Souls of Steel (IC)

[roko10]

​The First Experimental Division was known for many and varied feats of heroic renown, especially during the First Contact War. Of course, it only stands to reason that the men and women that are part of this (semi-)distinguished group are an eclectic group of nonetheless highly skilled, talented, unique or all of the above individuals. You might've been a long-standing member, or a new recruit, but regardless, you're part of the vanguards of humanity now, ready to take on any mission, however dangerous it may be.

Unfortunately, however, the First Experimental Division isn't infallible. Even to this day, the FED's ill-prepared for many dangers and challenges in the world. One in particular is particularly notorious, spoken only in hushed whispers by the FED's support staff; even the best organized Divisions of the World Union's forces and countless nations have major difficulties handling it, let alone a far more loosely organized Division such as the FED. Many good men and women fought bravely to try and contain the creeping danger, but they all struggled in vain.

This terrifying threat was known as "bureaucratic red tape and paperwork"; the reaper of free time, the bane of productivity, the harbinger of boredom.

EPISODE 1 START! (INTERMISSION)

It's a rainy day outside the FED's Motherbase, and you've just completed a fairly routine test exercise with your Frames. It was nothing special; mostly just stress-testing to see how far the technology and the Frames can be pushed, and which aspects can be improved upon, harkening to the FED's roots as test pilots.

Which wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that, just a few hours after you've done the exercise, you're immediately hauled to fill in mountains of paperwork; some of which is feedback forms on what you think your (or any of your other pilots') Frames can be improved, sure, but most of it is just mind-numbing number-crunching. To add insult to injury, you're all stuck here together until you've completed ALL of the paperwork. Probably as a team-building exercise by your CO, Commander Rothschild; he's an incredibly competent leader, usually, but sometimes he comes up with ill-thought out ideas, such as... this.

But alas, you're now stuck in a room, faced with a seemingly unassailable mountain of paperwork. Do you try to complete this first true challenge as a team, or do you procrastinate for as long as you can? You can always strike a conversation

[Merilan]

Yue Rohay is a 2nd Lieutenant in the World Union's forces, officially. Some military vets might be able to tell this is a rather absurdly low rank especially for someone with a military decor and background experience such as hers -- but such is the world when you've come back from the dead after 12 years and are now a half-Outsider... maybe. But paperwork and bureaucracy isn't something that's particularly difficult for her, and as much as she wants to encourage people to do the right thing, there's a thing as too much.

"Requisitions forms, ethics reports for the committee, fault-testing... goodness," she muses with a quiet chime. The brown-haired woman looks no more than a day over 18, much like she was when she died in the first Outsider War; the quiet gleam of her eyes does speak to something a little off, however.

"Well!"

She smiles warmly to her friends. "You know what they say -- many hands make light work. We'll split this up into like reports so that people don't have to shuffle around too much. I'm used to this kind of filing duty, so ask me if you aren't clear about anything. Let's do this!"

The warmth and enthusiasm may just be a little infectious.

I'm using Leadership to test Charm and Presence to provide up to (PL) characters an advantage on their tests, along with an extra character per multiple of 10 I hit.

I have at least 1 advantage, so:

[roll0] + 7 (Charm) - I'll take the 5, so that's a 12 -- so two characters can benefit.

[Rarkasha]

https://i.imgur.com/M8XOTqe.jpg
Ugajin Azuma (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a3vGu2C1y2xVPFtVIObcNFl6hSdhnUASen8oHzF8mKA/edit?usp=sharing][B][FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR="#0000CD)
[SIZE=1]Plot Armor Layer: 3






After hearing Yue, Azuma looks up briefly from his tablet. But after listening he returns to his task, unrespons. On the tablet, one can see a number of grid lines stretching out to a virtual horizon, but oddly distorted. In the top left corner of the screen is some sort of status window, but the numbers don't make any sense to anyone without specific knowledge of the Akashic-Vrain Warp Drive. For the last 20 minutes, Azuma has been tapping on the screen, writing out a few lines of a report, and then returning back to watching the screen.

"If you take away the consequences, people will never learn how to improve," says Azuma, still staring at the screen, "And I've also got an extra report to write on the AV Drive myself. The Professor keeps asking for reports on Coordinate Space, and trying to explain my side of the research is-" Azuma trails off. He knows there's no shame in admitting he isn't an expert in warp technology. But even so, a key point of the research project was to find out how the brain processed the Coordinate Space data. And for now, all they could find out was that for Azuma, it just... worked. Azuma lets out a small sigh, and continues to work on his report.

[LimSindull]

Keith Anyon (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1bYW7VuFgY2sw8CoIijxyNRfmtcneqBgseUC0Q0drxG8/edit?usp=sharing)

Keith Anyon stares at the report in his hand. Here he is supposed to fill out some basic questions. ”How responsive was your Mech to your movements?” Okay, that would be easy. Something like a nine. What’s next? ”What was the particulate lag in the Black Hole Transgressor (BHT) during activation of Timeline Synchronization? What about any episodes of Time Fracture Generation (TFG)?”

Keith lets his head fall to the desk. One reason he is driving Rock Stomper is that he doesn’t know about any of that. You can’t accidentally spread information that you don’t know. Keith picks his head up as Yue starts speaking.

Keith listens to Yue’s speech and begins to swell with pride. ”That’s just like the Yue I’ve learned so much about. Jumping in quickly to rally the team to the offensive. I bet they’ll have this paperwork knocked out in no time!” He speaks to no one and seems to not notice that he is speaking out loud.

”Oh, I guess that involves me too. Just great.” Keith sits back down and picks up a pile of papers. He sets them back down again and picks up a pen. ”Well, let’s get to it!” Yue's speech seems to lift his spirits.

[DoctorFaust]

In the back corner of the room, a pale blue figure sits silently bemoaning military bureaucracy. Jane Doe, one of the few, if not the only Outsider to turn traitor over the course of the first war, had thought she knew what she was getting into rejoining the FED as an active duty member. Unfortunately for her, peacetime seems to have turned their previous infatuation with reports into a full blown obsession, as the pile of paper in front of her proves.

"If we could all work together to finish this, that would be good," Jane remarks. "I don't want to be doing this for any longer than I have to. I just got a new movie yesterday as well, and I'm quite anxious to start it."

[Genon]

Vincent, after entering the room and taking his seat, almost mechanically begins writing. At the same time, he periodically looks at a convenient laptop he carried in. A lot of complicated coding and number-crunching tools are on-screen. On one side of the screen is an advanced text editor displaying code for the latest Nal virus, and in another tab on the same coding tool is one of many files that made up the Farbauti's programming component. On the other side of the screen is the data from his own test, recorded from Loki's own telemetry systems and fed into a handy spreadsheet program. Some VI-generated graphs and charts have also been produced to make analysis of the data easier.

Let's see...Nal infection probability and hacking speeds have significantly improved, and infection has become slightly harder for the target Gear to shake off versus the previous version...but the Remote Access Trojan component seems to have become slower to infect when being used against Haven artillery-types...gonna have to tell my egghead brethren about that. 'How would I rate mobility?' Not highly given Loki's overspecialization, but it's the best they're going to get out of the XT-25's thrusters without outright increasing its weight class. Still, gonna put down a 5...

In response to Yue's attempt to bolster the squad, Vincent replies, "I suppose so, but for anything dealing with Loki itself, I should be the one working on those." He hands her a pile of paperwork from his side of the table--obviously the ones not involving the XT-25--and grabs some of hers.

As Kieth starts talking to himself, Vincent mentally sighs. This is going to be a long few hours...


In the back corner of the room, a pale blue figure sits silently bemoaning military bureaucracy. Jane Doe, one of the few, if not the only Outsider to turn traitor over the course of the first war, had thought she knew what she was getting into rejoining the FED as an active duty member. Unfortunately for her, peacetime seems to have turned their previous infatuation with reports into a full blown obsession, as the pile of paper in front of her proves.

"If we could all work together to finish this, that would be good," Jane remarks. "I don't want to be doing this for any longer than I have to. I just got a new movie yesterday as well, and I'm quite anxious to start it."

And then Jane mentions a movie, somewhat breaking his dour mood. "Oh? What's it called?"

Vincent takes the advantage that Yue generated.

[kjelfalconer]

Most of Jaxton's work was merely compilation. Given that they hadn't made it, the brass were asking for every scrap of data he could give onnthe Argo.

"At least they aren't trying to reverse engineer your ship. Honestly, asking for the precise dimension of each individual generator? They could at least try and be subtle about it."
He leaned back, as he waited for his email reply - it wasn't like he had any idea how it was built, so he forwarded the requests to the team that did.
"So. Any complaints? The handling's a bit clunkier than I'm used to, but I think I did pretty damn good."

He sipped his coffee, as the replies came in, and all thankfully written so he could just paste them into his reports.

[Genon]

Most of Jaxton's work was merely compilation. Given that they hadn't made it, the brass were asking for every scrap of data he could give onnthe Argo.

"At least they aren't trying to reverse engineer your ship. Honestly, asking for the precise dimension of each individual generator? They could at least try and be subtle about it."
He leaned back, as he waited for his email reply - it wasn't like he had any idea how it was built, so he forwarded the requests to the team that did.
"So. Any complaints? The handling's a bit clunkier than I'm used to, but I think I did pretty damn good."

He sipped his coffee, as the replies came in, and all thankfully written so he could just paste them into his reports.

"Hey, at least they aren't pushing you to try and polish a turd," Vincent said dryly. "Seriously, everyone and their mother knows Loki isn't good for anything other than offensive support via cyberwarfare and nanomachines, why do these people act surprised when it's mediocre in every area except what it was explicitly designed for?"

Vincent put yet another requisition form in the "completed" pile. Goddamn signature requirements. If he didn't have to physically sign off on every form, he would have just fed a VI all this data and had it do the work for him. But such is life.

[Merilan]

There's a soft chuckle from Yue as she remarks, "That's all right, Azuma. You'll get through to them eventually, and the Professor has been inquiring about the Nephilim's own drive in turn... I know how much of a handful he can be."

Keith is rather complimentary, prompting a bigger smile. "I'm a bit embarrassed about what they've been saying about me... oh, and what movie is it, Jane? I haven't visited a theatre in a very long time..."

There's a sympathetic chuckle to Jaxton and Vincent as well. "I think that last test run of ours went well, Jaxton. The Argo's capability to provide heavy bombardment from a distance came in very useful, and having it as a stationing unit for in-field operations will undoubtedly be useful. And I don't know where we'd be if we didn't have the Loki's nanomachine systems either."

[DoctorFaust]

And then Jane mentions a movie, somewhat breaking his dour mood. "Oh? What's it called?"

"It's called Goose Soup," Jane replies, "Apparently it's a pre-war comedy about Karl II, and played a large part in ruining whatever good reputation he had left."

She scratches out her signature on another form, and leans back in her chair. "Are you still not allowed off base, Yue? Or do you just not have the time?"

[Merilan]

"Well, funny story about that..." Yue muses as she organises the next report she's going to fill out. "I finally got my veteran's pay organised and approved, and the Bureau wanted to do a whole photo op and article about me retiring to some fancy mansion on the countryside."

She sighs as she earmarks it and starts filling it out. "Thing is, I met the manor staff and I'm pretty sure they're all Intelligence agency spies and agents dressed up as servants and maids. So I cancelled the whole thing off, since I figure staying on base is more pleasant than being on thinly-veiled house arrest."

She clears her throat. "Anyway! We should organise a viewing of that, I'd be interested."

[Genon]

There's a soft chuckle from Yue as she remarks, "That's all right, Azuma. You'll get through to them eventually, and the Professor has been inquiring about the Nephilim's own drive in turn... I know how much of a handful he can be."

Keith is rather complimentary, prompting a bigger smile. "I'm a bit embarrassed about what they've been saying about me... oh, and what movie is it, Jane? I haven't visited a theatre in a very long time..."

There's a sympathetic chuckle to Jaxton and Vincent as well. "I think that last test run of ours went well, Jaxton. The Argo's capability to provide heavy bombardment from a distance came in very useful, and having it as a stationing unit for in-field operations will undoubtedly be useful. And I don't know where we'd be if we didn't have the Loki's nanomachine systems either."

"I suppose so. Hey, maybe I can get some upgrades for the rest of the mecha in the future so it'll suck less at everything else."


"It's called Goose Soup," Jane replies, "Apparently it's a pre-war comedy about Karl II, and played a large part in ruining whatever good reputation he had left."

She scratches out her signature on another form, and leans back in her chair. "Are you still not allowed off base, Yue? Or do you just not have the time?"

"Sounds hilarious," Vincent replies as he signs off on the second of three forms comprising a triplicate filing. "I'm on board."


"Well, funny story about that..." Yue muses as she organises the next report she's going to fill out. "I finally got my veteran's pay organised and approved, and the Bureau wanted to do a whole photo op and article about me retiring to some fancy mansion on the countryside."

She sighs as she earmarks it and starts filling it out. "Thing is, I met the manor staff and I'm pretty sure they're all Intelligence agency spies and agents dressed up as servants and maids. So I cancelled the whole thing off, since I figure staying on base is more pleasant than being on thinly-veiled house arrest."

She clears her throat. "Anyway! We should organise a viewing of that, I'd be interested."

Vincent responds with a disgusted expression. "Smart move. If everyone in that manor really was a spy, I can't even imagine what they'd have done to you if their handlers decided that you were a threat one day." His left hand clenches against the table as he begins filling out the third form of the three with his right. "There's only so much you can do in the name of national security before you defeat the purpose. The fact that they'd do that to a war hero over even a hint of Outsider infection is disgusting."

[Rarkasha]

https://i.imgur.com/M8XOTqe.jpg
Ugajin Azuma (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a3vGu2C1y2xVPFtVIObcNFl6hSdhnUASen8oHzF8mKA/edit?usp=sharing][B][FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR="#000080)
[SIZE=1]






Azuma pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. In other cases where people had consoled him, he'd react tersely. For some reason he has been more patient with Yue. "'Eventually' isn't acceptable. I've got training to catch up on. More importantly, why would you want to go that manor if you've already outed them? It sounds like you're just prodding them at this point. Doesn't seem like a good use of time."

Meanwhile, Azuma has managed to overcome the difficult portion of his reports. He works diligently but efficiently, not wasting any time but making sure to address the requests fully. At this pace he will finish rather soon.

[Genon]

[/TD]



Azuma pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose. In other cases where people had consoled him, he'd react tersely. For some reason he has been more patient with Yue. "'Eventually' isn't acceptable. I've got training to catch up on. More importantly, why would you want to go that manor if you've already outed them? It sounds like you're just prodding them at this point. Doesn't seem like a good use of time."

Meanwhile, Azuma has managed to overcome the difficult portion of his reports. He works diligently but efficiently, not wasting any time but making sure to address the requests fully. At this pace he will finish rather soon.

"Azuma, I'm pretty sure Yue just said that she cancelled the move. She saw through the staff, so she's staying on base."

@DoctorFaust

"Though while we're on the subject of Outsider stuff, I'm kinda curious Jane, what was it like living among the Outsiders before you got sent here? I mean, to hear the scientists talk, they're all a hive mind with each member having little personality, but you seem to have plenty of individuality."

Vincent seems to be progressing smoothly through the paperwork even as he talks. He's already had to make a third "completed" pile just to make sure that any one stack doesn't reach the ceiling.

[Rarkasha]

[QUOTE=Rarkasha;22927658]

https://i.imgur.com/M8XOTqe.jpg
Ugajin Azuma (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a3vGu2C1y2xVPFtVIObcNFl6hSdhnUASen8oHzF8mKA/edit?usp=sharing][B][FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR="#000080)
[SIZE=1]






A quiet pause, as he thinks it over. Then Azuma finally sets his pen down, and looks over at Vincent. "Ah, she was referring to the movie. I was too busy getting this done to pay attention. Speaking of" he says, signing at the bottom of a report," I have finished. If everyone could please do the same so we could move on?"

[DoctorFaust]

"Well, funny story about that..." Yue muses as she organises the next report she's going to fill out. "I finally got my veteran's pay organised and approved, and the Bureau wanted to do a whole photo op and article about me retiring to some fancy mansion on the countryside."

She sighs as she earmarks it and starts filling it out. "Thing is, I met the manor staff and I'm pretty sure they're all Intelligence agency spies and agents dressed up as servants and maids. So I cancelled the whole thing off, since I figure staying on base is more pleasant than being on thinly-veiled house arrest."

She clears her throat. "Anyway! We should organise a viewing of that, I'd be interested."

"Ah, right, I think I heard something about that from some friends in public relations. If you're right, they must've had a hell of a time explaining it away," Jane says with a smirk.


"Though while we're on the subject of Outsider stuff, I'm kinda curious Jane, what was it like living among the Outsiders before you got sent here? I mean, to hear the scientists talk, they're all a hive mind with each member having little personality, but you seem to have plenty of individuality."

Vincent seems to be progressing smoothly through the paperwork even as he talks. He's already had to make a third "completed" pile just to make sure that any one stack doesn't reach the ceiling.

Jane tosses another sheet onto her pile of completed paperwork, and then replies, "I never actually lived with Outsiders. I was, I suppose you could call it born, on Earth with about six or seven others, out of that pod in the basement. So unfortunately I can't tell you any more about Outsider society than the scientists that study us can."

After a moments pause to complete yet another review of the Villeforte's performance, she continues, saying, "As to why I have individuality, I can only assume Mother thought that us being able to act for ourselves would let us blend in better. I'm sure you can see that plan had it's downsides, though."

[Genon]

Jane tosses another sheet onto her pile of completed paperwork, and then replies, "I never actually lived with Outsiders. I was, I suppose you could call it born, on Earth with about six or seven others, out of that pod in the basement. So unfortunately I can't tell you any more about Outsider society than the scientists that study us can."

After a moments pause to complete yet another review of the Villeforte's performance, she continues, saying, "As to why I have individuality, I can only assume Mother thought that us being able to act for ourselves would let us blend in better. I'm sure you can see that plan had it's downsides, though."

As Vincent begins on his fourth pile (which looks like it'll be a bit shorter than the others), he chuckles a bit, saying, "Yeah, sounds like it backfired alright. That said, if there are others, do we have to worry about any loyalist infiltrators still running around? Or did we get them all already?"


[COLOR="#000080"]



[/TD]



A quiet pause, as he thinks it over. Then Azuma finally sets his pen down, and looks over at Vincent. "Ah, she was referring to the movie. I was too busy getting this done to pay attention. Speaking of" he says, signing at the bottom of a report," I have finished. If everyone could please do the same so we could move on?"

"Eh, I'm almost done. Just got a dozen more forms to fill out. And they all seem to be rather simple."

@Lim Sindull

Once Jane replies, Vincent looks to Kieth as he puts another completed form in the pile. "By the way, Keith, what's the future like?"

[LimSindull]

Keith Anyon

Keith responds with, ”Yeah, the future.” to Vincent's question. His pile of papers has not shrunk and the few pages that have been moved passed have multiple blank answers. He starts to look downtrodden as the his lack of knowledge becomes more and more apparent. I can’t believe they expect me to know any of this. Most of this is designed and handled by that AI.

He looks up at Vincent and blinks. A blank expression washes over his grim look before he smiles. ”Oh, you mean like what’s your future like? My time?” Keith puts his pen down and thinks for a few seconds. ”Well, my station in particular has some of the best noodles and burgers. That’s my favorite non-paste food. You know, I’d really like to try out more Earth food while I can. Our food is so packed with nutrients and time released sustenance that the amount you all eat amazes me. And our steroids are way advanced beyond yours too. We have enough growth in those babies to help in low gravity training. I honestly didn’t look like this until I got here. When I hit your planet’s gravity, my muscles exploded. The problem is, if I don’t keep pushing myself, I’ll start shrinking away!”

Keith looks around at everyone else's piles of papers and notices that his is moving much slower. ”I don’t want to hold you all here. Time for the big guns!” He reaches forward and grabs a large black permanent marker.

He pops the top off in his teeth and starts blacking out everything except for dates and locations. ”I read all these before I came here, they are all redacted.” Keith manages to mumble through the marker cap.

[roko10]

After what must’ve felt like enternity filing out an endless mound of paperwork, the door is unlocked, and one of the FED's staff approaches you. “Sorry to interupt you, but the commander requires your presence in the war room.” Quickly, you’re brought to said war room at the other side of Motherbase, where Commander Rothschild is waiting for you.

As I mentioned before, Commander (Emil) Rothschild is a very compentent commander, albeit one that has a streak of harebrained ideas. He... doesn’t exactly look or act the part, though. Or, from a certain point of view, he completely does. A lanky, youthful-looking individual and a mop of messy hair who nobody, not even the highest-ranking staff of the Union Military, has any knowledge of how old he actually is, Rothschild is almost always perpetually dressed in a suit that seems to shift in size, seemingly being a perfect fit sometimes and being two sized too big other times.

Right now, said suit is in the latter mode, as well as completely disarray (loose tie, open jacket, the works), as he greets you, a doofy smile plastered on his face. “Hi there, pilots! Sorry for interrupting one of your ‘Teamwork-Building Paperwork-Filling Group Exercise’ sessions, but there’s been kind of an emergency situation right now. Speaking of which, though, how did it go? Did you guys enjoy yourself?”

[kjelfalconer]

Jaxton rolled his eyes. "Usually I have people for this kind of busy work. I suppose it's nice to be reminded why I don't do it myself once in a while. But shouldn't this emergency situation of yours take priority?"

[Genon]

After what must’ve felt like enternity filing out an endless mound of paperwork, the door is unlocked, and one of the FED's staff approaches you. “Sorry to interupt you, but the commander requires your presence in the war room.” Quickly, you’re brought to said war room at the other side of Motherbase, where Commander Rothschild is waiting for you.

As I mentioned before, Commander (Emil) Rothschild is a very compentent commander, albeit one that has a streak of harebrained ideas. He... doesn’t exactly look or act the part, though. Or, from a certain point of view, he completely does. A lanky, youthful-looking individual and a mop of messy hair who nobody, not even the highest-ranking staff of the Union Military, has any knowledge of how old he actually is, Rothschild is almost always perpetually dressed in a suit that seems to shift in size, seemingly being a perfect fit sometimes and being two sized too big other times.

Right now, said suit is in the latter mode, as well as completely disarray (loose tie, open jacket, the works), as he greets you, a doofy smile plastered on his face. “Hi there, pilots! Sorry for interrupting one of your ‘Teamwork-Building Paperwork-Filling Group Exercise’ sessions, but there’s been kind of an emergency situation right now. Speaking of which, though, how did it go? Did you guys enjoy yourself?”

"With all due respect sir, I'm pretty sure 95% of the paperwork I was given could have been filled out by one of my many VI programs, especially the ones about the Loki considering that one of said VIs had access to all the data from that last stress test. I didn't learn much of teamwork either. It was just tedious busywork that served no constructive purpose. And I agree with Jaxton. The emergency situation takes precedence."

[DoctorFaust]

Jane offers up a perfunctory salute, and replies, "No, sir, I can't say I did. Where are we sortieing to?"

[roko10]

“Well, then! On with the emergency situation, then.” Commander Rothschild promptly said, expression shifting into a far more serious one as he straightens up his tie and buttons up his suit’s jacket, who now (somehow) looks like it’s perfectly fitted to him again. “As you may have known,” he says, in a far more serious and professional tone, as he shoots a glance at Vincent, ”during the Outsider War, an alarmingly large amount of cults sprung up that formed an annoying thorn in the side of the Union’s forces. Fortunately, there was enough internal conflict and powerstruggles that any hope of long-term cooperation between cults were a pipe dream at best, and presently, they’re slowly dwindling into irrelevance. However, some of them manage to slip through our gaps.”

The projector in the war room shifts to a logo, consisting out of a half circle with a flame inside of it. “One such cult, the Resplendent Flame, is currently attempting to summon the Outsiders back to our world by attempting to, and I quote, ltear the space-time continuum a new one, by dropping an antimatter bomb through a volcano on an island.” Of course, considering the track record with that, they’re most likely not going to be very successful with that; they’re probably going to blow themselves up to kingdom come. The problem is, however-

The projector changes, revealing several small towns in close proximity to the volcano.

-they’ll take the lives of innocents with them.

Fortunately for us, however, they’re undertrained (for all the fanaticism for their cause) and using outdated, decades-old Frames. Usually, this wouldn’t even be our job; there are other Union military branches that specialize in this. However, the Resplendent Flame has somehow managed kept this little operation of them under wraps up until now, and as a result, we only have about two and a half hours hours before they’re going to dunk the bomb into the volcano and probably will annihilate the entire island. However, luckily enough, Motherbase is stationed relatively close to the island, and we have access to a vessel that can reach the island in record time; the Argo.

The mission should be simple; destroy or disable the Resplendent Flame’s Frames so that you can retrieve the antimatter bomb, and get the hell out of dodge. If our estimates are correct, you’ll get there a hour and a half or so before they’re attempting to summon the Outsiders back, so you’ll catch them with their pants down.

There’s no time to lose; once you’ve left, further questions can be asked via communications with the bridge. You’re dismissed.


And with that, you’re sent off for your mission.


This medium-small island is located somewhere close to Puerto Rico/Cuba. It does not actually exist IRL.

[Merilan]

"Let me figure out team building exercises next time -- I sent you a list of ideas you might be entertained by," Yue comes around on the topic of teambuilding, giving the team a bit of a surreptitious wink as if indicating that she'll take care of future excursions like this. She listens intently on the briefing, and nods as she expresses, "Sounds like the right task for us. Let's go, team!"

---

It isn't long before they're out and suited up, the Ophanim sparkling as it billows through the skies on gossamer wings that possess a sea-green to blue gradient at their wingtips. It outright just flat out looks like a Frame that's become fused with an Outsider, possessing a magical tint by its nature. Inside, Yue is seated on what appears to be an organic-looking throne with bands of light surrounding her arms, allowing for enhanced control schemes.

"Yue here," she opens over the comms. "I believe it would be to our advantage to begin by engaging the enemy at maximum range. We can rely on our close combat specialists to sweep in and focus on any Frames attempting to move the Antimatter Bomb to the mouth of the volcano while we tie up the rest of their guard. If we can get the device out of their hands early, the better."

[Rarkasha]

https://i.imgur.com/M8XOTqe.jpg
Ugajin Azuma (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1a3vGu2C1y2xVPFtVIObcNFl6hSdhnUASen8oHzF8mKA/edit?usp=sharing][B][FONT=Century Gothic][COLOR="#000080)
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Azuma immediately gets up to leave, walking out briskly towards the hangar where the Asura should be receiving its post exercise maintenance. He throws a salute to Rothschild as he leaves, though it is quick and sloppy. He doesn't fumble with his wireless headset or the tablet in his bag however, as he drilled for this occasion several times. Pushing his multitasking ability, he tries to balance walking, messaging, and talking at the same time.

"Professor Vrain, I need the Variable Rift Edge. What? Yes, the Suvarna. Professor, now's not really the time for - yes, I promise to use its name properly in the future. It's not complete, I know, but it works fine even with the limiter." says Azuma. He sounds exasperated, as he usually does when talking to Vrain about weapon design. Meanwhile, he sends a simple message to the maintenance crew channel.

"Status report, I will be there in 5." Azuma receives a maintenance report in response. The crew had already been notified and were quickly prepping the Frame for use. Azuma scrolls over the list, reading the work done so far while continuing to talk.

"I've got to go. Yes, this is the first real combat for both of us. Doesn't matter how I feel. It's just another thing that has to be done. Later, then." Azuma crosses off several maintenance checks that can be skipped until after combat, and sends the report back. Thankfully, he hadn't had a chance to change out of Meister suit after the practice. It was uncomfortable to wear this long, but he had been planning on using the simulator after the exercise anyways. Stepping into the hangar, he steps around various crewmembers working to prep the Frames. While a majority step out of the way once they see the Meister suit, some don't seem to care. Azuma's youthful appearance combined with his inflexible attitude have not won him many favors among the crew. But none of those feelings matter, as long as the job is done properly. Slipping around a pair of crewmembers hauling a plate of ablative armor, he reaches the platform where Asura waits. As he waits for the platform to descend, he makes one more call.

"Rohay, it's me. Mr. Rothschild has conveniently forgotten to mention who is in charge in the field. I'll assume we're not leaving tactics up to vote. If you have orders, I will follow them."

Azuma goes through the pre-launch checks as quickly as he dares, knowing that a miss could lead to catastrophic results in the battle. But following that, and a last minute delivery of one of the Asura's sheathes, his Frame is ready for launch. All that remains is getting on board the Argo.

[Genon]

During the meeting, Vincent visibly pales. THEY GOT THEIR HANDS ON AN ANTIMATTER BOMB?! HOW...? WHAT...? WHY...? I..just...WHAAAA?!?!

Several other things like the above sentence go through his head before he calms himself down enough to think rationally. Alright, they probably stole their equipment from somewhere. Thoughts for later. First order of business is stop them, we can investigate them after the mission.

Despite his attempts to calm himself down, he couldn't stop his heart from beating like a staccato as he suited up in silence, playing scenario after scenario in his mind. He was immortal, sure, but various cults affiliated with the sect he screwed over had him on their list of hated enemies. Just because he couldn't die didn't mean he couldn't feel pain. Should be captured by them, life would be nothing more than and endless sequence of torture session after torture session. That said, he wasn't even sure if he could survive an antimatter bomb explosion should it go off. Regardless of the personal danger though, he could not allow these fanatical idiots to succeed.

Loki was designed to be, essentially, as annoying as possible, causing widespread havoc in the enemy ranks through its viruses and nanomachines. That meant Vincent could take his time with these bastards, and make them regret ever trying to get involved with him in the first place. Oh, he would enjoy trolling them alright. Right up until their Frames exploded with them inside.

Climbing up the ladder to Loki's core, he entered via the side as the systems powered on. After waiting for the engineers to clear him for launch, Vincent waited for Loki to be loaded onto the Argo with him inside of it. As this was the first time he had used Loki in combat against live hostiles outside of training sims, Vincent took stock of his surroundings one last time.

Loki's cockpit was...well, some would say cozy, but Vincent just called it what it was: Vertically challenged. That was what happened when you stuffed an entire supercomputer into a section normally reserved exclusively for escape-pod, life support, and cockpit duties. Said supercomputer, the Nal, actually was just below the floor of the cockpit proper, reducing the height in the otherwise-standard cockpit used for the Loki's experimental Core. This meant Vincent had to crouch as he entered the cockpit for fear of bumping his head.

At Vincent's fingertips was a sophisticated dashboard, as well as a HUD integrated into the monitors that surrounded the cockpit, each linked to an individual armored sensor package on the outside of the mecha, most of which were located in the head. Through these monitors, Vincent could see on all sides, including above and below him, just by turning his head, giving him the benefits of VR with none of the downsides. The immersion was somewhat broken by the distinct, though thin, outlines of the monitor cases around the cockpit, as well as the humming of the Nal below him as it powered on.

Loki's controls were actually on a tray-like panel attached to his chair, which could be quickly opened up in an emergency. The chair could swivel, enabling him to freely keep stock of things in front and behind him and quickly maneuver the Loki accordingly. In addition to the standard joysticks and pedals, he could also pick out targets for nanite or malware infection similar to how one paints a target for a fire-and-forget missile.

All in all, aside from the low headroom, it seemed like it was a pretty good package, all things considered. Now he just had to hope he knew how to use it. As for the conversation at hand..."Yue's the vet, not me. I trust her command. In any case, I agree with any plan that keeps Loki at range. This thing isn't meant for close combat, even the sword is just an elaborate escape strategy in disguise."

[DoctorFaust]

Once the briefing concludes, Jane sets off towards the mecha hangar at a brisk trot, leaving a trail of discarded clothing in her wake. She clambers into the cockpit of the Villefort, closing the last few seals on her suit, and settles into the familiar chair. "Hello old friend," she says, stroking the controls. "Let's see if we can avoid getting injured this time."



The Villefort sits perched on the bow of the Argo for most of the trip to island. In response to Yue's comms, Jane says, "If getting the bomb out of their hands if the primary objective, we should try to drop as close to the edge of the volcano as possible. It would make it more difficult for them to detonate it in there as well."

[LimSindull]

Keith Anyon

When the Staffer come to get the crew, Keith lags behind and puts everyone’s work in a pile. He looks it over, confident that no one will be able to distinguish who filled out what form. He smiles to himself as he runs to catch up with the others.


In the meeting, Keith is attentive and answers, ”Of course we did sir!” when Commander Rothschild asks if they enjoyed the team building exercise.

As the briefing of the emergency situation closes, Keith stands at attention and salutes the commander. ”Understand, retrieve the bomb and destroy the frames.” He walks quickly to the hanger along with the others.


He uses his communicator to call the techs that work to repair and maintain the Rock Stomper. ”Hey Leonard,” he greets the team leader, ”Stop whatever you’re doing and get my buddy into the Argo. We’re going to be taking off asap. I hope he’s fighting ready! Oh, and this time, when I get back, you’ll have some real damage to work with. Wooh! I’m so excited to get in a real mission.”


Later, Keith climbs the rungs that lead to Rock Stomper’s cockpit. His suit and helmet are locked on. He feels light in the seat, and knows that once the gravity well kicks in, it’ll be a workout to pilot.

He listens to the others discussing the plans and chimes in with, ”Perhaps the Argo can drop me off right over the bomb once we locate it. I could shield it from any attacks once I get my hands on it. And I know that Asura and Villefort can catch up with Rock Stomper. That’s my only idea. I’m in agreement with you, Azuma and Vincent. I’ll follow Lieutenant Rohay’s orders out there on the battlefield.”

[Merilan]

Yue looks rather pleased at the conversation, knowing she started it in an attempt to get people to talk more with each other about their tactics, not just to issue orders. "That's a good idea, Jane. I'll leave the defense of the Argo to you before we reach the antimatter bomb, Keith. And Vincent, if at any point you can detect an opening to shut down the bomb via remote hacking -- by all means go for it."

[kjelfalconer]

"Argo, initialising engines.
Chad, warm up the overboosters."
He leans back in the leather pilots seat, feet resting on the pedals - it was no secret that he'd had the controls designed to resemble his favourite sports car as closely as possible.

He flicks the intercom on. "Everyone in? Hold on to your frames. You're about to see how I took gold in the areial championships three years running."

[Genon]

After walking Loki to the appropriate pod on the Argo, Vincent simply sat back and waited to be loaded in. While he waited for the elaborate loading sequence to complete, and for Jaxton to hit the proverbial gas once that was over, he piped up on the comms. "There's something I need to tell you. I got signed up for an experiment when I was nine. The main goal was to boost my intelligence, but the scientists must have injected me with some other chemicals, because ever since then I can regenerate from almost anything and shoot electricity out of my hands. So if the worst-case scenario happens and Loki explodes with me inside, leaving me a bloody paste, please don't assume I'm dead and leave me to regenerate near a volcano, and a volatile antimatter bomb, and a bunch of crazy cultists who may or may not have it out for me specifically, will you?"

"As for tactics, I suppose the real question is if the bomb's already at the crater and they're just holding a ceremony first. If it's already there, then I support Yue's plan. But if they still have to transport it to the crater proper, then we should ambush them while in transit through strategically dropping in such a way as to take them by surprise. Perhaps Villefort, Rock Stomper, and Asura could be dropped near the bomb, as a ranged unit I stay near the ship and provide long-range support as I usually do, and Ophanim harasses them from the air."