Lucius laughed a good raucous laugh, "Was there a leak that showed her plenty or something to be in the tabloid holovids?"

He shook his head before sighing, "Jenny decided to use the opt-out clause in her contract.  She left this morning on the dropship heading out.  That's the reason I was swearing."  He then grinned wide, "Course that means good things for you Olaf.  Congrats, you're XO till you die or I find someone better."

He tapped the compad though before continuing, "That brings us to Penny, Penny, Penny and her Pussy Cat Brigade.  If you liked her show you're going to get an up close and personal with her.  She's out here on Omni doing her show and one of her people, Rick, sent a message letting me know that she wanted in on one of the Merc units operating to 'defray production costs' and 'get a real glimpse' of the life of the Merc out in the Periphery and what they do to make ends meet."

Luc sighed again, "Thing is she actually runs a setup almost identical to Jenny so saying no, after knowing we need someone with those skills and gear, would be moronic.  I sent the approval to Rick just a moment ago."

"XO, hunh?" he replied, wiping his hands with a rag and plucking the pad out of Lucius' hands.  "Let's see what kind of mess we're getting into then." he said with a wide and genuine smile to match his Lieutenant's.

Scanning the advert and associated mech stats he mused wryly, "Well, her gear sure checks out." leaving a barely perceptible pause to allow the innuendo to settle in he continued: "If she can shoot as well as she jabbers we'll be all set.  I suppose 'defraying production costs' is as good as any reason to decide to get shot at for a living.  If nothing else it's more honest than some of the reasons I've heard."  Embracing his new role as XO he added: "I'll get Emily to see to it that the techs give her Raven a once over.  While they're at it, I'll get them to do the best they can to keep her hamming it up for the cameras to a minimum and prevent any delay in getting combat ready before we lift for the raid."

He reached into his pocket and pulled out the bars for his XO, despite having many of them Luc's pocket never seemed to be empty of the promotion...something that a long timer might be warry about when he uses the slogan 'Till your dead or I find someone better...' and left his own response, "I'll believe the gear when I see it in person..."

"At a guess defraying production costs is probably this Rick's idea.  We'll see if I'm wrong when we finally meet her." added Luc as he handed them over to Olaf.

"Don't forget to update her mechs comm protocols like everyone else is doing.  She may not be with us for the long haul but I'd rather keep her alive and saying good things.  You never know we might actually snag a contract outside the Periphery that pays better than Omni with the right coverage..." he laughed, "Not likely though."

Penny waited for Lily to set up and give her the nod.  She got a good look at the outside of the building.  It was... pretty.  Much too nice and clean.  She was use to the grungy back alleys of solaris, or the smoke houses of Canopus.  This... place had a tidy clean look to it that made her nervous.

Lily's snapping fingers got Penny's attention back to business.  Lily was making a nodding motion towards the door.  Penny took a deep breath and got into her bubbly role.  The walk to the door had to be catwalk perfect.  Lily was taking a worms eye view of the door, and would be taking a shot of her from the ground up.  She always looked taller than she really was because of that.

At the moment she was dressed up in her Cowgirl costume (like a Dallas Cowgirl cheerleader outfit almost, but with Chaps and a Hat).  Her legs looked about a mile long when she did that.  There was only the faint clicking of the heels on the ground as she walked, thank god she managed to talk Rick out of wearing the spurs, the jingling as she walks was annoying.  About the only thing that the camera had to use for a scale, was the Sternsnacht Heavy Pistol.  She could barely pronouce it, and it looked huge in her hands, but she was actually a pretty good shot with it.  The only thing out of place was her trademark (charms style) Lolipop bulging against one of her cheeks.

The door opened and air moderated by central air gave her good bumps and made her all sorts of perky.  Penny all but sashays through the door, Lily moving slowly along behind her to film her progress.  The first plaque on the directory was duct taped over obscuring it.

"Hawks... Ironswords... Lancers... Valkyries.", Penny turns to the Camera and gives a saucy grin.

"I guess it's time to meet my lancemates."

Lily finishs the brief segment and turns the camera off, "You want me to film the meet candid like, or clear it with them first."

Penny flicks the rim of her cowboy hat up thoughtfully.  That simple move seemed to make her less sultry and more whimiscal.

"We're gonna be working with these people for a bit Lily... or that's the plan.  Let go for polite and not intrude on their privacy too much."

It didnt take them too long to find their way to what passed for the Iron Sword's Hanger.

"Oh~!  This is cool.", Penny makes an exciting rolling motion with her arm, which Lily hastens to act on.

"Some primo vintage stuff here folks.  We're a long way from the Combine front, but two vintange JR7-F Jenners seem to have found their way to the hanger bay... and... theres a WHT-1 Whitworth... all familiar friends from past episodes but... whats this?"

Lily focus' the camera on Lucius' X-3a Powerloader.

"This little beast... too large for a Wasp... too small for a Phoenix Hawk... Could almost pass as a Valkyrie... Could this be .... dare i say it?  A power loader?  or... just a bastardized Valkyrie fitted with a Solaris Sword?"

The thing did look like a Valkyrie... A valkyrie with mech sized milk crates on it's shoulds and Dervish like paddles for one of it's hands.  Penny takes the lollipop out of her mouth and winks at the Camera.

"We'll be back after a word from our sponsers to introduce you to the hot pilots of these groovy rides... tata for now kiddies."

With that Lily turns the camera off again, "Pretty standard stuff.... except that... thing.  If it's a powerloader... it's ugly."

Penny could only nod agreement, "With those boxy shoulders it's not very streamlined.  It'll need a powerful engine to move quick, and it's aero dynamics will be about as good as a Javelins.  Looks like a deathtrap if you ask me.  I'll ride my Gumdrop express any day of the week and twice on Sunday."
This message was last edited by the player at 04:04, Tue 09 Sept 2014.

Luc used the back of his hand to tap Olaf on the shoulder when he saw Penny and her film crew roll on into the hanger.  He give his new XO a raised eyebrow at just how perky Penny still was before he started listening in to her amusing narration for her fans and subscribers.  Once she was done with the cameras rolling and giving out her own two thoughts about the Javelin and the Loader he coughed with a grin to draw her attention away from the mechs and over to Olaf and himself.

"Not nearly as top-heavy as a Javelin and in a pinch she can keep pace with the Jenners in a flat run under the right circumstances.  You are right about one thing, she's an ugly girl but she's no deathtrap.  Currently she's got a Doombud-6 on the left; Sword on the right; Diverse Optics Type 2 Medium Lasers in each side torso; a custom targeting system and almost as much armour as your Raven if my spec-sheet from Rick is correct."

"Ugly is.. as ugly does.  Ugly doesnt sell well on Holovids.", Penny notices the two mercs lingering around.  They were scruffy and smelled... like... well like... guys.  They werent pretty, but then again they werent paid to be pretty.  They did look rugged though.  The hairy one, sort of reminded of 'The Grizzly', a Solaris pilot that had a fondness for crushing his opponents in the arena.  The bald one...Penny tilts her head and regards Lucius for a moment, was sort of sexy.  He had that older self confident look that was sometimes appealing.

Penny tips her hat with a slight flourish and bows slightly, "Lt. Penny Plenty... I believe Rick Mannings cleared the red tape for me?  This is my gal Friday, Sgt. Pepper."

Lily gives Luc and Olaf a big grinned smile and waves a few fingers at them.  She looks like she's wondering if she should be filming this, "You can just call me Lily if were not on camera."

"Penny works for me, but my callsign is Gumdrop."

For Olaf, who actually seemed to have some knowledge of her show, this is old news.  Penny's show often revolves around reviewing various military hardware.  Assorted mechs and the weapons at their disposal.  The old concept that sex sells, and nothing was sexier than a pretty girl handling weapons of mass destruction was still a formula that worked.  Assisting her were the Pussy Cat Brigade, which were her assistant technicians that helped her on the show.  Chief among them was Sgt. Pepper.  They had a fan club that was known as the Lollipop Corps, which served to connect her to the fan base.  It was also a means for female personnel in the business to network with one another and help get a start on things.  While there were male members of the Lollipop Corps, they were mostly there for the free eye candy literature, and the chance to occassionally live chat with the Pussy Cats, or if they were lucky Penny herself.  It's fairly common trivia that Penny's has named her Raven 'Skittles'.  Which was known for being an evolving piece of artwork that was modified a little every week by the PC Brigade and the L Corps.

She was known for being juvenile, perky, upbeat, and quirky little catch phrases that often had sexual innuendo.

Luc sized her up in the same way when she tilted her head to regard him.  Continuing to run with Olaf's innuendo in his head her gear did seem to check out in person, maybe even better than in the holovids...problem was he needed a EW pilot and a damn good one if they weren't going to get hammered on their next mission, "It could look like the original Mackie or Amaris' Folly the Behemoth for all I care, long as it gets the job done out in the field.  You want something that looks a bit better see if the Omni chicks will give you access to show their X-5, X-6 or the newer A-3 or A-3c models.  These X-3 models are strictly utilitarian unless you mod them and since they use proprietary hardware its not easy to do."

He looked over to her crew and nodded, "Good to meet you Lily, and yeah Rick dealt with the paperwork Penny.  Welcome to the Ironswords.  Olaf Oleeson here is my XO till he dies or I find someone better..." he pointed over to the Whitworth, "that's his baby."  Pointing over to the Jenner-F's he added, "The one on the right is Hassan al-Nasir's, the one on the left is David Crain's.  You'll meet them later when we go over the details of the next contract we just signed on for."

That brought him back to himself, "I'm Lucius McMurphy, Commander of the Ironswords and the X-3a is mine...ugly might not sell but I'm likely one of the only non-Eden pilots to use one of their designs at the moment.  That might sell in the one-off Solaris VII arena mindset."

"X this... A that... Y bother with all the letters and numbers?

 Cant they just name it something?  These people really need to learn how to market what they're selling.  No wonder word of this stuff barely filters out of the periphery.  This place is like a mythical place.  A regular lost city filled with buried treasure and stuff.", Penny's eyes turn to Lucius' ride.  It was obvious she had never seen one before but thought it would be overly rude to ask to take it apart.

Penny laughs, "So i have to do to get promoted is engineer the bear's demise?", Penny does a quick slight of hands and a charms pop appears in it which she offers to Olaf.  "Smile sweet heart.  It was a joke.  They're not funny if you have to explain them."

Penny nods at the Lucius' Power Loader, "Does that mean you'll let me take it out for a test drive to see what it can do?", Penny had her little kid winning grin going.  It was hard to tell if it was a calculated one of manipulation, or a natural honest occurance.

"C'mon give you full credit on the piece.  You cant tell me the concept of free advertising to put your name out there is too worthless to consider?", Penny quirks and impish eyebrow as she dangles her bribe to see if Lucius will bite on it.

Luc shrugged, "They like their numbers and letters and don't seem very keen on selling their wares willy-nilly."

He grinned at her comment about asking what it took to take Olaf's position but kept his thoughts to himself while playing with her offer, "I'll let you play with mine if I get to play with yours.  Credit was going to happen regardless since you'll be part of the Ironswords for at least the next contract..."

Luc knew he wasn't rated to use the EW system but he did want to see how it was setup and how it drew power from the plant.  If he could someday move up and free up tonnage he had been considering either a Beagle or Guardian and this would give him some time to feel up the precursor system.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:28, Tue 09 Sept 2014.

Penny purses her lips and wrinkles her nose a little looking away, sorta the look you might expect if you were force to suck a lemon.  She gives Lily a glance, who just sort of shrugs.

"Fair... is ... Fair.

 Skittles is temperamental and likes a woman's touch.

 I'm going to have to think about that offer.", Penny stifles a yawn behind the back of he hand.

"Besides i just made planet fall this morning, and i have to get acclimated to local time.

 Let me sleep on it?", she smiles and waves good bye and nods her head at Lily to depart.

Lily waves good by and mouths the word, "Bye.", before turning to follow Penny out.  It was perhaps... the only evidence that  Penny wasnt a total fluff bunny.  No serious mechwarrior in his right mind would let another person handle a ride they were serious about.  That Penny was reluctant to swap rides to try out was probably a good sign that she might have a use beyond being a target for the Op Force.

David had been working on his mech some so the noise from all the equipment had drowned out the recent conversation but when a pause in the work allowed him to hear the conversation he climbed down to see what all the fuss was about.  Wandering over to Lucius and Olaf he arrives just in time to witness the departure of Penny & co.  Appreciating the view but too late to join the conversation he turns towards the other members of the Iron swords.  "Is... that our new EW pilot?" he inquires, "I had heard rumours that we were getting some celebrity but I never heard it would be Penny."

"Sure, sleep on it as long as you want." remarked Luc as she turned and left, leaving Lily with a simple wink, smile and nod.

When David made himself appear from his Jenner he laughed, "Yeah, Penny Plenty.  How is it that everyone knows her but me?"

"I do not know this woman, but on my homeworld, she would be beaten for being immodest." Hassan said with a shrug.  He wasn't in agreement with the practice; he simply commented on the fact.

"It's a good thing that she isn't on your home-world then.  Harsh.  Civil or religious law?" asked Lucius.  He knew that Hassan was a devout religious man but some societies on their planets kept to one side, the other or a mix of the two.

"A hybrid of Ritsuryō and Sharia law.  Most women in this unit would be ok, but she would be... too much for the Imams to abide." Hassan said as he jotted down comm codes to program into his mech.

Once they were clear of the hanger bay, Penny got the earful she was expecting.

"Are you kidding me?

 You'll sleep on it?

 No money exchange, no future favors, just a straight up exchange of rides and we get to film that thing.", Lily was Penny's reality check on what needed to be done for business.

"Yeah, I know... I mean.

 I just dont like anyone messing with Skittles.", Penny all but whine to stall the inevitable weight of Lily's logic.

"C'mon Penny.  You're messing up a good thing, let the geezer joy ride in Skeetles, and lets get some footage on our white whale.", Lily persists.

"Hey.  It's the first day we dont have to do nothing.

 Maybe we can get a look at them from the locals, that's why were here arent we?

 If he owns one of them, how hard can it be to get some footage on one?"

"Yeah... maybe.  Keep your options open though.", it was nice to walk down the street and be recognized as Penny Plenty, "Hey, lets sign in tonight as Penelope and Lillian."

"Huh?  Why?", Lily give Penny a puzzled look.

"It might be nice.  You know... not too be recognized and worry about people breaking into our room and stealing our panties."

"Panty Raid!", Lily laughs loud enough to draw looks from strangers.  She didnt care, "Sure why not... but they were after YOUR underwear, not mine."

Penny makes a dismissive whatever gesture, "In the dark, yours look as good to steal as mine."

The two wander off and the scene fades to black.

Luc nodded, "Good to know.  Some units never look past their paycheck, and I'm not interested in being one of them.  If this Penny is famous enough that two out of the three of you know her then us being 'featured' in her ongoing show might lead us to other areas in the Periphery or even back into the Sphere."

He shook his head, "We're to boost soon enough and we'll be taking the battle to the Bull.  The fact that the Ironswords took down their champion Spartacus might make us a target of revenge or to make a name off of, so be wary."

"If you can ignore all the fluff she puts out the for the Neanderthral population, the i shows are actually pretty useful to follow for current vintage tech being produced."

Emily shrugs, "What?  We get Solaris Net out here too, and sometimes it gets boring on a Thrusday night.  It's not like i'm a card carrying lollipop or anything.  I just catch a show here and there."

Luc turned to spot Emily appear and add her two c-bills on the matter and smiled, "You sure that's not a lollipop there in your left pocket?"

"Miss Emily, why are you bored on any night?" Hassan said with a friendly and inquisitive smile.  He clearly needed to spend more time in the techbay instead of practicing with iaijutsu in his bunk with his daishō.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:37, Tue 09 Sept 2014.

"Well before i was assigned here, i spent most of my time studying for my placement exams.

 I'm still trying to figure out if being placed here is a punishment or reward.", Emily pulls out what looks to be a colorful straw.

"Prefer Pixy stixs myself.  When youre late night cramming, or trying to jury rig assemble a leg assembly using arm actuators... the sugar rush is more immediate and satisfying.", Emily nods at Olaf, "You going to use the Lolipop?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:49, Tue 09 Sept 2014.

Hassan looks at Emily, then Olaf, then again at Lucius.  His face wore a practiced non-expression.

"Sir, if you will excuse me, I must practice my katas." Hassan said with a slight bow, before quickly leaving.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:19, Wed 10 Sept 2014.

Luc nodded his head to Hassan, "Of course Hassan, enjoy your practice."

He waited till the man was well out of earshot before he turned back to Emily, "I think he likes you Emily."

Having remained silent through much of the brush with fame, the big Swede replied casually, "Never had much of a sweet tooth, Emm, but I never shied away from trying new things."

Giving Lucius' comment about Hassan a stiff ignoring, Olaf added: "I'll be up front with you boss, I'm not looking for any exposure, although I suppose it might be inevitable.  Shoot the Whitworth, that's no problem since she's sporting that new paint and wearing the Ironswords badge she's unlikely to be recognized anyway.  I'll keep my ugly mug off camera if it's all the same to you.  Don't need to invite any extra complications into our lives, wakarimasita?"

The Rasalhauger had deliberately lapsed into Japanese for just a moment, a not so subtle reminder that he had left some very loose ends behind back home.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:46, Wed 10 Sept 2014.

Luc listened to Olaf's reply with a curious air.  He wasn't about to ask the man about his past, likely with the Combine, because that would be rude...not that he wasn't willing to be rude but it wasn't his style with people that he served with or commanded.  He nodded at the end, "I'll talk to them about keeping you off camera then."

He patted the big swede on the shoulder, "Remember you can only run from a problem for so long.  Eventually it catches up to you.  Let me know if you think it might and I'll do what I can to help level the odds or totally crush them."