelled through the comms. Nova nodded. The sounds of war was all around them. The sky black and orange from the battle. The site was nearly unrecognizable. Still Nova knew exactly were he was. Right were he needed to be. Violet and little Nova were not far off.

Riot signaled for Nova to follow him towards the battle, but Nova had his own plan. Nova twisted around and accelerated the opposite way.

"Alright Nova, keep close, we're going to be meeting up with Bandit and Smokey due south of here, from there we'll-"

The friendly ping on Riots radar started to wheel away from him, headed in the exact opposite direction of where they needed to be.

"Hey! NOVA!! Where the hell are you going!?"

Nova ignored Riot as he accelerated toward Violets old apartment. The street was obviously warn from the battle that had just passed through there, but violets apartment was relatively unharmed. Nova reached the apartment and was about to exit his mech when he was suddenly aware of Riot following him. Suddenly a catapult emerged from behind the building.

"Contact!"

Riot brought his heavy LBX up as his mech sped forward, closing the gap between him and the Catapult. Firing the LBX, his shot struck true, but only managed to stagger the heavy mech. Riot swung his left hoof in a brutal uppercut that buckled the armor under the Catapults cockpit. The mech fell backwards from the nasty blow, Riot gripped the nose of the Mech, and brought his right leg back into a vicious kick that completely crushed the pilots nest.

"Nova! Get the fuck back here! You're headed into enemy territory!"

The white buck didn't respond, he only throttled his mech towards the civilian housing sector.

"Fuckity fuck! You stupid bastard!" Riot couldn't tell if he needed to berate himself, or save it all for the young pilot. He throttled the mech forward; chasing after Novas borrowed vulture as his radar started to glow an unhealthy red. The only blue blips were himself, and the mech he was chasing.

Riot had just reached Novas mech as another Steiner mech showed, it was a Commando who was to busy firing on civilians to notice his impending doom. Riots LBX barked once, rupturing the chest and blowing an arm of the tiny mech, a short burst from his machine gun group punched through the paper thin armor. The mech twisted and froze up, falling backwards as a group of SRM's streaked from its launchers.

The Commandos rockets blew out the back of the apartment, and sent wood splinters flying. A young mare and a small colt, followed by multiple other civilians ran out the font door as Riot tried to drag Nova away. Nova was struggling to get loose of his CO's mech when a second explosion came from inside the apartment. The young mare and colt were engulfed in a massive cloud of fire. Nova was sent into a panic. He whipped around and fired a quick laser strike at the hand of the mech that was grasping him. The strike didn't cause much damage but it freed Nova from his CO.

Nova could see Violet on the ground laying in a pile of rubble. Her mane was burnt and she was black with soot, but she seemed relatively unharmed. As Nova approached she looked up, as if she knew it was him. The world seemed to move in slow motion as a large piece of the exterior wall broke off and began to fall. Nova screamed inside his mech. He knew that the wall would crush her. Riot began to accelerate toward Nova. As he did a large blast knocked his mech onto its side. Neither of them had noticed the Madcat come up from the back. It had fired two LRMs at Riot. Luckily only one hit home. Non the less his mech had been crippled.

Nova turned around when he heard the explosion. Riots canopy was stuck, and his mech wasn't responding. The Madcat fired another LRM at Riots downed Dragon. Nova had to make a decision. Stay with his dead fiance and son, and let his CO die, or save his CO and die with some kind of honor. Nova made up his mind. Nova's Vulture didn't have have jump jets but he knew enough physics to know that what he was about to do would work. He accelerated towards the downed Dragon and just as the LRM reached Riot, Nova fired his own LRM at the ground below him, launching himself into the air. The blast destroyed his mechs legs, but it didn't matter. He wouldn't need them after this anyways.

Nova and the enemy LRM would meet in the air above Riot, and with luck Nova's vulture would take enough of the force to save his CO. Nova saw the LRM approach in slow motion.

"Looks like I'm getting an early leave after all, Violet"

The LRM impacted the vulture hard. The blast Blew out Nova's cockpit. Glass shards ripped through his vest. The glowing controls of the vulture went dark. Nova's world turned a miraculous white color, and then faded to bright oranges and reds. It seemed like forever before the mech finally landed. The impact slammed Nova's head into the back panel of the mech, causing him to move in and out of consciousness. He heard the sound of a massive explosion as he finally slipped into darkness. He only hoped that he had given Riot enough time to save himself.

"Hows the Lad?" Riot asked the attending nurse, Cherry Cola.

"He's still in the coma, but his vitals are stable. He should make a full recovery". She replied

"Aye, thank you Cola". Riot nodded and returned to his coffee.

He had been on the recovery team for the preceding battle. Whilst searching for survivors around were his Dragon had been damaged he came across the body of a young mare.

Nova must have Spotted her. He was trying to save the lass.

That was at least something Riot could respect, but he'd be damned if he let Nova Know that, especially with the way he went about it.

Nova lay under a tree holding Violet. The world was perfect. no sign of war anywhere. Nova looked over at Violet who smiled back at him. Nova kissed her and turned away.

"Nova whats wrong?" Violet asked.

"Hmm?"

"You did the right thing you know. You saved your friend Iron".

"I know I know, but something doesn't feel right".

"Every thing is fine. We can finally be a family". Nova smiled and went to kiss violet, but as he did a small colt pounced on them out of no were.

"Hi daddy!" Nova laughed and swept him up with his wing.

"Daddy?"

"Yes little Nova?"

"Well I over heard you and mommy talking and..." The young colt paused.

"Mmm Hmm".

"Well maybe you could still be with your friend" Nova smiled at the little colt.

"I don't think that's how it works son".

"That's not a bad idea". Violet cut in.

"What do you mean? I just got you back".

"Well its not like we're going anywhere". The blue mare smiled, Nova sat up. A look of concern on his face.

"I don't want to lose you again".
"He's convulsing!" "I'll hold the lad down, you get the meds!"
"You're not losing us". She leaned into Nova's ear and whispered. "I want you to go. Live as long as you can. Have as much fun as you can. Be the hero to the world; the hero that you are to me, and when you're done we'll be waiting for you". She kissed his cheek and stepped back. Her and little Nova began to fade away.
BPM is 160 and rising! WE're losing him!
"Wait!" Nova yelled after them. "Can't you stay a little longer?"

"We'd love too Nova, But you'd better be heading off". They faded away into the background and Nova sat there alone. He whipped the tears from his cheeks and closed his eyes. When he opened them he was no longer in a field of green. He was back on Orions Reach. He began to get up, but stumbled as he did so. A nurse galloped over to him and tried to help him.

"You need to lay down, I didn't spend six hours in surgery just to have you brain yourself on a table corner". The nurse said as she helped Nova up. As Nova found his footing he replied.

"I'm fine".

"Are you sure? You can stay here a little longer if you need". Nova smiled.

"Son't worry I'll be fine".

"Are you sure? Captain said he wanted to speak to you, when you came to" Nova smiled. He's take a fierce tongue lashing from Riot, but he Knew the worst was behind him.

"Thank you, but I'd better be heading off".