CthulhuTech Mecha

[Nerd-o-rama]

Prologue

Monday, March 5, 2085
NEG Urban Combat Training Center, Fort Ord Naval Base, California
1245 hours (2045 GMT)

As expected for southern California, the day is bright and sunny with a cool breeze sweeping in off the Pacific to keep things comfortable. Over the Pacific looms the impressive bulk of the NEG's newest flying battlecruiser, the NES Victory, done with her 'sea trials' and officially commissioned less than an hour ago, awaiting only its crew, and the finale of the commissioning ceremonies, both of which are on your hands.

Everyone is currently sitting in the cool, surprisingly clean dimness of the naval base's pilot barracks, standing apart from the base's regular mecha and aerial guard forces while awaiting your part in the festivities - as the Victory's mecha support squad, you'll be taking part in a wargame to demonstrate to the gathered civilians and officers how you intend to fight in real combat.

Outside, everyone's mecha and Engels are gathered, weapons temporarily dialed back to nonlethal levels - lasers and plasma beams will merely paint a target, rockets are filled with paint and carrying minimal fuel, and HyperEdge weapons have their polarized nanotube edges disengaged. The audience of several hundred is still viewing from a distance by camera feed, of course, since rockets full of paint are still rockets. The mecha are divided into teams, red and blue, stationed at opposite ends of the complex's artificial cityscape. The teams are posted on a sign in the locker room:


{table]Red Team|Blue Team
Sublt. Lockhart|Sublt. McDowell
Mid. Erdhart|CWO Baumgardner
Mid. Kastellanos|Mid. Ivanov
Mid. Quall|Mid. Adkins[/table]

The eight of you - including an attractive, uptight-looking woman you can assume is Sublieutenant Lockhart and an enthusiastic guy who's already let his hair grow past regulation in the week or so since the end of pilot school you can assume is Midshipman Adkins - are simply waiting for your commander (known to you guys solely as "Commander Donnelly", little other data given) to show up and give you the order to head out and start the wargames.

What are you doing?

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

Malcolm sits in the corner, staring at a mirror with his right eye closed. He notices his leg start to shake and reaches for a pocket that isn't there, for an item that doesn't exist.

He turns around and starts speaking.

"This event isn't really a game, it's a show. All the spectators really want is to be entertained, not that the better team wins."

"So, are we going to put on a show or fight for real here?" he asks of the other cadets rather dryly. It's hard to tell if he's being serious with this question.

"By the way, which ones of you are on my team? I don't think I've worked alongside most of you before."

"Oh, forgive me, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Sublieutenant McDowell. But you can call me Mick if you would prefer."

OOC:
Away from books at the moment. My character is just going to requisition whatever equivalent there is to a rifle.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Laser for longer range, or plasma for more damage?
The lady with the sublieutenant's bars looks over to Malcolm and smirks confidently. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm playing to win. That should be entertaining enough for the brass. Alexia Lockhart, Sublieutenant."

The messy-haired guy just continues slouching, looking as if he's trying to find a chair to slump in for a bit before the commander shows up. "Me, I figure this is a chance to have some fun before we have to get too serious, Sub-LT. Name's Roy Adkins, by the way."

[Meek]

In a corner, Aine sits with her hands on her lap, drumming on her legs a little as she waits. The sight of the massive battlecruiser and hearing the word "Engel" eased her fears that she was in the real world right now. Nothing like that was ever real. She smiled almost absently as she thought to herself that she was just playing a game right now. So everything was okay.

"Ah, I'm probably not going to win anything I don't think, but it will be good practice." Aine says happily, "My name is Aine Erdhart, uh, Midshipman. Nice to meet you sublieutenant." She arranges her shoulder-length blonde hair behind her ears, "Though we're not on the same team."

[Fri]

A young girl with long, blond hair and beaming smile responds enthustiastically.

"Sub-Lieutenant McDowell? Looks like I'll be in your team today." She grabs Malcolm's hands and shakes vigorosly. "Midshipman Elena Ivanov, at your service. Oh, and I guess this is an introduction for everyone too!" She waves at the others.

She paces back and forth. "This is all very exciting. I never thought I'd get the ultra-new Battleship Victory as my first posting. And picked for the opening ceremony too!"

[DrakeRaids]

Joshua took in the event on full throttle, smiling widely as he took in the sheer energy and excitement. It was the perfect day, a quick sparring bout, the start of the Victory's new career, today simply couldn't be bad. They just had to make sure they put on a good show, give the civilians something to enjoy, and maybe win some nice attention from the brass along the way.

He stayed just off the edge of the conversation, smiling and nodding witht he older pilots before checking the list himself to see where he fell.

"Lets see.... Quall... Quall..... here we go. Blue team!" Joshua smiled and glanced over to the other pilots "Hey Harts! Looks like I'm with you two!" He approached with a disarming smile and held out on hand, "You all ready for this? What are you two piloting? Should we strategize first?"

[Lord Bayushi]

A grumble from the corner at the mention of 'strategizing' can be deciphered by the astute as low, bitter laughter. A grizzled, large man of more advanced years than those assembled pushes himself off the wall he was leaning against.

"Strategy for a dog and pony show? Should be pretty simple. Don't fall on the spectators. Try not to make an ass out of yourself, or the rest of us. Did I miss anything important?"

He walks a few steps farther into the grouping, showing a limp on his right side. In the better light, the man bears obvious scars, and looks more like a line-marine than a pilot. His close-cropped black hair is exact to marine regulation, his brown eyes look stern and alert. He shifts the unlit cigar to the other side of his mouth as he looks over the assembled pilots, then looks thoughtful for a second.

"Oh, yeah. Don't scratch my Maddie, or I'll take out of your hide."

He looks at the team roster for a second, then over at the others that have identified themselves as 'blue team' members. "I'm Chief Baumgardner. Looks like I'm Blue-For, with you fine officers."

Everyone feels the slight sneer with which he says 'fine officers' was somehow directed specifically at them.

[Meek]

Hart frowns childishly at Baumgardner, but is relieved she isn't in his team anyway, and turns her smiling face to Quall. "It's red team, actually!" She says amicably. "I pilot a Hamshall Engel...I don't think I need a lot of strategy, but if the other team has an Engel, maybe I should handle that." She speaks in a soft, comfortable tone with a slight southern accent. "Gosh, this is pretty exciting after all, a real wargame. Except I don't need a ruler to calculate the range."

[wadledo]

"Yea bulb, we're the red team in case the paint didn't clue you in.
Alex gives Joshua a withering glare from behind his headphones. The short, dark Greek man sits a few meters along the wall from Aine, with one ear out from under his headphone and his short cropped black hair sticking up into the air.

"And I doubt me and Anpiel will need much help as long as the pair of you can keep them at a distance."
He folds his arms over his uniform, giving Aine a sly glace. "Though would we rather have this be going on in the water, wouldn't we Fishy?"

[DrakeRaids]

Joshua nodded and glanced downward. What a way to make a first impression. Well at least Hart seemed pretty nice, even if the other pilots where irritable. Still he kept up the warm exterior, this was just probably how they delt with being nervous. No problem for him."Sorry," Joshua said quickly with an appeasing smile, "I musta misread, I'm just excited about this. I can't wait to see how we fare."

[Meek]

"That's fine!" Aine says to Quall before turning to Alex. "I'm excited too. And yeah, Neichael does prefer the water, but it'll be fine under the sun. I wonder if there'll be a scoring system, or if it'll just be a straight out brawl." She began to feel a little thrill for the upcoming game. It was an odd thing for her to recognize that she was playing a game within a game, but such things happened. She smiled and didn't think about it a lot. Being peppy was priority one.

She wondered dimly whether she'd taken her medication and supposed that she had.

"So what kind of Engel do you pilot?" She asked Alex, "By the name I sort of assumed that's what it is. Sorry if I'm mistaken. Mecha pilots don't tend to name theirs like that..."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Quall gets a Look from Sublieutenant Lockhart that says 'don't call me that'...before she glances back at the assignments and fully registers 'Mid. Erdhart'. Then she just kind of grimaces at the coincidence.

Before the banter can get too much further, you all here a command for "Attention!" and a man who can only be Commander Donnelly walks in. He gives his own kind of significant look to Alex's headphones and Joshua's cigar until everyone's standing at attention and those are put away.

A medium-sized but muscular middle-aged man, the commander addresses you brusquely from behind a mustache he probably gets to wear mainly by virtue of its impressive size and neatness. "Alright, let's get this show on the road. Teams will start at opposite ends of the training compound. The goal of this wargame is to score points with your dummy weapons - every hit landed on a member of the opposite team earns 1-4 points depending on hit location*, plus one point for hitting with a charge beam. Points will be deducted for hitting anyone on your own team in the same amount. Hitting someone on a shield is worth zero points for reasons I hope are obvious. All your weapons have been turned down to minimum output remotely from the Victory's CIC - any attempt to bypass this without authorization will get you court-martialed faster than you can say f'taghn, got it?"

Pacing a bit, he continues. "I'll be the referee for this little wargame, and you're to obey all my orders as if we were in live combat. Other than that, Reds defer to Ms. Lockhart and will be using Secure Tac-Com 2 and Blues are under Mr. McDowell and will be using Secure Tac-Com 3. Any questions, soldiers?"

*((margin of success of the attack roll. Don't worry about called shots today.))

[Meek]

Aine stood quietly at attention, casting away her smile for a neutral and semi-serious look. She could never seem to get herself to look completely serious when playing the game, so that was the best she could do. She was mildly glad that there were rules and arbitrator. Those were the best sorts of games, ones with refereeing.

[Fri]

Elena stand upright and acknowledge Commander Donelly with an excited smile on her face as soon as he enters the room.

"Sir, no question Sir!" she answers, looking like she can't wait to start the fight.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Just two, Sir. One, and pardon me for asking, but what's a fa-tag-on?"

Why do we have to participate in such a meaningless endeavor? Trying to make war some sort a palatable thing for the ignorant, drug-addled masses of filth that... Science damn it, my mind is off-track.

"And two, will you be listening to our communications?"

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie gave an embarrassed acknowledgment as attention was called, stowing his cigar quickly in his flightsuit. A sideways glance at the saluting cadet was the only motion that he made in response to the actions of his fellow pilots.

"Will non-projectile hits score, sir?"

[DrakeRaids]

Joshua listened carefully to the explanation, recording everything carefully in his mind. Alright then; hit them, don't get hit yourself. Seemed simple enough, he could do this. With no questions himself; Joshua stood back quietly waiting for the action to start.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Commander Donnelly nods in acknowledgment back and addresses questions in order. "Classified information," is the first thing he says to Malcolm, "and as for comms, yes I will be, as will the Victory's CIC. Try not to whine in my ear too much. Oh, and before I forget, keep Tac-Com 1 clear in case of emergency."

He then turns to Charlie. "Course they will - sensors will register a hit the same whether it's metal, paint, or light. Your HyperEdges are switched off, though, so they're basically big metal plates: just don't go overboard with 'em, and they won't cause any more damage than the paintballs."

"Oh, and put that damn cigar out before you get in the cockpit - it's fine in the trenches, but you're a mech jockey now, and we've got to worry about things like asphyxiating."

He turns and addresses everyone. "That all? Right, get a move on to your cockpits, and wait for my signal to start. Your cans should all be lined up and ready for a quick startup. Dismissed."

With that, he leaves to get to his own position. If you leave the ready room and follow the hallway to the exit, you'll find yourselves at the periphery of the artificial neighborhood that makes up the Urban Combat Training Center. Red team mechs are located about 500 yards off to the left at one end of the facility, and Blue team 500 to the right - the barracks exit is at the "50 yard line", so to speak.

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie grinned at the Commander.

"That's why I just chew on them when I'm in the driver's seat, sir. Takes the edge off."

He looked at the young group of pilots around him.

"You ladies need more of an invitation? Lets spin them up."

He replaced his cigar as he walked to the right, picking up a jog despite his bad leg. The others would beat him to their mechs, he was sure, but not by as much as they thought.

He looked at his nearly forty feet of killing machine as he approached, dark green and gray undersea camouflage scheme covering all but a two foot section of the left thigh, which sported a a small painting of a voluptuous woman posing in a red neglige, much akin to images that decorated warplanes in wars of the past.

Once he reached the armored behemoth, he climbed into the cockpit, performing spin up procedures and pre-operational checks as he situated himself. As the comm system came online, he performed basic radio checks with the CIC, then switched over to Tac-Com 2.

"This is Nails, Blue-For comm check. How do you read?"

[Meek]

"Alright, do your best everyone," She tells her team, and in a bubbly fashion heads towards her mecha. The Hamshall is a massive blue-green mass as though made of metal and algae, with a gaping metallic maw at the top from which four tentacles sprout like the filaments of a grotesque flower. Its beweaponed arms hang lazily at its sides, like those of an unconscious man propped up by the back.

Its womb-like cockpit is open, and quite dark inside so that it seems to be hiding its own nature from observers. A set of steel steps has been set so that Aine can climb into the vast creature. She waves once more, smiling at her teammates before vanishing into the womb. Metal plates consume the opening, and seem to slightly retract it further into the mech, closing an armored shutter over it.

Aine stands in the middle of the gently pulsating chamber of flesh and steel. The room begins to fill with an oddly warm liquid. She reaches above herself pulls a tube into her mouth, and another with a plastic disc at its end attaches to the back of her head like a flat suction cup. She closes her eyes, and when the chamber fills, she feels like she's floating in mid-air for just a moment, before feeling something terribly distinct - the feeling of weight and strength. The feeling of her tentacles, her prehensile tail, the guns embedded in her body. She shivers as the connection is finalized.

"Callsign Gnaw, testing Red Team communications. Do you read?" She says, physically voiceless, but sending the message over the equipment.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

Malcolm heads to his mecha and opens up the hatch before climbing inside.

I'll never understand those bleeding things full of bleeding bloody blood without any of the beautiful red richness of... where was I? Whoever made them has got to have some sort of obsession with Jungian psychology.

He closes the hatch, straps himself in, then opens up the communication channels.

"Test 1 2 3, the quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. Sound systems are good."

"This is Brick-2, your commander, ready for launch. No eating in the cockpits, whoever that is, food can fall on your controls. This is a standard stop and shoot. On my mark, spread out slightly and focus fire on any targets I designate."

"Brick-2 in the Claymore is ready. Everyone only the blue team report back once they're prepared. Over."

[Fri]

Elena submerges herself inside the warm liquid that fills her Engel's cockpit. As the mental link activates, a glint appeared in her normally dull red eyes.

"You're excited too, aren't you brother?" she whispers to herself. She opened and closed her fist as she tests the link to her mech, eventhough she should be able to control her mech without making any physical movement.

Her engel opened and closed its large fist, and Elena opened her communication channel.

"Blue Team. This is Snow, Elena Ivanov, ready for combat..."

[DrakeRaids]

Joshua took a slow, unhurried gait as he moved to his mech, looking carefully at the sparring ground as he made his way to his Brushfire, looking for anything out of the ordinary or something that he could use to his advantage later in combat. Eventually he approached the Brushfire, examining it with the same amount of scrutiny he had the battlefield.

The crystalline mech was up to his requested specifications, the Plasma cannon held in its under mounted and from the exterior the systems looked fine. Its deep blue and silver colors scheme gleamed in the sun and Joshua imagined it gave off an almost tangible aura of potential energy, like a coiled spring, waiting for the chance to unleash itself on the world.

And that time was now.

With a grin Joshua climbed into the cockpit and began running the required start up systems, checking off each mentally as the mech powered itself up. Before flipping the Comm system on and entering blue teams link.

"This is Prodigy, Red Team, you're coming in clear Gnaw."


[roll0]
[roll1]
Best of those two +8 for an observation roll.

so 17

Looking for buildings what would provide better cover, concealed flanking approaches, firing points that might offer bonuses, that kinda stuff

[wadledo]

"Ready too go, baby?"
Alex climbs up the scaffolding that covers the back of his Cherub, Anpiel, while petting her back like a favorite kitten and waving to the assembled crowds and techies.
"Dammit half-breed." He says into the helmet as he checks the pre-combat procedures.
"If you end up shooting me because you can't f^cking figure out the difference between Red and Blue, I will personally come over there and beat you red and blue."
Anpiel's tail seems thrashes in agreement as the scaffolding is pulled away.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I'm not going to make a detailed map, so I'll just say that Quall (and anyone else that can make a 16 Observation roll) notices an optimal path and can gain one of the following benefits for one round:

+1 on all attack contests
+1 on all defense contests
Ability to move at above cautious speed without exposing yourself (see below)

Everyone mounts up and boots up, radio communications coming in loud and clear. Acknowledgments also come from the other pilots

"Bulldog here, Blue Team, guess I'm ready to go," the Blue team hears from Mid. Adkins, who entered his own shield-equipped Broadsword.

"This is Red Lead, Lynx, here," Sublt. Lockhart says to everyone. "Fan out, stay under cover, and don't embarrass yourselves." She's also piloting a Broadsword, equipped with a secondary hand-held charge beam. She's clearing going for a high score here.

Within minutes, Commander Donnelly's voice comes over the radio to both teams from his own Falcata, hovering over the edge of the battlefield opposite the barracks. "All right, rookies, think of this as practice for the real thing, and try not to do anything too stupid. Wargames will commence on my mark. 3...2...1...mark!"

Initiative

17: Erdhart and Lockhart (seriously?)
15: Kastellanos
14: Ivanov
13: Quall
12: Adkins
11: McDowell
7: Baumgardner

Red Team's Targets

None

Blue Team's Targets

None

Here's how this is going to work. This is an urban combat area that I don't feel like drawing up. Urban combat means close-quarters and difficulty seeing and moving - you can't move above Cautious without making your location obvious. What I'd like everyone to do is tell me where they're moving and how fast, and I'll determine who runs into each other how and when. You cannot see the other team right now - people who become visible will be listed under "targets".

Radar is currently remotely rigged to tell you the locations of your teammates, but not the other team.

If you are in a mecha that can fly and choose to fly above the buildings (about 4 stories), you can see everyone, but everyone can also see you.

And for the record, you can post actions at any time, but they will be resolved in initiative order.

I'll repost this in the OOC to make sure everyone reads it.

Lockhart smirks in her cockpit and moves directly ahead, using the buildings as cover. "You know, in real combat we could just fire charge beams right through these and hit the enemy..." she comments to her teammates.

[Fri]

"You're impatient too, aren't you Brother?" Elena whispers to her Malach, caressing it mentally.

She smiles as a large blade unsheathes from her mech's arm. "This is Snow. I'm going to move forward. Let my Malach draw them to the open."

Without any attempt to conceal the sounds of the massive footsteps of her mech, Elena moves forward, taking cover from building to building.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Do as you wish, Snow."

"Commander Donelly, I have another question. What is the strategic value of the buildings in this simulation? Are we under any orders to keep them intact?"

OOC:
Are the buildings short enough to jump on top of? My character is in a Claymore.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Donnelly responds to the question: "Well, it's a training facility, so go nuts. Just as long as you're not trying to turn your weapons on full power, I don't care."

Some are, yes. You could probably hop your way to significant high ground, assuming the buildings are all stable enough to hold you.

After a few seconds, the Red team hears clear stomping sounds from directly ahead. Anyone on init 13 or later won't have any trouble finding the opposing Malach if they head straight forward...

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Right, and are the buildings designed to react realistically to simulated fire? Say, would they collapse?"

"Any members of the Blue Team with flight, I want an intel sweep of the area, post haste. We need good enough info for heavy support fire. Everyone with a rocket pod, prepare for massed bombardment of the enemy vicinity."

[Nerd-o-rama]

"While that'd be pretty neat, it'd also be way too expensive, so no. They might fall over if you charge them or jump on them too much, so keep an eye on where you're stepping."

[Meek]

Rolling observation test. Got a base of 7 and 2d10 to it.

[roll0]

Picking the 10, that's a 17.


"This is Gnaw," Aine says, "My mech is very large and distinctive and will be hard to hide. I'll go forward cautiously and attempt to spot the enemy. I have a charge beam and will try to score as much offense as possible with it."

Aine moves cautiously forward, keeping close to the structures around her, trying not to be too obviously in the open and ready to fire her charge beam at any blue team members spotted. She knows her attempts to hide a blue-green mech with tentacles and a massive tail aren't going to work anyway, but it's better to try.

So far this is seeming like a pretty fun game...

[wadledo]

Observation: [roll0] +base 6+1
16 total.

"I wish we could just smash these out of our way, don't you Anpiel?"
The Cherub begins to move back along the side of the field, keeping its huge profile low to the ground while resisting the temptation to take a peek over the tops of the buildings and paste the enemy here and now.
"Hey Gnaw, Greezer here.
In case you hadn't been able to tell, my baby's a Cherub, so just give us a location and we'll give em' hell, with the permission of Ms. Lynx-of course.
You send the smoke and we'll light the fire."
Running smoothly despite its great bulk, the Engel speeds away from the ensuing direct confrontation at the center of the field, tail snaking behind it like a snake, leaving a trail of venom etched into the concrete.

[Nerd-o-rama]

I'm basically going to skip ahead in time to make this not last all day - the first "round" covers a about half a minute or so of moving closer to each other since no one's moving faster than cautious it seems...

Initiative

17: Erdhart (moved) and Lockhart (moved)
15: Kastellanos (moved)
14: Ivanov (moved)
> 13: Quall
12: Adkins (moved)
11: McDowell
7: Baumgardner

Red Team's Targets

Malach (Ivanov)

Blue Team's Targets

Hamshall (Erdhart)

Midshipman Adkins walks his own mech off at a tangent, hoping to be able to find a flanking position.

The two large Engels stomping ahead toward the middle of the field make their presences immediately apparent, becoming visible about 500 yards distant from each other, in positions that can be easily relayed to the rest of their teams, although buildings are still providing some measure of cover. The rest of you manage to stay reasonably well-hidden so far.

Still need actions from Quall, McDowell, and Baumgardner.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Fire all missiles and mortars at those Engels! NOW!"

OOC:
[roll0]
[roll1]
Is this right?

You know, I'd kinda prefer it if gamebooks treated me like an idiot and gave me straight up explanations rather than these "example of play" things.

[DrakeRaids]

Will all of Blue team count as "Targets" as long as I relay information on where they are?

"Alright guys, I'm hitting the skies guys," Joshua said confidently over the comms before rocketing into the sky over the battlefield toward blue team at top speed. Here they go- he saw them all, moving around working into some semblance of order, preparing they're own assault. Well; all that would have to be corrected. Time for them to kiss their sweet sensors and comms goodbye! As Joshua darted through the air he began flipping switches in his cockpit preping the ECM till he was in optimal range....

And there he was.

With a grin he activated the ECM, sending invisible waves to bombard the other teams mechs, quickly removing any chance they had at tactical organization as well as shutting down any targeting aids.

They where on their own now.

"Enemy sensor suites have been deactivated." Joshua reported cheerfully over the comms. "They're probably all going to try and turn me to paste now. Going to go to ground asap."


One action used to hit top speed; another to activate the ECM

[Meek]

"Enemy sighted, and I'm probably a huge target now," Aine says, "Firing charge beam!" With a grin, she realizes how close to playing her wargames this is except she sadly only has control of one unit. Though it is one very good unit. The Hamshall raises an arm and launches its charge beam at the Malach.

Marksman test, Adept with Focused Spec, base is 8 + 2 targeting. I forgot that my Hamshall gives me a perception bonus, so my observation roll should've been 18. Not that it matters much.

[roll0]

Pick the 9, + 8 base + 2 targeting and maybe -2 for multiple actions since I also moved, unless this is a new round...so 19 or 17.

Dodge test for the rocket attack, Agility is 8, Armor against ballistics is 20.

[roll1]

Pick the 8 for 16.

[Lord Bayushi]

Observation roll: [roll0] +8 Perception, 15, not good enough for a bonus.
Charlie grinned as the Claymore opened up on the heavier Engel. That was a good way to get torn apart quickly. He moved in close to the heavy assault Mech, taking cover from a nearby building while he fired his own missiles, and then covered them both in a cloud of fog from his hand-held generator.

Declaring 3 Actions.
Action one: Move at cautious speed within 10 yards of McDowell's Mech, grabbing cover if available.
Action two: Fire a Rocket Pod volley at the Hamshall, 5 rockets. I'll assume I'm in the ECM radius. I'll post the roll on the OOC thread, because I don't think I can add it in edit.
Action three: Use the fog generator to cloak Brick-2 and myself in concealment.

[Fri]

"Ha! Enemy spotted, commander! Tagging it for you!" Elena says as she rolls sideways to dodge the incoming beam. She follow it with two quick shot from her plasma cannon.

Elena's eyes glints as she feel his Malach's thirst for fight with this Engel. This is their lucky day...


Hmm... let me try to list all the bonus for this is my first time.

dodging[roll0]+ 8 base
attack[roll1]+8 base + 1 Engel + 2 Targetting - 2 action

[Nerd-o-rama]

All at once, the battlefield comes alive with weapons fire - Quall's ECM fills the radar HUD and radios of McDowell's and Baumgardner's mecha - everyone else is far enough away to be unaffected.

(McDowell and Baumgardner are out of radio communication until Quall's next turn, and they cannot use their targeting bonuses for the same length of time. Rockets still work, however.)

Shortly afterwards, a hail of missiles fly out from the silent mechs, both targeting the Hamshall - coating it and the area surrounding in a thick layer of bright blue paint, and a fog bank appears to conceal roughly the same area as the jamming.

Meek: you were attacked twice, so I'll need a second dodge roll. Your dodge roll against the first attack (using the 18 I rolled for UglyPanda) means the volley hits by two. Since he fired 5 rockets, that's 5 points for the red team.

And after the other set of rolls, both salvos hit barely, for a total of 10 points.

**End of Round "1"**
**Start of Round 2**

Resolving Meek's action now, along with Lockhart's. Fri already rolled dodge for this, so cool. Fri's dodge is 6+8 = 14 < 19, so the Hamshall hits for 1 point + 1 for the charge beam.

While I'm here, Lockhart also fires her charge beam, so Fri, make another dodge or armed fighting roll.

The vanguard of the red team takes revenge for the rocket attack, one charge beam lancing out each from the Hamshall and the previously unseen Broadsword that followed behind her, each targeting the opposing Malach. "Gotcha!" the red team can hear their commander exclaim with a smirk over the radio, only to be followed by a stream of invectives as the Malach displays surprising agility in leaping to the side, dialed-down charge beam harmlessly lighting up the side of a building.

17: Erdhart (moved, resolved) and Lockhart (moved, resolved)
> 15: Kastellanos
14: Ivanov (moved)
13: Quall
12: Adkins
11: McDowell
7: Baumgardner

Red Team's Targets

Malach (Ivanov)
Claymore (McDowell) (visual hazy, no radar signal)
Khopesh (Baumgardner) (visual hazy, no radar signal)
Broadsword (Adkins)

Blue Team's Targets

Hamshall (Erdhart)
Broadsword (Lockhart)
Brushfire (Quall)

Red Team score at current initiative: 2 points
Blue Team score at current initiative: 10 points

[UglyPanda]

McDowell
"Why the bloody **** do you have a smoke machine? All you're doing is blocking our own... sorry, dreadfully sorry, I won't scream again." he says before calming down and activating his thermal scanners.

"All right, just aim and shoot, again and again."

McDowell takes aim at the freshly painted Engel and fires twice.

"They're fast healers, so focus fire until death or surrender."

[wadledo]

Alex and his Cherub continue to run around the field, attempting to flank the enemy.
"Well, this has turned into quite the cluster$*ck, hasn't it Gnaw."

Not taking any actions except to run at full speed with my two actions for a total of 296 yrds, which is kind of pitiful considering how large the arena is.
The 16 from my observation lets me run, I think, as I'm not choosing the combat bonuses.

[DrakeRaids]

Ahhh, nothing like watching a skillfully placed ECM wreck havoc on enemy forces, but they weren't going to win this sitting on their asses firing screwing with electronics. It was time to get out the big guns, Hovering in the sky Joshua took aim on the Broadsword he saw moving through the mock city; before spitting out two of the mock plasma blasts from the handheld weapon, both of which went streaking toward his target.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Alexander's Cherub successfully runs a circle around the current melee, positioning itself behind or to the side of most of the red team.

Elena's Malach, for its part, holds its ground and lances out with one shot at the Hamshall in front of it, preparing to fire another in short order - the gestalt instincts tell Aine she might want to get under cover before she takes even more fire!

Just so everyone's aware, by the book, actions are run "everyone's first action, then everyone's second action if applicable, and so on". I might houserule this later, but not until after this combat.

Quall is still zipping around above skyline level, his own plasma rifle roaring out at Midshipman Adkins. The blue team - including McDowell and Baumgardner, now that the jamming has started to clear up can hear an "ah, j-jeez" over the radio as Adkins hastily raises his shield, unable to block the shot entirely as the red team gains a fairly needed point. He gives as good as he gets, though, returning a surprisingly accurate charge beam shot to the flying raider.

Of course, second later, the second plasma shot hits him directly in the main camera, scoring two more red points, but still.

With the option of either climbing out of the fog or using his now-unjammed infrared sensors (range? What's range?), McDowell's laser cannon regardless heads towards the rather abused Hamshall.

Since none of the NPCs are taking a second action, and I don't think Baumgardner's going to affect anyone else's rolls, I'll also go ahead and resolve other peoples' second and third actions now too.

Aine make a total of four dodge rolls (plasma cannon, laser cannon, plasma cannon, laser cannon).
Quall make one dodge roll (charge beam).

Baumgardner, take your turn.

17: Erdhart (moved, resolved) and Lockhart (moved, resolved)
15: Kastellanos (moved, resolved)
14: Ivanov (moved, resolved)
13: Quall (moved, resolved)
12: Adkins (moved, resolved)
11: McDowell (moved, resolved)
> 7: Baumgardner

Red Team's Targets

Malach (Ivanov)
Claymore (McDowell) (visual hazy)
Khopesh (Baumgardner) (visual hazy)
Broadsword (Adkins)

Blue Team's Targets

Hamshall (Erdhart)
Broadsword (Lockhart)
Brushfire (Quall)

[Lord Bayushi]

The Khopesh looms in the fog for a moment, watching the pounded Hamshall waver slightly in the paint cloud around it. Charlie knew it would be seriously damaged if that barrage had been real. Behind it, he saw the untouched Broadsword of the Red-For commander, and decided it needed some unpleasant attention, just to remind her that command came with burdens.

He leveled his mech's left arm, dual barrels of heavy lasers lining up with the newly re-established targeting computer system in his HUD.

"Hamshall's battered, switching target."

With that, two shafts of blue-green light streaked at the pristine Broadsword.

Declaring 2 actions.
Action one: Aim at Lynx's Broadsword.
Action two: Fire twin-linked laser cannons at fore mentioned target.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Lockhart wasn't expecting the attack at all, expecting everyone to be able to continue using the Hamshall as a big old decoy - the laser blasts land less than a foot away from her cockpit, scoring three points apiece. Furious, she flips over to Tac-Comm 3 and tells the chief that "You officially just made my sh** list, leatherneck!"

"Lockhart, get back on your own damn channel and don't be a sore loser," Donnelly says, gruff but with a faint hint of amusement.

She does so quite quickly - she's pissed off, not a cheater.

I do still technically need four Dodge rolls for Aine, but since the mock combat is about to be finished and Blue Team is winning by a wide margin, so...

In the middle of the firefight, an emergency transmission comes in the formal voice of a middle-aged woman. "All units participating in the wargame, this is Captain Kawashima." Everyone, of course, recognizes this as the CO of the Victory.

"We're getting anomalous energy readings from inside the training center. We believe there may be a cloaked unit spying on us, perhaps a stealth mech. The CIC is standing by to return full power to weapons, but we need you all to corner the enemy to prevent it escaping. Fan out and search the facility, but try not to make it obvious that we're searching for something."

Commander Donnely chimes in. "The wargame is officially canceled. Find the enemy without alerting it, and we'll turn your weapons back on so you can eliminate it. Rockets still won't work, so be prepared to fire with energy weapons."

At this point, you can ignore initiatives and simply tell me what you're doing; I'll make appropriate Observation checks for you. Points don't matter anymore, so don't worry about attack and defense contests. You can continue firing on the opposing team until you get an alert that your weapons are back online.

Remember, the idea is to search without looking like you're searching.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Bombs and rockets are still loaded with paint, Sir! I humbly suggest that we instead simultaneously fire all the rockets in a wide angle formation to flush out the intruder, Sir!"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Paint would stick to a stealthed unit..." Donelly says, "...but it'd be almost sure to try and escape once painted, and I'd like it pinpointed and surrounded first so it doesn't get away."

[DrakeRaids]

"Frick." Joshua murmured from his point on high. Well; looked like they where going to get some real action at least, but still, an enemy being able to sneak all the way passed them like this was worrying to say the least. Given enough time though he'd be able find the bugger eventually, and then they could tear the thing apart. Flipping on the X-Ray scanner he made a show of dropping to the ground in search of cover while scanning in the toward the west edges of the Training Area for their mysterious friend.

[wadledo]

"Hey, guys.
Take this shot, would you?
I'm not going to be able to use 'em anyway."
Alex the proceeds to fire off half his store of rockets, sending a ridiculously large display of firepower shooting at the now defunct blue team.
"We would've won to, wouldn't we have Anpiel?"
While spraying the field with red paint, Alex and Anpiel dash backwards again looking up to see if they can spot the enemy or any retaliation for that last attack.

It doesn't actually matter, but I attack the blue team from behind.

[Lord Bayushi]

The young officer's outburst made Charlie laugh out loud. He stepped behind cover and thickened the fog around him with another burst from the generator. He thought about taunting her further, but decided against it. She had kicked herself well enough.

The revelation of the intruder changed the gruff ex-marine's attitude. This wasn't an exercise anymore. He watched the Nazzadi mech begin it's sensor sweep, and activated his own A-pods to reach a high vantage point. He wanted to be able to cover the kid, should the unseen visitor decide to ambush him.

To keep up the illusion, he fired another volley of paint rockets at the opposing team, then selected a high building top and set down, letting off two quick blasts of fog to conceal his position. He then took to adjusting his lasers back to full power, growing impatient with the CIC's efforts in that direction.

Take a high vantage point so as to offer support fire once we have something to shoot at, fire some more rockets at the 'other team,' conceal my perch, and make a Munitions roll to power my lasers back up under the cover of the smoke.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

As his Claymore gets splattered with red paint, Malcolm shakes his head and mutters to himself.

"Why don't we simply pretend to fight each other with the paint?"

Malcolm starts firing the rockets in the relative direction of the other team, trying to create a wide spread of paint.

While doing so, he tries to look for something invisible. Possibly invisible and pink.

OOC:
[roll0]+9 = straight, 27

[Fri]

Elena is still awash with adrenaline.

"What? It ended already?" She grumbled. "Aww... and it was just starting to get fun!"

She looks at the Hamshall longingly. It was big, and powerful, and tentaclish... It boils her blood just to think about fighting hand to hand with it. But it's all already ended.

"Don't worry Brother. We'll have another target soon..."

Elena rolls toward one of the building, pretending to take some cover on it while actually scanning the opposite direction (aka, backward, where her team started)

[Meek]

"Oh dear," Aine says, and moves back with her mech. She moves in any direction not being covered by other mecha, wondering just what the intruder could be after here, and ducking around buildings. While moving, she launches some of her paint torpedos out into the sky after any mecha that have flown, as if to pretend she's doing ground to air attacking from a covered position.

She feels a slight throb in her head, and something clenching around her heart. This game's turning out bad. I don't like this anymore. It feels too real now. I don't like what's going on. But some games go that way right? If you put the wrong minis on the table you can lose before you had any chance. Yeah, this is still all just a game, it's just harder that's all. Ha ha. Ha.

A voice in her head tells her that she did very pathetically in the war game and was just going to lose and should just stay out of the way. But since she doesn't typically hear voices in her head, she assumes this is just another example of all this being totally fake, and she'll get up soon in the barracks and paint some minis in peace. Dreamily she continues her search.

Ha ha. Ha.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Out of everyone, it's Quall who gets "lucky" - as soon as he drops to the ground and turns on his X-rays, he immediately sees something that wasn't there before: a Migou Dragonfly, at startlingly close range (about 30 yards).

It's looking right at Quall's mech, probably scanning it. It doesn't seem to have picked up the X-Rays yet...

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"So, anyone find anything?" he says as he continues firing paint.

[DrakeRaids]

"Guys, found it, its Migou. A Dragonfly." Quall reports softly over the comm. He didn't know why he was being quiet, if the thing had hacked into their comms no amount of lowering his voice would stop it from fleeing he thought with a wry grin. "Sending coordinates now, go ahead and tear it a new one, I'll fire as well, on the Lieutenants marks." He finished reporting, as his mech dodged behind buildings, making as thought it was getting ready to pull a stealth flank on of the blue team.

[Lord Bayushi]

A Dragonfly. Fast and agile as hell, and usually just the eyes and ears of a larger threat. Still, if it was spying for the bugs, it would be better to capture it and interrogate the pilot than just to blow it to bits.

Charlie switched his mic to Comm 3. "If it still isn't aware we know it's here, we should try to capture it. One of the Engels with tendrils should try to get a grip on it before we tear it apart with fire."

[Fri]

"Are you sure if we should capture it? Why not simply blast it into pieces?"

Elena shot a few harmless shot toward Aine's Hamshall, missing them altogether, before moving closer toward where Quall said the Dragonfly should be.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Capture is not a priority with a Migou pilot," Captain Kawashima says over the comm line, "but I'm sure we could find a use for him if you do."

"If you're going to get into position to grapple it, do it now," Donnelly adds, his Khopesh still sitting impassively above the field while he works quickly and precisely inside the cockpit to turn Quall's telemetry into a firing solution. "You've got ten seconds, then we open fire. Quall, keep your scanners on it. 10..."

[Fri]

"You got it."

Without warning, suddenly Elena's Malach leapt forward and unleashed a score of tentacles toward where the dragonfly is supposed to be.

I'm not sure what to roll when the enemy isn't available visuallyand you're not around to ask right now, so I'll leave it to you nerdo.

Is this a surprise attack? And how many drama points I can use in a turn? We can use drama point for attack roll, right? If that so, I'll be using an amazing amount of three, yes THREE drama point. one for increasing my attack, one for increasing my strength check for entangling the dragonfly, and one to decrease the dragonfly's strength. Is that how you use drama point? if this is a surprise attack, scratch that attacking drama point

[Meek]

Aine remains slightly addled for a moment in realization that there really are Migou around, and it seems like an alien world is intruding upon her little dreamscape. She quickly gathers her senses and as the Malach leaps forward savagely, she too begins to move in support of it. Her own mecha has tentacles, after all, so perhaps she can give them a second chance should the first strike fail to take effect...

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Ok, I'll try to have my lasers fixed on it once I know where it is. In retrospect, I should have grabbed a higher caliber weapon."

With how ****** today is going, whatever the **** I end up shooting is just going to be the foot of something over 9000 times as tough. It's ****** up, that's all it is.

"By the way, Sir, I'm to take it that this particular type of intruder can fly?"

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Uh, yeah McDowell, Dragonflies fly. That's how they got the codename. 5, 4..."

Initiative

18 Quall
16 Ivanov
15 Baumgardner
13 Kastellanos
10 Dragonfly Pilot
9 McDowell
8 Erdhart
7 Lockhart
6 Donnelly
6 Adkins

Targets
Dragonfly (Migou Pilot), Undamaged

Warning lights come on in everyone's cockpit as your weapons are powered back up to spec remotely. ==Alert. Weapons limiters disabled. IFF Re-engage==

"Alright, let's get the bastard!" Lockhart suggests politely as you all begin moving in on the enemy.

Quall, Ivanov, Baumgardner, and Kastellanos go. Everyone else, please wait.

Incidentally, the Dragonfly is still invisible, and currently has cover from everyone but Quall until you move in closer. Since Quall is relaying targeting data, that's -2 + -2 = -4 to attack rolls, but as soon as someone attacks it, it will no longer be invisible, and only give -2. You can further eliminate the rest of the penalty by closing in to at or near point-blank range (which'll take an action). Don't worry about making indirect attacks, since lasers and plasma will pass through the cover easily enough.

Assume you've closed in enough that it's at the upper limit of close range on everyone's respective longest-ranged weapon, that seems fair.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Will someone shoot at the thing already? I'm getting hungry."

"I have a big 'ole craving for some grits."

[Fri]

(actually, I've shoot the dragonfly. But nerdo said to wait for the others to act)

[Nerd-o-rama]

I'll assume Quall is delaying until after Fri's action, and everyone else is waiting for it to happen.

Elena: Armed Fighting (1d10=6, 1d10=5, 1d10=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441165/)
Forgot my drama point (1d10=7) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441169/)
7+6+5 +8 base -2 invisible -2 size = 22

Dodge (1d10=10, 1d10=3, 1d10=9) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441166/) +11 = 21

Let's assume you could reach it at Cautious speed since you were preparing to do this, since I'm not enough of a jerk to make you go from winning by one to losing by one.

Elena: Frame feat test (grapple) (1d10=10, 1d10=8, 1d10=10, 1d10=1) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441172/) + 8 = 28
Dragonfly: Dice pool reduced to zero, so result is 2[/url]

Dragonfly loses its next five actions.


The Malach's tentacles lash out at what appears to be thin air, but Mikhail's hunting senses strike true, just managing to latch on to the much smaller scout mech, which drops its cloak and strains futilely at the huge tentacles that quickly pin it. The Dragonfly is secured fairly totally. Not much it can do...

Except call for help. Radar alerts immediately go off in everyone's mecha as something huge - no, two somethings huge - erupt from the ocean on the other side of the Victory.

"Migou Spinners!" says a voice you don't recognize from the Victory - you can assume it's your operator. "How the hell did they get so close?"

The first of the two huge, disturbingly biomechanical flying saucers opens fire on the victory with a huge rocket salvo - barely scorching the Victory's armor, but demanding the capital ship's attention while the other one brazenly flies over it and over the naval base, dropping four mecha into the edge of the training zone - NEG mecha, three Broadswords and a Scimitar.

"Analyzing sensor data now," says a different unfamiliar voice. "Their IFF systems are turned off and they look damaged...unit insignia match an Army squad that was lost in Russia three months ago - they're Blanks!"

Everyone in the NEG military is familiar with Blanks - Human soldiers, captured and brainwashed (possibly literally) by the Migou to become perfectly obedient servants, usually cannon fodder for the Migou military. The process has resisted all efforts of NEG scientists to reverse it, so these new arrivals, while human, are irrevocably your enemy. On the plus side, the Migou probably haven't kept their Damage Control or Weapons systems in good repair.

Commander Donnelly grumbles. "All right, looks like this just became a live fire exercise. We'll eliminate the mecha - the Victory can drive off the support craft. There are VIPs watching this by remote inside the base - they'll be evacuated soon, but don't let these damn Bugs do any damage to this place in the meantime, and whatever you do, don't let go of that Dragonfly!"

The ersatz NEG squad does not communicate - Blank soldiers never do. The squad simply turns their camera gaze in the direction of the Migou scout they came to assist...

Initiative

20 Spinner Crews (Moved, Resolved)
16 Ivanov (Moved, Resolved)
> 15 Baumgardner, Quall
13 Kastellanos
12 Blank Pilots
10 Dragonfly Pilot (pinned for next 5 actions)
9 McDowell
8 Erdhart
7 Lockhart
6 Donnelly
6 Adkins
0 Victory

Targets
Dragonfly (Migou Pilot), Undamaged, grappled
Broadsword-A (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Broadsword-B (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Broadsword-C (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Scimitar (Blank Pilot), Undamaged, shut up it was always here.

The Dragonfly is now completely visible, but still has cover against ranged attacks from people who aren't named Joshua Quall. The Blank NEG mecha have not yet taken cover, and they're between 250 and 300 yards distant from everyone.

[wadledo]

"Lets scorch these suckers!"
The Cherub rockets off the ground, skimming the tops of the fake buildings to get at the blanks.
While still in mid-air, he fires off a shot from his plasma cannon at the largest collection of the blanks
Plasma Cannon:[roll0] +6+1+2-2 for range-2 for action

[Lord Bayushi]

"Damn bugs. Be sure to kill those poor fools, it's what you would want if it were you in there, brainwashed."

Charlie engaged his A-pods, skimming the tops of the buildings for cover as he closed on the group of traitorous mecha. He scanned his targets, and decided the artillery was probably the biggest threat.

"Designate target Scimitar. Engaging."

He took aim with his dual lasers and gained their attention.

Designate two actions.
Action one: Fly at cautious speed toward enemy forces, sticking close enough to the building tops to use them for cover.
Action two: Fire on Scimitar (stealthily absent from the target list) with dual lasers.
Marksman roll: [roll0], 10; +8 Observation, +2 Targeting, -2 Actions, -2 Range, -1 Large firing on Medium. Total 15.

[Fri]

"Good Job Mikhail!" Elena complimented his Engel.

"Um... so what am I supposed to do with this thing now?" She said as mechs and explosions started to blaze all around her.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Great... hi-jacked mecha..."

McDowell moves closer and takes a few shots at the Scimitar.

OOC:
[roll0]+ 9 + other stuff -4
[roll1]+ 9 + other stuff -4

[Nerd-o-rama]

Since Malcolm a focus on Mecha with marksman, you actually roll 4 dice. I'll roll additional dice here.

Additional laser die 1 (1d10=8) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441525/)
Additional laser die 2 (1d10=10) (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441527/)

Which wound up just shy of making a difference on either...

A barrage of laser and plasma fire makes the Scimitar duck and cover, but fail to connect.

The Dragonfly struggles futilely in Mikhail's grip, but its friends have a plan of action - heedless of intervening obstacles or cover, the four captured NEG mecha all unleash their charge beams in a simultaneous barrage, carving a path of destruction in (roughly) the direction of the two Engels! It's probably only the fact that Elena is grappling their intended rescuee that prevents them from focusing entirely on her...

The Broadswords all follow this volley by edging forward through the furrows created by the huge beams while the Scimitar stands its ground and waits.

As McDowell flies forward and attacks, one of his plasma shots finally connects to the off-balance Scimitar, dealing a significant burn to its outer armor.

Attacks vs. Elena

20 (Charge Beam) (Dragonfly passes its Dodge check)
18 (Charge Beam) (Dragonfly passes its Dodge check)

REMINDER: since you brought a Shield, you can use Armed Fighting against these ranged attacks, and not have the same accumulating penalties that Dodge tests get.

Attacks vs. Aine

24 (Charge Beam)
20 (Charge Beam)

Initiative

20 Spinner Crews (Moved, Resolved)
16 Ivanov (Moved, Resolved)
15 Baumgardner (Moved, Resolved), Quall (NEED AN ACTION)
13 Kastellanos (Moved, Resolved)
12 Blank Pilots (Moved, Resolved)
10 Dragonfly Pilot (pinned for next 2 actions)
9 McDowell (Moved, Resolved)
> 8 Erdhart
7 Lockhart
6 Donnelly
6 Adkins
0 Victory

Targets
Dragonfly (Migou Pilot), Undamaged, grappled
Broadsword-A (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Broadsword-B (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Broadsword-C (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Scimitar (Blank Pilot), Light Damage

Secondary Targets - the commander recommends leaving these to the Victory
Spinner-A (Migou Pilot), Undamaged
Spinner-B (Migou Pilot), Undamaged

With the collateral Charge Beam damage to the training arena, don't worry about cover for now. Broadswords are now about 200 yards away from people who have moved this turn, ~218 from people who haven't. The Scimitar is about ~18 yards further.

Need an action from Quall and Aine for this turn.

[Fri]

dodge check [roll0]+8

[Fri]

Being tied with together with an alien mech didn't really give elena a good chance to evade the lasers.

"Aah, damnit!" She said, especially when she realized that the dragonfly is unharmed by the barrage. "This isn't fair!"

armed fighting [roll0]+8

goddamnit 1d10=1, 1d10=6, 1d10=8 (http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2441607/) + 8

[Nerd-o-rama]

The behemoth is blasted by the strategic attacks - while the Malach's armor absorbs most of the damage, static flickers across several monitors, one of which informs Elena that hull integrity is at 72% and armor capability at 50%. Armor will be fully restored in 1 minute.

Mikhail's biological consciousness, for its part, informs Elena that it is pissed.

Mikhail takes a total of 42 damage, placing him in Light Damage (-1 to all movement and attack tests) and reducing its Projectile Armor by two ranks. Regeneration + DCS restores 5 points of damage, giving it 37 net damage and beginning to repair the armor.

[Meek]

Aine's eyes widen at the sight of the incoming blasts and all the carnage, but instinctually she attempts to move out of the way.

Dodge tests, spending two drama points on each, so at 5d10 each, with a base of 8. 6 drama points remaining.

[roll0]
[roll1]

Pick 9 and 9 for the first one so 26 total
Pick 9 and 9 for the second one so 26 total probably -2 as well.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Both charge beams miss the aquatic mech entirely, blasting down fake buildings to either side of Aine like dominoes, but leaving her Hamshall unharmed.

[Meek]

The Hamshall having swerved out of harms way rectifies itself instantly, its body seeming to twist rubber-like. Avoiding the attack put all of Aine's nerves on edge.

"Blanks?" Aine reacts, rather delayed. She even says it over the comm, which probably sounds rather stupid of her, especially with her little accent. In the time between the dragonfly's and the blank's appearances, it seemed as though Aine could've fit a lifetime, yet everything happened so fast. Being shot at and surviving was what really woke her up to the unacceptable reality of the situation.

She really hadn't awoken today prepared to fight for real, but she would. She felt the predator trapped within her mind that it was time to maim, kill and feed.

Aine retaliates immediate and savagely after the assault by firing off her charge beam at the aggressors, now feeling infuriated that they'd snap her out of her joyous reverie – but it was still all a game anyway, a game of hunting and killing. The Hamshall's rubbery blue-green flesh slides back on its arm to reveal the cannon, and it launches a massive beam headed the broadsword's way.

Declaring only one action, to fire a charge beam at Broadsword A.

Spend 2 drama point to remove 2 dodge dice from it. 4 DP left.

3d10+1d10 from spec with a base of 8 and +2 targeting.

[roll0]

Pick 9, add 10 for 19 total.

[DrakeRaids]

Joshua looked to the sky, stunned momentarily. Enemies, here, now. How did they get back here, undetected? It shouldn't be possible, and did they want something more then launching an attack against this one ship? It seemed like a waste, but then these mechs didn't seem in top shape, like this was a secondhand operation...

To much thinking. They where under fire; and it was time to get dangerous. Shifting slightly Joshua took careful aim and fired off two blasts from his Plasma cannon, hopefully reducing one of those Broadsides to ash.


Shooting at Broadsword A

[roll0]+8 and 17
[roll1]+8 So 18

[Nerd-o-rama]

Drake: 10+10 is 20 - you add up matching pairs of numbers. For example, the Broadsword's first dodge rolls were an amazing "10, 10, 10, 9", for 30+8, so you missed on the first one. Second one hits by around 15 over, though.

Joshua's Plasma Rifle has 18 shots remaining in the clip.
Josh's long-range fire with the plasma rifle pays off - the first shot causes the center broadsword to duck and cover - right into his second shot, leaving a hole in the frontal armor.

The Hamshall's return fire is even more impressive than the oncoming charge beams, the huge burst removing what little obstructions remained between the Hamshall and its target, blasting large chunks of armor off the front of the broadsword, leaving parts of it glowing.

"Nice shot, squid! Finishing it off!" Lockhart calls, firing off her own charge beam. "Heheh, with a handheld charge, I can keep this pressure up for the rest of the fight." The huge beam also connects with the lead Broadsword, and it collapses, critically damaged.

Commander Donnelly flies forward and fires off linked lasers at the damaged artillery mech, but it successfully ducks behind the twisted remains of a wall. Adkins, for his part, takes the opportunity to run out towards the enemy, shield raised as he attempts to navigate to a flanking position against the scimitar.

You can hear Captain Kawashima over the comms as she gives orders directly from the Victory's CIC. "Portside charge beam batteries, prepare to fire. Ensign, firing solutions on the Spinner still over water now. All ready? Portside cannons, fire one!"

One of the massive batteries on the opposite side of the Victory from you all on shore swivels around and locks into position, pointing directly at the Migou Spinner above the ocean. It attempts to maneuver out of the way, but for nothing, as a huge gout of light erupts from the Victory's front-port side, instantly vaporizing the support craft.

The other Spinner, coldly, doesn't respond to this, instead hovering patiently, as if waiting...

**End of Turn 1 (of actual combat)**
**Start of Turn 2**

Initiative

20 Spinner Crew (Delaying Action)
>> 16 Ivanov
15 Baumgardner, Quall
13 Kastellanos
12 Blank Pilots
10 Dragonfly Pilot (pinned for next 2 actions)
9 McDowell
8 Erdhart
7 Lockhart
6 Donnelly
6 Adkins
0 Victory

Targets
Dragonfly (Migou Pilot), Undamaged, grappled
Broadsword-A (Blank Pilot), Critical Damage
Broadsword-B (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Broadsword-C (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Scimitar (Blank Pilot), Light Damage

Secondary Targets - the commander recommends leaving these to the Victory
Spinner-A (Migou Pilot), Undamaged
Spinner-B (Migou Pilot), Destroyed

Positions are unchanged as of the last time I gave them.

[Fri]

"This is really annoying." Elena tried to calm himself. In response, her Malach tighten its tentacle grip as it leapt forward with large blade unsheated. Without further warning, it bathed itself with biomechanical fluid and bits of alien structure as it ripped the dragonfly apart without mercy.

spending one turn to keep the dragonfly entangled, then ripping it with the hyperedge blade. It's close quarter, right?

[roll0]+8 attack

[Lord Bayushi]

Seeing the Scimitar dance around multiple attacks caused Charlie to scowl. He glanced at his rangefinder, pushed his A-pods up to half power, and watched for the 200 meter mark as he took aim again. Once he crossed into the range, he continued to fire on his declared target.

Declare three actions.
Action one: Accelerate to 15 mph (37 ypt), crossing into medium range at turn's end.
Action two: Aim at Scimitar while closing.
Action three: Shoot twin-linked lasers at medium range. Spend 1 drama point to add to the roll, and another to subtract a dodge dice from the target. (2 drama points spent total.)
Marksman roll: [roll0] 8; +8 Observation, +2 Targeting, +4 Aim, -4 Actions, -1 Large firing on Medium; 17 total.

[DrakeRaids]

Yes! First kill was totally going to him. Joshua grinned as he took aim at the Broadsword again and fired off another shot at the poor blank; mayhpas the poor fellow would find some release in death. Still, he didn't hesitate as he lined up another shot and fired two twins blasts of energy with his plasma cannon.


[roll0]+8 so 35 (WOOT!!!!)
[roll1]+8 and 18

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"You drive 60 tons, what do you get? Another day older and closer to death."

McDowell fires another couple of shots at the Scimitar, kinda half-assing it.

"How does the rest of that song go? I'm getting bored shooting at things which don't bleed."

OOC:
Shot 1: [roll0] + 8 + 1 - 4 + 2 + other stuff = 16 + ?
Shot 2: [roll1] + 8 + 1 - 4 + 2 +other stuff = 16 + ?
Shot 3: [roll2] + 8 + 1 - 4 + 2 +other stuff = 13 + ?

[Nerd-o-rama]

The bound Migou Dragonfly is simply sliced in half by Mikhail's sword, as precisely guided by Elena. Power core ruptured, it explodes, vaporizing its pilot and the accumulated espionage data instantly.

If Mikhail had a mouth, it would be smirking ferally.

Seeing the scout destroyed, the remaining spinner takes action, floating straight up into the air with uncanny speed to get out of weapons range as fast as possible - before anyone can do much, it's already at the extreme range of your guns and not slowing down.

"Well...I didn't track any transmissions from the bug on the ground," says a female voice you can assume is one of the Victory's intelligence officers, "so unless they have a new encryption we don't know about, I don't think they got anything..."

"We've still got Blanks on the ground here," Donnelly comments. "Damn Bugs just left them here to die, so let's oblige them."

Charlie's sensors give him a solid lock tone and he fires on the scimitar, twin laser cannon burning through the remaining frontal armor and severing several important power systems, causing all its main weapons systems to cut out as it staggers back - twin charge beams are fun, but nothing more than a waste of space that could have been used on more durable weapons when you start taking damage. As for Quall, his first plasma blast pierces the main body of the crippled Broadsword, causing it to detonate in a bright flash of arcane energy, while McDowell's fire takes another small chunk out of the Scimitar as it attempts, feebly, to close to melee range with its limited movement capability. It's almost kind of sad.

The remaining functional broadwords, however, march resolutely forward, arms raised and firing two shots of blue-green laser each at Quall and Baumgardner, respectively.

Initiative

16 Ivanov (Moved, Resolved)
15 Baumgardner, Quall (Moved, Resolved)
13 Kastellanos (Moved, Resolved)
12 Blank Pilots (Moved, awaiting reactions)
9 McDowell (Moved, Resolved)
>> 8 Erdhart
7 Lockhart
6 Donnelly
6 Adkins
0 Victory

Targets
Dragonfly (Migou Pilot), Destroyed
Broadsword-A (Blank Pilot), Destroyed
Broadsword-B (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Broadsword-C (Blank Pilot), Undamaged
Scimitar (Blank Pilot), Serious Damage

Secondary Targets - the commander recommends leaving these to the Victory
Spinner-A (Migou Pilot), Undamaged, Fleeing
Spinner-B (Migou Pilot), Destroyed

Everything's within about 200 yards of everything else right now, except the Spinner - you can take potshots at it at extreme range if you wish.

I need two Dodge rolls from Charlie and Joseph, and Aine's actions for this turn - I recommend hitting a Broadsword.

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie banked to the left to avoid incoming fire.

Dodge roll: [roll0], so 18 (go Devil Numbers) +7 Agility, total 25.

Happy St. Paddy's Day, folks. Hope the hangovers stay away tomorrow.

[Fri]

After the cathartic feeling ended, Elena noticed the mess around her. "Uhm, I hope it's not important...." she said, referring to the dragonfly that's now exist in bite-sized bits.

[Meek]

Aine remains planted where she is, and raises the Engel's other arm cannon, this one a laser, while the charge beam smokes, the flesh over it glowing from its momentary overheating. She fires two shots at one of the broadsword, leaving the close range heroics to those with better melee weapons than her tail. All the while she remains quiet on the communications, save for a sound as though she were lightly chewing something, which she makes when particularly nervous. That, and her Engel's tendency to want to eat its enemies, were part of why her callsign was Gnaw.

Declare 2 actions, both shots of my laser at Broadsword B. Spend 2 drama points to remove 2 dodge dice from Broadsword B. 2 DP left. Base is 8 and +2 targeting, -2 for multiple actions, so basically still 8.

[roll0]
[roll1]

Pick 3 9s on the first one for 27 + 8 = 35 for the first laser shot.
Pick the 2 6s on the second one for 12 + 8 = 20 on the second shot.

[Nerd-o-rama]

The first attack on Charlie's mech misses widely, and the second one doesn't do more than scratch the paint - Damage Control doesn't even kick in yet. Likewise for Joshua, who gets scratched by the first attack and dodges the second.

I went ahead and rolled Baumgardner's second dodge for you, along with both of Quall's dodges. Either of you can negate the hits with an action point, but honestly they were such peck hits you're not even out of Cosmetic damage yet.

Neichael's lasers both strike true against the Broadsword on the right, destroying its mounted Charge Beam outright and causing significant damage to its armor. Erdhart follows with yet another Charge Beam blast from her portable cannon, knocking it down but not destroying it...until she decides she's had enough of other people getting kills and follows up with a mounted laser attack, reducing the target to scrap. "Ha!"

Donnelly, for his part, briefly regards the fleeing Spinner, but eventually shakes his head in his cockpit and unloads the rest of his rockets at the remaining Broadsword - the volley strikes the area around it, but deals little damage to the mech itself.

Adkins completes his maneuver, charging the gun-less Scimitar with a surprisingly expert sword strike for a rookie, crippling it entirely. "Hey...Scimitars really suck in CQB!"

The Victory seems to be doing something, as hatches open on its dorsal side..."All hands, we are tageting LLRMs on the fleeing Spinner. Please stay clear of the missile racks," the captain warns, as the Spinner itself moves further towards being a dot on the horizon.

**End of Turn 2**
**Start of Turn 3**

>> 16 Ivanov
15 Baumgardner, Quall
13 Kastellanos
12 Blank Pilots
9 McDowell
8 Erdhart
7 Lockhart
6 Donnelly
6 Adkins
0 Victory

Targets
Dragonfly (Migou Pilot), Destroyed
Broadsword-A (Blank Pilot), Destroyed
Broadsword-B (Blank Pilot), Destroyed
Broadsword-C (Blank Pilot), Cosmetic Damage
Scimitar (Blank Pilot), Critical Damage

Secondary Targets - the commander recommends leaving these to the Victory
Spinner-A (Migou Pilot), Undamaged, Fleeing
Spinner-B (Migou Pilot), Destroyed

One remotely useful enemy left. FINISH HIM!

[DrakeRaids]

"Lets makes some noise," Joshua murmured as he he moved slowly through the mock battle, the Broadsword had stumbled right into a perfect firinglane he had seen earlier, by nimbly moving between two buildings he had a direct shot at the enemy mech through a connecting alleyway, and he was going to take advantage of his good fortune. Calmly he locked onto his target and unloaded with his plasma weapons, hopefully shredding the thing into oblivion.

[DrakeRaids]

I'm taking my +1 to my attack roll for the scouting earlier now, and spending two drama points from Inventive to increase my die poll, assuming my finding and using that firing point counts as being inventive

Rolled d20s on accident. My bad.

[roll0]+9 30
[roll1]+9 and 36 And scratch the last two dice on this one, not that it matters. Supposed to be 4d10.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Just die already! I want some ****ing food!"

McDowell fires twice at the broadsword.

OOC:
[roll0]+8+1-2+2+?=14
[roll1]+8+1-2+2+?=18

[Nerd-o-rama]

At this point, I'm just going to call this one - there's effectively one enemy vs. 9 fully functional NEG troops, so it's as good as done.

Under a hail of fire from the team, the last remaining Blank Broadsword detonates in another spectacular explosion, the Scimitar finally collapsing itself as it loses power containment. Hostile presence in the area is now confirmed to be zero.

"LLRM target lock confirmed. Ignition confirmed. Fire," you can hear from the Victory as a large rocket streaks out in pursuit of the fleeing Spinner. Some 30 seconds later, an explosion can be seen in the distance...but no secondary flashes.

"Kill unconfirmed," another voice says. "Spinner continuing to move out of radar contact range."

"Well, at least we saved the base, right?" Adkins says over the comm. It's true, in all that fighting, damage was contained away from the main portions of the base, the Victory was practically unharmed, and even the frontline mecha weren't damaged enough to even take Damage Control offline. All in all, a successful mission. "Well, except for the training center." Oh right, that's been pretty much destroyed.

"Still," interrupts Captain Kawashima, "this mission, and the training exercise, can be considered a complete success. Well done, pilots. You can stand down and move your mechs to the base hangar while we get repairs and final transfer to the Victory sorted out."

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Good enough. Hey, where is the chow hall on the battleship?"

McDowell was still craving grits. He wasn't sure why exactly, and he wasn't sure if he actually liked them. He just wanted them for some reason, and possibly a spot of tea.

McDowell moves his mecha to the hangar and powers down before heading over to the battleship.

[Meek]

"It's...over?" Aine looks around, her head throbbing. She seems to not realize she's in her Engel for the moment – the mecha also moves its head around almost as if in confusion. Then it shakes it. "Yes sir..." Aine says to the captain. In Aine's mind, she knew something had gone wrong with the interactions between the many layers of her confused reality. She would probably have a big headache tomorrow and no desire to leave the bed.

While contemplating how much medication would get her feeling right again, the Hamshall heads toward the hangar, and once there, the water begins to drain from the chamber into rubbery, fleshy pores in the walls. The Hamshall's blue-green exterior becomes muted, as though blood were draining from it. Aine removes her mouth-tube and the connector to the back of her head, and shakes her head, her wet hair flinging side to side.

"Okay...time to put on a smile..." she says to herself. She looks down at a puddle of leftover suspension fluid, and smiles. It seems sincere enough. The Hamshall's "womb" opens to the exterior and Aine climbs down. Once outside, she's all smiles and tries very hard not to think.

[wadledo]

"Well, didn't we feel useless, huh Anpiel?"
The Cherub and pilot head to the hanger, tail scraping along the ruined walls and even gently hitting one of the mecha's derisively.
Strapping into it's berth, Alex waves to Anie on the opposite side of the room as he climbs down the ladder.
"Hey, stop looking so glum. If you cheer up I'll buy ya a burger, k?"

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie surveyed the fallen mecha silently. They had been soldiers once, human soldiers. The bugs threw them away like so much refuse. Some of them had gotten away, and that made him angry. He glanced into the sky through synthetic optics, hoping that, one day, he would meet those same bugs again.

He turned his mech to toward the hanger, punching up diagnostics as he went, checking systems for damage. He knew a laser had glanced Maddie, and that would take some fixing.

Once into the hanger, he powered down, and punched up a few quick notes for the debrief, while they were still fresh. He also did a final walk around, making sure he hadn't missed any damage.

[DrakeRaids]

"Mission successful!" Joshua murmured with a grin. Everything went perfectly, and he now had two kills to his name! Already. In his first live fire mission. Adrenaline still rushed through his veins as he shot his Brushfire up for a moment and examined the carnage they had wrought, it was... empowering. He had saved peoples lives today. He had struck a blow against the enemy today, and while it might be insignificant in the long run it was a victory like this that told him that they where going to win this war.

With a few flicks he had his mech turned around and heading for the hanger, where he neatly docked and popped the hatch open, still grinning like an idiot.

"Hah! We sure showed those cockroaches didn't we? Bugs didn't have a chance. Maybe they'll think twice next time they try and hit us on our home turf now won't they?" he laughed as he dropped to the hanger floor.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

McDowell walks back into the hangar with a embarrassed look on his face.

"I don't think we really won anything. All that happened was that we shot at some bloody sons of guns and wasted a bunch of ammo today."

"So, I'm quite sorry, where's the exit? I'm kinda lost..."

"When I entered, I was following the others, but nobody else is heading towards the chow hall."

[Nerd-o-rama]

And with that, the first (unplanned) mission of the NES Victory comes to a close.

"Normally, this is the time for a quick debrief and all you rookies to buy each other beers," Command Donnelly says once everyone's assembled in the hangar, cutting off Lockhart's enthusiastic suggestion to do just that.

"But nobody's changing our deployment orders, so we've got to get underway. The engineers'll take care of moving and repairing everyone's units, so you all just grab your kit and get aboard. There'll be a debrief at 1700, once we're all on board. You've all got your billet assignments, so hop to it." No rest for the victorious, it seems.

"Oh, and nice job."


Prologue: End.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Chapter 1: Stand up to the...

Monday, March 5, 2085
NES Victory, docked at Fort Ord Naval Base, California
1600 Hours (0000 GMT)

After some rushed and frantic, but still militarily-ordered moving, everyone finds themselves in their particular rooms aboard the Victory, bags and personal effects in a pile next to your bunks. As officers and pilots, everyone gets a small individual room equipped with a bunk, footlocker, and a small desk, unlike the barracks accommodations of the regular crew. Everyone's quarters are in a shared hallway designated for the pilot complement aboard the ship, along with Adkins and Lockhart's rooms. Commander Donnelly, naturally, gets a much nicer billet somewhere else.

There's about an hour before your scheduled debrief, and not much to do in your rooms but unpack, set up, or screw around on your PCPU. There is quite a lot of ship outside, though, along with all your new squadmates.

[Meek]

Aine feels something snap in her head and smiles. She felt comfortable now, aboard the victory, with nothing to challenge her senses or perceptions. She carries her things into her room, careful with one particular bag. First she unpacks some street clothes, mostly long dresses and hats. Aine's clothing is very modest country girl stuff. She tosses her side arm up on her bunk.

Left for last, she opens that one bag she handled most carefully, and removes the cases containing her minis.

There's a Gladius with its dual blades, a Scimitar with a very implausible looking set of rocket packs from a company not known for their historical accuracy, a Nazzadi mech that was rather difficult to assemble, coming out slightly top-heavy even after a bit of trimming, and even a limited-edition set of Migou minis, with one glorious example being the Migou Spider with its many articulated parts. They were definitely the bad guys, but they still got special treatment as Aine's possessions.

She puts those three favorites on display, smiling. "Ah...I wonder if anyone here plays. Or if there's some way you can order minis while on assignment...it'd be nice to get that limited edition Engel, even it it's just a Malach..."

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

McDowell walks into Aine's room with a confused look on his face.

"Excuse me, but do you know where the chow hall is? I'm quite lost at the moment."

He looks at Aine's minis with a bit of confusion.

"Are those Union Soldier Jack action figures? They seem quite small."

"Unless they shrunk down the playsets again. I prefer the originals with the karate chop action."

[Lord Bayushi]

Chief Baumgardner walked into the corridor with a full duffel over one shoulder, and a field dressed rucksack over the other. The cigar in his mouth was lit now, and a trail of smoke followed him as he looked for his quarters.

He glanced over the shoulder of the Sublieutenant as he walked, paying little attention once he overheard the words 'chow hall'. Internally, Charlie swore he would knock out some of the man's teeth if he had to hear any more of his literal belly-aching.

Finding the hatch to his own room, he pushed the door in, and threw his gear on the bunk. He inspected the multimedia unit first, pulling it out of the duffel and placing it on any surface that would hold it. Once he had it plugged in, he accessed his personal music files from his PCPU and started playing some Nazzadi jazz while he unpacked the rest of his belongings.

Anyone overseeing his actions would think he was still very much a Marine, unpacking things in a military manner and storing them as if preparing for an inspection. Old habits, he guessed, as he thought about the mechanical actions he was taking. Besides, it's easier to find things when everything is in its proper place.

Once his basics were stowed, he pulled a long box out of the duffel, just above his shoes a boots, and opened it next to his small personal fridge. He pulled out of it two well protected bottles, one of which he put in the fridge, the other he placed next to his bunk. He unscrewed the cap from the whiskey, and drank from the bottle, kicking back on his bunk. He quietly enjoyed relaxing to the sound of the brass horn playing through his speakers, puffing on his cigar between swigs.

A little smoke, a little booze, and a little jazz, he thought, about the best you can expect in today's insane world.

[Meek]

"Oh no, they're Xenohammer 20k minis." Aine replies to McDowell, smiling. "They're not really action figures, though some have very good articulation. They're for playing on tabletops. You use your PCPU and a special module to calculate distances and crunch numbers and you play out imaginative battle scenarios loosely adapted from the First Arcanotech War." It sounds almost like an advertisement and is indeed taken verbatim from the rulebooks. "The Engel aren't very full-featured but that's because they don't ordinarily get seen in public with their tentacles and stuff out, so I can understand." She adds, drifting off and staring at her Malach figure. "They're also banned from most games for being too powerful, and also outside the time period of the game...same for the Migou..."

"Oh, right, sorry, the food hall. I got carried away again." She makes a cute gesture of bumping herself in the head with her fist. "I'm not actually sure where it is, but I think you could walk out of the barracks and find it pretty easily. You can get your PCPU to link you to a passenger map of the Victory, I'm sure."

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Right... so how does it work then?"

"I'd be willing to play a game of it with you if you don't mind teaching me."

"I never really liked the bloody tentacled things. The way they breathe is creepier than a stud in the veal pens."

McDowell sits down across from Aine, his eyes focused mostly on the miniatures.

"You didn't happen to sell these things in a past life, didn't you?" he says in a tone where the double-ness of the negatives isn't important.

[Fri]

As the last enemy mech fell, Elena smiles serenely and sighs.

"All's well ends well. What an amazing day for everyone today, isn't it Mikhail? We managed to kill some things, the commands managed to know that we're useful, mankind got some bugs killed, and those poor, brainwashed people got liberated. And the audience even got some entertainment!"

...

The pale blond girl can be seen humming happily in the hall, hands fully equipped with a duffel bag. She put it on the floor when she finds his room, and sighs contently. After setting her room, she yawns and stretches her back a bit.

She then starts to hum again as she walks back and forth the hall with her hands behind her back, taking time to look at the nameplate on each doors. If the door is ajar, she cheerily greets the owner as she pops her head inside. "Good day. A wonderful ship, isn't it? I'm just trying to memorize everyone's names and room position. I hope we can get along splendidly!"

[Lord Bayushi]

Lost in his music, Charlie is a bit surprised by the interruption. He looked up from his bunk to the young officer, smirking slightly at her upbeat demeanor.

"Get along splendedly, wonderful ship... Shortstuff, you sure you were just in a battle an hour ago? You seem a little too, ah, optimistic. You aren't on happy pills, are you?"

[DrakeRaids]

Joshua sat back on his bed, oldies music playing in the background as his stuff lay half-unpacked in various places while he relaxed. So far so good, they really where on their way to being heroes of the highest order! Pops would be ecstatic even if he hadn't been so excited about him joining up. and hey, maybe it would even get Gramps off his back?

Heh. Not likely; but a guy can dream can't he?

With a sigh he pushes himself up and begin to get back to work stowing away cloths and such. He pulled out a managarie books he was partial to, his favorite of which was old leather bound copy of The Count of Monte Cristo which he set carefully on a self by the bed. He also added a few pictures around as well, one of his parents, and another picture of a bunch of teens posing with a two year younger Joshua at a beach.

It wasn't much, not really, but it did wonders to make the place feel more like home.

After a while he decided to take his rounds of the ship, taking in the sights as they where. This was going to be home for a while now; so he had best get used to the feel of the place. On his way he couldn't help catching a bit of an old Jazz tune playing through the air, he smiled at the sound, music from a better time, and waved at both Charlie and Elena as he made his way to the mess hall.

All this site seeing was making him hungry. He wondered how the grub was around these parts?

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Hello, you're Ivanov, right?"

"So this piece moves in an L shape and becomes a drunken elephant if it makes it to the other side, right?" he says as he points to a random miniature. He wasn't getting the hang of the game.

"I'm McDowell, I'm in the room next to this one. I don't see any real point in putting things away until I have to do the laundry."

[Fri]

"Nice to meet you!" She says to anyone that greets her back. At charlie's question, she frowns a bit as if she's thinking.

"Am I? Well, I just can't see the reason of not being optimistic, in that case. No real damage had been done, we won complete and utterly, and I finally got my first bug kill!"

[Meek]

Aine decides that she cannot see any future in trying to play with McDowell and possibly anyone on board. It was telling he was expressing distaste for Engels right in front of an Engel pilot. She thought she had problems, but this is something else. She says "Ah...it's a little hard to pick up, maybe some other time I can teach you. Right now I just want to put my things away." She smiles politely, hoping to get some relief from McDowell.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Well, do you need any help?"

"Most of the people here seem to be the sort of people who are the 'I refuse to be in the same room with you' sort. I just can't sort them out through sorting stuff around in my head, for sort's sake."

[Fri]

Elena releases a light chuckle. "In fact I enjoy people, so you can put me in the other basket. And I don't really need any help right now, but thanks for asking. I do need something from the quartermaster, but we're having a debriefing soon, so I'll hold that for later."

[Meek]

Aine smiles and says "No, I'm fine, thanks for asking!" to McDowell.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Sigh. Well, do you mind having a traveling companion?" he asks of Elena.

"It's rather boring here."

OOC:
GM, you there? I don't think anyone is doing much socializing.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"She doesn't like you," interjects a passing Sublieutenant Lockhart to McDowell as she makes her way to her own room.

Adkins follows shortly behind, giving Lockhart a "that was uncalled-for" look as he carries his own duffels full of what look like PCPU data cards in shortly after her.

Quall's wandering takes him somewhat closer to one of the ship's conference/ready rooms, where he can make out Commander Donnelly's loud voice having a conversation with someone much quieter and, thus, inaudible from this distance.

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie smirked at the passing Sublieutenant's comments. Having come to the end of his cigar, he mashed the last of the ashes into his tray and placed the remainder of his bottle in the fridge. He frowned slightly, as he would prefer ice, glasses, and room temperature whiskey, but you made due as you had to on a ship.

He took just a minute to straighten his bunk behind him, switched off his music, then stepped into the hallway. "Crew's mess should be this way, not sure where they hide the Officers' mess. I'm going for a burger."

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Who doesn't like me? I'm rather confused. If it is something about something romantic, I must warn you, I'm not heterosexual." It is rather unclear if McDowell is being sarcastic or not.

McDowell heads to his room next door and opens up one of his bags. He pulls out a few books and stares at them all for a minute before peering at the back covers. He opens up a book written by some British author and starts reading random pages. A few moments later, a look of absolute disgust covers his face as he places the book back in the bag.

"Oh dear, I hope I don't end up like that Durden fellow." he says to himself, not paying attention to whether or not anyone had followed him.

[Meek]

Aine shakes her head, somewhat glad to have him away now. She'd have to keep an eye out for him in the future. After making sure all of her possessions were in their place, she stood out in the hallway and heaved a little sigh, looking around quietly.

[DrakeRaids]

His interest piqued, Joshua continued toward the sound of voices, until he the conference room, where he paused, hoping to hear something worthwhile. Hopefully about what an excellent pilot he was and how lucky the commander felt to have him.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Walking closer to the conference room, Joshua can make out the quieter voice as being the captain's. Donnelly still speaks first, though.

"And have you seen the guy's psych profile?" the Commander asks, sounding like he's waving a sheaf of papers in the air. "It's nothing but 1600 lines of censor marker! I want to know what genius decided to use my squad as a damn mouse maze for their experiments."

"So, you'd like to go with Lockhart for the squad XO then, I take it?" the captain asks.

"...yes ma'am. Although frankly I think Baumgardner'd do better."

"Careful, Commander, your grunt instincts are showing." A smile can be heard in the captain's voice that quickly disappears. "Now, about the GIA op..."

Quall, quite suddenly, feels a finger tap on his shoulder.


Back in the pilot bunks, Adkins walks up to Aine (and anyone else outside/with their door open) with a smile. "Some first day, huh? I wonder if we're going to get to walk into a Mantis ambush tomorrow."

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"That's quite possible. Apparently highly-fortified training facilities lack decent scanning equipment, so I see no reason why a warship should have any as well."

"So, how many people are actually stationed on this thing? I have a bad feeling that I should be wearing a red uniform. I have the worst feeling that I'm going to be used in some sort of suicide mission. And I understand why they wouldn't let me paint my mecha gold, but not why they wouldn't let me paint it red."

"Oh dear, I'm thinking out loud, aren't I?"

He hides his face in his book, obviously embarrassed.

[Fri]

"Yes. The color red does make everything looks better..." Elena's eyes glazes. "Anyway, when will the debriefing starts?" she snaps back. "It's nice that the command gave us some rest time before the debriefing, but it's such a bother. It's not enough time to sleep or tour the ship, yet long enough to make me restless."

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie finished his burger, checking his watch as he licked the last of the condiments from his fingers. He still had a short time before the debriefing, but not long enough to do anything useful. He emptied his tray into the trash, and headed back to his quarters.

Wonder if that crazy Sublieutenant has convinced any of the rest of them to kill him yet.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Red doesn't make everything look better..."

"I think..."

"There has to be something that doesn't look good red."

"Do you happen to have any books you would be willing to trade with me? I don't like this one, it's far too morbid for me." He holds up a gray book by the same author as the one he's currently looking at.

"I don't think it really matters how much time they give us to rest. All we do in the mechas is sit around, then we sit around to rest, then we sit around at the table for the debriefing, then we... um..." he says, trailing off yet again as he fails to sound deep.

[DrakeRaids]

Psych profile? Who where they talking about? Not that there where any real shortage of headcases here, Engel pilots always seemed a little..... off. But as long as they kept their guns pointed at the bugs and freaks he had no issue. Guy huh. Maybe-

Joshua froze as he felt the finger tap his back and put on his best sheepish smile as he turned around.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Josh finds himself suddenly facing a gorgeous blonde woman in a business suit, grinning like a cat who just got fed despite her otherwise neat and professional appearance. "Eavesdropping's impolite, you know," she says playfully. "For one thing, it's my job you're moving in on."


Adkins pipes up, "Actually, I heard how the Migou managed to sneak up on the base - Ensign Lei Fan* said something them using a new ECM that disrupts our sonar buoys. Although that's, uh, probably going to be in the debrief." He looks a little sheepish about spreading information he wasn't supposed to know yet.

Lockhart comes back out of her room in time to hear the conversation about the color red. "No, Cutesy McChiphead's right, red does make everything better. Not faster, sadly, just better. And anyway, McDowell, if you're bored sitting around in your mech, I got a couple ideas of what you can do there. First, you could take a big metal funnel and..."

Adkins just kind of sighs. You get the impression he's heard the ensuing not-safe-for-work suggestions before.

((*probably the comms officer, but how does this guy learn names so quickly?))

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"Oh, I believe I've done that before. Once or twice. Not in my mech though, I think mine is relatively new anyway. Though it might have just been a movie and I'm getting my memories mixed up again."

"Or maybe I did that to someone..."

"Either way, I wouldn't really be willing to do it again unless it were for some sort of medical reason."

McDowell looks around for a book marker, then just decides to fold over a corner of a page.

"Miss... um... something... are you trying to intimidate me? Or are you just very bad at making friends? I would be okay with being your friend, I suppose."

[Meek]

Aine remains quiet as she finishes putting away her things and then merely leans on a wall out in the hall while listening to the conversation.

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie walked through the corridor approaching the cabins, happening on the young half-breed pilot and a woman dressed as a civilian. His eyes narrowed, noting that suits on a ship were usually a bad thing. She was either a spook, or an Ashcroft head-shrinker. He couldn't help but grin a bit looking at the kid blush, though he wasn't sure what they were discussing.

He walked up on them nonchalantly, speaking once they noticed him.

"You annoying the ladies again, kid? Sorry ma'am, we're new on the ship, I'm sure he didn't mean to trespass."

Whoever she was, Charlie knew damn well that she wouldn't be bunking in this area, but she might tell him something about what she was doing here if she thought he was too dumb to notice.

[Fri]

(Uh, where are we actually now? Are all of us actually currently crowding at aine's room?)

In the mean time, Elena finally notices some of the models that's left out from McDowell and Aine's previous interaction. She picks up a stray one. "Miss Aine, I think you left this one..." she says softly.

She then takes a closer look at the model with an interested look... and takes a whiff from it for some reason. "This smell... do you paint this yourself Miss Aine?" she continues, after testing some of the paint with her fingers.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"The rest of you can come inside and sit down if you would like."

"I only have one chair in here, but I can make room for you on the bed."

OOC:
McDowell is next door to Aine, talking to the random people who keep passing by his room. Aine started spying on the conversation.

[Meek]

"Why yes," Aine says, "They come disassembled in gray bits. You buy put them together and paint them. I'm kinda boring though, I always just use the official NEG colors."

[DrakeRaids]

"Well hello there." Joshua said with his trademark disassembling smile, while keeping his voice low enough to not be heard in the next room. Hopefully. "Eavesdropping? You wound me." He added with playful grin. Who was this woman? He knew he would have remembered someone like her from he briefings... A civilian.... Maybe?

[Fri]

"Is that so? I didn't noticed that at first, since it's really tidy." she gives the model back.

Elena then let out a small laugh toward McDowell. "But we just meet, Sublieutenant. And you're already inviting me to your bed?"

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"I only ask because you look uncomfortable standing." he says in that voice of his where you can't tell if he's joking.

"It's not like I'm capable of doing anything in bed. Anything non-violent, at least."

OOC:
According to TV Tropes, the setting has a very relaxed stance towards sex. Is there any real reason why other than author appeal?

[Meek]

Aine tries to suppress a shudder. This guy can't possibly be real. I must be playing a game right now. She could hardly reconcile with herself how she transitioned from the real world to a game world so quickly, and it was giving her a headache. She thought she had it down by now, which plane of existence she occupied...

[Nerd-o-rama]

At this point, Baumgardner and Quall are interrupted by their superiors as Donnelly and Captain Kawashima (a middle-aged but still quite attractive Japanese woman who moves with a grace indicating she wasn't always an REMF) leave their apparently impromptu conference to see what's going on.

"Oh, Agent Briggs," Kawashima says, polite but not too terribly enthusiastic. "You're already aboard. Are we waiting on anyone else?"

She shakes her head. "My contractors just finished getting on board, and I see the pilots have moved in nicely, so I as far as I know, we're ready to shove off, captain!"

Kawashima's polite smile grows almost imperceptibly more strained at Briggs's cheerfulness. "Wonderful. I'll be heading back to the bridge now. Mr. Donnelly, I'll leave the introductions to you."

Donnelly grunts before remembering himself and saluting. "Aye, ma'am." As Kawashima acknowledges the salute and walks off, he turns to the two pilots. "Baumgardner, Quall, this is Agent Laura Briggs with the GIA. Ms. Briggs, Ensign Joshua Quall and CWO Charles Baumgardner."

Laura smiles warmly and gives a surprisingly crisp, if not really appropriate, salute. "Pleased to meet you both!"

*** (< figured I should start using location separators to avoid confusion)

Lockhart just starts laughing (in a quite unladylike manner) at Elena's question. Well, probably mostly Elena's question.

"Hey, so how about that debrief? It's almost 1650," Adkins asks, like a man who isn't normally eager to get to any kind of meeting but really wants to change the subject.

[Meek]

"Yes, I should get going to that." Aine says, putting the miniature Elena had back in its place, then trying to shift her location as comfortably as possible. She was not entirely used to conversation of that sort, even in these loose times.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"So you do have a sense of humor. I assumed you buried it under a rock somewhere, Lockhart."

"Very well, let's get going before we're late for the meeting. We wouldn't want that, now would we?" he says as flatly as possible.

He sets his book down on top of his bag and starts to walk towards the meeting.

[Fri]

Elena follows the others to the debriefing room.

[Lord Bayushi]

"Ma'am." Charlie didn't salute, nor did he seem terribly pleased. The spooks were almost always bad omens, and instantly promoted everyone around them to 'expendable' status. They never gave enough information about objectives to see to it that the grunts made it back home.

Charlie turned back to his CO. "It's about time for the debrief, isn't sir?"

[DrakeRaids]

An agent? Joshua froze suddenly as he listened to their superiors spoke, as he considered all the things this meant. None of them, he noted dryly, where good. Afterwords he gave Briggs tentative salute and began retreat from the situation as quickly as possible, "Yeah, so. Debriefing. We did good right." he said noticeably nervous around the GSI spook, his suave melting away entirely.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Laura smiles at Baumgardner and Quall. "Don't get so nervous, Ensign," she says. "I'm not here to assassinate anyone. This time."

Donnelly visibly rolls his eyes, and ushers everyone toward the location of the debriefing.

***

Once everyone (including Briggs) reaches the ready room for the debrief, Donnelly looks surprised for half a second, but not unpleasantly so, that almost everyone got there early. He eventually nods, and takes a position at the front of the room, which is shaped like a very small amphitheater and comes complete with a holographic projector and a young man in a petty officer's uniform holding a recording device. He salutes as all the officers come in, then goes back to fiddling with his PCPU until Donnelly starts.

"Everyone here? Good, let's make this short. First of all, welcome to the Victory blah blah blah," Donnelly says, pointedly discarding a printed sheet he'd been holding and moving to a different one. "The Migou attack on Fort Ord today has been determined by the GIA and military intelligence to have been an attempt to gather data on the Victory's armaments and mecha complement. Using a new type of ECM, two Migou support craft and a single recon mech were able to circumvent the sonar net and infiltrate the harbor."

Adkins looks briefly pleased with himself before getting a glare from Lockhart and recomposing himself.

"The recon mech and one support craft were terminated by you all, and it's believed that no new combat data reached the Migou." Donnelly pauses. "That about right, Ms. Briggs?"

The blonde nods, more serious now than she was when being introduced to Quall and Baumgardner. "Yes sir. Your squad did very well to take out the Dragonfly before it got away."

Donnely concludes "The enemy mecha complement which was composed mostly of NEG units captured and Blanked in Russia some months ago. These units were eliminated by our squad before they could damage the base outside of the training area, for which Fort Ord's commandant wanted to convey his personal thanks. One support craft was eliminated by artillery fire, one escaped with no retrieved mecha, all other enemies terminated by fire from our side."

"And I do that that wraps it up. Any questions from the peanut gallery?"

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"I have one. Can we leave if we have no other business?"

"In fact, why did we have this meeting to begin with? That attack wasn't an official action by our forces, so we could have simply saved this information for the next debriefing and classified the attack as simply the start point of the next mission."

[Nerd-o-rama]

All that really gets him is an angry glare from Donnelly. "Does anyone else have any questions, or should we be nice and let Crybaby McDowell here go home and have his nap?"

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

"I know it's part of the whole desensitization schtick that the military indulges in, but if you're going to insult me, could you at least pick something that matches my actions?"

"I mentioned that I didn't want to be here, not that I was tired. You could have said that I was an impatient ******** who would have gotten his underlings killed. And my comment was about you misinterpreting standard operating procedure. You could have said something like 'Who cares what the rules say?' or the like. Instead you stick to such a simple insult, it almost seems like you either lack experience or have just stopped caring." he says in a very flat voice.

It's quite possible McDowell knows he is making himself insufferable, but either way, he doesn't care.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Donnelly, as well as Briggs, Lockhart, and especially Adkins just kind of stare incredulously at McDowell for a moment until Donnelly breaks the silence with a sigh. "We don't have time for this. McDowell, get out of here and consider yourself confined to quarters for a day."

[Lord Bayushi]

The man was, quite litterally, insane. He even seemed to be two seperate, though equally annoying, people. The commander needed to send him to the Ashcroft boys, not to his quarters. Just the same, someone had to ask the important question, and Charlie knew he could grow old waiting for anyone to follow up McDowell's floor show.

"As.. fun as this has been, I have a question that doesn't involve a temper tantrum. With due respect to the.. uh, lady, what is the spook doing here, sir, and can we expect to see more of her?"

[DrakeRaids]

Josiah was still worried about the spook, not that he was going to say so. Hells, he didn't want to say anything around her, it might be the wrong thing, and the wrong thing, might be fatal. His eyes widened at McDowells response to the commander, as he glanced around anxiously. That was... Awkward. He sat there in silence, fiddling with his hands,wondering what he was supposed to do or say in this kind of situation.

As par norm, saying nothing seemed to be the best policy.

[Nerd-o-rama]

"Ms. Laura Briggs here is a regular GIA liaison to the military. Basically she's here to coordinate operations between intelligence and us front-line jockeys," Donnelly explains. "Want to explain in detail?"

"Just think of me like a go-between or an adviser," Laura says, somewhere between being all business and her previous all-smiles attitude. "I'm not in the chain of command or anything, I'm just responsible for keeping communications running smoothly here. You guys don't have to listen or even talk to me if you're that uncomfortable with 'spooks'. I promise we're all on the same side here, though, I'm just here to help"

Lockhart pipes up, sarcastically: "Which doesn't mean we're not going to get ordered around to cover your ass when the GIA decides to run some wetworks out of this ship, does it?"

"That will be entirely at the discretion of your captain and your wing commander," Laura says with a humble declination of her head. Donnelly's expression is professionally unreadable.

[Fri]

Elena giggled softly as McDowell was sent out. Funny guy, that one. "I don't have anything to ask, except, did the public was entertained by our performance or not?" She ***** her head and asks in her usual sing-song voice.

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

Without missing a beat, McDowell leaves, trying to hide a smile as he walks away.

He heads over to the cafeteria first and gets a bowl of grits. He takes a taste, and immediately goes to place the bowl with the dirty dishes. He then grabs five or six bagels and a few packets of cream cheese and heads to his room.

[Nerd-o-rama]

McDowell doesn't have any issues getting his food and returning to his room, though when he gets back to his room, his PCPU's message-received icon is blinking.

***

In the briefing room, with no further questions, Donnelly quickly wraps things up with a few bureaucratic details, including the fact that maps of the ship have been downloaded to everyone's PCPUs, along with a rotation for patrol screens as the Victory heads north along the coast to the Pacific Northwest zone. "The schedule assumes none of you end up tossed into the Pacific, of course," he mentions before dismissing the briefing.

((Has anyone got anything they wanted to do for the next few days in-character?))

[UglyPanda]

McDowell

McDowell types up a message and sends it before picking up one of his books.

"I should start doing chess by mail or something. Losing repeatedly might kill the time a little." he says to himself.

He opens his book and starts reading.

[Fri]

Elena sighs in content after the debriefing end. "Anyone want to go to the quartermaster with me? I have... something to request."

She hums as she walk to the ship's quartermaster, and when she arrives there, she smiles and asks. "Excuse me, may I have some bar of soaps?"

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie takes a moment to review the roster for patrols, then flags down the Commander as the briefing disassembles.

"Sir, about McDowell, he needs to have some alone time with the head-shrinkers. I don't want him behind the controls of a multi-ton killing machine. His head is obviously not screwed on right."

[Nerd-o-rama]

Donnelly just continues looking in even a worse mood than expected of a commanding officer. "Your opinion's noted, Baumgardner." He doesn't say anything further, but he seems rather serious about it.

***

Perhaps oddly, considering her usual...self...Lockhart follows along with Elena to the requisition office, where both she and the quartermaster's mate give her a bit of a confused look. "Er...reason for requisitioning the extra soap?" the mate, a weedy-looking little guy considering he's in the military, asks.

[Fri]

"Ah..." Elena laughs as the quartermaster asks. And without breaking her smile or her eye contact, she casually pulls a folding knife out of nowhere and unfolds it in one flowing move. "It's for my hobby..."

"My old psychiatric advisor said that I should do my art hobby more, so I started to do soap carving..." she continues. "Used to paint, you know, but supplies are kinda hard to get and it started to bore me..."

She looks at the ceiling as she spins knife between her fingers and continues to ramble. "So I took carving. A lot more interesting. Other mediums are nice, but I prefer soap bar. They're easier to get and easier to carve..." She looks back at the quartermaster as she folds her knife back. "... and they smell niice."

She ***** her head and asks with her soft, singsong voice. "The military generally looks upward toward their personnel, especially mecha pilots, having hobbies, riight?"

[Lord Bayushi]

Charlie knew when he had said enough, or maybe too much. He left the Commander and consulted the map of the ship on his personal data unit. Using it, he navigated the decks, to the maintenance bay. The familiar smell of machinery and oil comforted the gruff ex-marine, and he walked back and forth behind the active technicians, watching them work as he looked for his assigned mech.

Once he found Maddie, he looked over the recent work, and punched up some basic diagnostics, making certain everything was reading properly. He took some time to get familiar with layout of the bay, where the tools were stored, who worked in and around his equipment, making sure to note names and faces. It took him a few hours to get comfortable with his mech's new home.