|
Post by JW% on Jun 8, 2014 23:13:59 GMT -8
((Nearly four months, no replies to this, so I'm advancing it, even if that means writing for others characters.))
Max worked the dials as he was told, hearing the familiar hiss and chug of his beloved SAL start to build up. In minutes he had everything read and climbed back into his piloting seat, which was already a little warm, moving SAL's one gripping hand to the tools mounting on himself and pulling off the shovel.
"May? You ready?" Max asked, and a little image of May appeared on his screen.
"Yes!" She replied, her nervousness making her voice a little more terse.
"Okay, brace yourself." Max said, and watched the main viewport as Excellion landed and braced it's feet against the ground. The coral seemed to still be growing, having covered a good section of the mecha's torso. SAL advanced and a steam jet from his torso encouraged the growth of the coral on Excellion's thigh. "Uh, this might not be such a good idea..."
"You need to heat SAL a little more with activity." Came the voice from back at the base. "Start chipping and the steam should heat to damaging levels."
"Oh... okay..." Max said, glancing at May and giving her a nervous smile. Under Max's command SAL raised up his shovel and brought it down on Excellion's chest, chipping a person sized chunk of coral from the angelic machine.
May felt herself jolted by the impact, but no damage seemed to be dealt. She moved Excellion's legs to brace better and nodded to Max, who struck again, chipping off another chunk.
The two of them working together, Schwere Waffen Kai and Nimrod advanced, heading towards where Rey was providing overwatch. Of course, overwatch meant that Marco had picked a position away from the fight, with several buildings in the way of a direct line of sight. The only thing they could see from here was Masamune occasionally swinging it's staff high enough to be seen over the buildings.
"Not sure if this is going to work." Giselle noted, trying to line up a bead on where the monster was. Spotter helicopters and Masamune were providing a rough point, but they had to shoot through several buildings to hit it. Plus Masamune was advancing in and out of striking range, making it almost impossible to provide friendly fire.
"Hey, anyone mind if I get a better look?" Darren asked, urging Nimrod to advance further, the beast ambling along following the glow heads up display that Darren could see thanks to one of the operators, Miss Louise's Bridge Bunnies, directing him.
Meanwhile Dan threw Masamune into reverse, pulling his staff away from the creature. His staff now had a somewhat bladed end, thanks to the creatures drool 'coralizing' as soon as it hit his weapon. The fact that the creature wasn't strangling on it's own shards meant that something was keeping things under control. The Corralax had some kind of primitive hive mentality, right?
Dan decided as soon as that idea came into his head that he didn't care. He spun his staff, flicking it aside into a building to knock off the coral, and then brought the staff around again. An overhead swing cracked down on the creatures head and it started to back away from him. It looked confused as to why he was moving so quickly, and angry, and in pain from both the beating it was getting, and the infection inside of it.
That was a lot of emoting for a creature that had no face.
Max made SAL swing the shovel again. The coral that covered Excellion's front seemed to be not just getting chipped away, but actively dying now. For awhile each swing, and corresponding steam vent from his arms joints, made it grow just as much as was being chipped off. Max adjusted his controls, making SAL move faster, fighting against the coral.
Then, when sweat was starting to sting his eyes as it rolled off his brow, the heat in the cockpit starting to grow unbearable, suddenly he hit the magic point. Each scrape and chip was not replaced, and the coral that was being hit by the steam vents didn't grow and flourish. Instead it seemed to shrivel and start to turn to dust. The shovel blade pushed against Excellion's chest and scraped down, and from this distance Max could see May's face through their main view ports. Shifting his stance, and wiping his brow, Max had the little ungainly mecha reach out and hug the angelic warrior. Danger readings were coming up on both their monitors, the heat was intense, but they hugged anyway, and the coral sloughed off and fell away.
Dan blinked in shock as he realized Masamune's staff had been knocked out of his hands. The weapon flipped over his head and landed somewhere behind him. It had been pure luck on the dai kaiju's part, but it had still managed it. So Dan steeled himself and adjusted his controls.
Masamune shifted sideways, crouching into a ready stance, and then jumped across the narrow street that the fight was taking place in. From his shoulders the thrusters flared, granting him lift, and Masamune kicked into the building with one foot, getting about as much purchase as a man climbing a sand dune, the building collapsing under his weight. Didn't matter that much, the thrusters flared to full life, giving him enough boost to leap still higher.
"Oh, crap, I..." Darren's voice came over the communication line. "Oh, no wait, you're good." He'd lined up his shot when he saw Masamune disarmed, launching when he saw Masamune duck sideways as though getting out of there. Now the attack was streaking right at Masamune's back, even as the mecha jumped up out of the path of the attack.
Just as Masamune went skyward, launching above the skyline, the sea beast looking upwards at it's airborne foe, three missiles streaked down the street, launched from Nimrod's oversized cybernetic claw. The cruise missiles impacted with firey blossoms of incendiary payloads. Flames danced and spread around the creature as it roared and then inhaled, as though trying to draw enough water to extinguish the flames.
And then Masamune dropped right down on the creatures back, performing an off the turnbuckle elbow drop as it were, flaring the thrusters just a moment before impact and inflicting massive burns on the already burning creature. The inhale turned to an explosion on impact. Water, flames, and coral exploded across the street and covered the area.
For several moments there was nothing further, save for the circling of the spotter helicopters. The explosion died down, the dust settling so to speak. April and Miss Louise gazed at the screens trying to figure out what had just happened.
"Masamune gun cameras give us a kill." Annastasia said in a flat, calm tone.
"Ah... kill confirmed from spotters." Another said with a bit more emotion, and less confidence.
The monster was dead, it was time to bring them back to base. And time for April to tell them exactly how they went wrong in this fight...
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jun 15, 2014 9:25:37 GMT -8
Marco returned to base, feeling a little bad like he often did after these fights. Yet again he did jackshit to help. And yet again he'd get shit for it.
He got out of the robot, sighing and just wanting to go get some rest.
And then he heard a dog bark.
He looked toward the sound in confusion, pets were pretty rare in the underground settlements, and they'd never be allowed in this area of the base...
But sure enough there was a girl slightly younger then him, walking a dog, looking around confused. Marco approached her, and then noticed what the dog's bright yellow harness said, "Please Don't Pet me I'm Working".
The girl was trying to say "Excuse me" to all the people rushing past her with all the work that needed to be done to get the robots in, and each time she was blown off it visibly irritated her more. Finally she just yelled, "DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE SOME CUNT NAMED APRIL ANDERSON IS?"
Marco cringed. If April had heard that, she was so dead.
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jun 15, 2014 13:37:24 GMT -8
The hangar crew, most of them working to get not just Rey but all the other incoming mecha in place so they could start any repairs, refuelings, or rearming needed went quiet for a moment before doing a little bit of mental calculations. Like hell any of them were going to call Commander Anderson a cunt, even if all of them probably thought it on a regular basis. Hell no, that was how you got sent out on the really crap duties, like chipping and heat blasting off kaiju coral that was trying to eat a mecha. There were already three teams for Excellion, SAL, and Masamune, those three mecha going to be in quarantine outside for at least a day while crews worked on them. There was also Nimrod, who needed his missiles restocked, but that would only take an hour or so.
Eren Kaiser wasn't doing anything at the moment, Schwere Waffen Kai had been assigned to patrol in a sweep rather than return directly to base, and was one of the first to recover himself from the girls outburst. A hand touched his shoulder gently and the more senior mechanic gave him a glance that said it'd be handled.
"Yo, little girl!" The mechanic, his overalls proclaiming his name as 'Ricky' dropped down next to Marco and the girl with the guide dog. All the mechanics had three dimensional maneuvering gear, so they could more easily climb about on the mecha to work. "Cunt-mannder April Anderson," He said it just enough that he could claim he was using her rank and title. Not that it would help if she got mad at him for it, but then she wasn't here to hear it, "is in the debriefing room, waiting on Pilots." Marco got a look that said 'wouldn't want to be in your boots if you kept her waiting.' but it was barely a pause before Ricky finished his thoughts. "We've got three grounded Mecha to deal with here. You really need to talk with her?"
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jun 15, 2014 14:16:23 GMT -8
"Considering I AM a mech pilot, yes that'd be nice," she responded, "I'm Holly Joiner, the new arrival from the Australian base. I was delayed in my arrival here. My mech should of arrived before me though. Just tell me where this briefing room is. Key word, tell me, its not gonna be much fucking help if you point."
"Wait..." Marco said, "How can you be a mech pilot if you're...you know..."
"Its not a bad word, just say it. Blind." Holly said, "I'm not in the mood to explain."
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jun 15, 2014 14:58:40 GMT -8
"Marco here is heading in that direction already I think." Ricky said, pulling out a notebook to check over recent mecha transfers. "Hrm, yes. Drop Bear, replacing Hund Krieger. Anyway Marco can take you there until you have a feel for the base. Good luck."
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jul 11, 2014 22:54:02 GMT -8
April had the briefing room set up, and was replaying the battle sequence. She had specific parts queued up so she could complain about them as she waited for the pilots(save for Giselle who was out on patrol again) to gather. Her expression was dark, and it seemed rather clear that the longer she had to wait, the more angry she would get.
"Six mecha sent out, two of them are in decontamination and one of them requires repairs for overclocking. All to stop one daikaiju. Six to one odds, and the best we can say is that the farmland wasn't destroyed. Do any of you think something here at base went wrong? Maybe we could have sent you out with more spotter helicopters perhaps? Or maybe called for an air strike to soften up the monster? Putting aside the whole splattering of the corallax across the landscape that would cause, would any of you liked that? Or maybe we could have sent out other weapons? We have a few you know, mostly infantry stuff. Hand held flame throwers. Do any of you want to see that happen next time we're attacked by a daikaiju? Sending out people to get themselves killed all because none of you have half the skills you need and are just miserable wastes of space that are going to get everyone killed because you can't cut it outside of your dead mommy's belly?"
|
|
|
Post by Alastor on Jul 15, 2014 15:25:34 GMT -8
One of the pilots in question, May, just quietly shifted in her chair. After all, she WAS one of the pilots in question who managed to get contaminated. Her brother, on the other hand, just rolled his eyes at the comment, tapping his foot on the floor lightly.
"Dead parents jabs? Already?" Adam muttered to himself under his breath./
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jul 15, 2014 19:33:48 GMT -8
Marco led Holly to the briefing room, entering the room to hear April's rant.
"Aren't you the one who's supposed to train us?" he asked, "Maybe if you actually did that, instead of insulting us for being orphans, we'd be better." He knew he was gonna get it, but he was so sick of this woman's shit.
"I presume this is April Anderson?" Holly said, walking to the direction of April's voice. "My name is Holly Joiner from the Australian base. I was told to give you these papers, don't ask me what they say I have no idea." She held them out, waiting for the woman to take them, "It sounds like you could of used me on the field."
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jul 15, 2014 21:59:56 GMT -8
"Commander Anderson, and indeed we could have." April looked at the papers dismissively and put them on the desk. "Take a seat Pilot Joiner. We're reviewing the latest debacle. Now, despite what Pilot Salazar seems to believe, the kaiju won't stop trying to wipe humanity out just because you think you need more t-wain-ing." She drew the word out into baby talk.
"So you get your training on the field. You get sent out in a team of three when most bases would be lucky to call in one. You get operators walking you through step by step, feeding you the solutions to your problems, holding your hand all the way when a smaller base wouldn't have the communications equipment to do that. You even have back up, in case you you want to show to the whole world that you can't cut it. Now I know that you still think this is too hard, and you want to go back to those simulators because you're oh so wonderful at video games where nothing is on the line, try to remember that your team is designed to have a mix of the experience. Pilot Yamato may not have been your team leader, the three of you shouldn't needed to have a leader, but he is the one with the experience under his belt."
A gesture and the images of Masamune engaging and injuring the creature came up. "And oh, look, here he is leading the charge. Getting shit done, even if it wasn't the best way to do it. And for him that meant putting his speed focused mecha into a tight melee match with an infectious daikaiju." She looked at Marco. "If only there had been somebody with a force field to keep him from needing to go toe to toe with the thing." She looked over at May. "If only there were someone who knew their mecha was mind linked to them and would start to fail if they panicked from a single hit."
Finally she rounded on Darren. "If only there were someone who wasn't medicated to the point where he tried to shoot Pilot Yamato in the back." The scene flipped to Nimrod launching it's incendiary missiles. In Darrens defense, Masamune looked like it had been retreating when he fired and would have been out of the way, even though Dan had only been getting enough traction for a good leap onto the beast.
April looked from Dan to Darren and gave them a saccharin smile. "I think the two of you should work out how you feel about that, don't you?"
The Commander then turned on the rest of the group. "Now, since you all think you're missing your training, I'm adding on to your fitness regime tomorrow morning, you'll be running laps outside on the launch runway as the sun rises. Right now I just want all of you to know how pathetic that little battle went, so maybe, just maybe, you'll be able to learn from your mistakes."
"Oh, and if I've hurt your precious little princess fee-feels by reminding you that yes, we've lost better people than you in this struggle," April directed herself at Adam and Marco, which was a bit of a trick given that they weren't really sitting all that close together, "Then maybe you should go ask for a Sympathy Rate from our bases own Sweet Catherine." She drew out the name of the base psychiatrist as though she were reading it from a particularly steamy romance story. "I'm sure she could service you. I hear she does both boys and girls."
"Any one else want to point out what they think they could have done a little better? Recognized a mistake that could be learned from?" April asked, "Or is this the kind of thing we should expect every time your sent out. God help humanity."
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jul 15, 2014 23:06:21 GMT -8
"Alrightie... come on Moxie. Lead the way."
The dog gave a bark as it lead Holly to the nearest empty chair next to Adam. She sighed with boredom as April had to explain her points with visuals. Those didn't really work for her anymore.
"I don't fight close combat," Marco said, "I don't care what my mecha has in it, it wasn't built for me anyway, it was built for my grandfather's fighting style, not mine."
He snorted at April trying to get under his skin by bringing up his father, "I'm sorry, you think a man who died because he didn't wear a seat belt is better then me?"
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jul 16, 2014 0:09:49 GMT -8
"Oh, I'm so sorry," April replied, "it's not your style. Well, that's different then, we'll just have to tell the daikaiju that. I'm sure they'll play nice and make sure to respect your personal space." The way she said it made it seem as if she was patting his head and calling him cute. "Your father threw himself between any on coming threat and the people who would be hurt by it. He didn't pilot in the style of your grandfather. Your grandfather was an unstoppable force, methodically wading into the center of things blasting anything that tried to get past him. Your father took what he had to work with and built his own style around it, adapting to the situation, and above all trying to keep people from dying. Your style," She said the word mockingly as if what he considered his style was no such thing, "is to hide on the edge and hope nobody notices you in your shell, where you might, might, pick off a weaker target if it doesn't look like it's an actual threat. If you can't adapt your style, you certainly won't be able to keep anyone alive. Not your friends, not your family, not even us at the base. Your father was a loud mouth braggart, a lunatic, and a show off, who charged in guns blazing, but you're scared to death you might be like that, aren't you? Well, Pilot Salazar, don't worry. Your father lived a hero and died bravely so that others could live. So don't worry, you are nothing like that."
April looked rather annoyed at this extended digression. "Does anyone else want to talk about their missing mumsies and dahdsies, or can we finish this debriefing? The daikaiju used terrain to it's advantage, and you let it, attacking it in the tight canyons where a lack of line of sight ruled out a number of ranged tactics and reduced mobility options. The thing was half crazed from living coral eating it from the inside out, and it very nearly outsmarted us. Does anyone have any suggestions on how not to do that again?"
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jul 16, 2014 1:55:26 GMT -8
"I'm sorry I didn't know I was joining some sad orphan club, when I got transferred here." Holly said.
Marco wiped a couple of tears from his eyes. April hit every fucking spot where it hurt. She was way too good at that.
"Fine, just finish this shit so I can go home." he muttered.
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jul 16, 2014 17:48:27 GMT -8
"Pilots Crosser, Williams and Yamato, you are suspended from piloting until your Mecha is ready again. The three of you can guide Pilot Joiner around, get her comfortable with the commissary and the bunk layout." April sighed, addressing Max, May, and Dan. "As for the other Pilot Williams, you are scheduled to patrol after Pilot Jaeger returns. Pilot Duvall and Hawke, you both have simulator time scheduled, we'll see how that last mission would have gone if you two had been sent out. Afterwards trade off with someone who hasn't run simulator, I expect to see at least one simulator mission results from each of you by tomorrow afternoon. Pilot Kistiakowsky, I would like to see you about the care and feeding of your death machine at Twenty hundred hours."
"So until tomorrow at Oh Six Hundred Hours, you're all dismissed." She gestured for them to leave, the meeting of the Sad Orphan Club was over.
|
|
|
Post by Alastor on Jul 18, 2014 19:30:49 GMT -8
"WOO!" Adam shouted, tossing his arms up in triumph and running out the room, accidentally knocking the chair he was in down. He completely missed the fact there was someone else sitting next to him, as he was prone to during these briefings. He either took them very seriously, or he zoned out completely for most of them.
Considering who he is, it was probably both.
May nodded, getting up and looking around for the newcomer- finding Holly in the seat next to the fallen chair. With an annoyed sigh, the pink-haired girl picked the chair from the floor. Why'd he act like he was ten half the time was beyond her.
"Hi, I'm May." She said, the fact she was annoyed at having to pick up the chair still evident in her tone. "You're...?"
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jul 18, 2014 19:35:34 GMT -8
Holly cringed as the chair smacked to the ground.
"I'm Holly," she said, looking in the general direction of May, "This is my bitch,Moxie." she said, patting the Lab on the head.
|
|
|
Post by Alastor on Jul 18, 2014 19:39:17 GMT -8
"...Okay." Said May, looking at the dog and shrinking a bit. She really did not like big dogs. "You're blind, I'm guessing? Or is there, like, some weird new fashion crazy in... where-ever you're from? There was a weird one a few years ago here, with hearing aids or something, and it makes it hard to tell, y'know?"
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jul 18, 2014 19:41:45 GMT -8
"Yes I'm really blind," Holly said sighing, "I'm from Australia. My first time fighting a kaiju, it released this light that immedietely fried my eyes. We tried EVERYTHING to fix them, but nothing. Its just blackness."
|
|
|
Post by Alastor on Jul 18, 2014 19:45:34 GMT -8
"Oooohhhh, nasty." The pink-haired girl winced at the thought of it. "And... Australia, huh? Is it true that you guys have bears in trees?"
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jul 18, 2014 20:31:46 GMT -8
Patricia got up from her seat calmly enough, but it took only a few steps before she was skipping. "Hi ya Holly! I'm Patty! That's a cute puppy!" The little girl said as she went by. "Hey! Liz! We get to go play video games! Think we can beat the high score?" And by that, she meant she had some ideas for replaying the most recent battle with fewer casualties. It didn't hurt that her own mecha had some weapons specifically effective against a Corallax infestation. "Think we can do it one on one, or should we team up against the thing?"
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Jul 18, 2014 22:19:13 GMT -8
"Yeah apparently they're not really bears, though," Holly said shrugging. "We joke that we're the best division of pilots, because living in Australia already prepared us to deal with monster cunts."
"Don't pet her," Holly said to Patty, "If you want, you can play with her when I don't need her, she stops being all serious when I take the harness off."
|
|
|
Post by Penny Royals on Jul 24, 2014 14:55:14 GMT -8
Max was a little confused about the whole 'yeah, you can show her around base' thing. Well, he understood the suspension from piloting until SAL was fixed, and they knew the base at least somewhat by now, but he wasn't really good at the whole 'talking to a new person' thing. So he left that to May, standing next to Dan. He watched Marco leave, giving him a sympathetic look he hoped he'd seen - he wasn't that good at comforting, and he wasn't strong or confident enough to step out about what Commander Anderson had said. So he just kept his mouth shut about all this.
Liz, on the other hand, looked over to Patty and smiled.
"Sure. Let's get going, right?"
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Jul 24, 2014 16:48:46 GMT -8
"You betcha!" Patty said, reaching out to take Liz's hand and pull her off towards the simulators. "Think we can do it? There's just gonna be twosies of us, an' it took all whole bunches, like, I don't know, six mecha to take it out... but we know what it's gonna do this time, right? So we can like do the right stuffs and fight bettering than before when they were going in blindsie."
|
|
|
Post by Penny Royals on Sept 5, 2014 10:32:56 GMT -8
Liz stared at the girl, a bit alarmed by the colloquialisms, and eventually nodded. She thought was a good response, anyway.
"I think we can handle it, this time."
At the opposite end of the room from the kids, double-wide doors opened, revealing an elevator. Miss Louise was now pushing herself towards them - her arms, they'd realize, were not nearly as fragile as they looked - almost frantically, catching up to where May, Max and Holly were (and Liz and Patty were leaving) in mere seconds.
"I came as quickly as I could after debriefing - are you all okay?!" She didn't yet seem to notice Holly, instead going almost immediately towards May and Max. "That was terrible! You were lucky, that coral would have -" She stopped, breathing. "It could have done serious damage to more than just your mech.... I'm really glad you're okay." She blushed, and then became a little more business-y, her tone still soft and warm. "But this is why all of us need to constantly be working towards getting better, that could have resulted in a casualty...." She stopped finally, looking over towards Holly and giving a faint smile. "Hello, you must be the new pilot. I'm Miss Louise, and I run communications."
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Sept 10, 2014 17:15:10 GMT -8
~~~~~~~Outside:
Schwere Waffen Kai loped along the landscape, it's movements looking slow and leisurely from a distance. Only when it's size was known did you realize how fast it was moving, and the few spotter aircraft it had accompanying it were darting about ahead of it. The mecha had looped north along the seacoast and then turned back east to circle back to the base in a few hours.
"Pilot Jaeger," The voice on the line could very well have been mechanical for all she knew, "Be advised spotter two is detecting movement and heat signature ahead." The information from the aircraft was transferred to the Schwere Waffen Kai cockpit display, showing the ground shifting as though something large were tunneling beneath it. Or multiple somethings. Heat signatures were vague at best through the dirt. Whatever it was, it seemed to mass roughly as much as Schwere Waffen Kai, maybe a little less.
It was apparently heading towards the farmlands, where the dirt would be softer than out here in the wasteland, though it seemed to pause every so often, easily lost by the spotters until it, or they, moved again.
~~~~~~~~~~Simulator room:
Each of the simulation cockpits had been re-designed to mimic the mecha in questions own cockpit. The replicas were not, however, all that exact, and as Patty climbed into hers she didn't feel the same tingling connection with her mecha that Sierra Romeo Juliette Whiskey always gave her as it warmed up. Still, she flipped the switches and started the warm up process. The viso-plate in front of her lighting up directly instead of having the scrolling text of judgement being passed. Instead it came up a picture of Liz's flushed face.
Liz was in the center of her own piloting system, feeling her body penetrated by the plugs in her tight flight suit, linking her mind to the mecha so that it would mimic every motion she made. As the monitors around her switched on, giving a decent if not completely photo real simulation of her surroundings, she was breathing heavily already. Connecting always did that to her, and she'd calm down in a moment. The simulator was never as fully satisfying as her actual mecha anyway, as though it couldn't go nearly as deeply into her as she wanted it. One of the display screens linked to Patty in her own simulator.
The only 'Bridge Bunny' helping them in simulation was the computer, and it scrolled out the message of an unknown daikaiju spotted in the sea, set to make landfall. The same events that had taken place in real life a little bit ago.
"Heya!" Patty chirped. "We're both pretty fast fliers, right? We could probably reach it before it made landfall... you wanna try fighting it off the coast?" Not a particularly safe option, given that it was highly aquatic, but it was an option at least.
~~~~~~~~~~~~Exterior decontamination bay
Jay considered that 'bay' was probably the wrong word for this place. It was a natural canyon, far enough from the base that if anything went wrong they wouldn't be endangering everyone. Masamune was laid out gently against the rock wall, scaffolding moved in to surround the mecha, and teams were spraying down the coral with high temperature heat guns, causing it to turn to dust and drift down.
The exact opposite problem was what Jay had to deal with. SAL was still radiating heat, a flickering mirage appearing above it. Coolants were being pumped in, and the engines were shut down, but it was still going to be too hot to work on for awhile yet. They'd hauled Max out and he looked like he'd been swimming he was stripped down so far and drenched in so much sweat. They'd given him a waterbottle as he'd been shuttled back to base for debriefing, and Jay hoped in the back of his mind that he'd put a shirt on before Commander Anderson had met with them. The last thing that boy needed was for her 'debriefing' him when all he was wearing was his underwear.
"Hey! Eren!" Jay shouted over to another scaffolding where the new arrival, Eren Kaiser, was working with Excellion. "How's she looking?" Excellion had arrived with the least infection, thanks to SAL, but that didn't mean that the mecha's joints were completely clear. The wings and the layered skirt in particular were difficult to check over. Without Ricky or Lucy, both of whom were back at base tending the mecha who had not become infected, Eren technically was one of the more experienced crew members he had on base, given the boys excellent knowledge of Schwere Waffen Kai. Not that the boy had any kind of seniority around here, but he did deserve a little bit of authority, so Jay had given it to him. And authority equaled responsibility around here.
Eren was currently standing on Excellion's shoulder, the mecha laying down on 'her' stomach with her wings spread as if in flight, so crews could check them over. Massive cranes were in place atop the canyon to lift Excellion for when they needed to check over her belly. Eren was short handed at the moment, given that Masamune's decontamination was taking priority, and seemed a little lost out there standing on another mecha's shoulder.
~~~~~~~~~Base cafeteria
Samantha Catherine was dressed in her business clothing, which was to say casual and approachable, but still formal enough to be taken seriously. Commander Anderson had made it very clear that she was not to get involved in the debriefing, since she had no rank. Still, April seemed a most disagreeable sort, being under her command certainly couldn't be good for the Pilots already stressful lives.
"Hey... Marco?" She asked when she thought she saw the boy, almost in tears, heading through the cafeteria towards his quarters. "Marco? What's wrong?"
|
|
|
Post by Alastor on Oct 20, 2014 9:10:58 GMT -8
At the opposite end of the room from the kids, double-wide doors opened, revealing an elevator. Miss Louise was now pushing herself towards them - her arms, they'd realize, were not nearly as fragile as they looked - almost frantically, catching up to where May, Max and Holly were (and Liz and Patty were leaving) in mere seconds. "I came as quickly as I could after debriefing - are you all okay?!" She didn't yet seem to notice Holly, instead going almost immediately towards May and Max. "That was terrible! You were lucky, that coral would have -" She stopped, breathing. "It could have done serious damage to more than just your mech.... I'm really glad you're okay." She blushed, and then became a little more business-y, her tone still soft and warm. "But this is why all of us need to constantly be working towards getting better, that could have resulted in a casualty...." She stopped finally, looking over towards Holly and giving a faint smile. "Hello, you must be the new pilot. I'm Miss Louise, and I run communications." May was at first taken by surprise by a bit by Louise, shirking a bit away at the sound of the wheels on the semi-polished ground. "We're fine, Anna." The girl said, rolling her eyes at the woman. "It's all part of the job."
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Oct 20, 2014 16:20:13 GMT -8
Holly smiled back at Miss Louise, "Yeah I'm Holly and ummm... I'm a pilot," she said shrugging. She wasn't really one who was good at introductions.
----------------------------------
Marco sighed as he looked up to see Sammy-Cat, "Its nothing really, April was just being a bitch again. The usual."
|
|
|
Post by Penny Royals on Oct 20, 2014 16:38:31 GMT -8
Liz glanced over to Patty before looking back to the kaiju in simulation.
"What class do you think it is? I don't know if this simulator recycles information and can give us a reading on it - if it's too big or can overpower us easily, it's probably not the best idea to fight it off the coast. Neither of our mechs are aquatic, right?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Louise glanced over at May, giving her a rather snarky look.
"Don't try to lie to me, May, you were crying when you got pulled out of there." She looked back to Holly, smiling once again. "I assumed so... have you been shown around base yet?"
|
|
|
Post by JW% on Oct 20, 2014 19:48:54 GMT -8
"Did Commander Anderson say anything that particularly upset you?" Sammy-Cat said, shifting over so Marco could have a seat at the table. "We could talk about it. Or anything else if you'd like."
~~~~~~~
"Ah, well. nosies..." Patty admitted. "Mine's more of a flier... and I think it's a class three. Or.. twosie and a halfsie..." Patty looked as if she was counting the daikaiju classification. "So... we just meet it on land then?" She moved the flight sticks and shifted on the pedals, the simulated version of her mecha moving out and launching into the air to fly to the landfall point.
|
|
|
Post by Fiery Firefly on Oct 21, 2014 2:18:54 GMT -8
"Not really," Holly said, "Showing me around won't really do it for me."
------------------
Marco sat down next to Sammy-Cat, "I'm so sick of people not understanding why I'm so cautious as a pilot. I mean I know the others lost their parents too... but I'm just so scared. All the time."
|
|
|
Post by Alastor on Oct 22, 2014 22:18:21 GMT -8
Liz glanced over to Patty before looking back to the kaiju in simulation. "What class do you think it is? I don't know if this simulator recycles information and can give us a reading on it - if it's too big or can overpower us easily, it's probably not the best idea to fight it off the coast. Neither of our mechs are aquatic, right?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Louise glanced over at May, giving her a rather snarky look. "Don't try to lie to me, May, you were crying when you got pulled out of there." She looked back to Holly, smiling once again. "I assumed so... have you been shown around base yet?" "...Crying is part of the job too!" May cried.
|
|