Chapter Text
There were a great deal of things Cephalon Cy regretted in his lifetime.
One such thing was his previous crew, as everyone knew. Another was, quite unfortunately, allowing a fucking child to pilot his Railjack.
However, his greatest regret of all?
Allowing said child to convince him into distress signaling the Tempestarii and recovering its captains corpse.
It wouldn't have been a big deal if the Operator had given the body a proper burial in space like any good captain would like to go out, but no. They had to go find a way to try and revive it.
"You can't just, I dunno, pull down his soul from heaven and stick it back in there?"
Hence their current situation. Reanimation.
"I'm starting to think you don't know how death works," Nekros said with a hint of annoyance. The Operator shrugged. "Damn straight I don't. I just want another ally."
"We don't need another Gauss and Grendel situation where someone almost dies for it."
The Operator scoffed. "Please, we both know Loki was asking for it."
"Can you make it quick? I don't want this corpse on my ship any longer than it needs to be," Cy finally interjected. Nekros sighed.
"Yeah, we can reanimate this frame, but we'll need to get its systems going again."
A collective silence fell over the ship, until Operator pulled out a communications tab.
"Hey Ordis? Could you send Volt up here?"
Oh.
Oh no.
Nekros seemed to have the same thought, because his entire body became rigid. "You're not going to shock it, are you?"
The Operator gave him a strange look. "Yes, i'm going to shock him. Why?"
Nekros kneeled there for a moment, in genuine disbelief. When the hatch from the Orbiter to the Railjack opened and Volt popped out, he took that exact moment to leave.
"I don't get paid enough for this," he grumbled before exiting the ship. Amusing.
The newest frame on deck stared down at the corpse. "Mmm...yeah, I can probably bring him back. You might want to stand back."
The Operator had already moved next to the window, a good ten feet away from the other two. "You do know what you're doing, right?"
"Fuck no."
"What-"
No other words were able to be spoken before Volt put his now electrified palms to the corpses chest. The two physically present in the ship (and Cy of course) watched as the body jerked around uncomfortably.
"How many volts did you output into his body?" Cy questioned warily.
"About 2000 volts. Why?"
"Good God."
The body continued to jerk about for a good minute, during which all three present thought that Volt had just successfully filled a frames systems with nothing but electricity.
Until the body shot up.
"What the fuck happened?!"
"And that's the story of how you died! I think."
The previous deceased captain-now known to all of them as Sevagoth-was nodding along like he understood everything the Operator rambled on about. Which included how peanut butter and jelly sandwiches tasted like shit.
"I understood none of that, but i'll roll with it."
"Great! Now there's just one condition that'll let you keep your free contract of life from expiring again."
Sevagoth tilted his head. "And that is?"
The Operator grinned widely. "Pilot the Railjack for me."
"No." That was Cy.
"Done." That was definitely not Cy.
"You don't get a say in this Cy. Welcome aboard Sevagoth!" The Operator cheered. Sevagoth seemed mildly confused, but still put a fist in the air in victory.
"I'll leave you two to get acquainted with each other. And don't worry Sevagoth, you'll meet the others in a while. Toodles!"
And with that, it was just a frame and a cephalon.
Silence.
"...So you're Cy?"
"Cephalon Cy."
"Right. Well, I already introduced myself, so it's a pleasure to meet you Cephalon Cy."
Cy could feel his already limited grasp on sanity fading away with the horrible act the frame was putting on.
"If we are going to be working together from here on out, there is no need to be so painfully formal with me, Sevagoth."
That seemed to catch the frame off guard. His posture stiffed for a moment, and then relaxed.
A chuckle came from the captain.
"Thank you for saying that," Sevagoth said sincerely.
"I said there was no need to-"
"-Because talking like that is a pain in the fucking ass, holy shit! I felt more of my will to live drain away every fucking time I had to speak with that kid."
Oh. He really was a space pirate then. Swore like one too.
"I mean, for fucks sake, who hates peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? I can't even eat, but I know they're the shit."
And he didn't know how to shut up either. But he did have a point about the sandwiches. By all accounts, they seemed delicious.
"And goddamn, did they never touch this thing after they got it? Look at all those scratches! I'd be crying right now if I had tear ducts."
"It had been approximately six months, nine days, fifteen hours, twenty one minutes, and forty seconds since the Operator last used the Railjack." Cy reported.
Sevagoth scoffed. "Six months! I couldn't go two days without setting out in my old ship!"
This one was going to be a piece of work.
"If you wish to, I can request Cephalon Ordis to order paint for you to touch up the ships interiors before we touch on the hull situation."
"That'd be great, thanks Cy."
"Cephalon Cy."
Sevagoth hummed. "Yeah, no. I'm calling you Cy. The rest is too formal."
Fucking undead pirates.
"Wait, did you say hull? The fucks wrong with your hull?"
"It is incredibly weak, being unable to withstand a mid level Void Storm."
"Oh for the love of-who decided it was a good idea to let a child pilot you?"
"I did."
Sevagoth groaned, putting his head in his hands. "I can't believe you. I've known your horribly unfunny ass for only five minutes, and you've managed to make worse life decisions than me."
"I feel insulted," Cy deadpanned.
"Good, you fucking should. Now, hull report."
Cy ran diagnostics on the ship, wincing internally when he saw the critical damage to the hull. No doubt a product of recovering Sevagoths body.
"Would you like the good news first?"
"There's good news?" Sevagoth said in disbelief. "Sure, let's hear it."
"The ship is not in any immediate danger of falling apart."
"Is that meant to make me feel reassured?" The frame retorted, examining the turrets meant to be manned by two of the crew. "Shit, you need to replace these."
"The bad news is the hull is in critical need of repair, or else the ship will likely be destroyed the next time we set out."
"It'll WHAT?!" Sevagoth bellowed, ripping his head away from the turrets to stare at the empty Railjack. "You can't be serious. You're fucking with me, right?"
"I am not messing with you, Sevagoth," Cy sighed.
"Great. I'm stuck piloting a shitty fucking ship for a brat. No offense, Cy."
He was offended, but they needed to get along if they were to pilot the Railjack together. "None taken."
Sevagoth had made his was to the supply, surveying the remaining dome charges for the forward artillery. "Good. I'm not trying to piss off my command Cephalon."
Lovely, he was the flattering type. If Cy could roll his eyes, he would.
"All in all, I don't think this ship is a lost cause. It'll just take a fuck ton of work to fix up," Sevagoth concluded, adding an additional dome charge just for safety. "And you'll be helping, right Cy?"
He'd rather not. "Yes."
"Alright then! First order of business; this shit needs to be painted purple."
"No."
Sevagoth made a vaguely offended noise. "I'm sorry? Did you say no purple?"
"Yes. Purple is only fine if it is an accent. Not the main color."
"Well, what would you suggest then?" Sevagoth huffed, crossing his arms.
"Anything that is not purple," Cy said, his growing exasperation starting to bleed through in his tone.
The frame uncrossed his arms just to throw them up in annoyance. "Fuck then! I don't know, what about grey?"
"Acceptable."
"Oh for FUCKS sake!"
In the end, they agreed on the Railjack being silver and purple to match Sevagoths appearance. Not like that took hours to decide on.
Unfortunately, Cy had no way of mentally preparing himself for his future partnership with Sevagoth.
Especially when the crew was made up of the other frames that had no mission to be deployed on.
Joy.