Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jackal became marginally aware of the Aiolos landing next to him, however, so engrossed he was in one of his seldom moments of respite, that he found himself unwilling to move, however eventually he reluctantly rose to his feet and began stumbling towards the airlock, one hand still clutching the wound at his side.
Upon reaching the airlock, the raider climbed the stairs sluggishly, gritting his teeth with the amount of effort he was putting into this one simple task, his legs felt like lead weights, and it no doubt showed on his face.

Reaching the top of the stairs and stepping into the airlock, Jackal focused all of his extra energy resisting the urge to slump against a wall and sleep. Despite the pilots seemingly good intentions, he was still on enemy territory, and he refused to let his guard down...

Jackal took a few more steps into the airlock slowly, almost reluctantly. He heard a slight whirring sound and span on the spot to find the source of it, his fists raised, the pain of his sudden movement visibly etched into his features. He couldnt see anything that looked too suspicious, but in his profession it was dangerous to let one's guard down, so he stood, posed ready for a fight.

A few moments later, the raider exhaled hard and dropped his aching arms as he heard the pilots voice.
"That won't be nescessary," he winced slightly, his body taking umbridge to his pride, "Tell her to grab the medical kit from my bike and give it to me... I can take care of myself..."

The pilot leant against the doorframe of the airlock, looking closely at the access panel beside it.
"Alright"
He said to the raider through the intercom before switching the channel to the cargobay's loudspeaker.
"Hey Koko, could ya do me a massive favour and bring that bike's medical kit up to Jackal who is in the airlock while I fly us home? Oh, and make sure to have a good look through it first... just in case..."
Zed then turned and headed up to the cockpit where he continued preparing the ship for heading back to Ares.

Jackal didn't move the whole time Koko shouted at him, he simply stood parallel to her, his tired eyes fixed on hers, he looked infuriatingly impassive.
As the airlock door closed and locked he exhaled smoothly, though the sound was not free of aggresive irritation, "Koko... Always a pleasure." He growled sarcastically.
Picking up the medical kit he rummaged through it, throwing away bandages and mundane looking medical equipment until he found a slim cigarette case, which he opened quickly to reveal a neat line of hand rolled 'cigarettes.' He picked one of the roll-ups up and placed it between his lips, he then rummaged around for his gold bell lighter and struck it, the action complimented by a pleasant ringing noise.
The raider inhaled ravenously, backing into the airlock wall and sliding down it, exhaling the herbal-smelling smoke slowly, as if he was deflating...

After a while of leaning against the airlock door, Koko slid down so that she was sitting on the floor. She was having another, albeit more mild, set of flashbacks. She deperately needed something to distract herself with so - god she couldn't believe she was doing this - she actually began to talk to Jackal. Since she was right up against the door, her voice carried through into the airlock when she raised it.
"Heh... I guess I gotta give ya some credit raider, ya sure secured that bike up tight. Even I'm havin' trouble with it..."
She wasn't even sure if the raider would answer her, she just needed something, anything, to distract her from the disjointed memories that kept coming back to haunt her.

The Aiolos built up speed as it orbited the planet before it headed towards a huge jupiter-like gas giant.
Zed steered the ship slightly to one side of the vast planet and increased the power to the engines. The ship passed the gas giant closely, using it's steep gravity well to effectivley slingshot the ship to higher speeds and towards the bright white star at the center of the star system.
Zed put on a pair of sunglasses as they neared the star, now moving a few thousand meters per second above the speed of light.
The pilot repeated the same manouver he used when passing the gas giant, except this time he stayed a little further from the massive ball of burning hydrogen as going too close might burn his wings.
The Aiolos slingshotted around the star and towards the Ares star system at well over the speed of light.
Zed removed his sunglasses and watched as they flew through the endless vaccum of space at speeds that where once thought to be impossible.

Jackal leant his head on the wall, slowly taking another large drag on his joint. After letting a few moments of silence pass, he exhaled with a rattling breath, blowing a few smoke rings idly. Too tired to express his outrage at listening to the girl talking about his bike so casually, the raider replaced what was potentially a string of curses with another sharp inhalation on the reefer. After a few moments he exhaled slowly before addressing the girl quietly. "I thought that might be the case... its not so easy looking is it? It's all well and good talking about rigging my bike, but when it comes down to it, you just don't have the teeth for it. Don't feel too bad about yourself, you're not the first who's tried to f**k with my ride... hopefully you'll be the last though..." Jackal stopped for a second to inhale another lungful of smoke, before expelling it from his lungs with an almighty sigh.
"If I were you, I'd just leave it, its more tech than you can handle anyway. Don't bother buffing the dents out, I can take care of it. And definately don't paint it... Just leave my bike alone..."