Constructing Friendships [OPEN]

[Katelyn Zilar]

Katelyn had been in the Flight Hangers for about two hours now, even though for her it felt like it was around a half an hour. Fixing up her machines and thinking of ideas for new ones always made the time pass away for her without being overly-exhausted in the end, though neither did her two other little hobbies when it came to mind, but that was noth the point right now.

She was fixing up her 'Wild Panther' combat suit right nolw, upgrading parts on her machine to give her a bit of an extra hand in a fight. She needed to be stealthier, as Txe'lan had instructed her to make it be so about two days ago, and every bit of advice she did take into consideration, and it really was needed for her mech as well. Panters were always quiet and were atheletic when it came to their paitence of hunting their prey before striking down on the foe with a powerful blow, the power she already had with her mech as it was.

Disassembling the leg armor and most of it's components, she had been constructing hydrolic fluid canisters that would allow the legs to move much more silently, as well she had been fixing up the ankles up to allow more movement so she could be able to grip better in odder positions with her feet. Yes, it was coming along just swell right now.

She had been as well been working on her Ikran and her Dinhorse structures for those Avatars who could not grow their own Nerve tentacles so they could become more like the Na'vi despite them not being able to bond with other species, and it was going out smoothly for the Dinhorse structure. The Ikran however... was not doing so hot, for the weight of the beast was so heavy when it came to the peices of the structure for the body, and the worst thing was the exaust system for the damn lizard-bird... It was a bloody peice of work.

Re-adjusting her oxygen mask a little bit, she had put on numerous guards on her body as well the mask area to repel burns off of the body and the mask as she used her fusion cutter to take stuff off and put a few new things in. It was so good to do things with your hands sometimes, and this just allowed her to use her imagination to make a complete work of art out of metal and oil, it was just simply amazing. Could anything else be any better? Besides this planet and its natives?

[Jacob Michaelis]

Machines might have seemed like an infinitely complex science to those who chose an unrelated profession, but to Jacob, they were like a second understanding of nature. Metal, motor oil, and circuitry were like blood, flesh, and bones to him, only another part of nature that was more or less immortal to time and things like that. But this was Jacob's one true passion: machines. If only humans could be this easy to understand then he might have turned out differently, but humans were infinitely more complex than machines, no matter what science and philosophy had to say about it. Heck, even artificial intelligence could hold a conversation, but at least it wouldn't be biased like a human would be...

Jacob could be found refabricating the ball & socket joints of a couple mech suits that had been subject to some brutal confrontations with the Thanators outside of the human base on Pandora. Even if they were like the tigers of the Pandoran jungle, they packed a mighty punch and certainly gave engineering a run for their money. But there was no money to be had on Pandora, not since they crashed here not too long ago. Even so, what was the use of money when there was nothing to buy or someone else to haggle with? As far as Jacob was concerned, he had everything he needed right here; machines, parts, and the infinite capacity to make them better. All he needed to do was utilize or create adequate transportation for all of them to explore Pandora safely. That was still his biggest challenge yet...

While on a hunt for more parts to finish the joint repair, Jacob noticed someone else working on another suit, getting the hint that she was making upgrades or modifications. One thing that struck him as peculiar was that she was adding some parts to the feet that would allow for more in the mobility department, but her platform base was being compromised in the process. Given the weight of the suit she was working on, she would need a good base to stand on. Things like this couldn't be risked. And so Jacob trodded on over, ready to address her issue.

"That suit is going to need a larger standing platform or reduced overall weight; the way you have it right now it's going to make balance very difficult."

The sad thing was, he didn't even know who he was speaking to, only that she had a mechanical problem and he was here to help, if she wanted his help that is...

[Katelyn Zilar]

Not too many people seemed to be out on the Flight Hanger today, probably because they were there for the last two days before that, tinkering away on their busted machines to make sure they were back into shape once more. Hell, they needed to be all they could be if they were going to survive against the animals that lived on this planet, which was something she dreamed notto ever have to do in her lifetime.

Reason? It was because of her ever-lasting bondings with nature, she just loved every creature she met with, whenever dangerous of just plain cute, she just loves them with all the heart she has with her. Because of this, a lot lof her work on machines have a very big organic look to them, like her Combat Suit for example. It's parts were purely based on that of a Panther (As it's title says), with it fitted with the claws and more athletic ability that a normal suit would lack. But she wasn't finished with her suit just yet, no, she still needed to work on the suit to make it better

While she had been working however, it seemed that she had grabbed the attention of a admirer... Or a critic, judging by how he was telling her that she needed to lighten the weight or a larger standing platform. In truth, she knew he was right, but the thing was that she did not like all the safety issues and all that jazz, no, she liked things to be more complicated and risky, it always helped turn the gears in her head.

Finally she looked on over her shoulder casually to see who was talking to her while she worked. It of course was a man which she already knew from the voice that had been talking to her, though he seemed like a pretty OK guy when it came to the looks, but she wasn't one to care very much about that, and just turned her head back to her machine to get a work on it once more.

"Ya, I know that. Though I am just about done with the legs, so there is so little use then to have to refurbish it, seal-up the armory for the leg and then transporting it all the way over to the other side of the base to get a larger platform. Besides... I'm done with the legs now."

She said as she had taken out the main stablizer of the left leg, which began to tilt it to the side a little bit, but she had quickly managed to set the new stablizer back in before the suit had fully fallen over to the side. Once she had accomplished that, she had screwed in the nuts and bolts to keep the structure stable for a long time.

When she was done her little work, she picked up a rag to clean off all the oil that had spilt onto her arms and hands, and had walked over to this little worry-wart of a guy, then she brought one of her hands up to allow this guy to shake it.

"I am Private Katelyn Zilar of Squadren 065, it's a pleasure to meet you."

She told him in a more stern, and yet what was usually a soldier-friendly tone as she waited for this guy's handshake, or if he would even go any closer to her that is, for soldiers could be one of the nastiest people you can come up against. But that only counted for the humans that is.

[Jacob Michaelis]

Oh great; a soldier. Of all the people he had to try and point out a mechanical flaw to, he had to chose the one kind of person that would've made his life difficult. She probably had a very important job to do here now that everyone was stuck on Pandora, keeping all the humans safe from the Na'vi and such, but did she have to come across as such a bold person? Jacob had a feeling that her suit was probably very important for her to work on, but Jacob was just worried about people being safe around machines. After all, as a mechanical engineer, he couldn't count how many times people failed to take their safety seriously and paid heavy prices for it. Jacob had several scars of his own to show for not being safe.

So she was a soldier, not a very high-up one, but still part of the Armed Services. While she took out the leg stabilizer, Jacob held out his hands to keep it from falling over so she could put a new one in. Once that was all done, she held out her hand to shake, and Jacob accepted with his own hand, giving a firm yet gentle shake as to not over-exert his physical aptitude after all the machines he had to use manual labor for.

"Jacob Michaelis, chief engineer this side of Olympus."

Jacob couldn't pigeon-hole Katelyn as any kind of person, though the fact that she was a soldier was turning him off towards being relaxed. He'd always known to respect people in uniform, but she wasn't really in uniform since battle dress was usually only for going outdoors. There wasn't really anything to blend in with indoors, at least not that he knew of.... Jacob just wasn't much of a people-person, thus it was quickly getting difficult for him to find a casual topic to discuss. He didn't want to get into any kind of exchange over her profession, and yet he wondered why he chose to give her advice instead...

"If you're going for mobility, I'd recommend the Dynex Multi-function platform, but weight-wise I'd go with the AMP Standard platform. In this kind of environment, it's good for a suit to have mobility like the Na'vi. I'm always fixing these things as they come, so I could give you a rundown on their ups if you want."

Was it good of Jacob to be giving a soldier technical advice? He guessed he'd find out pretty soon. All he needed to do was finish some joint repairs, but that could wait. If this was her special project, Jacob would love to help if he can.

[Katelyn Zilar]

Katelyn had raised a bit of a brow at this guy while they had been shaking hands with one another, already she had learned his name being Jacob Mehcaelis, but that wasn't what had lightly surprised her in the least. This guy seemed to declare himself to be the Chief of Engineering, and that impressed her a little bit to hear that, but only just a little bit.

It seemed that he had been doubting her ability to be able to make a proper machine just because of a stupid base that she would have no use of now, and just let go of her hand out of his grip and began to walk back to wards her suit once more, picking up what was a control panel for her suit.

Wild Panther was meant to be a machine of stealth but with power of that a panther was meant to have with them. So in such a way, you could say that it has some traits of that of a Na'vi since they are structured for that of stealthy hunting techniques that they use, and the powerful hits that they can solely do with their bare hands, though mine is better with close-combat.

She clearified to Jacob as she had pressed one mere button, causing blades from all finer and toe tips to spring out blades that shone a brighter silver than the color of her suit's hull making them very visible compared to most parts. It did complete the suit in such a matter that it made it feel like its name had made sense with it having sort of the look of the old jungle cat back on Earth, despite the cockpit being a little bulky to allow her to fit inside.

Grabbing a cleaner cloth, she began to kneel down and wipe off any grime and old, decaying plant matter to keep the claws nice and cleanso that no rust would penetrate it and cause issues when fighting enemies, cause the worst thing was fighting foes with a busted mech.

"Now, I have always finished the suit's legs for both mobility and weight issues, though if you would like, I need to still make the top-side a bit quieter for they make a pretty loud noise. Give you a little something for you to do, I can see you staring in awe at my mech, so you might as well have a little look around."

That was when she had gotten another control panel, this one controlling the platform her mech had began putting on locks around the ankle joints, a little upgrade she put on the platform when she was simply bored with her work, though it did help keep the mech secure enough for someone to go on it and crawl on the structure to look around the top-side.

[Jacob Michaelis]

Oh yeah, Katelyn was definitely a woman moving with a purpose. She had so much in mind when constructing a machine of her own, leaving Jacob to believe that she had further plans to go masquerading around in the jungles of Pandora. It was definitely a gutsy move considering that the Na'vi and native animals outnumbered the humans a million to one, but at least Katelyn would be well-protected if the suit she was building matched her specifications, but Jacob wanted to make sure it wasn't going to hurt her in the process; one false part or a flaw in the design would not be a favorable thing.

"Yeah, but the only panthers here seem capable of tearing machines apart..." Jacob was referring to the many mechs that had joint troubles because of the Thanator's handy work. They packed so much punch with their four front paws, especially in the mech's elbows and knees. Hopefully Katelyn wouldn't have the same problem if her suit was designed for mobility and stealth.

When Katelyn extended the invitation to help, Jacob practically jumped for joy on the inside. Making a machine perfect was his prized skill pallet, and he couldn't resist. The other suits could wait since they were standardized and all had the same problems, but something new and exciting would be a break from the same-old same-old.

"Don't mind if I do."

She said that the topside of her suit had been having noise issues. This, Jacob figured, could be for a number of reasons. It could be the alloy she was using was making too much noise on contact. He figured it might be that hollow-point titanium plating tended to resonate a bit more than the standard bronzium shell. But Jacob thought that was a minor issue when compared to the joints which was what often made the most noise. Upon closer inspection of her topside joints he found the most likely problem: her joints were the standard grease bearing servos; definitely not what she would want.

"I think I know what will fix the noise problem. Instead of grease bearings, I think you will want a pressurized fluid ball-socket joint with cement rubber coatings; that will make things much more quiet and smooth like they use on precision drills."

Jacob immediately laundered off to the supply parts room to fetch what she needed. Taking apart a salvaging drill bit, he collected all the pressurized fluid joints and brought over a small tank of joint fluid too, hauling it over on a hover lift. This would make her platform perform much quieter and more to her specifications. However, he wasn't going to touch them yet until Katelyn was ready to work on them. After all, this was her suit; he didn't want to hijack the project right out from under her...

[Katelyn Zilar]

Katelyn had indeed been paying attention the this Jacob person, giving off a glimpse or two back at him as she had been working on the armor that was required to hide the more sensitve wires and pistons in the inside. Before she had done that though, she had given the inside of the armor a light foam coverage so it could help stop vibrations from emitting from the inside structure, besides it pretty quiet already, it was better to be safe than sorry when being stealthy.

When she heard about using the ball and socket though, she had stopped her work, she had brought what she was doing to a grinding halt, and quickly looked back at Jacob once more. Only to see him rushing over to to the supply parts room, that just made her roll her eyes and chuckle at that little scene, and just went back to doing her work on the armor platings once more. She always had a little bit of an issue with the ball and socket ideas personally, it was just that she thought that they could be easially ripped off by creatures like the Thantors like what the engineer was talking about, a creature that had very much caught her amusement indeed.

When he had gotten back, it seemed he brought back a load of stuff with him, including the ball and socket stuff of course, something that she still was quite unsure about still. However, if this guy was indeed the Chief of Engineering, than she would have to take his advice and go ahead with it. So she went back with her work on the other leg to put the armor, though when she was done with that, he seemed to be waiting for her to give out the order on working with the arms, probably wanting her to come up and help him out. What a gentleman, not laying a single finger on her machine unless she gave out the orders.

Then she began to walk over to the engineer once more, standing onto the hover lift right by the bundle of machine parts, glimpsing at them for a brief moment, and with that in mind of the parts they were going to use, she looked back at Jacob once more, with a finger pointing at the mechanical parts.

"Now, your sure this will work? Cause I don't want to end up having a scrap ball of what was used to be my suit if I test her outside."

Her voice was stern when she talked about her ship, only because she had practically made this all on her own from scratch, and it would be just an awful waste is she had lost it just because of one measly fight with one of the animals out on Pandora, and someone would be losing half of their jaw because of it.

[Jacob Michaelis]

Just when he thought he'd solved the issue, Jacob was met with another challenge by Katelyn. In all of his engineering knowledge, he was always bound by the limits of physics. An armored suit was meant to protect the driver, but the way she was designing it was binging on purpose over protection. He figured he'd do the best he could, but no option was fool-proof. At least with this new joint she'd have a little less noise profile, rather than the brute joints the grease bearings were known for. He supposed that if a Thanator was capable of ripping apart joints no matter how sturdy they were made, then the make of the joint would be the least of her worries.

"I'm never sure of anything, especially on this planet. If you want we can put stress tests on one to see how long it will hold up. We've got plenty here last I took inventory..."

For being a mostly abandoned complex, this place had a huge surplus of equipment. Jacob could determine that this used to be a mining facility given their supply of Unobtanium (god that stuff was a goldmine of scientific applications) and all the equipment that was used to extract it, so there was no shortage of machine parts here to work with. Better yet, they seemed to have quite a state-of-the-art testing facility for development, such as the stress chamber simulator and the refinery, much like what the RDA was known for as far as technological advancement.

"... but then again, your suit isn't a typical one, so I guess it's better to be safe than sorry."

Jacob was merely stating the obvious. A suit like the one Katelyn was building had rather unique characteristics, so if she wanted less noise she would need specialized parts and if she wanted better speed she would have to use an entirely new propulsion system on her platform, but he wasn't going to suggest anything unless she specifically stated that she would have to make certain adjustments to work around a particular problem. After all, this was her project, and if she wanted something she could do it her own way and suffer the consequences of her actions later, but Jacob would rather be sure something worked right before he field tested it. It was a fine line between safe and sorry, but that was the line Katelyn seemed to be walking...