It was Friday, and it was a good one at that. Those of the 9th Squad that had do spend time in this hospital after that excursion into the Omega Sector had recovered reasonably well. Sure, there was some scaring in both a physical and emotional sense. But did that mean that one couldn't heal? Of course not!
And Tyger had yet to find a wound that he could not recover from, given enough time and distraction. This was no different for him. He stepped out of the locker room that was at the 9th Squad's precinct house. In one hand he carried a clipboard, the other was busy zipping up the rest of his coveralls. He also had an unlit cigarette in his mouth just for fun. While all of the other officers were busy running around trying to get out of the hanger, not too much unlike a hoard of rats fleeing a sinking ship, Tyger was preparing himself for another weekend with his baby. With socket-wrench in hand, the Clade made his way purposefully to the spot where the Blue Steel Special was stored.
There was a moment of silence when Tyger approached the maintenance rig that normally held his baby. It was gone. But who? Why? Where did they take it...and how could they be made to pay? He was only dimly aware of the heavy, metal clattering of the socket wrench and the slap-clatter of his clipboard as both objects hit the ground...
Tyger had managed to salvage everything that he could from the Blue Steel Special MKII. The sniper's Armor Piercing round had ripped its way through the ruined hide of the prototype power armor and ricocheted countless times around the inside of the armored hull, effectively rendering the power armor totally useless.
The grenades were useless here, as was the GAU-88. There was nobody on the team that could use the monstrous rifle. However, there were five high-powered AP rounds that Tyger turned over to Hemelshot, as the Sergeant's hand-cannon could at least use those. Emergency equipment, body armor, ammunition was all recovered. Between himself and Burton, the VL-1 and its Capacitor was stripped from its housing and jury-rigged to be moved around on a cart and fired manually.
Tyger managed to get the self-destruct systems online so that the core-melt-down would cause the utter destruction of the suit and all of its technology. The last thing he wanted was to have the suit become possessed and come after them. More importantly, he could not just leave the machine where it laid. It took every bit of his willpower to keep from crying, and more than what he thought he had, to continue to stand there and push the button that would render the Blue Steel Special into a useless pile of slag...
Of course the Blue Steel wasn't going to be here. How could it be? He destroyed it himself after getting totaled by the possessed previous 9th Squad. He had to make sure that it would not come back to haunt them. He had to keep it out of the hands of the Enemy.
Tyger took several faltering steps to where the VL-1 and its capacitor were resting in the center of the discolored spot on the ground where the Blue Steel would normally occupy. With a sad, almost broken sigh, Tyger sat down in front of the inert weapon. One of his hands moved delicately over the surface of the laser, touching the machined surface as if it were the shoulder of a lifelong friend. "You're all I've got left now. Not much to fix or maintain on you either. You've always taken good care of me, I wish I could have taken care of you better. If I did, you would have a home right now, instead of just sitting here on the ground like this, praying that Sirkowski finds a good home for you before someone decides they want to send you to the scrap heap." Tyger gave a sad sigh. "Maybe if I weren't such a fuck-up...y'know?" he said, almost as if he were answering something the derelict weapon said to him.
Tyger though for several minutes, and came to the sudden realization that not only was he without a Power Armor of any sort, he was unable to submit himself to his usual routine. He considered going over to spend his weekend with Marcy, but that thought was discarded quickly because he remembered that she was preparing for a big test that was coming up soon. He had to admire her, she was a better person than he was, that was for certain. "Great..." he muttered under his breath. "...just fuckin' great. Now what the fuck am I gonna do?"