Experiment: The Ravager Code

Purpose and Promise

She didn't want to just be someone who simply dwelt here, she wanted to be apart of it... wanted to contribute. Even if she would rather be at Yondu or Kraglin's sides, exploring the ship and just listening to them, she would be covered in oil and sweaty from working in the hangar every day if it meant they were pleased with it.

After all... they had saved her life.

It couldn't have been more than a few hours since Yondu had left her down here, but she had already made her way through at least seven ships, a few broken hyperdrives and a few weapons that were laying disassembled on the workbenches.

She could tell it bothered some of the men, that she was running circles around them, but she couldn't help what came naturally—or maybe unnaturally, she didn't know.

"Hey, kid," Horuz's voice came from above, and she felt a boot prod the bottom of hers lightly. "Come on out of there, I think you've done enough. Don't want the Captain up my ass about you overdoing it..."

"I want to. I'm almost done..." she answered, turning another bolt, reaching up to swipe a little of the sweat from her forehead.

"Okay..." He shifted his weight, setting a cup down on the floor. "There's about to be a departure, gotta deal with that. Kraglin'll be down to check on you soon, just stay put."

"I will." she called up to him, and he walked away, towards the other side of the hangar.

Tess grunted as she smacked the cover back over the circuitry, then attached it securely with another couple bolts, checking over everything twice before she wiped the grease she smeared on the outside of the plate away and slid the creeper back out from under the hull. She sat up and sighed, reaching for the cup Horuz had left and seeing the milky liquid inside. The same thing Yondu and Kraglin had been giving her while she worked back up her system.

Her hands were a little numb by now, her muscles kind of shaky. But she didn't mind it, it felt better to be tired from doing something than just laying around dwelling on it.

She downed the entire drink and set it aside, standing and wiping her hands on the back of her pants—that were just a little big on her but she preferred them to the clothes she had been in at first—and walked towards the bench at the wall, picking up another blaster and inspecting it, then taking the tools laying around it to start taking it apart and assess the problem.

Jammed mechanism—the trigger wasn't reacting... problem with the ejector...

She looked up at the sound of voices and footsteps, raucous laughter from a few men. There was a team of maybe six or seven all headed out towards the ships, packs and weapons on their backs as they spoke to one another.

She watched them, wondering what it was like to be apart of one of those crews, crews that had to trust in one another, men that were apart of a unit.

But... she was here making their ships fly and their weapons operable... maybe she was apart of the unit?

One of them cast their dark gaze her way, and his brow shot up as he smacked one of his companion's shoulders, getting the other man to look and both of them chuckled.

Her arms went cold, something about their gaze bothering her. Especially when they started to stalk her way, those little grins never leaving.

She noticed the way their eyes roved over her, and was suddenly hyperaware of herself. Clothes too big—obviously not her own—hanging on a body that was all skin and bones. Black grease smudges on her cheeks underneath eyes that were too big on her face still...

But they kept smirking.

"Didn't know we were recruiting bitches now," the one said, circling slightly. Tess backed up a little, eyes darting between them.