Well, it is noce to meet you Candice. Call me Alex. Alexander McNuir officially. The captain bit is kind of unofficial. I was a captain before my discharge... they stripped off that. Tell me Candice... have you ever been in an actual Mech?
McNuir offered her his hand.

Not Yet Alex, Just been in the simulcades.  So looking at the mechs that are here makes me pretty sure that if i can prove myself good enough, i'll be in a trash can.  Thats fine, better than not being in one.

I'm kind of hoping that during the travel time here i can get some more practice time to see if i am good enough.

Will you look at that, the planet fits in the window already, pretty soon i think it will be little more than a bright dot as we travel to the zenith point.

Of course fighting in a urban mech against a clanner does not leave for a very good chance or odds that is for sure.

Nadia had the good grace to flush a brilliant scarlet at Max's implication, a rosy glow that complemented her dusky complexion well. She took a moment to admire the corded muscles in the Elemental's forearms, easily as big around as her calf. Standing she might be able to look the giant in the breastbone. "If you are merely proportional Max, I would imagine your lady friends all limp away with a smile." A soft laugh followed the comment, for the petite doctor had also served on the front lines and was used to the rough humor of combat troops.

The rest of Max's explanation was less humorous, and her smile faded away at some of the implications. "So Elementals... Trueborn Elementals are bred to be combat troopers? Nothing else? I mean what if a Trueborn Elemental wished to become a... a chef for example." She nodded at Sabatino as the chef walked by, smiling in gratitude for her half-eaten meal. "What becomes of them?" The implication that the Clans bred people just to die as soldiers was a monstrous one to the doctor, and much as she tried to conceal it, there was some heat in her voice.

Maximus looked at Nadia with a look of surprise. Then, without any form of humor in his voice, without any doubt, he simply stated:That will never happen. A chef will never be as honorable as a warrior.
He seemed genuinly surprised, maybe even shocked, at just the thought alone.

---

Come with me, McNuir said to Candice. He didn't even wait as he made his way to the Mech bays.

Skinner spends some time with Three-Fingers going over their shared responsibilities. Clearly Skinner knew the basics and was not afraid to ask questions and to learn as much as he could from the technician. He knew that the techs were the real backbone of any military unit. It doesnt matter how good of a pilot you are if the mechs dont run.

As they were talking he led the conversation into the history of the Raiders and how he got involved with them.

Candice follows Alex where ever he is leading her.

A brow quirked up, and Nadia almost said 'Aha!'. But she was trying to satisfy her curiosity, to learn something of her new teammate, not catch him in a verbal trap. Sitting forward a little Nadia rested her elbows on the table, her slender fingers lacing together under her chin as she continued to contemplate the giant. "Never say never Max. I am quite sure that your former comrades were certain that a Clansman would never choose to turn against their way of life as you have either. But," She brightened a little. "You have answered the question."

Nadia fell silent for a moment, her full lips working as she thought about how to word her next question. "Honor is important to the Clans then? What constitutes honor to them?" The petite latina was struggling with her temper, trying to keep this conversation civil. "Call me uninformed, but what makes a warrior who kills people at the whim of his leader's hunger for territory more honorable than someone who creates beauty and fulfillment for others in the form of delicious meals?" She smiled up at the big man. "And please try not to take offense if I am being pushy, this is just all a very new viewpoint to me. I have spent my career stitching back together the results of warrior's honor, and the idea that somehow that is less noble an effort is alien to me."

Skinner and Three-Fingers spend aome time getting to know each other, while Skinner uses that time to try and gauge just how well of a mechanic the man really is. He seems to know his business though, having served a while in the Lyran commonwealth forces untill his sergeant caught him with his remaining fingers in some coffers he should have kept them out of. It seems to be a returning theme amongst the Raiders. Most are former military, but at least half of them if not more were dishonorably discharged for doing things they shouldn't have.


--- McNuir leads Candice to bay twelve, where the biggest Mech currently on board the dropship has its resting place. It is a bright red Highlander, and he introduces her as his personal ride.
She was mine back when I served with the Northwind Highlanders. Been through a lot me and her. Would you like to try the leather? Climb up there, have a seat. Get a feel for a real cockpit.

---

Maximus shrugs yet again at Nadia's questions.You are not intrusive. I understand fully that the concepts of Clan culture are as foreign to you as 'human' culture was to me...
He lets out a chuckle.
To us Clanners, honor is everything. The concept of honor however differs slightly from yours. Our honor is tightly bound to our combat prowess, that is why a chef can never become as honored as a warrior. Our whole culture, our whole caste system, is set up for the Warrior to be seen as the pinacle of clan society.
He points at Sabatino who is cursing the microwave, the meals and his own inability  to make anything decent of it.
It is not that being a chef is not an honorable job... if one is born into being a chef one should always strive to be the best one there is. Better than any other. That is our way. You should always strive to be the best. Kerensky taught us that. Always be the best you can be, always try to be better than anyone else. It is just that the warrior caste is valued more highly. So even being the lowliest warrior in a way is more favourable than being the best chef ever.
Maximus explains it very matter of factly, almost emotionless. It is clear that to him it is the only way he knows.

Sure i would love to.

Candice climbs up into the cockpit

I assume that this is on safe, so i'm not going to bump something and it turns on right?   This is a lot more complicated than the sims, thats fore sure.   The basics look to be the same though.  Go, stop, Gun aim.

So how does the neurohelmet feel?  what does it feel like?

Jo had waited out the launch in her crash couch, bag strapped in securely. She had traveled off planet enough times that it was not completely foreign, but not so many times that it was familiar or comfortable. Thankfully, it was brief, as was the weightless feeling of 0G before 'gravity' reasserted itself.

While she was still hungry, the sandwich she had had at the conference room had taken the edge off of her hunger. Rather than face a big rush of people to the 'food' bay, she stayed in her bunk a while longer, letting the immediate rush for food pass before unstrapping herself and heading towards mech bay 7.

When Jo arrived, she headed straight for the food, accepting her meal with a smile at their chef. "Warm and plentiful is good 'nough for me. Fancy would be wasted on me. Though I'll certainly give it a try," she added. She then looked around for somewhere to sit and eat, but before she settled on a spot, her eyes found a small gathering of people in what she had earlier identified as the repair shop. No conscious thought was necessary for her feet to turn in that direction. Almost all of her knowledge and skills were self taught, and a large part of that came from watching other people work. Her tour of the ship before launch had shown her technology that was well beyond anything she had ever seen before. And as much as she itched to get her hands on it and start taking things apart, seeing what other Raiders were working on was nearly as good.

She headed for the group of people who had started gathering around where Eileen was working. Noticing Darius was among them, she joined him with a quiet, "Hey," of greeting. She found a spot to lean against the wall and eat her meal as she watched.

Eileen was a little self conscious.  She had opted to do work in the Bay because she was trying to avoid crowds, and yet the crowd gathered anyway.

"Physics is physics.  Test drones are actually pretty good proof of concept to make sure the balance and handling is okay, and a good bit cheaper when something goes wrong.", she answers Cassidy.  Cassidy was okay, but as people gathered in the small bay, there was less and less room to work comfortably.

"I'm just rebuilding the engine.  Not a big deal, it's new so everything is clean and neat.  I know it looks like i'm making a sprawling mess of it, but the materials in the kit are lighter and sprawling mess that it is, should lighten it to half of what it was when it started."

Eileen for the most part seemed to know what she was doing, though she'd look at her schematic from time to time.  While she was following the Kit directions for the most part, she was varying the installation somewhat for her own reasons.

Joining the group a little behind the main thrust, Darius had taken a few minutes to get up to speed. Enough time for Jo to join him as the conversation continued. He favored the tech with a warm smile. "Heya Jo, launch treat you okay?" His attention lingered on her for a moment until Eileen started talking about the rebuild again.

Playing much of what he'd heard so far back through his head, the beefy crew chief let out a low whistle. From the sound of it, Eileen was going about as close to building a new design from the frame up as you could get and still call it a Ferret. He stayed back out of the way, near  where Jo was eating, but called a question to Eileen when there was a lull in the discussion."I'm curious Ma'am, mostly because we're planning on at least the engine conversion on our Ferret. How did you compensate for the center of gravity shift aft with the loss of the turbines for a magnetic motor?"

Left to finish his meal and still mulling over what Nadia had said during loading, Mike was more than happy when Darius ambled over to join the small knot around Eileen's project. Backing away from the table, he caught sight of Nadia finally, apparently deep in conversation with the Elemental they'd met during the interview process, and still with an angry look on her face.

Not the time to prod that wound.

Weaving his way deftly through the crowd, Mike went and found both his and Darius' duffels, along with the black case of his guitar by the shop, wedged in tight between bays One and Twelve. There were a couple more Raiders in bay 12, at the foot of one of the biggest mechs Mike had ever seen, caught up in their own conversation, and the slim pilot didn't interrupt.

Slinging one bag and shouldering the other, Mike picked up his guitar and started back through the crowd, stopping at Darius long enough to let him know he was going to find them bunks before making his way out of the mechbay entirely.

If anything Nadia's scowl deepend, as she tried to understand the alien concepts. The fiery medic had to keep reminding herself that this was a learning process, not a confrontation as her companion elaborated on the culture of the Clans. "us Clanners." "Born into being." "Kerensky." There had been rumors during the Invasion, after the initial "They're Aliens!" scare had passed that the Clans might have had ties to the Exodus some two and a half centuries before, but this was confirmation of that.

When finally she spoke again it was slow and careful. "You still consider yourself a Clanner then Max?"

Eileen thought about it for a moment.  She had designed that problem away, but that wasn't going to be much help for Darius and his conversion.

"I had a brief conversation with Cassidy about that.  For a conventional Ferret refit, there are a few ways to handle it.  The easiest would be to rebalance the center of gravity by simply putting a armor patch or two aft, to load it down and balance the weight ratio.  This has it's own issues, involving aerodynamics and drag, particularly if the ferret comes under fire and the armor is dislodged.  For a commercial application that doesn't come under fire this should be fine."

Eileen thinks about it for a bit, "If you want a more robust method to balance the issue, i would displace some of the fusion engine's heat sinks here to rebalance the issue. It might be a little more work intensive to do but the handling will be more likely to stay intact under combat conditions.  For this displacement to become an issue the engine itself will have to be compromised and the Ferret is damaged that badly, handling issues will be the least of your problems and you should consider ditching."


Most of what Eileen said should make sense, but she was operating from memory for the question and not referring to her Comp Unit for the solution.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:01, Tue 07 Mar 2023.

Colin had spent his time on lift off making sure the servers he had purchased were stored securely in their mobile field racks. The cables and integration nodes were still mostly in boxes. Once they were clear of atmo, Colin began to find his bunk and what might be used as a training office space. Likely he was going to have to set up his gear in a clear corner of a Mech bay or one of the cargo areas. His next goal the TASC-m set up. The Tactical Asset Simulation Computer(mobile) was not a true simulation pod but rather hooked into the actual controls in mechs and combat vehicles to run wargames and training scenarios practicing tactics.

The only thing better was going to be getting the field simulation software calibrated and equipped on all the Raiders assets. Linking to the software to transmitter/receiver communications equipment would allow Colin or any other operator to dynamically run a simulation in the field. Governance signals could make myomer bundles unresponsive to simulate damage. Of course, these training systems had a physical disconnect switch in the cockpit for safety and if something were to happen in the field.

It was likely going to take him hours to get the basic servers up and running plus the software adjusted and calibrated before he could even think of deploying it on any combat units.

Jason finished his two dinners and leaned back against the wall. The cold steel felt good as he sat there listening to the crowd. Apparently Gunbunny had drawn a crowd as she talked about her plans to upgrade a Ferret. She seemed to be in her element and at least she wasn't waving around her hand cannon.

Most everyone else seemed to be getting along decently at the moment. Standing eventually he walked back over to there chef and placed the empty trays in their proper place. "Hey Chef ya need an help with clean up just say so."

It was quickly obvious that Darius wasn’t an engineer, he was more of a hands-on tech. Pulling out his data pad, the big man started taking notes, but it was clear from the look on his face that he was just parroting the words. Smiling, he looked back up at Eileen and waved the data pad. “Hey thanks! I’m sure that will come in handy.” His voice fell, muttering mostly to himself. ”As soon as I figure out what it means.”

Dar stared blankly at the pad for a moment more. ”I have to see it…” He didn’t sound entirely displeased by the notion and tucked the pad back into his pocket, turning and almost bumping into Jo. A little sheepishly, he scratched the back of his head before his smile brightened. “Hey, I’mma go look at the engine on the Dragonfly and see if I can make sense of this. You want to meet my baby?”

Jo looked up at Darius, her smile bright. It still had that slightly crooked lilt to it; at close range, one could see that there was a scar, faint with age, that cut across the right edge of her mouth and around her cheek that was the cause of the lopsided grin. "Launch was fine. Found a bunk for my gear and was very happy to see Moxley IV behind me. The further the better."

Her attention returned to Eileen and Cassidy, listening carefully to the questions and answers. She nodded, mostly to herself. The theory was sound. She would very much like to see it implemented, or better yet, help with doing such. Perhaps now, here, with the Raiders, she would have that opportunity. When it came to fixing things that were broken, she had plenty of experience - but getting to experiment with things, well, that was something that paying customers didn't usually appreciate.

It truly had not occurred to her that she could have used her signing bonus to buy machinery to tinker with. Her own machinery. Tools, yes, but engines? Weapons? Armor? What else hadn't she considered? It was frustrating to realize just how much she didn't know, that she hadn't thought about in her rush to depart. By the next time they were in a city, she would have a comprehensive list.

Her thoughts were interrupted as Dar bumped into her. She looked up with a grin. "I thought you'd never ask!"

Maximus nodded.
I am clan born. Freebirth, but still clan born. That can not ever change. Colonel Johnsson saved my life, so I owe him a blood oath, and I fully intend to repay him. Ever since I have learned a lot about the descendants of Kerensky, and I have learned that while we have many differences, we are not nearly as different as we think. Both our histories are histories of war. The big difference is that we regulated how war is to be fought.
He grabbed a knife from the table, wiped it clean on his fatigues, and then grabbed it by the blade.
Looking at Nadia he squeezed it hard enough to draw blood.
I bleed red blood. So do you. There really isn't much difference.
He then hands Nadia the knife, blood dripping from the serrated edge.

---

McNuir climbed up to the cockpit after Candice, enjoying her first experience in a cockpit almost as much as she did. He remembered his own first time fondly, even though as a whole it hadn't been too good an experience. Her question didn't surprise him.
The neurohelmet... Yeah, the one essential no Mech pilot can go without, but also the one thing none of us really like. It links you up with the gyros and uses your equilibrium as much as that of the Mech itself. That's why first time pilots usually get pretty dizzy and nauseous. It screws with your head, and it takes some getting used to. After a couple of rides though it comes naturally and you don't even notice it anymore. But that first time they release the Mech and you have to keep it standing on your, or rather its own feet... man, that's different.
He handed Candice his own helmet, a green and black camouflaged helmet that seemed to be older than he himself was. It still had the Northwind Highlander markings on it, as well as the name McNuir and a date in white print on the inside. That date was 12-7-2991.

---

Sabatino was fuming when Jason approached him, throwing meal after meal into a garbage can. With every single one he took out of the small makeshift refridgerator his anger grew as he checked the dates and tossed them away.
Ah, yes, Signore Kruger! Si, SI, you can help... Per favore... Spara al frigo! Sparagli a morte!
He kicked the fridge after grabbing yet another outdated meal from it. Another one that went in the trash.
How am I supposed to feed the entire ship if these meals are all three years overdue! Si, si, I know they are frozen... But 3 years! Mama mia!
I still have people coming in to eat, and the big ape there ate four meals all on his own! People will go hungry! The Colonelo has not eaten yet either! I can not let him go hungry can I?

Jason nodded as Sabatino vented, "Yeah that could be a problem. I have the feeling, that even though they say family, that if Bubba ain't happy then no one is happy." He began picking up some of the trash and discarded tray and dropping them in the trash. "So how much food stores are left that are good. I'm sure most of the bunch could do with missing a meal, but twenty four hours is a long time when your hungry."

Nadia’s scowl deepened as she took the knife from Max setting it aside immediately. She took the big man’s hand in both of hers, critically examining the wound. “Seriously? Do you have any idea how many nerves are in your hands?! You won’t be fighting with anything but holding a fork if you sever your medial nerve Max.” The petite Latina’s voice had changed, sharp and commanding now. Her doctor’s voice.

Picking up her fork with her off-hand she lightly jabbed the meat just above the cut, watching how the fingers moved before she sighed and set the fork aside. “Luckily you didn’t get it this time. Look Max, in some ways you’re right,” Reaching down into her thigh pocket, Nadia pulled out a bandanna, green and red and embroidered in gold with the letters ‘317th SARG’ in the center and began swiftly and professionally tying it around the meaty hand, staunching the blood. “Our cultures aren’t that different, warriors are important in a galaxy at war. But what happens when the war is over? What does your society do when the fighting is finished?”

Tying the makeshift bandage as tight as she could, Nadia looked up and met Max’s eyes. “That rag is filthy, but it will do long enough for you and I to get to medical, so I can take care of it right. You might need stitches.” A wry little smile crossed her face for just a second. “Next time you feel the need to prove to me that we’re the same on the inside, maybe cut back here.” Nadia ran a finger along the back of Max’s forearm, noticing once again just how dense the muscles and tendons were. “Ligaments are easier to fix than nerves. Now which way is medical?”

All of it! At least in this fridge it is all bad! Its stupido! So much food this morning, but nothing on board!
Giordano slams the door of the small mobile fridge shut and pushes it aside. Then he walks over to a door that leads to a small storage room that holds three more of those fridges. He starts pulling out another one, hesitant to open it.
If this is the same I am going to be demonico!

Jason having finished with most of the trash walked over to the store room. He shrugged, "Well yer not gonna know unless ya check. May as well check now and if they are all the same, peoples just gonna have to tighten their belts."

He stepped past Sabatino and opened the farthest fridge and started checking dates. "So how old would still be acceptable?"

Eileen was reluctant to just up and get something to eat, it was her engine, kit, and project, but Cassidy seemed to know what he was doing and in the brief time she got food, could only go off the rails so far.  It's been... weeks... maybe months since she's had someone to work with.

By now, she should have picked up Cassidy's name, and traded her own for it.  Everyone else in the crowd was just a blur of faces that made up visual white noise to her for now.  She noted them, particularly the ones she had already nick named, but there were new faces there too.

"I'm going to take a short break to grab some food.", she comments to Cassidy, while wiping her hands on a red bandana looped around a belt loop.

"Try not to break anything, i dont have any spares.", she played it off as a joke, but it was also part serious and part prayer.  Aside from cost, the time to replace the parts would set things back quite a bit.  Transit time like this was the best time to do maintenance and refits.  Once they got to where ever they went, who knew what was going to happen.

She makes certain to take her Comp Unit with her, but is okay leaving her working tools, the kit, and the engine out for Cassidy to work with.  She was only going to be away for five or ten minutes.  Now that she was thinking about it, and smelling it, she realized she was hungry.  The last time she had eaten anything was before she had gotten on the union, and the last full meal she ate was at this morning's orientation.