A Planet, a Dwarf, and Alcohol Dependence

Part 2; Back to the Rig

The crew ship shook as it rocketed through space from jump point to jump point, refueling along the way. It was odd an armed gunboat was assigned to carry about three teams worth of dwarves, but I could tell they were all skilled. There wasn't a single one of them who wasn't smoking something, and all of them had their armor donned already. Some of them, such as a gunner named Sergei, already was polishing his Bulldog in preparation. Soon, we got dropped into the station through the rear port of the rig in the Memorial Hall. Two dwarves were already there. They both saluted with their pickaxes, shouting, "ROCK AN... RAGNAR?!?" The gunner dropped his pick and charged at Ragnar. Ragnar's laugh filled the station as he ran towards the gunner. They smashed against each other with a thunderous crash as they locked themselves in a wrestling match, tossing each other around as if the other was a chunk of Jadiz. The gunner was in full armor, the servos whirring overtime trying to fight against the unarmored Ragnar. Ragnar grinned before ducking low and grabbing the gunner by the gut, easily hefting him to his shoulder like a sack of grain and walking back to Gabrielle and the other dwarf with a cocky smile.

"Good to see you again, Ragnar. I see you and Brokkr are getting along nicely." The smaller dwarf held out a hand to Ragnar. Ragnar gently shook it, while Brokkr struggled like an angry cat to escape Ragnar's grip, before giving a resigned sigh and falling limp, simply waiting to be let down.

"Good to see you again, Eitri. I'm not sure how I feel being back, but I know that I'm glad to be back with you. Did you get called back here too, or did you never really leave?"

Eitri shrugged, saying, "I wanted to get away from the violence, but Brokkr takes after you and revels in the gibs and guts of the bugs. Explains why you two gits are friends." Eitri placed his hands on his hips and laughed, tilting his head back. Gabrielle and Ragnar followed suit before Brokkr punched Ragnar in the kidney. Ragnar stopped laughing and threw the gunner down, unaffected by the hit. "You never were above a cheap shot, were you?"

Brokkr responded with a simple, "When your as durable as a damn Dreadnought, I have to get every advantage I can."

Ragnar scoffed and hauled Brokkr to his feet, before smacking his shoulder and tossing him a credit chip, saying, "Get today's special for everyone. I'm willing to imagine that the Leaf Lover will want us on a mission here soon."

"Ragnar, your bay is already prepared with all your old armor and weaponry." Said Eitri, before adding, "Same with you, Gabrielle."

Gabrielle and Ragnar looked at each other with ever-growing grins before immediately turning tail and running off to their bays.

Eitri and Brokkr were at the bar sometime later as Gabrielle and Ragnar joined them. Gabrielle wore a set of bulky overalls with padding on the legs and chest, with a tank top underneath displaying her muscular arms and her signature runic tattoos. A light armor underrig dubbed, "The Fox" helped generate her atmospheric shield. It was a weak shield, weak armor, but so light you wouldn't notice it was on, which allows a much smaller wear-per-use on the signature scout mobility tool, the Grapple. Ragnar was covered head to toe in Scale Brigade, Celtic and Norse knotwork covering him head-to-toe. His armor rig should be "The Mole" due to his role as Driller. However, he managed to scab together pieces of a Barracuda armor rig, that being the standard for a Gunner, and the standard Mole armor rig to give himself elemental resistance to flame, ice, and even such things as Rockpox pheromones to keep him from getting grabbed by the tendrils, and the radiation from Praetorians. This was called the "Juggernaut" armor rig and was exclusive to Ragnar. However, all the time he spent on his custom-made armor rig meant that he hadn't the resources to outfit himself completely otherwise. He still ran the stock loadout, the CRSPR Flamethrower, the Subata 120, and the Impact Axes, while Gabrielle used the Jury-Rigged Boomstick and the M1000. She had all the bases covered with long, mid, and short range, with crowd control with cryo grenades. She swooped in and gathered the horde to a chokepoint, where Ragnar blew those bugs to hell in an explosion so spectacular that even Karl would laugh and clap his hands with joy. Ragnar was the bruiser of the team; everybody else was there to support him or to sustain themselves until he got back. This wasn't because the team was inexperienced, no, it was simply because Ragnar was a different dwarf, down in the caves. He rarely communicated, never slowed down, and the few times he does speak he barks out orders over the comm link. This isn't a bad thing, per se, he treats the rest of the team as interns. He was one of the grandfathers of DRG, he was a thousand ranks above any of his coworkers.

Eitri and Brokkr handed Gabrielle a mug of ale in a distinct red mug with a brutal motif. However, the bartop was full of the same. However, they were not all going to have two rounds. Slayer Stout was a potent drink, and the five-pint mugs they were served in didn't help. Brokkr gave me a mug of it and said, "Your first of five. I know you love this stuff."

Without a word, Ragnar saluted the team and drank the mug, tossing it over his shoulder. It took about three seconds, and two of them were receiving and discarding the mug. He walked back over to the bar and tipped Loyd, the modified BOSCO built to be a bartender and drank the other four. He turned around, not even on a buzz yet, and walked back over to the mission terminal.

"I'm feeling strong today. Let's go take out some Dreadnoughts."

The team shouted their approval with a thunderous Rock and Stone as they all ran to the drop pod as Ragnar initiated the mission, joining them. As they ran into the pod, muscle memory kicked in and they all slapped the dice once as they passed, jumping into their seats as the pod's doors shut and it rocketed off to the surface of Hoxxes-IV.

God damn, it's good to be back.