Final Fantasy Hacktics

Rellia is bent over, taking her job seriously with each thrust. She groans as this one seems to be harder than the others--MUCH HARDER. She can't believe how easy it was to get this far though, all it took was a little oil...
Finally, the rustic gear creaks and moves with her wrench; she wipes sweat from her brow and releases a sigh of relief. She was installing SOMETHING into her brand new mech...but since she told all the mechanics that she'll gladly rip their penis off if they come anywhere near or look, nobody knows exactly what it is she installed--or that she knew this much about how an MS works.
While most don't know this about her--she's not just an extremely dangerous and successful software hacker, but also a very successful hardware hacker, thus she's always been able to mod her equipment with ease.

"Howdy, Lyra.  A date, is it now?"  The old man chuckles and takes a long draw off his bottle.  "Aint had one of those in longer'n I care to admit.  Ah well, reckon I better not get fresh or I'm likely to get a beer bottle in the face for it."  He grins at Erin.  "And I been beat on enough for one day already, done took all the romance out of it."

(OOC: Only 26 hours to go!  Remember, the next Battle Pane begins at 12:26 AM tomorrow!  Make sure you got everything you're doing here wrapped up before then!  As for the contents of that Battle Pane, well... I think everyone will enjoy it.)

Atrius, meanwhile, makes his way to the main headquarters, meeting with the man who is standing in for Commander Garma Zabi about the influx of new Cobras. 

"Mister... Viper, was it that they call you?" The man is fat and balding, smoking a rather expensive looking cigar with his arms folded in front of him. "You've received so many new recruits because Commander Garma, in his... infinite wisdom, decided to promote your silly Desert Cobra squadron into the Cobra Corps."  The man shifts, resting his elbows on the desk and his head on his knuckles, looking up at Atrius as he puffs his cigar. "After that fiasco up in Canada, I'll be honest... I'd have canned the entire lot of you.  I've expressed this to Commander Garma over a call recently, but he sees something in you idiots that I never could." He draws another puff of his cigar, pulling it out of his mouth and into his hand as he leans back into his chair.  "However, he did say that because of your... recent failure, I could put my suspicions to the test with a mock battle of sorts.  You'll learn the details when you get to the simulation room tomorrow.  But, believe me - if you and the rest of your Cobras wish to keep your jobs, you best not let me down."  The stand-in commander narrows his eyes, looking directly into Atrius'. 

Atrius, without missing a beat, salutes, suppressing the many things that he easily could say to this bone-headed commander and replying with a simple "Yes, sir." before leaving the room.  He receives what details he is allowed to have of the simulation, such as the time and place, from the secretary outside the stand-in Commander's office before heading back to tell his fellow squadmates what the bullshit this fat old geezer has planned for them.

Wesley, finally beginning to understand the layout of the building, easily makes his way to the cafeteria. Purchasing a well-rounded meal, he sits by himself at an empty table.

"Not too bad," he comments about the food. After eating in a way that others would describe as nothing short of voracious, Wesley finishes in mere minutes. Having thoroughly enjoyed the meal, he realizes he almost forget to look for Buliwyf. Quickly glancing around the room, he notices an older man sitting across from a woman, with another rather nosy-looking woman there as well. Deciding this must be him (how many other older people work on base?), he also decides to introduce himself and afterward be on his way.

Wesley approaches the table. "You must be Buliwyf. I'm Wesley. From what I understand, I'm going to be covering you for at the very least this next field assignment." Wesley extends out his hand. Noting a small look he had anticipated, Wesley adds, "Don't be so quick to judge me just because I'm young."

"I'm not judging you cuz you're young, dont worry.  I'm judging you because I've got bait bigger than you in an ice chest back on Sigma 6."  The old man grins to take the sting out of his words.  "Just bullshitting you, Wes.  Grab a beer if you like, siddown."  The beer bottle is tipped at each of the women in turn.  "Erin, Lyra.  So you're gonna be my cover?  What do you use?"

As Wesley is introducing himself, a noticeably and uncharacteristically angry Atrius enters the cafeteria.  He notices the sisters Leylande, Buliwyf, Erin, and Wesley all chilling at a nearby table and walks over, slamming a pile of papers onto the table and interrupting Buliwyf's question to Wesley.

"We've got a problem." he says, looking to Wesley and Linear for a moment.  "You're Cobra too now, right?  Well... it looks like our Cobras have become the landing spot for Zeon's refuse.  I'll keep it quick.  They want us to participate in a simulation battle tomorrow, Capture the Flag against an opposing Mobile Suit force.  If we lose, we're all shit-canned because of how bad that mission in Canada went, including you newbies."  He looks from the two newbies to Buliwyf.  "We need to find the others and get an initial strategy sorted out before we go in there.  We won't know the map layout or our opponent before getting there, but we need to be on top of it or this entire squadron is done."

Buliwyf takes another slug from his bottle, then gazes at the rest contemplatively after the news.  "Well.  Aint that some shit.  Reckon you better get on the base intercom, assemble all Cobra personel in the mess hall, and we'll hash it out."  He tilts the bottle back, emptying it.  "And they're sending us in blind, huh?  Sounds like they're trying to fuck us, sir."

A shrill gaps occurs behind Atrius.  Rin has been stalking him this whole time.  Because she does that.  It's not criminal.  Seriously.  Nooo.  "So that's why they reassigned me over here!  They want to get rid of me!  How dare they!" rages the Mad Mare.  After a pause.  "Capture the Flag, huh?"  She giggles.  "I know a strategy for Capture the Flag!"  Rin raises her hand and jumps up and down like an eager child in school.  "Atty!  Atty!  I know a strategy!  Pick me!"  Ignoring the fact that not everyone else in the squad was gathered yet.

"Wha... where...?  Nevermind.  Let me get everyone else assembled first, Rin."  Atrius says, shaking his head a bit at the girl's schoolgirl-ish outburst as he heads back out of the cafeteria, leaving those assembled so far where they are.  "And Buliwyf... that's about right.  They're trying to fuck us pretty good, it seems."

Lyra waits until the captain is clear of the cafeteria before turning back to the rest of the team, she quickly waves over her sister, who is already in route to their table, to hurry her over. "This really does have a terrible feeling about it. Shove everyone into one squad then kill the entire squad? I'm sure it looks better then a bunch of layoffs all around as well. But we ARE plenty good, I'm sure that we can figure this out. Rin seems to have a great plan already! We just need to work together and..... oh... that might be why...." It slowly sinks in that, while everyone here was at least a somewhat skilled, if not incredibly skilled pilot, their team had about as much unity as an army of angry scorpions. Far from Cobra-like. "Well guys, we just need to shape up and stick together! I'm sure we can pull through and go back to kicking EFF butt in no time!"

Atrius quickly made his way to the Mobile Suit hangars.  He had to find everyone quickly, and he knew there was a high chance May would be here working on her "Merrygate" as she called it.  He went straight for the first elevator and made it up to the catwalks, moving at a rather brisk clip to the Merrygate, hoping his hunch was right and that its owner would be nearby.

  May is half-sitting/half-hanging off one arm of her Mobile Suit, adjusting something in the elbow joint with a wrench nearly as long as her leg. With a sigh, she sits upright again, settling the tool on her lap and taking a moment to dab away the sweat on her grease-smeared forehead with a nearby rag. She looks up hearing the approaching footfalls and gives a tired smile and wave to Atrius. "Hey, Captain. I think we got her pieced back together okay."

Atrius looks over the beaten Zaku, which has been somehow reassembled into something that looks serviceable again... and apparently adapted into one of those new Zaku Cannon models, before giving May a nod. "She looks good, especially given how beat up we got out there.  But we've got some urgent business to deal with, so I need you to come with me right away and help me find Rellia and... Quentin?" Hell if he could remember that guy's last name, but the first name sounded right.  "You walked off with him.  Any idea where he went?"

((Sorry about being absent for the RP for a day. Work hours have been weird.))

Expatrus swirls her bottle for a second before answering Buliwyf's question. "I'm from Side 4. Was a private sector pilot when the war started. Dumbass tourists, prissy rich boys, that sort of thing. Then the EFF attacked near the beginning of the war, and, well.. that changed everything. Lost a lot of good friends during the attacks. Lost a lot of family, too, along with part of my face." She grins a bit as she points to her scar. "I'm uncomfortable being ground-side, to be honest. Never been to Earth before, never wanted to. I prefer the black. I don't care if someone is FROM Earth, but I don't see why they'd side with us. Especially after Australia. Glad as hell that treaty went through..."

Almost as if on cue, Expatrus notices an excitable young woman come up and nosily ask what's going on. She chuckles a bit at the "date" bit. "A date? Heheh no, lass, just counting scars and killing livers. We geezers like to reminisce. I'm Erin Expatrus, your new pilot for the Minnow. I'm here to make sure your three hour tour STAYS at three hours. I don't take to the ground in MS, I leave that to you fools." She laughs a bit harder and puts her cigar back in her mouth, her beer finished.

Showing off the remarkable sense of timing and instinct that comes from being a good pilot, a young  fool comes in, introducing himself to Lyra and Buliwyf. She short salutes him, and repeats her introduction. Then an old fool in a long, old coat stomps in and starts hollering about being fucked by Command. "Like I said, Buli. Never get off the boat." She grabs her bags, pays the tab, and strolls off back to her plane, laughing steadily and heartily.

  May flushes a little at the mention of Quentin's name, mouth twisting a bit with irritation. "Last I saw him was on the hangar floor." she says curtly. She hops down to the catwalk and sets the oversized wrench on a nearby tool rack. "But that was a while ago. As for Rellia, I'm pretty sure I saw her working on that new Mobile Suit of hers but she could've slipped away when I had my head in the hydraulics over here." She pauses for a moment, worry creasing her brow. "Dare I ask what kind of urgent business has you collecting us? I can't imagine they'd deploy us again immediately after returning to base..." May lets her sentence trail off as she tries to read her commander's face for some sign of what the trouble is.

Atrius beckons for May to follow him, then makes his way in fast strides back to the elevator to get to the hangar floor.  "The stand-in for Commander Garma isn't happy about the shitfest in Canada. Garma's promoted our squadron to the Cobra Corps., giving us more members, Mobile Suits, and supplies, but this old bastard doesn't think leveling the Federation base in Canada was good enough because a lone Medea escaped."  He shifts a bit, stuffing his hands into his coat pockets.  "We're being forced to participate in a simulation battle against an enemy Mobile Suit team in a game of Capture the Flag.  If we lose, we're all canned, including the newbies.  It looks like they just stuck the four worst-luck people they could find on our squadron in case we fucked up the simulation."  Atrius looks around a bit as the elevator reaches the hangar floor, noticing a particular black-and-emerald Zaku I docked in the hangar.  "And I've got a hunch as to which Mobile Suit team we'll be fighting... but first, we need to get Rellia and Quentin and meet up with everyone else in the cafeteria so we can discuss tactics.  We need to do this right, not like the shitfests Ms. Silette got us into when she was playing us for fools."

  May follows Atrius' gaze to the Zaku I and curses under her breath. "The Snap Dragons? Its just one bit of bad news after another."

"This guy wants us gone.  If the Red Comet were still on base, we'd likely be fighting him instead." Atrius replies bitterly as he begins looking around.  "If my hunch is right, Sieg won't be the main problem. He's too bullheaded and immature.  Our main problems will be Suranai and Serenes." He continues looking around, not seeing the most easily spotted person on their entire team. "Damnit, where is Quentin?"

  May looks stricken at the mention of Char Aznable. "Maybe going against the Snap Dragons is a small blessing, then. I hope you know enough about them to give us the edge in combat. I had a chance to look at the dossiers on the new recruits and aside from Renae, I have a feeling we're going to need every bit of advantage we can get." With a quiet sigh, May continues. "Maybe we should split up to find him. If I run into him first we could just meet you and the others somewhere."

   "You should get back to work, m'lady." Quentin says to the young woman... what was her name again?

   She sighs. "I suppose..."

   "Believe me, I am not worth losing your job over." He says, getting out of bed.

   She gives him a quizzical glance.

   He gives her his most winning smile. "Trust me." He then proceeds to  get dressed as quickly a possibly, repeating his well-practiced ritual. Nearly every woman's quarters has a mirror, it would seem.

   "You never change, do you?" A familiar voice says, scoldingly, as he steps out of the young mechanic's room.

   "Teevina." The Executor says with a pleasant smile. "Fancy meeting you here..."

   With a sigh and a roll of her eyes, the woman continues. "I saw Captain Atrius storming through the base not too long ago, I believe he is assembling his squad."

   "Oh? You wouldn't, by chance, know where he is gathering us?"

   "I would assume the cafeteria, that's where I saw several others."

   "Indeed." He gives a curt nod. "I shall make haste, then."

   "See you later tonight?"

   "But of course." He bows slightly before heading towards the cafeteria.