Breaking Point

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

IC:

 

Fairuza listened as the conversation went back and forth on the subject of further modifications to one of the Walkers.

 

"Yeah, doesn't sound like the safest plan. Suppose you could run the power through a capacitor, though; run a continuous low-level feed into that, rather than a quick charge to the guns? It would take a while to power up, but after that you'd be ready to fire any time without having to freeze up, right?"

 

Leaving Ben to deal with his power-hungry Warrior's wish list, she returned to the problem that had come up during the simulated battle. "While we're on the topic of modifications, though, how long would it take to swap some parts on Týr's optics? I'd like to get some polarizing lenses in there, so I can look up without blinding myself and crashing whatever's left of my 'mech through a building. Again."

[25K Now!]

IC: Christoph Lockheed

 

"A self-propelling gun platform would be admittedly more effective than a Warrior backpack," noted the Test Team's leader. "It could be cheaper to mass-produce than the Gunner as well."

 

The backpack idea was not without merit, but it had a flaw in that it would essentially relegate a Warrior to the role of "budget-sized Gunner", and one that provided little in the way of mobility advantages. The body of the 007 would also be less capable of handling the recoil placed upon it by the railguns. The effectiveness of Warriors would only be hampered by shoving gigantic fixed railguns onto its back.

 

Shoving the railguns onto a box with treads was an idea Christoph was personally fond of, given the general lack of movement Gunners participated in. While obviously lacking in the elevation of an AW, a box with treads could essentially do the same thing for cheaper: sit still and rain fire down upon an enemy, and possibly move around more easily than a Gunner.

 

In fact, it could possibly connect to an AW's power core as well beyond having its own. Rather than having a disposable backpack, it could move around the battlefield, joining up with any Walker that might need extra long-range firepower.

[The UltimoScorp]

IC Alex:

 

I glanced up, surprised I'd been approached.

 

"Oh, you must be the pilot of the Warrior, right? You did well, though your edge alignment was a little off near the end there. How far did you get after taking Miss Direction down?"

 

The other woman's question had to wait, as my head was still working with the Warrior pilot. Switching from conversations was difficult at times. Not to mention she was smoking... I wrinkled my nose and exhaled. I hated the smell.

 

I shook the proffered hand a moment before it became awkward for her to keep holding it out.

[Atton Rand]

OOC: I get the sense that Alex isn't fond of people smoking around him.

 

IC: The man in front didn't respond, either not hearing or intentionally ignoring Maya. The latter seemed more likely, given he did seem to be reacting to the odor of her smoking. 

[NorikSigma]

IC: Natalie

"Not very long, actually. The explosion took out the Valkyrie. Good thinking on baiting me in. Didn't think you'd use your weapons at close range, but the point-blank missiles were very painful. And that last part, throwing your missiles at me... Good thing we're on the same side out here."

[The UltimoScorp]

IC Alex:

 

"Truthfully, I was improvising most of that...."

 

I looked over to the other woman, "A simulation tournament. Well... A free for all really. It just wrapped up. Didn't you hear the announcement earlier?"

[Atton Rand]

IC: "No, I didn't," Maya said. She took a moment to remove her cigarette and exhale a stream of smoke into the man's face before placing it back. She reached into her pocket and produced her pack of cigarettes, holding them towards him.

 

"Smoke?"

Edited November 5, 2016 by Atton Rand

[Constructelf]

IC: Lé Thanh Khiêm

Wait, was somebody smoking?

 

"Okay, who brought the gaseous cancer in here? Ugh."

 

If that's what the idiots on the base were gonna spend their downtime, then he didn't want a part of it. He could list off... 58386228 ways that smoking was harmful, but more importantly, stupid. (That was an exaggeration). To be present in the same room with one who so stupid, willfully or not, to flaunt their foolishness was insulting to his intelligence.

 

"This base and it's people are killing my brain cells..."

 

Taking care to avoid both Ms. Cloud-of-Death and the rabid Shiba Inu, Khiêm began making his way out.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Constructman

[The UltimoScorp]

Ooc: dick move

 

IC Alex:

 

I frowned, blinking through the smoke and waving it away.

 

"No. And could you not blow that stuff in my face? Some of us value our lungs."

 

Ordinarily I wouldn't have commented on the smoking at all, but she's not only brought it up but blew it rudely into my face.

[Atton Rand]

Ooc: dick move

 

OOC: Well, I did mention in the profile that Maya could be very impulsive, that she was a heavy smoker, and she had a tendency to get overconfident in herself which made it hard to be a team player, so I can't say I didn't warn you.

 

IC: Maya smiled as she took the cigarette out of her mouth, exhaling another stream of smoke into the face of her rival. She chuckled slightly. It seemed to offer a bizarre relief from the tedium of the last few weeks.

 

"You're one of the mech pilots, aren't you? Well, I guess you'll just have to get used to it because you'll be seeing a lot more of me in the near future. Sooner or later they're going to need us, and when they do... let's just say my bad girl Dirty Harry is going to lead the charge."

 

She placed the cigarette in her mouth for a second, breathing in. She removed it, and exhaled once more at the man in front of her with a smile. She laughed as she turned around, the first time in weeks she had an opportunity to actually find humor in her everyday life, tossing the cigarette aside.

 

Suddenly, she had felt a strange urge to go back and check on her mech. 

[NorikSigma]

IC: Natalie

 

"Well, you're certainly leading the charge against air quality," Natalie muttered to herself in her native tongue.

 

"Isn't there a, what's it called, designated smoking point in the base?" She asked Alex. "So the open flames don't blow up all the fumes in here?" Natalie gestured at the Mech repair bay nearby.

 

IC: Hassan

 

"Hey, where'd she go?" Hassan looked up from the dishes. "That Private Logan or something."

Edited November 6, 2016 by Norik Apple Juice

[The UltimoScorp]

IC Alex:

 

With a small cough and no small amount of waving more rudely blown smoke away, I nodded in agreement with...the warrior pilot whose name I didn't quite get to yet.

 

"Smoke's no good for the electronics, either. I hope she doesn't do that inside her Walker...."

 

I shook my head. What a weird lady.

 

"I uh, don't think I caught your name, I'm Alex. Er.... Private First Class Reichel, if you're more interested in being official."

 

I grinned somewhat sheepishly. I never was any good at introducing myself.

[NorikSigma]

IC: Natalie

 

"Lance Corporal Natalie Adelaide Martel. Pleased to meet, and have fought against, you."

 

Natalie lowered her voice.

 

"Between you and me, maybe she should smoke in her walker. She might learn some humility when the smoke detector auto ejects her."

[Atton Rand]

IC: Aside from her brief moment of humour, it was still getting dull. Maya was starting to feel the desire to return to her walker, probably because she was bragging about it seconds earlier and felt confidant. She removed the cigarette from her mouth, and flicked it aside before moving towards the exit.

Edited November 6, 2016 by Atton Rand

[The UltimoScorp]

IC Alex:

 

"I didn't know they did that."

 

IC Maigo:

 

"You try making this thing work perfectly on your first try," she muttered spitefully.

 

The Huckebein stood once more, a bit more easily this time.

[NorikSigma]

IC: Natalie

 

"Here's to hoping hers does."

[25K Now!]

IC: October M. Brightbridge

 

"I did."

[Krayzikk]

IC:

"I'll come with you." Ayane said cheerfully, still fixated on correcting the hair in front of her. "Perhaps they have suggestions for modifications."

 

IC:

 

"Assuming we've got the parts, and I'm pretty sure we do, I could probably have those lenses swapped in an hour. Two, tops."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

Her glare was starting to weather slightly as Ayane continued the good-natured nitpicking of her hair. It seemed that, even without her doing, the two ended up walking hand in hand over to Test Team 4. Lauren was familiar with the vast majority of these guys - after all, as the only Raptor test pilot who had been attached to Horizon since the stress testing of the FAW-022 prototypes, she had spent several months serving with Test Team, first as a mechanic than as a pilot. Her tenure had coincided with the start of Ben's, and she knew Lockheed well enough to know he could tell in a heartbeat whether what she wanted was possible. Especially on short notice. 

 

Never knew when Munequita would need to take to the skies again.

 

And the BFG must be Fairuza.

 

She saluted cheerfully with her free hand - and then waved it at Armbruster - before turning to Christoph.

 

"Heya, Captain. I wanted to ask you about an idea I had."

 

-Tyler

[HeavyMetalSunshineSister]

IC:

 

"That sounds great, let's take a look at getting the new lenses in ASAP, yeah?"

 

As she said it, she heard a voice she'd previously only heard over the simulator's intercom system. Turning a bit too quickly to be casual about it, Fairuza finally put a face to the pilot who had shredded Týr, along with, if her presumption about the girl picking through that pilot's hair was correct, the one who had thrown a Walker in the sims. She thought first to assure the two that she did still in fact owe them drinks, then to apologize for her piloting, then finally put together that it would be a terrible idea to interrupt the pilot's Important Official Business with Captain Lockheed. With conversation out and her facial expressions not entirely trustworthy, Fairuza suddenly became very interested in one of the parts on Ben's workbench.

[25K Now!]

IC: Christoph Lockheed

 

Christoph allowed his mouth to quirk up into a small smile. Lauren's cheer was rather infectious at times, and it was admittedly never particularly boring when dealing with his colleague.

 

"I'm assuming it's related to a Munequita upgrade?" he asked. That was a possibility for her approach; given the sheer disparity between their machines and those of the Colonials, upgrades were definitely necessary to ensure that they could remain on a level playing field.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Yeah, I was thinking about it in the sims," Lauren replied, nodding vigorously. A smile grew back on her face as she talked about her Raptor. "Do we still have that Ex IV's old flight backpack lying around somewhere in storage?"

 

-Tyler

[25K Now!]

IC: Christoph Lockheed

 

"We do," he confirmed. "It was still there in Hangar 3 when the Gallia was retrieved."

[Krayzikk]

IC:

"Can do. Won't even poke around at other systems. Much. Pinky swear." Benjamin remarked cheerfully from the catwalk, giving Lauren a wave before hopping over the railing and using his own Walker to clamber back down to the floor. "Lockheed already extorted the same promise out of me."

 

Ayane, for her part, refrained from any further meddling with Lauren's hair and withdrew her hands to clasp them behind her back. The 'Captain', Lockheed she believed, received a slight bow at the waist as an indication of respect, then the Japanese pilot followed with a second towards the Test Team as a whole. She did not have names to put to most of the faces just yet, but if her ears did not deceive her then she had one more. The voice belonging to the shockingly tall woman, at a distance, sounded like the pilot that had been commenting on her fight.

 

Though, admittedly, she still did not have a name to put to her face.

 

"Lance Corporal Inoue Ayane, at your service." She added softly while straightening from her second bow, remaining a step behind and to her girlfriend's right. No further introduction was necessary. For the moment, at least.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Don't let her fool you, she's a real demon," Lauren declared, cheerfully throwing her girlfriend under the bus. "Anyway, Captain, I was wondering. What exactly are the dimensions on that thing? Think it could be fitted to a Raptor's hardpoints?"

 

-Tyler

[Constructelf]

IC: Susan

With the match over, Susan decided to head down to do... something. Perhaps congratulate the contestants? Or just do her daily routine?

[Krayzikk]

IC:

"I am not." Ayane protested, though even her protest came out quite mild. She placed an elbow lightly in the Sergeant's ribs before she clasped her hands behind her back again, casting her girlfriend a slight glare. "Not only does that ill-describe my demeanor, it does not fit culturally. Demon is quite generic."

 

"Why would you want that flight pack, anyway?"

[25K Now!]

IC: Christoph Lockheed

 

"Armbruster tends to keep his word if it's given," elaborated Lockheed, before turning his attentions back to Lauren and her companion, giving a nod of acknowledgement to the latter. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lance Corporal."

 

So it seemed that his colleague wanted to install the flight pack onto the Munequita then. He rapidly searched his memories for an answer to the query; the backpack had been successfully mounted onto a Warrior like the Gallia, and its size wasn't too much that it would not theoretically be able to fit on a Raptor. He wasn't entirely sure, but that would be rectified if they were to bring it out.

 

"It could," he continued. "When do you need it?"

[Krayzikk]

IC:

"For what purpose, though?" Ayane asked, a little more insistently. Which wasn't saying much, given how mildly she had behaved thus far, but it was something she wanted to know. "The Munequita can already fly."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"In one form, yeah..." Nadia mused out loud, looking between Lockheed and Ayane slowly. "But it would be useful at least being able to hover in-atmosphere. On the ground, in Walker mode, I can't even take as much as your average Warrior. If there was just some way to tell the flight pack to screw off during transformation..."

 

Her face settled into a deeper, more pensive pout.

 

-Tyler

[Void Emissary]

IC: Hassan

 

"Hey, where'd she go?" Hassan looked up from the dishes. "That Private Logan or something."

 

OOC: Sorry about the wait. 

 

IC:

 

"Private Logan?" Gwen said. "Maybe she went somewhere ... private."

 

Cue the jazz hands.

 

-Void

[NorikSigma]

OOC: No prob mate. Better late than never, amirite?

 

IC: Hassan

 

...

 

"HAHAHA! Hey, that's pretty good, heh."

 

Hassan finished rinsing off the last plate and put it back onto the rack.

 

"Well, you mentioned breakfast pizza? I need to know about this."

[Void Emissary]

IC:

 

"Bit more quiche-y than pizza if I'm gonna be honest with you," Gwen said, grabbing a dish towel and getting to work on the wet plates on the rack. "Sausage, egg, cheese of course. I guess you could probably get bacon, but I've never been the biggest fan of that, honestly. I've heard that you can get crusts made out of hash brown, too. Can't imagine that that'd be too easy to eat, though, don't you think?"

 

-Void

[Krayzikk]

IC:

 

"Maybe we could modify it to attach to the fighter configuration." The German engineer mused out loud, eyes lighting up at the prospect of a challenge. "Integrate it structurally into the resulting vehicular form like a booster. The Munequita already boasts additional armor, so we have a precedent for mounting additional components. But how to do it on a tight timetable..."

"Drone?"

 

The quiet suggestion filled the thoughtful void the Test Team pilot had generated, posited by the equally quiet Lance Corporal Ayane. Ben's head swiveled to regard her questioningly, a reaction she met with the faintest of shrugs.

 

"The flight pack already has to be aerodynamic, does it not? It seems easier to apply the Raptor's design philosophy in a much simpler form to the pack than vice versa. If it could be deployed to the battlefield alongside the Munequita, which usually sorties as a fighter first, it could act as additional aerial support until it was needed to grant the Walker form additional mobility."

Ayane paused, then shrugged again.

 

"It would be a second target, though. And I don't know how sophisticated the controls could be. I pilot the machines, I know not how to design them."

[NorikSigma]

IC: Hassan

 

"No, I don't suppose so. Would crumble worse than a... A..."

 

An awkward silence settled upon the pair, broken only by the sound of a cloth drying dishes.

 

"The peace between the Union and Federation? God, too soon. Gwen, you gotta help me out here."

[Void Emissary]

IC:

 

Gwen's forehead creased, her mouth twitched to one side, and she laid a hand on Hassan's shoulder.

 

"Don't worry, man," she said. "I get you."

 

-Void

[NorikSigma]

IC: Hassan

 

He turned to her and paused. He'd only meant that he needed help with the joke, but he realised how much he needed to hear someone say that in the context Gwen thought he meant. Perhaps he didn't walk away from years of campaigning on behalf of the Federation unscathed...

 

"Thanks. I only meant help with the joke," he made a wry smile.

 

"But I appreciate... this. I didn't realise how much I needed to cook with and talk to someone."

 

He laughed softly.

 

"An old bird like me doesn't always realise when he just needs to take some off time. So thanks for, well, just being here."

Edited December 27, 2016 by Norik Apple Juice

[Void Emissary]

IC:

 

"Any time, buddy," she said, looping her arm around into a shoulder hug. "Guess I probably needed some time away from my machines too."

 

-Void

[NorikSigma]

IC: Hassan

 

"Oh, I'd never dream of pulling you away from your preciouses."

 

"So, any idea what to do next? I wouldn't mind more food, but we already cleaned the plates."

[Void Emissary]

IC:

 

"I think I've already spent a little too much time away from my preciouses," Gwen said. "Wanna come back to the hanger and see how I make a living?"

 

-Void