Muldoon had to surpress a laugh at the last bit. They had an expression for it back at Group. We are like mushrooms, kept in the dark and fed shit. The Green Beret thought to himself.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:16, Tue 26 Feb 2013.

Nightmare quips, "Translated from militarese, I think he said, 'You knew the job was dangerous when you took it'."
"We did ok, commander, considering out inexperience. I'm sure we'll get better as we get to know each other and find our roles."

"I do believe I grasp the ramifications of your logic, Commander Barnes.
But I believe we have a trust gap -- understandable for 'top secret' government activities, certainly
-- but if we are to be your best team, which I think we have potential to achieve,
we should have as much intel as possible."

Oscillator smiles as he makes his next most questionable proposal.

"To shrink this gap, I propose you grant us all top secret security clearance
AND access to your dossiers on all potential super-opponents.

Surely you acknowledge that we will be most effective if we have the most knowledge about potential opposition.
But if we can't rely on being informed in the field,
we should have maximum opportunity to be informed beofre putting ourselves in danger."

Oscillator unbuttons his collar.  Whew!  He's a bit put out, now.

He looked at Vosper, Onyx, Poco, and his other teammates, and 'gave ground'.
He smiles meekly at his teammates, continues;
"Or at least, grant top secret clearance to those of us who can pass a background test,
and limited clearance for those that are less 'ahem!' secure."

Muldoon listened and did his best to hide his initial reaction to the request for top secret clearances. Muldoon had one and remembered the process first with the army when he got his secret clearance and then when he got his top secret clearance when he was attached to the CIA.

In the short time he had been with the team he had his doubts that more than a couple would be granted one, at least in the short term.

Oscillator showed some wisdom when he made that concession in the end.

Part of the reason Muldoon had been attached to the team was to serve the function that was being suggested. Another reason was because he brought an intimate knowledge of the Soviet military and security services. As well as some knowledge of the Soviet super human weapons project.

Amaranth, who lacks the power to read Muldoon's mind, just holds her hands up in a warding motion.  "I'm not sure I want all that," she interjects quickly.

Commander Barnes listens intently to Oscillator's request, his eyebrows raising slightly for much of it then dropping when Oscillator tones back what he is asking. He chuckles at Amaranth's response to Oscillator's request then answers; "Don't worry Amaranth, you will not be getting all that. That is a very ambitious request for a new group of supers in a new organization, Oscillator. The group already has access to accomodations and amenities far above your average soldier and we have no problem with passing on intel that we know that is pertinent to a mission. Higher clearance is something that is earned over time and undoubtedly some will move upwards faster than others just based upon their nature and cultural situation.

As far as dossiers on Soviet supers that is already something we are working on providing access to through your computer. Be aware that there is still a lot of lacking information and none of the supers have their powers firmly quantified as this is likewise a new project. I understand the desire to be prepared but there will always be some degree of uncertainty. Even I do not have access to the highest levels of clearance and am still often given information on a need-to-know basis. So do believe that I will provide you with the most thorough information I have access to at any given moment. I would prefer the group to be as prepared as possible so as to have optimal odds of success in any given situation, never doubt that."

"Nature of the business," Vosper said, shaking her head but smiling at Osc.  "No different in M-I6.  'Need to know' is the watchword of the week."

"I think we understand your position and the reasons for it, Commander.  Frankly, I'd like to see us have more time in practice and coordinated missions before we've got to tackle that lot again.  But needs of the service, and all that," she conceded.

No wonder .. Muldoon thought .. Burgess, Maclean and then this summer Kim Philby ... MI-6 seemed to be a nest of communist symathisers.

"My clearance will allow the team to stay on top of matters as the need arises." Muldoon said.

Nightmare smiles, "I wouldn't pass, in any case. Too much time in country, I'm afraid."
"What we really need, at this point, is a goal. A question to answer, an event to stop, a head to bash."

Oscillator responds to the mention of ...
"Oooh, we get a computer?  I've used them years back, all those punch cards can be tricky...  Why, what room do we have allocated for a computer?  The one we used in graduate school was almost an entire building!
I have a natural aptitude for computers; I learned Pascal, Cobol and Assembler to do vibrational quanta modelling for my post-doctorate.  It has been awhile since then...."
Oscillator claps his hands together, rubbing them.  It's been too long since he's looked at that blinking green cursor, since he loaded the operating system off a foot-high pile of cards.

"'Need to know?'  Ha!  That makes no sense -- of course we will need to know as much as possible if I'm to apply my full faculties towards resolving our pressing problems.  This 'top secrecy' is such tomfoolery, it's like a 'spy game'."

He looks to Vosper.
"Oh, it really IS a spy game?  Well then...  I've never played."

Oscillator drops the Top Secret clearance issue, but is Oscillator REALLY done with this issue?  More will be revealed.

In reply to Oscillator (msg # 54):

OOC: In regards to the computer: link to a message in this game

Vosper nodded to Osc.  "Name of the game, mate," she winked.

Eddy smiled at Nightmare, "Me neither.  They ain't going to give that kind of info to a stinking Mexican ... and a streetrat at that.
I'm just cannon fodder here.
Oscy will get it, and the Captain seems to already have it. Vos gets the goods from the crown.
You, Bruce and me, mate, we're just here to fill the gaps ... give the enemy more people to shoot at, and distract them from the real people on this team, eh!"

He returned his attention to the group as a whole, "So if we're debriefed, Bruce has a date with humiliation at the table tennis", he finished, looking to Onyx.

The two had been playing out the 'Table Tennis Championship of the World" the last few days.  If Eddy remembered correctly, they were up to 'best of 56'.

"Actually, what I've been wondering about is what we might have done differently. It would have been nice to have more information before we went in, but in the absence of that information could there have been a better way to handle this? Does anyone have any ideas about that?"

Eddy, slumped in his seat, slumps further.
'Well there goes table tennis', he thought to himself, 'seems we going to be here all afternoon ... talking'.

He looked at his claws, and decided it was time to clean them, and his toe-claws.

Commander Barnes replies to some of the various statements uttered by team members; "Increased security clearance will come in time, so let's not quibble about that. Nightmare, as far as your question goes one thing I would suggest is to not split the group unless absolutely necessary. From what was reported it sounds like returning to Level 1 was not necessary and reduced the amount of available resources. Obviously sometimes you may not have the option to all stick together, but in this case you did. Don't take my statement as a rebuke, just advice. The majority of you have not had military training so basic tactics are something to learn on the job and via training exercises.

I feel no need to prolong this debriefing, so unless someone has anything else to add about the mission or questions to ask I am content to end this session. Assuming that is the case you will be informed of your next mission once those of you still injured recover."

Muldoon knew this was another reason he had been assigned to the team. The newly formed Special Forces had among it responsibities the training of indigineous forces. Muldoon had conducted earlier US Army and CIA operations.

Oscillator has a lot to say.  He's bursting with responses to give Commander.
But, in a show of extreme restraint, he doesn't utter a peep.

He also deliberately looks away from Poco cleaning his toe-claws.

It was unfortunate the team lacked a psychic/empath to give them an edge on what their organization was planning.  Oscillator didn't relish the idea of flying into another fight with unclear mission parameters or opposition.

Maybe their computer would help them?  He'd have to start working on a program...

OOC:  Could the first hacker be born here...?  In V&V?  Seems like the wrong genre!

Eddy looked around, a little surprised ... what, it actually was over that quick?!?  Great.

He stood, with a big Cheshire smile, and turned to Onyx, "Let's introduce you to your next slice of humble pie, Bruce", and headed out of the room with glee.

   Bruce grunted, "Jack, you ain't said nothing but a word!  I'm gone fire up that ping pong ball like a little power blast 'a mine and blow a hole through yo paddle!  Boy!  You ain't ready!  I'm tryin' ta tell ya, but I guess I'mma have ta learn ya..."

   Onyx's mouth seemed to start running like a track star.

Eddy headed out of the room with a big smirk, making 'duck quacking' motions with one hand ... the smack talk had begun.


Soon enough, the sounds of ping pong and laughter, and even more smack talk, could be heard far throughout the complex.
This message was last edited by the player at 09:42, Fri 08 Mar 2013.

   Bruce's eye bulged a little as he saw yet another chance to talk some more trash, "Yeah, that's right, that's a duck- just like you gone have to duck when I smash this line drive down yo throat like Willie Mays!  You gone learn!"

   The truth was, Onyx had not answer for the super cats reflexes.

   But Bruce could talk trash with the best of them.

Amaranth looks over to Nightmare as Onyx follows Poco out.  "Wouldn't a line drive down Eddy's throat count as a point for Eddy?  I haven't done much ping pong, but I thought it had to touch the table."

Muldoon stood up and slid the pad of paper in his pocket. From what he had seen the team had a discipline problem. It was good to be loose, but first you needed to have discipline.


The Green Beret look at the Commander"Thank you Sir."

Then at his team "This is not a military unit, and that is probably good thing. But we will be in combat and as you have all just learned it is pass fail, one chance."

"If we came up against an equally powerful team of Soviet supers they were going to be need to count on one another and operate as a team. I suggest we start training together. I can instruct you all on the basics of weapons and tactics. Even if you are not going to use weapons it is important to understand what they can and can't do."

"As we get intelligence on potential threats, especially Soviet supers I will conduct briefings as well."

Vosper raised a single, slender blonde brow in reply to Muldoon's speech.  She frowned.  Who the hell did this yank think he was?  Showing up, and taking charge?  As if they needed him to show them what to do.  She opened her mouth, closed it, frowned again, and said:

"Muldoon's right.  We need the training time."

"I don't need basic training, though, Sergeant," she added saucily, despite herself.