“Luna, no, I really do not like that idea.” Lauren had taken me apart from the rest of the group. She’d made Ellie lock the communication’s room off for anyone else to join.

“But I’m the foremost expert on things like this, you know I am.” I retorted.

“There’s Grayson.” She countered.

“There is, but his knowledge is still limited.”

Lauren rested her hands on the comms table and lowered her head.

“If you are going down there. I’m going too.” I stated.

“Luna…” Lauren sighed. “If you really aren’t going to change your mind…”

“I won’t.”

“Don’t go even five centimeters away from me. Got it?” She looked up at me.

“Yes.”

“And if you go, I want you in our armored suits as well.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded.

Lauren looked back up at me and shook her head. “Honestly, if you weren’t the expert on alien equipment, I wouldn’t have doubted a second to leave you behind.”

“I know. But we don’t really have another option. If we want the crew to live on this planet for a while, we need to know if it’s safe.”

Lauren nodded. “But really, once I sense any kind of danger. I’ll send you back with the first shuttle. Understand? I won’t tolerate any grumbling.”

“As long as you won’t stay behind. Because I will not leave you.”

Lauren shook her head again, but smiled this time. “Okay. I promise.” She then walked away from the table and walked over to the door. “Ellie, we are done, you can start listening in again.”

“Yes Commander. Want me to unlock the door for you.”

“If you would be so kind.”

The door whooshed open, and just as it did we were greeted by Grayson, who was apparently waiting for us.

“Commander.”

“Grayson.” Lauren and Grayson greeted each other.

“Why did you call for me?”

“Ah, I want you to suit up and join us in the hangar bay in twenty minutes.” Lauren replied matter-of-factly.

“S-s-suit up?” He stuttered. “Wait, you want to say I need to go down with you?”

“Yep. Luna, can you show him the way?”

“Alright.” I agreed and smiled at Grayson.

“She’s not joking?” Grayson asked me.

“I’m afraid not.” I replied.

“I’ll be there in a couple of minutes as well to help you with your gear.” Lauren said as she looked towards the bridge. “I’m just going to get the people on the bridge up to date as well.”

“Okay.” I said as Lauren walked off towards the bridge. I then turned myself towards Grayson. “Let’s get going now.”

Grayson looked a bit confused as I walked away, but he swiftly followed me when he noticed I wasn’t stopping. “Your gear… so you are coming as well?”

“Yes, I am.” I said.

“...Well… I guess I should be happy to have another expert with me as well… but… how did you get the Commander to agree with that?”

“She doesn’t really have an option. We don’t really have an option.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Right… the plan.” Grayson nodded. “It’s still incredibly risky to take both the XO as the Commander herself on the mission. But as you said, the entire plan does revolve around this planet. Taking the two foremost experts on xenotech is definitely worth that risk.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded as we walked along.

When we arrived at the armory, another marine helped Grayson get into a suit of armor. Everyone else however stayed clear from me. Lauren had probably told them she’d help me herself. Gunny did walk over to me after he’d gotten into his gear.

“Hey there, LC. I’ll be your guard for today, together with the Commander, of course.” He gave me a wink.

“What about Grayson?” I asked.

“He’ll be joining us as well, together with private Blanchet.” As Gunny said that, the other marine who’d helped Grayson into a suit of armor saluted me. “Blanchet doesn’t say much, but they are a good marine.”

At that moment, the door of the armory opened again. “Sorry that I’m a bit later, the briefing took longer than expected.” It was Lauren. She was breathing a bit louder than usual, she must’ve run all the way from the bridge. “You guys can board the shuttle already, we’re shuttle one.”

“Alright Commander. See you in a bit, LC.” Gunny gave me a quick salute and then marched out of the door. Followed by Grayson, who was clumsily moving around, but he was being helped well-enough by Private Blanchet.

Lauren watched the rest walk and then made sure no one else was around. She then crouched next to me and smiled. “Do you remember how you got into one last time?”

“Yeah, a little bit… but some help would be nice.” I gave her a nod.

“Mhmm. Well, why don’t you get your jacket and your shirt off so we can get you strapped in. I’ll take some fitting armor in the meantime.”

“Okay.” I nodded and did as she asked. Not long afterwards, Lauren threw a black skin suit on the bench next to me.

“What’s this?” I asked. “I didn’t wear this last time.”

“We didn’t really have time to put you into one last time. This is a thermal suit. It will connect into the armor to regulate your body temperature better. It will also make medical readings more accurate. If you are in a suit of armor for a long period of time, these things are great. Especially if you need to go to the bathroom.”

“...Do I want to know how that works?”

Lauren stopped for a second and looked at the ceiling with her hands on her hips. “I’ll tell you if you need to know. Otherwise, it might be better if you didn’t.” She laughed. “Jokes aside. It’s pretty self-explanatory. These things weren’t made for rocket scientists… or xeno technological experts for that matter.”

“Oki.” I pulled off my pants and then stepped into the skin suit. Lauren gave me plenty of privacy by looking away. She didn’t really need to, given our relationship, but maybe it was just baked into her while dressing yourself in an armory like this.

When I was neatly and tightly into the skin suit, I told Lauren she could turn around. She still looked a bit flustered, though.

“What’s wrong? You’ve seen me naked before, haven’t you?”

“I have… but the skin suit looks really really good on you.” She said, with her volume turned down to one.

“Do I?” I looked at my legs and behind my back.

“Yes… you do…” Lauren turned back around. “Let’s not fool around too much and get you into some actual armor.”

I decided not to tease her any further and just follow her lead. The rest of the armor was quite easy to get into. The spare suit I’d worn during the ship infestation really couldn’t compare to how well this suit fit me.

“This should do.” Lauren looked quite content. “Can you try to move around a bit in it?”

I moved my legs and arms, everything really just felt right. I don’t really know why Grayson was looking so derpy before. This fit me like a glove. “It’s great.”

Lauren smiled and rubbed her hands. “Good, now pick yourself a gun while I put on my own gear.”

“Uh…”

“If you don’t know what to pick, I’ll help you in a sec.” Lauren pointed me at the gun locker.

So in the end I just spent a couple of minutes staring at some guns before my girlfriend came over to save her partner who probably looked like a deer in headlights.

“Are you sure I need to grab a gun? I didn’t see Grayson take one.”

“You don’t need one, I want you to have one.” She stated as she grabbed herself a bulky looking assault rifle and attached it to the back of her armor. “And I’m not just talking about a sidearm. Speaking of which.” She grabbed a pistol out of the locker. “Here, you’ve used this one before. You can put that in the holster at your thigh. If you hold it against your thigh, it should auto-extend.”

I took the pistol out of her hand and did as she said. Indeed, once I held the pistol near my right thigh, the armor pretty much automatically grabbed the pistol out of my hand.

“You can get it out just by slightly pulling it.” Lauren explained, as she was still looking at the gun locker.

I tried that as well, and lo and behold, it worked like a charm.

“As for a rifle…” She extended her arms into the locker and pulled out a gun that was quite a bit smaller and a lot less bulky than she’d picked out herself. “Can you hold this for me.”

“Mhmm.” I nodded and took it from her. It was really light and it somewhat reminded me of the training rifles we used at basic training.

“It doesn’t pack a big punch, but it’s really easy to keep on target. The sights are also really clear. It is based on the guns we use for basic training on earth so it should feel familiar. Pretty much handles the same, too.”

-Ah… that would explain it.- I gave Lauren a nod. “I think I can use this.”

“Good.” She smiled. “Then we are all set.” Lauren just picked out a couple of grenades and some other accessories out of the armory closet and then closed the door.

-It’s probably a good thing she didn’t give any grenades to me…-