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The platoon had been long gone by the time Night entered the festival alone, even Quickpaw and hir mates had gone off on their own.

He began to mindlessly wander the festival grounds, looking for something to do. Social gatherings wasn't his specialty. "I guess this is just what happens when you spend most of your time shooting things..." He thought to himself. " You get more used to killing things than talking to them."

Meanwhile...

Back in the med-lab Skah was undergoing his final tests, at the bottom of the elevator shaft he had lain broken, his limbs burst and useless. His neck cought the cable on the way down (slowing him dramatically, probably how he had survived) which had severed most of his bottom jaw and leaving bare skinless tissue shown.
When the doctors found him they did not think he would survive, but decided to use him to test out their latest in robotic limbs and enhancements. Long time had they worked on the Rotian's new body, even going so far as to remove the limbs which could have been treated so that they could adapt more technology to the body of his ancient race.


His enhancements were not made like the body of the young cyborg, Krayton, he could barely remember little Kray with all the drugs he was on to sedate him, and keep him quiet through the agony... but were metal, and they looked like metal and the smell on new metal and his own blood was all that there was to Skah for his eyes had been covered, or were blinded by something, he could feel his pulse still in the metal limbs... he could taste in his mouth and it was closed to him. The voices he could hear about him... "Is it ready? Can we switch it on yet?" "No not yet we.. *bzzzzzzzzt*.... this on!" he felt something heavy on his shoulders, his heart raced as all he could do was guess what the buzzing noise was, he guessed a drill, he was right. Five more screws were put into his viser, four were long, two of them were short.

"At last, it's finished." ... "Well don't just stand there, lets say *click* hello!" instantly as the click became audable his eyes could see again, scores of information flashed infront of him but all of it was read and understood. Skah was confused and nervous, he tried to get up but he was bolted down to a big metal operating table. In a new metallic, hoarse voice he asked in a commanding voice "What is the meaning of this, what've you done to me! Quacks, scummy quacks all of you!" in his rage he tried moving his arms again, but to no avail. "Relax, we saved you. You were dying at the bottom of an elevator shaft before we found you, you know." Skah relaxed as if on command - "I don't know who you are, or what you...." as he relaxed he faced up, and cought his reflection in the mirrored ceiling. He looked as he always had, but metal and not at all scaley, even his torsoe was metal with a Federation shield branded into the breast, painted in metalic non-chip federation standard.

The metal the doctors, and engineers, had used to compose his body was naturally shiney, and chromatic. To take the glint away they had blackened it to look as Skah's own skales had looked. Where his large eyes had once sat there was now a thin strip of bulletproof glass, with a faint white glow from behind. This viser was attatched to the helmet that had been attatched to re-enforce his shattered skull, which had a sleek looking metal guard at the bottom, with a voice box in the neck. There was no opening.

Other than his face, all parts resembeled his own, but where muscles once were, tere were now hydrolic pipes, and tubes, where knees and joints were there now sat hinges to allow maneuverability. There was nothing he could do, a dead man in a metal coffin he thought. "When do I get out of here?" he asked calmly. "When we need something done, ofcourse." all the doctors began to laugh, as another click was heard and his eyes darkened once more.

(By the way, NICE! I love the way you reintorduced your character into the story!)

Sibet had long been out of Kray's sight. He probably found some place to gamble. He always did. Luckily, Kray had slipped a map into his friends pocket. Hey, he had to learn a few odd tricks when you hang out with Sibet. Placing stuff in his pockets was always remarkably easy, now taking stuff out was a different question.

While he was walking around the place, he had bought a new shirt from the festival. He also competed in some games of skill. The dart games always made him glad, and he was good at them. Though he stopped soon after, realizing that it was most likely his mechanical brain increasing his accuracy with the darts. He felt bad really. He felt like he was cheating the game owner when he didn't miss the last four round of the game. He only played five rounds too! Everything always seem to bring up the fact of his... heritage. He hadn't seen any other military personal in a while, and the time was going by. Maybe a last trip to the Farris wheel might calm him down.

A familiar click is heard, the bright lights in the room seem to not affect his sight at all, he 'scans' the room, and picks up the doctors from before, and the shadows and reflections of other doctors behind him. All of them speaking their doctor jargen, Skah wants to be tired as he can feel his 'natural' components tireing.

The bolts uncatch from him, he is released. In his freedom he feels compelled to remain still, unknowing wether it's by some man-made control, or by the dread feeling that he's some kind of mechanical monster, wrapped in a shell just like a Scarab... still he lays there.
"Can you get up Unit 501?" said an unseen voice, the sound of keys being pushed rapidly was heard for a moment before she spoke again : "The systems appear fine, I don't understand this. Ensign, take a look at his core and see we've given him enough juice." The young engineer approached, he had blue skin and smelled funny, he stared undoing part of Skah with some strange tool. Skah did,t like it, he reached out and grabbed the engineer by the face, he stood up off the table and growled in his throat. The ensign was lifted off the ground, and screaming like a girl, as Skah'lek showed off his physical might by lifting him higher.

The doctors crowded round and started taking chart readings, they were more amazed than scared. This confused the Rotian and he set the poor fella down (who immediately ran AWAY!!) "This is most impressive, already so used to your prosthetics and you'd never even tried them out before. Incredible." Said the doctor he was familiar with, and who he did,t really care for. Skah felt urged to speak to them "The body responds as it should, although I feel a little off ballance." he realized why, his tail was missing. This made his heart heavy as he'd never lost the original before. But good news always follows. A trolly was wheeled out, it had a canvas sheet over it, the sheet was drawn back by an engineer, he gave a "Ta-dah!" as it was unveiled, but nobody found it funny. Under the canvas was a long, metal tail designed to look like the one he'd lost.

Hastily Skah picked it up and attatched it, he knew where it went as if by programmed instinct. It came to life once plugged in, and Skah stood taller with it there.

"We've added some minor programs to your psychosis, self preservation methods will be second nature to you, you will be able to repair on the field using scrap, biological scrap or man-made. There are other features but... we'll let you find those out yourself. Your role is not tactical ops anymore, you're not as stealthy as you once were. You will be assigned in open combat, you will also pilot various craft... I believe you have some knowledge of flight, from your pirating days?"

Skah was unsure as to how anyone knew about his days with the Fell Myst space pirates, but he just went along with it. "Yes I can fly most light craft in tactical space combat maneuvers, and I can pilot large ships also. I done my basic flight training with the Federation and..." he was cut off by the doctor - "Yes yes, you passed with ease blah blah blah, you talk too much, do you know that? We'll try to figure out something for you. And we won't blind you or bolt you tonight, welcome to the Federation unit 501."

Night examined Rexan's kimono, then looked back up at her. "I suppose." He said, smiling kindly at her. "What did you have in mind?" He asked.

Rexan blushes and looks around. "Hmmm. How about some Games!" She says, pointing to the fair games. "Comeon!" She grabs his paw and starts to run over to the Game area, laughing and smiling and basicly having a good time.

Kray, too deep in thought to notice, almost runs into Luca. As it was, he also jumped from the touch on his shoulder. "Oh! I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." He then looks over, seeing who it is, as well as who was with him. "Nothing really." He says, not knowing if he should be saluting or something right now.

Rexan points to the Strength Meter. "Win me first prize!" She says, smiling. "Come on, show me some muscle!"